The Wentworth by-election will have an ignominious legacy regardless of its result — witness the profound and panicked foreign policy trauma it has exposed with such manifest damage to Australia’s national interest.
The policy changes foreshadowed this week by Scott Morrison in relation to Israel and Iran are unwise, unjustified and dangerous. These are personal decisions taken by the Prime Minister, yet he singularly failed to make any convincing case for such significant changes in our foreign policy.
The claims by some government apologists that these were desirable steps but undermined by the domestic political motive of the by-election are nonsense. This was appalling process and misconceived policy bordering on the irresponsible. The only issue is how much damage will be done to Australia’s national interests as a consequence of entirely unnecessary decisions.
There is one saving grace — Morrison has only foreshadowed the shift of Australia’s embassy to Jerusalem and withdrawal of support from the Iran nuclear deal. Given his pragmatism, there must be a prospect he will retreat when the reviews he has ordered are completed and cooler heads prevail.
Everybody grasps the huge pressures on Morrison after the change of prime minister, a change he did not initiate. He has displayed energy and skill in the uphill task he faces. Yet this week the insurmountable difficulty of constructing a new government with new policies was exposed as Morrison struggled in the Wentworth by-election, where the government fears defeat and consignment to minority government status.
Read the article by Paul Kelly in The Australian.