Category Archives: Politics – Australian

Hypocrisy thy name is Malcolm Turnbull

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It’s things like this infuriating piece of hypocrisy from the political editor of The Australian that has me thinking about cancelling my sub:

Tony Abbott is trying to ensure his assassination does not mean that all the good he did as Caesar is interred with his bones, but must defend his legacy himself because there is no other ­“Anthony” who will do it for him.

But while the former prime minister has a legitimate right to borrow the ears of Ray Hadley’s radio listeners, he needs to ensure that in delivering his own eulogy he does not stir their “hearts and minds to mutiny and rage”.

Abbott has to strike a fine balance between citing his achievements, defending his name from the “evil” others suggest will live after him — and doing wrong to “the honourable men” who wronged him.

While there is a great deal of sympathy for Abbott among Liberal supporters who want him shown reverence in his demise, there are as many who will not forgive him if he shows he is ­ambitious and fatally damages those who have taken over.

Let me put it to you this way. Here are the issues that matter to me:

  • border protection
  • preventing as much as possible policies being put in place to deal with the non-existent problem of “climate change”
  • finding ways to restore the budget to balance through cuts to spending
  • fighting ISIS

So tell me this. Is there now a dime’s worth of difference between the Libs, Labor and the Greens on any of these once the next election is in the past? So far as policy goes, what difference will it make who wins? The more I see the policies now being put in place by our new Government, policies that were obviously only prevented by Tony Abbott’s presence, the more I appreciate just how good he was and how hard the job he had was. What a singularly rotten crew he was dealing with. In the words of Eric Abetz:

It is understandable that with the removal of Tony Abbott, Kevin Andrews and myself from the Ministry that our core constituency feels disenfranchised and concerned that their views will no longer be heard.

Well it is understandable to me, just not to the political editor of The Australian for whom such thoughts, like the Golden Rule, are far too complex to comprehend. The problem with the political elites of this country is that they seldom associate with people such as myself. This is a facebook comment passed along to me which ought to be food for thought for those who think they have their ears to the ground:

As the ‘New Liberals’ slowly nudge their way to the left, so more of we traditional Liberals will not move. Abbott, and I use the word purposely, was voted for because of his dogmatic stance on rectifying the economic shambles and illegal immigration, the rest of the Party rode his coat tails to power, carbon mitigation generally being of less concern. Any fiddling at the edges with the migration policy will bring a resounding unwelcome electoral lesson to our newly enlightened, more socially aware, culturally encompassing, all embracing, green tinged, treacherous Representatives.

The mutiny and rage has not been stirred by Tony but by Malcolm. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you is sound advice, but sounds very hollow coming from people who have already done unto Abbott what they do not wish to see done unto themselves.

Do as you would be done by

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It’s things like this infuriating piece of hypocrisy from the political editor of The Australian that has me thinking about cancelling my sub:

Tony Abbott is trying to ensure his assassination does not mean that all the good he did as Caesar is interred with his bones, but must defend his legacy himself because there is no other ­“Anthony” who will do it for him.

But while the former prime minister has a legitimate right to borrow the ears of Ray Hadley’s radio listeners, he needs to ensure that in delivering his own eulogy he does not stir their “hearts and minds to mutiny and rage”.

Abbott has to strike a fine balance between citing his achievements, defending his name from the “evil” others suggest will live after him — and doing wrong to “the honourable men” who wronged him.

While there is a great deal of sympathy for Abbott among Liberal supporters who want him shown reverence in his demise, there are as many who will not forgive him if he shows he is ­ambitious and fatally damages those who have taken over.

Let me put it to you this way. Here are the issues that matter to me:

  • border protection
  • preventing as much as possible policies being put in place to deal with a non-existent problem in “climate change”
  • finding ways to restore the budget to balance through cuts to spending
  • fighting ISIS

So tell me this. Is there now a dime’s worth of difference between the Libs, Labor and the Greens? So far as policy goes, what difference will it make who wins the next election? The more I see the policies now being put in place by our new Government, policies that were obviously only prevented by Tony Abbott’s presence, the more I appreciate just how good he was and how hard the job he had was. What a singularly rotten crew he was dealing with. In the words of Eric Abetz:

It is understandable that with the removal of Tony Abbott, Kevin Andrews and myself from the Ministry that our core constituency feels disenfranchised and concerned that their views will no longer be heard.

Well it is understandable to me, just not to the political editor of The Australian for whom such thoughts, like the Golden Rule, are far too complex for him to comprehend.

“Steve Kates on Malcolm Turnbull”

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If you google, “Steve Kates on Malcolm Turnbull”, these are the first two items that come up:

Malcolm Turnbull for PM | Catallaxy Files
catallaxyfiles.com/2015/09/16/malcolm-turnbull-for-pm/
Malcolm Turnbull for PM. Posted on 9:36 am, September 16, 2015 by Steve Kates. Every political … 375 Responses to Malcolm Turnbull for PM. « Previous 1 2.

I would never vote for a Coalition led by Malcolm Turnbull …
catallaxyfiles.com/…/i-would-never-vote-for-a-coalition-led-by-malcolm…
Posted on 9:01 am, February 27, 2015 by Steve Kates. Andrew Bolt says that Malcolm Turnbull is about to have his final go at taking over the leadership of the …

The first of these, written just as he became PM, ends like this:

The Liberal Party is filled with others like Malcolm and it is a problem. But here is where we are. There are the 44 who are still in the party room, and there are the Coalition National Party also in the government. And Labor is a disaster in the making of such massive proportion, of the Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn variety, that not voting Coalition at the next election is unthinkable. Malcolm has now got this to add to his CV, everyone in the party room knows the extent to which he is an empty vessel, but the stakes are too high even to think about Bill Shorten, never mind Tanya as PM.

The second, written a few months before, begins like this:

When I used to work in Canberra, our offices backed onto the Liberal Party headquarters, and I was asked one time, even before Malcolm entered Parliament, what I thought about him. My answer was that if I was in the constituency that would decide the fate of the next election, and my vote was the one that would put him in or out, that I would hesitate about which way to go. That was then. Today I would have no doubt.

So here’s the deal. We have the likes of Gary Johns, with so many others over at The Australian, following company orders in trying to convince the rest of us to take the switch to Malcolm as a fait accompli about which nothing can be done, so just lie back and enjoy it. But things don’t work like that. And there are two reasons for me not to sit back and take it.

First, what’s the point of blogging if you don’t say what you want about the things that interest you? I think Malcolm’s political instincts are dreadful and his personal values a disgrace. I am angry he is now PM, and I think the Coalition is less likely to win the next election than if Tony had remained. He’s barely ahead and he hasn’t done a single unpopular thing. Tony only did what was ABC-unpopular and was within easy striking distance. He was a mile ahead in Canning, which is why the coup happened when it did. Tony was odds-on to win in 2016.

The second derives from the first. If we all become pragmatists, then Malcolm and his slimy crew can get away with anything they want, since they can always say that Bill and Tanya are worse. The challenge now for Malcolm and the 54 is to keep us onside who are now offside. You know, there is this meeting in Paris, and then there is the need to keep the boats stopped, and there are lots of other things just as important to people like me. And on this I rate the economy high. I don’t think Tony did get it, but I also don’t think Malcolm gets it, and he doesn’t get it even worse than Tony didn’t get it. The NBN has been my standard test, and Malcolm is a capital-F Fail.

Tony was not perfect, but he was far more perfect than Malcolm. I could give you the list, but I am pragmatic to my back teeth. I take each of those who are leaders and accept that they come as a package deal since what else can you do? Malcolm now has his work cut out for him to convince people such as myself that he thinks our views matter. If he doesn’t end up showing he is responsive to the political wishes of conservative voters, he may find out all too soon how much it really mattered after all.

UPDATE: Alerted by CL, we have this from The Oz this morning, Ousted PM Tony Abbott speaks to Ray Hadley. From which we learn:

“If you judge things by the polls, I’ve never been very popular. All through the days of Opposition my personal ratings were poor, but it didn’t stop us,” the Prime Minister told 2GB’s Ray Hadley in his first broadcast interview since being ousted as prime minister.

“Our politics rightly or wrongly is more and more presidential. You can be not especially popular in these personal approval or disapproval ratings and at the same time lead a very effective political operation.

“We saw with David Cameron in Britain just a couple of months back the British conservative government was behind in the polls the entire time – absolutely the entire five years they were behind in the polls – and then they had really quite a convincing victory.

“I am confident that had I continued at the head of the government that’s exactly what we would have had,” he said.

My view as well.

Give me a break

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Let me be clear. The Australian had been out to remove Abbott since sometime around March. I, of course, have never paid a moment’s attention to Nikki Savva since I am old enough to remember her when she was writing for the Herald-Sun as the ideological twin sister of Michelle Grattan. Then Albrechtsen went over, so I stopped caring about a thing she said. And there were the usual Labor crew of Van Onsalen (you know who I mean) not to mention Graeme Richardson and Barry Cohen. I would still huddle up with Henry Ergas, Nick Cater, Maurice Newman and Greg Sheridan so it wasn’t a total waste of money. They kept the subscription alive, but mostly I only keep buying the paper because it has two sudokus every day. So for Gary Johns now to add his voice to the rest of The Australian chorus places no additional weight on the side of keeping my own counsel about Tony Abbott. He starts:

To my dear conservative friends inside and outside parliament, I know you are upset at the demise of your putative leader.

What a bad start! What does he think “putative” means? The meaning on the web is the same as mine: “generally considered or reputed to be”. Is that what Abbott is? My leader! What’s he talking about? I don’t have a leader inside Parliament or out. Calling me “friend” , misusing the word “putative” and suggesting that Abbott was somehow my leader represent three fundamental errors in less than a single sentence.

So what point was he making after that false start? It was this:

As a result of the leadership coup, Bill Shorten is less likely to win government.

This is not a reason to knock over a leader others happen to like. You know what else? I don’t believe it’s true. The spill was pursued so that it could take place before the Canning by-election. A government in the midst of its term, that is only down 49-51, is in the box seat. If these political geniuses do not know something as simple as that, they should be cleaned out and another group brought in.

Personally, I think the Coalition is now less likely to win the next election. Their “strategist” Mark Textor thinks they will pick up so many more in the middle that they will not need the likes of us. He believes that for us, and this is probably true, Labor is such an atrocious alternative that we will hold our noses and in the end vote for Turnbull. But then again, maybe we won’t.

But whatever else, he is wrong to think we will shut up. I didn’t vote for Abbott because he is a man of decency. I won’t not vote against Turnbull just because he is a smug, supercilious jerk with a low-grade intelligence, so stupid that he thinks global warming is an actual problem and public spending adds to growth.

For me, the issues that mattered were boats, carbon, public spending (not tax reform for goodness sake!!!) and labour relations.

And speaking of the economy, we have from that indiscreet backstabbing Morrison that Abbott did want to change Treasurers and did want to install him and did want to kick Hockey out. And this is the point. Abbott is nobody’s fool. He was surrounded by a pack of treacherous and devious liars and knaves, not to mention a media that was out for his blood. He did amazingly well in the circumstances.

We don’t know if Abbott is coming back as PM, but he might. The acid is now on Malcolm whom nobody loves and no one has an ounce of affection for (other than himself). But if Tony does come back, it will truly be no more Mr Nice Guy. He has learned a lot over the past two years, all of which will be very useful to someone who once won a boxing blue at Oxford.

Andrew Bolt on Tony Abbott

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This is Andrew Bolt’s column on Tony Abbott which you need to breach the pay wall to read in full. But it really ought to be read in full so here it is.

NOW Tony Abbott is gone I can finally tell the truth about him. Folks, you made a big mistake with this bloke.

No, no. The mistake wasn’t that you voted for him.

In fact, you got one of the finest human beings to be Prime Minister.

In many ways he seemed too moral for the job, yet he achieved more in two years than the last two Labor prime ministers achieved in six.

Compare. Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard left us with record deficits after blowing billions on trash — on overpriced school halls, “free” insulation that killed people, green schemes that collapsed, “stimulus” checks to the dead.

They meanwhile opened our borders to 50,000 illegal immigrants and drowned 1200. They hyped the global warming scare and forced us to pay a job-killing carbon tax just to pretend they were saving us.

But Abbott? I won’t go through the whole list: how he stopped the boats, curbed spending, scrapped the useless carbon and mining taxes, led the world’s defiance of deadly Russian strongman Vladimir Putin and made us safer from terrorism.

He even signed three free trade deals to secure jobs for our kids — including one with China that the last three governments couldn’t clinch.

And he did all this in the face of astonishing heckling and even vilification from our media class, and despite often feral opposition in the Senate.

But your mistake was not to care about all that. Deeds didn’t count with you. Image was all.

And so you told the pollsters you didn’t like Abbott. You believed the vicious crap written about him, until his MPs finally panicked and dumped him.

Your mistake was that you couldn’t look behind the flim flam — the way Abbott looked, the way he spoke, the way he walked, the way he ate an onion — to see what he’d actually done for you and for your country.

You even laughed at some of his finest qualities and emblems of his public service. Journalists ridiculed his work as a lifesaver by mocking his costume and body hair. They dismissed his firefighting service as just a photo-op. Wrote off his patriotism as bigotry.

When he defended women, he was called insincere. When he warned that our finances were in strife or that terrorism menaced us, they called him a scaremonger.

And you believed them. You let people treat like absolute dirt a man who had a record of volunteerism no prime minister has equalled — working in Aboriginal communities, lifesaving, firefighting, helping people in natural disasters, and raising money for women’s shelters and a hospice for dying children.

And none of it was done just to puff his CV for an election pamphlet.

The only reason I know Abbott helped people secure their homes after one Sydney storm is that my wife’s uncle asked the head of the team getting the tree off his house if that really was Abbott over there, helping to cut it away.

Shush, said the captain. He doesn’t like people knowing.

Now, I must declare straight up — I call Tony Abbott a friend.

So you’ll call me biased. You’ll laugh that I can write this massive praise of him when almost everyone else is horse-laughing. And you’ll say that’s why I see more qualities in Abbott than are actually there.

But you’ll just be making another mistake.

See, I don’t think Abbott is a great man because he’s my friend. He’s my friend because he’s a great man. Greater than the people who tore him down.

He’s my friend especially because he’s not those things that so many journalists wrote — including some who must have known what they wrote were lies.

Truth is that Abbott is not a thug, bully, racist, fool, liar, woman-hater, homophobe or bigot. He’s not cruel or lacking compassion.

If he were any of those things he would not be my friend. Those are deal breakers for me. Those I love best are people of honour, warmth and kindness.

Tony Abbott is one such man, and that he has been betrayed and deposed doesn’t just break my heart. It makes me fear for this country. I can only hope that Australians will one day wake up to what they’ve tossed away.

Sorry to sound so melodramatic, but here are some glimpses of the man I know — ones that put the lie to the trash that even big-name correspondents peddled about him.

The media and the left are among the people least capable of seeing goodness in others. And it’s not as if these qualities were invisible even to those of us who were not among his friends. If you are part of the anti-Abbott collective of this country, you are part of the problem and in no way part of the kind of humane solutions Tony Abbott tried to bring to political decision making in this country. We are all the worse for his departure. There are some who do not know this because they are so shrivelled inside that they incapable of knowing this. But there are some, thankfully, who understood what a great Prime Minister we had and know exactly what we have lost.

We don’t matter

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They are an arrogant and stupid lot. This is Mark Textor, the chap who does the polling for the Libs:

The loss of disgruntled conservatives will be outweighed by the appeal of a more moderate party to swinging voters. “The qualitative evidence is they don’t matter,” Mr Textor said. “The sum of a more centrist approach outweighs any alleged marginal loss of so-called base voters.”

This is actually useful knowledge since I no longer have to worry that anything we say here will make the slightest difference since they will now have half the ABC voting for the Coalition. It’s all free kicks right up to the next election.

MORE TO THINK ABOUT: I wonder if he meant us. Certainly we haven’t been told what Tim Blair was told:

A note from Mark Textor regarding yesterday’s post:

In relation to the quote from me in The Australian that “they don’t matter” and reported in your blog: that was said in relation to a far right wing website (that the author mentioned to me among others), certainly not conservative voters.

My long political and business career, and many public statements and columns, have been built on deep respect for voter opinion, including representing accurately the views and aspirations of centre right and conservative voters around the world.

I would never believe that anyone doesn’t matter in our democracy. They do.

Sinclair is in Chicago so maybe he got the email and hasn’t been able to pass it along.

A FURTHER UPDATE: He did get the email. He has therefore put up a post trying to call of the dogs, Abbott : Johns v Allen, Bolt, Kates et. al. He writes:

When you’re an economist you tend to subscribe to a view that specialisation and the division of labour is a a good thing. That people can be very good at activity x but not at y. This does not reflect upon them as human beings, it is just the way it is. I have often had discussions with people who are better at x than y, but would prefer to do y than x. This are often hard discussions. Indeed I’ve had people tells me this too. That Tony Abbott is a good human being and an awesome opposition leader does not mean that he would automatically be a good prime minister. Frankly, he wasn’t. That doesn’t deny in any way his other fine qualities.

I find myself in a difficult position here because so many people who’s opinions I generally trust are at complete loggerheads over the removal of Tony Abbott as prime minister. Abstracting from Andrew Bolt and Steve Kates whom you have all read let me draw your attention to two other people who have touched on this topic. Jim Allen at the Spectator and Gary Johns at the Australian.

Well, I will reply later, but here is the point. There was this assumption that with the Australian-ABC-Age all on the same side, everything would settle down since there is obviously nowhere else for us conservative types to go. On this they are finding they were completely wrong. They are now finding they have set things on fire and do not know how to get it back under control. And this is the anger when Turnbull has not done a thing to really rile us. Just wait until he does.

[Original post from Tim Blair following many references to this quote on a previous thread.]

The ABC wing of the Liberal Party

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It used to be my view that it was the Senate that was the largest obstacle to getting things done, but now I can see that the ABC-wing of the Liberal Party played its fair share as well.

How much internal infighting did Tony Abbott have to put up with? He says today that his legacy is the key to a future Coalition win at the next election, so obviously true that only someone as narcissistic as the PM could deny it. But the scale of things, large and small, that Abbott had a fight on his hands over, on issues that ought to have been obvious and uncontroversial within his own side, is shown by the story right next to the one on Abbott: Tony’s Demise Opens Door to UN Top Job for Rudd. The idea of Kevin as Secretary General of the United Nations is such an idiocy, that only because we know that the PM and Mark Scott are ideological identical twins that we have no doubts about what the policy was and how it has now been changed. No doubt there is much more we will find out in the days to come, along with much else we will never hear a word about as Tony’s legacy is undermined bit by bit as best they can.

These people are idiots

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Look, the Government has finally cut some of its spending: Greg Hunt says he killed off Tony Abbott’s weather bureau inquiry.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt (1) has claimed responsibility for having “killed off” the Abbott government’s proposed investigation into the Bureau of Meteorology’s climate modelling, as he (2) also stepped back from plans to erode green activists’ legal standing to challenge major projects.

The weather bureau has sustained heavy criticism over its “homogenisation” of climate records to account for artificial changes in the environment, such as rapid urbanisation, that critics say has exaggerated the impact of global warming.

Documents obtained under Freedom of Information have revealed Tony Abbott’s department last year canvassed establishing a taskforce to carry out “due diligence” on the bureau’s climate records to ensure public confidence following a series of critical articles in The Australian.

Mr Hunt confirmed the question was raised with his department by Mr Abbott’s officials.

“My answer was very clear: we have perhaps the best or one of the best meteorological organisations in the world. I have full confidence in their data and the idea was killed at that point,” the Environment Minister told the ABC’s Lateline program.

This business about the weather bureau being one of the best in the world may even be true, which is all the more reason not only for us to have gone and looked but for others to look as well.

There are alternatives and we will find them

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I am still unable to read The Australian in the morning with all the happy news about our new Prime Minister. The fact is, I don’t see it that way at all. I look at our new Prime Minister as a shallow lightweight whose only merit is that he leads a Coalition with the 44 of good sense plus the Nationals. If he decides to lead the Labor Party against the will of people like me, he will find himself the preferred PM only among people who will never vote for the party he leads. The alerts from Andrew Bolt today about how potentially disastrous the government Malcolm is leading may turn out to be. Here are the examples he lists. You should go to the links to see the full stories:

1) Green rentseekers get sniff of Turnbull cash:

Environment Minister Greg Hunt says the renewables industry should feel “very supported” under Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, after they complained of investment instability fuelled by Tony Abbott’s hostility towards the sector.

Mr Hunt has also said he would seek ways for Australia to “do more” on climate change with Mr Turnbull after the United Nations conference in Paris, and said the appointment of five new members of the Climate Change Authority board was delayed by the leadership spill.

The former prime minister was frequently scathing of wind turbines and the renewable energy target…

In a change of tack, Mr Hunt told The Australian Financial Review, “I think [the renewables industry] should feel that with myself, Malcolm Turnbull and Josh Frydenberg, they will be in a very, very supportive environment.” …

Mr Hunt also revealed he was about to appoint five new members to the Climate Change Authority board before last week’s leadership change delayed the decision…

“Malcolm is passionate about the global climate challenge, and I am passionate about it.”

2) ABC wants reward for backing Turnbull:

The ABC is hopeful the installation of Malcolm Turnbull as Prime Minister will allow it to claw back some of the $250 million slashed from the broadcaster last year as tension between the government and broadcaster cools off.

The shift from Tony Abbott to Mr Turnbull represents a change at the top of the government from one of the Coalition’s biggest critics of the ABC to one of its biggest supporters.

“There will be no more culture wars,” a Liberal source said, flagging an end to the open hostilities between the government and the ABC during recent times.

3) Credlin’s critics can’t hurt her like she can now hurt them. So back off:

Liberal MPs have warned that ongoing commentary from Peta Credlin about her time as the former­ prime minister’s chief of staff risks triggering a bitter “slanging match” and disclosure of negative stories about her conduct in the job.

Ms Credlin vented her frustration at what she believed were the unhelpful feminine stereotypes in which she had been characterised as chief of staff to Tony Abbott at an event hosted by The Australian Women’s Weekly on Tuesday night. Some Liberal MPs took issue yesterday with a statement in which she noted the role she played in engineering the ­Coalition victory in 2013.

They warned that she was just as responsible for leading the government “into oblivion” and questioned why she did not do more to elevate women in the Abbott government…

North Queensland MP Warren Entsch warned Ms Credlin against playing a spoiling role following the departure­ of Mr Abbott and raised the prospect of retribution against her.

4) African and Arab media report Turnbull softer on border policies:

New Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Wednesday he was concerned about the plight of asylum seekers in Australia’s offshore detention centres, and hinted at changes to the policy of his predecessor Tony Abbott…

Abbott’s “stop the boats” policy was criticised for being too hardline, but also touted as one of the successes of his administration.

In an interview with Sky News on his ninth day in office after ousting Abbott, Turnbull acknowledged the detention policy was “controversial”.

“I have the same concerns about the situation of people on Manus and Nauru … as I think all Australians do,” Turnbull said.

“All policies change, but when we do make changes we will do so in a considered way and they will be made by the minister, myself [and] the cabinet.”

5) Turnbull has to cut this waffle:

He pauses, he stutters, he umms and he ahhs. Hesitant moments as his hands wave meaninglessly in the air; awkward body shifts and gestures attempt to make up for the lack of substantive comment. No, it’s not Tony Abbott on a bad day: it’s Malcolm Turnbull. Not since Kevin Rudd last graced our TV screens have we had a prime minister who a) has so many words to deploy and b) has so little to say with them.

6) Turnbull gets credit for Abbott’s domestic violence package because he’s more enlightened, you see:

In fact, Abbott had already decried the rate of family violence deaths, put the issue on the national agenda, raised it with the Commonwealth heads of government meeting, appointed an inquiry and put together this very package, which he was due to release in the week he was toppled.

7) Fairfax still reports falsehoods on the Prime Minister, but not yet to destroy:

Now that Malcolm Turnbull is prime minister, Fairfax political writers still write false stories – but as yet not with hostile intent.

Malcolm, you will also not be able to fix the economy without really annoying all of your latest fans who think public spending only enriches us. That, unfortunately, is how I think you think. No apology for and criticism of the NBN you oversaw convinced me your economics is no deeper than a first year Keynesian economics text.