Peta Credlin: Rank and file Liberal members need to reclaim their party

In the Liberal Party every backbencher has the right to honourable dissent but not to grandstand at the Prime Minister’s expense in a way that could cost them the election, writes Peta Credlin.

Scott Morrison has just had the worst 10 days of his political life and it’s his own team that’s inflicted the damage. What is it about so-called “moderate” (left-wing) Liberals that leads them to sabotage their own side?

Down in the polls and trying to win a fourth term, with a bad redistribution and no seats to spare, the last thing the Prime Minister needs is “friendly fire” but that’s all he’s had lately from colleagues who don’t seem to want the government to win.

First, there was the leak of text messages between former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and an unnamed but still serving federal cabinet minister calling the PM “horrible” and a “psycho”. She would hardly have leaked her own texts, so provided the journalist is telling the truth, the culprit is likely to be a Minister from Berejiklian’s own Liberal-left faction.

A further leak from cabinet, to the same journalist, this time that the PM had been rolled on last week’s parliamentary tactics, suggested that there’s a well-placed rat in the ranks.

Then there were the five “moderate” Liberals – Bridget Archer, Katie Allen, Fiona Martin, Trent Zimmerman and Dave Sharma – who crossed the floor on the religious freedom legislation to give Labor a significant parliamentary win.

It has been a horrific 10 days for the Morrison government. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

In the Liberal Party every backbencher has the right to honourable dissent. They’re entitled to their views but not to grandstand at the PM’s expense in ways that make a difficult election even harder to win; or as has been reported, to fail to give the PM notice of their intentions.

Especially given that every single one of them was elected last time on a platform that included legislating, not for the transgender rights on which they crossed the floor, but for religious freedom.

A couple of conservative senators have been on strike too, Gerard Rennick and Alex Antic, over vaccine mandates but at least they’ve been up front about it, rather than causing the PM maximum embarrassment by not warning him in advance of their intentions.

To cap off the mayhem, on Friday, Malcolm Turnbull went on the ABC (where else?) calling Scott Morrison a “wedge-hunter”; insisting that the Liberal Party is dominated by those he called the “religious hard right”; and going so far as to say that he’d never supported the religious freedom legislation that he committed to after the same sex marriage law passed.

Turnbull kept putting the boot into the party that had given him the prime ministership with the bizarre claim that both Morrison and Defence Minister Peter Dutton have made Australia weaker by the way they’ve handled China.

Sky News Presenter – Peta Credlin

No prizes for guessing whose side Turnbull is on in this election. It makes you nostalgic for the days when Liberal leaders and former leaders could have their differences yet still want their rivals to succeed, for the good of the party and the benefit of the country.

Despite their personal and philosophical differences, John Howard and Andrew Peacock (whose Covid-delayed memorial service was held in Melbourne last Friday) never stopped talking to each other and never let their rivalry stop them working for Liberal election victories. With considerable magnanimity, Howard gave Peacock the chance to cap his public life as our ambassador in Washington. And graciously Peacock did Howard and our country proud.

Howard and Peacock were both real Liberals, albeit of a different stripe. But what about these so-called Liberals who are making the Morrison government’s task harder by the day? It’s not just that they seem to be closer to the Labor Party than the Liberal Party on issues like climate change and identity politics, because there are other “moderates” publicly unhappy with the legislation who didn’t vote with Labor.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull labelled Scott Morrison a “wedge-hunter” on the ABC. Picture: AAP Image/POOL/Mick Tsikasvia NCA NewsWire

For the floor-crosses, it wasn’t enough to express a view, it seems they actually wanted to damage their own government.

I can’t think of anything more likely to enrage rank and file Liberal Party members than MPs they’ve put into parliament ratting on their own party at a critical time.

While it’s pretty clear that Liberal Party members are more conservative, on average, than the wider community; it’s also becoming obvious that Liberal MPs are far less conservative, on average, than their own branch members.

Why should rank and file members keep fundraising and campaigning for MPs who aren’t just at odds with the views of the Liberal base but who seem to be working against their own government?

Whatever happens at the election, Liberal branch members and supporters need to reclaim their party from the politically correct carpetbaggers who now have far too much sway in Canberra. Perhaps this is why, in NSW where most of the rebels came from, the dominant moderate faction is trying to deny Liberal members the rank and file democratic preselections that they’d been promised.

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