Do you think Malcolm Turnbull would be in the best position to take over leadership of the Liberal Party? Ain't Wentworth becoming increasingly marginal even though it's always been in conservative control?
Well the boundaries supposedly caused it to be more marginal, but something happened to increase his vote. Guess all the aristocrats out on the harbour thought they better band together to protect themselves from the ALP. Watch out guys.Stevo. said:Do you think Malcolm Turnbull would be in the best position to take over leadership of the Liberal Party? Ain't Wentworth becoming increasingly marginal even though it's always been in conservative control?
And this will matter to who now that they're in power? He's got control now but if he takes the party in a direction it doesn't want to go in he's not going to be able to maintain support. I can't think of any specific examples of the party dumping someone who wants to take it in a different direction, but I can't think of any examples in the liberal or state parties either. I guess the only example I can come up with is how the electorate dumped Howard when he wanted to take them down that workchoices route. But hey, the ALP dumps leaders that are doing moderately well and rescuing them from a rut (Beazley) - if the party as a whole feels threatened by Rudd then he won't last.jb_nc said:No he won't. The party will make concessions on what Rudd wants. He was the sole person who led the party to power, not the team who almost didn't exist during the campaign; probably half of Rudd's future Cabinet didn't get any airtime during the election at all, but that void was filled by Rudd himself. He better rule his caucus with an iron fist like Menzies because no one in Australia wants stupid ALP factional fighting.
Who suggested that they wouldn't?The Greens will have no influence on the Labor caucus because I think the Coalition will act in their interests and if it's a choice between passing ALP legislation or ALP legislation with the added kookiness of the Greens I think the LNP will choose the former. To say the ALP won't continue with further market based reforms is just ignorant.
My point is that the ALP have taken the moral high ground on this and I'd like to drag them back down to earth. And while the leadership scare was factual, the 'taking workchoices further' one sure as fuck wasn't.zimmerman8k said:Yeah it was a bullshit scare campaign. Just like the interest rates bullshit in 2003. Deal with it.
Rudd will also hold the possibility of a DD election over the new LNP leader's head which will influence their decision about how to conduct themselves in the senate.I think the Coalition will act in their interests and if it's a choice between passing ALP legislation or ALP legislation with the added kookiness of the Greens I think the LNP will choose the former. To say the ALP won't continue with further market based reforms is just ignorant.
Yeah Brendan Nelson is the only viable candidate in my mind. Neither Turnbull nor Abbott is electable.withoutaface said:On a sidenote I'd recommend everyone jump on with Nelson at $4.00 while they still can, his chances of taking it are much better than 25%.
The new Senate will (probably) be:Exphate said:Anyone got info on how the Senate will look as of July 1? All I've got is that Nick Xenophabe or something like that is in....an SA independant. Apart from that, all I know is the Libs + Stephan Fielding have the majority until June 31. ALthough Barnaby Joyce is going to cross the floor on Workchoices....apparently.
Yeah the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory retiring would really change my vote given that I live in Sydney. Nobody outside of marginal seat areas of the NT would actually care about this, and the fact that they didn't know about it until after the election hardly makes your point validwithoutaface said:Who remembers the kilometres of "OMFG HOWARD's RETIRING" wrap that was used to dress booths just 2 days ago? Well it seems that the (Labor) NT Chief Minister has just retired, mid-way through her term and just 48 hours after the ALP won a federal election based on retirement scares.
Did I mention the hypocrisy of it all?
Turnbull is far more electable than Nelson, in fact Abbott is as well, Nelson's ineptness as defence minister would make him far too easy to destroy in a campaign._dhj_ said:Yeah Brendan Nelson is the only viable candidate in my mind. Neither Turnbull nor Abbott is electable.
I think he's better placed to do that once the shine comes off (oh dear, how many times have we heard that this year?).Iron said:Turnbull would easily nick a raft of young Rudd supporters imo. I see him as by far the most attractive and competitive option for the Libs, but meh.