The dismal election result for the Liberals and Nationals in Australia may yet set them free. By shifting to the left on issues like Climate Change the Liberals were hobbled. They tried to be Labor -lite, but then couldn't point out the sheer stupidity of trying to change the weather. Net Zero was a good goal they said, and so the voters voted for people who would do more of it sooner.  By adopting Labor-Green ideas and just trying to be better managers of bad programs they lost their mojo. There were no battles on principles in this election, just personalities.

The Right have been bullied into submission — afraid of being called climate deniers, racists, sexist or anti-vaxxer, they fought for nothing much. And so the voters voted for nothing much — splitting every which way. Astonishingly a new government will be formed that nearly 70% of Australians didn't vote for. The Labor Party won with the lowest primary vote ever recorded in Australian history.

The great realignment of politics bit the Liberals
Waleed Aly, surprisingly, captured it better than anyone, pointing out that voters in wealthy electorates shifted left, while those in less wealthy seats moved right. The Liberals lost the traditional well heeled blue-ribbon seats to the renewables industry candidates in the Teal Party (the Sneaky Greens). But climate change is a fashion contest, and not only does it make no sense, but by definition, the sensible-option never wins on the cat-walk. Once one half of politics gave up fighting the intrinsic silliness of it, and stopped talking hard numbers, the only contest left was the fashionable one.