At the 2019 election, many conservatives – the “quiet Australians” – went back to the Liberals, given that Malcolm Turnbull had finally been dispensed with, and recalling that Scott Morrison seemed to have stopped the boats and was a regular churchgoer. Further, they were genuinely concerned about Bill Shorten’s ‘drastic climate action’. However, these same conservatives have reason to be very aggrieved, and are seriously considering voting for alternative parties at the forthcoming federal election. Why is this so?
Over the term of the Morrison government, Rocco Loiacono and Augusto Zimmermann have written extensively in an attempt to answer this question. In “Deconstructing ScoMo”, the authors highlight the Prime Minister’s failure to stand up for conservative values, namely, his abandonment of the principles of smaller government, economic reform, free speech and individual liberty, which successfully guided both the founder of the Liberal Party, Sir Robert Menzies, and Australia’s second-longest serving prime minister, John Howard. This compendium of articles is a must read as Australians head to the polls in 2022.
Rocco Loiacono is a Senior Lecturer at Curtin University Law School. Rocco contributes
regularly on matters concerning politics, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law in The Spectator Australia, Quadrant Online, The Epoch Times and The Australian, as well as in The Western Australian Jurist.
Augusto Zimmermann is Professor and Head of Law at Sheridan Institute of Higher
Education in Perth, Western Australia. He is also Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame Australia (Sydney Campus), the Founder and President of the Western Australian Legal Theory Association, the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Western Australian Jurist, an Elected Fellow at the International Academy for the Study of the Jurisprudence of the Family, and a former Law Reform Commissioner with the Law Reform Commission of Western Australia (2012-2017). He is the author/co-author/editor/co-editor of numerous academic articles and books on fundamental freedoms and the rule of law.
