Wednesday 27th of November 2024
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chorus line .....

chorus line .....

The Opposition's Treasury spokesman, Joe Hockey, has dismissed claims he is jockeying for the leadership position.

An article in The Australian newspaper claims senior Liberals believe he has been too keen to distance himself from the OzCar affair, rather than stand by leader Malcolm Turnbull.

But Mr Hockey says it is a beat-up.

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He vowed his team would be more careful in the future after the email affair, appearing to broaden responsibility by using "us" and not "me".

"I think everyone will be more cautious, all of us will be cautious," he said.
"You've got to learn from episodes like this."

Recent events have led to speculation that some Liberals are not happy with Mr Turnbull's leadership.

He denied his authority had been diminished.

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Then there are a whole lot of disciplinary sanctions under the Public Service Act that can be wheeled out to crush bureaucrats enthusiastically helping political parties or the media with inside juice. These are covered in regulations under the act or in codes of conduct. Penalties extend from getting yourself sacked to losing your security clearance, which amounts to much the same thing. The commission wants to soften those strictures so that they only swing into force if the leak is "reasonably likely" to prejudice the effective working of government.

statistical nosedive...

Malcolm Turnbull has paid a heavy price over the OzCar fake email affair, with the Opposition Leader's approval rating nosediving in the latest opinion poll.

Newspoll figures published in today's Australian newspaper shows Mr Turnbull's rating as preferred prime minister has fallen seven points to 18 per cent.

throwing stuff uphill...

Liberal frontbencher Tony Abbott says Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull will lead the party to the next election, despite potentially crushing poll results out this morning.

Mr Turnbull's standing has fallen in three polls, with his satisfaction rating in the Newspoll survey recording the biggest fall in 25 years.

Overall the polls show Labor has widened its lead over the Coalition. Newspoll has the ALP ahead by 56 per cent to 44 after preferences.

One paper suggests that if Parliament was sitting this week, there would be a move on Mr Turnbull's leadership.

But Mr Abbott is backing Mr Turnbull as leader.

"When you've had a tough week, you tend to get bad polls," he said.

"Let's not forget that the Labor Party threw everything but the kitchen sink at Malcolm last week and I think that the smear campaign that they waged has had an impact."

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ER, Tony... No...nono... It was Malcolm who threw everything and the kitchen sink — plus a dud Grech grenade — at Rudd and Swan. He did not realise though that "he who throws stuff uphill, gets it back, rolling at twice the speed..." (Gustaphianan proverb). And he plans to throw more? Take it easy... The Tony endorsement sounds like the kiss of death...