The Rats are circling Mal Rightards where are you?

[Neferti]

As you will undoubtedly realise, I am NOT a political person, why I am a Member of a supposedly Political Forum, who knows? Most people wondered why the hell I moved to Canberra in the first place .... "isn't that where all the pollies are?" rubbish.

Anyway, the first time I heard about Wets and Dries was when I first came to Canberra and a couple of co-workers were listening to "our ABC" when Malcolm Fraser was Prime Minister and Bob Hawke beat Bill Hayden as the ALP Leader. One co-worker mentioned "wets and dries" of the Liberal Party, I really didn't understand what he was on about. This person called himself a "small-l liberal" which I took as he didn't vote Liberal and I did so, we never got into a conversation about it.

The "wet" (moderate) and "dry" (conservative) wings of the Liberal party co-operated fairly harmoniously, but in the early 1970s as conservatives started to dominate in South Australia liberals led by Steele Hall broke off to form the Liberal Movement. In 1977, other dissident small-l liberal[8][9] forces led by Don Chipp created the Australian Democrats.

I presume that Malcolm Fraser was a "wet"? Howard was a "dry"?

Anyway, here read this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism_in_Australia

[skippy]

Fraser wet Howard dry.
Peacock was a wet Howard dry.
Hewson was a wet Howard dry.
Costello wet Downer dry.
Costello wet Howard dry.
Turnbull wet Abbott dry.
Just moderate or conservative just like Labor have left and right wing factions, the Libs have moderate and conservative.
After Turnbull loses the next election a dry will replace him, maybe even Abbott if not Abbott, Morrison.
But just like Labor the Libs usually have a wet and dry in the leadership or treasurer positions to keep both sides of the respective parties happy.
Shorten right Pliberseck left.
If Shorten gets rolled by Albo, Pliberseck will probably lose her deputy gig as the right of the Labor party wouldn't allow two lefties to run the party.
Most right wing Labor members would be interchangeable with the left wing or moderate Libs.
Like Pyne could be a Labor righty.
Anyone that goes into politics as a career choice would choose the party that is in their best interests for advancement, Turnbull is far from alone there.
Before he went into politics Abbott took his mentoring from the ex leader of the Demorcratic Labor party (DLP) Bob Santamaria. Which was a breakaway from the ALP ( the Catholic arm) from the Cold War years of commies under the bed 1950s Australia.

[Rorschach]

Liberal Prime Minister, John Howard, is reported to have described himself the most conservative leader the Liberal Party had ever had. The "wet" (moderate) and "dry" (conservative) wings of the Liberal party till lately have co-operated fairly harmoniously. The past has thrown up a few politically seismic shifts though with Don Chipp, in 1977, leaving the party to form the Australian Democrats. In 1996 David Oldfield and ex-Liberal staffer joined Pauline Hanson to create One Nation, which was a grass roots support movement, largely see as right Wing but with members drawn from both major parties. Most recently we have Cory Bernadi starting the Australian Conservatives.

Thanks Skip, nice to have backup, unfortunately dumb trolls like Johnboy, don't accept anything I say.
But I'm thinking he doesn't accept what you said either, seems like he's run away.
No apology no nothing
That BTW is an excellent outcome.

The Liberals have factions even if Malcolm denies it. Wets and Dries are 2 of the major sides in the Liberal Party. Even if some people are ignorant of the facts, that doesn't mean they don't exist.