Saturday night’s election win for the Labor Party has seen members of the Liberal Party begin to question what the future holds, while one MP said outgoing Prime Minister Scott Morrison should have quit months ago.
It comes after footage from 9News captured Mr Morrison showing off his whip-cracking skills while his wife Jenny served margaritas at an afternoon party at Kirribilli House on Sunday.
The footage also showed Mr Morrison sipping on a beer, and Jenny and their daughter Abbey having a crack at using the whip.
#EXCLUSIVE: The outgoing Prime Minister hosted his last function at Kirribilli House this afternoon – with drinks, canapes, and whip-cracking to mark the occasion. @MarkWBurrows #9News pic.twitter.com/JFCezxtP6R
— 9News Sydney (@9NewsSyd) May 22, 2022
Reporter Mark Barrows said the event was “a chance for the Morrisons to say thank you to their staff and their families” before they leave the official residence and return to the Shire, allowing incoming PM Anthony Albanese to move in.
Meanwhile, various Liberal MPs have begun weighing in on the brutal election results – with the party set to lose 17 seats – and on the direction of the party in the future.
One MP said Mr Morrison should have resigned months ago when polls showed he had little support among voters, but instead he “strapped himself to the Liberal Party like a suicide bomber and blew the whole show up”, per The Sydney Morning Herald.
Outgoing finance minister and moderate Senator Simon Birmingham, one of the first to speak out publicly, said the party was paying the price for failing to lock in climate and energy policy during Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership.
These sentiments were echoed by outgoing Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who called on the party to be better at “articulating” its climate change achievements.
“Australia has not been well served by the culture wars on climate change,” he said.
However, Queensland Nationals Senator Matt Canavan has warned the party against catering to Left-leaning voters.
“If Left is code for higher taxes, more government regulation and woke policies, I can’t see how that’s a recipe for success,” he said.
Another outgoing Liberal minister said the party was struggling to bridge the gap between wealthy inner-city voters and the rest of Australia, and that it might be that the divide was too wide to bridge.
Several Liberal sources have defended Mr Morrison, saying he was the victim of Labor’s character assassination strategies, while others urged for party members to wait for the “dust to settle” before decisions were made about the party’s ideological direction.
Outgoing Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews, who lost a significant number of primary votes to the Greens, said the Liberals needed to “go back” and “look at our values… to make sure we are properly representing the Australian people”.
Though the Liberals have suffered significant losses in New South Wales, Victoria, and Western Australia, the Nationals have seemed to hold all of its seats.
As a result, Queensland is looking to be a stronghold for the Coalition with the state accounting for a third of Federal Liberal-aligned seats.
One MP said Queensland would have “a big say within the party” about what the Coalition and Liberals would do going forward.
Queensland MP Garth Hamilton said the party needed to be “honest, credible and painfully earnest” following the election and defended the Coalition’s position as a “broad church”.
“The idea of a broad church demands that we remain reflective of a range of views, we need to continue to be that,” he said.
“Losing our Left flank is going to be a challenge. Our centre of gravity need to be in the centre-Right.”
Images: 9News
This article first appeared on OverSixty.