Sussan Ley pushes for new collaborative policy process in bid to avoid Peter Dutton-style party control
Sussan Ley will ask Coalition MPs to endorse a new policy development process designed to empower backbenchers and include more diverse voices, part of efforts to avoid repeating the political overreach which occurred during Peter Dutton's leadership.
At a meeting of the joint Coalition party room in Canberra on Friday, the opposition leader will outline a bottom-up approach for new policy proposals.
Details of the plan were circulated to MPs on Thursday night, after a meeting of the shadow ministry at Parliament House.
Liberal sources said Ley wanted consultative design work for ideas to be led by shadow ministers and specialist working groups before the 2028 federal election.
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The new process will allow backbench policy committees more say in the opposition's pitch to voters, ending idea bottlenecks and taking advantage of MPs' expertise and community connections from outside politics.
The scale of the Coalition's loss on 3 May is expected to be discussed at Friday's meeting, before a formal review led by Howard government minister Nick Minchin and former New South Wales state minister Pru Goward.
Before the election, some Liberals complained about policy ideas being ignored by Dutton and the opposition leadership team, with backbench committees being asked to rubber stamp ideas immediately before they were announced.
Ley has told MPs she wants a more strategic approach, based on expert advice and better external engagement.
In a speech to the National Press Club this week, she announced the first working group, which will consider energy and emissions reductions policies. Led by shadow minister Dan Tehan, it will consider Dutton's nuclear power plan amid fierce internal debate about net zero by 2050 policies.
'Our policy development process will be iterative and continuous,' Ley said on Wednesday.
'It will evolve throughout the term in response to internal and external feedback, emerging issues, and ongoing engagement with the community.'
Her promise to be a 'zealot' on recruiting more women to Liberal party ranks is being debated internally but frontbencher Angus Taylor on Thursday talked down any move to introduce gender quotas.
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'It's not something that I think is necessary in order to get the outcome,' Taylor told Sky News.
'I think attracting, mentoring, retaining great people and great women in the party is incredibly important work for absolutely everybody, for all leaders. And I take that very seriously.'
Nationals leader David Littleproud used the opening of the shadow ministry meeting to energise dispirited colleagues.
'You can do one of two things: you can get in the foetal position, give up, or you can come out swinging,' he said.
'Let's come out swinging. Let's hold this government to account, and let's show Australians that we are here for them and we have the solutions for them.'
The minister for women, Katy Gallagher, warned the Coalition needed to do more than identify its failures on gender representation. Labor introduced quotas for female representation in the mid-1990s.
'It's actually the next step that matters, which is: what are you going to do about it?
'I think we'll just have to wait and see whether the rhetoric is actually matched by action,' Gallagher said.
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