I have committed the unforgivable sin of Australian life: I’ve switched jerseys. Unfortunately, I still barrack for Carlton, but I am no longer a card-carrying Liberal. I’ve quit.
I didn’t leave because I abandoned Menzies’ principles. I left because the Liberals did. The question you should be asking yourself isn’t why a young Australian would choose to leave, but why you, a genuine conservative, still choose to stay.
You’ve bitten your tongue as the wets and mods pushed the party to this undefined yet eminently ‘sensible’ centre and watched the blue corflutes turn suspiciously teal. And as one last nail in the coffin, you must now defend Andrew Hastie, darling of the dying right, who voted for the draconian hate speech bill not five days after he publicly said he wouldn’t.
Are you tired of winning yet?
Every rebuild attempted by conservatives through membership drives has been met with ruthless crushing via executive powers. New members are called and vetted to ensure they are not ‘someone’s’ person. Joined Family First once? Rejected. Mutual friends with a conservative? Rejected. The Liberal Party doesn’t want new members. It wants its members. So rather than wait for change, I’ve changed.
I’ve joined One Nation.
Here’s the greatest trick the moderates ever pulled: convincing educated conservatives that supporting Australian workers, sustainable immigration, and energy security was somehow ‘unsophisticated’. When did wanting affordable housing become bogan? When did questioning immigration become racist rather than economically rational? When did insisting that Australians should benefit from Australia’s resources become populist rather than patriotic?
The inner-city, small-‘l’ liberals who reflexively dismiss One Nation have confused cosmopolitanism with political nous. They’ve traded dinner-party respectability for political courage. When a business owner in Toorak dismisses One Nation while their manufacturing counterpart in Townsville embraces it, who exactly is out of touch?
I joined the Liberal Party for real issues. I worked for real conservatives like Kevin Andrews and Michael Sukkar. I care that half my degree was taught in a language that I don’t speak. I care that I’ll never be able to afford to buy in my city, let alone the suburb I grew up in. I care that we never took a vote on the quantity and quality of people coming into our country and that now it’s illegal to question that.
These are not fringe concerns. They are the central questions facing Australia’s future. And the ‘natural party of government’ won’t touch them. Dinner-party liberalism has destroyed what remained of the Liberal Party.
One Nation’s growth isn’t happening despite its positions on immigration, national identity, and Australian sovereignty. It’s happening because of them.
The Australian people are well ahead of our political class on these issues. They know that the Australian dream won’t suddenly return by servicing more debt, but by fewer people competing for housing, jobs, and services. They know our current energy policy is national economic suicide. They know that criticising mass migration is not the root cause of declining social cohesion, rising crime, and antisemitism.
And One Nation isn’t what it used to be either. It’s no longer a one-woman protest movement. The party has developed serious policy depth, attracted credible candidates with business and professional backgrounds, and demonstrated it will work constructively in parliaments across Australia.
And then there’s Barnaby Joyce, a former Deputy Prime Minister and Acting Prime Minister of Australia. Barnaby speaks for the everyman and when the everyman who held the second-highest office in the land chooses One Nation over the Nationals, that tells you something about where genuine conservatism now lives.
Yes, One Nation has baggage. But name me a party that doesn’t. The difference? One Nation’s errors have been amplified and weaponised because the party threatens the comfortable consensus of Australia’s political class. When Pauline Hanson warns about unsustainable immigration, she’s ‘divisive’ and ‘dangerous’. When the Reserve Bank issues reports saying exactly the same thing in more technical language, it’s ‘economic analysis’.
The double standard is deliberate. It’s designed to keep conservatives corralled in a Liberal Party that no longer represents them. I joined One Nation because conservatism feels vital here again. Not performative. Not managed. Not focus-grouped into meaninglessness.
There’s an energy that comes from actually believing your party will fight for its principles rather than triangulate them away. Yes, Pauline can be rough around the edges. Yes, the party lacks the institutional polish of the Liberals. But I’ll take authentic conviction over articulate capitulation every single time.
For conservatives who believe in limited government, free markets tempered by national interest, Australian sovereignty, the preservation of our culture and living standards, and the rule of law, where are you going to go?
The Liberal Party will continue its slow-motion collapse into Labor-lite centrism, chasing demographics and suburbs it cannot win while alienating the base that built it. The base that Robert Menzies represented. One Nation offers something increasingly rare in Australian politics: actual conservative conviction.
The question for disaffected Liberal voters isn’t whether One Nation is perfect. The question is whether you’re content to keep funding and voting for a party that has given up on the issues you care about most. A party that has effectively given up on you.
Their colour may be orange, but the principles are deeply, authentically those of Menzies. And they will never turn Teal.
The Liberal Party has made its choice. It’s time we made ours.
Nathan Porter is a Co-Director at Revive Australia and Convenor of the Young Australia Forum.
