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The existential crisis facing the Liberal Party after ‘good old-fashioned flogging’ at Farrer by-election by One Nation
“It’s old-fashioned flogging, that’s the reality,” he said.
“You have to face it and understand that the people of Farrer are sending a message.”
Littleproud claimed it was a protest vote not only against the Liberal Party but also against the Albanian government, saying the coalition needed to rally behind values after abandoning them following last year’s crushing election defeat.
“The coalition wanted to abandon all its policies, and we stood for nothing,” he said.
“What happened is that Pauline Hanson, a smart politician for 30 years, came in and took that space, and stood up for a lot of the values that we’re fighting for.”
The Liberal Party secured 12.6 per cent of the vote in the Farrar by-election, while the Nationals received just 9.76 per cent on Sunday morning, with One Nation leading the two-party preferred vote against independent Michelle Milthorpe by a margin of 7.3 per cent.
Nine News political editor Charles Croucher said the decimation of the Liberal Party’s vote was a sign the party was increasingly losing Australia, after losing urban areas in large numbers in the two previous federal elections.
“They are running out of places to win seats,” he said.
“It would be the party of the suburbs. It clearly can’t be the party of the bush anymore if that is the result that comes in.”
Croucher said the party was stuck between a rock and a hard place as forces on the left and right of politics continue to capture voters the Liberal Party relied on for decades.
“What we see is the Liberal Party caught between this wave of One Nation on the right, the climate-conscious independent party, and Labor winning in the cities,” he said.
“It pushes the Liberal Party, the party of Menzies and Howard, which of course was the party of government, completely out of contention.”
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