Saturday 27th of April 2024

unity & solidarity .....

unity & solidarity .....

The Liberal Party risks being labelled weak and pathetic if it replaces Malcolm Turnbull as Opposition Leader on the back of poor opinion polls, a Coalition frontbencher says.

Opposition MPs have today rallied behind Mr Turnbull following a barrage of dreadful poll data.

Three polls published this morning show the OzCar fiasco has backfired badly on Mr Turnbull, with one key indicator showing his satisfaction rating suffering the biggest single plunge in the 25-year history of Newspoll.

Opposition frontbencher Christopher Pyne says the only poll that counts is on election day and that the Coalition needs to keep that in perspective.

"Joe Hockey is making a very good shadow treasurer. Malcolm Turnbull is a very good party leader," he said.

"not a factor" in inevitability...

Liberal Senate Leader Nick Minchin says a reshuffle of the Federal Opposition frontbench is inevitable.

The resignation of defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon prompted the Government to reshuffle its own frontbench earlier this month.

Poor opinion poll results for Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull in the wake of the OzCar affair has increased expectations he will want to make changes to his own line-up.

Senator Minchin says Mr Turnbull will have to move some people to new portfolios.

"I guess a reshuffle is inevitable because the Government has had a reshuffle following the demise of their defence minister, Mr Fitzgibbon," Senator Minchin said.

"We need to make sure we match up appropriately.

"Also we've lost a frontbencher in Chris Pearce, who is not standing at the next election, so we need to have a reshuffle."

Senator Minchin says the OzCar affair will not be a factor in any Coalition frontbench reshuffle.

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Pull the other shuffling leg...