Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Forceful guidance, he says. The Financial Review also celebrated the first anniversary. Their article is entitled 'Experts give Malcolm Turnbull a D-plus for first year as PM.' What confused me is they called it a pass mark. What confused me is they called it a pass mark—it said 'barely got a pass mark'—but in my day a D wasn't a pass mark. I thought that was a C-minus, but maybe things have changed—grade deflation—to make sure he gets in under the bar. That was '50 business leaders, former Liberal politicians, academics, economists, administrators, lawyers and lobbyists who graded the PM for AFR Weekend.' The article says:

Not a single person awarded Turnbull an A and 50 per cent rated him D, E or F. Turnbull only narrowly avoided a fail.

It is a tough crowd. I was stunned by some of the things that were said. Warwick Smith, a former Liberal MP, who now works for a media baron and as a banker for Macquarie Group—he was the member for Bass, I think; they lost the seat of Bass in the last election—said, ' He is in danger of being seen as a total fizzer.' A bit harsh. A bit rough. If was one year into the job, I don't know if I could bear this sort of criticism. I was reading and reading and highlighting bits and pieces, and then, a bit further on, I really liked this one—

Mr Husic interjecting—

Even I was a bit like: I wouldn't be this harsh on the Prime Minister on his first anniversary. I know he has to be dealt with with kid gloves, because he his delicate. An ANU economist, Mr Martin Richardson, said in relation to the Prime Minister's leadership:

What's the Latin for 'I came, I did nothing, I stuck around?' I'm sure Mr Turnbull would know.

That is brutal. My mother-in-law is a Latin teacher. Sadly, she was unavailable. You cannot really translate that into Latin. We tried with—

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