There was a curious moment during today’s prime ministerial press conference, when two worlds wobbled next to each other.
A journalist asked whether Bill Shorten would be in jail if the legislation Turnbull was there to celebrate had been in place just a few years ago, when Shorten had been a union chief. Turnbull
replied [$], “Conduct of Mr Shorten, if it were repeated, under these laws, would attract criminal sanctions, yes, that’s right.”
Turnbull didn’t just reply. He seized on the question. He had spent much of the press conference looking sullen while the relevant minister, Michaelia Cash, positively popped with enthusiasm. With this one question their roles reversed. Cash began the response and was not quite so definite, saying that Shorten would
potentially have been in trouble. Turnbull, though, was clearly thrilled by the prospect, and by the chance to articulate it for the world. As soon as the question had been answered he called an end to the press conference and strode away.
And fair enough. In a quieter, gentler time – say, the days of John Howard vs Kim Beazley – this would have been huge news. The prime minister had just as-good-as called the Opposition leader a criminal. No caveats, no “it would have been open to the courts to find it so”, no “
could attract criminal sanctions”, but “
would”, not even said under protection by parliamentary privilege (though Shorten would be mad to sue). There would have been outrage. There would have been some debate about abuse of power, and whether national leaders should pass laws directed in any way against their opponents. Not all of this would have been favourable to Turnbull, but he would have chosen the battleground, and in politics that is half the distance to victory.
I must record that there was
some outrage, with shadow treasurer Chris Bowen sent out to decry Turnbull’s journey along the low road. But this, too, was quickly sucked into the vortex. The old world in which such things mattered had shimmered into existence for a moment, and then faded away again just as fast.
This fading wasn’t actually obvious in the press conference. There were a couple of questions about same-sex marriage, a question about an ex-MP and some lobbyists, questions about the legislation. If that was all the information you had about the day it might have seemed as though politics was returning to its usual state, in which a number of issues clamour for airtime.