The final domino in mainland state politics has fallen, with Labor’s Chris Minns winning the NSW election over the weekend — bad news if you’re a gambling reform advocate; terrible news if you’re a Liberal.
So how have the conservative party and its media allies been reacting? Predictably well.
This does not reflect the will of the people
“We don’t want Labor! Now we’ve got Labor! Thanks, Liberals. That’s what you’ve given us. Thanks, Matt Kean. Thanks, Dominic Perrottet. You’ve given us a Labor government! We don’t want a Labor government. That is not what the people of NSW want,” said Rowan Dean (who would presumably be yelling this whether on camera or not) on Sky News’ Outsiders, which is increasingly resembling a hard-right primal scream therapy session.
He quickly added a touch of nuance to his argument, demonstrating an admirable understanding of psephology to point out: “OK, they might have voted for it …”
It’s the woke wot lost it
Dean’s contention that it was the amorphous spectre of “woke” that smothered the Liberal Party’s electoral chances is one that pundits have returned to with diminishing energy and returns at pretty much every electoral catastrophe the Liberals have faced in the past five years.
“You can’t chase the Greens and the teals and the Labor Party to the left, try and replicate their policies — you actually have to have some points of difference,” echoed Sky News host Chris Kenny.
Former federal Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce also blamed the loss on former treasurer and moderate-faction leader Kean, arguing his relatively progressive stance on issues such as his “green inflection” climate change “hurt” the Coalition.
Ditto former Queensland senator and inevitable Sky News host Amanda Stoker, who asked: “How many elections will it take for a chunk of people in the party I so love to realise that the path forward doesn’t consist of pretending to be the Diet Coke version of Labor or the Greens?”
This analysis, as it has in the past, misses an important detail. Despite polling predictions by unnamed “industry bodies” leaked to Sky during the campaign — regarding furious Liberal voters abandoning the party and heading to the right — parties such as One Nation had a very modest time of it over the weekend.
We’re all trying to find the guy who did this
A special mention to retiring senior minister David Elliott who made a similar argument to those above, about how chasing the teals voters had cost the Coalition “heartland” votes. Yep, that David Elliott is pretty keen to get to the bottom of what might have made it difficult for the Liberals to stay in power.
Nothing to see here!
John Howard, former Liberal prime minister and emissary from the before times (the decade where we had one prime minister preceding the decade where we had six), had a far more chill take. In The Australian, Howard simply warned against the Coalition descending into a “woe is us” mentality.
“After 12 years it is hard to stay in office, I can tell you. That is the nature of life, no matter who is in charge,” he said, which is fair enough. He further added that Labor’s control of Australia’s mainland was “not a reflection of a coherent nationwide policy movement” and that “attempts to suggest it was because of this or that stance on something is wrong”. Which seems a bit more of a stretch.
With friends like Kenny, Stoker, Dean, Murray et al, the libs don’t need enemies. It’s not wokeness that cost the libs in NSW, it’s the Oz-wide belief that they’re heading to the religious right.
And being led on by the same media group importing the same generic wedge cultural issues they promote elsewhere i.e. US and UK for supposed electoral gains, that inevitably leads to cranks etc., but puts off mainstream voters?
I would not mind that much them heading to the religious right if they could still do a decent job, but their governance was completely shite and showing every sign of getting worse.
I watched a few minutes of Rowan Dean. Absolutely hilarious…….I thought it was a comedy. Really, are these nongs on the same planet as the rest of us??? One right wing nutter interviewing another nutter and just confirming their own nutty conclusions. Does any one (with a brain that is) actually watch this trash??
One good thing about Sky is that these speakers are so far out of touch that no-one takes them seriously.
Another good thing seems to be that the RWNJs are corralled into one space. But I must qualify that by stating that I have never and do not intend ever to watch Sky News.
You have to watch it. It gets you out of your silo briefly, provides comedy value, and we all want to hear what pale stale males think! Don’t we?
But don’t you have to pay to watch it?
If you’ve got a smart TV, it should show up on the same range of channels as the 10 network channels. At least that’s what it shows for me. I certainly don’t subscribe to it.
It will be in the country but it is not broadcast free to air in cities. In the cities SAD is a pay channel. That regional commercial broadcasters, who plead poor and are given government concessions, are allowed to take up a channel to broadcast it and another for the American Jimmy Swaggart’s grotesque religious channel, taking up two full channels that are provided to service regional viewers, is a disgrace. A proper audit would recommend breaking up their TV licenses and allocating the spectrum to someone wanting to serve a larger audience, with say, a local news program or local art and sport.
And unlike the old days, you can’t just delete the channel by not tuning it in. That Swaggart nonsense should be illegal. Like he doesn’t scam enough money out of the yanks already.
Yes it’s bizarre and sad as he sits there with the other old, oh so pious, men and reads out the donations, praise be, and it includes people from regional Australia offering their $50 and $100 offerings.
BTW most modern TVs will allow you to delete or at least hide channels you don’t want. It’s just usually hidden in the menus. I have a Hisense and you go to settings/channel/channel edit. Thus none of the infomercial channels or digital radio channels intrude on my flicking around.
No- still free to air!! Imagine having to pay to watch that buffoon Paul Murray??
I received a nice lot of books for Christmas and have added to the pile myself since then. And today I picked up the new Quarterly Essay (very favourably reviewed here on Crikey today) from my newsagent. Next week there will a new edition of The Monthly.
And I suspect if I laughed it would be at them not with them.
Plus I take blood pressure medication. So, thanks for your advice, but I think I’ll keep on giving it a miss.
Thanks anyway…just seeing snippets of Sky stupidity on Twitter is more than enough comic relief for me.
They are, but are also oiling their way into the ABC. I also must qualify this by saying I never watch Sky News, before or After Dark. I tried twice but it’s so bitter and twisted that I couldn’t stomach it – again. Allan Jones, Bronwyn Bishop and Paul Murray sorted that out as soon as they statrted.
Unfortunately they are not just corralled into one space, as there is a flow on effect into the Murdoch “News” papers
Like the rest of the Sky pantomime, this is not designed for local consumption…………….
………it’s so that Fox “News” will have a constant source of clips showing how badly Australia is doing compared to the glorious USofA.
Can’t wait to watch sky this arvo. I need a good laugh and seeing what fruity stories they come up with to convince themselves of why we have Labor will be awesome!! Maybe Bill Gates has turned on his 5G inserts from the covid shots and is controlling how we vote…..just saying.
Yes. I watch Sky news so that I can see which complete Arsehats would adverise on Sky, and then boycott them.
Or does Murdoch put this crap on at his own expense?
Unfortunately, a lot more viewers in regional areas as Sky News is free-to-air
I find it hard to watch and listen, often only lasts a few minutes. However I read what they say and often research. Their irrational misinformation is a worry.
Yes, for the comedy!
Indeed, how could this election travesty have occurred? Surely everyone in NSW was thrilled with the unrelenting privatisation? Were the voters not pleased with the selective Covid lockdowns particularly targeting the western suburbs (where, by some freakish coincidence, the Liberal vote tanked)? Were those ingrates (aka NSW voters) holding an unwarranted grudge over the scandals of the Berejiklian regime? Were the people angry because the deserving Barilaro was not rewarded with the trade commissioner gig in NYC?
It’s nothing short of a mystery why the mob turned.
Not a mystery at all. Bill Gates has turned on his 5G inserts from the covid shots and is controlling how we vote.
^^ Sarcasm Alert I assume.
Hilarious!
“After 12 years it is hard to stay in office, I can tell you. That is the nature of life, no matter who is in charge,” said Howard.
At least Perrottet didn’t lose his seat.
Unlike JWH – only the 2nd PM in history to lose his seat whilst PM
Yes he performed the The Stanley Melbourne Bruce Double!
LOL. Operator, I’d like to report a murder.
It suits Howard to claim that this is just a swing of the pendulum, and that may even be plausible. But it is also possible that the processes of corrosion that John Howard started – hollowing out and white-anting the public sector, engineering ever-greater economic inequality, playing to xenophobia and racism, and running ridiculous culture wars – have set the Liberal Party on a course of ever-greater decline, where they will only appeal to angry aging rentiers with half a dozen investment properties and a subscriptions to Sky News. The Liberal Party that Howard remade in his own image – as the Great White Ant – deserves to die. Labor will entrench itself as the natural party of government (saving capitalism from itself again and again) while teals and Greens offer constructive opposition. After Howard, Abbott, and Morrison, the Liberal Party doesn’t deserve any more chances. And don’t get me started on that rorters’ cabal, the Nationals, who have abandoned farmers to climate disaster while they act as spruikers for fossil fuel extractors and rampant developers.
Well said
Damn straight. Except Labor doesn’t resist capitalism enough to save it from itself, by a long chalk.
In addition, he should be tried for taking us into disastrous war on bogus grounds, resulting in the deaths of thousands of individuals.