No one tipped this: Tony Abbott has won the leadership the Liberal Party, pipping Malcolm Turnbull 42-41.
Joe Hockey, the man who failed to provide a conclusive position on the Rudd emissions trading scheme, was dumped in the first round of voting. Julie Bishop remains as deputy leader.
No statements yet from any of the main protagonists — we’ll update this post as soon as anyone speaks.
Abbott will implement the Minchin line and reject the Rudd ETS in the Senate. There are many possibilities from there. A Liberal Party obviously on a knife edge, the Senate to provide the government with the possibility of a double dissolution trigger.
The only certainty here is that the result resolves little.
Liberal’s now completely divided.
Hopefully we haven’t seen the end of Malcom Turnbull.
This surely is the end of the Liberal Party as we know it. There is no way they can reconcile themselves with a vote of 42-41. It’s split. Malcolm Turnbull was gracious and Joe Hockey has been gutted. A Tony Abbott leadership can only spell disaster for the party. All this has managed to do is give K-Rudd a landslide victory at the next election.
“Those whom the gods seek to destroy they first send mad”…
The transition from Menzies’ Liberal party to DLP-in-exile has now been completed.
To steal a line from a mate of mine, whatever you think of Bob Santamaria, at least he’s effective: he’s ruined two major political parties, at least temporarily.
It’s time for Turnbull and his moderates to form the Australian Republican Party. Leave the remaining Liberals to fade away at the irrelevant right-wing fringe with Barnaby and his deranged Nationals. Lib moderates need to punish the conservative mental-cases for their repulsive behaviour.