Leigh Cox is the former Party Secretary and Campaign Coordinator of Independents for Canberra, which elected Thomas Emerson MLA at the 2024 ACT Election. He served as Mr Emerson’s interim Chief of Staff in 2024-25.

When Canberrans next go to the polls in 2028, the Canberra Liberals will have spent close to three decades in opposition. To put that into some perspective: the September 11 attacks occurred about a month before the Liberals last lost Office, we had dial-up internet, and smartphones didn’t exist.

For a long time now, the Canberra Liberals have failed to present themselves as a credible alternative government. Don’t take my word for it — voters themselves have made that judgment repeatedly at the ballot box.

The indefinite suspension of Elizabeth Lee and Peter Cain from the Canberra Liberals is sobering, and it highlights the level of internal decay. In many people’s eyes, Ms Lee, the former Opposition Leader, represented the kind of moderate the city might actually elect to lead a government. Yet she’s been tossed aside in favour of a further-to-the-Right re-imagining. It’s the latest act in this long-running, multiple-vehicle pile-up of a tragedy — the party’s refusal to evolve in a growing city that has clearly chosen to move on without it.

Canberra is Australia’s most educated jurisdiction — a place where voters can express nuance and can care about integrity, inclusion, and environmental sustainability as much as they might care about addressing cost of living and having a diversified economy with thriving local businesses. People, typically, get on with one another here, and they’re community-minded.

Instead of recognising this, the Canberra Liberals have persisted time and time again with an outdated brand of conservatism that divides people. Their recent move to support the government and reduce the 2026 parliamentary sitting year from 13 to 12 sitting weeks means fewer opportunities for parliamentary scrutiny. Attempting to expel two sitting MLAs, from a political party that once prided itself on allowing its members to express personal views and cross the floor, hardly screams “winning strategy”.

Maybe, just maybe, winning hasn’t been the goal for a while. The Canberra Liberals membership is by many accounts dominated by angry, middle-aged white men who are pseudo-educated by Sky News After Dark and are more interested in setting policies than actually implementing any (I say this as a 40-year-old white guy myself, admittedly). Within party ranks, some people say that there’s chatter about when a certain Deputy Leader may challenge for the top job, and who within the party membership is jostling to secure preselection next. These are issues that do not reflect the lived challenges pre-occupying the minds of most ACT residents.  

A city with real problems, but no real contest

This might all be mildly amusing if it weren’t so serious and consequential. Canberra faces serious challenges: a cost-of-living crisis biting harder each month, ever-increasing rates, a housing market slipping out of reach for many, ongoing business closures, and a budget strained by ambitious infrastructure projects and growing health costs. Whatever your personal politics, these are legitimate grounds for debate and scrutiny.

But a credible opposition can’t remain trapped in ideological nostalgia and expect to threaten a government in any serious form. It can’t credibly preach fiscal discipline and sound economic management while fighting the ghosts of the past. The result? A government that governs with little fear of losing power — and that’s bad for everyone.

Complacency breeds arrogance

After almost two and a half decades of easy dominance, even capable governments can grow too comfortable. Transparency, accountability, and integrity — whether in contracts,  governance, or spending — can erode when MLAs know there’s no real threat across the chamber. It’s easy to relax, especially when the opposition is doing your work for you.

Take the Canberra Liberals’ latest decision as proof. With Peter Cain and Elizabeth Lee now suspended, the ACT Government has not one but two potential avenues to support its legislative agenda: the ACT Greens, who have held it to account on recent budget matters, or a bloc of four alternative MLAs. The Canberra Liberals have somehow made governing an easier proposition for Labor. People are entitled to ask: who would a decision like this really serve, other than a handful of MLAs eager to protect their own political interests?

The Liberals’ endless internal warfare and ideological rigidity have left the ACT without an effective democratic safeguard. In any other jurisdiction, we’d recognise this as a parliamentary crisis.

It’s time for something better

Someone needs to offer voters a more genuine alternative. That may well mean voters abandon the Canberra Liberals altogether in favour of another party or a community independent — as clearly I have done — or that a group of passionate individuals takes the bold step of creating a better party-based option. Until structural change occurs, Canberrans may do well to expect a continuation of the status quo.

Before the last election, I decided to help campaign for Thomas Emerson to help him win a seat in the Assembly. It was hard work, but I am pleased to say that he won his seat. I got involved because I believed it was time to stop staring, mouth wide open, at that multiple-vehicle pile-up as an innocent bystander. It was time to start pitching in. It’s like that old saying goes: “There are two kinds of people, voyeurs and participants. You’re either on the field playing the game or you’re in the crowd watching.” Maybe this latest unravelling will convince many interested observers to consider doing the same.