Liberal leadership crisis: Julie Bishop to enter race, challenging Peter Dutton and Scott Morrison

Liberal senator Linda Reynolds has blasted her own party, saying she is "deeply saddened and distressed" by this week's events and does not condone what has occurred.

"I do not recognise my party at the moment. I do not recognise the values. I do not recognise the bullying and intimidation that has gone on," Reynolds said in a speech to the Senate a short while ago.

"And I hope – I hope – that whatever happens tomorrow after midday that we can find a way to get back together again, because it is not just the leader, the Prime Minister, it is all of us in our team who has been such a successful government. We have delivered for this country. And up until now, we have been a united and a very effective party. So, I would just conclude, Mr Acting Deputy President, whatever happens tomorrow, this is a sad day for my party and for our nation."

Labor's no confidence motion in the Senate has failed. Most crossbenchers sided with the government, meaning it was vote down 35 to 31.

Having declared its CEO unfit to lead, Australia's self-proclaimed "business" party is now trading while politically insolvent, its legitimacy squandered and its stock price slashed to junk status.

A pernicious culture of careerism and entitlement has consumed its agenda elevating personal ambition, revenge, and mendacity over orderly process, and respect for the national interest.

It is, to borrow from Scott Morrison's recent warning about high tax levels, "like a snake eating itself from the tail ... an ugly and grotesque image".

Malcolm Turnbull, the man Liberals told voters hand-on-heart was the best option as prime minister in the 2016 election, is being torn down with not a moment's regard for that public contract.

Nor for that matter, the maintenance of confidence in the institutions of governance.

Most pointedly, these brutal acts have been unleashed in Canberra without their authors feeling any burden of explanation in the public realm. The rationale, such as it has been outlined, is almost entirely internal.

Read the full piece here.

Fairfax Media has confirmed Foreign Minister and deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop is sounding out support for a leadership bid.

If Bishop commits and nominates in a spill, it will become a three-horse race between Bishop, Peter Dutton and Scott Morrison.

Bishop has been deputy leader of the Liberal Party since late 2007, surviving in the position under leaders Brendan Nelson, Malcolm Turnbull 1.0, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull 2.0. She has considered entering previous contests for the top job but never committed. Is she willing to dive in this time?

She has one thing Dutton and Morrison don't: strong popularity among the public. Opinion polls consistently rate her and Turnbull as by far the most preferred options for Liberal leader while Dutton and Morrison languish far behind. She is also a strong performer as Foreign Minister and has proven herself a valuable fundraiser and campaigner in electorates across the country. However, some Liberal MPs are wary of her record on domestic policy issues.

A reminder that Malcolm Turnbull won't be a contender in a spill because he has committed to quitting in the event a majority of MPs want to hold the vote.

In 1993, as he neared the end of his professional tennis career, Brad Gilbert wrote a book that became a surprise hit. It was called Winning Ugly, and gave amateur players tips on how to win more matches - not by improving their strokes but by mastering the art of "mental warfare". The lesson: you don't have to be flashy, or even particularly talented, if you know how to dismantle your opponent's game.

Tony Abbott's main sporting passions have been boxing and rugby union, not tennis, but this week he again demonstrated his unmatched ability to win ugly.

Abbott won't reclaim the prime ministership he lost in 2015 – at least not yet. But has already emerged from this week's chaos as a guaranteed victor. His tactics were unsightly and deeply unpopular with most of his colleagues, but Abbott succeeded at tearing down both a prime minister and a carefully-designed policy on climate change. Again.

Read the full piece here. 

Former Labor prime minister Julia Gillard has predicted the looming federal election will be an "ugly" one fought on issues of race and law enforcement.

At an event at RMIT in Melbourne, asked what she thought about a rise in divisive rhetoric in politics, Gillard said: "I think we could be heading for a federal election that will be quite ugly on questions of race. There's been no secret made that there will be campaigning on law and order questions, putting into the forefront people's race and ethnicity, rather than the crime.

"It's incumbent on all of us when emotions get worked up around those things, to be voices of reason.

"We will be quoting the statistics when others are actually using the slogans, but over time, I believe ... people are persuaded by reasonable things."

Ms Gillard was also asked what advice she would give to Peter Dutton.

"Make sure you eat some veggies, get some sunlight, it's very easy to be in Parliament House for days at at a time and not get outside," she quipped.

"On political tactics, no, I wouldn't presume to know enough about the internal things in the Liberal Party to give anybody any advice about what to do next."

Gillard held her cards close to her chest about who she believed would be the next Coalition leader, but she intimated that she didn't think Turnbull's chances looked good.

When shown an old image of her sitting next to Turnbull, Gillard was asked to give her first, quick response and she said: "Maybe when I run into him somewhere, we will be assuming that body posture again. I do look a bit consoling."

An image of Peter Dutton's shadowed face that has triggered comparisons with Darth Vader, prompted this from Gillard: "Something tells me that we will be seeing a bit of that photo in the future."

Labor Senate leader Penny Wong has moved a no confidence motion . 

This is the full motion:

That—the Senate:

(a) has no confidence in the Government;

(b) notes that the Government can change its leader, but it can never unite its party; and

(c) calls on whoever is the Prime Minister to visit the Governor-General by no later than 5 pm today to call an election immediately, so the people can decide who runs this country.

The government has been forced to front up to a farcical Question Time in the Senate, with a frontbench massively depleted by a raft of resignations.

The Coalition senators who have quit their frontbench positions are: Mathias Cormann, Mitch Fifield, Michaelia Cash, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, James McGrath and Zed Seselja.

Their seats have been temporarily filled by a slew of unlikely backbenchers including John "Wacka" Williams, Barry O'Sullivan and Steve Martin. 

Here's a selection of the the Labor questions Simon Birmingham, apparently elevated to the role of government leader in the Senate, has been fielding:

• "Who leads the government in this chamber?"
• "My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister whoever that may be. Who is the Prime Minister of Australia?"
• "After five years of dysfunction and after adjourning the House of Representatives to avoid public scrutiny of this broken government, when will the Prime Minister, whoever that may be, let the Australian people cast their judgement by going to an election?"

Birmingham, it has to be said, it is doing an admirable job of dealing with a clearly terrible situation.