Andrew Bolt sums up the latest Coalition chaos:
The Coalition is splintering:
Responding to Mr Abbott’s latest public interventions – a newspaper column in which he sought to diagnose the problems of modern politics, and a high-profile Sydney radio interview – Mr Entsch called on him to “back off”.
Mr Abbott should honour his promise of “no wrecking, no sniping and no undermining”, Mr Entsch told Fairfax Media.
“He made it quite clear when he left office that he would not be a Kevin Rudd, that he would not provide a running commentary, he would positively contribute. He was very specific when he said that – and most of us believed him.
“But what he’s doing now is reinforcing all the negative aspects of his time. And if it continues like this, this will be his legacy – and he won’t be remembered fondly. He’ll just be seen as a wrecker, hellbent on destroying an individual.”
And:
Two senior cabinet ministers have refused to chastise Tony Abbott over his latest criticism of the government, revealing growing internal frustration within the Coalition partyroom over a lack of direction under Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership.
Several senior Liberal MPs have also told The Australian they “could not disagree” with the former prime minister’s assessment yesterday, after he repeated the five-point plan he revealed in February, suggesting that unless the government started to “deliver” on core policy and dump others it would lose the next election.
In a noticeable shift in language since the public dressing down of Mr Abbott by senior ministers in February, Infrastructure Minister Darren Chester and Trade Minister Steve Ciobo yesterday backed Mr Abbott’s right to speak as a backbencher.
Southern Sydney Liberal MP Craig Kelly also defended Mr Abbott, who said the Coalition should stick with Mr Turnbull for fear of repeating Labor’s Rudd/Gillard/Rudd disaster.
Mr Kelly refused to be drawn on whether the Coalition would have fared better at the last election under Mr Abbott or whether it had been a mistake to change leaders.
Victorian Liberal senator James Paterson said he believed Mr Abbott was free as a backbencher to argue ideas as long as did so “judiciously”.
Abbott has replaced Scott Morrison as the regular Coalition guest on Ray Hadley’s radio show so get used to a weekly dose.
Another shock jock is also on the war path:
Alan Jones, one of the Coalition’s highest-profile media backers, says the Turnbull government is failing to learn from its mistakes and could benefit from an electoral thrashing.
“I tell you what. These people just deserve to be smashed in an election to make them wake up,” the conservative 2GB pundit declared on Monday during his show, which reigns supreme in its breakfast timeslot and is syndicated in NSW and Queensland.
Hadley, Bolt, Jones…kind of sounds like a plan.
This is the end for Do-nothing Malcolm. No government can run with this kind of public division. For one with no direction or agenda it is clearly fatal. I expect he’ll be gone within twelve months at the outside.
I’d put Abbott odds-on to become leader again and his agenda will do better than doing nothing. Certainly it will address One Nation and recapture that vote, virtually ending it as a political force.
I remain doubtful the Abbott agenda can win the centre, cuts to the RET will be especially unpopular. But you never know, it has one huge trump card. Immigration cuts will be wildly popular across the polity as they relieve eastern city congestion and deliver an huge leg up to housing affordability and the environment. It will also fit nicely with the tone of the times as ‘Australia First’ rises.
If Labor has any sense it will adopt much stronger labour market visa reform proposals today to begin its own ramp down of immigration. The ‘immigration cut’ wedge is coming and getting caught on the wrong side of it is the only real risk to its winning the next election.
