The speech Angus Taylor won’t make

The Liberal Party’s federal council meets in Melbourne today, with its main order of business being the election of Tony Abbott as the party’s new federal president – unopposed, since Alexander Downer withdrew from the contest last week. (See my earlier report here.)

Federal leader Angus Taylor will also address the council. This is the speech that he should make, but won’t.

Fellow Liberals, we meet at a time of crisis in Australian politics. The task ahead of us is a daunting one, but our country desperately needs a change in direction. The Albanese government has forfeited the trust of the Australian people and it falls to us to chart the way forward.

Only Liberal policies can assure Australia’s prosperity and security. At the next election, whenever it is held, we must be ready to offer a program that can inspire the confidence of Australians in all walks of life.

This government’s failures have driven many voters to easy and superficial solutions. We must make it clear that these populist nostrums are not the answer – the public’s discontent, however justified, does not warrant abandoning the distinctive values of Australian democracy.

The media have manufactured a big issue out of this, so it is important that the Liberal Party not leave the Australian people in any doubt about where we stand. Let me by crystal clear: we are opposed to the populist assault on democracy, in whatever form it takes. Liberalism and Liberal values stand in direct contrast to the extremes of both far left and far right.

As long as I am leader, this party will under no circumstances partner with extremist parties, including Pauline Hanson’s One Nation. We will not ask for or accept their support, and we will not co-operate in any way in admitting them to a share of power. We will not be accessories to the adoption of policies that set Australian against Australian and undermine the fundamental values that have made this country great.

You all know that we have many very serious practical and philosophical differences with the Labor Party. But they bear no comparison with the gulf that separates us from the populists – from those whose only agenda is to feed their own egos and to bid for power by stoking hatred, division and distrust. It is vital that we stand firm against that threat.

I blame the Labor Party for having created the conditions in which so many people could be willing to turn their backs on Australian democracy. Yet for all that I do not dispute that its leaders are patriotic Australians, who want the best for our country.

I trust the common sense of the people too much to believe for a moment that this will happen, but should it ever be the case that neither the Coalition nor Labor can form a majority government on its own, my hand will be the first to reach across the aisle and seek an agreement to provide for stable government.

A half-competent speechwriter could no doubt improve on this, but don’t worry about that: focus on the substance. Rather consider why it is that we know for certain that this is not what Taylor will say.

There are countries where a centre-right leader could make this speech, or one like it. In Germany or France or Portugal or Greece it would be relatively unexceptional. In some other countries, Britain among them, it would not be made, but it would also not seem beyond the bounds of possibility: a centre-right leader could imagine taking this position, even if it was not their chosen track for now.

But in Australia such a thing has become unimaginable. We need to think about why, and we might not like the answer.