This is not a political blog, but I feel that I should write something about the party room coup that saw Australia’s prime minister Tony Abbott ousted by Communications Minister, and former Liberal Party leader, Malcolm Turnbull.
I’m a long way from Canberra now, and I’m not sure how that impacts on my personal viewpoint, but I have had my ear to the ground among the Australian expat community and my own circle of friends and colleagues, online and in real life, from many different national backgrounds.
The consensus seems to be that Australia is better off without Mr Abbott. And it doesn’t seem to be a party political thing. In fact – and I think this is the case in Australia, too — many Liberal Party supporters seem to be more glad to be rid of him than Labor party voters.
But one ALP supporter, who I hardly know but heard my Australian accent and wanted to engage in conversation about the issue of the day, said that he would consider voting Liberal for the first time in his life because Mr Turnbull is now in charge.
Many people — both Australians and those from other countries — have identified Mr Abbott as an embarrassment. He is talked about for all the wrong reasons — his gaffes, his “captain’s calls”, his budgie smugglers, his perceived misogyny and other old-time “values”, and all those YouTube clips that make him look, well, weird.
The people I have spoken so far seem to think that Mr Turnbull will present a more serious persona on the world stage. Whether he has anything to bring to the table, domestically or in foreign policy, remains to be seen.
As, indeed, does the tantaliszing possibility that Last Week Tonight’s John Oliver will do a follow-up to this report:
