Election 2022: Character question hangs over Liberal Party

Scott Morrison meets voters at the Gray Community Hall in Darwin in the Northern Territory seat of Solomon. Picture: Getty Images

It was harder to put pen to ballot paper this election than any in which I have voted previously. As I filled out my postal ballot last week, my hand hovered over several boxes. Previously, in Britain and here, it had ticked Conservative or Liberal without a moment’s thought. If I am like this, heaven knows how others yearning for the centre-right are feeling.

I set up the Tory Club at a left-leaning college in London in the mid-1980s and worked for Liberal leaders in South Australia and Victoria during the ’90s. Supporting a political party is often like following a football team. Irrespective of how they play, you must be a lifelong fan. But what if the values of the club go missing? Even some Collingwood fans will question renewing their season tickets following Heritier Lumumba’s revelations of racism.

The problem for the Liberal Party now is there appear to be a lot of people like me who are no longer willing to be taken for granted. Keener to go blue than any other colour, which now includes teal, I want to know the party or team I support has a set of core values in which I can believe.

The Liberal Party maintains a strong understanding of the economy. While it has borrowed much this term, it did so because of a once-in-a-century pandemic. JobKeeper helped save countless businesses, and credit should go where it is due. The implementation of more free trade deals sets up opportunities for growth in the years ahead.

Across this term ministers in economic and investment portfolios such as Josh Frydenberg, Simon Birmingham, Dan Tehan and Jane Hume have provided sound economic management, underpinning Australia’s ongoing prosperity. However, when it comes to values, morality and integrity, I am left asking questions about a party that may not have attached its ambition to a Light on the Hill but certainly seeks to represent the Forgotten People.

The Liberal Party is fighting this election on three fronts: in the inner cities, in the suburbs and in the regions. And when you seek to be all things to all people, you will necessarily forget about quite a few. Australia has changed, but has the Liberal Party?

My conservative parents taught me the virtues of kindness, generosity of spirit and resolve. Many of the apparent values of the current Liberal Party, reflected by messages that it is prepared to allow and endorse, are not compatible with the lessons of my upbringing.

As our allies, led by Britain and the US, move on climate change the Liberals have been unwilling to commit to similar targets. Policy has been aimed at pacifying the likes of Craig Kelly, Pauline Hanson, George Christensen. Young Australians are particularly incensed by this.

While involved in refugee advocacy, I have seen little sign of understanding by the modern Liberal Party of those displaced globally. If anyone symbolises those who have been forgotten, it is the poor souls held on remote islands or housed in depleted city hotels against their wills. Depressingly, Labor, spooked by policy catas­trophes in times of yore, aligns itself with much of the government’s approach.

The reduction in the foreign aid budget during the past decade is symptomatic of political leadership that has deprioritised compas­sion. The OECD’s Development Assistance Committee has 30 members. In 2015 Australia was the 14th most generous in terms of foreign aid. By last year it had dropped to 21st.

The rush to exploit transgender identity should not be the stuff of election campaigns and should instead be handled in a far more sophisticated and considered manner. The welfare and health of those at the heart of the debate seem to have been forgotten.

And the party’s women problem during this parliamentary term is the stuff of infamy and clearly hurting it ahead of Saturday, not helped by a leader who seems uncomfortable dealing with women on a personal level

I am fortunate enough not to worry about a rising cost of living. I say this before critics let fly and claim I am simply “woke”, to my mind the most overused word in contemporary politics.

While the Liberal Party is arguably the best to deal with this economic challenge, and the current low unemployment rate sits at the heart of its achievements, life is about more than hip pockets. It is about the way we behave, the things we do and say, and the way we treat each other.

While the Prime Minister says he knows he needs to change, he must demonstrate it through a tangible spirit of compassion and understanding that has been missing during much of this term.

If it retains office, the Liberal Party must address the question of its character. If Labor is elected, it, too, must raise standards. Bullies operate across the aisles. Minority groups should not be political pawns. Australians expect better of their elected representatives.

Change is required for the sake of the major parties. A lack of belief in them, whose antiquated structures have enabled this decline in morality, is one reason people are considering voting independent. It is a problem shared overseas. Based on recent UK council elections, the Conservatives and Labour would have polled 30 per cent and 35 per cent of the vote respectively if a national poll had been held. In the US, Republicans and Democrats are dealing with their own inner demons as the base walks away.

In the end, whether at home or abroad, much of it will come down to leadership – and that is always going to be underpinned by character.

Ian Smith is joint managing partner of the consultancy Bespoke Approach.