Do-nothing Malcolm does nothing once too often

The media has shifted from objectively critical to open contempt for the Do-nothing government today. It begins with Josh Frydenforeigner, via The Australian:

Cabinet minister Josh Frydenberg yesterday sought urgent advice ­regarding the possibility he holds Hungarian citizenship as Victorian Liberal president Michael Kroger broke ranks with Malcolm Turnbull by calling for an audit of all MPs.

The Australian can reveal other cabinet ministers have also been forced to clarify their citizenship status during the fiasco, which has claimed six victims including former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce and now Liberal former Senate president Stephen Parry, who resigned from parliament yesterday.

It was revealed last night government ministers had known about Mr Parry’s citizenship problem before last week’s High Court decision. Communications Minister Mitch Fifield confirmed Mr Parry had mentioned his predicament to him “a few weeks ago”.

…Section 3(1) of the Hungarian citizenship act states: “The child of a Hungarian citizen shall ­become a Hungarian citizen by birth.”

Domainfax is scathing:

In a representative system that draws its authority from the people “in the national interest,” the stubborn refusal to allow an audit of federal MPs, lays bare who is really being represented in Canberra.

For a demoralised electorate, jaded by cumulative disappointments, it is an illusion-shattering moment.

Malcolm Turnbull says he’s disappointed outgoing Senate President Stephen Parry kept his dual citizenship concerns to himself and has rejected calls for an audit into all MPs citizenship status.

Public confidence is now in freefall. The conflict of interest in having MPs decide if they were constitutionally elected, is so egregious as to be plain to a nine year old.

The AFR reports on the absurd:

Any more federal MPs who knowingly conceal possible dual citizenship may have to reimburse the taxpayer for hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of dollars they have been paid over the years, unless they come forward quickly.

With the government fighting off a growing clamour to audit the entire Parliament following this week’s shock admission and resignation of Stephen Parry from the Senate, there is an acceptance among the highest levels that the public’s tolerance of such antics is exhausted.

“There’s really no excuse from this point on,” said a source.

MPs and senators previously already dismissed by the High Court will have their debts waived but the uproar caused by Mr Parry’s admission means the now former Senate President may be one of the last to be granted the waiver.

And still no audit.

The Guardian reports it may get worse yet for all:

Reasonable steps to renounce foreign citizenship may not be enough to escape the constitutional disqualification on a strict reading of the high court’s decision in the citizenship seven case, two constitutional experts have warned.

The interpretation of the court’s unanimous decision leaves MPs who made applications to renounce their citizenship but whose renunciation was not processed or confirmed until after the nomination date vulnerable to challenge.

The Labor MPs Justine Keay and Susan Lamb both applied to renounce their UK citizenship in May, and said they had “taken all reasonable steps” by the 9 June 2016 nomination date, but have refused to say if their renunciation was processed and confirmed before the deadline.

And Laura Tingle captures the moment nicely:

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young accused on Adelaide radio one of the government’s more sensible ministers, Simon Birmingham, of living, along with his colleagues, in an alternative universe.

“But the problem is, this is distracting you,”, Hanson-Young said.

Birmingham bravely fought back. Insisting it was, of course, not distracting the government at all and pointing out that “the whole time that this saga’s been running, we’ve got on with developing the National Energy Guarantee and the policies around that”.

“You don’t even have the numbers to put in legislation through the Parliament now because you’ve lost Barnaby Joyce in the House,” the Greens senator said, “I mean, you’re living in an alternative universe.”

…On the weird-o-scale for federal politics, we really have reached some transcendent level. The common or garden variety resort to hyperbole; the workout that words like crisis get, just doesn’t really cut it any more.

Because the real weirdness now comes not from any of the issues of national importance the government has to deal with, which instead seem to just float about disconnected in space, but from the way the Coalition’s waking hours seem to be completely consumed with nothing but sins three to seven of the seven deadly sins.

For the past few nights, there have been 600 men sitting in the dark at the decommissioned Australian-run refugee processing centre on Manus Island, sustaining themselves on stockpiled food and water, since official personnel left on Tuesday.

Now whatever you think about the men on Manus Island, they are our responsibility. The government’s approach, however, has been the equivalent of putting its hands over its ears and singing “la, la la”.

It all reminds me of the moment that Tony Abbott became a laughing stock when he nominated Prince Philip for an Australian knighthood, an act that condensed all of his ineptitude into a lightening rod of contempt. This is much the same for Do-nothing Malcolm. You can do nothing on everything so long as you can hide it behind complex policy bluster and high charm but when it is open dismissal of democratic process then all of those forgiven moments materialise inside a metaphorical failure singularity.

All dying leaders cross the comedic point at some stage. Do-nothing Malcolm just found his. Also from The Australian:

The opinion of a growing number of MPs is that the government is paralysed by an erosion of leadership and has become chronically hostage to events.

…the level of chatter is growing and what should be of concern to the Prime Minister is the level of it coming from unpredictable elements within the loose moderate grouping.

It has not gone unnoticed among colleagues that several of Turnbull’s original sponsors inside the party room — notably James McGrath and Scott Ryan — have begun to crab-walk away from Turnbull. And the alleged factional antics of self-anointed leader of the moderates, Christopher Pyne, only feed into a perception that the moderates cannot be trusted.

Simmering tribal hostilities have become open warfare. Unity is broken. Any withdrawal of support from Turnbull’s base obviously brings Julie Bishop into play which the conservative forces — whose only counter is the long floated notion of a Peter Dutton-Greg Hunt team — are now actively alive too. However, several senior conservatives have privately said they would rather go into opposition than serve under Bishop.

But the sense of resignation now leaching into the party room goes well beyond this. One discussion reportedly having taken place this week canvassed a Scott Morrison/Christian Porter ticket — in opposition.

The obvious answer is Dutton/Hunt with significant immigration cuts. They’ll lose anyway but it’ll save QLD seats.