Turnbull needs to channel Churchill as 45th Parliament begins
ANALYSIS
Better late than never, the 45th Parliament will get down to serious business on Wednesday after Tuesday’s formalities.
But the games have already begun.
Malcolm Turnbull came close to doing a Kevin Rudd when he told his party room that this government faces a massive moral challenge – the task of budget repair.
“It’s more than economics. It is more than fiscal matters. It is not just a technical issue,” Mr Turnbull said. “This is a fundamental moral challenge.”
Not quite the ‘greatest moral challenge of our time’.
Former PM Rudd ascribed that to climate change. Only to lose face when he gave up on doing much about it.
While Mr Turnbull sounded Churchillian, it is far from clear that the Opposition or the crossbench will join him “on the beaches”.
Bill Shorten ridiculed the government’s claim that it had a 25-point battle plan.
That’s the description it gave the bills it will introduce this week. Many of them are non-controversial measures from the May budget.
Mr Shorten told his party room, to much mirth, 23 of the points were leftovers from the Abbott agenda.
“More Battlelines than battle plan,” he said in reference to the former prime minister’s book of policy musings.
But if Mr Turnbull’s talk of “moral challenge” is meant to shame the Parliament into support for his budget repair plans it’s not resonating with his backbench. At risk is the $6 billion superannuation package.
Rumblings on the backbench
The Treasurer on the weekend refused to answer questions on it in an interview with Channel Ten news. Happy to talk about his crackdown on credit card surcharges but unwilling to antagonise skittish backbenchers.
They were not so reticent, several openly expressed their opposition especially to the apparent retrospective aspect of the package as they arrived back in Canberra.
At the party room meeting, WA backbencher Andrew Hastie tried to raise the issue only to be told by Scott Morrison that it would be addressed more fully in a fortnight. By then he hopes to have salvaged something of his projected revenue savings.
Just as problematic, the marriage equality plebiscite. It is running off the rails.
Plebiscite problems
A year ago, before he tore Tony Abbott down, Mr Turnbull warned same-sex marriage would become “an incessant distraction for the Coalition in the lead-up to the next election and into the next term”.
How prescient he was. He argued it should be sorted out in the Parliament with a free vote. The Greens, the Xenophon Team and independent Senator Derryn Hinch agree.
They will vote the plebiscite down. That puts its fate in the hands of Labor. It is pushing for a free vote soon.
If government discipline holds in the Reps that push will fail.
The question is what then will Labor do? But before that, Attorney General George Brandis has to get his party room to agree to his bill. A bill that does not contain “same sex” in the question.
Conservatives are already threatening a revolt if it doesn’t. They may even try to torpedo their own device of a plebiscite if they judge Mr Turnbull and Mr Brandis are being too tricky with them.
Mr Turnbull will need all the grit of a Churchill.
Paul Bongiorno AM is a veteran of the Canberra Press Gallery, with 40 years’ experience covering Australian politics. He is Contributing Editor for Network Ten, appears on Radio National Breakfast and writes a weekly column on national affairs for The New Daily. He tweets at @PaulBongiorno
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