Des Houghton: LNP’s fight for its future amid ageing party

The LNP must embrace open communications and a stronger engagement in order to survive, argues Des Houghton.

The mean age of LNP members in Queensland is 72. The party must embrace open communications and a stronger engagement with young people, multicultural groups and more women to survive.

That was the sobering assessment by Queensland LNP elder statesman, Ian Walker, in a review of the disastrous federal election campaign.

“The 2025 election campaign was poorly conceived and executed at national level. Australia lost the chance to have a great Prime Minister in Peter Dutton,” Walker wrote.

The failures were at the federal level, not the local level, he concluded. The Liberals’ primary vote at the election in May was its lowest level since the 1940s. The party’s representation in the 150-member House of Representatives was slashed to just 43 seats.

Nevertheless, Walker is far from pessimistic, and he believes the party’s fortunes can quickly be reversed. He talks about a decline in brand loyalty and how voters quickly switched allegiances, as they did when they swept Campbell Newman from office.

“The LNP, since its formation, has been Queensland’s most successful political party across three levels of government,” he said.

“We’ve held the Brisbane City Council for all our existence. We’ve seen a State resurgence, and a competent Government now installed. We’ve won and held more Queensland Federal seats than any other party. Our party reinvented politics in this State and we can do
so again.”

For his review Walker quizzed 300 party members whose responses to the defeat were “indeed heart-breaking”.

“There is no doubt in my mind that our creaking organisation needs a radical overhaul,” he said.

The biggest challenge was the maturing membership. “This is the most important sentence in this report: The median age of a member of the LNP is 72 years,” Walker wrote.

Ian Walker (right), with then Queensland Opposition leader Tim Nicholls in 2017, knows change is needed in the LNP.

“I have had the privilege of being a member of this party for 50 years. I am younger than our typical member. When we seek volunteers to work on our campaigns, a 72-year-old is most likely to respond.

“When we seek forward-looking policy input to take to an election, we’ll typically get the views of 72 year olds. When we scan our membership lists to look for excellent candidates imbued with the Party’s values, it will be 72-year-olds who predominate.

“This statistic not only threatens our success as a party, it imperils our survival!’’

He mused over the concept of “broad church” support noting a decline in real churches in society.

“Numbers and influence of the major church denominations are declining at a rapid rate. A religious body can cling to the hope that they are a small but loyal remnant holding to the true faith. That doesn’t work for political parties. They need the support of 50 per cent, plus one for success.

“This is not just an LNP problem.”

Churches and service organisations like Lions Clubs and Rotary, P&Cs and groups like Neighbourhood Watch were all struggling to enlist members, he reported.

“Mainstream political parties on both sides of the fence have a similar problem,” Walker told me from Canada. “Both our primary votes are crashing. We have to find a new way to engage, particularly with young people.

Peter Dutton’s election campaign highlighted issues within the LNP. Picture: NewsWire / John Gass

“I think more young people are more inclined to enter political activity with a specific goal in mind these days.”

They would not hang around to get their 50-year pin. Gone are the days when members will turn up to branch meetings “every month for a million years” and not see any outcomes.

“We need to engage young people in a way that deals with the issues they are concerned about.

“Young people are looking for a more immediate response from us.”

Walker, who joined the party as a 17 year old, was president of the young Libs in the 70s. He became a legal adviser and party executive member before serving a six-year term in the Queensland Parliament with three years in the State Cabinet as Minister for Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts.

The Liberal National Party merger in 2008 was a “big leap of faith” that worked. “All is not lost,” he told me.

“I’ve seen a fair bit of the way the party has operated over a very long time. The trouble is most of the people in the party are about the same age as me. I’m not an elder statesman of the party, I’m a younger statesman!’’

Walker does not like the current debate about whether the LNP should move to the left or right.

“I think it is insulting to say to people that they should move to either the right or the left in order to gain votes,” he said.

“(Senator) Matt Canavan has a particular view of the world, and he holds that sincerely. (Former senator) George Brandis has a different view of the world, and he holds it firmly and sincerely. We really are a broad church.

“I don’t think we can say to people, if you want to win votes you will have to stop saying one thing and say another. That is disingenuous.

“Our problem is we are simply not getting feedback from a big enough pool of people to ensure we are properly reflecting community views.” Does the LNP have to let go some conservatives to win votes?

“I think it is about making sure we are more inclusive with a broad range of people when we settle policy issues within the party,” he said. At the moment, we don’t have that.’’

“We may well get a different sort of opinion from our young conservative people. It doesn’t necessarily mean it will drag us to the right or left. It will make sure we are far more representative than we are now.’’

Walker’s report makes 16 recommendations, mostly mechanical such as campaigning, staffing and fundraising and improving IT systems. One radical suggestion is to supplement the branch structure with special interest branches. For instance, the LNP in Queensland already has a Chinese heritage branch.

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE A QUEENSLANDER

When I was growing up it seemed to me that Queensland had black coal, red dust and not much else.

From early on I noticed our obsession with red meat and sport.

At the beginning I lived in Charleville and Roma and was nearly a teenager by the time I got to see the ocean. Impressive, I thought.

Back then it took 15 hours to get to Surfers Paradise on the rattler (the Westlander) past paddocks with fluffy merinos.

Wherever I travelled someone was always building a bridge, a road or harvesting a crop. A trip to the Burdekin was a pure joy. The burning sugarcane aglow on the horizon released fragrances of golden syrup and char.

The spirit of Queensland burned brightly. Taunts that Queenslanders were lazy were false. We have been inspired to do better by our sportsmen and women who conquered the world. Most were born outside the capital.

Cathy Freeman from Mackay lit up the Olympics. So, too, Anna Meares from Blackwater.

No one could beat Pat Rafter and Greg Norman from Mt Isa, Karrie Webb from Ayr or Rod Laver from Rockhampton or Ash Barty from Ipswich when they were at their peak.

Queenslanders fought and conquered in the pool. “Superfish” Kieren Perkins who broke 11 world records in the water and was the first person to hold the Olympic, world, Commonwealth and Pan Pacific titles simultaneously.

“Nifty” Nev Hackett, a Gold Coast policeman who was kind to me when I was a young reporter on the Gold Coast Bulletin, produced a son named Grant whose back-to-back victories in the 1500m at the Olympics put him up there with the Superfish.

Brendan Burkett from Tannum Sands, whose left leg was taken away in a road tragedy, overcame his disability to win five medals at four Paralympics. There is no stopping a Queenslander on a mission.

In this state Madam Butterfly is not a Puccini opera but a name for dual Olympic gold medallist Susie O’Neill from Mackay.

I sometimes wonder how roughhouse front rower Artie Beetson from Roma would have been able to handle Mick Madsen, a forgotten giant from Tannymorel near Warwick.

In the 1930 Kangaroo tour of England Madsen played a game with a broken jaw.

The Lions are now king of the jungle.

In tomorrow’s rugby league finale, we will see whether players like Pat Carrigan, Reece Walsh and Payne Haas can follow the trail laid down for them by our greats like Darren Lockyer, Allan Langer, Steve Renouf and Wally Lewis.

Can the Broncos write a new chapter in our sporting story?

Never underestimate a Queenslander.

IRRITANT OF THE WEEK

The plastic clogs known as Crocs. Do grown men who pad around in them realise how ridiculous they look? They remind me of Bozo the clown.

Originally published as Des Houghton: LNP’s fight for its future amid ageing party