Tony Abbott’s new old Liberal Party, whither do they wish us to go?

Here we are some weeks into the Liberals third leader since Howard’s defeat in 2007.

The Australian tells us that Abbott’s “climate change is crap” statement came at a Liberal meeting in country Victoria where, during a question time the crowd awoke to this line that Abbott now declares hyperbole.

Methinks the crowd at that meeting would be somewhat let down by this chameleon weather vane policy pusher now he is talking about cost free emissions reductions for something that is in his own words ‘crap’.

That day and into the night he was described as being tired and after the meeting repaired to the local home where he downed a brandy and after a night’s sleep went on the phone to Senator Nick Minchin and now Malcolm Turnbull snipes from Wentworth whilst that party appears to rally behind this latest incarnation of a leader.

In a world where the verities have undergone much change since Menzies many people are left with vast a gap between their beliefs and reality. Having to change many things for the sake of what they believe is political correctness rather than seeing it as essential social justice and human rights has built a resentment borne of a loss, which they did not sanction and do not understand, seething below the surface.

We saw that resentment emerge from the dark recesses under Howard when he sanctioned Pauline Hanson to make any outrageous or unsubstantiated comment that popped into her head or was whispered from the wings, until this commenced the erosion of the Liberal vote. Labor was none too pleased either.

Having conducted no information programs to change attitudes, the old parties found their constituents moving off to the right where the values they still held, of a white bread Australia, remained strong.

Hanson was eventually defeated but Hansonism was simply swept into a bag, tagged as Howard’s battlers and feted to remain propping up Howard at each ballot until Howard’s ideological approach saw him bite many of the hands that had kept him in power. Workers with his Work Choice ‘reforms’, liberals with his refugee policies, environmentalists with his denial of change to the climate as being human induced, and he, along with the power of his Party, was swept away.

Now the Liberal old guard are concerned that a renewed Labor Party will retain power long enough to move Australia off the Howard trajectory and onto one they and their fossil fuel friends do not want.

Abbott saw his opportunity unfold with the reception of his ‘climate change is crap’ throw away line. Opportunism and populism combine with demagoguery to create a media circus.

We can see now the shadows of Howard crystallizing in an appeal to the Liberal voters who believe they are still the forgotten people. Assaulted by years of drought and fearing fire storms some have to hold tightly onto the idea that it is just a part of a cycle and normal transmission of rainfall and cold will return, fed by a constant stream of propaganda to sow doubt about the impact of co2 emitted by modern human industrial activity.

This is especially strong in rural areas, where beyond the climate the rural economy is one of price takers, where the collapse of environmental systems under the pressure of farming systems suited to Europe and climate destabilization as a result of an assault on the atmosphere in the interests of a few has seen what used to be a relatively free lifestyle turn into a hard grind that appears to have no end.

In the Bradfield electorate we have seen the Liberal vote fall in booths that usually poll well for the Liberals whilst in booths that usually poll for Labor the Liberal vote rose by a greater % than the losses to the Greens in the Liberal booths [There was no endorsed Labor Candidate].

Howard’s battlers are unsure about Rudd and Abbott is mining this rich ground. One only has to take the soundings of the syndicated shock jocks to discover the world of the muddled and confused looking for a route to the past where everything was, in hindsight, rosier.

And what can we expect from an Abbott lead old Liberal party as it moves to save the furniture, shore up the votes with the faithful and draw in those who are disappointed with the changes Rudd has, or has not, delivered. Will it be a mainstream message?

Ghosts from the days of terrorist doctors and asylum seekers imprisonment with Kevin Andrews and Phillip Ruddock will combine with younger Liberals such as Sophie Mirabella and Greg Hunt as they craft a dream of roses from reality and market a back to the past process.

Barnaby Joyce has been taking his utterances from the Citizens Electoral Council, an offshoot of the American far right and although he may manage to reign in his utterances and Abbott not fall into shooting from the hip, their previous lives are only being masked to make an electorally acceptable model.

Behind these facades of newness are the same people with their ideas grown from the National Civic Council days of Santamaria where redistributive mechanisms more akin to old Labor ruled, from the Howard years of no Work Choices [one for Tasmania’s Senator Abetz to market], from the policy that will not die ‘White Australia’ disguised in modern imperial cloaks it still lives on in a distrust of the other.

Will Australians fall for it.

The Hanson phenomenon grew and there is no reason to think that Abbott’s opposition will not resonate with the people every government eventually forgets, regardless of the rhetoric they may make as they seek the power.

There is in Abbott’s new shadow cabinet a mixture of the dogmatic and the opportunistic, of the ideas past and some that may be the future.

However, the Australian nation is not simply a rock to be quarried away for profit, nor is it an extension of self to be fought over to win points political or egoistic and nor does it stand as an irresponsible bulwark of greed careless of the fates of others whether they are a part of us or not.

If the Australian nation stands for anything, it must stand for a climate safe for human activity to continue in harmony with the natural systems upon which humans depend for everything. We in this wealthy country, our disadvantaged not withstanding, must be prepared to sacrifice some of our comfort, and to change our habits, so others may simply live.

Appeals to short term greed may lead to a change of government, but every moral person conscious of the impact on the climate of human activity based on fossil fuels bears a heavy responsibility if they do not work to ensure the Australian nation does not fail itself and thus all life.

Cartoon: Karl, HERE