More than mimicking John Key’s style
It is helpful to New Zealand if Australia has economic success.
There are close ties between the two countries, benefiting both, though migration patterns can be unhelpful for whichever country is seen to be doing worse.
There is also admiration in the Australian business community for the leadership style of New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and deputy Bill English. New Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is well aware The Lucky Country’s luck is running out and that significant challenges loom.
His government will do its best to be open about where the economy is at, respect the intelligence of the Australian people and make a strong case for the path forward, he says.
There will surely also need to be policy shifts and Turnbull is yet to indicate he will achieve much on that front. His hands appear to be well tied by the caucus he now leads. It could be, however, that Turnbull will start out in the consultative vein and become more presidential when his colleagues are more used to having him at the helm. He cannot afford the dumping of Tony Abbott to be simply about style.
Leadership spills inevitably cast an uncomfortably-bright spotlight on internal divisions within political parties and the intrigue is unhelpful for administrations selling themselves to the people as competent. Abbott was clearly playing this angle when he declared before the Australian Liberal Party’s leadership ballot that messages were flooding in saying ‘‘we are not the Labor Party’’.
Abbott went so far as to say a Labor-style leadership revolving door had to be avoided ‘‘at all costs’’.
His colleagues would have listened to all this and then a majority voted for former party leader Turnbull to usurp him as prime minister. A fair bit has to be going wrong for a first-term prime minister to lose their job mid-term. The cocktail would typically involve low poll ratings, a plausible alternative candidate, concern about how a party is being run and lack of confidence the person in the top job is capable of turning things around.
Abbott was a polarising figure. This always matters when a leader’s effectiveness is being gauged. Turnbull is more engaging and positive.
He seems to have a good grasp of his assignment but it will take more than a mimicking of the Key style to put Australia on a better economic trajectory.