ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has taken to social media this afternoon to share his thoughts on a current issue he could’ve helped prevent when he was calling the shots.
On Twitter this afternoon, Mr Turnbull made reference to the climate in some vague sense, followed by a hypothetical solution to the problem foreshadowed at the beginning of the text.
The tweet has since been deleted for some apparent reason; our reporter was unable to confirm why it was taken down at the time of print.
The Advocate phoned Malcolm for comment on the tweet and he answered on just the second ring.
“It doesn’t matter what the tweet said,” he said, knowing it mattered a little bit.
“What does matter is that this government is heading down a dark, unlit way. Alone. Do you read Coleridge? I’ve read Coleridge. I come down here, to this public garden close to my home where I’m sitting now, it reminds me of a poem of his.”
Our reporter said it was OK, he didn’t need to explain but the former Prime Minister didn’t listen.
“This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison. It details a walk through nature, which wasn’t very fashionable at the time it was written. But it’s from the perspective of Coleridge, who wasn’t able to go because he had bad gout or something so he follows his friends on the bivouac within his own mind. It’s really a powerful piece of writing,” he said.
“He is writing this from inside a lime-tree bower. What that is, I don’t know. But I’m sure it’s a beautiful place. But it’s also his prison, which is fascinating,”
“That is how I feel about the government now. I am not there, but within the metaphysical realm, I am. I am always present in government, in my mind. That is why I tweet. To err is human, to tweet divine.”
The Advocate thanked Mr Turnbull for his time and hung up the phone before Mr Turnbull was able to say goodbye in Latin.
More to come.
