On the QT: The Ghost Who Walks

Today the Liberal Party reached its nadir.

Revealed to be utterly bereft of policy or position on anything of weight, Turbull tried to censure Swan twice during Question Time. He had essentially run out of questions, because in answer to every single one the Government was making merry at Turnbull's complete lack of credibility. The Government were so confident they didn't even bother with the Censure motion and just snuffed it out. The fact is Turnbull had nothing new that they needed to defend, and so they wanted nothing more than to keep on answering questions. The Opposition, by contrast, didn't want to ask them.

And yet, so incompetent were the Liberals, that the second motion of censure was the same as the first which had already been defeated - and you're not actually allowed to try and move the same defeated motion. So it was ruled out of order.

A shambles. A rabble. Call it whatever you want. But it wasn't an alternative Government.

Albanese was having so much fun that he compared Turnbull to Mark Latham (something many have been doing privately for sometime):

"Watching the Leader of the Opposition I could have sworn I was witnessing the ghost of Mark Latham. It was all there Mr Speaker - the jaw jutting out, all the fake aggression, all the machismo, all the 'we're going well'. We used to hear it Mr Speaker."

That Albo, and old Beazely supporter, was able to do this no doubt gave him great joy. And it also demonstrates just how confident the ALP are with respect to Turnbull's position.

The fact is, the ALP don't care now whether Turnbull remains, because he is a dead carcass swinging in the breeze. If no one in the Liberal Party cares to cut him down, then he'll just continue to gather flies and a bad smell by the time of the next election.

As Dennis Atkins of the Courier Mail points out:

The second green shoot [of political insight] is the first outline of the next election campaign. Turnbull's personal attacks on Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan mean anything will be fair game.

For anyone interested in just how this will go, check out the speeches of Leader of the House Anthony Albanese and Agriculture Minister Tony Burke from Monday afternoon. They sliced and diced Turnbull's business dealings, from Packer to Tourang to Channel 10 and beyond. None of it was pretty.

You see, while the public mostly has an impression of Turnbull, they don't really know what he has actually done in public and private life apart from maybe the Spycatcher trial and the Republic referendum. The ALP will be more than happy to enlighten voters.

The only things saving Turnbull at the moment is that the Liberal Party has no one else. So dire are things, that Tony Abbott's name is even being thrown around; an absolutley amazing point to reach. But if next week's Newspoll shows a significant shift, the Libs may just be desperate enough to try him. He has one more day of parliament before the winter recess. Perhaps the Liberal Party will hope everyone forgets over the next two months. Anyone here think the ALP will let them?

This time last week Turnbull was in raptures. Costello was gone, he had gotten a blip in the polls (if you can call 53-47 a blip). Now look at things...

You know things are terrible when one week after the entire media writing article after article about how Turnbull now has "clean air", the Liberal Party are desperately hoping the entire voting population of Australia has been in a fog.

The worst seven days had by any opposition leader in Australian political history.