Kevin Andrews and the challenges for Australian conservatism after Hanson

The Howard, Abbott and Turnbull governments have all supported high levels of immigration. Opposition to immigration used to be a peculiar aspect of left wing politics in Australia. Concerns about the depression of wages have always been a concern of unions and workers in low-skilled parts of the economy. Eventually that attitude vacated itself from official Labor policy in government and under Rudd and Gillard the high immigration intake of the Howard years was continued.

Opposition to immigration is a political strand that dissipates then re-emerges in different contexts and can affect either political party. The early ALP was very much a creature of the White Australia policy and there remain serious divisions within the Labor party over the scale of immigration with blue-collar union members on the restrictive side and the socially liberal wing of the party broadly in favour. Both the Fraser and Howard governments were pro-immigration but under the later a populist right-leaning opposition to immigration and multiculturalism began to arise that has attached itself to the right flank of the Coalition.

The modern conservatives of Australia have to confront a two-front attack on their efforts to scale back the size of the state and reinvigorate the private economy. The audience for both is not so easy to rise in the present circumstances. Labor and a collection of right of centre minor parties are more or less on the same ticket in presenting a vision of greater redistribution of government entitlements. The Liberals also have to decide how to confront the anti-business, anti-immigration trend that is developing on their right flank.

John Howard was able to manage One Nation by moderating his criticism and by appearing to assuage some of their concerns. On the BBC Howard responded to a criticism of his refugee policy by arguing that the handling of the former helped to mitigate opposition to orderly migration.

Concerns are real and perceived but the economic insecurity confronting so many Australians and their children is a palpable thing. Some people voice their frustration by voting for a moderate protectionist such as Nick Xenophon and others hitch themselves to One Nation's more assertive and aggressive style. The Liberals are in difficulty when so many of its natural voters are suspicious of capitalism and the importation of more and more people into the country.

When conservative-minded voters opt for politicians that aren't supporters of the free-market then clearly there is something wrong. The Kevin Andrews agenda of social conservatism and economic liberalism is not where a great number of conservative voters are at present.

When discussing the transition away from the economic policies of Menzies, Andrews acknowledges that the modern Liberals do not practice what Menzies once preached:

It was an entirely different economy. Menzies gave a famous speech in Washington were he extolled the virtues of the arbitration system. Nobody is doing that the way in which he did at that time. The whole centralised wage-fixing system that was something that Menzies thought was one of the key pieces of the political and economic infrastructure of Australia.

Both sides upheld the old centralised interventionist model then both sides abandoned it in practice. But clearly there are people of all political persuasions who look back to this era as one of stable economics and cultural cohesion.

The Menzies economic model and the politics that went with it have been long superseded by the compact began under Bob Hawke and Paul Keating then continued under John Howard. Prior to the deregulatory revolution of the 1980s the consensus was that Australian industry should be protected through high tariffs and state subsidy.

We can see in the United States at present that the Republican establishment, which is broadly pro-enterprise and pro-immigration, is being swept aside by a popular ground swell that is at its heart rejecting the orthodoxy of the Reagan Republicans. The American's voting for Donald Trump want more health care, more social security for them and their children and a less trade exposed economy. They are not in favour of cuts to healthcare, privatisation of social security or the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The supporters of Hanson, Xenophon, Lambie and Katter do not feel that the present arrangements in parliament are working for them and we should not rush to dismiss them. We should also give these voters the benefit of the doubt that they do not share the faults and naiveties of the people they have elected. Andrews advocates a more conciliatory approach when it comes to Hanson's supporters:

You have to listen to their concerns, the fact that a person votes for One Nation doesn't mean that they are a racist, redneck, homophobic whatever. Some might be but usually there is an underlying concern about the direction of the country and the direction of the economy that's motivating them.

That underlying concern is nothing less than their fear for their economic wellbeing and that of the next generation. If the Liberal Party is going to defend free enterprise, free trade and immigration against protectionists and nationalists then it had better do as Howard did successfully and give the concerns of the latter fair hearing.