After his abortive attempt to snatch the leadership of the Liberal Party, it was pretty clear that Peter Dutton‘s position in Malcolm Turnbull‘s cabinet was, shall we say, untenable. He’s made good on that almost immediately after the failed coup and resigned from his position as Minister for Home Affairs.
Again, this comes from Sky News who appear to have had a direct line into the Liberal party room for the entirety of this sordid affair:
DEVELOPING: @PeterDutton_MP has resigned from the frontbench following the failed leadership contest.
WATCH LIVE: https://t.co/hXtn3BujTx #libspill pic.twitter.com/p79TVDoR2J
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) August 20, 2018
Dutton was the first Minister for Home Affairs, engineering the merger of the super portfolio which essentially made him Australia’s inaugural King Cop.
Malcolm Turnbull called the spill after what was clearly massive pressure from the Dutton camp. He clearly did it because he knew he had the numbers – at least at this point.
To make this entirely clear: Dutton is absolutely still an MP – her hasn’t resigned from Parliament altogether. He is now totally free to sit back there with Tony Abbott snickering to one another and kissing big lumps of coal.
More to come, I’m sure!
