The Coalition is certainly "limp wristed" and it has left roughly half the population disenfranchised. Voting for the Coalition these days is no different from voting Labor or Greens. There is not a jot of conservatism in the Morrison government.

Pyne was one of bedwetting backstabbers who backed Turnbull over Abbott. Really showed how putried and the lack on integrity the Liberal party became. They were almost in the same class as Labour /Greens. Thankfully under Morrison they have a handful of men and women with integrity. The swamp in Canberra is very deep. Pyne will always back sleaze over integrity. We need a Trump!

No offence to the author, but whining about what he wishes the Liberal Party to be is a bit rich.

The author, and his like-minded, need to ask what would happen to the Liberal party if it went the way he wanted it to?

Well, it would be decimated and would be smashed in elections.

The Liberal Party is still to the right of Labor on many issues, but the centre in Australia has shifted from many decades ago in terms of policy expectations.

Stop crying, and start another party if reality for now is all too painful.

To see how bad it gets, look at NSW ministers for environment and planning. North Shore Liberals are worse than Greens. New SEPP on koalas has taken away peoples rights to use their land to 'save' a species that is in plagues. Done bureaucratically without any parliamentary scrutiny. NSW is no more democratic than Danandrewstan.

“Well, it would be decimated and would be smashed in elections.”

And so it should be, as any party that doesn’t stand for anything should be smashed. The Coalition, and in particular its current accidental leader, stands for nothing.

THERE WASN'T MUCH WITH WHICH I AGREED ABOUT WITH JULIA GILLARD BUT SHE WAS SPOT ON WHEN SHE DESCRIBED CHRISTOPHER PYNE AS A "MINCING POODLE" ... MORE FOOL THE LIBERAL PARTY FOR PRE SELECTING AND PROMOTING HIM INTO THE MINISTRY... BUT MAYBE THAT IS WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT, A TAKEOVER OF THE MENZIES/HOWARD LIBERAL PARTY ? HE IS A DISGRACE...THE ONLY ENCOURAGING HOPE IS THAT THE PARLIAMENTARY LIBERAL PARTY WERE ACTUALLY ABLE TO GET RID OF TURNBULL AND PYNE...AND LEAVE THEM TO EXPOSE THEMSELVES FOR THE INTERLOPERS THEY WERE. HOPEFULLY THIS WILL CONTINUE TO HAPPEN !

Both risible rubbish and based on a false and fatuous premise. Christopher Pyne would take issue with the communism implication? Which for mine is libellous?

Poeple who would not look out out of place in Jackboots and brown shirts, i.e., of extreme right-wing views? Will always have a problem with true liberals or progressive conservatives who are socially progressive and fiscally conservative!

If you want a hard right-wing party? suggest you found one, rather than infiltrating Menzie's liberals then bitching endlessly about it being too far to the left! Even though anyone with half a brain, can see it and new labour have lurched and lurched to the right!

I have a right to hold pragmatic views,not popular with those on the looney tune, extreme right? Regardless of who does or doesn't agree with them! So does Cristopher (the Giselle) Pyne!
Alan B.

Individual responsibility!? Like slaves should take individual responsibility for outcomes decided by others?

Ditto those whose conditions and virtual slave labour wage rates/precarious employment, give them less choices than owned slaves!

Mouthing meaningless policies/mindless mantras, that are made impossible goals for the underpaid, the underprivileged, those condemned by offical policy to eternal life-long servitude, is little more than echoing errant nonsense that in the real world never ever applies/will never ever be allowed to happen!

But would if a truly socially progressives were "allowed" to embrace cooperative capitalism as official policy!

Smaller government!? We are, bar one, the most over-governed nation on earth. Have to find 70 plus additional billions P.A. for the dubious privilege!

What the author has revealed, I believe, is a level of calloused indifference and little if any actual understanding of real-world issues? And symptomatic of those who exist inside bubblles/think within a fixed, unimaginative, circle of ideas that are regularly divorced from reality?
Alan B.

Alan B going into bat for Christopher Pyne? Two word answer Alan, French submarines!
I look forward to the day when our politicised police break down your door, handcuff you in front of your family and take you back to the station for some one on one re-education! Even then I can hear you squealing "I could be useful in a labour camp, choco ration 20 grams, double plus good"!
Hahahahaha you idiot.

Alan B said "We are, bar one, the most over-governed nation on earth. Have to find 70 plus additional billions P.A. for the dubious privilege!"

Answer-

Maybe if our left leaning council's spent less money for example- on child care services those of us without children burdening our society (rather than taking personal responsibility for their offspring)- would have more money to spend on borders against Communist leftist ideology and policy.

It's often the left leaning governments that spend the money. I agree with Stiglitz that sometimes investment is needed for growth but the left don't know how to stop spending. One spending round is just an excuse for the next one.

If ever an article demonstrated how out of touch the Far Right of the Coalition is, it's this one.
Supporting Joe Biden over the demented, lying and corrupt Donald Trump hardly makes one a Leftist. Biden is no Progressive. His agenda is every bit as beholden to the corporate elite and the military industry as is Trump's.
Despite this author's lament, the Far Right in the Coalition is as alive and well today as it ever has been ... Peter Dutton, George Christiansen, James Paterson, Tim Wilson. Andrew Hastie, Craig Kelly, Kevin Andrews, Trent Zimmerman, Christian Porter, Alan Tudge, Michael Sukkar to name but a few ... the party is riddled with them and its policy shift to the Right is a clear indication of their influence.
The broad church of the Coalition has always been much more rhetorical than reality.

Jeez! Is this supposed to be an example of well informed right-wing opinion?

Online Opinion has published some risible rubbish in its time - this rant easily qualifies as one of its worst examples.

This essay describes how the right-wing UK think tanks deliberately and consistently promoted their anti-government deregulation and privatization agendas in the UK - all in the name of "freedom".
Of course the same methods were (and are) being used here in Australia and the USA too. The IPA being the principal outfit here in the land of Oz, and the CIS or the so called center for "independent" studies too.
http://www.monbiot.com/2020/09/04/for-your-eyes-only

Note the reference to the Policy Exchange outfit.
Guess who gave an address to one of their gabfests the other day.
Mister NO himself - aka Tony Abbott.

Thanks for the article David Pellowe it's a step in the right direction.

I think that the Liberal Party has moved left in recent years. I think the ousting of Turnbull and the retiring of Payne signals some small hope for Traditional Australia. But I think that Howard had his share of socially liberal policies such as high immigration- but perhaps more to control wages than for socially liberal ones- but it's effect was the same on the "Overton Window" of acceptable discussion.

Howard was mistrusted by his colleagues for a long time before he became Liberal Leader- I suspect that this was due to- for the time- his liberal policies. Now we look back and see his leadership as tame compared to today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window

The problems in the Liberal party stem from the historical ideological differences between the Industrialists and the Traditional Royalists essentially. New money vs old money. When the old money allowed the new money too much freedom they took over- if we don't get back the power from those that only have allegiance to money there is little hope for the future of Australia.

There is some argument that there should be a Traditional Party in Australia and some have tried but it is very hard to create a new brand. Perhaps there could be some change to the party from within.

The Communists are well known for entryism- perhaps that's the reason behind Payne.

Many on the left are socially liberal but economically conservative

There are some people that are social and economically liberal- perhaps that's where Payne fits in.

There are also 2 other possibilities-

1. Socially Conservative and Economically Liberal
2. Socially and Economically Conservative

What on earth is this bloke on?

The Liberal Party is under threat from hard right religious groups attempting to branch stack, and this character thinks supporting a moderate like Biden over a pussy grabbing, pornstar bedding, lecherous, corrupt, incompetent like the current swamp dweller President is betraying Liberal Party or even Christian values?

What an idiotic position.

It is people like him ho are poisoning our body politic and we really should be running the lot of them out of the country. Let them go live in Trump's America rather than stuffing up what we have here.

The Liberal party is now a true, lefty liberal party; it's living up to the name. The next thing we know it will join up with Labor and we'll have a one party state. Bejing will be ever so pleased.

SteeleRedux, Your comment on Biden and rant against Trump demonstrate that you naively swallow the crap from Their Green Bee Cee and other mainstream media that are stuffing our country. Trump stands out amongst international Leaders in calling out the climate crazies on megafires. It's unbelievable that so many hundreds of people are dying and so many thousands of homes are being incinerated as a consequence of lefty greenie bs. If Biden gets up, i hope you go over there to your allegedly moderate utopia and suffer it.

John Howard is a skunk.

Actually, he is even worse than that: a lawyer.

Dear Little,

Trump stands out as the most demented of Western leaders by a long shot. The only one he truly felt at home with paid for bounties to be placed on US troops.
http://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/trump-smiles.jpg?w=800&quality=85

And do you really think record temperatures have nothing to do with mega fires?

Listen mate, you have drunk great tankards of coolaid, as such having a rational discussion with you about your president is unlikely to change your addled brain, but you really do need to remember this moment in time because you will one day be denying to others that you ever supported such a dismal human being.

SteeleRedux, They ain't record temperatures, and the megafires are a consequence of unprecedented accumulation of three dimensionally continuous fuels that support firestorms and embershowers in extreme weather which happened long before the the industrial revolution, but never fuelled megafires until after aboriginal burning was disrupted.

Why do people still think Howard was a conservative? A totalitarian statist yes, but a conservative he absolutely wasn't. Don't be fooled by the prim and proper persona. Look at the deeds.

A lot of the problems we have today are a direct result of changes made by the Howard government and the precedents it set.
It was a radical government. It sought to change the nature of the country and succeeded.
It initiated probably the greatest expansion of government the countries ever had.

It inverted onus and imposed state control over private property. It instigated a trend toward extremely prescriptive laws that heavily punish the slightest oversight for things that have nothing to do with actual harm.
It placed "environment" over people.
It tipped the pace upside down.

The situation today isn't deviation from the like of the Howard government. It's the direct result.