CAMERON MILNER: The one thing holding Mark Butler back from becoming next Prime Minister
His NDIS reform has sent the Health Minister to the top of the list of candidates of Anthony Albanese’s potential successors. But he has to get rid of Penny Wong first.
Mark Butler will be Labor’s next PM — if he can cut himself loose from Penny Wong.
His deft management of the NDIS reform has put his CV at the top of the pile, but he will need to jettison Wong’s Islamist friendly dogma to be electable with Aussie voters.
Seasoned Canberra observers have always had Butler on the list of Labor leadership probables as the Left’s leading candidate.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.Butler is a smart operator who paraded his credentials for leader at last week’s Press Club in announcing a slash and burn reform of the NDIS.
His reform alone will save his rival Jim Chalmers’ May Budget. His courage stands in stark contrast to the AACO — Albanese Always Chickens Out — style of the current Government.
It’s a calculated move from a guy staking his claim for leadership after the Albanese snooze fest, despite hailing from the Albanistas himself.
The Albanistas have been running the Labor show in all its myopic small target glory.
It’s been one long siesta of sweet FA. Two elections and a Government slumbering under a big sombrero.
Butler’s plan to push kids with low level autism off the NDIS is a direct appeal to the remnants of the Labor Right in the Federal caucus to make a clean break from the sloth that besets the current PM.
Butler is cleverly manoeuvring to capture the ant hill of economic management that Chalmers still manages to maintain.
It was a towering mountain under Keating, levelled to a below sea level depression by the bumbling incompetence of Wayne “Five Surpluses” Swan and slowly rebuilt by Chalmers.
By delivering the biggest Budget saving ever under Albanese, Butler throws shade on Chalmers with any reforms to capital gains and negative gearing.
He also completely negates the risky headlines about Australia spending more on the NDIS than the nation’s defence.
Which neatly boxes in the well coiffed Deputy PM, Richard Marles, the Labor Right’s other potential successor to Albanese.
Marles and Butler share similar cultural pursuits although Marles has left himself exposed by using the RAAF as an Uber service and packing his golf clubs so he can play a full round while on diplomatic missions.
Butler is making a play for the Right with the NDIS cuts, but it’s his cutting of Wong that will secure the leadership.
Wong is factionally close to Butler and both share close personal friendship with others from South Australia including the State’s former premier, now Ambassador to the UK, Jay Weatherill .
Wong is a problem for Butler’s centrist positioning.
She remains a radical Leftie who gone out of her way as Foreign Minister to back hard Left causes such as condemning Israel for mere self defence. There’s the embrace of Hamas, by backing a Palestinian State and the calls for restraint against Hezbollah, the Houthis and more recently Iran.
Her acquiescence to Taliban demands to shut the Afghan embassy in Canberra is just another mark of her weakness to Islamic extremism.
So many people in the LGBTIQA+ community are confounded by Penny Wong’s support for Islamist regimes who harass, hang and hound out members of their community.
Wong seems to be completely determined to side with Middle Eastern bullies over Australia’s traditional allies.
Butler knows having Wong in his corner makes his path to PM more difficult internally and destroys his electability.
His breaking cover and not closing down the speculation shows there are moves afoot.
The voters of Australia have only ever chosen Albanese as the least worse option. There will be no remorse with his passing as Labor leader.
Therein lays the opportunity for Butler to chart a new path. Pro-Medicare and against NDIS mendicants, economically conservative and a Labor reformer.
He’ll have to also overcome Tony Burke who is close to Wong and promises to keep the Albanese flickering light on the mound alive.
But while Burke provides a concierge service for ISIS brides, Butler is delivering NDIS Budget savings.
Butler has been in parliament for more than 20 years, much longer than his arch rival Chalmers. But he’s not there for a free feed at Parliament’s famous canteen — the trough — he’s clearly keen to become PM and looks much younger than his 55 years.
He’s made a pitch to the Labor Right on economic management and genuine reform.
His next move will be to let Wong go, because in politics its never personal, strictly business.
