Federal Government
FUSS ABOUT NOTHING: Malcolm Turnbull will be Liberal leader at the next election
The Canberra Press Gallery love a leadership crisis. Oppositions are usually plagued with them. When the polls are low, the leadership talk goes up. It’s predictable. This week, with Malcolm Turnbull making mistakes over the carbon pollution reduction scheme, Peter Dutton losing, Peter Costello quitting, Joe Hockey gratuitously disclosing he’d been approached to challenge, they have got the scribes furiously excited.
All good copy, and it’s not like they don’t deserve it, but the trouble is there’s nothing in it.
“The numbers are being counted” might be true of a couple of those pre-occupied with the ETS and the perpetually numbers-counting Turnbull-backing Senator Michael Ronaldson but it’s not true more generally.
Our sources say Malcolm Turnbull is not going anywhere.
The hard-heads on ETS who worry that it just another clever reason to tax, spend and regulate don’t have a credible candidate for leadership. They don’t think Joe Hockey would be any better on the issue, they’re just desperate to get and keep Malcolm Turnbull’s attention.
They are talking up a leadership challenge that isn’t there, with a candidate that doesn’t exist, pursuing an agenda that we suspect will ultimately be mostly adopted by Turnbull and his party-room anyway.
At 9am, Malcolm Turnbull and Joe Hockey will be holding a press conference to make it clear they are here to stay, as a team.
Ignore the Gallery piranhas, while they have a point that Turnbull is not travelling well, he’s still going to be leader, almost certainly according to our very well-placed sources, at the next election.
The Liberals would be crazy to incinerate this highly talented, greatly accomplished bloke. In many ways, he’s not our cup of tea but having stupidly dumped Brendan Nelson who we think would have managed the complexity of the ETS issue much better the Liberals do not have a serious choice about backing or sacking him.
He needs to back off on the ETS and offer his version of “support” with some massive amendments that the government won’t accept. Then his party needs to vote it down. Then he’ll have solved his party room problem. Most of it, at least.
Having got the ETS out of the way, Turnbull will be ready to focus on fighting the next election. And if the government’s pushing a specific scheme, with very specific costs in terms of rising prices and lost jobs, and the Opposition are opposing it, Turnbull might do a lot better than the polls currently reflect.
Discussion
25 comments for “FUSS ABOUT NOTHING: Malcolm Turnbull will be Liberal leader at the next election”
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This sillyness over Malcolm will be forgotten in a week’s time.
There are more important things to discuss, such as the engagement of my dear friend, the Rt Hon Lord Fatty Doyle to the delightful EPC.
Congratulations, my dear friend.
It was good to see my name also mentioned in dispatches in the Herald Sun.
The MSM sucks
Where there is smoke there is blue cod pieces.
I’m happy he’s staying on. Wouldn’t want any of the other quality contenders to have to drink the poison chalice.
Did you listen to Latika, she said it was certain Mal-function is going.
My money is on Vex tho
Turnbull doesn’t need enemies. He has Barnaby as his friend.
Why would the Libs put in Hockey now when he’ll only look as hopeless as Turnbull in 6 months.
Why doesn’t Rudd offer Turnbull, Rudd and Abbott postings overseas leaving only Julie Bishop to ascend to leadership glory?
The lazy main stream media are generating this “leadership crisis” crap with the Liberals in opposition just as they did with the ALP in opposition; Beazley, Cream etc, remember. I think the Parliament should boot the Canberra press gallery out of their digs in Parliament and discourage door stops by not talking to the media plebs until they are willing to do some serious journalism on politics. Serious journalism just like Andrew does on Vex News.
Gillard has just about had it with Rudd, and Gillard Gets, what Gillard wants, and she wants to be the first woman prime minister in Australia. It is only a matter of time before the leader
I will be leader.
Julia Gillard for Prime Minister? Noice. A bogan in the Lodge. I suppose she’ll have Marn Frrssn (the only man I’ve ever known who couldn’t pronounce his own name) as her Education Minister, and Kath & Kim parachuted into safe electorates.
Turnball is finished. Joe’s the go.
And about time too …good governance comes from good opposition…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJQwHwP0ojI
We (unions) have used Rudd because non of people were electable. Julias our man…. Rudd only needs to make one more blue and we will make our move, after all we, the unions, own the front Bench.
Move over Rudd, your finished
eh Bro, we want Julia, Ruddy has had his day
There’s no messiah to replace Turnbull with. The Libs dont necessarily want Turnbull but he’s the best option until the next election.
All hail Little Bill the Potent.
“commonsense” conservatism will allow us to get back into power. We are our own messiahs.
Julian McGuaran is the cause of all this, he should just piss off back to the sheep buggering Nats.
“highly talented, greatly accomplished bloke” – and a greeny and a republican. I thought we’d get a “highly talented, greatly accomplished” conservative but we got a quasi-socialist. He’d dead in the water and good riddance when he gets the boot, which will be soon.
The reason the lefty press are out to get Malcolm is they are scared of him – because he is too good – as for McGauran – a leopard never changes its spots
The liberals have neither the leadership, organisation or ideas to make a dent in this government as an opposition at the moment.
Its only a matter of time before the CFMEU, AEU et al chew through the cable ties and break out of the cage Rudd’s hidden them in.
Once the unions taint this government then the Libs will have half a chance of making up some ground. Rudd can’t gag them forever.
Malcom Turnbull is a little leftie bitch and he offers no viable alternative to rudd because he does not want the pacific solution to be brought back and he believes in climate change. And Joe Hockey is a fat imcompetent pathetic excuse for a politician he would be an even worse leader than turnbull.