As the Coalition’s disastrous election result in May was confirmed by another rout in Victoria at the end of November, the analysis of the woes of the Liberal Party in the pages of The Australian has taken on a mournful character.
Today you can find Paul Kelly using the ANU’s regular post-election survey, and Labor’s own post-election review, to declare that the Liberals face an “existential crisis”. The Great Bloviator opines that demographics are against the Liberals, with younger people, women and people with higher education disinclined to vote conservative. (What does it say about you that when people are better educated they’re less likely to support you?)
At least Kelly avoided the sublime idiocy of Nick Cater, who recently decided that the Liberals’ bête noire was single women, especially single women who have babies.
Peta Credlin, unsurprisingly, decided that both losses were because the Liberals weren’t right-wing enough, a line we’ve also heard regularly from Sky News’ after dark zoo of shit-flinging primates. Some credit should go to Gerard Henderson who, back in August, opined that 1) things look bleak for the Liberals, but history shows anything can happen (which is about the most sensible advice anyone could give the Coalition currently), and 2) tried to apportion some blame to former leaders undermining the party, an appraisal that at least has the advantage of novelty. Poor John Gorton, still getting blamed 20 years after his death.
Strangely absent from these analyses is any self-reflection.
No satisfactory discussion of the present state of the Liberal Party is possible without looking at its toxic dependence on News Corp, a company that, by Kelly’s own admission, is aligned with the Coalition.
Why is the Liberal Party seen as the party of climate denialism? Why is it seen as a party hostile to women? Why is it regarded as a party obsessed with culture wars rather than real issues for working households? The answer in each case involves News Corp, and not peripherally, but in a way intrinsic to the current functioning of the Liberals. That’s happened in two ways.
The first is that News Corp — by acting as the in-house media organ of the Liberals, both MPs and members — has shaped what is regarded as acceptable policy within the party, and who is seen as an acceptable leader. News Corp was crucial to the ousting of Malcolm Turnbull in 2018. It has been crucial to attacking any serious climate action. Its own obsession with culture war issues has meant the Liberals felt either emboldened or obliged to prosecute them. And it provided the Liberals, up to and including Scott Morrison, with a parallel universe within which to live and operate, ultimately to their downfall.
In the News Corp universe, climate action was the obsession of a few inner-city soyaccino drinkers, trans people were enemies to be smitten hip and thigh as a first-order matter of public policy, gender and workplace issues were a minority obsession foreign to the experience of ordinary Australian women, and Morrison was a political genius and master tactician. Sadly, May 21 2022 confirmed this parallel universe had minimal overlap with planet earth.
The second is that News Corp is a fundamental part of the Liberals’ campaign strategy, just as it is for the Tories in the UK. News Corp is crucial for amplifying Liberal attacks on Labor, for demonising opponents, and for using its staff to harass the Labor leader on the campaign trail.
This isn’t just a case of fellow travellers working toward shared goals; News Corp’s role is planned and relied upon by the Liberals’ campaign strategists, drawn from the ranks of CIT Group and its alumni.
Again, May 21 2022 showed News Corp struggling to deliver for its partners. As in the Victorian election, its attacks on Labor appeared ineffective, and may have even blunted the impact of more legitimate negative coverage by actual media outlets such as Nine.
The reader searching for a comprehensive account of the current state of the Liberals in News Corp publications will look in vain: the role of News Corp in the disastrous state of the party is never mentioned. Its commentators operate — again, as in a parallel universe — as if they are thoughtful, independent analysts, when they are defeated players whose own performance should be examined along with the politicians now the subject of their commentary.
There’s plenty of blame to go around for why the Liberals are in a mess, and much of it rests with their media partner.
Time for a Royal Commission into the influence of a foreign Press on Australian politics.
The Americans mandate that news proprietors be American citizens…………..
………….time to return the favour.
Definitely. People who don’t live and raise their families here have no concern over whether we have a functional health system etc. If you live here, and your child falls ill overnight, you need a 24 hour public hospital like the Royal Children’s in Melbourne, staffed, equipped and on hand to diagnose and treat your child. A child with meningitis or some other critical infection could simply die if you apply the “take two aspirin and call me in the morning” approach of private medicine. It really doesn’t matter how stinking rich you are, there is no substitute in an emergency for a functional society where people are trained, services are staffed, the roads are navigable etc. Giving someone with zero commitment to this country, who doesn’t in any way share the fortunes and misfortunes of Australia a huge political megaphone is madness.
The Labor Party was established as the parliamentary/legislative wing of the union movement and, post-Whitlam, has transformed itself into the parliamentary/legislative wing of the union movement and educated urban professionals seeking a forward-looking government.
The Liberal Party was ostensibly established to provide parliamentary/legislative representation to the non-union middle class. It is now the parliamentary/legislative wing of News Corp and various right wing organisations like the IPA and their members who are most definitely not members of the forgotten middle class.
Wow, a tiny bit of historical perspective – that’s refreshing. Re the Liberal Party’s origins – the key word is “ostensibly” represent “the forgotten people”. It was actually established to represent the interests of employers, business owners and Vic Western District rich graziers (eg Fraser).
Hear hear. Can we hope that the saner Libs will now try to distance themselves from the gutter press?
With the right wingers and pentecostals stacking as many party positions as they can? Wouldn’t count on it
Unfortunately, based on previous evidence, the saner heads will continue to leave the Liberal Party, leaving more space for even more extreme nutjobs to take their place.
This can only contribute to their downfall, happy days!
That’s great as far as I’m concerned- no sympathy whatsoever. Looking realistically, the Liberal Party needs to split- and most of the current senior figures need to fade away.
they just have to get real and modernize. Matt Kean is smart, but he is still a Liberal.
Until there is an honest repudiation of the fraud and destruction of 4 decades of neo-Liberalism, Liberals in Australia can never be trusted!1
Same goes for Labor, mind you
The fact is that the Libs have already split. The Teals are a de facto “small l” breakaway from the Howard-Abbot-Morrison creation that is the Liberal Party today. But this has not rejuvenated the party – the control by far-right elements led by Dutton has just been strengthened, egged on by an ever-more right wing National Party, whose relative strength in the Coalition has increased.
——————-I think both of the saner heads have already left.
Can you identify any LNP person with any, common decency at all?? I can’t. All are the Lying nasty Party.
Sadly, May 21 2022 confirmed this parallel universe had minimal overlap with planet earth.
I dunno about that BK. I cannot see anything sad about the outcome at all.
Thought the same. The sentence jumped off the screen at me.
Not that they’ve ever consistently measured up in my lifetime and particularly this century, but don’t you think a government needs a credible opposition for some accountability?
Yeah, ‘credible’ would be a welcome relief, as would respecting the spirit of democracy and general human decency.
Am sure the voters will be ready if/when the LNP & Yanky Doodle Rupert’s band of bullies remove H from A.
Breath not held.
Peta Credlin is all over Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Apparently rabbit holes are in short supply.
Ask a hundred Aussies who Hunter Biden is and you’ll get 99 blank looks and one person who thinks he/she/it might be a soccer WAG.
Peta always tilting at windmills.
Peta Credlin lives in a fantasy World, where Tony Abbott is the best Prime Minister that Australia has ever had.
She acts as a woman scorned, due to her role as Tony Abbott’s Chief of Staff who was, in her mind, snatched away from her in an aberration.
Tones has been in Budapest at a Koch linked institute warning Hungary of the dangers around China; in tandem with UK Tory IDS doing the same in the UK….. interesting how the same themes or talking points are seeded, shared and promoted?
Shades of Donald Trump?
Even stupid tones admitted good government starts today after 18 months of woeful government but that’s what success looks like for Peta
A village somewhere is missing their …..
A good example of how news or media in Australia become involved in sharing overseas or US reports; not just within media groups.
Fairfax’s correspondent in Washington had article 1st April titled ‘First dismissed, Hunter Biden’s laptop scandal gets rebooted’, using Murdoch’s New York Post as a source…. how embarrassing for a supposed journalist…
A good example of how news or media in Australia become involved in sharing overseas or US reports; not just within media groups.
Fairfax’s correspondent in Washington had article 1st April titled ‘First dismissed, Hunter Biden’s laptop scandal gets rebooted’, using the NY Post as a source…. how embarrassing for a supposed journalist…
I seriously think that News Ltd believes Australians are as folksy gullible as Americans……or that they can convert us to the same state.
Agree. While I’m not confident Aus won’t succumb I suspect we have advantage of looking at it in the US from the sanity of afar which makes it easier to see – and hopefully continue to avoid going down the same sad road.
I don’t think – I know.
They often don’t identify a story as being from the USA, assuming we’re all au fait with Podunk. A live cross to Deputy Sheriff T. ‘Wally’ Zbelsty Snr III rescuing a puppy (sorry, pampered pooch) from a drain is heart stopping news. I never sure if it’s laziness, or deliberate inculcation of USA culture.
‘I never sure if it’s laziness, or deliberate inculcation of USA culture’; maybe it’s more about promoting sociocultural fluff and entertainment to discourage people talking about serious issues of the day vs. nothing or wedge issues?