‘Brand damage’ risk as Liberals preference One Nation
Liberal leaders are turning to the wrath of traditional swing voters to win back their fleeing base after the party favored One Nation in federal and state byelections.
The Liberals’ how-to-vote cards favor One Nation’s David Farley over community independent candidate Michelle Milthorpe in the Farrer by-election on May 9.
Former Victorian Liberal deputy leader and pollster Tony Barry said the party was struggling to survive and compared running the party to driving “a car with no brakes”.
“There are no perfect solutions, only imperfect choices,” he told AAP.
“It is clear that their strategy is to try to come second in the national polls and if they can get past the top of One Nation they may try to form an electoral coalition to compete with Labor again.”
Mr Barry, who failed to beat Labor from third place, said the party needed to treat its base like undecided voters, which risked alienating the real undecided voting bloc.
“If they reach the top of One Nation, there is a risk that the brand damage they suffer in getting there will mean they will not be able to take their primary vote into a contestable position on Labor,” the Redbridge executive said.
“It’s a very complicated path back to competitiveness.”
Former prime minister John Howard once said One Nation should be last on Australia’s Liberal Party’s how-to-vote card.
Mr Howard has since softened his tone. 2001 edictDeclaring preferences with One Nation should be considered on a case-by-case basis and on a seat-by-seat basis.
However, fellow former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull described the decision to give One Nation third preference on Farrer as a “retrogressive move”.
He told a climate and energy panel on Monday: “This would have been unthinkable in my time as prime minister or in Tony Abbott’s or John Howard’s time.”
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor defended One Nation on Farrer as the “least bad option”, apart from national choice Brad Robertson.
He told the ABC’s Insiders programme: “There are a bunch of teals in this parliament who are destroying our energy system… and we simply cannot approve of that.”
Mr Taylor called Iran a “bad country” as he sold immigration policy, forcing party MP and leading moderate Jane Hume to declare the country would not be subject to a blanket ban.
He criticized the booing of Indigenous recognition of Country at Anzac Day ceremonies, but argued that Welcome to Country ceremonies, a distinct cultural practice, had been “devalued by overuse”.
Defense Industry Minister Pat Conroy accused Mr Taylor of being a “pale imitation of One Nation”, while Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles warned Australians would judge the Liberals in order of preference.
The Victorian Liberals have adopted the same electoral strategy for Saturday’s by-election in Nepean.
Liberal candidate Anthony Marsh is fighting to retain the state seat in a three-way contest with One Nation’s Darren Hercus and community independent candidate Tracee Hutchison.
The Victorian Liberals are planning to choose One Nation over Labor as their default position in the November state election, Nine newspaper reported.
Victorian Opposition Leader Jess Wilson, a member of the party’s state campaign strategy committee, categorically denied that a preference strategy was being discussed.
“We have seven months left and in most cases there are no candidates, no policies and some parties don’t even have leaders,” he said.
Ms Wilson had previously ruled out an “alliance” with One Nation for state elections; polls showed a fifth of Victorian voters backed Pauline Hanson’s populist party.
Recalling Ms Hanson’s 1996 one-liner, Prime Minister Jacinta Allan pleaded with Ms Wilson to “please explain” and called for no more “weasel remarks” to be made.
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