Howard started the ball rolling chasing money held by the religious right.
The results of the ANU’s 2022 Australian Election Study confirm that the Coalition was undone by the pandemic, the economy, and a highly unpopular Prime Minister. However, they also suggest that the Liberal Party’s ‘broad church’ is an increasingly untenable edifice.
Source: The Liberal Party – a broad church or a house divided? – Pearls and Irritations
The Devil gives his blessing to shrinking of the Broad Church and the lockout of it’s broader membership and constituents and this handing over the power to just a room full of Cardinals. The hidden persuaders News Corp and IPA of course remain silently smiling (ODT)
Mr Abbott described the rules as “atonement” with the Australian people, according to sources inside the partyroom. He endorsed the rule change as a “good safeguard” that “sends a strong signal of cultural change to the Australian people”.
“People are fallen, fragile creatures and in this place are more given to fear and greed than perhaps in the world outside Parliament,” Mr Abbott is reported to have told colleagues.
“The parliamentary party chooses our leader and the Australian people sanctifies that choice if they win government.”
Liberal Party changes leadership rules after snap late-night meeting
olddogthoughts 