With the overwhelming win that the Liberal/National coalition has sustained, they are in prime position to continue to dominate Australian politics. However, the whispers of old internal conflicts and new ones could threaten to disturb their plans as they have many times before. Will the coalition stand strong or fall hard before the next election?
The biggest proponent to the Coalition regaining stability to its internal politics is the loss of Tony Abbott from the party. Much of the parties woes have come from his internal scheming, as he worked to get Turnbull off his perch and repeatedly causing trouble for Scott Morrison. As such, his removal from the party at the hands of Independent Zali Steggall comes as a net positive towards the stability of the Liberal party, as a major and senior member of the right-wing faction can no longer cause trouble for the party internally.
On the other hand, the retaining of Peter Dutton isn’t positive for the Liberal party’s stability. As the party member who first turned on Malcolm Turnbull and pushed for both leadership spills as to make himself leader, he is quite clearly not fully loyal to his current leader, whomever they may be. As such, should Scott Morrison misstep, there is a significant chance that Dutton will be there to try and take crown, should he have the chance.
Furthermore, the not insignificant fights between the National and Liberal parties between both policies and seats during this election could further decrease stability into the future. While McCormack described the coalition as a ‘business alliance and not a family’ when asked about the fighting between the two parties, it does not give much good-will too further stability. At the same time, the continuous fighting between McCormack and Barnaby Joyce will only cause instability for the Nationals, working to further destabilize the Coalition.
Finally, the preference votes which pushed the Liberals to win from the One Nation and United Australian Parties could cause even more instability. As many of these preference votes show an increase in right or even far-right Liberal voters, it could embolden to Right-wing faction of the Liberal party to force the coalition itself to become more right-wing, potentially splitting the coalition even further between the right-wingers and the moderates.
While many signs do point to future instability in the Liberal/National coalition, the recent win in the election and the miraculous fact that they did win will mean that this instability will most likely not appear for a decent while. However, in a year or so, instability within the Liberals and Nationals, between the two parties and from right-wingers in general will most likely be popping up on news headlines once again.
PoliticsBuff 