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July 7th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda MALCOLM TURNBULL may or may not have become reconciled to his likely fate for next year: senior minister in Tony Abbott’s government, rather than leading the Coalition. Probably not entirely. Men who must be number one can have a hard time of it in their heads when the road is blocked.
Anyway, Turnbull seems to have made fundamental decisions. He is not going to push his views in a way that will force him to the backbench. But he is going to be Malcolm, which means publicly standing up for what he believes.
We’ve seen that on gay marriage, the media, asylum seeker policy and the Liberal National Party preselection battle in the Queensland seat of Fisher.
On Friday night, Turnbull delivered an impressive, almost brutal attack on the critics of gay marriage, who include his leader (not that Abbott got a mention by name – can’t be too provocative). Turnbull would like to back gay marriage when private members’ legislation comes up in Parliament but the ”leadership” (read Abbott) has denied a free vote, so he would have to resign from the frontbench, and he is not going to do that. But he pointed out Liberal backbenchers do not get expelled if they cross the floor and if they want good reasons to do so, Turnbull’s speech will give them plenty.
Turnbull is the communications spokesman so you would have expected him to have something to say about Gina Rinehart’s battle with the board of Fairfax (publisher of this paper). But his comments, at least initially, were different from those of his colleagues. Turnbull stressed the importance of editorial independence, which Rinehart and the board have been fighting about, to preserving the Fairfax brand. Abbott was enthusiastic about Rinehart, and the official opposition line became that the independence battle was a matter for the board.
On the asylum boats issue, Turnbull would like a more bipartisan approach. In the parliamentary debate, he suggested the government should first try the opposition’s Nauru solution and, if that did not work, then come back to ask for ”stronger measures” – obviously the Malaysian proposal (Malaysia is the government’s preferred option that Abbott says he will never accept).
Turnbull used Twitter to have his say about the Fisher preselection, in which the former Howard minister Mal Brough is trying to make a parliamentary comeback. Brough has the problem of being involved in the case about the Speaker, Peter Slipper. James Ashby, the Slipper aide, who has claimed the Speaker sexually harassed him, has been accused of supplying Brough with extracts of Slipper’s diary. Brough is also being investigated over a local government matter by the Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission. Nevertheless Abbott remained very warm about Brough last week.
But when a strong alternative to Brough emerged, in the form of James McGrath, Turnbull was quick out of the blocks. McGrath (a previous Liberal federal deputy director, recruited by Turnbull) was ”an outstanding campaigner and political mind”. Turnbull later objected when this was interpreted as support for McGrath over Brough, saying ”I speak well of all my colleagues”, but where he stood was pretty clear.
Often when you see Turnbull, who combines principle and sense on many issues, you wonder how his leadership could have gone so wrong. He was brought down by enemies and by himself, to the party’s loss. But that’s another story.
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