Mon, 10. September 2018
Goodbye Liberal Party
You, the Liberal Party, are in free fall following the forced resignation of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. You have gone from 49.5% to 44% in two weeks and have just lost a NSW by-election with an astonishing 28% drop in first preference vote.
You are on the nose and even my support, which dates back forty-seven years, has finally evaporated.
I cannot support a Liberal Party which no longer resembles the party of which I was once an active member, office bearer and staunch campaigner (1971 to 1986).
I cannot support a Liberal Party which has forgotten its own guiding principles and whose dwindling party base is so out of touch with modern society.
I cannot support a Liberal Party which has become so dominated by aggressive, quarrelsome and uncompromising ultra-conservatives.
I cannot support a Liberal Party which panders to extremism and features militant hard-liners like Tony Abbott, Peter Dutton, Kevin Andrews and Eric Abetz.
I cannot support a Liberal Party which continues to be wracked with simmering internal warfare.
I cannot support a Liberal Party which allows itself to be owned by mega-mouth media celebrities like Jones, Hadley and Bolt.
I cannot support a Liberal Party which, for ten years, opposed and destroyed proactive measures against carbon emissions - one of the biggest threats our civilisation has to face.
I cannot support a Liberal Party which does not demand tough compliance from religious institutions regarding child abuse.
I cannot support a Liberal Party which believes in "minimised interference in our daily lives" but tried to tell people who to marry.
I cannot support a Liberal Party which permitted bullying and interference with the rights of its own parliamentarians to a secret vote and allowed factional bosses to demand to be shown party room private ballot papers.
I cannot support a Liberal Party which promotes religious exemptions from anti-discrimination laws.
I cannot support a Liberal Party which has a problem with women and a problem with gays.
I cannot support a Liberal Party which ignores its own basic principle of "equal opportunity for all Australians".
I cannot support a Liberal Party which, despite promoting multiculturalism, has a problem with secularism and puts narrow religious affiliations ahead of the common good.
I cannot support a Liberal Party which viciously destroyed Malcolm Turnbull, and afterwards could provide no reason for doing so.
I cannot support a Liberal Party which dumped its own Prime Minister, who had governed well and was in a good position to win the next election.
I cannot support a Liberal Party which, despite a small parliamentary majority put personal agendas and revenge ahead of party unity.
I cannot support a Liberal Party which allows a maverick ex-Prime Minister to "wreck, undermine and snipe" without discipline, sanction or even admonishment.
I cannot support a Liberal Party which dabbled with electing as Prime Minister a man who's eligibility to sit in Parliament was in doubt at the time.
I cannot support a Liberal Party whose Pentecostal leader seems unlikely to govern for all Australians.
I cannot support a Liberal Party which locks asylum seekers up for years.
I cannot support a Liberal Party which abandons the middle ground.
There's probably more........
I've voted for you at every State and Federal election since 1971, with only one exception.
I have liberal principles and you've abandoned yours.
Goodbye!