Malcolm Turnbull's parliamentary year has ended, if not with the high marks he's awarded it, then with some salient accomplishments. The Registered Organisations bill was passed, the Australian Building and Construction Commission reinstated, and the backpacker tax issue settled. And last month the government navigated its superannuation changes through Parliament with Labor's support, saving the budget over $2.8 billion over four years.
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His government lacking a Senate majority, Mr Turnbull had to grant the crossbenchers concessions in order to get these bills passed. The Coalition's readiness to do this, some commentators have argued, has blunted the legislation's effectiveness and added nothing meaningful to the budget bottom line. That accusation probably matters little given the brief shelf life of so many political issues. Mr Turnbull has his list of achievements, and as first-term prime minister with aspirations for a second, he will trumpet these to voters. However, a realistic assessment of his performance since the July 2 election victory would be that it rated a D minus rather than a B or B plus.
The ABCC bill was an important plank of the government's industrial relations policy. But claims it and the Registered Organisations bill will deliver significant economic benefits should be treated with scepticism. Indeed, so anxious was it to see the bills passed that the government acceded to Senator Derryn Hinch's demand that the ABCC's building code not apply to existing enterprise agreements until 2018.
On budget repair, the Turnbull government's record since July 2 has been similarly spotty. While the superannuation changes delivered important savings, the attempt to impose a 32.5 per cent tax rate on backpackers (first announced in the budget and intended to save $540 million over the next three years) verged on the farcical. In response to complaints from farmers and orchardists, the government proposed dropping it to 19 per cent in September. It finally agreed to a 15 per cent tax rate this week – along with a Greens demand for $100 million extra to be injected into the Landcare program.
Mr Turnbull is more or less mute on how he intends to get the budget back on track and preserve Australia's Triple A sovereign credit rating. He's presented no new ideas or proposals to lift productivity growth, to streamline the tax system or to improve housing affordability. He also appears to be running dead on same-sex marriage and constitutional recognition of Indigenous peoples.
That reticence sits oddly with the energy and resolve that Mr Turnbull promised when he became prime minister last year, and it may be he remains a prisoner of the circumstances in which he came to power. It's likely, however, that the electorate cares less about Mr Turnbull's obstacles in the party room than it does about his ability to confront economic obstacles with determination and purpose. He'd be advised to flesh out such a narrative before Parliament sits again.
