Let's talk about what's happening in Canberra.

They are clearly out of their depth The LNP seems to have no platform to anchor themselves to. I’m wondering if they are going to sacrifice Maurice Payne going into the nest election or stick with Scotty.

RobynC

I’m wondering what’s going to happen. Many of the senior cabinet have demonstrated connected to lies, bullying and corruption., except Marise Payne. The last question time, then the orchestrated attack on the States re; Covid rollout, smacked of marketing and optics. Several Ministers seemed to be posturing. I just got that sense. When mainly the Liberal States smacked back hard the Feds definitely lost face. Then federally they come out with the truth, albeit a very defensive truth. I think those posturing ministers maybe got the idea they don’t know that much about optics. In my opinion that’s because there’s no base of ethics

RobynC

I think that the timing of this media frenzy against Scott Morrison and the concurrent senate inquiry into Murdoch Media bias is a bit too coincidental. If a royal commission is established, then the Murdoch Media can just point to reporting done in recent weeks and say "nah, we're not bias against the ALP. Look, look right here, we reported the facts about Scummy Scotty in the same way as we did with other Labor politicians. SO THERE. NO POLITICAL BIAS HERE."

Not sure if you can say the press hasn't ever been hostile towards the Libs since Howard. My perception was in the Abbott days the Wets in the press (e.g. Fairfax, Nine, ABC) were somewhat hostile to Abbott. But then bent over backwards when their man Turnbull got in. I think the difference is really the Murdoch press, because they still backed Abbott at the time. But now it seems they've flipped and the momentum has shifted. It's seems the sort of dirty scandal stuff is lethal to Morrison's image because the personal moral bankruptcy of his party tarnishes his appeal to the people who think of him as "a good (personally moral) Christian man". It undermines something he presumably takes pride in. This sort of idpol stuff is much more relevant to those people than all the corruption and poor governance etc. they seem to get away with daily.

Jesse

I hope the press do not tie K-Rudd’s deserved war on Murdoch to the current ALP. Yes it does relate to how the ALP are portrayed by media and I am strong supporter of Kev’s push for a Royal commission into media diversity in Australia and the Murdoch monopoly. Let the senate manage it and remains on the down low. Hopefully it will be more effective than the pathetic royal commission into the banking and finance sector which became a toothless tiger thanks to the LNP. In regards to the press having their knives out for Scomo, I hope he’s eaten alive, let the Libs and Nat’s fight to pick over the bones of Scomo’s carcass. If Albo continues with the head down and keeping comments to a minimum he may stand a fighting chance. Great work FJ’s am looking forward to the upcoming doco

EK

Nah - I think they are done. There is another factor not covered in the above and that is the Pentecostals intending to take over the LNP, as they have already done at the state level in WA. How ever, I agree that Payne will likely be the fall woman for an election loss. I hope she doesn’t agree to go forward in a spill but bides her time. The LNP is done, and the Labor Party is on notice - this is a national crisis and one of many but the collective war on women by the LNP has burnt them to a crisp.

They'll oust Promo in the next couple of months and probably put in Payne (because she's relatively unscathed and they can say they don't have a problem with women) or Hunt (because they can trumpet his covid credentials). I think they know the bushfire and rape responses will go down terribly during an election campaign so they want a relatively unknown/unscathed leader to allow people to consciously vote in their own stupid and selfish interests and not feel too guilty about it. They'll need to act soon to build their profile and stop the negative attention.

Patrick Gillman