‘Out-One-Nationing One Nation’, with Angus Taylor and the Mad Monk

With Angus Taylor as leader, Abbott in the backroom and old media new darling Hanson, the Liberal Party is experiencing an existential crisis, writes executive editor Michelle Pini.

IT MUST BE DIFFICULT to be the party of God when you have your whole life. raison d’être is under threat.

There is no doubt that today’s Liberal Party, once enthusiastic advocates of “stopping the boats”, has lost its enthusiasm.

Even if he’s a bland member for Goldstein, TimWilsonI felt obliged announce :

“We’re getting our mojo back, and part of the reason I’m running for public office again is because I think we need to get our mojo back in this area.”

MULTI-CULTURE/MONOCULTURE CRAZY

Tim Wilson’s delusions of grandeur aside, the Liberals are in crisis. And there is no clearer example of this than the recent strange vacillations among leading figures in the Liberal Party and the disparity of comments on one issue by the Liberal Leader. Angus Taylor It doesn’t even dare to say “multiculturalism”, let alone the even more challenging “monoculturalism”.

According to the answer to the question, “Do you support monoculturalism for Australia?” Angus bent and knitted, mentally tallying how many cultures he would offend, sweat streaming down his brow as he tried to find a way to answer the question, and finally muttered something about “core values,” then muttered something about “core values.” defined for him.

Just saying “Please explain” would make her sound more like Pauline Hanson, which spurred the Treasurer into action. Jim Chalmers with humor Angus Taylor was trying to:

“One Nation Out of One Nation.”

Others within her party did not support Taylor’s comments, who more or less supported Pauline’s comments. loves gin Deputy Liberal Leader Jane HumeThe person who said he rejected:

“The identity politics of the left… [and] Cultural politics of fear from the right.
We are a multicultural society. Let’s face it, we already are. I had my three children baptized in an Anglican Church. “My mother goes to the Catholic Church on Sundays, and I go to Greek Easter and break the little eggs painted red.”

Then that clears everything up.

This all follows Pauline Hanson’s recent launch of the National Press Club. address he claimed:

“We cannot be a multicultural society. We are a multiethnic society, but we must be monocultural.”

Considering that ships literally arrived here from the UK in 1788, nearly wiping out the indigenous population, and nearly 70 years earlier also arrived from many non-Anglo countries, creating a land filled with many cultures, it seems odd that this one absurd Hanson comment would create an existential crisis for the Libs.

However, multiculturalism (we have no problem saying this) or at least avoiding it, seems to be consuming established media; these media have made it, along with “monoculturalism,” the new hot buzzwords. Members of this media group, which has adopted Hanson as the latest “populist” poster man, are now obsessed with presenting different versions of this question in every interview: Do you support monoculturalism for Australia?

BUT WHICH BOAT CAME FIRST?

But how did we get here? What factors created Hanson’s rise? So what precipitated this Liberal Party identity crisis?

There was an audible, if temporary, sigh of relief when Tony Abbott emerged from the “Right” stage in 2015 as Turnbull took over as prime minister.

Many Australians from a range of ethnicities, religious denominations and sexual identities feel that these brutal, bigoted, misogynistic and divisive methods areMad Monk” He had been imported into the Liberal Party and the parliament that dominated our national conversation would eventually take a backseat.

It is not trivial to note that while Abbott has continued the same worn playbook, promoting White Australia and anti-climate policy, and trying to bring back knighthoods, Australia has managed to move on, as evidenced by his rude total expulsion from parliament in 2019.

Unfortunately, apart from a few progressive changes, Turnbull was not the answer for the so-called “broad church” of the Liberal Party; At that time it consisted of more and more ultraconservatives, a few who were not so ultraconservative, and those in the middle who could now be counted on one hand. Love him or hate him, Turnbull’s premiership was a huge disappointment; especially since it was taken over by Morrison, who picked up where Abbott left off and sought to take Australia even further back in time.

Forget Abbott’s Western Civilization rants; Morrison was backed by the Pentecostal Seven Mountain Mandate, where women not only stay at home to do the ironing but also manage to impress prime ministers while multitasking. Morrison’s agenda was now far beyond conservatism and was approaching the realm of absurd folly.

However, it took some time for voters to understand this; Morrison outwardly appeared to be keeping up with the times, preferring to influence his agenda covertly; he even went so far as to secretly take over five ministerial portfolios.

But Scotty turned out to be too extreme for Australia and eventually lost to Albanese in 2022.

It now appeared that the reactionary policy framework that the Coalition had favored for a decade was finally coming to an end.

But the influence of Abbott and Morrison on the Liberal Party resulted in the cracking of the shell of a party that we see today and the question “Should we follow Pauline?” It’s important to remember that it goes back and forth between. or “Shall we try to beat him at his own game?”.

ANGUS, THE MAD MONK AND THE NEW MEDIA PET

All this brings us back to the resurgence of Tony Abbott, who was elected unopposed as leader of the Liberal Party in May; Just when it looked like things couldn’t get any worse for the oppressed Opposition.

At least the pretense of portraying the party as “centrist” as it moved steadily to the right ended with the ouster of Sussan Ley as leader. It is now obvious that the “center”, along with any “logical” semblance, has left the building.

Abbott, who was elected primarily on his “Stop the Boats” policy (though he didn’t actually stop them) and has never tried to hide his Far Right mania, echoed Pauline’s hateful, divisive comments and encouraged The Liberal Party will make preference agreements with One Nation. This, of course, led to the once-safe Liberal seat of Farrer going to the PHONies. Abbott himself was born in London, but regardless, there are immigrants… and also the Right immigrants.

However, while most of us are racist, Australians overwhelmingly don’t want to be seen as such, especially when it comes to sport. Thus, Socceroos, many of whom are immigrants and refugees from 15 different countries, are now ethnic backgrounds – flying the Australian flag as they achieve great things, perhaps the situation is already beginning to change.

Even Pauline “Monoculture” Hanson walked back He made previous hateful comments about immigrants and different ethnicities:

“In fact, the Socceroos represent my vision of a monocultural Australia. People from different backgrounds, cultures and nationalities, all wearing the green and gold and representing one nation under one flag and succeeding under the same rules.”

Under Angus Taylor, with Tony in the backroom and Pauline the media’s new pet, the Liberal Party is now vacillating between staying firmly on the Right and going so far to the Far Right that they have become disciples of Trump. (Oh, wait, they already tried that with Peter Dutton.)

In any case, it seems that for now the difference between the Libs and the One Nation is that the former can break red-dyed eggs at Greek Easter while striving for undefined “common values”, and the latter can drone on about monoculture and cheer for sports teams of different ethnicities, as long as there is no egg-cracking or indulging in Halal snack packs.

Follow managing editor Michelle Pini on Twitter @vmp9 and Bluesky @michellepini.bsky.socialAnd Independent Australia on Twitter @independentausFacebook HERE and Instagram HERE.