The Coalition swearing-in: Abbott enjoys his moment of perfect possibility

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/18/coalition-swearing-in-tony-abbott

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In politics there are only two states of being: there is power, and there is the absence of power.

The swearing-in of a newly elected Australian government can be about as gripping as watching paint dry, unless you care to witness the transformation that occurs as those who have been without power for a period of time suddenly assume it.

The moment of transfer is truly electric. The main reception room at Government House in Canberra swells in anticipation; shoulders open, chins are raised, joy is transferred from hand to hand.

Necks crane in the back rows. Tablets and smartphones are held aloft in muted salute. Children, wrestled into finery worthy of their father's finest hour (yes, they are mainly fathers), squirm, respond to a precision glower from their mother, then watch with intent, eventually protesting with implacable intent – perfect barometers of the shifts in atmosphere.

Heat gradually rises as the various ministers, junior ministers and parliamentary secretaries oath and affirm their way to personal and professional transformation. An aide to the governor general moved noiselessly to open the side doors on Wednesday to allow the cross breeze to cool and temper the new Abbott government, which had a distinct collective personality in the moment of its birth: triumph, and relief.

Abbott personified both emotions as he stood up the front, at the podium, presenting his ministers. Governments at their inception are always perfect in their imagined possibility. It is events and time and decisions that ravage and diminish them.

In that moment of anticipation, when the power is inevitably transferred, leaders imagine perfection. Abbott verbalised his imaginings, invoking a calm, purposeful government which delivered on its election commitments, "a problem-solving government based on values, not ideology". A government for all of us, Abbott suggested, echoing his great mentor, John Howard, who promised to govern for all of us in 1996. "We will not spare ourselves; we will not spare ourselves in order to deserve the trust placed in us this day."

Abbott's opening gambit on Wednesday was a rare political speech at a swearing-in, which normally eschews partisan affectations in favour of unvarnished bureaucratese. It was the coda of a long and arduous campaign and the final decisive flip from the relentlessly negative and combative opposition leader to the prime minister, who is now trying to calm the national clamour he unleashed in order to occupy the Lodge.

As could have been predicted, blue ties and Bibles were thick on the ground. The new immigration minister, Scott Morrison, promised not to let anyone down. Republican Malcolm Turnbull pledged an oath of allegiance to the Queen, his sonorous voice carrying the length of the room and out the french doors along the southern vista.

Victorian Scott Ryan, a new parliamentary secretary, toted a Bible almost larger than himself. The environment minister, Greg Hunt, conveyed his small daughter to the front of the room; a good luck charm. The agriculture minister, Barnaby Joyce, flushed intermittently between pink and red. The education minister, Christopher Pyne, flashed smiles that could have powered the electricity grid. Down the back, Kevin Andrews' teenage kids fired off a very discreet selfie – possibly in violation of some unwritten code – as they stood to watch their father go back into government.

Kevin Rudd, the man Abbott swept from office, intruded briefly but assertively on the swearing-in, taking to Twitter for his own oath of affirmation. Rudd informed the digisphere that having dispensed with the duties of caretaker prime minister, he and wife, Therese, were off for a couple of weeks' holiday: "China, US & UK catching up with family, friends & recharging batteries. Also continuing commitment to nuclear disarmament with CTBTO."

Nobody in the room knew or cared, nor did they care about the roiling of the twitterverse more generally at the moment of the swearing-in. Progressives and clicktivists displeased with the events of the day had their staccato grieving and declaiming all to themselves.

Government House ignored everything but the enormousness of the moment at hand.

The tea cups were placed on tables for refreshments. Stringed instruments were unpacked, plucked at appropriate volume in the anteroom, and re-packed. The number plates were switched on the prime ministerial car. One by one the new Coalition ministers of the 44th parliament assumed their titles and their futures.

And outside, Tony Abbott was busily reshaping Canberra in his own image.

While Abbott stood still at his podium, lips sometimes in sync with the affirmations of his ministers, three departmental heads that had served Labor in key policy reforms were dispatched to retirement. Administrative arrangements abolished departments and split others in two, and the cabinet room was being prepared for the new government and its legislative priorities – all as the grey clouds hung low over the rolling, verdant lawns of Government House and the blossoms settled on the carefully swept paths.

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