11 Oct 2026, 12:30 PM

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Preferences proved the sticking point at the conference as conservatives face the prospect of a third successive election defeatGet our new political email, free app or daily news podcastMany mainstream Australians would feel as if they’d been dropped in a foreign country at the Conservative Political Action Conference, lost amid oblique references to transgender swimmers, blue hair, women’s bathrooms, jokes about falling off stages and Matt Canavan in hi-vis and speed dealer sunnies.It’s an interesting spectacle. At this year’s conference in Brisbane, rightwing campaigner Monica Smit was deep in conversation with a Donald Trump impersonator, opera singers belted out the national anthem (the first verse, twice, for unknown reasons), senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and her folk singer husband sang the anthem again, and Stefanovic jokingly thanking CPAC for “rudely interrupting my unemployment”.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s Politics, really newsletter here Continue reading...

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