Zero seats for the Liberal Party

The Liberal Party deserves zero seats at the next election.

Zero, zilch, nada, nothing.

There is no amount of bitterness that cannot be expressed over Andrew Hastie’s shocking-but-somewhat-predictable vote in favour of the hate speech laws, which are unprecedented in Australian law, if not all law across the Anglosphere.

And with this latest betrayal even Facebook boomers are getting sick of the Liberal lies, and Hastie’s video trying to explain away his backflip has been inundated with thousands of comments calling him a “sell-out” and much worse.

Economist John Adams said on his Telegram page after sharing a text message exchange with an unnamed Liberal parliamentarian who was defending Hastie: “These people are completely fucked. Throw them out … all of them. They are a complete waste of space.”

Combined with an ever-rising median age for Liberal Party members (72 in Queensland, 68 in Victoria), this is by far the best case of the containment right demolishing itself.

It also helps knowing that Facebook’s algorithms have been pumping out posts from every senator and MP who supported the gun buybacks and the hate speech bill, with the majority of reactions being laughs or anger.

The greatest redemption has, in fact, gone to Barnaby Joyce. I believe he would be better served re-contesting New England in the lower house rather than heading the One Nation ticket for NSW in 2028, but it was fantastic to see him standing for free speech when Hastie could not.

Hastie does not deserve to become PM and in the words of the late Labor leader Bill Hayden, “a drover’s dog could win the next election”. The Liberals don’t deserve your vote, nor does Nationals leader David Littleproud, whose MPs abstained in the lower house.

So in 2028, make this pledge:

You will not give your first preference to anyone unless they commit to abolishing the gun buyback and the hate speech bill.

You will not give your second preference to anyone unless they commit to abolishing the gun buyback and the hate speech bill.

You will not give your third preference to anyone unless they commit to abolishing the gun buyback and the hate speech bill.

And so on.

We may soon see innocent, hardworking men and women thrown in prison for arbitrary reasons, like in the UK. Those caught doing Hitler salutes, or with Nazi memorabilia or tattoos were the first to be persecuted. Next will come those who criticise immigration or those in power a little too vigorously.

Australia, for all intents and purposes, is no longer a liberal democracy. And this is not the illiberalism of Hungary, an illiberalism that defends national heritage and the citizenry, but an illiberalism which is the logical consequence of the paradox of intolerance. To be intolerant to intolerance, in a climate of whipped-up hysteria, requires extra-legal and extrajudicial means to prevent the subjective disruption of “social cohesion”.

The tragedy of 15 deaths at Bondi does not justify this, anymore than the threat of grandmothers dying from the sniffles justified the Covid vaccine mandates or lockdowns.

And the Liberals cannot claim they are “finding the right balance” between freedom of speech and national security, because such a balance no longer exists.

There is no standard that can be used to safeguard legitimate criticism of the government. There is no standard that can be used to safeguard legitimate concerns over immigration. There is simply no standard left.

The Andrew Hastie fans are going to receive the rudest awakening come 2028. If Hastie is re-elected after this total farce, let it be known to the world that this law will remain an albatross around his neck and that of the Liberal Party and its ever-decreasing circle of members and supporters.

They cannot talk about “Labor’s mess” when they showed near-unanimous support for speech laws that have no place in a liberal democracy.

Say it with me, from now until 2028:

Zero seats.

Zero seats.

Zero seats.

Zero seats.

Header image: Sussan Ley with former prime ministers Scott Morrison and John Howard at a Bondi massacre memorial (Facebook).

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