While I’m not a prophet – or the son of a prophet – I’m going to make a political prediction that the Coalition are going to lose the upcoming 2025 Federal Election. As a conservative, I take absolutely no joy in stating this, but like many people I know, the Liberal party is tasting more and more like ‘Labor lite’. Do you ever want to drink a watered-down beer?
Back in November 2017, I wrote an article for The Spectator Australia arguing why the Coalition, under the leadership of Malcolm Turnbull, was ‘Labor lite’. Indeed, according to ChatGPT I have subsequently been credited with coining the phrase!
But truth be told, that was probably due in large measure to the artistic skills of The Speccie’s talented cartoonist, Ben Davis, who drew the thumbnail, as well as the current one (it cost me less than a slab too).
Cartoon by Ben Davis
Going back and reading what I wrote again though, has made me realise that sadly nothing has changed. At least with the Liberal leadership. They still haven’t learned that pandering to progressives will never win government. Back in 2017, I quoted someone who said:
True Conservatives would rather die on our feet, than on our knees. No more Progressives thanks, we want a Conservative back as leader, then and only then, will our money flow, and our supporters, and volunteers return… Our party got hijacked, by a left-leaning imposter and his mates; we want it back. Right now the people have a choice of Labor-lite, or Labor full-strength, it’s not good enough; they need to choose between Capitalism or Socialism, not a watered-down version of either.
Back then the problem was Malcolm Turnbull, but fast forward to today and it’s Peter Dutton. What both men actually really stand for is, at least to my mind, kind of unclear. It seems to be some kind of squishy centrist position which neither inspires or infuriates anyone. Hence, the use of the moniker ‘Labor lite’ seems apposite once again.
If the Trump phenomenon has taught us anything – and Dutton has done everything he can to distance himself from that particular person – it’s that people want leaders who are authentic. Who stand up for the truth even when it’s unpopular and who tell you what they really think. How has that worked out for the Republicans?
They have unashamedly taken on the climate doomsday cult – and let’s face it, their beliefs and actions demonstrate that they are a cult – by withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord, overturned the biological madness of the trans movement, have had the economic acumen to fully utilising a country’s natural resources, as well as the fortitude to deal with the consequences of our nation’s unmanageable immigration border policy.
With all due respect, and I have spoken to him about this, but this is what my mate Dave Pellowe unfortunately overlooks in his recent piece for The Spectator Australia, The lazy Liberal leader effect. Dave singles out the shadow Defence Minister, Andrew Hastie, for nearly all of the Coalition’s current woes when he’s actually one of their greatest weapons (pun intended).
Hastie has always been a man of conviction, character and courage. Just consider his public stance defending marriage, statements on freedom of speech, was one of the first to raise the warning regarding the threat posed by China, as well as how he has tirelessly represented the people in his own electorate of Canning.
What Dave Pellowe doesn’t see is that as a former captain in the SAS, Hastie also understands the crucial strategic benefit of Cabinet solidarity and especially of keeping one’s powder dry. There is a time and place to state one’s personal position on things, but in a two-party system of government, whoever the leader of a political party is also gets to make the call.
The real target Pellowe should have taken aim at is the current Liberal leader Peter Dutton. I say ‘current’ because in less than a month’s time the situation in the party room might be very, very different … if Dutton can’t win against Albanese, then he never be able to lead the party to electoral victory. And he should subsequently be replaced.
With just under two weeks to go, the best I think we can hope for is a minority Labor-Green government supported by a few independents. Then when the Australian population sees how unworkable the whole situation is we go back to the polls in 12 months’ time.
In the meantime, the Coalition needs to elect a leader who is prepared to be ‘full strength’. Someone who, like Howard and Anderson achieved, will not only have a clear vision for Australia’s future but will be prepared to argue the case. For my money, that man is obviously Andrew Hastie.
Because of his support for Ukraine some might harshly, and I think unfairly, label him a ‘war-monger’ but he is anything but ‘lazy’. And what’s more, Hastie’s experience in the military is just the kind of leadership our nation is going to need going forward. As the former Labor defence minister, Joel Fitzgibbon said recently in his ANZAC address, ‘The western world has lost the will to protect ourselves.’
But hey, let’s wait and see. And while I’m not a prophet or the son of one, but I reckon my political prediction might just be prescient.
