Liberal leaders slam 'right wing campaign groups' then debate gender ideology

Liberal leaders slam ‘right wing campaign groups’ then debate gender ideology motions

LNP tied in knots

Prior to (literally) flying herself into Canberra for this week’s parliamentary sitting week, Liberal leader Sussan Ley was in Brisbane for the Queensland Liberal National Party’s state conference. 

There, she pleaded for the party to reflect modern Australia. 

“We must modernise,” she said. “We must broaden our appeal. We must reflect the country we seek to govern. We must never lose sight of our values.” 

The state conference also heard from Queensland Liberal Premier David Crisafulli, who urged the party’s membership base to avoid controversial issues, and described how a “plethora of well-meaning, right-wing campaign groups” as eroding the party’s national vote.

 “The more we tried to appease them, the further we got from the middle ground of Australian politics, who shifted their vote elsewhere.” 

And yet, some of the key issues up for debate over the weekend included a debate on banning gender-affirming care for children, as well as repealing a ban on conversion practices, according to The Guardian.

There were also conversations on whether “batteries, solar panels and wind turbines” should be deemed as “renewables”.

All up, there were seven separate motions referencing the term “gender ideology”. 

The conference also saw Liberals and Nationals endorsing nuclear power, despite many arguing that it contributed to the significant drop in Coalition vote. 

On Friday, Queensland LNP voted to urge the Coalition to abandon support for net zero altogether, following a similar motion that passed the WA Liberal party State Council in July.

On the Federal stage in Canberra this week, the extremes of the party will be on full display as Barnaby Joyce’s bill to dump net zero gets debated in the House. It comes as new polling today finds that 44 per cent of Australians would support a more ambitious target for reducing carbon emissions by 2035. Just 18 per cent of those polled oppose stretching the target further.

Ley is hoping to see the Coalition modernise and move on, but so far it’s struggled to transcend gender ideology issues that dominate the debate spaces it presents. It can’t move on from ideas Australians have categorically rejected — such as nuclear power — nor will it move on from the climate wars that have so disastrously destroyed its voter base, particularly in metropolitan areas.

The Coalition lost five seats in Queensland, including the seat of its leader, Peter Dutton (who told the weekend’s conference he was “too old” to consider a political comeback). At the state level, the LNP’s victory in the 2024 state election came nowhere close to previous expectations of the party dominating the vote, largely thanks to seeing issues around repealing abortion dominating much of the debate. It’s telling that a fierce anti-abortion campaigner, Susanna Damianopoulos, was elected president of the LNP Women’s branch. Damianpoloulos was a former Amanda Stoker staffer, and candidate for Springwood during the state election. Now president, she will take a spot on the powerful LNP state executive.

So while leaders claim a determination to “modernise”, they’re unable to move past key issues and egos determined to get their agendas debated and heard — regardless of the further damage is done to their broader party.


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