Coalition deals itself mortal wound (Australian conservative opposition in trouble)

The Australian ^ | 23rd June 2009 | Dennis Shanahan

[naturalman1975]

YOU could see defeat forming on the faces of Liberal MPs yesterday just when they should have been growing convinced they could secure a chance of winning the next election.

Kevin Rudd's statements of innocence over giving a mate and Labor Party donor special help have been vindicated, and the Prime Minister has turned a potentially deadly argument against Wayne Swan for misleading parliament into a potentially mortal wounding of Malcolm Turnbull.

The Prime Minister is now in the clear, the Treasurer will survive and the Leader of the Opposition's character and political judgment are being seriously questioned. The Coalition has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory - an overreaching has led to a disastrous shortfall.

Only days after Peter Costello stilled Liberal leadership destabilisation and sheathed his parliamentary career, only two weeks after a ministerial scalp had been claimed and as the Coalition put forward a seemingly watertight case that Swan had misled parliament, the Coalition looked gutted.

So did Turnbull.

On Friday, the Opposition Leader, relying on the contents of a fabricated email and the contradictory evidence of a Treasury official, called for the resignation of both the Prime Minister and the Treasurer.

It was an extraordinary political decision and the sort of call that generally comes after weeks of dribbling out damaging facts and sustained pressure from an opposition on a government.

Turnbull, whose job it is to convince his colleagues he can lead them to victory at the next election, tried to bring down the government in one fell swoop. The case against the Treasurer for misleading parliament, which carries a mandatory sentence of resignation, was powerful and compelling.

The case against the Prime Minister relied on the contents of the one email Turnbull had apparently sighted but had not been able to verify.

[naturalman1975]

This is shaping up to be a major political disaster for the conservative side of Australian politics.

It does look like the Prime Minister is in the clear over the allegations made in recent days. The Treasurer is still severely tainted, but the ferocity of attacks directed towards the Prime Minister as well as the Treasurer, which now must be withdrawn, means that the Treasurer will probably be able to wriggle clear as well.

[pissant]

They sound as inept as republicans or brit tories.