Liberals need to test US-style primaries to engage with voters

Julian Leeser. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

When political parties lose elections, it’s important they have a short period of reflection, to work out why they lost and to find opportunities to rebuild.

Australians are seeking new ways to participate in public affairs. Social media, issues-based movements, and local campaigns have shown that when given a voice, people will engage. We need to tap into that energy.

Having lost 30 seats over the past two federal elections, and with the Liberal Party in some state jurisdictions having fewer representatives than ever before, this is the right time to ask whether our party structures are serving the needs of our supporters and the wider community.

Membership of political parties have been in long-term decline. As John Howard said in A Sense of Balance: “It is undeniable, though, that over the past 30 to 40 years political party memberships have not only declined numerically but also ceased to be as broadly representative of distinct strains of political and economic opinion in the community, committed to achieving certain policy goals, as once was the case.”

A key challenge is the strength of the on-the-ground organisation. Parties must have enough people to campaign effectively at election time, and candidates must have the ability to build a campaign or raise the funds necessary to compete against their political opponents. The Liberal Party is, but must be seen to be, a party open to our community, where people with talent have a clear, fair pathway to step forward. That’s why, since the mid-2000s, I have advocated the need to trial US-style primaries.

Opening up the preselection process not only helps find strong candidates, it also builds public trust. Primaries give the public confidence that the candidate earned their place. Primaries are more than just a way of selecting candidates. They are a powerful tool for identifying supporters, building energy, strengthening local campaigns, increasing name recognition, and choosing candidates genuinely connected to their communities.

So how would a primary system work, and what role would party members play? Local members would play the critical role of short-listing candidates. Those candidates would go through a campaign period to test their ability to organise, raise funds, build local support and connect with the community they seek to represent. On a nominated day, voting would take place either at a central location or across multiple locations in the electorate.

There are arguments primaries favour celebrity or wealth, but those factors alone won’t win local support. Community connection, hard work and the ability to build an effective campaign are what matter most in a primary. Of course, there are concerns about cost of political gamesmanship that must be addressed through safeguards that protect the integrity of the process.

One option I have previously discussed would be to allow party members to vote in the primary for free, but require non-members to pay a fee. This could not only help cover the cost of running the primary, but act as a disincentive against interference from our political opponents. There are other options. But more importantly, running a trial allows us to learn what works and what doesn’t. This is not a system proposed to be introduced across the board straight away. A first step would be to trial it in one or two seats and assess the results.

Primaries have been used successfully by our centre-right counterparts around the world. The UK Conservative Party used a primary to choose its candidate for mayor of London, a contest that brought Boris Johnson to power, and attracted more than 20,000 voters. In a primary for a state seat for the National Party, 5000 people voted. This is a broad base on which to build. And for the party, there’s a practical benefit; candidates who have come through a primary enter the general election with an established message, local recognition and existing campaign network. They’re battle-ready on day one.

The Liberal Party has timeless values that have delivered so much for the Australian people: reward for effort, individual freedom, equality of opportunity, personal responsibility, and strong families and communities, to name a few. The challenge now is ensuring we communicate those values effectively in 2025. Testing a carefully designed primary process may help ensure that our values continue to resonate in the decades to come.

Julian Leeser is shadow attorney-general.