Taking the job of opposition leader immediately after an election defeat is nearly always a thankless task. It’s a poison chalice of dire poll numbers while the new government basks in its honeymoon phase. Especially when you’re the arch-enemy of the media and the chattering classes, a conservative.
It’s even harder when your party is an undisciplined rabble whose only moral compass seems to be inventing new ways to screw over its traditional base.
The last truly effective conservative opposition leader was Tony Abbott. Current Liberal leader Peter Dutton seems to at least dimly grasp that the first thing an opposition needs to do is oppose, not slavishly follow, yapping, at the left’s heels. Whether from principle or opportunism, Dutton has had the mettle to oppose the racist “Indigenous Voice” referendum.
He’s also starting to set the conservatives apart from the left’s narrative on energy.
Peter Dutton has put nuclear power and gas at the heart of the Coalition’s future energy blueprint, in a direct challenge to Labor’s climate change policy, and will wave through the majority of Jim Chalmers’ $14.6bn cost-of-living package.
Even so, Dutton is pointing out what is an increasingly obvious sore point for middle Australia: Labor are belting the lifters and showering the rewards on the leaners.
In his second budget reply speech, the Opposition Leader promised to abolish new Labor taxes and provide more support for middle Australia’s “working poor”, farmers and businesses struggling with soaring mortgage repayments, record energy prices and grocery bills.
New Coalition policies included: banning sports betting advertising during the broadcast of games, from an hour before to an hour after; doubling the size of the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation; and increasing the number of Medicare-subsidised psychological sessions from 10 to 20.
Another clear policy winner is rejigging income thresholds that effectively discourage welfare recipients from finding at least part-time or casual work, as a stepping-stone to getting off welfare altogether. The problem is, though, that we’ve heard that sort of talk since Peter Costello was Treasurer, but nothing ever gets done.
But it’s on energy that Dutton stands to really hit on a policy that is not only eminently sensible but will provide a clear point of difference between Labor and the Greens.
Following the closure of the Liddell coal-fired power station and rising concerns over blackouts and gas shortages, Mr Dutton declared that in the 21st century “any sensible government must consider small modular nuclear as part of the energy mix”. The Liberal leader warned that Labor’s climate change plan was putting Australia “on the wrong energy path”, driving up electricity and grocery bills for households, and threatening to shut down or force businesses offshore.
“We want to see emissions go down,” Mr Dutton said. “Next-generation, small modular nuclear technologies are safe, reliable, cost-effective, can be plugged into existing grids where we have turned off coal, and emit zero emissions.”
Mr Dutton rebuked Labor – led by longtime anti-nuclear advocate Anthony Albanese – for being “happy” to embrace AUKUS nuclear submarines while refusing to “consider the benefits of onshore small and micro modular reactors”.
But an Australian nuclear industry is years ahead at best. In the meantime, we have abundant energy reserves that the left are too busy demonising.
Amid rising concerns from Japan, Korea and other energy partners over Labor’s crackdown on LNG exporters, Mr Dutton accused the government of “undermining gas at every turn”.
“With the government against coal and nuclear, gas remains the only viable firming power,” he said.
Pledging to pump more gas into the energy system if elected in 2025, Mr Dutton said the government was seeking to force households and businesses to electrify “despite the exorbitant cost for families”.
The Australian
Nothing will resonate more with Australian households than energy costs and security. Not even a year into the Albanese government and its lunatic climate policies are driving energy prices — and, concomitantly, the prices of everything else — through the roof, even as grids grow more and more shaky. It’s all only going to get worse as Boofhead Bowen keeps chasing his “Net Zero” chimaera, whipped on by the demented Greens.
Now, if only the Liberals could find the guts to stand against Labor’s mind-boggling, record-high mass immigration plans, Albanese might be as toasted as Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd were by Tony Abbott.
