How Abbott will check mate his critics

Sadly, while the government has many runs on the board, viz. it has stopped illegal arrivals and saved lives, created jobs and uncoupled the economy from carbon and mining taxes, its leadership has failed to successfully publicise these victories, let alone exploit them.

Most recently Hockey sought to shave the cost of funding Medicare by trying to curb the appetite of the nation’s most articulate union with the best-dressed members, the Australian Medical Association. The government wanted patients to marginally contribute to the cost of their care. The AMA, alert to the reality that when the price of a service rises, even ever so slightly, less will be demanded of it, successfully torpedoed this initiative.

After all, the AMA leadership like any good shop steward wasn’t going to stand around and watch its members suffer a dip in remuneration, no matter how small.

Perish the thought that such a policy has Australia’s national long-term health interests at heart.

Nobody can fault the AMA’s Dr Brian Owler for advancing his and his union’s interests. Blame however can be dumped on Joe Hockey for failing to sell his well-intentioned reform to the public.

All of the above policies, each in its own way, serves the public interest. They don’t however serve narrow special interests. And it’s the special interests that can organise air time on television to argue their case with sympathetic reporters and offer spokesmen to radio stations to disingenuously galvanise fear in the hearts of listeners.

Sydney’s Daily Telegraph on Tuesday got it so right when it held that “much of Abbott’s unpopularity, of course, is to do with Labor’s ­extremely successful campaign to paint the Coalition’s first Budget as mean and unfair. This campaign is a triumph of repetition over facts, but it is certainly working, mainly because Treasurer Joe Hockey seems unable to counter it”.

Abbott must sack Hockey as Treasurer and replace him with Turnbull. Hockey’s experience, for what it’s worth, can be harnessed if he takes Josh Frydenberg’s job of Assistant Treasurer.

By doing so, Abbott would have check mated all of his critics.

After all, if Turnbull succeeds in the role then the party’s standing in the polls will rise, the party will be energised and Abbott will look like the captain he believes he is: placing the right person in the right role.

Should Turnbull fail to bring the back bench with him, fail to cut through to the taxpaying public or falls victim to Labor’s effective but chronically asinine half truths, then not only will Turnbull damage the party, but Abbott will rightly claim he snookered his critics. He gave them a chance and Turnbull blew it.

The smart money however is on Turnbull succeeding as Treasurer, Hockey as his assistant and in turn, both making Abbott a success whilst uniting the party.