Listening to Angus Taylor speak after Saturday’s catastrophic loss for the Liberals in former leader Sussan Ley’s seat of Farrer was like listening to a concession speech beamed in from 2019. Or maybe 1999.
It didn’t sound like someone who understands that the current shake-up in Australian politics is a permanent shift, not a blip.
That is worrying the Liberals who thought a leadership change in February — the one that sparked the by-election in the first place — would be their much-needed reset.
Some are wondering if that reset button was pressed properly.
The overwhelming sentiment among voters flooding to One Nation is that the system isn’t working for them, and they want someone who’ll burn it all down (bushfires being more common in Australia than swamps that need draining).
That means a response that highlights your party’s long-held values, the same-old same-old lines about out-of-control taxes and spending, and a pledge to get back to what you were doing before fighting with your colleagues is not going to cut it.
Nationals leader Matt Canavan has shown more willingness to take on One Nation directly.
Mr Taylor falls into a limp word salad when asked obvious questions, like why the Liberals are directing preferences to One Nation.
He appears to want to both cosy up to and distance himself from the surging right-wing populists.
The result on Saturday? The Liberals lost nearly three-quarters of their voters compared to a year ago, while the Nationals came in with 9.8 per cent of the primary, almost double the expectations set by polling.
Their combined vote of 22 per cent is just over half what Ms Ley pulled in last year. One Nation was sitting at 39 per cent of the vote on Sunday.
There’s a warning shot, too, for Labor in the results.
It’s hard to know exactly how big a warning since the party didn’t run, to give independent Michelle Milthorpe a better chance, so arguing the counterfactual of how much of its vote would have splintered is nearly impossible.
But the changing language from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his ministers suggests they have a better grasp on how to respond to that warning.
The focus on delivery and the acknowledgements that, yes, the system is broken are taking on that “burn it all down” sentiment directly.
Labor’s lesson from 2019, 2022 and 2025 was that there’s no such thing as a safe seat anymore.
The Liberals are still relying on a heartland that might no longer exist. They better find some fire extinguishers.
