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What’s wrong with PM Turnbull?

By Ad astra

As a weary electorate approaches yet another holiday season, looks back over the year and asks: ‘How has our federal government improved life for ordinary Aussies’, the answer is depressing.

Our self-styled ‘adult government’ has achieved so little for so long. We have had to endure indecision, poor planning, stultifying policies, governmental chaos, the dual citizenship shemozzle, infighting, and worst of all, inept decision-making and ineffectual leadership.

While the members of the Coalition must take much of the blame, the one who must shoulder most is the nation’s leader – Malcolm Turnbull. What on earth is wrong with PM Turnbull?

The question is redundant – we already know what’s wrong. We have watched Turnbull for many years now, have written about him over and again, and have predicted just what we are now seeing. A review of The Political Sword Archive reveals over twenty pieces that have been penned about Turnbull with links to many more, dating back nine years to 2008. We ought not be surprised at the Turnbull we now witness and tolerate uneasily.

We had expected so much more from him. Memories of his earlier failures faded during the reign of the awful Tony Abbott. So gross was Abbott that when the intelligent, urbane, personable, cultured, well-spoken, well-presented, persuasive and credible Turnbull toppled him in a cleverly organized coup, the electorate breathed a collective sigh of relief, and, with high hopes, welcomed him warmly. Surely, anyone would be better that the nasty, combative Abbott, whose legacy of destruction lives with us still through the damage he did to energy policy, the NBN, the marriage equality debate, and the damage he still does day after day to the government of which he is a member, and to its elected leader.

The electorate was prepared to give Turnbull a ‘fair go’, hoping that having achieved his life-long goal of prime ministership, we would see a new side of him. We knew of his achievements in business as co-chairman of Goldman Sachs, his success with the ISP OzEmail, his brilliance as a barrister in the famous Spycatcher case where he defeated the UK government and when he defended Kerry Packer (the goanna), his record as a journalist, and his involvement in the unraveling of the corporate failure of insurance company HIH.

We also had memories of Turnbull’s devotion to the Republic, his enthusiasm for combating climate change, his support for marriage equality, and his intention to deliver fast broadband. Sadly he has let us down as Abbott slammed the brakes on these initiatives. You can read the gory details in Abbott’s legacy of destruction.

So let’s look back a while and observe how the Turnbull of today was completely predictable many years ago.

As far back as December 2009 The Political Sword featured a piece: Opposition ship docks for repairs that concluded: ‘A combination of lack of purpose, weakness of character, insufficient muscle and diminishing authority, and an ego-centric certainty of the correctness of his own position coupled with an unwillingness to listen, is lethal in a leader. How long can he [Turnbull] last before the murmurings among his crew and the critics begin to further erode his position’.

These sentiments echo still!

Even before that, in April 2009, in Why is Malcolm Turnbull so unpopular?, there were these words:

‘There’s not much need to emphasize Turnbull’s contemporary unpopularity – it’s all over the air waves and the papers. It takes only a few metrics to quantify it. He leads a Coalition that Possum’s Pollytrack currently shows has an average TPP vote of only 40. Pollytrack shows 60/40 in Labor’s favour across several polls, and Pollytrend shows a steady trend away from the Coalition.

The latest Newspoll PPM ratings show 67/18. As primary votes are running at 47/36, it means that half of Coalition voters don’t prefer Turnbull as PM.’

In June 2009, a TPS piece: Stop at nothing – Malcolm’s fatal flaw? reviewed Annabel Crabb’s Quarterly Essay about the ’Life and Adventures of Malcolm Turnbull’ – Stop at Nothing. Referring to the 1984 Costigan Royal Commission convened to investigate the activities of the Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union, Crabb concluded:

From the Costigan affair we can draw some preliminary conclusions about the young Turnbull. The first is that he has no regard for orthodoxy,… and this refusal to ‘play by the rules’ is something of a lifelong pattern for Turnbull; it explains much of his success, but also accounts for the worst of his reputation…The second thing we learn from Costigan is that violent tactical methods are not just something which Turnbull will contemplate turning on if sufficiently provoked. It’s not enough to say that Turnbull is prepared to play hardball. He prefers to play hardball – that’s the point. It is impossible to rid oneself entirely of the suspicion that Turnbull enjoys the intrigue – the hurling of grenades…

It seems though as if Turnbull has lost his aggressive mojo when it comes to standing up to the ultra-conservative rump in his party that threatens his leadership if he does not comply with their every wish. So much for Turnbull’s desire to play hardball! He is unable or unwilling to risk his leadership by defending his long-held ideals. For him, survival always trumps principle!

After Turnbull, written in October 2009, begins: ‘Despite the caution implicit in Mark Twain’s statement about his reported death being an exaggeration, columnists are almost universally predicting Malcolm Turnbull’s political demise.’

They are still.

Way back in 2009, Andrew Bolt wrote: ‘No hope, no real leader, no real successor – could it get any worse for the brawling, broken federal Liberals?’

Today, nothing’s changed except the date!

The only factor protecting Turnbull now is the paucity of replacements.

Shock jocks Alan Jones, Ray Hadley and Andrew Bolt would have him replaced in a flash by Tony Abbott, whom they believe should never have been upended as he was.

Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter Hartcher too was predicting the end of Malcolm Turnbull. In a video he recorded he opined that Malcolm Turnbull “…is in a terminal condition as the Liberal leader”. Hartcher goes on to predict “…the inevitable collapse of the Turnbull leadership,” insisting that “…Turnbull is in the political killing zone.”

Remember, we’re harking back to October 2009, exactly eight years ago!

In July 2016, there was a piece on TPS written in the wake of the 8 July Federal Election when the result was still uncertain: How has it come to this? It began: ‘Far from fulfilling his oft-repeated promise of stable government and sound economic management; far from avoiding the “chaos” of a close result, Turnbull seems unlikely to achieve either. The consensus among those analysing the election results, the commentariat, and the social media, is that the outcome will be a narrow LNP majority.’

It turned out to be a majority of one! Turnbull’s attempt to regain momentum was a flop.

Image from thetownsvillegreens.org. Cartoon by David Pope.

The piece went on: ‘While acknowledging that multiple factors bring about any election outcome, I propose that this time five significant factors have been in play: the Turnbull character; Medicare; Inequality; Turnbull reversals on the NBN, marriage equality, global warming and the Republic; and insensitivity towards the Coalition’s constituency.” You can read the details here.

Has anything changed since then?

Again, going back to March 2009, in a TPS article titled The Turnbull Twist is this:

This piece proposes that forces within his party regularly pull and push him away from his own considered opinion. As he dances to others’ tune, we see him sometimes gyrating violently, sometimes swaying gently, and sometimes lurching precipitously – this is the ‘Turnbull Twist’.

Turnbull lacks nothing in self-confidence. It was he who said at the Federal Liberal Party Council meeting at the weekend “I am the man to lead Australia”. So why does he twist and turn so often? The answer seems to be that despite his unassailable self-confidence, he has less than supreme confidence in the loyalty and support of his party room. Persistently poor polls since his election to leadership six months ago, his disinclination to seek the views of the party room…and being unable to land many blows on Rudd and his ministers despite his splendid oratory, are among the factors that have eroded party room support.

Again, remember that this was eight years ago!

I have written many times that when Turnbull has his heart in a matter, he can speak eloquently and plausibly. When he has doubts; when he is trying to watch every word that his enemies might seize upon to berate him, he becomes hesitant to the point of being inarticulate, at times almost mute! This is his answer to Sabra Lane during a recent interview on AM about his proposed new laws on national security”

SABRA LANE: Why aren’t existing laws sufficient?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well, they just aren’t. There’s not the, you need, you also need very clear, clear laws. It’s, it’s important to make sure that you give the police a very clear offence that makes, so that there’s no ambiguity or grey area.

It’s hard to believe that a man whose ability to wax eloquently is widely acknowledged, could be reduced to such a stuttering, almost incoherent state.

Malcolm Turnbull is rattled. He clings by a thread onto his leadership. He is obsessed by the spectre of his conservative enemies, lead by the viciously vindictive Tony Abbott, the very one who, at the time Turnbull upended him promised: “There will be no wrecking, no undermining, and no sniping”, yet who thereafter proceeded to do all three, repeatedly!

In October 2009, as storm clouds became threatening, in What will Turnbull do now? you will read these opening words: ‘“Keep on punching Malcolm” is what his father advised. Malcolm Turnbull’s doggedness is legend, but so is his intelligence. Someone as intelligent as all his reviewers insist, must be smart enough to know when to throw in the towel, how to avoid a humiliating knockout. The key is to know when the knockout is imminent.’

The piece concluded:

Has Turnbull enough commonsense and political nous to see that all that lies ahead is more dissent, more corrosive comments,…more desire for another leader if only there was one around,…more media speculation about leadership, its favourite sport, more ridicule from Rudd and his ministers pointing to the rabble he’s trying to lead but can’t,…more poor polls, and almost certain electoral defeat and loss of seats? I suspect he has. His doggedness may well be tempered by an intense desire to ease the pain and call it quits. And if he can do that in a spectacular and relatively face-saving way, he might choose that out.

Here we are eight years later and nothing has changed. PM Turnbull is still the same old Malcolm we have come to know. His characteristics and behaviour are identical to those of eight years ago.

In Turnbull – Abbott from a better postcode? written a year ago, 2353NM concludes:

When Turnbull became prime minister, there was a hope that he would bring the claimed decency and ability to appeal to the middle ground that was so lacking with Abbott. After 13 months, it hasn’t happened. There are two possibilities: Turnbull is just as bad as Abbott (except for better clothing choices and living in a ‘more expensive’ postcode); or, to coin a phrase, Turnbull ’doesn’t have the ticker’ to promote and implement policy and legislation that isn’t approved by his conservative rump thereby ensuring his longevity as prime minister. Either way, the rest of us as Australian citizens will continue to suffer as a result.

We are a forgiving lot. We want to give everyone, even our politicians, a ‘fair go’. We have this pitiable faith that in the end they might come good. We want them to, as their decisions affect us all. Our scepticism about them is tempered by our good nature and our cherished hopes.

Yet they let us down again and again, as is testified in numerous pieces on The Political Sword, too many to enumerate in this single piece.

PM Turnbull came to office buoyed by a surge of goodwill from much of the electorate – we wanted him to succeed after the bitter experience of the belligerent and destructive Abbott. All he had to do was to ride the wave of electoral support and enthusiasm, and then perform. We would have cheered him on.

But once again he has failed, and does so day after day as he struggles to find coherence, flounders as he fights with his own backbenchers, tries vainly to plan effective policies to fill the legislative void, falters as he attempts to achieve anything positive, and makes hard work of improving his standing with the people.

He leaves the electorate gasping for relief from cost-of-living pressures, desperate for forward-looking policies that will enrich our society and each of us individually, all the time hoping for a government that looks as if it knows what it’s doing.

He has botched his leadership yet again. Looking back over the last decade we ought not to be surprised. Nothing has changed but the timeline. What’s wrong with PM Turnbull? Simply, whatever his other attributes, as a Prime Minister Turnbull is a disappointing dud.

We all should have realized that long ago.

Image from theconversation.com (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

What do you think?

Is that a fair assessment?

This article by was originally published on The Political Sword.

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32 comments

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  1. Cleanlivin

    Good heavens I thought. A headline “what’s wrong with PM Turnbull?”

    Not sure if I have enough capacity in my 1000gb download limit to review.

  2. guest

    If Malcolm’s father had said, “Keep punching Malcolm”, it might have turned out better if he had said to Malcolm, “Keep punching, Malcolm”.

    If he had said, “Keep punching, Malcolm”, Malcolm might have stood up for himself a bit more, instead of taking a belting.

    But, gosh! Isn’t t revealing to look back and see the same traits and forebodings back then and still today. Something about leopards not being able to change their spots. Or, you can change your skies but not your soul. Sad.

  3. kerri

    Right from the outset let’s just say that the problem with PM Turnbull is just that! Turnbull has no ideas, no vision, no plans other than to be PM Turnbull.

  4. Glenn Barry

    I’m with Cleanlivin – although for the sake of brevity – let’s say everything is wrong with Malcolm Turnbull except…which is going to be a short list, just that I cannot think of anything right at this moment

  5. Michael Taylor

    Speaking of downloads, twice this afternoon there were massive cyber-attacks on our server. While this was going on, some of you may have experienced slow or intermittent loading. Some may not have been able to load the site at all.

    I have been advised that the problem has been fixed.

  6. John

    I suspect we won’t know why Turnbull behaves the way he does until we get a look at his offshore accounts.

  7. kerri

    Did experience that Michael, but all came good after fifteen minutes or so.

  8. Harquebus

    An easier question to answer would be, “What’s right?”

    Turnbull’s problems all stem from his absurd ideology of growth. All who pursue it are struggling and will ultimately fail, bringing us all down with them.

    Question time today could have been considered another circus event if our current situation wasn’t so serious.

  9. Shutterbug

    Ad.
    A very astute and accurate observation of an entitled born-to-rule’er who has neither the experience nor the stones to do the job.
    Ivory towers have the property of isolating one from the proletariat, who, just in case any inspiring BTR’ers might be reading, are the employers and NOT the target of ‘trickle up wealth’ that those top-hatted leaches thrive upon.

    I for one will cry no tears when Truffles and those of his ilk crash and burn for I cry for the poor that these leeches create.

  10. Scott

    Pardon me for being crass but I can sum this up with one short old saying. Malcolm, “Shit or get off the pot”.

  11. Michael Taylor

    Apologies again, but some people still might be having trouble loading the site.

    The massive cyber-attacks on the server have been traced back to numerous locations in China. Each one is being blocked as they are identified, but they just keep on coming.

    JHC. Does anybody want my job?

  12. Harquebus

    I’ll take it.
    I had nothing to do with this attack by the way.

  13. Michael Taylor

    H’, in the list of suspects you were number 4,563,758.

    In other words, you didn’t come into calculations.

  14. OPPOSE THE MAJOUR PARTIES

    turnbull is a deceiver and liar.
    a salesman for lnp donors. his energy guarantee doesn’t guarantee cheaper electricity as he hopes people will be duped into believing. it just guarantees coal.sales for lnp donors..glencor, reinhardt etc who will donate some of their guaranteed profit back to the lnp. hes just a con man.

  15. astra5

    Folks
    May I thank you all for your affirmative comments.

    There seems no doubt among you that Turnbull is a failure.

    It’s so disappointing that one who began as such a welcome relief from the awful Abbott has turned out to be no different from what he always was – a dud.

  16. Michael Taylor

    I do like this comment on saw on Facebook about our PM:

    “Turnbull has a wishbone, not a backbone”.

    Good double-meaning in that, whether intended or not.

  17. OPPOSE THE MAJOUR PARTIES

    Essential Poll shows lnp 48, alp 52. seems the average voter still does not hold the turnbull gov in the same low esteem as readers of aimn unfortunately. turdball could still win an election on those figures. 4% margin is next to nothing. i am amazed that the lnp have that level of support after their recent history and performances

  18. helvityni

    If you asked me what’s NOT wrong with Mal, my answer would be very short…

  19. Henry Rodrigues

    Can someone, anyone, elaborate on Turdball’s perceived “intelligence” ? There are many persons in banking, in law, in business who are a thousand times more “intelligent” and capable, than this gutless spineless spiv who has reached his elevated position, through patronage and deceit and outright chicanery. People of similar attributes languish in prisons all over the world. Intelligent ??

  20. Percy

    Michael Taylor Me thinks Malcontent has asked his commie mates to attack your servers thus putting this attack on him out of his misery

  21. diannaart

    Malcolm must have the hide of a herd of elephants; he has successfully drawn undying enmity of both the right and left.

    The left because of his utter, utter lies about the NBN, environment and… everything… because he lied.

    … and the right because they still believe Turnbull believes his lies and will suddenly do something a little bit progressive… AS IF!

  22. Florence nee Fedup

    When one looks Turnbull’s childhood, why would one be surprised he has little insight into the needs of others, what effect his own actions have on those around him,

    We see a man, a very intelligent man with no political nous whatever.

    Turnbull’s parent separated when he was 7. Mother spent most of her life overseas. Father running pubs.

    Malcolm was sent off to boarding school, for the whole of his school days,. Spent time with both parents during some holidays. Others he spent at school or homes of other students.

    I have read where he hated his father, now it seems he loved him. Both probably have a little truth.

    He had said that Lucy looked after mother after they married.

    I have never seen any stories of extended family being involved.

    His childhood appeared to be very lonely.

  23. OPPOSE THE MAJOUR PARTIES

    Henry Rodrigues. if turdballs legal opinion about tbe outcome of the disqualification cases is anything to go by he isnt or wasnt much of a lawyer. an undergradate would be able to resolve the question of the eligibility of the seven little non australians. i could do it here in one paragraph

  24. Henry Rodrigues

    Oppose the Major Parties………………. The MSM and the so called independent journos are complicit in the polishing of this inept, totally useless and ineffective “leader of the nation”.

  25. astra5

    Henry Rodrigues
    You raise an important issue – Malcolm Turnbull’s intelligence.

    Way back in February 2009, I wrote a piece on The Political Sword with that title. It followed a week where Opposition Leader Turnbull had replaced Julie Bishop as Shadow Treasurer with Joe Hockey, Christopher Pyne had been elevated to Manager of Opposition Business, and Cory Bernardi had been demoted after attacking Pyne.

    Piers Ackerman, a regular Coalition cheerleader, wrote this in The Daily Telegraph: In politics, as in so many long-playing competitive pursuits, the winner is not necessarily the most brilliant performer: it is the player who makes the fewer mistakes. Turnbull’s handling of the issues gave the week away. Had it been close to an election, it could easily have derailed a full campaign. Looking at the wreckage, what seems to be the problem is Turnbull’s lack of political management skills. He is, of course, a gifted financial manager, a person with a great understanding of the corporate world, but the talents needed in business are not entirely the same as those needed in the political world. In the business sector, the bottom line often points the way. In politics, decisions are critically affected by the personalities and personal agendas of the players

    My assessment of Turnbull’s week was summarized thus: Turnbull has been a winning barrister, so presumably his intelligence extends to understanding a legal brief, arguing a case convincingly in a court room, and persuading a judge and jury to his view. He has been a successful merchant banker and businessman, so he must have the intellect to read the markets, make sound judgements about investment and risk, and manage a banking enterprise. As he has been a journalist, he must have the intellect to write readable material, and convince readers of the merits of his case. But does that obvious set of ‘intelligences’ extend to the political arena? It has been argued before on The Political Sword that Turnbull is not a natural politician. This week’s events shore up that view. Does he have the interpersonal skills to be a successful politician? Does he, after less than five years in parliament, possess the political experience, the acumen and the wisdom needed for political leadership?

    My conclusion was: So shall we stop repeating the pointless mantra that ‘Turnbull is highly intelligent’ and then express surprise when he makes elementary political mistakes. Shall we acknowledge that intelligence is not a uniform attribute, and that while Turnbull has intelligence in some areas, he has poorly developed political intelligence, acumen, or judgement, call it what you will.

    The real question for the Coalition is whether he has the capacity ever to develop it. Or will his universally acknowledged large ego and self-confidence render him incapable of learning from his political mistakes. There’s not much sign of that so far. If the prognosis is as poor as it looks, his party has a very fundamental problem.

    Eight years later, nothing has changed!

    You can read the entire piece here: http://www.thepoliticalsword.com/post/Malcolm-Turnbulle28099s-intelligence

  26. astra5

    Michael Taylor
    What a quotable quote: “Turnbull has a wishbone, not a backbone”

  27. Kyran

    “What on earth is wrong with PM Turnbull?”
    More to the point, what on earth could convince a man to renege on all that he apparently held dear?
    Well, once upon a time he had these things called ‘principles’. So much so that he was convinced his adherence to his principles would see off any challenge by someone devoid of principle. He was, after all, the king of his little kingdom, albeit in opposition, a veritable exile.
    Then along came the little ogre. A yappy little thing, always sniping, always wanting to retreat to the wonderful future of the 50’s. Our leader (of the Opposition) stood by his principles, convinced they would withstand any unprincipled assault.
    Anyway, he got rolled by the little ogre.
    Well, it wasn’t the first time his judgement was a tad off the mark, was it? Anyway, back to the fable. He apparently handled his disposal with such aplomb and dignity that Crikey voters declared him ‘Person of the Year 2009’ in December of that year.
    “Malcolm has crashed and burned in the most public way possible, almost tearing his party completely apart in the process. Fascinating. Brilliant. Egomaniac. Flawed. F-ck up. Icon.”

    Malcolm Turnbull: 2009’s Person of the Year

    So, what does a man of principle do when both he and his principles are made redundant by some knuckle dragging ogre, ugly in appearance, ghoulish in intent, lacking in any attributes?
    In the immortal words of Monty Python, “Run away, run away…..”
    April 6, 2010.
    “AAP reports: In an interview on Sky News after his announcement, Mr Turnbull referred to the “fairly trying circumstances” in which he lost the Liberal leadership last December.
    He denied he had run out of patience to become prime minister, saying time was simply not on his side.
    “I’m 56 in October. If I was 46, I may well [have made] a different decision,” he said.
    He said he would leave parliament “without any bitterness or resentment”.
    “This is a very tough business, politics,” he said. “It’s easy to get resentful or full of bitterness … [but] I took a very different approach. I think hatred hurts the hater more than the hated.
    “So I’m looking back on my time positively.”
    He said he believed the best thing was to move on after losing the leadership in trying circumstances.
    “Having got to the top of my own party, having become the leader, and then that having come to an end in some fairly trying circumstances, I think the best thing … is to move on,” he said.
    “The decision we’ve taken is that this is the right time to move on, to do other things.”
    Mr Turnbull said some former leaders had staged spectacular comebacks, citing Mr Howard as an example, but said this was not for him.
    He said he “threw everything I had” into commitment to public service, as a politician.
    Mr Turnbull said the ambition to become prime minister had been thrust on to him.
    “A lot of people have projected on to me very grand ambitions,” he said.
    “Clearly it was my ambition to be prime minister because I was leader of the opposition.”
    Mr Turnbull said he had no dreams of leadership in his first term, when Peter Costello seemed to have the succession “completely sewn up”.
    “My ambition was to make the best and most effective contribution that I could so long as I was there, and to throw everything I had into my work as a member of parliament,” he said.
    Pressed on his feelings toward Mr Abbott, Mr Turnbull refused to offer anything but praise.
    “He is a great communicator, he’s very determined,” Mr Turnbull said. “I have always had a very high regard for Tony and his political skills.”
    Mr Turnbull denied he was leaving his post because Mr Abbott was taking such a tough stance on issues such as the environment and border protection.
    “Obviously we have a major difference of opinion on the emissions trading scheme,” he said.
    “But really, these decisions about whether you run for parliament or whether you stay in parliament are very personal ones.”
    Mr Turnbull said he made the decision to leave politics with his wife Lucy and their children.
    “This is the right time for me to move on and do other things – to do other things with Lucy, in fact,” he said.
    Mr Turnbull said he could not have served on a Coalition frontbench under Mr Abbott given their well-known differences over an emissions trading scheme.”

    http://www.smh.com.au/national/turnbull-to-quit-politics-20100406-rnt5.html

    In April, 2010, he stated his intention to leave politics with his principles intact. In August 2010, he again stood for parliament and subsequently served on the little ogre’s front bench.
    One can speculate as to when the little king had his epiphany. Somewhere between April and August, 2010, apparently. Somewhere in there, he learnt from the little ogre that principles were vastly overrated. They were the niceties, to be thrown to the serf’s every few years. The prize was the crown in the kingdom of Canberra.
    Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray” hints at such epiphanies and could easily be paraphrased to better describe PM Turnbull and the predicament (of his own making).
    “Newly understanding that his beauty will fade, Dorian expresses the desire to sell his soul, to ensure that the picture, rather than he, will age and fade. The wish is granted, and Dorian pursues a life of varied and amoral experiences, while staying young and beautiful; all the while his portrait ages and records every sin.”
    And the moral of this little fable? Morals, like principles, are vastly overrated.
    Nowhere near as pretty or as important as the little crown on his little head.

    “What on earth is wrong with PM Turnbull?”

    Who cares.
    Thank you Ad astra and commenters. Take care

  28. Harry

    So the only point of the Turnbull prime ministership is to remain prime minister. If he actually had any over arching goals or some clearly articulated policies he could surely have insisted he be given a relatively free hand to implement them, with the threat to resign if there was significant obstruction.

    He could have pointed out the obvious: that the LNP IPA under Abbott would have faced almost certain defeat.

    Both lack of ticker and a clear sense of direction will be his undoing and for me it can’t come soon enough.

    Meanwhile Abbott needs to be told he is unwelcome and should seek a new career direction.

  29. Henry Rodrigues

    Thank you Astra5 and Kyran. Very pointed and relevant observations regarding the intelligence or lack thereof of the great pretender. Consider the fact that he actually spent $1.75m to help his party to campaign in NSW, and still only managed a 1 seat majority. He is the arch typical grubby ‘businessman’ who will use money and whole heap of flim flam in his quest for personal gain. He’s not here to for the greater good of the people, just for his own satisfaction.

  30. Jan

    He’s not here to for the greater good of the people, just for his own satisfaction.

    Ditto Henry

  31. OPPOSE THE MAJOUR PARTIES

    He’s in politics to shephard through the TTP. He will make a motza from his investments in Vulture Funds in the Caymans when the TTP is introduced. That is why Turdboy is in politics: to gain massive benefits from the TTP and the dispute resolution clause in it when the Australian gov is sued and must sell off its assets which will be bought by Cayman Island Vulture Funds Turdboy has interests in.

  32. astra5

    Folks
    I thank you all for your informative comments.

    Kyran
    Your account of Turnbull’s comments about being a member of parliament make fascinating reading. The linked article too is a good read.

    Thank you for your extensive contribution to the important issue: “What’s wrong with PM Turnbull?”

    I reciprocate your good wishes.

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