Liberals getting ready

Image via WikipediaGood to see the Liberal Party of Australia  is getting  an early start to fighting the next election:

Federal Liberal Party fast-tracks preselections in eight key seats

Those seats include Parramatta, Greenway and Lindsay. I expect their will be a good field of potential candidates for those seats.

Also  fund raising has well and truly started. Only there's nothing new about asking for small donations, Barry had a similar scheme prior to the NSW election.

Liberal Party prepares war chest for snap poll

Can politicians be trusted?

Australians don't seem to think so but interestingly they believe the Liberals have more integrity. I think men like Abbott and O'Farrell  have something to do with that.

Labor or Liberal? We don't want either latest polling shows

• By Malcolm Farr, National Political Editor

• 
  

Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard may be all smiles, but latest polling reveals voters don't really trust either party. Picture: AP

• Voters believe Labor, Libs will do anything to win
• Poll shows voters looking more favourably on Libs
• Rudd's removal, minority government not popular

VOTERS are re-appraising the Liberals and growing more hostile towards Labor after a year of dramatic changes in the way we view our two major political parties.

A majority of voters still believe both parties will do anything to win, and that both have lost touch with ordinary people.
However, an Essential Report survey released today also found voters are looking significantly more favourably on the Liberals, as they intensify their criticisms of the ALP.
And the cause of the switch appear to be the brutal removal of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister in June last year, and the actions of the minority Government after the inconclusive election of last August.
There has been a collapse in the regard for Labor's leadership and unity over the past 12 months, and an increasing number of voters are losing faith in Labor's integrity, the polling shows.

Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.

The proportion of voters who thought Labor had a good team of leaders fell from 52 per cent in March last year to 34 per cent today.

The rating of the Liberal leadership had a modest improvement from 34 per cent to 40 per cent.
A year ago, 63 per cent said Labor would promise to do anything to win a vote. Today, that has jumped to 72 per cent of voters.

The Liberal rating on this question went in the other direction, falling from 72 per cent last year to 65 per cent today.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/national/labor-or-liberal-we-dont-want-either-latest-polling-shows/story-e6frfkw9-1226045725700#ixzz1KoiNXAVW

Let Liberal Party members elect the Leader

A few days ago I had my first article published in Menzies House. Here it is.

Lets face it the Liberal Party is completely hopeless at electing its leaders. Its ridiculous that we are in our first term of opposition but are up to leader number three. There's nothing new about this of course, how many leaders did we go through last time until John Howard was elected leader? Remember it was his second go and he only got there because he was last man standing. The State situation is no better, NSW Liberals have been playing musical chairs for 15 years. 

Under the current system we are constantly subject to leadership speculation. If the polls are bad the leader has to go, if they improve they can stay. Its a complete distraction from what we should be about – attacking the Labor Party. Also the leader is supposed to have the support of the Party members, but why should they? They had no part in their election. The end result is we spend a long time in opposition until we fluke someone who is electable and hopefully that person is a John Howard not some loser.

To me the solution is obvious, for the Liberal Party of Australia to adopt a system similar to what the UK Conservative Party has ie: to let the party members not just the parliamentarians elect the leader.

If the Conservatives have a leadership vacancy the parliamentarians chose two candidates , that way whoever becomes the leader will have the general support of their colleagues. Then those two have to go and sell themselves to the ordinary mug members. After a suitable time a ballot is held and who ever wins becomes the leader. That person remains the leader until he or she resigns or there is a spill. Importantly, unlike the Australian Democrats who had a similar system, they don't allow the party members to petition a spill. A spill can only be brought on by the parliamentarians. We want more stability not less. The person being spilled against can not stand for the forthcoming ballot.

The benefits are many. A united party. A leader who has the support of the members, the end of leadership speculation and perhaps most importantly, I believe it would rejuvenate the party. The ordinary members, the poor mugs who pays their 90 bucks, would have a direct say on who they want for the next Premier or Prime Minister. 

Of course there are some negatives. There would be increased administrative costs. However democracy always has a price and besides internet voting would minimize those costs. Also what will we do with Queensland's National Liberal Party? Are they Liberals or Nationals? That's something that needs to be sorted out but would be irrelevant at the State level anyway. Properly the strongest opposition will come from various politicians who hope to use the current system to further their ambition, but there are some who would like to see such a change because the idea was first brought to my attention by Christopher Pyne MP.

So how about it? Lets have some grass roots democracy!

Robert Manne attacks Abbott

Howard hater Robert Manne has found a new target to aim his venom at, Tony Abbott. His attacks on John Howard never made much sense to me and his attack on Howard Abbott is not much better. Lets have a look at his latest:

With Tony Abbott, the hard-Right Howardites have taken over the party. In part this is a matter of personnel: Ruddock, Minchin, Bishop, Andrews and Abetz. And in part it is a matter of policy reversion. Abbott will now campaign without ethical restraint on the question of asylum-seekers.

Ruddock a member of the hard right? bullshit. The return of Ruddock and Bronny Bishop is about using your best assets not moving to the right. Mr Ruddock is the longest serving pollie in Parliament. Having Yoda there as a non voting member of the shadow cabinet makes sense. Bronny is Shadow Minister for Seniors again makes good sense. She is a formidable woman and the right age to connect with older voters. Regarding asylum-seekers, the Shadow for immigration  is Scott Morrison, another moderate.

No denialist is more ignorant or cocky on climate change than the new leader of the Liberal Party, the natural successor to John Howard. It is certain that Abbott will now try to make ground over climate change by the deployment of the kind of politics of populist conservatism that Howard pioneered. It is important for the future of the Liberal Party and vital for the good name of the nation that he does not succeed.

The ignorent person here is Manne. Abbott accepts AGW and has consistently said he accepts the governments 5% emissions cut. Now, I'm skeptical on his claims to be able achieve this without a carbon price, but lets see what he comes up with. Note Greg Hunt still has his old  Climate Change Shadow job.

The simple reading of this is that while cosmopolitan Australians care about the coming climate catastrophe, the numerically far larger mainstream can be influenced by a scare campaign about even minuscule personal financial costs of climate change action. Whether this simple reading provides a clue to our political future, only time will tell.

More Manne crap: According to Manne Abbott is going hard right to pick up the mainstream vote. By definition the mainstream is the centre, not the left or right. What Manne really objects too is that the centre of Australian life is conservative in character. Abbott, unlike Manne likes ordinary Australians and can connect with then.

Abbott goes for the bogan right

For the Liberal Party to gain office they have to gain the support of the working class conservatives, the Howard battlers or as I call us the Bogan Right. That requires a leader who can connect with ordinary Australians. John Howard could do that  which was why he was swept into power in 1996. He was able to keep our support until 2007 when Kevin Rudd took those votes from the tired Howard government . Malcolm Turnbull was always seen as an eastern suburbs toff and could never connect. Tony Abbott has a chance of gaining  our trust and will be doing all her can to get those votes.:

"Obviously, if you are going to win the election you have got to secure the people who regard themselves as rusted on Coalition voters and then you have got to reach out to the middle ground," Mr Abbott told Fairfax Radio today.


"And 'Howard's Battlers', to use that phrase, were basically working people who respected John Howard because he thought that, in his own way, he was one of them.


"We can reach out and claim those same people ... maybe this could become Abbott's Army."Mr Abbott said in the weekend by-elections in Bradfield and Higgins there were big swings to the Liberals in "blue collar" areas.


"I have a feeling this emissions tax is really going to bring them (Labor) unstuck," he said.

How successful he will be remains to be seen.

We Fight!

Tony Abbott is Liberal leader.

TONY Abbott has promised a fight on climate change after rolling Malcolm Turnbull to take over the Liberal leadership.

Mr Abbott, Mr Turnbull and Joe Hockey contested a three-way spill at a special partyroom meeting in Parliament this morning. Mr Abbott won by a single vote, 42-41.

He said he was humbled but exhilarated by the win. "We are gearing up for the fight of our lives," he said at his first press conference as leader, adding that he was not frightened to fight an election against Kevin Rudd on climate change

.

My letter to Senator George Brandis

Liberal Senator George Brandis recently gave the Alfred Deakin lecture.( The transcript was published in the Australian.) He went to considerable length to position the party as the party of freedom, something Malcolm Turnbull has also been pushing. At the same time he distanced himself from the conservatives, especially Tony Abbott.

I fully agree the party's central philosophical direction should always be  liberty, but to ignore its conservative base is suicidal. The mainstream of Australian life is conservative. It has to appeal to that base if its to succeed. Now, the Australian people don't give a stuff for political philosophies  but the do care about the policies politicians put out to address their concerns.

So this conservative libertarian sent the Senator the following letter:

Dear Senator Brandis,

Today I read your recent Alfred Deakin lecture and was moved to write to you.

Personally I don't regard conservatism as a political philosophy. I regard it as a world view based on practicality, compromise and common sense. Conservatives don't appose change but they are sceptical of it. As such conservatism is not exclusive to any party , Labor leaders like Wran and Hawke were conservative. As the Australian mainstream is essentially conservative a political party has to conservative to succeed.

I read Mr Abbott's book but as a small government liberal, I was disappointed by his big government, centralized government approach. In my view the end result would be big taxes and increased bureaucracy. We would eventually end up with a nation wide version of the NSW Rees government.

However to his credit, practical conservative Tony Abbott did provide policy options for various social issues everything from extending Medicare to include dental work to paid maternity leave for mothers.

I think its up to you and other self declared liberals of the party to come up with a proper response to "Battle lines". The conservative in me wants to know how different would your policies be? What different direction would they take?

I have been assured by House of Representatives members that Senators don't have much to do so perhaps you can turn on the word processor and come up with some liberal policies.

Regards

Ralph Buttigieg

Hazem El Masri Liberal for Lakemba?

Gosh gully gumdrops. Talk about finding top candidates. According to todays' Telegraph football star Hazem El Masri has been approached by Barry O'Farrell and the NSW Liberals to stand as their candidate in the Lakemba:

El Masri has been approached by the Liberal Party to run in the Lakemba electorate vacated by former premier Morris Iemma for the 2011 NSW election. It follows the activation of the secret committee to be headed by Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell to take charge of the Liberal Party's election campaign strategy, campaign finance and give the parliamentary leader unprecedented power over choosing candidates.

El Masri , a devout Muslim and family man, is a local hero and has done good things in the community.  Lakemba is the Labor Party's safest seat, Iemma  held it with  a 34% majority but after the by election the libs got it down to 24.5%.  Taking it from Labor would be the equivalent of climbing Everest but if anyone could do it it would be El Masri.

I hope he does stand, because win or lose it would knock down the stupid belief that the Liberals are an Anglo only party. The Liberals are a mainstream party who draw their talent from the great mainstream of Australian life.

Liberal Rabble

Julie Bishop says the bleeding obvious:

DEPUTY Liberal leader Julie Bishop has told colleagues they were behaving like a "rabble" and were to blame for the Coalition's poor performance in opinion polls.

The Coalition leadership team served the joint party room meeting some home truths after the latest Newspoll showed it would have resoundingly lost an election held last weekend.

The Newspoll, published in The Australian today, showed Labor would have won in a landslide, picking up 59 per cent of the two-party preferred vote to the Coalition's 41 per cent.

Turnbull talks unity too:

"The public isn't interested in listening to us talk about ourselves," he told the joint party meeting.

While the Coalition was in power twelve odd years it mustn't be forgotten that Labor was in disarray as well and lost election after election. It's the Coalition turn now in opposit...

"They want to hear about issues of interest to them."

He reminded MPs and senators that disunity could be particularly dangerous during looming by-elections in the seats of Higgins and Bradfield, brought about by the recent resignations of Peter Costello and Brendan Nelson, respectively.

There was no such thing as a safe seat, particularly at a by-election, he told the party room.

He stressed the importance of "unity" given the approaching by-elections, expected to be held at the end of November.

If the rabble doesn't come to order they are facing disaster.

Malcolm Turnbull stands up for freedom

Malcolm Turnbull recently gave an important speech in London. Here is some of what he said:

In my view, now more than ever, political leaders of the centre right must stand up for freedom. Today, more than ever, we need to safeguard the spirit of independence, self-reliance and enterprise so critical to the long-term prosperity and security of our peoples.

We must stand up for a view of society which says government’s role is to enable each and every citizen to do their best, to realise their dreams, to start their businesses, to buy their homes, to choose where to send their children to school. That is the golden thread of freedom that defines what it is to live in a liberal democracy such as ours – the principle that, to the greatest extent possible, people should be able to rule their own lives.

Now in all of this, the best governments will be those that understand and accept the limits of their power; not those that seek to dictate from on high how business should be run, how society should be structured, which companies stand or fall, and how individuals should run their lives.

In my view, it is critical that parties of the centre-right not to be spooked or intimidated by the sense of crisis into a greater tolerance, let alone acceptance, of the notion of government intrusion into economic activity that is best left to the private sector or for heavy-handed and often counterproductive interference in the operation of markets.

Its worth reading. but practical people want to see actions not just hear  words.

Liberals in Parramatta -12 months latter

As a supporter of smaller government I want to see local councils, the level of government closest to the people, to do well. So its good to see Parramatta's Liberal-Independent coalition government has had a successful first year with a orderly transition to a new Lord Mayor. 

Paul Garrard - Parramatta’s longest-serving councillor- was last night elected lord mayor of the city for the fifth time during his 35 years on council.

The independent councillor beat Labor’s candidate Pierre Esber nine votes to six. Liberal councillor Chiang Lim was elected deputy, against Labor’s Julia Finn by the same margin.

Former lord mayor Tony Issa, who had been mayor for a year, decided not to stand again.

In standing down, Cr Issa paid tribute to his fellow councillors in the way they had worked together. He said he was proud to have abolished politics in the chamber and to have reduced the city’s $6.9 million debt to a $4.6 million surplus.

 And they kept rates under control too:

``The State Government gives so little to Parramatta, a major city centre. We need money for transport, to bring people to Parramatta rather than just have people leave it, and for parking but other places get it before we do,’’ Cr Issa said. ``We are the only council which did not raise its rates above the CPI and we would like more government support.’’

Good luck to Cr Tony Issa and wishing a succesful year to new Lord Mayor Paul Garrard.

Libertarians and the Liberals

Tim Andrews wants to know if libertarians should join the Liberal Party. Various people including Danny Hayes, have commented. My response is below.

Yes.
If you want to have a direct effect on Australian politics you need to join a political party. A minor party like the LDP is a waste of time, they have been unable to elect a single person to any level of government. That leaves the two major mainstream parties. If like Mr Humphreys, you believe the Labor party is your best bet then go ahead, join them. You can try arguing the benefits of the free market with the comrades.

I as a conservative libertarian ( if there's such a thing as an Australian Reaganite, then I'm one) prefer the Liberal Party. Thats the party that supported the free market policies of Hawke/Keating and when in government privatized Telstra and the CES, freed up labor markets, turned a budgetary deficit into a surplus and was able to deliver tax cut after tax cut. That the party while accused of being socially conservative didn't try to impose internet censorship, instead gave people a sensible choice.

Its a mainstream party that has to appeal to the broad electorate. So requires policies and leaders that have that appeal. However it is the party of enterprise and the individual , but its commitment to those principles are only as strong as the commitment of its members. We can certainly use more classical liberals so "should libertarians join the Liberal Party? -" Yes Please.

Let the members elect the Liberal leader

Lets face it, the way we pick our political leaders is hopeless. How many leaders does an opposition need to go through before an acceptable person is found? Now that Costello is gone Turnbull is supposed to have Abbott or Hocking or whoever is favor of the month after his job. And I have lost count of NSW Liberal leaders.

Under our two party system the party has to be a broad church with a spectrum of views, without a strong leader to give it direction it will flounder. That leader needs to have a united party behind them, they also need to show they are capable of connecting with the ordinary voter. The current system fails to do that.

There is an alternative. Have the Liberal party members, elect the Parliamentary leader. That's what the Conservatives do in the UK. There the parliamentarians elect two contenders who then go to a postal vote of the members. If they can convince the members to vote for them they have a chance of convincing the ordinary voter. The leader is only changed if there's a spill or a resignation. It would stop the never ending newspaper leadership speculation stories. As well giving the grass roots something useful to do would invigorate the party.

Such a proposal may provide journalist with fewer articles but it may also give the Australian people the leaders they want.

A politician who believes

Being sent to the back bench hasn't stopped Cory Bernardi from blogging. Here's an extract from his latest post:

Personally I was never one to be won over. I always had a belief in free markets, smaller government, personal responsibility and what many refer to as 'traditional values'. This was unfashionable as a uni student but eventually these principles prevailed and provided Australia with unprecedented prosperity.

Yet in 2009 the political climate has changed and I suspect that us small government free marketeers will be unfashionable again for a few years yet.

Does that mean we should stop advocating for what we believe is right for families, for communities and for our nation?

I say no. If you believe in what you are doing. If you have the courage of your convictions then you can withstand almost any storm.

I think I will be linking to him more often.

The big tent

I have returned from holidays to find Mr Turnbull has had a few staff problems to attend too. Now Mr Pyne and I might disagree on a several issues. I expect Mr Pyne to be on a different point of the political spectrum then me. However I'm glad he is in the Liberal Party. Chris Pyne has come up with some original and radical proposals to modernise the party such as having the party members elect the Parliamentary Leader. Similar to what the British Conservative Party does.

Thank you Mr Rudd

For saving the Liberal Party. Since the Prime Minister's essay in The Monthly and his 42 Billion dollar stimulus package we have had Malcolm Turnbull leading Liberals to complete opposition of the package and Peter Costello and Tony Abbott in the media tearing into Rudd. The difference between the two parties is now clear. Its between Rudd and his socialist Whitlamite agenda and the Coalition rapidly moving towards limited government and tax cuts. Thats exactly the direction the Libs should be going. Now can they please come out in opposition to internet censorship, limit or better still oppose ETS, and stand up against workplace restrictions so we can really have a party of liberty.

Costello hits back

Peter Costello responds to Rudd's stimulus package. He is devastating .

Good on you Malcolm!

Good to see the 'Bull has not been castrated. Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberals has rejected Rudd's $42 Billion spending spree:

But our judgement is that $42 billion is too much right now and $200 billion is too much debt.
This is not a time for panic. It is the time for sound calm judgement. There is no evidence that last year’s $10 billion cash hand out was an effective economic stimulus. It did not create the jobs the Government said it would. So we oppose rushing to another cash splash. Rather, we propose bringing forward permanent tax cuts for Australians.....

Good stuff. I also like the Libs proposal to help small business by reducing their super contribution. Now, if they can only ome up with some sort of tax swap with the states and abolish payroll tax.

However the Opposition do not control the senate, at the end of the day I expect the Government to do a deal with the Greens and independents and get the bill through, but a least the coalition is acting like a real Opposition.

Young Liberal reject slavery

Noel McCoy's proposal to bring back conscription ended in farce:

Anyway. The time comes for the motion to be debated. Noel asks for a mover…

*dead silence*

NOT A SINGLE DELEGATE WAS WILLING TO EVEN MOVE THE MOTION.

Not one. Every single voting delegate from every single state delegation was against this ridiculously stupid motion.

The motion lapsed and went promptly into the dustbin of history where it belongs.

It’s good to know that the Young Liberal Movement believes in freedom.

Thanks to Tim Andrews for the update.

Turnbull and biochar

Today Malcolm Turnbull gave a major speech at the Young Liberal's convention were he outlined the Liberal's answer to global warming. There's much of it I like. Agriculture is central to the plan (the Nationals should love it) with much emphasis on revegetation and biochar. I especially like the promotion of biochar, which as well as producing charcoal to improve the soil and suck CO2 also produces syngas which can be made into methanol fuel. (Now if I can only convice Malcolm to run with my flex fuel proposal).

I'm less entusiastic about his alternative enegy plans. Rather then building a couple of pilot solar plants a fair dinkum commercial 500 megawatt nuclear plant would make a real contribution .