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As we go through the circus of will we or won’t we have enough coal and gas next year, I read one of many newspaper articles from the UK speculating on whether the coming winter would bring gas shortages. One reader wrote: “An island of coal and shale gas surrounded by a sea of hydrocarbons and yet we’re here at this miserable state of affairs.” Summed it up.
Australia is a much larger island with an even larger pot of fossil fuels, and uranium, under our feet. But the naysayers have it. Even those few among Coalition parliamentarians who would favour new coal mines and gas wells still claim allegiance to the climate-change agenda. They are not sceptical. Not unbelievers. Recall that even John Howard in the exalted position of prime minister was too cowed to deny his allegiance to the new religion of climate change. Not one among Liberals or Nationals will say that “climate change” is bunkum (which it is) and that, therefore, all of the costly and unsightly measures to counter it are both useless and criminal. They’re tepid at best.
Whether you’re Christian or not, it’s pertinent to refer to Christ dismissing the tepid church at Laodicea, in present-day Turkey. “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth..” (Revelation 3:16)
Let’s face it, if you’re insane enough to vote for people who say they can save humankind from imminent extinction, why would you vote for tepid people advocating half measures? You wouldn’t. Remember, you’re scatterbrained at best.
So it is that the conservative side of politics in Australia is doomed. Some years ago, Howard described the Liberal Party as a broad church. Now they’re all paid up members of a tepid church. Climate evangelicals, the so-called Teals, will continue to pick them off at a federal and state level. And what the Teals don’t get the Greens or Labor will gobble up. The pretence of being centre-right, of leveraging off the reputation of Menzies and of Howard when at his best, is now laid bare as being a pathetic charade. The jig’s up.
I’m picking on climate change, but really choose any issue and the Liberal Party in particular is tepidity incarnate. Though the Nationals nowadays are not far behind. Best to join them together as tepid partners.
They favour small government but tax and spend with abandon. They favour free speech but won’t remove 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. They favour religious liberty but, as we found, not if it upsets the gay-cum-transgender rights contingent in their ranks, who even scuttled the watered-down protections. For crying out loud, they want more detail before determining their position on incorporating a racist, divisive and paralysing ‘voice’ in the Constitution. They won’t push for removing the prohibition on nuclear energy unless the other side comes to the party. They sit idly by while school children are brainwashed.
What is their position on the wokeness infecting government, the military, educational institutions and corporates? What is their position on ESG, on CRT, on DEI? What is their position on the mutilation, by drugs or knife, of teenagers confused about their sexual identity? I have no idea.
It would go too far to say that the Coalition parties are unprincipled. But, so far as I can tell, they simply have no abiding principles to anchor them when the going gets tough. They pussyfoot around in no man’s land. Ergo, as an erstwhile reliable Liberal voter, I intend henceforth to spue them out of my mouth.
Spot on Peter.
I haven’t paid any dues since Malcolm Turnbull took over and moved the Libs away left, with even Peter Dutton appearing to sort of water down what used to be good right wing views….I hope I’m wrong but as it stands, there seems to be only left and right, and I’m not left, so for me the right position has to be…..right, and that means opposing the left even if it’s just on principle. There’s just no other way I think.
Please consider:
For a democracy to survive the citizen must do more than vote.
Elected politicians must be closely supervised if they are to do the right thing for citizens.
And when the proportion of people within of a nation who are actually contributing, engaged citizens as opposed to nett-consuming residents who pursue their freedom-pursuing lifestyles, then well, who pays the bills before the edifice collapses?
Liberty without responsible contribution is the path to The Wasteland.
Sadly, Peter, we just have to let the ‘climate change’ madness run itself out. It depends on how fast and how far the Earth’s temperature falls during the Grand Solar Minimum, but many millions will die unnecessarily and poverty will become widespread because of the stupidity of governments and the elites.
Peter, in simple parlance, the last time the Liberals saw a principal they were in grade school.
25 or so years ago, The Economist informed that Global Warming was “bunkum” to use PS’s term.
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Last month I bought it for the last time – Climate Change is now written of as if the current Left narrative is definitively correct, settled.
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PS P.S., “Whether your Christian”?
Thanks lbloveday. Neither Microsoft Word nor the esteemed Editor spotted the typo. And it’s not the first time I’ve made the same mistake. Bother!
Once upon a time people talked about acts of God, especially lawyers. Today they chatter about satanic Climate Change. Aware that its spiritual market share was in decline, even the Church has got into the act. The great appeal of CC is that the “carbon” crowd have figured out a way to monetize an invisible harmless gas, carbon dioxide. The end game has always been to force consumers and companies in the developed world to pay for it by buying bogus “carbon credits” from any rogue or country that issues them. Mr Bowen apparently intends to give this colossal rort the “green light” next month, yet only deafening silence from the opposition.
The issue is that politics is downstream of culture, and the Coalition has lost the culture wars, not least because it didn’t bother to fight them, instead promoting itself as better on national security and the economy. But culture matters to people too. Family, faith, and flag conservatives have been utterly betrayed, as have live-and-let-live, free speech, free enterprise liberals.
All fair points, but WHY do the Lib/Nats not pursue the issues dear to the hearts of their erstwhile supporters ?
1. Corruption – there is money in renewables , so AGW is the cause du jour.
2 Power – In controlling the narrative you can ensure point 1.
3. Abbott abandoned the drive to repeal 18c because he knew it would not pass in the Senate. The left controls the upper chamber, and simply put Australia is ungovernable if the agenda is driven from the Right.
“Pussyfoot in mouth disease” is an inspired turn of phrase.
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I thought the same thing when I saw Peter Dutton interviewed recently on the ABC’s 7.30 Report by Sarah Ferguson.
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I’d previously thought Peter Dutton would have made a very effective opposition leader. How wrong that expectation has turned out to be. During the interview and since he’s been leader he’s pussy-footed all over the place.
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At a couple of times during the interview he even sounded embarrassingly cringeworthy. For example telling Ferguson she “sold” the introduction to the show well and ending up thanking her for her “warm regards”. I just laughed out loud at that last inappropriate remark.
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During the interview Dutton had every opportunity to expose Labor’s disastrously poor response to the current inflation threat but instead decided to to pussy-foot on about the “forgotten people” when discussing economic issues.
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Yet Labor’s response to the inflation threat has been a total mess – stoking inflationary expectations with its grandstanding and rhetoric generally and partly blaming the Coalition for the threat while taking no effective fiscal action to do anything about it – leaving all the work to the Reserve Bank.
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Dutton’s weak response to the inflation threat has already allowed Labor to effectively partly blame the Coalition for it and get traction for that view in the media. If the inflation threat gets out of hand that’s likely to allow Labor to avoid any accountability.
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Dutton’s pussy-footing opposition has managed the impossible – he’s actually reduced his party’s primary vote in the latest Newspoll to below the 70-year-low at the election.
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Anthony Albanese increased Labor’s primary vote over the election result. He also recorded a record high satisfaction rating for an incoming PM – a lead of 59% to 25% over Dutton. (Scott Morrison actually led Albanese in most preferred PM polls.)
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The Coalition desperately needs new blood and new strong policies. There’s no time better than now to bite the bullet.
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Dutton has already proven he has no idea as opposition leader. Expect Labor to stay in office for two terms or even longer if Dutton stays in the leadership and the Coalition doesn’t clearly distinguish itself from Labor with positive effective policies.
“they simply have no abiding principles to anchor them when the going gets tough” was the line that got my vote.
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A bit like the agent selling you a house on the flood plain who agrees with everything you say and says what they think you want to hear.
Yairs balanced observation, our politicians of all persuasions look at the bottom line as do most people, and that bottom line is the retirement loot and not any principles whatsoever. Groucho Marx said it all about principles and he was describing all politicians and most people. The “real” Australians in the main are planted in small out of the way cemeteries, the blokes who stood up and got counted, the blokes who endured it all for us, and sadly, very sadly, most of us don’t stand up and get counted.
Tepid indeed but perhaps gutless is more appropriate. Losing your base voters with having a bet each way policies, is electoral suicide.
With disastrous anthropogenic climate change policies they only need to look to European countries to see they are all scurrying to reopen their coal power stations. We will eventually be mugged by reality when your particular suburb has a timetable of when power will be available. Scandalous.
Here’s a few clues for the hapless Coalition whose vote continues to fall below the 70 year disaster result at the last election.
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ONE — Either support the Voice and do your best to ensure there are safeguards to prevent possible problems; or oppose it. Get off the fence.
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TWO — Solve our energy dilemma. You’ve been fiddling around with it for 9 years. Time for some effective action to halt outrageous energy price rises in a country over endowned with energy resources.
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Either use our immense existing conventional resources more fully or go nuclear or both. The nuclear option is likely to get more support than ever given ballooning energy prices. Now is the time to actually make a stand.
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THREE — Get an effective defence structure. This is where you can outshine Labor and meet our real needs which are now more obvious than ever.
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AUKUS was good news but it only came to light comparitively speaking in the last five minutes of your time in office. In any case it’s not enough. We can’t afford to wait till 2035. We need an interim solution including what Labor’s working on. But it’s not enough either.
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We need an effective nuclear deterrent. It’s a no brainer. Now’s the time to build support for it. The nuclear energy solution in two will help with this.
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FOUR– Take a stand on fixing the health sector. It’s failing miserably in our major cities where people have to wait in queues outside hospitals for urgent treatment.
It’s primarily a state issue but take a lead on this – the states are failing miserably.
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Bulk billing is in decline and GPs aren’t coping leading to added pressure on emergency departments in hospitals. Make bulk billing feasible for GPs.
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Etc Etc. Basically get off your policy backsides – the free ride is over.
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Your current leadership is incapable of developing or arguing for these policies – change it. It’s tired and ineffective. You need new blood urgently. There’s got to be better than the current team.
The Green Lobby will claim they have no use for fossil fuels and nuclear power because they are unnecessary when wind and solar are freely available and climate friendly. But that is typical of their ‘dog in the manger’ attitude. Unfortunately, for the majority of Australians, the naysayers of the Green/Labour left mandate this as Australia’s “responsible” energy policy. Contrast this absurdity with the all systems go, full steam ahead aproach of China and India who are making full use of fosil fuels and nuclear power to grow their economies whilst Australia’s Green/Labour government runs our economy into the ground so that we can skite how much we genuflect to the idols of Gaia.
“It would go too far to say that the Coalition parties are unprincipled. But, so far as I can tell, they simply have no abiding principles to anchor them when the going gets tough. ”
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As W B Yeats put it
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
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Names spring to mind in both categories at State and Federal levels.
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P.S. “Whether you’re [you are] Christian or not…” is surely correct.
Peter prompts me to think how different Australian right-of-centre politics would be if the hugely influential AGW Donald J Trump were the US President. That’s all it would take to give AGW spine to the Anglosphere.
Biggles, correct. Sadly “Climate change”, so entrenched in our psyche by the media and nefarious actors that the term became a noun, has to play itself out to our enormous cost and pain. Michael, also correct about Breitbart’s quote on culture, and i would posit that the economy and national security follow from a healthy culture of which the coalition should have concentrated on. And Ceres, yes gutless is the word, “tepid” being too tepid. Peter, another excellent article, particularly on the greatest hoax ever foisted on humanity – #2 being covert 19.
There’s another way to look at this which hasn’t been canvassed here.
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When both sides are pussyfooting around the side that does it best is likely to win.
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For all its sins Labor shunned pussyfooting at the election in 2019. Instead they actually said what they were going to do which was far too problematic and far too much in some areas. Adding for good measure if you don’t like it don’t vote for us. Enough voters took their advice.
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(Ironically much of what Labor were going to do in 2019 would have actually hurt their natural constituency more than anyone. The 2019 loss saved many of Labor’s heartland from those policies. For example imagine how bad the rental situation would be now if Labor had been voted in to implement its tax measures against landlords in 2019).
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But in 2022 Labor out-pussyfooted the champion pussyfooter of 2019, Scott Morrison. They dropped problematic tax policies and ran an incredibly small target policy campaign in which Anthony Albanese was almost invisible. They focused their negative campaign on the character of the previous pussyfooting champion, Scott Morrison. Just as Morrison focused his negative campaign in 2019 on Labor’s policies. Labor became the pussyfooting champions of 2022.
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They were so satisfied with that successful approach that they’ve continued it in office with a lot of help now, fortuitously as it turns out, from Mr multiple portfolios; and also from the hapless new opposition leader Peter Dutton.
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Labor has approached the first major economic problem its faced – the inflation threat – by simply talking about how bad it is, partly blaming the opposition for it, avoiding any effective fiscal policy response and leaving all the work to the Reserve Bank.
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And Peter Dutton has let them get away with it. Astoundingly he’s also managed to reduce the 70-year-low Coalition vote at the last election even further. And this was before the multiple portfolio saga was revealed.
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Dutton might perhaps be a good number two but he’s not cut out to be a number one. The top position is a big step up from a senior portfolio. And he’s demonstrated he’s not up to it.
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If the Coalition don’t wake up to that fact Anthony Albanese is going to PM for a long time. Peter Dutton is unelectable as a PM. How much lower does he have to drag the primary vote down for them to realise? He’s already got it lower than the 70-year-low at the election. Labor must be very happy with him.
The Coalition might be pussyfooting around but the voters certainly aren’t. The latest Resolve Poll is even more catastrophic for Peter Dutton than the previously catastrophic Newspoll I referred to above.
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Voters have seen enough of Peter Dutton. It’s already clear he’s unelectable.
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As previously mentioned the recent Newspoll was catastrophic for Dutton. Astoundingly he managed to take the primary vote to 33% even further below the 70-year-low recorded at the last election of 35.7%; while Anthony Albanese boosted Labor’s primary vote and also received a record satisfaction rating for a newly elected incoming PM.
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All that was BEFORE the multiple ministries scandal broke. Yes BEFORE it even broke. A scandal which Peter Dutton has handled disastrously – as poorly as he’s handled Labor’s incompetent response to the inflation threat. On both he’s looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights. He’s dithered all over the place.
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But incredibly it gets far worse for the Coalition and Dutton in the latest Resolve Poll. The Coalition primary vote has plummeted even further to an incredibly low 28% rump figure while Labor’s primary vote has increased from 32.6 at the election to 42%.
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The opposition Liberal leadership is an absolute disaster. The only way to stop this rotting of the primary vote is a clean leadership sweep. Without that even new record lows will continue to be made! The primary vote is already at a rump level.
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What’s needed is new blood in the leadership and new effective policies – which unashamedly distinguish the Coalition from Labor.
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Dutton’s been around long enough. If he were likely to be any good as opposition leader we wouldn’t be seeing the Coalition reduced to a rump in the polls. Left there he’ll continue to take the vote lower. He just hasn’t got it.
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Bite the bullet. Make the leadership change now. It will be far less damaging than waiting. Making it any later will be too late.