Turnbull’s Turn

CairnsBlog contributing writer, Syd Walker applauds the change in the Liberal leadership.


Brendan Nelson’s clumsy gamble flunked.

Malcolm Turnbull won the Liberal leadership in a vote he didn't precipitate. He followed with an impressive media conference.

It’s a significant change in the Australian political landscape.

The Federal Opposition, by a narrow margin, chose not to position itself somewhere to the right of John McCain. Good decision. It wouldn’t sell in Australia anytime soon. On the second ballot since losing government, the Federal Liberal party room was (just) wise enough to see that.

Perhaps Australian conservatives look to Britain for inspiration? After all, British Tories look like they’re actually going to win the next general election.

I can see why. Britain’s Nu Labour has become an unsaleable brand, fatally tainted by the embrace of pro-Zionist, pro-war, anti-civil liberties, pro-spook statism under Blair and Brown. It's like the manifestation of Orwell's worst nightmares.

Some months ago, I did an online test which claimed to identify political views on a matrix. My guess was confirmed. I was classified left-libertarian. Given a real choice, I vote for Independents such as Clover Moore, or for the Greens. In terms of the usual choices of two governing parties, I’m a natural Labor voter. When Labor loses people like me, it’s in some trouble.

British Labour is there already. With the Rudd Government, it’s too early too tell. But great opportunities have already been missed for ‘change we need’.

Under Rudd, so far, Labor has kept the country embroiled in a futile war - a war based on sordid lies - in Afghanistan. It has been every bit as ‘tag along’ behind the US-UK-Israeli Axis of Invasive Brute Force as the Howard Government before it.

So, Rudd Labor has been a conformist dud on foreign policy, to date, delivering the same old poisonous policies followed so enthusiastically by Howard before him.

On the other hand, the Rudd Government has relaxed the assault on civil liberties (but not yet reversed it). Yet under Turnbull, one might reasonably expect something similar from the Libs.

On environmental issues, I get the impression that Turnbull may actually understand the seriousness of the crisis and the need for unprecedented global co-operation to bring about a shift to genuine ecologically sustainability.

In that respect, I’d say he’s on a par with Rudd. I couldn't say the same about Brendan Nelson - or any Liberal leader of recent times.

The Liberals would be smart to move in a green direction. Perhaps Turnbull has the authority to lead them to greener pastures? When a global green tide is on, it’s wise to swim the same way.

Of course, Turnbull must tackle and carry with him heavy-duty skeptics on his side of politics. With Nelson on the back-bench, they may even have a rallying point for backward-looking policies. In addition, as leader of a major party, he’ll come under pressure from various key industry and financial lobbies.

The Murdoch media, of course, can be expected to scrutinize and shepherd his policies so they conform to its liking, especially in the areas that matter most to ‘neocons’, such as blind loyalty to Israel, unquestioning obeisance to the largely bogus, spook-manufactured ‘War on Terror’ - and support for malignant growth in military budgets.

Unfortunately, Rudd has similar problems. On this occasion, I’ll mention only climate change.

Never underestimate the power of the mining lobby and CFMEU to torpedo the best of Labor intentions. After all, Penny Wong is a CFMEU operative from way back, with an established track record of knifing the green movement with such finesse that it barely screams at the time. (I should acknowledge that Penny may have changed. Perhaps she’ll turn out to be a double-agent: the Kim Philby of the green movement? I do hope so).

Is it too naive to hope that the Federal Opposition might now use at least some Parliamentary time to highlight not only potential economic problems that may be associated with the Government’s water, climate change and other environmental policies – but to levy criticism over inadequate environmental ambition?

Another key issue, for people like me, is civil liberties. They were viciously curtailed under Howard, in line with trends throughout the ‘western’ world. This was achieved largely through lies and phoney scares.

Australia has become, in many respects, a quite illiberal society. It’s time to reverse the trend and put the ‘L’ back in Liberalism.

A bi-partisan Australian Bill of Rights, based on the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, would help a great deal (I’m especially fond of Articles 18 and 19, which guarantee free speech).

How about proposing that, Malcolm?

Kevin would find it hard to say no (nice payback for when he tries to wedge your lot on the Republic).

As Mr Turnbull recognized in his acceptance speech, these are truly momentous times, globally. He spoke of the ‘crisis of confidence’ underway in global markets. There’s more, of course. Much more.

At the time of writing, by any fair assessment, the chance of a major world recession must be rated high. But we also face a growing - and potentially more devastating - global environmental crisis. The need for rapid, well-coordinated, worldwide technological change is apparent. And if all that wasn’t enough, nuclear-armed war mongers (our so-called ‘allies’, actually) blow hot and cold daily, threatening the world with abrupt catastrophe.

It will take intelligence and resolve from this generation of Australians to ride these storms. Broad consensus over positive goals is a prerequisite for success. Enlightened leadership will be essential – on all ‘sides of politics’.

Following this morning’s vote, I feel more optimistic that Australia may just get it.