The emphatic re-election of Labor Premier Daniel Andrews in Victoria will be discussed between the prime minister and the Victorians in his team.
Senior Victorian senator Scott Ryan says the Liberal Party must pay attention to its “real base” rather than dismissing voters and picking fights over ideological issues, following a disastrous state election loss.
Senator Ryan said the Victorian result saw swings in a swag of “seats that are the cradle of the Liberal Party”.
He said social issues and climate change should not become litmus tests for what it means to be a “real Liberal” and cautioned against telling people they are “not conservative enough”.
“Labelling people, dismissing them, that’s not the Liberal way. I want to cast the net wide in the Menzies and Howard tradition, to give people a reason to be Liberals,” Senator Ryan told ABC radio on Monday.
“Not come up with litmus tests … that is not the path to electoral success.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg are preparing to hold crisis talks in Canberra with Victorian Liberal MPs to discuss the federal implications of the state election.
Victorian Labor smashed the state coalition in Saturday’s poll, returning to government with a surprise 16 more seats on the back of a five per cent swing.
The meeting will take place on Monday morning, as federal politicians begin the final sitting weeks of the year.
A string of Liberal seats are at serious risk if the swing to Labor is replicated at a federal level.
Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan, a Victorian Liberal, is urging his colleagues to be calm.
“It’s time for cool heads, calm analysis, get the facts and then we’ve got six months to address it,” Mr Tehan told Sky News.
Mr Frydenberg intends to speak with his colleagues about how the Liberals can be “more effective” in Victoria.
He said Labor “shamelessly and wrongly” attacked the coalition on health and education.
“We were beaten pretty comprehensively in the campaign itself, both on the ground and in the advertising,” Mr Frydenberg said.
“We expect another scare campaign from the Labor Party at the next election, as we saw last time with ‘Mediscare’, and we need to be prepared for that.”
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said Victorians responded to Labor’s policies for hospitals and schools over “cuts and division” from the Liberals.
“Everywhere I went on Saturday, a lot of people were coming up to me saying when is the federal election and why the federal government so divided all the time?” Mr Shorten told the Nine Network.
“There is no doubt when you argue for better hospitals and schools and not for cuts and chaos and division, people respond positively to that.”
