They do his piping old-man voice involuntarily these days. He used to leak, they say - as though journalists hate it when pollies do that. Part of it is old-school homophobia; they were young blades then, and McMahon was a queer old irrelevance delaying the coming of Gough. For all their experience of politics they can't quite explain why, in modern parlance, McMahon 'saved the furniture': he went into the 1972 election with a surplus of seven seats and out with a deficit of only nine, which is why the Coalition were back in office under three years rather than waiting out the decade.
Because they don't do policy, they really can't explain why McMahon was so terrible. He didn't divide the country while at war, like Hughes, and nor did he faff around in the face of economic emergency and geopolitical threat like Lyons.
Even more embarrassingly, they can't explain why they thought so highly of Tony Abbott, and why all the evidence shows they were so so wrong to do so. This isn't some sudden development; Abbott was never good enough to become Prime Minister. The more experience you have covering politics, the greater your professional negligence in failing to notice that.
The comparison is stronger than you realise. The alternatives available, much less so.
Issue
|
McMahon
|
Abbott
|
Tertiary
education
|
LLB BEc, University of Sydney
|
BEc LLB, University of Sydney
|
‘Cheerful,
rowdy extravert’ while at uni
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Threatened
by homosexuality
|
Not necessarily
|
Yes (except for own sibling); voted
against same-sex marriage
|
Number
of children
|
3
|
3
|
Year
entered House of Representatives
|
1949
|
1994
|
Number
of years in Parliament before first appointed to frontbench
|
2
|
2
|
Role
of John Howard
|
NSW Liberal State Executive member;
manually operated teleprompter at public speeches in 1972
|
Mentor, appointed him to several
ministries
|
Leaked
against Liberal leaders under whom he served
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Minister
responsible for workplace relations system
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Criticised
by Victorian colleague for lack of economics knowledge
|
Yes (McEwen)
|
Yes (Costello)
|
Became
leader only after critical colleague left Parliament
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Became
leader in party-room spill
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Narrow
party-room victory
|
Tied vote; incumbent (Gorton) voted
against himself
|
Won by one vote with supporter of
incumbent (Turnbull) absent
|
Strong
orator and parliamentary performer
|
Ahh, no
|
Ahh, no
|
Labor
opponent a strong orator and parliamentary performer
|
Yes
|
No
|
Labor
opponent more popular
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Became
Prime Minister after general election
|
No
|
Yes
|
Length
of service as Prime Minister
|
21 months
|
16 months so far
|
Came
to office with strong approval rating
|
No
|
No
|
Women
in cabinet
|
0
|
1, then 2
|
Wartime
leader
|
Yes (Vietnam)
|
Yes (Afghanistan)
|
Withdrew
troops from conflict
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Appointed
predecessor to ministry
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
High
Commissioner to the UK
|
Alexander Downer (Sr)
|
Alexander Downer (Jr)
|
Supported
by Rupert Murdoch
|
No
|
Yes, then no
|
Relationship
with Packer family
|
Leaked to journalist Alan Reid, who
was employed by Sir Frank Packer
|
Employed by Kerry Packer as a
journalist
|
Criticised
in book by Susan Mitchell
|
Stand
by your man
|
Tony
Abbott: A man’s man
|
Public
appearances with wife wearing white
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Wrong-footed
by US President over China
|
Criticised Whitlam for recognising
and visiting People’s Republic of China, just before President Nixon did
|
After removing carbon pricing
scheme, President Obama signed carbon pricing arrangement with PRC
|
Aboriginal
tent embassy protest
|
Yes (was set up under his Prime
Ministership)
|
Yes (protest at the site in 2011 targeted
an event he attended nearby)
|
Brief,
pointless visit to Aboriginal settlement in Northern Territory
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Immigration
policy
|
Watered down but did not end the
White Australia Policy
|
Watered down but did not withdraw
from UN Convention on Refugees
|
Unemployment
rose during term
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Relationship
with Secretary of Treasury
|
Sir Roland Wilson resigned rather
than work with him
|
Sacked Dr Martin Parkinson
|
Actions
against civil liberties
|
Voted to ban Communist Party
|
Detention and refoulement of
refugees; legislated to imprison journalists and whistleblowers with unauthorised
material; data retention; proposed banning verbal advocacy of Islamist
organisations
|
Child
care
|
Child Care Act 1972
|
Vague talk about childcare after
dumping of paid parental leave scheme; wife manager of daycare centre
|
Cut
university funding
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Cut
government support for non-fossil-fuel energy
|
Nuclear
|
Renewables
|
Cut
other areas of science
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Hostile
Senate
|
No
|
Not necessarily, then yes
|
Liberal
Party performance in state elections during tenure
|
WA (lost)
NSW (won)
Tasmania (lost)
|
Tasmania (won)
Victoria (lost)
Queensland (lost)
NSW (tbd)
|
Denied
lying
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Big
ears
|
Yes (looked like a Volkswagen with
both doors open)
|
Yes (what’s a Volkswagen?)
|
Accused
of not listening
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
It's time, comrades.
ReplyDeleteGood stuff, Andrew.
ReplyDeleteI remember Billy as a bit of a joke before Gough, but he was certainly not as big a joke as Abbott is becoming, promulgated by his own so-called supporters.
I think his days are numbered but I must say as a Labor supporter I would prefer he stays until the next election.
Like you, Dave C, I remember the McMahon Months. He wasn't a particularly adept PM, but neither were either of the others (Holt, Gorton) post-Menzies. (Google tells me Black Jack McEwin was also PM. That must've been as a temp immediately after Holt disappeared.) I would probably have categorised him as the worst PM we've had in my lifetime until recently, but Abbott makes him look like a statesman with enormous gravitas.
DeleteExcellent summary/tabulation. But I do have one suggested change to put your summary beyond dispute. In the section 'strong orator and parliamentary performer' in the Abbott column there should have been at least one 'er' plus a reference to Julia being the worst PM ever and/or 'debt and 'deficit', 'toxic tax', 'Whyalla wipeout' & etc
ReplyDeleteAnd now this from Laura Tingle:
ReplyDelete"It turns out there is a lot more to the whole budget thing than a simple slogan about Labor mismanagement. Who would have guessed?"
The Aus media are in the process of pretending they knew all along how hopeless Abbott was going to be. It's enough to make a grown man cry.
Such a succinct analysis - I am impressed!
ReplyDeleteMcMahon was before my time, but I feel like I know the man, after reading that handy table of comparison.
ReplyDeleteYou've been in peak form these past few posts and this is no exception.
ReplyDeleteIt is extraordinary what parallels there are between the two. Another is the restoration of reactionaries to the ministry. Billy brought back Howson and Cairns. Andrews and Abetz is similar.
You are right that it is a typical Press Gallery unthinking assumption that Billy was the worst ever. For all his fumbling, he was more competent than his predecessor Gorton, even if the latter had a much clearer nationalistic vision. Probably better than Holt, too. Billy suffered, as they all did, from being contrasted with the eloquence and wit of Gough. Certainly he looked more helpless and dated because of that contrast.
But he did save the furniture from what looked like being a rout. For that alone he justifies leaving the bottom of the table. I'd even put him ahead of Lyons and Bruce despite them winning several elections on the back of Labor splits.
I think Cook is the current titleholder, but Abbott is rapidly closing in.
There is one major difference between the abbott (lower case delib.) government and the McMahon government.
ReplyDeleteThe abbott government is actively and deliberately malevolent; the McMahon government was only passively so.
Great stuff, sharing
ReplyDeleteI've been saying this for months, Andrew, so many thanks for the table. Time to share this page!
ReplyDeleteObvious personal shortcomings aside, Abbott's dilemma is rooted in the deep fissure within the Liberal party.
ReplyDeleteHe was installed to deliver the outcomes demanded by the hard-right within the party and their urgers and backers in the media and business.
He could not tell voters about his intentions because the Libs would not have been elected.
As we all know the govt is in strife now because voters have woken up. They understand full well what the government agenda is and they do not like it one bit. They have no respect for Abbott because he lied to them.
I can't see the Libs installing Malcolm. I wonder at the motives of two climate change sceptics leading the charge for a spill?
But if Turnbull gets in, the public will soon realize that he is TA in a better suit as Shorten put it pithily.
Ah me. It is in none of our interests to have one of our major parties in such a state. I hope the ALP have worked out their problems. They have certainly been very quiet. I take that as a positive. Hopefully.
Meanwhile the country appears to be on the slide. If I were unemployed or facing the sack with few prospects, I would not find the goings-on in Canberra at all hilarious.
Yes.
ReplyDeleteOne other point they both share is that the Liberal Party does not do succession planning well especially after a long serving autocratic leader (Howard/ Abbott and Menzies/ McMahon).
ReplyDeleteConservatives love their "strong" leaders but those same leaders poison the waters for some years after their departure.
McMahon actually did come to office with a strong approval rating; it just didn't last very long. His first Morgan in April 1971 had him with a +47 netsat (55 approve 8 disapprove); by late August he was already negative.
ReplyDelete