Photo by Daniel Morton-Jones on Unsplash
By Mark Kenny
A version of this article was originally published by The Canberra Times.
Amid the Capital Hill dramas on Friday, Malcolm Turnbull beamed into the ABC's coverage to note, wryly, that Anthony Albanese "must be the luckiest prime minister ever" because his opponents "keep blowing themselves up".
And he said other things, too.
Like that there was only one party currently operating in the centre-ground where elections are won, the ALP.
And, that far from being the best answer to the Liberals' leadership woes, Angus Taylor, was just "the best-qualified idiot". Whoa!
Desperately trying not to sound like an ex-PM scorned - or "miserable ghost" - Turnbull's observations were grim but resonant, especially on Albanese's luck at the Liberal Party's rightward lurch.
After all, who could hope to get more than one Peter Dutton as an opponent? Or indeed, any opposition leader who denies the malady of his once dominant Liberal Party - its poor standing among metropolitan women. And younger voters. And migrants.
Enter Taylor, hardener of policy, enforcer of a new love-it-or-leave message on immigration, opponent of universal childcare, enemy of climate change hand-wringing and woke mealy-mouthiness.
By Albanese's reading, Australians not 10 months ago, rejected alpha-male, right-leaning politics.
And since the same party has now re-affirmed its pro-nuclear, anti-female quota stances, and even shifted back to being anti-net-zero, does that not also explain its continued decline?
Taylor's vague pitch to colleagues had amounted to make Australia great again, without, mercifully, uttering those words.
His press conference - some hours after the ballot - was a chance to elaborate.
Instead, he talked again of restoring living standards, nurturing national confidence and "a love for our country", lifting wages while lowering taxes and focusing "relentlessly" on the Liberal Party's core strength - at least historically - of lower government spending and superior economic stewardship.
There were mea culpas, too. New deputy leader, Senator Jane Hume acknowledged that her breakfast TV quip about "Chinese spies" during the last election had been a damaging blunder.
Taylor acknowledged that taking higher spending and taxes to that election (when he was shadow treasurer) had been the "the politics of convenience [over] conviction".
Looming over Taylor's elevation is the dark shadow of Pauline Hanson's ascendant One Nation. A by-election in Sussan Ley's regional electorate will be an unwelcome early test. It will be difficult, as will the polls.
Both Taylor and Hume insist they are committed to taking the party "forward" rather than shifting it left or right. This is a word-game to avoid the central dilemma which is that for the Liberal Party to recover as a party of government, it must re-establish its relevance in the cities.
That means speaking "for" women, "for" social change, and "for" migrant communities.
As Hume's apology demonstrates, in politics, it is what these voters hear you say that matters most.
Mark Kenny is the Director of the ANU Australian Studies Institute and host of the Democracy Sausage podcast.