When it was recently uncovered that Christopher Pyne had worked with the far-left group GetUp! to try and attack his conservative enemies inside the Liberal Party it was shocking, but not too shocking.
After all Pyne is a tiny, obnoxious, weasel-like man who likes to publicly gloat about how far he is dragging the Liberals to the left and has a disturbingly close friendship with the odious Anthony Albanese. This is the same “Albo” it must be remembered that sits ideologically on the far left even of the ALP left faction. If it emerged tomorrow that Pyne had been caught selling state secrets to Burundi for a truck full of cantaloupes I’m not sure many people would raise an eyebrow.
But it turns out he’s not the only one.
Assistant Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science Craig Laundy [most recently seen on Sky News denouncing Pauline Hanson as loudly as possible] was another predictable traitor. In 2015 GetUp! sent him envelopes full of a powdery substance [later revealed to be glitter] which led to six police cars, six fire trucks and a hazmat unit being called to his office. The lily livered Craig’s response was to immediately meet with GetUp! activists and pose for photos while assuring them he was a good refugee-loving, ABC supporting, 18C defending lefty. In response GetUp! agreed not to campaign against him in his marginal seat.
Considering his record, Mr Laundy collaborating with GetUp! isn’t much of a surprise. What is a surprise is that he’s in the Liberal Party in the first place.
Last week Victorian Liberal Party division president Michael Kroger [hardly a right-wing culture warrior himself] expressed stunned disbelief that Liberal MP’s Tim Wilson of Goldstein and Trent Zimmerman of North Sydney had been secretly meeting with GetUp! operatives to conspire on how best to enforce Same Sex marriage.
Both men are openly gay and Zimmerman was chosen by NSW leftist factional boss Michael Photios to fill Joe Hockey’s old seat specifically because he was a committed leftist. Zimmerman’s rise was a prime example of just how hopelessly corrupt and infested with leftists the NSW Liberal Party machine has become. Whilst a candidate for preselection for the electorate of North Sydney, Zimmerman was also the head of the internal Liberal Party body responsible for setting the rules for preselections. Amazingly enough he won.
Tim Wilson is far more of a disappointment yet serves as a lesson to Conservatives and other rightists everywhere to never ever trust a libertarian.
Wilson was employed by the Institute of Public Affairs for seven years, the same IPA whose executive director John Roskam supported Tony Abbott then helped Malcolm Turnbull stab him in the back. The same IPA that seems to have appointed itself the ideological centre of the right in Victoria and has delivered nothing but disappointments like Wilson, milquetoast “ABC conservatives” like Tom Switzer and Young Liberal clones like Senator James Paterson.
In a sadly typical half measure, instead of abolishing the abomination that is the Australian Human Rights Commission Tony Abbott decided to instead “fix” it by making Wilson a commissioner. During the term of his two year appointment Wilson occasionally argued for changes to Section 18C of the 1975 Racial Discrimination Act and called the prosecution of broadcaster Andrew Bolt an infringement on the right to freedom of speech.
And that was all really. Abbott is now gone, Wilson used his position to grab preselection in a nice juicy safe seat and the AHRC is getting bigger and more totalitarian every year. It’s almost as if he hadn’t even been there. Almost exactly like when John Howard “fixed” the ABC by adding a few conservatives to the mostly powerless board.
And Wilson, who used his position arguing for free speech to curry favour from the party base, now conspires with one of the organisations most dedicated to stamping it out.
Never forget, a libertarian is just a lefty with a basic understanding of economics. They will do anything, betray anyone and throw any cause or principle under the bus if means maintaining their position as the token “good” right-winger on the ABC panel or at the fashionable inner-city dinner party.
These men chose to throw their lot in with GetUp!, a group whose aims have never been anything other than the to support the cultural, social and electoral aims of the ALP and the Greens. The same GetUp! that had current ALP opposition leader, brassiere enthusiast and probable next Prime Minister Bill Shorten on its original board.
They decided to betray every conservative and right of centre citizen who voted for them to work with the largest, best funded and most effective leftist activist group in the country today.
And yet not only are they still welcome in the parliamentary Liberal party, they’re probably a good representation of its future.
If you’re still giving your first preference vote to the party of leftists in light blue you’re not only a fool, you’re a part of the problem.