When I was reading back over that post from July I discovered something ironic, because it transpires that Julian Leeser publicly asked for more detail at that time. Now, he’s quit the front bench of the Liberal National coalition out of frustration that his party rejected the Voice to Parliament.
What’s going on?
The Liberal Party’s discomfort with Labor’s policy is exactly the same as Leeser’s back in xthe depths of last year when Labor had just come out with its plan. The plan was for Parliament to fix the details of the VtP once it had been enshrined in the Constitution.
Leeser is disagreeing with himself.
The Liberal Party has been running interference for a long time, even before they openly sided with the opposers of Labor’s plan they were asking for more details, in fact it was this public position that Leeser in July was conforming to. Leeser has taken a position on the VtP (leaving the front bench) on the basis of a disagreement that he once was voicing himself.
It’s routine that politicians are labelled hypocrites, but Leeser’s stance on an issue that is so central to his identity is very disconcerting. It makes his commitment to the cause seem fragile, partial, and even something driven by ulterior motives. If he believes so strongly in a VtP why then didn’t he come out and say so back in July? Why follow the party line back then and now, in April, take a different tack?
It’s very strange.
I wonder if Leeser thinks that everyone has forgotten what he said last year when he had the opportunity to visibly support a policy he says he now endorses? Well, most people won’t remember. I recall when the media first made the announcement of Leeser’s retirement from his job that no mention was made of the fact of his utterances back in the depths of time. A week is a long time in politics. Six months is positively Triassic.
