Bill Leak would have had a field day. I'll bet they're pissing themselves in heaven!
Wednesday, 12 July 2017
From The Australian today.
Turnbull’s Liberal Party legacy claim draws fire
- The Australian
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Malcolm Turnbull’s decision to invoke the legacy of Liberal Party founder Robert Menzies to defend his government has backfired amid warnings it will entrench division and isolate conservatives.
The Prime Minister’s speech to a London think tank, in which he sidelined conservatism as a founding Liberal Party principle, was seized upon as a recruitment tool by One Nation and the breakaway Australian Conservatives movement formed by South Australian government defector Cory Bernardi, with both claiming to represent the true voice of conservative Australia.
While government MPs rallied behind Mr Turnbull’s remarks, other Liberal figures questioned whether his remarks amounted to a departure from the “broad church” model of Liberal Party governance exercised by former prime minister John Howard.
Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg labelled the speech “considered and powerful” while Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said there was nothing in it that should antagonise her conservative colleagues.
But former Liberal Victorian premier Jeff Kennett condemned Mr Turnbull’s comments as unnecessary and argued the Prime Minister had moved away from core Liberal values by increasing taxes on the major banks and cracking down on concessions in the superannuation system.
He warned the absence of “defining political leadership” could lead to a fracturing of the two-party dominance in the lower house and called on Mr Turnbull to make peace with Tony Abbott by inviting him back into cabinet.
“Some will see (the speech) as an attack on Abbott. Some will see it as an attack on Liberalism or trying to redefine it,” Mr Kennett told The Australian. “Whatever motivated him to do it, I don’t understand ... I do see it as trying to redefine what the Liberal Party is and what it stands for. There should be peace in our times. They (Mr Turnbull and Mr Abbott) should sit down with a bloody pipe and work it out. And the Liberal Party would rise up as one to support that.”
A senior Liberal source said Mr Turnbull was deliberately trying to “exacerbate differences” between moderates and conservatives, warning that it “wasn’t going to end well”. “You can’t win with a divided base,” the source said.
Mr Turnbull was forced to make a last-minute change to his speech in an attempt to head off controversy after earlier releasing extracts to the media.
When referring to the “sensible centre”, Mr Turnbull added to his speech that it was Mr Abbott who had coined the phrase. This was not included in the written speech.