Liberals seek identity rebuild at key federal gathering
The Liberal Party hopes to rebuild its identity as a viable alternative government during a key national meeting of party leaders and power brokers.
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor will chair the Liberal Party federal council meeting in Melbourne on Saturday.
Deputy leader Jane Hume and outgoing federal director Andrew Hirst will also speak at the meeting.
Senior party leaders told the first session of the meeting on Friday that although there were challenges ahead, the party could regain voters’ trust.
“When the work is hard and the road is long, it takes character to rebuild,” outgoing federal chairman John Olsen told the meeting.
Major party policies, including curbing immigration and opening the door to nuclear energy, were passed by delegates with virtually no opposition.
Also at Friday’s meeting, former prime minister Tony Abbott was elected unopposed as party leader, taking on an unpaid role including helping shape policy and guiding campaign strategy.
He told party faithful that the challenge before us was to convince Australians that the Liberals remained the most credible alternative to forming a government.
“As the last successful federal leader of the opposition, I believe I have the ability to help Angus Taylor become the next successful federal leader of the opposition,” Mr Abbott said.
Mr Taylor was applauded at Friday’s meeting for his budget response, which many in the party judged received more attention than the budget itself.
The response outlined a plan to overhaul the tax system, cancel benefits for non-citizens and reduce immigration numbers.
Since taking office in February, Mr Taylor has been accused of moving more towards right-wing policies to avoid losing voters to the surge in popularity of Pauline Hanson’s book One Nation.
Opposition leaders from NSW and Victoria took advantage of Friday’s friendly platform to criticize their respective state governments.
Jess Wilson, who will lead the Liberal Party in Victoria’s state elections in November, said voters in her state had lost hope after 12 years of Labor leadership.
Ms Wilson took aim at former premier Daniel Andrews’ COVID-19 policies, which she said were based on “questionable” science, and mocked plans to build a statue of the former state leader, who held the top job for close to a decade.
He promised disciplined budgets and lower taxes by canceling an agreement with Indigenous peoples, freezing civil service hiring and capping public sector executive salaries.
NSW Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane has accused Premier Chris Minns of curbing her state’s economy after decades of Liberal growth.
Ms Sloane said the NSW election, scheduled for March 2027, would be one to watch, noting her first-term government had not lost an election in the state for almost a century.
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