After the 2022 election, I said the LNP needed clear points of difference to win. Why vote for Labor-lite when you can vote for the real thing?

Peter Dutton has been strangely quiet on the things that would have won him the election. 

He needs to get right into the culture wars, say the Coalition will not destroy Australia just to appear pure on the issue of net zero, call out Labor for blatantly lying about the cost of nuclear power, and vow to open more coal and gas mines — not only to boost export revenue but also to ensure greater use of gas to keep the lights on here in Australia.

Hopefully his defence policy will be a good one, and I’d suggest the easiest way to fund an increase in defence spending would be to announce a moratorium on renewable subsidies for a few years. We’re already doing more than virtually any other country to reduce our emissions — and in any case, whatever we do will make diddly-squat difference to global emissions.

If he doesn’t, it’s congratulations to Albo. Peter Dutton has created a mood for change, but he has yet to convince the electorate of the need to change. As The Weekend Australian put it: “There were never baseball bats out for Albanese. There was public disappointment with him — people thought he was pretty hopeless. It’s a bit like a work colleague: nice guy, just hopeless, but you’re not going to sack him.

On a local note, it was great to see Liberal candidate for Bean, David Lamerton, acknowledging servicemen and women at a recent meet-the-candidates forum. How anyone could criticise that is beyond me — especially with Anzac Day just around the corner! David was also engaging in the culture wars, and good on him for that. He’s a former serviceman and comes from a long line of ex-servicemen and women.

He stated that schools should educate, not indoctrinate, and that a woman is a woman (the UK High Court agrees with him on this). He believes women’s sport should be for women — as should women’s toilets — and that puberty blockers should be banned. Like the indomitable Jacinta Price, he also believes the Welcome to Country has been overused to the point where it risks becoming meaningless virtue signalling.

I agree. At the wake for my late wife in October 2022, held at the Polish Club, my eldest daughter Paddy — a fine woman, even if a bit left — began as MC by acknowledging that we were on the lands of the Ngunnawal people. I recall saying out loud, “Oh for f…’s sake, Paddy, not now.” In my view, it wasn’t the time or place, and if anything, it devalues the significance of such acknowledgments. So, well done David Lamerton — keep it up! Who knows, since Tuggeranong is arguably the least ‘woke’ part of the ACT (it recorded the highest “No” vote in the Voice referendum in 2023), you might just surprise us all with a strong result.