When Malcolm Turnbull saved the Liberal Party from annihilation by taking over the Leadership of the party from Tony Abbott, things were looking very rosy indeed. Here was a chap who actually listened to questions then reflected for a moment before responding. And those responses seemed to appease the voters by not simply quoting a slogan.

Really, the only folk upset, aside from Tony and his bovver boys, were those Labor voters who were looking to cruising to victory against a mortally wounded opponent. For the rest of us it seemed we may finally have a Prime Minister who would work for the betterment of the country and prepare us for the future rather than simply look after vested interests and forgetting about his real responsibilities.

It looked very promising.

But then reality kicked in and we soon discovered that Malcolm didn’t have a faction locked in behind him, instead, just a loose collection of folk who could see the writing on the wall and needed a stop-gap measure while they cast Tony adrift. Meanwhile, the Hard Right faction were very organised and loud too, and they could see if they lessened their grip on decision making it was game over for them. So out came the big boots and the bullying and suddenly Malcolm stood powerless to do anything.

What made matters worse was he ended up fighting an election on the policies of the Hard Right instead of his own and predictably got belted – in a way – in the election. Folk wanted a change from Tony’s ideas, not just a change of face. Want to ignore equal opportunity in education? Hmm. Sounds like Tony. Want to protect the fossil fuel industry? Hmm. That sounds like Tony too. Want to protect the handouts to the wealthy at the cost of first home buyers? Dang me if that doesn’t sound like protecting Tony’s mates too.

So now it’s back to business as usual even though Malcolm knows better. Unlike Tony, he recognises Climate Change is real. He can actually read the science and understand the problem, but here’s the real problem and it’s something he can’t fix. He has to go along with the façade that “Coal is King” and ignore the ongoing damage it is causing. He has to forget about preparing Australia for the future and simply crawl along ignoring a serious issue.

How does a man go from the desire to do his best for Australia and its future, to simply sitting in the PM’s seat and doing nothing about fixing the problems?

Sometimes the main driving force behind a person to aspire to the top job is simply to be the PM, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing as long as you work towards improving Australia. But how do these folk sleep at night when that’s all they are accomplishing?

How does Malcolm deal with his aspirations being destroyed and looking like he will leave a legacy of being just another plodder in a field of faceless plodders?

What stops him from simply resigning and going into the history books as a man of principal who refused to kowtow to those who put self-interest and the interests of their benefactors before the good of the country?

There must be a strange hold over a bloke that stops him walking away but it has been done before, and in Australian politics no less. John Grey Gorton left the PM’s job when a Confidence Motion was bought on in a Liberal Party Caucus meeting. The vote was tied which meant he was safe, but true to his idiosyncratic style he stood down saying; “Well, that is not a vote of confidence, so the party will have to elect a new leader”. This turned out to be a mixed blessing for the Liberal Party because his position was taken by Billy McMahon who was knocked off by Gough Whitlam at the next election.

It’s interesting to reflect that it made the Liberal Party at that time look disorganised and inward looking, the very same problem faced by the party today.

Will Malcolm stick with the job and suffer the embarrassment of entering the history books as a victim of his lack of control? Will the party find a saviour who can appeal to the Hard Right AND the voters and simply kick him to the curb? Only time will tell.

But Australia needs a leader who has vision and the ability to enact change, and Turnbull certainly isn’t someone who can bring that level of control.

From Hero to Zero - When a PM fails to deliver