Malcolm Turnbull's small 'l' liberalism leaves big legacy
(0 comments)
GREG BARNS
Make no mistake: Malcolm Turnbull's decision to quit politics represents a significant loss not only to the Liberal Party but to the Australian Parliament. This is because Turnbull is arguably most intellectually gifted MP in Canberra today and because he represented a brand of political values that is not found in either of the major political forces in this country today - liberalism with a small 'l'.
Having said that, Mr Turnbull is not one to hang around. It was always hard to imagine that Malcolm Turnbull, a monstrously hard worker and potent lateral thinker on policy matters, would be content to serve time in a Liberal Party that is led by Tony Abbott - a man who is a hard core conservative.
If nothing else, Abbott's negative political style would have grated with someone like Turnbull who, like that other policy focused New South Wales political figure former Premier Nick Greiner, was prepared to reach across the ideological divide to tackle the big issues facing Australia and the world.
When Turnbull went into federal politics in 2004, and when he became Leader of the Liberal Party in 2008 I wrote that he would take his party on a roller coaster ride. And he did not disappoint.
Who will forget Turnbull standing up and staring down the conservatives in the Liberal Party late last year who wanted no part of ensuring that their party was engaged on one of the most important moral, environmental and business issues of our time - climate change.
It was a thrills and spills event that dragged on for over a week with Turnbull holding media conferences declaring he had the support of his party room, while one after another of the conservatives led by South Australian Senator Nick Minchin and his Tasmanian sidekick Eric Abetz resigned their front bench posts and forced Turnbull from the leadership by only one vote.
Turnbull's approach to politics was, to borrow Gough Whitlam's immortal phrase, 'crash through or crash'. And it nearly succeeded. The climate change issue was emblematic of the shift in direction the Liberal Party was embarked upon under Turnbull.
After more than a decade of stultifying conservatism under John Howard, Turnbull represented a more socially and economically rational and liberal approach to policy.
Take for example his defence of artist Bill Henson in 2008. Whereas Turnbull's predecessor Brendan Nelson was quick to jump on the bandwagon of moral conservatives in condemning Henson for his artistic portrayal of teenage girls, Turnbull did not join that populist chorus which included the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
Instead Turnbull rightly saw the issue as one of freedom of thought and speech.
And when Turnbull was Environment Minister in Mr Howard's government he had no truck with the conservative mantra about states' rights. He told the media in 2007 that if Victoria was not prepared to sign up to a plan to save the environmentally degraded Murray-Darling Basin then "the Commonwealth would have two choices. We either abandon the most important water reform in our nation's history, completely, simply because of one state, or we proceed under the Commonwealth's powers".
Turnbull represented a more difficult target for the ALP and Rudd. His liberalism made him attractive to some Labor voters who were none too enamoured of their own Party's conservatism. For this reason alone one wonders why the federal Liberal Party dumped Turnbull for a wildcard conservative in Abbott?
So what is next for Mr. Turnbull?
One hopes his energy and intellect is not lost to public discourse for ever because his contribution thus far has been a positive for this nation.
Greg Barns is a lawyer and advocates for prisoners in Tasmania.
ABC The Drum Unleashed - Malcolm Turnbull's small 'l' liberalism leaves big legacy
