Libspill: Gold Coast MPs overwhelmingly vote to dump Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for Peter Dutton
SOME of the Gold Coast’s long-serving MPs voted to dump Malcolm Turnbull and install Peter Dutton as Prime Minister in a shock move to avoid a ‘bloodbath’. SEE WHO YOUR MP VOTED FOR.
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FOUR of the Gold Coast’s five federal MPs are believed to have voted to dump Malcolm Turnbull as Prime Minister to save the LNP from an electoral “bloodbath”.
Party insiders tonight declared Mr Turnbull a “dead man walking” despite him narrowly surviving a leadership challenge, 48-35, from outgoing Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.
Long-serving Fadden MP Stuart Robert tipped another spill was likely. Political sources said it could be as early as tomorrow.
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“Do I think this is over? No I don’t. Mr Dutton has not finished,” Mr Robert told the Bulletin last night.
Gold Coast MPs were among those who voted for change in the face of dismal Newspolls results which predict Labor will win the next election and the collapse of the proposed National Energy Guarantee.
Steven Ciobo, Karen Andrews, Scott Buchholz and Bert van Manen are all understood to have backed Mr Dutton in an explosive party room meeting in Canberra yesterday.
Mr Ciobo was previously considered a strong supporter of Mr Turnbull, having backed him to be Liberal leader in both 2009 and 2015.
Mr Ciobo reportedly offered his resignation to Mr Turnbull last night but it was not accepted.
Mr Robert is understood to have backed Mr Turnbull, but he declined to disclose his vote to the Gold Coast Bulletin when asked.
“Mr Dutton has a different view that he put forward and there is nothing wrong with having a competing vision,” he said.
“But if you are in the executive you have to support the PM, you cannot vote against them and should resign. Some have done the honourable thing.”
Last night, four members of the Turnbull Ministry who backed Mr Dutton offered their resignations — Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar, Minister for International Development and the Pacific Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, Law Enforcement and Cyber Security Minister Angus Taylor and Senator James McGrath.
None have yet been accepted.
Another spill of the Liberal Party leadership could happen as early as tomorrow afternoon if the Prime Minister’s support continues to haemorrhage towards Mr Dutton, who holds the marginal seat of Dickson north of Brisbane.
Mr Turnbull’s support was strengthened by Treasurer Scott Morrison and his allies, a group which includes Mr Robert.
Support for both men was fluid last night. However, some party figures believe a second spill is more likely to occur when Parliament sits again in mid-September.
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It’s a significant turnaround from the September 2015 Liberal Party leadership spill which saw the Gold Coast’s MPs overwhelming support Mr Turnbull in his bid to unseat Tony Abbott.
Senior LNP sources tonight told the Bulletin that the move was motivated by fears of an electoral wipe-out in the wake of the Longman by-election which saw the conservative party’s primary support drop below 30 per cent.
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Mr Van Manen, the MP for the ultra-marginal seat of Forde, which takes in the northern Gold Coast, would lose his seat if a similar result was repeated at the general election, due by May 19.
“This is getting into bloodbath territory and there is no doubt if we stay on the same course as we are now then that is what we are facing,” a senior figure told the Gold Coast Bulletin.
“You are looking at a near total wipe-out of the LNP in Queensland unless something changes.”
Mr Dutton resigned as Minister for Home Affairs and moved to the backbench after his unsuccessful contest against Mr Turnbull.
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