The Liberals' soul do they have one?
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday July 15, 2009
AFTER the Coalition lost federal office in 2007, and lost both its top leaders when John Howard lost his head and Peter Costello lost his patience, Tony Abbott sat down and began to write a book. His project was part therapy, part conviction, and part an investment in his own long-term political career. What, exactly, did the Liberal Party stand for, what defined it, and what battles should it be prepared to fight hardest?We still don't know the answer. The Howard government was embarrassed and outmanoeuvred by Kevin Rudd in the 2007 election when Mr Howard's spend-thrift habit of vote-buying was exposed by Mr Rudd, who campaigned as an "economic conservative". As a result, Mr Howard's miscalculation of clinging to power cost the Liberals their most precious advantage: the aura of superior economic managers.Since then, under the leadership of Brendan Nelson and now Malcolm Turnbull, it has become increasingly difficult to answer the core questions about the Liberal Party's values. The Opposition under Mr Turnbull has been incoherent on big policy. It has never risen above the day-to-day skirmishes of trying to embarrass the Government. Admittedly, it is demoralising for a party to lose power after a long period in office, and Mr Nelson and then Mr Turnbull took the leadership at a difficult time for the party. But core policies and points of differentiation remain a mystery. It is also difficult to see Mr Howard's blue-collar "battlers" identifying with the silvertail who now leads the Liberals.Earlier this year, the publication of a book entitled Liberals And Power caused several self-inflicted wounds which suggested the party leadership had a hole where its soul should be. Four leading Liberals were pictured on the book's cover: Mr Turnbull, Mr Nelson, Julie Bishop and Mr Abbott. Mr Nelson's chapter turned out to be have been ghost-written by his chief adviser. Ms Bishop's chapter was not merely ghost-written by a senior staff member but partly plagiarised. Mr Turnbull's promised chapter never turned up at all. Only Mr Abbott delivered his own work.Now he has a book of his own, Battlelines, to be published on July 28. He also has a much softer persona in the Parliament, one of respect and restraint towards his opponents. Amazingly, this attitude has been largely returned. This book is unlikely to find more than a niche in the market, but it has already caused a flurry of interest among the federal parliamentary cognoscenti because it is filling an intellectual vacuum created by defeat, division and Malcolm Turnbull.
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald