Michael McGuire: Liberals should ask themselves why more voters are looking to independents, instead of abusing them

Senior Liberals are abusing independents trying to win their blue-ribbon seats – here’s what they should really be doing, writes Michael McGuire.

You have to wonder whether the Liberal Party is going the right way about combating the dangers posed by so-called teal independents in some of its blue-ribbon seats around the country.

So far, there has been a lot of threats, hubris, much bluster and an unhealthy dose of arrogance from some senior Liberals directed towards candidates running in blue-ribbon seats such as Kooyong and Goldstein in Victoria and Wentworth in Sydney.

The latest to join the chorus was former PM John Howard who, on the weekend, said: “These men and women are all posing as independents. They’re not independents, they’re anti-Liberal groupies. Their aim is to hurt the Liberal Party, not to represent the middle ground of their electorates.”

Which is a bizarre statement on any number of levels. For a start: what is an “anti-Liberal groupie?’’ And of course their aim is to hurt the Liberal Party.

As is every other candidate in the election running against the Liberal Party. That’s the point of holding an election. It’s a contest, not a coronation.

And if the Liberals do lose any of those seats, as they did with Zali Steggall in Warringah and Cathy McGowan – then Helen Haines – in Indi, how is Howard going to square that with the 2002 interview he gave when he was PM, and said: “They’re very canny, Australian voters, they very rarely, in my view, get it wrong. We normally get the results we deserve at a state and a federal level, and that means you’ve got to always be on the lookout for any kind of complacency.’’

Former Australian prime minister John Howard campaigning for the Liberal Bennelong candidate Simon Kennedy. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Simon Bullard

Perhaps he believes voters are only smart when they vote Liberal.

But Howard’s bagging of the teals follows on from some other senior Liberal men who have jagged in with their two cents’ worth in recent times. Last week, former Liberal premier Ted Baillieu wrote that the teals were on a “bizarre’’ mission to “replace some of Australia’s most capable, most energetic and most experienced MPs’’. Crikey.

Then there is the ever-buffoonish former foreign minister, Alexander Downer, who opined this month: “Take Josh Frydenberg in Kooyong and (Dave) Sharma in Wentworth. These are people who could become truly great men. But the independents who might defeat them will be totally forgotten in 10 years.’’

There is an almost anti-democratic, paternalistic, authoritarian streak in some of these statements.

More than a whiff of “we know what’s best for you, so just shut up and let us get on with it’’. It’s also heading down the track of the Republican Party in the US, vast swathes of which still hold dear to the fantasy that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election.

Of course, Downer has some form in this arena. Back in 2018, when his daughter Georgina was in the process of losing a by-election in his old seat of Mayo to independent Rebekha Sharkie, he let loose in a memorable tanty.

Georgina Downer with her father Alexander in 2018, after losing the by-election for Mayo. Picture: AAP / Kelly Barnes

“We are Adelaide Hills people and been in politics here for decades and through multiple elections never come across such abuse,” he posted on Facebook. “Sharkie supporters have brought such horrible hate to our district. You must all be new arrivals.”

Screenshot of the Facebook post by Alexander Downer

Sharkie is now overwhelming favourite to win her fourth-consecutive election in Mayo.

Even the recent state election gave the Liberals a guide of what not to do when dealing with independents. That a little subtlety and strength of argument is preferable to straight out abuse.

It was a strange moment when former state Liberal leader Isobel Redmond came out of her years of self-imposed media exile to declare Dan Cregan’s decision to quit the Libs and run as an independent in last month’s state election was “one of the grubbiest things I have ever seen in politics’’.

A week later Cregan won in a landslide, taking the two-party-preferred vote 75-25.

Both Liberal and Labor need to understand the reason so many people are attracted to independents is because they are so fed up with both of the major parties.

Around 30 per cent of the electorate will vote for someone other than a major party on May 21.

The teal candidates have locked on to deficiencies in climate-change policies, gender equality and integrity within politics, and many are well funded through the Climate 200 activist group.

Instead of blaming others for their failures, or berating candidates for wanting to win a seat, perhaps Howard, Downer and Baillieu should look internally and try to grasp why so many are so disillusioned with what they are offering.

Originally published as Michael McGuire: Liberals should ask themselves why more voters are looking to independents, instead of abusing them