Will Malcolm Turnbull becoming Prime Minister, make a difference?  The answer probably lies in a critical question raised by opposition leader Bill Shorten, ‘Is this is a change of style rather than substance’?

Malcolm Turnbull announced his leadership challenge saying that his government would be a truly Liberal Government, focusing on the market, the individual and that his government would be a traditional Cabinet Government based on inclusiveness, and advocacy, explaining policy rather than just using slogans.

In his interview with Leigh Sales of the ABC 7.30 report he spoke of how wealth was not

just the result of hard work, but also luck.  He instanced that a New York taxi driver worked harder than many of his colleagues in the law firm that he was a member of.  He also spoke, and this is a great thing to hear from the Prime Minister, of the importance of ‘Emotional Intelligence’.  Emotional Intelligence (E I) enabled a person to listen to another story and empathise with.  Hence his wealth was not a barrier to him listening to the battlers.

If Turnbull’s government is truly committed to the individual, then they should be committed to those individuals, like the taxi driver, who do not get the same rewards as some for their labours and consequently, develop policies that protect the ‘less successful’ from the extremes of ‘feral Capitalism’.

The problem is that this probably will not happen.  Traditionally, the Liberal party’s concern for the individual has been to create an environment for those individuals who are successful.  Hence focusing on reducing tax so that successful people get more rewards for their efforts.

Some other interesting indicators.  When Christopher Pyne was mooted for the defence portfolio, it was regarded as a promotion from education!  The industry portfolio is seen as more important than education.  We at least now have a minister who has a responsibility for science.  The new assistant treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer, quoted in the  Age (26/9) has a high regard for entrepreneurs and the need to cut expenses rather than increase revenue.  Similarly, the Treasurer, Scott Morrison has indicated the same with the slogan ‘work hard, save, invest’.

It seems that the Royal Commission into union corruption will continue but as before, no Royal Commission into the corruption of big business.  Somehow, tax avoidance and the like as practised by many major companies is not seen as corrupt in the way that union corruption is.  A good example is the resignation of Volkswagens, Chief Executive Officer, Martin Winterkorn.  Although the fiasco over cheating emission standards could lead to criminal prosecutions, he resigns with a reputed payout of $46 million.  This is how many CEOs are punished for failure!  We live in a world where this is the norm of capitalism.

Despite Malcolm Turnbull’s rhetoric, Bill Shorten is probably right – a new face, with new style which is more optimistic, but the substance the same.

As I have argued in a previous blog, attacks on Wealth is the fairest way to raise revenue in a social democracy. (Thomas Piketty `Capital in the Twenty First Century’, p 12)