This is on the back of an exceptional performance by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and an unexpectedly awful performance in government by Labor.

Perhaps Birmingham thinks Dutton won’t win. Similar to Bill Shorten’s departure for greener pastures, based, it might be assumed, on his expectations in relation to Albo’s immediate electoral prospects.

UNCONGENIAL

Or perhaps Simon thinks Dutton will win, and the thought of serving in a genuinely centre-Right administration is just as uncongenial as being in perpetual opposition.

The thing about his valedictory speech most commented on was that the time allocated to it was longer than the time allowed for Senate debate on the egregious social media bill.

The book of Simon Birmingham’s achievements in public life is a bit like the book of Italian war heroes.

I really can’t remember any achievements. The things one remembers are all bad.

Like his insistence that we don’t have a proper inquiry into COVID policies. And his ongoing contributions to the Liberal Forum, a wets dinner group inhabited by people like lobbyist Michael Photios.

He was Education Minister for a time. For three years, under Malcolm Turnbull. Enough time to make some impact.

I don’t know what Birmingham thinks he achieved. Round about now, Australia is facing an education crisis.

Our universities are simply progressivist corporations whose primary role is to act as turnstiles for foreigners seeking visas and permanent residency.

Our schools turn out ignoramuses who believe in climate emergencies and fluid genders – and who lack the critical skills ever to realise that what they have been taught is tosh.

They cannot read, write or count.

Now, we cannot blame Birmingham for all this, but he did nothing constructive to begin reversing the direction of travel.

He was Leader of the Government in the Senate during COVID, and Minister for Finance too. On his watch, the Government stole nearly a trillion dollars from taxpayers to lock them all up during the plandemic.

He was at the table when the big, disastrous decisions were made. Birmo (to both his friends and enemies) has been a factional warrior, above all. From the Adelaide left.

He is a pal of Christopher Pyne, the mincing poodle (according to Julia Gillard), and a mortal enemy of the Adelaide good guys like Alex Antic.

Birmo and his factional colleagues have done all they could do to keep good people like Antic out of the Party.

Birmo is an example of everything that is wrong with the Liberal Party. He is a living example of a LINO. And they are embedded in just about every State division of the Party. They run most of the divisions.

Michelle Grattan stated that Birmingham was one of the “few remaining moderates in the Liberal Party”.

MYTH

This is a myth perpetuated by ageing Lefties to allow them to position the Liberal Party as “Right wing”. What planet are these people living on?

Birmo said: “I’ve always put the team first, as much as I possibly can, and that requires compromise at all times – and in the end, after a while, you start to tire of the compromise.”

Some of his opponents within the Party would beg to differ. Translate this as “I can’t always get my own Leftie way, and so I am taking my bat and ball and going home”.

He is a climate nut: “I wish we had better landed policies and direction around how Australia responds to climate change. It’s been the thread right throughout my career – of division and politicking.

“I think the biggest missed opportunity was probably the National Energy Guarantee, which Malcolm Turnbull and Josh Frydenberg came so very close to landing.”

Whatever that actually means. Liberal leftists find it difficult to speak plain English. I think he means that we haven’t gone far enough in destroying our economy and society in pursuit of a ludicrous fantasy.

He said he missed the companionship of what we might call Teal Liberals like Tim Wilson and Trent Zimmerman. They (mercifully) lost their seats at the last election.