The Liberal Party’s future can’t be teal progressivism

There have been many interesting reactions to the Liberal Party's catastrophic loss on May 3. But surely one of the most bizarre has been how leading progressive voices in the party have declared it needs "modernisation" and a focus on the values and priorities of contemporary Australians, while at the same time referring to a speech given in Britain almost 25 years ago as a guide to the party's future.

With odd uniformity, luminaries such as George Brandis, James McGrath, Simon Birmingham, have pointed to the words of Theresa May who, at the turn of the last century, labelled her party the "nasty party"

These figures argue this was a turning point. It led to David Cameron – "a liberal Tory somewhat resembling Malcolm Turnbull," in Brandis's words – taking control. Cameron's agenda promoted renewable energy regardless of the cost, embraced practically all left-wing social liberal causes, while at the same time implementing an economic "austerity" which was borne by the less fashionable parts of the country.

Organisationally, McGrath talks of the need for a Cameron-style reform, where progressive A-list candidates are selected by an elite group. Apparently, this is what we need now.

The most obvious response to such grand theorising is to ask: have any of these people picked up a British newspaper lately?

No one sensible in Westminster believes Cameron-style politics is the future for the centre-right in Britain. Indeed, it seems the only people in the world talking like this now are some provincial Australians. News flash: last year the British Conservative Party suffered one of its worst ever defeats.

It is widely recognised that this was due to the party's failure to do anything about mass immigration. For years they had promised to "take back control" but instead let numbers get completely out of hand with more people migrating to the UK in the last 20 years than in the last thousand. The Tories are now dramatically changing course on this and other issues.

They have now said net zero is impossible and would bankrupt the country. Their leader, a woman, has no difficulty defining one – unlike Liberals in Australia.

Across the board their leadership are talking about cutting immigration drastically, not just trimming the sides.

If progressives in the Liberal Party want to use examples from Britain as their model for the future, then they need to get with the times. The advice they are providing is about as delusional as saying the royals need to become more like Meghan Markle to save the monarchy.

They also need to look out the window. Currently the largest jurisdiction in the entire Anglo commonwealth with the centre-right government is Queensland. But Premier David Crisafulli did not owe his electoral success to using Cameron-style slogans. He won by promising "adult time for adult crime".

Progressive Liberals love to talk about the need to reach out to women, but if they summoned the courage to talk to some of them in real-life they would discover some interesting things.