This was a cathartic end to a disgraceful 48 hours
THIS week’s insurgency was an ugly, treacherous mess but the vicious war between Abbott and Turnbull is at least over, with the winners those who showed loyalty and decency, writes Miranda Devine.
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MOMENTS after Australia’s new Prime Minister Scott Morrison won the Liberal leadership ballot yesterday he told his colleagues a new generation of Liberal is “closing the door” on the Turnbull-Abbott era.
And the party room cheered, according to one insider.
It was a cathartic end to a disgraceful 48 hours in Australian political history. The final ambush of the Tony Abbott insurgency came shockingly fast, in the form of Peter Dutton’s two-part spill motion. The coup was bungled, despite months of planning, but Malcolm Turnbull was mortally wounded and reputations lay in tatters.
Turnbull handled his departure with more grace than he will be given credit for, with a relaxed press conference in the prime ministerial courtyard surrounded by his wife Lucy, and grandchildren. No angry tears, just a pointed barb or two at the jihadists who blew up his prime ministership for no reason that an apolitical Australian would understand.
History will be kinder to his reign than you would imagine from the daily stream of bile.
But perhaps it took two overrated Rhodes Scholars finally to deliver Australia a Prime Minister who really speaks for the “Forgotten People”: PM SCOMO from Sydney’s unfashionable Shire.
“A fair go for those who have a go” is his motto.
The process was an ugly treacherous mess, and it has given Labor a free run at the next election. But for a decade the Liberal party has been captive to the vicious domestic between Abbott and Turnbull. Now it is over.
Loyalty and decency has been rewarded.
Our new Prime Minister Scott Morrison, 50, and his deputy Josh Frydenberg, 47 were two of the smartest and hardest working ministers in the Turnbull cabinet, who just put their heads down and did their talented best rather than destabilising.
Now the healing can begin.
The son of a cop, married to a nurse, his childhood sweetheart Jenny with whom he has two young daughters, Morrison is Christian social conservative who loves rugby league. He comes from the pragmatic John Howard school of uniting a broad church. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have strong beliefs.
When he addressed the party room earlier yesterday, he quoted a passage from the Bible, as a call to arms against Labor.
The passage includes this: “the army of Israel had to parade for six weary days round Jericho blowing their useless trumpets, whilst the impregnable walls stood firm, and the defenders flouted and jeered their aimless procession. But the seventh day will come, and at the trumpet blast down will go the loftiest ramparts of the cities that are ‘walled up to heaven’ with a rush and a crash, and through the dust and over the ruined rubbish Christ’s soldiers will march and take possession. So trust in your Leader, and be sure of the victory, and have patience and keep on at your work.”
In other words, keep working hard, we can win the next election.
Miracles might happen.
Originally published as This was a cathartic end to a disgraceful 48 hours
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