Liberal frontbencher James Paterson has demanded an end to the party’s “mass public therapy session” and warned that a Nigel Farage-style populist turn could destroy the party, sending Opposition Leader Sussan Ley a message to unite the Coalition and set its sights on Labor.
The Victorian opened up a new line of attack on Anthony Albanese, whom he compared to a “petty despot” for his proposed crackdown on freedom of information, slashing of opposition staff numbers, and what Paterson described as the prime minister’s “deeply weird … obsession” with making Labor the natural party of government .
In a blunt and expansive speech at a time when Ley is battling disunity, one of the opposition’s top performers countered the perception that the Liberals must morph into a populist outfit or tu