Early in the campaign, the following was begun with Flat White in mind.

‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…’

So wrote Dickens in his thunderous opening salvo from, A Tale of Two Cities. It came to mind as week two began for what should have been a government on its last legs gesturing for mercy from the people it conned in 2022. Instead, an unutterably incompetent Labor government had slithered back into serious contention.

There are still a few of us old 1975-ers around for whom Friday December 5, the day before the election, won’t ever be forgotten. The ‘Turn on the Lights’ campaign was the Liberal Party’s greatest slogan and campaign that has never been bested.

Campaign HQ invited all Australians driving daytime to flick on their headlights. Itching to test the waters, at lunchtime some of us young Libs drove up the Bruce highway in what now forms part of the electorate of Dickson. Greeting us the whole way was a plethora of headlights, a mobile metaphor capturing ‘The Three Dark Years of Labor Government’.

If ever a government deserved the spotlight campaign to be reprised it was the disreputable Albanese’s, which has been worse than Whitlam’s.

Instead, we received an infantile Turnbullian ONR (remember ‘Jobs and Growth’ and didn’t that work a treat?) with the puerile ‘Let’s Get Australia back on Track’.

It is here that I stop. Many minds have been saying the same, and I am not desirous of penning the Liberal Party’s Death Notice.

As a constituent in Peter Dutton’s electorate, I emailed Peter in April of 2025.

Peter,

We have had differences but no one wants you to become Prime Minister more than me as the previous once-removed member for Dickson.

So far, the campaign has been a disaster, mirroring as it has the Queensland one where Crisafulli went from certain victory to ‘just made it’.

I can feel it in this electorate, indeed worrying that you might even lose your own seat.

You have one chance, only one and please don’t die wondering.

Conservatives are rusted on in both parties, important to realise that these folk on Labor’s side, can be won over. On our side, they can be won back from minor parties and consequent vote fragmentation.

But policy differentiation is the key. ‘Me-tooing’ cost us in 2022, (unlike 2019) cost Frecklington in 2021 and almost Crisafulli. It’s costing you big time now and unless arrested, will cost us dearly in three weeks.

[It’s troubling to] hear this refrain everywhere: They are all the same.

Your natural instincts deserted you when you vacillated on The Voice. You let the wet lettuce brigade reverse the public service issue. Why even Chris Minns is demanding his come back to work.

As Professor James Allan says, sack the hopeless advisers you have and give us conservatives a chance to smash Labor.

Please, mate, please.

Tony Smith member for Dickson 1996-98

Again I emailed Peter Dutton in April after ringing his office warning of what was happening on the ground.

Dear Peter,

As a follow-up to my recent phone call about the plethora of advertising presence in Samford, today I saw an old truck in Main Street plastered with her [Ellie Smith’s] signs, several people in her T-shirts in a coffee shop and at the local hardware and, to cap it off, her name written in chalk with Teal colours on either end of the footpath from Samford bridge to Burton Lane…

Tony

I received no reply to either of those emails.

I also emailed James McGrath in May.

Dear Senator McGrath,

I live in Ferny Hills Qld and am a lifelong conservative.

With the polls tightening, I am trembling on account of the federal small-target strategy being replicated from the state result where Crisafulli, having established an impressive lead over Miles at the start, literally fell over the line at the end in his ‘me-tooing’ response to Labor. Frecklington ‘me-tooed’, too, in 2020 and paid the penalty. Morrison ditto, deservedly so over Net Zero.

Please, please read carefully the piece below. I agree with every line, every word.

My feeling is that we are heading to defeat and the mad minority Left will be even more unhinged.

I enclosed part of Rocco Loiacono’s Flat White article.

…fortune favours the brave. It is no coincidence that the Coalition, under Mr Dutton, appeared more appealing to the electorate after the Voice referendum, when it was fighting for a fundamental principle in the face of the prevailing ‘vibe’ at the time which was firmly in favour of the Yes campaign.

If the Coalition continues with the ‘play it safe’ strategy, another three years grazing in the opposition pastureland awaits.

Senator McGrath did not reply. In my view, his ABC offerings on election night explains it.

The Liberal Party has abandoned its base and now Australia has returned the compliment.

I feel sorry for Peter Dutton but like the barrister who loses the case, the buck stops with you.

We need an alternative. Reform Australia making it the UK Party’s little sister would be a good start. All we now need is a Farage.