Julie Bishop, the MP for Curtin, former Foreign Minister and person which many assumed would be the next female PM, is quitting politics at the next election.
In what seemed like a very carefully worded speech which will doubtless be pored over endlessly, she announced that she’d dedicated her last few weeks to “closely observe” the future of the Scott Morrison government and has decided that it’s all great, they’re heading for victory, and also that she’s out.
Bishop hasn’t been on the frontbench since coming third in the three-way leadership battle after the deposing of PM Malcolm Turnbull last August. Since then she’s been the subject of much speculation, particularly with regard what has been described freely as the Liberals’ “woman problem”.
Case in point: the Prime Minister’s response was to announce that “Her successor will have big shoes to fill and we know that Julie has the best shoes! They will take some filling.” Hoo boy. Women and their shoes, ammirite?
Her loss is significant because Bishop is the party’s largest fundraiser (aside from Malcolm Turnbull, who merrily kicked in $1.75 million of his own ahead of the last election and seems unlikely to offer such largesse this time around) and the most popular figure in the party by a largish margin, as poll after poll has demonstrated.
And yes, this is the last sitting day of parliament until the budget in April, and thus the final opportunity for people to give a valedictory speech in the chamber. So in that sense it’s not unreasonable – but it’s also a useful and welcome announcement for the government, at least in the degree of media coverage it’s getting.
After all, this week has been one catastrophe after another for the government, most recently with the revelations that Finance Minister Mathias Cormann accepted free holiday travel from Helloworld, a company whose boss just so happened to be the federal treasurer of the Liberal Party, and that this kind gift arrived just before said company got a very lucrative contract with the Department of Finance.
And this scrutiny led to connections being made between Helloworld and former treasurer-now US ambassador “Diamond” Joe Hockey, including a damning email being tabled by Labor’s Penny Wong in the senate containing the deathless line “Joe owes me”.
So Jules’ announcement does seem to be a welcome distraction from this growing scandal, even as it contributes to the general sense that Liberals are abandoning ship ahead of what they’re confident is going to be a long time in opposition.
At least it’ll also come as a welcome relief to Attorney General Christian Porter, who is already rumoured to be readying himself to move from his increasingly marginal seat of Pearce to Bishop’s very, very safe seat of Curtin.
In any case: farewell, Ms Bishop. You’ll be an excellent Ambassador to the US in a few weeks’ time.