Tonight Tony Abbott was voted out of his position as Prime Minister by the Liberal Party.
I could honestly discuss leadership spills, personalities, power plays and finer details of the spill but, I have already written extensively about Leadership Spills in previous posts, particularly “Cleaning up after the Spill” from earlier this year.
Australia hasn’t had a Prime Minister complete a full term of Government since John Howard in 2007.
“The (Abbott) government’s narrative is that they haven’t been able to do anything… There’s a negative story attached to the government. They must somehow shift the momentum. The mould will be set if they don’t do something soon and they will have a really, really hard time — and most likely will lose the next election.”
Source: ‘Tony Abbott’s knightmare could be fatal if his government fails to change tack‘
So I was thinking, as I so often do; I thought about Prime Minister Abbott, after my last entry about Prime Ministerial interviews – what will his legacy be?
I (over?) simplified John and Julia’s tenures into a series of bullet points as below:
On Tuesday 30th of September, former Foreign, Trade and Defence Minister Stephen Smith spoke at the monthly branch meeting of the Australian Institute of International Affairs for WA. His speaking topic was “Continuity in Australian Foreign Policy”.
But what is “continuity in Australian Foreign Policy”? What on God’s green earth does that mean?!
I had a bit of an argument with my parents about Tony Abbott the other day.
I argued at the time: Tony Abbott isn’t, in my personal opinion, an impressive statesman. After so long as a politician, he should have a better grip of diplomacy, personal image and the way he carries himself. I.e. Indonesian phone hacking scandal.
First entry on the road! Currently on the Eastern Seaboard!
Kevin Rudd resigned from Parliament last night.
“Why should I care, PIK? What does it mean? What will it change?!”
Firstly, there will be a By-election in the seat of Griffith, Queensland. A by-election is an out of term (Parliament is elected every 4 years) election for a single, or multiple electorates. Because we live in a Democracy and the institute of Parliament is a pretty important one, KRudd’s seat can’t be left vacant for 4 years. Just because one seat goes to an election doesn’t mean the whole state or country has to — unless you were the Gillard Government of 2010-2013(!)
By-elections are often non-events, they will happen very quietly and we’ll hear in a few weeks who replaces Kevin. The ALP are confident of holding the seat, which is likely. By-elections occur when an MP dies or retires; if electoral boundaries change, then that change usually affects the next election (informed well in advance), but never mid term.
Check out how the electoral boundaries of Griffith have changed!
tangible.blog 