Although some will argue the ALP has shifted itself to the right and has sold out it’s 19th Century values in the interest of political expediency, this does not mean that the Liberal Party stands for nothing.

I also don’t know how one can suggest that the ALP “embraces the free market”. How many of your local schools had any say whatsoever in the BER building they received? I’m on the school council of a local primary school. We were clearly told that to not accept one of the ALP’s templates would mean considerable delays in getting a new building.

Faced with run down buildings completely neglected by 10 years of ALP in Victoria we had no choice but to accept Template X. Once the existing building has been knocked down (we weren’t given a choice there either) the new building will go up, exactly as directed by the Central Committee.

If that’s not socialism?

That’s partly why the Liberal Party no longer stands for anything.

Ben, if you’re on facebook, feel free to add me as a friend and you can join in our discussions there as well.

Journalists always prefer to focus on Federal issues, but State is just as important to people’s lives.

I supported the economic reforms of the Howard government, except not the final stage of workchoices - but I was not impressed with the social conservatism. I would have preferred the approach represented by John Hewson. Especially after he reconsidered his policies following the 1993 election, he would not have pursued the social conservatism of Howard.

It was the votes of the ‘Howard battlers’ that enabled Howard to do what he did. In the past, swinging voters had not been so conservative.

In relation to the Howard Battlers, they probably were doing it tough in the early 1990s due to the recession. Then there was a big property boom in Sydney and some people were buying big houses in the west. The boom crashed in about 2006 and the property values in say Kellyville dropped from $900,000 to $600,000 almost overnight. Of course, people shouldn’t have paid $900,000 in the first place, but they did. The huge mortgages that they had would have made them think they were still doing it tough, even though they had been very unwise in their borrowings.

I never really worked out who the Howard Battlers were. (Perhaps I should say “are”. As individuals, they still exist. But as a social-political class, I’m not so sure. Past tense feels right so until further notice, I shall use it.) On the one hand, they clearly genuinely felt that they were doing it tough, really tough. On the other hand, they seemed to have big houses, late model land cruisers, and to send their kids to the 2nd best private schools.

I think your irony is a bit silly here.

One of the main places they live is the seat of Lindsay in western Sydney. Kevin Rudd has tried to appeal to them with his rhetoric on ‘working families’. That has replaced the concept of ‘Howard battlers’.

For cultural evidence, try Kath & Kim.

I feel the same way as Matt.

There is a quote from Judith Brett in her quarterly essay about the Howard years, that I think is relevant. Judith says “Some people have undoubtedly changed their vote because of fear, some because of the government’s policy on asylum seekers, but many people have kept on voting Liberal for the sorts of reasons they have always voted Liberal.”

In its attempt to reach out to the ‘Howard battlers’, the Howard government did things that more long-standing Liberal voters may not have supported. Traditional Liberal voters reluctantly accepted this until in the last term of the Howard government, signs of tension were more evident. For example, even Howard recognised by 2005 that he had to take some advice from Petro Georgiou in relation to the treatment of asylum seekers. The issues relating to workchoices pretty much ended the support of the Howard battlers for the government. And so appealing to that section of the community for votes will be a less viable option.

Now the Liberal Party has to work out what direction to take next. This is the ideal time to try to get the party to place a stronger emphasis on its liberal traditions. Of course I’m not saying it will be easy.

For your first three paragraphs, bravo! There should be more expression of such sentiments.

As regards the fourth and last paragraph of your first post here, if that is what Liberal voters believed they have been doing, they have been utterly betrayed. The capital L Liberal party has been most illiberal.

I’m to the left myself but jeez I’d have expected more from you; this “article“‘s more like an undergraduate rant.

A brilliant metaphor for the distastrous intersection of socialism and the environment throughout history. Not to mention Cuba, or the USSR, or Poland, or…….etc

Or put it another way - do you know why we have so many wonderful national parks in NSW? Because most were saved from clearing by farmers under the Forestry (yes FORESTRY) Act of 1916. And then most of rest were saved by Liberals like Tom Lewis (who also created the NPWS). Labor opposed them all the way until Wran, Carr and Richardson realised there were votes in it and the rag-bag of leftover communist groups invaded and perverted the conservation movement as their own ideology collapsed in on itself.

Bird7755 do you realise how funny you are? “My left wing lecturers at my left wing university told all my left wing mates that the left wing saved the world so it must be true”.

I respect your desire to have a debate but gimme a break.

I mean even as you fight it out for dominance the place is dying with the winners foreclosing on the future. Whoever wins is still a rat. Only some brave enough and honourable enough are willing to say I won’t play, won’t compete in that sense, and swim against unlovely greed.

Fact is given a fair education and reasonable health care a person here lives 10 times better than a 17C king or queen. Just getting in my beat up 1989 Ford Laser with the radio on proves the point. When is enough enough? 100 times? 1000 times?

I don’t think I did much to simplify the article; it wasn’t too complex to begin with.

“Unfettered capitalism is killing our planet” - no it isn’t. I tried to find something in that statement that I agreed with and I can’t.

For starters, there is no such thing as “unfettered capitalism”. To some degree there are limits placed on all decisions and actions made.

Our planet is not dying. What is happening is that, due to a failure to take into account the consequences of our actions as humankind, the Earth is becoming a far less pleasant place to live. Millions will suffer due to no fault of their own.

This is nothing to do with Capitalism, it’s just Bad Management.

Capitalism can and will thrive in a regulated global market that accounts for damage to the environment and CO2 emissions.

@Robin “We have a group of people who, because of conditioning or natural inclination seem to think that they should be the managers of others and the owners of the majority of the world’s assets.” That they might have ability and a willingness to work hard can’t have anything to do with it, oh no.

“Howard’s battlers” - a remarkable piece of political chicanery that only lasted until Work Choices was unveiled. Then we saw the real John Howard and Liberal Party.

“the Liberal Party’s higher calling…” - if this were only true, however, in 60+ years I have rarely seen it within the Liberal Party. In fact it is well noted that Howard did his best to rid the “Liberal” Party of it liberals and in the process has grievously damaged the Australian body politic. If there were a true liberal party then I would be voting for it but I can’t for this incarnation of them.

Finally, it appears to me that capitalism is just another variation of feudalism. We have a group of people who, because of conditioning or natural inclination seem to think that they should be the managers of others and the owners of the majority of the world’s assets. Personally I think such people display a psychological weakness either brought about by sheer misplaced egotism or a deeply held fear of existence (reverse Existentialism if you like). Either way, we still have a form of Feudalism as our dominant economic model; on one hand the ‘managed’ caught in economic servitude caused by rampant personal debt (which Howard encouraged by the way) while the managers (lords etc of a bygone era) have their hands held at every opportunity with their economic sins forgotten conveniently by the other lords of the realm who likewise sup at the expense of the multitude. And this goes for both sides of politics.

Full marks to Norman for opening this up. Crikey is really a great place to gather.

Unfettered capitalism is killing our planet - and you have done the classic right wing thing of if you criticise this then making everyone out to be 100% in the opposite direction - there are obviously a few points on the scale one can take - when you take on board an ideology you do not have to take it on board 100!! I think that you have missed the point of this article completely - people will look back and say ‘how crazy” = Neoliberlism is right wing socialism Marshall

Matthew - liberalism shoud be defended but if you are involved with all the big fights (and I have worked for org’s that are) you will know what all know - that the human rights achievements come from the Left - you pick up small l liberals but the years of leg work comes from the left. My lecturers were involved in getting rape as a war crime up - they said that it took 13 years international (from the Left) to achieve this - and this was without alot of right wing objection.

As far as I can tell it is one of the few genuinely independent news services in Australia. This website shows that good journalism can be profitable as well as fearless and (to my perception) be run with little or no editorial control.

I also love crikey.com.au because usually the articles are terrific, thought provoking, well written pieces. It is wonderful to sit at my desk, eat a sandwich, and open my mind to new ideas and alternate viewpoints. It’s a refreshing change from the poorly manufactured articles full of cliches and overused banal phrases such as “future historian, looking back” or “neoliberal” that most modern journalism resorts to.

Well, up until today it was.

Thanks, Dr Abjorensen for this informative and refreshingly original piece. I really feel better informed than I was 3 minutes ago. A wholly original world of thought has been opened before me.

Capitalism is evil! Socialism is righteous! Liberal bad! Labor good!

Oh well, maybe next week. Now back to my unfortunately resilient Capitalism.

We believe that Liberalism - the urge and the right of the individual to be free - is the greatest political idea humanity has found. It dragged millions out of poverty in the West in the 19th and 20th centuries and it is doing so in the East this century.

In the last two centuries liberalism prevailed over the tyrannies of slavery, militaristic imperialism, facisim, socialism and insitutionalised racism. Recently it has seen millions of people, at elections from South Africa to East Timor to Iraq to Iran and Afghanistan line up to cast their vote depsite great personal discomfort and risk.

The voters of Australia licence to us, the Liberal Party of Australia, the heavy responsibility of protecting and promoting this sacred idea, and there’s enough of us left who understand this responsibility to not let our party die.

Matt Hingerty

“Turnbull and company keep on talking about the need to save jobs — as if they care”

“Capitalism, unfortunately, is always resilient”

What a load of contemptible ideological drivel.