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Flat White

A diet of political insects

27 March 2023

11:42 AM

27 March 2023

11:42 AM

Speccie Editor Rowan Dean has already described the New South Wales election perfectly in this morning’s leading article. His remarks must be true, because they whipped the Left up into a frenzy on social media when he uttered them during his Sunday morning program, Outsiders.

I accept his conclusions and add that the Liberals have not only vacated the field, they have been annihilated from the political landscape except for the microcosm of Tasmania. Moderate Liberals, wherever they may be, are the walking dead. Their species of politics has no future except to flip seats red, Teal, and green. They stand for nothing in the hope that everyone will love them, but when was the last time you saw someone fall in love with a blank sheet of A4 paper? Exactly.

For a while, blue-ribbon Liberals were faced with the stomach-turning probability that Matt Kean might assume the leadership after Dominic Perrottet announced he was going to fall awkwardly onto his blunt sword.

‘As leader of the parliamentary Liberal Party, I take full responsibility for the loss this evening,’ said Perrottet, with his usual mantis-like demeanour.

Perrottet is a man who never sat comfortably in power. It was as if he understood the responsibility of his position, but couldn’t scratch his way out of the box built around him by powerful shadowy forces. All he managed to do was sit there like an insect, bobbing slightly, doing his best impression of a stick in the hope that nothing would come along and eat him.

‘And as a result, I will be standing down as leader. It is very clear that we need a fresh start, we need a fresh start. We need a fresh start for the Liberal Party.’

What does a ‘fresh start’ look like? At least we can breathe easy that it won’t include Matt Kean as leader after he was smacked extremely hard by the conservative electorate of Hornsby. The only time Kean enjoyed popularity was when no one had the faintest clue who he was. It’s the sort of area where you could put a stray cat in a Liberal shirt and it would still win.

Kean’s excuse for departing (not that anyone asked) was to cite ‘family reasons’. It’s the ‘get out of jail free’ option for a man whose political career should have ended with the sexting scandal of 2018. Some have speculated that he has his eye on federal politics. Maybe we can put him in an Auspost express package and ship him to the moderate Liberals of Western Australia? That seems to be more his speed.

The only interesting thing that Matt Kean said was, ‘This is not an easy portfolio (energy) – full of culture wars, vested interests, and different viewpoints.’

The material point is that Labor, the Greens, and Teals are dominating politics by waging culture wars. They are running around setting the edges of the electorate on fire. It is through those culture wars – which have merged into a single firestorm – that Labor has changed the political landscape for the worse. We are becoming a socialist country – a nation of simpletons, cowards, weak men, radicalised children, and fearful sheep.

Racial supremacy is a virtue. Misogyny is celebrated, as long as it wraps itself in a rainbow. Segregation is ‘safety’. Privacy is selfish. Diet is an expression of politics. Our history must be destroyed. Tax is love. And capitalism is bad. Oh, and if you want to absolve yourself of the original sin of colonialism, your best bet is to identify as a gender-confused animal shape-shifter with multiple ‘alters’. If you didn’t understand that last comment – good. Stay off TikTok. I wish I had.


Did the NSW Liberal Party fight any of these culture wars? Yes – by standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Labor and the Greens as the axes fell on Western Civilisation. The state of NSW has been butchered and now, under Chris Minns, it will be ransacked.

The Liberals have tried to pin some of the blame on minor parties, but I remind those MPs that the minor parties exist because the Liberal Party has failed. Minor parties are a direct consequence of a political vacuum on the centre-right. Not everyone wants to be a Greta-worshipping climate zealot eating bugs in a 15-minute open-air prison cell with vaccine passports, digital ID, and a carbon credit score tattooed on their forehead. Normal people need someone to vote for – preferably a party that doesn’t want to ‘re-imagine capitalism’ or sell off the state assets to the Chinese. There’s got to be a middle ground.

And yes, while we laugh at Kean copping a swing, Perrottet also suffered a swing against him in the seat of Epping which no doubt had something to do with the five or so minutes he managed to maintain his Liberal values. During Covid, the bloke went from, ‘we respect the rights of citizens to choose’ straight to ‘we’re gonna lock you all up until you take the vaccine’ almost overnight. That was when the people of NSW knew that he was a spineless dud. His fanboy-ing over Chris Minns has finished most people off. It’s almost as if Perrottet is relieved to hand the leadership over.

If we’re to have a ‘fresh start’ for the Liberal Party – who is left?

Wahroonga’s Alister Henskens has been discussed, but there are two problems with that.

The first is I was born in Wahroonga – I grew up there and I still live nearby. The place is infested with Teal-culture as the religious private schools birth thousands of climate warriors every year. They have convinced their affluent parents that voting for eco-fascism is the only way to atone for their wealth and enter the gates of social heaven. It is a blue-ribbon suburb in the process of sampling champagne socialism – miles and miles from the Howard years when it was dominated by proud small business owners. The people of Wahroonga won’t see the light until their wallets are empty and their European holidays are punished with negative carbon credits.

Henskens’ second problem stems from what he said on Sunday. ‘I think what we need is a proper analysis of what we could have done better. And I just don’t think that we have the hard data to be able to make judgments like that. And so that the party needs to be a party which can appeal to a broad spectrum of voters, because that’s what’s necessary in order to form government.’

Broad church, baby! The failed ideology of every Woke Liberal government. No, Henskens. Governments do not win by appealing to everyone, they win with strong, charismatic leadership and clear policies. People who appeal to everyone are supported by no one. Have you ever heard of a religion with no rules, no moral code, and no divine word? No. It doesn’t work for politics either.

It’s worth noting that if the Labor Party is out in force begging the Liberals to go even further to left, it’s probably not a good idea. You don’t take leadership advice from your political opponent.

Henskens is also on record cheering the Net Zero insanity on, proudly declaring that, ‘NSW is well placed to lead the nation when it comes to the Net Zero economy and this new Decarbonisation Hub will drive investment, jobs, and economic growth.’

If you want your power bill to go down, he is not the man.

All I can say is thank heck Stuart Ayres is no longer in the mix. His comments during the pandemic were some of the nastiest and most authoritarian. He deserves no future in conservative politics and I cannot muster an ounce of sympathy for his defeat.

With no natural successor to Perrottet in the wings, it’s obvious that Liberal Party politics isn’t working internally. That’s what happens when you let power brokers move MPs around instead of leaving it to the rigour of merit.

The truth is, the Liberal Party, at all levels, has shown a preference for members that can whip up funds rather than inspire public support.

But expensive ads, signage, and swanky soirees do not impress voters in the middle of a financial crisis. You either have to be the people’s champion or an irresponsible showman promising free lunches. Granted, Chris Minns has all the poise of a cockroach after walking across a patch of Surface Spray, but Kean’s soulless gaze and Perrottet’s apathy inspired a similar level of revulsion.

The Liberals are the half-pregnant craven of the climate apocalypse. They are the side that shouts, ‘The world is about to end!!!’ and follows it with ‘but we’re going to approach this situation slowly.’

You cannot mix fear porn with responsible governance. The Liberals are standing next to the bloodthirsty mob lobbing dead rats into the flames, while Labor chucks virgins and children into the volcano to appease the climate gods.

No wonder Millennials are hissing at them.

There is a madness taking over Australian politics and it was the Liberal Party that unlocked the door and gave it a measure of social acceptance within conservative minds.

A true Liberal leader would pull the plug on the fake volcano until it’s as dead as Chris Minns’ ebus, save the virgins, and set about slaying the false prophets. While ever there is a collectivist cult festering at the heart of NSW politics, there will be no sensible politics.

At the moment it doesn’t matter who the next Liberal leader is, because NSW no longer has a conservative party. What we have instead is a steady diet of political insects masquerading as politicians, some poisonous and some acting as nothing but fodder for the birds.

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