Ley’s U.S. road trip leads to later Liberal ‘clarity’

Sussan Ley has continued the conservative tradition of finding "clarity" and compassion, after it matters, writes managing editor Michelle Pini.

IT'S FASCINATING how many conservative politicians discover their social conscience as well as their “voice” once they leave politics, usually after being unceremoniously dumped by their party or electorate.

Former PM Malcolm Turnbull, since he remained with the Liberal Party for 14 years and accepted cabinet portfolios, enabled Howard and Abbott’s unspeakable policies on refugees, implemented during his 14 years in government by immigration ministers Amanda Vanstone and Kevin Andrews, Scott Morrison, and the dark lord of border protection Peter Dutton.

During his tenure, Turnbull was obviously also okay with the Dickensian economic hardship the Abbott Government inflicted on Australia’s most vulnerable.

Turnbull likewise accepted and therefore enabled some of the most regressive flat-earth policies on communications and energy, even after he had the power to implement change as PM. (And no, one Snowy Hydro scheme does not a comprehensive climate change policy make.)

Nonetheless, Turnbull was only able to speak about how backward and/or despicable these policies were once he reached the safety of his Sydney eastern-suburbs retirement.

How have you disappointed me, Malcolm Turnbull?

It's best not to ask how you have disappointed Australia, Prime Minister, writes deputy editor Michelle Pini.

Former Liberal Minister for Family and Community Services Amanda Vanstone was so lacking in empathy for those doing it tough, she prompted then-Shadow Minister for Family and Community Services Wayne Swan to describe her as "a political hyena who takes delight in attacking society's most vulnerable". The Sydney Morning Herald (for which she later began a regular column) asked, 'Could Amanda Vanstone be the meanest person in Canberra?'.

As immigration minister, Vanstone's attitude to asylum seekers – which her party labelled "boat people" – went as far as claiming that a refugee boat that capsized in Indonesian waters was not filled with genuine refugees, but "media savvy opportunists". Her "tell-someone-who-cares" attitude even extended to deporting Australian citizens and permanent residents deemed undesirable by her department.

Nonetheless, the long-retired former senator can now be found chastising her former party for moving away from its support of multiculturalism and pandering to Pauline Hanson's Far-Right rhetoric. Vanstone also advised Angus Taylor against turning immigration into heavy-handed law enforcement.

Hmm... right-wing immigration rhetoric and heavy-handed law enforcement, you say, Amanda?

The Governor General and the attack dog

Governor-General Quentin Bryce should be applauded for calling for an Australia republic and Amanda Vanstone should stop acting like her dog Gus, says senior correspondent Barry Everingham.

And not wanting to be left behind, lest Vanstone becomes the "voice" of the Liberal Party's so-called small "l" Liberals, the latest conservative to discover they have a voice and can speak up about the downtrodden is former Liberal Party Leader Sussan Ley.

Upon losing a leadership spill to Angus Taylor, Ley formally resigned as the member for Farrer, creating a by-election, which the Libs ironically lost to One Nation. Ley travelled to the States to “find clarity”, and then wrote a story about it, because she was apparently also trying to “find [her] voice”.

The result of her discovery is a well-written tale of her observations on a bus trip through a grim, Trump-ruled, middle America.

Speaking with ABC’s 7.30's Sarah Ferguson about her experience, Ley opined:

“It was about finding clarity. And I did find clarity ... There was [sic] people whose lives were in transition and disarray, and that’s what struck me from the moment I got on the first bus."

What a revelation the trip must have been for Sussan.

Ferguson asked Ley, "Any regrets about how you'd been in the past?", to which Ley replied:

"I'm actually not someone who has regrets ... And if I think about my time in politics, I'm proud of what I achieved. I don't dwell on it because I'm very much focused on the next chapter of my life."

Leying down the new order with Sussan: A Liberal Party fictional tale

A woman has been voted leader of the Liberal Party, but will Sussan Ley listen to voters and "modernise" the party, and is her appointment a breakthrough for women?

Interesting indeed, given that Ley remained mostly mute about all the horrific things her party "achieved" during her 25 years inside the Liberal Party, under the reigns of Howard, Abbott, Turnbull, Morrison and even as 2IC to Dutton, whose policies not only mirrored those of Trump but about whom Dutton openly fawned.

Among all the horrendous Trumpian human rights horrors and elitist economic policies throughout the 25 years during which Ley remained mute, one of the most interesting was perhaps during the time when Turnbull was PM in 2017. Lee resigned her cabinet position, but unfortunately, it was not in protest over Dutton’s border protection torture policies, or the party's continued development of fossil fuels or climate destruction, but over a scandal involving Ley’s use of taxpayer-funded travel entitlements for trips to the Gold Coast to purchase personal property investments.

Then there was the time under Morrison’s rule (when she was again a cabinet minister), when Robodebt was actively and illegally pursued and when such a complete absence of compassion prevailed, the whole government needed to undergo empathy training.

Still no voice emerged for Ley, apparently.

Elaborating on the misery she saw during her excursion through Trump's America, Ley told 7.30:

“It’s hard to describe the expression on someone’s face that comes from a lifetime of being overlooked.”

Indeed it is, Sussan. And we would add, it is truly a shame that over your 25-year career, you did not notice or speak out while your own party attempted to emulate the very policies that have created the grim U.S. environment you have now witnessed firsthand.

As Vanstone recently warned, the Tories cannot win government if they abandon moderate, inner-city metropolitan voters in favour of chasing hardline or divisive rhetoric.

And therein lies the rub. The reason these conservative politicians only find their social conscience after it no longer matters is because the end game is not about how they can serve the people or progress the nation, but about how they can stay in power.

This is an abridged version of an editorial originally published in the IA weekly newsletter. Subscribe now to read the full version online in the IA members-only area.

Follow managing editor Michelle Pini on Twitter @vmp9 and Bluesky @michellepini.bsky.social, and Independent Australia on Twitter at @independentaus, Facebook HERE and Instagram HERE.