It’s not that Domenic Perrottet is a bad chap, or even a bad premier. I think his concession speech marked the quality of the man.
So it’s not about him directly, it’s just that the Liberal Party have completely lost their way.
The national Liberal rot actually started in NSW where politics became a plaything of lobbyists who controlled preselections and wielded influence for hire.
The ‘factional divide’ was essentially one of those who obeyed the lobbyists demands, in return for campaign funding and career preferment, versus those who refused to sell out.
We saw a revolving door of leaders, none of whom survived more than one election cycle. The scandals and the allegations of corruption that engulfed the MPs was only ever exceeded by NSW Labor’s previous efforts.
What a state the state of NSW politics is in - and has been in for more than 20 years.
This result plays into my theory that the Liberal Party doesn’t know what it is or what it stands for any more.
They have traduced the traditional values of lower taxes, less regulation, smaller government and stronger families in favour of a left/green agenda which plays right into the hands of the political hard left.
Matt Kean is the face of that poison in NSW.
He’s got strong factional support by the same lobbyists who profit from pushing the agenda of climate rent seekers through the NSW parliament.
Traditional liberals think Kean’s ideas and policies are more fitting for the Labor/Green alliance and today he decided to play the long game - announcing he won’t be running for the leadership.
In my opinion, that’s a smart move by Kean.
He would know the new leader is unlikely to ever be Premier and I’m sure he’ll let others do the heavy lifting while he plots silently in the wings.
The likes of Kean in a leadership position would be a disaster for the Liberal brand. It already has been. His disloyal campaign utterances during the Federal election and ahead of the State one, alienated a lot of traditional supporters.
More broadly, this identity crisis is a national phenomenon for the Liberal Party.
Out of office across mainland Australia - based on their performance in govt and opposition, one has to ask why vote for them?
If it’s a case of ‘we will mandate fewer pronouns than the other mob’ or ‘our wind turbines cost less of your taxes’ then there isn’t much of a choice.
Australians deserve better than a uniparty state or where the only real alternatives are even further in the socialist camp than the major parties.
Look around the country.
NSW swept from power in a landslide. The Victorian Liberals have been absolutely hopeless and hopelessly left wing. In South Australia, after 16 years in opposition, the Liberals lost office in a single term under pathetic leadership and wet puppet masters pulling the strings.
WA Liberals are less than a handful in opposition. QLD’s LNP still have a long way to go.
Federally, the Libs abandoned every tenet of their platform and lost office.
The only place they still stand is Tasmania and to be perfectly frank, I don’t know much about Tassie politics except you can win a senate seat with just 30,000 votes.
It’s not a good look for the Liberals and no doubt each of the Liberal tribes will be blaming one another.
They’ve been doing that for decades now and the proof is in the pudding.
They are out of power and out of puff, mostly because they no longer know what they represent or what they want to achieve - aside from power for power’s sake.
