‘They’ve lost their way’: Turnbull unveils portrait, lets rip at former party

3 months ago 5

For a moment, just a moment, it looked as if Anthony Albanese could break down in tears. On the final parliamentary sitting day of a long election year, the prime minister was speaking at the unveiling of Malcolm Turnbull’s official prime ministerial portrait.

Albanese wanted the crowd to know something about Malcolm the man, not just the politician.

“On a very personal level, there was a moment, nothing to do with politics, where Malcolm and [wife] Lucy, to me, showed their character, where they reached out to me at a difficult time in my personal life, and just had me to dinner,” Albanese said. “No one knows about it.”

Albanese – whose wife Carmel ended their three-decade-long relationship in 2019 – described the Turnbulls’ dinner invitation as a “sign of character and decency and humanity”.

Malcolm Turnbull and Anthony Albanese had plenty of compliments for each other during the 29th prime minister of Australia’s official portrait unveiling at Parliament House.

“My life got better,” added Albanese, who is preparing to marry fiancée Jodie Haydon over summer.

Looking at the portraits lining the walls of Parliament House, Albanese described the artworks as “rare islands of stillness and silence”. This tranquillity, he noted, contrasts with Turnbull, “always a man in a hurry”.

“When we picture Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister, it is in motion, in full flight at the dispatch box, breezing through the corridors of the press gallery or striding into the prime minister’s courtyard to make his case,” he said.

While battling a cough, Albanese was on a high from striking a deal with the Greens to pass environmental reform legislation. The Coalition was on the sidelines, irrelevant.

As Turnbull, the former merchant banker, lawyer and journalist prepared to unveil his portrait, it felt as if parliament had travelled back in time to a decade ago, when he dramatically wrenched the prime ministership from Tony Abbott.

All Turnbull’s former chiefs of staff were there, as was his long-serving principal private secretary Sally Cray and former departmental secretary Martin Parkinson.

Seated in the front row were the three members of Turnbull’s praetorian guard: Julie Bishop, Christopher Pyne and George Brandis, the type of moderates who form an increasingly threatened species in today’s Liberal Party. “We weren’t universally admired within the Coalition, I have to say,” quipped Turnbull. “But nonetheless, we were universally admired among ourselves.”

Former ministers in the Turnbull cabinet (from left) Julie Bishop, George Brandis and Christopher Pyne at the unveiling of the Turnbull portrait.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley showed up, flanked by environment spokeswoman Angie Bell and home affairs spokesman Jonathon Duniam. Liberal moderates Andrew Bragg, Maria Kovacic and Andrew McLachlan joined an array of teal independents, but there were noticeably few current Coalition MPs in attendance.

While seven years have passed since his prime ministership ended, Turnbull noted that, in some ways, little had changed. The ditching of the Liberals’ net zero by 2050 target showed that “reality denial” is still alive on the conservative side, the passionate climate change advocate opined.

“When I was prime minister, I used to say, tediously I’m sure to everyone who listened to me, that energy policy should be determined by engineering and economics, not ideology and idiocy. It’s kind of common sense, isn’t it?” he said, staring pointedly at Ley.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley (second right) with her environment spokeswoman, Angie Bell (left), and home affairs spokesman, Jonno Duniam.

When Kevin Rudd unveiled his official portrait two years ago, he warned of the threat of war in the Indo-Pacific. Turnbull came with his own dire message. Democracy, he said, is “under siege in the world, it’s under siege here”.

“We have to be absolutely resolute in defending it … we cannot take any of the democratic privileges and responsibilities we have for granted,” he said.

Then it was time for the big reveal (or the “open kimono” moment, to borrow a classic Turnbull phrase). Turnbull’s portrait, by Sydney artist Jude Rae, was painted over five sittings in her Redfern studio. It was just the second time since Federation that a female artist had painted an official prime ministerial portrait.

The painting, which sets Turnbull against a lemon-yellow background, is less elaborate than Rudd’s, with its cameo from his cat Louie. It shows Turnbull in an orange tie, animated, biting his bottom lip, his hands outstretched. Looking at it, you can see him holding forth on a topic of interest – the AUKUS submarine deal, perhaps, or the Snowy Hydro 2.0 project he believes will be vindicated by history.

The moment the portrait was unveiled – with artist Jude Rae at right.

After the ceremony, Turnbull held an impromptu press conference, as he would have when he was prime minister. The Coalition, he argued, is trapped in a “miasma”, appeasing the zealots of Sky After Dark instead of appealing to mainstream Australians. “I think they’ve lost their way,” he sighed. “It’s really sad.”

On the news of the day – environmental reforms – he said: “The Coalition could have played an active role, but they chose not to. I can tell you, what few supporters they have left in the business community will just be horrified.”

Asked whether Ley had been dealt a bad set of cards, he replied, with a hint of acidity: “She’s dealt quite a few of the cards in the hand herself.”

Points defiantly made, the nation’s 29th prime minister strode off, a man in motion once again.

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