Weekend Wrap 2 April 2023: Labor wins Aston, Dutton’s train wreck on Insiders and Liberals circle the drain

Ben Davison breaks down the Aston by-election result which has
seen Labor's Mary Doyle win a the formerly safe Liberal
seat.  The result is the first time in over 100 years a
sitting government has won a seat away from the opposition at a
by-election.  The first time a woman has won Aston.


Ben looks at how a proud feminist, unionist, single mum was able
to win such a "blue ribbon" Liberal seat against a conservative
Liberal candidate who ticked all the usual boxes.


Peter Dutton fronted up to Insiders today and gave a train wreck
of an interview.  Truly a masterclass in how to implode, the
Dutton interview included threatening a gas crisis (we are the
world largest exporter of gas), claiming the Aston result was due
to Labor's negative campaign (apparently posters with his face on
them are negative) and that this is a Victoria problem (having
lost the NSW election last weekend).  The Insiders panel
wasn't buying it and neither is Ben.  The Liberal's are
talking about the wrong issues and even if they do stumble into
the right issue they are no longer trusted to deliver the
solutions.


Ben looks at why the Liberals are such a mess.  The party of
Menzies is dying a slow painful, public death and Dutton is not
capable of reforming them.  Ben examines how The Liberals
have found themselves circling the drain of political history and
why he thinks that, without major reform, they will cease to be a
genuine party of government.


Ben also touches on how some of the big policy issues have played
out as a result of this realignment. Ben slams Phil Coorey from
the bosses pamphlet, the AFR, for continuing the Liberal Party
attack against the NDIS and highlights that David Speers dropped
out the news the Liberals will bind their caucus to voting NO on
the referendum.


As always, Ben suggests people Vote YES.