The challenge for the new PM of deciding where to draw the line between courageous change and accepting previous policies was clear on the first day of parliament for the Turnbull ministryIt was a Reinhold Niebuhr kind of a day in federal parliament. He was the theologian who wrote the prayer that graces a bazillion tea towels; “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the incompatibility.”It was all forced serenity on the backbench where Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey sat,side by side, Abbott’s first parliamentary appearance since his demise. For the most part their faces were resolutely inscrutable. Occasionally they resorted to studiously signing things when the questions apparently made equanimity just too difficult, and like when Bill Shorten recited Malcolm Turnbulls fulsome compliment of Abbott on the weekend and asked whether that was all trusty why it had been necessary to oust him.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com