Liberal party implodes

[skippy]

"MALCOLM Turnbull's hold on his troops disintegrated yesterday when the Opposition Leader was forced to pull one senior colleague into line and sack another.

On a day the Liberals would rather forget, frontbencher Tony Abbott signalled he was reconsidering his support for a pension pay rise - threatening the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of pensioners.

At the same time Mr Turnbull demoted Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi after The Daily Telegraph revealed that he had sledged a colleague in an online newsletter.

While the Rudd Government is set to raise the pension by as much as $35 in this year's Budget, Mr Abbott, who is the Coalition's families and community services spokesman, told Radio 2GB that would be "an enormous hit on the revenue".



"We're talking about possibly $6 billion a year, if it flows through to all pensions, and the economic circumstances of Australia are much different now than they were 12 months ago. I think something like this would need to be considered very carefully and very cautiously," he said"

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/s ... 41,00.html


Turnbull is gone,he wont see out the year as leader, Hockeys up next, expect him to lead the party to at least two elections untill the Libs work out that joe is another Beasley, a big fat cuddly bear who most people like but wouldn't cut it as PM.

As for people skills Abbott, I cant wait for the next election when The Labor party adds show tony saying" a rise in pensions is not affordable" followed by tony whinging that he is finding it hard to live on the wage of an opposition front bencher, bloody hypocrite.

[mantra.]

As for people skills Abbott, I cant wait for the next election when The Labor party adds show tony saying" a rise in pensions is not affordable" followed by tony whinging that he is finding it hard to live on the wage of an opposition front bencher, bloody hypocrite.

Considering Abbott's religious leanings and devoutness - he's a tough nut. All those years as Health Minister and he achieved zilch. He could have really had some influence on junk food advertising and introduced stricter controls on trans fats etc. like Health Ministers in other developed nations, but he did nothing. His only brainchild was to introduce a Catholic abortion counselling service - which appears to have died a natural death. He isn't suited to being a politician at all.

It will be interesting to see if Hockey is the next leader - but if you are right Skippy - yes - he'll definitely be another Beazley, but without the class. Turnbull really is no good in government and needs to go back to private enterprise where he can bluff his way upwards. The same tactics just don't work well in politics.

I think it was Postul who said that Costello would become leader in 2013, and that's probably about right, although he will be totally ineffectual by then.

[Postul8]

Abbott is a vestige of better times for conservatism. He's a member of a diminishing hard right faction, another member of which he sacked yesterday. I note hard right power broker, Minchin, standing up for Bernardi in so many words this morning, in direct defiance to Turnbull's actions. I note also Turnbull claims he & Costello have reached agreement on what each will say to the media regarding Costello's future.

Peter Costello will return, as sure as rain falls from the sky. He won't do so until the factional split is complete and Minchin has the numbers for him against Turnbull, or whichever moderate sits in the Opposition leaders chair. That's how the party sits currently. Moderates hold sway because the hard right conservatives lost government for the party through their ignorance of impending reality in 2007. The right has to prove to the party faithful that it has new blood and something viable to offer before those faithful are likely to let them back into power within the party. If anyone watched Joe Hockey on Q&A last night, you'd have to say that real Liberals, that is to say moderate, Menzie-ite Liberals, will hold onto power within their party for a long time to come.

[TomB]

Hockeys up next

I'm inclined to agree with this but perhaps for a less obvious reason. Rudd and Hockey are drinking buddies and I reckon Rudd will go easy on him if he sits in the Libs throne.

[TomB]

I reckon Costello is done and dusted. He doesn't have the support which Lazarus with a triple by-pass was able to garner because he's a jellyfish. His brother keeps pissing morals in his ear and there's no place for morals in politics.

[skippy]

.He was just sitting there, minding his own business, when that nasty Malcolm Turnbull came along and poked him in the eye.

That's what the Costello cheer squad wants us to believe.

The way they spin it, Turnbull offered Costello the post of shadow treasurer and then allowed the refusal to be made public in a clumsy bid to hasten Cossie's exit from Parliament.
Some might see this interpretation of events as paranoia, but it looks more like a calculated political ploy to give the former treasurer and frustrated wannabe prime minister an excuse to renominate for his seat of Higgins in the June pre-selection. Via various proxies in the Liberal Party and the media, Costello seems to be sending the message: "I'm not going to be elbowed out. I'll saddle up for another parliamentary term to teach Turnbull a lesson."
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/s ... 30,00.html

Looks like tip may have a tip at the job yet.

But what about Abbott? does this man have a political future?

"Then there was Tony Abbott's latest demonstration that he has lost whatever political nous he once had.

To question whether the nation can afford a pension rise - when it was the Liberals who put the plight of pensioners on the political agenda last year - was just dopey.

And Abbott, remember, was the bloke who just a few months ago made an issue of the $90,000 drop in salary he'd suffered when the Coalition lost office.

Turnbull must be wondering which of his colleagues are likely to do him most damage - the plotters or the dills"

Laurie Oakes is political editor of the Nine Network. His column appears every Saturday in The Daily Telegraph

[JW Frogen]

I like Joe Hocky, he is one of the few pollies I think I would want to have a beer with.

Can you imagine having a beer with Rudd, he would get shitfaced after one stubbie and then start sexually harassing the bar girl.

[Postul8]

the enmity between Costello & Turnbull is well known. Smirky Pete would have realised Nelson was a modern day Julius Caesar, and Turnbull his Cassius. He also knows he has almost sufficient numbers to roll Turnbull if he's patient enough to get his ducks in a row first. Minchin is a Costello man now that Howard's dead and Turnbull knows it. Watch Minchin in coming weeks or months if Turnbull lasts that long.

Meanwhile, we have Andrew Robb making hypocritical claims like...."We are still a group that's in transition from you know, an administration of 11.5 years, and you've got to expect that as we move to create, you know, a formidable Opposition, that you're going to get these sorts of weeks from time to time until we have things properly balanced."....on Radio National's PM last night. The inference being that because the coalition is a collective of 'born-to-rule' types, the electorate should be cutting them some slack while they try desperately to come to terms with not being in government. This while the same man attempts to berate a government which has come from 11.5 years of Opposition into the worst economic situation since Joe Lyons took the reins in 1932, for apparently not matching up to the Oppositions expectations over the same time span.

Hypocrisy writ large, in my view.

[Uncanny Valley]

IMPLODES???

Way to make me not ever take you seriously, moron.

[Uncanny Valley]

a government which has come from 11.5 years of Opposition into the worst economic situation since Joe Lyons took the reins in 1932, for apparently not matching up to the Oppositions expectations over the same time span.

Hahaha. "Come [...] into."

Yeah, not like over a year after they were elected or anything, shit for brains?

And of course, geniuses like you and "free money!" Ruddy knew this global meltdown was gonna happen.

Ya got a time frame on "come into" for me for future reference? Probably at least 10 years, if you consider some smart people are saying the left wing CLINTON government started this whole mess. Come into, indeed.