The AEC has dealt the Liberal Party an embarrassing blow, rejecting its objection to the registration of our political movement – the Libertarian Party (formerly known as the Liberal Democrats, a la Prince). We are now officially registered.

Former Senator Bob Day recently asked me why the Liberal Party seemed at every turn to be prepared to work with their enemies across the political aisle to curtail the fortunes of minor parties they should be building relationships with.

I told him parties like the Libertarian Party hold up a mirror to the modern Liberal Party that has become increasingly like the titular Portrait of Dorian Gray – fair seeming on the outside but decrepit and decaying under the surface.

The Liberal Party regards our party as a bigger threat to their continued existence than the ALP, the Greens, One Nation, or the currently electorally hibernating UAP.

In March 2022 the then-governing Liberal Party were popping champagne corks as the High Court ruled in their favour in the special leave case of Ruddick v Commonwealth.

This case affirmed the constitutionality of changes to the Electoral Act to prevent ‘other parties’ from using the word Liberal in their name where their registration post-dated that of the Liberal Party.

Leaving aside the mental gymnastics of a party purportedly espousing classical liberal values using the machinery of the State to suppress a minor party sharing an ideological heritage, the motivation for this change could not have been clearer.

In my opinion, these cartel protection laws were designed to take out a competitor – the Liberal Democratic Party founded by John Humphreys in 2001.

Surely, they thought, this would end these pesky interlopers.

It is with no small amount of satisfaction that I inform readers of The Spectator Australia, that, (as they say in the classics), ‘We’re back!’

We return to federal reregistration with undeniable proof that if we were on the minds of the Liberals in 2022, we are officially living in their head rent-free heading into 2024.

At the eleventh hour of the time permitted to object to our federal re-registration, our party was greeted with a 28-page combined objection from the Liberal Party, LNP, and National Party.

This time, the grounds for their objection were that by using the stylised initials ‘LP’ in our proposed logo, we would suggest a connection between our party and the Liberal Party that didn’t exist, or would otherwise create voter confusion.

Embarrassingly, the Australian Electoral Commission disagreed when they approved our application, rejecting the objection.

Even more embarrassingly, less than a week after their lengthy submission to the AEC objecting to our logo, the Liberal Party missed a crucial deadline to lodge a submission on redistribution of electoral boundaries.

As we head towards the next federal election, my advice for the Liberal Party would be to focus on addressing the underlying reasons their supporters are voting for and joining our party, rather than continuing to try to shoot the messenger.

Voters who have historically supported or joined the Liberal Party are confused, but we are not the source of that confusion.

They are confused as to how a party with the We Believe statement that still appears on the Liberal Party website could have presided over the Covid hysteria and resulting debt that accompanied the federal pandemic response.

They are confused as to why the leader of the Liberal Party in Victoria would be so insecure, and so quick to appease a baying intersectional mob, that he would remove Moira Deeming from their party room.

They are confused as to what would motivate the Liberal Party opposition in New South Wales to try to outdo Labor on Carbon Reduction and Net Zero policy following a term of government marked by lockdowns and reckless spending.

What the Liberal Party wants is not to be held accountable when they say they believe one thing, but do another.

We refuse to compromise our values and principles, and erstwhile supporters and members of the Liberal Party are taking their measure and liking what they see.

But it is not just members and supporters of the Liberals who are joining the Libertarian cause.

Young people who have previously voted for the ALP, and the Greens, report feeling alienated by the hysterical doomsday cults of Covid, Climate Change, and Woke intersectional politics. Our party offers a safe haven for the politically homeless.

Uniquely, our party opposes intervention or aid in disastrous foreign wars, supports criminal justice reform based on ownership of mistakes, then of rehabilitation, and calls for an end to failed prohibition policies that enrich organised crime.

With the ascension of Libertarian Javier Milei to the Presidency of Argentina and the Libertarian ACT Party governing in a junior coalition partnership in New Zealand, 2024 looks set to be the Year of the Libertarian.

The next Federal Election will see us return to representation in the Senate, and use that platform to hold whichever major party is in government to account.

Jordan Dittloff, Federal Secretary of the Libertarian Party