EDITORIAL: Coalition carnage leaves PM the only winner

Bizarre. Incomprehensible. Absurd. How else do we describe the saga that has taken place in the nation’s capital?

Not so far back we had a Prime Minister under immense pressure over an abject failure to adequately respond to Australia’s worst terrorist attack which saw 15 innocent victims slaughtered at our most famous beach.

Now we have a Prime Minister who is looking on in triumph as his political opponents tear each other part. Again.

Hours after voting against the Government’s hate crimes Bill on Tuesday night, in breach of the Opposition’s agreed position, Nationals frontbenchers Bridget McKenzie, Ross Cadell and Susan McDonald all tendered their resignations the following morning.

By day’s end the remaining eight National party members on the Opposition frontbench including party leader David Littleproud had also stepped down in solidarity with their colleagues.

On Thursday morning Mr Littleproud said the party would break away from the Liberals for the second time since the Federal election, blaming Opposition Leader Sussan Ley for “forcing the Coalition into an untenable position that can no longer continue”.

For her part, Ms Ley vowed she would not publicly respond to the Coalition’s crumbling while observing the National Day of Mourning for the victims of the Bondi massacre.

The latest Coalition implosion can now be traced as far back as Mr Albanese’s initial post-Bondi proposal, which had gone in the first instance to tougher gun laws.

He then split the Government’s omnibus Bill to get separate components through, carving out gun reforms from the wider hate laws.

The Coalition snubbed the tougher Federal firearms controls, insisting they would unfairly target law-abiding gun owners. The Liberals had agreed to oppose Labor’s gun reforms Bill because their junior Coalition partner was against it.

As the smoke cleared, Liberal Party figures were furious at Mr Littleproud’s failure to produce a unified position in the Nationals on the hate speech laws.

The fuse had been lit when Mr Albanese raised the crackdown on guns. He would have known gun laws would cause problems for the Coalition partners. The issue always does. Mr Albanese threw out the bait and his opponents took it.

When it comes to playing politics, there is none even close to the Prime Minister. And so somehow from his worst month in the job he was the only winner from the political implosion on the other side of the House.

But that is not good for the rest of us. A bad Opposition does not lend itself to good government. Someone needs to take control of the Opposition and somehow create a credible force. If that is Ms Ley, then credit to her. If she is not capable of doing so, then the Liberals need to find someone else.

This country is in desperate need of leadership at all levels. Not the political circus we have witnessed unfolding in Canberra.

Responsibility for the editorial comment is taken by Editor-in-Chief Christopher Dore.