It is the knight to call it a day on Peta Credlin MIRANDA DEVINE THE DAILY TELEGRAPH JANUARY 28, 2015 12:00AM TONY Abbott’s gonging of Prince Philip makes no political sense. It shows Gillardesque poor judgement. Honestly. In one neat image the wacky self-indulgence crystallises all the disquiet about the Prime Minister since he took office 16 months ago. And it raises the big question of why someone in his army of advisers didn’t save him from himself. At least Abbott’s poor judgment calls don’t cost the nation billions of dollars, or kill people, as did the blunders of his predecessors Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard. But the universal condemnation of his “captain’s call” of an Australia Day knighthood for the Queen’s husband might finally be the jolt that makes the Prime Minister realise he is facing an existential political challenge. PAUL TOOHEY: IS IT TIME FOR ABBOTT TO GO? EDITORIAL: ABBOTT IS DISTRACTED FROM THE MAIN GAME When we’re still in January of the year in which he was supposed to have pushed the reset button, and there are rumbles from his party about changing leaders, you know there’s a problem. The Liberals would be nuts to move on Abbott, but they know the mood in their heartland is black. Even monarchists are appalled that he has managed to breathe life back into the dormant republic cause. It raises the big question of why someone in his army of advisers didn’t save him from himself. All summer at dinner parties and BBQs across Sydney, Abbott supporters have been talking with increasing dismay about his leadership style, indecision, backdowns, lack of strategy, tin ear, and the way his office micromanages and over-thinks everything. They lament the hit to confidence that has come from his government’s inability to explain its “too clever by half” budget. There was Abbott’s declaration he would “sweat blood” on constitutional reform to recognise indigenous people, when the main game should be the economy and anyway no one knows what’s entailed. Pledging $200 million to the international Green Climate Fund, a backflip on his stated opposition to contributing. Caving in on repealing 18C because he didn’t want to get offside with Muslims. Appointing avowed leftists Natasha Stott Despoja and Greg Combet to cushy posts stuck in the craw too. Even attending the funeral in Cairns of the eight children allegedly murdered by their mother had people puzzled. CHILDREN REMOVED FROM TRADIE’S CARE SYDNEY’S HEAVIEST RAINFALL IN TWO YEARS Dissatisfaction bubbles along. If the budget had gone swimmingly these relatively minor grievances would not have mattered as much, but as it is, Abbott can’t cut a break. It is almost as if people are looking to find fault, his political capital is so low. And then out pops a crazy idea like gonging Philip. “It’s hard to imagine a way more likely to antagonise people,” said one diehard Liberal yesterday. “This is the first time I’ve stopped defending Tony. I’ve had it with him. This is total craziness.” People who have lost skin for Abbott for years, and sworn that he possesses the qualities of a great prime minister, are losing heart. But the Prime Minister so far seems to be in denial. Friends, senior people in the political and media world have spoken frankly, even brutally, to him in the past few weeks about the trouble he is facing, and they say it was like water off a duck’s back. On Sunday night I asked the Prime Minister on 2GB if he knew how on the nose he was with Liberal supporters. And he just talked about the warm response he had received on his recent Christmas holiday down the south coast. “When you’re roaming the streets of Sussex Inlet and Berrara … you get a reasonable sense of where people are at ... I didn’t get any sense from the people in the street and on the beach down the south coast this Christmas that this was a government that was in diabolic trouble. Sure we’ve got some challenges ... But we’ve made a good start.” HOW ASTEROID SURPRISED ASTRONOMERS BRAIN FOUND IN JAR ON THE NORTH SHORE It’s what the public doesn’t say to your face that is more instructive. Most Liberals are willing Abbott to succeed because they know if he fails, the nation will lose the chance to recover from the six disastrous years of Rudd and Gillard. “We are the only ones with a plan for our country’s future,” Abbott said quite correctly. “And frankly if we aren’t as a nation prepared to take strong and tough decisions we will become a second rate nation living on our luck.” These are the stakes involved in Abbott’s success or failure. Let’s hope there is method in his madness. But one thing is sure: the Prime Minister has to make a sacrificial offering to convince his colleagues that he has learned a lesson. Something that causes him pain, like chopping off his right arm. In other words, moving on chief of staff Peta Credlin. Justly or not, she is being blamed for the Prince Philip gaffe. It was Abbott’s decision but it’s the job of the chief of staff, who he has been known to calls the Boss, to stop him from making such a blunder. One thing is sure: the Prime Minister has to make a sacrificial offering to convince his colleagues that he has learned a lesson Credlin’s replacement should be the person she didn’t want to hire as head of communications strategy, despite various entreaties from high-level media and political figures: Chris Kenny. As editorial writer for The Australian, a seasoned journalist and a former adviser and chief of staff to Alexander Downer and Malcolm Turnbull, he’s in touch with the world, has the right ideas, shares Abbott’s broad world view without the kinky bits. But his greatest attribute is that he’s fearless and confident enough to challenge the cosy consensus thinking in the PM’s office that let the Philip gong see the light of day. .