Tag: John Hewson

Mr Pyne's departure blows a prodigious hole in the ranks of the senior moderates of the Liberal Party, a group already mourning the loss of Julie Bishop. A brand-new backbencher, he was surprised in March 1993 by a visit from John Howard to his office in the House's most distant orbit of junior offices. Along with Ms Bishop, Mr Pyne was routinely overlooked by Mr Howard for ministerial office and served as a parliamentary secretary for many years, leading him to observe on Kitchen Cabinet in 2012 that he must have been an extremely good parliamentary secretary, given his extreme longevity in the role. Aslan was a big clue In the dying days of the Howard government, Mr Pyne was appointed minister for aged care, in a latent demonstration of Mr Howard's sense of humour matched only by the appointment of fellow moderate and notorious bookworm George Brandis to the Ministry of Sport. But it was in opposition, during the Rudd and Gillard years, that Mr Pyne's star rose in the Liberal Party. Never again did he estrange himself from a serving leader the way he had from John Howard; Mr Pyne made himself indispensable to Brendan Nelson, to Malcolm Turnbull, to Tony Abbott (an old friend and regular dining companion for many years, odd as this might seem), and to Mr Turnbull again He became a nimble and expert manager of parliamentary business, maintaining — notably — a warm relationship with his opposite number, Labor's Anthony Albanese. While Mr Pyne has remained as the Government's Leader of the House under Scott Morrison, his recent interview mourning the loss of Mr Turnbull and likening him to Aslan — the slain, Christ-like hero of CS Lewis' Narnia novels — was a beefy clue that the magic had gone out of politics for him. Ironically, Mr Bernardi was recruited to the Liberal Party by Mr Pyne, but in subsequent decades the pair fell out viciously. The end of an era Mr Pyne's life in politics has — in the seamless way of parliamentary men — also produced four children without any particular public comment. The opportunity for a new generation is rich.