EDITORIAL: Panicked Liberals need to take a deep breath

The numbers are undeniably terrible.

The Coalition’s primary vote has collapsed to an abysmal 24 per cent while Liberal leader Sussan Ley’s approval rating is -33.

Monday’s Newspoll shows that the Coalition’s fortunes have continued to deteriorate since they captured only 31.8 per cent of the primary vote in the disastrous May election.

Ms Ley is personally even more unpopular with voters than the “unelectable” Peter Dutton was at his lowest point.

Every time the Coalition think they’ve found rock bottom, they discover there’s a little further to fall.

The Nationals have reacted by dumping their commitment to net zero, a choice which has put a gun to the Liberals’ heads as they continue to wait on the result of a post-election policy review. Either follow suit or tear the Coalition in two. Again.

Understandably, the Liberals are freaking out.

Now more than ever, Australians need a credible Opposition

Some are urging the leadership to junk the target. Others want to call the Nationals on their bluff, believing they’ll be better able to appeal to the city voters they’ve lost without the junior party tugging them further to the right.

And others are advocating for a half-half approach — watering down their net zero “commitment” to an “aspiration”.

Whatever their position, all want to change course in some direction, because what they’re offering currently clearly isn’t winning over voters.

What they should do first is take a deep breath.

Yes, the numbers are very bad. Voters don’t like what they see as self-interested infighting and leadership jostling.

But it’s important to remember that the Coalition — in particular the Liberals — are only a few months out from a deeply painful election loss.

To expect the issues which arose out of that thrashing to be resolved just five months later is naive. The party hasn’t yet even received back its post-election review.

That said, it seems inevitable that Ms Ley’s leadership has a shelf life. That’s a shame, because her stated mission to recapture the sensible centre by resisting a lurch to the right is an admirable one (though her recent decision to indulge in a campaign of faux outrage about the Prime Minister’s choice of T-shirt indicated her resolve may be faltering).

However, odds have always been against her leading the Liberals to the 2028 election. A leadership change is question of who and when, not if.

While a certain degree of tumult is to be expected at this point, it is in the interests of the Coalition — and Australians — for the parties to sort themselves out as soon as possible.

Anthony Albanese appears almost unassailable so complete is his dominance at present over Australian politics. Yet while the election delivered Labor a record number of seats, its primary vote was a middling 34.5 per cent.

The economy is stalling, our energy future is uncertain, inflation is reawakening and interest rate cuts are disappearing before our eyes. They weren’t too sold on this Government in the first place.

Now more than ever, Australians need a credible Opposition to hold this Government to account.

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