As the ABC Four Corners program entitled "The Right Stuff" (broadcast in July, 2006) showed, this new right has even gone to the extent of sidelining conservatives who do not agree with its narrow religious and ideological agenda.
Realistically, the only person who has any ability to rein in this far-right cabal is the Prime Minister himself. The situation has become so bad that now the NSW Nationals are openly canvassing the possibility of dissolving the Coalition. One can hardly blame them. Any continued association with a party dominated by such ultra-conservatives is virtually unelectable.
If Howard doesn't act soon, his refrain of the party being a broad church may soon become a contradiction in terms. He might also be confirming criticism Kevin Rudd made in The Sydney Morning Herald on November 9, 1996, when he wrote of a systematic culling of small "l" Liberals or old-fashioned Fraserian conservatives with a social conscience from their ranks.
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When that happens, the Liberals might find the only party willing to enter into a Coalition agreement will be Fred Nile's Christian Democrats.
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About the Author
Irfan Yusuf is a New South Wales-based lawyer with a practice focusing on workplace relations and commercial dispute resolution. Irfan is also a regular media commentator on a variety of social, political, human rights, media and cultural issues. Irfan Yusuf's book, Once Were Radicals: My Years As A Teenage Islamo-Fascist, was published in May 2009 by Allen & Unwin.