Party squabble may end in extinction for the Liberal Party

… Therein lies the intractable problem of the contemporary Liberal Party. Despite the reassuring pieties about a “broad church” it is now hopelessly in the grip of a schism that may well consign it to oblivion. None of the men who has followed in Howard’s wake, whether Nelson, Turnbull (twice) nor Abbott possesses the acumen or ballast to unify the Liberal Party. And in the case of Turnbull, there is even some risk he could alienate his National Party coalition partner … The Liberal Party base is being eroded by a raft of right-wing insurgencies led by Pauline Hanson and Cory Bernardi, neither of whom will ever replace the Liberals. But they may deny them government as the DLP did to Labor for decades … The parliamentary press gallery is already dusting off cliches about the “killing season” as Christmas looms. Now trailing Labor in his 21st consecutive Newspoll, Turnbull is probably in terminal political trouble. Be that as it may, Abbott is now a less credible challenger for his old job than he has been at any time since September 2015. Although he has replicated Menzies’ strategy and become a prolific polemicist, peddling opinions to his favoured editors and radio hosts, none of his output has resonance in the broad electorate. Rather he is clutching at the ephemeral sources of outrage generated by talk radio hosts, notably Ray Hadley and Alan Jones, and undermining Turnbull among readers of Quadrant …

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Fairfax