Liberal Party elders invoke Fightback! spirit for vital renewal

Senior Liberals and former leaders and ministers have called on Peter Dutton to conduct a wide-ranging policy review to promote a stronger agenda and identity.

Former PM John Howard: ‘I think we have to avoid the error of just waiting and hoping for (Anthony) Albanese to fall over. I am very much in favour of a policy review.’ Picture: NCA Newswire / Monique Harmer

Senior Liberals and former leaders and ministers have called on party leader Peter Dutton to conduct a wide-ranging policy review to promote a stronger agenda and identity to counter the collapse in electoral and polling support for the Liberal Party.

Opposition frontbencher Dan Tehan and former prime minister Tony Abbott have invoked the spirit of John Hewson’s Fightback! manifesto, saying the Liberal Party needs renewal by recapturing the spirit and resolution embodied in Fightback! – as distinct from its 30-year-old specific prescriptions.

“The policy review has to draw on the work of the best and brightest minds on the centre-right of politics around the country,” Mr Tehan told The Weekend Australian.

“It requires a dedicated, national outreach program.

“The manifesto should have at its core five key themes: lower taxes, higher productivity, smaller and more efficient government, an immigration plan in the national interest and home ownership.”

Mr Abbott said despite the Liberal defeat at the 1993 election dominated by the Hewson Fightback! manifesto, the blueprint had provided direction to the Liberal Party, dominated the policy debate and shaped some of the initiatives implemented by the Howard government.

Given the current drift in national policy, Mr Abbott said it was time for the Fightback! spirit “to inform the actions of a Coalition government.”

Mr Tehan said the Liberals needed a “modern manifesto” based on policies that reflected Liberal values, and much could be learnt from the Fightback! template.

In asking the party to look beyond its parliamentary ranks, both Mr Abbott and Mr Tehan believe the Liberal Party needs the injection of fresh ideas from outside. There is a rising sense of urgency that the status quo must be terminated and the party needs an updated platform of belief.

Former prime minister Mr Howard did not mention Fightback! but said: “I think we have to avoid the error of just waiting and hoping for (Anthony) Albanese to fall over. I am very much in favour of a policy review.

Former PM Tony Abbott says it was time for the Fightback! spirit ‘to inform the actions of a Coalition government’. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“The Liberal Party should not pretend things will naturally come back without a lot of hard work. Whether you call it a broad-based policy review, that’s beside the point. We do have to focus on policy.”

Former federal director and Abbott government minister Andrew Robb said: “Successful politics is rooted in good policy. At the last election, many of our people didn’t turn out.

“They had lost all confidence in the (then) prime minister combined with the absence of any sense of future direction.

“I think the high priority for Peter Dutton becomes a major policy review to update our agenda.

“That means as time goes by and the Albanese government faces more difficulty, the party has a set of strong, developed policies to put before the people.”

In response, the Opposition Leader said: “We won’t be a small target at the next election. We will have a bold policy offering that reflects our values; the work to reset our policies is already under way.”

Mr Dutton said a policy process was being conducted by shadow cabinet secretary Marise Payne that involved engagement with shadow ministers and working with a unit in his office on policy options.

It is doubtful whether this process meets the calls being made. Mr Howard and Mr Abbott expressed confidence in Mr Dutton’s ability to orchestrate a policy revamp.

The stand the Liberal leader has taken on the proposed model of the voice is seen as the start of a more assertive effort to define Liberal policies and beliefs.

Liberal frontbencher Dan Tehan says the Liberals needed a ‘modern manifesto’ based on policies that reflected Liberal values. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Mr Dutton repudiated what he called the “romantic theory” espoused by progressive commentators that the Liberals had to embrace policies from the Labor/progressive agenda to recover their voting support.

“The idea if we make ourselves more like the Labor Party then people will end up voting for us is fallacious,” Mr Dutton said.

“We need to understand how we’ve ended up in this position. From the time Tony Abbott was deposed by Malcolm Turnbull, the Liberal Party hasn’t stood for any substantive policy formulation.

“There was no major policy offering at the 2022 election. Over the period from Abbott losing the prime ministership, we allowed ourselves to be defined by our opponents. I intend to address that in a very determined way.”

“We must go back to tax reform,” Mr Howard said.

“You know my views on industrial relations reform and I think the Liberal Party has been spooked on IR reform for the past 15 years. We have to say a lot more about the home ownership issue.”

“What’s needed is serious research into the things that should matter for a centre-right government,” Mr Abbott said.

He nominated better schools, making the health dollar go further, cutting red tape that smothers economic activity, greater emphasis on hard science and practical trades, addressing unaffordable home ownership, making universities genuinely intellectually elite, dams to deliver the most water for the least environmental disruption and how to best boost hi-tech industry.