Coalition Split - It Won't Last
Call me a cynic, but the Coalition split won’t last. Espacially given the baubles of office. The salary supplements, the extra staff, the bigger offices, the titles and extra perquisites.
Those now unemployed Young Nats staffers who planned to parlay their useless Canberra experiences into an electeedposition, will be in the ear of members to tell them how dangerous this is, and how important it is for the Coalition to come back together.
This is not a game of chicken being played by the Nats. This is a game of stupid. And history suggests that in the game of stupid, the Nats have the numbers.
Remember, this is the party of people who were prepared to sit quietly during Scott Morrison’s multipe ministries attempted coup d'état - to retain access to the baubles of power.
The problem for the National Party, is that the few with intelligence, character and ability are surrounded by those without.
To include in their shopping list of non-negotiable issues the Regional Australia Future Fund, a most idiotic idea, but no more idiotic that the Housing Australia Future Fund just shows how low the Nats have falled. The idiotic Housing Australia Future Fund is the very same thing that the Coalition, Nationals included, went to the election proposing to close down.
The ability of the opposition to prosecute real issues, like the cost and consequence of net zero and renewable energy have been diminished by the narcissism of the Nats.
A frame around Net Zero has been set - that it is that there is no cost or trade off from pursuing such policies. It’s either net zero or death. This frame needs to be reset just as it was, eventually, post Covid that lockdowns and mandatory vaccinations were essential.
This is the same idiotic thinking, lead but certain idiotic economics academics, that there was no trades offs from shutting down the economy during covid. It’s shut down or death.
That piece of economic brilliance, from a bunch of PhD’d academic economists reminded me of the famous HL Mencken quote:
It is the classic fallacy of our time that a moron run through a university and decorated with a Ph.D. will thereby cease to be a moron.
And to paraphrase Mencken, it is a falacy that by putting a moron into parliament, they cease to be a moron.
Oh and by the way, it was a senior Member of the current Nats party room that led the legislation of the Biosecurity Act - the piece of legislation that enabled much of the government terrorism during Covid.
There are absolutely people of ability and character in the Nats. But they are outnumbered.
Give it a few weeks. They will put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
And if not, let the Libs stand for election in Nats sees and see how many Nats remain in 5 years.
I live in the country where Nats are traditionally very strong. Their problem it seems to me is always wanting more money spent in regional areas. What country people really want are same things as what urban people want (excluding communist Melbourne of course) and that is less tax & less regulation. We want less government not more.
It always makes me laugh when I hear some 'right wing' commentator opine how the Nationals are the 'real conservatives', while the Liberals are Labor-Lite.
The fact is that the Nationals have always been rural socialists, first and foremost. Look at Bob Katter and KAP's policies - he left the Nats and set up his own party because they were not socialist enough for him. (And Katter is also a "proud CFMEU member" - a true conservative, surely!)
I met David Littleproud personally a few years ago. He's a climate bedwetter and it always amazed me that the farmers in Maranoa, which is his electorate and one of the safest Nat seats in the country, actually voted for him, because they are usually sensible and well-grounded people. So let us not be naive and expect any 'conservative' moves from a party led by him.
Having said all that, the Liberals are truly appalling and probably beyond salvage. This split is, I think, a good thing, because it will either push them to finally have a look at what they actually stand for - which is 'nothing' right now - or accelerate their final oblivion.
Then and only then we may see a third party rise from the ashes, along Reform in the UK.
In the meantime, the beatings will continue until morale improves. Albo is apparently now an economist, too, so between him and that nice Mr Chalmers, we can look forward to some brand-new Marxist policies. Because this time socialism will work, surely!