The Dog’s Bollocks

Urged to leave politics: former federal treasurer Peter Costello. (AFP: Torsten Blackwood)

The Commentariat this weekend are unanimous that Malcolm Turnbull and The Libs have just had A Week from Hell and that Turnbull’s leadership is under threat.

It is just five months since Turnbull took the top job from Brendan Nelson on the promise of strong leadership. It is almost incomprehensible, then, that his leadership could already be so tenuous.

But leadership of a bitterly divided party in opposition brings a new dimension to such matters. The speculation over Costello has become emblematic of the Liberal plight. There’s no groundswell of support for the former treasurer, but there’s mounting concern about Turnbull.

However, if Turnbull indeed offered the position of Shadow Treasurer to Peter Costello in an attempt to wedge him by portraying his refusal as evidence of his willingness to continue destabilising the party, then perhaps it is paying off after all. Maybe that was the main game and The Commentariat have missed it.

The coming days and weeks will reveal whether Malcolm’s gamble has payed off. If the mounting pressure on Costello to shape up or ship out results in him finally bowing out, Turnbull’s power base will be secure through to the next election and the Libs can finally get on with throwing of the shackles of Howard’s ‘Legacy’.

Maybe the Libs can then start thinking about formulating a coherent policy stance – although that might be asking too much.

Now, if the Libs can just get rid of Tony Abbott and Nick Minchin, they can begin rebuilding themselves into an effective opposition and start looking like an alternative government.

Filed under: Howardians, Politics

Quit call: Dr Hewson has urged former federal treasurer Peter Costello to leave politics. (AAP: Julian Smith, file photo)

Thank God that John hewson has the guts to say what most people are thinking – Pete, it’s time to bugger off mate! You had your chance and you blew it. And you really were a second-rate treasurer. Oh, and your book sucked, too.

From the ABC this morning:

“After the damage that you have done, the best you can now do to help our chances is to leave,” Dr Hewson wrote in Fairfax newspapers.

“If your few remaining mates won’t tell you, I will. You’ve had a fair go. If you now won’t give others a chance and pull your weight as a member of the team, you should move on.

“It is most unlikely that you will ever be drafted as leader of the Liberal Party and even less likely that you will ever be prime minister.

“You can’t go on ignoring the facts. You have only ever had a minimal support base and that base has been further and terminally eroded by your disloyalty, antics and shenanigans of the last year or so.

Dr Hewson also doubted Mr Costello’s competence as treasurer.

“I also doubt you have the skills, experience or self-confidence to have accepted the obvious job after losing the last election, namely shadow treasurer,” he wrote.

“You’d be lost without Treasury. You may have delivered 11 budgets but ask yourself honestly how many of them were actually yours, rather than Treasury’s.

“I am told Treasury is now drawing a sharp contrast between your little interest and involvement and that of Wayne Swan.”

Dr Hewson, who lost the 1993 federal election against former prime minister Paul Keating, is also scathing of Mr Costello’s book, released last year.

“You should also recognise that your indulgent ‘memoirs’, released recently, did not provide the platform from which you had obviously hoped to be drafted,” he said.

“They were received with a yawn. They were being sold at a discount in my local bookstore in just a few days.

“But, most importantly, they fuelled yet another round of leadership speculation, again making the Opposition the focus of exhaustive and sustained media attention, leaving the Government to skate by without scrutiny.

Dr Hewson says he thinks an election is looming.

“Despite what the Government says, the risk and opportunity of an election this year are very real, especially if my worst fears of our economy tanking are confirmed,” he said.”

Filed under: Howardians, Politics

Illustration: Matt Davidson

Despite former Howard henchman Sen. George Brandis’ laughable reassurance on Lateline last night that there is nothing amiss in the Liberal Party, it is clear that they are in deep trouble. Any possibility of policy coherence is lost while the party is deeply divided between the Old Guard Right and the fresh start moderates arguing over the relevance of Howard’s Legacy, and the power struggles between the NSW Right and Costello Kroger Camp in Victoria.

British editor and broadcaster Andrew Neil has been in Australia launching the Australian edition of the UK institution The Spectator magazine. Asked on Lateline how long it takes a long-term government party to rebuild after defeat he thought about 10 years. Voters have long memories, he argues, and in order to rebrand the image a party needs to remove those who keep those memories alive.

Clearly that’s going to take some time in the case of our Libs. Petulant Peter – I could have been a contender – Costello is the main problem here. He should make the challenge for the leadership or announce his intentions to retire from his seat. Unfortunately, it seems as though he will accept the leadership only if the party comes begging and offers it to him in a bloodless coup. In which case the Libs need to make that choice, sooner than later. Otherwise we will see a succession of reasonable performers like Turnbull and Hockey chewed up and spat out. The Libs cannot afford to have Costello linger around like a bad smell constantly reminding us that that Libs are in a deeply divided shamble.

For Pete’s sake, bring on Costello and put us all out of our misery. I doubt he will be any more successful than Nelson or Turnbull. Perhaps he is waiting around for a crack at the leadership after the Libs lose the next election? But that will just ensure the Libs will remain divided and irrelevant as an effective opposition, let alone as an alternative government.

The Libs are still in denial about the 2007 end of the Howardian Ear, and will remain so until they lose next year’s election, at the very earliest. Unfortunately for the conservative side of politics I doubt the next Liberal Prime Minister of Australia is even in the parliament yet.

Filed under: Howardians, Politics