Friday 24 October 2008

Malcolm Turnbull turns and trips over his ego

Well, you just gotta hand it to Truffles - it isn't always easy to make such a pig's ear of the job of Leader of the Opposition but he managed it this week.

Under attack by the banks and the Rudd Government over his past statements of the economy, he goes on to suggest that the global financial crisis is being hyped up, gets into an internal party cat fight, makes a cake of himself with an attack on a senior public servant the substance of which (to his embarrassment) is not actually supported by Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens, and finally tops it off by ignoring the House of Reps call for him to apologize.

Truffles obviously thinks that we are all dumb and some of us even dumber.
That we didn't see that there had been no significant movement of money (out of non-guaranteed into deposit guaranteed Australian financial institutions) until Malcolm Turnbull & Co starting crying that the sky was falling.
He forgets that these days not only can we follow breaking issues on the World Wide, the ABC provides us all with a 24hr news radio station as well.

This ABC TV Lateline exchange on Wednesday says it all:
"RAFAEL EPSTEIN: Louis Christopher says the leakage of funds may have started only after only it became an issue in Canberra and the media this week.
LOUIS CHRISTOPHER: I think that that's a fair call. I believe, yes, that the redemptions before this week were on the uptick but it was in our opinion something that the sector was handling reasonably well, barring a few exceptions.
However, given the recent media attention over the past 48 hours, well now it has become quite a problem, and redemptions have certainly accelerated."

No wonder that one Oz letter writer opined:
Listening to Malcolm Turnbull's statements over the past few days, it appears the Opposition Leader considers the international financial crisis to be either a figment of Kevin Rudd's imagination, or a Labor plot to gain political advantage, ultimately denying Mr Turnbull his rightful place in the Lodge.
Isabelle Wharley
Willoughby


I think that Isabelle has hit the nail squarely on the head - Turnbull's massive ego and belief in the divine right to rule is betraying his practical political ambitions.
In hindsight it was mildly amusing to realise how Truffles made a train wreck of the Australian Republic campaign.
His continuing hubris which now sees him willing to wreck the national economy is another matter all together.

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