Malcolm feels the end game approaching

The AIM Network

7 years ago

By Peter McCarthy

Cancelling a sitting week in Parliament is unusual to begin with, but I initially thought that Malcolm might have been building an escape route for failing to get SSM sorted out (which still has no real chance of being resolved this year even with the extra week in place). But on reflection, Malcolm doesn’t seem to have any concept of “think what happens next” so I had to discard the theory. After all, he could simply have celebrated without offering a performance measuring device and enjoyed a victory over Tony Abbott without leaving the door open a crack for Tony to exploit. More of Malcolm self harming then the Mad Monk wandering by and seeing an opportunity. We should be used to that by now.

Then along came this little gem: Malcolm talking about tax cuts for poor people.

OMG. Things really have gone to Hell in a hand basket. Even more bizarre, it’s the “No one loses” variety of tax cuts direct from the Liberal Magic Pudding Economic model (LMPE). The sort of tax cut you have to break the glass cover to gain access to because it’s for desperate emergencies and doesn’t hold up well to scrutiny when the panic attack has passed.

I realised things were desperate for him, but I didn’t think Malcolm had noticed, being as he is spending most of his time punching on in the Party room, but apparently he has noticed, and when you consider the following, I guess he had to eventually.

Kristina should easily knock off John Alexander for starters so the Majority is gone in the House of Reps, which means the rules have changed and any cross benchers can easily leap off the Malcolm Leadership guarantee if they are irritated by his inertia. Even more seriously, the Nats need to step away from the decaying Turnbull Government and are shooting for a banking investigation that could very easily pass unless Labor or the Greens abandon their base. I would not be holding my breathe on that happening. For the Nats, this would be wildly popular with their base and throwing Malcolm under the bus would be fabulous for brand recognition. A problem they have suffered for years now.

Malcolm has a real problem now. By trying to avoid decisions and not standing up for anything, he stands for very little. He half likes coal, but half likes Renewables. This leaves both industries confused and vulnerable which in turn gives us the high energy prices. He sort of liked the ABC and SBS. Until he didn’t. Although by not declaring his hand, and steering well away from actually supporting things, he leaves it up to Voters to figure out that his actions (or lack of) speak louder than words. If you are frustrated by his lack of effectiveness, he does nothing to change your view. This could well result in the loss of financial support heading towards Malcolm. There is not much point building a campaign fund for Turnbull if he can’t reward that investment and when you don’t even know if he will actually defend your industry.

Could be the Liberals have to dump Malcolm to retain any sort of funding from the Top end of Town. The current situation is not in their interests and occasionally Malcolm even mouths off about them and the unfairness (without taking action of course). This is the worst possible position for TTEOT. He draws attention to them but does nothing to reign them in and Voters can see both the privilege and the inaction. Thanks for the double whammy Malcolm.

So now we have Malcolm realising he has a problem and preparing for an election, but clueless about what he stands for. He only just managed to escape with the meaningless Jobs and Growth mantra last time around, but he was battling from the position of new kid in town who’s first name wasn’t Tony. Now he has to fight with folk knowing he struggles to make decisions, and has so little control of his Party, that nothing much is going to be achievable. Looking forward? Yeah. Nah. Dinosaurs don’t do forward looking and no one else gets to do that on their watch.

Traditional Liberal party style is to have strong leadership and leave the gab fest to more social parties. Think Abbott and Howard. They don’t do “consensus”, and chaps like Malcolm trying to teach them consensus will not be happening. Liberal Leadership requires strength and the ability to demand discipline. Malcolm has neither.

This article was originally published on 1Petermcc’s Blog.

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