There were lots of reasons that Tony Abbott lost the support of the polity but the one that is probably most easily forgotten yet perhaps most salient was his political tin-ear. He had a terrible habit of making disastrous captain’s calls and doggedly holding to unpoular policies in the face of the obvious. Today we get a rerun from the Parallel PM:
Tony Abbott has called on Malcolm Turnbull to toughen his economic defence of the industrial umpire’s decision to scale back penalty rates, defying pressure to keep silent on government policy.
Coalition MPs have also urged the Prime Minister to move beyond his current attack on Mr Shorten’s “hypocrisy” over penalty rates to promote a stronger “pro-growth” case for the jobs that could be created as a result of the workplace decision.
The calls come as Labor and the unions join forces to wage a “Work Choices-style” campaign targeting Mr Turnbull, blaming him for a refusal to intervene and overturn the Fair Work Commission decision in the parliament.
Mr Abbott, who was blamed this week by Mr Turnbull for the government’s poor Newspoll figures, told The Australian the debate needed to be defined in sharper terms to discredit Labor’s argument that working people would be left worse off by the cuts to Sunday loadings.
“Against Labor’s pitch of ‘high wages’ versus ‘low wages’, we need to pitch ‘high wages’ versus ‘no wages’,” Mr Abbott said. “The issue is not higher wages versus lower wages. The issue is businesses that are open on Sundays and public holidays or businesses that are closed. It’s about making it possible for more businesses to stay open because if the business is shut no one gets paid anything.”
Meanwhile, at Domainfax:
The Turnbull government is under growing pressure to overturn the Fair Work Commission decision to cut some penalty rates, with voter resentment particularly high in regional areas, according to new seat-by-seat polling commissioned by the ACTU.
The electoral ire is spooking some government MPs, feeding One Nation’s growing support, and could yet threaten Coalition seats at the next election if left unresolved.
“The lowest-paid workers in our communities rely on these wages for food and rent, and these are the workers we depend on to keep our shops and businesses open,” said ACTU president Ged Kearney.
…ReachTEL polling conducted on February 27-28 in five Coalition-held seats – some of which are referred to as bellwethers for their tendency to swing with the government of the day – has found three could fall to Labor on the basis of the penalty rate cut alone.
The issue basically boils down to this: people who work on Sundays are battlers and you cannot attack battlers in the Australian polity. You attack bludgers. Politics 101.
So Tin-eared Tony could not have timed his latest outburst more perfectly to remind his colleagues just why they dumped him. Not only was he a useless leader and policy trogolodyte, off script he is a hopeless politician.
I don’t usually bother consulting the press gallery on stuff because it is such a raging dunce but yesterday I did, for a bit of fun, make some calls to probe who is going to replace Do-nothing Malcolm. The inside word is he is gone within six months and the front runner is…wait for it…Peter Dutton! But don’t take my word for it. Richo says so:
While no one is counting at the moment, there have been discussions going on in some Liberal Party circles about Peter Dutton being the one to topple Turnbull. Sections of the Right, including Tony Abbott, are pushing Dutton’s barrow. While I am not aware of Dutton himself being a part of this, he hasn’t done anything to shut down the speculation. I have spoken to a number of Dutton’s cabinet colleagues and most of them believe that he does not have the gravitas and overall knowledge to get the top job. What keeps Dutton in the race is his form on the track that matters — the floor of the parliament. He is renowned as an attack dog who rubbishes Labor and takes no prisoners. I can’t see him as PM.
Neither could anyone see Tony Abbott in the job for the same reason.
