All of a sudden, Labor went on light duties on Friday morning, right when it was gearing up to hammer Malcolm Turnbull over slashed penalty rates for hospitality and retail workers.
Strangely enough, the Fair Work Commission's historic ruling which so bravely cut the remuneration of the least well-off, offered a political payday for Labor.
More Federal Politics Videos
- Video duration
- 01:41
Ministers take aim Abbott's 'five-point ...
Ministers take aim Abbott's 'five-point plan'
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and other senior ministers fire back at Tony Abbott's 'five-point plan' manifesto and his criticism of the government's current policies.
Up Next
Turnbull and Widodo talk trade
- Video duration
- 01:50
- Video duration
- 01:50
Turnbull and Widodo talk trade
Turnbull and Widodo talk trade
Australia and Indonesia agreed to restore defence co-operation following a bilateral meeting between Malcolm Turnbull and Joko Widodo.
Up Next
Libs rally around Turnbull after Abbott snipes
- Video duration
- 00:35
- Video duration
- 00:35
Libs rally around Turnbull after Abbott ...
Libs rally around Turnbull after Abbott snipes
An attempt by Tony Abbott to drag the Liberal Party to the political right has backfired as former Abbott loyalists broke ranks in disgust at comments they viewed as disloyal to the party and a flagrant attempt to visit revenge on Malcolm Turnbull. Vision courtesy ABC News 24.
Up Next
Indonesian President Joko Widodo arrives in Sydney
- Video duration
- 00:23
- Video duration
- 00:23
Indonesian President Joko Widodo arrives ...
Indonesian President Joko Widodo arrives in Sydney
Securing a free trade agreement and the possibility of joint naval patrols in the South China Sea are both items on the agenda during the Indonesian President's first official visit to Australia. Vision courtesy ABC News 24.
Up Next
Howard's war: why we invaded Iraq
- Video duration
- 01:46
- Video duration
- 01:46
Howard's war: why we invaded Iraq
Howard's war: why we invaded Iraq
An in-depth report reveals the real reason Australia joined the invasion of Iraq and the lessons learnt. David Wroe explains.
Up Next
Abbott's insurgency aids Labor
- Video duration
- 01:27
- Video duration
- 01:27
Abbott's insurgency aids Labor
Abbott's insurgency aids Labor
The on-going turmoil in the right-wing of Australian politics favours Bill Shorten, says Mark Kenny.
Up Next
No rate cut says RBA head
- Video duration
- 01:55
- Video duration
- 01:55
No rate cut says RBA head
No rate cut says RBA head
All but ruling out rate cuts, Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe defended corporate tax cuts in front of the House Standing Committee on Economics.
Up Next
Turnbull won't be 'provoked' by Abbott
- Video duration
- 02:23
- Video duration
- 02:23
Turnbull won't be 'provoked' by Abbott
Turnbull won't be 'provoked' by Abbott
The prime minister is tired of Tony Abbott's "outbursts", telling 3AW's Neil Mitchell that the former prime minister "knows exactly what he's doing," when he openly criticizes the government.
Ministers take aim Abbott's 'five-point plan'
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and other senior ministers fire back at Tony Abbott's 'five-point plan' manifesto and his criticism of the government's current policies.
The political significance of the Thursday decision has yet to be appreciated. Minimum wage claims have been rejected or attenuated before, in the interests of the economy and employers' capacity to pay. But actually cutting earnings for poor?
Somewhat unwisely, the Coalition had declined to make a submission to the long-running case despite a credible argument that cutting the buying power of the lowest paid might be a bad way to deliver a "high-wage economy", not to mention, being pretty unhelpful in a flat economy.
Related Content
As a result, Labor believes it can make Turnbull own the pay cut, even though Bill Shorten had previously undertaken to respect the independent umpire's decision.
But on Friday morning, Labor's reserve was informed by the principle in warfare: never interrupt an enemy who is busily making a mistake.
And Turnbull's party was doing just that – wrestling loudly and publicly with its Tony problem.
Abbott's speech the night before and an accompanying appearance on a friendly TV program had unleashed a storm.
The dumped PM's incendiary criticisms of Turnbull were more direct and designed to be more harmful than any previous.
But Abbott did most of the harm to himself in this process, managing to lose powerful party-room friends even quicker than he shed voters, by egregiously flouting his "I won't be a wrecker" principle. It was "flabbergasting" in the words of Mathias Cormann.
Cormann had been an absolute Abbott man, a conservative loyalist par-excellence, who had stayed true to the tawdry end.
Not any more.
Five years to the very week after Labor's leading lights had spectacularly lined up to explain why they ended Kevin Rudd's idiosyncratic prime ministership, the same movie was playing again.
As fans of Nordic noir know, the Hollywood remakes don't need subtitling and can be almost as good, if slightly less dark and brooding.
That said, it would be hard to compete with the menacing theatrics of Nicola Roxon's original script: "Removing Kevin was an act of political bastardry, for sure," she conceded, "But this … was made possible only because Kevin had been such a bastard himself to so many people already."
"Good people were burnt through like wildfire."
Fellow minister Stephen Conroy piled on saying his old boss had failed because he had "contempt for the cabinet, contempt for cabinet members, contempt for the caucus, contempt for the parliament ... and ultimately what brought him down a year or two ago was the Australian public realised he had contempt for them as well."
Tony Burke accused Rudd of chaotic management and Wayne Swan said Rudd had put "his own self-interest ahead of the interests of the broader labour movement and the country as a whole, and that needs to stop."
It was brutal and yet five years later, after all the moralistic tut-tutting from the Liberals, they find themselves two terms in, two prime ministers in, and reading an uncannily familiar script.
Cormann went first, branding his former friend "sad": "I was flabbergasted by Tony Abbott's interview last night ... there is nothing good from an interview like that. It was deliberately destructive ... it was not trying to help our cause or help our country. It was quite self-indulgent."
Turnbull later referred questioners to Cormann's withering critique – a sign of just how significant moderates saw the fracturing of Cormann's trust.
Then came the "fixer". Christopher Pyne set up each Abbott proposition and then smacked it out of the park.
"He said that we should freeze immigration yet when he was the PM, he had record levels of immigration; He said we should abolish the Human Rights Commission and yet when he was the PM, he shut down the debate on whether we should reform section 18C; He says we should cut taxes, and yet when he was the PM he increased taxes, whether it was the deficit levy on high-income earners or whether it was the fuel tax; He says we should slash spending and yet when he was the PM in 2014 he attempted to slash spending and all he did was create zombie bills that couldn't pass through the Senate; and the fifth subject, of course, was the renewable energy target and the truth is of course he set the RET at 23.5 per cent and described it at the time as one of the achievements of his government."
Before the final kick: "So when you're throwing stones, it's important not to stand in a glass house".
According to some optimistic thinking, Abbott's incendiary blast was his last gasp – killing his own credibility and pushing conservative waverers closer to Turnbull.
Maybe. But they thought that about Rudd this same week in 2012.
Mark Kenny is national affairs editor.
69 comments
Comment are now closed