The Australian
(right wing bias)
Feb 13
Abbott’s pleading calls can’t be made again
....In a TV interview after the vote, Abbott denied putting a timeframe on his political recovery.
“Did you ask some of your colleagues today for six more months to recover?” Leigh Sales asked on the ABC.
“No, I did not,” Abbott replied. He accepted, instead, that he was being “tested every day” and hoped to pass the test.
But there should really be no doubt about how long Abbott can survive if he does not stage a dramatic comeback. The answer is in his own remarks to colleagues: a few months.
What happens if Abbott cannot change will be no surprise. The alternative team is obvious: Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister, Julie Bishop continuing as deputy leader and Scott Morrison rising to treasurer.
A breakthrough on the budget is now impossible. There will be no repeat of last year’s unpopular cuts but a softer approach this year will prove the government is giving up on fiscal reform.
The white flag will be a declaration of political weakness, just like Abbott’s inability to reprimand South Australian senator Sean Edwards for diabolical TV interviews about the submarine fleet.
The days since Monday’s vote have shown Abbott still has a talent for accidental injuries. His “good government starts today” was a rhetorical stumble but there was worse to come, including a confusing message about whether the GP co-payment is dead or alive.
In question time it feels like late last year all over again. The Labor benches laugh while ministers go on the defensive. Abbott fires personal attacks at Bill Shorten. Government backbenchers look at their mobile phones.
Abbott’s message is that he has listened, learned and changed, but he has given his MPs nothing to feed their hopes. The table is bare, the menu a blank page.
This is why is it so revealing, and damaging, for the Prime Minister to call it “impertinent” for a radio host to ask whether his chief of staff, Peta Credlin, will resign.
For all her strengths, Credlin is now at the centre of a serious internal debate over how the government is run.
....Those who have given up on Abbott do not want to be blamed for his future mistakes because they suspect he will make them alone.
“He’ll never be able to use the excuse of undermining,” says one.
Yet it will be madness if the Liberal Party keeps this leadership stew on the boil into next year. Monday’s vote was a calamity for the government, the first vote on a spill in a federal Liberal government in decades. The divisions cannot be papered over. The problems are dire and failure to fix them means the Liberals are handing power to Labor by default.
To leave this unresolved until 2016 will be to turn Abbott into Kevin Rudd and audition Turnbull to play Julia Gillard. Without a rapid improvement there will be a good argument to settle the matter within weeks not months.
Abbott’s success will be measured in policy progress, success in parliament and a revival in the opinion polls. If he fails there is a strong argument for him to step down. It is not clear which of his closest allies could convince him to do so.
Abbott cannot make those phone calls a second time. Pleading for forgiveness will not work again.
After the vote on Monday, the Prime Minister said the government had “looked over the precipice” and decided to step back. His comment reveals that, like other leaders, he confuses his fate with that of the government.
Perhaps Abbott is already falling, perhaps he is clinging to the edge of the cliff. But the government is not falling with him.
Nobody needs to be told how long he has to save himself. They can draw their own conclusions
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/abbotts-pleading-calls-cant-be-made-again/story-e6frg6zo-122...
