This is the story on the front page of today’s Australian: Shock as Tony Abbott dumps Philip Ruddock as whip. And in this story, right there on the front page, we find this:

Queensland Liberal Andrew Laming described the decision as a “scapegoating of Goliath proportions’’. “This is just another example of the poor judgment of the Prime Minister,’’ he said.

Here, I’ll give you another, even worse example of poor judgment: to be found quoted on the front page of a major national newspaper criticising the Prime Minister and leader of your own party as he tries to find a way back to being re-elected, which if it can be done, might even include you.

As for the story itself, I’m not sure in any sense at all that it’s such a shock, since these sort of things happen all the time. Ruddock has been a brilliant Parliamentarian, he held off the boats and was an important member of the Howard Cabinet. He has been the Chief whip, and as it says in the story, part of this job is to be “the conduit between the leader and the backbench”. Maybe that’s been part of the problem, that he has not been doing his job well enough to keep the PM out of trouble from the likes of you.

But I do know this. The role of backbenchers is to support the government, not to find their way into the press to become one more problem the Prime Minister didn’t need. The problem here is not the PM. The problem here is you, and anyone else in the party who, like you, thinks such undisciplined comment does anyone other than the Labor Party any good. I would have written STFU but I’d rather be more polite. So I will only say, the next time you are worried about some decision by the PM, keep it to yourself or mention it to the new whip or in the party room perhaps. And the same goes for anyone else in the Parliamentary party who has the notion that the best way to reform the government is to spend more time in opposition.