‘Meandering in a vacuum’: Senior Liberal laments rudderless party

Liberal Party elder Damien Tudehope has called on his party to “get on with being the opposition”, insisting the failure to elect a new leader more than two weeks after the state election had left a vacuum and allowed the new government to go unchallenged.

Tudehope, the former leader in the upper house during the Perrottet government and one of the most senior right-faction MPs in the NSW party, voiced his concern at the failure to move on from the election defeat.

Former Liberal minister and upper house MP Damien Tudehope has urged his party to move on from its election defeat.Credit: Rhett Wyman

“Meandering along like this is really undesirable. We need to get on with being the opposition, recognising that we need to dust ourselves off, bring ourselves together and elect a leader whom we all unite behind so that we can move on,” he said.

Tudehope made the intervention as the Herald confirmed senior moderate Natalie Ward will run for leader of the upper house, while North Shore MP Felicity Wilson said she will run for deputy party leader, in a bid to correct the party’s poor record of promoting women in parliament.

“As a younger woman, a mum, I would definitely be interested [in deputy], if my colleagues are interested in supporting me,” Wilson said. “It’s about the face of the party, ensuring that we are representative of the community.”

While Tudehope’s concerns were reflected by a number of Liberal MPs who spoke to the Herald on the condition of anonymity, others argued there was no cause to rush at a time when “careful steps” were needed.

Natalie Ward will run for leader of the upper house, while Felicity Wilson will run for deputy party leader.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone, Anna Kucera

The Liberal Party has been without a leader since March 25, when then-premier Dominic Perrottet announced his resignation in the face of a heavy election loss.

The contest to replace him has increasingly shaped as a two-horse race between loyal right-wing frontbencher Anthony Roberts and former attorney-general Mark Speakman. Former minister Alister Henskens is also a possible contender. He did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

As the Liberal Party grapples with a series of internal party issues which hobbled preselections in NSW, Roberts has sought to portray himself as a leader who can help broker internal reform among the warring factions.

However, senior moderate Speakman is considered by many MPs as a safer pair of hands at a time when the Liberal brand is grappling with a crisis of identity at both state and federal levels.

Tudehope echoed the feelings of many within the party by saying internal reform was necessary to correct course after a string of election losses.

“The mistakes our party made in the federal election are the same mistakes we made again, whether it’s late preselections or controversy over preselections,” he said.

“All of that is what hamstrung our party again. We’ve become a party that obsesses over winning preselections and not elections”.

Perrottet will chair a party room meeting where he will formally resign and a ballot for the new leader will be held after the count for both houses of parliament is complete on April 20.

‘We’ve become a party that obsesses over winning preselections and not elections.’

Liberal Party elder Damien Tudehope

Speakman is yet to declare whether he will run and did not respond to calls from the Herald on Wednesday. Multiple party sources said the former attorney-general was still considering his options, which include a tilt in the federal seat of Cook amid growing expectations that former prime minister Scott Morrison will quit politics.

“Speakman is a true barrister and takes his time to make decisions,” said one former minister.

“But the party needs him. He’s the obvious guy to do it. Only he can keep the barbarians at bay.”

Former Liberal minister and upper house MP Natasha Maclaren-Jones said Speakman would make a “very good leader [and] a steady pair of hands”, but also said Roberts enjoyed the strong backing of conservatives.

“He’s been around a long time, he’s been in opposition before, and he has an ability to unite the party.”

Conservative western Sydney MP Tanya Davies has indicated her intention to run for the deputy leadership, while right faction MPs Robyn Preston or Wendy Tuckerman have been touted for the role.

Left unopposed in its first weeks since the election, the new Labor government has seized on cost blowouts on major infrastructure projects under the Coalition, including a $25 billion price on the Metro West rail line.

But Tudehope rubbished those claims as “complete nonsense”, pointing out the cost of the Metro had been revealed by the Herald in 2021.

“They knew exactly how much that project cost; there was no secret,” he said.

“But at the moment there’s no one out there from our side arguing that point. No one is saying anything. It’s a vacuum, and we need to be out there in that space.”

Wilson added the party lacked a leadership voice on key issues since the election, including homophobic comments by One Nation leader Mark Latham and “what’s happening at a federal level with the Voice”.

However, not all considered the time taken to secure a new leader as a problem, after a lengthy election campaign that fatigued the voting public.

One former minister said the party needed to differentiate itself from the federal division which has been wracked by internal disharmony and identity crisis.

“It’s going to take some careful next steps, so we are not lumped in with the federal government,” he said.

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