The Menzies Young Liberals (change the signage and they’d look exactly like Young Labor – but that’s a topic for another piece) are all smiles in the photo above, proudly posted earlier this week to celebrate a successful day of political activism canvassing for Nathan Conroy, Liberal candidate for Dunkley.
They clearly want Conroy to win, and he should win given Labor’s horrible political year, but based on his comments the next day he instead seems determined to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Anthony Albanese’s plummeting popularity, unaffordable housing, a cost of living crisis, almost two years of rising interest rates and high inflation, out-of-control mass immigration, a refugee scandal, more boats arriving, and broken tax promises all made Dunkley Conroy’s by-election to lose.
Add to that cashed-up conservative activist group Advance spending $300,000 on attack ads, including one that clearly got under the Prime Minister’s skin by asking him how many released asylum seeker murderers, rapists and paedophiles were living in the outer-Melbourne seat.
But instead of capitalising on the political climate and the ad barrage, Conroy wilted under journo questioning and said this:
“I’ve no connections, or conversations personally with Advance. My campaign is a strong and positive campaign, no matter what anyone else does.”
He couldn’t come up with a weaker statement if he tried. In fact, he may as well have agreed with Albanese, who falsely and ironically labelled the ad “misinformation”.
No wonder Labor expect to hold the seat.
Why would you vote for Conroy, when he won’t even compete? When he won’t even support his supporters?
And a look at his website reveals everything wrong with him and his party – he doesn’t stand for anything, and the Liberals are just Labor in slow motion.
Lower taxes a bit maybe, reduce immigration slightly, do some building projects, fund some programs. It’s all so insipid and uninspiring.
But at the same time, it’s unsurprising from the Victorian Liberals, who hounded a woman out of their supposedly conservative party for holding standard conservative views on transgenderism that most Australians would agree with, and fold to Labor every state election.
Advance clearly want to win more than the Liberal Party do – maybe they should run their own candidate next time.
