Editorial: Does dire Coalition need to go back-to-the-future?

If it is the case that oppositions don’t win elections, governments lose them, then this should be a fruitful time to be the Federal leader of the Opposition.

Since sweeping back into office in the election of May last year, the Albanese Government has given every impression that it is on a mission to lose the next one.

Witness the timid and misguided response to the rise of pro-Palestine protests and anti-Semitism even before the horror of the Bondi massacre.

The Government’s inadequate response to that tragedy until it was shamed into calling a royal commission.

Its ham-fisted Budget which broke promises given before the 2025 election that capital gains tax and negative gearing would not be touched.

The subsequent changes on the run and backflips as flaw after flaw in the Budget process and implementation emerged.

The ISIS brides who found their way back into Australia as the Government claimed its hands were tied and nothing could be done.

This is a climate in which the Opposition should be soaring.

And yet what do we see?

One Nation — well, Pauline Hanson — has virtually become the opposition while official Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has almost become irrelevant to the debate.

The last two rounds of major opinion polling were telling.

A Newspoll conducted on June 1–4 gave One Nation 31 per cent of the primary vote, Labor 30 per cent and the Coalition just 18 per cent.

A Newspoll between Monday and Thursday last week showed Labor on 33 per cent, One Nation on 29 per cent and the Coalition on a new historic low of 17 per cent.

This is surely now not just a blip.

The Coalition faces wipe-out.

Mr Taylor is also in danger.

Mr Taylor did make a brief splash last month when he announced mass migration would come to an end, that a government he led would cap immigration based on the numbers of homes built each year and income tax would be indexed to inflation.

But since then he has been outflanked by Senator Hanson, who has sucked up the political oxygen available on the Right.

In response to the latest polling Mr Taylor said voters were “angry with everything and everyone” and rebuilding trust with the Australian public would take time.

It is impossible to say how this will play out.

Political and societal norms are in flux.

Australia for a long time has been based on a stable two-party political framework.

But now it seems we have three.

The rise of One Nation, the third party in, is linked to the failings of the majors — and in particular the inability of the Coalition to be an effective opposition.

The Liberals need a game changer.

It may be that person is not in the Parliament today.

That raises some interesting ideas.

Is it time they turned to a person of standing and gravitas to come into Parliament and take the wheel?

Could it be former treasurer Josh Frydenberg?

Or even former prime minister Tony Abbott?

There is no doubt the times have changed.

Could it be time for one of them?

Responsibility for the editorial comment is taken by Editor-in-Chief Christopher Dore