I have to say, I'm honestly shocked. Both at how quickly this has happened (considering they've only really been polling very badly in the past couple of months) and at how saddened I am by it. Having just watched his press conference, I think it was really confronting watching him go through it. I think he's a genuinely nice man, he seems to honestly care about the country, and I can say I've never got that feeling from Abbott. And he's handled this with dignity, which is very impressive.

What saddens me most is that if he'd been able to talk the way he has in the past two days, in the past months, he may not have had these problems. I think you hit the nail right on the head when you said he governs a not very rational electorate. It truly frustrates me when I hear people discuss politics, and I wish they could move away from purely emotional decisions and sound bites and actually listen and understand what the politicians are saying.

I hope Julia will fulfil her obvious potential. I think she can do very well, I hope she is allowed to, both by herself and by her party.

Thank you for this post, for expressing so eloquently and intelligently the state of things.