This Government seems to have departed from a tradition of liberal conservatism and broken a fundamental continuity that has defined the Coalition since Robert Menzies.

Net-zero was “dead”, he said on the ABC — the cavalier and controversial Senator Matthew Canavan. Always prone to an outlandish statement, but this was something completely different. Two weeks before an election, this was either a callous observation or the imaginings of a hostile takeover attempt. This moment could have been one of the key moments in a rolling period of collapse within the Liberal-National political experiment.

The already smoking and smouldering L-NP juggernaut was hijacked by words of the renegade Senator. The inertia could be felt in the leafy green battlegrounds, from the moderate candidates under siege to the high-quality Independents seeking to capture their traditional heartland seats.

An overweight 18-wheeler, losing nuts and bolts, exploding pistons and panels, doors flapping in the increasing heat of the desert sun, all of this hauling a decade of negligence and revisionism on climate action, spewing black fumes as it hurtles down the dusty track with election day in sight. Then, all of a sudden, Mad Matt Canavan suddenly veers off down the fury road.

It was only a few years ago that most voters were expecting a Malcolm Turnbull style boring and asinine conservative government, that they voted for, to be the general configuration of the Party. Something half-respectable that acknowledged the challenge of climate change, yet devoid of any real desire to enact any meaningful policy.

Sometimes we may forget that there was a growing rift developing between sections of the Coalition — the Liberal and National Parties were developing fundamental differences on key issues such as climate, immigration and the economy that were becoming ugly. This bitterness also simmered within the Liberal Party ranks, with its far-right smelling blood and opportunity.

With Turnbull’s National Energy Guarantee on the clock, it was only a matter of time before these divisions became open rebellion. Before we knew it, we were handed another Prime Minister we didn’t vote for.

For us, Scott Morrison was a new breed of politician, certainly a new breed of PM. We could largely agree that we had not yet encountered a sales and marketing statesman, with an approach towards leadership more akin to Edward Bernays than Robert Menzies, his political style more akin to the big-spending megachurch political pastors in the United States than the sensible protestant work ethic of Anglican moderates that has historically defined the Liberal Party.

These moderates are now held hostage by the neo-Pentecostalism of folk like Immigration Minister Alex Hawke, who has commandeered the local selection process in NSW, seeking to change the DNA of the political movement against its own will.

“Net-zero is dead” is one of the reasons there are neurosurgeons, foreign correspondents, rugby players and businesspeople hooking up with community members and running effective independent campaigns. The motivation for volunteers to flock to pizza nights in coloured shirts across the blue-ribbon seats of the country is generated in opposition to the religious libertarian hard right now openly led by the Prime Minister.

The moderate liberals who make up the bulk of the parties’ memberships have been jettisoned by the man who told them he could bring the Party back together. They now float abandoned in a rising sea of teal.

READ MORE:

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/net-zero-is-dead-so-is-the-coalition-we-used-to-know,16345

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>