Negative land

The election of the Liberal–National Party in 2013 was meant to put an end to division within Australian politics, after three years of painstaking internal leadership warfare in the Labor Party.

But nobody told Tony Abbott. He assumed, quite wrongly, the electorate voted him in to pursue his conservative ideological projects, rather than restore stability to the political system.

We start in the week before the 2013 election and travel through the bizarre nature of Tony Abbott’s prime ministership, and how he couldn’t make the transition from combative Leader of the Opposition and rise above petty ideological squabbles.

His replacement, Malcolm Turnbull, offered hope to the electorate but ended up languishing in a position as poor as his predecessor’s.

We end with the 2016 election campaign, and its lingering aftermath, and ponder how conservative politicians and their supporters in the media have taken Australian politics to a point where the electorate is wondering whether our political leaders have the skills or the desire to lead Australia through difficult times.