A series of key appointments have been made to ensure the highest political office is match fit for an election due by May 2025.
Voice to parliament referendum had been lost, nightmare headlines about rapists and criminals set loose in the community had the Coalition dictating the terms of emergency legislation to grim-faced frontbenchers.
Fitch was well-regarded in government and, after chief of staff Tim Gartrell, was one of the people closest to the prime minister. “That’s not Anthony’s style, he is very much like ‘my office doesn’t run the government’,” they said. It wasn’t the only occasion a behind-the-scenes picture was indiscreetly posted to a PMO staffer’s personal social media account in the first year of government and quickly taken down.Several photographers and camera operators from major news organisations, who asked not to be named, told this masthead the prime minister’s social media staff seemed more concerned about taking selfies with world leaders in the background than ensuring they could do their jobs.