The Liberal party has charged two former cabinet ministers, a former state premier and a former Brisbane city councillor, with the task of reviewing the election performance which saw the Coalition reduced to a majority of one in the lower house.
The Liberal party president Richard Alston said on Friday that the party executive had appointed Andrew Robb, the former trade minister and a former federal director of the party, Barry O’Farrell, the former NSW premier, Chris Ellison, a cabinet minister during the Howard years, and Carol Cashman, former Brisbane city councillor and general secretary of the Queensland division of the Liberal party, to lead the probe.
Alston said the process would be wide-ranging.
“As is customary, the review will examine all aspects of the conduct of the election campaign,” he said in a statement. “All party members and divisions are invited to make submissions to the review panel.”
The review follows an outbreak of internal back biting post election about the campaign strategy rolled out during the eight week campaign by the federal director Tony Nutt.
There were complaints the Liberal campaign lacked the resources to match Labor’s extensive field operation, and there were suggestions polling was withheld from the state organisations, leading to poor allocation of resources.
Members of the New South Wales branch of the Liberal party claimed they were blindsided by swings of more than 10% against the party on election night.
Various party sources said they could not believe what they were seeing when “safe” seats in the state starting falling to Labor on 2 July. The claims suggested the campaign run from Canberra was plagued by poor decision-making, and was not responsive to changes in the electorate.
