What Libs did wrong, and how they can make it right
Interviewing key players about the Coalition’s tumultuous nine years in power from 2013 to 2022, I started with a version of: how would they assess the period? The answers were very different.
Chris Kenny
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Howard points the way to power for Liberals
John Howard says the Liberal Party is ‘too factionalised’ and that ‘both sides can be blamed’ as he exhorts the party to maintain policy differentiation to win its way back into power.
Robust public debate is best counter to spin
We must never entrust government with the task of identifying and controlling what is true and what is false.
A quest to find common ground gains fresh urgency
Before the referendum it promised if Australia voted No we would still get Indigenous voices of some kind and a vote on constitutional recognition – now it offers neither and suggests both those goals have been abandoned by the nation.
Voice or not, the real work is still to be done
If the voice is defeated, the PM should proceed regardless with his bipartisan committee. We cannot contemplate a party-political divide on this issue again.
Claims that we’re divided by race inflame resentment
While I deplore the toxic nature of this debate and the abuse flying in all directions, the No campaign alone has sought to make mileage from it.
Like the America’s Cup, the voice can unite the nation
If this declaration following the 1983 victory is a truism – ‘Yes, we can do anything if we try’ – then you would think addressing Indigenous trauma would be top of our list.
No vote would confirm us as a scared, little nation
At a time when our national pride is falling to alarming levels, we need to ask whether rejecting a voice would help us feel proud or fuel the growing sense of disconnection.
An appeal for unity: my speech for the PM
With the voice in serious strife, I thought Anthony Albanese might find this useful. Feel free to use it, Prime Minister, I won’t tell anyone.
The bottom line: the voice is nothing to fear
The Yes case has not been put more eloquently than by musician Paul Kelly. Apart from filling a gaping hole in our Constitution, it could make a difference for the better.
Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/chris-kenny/page/7