An Open Letter to the Liberal Party
Dear Liberal Party
Is he worth it? Is Tony Abbott’s Prime Ministership worth it since he’s done such irreparable damage to your brand?
I have no doubt when Abbott won the election, you thought you’d done the right thing. After losing in 2007, I’m sure you were upset. But then losing again in 2010, after Abbott failed to negotiate to form a minority government, must have been torture. You must have been livid that Julia Gillard, a leader you despised, (a woman no less!), was so proficient at getting things done, developing progressive policies and negotiating to make them happen. Policies that filled you with dread that Australians might actually care about each other. I understand you’re all very confused about whether you’re neoliberal ideologues or socially conservative, and sometimes it’s hard to know what you really are because all you truly care about is looking after your business mates at the expense of workers. It makes it hard for you to have a persuasive narrative. Because some of you only care about keeping Australia backward, focussing on destroying socially progressive policies such as marriage equality, while the rest are only interested in your special brand of small-government-neoliberalism which is defined by a quest to increase the profits of those people who finance your campaigns. But you understood Gillard and Rudd, and the Labor Party, were a threat to all of you one way or another and therefore must be destroyed if you were ever going to undo all the progress they made. So you built the Abbott wrecking ball with this mission in mind. With the help of Rupert Murdoch and his flying monkeys in the conservative press, you designed this wrecking ball, this no-machine, this village idiot who spouts three word slogans like an android, in order to scare the electorate into giving the Liberal Party what you feel is your entitlement; power. And it all seemed to be going so well! That is, until the first day in the job when you surely immediately realised you’d made a mistake. And that’s why I ask whether this mistake was worth it. Maybe you’ve been too scared to ask yourself this question, let alone answer it. But now you’re heading towards the next election, surely you have to face reality at some point? How about I try answering the question for you and you can decide if you agree with me?
There are three reasons why Abbott was not worth it for the Liberal Party. He might have got you the term in government that you desperately wanted, but what has this term done to your future?
The first reason Abbott was certainly not worth it is because he’s impotent. Politically, he has achieved very little and made a huge amount of mess in the process. Yes, he got rid of the mining tax and the Carbon Price. But this caused problems for you too since revenue disappeared along with these policies. Yes, you think Abbott’s done wonders in ‘stopping the boats’. But once this promise helped win the election, what good did it actually do for your political fortune? Other than costing a lot of money to keep people locked up in a hell-hole indefinitely, and causing you to have to keep secret anything to do with boats, which you’re no doubt not happy about because you love demonising refugees so you must be sorry you’ve painted yourself into a ‘we can’t tell you what’s going on because you’re not going to like it’ corner. And then there was the promise Abbott made, which you no doubt regret, to not make any cuts to education, health, the ABC and SBS. But what is the point of a Liberal government that doesn’t make cuts to education, health, the ABC and SBS? I do understand that you have to pretend you’re something you’re not in order to get elected. It must be very stressful having to keep up this façade when all you really want to do is bring back WorkChoices. Either way, Abbott’s promises were quickly broken, so even where he has managed to make spending cuts, they’ve not been celebrated as you might have hoped, but rather accurately painted as lies and more fodder for the independents to block much of the ‘reform’ you would have liked to make. If reform is the right word for a hand-break-turn-around-and-go-backwards policy platform. This impotency is surely of concern to you.
The second reason I don’t think PM Abbott has been worth it for the Liberal Party is because he is deeply unpopular and very good at finding ways to increase his unpopularity. I don’t have time to give you the entire laundry lists of Abbott-stuff-ups that have contributed to his terrible polls, which you’ve no doubt noticed have been terrible since pretty much day one. Dodgy scholarships for his daughter, insane ‘captains picks’ such as the Knighting of Prince Philip, biting onions, shirt-fronting the Russian President, choosing only one woman in his cabinet and then making himself, a known misogynist, Minister for Women, a Speaker expense scandal and of course your own leadership spill shenanigans. Sometimes I wonder if Abbott is actually one giant satire comedy routine sent to entertain the lefty-lynch-mob on Twitter. I’m sure you’ve wondered the same thing. The bottom line is, Abbott as Prime Minister doesn’t make Australians proud to be Australian. The last poll I saw was Essential Poll which had the two party preferred figures at Liberal 47, Labor 53. And this is after Abbott’s spent most of the last few months doing his best to whip up fear about the ‘death cult’ with a growing collection of flags and tried unsuccessfully to mount a smear campaign against Bill Shorten. Is Abbott’s poll-boosting bag of tricks empty? This far out from an election and you’ve got nothing? This must be worrying for you.
The third and final reason why Abbott most definitely has not been worth it for the Liberal Party is because his incompetence in managing the economy is destroying your long-relied-on strategic mantle of claiming Liberal governments as better economic managers than Labor governments. Of course we all know this mantle isn’t based in reality. But nevertheless you’ve used it successfully to win power, along with scaring people about national security, for the past 20 years. But how can you possibly think you can keep using this ‘economic competency’ line when Abbott, and his Treasurer Hockey, are making such a mess of business confidence, consumer confidence, growth, unemployment, debt and deficit and pretty much every other economic indicator that Liberal voters apparently obsess over when deciding that they will again vote Liberal. The bottom line is, your wrecking ball, which you used so successfully to wreck Labor’s electoral fortune, has swung back and wrecked your ‘economic competence’ campaign line. What will you do without it? I suspect you’ll lose. And you may not win again until Abbott has been long-forgotten by the electorate. How long do you think that will take? 50 years? Maybe even 100?
You’re probably feeling a bit depressed now that you’ve seen my very valid reasoning as to why Abbott surely wasn’t worth it for the Liberal Party. You’re probably feeling a bit silly for being so short-sighted in your quest to get power that you’ve made such a huge #OneTermTony problem for yourselves. One term of power isn’t really enough to justify all the effort, and money, you put into getting Abbott elected. And this one term will likely ensure you won’t get another term for a very, very long time. I, however, have no sympathy for you. Like a drunk-fool with a horrible hangover, you brought this on yourself. So in the words of Darryl Kerrigan: ‘Hey. Bad luck. Ya dickhead!’
Yours sincerely
Victoria Rollison
22 comments
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trishcorry -
keerti -
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OzFenric -
Sallie -
Paul -
trishcorry -
virtualnonsense -
keerti -
keerti -
Blinkyewok -
virtualnonsense -
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Jennifer Meyer-Smith -
Wayne Turner -
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Florence nee Fedup -
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Rosemary (@RosemaryJ36)
Return to home pageBravo! But they will keep on with their escalation of commitment because they truly are stupid. I love The Castle. I Loved the last line.
Shhhhhh! If they can’t work it out for themselves, don’t tell them! they might make turncoat their leader. The brainless morons (sorry swinging voters, sometimes referred to a howards (there is no lower case “H” enough, battlers) Might keep the “liberals” (strange word to describe a mob of fascists!) in power after the next election.
Yes, indeed, they truly are stupid !
Perhaps it is worth mentioning the climate change thing …
Instead of talking about 2 degrees increase in global temp., lately I am hearing 4 degrees being mentioned.
Perhaps the LIBERALS (they can’t even tell the truth about that !) would like to explain to their children and grandchildren what a 4 degree increase will mean for them ???
And I don’t just mean suggesting that they buy a broad brimmed hat.
They could then explain to these subsequent generations just how hard they tried to assist the world to avoid these consequences.
To illustrate the point, they could use a few choice quotations from abbott and his minister FOR the environment.
Keerti, they’re never going to put Turnbull back in the top job. He’s got too much far-right opposition in his party to allow that. The majority of the liberals would elevate Eric Abetz before they’d consider Turnbull. I suspect that MT is aiming for the Kevin07 approach – cultivate a populist, inspirational persona so that the Australian public will clamour for him to lead them. But if he thinks that the conservative two thirds of the liberals will ever bow to the will of the people, he’s badly misjudged them. Nor will they ever accept Julie Bishop. To a large degree, the conservatives’ loathing of women in power is to blame for our current mess: Tony Abbott didn’t win the election so much as Julia Gillard lost it, and now Abbott no longer has a Gillard to fight he’s run out of purpose. I suspect that Scott Morrison will be the next LOTO. More’s the pity because I loathe him, as I loathe any politician who deliberately adopts secrecy as a policy direction.
I want the next election song for the Labor Party to be ‘Hit the road Abbott and don’t you come back no more , no more…no more…hit the road Abbott & don’t you come back no more’…..it’s such a catchy little tune that will be as famous as Whitlam’s ‘it’s time’…
This outcome was so predictable at the last election. Can’t wait to vote soon.
Great suggestion Sallie.
I just love your open letters Victoria! And this is another great one. I’ve been thinking: as Tony has been going from one mis-step to another, I wonder how many in his party must be clenching their teeth in frustration as they watch his clumsy, oafish and alarmist ways. After all, they can’t possibly roll him – they tried that and that failed. They daren’t again or else they’ll make a mockery of the mockery they paid out on Labor when they rolled their leaders. Twice. The adults in the LNP can’t possible do the same to their leader. It must be so very frustrating for them. And it’s that that keeps me buoyant, and from clenching my own teeth in rage and frustration as Australia moves ever in the opposite direction as the rest of the world.
i wonder, virtualnonsense? On the basis that you get the children, politicians, bosses etc you deserve, it could easily be that the majority of liberal party members are of the same ilk! Yes, I know it is difficult to believe that there could be more than one like him, but then listen to one of his bosses (what’s her name? gargantua?) and the insane verbiage continues. It’s more likely that they think that any “right” thinking person would agree! (with a-butt and co). The more plausable reason that the prime ‘witted moron hasn’t been rolled is that they know that (1) the only one that the proles might accept can’t be trusted, even by the liberals! (2) the rest of the bunch are so off the wall that it would be better tactically to have gina and mukduk stand directly as an alternative government!
At least if they did that the minister for women,would be a woman(?)
There wouldn’t be a minister for women. Gina would be minister in charge of slave labour. Great letter Victoria. Keep them coming.
Yes keerti, you’re probably correct. And that’s a pity for Australia and it’s people. *sob*
Oh, the only thing I’d like to add to Victoria’s letter is to add the unemployed, the sick, the old, the young, the disabled, the marginalised, to the list of people this government doesn’t like.
“…because all you truly care about is looking after your business mates at the expense of workers.”
Excellent letter, Victoria and spot on, as usual. I suppose there are one or two Liars with a grain of sense, but I’m not that hopeful.
Liars loons keep gibbering about Labor’s debt and deficit while simultaneously refusing to acknowledge the fact that Eleventy has managed to more than double both in less than 2 years.
The sooner we have the election and get rid of this most appalling, I hesitate to use the word government, the better. They have corrupted everything they’ve laid their vile hands on and have made this country the laughing stock of the world.
Well done Victoria.
Victoria has taught all you foolish LNP degenerates just how silly you were to have put Abbott in the PM position. It’s very satisfying rubbing your grubby noses in your mistake. The only problem is that your mistake causes us pain too and trashes our country’s reputation.
For punishment, we give notice to all you foolish LNP party mercenaries that your mistakes won’t be forgotten and where deliberate or reckless misconduct has occurred, not only will poor ole, rabid Abbott be floundering in legal and political purgatory, but so will you.
Liberal party = TOO GUTLESS to dump PM’s from Howard who didn’t know when to go,to Abbott who should NEVER got to PM and is a bad joke.
Labor party = TOO GUTLESS to stick by PM’s from dumping Rudd for Gillard,then dumping Gillard to go back to Rudd.Plus of course Labor federally got this problem from NSW Labor.
Sadly, I agree Wayne, except I’d like to know why we feel compelled to concentrate so narrowly on the party leader.
I suggest we focus on voting for the best party made up of a collective of decent, representative and progressive people. The leader is the figurehead but not the only important community leader under that political identity.
My best party is the Greens or the Australian Progressives. I understand Labor is other people’s, and I have some lingering respect for that.
On those grounds, I advocate that we form an Alliance between these progressive political forces so that NO one party dominates in bringing the harm of the LNP undone and forging a magnificent future for ALL Australians.
I confess that my fear is that Labor expects the prize to be handed back into its hands by the incompetent LNP degenerates too easily and when any party gets a prize that easy, they are highly likely not to respect the diversity of needs and interests that exist in the society they purport to represent.
@Wayne Turner:
I agree. The problem is that they go in for these “focus groups” to find out “what the voters want”, rather than”what can we give them that they will want”. Hence no vision and no attempt to actually win the voters over to a certain point of view which they can explain is really in the national interest. So just lazy sloganeering of the most shallow kind.
There was a time when the Libs could appear to be good financial managers. That was when Australia had national assets that could be sold. Now that virtually everything has been privatised, it is going to be impossible for any future Liberal government to look like they know how to manage an economy.
I am waiting for all those Abbott supporters who exist, to rush in, not telling us we are wrong. Not telling us all the bad things Labor did.
I want to hear from them, all the good things Abbott has done, and will do for us. Yes, reply to the points in the letter.
My memory is getting bad with age. I know recently, nearly everyday, have been shocking for the government. I know a lot of bad things have happen,
When I sit down, to recall what the government has been up to, I can’t recall the details.
With Abbott, one never has time to deal with one of his problems, never time to impress it into ones memory, before another replaces it.
Can someone write a list for me, so I never forget.
Yeah sure Abbott understands climate change that’s why he said:
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/video/2015/aug/11/emissions-reduction-environment-economy-tony-abbott-video
There is no convincing a man who believes the economy is the foundation for all prosperity and life.
absolute tongue through cheek, codswallop. He has stopped the boats. killed the carbon tax and signed with china. He has all but destroyed labor with constant wedges and billy’s compliance. He has taken the lead in gay marriage and will save us from ISIS.
He has borrowed billions without a murmur of why and where?.
Viagra is cheap today, with a professional company bamboozling the independent to pass a couple of ‘hard’ decisions, puff number one gone?
A few leaks about security and a batch of pork from the billions .puff number two gone.
Number 3 is a belief and cannot be changed without constant reinforcement with proof and simple explanations. Puff number three is a furphy and the rabbott is a winner???
I am sure that by now the Liberal party is in a catch 22 position. They pilloried Labor for their leadership changes and dare not lay themselves open to a similar charge.
I wonder if they realise that the longer they put up with such an idiot as a leader, the less respect even their rusted on party members will hold for them?