Good news regarding Sophie Mirabella, but Australia still faces the nightmare of a Tony Abbott and Barnaby Joyce led Australia, says senior correspondent Barry Everingham.
ONE OF Tony Abbott's favourite frontbenchers, Sophie Mirabella, has never enjoyed total acceptance and popularity from her Coalition colleagues. Across the table, former Opposition members, along with the Independents, treated her with disdain and contempt.
It would seem Abbott was ignorant of all that, or maybe his political nous was not as acute as people credit him with; it is hard to believe he wasn't warned about Mirabella's toxic reputation.
Well, in the past 24 hours the cat is out of the bag and the Member for Indi seems is heading for political obscurity. Even if she scrapes through the current counting of votes with only a few up her sleeve, her chances of getting a ministry have evaporated. Even if she had not told Tony Abbott to ignore her for the front bench today, for the next three years she will be needed to work the electorate she has up to now ignored. There's another election coming around — perhaps sooner than usual, depending on the Senate's behaviour.
The Parliament is well rid of the crass, rude, outspoken woman and so will be Abbott's first ministry.
A picture what the country has in store was painted for all to see when Abbott, flanked by the man who will be deputy prime minister, Warren Truss, and the new foreign minister, Julie Bishop, let in the cameras in on their first get together.
Poor old Warren looked as though he would have rather been a million miles away. He knows full well he will be a sitting duck for the dreadful Barnaby Joyce to snare his leadership of the National Party.
Soon, Australia will faced be the spectre of Joyce being acting prime minister while ‒ horror of horrors ‒ Abbott stutters and John Wayne walks his way around the corridors of foreign powers whilst representing Australia overseas.
When will the Liberals get a speech trainer for their leader and at least help him lose those ums, ahs and ers that precede most of the words he utters.
Then there's the beautifully dressed and perfectly coiffed foreign minister to be Julie Bishop — whose cold hard stares could stop a marauding army in its tracks.
She needs to learn very quickly not to put words into the mouths of the leaders of our nearest and most important neighbour, Indonesia, as she did in the lead up to the recent election.
And Independent Australia can now exclusively report that she told a senior diplomat that Abbott's chances of "stopping the boats" would be almost impossible.
Like the boats Abbotts talks about, his leadership trio is already leaking.
Abbott last week belled a very dangerous cat, admitting that the egregious Cardinal George Pell was already leaning on him in regard to the funding of Catholic charities.
Abbott's hollow claim that he will govern for all Australians is just that.
Our very own mother of the century, Gina Rinehart will be handed tax concessions which will boost her already obscene wealth overnight, while in New York, U.S. citizen Rupert Murdoch will call in the many favours owed him by Tony for getting the Liberals over the line in the recent elections.
Andrew Bolt will be soon be able to give vent to his racist tirades against Aboriginals when freedom of speech laws will be changed to favour the like of him, Alan Jones and others of that disgusting ilk.
We Australians need to fasten our seat belts securely for what will be a very rough ride with Captain Catholic at the steering wheel — it really is a case of we ain't seen nothin' yet.
The British Labour politician Paul Flynn summed up what is in store thus:
'Australia has elected a bigoted airhead to drag them backwards into mean prejudice and vainglorious chauvinism.'
Not to be outdone, Murdoch tweeted from his bunker in far off USA:
'Australian public sick of public sector workers and phony welfare scroungers sucking life out of (the) economy. Other countries to follow in time.'
Seems the former Australian wants to rule the once free world.
Aust election public sick of public sector workers and phony welfare scroungers sucking life out of economy.Others nations to follow in time
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) September 7, 2013
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