When John Woodley was a senator representing the Australian Democrats I was an advisor to him on military affairs. To the best of my knowledge he was neither corrupt nor power hungry. He served his term, was well-informed and seemed to perform to the best of his ability. He earned his stipend.

Dear Paul,

An article in The Sydney Morning Herald confirms what
many of us already know. That Peter Dutton's going to have
to heal not only a divided party and a divided Coalition
but he's also going to have to create a new persona for
himself as the leader of the party for the Australian
public.

Can he do all this? He's the first Queenslander to lead
the party and the first leader since 1995 not from Sydney.
We're told that in the Liberal Party if the leader is not
from the right they struggle. (Malcolm Turnbull, John
Hewson). At least Dutton's got that going for him.
Also our PM has said that he got along better with Dutton
than Scott Morrison.

Dutton's got a monumental task ahead of him. To reset the
public's perception of him (Can he soften his image?)
and unite the party at the same time?

We're told that Dutton's going to have to decide which
of the government's agenda to support and which to
oppose.

His party's approach to Labor's climate policy will be
interesting.

We all know that the domestic and global economic conditions
are going to be difficult for the government for the next
3 years - but according to the article the odds are
against Peter Dutton winning the Prime Ministership in 2025.

http://smh.com.au/politics/federal/odds-against-remade-dutton-as-coalition-faces-three-difficult-years-20220526-p5aous.html

Hi Foxy,

"Peter Dutton's going to have to heal not only a divided party and a divided Coalition but he's also going to have to create a new persona for himself as the leader of the party for the Australian public."

We must not forget Dutton was one of the main agitators within the Liberal Party that undermined Turnbull's leadership, giving us Morrison. He may attempt to create a new persona as a moderate, but it will be a false persona, the guy has always presented as an arch-conservative favouring division over consensus. Not an ideal leader, and certainly not PM material.

The people we vote for aren't the ones in charge.

I always find it amusing when left-whingers talk about what the coalition needs to do.

The reason Turnbull was dumped was that he was a narcissist steering the party to a heavy defeat in 2019. Morrison turned this around saving Aus from the smug Shorten.

Abbott was considered a joke when he took control of the coalition, but quickly brought Krudd to his knees and then eviscerated Juliar finally winning in 2013 in a landslide. Dutton is made of the same stuff and is smart enough to hold Labor's feet to the fire. That Labor has already ditched some of its promises gives him a decent stick to beat Labor with already.

Before the weak opposition, we had the secret government of Morrison. Morrison couldn't trust the fools and half-wits he had for ministers, so he secretly had the GG make his minister for everything.