PMs actions raise the question: How liberal is the Liberal Party? – Sky News Australia

The exodus of three prominent former Liberal politicians to the Liberal Democratic Party raises questions as to whether Scott Morrison's party is still living up to its name.

What happened to the Liberal in Liberal Party? Its a question that many former top Liberals are clearly asking, with a mini-exodus of three former Queensland premier Campbell Newman, former Parramatta MP Ross Cameron and former Warringah operative John Ruddick to the Liberal Democrats.

Mainstream Australians would more than blush at the no-holds-barred extreme libertarianism of the minor party Ruddick even attended the idiotic anti-lockdown protest in Sydney but these diehard freedom-fighters could be forgiven for finding the nominally Liberal Prime Minister Scott Morrison a very Liberal fish indeed.

One of the things that turned their stomach was the PMs willingness to roll out massive government spending programs to prop up workers and businesses during the peak of the COVID-19 crisis.

In fact this is one of the things Morrison deserves great credit for. A PM abandoning party ideology in a time of national crisis in order to pursue the best possible practical outcome is precisely what a prime minister should do. To reverse-ferret a certain Dan Andrews quote, thats not being a Liberal, thats being a leader.

But the PMs latest contortions on border closures and vaccine passports have him sounding more like the protectionist premiers of Queensland and WA than someone with traditional Liberal values of freedom of movement, individual rights and personal responsibility.

To be clear, I am all for pragmatism over principle. Otherwise you end up with the old socialist academics lament of Thats all very well in practice, but how does it work in theory?

But Morrisons newly acquired love of hard border closures and lockdowns is neither principled nor pragmatic. It might be politically popular or at this point in his popularity politically vital but that is not the same thing.

Research conducted before the Sydney outbreak found that the number one non-health reason for Australians not getting vaccinated was that they felt they didnt have to because the borders were shut. And of course the borders were shut because not enough people were getting vaccinated.

And so the governments lockout had in fact locked itself in to a Mexican stand-off. Just as almost every state bar NSW relied upon snap border shutdowns to shield their sub-par contact tracing programs, the commonwealth was relying upon a national border shutdown to shield its sub-par vaccination program.

But it is now clear to Blind Freddy that with the doubly-virulent Delta variant our only way out of this mess is with mass vaccination. Even with the best contact tracers in the world and a two-tiered lockdown Sydney can at best keep the numbers at bay.

Elimination is as some of us have always said a false idol. We need to fight the virus, not hide from it.

So why is Scott Morrison so suddenly opposed to freedoms for those who have done the right thing and got their two shots as soon as possible? Why should good civic duty go so completely unrewarded?

And indeed why is this Liberal prime minister so adamant that liberty-depriving lockdowns are the only way out of our misery rather than the liberating effects of being fully vaccinated? Surely there could be no greater motivator to get the jab?

On Monday the PM shot down Opposition Leader Anthony Albaneses plan to give a $300 cash payment to those willing to do their duty, saying an easing of restrictions should be the primary incentive.

But then on Tuesday he also shot down NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklians suggestion that her government might ease restrictions for the fully vaccinated.

Talk about vaccination vacillation. This is exactly the kind of sloppy messaging that has caused so much confusion in the first place.

Australians who have done the governments often bewildering bidding, done everything that has been asked of them in these difficult times, should be rewarded with the freedom that all true citizens deserve.

And any anti-vaxxer who whines about the unfairness of such freedom coming at a cost should take a leaf out of the history books or take a look at those who forged them.

Ask any veteran if freedom comes at a cost some of them took bullets for it.

All you have to do is take a needle.

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PMs actions raise the question: How liberal is the Liberal Party? - Sky News Australia