It’s uncontroversial to say that the Liberal/National coalition is more often than not a pale imitation of the Labor/Green coalition.
It’s like Australians are regularly being asked to choose between Coke branded cola and a homebrand imitation, and are simply left uninspired by what’s effectively “Labor Lite”.
It was allegedly right-of-centre, Liberal Party “leaders” who first marched in the Pride [in sin] Parade and rushed to profane marriage in law before Labor could. They serially, utterly failed to protect the essential freedom of people with a conscience wanting to hire people who share their religious convictions, or criticise men in dresses with bad hair demanding access to little girls in women’s toilets.
It was often state Liberal Party “leaders” who liberalised abortion at any stage for any reason and slammed the door shut on even the possibility of debating – for years – the harm to women and children by that industry.
The coalition has for decades now, until very recently, displayed no leadership on “net zero” let alone the fiscal responsibility achieved by the Howard/Anderson government. The traditional brand distinctive that the economy will always be better under the LNP coalition is now unconvincing.
You don’t need me to continue listing the parade of beige which leaves all but rusted on Lib/Nat voters abandoning them, so it was refreshing to read Susssan Ley has vowed to dump recognition of Palestine when Australians return her party to government.
It’s the first major Liberal policy announcement since the federal election, and draws welcome, sharp distinctions between the right wing coalition and the left wing coalition.
Of course, Israel has longed for neighbours who recognise their legitimate statehood instead of labelling them pejoratively as “the Zionist entity” and living for little more than seeing Jews ethnically cleansed “from the River to the Sea”.
Of course, a “state” run by internationally recognised, literal terrorists which has never ever existed can’t be morally recognised and legitimised – certainly not before they are completely demilitarised and the security of their neighbours is absolutely guaranteed.
Of course, statehood was previously offered to the Muslim Arabs in the Levant at the same time the world miraculously agreed the Jews needed their own national homeland in 1946.
Having been occupied by imperialist colonisers constantly since Ancient Rome invaded until the English and French Empires defeated the occupying but disinterested Ottoman Empire in World War I, there was never a time when there wasn’t a continual presence of at least some Jews in the Holy Land.
After crushing the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 AD, the Romans deliberately erased Jewish national identity from the region by renaming Judea and Samaria (and the surrounding territory) to Syria Palaestina. The term “Palaestina” came from Philistia, referencing the ancient Philistines — traditional enemies of Israel from the Aegean and Mediterranean region long wiped out — as a form of humiliation.
The Jews have never had any other national homeland than the Holy Land, and no other nation has ever called the Levant their national homeland. Israel is the only nation in the world that occupies the same land, speaks the same language and practices the same religion as they did 3,000 years ago.
“Palestine” was never the name of a sovereign state, but a geographic or administrative label, such as the British “Mandate for Palestine”, which included modern Israel and Jordan. Realistically, Jordan was the first part of a “two state solution”, and has been since 1922.
There was no such thing as “Palestinians” before the last century as a distinct ethnicity, but only as a reference in Western writings to anyone living in that geographic area, including Jews and Christians.
Golda Meir, an Israeli Prime Minister, had a British-issued, Palestinian passport. The Palestine Post was a Jewish newspaper, and the Palestinian Philharmonic was Jewish-run. Arabs in the region typically called themselves Syrians or Southern Syrians up until the 1930s.
It was Yasser Arafat, the terrorist leader and deceitful scoundrel who willfully sabotaged peace as often as he could, who popularised “Palestinian” as a distinct national identity on the world stage.
That anti-Israel, terrorist propaganda become mainstream misinformation, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is eating it up (as useful idiots do with Marxist agendas they unwittingly support).
Even as the genocidal, Islamic terrorists congratulate Prime Minister Albanese on his “moral courage” – a kiss of death in God’s eyes, surely – he claims to be frustrating them by agreeing to recognition without even demanding the release of the innocent hostages they still torture.
So for the federal Liberal Party leader to draw a line in the sand and boldly declare the party will do the exact opposite of Labor, and for once undo the damage of a Labor government in at least one policy area, is not only the obviously moral and true course of action – it is uncommonly bold of a Liberal Party leader in the last decade.
And that really is the point of this opinion piece – that right of centre voters in Australia and every state therein deserve constant brand differentiation.
We deserve more than cheap cola. We deserve a distinctly different, thirst quenching alternative to “progressive”, politically correct, economically reckless, morally craven policies to vote for – from a party with an actual chance at forming government.
Yet to all the readers agreeing furiously with me about insipid policy leadership, consider this.
Is it entirely fair to blame the Liberal leaders for failing to lead when we know political parties are nearly empty of members compared to 50 years ago, a time when we had half the population of today? Is it fair to bitterly complain about the darkness when we’ve removed our light?
What we know is that Australian coalition policies are heavily poll-driven; the leaders merely follow the crowd from the front and call it “leadership”. That accurate description of the problem is also the key to the solution.
We have to show up: join the party, participate in the life of the party and help them beat the party of death, debt and family destruction. We have to be actively involved in saving the party by supporting the best of them, instead of abandoning them and wondering why the good guys keep getting mere scraps at the table of government.
We do deserve better than homebrand cola, but only we will ever deliver it in more than spoonfuls here and there.
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Dave Pellowe is a Christian political educator & writer who gives priority of philosophy to God’s Word. He founded Church And State ministries in 2016, which has grown to include annual teaching conferences in Canberra, Brisbane, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Hobart and regional Australia by invitation.
Specialising in what God says about complex ethical and social issues, Dave Pellowe is a sought after guest speaker at churches, Christian schools, TV, radio and podcast interviews and other secular and Christian forums where love of Truth and nonpartisan thinking are valued. [more]
