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

If you push them, even "teal yoga mums" are surprisingly receptive to cuts to immigration. The ridiculous scenes in Sydney's eastern suburbs, where the riot squad was called in to restore order in selective school exams, are viewed with dismay. They worry what mass immigration will mean for their kids' ability to afford a house. Australian women, like those in Europe and elsewhere, also have growing concerns about their personal safety in increasingly "diverse" neighbourhoods. Simply saying the answer to this is more female candidates is patronising.

Now they don't want to hear these issues discussed by yahoos or from those simply looking for cheap social media likes. They will listen to reasonable arguments on immigration and other subjects if delivered by professional people in a mature adult way.

The wannabe teal Liberals do a great disservice to Theresa May. She was about more than cosmetic window dressing. By the time she became prime minister she recognised that politics had changed. She knew what was required was more than a Thatcherite revival or creating a team blue version of Tony Blair.

While she is criticised for the way she handled the difficult politics of Brexit, it is often overlooked that she won more former Labor "red wall" seats than Boris Johnson. She did this with a more "Red Tory" economic nationalist agenda, one focused far less on financial trading in the city of London and more on building industry in the regions. Philosophically, May urged people to look more at the thinking of leaders, such as Benjamin Disraeli and Joseph Chamberlain, rather than just Milton Friedman.

If the Australian centre-right is genuinely looking to Britain for models for the future it could do far worse than focus on what Danny Kruger, Miriam Cates, Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick are saying. It is not only immigration but trade, foreign policy, family policy and the entire economic model of modern western countries that needs to be radically re-examined.

Of course, all politics is local. But there are trends and new ideas to bear in mind.

Australians don't like Donald Trump's bombastic style. They also find the over-the-top rhetorical Oxbridge performances of Boris Johnson a bit silly. But they are up for a genuine discussion on how to repair our country delivered in a plainly worded, down-to-earth Australian way.

At some level, most people recognise that a dramatic restructuring of the existing bipartisan policy framework needs to happen. What is in place now is not working.

The future of the Liberal Party is not teal progressivism pushed by those from yesteryear. Nor is it some open-borders market-above-all utopia, which sees Australia as nothing more than an economic zone. The future is a thoughtful new conservatism.