Liberals were approached to sign up to the new group, called the Monash Forum, in the last few days of federal parliament before the Easter break. All they saw was a single sheet of A4 paper with some vague principles on energy policy and an impressive picture of one of Australia’s greatest military leaders. To some, this was merely a new name for an old social group whose membership included Tony Abbott, Eric Abetz and Kevin Andrews – the AAA club who bear a grudge against Turnbull. The group has been around in one form or another for almost three years, ever since they started having lunch in the “monkey pod” room in the ministerial wing of Parliament House. Turning the monkey pod into the Monash Forum obviously looked like brilliant branding to Andrews, the former defence minister who came up with the new name. It is telling that none of the AAA club could see anything phoney about taking the name of a national hero, admired on all sides, for a small and highly partisan group on one side of politics. All they created was a Potemkin village of coal power agitators – all facade, no substance. It is hard to be sure which of them looks like the biggest Potemkin village idiot. Members of the Monash Forum include Craig Kelly, Eric Abetz, Tony Abbott, Barnaby Joyce and Kevin Andrews. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

It is telling that so few of the Monash members within the Liberal Party have been willing to declare their status. Abbott, Abetz and Andrews are joined by two definite signatories: Goodenough from Western Australia and Craig Kelly from Sydney's south. The Nationals members include Barnaby Joyce and George Christensen. Other names have been aired but the MPs have not confirmed their membership, so they will not be named here. (Several declined to return phone calls.) Speculating about names is just one of the ways this puff of smoke is made out to be a steam train of dissent. The tally amounts to just five confirmed Liberal MPs out of a party room of 85 Liberals. If there are more, it is time they outed themselves. Most of them may never do so now that the flimsiness of the whole exercise is so obvious. Loading It is also revealing that conservative Liberals shunned the group when they were approached. Those who did not sign in the Senate included Slade Brockman, Jonathon Duniam, James Paterson and Amanda Stoker. Conservatives in the lower house, such as Andrew Hastie, also declined to sign.

The naming of the group was an exercise in the most dismal cynicism. Monash is about to be celebrated with the opening of a museum built in his honour outside Villers-Bretonneux, where he led Australian and other troops to victories that helped end World War I. Turnbull will open the centre on Anzac Day, but Abbott made the key decisions to get it funded and built. The contest to “own” Monash is just another aspect of a squabble that poisons the Liberal Party. No wonder the RSL and the Monash family want Andrews to drop the name. The Monash Forum letter. None of this would have mattered so much without Peta Credlin stepping in to run the insurrection. Word of the forum reached some journalists over the Easter weekend but it was Credlin’s program on Sky News on Monday night that really intensified the sense of leadership drama for Turnbull. Credlin was agent and observer all at once. It is a dual role that nobody dares to call out when they go on her show. In one moment she was urging the conservatives forward, in another she was pretending to be a journalist asking questions.

Who does this fool any more? Credlin and Andrew Bolt were encouraged last November to “spread the word” about an anonymous MP who would quit the Coalition over Turnbull’s leadership Peta Credlin. Credit:Rohan Thomson. The pantomime only lasted until Nationals MP George Christensen confirmed he was the MP – and then declared he would not quit after all. Julius Caesar had a way to describe this charade: men willingly believe what they wish. There is no end to the breathless encouragement of a backbench rebellion that Credlin and others so badly want to be true. The reality is that this latest escapade has divided the conservatives rather than brought them together. Younger Liberals are angry at the way their names have been tossed around. Some have complained directly to Abbott, Abetz or Andrews.

Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video “Some are feeling very aggrieved that their names have been taken in vain and they’ve been verballed,” says one Liberal, diplomatically. “It doesn’t engender goodwill.” Older conservatives are still consumed by hatred over the leadership spill of 2015, but younger ones do not carry that baggage. Yes, Turnbull is in trouble. Yes, he lacks a compelling answer to why he should escape the “30 Newspolls in a row” benchmark that he applied to Abbott. Yes, there are moderate and conservative MPs who sound resigned to defeat. But that is very different to dreaming that Abbott can lead a rebellion. The younger conservatives are learning to avoid the old club. They know that linking a debate to Abbott is a sure way to set up a leadership test they do not want. It makes a genuine policy discussion impossible. Some feel tricked by the tactics of the past week.