Talk about over-the-top.

A special ABC News 24 blow by blow coverage of the Liberal party leadership vote.   

Well done to Susssssan for quitting politics in the next few weeks, forcing a byelection in Farrer.

I really hope the Libs lose that one.   

Captain Nemo wrote Today at 9:55am:


Really - she's thrown in the towel?

Her heart was never in it then.

Good riddance.

She should be charged for the cost of the by-election.

greggerypeccary wrote Today at 10:02am:


She's quit politics because she lost the job of Leader of the Opposition after being forced out by her own party because she was not effective in that role. I realise she has given 25 years to her electorate, which is commendable, but it shows a lack of strength that she has quit politics altogether just because she got replaced. Doesn't demonstrate much in the way of personal toughness if you ask me. In any case, I wish her the best in the future. It can't be easy being in politics for 25 years and the time away from family and being in the public eye all that time.

If the Libs lose Farrer, then they are down to only 5 females in the Reps.

If the Libs lose Farrer, (especially if it goes to One Nation) it is worth every penny of the cost of a byelection. 

Well - we all know the policy directions most needed:-

Cut back mass immigration
Fix the housing market and make of it a family homing market again (chop the benefits and preference for investors)
Fix cost of living for real
A reliable future for Australia again (I bring you the GAIAs again)
Fix the cruel and unworkable and grossly unfair superannuation system
Stop the war against men - cease preference for women over and over in every sphere = level playing  field
Create full employment again and not the farcical part-time casual (remember the monkey on Abbott's back)
Break up the imbalances in work conditions with some getting the comfy ride over and over (you know who)
Fix real discrimination, prejudice and disadvantage (you know who again)
Crack down on hard-liners intent on social disruption and disintegration
Sort out all the idiot commissions that deliberately work for certain small groups against the rest
Appoint REAL people to do jobs - not old party campaigners or those who look good as DEIs
FIX the appointmnt of heads of departments etc, so that it is NOT old party campaigners (Hitler Appointments of old mates on the barricades), but people who can actually do the job
Change citizenship requirements so that a person must be a good citizen for an extended period before becoming a citizen
Control allocation of funds for NDIS, Aged Care, Abocare, Childcare etc more carefully and follow up those in the ghettos (including the Abo ones) who raise red flags to avoid rorting (we're not here to provide a free living to all the new immigros and Abo African Kings as a handout without proper checks - that HAS to be a policy)
Fairer treatment for the Tent City Slickers - a bill of rights


There'll be more - just add as you see fit.

Sir Grappler Truth Teller OAM wrote Today at 11:07am:


Most of the things you're demanding they "fix", minus the outright racist ones, are the direct and predictable outcomes of their own platform over the years.

And now you want to hand them the keys again and trust them to clean up the mess they created?

Good luck with that.

When they're back in power, assuming you're still around to see it, I'm curious what excuse you'll roll out when housing becomes even less affordable, the health system is quietly hollowed out, and Medicare is further undermined or dismantled altogether.

It's the same tired cycle, rinse and repeat, except this time they're not even pretending to distance themselves from mining and fossil fuel interests. There are too few of them left to bother with the facade.

Sir Grappler Truth Teller OAM wrote Today at 11:17am:


They need to earn trust before they're entitled to it.

At least Labor are actually delivering on the platform people voted for.

That's a far cry from standing on the eve of an election and solemnly swearing "no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no changes to pensions, no changes to the GST, and no cuts to the ABC or SBS", winning office, and then doing every single one of those things anyway.

When a party can't even maintain consistency in opposition, let alone keep its own internal discipline, it's going to take more than recycled slogans and selective amnesia to win back the trust of people who lost it.

You've never wavered, evidence be damned, and that's your prerogative. You have just as much right to support them as anyone else.

I just hope that when the pendulum inevitably swings back, they've actually got their house in order and are prepared to honour what they put to the electorate.

If they can manage that, then at least the disagreement is genuinely political. You can argue over policy, priorities, and ideology, which is exactly what a functioning democracy requires.

But that remains a very big if.

Ley leaves Taylor an immediate electoral test with Farrer by-election