Liberals lurch right to oblivion

The NSW Liberal Party’s lurch to the right comes at its own peril, prominent and socially progressive members say, expressing concern about branch stacking from religious right elements.

Former leaders and strategists lined up in the post-mortem of last week’s resounding state election defeat to explain what went wrong.

Former opposition leader John Hewson told The 7:30 Report that the hardline religious right now control the party.

And former Liberal strategist Ian Kortlang scoffed at the prime minister’s notion that the party was a broad church.

Maybe they’re for gay marriage, maybe they’re for bringing home Hicks early, but they can still be Liberals and those people don’t really have a home now, he said.

Sydney councillor Shayne Mallard told Sydney Star Observer the religious right would only hurt itself by shutting out the social progressives in the party.

If either side becomes so dominant that the other side becomes untenable in the party, it will result in the party being unelectable, he said.

I hope that those who are conservative, and I note there’s many of them, respect the fact that there are differing views on some social issues while having similar views on economic issues.

Mallard said it was increasingly difficult to keep social liberals in the party.

There has to be a role for candidates to push for issues like gay reform and the republic, but people become concerned and disengaged. One side dominates so much in the party, they feel disenfranchised, they feel their role is not recognised or adequately acknowledged.

Mallard acknowledged that preselections in the past have been more progressive, with the current candidates reflecting the strengths of the conservative element within the party.

But Mallard said the increasing influence of the religious right wasn’t limited to the Liberal Party.

The ALP has the same struggles in terms of the progressive and conservative wings. The ALP is incredibly conservative compared to the progressive wing of the party.

One of the great strengths of the Liberal Party is the right to cross the floor; you saw them allowing a conscience vote on safe injecting rooms, age of consent, property relationship amendments.

Liberal councillor for Randwick, Bruce Notley-Smith, agreed there was a place for gay members and their supporters in the party.

Of course there’s going to be those who are homophobic within the Liberal Party as there are in the Labor Party, but are they the majority in the Liberal Party? Definitely not.

Not once in the 11 years I’ve been in the party has anyone been outwardly homophobic towards me. There’s a lot of economically hard-right gay people who are also socially progressive and should belong in the party. For every one that does, it has a little more impact on policy position.

Notley-Smith said he wasn’t concerned about the numbers of the religious right in the party, but how they used those numbers.

Certainly there has been an increase in the social conservatives in the Liberal Party. I’m more concerned about how they’re preselected if it’s the result of conservative branch stacking, he said.

The best candidates reflect the community they’re representing and can accommodate the diversity in the community.

The constituency in NSW is fairly socially progressive and, if the party doesn’t reflect that, we’re going to be unelectable.

Even if the party continued under the leadership of right-aligned Peter Debnam, Notley-Smith said he believed the trauma of passing gay reforms was a thing of the past.

I would hope now that the age of consent bill was carried and it’s a reality, he’d see the sky hasn’t fallen and huge cracks haven’t occurred in the earth, that’s he’s re-evaluated his position, he said.

Perennial deputy and moderate Barry O’Farrell announced he would challenge Debnam for the leadership, which, if successful, would push the religious right out of every leadership position.

Meantime, on the other side of the ideological spectrum, the Greens increased their presence in the upper house to four members.

The Greens also gained a slight swing in the seats of Balmain and Marrickville, but not enough to pull either seat from Labor.

The member for Marrickville, Carmel Tebbutt, resigned from the cabinet on Monday citing the need to spend more time with her young son.

And Clover Moore strengthened her primary vote in the seat of Sydney.