Thursday, March 24th (2)

So we have an election coming up!  I know it's a legal process under the constitution but it strikes me there's a smell about the whole thing.  First, the whole thing is very contrived: to rort the system in the hope that the Senate will vote in legislation (which they've already rejected), for fear of losing their jobs.  (I think that's called blackmail). And the trigger they choose is an issue they refused to vote on at the end of the last Parliamentary sitting.  I'm sorry, Mr Turnbull, you've dropped in my estimation.

It wasn't helped by the gist of your speech last night to the Lowy Institute.  To equate the tragedy in  Belgium with the mass migration in Europe is a low act.  The terrorists in Belgium, and in France before that, were not migrants; they are all home-grown.  As the Belgium ambassador said, 'They are Europeans.'  Clearly your need to keep the conservatives under your wing has made you compromise your beliefs, and it does you no credit.

On the issue of changes to Senate voting:  of course, we all agree that something needed to be done but an inclusive leader would have set up the changes to take effect from the next scheduled Senate election.  To tie them to a double dissolution is an act of weakness.  Your job, as PM, is to deal with the parliament you were given.  How many Prime Ministers get the Senate they want?  The effect of this DD is that many legally-elected representatives of both houses will lose their jobs.  Have you considered that maybe the new members might be more recalcitrant than the ones who leave?  Have you wondered whether you can trust your own constituency to pre-select candidates who will think more like you?  You can be sure that you'll still have Mr Abbott and Mr Abetz and Ms Jacquie Lambie.  Is it worth it?  Maybe you might also consider that the Senate could be rejecting your policies because they think they are unreasonable, not because they're being obstructive.

I read an article in The Australian the other day which reported that Mr Abbott had been appointed Prime Minister at Large.  My jaw dropped and I was half-way through before I twigged that it was a joke.  What a relief!