Grattan on Friday: Brough’s baggage creates mess for Malcolm
Malcolm Turnbull, having briefly touched home base, is back on the summit round, flying off to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta and the Paris climate conference. He’s left behind a rather messy and smelly little scandal, the first to hit his ministry.
When he elevated to the ministry Queenslander Mal Brough, who had been impatiently stamping his feet on the backbench since re-entering parliament in 2013, Turnbull must have known he was tempting fate. Brough had baggage, in the form of his role in the Slipper affair.
A cabinet minister in the Howard government, Brough lost his seat of Longman in 2007; when he returned to parliament his eyes were on the frontbench. Tony Abbott did not accommodate him. Brough ended up in the vanguard of the Turnbull ranks. Like many other supporters, he was duly rewarded after the leadership change despite, in his case, the risks.
