Those who know me would be all too aware of where I stand politically; an anarcho-socialist who works in Australia's largest reformist party to argue the case for a "solarpunk" future (libertarian, socialist, and high-tech). This does not mean I automatically reject those from the other side of politics; I am not that sort of partisan. I understand those in the Liberal Party of Australia who are of a more centrist persuasion. I am sympathetic to classical liberalism's emphasis on personal freedoms against socially conservative impositions (c.f., John Stuart Mill). I am sympathetic to the desire for institutional gradualism (c.f., Michael Oakeshott) even if I think the circumstances are more limited. I am certainly supportive of those advocates for capitalism who follow the tradition of Adam Smith, David Ricardo, James and John Stuart Mill, Henry George, and basically every economist since then who realises that economic rents are downright damaging.
In the context of the upcoming election in Australia, I appeal to such Liberals to seriously reconsider their usual vote on party lines. We are not dealing with a typical Liberal Party, but rather a Dutton leadership, more extreme and dangerous than the worst periods of Tony Abbott or Scott Morrison. Dutton has taken his playbook from Donald Trump, with all the damaging and vindictive policies that means. A leader whom the former Liberal Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull described as "a thug" and that the prospect of him being Prime Minister we should "contemplate with dread.. I couldn't think of anyone less suited to be Prime Minister".
We have already witnessed the Liberal campaign argue for the mass retrenchments of public servants, savage cuts to education, a DOGE-style agenda led by MAGA-advocate Jacinta Price, ending the flexibility of working-from-home, ending free TAFE, rejecting a reduction in HECS-debts, providing tax-deductible business lunches, stripping the manufacturing fund, and, incredibly, unfunded increases in defense spending, along with a ridiculous $600bn nuclear-power project. Shambolically, the Liberal campaign has been continually beset by dodgy candidates, and has flip-flopped on a number of announced policies and, as an ultimate insult, stitched a deal with the racist One Nation party ending a thirty-year bi-partisan cordon sanitaire against the poisonous cane toad.
In many cases, it is implausible to imagine Liberal Party voters switching to Labor, let alone the Greens. That is a step too far for people who have been rusted-on to their party often for generations. It is far more plausible that they would give their primary preference to the numerous independent, centrist, "Teal" candidates. But in this particular election, if absolutely no other, I do advocate that after the Teals, they place Labor above Liberal. Because this is not the Liberal Party of the liberal tradition. This is an entirely different, extremist, and chaotic beast that the Liberal Party itself has to rid itself of; and it will not do so unless Dutton is comprehensively defeated in this election. If you vote Dutton, you'll get Trump - and that will be a disaster for all of us.