Is Julie Bishop a threat to Tony Abbott?

ANALYSIS: Chris Pyne slipped up on TV this morning, mistaking Julie Bishop for the Prime Minister. And there are growing suggestions that she could replace Tony Abbott.

ANALYSIS

A slip of the tongue from Education Minister Christopher Pyne this morning highlighted a dynamic feature of the Abbott government — the rise and rise of Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

Mr Pyne was on the Nine Network attempting to play down the prospect of Ms Bishop becoming Prime Minister, an idea that has been floated by at least one of his colleagues.

“I want her to be Prime Minister for 10 years, and after that people can worry about the next 10 years,” Pyne said. He meant to say “I want him…”, referring to Tony Abbott.

Julie Bishop has no intention of challenging Prime Minister Abbott, whom she admires and has dutifully served around the world.

However, she doesn’t want her efforts in the first year of government with an exceptional emphasis on international matters to be dismissed.

She is not going to do the hard slog of intercontinental commuting and easing Mr Abbott’s path from Jakarta to Kiev to pretend she hasn’t been a success for the Government.

And she doesn’t want to go from managing geopolitical issues to being entangled in the minor internal politics of government.

“Don’t worry Tony. No need to feel nervous.”

On sensitive internal matters, she is running her own agenda outside the strict boundaries set by the Prime Minister’s powerful office.

Recently she was associated with a news report saying bodies of Australian passengers on MH17 had been brought home from Ukraine. This information — on an issue Mr Abbott has worked hard to make his own — had not been cleared with the PM’s office first.

There was consternation about this, but no disciplinary action, which is a measure of Ms Bishop’s authority. You usually don’t defy The Office without paying a price.

Ms Bishop also has the insulation of the fact she is the only woman in cabinet. It would appear crass to have the only female senior minister carpeted for anything other than a major transgression.

Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop during Question Time.

And Ms Bishop can hold her own in cabinet. Recently her resistance saw the collapse of suggestions Immigration Minister Scott Morrison might take over a range of border protection roles from his colleagues, including Ms Bishop herself.

Mr Morrison is the other leadership prospect, should fortune and outside factors see the departure of Tony Abbott. His backing, strengthened by the halt to asylum seeker boat arrivals, is significant within sections of the Liberal base, but not necessarily within the Government benches.

Christopher Pyne is a friend and fan of Ms Bishop’s and certainly wasn’t attempting to downplay her potential today. He was merely trying to smother anything that might be seen as leadership talk.

Oops ... Education Minister Christopher Pyne.

He was responding to reports that Queensland Liberal MP Theresa Gambaro had told a function the Foreign Minister would make a great PM, calling her a hero for women.

Mr Pyne: “I think she’s a great role model to everyone, not just women, by the way. I think she’s a great Foreign Minister but we have a fantastic Prime Minister, I want her to be Prime Minister for 10 years and after that people can worry about the next 10 years.

Interviewer: You want her to be Prime Minister for ten years?

Mr Pyne: Tony Abbott. I said we have a great Prime Minister and we want him to be Prime Minister for ten years. I said him.

His official transcript fixed the misspeak, but that minor slip did nothing to deflect attention from Julie Bishop’s growing stature within the Government.