It’s never fun when your team loses. I’m a Collingwood supporter, I remember the 1990s. They were grim days, my friends. Grim indeed. I suppose it could be worse. I mean, imagine supporting Fremantle.
Last Saturday night from the seat of Boothby in South Australia, I watched along with everyone else as a ripple became a red wave, leaving very few in its wake.
The result was catastrophic for the Liberals. And, thankfully, for the Greens. The political demise of Adam Bandt is an outstanding consolation prize. But back to my team, and the electoral shellacking that took place last weekend.
Generally speaking, I’m an optimist. As the campaign dragged on, I tried to convince myself that it wasn’t THAT bad. This election had shades of 2019 about it, I would say, referencing Scott Morrison’s Lazarus-like victory in the poll that Bill Shorten was supposed to win. I was trying to convince myself it had that kind of vibe. What it really had was the stench of death.
That view wasn’t based on what any polling was pointing to; rather on a sense of unease in my gut about the side I vote for. A latent sense of confusion. It came from listening to conversations with neighbours and clients, hearing their concern mirror my own. Observing, I suppose, from a decent and safe distance outside any kind of political bubble.
And ultimately we saw the same thing on repeat. Hard working candidates, breaking their behinds at a local level for weeks on end, badly let down by a federal campaign that was like watching the preschoolers in a gymnastic class. Energetic, sure. But total chaos. A lot of noise.
Which brings me to the past seven days. In the wash-up, it seems the only people who have been talking about what went wrong and why have been other politicians. Fine and to be expected to a point. I’m not, nor will I ever be, a member of parliament. I’m just a humble voter like the rest of you, and it’s for that reason I’m here to offer some unfiltered constructive feedback. I’m not chasing preselection. I don’t want a safe seat. I don’t have or seek to have any influence in any party context at all. I do want you to sort out your mess once and for all because, guess what?
It’s not me, it’s you. I don’t care about factional BS. Frankly, I’m tired of watching every Liberal government since Tony Abbott was knifed squander and trample all over the legacy of the Howard years. Pettiness. Personal ambition. Post election-loss wrecking and undermining, years of it.
A disappointing lack of courage when it comes to reform and big ideas. Put Covid to one side – that in itself was a wasted opportunity to introduce reforms and here we are, routed again. This Labor government wants to tax unrealised gains, print money and punt us into further stratospheric debt, and still it got re-elected.
All of that does not address a problem with gender or cultural diversity within the Liberal Party. It is a problem that reflects a lack of leadership, a lack of vision, and small thinking. You can throw a uterus a day at the Liberals right now and it will make zero difference until there’s some discipline and conviction in the joint. Sussan Ley for leader … Sussan who?
I don’t like the ALP. I don’t like what it has become, the ruthlessness, the socialist leanings and love of spending other people’s money before they’ve even made it. The backroom dealings, the jobs for mates, the hypocrisy and religious bigotry. Its politics of low expectations and of envy. But what Labor has is discipline in spades, an ability to put purpose over preference. I’m no fan of how Labor does it but the party gets it done.
I’m not saying the ends justify the means. I’m saying the Liberal Party looked and felt as if it didn’t want it enough.
The Liberal Party makes much of its broad-church view on life, and that would be fine if it reflected the current truth. But what I see is pettiness and backstabbing, and the moment someone doesn’t get their way? Cross the floor, kneecap your party and consequences be damned. We don’t care about public bickering, jostling for position. Factions, wets, drys and moderates; the backroom bullshit that too often spills into the front room.
We want to know how you’re going to cut spending, reduce taxes, stimulate productivity and basically remove the government from areas of our day-to-day lives in which it has no business intruding. The fact we couldn’t hold this government to account during an astronomical cost-of-living and housing crisis is just mind-blowing.
And here’s another one for free from outside the political bubble. Australians don’t care about culture wars. I’m a Christian and I want to be able to practise my faith freely and without recrimination, and I expect the same for others of different faiths, the only proviso being that we all obey Australian laws and align with Australian values. Not complicated.
Good policy is for the greater good across the longer term. Good policy must be able to demonstrate applicability, longevity and good thinking.
This is not a game, so why I do feel as if we’ve been played?
I am genuinely sad that Peter Dutton lost his seat. In my few personal dealings with him I found a warm, genuine and relatable human. We sat next to each other on a flight in the past six months. In hindsight, I chewed his ear off talking about life and work and family. He seemed engaged and interested, and if he wasn’t, he was decent enough to hide it.
I felt at the time (and still do, to a point) that if Australia had got to know that man, perhaps things might have been different. But results such as this one don’t happen in isolation and given the myriad issues that transpired and are continuing to come to light, perhaps they might not have been different.
My party needs to understand that those shouting the loudest don’t always have wisdom. That what it means to be a conservative in 2025 may surprise them. Guess what, this is not America. We don’t use words like patriot here. Anyone who tries should suffer an immediate kick in the shins. In the same way that most Australians don’t want the war in Gaza spilling on to our streets week in and week out, they (clearly) don’t want US-style MAGA nonsense infiltrating our culture and our lexicon.
There is, of course, talk of a post-election review. If that’s the case, then surely it can’t be done internally. Any such postmortem must be done by independent yet sympathetic parties, certainly not by anyone with a conflict or with strings attached to an outcome. We didn’t let the banks conduct a royal commission into themselves, did we?
Let me repeat what I said three years ago. If the Prime Minister leads his cabinet and this country with strength, wisdom and conviction, then everyone will thrive. Who wouldn’t want that? I certainly do and it is what I genuinely hope for. Based on the first three years in office I don’t have a great deal of confidence.
Anthony Albanese may have won in a landslide, but it remains to his great shame that he couldn’t or wouldn’t preference the Greens last. God bless the good people of Melbourne who did the heavy lifting for our nation’s future.
Hell to pay for bad ideas, poverty of leadership
The Liberal Party finds itself without obvious leaders and out of ideas. This is a pity because the party actually has a pretty good story to sell.
The ‘teal-slayer’ with courage to defy the HQ orthodoxy
Comeback kid Tim Wilson shows central office why Liberals must be bolder – and unapologetic about it.