Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has ruled out challenging Tony Abbott for the position of Prime Minister, announcing at a Canberra cabinet meeting that she would “wait until the party kicks him out” before gunning for the position.

“I want to make it clear” the Foreign Minister said, “Mr Abbott has my full support for as long as he’s Prime Minister, and when he’s ousted by the party next Tuesday, that’s when I will court support.”

Ms Bishop is seen as a front runner for the leadership position as she demonstrates many of the values favoured by the LNP; determination, intelligence, and the willingness to let other people do her dirty work for her.

Speculation that Ms Bishop would be challenging Mr Abbott built to a fever pitch after the Prime Minister refused to confirm that he had a commitment from Ms Bishop that she would not challenge him for the leadership. Ms Bishop’s reaffirmation of her support for the Prime Minister now has most political commentators believing that Mr Abbott will finish out his full term until the party strips him of his leadership position early next week.

A source close to Tony Abbott have informed us that the Prime Minister began to realise how bad things have gotten after Immigration Minister Peter Dutton came out in his defence.

“Until Mr Dutton described the leadership speculation as an attempt to ‘sabotage the party’, Tony was confident that he’d be able to ride this one out” the source said.

“Letting Mr Dutton speak is considered a sign of weak leadership among the backbenchers.”

Dr Dennis Jensen has publicly called for Mr Abbott to resign, telling the ABC’s 7.30 Report that “Mr Abbott never made the transition from opposition leader to Prime Minister, and also I have a PhD in science.”

“At this point, believing in Tony Abbott’s ability to deliver the next election is as dumb as believing in man-made climate change, am I right?”

Dr Jensen stated that he had not made up his mind as to who he would back, but did say that he was leaning towards Julie Bishop in an attempt to get a better look down her shirt.

Malcolm Turnbull, who has also had his name floated around as a challenger for the leadership of the Liberal Pary, has remained quiet on the subject. The (un)Australian emailed a request to Mr Turnbull’s office asking for clarification of his support for the current Prime Minister, but the Communications Minister has so far not returned our request. The (un)Australian is unable to determine if it’s because he’s ignoring our email or if it’s because the National Broadband Network is “really fucking slow”.

In a nationwide poll performed by The (un)Australian/Ipsos, when asked who voters preferred as Prime Minister, 2% of respondents said Tony Abbott, both Julie Bishop and Malcolm Turnbull received 4% of the respondents each and 92% of those polled chose Not Scott Morrison.

Matthew Farthing is the Political Editor for The (un)Australian. He now feels like an idiot after printing 10,000 t-shirts that read “Tony Abbott, Prime Minister: 2013 – 2017”. 

https://twitter.com/MattJFarthing

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Categories: Politics

Tags: Matthew Farthing, The unAustralian