Malcolm Turnbull - you are finished (Australian Prime Minister - but for how long?)

news.com.au ^ | 2nd July 2016 | Andrew Bolt

[naturalman1975]

Malcolm,

You assassinated a Liberal Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, who’d won an election by a huge margin.

You promised to do even better than him.

You then treated the Liberal base like dirt, smashing it with a huge super tax, refusing to speak to conservative journalists, repeatedly humiliating Abbott.

You referred to the colonial settlement of Australia as an “invasion” and even held an end-of-Ramadan meal with known Muslim bigots.

You called an early double dissolution election on the excuse of needing new laws to tackle rogue unions with a building and construction commission, but with the true aim of getting rid of crossbench oppositionists in the Senate.

You went to the election with basically only one policy to sell - a pathetic 10-year promise to cut company tax.

And now look. Almost everything turned to ruin.

You have lost so many seats that you could even be forced into minority government, if pre-polling and Western Australia go against you.

.....

There is no way you can seriously claim that this result is better than anything Abbott could have achieved.

Abbott picked up seven seats at the 2010 election and another 15 in the 2013 election. You have lost between 10 and 15 seats and dumped key Liberal values in doing so.

You have been a disaster. You betrayed Tony Abbott and then led the party to humiliation, stripped of both values and honour.

Resign.

[naturalman1975]

Andrew Bolt is generally seen as Australia's most significant conservative columnist. For him to call on a coalition Prime Minister to resign is significant. And well deserved.

Turnbull - and those in the Liberal Party who decided to put him in office to replace the genuinely conservative Tony Abbott precisely because they thought Turnbull would win them this election - have caused immense damage to Australia and to the conservative side of politics in Australia.

If Turnbull had won a decisive victory, it would be different. If he'd stood up for something, rather than timidly trying not to offend anybody except the conservative base he took for granted, it would be different. But he didn't. He may - just - have eked out a very narrow victory - if so, the very best thing he can do for the country and for his party is resign and give them a chance to put a real leader in charge.

You've been Prime Minister, Mister Turnbull. You've achieved your lifelong dream. Now resign - if you put your party and your country first, you can still, at least, resign with honour - and in part, atone, for what you did last year.

We'll even let you blame other people - let you say that all you did was serve when asked. There's even truth in that.

[OldNewYork]

Abbott keeps looking better and better in contrast to Turnbull.

[Fred Nerks]

You referred to the colonial settlement of Australia as an “invasion” and even held an end-of-Ramadan meal with known Muslim bigots.

I held my nose and voted for the Party, thousands obviously couldn't bring themselves to do it. I can imagine how Tony Abbot must be feeling, so much wasted.

[Paine in the Neck]

Sounds like Ryan and McConnell have a soulmate in Oz.

[LongWayHome]

This stuff never ends in Western nations....this self-loathing of the leadership class.

[Gay State Conservative]

Knowing very little about Parliamentary government and even less about Australian politics the thing that strikes me is that if the current PM resigns just after an election the electorate just might be displeased by the instability that such a move would indicate.IIRC the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd shenanigans weren't well received by the “typical” Australian.

[goldstategop]

If our GOP establishment undercuts Trump, I see no reason to re-elect them.

Since they govern like Democrats, why keep them around?

And they give the middle finger to the conservative base.

I’m actually happy with the Australian election result.

Its a teachable moment.

[Dundee]

I held my nose and voted for the Party

I was one of those who couldn't hold my nose this time (not that my lower house vote counts in one of the safest Labor seats in the country). Labor, Libs, and Greens are all taking the country to the same ruinous place. It's just the ETA that varies.

[goldstategop]

That’s right.

Enough of the lesser of evils.

Especially when opportunists take over a conservative party and start ditching its values to make it more electable.

Being a so-called moderate isn’t the route to winning.

[Robert DeLong]

Yeah that very sentiment got us Obama, twice.

[goldstategop]

Its not like McCain and Mittens ever put up real opposition to Obama.

They telephoned it in long before Election Day.

[Oztrich Boy]

a)I held my nose and voted for the Party

b}I was one of those who couldn't hold my nose this time

Those were my positions (if you don't like them I have others)

,and I'm in a Liberal Seat that could go Labor.

Sitting member had been a Turnbull supporter, but the new candidate seemed a sensible country bred gel, so was going to vote for her until Malcolm said something which annoyed me. OK nobody gets my vote.

Then I had a Labor robocall trashing her (and Tony Abbott for some reason), so I finally put her there 2d preference behind Family First.