JoNova

Abbott is an incredibly powerful man. From the backbench he’s creating disunity, stopping legislation, ruining careers, and bringing down Prime Ministers, all just for the fun of it.

This has nothing to do with the 54% of Australians who are skeptics.

It would take a ‘miracle’ to save Malcolm Turnbull

Peter Hartcher, The Sydney Morning Herald

“Turnbull thinks people will fall on their knees and say hallelujah!

Turnbull’s supporters are angry and frustrated at Abbott. But among many in the conservative faction of the Liberal Party, there is glee. Turnbull has been humiliated. And, to the conservatives’ great satisfaction, he has been humiliated over what they consider his pet fetish – climate change and carbon emissions.

“Turnbull is obsessed with this issue,” says a leading conservative MP. He thinks it’s a “‘greatest moral challenge of our time’ type of initiative”, a reference to the Kevin Rudd description of climate change. It was a challenge that Rudd failed because of an internal insurrection and now Turnbull has been forced to abandon too.

Contemptuously, he adds: “Turnbull thinks people will fall on their knees and say hallelujah! We’re back to the innovation message”, Turnbull’s campaign theme that fell flat at the 2016 election and which he has since abandoned. “He’s blind to the politics because he’s obsessed with the issue.”

But the defeat is about much more than climate change. It’s an ideological and identity marker. And it has exposed Turnbull’s jugular. “You can’t have a government,” says a Dutton advocate, “that can’t rely on the House on a key piece of legislation.”

The Coalition’s primary vote fell to 33% in the latest IPSOS–Fairfax poll. This is Abbott’s fault.

This may be”Turnbull thinks people will fall on their knees and say hallelujah!unfair. It’s Abbott and other conservatives who have revolted against Turnbull, yet Turnbull is being judged responsible. Disunity is death – Abbott delivers the disunity, Turnbull gets the death. But that’s politics.

Yeah. Only a “handful” of conservative MP’s have thwarted Turnbull yet again.

Lucky Julie Bishop is not a wrecker like Tony Abbott:

Simon Benson, The Australian

In a counter-move by moderates, The Australian understands that, if Mr Dutton won a second ballot, leading moderates including Julie Bishop, have threatened to resign from parliament, stripping the government of its slim majority and triggering a general election.

If Turnbull had just won 90 seats at the last election, a handful of MP’s couldn’t play these games.

Just bad luck.

h/t Dave B

Turnbull braces for leadership challenge

Simon Benson, Geoff Chambers, The Australian

Malcolm Turnbull has lost the confidence of half of his Liberal Party cabinet colleagues as the Prime Minister’s backers admit they are bracing for a leadership challenge from Home Affairs Minister and leading Queensland conservative Peter Dutton.

As the leadership crisis engulfs the government, sources close to the Prime Minister were yesterday briefing that they were expecting a leadership challenge as early as today. Liberal MPs last night claimed that Mr Turnbull had begun calling colleagues to shore up support.

Mr Dutton’s camp believed that it could get to the required 43 votes to roll Mr Turnbull…

Peter Dutton may be ineligible to sit in Parliament. His lawyers say clearly no. Other lawyers say “Maybe”.

Anne Twomey, The Conversation

Section 44(v) says that any person who “has any direct or indirect pecuniary interest in any agreement with the Public Service of the Commonwealth” is disqualified from sitting as a member of parliament.

Dutton, as recorded in the parliamentary register of interests, is the beneficiary of a discretionary family trust. This trust, through its trustee, apparently owns two childcare centres in Queensland. The allegation is that since July 2, 2018, the trust, through its childcare centres, has agreements with the public service to provide childcare services in exchange for childcare subsidies.

The Liberal Party meet again today. The path is not obvious. Legal technicalities have run like a virus through parliament lately.

Would you like 90 seats with that?

The hate media portray the man who won by the largest electoral margin in 20 years as a loser.

Chris Kenny: The Australian

All of this will make many voters wonder why the Liberals wouldn’t, instead, go back to Tony Abbott. Like Kevin Rudd before him, he would be reclaiming the job that was cruelly ripped away from him. While he has never been popular, he is a known quantity and the public would understand the natural justice in his return. Voters gave him a landslide victory in 2013 and he is revered by friend and foe alike as an effective campaigner. Abbott would also bring enormous experience to the job.

To my mind, it has always made most sense that if Turnbull imploded or resigned, the party would return to Abbott. No other contenders have imposed themselves on the party or the public. Yet even Abbott now scoffs at the suggestion.

Abbott says, rightly, it should be about policies not politicians

Pat Griffiths, The Australian:

“It’s not about personalities. It’s not about him, it’s not about me,” Mr Abbott told reporters in Canberra on Monday.

Ending subsidies for renewable energy, stopping price gouging by energy retailers and locking in new baseload power were next on his list.

Among other missteps, the government should withdraw from the Paris agreement on climate change.

“The only way we can win the next election is to have a contest over policy not personalities,” Mr Abbott said.

Dutton hasn’t shown he can take on the Global Bullies yet in the national arena.

Few are true leaders, speaking out unapologetically as a skeptic.