‘Warts and all’: Libs look inwards with election review
The Liberal Party is promising a rebirth as it announces its federal election review strategy and rejigs a controversial administrative committee for NSW.
The Liberal Party is to launch a “warts and all” review of its policy and strategy settings following the devastating election loss that saw Peter Dutton unseated as leader and member for Dickson.
The announcement comes after a meeting of the Liberal Party federal executive at which members overwhelmingly voted to reshuffle an administrative committee appointed to run the ailing NSW state branch.
Former finance minister Nick Minchin and former NSW minister Pru Goward will lead the review, which is now taking submissions, and make a series of recommendations.
Both appointments were broadly welcomed by the party, with many MPs expressing support for the fact that the review heads were not currently sitting members. “We shouldn’t ask the cancer to diagnose itself,” one Liberal source said.
Ms Goward said she was committed to tackling the biggest failings head-on. “It needs to be a warts-and-all look at what led to the result in May,” she said. “This is a critical review given the enormity of the task ahead.”
Submissions are open until August 1, with the review to “consult with relevant subject matter experts”.
“The review will include examination of the performance of – and lessons for – the federal secretariat, CCHQ, the parliamentary party, the divisions of the Liberal Party (including the Country Liberal Party’s campaign in Solomon) and consultants and service providers used by the oarty,” a statement from the Liberal Party said.
While welcoming the review’s terms of reference, some MPs stressed that the process needed to examine how the party was unprepared for what was Labor’s fourth Mediscare campaign.
“They were way more effective in how they positioned us than we were for them,” one Liberal MP said. “When it comes to reinforcing those sorts of messages, you need to sow the seeds early on. To be frank, that all goes to the work done during the term rather than just in the campaign.”
In NSW, former premier Nick Greiner will act as the independent chair of a new seven-member panel appointed to lead the party for another nine months. Two of the committee’s past leaders, former Victorian treasurer Alan Stockdale and former Victorian senator Richard Alston, will not be returning.
“The good work that has been done by the previous panel will be transferred to the new panel,” Liberal leader Sussan Ley said.
NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman welcomed the reshuffle, having openly criticised the previous panel, which was parachuted in by Mr Dutton after the state branch failed to enrol more than 140 local government candidates last September.
“This is a welcome transition on the way back to a reformed and democratically elected state executive,” Mr Speakman said. Former NSW MP Peta Seaton would continue on the panel to “support” Mr Greiner as Ms Ley’s hand-picked representative.
Appointed alongside Mr Greiner and Ms Seaton were Mr Speakman’s representative, barrister Jane Buncle, party vice-presidents Berenice Walker, Peter O’Hanlon and James Owen, and party treasurer Mark Baillie. Former Mackellar MP and NSW branch president Jason Falinski was among the most vocal critics of the last administrative committee, but had been brought on-side by Ms Ley’s announcement.
“I think the original panel was given an impossible task and it showed in the end. This is a far more reasonable attempt at genuine reform,” the leading moderate said.
“There’s been a lot of commentary – and not unfairly – about how few women now make up the parliamentary delegation in Canberra. It wasn’t because we didn’t preselect women ... We just couldn’t deliver the campaigns that got them over the line, and that’s what the organisation needs to focus on.”
Former NSW Liberal regional vice-president Geoff Pearson was scathing of the new committee, which he argued had left conservatives marginalised.
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