Sunday 19th of April 2026
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falling back to its default political policy.....

The Liberal Party, battling an extreme version of itself — One Nation — has again fallen back to its default political policy: racism.

Angus Taylor, announcing a policy at primary odds with an immigrant nation, says a Liberal government under his leadership will adopt Trump ICE-style policies to weed and ‘boot out’ people who fail to adhere to ‘national values’ and who are responsible for the erosion of national culture including the Balkanisation of communities.

 

Paul Keating

Angus Taylor and the Liberal Party’s moral decline

 

And, to hammer the point, sitting beside Taylor at his policy launch was Mr Racial Opportunism himself; John Winston Howard, late of anti-Asian migration in 1988 – the picket fence suburban racism of his first round as Liberal leader, and the wilful anti-humanitarianism of his electorally-driven Tampa atrocity of 2001.

Angus Taylor, for base political reasons, has elected to walk away from the best instincts of the Liberal party – the party of Robert Menzies, of Harold Holt, of Malcolm Fraser, of Andrew Peacock, of Brendan Nelson, of Malcolm Turnbull.

Angus Taylor came to the Liberal leadership with a reputation of being mainstream Liberal; that is, a keeper of the Liberal party’s best longer-term instincts both in social and economic policy.

And many people, myself included, wished him well in consolidating the Liberal base and in fighting One Nation with a conservatism anchored in principles. If not righteous, decent.

But by adopting racism with its shabby appeal to differentiation and primal instincts, Angus Taylor marks himself out as a political leader unworthy of the leadership of a party that has managed Australia for the greater part of the last century and which celebrated the country’s unifying values.

Racism is not simply immoral and abhorrent, it is absurd. The notion that some of us are in some way different to the rest of us – in some way born differently, of some alien biology.

The two-party system has served Australia well over the last century and more. But more than that, it has superintended the development of a country where notions of equality and justice have underpinned the flourishing of one of the most open and decent societies in the world.

The blight of Pauline Hanson is that her dumb bigotry offers a fantasy. The fantasy that Australia in the modern age can return to a monoculture. A monoculture which fails to acknowledge or accept that a continent of our scale is able to turn its back on the multilateralism of neighbouring states or on the vitality of their societies. And, more than that, shun them while disparaging any contribution they may make or bring to us as migrants.

How dispiriting for the rest of us is Angus Taylor’s cowardice in not even attempting to stand and argue for principles that have been integral to Australia’s strength – principles his party has long championed.

https://johnmenadue.com/post/2026/04/angus-taylor-and-the-liberal-partys-moral-decline/

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

         RABID ATHEIST.

         WELCOME TO THIS INSANE WORLD….

going lower....

 

Catriona Jackson

The bad, the worse, and the need for glee – Message from the Editor

 

It has been a week where a number of world ‘leaders’ have exceeded even the lowest of expectations. Clearly the lion in this fight is Donald Trump as Jesus, but there are some other really notable, local contenders.

Liberal leader Angus Taylor put in a strong bid when he launched the party’s ‘Australian Values Migration Plan’. Channelling his inner Tony Abbott, Taylor said: “Those who migrate from liberal democracies have a greater likelihood of subscribing to Australian values compared to those migrating from places ruled by fundamentalists, extremists, and dictators. In that vein, the Gazan cohort of 1,700 people here on visas presents a high risk to our nation.”

It is worth reading the whole speech, but he added that: “Past governments blindly repeated mantras about Australia being the world’s most successful multicultural society – and diversity being our strength. Such doctrines saw us open our borders to people who – far from wanting to join and contribute to Australia – have wanted to take from Australia and even change Australia to suit them.”

He announced there would be a values test and social-media screening.

While the policy was thin on detail, it was strong on rhetoric, and quickly slammed by groups all over the nation, including former Prime Minister Paul Keating, who on P&I said it took the Liberal Party back to “its default political policy: racism”.

It is absolutely clear what Taylor is doing, or at least trying to do. Like Abbott (remember ‘Stop the Boats’) he is appealing to our worst instincts, stoking fear and hate for political gain.

But you will be glad to know that not only is the policy revolting, it is just plain dumb. According to Kos Samaras, immigration is not the all-consuming concern for voters that Taylor assumes. His new research says that immigrants are not the primary cause of voter worry and anger. Even One Nation voters have bigger fish to fry – they are much more unhappy with institutions, business and politicians.

And of course all this took place in a week where fear mongering and hate took a big knock, with the landslide election defeat of Hungarian dictator Viktor Orbán.

Not that Taylor’s mate Abbott read the global room. The former Prime Minister leapt to praise Orbán on Elon Musk’s X platform. He said: “Viktor Orbán has been a very consequential PM – probably the most consequential Hungary has ever had. … I thought he was dead right to defy the EU, on illegal immigration especially. Why should a sovereign nation be bullied by Brussels into policies that would jeopardise its future as a distinct people? Under Orbán, Budapest became something of a haven for conservative intellectuals…”

Clearly Abbott sees himself as one such, as a non-resident fellow of the conservative think tank the Danube Institute in Budapest.

So that takes me to my best bit for the week.

Many things made me smile this week, but the wide, make-your-face hurt smile came watching a middle-aged man dance – really dance. That man was Zsolt Hegedűs, senior member for the victorious Hungarian Tisza Party that shoved Orbán out of power. Hegedűs was joined by huge crowds celebrating Tisza’s supermajority win. A joyous release for a whole nation, summed up beautifully by a man in a suit jacket and sensible shoes, busting some moves in glee.

https://johnmenadue.com/post/2026/04/the-bad-the-worse-and-the-need-for-glee/

 

READ FROM TOP.

PLEASE VISIT:

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

         RABID ATHEIST.

         WELCOME TO THIS INSANE WORLD….

 

ALEXANDER DOWNER'S DAD [Sir Alexander Russell (Alick) Downer] WELCOMING MIGRANTS..... C. 1959....