He verges on fictional James Bond good looks. Wealthy landed gentry upbringing. Exclusive private school boy. Rhodes scholar academic. Top management consultant, with McKinsey on his business bio. Accomplished barrister wife, with whom he shares four children. Triathlete.
Wearing a snappy suit well, Angus Taylor looks the part. Conservative values galore. For all the world like a future Liberal prime minister. The man who got all the silver spoons and a shrouded personal wealth estimated in the realm of $10 million, or even up to $20 million.
So what’s wrong with him? Why does his dream of ascension to leadership of the party and opposition seem like a terrible idea to so many? Why does his ultimate failure to achieve his superficial promise and undoubted ambition seem inevitable?
Pig in Clover
To borrow from rugby league commentators, the problem seems to be that he’s politically slow between the ears. Not just lagging intellectually, but often lacking good judgment. He does really stupid things.
Like the time in 2019 when as energy and emission reduction minister in the Morrison Coalition government he launched a baseless alleged “climate hypocrisy” attack on Sydney’s Mayor, Clover Moore. It blew up in his face because he relied on mysteriously falsified documents, eventually forced to make an abject apology.
Or in 2021 when he showcased major fossil-fuel gas company Santos on the Australian pavilion at that year’s UN climate summit in Glasgow. Not a great look, right when the Morrison government claimed it stood for net-zero emissions by 2050 after years of heroising coal and gas and fighting the 2015 Paris Agreement.
The Price isn’t right
Net-zero remains a critical divisive issue for the Liberals, and for the survival of their coalition with the Nationals. Taylor’s public record says he’s far more a gas man than a renewables one. He has a history of opposing wind farms in particular, another tick in his box for ultra-conservative backers.
His allegiances raise questions too. Taylor operates in the orbit of Liberal elder master-wrecker Tony Abbott. Together they were credited last month with recruiting Northern Territory Country Liberal Party firebrand Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, a darling of the far right, to shift from the Nationals’ federal party room to the Liberals. Price was to be Taylor’s running mate for the Liberal leadership, deputy candidate on his “ticket”. But that machination collapsed, as does so much touched by Abbott.
When the global ultra-conservatives movement gathered in London in October 2023 for the inaugural Alliance of Responsible Citizenship (ARC) mega-event, united in a mission to save Western civilisation as we know it (as The Politics reported), Taylor was flown in first class as an all-expenses-paid guest speaker and propped up at the posh InterContinental.
Dumb and dumber
Just days ago, Taylor was again doing dumb self-serving stuff. He lost his first tilt at the Liberal leadership in May by a narrow 29-25, but had a not-so-subtle policy crack at his successful rival, Sussan Ley. The timing is significant, because with a new Senate starting tomorrow, Ley’s support base will be eroded by three Liberal departures. This potentially places Taylor within striking distance for a challenge.
Taylor is being strategically ambiguous about challenging again but that’s how politics is played. Wannabe challengers in the party ranks are usually at least nominally loyal to the leader — until they aren’t.
Ley’s a factional moderate, the first woman to lead the Liberals. At the National Press Club last week, she very deliberately opened her mind to her party embracing quotas for women candidates, seeking to overcome chronic female under-representation, commonly described as the Liberals’ “women problem”. Others think it’s more of a men problem that’s shredding the Liberals’ appeal to women, youth and socially progressive voters.
Men tend to like Taylor who seized the moment to publicly disagree with Ley. He opposed gender quotas — which Labor successfully did nearly three decades ago — bizarrely claiming they “subvert democracy”.
Ultra-conservatives and the far-right media, led by the Murdoch stable, immediately rallied to Taylor’s stand on shaky principle, it being far from clear how balancing male-female political representation threatens a mainly vibrant democracy. Over at Sky News, the laughable World According to Rowan Dean even dredged up octogenarian, long-retired MP Bronwyn Bishop, claiming her as a former Liberal “titan”, to back up Taylor.
It’s the economy, stupid
This morning, predictably on Sky, Nationals’ rhetorical clown prince Barnaby Joyce MP also jumped on the Taylor-initiated anti-quota bandwagon. With outdated ideological fellow travellers like the political-living-dead Bishop and the eternally maverick Joyce in your camp, who needs more contemporary free-thinking enemies?
Taylor’s personal PR suggests a deeply committed politician with a strong work ethic. But the evidence counter-suggests that he’s lazy at policy, more a hard-right ideologue than a hard-working policy wonk. This was demonstrated when the Coalition went to a disastrous-for-them national election in May with little to show in its economic policy suite, despite Taylor being opposition Treasury spokesman for three years.
If that was his audition for further greatness, it flopped badly.
A back number
We’re left with the impression that even if Taylor makes it to opposition leader, that’s where his ambition will top out. In the league of Liberal leaders in living memory, he’s no John Howard, nor even an Abbott or a Malcolm Turnbull. He actually feels sub-Peter Dutton, who led his conservative team to a complete thumping at the election, and lost his seat.
Ley, by contrast, has real differentiation, challenging Liberal norms for their leadership. It will be a heroic turnaround for the party’s fortunes if she ever makes it to the prime ministership. But reverting to Taylor feels like a real step backwards.
A perennially underperforming Taylor has another problem too. As The Politics highlighted last week, his equally ambitious hard-right faction colleague Andrew Hastie, a former SAS commando and officer, looks like he’s stalking the leadership. If it comes down to hand-to-hand political combat versus Hastie, Taylor looks outclassed.
Taylor is a complete dill, lazy and another seeking a return to the past.
He’s a gormless idiot. The fact that he’s a Rhodes scholar reflects badly on the brand.
As does the fact Abbott was one, too. Having the right contacts is the prime consideration; being intelligent, hard-working, or well educated, less so.
Rhodes Scholar : linear thinking: read, remember, regurgitate existing knowledge. Smart, conversely, is lateral: novel use of existing knowledge, responding to novel situations with wide ranging reference to existing knowledge and developing new ideas. Angus is straight down the line – predictable, boring, lazy as…
Academic brilliance is not a prerequisite
“living!”(?) fossil; more like dead between the ears and proof, beyond doubt, of the old one about a privileged. educated idiot, I suggest. Imagine this basic f’wit becoming, at some stage, the PM? A “love child” of “Daddy”, perhaps?
100 correct. Do they buy those scholarships or what?
Abbott had one too…for boxing!!!
Chuckle!!!
Love it: Bone headed, dumb witted and don’t forget the infamous Naomi Wolf encounter over the Oxford Christmas tree in 1991!
Angus was there, she wasn’t!
Classic, open mouthed with far right foot jammed well down throat!
And, I’m not so sure about the accolade ‘academic’!
An opportunist with no talent, (except, foot in mouth expert) and can add nothing to the intellectual, social and political fabric of the nation.
Watch out Susan Ley!
The brand is equally on the nose
Actually…take a look at the Rhodes the scholarship is named for and you get another gormless (albeit ruthless – is that possible?) idiot, so maybe the ‘brand’ is being represented quite well. There’s also Abbott, Beasley to add to the list, as well as Hawke – who was a bit of a dickhead when you look closer – and many others who were probably sportsmen rather than real men of letters or substance.
The epitome of entitlement
Like Abbott, Taylor may have started with some degree of intellectual horsepower before allowing it to atrophy in a narrow-minded, unchanging, right wing ideology that has no relevance to current Australian politics. A tather pathetic young fogey!
An unreconstructed, born-to-rule, lazy Liberal. There are a lot of them, usually men. A product of the NSW right-wing Kramer Rhodes era. Doesn’t get climate change or women’s rights or . . . . Never did. Never will. But go on, give it a shot! Would presage the death of the Party electorally.
Nice move, Angus. Continue stalking the leadership. Keep the party rooted in eighties values. Ensure another two terms of ALP government. Perhaps, with you in the chair, ‘Nice-Move’ Angus, the ALP will get enough time to revamp itself back to centre-left, push on to climate targets, and develop the political will to tax the personal fortunes of the billionaires adequately to rake in an extra $%-10 billion annually, money that can redress the outrageous inequities inherent in public health, education and aged care that you and your fellow incompetent, greedy, trough-gobbling Tory fucktard fellow narcissists and white-collar criminals inflicted in this once-lucky country over a decade of corrupt mismanagement.
I couldn’t have said it better Jon.
John Cocks, Just love your long sentence building to a crescendo and a final full stop.
Yes indeed. What a great thing for the labour party. Watch them shoot themselves in the foot or the mouth
Completely in agreement Jon, if only we could bring the above-mentioned Arse wipes to account.
You have a way with words!
Bravo John! Could not have better said.
You had me at trough-gobbling….
Did he ever actually apologize to Clover Moore ? I was watching that situation very closely and I saw that he said he was sorry that someone on his staff had “messed up ” with finding things on computer files that no one else could find, but I never saw anything about him actually apologizing to the Sydney Mayor.
I think that’s correct.
There are the non-educated and the educated and from either side the stupid. Unfortunately it’s the stupid with a ticket that rise to the top.
Yes. Back in election time I saw Ley as a loyal ‘toe the line’ soldier of little interest, nodding like a dashboard doll behind the great leader, but in recent times I am pleased to give her credit for picking up the leadership poison challis and for trying to imagine a resurrected party, but if the boof-headed Liberal men like Taylor take back the leadership as I expect they inevitably will, then please Susan, use your extensive skills and talents to build a new party, …. not to rebuild the old mens’ dinosaur.
Another born to rule liberal clown in the mould of Alexander Downer, and just like Downer (sans stockings) he will likely get a few months as opposition leader before making way for another bloke and parachuting into a leaners paradise
Jon…in your observation re the party rooted in the eighties values, I assume you mean the 1880’s.
You forgot about the Watergate Saga. $80 MILLION taken from the Murray Basin under the guise of environmental water ending up in the Cayman’s.
Like the unlamented DLP, Abbott’s fellow Rhode’s scholar would lead the party of Menzies to oblivion. The choice lies with the membership. The ambition is all Taylor’s.
Thank you Murray. Agree with most comments. Suggest that Angus’ best bet is to form a new party with Abbott and Co and all the wannabies who want to “glorify” and “yearn” for a past which does not represent Australia”s population, social, cultural and gender mix. While he is hanging around “white-anting so it seems”, the Libs are fading into ignominy. Oh, and I’d prefer the looks of Roger Moore anyday!!
This is the man who arranged to store Australia’s strategic petroleum reserves (in the form of crude oil at that) in the USA even when were ignoring the international benchmark for on-shore stocks of refined petroleum products (and still are). Imagine when supply chains are disrupted, and he goes begging Trump for our crude oil back to be told “Anus, we need that here and in any case it’s useless to you since you can barely refine it and the disrupted supply chains mean you can’t ship it any way. MAGA.”
Taylor proves again and again that even the most intelligent, as measured by IQ, can actually be half-witted.
I can only hope that you left out the ‘g’ on purpose. If not, then it was the most marvelous and inspired Freudian slip.
Great summary, but how could you exclude “Fantastic. great move. Well done Angus.” when he (presumably) forgot to switch to a sock account?
Why these blokes have conniptions over quotas for women when Plibersek said on the weekend that they have no problem with quotas for National MPs on the front bench!
He doth protest too much!
There are sayings by famous people that one is tempted to think that they had Angus Taylor in mind, “Empty vessels make the most noise” (Plato), “It is better to say nothing and be thought a fool, rather than say something and remove all doubt”, (Abraham Lincoln), and finally two of my favourite sayings from my favourite comedian, (Groucho Marx), “He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot, but don’t let that fool you, he really is an idiot”, and finally, “These are my principles and if you don’t like them, I have others”, (also Groucho Marx). As well, I remember a rather eccentric old supervisor of mine, when I worked in the Commonwealth Department of Transport (the 1960s and 1970s), Alf Barrett, used to say about fools, “If he had a brain, it would die of loneliness”. I think this can apply to Angus Taylor as well.
Bolshibob – that’s so true! I can’t actually listen to the idiocy that comes out of Taylor’s mouth! I have to turn him off! But Hastie scares me more – with his dead eyes!
Rhodes Scholarships are easily bought by those with connections unfortunately.
Yes. What did he achieve with his comments on quotas other than to make it impossible to ever even pretend loyalty to Ley?
Who cares what Fungus Taylor or any of the moribund Liberals think…. They are a party bereft of ideas and policies that fit the current world. I applaud Tony Abbott and Peta Credlin being in charge because it drives the Hard right Liberal Party further from being electable, and that’s great news for us all!!!!
There is also still a matter about Watergate and the Cayman Islands, as well as breaking the law on destroying protected grassland. Taylor may have a good book cover but the inside is a rambling incoherent smattering of nay sayings that are repeated ad nauseum. He’s definitely not an answer to a Party that has had its best and most humane minds driven out decades ago
So, who sat Taylor’s exam for Rhode’s scholarship?
Same question needs to be asked of Abbott as well.
“The Privileged Few” by Hamilton & Hamilton is an essential read to comprehend how AT & his ilk evolve.
“The Privileged Few” by Hamilton & Hamilton is an essential read to comprehend how AT & his ilk evolve.