Last Friday I hosted one of my former colleagues for luncheon at the Savage Club.
Whilst waiting for my guest to arrive, I grabbed a cup of coffee and settled down in the Social Room (the large downstairs bar) with a copy of the Australian Financial Review to update myself on business news.
As soon as I opened the paper, I saw an ad covering both of the next two pages for the United Australia Party (ie Clive Palmer’s occasional political vehicle), featuring Clive and his current sidekick, Senator Babet.
Hmmm… I thought. It looks like Clive is making another comeback. Then I turned to the companies index overleaf to check which publicly listed companies of which I am a shareholder were being covered in that issue.
The United Australia Party (aka Palmer United Party, aka Trumpet Of Patriots) has had a rather interesting and eccentric history over the past 13 years, as well as exerting a more directly plutocratic influence over Australian politics than most billionaires would attempt.
But then, Clive is not exactly subtle.
Choosing to resurrect the UAP at this particular moment, 12 months after the most recent federal election was called, and when Pauline Hanson’s One Nation is surging unprecedentedly in the polls as an alternative conservative protest party, does seem like an uncommonly eccentric decision by our most entertaining homegrown billionaire.
It was not however the most interesting political news of the past few days.
I would consider that the decision of the Victorian Division of the Liberal Party yesterday to choose an alternative candidate rather than Moira Deeming MLC for the lead spot on the Western Metropolitan Province ticket for the upcoming state election to be a much more interesting outcome.
In other words, Moira has been dumped by her party, and is not going to re-contest her seat at the state election, at least not as a Liberal.
The news for much of the past 24 hours has speculated on what will happen next.
Given that the reappearance of Senator Babet and his sponsor Clive Palmer in political advertisements three days ago, it is moot perhaps to observe that the good Senator today has denounced the dis endorsement of Moira as a a disastrous decision for the Liberals, and expressed the hope that she defects and that everyone stops voting for them.
Of course he would say that. He narrowly beat out a Liberal for the sixth senate spot four years ago and is up for re-election next year.
I was not particularly surprised about Moira losing her endorsement. At various times in the past three years, I have expressed my grave reservations in this blog about Moira’s judgement, priorities and impact as a Liberal MP. I fear that her impact has been quite destructive to the chances of the Coalition at the next state election.
It also has, through her initial activities to pursue the expulsions of local Liberals who campaigned for Fred Ackerman after he decided to run against her, damaged the local Liberal grassroots base.
The question is what Moira will do now?
All the major news sources – the ABC, the Murdoch Press, and Fairfax – have speculated that Moira will defect to One Nation. The president of One Nation has described her as ‘courageous’ and said that she would be welcome in One Nation.
When I saw Moira Deeming speak to the Collins Club three years ago, just after she had been expelled from the parliamentary Liberal Party, she described the Liberals as ‘The Party that I love’. Given that in that same speech she spoke about her non-Liberal background, and her first disillusioning encounters with Young Liberals, I suspect that her love has limits, and that those limits have been reached.
Joining One Nation must be very tempting right now for her. In the five state elections since the introduction of proportional representation to the Legislative Council, the Liberals have won a second seat in Western Metropolitan only twice. In the other three elections, that seat has fallen twice to the DLP, and once to Catherine Cummings under the Hinch Justice Party umbrella (a party which she immediately deserted).
It is very likely right now that One Nation could take that second seat, the one which makes up the two out of the five which get won by right wing parties, but usually not by the Liberals.
Will she join One Nation, or won’t she? Only time will tell, but my money is on an announcement within the next week.
Lost For Words! 