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Epoch Times
28-05-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
After the Fall: Can the Liberals Rebuild From the Ashes?
Less than a month after recording its worst federal election result in history, the Liberal Party finds itself fractured and faced with the challenge of rebuilding trust and direction. From alienating key demographics to factional infighting, the Liberals—once Australia's natural party of government—are reckoning with a defeat many say was years in the making. Former attorney-general George Brandis delivered one of the sharpest rebukes, arguing the party had systematically alienated large swathes of the electorate—women, public servants, multicultural communities, and inner-city voters. 'It was almost as if we were running out of new people to offend,' he told ABC's Four Corners. Brandis said those blaming the historic loss on campaign missteps are missing the deeper rot within the party's image and ideological direction. Modernise Or Return To Roots? The result has triggered a battle for the soul of the party. One camp believes the Liberals have drifted too far from their economic and philosophical roots, diluting their message and confusing voters. Another, led by new party leader Sussan Ley, believes the path forward lies in modernisation and occupying 'the sensible centre.' Related Stories 5/23/2025 5/21/2025 'The answer is not to move to the centre, but to move forward as one united team … continuing to bring together classical Liberals and conservatives in our great party together with the Nationals,' said Senator Sarah Henderson, rejecting the idea that the party had veered too far right. But forging unity remains easier said than done. Ley's own leadership is on shaky ground after she won the top job by just four votes over Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor. The Coalition's internal divisions erupted almost immediately after the loss, and nowhere are they clearer than on climate and energy policy. MP Andrew Hastie made his position clear: abandon net-zero. 'I think the question of net zero, that's a straitjacket that I'm already getting out of,' he told Four Corners, echoing a growing view among the party's right flank. O'Brien, formerly the Coalition's nuclear energy spokesperson, sidestepped the net-zero question altogether. Instead, he pivoted to cost-of-living concerns. 'The real question is should Australian families and businesses be paying more for their electricity?' But moderates are against backpedalling. Senator Maria Kovacic warned that rejecting net-zero targets would alienate the next generation of voters. 'Most young Australians believe that climate change is real ... we have to deliver energy policies that ensure that we reach our net zero targets and that we deliver stable power ... as cheap as possible.' Finding Their Way Back With the dust settling, attention is turning to the road ahead. Some believe only a complete overhaul will save the party. 'They have lost any interest in balancing the budget, reducing taxes, being pro-free enterprise,' said former Liberal MP John Ruddick, who now backs more populist reforms with the Libertarian Party. He advocates U.S.-style primaries to fix what he sees as a 'wrong candidate selection model,' and believes the party's failure lies in trying to mimic Labor. 'Donald Trump has shown us that the only way to push the left back … is to be on the front foot. Peter Dutton and Sussan Ley think, 'Oh well, we can win by being Labor-lite,'' he told The Epoch Times. Others offer alternative views. Senator Kovacic believes reconnecting with core Liberal economic values may offer the clearest way forward. 'If we focused on our economic credentials … then I think we would've connected with people.'
The Guardian
26-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Australia news live: Liberals rue ‘fairy floss politics' and policy black hole under Dutton; looting warning follows floods
Update: Date: 2025-05-26T20:38:08.000Z Title: Culture war cost us seats, senior Liberals tell Four Corners Content: Current and former Liberal party MPs and senators have said the party's focus on culture war has seen their inner-city constituencies abandon them and contributed to their election loss in what one called 'fairy floss politics'. Speaking to ABC's Four Corners on Monday night, former NSW Liberal president Jason Falinski, former senator George Brandis and NSW senator Maria Kovacic criticised their party's focus on small, hard-right constituencies and culture wars. The party alienated women, especially those who wanted to work from home, offended public servants, multicultural communities, people in the inner cities, students and 'other minority groups as well', Brandis said: It was almost as if we were running out of new people to offend. People who felt the party needed to lean harder into the culture wars were 'nuts', Brandis said: The people you have to persuade are the people who didn't vote for you last time but are open to persuasion. And those people live in the centre ground of Australian politics. And if you spend your time drinking your own political bathwater and only living in an echo chamber of far-rightwing opinion, you're never going to get them. Falinski said that 'fairy floss politics' – that is, 'high-calorie, low-nutrition politics' such as copying Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, or Doge, concept – was 'not healthy for us'. Kovacic said: I don't think that everyday Australians are particularly interested in culture wars. People have abandoned us in the cities because our messaging doesn't resonate with them, and they haven't gone to the right. They voted for Labor and the teals because what we're selling them isn't aligned with them. Update: Date: 2025-05-26T20:36:49.000Z Title: Coalition wanted to erase Aboriginal people from national memory: Dodson Content: Pat Dodson has also decried what he called the 'new assimilation' policies pushed by the Coalition during the election campaign, saying it is another way of trying to erase Aboriginal people from national memory. Speaking to 7.30 on Monday night, Dodson said: If you looked at what they were talking about in the opposition at the last election, getting rid of land councils, revising a whole range of symbolism, throw out the welcome to country, get rid of the flags, rescind the ambassador. Anything that indicates the presence of Aboriginal people would have gone. That's what the new assimilation's about, is completing the obliteration of Aboriginal people from the landscape. Cultural heritage is another very important aspect of that. The more you smash and destroy the cultural heritage of Aboriginal people, the greater it is to say that there is a substantive argument to say that they had a substantive presence here, because there's no evidence – you've blown it up. Update: Date: 2025-05-26T20:30:55.000Z Title: Labor should return to 'treaty-making process', Pat Dodson says Content: Yaruwu elder and former Labor senator Pat Dodson has urged the Albanese government to 'go back to the treaty-making process' in order to continue the project of reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, arguing the 'resounding victory' of Labor at the election gave them a new opportunity. Speaking to ABC's 7.30 on Monday night, Dodson said he was 'very confident' Albanese could lead that process, but it would require going back to the Uluru statement from the heart. Dodson said: That doesn't mean they have to go down the constitutional path for a voice. But it does mean that they've got to honour the two aspects of the Makarrata commission. That wasn't voted on by the people. That wasn't part of the provision that we voted on, to vote down. So they have to go back to the treaty-making process and the truth-telling process. And they can do that, because it doesn't require constitutional referendum. That can be done by way of legislation. Truth-telling needed to be a two-way street, Dodson said, and it needed to result in a 'national narrative' that was not simply 'Captain Cook came here and no one was here'. Dodson continued: I think that the government's come back with a resounding victory. The horror that they anticipated [of electoral defeat] passed by. They've now got the confidence of the Australian people. The Australian people want to see unity. They don't want to see hatred. And they want to live with a national sense of Australian pride. The time has come. We can't keep kicking it down the road, and even the prime minister was saying during the referendum – if not now, when? So, OK, the referendum went up and it went down. That doesn't mean that that is the end of reconciliation. Reconciliation is about the substantive issues. Update: Date: 2025-05-26T20:30:55.000Z Title: Welcome Content: Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I'm Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it'll be Luca Ittimani with the main action. Current and former Liberal party MPs and senators have said the party's focus on culture war and a failure to properly develop and present policies cost the party the election. Speaking on Four Corner last night, former NSW Liberal president Jason Falinski said 'high-calorie, low-nutrition politics' – so-called 'fairy floss politics' – had proved costly. More details coming up. We have an exclusive story this morning from the veteran-led organisation on the frontline of disaster recovery calling for federal government support to help establish a 10,000-strong volunteer army. It comes as police are pouring resources into flood-ravaged towns in NSW to prevent a breakdown in law and order after two men were arrested for alleged looting. More coming up. In another exclusive, one of the architects of the Indigenous voice to parliament, Megan Davis, who says Aboriginal Australians increasingly feel the government is not listening to their views on laws and policy design, warns against closed-shop public consultations in the wake of the referendum defeat.
