{"id":659,"date":"2018-08-22T16:53:02","date_gmt":"2018-08-22T06:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jacktheinsider.com\/?p=659"},"modified":"2019-01-09T13:30:43","modified_gmt":"2019-01-09T02:30:43","slug":"abc-news-24-when-too-much-non-news-is-never-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jacktheinsider.com\/?p=659","title":{"rendered":"ABC News 24: when too much non-news is never enough"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"While we contemplate the tragedy that has befallen the once great party of Billy McMahon, let us also consider what\u2019s on Bill Shorten\u2019s to do list today. Pop into the office late, check emails, go to question time, make merry, flip through soft furnishing brochures, have a long lie down.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

That\u2019s pretty much all Bill Shorten has to do right now. I would add Labor\u2019s tactics yesterday to suspend Question Time and bring forth a vote of no confidence in the Turnbull government were terrible. It would have been a better exercise to drag up Liberal frontbenchers who had voted for the challenger, Peter Dutton, and asked them questions of the \u201cDoes the current Prime Minister enjoy your full support?\u201d type. Almost certainly the questions would have been ruled out of order, but it would have made for great theatre.<\/p>\n

Look, it\u2019s not all bad news. At least Malcolm Turnbull won a poll for the first time yesterday in what, 18 months or more.<\/p>\n

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Leadership spills for the party in government have happened so frequently over the last decade that we should use them as a sort of mnemonic for other more important things in our lives that might otherwise be forgotten, like changing the batteries in the cordless mouse and making dental appointments.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

For now, it is enough to know that voters hate what they are seeing. The next Newspoll promises to be such painful reading for the Liberal Party that the numbers may just as well have been toted up by the Marquis de Sade. Thank you, Sir. May I have another?<\/p>\n

In times of great tumult, if you are like me you will turn not just to print and online reports but to television for that additional sense of immediacy. I have followed the travails of the Liberal Party, leading to this reckless act of self-destruction on Sky News because it offers the best political coverage on television bar none. It does so without ostentation. It is political news done on the smell of an oily rag. The team led by David Speers is well connected, often reporting on SMS communiques received from members of the beleaguered party in real time.<\/p>\n

Full column here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While we contemplate the tragedy that has befallen the once great party of Billy McMahon, let us also consider what\u2019s on Bill Shorten\u2019s to … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,13,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australian-politics","category-humour","category-media"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jacktheinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ABC-News.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jacktheinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jacktheinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jacktheinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jacktheinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jacktheinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=659"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.jacktheinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":845,"href":"https:\/\/www.jacktheinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659\/revisions\/845"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jacktheinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jacktheinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jacktheinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jacktheinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}