We think we're waiting for PM to act, but bigger forces are at work, writes mrseankelly auspol
This has been a year of waiting. First, we waited for an election to be called. Then we waited for a humdrum election to be over. That election turned out to be less humdrum than we thought, but that only led us to a new period of waiting: for an unexpected government to announce policies, and an unexpected opposition to show us what sort of an opposition it would be. With two weeks until Christmas, we are still stuck in limbo, the political equivalent of the doctor’s waiting room.
The second-biggest question about the Morrison government, for which we have only the faintest tea leaves, is whether it will be good at policy. Perhaps, if you’re asking that question 16 months after someone becomes prime minister, you already have your answer.
It’s plausible, in this odd new world, that even if Morrison’s mob turn out to be not too grand at policy, it doesn’t matter – sigh – because they’re excellent at politics. Which brings us to the matter of Angus Taylor, which complicates that assumption. After the election the question was widely posed: could Morrison do what his predecessors had failed to do and slow the media cycle, or would the vacuum be quickly filled by controversy? We have the answer to that now. A media vacuum wasn’t the only factor, and here we get to the tea leaves on what sort of an opposition Labor will be. Some credit for the Taylor controversy must go to Anthony Albanese and the style of blunt questioning he has brought to Question Time.
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