One of the most alarming aspects of the Aston byelection defeat is that it exposed the Liberal Party’s flat-footedness in grasping that Australia’s demography has changed significantly.

The Liberals today are staffed top to toe with folk who learnt their politics during the golden Howard era, a time when the thinly veiled resentment of the country’s changing ethnic composition added fuel to its mono-cultural appeal based on standard bread-and-butter messages.