Politics

Christopher Pyne, Defence Minister And Noted Lover Of Trams, Is Quitting Politics For Good

In his retirement statement, Pyne reaffirms his belief that the Coalition will win the next election.

by Joseph Earp  2 March 2019
Christopher Pyne

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Well, it’s official: Christopher Pyne, Defence Minister and longtime moderate ally of Malcolm Turnbull, has announced his retirement from politics. He will not contest his seat at the next election.

After much speculation that Pyne was going to be one of a raft of senior government officials leaving parliament ahead of the tentatively-set May federal election, the minister has this morning confirmed that he’s jumping ship. He joins Julie Bishop, who announced her retirement late last month, and quite possibly Steven Ciobo, who has strongly been rumoured to be planning to announce a retirement some time today.

“It’s time to retire while people are asking me to stay, rather than continue and end up later with people telling me to go,” the 51-year-old said in a statement to the press.

Pyne has an interesting, complex legacy. Widely recognised as one of the most moderate-leaning members of the Liberal party — a status that has gotten him in trouble with some of his colleagues over the years — Pyne has been attacked by shock jock-led right-wingers as one more Turnbull crony, and by left-leaning outlets as guilty of exactly the kind of hypocrisy that dogged Turnbull throughout his Prime Ministership.

The Minister’s time in parliament was marked by a number of broken records. When he first hit federal politics, back in 1993, he was the youngest politician ever to be elected to Parliament — he was a mere 25 years old.

He’s also been in Parliament for a heck of a long time — some 26 years, serving on both the back and the frontbench. As a result, as his statement today noted, he’s the “longest serving non-Labor Member of the House of Representatives from South Australia since Federation in 1901.”

But, true Auspol aficionados know Pyne’s greatest contribution to the discourse was that day that he rode an Adelaide tram, and looked bloody delighted while doing so.

Pyne’s statement has been carefully designed to quell fears that the Liberal party is in trouble — in it, he stresses his fondness for the party multiple times, and he restates his belief that the Coalition will take home victory in the next election (a belief, it should be noted, that most polls do not currently seem to support.)

Exactly whether toeing the party line in that way helps Morrison’s thinning chances will become more clear over the next few weeks.

Till then, see ya later Chris. Feels like we hardly knew ya.