The fact is Malcolm Turnbull just doesn’t get that he made the election mess, by Rita Panahi.

HOW do you a turn a record primary vote and massive majority into a possible hung parliament and demoralising loss? You elect Malcolm Turnbull as your leader.

Duplicitous, arrogant and out of touch, the Prime Minister ran a terrible campaign that appalled conservatives, underwhelmed the Centre and amused the Left. …

Nationally, there’s been a record vote for independents and minor parties with about one in four Australians giving their first preference to candidates unconnected to Labor and the Coalition. The disillusionment among the electorate has seen a marked increase in the informal vote in some seats.

Let this be a lesson to parties of all persuasions: the base matters, as do principles. … Treating the conservative base with disdain, Turnbull refused to campaign on Abbott’s achievements and failed to effectively counter Labor’s Medicare scare campaign. …

Many of the anti-Abbott plotters have been defeated in what might be described as karma.

Turnbull has run the most woeful campaign since John Hewson snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in 1993. Hewson was at least campaigning to introduce the GST, a courageous move, while Turnbull decimated the Liberal’s primary vote not by scaring the masses with a new tax but by boring them rigid.

hat-tip David Archibald