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The Middle Aged Spectator considers the Liberal Party’s Leadership Spill


 Before I begin, I am not now, and never have been, a member of a political party.

The last couple of weeks has been an exciting, and somewhat baffling, time in Australian politics.

The governing Liberal Party spent a week in turmoil, cancelled Parliament for an afternoon, and replaced its leader – at the same time changing the Prime Minister of Australia, the nation’s highest political office.

As in many western nations, politics here has become increasingly polarised in recent years. In Australia, the far right of the Liberal Party (a centre-right party which governs as the major partner of a coalition with the National Party and the Liberal National Party – yes it’s weird, and not to be confused with the Liberal Democrats) has become increasingly loud. This has happened for a number of reasons, not least of which is the rise of minor rightist parties such as Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, Australian Conservatives and Katter’s Australian Party among others. Over a series of state and federal elections over the last 15 years the Liberals have been bleeding votes to these minor parties, all of whom have managed to get some sort of toehold in the federal parliament and various state legislatures. They all seem to have had various controversies involving their members and candidates too, but that’s another unrelated story. As a result of these incursions by minor parties, the right of Liberal Party have been increasingly outspoken in an attempt to win back voters.

Presently, the hard-right of Australian politics at all levels seems to be concerned with (or angered by) the following issues: too many migrants (especially Muslims and others who won’t “assimilate”), coal mining and cheap electricity, and residual anger from the same-sex marriage plebiscite that was conducted in 2017. There is no acknowledgement of climate change as a problem, they are damning of ‘political correctness’, and believe Australia should be more strongly founded in its British and Judeo-Christian roots.

While the Parliamentary Liberal Party has a core of ‘hard-right’ politicians, these people should not be confused with the dangerous extreme right splinter groups and activist groups such as United Patriots and the Antipodean Resistance.

Over recent months, the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, a centrist or moderate in the Liberal Party, has been under pressure from the right for a number of reasons. These include:
  • ·         A belief that he is too ‘left’ to be a Liberal
  • ·         His determination to do something about carbon emissions and climate change
  • ·         Umm, not much else except that he is not Tony Abbott


In fact, the economy has been strong while he has been leader, and even after he was dumped last week, many members of the party said he had done a good job, and would be remembered as a good Prime Minister. So, why sack him?

It seems that these hard-right members had somehow convinced a significant, but not large, number of other members that Turnbull was ‘unelectable’ and needed to be replaced. And they had just the man: Minister for Home Affairs, Peter Dutton.

So out of touch are these hard-rightists that they thought Dutton would be acceptable to the nation’s electors. Frankly, it’s hard to think of someone less electable, mainly due to his role in the incarceration of refugees and asylum-seekers, who have arrived by boat, on Nauru and Manus Island. 

The issue of these people has been a festering sore in Australian politics and culture especially since The Guardian reported on many of the issues surrounding the detention centres (https://www.theguardian.com/news/series/nauru-files). We now have teenage children self-harming and suicidal, and the Government refuses to allow them to receive treatment in Australia. Dutton is the face of that.

If the Liberals wanted a leader who had a positive image in the community then they would have elected Julie Bishop, the Minister for Foreign Affairs until last week.

But these deluded hard-rightists (Abbott, Abetz, Kelly, Andrews, Christensen, Hastie among them) did not really want that. What they were after was revenge for Abbott by destroying Turnbull. (You see, Turnbull replaced Abbott as PM nearly three years ago in a similar, but better organised coup. One that actually made sense). They got that, but they might have well destroyed whatever chance they had of being re-elected at the next Federal election, too.

Tony Burke, the Leader of Opposition Business, tweeted this:
Next time you hear the Liberals and Nationals complain about Australian unions, just remember: Today they voted to stop parliament and walk off the job because they didn’t like their boss. #auspol #unions

To heighten the sense of farce about all this, those who had organised the “coup” never had the numbers they claimed! While they got rid of Turnbull, their man came second in the ballot for leader, and so now the former Treasurer, Scott Morrison is PM. How long he lasts will be interesting. He is another rich, white man from the eastern suburbs of Sydney. Effectively, Turnbull again, but this time with Pentecostalism added, so that might be interesting. (Note: despite thinking otherwise, the religious right does not hold the influence over parliament in Australia that it does in the USA).

The fallout has continued in the couple of weeks since Morrison’s promotion. A number of Liberal Parliamentarians, notably women, have complained of intimidation and bullying during the coup process. In one case, this has led to a resignation from Parliament. To the outsider, this is a political party in grave trouble. It seems as if too many older, wealthy, white men, both in and out of parliament, have become enthralled by their own sense of power and influence, to the point where they feel entitled to act as they wish to achieve their own ends.

I am sure this happens in other political parties, and other organisations as well, but rarely do we see it fall apart so publicly.

Apart from the damaged people left in the wake of this debacle, it has been fun watching.

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