Liberals urged to double size to deal with rise of populism

Liberal president Nick Greiner has set a goal of doubling party membership to 100,000 to confront a rise in populist politics, while warning of the danger of election defeat if the Morrison government displayed hubris and arrogance.

Mr Greiner told the party’s federal council that “business as usual” might not be enough to keep the Liberals in power despite their lead over Labor.

Nick Greiner speaks at the Liberal Party's federal council at the Hyatt Hotel in Canberra on Friday.Credit: AAP

Mr Greiner made the remarks at a federal council that saw an upset defeat for one of the party’s most senior female officials, with vice-president Karina Okotel losing her position.

With four women running for three available positions, the council backed outspoken vice-president Teena McQueen as well as Fay Duda and Caroline Inge but eliminated Ms Okotel.

Once seen as a potential Senate candidate, Ms Okotel lost the support of the party’s conservatives in a deal arranged before the council that saw moderates and conservatives join forces to back Ms McQueen instead.

The sole male vice-president, Alan Pidgeon, held his position without a vote under party rules.

In a show of discipline in the wake of the election, party leaders exerted greater control of the agenda and factional leaders avoided contentious motions that have triggered political storms in the past, such as calling for the privatisation of the ABC.

Mr Greiner, a former NSW premier and the party’s federal president for the past two years, said it would not be “remotely good enough” even if every party member signed up one additional member.

“Our membership around Australia is not good,” he told the gathering in Canberra ahead of a dinner on Friday night to celebrate the 75 years since the party’s foundation.

“And indeed the membership of our political opponents is not good, perhaps for some of those broad reasons I talked about – the changing nature of society.

“If there is ever a time when we can start to rebuild membership, surely that time is now, and surely that time does come off the success of the federal party.

“We really ought to have at least 100,000 members around Australia, and we are, I don’t know precisely, somewhere less than half of that.

“That’s clearly not either satisfactory or sufficient.”

Like the Liberal Party, the Australian Labor Party has seen its membership fall in recent decades but it did not achieve a goal set by former leader Bill Shorten of doubling membership to 100,000 in recent years.

Speaking with Prime Minister Scott Morrison on the stage at the gathering, Mr Greiner acknowledged the government’s election victory on May 19 but noted the narrow win.

We really ought to have at least 100,000 members around Australia, and we are, I don’t know precisely, somewhere less than half of that.

Liberal president Nick Greiner

“It’s not a time for hubris – we did win by one or two seats, depending on how you count it, but you cannot assume Labor will be as bad next time as they were this time at any level,” he said.

“Yes, we should congratulate ourselves on our success but we really need to recognise that we are not a laid-down misere in three years’ time.”

Mr Greiner warned that Australian voters would recoil if the government displayed the sort of “hubris and arrogance” that Mr Shorten exhibited as Labor leader.

“You can see the development of populist movements, the most obvious ones perhaps being in the United States, but in many, many countries there is a strong and relatively new populist streak,” Mr Greiner said.

Nick Greiner speaks to Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the Hyatt Hotel in Canberra on Friday.Credit: AAP

“It is not particularly a streak of the left or the right.”

The rise of social media gave individuals more power than before and presented a challenge to mass-movement political parties.

“We cannot delude ourselves that business as usual or more of the same is automatically going to be successful,” he said.

“There is, I think, a very real challenging environment in which our party operates.”

Mr Greiner reminded the audience of his call for unity two years ago and said the party had made “great progress” including bringing more women into Parliament and gaining more MPs from diverse backgrounds.

On finances, he said the party was in a “relatively strong position” after the election to fund its activities over the next two years of the three-year term.