Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Lions in the party council, mice in public. Too many of those who voted for the motion were reluctant to put their hands up outside the Hilton ballroom. The way elected Liberal leaders now run from the idea says everything about the madness of that moment last Saturday. Those in the room when the vote took place included Foreign Affairs Minister and deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, Communications Minister Mitch Fifield and South Australian Premier Steven Marshall. (Turnbull arrived after the vote took place because he had been speaking with former New Zealand prime minister John Key that morning.) Only Fifield spoke against the motion. The others remained silent, but had to repudiate their own members when asked later. Why did they not speak up when they had the chance? Mitch Fifield spoke out against the ABC motion. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The ABC is a fair subject for debate at any Liberal conference, or a Labor one for that matter. It has to justify its $1.2 billion a year. Programs like Q&A can be unbearably lopsided and predictable. The ABC pays for online advertising to cut the lunch of its competitors, so the issue of competitive neutrality is hugely important for a diverse media. But in what way could the ABC be sold without closing regional services and denying taxpayers the news and entertainment they clearly want? The idea is political poison. The staggering foolishness was not just that Young Liberal president Josh Manuatu and vice-president Mitchell Collier dreamt up the motion but that delegates of all ages – longstanding Liberals who should know how hard it is to win an election – voted so zealously without thinking for a moment about the consequences. The show of hands was over in less than a minute. At first, the view from the back of the room suggested the outcome was about 2:1 in favour, but the live video footage showed a more convincing result. The vote was at least 39 to 10 with four members of the federal executive in favour. The Yes votes included Victorian Liberal Karina Okotel and Sydney city councillor Christine Forster, while aspiring MP Damien Jones appeared to join them. He would not confirm when asked. Those with hard experience at the ballot box knew it was important to defend the ABC. Credit:Christopher Pearce

Those who voted to keep the ABC were hard to identify. One was Alan Eggleston, the former Western Australian senator. Another was Trish Worth, the former South Australian federal MP who had just been removed as a vice-president in a victory for the conservatives. In other words, those with hard experience at the federal ballot box knew it was important to defend the public broadcaster. What an irony when Turnbull condemns Labor for showing “ideology and idiocy” on energy. Here was his own side showing the same on the ABC, with immaturity as well. The Young Liberals who moved the ABC motion lacked the maturity to choose a cause they could debate without putting the wider party at risk. They attached a ball and chain to Liberal MPs who must fight in marginal seats at one federal and two state elections within a year. They displayed a real flaw in any aspiring politician – clumsiness. The mystery is why they are there. The Young Liberal president and vice-president are automatically elevated to the national executive of the Liberal Party. Why? Robert Menzies did not have Young Liberals sitting on his federal council. The change came in the 1970s, when the party was in opposition and needed new blood. Young Liberals (including Peter Costello and Eric Abetz) with then prime minister Malcolm Fraser in 1978. Credit:

There are obvious doubts now about whether naive amateurs have any place at the top table of a major party. The bald reality is the party needs these young volunteers to work at the next election, but it must be tempting to ask them to leave the table until they know how to use a knife and fork. Labor has similar problems. Its Tasmanian conference was accused of voting to allow the possession and use of small amounts of illicit drugs – an idea that parliamentary leaders swiftly rejected. In Labor, unlike the Liberals, these motions become party policy. Labor has routinely had to manage motions on border protection that risk community support at an election, something voters will see again at the national conference in December. The fractures at the very base of Australian politics are revealed in fleeting moments like the ABC vote. The foundations of our political system have become decrepit, with falling membership and shrinking branches that are easily exploited by lobbyists and insiders. Healthier branches might deliver more delegates who could speak up against a motion that so obviously gives Labor the material for a powerful scare campaign. Loading Australia has only two political parties with the base and the reach to hold government. One of them looks invigorated by union donations, union volunteers, GetUp activists and branch members who are fired up by Bill Shorten’s campaign on fairness. The other one is not nearly so fit for the campaign ahead.