Labor in Victoria is rotten at two levels – economic and cultural. If the Liberal leader, Jess Wilson, and the Coalition win the forthcoming election, One Nation will likely hold the balance of power in the Legislative Council and perhaps in the Legislative Assembly. The Coalition and One Nation must work well together; if they do, they could serve as a template for a future federal alliance. But there must be a division of labour.

One Nation is most likely to replace numerous National party members. To do so, they must form a new coalition government. Not a formal one, just a deal to divide the work, not the spoils.

Policing crime and filling potholes will require significant funding, funding that cannot come from continued borrowing. As important as this basic work is, so is pride. Labor has destroyed pride among its citizenry. Victoria has become a leader in sneering at and denigrating standards of dress, speech, manners, and more. The new coalition must balance the books and restore pride in progress.

Wilson is no Jeff Kennett, the man who once fought earlier versions of the culture wars, though he seems to have softened with age (though not to Malcolm Fraser’s degree). The point is, many Victorian Liberals are genuinely soft-headed. As one Liberal recently commented to a journalist about Josh Frydenberg’s dimly disguised preparations for a Lazarus: what will he say about net zero in Toorak? Wilson, from the leafy electorate of Kew, having worked for Frydenberg and once supporting the Voice, will backslide on the culture wars.

Wilson will rightly point out that she has her work cut out for her, claiming she has to balance Victoria’s finances. And she must save Victoria’s coal-fired power stations, drill for gas, and stop the SRL East railway to nowhere.

She can do that, but One Nation must fight the culture wars and refuse support for any fiscal measures until a cultural matter has been addressed. First and foremost, abolish the Aboriginal parliament – the First Peoples Assembly of Victoria – or Gellung Warl. The Liberals have promised to do so, but will they, or will they dream up some silly alternative? Next, repeal the Statewide Treaty Act 2025, which established the Assembly.

While they are at it, the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006 is meant to preserve important heritage and artefacts; instead, it encourages industrial-scale scrutiny, keeping paid, often untrained, people in the field for as long as possible and passing the bill to developers, who then pass it on to buyers. It is killing house building in outer Melbourne and the regions.

Supporting independent schools to break the state monopoly hold over the curriculum is ground zero for the fightback. The curriculum of Victorian state schools drips with woke. It includes ‘intercultural and ethical capabilities’, code for ethnic activism and identity politics, as do the cross-curriculum priorities of ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories’, code for lies, and ‘Cultures and Sustainability’, code for black/green activism. The teachers’ unions will fight for these tooth and nail, which is why One Nation must persist for years. The Liberals will give up at the first whiff of grapeshot, so someone with the numbers has to do the hard work of de-woking Victoria.

Alongside the curriculum battle, One Nation should do everything it can to promote independent schools, which have been growing rapidly in Melbourne’s outer and growth suburbs – such as Wyndham, Hume, Melton, Casey, Whittlesea, Knox, and the Yarra Ranges – mostly swing seats. These schools reflect parents’ longing for discipline and enlightenment values, rather than the feral, grunge culture that too many school administrators, education officials and academics willingly accept in the name of enhancing a child’s right to education.

One Nation’s vow to ban burqas and niqabs in Victorian schools, including Islamic schools, will be a litmus test. If One Nation insists, mobs will block Spring St not only on weekends, as has become commonplace in Melbourne, but every day. It may be that burqas and niqabs are barriers to integration, but the issue could soak up a lot of political energy and detract from both the economic agenda and other cultural issues. One Nation may be wise to go softly on that one.

There is an Islamic-Jewish war in Australia and it is very prominent in Victoria. The big levers are immigration and citizenship, neither of which are state government matters. One Nation should work in the background on this one. Do not play into it by giving either Jewish or Islamic, or any other organisations, any public funds beyond those necessary for security. Bit by bit, dismantle the entire edifice of ethnic funding and committees. If people wish for ethnic representation, let them pay for it. Try a policy of muted multiculturalism.

Next comes withdrawal of support for the Royal Children’s Hospital Gender Clinic Melbourne. The transgender-affirmation putsch is taking a long time to die; One Nation should help it along. As part of the package, the appallingly oppressive Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Act 2021 must be abolished. The Act has cowed professionals into counselling parents of children with gender dysphoria only in an affirming way, or withholding their services.

One Nation MPs must establish a dedicated unit within their party room, with adequate support, to pursue these matters. It’s what Labor does: play the long game. The danger is that One Nation will want to get involved in the finances, but they must temper populism with the fire of woke reform. One Nation and the Coalition will need two terms to bring the finances into order and, just as importantly, to grind the woke out.