Malcolm is finding this being PM a bit trickier than he thought it would be. Hanging around with Mark Scott and others of that sort left him with the impression that every problem has an easy solution, and they are all found by watching the ABC. So what sorts of blunders has he made? Let’s look at the international ones, and let me begin with the consequences of his thinking that the solution in Syria would be to allow ISIS into some kind of power-sharing arrangement.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, your call for some power-sharing there, how open are you to extending that to include some of the Sunni elements that are part of or linked to Daesh?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this is, you know, in Australia we are, what you need, what we need there is a political settlement. And it is clear that the principal determinants of, the people that will decide who can be in or out are going to be the people in Syria. You know the dictating terms from foreign capitals is unlikely to be successful. . . .
There needs to be a ceasefire as has been asked for in Vienna, and there needs to then be a power-sharing deal, as I mentioned, you know the example of Lebanon is given, I mean, that obviously has had its imperfections as well. But nonetheless, there needs to be a power-sharing deal.
He has backed away from this by denying he said what he said. But it is almost certainly what he thinks, irrespective of what he says. And now we find he has allowed a 99-year lease to be given to the Chinese, another issue he may find he will have to reverse himself on.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has made a significant error in trying to justify the decision to lease Australia’s crucial northern port to Chinese interests, by claiming it is not used by the military.
The Northern Territory Government sparked international controversy last month when it decided to lease the Port of Darwin facilities to a Chinese-owned company.
Some defence analysts have warned the company, Landbridge, has strong links to the Chinese Communist Party. They have also warned China will use the lease strategically to secure a presence in the north of Australia.
The ABC has also been told US president Barack Obama raised the sale directly with Mr Turnbull in a face-to-face meeting this week.
On Friday Mr Turnbull was questioned by Darwin radio station MIX 104.9 about the sale of the port.
“The port that is being leased is not being used by the military, it is a commercial port,” he said.
But according to an announcement by the Darwin Port Corporation on November 16, the lease includes East Arm Wharf commercial port outside Darwin and the Fort Hill Wharf close to the city’s CBD.
Fort Hill Wharf is advertised as a “cruise ship and Defence vessel facility”.
The Darwin Port Corporation website promotes the wharf as catering to “frequent naval ship visits” for visiting international and domestic naval ships.
This isn’t just a rookie mistake. This is plain incompetence. He has no feel whatsoever about any of these issues. His instincts are wrong, which is why he has no ability to even detect such errors as they are being made. Even The Oz is beginning to think better of its own captain’s pick. This is Paul Kelly no less, the leader of the Turnbull claque, writing in today’s paper: Abbott’s strategy as voice of conservatism begins to emerge. Kelly has not, of course, changed sides, but he is beginning to see that Tony was onto something, and was far ahead of his time. A few excerpts:
Abbott thinks Turnbull’s instincts are too progressive for him to become a successful long-run leader of an essentially conservative party. Abbott knows any political vacuum must be filled and he is irresistibility being drawn into the role of leadership of a popular conservative movement designed to ensure Turnbull stays true to traditional conservative values. . . .
Freed from the constraints of office, Abbott’s ability to mobilise conservative opinion should not be underestimated.
So far, the actual Turnbull-Abbott differences are more about style and process than content. This week both said Islamic State needs to be defeated in a military sense but Turnbull is a strong advocate of a political settlement. Abbott wants more boots on the ground. But this is untenable without the lead coming from President Obama. . . .
The appalling statement after the Paris attacks by the spiritual leader, the Grand Mufti, Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohammed, shows Abbott’s statement was justified. The issue is not its validity but its wisdom. That Australia has a problem with the nature of its Islamic leadership is beyond dispute. The real issue is how to manage this, discuss it and correct it. . . .
Abbott showed from 2009 onwards an acute instinct in picking the big trend: that carbon pricing would provoke a popular backlash. He has free reign, again, to identify and mobilise around new populist conservative causes.
Abbott is sending a message to the Liberal faithful: we expect the leader to champion, expound and articulate our conservative values. Decoded: Abbott is ready to fight Turnbull over the nature of Liberal values. And he believes he better grasps those values than does Turnbull. . . .
Abbott fears the West is too weak to confront Islamic State. Thatcher, he says, would not be weak. Thatcher, he says, understood that “those that won’t use decisive force, where needed, end up being dictated to by those who will”. When Abbott as PM first met Obama in the White House he came with a message: that Australia was willing to fight beside the US for just causes.
He said publicly on that visit that while Australia was not America’s most powerful ally, it would be its most dependable. Abbott is disappointed in Obama, the classic conservative response.
His mantra is that the West, like Australia, must possess the self-confidence to defend its interests and its universal values.
We will know that Malcolm has finally got the message when he makes Tony our Minister of Foreign Affairs. Until then, Turnbull is likely to go from blunder to blunder since he has no apparent instinct whatsoever in finding his way among the international dilemmas we now face. You could put up with it in more benign times, but these are not the kind of times when we should be trying to find our way with such an inept leader as our current PM.
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