Voters gave my party a lesson. We Liberals can no longer cover our ears

You can learn a lot by volunteering at polling booths during an election. The people who want to ban how-to-vote cards and the carnival-like atmosphere of polling booths are dead wrong – democracy thrives when people are allowed to express themselves, respectfully, in whatever way they choose.

Just by observing the interactions at the polling booth on election day this year, I knew that the Liberal Party was staring down the barrel of defeat.

Peter Dutton leaves the stage after delivering his concession speech in Brisbane on Saturday night.Credit: Bloomberg

What I saw in my old electorate of Sturt in Adelaide was chilling. Those taking Liberal how-to-vote cards enthusiastically (as opposed to those taking them out of a sense of politeness) were typically old people and middle-aged men. The contrast with Labor and the Greens was stark: Young people and women were bounding up to their volunteers, asking for their cards and ignoring us. We brushed it off, but the results speak for themselves. The Liberal Party’s base is disappearing. Unless the Liberal Party learns the lesson it has been handed by the voters, it will be a permanent party of opposition. That’s bad for democracy.

Politics in Australia is not very complicated. To win elections, a political party or would-be politician needs to tack to the centre. It might be centre right or centre left, but parties too far to the right or the left do not form government. They might win some seats (like the Greens or One Nation), but they are not parties of government.

Since the Liberal Party was formed in 1944, the Coalition has won 19 national elections, the Labor Party 11 and there was a draw in 2010. This election is the worst result for the Liberal Party in its 81-year history. It has never held such a low percentage of seats in the House of Representatives.

There are some Liberals questioning whether the party is still fit for purpose. Will it survive? Or will it, like the United Australia, Nationalists, and Fusion parties before it, disappear?

Given the Liberal Party’s rich history, its structure, financial base, and networks – none of which were present in its predecessors – I believe the party will survive and prosper again. I also believe (call me a dreamer) it will rediscover its strength as a coalition of liberals and conservatives that I once described as “an election-winning machine”. But only if it changes.

Whenever the Liberal Party is appealing to the better angels of Australians’ natures, whenever we don’t judge, but are agnostic on social issues and conservative on economic issues, the Liberal Party is the first choice of middle Australia. The jury is in – the Coalition has governed nationally for 51 of the last 81 years.

The opposite is also true. When the Liberal Party looks like a party of judgment, when it looks like it is dividing the country rather than bringing it together, it loses. Right now, it is losing, almost everywhere across state, territory and national levels.

Winning elections is a function of bringing together alliances of voters to support a cause. The cause for Liberals is sensible government that limits its intrusion into people’s lives, creates an economic environment that widens choices (including lower taxes), and keeps the nation, and its people, secure and safe.

For decades, we knew this instinctively. The success of prime ministers Robert Menzies, Malcolm Fraser and John Howard attest to this. But the Liberal Party they led was quite different from today. So was the nation.

Today, the membership of the Liberal Party is too small, drawn from too few sources and too old.

The party should undertake a nationwide membership drive to appeal to working women, small business owners and professionals, tradies, and young people who care about small government and freeing up regulation to allow for more housing to drive down prices. We should discount the cost of membership and bring in a flood of new people with new ideas. After a good rain comes renewal.

The federation that is the Liberal Party is not a modern entity. Each state and territory runs its own show at national elections, meaning the party is only as strong as its weakest link. To achieve success, the federal executive should be empowered to effectively take over the state and territory organisations on matters that affect the prospect of success at the national level – candidates who aren’t performing, the allocation of resources, and the attraction of volunteers and staff.

Instead of being driven by who has the loudest voice in the Coalition party room, policies need to be driven by what is going to win over young voters, professionals, and women. The fact that the Liberal Party’s polling showed a tight contest, leading to poor decision-making, is a case in point. How could the published polling and the private polling tell such a different story?

The Liberal Party must get out of the mindset that it can win elections without appealing to traditional Liberal voters. Politics is not about giving up ground to your opponent, whether that’s Labor or the independents. It is about fighting for every seat.

The Liberal Party must win back seats like Kooyong, Wentworth, Curtin, Ryan and Sturt if it is to form government. Those who argue that the party should ignore inner-urban seats and pitch its message to outer suburban and regional electorates don’t need to analyse polls any more – they got the verdict on Saturday.

In 1996, the Coalition’s election slogan was “For All of Us”. It worked then because it is the Australian way. It should be the screensaver for every Liberal activist now and in the future.

Christopher Pyne is executive chairman of lobbying firm Pyne and Partners and a former minister in the Howard, Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments.

Read more on Labor’s landslide election win

• Inside story: How the Coalition campaign was a catastrophe months in the making
• Some seats are still too close to call. Here are all the races that remain in doubt – plus every seat that’s changed hands
• Interactive: See how your polling booth voted in this election
• Live results: Track every seat in the country 
• Live blog: Anthony Albanese plans second term, Liberals plan a leadership change

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