We believe at least 60 per cent of Australians do not identify with left-wing progressive policies.
The majority have always been conservative-leaning to the extent that they are patriotic, love their country, are proud of their heritage, understand historic figures, and are thankful for the sacrifices of those in the armed forces.
These people, who have been tapped into a progressive political machine for decades, want to reclaim the Australian dream for themselves but – more importantly – for their children and grandchildren.
They have watched in dismay as, bit by bit, the Australian dream of owning your own home, having a reliable job, and raising a family, has been slowly whittled away by successive socialist-lite causes and advocates. Meanwhile, the people who were elected to stop this from happening have cheered it on for their own purposes.
The ‘left’ – if we may use that term – are a well-organised group.
We, the long-suffering taxpayers, pay the ‘left’ very well.
The ‘left’ have lots of time on their hands and understand institutional behaviour – how to use it, how to expand it, and how to profit from it. Conservatives steer towards the private sector and so institutions remain somewhat of a mystery.
Even worse… Conservatives do not fully understand the extent to which the left has permeated the public service at all levels. Academia, health service regulatory frameworks, employee-employer industry institutions, the charity and not-for-profit sector, Big Business and Corporate Australia, and the entire health and education administration.
They know, for example, that government-funded construction costs at least twice as much as it should – conservatives just don’t know why.
And the ‘why’ is how the taxpayer is exploited.
This all sounds bad, but the situation is fixable.
Politicians are the mechanism required to enact change. What do we, the 60+ per cent of taxpayers, have to do to get someone to stand up and fix the problem?
Charlie Munger famously said, ‘Show me the incentives and I will show you the results.’
The Liberal Reform Association is designed to address why our existing Liberal-National Party politicians refuse to talk about these problems, let alone do anything about them.
Existing politicians are incentivised to keep quiet. To look the other way. To do nothing.
There is no effective penalty for inaction.
This is how we ended up with a situation where the majority of Conservative voters and members want change, and a majority of politicians who never act. They get to keep their safe seats and comfy jobs as a reward for inaction. Indeed, these politicians earn more upholding the status quo than they could ever dream of in the private sector.
Not only are they rewarded, they’re terrified that if they stick their head up and start shaking up the status quo, they might ‘risk’ their re-election chances.
This is a cultural problem.
It cannot be changed by switching out politicians.
How many have we had? They all behaved the same.
To change the behaviour of politicians, we have to make structural changes to their environment. They need to be given incentives and shown consequences. Just like the real world…
This is not going to be easy, and we are going to need your help.
Take, for example, the Queensland LNP. Their constitutional review convention in 2026 proposes to further diminish the weak existing incentives. If successful, Queensland LNP politicians will be even less accountable to their membership – a small membership which will be further reduced, granting the party elites absolute control. When and if this is allowed to come to pass, the Queensland LNP will have laid the ground for the formation of a radical populist ‘Reform’ party which will ultimately destroy the existing LNP and guarantee Labor at least two terms of government.
That is not what we want.
When Menzies launched his new Liberal Party in 1946, he understood how important it was to have a large party membership. And it was large. Menzies attracted 60,000 members when the population of Australia stood at 6 million. One per cent of the population belonged to the Liberal Party.
If this enthusiasm had been maintained, the current LNP should have between 250,000 and 300,000 members. They do not. Estimates put the membership at 30,000, but my guess is that it has dropped even lower.
The Queensland LNP has around 10,000 with an average age in the mid-70s.
New South Wales sits at roughly 5,000. Victoria at 6,000, South Australia 5,000, Western Australia 3,000, and Tasmania perhaps 2,000.
The size of the membership is too small and so the Liberal Party has devolved into an elite, dysfunctional club run by power brokers who divide up the spoils of opposition instead of behaving like a mainstream political party with an honourable legacy.
Fixing this mess is a bit like dragging the party to hospital. It is going to require a reform of the internal party workings and a series of parallel conservative institutions.
You have already seen these institutions working in America. The late Charlie Kirk started Turning Point USA to bring the conservative message of pride and hope to young people. Podcaster Joel Jammal has started Turning Point Australia with the same goal. Red Union CEO Jack Maguire’s conservative national student union – which took over the Woke, DEI-obsessed QUT student union 10 years ago – needs to be fired up again by a new firebrand to take on the left on university campuses across Australia.
Systems can be changed for the better – even the union movement which most would assume is too deeply entrenched.
The Red Union movement, which I started in 2013, now has nearly 25,000 members and has demonstrated that workers are commonsense, conservative-leaning, and not radical in either direction. Workers do not believe that every problem must be solved by paying more taxes and calling on the government to get involved. People have never had a union that trusts people with their own money or thought this way about helping them.
For two years in the 90s I worked in the construction industry successfully organising CFMEU-free high-rise construction sites. The workers then voted emphatically against CFMEU control. If given a proper choice, my research tells me, they would do the same again today.
I predict 19,000 of the 20,000 Queensland CFMEU workers would leave the union tomorrow if they thought they could get a job without being forced to produce an ALP union ticket which cost them $2,000 each year if you don’t mind.
Thirty million alone in Queensland each year goes from workers, to the unions, and into the ALP – why won’t the LNP government help workers leave the CFMEU? It would certainly be to everyone’s benefit. If the workers were granted their freedom from the CFMEU, three-quarters of them will even vote for the LNP!
Across the country, the amount of money generated by the union movement for the ALP via (effectively) compulsory membership is astonishing. Why are LNP politicians too terrified to change the rules when they are in power to stop this from happening? Why not help workers keep their own money? Isn’t the purpose of a conservative party to fight for freedom of choice?
That is just one of many examples.
The Liberal Reform Association is designed to address the core problem that sits within the LNP and undo 30 years of decline.
We have to remind LNP politicians that the membership should have a meaningful role in their political career.
There are two critical, interrelated tasks to achieve.
Firstly, LNP politicians must believe that if they fail to do what their party members want, they will lose their job.
Secondly, to make this consequence real, the party membership needs to urgently expand.
Our goal is to get back to the Menzies position – 1 per cent of the population.
Canada’s conservative party has almost 2 per cent, so it is definitely possible.
We want the ‘wisdom of crowds’ embedded in the Liberal Party membership to guide politicians on their policy course.
Heaven knows they need some direction.
This approach is a powerful way to fix the party because politicians are not afraid of losing elections – they are afraid of losing their jobs. They are genuinely scared of losing their ‘right’ to be the approved candidate for the party.
Competitive pre-selection is a fabulous tool – but it almost never happens for sitting members.
That must change.
Competition encourages higher quality candidates and improves the performance of those who are already in a position of power.
This also means that we are not looking to wipe the base clean and replace all the politicians. Plenty of the Liberal Party candidates and representatives are conservative-leaning. They simply lack the motivation and incentive to speak out and embrace conservative policy.
As it stands, when a Liberal politician speaks out against the ALP agenda they are attacked by mainstream media.
It is easier to say and do nothing.
To avoid conflict.
There needs to be membership pressure from within to make press criticism look like less of a conflict than upsetting the membership. That way, they won’t be so frightened to go out and fight for the conservative cause.
Fight ALP policy or risk losing your pre-selection. That has to become the reality.
If the pre-selection process becomes compulsory at least 12 months out from an election – as it should – that really increases the motivation to voice conservative policy.
Good Liberal politicians who enjoy the support of the membership having nothing to fear from this change. They will win comfortably, every time.
Imagine how much the quality of our politicians will improve if they get into the habit of defending their position on merit instead of their connection to power brokers…
This adherence to quality, competent, and vocal conservative representatives can also be expanded into local government which is currently overrun by the left.
Local government is the breeding pool for state and federal pre-selection candidates, and there is not enough attention placed on cultivating new talent. The LNP can – and should – do a better job of recruiting from community services and local businesses. There are many individuals in this environment with desirable skills.
Strong conservative local government could offer proper service to communities instead of merely being an obedient agent of the state government.
Imagine how much more grounded our political system would be with sensible conservative local councils instead of Woke celebrities throwing public around in the activist community…
I guarantee that local LNP members will lift their game if they know there are half a dozen talented local council members sitting beneath them, driving change and eyeing-off their job.
It’s all part of a healthy, competitive political environment that keeps everyone honest.
That is the principle. So, how should a truly Australia-wide Liberal Party be run?
The Queensland LNP is broadly correct. The mechanism proposed is its party constitution, which is currently confined to the state, be amended so that it contains model rules.
If this change is successful, each state will then merge as a block using their own mechanisms and determine, separately, whether they also merge with the Nationals (as is the case in Queensland).
Alternatively, these state members and parliamentarians can leave their old models and join a state division of the new expanded Australia-wide Liberal Party model.
The latter is what happened when Menzies started the modern Liberal Party where United Australia Party politicians walked into the Liberal Party.
Either way, conservative voters and Liberal Party members are demanding change.
As we have clearly stated, the Liberal Reform Association is not a front for a new party.
We are not here to start a Faragian movement. Nor are we an official arm of the Liberal or National parties.
Our role is specifically to REFORM THE EXISTING LNP structure around Australia and RECLAIM THE DREAM of Australia.
With your help, we want to put forward changes which we know will work.
We also believe there are probably 50,000 Australians who will join with us for a $20 membership to promote this conservative Liberal Party reform cause, none of which can ever be used for an alternate political party.
When we succeed, any monies left over will be applied as third-party support to the newly reformed Liberal Party in proportion to the states from whence the membership monies came from.
The people behind this reform movement do not want any job because of the changes being proposed.
We are funding this with our own money* and putting in our own time simply because we have grandchildren who we want to be citizens of a land of opportunity which is the greatest country on Earth.
As this movement progresses, potential organisational leaders who feel the same way in each state will emerge to drive state-based reform.
Sometimes, all that is need to get something going is a little bit of ‘grunt’, persistence, and public support.
There are already big names who, if nominated, would win the leadership ballot in a landslide and probably the next election as well. Canavan, Price, Antic, Hastie, and even Joyce are all examples of conservative fighters.
We trust the voice of a large conservative membership to pick the best party leaders.
If you want to be one of these voices, follow us at: www.reclaimthedream.com.au
We are looking for volunteers to help us win over the remaining members of the state Liberal parties to facilitate a discussion on these proposals and bring them into a united, Australia-wide Liberal or LNP constitution.
Let’s get together to reclaim the Australian dream.
*(there is no Red Union money involved because a constitutional provision of the Red Unions is that no member money can be used for any party political purpose)
Graeme Haycroft: Red Union Group founder. LNP member and financial supporter for 40+ years.