Tony Abbott has a problem. And that problem is his cabinet. Not every one of his 19 cabinet ministers is as committed to economic reform or to political liberty as they should be or as they need to be.
The fact that one of the most brazen pleas for corporate welfare in recent Australian history was rejected by a cabinet vote as close as 11 to eight is alarming. Coca-Cola Amatil's demand for $25 million from taxpayers should have been dismissed with the contempt it deserves. Instead eight cabinet ministers voted to hand over the money.
Then this week it's discovered that a cabinet minister believes the plan of Attorney-General senator George Brandis to restore freedom of speech in Australia is "right-wing Kool-Aid". Any minister who believes that protecting freedom of speech, one of the pillars of a liberal democracy, is "right-wing Kool-Aid" should ask themselves why they bother serving in a government formed by a political party that has "Liberal" in its title.
It's one thing to argue about the precise wording of the Coalition's proposed amendments to the Racial Discrimination Act, which were announced on Tuesday. It's quite something else for a Coalition cabinet minister to use the language of the left to attack freedom of speech.
The significance of the Coca-Cola Amatil decision is that it was about changing the mindset of corporate Australia that is often all too eager to run to government for a handout or a tax break. It wasn't just the money at stake. The symbolism was hugely important.
MONEY UNNECESSARY
The irony is that it was quickly discovered Coca-Cola Amatil didn't even need the money it was asking for. The company went ahead with its plans anyway.
Earlier this month it was revealed Coca-Cola Amatil had enough money to pay its departing chief executive $150,000 a year for the next three years in exchange for him not working for a competitor.
If eight of the Abbott government's cabinet ministers had had their way, an Australian worker on the minimum wage of $32,355.44 a year would have helped pay for Coca-Cola Amatil giving $150,000 a year to someone who doesn't even work for the company.
The cabinet's freedom of speech decision is also very symbolic. It reveals not just how few defenders of speech there are in the cabinet. What's disappointing about the fact that on Monday night the cabinet forced Brandis to water down his plans to restore freedom of speech is that cabinet revealed itself willing to compromise on a pretty basic principle. The question is what else will the cabinet compromise on.
Before the federal election, the mantra among Coalition MPs was: "If we win, we're not going to be like the Fraser government."
In 10 years' time Coalition MPs didn't want to look back on their time in office as a wasted opportunity.
UNFAIRLY MALIGNED
It might be that after all these years we've come to appreciate that Malcolm Fraser has been unfairly maligned.
If Fraser had in his cabinet anyone like those eight ministers who wanted to cave in to Coca-Cola Amatil's threat, or anyone who thinks the cause of freedom of speech is "right-wing Kool-Aid", then his life would have been far more difficult than has previously been realised.
And it makes those reforms that Fraser did achieve all the more notable.
The task confronting the Abbott cabinet is more difficult than that faced by Fraser.
Government is now bigger, government control over people's lives is now greater, and the country's political culture is more hostile to the ideals of liberalism than ever before.
In the past decade in this country, the pendulum of policy, law and regulation has swung to the left.
At the moment, the best that can be said about the intentions of some cabinet ministers with respect to that pendulum is that they don't intend to push it any further left. Maybe some ministers hope to nudge the pendulum a little further towards the centre.
At this stage few ministers have shown any willingness to even put the pendulum back to where it was 10 or even five years ago, let alone swing that pendulum to a position where our personal and economic liberties are actually increased.
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