Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull digs in [View all]

It's been an extraordinary week in the Australian Federal Parliament, and it's not over yet. Successive polls since the last election (2016) have shown the Liberals trailing Labor by margins of around 5%, give or take, and it's become clear that they would be unlikely to retain power in the next election, due 2019. But it beggars belief that the Libs' answer is not to get their act together and try to pass some meaningful action on things like climate change, boosting schools and health funding, etc. No, their answer has been to look to the lunar right of their party and offer support to a potential candidate who has an approval rating of around 4%.

The result was a leadership spill this week, which Turnbull won by 13 votes. But that wasn't good enough for the Minister for Home Affairs-and-anything-else-he can-think-of, Peter Dutton, who was the loser. Dutton, known variously as Benito Dutton, Reichsfuehrer Dutton or just Potatohead, is determined to snatch the leadership. He has the backing of sore loser Tony Abbott, and behind Abbott is the real cause of the Libs' woes - Rupert Murdoch.

So right now, the Australian Parliament has been shut down for two weeks, while the contenders try to get their numbers right. Mr Turnbull has made it clear that he will resign from Parliament if he loses, and as they have a majority of just one seat, the Libs will be in big trouble. Dutton is definitely not the man who could wheel and deal with the Opposition as Julia Gillard did so skillfully during her tenure; he's too despised and hated, and his hatred of anybody even moderately left-wing is too well known for that to be possible.

So here we have the latest:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-23/malcolm-turnbull-digs-in-leader-of-liberal-party/10156386