OPINION
As I wrote for The BFD recently, for a supposed libertarian, David Seymour sure loved some naked authoritarianism when it came to lockdowns and vaccines. As for Christopher Luxon, he’s as wet as slow-boiled kale when it comes to green-left dogmas like climate change.
So-called ‘conservatives’ in Australia aren’t much better. The Liberals’ John Pesutto, in Victoria, nearly ruptured himself in his rush to smear Kellie-Jay Keen and his own party’s Moira Deeming as “Nazis” for opposing transgender lunacy. In NSW, Matt Kean is greener than Chloe Swarbrick perusing Golriz Ghahraman’s wardrobe.
And these woke wombles are mystified as to why they keep losing elections. Well, why would people vote for a pale, soggy imitation of the Greens, when they could at least elect some lefty nutbars who actually believe in what they gibber.
As Tony Abbott and Donald Trump showed, when conservative leaders stand up for actual conservative values, they romp in (if only both of those had had, respectively, the bottle and the political brains to hang on to office). Tony Abbott gave a masterclass in political mongrel: in just one term, he took the Coalition from landslide defeat to within a bee’s dick of winning (only to be sold out at the winning line by two more wet, pretend “conservative” independents).
In Canada the Conservative party opposition leader, Pierre Poilievre, plays to win. By that I mean that he takes the fight to politicians on the left; he doesn’t take advice from 30-year-old, risk-averse, careerist advisers who – like former prime minister Morrison – seem not to believe in anything, certainly not in free speech, and seem to be completely poll- and focus-group driven. Nope. Poilievre gives every appearance of having core values and of having a willingness to fight for them.
It’s worth noting, after all, that Brittany Higgins was a Liberal party staffer. This is the calibre of millennial midwit “conservatives” are taking advice from.
They almost deserve to lose.
For instance, across the Anglosphere a clear preponderance of those of us to the right of centre are completely fed up with the public broadcaster. Australia’s may be the worst of all, as in its being the most one-sidedly and overtly left-leaning. It’s worse than Canada’s CBC and worse than Britain’s BBC. And trust me, that is saying something […]
[T]he ABC was a complete disgrace in its coverage of the Voice referendum. Its coverage of the Israel-Gaza war makes me fume.
So, why do Australians continue to fund a leftist propaganda unit so completely out of step with mainstream Australia? Because supposedly conservative leadership hasn’t got the basic guts to stand up to it.
John Howard at least appointed some actual conservatives to the ABC board but that did nothing. Nada. Zippo. Zero. Turnbull and Morrison didn’t even do that. Their appointments were woeful and not remotely conservative. Now compare that to Mr Poilievre. He has staked out a position where he is telling voters in Canada that he is going to slash the CBC budget massively, up to half will be taken away.
Australians would greet the slashing of the ABC’s bloated budget with the same kind of indifference Kiwis have for Newshub’s demise. The only people who’d make a song-and-dance are the well-heeled boomers at Friends of the ABC. And who the hell cares what they say? If they’re really that desperate for re-runs of Midsomer Murders or the tiresome Keeping Up Appearances, they can buy the DVDs.
This, dear readers, is how you fight back against the capture of the core cultural institutions by the progressive wokesters of the left. You ignore the bleatings from the chardonnay-sipping constituencies that were the small handful which voted Yes in last year’s referendum and you actually aim to do things for your core voters. Maybe you promise to privatise the ABC. Or to make it a subscription-only service (so we can see just how many people really would buy its predictable offerings). Or, a la Monsieur Poilievre, you pledge to cut its budget in half.
If only Australia’s “conservatives” had half the guts as that. Instead, the last “conservative” government went and rewarded the Ultimo Collective.
Unbelievably, Mr Morrison and Mr Frydenberg opted to increase the ABC’s budget. It’s almost as though they could not care less about the views of their core constituency. You know, as when Team Morrison signed up to net zero. And never managed once to criticise the performance of Dan Andrews during the Covid lockdowns.
The basic mistake these blue-green jellyfish make is to think that, if they shout ‘us, too!’ loud enough, the left will like them. It’s as pathetic as the weedy lickspittle trying to toady up to the school bully.
It’s not easy taking on all the elite institutions – think of which ones came out publicly for Yes last year, the big corporations, the charities, the sporting codes, the universities, the churches, the list goes on – but it can be done.
Spectator Australia
The Voice referendum was proof of that. With barely a fraction of the budget, and none of the heavyweight elite support, the No vote romped home. Because they listened to what Australians outside the quinoa belt were saying.
So, “conservatives”: sack the university-educated 30-year-old advisers with the rainbow lanyards and actually stand for something for once.