Since Tony Abbott’s ouster, the Liberal bosses’ efforts to purge conservatives from power has been in stark defiance to global and national trends. Despite mass defections to One Nation, despite the triumph of Eurosceptics in Britain and Hungary, despite the ascendency of Donald Trump, despite the collapse of the Left in France, the Liberals — ostensibly Australia’s centre-right ‘broad church’ — has done its very damnedest to isolate populist conservatives from their own party. They consistently refused to accept democratic reforms that would at least give the rank-and-file a means to make their grievances heard. No one could seriously blame Cory Bernardi for leading his people out of subjugation in Malcolm Turnbull’s Egypt.
What happens next remains to be seen. Very possibly the newly-minted Conservative Party will become a de facto third member of the Coalition, assuming the balance of power and working with Coalition Tories to drag Turnbull to the right.
It may well be, however, that the two-party system is re-entering its cycle of death and rebirth. Australian politics has always been a contest between the Labor Party and the not-Labor Party; everything else is a formality. With the Liberals’ ruling Left faction now virtually indistinguishable from Labor’s Right — with its agenda of economically stagnating environmental regulation, progressive social engineering, republican agitation, and all those pet projects that sank Turnbull’s first stint as leader — the Liberal Party has evidently failed in its first and only duty. The PM and his cronies are woefully mistaken if they think nostalgia for Menzies and Howard or loyalty to the Liberal apparat will stop anti-Labor conservatives from making their home elsewhere.
And then there’s the Nats. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that Barnaby Joyce would much prefer to do business with men like Bernardi and George Christensen than Turnbull and Chris Pyne. (That’s to say nothing of Pauline Hanson, Bob Katter, and other third-party Rightists.) MPs and voters alike should consider the very real possibility that this prospective Conservative Party will take the Liberals’ place as the dominant centre-right electoral force.
Ultimately, no one loses from Bernardi’s split — no one, that is, except those moderate godfathers who’ve so flagrantly and smugly abused their power, bullied their factional rivals, and alienated their voting base. Australians will be able to vote against Labor’s policies and ideology, not just its name. Conservatives will have a single national vehicle that represents their values and interests; this agonizing diaspora of third-party pan-flashes will finally come to an end.
Two years ago I endorsed Turnbull’s coup against Tony Abbott, thinking conservatives were best served by making broad concessions to the centre. The last two-odd years have been a testament to my naiveté, and that of those who believed as I did. The Australian political establishment has shifted so far to the Left that there’s now virtually no distinction between ‘moderates’ and radical progressives. We no longer have any common cause, no mutual interests. We’re all alone.
Senator Bernardi may be the only man in Canberra wiling to stand up, unequivocally and without apology, for the conservative cause. We shouldn’t hesitate to stand by him. There will be time to discuss preferences and alliances later. Now’s the time to tell the Left that conservatives won’t be bowed. We won’t sacrifice our principles to keep them in power.
Of course we shouldn’t put all our chickens in one basket, and I’ve learned better than to try and play kingmaker. But as a conservative who’s been sorely betrayed by those in whom I (foolishly, it’s now clear) put my trust, I’m willing to bet on the man who literally wrote the book on the Conservative Revolution.
When the time comes to take to the barricades, Senator, you can count me in. History is finally on our side. It’s time to make Australia great again.
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