Despite minimal activity due to Parliament still being on summer break, the Coalition Government‘s had a very peculiar thorn in its side over the past 24 hours, and it’s come from a rather unlikely source.
Yesterday a caller identified only by the moniker “Andrew” rang in to Fairfax media station 3AW during a callback segment with Prime Minister Tony Abbott and verbally lambasted the PM, calling him the “world’s worst salesman,” lamenting that he is on the cusp of handing the keys to The Lodge over to opposition leader Bill Shorten, and stating flat out that “I don’t like you.”
Such was the media attention the call gathered – particularly notable given that “Andrew” was a self-confessed “out-and-out Liberal voter” – that 3AW chased him up and brought him back onto the show for a repeat performance this morning. And Andrew did not disappoint.
Now properly identified as Andrew McNabb – a Liberal Party member for 11 years whose Facebook page is filled with anti-Labor epithets and a photo of him with former Victorian Premier Denis Napthine, among other things – he took to the Government again, this time suggesting that Liberal MPs should give Abbott the tap on the shoulder and force him to step aside.
“I am calling on Liberal MPs to tap Mr Abbott on the shoulder and tell him to move to one side.“
McNabb stated that if Abbott were to take the Government to term, the Coalition would be “annihilated” come the 2016 Federal Election. And as for who we’d want installed as PM should a spill actually happen?
“Julie Bishop – what a fantastic job she’s done since become Foreign Minister. She’s articulate, intelligent, she’s strutted the world stage as Foreign Minister, she can negotiate – that’s what it’s all about. She’s got salesmanship and Tony Abbott doesn’t.“
He went even further, suggesting that if that did indeed take place, that Joe Hockey should be dumped from the Treasurers position, with Malcolm Turnbull put in place instead.
“We need a Bishop-Turnbull government, without a doubt.“
Whether you believe the Government’s repeated insistence that there’s no disharmony within the party ranks or not, it’s becoming readily apparent that this growing disquiet is more of a rumble than a hum.
If it continues to gather steam at the rate that it currently is, when Parliament resumes sitting on February 9th, it’s going to be bloody hard for the Federal Cabinet to ignore.
Photo: Cameron Spencer via Getty Images.
via SMH.
