Labor predicts Turnbull will be gone in 18 months

"Labor frontbencher Sam Dastyari has predicted Malcolm Turnbull will be gone by the half-way mark of his three-year parliamentary term.

It’s no coincidence, Mr Dastyari suggests, that former Liberal leader Tony Abbott is out and about running his own campaign.

“You don’t suddenly start going around the country giving speeches on the economy as a backbencher from Waringah,” Senator Dastyari told Sky News on Sunday....."

http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2016/08/28/abbott-positioning-tilt-turnbull-labor/

The now ex-Chief Minister of the Northern Territory blamed disunity for his loss. Malcolm's "team" is hardly the most united we've ever seen.

9 comments

Only old women listen to gossip. Sam Dastyari is a little twerp.

I doubt the libs could afford to oust another PM after booting Abbott. Abbott was a train wreck and MT will have a difficult time from the backbench hard right but should see out a full term. Self preservation will kick in at some stage.

Jusdging Lineral by labor's back-stabbibg standards.

Dastardly Sam - what an arsewipe

So tell me again, how did Turnbull become leader?

No back-stabbinbg by anybody?

Nope get your facts right

Yeah. Right.

God help us all if that bastard of a bloke Morrisson gets to be PM -- I agree Sam Dastyari is a little twerp.

That's what I like about you Plan B. Your contempt for politicians involves no party loyalty at all.

Despite all that is said of him, I believe Turnbull to be basically honest and he has/had aspirations to make a mark on the Australian political scene. He is however, ruled by factional power brokers within the Liberal party and seems hamstrung to do what he wants and make a real difference. Whether or not Dastyari is a "twerp" is open to debate, but I suspect that in this instance he may well be correct. It would not surprise me at all to see Malcolm become frustrated and disenchanted and resign at some stage.

I basically agree with you re Turnbull KFC  but do not like the others in the Party at all NOT ONE OF THEM

That would be a sad day for Australia if Turnbull resigned.... he certainly does not need the nonsense both parties are putting up.

He can reasonably expect opposition from The Opposition party. It's their job.

But it's the right rump of his own party that's his real problem.

I hadn,t considered MT resigning which is possible if frustration sets in. I still reckon he will hang in there but have trouble achieving anything of substance.

Malcolm Turnbull will never resign ...it will be a sad day if he does. However...he  could be knifed like others before him and yes...I do think he needs to stand up to a few in his own party.

Dastyari has used one of the oldest tricks in the book...he started a snowball and hopes it will gather momentum..


http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/08/australian-notes-284/ Turnbull’s betrayal on 18c

Okay, let’s stop pretending that the Liberal Party has a deep commitment to free speech. We’re now at the stage where ‘Liberal Party’ and ‘commitment to free speech’ go together about as well as ‘European Union’ and ‘democratic decision-making’ or ‘Mike Baird’ and ‘greyhound racing’. It’s plain that a lot of Liberal MPs simply don’t give a rat’s you-know-what about one of the core Enlightenment values that powered the West’s success and prosperity these past couple of centuries. Beyond the occasional Je suis Charlietweet, to indulge in a little bit of bumper sticker moralising and virtue signalling, these parliamentarians simply don’t get the value of the John Stuart Mill conception of free speech (assuming they know who Mill was) and are not likely to change any time soon.

And it’s worse under Turnbull than it was under Abbott, if you can believe it. I was assuredly one of the loudest and angriest critics of Tony back when he caved in on his attempt to repeal most of 18C, our invidious Labor-legislated hate speech law. I thought at the time Abbott was making a huge mistake by selling out his political base to try and win a bit of slack from the ABC (laughable, when you think about it) and from what he called ‘Team Australia’ which is a euphemism for the ethnic vote, and especially the Muslim vote. Again, on what planet does it make sense to sell out one of your core values – because it was and is a core value for Abbott personally – for such an ethereal and unlikely prospect of getting these votes based on the sole fact you did not press on with repealing 18C?

But to be fair to Abbott it was clear that many in his party did not share his personal desire to be rid of 18C. Whoever the people preselecting Liberal Party candidates are, they don’t care about free speech. Just look at the new intake of MPs. More than a few seem to hold Labor-lite views generally; a bunch haven’t got a word to say in favour of free speech; and of those that do voice support for free speech I’d be surprised if any of them would go to the wall and cross the floor to support it. Okay, maybe one or two. For the rest, the job and a cushy pension come above all else.

So Abbott had to deal with that in caucus. And he had a feral Senate that would never have passed a Bill amending 18C. Nevertheless, it would still have been the politically right thing to do to push on and make the Senate block the repeal of 18C. Right in principle and right politically for the party, and for him in keeping his PM’s job. So Abbott made a huge error in not doing so. Indeed, very recently in his speech at the Samuel Griffith Society he acknowledged this error and that he should have tried.

 

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Which brings us to his successor, the most left-wing Liberal party leader and Prime Minister ever. Mr Turnbull last week laid down the law. Everyone in Cabinet was ordered not to vote for any Private Member’s Bill seeking to water down 18C. This is a disgrace. This isn’t giving up on trying for reform, as Abbott did. This is actively blocking reform.

So out trots Mr Morrison soon after the Turnbull edict on 18C came down to say his focus is elsewhere; it’s on the economy, not on free speech. In themselves those words are pretty frightening, given that Morrison has thus far proven to be a big spending, high taxing, Labor-lite Treasurer. I don’t know about you, but I’d be pretty happy if Morrison focused on just about anything other than our economy, given the decisions he’s made so far. I bet not many of you thought that Joe Hockey’s successor could one day make you get down on your knees and wish Hockey were back as Treasurer.

Labor needs to look at its own sorry state before worrying about the Liberal party.
It has again lost an election with its second lowest primary vote ever .
Only three Labor MPs are there on a primary vote the rest on preferences 

Ah, a look-over-there post.

Pointless.

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