Politics in Australia: Knightmare disorder

Nguồn tin: nguontinviet.com

TONY ABBOTT, Australia’s prime minister, reportedly called it a “near-death” experience. On February 9th MPs of his Liberal Party voted against a motion to open the party’s leadership to a ballot. But the margin, 61 votes to 39, was hardly a ringing endorsement of Mr Abbott’s leadership, just 17 months after he became prime minister. His struggle to keep his job is far from over.

Since he led the conservative Liberal-National coalition to power in September 2013, Mr Abbott has spent much of his term fighting to win voters’ confidence. But a Newspoll survey—published as his Liberal colleagues in Canberra, the capital, cast their votes on his future—showed just how much he has failed. It gave the opposition Labor Party a 14-point lead, and gave its leader, Bill Shorten, an 18-point lead over Mr Abbott. More than two-thirds of those surveyed were dissatisfied with Mr Abbott’s performance.

Mr Abbott was not hugely popular to begin with. Voters backed him at least partly out of despair with the former Labor government and its debilitating leadership wars. The public mood soured after his government announced its first budget last May. Its aim to reduce Australia’s deficit was worthy enough. But it contained cuts in spending on health, education and welfare that Mr Abbott had once promised not to make, and which seemed to fall most heavily on poorer Australians. Mr Abbott and Joe Hockey, Australia’s treasurer, did a bad job of selling the budget to voters, appearing dismissive of their concerns.

The prime minister had promised a fresh start to 2015 by “scraping one or two barnacles off the ship”. Instead he got into a scrape of his own on January 26th when he awarded a knighthood to Prince Philip, the husband of Australia’s (British) head of state, Queen Elizabeth. An ardent monarchist, Mr Abbott reintroduced knighthoods and dames to Australia’s honours system last year, 40 years after they were abolished. The “knightmare” brought ridicule on Mr Abbott, and further stoked concerns that he was out of touch with modern Australia. Its impact was felt in Queensland, where a government allied to Mr Abbott’s coalition could lose power after a state election on January 31st, the results of which were expected to be declared soon after The Economist went to press.

Grumbling about Mr Abbott’s leadership has recently extended to his own backbench MPs. He angered colleagues by declaring that it was for the public to “hire and fire” leaders. Some felt Mr Abbott was casting himself in a presidential role, ignoring the conventions of Australia’s Westminster system, in which parties elect their own leaders.

The drama has reflected a growing pattern among Australian politicians from both sides to move against leaders when poor polling seems to threaten electoral oblivion. Leadership upheavals have only fed the cynicism of many Australians towards their politicians. It has also left business leaders dismayed. They fret about the turbulent political scene’s impact on business confidence and certainty. Ian Marsh of the Australian National University argues that the country’s governments have faced a “slow-burn crisis of legitimacy that has been many years in the making”.

Personality politics are only part of the problem. In a country where voting is compulsory, says Mr Marsh, about 40% of people now vote for minor parties and independents, spoil their ballots or do not vote. Liberal and Labor, which once shared most of the vote between them, now offer outdated ideologies to an increasingly diverse Australia.

Mr Abbott declared the leadership motion a “very chastening experience”. Critics now wonder if he will manage to soften his combative approach. He will need to in order to win his party’s, and the public’s trust. The latter may be sorely tested again in May, when Mr Abbott’s government will present its second budget.

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