Decks cleared for LNP rebuild
THE Coalition cleanout has continued as two more senior ministers, Liberals Steve Ciobo and Christopher Pyne, stepped down on Friday and Saturday respectively.
A pre-election Cabinet reshuffle looms for the Morrison government as a number of portfolios, including defence, industrial relations and indigenous affairs, need to be filled. The departures represent an opportunity for the Liberal Party to rebuild itself with principled and capable MPs who, importantly, represent real liberal values.
A divided party cannot prosper, nor can one infiltrated by opportunists and impostors who have no regard for its values or its people. Hello, Malcolm.
The “moderate” exodus from the senior ranks includes perpetual underperformers Kelly O’Dwyer and Nigel Scullion as well as the popular but ultimately ineffectual former foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop, whose delusions of grandeur have her believing that she could have defeated a Bill Shorten-led Labor.
Plenty of Coalition voters who have been dismayed by the Liberals’ self-inflicted implosion over the past four years will be happy to see the back of Pyne, the self-styled “fixer” from South Australia who played a not insubstantial part in wrecking the joint. It is an enduring shame of the Turnbull and Morrison governments that taxpayers will shell out more than $50 billion for 12 submarines, essentially to save South Australian seats.
The substandard decision to have French state-owned shipbuilder Naval Group (formerly known as DCNS) build a dozen overpriced subs, which might very well be obsolete by their completion date, exemplifies everything that is wrong with modern politics. When the party of fiscal responsibility squanders billions in putting its own interests above the nation’s, one can understand why so many voters are disillusioned with politics.
It’s a bit rich for a supposedly conservative government to insist that we tighten our belts and live within our means and then sign up to building gold-plated subs rather than retiring debt. But the Future Submarine Program did allow Pyne to prance around SA spruiking the 1100 local jobs he had helped create. On Saturday, the Defence Minister said his role in the project was one of the crowning achievements of his 26 years in parliament.
Conservatives like to poke fun at the Left preselecting career activists, staffers and unionists who have little in the way of real-world experience. But plenty of Liberals did nothing of note professionally before being granted a plum position. Pyne was only 22 when first preselected for a seat and 25 when he was elected.
Defence Industry Minister Ciobo will leave politics after 17 years in parliament. As is the fashion with departing Liberals, he expressed a desire for his replacement to be female.
Liberals must stop adopting the Left’s identity politics. Not only is it toxic, but it’s a game that they can never hope to win. How about wishing for the most credentialed, capable and trustworthy replacement, rather than being preoccupied with gender?
Indigenous Affairs Minister Scullion’s exit creates a vacancy in the Senate, and for the coveted top position on the NT ticket.
It would have been a perfect opportunity to move the courageous and capable Jacinta Price into the Senate, rather than have her run for a nearimpossible House of Representatives seat that has always been Labor-held.
What an asset Price would be to the Liberals, whether in government or in opposition. And what an asset she would be to indigenous Australians, who would have someone brave enough to tackle the critical concerns of that community.
The new NT candidate will be revealed on March 9. It may well end up being another courageous and capable Price woman – Bess. She is rumoured to be one of eight contenders.
While you will read plenty of accounts of why the Liberal departures are disastrous, and akin to rats deserting a sinking ship, it is worth remembering that electoral annihilation for the Coalition has been all but guaranteed for more than two years.
The cleanout presents an opportunity to rebuild the party of Menzies and Howard.
The Liberal party prospers when it has decisive centre-Right leadership, not when it’s a posh version of Labor and the Greens.