Written by Brendan Miu

Over the past two years, there has been a changing of the guard in the political spectrum across Australia. Now with the Labor Party in Government across Australia and in mainland states, what is the best way forward for the Liberal Party to gain back government power once again?

The Sydney Conservative Club recently hosted seminars by David Cross – Chief Executive Officer of the Blueprint Institute, and Salvatore Babones – Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Sydney and Policy Commentator. The article discusses two key concepts – PR & Identifying Talent and Conservatism & Generations.

PR and Identifying Talent

The inevitable fact that is faced by governments from across both parties both Liberal and Labor over the past decades, is that governments both state and federally have an end date, even if they had been in power for over a decade such as during the tenure of John Howard between 1996 and 2007. Most notably, the New South Wales Coalition Government was attempting to do a feat that had not been achieved by any Coalition NSW Government which was to be elected for a fourth term in office, to make it 16 years in power.

David Cross’ stated what had contributed to the coalition loss was pre selections, with liberal candidates not preselecting those who were ambitious in the interests of the overall party and engaging to swing votes to the party. The unspoken truth was the political strategy and tactics taken by the Liberal Party. The Liberal Party in NSW were so focused on the Teal Independent wave, which was imminent during the 2022 Federal Election with incumbent federal Liberal MPs voted out to independents in their place. Strategists in the NSW State Election were too focused “sandbagging” those seats in the Northern Beaches region fearing that they would dramatically lose those seats in magnitudes that would have been almost proportionate.

The strategy when it comes to conducting pre-selection should not just be simply selecting candidates that would want to climb the hierarchical ladder for their own interests and the sake of it. Instead, the alternative solution that would have been best suited for the Liberal Party was to make gains by selecting candidates across the state that would best represent the party due to their credentials. Consequently, those resources and time can be allocated and used efficiently for those candidates to showcase to their local electorate they would be best suited to represent their community in the parliament and therefore be able to make the appropriate gains for the party.

Conservatism and Generations

A question that arises is what’s Australia’s own version of Conservatism? Salvatore Babones, in the seminar states that for conservatism not just in Australia, but in democracies globally, that it is always a moving target. The moving target from the various generations who would have the chance to vote, from Baby Boomers all the way up to Gen Y’s and Z’s.

As individual voters mature by age, each of them would be considering each time before they reach the ballot box, “What would be the most optimal issue and what matters to them most.” That theory is what constitutes the cornerstones of a modern democracy especially in Australia, across all levels – local, state, and federal. On the other hand, David Cross’ viewpoint is that while the Young Liberals are well organised and excellent in engagement at a grassroots level, in the Liberal Party at the core, it is a different story, and the broad population of people is that they do not engage in politics as much. Internal factional warfare is another factor that had been brewing within the party especially in the Liberals.

Cross defines liberalism as being the foundation of which different component of liberal democratic policy is built upon. The threat that liberalism faces is populism from the right, and therefore resulting in voters repelling away from the major parties both Liberal and Labor and towards independents, whether or not they are associated with Climate 200 or they are campaigning on their own local community backdrops to win without the support and affiliation of major ones.

So, alongside the viewpoints of both Babones and Cross, what the Liberal Party needs to refocus and analyse is creating a conservative background that is a dominant centre-right. Identifying who they are pitching to and then building up their case in being the power to change and being the change, they seek for their community from the ground up. To convince and persuade voters to earn their vote when it comes to the future polls, while also engaging proactively with the younger generation to get involved in politics that would allow for mutual partnerships between individuals and the party to have their say in burning issues and build confidence for the party to gain government.  

Brendan Miu is a Member of the University of Sydney Conservative Club