The Blowfly has heard a lot about ‘pairs’ lately.
Tony Abbott won’t grant them except in extraordinary circumstances. It is all part of his push towards a ‘quieter, gently polity’.
But there is one pair that he can do nothing about.
One pair that is troubling their leaders simply because they can’t be bought.
They are simply thorns.
Thorns because of the size of their egos.
This pair will simply not go away no matter how much their parties want them to.
A pair who, although on opposite sides of politics, are joined by their striking similarities.
Their successful wives, their needs to control, their arrogance, their charm (when it is imperative) and their capacities to master the detail of an issue.
They also have a capacity to say ‘sorry’.
One advised John Howard to say ‘sorry’ (before Howard lost the election) but was ignored.
The other made it one of his first acts to say ‘sorry’ to the indigenous people of our country.
Both were poor listeners.
One in respect to his ministers and advisers. The other in respect to his peers during the push for a republic and then again in respect to a response to climate change.
Both were enamoured of an emissions trading scheme and one was prepared to undertake bipartisanship to see it through the Parliament.
Both paid the price!
One because he had supported the other and the other because he faltered in getting it through.
Both were ditched by their colleagues in their respective primes.
Now they both sit in the wilderness.
They licked their wounds initially but now they sit patiently waiting for their turns to come again.
They are still possessed of their charms (when imperative).
They are still possessed of huge intellectual capacities.
And they have learned valuable lessons.
They are both ready to lead their country. Both are more popular than their leaders in the opinion polls and both have adopted a modesty that is exemplary.
During this last week one of them even told the media that the rise of the other was inevitable.
One took himself off the speaking list on the carbon tax debate and asked that we make nothing of it. But we know why he did it. Don’t we? He knows that we need a carbon price so that we can move to an emissions trading scheme.
The other is nursing a new heart valve and is looking really chipper. So chipper he is making his colleagues feel slightly edgy.
One has lost a lot of weight and appears to be leaner and meaner than ever before. We know why he has lost the weight don’t we? When you are preparing for battle you need to be fit.
So what is to become of Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull?
While it would be disastrous for Rudd to have the levers of power again Turnbull would be an interesting experiment in leadership.
The Blowfly recalls the words of Lichtenberg: “Human life falls into two halves, in the first, we wish for the second to arrive, in the second, we wish for the first to return.”
It is possible that both are in the second.
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