When the Australian Liberal Party capitulated to the Uniparty. By Rebecca Weisser in Quadrant.

The hollowing out of the Liberal Party took hold with the “moderate” insurrection that replaced Abbott with Malcolm Turnbull, who took Australia into the Paris Agreement. Despite this shift in favour of renewables and emissions reduction, the Coalition’s great advantage was that it framed energy policy around affordability, reliability and economic growth.

Then came Covid, and the Coalition surrendered to the authoritarian zeitgeist dictated by public health bureaucracies. …

Finally, in 2021, Prime Minister Scott Morrison threw in the towel, surrendering to the progressives and embracing the economy-destroying doctrine of net-zero emissions by 2050. …

A party that once attracted people because they believed in a liberal philosophy increasingly attracted people because it offered a pathway to power.

Debates about climate science, energy security, industrial competitiveness and electricity prices gave way to an ecosystem of subsidies, mandates, grants, investment funds and vested interests. Supporting the energy transition became an article of faith aligned with powerful institutional and financial interests.

The question ceased to be what was good for the country and became what was politically and financially advantageous. Is it any wonder that the party has lost its moorings?

Two divides — conservatism versus progressivism, and markets versus government diktat:

The divide in Australian politics is often presented as one between progressives and conservatives.

Yet there is another divide that is at least as important: the divide between those who value the efficiency of markets and trust civil society, and those who want to use the power of government to direct economic outcomes.

Labor and One Nation stand on opposite sides of many cultural and political questions, but both are considerably more willing than classical liberals to use the power of the state to direct economic outcomes.