FROM UTEGATE TO SHOOTGATE: EX-PM BLASTS SELF IN BOTH FEET
Malcolm Turnbull’s strategic uselessness was exposed today on two fronts following the former PM’s latest maladroit meddling.
Malcolm Turnbull’s strategic uselessness was exposed today on two fronts following the former PM’s latest maladroit meddling.
Crucially, Turnbull’s vengeful attempt to destroy Craig Kelly ahead of next year’s election was easily swept aside:
The NSW Liberal Party’s state executive has passed the motion re-endorsing all sitting MPs, including Craig Kelly. Four moderates who could have voted against the motion and forced Mr Kelly to undergo a preselection battle abstained instead.
It’s a victory for Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who intervened on Mr Kelly’s behalf, and a defeat for Malcolm Turnbull, who spoke out against the move this morning.
That move against Kelly was earlier blunted this morning by revelations of Turnbull’s spiteful attitude towards Morrison during phone calls to members of Turnbull’s own moderate faction.
One of them, Matt Kean, revealed the tone of Turnbull’s language. This left Turnbull bewildered, as he subsequently explained to the ABC’s no-longer-so-friendly Fran Kelly:
I spoke to several members of the state executive yesterday, as I was entitled to do. I’m very disappointed that at least one of them, Mr Matt Kean, chose to share a colourful version of that discussion and not entirely accurate description but a description of idea with the media.
Why he chose to do that is completely beyond me.
Newsflash, Mal. Conservatives haven’t forgotten your treatment of Tony Abbott. And Liberal moderates haven’t forgotten your treatment of endorsed Wentworth candidate Dave Sharma:
During his flurry of activity this morning, Malcolm Turnbull openly wondered why his private conversation with NSW MP Matt Kean, in which he claimed Scott Morrison was “just trying to keep his ass in C1”, was leaked to the media.
Samantha Maiden has the answer. She reports Mr Kean has told colleagues he is “f***ing furious with what Malcolm did to Dave Sharma”.
When you betray so many people, eventually the knives will come your way. Turnbull is now without office, without an electorate and without influence. He could not have done a worse job of this if he’d tried.
Malcolm Turnbull has absolutely Rudded it.
Happy Inauguration Day to all the haters and losers
The loser/hater community now faces an enemy who has become massively emboldened by that community’s own ruinous tactics. Trump’s foes are the authors of their own destruction, writes Tim Blair.
Beach clean-up a small price to pay to see fun return to Sydney
Scenes of garbage left on beaches by Christmas Day revellers have spawned outrage, but Tim Blair reckons Sydneysiders could learn a thing or two from the partying backpackers.
Heated holy rollers are making the children cry
Thousands of Australian schoolchildren still suffer climate trauma thanks to doomy teachers, academics, politicians and the media, yet none of their apocalyptic predictions ever come true, and worse still, they never apologised, writes Tim Blair.
McDonald Trump has his foes in panic mode
Serving fries at McDonald’s and poking fun at Kamala Harris’s claims to have worked there is just one of the many ways Donald Trump continues to connect with regular people and defy his delusional critics, writes Tim Blair.
Friday Noticeboard
Today’s noticeboard is brought to you by a daring public experiment. In Sydney this week, intrepid social engineers attempted to discover what happens when you combine feminism, comedy and an audience of sad wokens.
Surely No Such Damning Evidence Exists
To those who describe incoming governor-general Sam Mostyn as a lifelong activist hack whose unimpressive record can’t help but cheapen her office, I say: show me the proof.