Is this really true?

Bishop said: “I won’t die wondering like Peter Costello.”

That is, she won’t die wondering whether she could have knocked over Tony Abbott and become PM, the way that Peter Costello might now be wondering whether he ought to have tried to take on John Howard before the 2007 election.

If she really did say this, she is even more deluded and destructive than I might ever have thought possible.

Peter did not challenge because it would have split the party and turned a probable defeat into a certainty. It was the action of someone who put principle over personal ambition. But this was also after having become the greatest Treasurer in Australian history, leading us not just to years of strong growth where not only did Australia, year after year, record the only surplus economy in the world but was the only economy I can think of ever that had absolutely zero debt.

Meanwhile, Julie Bishop remains a person thus far of limited political accomplishment so far as I can see. On what she personally stands for, I remain at a loss. You should google, “Julie Bishop Islamic State” and then do the same for Tony Abbott. If she stands for anything, I haven’t worked out what it is.