What could bring Malcolm Turnbull undone?, page-40

Dan if you analyise the last election you will find Abbott became PM simply by being the leader at the time, the drovers dog could have lead the LNP to a win.

I will also point out that Abbott always polled poorly as preferred PM so you can not attribute the election win to people voter for Abbott. If Abbott was rating well above 50% as preferred PM you may have a case but he was polling well below 50%.

There is good reason for the party to elect the leader, it allows for a leader to be removed if he goes bonkers or the like. In this case it will prevent Shorten becoming PM, something I think we both agree would be a bad thing

As for the referendum on the republic, it was Howard & Abbott that put the two options in the referendum. They did so knowing voters would reject the idea of politician electing the head of state. All Turnbull could do was promote that model.