Pause and Reflection on the State of our Nation

Pause and Reflection on the State of our Nation 

20 - 31.7.26

I used to say I had a “love-hate” relationship with politics, but that is no longer true. There is little in  the politics of today that bears any resemblance to the robust debate between those with different points of view seeking a solution that will benefit those they are meant to represent.

If you’re already laughing at my last sentence, you have good reason. It’s really not about that anymore is it. Any semblance of respectful or objective debate on an issue without personality politics dominating seems to have been relegated to history.

This new era of political warfare has not served us well where we become collateral in a conflict of ideological politics.

It begins with and ends with values, and in between observations expressed by a growing percentage of ordinary Australians who believe we are heading in the wrong direction. Our exposure and servitude to woke and Marxist ideology. Our lost respect for our culture, heritage, and those elected to represent us which culminates in the most important loss of all, trust.

As a self-confessed conservative, but not rusted on Liberal/National voter, I don’t stand alone in my confusion as to what the identity of conservative represents today. This is especially pertinent to what was once the bastion of conservativism as represented by the Liberal/National coalition.

Let’s look at this from a broader perspective. This was a coalition that once enjoyed around a 50% primary vote and now according to the latest poll stands at 23%. That’s just a few points short of terminal. And they are there because they squandered any respect, trust or capital they had. No one forced them to take the self-destructive path they have. They lost their values. They compromised time and again, pandered to the divisive and weak within their own ranks. Howard’s broad church was feeding on itself and to a lesser degree, still is.  Within it are different opinions, and it becomes increasingly difficult to reconcile how these opinions support their narrative or their commitment and ability to deliver.

Labour’s known how to rattle the coalitions chain for a long time. And there was a time when the coalition would not even blink. But today, the slightest tremor and the moderates, the half committed, are out there further compromising the parties long held values with their watered down socialist and woke ideology.  And the leadership answer to that? Well, this is the coalition where unlike Labour, we allow freedom of speech.

That may well be, but it is a contradiction and undermines anything the leadership say when there is tolerated division within their own ranks. Where is the leadership, commitment, unity, and realistic ability to keep the promises or enacting the policy they are making  while division within remains?

The party may be a broad church with different opinions but these should be ironed out well before announcing policy and position and then never compromised or challenged from within at any time after. And please save us the lecture about freedom of speech. The same excuse used by Labour to justify their response to antisemitism. Like the PM’s apology for Bondi, “I’m sorry we could not do more” Substituting  “did” for “could”, would have been more sincere and truthful, yet still not enough. There are limitations to so called free speech, based on values, morality, and conviction. Perhaps some of these moderates would be happier in another party more suited to their particular ideology?

It’s a hard call, but this division within got Australians here in the first place with an incremental, but compromising accommodation to woke and Marxist ideology in a downward spiral since the Abbot government.

A case in point is the change of Leadership in the Victorian State Government where Premier, Jacinta Allan was replaced by Ben Carroll, the former deputy leader. Victorian Opposition Leader Jess Wilson argues that exchanging Allan for Carroll is like changing captains of the Titanic. Carroll was complicit in all the ills created by the Victorian Labour government. Wilson has a valid point.  And while Carroll protests that he is not an Allan or Daniel Andrews, the fact remains he served willingly under them.

 

Looking at the federal opposition today, the similarity is obvious in that since Labour’s route of the opposition in the last election, those that survived were part of the decline in the coalitions values, and despite the change in narrative and policy, the moderates within the party put to question it’s resolve and ability to deliver what it promises.

The coalition have as yet not reached a point of consensus within itself.

The people are looking for leadership from the coalition. But what they see is a house divided and a narrative that reeks of business as usual. A house that will not stand. Before it will, Angus Taylor must clean house until it stands united with clear and committed goals, values, and new path forward that first serves the people and not just itself.

This well-trod fallacy that One Nation has taken the conservative base from the coalition is a pathetic display of denial. The coalition pushed them away, failing to fight for, commit to, and believe in the values and morality that had sustained their party for generations. The sad truth is they have not come to grips with that and until they do, change may be beyond them.

The coalition has the candidates, organization, assets, support, experience and logistics One Nation does not. And yet it is found wanting. What One Nation has is an idea, “getting our country back”. It resonates because it encapsulates in those four words the basis of what the people want. One Nation is consistent, unequivocal and bold in its statements, listens and talks to the people in their language, not telling them what they want or need. I’m old enough to tell you that is exactly what Bob Menzies did, earning the people’s respect and support.

Menzies saw the forgotten people, the underlying values needed in a changing post war world. He recognized that those values are the basic elements of that identify which bind our nation, its strength, honour, character, and built his party around them.

Today PM Albanese says, there are those who would take us back to a time we no longer are. But he rejects that during those times our nation prospered, we grew, enjoyed a strong social cohesion and a unique character that was the envy of the world. Can we say the same of today in what Albanese describes as our modern Australia?

Bob Menzies’ Liberal Party was built on an idea based on values and a purpose to enshrine them in underpinning national growth and wellbeing. What stands between the coalition and One Nation today is the same idea that resonates as rebuilding our nation to what it was and should be.

Neither of these two parties can expect to change our current course on their own despite the assertions from the coalition that it can. Labour has demonstrated time and again that along with the Greens it will not relinquish its hold on power in prosecuting its Marxist ideology over the welfare of the nation. That is the real challenge before us all, and that is not aided by a coalition that places itself above dealing with that challenge in going it alone when with a willing ally in One Nation, success is far more achievable.

While there is distance between the coalition and One Nation there is only one plausible outcome, another 5 years of a Labour Marxist government.  The prospect of that should concern us all. To put it succinctly, Menzies fought communism and now it walks the halls of our parliament disguised as a party espousing a fair go for all. But to its end, only the political elite and their close supporters will benefit as the ruling class. The ultimate goal of Marxism.

I suggest Angus Taylor thinks about that, addresses his own challenges within, and acknowledges why One Nation’s message is resonation and why perhaps his is seen as business as usual. But then again this coalition has proven slow in, even hesitant, in objective self-reflection which we may all come to historically regret as opportunity lost. 

© 2026 Bob Janssen | BobJanssen.com.au