One of the big problems with being PM is that you are no longer the master/mistress/mattress of your own destiny.
It’s an unavoidable consequence of having a Westminster-style system where the leader of the nation is first the leader of their party, rather than the presidential system where the leader can do what they wan… actually, maybe that’s OK.
Anyway: it’s no surprise that Malcolm Turnbull – former PM and recent recipient of the John Gorton Memorial Award For Achieving Much Less Than You’d Have Assumed He Would – has reverted from Incredible Shrinking PM to that urbane, reasonable sounding chap we all rather liked.
He’s also lifted his shade-throwing game, using a doorstop by media to say the thing which current PM [checks Wikipedia] Scott Morrison has spent the last 48 hours refusing to do: admit he was wrong to have opposed the Royal Commission into the financial services sector.
Specifically, when asked if he regretted dragging his heels on the Royal Commission, he said “I do, I think we should have got on with it earlier… You can make a very good case for saying it was started perhaps a year later than it should have been, or 18 months later than it should have been.”
It comes in stark contrast to Scott Morrison’s refusal to concede that things might have been handled better – but then again, he’s been busy today hanging out in Townsville playing army dress ups in the flooded regions. He even got to ride in a tank! What a big fun day!
PM in Townsville on his way to the army base @SkyNewsAust pic.twitter.com/gqwKtxVw34
— Ahron Young (@AhronYoung) February 4, 2019
The government’s still attempting to take the line that Labor did nothing about the banks when they were in power, unlike the government, based on the pretty reasonable theory that no-one will a) remember the Future Of Financial Advice laws which the Gillard government brought in back in 2012 and b) that the Abbott government subsequently gutted them, leading to the current situation.
And rather inconveniently, the ACTU put in some requests for documents under Freedom of Information laws for which they’ve just released a video, and which seem to show then-treasurer Morrison consulting with the heads of the banks who were about to be investigated about what sorts of terms of reference they might find suitable…
EXPOSED: ACTU uncovers secret letters between the big banks and Scott Morrison https://t.co/RSn0Uu6nLx
— Sally McManus (@sallymcmanus) February 5, 2019
…so yeah, not a great look.
Anyway, it’s nice seeing Salty Malc back in form. And we bet he’s got some of that expensive fancy pink salt too, not your regular supermarket kind.