Politics

Just A Bunch Of Liberal MP Tweets That Are Extremely Funny Now That The Party Is Imploding

"Only the Coalition can offer stability" - Scott Morrison, 2016.

by Rob Stott  27 November 2018
Scott Morrison minority government tweet s after julia banks leaves Liberals

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You’ve probably heard the news that the Liberal party is imploding after losing yet another MP today. Julia Banks, who spoke out about bullying following the spill that cost Malcolm Turnbull his job, announced today that she will now sit as an independent, meaning the Scott Morrison minority government is even more of a… minority.

“I’ve always put the people before the party,” Banks told Parliament. “The people of Chisholm elected me as I promised them that I would be their representative under the leadership of the former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, and former deputy leader and foreign minister Julie Bishop; both visionary and inspiring leaders of sensible, centrist liberal values, with integrity and intellect.”

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She described the recent Liberal leadership spill as a “coup” which she said was “aided by many MPs trading their vote for a leadership change in exchange for their individual promotion, preselection endorsements, or silence.”

“Their actions were undeniably for themselves, for their position in the party, their power, their personal ambition — not for the Australian people, who we represent. But for what people voted for in the 2016 election, not for stability, and disregarding that teamwork and unity delivers success.”

Banks’ shock resignation came a day after independent MP Kerry Phelps took her seat in Parliament, replacing Malcolm Turnbull as the member for Wentworth. On top of that, Nationals MP Kevin Hogan moved to the crossbench following the Turnbull spill.

That means the government now only commands 73 votes on the floor of the House (they lose another one through Speaker Tony Smith). They need 76 to hold a majority which means it’s MINORITY GOVERNMENT TIME.

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And what is minority government? tl;dr: It’s very bad news for the government.

It means the Parliament is inherently unstable. Every vote has the potential to prove disastrous for the government. Crossbenchers could vote down important legislation or pass a motion of no confidence.

Which is extremely funny when you remember that a few years ago, when the Gillard/Rudd government’s were in minority, Liberal MPs couldn’t shut up about how it was time for an “ELECTION NOW”.

Anyway, here are a bunch of tweets. (Many of them courtesy of @matttburke)

Let’s start with the leader of the minority government, ScoMo himself.

And what about the government’s leader in the Senate, Matthias Cormann?

Here’s Health Minister Greg Hunt.

And ScoMo’s good mate Alex Hawke.

Here’s Julie Bishop.

And of course, no list of Liberal MPs saying dumb shit would be complete without Tony Abbott.

So it’s been a very bad week for Scott Morrison. I bet he’s looking forward to heading home and putting his feet up. Oh, it’s only Tuesday.