This bloke has lost is mind. Happy for him to start the climate wars up again. They’re just going to mobilize all the last election arguments against them yet again.
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That’s the Teal seats gone forever for the Liberals then. Complete madness.
Only the outer suburbanites and coal-loving neanderthals will love this announcement (and they already vote Liberal/National anyway). Do these fools not realise Abbott was the one who signed up for Paris? I see that Dutton wants to go one better at being the worst Liberal leader in history.
I mean, at least Scomo tried to pretend he was for net zero. Dutton on the other hand said the quiet part out loud (Coal is love, coal is life).
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These are a strange group. They vote against their own personal interests, particularly economically all because they have fear in their hearts regarding some perceived notions that progressive ideas are out to get them. Yet ultimately they long to be wealthy and part of the blue ribbon yet the liberals and right wingers will never let them. The liberals will continue to see this group as people they are born to rule over.
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I do feel a lot of this comes from the actions of the more extreme left e.g. the Greens- the way they talk down and patronise anyone that doesn’t fully agree with their radical views drives a lot of people into the arms of the right.
Labor doesn’t get enough credit sometimes for being a true centrist party these days, and (unfairly) still gets lumped in with the Greens a lot. A shame that in many of these outer suburban and regional areas they struggle to attract quality candidates that could take the Coalition head on and possibly win. It’s not impossible, even here in Albury, traditionally a conservative heartland (although this is slowly changing), we had a Labor State MP for much of the 1980s (Harold Mair) who was widely respected even among lifelong Coalition voters.
Must say I’m also really liking how the Albanese government isn’t taking any crap from the Greens anymore lying down either. The Greens and their affiliated groups using intimidation and bullying tactics to try and beat people into submission is a new low even for them.
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It’s the same old LNP isn’t it. Clearly the focus is not on winning back seats. Absolute suicide move. The only people they are pleasing with that announcement is those in rusted on seats they already hold.
The Teal seats have just become very safe seats.
Labor have quite a bit of ammo next election. They have Ley on camera claiming she is rolling back all the Tax cuts. Now they have this.
Will be interesting to see if any LNP members speak out over this, Bridget Archer is one. I think a few might, certainly is about to backfire for PD.
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On the other hand, they don’t seem to see that the right is doing the exact same to them, just subtly through their policies when they’re in power and then lying through their teeth about it. Unfortunately those in the outer suburbs don’t see that clearly due to various reasons.
Don’t even get me started on those Coal-loving areas and the rural folks that keep voting conservative because of their ‘why not’ attitude. That sort of mentality is what got us 20 years of Coalition rule in the last 30 years of governing that wrecked this nation from all corners.
Yet Dutton still has the audacity to call Albo and Labor ‘weak’. On which mountain is he shouting from? What would he do in the situations the government’s had to face? Does his definition of ‘strong’ mean divisive, xenophobic, dog-whistling, patronising and complete blameshifting on others?
Why aren’t the media hounding Dutton for making these claims of weak leadership and their ‘do-nothing’ energy policies? Why aren’t they wrecking his narrative?
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Tom, telling people what they should do is not a wining strategy.
Me and @captaincupcake have both reminded this thread that non-intellectual elite Australians know when they are being derided, condesended to and are called bogans.
It turns out that doing that for decades means that they developed a deep hate of your sect and your ideology and when you find that you need their support that it is not forthcoming.
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Winning?
What’s the difference between that and both sides of politics telling people to vote for them if they want X or Y? The fact of the matter is some of these people don’t know how to think when it comes to politics. They just look at the visual slogans like ‘Axe the tax’ and ‘Stop the boats’ and jump onto the bandwagon.
Those people still vote against their interests at the end of the day and they keep complaining they’re worse off. They’re reaping what they’re sowing. It’s not an inconvenient matter it is a fact.
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It doesn’t help that the Country Party/Nats have been pretty well the only consistent presence in these electorates which makes them effective echo chambers for a very limited brand of politics. We’re not talking about rusted-on voters here, we’re talking about voters where there is a layer of rust on top again - largely because they don’t see there is a viable alternative.
Parties (and independent voices) of all persuasions come and go while the Nats remain everpresent - there are lots of Nats voters unhappy with where the party is going in conjunction with the Coalition, but are also unhappy with the alternate options available too and they return to what is basically default behaviour.
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If the likes of Amelia Hamer and Tim Wilson won’t break from party lines regarding Climate Change action then they won’t win back Kooyong or Goldstein at all. Monique Ryan and Zoe Daniel have both been essentially handed another term in office.
Wonder if Bridget Archer will go rogue and become teal to avoid being gazumped by the federal party given she actually voted with the government on this.
Could that also be attributed to the fact that even if Labor or someone else tries to make some inroads into some areas through genuine investment and listening to the people in the area, the people still won’t bite?
I read an article about Barnaby Joyce just after he was disqualified under Sec. 44, and everyone there is like ‘Poor Barnaby’, ‘This is a farce’ etc even though Barnaby knew and should’ve followed the renunciation process correctly. They’re very much willing to turn a blind eye on misconduct and wrongdoing if it’s the Liberal/National party member, same with Gladys in 2021. People were still fawning over her even when she was prove to be corrupt by ICAC. Certainly astounding to see that some people are happy to pretend nothing bad’s happened as long as they’re conservative whilst they won’t take anything from anyone left of the Coalition.
As you would know, I am nowhere near the biggest Barnaby fan, but there is very much a difference between Barnaby’s citizenship and Gladys’ ICAC investigation. Should Barnaby had been more careful in this area? Of course. But to his understanding, his father had renounced his NZ citizenship (he was born in NZ and had moved to Australia before NZ citizenship became a thing), Barnaby had never applied to register as an NZ citizen, the NZ government had no record of recognising his NZ citizenship, and the Solicitor-General had advised him that there was no issue with Section 44(i).
Again, I wholeheartedly agree that there was plenty of opportunity for Barnaby to clear everything up, particularly as his father had renounced his NZ citizenship well after Barnaby was born, and that ignorance is no defence under the law. But to label it as misconduct and place it on the same level as someone who engaged in serious corrupt conduct (as ICAC found) shows a misunderstood view on the matter.
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Most people – even most members of marginalised groups – are centrist or even centrist to conservative (which is why LGBTIQ+ activsts don’t represent too much at all, really).
Of course they are going to have a very short fuse with regard to Bandite/Steele-Johnist or Hanson-Young/Thorpeist antics.
But, you are wrong about rural voters – the voters in Indi finally were fed up enough with Sophie Panopolous (a carpet backer parachuted in from Melbourne) and her aggressive political style and love of being controlversial to boot her out and tell her they didn’t want her back three years later.
Source?
Indi’s a different situation to other rural electorates. It’s pretty much regional towns and villages that have been swamped by tree changers and undergone quite an amount of gentrification.
Apart from Wangaratta and Wodonga (towns which are increasingly progressive despite being ‘rural’), you’ve got places like Benalla, Rutherglen, Beechworth, Myrtleford and Yackandandah, all of which are becoming much ‘greener’ in some senses even if the Greens will never get up there. Then the south-western corner is closer to Melbourne which makes the connections to a major centre much more straightforward.
You’re correct that Sophie Mirabella was turfed out against the tide because she was a completely useless loud-mouth, but Indi can’t really be considered in the same way rural electorates like Wannon, Nicholls, Mallee and Gippsland are shaped. Otherwise Helen Haines wouldn’t have been able to succeed Cathy McGowan.
They can’t afford to lose Archer. They can’t afford to lose any seats. Unless they intend yo remain in opposition for years.
It definitely puts new candidates in a tough spot, as they know full well they need to have some form of climate agenda, especially as many currently have teal members in the seats. You can bet full well Hamer and Wilson are on notice not to go their own way on Climate.
I hope Archer goes rogue over this. Dutton surely can see that coming. Popcorn out next week!
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Most voters have always been in the centre – so most members of marginalised groups will be as well. Im puzzled as to why you think it would be different?
Centrist yes, but centrist to conservative? That’s what I was asking.
They are now pushing that they are trying to say Labor isn’t going to meet its 2030 targets.
Team Dutton have a habit of coming out with stupid statements them re-clarifying later on. Did the same with the Voice, ‘we will do our own’ then backtracked. Same with the tax cuts ‘we will reverse them’ before backtracking, and now ‘we will pull out of Paris’ before backtracking ‘ohh what we mean is Labor isn’t going to hit its 2030 targets’
Do they not have policy advisors? And don’t they have party room discussions before coming out with these unfiltered statements?
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like most politically active people (i.e. our intelligensia), most activists for marginalised groups are well to the left (and thus are not actually representative of most people in said groups).
My “centrist to conservative” was alluding to the basic reality of Australian politics.
Australia is an affluent, property-owning, class-based democracy, in which most people see themselves as middle-class, and in which most people are happy most of the time with the way things are. That’s why since 1910 the conservatives have won 24 federal elections to Labor’s 15. For Labor to win a federal election, the conservatives have to screw up very badly, and Labor has to do everything right.
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You aren’t going to win these electorates in one election cycle, especially when you put forward relatively unknown candidates - they need a longer-term investment where there is a much more visible presence.