Aside from one crude caricature distributed in the crowd, Liberal leader Sussan Ley\u2019s name was almost entirely absent from the rightwing Conservative Political Action Conference in Brisbane.<\/p>\n
But stripping away the sideshow attractions \u2013 Pauline Hanson\u2019s pinball machine, George Christensen\u2019s photo booth props \u2013 the thread running through the two-day event was the challenge Ley has to simply hold her party together amid a volatile fracturing of the conservative landscape, let alone for the Coalition to be competitive again.<\/p>\n
The major theme from a lineup of Liberal rightwingers boiled down to: please, please don\u2019t abandon the Coalition<\/a>, especially for a further-right minor party like One Nation.<\/p>\n A second theme: the conservative rump of the Coalition is in no mood to make Ley\u2019s life easy.<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n Tony Abbott\u2019s explicit plea was for \u201cone last chance\u201d<\/a>, urging dissatisfied conservatives against starting a new splinter party like Nigel Farage\u2019s Reform. Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, the \u201crock star\u201d of this wing of politics, implored audiences to join the Liberals.<\/p>\n So far, so reasonable. After May\u2019s election drubbing, a further splitting of conservative voters into more fringe parties won\u2019t help the Coalition. As Cpac founder Andrew Cooper said, the Liberals have \u201chardly any members and the average age is 65\u201d.<\/p>\n The problem for Ley, however, was the solution from speakers including her parliamentary colleagues \u2013 Price, Matt Canavan, Alex Antic, Angus Taylor, Bridget McKenzie \u2013 was not a call to unite behind her. Indeed, Ley was barely mentioned (except to audience boos during Hanson\u2019s speech).<\/p>\n Instead, Abbott called for party \u201creform\u201d; Price, recently dumped by Ley from the shadow ministry, asked attenders to help \u201cshape\u201d the party; several speakers mooted alliances between the Coalition and Hanson.<\/p>\n Cpac, as it always does, wants Liberals lurching further right.<\/p>\n One Nation unveiled a working pinball machine themed for their \u2018Please Explain\u2019 cartoon series, depicting Pauline Hanson as a caped superhero fighting a cyborg version of energy minister Chris Bowen. Photograph: Josh Butler\/The Guardian<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got a battle to get the conservative side of politics back together, and this is the beginning,\u201d said Cpac chair Warren Mundine.<\/p>\n The Sky News host Rowan Dean floated: \u201cLiberals, Nationals, One Nation working together.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s important to note here: Cpac is not mainstream Australia. It\u2019s not even the mainstream of the Liberals.<\/p>\n Some in the Coalition see the several hundred attenders at Brisbane\u2019s Star casino \u2013 overwhelmingly but not exclusively older white people, starstruck by News Corp opinionistas and obsessed with Trump\u2019s Maga America \u2013 as the party \u201cbase\u201d. But despite being held in the LNP heartland of Queensland, most Liberals stayed away.<\/p>\n Outside those on the speaking lineup, there only appeared to be one other Coalition MP in the venue. There were more One Nation parliamentarians in the crowd.<\/p>\n This is the Jacinta Price wing of the Coalition, the Sky After Dark faction, unlikely to praise a more moderate voice like Ley; indeed even hard-right Peter Dutton\u2019s campaign was criticised by speakers for being \u201cLabor-lite\u201d. Some more moderate Liberals are frustrated at continually being dragged off-message by harder-right colleagues, as Ley\u2019s team seeks to chart a more mainstream path to attract \u201cmiddle Australia\u201d voters instead of focusing on imported culture wars pushed by commentators and former MPs now in media roles.<\/p>\n But the discussion about the future of the Coalition is a legitimate one. Senior Coalition voices are alarmed at shedding support to moderate \u201cteal\u201d independents, and on their right to One Nation. The recent Newspoll delivered the Coalition\u2019s lowest-ever primary, just 27%, while One Nation had risen to 10%. Dutton left the Coalition a smouldering wreck with just 43 lower House seats. Something needs to shift if the Coalition can survive as a meaningful force.<\/p>\n Hanson, in a lower-profile slot on Sunday afternoon, claimed One Nation was \u201cthe real opposition\u201d. Having heard discussion about whether One Nation should link up with the Coalition, she said she would \u201cno longer be the bridesmaid\u201d.<\/p>\n Deputy Liberal leader Ted O\u2019Brien, with the weekend\u2019s toughest assignment in representing Ley\u2019s more moderate position, railed against Labor\u2019s economic policies and claimed \u201cour values are under attack\u201d; but he was constantly heckled, numerous audience members jeering \u201cwhat are you going to do about it\u201d and \u201cwhen are you going to start?\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Numerous speakers praised murdered conservative activist Charlie Kirk, with a tribute wall to write messages. Photograph: Josh Butler\/The Guardian<\/p>\n The battle over net zero <\/a>is now a proxy battle for the Liberal leadership. While Cpac speakers demanded the Coalition talk more about migration, support Australia\u2019s \u201cJudeo-Christian\u201d heritage, and oppose Labor tax changes, many calls for \u201cleadership\u201d to oppose climate targets were top of the agenda.<\/p>\n Sure, the weekend wasn\u2019t all a battle for the Liberal party<\/a> soul.<\/p>\n Matt Schlapp, Cpac\u2019s American chair, joked \u201cI thought net zero was Biden\u2019s IQ?\u201d; Liz Truss, of the blink-and-you\u2019ll-miss-it British prime ministership, claimed she was \u201ccancelled\u201d and removed in a \u201cglobalist coup\u201d.<\/p>\n Numerous speakers praised murdered conservative activist Charlie Kirk, with a tribute wall for written messages.<\/p>\n One Nation unveiled a working pinball machine themed for their Please Explain cartoon series, depicting Hanson as a caped superhero fighting a cyborg version of the energy minister, Chris Bowen. The former Nationals MP Christensen, now with conservative advocacy group CitizenGo, set up a photo wall like a police mugshot for people to pose with a sign reading \u201ceSafety thought police\u201d.<\/p>\n But the conference\u2019s main thread was clear: what now for Liberals?<\/p>\n The answer, according to Cpac, was obvious.<\/p>\n Every Cpac conference has heard that the Liberals\u2019 mounting election failures are because leaders aren\u2019t rightwing enough. Scott Morrison in 2022, Dutton in 2025, and a string of Liberal state election defeats, according to recent editions of Cpac, came because they were too progressive. The then Liberal vice-president Teena McQueen said in 2022 they should \u201crejoice\u201d as teals defeated moderates<\/a>.<\/p>\n Cpac volunteers walked through the crowd distributing copies of conservative magazine The Spectator, handing out one with a front cover bearing a caricature of Ley and the headline \u201cLeybor Lite\u201d.<\/p>\n