If the Liberals won’t oppose, why should anyone vote for them?

South Australia proves what happens when a party forgets what it stands for!

The Liberal Party’s reaction to the smashing they received at the weekend in South Australia tells you everything you need to know about why they were smashed…and will continue being smashed.

After the electoral bruising in South Australia, the Liberal Party has comforted itself with a familiar bedtime story, that the surge for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation is merely a protest vote.

Nothing to see here move along, voters are just having a little tantrum.

But voters don’t “decimate” a party by accident, they do it when they’ve had enough.

An opposition has one job, to oppose, to offer different ideas, different priorities and, dare I say it, a different vision.

Instead what have we seen? A political photocopier set permanently to “Labor Lite.”

And not even a crisp copy, more like a faded smudged version of the original.

Why would any voter choose a watered down imitation when they can have the real thing?

If you want Labor you vote Labor. If you want something else well apparently that option hasn’t been available for quite some time in South Australia…or in Victoria…or in NSW…or federally.

When was the last time the Liberals seriously cut taxes?

When did they take a clear stand on cultural issues rather than nervously checking the latest opinion poll?

When did they lead instead of follow?

Since John Howard left the stage the party has wandered, aimless, uncertain, and increasingly irrelevant.

And now instead of confronting their own failures, the Liberals sneer at Pauline Hanson and her voters.

It’s easier of course than admitting the truth.

The problem isn’t One Nation. And the problem isn’t protest votes. The problem is them.

Senator Ralph Babet, Senator for Victoria, United Australia Party.