Federal election: Garth Hamilton urges against leftward-push on climate policy after suffering sharp drop in primary vote

Toowoomba’s Garth Hamilton, who retained the seat of Groom but with a significant primary drop, went on Sky News to push against the party moving leftward on climate change policy.

UPDATE: Groom MP Garth Hamilton has doubled-down on the Coalition’s need to change direction following its election loss, saying the party had “no credibility” to talk about issues like the environment.

Mr Hamilton, who was returned to the conservative seat in Toowoomba but suffered the largest primary vote drop of any sitting LNP MP in Queensland, appeared on Andrew Bolt’s show on Sky News to discuss the fallout from Saturday night.

When asked by Mr Bolt whether moderate Liberals like Sussan Ley and Simon Birmingham were right when they said the party was punished electorally for not doing enough on climate change, Mr Hamilton was emphatic with his answer.

“No, simple answer no, absolutely not,” he replied.

“We need to continue to be a broad church, that’s what the Liberal Party has always been, but we are a broad church of the centre-right and that’s the bit that sometimes we’ve lost in recent times.

“We went down a path, quite frankly, where we had no credibility talking on issues that aren’t our issues.

“These are things, I don’t think the public at all believed when we talked about the environment and any range of issues.”

Mr Hamilton, who had previously had reservations about adopting a net-zero policy by 2050 before supporting it prior to the election, went on to cite former Prime Minister John Howard’s advocacy for the GST in 1998.

“Think back to when John Howard sold the GST - at the time, an unpopular policy, a very difficult policy to get across, who wants a new tax?” he said.

“But he believed in it, he had conviction and he sold it and he was credible.

“People believed him. That’s where we need to be, we need to be that again.

“If we have something that we believe and we want to convey to the electorate, that’s how we do it.”

EARLIER: A war of words has erupted inside the LNP in Groom after the conservative party’s “disastrous” local primary vote result at the federal election on Saturday night, with key figures predicting a “cleansing” within the ranks.

While postal votes still need to be counted, incumbent MP Garth Hamilton has been returned with an eight per cent swing against him.

He has achieved a first preference vote of 41 per cent so far, down 12 points from predecessor John McVeigh’s performance in 2019.

In fact, Mr Hamilton’s first preference drop is the largest by a sitting LNP member in Queensland this election, beating primary swings in Brisbane (10.9 per cent) and Ryan (10.7 per cent) — where both MPs lost their seats.

His regional colleagues to the east and west of Toowoomba saw far smaller swings, with Maranoa MP David Littleproud achieving a slight move towards him on a two-party basis.

High-profile independents Suzie Holt (above, 8.9 per cent) and Kirstie Smolenski (7.53 per cent) were the biggest beneficiaries of the LNP’s drop in support, while Labor’s Gen Allpass received a modest primary bump as well.

Mr Hamilton said he owned the results from Saturday night, both good and bad.

It comes as Mr Hamilton now finds himself in opposition, after the Coalition was swept from government in a result fuelled by big swings to independents in Sydney and Melbourne and the Greens in Brisbane.

Both moderate and conservative figures within the party locally have come to completely different conclusions over the LNP’s drop in first preference votes.

Members within the progressive wing of the party said the seat was now vulnerable at the next campaign for failing to act on matters like climate change.

“It’s verging on disastrous, in an electorate like this, for a whole range of reasons, not just its history,” one figure said.

“Groom is one of the most diverse energy regions in the country, we’ve got a range of projects like coal, wind, a pumped hydro proposal, solar.

“If a representative can’t talk about a lower emissions future, given those projects that are happening, that representative is either blind to what’s happening or not up to date.”

Others said the Coalition had stopped listening to voters on a national level.

“The party federally needs to listen to the people more — we’re a grassroots party and we need to be listening to the people,” one member said on the condition of anonymity.

But LNP Toowoomba North branch president Neil Munro took a different view, saying the party had been punished for supporting a 2050 net-zero climate policy.

“It’s very significant that the Nationals lost no seats — the Nationals were dead against the net-zero path,” Mr Munro said.

“The optimism comes from the fact that we have been chastised, and the cleansing has to come next.

“We were not beaten by Labor, we were beaten by their own base, many of whom were wondering why they were supporting us given our net-zero policy.”

Labor's Gen Allpass celebrates with volunteers; Groom MP Garth Hamilton at a polling booth.

HAMILTON SAYS LNP ‘LOST CREDIBILITY’

Speaking to The Chronicle on Monday, Mr Hamilton re-enforced his view that the LNP had lost credibility with centre-right voters.

“We lost credibility as the party of centre-right, we lost trust with the voters,” he said.

“We’ve seen an election where Labor has won without a mandate — this isn’t a situation that’s anything other than us having lost.

“The first thing we need to do is acknowledge the result and take it on the chin.

“That process of restoring credibility, there’s no silver bullet – that’s us lifting our standards.”

Queensland MP and outgoing Defence Minister Peter Dutton is likely to succeed Scott Morrison as leader of the party, but Mr Hamilton wouldn’t comment on who had his support.

“I’ve got a strong working relationship with Peter,” he said.

“I’m focused on what we need to do as a party and I want someone who is going to address those issues.”

Mr Hamilton once again thanked his supporters and volunteers for re-electing him, after securing the seat at the 2019 by-election.

“I’m incredibly grateful for the people of Groom, and I am here entirely because of the LNP and I thank all the members who have supported me,” he said.