Politics

Federal

Liberal Party

Opinion

Jacqueline Maley Columnist and senior journalist November 5, 2025 — 5.00am

For three elections now, the “teal” independents have eaten the Liberals’ lunch with such gusto that the once-great conservative party is electorally starved.

It is malnourished to the point of near oblivion in the nation’s inner-metropolitan seats – those populated by voters often lazily written off as “elite”, but who become much harder to dismiss when you realise how numerous they are.

The teals have engineered this lunch-eating with an effective campaign line: the National Party runs the Liberal Party’s climate and energy policy. And a vote for Scott Morrison/Peter Dutton is actually a vote for Barnaby Joyce.

The teals might have to adjust that last line now t

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