Two irreconcilable views of the ideological position of the Turnbull government are now in circulation. They can't both be right.
One view, held by those who once had high hopes that Malcolm Turnbull would lead a small l liberal government, is that the Coalition clearly is a conservative government. Its conservativism is demonstrated by its words and deeds on matters like renewable energy, climate change and asylum seekers and refugees.
This state of affairs is generally put down to various factors, but largely to the internal dynamics of the government. The first part of any explanation is that Turnbull is beholden to conservative forces within the Liberal Party, including Cabinet members like Peter Dutton and past ministers like Tony Abbott, Eric Abetz and Kevin Andrews.
The second element is that the Coalition agreement delivers influence over the Liberals to the more conservative Nationals, led by Barnaby Joyce and including outspoken backbenchers like Queenslander George Christensen.
The second proposition, advanced by South Australian Senator Cory Bernardi when he deserted the ship to form the Australian Conservatives, is that the Turnbull government is not conservative enough, maybe not even conservative at all.
Former Prime Minister, Abbott, is now using this second position to advance his destabilisation of the government. Abbott went so far in his latest contribution to claim that the government was 'Labor Lite'.
This throwaway epithet could mean just about anything but was probably meant to mean that the government was too centrist and coming too close to Labor in search of the middle ground. It was certainly not meant as a compliment. Abbott wants the government to turn further to the right.
Flowing on from this chasm between different views are conflicting interpretations of why the Turnbull government is struggling, trailing Labor in the Newspoll by 55:45.
"What Abbott misses entirely in his denunciation of the Turnbull government is the characteristic tone of modern politics with which he himself is most identified since his time as Opposition leader."
In short, Bernardi and Abbott attribute this unpopularity to the government not being conservative enough. For them the greatest danger for the government is that it is losing ground on the right, exemplified by the growth of One Nation at and since the last election.
Whereas commentators in general argue that the government's unpopularity flows not especially from this but either from it being too conservative over several popular issues, including same sex marriage as well as those mentioned above, or