A postmortem of the New South Wales Liberal party’s election defeat in March has pointed to the damage done by the Morrison government’s record on climate change, women and integrity, party infighting and dysfunction.
The report also pointed to the impact of the John Barilaro saga.
Seven months on from the Coalition’s loss to Labor, the internal review by the former NSW premier Nick Greiner and former NSW MP Peta Seaton found the government’s “longevity” and an “it’s time” factor after 12 years contributed to the loss.
Liberal MPs were briefed on the review during Tuesday’s party room meeting by Greiner and Seaton.
People in attendance told Guardian Australia, on the condition of anonymity, that there was nothing “overly spicy” or surprising about the findings that highlighted the state party’s links to the former prime minister Scott Morrison and NSW Nationals leader John Barilaro.
“It was probably a good summary of what we already knew in terms of what went wrong,” a source said. “It was longevity, it was a lot of infighting on our end, delayed preselections, factions fighting with each other.”
An MP said Greiner made a comment that the “unpopularity of the previous federal government” had played a role without explicitly blaming Morrison.
“There were issues – climate, integrity and women – that had an impact at the state level,” the Liberal said. “Those policies from the previous Liberal government, there was a bit of blame attributed there.”
Barilaro dominated headlines after he was handed a plum trade position by the then Coaltion government in a “jobs for the boys” saga.
Reviewers told the parliamentary Liberal party that major reform was needed within internal party structures including the state executive.
Reflecting on those scathing findings, one parliamentarian told Guardian Australia that the executive was “a room of 30 children sitting around a table”.
“The problem is they are all conflicted,” the MP said. “They are often acting in their own interests.”
The review also found that while there were a “lot of great policies”, the campaign struggled to deliver to the people of NSW something to get excited about, according to a source.
“Every day, there was a new announcement but there was no overarching narrative … whereas [Labor] had a really salient message,” a source said.
The election was fought by Labor on a few key issues including a promise to end the sale of public assets, removing the controversial public sector wages cap and investment in health and education.
Once finalised, the review will be handed to the top layer of the NSW Liberals, including the former Mackellar MP Jason Falinski, who was recently appointed as state president.
One MP criticised the reviewers for not handing the review to all parliamentary members so they knew what needed to change in order for them to regain power. “It’s like trying to score a goal without goalposts,” they said.
Reviewers told the party room that they could return to power in four years if they made changes, including preselecting in key seats earlier.
“We’re in a better position than [Labor] were in 2019,” a source said. “They are already in minority government. We could come back in four. We didn’t do that badly.”
