The Brain Tumour of Australian Politics

Another month came and went and the Prime Minister talk still goes on. It is no secret that the current Australian Prime Minister is extremely unpopular. A number of policies introduced along with last year’s budget – which is yet to be passed by the Senate led the government into a nose dive in popularity. A startling contrast to when the Coalition Government went back into office in 2013. Policies such as University fees deregulation, which in my opinion would benefit no one but the already established Group of Eight universities; the Medicare Co-Payment and the sneaky attempt to introduce rebate cuts without consultation; the cuts and eventual layoffs at ABC and SBS, the below inflation rate increase for the Defence Force while MPs enjoy a 7% increase in salary themselves; the non-mean tested parental leave program – they all represent how the Government is completely out of touch with the society while claiming to representing the Australian people. All these fuelled with the Government’s uncompromising stance against climate change, research funding, art funding and bullish ways it exhibited during the Victorian election,  had made the current government one of the most popular in Australian history.

There were leadership spills talks but is it going to happen? It is a time that even backbenchers are not happen while the frontbenchers trying to keep a united front. Tony Abbott has not got much to hang on except for the fact that he can’t be removed or they would become just like the Labor Party whom they replaced and attacked in the past. In fact the promise of a stable leadership and government is only one of the few if anymore, promises the current government has not broken. The Coalition party knows this and this is their last card to draw only in dire situation. The thing is Tony Abbott is now the brain tumour of the Coalition Government. The party room had let this brain tumour grown to a size that is so big that any attempts on surgery could prove to be fatal to the current government. This is not just Tony Abbott, but also all the blood veins attached to the tumour such as Joe Hockey (who said poor people do not own a car or drive very far, and has no understanding about the Australia’s taxation system while being the Treasurer of the country), Christopher Pyne (who said women do not do expensive degrees such as law and thus would not be affected by deregulations); Scott Morris (which thinks he is above all laws when it comes to deal with refugee issues); George Brandis (who has no idea what culture and arts about by relentlessly cutting funding to arts in the country) and the list goes on and on. The truth is if they removed Tony Abbott, all these people will need to go in order to show the government has repented and listened to the Australian public. There will be a lot of bleeding in the government because the question will be “who are going to do these jobs?” The Coalition in the past had been playing the celebrity card instead of credibility card to make them popular and eventually get into the office. The Amy Winehouse Rehab approach (“No no no”) to Labor policies earned them the office in 2013. However, once they used up their popularity there is nothing left and sadly there are no other people trained enough to do those jobs.

So the bottom line is if they removed Tony Abbott they are doing it at high risks. Tony Abbott knows well enough about this as he had made every attempt to disarm any opponents including Malcom Turnbull and Julie Bishop making them the mouthpieces for his unpopular policies. Tony Abbott might look stupid but he definitely knew how to play his game to stay in power. Backbenchers might be unhappy but the frontbenchers are even more scared that such removal would just accelerate the death of the Coalition government and any dashes of hope for getting re-elected will be gone. However at the same time everyone also knew at the current rate the chances of the Coalition government to continue holding office at the next election is minimal, judging what happened in Victoria and Queensland in the last three months. NSW Government is scared. Very scared. As they distanced themselves from the Federal Government as much as possible and put open stances against issues such as GST revisit.

The Prince Philip knighting is perhaps one of the most unconceivable things happened since 2015 started but is it lethal? That still needs time to be proven. However, if Tony Abbott is the brain tumour, this without a doubt represents a haemorrhage that needs to be dealt with in the emergency room. That’s exactly what is happening in the Coalition Party Room. Is Tony Abbott scared? I personally do not think so. He had fulfilled his wish to be the Prime Minister (as he put it when he was still in opposition he would “give his first born for the job”). All he needs to do is to hang on to finish his term. If he failed in the next election, the Coalition comes down, he steps down and that will not be the end of the game for him as he has built up business good will during this Prime Ministership (in how he stands up for the mining industry and put a stop to tax evasion of multinational corporations). He played a spectacular political game that left the rest of his party members in shambles.

The Coalition is definitely in bad shape but in the end it was its own making. They might see Tony Abbott as a potential cancer cell but eventually they let him grew to a size that is not operable and now could possibly only witness its own slow and painful death in a year’s time or so.