A senior member of Australia’s Liberal Party has urged colleagues to move beyond self-reflection following a significant electoral defeat earlier this year. In a speech delivered on the evening of October 3, 2023, Shadow Finance Minister James Paterson called for an end to the party’s “apology tour,” warning that embracing unsuccessful strategies could jeopardize the party’s future.
Paterson’s remarks come five months after the Liberal Party faced its worst electoral outcome in the May 2025 elections, where it lost to the ruling Labor Party. He cautioned against adopting “false choices,” such as imitating the policies of the Teal independents or aligning with right-wing populist figures like Nigel Farage from the UK.
In his address in Sydney, Paterson highlighted the risks of internal divisions within the party. He pointed to recent departures from the shadow cabinet, including Shadow Home Affairs Minister Andrew Hastie, who resigned amid disagreements over immigration policy, and Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who was dismissed from her role after controversial comments regarding Indian Australians.
Path Forward for the Liberal Party
Paterson stated that the party must focus on three essential tasks to regain public trust and electoral success. These include resolving internal conflicts amicably, holding the government accountable, and crafting appealing alternative policies. Despite the current challenges, with the Opposition holding only 43 seats in the lower house compared to Labor’s 94, Paterson expressed optimism about the party’s future.
He belongs to the dominant National Right Conservatives faction within the Liberal Party and emphasized that the party must avoid becoming a “free market version of the Teals.” He stressed that withdrawing from cultural debates would not eliminate those issues but rather lead to a surrender to leftist ideologies.
“If we followed this advice, we would be left with a soulless, hollow party which spoke to only the narrowest material aspirations of Australians,” Paterson remarked. He also rejected the idea of transforming the Liberal Party into a populist conservative movement that abandons its core values of free markets and fiscal discipline.
Challenges and Opportunities Ahead
Paterson voiced skepticism regarding the potential success of the Reform Party in the UK, suggesting that their policies would not be sustainable in Australia. “I am personally unconvinced a platform of significantly increasing government spending, in a country where it is already 44 percent of GDP and has a large budget deficit, is fiscally sustainable,” he stated.
In light of the Coalition’s electoral setback, Paterson urged his colleagues to improve their campaigning techniques and communication strategies. He highlighted the need for modernization in their approach, particularly in data analytics, an area where Labor excelled during the recent elections.
Concluding his address, Paterson expressed confidence that the Liberal Party could navigate its current difficulties by resolving internal disputes, uniting under shared values, and effectively communicating their policies to the Australian public. “The Liberal Party will find our way out of the wilderness once we resolve our differences and confidently argue the case to the Australian people,” he asserted.
