Nelson "Insincere, Fake....A Nobody"
Opposition leader Brendan Nelson must be a haunted man. Particularly after reading this article.
Nelson's obvious disgust at having to back Labor on the long overdue end to the stalling and conspiracy-mongering of saying 'Sorry' to Aborigines made him look a truly pathetic man when he had to front the media and declare he had changed his mind on one of the most controversial issues of the John Howard era in only a handful of weeks.
Brendan Nelson - November, 2007 :
"...we have no responsibility to apologise or take ownership for what was done by earlier generations," he said.
The 'Sorry' problem for the Liberals is intense, and it keeps detonating again and again under their feet, like unexploded daisy cutter mines had been scattered throughout their offices by the Labor Party.
Malcolm Turnbull is said to have lost his shot at the leadership of the Liberal Party because he supported a national 'Sorry' statement and official apology for numerous past crimes against the Aboriginal People, and because he did not consult enough, or often enough, with the partyroom before he went to the media and started making declarations.
Nelson supposedly did the right thing, by "consulting with the partyroom" before he announced that numerous Liberals who believe in the Andrew Bolt "unstolen generation" conspiracy would keep their mouths shut and give their backing to something they truly didn't believe in.
A number of senior Liberals find the word "stolen", as in "stolen generation", utterly repellent.
Why, they wonder, can't we simply call them "The Saved Generation."?
Malcolm Turnbull recently got an insight into how some senior Liberals regard him when he was told he was being "too fucking sensitive" by the Opposition senate leader, Nick Minchin, in front of colleagues :
The row started outside of the party room on Thursday, after Senator Minchin went on ABC radio and confirmed Mr Turnbull lost the leadership because his public support for an apology to the stolen generation suggested he would not consult the partyroom.
After Mr Turnbull told him the comments were "unhelpful'' because the whole leadership debate was settling down, Senator Minchin is understood to have yelled at his frontbench colleague, declaring he was "too f..king sensitive'' as he walked away.
Brendan Nelson's leadership of the Liberal Party is stripping away the layers of Howard-era conservatism. Now they're 'Sorry', they're against killing whales, they like Green things, they don't like WorkChoices.
What other old beliefs, clinging on like barnacles, will Liberal conservatives have to betray or cast aside to re-sell themselves to under 40s Australians as "The Ones Who Really Care. Really."
Whatever kind of Liberal Party emerges at the other end of its Renovation Rescue-like attempt to revive a staid room by only changing the curtains, it probably won't have Brendan Nelson as its leader :
"He's a nobody, who is insincere and fake,'' one Liberal said.Sometimes it's not so nice to know what your colleagues really think of you. Particularly if you're Brendan Nelson.
"If he was here by the end of the year I would be very surprised. (Turnbull) is clearly the preferred person.''
