The wedge is on as the PM reaches out to Di Natale — and his invisible friend
Shorten steers hard to the centre in response as even Boris Johnson shows a new restraint.
Shorten steers hard to the centre in response as even Boris Johnson shows a new restraint
Open to negotiations. Tony Abbott on Richard Di Natale, radio 3AW, yesterday:
I gather he’s determined to make a fresh start — that’s good ... The Greens are potentially in this position that we can do business with. The Labor Party as we know has just got into this relentless negativity ... Maybe the Greens will become the constructive negotiating partners that the public want the parliamentary crossbench to be.
Cafe latte? Make mine a Nescafe, thanks, mate. Bill Shorten doorstop, Melbourne, yesterday:
I congratulated Richard Di Natale in that surprise turn of events yesterday. He’s come through and emerged as the new leader: I congratulate him for that. The Labor Party I lead, though, has different policies to the Greens ... The Labor Party is the only other party along with the Liberals who are seeking to form a majority in this country to lead us to the future.
Lucky he was elected unopposed. Di Natale crunches the numbers, AM, ABC radio, yesterday:
Green representation is going up ... We got an additional senator elected. We went from 10 to 11 senators.
There are these 10 Greens senators, so who’s his invisible friend?
Richard Di Natale, Scott Ludlam, Christine Milne, Sarah Hanson-Young, Janet Rice, Lee Rhiannon, Rachel Siewert, Larissa Waters, Peter Whish-Wilson and Penny Wright
Because the ABC never tries to set up Coalition politicians. Scott Morrison to Michael Brissenden, also from AM yesterday:
I’ll let others focus on scuttlebutt and gossip but I’m sure on the sort of premium current affairs radio program such as yours, Michael, you wouldn’t indulge in that sort of stuff.
The Scottish Nationalists’ secret weapon revealed. Rory Ford, The Drum, Wednesday:
The SNP has bounced back from its failed bid for Scottish independence by … putting itself in a position to potentially win every Scottish seat in the British parliament … (SNP leader Nicola) Sturgeon’s popularity has been bolstered by the death of the Scottish Labour Party, whose leader Jim Murphy (current approval rating: -35) showed his political nous by appointing Julia Gillard’s former communications director John McTernan (“**** you will be ****ed”) as his chief of staff. McTernan is a man who is, I’m sure, currently as popular in Scotland as he once was in Australia. He became a prominent fixture of Scotland’s political landscape in the run-up to the indyref with a series of articles ... that demonstrated his astonishing political expertise. (“When Scotland votes No, Scottish labour will be the big winners”; “Jim Murphy is a proven winner”; and other similarly LOL-worthy headlines).
Older and wiser — and with more skin in the game? Boris Johnson’s last-minute poll pitch, The Guardian, yesterday:
We are a compassionate one-nation Conservative Party that cares about everybody in our country and I am genuinely more anxious than I have been before about what a Labour Party that has gone right to the left in conjunction with the Scottish nationalists will do. If you are a moderate, sensible, one-nation, middle-of-the-road Blairite Guardian reader, please, please come out and vote for us.
Older and wiser — and closer to No 10. Boris before the 2005 poll:
Voting Tory will cause your wife to have bigger breasts and increase your chances of owning a BMW M3.