We Asked Documentary Filmmaker Eva Orner for Her Thoughts on Libspill Two

What was supposed to be a quiet afternoon in the edit for Asylum, my new film tackling Australia's appalling treatment of refugees, has instead turned into an afternoon glued to my twitter feed, unable to look away from the car crash that is #libspill2.

Australia, what happened to you in the ten years I was away?

It used to be that when we voted, our Prime Minister stayed in office until the next election (unless of course you were Gough Whitlam, but that was a once in a life time event, right?)

I remember with a wry grin how we used to laugh at the political instability of tin-pot countries like Italy and Argentina. But who's laughing now?

Tomorrow we will likely have our fourth Prime Minister in 2.5 years. We have Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd to thank for this. And also for what will likely be a long future of instability and tepid, frightened leadership. How can our leaders be anything but slaves to the media and the party line? Stray too far and you will be challenged, and by end of the day, you will be out. Eliminated from a sad reality show. How are our leaders ever going to do anything hard or unpopular for fear they may be voted off the island? If this were wartime we'd be having leadership spills every 10 minutes.

But at the end of the day does it really make much of a difference who emerges victorious tomorrow? Both major parties are almost interchangeably conservative. Sure Abbott is a buffoon of epic proportions and Turnball offers a more eloquent, diplomatic and sophisticated alternative (and isn't a climate change denier!), but will it really make any difference? Our dollar is sinking and our human rights reputation is in tatters. We are the laughing stock of our region and unashamed suck-holes and copycats to the US and their policies.

Of course on the sidelines Morrison and Bishop will be chomping at the bit and dreaming of making their own runs for the leadership. But why even bother campaigning anymore when you can just instigate #libspill3, 4 or 5?

The big loser yet again is Bill Shorten who has managed to agree more with the current governments policies than disagree, which begs the question, why is he opposition leader? As an opposition leader he has been a failure of epic proportions. According to my twitter feed Mr Shorten has just given a press conference, which seems completely pointless. Why can't he just sit back and watch the car crash unfold in front of him like the rest of us? Preferably with his mouth firmly shut.

I can't believe I'm typing this, because I rather despise him and his politics, but I'm sort of with former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett on this one. He has won the internet today with his stream of vitriolic 'call it like it is' tweets. My favorite: "@Turnballmalcolm: This is an act of an egoist. He is without doubt the Kevin Rudd of the Liberal Party. #libspill" Ouch!

As for the fate of those locked away on Nauru and Manus, sadly nothing will change with new leadership. Malcolm Turnball has made it quite clear. He will keep Manus and Nauru in operation. He will continue to "stop the boats." Meanwhile we will continue to be a nation that seems comfortable committing human rights abuses, defies the Refugee Convention—of which we are a signatory, and locks away children indefinitely.

I hear Kevin Rudd is pursuing an Ambassador gig at the United Nations.That's right, the man who reopened the gulags at Manus and Nauru in a cynical bid to retain his leadership; centres where child abuse, rape and murder occurred unchecked, thinks he is worthy to represent us at the UN. And who knows, he may even swing it. Which just goes to show that there is always life after politics for our former PMs. And with Tony Abbott's history of misogyny and butt-slapping leeriness as well as his experience as Australia's most pre-eminent Minister for Women maybe his fellow #spillvictim Kevin07 can put in a good word for him at the UN—they must be screaming out for an Ambassador for Women with a CV as impressive as Mr Abbott's.

Eva Orner is an Australian Academy and Emmy Award winning documentary producer and director based in Los Angeles. Follow her on Twitter