After the Spill swooped to an end as quickly as it started, this morning—following a “no” vote of 61 against 39 “yes” votes—Tony Abbott has made an alarmingly brief address on Channel 9 from the comfort and safety of his office: one camera, no questions, nobody else.
The meaning behind that kind of solitary statement, careful but not confident, speaks volumes about what went down today in the Liberal Party room. Seeing as almost 40% of his part room voted in ill-confidence of his leadership, Tony Abbott is most definitely skating on thin ice. If the “yes” votes in this morning’s poll were less, we may have seen more of a sore winner’s situation from Abbott: all smiles, all told-you-so’s, etc. There was none of that.
Tony Abbott seems really bloody scared.
“The liberal party has dealt with the spill motion and now this matter is behind us,” Tony Abbott began.
Abbott added that his government is “absolutely determined to work for you, the people who elected us.”
Tony Abbott said his party was pleased to not recreate the “disunity and uncertainty which destroyed two labor governments, and give you the government you deserve.”
Abbott’s address largely played off the sentiment that a PM should not lose their seat during their term. He said the nation “deserves” to keep the PM they voted in. Something tells me, however, that the nation might not fully agree on that one.
Abbott states that they “do face many challenges,” but the main one being: “the challenge for the government is to work with you, not against you.”
Question Time is but a few hours away. Can’t wait for how these smug as hell comrades deal with that one.
Images by Stefan Postles via Getty.
