Australian Liberals: Future in Doubt, by Michael Sexton.

The Liberals have been comprehensively vanquished in the culture wars, having lost the ability to influence most public institutions and many private ones across the country.

Their policies are derided in much of the media, in universities, in literary festivals, in legal professional bodies and in schools. Most persons in public life and many of those in the boardrooms of large corporations have adopted a politically correct mantra that includes open borders, climate catastrophe and hostility to freedom of speech. They have a deep antipathy to the Liberals and, although their views are not shared by the general populace, they have made some impact on the community generally by reason of their access to the media and their constant repetition of the politically correct position on every issue.

One consequence of all this is that the Liberals have become the unfashionable half of the two-party system. In the 1950s-60s the Liberals were the respectable party and Labor had a slightly disreputable and bohemian flavour to it. But the wheel has turned and Labor and the Greens now appear more glamorous alternatives, particularly in the eyes of younger voters.

Why? See 45 years of Cultural Dominance by the Political Left in Australia. The key institution defeating Australian conservatives is the ABC.

The business sector provides nothing like the support for the Liberal policies, even those that advantage them, in comparison with the unions’ efforts on behalf of Labor. This is partly because the business community is frightened of both Labor and the unions whereas the unions are frightened of nothing, knowing that there is nothing that a Liberal government can do to affect them. …

The Liberals cannot match Labor’s campaigns on the ground in marginal seats where swarms of union members and fellow travellers from GetUp door knock, operate phone banks and staff polling booths. These are semi-professional political operatives, trained and experienced in these kinds of exercises – a very different kind of campaigner from the ordinary Liberal party branch member. Just one example of how the campaigns between the two parties are really a contest between professionals on one side and amateurs on the other.

So what are you going to do about it?