If there was a sliver of respectability left with the Prime Minister and his government, it was well and truly smashed and trashed on Monday. The announcement that the first week of parliamentary sitting would be cancelled demonstrated why there is a pall of crisis clouding the government and why Malcolm Turnbull has been on the wrong end of 23 Newspolls in a row. There are senior Ministers who had argued some weeks ago to cancel that week of Parliament when there was only one vote (Barnaby Joyce) down. Unsurprisingly, they were furious that the PM once again failed to be decisive. He dithered for so long that by the time he made the decision public, John Alexander had fallen on his sword over his dual citizenship.
A decision that would have been viewed at best with scepticism, now looked like one born of fear.
These days our PM is a bundle of fears. He fears the sitting of the Australian Parliament because it may well deliver a Royal Commission into the banks and he continues to ride shotgun for his mates in the big four. He fears Bill Shorten who seems to have his measure.
He fears his own party room where he knows the tide of rebellion and discontent is rising fast. He fears that John Alexander could be defeated in the Bennelong by-election and bring down the house of cards. He fears Julie Bishop, whose ratings leave his flailing in their wake. It is a fair bet that these days our PM fears getting out of bed each morning.
Alan Jones and I were having a pleasant dinner at the legendary Sydney restaurant Beppi’s on Monday night. Neither of us particularly like being treated like complete mugs either. We both received a text from Christopher Pyne which piqued our interest, along with our annoyance. It read as follows: “By the way, this isn’t a surprise to Labor. We briefed them about it two weeks ago.”
