Peter Reith tells Tony Abbott to take a long holiday
Conservative senator Eric Abetz has reminded colleagues “disunity is death” amid heightened fear of a breakaway party, as former deputy Liberal leader Peter Reith tells Tony Abbott to take a long holiday for the sake of the nation.
Mr Abbott says it is
Malcolm Turnbull’s “duty” to keep the Liberal Party united after maverick senator Cory Bernardi sparked concern among government MPs that he plans to transform his Australian Conservatives movement into a political party appealing to disenchanted right-of-centre voters, as revealed in
The Australian.
Senator Abetz, who was a cabinet minister under the Abbott government but demoted under the Turnbull government, urged his more moderate colleagues to reach out to Coalition MPs feeling alienated, saying the government had to reward people based on their efforts rather than their disposition or voting record.
“When I was Senate leader I sought to ensure that I reached out to all my colleagues irrespective of what their particular disposition might be to ensure that everybody had their voice heard, that nobody felt alienated, that there was genuine award for effort within the Senate team as opposed to people being rewarded for the way they lined up or the way they voted,” Senator Abetz told ABC radio.
“That is what we in the Coalition need to do again and get back to that. That way you get the broad full spectrum within the Liberal Party which is its great strength.
“To fail to do so I fear could lead us to electoral oblivion and that clearly is not within the nation’s interest because the alternative is Bill Shorten, a gentleman that is absolutely ill-suited to be prime minister of our nation.”
While Mr Abbott says the “first duty of the leader is to keep the party together”, Mr Reith, a Howard-era minister, said his former colleague’s record as prime minister was “not as great as he would like you to believe”.
“Basically the government has got the upper hand over Shorten but there are a lot of people, a number of people — not too many of them actually — who’d like to make it more difficult for Turnbull.
“In Australia’s best interest they really ought to get together and it means Tony should go and take a good six months’ holiday, quite frankly,” Mr Reith told Sky News.
Mr Abbott has written to Liberals telling them a split would “doom” the Liberals and leave the Coalition out of government for decades. He views the threat of a breakaway as a “very serious matter” and argues against any split.
Bill Shorten declared today that the only Liberal looking forward to Christmas this year was Mr Abbott.
“I was trying to imagine what it would be like at the Liberal family Christmas this year. You’ve got uncle Cory in the corner, you’ve got cousin George (Christensen) muttering to himself, and of course you’ve got the ghost of Christmas past, Tony Abbott,” the Opposition Leader said.
“The Liberal Party in Australia are divided. They are at a civil war and the problem with all of that is that Malcolm Turnbull’s got to focus on his own job, and not the jobs of Australians.
“What we need to see next year is a united government.”
Former Liberal minister and speaker of the House Bronwyn Bishop said Mr Turnbull had more work to do to prove he was leading a centre-right government to fight a “socialist revival”.
But she said she has seen no evidence Senator Bernardi was intending to split from the Liberal Party and believed there would not be a break away party “at the moment”.
“However there are splits all over the place. Look at the one that came out of the Greens the other day with Lee Rhiannon setting up the eastern bloc faction of the Greens to abolish the concept of the nation state,” Ms Bishop told Sky News.
“Socialism is on the march and so it’s terribly important that the Turnbull government and Turnbull himself is very, very strong about starting to understand about free enterprise and starting to pull that party together as an entity which can indeed fight against that socialist revival.
“Let’s face it, the centre line these days is in the left-hand gutter. And what has to be made clear is that the Liberal Party stands for individualism, not collectivism, which is what’s on the left. And he has that task ahead of him”.
Senator Abetz said the government should “take stock” and ask itself why it had lost 1.7 million votes at the July election, insisting it could not continue as “business as usual”.
“There is a simple rule in politics that disunity is death and therefore my view if at all possible you work within your party, you work within the system to make it work,” he said.
“I still believe, and overwhelmingly if you talk to the Liberal and National party membership and our supporter voter base, overwhelmingly they are of a conservative disposition and they expect the government to be of a centre-right disposition. That is what we need to work (towards) in 2017 to ensure we adequately reflect their aspirations.”
Conservative voters were “excited” and “concerned” about balancing the household budget, job security, border protection and national security, Senator Abetz said.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nat...y/news-story/e561fef715dda61fa143d3664e96c3f9
