The National Party had a chance to give conservatives a sense of dignity by electing Matt Canavan as their new leader. Instead, we will get more of the same. This will embolden the Liberal left (I can’t believe such a term even exists) against Angus Taylor and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price. The worst outcome will be a Sussan Ley-Tim Wilson win tomorrow. I think that will spell the end of the Coalition as we know it.
Each partner of the Coalition is in turmoil after the election that reduced their Lower House seats to 43 (based on the current count). The NSW Liberals share a large portion of the blame. They were put under federal administration by Peter Dutton but that is now likely to be all up in the air.
Alan Stockdale and Richard Alston have revealed that factional infighting in the NSW Liberals has led to the loss of thousands of members. With moderate Jason Falinski pushing the Tim Wilson barrow, a Ley-Wilson win will ensure even more members leave the party.
Senator Hollie Hughes, rejected by her party and losing her senate seat after losing preselection, has been out and about trying to bring down Angus Taylor’s leadership chances. Her tenure ends on June 30. Hughes, a member of the moderate faction, is in supporting Sussan Ley. If the Liberal left was anything like Labor, Hughes would be called a ‘rat’.
Angus Taylor has rejected Hughes’ claim as ‘false and frankly low’.
Different reports have both Taylor and Ley picked as the winners of tomorrow’s party room ballot. However, Wilson is yet to show his hand and there appears to be some last-minute numbers for Ley.
Liberal Party director Andrew Hirst has approved recently undeclared seat winners to vote in the leadership ballot. These include Menzies (Tim Wilson – Moderate), Bradfield (Gisele Kapterian – Moderate), Flinders (Zoe McKenzie – Centrist), and Longman (Terry Young – depends on the wind), and newcomers to Grey (Tom Venning) and Monash (Mary Aldred) but not Kooyong’s Amelia Hamer (who appears to have been defeated by Teal Monique Ryan).
Speaking after his re-election as leader, David Littleproud said:
‘I’m proud of our achievements over the last three years, the last three years where I think we set the policy agenda.’
If that was the Nationals setting the policy agenda, I would hate to see what following Chris Bowen’s agenda would look like.
In other news, Labor’s Chris Bowen has been re-appointed as Minister for Climate Propaganda and Expensive Energy, so there will be plenty to shout about for the next few years. So much for decoupling our energy policy from the globalist agenda.
If tomorrow brings a Ley-Wilson win, we can kiss our future goodbye.
Dr Michael de Percy @FlaneurPolitiq is The Spectator Australia’s Canberra Press Gallery Correspondent. All opinions in this article are the author’s own.