DUTTON LAUNCHES SECOND BID FOR POWER
PETER Dutton has launched his second attempt to seize the nation’s top job, with supporters confident he will today become Australia’s 30th Prime Minister.
Mr Dutton’s supporters last night began circulating a petition calling for a party room leadership meeting to be held.
They were increasingly confident he was close to having the support needed to win the vote and lead the nation.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull ruled out calling a party room meeting before this morning. At least 43 signatures will be needed to force the meeting. He was last night locked in crisis meetings with Julie Bishop, Christopher Pyne, Scott Morrison, Craig Laundy, Christian Porter and government whip, Nola Marino.
MALCOLM Turnbull was last night cooped up in crisis meetings as he braced for rival Peter Dutton to launch a coup to overthrow his leadership.
As Mr Dutton and his backers pressured colleagues to sign a petition for a second party-room meeting this week in a bid to topple Mr Turnbull, the Prime Minister met with his praetorian guard Julie Bishop, Christopher Pyne, Scott Morrison, Craig Laundy, Christian Porter, Mathias Cormann and Government whip Nola Merino.
There were high-level discussions about contingency plans in the event that a successful spill motion was called, and Mr Turnbull was no longer a contender for the leadership.
In the event Mr Turnbull had either stepped aside voluntarily or lost a spill motion, highly placed sources said both Ms Bishop and Mr Morrison would consider running for the top job which would see them lead the Liberal Party to the federal election.
In an extraordinary state of affairs, Mr Porter last night sought advice from the Solici- tor General on whether Mr Dutton is even eligible to sit in Parliament for breaching Section 44 of the Constitution by receiving government subsidies for childcare centres he owns. This could even lead to a referral to the High Court for Mr Dutton, at the very time he is seeking to become Prime Minister.
Mr Morrison and Ms Bishop were yesterday asked by colleagues and factional backers to consider their leadership options if Mr Turnbull did not run in a ballot.
Neither would stand against Mr Turnbull, who they strongly support and whose leadership they have been working behind the scenes to try and shore up.
Moderate and Centre-right MPs were hopeful they could command the majority of the party-room to see off Mr Dutton’s challenge.
“They are just hell bent on blowing the joint up and we can’t bow to that. We have to fight it,” one senior Turnbull Government figure said.
The battle between the Turnbull and Dutton forces finally turned nasty, with a senior figure accusing Mr Dutton’s supporters of “lying propaganda” for spreading inaccurate rumours that senior ministers had resigned.
He also claimed they had used aggressive tactics while trying to get the numbers to call a party room meeting, which had led to complaints from female MPs.
“They’ve been running the halls and bursting into offices and attempting to intimidate people to sign their letter of support,” one source said.
Last night, Mr Dutton’s supporters claimed they were close to the 43 signatures required to call an unscheduled party room meeting – the second this week. But Mr Turnbull ruled out holding a latenight meeting for a leadership spill. Any meeting will likely take place today.
Should there be a successful spill for the prime ministership, Mr Morrison has emerged as a likely rival conservative candidate to Mr Dutton. He is being described as a “consensus candidate” to build a bridge between the warring moderate and conservative factions within the Liberal Party.
If Mr Morrison stood for the leadership, it would split the Right vote, detracting from Mr Dutton’s numbers.
However, the Treasurer would also need to rely on numbers from the moderate faction along with Mr Turnbull’s backing to succeed.
But if both Ms Bishop and Mr Morrison ran, splitting the moderate vote, Mr Dutton would likely win out.
The discussion around leadership candidates comes as Mr Dutton hit the airwaves yesterday to pitch populist policy ideas, from holding a royal commission into electricity and petrol companies
to removing GST from electricity bills – an idea Mr Turnbull said would be “certainly very expensive”.
He also doubled down on building support to overthrow Mr Turnbull as Prime Minister, admitting publicly that he was calling colleagues to get their support.
The Treasurer criticised
Mr Dutton’s idea to lift the GST from electricity bills in certain demographics, calling it a “budget blower”.
Meanwhile, Mr Turnbull dumped yet another unpopular policy that had been plaguing him, tax cuts for big businesses, after it failed to gain Pauline Hanson’s support in the Senate.