In this week’s podcast, we dissect how the Liberal Party has abandoned serious policy in favour of retail politics, scare campaigns and culture-war theatrics – tactics designed to claw back voters drifting to One Nation but which are hollowing out the party from within.
After rejecting net zero by 2050, the Liberals have moved straight into anti-immigration messaging, blaming migrants for traffic congestion, high rents, energy prices and almost every daily frustration. But with net migration now returning to pre-COVID levels and historically similar to the Howard era, this is pure political theatre, an attempt to mimic One Nation’s appeal rather than deal with economic reality.
We break down the latest Redbridge polling showing One Nation climbing to 18 per cent while the LNP sinks into the low-20s, creating a right-wing echo chamber where the far-right, neo-Nazis, and a radicalised Liberal Party share the same talking points. As leaders fall in the November killing season and internal chaos grows – Brad Battin in Victoria, Leanne Castley in the ACT, Mark Speakman in NSW – the Liberal Party risks becoming a fringe movement trapped in grievance politics.
We also explore the escalating fight over hospital funding, with the Albanese government demanding productivity reforms before honouring its promise to lift the federal share to 42.5 per cent. States insist the health system is already at breaking point, with chronic disease, workforce shortages and aged-care bottlenecks pushing hospitals to crisis. Housing policy is heading the same way: states want urgent public investment, while Canberra clings to slow, rigid frameworks. Without structural reform between federal and state governments, Australia faces more buck-passing and worsening services.
Finally, we examine the UN Security Council’s approval of a US-designed International Stabilisation Force for Gaza – effectively handing Washington, and Donald Trump as chair of the new “Board of Peace”, unprecedented power over Gaza’s future. With Palestinians excluded from the planning and conditions stacked in Israel’s favour, this plan risks entrenching occupation rather than delivering justice. With 70,000 Palestinians killed, 2 million displaced, and Gaza’s hospitals, schools and infrastructure destroyed, reconstruction cannot succeed without accountability for Israeli war crimes – yet the plan ignores this entirely.
