The Cracking of the Abbott Monolith

The Truth is finally catching up with Tony Abbott.

Those “inconsistencies”, those sudden U-turns in his aspirations, those “let’s not be pedantic about what I have said” moments.

As his lies statements have become less consistent, so his volume has increased.

Being denied the Prime Ministership which he was apparently promised by the owner of the Satanic Presses, Abbott has reverted to type. Bullying, blustering and being a complete twat!

His brand of conservatism would take Australia back to the 1950’s!

Because 100% of the media is now behind Abbott 100% of the time, including the media we pay 8c a day for, it is a credit to the Australian electorate that his coalition has only around 50% of the famous “Two Party Preferred”. in the polls. That there is still a large minority which can see through all the spin and hype is encouraging.

An Unworkable Leader

The difficulty the Liberal Party has is that Abbott is too successful. He was supposed to be a caretaker. Someone who could get the Liberal Party back into contention for the 2010 election. He almost made it.

Now, due entirely to over-the-top media support and some very clever tactics from the Liberal Headquarters in Menzies House, the conservatives are in an unbeatable position with an unworkable leader.

The golden rule of politics is that you stick with a winner and Tony Abbott is a winner. He is also a completely loose cannon and members of his own party are beginning to worry that his only ability is to lead in the polls. He is showing disturbing signs that he would be unable to lead a Government.

Now that an election is just 18 months away, we are beginning to see the first signs of a move within Liberal ranks to change from the three year Tony Abbott run election mode. A mode which, while successful, has also created some worrying tendencies within the electorate. Attitudes have hardened into vicious hatreds and the consequences will be terrifying.

Australians look to Norway and sanctimoniously say, “It couldn’t happen here!” The bad news is that we are closer to such an event than anyone other than ASIO will admit.

Even the heartless men of the Liberal Backrooms are beginning become concerned that they may have unleashed a demon they can no longer control. In an era of “Wedge Politics” they have wedged by their own creation. If Tony Abbott leads the Coalition to victory at the next election, he will not be able to be replaced! Once Julia Gillard was condemned for “assassinating” Kevin Rudd it became impossible for the Liberals to “assassinate” their leader once he became Prime Minister.

A cure must be found before the 2013 election!

This past week has seen a sudden public cracking of the heretofore monolithic face of the Liberal Party. Peter Costello has suddenly reappeared, vampirelike, from his political coffin and is being touted by some as a pre-election replacement for the current leader. How much of this is due to the appallingly incompetent performance of the Baillieu-led Victorian Liberal Government and how much to the growing Abbott-phobia in the Federal sphere is impossible to tell. The important fact is that Costello is a proven weakling in political stoushes and so he is more likely a symptom rather than a cure.

What is even more certain is that the divisions and machinations have been a closely guarded secret until now. That there are now rumours in the public domain are an indication that all is almost ready for the coup.

Looking for an alternative leader on the Coalition Front Bench is like looking for a Strawberry in a Blueberry Pie. Abbott has successfully destroyed the leadership hopes of an entire generation of Liberals. So the move by Costello may be telling us something important.

The next leader of the Liberal Party is yet to sit in the House of Representatives.

Heartless and faceless though the Backroom men may be, they also recognise the need, to quote Sir Humphrey Appleby from “Yes Minister”, for “Somebody Sound.” Somebody who is consistent and reliable. Somebody who can be trusted. Somebody they know.

Just such a man has recently been put in place by the Liberal hierarchy. From the office of the revered John Winston Howard a man has been found who is eminently “sound”.

Chief of Staff Arthur Sinodinos has been elevated to the Senate. From where he is unable to become the Leader of the Opposition. Yet, when the sky fails to fall on the Australian economy with the introduction of the Carbon Price in July, a leadership challenge in August could see the new Senator elevated in a John Gorton-like move of political brilliance.

With nearly a year and a half to the 2013 election, he will have plenty of time to become well known, to move to a House of Representatives seat and yet not enough time for his blandness to erode the huge Coalition lead in the polls.