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<\/p>\nKudos to Pat Conroy who on Wednesday night took a leaf out of Lynton Crosby’s reputed playbook and tossed a proverbial dead cat onto Sarah Ferguson’s 7.30 desk.<\/p>\n
As political tactics go, it’s an oldie but a goodie.<\/p>\n
Boris Johnson reportedly once detailed how the conservative strategist Crosby explained the manoeuvre: “Everyone will shout: ‘Jeez mate there’s a dead cat on the table!'”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Which then becomes all they’ll talk about, rather than “the issue that has been causing you so much grief”.<\/p>\n
The dead cat in this case appeared in Conroy’s response to a question from Ferguson about what the defence industry minister’s self-declared political hero, war-time prime minister John Curtin, would have made of the department’s staggering, near-unrivalled ability to piss money up against the wall.<\/p>\n
(OK, that last part of the question is my embellishment. She was more polite, but the gist was the same.)<\/p>\n
Curtin would “say change is needed”, Conroy replied, which is why the Albanese government says it’s trying to reform the way defence conducts its shopping with that black-tier taxpayer credit card.<\/p>\n
This includes the AUKUS Costco mega-pack special.<\/p>\n
But then came the mortician-bound moggy.<\/p>\n
Loading…’Baseless and grubby smear’<\/p>\n
Conroy wasn’t just thinking about Curtin’s wartime leadership, he explained.<\/p>\n
He was also mindful about how Curtin in the late 1930s “railed” against Robert Menzies, whom the minister accused of “stripping soldiers from the army, appeasing potential adversaries like Japan, appeasing Adolf Hitler”.<\/p>\n
It was a jarring moment and one that Conroy had clearly premeditated.<\/p>\n
Historical records were soon made available to support his controversial argument, including a letter from Menzies to the Australian High Commissioner in London just after the war broke out explaining his view that he felt “quite confident that Hitler has no desire for a first-class war”.<\/p>\n
“Until the Polish debacle is complete he will not be disposed to assume the offensive against either France or Great Britain,” he wrote.<\/p>\n
Conroy repeated the inflammatory charge against the Liberal party founder a day later in an address to the National Press Club in which he outlined Labor’s vision of “progressive patriotism”.<\/p>\n
“I’m very interested in disclosing what really happened before World War II and during World War II, where it was a choice between John Curtin and Nazi-appeaser Robert Gordon Menzies,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“This is really important stuff that the left needs to embrace more fully.”<\/p>\n
Dead cat duly tossed, Liberals understandably responded with fury and a failed attempt was made in parliament to gag the minister. But there was plenty of outrage.<\/p>\n
Shadow defence spokesman James Paterson demanded an apology for the “baseless and grubby smear” against his party’s most venerated figure.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
James Paterson demanded an apology for the “smear” against Liberal Party founder Robert Menzies. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)<\/p>\n
The power of partisan history wars<\/p>\n
Conroy’s speech and the way in which he’s tried to reprise a row over history is telling.<\/p>\n
The minister used a similar tactic at the 2023 Labor conference when he challenged the AUKUS-sceptical delegates: “Do you want to be on the side of John Curtin, or do you want to be on the side of pig iron Bob Menzies?”<\/p>\n
By framing the debate around partisan history wars \u2014 albeit a row that has plenty of echoes given current anxieties about China \u2014 the government is shaping expectations.<\/p>\n
Both external and internal. This month’s National Conference is being carefully stage-managed to avoid a blow-up over AUKUS.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It will be another demonstration of the prime minister’s ability to control Labor’s internal feuds.<\/p>\n
And it’ll reinforce that for a cabinet and party room dominated by the Labor left \u2014 from the prime minister down \u2014 this government is surprisingly hard-headed.<\/p>\n
Pragmatic might be another description.<\/p>\n
AUKUS is full steam ahead, to the chagrin of Labor deities like Paul Keating. Cabinet is inflaming both the Labor base and its Greens and potential teal challengers by attempting to virtually halt NDIS spending growth overnight.<\/p>\n
And it’s being seen to be trimming the aged care system with a zeal that threatens to further enrage older Australians and their families and caregivers.<\/p>\n
Particularly as it is being overseen by a youthful and politically ambitious minister in Sam Rae, and his department’s “integrated assessment tool” \u2014 which critics portray as an unblinking callow machine so ruthless that the Senate this week (via the Coalition, Greens and David Pocock) tried to curtail it by enabling more human intervention.<\/p>\n
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Aged Care Minister Sam Rae has said the assessments are always conducted by human assessors. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)<\/p>\n
Current stability once unthinkable<\/p>\n
The past six months have been a whirlwind. There was the controversial budget, now passed, the rise of One Nation in the polls and the worst energy crisis in half a century.<\/p>\n
The government began the year reeling from the Bondi horror, and by February was busy shaping a budget that it promised would deliver serious economic and productivity reform.<\/p>\n
There were plenty of signs the primary goal was to reshape the housing market by weakening the hand of investors and tilt the scales in favour of first-time buyers.<\/p>\n