Throwing in the towel

Hanson prefers the job of critic to the responsibilities of running a government

Ten months into Anthony Albanese’s second term, the top priority for every conservative politician must be to ensure that he doesn’t get a third.

Every waking hour should be spent building a viable alternative government capable of winning an election.

If One Nation’s leaders intend to play their part in Albanese’s downfall, they must move from offering criticisms from the sidelines to actively pursuing the responsibilities of leadership. They need to demonstrate the resolve to replace an underperforming government with one that better serves Australians.

Pauline Hanson broke more than one conservative heart this week by revealing in a Sky News interview that she has no interest in forming government.

“I don’t want any ministerial positions,” she said. “I want to remain completely independent to judge the legislation that’s being put up.”

After the Coalition’s near-death experience at the last election, many hoped Hanson might become Australia’s Nigel Farage, seizing the gap in the market for common-sense conservative politics in a world that sometimes appears in danger of becoming irredeemably woke.

They looked for a leader fortified by principled self-belief, one with the strength to stop the downward drift of the country Hanson undoubtedly loves. They wanted a leader with the instincts of a farmer — someone who fixes the fence, not someone who sits on the verandah bellyaching about the workmanship.

The lives of Australians will not be improved by critics content merely to judge legislation once it has been introduced. Australia’s course, for better or worse, will be set by the people who draft and pass that legislation in the first place.

As things stand, Barnaby Joyce is theoretically One Nation’s prime minister-in-waiting, as the party’s only representative in the Lower House. Yet he appears bound by the narrow circumference of his own ambition, judging by his heated exchange with Laura Jayes on Sky News Australia last week.

Joyce: We strongly support building new coal-fired power stations … we think that’s really important.

Jayes: Pauline Hanson ruled out on Sky News just the other day that she would be part of a super coalition. So you can talk about coal-fired power stations for as long as you want, but it doesn’t matter. Because you’re never going to be a part of government. How can you ever effect change rather than fight from the sidelines?

Joyce accused Jayes of conceit but did not attempt to prove her wrong by revealing a burning ambition to be in government. One Nation’s aim was “to be a positive influence on trying to make sure that this nation takes a different direction,” he said.

Australia needs a leader, not an influencer, one who, like John Howard 30 years ago, can move decisively and chart a new course.

To the extent that One Nation’s rise influenced the leadership vote in the Coalition party rooms, Hanson and Joyce can celebrate a job well done.

Yet Chris Uhlmann’s Sky News documentary this week reminded us that a reform-minded centre-right government cannot succeed on principles alone. It requires the pragmatism and diplomacy to navigate legislation through parliament.

Howard’s success stemmed from his refusal to let the perfect become the enemy of the good. Major reforms, like the introduction of the GST, had to be negotiated through the Senate with the Australian Democrats and independents. As Thomas Sowell’s iron law of politics reminds us: there are no solutions, only trade-offs.

Matt Canavan, like Joyce and Hanson, is a conviction politician. There are few noble principles the three would not share.

Yet neither Joyce nor Hanson can match Canavan’s ambition, which goes beyond being merely a positive influence or a critic of other people’s policies.

Canavan will not be content with coming second. He has the sportsman’s instinct that to finish second is to finish last. Even worse would be finishing third behind daylight, which may become the collective fate of the centre-right parties if they continue on their current path.

For while the polls show that seven out of ten Australians back parties other than Labor, Albanese is still set for another strong parliamentary majority once preferences are distributed.

Canavan, like Angus Taylor, has little patience for the cant and rituals of politics. But neither man is content to play with the virtue-signallers of the right, drawing comfort from ideological purity while leaving power in the hands of their opponents.

They understand the wisdom expressed by Theodore Roosevelt in his memorable 1910 address to the Sorbonne.

“It is not the critic who counts,” he said. “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood.

“If he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. His place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”