It’s baby blues time for Coalition
IT’S the baby bump that rocked the nation.
Ever since a photo went public of the former staffer/mistress and soon-to-be-baby mama of the Deputy PM, the Federal Government has been falling apart at the seams.
And we are all now well used to the pattern PM Malcolm Turnbull follows in a crisis.
He resists taking a particular position until resistance is futile and then affects sincerity and purpose as he delivers it like a long held view.
So it was with the Barnaby Joyce crisis. The PM failed to take strong action for days. And then he fakes the strong man, slams his deputy, and introduces a ridiculous Ministerial ‘bonking ban’ — on the first day it is starting to seem Joyce might hold on and the story is at risk of falling off front pages.
One gets the feeling the PM’s years of being an opinion for hire as a barrister have not served him well as a politician.
The latter career may be broadly derided but people still have the hopeful expectation their leaders hold strong policy and personal convictions.
Mr Joyce’s surprise response to the PM suddenly discovering a tough pious streak — not heading for the backbench but instead slamming the PM as inept — is a direct response to the PM’s judgement.
Mr Joyce might be an out of control ego, he might be a cliche of the rogue Queensland Nat.
But Turnbull could have prevented some of the latest damage by explaining to him he was going to slam him in public but that it was all for show. Now, we have a Coalition in turmoil, a PM and Deputy PM engaged in open verbal warfare and neither man willing to leave his post.
The latests twists call not just Mr Joyce’s judgement into question but Mr Turnbull’s. What a pallaver.
At this rate unproven Labor leader Bill Shorten will Bradbury himself all the way to the Lodge without breaking a sweat.