CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
The Federal Opposition is this week shifting their election messaging, as polls numbers show it is now statistically impossible for the Liberals to achieve a majority government.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has launched a furious attack on Parliament’s cross bench, as reports emerged that several more Coalition seat could be at risk of falling to an independent candidate.
Dutton has warned a Labor minority government backed by the Greens and Independents would be a “disaster” for the economy, and that Australians should instead look towards the stability of a right-wing government that is made up of four different parties that are welded together with increasingly different agendas and historic rivalries.
“I just think when it comes to the whole Teal movement, the whole thing’s a con job. And that’s why people are now seeing through the Teals, they’re Greens in disguise,” he said.
Dutton isn’t the only Coalition figures that has begun parroted the Murdoch media’s terminology by describing the local Independent MPs as ‘Teals’ – which is a term used to describe the mix of green environmentalism and Liberal blue economics.
Over the last two elections, the Liberal Party has lost seven lower house seats and a senate position to the Independent candidates. As the Liberal Party lurches further to the right in an attempt to imitate US President Donald Trump’s brand of shock factor populism, this election could see that number increase to over ten.
However, it seems the Liberal’s younger rural brothers in the National Party will be wearing the brunt of voter dissent, as several regional electorates look almost certain to ditch their local MPs for independent local members.
This will likely cause yet another rift between the Nats and the Liberals, who are starting to realise that the Liberal Party is damaging their vote in the bush. The Queensland based LNP and the Northern Territory based CLP are also growing frustrated.
With absolutely no answers as to why the popularity of Independents continues to grow, the Liberal Party is now instead attempting to run scare campaigns about what will happen if any one but them form a ‘Coalition’.
