Leaked Turnbull Speech at Winter Ball Keeps Crisis Going
Earlier this evening I circulated a Commentary suggesting that unless Turnbull recognises the many deficiencies in the Finkel report there is likely to be a political crisis within the Coalition. The Commentary concluded as follows“Turnbull’s responsibility for having Blueprint produced, and his initial quasi-approval of it, means that he has created a split within the Coalition by effectively imposing a tax on carbon. Although the Blueprint is not exactly the same as what Labor wants, their bipartisan offer to get together confirms that Turnbull is on the right track for them. In his article today Andrew Bolt (see attached) asks why is Turnbull “making the Liberals dance to the warmist tune of Labor and the Greens? Is this why Liberal supporters and donors back the party — to produce not just record debts and spending, but global warming schemes that will just make the poor too scared to turn on the heating this winter? While Turnbull is there, there’s no point to the Liberal Party. The Liberals must get rid of Turnbull or he’ll get rid of them”. For full text see attached.
There has now been a further development in the Turnbull saga. At the earlier Parliamentary Ball he made an off-the-record speech which a PM normally makes at such functions. It appears that it was an attempt to make a joke on himself by jokingly suggesting that, like Trump, he is “winning” on the polls when in fact both are recording polling which suggests they will be outed at the next election, or possibly before. Although off-the-record this speech has been leaked and now appear to have attracted international attention (see below).
As The Australian’s Chris Kenny points out, the joke may now really be on Turnbull.