Talk about exquisitely bad timing. On Friday, the federal Liberal Party’s latest leadership spill – a mere nine months after the last one – showed the ability of the members of the federal parliamentary party to lose their heads when all about were keeping theirs.

The result, as history recorded, was Angus Taylor defeating leader Sussan Ley 34-17.

That was all happening in the morning. But while the shell-shocked members said goodbye to the party’s first federal female leader, an email plopped into their inboxes from party president John Olsen, a former premier of South Australia. He had other things on his mind.

Not, as party insiders might expect, the release of the post-mortem into the Liberals’ disastrous 2025 federal election campaign which has sat in the vault for a long time.

“This year we mark the 30th anniversary of the election of the Howard government, a defining moment in Australian history,” the email, possibly written by someone else, said.

“Over eleven and a half years in office they delivered reforms that made Australia a stronger, more prouder and more prosperous nation.

“In celebration of this milestone, I am pleased to invite you and your guests to the 30th Anniversary Dinner of the Howard Government.”

We reached out to Liberal HQ to ask if they had queued up the email ahead of time but they assured it was sent live.

“No, the party room meeting had concluded that morning. We are keen for as many Liberal supporters as possible to attend this important milestone event,” they told us.

It can’t be just us to note the irony of the Libs announcing a massive nostalgia kick on the day the party had once again been tearing itself apart over leadership. Just as it had in 2008 (Nelson versus Turnbull), 2009 (Turnbull v Abbott), 2015 (Abbott v Turnbull), 2018 (Turnbull v Morrison), and last year (Ley v Taylor). Apologies if we missed anyone out.

The dinner will be held on March 13, pretty close to the March 2, 1996, election day when Howard swept the Coalition to a 45-seat majority. Those were the days.

https://www.smh.com.au/cbd/just-hours-after-sussan-ley-was-felled-the-liberals-were-planning-a-howard-dinner-party-20260217-p5o32d.html

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