Patrick Gorman is having the best of times this morning:

…We now see a report saying that the Coalition is inching towards a deal to keep the party together on climate change. Well, I think we will wait to see how that plays out, but we know how this story has gone in the past.

And then when it gets to all of the instability at the top rank of the Liberal Party and the National Party, what we are seeing is the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party say, quote, ‘it’s a bit messy.’ That’s Ted O’Brien. Now, when Ted O’Brien, who was the architect of the $600 billion nuclear plan, says that something is, quote, ‘a bit messy,’ you know, you are in serious trouble. We then have an extraordinary revelation from the most secure parts of the Liberal Party headquarters in their campaign review, we have this revelation that Peter Dutton, the former leader, said of Andrew Hastie, the former Shadow Minister for Home Affairs, that Mr. Hastie had, quote, ‘gone on strike.’ Now I am all for Andrew Hastie’s right to disconnect, but what we are seeing here is a report that Mr. Dutton said that Mr. Hastie was absent, scared to do media, or lazy. This is the person who thinks that maybe he would be a better leader of the Liberal Party.

So the revelations about this relationship and relationships in Liberal Party keep coming thick and fast at the moment. We have got Niki Savva writing in The Age today telling us quote, ‘Andrew Hastie’s relationship with Peter Dutton had been on life support for more than 18 months.’ And again, there’s that word ‘lazy.’ Dutton thought he was lazy.

But it does not stop there. In the great newspaper, The West Australian, which I read every morning, we have got a report that Hastie won’t rule out a tilt at the leadership. Andrew Hastie will not rule out a tilt at the leadership, giving great comfort, I am sure, to all of his former shadow frontbench colleagues. Katina Curtis writes in The West Australian quote, ‘Hastie has effectively set himself up as the shadow Opposition Leader.’ Again, great comfort, I am sure, to all in the Liberal Party that this is definitely not over.

But I thought actually, I have got to give the National Party credit for this one. That to have David Littleproud out there saying, quote, ‘needs to do better.’ Now you don’t have to have been in this building particularly long to remember that it was David Littleproud who was trying to blow up the Coalition just a few months ago. To have David Littleproud out saying that the Liberal Party needs to do better tells you everything about how low the standards are in the Coalition right now, what an absolute mess it is behind the scenes, how divided and dysfunctional they are, and how much better the Australian people deserve from this absolute rabble.