Veteran Liberal Warren Entsch has expressed disappointment over former prime minister Scott Morrison’s handling of transgender issues during the election campaign as the party continues to examine the factors behind its devastating losses in inner-city seats once considered Liberal heartlands.
The election saw in what’s been described as a loss of the party’s traditional voter base in these areas.
The result has forced members within the political party — described by former prime minister John Howard as a "broad church" — to consider what went wrong, including examining its handling of climate change policy, trans issues and representation of women.
Mr Entsch - considered a moderate in the party room - is set to return as the member for the north Queensland seat of Leichhardt, which takes in Cairns.
He’s now revealed his discomfort with how the debate over transgender people became a political flashpoint during the election campaign.
“I felt very uncomfortable and I thought it was very unnecessary to raise those sort of concerns - I think they were very inappropriate and I have a very different view,” he told SBS News.
The issue came to a head after now-deleted past social media posts about the trans community were revealed, as part of her advocacy for women in sport.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison distanced himself from , which had described transgender people as "surgically mutilated and sterilised”, but stood by his candidate - who was his own captain’s pick to run for the Sydney seat of Warringah against independent Zali Steggall.
Asked if Mr Morrsion should have come out more strongly in his condemnation, Mr Entsch said he “would have preferred that had been the case”.
“It was disappointing - in the first instance, he could have been strong in rejection and he almost got there - but when it was raised a second time I think that was very disappointing,” he said.
The comment appears to refer to when Mr Morrison continued to stand by Ms Deves after she walked back her apology over her comments saying her description of transgender people had been accurate.
Following this, Mr Morrison suggested the matter was “sensitive” but also described gender affirmation surgery as a “very serious issue” wrongly implying that “young adolescents” could receive the medical procedure.
“This is a concerning issue - it’s a troubling issue an for us to pretend it’s a minor procedure — it’s not,” he said.
International guidelines accepted in Australia require that a person must be over 18 and able to make a fully informed decision and give consent to undergo the surgery.
Mr Morrison also defended Ms Deves' prosecution of the argument that the rights of women in sport needed to be protected from challenges posed by trans athletes.
The move was seen by some as a way to appeal to socially conservative Liberal voters in other electorates, but Saturday's election result suggests the strategy backfired.
Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg also raised concerns on Tuesday over the party’s handling of the debate.
“I thought it was very undignified and hurtful to many people in our society and I don’t want the Liberal party to go there,” he told ABC Radio.
“I think they want the Liberal party to focus on enterprise and fairness and the protection of minorities rather than trying to import US-style culture wars.”
Senator Bragg also described the issue as a “red herring” because “no community sporting group or national sporting codes” were seeking law reform.
Climate change and women
The elected teal independents Zali Steggall, Allegra Spender, Monique Ryan, Zoe Daniel, Kate Chaney, Kylea Tink and Sophie Scamps had campaigned heavily on pro-climate action platforms.
All unseated Liberal candidates, except for Ms Steggall, who retained the seat she won from former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott at the 2019 federal election.
The group have backed plans to cut emissions by at least 50 to 60 per cent by 2030 with their campaigns supported by funding from the Climate 200 Group.
Their success has prompted questions about whether the Liberal Party needs to adopt a more ambitious approach to climate change policy — long a source of political conflict across the Coalition.
Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has suggested the teal candidates' success was a warning to the party against the danger of lurching further towards "the right".
“This is what happens when a big tent political party like the Australian Liberals with a large L … when they move too far to the right,” he told the BBC.
“Yes, there's been a change of government to Labor — that’s always important — but in many respects, the electoral earthquake that has happened in Australia is this shift to the small-l Liberal independents in the larger Liberal Party's hitherto safest seats."
The Liberals had taken a , as well as a commitment to reaching net zero emissions by 2050.
Mr Entsch said he wanted the party to be “moving in the right direction” on climate policy but would not take a “sledgehammer” approach to influence his party’s decisions.
He also remained non-committal to supporting Labor’s proposed climate change target of 43 per cent by this deadline but said sensible proposals should be considered.
“If they are practical reasonable decisions I don’t see any reason why they shouldn’t be supported,” he said.
“If it makes bloody sense give it a thumbs up for God's sake.”
Senior frontbencher Simon Birmingham has also suggested the Liberal Party will need to embrace a more ambitious climate target and preselect more women in its efforts to rebuild.
Senator Birmingham said one of the key tasks will be to review the "what, why and who" of the party.
"The what and the why are issues such as climate change," he told the ABC on Sunday.
He said given that Australia was well placed to exceed the Coalition government's proposed 2030 emission target "of course we should commit to being able to go further".
"The what extends into other issues more broadly of equality and gender," he said.
“We need to make sure we win back many more of those professionals and especially Australian women who are much more highly educated."
Members of the party have also suggested the election result demonstrated a failure to campaign effectively on Liberal values like enterprise and fairness and differentiate their policy proposals from their Labor opponents.
The next Liberal leader
The debate comes as the Liberal Party considers who should take over as leader, with former home affairs minister Peter Dutton widely expected to take over the mantle.
Mr Entsch said despite some of Mr Dutton's comments in previous roles as Defence and Home Affairs Minister, he remained a leader that could bring the party together.
“It’s easy to project him as a hard-nosed ultra right-winger - that is not true,” he said.
“The Liberal party is a broad church and there’s room for all of us and somewhere in the middle there is room for compromise.”
There have also been suggestions from members of the party that it should consider a female candidate for the role of deputy leaders.
Progress results from the Australian Electoral Commission on Tuesday afternoon had Labor on 75 seats in the House of Representatives. If confirmed it places the party one short of a majority in the 151-seat chamber.
The Liberal-National coalition was holding 59 seats.
