Angus Taylor, Andrew Hastie, James Paterson and that other guy. The self-appointed saviours of the modern Liberal Party – straight out of Australia in 1950s, if it had an even stronger penchant for reliance on great and powerful friends, a greater skepticism for democracy, no confidence in the emerging rules-based order, and no appetite for national reconstruction. Is this the best they can do? Robert Menzies legacy? He must be spinning faster than a rotisserie chicken in the Woolworths hot food section.
For an added frisson there’s Tony Abbott and a recently disinterred John Howard. Scomo too, keeping to the sidelines, because no-one anywhere can really stand him, but sticking his oar in nonetheless. Just like Tony Abbott really. Where would he be without CPAC?
The Liberal Party has obviously got problems. Labor does as well, but not to the same degree. With the Libs, no vision, no ambition, eyes firmly focused on a rose coloured rear-view mirror where certain kinds of men were masters of the universe, if only because the universe was rigged – NSW rugby league before State of Origin.
This is not a party that has anything useful to say to women, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, brown people, nonbinary people, LGBTIQ+ people, young people without the bank of Mum and Dad, migrants or their children, or anyone exposed to climate change, AI, the collapsing global order, the renewable energies transition, or the breakdown of regional and working class communities. They can’t even discipline themselves, with a yawning chasm between putative leaders’ personal ambition and their personal competence. A gap that’s just getting wider.
Is this the best they can do?
