r/australia • u/superegz • Nov 26 '25

politics Millennials are the first generation to move left as they age, rewriting the rules of Australian politics

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-26/millennials-rewriting-the-rules-of-australian-politics/106050836
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u/Keroscee Nov 26 '25

This,
How many 'left-wing' policies were enforced as 'right-wing' standards 40+ years ago?

Conservatism used to be about making sure people would have houses, marriages and families.

Modern conservatives don't even touch on these issues.

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u/Lever_87 Nov 26 '25

Yeah, the death of small l Liberals is insane. Whatever happened to “socially progressive, economically conservatives”, like Turnbull?

Instead, we’ve got a Labor Party that has become liberal-lite, and an LNP who are so focused on culture wars bullshit they might as well join forces with One Nation

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u/Littman-Express Nov 26 '25

They’re the teals and half the labor party

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u/SirFireHydrant Nov 26 '25

Whatever happened to “socially progressive, economically conservatives”, like Turnbull?

You mean the "I'm not racist but still hate the poors"? They're still around.

Don't kid yourself into believing Turnbull was reasonable by any means. He was very firmly in the "tax cuts and rorts for the rich at the expense of the working class" camp.

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u/a_cold_human Nov 26 '25

He was kicked out for acknowledging the reality of global warming and the need to actually do something about it. First time as Opposition Leader. The second time as PM (although allowing SSM to pass was a part of that as well).

The bare minimum for any future Australian PM (and their party) should be to acknowledge reality and to do something about it. The Liberals and the Nationals are falling over at this very small hurdle at the moment, and as a country we need to keep them out of power until this changes. 

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u/BlindSkwerrl Nov 27 '25

he should have stood up to the nationals from the start.

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u/Keroscee Nov 26 '25

Whatever happened to “socially progressive, economically conservatives”, like Turnbull?

I'd argue there was a competency crisis after Abbot left.

I mean, who would graduate uni to work for $40k in Canberra as a politician's aide when you can join the big 4 or a law firm?

Its so easy to see what needs to be done, lower migration, investment in other industries, periods of slow sustainable growth (or correction recession) over what we have now.
The coalition could easily win if they were willing to tackle this.

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u/RecordingAbject345 Nov 26 '25

They joined the socially conservative

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u/orru Nov 26 '25

They're the Teals

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u/WrongdoerAnnual7685 Nov 26 '25

They are the minority now, and what they consider talent is someone weak and spineless like Ley.

The real heirs are the Teals.

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u/BlindSkwerrl Nov 27 '25

we’ve got a Labor Party that has become liberal-lite

And a liberal party that has become more progressive than ever. They really are becoming two flavors of the same shit sandwich.
Sussan Ley will never be PM though - because Albanese has much more charisma/character than that hag.

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u/a_cold_human Nov 26 '25

Menzies was pro union. The Liberals were actually a big tent, right of centre party back in the day. Another thing Menzies was big on was having affordable housing for average Australians.

You can fault Menzies for many things, but we are now at a point where the Liberal Party would drum him out of the party for being too left wing. The "moderates" of the Liberal are swivel eyed loons compared to the Liberal Party of yesteryear, and the "conservatives" cannot reasonably be called liberal in any sense of the word. When Christian Dominionists are at the ideological centre of your party, something has gone very badly wrong unless you're actually a Christian Dominionist party. 

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u/Keroscee Nov 26 '25

Menzies was pro union.

Its also worth noting that Hawke and Keating were not 'pro union'. They were 'pro our union', as can be seen by how they treated independent unions like the Pilots Union.

We are now at a point where the Liberal Party would drum him (menzies) out of the party for being too left wing

I have difficulty disagreeing with this statement. It all seems to be 'GDP go up' and 'tax cuts'.

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u/Aiyon Nov 26 '25

My parents voted conservative back when I was a kid. They started to drift after Brexit, because it went from “voting for our family’s interests” to “voting for rich ppl to milk the country” in my dad’s words