The Bell Tolls for Turnbull

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    Richo recognises the obvious:


    Imagine Bill Shorten’s surprise when, shortly after his appearance on the ABC’s The Insiders on Sunday, the phone rang and it was Malcolm Turnbull on the line. The Prime Minister immediately offered support for Shorten on the question of four-year parliamentary terms.


    To say this was political ineptitude at its worst just about covers it. What was Turnbull thinking? When you are on the wrong side of public opinion why give the electorate another chance to see the widening gap between you and the rest of the country?

    Politicians have never been held in lower esteem by ordinary Australians. They have become figures of fun and derision at every barbecue and dinner party.

    Look at their excesses with expenses and air travel.

    The scandals are examples of just how out of touch pollies are — Bronwyn Bishop’s use of a helicopter to get from Melbourne to Geelong, and Sussan Ley’s trips to the Gold Coast for New Year’s Eve parties. It is why the public holds the political class as a whole in contempt.

    It is one thing for Shorten to risk it, but why Turnbull?

    I wonder with how many of his cabinet colleagues did he choose to check his course of action. Make no mistake about it, this was another hopeless captain’s call.

    Sunday morning’s folly was followed by what now has become an expected debacle on every second Monday morning.

    Newspoll came out and confirmed Turnbull’s adoption of his personal anthem — the Bob Geldof song I Don’t Like Mondays.

    One Nation dropped two points and the Greens one, but the government could only go up one point and that improvement was matched by Labor.

    The two-party-preferred result for the fourth time in a row was a disastrous 53-47 and once again came the truly outstanding number, the first-preference vote.

    The depth to which the Coalition has fallen under Turnbull is best illustrated by Labor being on 37 per cent and the Coalition being on a miserable 36 per cent. It is hard to see how the Coalition can win from here.

    On Paul Murray Live on Sky News on Monday night, the speech Turnbull made to the cameras when he was justifying his crucifixion of Tony Abbott was replayed. After referring to the 30 Newspolls in a row in which the Coalition lagged behind Labor, he said the “trajectory” was clear.

    We are now past halfway to the magic number of 30 and once again “the trajectory” is clear.

    Not only is there no sign of improvement, there is no sign that Turnbull or his mates have any idea of how to achieve any improvement.

    Coalition members must know by now that a wounded Turnbull has to go.

    The question remains who will deliver the coup de grace.
 
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