Peter Dutton believes he can return the L/NCP to power in one term. He will need to get his skates on.

THE AGE today: “Core support for Labor (has risen to) to 42 per cent cutting the Coalition to just 30 per cent since the May election.

Core support translates to first preference votes.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese leads Opposition Leader Peter Dutton by 54 to 19 per cent as preferred prime minister.”

In an article entitled Dutton’s plan for a one-term comeback, Anthony Galloway and James Massola reveal the master strategy. It seems to boil down to Dutton’s belief that the voting public will get sick of the Labour Party and vote for Dutton and his team of discredited losers.

The plan appears to rest on the belief that the public will realise that Dutton is really a nice bloke. It hasn’t happened yet and it probably never will.

Morrison’s response to the censure motion shows that the Parliament and his party would be well rid of him.

The historic censure motion against ex-Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been passed in Parliament.

The responses from the Opposition have been unsurprising.

All members of the Opposition, with the exception of the courageous Bridget Archer, voted against censure motion.

The Opposition decided to close ranks behind the leader who had single-handedly led them to a catastrophic defeat.

There were mutterings of overreach and political motivation but no one in the Opposition has been able to mount a plausible justification for what Morrison did.

Why did they do this? There can be no political gain to be had from failing to condemn this egregious attempt at the centralisation of power.

This failure may quite reasonably be interpreted as a total lack of comprehension of the gravity of what Morrison did. A fundamental premise of a democracy is that power should be shared amongst those who wielded it. Morrison took a dangerous step back from this fundamental idea.

Whatever the Opposition’s motivation, this will only be seen by the Australian public as support for Morrison’s secretly abrogating five ministries to himself.

In his reply to the censure motion and in a desperate attempt to salvage his legacy, Morrison accused the government of intimidation and retribution.

“I am proud of my achievements in this place, and I am proud of my government. I am proud, at a time of extreme trial, my government stood up and faced the abyss of uncertainty.”

His justification was that he needed to be able to take “swift action if necessary in the national interests in a time when Australia’s interests were under constant threat”.

This begs the question of why it was necessary for a single person, namely him, to hold multiple ministries. Why did he not share the burden with other members of Cabinet?

In a totally bewildering feat of logic, he said “Had I been asked about these matters at the time at the numerous press conferences I held, I would have responded truthfully about the arrangements I had put in place.”

Why was he waiting to be asked?

How can the media ask questions about a matter they know nothing about?

Morrison is now a much diminished figure in the Parliament. He should resign and spare himself and his party the embarrassment of his continued presence.

Is it time for Stuart Robert to assess the contribution he has made and decide whether the Australian public needs him in Parliament

Using ‘leaked” files, presumably from within Synergy 360, the article paints a damning picture of the relationship between the Minister and company actively involved in advising and assisting clients in their relationships with government departments.

In an article that details, in considerable detail, the contact between the Minister and an external consulting company, Nick McKenzie and David Crowe, expose the relationship between Minister Robert and Synergy 360, whose client Infosys won government contracts worth more than $135 million. 

Federal Liberal MP Stuart Robert.CREDIT:ALEX ELLINGHAUSEN

Singing from the same hymn book entitled “Never apologise or resign” as ex-Prime Minister and fellow Hillsong member, Robert said: “Of course not. What a load of rubbish. There’s no way a minister could do it. It’s just nonsense.”

From THE AGE: “A consulting company owned by good friends of federal Liberal MP Stuart Robert claimed in leaked internal documents that the politician attended meetings to discuss potentially lucrative government projects after becoming a minister.

A new tranche of leaked files shows that Robert kept in regular contact with Milo and Synergy 360, as well as its clients, after he was appointed assistant treasurer in August 2018 and then minister for the NDIS and government services on May 29, 2019.”

In business, and in particular in stockbroking, this is called insider-trading and is punishable by dismissal and considerable jail time.

It is disgraceful as continues to sit in Parliament if what is in the article is true.

He must demonstrate that the meetings which he is alleged to have he attended, which are detailed in the files, never took place or that he is not the Minister referred to.