John Howard, Tony Abbott and Jordan Peterson (Images: AAP/Private Media)
John Howard, Tony Abbott and Jordan Peterson (Images: AAP/Private Media)

As October became November this year, we watched, bursting with pride, as former prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott starred at Jordan Peterson’s Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC). Both showed their commitment to the bold, free-thinking space of that “Olympics of centre-right thought” by reheating and amplifying things that they’ve been saying for literal decades; Abbott thinks climate change isn’t real and Howard “always had a bit of trouble” with multiculturalism. Prominent opponent of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who also presented, hasn’t monopolised the public with her views for nearly as long, but she still played the hits.

As we noted at the time, ARC (which also boasts our former deputy PM John Anderson on the advisory council) attracted a wide variety of conservative luminaries — indeed we wonder if former deputy PM Barnaby Joyce was influenced by any of the intellectual currents he encountered there when he was moved to today share his thoughts about the assassination of JFK.

They were also joined by our last PM Scott Morrison, Liberal MPs Angus Taylor, Andrew Hastie, James Paterson and Dan Tehan, and former NSW premier Dominic Perrottet. But who else? Brave bulwark against imaginary threats to ice cream Alex Antic and former communist and mining cosplayer Matt Canavan naturally got along, while lonesome Yes campaigner Julian Leeser was a more surprising attendee.

Then there was:

  • David Fawcett, a veteran senator last seen suggesting a fair compromise for journalists would be to double-check with the government whether it’s okay to publish leaked information
  • Anne Webster, product of the Christian politician factory known as the Lachlan Macquarie Institute
  • Henry Pike, who replaced Andrew Laming in Bowman, while under the cloud of a suitably dumb mini-scandal, and
  • Garth Hamilton, elected in 2020 in Groom upon the retirement of John McVeigh, so far not quite succeeding in raising his profile through culture war spots on Sky after dark.