By Fergus Hunter
A secret internal review of the Liberal Party's 2016 election performance has urged the executive to recognise that campaigning must never stop and the party's conservative base needs to be respected.
The review, conducted by former Liberal federal director and cabinet minister Andrew Robb, also says the party must be financially solid to be effective and improve its connection with ethnic voters, according to a version published by the Daily Telegraph.
The post-mortem has been delivered to the Liberal federal executive and viewed by the parliamentary leaders in the wake of the election that saw the Turnbull government lose 14 seats and narrowly hold on to power. Labor is now in an election-winning position according to widespread polling.
The review argues the party needs to "recognise and respond to the fact that the next campaign effectively begins the day after polling day" and establish a structured research operation that provides politicians with a "continuous understanding of community sentiment" towards policy.
Former trade minister Andrew RobbCredit: Getty Images
It argues Liberals must "while governing for all, at all times respect, and be seen to be respecting our base".
This underlines the party's need to focus on the mainstream - necessary to win elections - while also pleasing core conservative supporters who demand action on deeply held but potentially divisive policy positions, such as free speech and and tax cuts.
"Never fail to strongly expose and unequivocally rebut the lies and misrepresentation of our policy positions, starting in the same media cycle, and continuing until the claims are discredited," the Robb report suggests, touching on Labor's "Mediscare" campaign.
"To be effective in campaigns, the party needs to be financially solid and since this affects on-the-ground and marginal campaigns, this must be seen as a priority."
Waleed Aly (left) with his wife, Susan Carland (second left) attend Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's 2016 Iftar dinner.Credit: Andrew Meares
The party organisation's finances were in dire straits as the 2016 campaign heated up, with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull forking out $1.75 million of his own money to help the cause. Coalition conservatives have argued that certain policy positions alienated many traditional donors.
Other recommendations include:
- "The federal secretariat needs to create a small data and data analytics team - drawn from expertise across our party structure (both professional and volunteer members) - to devise and execute a data analytics program which takes our understanding of various electorates to a whole new level and develops many data sets which vastly improve our targeting of messaging via all forms of communication media."
- "As the trend of Labor retreating from campaigning in what have been traditionally 'safe' Liberal seats grows, it will be important at the next federal election to have an integrated, research driven campaign to suppress the Green vote in seats like Higgins, Kooyong and elsewhere."
- "A greater focus on social and digital media platforms must be an integral feature of the future Liberal party campaigns. The preparations and staffing for this cannot start soon enough."
- "[Campaign headquarters] must work with state divisions to drive cultural change within the party to establish a stronger and more diverse membership and supporter base. Many traditional organisations are struggling with this issue. We need 21st century solutions, which no doubt will have a large component of 21st century technology."
The Labor Party is widely seen as a more successful campaigning organisation, including by Liberal insiders.
After decades working for the party, Liberal federal director Tony Nutt resigned last week ahead of the report's release. Mr Nutt took over the organisational leadership of the party in 2015 after Malcolm Turnbull became Prime Minister.
The campaign he oversaw has been strongly criticised but Mr Nutt was praised by the Prime Minister as "the consummate political professional" and a dedicated servant of the Liberal cause.