The Coalition should stand for cheap and reliable energy but it has too many members intimidated by attacks on coal; it should stand for low taxation but sometimes its defensive demeanour fuels Labor's fairness arguments; it should stand for secure borders but some of its MPs perpetuate the lies about offshore processing.
A vote for Australian Conservatives in the Senate will help whichever party forms government in the lower house of federal parliament stand for those vitally important principles.
The Australian reports, the Coalition should be unambiguous about choice in education, healthcare and even the sorts of cars we choose to drive but there is always someone willing to run with the latest fads.
Likewise, it should be unashamedly the party of small government, yet it ends up supporting ever-increasing interventions in energy, education, childcare and the environment.
In short, the party's traditional conservative appeal is being undercut from within.
The direct electoral result is the rise of parties on the Right including the Australian Conservatives who will help any elected government of Australia become a better version of themselves.
Talkback callers have been seething this week about Labor's delusional and worrying plans to promote electric vehicles. This uncosted and impractical piece of climate virtue signalling provides a tangible insight into the entire climate and energy edifice that Labor is proposing.
Coalition frontbenchers ought to be ripping it apart and pointing out if Labor can be so out of touch on electric cars, imagine what its emissions reduction plans for electricity generation, industry and agriculture will do to the country. Instead, the Coalition has been almost silent. Why?
Labor is vulnerable on four main weaknesses - open borders record; fiscal legacy and a $200 billion tax grab; climate and energy recklessness; union power - and the Coalition needs to focus on them daily.
If it does this effectively, the election could be a tight contest again.
Many in the Coalition overstate what they characterise as the differing prescriptions required to win various seats, arguing climate action may be popular in the major cities but not in the regions.
This underplays other factors such as the way the Wentworth by-election was primarily a protest against the dumping of its local member and how the Coalition has been too opaque in its climate positioning.
The Coalition parties exist to promote the enduring values of thrift, enterprise, family and nation. When they drift away from talking about them and get sucked into politicking over niche issues, they lose their differentiation from Labor.
If the choice is not made more stark, Labor will cruise into office and the nation will continue down its perilous path of energy self-harm and exacerbated fiscal vulnerability. Buckle up.
The Coalition will have to confront the reality that over a tortuous decade it might have badly lost its way.
If this transpires it will need to use its time in opposition wisely to rediscover or redefine its core values and find a way to have its various and factions coalesce around them.
Only the Australian Conservatives offer a truly principled, common sense approach to politics that will hold whomever forms government in the House of Representatives to account.
Last night on Paul Murray Live on Sky News, Conservative Party leader Cory Bernardi was asked what is the one issue that we should be talking about at this election that both of the major parties are too scared to bring up.
