Reprinted from the Australian Financial Review, 6 December 2025

The Coalition’s chaos has become a self-writing political satire

The amateurism of the federal Coalition parties, both in office and more recently in opposition, has long been observed but has become worse. They have abysmally failed to fulfill their pivotal role of holding the Albanese government to account.

By amateur we are referring to part-time effort, unprofessionalism, and a dilettante approach to doing policy and politics. The latter is notable for intermittent dabbling in issues, little expertise or long-term commitment, and being too easily distracted by issues peripheral to the main game of winning elections.

Recent events, however, suggest that whatever skills the Coalition once held, whatever clout they once wielded, whatever respect they once attracted, are now lost.

On the political stage under the spotlight of close public attention, the Coalition’s performances since the 2025 election have not just been amateurish, but increasingly its members have acted like clowns characterised by poor timing, miscues and inept scripting. They attract lots of laughs, but the jokes are on them.

Only clowns would parade through public leaks criticising their leader. Only clowns express dissent on key policy issues without any alternatives of their own. Only clowns threaten to leave the political stage if they don’t get their way.

Amid all this, up pops Barnaby Joyce, twice leader of the National Party, and twice rejected by his own caucus, who has resigned from his party and is now clowning around with a possible defection to One Nation – a party of volatility, confused policy, and marked by numerous desertions of MPs. Its fragile fortunes are built around the personality of a single person who seems chronically unable to get on with colleagues.

Joyce is supposed to be a great “retail” politician. If by retail you mean a seller of goods, then what policy product has he ever successfully sold to the Australian electorate, what policy shift has he achieved that proved to be a vote winner?

As for One Nation, they need to be careful as their previous flirtations with other major party defectors have hardly ended happily.

What the non-Labor side of politics needs to understand is that while all this clown-like behaviour might be a bit of fun, they are up against the hardened professionals in the Labor Party. The party is committed, trained, united (especially at election time), strategic, and ready to exploit any weaknesses in the other side. At present they have much to exploit.

Labor’s professionalism and the Coalition’s amateur approach to policy can be seen in Australian National University’s post-election surveys that highlight how Labor is now seen by the electorate as being more competent than the Coalition across a wider array of issues.

Labor’s lead is not just in traditional areas like health, welfare and education, but also increasingly in managing the economy, an area once dominated by the Coalition. Such loss of “issue ownership” across so many policy domains explains the Coalition’s declining electoral support. As ANU’s Ian McAllister observed, it “represents a major threat to the Liberals’ ability to represent themselves as the traditional party of government”.

And, one might add, to being a party of government at all.

The Albanese government’s recent success in negotiating new environmental legislation with the Greens highlights Labor’s professional skills in negotiating with the Senate crossbench and their political strategy in setting the policy agenda and making the Coalition redundant.

Labor is now the natural party of government and looks set to stay that way.

Labor’s future political strategy is to further isolate the Coalition in both policy and political terms. They will be helped by the Coalition’s lack of clear policy goals, confusion over its values, shaky leadership, amateurism, and the extraordinary self-centred, clownish behaviour and public antics of so many of its members.

With the Coalition expected to be in opposition for at least two terms their comeback will be hampered by continuing tension between the Liberal and National parties that can no longer be assuaged by special funding deals and ministerial posts.

Poor electoral prospects mean interest groups will have little reason to engage with shadow ministers who can deliver nothing or to make donations to obvious losers. As well as coping with reduced staffing – made worse by recent government cuts – and lacking Labor’s organisational and community networks, it means the Coalition will have difficulty in recruiting staff of the calibre to match the professionalism and experience of the Albanese government.

So, send in the clowns and sit back and enjoy the farce

Dr Scott Prasser has worked for federal Coalition ministers and co-edited The Art of Opposition and Promise and Performance: Albanese’s First Term.