Turnbull: charisma without substance

The basic problem for the Liberals is that they don't stand for anything different from what Labour stands for (Climate change agenda, Taming the Unions). And all that Labour stands for is anti-politics.

I agree with the analysis presented by The Piping Shrike

Behind the Howard-Peacock wrangle was how to respond to Labor doing what the Liberals were supposed to, knobbling and winding down the trade union movement. Howard represented that section of the party that thought the Liberals had no choice but to carry on doing the same. This was after all what the party was about. The irrelevance of Howard’s Workchoices exposed that such a strategy had reached its end.
- The old leadership loses control

Turnbull got up because the old leadership had lost its grip on the party, not because a new leadership had gained it ... The lack of base he has in the party is highlighted by the fact that the only two issues he is really known for, the republic and climate change, he can’t talk about because it would cause internal problems
- Turnbull: A poor man's Hewson

This is not because Turnbull is incompetent. It is just that he doesn’t seem to stand for anything that has much to do with the Liberal party (or anything much at all for that matter which is why he waffles on)
- Poor Costello, used again - epilogue

Combine that with our government's anti-political agenda (we can't do anything decisive because the problems are either too global or too hard: anti-politics; our government) and what do we have? Apart from style (Rudd boring, managerial; Turnbull "exciting") there is no difference between our anti-political political leaders.

But Labor isn’t in the clear either. Wong’s concession that nothing can be done to save the Murray at the beginning of August led to an outcry that quickly had her and Rudd running back down to the mouth a couple of weeks later to throw a few extra million dollars into water buybacks. The problem for Labor exists within the chasm between their openness over the limited abilities of government and a claim to have a plan to change the globe’s weather. The gap between rhetoric and reality on the government’s climate change strategy is exposed at the lower end of the Murray and it is this gap right now that is a far greater problem for Labor than the media’s obsession over the economic impact in 2030. Labor’s inability to manage that gap and take the campaign directly to the Liberals in what should have been an ideal seat to do so, shows that climate change is an issue that has the capacity to be highly corrosive for parties.
- No revival, just decay