PM Turnbull just never learns. Every acquiescence to the Coalition loon pond will cost the party political capital. Interestingly it is the Murdoch press that led the charge against Turnbull over the weekend with lot’s of negative coverage of the UN decision, with Dennis Shanahan:
Letters leaked after Malcolm Turnbull’s brutal decision to end Kevin Rudd’s two-year campaign to become UN secretary-general claim the Prime Minister told the former Labor leader the Coalition would be “mad” not to back him for the job.
The claims Mr Turnbull agreed with Julie Bishop to support Mr Rudd’s nomination but changed his mind have sparked a row over the Prime Minister’s judgment and revealed deep divisions within the Liberal Party leadership.
Three letters from the former Labor prime minister to Mr Turnbull in April, May and this week contain explosive claims that Mr Turnbull had encouraged Mr Rudd to approach other nations, had been “as one” with the Foreign Minister in his support, had secret meetings in New York and Sydney to discuss the nomination and had communicated through Mr Turnbull’s “preferred” social media platform of Wickr.
Also, picking up Gareth Evans:
A critique by former Labor foreign minister Gareth Evans slams Malcolm Turnbull’s snubbing of Kevin Rudd for the top job at the UN as “embarrassing for Australia”.
He said the Prime Minister’s decision not to formally nominate Mr Rudd in the contest to become the next UN secretary-general would damage Australia’s international standing and be widely interpreted as a political exercise.
Professor Evans, who was foreign minister for eight years in the Hawke and Keating governments, warned that Julie Bishop was now isolated by her support for Mr Rudd.
“This decision is embarrassing for Australia. It will be seen by most governments around the world for what it is: petty, partisan and vindictive,” he told The Weekend Australian.
Greg Sheridan put the boot in deep:
The Liberals under Malcolm Turnbull now resemble Labor at its worst in the Rudd-Gillard years — ill-disciplined, rancorous, incapable of producing or sticking to good process, making the wrong decisions for the wrong reasons, essentially paralysed.
The bizarre decision by Turnbull to refuse to nominate Kevin Rudd for the position of secretary-general of the UN, and the appalling process that surrounded the decision, speaks entirely to the weakness and instability of his position within his own party.
Paul Kelly tried to put lippy on the pig but by and large it looks like The Oz wants to destabilise Turnbull. It continued the attack today:
Malcolm Turnbull disregarded formal advice to cabinet from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade that said Kevin Rudd was eminently qualified to run for the UN’s top job and a better candidate than previous holders of the office.
The submission, written by new departmental head Frances Adamson and presented by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop at Thursday’s cabinet meeting, said Mr Rudd compared well with the current field of 12 candidates for UN secretary-general.
Fairfax joined the condemnation with Peter Hartcher summing it up nicely:
The members of the Turnbull cabinet seemed to think they were making a decision about Kevin Rudd.
They were mistaken. They were making a decision about themselves. And about our country. Their choice tells us a good deal about the newly elected government. It does not augur well.
Another Turnbull clangor then.
One needs to keep this in perspective given last week Turnbull’s Energy Minister flipped from loving coal to loving gas – something that would have caused conniptions in the loon pond. By comparison, the Rudd back flip is more a symbolic sop to the nutters, suggesting that on the level of policy the PM is still in control.
Even so, that such compromises are necessary will keep costing him, and us.
