Via The Australian:
Malcolm Turnbull has made the bold claim that the Liberal Party has never been a conservative party, and that Robert Menzies was a moderate, progressive leader, in a speech strongly defending his own centrist governing style.
Describing the “sensible centre” as the modern political battleground, the Prime Minister suggested a comparison between the Liberal Party under his leadership with that of Menzies, who he said had purposely rejected traditional conservative politics.
“The sensible centre was the place to be. It remains the place to be,” Mr Turnbull said in remarks likely to inflame the internal battle for ascendancy within the party between so-called moderates and conservatives.
Delivering the Disraeli lecture to the Policy Exchange think tank in London overnight, after earlier visiting the scene of the Borough Market terrorist attacks in which two Australians were killed last month, Mr Turnbull’s speech also delivered a nod to former prime minister Tony Abbott by reprising his warnings to Europe about keeping control of its borders.
But his key message was a rebuff to the growing calls within the party to return to its conservative base.
“In 1944, Menzies went to great pains not to call his new centre-right party a conservative party — rather he described our party as the Liberal Party, which he firmly anchored in the centre of Australian politics,” Mr Turnbull said.
“He wanted to stand apart from the big money, business establishment politics of traditional conservative parties, as well as from the socialist tradition of the labour movement embodied in the Australian Labor Party.
Take or leave the historical references, it’s certainly true today. And the moderates are emboldened, via Domainfax:
Liberal MPs are seriously considering taking the extraordinary step of crossing the floor to legalise same-sex marriage before Christmas if the Coalition maintains its position that a plebiscite must be held on the issue.
The preference for moderate MPs is to use a private members’ bill drafted by Liberal senator Dean Smith as a trigger for the Liberal party room to drop its election commitment to a plebiscite and allow a free vote in Parliament.
But there is a growing expectation in the Coalition that if this fails, moderate MPs fed up with the lack of progress will take advantage of the close numbers in the House of Representatives to bring on a vote on same-sex marriage.
But is anyone listening? Turnbull spent several years doing nothing but swim in the loon pond. Perhaps this 11th hour volte face is real and perhaps it’s more politics. We’ll never know, it’s too late. From Newspoll:
And the fractiousness is killing the government, via The Guardian:
Federal Labor has extended its lead over the Turnbull government, and the prime minister’s disapproval rating is up four points in a month, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll.
The new opinion survey of 1,826 voters has Labor ahead of the Coalition on the two-party preferred measure, 54% to 46%.
The entrenched gap between the major parties appeared to narrow slightly in the weeks just after the May budget, but has widened again over the past fortnight – a time where rancorous internal divisions inside the government have been on full public display.
In March, Labor boasted a 10-point gap with the Coalition, but by the middle of June, the margin had narrowed to 52% to 48%. Last week, Labor led 53% to the government’s 47%, and this week the gap is 54% to 46%.
Same sex marriage is coming regardless now. Bravo.
