The barbecue stoppers this summer will be freedom of speech, section 18C and political correctness gone mad, according to the conservative backbencher Eric Abetz.



The conservative backbencher said those topics were talked about much more than the republic or the definition of marriage at the community events he attended.

The former Abbott minister urged his conservative colleagues to work within the system and reflect the values of the conservative base after reports that Cory Bernardi and George Christensen were considering a split.

He made a thinly veiled swipe at the Turnbull leadership team, saying when he was Senate leader under Tony Abbott he made an effort to reach out to all colleagues “irrespective of what their particular disposition might be”.

“To ensure everybody had their voice heard, that nobody felt alienated, that there was genuine reward for effort within the Senate team as opposed to people being rewarded for the way they lined up or the way they voted,” Abetz said. “I think that is what we in the Coalition need to do again and get back to that.”

He urged the party to remain true to conservative values rather than indulge topics such as the republic and same-sex marriage, which were talked about only within the “Canberra bubble”.



“[Conservative voter] aspirations are to be able to balance their household budget, to have job security, to protect our borders, to have national security,” Abetz told Radio National.

“They’re the sort of things that excite them and concern them and, if I might say, it is not marriage, it is not republic, it is not those sort of things that often get spoken about in the Canberra bubble within the cities at coffee shops but can I tell you they are not spoken about at community barbecues or at the workplace lunch rooms.”

Abetz, who has been a politician for more than 20 years, said he knew what people were concerned about outside the Canberra bubble because he was “out and about, listening to people, not watching ABC24 or Sky News 24 hours a day, seven days a week”.

“Actually being out there in the community being at school assemblies, at the local men’s shed barbecue the other day ... it is interesting what topics are raised and I can I tell you republic is not raised, marriage is not raised,” Abetz said.

Abetz said freedom of speech and political correctness were the big issues being discussed and he quoted polls to justify support for changing section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. However, he rejected the strong support in polls for marriage equality.

“People talk about the right to freedom of speech, political correctness gone mad, they see Bill Leak and the QUT students, which got a lot of mainstream media people, so yes, people were talking about that,” Abetz said.

Abetz rejected the suggestion that the push to remove “insult” and “offend” from the Racial Discrimination Act was only of concern inside Canberra and might be considered in the same category as the republic and marriage equality.

He said 18C had developed into a mainstream issue because polls showed overwhelmingly people wanted change. He chastised interviewer Hamish Macdonald for using the term “marriage equality”.

“Once again, the ABC betrays itself when you talk about marriage equality as opposed to changing the definition of marriage,” he said. “And when you talk to people in the streets, can I tell you the issue of changing the foundational institution of our society does not rate.”

Abetz called on the Liberal party to take stock and consider why it had lost some of its support base, haemorrhaging 1.7m votes at the last election.

“I think the reason is we have not necessarily appealed as we should to our natural core constituency with some of the conservative values that myself and others share.”

He quoted the rule in politics that “disunity is death” and said it was best to work within the system because the Liberal party voter base was overwhelmingly of a conservative disposition and expected a centre-right government.