The Liberals may consider putting their own candidate up in New England at the next federal election, as Senator Dave Sharma used his first official visit to Armidale to pitch the party as the champion of small business and economic repair.
Senator Sharma visited Armidale this week, accompanied by Guyra based state MLC Aileen MacDonald. He met with a number of locals including Deputy Mayor Todd Redwood and other council representatives, the University of New England, spoke at a defence and security forum, and appeared at Politics in the Pub, before an evening event hosted by the Armidale Liberal Party branch.
Asked what the Liberals offer regional voters, he pointed to cost of living and small business.
“The whole country is suffering, but especially I think regional and rural areas, from bad economic management, high interest rates, high inflation, deteriorating government services because of deteriorating government finances,” said NSW Liberal Senator Dave Sharma.
“A lot of the lifeblood of regional towns is small business, small and medium-sized businesses, and we’ve always been the party that understands and backs small business.”
The man previously touted as a potential Prime Minister also articulated what the Liberal Party stands for with a clarity often missing in the current political climate.
“I’m a Liberal, obviously, but that means I’m someone who believes fundamentally in limited government, in individual freedom and choice and personal liberty,” he said.
“I think the role of government should be limited to providing law and order and security, providing social services as a safety net, not as a component of everyone’s life, and otherwise letting people make their own life choices and decisions,” he said.
“We don’t want to get in there and dictate what’s the right way to live.”
Infrastructure was high on the list of issues raised with him in Armidale, particularly rail. He had spoken with constituents both about the desire to reopen the rail line north of Armidale, and about the halt to the Inland Rail.
“We’ve been critical of the Labor government’s decision to stop the Inland Rail. We think it should continue and proceed,” Senator Sharma said.
He had also heard about the water challenges, particularly in the context of the Renewable Energy Zone, putting it on his to-do list to follow up on funding for increasing dam capacity when he gets back to the office.
“Where’s that water going to come from, given that it’s a water scarce community as it is?
He also linked the infrastructure issues back to the economy and the need to support business.
“For small businesses to become bigger businesses, they need fundamentally need access to markets, right?”
“You rely upon roads, railways, ports, and then trading partners as well.”
“I’ve always believed that government investment in infrastructure is good investment and properly belongs on the capital balance sheet, not as recurrent spending.”
Before politics, Senator Sharma was an Australian diplomat and ambassador. He represented Australia in Israel, Washington DC, and Papua New Guinea, served with a peacekeeping operation in Bougainville, and held senior national security positions in Canberra. He brings that considered reasoning and measured reaction to his work, and is not a fan of reactions to events so that governments can be ‘seen to be doing something’.
That includes the debate and legislative actions that have followed the Chanukah Massacre at Bondi Beach last year, with Sharma critical of both the immigration debate and gun reform that followed.
“I think there’s a legitimate debate to be had in Australia about what’s a sustainable level of immigration,” he said.
“We will always be an immigrant nation, and we’ve been made successful and prosperous, and one of the best nations on earth because of immigration, and we need to ensure that continues.”
“It’s fair and legitimate for people to have a debate about what should the number be, and how can we encourage new immigrants to settle more in communities where they’re more needed.”
Senator Sharma, who was previously the member for Wentworth which includes Bondi, was critical of One Nation seeking to capitalise on the Bondi attack by linking it to immigration, when the attack was actually committed by an Australian born citizen, and his father who was a long term permanent resident.
“I don’t think that’s a healthy debate to have,” Senator Sharma said. “I don’t see immigration as linked to Bondi at all.”
He said his view was that the causes of Bondi are overwhelmingly domestic, including a culture of permissiveness towards hate and incitement against fellow Australians, and that the Royal Commission has been examining this.
“That’s about failings in Australia, not failings that we imported – failings in social cohesion and respect for fellow citizens, and respect for the rule of law amongst Australians,” he said.
He also said the gun law changes made after the attack would not have prevented it.
“Restricting everyone else’s legitimate access, and I know especially in rural areas, to firearms to address a problem that it would never have addressed is, I think, an example of a government overreaction or overstepping,” Senator Sharma said.
“Sometimes governments cynically use a crisis to pursue their own particular agenda.”
Sharma was one of a crop of moderate Liberals who lost their lower house seats in the so-called ‘teal wave‘ in 2022, before coming back into politics via the Senate to replace former Foreign Minister Senator Marise Payne in 2023.
The party is evidently much poorer for that loss of talent, both through the right wing ‘values’ rhetoric now dominating the party’s messaging, and the instability within the Coalition relationship. The country is also poorer for it, with the loss of many natural leaders with moderate, “little l” liberal views like Sharma, who can work across the chamber, have the intellect to see the whole board, and possess the communication skills to keep the debate focused on what matters, like the economy.
“The debate in Australia I think today is overwhelmingly about the economy,” he said. “People’s life choices are being limited, or their horizons are being limited, because of the state of the economy.
“Whether it’s their ability to start a business or afford a home, or give their children an education, or look after their elderly parents.”
“Everyone’s feeling the economic pressure right now.”
Sharma believes the key to economic repair is productivity.
“Unless we can get our productivity moving again, the economy can’t grow. People’s real wages can’t improve. Their living standards can’t improve,” he said.
He said living standards in Australia have doubled every 35 to 40 years since the Second World War. At current productivity growth, it would take 100 to 120 years.
“That means that our children are not going to have a materially different or better way of life than we are.”
“Until we can fix the productivity challenge… then we can’t really start addressing any number of other challenges we’ve got.”
Going forward to the next federal election, Senator Sharma will be working to articulate that economic message and help the Liberals regain some of the lost ground. That could include a run in New England – as Member for New England Barnaby Joyce is no longer a National, the normal Coalition rules about not challenging each other do not apply. Both the Liberal and National parties could stand candidates in the prized electorate in 2028.
“We have run a candidate here before, and I think it’s certainly something that’s under consideration because we think the people here should have a choice,” Senator Sharma said.
“We’re not a party of protest. We’re about getting into government, fixing up the economy, and doing things.”
“It’s about better economic management, but also lessening the regulation and compliance burden on small and medium-sized businesses, and helping kind of encourage aspiration and opportunity again.”
For many locals, the fact that there are active Liberal Party branches in the New England may be a surprise. Senator Sharma had a simple message for them.
“We are here. I’m here. We want your support and your vote,” he said.
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