Andrew L. Urban
It’s weird. Everyone from pollies to pundits is urging the Liberal Party to come out with strong, practical policies on the economy first and foremost, to stave off One Nation at the polls – and the ballot box.
This is the ruling wisdom; if a politician or candidate, you must be seen to tackle cost of living. It is the message burnt onto the foreheads of every politician, current and presumptive.
But the odd thing is that it isn’t a big beautiful blueprint to address cost of living that has provided One Nation’s cross-country appeal. People have flocked to the ‘vibe’ of hope and change. It’s all about the hope of reclaiming an Australian ethos lost in the woke swamps of time and the change that includes ditching policies and costs of a climate change fixation that defies gravity.
There are no ON candidates yet for federal seats in Victoria, for instance, yet with 31.5% support for ON (overtaking both Labor and the Coalition), the polls show voters have shunned the other parties which do have candidates. That’s how desperate many voters are.
Yes, of course, ON does have policies that are intended to bring down the cost of living – like the abolition of the entire climate change bundle to release cheaper energy. But that is not the driver of voting intentions. Big, unfiltered immigration is a more prominent gripe that ON has articulated so forcefully, which links to the demotion of multiculturism and the elevation of Australianism.
Polls send the message to all other parties and the odds-and-sods contenders such as the teal persons, that they are no longer trusted to deliver what the voting public wants – irrespective of promises. Who knows when they might change their positions?
But that’s only part of it. One Nation has cottoned on to the real poll beating sentiment: ‘we say what other are too afraid to’. That captures both the underlying socio-political anti-woke courage of ON and the fact there is much to change in our polity.
It seems a large group of voters feels they are drowning and want a life belt … any life belt. Ironically enough, ‘hope and change’ was once a successful Barack Obama campaign slogan.
PS I do not belong to any party.