Culture

The Liberals’ New 28-Year-Old Victorian Senator Seems Like A Really Cool And Fun Guy

Just a Regular Young Person.

by Alex McKinnon  7 March 2016

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The Liberal Party has something of an image problem. Between PR snafus like Mike Baird’s misfired defence of the Sydney lockout laws, that unfortunate International Women’s Day incident last year and the fact that literally every male Coalition politician looks like a giant old baby, there’s a perception out in the community that the Libs are little more than flabby old white blokes in nice suits — a reputation that, besides routinely enacting and defending policies that privilege the interests of a handful of obscenely wealthy corporate oligarchs at the expense of society’s most vulnerable people, they’ve done absolutely nothing to earn.

Clearly the Liberals need some new blood if they’re to throw off their image as a bunch of doddery old fogies. They need someone new and exciting, a fresh face who can connect with the youth of today and articulate the Liberals’ core values in a language The Teens can understand. They need a Poochie.

“Predatory neoliberalism is radical, kids.”

And it looks like they may have found one. Yesterday the Liberals’ Victorian branch announced 28-year-old James Paterson would replace retiring Senator Michael Ronaldson, which is a big deal: he’ll be the youngest person in the Senate by several years, and one of only a handful of people in their 20s ever elected to Parliament.

So what makes this guy so special? A whole lot, as it turns out. Paterson’s not your garden-variety Liberal candidate: he’s your classic Gen-Y leader of tomorrow. He’s hip, he’s young, he’s in-your-face. He likes typical young-person things — stickin’ it to the man, wicked sick kickflips, working for a far-right libertarian think-tank, posing for photos with former Prime Minister John Howard at Liberal Party functions. Y’know, standard Millennial stuff.

Paterson brings youthful vigour and #fresh ideas to his current gig as Deputy Executive Director of the Institute of Public Affairs, Australia’s self-described “voice for freedom” that’s been pushing its unique vision of Australia for over 70 years. The IPA’s stated aims include slashing environmental regulations, cutting corporate tax rates and the privatisation of Medibank, SBS, the ABC, Australia Post and the CSIRO, and counts the abolition of the carbon and mining taxes as its signature achievement. If you’re getting priced out of your filthy unsafe sharehouse by spiralling rent prices, racking up mammoth amounts of student debt or worried about the effects of climate change on your future, you can be thankful that Paterson’s using his position at the IPA to stick up for the issues that really matter to young people, like apparent left-wing bias at the ABC and gutting the Racial Discrimination Act. Thanks, James!

But it wasn’t all free-market hijinks for Paterson growing up; he’s had to struggle to get where he is today. Anyone who couldn’t find a job after graduating or subsisted on Newstart for years at a time will strongly identify with Paterson’s own path on leaving school: working as a staffer for Liberal Senator Mitch Fifield, and a stint in student politics at the University of Melbourne. As Junkee has noted before, few things prepare someone to become a leader like the respectful, mature environment of student politics — that’s why current politicians who came up that way, like Tony Abbott, Christopher Pyne, and Philip Ruddock, are so well-liked. And with Parliament overrun by party hacks with zero real-world experience, it’s so refreshing to see the Liberals choose someone with a vibrant, diverse CV like this:

Now Paterson’s embarking on an exciting new chapter in his dazzling career: calling on the wages and entitlements of public servants to be slashed while pulling down a six-figure salary courtesy of the Australian taxpayer. Look out, world! You didn’t see this bad boy coming down the road.