How Bronwyn Bishop derailed Tony Abbott's plan

How Bronwyn Bishop derailed Tony Abbott's plan,
by GDL.

As written some weeks back, the government second budget had a smelt of elections in the air. After the "sweet" budget of the Liberal government, all polls showed that the budget was well received by the voters. It was a budget that was devoid of any philosophy and did not line up a plan for the for the middle or long term future of Australia. It is the same people who, in their first year, said that Australia needs dractic reforms to secure our future. The reforms proposed in the first budget were abandoned as they were so unpopular. But as Paul Kelly put it,on Richo and Jones last Tuesday, it was simply the case that they did not have the right people to sell the reforms. Paul Kelly went further in saying that Hawke and Keating were formidable, Howard and Costello were good, but since then t we have had a bunch of amateurs who have no credible social and economic plans for the country.
After the second budget, the ratings of the government and  Tony Abbott went up and the Liberals felt confident that they were on track to win the next general elections. While the government was enjoying the honey mood with the voters, came the documentary" the Killing Years" which highlighted the shortcomings and bitter internal quarrels within the last Labor government between the camps of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard. The misfortunes of Labor was compounded by  Bill Shorten being in all sort of trouble with his dealings while he was the head of the construction union. He later appeared before the Commission of  Enquiry into the unions and came out badly scratched.
Tony Abbott and the Liberals were on the moon so much so that it was rumoured that there would be a snap elections before parliament resumes. No journalist or political commentator was surprised about this "rumour" as it was probably a good strategical tactic from Tony Abbott at a time when the Labor party was on the ground.
But surprise surprise a week is a long time in politics when suddenly came the news of Bronwyn Bishop helicopter trip from Melbourne to Geelong, paid by taxpayers to attend...a liberal party fund raising !! This news spread like a veld fire taken up by all the media across the country. This was portrayed as a big scandal when the battlers are paying their fair share of tax wasted by Bronwyn Bishop who could easily have used her official car for this short trip. The extravaganza of Bronwyn Bishop also surfaced when she spent some $11,000 for a trip in Europe traveling  in Limousine and drinking the most expensive champagne, all this paid by Australian taxpayers.                           Suddenly the table turned on the government and the Prime Minister Tony Abbott was under immense pressure to sack the speaker for her lavish spending at the expense of taxpayers' money. Tony Abbott resisted to the call for the sacking  the speaker. Meanwhile social media went frenzy against the government and towards a speaker who has shown so much bias and partiality in parliament. Even the pro-government right wing media could not find excuse for Bronwyn's scandalous spending. No need to be a Labor supporter to notice during  parliament questions and debate live, how obvious Browyn Bishop leans so much on the side of the government and threw out  Labor party members for 400 times.
Bill Shorten and the Labor party could not believe their luck when Bronwyn scandals broke out, and so they kept hammering Tony Abbott to sack Browyn Bishop. The latter was apparently forced by the PM to apologize and pay back the money with the penalty imposed. The misfortunes of the lady speaker were not going to go away as other lavish spending were uncovered to attend a friend's (sophie Mirabella) wedding  in Albury,  paid by taxpayers. Once more no excuse could be found again to save Bronwyn  and counter the attack of the opposition and the medias. Noone in the government ranks could say that Browyn was right but rather distanced themselves from her. Tony Abbott for his part  put Bronwyn on probation!!! But up to today, at  the time of writing,  the media are still talking about Browyn's scandals and it does not seem to go away so soon. There is even a popular petition going around for her resignation. Last night on ABC lateline, the maverick Clive Palmer also asked for the resignation of Browyn Bishop and added that if Tony Abbott does not act he will face the electors with this scandal in the next elections.
So this is how Browyn Bishop derailed the plans of Tony Abbott and the Liberals to go to an early elections which they were sure of winning. Adding insult to injury, last week Bill Shorten came out of the Labor party stronger than before with the policies of turning back the boats, the ETS and  a marriage equality again putting undue pressure on Tony Abbott and his weakened government.

GDL

In my next blog I will analyse Bill Shorten and the Labor party's weaknesses.