Liberal desertions are playing into Labor’s hands

Bill Shorten is beiug two-faced about ministerial departures.

Former Liberal deputy leader and foreign minister Julie Bishop announced that she wouldn’t be recontesting the next federal election and at the same time claimed that had she been elected leader she could have beaten Bill Shorten. We can debate this until the cows come home but it is no longer of any consequence.

Shorten tried to turn this to his advantage and said it showed it was how the Liberal Party treats women. But how does the Labor Party treat Labor female prime ministers? Shabbily.

As Julia Gillard’s hold on the PM’s job was wobbling due to poor polls, Shorten, who the day before had pledged loyalty, joined the male dominated “hit squad” to bump her off. Then they replaced her with a recycled bloke, Kevin Rudd, who was described by some of his own MPs in very unflattering terms. Shorten should stop feeding us hypocrisy disguised as smart-alec digs.

Coke Tomyn, Camberwell, Vic

Julie Bishop seemed to care mostly about herself, but many people didn’t know what she stood for. She was treated well by Tony Abbott after he battled for years to win back government with a large majority, but she then backed the covetous Malcolm Turnbull to depose Abbott before he even completed his first term.

Sadly, there are still too many senior ministers who were in lockstep with Turnbull on the Paris accord, renewable energy and refusal to use coal or uranium for cheap and reliable electricity which shows that nothing much has changed.

Brian Whybrow, Wanniassa, ACT

I have always had respect for Julie Bishop as a politician — until now. She is no better than Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, both of whom can’t accept they were failures who sought to blame and damage their own party colleagues.

I have never had a great deal of respect for former Labor PM Julia Gillard until now. She has shown a great deal of decency and respect for her party and colleagues by going quietly into retirement. What a pity the Liberal failures have not done so.

C. H. Ainsworth, Kingscliff, NSW

Julie Bishop says she would have defeated Bill Shorten. However, at the moment she and the likes of Julia Banks are doing their hardest to ensure a Shorten win. Bishop should have kept her tongue between her teeth until after the election.

As for defeating Shorten, only in her dreams. Her comments and behaviour only confirm why her colleagues did not vote for her and these comments now set Australia up for a nightmare under a Shorten-led Labor government.

Carryn McLean, Kingsley, WA

Julie Bishop is not my cup of tea as a prime minister, but she may be right about her beating Bill Shorten in an election. She has no real negative baggage, would be a difficult target for the Nine newspapers and the ABC, and had a productive time with no big stuff ups as foreign minister.

She would have attracted back many wet Liberals who planned to desert the ship in their post-Turnbull angst, and surely many women would have looked at Bishop and Shorten and decided it’s time for another woman to lead the country.

Richard Burridge, Sandringham, Vic

Can we be assured that no well-paid jobs, provided by the long-suffering public purse, have been organised or will be made available for any of the members of parliament who have made sudden decisions to retire.

All of them qualify for pensions. If they have time to spare away from their families they can find their own jobs and not expect the taxpayer to continue to fund their lifestyles.

Peter Bell, Noosa Heads, Qld

I note that Jenny Macklin was the deputy leader of the Labor Party in 2001-06. She served under leaders Simon Crean, Mark Latham and Kim Beazley yet was never promoted to the top job. No one thought that to be sexist then. Perhaps that was because, like Julie Bishop a decade later, she simply wasn’t PM material.

Shaun Miller, Prahran, Vic

It is the last straw. Christopher Pyne is off, the man who as the chief promoter, helped force Australia into the flawed project to construct submarines whose technology is already obsolete and which might be available in a couple of decades.

Perhaps his successor will have the good wit to bail us out of this disaster.

Frank Palmer, Albury, NSW