Brendan Nelson obviously put a lot into his budget reply speech and from all reports it was delivered quite well. One of the headline proposals from the reply speech, the Opposition’s plan to cut fuel excise by 5c per litre, was and is on the daft side of sensible economic policy, but there was still quite a danger there for the Rudd Government that it would serve as a populist means for the Opposition to claw back some support. Unfortunately for Brendan Nelson in particular, it appears that any chance of that happening has now been firmly and suitably buried by his Shadow Treasurer, courtesy of a fairly grubby email scandal.
Malcolm Turnbull evidently does not personally support the proposed cuts to fuel excise, and a leaked email sent from the Member for Wentworth to Nelson’s office makes this clear in no uncertain terms. Nelson’s leadership has quite frankly now been critically undermined by his second in command on the frontline; I honestly think that he has no credible course of action besides sacking Turnbull from the front bench or in the very least issuing a very strong public reprimand. For Turnbull’s part, I think that this was a particularly ill-judged intervention that seems to be more about his own intellectual pride than anything else. He is of course correct about the excise cuts – the opportunity cost of embarking on the exercise is realistically quite high – but this is about the least appropriate means imaginable to make a point to his party and the media. I don’t think the time is yet ripe for a leadership spill, and neither do I think that Turnbull’s colleagues will judge him kindly after this latest unseemly boilover. Childish and clumsy incidents like these make one wonder whether politics is really the right game for the Shadow Treasurer to be playing.
Wayne Swan and Kevin Rudd must be blessing his cotton socks.
Tags: Brendan Nelson, Fuel Excise, Malcom Turnbull
I think it is a bit problematic to have the Energy minister having both the responsibility for fossil fuel energy as well as renewerable energy.