Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull puts unity above own views, but will restraint last? Date September 16, 2015
Peter Hartcher
Sydney Morning Herald political and international editor View more articles from Peter Hartcher COMMENT
Labor leader Bill Shorten rushed this week to accuse Malcolm Turnbull of arrogance, but the harsher critique came from a former leader of Turnbull's own party. Brendan Nelson once said to me in an interview that Turnbull suffered from "narcissistic personality disorder".
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is likely to accelate economic reform, Credit Suisse says. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen The former medical practitioner urged me to look up the clinical definition: "A pervasive pattern of grandiosity [in fantasy or behaviour], need for admiration, and lack of empathy." But that was in 2009, shortly after Turnbull had torn Nelson down. It was understandable that he'd be smarting. Yet today this remains a live fear among some of Turnbull's colleagues, that an outsized prime ministerial ego will distort judgment and bring the government to ruin.
Mr Turnbull at Government House with his daughter Daisy, wife Lucy and grandson Jack. Photo: Andrew Meares And it was misjudgment that brought Turnbull's earlier term as leader to a crashing halt. He so coveted Kevin Rudd's scalp that he overreached on Godwin Grech's fabricated accusations against the then prime minister. He so craved an emissions trading scheme that he overlooked the objections of his party's conservative wing and the restiveness of the Nationals.
The new PM with Liberal deputy Julie Bishop. Photo: Andrew Meares The result? The conservative coup against Turnbull that installed Tony Abbott as leader by a single vote. Labor's Tanya Plibersek says: "In Shakespeare's leading characters you see from the very beginning the character flaw that will be their undoing. With Malcolm, it's always been his self-regard." The key questions about Australia's new prime minister: has Turnbull learned to restrain the urging of his own ego? Has he developed judgment?
Malcolm Turnbull challenges Tony Abbott for the prime ministership Malcolm Turnbull has called for a spill of the Liberal Party leadership, and for Tony Abbott to be dumped as prime minster, saying that the party needs "a style of leadership that respects the people's intelligence". Photo: Andrew Meares On Monday he displayed breathtaking boldness in challenging a first-term prime minister, and successfully so. Yet Turnbull had not struck at Abbott when his leader's vulnerability was laid bare in February. In the party room spill, he had stayed silent and allowed Abbott to come within 12 votes of losing to an empty chair. Some of his supporters urged him to take the opportunity to challenge. But others told him that he didn't have the numbers. He decided that discretion was the better part of valour. Turnbull kept his counsel and allowed MPs and senators to form an unforced judgement that Abbott could not lead them to an election victory. Abbott on Monday said in his valedictory remarks that "I have never leaked or backgrounded against anyone and I certainly won't start now." This was a veiled accusation against the Turnbull camp. And it's certainly true that Abbott's government leaked. But the chief leaker was Abbott's office. As former Liberal minister Peter Reith wrote in Fairfax publications on Monday: "There was far too much briefing of the media by the PM's office … Leaking to the press as a tool for dealing with colleagues is playing with fire. That was one of the reasons for Abbott's downfall." Abbott's internal critics were merely playing the same game, and, although he will not see it this way, the leaking was not specially pointed or organised. Now, in victory, Turnbull has shown the wisdom to embrace collegiality in word and deed. He has accepted all of the Abbott government's policy positions, even where the public expects him to make changes. This shows that he is putting party unity above his own views. The next test will be how he reshapes the ministry. But, so far, he is showing a restraint that confounds Dr Nelson's diagnosis. Narcissistic personality order can be overcome, but, after just one day in power, it is too early to pronounce him cured.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/prime-minister-malcolm- turnbull-puts-unity-above-own-views-but-will-restraint-last-20150915- gjneys.html#ixzz3mMIS8rAO