Post by middle on Nov 4, 2009 20:29:36 GMT 10
www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sunday-telegraph/coalition-means-nothing-to-barnaby-joyce/story-e6frewt0-1225793107338
Glenn Milne
November 1, 2009
BARNABY Joyce's deliberate decision to take the Coalition to the precipice today throws down two challenges to Malcolm Turnbull - neither of which in his weakened state he can meet.
The first of Joyce's demands is that Turnbull shut down those Liberal critics who keep attacking the National Party Senate leader in the anonymity of the Liberal Party room or under the cover of unnamed sources in the media.
The second is that Turnbull withdraw from his negotiations with the Government on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and concede to Joyce's position - that it is simply "a massive tax on everything'' and must be opposed outright at the next election.
Turnbull cannot afford to ignore Joyce's challenge. For a start, Joyce is the de facto leader of the Nationals. If he splits from the Coalition others will follow.
He contacted The Sunday Telegraph and asked to be interviewed specifically on the subject of the future of the Coalition.
He was responding in turn to a column last week which cited half a dozen Liberal MPs who raised the Nationals and their behaviour in their regular Tuesday party room meeting.
At least three of those named - Bill Heffernan, Michael Johnson and Bob Baldwin - have since said that in their remarks concerning the Nationals they did not call for an end to the Coalition.
But a number of their colleagues interpreted the comments that way. They immediately leaked their contributions and characterised them as a direct frontal attack on Joyce.
If these MPs wilfully saw their remarks in that light, it's because that's how they feel too. Joyce was incensed at the ambush, one of many.
And he contacted The Sunday Telegraph with the express purpose of saying that he had had enough and if that was the attitude of the Liberals he was prepared to walk away from the Coalition.
"I'm serious,'' he said, "deeply serious.''
But the fact is Turnbull's authority, undermined by appalling opinion poll figures, is at such a low inside his own party, he is incapable of bringing Liberal critics of the National Party to heel.
This lack of authority is emphasised by the debacle in the recent McPherson by-election, where the Nationals - as part of the new Liberal-National Party in Queensland - conspired to knock over one the Liberal Party's best frontbench performers, Peter Dutton, in a pre-election contest which saw the election of a 49-year-old local who will likely never be heard of again.
All in the name of the Nationals asserting their dominance inside the LNP - and in the face of Turnbull's public endorsement of Dutton. There couldn't have been a more obvious disregard of the federal leader.
So Turnbull is not in a position to discipline Liberal MPs who continue to snipe at Joyce and the Nationals generally. More broadly these attacks are driven by the decision of the Nationals to reassert their profile in regional seats _ which are now majority held for the Coalition by the Liberals.
This reassertion sees Joyce and his Senate colleague, Fiona Nash, regularly storm into town and, off the back of the ETS, claim (falsely) that the Liberals support an Emissions Trading Scheme, that the Nationals - despite being in Coalition - don't, and that the only hope is to vote for the Nationals because they will cross the floor on the issue in the Senate.
The regional Liberals in particular who find themselves in Joyce's firing line make the point that there has yet to be a final joint party room decision on their stance on an ETS and, if it does come down in favour of a negotiated outcome with the Government, then the Nationals too are bound to vote for it.
Which brings us to Joyce's second demand of Turnbull: that he immediately stop negotiating with the Government over the ETS.
The Opposition leader, you'll remember, has committed to those negotiations in the hope that the Coalition can pass an acceptable form of the ETS through the Senate.
But Joyce says this is madness - that his barnstorming campaign around the country depicting the ETS as a tax on everybody's lifestyle, job and business is beginning to bite.
In doing so he explicitly rejects Turnbull's argument that the Coalition will only be electable if it demonstrates it is willing to adopt Labor's model in response to climate change.
In doing so he is informed by his scarring experience with the Telstra sale where he negotiated $3.4 billion in concessions for the bush in return for supporting the telco's privatisation.
He tells this column no one remembers the $3.4 billion, but in the regions what they do remember is the Nationals deserted them and voted with the Liberals.
After a short break in internal hostilities, the ETS was always going to blow again for Turnbull. It just has, courtesy of Joyce. And the price may well be the Coalition itself.
Glenn Milne
November 1, 2009
BARNABY Joyce's deliberate decision to take the Coalition to the precipice today throws down two challenges to Malcolm Turnbull - neither of which in his weakened state he can meet.
The first of Joyce's demands is that Turnbull shut down those Liberal critics who keep attacking the National Party Senate leader in the anonymity of the Liberal Party room or under the cover of unnamed sources in the media.
The second is that Turnbull withdraw from his negotiations with the Government on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and concede to Joyce's position - that it is simply "a massive tax on everything'' and must be opposed outright at the next election.
Turnbull cannot afford to ignore Joyce's challenge. For a start, Joyce is the de facto leader of the Nationals. If he splits from the Coalition others will follow.
He contacted The Sunday Telegraph and asked to be interviewed specifically on the subject of the future of the Coalition.
He was responding in turn to a column last week which cited half a dozen Liberal MPs who raised the Nationals and their behaviour in their regular Tuesday party room meeting.
At least three of those named - Bill Heffernan, Michael Johnson and Bob Baldwin - have since said that in their remarks concerning the Nationals they did not call for an end to the Coalition.
But a number of their colleagues interpreted the comments that way. They immediately leaked their contributions and characterised them as a direct frontal attack on Joyce.
If these MPs wilfully saw their remarks in that light, it's because that's how they feel too. Joyce was incensed at the ambush, one of many.
And he contacted The Sunday Telegraph with the express purpose of saying that he had had enough and if that was the attitude of the Liberals he was prepared to walk away from the Coalition.
"I'm serious,'' he said, "deeply serious.''
But the fact is Turnbull's authority, undermined by appalling opinion poll figures, is at such a low inside his own party, he is incapable of bringing Liberal critics of the National Party to heel.
This lack of authority is emphasised by the debacle in the recent McPherson by-election, where the Nationals - as part of the new Liberal-National Party in Queensland - conspired to knock over one the Liberal Party's best frontbench performers, Peter Dutton, in a pre-election contest which saw the election of a 49-year-old local who will likely never be heard of again.
All in the name of the Nationals asserting their dominance inside the LNP - and in the face of Turnbull's public endorsement of Dutton. There couldn't have been a more obvious disregard of the federal leader.
So Turnbull is not in a position to discipline Liberal MPs who continue to snipe at Joyce and the Nationals generally. More broadly these attacks are driven by the decision of the Nationals to reassert their profile in regional seats _ which are now majority held for the Coalition by the Liberals.
This reassertion sees Joyce and his Senate colleague, Fiona Nash, regularly storm into town and, off the back of the ETS, claim (falsely) that the Liberals support an Emissions Trading Scheme, that the Nationals - despite being in Coalition - don't, and that the only hope is to vote for the Nationals because they will cross the floor on the issue in the Senate.
The regional Liberals in particular who find themselves in Joyce's firing line make the point that there has yet to be a final joint party room decision on their stance on an ETS and, if it does come down in favour of a negotiated outcome with the Government, then the Nationals too are bound to vote for it.
Which brings us to Joyce's second demand of Turnbull: that he immediately stop negotiating with the Government over the ETS.
The Opposition leader, you'll remember, has committed to those negotiations in the hope that the Coalition can pass an acceptable form of the ETS through the Senate.
But Joyce says this is madness - that his barnstorming campaign around the country depicting the ETS as a tax on everybody's lifestyle, job and business is beginning to bite.
In doing so he explicitly rejects Turnbull's argument that the Coalition will only be electable if it demonstrates it is willing to adopt Labor's model in response to climate change.
In doing so he is informed by his scarring experience with the Telstra sale where he negotiated $3.4 billion in concessions for the bush in return for supporting the telco's privatisation.
He tells this column no one remembers the $3.4 billion, but in the regions what they do remember is the Nationals deserted them and voted with the Liberals.
After a short break in internal hostilities, the ETS was always going to blow again for Turnbull. It just has, courtesy of Joyce. And the price may well be the Coalition itself.