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October 18, 2025
The federal Liberal Party’s senior leadership finally is starting to shake itself from its post-election defeat torpor and confront what must be done to rebuild the party as a serious contender for government. Interventions this week by Angus Taylor and James Paterson are a spark of hope that a pathway exists to bring the Liberals back into mainstream contention. Both MPs support leader Sussan Ley. But both have managed to puncture the federal party’s wayward adventure towards self-harm in a way that she has been unable to achieve.
In his Tom Hughes Oration on Tuesday, Senator Paterson set party colleagues the challenge to dispense with what he described as the twin caricatures presented as the alternative paths available to it. The first was for the party to become a free-market version of the teals that accepted the cultural zeitgeist and contested no social agendas advanced by the left. The second was that the Liberal Party’s future lay in a Farage-lite, populist conservative party that abandoned its traditions on free markets and fiscal discipline in favour of a new nationalism of picking winners and turning its back on free trade.
Writing on Saturday, Mr Taylor rightly argues that the conservative agenda must be anchored in priorities that matter: economic prosperity, affordable energy, affordable housing with lower migration, strong families, back-to-basics education and military strength.
As we editorialised on Wednesday, unifying on common ideals to re-establish the broad church that is needed to win government is not only possible for the Liberals, it is essential if the party is to find its way back into government. Against a background of near universal state Liberal dysfunction there is a template worth close scrutiny in the success being enjoyed by Queensland Liberal National Party Premier David Crisafulli. Mr Crisafulli has issued a blunt warning that to be successful the conservative forces must prioritise a narrow agenda of “kitchen table” concerns that appeal to most voters, not just the conservative base. They must show a determination not to be dragged to the far right, even as the Liberal vote splits with the intervention of minor parties and activist groups. Mr Crisafulli’s discipline was on display in his refusal to buy into the Peter Dutton-led federal opposition’s argument over nuclear energy. In government, Mr Crisafulli is sticking with a 2050 net-zero target. But at the same time his government is dumping the former Labor state government’s uncosted vanity renewable energy projects and doubling down on coal and gas to safeguard affordable electricity supplies.
Immigration, defence and foreign relations require a national perspective. But the lesson is to not get bogged down in the ideological fight on every issue and lose sight of what really matters. This includes affordable energy to power the economy, immigration policy that builds the nation, and budget discipline to cut debt and seed prosperity. By speaking out, Mr Taylor and Senator Paterson are holding the flame that underwrote a decade of Liberal success under John Howard. It requires maintaining a balance between the classical liberal tradition and true conservatism. This is a marriage of support for individual freedom, enterprise rewarded, small government and a growing economy with the enduring principles of family as the foundation of society and respect for the lessons of history. It is a positive message and a blueprint for good government.