Senator Andrew Bragg seems to have gone off script and Liberal HQ might not be happy, but he could be the new boy in the media that the party needs badly.
Recent polling that shows Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party is becoming the effective Opposition to the Albanese Government, clearly shows that the Coalition needs a politician that conservative voters need to brag about and potentially they might have it with the well-named Liberal frontbencher Andrew Bragg.
The only problem is that he is in the Senate and that needs to change if the Coalition had both brains and a desire to one day form government in this country.
Recent polling shows how the Coalition under Angus Taylor is going nowhere.
This is how news24.com reported the latest Newspoll: “Labor has recorded its weakest primary vote not seen since Julia Gillard was prime minister. According to the latest Newspoll in The Australian, the Labor Party now sits at 29 per cent. This is on par with One Nation, which also saw a drop in support. The Coalition’s primary vote is at 18 per cent, nearing its record low seen in June.”
Bragg was put on show yesterday at the National Press Club where he called for an ‘‘economic revolution’’ and “a restoration of free-market, liberal ideals.”
These are big political and idealistic calls and would work with rusted on Liberals but it could easily have little impact on the voters the Coalition have to win back from Pauline Hanson.
That said, after interviewing Bragg for the recent conference of the Australian Independent Insolvency Practitioners, I have to say he was impressive and for a politician bordered on the real! At the same get together of the people who either save or wind up struggling businesses, and are really important nowadays in a struggling economy, I also talked with would-be treasurer, Tim Wilson, who broke his holiday in Denmark to talk to the attendees.
Both men are pluses for the Coalition but Bragg in the House of Reps could be a politician who could land a few decent punches on melon-challenged Anthony Albanese and ‘rising star’ Pauline Hanson.
Her popularity is such that even the London cabbie who drove me to Heathrow last Saturday knew about and wanted to talk about Pauline, which says a lot about how normal people are sick of typical self-serving politicians.
But back to Bragg, who currently is the housing shadow minister, and what he put on show at the National Press Club. In case you missed his speech, here were his main points:
- He wants to slash taxes with the top rate going from 47% to somewhere in the 30% region.
- Overhaul the GST by broadening it and looking at changing the States’ domination over this tax.
- Take on Trump and make the big US tech companies such as Netflix, Meta and others pay the right amount of tax.
- Announce a new immigration target, linking it to the supply of houses we can produce.
- He also wants to reduce the costly regulations that are holding back the building of homes in Australia.
- He called the Rudd-Gillard-Coalition years as often displayed “indolence”!
His colleagues close to Angus Taylor called his big calls “freelancing” meaning he is making policy goals not rubber stamped by headquarters, but given this mob’s failure to land a punch on Albo or Pauline, Bragg’s speech is attracting media attention.
And I think many Aussies will like his direct, no-nonsense style as evidenced by what he said yesterday.
‘‘I get that people are over the two-party system, and it is a tough ask to say to Australians, we buggered it up, but please vote for us again,’’ he said.
But there is no point saying something like this unless you front up with some policies that voters will say: “Yep, that’s what this country needs.”
And one of those things is a leader who has guts and can take it up the Albanese Government, which currently stands as a team that is being divisive, tribal and delivering policies that they kept under wraps until they got back into power.
That’s not to say all of their deceptive policies are worthless but as a government they are looking like they are one-eyed and not representing a majority of Australians, which is generally expected in a democracy.
‘‘I wouldn’t take anything off the table… It’s not necessarily the case that all the consumption tax will flow back to the states either,’’ he said. ‘‘We need to get to a much flatter income tax system for people and all businesses. Otherwise we can forget about generating the next Afterpay or Canva.”
Treasurer Jim Chalmers is clearly worried about Bragg’s potential and quickly told Parliament that the Senator was “anti-worker”, which continues the tribal approach to politics that the Albanese Government has turned into an art form.
On his immigration-housing goal, the SMH reported that “Bragg said that under the Coalition’s policy tying migration to home building, the opposition would cut net overseas migration from 300,000 to about 180,000.”
This compares to Labor’s plan to bring the rate down to 225,000.
On taking on Trump who is bullying the Albanese Government to protect his beloved US big tech companies, I think a lot of Australians would back sticking it to the US President occasionally.
‘‘Australia must be prepared to fight this –not be immobilised by fear of President Trump,’’ Bragg said. ‘‘At times the political class looked like managerial globalists who did not care about Australia.’’
One word of advice, Andrew, drop terms like “managerial globalists”. Trump’s success is based on using language voters understand.
I would’ve said something like: “It’s time to stop kissing Trump’s butt on everything!”
It’s controversial but it’s classic Aussie and that’s what the Coalition needs to rediscover.
By the way, when I interviewed both Bragg and Wilson I asked what they might do if ever they got into government leading a three-party coalition?
Both men chose to ignore my baiting about having to work with Pauline, and when teased about my question, both men laughingly said that they chose to ignore my suggestion about a three-party coalition.
That will mean they will have to do more of what Bragg strutted out yesterday to show that they can talk to the Australian voters they have lost.
This country needs a strong, electable opposition to ensure we get a better government running the place.
