The surprisingly decisive federal election result on Saturday has the Liberal-National (and Greens) camps looking around for answers. One Liberal Senator, Jane Hume, sees the same issues as the party faced in 2022.
“The first thing I will be doing tomorrow is going through that election review,” Hume said once the result became clear. “We will see what it was that we recommended after the last election and see how much of that had been implemented this election. Because there are some similarities that I can see.”
Jane Hume is one of the three federal Liberal senators for Victoria. She served as Shadow Finance Minister in Peter Dutton’s shadow cabinet.
So what did the review propose? A headline recommendation: “The responsibility for attracting female membership and recruiting and pre-selecting female candidates must be recognised by and reinforced to all levels of the Liberal Party”. Just 29% of LNP candidates elected in 2022 are women. This time, the LNP pre-selected female candidates for only 32% of the seats they contested.
In regard to multicultural electorates, the review recommended: “There is a particular need for the Party’s representatives to be sensitive to the genuine concerns of the Chinese community and to ensure language used cannot be misinterpreted as insensitive.”
Hume herself made just such a mistake over the weekend. After spruiking the enthusiasm of “thousands” of Chinese volunteers handing out flyers for the Liberals, she said to a Labor representative, “There might be Chinese spies that are handing out for you.”
Most striking in the post-election review at the time – still relatively soon after the 2020 bushfires and 2022 Northern Rivers floods – was the absence of climate change. The 2022 report mentioned climate change just once, quickly followed by complaints about its exploitation by “an extensive left activist apparatus”.
The Teals’ success on all these points should be an indicator. As Anthony Green said during the coverage, “All these ‘Teals’ won from second place last time. This time they’re winning from first place.”
“The Teal story is a terrible story for the Liberal Party, because a lot of those women should be in the Liberal Party,” said Samantha Maiden in the wash-up. “They should be future leadership contenders.”
There is plenty of scope for a multicultural, socially liberal, economically right-wing party in Australian community attitudes. Australia’s centre-right party must look to the Independents’ success if it is to become a national force again.
Sign Up To Our Free Newsletter