How the Liberal Party lost its hold on Australia

Paul Kelly, Editor-at-Large of The Australian, investigates how the country went from the great reform age under Hawke, Keating and Howard, into the tumultuous Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison era of prime ministers, and arrived at the current existential crisis facing the Liberal Party.

Paul started his career as a political journalist in the 1970s and was at old Parliament House when Gough Whitlam was dismissed.

In his latest book, Paul examines how the Liberal Party lost its long-standing grip on the Australian psyche between 2013 and 2022, as it cycled through three temperamentally and ideologically divergent prime ministers. 

He says that despite its many achievements, the Coalition in office was marked by a period of under-performance and doubts over the political system's capacity to serve the national interest.

Paul looks at the factors underpinning the current crisis besetting the Coalition and the reasons why Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison all struggled to govern, in very different ways.

Further information

The Twilight of Exceptionalism: The Liberal and Conservative Era 2013 - 2022 is published by Melbourne University Press.

This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan. Conversations' Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

This episode covers Liberal party crisis, Barnaby Joyce, One Nation, conservatism, populism, populist, same sex marriage plebiscite, postal survey, carbon tax, Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd, covid19, covid, conservative politics, conservatism, MH17, Putin, Ukraine, mossad, ASIS, budget, NDIS, Gonski, Prince Philip, knighthood, Scotty from marketing, China, AUKUS, Albanese, 

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