Howard maps a middle path as Coalition hunts for lost voters
Angus Taylor has been crisscrossing Australia with a simple aim: find out why voters are walking away from the major parties. For the Coalition, the
Angus Taylor has been crisscrossing Australia with a simple aim: find out why voters are walking away from the major parties. For the Coalition, the answer could shape its next political move.
The Opposition leader has spent the winter recess on the road, visiting at least 20 electorates while Labor’s triennial conference has dominated the national conversation. The tour has lifted his local profile. It has also exposed the scale of the problem.
Targeting local anger
Taylor has kept his focus close to the ground. In Queensland last week, he met pineapple growers worried about foreign imports, an issue that plays well in farming communities wary of cheap overseas competition.
That kind of stop tells a larger story. The Coalition is trying to reconnect with voters who feel the majors have drifted away from them, especially outside the big cities. One Nation is benefiting.
A Capital Brief/DemosAU poll published last week found the party ahead of the major parties in rural, regional and outer metropolitan electorates. That is a warning sign for the Coalition, and not a subtle one.
Pressure from the right
Taylor’s travelling pitch is shaped by that threat. He is not just selling the Coalition to disgruntled voters. He is trying to understand why they are listening elsewhere.
The political map is shifting. Fast.
For the Coalition, that means the contest is no longer only with Labor. It is also with One Nation, which is drawing support in places where the major parties once expected loyalty to hold. That makes the winter road trip more than a photo opportunity. It is reconnaissance.
Taylor’s itinerary shows a party looking for a middle path: close enough to local concerns to sound attentive, but broad enough to rebuild national relevance. Whether that works will depend on how far the Coalition can travel before the voters it is chasing move again.
