John Howard urges Liberals not to lurch to the right for its political salvation

John Howard says the Liberal Party must remain a blend of liberalism and conservatism and resist calls to shift to the right.

Former Liberal prime minister John Howard in his Sydney office. Picture: Jane Dempster

John Howard says the Liberal Party must resist calls to shift ­further to the Right and become more conservative, arguing that it is best served by remaining a broad church with a blend of liberal and conservative views and representing a cross-section of the community.

“I don’t call it a conservative party,” Mr Howard said in an interview for a new edition of a ­biography of Robert Menzies. “I’m conservative on some things and I’m a liberal in the classic definition of that term on other things, and Menzies was the same.

“People should stop pretending as though the Liberal Party has an existential crisis every time it loses an election. The Liberal Party will only succeed if it successfully presents itself as a broad church.”

Mr Howard said the Liberal Party, following its electoral defeat last year and the loss of several heartland seats, should not allow itself to become mired in navel gazing about its ideology if it is to regain the political ascendancy.

The party’s second longest serving prime minister said there were plenty of ideas that liberals and conservatives could rally around and present a different approach to the Labor Party.

Both liberals and conservatives agreed on the importance of the individual over the collective, the ­rejection of union dominance in industrial relations, and a preference for lower taxation and less spending, Mr Howard said.

He said the Liberal Party represented aspirational Australians who believed in hard work and reward for effort, the importance of private enterprise, parental choice in educating their children and targeted welfare support for those most in need. They were also ­ patriotic about their country.

“There are no differences between the so-called small-l Liberals and so-called conservatives on those issues,” Mr Howard said.

“I just think the Liberal Party should not fall into the error of having an internal debate about ideology every time it has a setback at the polls.”

He said the party’s principal founder, Menzies, remained a historical touchstone for Liberals and it would be wise to heed his “implied covenant” to guide the parliamentary and organisational wings.

“The parliamentary party should be completely independent and free from outside influence when it came to policy,” Mr Howard explained.

“But when it came to organisational matters, such as the choice of candidates, then the party organisation should be completely independent.

“It would be a good idea if a lot of people in the Liberal Party remembered that. There should be greater respect given to the rank-and-file, if I can borrow a Labor expression, in choosing candidates.”

He said the party must broaden the talent pool of its parliamentary members to better reflect a diversity of work and life experiences in the community, a problem that was also one for the Labor Party.

“You have a whole cohort of people who never do anything other than politics,” Mr Howard said.

“They leave school, go to university, then on to the staff of a politician and into parliament.

“It means the internal dynamic of the party is shaped by this ­cohort.”

Mr Howard’s new interview is one of a series with every former Liberal prime minister included in a new preface to the second edition of the Menzies biography.

The biography, first published in 2019, includes a series of interviews that Menzies gave in retirement that had not been revealed before and access to archival documents and family letters also not previously disclosed.

Troy Bramston’s Robert Menzies: The Art of Politics is republished by Scribe on August 15