The spill that never was still spells trouble for Gladys Berejiklian

Just last night, senior ministers were taking to Twitter dramatically pledging their loyalty to the premier — yet today they are hoping for “business as usual” after rebel MPs walked back from a cliff. It doesn’t work like that, writes Anna Caldwell.

• MPs call off Gladys leadership spill
• Gladys should have never let it come to this

The spill that never was still spells trouble for Gladys Berejiklian.

Just last night, senior ministers were taking to Twitter dramatically pledging their loyalty to the premier — yet today they are hoping for “business as usual” after rebel MPs walked back from a cliff.

It doesn’t work like that. The chaos in the party has been laid bare for all to see.

It’s almost comedic — and a move that could only pass muster in the wilds of NSW politics — that MPs bumbled through a tense party room meeting without a single mention of that small matter of last night’s 12 hour pledge to unseat the premier.

The spill that never was still spells trouble for Gladys Berejiklian. Picture: John Grainger

As if voters — who backed this government on the promise of stability, a strong economy and infrastructure delivery — just might forget about an ill fated knifing.

The conservatives’ wounds are still deep.

And equally, backers of the Premier want to crush the conservative rebels. It is the beginnings of a civil war.

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“This is so embarrassing, here are these three sad sorry no names of NSW politics so committed to their cause they didn’t even have the courage to raise it in party room,” one senior minister told me.

“They are irrelevant and isolated.”

But we saw last night how quickly these MPs can make themselves relevant.

This deep rift will only be fixed if the Premier can accept she has badly managed the process of the bill which has resulted in conservative MPs feeling so isolated they are willing to burn the place down.

Today will be a long day and no one knows yet where the issues land at the end.

Debate in the upper house on proposed amendments to the abortion legislation begins after 2.30pm. There are more than 20 with the number yet to be finalised and the house slated to sit until midnight.

If the core amendments fail to pass, it remains to be seen what the rebels who have threatened to burn down the government will do next.

One thing is for sure — it’s certainly not business as usual.