The dinner party discussion: Who should replace Turnbull?
For most of its life, the Turnbull Coalition government has mysteriously underperformed – like a luxury car with persistent mechanical problems.
Mark Kenny is Fairfax Media's chief political correspondent. A director of the National Press Club, he regularly appears on the ABC's Insiders, Sky News Agenda, and Ten's Meet the Press. He has reported from Canberra under three prime ministers and several opposition leaders.
For most of its life, the Turnbull Coalition government has mysteriously underperformed – like a luxury car with persistent mechanical problems.
An inward-looking America could prove to be a blessing in disguise for Australia
The whole double-D drama could have been avoided had the government made the concessions that secured the Australian Building and Construction Commission's passage this week.
How many votes do you reckon Kevin Rudd lost when it was revealed he had gone into a seedy New York strip club known as Scores in a drunken manhattan bar crawl? Or what about Donald J Trump? How many do you imagine he lost from the notorious bus tape where he was recorded boasting of preying on and sexually assaulting women?
Once again, a government has put politics before policy, at the expense of the latter.
That unelectable weakling, Bill Shorten, has demonstrated to devastating effect that the combination of party unity and focus can take you very close to the top in politics.
Rational debate, with its unspectacular promise of sensible compromise, is now discredited or rendered politically unfeasible
It is hardly earth-shattering that ministers make things up, leave things out, speak beyond their knowledge, and simply get things wrong.
Coalitionists are left licking their wounds and wondering which way this could go next.
What if marriage equality is suddenly three years away at best? Two terms? A decade?
Search pagination
Save articles for later.
Subscribe for unlimited access to news. Login to save articles.
Return to the homepage by clicking on the site logo.