New Liberal Party president Tony Abbott wants to lead ‘people’s revolt’ to boot out ‘worst government’

Tony Abbott says the Liberals are “under new management” with him in charge, while his Howard-era cabinet colleague Alexander Downer wants them to be “media tarts” to win the next election.

Their rousing speeches to Liberal Party faithful were aimed at reinvigorating a battered movement that’s facing an existential threat from One Nation.

The former prime minister was elected unopposed as the Liberal Party’s federal president on Friday, with Mr Downer joining him as one of the party’s vice-presidents.

“I promise you, we are under new management. We are hungry to win for our country’s sake,” Mr Abbott said.

The best thing the party could do to give Angus Taylor a chance of winning the next election, he said, was massively increase its membership.

Mr Abbott said the Liberal Party’s 50,000 members, “even on the most optimistic figures”, was unchanged from decades ago when Australia had scarcely half the population it does now.

“On a per capita we would have at least 250,000 members in this country, and that’s what we need to do – to mobilise the good people of Australia in a good cause,” he said.

“As Liberals we cherish freedom, we respect tradition, but above all else, we love our country. That’s what we are, the freedom party, the tradition party, but above all else, we are the patriot party, which is why, at our best, we should be absolutely unbeatable.

“Our job, individually and collectively, is to lead a people’s revolt to be rid of the worst government in living memory.”

Voters have been fleeing the Coalition in favour of One Nation in recent polls.

The minor party’s primary vote has been equal to or above the Coalition’s in a range of surveys since February, and it scored a significant victory when David Farley won Sussan Ley’s old seat of Farrer for One Nation. He will be sworn into parliament next week.

Mr Downer also urged the party to build its membership, get more activists out on the ground selling its messages, use the best digital technology, and choose first-class candidates well in advance of the next election.

“Over the last few years we have been losing that battle of ideas to the progressive left, as they like to describe themselves,” he said.

“We have to define ourselves, and we have to sell our ideas in that battle of ideas, and we have to be prepared to resist and fight against those who disagree with us.

“We have to keep selling these messages day in and day out. We have to use that old-fashioned expression: become media tarts – at least the parliamentary party has to become media tarts and sell their wares in order to win that battle of ideas.”

Both retired politicians congratulated Mr Taylor on his budget reply speech, which promised a Coalition government would make the biggest cut to migration in Australia’s history by linking arrival numbers to housing competitions, and index marginal tax rate thresholds to end bracket creep.

Labor pre-emptively went on the attack against Mr Abbott, who is widely expected to steer his party further to the right.

“This is another sign that the Liberal Party are completely misreading the message that Australians are sending politics right now,” Cabinet minister Murray Watt said.

“They have decided to chase One Nation and drift further and further to the right rather than listen to the vast majority of Australians who do not support those views.

“Tony Abbott belongs in a museum not running the possible alternative government of Australia and that’s what he’s going to be doing from his election as President of the Liberal Party.”

Greens senator David Shoebridge said it appeared the Liberals had chosen “going back to the future with a kind of side serve of nastiness”.

Mr Taylor will address the Liberal federal council on Saturday.