Is National Party A Sinking Ship?
January 25, 2006 Editorial – Canberra Times For National Party members, it is the question that keeps turning up like a bad penny whenever the party loses another MP: is the federal party headed for political extinction? Unpleasant as it no doubt is for the party faithful to keep hearing, it has been asked with increasing regularity in recent years. While the latest episode, the defection of Victorian federal senator Julian McGauran to the Liberal Party, is not the result of voter apathy or disinterest, it is no less damaging. The party is on the verge of losing its official party status in the Senate, and McGauran’s actions look suspiciously like those of a rat deserting a sinking ship. In a sense they are: while much has been made of McGauran’s close ideological sympathies with the Liberal Party (he was a Young Liberal while at university) and of his relationship with Federal Treasurer Peter Costello, his decision to quit the party is a recognition that it is only Liberal largesse th
