Nationals force reluctant Turnbull to dress in Shorten's banking clothes
Grattan on Friday: Michelle Grattan , University of Canberra Only a few months ago Bill Shorten would have thought that if he won the election he’d be delivering same-sex marriage and a royal commission into banks early in his government. Now Malcolm Turnbull is bringing us both – in each case, his hand forced by a (different) group of rebel backbenchers. The marriage bill, which will go through the House of Representatives next week, has some disgruntled conservatives arcing up after the Senate rejected their amendments, but Turnbull will mark it down as one of the achievements of his prime ministership. It’s another matter with the banking royal commission. Seldom is a government’s impotence and frustration as much on display as it was when Turnbull finally capitulated and announced on Thursday that the government would establish the inquiry it has so long resisted and denounced. For quite a time political hardheads had been arguing the government should accept the inevi