Liberal love-in tightens tensions
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Liberal leader Brendan Nelson will host a two day love-in for his colleagues before parliament returns next month. The meeting is designed “to give MPs the chance to vent their feelings about the election loss and hammer out a strategy to take the Coalition forward,” The Australian reports today. There are other Liberals, however, who would like to vent. Many rank and file faithful feel isolated and ignored. They need a chance to vent, too. The party faithful can be a valuable resource in opposition, yet believe that have been forgotten. They were increasingly marginalised as power accumulated around the leader’s office under John Howard and campaigning functions were funded out of the public purse. Brendan Nelson has continued with this centralisation and concentration of power. Writing in the Bulletin last week, Peter van Onselen stated:
Senior shadows and their staff say they simply do not know what is happening in the leader’s office. It is assumed that Nelson is attempting to create an opposition version of the Coalition’s old taxpayer-funded campaign unit, the Government Members Secretariat. He also appears to be building a media unit and media monitoring machine. The concentration of the parliamentary party and Nelson’s office mean that the Liberal Party organisation is being ignored. Sources say, however, that Federal Director Brian Loughnane is trying to guarantee that he will survive the post-mortems on the party’s loss. He appears to enjoy the protection of Senate Leader Nick Minchin, who also delivered the numbers to Nelson. Instead, there is speculation that Loughnane’s deputy, Linda Reynolds, will become the sacrificial lamb. And in more bad news for the Libs, the ALP is increasing their margin. According to the according to the first Morgan Poll of federal voting intention for 2008, Labor’s primary vote stands at a massive 51.5%. Labor’s primary vote is up two points from the last Morgan Poll and 8.1% above its election result of 43.4. The Coalition is on 33%, down 1% from the last Morgan Poll and 9.1% below its election result of 42.1%. Support for the Greens has dropped 2.5% to 8%. Family First have dropped 0.5% to 2%, and support for other parties is on 5.5%, a rise of two points. The ALP holds a commanding 23% two party preferred lead of 61.5%, up 1%, compared to the Coalition’s 38.5%. |
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5 Comments
When is Roy Morgan’s going to confront the obvious bias in their survey results. It’s been going on for years now & one would think that their credibility demands a rethink on what they are doing to deliver such consistently strong Labor results.
As the pre-election polls with 10 to 18% Labor leads were wildly off the mark, it is interesting the silence that has followed the election. Clearly there is a bias with such results but no notable discussion of how the polls managed to be so wrong.
As Rudd has not done anything of substance to change our society for better, there can be no reason too be thankful for Howard’s departure yet. I guess M Smith is one of those “haters” not interested in the political options available. Why do you hate?
I suppose there are people who are interested in what’s happening with the Liberal party these days. Personally, if I hadn’t read this article, I’d have had to search my memory for the name of the current leader. Thank goodness they’re gone.
No Tony, this is not a socialist plot. Pollsters are researchers whose whole business is to reflect expressed opinion. As it is their livelihood they try to be accurate.
When are you going to put your money where your mouth is? Try doing it yourself.