Samantha Maiden: Peter Dutton is the next leader

Many conservatives are prepared to face an “honourable defeat” under Turnbull but Dutton is the next cab off the rank, Samantha Maiden writes.

Samantha Maiden.

THE night Malcolm Turnbull called Bill Shorten “a parasite” in Parliament, the Prime Minister hadn’t used up all his sledges when he spotted columnist Andrew Bolt.

The broadcaster, who had urged Turnbull to just “resign” and accept his prime ministership was over that same week, was beaming down at him from a TV screen.

Bolt was on mute. But he was still getting under the PM’s skin.

Turnbull stared at Bolt just a little longer than absolutely necessary. He looked cross.

“That man is so full of poison,” Turnbull said.

“If he bit himself, he would die.”

Who’d have thought that just a fortnight on, Bolt would turn out to be Turnbull’s unlikely saviour? The Lord truly does work in mysterious ways.

Tony Abbott was interviewed by Andrew Bolt.

Bolt’s interview with Tony Abbott on Sky News was so explosive, it would force Finance Minister Mathias “Terminator” Cormann to declare enough was enough. He attacked his friend Abbott as “sad” and “destructive”.

It was a significant and powerful intervention. It would have hurt Abbott deeply. Cormann got out of bed in Perth on 4am on Friday to do the deed. It was a clinical political execution of his old friend on national television. It was 8.30am AEST but still dark on the streets of Perth when he was finished his work.

He was “flabbergasted” by Abbott’s behaviour, he said. This from the man that remained loyal to Abbott even as Turnbull tore down his leadership; his own numbers man.

Cormann risked his political future to protect Abbott when Turnbull came for him, but he wasn’t about to let ­Abbott get away with the white-anting any longer.

When confronted by reports Abbott had told conservative Cory Bernardi he wanted the leadership back, Cormann was brutal: “I cannot see any scenario in which there is a return of Tony Abbott to the leadership.

“He’s not helping our cause, he’s not helping our country, he’s not helping himself, much of what he says is either wrong or inconsistent with what he did.”

For example, calling on action on the renewable energy target when he resisted the same push by his own ministers when he had the top job.

Abbott’s political self-immolation won’t fix the Turnbull government’s problems.

If it silences him, however briefly, it will also leave the PM with no more excuses. If Abbott shuts up, Turnbull can’t blame him. This is a tactic Turnbull himself used when he was circling Abbott.

The consensus of even Abbott’s closest supporters is that he isn’t coming back. Not to cabinet, not to the leadership.

His public attack on Turnbull was so personal, involving his personal home at Point Piper and claims that it was a “bad look” that he lived there, it could provide the PM with a circuit-breaker.

Will Peter Dutton (right) replace Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull as leader of the Liberal Party if they are not re-elected? Picture: AAP/Mick Tsikas

The heir apparent for conservatives is now locked in: Peter Dutton. Many conservatives are prepared to face an “honourable defeat” under Turnbull but Dutton is the next cab off the rank.

Silly attempts to get him to backtrack on stating the obvious on the Costa Rica people swap are just that — silly.

If the Liberals lose the next election, expect Julie Bishop to resign after a decade in the deputy’s job, not out. Dutton is the next leader.

Scott Morrison doesn’t have a chance, so deep is the conservatives’ distaste for his lack of loyalty to Abbott.

He is at “the peak” of his rise, according to Liberal critics, and they don’t mean it in a nice way.

Turnbull has been henpecked, second-guessed and undermined by his predecessor and the Abbott cheer squad since the day he was elected.

The relentless campaign of sniping and undermining by Abbott, the man who promised not to snipe or undermine, has been extraordinary and unprecedented.

Perhaps you can applaud him for being transparent, but even Kevin Rudd knew that you could duchess powerful media figures with dinners boasting of your plans to return to the Lodge or deliver speeches attacking the Prime Minister, or conduct explosive television interviews but generally not all three options simultaneously.

It’s just not terribly subtle.

Out of respect, the Liberal Party has let Abbott go on and on. On Friday, Senator Cormann got out his shotgun at 4am and called time.

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