Malcolm Turnbull warns rise of ‘teal’ independents threatens Liberal finances as well as its position in parliament

The scale of the Liberal Party’s defeat on Saturday doesn’t just threaten its position in parliament. Malcolm Turnbull says there’s another problem.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has spoken out about the Liberals’ election defeat, warning it has ramifications for the party’s finances as well as its position in parliament.

Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald from New York in the United States, Mr Turnbull said the scale of “this disaster” could not be overstated.

“These are the seats which had not only been ultra-safe, but where the party raised most of its money, where it had the most members. Literally the Liberal Party bedrock,” he said.

“The message very clearly to the party now is, given these historically rolled-gold seats (have gone) to the crossbench, how does the Liberal Party ever get to form a majority?

“It may be that the only way they get to form a majority is by doing a deal with small-L liberals on the crossbench.

“And a lot of people would say that’s a good thing. Because then the sort of people with the perspectives that moderates have, instead of sitting as political hostages in the Liberal party room, are on the crossbench and can actually dictate terms.”

Mr Turnbull also whacked another former Liberal prime minister, John Howard, for calling the teal independents “groupies”.

“What a disrespectful thing to say,” he said.

“Any political party would count it as an enormous plus to have them among their number.”

Stream more on politics with Flash. 25+ news channels in 1 place. New to Flash? Try 1 month free. Offer ends 31 October, 2022 >

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. Picture: Mick Tsikas/AAP/NCA NewsWire

When he was in parliament, Mr Turnbull held the wealthy seat Wentworth in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, which was among half a dozen traditionally Liberal electorates to fall to independents on Saturday night.

Allegra Spender, the daughter and granddaughter of Liberal MPs, will now represent the seat in the House of Representatives, having defeated Liberal Dave Sharma.

Teal independents also claimed Josh Frydenberg’s seat Kooyong, Tim Wilson’s seat Goldstein, Jason Falinski’s seat Mackellar, Julie Bishop’s old seat Curtin, and Trent Zimmerman’s seat North Sydney. None of them had been held by anyone other than the Liberals since at least the 1990s, or in some cases the 1940s.

Sitting independent MP Zali Steggall retained Warringah, defeating controversial anti-trans Liberal candidate Katherine Deves.

Liberals split over future direction

The Liberals’ finger-pointing started on election night, courtesy of the outgoing finance minister Simon Birmingham, who was sitting on the ABC’s panel.

The losses suffered by Liberal moderates leave Mr Birmingham as arguably the most prominent one left in parliament (he’s a Senator, so no, he can’t compete with Peter Dutton for the leadership).

Mr Birmingham spoke repeatedly about a “contagion effect”, arguing Scott Morrison’s selection of Ms Deves as a “captain’s pick” in Warringah had sabotaged the Liberals’ chances in other moderate city seats.

Ms Deves, for her part, told Sky News the Liberal Party needed to “get back to its Liberal values”. She believed her candidacy was “maybe the start of that”, even though she performed worse in Warringah than Tony Abbott did in 2019.

Over Channel 9, former foreign minister Julie Bishop highlighted Mr Morrison’s fruitless efforts to appeal to female voters.

She said the teal independents “appealed to people who felt that the moderates within the Liberal Party were not having their voices heard in a government that was led by Scott Morrison and Barnaby Joyce”.

Ms Bishop argued someone like Allegra Spender, who took Wentworth from Liberal MP Dave Sharma, “could have run for the Liberal Party” herself. Ms Spender’s father and grandfather were both politicians.

“When I’m in Sydney, girlfriends of mine that would be dyed-in-the-wool Liberals were out for Allegra Spender,” she said.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s near-certain defeat to one of the independents leaves Simon Birmingham (right) as one of the last remaining moderate leaders in the party. Picture: Andrew Henshaw/NCA NewsWire

New South Wales state Treasurer Matt Kean, an outspoken moderate, has told his party to “get its act together” following the “unmitigated disaster” of the election.

“The middle ground is wanting the major parties to stand up and speak out on the issues that concern them,” Mr Kean told ABC television today.

“We need to listen to the community and we need to respond accordingly.”

In his view, that means adopting stronger climate change policies.

“After the bushfires, after the floods, after the drought, the community is seeing climate change for what it is: a generation imperative that needs strong and decisive action,” said Mr Kean.

“The party has moved away from its voting base,” he said.

“We’re losing traditional heartland seats. Not because there have been mass enrolments of Labor voters or Green voters, but because Liberal voters have decided that the Liberal Party has left them. So they’ve gone and found an alternative.

“All seats we lost were to candidates advocating for stronger action on climate change; advocating for stronger positions when it comes to supporting women’s equality; candidates that were arguing to introduce an integrity commission. These were the issues that we didn’t have credible policies on, and Liberal voters left us as a result.”

And Bass MP Bridget Archer – a moderate who defied the broader trend to hold her seat, even though she was defending a wafer-thin margin – said she would “resist” any tack to the right.

“I’ve seen some early commentary around some idea that the party should move further to the right, and I will certainly resist all efforts for that to occur,” she told ABC radio.

“We need to bring the party back to the centre.”

‘The poison of leftism’

More conservative Liberals have essentially been making the opposite argument. They believe the election defeat was a result of the party pandering too much to the left.

“The time is now to understand that the Liberal Party’s experiment with the poison of leftism and progressivism must be over. It’s as simple as that,” South Australian Senator Alex Antic told Sky News yesterday.

“I mean, all of the people who have lost their seats were, in many cases, people who were trying to appease the climate crowd. And see what happens.”

Since election night, Queensland LNP Senator Matt Canavan has been arguing the lesson is “when we go left, we lose”.

“The policy agenda we took to the election was signed, sealed and delivered by the moderate wing of the Liberal Party,” he said.

“Doubling down seems to be the definition of insanity.”

He added that “McDonald’s can’t sell health food and the LNP can’t sell socialism”.

LNP Senator Matt Canavan. Picture: Gary Ramage/NCA NewsWire

Senator Gerard Rennick argued the Liberals lost because they were “bogged down in the Covid hysteria” and focused too much on climate change.

“We can protect the environment without believing in this notion that a rise of carbon emissions is the end of mankind,” he said.

“We should have fought the issue on cost of living again.”

He had harsh words for Mr Morrison.

“Scott Morrison never had a vision, never had conviction. I went and saw him a number of times, every six months. Every sitting week there was a new crisis and the left was controlling the agenda,” said Mr Rennick.

“He never had a vision. He was just sitting there holding the position, but with no clear way forward. What was the pitch? That we were going to provide more of the same?”

Originally published as Malcolm Turnbull warns rise of ‘teal’ independents threatens Liberal finances as well as its position in parliament