Getting rid of dysfunctional Prime Ministers
Former Liberal Premier of Victoria, Jeff Kennett this morning dumped big time
on the federal LNP, claiming that dislike for Prime Minister Tony
Abbott is a major factor in the Victorian election result that yesterday
brought a resounding victory to the ALP, ousting the Liberal government
in its first term.
Kennett claims the Abbott government is a “shambles,” and Ministers
in the Napthine Government said there was “no question’’ that the
unpopularity of Tony Abbott in Victoria was a factor in their defeat.
The government is in a bind about Tony. If they get rid of him in his
first term they risk being seen as unstable and disloyal, allegations
they levelled unrelentingly while in opposition at the ALP for its
ongoing leadership woes with Kevin Rudd.
An aside on that matter. Now we have a good deal more information
about that debacle, wouldn’t it have been so much better if Gillard had
informed the electorate about the difficulties the government was having
with Rudd, rather than leaving us to wake up one morning and discover
we no longer had the extremely popular Prime Minister who’d led the
Labor party to victory? Pole-axing an electorate in such a fashion and
then going on to be excessively secretive as to the reasons for such
drastic action would seem to be a most unwise strategy, and indeed,
that’s what it proved to be.
The situation with Abbott is very different: while Rudd was still
popular but behind the scenes, dysfunctional, Abbott is openly
dysfunctional and unpopular to boot, so the electorate won’t go into
nearly as much shock and awe if he’s chucked out of the top job in his
first term.
Personally, I’d like to see Abbott stay on as leader as he’s the ALP’s best asset.
The federal government is like a dysfunctional family with a rogue
father at its head. Everyone closes ranks and publicly supports the
patriarch even though he’s bringing ruination down on their collective
heads, because that’s what families do. They stick together in the face
of adversity, and in so doing, enable the maintenance of the
dysfunction. This eventually damages every family member, and the price
for such misguided unity is death, of one kind or another.
There’s little more difficult than dealing with a dysfunctional
leader, be it in politics or the family, and we saw how the ALP crumbled
under the pressure of their Rudd woes.
The precedent for getting rid of first term Prime Ministers has been
set, and there are few among us who would find it shocking the second
time around. However, the LNP are likely far too spooked by the Rudd
saga to risk ousting their dysfunctional leader in his first term. This
could well be their downfall.
First published at Jennifer’s blog No Place for Sheep
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