The most important date in the life of the Turnbull government came before it began, on 1 December 2009. That was the day Tony Abbott defeated Malcolm Turnbull after a revolt by the right wing of the party against Turnbull’s support for an emissions trading scheme to tackle global warming.

No one should doubt the trauma — the humiliation, the thwarted ambition — that being deposed by colleagues inflicts on a political leader. It is no exaggeration to say that the key aim of Turnbull’s decision-making as prime minister has been to forestall another attack on his leadership from the right, and avoid precisely what has happened this week.

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