Miranda Devine: Wentworth results a ‘well-deserved kicking from fed-up voters’
THE rout in Wentworth was a referendum on regicide. The biggest swing against a government in Australian history in the nation’s wealthiest electorate is a calamity for the Liberal Party, Miranda Devine writes.
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THE rout in Wentworth was a referendum on regicide. The biggest swing against a government in Australian history in the nation’s wealthiest electorate is a calamity for the Liberal Party. It’s a well-deserved kicking from fed-up voters.
The genius move by the delcon rump of the Liberal party to cut down yet another prime minister has now led to the loss of the government’s one-seat majority and the installation of woke activist Kerryn Phelps, who will ram the rainbow agenda down Scott Morrison’s throat.
Blame can be equally apportioned to Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott, whose decade-long war has been all ego and selfishness, never about the people of Australia or the party which gave them its blessing.
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This result was not a reflection on Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who did not vote for either coup, and who fronted up last night to support vanquished candidate Dave Sharma in his concession at Double Bay.
“Liberals are angry and they’ve expressed that” he said, in the understatement of the night.
Turnbull ally and MP for the marginal western Sydney seat of Reid, Craig Laundy, sheeted the blame home to both Turnbull and Abbott.
“Historic axe grinding has absolutely played a part in the last three or four years between two extremely strong personalities that have a long, long history together.”
Turnbull’s exit post-coup and petulant refusal to counter his son Alex’s toxic tweets by publicly backing Sharma last week reflected poorly on him.
So did the decision by Liberal dissidents Tony Abbott, Jim Molan and Craig Kelly to show up at a delcon Liberal branch function in the heart of Wentworth on Friday night for a talk titled: “Back from the Brink, Saving Australia from the Left’s Agenda.”
This was like the assassins turning up to chortle at the funeral.
Andrew Hastie had the sense to pull out of the function, sensing it would not help Sharma to have the people who brought down Turnbull jumping on his grave on by-election eve in the place where he had been most popular.
If the Liberals want to learn a lesson from Wentworth, it is that they need to leave the Turnbull-Abbott era behind, once and for all, listen to the voters and unite behind a new generation.