- Bligh unveils 20-year infrastructure plan
- Torres Strait pleads for climate change action
- Overcrowding in parliamentary precinct worsens, Opposition says
- Minister apologises for 'boisterous' comment
- Junee senator questions Australian Quarantine rules
- Carbon price 'disastrous' for mining companies
- Local MP urges PM's carbon tax tour to visit Riverina
What if you held a leadership ballot and nobody came?
With the Liberal Party facing its worst defeat federally in the history of the party, it is unsurprising that they are keeping John Howard as their leader. The other contenders for the job need to look after their future, and suffering an election loss as bad as this one is shaping up does not look good on a political resume. The Prime Minister still has that job because nobody else would take it now even if he did resign.
But with the scale of the looming loss the Liberals have no prospect at all of winning Government back in 2010, and very little of winning it back in 2013. When John Howard resigns from Parliament this will leave a position open for somebody who is almost guaranteed to have two successive election losses, after which they would be unlikely to survive as leader. The opposition leader's job after this year's election is a political death sentence.
Nobody will take on the job of PM before the election for fear of terminal damage to their political career - why would they accept an opposition leader's job with the same consequences attached after the election?