In the shadow of Anthony Albanese’s Labor government, Australia finds itself ensnared in a web of economic and social vandalism that masquerades as progressive reform. For too long, this administration has lorded over Australians with a heavy hand, imposing policies that erode our prosperity and destroy our national identity, all while entrenching a dependency on the state that smacks of old-world communism.

Yet, where is the Opposition?

The once-formidable Liberal Party, now a defunct shell of its former self, is ideologically adrift and electorally diminished, and appears content to nod along with Labor’s agenda, offering little more than token resistance.

Beneath the rhetoric of unity and fairness lies a stark reality. Our nation’s conservatives are fractured, leaderless, and in desperate need of a unifying force.

It is time to rally around a bold conservative manifesto, one that repurposes the remnants of the Liberal Party as a launchpad to challenge this creeping authoritarianism and restore Australia’s economic vitality.

Consider the wreckage wrought by Albanese’s regime. Since being gifted power by an empty Scott Morrison policy platform that got a re-run under Peter Dutton, Labor has pursued an agenda that prioritises ideological grandstanding over practical outcomes. Their energy policies, for instance, have driven up costs while failing to deliver reliable power, leaving households and businesses to foot the bill for a transition that exists more in press releases than in reality. The recent communist energy manifesto takes the cake for Labor’s leftist overreach.

Inflation has eased on paper at least, but Australians still struggle with the cost of living while government debt is out of control. Meanwhile, small businesses, the backbone of our economy, buckle under regulatory burdens that rival the excesses of Soviet-era planning. As the government runs out of other people’s money, they are developing new ways to take more.

This is no accident. It is economic vandalism dressed in the language of equity and environmentalism. Albanese’s government claims it has a mandate to dictate everything from workplace rules to personal freedoms, all under the guise of protecting the vulnerable.

But where are the measurable results? The absence of tangible benefits for ordinary Australians is frightening, replaced instead by a narrative of moral superiority that excuses failure while convincing voters that money grows on trees.

Worse still, the Opposition has become complicit in this farce. The Liberal Party, fractured by internal divisions amid its drift toward socialism, has forsaken its conservative roots. Rather than mounting a fierce critique, it often echoes Labor’s themes on climate targets, identity politics, or expansive welfare schemes. These policies align suspiciously with a communist agenda of state control over individual enterprise.

This is not opposition – it is acquiescence. Indeed, it is evidence enough of a Uniparty.

Leadership is not about optics or poll-driven platitudes, it is about results, and on that score, the Liberals have failed spectacularly. This is not just my opinion, the most recent Newspoll shows the Liberal Party’s primary votes are at the lowest levels since Newspoll began in 1985.

The Liberal Party’s inability to articulate a clear alternative has left conservatives disillusioned, scattering support to fringe elements or, worse, apathy. We cannot afford to mistake compromise for conviction any longer.

The solution lies in a conservative manifesto that reclaims the Liberal Party’s infrastructure as a base for renewal. This is not about nostalgia for Menzies’ era, though his vision of a free and prosperous Australia remains instructive. Rather, it is a pragmatic blueprint to mobilise grassroots conservatives, disaffected Liberals, and independent voices into a cohesive movement.

Imagine a manifesto grounded in timeless principles. Unshackling the economy through tax cuts and deregulation to unleash entrepreneurial spirit, defending individual liberties against the encroachments of big government, securing borders and national sovereignty in an age of global instability, and fostering a culture of self-reliance over state dependency.

Sussan Ley’s anaemic call for less reliance on government won’t cut it. Picking and choosing which conservative ideals suit her Labor-lite agenda has proven not to work.

A conservative manifesto would serve as a rallying cry, outlining specific policies to reverse Labor’s damage. This might include scrapping wasteful subsidies, reforming industrial relations to empower workers and employers alike, and investing in infrastructure that actually delivers returns rather than ideological experiments.

To build this manifesto, conservatives must draw on the Liberal Party’s existing networks – including its branches, donors, and electoral machinery – while purging the elements that have diluted its purpose.

Historical precedents abound. Reagan’s conservatives revitalised the Republican Party in the 1980s, as did Thatcher’s transformation of the Tories. Both turned ideological decay into triumphant renewal.

Australia deserves no less. By uniting under this banner, we can expose Labor’s communist leanings for what they are: a recipe for stagnation and control, not progress.

The hour is late, but not too late. Conservatives across the nation – academics (yes, they exist), business leaders, farmers, and everyday Australians weary of Albanese’s overreach – must step forward.

We must draft the manifesto, rally the troops, and rescue the Liberal Party’s legacy and structure as the vehicle for victory.

Leadership demands more than survival. It requires vision.

It’s time we stopped mistaking feelings for facts and delivered the substance Australia craves. The alternative is to watch our great nation slide further into the abyss of economic and social tyranny.

In my study of politics over several decades, it is evident that no social movement was ever successful without a written document that outlined the specific principles and policies of the movement.

Conservatives are no longer the natural party of government in Australia (nor indeed in the UK), therefore they must adopt the tactics of social movements to reclaim the high ground of politics.

Without such a document, we will end up with the same old conservatives who should have done something when they were in power telling us how to do what they ought to have done when they had the chance.

In the meantime, leftist commentators tell the Liberal Party it will disappear if it drifts back to the right. Clearly this is a tactic that the Liberal leadership has fallen for hook, line, and sinker, as the leftist version of the once-great party is collapsing before our eyes.

Now’s the time for conservatives to shake a leg.

Dr Michael de Percy @FlaneurPolitiq is the Spectator Australia’s Canberra Press Gallery Correspondent. If you would like to support his writing, or read more of Michael, please visit his website.