‘Nothing to sell’: Coalition in crisis as Liberal senators break ranks after election blow

A Liberal senator has blasted the Coalition for having “nothing to sell” after the opposition’s decimation at the federal election.

Anthony Albanese led Labor to a landslide victory over the weekend, with his government set to return for a second term with at least 87 seats, as of reporting.

The result decimated the Coalition’s leadership, unseating several senior Liberal MPs, including Peter Dutton.

Hollie Hughes — who has no qualms publicly disagreeing with her Coalition colleagues — on Monday said there was “just a complete lack of policy and economic narrative”, and painted a chaotic picture behind the scenes.

“I can speak to my own personal experience in my portfolio, and we submitted seven fully costed policies around mental health and suicide prevention in October last year, and they disappeared into some form of vortex, and we never heard anything about anything back from anybody,” the rebel Liberal senator told the ABC.

“And you know, it’s not just me — I’ve spoken to plenty of other … shadow ministers who had the same experience.”

She said there “needs to be a lot of soul searching from the people that were responsible for that as to what they were actually doing”.

Though, she did not blame her ousted leader.

Instead, Senator Hughes said the Coalition made a “tactical error” by trying to show Mr Dutton’s softer side.

“Australians are facing an incredibly tough time and trying to make Peter warm and fuzzy … was a tactical error,” she said.

“We’re not a party that’s necessarily always had the popular leader. We had John Howard, who wasn’t seen as popular at any stage.

“Tony Abbott, who had an enormous victory, was not necessarily seen as someone who was incredibly popular, but they knew what they stood for.”

“They knew what they were getting, and Australians had confidence in what they were going to deliver. And I just think that narrative was lost, and I think it’s, it’s had real ramifications.”

With Mr Dutton unseated, the Liberals must find a new leader — a tough task when so much of the party’s senior talent has been so severely thinned.

Angus Taylor is one of a handful of MPs being floated as the one to step up.

But Senator Hughes ruled out backing Mr Taylor, saying she had “concerns about his capability”.

“I feel that we have zero economic policy to sell,” she said.

“I don’t know what he’s been doing for three years. There was no tax policy, there was no economic narrative, and the fact that we’re in a massive cost of living crisis, and Jim Chalmers is basically through unscathed.”

Sussan Ley, Dan Tehan and Andrew Hastie have also been floated.