Julie Bishop reportedly refused to rule out challenging Tony Abbott
IS IT on? The Prime Minister hoped to draw a line under leadership speculation yesterday, here’s what happened instead.
THE Prime Minister hoped to draw a line yesterday under talk of a potential leadership challenge but new reports this morning suggest Julie Bishop refused to back Tony Abbott on the weekend, and has renewed the speculation.
Here’s what we now know:
CHATTER ABOUT LEADERSHIP SPILL
Leadership speculation is continuing with Sky News reporting this morning that the Prime Minister had sought a commitment from Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on Sunday that she would not challenge, but this was not given.
BREAKING: the PM asked Deputy Leader Julie Bishop on Sunday for a commitment she would not challenge - no such guarantee was given
— Kieran Gilbert (@Kieran_Gilbert) February 2, 2015When asked on Sunrise whether the reports were true, Mr Abbott would not confirm either way, despite the question being asked three times.
“I’m not going to play these Canberra insider games,” Mr Abbott said.
“I think people find that insider Canberra stuff so boring.”
“I have meetings with Julie Bishop all the time ... the public elected me as prime minister to clean up Labor’s mess, we’re not going to go back to the chaos of Labor days.”
His answer was in stark contrast to his comments on Sunday, when he confirmed that he had spoken with Ms Bishop.
“She’s been a terrific deputy, a terrific minister. I believe I have her full support and I certainly look forward to continuing to have that,” Mr Abbott said.
When asked for a comment, a spokesman for Ms Bishop referred news.com.au to remarks the Foreign Minister made yesterday at the Australia-United States Ministerial Consultation.
“In relation to my meetings with the Prime Minister, yes we had a delightful meeting last night,” Ms Bishop said when asked whether she had met with Mr Abbott.
“In fact, they (Defence Minister Kevin Andrews and British counterparts) were all there over dinner. As for any private conversations between the Prime Minister and me, I don’t reveal the details of private conversations I have with any leaders, let alone my own Prime Minister.
“As I have said repeatedly, I support the Prime Minister.”
During a later press conference at a child care centre this morning, Mr Abbott continued to avoid saying whether he would call on Ms Bishop to publicly declare her support.
“Julie and I are friends, we are part of the leadership team, we support each other, we always will,” Mr Abbott said.
“Instability breeds instability, if you want to get away from instability, you just end it.
“It’s back to work Tuesday, we are now focusing on doing the right thing by the people of Australia.”
“Cabinet ministers have been ringing me and telling me things are just untenable,” one MP said.
“Julie Bishop and Tony Abbott now have a Gillard-Rudd like relationship. It can’t go on like this,” another said.
During an interview with The Today Show, Treasurer Joe Hockey said the report about Ms Bishop was “unsourced gossip”.
He also denied this morning he had spoken to colleagues about a potential leadership challenge:
“I gave a new years commitment that I wouldn’t be involved in commentary or gossip,” Mr Hockey said.
“If there were to be a change of leadership, it would mean, what, six prime ministers in eight years? I mean, come on.”
Labor said Ms Bishop must resign if she cannot rule out a challenge.
“Otherwise she will be showing a gross disloyalty,” shadow employment spokesman Brendan O’Connor told Sky News.
Liberal MP Andrew Nikolic emailed all Coalition members this morning warning them of the insanity of changing leaders, according to The Daily Telegraph.
Cabinet minister Barnaby Joyce also warned unruly backbenchers against pushing for a change, saying they risked the previous Labor government’s fate. “If you act like the Labor party you get treated like the Labor party,” he told the Nine Network.
Senior frontbencher Ian Macfarlane said some internal dissent was natural, but he was unaware of those agitating for change. “They haven’t rung me,” he told ABC radio.
Education Minister Christopher Pyne also rejected reports he could be a compromise candidate for the leadership. “I haven’t been sounded out by anyone because I am 100 per cent supportive of the PM continuing,” he told ABC television.
Mr Macfarlane later told reporters Ms Bishop needed to clear the air on her ambitions.
“Talk about leadership is a distraction that needs to be put to bed,” Mr Macfarlane said on Tuesday. He says Mr Turnbull has assured him he will not mount any challenge.
Yesterday, Malcolm Turnbull failed to rule out he was interested in the leadership ahead of Mr Abbott’s speech.
“Look the only thing we should be interested in on the political front today is the Prime Minister’s speech to the National Press Club in a few hours,” Mr Turnbull said when asked if he was interested in the position.
“He is going to be laying out his agenda for the future and I think everyone will be tuned into that. That’s where we should be concentrating and that is certainly what I will paying attention to today.”
Meanwhile, Scott Morrison appeared on 7.30 last night to state that he would not challenge Mr Abbott for the leadership. However, when asked whether he would stand if he was drafted by a colleague, the answer was less clear.
“I’ve just said that I wouldn’t challenge the leader ... I think people are getting my position very clear, Leigh (Sales), and we could play these games for most of the evening,” he told the 7.30 host.
“What I’m telling you is that the Prime Minister has my support and I’ve outlined that in any number of ways and what I’m telling you is the Government and the Prime Minister has set out what we’re focusing on for Australian families and for Australian small businesses And others are focusing on these matters.”
Mr Morrison also said he had not had any discussions with Malcolm Turnbull, Julie Bishop or their proxies regarding a possible new leadership team and said he had no idea whether those discussions were underway between Ms Bishop and Mr Turnbull.
He said he would support the prime minister in a leadership spill but that Mr Abbott had not sought any assurance from him on that matter.
KNIGHTS AND DAMES STILL A JOKE
Former prime minister Julia Gillard was pressed for her opinion about the Abbott “knightmare”, which kicked off leadership speculation last week, and it seems that the woman whose career was killed off by Mr Abbott, may yet have the last laugh.
“Why did you fight to not knight Prince Philip?” asked state Labor candidate Verity Firth during an “In Conversation” event at Sydney University’s Manning Bar on Monday night, according to Fairfax.
“I had this clearly eccentric idea that Australian honours should be for Australians,” Gillard said, as the crowd roared with laughter.
“I’m trying not to involve myself too much in commentary on domestic politics ... but perhaps I should say that from my home in Adelaide that there are weeks when it’s harder to watch Australian politics for me and there are weeks that are somewhat easier,” she said.
Former treasurer Peter Costello has also weighed into the debate saying knighting Prince Philip was the “barbecue stopper of the century”.
“It completely hijacked Australia Day. Rarely have I heard such ridicule,” Mr Costello wrote in his column today.
He also criticised Mr Abbott’s chief of staff Peta Credlin, saying staff should not be making decision or doing media interviews.
“They do not need a public profile. If they gather a profile it is a mark of failure, not success,” he noted.
Despite Mr Abbott’s announcement yesterday during his National Press Club speech that the honours would now be decided by the Order of Australia Council, at least one Liberal backbencher has suggested he would defy the PM by asking parliament to abolish Australian knights and dames completely.
“Today’s announcement has failed to address the concerns and feeling of the electorate at large,” Andrew Laming, who represents the Brisbane electorate of Bowman said in a statement.
Mr Laming will ask parliament to support a private member’s bill abolishing knighthoods and dameships.
But Nationals MP and agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce, who spoke out against Mr Abbott’s knighthood decision, threw his support behind the PM, claiming Tony Abbott’s mistakes made him stronger.
Mr Joyce was peppered with questions on ABC’s Q&A program on Monday night about Mr Abbott and the ongoing leadership speculation. Mr Joyce conceded it was a tough time for the coalition but they had to get through it.
“How you judge a person in these periods of time is how they deal with them,” he said.
“ ... you get to a point where it appears the chips are against you and that is how you judge the character of those around you. They are either up to it and you stick as a group or it falls to pieces and goes into chaos,” Mr Joyce said.
Speaking about him (Tony Abbott) personally, Mr Joyce said: “I see him as a human being, I see him as earnest, I see him as authentic.”
But independent Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie tipped Mr Abbott wouldn’t make it to the end of the week.
“If these blokes have any common sense and want to move forward, with half a chance of winning the next election, they will get rid of him immediately,” she said.
MIXED OPINIONS AMONG BACKBENCHERS
The reaction to Mr Abbott’s speech at the Press Club seems to have been mixed and there is speculation that it has not turned the opinion of disgruntled backbenchers.
Mr Abbott’s speech on Monday was widely seen as a blunt message to backbenchers that he was not going anywhere.
A handful of MPs contacted by The Australian Financial Review still believed Mr Abbott would eventually go. Others thought he should be given more time to try to recover. “He’s blown up the bridges. It’s hard to know but he’s in a precarious position,’’ said one MP.
“What do you do if the public wants him to go?”
One MP still critical of Mr Abbott’s leadership complained to Fairfax that “there was no forward agenda at all”.
“We’re supposed to be in this new era of consultation, so he dumps a policy we took to two elections, a policy we’ve all been out defending for a year and a half, without consulting any of us,” the MP said.
Overall, Mr Abbott’s performance seems to have appealed to Liberal MPs who were already on his side, one commentator suggested. “I don’t think it resolved anything,” an MP told Fairfax.
But Queensland Liberal Ewen Jones, who had blasted Abbott on the Prince Philip knighthood, told The Conversation he thought the Prime Minister had “the tone for which I had been looking” at the Press Club.
Mr Jones said he didn’t think “changing leaders is the answer to anything” but wants new messaging from Mr Abbott and Treasurer Joe Hockey. The language should be “less corporate lunch and more cafe”, he said.
Another backbencher felt the speech was “pretty good” — but “it’s not going to make much of a difference. More than half the backbench want him to resign. The public are leading the charge on this — the MPs are getting smashed by their branch members and their constituents.”
Experienced MPs are not ruling out an early leadership spill as the opinion polls are terrible and Mr Abbott’s chief of staff Peta Credlin remains a major issue for some.
COMMUNITY RESPONSE
Business and parents are pleased Tony Abbott has dumped his signature paid parental leave scheme but are worried there are no details about a replacement childcare package. The new package would make care more affordable and ease pressure on family budgets, the prime minister told the National Press Club on Monday.
“That bigger parental leave scheme is off the table,” he said, conceding it was one of his two controversial captain’s calls. “It’s not going to happen.” Instead, the government will spend the next few months consulting on its “better and fairer” childcare and families policy.
Labor lashed out at the prime minister for dumping the PPL — which it never supported — with families spokeswoman Jenny Macklin saying Mr Abbott’s word now means nothing.
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry head Kate Carnell said boosting childcare support was the only sensible approach to increasing workforce participation.
The chamber has always had doubts about the six-month wage-replacement parental leave scheme, which was to be funded by a 1.5 per cent levy on big business.
Ms Carnell asked Mr Abbott to clarify whether that levy had been pushed off the table along with the leave scheme.
Independent senator Nick Xenophon believes the leave scheme had always been an “extravagant indulgence” when the real “barbecue-stopper” was the cost of child care.
Mr Abbott still supports better paid parental leave but says he’s accepted now isn’t the right time to implement it.
Family advocacy group The Parenthood is glad the prime minister has been listening.
However, it had hoped to get some more details about what the government is actually planning to do, executive director Jo Briskey said.
Labor and the Greens are demanding the government release a Productivity Commission report into child care, ahead of a March 23 deadline for its tabling in parliament.
WHAT NOW
Tony Abbott will meet with his cabinet and wider ministry in Canberra before parliament resumes to discuss the government’s agenda and priorities for the year.
The government now plans to overhaul family payments and the child care system, instead of spending $22 billion on expanding paid parental leave.
Also in the speech, Mr Abbott flagged a small business company tax cut from July 1, tougher foreign investment rules and a crackdown on groups that promote terrorism.
The PM is expected to start Tuesday’s meeting with an overview of the government’s direction, before each minister outlines their portfolio priorities for the next year.
Ministers will also be given a chance to discuss political strategy and provide their opinions on how the government can win over voters.
The meeting will continue into Wednesday, with the outer ministry invited to contribute.
A full coalition joint party room meeting is scheduled for February 10, a day after parliament resumes for the year.
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