After the 2025 federal election, when both the Liberals and the Greens had been smashed in the lower house, their new leaders declared they would listen to voters and pivot to the centre.
In her first public comments as Liberal leader, Sussan Ley spoke of a Liberal Party that respected, reflected and represented modern Australia.
"We have to meet the people where they are, and that's what I am committed to doing, and what I am determined to do," she said.
She talked about the "sensible centre" and tried to change the party's direction after Peter Dutton's defeat, as many Liberals felt they paid a high electoral price for his Trump-lite leadership.
Over in the Greens party room, a similar dynamic was playing out.
The 'firm but constructive' days are over
Bruised by the loss of three of their four lower-house seats, as well as its leader Adam Bandt, the Greens were forced to confront what had gone so wrong in their heartland.
The Greens elected Larissa Waters, who said the party would "be firm but constructive".
She said voters had elected them to "get shit done".
Some privately conceded they had appeared too obstructionist in the Albanese government's first term.
Waters did get shit done. She was responsible for helping Labor pass its signature environmental reforms last year. Securing amendments and negotiating a deal with the PM put the Greens back into a position of power.
But she was seen as not getting traction beyond that.
Politics is about getting noticed and on that the Greens were failing.
Both new leaders took to their roles offering a less combative approach following the harsh lessons the 2025 election served them.
Fast forward 17 months and the Liberal Party and Greens both have new leaders and both have dispensed with their respective party's flirtation with being constructive.
Not only do both leaders appear to be doubling down on the respective strategies that took their parties to an electoral hiding in 2025, but they are now adding extra sauce to the mix.
The gloves are off
While Ley was rolled by her colleagues, Waters stepped down due to health reasons.
But her resignation did bring on a partyroom vote and the Greens chose a replacement who is not expected to be so generous to the government.
New leader David Shoebridge opened the batting of his leadership by explicitly rejecting incrementalism.
He said people wanted "material change" and argued that Labor had failed to deliver that.
He appears to want to follow the ideological and aggressive style of former leader Adam Bandt.
The Liberals under Angus Taylor are pushing for drastic cuts to immigration, appearing to follow the agenda set by One Nation, disposing of Ley's opening appeal to find a more nuanced position and repair relations, especially with Indian and Chinese communities.
Was Dutton and Bandt's mistake more wrong timing rather than wrong strategy?
Labor won the 2025 election with a historic number of seats.
Anthony Albanese was able to point to the victory as vindication of his view that elections are won and lost in the centre and being the "adult in the room" was rewarded by voters.
But is that still the political mood as we enter the last part of 2026?
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There is no sensible centre
Deputy One Nation leader Barnaby Joyce told me on Afternoon Briefing that polarisation was a result of Australians wanting more distinctive politics on the right and the left.
"When people talk about the sensible centre, it is an excuse about a church where nobody goes to anymore," he said.
Even though he routinely criticises the Greens for holding extreme views, Joyce said people wanted clear messages from politicians.
"We don't have to talk in riddles where we try to say things that everybody finds non-offensive.
Therefore, we have people who like us and people who dislike us, that's because they know what we are on about and I suppose that is similar with the Greens."
If the public wants clear and decisive action from politicians, the next stage of the Coalition's migration plan will be a test of whether Taylor can meet the moment.
He not only needs to explain the policy in clear terms but sell it with conviction.
Taylor will have to explain who is affected, which workers will still be welcome and how lower migration will fix our housing crisis.
He will likely try to do that by sitting between One Nation and Labor on migration, hoping that this version of a sensible centre, or sensible right, is appealing to those who seek change but might fear a radical solution.
If anyone around the country is paying attention to what One Nation is offering in Victoria, where an election is near, the word radical might seem tame.
A prominent One Nation Victorian candidate has threatened to jail former premiers Daniel Andrews and Jacinta Allan "by Christmas" if the populist party wins the November state election.
The statement by Mark Nicholson was given empathic applause at the One Nation launch at Crown Conference Centre in Southbank on Saturday.
In Australia, last time I checked, we have a judicial system not dictated by politicians.
Let's hope Australians understand how fiercely we should be guarding that judicial independence.
