I spent part of our recent cold pot removing overloaded shelves. As I weighed what was to be sent to the op shop, I stumbled upon the definitive story of Richard Nixon’s flawed presidency, The Arrogance of Power, by Anthony Summers.
The arrogance of power also describes the disorder in the Liberal Party, at the federal level and in Victoria. The difficult situation of the match can be seen in the story of two Tims: Wilson and Smith.
Tim Wilson, with her husband Ryan Bolger, acknowledged defeat at Goldstein on May 22. Credit: AFR
Both Tim W&S have considerable capacity, energy and political capacity. Each was pre-selected instead of women because liberal circles believed that men had more to offer. They leave their respective parliaments prematurely – disappointing their sponsors and personally bitter – after being seduced by the traps of the office.
Politicians are surrounded by locksmiths and openers. Long-term survival requires a healthy contempt for such nonsense. But both Tims succumbed to hubris, losing the ability to doubt themselves and believing in their own bs. This affliction is not exclusive to the Liberals, but is generously rewarded within the internal culture of the party. This is how the party has defined success, enabled by a media animation team of Murdoch that celebrates the lighthouse, bragging and bullying.
In the early 2000s, ABC senior management directed me to “find more conservative voices” to broadcast on my morning radio show. With my then-producer Chris Uhlmann, we offered the secret and arch-conservative Institute of Public Affairs a regular place in the “Friday Wrap,” where interlocutors could exchange jokes with guests from opposite ends of the political spectrum.
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John Roskam, the head of the IPA, was our initial right-wing champion and faithfully offered his combative contributions to a typically hostile reception by the ABC audience. A few years later, a battle-weary Roskam left because he said he was personally counterproductive, and hampered his pre-selection attempts. He recommended that his then-unknown partner, Tim Wilson, replace him.
Tim Wilson was charming, intelligent, and fearless. We spent a lot of time training him and giving him feedback, despite his IPA opinion that the ABC was a waste of public money. As his confidence grew and he was sought after by other means, he developed his own political brand. The then Attorney General George Brandis soon offered him a job on the Commission on Human Rights and Equal Opportunities as a “commissioner for freedom”, despite the IPA advocating the abolition of the organization.
Despite arguing that the Liberals needed more women in parliament, in 2016 Goldstein’s pre-election against Georgina Downer was successful. Now, after two terms, his career has been derailed by his enthusiastic involvement in the Liberal Party’s capitulation to what some have described as Scott Morrison’s Trump Trump instincts.