Coup casts Bishop in different light
JULIE Bishop has gone from being universally admired and respected among Coalition voters to being a polarising figure seen as disloyal and unworthy of consideration as a future PM. In the eyes of many Liberal Party members, the Foreign Affairs Minister is the new Julia Gillard: a ruthlessly ambitious woman with no qualms about knifing her leader.
That stain on her character will be hard to shift, although it remains to be seen if the electorate judges her as harshly as the party faithful.
It’s perhaps unfair for Bishop to be branded the chief rat with Malcolm Turnbull when she was only responding to MPs, not mobilising them against Tony Abbott. But this is not the first time that Bishop’s reputation has been called into question.
In 2009, it was Turnbull who felt deceived by his former deputy, despite her assurances that she had supported him when Abbott won the vote to become party leader.
An embarrassing email exchange between Turnbull and Bishop, leaked to the media, makes interesting reading six years later.
In the emails, Turnbull expressed his shock that Bishop was speaking glowingly of Abbott after his victory when she had hours before engaged in “scathing attacks on him and his character”.
As a result Bishop attempted to recover her ballot paper to prove to Turnbull that she had remained faithful.
“The allegations and the false accusations were so intense that I felt that I had to prove to everybody – not just to Malcolm, to everybody – that I was loyal to the leader throughout the ballot process and I’d said that publicly,’’ Bishop said at the time.
She emerged from that episode with her reputation intact but this time the wounds are deeper and her conduct far more questionable.
Scott Morrison, who wields far greater influence among colleagues than Bishop, has also faced criticism for “running with the foxes and hunting with the hounds” in the lead-up to Abbott’s sacking. He may have voted for Abbott in the spill but most of his minions voted for Turnbull, sealing the former PM’s fate.
However, the new Treasurer’s reputation will be quickly restored among the party faithful, while any hopes Bishop had of one day becoming leader are in question.
It may be fundamentally unfair for Bishop to be condemned while Morrison is forgiven. Though the latter’s alleged double-dealing has upset many in the party, he is seen as ideologically sound, a top performer and the next conservative leader.
The Coalition’s predictable but disappointingly modest boost in the polls will give the coup leaders some comfort but they are on notice that any Turnbull missteps will be judged harshly.
If Turnbull has changed, as supporters claim, he’ll be well placed to heal a fractured party and may serve as PM for many years; if he reverts to form, he will be dispatched in the manner by which he came to power.
Turnbull became PM by winning the votes of some colleagues who genuinely dislike him and had previously vowed that “they’d rather swallow glass” than support him.
That sort of animosity isn’t exactly ideal for developing loyalty. If the polls drop, expect the natives to grow restless again and start agitating for change, this time for Morrison.
We live in an age in which prime ministers are dispatched with ease. My eight-year-old son has seen John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Gillard, Rudd again, Abbott, and now Turnbull serve as prime minister in his lifetime.
New media has added a chaotic element to the already bizarre Canberra bubble. Trivial nonsense is blown up and obsessed over. It has led to a toxic environment in which spooked MPs, scared of losing their seat, knife PMs who struggle in the polls or receive adverse press.
Remember when we used to laugh at the Italians’ volatile political system? No one is laughing now.