What conservatives do better

photo: Mike Bowers

If there is one thing you can bank on, it is that conservative governments know how to use power.

They never shy away from it.

If a conservative government wants to change something, it will, and it won’t worry about who it is annoying, or the pushback, or whether or not it is the smart move. It will do it, knowing that it will very quickly become the new normal and people, more likely than not, will move on.

John Howard did it for 11 years. Howard changed this country more in the last three decades than almost any other modern politician. While he eventually pushed the electorate too far with Work Choices, he would probably say it was worth it – because many of the changes he went to the wall for still exist today. Why?

Because the left never uses power the same way. And conservatives know it.

Just this week, New Zealand’s conservative government voted to resume oil and gas exploration, reversing the ban the Jacinda Ardern government put in place in 2018.

There was mass opposition from environmental groups, community and the environment. But they did it, with the final vote passing 68 to 54.

If this was Australia, no future progressive government would seek to reinstate the ban. There would be talk of ‘learning lessons’ and having ‘tried something’ but how it wasn’t what people wanted. It would be the ‘past’ and how they must ‘accept’ that circumstances have changed.

It is why you won’t see a Labor government go anywhere near a carbon price, or progressive tax reform, or do more than tinker around the edges of existing legislation. Because when it comes to using power, Australian conservatives seize it, having learnt it is more effective to ask for forgiveness than permission, while Australia’s centre-left party allow those same conservatives to set the boundaries of what they are able to achieve.

We saw a lot of that in the first sitting of the 48th parliament. The Liberals are at their lowest – holding just 29% of the house of representatives. They were stuck asking questions from 2022, ignoring the fact there had been an election in between. It was as if someone asked ChatGPT what the Australian opposition should be asking in question time and it scraped the 47th parliament for answers.

And still, with all the internal bin fires, the sideshow of the Barnapocalypse, and the lack of cohesive direction on anything from their traditional opponents, Labor did the least it could do with power.

Existing HECS debts were cut – but the Morrison-era Jobs Ready Graduate scheme sits there untouched after more than three years in power. Childcare centres can lose federal funding if they don’t meet national minimums, but we can’t get to the national watchdog just yet. We’ll recognise Palestine…eventually. We’re listening to the science when it comes to the 2035 targets, but we won’t stop new coal and gas and it doesn’t matter that those two things don’t go together.

Oh, gas exports have tripled gas prices and doubled electricity prices? Well surely if we just explore opening more fields up for exports, things will get better.

Don’t ask for more, or you could get less. These things take time. And we must bring the public with us, because otherwise, you could get Morrison/Dutton/Ley/Hastie.

It’s not just the Labor government who is convinced of this, but many in the third space where politics meets policy – advocacy and expert groups who don’t want to push too far, for fear of going backwards.

But you know who doesn’t think about that? Conservatives. And that’s why those who believe in a different, bolder, better Australia shouldn’t either.