Yesterday's headline, "Former Liberal MP Tim Smith considering return to Spring Street," has created such a storm that the headline has changed to: "Pesutto faces fresh leadership test after being blindsided by MP’s resignation."
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/he-s-back-former-liberal-mp-tim-smith-considering-return-to-spring-street-20230531-p5dcrv.html

tl;dr: Tim Smith is a self-serving fool, and he can't see that he's being used as a pawn in a leadership spill.

Tim Smith has ambitions to return to politics. A few months after drink-driving his car into the side of a house, he feels he's spent his time in the wilderness and wants to get back into Parliament.

Meanwhile, the RWNJ faction of the Victorian Liberal Party are as keen as ever to nudge the Overton Window further to the right. Nowadays, this faction is frothing for Moira Deeming because they're mostly TERFs and Neo-Nazis -- I say "and" here, not "or" because there's such an ideological overlap that they're basically the same type of person.

Seems they see this bye-election as a win-win scenario: if they win the election then the party gains a seat in Parliament, and if they lose the election then the extreme-right faction will use the loss as a pretext to spill John Pesutto and install an even more extreme leader.

All the need is a candidate who's highly visible, can appeal to rusted-on conservative voters, but can also rile-up the extremists.
Tim Smith is the perfect tool for this job.

#AusPol #VicPol #SpringSt #TimSmith #TERF #MoiraDeeming #JohnPesutto #LibSpill

#libspill anyone?

@ajsadauskas@lemmy.ml Very interesting take on Australian politics, and whether Victoria is really to the left of the rest of the country (as Peter Dutton claims):

"In fact, if you look at voting over recent federal elections, Victoria, along with New South Wales and South Australia, is among the three states closest to the centre of the Australian political spectrum. The odd state out isn’t Victoria. It is Peter Dutton’s home state of Queensland.

"At last year’s federal election, the Coalition won 70 per cent of Queensland’s lower house seats but just 30 per cent of seats across the rest of Australia. Peter Dutton doesn’t need to go to Melbourne to be in alien territory; he’s in it as soon as he leaves his home state."

https://insidestory.org.au/queensland-and-victoria-which-is-really-the-odd-state-out/

#Auspol #PeterDutton #VicPol #NSWpol #QldPol #Politics #News #LibSpill #Australia #Victoria #Queensland #Brisbane #Melbourne

Is Birmingham sticking his hand up?

#LibSpill
#AusPol

Looks like @PeterDutton_MP@twitter.com has a terminal leadership, but what options do they have? @AngusTaylorMP@twitter.com is unelectable thanks to his botching of the Energy Ministry (thank him for not listening to AEMO's push for renewables, resulting in high prices) #libspill #auspol

RT @akatsonis
Hook it into my veins!
#auspol #AstonByElection #astonvotes #libspill

Addressing reporters, he said Victoria was a very "difficult market" for the Liberals and the party needed to respectfully listen to the electorate.

But Mr Dutton, we’ve been telling you for years now, we won’t abide corrupt racist scumbags. You disrespectfully ignored us.

And we’re not a “market”.

#Victoria
#auspol
#Libspill

"I will make sure we build this party into an election-winning machine by 2025,"

Peter Dutton, completely missing the point.

#auspol
#Libspill

@kentparkstreet
That would be rather wonderful,
Angus Taylor for #Liberal leader
Just makes me think of how Angus might respond...
Bwahahahaha.....
#auspol #libspill

Can they really make Angus Taylor Liberal leader?

Hilarious.

#Libspill
#auspol

Voldemort would’ve gone down for losing this battle…. surely Dutton can’t survive this #libspill #auspol

Aston by-election 2023 is looking like a swing of more than 6% to the Labor Party.
This would give Mary Doyle a historical win. This could be the first time in a century that a sitting federal government has won a by-election.
It would also further imperil Peter Dutton as Leader of the Opposition, since he's notably racist against China and Aston has a relatively large population of people of Chinese heritage.

The former Member for Aston, Alan Tudge, was a nasty piece of work. His name is dirt due to his close association with Scott Morrison, his affair with a staffer, and being a key architect of RoboDebt while he was Minister for Human Services. Although Aston has been a Coalition seat since 1990, it's hard to see the coalition hanging onto Aston.

#AstonVotes #AstonVotes2023 #AusPol #VicPol #MaryDoyle #PeterDutton #LibSpill #AlanTudge #ScottMorrison #ScottyFromMarkering #RoboDebt

@kentparkstreet
Simon Birmingham perhaps?
I'd actually love to see Susssssssan try to lead the #Liberal party 😂😂😂😂😂

#libspill
#auspol #aston #astonbyelection

@kentparkstreet
I think I'll give it a try!
#libspill
#libspill
Ooooo, that feels good 😁
#libspill
#libspill
#libspill
On the other hand #Dutton is such a gift to the #Labor party it will be a shame to lose him 🥹

#auspol
#aston #astonbyelection

The first time I’ve had cause to type #Libspill on this site. It’s still fun.

#auspol
#AstonVotes

ABC site calling the Aston by-election for the ALP.

Dutton is doomed.

#auspol
#AstonVotes
#Libspill

Mary Doyle smashing it on first preferences in Aston. 9.4% swing with 16.6% counted.

#libspill #auspol

Mary Doyle smashing it on first preferences in Aston. 9.3% increase with 12.5% counted.

#libspill #auspol

If the Libs lose their first federal seat against a sitting government in a century - IT'S FUCK ON

#LIBSPILL

So here for #libspill

What do we all think, will the #VicLibs expel Deeming or will we see #LibSpill