Peter Dutton to play key role in fixing Liberal Party’s broken branches

Peter Dutton is set to play a central role fixing the Victorian and NSW Liberal Party branches in the wake of the Aston by-election loss.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton in the seat of Aston on Saturday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Luis Ascui

Peter Dutton will play a central role in the overhaul of the Victorian and NSW Liberal branches amid private discussions about potential federal intervention in Melbourne to help produce a dramatic improvement in the quality of campaigning.

The federal Opposition Leader has been urged to help fix the ­broken Victorian Liberal Party after the Aston by-election failure at the weekend, but also to deal with structural holes in NSW.

In Victoria, senior party members have privately been debating whether there should be federal intervention to ensure that higher standards are imposed on the ­organisational wing.

Under the Liberal constitution, the federal executive is able to intervene in a state branch if there are circumstances that can “substantially prejudice the ability of the party to effectively contest or win a federal election”.

Mr Dutton at the weekend flagged the need for the Victorian and NSW wings to be rebuilt to make them campaign-ready.

The Australian understands Mr Dutton will be key to the strategy to modernise campaign capabilities in both states, which are lagging behind Labor.

Senior Victorian Liberals said it was crucial the federal leader was a “driving force” behind any change at the Melbourne headquarters, which was without a state director during the Aston by-election.

There is believed to be resistance towards federal intervention among key Victorian Liberals, including state leader John Pesutto and party president Greg Mirabella, because of a backlash it would cause among the 11,000 members.

While Victorian Labor was subject to federal intervention from 2020 because of branch stacking, the Liberals culturally are resistant to outside influence.

In 2022, the Liberal federal executive voted to appoint a committee to briefly take over the NSW division to resolve pre­selection battles.

In Victoria, party figures are examining challenging key members of the ruling administrative committee to inject more campaign and business experience.

There are real fears Victorian Liberals will now struggle to regain the inner-eastern seat of Kooyong, previously held by Liberal Josh Frydenberg.

The Liberals have only two seats in Melbourne’s east after the Aston by-election.

This was the first victory for a federal government in a by-­election since 1920.

Mr Dutton at the weekend said: “In Victoria and NSW we need to rebuild our organisational structure because at the moment neither is campaign-ready.”

Outgoing West Australian state director Stuart Smith, due to soon start as the new ­Victorian party director, has worked at the Liberal federal secretariat and as director in WA and Tasmania.

Nicole Werner Ta-Ei Werner, who ran unsuccessfully for the Liberals in the Chinese-dominated seat of Box Hill in November’s state election, said there was “evidently work to be done” by the party to win back support from Chinese-Australians.

“A greater depth of engagement and relationship-building is paramount for our success with this demographic,” said Ms Werner. “It is incumbent on us in the Liberal Party to modernise and adapt with how we communicate and connect with the Chinese-Australian community.”