No country for old men: the Liberal brand is a smoking ruin

In a famous photograph by Alex Ellinghausen from June 2014, delighted Liberals celebrate on the floor of the House of Representatives after abolishing the Gillard government’s carbon pricing scheme — a low-cost, low-impact and efficient mechanism that lowered Australia’s emissions. A delighted Greg Hunt is being congratulated by Kelly O’Dwyer and Christopher Pyne. All three, of course, have now exited politics, Hunt at the most recent election.

Hunt’s legacy consists of a reputation for shredding his principles, the discredited “soil magic” Emissions Reduction Fund, wildly overestimating his popularity with his colleagues and presiding over the disasters of the vaccine rollout and aged care crisis.

The other figure in the photo still in politics, standing with a motley group of colleagues — all men — in a photo by Mick Tsikas from yesterday (featured above), is Peter Dutton, standing with his defeated colleagues during the amendments stage of the passage of Labor’s climate bill through the house.