The marriage breakup between the Liberals and Nationals is predictably temporary if for no other reason than a shared awareness of mutually assured destruction.
While the Nationals know they can shop around the centre-right minor parties for a few extra percentage points, let’s face it, the Liberals aren’t going to have much luck organising preference deals with the Teals. This gives David Littleproud a slight edge at the negotiating table helped along by the worrying ‘we need to find ourselves’ rhetoric coming out of the Sussan Ley leadership.
Spare me the ‘it’s sensible to slowly soul search’ argument. A bit of policy debate is healthy. Admitting that the party leadership have no idea how to answer simple questions like, ‘What is a woman?’ without a focus group is an ideological catastrophe.
(By the way, are these mysterious focus groups comprised entirely of vested interests?)
In this ‘survival of the crappiest’ political landscape, there are a few exceptions who are defining themselves as future leaders by refusing to trundle along with the slow death of Australian conservatism.
Senator Matt Canavan is the strongest voice.
He had an interesting interview with Topher Field the other day.
First, he played down the panic surrounding the Coalition, pointing out that it has happened several times. ‘I don’t quite understand the haste right now,’ he said, indicating that the Shadow Ministry will be pretty irrelevant, even when they return to Parliament.
Oddly, the Shadow Cabinet seems to have been the force keeping Albanese together.
Without it, Labor are on a path of destruction.
While not mentioned, ‘absolute power’ has seen Treasurer Jim Chalmers make swift work of infuriating the wealthy who (for some reason) thought all that ‘steal from the rich’ talk was nonsense to lure the university vote. Surprise! They’re communists! Who knew, eh?
When Topher Field accused the Nationals of failing to live up to their regional commitments, Senator Canavan replied candidly:
‘I do feel that in the last term of Parliament, in particular, the Nationals Party turned down the volume on its voice, if you like, a little. We were explicitly told that we had to do that to help the Liberal Party win seats in the city. So the idea was, if we’re too voluble about our little issues, be it the Murray Darling, be it on energy policy, that could make it more difficult for the Liberals in the city.’
It is becoming more difficult to believe that city blue ribbon voters harbour any sort of negative intent towards their regional cousins.
Since when does someone living on the North Shore of Sydney care about a dam being built, or a new road, or some mobile infrastructure? Do city conservatives, who enjoy their five-star restaurants, really want to kill off a sizeable percentage of livestock so the price of food triples and their steaks come out of China? Really?
Teal voters might be a bit deluded, but even they are coming unstuck with Labor making unwanted advances against their retirement plans.
It is more believable that the city factions of the Liberal Party, whose donors and supporters stand to make a fortune in so-called ‘green’ industry, want the Nationals to shut up about the negative impacts of their lucrative business ventures.
The whispers coming out of the disaffected right factions, in all states, suggests that there is a sickness in the Liberal Party that has nothing to do with confusion over ideology. It appears to be a toxic mix of profiteering, jealousy, and control where even the slightest whiff of talent is snuffed out before anyone worthy can gain enough political power to sweep the spiders out of the party.
Returning to Senator Canavan. Their discussion shifted to the election failure built on capitulation to the soggy side of the Liberals.
‘Now, we followed that strategy,’ adds Senator Canavan, ‘and it didn’t work. Did it? At all…’
He then rightly points out that some of the best victories for the Coalition happened when the Nationals had a loud voice.
‘There’s a reason the media constantly don’t want us to fight the climate wars. That’s because when we fight the climate wars, we normally win them. And the media doesn’t want us to win. So maybe, just maybe, we should stop taking advice from people who do not want us to win.’
Which is good advice.
Who is the Liberal Party taking advice from?
Still, the Coalition is dancing around Net Zero. Net Zero underpins the economic monster of all things green. Without Net Zero and its 2030 and 2050 deadlines, there is no reason to pour the Treasury into the myriad of companies and activist lobbies soaking their feet in the scam.
‘I want to see Net Zero go,’ said Senator Canavan, without a shred of fear. ‘It’s destroying large parts of our country. We have already lost three industries in the first three years of Net Zero.’
No one told the Australian public that Net Zero would murder Australian industry. No one. Now even members of the Liberal Party brag about their plans to kill off parts of our agricultural heartland. They look rural families in they eye and say, We’re going to destroy you! And they do it from a position of superior morality because they’ve convinced the press that they are saving the planet with the bones of Australia’s farmers.
Given that fear about ‘what the climate will do to regional areas’ is a line dragged out in the city to tip voters over to Net Zero, they can’t have the Nationals shouting about Net Zero hurting farmers. It makes the whole political ideology look … ridiculous.
You think a flood is tough? That a drought is heartbreaking? These are nothing to compared to Net Zero which cannot be survived.
As for Labor, they don’t care. They’ll use public money to bribe university students into voting for them and threaten everyone else already living off the public purse. Morality means nothing to them.
‘Some of my colleagues, not myself, but some of my colleagues felt somewhat bullied and in the Nationals Party case, bribed, to adopt this Net Zero stance. The idea was that we had to do that to guarantee a competitive position at an election in a political context.’
Although Senator Canavan seemed to very much doubt the validity of continuing to repeat the same mistake. He would prefer the Coalition to take a fighting position for the people of Australia.
He has a point. How hard can it be to fight against Net Zero when even the koala bear hugging Greens Party said nothing as koalas were killed for renewable energy?
I have said it before, but the scope for the right to take over the entire market of environmentalism, evacuated by the Greens, is huge. Especially when Labor is using taxpayer money to fund the bulldozers.
In the same way Greens voters reside in the innermost city suburbs, most of the wet Liberals, who talk about how much they love the small business community, are either public service lifers or part of the hedge fund and law firm ecosystem.
Both support an ideology that benefits them, not the needs of their voters. Usually this means drafting policy at the expense of their voters.
The Coalition are set to kick the Net Zero can down the road and repair their relationship with the sticky-tape of less controversial issues.
Observers know this is doomed to fail, because Net Zero is the topic that must be resolved before any election-worthy relationship can be formed.
They might as well have it out now, or risk prolonging the injury.
Flat White is written by Alexandra Marshall. If you would like to support her work, shout her a coffee over at donor-box.
