“It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.”

Who could forget Rod Serling’s eerie introduction to each episode of the classic TV sci-fi series.

I feel as though the Liberals have found themselves in their own twilight zone. No longer conservative, no longer against government intervention in the economy, no longer concerned with debt and deficit, no longer prepared to stay the course on good government policy, no longer able to lead the debate on fiscal responsibility. The Liberals, and their LNP coalition, now stand atop the dangerous shifting sands of popular sentiment – with it’s need for righteous virtue signaling; flexible, yet consistent policy; personal ambition over loyalty; plan announcements rather than actions; spin over communication; and the fiction of change without consequences, pleasure without pain.

I think it is time for ScoMo to put on his marketing strategy cap and do a “deep dive”, establish some “BHAG’s”, draft a “comms plan”, “rally the troops”, call some “town hall meetings”, and roll out the “revitalised, refreshed and reinvented” branding of the Liberal Party. And I have an obvious suggestion – the 3P’s of the “People’s Populist Party”.

This would be a much better descriptor of the policies the Liberal leader is currently promoting –

• Intervention in the dairy industry, to make those nasty supermarkets increase the price of milk we socially conscious consumers are willing to pay.
• Intervention in the agricultural industry, by setting aside $6 billion of our taxes to support farmers in times of drought (and to pork barrel at election time).
• Intervention in the power generation industry, to partner with a new coal miner so we can all access “fair dinkum” power (and wreck the economics of the tax payer funded renewable energy industry).
• Taking a large walking stick to electricity retailers, to make sure they reduce power prices for pensioners and all of we hapless consumers (so we can afford to pay higher milk prices).
• Increasing the funding to regulators and their powers of surveillance and intervention, to establish maximum levels of pay for financial services executives, and rules about acceptable corporate vision and culture (as if anyone wouldn’t laugh at that hypocrisy).

If you have fallen for any of this dating game bullshit, you should think carefully before accepting the ride. Government intervention is funded by us, the taxpayers. It serves them, the politicians. It costs we, the consumers, as bureaucracy grows, inefficiency multiplies, non-accountability becomes entrenched, mistakes are hidden, and lessons are forgotten. Name me one government agency, one political party, one supposedly impartial regulator that you would trust to pack your parachute as you boarded an experimental plane that they designed, built, maintained and flew.

“That is the tragic circumstance of those who live in the bubble. They are blinded by their noble intentions. They are desensitised by the logic of their arguments and the science that informs their principles. They believe that they are the clear-eyed realists and that others are deluded. They just cannot see the unintended effects of what they do – yet for which they are ultimately responsible.”

That could be a statement about our political elites. It sounds so true. It is actually an extract from the ethical review of Cricket Australia – commenced after the ball-tampering debacle and released yesterday. It’s heavily redacted content incredibly calls for greater transparency in process and reporting! And yet as censored as it is, the requirement for administrative heads to roll is as clear as the video of that little piece of sandpaper, disappearing down the trousers of Cameron Bancroft – and as loud as the pleading of the Board is to stay. Watch this space!

I am sure there will soon be a government funded and controlled Oz 11, playing men’s cricket the way it was supposed to be played, before money was involved and only winners rewarded. That sports model could then be rolled out to Tennis Australia, the Olympic movement, the AFL, the banking and superannuation industry, and perhaps even our Australian Parliament.

As the cultural realignment continues, watch out for –

• an impartial and bi-partisan “Election Future Fund”, designed to skim off taxpayers dollars to provide all political parties with unlimited election funding, now that corporates don’t want to donate to the LNP and trade union membership plummets;
• new regulations to stop profit hungry retailers (yes you Telstra!) from offering lower cost and faster wireless internet services to users, in competition with the government’s own NBN (that we bought, and now watch as they continue to flush our funds down the toilet); and finally
• a Royal Commission into the sexual preferences, work ethic, ethnicity, diversity and honey making quality of Australian bees.

Yes – welcome to the Twilight Zone. As Rod Serling also said –

“The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs, and explosions, and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices, to be found only in the minds of men……. And the pity of it is, that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone.”

Turnbull would be happy – the Liberals are well on their way to “small l labor” – as the Labor party pursues it’s own journey towards “small s socialism”. The Greens are well entrenched in “capital T Twilight Zonism”, and the independents are taking over the world as we know it – and no-one seems to want to support capitalism. Goodnight, and good luck.