ANOTHER LIBERAL LEFTIST QUITS: JULIA BANKS OUT WITH A SPRAY

A curious thing: most the media commentary assumes the Liberal Left triumphed when Scott Morrison became Prime Minister. But most of the rage and resignations has come from that Liberal Left, which once denounced "snipers". The latest is Julia Banks, who quits Chisholm with a spray and a play of the gender card.

A curious thing: most the media commentary assumes the Liberal Left triumphed when Scott Morrison became Prime Minister.  

But most of the rage and resignations has come from that Liberal Left, which once denounced "snipers".

There's Malcolm Turnbull, gone with a final bitter spray. Craig  Laundy and Julie Bishop have both also quit in dismay.  Turnbull ally Nick Greiner, a Turnbull supporter, has savaged Tony Abbott. Turnbull's son Alex says the Liberals are now not worth voting for.

And now there's Julia Banks, who quits Chisholm with by lashing out with a play of the gender card that she reveals only now:

I have always listened to the people who elected me and put Australia’s national interest before internal political games, factional party figures, self-proclaimed powerbrokers and certain media personalities who bear vindictive, mean-spirited grudges intent on settling their personal scores.

Last week’s events were the last straw.

More important, the people of Chisholm know that I say what I think. They know that I will always call out bad behaviour and will not tolerate any form of bullying or intimidation. I have experienced this both from within my own party and from the Labor Party...

I am not giving up the fight for gender equality.

The scourge of cultural and gender bias, bullying and intimidation continues against women in politics, the media and across business.

In anticipating my critics saying I’m ‘playing the gender card’ I say this. Women have suffered in silence for too long and in this last 12 months the world has seen many courageous women speak out.

Like Peta Credlin, right?

To young women and men reading this announcement, I say I’ve only ever aspired to inspire.

If I’ve inspired any one of you to have leadership courage – that will sustain me.

STATEMENT pic.twitter.com/ldScV2nJxu

— Julia Banks MP (@juliabanksmp) August 29, 2018

UPDATE

Reality check.

Banks has made about zero impact on Parliament.

Banks' most remembered contribution was to boast that she could live on $40 a day.

Banks will now become the hero of exactly the Leftists who mocked her then, by now playing the gender card.

Before this, Banks only notable intervention in identity politics was to be questioned as a possible dual citizen of Greek background.,

Banks was dead set to lose her seat at the next election.

Just stuff you need to know before she is hailed as St Julia, victim of white male Liberal bullies.

UPDATE

The irony is that if there's one MP who should take most personally the fallout from the Turnbull fall, other than Turnbull himself, it is the very able Michael Sukkar, a conservative:

For conservatives, Morrison’s decision to bench the Victorian MP and leading figure in the ­national conservatives, Michael Sukkar, smacks of payback...

Morrison is not a tribal conservative. He presents as an­ ­­­un­aligned Centre-Right pragmatist. But he runs with the NSW ­moderates.

This might make his leadership appealing to a broader internal constituency — the so-called consensus candidate — but also renders it potentially unstable.

The top-line take-out from the new ministry is that the moderates have been rewarded, with NSW progressive Marise Payne elevated to foreign affairs, having been accused of being invisible in ­defence, and South Australian wet Christopher Pyne moving up to take Payne’s previous role... 

One senior Liberal Party figure described it all as “comical”: a “Turnbull 2.0” cabinet.

Conservatives were certainly elevated, notably NSW MP Angus Taylor, but there is no doubt ­Sukkar was a victim of demands on Morrison from the moderates — a sacrifice to the gods.

The treatment of Sukkar, who commanded the largest swing ­towards him of any Liberal MP at the 2016 election, has already ­ignited fury among the Victorian Liberal Party, including in its ­administrative committee, the majority of whom are now aligned to him.

The decision to put him in the freezer reveals a dangerous lack of understanding of the Victorian branch, which has been in a slow purge of moderates for some time.