UPDATE: Scott Morrison won 45 to Dutton 40.
Hours from now the Liberal Party members will decide whether Peter Dutton, Scott Morrison or Julie Bishop will be PM. Dutton is aligned with Tony Abbott, but Morrison seemingly and Bishop definitely, with Turnbull. I doubt Bishop has a chance. Morrison has not pinned his colors to the mast on climate change but the ABC is pushing for him according to Andrew Bolt — so we know who threatens the most sacred cows. Go Dutton.
Likewise, Fairfax are telling readers not to vote for Dutton: “In sunny Kooyong, Liberals find the thought of PM Dutton ‘appalling’“. So they managed to find a few people who don’t like him and turn that into a story.
Malcolm Turnbull is, as usual, being statesmanlike, thinking only of the Party:
Malcolm Turnbull promises a scorched earth for his Liberal enemies
He’s promised to resign and force a byelection in his seat. Tossing bombs as he leaves. On the plus side: no more Malcolm in Australian politics. Not unless the member for Goldman Sachs joins the Labor Party.
Will the new leader of the Liberals take the easy and obvious winning path of Abbott, Trump Dean, serve the people and stand up to the namecallers? Send a message to your local Liberal Party MP. Ask them today.
Apologies for minimal posting. I’m currently out of the office. Posting from a car in the dark parked by a road where I can get at least one bar of internet access.
I’ll leave it up to more informed commenters for the moment…
Commenter TdeF on Duttons eligibility and what the allegations tell us about Turnbull– :
The Dutton Child Care centers do NOT receive Commonwealth payments. These go directly to the parents.
Yes you could argue that the money is an indirect payment, but what money isn’t? The parents would have to pay the bills regardless of how much subsidy they receive. It might affect their choices. It might increase prices. Fundamantally though every decision a minister make can be traced logically back to impact income he has outside parliament.
At the same time Dutton has also been very careful to excuse himself from decisions which might directly impact payments in which he has an interest. He will be cleared.
However this reflects very badly on Turnbull who was obviously aware of the potential for illegal membership of the parliament and said nothing to disrupt his one seat parliament until he benefited personally from the prosection of a minister. On both counts, it is Turnbull who acted in his own personal interest in what he now alleges was a potential crime.
That sort of thing gives lawyer like Turnbull a bad name. For ethics I would back a policeman against a lawyer every time.
(h/ to Dennis too)