Table of Contents
Another day, another round in the Liberal leadership circus. At this stage, it’s like trying to sit through yet another episode of a once-favourite TV show that long ago jumped the shark. What was once, long ago, must-see stuff, has become tiresome, predictable and frankly embarrassing. Not even wheeling in a new kid can spark viewers’ flagging interest.
And the most that voters can summon about the Liberal clown show’s latest bout of custard-pie-throwing is a collective yawn. Even the press gallery seems barely interested.
Conservative rivals Andrew Hastie and Angus Taylor have failed to reach agreement on who should challenge Sussan Ley, after a secret meeting in Melbourne ended in a stalemate likely to drag on for weeks.
And fewer and fewer people are actually caring. The Libs may have thought they reached their poll nadir when they dropped to 20 per cent and got left in One Nation’s dust. The longer this ridiculous circus honks along, the more the Libs are damning themselves to irrelevance.
Of the two prominent Nationals defectors of the past year, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to the Liberals and Barnaby Joyce to One Nation, who’s looking like they made the smarter choice?
Multiple sources said no agreement was reached on who should become the right’s candidate, although Mr Hastie and Mr Taylor agreed to continue discussions.
If the meeting didn’t actually result in a leadership challenge, it made plain to even the remaining die-hards that Sussan Ley’s leadership is all over bar the spill motion. Attending the meeting were opposition home affairs spokesman Jonathon Duniam and finance spokesman James Paterson. Both are members of Ley’s leadership group. As gestures go, it’s about as subtle as a sledgehammer.
While neither frontbencher is yet advocating for a spill, both believe the situation is deteriorating and that the party must avoid a damaging internal conflict.
It’s a bit late for that, now. At this point, an all-in brawl would at least be interesting. Dragging this out for weeks and months, as now seems likely, is just boring everyone to tears. Especially when they could just lance the festering boil of Ley’s leadership in one go instead of letting it slowly suppurate.
It is widely thought within the partyroom that if either Mr Taylor or Mr Hastie emerged as the Right’s candidate, the challenger would have the numbers to topple Ms Ley […]
“But the Right (faction) is just sitting here thinking ‘no resolution’? What were you guys meeting for?
“There’s a feeling of ‘come on guys, get your act together’. It gets dragging on now [sic], like it’s getting ridiculous.”
Getting?
