‘Loose lips sink ships’ was the famous Second World War phrase which accurately warned of the dangers of allowing careless words to be spoken within earshot of potential spies or enemies. It’s a phrase that one might have thought Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne would have been familiar with; after all, it was he who managed to procure a lazy 50 billion hard-earned Aussie tax dollars for the twin purposes of protecting our naval vessels at some distant point in the future whilst shoring up his own South Australian seat in the present.

Carried away by his enthusiastic reception at the ‘Black Hand’ drinks at Sydney’s Cherry Bar, Mr Pyne bragged to the assembled throng of bedwetters, as the left wing of the Liberal Party are referred to these days, that ‘we are actually doing pretty well, we moderates, for you in Canberra.’

The twin themes of Mr Pyne’s self-indulgent speech were that plans to introduce same sex marriage through the back door were well under way, and that along with himself, his two colleagues Marise Payne and occasional Speccie columnist George Brandis had worked diligently ‘over the decades’ to prevent the Liberal party from ‘swinging to the right’. This had been achieved, apparently, by ‘vot(ing) for Malcolm Turnbull in every ballot he’s been in.’

Warming to his theme, Mr Pyne proclaimed: ‘Friends, we are in the winner’s circle but we have to deliver a couple of things and one of those we’ve got to deliver before too long is marriage equality in this country. We’re going to get it. I think it might even be sooner than everyone thinks. And your friends in Canberra are working on that outcome.’

Alas, one of Mr Pyne’s close ‘friends’ chose to leak a recording of the occasion to the Herald-Sun’s Andrew Bolt, who correctly spotted its incendiary meaning: that plans are afoot to break the Coalition’s commitment to a plebiscite on gay marriage in favour of some trickery to pull off a vote within parliament, and that – as conservatives have long suspected – the plan to destabilise and then replace Tony Abbott with Malcolm Turnbull had been in full operation at the highest levels of the Liberal party throughout Mr Abbott’s entire time as leader and Prime Minister. Politics is an ugly business. Personalities clash and ambition overtakes other priorities. But Mr Pyne’s bragging points to an absolute betrayal of the electorate – who gave ‘Team Abbott’ a landslide win in 2013 – by Mr Pyne and his cohorts.

Mr Pyne, however, has done more than just spell out his own disloyalty; he has belled the cat on the depth of the machinations designed to discredit Tony Abbott and Peta Credlin.

As we go to press, pundits are forecasting that Mr Pyne may be demoted to make way for more conservatives within the Turnbull Cabinet. This, however, misses the point.

Mr Pyne and his merry band of gay marriage connivers were merely the foot soldiers for the unquenchabe ambitions of Malcolm Turnbull. Indeed, the entire same sex marriage debate is merely the tip of the iceberg of the leftist agenda that has now been imposed on the nation by the ‘Turnbull Coalition Team’, from Gonski 2.0 to Finkel to the NDIS to the bank tax.

Sadly, the damage wrought by this left-wing marriage of connivance is far from over.

Until conservative principles take precedence once again over touchy-feely leftist fads within the broad church of the Liberal party, all Australians are the losers.

The great Aussie speech that never was

They’re off and running for this year’s Spectator Thawley Essay Prize, for which the creative theme is ‘The great Australian speech that never was.’ The winner will receive $5,000 plus a slap-up dinner with judges John Howard, Michael Thawley and Rowan Dean. This is the fourth year of the prize, and we urge all budding essayists to enter. Be funny, provocative, whimsical, factual, or outrageous. www.spectator.com.au/thawley