NORMALLY, opposition parties are forced to cope with life in the wilderness. Not now. Today, and for almost 18 months, we have endured, enjoyed or been bewildered by government in the wilderness.
More disturbingly, the man in charge, so brilliant as opposition leader, so flawed as Prime Minister, shows few signs he is capable of leading his government out of it, and every sign the job is beyond him: that he is not up to it and might never be up to it.
The situation is that dire. Not because of a hostile media, a restless backbench or an effective opposition leader brimming with conviction or ideas, but because of the Prime Minister’s own actions.
Frontbenchers as well as backbenchers are realising it’s time to stop criticising staff and start directing the blame for the government’s predicament where it really belongs. With him. They now accept they have to convince him to change and if they can’t they will be forced to consider changing him. If their survival depends on his elimination, eliminate him they will. Count on it.
That is because ultimately Tony Abbott is responsible for all of it. He decides what is done, as well as who does it, he signs off on it or cedes the authority which allows it to happen, or simply turns a blind eye to it.
There is no guarantee the Prime Minister will perform better if he is forced to sack his chief of staff, Peta Credlin. Government insiders fear he has become psychologically dependent on her, a view supported by the private comments of friends who worry he would feel bereft without her.
Publicly his colleagues grappled with formulations to distance themselves from him after his decision to award a knighthood to Prince Philip without stabbing him in the front. Privately there was sorrow, anger, humiliation and as one said “utter utter disbelief” that he could do this to himself and to them. It will never be forgotten nor readily forgiven. Some were already doing numbers, apparently intending to impress upon him how much trouble he was in. After Monday, it acquired a deeper, more urgent focus.
According to one Liberal MP, the most obscure backbencher game enough or riled enough to put their hand up today would get 15 to 20 votes. Imagine what Julie Bishop could do if she wanted to…..
Excerpts from letters to the editor and published comments
The Australian (National Edition), 29 January 2015, page 11:
# I AM a long-time Liberal supporter and monarchist, and one of the barnacles you've just removed, Mr Abbott -- along with a million or more others. You don't seem to realise that where a lot of people will be prepared to go ahead with you, they won't be prepared to be dragged back into the past. Maybe you should have taken more notice of the reaction to your foray into the knights and dames debacle, among other things…..
# I PREDICT Tony Abbott will be rolled as PM by the end of this year. Due to his plummeting personal popularity, Liberal powerbrokers, with the exception of Peta Credlin, know it is highly unlikely the conservatives will retain government at the next election with Abbott as PM. He is seen as a private-school, university, Oxford-educated elitist more at home in the 1950s than today.
# the current PM is not suited to the job and the Liberal Party needs to replace him. The more successful PMs such as Bob Hawke and John Howard prided themselves on running inclusive governments where decisions were made by cabinet and then endorsed by the partyroom, not by the PM's office. How the cabinet allows his chief of staff to attend meetings shows a lack of collective spine. The PM is supposed to be "the first among equals", not an elected dictator.
# After what benighted Tony Abbott has done to her husband, one can only say "God save the Queen", because nothing can save the PM.
# Now that Tony Abbott has worked out the democratic principle of consulting before the event, perhaps we could have Australia Day over again? It rained, and I was laughing so much that I never got really patriotic, and what with the shark scare in Newcastle, things were dull in the harbour. Let's just call last Monday a trial run, a kind of rehearsal for the real thing?
The Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Queensland), 29 January 2015, page 19:
# Tony Abbot's autocratic bestowal of a knighthood of the Order of Australia on Prince Phillip turns the clock back to colonial times ("I say, old chap, how about three cheers for the Empire?"). Tony needs to realise that most of us have moved on from those Empirical times. The awards given out on Australia Day are for "ridgy-didge" Aussies who have contributed to our country in some way (often by sacrificing much of their own time to assist their fellow countrymen (women) in some beneficial way). Even the lowliest recipient of an award on Oz Day would have contributed more to Australia than Prince Phillip (God bless him). What Tony has done in this instance is to totally devalue the worth and the significance of these awards both past & present. Let's hope Phil declines the award!
Herald Sun (Melbourne, Victoria), 29 January 2015, page 25:
# AS if it's not astonishingly dumb of Tony Abbott to confer knighthood on the Duke of Edinburgh, he then dismisses negative comments on social media as "electronic graffiti" and says the regular media are silly to devote any attention.
Wrong again, Prime Minister, social media are the voices of the people you were elected to serve but you seem to have trouble grasping that simple fact.
Please, Governor-General, do your job and dismiss him before he does any more damage.
# I VOTED for the "mad monk" thinking economic sense and good governance would prevail. Giving "Phil the Greek" a gong has shown he is out of touch with the populace of Australia.
The Advertiser (Adelaide, South Australia), 28 January 2015, pages 18 & 20:
# TONY Abbott was born in England and obviously that's still where his true heart lies, again illustrated by the ridiculous knighthood awarded to a member of British royalty on Australia Day.
As with some (not all) other English migrants living in Australia who love to think of our country as still a colony of the British and can find little in comparison that brings Australia out on top, perhaps he should pick up his photos of the Queen and take his love for snobby titles back to the "green and pleasant land" of his birth where the class system is still appreciated and in force.
The best we can hope for after this Abbott gaffe extraordinaire is that the move towards an Australian republic is reignited and our country adopts the courage of the Canadians who rooted out the Poms and now proudly fly their own national flag without a hint of the anachronistic Union Jack symbol of outdated British dominance.
# WILL the next two Abbott knights be The Pope and Alan Jones?
# WHAT has the mad monk done now? Making Prince Philip a knight is like sending shoes to Imelda Marcos. By creating this knight, Tony has sped up his good night to the prime ministership.
# AS if it's not astonishingly dumb of Tony Abbott to confer knighthood on the Duke of Edinburgh, he then dismisses negative comments on social media as "electronic graffiti" and says the regular media are silly to devote any attention.
Wrong again, Prime Minister, social media are the voices of the people you were elected to serve but you seem to have trouble grasping that simple fact.
Please, Governor-General, do your job and dismiss him before he does any more damage.
The Canberra Times (Australian Capital Territory), 28 January 2015, page 2:
# I'd always thought that the republic issue was an insignificant one, an unnecessary change to our constitutional framework in the hope of some marginal symbolic benefit.
Then I saw the Prime Minister's announcement that an Australian knighthood was to be granted to Prince Phillip, and I reconsidered.
Isn't it ludicrous that Prince Phillip is deemed more worthy of an honour than any of the 22 million Australians who the Order of Australia knighthoods were (apparently) meant to have been reserved for?
What does it say about the Prime Minister's opinion of Australians as a people, and our nation's image of ourselves, if he could not find a single worthy recipient in this entire country, besides Angus Houston, to give this honour to?
And don't these questions only arise more forcefully when considering who should be Australia's head of state, which is surely the greatest honour this country can grant to anyone? What does it say of Australia that such a position is inherited by foreigners, with no input from the Australian people?
I am therefore proud to say that, as of Australia Day 2015, I am a republican. My thanks to Tony Abbott for coming up with such a persuasive example to show me how wrong I have been for so many years.
The Advertiser (Adelaide, South Australia), 27 January 2015, page 17:
# MANY Australians will see the award of the KOA to Prince Phillip (The Advertiser, yesterday) as an act of supreme toadyism by the PM. What a sublime own goal in favour of the Republicans!
The Daily Telegraph (Sydney New South Wales), 27 January 2015, page 23:
# Woke up on Monday thinking it was January 26. Then I heard Prince Phillip has been made an Australian knight and felt it must be April 1.
The Mercury (Hobart, Tasmania), 27 January 2015, page 15:
# I HAVE just heard that Prime Minister Tony Abbott has recommended to HRH, Queen Elizabeth II, that the Duke of Edinburgh be made a Knight of Australia. HRH is reported to have accepted.
As my wife exclaimed: "Tell me this is the First of April." My immediate thought was: "Is this bloke (Abbott) in touch with real Aussies?" My next thought was to go outside, find a rather large rock and hide underneath it for some time. Our Prime Minister, in my humble opinion, is a national embarrassment.
# Hilarious TONY Abbott has gone barking mad. So now we have His Royal Highness, Sir, Duke, Prince, Phil the Greek. What a hoot!
# WITH Tony's Abbott's selection of Prince Philip for a knighthood, are we expected to take the Prime Minister seriously any more?
