Why the Liberal Party is failing to gain ground despite One Nation’s recent slide
Updated ,first published
Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie says multiculturalism has become a “loaded political term” but warns against Pauline Hanson’s monoculture style as the Liberals bounce back from another dismal opinion poll by demanding more time.
The future leadership candidate also said he was unimpressed by the Coalition’s continued decline in opinion polls, as Angus Taylor insisted he needed more time to turn his party’s fortunes around following a series of polls on Monday.
Bilateral polls published on Sunday showed the Coalition had failed to capitalize on the backlash to Labour’s budget and the stalling of One Nation’s momentum. These were filmed in the week following Hanson’s sprawling National Press Club speech, in which he demanded Australia be monocultural, and Taylor’s struggle to express her own position on multiculturalism.
Late last week Hanson offered a rather watered-down definition of the term “monoculture” and insisted the Socceroos were a prime example of it.
Hastie further addressed criticism of Hanson’s conduct on Monday. “How do you police this? Do we want the government to be more involved in our lives, policing those who fit Pauline Hanson’s definition of Australian culture and those who don’t?
“Are we going to watch re-broadcasts? neighbors With Toadfish and Harold Bishop?”
But he tiptoed around supporting multiculturalism as a policy.
Despite many of his colleagues rushing last week to confirm that Australia has long been a successful, multicultural nation and to dispel doubts created by Taylor’s response, Hastie said it was “now a loaded political term”.
“Monoculture and multiculturalism are, in a sense, two extremes,” Hastie said.
“When most people talk about multiculturalism, they think about different foods and different backgrounds. But ultimately, we have one language, which is English. We have one values. We have one flag. And I think it’s fair enough for people to ask questions, for example, about the sharia law that has emerged in our country.”
“We cannot Balkanize, we cannot divide into tribes… But you know, nostalgia is useless. We are here now. How do we come together with our neighbors when we have disagreements, live in peace, how do we build our prosperity and security for the future? That is the question.”
He said he experienced “multiculturalism” in a sense, growing up in Sydney with Chinese, Korean and Samoan people of “one religion”, but emphasized the importance of common laws and values.
Some Liberal MPs were privately concerned about Taylor’s poor communication effort last week, but they are prioritizing stability over leadership speculation. On Monday afternoon, Hastie said the Coalition was “still in the winter of our problems” and needed to be patient.
“We have time and we must not get confused and focus on the task of winning the government,” he said on the ABC. Afternoon Briefing program.
“The only way is up. Sometimes you have to go through the valley to get to the top… A lot of people say ‘oh, give up, join One Nation’. No, I’m a Liberal because I’m committed to certain values, I have a vision for this country. This is not Pauline Hanson’s monoculture.”
Hanson’s net favorability dropped 10 points last month. Australian Financial Review In the Redbridge poll, Labor gained two points in the primary vote to 30 per cent. One Nation fell two points to 29 per cent but the Coalition failed to capitalize on the smaller party falling to 18 per cent. Taylor’s personal score dropped five points to minus-9.
Australian‘s Newspoll showed similar gains for Labor, from 30 per cent to 33 per cent, while One Nation fell from 31 per cent to 29 per cent. The coalition again failed to gain any ground and its vote share fell to 17 percent.
On Monday morning, Taylor repeated seven times that it would take time to restore public confidence in the Coalition.
“The voting public is angry. They’re angry with everything and everyone at the moment, and understandably so,” he radio told station 2GB, after last week claiming he had stemmed the collapse in his party’s vote.
“You can destroy trust in an instant, absolutely in an instant, but it takes time to rebuild it. You can’t turn the tanker around in a matter of months. We must keep working and pushing to scrap Labour’s toxic taxes, scrap net zero, end mass immigration and put Australians first.”
Melissa McIntosh, a leading figure in the coalition, told Sky News that polls showed the Liberal Party needed to rebrand.
“This doesn’t mean you change your fundamentals, but [it] It may certainly be time for us to re-look at how we express ourselves externally, and that requires a lot of work within the party to go back to our roots and then look at our messaging and our communications with the Australian public.
McIntosh said the blame should not be placed on the opposition leader.
“We have some sensible policies coming out. Angus is working hard to get the party on track to publish our policies,” he said. “We have to look at what else is going on.”
Environment Minister Murray Watt said on Monday Australians were getting “a bit of a reality check” after Hanson’s speech in which he also attacked workers as lazy.
Brittany Busch is the federal politics correspondent for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.
Natassia Chrysanthos is a Federal Political Correspondent. He has previously reported on immigration, health, social issues and the NDIS from Parliament House in Canberra.Connect with: X or email.
