I find it quite annoying that the media suggests that One Nation’s ‘slump’ in the polls (that keeps them 6 per cent ahead of the Liberals) was because of Pauline Hanson’s ‘monoculture’ speech.

To make matters worse, all the attention is on conservatives while Albo and his merry bunch steal from the ‘Lifters’ to give to the ‘Leaners’. It’s a shifty version of Robin Hood.

Recently, I wrote about Angus Taylor’s genuine cool as opposed to the Prime Minister’s manufactured lameness. I also wrote about the challenge facing One Nation. What seems to be happening is an extension of the green-left social media campaign that is run by grassroots individuals driven by green-left ideology. They’re having a field day with conservatives.

All this means is that the Albanese government, the worst government in Australian history, is winning. They are sending us to the third world while simultaneously bringing it here. And we are letting it happen.

If One Nation are on the rise because of the Liberal Party, it begs the question: How will the Liberal Party atone for their ‘failings’?

It is a fair question. But the question is not about Angus Taylor. It is about the Liberal Party itself.

I still have my bronze keyring tag from the 1990s embossed with a profile of Sir Robert Menzies. On the reverse it is emblazoned with the words, ‘The Liberal Party stands for the individual, the family and free enterprise.’ The political party that produced that bronze tag no longer exists. It was absorbed into the Liberal National Party in Queensland almost 18 years ago.

Although the Howard government ran out of steam in 2007, especially in relation to technology and the rise of social media (requiring high-speed broadband), it did not compromise the creed of the individual, the family, and free enterprise.

Under Howard, the political expediency of prohibiting new nuclear reactors enabled the GST. The Howard government and the decade prior saw some of the most intense economic reform in Australian history.

We must, however, acknowledge that economic liberalism, known as economic rationalism in Australia, was a global trend.

In recent times, Woke became the global trend, championing decolonisation, critical race and radical gender theory, and other ideas that have effectively weakened Western societies.

For the Liberal Party, its best result was under Tony Abbott, a conservative. His leadership, however, reflecting the trends of the previous Rudd-Gillard-Rudd governments, saw his electoral success relegated to news-cycle issues that enabled Malcolm Turnbull to secure the leadership.

Turnbull’s 2016 electoral results were disastrous. By 2018, in a strange game of last man standing, Scott Morrison emerged as the unlikely Prime Minister. He jagged the 2019 election just in time for the pandemic to turn the world upside down. Woke ideas flourished.

During the pandemic, I recall John Howard’s advice to Josh Frydenberg, then Treasurer, words to the effect of ‘now is not the time for ideology’. It has all gone pear-shaped for the Liberal Party from that time on. Many of the Party’s actions, even Tony Abbott’s, were not in the spirit of the individual, the family, or free enterprise.

Rather than return to the Party’s creed, Peter Dutton attempted to show his soft side. The man who took on Australia’s national security agencies and forced them to do their jobs suddenly went limp. It was a disastrous result and, in my opinion, one where his advisors are largely to blame.

Sussan Ley then went full Labor-lite. It was as if she had listened to Scott Morrison in the 2022 election debate where he agreed with Albanese that the Labor Party made all the great innovations in Australian politics, but the Coalition ended up having to pay for them. Talk about a non-policy. It had me cringing worse than Fawlty Towers.

Ley’s resignation after Taylor won the leadership was a relief for conservatives. But straight away the party’s machine men appeared to undermine, or at least curtail, Taylor’s leadership qualities.

If we look at what Angus Taylor and Tony Abbott called the ‘failings’ of the Liberal Party, abandoning individuals, families, and free enterprise was at the core.

The question now is how can the Liberal Party atone for its failings?

The 20 per cent primary poll results are surely the punishment. And many have said that the Liberal Party is like a big ship that takes time to turn around. But turn around to what? Where is this ship going?

Angus Taylor’s recent speech mentioned One Nation only a few times. However, of the fight with One Nation, renegade SA Liberal Senator Alex Antic said, ‘I don’t think it’s helpful.’ Indeed.

Meanwhile, completely in the clear despite a disastrous economic and social media record, the Prime Minister is cruising.

That’s not to say there isn’t time for the Liberal Party to pull its socks up. The Liberal Party is not in the same position as the United Australia Party under Menzies during the second world war. One Nation is on the rise, but it is still electorally insignificant in comparison. And our current crises of cost of living and national identity are not a critical juncture in the way the war in the Pacific became in 1941.

The problem for the Liberals is multifaceted. They need to appear as a coherent team capable of government. Factional infighting is normal in national politics, but when it is ever-present in the media it is toxic. John Howard at times had lines of command deep into state branches in a way that was uncanny. But it was effective.

For Angus Taylor, the state divisions in NSW and Victoria are dysfunctional and nothing has been done about this for years. They continue to bleed members. Queensland teeters on the edge. WA is on the ropes. SA is still licking its wounds from the recent election. Meanwhile One Nation is building grassroots support, whether its policies are costed or not.

Can the Liberals atone for their failings through policy? I doubt it. I think there needs to be a reckoning in the state divisions. They need to ask their members and supporters to forgive them.

But will the factions give Taylor and Abbott the support they need to bring about the desperately needed internal reform? It has nothing to do with Angus Taylor personally or One Nation as a political combatant.

The big question is whether voters can trust the Liberal Party to follow its creed: For the individual, the family, and free enterprise. Aside from Stop the boats! and the Aukus security arrangements, all we’ve seen from the Liberal Party is Labor-lite.

Meanwhile, Albanese is banging on about AI. Will the Coalition join Labor in controlling AI like they did with youth access to social media?

I asked Grok just now, ‘What are the Liberal Party’s major “failings” in Australian politics?’ Funnily enough, Grok responded:

‘Critics and post-election analyses point to a mix of structural, strategic, leadership, and branding issues. These are often framed in the context of the “Uniparty” critique (shared by some conservatives) – a perception that the major parties have converged on big-government approaches, losing touch with traditional bases – while Liberals struggle to differentiate themselves effectively from Labor on key voter concerns.’

Can Taylor and Abbott differentiate the Liberals from Labor amid the current factional melee? Are Liberal MPs actively working in the off season to improve their parliamentary game? Or are they marking time?

With many Australians stuck in jobs they hate because the cost-of-living crisis continues to deepen, one would hope that the Liberal Party, one that cares deeply for individuals, families, and free enterprise, would be doing all they can to help individuals and families who are suffering as Labor oversees the collapse of free enterprise.

Either that or they need to come clean with their new creed. Until then, it is better to be enthusiastic about living as one nation than it is to be stuck with an establishment that is no longer working for the common people.

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.