The stately figures of the Liberal Party have weighed in on the Coalition split, but stopped short of giving policy advice.

Appearing briefly on Sky News Australia, former Prime Minister John Howard said that he was ‘very sorry’ to hear about the Liberals and Nationals parting ways.

‘I am very sorry that this has happened and I urge both parties to work overtime to put the Coalition back together again because all the history of Australia suggests that the glory days of the Liberal Party and the National Party and the old Country Party are when they are working together in government.’

Mr Howard comes across as a concerned parent, but he neglects to acknowledge the deep ideological rift between the left-leaning Liberals and conservative Nationals.

It appears the Liberals are considering adopting Net Zero targets to chase city seats which would require the destruction of farmland and reduction of livestock. A betrayal of regional voters.

Mr Howard was not asked by reporters if he would tolerate a policy advocating the ruin of farming communities.

While they might express concern, former Prime Ministers rarely intervene in party politics beyond appearing at promotional gatherings.

As for this bizarre journey of rediscovery undertaken by the Liberals, blue ribbon voters might suggest that while Sussan Ley and Ted O’Brien are soul-searching, they might want to start with the party’s mission statement that has been left to gather dust. While often described as a blueprint, it would also work as a trusty map back to sanity.

The Ley-Liberal party has warned it could be many months, as late as December, before it decides what its policy portfolio should look like.

This is an astonishing admission.

Voters must be wondering what the heck they voted for if the ministers themselves don’t know.

Net Zero is the obvious example, and also the easiest to solve.

Is the climate catastrophe a lie, or not? The answer to that must determine policy. To be a Liberal means to do the right thing, even if it’s hard. Virtue is cheap. Morals are expensive. Only one has value.

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott also commented, writing on X:

‘I deeply regret the Coalition split and hope that it can be reformed as soon as possible. History shows that the Liberals and Nationals win together and fail separately. What’s needed right now is a strong critique of a deeply underwhelming government and the development of a clear policy alternative. That’s much more likely with a functioning Coalition than with two opposition parties competing with each other rather than with Labor.’

Find out what people hate about the Labor Party. Exploit it with policy. To quote an effective advertising campaign, Simples!

Last night on Credlin, former Deputy Prime Minister, John Anderson, said, ‘The parties don’t exist to serve themselves. They exist to serve the nation. And how best to do that? How best to do that is to get together and actually focus on the real issues.’

Nationals Leader David Littleproud was firm in his criticism of the Liberals, insisting that his party would not abandon the regional people who voted for them, or their policy demands.

‘[The Liberals] not being able to give us that comfort or guarantee that those policies that we’re looking at could be guaranteed because she wanted to go through a longer period of policy formation that we could not sign up to because these are hard fought wins that change the lives of people in regional Australia.’

The important takeaway being that the Nationals know who they are, what they stand for, and what their voters need them to achieve.

If the Liberals feel that these policies cannot be defended, then they must answer why that is. If that answer is anything along the lines of ‘city voters won’t like it’ then the Liberals should walk away from Parliament and let someone with a spine take over.

Conservatives cannot draft policy on what they think might be popular within a group of voters they don’t understand. It will feel disingenuous (because it is).

Let’s keep our example of Net Zero.

One possibility, woefully overlooked by Ley’s Liberals, is the decline of Net Zero in both American and British politics. This matters, because Labor, the Greens, and Teals have built their popularity on an ideology that could shift under them.

The problems created by Net Zero policy intensify as time ticks by while the so-called apocalypse used to justify the whole thing becomes less believable. De-industrialising a nation for a problem that doesn’t exist has only one future … public outrage.

If the Liberals decide to hitch themselves to a doomed ideology, not only will they upset their frustrated base, they’ll be left holding the Net Zero participation trophy.

John Anderson came across this argument while interviewing Matt Goodwin, who admitted that in the UK, ‘The Net Zero consensus is starting to break down.’

He added: ‘If Reform can link the cost-of-living crisis with Net Zero, if they can open that up, that issue will become enormous. Potentially as big as BREXIT.’

Reform’s patience has been rewarded with election victory. Both the Tories and Labour are terrified of them. This could be the Coalition’s future, especially if they cough up an apology for buying into a bit of casual greenness.

Flat White is written by Alexandra Marshall. If you would like to support her work, shout her a coffee over at donor-box.