Australia Is Behind the Times—Nationalists in Europe Are Winning, and We’re Still Clinging to a Broken Liberal Party, By Paul Walker

The political right in Australia has spent the better part of three decades sleepwalking through history. While conservative and nationalist movements across Europe, and now even in the UK, have surged forward, tapping into the anger and energy of working people, Australians have been told to hold their noses and vote Liberal. Again. And again.

That charade must end. The reality is stark: Australia is behind. Behind Hungary, behind Italy, behind Sweden, even behind France. And yes, behind the United Kingdom, where Nigel Farage's Reform UK is forcing the collapse of the Tory Party by doing something Australian conservatives refuse to do, stand for something.

In nation after nation, populist-nationalist parties are challenging the globalist status quo and winning. Giorgia Meloni in Italy. Viktor Orbán in Hungary. The Sweden Democrats. Even Marine Le Pen in France is more relevant today than any conservative voice in Australia. Why? Because they speak to real people about real issues: national sovereignty, family values, border protection, economic dignity, and the right to live free from the tyranny of unelected bureaucrats and international technocrats.

Meanwhile, in Canberra? The Liberals are still trying to outflank Labor on climate change and identity politics, desperately hoping to win over an elite media class that will never support them. The Nationals remain a shell, more interested in securing pork-barrel funding than standing for rural Australians. And all the while, everyday voters, the forgotten people have been abandoned.

This isn't just a case of political stagnation. It's political cowardice. Australian conservatives should have abandoned the Liberal Party decades ago. What's left of it today is a hollowed-out centrist clique afraid to say what it believes, if it believes anything at all. The so-called "broad church" has become a house divided, riddled with careerists, compromisers, and the kind of milquetoast leadership that folds in the face of every progressive agenda.

Let's be clear: no real conservative should feel loyalty to a party that won't fight for its people, its traditions, or its future.

The situation is urgent, but not hopeless. The global tide has turned. Australians can take heart from what's happening abroad. The same themes that fuelled the rise of Reform UK, Vox in Spain, the AfD in Germany, and Brothers of Italy are resonating here: frustration with mass immigration, cultural disintegration, authoritarian green policies, and a distant political class more interested in Davos than Dubbo.

But the path forward requires courage and clarity. Conservatives must cut ties with the failed Liberal Party, stop trying to "save" something that no longer represents them, and instead build something new: a populist, working-class, unapologetically nationalist force with broad appeal and real teeth.

Australia is not exempt from the global currents of discontent and rebellion. But unless the right here moves with the same boldness seen overseas, we will be doomed to repeat the same cycle of weak leadership, cultural decay, and political irrelevance.

We don't need to wait for the next crisis. The crisis is already here. It's time to act like Europe, speak like Reform, and fight like our future depends on it, because it does.

This election wasn't just a loss—it was a siren warning that the political establishment has abandoned the very people it once claimed to represent.

The Liberal and National parties failed to present a real conservative alternative, leaving Australia in the hands of a socialist Labor government intent on eroding our values and freedoms.

The right is fragmented, personality-driven, and structurally disadvantaged, with vote-splitting and a rigged system preventing unity and real representation.

A new movement must be built from scratch—strategic, principled, populist, and rooted in blue-collar Australia—one that speaks for the forgotten people.

This can't wait for the next crisis; the work must begin now, quietly and deliberately, to create a party that will truly fight for freedom, families, and common sense.

I'm angry.
Very, very angry.

Angry that the Liberal and National parties once again failed to put forward a coherent, conservative agenda the public could rally around. Angry that the future of this country has now been handed to a government of socialists—led by Anthony Albanese—who will use every day of the next three, six—maybe even nine—years to undermine our culture, weaken our economy, erode our freedoms, and unravel our national identity.

This isn't just politics. This is personal. It impacts my daughter. It impacts your children. And it could impact generations to come in ways we may never be able to undo.

This is the price of conservatives vacating the battlefield. Of refusing to fight the hard fights. Of ducking the culture wars. Of playing it safe for the past 30 years.

And now, Australians are left with a hollow choice: between Labor, and Labor-lite. The Liberals and Nationals continue their slow drift to the left—too afraid to stand for anything real, too eager to please the media, the elites, the Teals, and the technocrats in Canberra.

Let's be honest.
The Liberal Party, as a conservative force, is finished.
And the Nationals? They are no little more than a regional lobby group interested in pork-barrelling and ministerial portfolios.

We are long past due for something new.

But building a new force isn't easy. The biggest obstacle isn't personalities or party structures—it's mindset. Australians are still stuck in a two-party mentality. And while that's beginning to crack, it's cracking far too slowly. At the last election, nearly two-thirds of voters still chose either Labor or the Liberal National Coalition.

That's a massive barrier for any third party. But not an insurmountable one.

The truth is, the minor right is crowded. And too much of it is dominated by personality politics. Clive Palmer. Bob Katter. Pauline Hanson. Gerard Rennick. Big names, strong voices—but when the personality goes, often so does the vote. And let's be blunt: strong personalities also make unity difficult.

Then there's the system. It's rigged. Public funding overwhelmingly goes to the major parties. Senate reforms have made preference flows harder for smaller players. And right-wing voters—bless them—are fiercely independent. They don't like being told how to vote, even via simple how-to-vote cards. That leads to chaos in preferences. With the Senate vote still being counted, there is a possibility that may just one conservative minor party senator (One Nation's Malcolm Roberts) could be elected, despite nearly 14% of the national vote going to minor right-wing parties. United, that bloc could deliver one senator per state. But unity is exactly what we don't have.

Some parties now need to take a hard look in the mirror. If they know they're unlikely to ever elect someone—if their vote isn't growing—they need to ask what they're doing on the ballot at all. Because right now, they're just splitting votes that could deliver real change.

Does this mean a new movement must rise from scratch? Probably. There's too much antagonism and brand protectionism between existing players to simply "merge" our way to unity. What's needed is something deliberate, strategic, and entirely new.

And it will require defections from the Liberals and Nationals. Real ones. High-profile ones. Not just from Liberals and Nationals, you'd expect to defect like Senator Alex Antic or Senator Matthew Canavan (as good as they are), but from people like former Prime Minister Tony Abbott. And when you understand how deeply ingrained those individuals are in the Liberal brand (or Nationals brand), you start to realise how long and difficult this task will be.

But that's OK. We've got time. With the result we got on Saturday, it is certain that this Labor government will last at least two more terms—possibly even three. The groundwork must begin now. That means listening, planning, and learning.

One of the first things we should do? Look abroad. In the UK, the rise of Reform UK and the collapse of the Conservative Party offer a crystal ball glimpse of what might happen here. Italy. Hungary. Even the US. There are models to learn from and mistakes to avoid.

When we build this new movement, we must make sure it is not co-opted, not hijacked, and not hollowed out. That means building it on principle—and holding everyone inside it to those principles.

It doesn't mean rigid ideology. Unity will require compromise. Parties and individuals will have to set aside some long-held views for the sake of a bigger goal. But there must be a bedrock—a set of agreed values and core policies that no candidate, no member, no leader is allowed to deviate from. Otherwise, we'll simply repeat the failure of the Liberals.

This new force must be deeply conservative—but with a populist, blue-collar flavour. Forget appealing to the elite. Forget class warfare. The future lies with working families—mums and dads in the suburbs, tradies and small business owners in outer metro belts, the farmers, farmworkers, graziers and ringers throughout rural and regional Australia. That's where the base is. That's where the heart of this country beats.

And yes, this new movement would be unapologetically populist. That's not a dirty word.

Populism is simply the will of the people expressed in policy, in parliament, and in government. That is what democracy is. But instead, Australia has slid into technocracy—rule by bureaucrats who've never run a business, never worked a trade, and wouldn't survive a day in the private sector. And now they're telling the rest of us how to live.

Canberra is no longer making life easier. It's making it harder. Poorer. Less free.

We need to return to a system where Australians make the rules for Australia—not faceless operatives following marching orders from the UN, the World Economic Forum, and a string of elite globalist summits that have no business dictating our national agenda.

Faith-based voters and Christian communities will be vital in this effort, but they can't be the whole movement. Yes, we need Christian leaders to stand with us. Yes, we hope people of faith get involved because of the values this movement stands for. But it can't be built solely in the pews. Church attendance is collapsing. Identification with Christianity is declining. That's why parties like Australian Christians and Family First reach a ceiling—and can't grow beyond it.

The new movement must be broader. Wiser. Sharper.

If we want a blueprint, we should look back to Sir Robert Menzies. In 1944–45, he created the Liberal Party because the political scene had failed. He united splintered parties, outsiders, and independents to form a party that could win. Not a protest movement—a real force. And he did it by appealing to what he called "the forgotten people"—the Australians who worked hard, raised families, and got nothing but lectures from the political elite.

Well, we have new forgotten people now.

They're not elites. They're not ideologues. They're everyday Australians—honest, tired, fed-up—who've been left behind. And no one's speaking for them.

If we do nothing—if we pretend the Coalition can fix itself—then we're heading for a one-party state. A democracy in name only. Where the same agenda wins again and again, no matter who's in office.

That's the cost of inaction.

We don't need to rush. But we do need to start. Quietly. Strategically. And then, when the time is right, decisively.

Australia needs a party that fights for its people again. A party of freedom. A party of families. A party of common sense.

The forgotten people are still waiting."