The election is over big sigh of relief. But the stress and worry begins. This election was never going to be easy. That said, the result is much worse than I expected but very close to what the pollsters were saying.
We now have the recriminations, finger pointing and blame game following tight outcomes. The anti Turnbull voices are loud in their proclamations Tony Abbott would’ve romped in. Well, they don’t know that.
“The sign of intelligence is that you are constantly wondering. Idiots are always so dead sure.”
I like to think I possess more than one grey cell. So as I sit and ponder on the wreckage that is before us, I do wonder. I wonder how different it possibly would be if Tony Abbott hadn’t been so pigheaded and made Malcolm Turnbull Treasurer. I wonder how different it might have been if the voters in 2013 hadn’t been so stupid in backing people like Palmer. If they had given Tony Abbott, a workable senate and stopped playing this game of political senate Russian roulette. I wonder what the outcome would look like if Malcolm Turnbull had brought Tony Abbott into the fold. But, that's the past we can’t change it. All we can do is focus on now and try to influence the future outcomes.
I am very disappointed in the Liberals campaign. Whilst some of the blame for our poor result rests on Malcolm Turnbull’s shoulders, he isn’t responsible for everything. It's obvious our inexperienced campaign team in comparison to Labor’s well seasoned and experienced attack squad were totally out-played. Wrong strategy, wrong tactics and not nimble enough. Despite what the likes of Bolt say the Medicare scare campaign resonated with the electorate. It should have been stopped dead. It wasn’t. On polling day Medicare signs were everywhere along with GetUp spreading the fear message. As one journalist said, people were already scared about health. So you can see it wouldn’t take much to scare them even more.
I will say again, I’m not a huge fan of Malcolm Turnbull. But the personal stuff being levelled at him is nasty. I suspect a lot is tinged with a level of envy but that's the attacker’s problem not mine. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to learn more about the man. From where I sit he's a decent bloke who has made a success of his life. He's got a lovely family who he adores and who love him. He’s been accused of disloyalty. That's debatable. Politicians first loyalty is to the voters. We’ve got to stop the personal attacks. They serve no purpose other than feeding the attackers revenge and hurting people.
The only questions we should ask now are. (Assuming we do manage to retain government)
Is he a good Prime Minister? On current form that's questionable and, it depends on what measures we use. Using the election as the measure you’d have to say no. We may scrape in and whilst a win would be a win Turnbull’s authority is weakened.
Is he capable of leading a marginal Government and becoming a good PM. He should be. Others have in the past and I’m a believer that “when the chips are down” a person’s true skills and abilities comes to the fore.
Calls for his sacking are ludicrous. People whinged ad nauseam over Rudd/Gillard/Rudd and then Abbott/Turnbull. Then before the ink is dry, they're screaming for another head. The party room appoints the leader. Not social media or bloggers, journo’s or radio hacks. The party room needs to do the right thing and give Turnbull the opportunity to turn this mess around. The chopping and changing has to stop.
As for Mr Turnbull. It's OK to blame Labor's disgraceful campaign but, it's been said. Move on. You need to stand before the Australian voters and admit ‘we’ did a poor job and as leader you accept responsibility for that. Then tell us how it will be different. What are you going to do and if it means amending some policies fine. If it means doing a few deals to get key policies through do it. But explain the what why and the impact. That's the only way to bring people on side and for them to understand the cost of their decisions in voting for minorities. Last, bring Tony Abbott into the fold. He passed the test during the campaign. As they say, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Labor is the enemy.
It will be an interesting if somewhat tense few days and potentially a very rocky road ahead. But voters planted the seeds and we all better pray really hard that the crop we all reap sustains us.
