Atlas Network-linked MP Tim Wilson refuses to rule out forming government with One Nation

On ABC Insiders this morning, the Atlas Network partner affiliate Tim Wilson signalled that the neoliberal wing of the Liberal Party could be prepared to form government with the far right One Nation.

Quotes from Liberal Party MP, MPS member and Atlas Network affiliate Tim Wilson per Capital Brief today.

This morning Atlas Network-linked MP Tim Wilson refused to rule out forming minority government with far right One Nation.

Australian figures aligned with local Atlas Network partners have been working for years to emulate what New Zealand/Aotearoa’s ACT Party has done. The Association of Consumers and Taxpayers (ACT) body was co-founded in 1993 as a think tank by Labour politician Roger Douglas. (He was made a Mont Pelerin Society (MPS) member in 1998. In the mid 1980s, he had been the face of “Rogernomics”, which gave NZ/Ao the MPS-driven Pinochet/Thatcher/Reagan treatment):

The think tank became a party the following year. In 2023, it achieved only 8.64% of the vote. Despite that small percentage of the vote, ACT has had a pivotal impact on the coalition forged with the National Party and the nativist New Zealand First. ACT’s leader and sometime Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour (MPS) has had a career-long affiliation with the Atlas Network including participating in its fortnight duration “MBA” course.

Australia’s Atlas Network partner the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) been closely tied to the Liberal Party since their earliest years. Tim Wilson has spent most of his career directly and apparently indirectly serving the IPA’s goals.

At the recent Advance conference, there was a panel boasting all Atlas Network-affiliates. They claimed Advance’s achievements as “our” achievements. That panel (and much else that has been reported from the secretive event) suggests broad dissatisfaction with what speakers disparaged as the “uniparty”, seeing the Liberal Party (with its National coalition partner) as functionally indistinguishable from the Labor government.

It is not unreasonable to perceive the 2001 foundation of the Liberal Democrat Party, which became the Libertarian Party in 2023, as an effort by Australian MPS and Atlas Network affiliates to emulate the undertaking of ACT in NZ/Ao. John Humphreys MPS and (Atlas) Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance economist founded both forms of that party (as well as instituting the regional Atlas Network conference, the Friedman Conference.)

The Libertarian Party gained 0.54% of the vote at the last federal election.

The last iteration of the Friedman conference was merged with two other events: Australia’s main theocratic conference organisation and a nativist/conspiracist conference. They named it the Triple Conference. Humphreys gave the welcome. This is only one example of the Atlas affiliates’ readiness to work with radicalised religious and conspiracist bases to gain power.

My assessment of the selection of speeches I heard recorded at the Advance conference was that the strategists were hovering over the political options that offered the best chance of becoming a steering minority in a radicalised Right coalition government. I heard only some of the speeches; other speakers may have been much more “all-in” for One Nation already.

We must consider ourselves warned that professionals were impressed by Advance’s strategic planning.

It is clear from the big money and former Liberal and National politicians moving across to the far right One Nation Party that several think this is the best option to gain power for a “conservative”/far right alliance. Revelations about other former Liberal donors moving to Advance seem likely to benefit One Nation’s chances too, since their messaging operates in parallel. Jamie Packer, Karl Stefanovic’s best man, is funding Advance. Stefanovic’s new podcast enterprise is promoting One Nation and far right influencers.

It will be worth watching figures from the Liberal Party insurgency like newly reelected South Australian Senator Alex Antic: if the wagers are following Tim Wilson edging towards embracing One Nation, Antic might make the move across.

Reform’s success at council elections in the UK may well compound this likelihood. Nigel Farage’s party was rooted in big money and Steve Bannon’s machinations. By contrast One Nation’s origins were as a working class entity. The big money takeover of One Nation in Australia suggests it hopes to hollow out any remnants of that shell and use the carcass for the predator capitalist goals on display in abundance in MAGA’s US.

It is worth reminding ourselves that MPS members started the German far right party Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD). Quinn Slobodian illustrated in considerable detail that racism was a comfortable fit from the most intellectual spheres of neoliberalism downwards in his Hayek’s Bastards.

And just as an Atlas Network partner-drafted budget introduced by Atlas-linked Liz Truss did immense damage to the British economy, not even business is happy with the Atlas-partner steered work done by the NZ/Ao think tank-colonised government. This government consistently harms the public.

It will not take a One Nation majority for One Nation to do immense, billionaire-serving damage to Australia. The partnership with conspiracist Cookers threatens our scientific wellbeing and innovation. The partnership with Christian extremists threatens to rewind our rights and freedoms. As we see in America, neoliberalism in this late stage era is geared to allow predators to gamble with our national (and global) wellbeing for short-term profiteering.

We need to make it intolerable for any reputable party to enter coalition with One Nation.

We need our government to take seriously the threat posed by Advance’s absolute commitment to poisoning our information space, using massive donations, and with very few controls on truth in political advertising. These transparency and information protection reforms are even more urgent.