#TO BE BARKED BY THE LIBERAS PLUS#
#TO BE BARKED BY THE LIBERAS PROFESSIONAL#

That is a very clear message.”Īmid the electoral carnage, a “a pox on both your houses” mood was also, paradoxically, hurting victorious Labor, albeit less severely. He added that gender was “clearly a factor” and “in every seat, the Liberal Party has lost to a female candidate. Ramming the point home, Birmingham referred to a “contagion” effect. Referring to the party’s loss of the seat of North Sydney, which is located next to Warringah, where Deves ran a campaign featuring criticism of transgender athletes engaging in female sporting events, Birmingham said figures such as defeated Liberal moderate Trent Zimmerman in North Sydney were “being punished by association”. He called for the Liberal Party to show “respect for inclusion and diversity”. In an unmistakable reference to the last-minute selection of hard-line Liberal candidates in NSW, including Katherine Deves in Warringah, enforced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Senator Birmingham acknowledged there had been “process breakdowns right across the board, and clear mistakes were made. “There are issues that we will have to clearly address and we have to have candidates that clearly understand those issues.” Labor ‘s primary vote fell below one third, was almost four per cent behind the Coalition Parties’ primary vote, and has relied on Green, other minor party and independent candidate preferences to wrest power from the Coalition for the fourth time since World War Two.Īs results came in, outgoing Finance Minister and SA Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham commented on the ABC: “There is clearly a big message and winning government without those seats (like Wentworth, Warringah, North Sydney, Higgins, Goldstein, Kooyong and Curtin) is a next-to-impossible task. However, it is important not to over-cook the election result egg. In an election result that took on the appearance of 151 by-elections, or at least six separate federal elections broadly covering the six states, the result was marked by the dramatic shift towards independents and Green candidates, while the Coalition Liberal and National Parties performed better in outer suburbs, regional and rural areas. However, for the Coalition, and the Liberal Party in particular, Saturday night proved to be a reckoning. At the same time, Morrison was not helped by adopting what he recently acknowledged was a “bulldozer” approach to government – one necessitated, he claimed, by the pandemic-generated crisis of the past two years.

#TO BE BARKED BY THE LIBERAS PROFESSIONAL#

It is one where affluent, professional voters, particularly women, are placing issues such as climate change, integrity in government, and respect for women, above more bread and butter concerns such as the economy. But on Saturday night the Scott Morrison-led Liberal Party was pole-axed by a tectonic shift in Australian politics. It was an entirely different political landscape back in 1944 when Robert Menzies formed the Liberal Party, and Menzies’ creation went on to hold power in the national parliament for 51 of the next 78 years. Similar inroads by the Greens in Labor and Liberal-held seats in Brisbane have seen the number of lower house cross-bench MPs explode from six to a probable 15. The bulk of these seats in Victoria, NSW and WA have been won by so- called ‘teal’ independents – highly credentialled female candidates who nominate climate change as their number one priority in an era of devastating floods and bushfires.

#TO BE BARKED BY THE LIBERAS PLUS#

Huge swings, ranging from 5 per cent to 13 per cent, were recorded in the Liberal Party’s traditional crown jewel seats – Kooyong, which was Menzies’ old electorate, plus Higgins, Goldstein, Wentworth, Mackellar, North Sydney and Curtin.

If the latter scenario occurs, Liberal historian Ian Hancock fears a “bloodbath” will take place in the Liberal Party. What is less clear as counting resumes is whether Labor will form a minority government with some cross-bench support, or just fall over the line with 76 out of 151 lower house seats. Just hours into post-election vote-counting, it was clear the Coalition had lost government, and the Liberal Party had been decimated in its own heartland. Saturday’s election result has plunged Robert Menzies’ Liberal Party into an existential crisis.

To be barked by the liberas