"If You Wanna Be My Cabinet Minister, You Gotta Get With My Friends"

What the hell is going in the Coalition? Right-wing shock jock attacks on cabinet ministers; smugly   self satisfied leaking of an internal Liberal strategy designed to screw the Nationals over.....what the hell is going on?

We started the week off with a series of grenades being thrown by right wing shout mouths, Alan Jones and Andrew Bolt, at the 'dignified' figure of Malcolm Turnbull.

All of which was seemingly kicked off by a rather tongue-in-cheek Twitter campaign: #libspill

Why Bolt would give two shits over a 'leftist' twitter campaign is at first glance a mystery, but any criticism at this point in time of Abbott and his budget is just too much to bear for the hard right.

Jones and Bolt then proceeded to saddle up their drama-llamas and blow the whole thing into an epic shit-storm, because.......does anyone even fucking know?

This guy might 

All of this is because, of course, the government has continued to languish in polling hell. And so it should. This governments budget is awful, plain and simple. Don't take my word for it, look at the most recent polling; people like it less now then they did when it first appeared, which is really saying something!

But even worse is Abbott's own personal ratings: we hate him. I've seen plagues that were more popular than this man. And of course this has led to another social media 'campaign': #morepopularthantonyabbott. 

So we know the reason for all the angst amongst Abbott's supporters; bad, bad polls. You can't keep recording such dire polls and personal ratings without the spectre of leadership rumours rearing its ugly head. Morons like Bolt and Jones should probably be aware of this. And maybe they are? And maybe in fact what they are doing is destroying the man whom they see as Abbott's greatest threat?

In that case they should really be going after this guy:

Its become pretty clear that Abbott is a weak leader. He is weak externally, with the public, and weak internally, with the party. What is also now clear is that Abbott well and truly realises this, hence all the fire directed at Turnbull. I don't doubt for a second that the PM's office and his ministerial supporters have had some involvement with Bolt's extraordinary attacks, and more than likely Jones's one's as well. We have been told by many in the media that the PM "assured" Turnbull that his office had had no hand in egging the two on, but remember: "Never believe anything until its been officially denied". Now we essentially have confirmation from Turnbull's supporters, that there is indeed a campaign to destabilise him coming from the PM's office. And it all just gets more bizarre. Here's Fairfax with some leaked incendiary gossip:

"Fairfax Media understands that messrs Bolt and Jones have asked Labor for ammunition to use against Mr Turnbull, particularly in relation to his stewardship of the national broadband network."

What on earth?!

That these two commentators would be considered valued contributors to the modern conservative movement is beyond a joke. Abbott appears more than willing to listen to what Bolt and Jones have to say, but the public? They can go jump. The irony is that the relationship between the Coalition and these two men has always been seen as a positive, as a strength. The story goes that Bolt and Jones have a "real" connection to the Australian majority, or whatever. The reality is is that both these men are members of an insulated elite, who are both too busy smelling their own farts to really give a flying fuck about what the average voter thinks. This is the true danger for the Coalition: this crisis is proof of just how detached and distant they are from the concerns and needs of ordinary Australians. 

Our next crisis come to us for completely unknown reasons. I am flabbergasted that news of internal Liberal wheeling and dealing against the National party has come to light. Whose bright idea was that?

Independents unite!

What happened to Sophie Mirabella in Indi can easily happen to any other country Liberal or National, if they choose to ignore the wishes of their electors. That this 'smart' political maneuvering is also happening when Palmer is stalking the National party's base  raises serious questions about the strategic thinking of some in the Liberals. Do they think these electoral pressures will just disappear?

Well, I guess that's what happened last time.

Much has been made of the ideological and political connections between this government, and John Howard's first term. As much as I'd like to see the Spice Girls back in the charts again, this isn't the 1990's. The Coalition is not inhabiting the same political world as Howard did. Two examples that spring to mind are the fractious nature of today's media, and the uncertainty of America's global role. Nor is the current Coalition embarking on the same platform, or enacting the same vision that Howard had for Australia. Watching Howard and Hawke at the National Press Club made me all too aware of just how different this government is from the Howard era, although I imagine if you put this to current cabinet members they would probably laugh in your face. Now much of what these two old codgers had to say was pretty self serving, but there were some nuggets of insightful truth. Firstly, both Hawke and Howard made the point that Australians intrinsically understand fairness, and politicians of both sides of the house would be well advised to remember this. Secondly, they also made the point of that politicians shouldn't assume to know more than the voting public, especially on 'bread and butter' economic issues. And lastly, a party that descends into ideology is a party that wont be warming the government benches for very long.

As this government appears to be descending into squabbling factions, which leak and background different Fairfax papers (or sometimes the ABC), it appears as if these three truths have been well and truly forgotten.