The year 2024 will go down in the history books as the year in which Donald Trump triumphed over the woke mind virus, as Elon Musk memorably put it. It was the year that woke broke. Even in that simulacrum of democracy – the European Union – there was a resounding increase in votes for parties that champion national sovereignty, border security, energy sanity, and Western values, which Eurocrats did their best to ignore.

Woke broke early in Australia with the defeat of the Voice referendum in October 2023. As in the EU, the response of the establishment was to ignore the will of the people and plough on giving away national parks to indigenous groups, renaming our cities with unknown indigenous monickers and treating biological differences between males and females with the same contempt shown for the laws of physics when designing energy grids, and the laws of economics when handing out taxpayer money to favoured interest groups and rent-seekers.

All this will lead to a mighty reckoning. Yet no one should underestimate the Herculean task that Opposition leader Peter Dutton faces to win the next election.

First, he has to unite his party. This is no mean feat. The fact that the Victorian Liberal party continued to back its benighted leader John Pesutto even after he lost his indefensible defamation case to Moira Deeming shows how difficult it will be for Mr Dutton to reacquaint some Liberals with reality.

The best way to unite the party is behind a winning strategy. Here the referendum is Mr Dutton’s friend. The Coalition must target every seat that voted ‘No’ to the Voice. Invariably this means seats in the mortgage belt, the outer suburbs and the regions, not the virtue-signallers in Teal electorates.

Mr Dutton must campaign on the cost-of-living and how Labor’s nine-trillion dollar renewable-energy pipe dream will bankrupt the country and cover the continental shelf in power lines, solar panels, and turbines that need to be replaced every 15 to 20 years.

Mr Dutton must point out how deceitful Mr Albanese was not just breaking his promises, but saying virtually nothing about the Voice until after he was elected. He cannot be trusted.

Worse, if Mr Albanese clings to power after the election in a hung parliament at the mercy of the Greens, he will implement their disastrous policies. A vote for Labor will be a vote for the Greens who will throw open the borders, ban the mining of coal, and put an injecting room on every corner.

Most importantly, Mr Dutton must make this election about the defence of the fair go, the right of women and girls to compete against each other not biological men, the equality of all Australians before the law, united under one flag, defending the values that made this country great – resilience, respect, hard work, and mateship.

Vale Kevin Andrews

Speccie readers will have been saddened to learn of the far too early demise, at just 69, of long-time contributor Kevin Andrews.

Kevin was that all too rare being, a politician of conviction, integrity and courage  who fought to defend Australia’s Judeo-Christian values. To cite just a few examples, his private member’s Bill blocked the Northern Territory’s de facto euthanasia practices for 25 years. Together with Tony Abbott and Craig Kelly he founded the Monash Forum to keep electricity affordable and reliable rather than to reduce emissions. He championed family tax benefits to help parents raising the next generation and he introduced the citizenship test to emphasise the need for migrants to commit to Australian values.

Despite the ravages of cancer, Kevin appeared in the Speccie Christmas edition singing the praises of Polish freedom fighter Tadeusz Kościuszko, whose name graces our tallest mountain, and denouncing the woke left intent on demonising Western achievements and expunging place names that celebrate them. Let’s hope Kevin’s name can be given to a suitable monument to commemorate his life of service and his many achievements.