I was right all along: the Victorian Liberals really have learned nothing. The woke, wet ‘moderates’ are still firmly in charge, even after three beltings at the ballot box, and near-unbroken Labor rule for the last quarter-century. Not to mention the humiliating implosion of former John Pesutto’s leadership, after he defamed outspoken conservative MP Moira Deeming as a ‘Nazi’ and ‘white supremacist’. That slander cost Pesutto his job and almost certainly millions in damages and court costs – and it taught the party nothing.
As I’ve written before, despite desperate spin to the contrary, Pesutto’s successor Brad Battin is clearly just another soggy leaf from the same damp, wilted lettuce. He’s a cheaper version of Christopher Luxon, with a few hipster tattoos.
During his first sit-down interview following his frontbench reshuffle, Battin rejected any assertion that his party had lurched to the right.
Which puts them still slightly to the left of Labor, nipping at the Greens’ left heel.
Any notion that Battin was made of sterner stuff than hopeless former leaders Matthew ‘the Lobster’ Guy and Pesutto can be dispelled in a single sentence:
He said he had no plans to water down Victorians’ abortion rights and that he was happy to attend Melbourne’s Pride March.
The former shows that Battin is still letting the left set the agenda, the latter that he is desperately afraid of the Alphabet establishment.
As the Queensland state election, the left are beating up the non-issue of abortion as a straw-man attack. The LNP’s David Crisafulli was stupid enough to get spooked like a rabbit in the headlights, shedding at least some of what should have been an almost-total wipeout for Labor and the Greens. Federal leader Peter Dutton is smart enough to declare it what it is – a nothingburger – and move on.
Battin is dumb enough to play into the left’s hand.
He’s also running scared of his own past.
Asked how that squared with him voting against a 2015 bill that gave Victorian same-sex couples the right to adopt – or voluntary assisted dying a few years later – he said it was easy to look at one or two votes and say, “here’s a person who is a conservative”.
In the case of voluntary assisted dying, he said his speech was ultimately supportive of people’s right to choose to end their lives should they be diagnosed with a painful terminal illness. However, he ultimately voted against the government’s bill because it was “poorly constructed”.
He’s also letting the media set the running, by pandering to the so-called ‘woman problem’.
In a sign of collegiality, Battin’s sit-down interview was conducted alongside Coalition education and industry spokeswoman Jess Wilson.
Yet another of the ‘moderates’ who dominate Battin’s ‘new’ shadow cabinet.
Rather than being disappointed with women only making up 30 per cent of the new-look shadow cabinet, Wilson said she was hopeful there would one day be a 50-50 gender split not based on quotas, but merit, given the fresh faces being given shadow parliamentary secretary roles.
Yet, Anthony Albanese’s cabinet is dominated by women – and women voters are deserting federal Labor in droves.
Any doubt that he was another dripping-wet ‘moderate’ blue-green can likewise be dispensed in a single sentence:
“There is zero evidence of the fact of me being a conservative,” Battin said on Wednesday.
Does this moron want to lose?
Idiotic prating like that is precisely why the Liberals’ base has deserted them. Voters don’t want a ‘progressive’ left party in smarter suits: they want an actual opposition. Which stands for actual centre-right, conservative values.
Just ask National voters in New Zealand.
“I assure you, we’ll be working for all Victorians,” he said.
All except conservative Victorians.
At worst, Battin’s spinelessness will allow the disastrous Victorian socialist Labor government to scrape back into office yet again.
At best, it’ll deliver an Aussie state version of the useless Luxon National government – and how’s that working out?
