An opinion piece published by The Australian on 10 October 2025

I’ve always admired Paul Kelly. He is one of our nation’s most astute and fair journalists. But his recent column in The Australian cannot be left uncontested (Conservative push will doom Libs to division and failure, 8/10).

I agree with Kelly that the Liberal Party is in an existential crisis and “political parties must renew or die”. But I respectfully disagree with some of his diagnoses.

I don’t believe Australia has moved “decisively to the left”. Yes, Labor did win a significant 94 seats at the last election, assisted by preferential voting. But don’t be mistaken: a primary vote of 34 per cent is no ringing endorsement from the Australian people. Australia is not left, centrist or right. It’s simply a country where everyday Australians want the best for their families, their communities and their nation.

The election of May 3 was less about a victorious Labor Party. Rather, it was more about a Coalition failure. We lost our nerve to prosecute policies of difference from Labor. And the lesson is clear, as it has been on so many occasions at a federal and state level: we need to stop being a Labor-lite party. Whenever the Liberals become “Labor in blue” we lose elections because Australians are offered no choice at all. And we must offer a clear distinction from Labor.

Kelly lamented that the Liberals are “increasingly divorced from the centres of cultural and opinion-forming power”. He cites the universities, professional classes, corporate sector, the climate change lobby, the arts community, public broadcasters, professional women and ethnic communities, among others.

I believe that on the contrary, too many Liberals have become captive to identity politics and are worried about appeasing narrow and sectional interests. Imagine what would have happened if a few of us hadn’t led the charge against the democracy-damaging voice. Australia would now be divided by race. Disappointingly, at the last election we walked away from good policies because we were too afraid to stand up to sectional interests.

In 1974, Sir Robert Menzies wrote to his daughter warning about “Liberals with a small l … who believe in nothing but … still believe in anything if they think it worth a few votes”.

If the Liberals are to win the hearts and minds of Australians again, we must reject identity politics and pandering to sectional interests, and instead elevate the debate by refocusing on what unites us: family, community and nation. And we must relentlessly prosecute policies that appeal to, and benefit, Australian families, communities and the nation.

Andrew Hastie and I have been characterised as populist or populist conservatives. We are said to have radical agendas. Often those on the left characterise any victory on their side as the democratic will of the people. Too often when there is a win on the right, as there was in the US, or a swing to the right, as we are seeing with Reform UK in Britain, the left characterises it as populist in a pejorative sense. The truth is that any leader who wins the majority vote of the people is a populist – be it Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Bob Hawke or John Howard.

Echoing similar sentiments to Arthur Sinodinos, Kelly suggested “the right-wing fringe looks abroad for inspiration” and that the populist conservatives take “a hard line on culture wars”. Others have described us as far right, even extreme right, and culture warriors and Trumpian, throwing this mud in the hope it will stick.

But, really, what is extreme or radical about wanting cheap and reliable energy? What’s extreme or radical about wanting sustainable levels of migration? Or wanting Australia to re-industrialise?

And on the last point, how many more pandemics, conflicts or other global shocks must occur before we recognise that the world has changed. In tougher and more dangerous times, Australia must become more resourceful, self-reliant and resilient in critical areas that have been exposed by vulnerable supply chains.

It is not a culture war to oppose the economically crippling nonsense of net zero. Neither is it a culture war to want to see our children educated instead of indoctrinated. Or to stand against freedom-eroding big government.

Frankly, all these false labels have become the cliched catchcries of the censorious and the uncourageous. And Australians can see through this cheap tactic.

Hastie and I, like other members of the Coalition, receive thousands of messages each week from everyday Australians and we meet so many in person. And their messages are clear: End net zero; restore cheap energy; bring back industry; make businesses boom; stop mass migration; build family homes; end big government; return our freedom; cease classroom indoctrination; teach the basics; lift defence spending; deter communist China; revive national pride; and recover our unity.

I sincerely believe the Liberal Party is salvageable – provided we engage in the battle of ideas and don’t simply sail with the prevailing winds, especially when one can see those winds steering us into a storm.

This demands we take principled policy positions quickly, instead of being hamstrung by prolonged fence-sitting and trying to stand for everything, and provided we mount persuasive arguments to back those policies.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price is a senator for the Northern Territory.

Friday, 10 October 2025