A Faint Heartbeat But No Brainwaves

ON Tuesday, I paid a few compliments to Peter Dutton because I thought he got some things right in his budget reply speech. Besides which, even for somebody who no longer has any confidence in the viability of the Liberal Party (a.k.a. the SFLs), harping exclusively on failures is wearing. Most importantly, he didn’t pretend to be the Great Man of History, sashaying on and off applause lines like poor old Noel Pearson doing his best Dr King. Playing the straight man comes naturally to the Opposition Leader and it may pay off when the Albanese go-cart crashes into reality. Last week, Mr Dutton also came out fighting against “renewable zealotry” and promised to repeal Labor’s energy industry regulations if returned to government. His no-nonsense statement on the confiscation of Calvary Public Hospital, plus the cactus kitty bounce in polls for the Chalmers budget, made it one of the better weeks for the Opposition since the election. Less optimistically, the LNP still doesn’t exhibit an understanding of the cultural and spiritual nature of a battle that they are, consequently, unfit to join. The same can be said of several supposed friends of the non-Labor cause. The worst is Chris Kenny. Alas, the white Stan Grant has been thinking again and wants “true conservatives” to save the Voice. Given how much of it he burns for light to ensorcell uninterested audiences, his gas bill must be heavenly. There can be no reversal on apartheid.

Regarding the battle, it isn’t enough to merely condemn the theft of a hospital; Mr Dutton must add the infamy to a bigger and coherent indictment of Labor’s hateful war on the presumption of innocence, religious liberty, property rights, free speech and conscience. And I don’t mean for one press release or one chat with Ray Hadley but as a perennial, thematically disciplined crusade. The disturbing state of the nation warrants nothing less. The compulsory acquisition of Calvary Public was long portended. Labor governments have either enacted – or are now drafting – bans on faith-determined hiring in religious schools and conscientious objection to both abortion and VAD homicide referrals in private hospitals. Insincerely fobbing off supporters with affected condemnations across disconnected news cycles – all the better to dodge the leftist Noise Machine and take cover in bread ‘n’ butter – has to stop. As John Pesutto found out yesterday, the choice for Liberal officers is clear-cut: either fight the enemy or accept the time-honoured fate of a collaborator.

The fact that Mr Dutton’s ad hoc reaction to the slandering of Moira Deeming pandered to fed-up conservatives and Mr Pesutto’s action against her to leftist wets doesn’t make the former any more strategically gainful. Consistency is what matters. Recollect that in March Mr Dutton was himself traduced as a Nazi sympathiser by sleazeball Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus. Instead of citing the ALP’s orchestrated assault on Christian institutions as a better match for fascism, the Opposition Leader proudly extolled his longstanding contempt for right-wing extremists – none of whom are as dangerous to our “way of life” as even one Labor health minister forcing hospitals to kill people. By the time Melbourne’s untraceable “Nazis” marched on stage again, the initiative had been lost. The gun-shy Mr Dutton dutifully made the 2020s Motherhood Statement par excellence: “How on Earth anybody in their right mind could take up the Nazi cause or wave that flag or salute in a way that a monster taught them to salute is beyond me.” Also beyond him was hitting miscreant Daniel Andrews for waving a ‘pride’ flag and inviting groomers to the Victorian parliament to use children as sex props to taunt the cons. I will give Kevin Rudd this: he braved a hornet’s nest to speak up for children’s innocence. Opportunities abound for the Opposition but few are taken. Two stars out of five, then. Like I said, a good week by Liberal standards.