Maybe there should be an election.
Tony Abbott says he will move a no-confidence motion against the government when Parliament resumes next month. He will say the government is a rabble, barely functional, governing in virtually name only.
And he will be right. So what are we waiting for?
This parrot is more than stunned. These aren’t flesh wounds. Labor will lose, and lose badly. The reshuffled deck chairs today, any policy announcements to come, won’t help. The only MP apparently capable of convincing the electorate Labor deserves another chance is an undiagnosed psychopath who now says he doesn’t want to run.
The spotlight should shine brightest on the opposition. What are we getting with this Coalition team? When will we find out? As Bernard Keane writes today:
“If we’ve reached some sort of watershed moment in the course of this hung Parliament, as the Coalition suggests, then it’s time the Coalition moved on from being the relentlessly negative opposition it has so successfully been, and demonstrate that it is an actual alternative government with a credible economic plan. In particular, how the Coalition resolves the tension between Joe Hockey’s insistence on fiscal rigour and Tony Abbott’s ‘everyone comes out ahead’ magic pudding approach to the budget is of critical importance in terms of economic growth over the next 24 months.”
It’s time to lead, Tony. Your time has come.
And maybe some of the Labor backbenchers — in utter despair about how the feckless leadership of their party could let a government that has by some measure been a success become such a mess — should cross the floor and support the no-confidence motion.
Give Labor the sort of spanking loss even those inside the party room recognise it needs to finally rebuild. A loss it has proved over the past week it so richly deserves.
no mr crikey editor there should not be an early election allow julia gillard some fresh air and allow her to expose tony abbott for what he is so far he has had the biggest free ride ever in aust political history
julia will expose him for what he is a l..r and a fraud who has no civil virutes whatsoever
ps how no mention has been made in crikey about abbott giving a sworn reference in a court to a priest who was charged with child molestation
how come crikey has not covered the ashby conspiracy properly ?
The electorate will get what they deserve if they vote for Abbott in September. As shambolic as the ALP may appear, they are streets ahead of the opposition in terms of policy and Gillard has more spine than the entire cross bench. As soon as Abbott has to face any scrutiny he will fold like a cheap cocktail umbrella.
no, tony doesnt need to do anything as substantial as offer costed policies, or policies of any kind. at this point if all he did was to invite us all to join him on the lawns of the parliament house and blow bubbles into the sunlight, he would still win government. if he wanted to emphasise a point he could appear in a single frame shot, a quizzical look on his face and shrugging his shoulders, and we’d all fall about laughing.
we dont expect good economic policies from the LNP, we know we wont get them. nor do we seem to care. m.
There’s alread an election announced, what on earth do we need a no-confidence motion for? A few months gained? Pfft. The country is going well economically. Then again, that is probably Tony’s worry.
Abbott would relish a rush to an election. He would claim that there isn’t time to tell us what his policies are and if he got in would claim that he had a mandate to fullfill all his dreams. Return to Work Choices, cut penalty rates, cut public health and domestic violence prevention, cut public education, boost private schools, more subsidies to mining companies No journalists demanding that Abbott state what his policies are they are just want to help him to get “that woman” out of the Lodge. Nobody is able to point to any Labor policies that do not benefit all Australians – that is probably what the commentators dont want talked about, their masters want more for themselves.