BREAKING: Petition Calling for Liberal Partyroom Meeting Circulating
There is a petition circulating among Liberal MPs to hold a partyroom either tonight or tomorrow morning to bring on another leadership spill. Peter Dutton who put up his hand for the leadership in Tuesday morning’s leadership spill called by Malcolm Turnbull has spent today outlining some of the policies he would implement as Prime Minister.
Dutton told Neil Mitchell on Radio 3AW he would remove the GST for household electricity bills and hold a royal commission into the energy and petrol retailers. The proposal was slapped down by Turnbull and Treasurer Scott Morrison at their press conference at 1pm today announcing they were rethinking their company tax cut policy after it was rejected in the Senate.
The Ministers who had offered their resignations to Malcolm Turnbull after backing Peter Dutton but in the end chose to stay but faced questions from Labor in Parliament about their loyalty to the Prime Minister. Labor also questioned the eligibility of Peter Dutton to sit in parliament over two childcare facilities held in a family trust that receive Commonwealth subsidies in breach of Section 44 of the Constitution. The matter has been referred to the Solicitor-General.
News of the petition broke at 6.55pm AEDT with conflicting reports over if the petition could gain enough signatures, if the Dutton supporters were confident they now had the numbers or if they were attempting to stop a return in momentum to the Prime Minister after Dutton’s first policy proposal received a lukewarm reception. There are also conflicting reports over whether Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has withdrawn his support after his pledge of loyality today.
Malcolm Turnbull will not hold the partyroom meeting unless the petition has the signatures of a majority of Liberal MPsThe Unshackled will continue to keep you updated on the ever changing developments and will go live if it is confirmed another spill is on.