“Shooting the messenger is alive and well in Australia.” Some of the ‘darlings’ of the conservative movement are now being attacked and vilified because they supported Malcolm Turnbull. Hitlist’s of the ‘traitors’ are being compiled and circulated. Even one ‘shock-jock’ in Sydney was outing people today and he even resorted to hanging up on one MP who would not confirm who he supported.
Like many, I was very disappointed with the dumping of yet another first team Prime Minister. However, if you read my Reflections Blog, you will be aware that I for one have been pleading for a number of things to be fixed or changed. And, I have warned that we were losing the support of moderate conservatives who, frankly, had simply had enough of the destabilization, the white-anting and the failure to cut through.
Once people stop listening and simply turn off or turn away, then you have to take stock. We can blame and attack the media (as I regularly do) and we can attack the opposition and blame those groups for everything. We can blame the weak kneed within our party (I’ve done that as well) but at the end of the day what was still missing was a change in OUR tactics.
Our communication has been appalling. We simply weren’t capitalising on Labor’s own failing, things such as; their leadership tensions, the Burke travel expenses affair, Shorten’s personal disclosures at TURC, Shorten’s & Union assault on the Royal Commissioner, Shorten & the Union’s ChAFTA campaign, Shorten’s 50/50 Climate blackhole (the list is endless). Despite this ‘gold mine’ our Liberal fortunes have languished badly in the polls. This has been going in for months. We can whinge all we like about poll driven politics, but that is the reality. We simply weren’t getting the message through, we weren’t lifting the needle and there was an overwhelming fear that the position was terminal.
Tony Abbott is a genuine and loyal Liberal and a very loyal friend. He was a formidable opposition leader and as Prime Minister, he delivered some outstanding results in very difficult circumstances. Even John Howard said, Mr Abbott delivered on things he thought were almost impossible to do. But, Mr Abbott was not a good ‘team leader’ and he couldn’t win over the hearts and minds the electorate. He wouldn’t make the necessary changes to remove the deadwood within the party; be that backroom or ministerial. As in business, if the leader fails, the team fails and the leader has to go. That’s often unfair and unfortunate, particularly when the leader is a nice person. But that’s the reality.
Sadly, Mr Abbott has paid the price. He could have taken action, he didn’t. He let his loyalty get in the way of common sense and good judgement. He was far too passive for his own good. Sitting members were angry because the things he promised were not forthcoming; like greater consultation, and as an example more and inclusive decision making. I know the advice Mr Abbott was given was dismissed and ignored. So all the positive things that were happening and in fact did happen, were overshadowed by the relentless negativity.
“If you don’t cut the snake off at the head, you run the risk of it whipping around and biting you.”
I’m no fan of either Malcolm Turnbull or Julie Bishop. I hope & pray that Malcolm has indeed learnt from his past failures and that he will in fact stick to the agreed plan. But what he can do, that Mr Abbott couldn’t is sell a vision and a strategy. Malcolm is the consummate debater. If you watched him in question-time today, he was masterful. He just beat the opposition off and highlighted their own incompetence in the process.
Malcolm has been a very successful business man and he is no fool. Whilst his personal leanings tilt further to the left than Tony Abbott, I seriously doubt he will make the same mistakes twice. That said, we need to hold him to that commitment. Whilst many of the more active right wing social media, posters claim he’ll only pick up left supporters, that simply isn’t true. He will also pick up a lot of the middle ground we have lost and that is crucial.
There are three things that are clear to me. We’ve been in denial for far too long. Our problems have been there for all to see, we had our chances, we didn’t take them. Like many, I’ve been hoping and praying things would pick up. Week after week my heart has sunk further and further. That has come to a head this week.
Many of us moved quickly to the anger stage. I understand that. I’m angry. I’m angry with Mr Abbott for not taking action. I’m angry with the swiftness and the timing. I’m angry because I was hoping for a miracle that wasn’t forthcoming. But I know something had to change.
So for me, I’m moving on to acceptance. The deed is done, now I’m focusing my time and energy on defeating Labor and the Greens. If others want to spend their time destroying the Liberal brand, so be it. I want no part of it. There is far too much at stake. The party is bigger than one man.
