By guest columnist Tess Lawrence
Peter Dutton is a dead man talking.
While we’re at it, the Liberal Party is a dead party walking. Like lemmings they plod towards the cliff face, resigned to their fate.
After the Party’s annihilation by Labor at Saturday’s Aston Federal by-election in Victoria, an electorate hitherto superglued to the Liberal Party for longer than an uninterrupted century, if the Party’s dozey apparatchiks don’t finally get it, they will die knowing they not only squandered the Party’s legacy but also betrayed its dwindling followers.
To clarify, the more than a century tag specifically refers to the fact that the government won a seat from the opposition at this by-election.
Mary Doyle soundly defeated the Liberal Party’s hapless sacrificial lamb, Roshena Campbell, to take the marginal seat of Aston in a humiliating 6% plus swing to Labor.
Aston named for heroic blind activist Tilly Aston
Named for the heroic blind activist, Tilly Aston, the seat was still warm from the resignation of self-confessed adulterer Alan Tudge whose ignominy is further sealed after an unedifying appearance before the Royal Commission into Robodebt a few weeks ago.
Little about the Liberal Party is liberal
Little about today’s Liberal Party is liberal. The internal factional cannibilising and philosophical stouches within what Dutton revealingly refers to as ‘The Brand’ confirms this is a Party that has lost its way as well as its voters who have been sacrificed for the sake of preserving the brand alone.
This arcane stupidity manifests almost daily in headlines and was certainly evident in the Aston by-election.
Liberal Shamocracy, by, for and of the Party
Theirs is a party and a would-be government that shamelessly operates a ‘shamocracy,’ that is, a government and governance style for the party, of the party, by the party. Power at all cost. The People, hardly come into it.
The blah-blah, rhubarb,rhubarb excuses and empty rhetoric spilling from Dutton’s mouth in interviews after the fall of Aston about regrouping, taking stock and such nothingness nonsense exposes the extent of the Party’s ungainly dishevelment.
What in gawd’s name has Dutton been doing these past ten months, apart from seemigly saying ‘no’ to everything constructive and desperately trying to put a spanner in the works of the Albanese government’s attempts to rehabilitate not only all that was damaged by Morrison and indeed, the likes of Dutton, Tudge, Christian Porter et cetera, an appalling roll call of dishonour and the dishonourable. Tudge and Porter may be gone from Parliament but they are not gone from discussion about the body politic.
Toxic infiltration of far-right subversives within Libs
The toxic infiltration of far-right subversives, in reality neo anarchists who speak in dialects of hate, scar the Liberals.
Their repugnant ideological vocabulary consists of socially corrosive agendas rooted in white supremacy, elitism and privilege.
Dutton’s numerous racist propaganda outbursts, his fanning of hysteria, his derogatory and defamatory remarks fueling suspicion and hatred of black or brown skinned foreigners, even if Australians, is a special Dutton dark art.
Dutton’s racist propaganda, fuelling hysteria
This societal undermining is a skill he has honed for decades and promulgated in his various political roles and portfolios.
Just Google Dutton and ‘African youth gangs‘ or Dutton and ‘Lebanese Muslims.’ You’ll learn much about the man who wants to be our Prime Minister and whom the Liberal Party elected as their leader. It says it all.
Change the Leopard. Not the spots
Has this leopard changed his spots?
Change the Leopard. Not the spots.
When it looks in the mirror there is no reflection of the living but the sepia tinted ghost of inaugural leader Sir Robert Gordon ‘Ming’ Menzies who was born in 1894, the year of the first Sino-Japanese War and who died in May 1978, the year of the Sydney Hilton Hotel bombing whilst we were dancing to the Bee Gees and ‘Stayin’ Alive ’ under Australia’s 22nd Prime Minister, Liberal Malcolm Fraser, who first gained power after the infamous ‘Dismissal‘ plot by Queen Elizabeth and her Governor-General, Sir John Kerr.
Seemingly, Menzies still rules from the grave, such is the failure of the Party to progress with the times. It has failed to grow; to evolve and develop alongside a multicultural and eclectic Australia.
Indeed, the contemporary Liberal Party adheres to both a parochial and world view that swears allegiance to a mythic past rather than the future or even the present.
It is a spent force, no longer relevant to the majority of Australians.
But the Liberals don’t get it. Australians just aren’t into them anymore.
Lib’s anal-retentive politics
Politically anal retentive, the Party is archaic and inept. It lives in a past of its own making.
After their catastrophic defeat in the Federal election, a repudiation of everything that Scott Morrison and his political brigands stood for, the party had the chance to take the first step to rehabilitate itself and signal it had heard the thud in the ballot box.
Instead of trying to redeem itself and throw off the shackles of the past along with its atrophied policies, the shell-shocked remnants elected Peter Dutton as Opposition Leader, a choice that ensured they had bought a one-way ticket into the wilderness they so despise.
Lib’s death wish by electing Dutton
They had learned nothing.
Despite their brush with political death, the drongos sought to ensure its inevitability by electing the perceived hard-man, Dutton.
The Liberals must have a death wish. Why else elect Dutton after Morrison the Wrecker?
It would be hilarious if it were not so tragic. How so? Because it is critical for a safer democracy if the Opposition is robust, energetic and muscular in intellect as well as parliamentary performance.
‘Iceman’ Dutton unsafe for robust Opposition
The’ Iceman’ Dutton is none of these and neither is the Party he leads. It is dangerous to entertain a flaccid Opposition and one that has proven that in Opposition as well as Government, it is hellbent on destructive rather than constructive strategies and honest, ethical political conduct.
Unless the Liberal Party sheds its skin – and more than that, sheds Peter Dutton as Leader, it is hardly worth keeping the Party on life support.
It wears the raiments of a loser. Big time.
Hocking: “Liberal Party is broken”
In her incisive and authoritative article, in John Menadue’s Pearls and Irritations, historian Jenny Hocking nailed it:
“The Liberal party is broken. Riven by ideological differences, petty personal feuds and bitter factional disputes, the party which once dominated the Australian political landscape so completely, is today uncertain of what it stands for and incapable of working it out.”
Are you listening, Peter Dutton?
No, because he’s in denial about the fact that like his antecedent, the horrid serial liar, Scott Morrison who stole years of growth and happiness from the Australian people and trashed the nation’s reputation at home and abroad, Dutton thinks he’s God’s gift.
Like serial liar Morrison, Dutton thinks he’s God’s gift
The evangelical PM Morrison, patron saint of political liars was indeed like a man possessed of a secretive legion of demons, each holding a cabinet portfolio.
Thus Morrison was a self-contained mobile secret Cabinet. A shadow cabinet of another kind. Perhaps befitting the shadow of an already dismal government. It must have been crowded, with all those voices speaking in political tongues in Morrison’s head.
Little wonder then, at Morrison’s failed attempt to speak in a false tongue before Commissioner Catherine Holmes AC SC at the Robodebt Royal Commission. But the Commissioner wasn’t having any of it. It was as dismal a performance as Dutton’s, post Aston.
Dutton. Mutton dressed as ram
It was gruesomely compelling watching the Iceman being interviewed by host David Speers on the ABC’s Insiders show on Sunday morning. Speers was clearly enjoying himself and let Dutton prove he is simply mutton dressed up as ram. Speers rightly called him out when he was deliberately trying to duck issues and questions. There was the usual irritating obfuscation. No straight answers.
Instinctively, one knew that Dutton would be intransigent about the Aston massacre in the interview but still, I left room for hope, even in Dutton’s wasted spaces. Silly me.
Dutton’s a whiner
He always sounds as if he’s whining. Even when being assertive. He’s a constant complainer. A misanthrope. He had nothing to give to the electorate in the interview. Nothing. There was nothing new, nothing fresh. No warmth. No empathy. Lots of blame. Blaming Labor (they threw mud, diddums. Vice versa?).
Blaming everything and everyone but… ain’t it all we’ve heard from him in the past ten months?
Dutton. No to everything. Voice. Voiceless. No to no.
No to everything. No to the Voice. No to the voiceless. No to no. I think it may be instinctive. The dirge goes on and on.
Including this from the Iceman:
“… We stand for aspiration. We stand for entrepreneurialism, so small businesses, we stand for national security obviously, and we always stand for cleaning up a Labor mess when we get back into government so that people can make their own choices…”
There was nothing remotely aspirational spoken of in this interview. This answer was meaningless, pap. Like so many others. No mention of equal rights of any kind. Of course, maybe it’s just me.
What a pathetic response to Speersy’s question. about what the Liberal Party stood for.
jeez Peter – just tell the truth. Victoria is a small l liberal state and the Liberal Party egged on by the Murdoch media has moved further and further to the right. The last time the Liberal Party went ahead in Victoria was 2016 when Julia Banks won Chisholm #InsidersABC
— Malcolm Turnbull (@TurnbullMalcolm) April 1, 2023
Dutton’s performance was lame by any measure. It’s almost as if he has already given up. As if he knows his days are numbered. So they are.
If the Liberals don’t do some serious and honest soul searching and haul its party out of the ice age and rewrite its manifesto to acknowledge the 21st Century without Fox, they are doomed.
The harm done to democracy and Australia by the Liberal Party during the ‘lost weekend ‘of their regime, bordered on compromising our national security and certainly our global standing.
The old Legacy parties like Liberals and Labor need to offer us more than platitudes and promissory notes for out vote.
It’s fair to say that Labor is doing a fair job thus far, given the extent of Morrison Inc’s demolition job that wrought such havoc and misery.
Liberal ‘vibe’ joyless
That’s another thing that differentiates the two major parties. The ‘vibe‘ from the Liberal and what is left of its coalition with the Nationals is utterly joyless. Bleak. Negative. Without humanity. Without optimism.
The ‘vibe’ from Albanese’s public brand of Labor on this day, is just the opposite.
None of the above is to be regarded as a love letter to Labor. It is not. But it’s awfully encouraging to feel a government has a heartbeat and seemingly cares.
The notion that one has to be a ‘hard man‘ to lead has always been the protective armour of the bully who craves power for power’s sake.
One senses (and hopes) that Albanese craves power for the sake of the people, for the sake of making Australia a better place with a kinder, collective soul.
People not servants to politicians
Some politicians think that we people are their servants, rather than politicians being the servants of the people.
We have long lost our trust in politicians. And with good reason.
We have so often been treated with contempt by our politicians and as in the egregious Robodebt scandal, as criminals.
It has never been true that people get the government we deserve. At times we have little option but to choose between bad and worse.
Nor is it true that independent politicians are ineffective. The dismantling of power exclusivity is critical to a more effective inclusive democracy, as we have witnessed.
Dutton’s clinging to a Liberal conservative base will continue to stultify the Party. His dour demeanour, both personal and political will continue to impede the Liberal Party. It is time for a new and progressive leader of whatever gender.
The hour has cometh, but Dutton is not the man.
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Tess Lawrence is Contributing editor-at-large for Independent Australia and her most recent article is The night Porter and allegation of rape.
For several years, Tess hosted a current affairs show called ‘Talk the Talk with Tess Lawrence‘ on what is now called Vision Australia Radio.
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