Since the recent election there’s a lot of commentary saying the Liberal party needs to reconsider its policies and re-align with its core values which, when enumerated sound very centrist.
I just watched ABC’s q&a, there was a few interesting points. There was a strong consensus that Trump style culture wars are toxic in Australian politics, and that it’s unlikely future candidates would take that route.
I don’t want to gloat infront of the seppos, but I think what’s happening during this aftermath is very salient for all of those “both sides are bad” Americans.
In October last year there seemed to be a lot of users saying that they didn’t want to reward the dems with their vote, and that the only way to communicate with the party was to withhold their vote.
I think what’s happening right now in Australia demonstrates the importance of voting.
Labor might not be left enough for you personally, but each time the libs are defeated they need to move to the left to be viable, and Labor will have to move further left to differentiate themselves. That is to say, the spectrum of acceptable opinions is moving to the left in an observable manner, right now.
Ilandar@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
I’m not sure that’s actually how it works in Australian politics, though. Because the major parties are campaigning for the votes of politically disinterested people, they don’t need to be ideologically distinct from one another. A campaign where they essentially buy votes through micro-targeted policies suits both of them.
I don’t necessarily think that’s accurate either, at least not based on what the major parties are doing. Generationally it might be true (millennials aren’t moving right as quickly as previous generations), but so far the Coalition has made no attempt to move back towards the centre (and might not even do it after this election) so Labor is under very little pressure in that sense.
null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Votes from politically disinterested people are only part of the picture. One of the reasons liberals weren’t viable is because their base is dying off.
They need to gather up new dedicated voters somehow, and all the commentary is saying they need to move away from conservative policies like nuclear.
We will see what emerges in the coming days. I’m expecting a leader who is more palettable to the left than Dutton was.
Ilandar@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
From what I understand, the only people contesting it are Angus Taylor (from the right faction) and Sussan Ley (whose positioning seems debatable). Neither seem like particularly great options, though. The moderate faction seems to have been decimated, even at the membership level. From Crikey:
It doesn’t sound like they actually have many options left if they want to lead the party back towards the centre in the short-term, and getting wiped out of major cities isn’t going to help that either.