Malcolm, after this election you are now finished, writes Andrew Bolt

MALCOLM, you have been a disaster. You betrayed Tony Abbott and then led the party to humiliation, stripped of both values and honour, writes Andrew Bolt.

MALCOLM, you assassinated a Liberal Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, who’d won an election by a huge margin.

You promised to do even better than him.

You then treated the Liberal base like dirt, smashing it with a huge super tax, refusing to speak to conservative journalists, repeatedly humiliating Abbott.

You referred to the colonial settlement of Australia as an “invasion” and even held an end-of-Ramadan meal with known Muslim bigots.

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You called an early double dissolution election on the excuse of needing new laws to tackle rogue unions with a building and construction commission, but with the true aim of getting rid of crossbench oppositionists in the Senate.

You went to the election with basically only one policy to sell — a pathetic 10-year promise to cut company tax.

Malcolm Turnbull and wife Lucy leave the polling station after casting their vote. Picture: William West/AFP

And now look. Almost everything turned to ruin.

You have lost so many seats that you could even be forced into minority government, if pre-polling and Western Australia go against you.

You have, if anything, lost ground in the Senate, which will block most of your plans.

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You will be unable to get the numbers to get your building and construction commission through in any joint sitting of parliament.

You have asked for no mandate for real reform, and will have almost no power to undertake any.

Your popularity, already plummeting, will fall further.

There is no way you can seriously claim that this result is better than anything Abbott could have achieved.

Abbott picked up seven seats at the 2010 election and another 15 in the 2013 election. You have lost between 10 and 15 seats and dumped key Liberal values in doing so.

You have been a disaster. You betrayed Tony Abbott and then led the party to humiliation, stripped of both values and honour.

Resign.

Bill Shorten and wife Chloe on polling day. Picture: Scott Barbour/Getty

PM WITH ALMOST NO AUTHORITY, NO MANDATE AND NO POPULARITY

​MALCOLM Turnbull has lost everything except his job as Prime Minister — and that could be next.

I doubt he’ll last to the next election. Yes, the Coalition has won the election, but by a disastrously small margin that leaves it almost powerless, Turnbull humiliated and the country damned.

Tony Abbott as prime minister had only a hostile Senate blocking everything he tried. Turnbull faces not just that, but possibly a hung parliament as well, or at best one in which he’s clinging to power by only a seat or two.

Early counting last night suggests the Coalition could even be forced into a minority government, possibly with new kingmaker Nick Xenophon, whose anti-gambling party is favoured to pick up its first lower house seat.

The Coalition could lose as many as 15 seats, which would force Turnbull to rely on the vote of the Xenophon MP or other crossbenchers to form government.

The Coalition will certainly face a hostile Senate, dominated by Labor, the Greens, possibly three Xenophon senators and almost certainly Pauline Hanson, back in parliament after 18 years.

For Turnbull, this will be almost as devastating as losing the election: he will be PM with almost no authority, no mandate and no popularity. He will rely on deals with crossbenchers in the Senate and possibly even in the House of Representatives to get anything through Parliament. His promised spending cuts will be largely blocked. So will some of his corporate tax.

Forget his “10-year plan” to cut company tax cut: this Senate will pass his cuts to small business but not cuts he promised to bigger business.

A photo appearing on the official Twitter page of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull aboard a train with wife Lucy.

Turnbull’s agenda will be shredded and his personal popularity, already in free fall, will now fall further. Within the Liberals, Turnbull will be toast. He has proved not to be the saviour — the vote magnet — he promised when he knifed Abbott last September.

He outraged party loyalists by his treachery, and then rubbed it in by spruiking policies of the Left — a huge tax hit on super savings, big spending and extra taxes. He championed same-sex marriage, called the settlement of Australia an “invasion”, and stupidly held an end-of-Ramadan meal in the middle of the election with Muslims who included unrepentant hate-preachers.

Turnbull never had the love of the party. Having now assassinated a Liberal leader and then sold out its principles to win this miserable and squalid half-victory, he will now be the target of furious criticism. Even the very excuse Turnbull gave for this early, double dissolution election has blown up in his face.

He will not have the numbers in any joint sitting of parliament to get through his bill to bring back the Australian Building and Construction Commission, needed to tame militant building unions.

Nor will he have cleaned out the Senate of those pesky crossbenchers who held the government to ransom for three years. If anything, there could be even more crossbenchers.

On it goes. Forget Turnbull now pushing same-sex marriage. His party will not let him move a muscle more than it — and especially the Nationals — determines.

But forget, too, what this country badly needs.

There will now be almost none of the reform this country needs, for Turnbull has asked for no real mandate and gained no power.

He offered only the bare bones of an election platform, and has almost no ability to deliver even that.

There will be almost none of the spending cuts we need as the Budget deficits blow out again, and certainly not to the bloated health budget after Labor’s massively effective “Mediscare” campaign.

There will be no workplace reform, either.

And, I’m tipping, after a few months — maybe a couple of years — there will be no Turnbull. He will probably be driven off, unloved and unmourned even by the Liberals who so stupidly greeted him as the Messiah just nine months ago.

He will be brought down as he brought down Abbott, who kept his counsel during this long campaign and can now say: “I told you so.”​

Originally published as Malcolm, after this election you are now finished, writes Andrew Bolt