Angus Taylor recently unleashed a closed-door attack on the Australian Public Service during a small-business forum in Logan, Queensland. While the Opposition Leader deliberately channelled the combative language of Peter Dutton, Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison, his specific political targets reveal a deeply troubling inspiration.
The similarities between his destructive promises, made far away from the media's gaze, and the policies Pauline Hanson outlined during her recent National Press Club address are too great to ignore.
Instead of presenting a cohesive national vision, Taylor is foreshadowing the apparent abolition of agencies focused on climate change and housing and the dismissal of their staff.
Climate change is right at the top of the One Nation hit-list. Taylor's threat to "reset the responsibilities" of regulators like the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority, he has stopped short of proposing the complete abolition of it or the Australian Energy Market Operator. However, weakening such crucial regulatory and market bodies would trigger far-reaching consequences for environmental safety and national energy security.
All of that said, Taylor was clever enough not to embrace everything on Hanson's agenda. He said nothing about defunding the National Indigenous Australians Agency, the Special Broadcasting Service or the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
Presumably he is astute enough to realise that would be a bridge too far for many in his base and that an attack on the National Indigenous Australians Agency would expose the Coalition to further allegations of racism, a controversy it cannot afford.
While kicking Canberra and spouting off about lazy public servants usually plays well in the hinterland, this cynical strategy backfired at the last federal election. An internal party review found that Jane Hume's attack on public sector working-from-home rights did far more harm than good.
Taylor, who has clearly learnt nothing, is repeating the most basic mistakes from the last campaign. He is also falling into the trap of thinking that the best way to defeat One Nation is to become One Nation. That suggests he, and his advisers, don't understand the Australian electorate.
Federal elections have historically been won from the sensible centre. Voters reward parties that deliver stability, pragmatic policy and respect for the institutions that implement those policies. The Australian Public Service is the rock on which that stability rests. Dedicated public servants provide the essential evidence-based policy advice that protects the national interest, whether they are working in housing, climate change or energy regulation.
By echoing the destructive agenda of the populist fringe, this latest speech makes it abundantly clear that Taylor is abandoning what was once safe political ground for the conservative movement.
He is vacating the moderate middle and handing it directly to a centre-left Labor Party and the teal independents.
The Coalition cannot build a victorious electoral coalition by tearing down the very institutions required to govern the country. If Taylor genuinely wants to present a credible alternative government, he must stop treating the public service as a convenient political punching bag and start respecting the vital work it performs.
Until he learns that fundamental lesson, the Coalition will indefinitely remain trapped on the fringes of society, entirely unsuited for the incredibly serious responsibility of national leadership.
Kicking Canberra might generate cheap applause from potential donors, but it also shows a profound failure of imagination.
