The big political story of this year has been the rise of One Nation. Based on current polling they are now a very real chance of replacing the Liberals as the official opposition, and are now seriously challenging Labor to become the largest party in the country.
Despite these challenges, the Liberal and Labor parties are likely to continue, at least in the near future. The situation is more dire for the National Party. The rise of One Nation is an existential threat to the Nationals, which is on track to lose nearly all of their seats at the next federal election.
Radical times call for radical measures, and earlier this year the Nationals finally accepted the need for a new direction — electing firebrand maverick Matt Canavan as their new leader, who has been busy rebuilding the National Party in his image. Matt is a smart populist with integrity and conviction, who is well suited for this political moment, but is this a case of “too little, too late”?
Matt Canavan has agreed to join our “Death & Taxes” livestream podcast this evening to answer this question, outline his agenda for Australia, and take questions from the audience. The podcast is live every Thursday evening starting at 8pm, simulcast on YouTube, Twitter/X, and Facebook. We look forward to seeing you there.
We need your support
Think tanks and advocacy groups (like the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance) play a strange role in Australian politics. We do not run in elections or set policy, but we help to shape the political debate and nudge politicians and the voting public in a certain direction.
This never-ending work doesn’t always achieve short-term victories, but it does make a difference. In recent history the ATA has been involved in several campaigns that have helped to shift Australian politics in a better direction, including:
In January this year we were closely involved in a campaign against the hate laws introduced by Albanese. The result of that campaign was that the laws were watered down, and the “hate speech” provisions were removed entirely.
After years of advocacy, the Liberal Party has finally embraced our proposal to index tax brackets, to remove the insidious multi-billion dollar take hike that is bracket creep. One Nation also supports this policy.
Another of our long-running tax campaigns has been for pro-family tax policies such as income splitting, and this has been embraced by new Nationals leader Matt Canavan. One Nation also supports this policy.
Even the Labor Party has started to copy some of our tax proposals, including their cuts to the lowest tax rate and making the “instant asset write off” permanent. Though unfortunately they also took some large steps backwards with their retrograde changes to capital gains tax and family trusts (which we will continue to campaign against).
Most recently we argued against the government’s attempt to make the ASIO secret police powers permanent, which helped convince the opposition to block that legislation.
We don’t pretend that we single-handedly achieved these outcomes. Policy making is a messy business, with many inputs… but groups like the ATA are one important part of the puzzle.
We can only continue this work thanks to the support of regular people such as yourself. We do not receive taxpayer funding, and don’t have a large institutional backing from big unions, big business, big banking, or any other “big”. Our funding comes from members who make regular small contributions, and from occasional donation drives — such as this email.
If you value the work that we do, and want to see a strong voice for lower tax, strong families and civil society, and individual freedoms, please consider making a donation before the end of this financial year and/or upgrading your membership.
P.S. Tonight on the “Death & Taxes” podcast, Gene & John will be joined by National Party leader Senator Matt Canavan to discuss the latest economic & political news of the day, and take your questions. You can watch live on YouTube, X/Twitter & Facebook tonight at 8pm AEST.
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