If you think Malcolm Turnbull is Australia’s worst ever PM, Bill Shorten could be even worse with Labor on course to storm to power next year.
Turnbull used the spectre of Shorten becoming PM to knife Tony Abbott in September 2015, citing opinion polls to justify bringing down a first-term prime minister.
‘We have lost 30 Newspolls in a row,’ Turnbull said.
Malcolm Turnbull used Tony Abbott’s 30 consecutive Newspoll losses in September 2015 (pictured) to justify challenging a first-term prime minister
Labor leader Bill Shorten could be an even worse prime minister than Malcolm Turnbull considering he has close ties to militant unions
‘It is clear that the people have made up their mind about Mr Abbott’s leadership.’
Less than two-and-a-half years later, the Turnbull Government is on borrowed time, with the prime minister this month chalking up his 27th consecutive Newspoll loss.
The Liberal PM’s very public spat two weeks ago with his former deputy Barnaby Joyce, over his affair with his pregnant former media adviser Vikki Campion, showed a prime minister who lacked political judgement.
He slammed Joyce’s ‘error of judgement’, sparking a volley of insults from the since departed Nationals leader, who described Turnbull’s comments as ‘inept’ and ‘hurtful’.
Turnbull’s slanging match with Barnaby Joyce (pictured) showed he lacks political judgement
The slanging match between Australia’s two most powerful politicians was unprecedented.
After initially being well-received by voters, Turnbull quickly began to test their patience in March 2016 when he floated the idea of letting the states and territories levy their own income taxes, to fund health services, only to completely can the idea two days later.
He had also raised the idea of raising the GST from 10 per cent, only to change his mind within a matter of weeks.
This, from a prime minister who had accused Abbott in 2015 of being unable to provide ‘the economic leadership our nation needs’.
Labor’s plan for a 50 per cent renewable energy target by 2030 is recipe for higher power bills (Woodlawn wind farm near Canberra pictured)
In May 2016, Turnbull called a double-dissolution election for July 2, using as a trigger the Senate’s rejection of a bill to reinstate the Australian Building and Construction Commission.
The building industry watchdog was hardly mentioned during the 55-day campaign centred around the ‘Jobs and Growth slogan.
The PM, who chastised his predecessor for being slogan-driven, only scraped back into office with a one-seat majority, and an even more obstructive Senate dominated by 20 demanding crossbenchers.
While Shorten looks set to cruise to an election victory in 2019, he is a Labor leader who even party members weren’t enthusiastic about.
Anthony Albanese was the preferred leadership candidate among Labor’s rank-and-file members with Bill Shorten garnering just 41 per cent support
The Opposition Leader, who continues to trail Turnbull in Newspoll’s preferred prime minister rating, was supported by just 41 per cent of ordinary Labor rank-and-file members during a leadership contest with his Left-faction rival Anthony Albanese in October 2013.
While Shorten hails from the centrist Right faction, he maintains close links with the militant, hard-left Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union and could let them write Australia’s industrial relations laws.
His party’s renewable energy policy could also be a recipe for higher power prices and South Australian-style blackouts, with Labor committed to a 50 per cent renewable energy target by 2030.
Shorten supported a gay marriage plebiscite in 2013 only to be opposed to a public vote on the issue in 2017 (pictured at Melbourne rally celebrating resounding Yes vote)
The Labor Party’s bid to ward off a challenge from the Greens in trendy inner-city seats has seen Shorten campaign for the upcoming Batman by-election in Melbourne by declaring he is ‘increasingly skeptical’ of Indian resources giant Adani’s proposed coal mine in Queensland’s Galilee Basin, after promising voters in regional Queensland he would be jobs-focused.
Shorten’s flip-flopping nature was also highlighted last year when he fiercely opposed the gay marriage postal vote survey, declaring Turnbull would be responsible for ‘every hurtful bit of filth’ in the public debate, after admitting in 2013 he was ‘relaxed’ about the idea of a plebiscite.
With both leaders lacking conviction, it’s no surprise voters aren’t warming to either one of them.
Like Bill Shorten, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has appeared at Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, as voters switch off the major parties
Polling group Roy Morgan’s executive chairman Gary Morgan said voters were turning away from the major parties because their leaders were failing to address their concerns about corruption and underemployment.
‘Politicians don’t like discussing the difficult issues, ‘ he told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday.
‘The politicians are hypocritical, they take the electorate for mugs and they don’t do what they know should be done.’
A Roy Morgan poll released this month showed lower taxes are the biggest concern of voters, with 22 per cent wishing it was the federal government’s key priority, compared with 17 per cent who nominated private health insurance and Medicare.