by PAUL COLLITS – THE Liberal Party will continue its trajectory to political oblivion if it fails to find new and substantial talent in the next electoral cycle.
One opportunity for an infusion of new blood occurs in the seat of Castle Hill, in Sydney’s affluent and religious-tending north west.
- The front-runner for Liberal pre-selection in Castle Hill is the very capable Noel McCoy.
- He believes in personal freedom, God, family and nation.
- Bizarrely, the Liberal’s factional Left – along with their media mates – write him off as “far Right”.
Here the front-runner for Liberal pre-selection is Noel McCoy.
In the same way that the new Italian Prime Minister is called a “fascist” for believing in God, family and nation, so too people like Noel are routinely (and bizarrely) called “far Right” for believing in similar things as Giorgia Meloni.
CLICHES
This just goes to show how far the “centre” has moved Leftwards in the past two generations. It also shows how dumb the legacy media really is, which spouts these cliches.
That factional games are going on in Castle Hill – with the recently “retiring” David Elliott seemingly un-retiring for one last factional stoush – ahead of the pre-selection speaks to the size of the task ahead.
I am an old Labor man, brought up in the tradition of old Labor values, before the ALP was taken over by those who, as Peter Walsh used to say, believe in fairies (in every sense) at the bottom of the garden.
As a result, my earlier enthusiasm for the Liberal Party was never tribal, in the way that it is with former conservative leaders like John Howard and Tony Abbott.
Their fidelity to the cause is endearing. Yet they are in error in that they continue to believe that the Liberal Party is still a “broad church” as once it surely was.
Yet anyone remotely in tune with “club sensible” and believing in individual freedom and the small State, even if he or she has stopped voting Liberal, should welcome any return to form by the Party, and cheer on those who, like Alex Antic and Gerard Rennick, are still in the fold and still fighting the good fight.
Given the forthcoming election in NSW, the number of ministers and Liberal and Nationals members leaving the parliament (twelve and counting) and the more than 50-50 chance of a change of government, March 2023 beckons as an opportunity for renewal and (perhaps the last) opportunity for the Liberal Party to show us again that it is fit for purpose.
FAITHFUL
By this I mean fit for competent governance and faithful to liberal and conservative principles.
With so many MPs leaving, there will be, by definition, some new blood – unless there is a total rout at the election.
If the election is a teaching moment for the Liberals, then the aftermath is surely an opportunity for renewal. And for this, fresh blood will be critical.
One of the great old Labor men is Joe de Bruyn, of the Shoppies’ Union (aka the Shop, Distributive & Allied Employees Association).
I used to wonder how Joe could still be a member of the grand old Party, given its departure from all the things in which it used to believe. (A little like the Liberals.) You know, representing the working class and its values of family, hard work, community and tradition.
One of Joe’s firm views was that good people should continue to join all the political Parties, in order to strengthen them, and so strengthen the whole system of representative democracy.
To hold them to their founding principles. He believed, too, in the two major Parties as vehicles for good governance.
An infusion of talented new people of conviction and integrity is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for renewal.
There are four things needed to restore the faith of Liberal members and voters in NSW – hose current MPs out the stable door; de-fang the rampant, ungodly factions; seek to inch the now simply awful nationals back towards the political centre; and apologise for past blunders and mis-governance, starting with, but not confined to, the COVID tyranny they imposed.
INSTINCTS
Noel McCoy is a partner with an international law firm. He has specific expertise in finance and over twenty years’ experience in restructuring and insolvency. He is widely published in his area of professional expertise.
He has the right (no pun intended) policy positions and instincts to lead change. His local activist group, The North West Forum, promotes itself as “… a group of ordinary every day Australians from North West Sydney who are concerned about the future direction of our country”.
Its task – “… to create an informed, engaged and active citizenry to be effective in making change”.
The Forum’s current leading campaign is titled “lockdowns: never again”. Indeed.
The Forum has had events featuring the Christian perspective on vaccine mandates. That is, the true Christian position, not the confected, supine version dished out by the mainstream churches in NSW, who chose to go along to get along.
The Forum has opposed vaccine mandates for teachers. Another policy disgrace. Counter-culturally, the Forum has featured the storied yet ostracised American hero Dr Peter McCullough.
The Liberal Party’s participation in the COVID State, its abandonment of real medical science, its capitulation to health bureaucrats, its willingness to dictate to people it frightened into submission is a blight on its history. It must be corrected.
McCoy’s group has been both correct and courageous in promoting this issue.
The Northwest Forum exhorts its supporters as follows:
“You be the change. Well, the class of 2023 must adopt this as its own campaign slogan. Otherwise, the Liberal Party in the State that has produced all of the last four Liberal prime ministers – yes, with decidedly mixed results – will disappear into the dustbin of history, to be supplanted by those who would do the heavy lifting in achieving the goals which the Party itself used to cherish.”
McCOY
Noel McCoy’s web site has an interesting quote from the great Milton Friedman: “I do not believe that the solution to our problem is simply to elect the right people. The important thing is to establish a political climate of opinion which will make it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing. Unless it is politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing, the right people will not do the right thing either, or if they try, they will shortly be out of office.”
Electing the right people is a good start. But Friedman is right. Herein lies the challenge for a rejuvenated Liberal Party, currently full of the wrong people doing the wrong things.
Many people thought that the current NSW Premier was one of the right people. But the political climate in the NSW Party – factionalised, ideological in all the wrong ways, bristling with careerists and chancers, spineless before a minor viral scare and thoroughly woke-Left – has, to date, largely prevented him from actioning his stated beliefs across a broad range of policies.
This climate is a massive challenge, even for the right people. For a start, they have to recognise there is a huge problem. Have they? Will they when (most likely) defeated in March next year? Time will tell.
Figuring our how to give effect to Friedman’s agenda will be the first task for the new blood.
If there could be enough cross-factional goodwill among the newbies, they might like to consider forming a loose “band of brothers (and sisters)” to start the long process.
FACTIONAL
They will have experienced ghastly factional politics during their fights to enter parliament – as Noel McCoy well knows – so the very first test will be whether they even can work together for a fresh beginning.
In August, the NSW Premier said (sadly, playing to the zeitgeist): “Within two weeks we will open preselections across the State for the next election. I want to see more women, I want to see more cultural diversity.”
A little integrity, competence and adherence to traditional Liberal principles would do me, irrespective of chromosome counts or nation-of-origin.
Noel McCoy isn’t female or of foreign appearance, but he is what the NSW Liberals need right now – if it is to have a future.PC
Thanks for a most interesting and thought provoking article. I do agree with its tenor and I wish McCoy ever success. He sounds an ideal and worthy candidate. I would certainly vote for him. However, I have to ask, has the Liberal Party actually the stomach for a root and branch change? I think not. There is, in my view, simply too much inertia inbuilt into its mechanisms.
I would certainly support a credible new party.
Hi Paul,
I resigned from the NSW Libs in disgust. Weak as…..
Hey, did you see the G20’s proposed WHO pandemic treaty?
Gates and Schwab have hijacked the G20. THEY were embedded there driving the agendas.
Agenda 21 / 2030 is NOW on steroids.
The current structure of the Liberal Party is one perfectly structured to guarantee complete and total destruction of the organisation. The inner circles reflect the worst possible characteristics of lacklustre middle management.
You cannot “Make the Liberal Party Great Again”, many great & principled people have tried and eventually given up before you.
Talented people are not required by the inner circles who already hold more talentless born to rule types than there are seats and positions to fill. Talented people would only serve to further complicate the factional shenanigans in the quest for comfy pre-selections.
The old adage of never hire anyone, smarter or better looking than yourself holds true within the inner sanctums of the Libs. Prospective talent is best warned off long before it puts at risk the sense of entitlement of so many aspiring staffers.
Hell, if you were to allow and promote talented people, next thing they’d be consulting with and encouraging members. Worse still, entertaining the ideas of democratic votes, pre-selections based upon member votes and such things would put at risk so many inherited staffer entitlements.
There’s no place in todays Liberal Party for liberal Values and there is certain no place there for talented aspirants of any race age or gender.
Super article about a top bloke. Noel McCoy being elected to parliament may be the very first step towards the Liberal Party regaining any electoral relevance after years to trashing its own legacy. Out-going MP, David Elliott’s remarks to the MSM yesterday were ungracious and sealed my impression of his career as one long ego trip. Whereas Noel has shown consistent prudence and restraint in keeping factional games at a remove from the public interests that politics is meant to serve. I wish Noel and his young family well as he enters public life & public service.
The Liberal Party stabbed Tony Abbot in the back and have been a disaster ever since . Turnbull knew he could not get elected on his own thus he carried out a coup and now the LNP are just Labour Light .
Look at Victoristan where the gutless libs have banned Renee Heath. What has little Johnnie said about that: nothing. So, the man who kept Turdball in the broad church won’t defend a woman with Christian values.
The LNP are hopeless and will remain so until big Pete gets out and excoriates:
Alarmism
The great reset
Albo’s donation of billions to the UN scammers
Declares what a man and a woman are
Men should not compete against women in sports
Renewables are rubbish and Australia will invest in new generation coal and nuclear
To name a few.
Bugger NSW. Australia needs someone with McCoy’s talents and convictions federally. There’s no point having strong, honest government in NSW if the rest of the nation is broken and corrupt.