Abbott and Palmer – The Lion and the Lamb
Tony Abbott had a favored technique which he applied to the five boxing matches he had at Oxford.
As soon as the bell sounded, Abbott would rush his opponent
before they had a chance to get out of their corner and commence to rain
a flurry of blows.
Perhaps it was a good thing for Tony that he confined himself to only
a few bouts, as the technique won’t work against a more experienced
opponent who will simply cover up, side step and wait for an opening.
In an interview conducted circa 2006, with ABC’s Melbourne’s Jon
Faine, Abbott in typical hubris told Faine that his technique was;
“basically no big deal. You’ve got to remember Jon, that they were only
weedy Poms.”
Both Abbott’s boxing technique and the remark offered a good insight to the character of the man.
Rush in, try to overwhelm your opponent through sheer aggression and then denigrate them as weak and unworthy.
Aggressive and conceited, Abbott has applied the same characteristics and approach to his political career.
On winning the election, Abbott was determined to come into government like a lion.
The adults were in charge. There would be neither compromise nor quarter with his opponents.
Sweeping reform was to be the order of the day.
The opposition was there to be pummeled and denigrated, ridiculed and reviled.
Truth and facts, always shadowy figures in politics, were to be
trampled underfoot along with a sense of humanity as Abbott trod the
paths of Right wing righteousness to a Shangri-la where Australia was
“open for business.”
How could he lose? Tony not only had God in his corner but Rupert Murdoch as well.
Why; – the difference was scarce adjusted in the tomb!
Then came Clive Palmer.
If Abbott saw himself as an elected crusader seeking the holy grail
of an unfettered ‘free market’ economy, Palmer portrayed himself as
Robin Goodfellow, a role which he has clearly relished over the past few
weeks.
No stranger to politics, Palmer won his votes through unabashed populism.
While Abbott played to the Dress Circle of the true believers of the free market, Palmer played to the stalls.
There are interesting parallels between Palmer and his approach to
politics and those of Senator Huey P. Long former Governor of Louisiana.
Long was a member of the Democrats and helped get Roosevelt elected
in 1932, but split with the party in 1933 to conduct his own bid for the
Presidency.
Palmer was a member of the National Party and bank rolled the ‘Joh
for Canberra’ campaign in 1987 but split with the Nationals after
failing to get pre-selection to contest the Division of Lilley in 2013.
Similarly to Long, Palmer announced that he would run as an
independent for the seat of Fairfax at the 2013 and hinted that a run
for PM “wouldn’t be out of the question.”
Long’s success so frightened the party leaders that even the
conservatives flocked to Roosevelt, and readily embraced FDR at his
worst in preference to dealing with ‘the Kingfish.’
While Palmer has not espoused any campaign similar to Long’s ‘Share
the Wealth’ policy, he was quick to refute the Abbott government’s
claims of a budget emergency as “sinister and ideologically driven.”
Palmer added that News Ltd had been complicit in peddling the LNP’s
“lies and broken promises, and that Rupert Murdoch should get the Joseph
Goebbels award for propaganda.”
Both Palmer and Long had axes to grind with the parties that had spawned them.
Long with FDR as a political rival and for his remarks that Long had
flouted and caricatured the process of parliamentary democracy, Palmer
with the Nationals and their refusal to select him as a candidate for
the Division of Lilley coupled with his ongoing feud with Queensland
premier Campbell Newman.
Palmer has waited patiently over the last ten months to even the
score with the LNP while maintaining a steady media profile, and stole
the spotlight from Tony Abbott by appearing with Al Gore a week before
the senate was due to vote on Abbott’s center piece policy of Carbon Tax
Repeal.
Palmer announced that he would support the repeal – but with conditions.
When the bill was presented to the Senate, what followed could only be described as a farce worthy of Moliere.
Abbott, whose polls as preferred prime minister had plummeted, was
desperate to ram the bill through in an attempt to salvage the
government’s credibility, suddenly found himself cast in the role of
Pantaloon, as Palmer and his party insisted on further amendments to the
repeal, and then amendments to the amendments.
Treading warily, Abbott shifted the blame to the ALP while at remaining at pains not to antagonize Palmer.
Six days later, the bill is still under debate in the Senate and no vote has been cast.
A similar if not more muted situation occurred when the government
presented its Future of financial advice reform (Fofa) bill on Tuesday,
with Palmer clearly calling for the government to jump, while the LNP
responded by asking; ‘how high?’
Whilst a large number of voters may feel a strong sense of Schadenfreude at Abbott’s fate at the hands of PUP and the independents, as The Guardian’s Leonore Taylor observed of Palmer’s antics;
“It makes the government look like donkeys being led by the nose, but much worse than that spectacle, it is a terrible way to run the lawmaking process.”
Abbott, who came in like a lion and who was sure that his ‘rush ‘em,
knock ‘em down, and then kick ‘em in the head’ style would overcome any
political or parliamentary obstacles, has been reduced to a lamb by
Palmer, and now the roles are reversed.
While Palmer could hardly be described as a lamb, he’s proved to
Abbott and the LNP that he can certainly be the lion when it comes to
calling the shots in the Senate.
Palmer may enjoy playing Puck to Abbott’s Bottom, but for the sake of governance the situation cannot continue indefinitely.
At some stage, the lamb is going to have to lie down with the lion.
At present however, Abbott and the LNP are learning that while the
lion may lie down with the lamb, the lamb’s not going to get much sleep.
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