Parliament resumes this week. Michelle Grattan wrote recently: “[Malcolm] Turnbull has little political capital to bring to the task of charting his own course against surging populism, which has a grip on the Senate crossbench, and aggressive conservatism, with its tight hold on the Liberal Party and sections of the media and commentariat.”
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I sift through all the tattered newspaper cuttings writers are addicted to keeping, ruthlessly weeding. I see an old yellowed Age editorial dated November 5, 2013.
It is an enthralling, mesmerising and disheartening editorial. Malcolm Turnbull is speaking about a same-sex marriage bill. Tony Abbott is still Prime Minister.
I quote Malcolm Turnbull who states adroitly: “I think it is reasonably likely there will be a free vote – the Coalition will make the decision, as Tony Abbott has said that there will be a free vote from the Coalition, and presumably from the Labor Party as well.” What a difference four years and a change of leadership makes to a party.
Perhaps it’s right when journalists and commentators say that leading a party is very different to following (or not) ones’ party leader. One particular issue, one of many, here in black and white was Turnbull’s clear vision of an Australia which showed no boundaries to people who were same-sex marriage proponents. Three-quarters of his own constituents in his electorate of Wentworth voted in favour of the same-sex marriage bill that year.
There was so much hope invested in this Prime Minister of ours a few months ago … so much hope and excitement, with the prospect of a leader with vision and the courage to offer us a way forward on a whole range of issues.
As a leader he is a man of inestimable charm and charisma, but as time has passed we have become more and more disillusioned as one promised vision after another fades. Where is this man’s courage?
This Prime Minister appears frightened by shadows, people who waft in and out of his sight, nothing substantial in their threats, but clearly threatening to an insecure PM. The same-sex marriage bill is only the tip of the iceberg.
This Australia, this safe beautiful bounteous land of ours is under threat not from terrorism but from our own inertia, the inertia of our politicians and the inability of governments to solve the massive changes needed to move us forward into the 21st century. People are longing for a vision for this country. Do these politicians have a vision at all or are they simply going through the motions, speaking in tongues. And if not, why are they in our parliaments? They are showing ever increasing signs of an inability, indeed a fear, to tackle difficult issues.
A leader is there to lead. That is what he is chosen by his party to do. We want our PM to lead, not kowtow to the whim of every outside oddball in parliament. Tough we can accept. Wishy washy we do not need. Australia is at a crossroads.
We need a leader who will pick up the baton on so many fronts.
Support for solar energy and climate change, reconsider negative gearing, return money to struggling schools and universities, legally remove tax havens for the wealthy, instigate compassionate treatment of refugees and close down those terrible prisons on Manus and Nauru.
Charm and charisma is one thing. Strong leadership is something quite different. Where is our leader? Whoever you are, please stand up.
Annie Young is a Fairfax contributor.
