Liberal ministers must challenge Malcolm Turnbull before federal election
MULTIPLE Liberal ministers may have leadership ambitions but if no one steps up to challenge Malcolm Turnbull, we will see seemingly sane politicians watch as their party walks into an electoral massacre, writes Rita Panahi.
Rita Panahi
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IF the swing against the Coalition in the Queensland election is replicated federally, then the rest of the country barely matters; Malcolm Turnbull’s government would be consigned to history.
There are 10 Liberal seats in Queensland — Forde, Petrie, Flynn, Brisbane, Bonner, Leichhardt, Bowman, Capricornia, Dickson and Dawson — on margins of 7 per cent or less. And if they fall, there’s little the Coalition can do to retain government.
Turnbull, who could ill afford the poor result for the Coalition in the state poll, has the added complication of an unnamed Lower House MP threatening to quit the party when parliament returns next month. At this stage, the only thing saving Australia’s 29th prime minister is the lack of a clear alternative with the guts to mount a challenge.
Julie Bishop, Scott Morrison, Peter Dutton and former PM Tony Abbott may have leadership ambitions but if no one steps up, we will see seemingly sane politicians watching their party walk into an electoral massacre.
Those in the Turnbull camp, the infamous winners’ circle with a talent for losing, argue “there is time to recover” but that is sounding less reassuring and more delusional by the day. “Happy little lemmings following him (Turnbull) over the cliff,” is how former Labor powerbroker Graham Richardson described the Liberal Party at the weekend. Former Queensland premier Peter Beattie also didn’t mince his words after the poll: “The reality is if they don’t make a change (to replace Turnbull) the Labor Party is in for two terms.”
BORG PLAN ULTIMATELY FAILED TO ASSIMILATE
Counting continues in the Queensland election but it’s highly likely that Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s Labor Party will govern in its own right despite its primary vote falling to 35 per cent. By yesterday afternoon, it looked assured of winning 46 seats and likely to win a further two. Labor needs 47 seats to form government.
Among the many revelations from the battle up north is the widening disconnect between much of the media and the electorate.
Look at the amount and tone of coverage the Adani coal mine and Manus Island have received.
The Greens were the only anti-Adani option at the polling booth and they attracted about 9 per cent of the vote.
Similarly, they are the only party advocating a weakening of our border protection and pushing for the asylum seekers on Manus Island to be brought to Australia.
And, yet, they were rejected by more than 90 per cent of the electorate.
So, you can imagine my surprise at seeing Leftist blowhards on the ABC trumpeting their achievements in Queensland.
The same pundits who call One Nation winning about 13 per cent of the vote a monumental failure seem to think that 9 per cent is a triumph.
Another revelation is that voters are not abiding by the “how-to-vote cards” of their chosen candidates and that the LNP cannot rely on One Nation preferences.
There seems to be great confusion about what matters to the mainstream, particularly the conservative base, with political pundits misreading and misrepresenting people they neither know nor understand.
Much of the media continues to present widespread support for issues such as euthanasia and same-sex marriage as a sign of how “progressive” the electorate has become.
However, these are not “progressive” causes but libertarian, and have long been backed by a significant percentage of conservative voters.
Among the loudest voices against Victoria’s euthanasia Bill was former Labor PM Paul Keating, while the top nine electorates that voted No to same-sex marriage are Labor seats.
Meanwhile, 15 of 16 National Party seats voted Yes.
Let’s not forget that most conservative commentators, including your humble columnist, backed same-sex marriage.
It’s simplistic to presume LNP voters’ support for it dispels the notion of a disgruntled and sizeable conservative base. Equally absurd is the assumption that a single second-tier issue would determine people’s votes.
IS VICTORIA RUSHING INTO A LETHAL ACT?
The Coalition is suffering from an identity crisis but it has nothing to do with gay marriage and everything to do with a leader who is in the wrong party; one who was donating money to Labor shortly before seeking preselection in a safe Liberal seat.
Yesterday, Turnbull sounded like Abbott as he campaigned with John Alexander for the Bennelong by-election. He accused Labor candidate Kristina Keneally of “rolling out the welcome mat to people smugglers” with her reckless attitude to border protection.
Turnbull did what he refused to do during last year’s federal election: highlight the Coalition’s achievements in stopping the boats.
The PM even used Abbott’s three-word slogan repeatedly, something he considered beneath him until recently. But it’s too little, too late.
Soon the Coalition, like Labor in 2013, will give up any pretence of winning the next federal election and will instead focus on “saving the furniture”.
There will be a transactional cost to removing Turnbull but the alternative is far worse.
Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist
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