How Maestro Abbott’s sluggish tempi (and that thing about onions) led to a rebellious orchestra tearing up his contract.

It seems Australia changes political leaders almost as often as I change my underpants. Maybe by the time you read this some crisis or scandal will have engulfed Malcolm Turnbull and he will have been made to eat the proverbial onion. He’ll be back on the back benches and Bronwyn Bishop will be our new Prime Minister, her bun vibrating tightly in the downdraft of her RAAF Chinook tandem rotor helicopter.

I was out of the country when it all happened, conducting in Hong Kong. By the time I walked onto the plane to come back the leadership spill was on, and as I got off the plane Tony Abbott had been replaced. No bloodshed in Canberra, no tanks in the streets, a highly effective and seamless transition. Every Prime Minister in this country now knows that unless they provide good solid leadership reflected in healthy polling they will be out on their ear. If Tony Abbott wants to know what went wrong, he could do worse than visit an orchestra to see how true leadership works.