Since the recent election there's a lot of commentary saying the Liberal party needs to reconsider its policies and re-align with its core values which, when enumerated sound very centrist.

I just watched ABC's q&a, there was a few interesting points. There was a strong consensus that Trump style culture wars are toxic in Australian politics, and that it's unlikely future candidates would take that route.

I don't want to gloat infront of the seppos, but I think what's happening during this aftermath is very salient for all of those "both sides are bad" Americans.

In October last year there seemed to be a lot of users saying that they didn't want to reward the dems with their vote, and that the only way to communicate with the party was to withhold their vote.

I think what's happening right now in Australia demonstrates the importance of voting.

Labor might not be left enough for you personally, but each time the libs are defeated they need to move to the left to be viable, and Labor will have to move further left to differentiate themselves. That is to say, the spectrum of acceptable opinions is moving to the left in an observable manner, right now.

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[–] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Votes from politically disinterested people are only part of the picture. One of the reasons liberals weren't viable is because their base is dying off.

They need to gather up new dedicated voters somehow, and all the commentary is saying they need to move away from conservative policies like nuclear.

We will see what emerges in the coming days. I'm expecting a leader who is more palettable to the left than Dutton was.

[–] Ilandar@lemm.ee 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

From what I understand, the only people contesting it are Angus Taylor (from the right faction) and Sussan Ley (whose positioning seems debatable). Neither seem like particularly great options, though. The moderate faction seems to have been decimated, even at the membership level. From Crikey:

One moderate contacted Crikey the morning after the election, describing the faction as a “critically endangered species”. They were plainly upset at what they saw to be a shift to the right supported by the party’s membership base.

“As long as you have a cooked membership, we’re going to continue to have cooker candidates,” they said.

The concerns echo a piece in the Australian Financial Review by Phil Coorey, who said the Liberal Party had “no soul to search” after many future leaders of the party lost their seats or saw their margins decimated. Coorey noted many of those were moderates, and “the broad church is no more”.

It doesn't sound like they actually have many options left if they want to lead the party back towards the centre in the short-term, and getting wiped out of major cities isn't going to help that either.

[–] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The rest of the article you quoted discusses the need for liberals to become more moderate.

These are the two paragraphs following yours:

Charlotte Mortlock, a former journalist and Liberal staffer, is the founder of Hilma’s Network, an organisation designed to encourage greater participation of women in the Liberal Party. She told Crikey the moderate wing of the party needed to be “more vocal than ever”.

“Pandering to the base of the party hasn’t worked for them,” she said. “The broader public need to see them being vocal and overt in their demands for reform and if they’re not, then they can’t blame the public for not knowing they exist.”

[–] Ilandar@lemm.ee 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Of course the remaining people in the moderate faction think they need to be more vocal. It doesn't change the fact that they are really struggling right now and that the people in leadership positions seem to be more interested in listening to Gina Rinehart and Sky After Dark, who are still arguing that the reason the Liberals are losing voters is because they haven't moved far enough to the right and still don't spend enough time on culture wars.

[–] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Ok mate, we will see what happens.

[–] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I mean, so what if they listen to that advice and try to lean into the culture wars? So they lose some more elections, I think it would do a world of good for this country if the Liberals fell into irrelevance and we had a rise of politicians like the Teal independents that actually care about climate change.

[–] Salvo@aussie.zone 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The more the Liberal Party and Gina’s and Rupert’s Right Wing media waffle on about the Mythical Culture war, the more people think that it is actually a thing.

Zuck’s and Elon’s Right Wing “new” media need to Fuck Off too.

[–] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 16 hours ago

Considering the massive, once in a generation, second-term swing to the incumbent government I'd say we've seen a massive repudiation of those culture war talking points. Obviously that wasn't the only causal factor in these results, but it's worth noting Morrison tried some anti-trans stuff in 2022 as well and look where that got him. I think the Australian voting public is smarter than to fall for that sort of rhetoric. Mandatory voting also helps because the more disinterested voters still have to make a decision, and I think most people believe in a fair go.