Now we wait for the new PM

Tony Abbott is on borrowed time. He’s a PM in holding. Keeping the seat warm for whomever next the Liberal party room elects to lead the party, and the nation. As much as Abbott loving Liberals want to spin it, the vote was not a ‘strong message’ to the Prime Minister. Strong messages of discontent are delivered to someone’s face, to others behind their back and often with many spills and leaks to the media (see the Rudd/Gillard era). This was a vote to oust a sitting PM. Not a warning, not a signal, but a firm push to remove him from his post. As much as Abbott wants to say he’ll change, both in style of governing and substance of policy, there’s unlikely to be enough of a change to win him another term in government. The only thing he’s supporters have bought him is time to clear the way for his successor. Tony Abbott worked well in opposition as an alternative to Labor’s leadership mess, but that was it. A preference for something that wasn’t Labor, and not a ringing endorsement of him. It is part of the reason his lead in the polls vanished so quickly. Combined of course with his governing style, budget measures, policy choices and broken promises. It may be weeks, months or even a year before another spill motion arrises, or he eventually resigns. But it will come.

On Q&A that same night of the #libspill Monday meeting, ardent Abbott supporter Alan Jones graced the ABC screen with his presence. For someone who so vehemently hates the ‘leftie establishment’, he sure seemed to be enjoying the attention he was receiving there. Though while he and his supporters in the audience enjoyed the serving out of sharp quips against Labor’s legacy and turmoil, his greatest support came for policy ideas that neither the Liberal or Labor party are genuinely proposing. GSC extraction is deeply unpopular in most parts of the country, debt needs to be managed by equitable taxation and spending reduction at the HIGHER end of the wealth spectrum, and business confidence needs to be assisted.

The Liberal and Labor party talk endlessly about ‘plans’ and ‘discussions’ and ‘visions, though neither side makes a clear, concrete position. They sit on the fence between interests groups so firmly, they bleed themselves dry of the popular vote. It’s becoming a race between two parties, in which people must choose the one they least dislike. Kevin Rudd made popular policy moves within his first few months of government. Tony Abbott did the same. But once in government, politicians aren’t keeping up with the ongoing demands of the Australian people. They’re not navel gazing. They’re compromising their way through issues, trying to appease everyone, though in doing so satisfy no one.

Sweeping, bold moves in politics is dangerous. The recently voted out, deeply unpopular LNP Queensland government found this out. Yet Victoria’s return to Labor was because the state Liberal government was doing too little and compromising too much. Whomever takes the helm of the federal Liberal party in the future should heed both State’s warnings and follow broad, popular policies that the electorate has been demanding for a long time.