Weekend Wrap 2 April 2023: Labor wins Aston, Dutton’s train wreck on Insiders and Liberals circle the drain

Ben Davison breaks down the Aston by-election result which has seen Labor's Mary Doyle win a the formerly safe Liberal seat.  The result is the first time in over 100 years a sitting government has won a seat away from the opposition at a by-election.  The first time a woman has won Aston.

Ben looks at how a proud feminist, unionist, single mum was able to win such a "blue ribbon" Liberal seat against a conservative Liberal candidate who ticked all the usual boxes.

Peter Dutton fronted up to Insiders today and gave a train wreck of an interview.  Truly a masterclass in how to implode, the Dutton interview included threatening a gas crisis (we are the world largest exporter of gas), claiming the Aston result was due to Labor's negative campaign (apparently posters with his face on them are negative) and that this is a Victoria problem (having lost the NSW election last weekend).  The Insiders panel wasn't buying it and neither is Ben.  The Liberal's are talking about the wrong issues and even if they do stumble into the right issue they are no longer trusted to deliver the solutions.

Ben looks at why the Liberals are such a mess.  The party of Menzies is dying a slow painful, public death and Dutton is not capable of reforming them.  Ben examines how The Liberals have found themselves circling the drain of political history and why he thinks that, without major reform, they will cease to be a genuine party of government.

Ben also touches on how some of the big policy issues have played out as a result of this realignment. Ben slams Phil Coorey from the bosses pamphlet, the AFR, for continuing the Liberal Party attack against the NDIS and highlights that David Speers dropped out the news the Liberals will bind their caucus to voting NO on the referendum.

As always, Ben suggests people Vote YES.