2 June 2022
Business Has Gone Woke – So Libs Should Focus On Dandenong Not Davos
Peter Dutton was right to dismiss corporate Australia as being more in step with Labor and the Greens. The automatic and close relationship between the centre-right of politics and big business is over. Anthony Albanese’s election victory has prompted all sorts of interesting reactions. Apparently, company boards should now start purging their ranks of “right-wingers”. That’s the view of Graeme Bricknell of
24 May 2022
The Liberal Party Lost By Standing For Nothing
Rather than pander to a loud and privileged elite in teal seats, the Liberal Party must start asking itself what it believes in and seeking support for policies that reflect those beliefs. If its behaviour in the three days since it lost the 2022 federal election is anything to go by, the Liberal Party is going to spend the next few years
12 May 2022
Liberal ‘Broad Church’ Is Now An Inter-faith Dialogue
Robert Menzies didn’t start the Liberal Party to fight for the forgotten people living in harbour mansions. In a speech he made when he was prime minister, John Howard famously described the Liberal Party as a “broad church”, accommodating the political traditions of both classical liberalism and conservatism. Subject to some minor qualifications Howard’s analysis was accurate. But that was
22 August 2018
Peter Dutton Will Not Solve The Existential Crisis Of The Liberal Party
Tuesday’s Liberal leadership ballot settles nothing. Malcolm Turnbull’s victory margin of 48 votes to 35 practically guarantees another challenge to the Prime Minister, if not from Peter Dutton than from any number of contenders. Neither does yesterday’s vote settle the fundamental question the Liberal Party has been been grappling with since the retirement of John Howard and Peter Costello. For a decade the
8 December 2017
The Marriage Row That The Liberal Church Can Never Get Over
How broad is “broad” is the question confronting the federal Liberal Party. It’s the question the party has been avoiding for the decade since the departure from parliament of John Howard and Peter Costello. The debate currently engulfing the Liberals about how to accommodate religious freedom while legalising same-sex marriage is the most recent flashpoint of the emerging fissures in the
24 November 2017
A Decade Of Bad Government Since The Rudd Government Was Elected
Friday marks 10 years since the Rudd government was elected. It’s 10 years to the day since Australia last had good government. On 24 November 2007, after portraying himself as “John Howard-lite”, Kevin Rudd became prime minister. Some might argue it’s been downhill for the country ever since. It’s also a measure of how much the country has changed that
5 October 2017
Repeating Turnbull’s Blunder
Watching the Conservatives fall apart over leadership gives me uncanny déjà vu after Australian politics. In the last eight years, Australia has had four Prime Ministers. So far, Britain has had three – and everyone can’t stop talking about the fourth. Theresa May’s closing speech at the party conference this week was supposed to reboot her prime ministership. It was disastrous in presentation but, more importantly,
15 September 2017
Malcolm Turnbull’s Thoroughly Liberal Blasphemies
What’s been obvious to anyone outside the Canberra bubble for the last six months might finally have dawned upon Malcolm Turnbull and his ministers. The Coalition can win the next federal election – if it wants to. And of course the issue it can win on is cheap and reliable electricity. The public like renewable energy, but only in theory. And the
31 July 2017
The Right Needs To Stop Pandering To The Left
Britain’s chattering classes have reached a new consensus: liberal free market economics is unpopular and a failure. This is an extraordinary shift. Just 20 years ago, as the Soviet Union collapsed, the prevailing view – brought to the fore by Francis Fukuyama – was that liberal market ideas would dominate from then on. Most of Asia was adopting the market model; Margaret Thatcher
7 July 2017
Why Should Conservatives Support Malcolm Turnbull’s Liberals?
When a few days ago Immigration Minister Peter Dutton urged “rusted on conservatives” to continue supporting the Liberal Party he was giving voice to the hopes of every federal Liberal MP sitting on a close margin. The trouble is that while Dutton wants the support of “rusted on conservatives”, his party haven’t returned the favour. Under Tony Abbott “rusted on
