federal politics
21 Feb 2008
Bishop in Waiting
It looks like there's a new contender for the poisoned chalice of the Liberal leadership, writes Mark Bahnisch
Some of us in the political journalism and commentary game were a tad worried last year that the ascendancy of Kevin07 would leave us with nothing exciting to write about. There was a feeling that a lot of the colour, light and movement characteristic of the declining years of the Howard era would fade to managerialist grey.How wrong we were.
While the second week of the new Parliament's sitting offered nothing as exciting as the national apology to the Stolen Generations, it has not been without drama. Significant in themselves have been the dynamics of the new House. Those of us lucky enough to be natural night people have been entertained in the wee hours by Question Time on Aunty. One wonders what Matt Price would have made of it all; the new Speaker, Harry Jenkins, dubbed proceedings "comedy hour" on Tuesday.
Many tales could be told about the week in Parliament - the laudable novelty of a Speaker acting like he might be a bit independent, and the Wayne Swan wobbles - but the one I'll be telling epitomises much of the bigger political picture: the clash between Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop.
Gillard has been enjoying herself immensely with her WorkChoices-stunt-of-the-day routine - brochures to be pulped on Monday, mousepads to be brandished from the dispatch box on Tuesday, fridge magnets on Wednesday. The Opposition's backdown on AWAs has made her life a lot easier, enabling her to display her gifts as both a communicator and a wielder of the political knife. On the other hand, conventional wisdom has it that her opposite number, Bishop, was comprehensively routed this week.
The real picture is more interesting, however. While Nelson has been somewhat subdued in the House after a very flimsy attack on Rudd about the Brian Burke emails at the beginning of the week, and Turnbull has been reading up on his economics textbooks to demonstrate his superiority over Swan, Bishop has refused to take a backward step in the face of a formidable assault from Gillard.
Rather cleverly, Bishop avoided putting her recommendation on the Libs' options on the WorkChoices repeal in writing, enabling her to argue that she'd presented a number of options to Shadow Cabinet, one of which was accepted. So in a sense, the claim that she was rolled on the issue is untrue - and she's also shown up Nelson by displaying some consistency in position. (Although that may not be an altogether good thing for the Libs: Bishop's continued advocacy of some form of statutory individual contract is a red rag for an ALP scare campaign to be reactivated at will.)
But the politics of the Opposition appear much more about positioning the next leader - or the next sacrificial lamb who'll offer themselves up to the slaughter after Nelson's inevitable political demise - and Bishop has avoided the total indiscipline that descended on the Liberals after the restraining hand of Howard faded into history.
She has well and truly repaid her debt to the Liberal right on WorkChoices - to a much greater degree than Nelson, who is struggling to escape the perception that he is Nick Minchin's puppet. During the Howard years, Bishop also avoided the culture wars quagmire in Education better than Nelson did with his flags and Simpson's donkey. In fact, Bishop's advocacy of a merit pay plan for teachers and her smoothing off the hard edges of Howard's curricular obsessions won her some kudos outside the ranks of the usual conservative suspects. She may be covering more bases in the deeply divided Liberal Party than Nelson has been able to do with his much vaunted "consultation".
This week, Bishop demonstrated that there are more than two ways to respond to Rudd's bipartisan snares, branding Rudd's 2020 summit elitist (as I argued last week on newmatilda.com, there's a good case to support this), and calling for alternative electorate-level gatherings. It's not rocket science, and it's a bit of an attempt to out-Kevin Labor's Community Cabinets, but Nelson didn't come up with it.
Although Bishop had a messy press conference defending the AWA back flip, and needs to tone down the head prefect persona, she appears to be attempting to provide the leadership so sorely lacking from Dr 9 per cent.
The real tests for Bishop lie ahead. It shouldn't be impossible, when the detail of the next tranche of workplace legislation is released, to find angles of attack outside of the predictable ideological line. Her ability to put a dent in Gillard's armour will be key. It's a big ask, but she may be right that the Deputy PM's super portfolio will prove too unwieldy for even one of Labor's best performers.
The smart money would be on Gillard - but Bishop may be staking in a different game entirely. It looks very much like there's another contender in the running for the poisoned chalice.
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Richard Farmer in Crikey today:
Could be on to something, Mark!
"There was a feeling that a lot of the colour, light and movement characteristic of the declining years of the Howard era would fade to managerialist grey," writes Mark B.
I wonder what colour, light and movement he refers to. Howard and his entourage of spineless sycophants were colourless, exuded no light (but plenty of darkness), and the only movement they exhibited was heading backwards to the 1940’s!
Cheers!
www.dangerouscreation.com
But Mark, you haven’t answered the important question — where can we buy our special edition recycled Workchoices brochure toilet paper? There are lots of people who want to wipe their bums on that!
Yes, I’ve been wondering that myself Joanna!
Windschuttle is wrong about ages. My best mate an Aboriginal was taken from near Cooktown at age two. He and his family now run a garage and a trucking business but he still mourns his mother. Don’t dismiss Windschuttle too lightly. Much of what he says i
Windschuttle is wrong about ages. My best mate an Aboriginal was taken from near Cooktown at age two. He and his family now run a garage and a trucking business but he still mourns his mother. Don’t dismiss Windschuttle too lightly. Much of what he says i
The bishop will get unflocked taking up that chalicei
I think your comments about Windschuttle are on the wrong thread, Harry.
That was a nice, compassionate touch, Mark! Well done!
www.dangerouscreation.com
I have no idea why Workchoices scared the unions so sh@#less.
The top CEO’s are on AwA’s and I don’t hear the likes of Sol trejillo giving his performance based contract up in a hurry.He virtually told Rudd where to go when it came to freezing top exec salaries,so did the other dozen or so ceo’s.
Any unfair and unconscionable contracts were being dealt with by the Fair trading bods at state level.
The real elephant,rhinoceros,lion and tiger standing in all 4 corners of the room is interest rates. OK Howard shot off his mouth about how well we were all off and how interst rates would remain historically low while his mob were around.
Well they did!
They are gone, and so are the historically low interest rates.
We are now getting the banks thumbing their collectively rather large noses at us.
We are getting two rises a month, we are getting 500 basis point rises (1/2%),and there is no end in sight. Next month they will reach double digits.
That’s what people did’nt want!
So we may all be saying very soon, workchoices was’nt so bad, 8.25% interst rates were’nt so bad. Record unemployment was’nt so bad. People affording their own homes was’nt so bad. Affordable city rents was’nt so bad.
So if you can pick up any workchoices memorabilia off ebay, I’d do it quickly, because it may give the only solace to those who are now, or who soon will be crying themselves to sleep at night when they realize that Sir Humphrey is now P.M. and Bernard is the Treasurer.
Well who are you gonna call… Fat busters, for all it’s worth.
Act in haste, repent in leisure.
Revilo, Howard is gone. He was a despotic clown. Get over it!
The rise in interest rates is caused by Howard-generated inflation which the Reserve Bank raised the alarm about while Howard did nothing.
Howard also allowed real estate prices to rise rapidly and encouraged people to borrow well beyond their means. Australia now has to pay the price for that stupidity.
Howard will be remembered as the worst Prime Minister Australia’s ever had!
www.dangerouscreation.com