equanimity.blog

Hello One Nation

I was writing my last post on the People First Party when something happened that changed my mind about Gerard Rennick’s party. Before I describe what happened, here’s a bit of background.

I began volunteering during the last election campaign, soon after the party was launched. People were energized and hopeful. The volunteer turnout at polling booths had a real impact on the election count – 4% on average, which is brilliant for a 5 month-old party.

The party has a proper organizational structure within a democratic constitution that limits Gerard’s presidency to just three years. This contrasts with Pauline Hanson, who is President-for-Life of One Nation.

So why would I consider leaving People First?

It has some brilliant policies. They are a tapestry designed to restore the middle class in Australia. And they’re being harvested by One Nation. Without being given any credit. Just like Rennick did with Sustainable Population Australia‘s Six Great Immigration Solutions. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. But why wouldn’t I stick with a party that produces such good policies? No party is a perfect match.

Three reasons: There are problems in the leadership. Some policies are quite unnecessary. The party has a losing strategy.

Fledgling political parties take on the character of their founder. Sometimes first impressions tell it all. Gerard spoke at a Queensland Skeptics meeting in August 2023 about various topics, particularly his belief that climate science is wrong. But what really impressed me was how quickly the canny audience cottoned on to his style: a Gish Gallop; ‘a rhetorical technique in which a person in a debate attempts to overwhelm an opponent by presenting an excessive number of arguments, without regard for their accuracy or strength, with a rapidity that makes it impossible for the opponent to address them in the time available‘.

It’s a red flag. If an intelligent man isn’t open to persuasion, he can end up down rabbit holes, like thinking the fractional reserve banking system is a myth. Edward de Bono calls this the intelligence trap: where a clever person develops poor thinking because it‘s too successful at winning arguments. Time and again the opportunity to absorb advizers have come to the party and then left it; talented people passed over by less talented.

It’s a shame because the party’s sovereignty policies dove-tail so well into steady-state economics and sustainability. I told myself that its immigration and population policies were enough to ensure that, but I can only make excuses for its ‘drill baby, drill’ policies for so long. Eco-nationalism is a key theme in my up-coming book, Australian Renaissance.

Rennick’s marketing strategy includes endless reels of him talking for too long, on too many topics at once and in too much detail. Peoples’ eye glaze over. It doesn’t inspire them.

Rennick’s reluctance to address cultural issues are self-defeating. In fact, he recoils from the culture wars. The party has some brilliant policies protecting our culture, but buries them in fine print. A trivial, but telling example; he doesn’t like the Union Jack in our flag. “Why would you want the flag of another country in there?”, he asks. Because it’s not just any other country, Gerard, it’s the mother country. Gerard’s ancestry is all British Isles, so why act in the interests of minorities at a time like this? Leave it to them. He doesn’t seem to have made up his mind about multiculturalism. The party has more stringent immigration policies than One Nation, but doesn’t advertise them. Another trivial example; I suggested adding patriotic colors to the party logo, which to my surprise he liked, but he’s toying with green and gold. This is not the time. To me, culture is upstream of everything. More importantly it’s what motivates people.

This year, the March for Australia came and went before anyone in the party noticed it. Gerard is curiously agnostic about the Marches for Australia. He sees them as counter productive, believing Australians don’t like protests or protestors. That’s true, but it’s misreading the landscape. We don’t live in normal times. A culture war is being waged against Australians whether we like it or not. Conservative, patriotic Aussies are loath to get onto the streets, which is why they only started doing so last year and have only done so four times to date. Compare that to the frequency of pro-Palestinian protests.

A minor party doesn’t have the luxury of remaining aloof when it needs exposure among its most likely recruits. It has no leverage with other parties if it’s not in the polls. At the marches, many people said they hadn’t heard of People First. Rennick allowed a ‘conscience vote’ so members could form a presence at the marches, but without party backing and branch coordination, the response was flat-footed. In August, I organized a posse of volunteers for the Australia Marches rally. The turn out was small, but it had an effect.

In a state executive chat group, I expressed myself: “I’m disappointed.”

I was suddenly removed from the chat at Gerard’s request by the very person whose election campaign I’d donated $1,000 to.

There was no moderation, no communication. That’s how you lose people.