• Geoffrey Barker

27 November 2009This could be the end of the Liberal Party as we know it, argues Geoffrey Barker in Inside Story

WITH THE CRISIS that has unhinged the Liberal Party and doomed Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership we may be witnessing the end of the Menzies era in Australian politics. It now seems that Australia’s non-Labor political forces are facing historic realignments arising from their turmoil over climate change.

Most obviously, relations between the Liberal and National parties will be much looser given the Nationals’ hostility to any climate change legislation. But perhaps more significantly, divisions between conservatives and liberals within the Liberal Party are now so visible and so entrenched that the party faces permanent strain and possibly even the emergence of a new breakaway party of the right...

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Photo of Robert Menzies from the 1953 Commonwealth Parliamentary Handbook