Former prime minister Tony Abbott has urged conservative voters to give the Liberal Party “one last chance” following its heavy defeat in the 2025 election, apologising for the party’s performance and calling for internal reform to curb the power of “factional warlords”. Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (Cpac) in Brisbane, Abbott said: “We must be a better opposition this time than last time, and we must be a better government next time than last time.” He added: “I hope that you will give us one last chance to prove ourselves worthy of your trust.”
Abbott, a former Liberal prime minister, addressed concerns that conservative voters might abandon the Coalition for rightwing minor parties, referencing the success of Nigel Farage’s Reform party in the UK. “I don’t say that something like that should never, ever happen here in Australia. But what we need right now in Australia is not a reform party, but a reformed party. A reformed Liberal party,” he said. Audience members interjected during his speech, yelling support for Pauline Hanson and One Nation.
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, recently removed from the shadow frontbench, also urged attendees to stick with the Liberal party and called on her parliamentary colleagues to abandon the net zero by 2050 climate target, branding it “communism”. She said: “We need to return to being a strong centre-right party – in conviction, in policy, and in practice.” Price described the 2025 election defeat as “a Coalition failure” and argued the party had “lost our nerve to prosecute policies of difference from Labor”.
Warren Mundine, Cpac chair and former Labor party president, called for conservative groups to unite, saying: “We’ve got a battle; we get the conservative side of politics back together, and this is the beginning of it. We need to bring all the conservative groups together.” He asked attendees to listen to “brave Liberal and National party people” who would speak at the conference, describing them as “our champions”.
Deputy Liberal leader Ted O’Brien faced heckling during his address, with audience members shouting “what are you going to do about it?” and “it starts with you” as he criticised the Albanese government. O’Brien admitted the need “to rebuild the Liberal party”. Coalition sources remain concerned about losing support to both moderate “teal” independents and rightwing parties like One Nation, with a recent Newspoll showing the Coalition’s primary vote at 27% and One Nation at 10%.
