It seem that the Minister for Foreign Affairs - "I have faithfully served 3 party leaders as deputy" - Ms Julie Bishop, was one of the close-to-the-centre plotters who saw about the demise of Australia's worst ever prime minister, Sir Tony Abbott.
Revelations that Julie Bishop's chief of staff attended a key meeting of Turnbull backers the night before the leadership coup that brought down Tony Abbott has shaken trust within the party, a Liberal backbencher says.
The meeting took place in the home of Eden-Monaro MP, Dr Peter Hendy, and was attended by the Liberal Party's Malcolm Turnbull, Wyatt Roy, Arthur Sinodinos, Mitch Fifield, Mal Brough, James McGrath and Scott Ryan.
It has been revealed that Ms Bishop's long-standing chief of staff, Murray Hansen, was also present at the meeting.........
......... Senator Bernardi has questioned why it took so long to tell Mr Abbott about the plot, and suggested it was unlikely Mr Hansen was there just to observe what was happening.
"Great lengths were gone to by the plotters to avoid letting anyone know about what was going on, so I find it unusual that they invited an outsider in, particularly a staff member, just to be an observer," he said.
He said the revelations were making it more difficult for the Liberal Party to recover after the leadership change.
"The wounds, I won't say they were healing, but certainly they were drying up a little bit," he said.
"This has, quite frankly, ripped the scab off the wounds and opened up them again.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-12/j ... ys/6935892
As much as I would like to see some stable government in Oz, this story has some time to travel, and in the local vernacular, Som Nom Na.
