Karma

It is easy to wreck a referendum, it is much harder to build the trust and confidence necessary for government.

Dutton and LIttleproud have been prepared to trade on right wing populism when it suited them and then eschew it when it didn’t.

“I don’t know Donald Trump” said Dutton when asked if he trusted Trump. Really? Dutton’s whole patronage system, including Gina Rinehart, fly the Trump flag readily.

Tariffs hit conservative heartlands harder than any other factor. Trump’s trade war with China is a nightmare recalling Scott Morrison. 2020 Chinese tariffs crippled the Australian barley industry, beef and sheep exports, coal, cotton, timber as well as lobster and wine exports.  Who was the hero for Australian farmers? Albo facilitated the removal of all of the 2020 tarrifs by 2024.

John Howard used to say: ‘you cannot fatten a pig on market day’. The reality for the LNP is far worse than just  lack of policy preparedness or research. The addiction to grievance politics, stunts and Trump populism has gutted tradition and philosophy. In WA, Victoria, South Australia and NSW the Liberal party’s capacity and depth is at an all time low. Classical liberalism and any kind of binding philosophy just does not exist anymore. The party under Dutton is a party of real estate agents. Philosophy and beliefs are bought from the Centre for Independent Studies. There are no characters, no guts, no feeling.

So the problem is far worse than simple laziness. The Liberal National Party leadership have traded away wiser nation builders like Menzies, Fraser, Howard, Mc Ewen, Fischer and the national stability and prosperity they created and the confidence they inspired.

When the LNP competes with One Nation the rot is well and truly established. The pillars of liberalism: small government, tolerance of differences in opinion, market based society and above all stability and character have been thrown out the window.

Peter Dutton’s nuclear policy is the worst example of big government and political arrogance in living memory. The market will not invest in Dutton/Littleproud just as it is now petrified by Trump/Vance. This is the greatest indictment of a conservative party there could be. Howard’s market pig is not only skin and bones, if there were a more critical media Dutton’s policy might well be seen as worthy of a country like North Korea.

Even the nuclear policy is not the worst of it. The principles of liberalism and the old country party have been sacrificed for rat cunning in a world where the rats are in the ceiling, eating the walls out and where the exterminators have spread the poison but the stench of dead rats makes the entire house uninhabitable.

Anthony Albanese is, by comparison, a Labor soldier who believes in building lasting national institutions like affordable child care.  It might have been argued in another era that such big publicly funded initiatives have their limitations, but not in a world where the apex of world conservatism is a Queens real estate developer who does not believe in the rule of law only the art of the deal.

Why have the Teals been so successful in the conservative heartlands of the capital cities? That is an easy question to answer in the current context. There is simply no competition for well thought out policies and ideas. An even more compelling question is: why is independent Bob Katter the longest standing parliamentarian? Why is Andrew Gee like to be re-elected in Calare? The answer is the pig has not been fattened on market day. These men stand for principles not just politics. Gee has stood for his electorate through floods, droughts, and all sorts of natural disasters and seen that alliances with Aboriginal leaders can yield more infrastructure and greater regional security. He stared down party dogmatism because he thought about what was best for his people. The same has been true over and over again for Katter and still the Nats don’t get it. Preferences may decide Calare in 2025, but as in the inner city, the rot lies in party opportunism and lack of principle.

Where does the LNP now look for leadership? Does it look to Lia Finochiaro? Does it look to Parmerston, Alice Springs and Katherine “spit hood” red neck focus on law and order? Jacinta Nampijinpa Price was supposed to be Dutton’s government efficiency  spokesperson and post Elon Musk she has gone into full retreat. Her “Make Australia Great Again” comment on April 12 fully exposed the schizo politics of the Liberal National Party. On the one hand Trump’s champions, on the other all regional electorates especially in Queensland and the Northern Territory are highly exposed to global trade shocks and therefore most exposed to the brutal realities of Trump tariffs and prospective world trade wars. Does the LNP look to David Crisafulli in Qld? The story is the same, as with the NT, primary industries and regional areas will be devastated by a world tariff driven slow down. So what is left some form of Judge Judy law and order campaign?

At its best the LNP have championed the efficiencies of Australia’s primary industries. Now they are floundering.  Trump’s tariffs will damage NT, Qld gas and mining far more than other sectors. In WA, it is ironic that Labor commands a massive majority and is becoming increasingly trusted to deal with international trade issues and this  translates into support for Penny Wong, Don Farrell and Tim Ayres at a Federal level.  Liberal Simon Birmingham is not a counter acting strength.

Trump’s attacks on American civil rights and the US constitution may even weaken the Coalition policies on law and order and the policies of Finochiaro and Crisafulli on youth crime. Are the conservatives doomed to win elections on their capacity to build and open new prisons? Is deportation of immigrants on the cards in a multi-cultural society like Australia?

It is hard to see where the LNP can go? The party seems closer to “My Place Australia” than to any credible national political and policy platform. If they are roundingly defeated in May the party will have to look to Julian Lesser, Bridget Archer and Andrew Bragg to drag old style liberalism back to the centre of party business. For the Nationals, Tony Windsor’s famous admonition that the National Party ‘s “bread and butter” is failure  and that it is a “dying” party rings loud.

All that remains to be said is that the fact these points are not being made now in the Australian national media is testimony to the “balance” of organisations like the Australian Broadcasting Commission. Balance means “dreadful” gets equal time with “competent”. Journalists get hats to indicate they represent all sides of life. The main policy position of Austgralia’s organisations seems to be to be fiercely partisan to the point of blindness or to simply smile and carry on pleasantly into the oblivion.

Karma holds that good actions return good fortune and bad actions create destruction and negative actions. The karma of opportunism and grievance politics has come back to haunt the Liberal/National party.