Malcolm Turnbull's take-down of Bill Shorten a win for the PM in troubled times, but he needs to follow up with focus
Updated
On Wednesday evening, a few hours after his blistering parliamentary take-down of Bill Shorten, Malcolm Turnbull strolled unannounced into WA MP Nola Marino's office for the whip's drinks.
As the Prime Minister came through the door, there were claps and cheers from the 30-or-so Liberal MPs and senators who'd gathered.
Many there that evening couldn't remember the last time the Prime Minister had received genuine and impromptu applause from his colleagues.
There was immediate post-match analysis of Mr Turnbull's slaying of the Labor leader's character.
The PM's best lines were quoted back at him, with relish and delight:
"Simpering sycophant blowing hard in the House of Representatives."
"There was never a union leader in Melbourne that tucked his knees under more billionaires' tables than the Leader of the Opposition."
Some asked Mr Turnbull if he'd planned the verbal attack. He assured them it was a spontaneous eruption only given opportunity by yet another of Mr Shorten's personal barbs.
But there is little doubt a couple of his lines had long been knocking around his brain, desperate to get out.
One of Tony Abbott's oldest friends and strongest allies was in the room.
"It was absolutely brilliant to watch," he told another backbencher.
The buoyant mood at drinks in Marino's office — a regular feature of Wednesdays during sitting weeks — reflected a sudden optimism across the Liberal backbench.
It was an optimism that seemed strange, coming a day after South Australian Liberal senator Cory Bernardi's defection and Newspoll showing the Coalition trailing Labor 54-46 on a two-party-preferred basis.
Senator Bernardi's ratting on the party united them in disgust at the betrayal. Mr Turnbull's savaging of Mr Shorten went some way to galvanising that union.
But it wasn't just the fiery passion the PM showed in his vitriol that impressed his colleagues. It was his new focus.
Enjoy the surge in approval, but don't take it for granted
Mr Turnbull has been a great frustration to his colleagues, sometimes too easily distracted or impatient to move on.
They say his Government's message has too often focused on what it has been doing, rather than for whom, allowing Mr Shorten to serially steal the show with his family-friendly rhetoric.
Yes, they gleefully lapped up the attack on Mr Shorten, the "sucker-up from Melbourne", but they were especially glad the class war assault was being directed at retaking turf surrendered so meekly to Labor.
The Government's new back-to-basics strategy, centred on "hard-working Australians", has been many weeks in earnest rehearsal, but Mr Turnbull's impulsive and brutal outburst targeting Mr Shorten provided its unofficial launch.
Almost by accident, the Government's tactics have arrived at a "Kill Bill" character assassination.
And of the Opposition in general, the Government intends rounding on the Labor Party as a bunch of blind ideologues, especially on energy costs.
Opportunity swung open like a barn door when Mr Shorten was asked last week at the National Press Club who would pay the bill for Labor's target of 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030.
"I think there is a bigger bill to be paid if we don't embrace renewable energy," Mr Shorten said, adding that the "opportunity cost of not acting on climate change", was more drought and more extreme weather events.
To Government tacticians, this sounded like a green light for higher power prices in the belief that Australia alone could stop global warming.
But being the punter's best new friend means you mustn't take them for mugs either.
The taunting of the Labor Party with a hunk of coal bordered on dishonesty when the Government knows full well that the economics of building a new power station using clean coal technology is dubious.
And Mr Turnbull, who struck out this week at Mr Shorten for having no consistency and no integrity, might want to show some caution in his new pursuit, given his own enthusiasm for climate change action.
After all, would anyone have believed you a few years ago if you'd said it would be Malcolm Turnbull who'd put the coal back into coalition?
Topics: turnbull-malcolm, government-and-politics, political-parties, bill-shorten, australia, canberra-2600
First posted
