With wall-to-wall Labor governments on Mainland Australia, the chattering classes have taken to growling about the supposed end of the conservative coalition. Just as they did when the same state of affairs ruled in the 1990s – right before John Howard cemented the longest continuous Australian prime ministership.
The basic error the chatterers are making, of course, is to focus on a hopeless party leadership, and overlook the vast swathe of conservative voters drumming their heels in frustration at the lack of a credible opposition. It’s a situation BFD readers will be only too familiar with, as National and ACT continue to spinelessly wobble along in a jelly-backed imitation of the green-left.
The depth of grassroots frustration with the essential uselessness of the conservative-in-name-only establishment has come to a head in Australia’s last remaining Liberal-governed state.
An entire Liberal Party branch has shut down to protest Tasmania’s Liberal government “losing its way”, in a major blow for Premier Jeremy Rockliff, already rocked by defections and a staff exodus.
The party’s Northeast Branch of up to 40 members has ceased to function, after the branch president quit and a core of fellow members vowed to follow, claiming the nation’s last Liberal government had “lost its way” and become “elitist”.
These aren’t the woke silvertails of the Sandy Bay set in Hobart’s elite suburbs, either: this is heavily conservative farming and forestry country, in a key battleground seat.
More broadly, the public revolt threatens to further weaken Mr Rockliff’s leadership, embolden internal critics, and spook a party shaken by May’s defection of two Liberal MPs to the crossbench […]
“There is a feeling they have lost their way,” said Glenn Moore, a stalwart of the branch and party member for “25 to 30 years”.
Of particular concern to rank-and-file members is the government’s failure to support a popular branch president against “unfounded” code of conduct complaints levelled by would-be wreckers. Wreckers whose name might ring a bell outside Tasmania.
These include former councillor Lawrence Archer, father-in-law of federal Bass Liberal MP Bridget Archer.
The Australian
Bridget Archer is, of course, the LINO Queen herself, whose sole claim to fame is endlessly undermining the leadership of Peter Dutton with her witless parrotting of wet, woke, blue-green nostrums on such nonsense as climate change and illegal immigrants. The Archer family are well known in Tasmania as silver-tailed heirs of the colonial squattocracy.
But the rot goes a lot deeper than the landed gentry trying to keep the peasants in line.
Australia’s only Liberal Premier is suffering an exodus of senior staff, unrest over his chief of staff and doubts about his future and that of his minority government.
Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff has in recent months lost at least six senior staff, including his head of communications, his principal tourism and trade adviser, senior health adviser, deputy chief of staff and principal adviser.
Staff and some MPs are unhappy with chief of staff Vanessa Field, a former Labor staffer.
The government was plunged into minority government in May when two Liberal MPs quit for the crossbench in disgust at Mr Rockliff’s handling of plans for a Hobart AFL stadium.
The Australian
Tasmanians have already rejected Labor leader Rebecca White twice. The only thing that saved her leadership was the sheer lack of talent in Labor ranks. “Hold our soy lattes,” say the Liberal establishment.
Critics worry resurgent state Labor leader Rebecca White appeared to be gaining traction on cost-of-living issues, including rising power bills, as well as by focusing on ongoing failures in health, housing and public transport.
Some senior Liberal figures accused Mr Rockliff and senior ministers of failing to consult widely within the party and instead making “Salamanca-manufactured” decisions, driven by poor advice and out-of-touch bureaucrats.
“Salamanca” refers to the upper-class, old sandstone, harbourside area of Hobart, where Parliament House faces the ritzy wharfside apartments and the famous street market. Think of the Viaduct in Auckland, for instance, or Lambton Quay in Wellington.
Other party figures defended Mr Rockliff for “not shying away from” unpopular decisions, and as having integrity and being genuinely committed to making “hard calls” on key issues […]
However, even the Premier’s strongest backers said he had allowed a “perception” to develop that he was not sufficiently focused on cost-of living-issues, suggesting he needed to “show more mongrel” in selling the government’s practical policies.
The Australian
However, as BFD readers are only too-aware, actually conservative leaders with mongrel are notably thin on the ground.