Can Liberals beat Teals in once safe seats?

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Join us on Wednesday 19 Feb when executive director Tom Switzer tests veteran federal Liberal Philip Ruddock, whose wife Heather recently resigned from the Liberal Party to support Tina Brown, the local Teal Independent in Berowra.

Following the 2022 federal election, seasoned observers of Australian politics argued that, because of the success of Teal Independents in their once safe metropolitan seats, Liberals faced an “existential crisis.” The party of Menzies and Howard, we were told, was doomed. Yet polls show that the Coalition could defeat a first-term government for the first time in close to a century.

Can the Liberals win back their old metropolitan seats, such as Curtin in Perth, Ryan in Brisbane, Kooyong and Goldstein in Melbourne and Wentworth and Mackellar in Sydney? Or could the Liberals lose more erstwhile safe seats to the Teals in Sydney’s northern suburbs Bradfield and Berowra? Have they lost touch with professional women? How real is the Liberal splintering?

Philip Ruddock was Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs Minister and Attorney-General in the federal government of Prime Minister John Howard. He was the Liberal member for the federal seats of Parramatta, Dundas, and later Berowra in Sydney, making him the second-longest-serving parliamentarian in the history of the Australian Parliament with 43 years of service. He also served as Mayor of Hornsby Shire.

Tom Switzer is Executive Director of CIS. He is a former presenter at the ABC’s Radio National and held editorial roles at The Australian, The Spectator and the American Enterprise Institute.