There have been problems for years with the Liberal Party: some pollies were moderately right-wing, while others had policies that were far more right-wing. The new party might give voters a clearer picture of the candidates’ political aims, moderate or hard right.

We might despair about the standard of political leadership in Australia, but it could be worse. We could have a leadership like the one the Americans have given themselves.

Prime Minister Turnbull, and indeed the people of Australia, should be concerned about that kerfuffle with President Trump about those asylum seekers who are an embarrassment to Mr Turnbull’s government.

At the same time, it is difficult to sympathise with Mr Turnbull’s team. Remember when Labor had the basis of an agreement with Malaysia to take those asylum seekers who would not be allowed to settle in Australia? This was soundly rejected by Team Abbott, which rejected everything Labor proposed, including that Malaysian solution.

Sure, Mr Trump is a strange man, but his rudeness to Prime Minister Turnbull, or any other world leader, cannot be excused. The Australian people should not merely accept this abuse of our Prime Minister. Even those who might never have voted for him should make it clear that he is our Prime Minister and we have been insulted.

Maybe we should show some petulance about it all and ask the American Ambassador for talks about the future of that huge electronic information-gathering complex at Pine Gap that we allow the Americans to operate and that Mr Trump should not even think about asking for our support if the Americans get themselves involved in another of their regular, unwinnable wars.

Someone has to stand up to this blustering, short-sighted man and it must be much safer if a long-time friend does so, rather than some other equally abrasive leader, such as Mr Putin.

My mother was embarrassed when she had to go shopping with big holes in her stockings, but she wasn’t alone. Other women had the same problem. My father, who never liked riding a bike, bought one to get around, and he wasn’t alone in that, either. Dad, who had been badly wounded in WWI, was in charge of the local air raid wardens.

There were no stockings available in the shops during the war, and petrol was severely rationed, and we had to accept that. Meat was also rationed, as was sugar and clothing generally. It was all part of the war effort.

After all, we were trying to protect our country from an invasion and when your ancient scribe started work in this new-fangled radio business up in Grafton, there were sandbags around the building. The situation was very serious.

But, of course, these were only ‘inconveniences’, the real concern was the safety of my two older brothers, one in the army in New Guinea, the other in the RAAF somewhere to the north. They both survived unhurt.

It wasn’t only us, of course, everyone seemed anxious to ‘do their bit’ to protect Australia from invasion. Today we aren’t threatened with an invasion, but what damage will climate change bring for our children? And why aren’t we doing something about it?

Somehow, things have changed and there doesn’t seem to be that same feeling of everyone co-operating for the common good anymore. Our politicians are certainly not giving the sort of leadership we needed to combat such a serious problem.

Fact 1. Canberra has just experienced its hottest January ever and we can assume the same would apply to Goulburn.

Fact 2. The average temperature across the world’s land and ocean surfaces last year was 14.827 degrees centigrade, according to four international studies, including NASA and the Japanese Meteorological Agency, making it the hottest year for the third year in a row.

Fact 3. The present government destroyed the effective Carbon Tax introduced by Labor as a means of countering climate change. Reducing electricity consumption is a first step in limiting climate change.

And now the Government is talking about building new ‘clean energy’ coal-fired electricity generators, but the Government really knows there is no such thing as a clean energy coal-fired generator. They need to explain what it is, or stop insulting our intelligence.

Scott Morrison has even suggested that these costly developments could be subsidised from money removed from the clean energy subsidies.

Surely this is an acknowledgement that it has no intention of providing any leadership on climate change.

During the war, when our country was under threat, every Australian seemed to accept that we all needed a lot of belt tightening if we were to stop the enemy invasion.

What has happened since then? Have we, as a people, become too complacent or simply not really caring about the sort of world or country we will leave to our children and grandchildren?

My parents went without new clothes, walked when there was no petrol, feared for their two sons in the military and, like the rest of the community, did everything possible to protect Australia from invasion.

Why, then, do we accept this ‘do nothing’ attitude to climate change.

Ray Williams has been a Post columnist since retiring from the newsroom in 1993.