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The Sketch: Tony Wright on 'Nation's worst government? Jane Hume's hyperbolic historical claim' · Inside Politics

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  S1: Hello. It's Jacqueline Maley here. The host of Inside Politics,
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  S1: Tony Wright, the associate editor of The Age, has been
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  S1: writing for 50 years. He's the master of what we
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  S1: call the political sketch. Sketches are akin to a verbal cartoon,
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  S1: and when done well, they capture a moment in politics.
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  S1: Today we bring you Tony's sketch, published this week titled
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  S1: Nation's Worst Government. Jane Humes hyperbolic historical claim.
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  S2: Jane Hume will never be accused of understatement, but her
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  S2: return to the coalition's frontbench appears to have excited her
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  S2: to new heights of endearingly bonkers hyperbole. Hume, having been
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  S2: elevated to deputy leader of the Liberal Party after former
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  S2: leader Sussan Ley cruelly condemned her to a period in purgatory,
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  S2: is clearly not about to let mold grow on new
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  S2: opportunities to lay it on thick. Thus, when she was
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  S2: given the microphone on ABC radio on Wednesday morning, she
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  S2: set about sprinkling fairy dust on the ailing coalition's new
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  S2: frontbench while denouncing with relish Anthony Albanese's labor outfit quotes
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  S2: we want to prosecute Labor's failures. It's the worst government
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  S2: in this nation's history, she declared. Hang about the worst
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  S2: government in this nation's history. Give it time. It might
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  S2: yet gain the exalted position of worst in history, but
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  S2: it's got some very stiff competition. Hume herself, after all,
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  S2: was a minister in Scott Morrison's government. We shouldn't dwell
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  S2: on the memory of Morrison, period. Of course, it being
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  S2: too painfully recent for reasoned judgement. Let's scroll back then,
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  S2: through the Gaga, Tony Abbott and tortured Rudd-gillard-rudd periods. Tempting
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  S2: as it might be to invite spirited argument about, which
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  S2: was worst, a knighthood for the Queen's husband, anyone, or
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  S2: a real Julia moment in quest of escape from Kevin
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  S2: Rudd's relentless undermining. Now, let's go back a bit further.
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  S2: What about the prime ministership of Paul Billy McMahon? Such
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  S2: a champion, liar, backstabber and leaker that Gough Whitlam dubbed
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  S2: him Tiberius with a telephone, McMahon will retain forever the
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  S2: title of silliest PM in Australian history, which naturally places
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  S2: his short lived government 1971 to 1972, in contention as
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  S2: the worst. Famously, a journalist once asked McMahon about his
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  S2: vision for the future. He frantically flipped through his voluminous
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  S2: briefing notes before declaiming oh no! Nothing about the future here.
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  S2: Whitlam replaced McMahon in the Lodge and remains much lauded
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  S2: for his numerous achievements in upending Old State Australia and
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  S2: remaking its future. But the last year of the Whitlam
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  S2: government must be in the running for the worst in history,
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  S2: or at the very least, most mind boggling. The secret
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  S2: and fruitless attempts to borrow billions through a shady commodities
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  S2: dealer named Tirath Khemlani. The various ministers who misled Parliament
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  S2: over this and other would be secret loans. A married treasurer,
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  S2: Jim Cairns, declaring he had a kind of love for
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  S2: his private secretary, Junie Morosi, when just about everyone knew
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  S2: what kind of love it actually was. Oh, and Whitlam's
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  S2: own spectacular misjudgment for appointing his own executioner, John Kerr.
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  S2: Skip much further back, and you'd have a rich choice
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  S2: regarding which government of the indestructible Billy Hughes was the worst.
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  S2: He was prime minister, representing three different parties in less
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  S2: than eight years from 1915 to 1923. Having split his
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  S2: Labor Party by demanding and failing to introduce conscription during
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  S2: World War One. He was expelled by the party, leading
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  S2: him to form the National Labor Party before switching to
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  S2: the Nationalist Party all as PM. You would bewilder yourself,
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  S2: trying to figure which might have been the worst of
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  S2: the governments. The peripatetic Hughes served during his 50 years
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  S2: as an MP. All up he represented six different political parties,
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  S2: led five, outlasted four and was expelled from three. As
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  S2: an aside, he never joined the Country Party. His explanation
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  S2: you have to draw the line somewhere. And then there
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  S2: was the government of Jim Scullin. He had the great
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  S2: misfortune of becoming prime minister within days of the New
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  S2: York Stock Market Crash of 1929, which soon enough condemned
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  S2: Australia to the Great Depression. Though Scullin himself strived mightily
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  S2: to cope, the economy and political enemies, including Labour rebels
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  S2: who crossed the floor against him, conspired to bring him down.
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  S2: He was gone within three years. His one term labor
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  S2: Labour government smashed by Joseph Lyons United Australia Party, reducing
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  S2: the ALP to just 14 of the parliament's 76 seats.
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  S2: We won't go on. Though we could, for the title
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  S2: of worst is splendidly subjective. Choose your own. Meanwhile, we
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  S2: await Jane Hume's merry promise on Wednesday's radio outing that
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  S2: the latest coalition frontbench will soon enough be, as she says,
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  S2: ready for government and to change Australia for the better.
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  S1: You can read all of our political news on our websites,
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  S1: theage.com.au or SMS. Before you go, follow Inside Politics and
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  S1: leave us a review on Apple or Spotify. I'm Jacqueline Maley,
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  S1: thank you for listening.