Michael V said:

roughbarked said:

Jane Hume has walked straight out of the Sky News studio and into the corridor where she has unloaded even further on her own party and the Nationals.

She says she is “not agitating” for a leadership bill, despite her closeness to Angus Taylor, whom she backed in the last spill.

“But at some point, we have to speak up and say something’s got to give,” she adds.

The threat of “non-existence” at the next election “cannot be blamed on anyone else” than Sussan Ley and David Littleproud, she says.

“It has to come back to the leadership we are facing today… They have to reflect on themselves.”

“At this point we’re talking about a leadership contest between Sussan Ley and Andrew Hastie and Angus Taylor. None of them will have seats after the next election if this continues, so something’s got to give.”

From the abc live thread. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-09/federal-politics-ley-littleproud-albanese-coalition-estimates/106314548

Policies, Jane, Policies.

Remember them? If people don’t like your policies (and what you stand for) Jane, then they don’t vote for you.

The problem they’ve got, IMHO, is that there isn’t a set of policies they can come up with that will restore their previous position. The electorate has fractured and split into separate groups.

If you look at the Teals movement over the last couple of elections and who votes for them you start to get the picture. The Teal voters are generally affluent inner and middle urbanites with higher levels of education and professional qualifications, and are more likely to be unaffiliated with religion. These people used to vote Liberal in their droves because there was no other option, and they’d never vote ALP even as a protest vote. These voters tend to be more concerned about climate change, gender equality and corruption. The Teals have given them an option that aligns more closely with their priorities than what the Coalition put forward.

The Coalition is dead IMHO and not worth salvaging. The Liberal party needs to decide if it is going to be chasing the Teal type voter, or chasing the One Nation type voter, and go all in on that target group. I don’t think the Liberal Party can appeal to both of them anymore, without turning both of them off. Gotta be one or the other. Either a centrist Teal type of party, or a hard right party.

But none of these will give them a big enough bloc to form government on their own. They either go down the gurgler entirely, or they become a niche permanent minor party.