Image: SBS
By Situation Theatre 2/3/2016
For all those wondering why Malcolm Turnbull PM looks a lot like Tony Abbott PM, here’s your answer. As part of a deal in September last year, Abbott agreed to the Turnbull takeover as long as he could continue ruining the country in his new role as Chief of Staff.
The news explains much about Turnbull’s decisions to continue the harshest aspects of Abbott’s immigration policy, back jail time for whistleblowers under the Border Force Act, deport Abyan, return babies to concentration camps, deliver a hawkish defence white paper, support mandatory data retention, advocate the return of the Australian Building and Construction Commission which would deny basic civil liberties, appoint arch-conservative Andrew Nikolic as chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee, support a pointless, damaging and expensive plebiscite on marriage equality, call for a review of Safe Schools, fail to condemn the homophobia of his own senators, pull out of the last two years of Gonski, disastrously deregulate TAFES, cut $650 million from Medicare, kill momentum for a republic, endorse paltry emissions targets and woeful direct action, parrot Abbott’s worst comments about coal, refuse a pledge to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, rip $1 billion from the foreign aid budget for a climate fund, dismiss Labor’s 50% renewable target as “reckless”, approve creation of one of the world’s largest coal ports, near the Great Barrier Reef, appoint a wind farm commissioner, rule out a shift in emissions trading, fight for increased concentration of media ownership,slash 350 jobs from the CSIRO, conduct a protracted debate on the GST, consider reducing company taxes, propose fines for unemployed and underemployed Australians, support the devastating Trans-Pacific Partnership, use Abbott style scare campaigns against Labor including Abbott’s exact phrase that they would send a “wrecking ball” through the economy and attack worker protections and penalty rates.
Others see the revelations as less significant.
Old students of Australian Politics observe that whether Abbott or Turnbull, the leader is moot. Any figurehead of the Liberal Party will execute their ideological crusade to punish the poor, reward the rich, harass minorities, abuse human rights and trash Australia’s international reputation.