Checkmate by Bishop?
To paraphrase Paul Keating, every pet shop galah is talking about Bronwyn Bishop. Bishop has been elevated to almost regal status by a delighted Canberra press gallery starved of any real political debate between the two major parties.
From a Liberal Party point of view, John Hewson has to go. Blessed with only one idea, itself second-hand, having been discarded earlier by an astute Keating, Hewson was unable to depart from his unpopular GST script for fear of having nothing else to say.
The statement that there is little or no difference between Labor and Liberal is so widely accepted today as to have become a cliche. But Hewson's problem lies precisely in the truth of the cliche.
Unable to defeat an ageing Labor government in the midst of the deepest recession since the '30s, with official unemployment figures in excess of 11%, there is only one way to go: aggressively rightward.
Even more so now if we are to believe the pundits who believe that with the economy coming out of recession federal Labor has two more terms left in it. Enter Bronwyn Bishop.
Gone is the short-lived influence of the moderates ("wets"), personified by Andrew Peacock; they were decisive in re-electing Hewson, but with the tide running against him all options are to the right.
Bishop's posturing might seem slightly ridiculous, but this is no "Joh for PM" campaign. This is serious because the media say it is. The question for the big business power brokers in the Liberal Party would appear to be one of timing.
In the late '70s, many laughed off the possibility of Margaret Thatcher ascending the full height of the Conservative Party leadership ladder — history doesn't share the joke.
The conservative policies of the British Labour Party in government paved the way for Thatcher. In New Zealand also, the Labour Party's economic "rationalism" in government brought the National Party to power. In the same way, the right-wing, pro-business policies of the ALP in government have created the space for a Thatcherite demagogue in Australian federal politics. If Bishop falters, the Liberal Party will have no shortage of candidates for the role.
Clinging on to Labour in Britain hasn't defeated the right. It isn't working here. The trade union movement and the peak environmental bodies should read the writing on the wall, and learn something as well from the successes of the NewLabour Party and Alliance in New Zealand. If a determined and unified fight against right-wing politics, whether administered by Liberal or Labor, is not soon mounted, it might be checkmate by Bishop.