Federal politics live: Arthur Sinodinos says Liberals will not win government with culture wars alone
Former Liberal finance minister Simon Birmingham says the party needs to consider gender quotas to increase the Coalition's number of women in parliament.
Shadow Defence Minister Andrew Hastie yesterday confirmed he would not be a candidate in the party's leadership ballot, leaving Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor the favourite in a field that also includes deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley and Shadow Immigration Minister Dan Tehan.
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3m ago
Mon 5 May 2025 at 9:08pm
Liberal MP blames poor communication for party's loss
E
By Evelyn Manfield
Liberal member for Durack in WA,
Melissa Price
, who was one of the few Liberals to have a swing towards her, says poor communication was a key reason for her party's election failure.
"For example, if you put our housing policy up against Labor's policy … I would say ours was a better policy, but if you are unable to communicate that message to people who you want to hear your message, then you're failing," she says.
Price also points to an unsuccessful social media campaign.
"People that I've spoken to since the election or leading up to the election, people under the age of 40 … when they've given me their opinion, they've said that they didn't think our social media was cutting through and, you know, that's a big problem," she says.
She says the result had nothing to do with the quality of the candidates, but is unwilling to blame former leader Peter Dutton either.
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4m ago
Mon 5 May 2025 at 9:07pm
Calls to consider gender quotas in the Liberal Party
E
By Evelyn Manfield
Liberal senator
Maria Kovacic
says the party must also look at implementing
It's a sentiment former senator
Simon Birmingham
supported in a lengthy LinkedIn post, where he said
"With parliamentary representation now at an all-time low, such quotas could and should be hard, fast and ambitious," he wrote.
Despite the number of women in the lower house set to reach a record high,
Four Liberal women have so far secured seats, with another five in doubt. In 2022, nine Liberal women won seats.
Kovacic also addressed some of the commentary from former leader
Peter Dutton
during the campaign about Welcome to Country ceremonies being overused and a "woke" school curriculum. She said the discussions were "unnecessary" and not what voters were talking about.
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7m ago
Mon 5 May 2025 at 9:04pm
Liberal senator says party must move to the centre
E
By Evelyn Manfield
Liberal politicians, past and present, are calling for the party to return to the centre and consider quotas to boost the number of women in their ranks, after Saturday's federal election defeat.
Liberal senator
Maria Kovacic
said the party failed to address the key issues of housing and cost of living and offer solutions to "properly fix that".
She warned Saturday's "brutal" loss needed to be a catalyst for change.
"We need to move back to the centre," she says.
"It is very, very clear that the Australian public…were not happy with the way that we were conducting ourselves as a potential government.
"They didn't like what we did, so they did not elect us on Saturday, they sent us a very clear message.
"We must move to the centre — we have no choice, that's where we belong."
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11m ago
Mon 5 May 2025 at 9:00pm
Good morning 👋
J
By Joshua Boscaini
Hi everyone and thanks for joining me for another day of federal politics live.
The Liberal Party is continuing to pick apart the results of Saturday's election, which saw Labor return to power with an increased majority.
It's also on the search for a new leader. The race has narrowed to
Angus Taylor
,
Sussan Ley
and
Dan Tehan
after
Andrew Hastie
pulled out of the race yesterday afternoon.
I'm
Josh Boscaini.
Join me as I take you through today's developments in politics.
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But that is what we have at the moment and there's no sign the government has any interest in doing anything about it. James Campbell National weekend political editor James Campbell is national weekend political editor for Saturday and Sunday News Corporation newspapers and websites across Australia, including the Saturday and Sunday Herald Sun, the Saturday and Sunday Telegraph and the Saturday Courier Mail and Sunday Mail. He has previously been investigations editor, state politics editor and opinion editor of the Herald Sun and Sunday Herald Sun. Since starting on the Sunday Herald Sun in 2008 Campbell has twice been awarded the Grant Hattam Quill Award for investigative journalism by the Melbourne Press Club and in 2013 won the Walkley Award for Scoop of the Year.
