Credlin: It’s time to reclaim the Libs for true blue believers
Both sides of politics are plagued by people who are “operators” rather than “believers”, and the only way to save the Liberal Party is for members to take back control, writes Peta Credlin.
Opinion
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The ABC’s three-part TV series Nemesis that documented the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison governments wrapped up last week and the overwhelming emotion I felt was sadness that a Liberal Party, elected with such promise in a landslide win in 2013, ended as badly as it did.
But what idiot thought it would be different once they went down the path of Labor with its revolving door prime ministerships and internal brawling that was always more about personal advancement and ego than it was about the Australian people?
Like Tony Abbott, I declined to appear in the series because it was always going to be an ABC hit-job on conservatives. And it was. It was always going to try to rehabilitate Malcolm Turnbull as someone who could have a better PM than he turned out to be, because ‘poor Malcolm’ never really got his chance to shine. And they really did try.
But what I didn’t expect was just how badly most of those who did appear on screen came across; how much their backbiting diminished them as they all lined up on screen to exult about their political cannibalism. And not a word of apology to Liberal Party supporters, or the electorate, for doing what they did, and for getting it so wrong.
The problem with programs of this type, with all the participants encouraged to dump on their former colleagues, is the general contempt they breed for MPs and the disdain they foster for public life. The more we encourage this sort of ‘journalism’, the worse off we will be as a democracy because we will end up with branch-stacking, low-ability apparatchiks in parliament and very few people of talent.
I used to say when people asked me ‘what’s Canberra really like’ that it was still a place where the bulk of politicians – on both sides – did it for all the right reasons; that most could have done anything else with their lives, but believed in public service, so took on one of the toughest roles there is.
That was certainly true when I first started working in Parliament House in 1999. I am not convinced that’s true today. In the end, the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison years were a dreadful disappointment because a government that should have been as good as John Howard’s turned out to be on a par with Malcolm Fraser’s, more Labor-lite than distinctively Liberal, at least once Abbott had gone.
But, it should be stressed, there were achievements.
Under Abbott, the illegal boats were stopped, which no other government anywhere in the world has matched; the carbon tax and mining tax were repealed; trade deals were done; a massive infrastructure catch-up commenced; and national security was in very strong hands.
Under Morrison, our most important military partnerships were vastly strengthened via AUKUS, even if he panicked during the pandemic with over-the-top spending and restrictions (not to mention the sheer craziness of swearing himself into five portfolios behind everyone’s back). And before he blew himself up by trying to implement a Labor plan as a Liberal energy policy. Even Turnbull had the sense to put the issue of same-sex marriage to the people, not just MPs, for their say.
As we now look at the Albanese government, halfway through its first term, its report-card makes even the Turnbull era look better by comparison. What a sorry record of failure: incompetent ministers, a PM that is making deceit an art form, the neglect of our borders and national defences, the destruction of our energy security, a bitter attempt to divide our country by race, uncontrolled spending, the diminishing of Australia Day, flooding the country with migrants we can’t house, and releasing foreign criminals from jail.
Still, after watching all three episodes, it was hard not to be despondent for my party and for our country; and for the individuals at that time who were trying to do their job rather than plot their own personal advancement.
To the ABC’s credit, the material they put to air brutally exposed Turnbull’s brazen treachery, his sense of entitlement, and double standards as he was still apoplectic on camera about his own political execution but conveniently forgot that was exactly how he got the PM’s job in the first place.
And another revelation too; the gulf between the “daggy dad”, “serious Christian” persona that Scott Morrison presented to the public and the Machiavellian schemer who used Peter Dutton’s votes to get rid of Turnbull, and then used Turnbull’s votes to make himself PM.
Sadly, both sides of politics are now plagued by people who are “operators” rather than “believers”; whose principles seem determined by what’s most personally convenient at the time rather than deeply held convictions based on values. In the Liberal Party, this has been exacerbated by the factionalism we seem to have imported from Labor and the faceless operators who don’t have a seat in parliament but control dozens of MPs who do, for access, power and commercial gain.
So I say to all those party members who have contacted me in recent weeks, angry again at what they’ve seen playout in the Nemesis series, you ARE the Liberal Party. And only you can take back control.
GREEN MADNESS LEADS US DOWN BLACKOUTS PATH
What caused the blackout that left over half a million Victorian homes without power, six commuter train lines shut down, and put traffic lights out all over Melbourne? Was it a freak storm that could never have been anticipated; or was it the emissions obsession that’s closing down reliable fossil fuel power in favour of electricity that only works when the wind blows and the sun shines?
Naturally, if you believe the Victorian Labor government, it was an act of God. But if the Victorian Chamber of Commerce is right, it’s an increasingly fragile power system that’s putting reliability down, prices up and driving businesses out of the state.
Based on reported timelines, it was just after 2pm last Tuesday that major power lines went down in a storm. Shortly after that, as demand far exceeded supply, wholesale power prices in Victoria soared to over $16,000 a megawatt hour (a mere $60 in Queensland), and the massive Loy Yang coal-fired generator tripped out. Initially demand dropped but an hour later, when it started to return, lack of power meant the Energy Market Operator had to force load-shedding onto 90,000 customers.
So while it was indeed the storm that took the state’s biggest generator off-line, the problem was there wasn’t enough power to replace it. At the height of the crisis, it was gas that came to the rescue, surging to provide a quarter of Victoria’s electricity at 4pm. Gas, I hasten to add, that Labor have now started to ban. And while renewables were meeting about 50 per cent of the reduced demand, batteries were providing less than 1 per cent of the state’s power.
Here’s the basic problem: with coal-fired power steadily exiting the system, we don’t have enough electricity supply to meet unforeseen events; and wind and solar can’t be surged up as required to meet contingencies in the way gas-fired power and (to a lesser extent) coal can. And with the country’s biggest coal-fired generator due to shut down next year, this is only going to get worse.
This is where the green madness is leading us – with ever increasing renewable targets, and with the PM flagging yet more taxpayer subsidies for green energy pipe dreams. Heaven help us because what happened in Victoria is coming to your state too.
Watch Peta on Credlin on Sky News, weeknights at 6pm
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