It’s all falling apart:
Deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop has urged an unnamed Coalition colleague who is reportedly intending to quit the Turnbull government when parliament returns to discuss his concerns with her or the Prime Minister.
Sky News commentator Andrew Bolt reported last night that a Coalition MP has told him that he intends to step down from the government and sit as an independent member of the Coalition when parliament returns.
The move would increase the already considerable pressure on Malcolm Turnbull, who has lost his majority in the House of Representatives while Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce and NSW MP John Alexander face by-elections.
According to Mr Bolt, the dissident Coalition MP says he will only sit with the government if Mr Turnbull is replaced as prime minister by a leader who can appeal to conservative voters, and that person must not be Ms Bishop.
PVO mulls who:
We know the source is a conservative, no surprises there. Bolt has been briefed for some time now about the imminent demise of the PM. Due dates for his departure have semi-regularly been asserted. But this source, with the wording in the blog may well be a National — which puts the likes of George Christensen and Andrew Broad in the mix. Both have threatened to cross the floor or even leave the party if dissatisfied with policy scripts Turnbull has been known to push. It’s possible either’s frustration has become personal, not just policy driven.
Because neither are members of the Liberal Party, and therefore eligible to play a role in internal party matters, neither would be causing trouble for the reasons reactionaries often do — to play a hand in a leadership showdown. Both are external observers.
Social media was abuzz last night that Kevin Andrews or Tony Abbott was the source, but this seems highly unlikely. Abbott, whatever people think of his pronouncements over the years doesn’t play those sorts of games, and Andrews knows too well that leaving the Liberals to sit on the crossbench would neuter his ability to stir from within.
It’s no good just chopping off the head of the idiot. The idiotic policies must change as well. NZ’s Jacinda Ardern has shown the way. Tax cuts are fine but the only thing that will change the government’s fate is to materially cut immigration and police foreign buying of realty to:
- deliver housing affordability and counter Labor’s negative gearing reforms;
- turn the Coalition into the champion of wages growth;
- lift the congestion choking east coast cities;
- recapture the One Nation vote, and
- make the Coalition the only real green party in the parliament.
Get on with it.
