“Angus Taylor faces this choice: lead the Liberals and himself to irrelevance, or lead all of us with an evidence-based vision for a great future,” writes columnist HUGH SELBY. 

Our Nation is in a rut. Where are we sharing and discussing big ideas? What big ideas? That’s the point. It doesn’t have to be that way. It mustn’t stay that way.

Where are the policies that will ensure worthwhile lives for our children? 

It’s perplexing that when the educational level in Australia is the highest it has ever been, there is a dearth of announced policies that are backed up with sound evidence and subject to widespread discussion.

We are plied with problems but not solutions.

Every day we are told of yet another advance by AI, advances that wipe out jobs.

Every night we are reminded that the weather is changing, that we have to be prepared for harsher conditions – and that’s wherever we live and work.

Every week we are told of failures by governments to manage their spending, to prioritise the funded projects to achieve an affordable improvement for the greatest number. 

Month by month we are told that home ownership is even more of a dream, that building starts are not keeping pace with demand.

It is not a surprise that the fringe party of fear, resentment and discord – let’s not give them the indulgence of repeating the falsity inherent in their name – has rising approval.

What is surprising is that anybody is surprised. Fear is always a potent political poison. When hope is ephemeral then fear pollutes every discussion.

PM Anthony Albanese doesn’t offer hope, except for mates. Our local megadebtor’s idea of hope is his next funded overseas trip.

The local opposition – I think they call themselves “liberals” – offer no hope. 

Which leaves the new boy from the other side of Lake George, Angus Taylor – farmer, economist, business consultant, and now leader of what little is left of the Liberal Party.

What goes around comes around

The Liberal Country coalition was a broad church of interests when Labor was in a self-imposed wilderness. Remember the Labor split, gifting Menzies the childhood and teenage years of the post-war generation.

But ideas were not the Liberal forte. Gough offered a swag of new policies and we, the baby boomers (and many of our parents) jumped at them. 

Can Farmer Angus lead the Liberals out of the wilderness? Put in its simplest terms: can he lead?

Take immigration policy – it can be framed around “keeping people out” or “letting the right people in”. 

When divisiveness and a skills shortage co-exist then both perceptions must be acknowledged. 

As far back as 1993, Ian Macphee, who had been a minister in Fraser’s government, endorsed Colin Rubenstein’s remarks that: “The Fraser approach promoted multiculturalism based on the view that national cohesion is best attained through acceptance of, and pride in, diversity within the framework of shared Australian core values: the rule of law, the values of tolerance, harmony and free speech and the importance of facility in the English language.” 

Come forward to early 2025 when he is described as, “Macphee was a true liberal in the classic sense – someone who believed in individual rights, social justice, and evidence-based policymaking.”

Angus Taylor faces this choice: lead the Liberals and himself to irrelevance, or lead all of us with an evidence-based vision for a great future. 

It’s only a few years since Lake George was dry. Now it’s an attractive haven for a wide variety of birds. It’s a symbol of changing fortunes. It should inspire him as he travels the road.

His audience are the voters at the next election and the one after that, voters who need to know what he stands for, how his team when elected will build their dreams.

He can seize the momentum by turning to the young to develop policies that resonate with their futures. 

He is reported as saying that housing and cost of living are issues for the coming byelection for the seat vacated by his former leader. No one is going to gainsay that claim.

But what are his answers to these problems?

• How is he going to tailor immigration and learn-to-speak-English programs to attract skilled trades from overseas?

• What is he going to do to ensure that we not only train enough world-class tradies but keep them at the forefront of trade skills?

• What are his plans to keep local talent in the sciences and engineering here, rather than losing them to overseas?

• What suggestions does he have for public financing beyond taxation that will attract investment in our future by the average citizen?

• What is his approach to ensure that those employed now, and those wanting to enter the job market over this next decade, will have the education and skills to ensure that they are the beneficiaries, not the victims, of the AI revolution?

He can develop attractive answers to those questions by enlisting social media, AI, and the internet meeting tools. 

Rather than spin merchants and merchants of doom and gloom he needs to have around him people who are on the cutting edge of public communication. 

He must sow cohesion and vision, not divisiveness and rancour. The harvest will be rich.

Rather than waste time competing with Barnaby Joyce he should make him and his co-haters irrelevant. Replace fear with hope.

Regardless of whether we agree with him or not, our democracy is on shaky ground. Without a vibrant, articulate, well-led opposition we are not much different from one-party states where accountability and transparency do not exist.

You think that’s an overstatement? Look around you at the embedded misgovernance of the ACT.

I hope Angus Taylor succeeds in picking up the pieces, learning from history, and being a leader for our times. I have that hope for all our sakes.

Hugh Selby is a CityNews columnist.