Australian Election: Farewell to freedom. By John Ruddick.
Should the Liberals align themselves even closer to the Davos bureaucratic class?
Some argue the solution is for the Liberal Party to win back its heartland by moving left. … In the United States, the most expensive zip codes voted Republican throughout the Cold War but have since inexorably drifted left and now vote Democrat as reliably as the ghetto.
Anyway, how much more left-wing could the now fallen ‘Modern Liberals’ have been? They threatened to cross the floor over a Net Zero carbon economy and forced a prime ministerial capitulation. A few months later, most did cross the floor over transgender rights all in the hope they’d bought an insurance policy against Woke independents. They still got steamrolled. Those arguing the Liberal Party needs to move left need to spell out the policies they have in mind (which they can’t without sounding identical to Labor).
Or maybe oppose them instead?
Others say the future Liberal heartland should be the former Labor Party heartland. There are encouraging signs that, electorally at least, this could work. …
The problem however with the Liberal Party embracing the erstwhile Labor Party heartland is that those voters have next to nil appreciation of economic rationalism. This nation faces serious headwinds as the Covid chickens come home to roost – inflation is just the beginning. There is one cure – 1980s-style pro-free enterprise reforms. It’s more than doubtful Prime Minister-elect Anthony Albanese has it in him to ‘do a Bob Hawke’ and betray Labor’s economic platform. If the Liberal Party that calculates its best electoral prospects are former Labor voting areas, then the chances they rediscover their sound economic credentials are low. …
Climate:
Since the 1980s, the global warmists have made endless prophecies that would apparently soon confirm the planet is dangerously warming. Despite zero predictions materialising, the masses seem to be more convinced of the global warming orthodoxy. …
The loss of the ‘Modern Liberals’ will hopefully liberate right-of-centre Australia to speak up more about the accuracy of global warming predictions, but clearly we have a tough road ahead.
Freedom failed:
The most disappointing result of the 2022 federal election was the under-whelming vote of the ‘Freedom Friendly parties’.
95 per cent of Australians have had two Covid vaccines, but only 63 per cent have had their booster. The difference is of course due to government mandates not being enforced regarding the booster. Doesn’t this tell us around a third of Australians are at least, to some extent, not buying the Covid narrative?
In 2019, the various minor parties on the right received around 14 per cent of the national Senate vote. Despite the Covid police state and the questionable efficacy of the vaccine program, those same parties (who were all opposed to the Covid orthodoxy) received a similar total vote in 2022 as they did in 2019. Maybe the whole Covid saga has shifted people left as they now fear stepping out of line.
Where to from here? Some suggest the ‘Freedom Friendly parties’ should merge into one. They’re probably right, their combined mass would generate additional support, but there’s a serious problem — only the Liberal Democrats are resolutely committed to economic rationalism. As I travelled New South Wales during the campaign I met many One Nation, United Australia, and other candidates and activists. The goodwill and cooperation between us was high, but while many were impressive too many others had no appreciation (beyond Covidmania) of the importance of reducing the size of the government.
Most of the right still aren’t correctly identifying their opponents as bureaucrats and other winners from globalization. Don’t be too distracted by wokeism — the main game is class and money, same as it always was.
