Opposition Leader Sussan Ley and Nationals leader David Littleproud have their own separate leadership worries. Photo: Instagram.
That adage about a week being a long time in politics isn’t really cutting it at the moment, if it means so much can dramatically change in such a short period.
I have just returned from a long-planned week trekking in the New Zealand wilderness, blissfully cut off from the outside world but certain the Coalition would have pulled itself together by the time I reached civilisation and mobile reception again.
My last news file was about the Nationals’ latest dummy spit; this one over three of its shadow ministers being dumped because they defied Opposition Leader Sussan Ley.
The Coalition was (again) no more and Nationals leader David Littleproud stamped his foot in the playgroup dirt and declared he couldn’t be on Ley’s team any longer.
He took his bat and ball and, followed by his merry band of hapless co-conspirators, went home.
Armed with that knowledge, I disappeared down the Milford Track, figuring that by the time I reached the other end, some big developments would have occurred.
There would be a move on Ley’s leadership of the Liberal Party for sure. There would be a new Opposition Leader by then, or her leadership would have been reaffirmed through a partyroom vote.
The Libs and Nats would have kissed and made up, like they always do.
To my surprise, none of the above has yet happened.
A week (and some) hasn’t been long enough for things to happen in this particular political game.
The hard right within the Liberal Party couldn’t decide who should take it up to Ley.
“Give me the ball,” shouted Angus Taylor. “It’s my turn.”
But the increasingly weirdly disgruntled Andrew Hastie thought it should be him and he let that opinion be known.
Some senior Liberals not so secretly met behind Ley’s back to thrash it out and decide who should seize the party mantle.
Hastie pulled out; he didn’t have the numbers.
Taylor “has the numbers” – just not enough to make his move yet.
Those loyal to Ley, and loyal to the concept that disunity is death, have rallied around and are assuring anyone who wants to listen that her leadership is safe.
For her part, Ley is managing this monumental crisis as well as could be expected.
She has named a new shadow ministry, albeit a temporary one, composed completely of Liberal frontbenchers.
The Opposition Leader has to be seen to be getting on with business, even with the empire burning down around her.
The new front bench is temporary, however, because Ley wants the Nationals back inside the tent and holding shadow cabinet positions.
She knows the Opposition is at its strongest when the Liberals and Nationals are together.
Littleproud knows that too. Numbers don’t lie.
But the Opposition Leader, publicly ignoring any looming threat to herself, has given the Nationals a week’s deadline (another long time in politics) to come back to the fold and start playing together again.
“Peace talks” were held last night (2 February).
Meanwhile, the Nationals leader had his own worries to deal with.
Littleproud survived a motion from within for a leadership spill on Monday, but the fact some of his own wanted him toppled over his Coalition-splitting dummy spit was a further embarrassment he neither wanted nor needed.
All the while, the Labor Federal Government is reaping the benefits of being the only team in the fixtures to be showing a united front.
PM Albo is getting on with it and getting more credit than he otherwise might be getting if his opponents were not such a rabble.
And right-wing voters are turning to One Nation in record numbers.
Because in the end, I guess a week truly is a long time in politics – long enough for the voting public to forget about the Opposition and its navel-gazing antics almost completely.
The Coalition, if there is one, looks set to be “enjoying” that other kind of wilderness for many years to come.
