Vale Peter Dutton And RIP The Liberal Party…

Well, there have been quite a bit of commentary on how gracious the ex-Opposition leader was in defeat. I’d have to say that some people found it surprising given his total lack of grace throughout a large chunk of his parliamentary career, but credit where credit is due: Dutton didn’t whinge or complain or blame everyone else. He conceded that he was not going to stay around as leader – mainly because he lost his seat! He simply packed up and left. Hopefully he won’t do a Tony Abbott and keep popping up to explain why he’s always right about everything even though he was such a successful PM that his own party gave him the shove.

Whatever, I think that one should always be gracious once a contest is over, win or lose. After all, it does take away some of the satisfaction from your opponent if you can hold your head high and say, “Well played, it’s a shame there can only be one winner!” I mean, if you’re the winner it shows the sort of grace that makes it harder to complain about the result and if you’re the loser it shows that you’re not that upset, even if you need to repeat, “The best revenge is living well!” over and over in your mind as you raise a toast to the bastard who cheated you out of your rightful place on the podium.

Of course not everyone is behaving with decorum. The Greens, Max Chandler-Mather, announced his relief that he wouldn’t be in Parliament where Labor MPs “screamed and yelled” at him to the point that it made him feel sick, which prompted the PM to point out that the Greens MP had stood in front of signs depicting Mr Albanese as a Nazi. So far so petty from both of them. However, Mr Chandler-Mather decided to take it one step further and tell us: “I feel like the PM launching into another attack on someone who isn’t even in parliament, rather than celebrating a historic win, proves my point, which is this is how the political class treats people who fight for renters and real change.”

Now I don’t believe that the exchange is likely to lead to any positive outcomes, but I feel that I have to make the point that people who stand for political office ARE part of the political class, particularly when they succeed and actually get a vote in the Parliament.  In arguing that he’s not, Max is joining those who claim to be one of the “outsiders”. A group which includes Clive Palmer, Pauline Hanson, Donald Trump, Barnaby Joyce and whole lot of others who conveniently ignore that they’ve been part of the political scene for a number of years.

And, of course, when it comes to grace, re-elected Liberal Timmy Wilson shows the sort of humility which may see him challenge for the leadership before the year is out.

On a side note, I know that some of you are wondering how the voters of Goldstein could vote for him but I did hear that, at all the community forums this was what voters saw:

This would have helped his chances no end…

But I thought this post on X sums up the man.

 

So, it’s a great day…

I mean, the Liberals are only a handful of seats away from being the minor party in the Coalition, but it’s a good day because Mr Wilson won his seat and he felt the need to gloat about Bandt losing his. It’s not really that sensible to be going: Ha ha, you lost your leader, when your party has just done the same.

As someone else pointed out, it’s really the time for the Liberals to do some soul-searching, and I for one will be amazed if they find that they have one. Instead of quietly reflecting and quietly electing some poor mug to be the one who gets advice from just about everyone on what the party should do, they’re actively undermining any leadership candidate that they don’t personally support.

“Angus is too close to recent election debacle!”

“What about Sussan? She didn’t do enough and she was Deputy…”

“Dan is the man… no, no not Andrews. Tehan. No, he didn’t lose his seat and, of course people don’t know much about him, that’s his one strength…”

Whatever, it seems that nuclear is still the answer. I mean, let’s ignore the fact that Labor are likely to win at least one more election with the majority they’ll have and presume that Liberals get elected. After that they just have to repeal the ban, purchase the sites which will all be renewable energy sites within three years, put the contracts out to tender and start building. Yep, we should have nuclear up and running in plenty of time to celebrate the bicentenary of the first Parliament.

Undoubtedly Labor will have its problems going forward too. Managing to keep all the factions happy with such a large majority happy is not easy task. And there’s a danger of hubris.

But, as I wrote a couple of years ago, there’s a distinct possibility that they become the Centre Right party and the Liberal Party become Left Right party… You know, left right out of government forever. This would open up the opportunity for a centre left party, which prior to this election, people would have expected to be the Greens, but now the way is clear for my “Rossleigh’s One Nation Of Trumpets Liberty” Party which will appeal to any leftists who read the policies and any RWNJs who vote for it out of confusion with some other party that they thought they might vote for.

Our motto will be: “IF YOU STAND FOR ANYTHING, SOMEONE MAY SWIPE YOUR SEAT.”

Actually, I shouldn’t have said that. Some party with actual seats might swipe it!

Let me know if you’d like to be a member.

P.S. UPDATE In a move that should endear him to all National Party MPs, it appear that Angus Taylor has offered Senator Price the position of deputy leader if she were prepared to turn her back on her own party, but out of her loyalty to Making Australian Great Again, she said yes… that should give him two votes in the upcoming leadership battle.

 

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