The Liberal Party Verging On An Existential Crisis John Roskam Warns

Over the weekend Institute of Public Affairs Executive Director John Roskam, gave comments to the Australian and Fairfax media on the current state of the Liberal Party.

He told Joe Kelly at the Australian:

 “There is a crisis of conservatism facing the Liberal Party because, if the Coalition is defeated at the next election, there is no legacy from over the past five years on which they can rebuild,” Mr Roskam said.

“This looms as an existential challenge for the Liberal Party given its embrace of Labor-lite policies and a serious fracturing on the conservative side of politics. The Liberal Party will be forced to reassess its fundamental values and political strategy if it is to remain competitive into the future.”

Read John Roskam’s comments to the Australian here

He goes on to say, “the moderates now don’t seem to believe in economic reform” but blasted the leading conservatives in cabinet for lacking the “the clout to adopt positions which would be accepted by the rest of the parliamentary party.”

“There has been a failure of policy and persuasion by the government to convince voters and the Senate of the importance of key conviction issues like spending cuts, reduced taxation, industrial relations reform and free speech,” he said.

John Roskam also spoke to Michael Koziol at Fairfax Media, where he said:

“What the Liberal Party faces is verging on an existential crisis. How this resolves itself, no-one knows,”

“When the Liberal Party raises taxes, increases government spending, imposes extra regulations and red tape and does not stand up on key cultural questions – you must ask the question: is the Liberal Party as we’ve known it since the 1940s exhausted?”

“A lot of MPs actually don’t want to face these questions. When they take more than a few moments to think about it, the truth is perhaps too confronting to be contemplated.”

Read John Roskam’s comments to Fairfax Media here