Politics

Labor is hoping its leadership on the republican issue will send a message to progressive voters, who have deserted it for Turnbull.

Peter Hendy’s assessment about the cost of electioneering on big tax reform is shared by veteran Liberals who remember 1998 with a shiver up their spines.

Right now, officials in capital cities the world over are scheduling, briefing and fretting over the feast of looming diplomatic jamborees.

Eric Abetz, before he was unceremoniously dumped by Turnbull, was being lined up as our ambassador to Berlin. That Abbott project has been quietly shelved.

Two weeks ago there were flashes of the old Turnbull in a heated phone confrontation with NSW premier Mike Baird. ‘A leopard can’t change its spots,’ was the reaction of one MP.

Abbott has said he’s not interested in being an ambassador. 'Diplomacy wasn’t his greatest skill,' a highly connected liberal businessman says, 'so it’s just as well.'

The question on many lips is, ‘Was Turnbull controlled by Murdoch or controlled by Abbott who was controlled by Murdoch?’

Morrison says we need to have a mature discussion. But is there a grown-up way of cutting the wages and conditions of four million Australians?

In a disturbing development for the Labor narrative that nothing has changed but the leader, Turnbull has parted ways with Abbott’s chief business adviser, Maurice Newman.

One of Labor’s key strategists says they don’t have to be explicit in playing to class envy; it is already happening. Everyone knows Turnbull is a ‘rich dude’.