Outside of mortgage repayments, motor vehicle rego charges, and council rates, politics is like an annoying blowfly that interrupts the lives of most battler families.

With the Albanese Labor government’s free-for-all spending spree finally butting up against the irrefutable laws of economics, however, it’s all about to come crashing down on battlers’ budgets.

Without a credible opposition, things will only get worse unless the Liberals pull their finger out.

Regrettably, Labor have been buying votes with public policy while the Liberals have been throwing their votes to the wind. One Nation’s thirty-year policy message is finally cutting through to the mainstream, especially on immigration. One Nation is communicating commonsense policies to address many of our economic woes, but I remain to be convinced that they can take on the role of the government-in-waiting any time soon.

Unless the Liberals continue on their blinkered, unthinking, and un-listening way, that is. I saw it captured best in a recent meme that goes something like this:

Liberal Party: ‘Why won’t our base support us anymore?’

Supporters: ‘Because you don’t LISTEN to us anymore?’

Liberal Party: ‘Why won’t our base support us anymore?’

While the mainstream media are referring to One Nation as ‘populist’, ‘alternative’, and ‘far-right’, nobody could say what the Liberal Party stands for.

It is sixty years since Sir Robert Menzies retired. He left Australia in a better place than which he found it. And while the political party he founded has since lost its way at times, it has never been in such a perilous position as it is now.

If you were to ask me who the base of the Liberal Party is today, I can tell you it isn’t me. It’s not business people. It’s not conservatives. Indeed, it would take considerable research to find those who are satisfied with the Liberal Party outside the party machine itself.

Parliament sits this week and next, with a Liberal leadership challenge expected in the second week. Andrew Hastie has dropped out of the race, with some expecting Angus Taylor to challenge Sussan Ley if he can get the numbers.

According to the ABC’s Insiders program, Deputy Leader Ted O’Brien said it was ‘his assumption that fellow frontbencher and key leadership contender Angus Taylor still supported Sussan Ley’.

While that may make the leftist echo chamber happy, for conservatives it is surely the end of the Liberal Party as we know it.

It’s as if the entire Liberal Party decided to become Don Chipp’s Democrats. That move to the left ended with Cheryl Kernot, the Democrats leader, jumping ship to the Labor Party and moving from the Senate to the lower house seat of Dickson (which Peter Dutton lost at the last election). Both Kernot’s and the Democrats’ demise followed within a few short years. There’s no room left to the left of the Liberal Party.

If Ley’s backers get their way, it’s impossible to see how the Liberals can win an election.

But can Angus Taylor pull off a leadership coup without the moderates scuttling the ship out of spite? I don’t think so. All the genuine supporters abandoned ship some time ago. Whether Taylor’s leadership can spark a revival of the once-great party remains to be seen, however it’s hard to imagine the moderates helping the conservatives to win an election. They seem hell-bent on ensuring Labor is in power for the next decade.

Until a credible opposition is established, the Albanese government is getting off scot-free for failures on every policy front. Many are suggesting One Nation will become the new opposition, but this is still a pipe dream until One Nation holds more lower house seats than the Liberals. This can’t happen until the next election, if even then.

One Nation is more likely to rise in the Senate. At the same time, reports of some 150 One Nation branches now being established throughout the country will make a huge difference to One Nation’s support base. Rumours suggest that their membership is huge, while the Liberal Party, especially in NSW and Victoria, has been bleeding members for years.

In NSW, Minns’ leadership following the Bondi massacre has seen the state opposition go even quieter than it was before. I’m still trying to work out how this is physically possible. It’s almost like they suck conservative words out of the air, never to be heard again except in some distant future like the radio waves of second world war fighter pilots bouncing back from outer space.

With Victoria now a boat anchor on the rest of the Australian economy, it’s hard to imagine how the Victorian Liberals aren’t landing any punches. You couldn’t design better conditions for an opposition. It’s the same federally.

It all comes down to the lack of fight in the Liberal Party at all levels of government.

I suspect that unless Angus Taylor steps up and fights, this will be the Liberal Party’s lasty hurrah. There is no way that Sussan Ley will fight, with the party or with Labor. One Nation is doing its best, but it still doesn’t have the training or the experience. I wish it did and it may someday, but that day is not today.

People are really hurting. Inflation is running rampant, our national security institutions are losing credibility as two-tier policing becomes a reality here as in the UK, and the threat of four interest rate increases will send many people over the edge if realised this year.

Is Angus Tayor the Liberals’ last hope? I suspect so. But if Ley wins the party room this week, it may well be the Liberals’ last hurrah. If that’s the case, it’s probably best we say hooroo now.

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.