I am an old Labor man, brought up in the tradition of old Labor values, before the ALP was taken over by those who, as Peter Walsh used to say, believe in fairies (in every sense) at the bottom of the garden. As a result, my earlier enthusiasm for the Liberal Party was never tribal, in the way that it is with former conservative leaders like John Howard and Tony Abbott. Their fidelity to the cause is endearing. Yet they are in error in that they continue to believe that the Liberal Party is still a “broad church” as once it surely was. Sadly, this is now a fiction. Yet anyone remotely in tune with “club sensible” and believing in individual freedom and the small state, even if he or she has stopped voting Liberal, should welcome any return to form by the Party, and cheer on those who, like Alex Antic and Gerard Rennick, are still in the fold and still fighting the good fight.
Given the forthcoming election in New South Wales (in March 2023), the number of ministers and Liberal and Nationals members leaving the parliament (twelve at the time of writing, and counting) and the more than 50-50 chance of a change of government, March 2023 beckons as an opportunity for renewal and (perhaps the last) opportunity for the Liberal Party to show us again that it is fit for purpose. By this I mean fit for competent governance and faithful to liberal and conservative principles. With so many MPs leaving, there will be, by definition, some new blood, unless there is a total rout at the election. If the state poll is a teaching moment, for the Liberals, then the aftermath is surely an opportunity for renewal. And for this, fresh blood will be critical.
One of the great old Labor men is Joe de Bruyn, of the Shoppies’ Union (aka the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association). I used to wonder how Joe could still be a member of the grand old party, given its departure from all the things in which it used to believe. (A little like the Liberals). You know, representing the working class and its values of family, hard work, community and tradition. One of Joe’s firm views was that good people should continue to join all the political parties, in order to strengthen them, and so strengthen the whole system of representative democracy. To hold them to their founding principles. He believed, too (perhaps quaintly), in the two major parties as vehicles for good governance.
An infusion of talented new people of conviction and integrity is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for Liberal Party renewal. There are four things needed to restore the faith of party members and voters in New South Wales – hose the old members out the stable door; de-fang the rampant, ungodly factions; seek to inch the now simply awful Nationals back towards the political centre; and apologise for your past blunders and mis-governance, starting with, but not confined to, the Covid tyranny the Liberals imposed.
One opportunity for an infusion of new blood occurs in the seat of Castle Hill, in Sydney’s affluent and religious-tending north west. Here the front-runner for Liberal pre-selection is Noel McCoy. In the same way that the ne Italian Prime Minister is called a “fascist” for believing in God, family and nation, so too people like Noel are routinely (and bizarrely) called “far right” for believing in the same things as Giorgia Meloni. This just goes to show how far the “centre” has moved leftwards in the last two generations. It also shows how dumb the legacy media which spout these cliches really are. That factional games are going on in Castle Hill – with the recently “retiring” David Elliott seemingly un-retiring for one last factional stoush, ahead of the pre-selection – speaks to the size of the task ahead in achieving the second of my four tasks for the Liberal Party of the next generation.
Noel McCoy is a partner with an international law firm. He has specific expertise in finance and over twenty years’ experience in restructuring and insolvency. He is widely published in his area of professional expertise. And he has a strong background in Liberal Party affairs. He knows well the beast with which he must deal.
https://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/en-us/about/our-firm
He has the right (no pun intended) policy positions and instincts to lead change. His local activist group, The North West Forum, promotes itself as “… a group of ordinary every day Australians from North West Sydney who are concerned about the future direction of our country.” Its task – “… to create an informed, engaged and active citizenry to be effective in making change.”
The Forum’s current leading campaign is titled “lockdowns: never again”. Refreshing words, indeed, for the Covid weary and the Covid angry.
The Forum has had events featuring the Christian perspective on vaccine mandates. That is, the true Christian position, not the confected, supine version dished out by the mainstream churches in new South Wales, who chose to go along with the ghastly Covid tyranny to get along. The Forum has opposed vaccine mandates for teachers. Another disgrace. Counter-culturally, the Forum has featured the storied yet ostracised American cardiologist and Covid hero Dr Peter McCullough.
The Liberal Party’s participation in the Covid State, its abandonment of real medical science, its capitulation to public health bureaucrats, its willingness to nudge the people it frightened into submissive and utterly useless behaviour and its (to date) lack of any semblance of an apology is a blight on its history. Its scientific and moral error must be rectified, its sins atoned. McCoy’s group has been both correct and courageous in promoting this issue.
The Northwest Forum exhorts its supporters as follows:
You be the change.
Well, the class of 2023 must adopt this as its own, future-facing campaign slogan. Otherwise, the Liberal Party in the State that has produced all of the last four Liberal prime ministers – yes, with decidedly mixed results – will disappear into the dustbin of history, to be supplanted on the right by a new generation of non-Liberal champions who will, willingly, do the heavy lifting in achieving the goals on which the Liberal Party itself as founded and which it used to cherish.
Noel McCoy’s web site has an interesting quote from the great Milton Friedman:
“I do not believe that the solution to our problem is simply to elect the right people. The important thing is to establish a political climate of opinion which will make it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing. Unless it is politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing, the right people will not do the right thing either, or if they try, they will shortly be out of office.”
https://www.northwestforum.org/
But electing the right people is a good start. Yet Friedman is right. Herein lies the challenge for a rejuvenated Liberal Party, currently full of the wrong people doing the wrong things. Many people thought that the current NSW Premier was one of the right people. But the political climate in the NSW Party – factionalised, ideological in all the wrong ways, cow-towing to globalist and green shibboleths, bristling with careerists and chancers, spineless before a minor viral scare and thoroughly woke-left – has, to date, largely prevented him from voicing a coherent philosophy of government or actioning his stated beliefs across a broad range of policies.
This climate (again, no pun intended) is a massive challenge, therefore, even for the right people. For a start, the Libs have to recognise there is a huge problem. Have they? Will they when (most likely) they are defeated in March next year? Time will tell. Figuring out how to give effect to Friedman’s agenda will be the first task for the new blood. If there could be enough cross-factional goodwill among the newbies, they might like to consider forming a loose “band of brothers and sisters” to start the long process. They will have had a history of ghastly factional political already in their fights to get into parliament – as Noel McCoy well knows – so the very first test will be whether they even can work together for a fresh beginning.
In August, the NSW Premier said (sadly, playing to the zeitgeist):
Within two weeks we will open preselections across the state for the next election … I want to see more women, I want to see more cultural diversity.
A little integrity, competence and adherence to traditional Liberal principles would do me, irrespective of chromosome counts or nation-of-origin. Noel McCoy isn’t female or of foreign appearance, but he is what the Party needs right about now. If it is to have a future in the Rum Corps State.
Paul Collits
17 November 2022
I grew up in a staunch, Melbourne Labor household, my father a trade unionist, and truly believed in the purported values of the Australian Labor Party of the time (I’m talking 1980-90). As a late teen and young adult I was a member of the Victorian Labor Party for some years, but observed how corrupt and corrupting the party machinations were. Even at that time, the party clearly was not interested in truly representing those it purported to. I no longer vaguely recognise the values of the political party of which I was once a member. The past 2.5 years, has clearly demonstrated that both major political parties see no value in the individual and have developed deeply statist approaches to government. The Liberal party currently seem no better than the Labour party in this sense and, as you are well aware, were completely silent in opposition during this period. I am completely politically homeless and could never support the Labor Party again and haven’t for a long time. I’m not sure whether the Liberal party currently provides an alternative, although it seems there may be some hope from what you write about NSW. So where to for a person that wants small government and minimal interference in the lives of the individual? Yes, get involved, create change from within, but for many of us the machine seems too broken to fix and we’re tired; tired of being over-governed, interfered with, talked down to, taxed into oblivion to service an ever-expanding government and then ignored. Thanks for your writing, it provides some refuge and sanity.
The state of play, right now in Liberal National parties both State and Federal, for a true conservative politician or political aspirant to change the direction of the parties is akin to going down to the local beach and demanding the tide not come in.