By Jack Arnold
The Liberal Party’s idea of progress appears to be farewelling one long-serving disappointment only to replace it with a fresh one – all while keeping their base angry.
The current machinations in the Liberal backrooms suggest unelected factional powerbrokers are experiencing a full “Black Knight” moment. After losing government in 2022 and suffering a heavy defeat in 2025, they now face the prospect of a third consecutive loss in the Farrer by-election on 9 May 2026 – this time to PHONey (Pauline Hanson’s One Nation) or the strong local Independent candidate, Michelle Milthorpe.
It is a rare political talent to select three unsuccessful leaders in succession. The Liberals have managed six.
A Line-Up of Recent Leaders
1. Sussan Ley – Positioned as the person to fix problems created by previous male leadership, she was reportedly slated for political sacrifice by factional powerbrokers before the 2028 election. Instead, she retired after 25 years as Member for Farrer.
2. Peter Dutton – Removed from active politics after losing both the government and his own Queensland seat of Dickson – only the third federal leader in Australian history to achieve this double loss.
3. Scott Morrison – Now working comfortably as a consultant for an American defence company, linked to the ongoing AUKUS submarine arrangements that continue to cost Australian taxpayers significant sums.
4. Malcolm Turnbull – Overthrown in what he described as a brutal internal coup, despite previously warning about the power of factions.
5. Tony Abbott – His time as Member for Warringah ended with his defeat by Independent Zali Steggall, one of the early candidates supported by Climate 200.
6. Angus Taylor – The current Liberal leader, with a strong conservative background but a mixed political record, including controversy over a major water purchase and criticism regarding environmental management on family grazing land.
Australian voters are often told they are “always right” because they can distinguish substance from spin. Many longstanding conservative voters, uncomfortable with the pace of 21st-century change, now appear to be drifting toward even more extreme alternatives.
The Rise of One Nation
This has opened the door for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation – offering strong rhetoric and limited detailed policy – as a protest option for disaffected conservatives.
Where Do Conservative Regional Voters Go?
Regional voters have traditionally followed long-established voting patterns. However, Australia’s major parties have changed significantly over the past century. While the Coalition struggles with repeated leadership failures and perceived incompetence, Labor has shifted toward centre-right economic settings in government.
A persistent problem remains: regional politicians often become “metropolitan thinkers” once they reach Canberra or state parliament, leading to neglected infrastructure and services. This has contributed to the long-term depopulation of many rural areas.
Meanwhile, rising living costs and housing prices in cities are pushing families into regional centres. These families then face metro-level house prices with significantly lower levels of regional services — an inequitable outcome.
Why Independent Politicians Offer a Better Alternative
There was a time in the early 2000s when seven Independents sat in the NSW Parliament without catastrophe. Today, several western NSW electorates are represented by hardworking Independents who are addressing years of neglect by the major parties.
Successful Independents regularly consult their communities. As former New England Independent MP Tony Windsor famously said: “The world is run by those who turn up.”
Unlike party politicians – who must first answer to their party, preselectors, and donors – Independents can prioritise the direct interests of their electorate.
The Farrer By-Election on 9 May 2026
Current polling shows a very tight contest between Michelle Milthorpe – a local teacher and family woman campaigning to improve Farrer’s future – and the One Nation candidate.
Voters in Farrer will decide whether they want continued major-party representation or a strong, locally focused Independent voice.
REGIONAL INDEPENDENTS GET THINGS DONE FOR THEIR COMMUNITIES.
* * * *’*
Jack Arnold is a retired academic polymath who commenced his professional career as a research scientist and ended as a lawyer, with too many decades of education between. To stay busy he has taken an active interest in all levels of local New England politics for the past 50 years, assisting in the election of three progressive candidates, the latter two being very busy Independent representatives for their communities.
Since the retirement of these politicians in 2013, New England has stagnated economically and socially with pre-selected Nationals being elected to Parliaments in the strange local belief that voting for 19th century ideals would yield the new government infrastructure projects that our kids will need to live in the electorates in this 21st century.
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They’re not only shooting themselves in both feet, apparently the national presidency is between Fishnets Downer, and the Mad Monk.They must have a death wish..or trying to make ‘well done’ look good.They’ve certainly learned their lesson…or not.
Like sharks latching onto a dead whale, these has-beens can’t help themselves. Anything… anything that smacks of relevance and they’re on to it, like dogs after a bitch in heat.
National presidency of the Liberal Party! Oh, joyous days! Bliss! Mummy will be so pleased! And perhaps the kids might talk to me again, after all the years in Coventry.
Of that list of losers I have to say that Malcolm Turnbull stands out as a competent, ethical and capable exception.
They can thank PM Murdoch and for now his agent Abbott, but in the US the ‘Cafe con leche Republicans’ vainly warned the GOP in Congresss 15 years ago of Tanton Network.
This entailed the latter lobbying on anti-immigration as an electoral campaign advantage vs. centre, ‘vote Democrat get more southern border immigrants’.
The latter was probably inspired by late John Tanton’s colleague the now late Paul ‘Population Bomb’ Ehrlich whose book ‘The Golden Door’ suggested their real motives; both were viewed as ‘progressive’ in the US, but in fact white nationalists?
Greenwashing bigotry towards southern ‘border’* immigrants as an electoral strategy, masking deep seated ideology of eugenics. *Locally see NOM net OS border movement obsessions.
I would add to the list John Howard! The demise of the Liberal Party started when power and leadership went north of the Murray or ‘The Barnaby Line’ which ever you prefer!
Howard was known as ‘the craven pigmy’ or ‘Wollstonecraft mediocrity’. His and Costello’s attempts to prop up the rich as they lost power and his seat can now be seen to be disenfranchising the young in buying houses! Howard now in his cruddy senility is looked up to for advice!
The Australian electorate has been wising up to the ‘born to rule’ mentality of the Liberals, their corruption and bad policies!
the liberalthe never been good for australia and the never wellby good,at the present moment are semy the. and the are on the road to exit for good and is a good ting for australia
like i said above
wow, dance of the cuckoos, the copperman was the most disappointing leader of the country/leader of the liberals. Voted with the loonies to sink price on carbon. Gave $110m each to the company of 4, with connections to his wife. Gave $440m to a group who worked out of a shack on Kangaroo Island. But his use of ‘vulture’ and his belief that ‘copper’ was good enough for the less well off sector ie most of society.
As for turnbull’s ‘brutal…coup’ does it compare with the rabbott’s ‘a “febrile” media-driven event, characterized by betrayal, “white-anting,” and “dishonour”. He famously warned against “acting as the assassin’s knife” and described the incident as a “game of snakes and ladders”‘
A friend and I were discussing the current ‘leadership’ of Angus Taylor.
Well, the brains in that outfit belongs to his wife Louise Clegg, a trained Barrister and between them they have four children, so maybe his best attributes lie elsewhere with agribusiness.