There’s one thing we can predict about the upcoming vote in Wentworth — it will be a Chris Gayle by-election. That is, it’s going to swing hard.
When unpopular governments begin the doleful trudge to the next election almost anything can trigger the descent into abject despondency.
At the fag-end of the Labor Kirner government in 1992, a government beset with turmoil, scandal and chaos, the tram drivers went on strike. Not only did the drivers pull the pin, they decided to make their displeasure known more starkly by driving trams up to the top of Bourke Street and along Spring Street, before parking them in long lines just outside Victoria’s Parliament House.
For the weeks the strike lasted the motionless conga line of trams remained. Labor MPs would look out their windows from their parliamentary offices at the traffic chaos below, shudder and draw the curtains before having a long lie down with a cold compress on their foreheads. It was an excruciating reminder when one really wasn’t needed of the belting that was coming their way.
Full column here.
Stating the bleeding obvious Mr Insider what a shocking mess the Lib/Nats are not just their Parliamentarians but their so called “Management” , Kroger and co, who pull the Party strings. 10 years in the Political Wilderness will refocus these hopeless idiots imho.
We had, in NSW ,a President of the Liberal Party who ran a lobbying company.
If one can believe the street talk, he had to be pried from the President’s position and his good mate Griener got the job.
He is still very influential in the NSW party and apparently can influence candidate selection.
He recently threw his considerable weight behind Morrison according to e newspaper report.
If it was not for Shorten’s blatant class warfare tactics, he would get my vote.
It seems the Turnbull desertion is complete, with Alex (son of God, or is that son of Sun God) coming out to promote electioneering funding for the Wentworth Labor candidate. A final up yours from the bloke who was residing in the Lodge, even though the butlers pantry didnt rate with his humble abode in the Sydney burbs.
No doubt Malcolm, Lucy and Alex will have a few Moets and a laugh when they all catch up at the family pad in New York. A toast to the man of the people, and the peasants can go to hell.
If young Alex wants funds for labor in Wentworth I can think of one chap who has a pad in the area and a mozza in the bank who could help out, Lou. What an obnoxious, self-important turd young Alex is proving himself to be. It’s the old apples and trees adage I suppose.
Seems quite reasonable to me
” Obnoxious self important turd.” He has some scruples eh?
And why wouldn’t Turnbull totally distance himself from that bunch of industry harlots? One thing going for Turnbull in the interests of the nation is that he couldn’t be bought. Thus he had to go.
Henry Donald J Blofeld. My source in the White House tells me The Donald will not be making the slight diversion to visit these shores after all. Pence will suffice.
Apparently reports reached the President that some forelock tugging lunatic is planning a display of ostentatious groveling in the streets when he visits. I would have thought the POTUS was immune to embarrassment but apparently he is not.
Next time Henry, keep your head down and surprise him.
Best wishes, and commiserations.
Thank goodness Trump isn’t coming here. I couldn’t bear the embarrassment of our politicians grovelling at his stupid self.
Now Bella am sure you dont mean those harsh words. Just a delay till another time dear friend and am sure when he does arrive you will be there to cheer him on. Cheers
Bless you Mr Baptiste simply a delay dear friend of the POTUS’s visit. We wait patiently for another time. Cheers
I confess I am puzzled by a lot of reaction to the ousting of Turnbull.
Surely the media can’t be feeling sorry for him.
He was always behaved like a bit of a bastard, prepared to crush anyone in his way, ask around the SYDNEY business community and you will hear that, he took down two leaders himself, and if you live by the sword etc.
I watched a bit of 4/corners and it was near hysteria. So a couple of radio print folks were players in a push to get rid of a PM. So what, it’s not exactly a novel situation.
Really, this the system working as it should, you only hold on to the top job with the support of your parliamentary colleagues, lose that and you go.
That’s been the rule for a very very long time and it is democratic and sensible.
Sure but why dump a relatively popular leader for the first candidate who was largely despised and the ultimate winner who consistently ran fifth or sixth in leadership polling and do all this eight months before an election? It wasn’t just dumb, it was dumb often. Institutionally Labor did all this in a night when they dumped Rudd. With the Lids it took a week, the HoR shut down for a day and the people rightly angry. A week later, Morrison is still talking about repair and unity like someone outside the part could give a shit. they will go to the next election talking about themselves. They are doomed.
Malcom was popular with people who vote against him and he is a terrible campaigner, I suspect the people charged with deciding the issue, the elected Liberal parliamentarians, or at least a majority of them, decided they had a bettter chance with someone else.
Let’s face it, he nearly lost last time so they may be right.
A lot of the media seem strangely angry about this, in a way they weren’t when Abbott lost the job, it rather looks like they are cross this time because this time their preferred candidate lost.
The 4 corners thing was a pisser. Their program can campaign from SYDNEY for the removal of Trump from the White House but a couple of ranters from Sydney radio can’t do their best to shift Malcolm.
Bonkers.
Mate, if people like Sukkar and Seselja can’t organise a leadership spill without fucking it up, how would we would expect them to get on running the country? I think that’s the point voters will dwell on.
Seselja managed a couple of knifings of his own to get to his exalted position. He’s a grub.
on the charge of incompetence and being outplayed I agree, but that so common, even more than bastardy, as to never seem to be a sacking offence.
the electorate will get a crack at this in due course and they nearly always get it right.
more importantly, cracking AFL finals series coming up. There are usually a couple of teams who are hoping to win a final but nothing more, but this year I think all 8 would consider they are a real chance of winning the comp.
Most voters would not care Jack – a lot would be happy to see the rear end of Turnbull.
If Morrison gets the Lib’s act together, there is a faint hope that he might succeed in the next election because they have one huge advantage – it’s called Shorten.
anger at Abbott getting the arse wasn’t possible. He truly was shit
Well I’m angry, sure he was truly shit, but he was just the best fun, and a huge embarrassment to his party. Whats not to like?
Seems Dutton played favourites with immigration.
I have to wonder what he got out of the deal.
Jesus Bella. Not while I’m eating my dinner thank you!
Strewth, Mr insider this gets madder daily as we read: ” Malcolm Turnbull’s son is encouraging people to donate to Labor ahead of the Wentworth by-election for the ex-prime minister’s former seat.
Alex Turnbull has re-tweeted Labor candidate Tim Murray’s call for donations for the upcoming poll for the federal Sydney electorate.
“Best bang for the buck you’ll get in political donations in your life,” the former Liberal leader’s son said in his re-tweet of Mr Murray’s post on Saturday.”
https://tinyurl.com/y7qzy3nt
Good on Alex Turnbull for fighting back I say. 😬
A few doors will close in Singapore now that daddy-in-law is no longer PM of one of their biggest areas of investment.
Contacts in that place grease wheels like there is no tomorrow.
daddy not daddy-in-law
I say Jack, the charge of “sheer bastardry” as a reason for one getting the heave-ho from one’s party seems a tad extreme. If the test for maintaining party membership rested upon whether one was unable to demonstrate he/she was not guilty on occasions of any or all of the following criteria – obnoxious, despicable, extremely difficult, unpleasant, irregular, abnormal, inferior, spurious, then based on the recent performances of today’s political parties they would need to be exclusively comprised of sycophantic, obsequious milksops.
I believe you have in fact listed most of the criteria qualifying senior Libnat politicians Carl. There are of course a corps of essential sycophantic, obsequious milksops to act as fags within the party. The parties are modelled on the experiences of these “entitled” private school twats.
Quirky as it sounds in this modern age, the two types have a mutual fear only of the “matron.”
Dutts has upset all the Progressives and he will be pursued for every trivial thing that they can think of.
By the way, not a lot of Turnbull’s supporters voted Liberal and most never would,
Now that I think about it Henry, Trump does not recognise the legitimacy of the Turnbull, Morrison govts. And rightly so. No doubt the Donald is awaiting the triumphant return of the Abbott before he visits our beleaguered country.
Goodness me, Mr Insider seeing Christopher Pyne on the ABC TV defending Peter Duttons double Au Pair whammy. Hasn’t Pyne taken the time even to read the Editorials in a lot of Aussie Newspapers on this disgraceful mess.
Pyne sadly is all that is wrong with Politics imho when the indefensible is defended time and again.
The Aussie Voters are not fooled and will register their protest at the next Federal Election am sure.
Advice and recommendations from public servants, Henry. They need not be heeded. I’ve been getting advice and recommendations from the spouse for nearly 30 yrs now, which i’ve mostly ignored, and i’m still the prime administer! And i fear, Henry that you and many others on here are victims of the Trump like phobias except they are played out, vicariously, onto Abbott. I believe that Abbott advocacy has developed into what used to be called ”the love that dare not speak its name”. Like Howard before him, no one would out themselves at a bbq or cocktail party and admit they liked Howard. Yet Howard remained PM for roughly 12 yrs, despite the relentless, vituperative attacks from the media barons and the so called progressive left wing intelligentsia, unions and the ABC. Believe me, despite the repeated attacks by Marr. Tingle, Savva etc there is a lot of underground furtive love for the Abbott. Get on board, come out of the closet and declare your love for Abbott.
“underground furtive love for the Abbott”
I worry about you Milt, you know not what you say….😶
Scott Morrison was at it today too, describing the criticism of Dutton as not passing the “pub test”. “There is nothing before me”, he intoned, pretending to be a judge, “which suggests any misuse of that power…I don’t quite understand the argument that says we should get rid of it”.
ScoMo is (probably deliberately) missing the point. No-one is suggesting Dutton didn’t have the power, or that it should be abolished. The point is that Dutton’s decisions to use that serious power in those trivial circumstances, of all the circumstances he could have used it in, wouldn’t pass any kind of test, in a pub or preferably elsewhere where people are sober. That’s because most people who desperately need that power to be exercised won’t get it, because they are not millionaire LNP donors, or old footy or cop mates of Dutton’s. If he doesn’t get how wrong that is, or how bad it looks, he doesn’t have a clue.
It seems to me that if ScoMo is willing to look such a goose trying to defend Dutton, so early in his run when you’d think he’d be trying to look good, he must be just as scared of and beholden to the Dutton mob as Turnbull was.
Well put. Morrison was absurdly disingenuous, a smiling fraud and %&*# frightened of the heavies. It’s not just a honeymoon he is getting, he should have been belted on that, but a bloody love fest.
It’s sickening. Hopefully Labor will use that thing to great advantage when the time comes.