EDITORIAL: NSW Liberals choose middle road back to power

The country’s most senior Liberals are in furious agreement that the path back to power lies in the middle of the road.

If only someone could tell the mob in Canberra that.

Former television reporter Kellie Sloane on Friday became the latest net zero-supporting moderate to be elevated to a party leader role.

Ms Sloane, 52, was elected unopposed to become NSW’s top Liberal after just three years in Parliament and has pledged to bring a “positive, ambitious vision” for the State.

“I’m a country-raised, public-school educated working mum who has built a career listening to people, telling their stories and advocating for them,” she said.

Days earlier, another female first term MP was made leader of the party’s Victorian branch.

Jess Wilson, 35, is pointedly different to those who have preceded her in the role across Labor’s long period of dominance over Victorian State politics.

She is young, she is a woman, she supports a net zero target and she describes herself as a “classical, small-l Liberal”. Her leadership provides the Victorian branch of the party an opportunity to drop its obsession with fighting contrived culture wars and meet voters where they are.

The election of Ms Sloane and Ms Wilson to leadership positions is a symptom of a broad Liberal realignment back to the centre which is taking place at the State level.

The States appear to have got the message from voters that moving ever rightwards won’t help their cause.

In NSW and Victoria in particular, the party knows it must must win back its traditional heartland seats in wealthy suburbs which have fallen to the teals at a Federal level.

Watering down climate commitments will make the Liberals unelectable in these climate conscious seats in the long term.

Meanwhile, the conservative governments led by David Crisafulli and Jeremy Rockliff in Queensland and Tasmania both remain committed to net zero policies. In fact, Tasmania has already reached that milestone.

It’s in stark contrast to the Federal franchise, which is plagued with in-fighting and on the verge of tearing down its female moderate leader in Sussan Ley.

The Coalition’s primary vote fell to a record low of 24 per cent last week, just as the party was about to dump its net zero commitment, a policy conceived under Scott Morrison’s government in 2021 (though it was Labor’s move to write it into law).

The gulf between the different branches of the party has never been wider as the States try to distance themselves from the stink emanating from the Federal partyroom.

Facing her former colleagues in the media hours after her installation as leader on Friday, Ms Sloane acknowledged that Federal function could do harm to the wider party, but offered Ms Ley her support — and some coded advice.

“They’re finding their way, but I’ve got great faith that they’ll find their true north as we have,” Ms Sloane said.

Responsibility for the editorial comment is taken by Editor-in-Chief Christopher Dore.