Why I Left the Liberals

I never imagined I would leave the party I once fought for. I joined the Victorian Liberal Party because I believed, as Robert Menzies did, in the Forgotten People — the manufacturers, tradespeople, small business owners and families who build things, take risks, employ others and ask only for fair rules and the freedom to get on with the job.

For decades, manufacturing embodied that ideal. You invested your capital, trained apprentices, paid taxes, complied with the rules and got on with building Australia. In return, government largely stayed out of the way. That was the social contract Menzies understood.

But over time, I watched those values get buried. Layer by layer, regulation crept in. Compliance multiplied. Energy became unreliable and unaffordable. Payroll tax thresholds failed to keep pace. Red tape expanded while productivity was ignored. Instead of defending the Forgotten People of the real economy, the Liberal Party accommodated the very system that made it harder to run a factory, employ Australians or compete globally.

Worse still, while Victorian manufacturing was being squeezed, the party turned inward. Instead of fighting Labor’s assault on enterprise, jobs and investment, too many Liberals became consumed by factional warfare and internal squabbles. Backroom battles replaced serious policy work. Energy that should have been spent holding Labor to account was wasted attacking each other.

The result has been devastating: businesses shut their doors, investment left the state, skills were lost. And the people Menzies warned us never to forget were forgotten all over again.

Loyalty is reciprocal, not unconditional — and I could not remain loyal to a party that had stopped fighting for the people who actually make Victoria work.

Every week brings another Liberal feud into the headlines — members publicly attacking each other, internal disputes spilling into the courts, and factional fights taking precedence over policy. Victorians don’t see a serious alternative government; they see chaos and self-absorption. Even senior figures within the party have acknowledged that too many Liberals appear more interested in internal power games than in Victoria’s future.

This isn’t new. The undermining of Liberal Premiers between 2010 and 2014 was an early warning sign — a period when internal sabotage, leadership instability and factional manoeuvring replaced discipline and purpose. Rather than confronting that behaviour and fixing it, the party tolerated it. The culture never changed.

When members watch this pattern repeat year after year, they don’t just lose confidence — they leave, and the long-term collapse in party membership reflects that reality.

While we turned our guns inward, Labor was handed a free pass. We couldn’t prosecute their failures because we were too busy attacking ourselves. A party that cannot manage its own internal issues cannot credibly ask voters to trust it with governing the state. I couldn’t remain part of a party that spends more time knifing its own than fighting for Victorians.

Worse than the infighting is the vacuum of ideas. It has become increasingly difficult to explain what the Victorian Liberal Party actually stands for. As a manufacturing businessman, I argued for years for serious, practical policies to cut red tape, lower taxes, fix energy policy and revive local industry. Instead, we got platitudes and delay.

The party of small business and free enterprise became afraid of its own shadow — content to criticise Labor in press releases while refusing to offer a bold, credible alternative. That failure has consequences. Labor keeps winning elections not because its record is strong, but because the Liberals have failed to present a coherent plan for Victoria’s future. The devastating 2022 election loss, in what was a winnable contest, should have been a moment of reckoning.

Instead, it exposed the problem. In the immediate aftermath of that defeat, I argued that policy motions passed at State Council should be binding on the parliamentary wings — a basic act of respect for members who do the hard work of developing policy. A long-serving Upper House MP dismissed the idea outright, saying: “We’re the ones talking to people all the time — we’re the only ones who could possibly develop policy.” My response was blunt: “How well did that work out for us?” That was the end of the discussion — and, tellingly, the end of any further engagement.

That exchange summed up the rot. A party that ignores its members, learns nothing from defeat and treats grassroots policy as an inconvenience should not be surprised when trust collapses, membership declines and voters walk away.

Staying with the Liberals increasingly meant fighting for a party that was no longer fighting for my values.

Meanwhile, Victoria under Labor continues to deteriorate. Our state — once Australia’s economic engine — is being wrecked by high taxes, reckless spending and anti-enterprise policies. Energy insecurity, payroll tax creep and regulatory overload are driving businesses to the wall.

The scale of the damage is now undeniable. In the 2024–2025 financial year, 4,242 Victorian companies went into external administration or had a financial controller appointed — a 48 per cent increase on the previous year, when 2,863 insolvencies were recorded. This is not a normal business cycle. Behind each insolvency is a workshop going quiet, apprentices laid off, suppliers left unpaid and families under strain.

Another four years of this would be disastrous. If Labor governs until 2030, how much debt will be piled onto our children’s shoulders? I dread the answer.

I hoped the Liberal Party would save Victoria. After years of disappointment, I accepted that it was no longer willing or able to do so. That realisation led me to leave and align myself with the Libertarian Party.

For someone who believes in cutting red tape, lowering taxes and rebuilding industry, the Libertarians offered a framework that is closer to the values I have always held: smaller government, individual freedom and responsibility, and decision-making under the rule of law. Those principles are not new or radical — they are foundational to a functioning, productive society.

The Libertarians are clear about their philosophical starting point: that prosperity comes from free people and competitive markets, not from ever-expanding government control. Whether on energy, regulation or enterprise policy, that clarity at least provides a consistent basis for debate — something increasingly absent elsewhere.

Some have asked why I didn’t stay and continue fighting from within the Liberal Party. I did, for many years. But loyalty to a party cannot come before loyalty to your principles. I haven’t changed what I believe; the party I once belonged to has. After sustained efforts to reform it from within, it became clear that infighting and indecision had taken precedence over renewal.

My message to Liberal members, volunteers and supporters who remain deeply committed to Victoria’s future is this: our state cannot afford timid, incoherent opposition any longer. It needs clarity, conviction and a willingness to confront uncomfortable truths.

Grassroots members already understand the problem. Too often, policy motions developed in good faith by branches are ignored, diluted or quietly shelved by parliamentary offices. That pattern alienates volunteers, discourages donors and helps explain why party membership has fallen so sharply since 2000.

Loyalty is built from the ground up, not demanded from the top down. When members are not heard, they disengage — and when that happens at scale, parties hollow out.

Victoria stands at a crossroads. One path leads to further decline. The other leads back to freedom, enterprise and renewal — the very principles Robert Menzies understood and which modern politics has too often set aside.

I’ve made my decision based on those principles. Others will make their own. What matters now is that we demand better — from parties, from leaders, and from ourselves.