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There comes a time in the life of great political ideologies when new voices must be found to provide hope when everything is grim. Australian conservatism is at that moment. Across the nation its parliamentary representatives have been losing record majorities in record time, and their very future now seems on the line.

The new voice must be credible. It must be well-connected. It must have bite. Yet it must also be sweet enough to lead a rousing chorus during those painful rebuilding times that beckon.

Pru Goward has emerged as the chosen one, having been anointed by Jonathan Shier, the man who would like to be her boss. A former ABC journalist, a recent head of the Office of the Status of Women, John Howard's impressed co-biographer, she has all the makings of a champion. But does she have the ticker?

We got our first glimpse last Wednesday in her racy debut column for this page, when Goward gave us a sense of the song she's working on. She fired shots at all sorts of trendy causes, from the environment and human rights to philanthropy and the need for a business ethic. "Earning a profit," she boomed, "is not a wrongdoing that requires atonement."

Goward's target was those who have been trying to trick business into sacrificing profit "'to demonstrate their moral leadership". Let business focus on the single bottom line that matters, while the rest of us do what's socially good and environmentally sustainable.

Goward will not be the only one to sing in these times of need, and there's bound to be a tune to come from deep within the Federal Parliament. The day after Goward's debut, the featured article on this page was by Employment Minister Tony Abbott, who surely would like to lead the band with his own bold score.

Abbott has become emboldened over the years, playing his sharp melody that makes the most of shame in times of high unemployment. In his most recent gig, Abbott has taken his tune about as far as it will go without evoking laughter.

For years he has been saying unemployment is due to a lack of will, not jobs, and now he reckons the jobless are to blame for recessions. When they want to work, unemployment tumbles to the floor, and when they get lazy, it rises through the ceiling. That's why he has had to put a bit of stick about to harass the unemployed into a job. A persistent shortage of jobs and a global business cycle have not changed his mind, much less his heart, or even the strength of his merciless language.

Is this peculiar mix of Goward's voice and Abbott's music the right beat for a troubled conservatism? Freedom for those with property. Harassment for those with no job. No ethics for those making a buck. But a regular sermon for those without a dime. A rugged individualism for those in business. But a brutal paternalism for those in need.

This number is unlikely to rise to the top of the charts, for it is too one-sided to get that far, too out of fashion to grab the public's mind. What conservatism desperately needs is a song of hope and something to celebrate, not more divisive and abrasive heavy metal.

A renewed conservatism needs to play a softer, more consistent tune than that which Goward and Abbott play, one that makes more of John Howard's tentative attempt to encourage business into a social partnership, and one that treats all citizens and not just business with the respect they deserve.

Abbott is right to say "people respond to values as well as financial incentives", and that there is much to be had from "appealing to people's pride as well as their hip-pocket nerve". Here he is at one with environmentalists and other social activists, whose efforts are finally paying dividends. As Goward reluctantly acknowledges, "it took business more than a decade to catch up, but finally it changed and the world is probably (sic) the better for it".

Goward's debut column turned some heads, but it surely won too few hearts to have done the job that conservatism needed.

Dr David Hayward heads Swinburne University of Technology's institute for social research.Email David Hayward

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