THE showdown is on, with Julie Bishop confirmed to be running against Peter Dutton for the Liberal leadership and Malcolm Turnbull all but certain to call a spill at midday.
A senior Liberal source told news.com.au the Deputy Prime Minister would throw her hat in the ring, and Treasurer Scott Morrison is also set to compete in what is shaping up to be a three-way contest.
Mr Dutton’s petition reportedly needs just one more signature to reach the 43 needed to force Mr Turnbull to call a party room meeting.
The embattled Prime Minister said he would call the meeting and move the spill motion at 12pm if a letter requesting one, signed by a majority of MPs, was presented to him.
He said he would not stand as a candidate, and would resign both as Prime Minister and as a Member of Parliament.
“I will treat that as a vote of no confidence and I will not stand as a candidate in the ballot,” said Mr Turnbull, who yesterday faced a mass exodus of 13 ministers.
Ms Bishop is reportedly pitching to her colleagues that she is the leader who could win the most seats for the party, telling them she “won’t be another man’s deputy”, according to The Australian.
EXCLUSIVE: Number crunchers tell me early count has Scott Morrison ahead of Peter Dutton and Julie Bishop as next prime minister. #7News
— Mark Riley (@Riley7News) August 23, 2018
The Foreign Minister’s partner David Panton last night told the Herald Sun at Myer’s runway show that she would claim the leadership.
“You’ve heard it straight from the horse’s mouth — by tomorrow at lunchtime, Julie Bishop will definitely be Prime Minister,” he said.
Asked whether he would be “the first man”, he replied: “Just call me David.”
Meanwhile, Mr Dutton has released a second legal letter from a lawyer saying he is eligible to sit in Parliament as he faces questions over his wife’s childcare business, which receives Government subsidies.
And public sentiment towards the Government is at a low, with Greens leader Richard Di Natale tapping into the unhappiness by calling the instability a national embarrassment and telling Australia’s leaders: “Hang your heads in shame.”
THREE-WAY CONTEST
Bill Shorten has always lagged behind Mr Turnbull in popularity even as Labor soared in the polls, but would be the nation’s preferred prime minister if Mr Dutton were to win the leadership, according to a Roy Morgan poll.
A Reachtel poll found that 55 per cent of voters would be less likely to vote Liberal if the former home affairs minister were in the top job.
BREAKING Dutton camp says they have 40 names on the petition. I’m told 8 more supporters support the petition but don’t want to be on a public list. Their argument is this is supposed to be a secret ballot. @SkyNewsAust
— Laura Jayes (@ljayes) August 23, 2018
When asked yesterday why Mr Dutton was the best option to lead the coalition to victory at the next election, key senator Mathias Cormann ducked the question. “I’m not here to run a campaign for Peter Dutton,” he told reporters.
His resignation yesterday and comment that he believed Mr Dutton was the best person to lead the party to the next election was labelled “the death knell” for Mr Turnbull.
Ms Bishop was working the phones yesterday evening, according to Guardian Australia, and had called more than a dozen MPs canvassing support by 7pm. But moderate Liberals said Mr Morrison so far had better numbers than Ms Bishop.
It’s a marked turnaround for the Deputy PM, who had repeatedly promised loyalty to Mr Turnbull but has come under increased pressure in recent days from colleagues to declare herself as the third candidate.
A News Corp Australia online poll showed Ms Bishop was the preferred leader for the party among readers with 34 per cent of votes, followed by Mr Turnbull at 30 per cent, Tony Abbott at 17 per cent Peter Dutton at 10 per cent.
But despite Ms Bishop’s popularity with the public, the path to the leadership in the party wouldn’t be easy. In an earlier piece for news.com.au, Chris Urquhart noted that her moderate position, the questioning of her loyalty and her base in Western Australia — when the marginal seats need to be won on the other side of the country — were major hurdles for her.
There were also reports that Tony Abbott will stand in tomorrow’s ballot, with Liberal MPs telling Herald Sun reporter Rob Harris he had “used Dutton all along”, but the former prime minister has ruled it out.
Potential deputies include Josh Frydenberg and Steve Ciobo, with reports Health Minister Greg Hunt could stand as Mr Dutton’s deputy in the ballot.
‘YOU’VE FORGOTTEN EVERYONE BUT YOURSELVES’
Mr Shorten has largely remained quiet as the Liberals implode, but other Labor members have lashed out at the government.
“They’re not conservatives, they are vandals,” said deputy opposition leader Tanya Plibersek in parliament. “Today is the funeral of the modern Liberal Party.”
For clarity: I have not been bullied or intimidated into signing the suicide note to call a leadership spill. People have politely asked me, and I declined. The people of Australia and Goldstein have been very clear what they want, and I hear them. #LiberalAndProudOfIt
— Tim Wilson MP (@TimWilsonMP) August 23, 2018
In a similarly explosive speech, Penny Wong said: “People will remember the famous Menzies speech about the forgotten Australians that the Liberals always get doe-eyed about.
“You know what? You’ve forgotten every Australian but yourselves. You’ve forgotten everyone but yourselves.”
The nation’s disgust over Liberal infighting could, of course, play into Labor’s hands at election time.
Liberal MP Tim Wilson described the petition as a “suicide note” for the party.
Speaking to reporters outside parliament yesterday evening, Liberal member for McPherson Karen Andrews said she understands only “one more signature is required”.
“I will not stand by after having Parliament adjourned today to have this matter not concluded tomorrow,” she said, adding that she would not necessarily back Mr Dutton.
ACT Senator Zed Seselja said there were more than 40 signatures, “certainly around about the mark.”
He told the ABC “it would be extraordinary and I would say untenable if we were to say tomorrow that we will leave Canberra without having resolved this issue in the party room.”
The NT News shared a powerful front page for tomorrow’s paper, with the headline ‘HANG YOUR HEADS IN SHAME’.
TOMORROW’S FRONT PAGE #libspill #auspol pic.twitter.com/PgjrYFlGHI
— The NT News (@TheNTNews) August 23, 2018
“Territorians, like all Australians, have had enough of politicians putting their own self-interest ahead of the people they are elected to represent,” the paper says. “The events in Canberra this week are nothing short of disgraceful.
“By lunchtime today, we will likely have a new Prime Minister as 85 feuding Coalition MPs have the right to overrule the wishes of millions of Australians.”
The front page echoed Mr Di Natale’s powerful speech yesterday afternoon, in which he pointed to Australians who couldn’t pay their medical bills, the homeless population, young people priced our of education and women who fear going home “because one woman a week is killed at the hands of a violent partner”.
“And what have we got? We’ve got this spectacle. This disgrace. You should be ashamed of yourselves,” he shouted across the Senate floor.
“You are so focused on yourselves that you have forgotten what the country has elected you to do, and that is to govern for them, not for you,” he said.
“You don’t deserve to govern. You deserve to be turfed out. That’s what you deserve.”
Julia Gillard also weighed into the leadership crisis, saying she could “understand why people would want to go and live in New Zealand given the leadership of the current prime minister”.
Leadership Challenge: @JulieBishopMP is being encouraged to put her hand up for the leadership. "@ScottMorrisonMP will also be a candidate" - @Riley7News on @Channel7. #auspol #7News pic.twitter.com/hLLJyT6jQh
— 7 News Sydney (@7NewsSydney) August 23, 2018
Speaking at RMIT University, she declined to comment on the looming federal election and said her only advice for Mr Dutton and other challengers was to “drink a lot of water” and “make sure you eat some veggies and get some sunlight”.
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