Treasurer Josh Frydenberg tells Victorian Liberals they need new strategy

Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has rallied the party faithful at the Victorian Liberals’ state council in Ballarat.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who told the Liberal Party’s Victorian state council on Saturday that ‘the message of the Morrison government does resonate loudly with the people of Victoria’. Picture: Kym Smith

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has declared the Victorian Liberals can “absolutely” win the next state election in 2022, despite conceding that the party needs to overhaul its strategy in the state, having lost five of the last six state elections and won fewer Victorian seats than Labor at the last nine federal polls.

Rallying the party faithful at the Victorian Liberals’ state council in Ballarat on Saturday, Mr Frydenberg welcomed new state campaign director Sam McQuestin, who has served in the same role in Tasmania since 2011.

“In that time he was at the helm we won three federal elections and the Tasmanian Liberals won two state elections, so Sam, no pressure here in Victoria,” Mr Frydenberg said.

“But you would know as we would know, the numbers tell us that here in Victoria the party does need to do better.

“The last time we as a federal division won a majority of seats in Victoria was nine elections ago in 1996 when under John Howard we won 19 seats.”

Mr Frydenberg said the Liberals currently hold 12 Victorian federal seats and the Nationals three, of a total of 38.

“We’ve won only one out of six state elections, the last six state elections here in Victoria,” he said.

“So friends, what we need is a new strategy to build grassroots campaigns in the growth corridors in the west and the north, in regional and rural Victoria, a strategy that goes over multiple electoral cycles, that devotes resources on the ground early.

“We know the people in these growth corridors of Victoria are people that support our values, that believe in the infrastructure projects that we’re investing in, that believe in backing families and small businesses that we are doing, and that believe in cutting taxes, not increasing taxes, as the Labor Party would otherwise do.

“So that is our challenge under our new state director, and it’s a challenge that every one of my federal colleagues and the Prime Minister are signed up to.

“Not only do we want to retain the seats that we currently hold, but we want to win more seats here in Victoria.”

Asked at a subsequent press conference whether Victorian Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien could win the 2022 state election given a 2018 defeat which left the Coalition with just 27 seats in the 88-seat lower house, Mr Frydenberg said, “Absolutely.”

“Michael O’Brien is a strong leader, and Michael O’Brien is working to communicate the key messages that the Coalition stands for,” Mr Frydenberg said.

“That’s for more jobs, more infrastructure spending, guaranteeing the essential services, messages that we have been communicating at the federal level.”

Mr Frydenberg said the Liberals had held on to all notionally Liberal seats in the May federal election, losing only Dunkley and Corangamite, which were notionally Labor following an electoral commission redistribution.

“For the first time since 2007 we got a third senator in David Van here in Victoria,” Mr Frydenberg said.

“I think that the message of the Morrison government does resonate loudly with the people of Victoria.

“We’ve seen swings in a number of seats that Labor was holding at the last election, against the Labor Party.

“The messages that we convey about support for families, support for small businesses, more infrastructure spending and cutting taxes, they are messages that resonate with Victoria.

“So we’ve got the right message, we’ve got the right people, but we need to get out there and to promote it and to be more effective in our grassroots campaigning.”

The Treasurer paid tribute to federal Victorian Liberals colleagues in his speech, including Health Minister Greg Hunt, Education Minister Dan Tehan, Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure Minister Alan Tudge, Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar, Assistant Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and Financial Technology Jane Hume, Assistant Minister for Customs, Community Safety and Multicultural Affairs Jason Wood, Speaker Tony Smith, Senate president Scott Ryan, backbenchers Kevin Andrews, Russell Broadbent, Tim Wilson and James Paterson and newly elected MPs Senator Van and Katie Allen and Gladys Liu.

Mr Frydenberg compared the Liberal Party’s state council with last weekend’s state ALP conference at the Moonee Valley racecourse, where union delegates walked out on federal deputy Labor leader Richard Marles in protest at the departure from the party of militant CFMEU boss John Setka and federal Labor’s support for free trade agreements.

“That doesn’t happen at Liberal state councils,” Mr Frydenberg said.

“We are not the party of John Setka and the thugs and the law-breakers of the CFMEU.”

While all of last week’s ALP conference was open to the media, journalists were asked to leave the Liberal Party state council as Victorian president Robert Clark began a presentation on the party’s “strategic direction to 2022 and beyond” on Saturday afternoon.