Liberal Party members scoffed and groaned when they were told by Malcolm Turnbull — fresh from his rolling of Tony Abbott — that their party was “not run by factions”. And rightly so.
“Well, you may dispute that, but I have to tell you, from experience, we are not run by factions, nor are we run by big business, or by deals in back rooms,” Turnbull persisted, over a room full of hecklers.
But his words are already coming back to bite as the party’s moderate faction prepares to challenge Abbott’s conservative old guard for preselection before this year’s federal election.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that the factional split within the Liberal Party is not only significant, it is perhaps even ideologically wider than that within the notoriously divided ALP.
Australians seem to have been conditioned by the turbulent Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years to think that difference of opinion among political representatives and diversity within political parties is a bad thing. It’s not. Factions don’t necessarily mean having power concentrated in the hands of a few faceless men. In fact, it is party unity at any cost that is bad for democracy and ultimately bad for voters since it takes the focus away from good evidence-based policy and stakeholder consultation.
If the Liberal Party can manage these current ructions maturely — remember Abbott’s “grown-up, adult government”? — and maintain an ear to the ground throughout (not only to members, but to the voters who put them in power), it might just come out the other end a stronger, more electable party.
But that result depends largely on one thing: Tony Abbott sucking it up and accepting his position on the backbench — or, indeed, outside of Parliament. It remains to be seen whether he’s adult enough to pull that off.
This morning’s The Australian has a rather nice cartoon on the Libs factional issue.
I yield to none in my distaste for the Abbottrocity but to say that tory reconstruction/revitalisation “largely on one thing: Tony Abbott sucking it up…” is to give an empty vessel too much content.
I look forward, one day, to the ALP again having annual conventions where ideas, principle and political ethics are the subject of tumultuous debate.
No need to tell me I’m dreaming.
The factional struggle all the media are discussing in response to pre-selections in NSW places too much emphasis on left – right division. What is really going on is generational change. For too long, the Liberals have been criticised for having too many long serving oldies occupying seats and that is beginning to change.
This is a pre-selection where a younger set is putting its hand up. Factional politics are there of course because any candidate will espouse a view about the issues of the day.
But factional politics has nothing like the sway it does in Labor where I believe stakeholders such as a specific Union are handed a proportion of seats for their people to fill.
Ruddock, Bishop and even Abbott will all have to get through a robust pre-selection process. I expect Abbott to stay (if he wants to) because of his comparative youth, not his place on the political spectrum.
Abbott ‘sucking it up’?
He has a determination & iron will normal humans cannot fathom. He is also delusional. This combination does not equate to him accepting defeat via a seat on the back bench.
Australians seem to have been conditioned by the turbulent Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years to think that difference of opinion among political representatives and diversity within political parties is a bad thing.
YAY !
I mean, you are happy, right ? Crikey is as guilty as any other authoritarian media outlet of championing “bipartisianship” and “mandates” in politics, or presenting a “split parliament” or minor party having the “balance of power” as an implicitly bad thing.
One can only imagine the ructions if we had, say, half a dozen or more political parties with significant representation or, even worse, something resembling real democracy where the people were able to circumvent (perhaps even sanction – inconceviable!) their political representatives.
You guys are institutional two-party politics from your heads to your toes.