Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull hitched his wagon to the wrong horse and has been dragged off the cliff. His credibility is seriously wounded and his leadership has been left battered and bruised.
It's not entirely his fault. But Turnbull is hardly the innocent victim the hapless hero strapped to the railway tracks by a malevolent villain in a political melodrama, which took an extraordinary twist this week.
The main characters are Turnbull, Deputy Opposition Leader in the Senate Eric Abetz, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Treasurer Wayne Swan and senior bureaucrat Godwin Grech, appointed to run the Government's OzCar scheme to support cash-strapped car dealers affected by the global financial crisis.
Grech provided the original script on June 19 when he gave evidence to the Senate Economics Committee as part of its inquiry into the OzCar legislation. The Treasury official suggested that Brisbane car dealer John Grant had been afforded special attention. Grant who supplied a ute for Rudd to use in his electorate was struggling to find financing. Grech maintained that he first learned of the businessman's plight in a ''short email'' from Rudd's economic adviser Dr Andrew Charlton.
''My recollection may well be totally false or faulty, but my recollection and it is a big qualification but my recollection is that there was a short email from the [Prime Minister's Office] to me which very simply alerted me to the case of John Grant, but I do not have the email,'' Grech said in reply to questions from Abetz.
Grech's evidence was politically explosive because it suggested Rudd and Swan had misled Parliament claims that they both vehemently and repeatedly denied.
Turnbull concluded: ''The Prime Minister and Treasurer have used their offices and taxpayers' resources to seek advantage for one of their mates, and then lied about it to the Parliament. If the Prime Minister and Treasurer cannot immediately justify their actions to the Australian people they have no choice but to resign.''It was reasonable for Turnbull to rely on a senior bureaucrat's sworn evidence to launch an attack on the Government although the case against Rudd was weak from the outset. But Turnbull was hardly a passive observer in this episode.
The Australian Federal Police concluded the ''email'' used to implicate Rudd in the controversy was a fake produced on a Treasury computer and sent to Grech's home.
A few days ago, Grech confessed to creating the email based on his recollection of the original, which has never been found despite exhaustive searches of departmental computer systems.
Under ''great pressure'', Grech said he showed the email to Turnbull and Abetz when they met in Lucy Turnbull's office at Potts Point, Sydney, on June 12. It was a week before Grech gave evidence to the Senate Economics Committee.
Turnbull and Abetz have both been caught taking political license with the facts. In the committee hearing, Abetz stated a journalist had told him about the ''communication from the Prime Minister's Office'' before the Senator read out the contents and asked Grech, ''do those words sound familiar to you?''
At one point, Turnbull suggested that the Opposition first saw the email's precise wording when it was published in a newspaper. Now it turns out that Turnbull looked at the email and took an ''abbreviated note of its contents'' during the secret meeting with Grech a week before the committee hearing.
Turnbull has now issued some of his own correspondence an email from Grech suggesting a ''short committee inquiry could be useful''. The bureaucrat also supplied two lists of ''possible questions'' that the Opposition could ask about OzCar.
Grech conceded he made an ''error of judgement'' in creating the email but is adamant it reflects the ''sentiment'' of the original. Abetz concedes he was ''conned'' and ''coached'' by Grech, who is currently in a psychiatric ward and suffers from other health problems.
The Senator has apologised. ''I'm not only sorry to Malcolm Turnbull, but to the Australian people, and any anguish that may have been occasioned to Kevin Rudd and other people.'' There was no apology from Turnbull, who stated, ''With the benefit of hindsight of course, you know, you ah, one regrets ever having met Mr Grech''.
Turnbull has engaged in enthusiastic finger-pointing, blaming Rudd, Swan and media for his predicament, but mainly Grech. ''The question that is on everybody's lips is why on earth did he do it, and I'm afraid I can't give you a satisfactory explanation for why Mr Grech did it,'' Turnbull said.
''You know, he faked this email, then contacted the Leader of the Opposition to arrange a meeting to show me a fake email.''
It was a ruthless outing of a source described as a ''senior and well respected public servant'' by Turnbull, who is trying desperately to stem the damage to his leadership. He has displayed poor judgment and failed to take responsibility for his role in this melodrama.
In his report on the OzCar Affair tabled this week, the Auditor-General, Ian McPhee, cleared Rudd and Swan. But he identified ''significant weaknesses'' in Treasury's implementation of the policy and raised ''serious questions'' about the conduct of Grech. In fact, the Auditor-General concluded that one car dealer received ''significantly more assistance'' than others. ''Email correspondence originating from Mr Grech indicated that the preferential treatment given to this representation was motivated by amongst other things the personal circumstances of the dealer principal and Mr Grech's understanding that the dealer principal was a supporter of, and donor to, the Liberal Party of Australia, with other records made by Mr Grech stating that 'I am Lib'.''
Grech described this conclusion as ''unfair and misleading'', saying he tried to use ''whatever leverage I could think of'' to help the dealer, who was desperate and suicidal.
Based on the new twists, the Senate committee hearing was a pantomime, in part, and the episode warrants an inquiry by the powerful privileges committee.
So where does this leave the main characters? Rudd and Swan are in the clear. Grech is highly unlikely to return to Treasury. Abetz faces the prospect of a parliamentary inquiry into his conduct. Turnbull has little hope of realising his ambition to move into the Lodge in 2010.
Danielle Cronin is Political Correspondent.
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