by STEVEN TRIPP – DO YOU remember the John Howard era? The era of sound economic management and stable leadership.
Love him or hate him, John Howard was a man of conviction. In 1998, he took the GST to an election, despite it being deeply unpopular.
- For true Liberals, their biggest threat is not opposing Parties, but the factional swamp creatures within their own.
- The Liberal Party is a shadow of its former self.
- All that is left are the Liberals in name only.
He believed it would benefit the nation. More importantly, he relentlessly sold it to voters.
The Howard Government was determined to leave Australia in better shape than they found it.
DEBT
By the time Howard and Peter Costello were done in 2007, they had turned Labor’s net debt of $96b into a $29b net financial asset surplus.
Fast forward to 2025. Australia is experiencing its biggest economic downturn in decades. The Reserve Bank has spiked interest rates to control inflation, business insolvencies increased by 39 per cent in 2023-24 from the previous year and the prospect of owning a home for young Australians is fantasy at best.
Then there is debt. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported Australia’s general government net debt reached $846.6b in 2023-24.
Under these conditions, the Party of sound economic management should have been returned to government at the election.
Instead, the Liberals were decimated, and Peter Dutton lost his seat. The Liberal Party is a shadow of its former self.
Can you imagine John Howard campaigning in a “cost-of-living” election with a lead policy to reduce the fuel excise by 25c a litre for 12 months?
Speaking on The Outsiders the day after the election, Liberal Senator Alex Antic summed it up best by saying: “Many of the policies were … reminiscent of a mobile phone contract. You know, for the first 12 months you’ll get something free…”,
“Unfortunately, we sent the troops into battle without ammunition.”
Australians expect more from the Liberal Party. Is it little surprise that their primary vote has decreased from 53 per cent in 1975 to 31.7 per cent in 2025?
Beyond economic policy, the Liberal’s campaign was a disaster. A turning point was the disendorsement of Ben Britton, the candidate for Whitlam, for comments he made on The Ark Podcast.
Britton argued that women should not serve on the front line of the Defence Force and said, “Your society only exists because of women. Why would you want to sacrifice them in war?” Arguing against sending our “beautiful women” to be slaughtered on the front lines of war was clearly too broad for the Party that claims to be a “broad church” of ideas.
POLLING
The true story was that internal Liberal polling suggested that Britton was three points up in Whitlam and could win the seat.
Agitated, the Liberal Left “moderate” faction swooped into action, threatening Britton with even more damning material and unproven claims, all of which were denied and no evidence ever surfaced.
Speaking on 2GB, Britton said: “What’s occurring within the NSW division right now is a systematic plot from the Left faction working hand in glove with members of the Right faction, who are traitors, to stab Peter Dutton in the back, ensure he doesn’t get elected as Prime Minister, so they can roll him as leader.”
For true Liberals, their biggest threat is not opposing Parties, but the factional swamp creatures within their own.
Speaking in the Senate in March 2022, former Liberal Concetta Fierravanti-Wells addressed her Party by saying “the fish stinks from the head”.
She added: “There is a putrid stench of corruption emanating from the NSW division of the Liberal Party.”
Following the 2023 NSW State election, former Premier Nick Greiner conducted a “Review of the Liberal Party’s 2023 NSW Election Result”.
The review highlighted the role of the NSW State Executive, by stating “inter-factional toxic dysfunction remained rife and it failed overall in its duty to act as a responsible governing board”.
In April 2023, the Liberals lost the Aston by-election. They had held it since 1990.
Monash Universityʼs senior lecturer in politics Zareh Ghazarian said the defeat was a “monumental shift”.
He added: “The Party has been so focused on its internal operation that it has cut oxygen away from any further discussions about what the Party wants to do if it were to win government or what the Partyʼs broader policies are.”
SACKED
A year later, the NSW State Executive and its President, Leftist Don Harwin, were sacked by the Federal branch of the Party.
It was deemed necessary, after the Division failed to lodge the applications of Council candidates in the lead up to the 2024 Local Government election.
Rumours of factional infighting and manoeuvring were to blame.
The civil war of the factions has deeper roots, with the battle for democratic reform in the Party showcasing the rift within the Liberals.
Addressing a “Democratic Reform” meeting branded as a “call to arms” in 2016, Tony Abbott said: “For too long, the Party hierarchy has expected the rank and file to turn up, to pay up and to shut up.”
Democratic reform was an attempt by conservatives within the Party to grant rank and file members a greater say in pre-selecting candidates.
The sentiment within the movement was best summed up by Senator Bill Heffernan, who said: “You can’t get a cleanskin up in this Party anymore. Unless you’ve bared your arse to the factional warriors you have no chance.”
Despite succeeding, the reforms were not worth the paper they were written on, which was evident in the lead up to the 2022 Federal election
Ignoring the reforms, Scott Morrison, Dominic Perrottet and former NSW Liberal President Christine McDiven hand-picked 12 candidates.
They were known as the “captain’s picks”.
Walter Villatora, a leader of democratic reform, warned that the sidelining of Party members would start “a civil war in the Party” and could “potentially derail the Morrison Government’s already fragile electoral prospects”. He was right.
Meanwhile, NSW State Executive member, Matthew Camenzuli, launched legal action against Morrison and the captain’s picks, which culminated in the High Court.
Ultimately the Courts ruled they did not have authority to rule on internal Party politics.
Camenzuli was expelled from the Party and forced to pay legal costs. Victims of this factional infighting are now scattered across the political scene.
Gerard Rennick launched People First. Craig Kelly and John Ruddick lead the NSW Libertarian Party. Russell Broadbent ran as an Independent, as did Britton and Camenzuli.
Bernie Finn led the Family First Senate ticket in Victoria.
Instead of focusing on providing Australians with a credible alternative to Labor, the Liberals have their guns aimed at themselves.
All that is left are the Liberals in name only.PC
Sadly, the situation continues to worsen. I cannot believe that the liberal men are hiding behind a woman’s skirt, hoping she will bring better days, particularly when she is making things worse. Grow some balls boys. Identify and appoint a strong , intelligent leader, even if that means someone from the senate. There are one or tow there. Disendorse the bludgers who get elected, then do NOTHING. If necessary, appoint Barnaby Joyce as an interim leader/spokesman of the COALITION (leaving each party with its individual leader).
Downward trend from the Turnbull & cronies backstabbing,from 14 seat majority to oblivion,top heavy with moderates will never get us genuine conservatives back as voters.
Conservatives are not organised, moderates are, end of story.
Fracturing of the conservative vote into many tiny parties is NOT going to lead us to another Menzies type Govt, its just diluting any chance to stop Australia being run by the Left for the rest of my lifetime. Albo cant believe his good luck!!! and the Greens and Teals will laugh like jackals.
And thanks to stories like this from Politicom we will likely have Labor/Greens and Teals in power until hell freezes over… Hastie, Canavan and Antic have got a hell of a job in front of them.
Enjoy!!!
The current attempt to revise the LPA NSW constitution is prima facie an attempt to democratise it and regain wider support. It may be too late. If this does not succeed, and despite it factions control preselections, key executive positions, etc., there will be another rump party to go with those already espousing liberal and similar principles from a center-right perspective. Conservative and center-right voters will likely be spread to the winds. The preferential voting system is the Liberals arch enemy. The May 3 election produced 93 seats for Labor with 34% of the vote, i.e., 62% of the Reps seats. The Coalition with 32% vote got only 43 seats, 28% of the Reps seats. That’s the effect of the preferential system that gives many voters multiple votes. The Coalition demonstrably performed very poorly for reasons not directly relevant here.
Sussan, us genuine conservatives have left the party following the Turnbull, moderates backstabbing of Tony Abbott. You had a chance to win Bradfield with Warren Mundine but elected to run with a female moderate & look how that went. Do really believe us disenchanted conservatives are going to return just on the pretext of more female candidates? Please get real, it’s your policies & leftists that are killing the party. We can’t have 2 socialist majors – doesn’t work that way.
John, where are ex-Liberals going? Alternative parties, or are they saying ‘Screw ’em all’?
Unfortunately “Screw them all” simply becomes “Screw us”
John, its time to fight, not run. The non left vote is fractured but not impossible to repair.
The once great Liberal Party will never again get into Govt as the leaders. It is way past time that the microscope and inquiry was focused on Photios; Harwin; Kean; and Hawke. Thousands of us normal loyal Liberal Party members have just left the Party over the past 14 or so years for one LARGE REASON. We loathe and detest these upstart warlords who seem to believe they hold the rights to control and own this once great Political Party. Until these ego driven tosspots are either removed totally; or at least had their powers reduced to zero; the Party might as well shut up shop.
This is why NSW and Australia needs a new conservative party
A very accurate statement by Steve Tripp highlighting the factional curse of the Party with toadying up to factions warranting advancement in the ranks rather than the display of any sort of merit.
Looks like my vote will be going to One Nation in future, unless all Conservative MP’s join the Nationals.
Need to do better than that Barbara
The wheel just keeps on turning.
I remember a time when the Liberals ruled and Labor was fractured. In Victoria, under Bolte and then Hamer, Labor was caught up with internal battles. They showed a lot of the same attitude the Libs show now, chasing some illusion of self-image and having no clue what the voters wanted or expected.