The mainstream centre-right party in the Australian political system naturally needs to govern in a way which provides an attractive umbrella for voters who believe in the core values of John Howard's "broad church" which explicitly and deliberately seeks to reconcile classical liberal and conservative streams of thought.
Some of those voters will see themselves as moderate, others as conservative, many will avoid any particular label but aspire to support the party delivering strong national security, sound economic management and opportunity and a fair go for all. More often than not the practical differences among this universe of voters depend on attitudes to social issues, which are seldom uppermost in choosing a government.
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Turnbull's swipe at Tony
While giving a speech in London, Malcolm Turnbull has criticised Tony Abbott and other conservatives, saying the Liberal Party should sit in the sensible centre.
My motivation in accepting the presidency of the Liberal Party is not to promote particular views (or prejudices) but to provide the best possible platform to assist the re-election of the Coalition in 2019, because that represents easily the best and safest choice of national leadership, to promote the peace and prosperity of our nation.
Look at the 12 months since the last election. The Coalition has delivered significant budget repair; small and medium enterprise tax cuts not seen for a generation; reforms of school and childcare funding which have been an inequitable dogs breakfast for years; a guaranteed future of Medicare and the National Disability Insurance Scheme; important industrial relations changes; and above all the strongest national and border security, the envy of much of the world.
Arguably that is a better track record of delivering than any government of either side has managed in a decade of obstructive and often dysfunctional parliaments.
On the other hand Labor has moved decisively to the left, involving higher marginal income tax rates, higher deficits; a return to class warfare and the politics of envy not seen in Australia for half a century; and a blatantly dishonest approach to education funding, all while demonstrating a spineless disregard for union thuggery and corruption.
As seen two years out, this represents the battleground for the next election. The challenge for the Liberal and National parties is to present a united, competent front against this revived brand of Labor populism, not to squander political capital on barren internal jousting over personalities or labels that are of little or no interest to the electorate.
I am ashamed to say that of recent times the Labor Party has done a clearly better job of keeping its far more profound internal philosophical and personal differences in check or, perhaps more accurately, hidden from public view. The net effect, of course, has been that Labor has avoided scrutiny of its own manifest weaknesses of both policy and leadership while media focus has remained on the real or imaginary conflicts on the right of the political spectrum.
The onus is on the Liberal Party to reflect on the historical truth that disunity is death in Australian politics and to behave accordingly.
Apart from this overriding need there are many other challenges for the party. Candidate selection is an issue in NSW, where we need to ensure that branch members are properly enfranchised, but there are other fundamental aspects of ensuring we are more reflective of the electorate around Australia. In both gender and ethnic diversity there is much to be done.
Arguments about whether we should use quotas to help increase the representation of women in the federal parliamentary Liberal Party are, frankly, secondary. We need a commitment to the outcome, and a sense of urgency about it. To allow the slow long-term decline in our share of the female vote to continue is unacceptable.
Likewise my impression is that we have slipped behind our competitors in campaigning capability and technology. A commitment to a continuous campaigning approach reflecting best practice in social media and voter information and communication is very important. Modernising the organisation and its approach to winning elections is a priority for the new federal executive and federal director.
However, at the end of the day, "good government" and "winning" are the prisms through which we should judge ourselves. The community certainly will.
Nick Greiner is a former premier of NSW and the new federal Liberal Party president.
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