The perilous pull of the far-right |
The National Party has lunged for the button marked 'break glass in emergency' by drafting the contrarian populist agitator, Matt Canavan, to its leadership.
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The 45-year-old, coal-loving senator was an unusual choice suggesting that the party finally understands the clear and present danger on its right flank.
Its urgency is, at least, proportional.
Unlike the Liberals, the Nats recognise that things are dramatically shifting in Australian politics. As such, the continued dominance of the establishment parties can no longer be assumed.
The prime opponent now is Pauline Hanson's One Nation party with its uncomplicated nostalgia for a once perfect Australia - read: predominantly white - since ruined by woke cosmopolitans, and so-called "mass" immigration.
As the electoral bases of the right splinter and realign, Canavan has been tasked with a clear mission of neutralising the Nats' most famous former face, Barnaby Joyce.
It will be a fascinating match-up pitting the economic populist Canavan against the two politicians now so established in the electoral terrain that their surnames are superfluous: Barnaby and Pauline.
Since Joyce jumped ship, complaining of being sidelined under David Littleproud, a succession of opinion polls have put One Nation ahead of the Coalition and drawing closer to Labor's vote share.
Whatever his deficits in urban Australia, Joyce remains popular in the bush and was once lauded by Tony Abbott as the nation's best retail politician.
While Hanson might quibble, there is little doubt that her success in coaxing Joyce across has been a major factor in One Nation's flatulent rise. That will lead to ego-clashes and leadership tensions in the future but in the short-term, the sharpest pain is being felt in the Nats and by extension, the Liberal Party.
It is a sign of the perilousness now gripping the establishment parties of the right that........