Manger of Opposition Business Paul Fletcher has accepted a scathing review of the Liberals’ election loss and identified three areas the party must improve to win back voters.
The Liberal Party has identified three key areas it must improve in if it is to return to government at the next federal election after it was deemed “not fit for purpose” in a scathing review into the May polls.
The Coalition government went from 77 seats in the House of Representatives to 58 at the May 21 election, with the Liberal’s separate state divisions, a lack of women and effective digital marketing already highlighted among the party’s failures.
Manager of Opposition Business Paul Fletcher told Sky News Australia the party must conduct an “honest assessment of what went wrong” if it was to adapt to a new age of politics which saw an influx of independents elected.
“We do need more professionalism in the way we campaign, our digital campaign techniques need to be much more effective,” he said.
“We do need more women candidates, no question of that absolutely no question of that so we’ve got work to do.”
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The Australian reported the review also found party membership levels had hit “crisis point” after years of separate state divisions being divided by growing factions.
Mr Fletcher admitted an overhaul to the party’s state divisions would be required to boost its membership and give it the best chance to combat teal independents.
“Certainly it is an issue that we need to have more members and we do need to see a revitalisation of the way our party organisation works in each state if we are to be an effective campaigning organisation and if we’re to be in a position to form government again,” he said.
The Liberal Party lost nine seats to independents who were represented by strong female candidates and supported by large groups of volunteers and effective marketing campaigns.
Mr Fletcher claimed the cashed up teal campaigns were an example of the “Americanisation of Australian politics” but accepted the Liberals must adapt to win back voters in the historically safe seats.
“We were up against very substantial extensively funded independent campaigns you know the teal campaigns we saw $2.1 million being spent in Wentworth we saw $1.38 million being spent in North Sydney,” he said.
“These are unprecedented amounts of money to spend on a local campaign, this has been the Americanisation of Australian politics it’s been a troubling development.
“But at the same time the democratic marketplace is competitive we need to be competitive in our campaign techniques, we need to be better at digital campaigning.”
Former Liberal Party federal director Brian Loughnane and Victorian senator Jane Hume conducted the review which was presented to the 30-member federal executive on Wednesday and will be released on Thursday.
It is expected to deliver 49 recommendations with an emphasis on the urgent reform required for state divisions and a key point on boosting volunteers to combat the teals’ massive volunteer numbers.
Despite the crushing election defeat Mr Fletcher believes there was no issue with the Liberal values and claimed Australians were already “extremely troubled” by some of the Labor Government’s decisions.
“Our fundamental values remain very sound many Australians are rightly extremely troubled about the interventionist instincts, the pro-union instincts of the current government, the Labor Government,” he said.
“We heard a lot from Mr Albanese about how he was going to govern but it’s pretty clear this government is quite left-wing, it’s very anti-business.
“And for Australians who care about our prosperity, the prosperity which is important so we can fund the roads and schools and hospitals and the services that Australians rely on our values our Liberal values are very important but you need to be able to communicate them effectively you need to campaign effectively so we’ve got work to do.”
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