'Stuff it!' PM puts the pedal to the metal

The Drum By ABC's Barrie Cassidy

Posted March 02, 2012 14:47:48

Just when you think you have seen it all.

The sight of Julia Gillard walking into that news conference with Bob Carr in tow was hard to beat for political jaw droppers.

The media, encouraged by public and private comments from within the Government, had moved on from the prospect of the former NSW premier ever becoming foreign minister.

Indeed, much of the gallery would have started work on weekend analysis putting the boots into the Prime Minister for comprehensively blowing away all of the benefit of a crushing leadership win over Kevin Rudd.

Laura Tingle in the Financial Review was spot on when she wrote Friday (basing her analysis on all the available evidence) "...instead of using her win over Rudd to get the best quality team into the Cabinet, Julia Gillard… backed off."

And that she "left herself open to perceptions of being told what to do by her colleagues".

Indeed she had, and that is clearly why she changed her mind.

What went on between Tuesday and late Thursday morning is guesswork. But this is probably close to the truth.

The Prime Minister did initially back off under pressure from disgruntled colleagues, as Tingle suggests.

But then on reflection, she probably thought 'stuff it! I think appointing Bob Carr is the best course for the Government and the country. I'm the boss and I'm going to do this'.

If that's the scenario, then full marks to her. It was her most assertive and authoritative moment at a time when both qualities were sorely needed. However, that does not erase the confusion and prevarication that overwhelmed the story before then.

Nor does it excuse her handling of the issue at the doorstop on Wednesday when she said the report in The Australian was "completely untrue". The report said she had made an offer to Carr, and that offer had been withdrawn under pressure from colleagues.

What part of that is untrue? Maybe she hadn't made a formal offer at that point. But given her attitude now, it's hard to accept that she hadn't at least seriously entertained the idea and probably left Carr with the impression after at least one of their conversations that it might happen. And what of the assertion in The Australian that senior ministers had rebelled and demanded she appoint one of her supporters?

That too has a ring of truth to it.

The whole episode leaves the trust issue again sitting uneasily with Julia Gillard.

And who knows how the disappointed few will react longer term? That disappointment goes beyond senior ministers who thought they were well qualified to be foreign minister. There are parliamentary secretaries and backbenchers as well who would have fancied promotion to a junior ministry had Carr not taken up one of the vacancies from outside.

But in the end is that the little picture? The one that journalists see when they miss the story?

Is the bigger picture that Australia now has Bob Carr as Foreign Minister and Julia Gillard has finally stamped her authority on the party like never before?

Dennis Atkins, writing for the Courier Mail in Brisbane, says, "Perhaps the reason this felt like a seismic shift is because it was one."

Barrie Cassidy is the presenter of ABC programs Insiders and Offsiders. View his full profile here.