Conservative politics the headline of journos conversation

THE apparent disintegration of conservative politics in Australia will be analysed in an upcoming conversation featuring two of the country’s foremost political journalists.

The Australian’s editor-at-large and three-time Walkley Award winner Paul Kelly, and the Keith Dunstan Quill for Commentary recipient, columnist and former Labor advisor Sean Kelly, will convene at Ulumbarra Theatre on 22 July to be joined by broadcaster, writer, interviewer and anthropologist Sally Warhaft as host.

Discussion topics will cover what it would take for the Coalition to win back the trust of Australian voters and what the deep tensions shaping conservative politics could mean for the impending Victorian election.

Paul Kelly provided some background ahead of the event, including his own definition of Australian-style conservatism.

“It’s basically the politics that comes from the centre-right, which we’ve understood for many decades to be coming from the Liberal and National parties,” he said.

“They’re seen to represent both, if you like, liberalism and conservatism.

“Conservatism varies from country to country and from time to time, but it’s traditionally seen as a philosophy which values and upholds stability and the status quo, and is prudent and cautious against significant or radical change.”

Kelly said its beginnings can be derived from the UK and the US.

“People such as Edmund Burke were great exponents of conservatism and there’s been a very strong brand of conservatism in British politics going back centuries,” he said.

“In terms of the initial settlement here under governors such as Arthur Phillip and Lachlan Macquarie, they tended to be less conservative and more liberal, representing the tradition of political liberalism, which was a companion to conservatism in Britain.”

Quizzed on the current state of the nation, Kelly acknowledged that it’s “an incredibly volatile and unpredictable time”.

“There are different views about this, but I’d simply say we’ve seen a lot of upheaval in the last 12 months and it’s probably not realistic to think that everything is now going to stabilise and settle where it is,” he said.

“So, one would imagine that there’ll be more changes yet to come.

“I think it would be premature to think that the Coalition and the Liberals are finished as viable and strong forces, given that One Nation is such an experimental party, a grievance party.

“Admittedly, it’s got a lot of momentum at the moment, but one can’t necessarily assume that it will last – Pauline Hanson is not a politician of the calibre of either Nigel Farage or Donald Trump.”

Find out more on Wednesday 22 July at Ulumbarra Theatre.

Tickets are available on Gotix.