Peta Credlin: Political leaks are a stain on the Liberal Party

Sensing they’re on the cusp of potential election victory, Labor’s discipline serves as a contrast to the leaking to media that’s been rife from the Coalition for months, Peta Credlin writes.

There’s a lot of uninformed commentary in the media about MPs crossing the floor with most over-estimating its damage to Scott Morrison and underestimating its importance to backbenchers.

The ability to cross the floor, or vote against your own party, is a sacrosanct right inside the Liberal Party and the Nationals.

It is something that would earn a Labor MP expulsion from the party and for many, me included, it’s one of the fundamental reasons to be on the conservative side of politics; the value placed on individuals, their freedoms and their consciences.

The problem at the moment isn’t so much that MPs are crossing the floor, it’s that poor management of the policy and legislative agenda has led to significant issues being left to the end of the government’s term and festering in the usual febrile pre-election climate.

Add to that, the passing of the senate leadership from Mathias Cormann, a consultative conservative, to Simon Birmingham, a moderate with less experience and more factional baggage, and you have an upper house that’s unsettled.

Tasmanian Liberal MP Bridget Archer crossed the floor to support an independent bill for a federal integrity commission on November 25. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

What’s more, sensing they’re on the cusp of potential election victory, Labor’s discipline serves as a contrast to the leaking and backgrounding of journalists that’s been rife from the Coalition for months.

Take the news on Friday, after she’d crossed the floor on a motion to establish a federal anti-corruption body, that Liberal MP Bridget Archer was ‘hauled into the PM’s office for a ‘please explain.’

First, the PM need not be expected to apologise for seeking an explanation from an MP so dissatisfied about an issue she crossed the floor. Second, if he had not followed up her dissatisfaction, he would have been similarly criticised for ignoring her. And third, how is anyone served by leaking that to the media?

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