Tony Abbott has urged conservatives to give the Liberals “one last chance” and apologised for the party’s 2025 election drubbing, joining a host of high-profile Coalition figures at a major political conference in imploring voters not to abandon the opposition for right-wing minor parties.
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, recently dumped from the shadow frontbench, exhorted the Conservative Political Action Conference (Cpac) in Brisbane to stick with the Liberal party, and encouraged her parliamentary colleagues to dump a net zero climate target, to cheers from attendees.
Abbott told Cpac in his headlining speech: “We must be a better opposition this time than last time, and we must be a better government next time than last time.”
“I hope that you will give us one last chance to prove ourselves worthy of your trust,” he said, later repeating his request for another “chance to earn your trust”.
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Abbott, a former Liberal prime minister, also called for “reform” of the party to remove the power of “factional warlords”. It was in response to a bubbling discussion in Australia about whether a different major conservative party could emerge outside the established Liberal or National ones.
Referencing Nigel Farage’s Reform party in the UK, leading in polls over the traditional conservatives, Abbott said: “I don’t say that something like that should never, ever happen here in Australia. But what we need right now in Australia is not a reform party, but a reformed party. A reformed Liberal party.”
Audience members at several points interjected during Abbott’s speech, yelling support for Pauline Hanson and One Nation. Hanson will speak at the conference on Sunday, while conservative politicians Alex Antic, Matt Canavan and former British prime minister Liz Truss were among Saturday’s speakers.
Coalition sources remained concerned about losing support on their left and right to more moderate “teal” or independent MPs as well as to more right-wing parties like One Nation. A recent Newspoll showed the Coalition’s primary vote at its lowest-ever ebb, just 27%, while One Nation had risen to 10%.
Changes to the Coalition were a common theme for speakers. Price asked attendees to help in “shaping” the Liberal party, which she said must be “smarter” and “sharper”. She branded May’s election defeat as “a Coalition failure”, having “lost our nerve to prosecute policies of difference from Labor”.
“We need to return to being a strong centre-right party – in conviction, in policy, and in practice,” she said.
Price again urged Liberal colleagues to dump the net zero by 2050 target agreed by former PM Scott Morrison. She branded the climate target “communism”, saying: “It’s time the Liberals pushed back against this freedom-eroding nonsense.”
Abbott also urged Liberals to strongly oppose Labor’s climate action, claiming this week’s announcement of a 62-70% by 2035 reduction target “could be this government’s political death warrant”.
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The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, said she doesn’t support setting climate targets in opposition, but that the Coalition was still reviewing its net zero position, and remained committed it.
Warren Mundine, the chair of Cpac who has run for Liberal pre-selection after serving as Labor party president, said conservative voters needed to cooperate to win future elections.
“We’ve got a battle; we get the conservative side of politics back together, and this is the beginning of it. We need to bring all the conservative groups together. One thing in the lesson that we’ve learned from the left is: how do we do preferences and support each other?” he said.
Mundine asked Cpac attendees to listen to the “brave Liberal and National party people” who would speak at the conference, saying “they’re going to be our champions”.
Deputy Liberal leader Ted O’Brien, who along with Ley was supported by the party’s moderate wing to win a leadership ballot after Peter Dutton’s election defeat, was heckled by some attendees during his address. As he called Albanese’s government “the worst since Whitlam”, several audience members loudly interjected with “what are you going to do about it?” and “it starts with you”.
O’Brien also admitted the need “to rebuild the Liberal party”.
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie, the shadow transport minister, said the “centre-right of politics … has to stop fighting amongst ourselves”.
“Because how the enemy has done this to us; [they are] highly disciplined, very well-financed, and relentless, militant in their intent over time. We tend to just bag each other out.”
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