Only a couple of days after suggesting he’d consider throwing down with PM Malcolm Turnbull for the Liberal leadership, ex-Defence Minister and extra-staunch Abbott-ally Kevin Andrews has ever so subtly negged his current boss.
You might remember Andrews as the Defence Minister who was seemingly unable to recall the name of ISIS’ widely-acknowledged leader. That was seen as something that maybe he should have known, but we digress.
Speaking to the ABC about this morning’s Newspoll – which shows the Libs trailing the Labs 49 – 51 – Andrews said “polls go up and down, when any new leader comes in there’s a honeymoon period”.
Intentional or not, even hinting at some kind of predictable downswing in public opinion is the kind of political anathema the major parties try really bloody hard to avoid.
Especially when the past decade has been consisted of near-constant backstabbing across the political spectrum. Like, jeeze, just form a circle and hack downwards, it’ll be more efficient.
Anyway, Andrews did attempt to justify his statement, saying “obviously Mr Turnbull has had a honeymoon period but now as we get closer to an election Australians want to concentrate on the choice between Mr Turnbull and Mr Shorten.”
Yes, good save, Mr Andrews. Currently, he’s riding the pine far, far away from the leadership, but with Abbott likely still fomenting – oh boy. Oh boy.
Source: ABC.
Photo: Lisa Maree Williams / Getty.
Photo: Lisa Maree Williams / Getty.
