An orchestrated attack by Labor in Question Time on Tuesday was as inevitable as it ultimately proved distracting for Malcolm Turnbull - a function of his own equivocation from earlier that day.
Asked if he would lift an import ban on a hyper-lethal Adler lever-action shotgun to win the Senate vote of the libertarian David Leyonhjelm for unrelated union-busting bills, the Prime Minister refused to definitively reject what, to most people, is an appalling suggestion.
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Turnbull defends guns stance
The Prime Minister tells parliament an import ban on a controversial shotgun is permanent.
Doubtless, Turnbull wanted to manage his fraught relationship with the fundamentalist Leyonhjelm, and felt that publicly ruling things in or out might be prejudicial.
But that procedural caution was misplaced - another triumph of Turnbull the tactical lawyer over Turnbull the popular politician.
By lunchtime, his stray spark had been fanned into a major bushfire.
Labor depicted the Prime Minister as a man so desperate for a win that he would even compromise on John Howard's widely successful gun ownership restrictions introduced in the grief-stricken aftermath of the Port Arthur massacre.
Such had been the atmosphere, and the difficulty of that hard-fought policy change, that at one stage, Howard had donned a bullet-proof vest at a hostile pro-gun rally.
The laws, known as the National Firearms Agreement, have doubtless saved many lives, and are cited around the world as a model of how to restrict guns and reduce gun violence.
Turnbull could have shut down the prospect of a horse-trade immediately and no doubt wishes he had. Instead, the government has once again been exposed as average at policy and worse at the retail politics needed to support it.
It is telling that despite a dangerous fundamentalism which would put him at odds with all but the most extreme pro-firearm voters, Leyonhjelm has joined Labor in publicly playing the Turnbull government off a break.
The PM's discomfort was only increased by a sharply worded tweet from Tony Abbott before Question Time.
Disturbing to see reports of horse-trading on gun laws. ABCC should be supported on its merits.
— Tony Abbott (@TonyAbbottMHR) October 18, 2016
Instead, the government has once again been exposed as average at policy and worse at the retail politics needed to support it
But it wasn't long before a counter-leak from within the government showed Leyonhjelm had already given support last year (under Abbott) for an unrelated anti-terrorism bill, in exchange for having the Adler importation ban grandfathered for 12 months.
Oops.
Leyonhjelm says he was "dudded" because that ban has been extended. Turnbull now claims it is permanent. Why didn't he just say so when first asked.
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