1. Andrew Hastie            2. Tony Pasin                  3. Craig Kelly                 4. Michael Sukkar                    5. Kevin Andrews

6. Tony Abbott               7. Ian Goodenough         8. Nicolle Flint               9. Peter Dutton                          10. Jason Wood

11. Ross Vasta                12. Luke Howarth           13. Rick Wilson              14. Ted O’Brien                        15. Zed Seselja

16. Greg Hunt                 17. Steven Ciobo            18. Angus Taylor            19. Alan Tudge                         20. Michael Keenan

21. Andrew Wallace       22. Scott Buchholz         23. Jim Molan                 24. Slade Brockman                 25. Dean Smith

26. Jane Hume                27. Mitch Fifield             28. John McVeigh           29. David Fawcett                    30. Amanda Stoker

31. Jonathon Duniam     32. David Bushby           33. James Paterson          34. Eric Abetz                           35. Concetta Fierravanti-Wells

36. James McGrath         37. Mathias Cormann     38. Michaelia Cash          39. Karen Andrews                   40. Andrew Laming

41. Ben Morton               42. Sussan Ley                43. Warren Entsch (for Brendan Nelson)

In a tweet from Fairfax reporter Bevan Shields, images of the petition showed three Queensland MPs had made notes next to their names.

Warren Entsch wrote the number 43 next to his name, as he reportedly only agreed to sign the petition if it would get it over the line.

Karen Andrews wrote “because this has to be resolved” next to her signature, while Scott Buchholz wrote “I support the office of the PM”.

Gus note:

In order to be fair, I used the word Kanbra only to define the political hubris that is plaguing that lovely town of CANBERRA...

• Simon Birmingham
• Christopher Pyne
• Kelly O'Dwyer
• Marise Payne
• Craig Laundy
• Paul Fletcher
• Anne Ruston
• Melissa Price
• Jane Prentice

• Julia Banks (VIC)
• Sarah Henderson (VIC)
• Chris Crewther (VIC)
• Jane Hume (VIC)
• Julian Leeser (NSW)
• Trent Zimmerman (NSW)
• Richard Colbeck (TAS)
• Lucy Gichuhi (SA)

Frontbencher Paul Fletcher kicks off the discussion.

"Cormann rumoured to be putting some WA votes behind Julie Bishop in round 1," he wrote to colleagues.

"Be aware that this is a ruse truing [sic] to get her ahead of Morrison so he drops out & his votes go to Dutton.

"Despite our hearts tugging us to Julie we need to vote with our heads for Scott in round one."

The recipients of the message include both ministers and backbenchers, and Christopher Pyne replied to say he had told Julie Bishop "very respectfully".

Mathias Cormann has denied to the ABC that he was employing such tactics to knock Ms Bishop out of the race.

The former deputy Liberal leader is yet to announce whether she will seek to retain a frontbench position, or if she will remain in Parliament at all.

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-26/liberal-leadership-soul-searching-...

"Mathias Cormann has denied to the ABC that he was employing such tactics to knock Ms Bishop out of the race."??? Of course this was a tactic to eliminate MORRISON.

Read from top.

A host of government MPs fighting to hold on to their seats have erased the Liberals’ name and logo from campaign material, sparking Labor claims that the party’s brand is “toxic”.

As the Coalition struggles to lift its standing among voters in the lead-up to next month’s poll, MPs across the country appear to be relying on their personal standing to counter any backlash against the Liberals’ brand.

Victorian MPs Jason Wood, Sarah Henderson, Michael Sukkar and Russell Broadbent are among the state’s MPs who have chosen to drop the party’s branding from campaign material, relying instead on personalised campaign messages.

Scott Morrison was campaigning in government-held marginals in Victoria on Monday, where the Coalition fears up to six seats could be at risk.

Labor is confident that it can pick up the seats of La Trobe, held by Wood, and Corangamite, held by Henderson, as it exploits residual anger in the state about the removal of Malcolm Turnbull as leader.

Conservative MPs including Sukkar in Deakin and Nicolle Flint in the South Australian seat of Boothby have been targeted in their electorates for supporting Peter Dutton to become leader last August.

In Western Australia, conservative MP Andrew Hastie is running a presidential-style personal campaign, with the former SAS soldier’s Facebook page featuring a “Fighting for You” tagline alongside an image of an Australian flag.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/apr/22/liberal-mps-erase...

Read from top.

Note the use of the Australian flag is illegal in campaigning materials.

This Wilcox cartoon (1/5/19) sums up the depth of Scummo's team: traitors and idiots on most levels of scientific understanding while being devious at the political hubris — all hidden away awaiting resurrection. READ FROM TOP.

Respect Citizen Abbott but vote MP Abbott out

What people outside Warringah do not understand is that within Warringah itself, Tony Abbott is not seen as the parliamentary wrecker depicted in the national press, but as something of a local hero.

At the Surf Lifesaving barbecue he is unpretentious and engaged and neighbourly. At charity events he makes notable contributions, such as the money his team in the Cole Classic recently raised in that famous swim. As GetUp has just discovered in its not very well-conceived advertisement, it is perilous to make fun of his volunteerism. That is because, whether in the surf, on the cycle or in the burning bush, he is an authentic and generous volunteer.

I, like many fellow residents, have to say that his relationship with me has always been most urbane. He knows I have never voted for him, but he holds no grudge. I have had the honour to debate him twice during the republican referendum period and found him a genial arguer if not above going for the man rather than the ball. But he is not alone in that.

Now, what is obvious about my beloved fellow citizens and electors of Warringah is that their majority default position is to vote Liberal. That’s a small price for an old Labor voter like me to pay for living among such agreeable folk in such an exquisite part of the world. But now it is clear that many are moving against the neo-conservative wing of the Liberal Party to which Abbott belongs.

They will not be voting Labor, of course. Though the Labor candidate, Dean Harris of Mosman, is a very high quality candidate, Warringah just doesn’t vote Labor. Admittedly they did in the late 1970s at the state level, electing Alan Stewart for two terms, and these days voters in Warringah believe Labor has "a set" against them.

But the voters have shown recently that when they feel disinherited by the Liberal government of the day, they will vote for progressive independents. Zali Steggall, an impressive and eloquent woman, is the obvious recourse for a great number of previous Abbott voters. And there will be a fairly strong cohort of Green votes for Kristyn Glanville too.

My argument is that Citizen Abbott is an altruistic being. His fraternal volunteering and fundraising should continue to be honoured, and he should be respected for having been our prime minister. He should be wished happiness and a long life. But I find myself in agreement with the thousands of others on the many reasons why House of Representatives Abbott should not be elected again.

To begin with, his argument is that as generators of such a small proportion of the output that creates global warming, Australia needs to do little. Let the big guys begin. But in his hostility to the new industries and the lack of certainty created by his government in encouraging new industries, he locks us into a future where the Chinese, who are addressing their contribution to global warming, will also provide our future technologies. This means, with our hands full of coal worth less and less, we will remain a colony, with no cleverness of our own to sell to the outside world.

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/federal-election-2019/respect-citizen-abbott-but-...

See also:

http://yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/35393

and