Dear God, is there any hope for the Victorian Liberals? Do they want to lose what should be an unloseable election? It wouldn’t be the first time, after all, they’ve pissed away what should have been a cakewalk victory. All because they’re terrified of actually being a conservative party. Instead, they want to stick with being weak, wishy-washy, spineless ‘moderate’ jellyfish. Because that’s been working so well for them, so far.
Even when they’re finally dragged, kicking and screaming, into what should have been a no-brainer – preferencing the ascendant conservative One Nation above the toxic socialists in Labor – they’re clutching their pearls all the way, and holding their noses as they look down on the ‘deplorables’ who used to be their rusted-on voter base. Those centre-right voters have flocked to One Nation, now the second-most-popular party in Victoria ahead of the state election in less than three weeks.
‘Ooh, how positively awful’, sneer the Libs.
The Liberals and Nationals will preference One Nation ahead of Labor at this month’s state election, Opposition Leader Jess Wilson has confirmed, although exceptions will be made in cases where candidates hold offensive views.
‘Offensive views’, such as? That men cannot be women? That mass immigration is a destructive scam? That ‘Net Zero’ is a disaster? Anything, we can guess, which might make a Toorak matron with a Teals corflute on her polished wrought-iron fence choke on her gin.
The decision echoes the coalition’s position from 2022 and will capitalise on anti-Labor sentiment across much of the state, but may spark a backlash in some metropolitan or culturally diverse electorates where Pauline Hanson’s party is unpopular.
Hmm. Tell that to One Nation candidate Charanjit Singh. Or maybe “Manju, an Indian Australian voter who asked to be identified only by her first name, said she supported One Nation’s immigration policy”.
"The criteria should be restricted to skilled migrants according to our actual requirements, and restrictions must be placed on those who pose a national security threat," she said […]
Hindu Council of Australia vice president Surinder Jain said some migrants were also concerned about religious extremism following the Bondi attack and believed One Nation would "make Australia safe" by rejecting people known to support terrorism.
These are not some knuckle-dragging National Socialist Network skinheads: these are Indian migrants speaking. Even they’ve had enough of mass immigration.
Just as well they’ve got the White Knights of the Victorian Liberals to tell them what they should really think.
The upstart party’s preferences will be instrumental in deciding whether the Coalition can jump Labor in several contests.
There has been trepidation from some within the Coalition that One Nation could repeat its decision at the South Australian election to have an open preference ticket, but a One Nation source on Monday indicated that neither the Coalition nor Senator Hanson’s party should be helping to re-elect Labor MPs. “Any party directing preferences to Labor this election is endorsing 12 years of corruption and incompetence,” the source said.
“Only a vote for One Nation will guarantee the real change that is desperately needed to take our state back from the career politicians who created this mess.”
That the Libs were terrified One Nation wouldn’t give them their preferences indicates that they aren’t nearly so confident of defeating Labor as they make out. The blunt reality is that the Libs need One Nation far more than vice-versa.
The latest Newspoll has the coalition on a statewide primary of 33 per cent, Labor on 24 and One Nation on 20. One Nation is believed to be polling high in seats including Ripon, Melton, Morwell and Pakenham, and is on track for up to eight upper house seats. Their preferences will be instrumental in deciding whether the coalition can jump Labor in several contests. In many seats the coalition can still recommend a second preference for a no-hoper while ranking One Nation above Labor; Hanson’s party may do the same.
Labor’s terror of One Nation is just as plain to see.
“Jess Wilson should take a leaf out of her hero John Howard’s book, and preference Labor above One Nation,” a senior Labor source said. “One Nation is a plague on both our houses and she alone can stop it.”
Translation: the only way Labor can cling to power is if the Liberals are stupid enough not to ally with One Nation, which is not as long a bet as it might sound.
Never, ever, underestimate the Victorian Liberals’ ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. With less than three weeks to go, the Victorian Liberals are still acting like they are ashamed of their own voters. The centre-right has already moved to One Nation. Preferencing them above Labor is the bare minimum. Doing it while sneering at the ‘deplorables’ and making exceptions for ‘offensive views’ is how they lose the unloseable.
If they want to win, they need to stop treating their base like a dirty secret. The migrants who have had enough of the immigration free-for-all already get it. The Victorian Liberals still don’t.
