Alan Jones: The term ‘major parties’ is becoming one big lie

Craig Kelly departure from the Liberal party is just the latest in a long line of examples of silencing dissent, which leaves the party - and the country - worse off, writes Alan Jones.

Craig Kelly has now decided that the only way he can be free to act and speak according to his conscience is to resign from the Liberal Party.

The smokescreen has been thrown up that this is about a staffer’s behaviour.

That is a red herring.

There are wider issues at play here, beyond Craig Kelly.

Cory Bernardi is one of the most outstanding people I have met in public life, talented on many fronts.

Craig Kelly on the crossbenches during Question Time. Picture: Sam Mooy/Getty Images

When he, too, resigned from the Liberal Party in 2017 after, “A membership spanning my entire adult life, having been a State President and Federal Vice-President of the Party…” he said, “The level of public disenchantment with the major parties, the lack of confidence in our political process and the concern about the direction of our nation are very strong. This is a direct product of us, the political class, being out of touch with the hopes and aspirations of the Australian people… I have spoken of the need to restore faith in our political system and to put principle back into politics. I regret that those warnings have been ignored by those who perhaps needed to hear them most.”

It will be easy to argue the latest episode is all about a recalcitrant Craig Kelly, but, in essence, it is about the Liberal Party.

Concetta Fierravanti-Wells will be dumped by the Liberal Party from her spot on the NSW Senate ticket.

She was the Minister for International Development and the Pacific in the Turnbull Government.

Concetta Fierravanti-Wells was dumped from the Turnbull ministry after raising concerns over China. Picture Kym Smith

Everyone is now jumping up and down about Chinese expansionism.

She identified the problem in 2018 – silenced.

She wrote to the then Prime Minister Turnbull tendering her resignation from the Ministry, saying, “I was disappointed that my frank and forthright comments regarding China were critcised. I am pleased that the subsequent events and media scrutiny have fully vindicated me raising these concerns.”

You don’t need debate when you silence or punish those who intellectually and ideologically disagree.

Ask Craig Kelly.

But the public are a wake up.

At the last Federal Election 59% of voters refused to vote for the Coalition and 66% refused to vote for the Labor Party.

And these are called the major parties.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison led the Liberal Party to just under 28 per cent of the primary vote. Picture: Sam Mooy/Getty Images

It is increasingly an abuse of the term.

To break the figures down even further, at the last federal election, the Liberal Party received 27.9% of the primary vote.

Witness, in the week that Craig Kelly resigns from the Liberal Party, the Prime Minister could only establish that something grievous had occurred in the Parliament to a political staffer, by talking to his wife.

And if, as he said, he knew nothing about it till two years after the event, is this a new definition of dysfunctionality?

The reality is something is seriously wrong.

There is not a person with any common sense who would argue that Michael McCormack was a leader, let alone the best person to lead the National Party.

Those opposing Nationals leader Michael McCormack’s leadership have been silenced. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

But because he was challenged, those who mounted the challenge are backbenched and silenced.

People are not stupid; they are just treated as if they are.

The figures don’t lie.

Look around Australia, there is not much joy for the Liberal Party.

In South Australia, the Party has gone into minority government with all sorts of scandals involving rorting the taxpayer.

In Western Australia, the Liberal Party is set to be obliterated, to the point where, according to the polls, they may win only two seats out of 59 at the State Election on March 13.

But how do the WA Liberals compare with the Victorian crowd, under the invisible leadership of Michael O’Brien?

As the cliche says, Victoria was once the jewel in the Liberal crown.

Daniel Andrews has been responsible for a bungled hotel quarantine system, locking Victorians up for 112 days, stripping away their rights and freedoms and over 800 Victorians dead.

Victorian Premier Dan Andrews has presided over a COVID-19 mess. Picture : NCA NewsWire / Ian Currie

In response to this mess, the Liberals give every outward impression of presiding over a Party full of deadwood.

The same happened in Queensland last year with the LNP.

Senior people were telling me, a week out from the Queensland State Election, that the LNP were set to win 10 to 15 seats.

Dreamers.

But while the Liberal edifice is collapsing, there are alternative voices on hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, vaccination, energy policy, the response to coronavirus, all ignored or silenced.

So-called leadership carries on as if they were modern day potentates.

Listen to the science we are told.

But Craig Kelly was sent to the dog kennel for doing just that.

Professor Gotzsche, the Danish physician and researcher, said in December last year, “The infection fatality rate seems to be about the same as for influenza, but we have never introduced these drastic measures before when we had influenza pandemics and we cannot live with them for years to come.”

West Australian Labor Premier Mark McGowan looks set to be easily re-elected. Picture: NCA NewsWire /Philip Gostelow

The Liberal party is losing relevance as a major party due to silencing it’s own members like Craig Kelly - who has left the party like Cory Bernadi before him and joined the cross bench.

The same Professor Gotzsche, as recently as December, in reflecting on the violation of many Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UNICEF Convention on the Rights of the Child wrote, “When the State knows best and violates human rights, we are on a dangerous course. The pandemic has led to the violation of basic human rights… there has not been the slightest ethical analysis of whether this is justified. It is not.”

Dr Angers Tegnell, Sweden’s Chief Epidemiologist said in June last year, “The world went mad (with coronavirus lockdowns) which fly in the face ofwhat is known about handling virus pandemics.”

Professors Carl Heneghan and Tom Jefferson, in June last year argued, “There is no scientific evidence to support the disastrous two metre rule. Poor quality research is being used to justify a policy with enormous consequences for all.”

Senator Cory Bernardi gets emotional while delivering his valedictory speech in the Senate. Picture Kym Smith

This is all relevant to the resignation from the Liberal Party of people like Craig Kelly, and before him, Cory Bernardi.

The voting public will not stand idly by and be silenced.

They only get one voice; it is at the ballot box.

The Coalition Government now have no majority in the Federal Parliament.

It is not a mystery as to why.

No Government will win public support by seeking to silence those with whom it disagrees.

If Craig Kelly and Cory Bernardi believe that people in Government won’t listen to dissenting voices, then the voting public are left with one conclusion, why would Government listen to them?

And, quite frankly, Government doesn’t.

Best summed up by one viewer who text me, “Good on Kelly. About time someone stood up. Hope some more buy a spine, none have one.”