It says a great deal about the state of the Liberal Party that some Liberal MPs are openly hostile to Advance Australia, a grassroots group that aims to be a GetUp for mainstream Australians. That these whingers are anonymous tells you too about the kiddie-pool depths of their convictions.
One federal Liberal MP who wouldn’t put his name to his petulance said the group is “like the IPA (Institute of Public Affairs) but with stupid people”. He is either hopelessly deluded or deliberately dismissive about his party’s predicament. Liberals should be so lucky if Advance Australia is the nascent stirrings of a right-wing GetUp. Not that they deserve any help.
By the way, this cranky Liberal and other equally anonymous members of his party may want to learn about the IPA too. I am a director of an organisation founded 75 years ago by a dozen or so leading businessmen who believed the country needed a voice for freedom. It’s hard to imagine a trio of businessmen and women — or politicians, for that matter — with that conviction or courage today.
Corporate “leaders” talk about their social licence to operate but duck for cover at the first mention of economic reform that underpins our prosperity.
The newly formed IPA was there when Robert Menzies brought together disparate anti-Labor forces to form the Liberal Party. At what became known as the unity conference, in August 1944, Menzies quoted from the pamphlet Looking Forward, an economic manifesto written by CD Kemp and other IPA founders.
These days his son, Rod Kemp, chairs an even more reform-minded IPA that is stronger than ever: membership is booming, we have more than 1000 young members, donations flow from optimistic supporters whose belief in this country is palpable.
Can griping Liberal MPs say the same thing about their party? It is becoming a narrow class of former political apparatchiks, membership is in decline and donors are disgruntled about a directionless and dreary organisation. The Liberal Party is on its electoral knees because politicians who snub their nose at Advance Australia have failed to connect with Australian voters.
The drubbing in the Victorian election last weekend revealed a state Liberal Party struggling to confront the big-government, higher-spending, hit-the-rich, free-gifts-for-everyone-else message of Labor, the Greens, the unions and GetUp. This week’s Newspoll suggests the Coalition government hasn’t worked out how to negate the centre-left powerhouse either.
Recent Liberal prime ministers have had an unfortunate habit of being better at complaining than at campaigning. When Tony Abbott failed to get his 2014 budget through parliament, he was full of complaints. Had he sold it better, using old-fashioned retail politics, more MPs across the spectrum might have supported it.
When Malcolm Turnbull took the government from a 14-seat majority to a one-seat buffer, he spent election night spitting the dummy about Labor. And Turnbull’s recent bellyaching antics as a poor loser confirm his lack of personal and political antennae. Put simply, he would not have been removed were he good at his job.
Scott Morrison is proving to be an improvement on both but it may be too late, with an election due early next year.
Liberals complain frequently about the uneven playing field in Australian politics: The Labor Party and its election machine is bolstered by the cashed-up ground forces of GetUp and the unions, Greens preferences help Labor get over the line, GetUp must be brought to heel with stricter electoral laws. Blah, blah, boo hoo. Getting rid of GetUp is not the answer to Liberal woes.
IPA boss John Roskam says Liberals need to face up to their existential crisis. They could start with copying success. The left side of politics is strong because it is buttressed by large elements of civil society supporting political parties that echo their views, be it Labor or the Greens. More voices mean loud and clear messages to voters from the left and centre-left of politics.
“On the centre-right of politics, who is supporting the Liberals?” asks Roskam. “Not business any more. And liberalism can’t afford to just be expressed through the Liberal Party. If that was the case, liberalism in Australia would be dead because the Liberal Party doesn’t support our basic freedoms and is as big-spending and as high-taxing as Labor.”
It goes without saying that the Liberal Party — state and federal — needs an effective grassroots campaign machine. But Liberal MPs also need to build relationships with groups dedicated to the liberal ideas that used to be bread-and-butter values for Liberals too.
Senior members of the Coalition government should do what smart Republicans and Democrats do routinely in the US. On both sides of politics, American congressmen and women draw support and sustenance from outside groups, think tanks and organisations to check the party’s values and policies, finesse its message, and use those networks to sell that message to the country.
By contrast, the Liberal Party in Australia is a sad and lost loner. Its array of rushed and disconnected policies over the past five years are testament to a party that doesn’t check in with itself or with others about what it stands for. No wonder voters haven’t a clue. And if Liberals move closer to Labor it will stand for even less.
This country needs Advance Australia, and a dozen more organisations like it, to succeed in the long term. The future of liberalism as a set of ideas, and the Liberal Party as a conduit for those values, depends on more voices that reflect mainstream issues.
Advance Australia has started drawing up a list, from creating economic opportunities and a fairer taxation system, to championing merit, not special favours, tackling censorious political correctness, defending core values such as freedom of speech and religious freedom, and ensuring Australia is safe and secure. When it launched on Monday last week, Advance Australia had 1000 members. A week later, it had amassed more than 9000 members from every Australian state and territory, raised more than $100,000 and attracted public attacks from its left-wing competitor GetUp. By attacking Advance Australia, GetUp — a $55 million organisation that has tallied up $42m on political expenditure — treated the new kid on the block as a credible threat to GetUp’s 12-year monopoly on grassroots campaigning.
As for Liberal MPs who are cranky with Advance Australia, the national director of the new centre-right political machine, Gerard Benedet, told The Australian: “If they were doing their job, there wouldn’t be Advance Australia. They need to focus on their own performance and connection to the electorate. And we’ll do our job.’’
janeta@bigpond.net.au
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