Panic as the PM loses control of Parliament (Australia)

Daily Telegraph (Sydney) ^ | 2nd September 2016 | Daniel Meers & Simon Benson

[naturalman1975]

- First time a majority Government has lost a House of Representatives vote since 1962

- Ministers, MPs hauled off flights, out of interviews after Labor coup

MALCOLM Turnbull has read the riot act to missing-in-action coalition MPs whose absence from parliament allowed Labor to inflict an embarrassing defeat on the government overnight.

The MPs, including three ministers, did the wrong thing by thinking they could get an early mark on Thursday, he said.

.....

The Turnbull government was plunged into chaos last night when up to eight ministers and MPs had to be forced off planes, hauled out of media interviews or turned around in their cars after the opposition took control of parliament.

Capitalising on the absence of government MPs, who had been given approval to leave for the week, Labor won three successive votes which forced parliament’s sitting hours to be extended.

Labor then attempted to ram through a motion supporting a royal commission into the banking sector.

Speaker Tony Smith had to use a casting vote to block the move, with numbers deadlocked at 71-71, before the government eventually limped to 73 numbers to regain control.

The chaotic scenes made a mockery of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s claim the coalition would provide a “stable majority government”. Mr Turnbull was understood to be furious his tacticians had allowed such a collapse in discipline.

[naturalman1975]

This was a farce, a colossal collapse of party discipline on the part of the conservative coalition. The MPs who left early shouldn't have done so, but if Malcolm Turnbull had the authority he should have as Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Party, they wouldn't have. If Labor had decided to call a vote of no confidence last night, they could have conceivably brought down the government and caused a new Federal election.

We've got a 'conservative' government via a very narrow majority - 76 MPs out of 150 (and one of the 76 is the Speaker who only gets to vote to break a tie). Malcolm Turnbull comes from the centrist wing of the Liberal Party and the true conservatives within his own party and his coalition partners, the Nationals don't much care for him - it's better than having a socialist Labor government but not by much. If he can't even provide stability, he will not last long and it's only a question of whether he takes the whole government with him when he goes - whether he is replaced as Prime Minister by his party, or whether he is forced back to a new general election.

[naturalman1975]

I don't know if this video will play outside Australia but it illustrates the panic - the Treasurer, generally accounted the third most important person in the government after the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister being pulled out of a live TV interview for a division (a vote) as people realise they need everybody they can into the chamber.

[txnativegop]

Glad to see the US is not alone in having a screwed up political system.

It just makes me feel so warms and fuzzy! /s

[Navy Patriot]

You’ve not been properly quarantining American politicians that visit Australia, obviously they’ve infected your lot with that Cheshire Cat virus that makes ‘em disappear when the nation calls, just like ours.

[EagleUSA]

Yeah, the FREE WESTERN WORLD does not need this kind of incompetency and sloppy governance.

[naturalman1975]

They’ve been doing it for years - just didn’t matter much when they had a large majority.

[txnativegop]

a pity that the US has had it for at least the last 28 years or so.

[higgmeister]

Further proof you’re a natural here mate. Just pray to God and wish on the Southern Cross when there is not much left to do.

[ameribbean expat]

“The Turnbull government was plunged into chaos last night”...

All too easy to substitute Abbott, Gilliard, Rudd for Turnbull in that sentence. Australia’s got to do something about its political class.

[Enchante]

wow I’ve never seen anything like that on live TV!

What a mess..... Turnbull sux.

[higgmeister]

Question? Don't you guys have a Conservative Whip or whips?

If so, that guy needs to take some time in the outback to get his gear together.

[naturalman1975]

Yes, we do have Whips (a Chief Whip and two Deputies) and they will either be kicking arses all over Parliament today or having their own arses kicked depending on whether their instructions were ignored or weren’t issued properly.

[naturalman1975]

While things have not been all that stable for a while now, what happened last night was in a class of its own.

[GreenLanternCorps]

So, tell me how Turnbull is supposed to be better than Abbott??

/sarc

[fortheDeclaration]

Never trust Liberals!

[Oztrich Boy]

The progressive media like him more

Or he likes them more, it's one or the other

[Oztrich Boy]

I don’t trust Turnbull because he’s a Republican

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[naturalman1975]

I don’t trust any politicians - but Liberal means something very different in Australia than it does in the US.

[bIlluminati]

its political class.

I call oxymoron on "political class".