IF I WAS advising Andrew Hastie, I’d say, when the decision comes down and the Liberals bed-wet on net-zero and every other policy – I’d say, Andrew, don’t become leader of the Liberal Party.
This was the advice given by former Liberal MP Craig Kelly, speaking to Chris Coveries at the recent Sydney march.
- The Liberal Party is past being saved – it can’t be saved. A split has to occur.
- There are too many “bed wetters” in the Liberal Party.
- We’ve seen the success of Farage in the UK. His Reform Party is now leading the polls.
He added: “The Liberal Party ship is rotten. The sails are threadbare. The timbers are eaten by wood borers. And half the crew will run the ship onto the rocks and stab the captain at the first opportunity. Is that the ship you want to really take over?
“There’s no point in doing it. You are far better separate – go be an independent – get several like-minded members, then go and start your own Party and call for all the other minor Parties to come and amalgamate under one roof.
PROSPERITY
“Do what Menzies did in the 40s when he had that conference in Albury and united all the minor Parties together. And that led to the greatest period of Australian prosperity that we have ever seen.”
Craig Kelly was one of the truest of blue-ribbon conservatives in the Liberal Party, representing the seat of Hughes. Despite his Libertarian branding, he has retained his conservative instincts.
Elected in 2010, Craig Kelly walked away from the Liberals in 2021 and transitioned through the bulk of the minor Right, starting as an independent before moving to the United Australia Party, One Nation and finally the Libertarians.
He is no longer an elected politician, but his legacy holds sway among conservative voters who saw his departure as the body of a canary, murdered by the unsafe environment in the depths of the Liberal Party room.
Andrew Hastie is the heir presumptive of the Liberal Party if the moderate faction happens to be vanquished in a leadership spill.
A scenario that remains unlikely.
He is joined on the backbench by the rising stars of Jacinta Price, Alex Antic and Matt Canavan. Hastie’s Lower House seat paints him as the central leadership threat to Sussan Ley.
Ms Ley is finding out the hard way that every time she banishes a “disloyal” personality, she turns the blunt conservative pencil against the blade of a sharpener.
“Craig, you used to be part of the Liberal Party a long time ago, can you imagine trying to make a space in the Liberal Party today?” Chris Coveries asked on his livestream.
“You’re in the Party room. Sussan Ley has been elected, she’s not part of your faction, what would you say to her?”
Craig found this question amusing.
“I spoke to another ex-Coalition member yesterday who was in the Party when I was there and he said to me, ‘When we were there, did you ever think Sussan could be leader’.” And he broke out laughing.
“Look, it’s past what can be saved. I don’t think it can be saved. I think what has to happen, I think a split has to occur. There are too many – I call them ‘bed wetters’ – in the Liberal Party.
“We saw it during COVID how bad they were, how they are frightened to speak up against any kind of narrative pushed by the ABC and the media. The place is full of bed wetters.
REFORM
“We have seen the success Farage has had in the UK. Farage and his Reform Party in the UK is now leading the polls.
“And what is their policy on net-zero? They want to scrap it. What is their policy on immigration? They want to reduce it greatly.
“Few in the Coalition have enough backbone to say, ‘Okay, I cannot sit in this Party room if you are going to continue to support the policies of net-zero which damages our country and puts our country at a competitive disadvantage.”
He then went on to explain that while the Liberal Party considers itself to be the superior conservative Party because they hold government, the Right wing has spread well beyond traditional Party lines.
“And remember at the moment, the Liberal Party is actually – if you look at the conservative side of politics – the Liberal Party is actually the minority side.
“The Liberals and Nationals are polling 28-29 per cent – seven per cent of that is Nationals. The Liberal vote by itself, with both the Left and Right factions is around 21-22 per cent.
“We know One Nation is at least 10 per cent. The Nationals are seven per cent. There’s 17 per cent. You’ve got a couple more from the Libertarians. A couple more from Gerard Rennick’s mob. Katter, Family First, throw them all into the mix and that conservative side of politics is actually greater today than the Liberal side without the Liberals splitting.”
Kelly’s advice is interesting, although almost certainly unworkable for Andrew Hastie.
The advancement of minor Parties has been made difficult thanks to Labor and the Coalition bringing in preferential voting which locked in the red-blue dynamic.
An Australian Farage is possible, but an Australian Reform Party would require the complete breakdown of both major Parties and for the Coalition to start preferencing their minor Right competitors.
As a result of the policy failure encouraged by preferential voting, the primary vote for both sides has collapsed. The sprawling nightmare of fragmented movements, particularly on the Right, has turned Australian politics into something that looks more like a European framework where government becomes a painful negotiation.
THIRD-WORD
The taboo topic in this discussion has been a Big Australia project with over 1.4m people brought into Australia disproportionally from third-world nations governed by a socialist, Marxist, communist, or otherwise-Leftist authoritarian regime.
That these new arrivals, if granted citizenship, might one day cast their vote to the Left is not a conspiracy theory, it is an observation made by many.
Craig Kelly commented on this at the March for Australia – an anti-mass migration event calling on the government to pause migration entirely and start sending home tens of thousands of visa-overstayers and foreign criminals.
While speaking to Chris Coveries, Craig Kelly asked why Labor was allegedly interested in ethnic polling research on the voting patterns on migrants.
“Because Labor wants to know what the voting patterns are of the people they imported into the country. That’s the only reason why they do it,” said Kelly.
“Albanese’s net-zero policies are so detrimental to the economy that the only way he can get any growth in the economy, and to make sure he masks over the declining GDP per capita, is to import people.
“So, you make the economy bigger. That’s the same policy as if you annexed a few islands off Indonesia we could grow the Australian economy but the average slice of your pie – that’s GDP per capita – is declining.”
Migration and net-zero are the two polices dominating conservative politics around the world.
The Liberals – well, they are still listening.PC
That’s all OK but we still need to get elected. And inasmuch as 60% of voters are going to vote for the party with the best environment policy then it makes good sense to have a good one. We need the best and most effective policies across all portfolios and the best and most effective politicians. Effective politicians are those who read, meet people a lot and keep their ears to the ground, sniff the mood and give their constituents what they want. It’s no good criticising shady characters sitting in the back rooms making up policies if you sit in front rooms, get on the grog and just make up speeches about your own narrow learnings. People are hurting. Inflation (LCI) – real inflation – is running at close to 10% pa. That is seriously sending Liberal voters broke – very rapidly. Premiums for housing insurance are rising rapidly. Why? Because extreme weather events are increasing in numbers annually and it costs more to repair housing. Wake up to the real world. We are importing concrete and glass for chr..ts sake. Concrete and glass! What are we doing about it? Sitting around crying because nobody’s doing anything about it. Get a policy. Put your big pants on. Less talk and more action is needed but back up the action with good talk at branch level. Then you will win back the voters.
Yes we can stand on the sidelines and criticise our elected politicians for coming to different opinions about whatever issue. That’s largely because they come from different districts where the constituents who elected them are themselves saddled with different circumstances.
It is easier on the outside because you only have your own opinion to canvass.
So my advice to the well-meaning is: don’t get carried away with the hypotheticals and “core beliefs”, because you answer to others.
Example: most surveys tell us that 60% of people will vote for the party with the best environment policy.
So where do your committed members go if they happen to get elected in pro-environment seats? Let me answer the question. Left right out at the next election – that’s where – and in comes a Teal.
And with a predicted, unheard-of 49 degrees C for Victoria today, the chest-beating macho blokes and girls of the maniacal right will find life very difficult.
And that’s why that any party’s environment policy has to answer fundamental questions with policies that are well thought through, won’t devastate forests, farms and waterways like Labor’s and are also appealing to voters because it will help directly to cool the countryside and allow for a more viable industrial platform.
Next comes our sensible immigration policy that will unite and not fracture society.
Finally I like the idea of calling for a forum of the saner parties in our political spectrum with a Menzies-style meeting.
And I think that taxpayers would also like it.
Now it is Hastie who is ROTTEN to the core!
He said he wouldn’t support the Hate Speech Crime laws and has now betrayed us and done so!
What is it with these appalling people??
I WILL NOW NEVER EVER TRUST ANDREW HASTIE OR A SINGLE WORD HE EVER HAS TO SAY.
HE IS FINISHED AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED. NO LEADER MATERIAL THERE……HE HAS BETRAYED US……….HE IS NOW PERSONA NON GRATA AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED AND TO THINK I WAS ONCE A FAN OF HIS.
Doing a deal with the communist Sleazy to take away our free speech rights (not theirs) is beyond reprehensible and unforgivable.
Andrew Hastie, will make a great prime minister if he’s given a chance,Susan Ley comes across as to little girlie and not a strong enough speaker , the liberals really need to get it right this time, we need some strong men in the front row,
Apart from the 2016 Turnbull election, I have always voted Liberal. Sadly at this stage I COULD NOT bring myself to vote for this rabble and unfortunately Pauline Hanson is not PM material. My thoughts are that – even though he is a bit of a moderate – Josh Frydenberg be convinced to run in Kooyong again. I think he could win it back. He could then become Leader and would have three years to get the Party back in shape. Josh is extremely intelligent, has charisma and presents well on camera (three things badly lacking in Albanese). Josh would also be capable of controlling Turnbull’s bedwetters in the Party. I don’t think any of the current contenders have what it takes.
The SFLs are gutless and merely pale shadows of the lying alp. The US was saved by a once in a generation POTUS, Trump, but unfortunately there is no such saviour in Australia. After the SFLs split and a few of the worthy ones head towards either ON or the Nats (who have their own problems) then it will be a while before the boof-head punters wake up. By then with rub and tug’s mass immigration, mainly muslims, and blackout’s global boiling madness I fear Australia may be too far over the cliff to be rescued.
“[…] unfortunately there is no such saviour in Australia.”
Nonsense; of course there is. Unfortunately I have to stay in my lane, being constrained by He who determines our destinies and the paths by which we reach them.
Thankfully there would be, at the very least, tens of thousands of others in this country would easily eclipse Donald in terms of intellect, erudition, discernment, wisdom, common sense and experience, and for that reason hope remains.
Any Party is doomed if it has no binding philosophy behind it. labor, Liberal, Green or whatever. Principles give you the basis to argue good policies and to debunk bad ones. Maybe if the Libs went to a Summer Camp run by the IPA in Melbourne or the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney to craft a coherent and muscular free enterprise based set of policies? And then have the courage to reform wayward/criminal unions. Courage to reform personal-offence-based laws that trash free and fair speech. Have the guts to make government thrift a saleable idea to put to the electorate. Have some spine to de-bunk notions of self-identity, intermittent energy and sloppy immigration intakes that ruin fundamental Australian values and prosperity. Cut out governmental and bureaucratic waste of taxpayers’ money that holds back progress. Only a sound grounding in social and economic Liberal principles will allow a budding candidate to stand up and make his case. Mr Hastie might take a moment to reconsider his sniffy dismissal of Friedrich Hayek’s social and economic lucidity in providing a classical liberal set of values that would cut down dodgy measures of ever-increasing governmental intrusion into citizens’ lives. Otherwise, the Libs (and any other Party) are simply a reactive Party to whoever is in power setting ITS particular intrusive agenda.