Liberal president sends blunt message to warring party members: stop helping Labor

Brian Loughnane used his first speech as Liberal state president to urge his notoriously fractious party to put aside its differences for six months and give Opposition Leader Jess Wilson a clear run at the November election.

The experienced backroom political operator said the Allan government had “broken Victoria” and Liberal Party members needed to put the interests of the state ahead of their own internal disputes.

“Politics is about the resolution of differences,” he told the party’s annual state council. “Naturally, there are differences occasionally within our party on various issues. That is healthy, and in my view, it’s essential for a vibrant party.

“But from today, our state must come first and we must come together. We must not, not one single one of us, do anything in the next six months that assists Labor’s campaign.”

Loughnane, the party’s federal campaign director during the long-serving Howard government, agreed to step in as state president until the election, at the request of Wilson and senior party figures, to stabilise the party’s administrative wing. He replaced Phil Davis, who stood down after serving three years in the volunteer role. Loughnane is married to Sky News commentator Peta Credlin, whose former boss Tony Abbott has just been announced as federal Liberal president.

Loughnane’s call for unity, which follows years of factional warfare within the state division and was issued against the backdrop of continuing legal action between members of the party’s governing administrative committee, was one of two key messages at the state council.

The second, delivered by Wilson and reiterated by federal Liberal leader Angus Taylor, was a directive to all rank-and-file Liberal members to convince their friends, family and work colleagues to resist the lure of One Nation.

“I need you to tell everyone you know this,” Wilson said. “You can’t vote teal. You can’t vote orange. You must vote Liberal.

“Any other choice leaves a pathway for Labor to cling on to power and continue to drive this state into the dust.”

Taylor, who since taking the federal leadership has shifted the Liberal Party onto a harder, anti-immigration stance to counter surging support for One Nation, used his speech to road test a new slogan.

“If the vote sprays, Labor stays,” he said. “If people want to get rid of a rotten Labor government, they must vote Liberal.

“Everyone has a part in coming months to explain that to our family members, our work colleagues, our friends, our neighbours, fellow sporting team members. If the vote sprays, Labor stays – and we cannot afford for Labor to stay in this state.”

The twin messages acknowledge the Liberal Party’s two biggest obstacles to returning to government in Victoria for just the second time this century – its tendency towards organisational self-harm, and Pauline Hanson’s populist alternative eating into the Liberal Party’s primary vote.

Although none of the speakers mentioned Hanson by name, her extraordinary resurgence since the end of last year has reshaped this year’s Victorian political contest and the challenge confronting Wilson, who needs to secure an additional 16 Coalition seats to form majority government.

Premier Jacinta Allan, who took over from Daniel Andrews in 2023, is seeking a historic fourth consecutive term for Labor. Wilson, in comments to journalists on the sidelines of the state council, said anti-Labor sentiment on its own would not change the government.

“We don’t just need to run a campaign about why we shouldn’t re-elect the Allan Labor government, but why Victorians should vote for the Liberal and Nationals Party,” she said. “That is something that we will talk about every day over the next six months.”

Wilson’s set-piece address contained no new policy initiatives but coloured in a campaign narrative that portrays Victoria as a state of corruption, debt and decay, while promising a “calm and methodical” pathway to fiscal repair.

Wilson, a 36-year-old, first-term MP, is a second-generation Liberal parliamentarian whose likeability among voters has emerged as her party’s strongest electoral asset. Her campaign slogan – “a fresh start” – seeks to make a virtue of her youth and relative inexperience compared with Allan, who is the longest-serving female minister in any Australian parliament.

“I’m running for premier because I believe in the promise of Victoria – and in the hope that comes with it,” Wilson said.

“I grew up in a state that was optimistic, ambitious and full of opportunity. People believed that if you worked hard, the future would be brighter for your children than it was for you. Too many Victorians have lost that sense of hope. I want to restore it.”

Wilson’s campaign promises so far include a hiring freeze on back-office public servants, abolition of treaty with the state’s First Peoples, opening up the state to more gas exploration, scrapping a series of state-based taxes and returning the state to an underlying cash surplus by 2032.

The government has dubbed the opposition leader “Jess Kennett” and warns her repair plan would require $40 billion of undeclared spending cuts.

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