‘Where there is poverty there are quarrels’, says a Greek proverb.

This proverb sums up rather well the behind-the-scenes quarrels that have appeared in the governing coalition’s caucus and in their wider power base in the community, as a result of the tabling of the May budget and the reaction of the public as measured by the polls.

The pro-Abbott media, in their effort to divert the attention of the government’s power base to other issues away from the impact of the Federal Budget, and in order to protect the PM, have created in the last few weeks the non-existent myth that Malcolm Turnbull is out and about trying to reclaim at the first given opportunity the leadership of the Liberals and of the government.

Well known Abbott confidants, supporters and right wing public propagandists, such as Andrew Bolt and Alan Jones, blew out of political reality and out of proportions a recent meeting in Canberra of the current Communications Minister and former short lived Liberal party leader, Malcolm Turnbull, with fellow MP and PUP leader Clive Palmer.

The editorials and columnists of leading Murdoch newspapers such as The Australian and the Herald Sun felt the need to call on Turnbull to support the government’s budget more actively in public, to stop undermining the Prime Minister, as they wrote, and to get his act together.
‘Try to get two birds with one shot’, says another Greek proverb.

Malcolm Turnbull is used by the pro-Abbott forces as a scapegoat in order to divert attention from the real budget generated issues facing the Prime Minister and his government.

However, Turnbull, as minister responsible for the ABC, is attacked also because he is not denouncing the national broadcaster as vociferously as the Murdoch media and conservative think tanks wish him to.

Most importantly, though, he is attacked for another reason. As the Minister for Communications he is a central player when it comes to redefining the parameters and the laws that govern media ownership in Australia. The political attacks on Turnbull are not aiming to confront the non-existent threat that he poses to the Prime Ministership of Tony Abbott. Media and others attack him in order to undermine his political authority, so that when the time comes to take decisions in relation to media ownership in Australia, he will not be there, as Minister of Communications, or, if he is still there, he should be as weak politically as he could possibly be.

All this, plus the fact that Malcolm Turnbull is not a hard core right wing ideologue, or a monarchist such as Tony Abbott, the Murdoch media and the current ruling alliances in the government are, make the attacks on him understandable and explainable.

Turnbull, being aware of these tactics and strategies of his opponents, responded ‘aggressively’ and rightly so.

However, if he is to remain a politically useful voice and active within the government and within the Liberal party, he would need the have the support not only of his political opponents, or of the wider community, but also of a substantial segment of the Liberal party.

Tony Abbot’s Liberal Party today is even more narrow ideologically than John Howard’s party was a few years ago.

We tend to talk in this country about the influence that factions, unions or ‘faceless’ men have in the Australian Labor Party and we forget that all political parties, especially the ones that exercise power, like the Liberals, are a feudal microcosm of alliances and interests that get together in order to claim and exercise power on behalf of the people, a group of people or an ideology.

We tend to forget in this country, let alone mention it, that yes, factions and faceless leaders also exist on the conservative side of politics.

The microcosms that have come together in order to exercise power in Australia under the Abbott government are not representative of the wider ideological spectrum and support that the Liberals traditionally have and enjoy in this country. They are also quite hostile to Malcolm Turnbull’s ideas and political practices.

This has to be exposed in public. Defending Turnbull and exposing his attackers is something that has to be taken up by many, outside and especially inside the Liberal Party of Australia.