Right-wing rivals locked in ‘race to the bottom’: PM

The major right-wing parties are locked in a race to the bottom, playing on people’s grievances while failing to present viable solutions, the prime minister has told the Labor Party faithful.

A rebrand of the Liberals was unlikely to win back voters as the problem was their political product, Anthony Albanese said on Sunday.

“It is not their sales pitch – it is their policies,” Mr Albanese told the NSW Labor conference at the Sydney Town Hall, where he cut his teeth as a young political warrior.

“It is not what they call themselves – it is who they are,” he said.

“It is the race to the bottom that all three right-wing parties are caught up in.

“They are the axis of grievance. Each trying to be more anti-fairness, more anti-worker, more anti-aspiration.”

The comments came just days after Liberal frontbencher Melissa McIntosh said her party needed a rebrand if it wanted to stay relevant.

The party and its junior partner the Nationals are battling a migration of voters to right-wing rivals One Nation, which has soared past the coalition in a string of polls.

Senior Liberal figure Dan Tehan said the opposition was not entertaining the prospect of a coalition with the Pauline Hanson-led party in a bid to unseat Labor.

“It’s a no,” he told ABC’s Insiders program after sustained questioning. 

“We are a coalition, Liberal Party-National party. It is not even being talked about.” 

Nationals Leader Matt Canavan also brushed off concerns about One Nation’s rise.

Voters had “legitimate grievances” with the actions of Labor, which would help the coalition to improve its standing in time, he said.

“The prime minister is actually captain status quo,” he told Sky News.

“He’s saying increasing taxes, increasing government spending, the same path we’ve been on, increasing intermittent solar and wind power, which has not worked.”

One Nation senator Sean Bell echoed the sentiments, also blaming the government for overseeing a failed “doctrine” of multiculturalism.

“What One Nation says is, ‘No, we believe that multiculturalism is not working’,” he said.

“We believe it should be scrapped.”

But Mr Albanese defended his government’s record, including a decision to push through controversial tax changes he previously ruled out.

“We don’t defend a status quo that doesn’t work for people,” he told the conference.

“Nor do we pretend that the answer is to tear it all down and walk away.

“We choose progress over protest. We choose action over anger. We choose outcomes over outrage.”