Sky News host Laura Jayes says widespread criticism of Scott Morrison's comments on International Women's Day is “part of the outrage machine”.

COMMENT

The Coalition has now lost 50 Newspolls in a row — 11 under the stewardship of Scott Morrison. Malcolm Turnbull lost 39, for those of you playing at home.

It’s not exactly auspicious timing, must I remind you, with an election just two months away.

Voters are not listening, and even if they are, they are not liking what they’re hearing.

There is now an eight-point gap in the vote after preferences. On these numbers the Labor Party would win 54 per cent of the vote, with the Coalition lagging behind on 46 per cent.

If the swing were uniform it would mean an election wipe-out of 18 seats.

Why is the government’s position so dire?

Allow me to lay out a few reasons, from just the last fortnight, in no particular order.

THE WOMAN PROBLEM

Friday was International Women’s Day, but we essentially had a whole week dedicated to discussion and debate on the plight of women in the workplace and in politics.

In both of those arenas, Julie Bishop has become the unofficial mentor. At women’s events around the country she was treated as a queen. A symbol, a living example of what thousands of women have experienced in their own workplaces.

The women turning up to these events were businesswomen, well-paid and highly educated. You would think them the natural constituency of the Liberal Party.

Not anymore. For them it’s personal. Fairly or not, female voters see Ms Bishop’s battle as their own.

RELATED: Julie Bishop reveals how male colleagues treated her

Ms Bishop didn’t use these IWD events to campaign for the Liberal vote. Her very presence had quite the opposite affect.

But I guess she has shown as much loyalty to the Liberal Party as they showed her in the dying days of the Turnbull government.

Then there was Scott Morrison’s speech on IWD, during which he controversially told the crowd: “We don’t want to see women rise only on the basis of others doing worse.”

It wasn’t great timing, but calm the outrage please.

He’s not Germaine Greer. He is the Prime Minister. His job is to govern for all, which means governing for both men and women.

Gender equality is among the most important movements of our time, but from time to time it wouldn’t be such a bad thing to remind our brothers, fathers, husbands and sons that we don’t hate them or wish to tear them down.

All I’m saying is the movement should be inclusive.

THE EXODUS

Christopher Pyne and Steven Ciobo recently became the latest ministers to announce they’d had enough of politics.

The pair are leaving Parliament after a collective 40 years. And while both insist the Coalition can win without them, neither provided any empirical evidence to back up that wild claim.

RELATED: Two more senior ministers to quit at election

Save for among their own constituents, in Adelaide and on the Gold Coast, Mr Pyne and Mr Ciobo will be missed less for their public profiles than for the corporate knowledge they take with them.

Resignations are always untimely, but it’s hard for the Government to convince people not to give up on them when longtime Liberal MPs are doing just that.

THE DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Voters probably didn’t even know who he was until this week. Now they do, because Nationals leader Michael McCormack just jumped so far over the shark that Fonzie would be rolling in his grave.

He is the guy who warned Labor’s energy policy would lead to the great Australian pastime of Friday night footy ending. Big Bash cricket under the lights after 7pm? That will be gone too.

RELATED: ‘Forget night footy, forget night cricket’

Channelling the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld, he added that Bill Shorten was “nuts” and living in “fairyland” by pursuing a 45 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030.

Mr McCormack’s own colleagues are so frustrated with him that they are already looking beyond him, openly musing about who the next leader might be.

There’s little appetite for dumping him before the election. Post-election, he is highly likely to be removed at the first opportunity.

TONY ABBOTT

A most principled weathervane.

Mr Abbott capped off last week with a mercy dash to save his own seat, Warringah.

Proving consistently inconsistent on his support for — or opposition to — the Paris climate agreement, Mr Abbott firmly stated his third different position on the issue, with a straight face no less.

Here is the long and the short of it. Mr Abbott supported the Paris agreement when he was prime minister. He then vehemently opposed it when Malcolm Turnbull took over. And now he suddenly supports it again, because his nemesis Mr Turnbull has been dumped.

Voters will be displeased with energy policy being used as a tool with which to roll prime ministers when policy paralysis produces an increase in both emissions and power prices.

This latest iteration of Mr Abbott’s core belief is a sure sign that internal polling is mirroring public polling — and showing Zali Steggall is a serious threat.

Laura Jayes co-hosts First Edition and AM Agenda with Kieran Gilbert weekdays from 5am on Sky News | @ljayes