Abbott's Stay Of Execution

How Crap Was That?

Pretty crap. Although it seems I was right on some level that the Libs don't have it in themselves to swap out a PM. Like all things this is both good and bad. The good thing is that Tony Abbott is still  an electoral liability even if his own party show support for him. The bad news is that the same engine driver who ran Australia off the rails is going to continue driving the train. As Paul Keating opined long ago, "God help us all, God help us all".

Indeed. The fact that things didn't change means Australia will remain, in Tony Abbott's vernacular, complete crap. Oh the huge manatee. "Will nobody think of the children?" and all that mess.

Anyway, the score line was 61-39 with one abstention. It's amazing how that looks like a good win-loss record of a team, yet straight up, that win percentage looks better than the way things really stands. Especially when you consider his front bench had to vote against the spill which means the back bench count was 20-39. From this we can tell we're talking about a potential loss of those 39 seats to the ALP. Those 39 MPs are feeling the heat from their electorate or are reading the numbers to see if their Senate seat will still be there after an election, and thinking that it likely won't.

Which sounds about right because if the ALP keeps its poll advantage at 54-46 after preferences across the board, it would b a landslide. The SMH was reporting today that this is exactly the result Bill Shorten wanted. A flip back to Turnbull would - allegedly - have been hell for the ALP. It's interesting they say this now because not long ago, the commentators were saying the same thing about the possible Rudd return during the Gillard years, and that didn't exactly shake out that well for the ALP. There's no guarantee that a flip to Malcolm Turnbull today would have changed fortunes enough for the Coalition.

The amusing bit was how Senator Cory Bernardi got up and said Malcolm Turnbull now had to be sacked. The man is a gift to comedy. The spill was defeated, and that should have been the end of story, at least for today. Why make things worse for your party? Why would you rob yourself of the credibility of having Malcolm Turnbull when your own government is sorely lacking in said credibility? Laughable as ever, always on cue with the stupid remark. That's our Cory.

And so Tony Abbott remains our PM, a kind of 19 month lame duck PM.
God help us all, God help us all, amen.