If the experience of the Liberal Party at the 2022 state election in Victoria showed, there’s nothing so damaging to a political party’s prospects than a belief among voters it doesn’t matter what they say, they just can’t win.
Insiders have lifted the lid on the political drama that almost led to the Liberal and National parties splitting up after 40 years this week.
Halting as she delivered her budget speech and at times sounding like a teacher trying to get down with the kids by using words like “cool”, Victoria’s new Treasurer Jaclyn has a lot to learn.
The Treasurer is forecasting spending to drop across a range of departments, but given the history of the Andrews-Allan government many will laugh at the barefaced cheek they are now being asked to swallow.
The Liberal Party is either extinct or in grave danger of extinction in all of the nation’s capital cities. There is one important thing it needs to do.
Mahreen Faruqi would have been a win-win for Labor and Sarah Hanson-Young a threat, but the Greens have instead displayed a survival instinct by opting for Larissa Waters.
The wafer-thin margin of Sussan Ley’s win – 29 to 25 – shows the Liberal Party is a long, long way off finding common ground about what went wrong or how to fix it.
The outburst from an axed minister who labelled the Deputy Prime Minister a factional assassin says everything you need to know about him.
If Adam Bandt had gone out with grace and humility it would’ve spoiled the fun. Instead he departs as one of Australian politics’ greatest hypocrites.
The psychological shock of the scale of Peter Dutton’s loss should be profound. In fact, it should force a rethink of everything in Liberal world, writes James Campbell.
While voters’ opinion of how the Coalition has handled some issues has continued to deteriorate, a new RedBridge poll will bring comfort to some — but it’s the battle of preferences that holds the surprises.
Chances are most potential votes Peter Dutton picked up last year when polls were in his favour weren’t coming from Albo’s pile but from miscellaneous right-wing ‘other’ – but it seems now even they have jumped ship.
In earlier times no doubt there were pillars of journalistic rectitude who felt the need to point out that encouraging people to lie on their taxes is not something a government ought to do. But that’s a very 20th Century way of looking at things.
Given he’d just received upsetting personal news, Dutton understandably had a tough start to the debate before Albanese channelled his inner game show host, writes James Campbell.
Original URL: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/james-campbell