Yesterday I was toying with Nietzsche’s idea that God is dead, and we have killed him, but in a Menzian sense. Nietzsche didn’t think that the absence of God was a good thing. Similarly, the Liberal Party, until recent times, was the only party whose platform I could read without cringing at any of its ideas. While that may still be the case in writing, in practice, I now think that Menzies is dead and we have killed him. And it’s not good.
Contrary to what lefties love to think, Nietzsche wasn’t glad that God was dead. Neither should we be glad that the Liberal Party has killed off Menzies.
For decades, the Liberal Party of Australia prided itself on being the custodian of Menzies’ forgotten people – the salaried middle class, small business owners, suburban families, and regional Australians who simply wanted lower taxes, less government interference, and a fair go if they worked hard. That constituency has now been officially abandoned.
The evidence abounds. In Victoria, the state division hung on too long to the ineffectual John Pesutto, then elected Brad Battin as a ‘human shield’ conservative holding pattern until a Voice-supporting Liberal had the numbers. Battin’s replacement, a supporter of the Voice, might as well be a member (non-member) of the Teals.
In New South Wales, the parliamentary party was until recently led by the regrettably named Mark Speakman (who never said a word). His idea of bold liberalism was to campaign for pill-testing sites and to lecture conservatives about ‘inclusivity’.
In a move that signals more of what’s to come, the new NSW Liberal leader Kellie Sloane has already thrown her support behind Net-Zero by 2050.
Federally, we have Sussan Ley. She is under threat from Angus Taylor and Andrew Hastie, two potential conservative prime ministers. The moderates know it. But if the conservative liberals gain power while the moderates continue to control the state divisions, the Liberal Party will stay Labor-lite.
The pre-selection of Amelia Hamer in Kooyong is merely the latest and most galling symptom. Here is a candidate whose primary political pitch was that she, too, struggles as a renter – until it was revealed she owns two investment properties and sits on a $20 million family trust. This is not a representative of the forgotten people. This is a representative of the Liberal moderates who now have plenty of time to campaign for the next election.
Like the NSW council elections, watch the Liberal Party now dilly-dally as it forgets to register conservative candidates because [insert excuses here].
The Liberal moderates have a plan, and it is transparent to anyone who bothers to watch.
The moment any Liberal tries to govern as a conservative, the white-anting will begin in earnest.
Victorian and NSW moderates will brief against them, leak against them, and undermine them at every turn, all while positioning their preferred ‘sensible’ leaders for the inevitable spill.
The federal Liberal Party’s moderates are betting each way. Heads they regain control after a Taylor or Hastie failure, tails they sabotage any conservative success.
Either way, conservative government is the loser.
This is not a conspiracy theory. Empirically, it has been the operationalised strategy of the Liberal’s wet faction for the last 20 years. They would rather lose to Labor than win with conservatives. They would rather be ideologically ambivalent in opposition – where they can sip chardonnay in Kooyong and virtue-signal about climate and identity – than govern for the tradies in Penrith, the farmers in the Riverina, or the small-business owners drowning in red tape across the country.
The truth is that the contemporary Liberal Party no longer has a base, it has a hostage. The salaried middle class, the outer-suburban mortgage belt, the regional towns, and so on, these people have nowhere else to go, so the moderates treat them with open contempt. They offer Teal-lite policies to inner-city professionals who will never vote for them and expect the base to keep turning up because ‘we’re not as bad as Labor’. That is not a political strategy. It is a hostage note.
There is only one realistic path left for Australian conservatives. Walk away.
The Liberal Party in its current form is irredeemable. It is a hollowed-out shell, a brand name exploited by a faction that believes classical liberalism means whatever left-leaning editorial boards tell them it means this week. Real conservatives, those who believe in lower taxes, secure borders, affordable energy, and biological reality, must unshackle themselves from this decaying institution and build something new.
Menzies started the Liberal Party because the old United Australia Party had lost its way. History is repeating, and the solution is the same. The forgotten people are still out there. They are waiting for a party that remembers them.
The moderates can keep the Liberal name, the membership list, and their Teal-lite candidates with trust funds.
But while conservatives still have a country to save, I am struggling to see why we shouldn’t give our shoulders to One Nation’s wheel.
The old arguments about One Nation’s ability to win lower house seats won’t matter once the moderates push the Liberal Party below One Nation’s projected primary vote polling.
Pauline Hanson was suspended by an ‘overwhelming’ majority (the details of individual votes were not available at the time of writing) of the Senate for wearing a burqa (again). The result is the proof in the pudding of where the Liberal Party’s loyalties lie.
But while the Liberal moderates may have a bet each way, my money is on the exotics in this race.
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.
