Turnbull defends resisting banking inquiry
In one of the latest news appearing in The Guardian, it is reported that Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull admitted on Monday his Coalition made “political mistake” when it declined to establish a royal commission for so long into banks. However, the PM defended the decision, saying it helped in putting “customers first”.
Turnbull’s attempt to stem criticism of his government’s delay as opinion polls indicate the PM is narrowing the gap against rival Labor’s Bill Shorten. However, The Guardian article says the full impact concerning the banking royal commission has yet to be seen.
According to Newspoll, the Coalition has gained grounds, and are now trailing labor by 49 percent to 51 percent, and this is its best show since September 2016.
Satisfaction rating for Turnbull jumped from 32 percent to 36 percent, while 53 percent of respondents, according to the poll, said they were not satisfied with his performance. This was down from 57 percent.
On the other hand, Shortens satisfaction rate slightly rose also, from 32 percent to 34 percent, while his dissatisfaction rating fell from 57 percent to 54 percent. But Turnbull, the Liberal leader remained preferred PM at 38 percent to Labour’s Shorten at 35 percent.
When the poll was taken, Turnbull was in Europe much of this period where he attended a meeting of Commonwealth heads of states while at the same time he was preparing for the Anzac Day events.
According to David Crowe, writing an article in The Sunday Morning Herald, he says one thing that is worse than making some political error is prolonging it. Crowe argues in his incisive piece that dissects the Australian economy that Turnbull on Monday had to admit defeat concerning royal banking commission through informing voters he got it all wrong when he argued for so long against the inquiry.
Crowe added that the PM had no alternative but to face up to the truth that he and his Coalition showed poor judgement when they failed in unleashing full force as early as possible a royal commission.
On Australian politics, the Guardian further reported that labor demanded that the government set up some compensation scheme for banking misconduct victims, while attempting to capture the initiative as Coalition ministers that included Kelly O’Dwyer, who is the financial services minister struggled to deal with the royal commission inquiry revelation fallout just after three weeks of hearing.
On 5th April 2018, John Howard, who is a former prime minister was reported to have said during a Q and A session that he doesn’t detect any desire within Liberal Party for leadership change, and told coalition MPs to forget their differences and rally behind Malcolm Turnbull.