By John
The Australian election result was a great result for the Liberal/National Coalition and for common sense. There are very definite lessons to be learned from this election by our political parties.
WHAT HAPPENED ON THE LEFT
The Australian Labor Party went to the electorate with a radical progressive climate change and tax agenda. Don’t the Left just love that word progressive? It is such a joke! In economic terms, there is absolutely nothing progressive about the Left policies. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.
You have to ask why the Labor Party for one moment thought that implementing a climate change programme would be a vote winner in Queensland or Western Australia. Even Tasmania and New South Wales didn’t buy into it. Only Victoria, where most of the country’s social and racial problems exist, supported it. The combined labour-green vote was only 44%, not even half. Far from learning their lesson, Labor, post the result, were indicating climate change was still central to their policy agenda.
THE LESSONS
Labour and the Greens should take note that this is not an election-winning strategy. If we follow Australia, the electorate will realise how much is going to have to be raided from their back pocket to pay for this questionable ideology. I will not be surprised if the upcoming well-being Budget has a similar outcome, in that all the warm fuzzy hijab hugging policies will have to somehow be paid for. Where will most of the funding come from? The answer is out of your back pocket and mine and from those who can least afford to lose it, the latter being part of the Left constituency. However, as in Australia, I very much doubt the Left here will take any notice.
WHAT HAPPENED ON THE RIGHT
Scott Morrison went to the electorate and appealed to the average hard working Australian. He promised not to raid their back pocket and gave the message that a government he led would stay out of their lives as much as possible . On climate change, he did not ignore it but said it would be dealt with in a reasonable and realistic manner. That, to my mind, is an election-winning strategy. Apart from that, Scott Morrison came across as a very likeable person, something of a John Key, a good bloke you’d like to have a beer with down at the pub. That is an election-winning combination.
THE LESSONS
One advantage the Liberals have is a strong coalition National party. This is largely a rural-based party so you have something of an urban/country coalition. Could that type of arrangement work with National? Regardless, National needs to take a good hard look at how Morrison went about engineering the win against all the polls and the voices of the experts. They need to look at his policies and the man himself. Is there a Scott Morrison in the National Party? If so, who is it? It’s certainly not Simon, and while confessing to being a Judith supporter, it’s probably not her either. Mind you, having a drink with Judith could be a bit of a laugh. Suggestions as to who the person might be would be welcome.
WILL THEY TAKE HEED?
Probably not. The Left is insanely ideologically driven at the behest of the UN. National will likely look at the result and continue to think they can sleepwalk to victory. That means it’s up to us the voters to take the lead from our Aussie cousins and make sure we vote these incompetent fools out.