Malcolm Turnbull loses two ministers but the stench of one could linger
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Version 0 of 1. The Turnbull ministry is three and a half months old and already there are two casualties. One looks fairly straightforward. The other, not so. In both cases, Malcolm Turnbull is well rid of them under the circumstances. Jamie Briggs resigned after he “interacted” with a female public servant in an “informal manner” in a late night bar on an overseas trip. She complained he had acted inappropriately. In his mea culpa, Briggs concluded his behaviour, while not illegal, was not up to the “high standards required of ministers”. This would suggest he thought it was a fair cop. That leads to the question of timing. Related: Malcolm Turnbull's stocks remain high, but his coffers are increasingly empty The incident occurred in late November – when there was at least one more sitting week of parliament. Workplace due process, investigations, interviews and inquiries around the events in a Hong Kong bar would suggest that the whole thing played out in the lead up to Christmas. That the political bodies were dumped perhaps a week or two later in a news dead zone is no doubt deliberate. But the bottom line is, given Briggs’s admission, the guy had to go. The other casualty was Mal Brough, the former special minister of state. This is more opaque and the stink has a potential to linger given Brough has promised only to step aside, not resign. When Turnbull appointed Brough as the person in charge of things such as ministerial standards, parliamentary entitlements and appointments of Australian electoral officers it was a bad joke. A day after Brough’s swearing-in to the first Turnbull ministry in September this year, the Guardian revealed the Australian federal police were still actively investigating the alleged unauthorised disclosure of the former Speaker Peter Slipper’s diaries and Brough’s alleged role in the events. As a shiny new prime minister, would you really look around the party room for a special minister of state and pick the guy who was under investigation by the AFP? When Labor pursued Brough and Turnbull over the matter in parliament in the final week of parliament, the prime minister reverted to his days at the bar. “Guilt or innocence is not determined by public denunciation, here or anywhere else,” Turnbull told the chamber. It was not public denunciation though. It was a police investigation. Today that fact was acknowledged. Brough went to the prime minister and informed him he would stand aside until the investigation was completed. According to his letter to the PM, Brough said he could not get an AFP interview before 5 January, and even then he still did not know when the investigation would be concluded. The point is, he never did. So what has changed? Turnbull said Brough had done the right thing in “recognising the importance of the government maintaining an unwavering focus on jobs, economic growth and national security”. But the only one who created the “wavering focus” was Turnbull, in appointing Brough in the first place. And the reshuffle? All indications are that the prime minister will wait until the Nationals leader and deputy prime minister, Warren Truss, resigns. Incidentally, no one in the Nationals is mourning the loss of Briggs. Senator John Williams’ response to Fairfax Media is typical of the feeling for Briggs in the Nationals party room: “With Briggs leaving it means there will be no deterioration in the overall quality of the ministry – in fact it should improve.” But the Nationals will also be hoping for that extra spot that they expected with Ian Macfarlane’s now aborted defection to the Nationals. But Nats and hopeful backbenchers alike may remember there is nothing which says the casualties need to be replaced. Turnbull’s ministry is larger than previous ones and who is to say he won’t redistribute the responsibilities among the ministry? In the meantime, Brough could still come back to the ministry. Such a return would be dangerous in an election year. Turnbull would be better off reaching towards the backbench for better, cleaner talent. |