From the AFR:
A furious Scott Morrison has confirmed Tony Abbott offered to make him Treasurer and “throw Joe Hockey under a bus” so Mr Abbott could save his leadership.
In an extraordinary interview on radio 2GB, Mr Morrison effectively broke up with radio host Ray Hadley with whom he has had a very close media relationship.
Mr Morrison was livid when Hadley, who has been accusing Mr Morrison all week of betraying Mr Abbott, demanded he hold a Bible while on air to prove he was not lying.
“I don’t have to swear on a Bible mate,” he said.
Waleed Ali sums up what is going here and what is at stake:
Slowly, we’re learning of the continuing anger towards Christopher Pyne, Julie Bishop and even Scott Morrison over their abandonment of Tony Abbott. We’re discovering Cory Bernardi’s remarkable flirtation with leaving the Liberal Party altogether, perhaps with a view to establishing his own neo-Hansonite operation.
…this is the desperate gasp of a certain politics in crisis, demonstrably failing and on the brink of redundancy.
Who will represent Australian neo-conservatives now? Those expressing such concerns overlook the most important fact – that it is these people who have had the keys to the kingdom for the past two years, only to see the palace crash down around them. It is hard to imagine a government that could better approximate the values espoused by Sydney shock jock Ray Hadley.
All of the bluster around the place that Turnbull needs to bring in the Liberal Party “base” is rubbish. That world view killed Abbott. Turnbull needs to kill them before they destroy his government.
