McCormack will further woes
WHEN SOMEONE PROMISES A JOB TO WIN A VOTE IN A LEADERSHIP BALLOT, IT’S AN UNWORTHY BARGAIN THAT DIMINISHES BOTH THE PROMISE-OR AND THE PROMISE-EE.
REGRETTABLY, our national government ended last week in worse shape than it started.
This wasn’t just the messy challenge to Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack in the wake of his deputy’s forced resignation. Mostly, it was the unstable outcome of the National Party’s ministerial reshuffle, which didn’t just leave the government’s best-known MP (after the PM) Barnaby Joyce, in continued exile on the backbench; it also left out one of the government’s best performers, the former Resources Minister Matt Canavan.
And among the National Party at least, you can hardly say the front bench was exactly overloaded with talent to start with. Especially with just a two-seat majority to defend, at an election where it will be seeking a fourth term, the government can’t afford not to have its best performers on the paddock.
Sure, all governments have to balance promotion-on-merit against the need to have enough women, senators and ministers-from-the-smallerstates. But it shouldn’t have to put up with a deeply substandard National Party component of the ministry, too, just because the National Party leader lacks the magnanimity to pick his best team. Prime Minister Scott Morrison was also at fault here; because, having helped to shore up McCormack, he should have insisted that he at least keep Canavan in the cabinet, even if bringing back Joyce might have been a step too far. While many Coalition MPs and supporters would still like to see a change of deputy prime minister, there is no one – repeat no one, in the Liberal Party, or in the National Party – who isn’t willing the PM to succeed.
It’s precisely because Morrison’s authority is totally unchallenged that he has to use it wisely. And after miscuing the early reaction to the bushfire crisis, the Prime Minister’s renewed political acumen is needed now, more than ever.
The fact that the numbers in last week’s leadership challenge weren’t officially announced lends credibility to the early suggestions that it was a one-vote win. Certainly, the night before, the Joyce camp thought it had the numbers.
Plainly, votes were bought to keep Michael McCormack in his job. I’m normally a Keith Pitt fan but it’s said that his vote was up for grabs for a Cabinet spot and if true, he’s less of the decent bloke I thought he was.
When someone promises a job to win a vote in a leadership ballot, it’s an unworthy bargain that diminishes both the promise-or and the promiseee. I know it happens, but it’s one of the reasons why the public hold politicians in contempt. People think that too many of them can be bought, not for principle but for promotion. And the way both McCormack and Morrison went out of their way to reassure Bridget McKenzie that she could come back less than 24 hours after she had resigned, suggests that she too might have been a last-minute-lure back into the McCormack camp.
The one Nat to act with real honour last week was Matt Canavan. Not only is he one of the most capable people in the government but he’s one of the most decent too, as shown this week. He resigned as Resources Minister because he was going to vote against his leader in the ballot. Yet instead of acknowledging that he’d done the right thing, by keeping him in the cabinet, McCormack has banished him; despite claiming through gritted teeth that the Nats were once more a happy, united team. It’s true that the Nat leader chooses the people to fill their frontbench spots. But in the end, it’s Morrison’s government – not McCormack’s. At the very least, Morrison should have used his authority to ensure that Canavan stayed. It’s this punishment meted out to one of the few MPs with any obvious honour that seems to have prompted Joyce’s subsequent threat to play hardball over legislation.
By acquiescing in McCormack’s spiteful personnel picks, the PM has left the structures of government even more dysfunctional.
So all credit to the Prime Minister for winning the unwinnable election but he must now deliver results and put a difficult summer behind him.
Since December, this has been a government governed by events – Angus Taylor (now cleared by the federal police), bushfires, climate debates, McKenzie and now coronavirus – rather than driving its own agenda. Enough of the promises and talk, now is the time for the government to deliver. Peta Credlin is a Sky News presenter.