No trait so augments or becomes a politician as indefatigability. Christopher Pyne has it in spades – along with boundless self-belief. But the line separating single-minded strength of purpose from annoying tiresomeness is a thin one, as the Education Minister demonstrated this week with a series of SMS texts to Palmer United Party senator Glenn Lazarus. The texts comprised a series of pleas and promises intended to convince Senator Lazarus of the desirability of supporting the government's plans to deregulate the university sector. However, Senator Lazarus was incensed rather than flattered by Mr Pyne's attentions, later issuing a press release in which he claimed the minister was "embarrassing himself [by] virtually begging me to support the government's higher education reforms". Senator Lazarus claimed he'd never even given his mobile phone number to Mr Pyne, and suggested the texts were a clear indication that "the Abbott government will stoop to any level to win support for the reforms". Needless to say, Senator Lazarus voted against the legislation, helping ensure another dismally unproductive day for the government in what is the final sitting week of the Parliamentary year.
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Perhaps Mr Pyne's persistent cold-calling was justified: he says Senator Lazarus had ignored all invitations to meet in person to discuss the changes. But with the duchessing via SMS having the very opposite effect of what was intended, something was clearly awry with Mr Pyne's general approach. Not that the minister appeared willing to concede such a point. Asked during a radio interview on Wednesday morning whether he had done enough to prepare the ground for deregulation, Mr Pyne claimed he had been speaking about it since last January, and that the universities sector had been solidly united behind the reform. It is one thing for a government to marshall a natural support base for a particular reform, however, quite another for it to convince those who stand to gain less that such a strategy is the right and correct one to pursue.
The collapse of Mr Pyne's deregulation reforms – and the Abbott government's general ineptitude – is made all the starker by fact that the previous Coalition government managed to negotiate key reform bills through a minority Senate. Even the much-maligned Gillard government was successfully in corralling a hostile Senate into supporting much of its legislative program.
The man generally credited with shepherding the previous Coalition government's reforms through the Senate, including the introduction of the GST, was John Howard himself. Tempered perhaps by the turbulent manner in which he won and lost the leadership of the Liberal Party in the mid to late 1980s, Mr Howard's prime ministership was characterised by a willingness to be inclusive, to listen, to network and to build associations with people, particularly Coalition backbenchers . Mr Howard could be a willing performer on the floor of Parliament, but he never resorted to invective or became personal. These qualities, and a sense of decorum, were probably crucial in enabling deals to be negotiated with the likes of independent Senator Brian Harradine and the Australian Democrats' Meg Lees. The use of SMS texts was in its infancy during the 1990s. Even so, it is difficult to conceive of Mr Howard using them to pester Senator Lees during GST negotiations. His achievements raise the pertinent question of why Tony Abbott has not sought to emulate him and take a more direct role in talks with the Senate independents and minor parties.
For all his professed admiration of Mr Howard, Mr Abbott is a very different political operative. Just how dissimilar was revealed after the knife-edge election of 2010 when Mr Abbott could have won minority government if he'd convinced independent MPs Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott to throw in their lot with the Coalition. According to Mr Windsor, he "begged" for the job and he made the point that he would "do anything to get that job" – including introducing an emissions trading scheme or a carbon tax. Though both independents were from conservative political backgrounds, Mr Abbott proved no match for Julia Gillard in winning them over.
Negotiating skills can be taught, but thus far at least, Mr Abbott seems disinclined to admit the need for remedial learning.
