Liberal Party review highlights need for female and ethnic vote

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• By Avi Yemini

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A Liberal Party review has highlighted factional infighting rather than the party’s policies as the key reason for its disastrous election loss, according to a report in The Australian.

The review, to be submitted to the party’s national executive this week, says Liberal Party branches were riddled with division and in-fighting that delayed key pre-selections until the eve of the election.

Federal Senator Jane Hume and former national director Brian Loughnane argue that the party needed a cultural change before the next federal poll if their election changes were to improve.

Shadow immigration minister Dan Tehan, speaking to Sky News ahead of the review being handed down, said the Liberal Party needed to change its culture of infighting immediately.

“We can change the culture in the coming months and the coming years, we can change the culture in the lead up to the next election; we have to,” he said.

“Every political movement has to make sure that they are continuing to update their systems, modernising their practices and inputting all the latest techniques in place to make sure they’re engaged.”

The review will reportedly highlight the party’s lack of female and ethnic candidates after polling showed the two groups had abandoned the Coalition. It stops short of recommending quotas.

Mr Tehan said there was already a push for new candidates from multicultural communities in the run up to the next election.

“We’ve got pre-selections coming up over the next 12-to-18 months, so we’ve just got to make sure we now begin to implement,” he said.

The review was commissioned on May 26, shortly after the Liberals lost more than a dozen seats at the federal election. The review received hundreds of submissions.