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October 18, 2025
The Liberal Party’s most senior conservative figure, Angus Taylor, has warned MPs and supporters that the party’s future and its survival depend upon a new commitment to the Howard formula of two traditions – classic liberalism and conservative belief – as the only foundation for unity.
Mr Taylor warned that the stakes in the current internal Liberal debate were huge, not just for the Liberals but for the entire nation, saying “if we don’t get this right we lose the real contest which is for the Australian people”.
In an exclusive interview and an article for The Australian, Mr Taylor, who narrowly lost the leadership contest 29-25 to Sussan Ley last May, outlines his personal vision for the party’s future and calls for Liberals “to focus on the main game” – an agenda “against a bad Labor government”.
Mr Taylor emphatically rejects internal rumblings that divisions are too great and the Liberals must split or that Liberal MPs should defect to the National Party.
“I think we can get through this if we keep faith with our core values and traditions,” Mr Taylor told The Australian.
He said the key to unity was renewal of the party’s two longstanding traditions, his message being: “Two traditions, one future.”
As the senior conservative in the parliamentary party, with an ambition to the leadership, Mr Taylor dismisses the push from sections of the conservative right for the party to reshape itself as a populist conservative movement drawing upon the experiences of Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and US President Donald Trump.
“Our task is not to mimic what we see overseas,” he said.
Developing this argument, Mr Taylor said: “Our political cultures and political environments are different across these countries. So we have to find our own way. Obviously, US politics is very different from Australia. I think just cloning one or another of those countries is a really serious error.”
Mr Taylor’s comments are his first intervention in the current Liberal trauma and are remarkably consistent with the speech earlier in the week from prominent conservative and opposition finance spokesman James Paterson. Mr Taylor, like Senator Paterson, warned against the double trap: the party must reject a “Labor-lite approach” on social and cultural issues but also reject “becoming pale imitations of any other political brands”, an obvious reference to the right-wing eruptions in the US and UK.
The significance of his comments is that, as the party’s senior conservative, he outlines a strategic position for the Liberal future, the best means of preserving internal unity, the need to deny the extremes of left and right, and the core principles they should constitute for the Liberal attack on Labor.
“As John Howard has long argued, our strength rests on a balance between two great traditions,” Mr Taylor said. “The first is the classical liberal tradition: individual freedom, enterprise rewarded, and government as an enabler, not overlord, driving a resilient, growing economy.
“The second is the conservative tradition: family as the foundation of society, local institutions that hold communities together, and respect for the lessons of history.
“The answer is not to choose between these traditions but to revive them for our time: to champion freedom and enterprise while defending family, community and national strength. This means standing by our values and our unique Australian identity as a centre-right party. We must answer with a stronger, unapologetic Liberal alternative.
“If the Liberal Party has the clarity and conviction for this balanced vision, we will reconnect with middle Australia. Family, community, affordability, growth and enterprise are not relics, but principles that will secure prosperity for generations.”
Asked how important it was for the Liberal Party to retain its two traditions Mr Taylor said: “It’s not the Liberal Party if we don’t.”
In short, this isn’t a choice but goes to identity. He said the problem was not the party’s values. Those values and traditions had “been tested over time and they’ve worked over time”.
“We should never move away from them,” Mr Taylor said. “That is the key to getting through this.”
He denied that his comments were a critique of conservative Liberal, Andrew Hastie, who recently resigned to the backbench and wants the party to re-position further to the right. Yet the argument Mr Taylor mounted is an obvious rejection of this populist conservative push while at the same time his warnings against being Labor-lite put the party moderates on notice that they cannot succumb to Labor’s progressive agenda without repudiating core liberal and conservative beliefs. He is delivering warnings to both the conservative and moderate fringes.
In response to questions, Mr Taylor said he supported Ms Ley’s leadership. He said he believed she would lead the party at the next election. “I understand the loss of confidence, the loss of faith that some people feel,” he said. “We need to stay true to what the Liberal Party is and I believe that can succeed.”
But Mr Taylor signalled his impatience with the current political hiatus. He called for a focus on the main game – sorting the principles to contest Labor. Mr Taylor said the priority must be economic growth driven by enterprise investment, lower personal income taxes, less regulation and lower budget deficits to reduce the debt burden on future generations.
He highlighted the need for the Liberals to embrace personal income tax indexation saying he was “dead against” automated tax increases via bracket creep.
On energy, he said: “We cannot set climate targets that are unreachable and destructive across any time frame. We must back technologies that deliver affordability and reliability – gas, hydro, coal and nuclear – while reducing emissions through efficiency and innovation.”
He said migration had enriched Australia but the need now was to lower the rate, focus on economic need and migrants that “adopt our values”. He was strong on two other areas: warning on Labor’s universal big-spending childcare plans and the need for a Liberal response that offered choice and flexibility. He also highlighted education, the need to restore literacy and numeracy, return rigour to the curriculum and end ideological indoctrination. Education remains an unfulfilled opportunity for the Liberals in policy and political domains.