Note from Rowland: this is an unusually perceptive article (by someone with a Christian – Salvation Army – upbringing)

Malcolm Turnbull is losing his chance to be a great Prime Minister

February 23, 2016

Ross Gittins

The Sydney Morning Herald’s Economics Editor

Expectations were high, but now the Prime Minister is resorting to the same cheap tactics as the man he overthrew.

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Malcolm Turnbull is slipping. Not just in the opinion polls, that’s merely a symptom of his problem. No, he’s slipping in his shot at being one of our great prime ministers.

And if he rushes off to a double dissolution election in July because he fears he may not win if he waits until September, that will be a sign his place in the prime ministerial hall of fame will be up the back with his three immediate predecessors.

When Turnbull displaced Tony Abbott five months ago I, like many others, dared to hope his ascension represented a new beginning for Australian politics.

An end to the spiral of ever-declining standards of political behaviour, the negativity, the broken promises, the short-sightedness, the tit-for-tat mentality, the reciprocal scare-mongering, the unceasing attempts to “wedge” the other side, the blatant appeal to our baser instincts.

The eternal emphasis on attaining and retaining power, rather than on using that power to make Australia a better place to live and work.

Malcolm Turnbull seems to be shrinking to the size of his stunted predecessors.

To be fair, there was no way any flesh-and-blood politician could have lived up to the unrealistic expectations we had for him. And Turnbull does fit the bill in one important respect: he speaks and looks and acts like a prime minister should. He has gravitas.

But the closer we get to the pointy end of the Coalition government’s first term, the more possibilities for improvement are being taken off the table to leave the second-term work program awaiting the voters’ approval, the more Turnbull seems to be shrinking to the size of his stunted predecessors.

Just in the past week or so we’ve Scott Morrison doing Joe Hockey impressions, and Turnbull resorting to the same cheap tactics as the man he overthrew.

I’m not prepared to condemn Turnbull for failing to slash and burn government spending at a time when the economy is still not fully back on its feet.

But when you remember all the Coalition’s carry-on over the “budget emergency”, the insouciance with which Turnbull and Morrison have consigned the budget deficit to the too-hard basket is breathtaking.

I’ve been happy to defend Turnbull against the unthinking notion that increasing the goods and services tax and channelling the proceeds to foreign investors and people on the top personal tax rate is the be-all-and-end-all of tax reform.

Fail to deliver for big business and you’re utterly lacking in courage.

Nonsense. The four tax subsidies to which the tax reform spotlight has turned