Rita Panahi: The Liberal Party need a leader with backbone after woeful Labor-lite campaign
After a woeful, flat-footed, Labor-lite campaign it is now crucial that the Liberals select a leader capable of rebuilding the decimated party.
Rita Panahi
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The election loss was as emphatic as it was predictable.
Having squandered all the political capital of the Voice referendum, the Peter Dutton-led opposition ran a woeful, flat-footed, Labor-lite campaign that was loathed by conservatives, tolerated by the “moderates” and mocked by Labor.
It was a policy platform lacking ideological and intellectual rigour; weak, lazy, confused and seemingly designed to appease their political opponents.
The Coalition hid their best performers including strong conservative voices like Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Andrew Hastie.
As I wrote last week: ‘The Coalition has failed to properly articulate the dangers posed by a second-term Albanese government. They have also failed to differentiate themselves from Labor on key policy areas from energy to population to critical cultural issues like the racial politics of the Left.’
They were flaccid and timid when they needed to be strong and bold, the Libs did not come close to articulating why Australians should throw out a first term government.
Liberal senator Alex Antic summed it up when he said the “troops were sent into battle without ammunition” with the Libs running moderate or centrist policies that did not give the electorate a clear choice.
“Many of the policies were reminiscent of a mobile phone contract,” Antic said on Outsiders on Sky News.
“You know, for the first 12 months you’ll get something free … I would hear things like we’re going to cut fuel excise, and I would think, ‘Great, but why only for 12 months?’
For the Coalition not to back tax cuts for Australian workers was unthinkable. No matter how meagre the tax cut, Libs should never be against workers keeping more of the money they earned.
It is now imperative that they select a leader capable of rebuilding the decimated party, one who has the backbone and the drive to do the necessary work. Sadly, the current contenders do not inspire great confidence.
Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor has shown promise but did not exactly cover himself in glory during the election campaign. As for the other top contender, deputy leader Sussan Ley, she represents everything that is wrong with the modern Liberal Party.
If they pick her as leader they have effectively given up. Many of the Liberals’ best talent, including Antic, are in the upper house with Senator Price joining their ranks on Thursday, moving from the Nationals party room to the Liberals. “I am deeply appreciative of the opportunities the National Party under David Littleproud’s leadership has given me, most notably the responsibility of leading the No campaign in the Voice referendum,” Price said in a statement.
“I do however feel the Liberal Party is my natural home and somewhere I can contribute meaningfully.”
The opposition leader, like the prime minister, is almost always a member of the House of Representatives but it must be noted this is by convention, and not a constitutional requirement. John Gorton became Liberal leader as a senator, moving to the lower house after becoming prime minister.
The convention is also true for the deputy prime minister but nothing says Price cannot serve as deputy leader of the Liberal Party from the senate and shift to the lower house at the next election. She would be an enormous talent in the leadership team.
Andrew Hastie is reluctant to enter the leadership battle but he is precisely what the Liberals need. At 42, he’s young, battle-hardened, and unapologetically conservative. You know where he stands and he’s blessed with natural charisma. A former SAS officer who served in Afghanistan, Hastie brings a gravitas and moral clarity that flip-flopping bedwetters like Ley cannot hope to match.
His principled stand against China’s influence and his articulate defence of traditional values have earned him respect across the party. One can only hope that Hastie reconsiders and enters the leadership race.
The Liberal Party faces an existential crisis. They ran a Labor-lite campaign and were annihilated but remarkably the advice from the media’s idiot gallery is to lurch further Left. It’s reminiscent of the media, together with the quislings in the Liberals, pushing the notion that the Vic Libs lost elections because they were tough on crime, not that they are weak and unprincipled on everything else.
The Coalition never wins by being weak or a mere imitation of Labor. If the Libs don’t develop a spine and a clear policy platform they’ll remain in the political wilderness and they’ll do it without their biggest donors who have delivered a clear message to the party; end the quasi-Labor policies and me-too politics. Australia already has a Labor Party, we need an alternative, not an echo.
Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist
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