Election Shows Liberal Party Faces Uphill Battle to Win Back Centre
Most thought Labor would win.
But few predicted the Liberal Party would be routed in such dramatic fashion in Victoria. The state has embraced Daniel Andrews’ agenda of building major infrastructure and continued investment in schools and hospitals.
Building projects create jobs and stimulate the economy.
These are things the public expect their state government to do and Premier Andrews and his team delivered this in spades in their first term.
On energy, Labor ignored the hot air on the climate change debate and simply forged ahead with ambitious renewable energy targets, which voters have embraced. The Andrews Government also managed to take on bold social policy and was not punished by voters.
In fact, the Liberals’ promise to close the safe injecting room within a week of victory was widely rejected.
Experts had backed the trial, but the Coalition were unmoved. This centre was designed to save lives, but the Opposition was up in arms.
Drugs were illegal so this was wrong: it was a black and white argument.
But the public require politicians to be able to look at issues with a little more nuance.
A hard road ahead for the Liberal Party
As much as last Saturday was a triumph for Labor, this was a diabolical indictment of the Victorian Coalition, particularly the Liberal Party.
“The public really hate us at the moment,” one Liberal MP said on yesterday morning.
“This requires a look at everything we do.”
To sheet all the blame for the party’s shocking performance on the Canberra chaos that engulfed the Federal Government is frankly a cop-out.
It was undoubtedly a major factor, but it was far from the only issue at play.
A narrow campaign centred on law and order, which lurched into fear at times, was shunned by voters. “The low road, the politics of fear and the politics of division, which is not leadership, that has been rejected,” Mr Andrews told the ABC’s Insiders programme. The rest of the Coalition campaign lacked focus and consistency. Its energy policy was belated and underwhelming despite months of talk about expensive power bills.
While the Opposition rightly tried to hold the Government to account over the so-called red shirts rorts scandal and other controversies, it perhaps put too much emphasis on these issues, failing to read the public’s mood.
Its population policy, while tackling an important issue, failed to gather any momentum.
The Liberal Party’s existential crisis will worsen now.
The so-called takeover of the party by its right wing has been a distraction for MPs and has seen the party drift further away from centre of politics, an area parties must win in order to form government.
It is hard to see Matthew Guy continuing as Opposition Leader after such a drubbing.
The big question is who takes the reins in such difficult circumstances.
Shadow Attorney-General John Pesutto would have been an obvious candidate, but he is fighting to hold his once blue ribbon seat of Hawthorn.
Shadow Treasurer Michael O’Brien is another experienced hand, while the confident Tim Smith might attract some support should he choose to throw his hat in the ring.
The party must now endure a period of bloodletting before trying to come up with some policies that resonate with Victorians, who mostly reside in the centre of the political spectrum.
Those two challenges will take some time.
On energy, Labor ignored the hot air on the climate change debate and simply forged ahead with ambitious renewable energy targets, which voters have embraced.