Andrew Bolt: If the Liberals can’t win the Queensland election next year they’re really toast

The Liberals have a rare chance to take the fight to Labor instead of cringing, with a crucial test looming between now and the next election.

Hold on there, guys. Peter Dutton and his opposition face two do-or-die tests between now and the next election.

That’s why the Liberals cannot pick any of the main declared frontrunners trying to replace the late Jim Molan, the former major-general, as the next senator for NSW.

No way, when the first do-or-die contest is the referendum this year on the Voice, now that the Liberals say they’re against it.

If Australians vote for this race-based Voice, it won’t just be disaster for the country. The Liberals will be damned as the party that was against the times. Against history.

Peter Dutton and his opposition face two do-or-die tests between now and the next election. Picture: Martin Ollman

Worse, they’ll be smeared as racists; Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews already jeers that they’re a “mean, nasty outfit”. Dutton would be fatally wounded as leader, and the Liberal left – who flatter themselves as “moderates” – will probably start a civil war in the party.

The other do-or-die test is the Queensland election in November next year. It’s the only state election the Liberals could win before the next federal election is due, and if they can’t win even that, they’re really toast.

And remember: Queensland is Dutton’s home state and still has the most conservative electorate.

So how can the Liberals pick any of the main candidates jostling to replace Molan – all from the Liberal left, and for the Voice? That’s just buying trouble. That’s just taking on one more person who won’t fight in a referendum where the Liberals’ survival is at stake.

Multiple candidates are jostling to replace the late Liberal senator Jim Molan. Picture: Sean Davey

In the running is a party president I’d never heard of; former NSW Minister Andrew Constance, best known for trashing Liberal colleagues; and Fiona Scott, the former Liberal MP who then worked for one of Liberal left powerbroker Michael Photios’s outfits.

No, no, no.

The Liberals instead have a rare chance now to take the fight to Labor instead of cringing.

First, appoint the courageous Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to replace white leftist Julian Leeser as the opposition’s spokesman on the Voice, now that he’s quit to fight for it.

Second, promote Liberal senator Kerrynne Liddle, another Aboriginal MP against the Voice.

And third, twist the arm of Warren Mundine, the Aboriginal head of the campaign against the Voice, to replace Molan.

I know Mundine is playing hard to get, but do these three things and the Liberals will finally look like a fighting party – a party of principle – against the Voice. And how could Labor damn them then as racist?