Tag: Peter Costello

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.

The Senate president, Scott Ryan, has lamented the lost art of compromise in Australian politics, pointing out that meeting in the middle on contentious policy does not equate to “abandoning the base”. With the Liberal party still processing the corrosive civil war of the past fortnight, Ryan used a speech in Melbourne on Wednesday night to argue the greatest successes of Australian politics had come from “compromise and negotiation” and the use of parliamentary process to resolve competing points of view. In an implicit rebuke to the death match character of politics that fuelled Malcolm Turnbull’s demise as prime minister, the Victorian Liberal warned Australian voters not to reward politicians projecting uncompromising stances to the community. Australian politics needs women like Julia Banks – but it is hostile territory Read more Ryan invoked a number of examples from the Howard era to illustrate his point – the passage of the GST and labour market deregulation with the support of the Australian Democrats in the Senate, and the passage of gun controls that were contentious with the Coalition’s rural supporters. Or that we would be better off still arguing about it?” “Peter Reith’s reforms to workplace relations, the product of compromise with the Democrats, no natural fans of labour market deregulation and now sadly wound back, were a driving force in our economic boom that saw record low unemployment, productivity growth and substantial real income growth for the first time in more than a decade”. “But they weren’t relentlessly attacked as abandoning the base simply by virtue of challenging supporters, even on such a difficult issue”. The Senate president argued the tonal shift in Australian politics has been accompanied by a change in the dynamic of the chamber he currently presides over. He said the Australian Senate was drifting in the direction of the American system which manifests “entrenched positions, or explicit unrelated trade-offs” when legislation moves through the chamber. “Governments need to be able to legislate the agenda they take to elections, otherwise we will see frustration at democracy increase. Ryan said adopting the convention would require senators to acknowledge the difference between supporting a program of an elected government, and acquiescing to it.