Just Another Day in the Circus No One Cares About

Well, it’s Groundhog Day… again… So might Phil Connors report on the beginning of yet another round of coalition leadership shenanigans. And another day of the odious Albanese government scarcely able to believe its luck.

After all, when the PM’s name draws a deafening chorus of boos and jeers at the Australian Open, it’s clear that this is a government in deep trouble. So, why is it dominant in the parliament? Because a weak opposition is letting it. Where the government’s woes and enormities ought to be dominating the news, the coalition is making everything about them and in the worst possible way.

Nationals believe David Littleproud will comfortably survive a challenge to his leadership, but Liberals expect Sussan Ley will face a far more serious spill as early as next week.

Leadership speculation has engulfed both parties since the Nationals walked away from the coalition agreement two weeks ago, with senior figures in the Liberals’ right faction using the chaos to ensure Angus Taylor emerged as the preferred alternative to Ley.

Supporters of Taylor told the ABC they did not anticipate any move against Ley in the first week of parliament, primarily because they did not yet have the numbers in their 51-member partyroom to defeat her.

Littleproud is widely expected to hold on to the Nationals’ top job when a spill is called by Flynn MP Colin Boyce at the party’s meeting this afternoon.

Hopes from former coalition voters that the party would get its act together, put the wishy-washy blue-green ‘moderates’ back in their box and return to its roots as a centre-right party were dashed on the weekend. Small-c conservative favourite Andrew Hastie announced that he would not contest the leadership, which brings it down to a two-person race between Sussan Ley, whom everyone hates, and Angus Taylor, whom no one outside the political bubble has heard of.

Perhaps Taylor’s supporters are hoping for a ‘fresh face’ bounce, but it’ll be a long time before disaffected voters judge the coalition is ready to be taken seriously again.

Meanwhile, One Nation just keep going from strength to strength. Rumours are growing that other Nationals MPs are considering following former leader Barnaby Joyce and jumping waka to One Nation.

One Nation recruit Barnaby Joyce has refused to say if any of his former Nationals colleagues will soon join him in orange as support for the minor party continues to rise.

“I will give you a scoop, it’s not Bridget McKenzie,” he told Sunrise host Nat Barr, who was rattling off potential names of defectors […]

The minor party has been teasing a big announcement in the coming days.
It comes as support for One Nation continues to rise. A poll from Redbridge, published in the Australian Financial Review, suggested the minor party’s primary vote had surged to 26 per cent.

That’s ahead of the coalition’s combined primary vote of 20 per cent and is streaks ahead of the six per cent primary vote One Nation received at the federal election.

Meanwhile, Labor’s primary vote is sitting at 34 per cent.

That is an historically low vote for Labor. The only reason it’s translated into government is an even weaker opposition. The newly triumphant One Nation clearly has Labor rattled.

Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek is calling on the public and the media to start asking harder questions of One Nation amid its continued rise in the polls.

What is she babbling about? The media has been trying to take down One Nation for 30 years, ever since Pauline Hanson burst onto the political scene. They’ve tried ambushing her with big words, drumming up nothingburger ‘exposés’ and endlessly shouting their standard smear of ‘racism!’

Even more bizarre, Plibersek is scolding One Nation for doing exactly what an opposition is supposed to: holding the government to account.

“It’s all very well to go around as a party of grievance and complain about things, point out things you feel are wrong” […]

One Nation recruit Barnaby Joyce responded that it wasn’t his party’s fault, Labor was “giving us so much material to protest about”.

“It’s so easy to be a grievance party when you’re the government,” he added.

It’s also easy to repent at leisure when you’ve jumped ship to the wrong party.

Firebrand Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has blasted coalition colleagues for using “anonymity as a shield” when it comes to speculation over defections, but refused to weigh into questions over whether she was considering leaving the Liberals.

If Price had defected from the Nationals to One Nation, instead of the Liberals, she’d be a strong contender for future leader. Instead, she landed herself in a rapidly sinking canoe. She may bail out, but the perception for some time will be of a rat deserting another ship. In the long run, though, it may prove the smarter move.