From rabble to rubble

Back in 2014, as the Victorian Liberals limped and stumbled towards their November defeat at the polls, James Allan wrote at Quadrant Online about the problems that cursed them then and still:

… the party was given the chance by the pre-selection battle for the seat of Hawthorn to bring in new blood — the IPA’s John Roskam — but opted instead for John Pesutto, Premier Denis Napthine’s legal adviser and a consummate insider. 

Given a choice, the prize went to  the connected candidate who worked his way up through the party hierarchy.  The safe choice. The insider’s choice. 

The party shunned the outsider who brought the evident promise of principles and convictions to the table — and this is tragically typical behaviour on the part of a party now facing the very real prospect of utter defeat in November’s election…

Well here we are, nine wasted years later in Victoria and having endured the unhampered march of the Andrews gang’s corruption.  Pesutto, the “consummate insider”, is running the opposition  show, sort of,  while the Premier continues to debase every civic institution that comes within his grasp, from the public service to police and the courts.

Meanwhile, as attested by the Liberals’ leaked party room minutes in regard to Moira Deeming, reproduced in full today by The Australian, principle and conviction remain foreign concepts to all but a relative few. As Jim Allan concluded in 2014:

Isn’t it sad when the only reason you can think to vote for one side is that the other side is worse. So the Coalition won’t lift a finger on free speech, but Labor is worse. The Coalition caucus is full of too many insiders and party hacks, but Labor is worse. The Coalition let Mr. Ballieu leave in place the awful Charter of Rights, but Labor may well try to extend it.

— roger franklin