New PM trigger for poll
Coalition majority at risk
A SNAP election could be called for as soon as next month after the Federal Government’s unfolding leadership chaos, sources suggest.
Liberal insiders and sources in parliament are tipping a snap election could be called by the victor of a second Liberal Party leadership spill, after parliament was adjourned about noon yesterday.
The snap election predictions come after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he would quit parliament in the case of another spill, and after Nationals MP Kevin Hogan announced he would move to the crossbench if Liberal MPs replaced Mr Turnbull with Peter Dutton.
Either move would mean a new PM would hold a minority government, and could be forced to call an immediate election, having effectively lost control of the Lower House.
“This is not about Peter Dutton, or Malcolm Turnbull, this is about the last 10 years of rotating prime ministers we have seen,” Mr Hogan told ABC News Breakfast. “This will be I think seven in 10 or 11 years. I think this is demeaning our democracy, demeaning our parliamentary system.”
Amid the leadership crisis, the office of Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has sent registration requests to reporters wanting to travel with his campaign bus for the next election.
An election must take place at least 33 days after an election is called and writs are issued, and must be held on a Saturday. It must be held before May 18, 2019.
Suggestions of a snap election could send a shiver of panic down the spine of the Liberals’ Corio Federal Electorate Conference (FEC), with sources claiming the group is yet to hold a meeting in 2018, with no candidate preselected to run against Labor MP Richard Marles.
While the seat is safe for Labor, this year’s electoral boundary redistribution may have chipped away at up to 2 per cent of Mr Marles’ margin. But based on polling booth figures from the 2016 electorate, Corio’s notional margin would still be about 8.3 per cent.
The Geelong Advertiser was unable to contact Corio FEC president Antonia Kerr yesterday, but Ms Kerr last month confirmed the party had not yet met in 2018.
“There’s a lot of things that actually happen without having to call members in for a meeting,” Ms Kerr said.
The lack of a Liberal candidate is in stark contrast to the Labor Party’s mission to win the neighbouring electorate of Corangamite, where Libby Coker was preselected by Labor in December and has been campaigning since, giving the ALP a major headstart compared to their rivals in Corio.