Support for Liberals leader Malcolm Turnbull rises

The most recent Newspoll survey conducted for The Australian showed that satisfaction with the opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull has risen by a whopping 4 percentage points to 30 percent! Mr Turnbull's rating as preferred prime minister was up two percentage points at 19 percent, a long way off Kevin Rudd's 66 percent. Of course the accuracy of the Newspoll was impugned by Labor accusations that Mr Turnbull once wanted to join the Labor party, these accusations were made in the lead up to the Newspoll survey.

Mr Turnbull, of course, refuted these claims, saying that it was actually the Labor party who approached him. Qualification wise, Mr Turnbull has got it all. He graduated from Sydney University with a Law/Arts degree and subsequently won the Rhodes Scholarship, which took him to Oxford to complete his Bachelor of Civil Law, the most prestigious and academically demanding postgraduate law degree in the world.  Upon entering the workforce, he served as General Counsel to Australian Consolidated Press Holdings and subsequently became the Chair and Managing Director of Goldman Sachs Australia. With these sorts of qualifications, I imagine that many institutions would be headhunting Mr Turnbull (including the Australian Labor Party).

Nevertheless, there will be people who argue that academic and work qualifications are irrelevant to one's performance as the leader of a nation. History, however, begs to differ. The first Prime Minister of Australia, Edmund Barton, was a lawyer by profession and also a Justice of the High Court of Australia. Amongst other things, Barton was a devout supporter of federalism and played a part in the eventual drafting of the Commonwealth Constitution.  Alfred Deakin, Robert Menzies, Gough Whitlam, Bob Hawke and John Howard are some examples of previous Prime Ministers who were also lawyers by profession. This is not to say that one must be a lawyer by profession to be a good Prime Minister, but history suggests that lawyers have the right skillset to become successful Prime Ministers. Even the front bench of the two major parties are mainly occupied by lawyers.

The most notable exception is Kevin Rudd. Modern day lawyers often place a big emphasis on the use of 'plain english'. This is clearly a notion that Kevin Rudd is not familiar with, who sent German translators into ein schpinn during a press conference with the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, that the Major Economies Forum (MEF) was unlikely to deliver much by way of "detailed programmatic specificity" on climate change. I imagine he could simply have said nothing definitive would emerge from the MEF on climate change.

Schapelle Schapelle Schapelle

The Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies and the Journal of Financial Economics are considered to be the three most prestigious finance journals in the world. The Journal of Farcical Exuberance, as the title suggests, is a play on the Journal of Financial Economics (JFE as it is commonly abbreviated). We live in a strange world. There is poverty in Africa, a war against terrorism and the swine flu epidemic. But of course there are more pressing issues; Michael Jackson's death, Schapelle Corby's purported "clinical insanity" are some examples. It's all a bit farcical; we evince 'excessive exuberance' towards the more trivial issues, yet dismiss the issues that should prima facie be given more attention.

The Schapelle Corby saga is a recent example. It must be those green eyes. The Indonesian government granted her a four month jail sentence remission as part of their Independence Day celebrations, some people would suggest that Schapelle would be thankful for the act of generosity afforded to her. On the contrary, she is now purportedly in a 'child-like' state and is 'clinically insane'. This apparently warrants the Australian Federal Government's intervention. What about the other prisoners at Bali's Kerobokan prison? This should offend all Indonesians for at least two reasons. Firstly, it evinces a belief that Indonesia lacks the medical expertise to assist with Schapelle's mental health and secondly, that this is an issue of grave importance and thus Australia and Indonesia should reach an agreement immediately.

Perhaps this is another publicity stunt, after all, the yearning for publicity appears to run in the family. Schapelle's sister, Mercedes Corby, recently said, "[t]his is about basic humanity. It's a matter of life and death. I'm begging Mr Rudd and anybody else who has the power to help - please bring Schapelle home so she can get well again." This comes from the same person who received a multi-million dollar defamation pay-out from Channel Seven and who also stripped down for RALPH magazine (for money, and perhaps publicity). 

I do wonder what impact, if any, the Global Financial Crisis has had on the Corby family.  They should be fairly comfortable financially, after numerous media appearances and recent legal pay-outs. But the Corby family never turns down an opportunity to cash in on their opinion. In fact, in a show of appreciation for the four month remission granted by the Indonesian Government, Mercedes Corby seized the opportunity to emphasize the need to bring Schapelle home. As an act of family solidarity, Schapelle has also continued to cut herself in defiance. This has created reports that "[s]he is in a situation where she could easily move forward to kill herself" (as Associate Professor Jonathan Phillips describes Schapelle's condition). Schapelle's condition has evidently deteriorated from the laughing and joyous person Schapelle was one year ago when she went shopping with her family where she bought clothes and ice cream. At that time, July 2008, it was reported that Schapelle was "doing better" and was on the road to recovery. How things have changed since then.


It is unfortunate that the Schapelle saga has continued to drag on, but there comes a point where enough is enough. Schapelle has brought this upon herself by conducting illegal drug trafficking into a country where it is punishable by the death sentence. Her family has cashed in on Schapelle's predicament and in the process pocketed millions of dollars and finally, Schapelle is not the only woman imprisoned  at Bali's Kerobokan prison. She is hardly in a position to complain given that there are at least another 50 women living in the same jail centre. It is time that Schapelle and her family accepted that she is bound by Indonesian laws and accordingly, accept the consequences of her actions. The time for publicity stunts has passed.


As John Howard put it, "I feel for her. I understand why there's a lot of public sympathy for her; I would simply say that I hope justice is done and it's a fair and true verdict ... I would ask the rhetorical question: My fellow Australians, if a foreigner were to come to Australia and a foreign government were to start telling us how we should handle [it], we would react very angrily to that." The Corby family should respect Indonesian law; a few appearances on A Current Affair and RALPH magazine, or a few slashes and cuts to Schapelle's wrist are not appropriate and on the contrary, insulting to Indonesia's sovereignty. Who knows, if Schapelle is on her best behaviour for the next year, Indonesia's 2010 Independence Day celebrations may bring greater remissions to her jail sentence. 

One can only wonder how this saga will continue to unfold, but for now, we can only hope that Stern Hu does not start wearing green coloured contact lenses and slashing his wrist.