Tony Abbott, a hard-line rightwinger, a social conservative who campaigns against abortion and who is adamant there’s no such thing as climate change, has won the leadership of the Opposition Liberal Party over moderate Malcolm Turnbull.

He won 42-41, as close as it could be. A margin that makes a mockery of his claims of the “great unity” of the Liberals. Julie Bishop remains as Deputy Leader.

The conventional wisdom is that this will be electoral disaster for the Liberals. They’ll shore up their hardline base that would vote for them anyway (unlike in the US, where they could’ve just stayed home, we have compulsory voting), and will lose the middle-of-the-roaders to the ALP. The ALP will move a little right to encompass these voters, and the Greens will have a reasonable shot at finally winning some seats in the lower house.

It’s still a day of mixed emotions, though.

On the one hand it’s good to see the now ridiculously-named “Liberal” Party lunging into electoral oblivion. On the other, it’s bad for Rudd to have no real opposition. And even worse, Abbott is just one utterly disastrous ALP campaign from becoming Prime Minister. Fortunately, that scenario is vanishingly unlikely.

Some twitter responses (#spill became a global trending topic) as the morning continued:

  • “The Liberals Hipster Faction forgot that ironic votes for Abbott still count.”
  • “Obliged to be pro ETS, now obliged to be anti ETS. What does Julie Bishop stand for? Only a meal ticket”
  • “Having an inconsistent, uber-conservative, loathsome individual as leader did work quite well for the Libs in the past”
  • “Nothing says conservative christian agenda like a party led by an Abbott and a Bishop. “
  • “That was not the press conference of a credible alternate PM.”
  • “I have to say am utterly transfixed by the new Liberal leadership and ETS debate. You know, like watching a car crash.”
  • ““a loyal girl” Tony Abbott said while giving Julie Bishop a squeeze. Oh dear”
  • “the liberal party’s ranking of the leadership candidates – abbott, turnbull, hockey – was the exact opposite of the public’s ranking”
  • “TonyAbbott complains Rudd has gone back to the 70s – promises to go back to the fifties instead”

More to come, undoubtedly.

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