Australia’s refugee problem has attracted global attention. This from the New York Times.
Rundle: The Liberal Party has nothing. Nothing
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How deeply has Howard shafted his own party? Some true believers are pointing to the 1969 period of six months or so when the Libs had a full house. They conveniently ignore the fact that this came at the end of a Liberal reign, with Labor looking like the coming thing. The Libs face years before anything can be regained - and they may even lose their pitiful redoubt, the city of Brisbane, in 2008, in which case they cease to exist as a party exercising government. Their Go with a conservative leader like Tony Abbott and it’ll be worse, in spades - the party will be deeply alienated from the baseline values of contemporary Australia, socially liberal, pro-trade union and arbitration, environmental etc. Support will nosedive. But put in an MOR leader like Turnbull, willing to make a change and an aura of new direction might be even more disastrous - since the act of changing the party would be done in its period of damnation, and Futhermore, the Liberals are faced with absolute exhaustion of any principles they were founded on, in a non-ideological period. Freedom and individual liberty? People clamour for restrictions on these, from good stuff like arbitration and work protection to the bad stuff like CCTVs anti-social behaviour orders etc (one reason why the UK Tories haven’t reinvented themselves as a freedom party). National tradition, patriotism etc? Impossible to tar Labor with a lack of that, now that the internationalist idea of socialism is long gone. Globalisation - films, foods, travel etc - make the idea of national traditions something that people feel through general symbols as part of a global symbols ‘buffet’ , whether it’s an Olympics opening ceremony or a Gangagang song. Labor is better able to tap into that feeling than the Libs are, even if Kylie led them. They got nothing, nothing. And not much to survive on in the meantime. Labor is held together through its dark ages by the ideal of fairness, however much in the breach that is honoured. The Liberals are so bereft that they don’t even have much worth splitting over. Fairness never goes away. Most of what Tony Abbott, Alex Hawke, Sophie Mirabella and others believe in, in their hearts, is actually not part of the Australian political tradition at all. It is either European conservatism (Abbott), US Christian neoconservatism (Alex Hawke) or student-union contrarian Toryism (Mirabella). Australians find the ideas and their advocates creepy and disturbing. So what should your average MOR Liberal do? Try and grab hold of the party, in the hope that Labor will be hit with a global recession, doubled by their own inexperience, and getting back in six or even three years will be possible? Or give the hard Right more than enough rope, so that the moderates can then stage a retrieval of the party, rebrand it, and leapfrog Labor on key issues? David Cameron has done it for the UK Tories. But it took him a decade. Do the Liberals have that long to live? And can we watch? |
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14 Comments
“So what should your average MOR Liberal do?”
Liberals interested in what - how - JH did for your half of our stable duopoly could read ‘Not Happy, John!’ At last. Others - ie culture war ‘Howard hater’ verballers - could go f**k themselves.
At last.
Watch the futures of Peter Hendy and his pro-business, anti-human ilk. It was people such as he who directed the Libs toward draconian measures such as Work Chances, promising Howard that the community supported them all along. Big, bad unions, my arse.
Being in Mirabella’s electorate, nothing could describe it more accurately than ‘creepy and disturbing’. And nothing gave me greater hope than to see the mighty swing against this creepiest of MP’s today. Thank God Almighty.
If Turnbull gets up, surely the first piece of legislation to float past him is a Republic referendum. Will he ‘break the nation’s heart’ again ?
against freedom? how do you get that from this tony? stop bleating slogans please
Might I suggest, to all Labor supporters, write to all surviving Liberal Party Parliamentarians, commiserate, and and urge them to choose Tony Abbot to lead them.
Two benefits -
A - More laughs
B- A more secure and long lasting Rudd Labor reign.
I realise Guy is a Howard hater but to be against freedom is really showing your comfort with dictators. I know you can’t help it but remember that nearly half of voters still voted for the right. As for creepy, Labor is full of creeps & warped weirdos.
What about good old fashioned economic liberalism? Free trade and deregulation still deliver cheap goods to suburban consumers, and with a little ‘compassionate paternalism’ thrown in they’re right for the zeitgeist. Just stay away from the labour market.
Dermot, please read the 5th paragraph which clearly states that freedom & individual liberty are exhausted princples. Don’t you find it scarey?
The process has started; it will gather pace over the coming days, weeks, months and years - the ranks of “Howard-Huggers” are thinning. It is part of Liberal Party tradition - they already hate McMahon, Gorton and Fraser - welcome to the club John.
Peter Costello, Alexander Downer, Tony Abbott, Joe Hockey, Julie Bishop and Andrew Robb working together
could have stopped that senile old man and his monumental hubris dead in his tracks. But you didn’t. I hope you all wander in the wilderness forever.
I agree. If the Liberals expense Malcolm Turnbull too quickly, he’ll never be able to lead the party “out of the wilderness”. He’s likeable, but not politically experienced enough yet. Let the right destroy the party first and then mop up with Malcolm.
You gotta love Keating’s observation today - Howard didn’t have a leadership team, he had a bunch of lemmings who followed him over the cliff. I can only add, a fitting end for a rodent.
I blame Tony Papafilis for the Coalition defeat. His ideas are precisely those that the Australian electorate have rejected and people like him need to take a cold shower followed by a long, hard look in the mirror. It’s real Tony.