Leadership is about asking one simple question: "Is this right?" Right, as in virtuous and justified. It is primarily a moral and intellectual question, not one that can or should be determined by reference to a knee-jerk theoretical predisposition, but to evidence and unassailable principles including fairness, effectiveness, opportunity and liberty.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's interpretation of leadership is to pose the same question. But when he does, he is not embarking on policy contemplation; he means "is this OK with the ideological rump of my party?" – the people some refer to as being on the right.
Illustration: Matt Golding
The terms "right" and "left", while still often used, have become all but meaningless, and are unhelpful to modern policy and politics. Rather than labelling people and ideas on some linear ideological scale – from right to left – it is far better to use precise language. Further, the whole left/right obsession fails to factor in a fundamentally important political spectrum – that from anarchy to authority.
Mr Turnbull risks becoming a pathetic parody. He has allowed himself to become widely perceived as shackled by a small number of blustering backbenchers. His craven capitulation in recent days to these gormless recalcitrants on what the climate policy review might examine only served to underline how servile the nation's leader has become.
The nation's leader should, well, lead. All he currently stands for is clinging to power. Positions of public office are positions of public trust, and Mr Turnbull is trashing that trust. When the answer to the question "is this right?" is that there is a gap between what is the case and what ought to be, then a leader fights for change – is progressive. When the opposite is true, a leader fights for the status quo – is conservative. Thus, "progressive" and "conservative" are not ciphers for "left" and "right".
It is understandable Mr Turnbull is gun-shy. After all, he lost his leadership in 2009 because of a carbon emissions trading scheme. But should he continue to back down every time one of the backbench bullies arcs up, he will end up being viewed as one of the most unsuccessful and weak prime ministers in Australian history. There is, after all, no point in leading the nation unless one truly seeks to better the nation.
On a number of issues he feels need change, Mr Turnbull has failed to lead: tax reform; mandatory offshore detention of asylum seekers; marriage equality; taxpayer-funded subsidies for serial property investors; and, now, climate change.
There is nothing politicians like more than being in power. This is true of Mr Turnbull's in-house tormentors, and he should call their bluff, should they continue to fail to engage in proper policy processes. The public would respect him, and he would establish authority.
Politics is often thought of as the art of the possible, but the current bloody-mindedness means so little is actually achievable. One would hardly call a diluted industrial relations watchdog bill, a marginal tax on backpackers and the prospect of company tax cuts over 10 years much of an achievement.
Mr Turnbull is adamant he should not alter by one jot the platform, such as it was, he took to the election. Rubbish. First, he barely won, so can't claim an unambiguous mandate. Second, he does make change – but not the ones he wants, the ones he's forced to make. Third, he is inconsistent; he sought to calm people concerned at the election of Donald Trump by arguing they should watch what he actually does, rather than what he said during the campaign. Fourth, when circumstances change, leaders change policies. Leadership requires courage and agility.