Australia, insurance, car, home, live, holidays

David Cameron (centre) implemented an A-list system as leader of the UK Conservative party. Now Andrew Hastie and Simon Birmingham are looking at copying it.Credit:Brook Mitchell,AP,Alex Ellinghausen

Hastie is the first significant figure from the right of the party to concede the Liberals need to intervene to promote candidates from a wider range of backgrounds. The party always ruled out quotas,saying candidates should be selected on merit.

Hastie and leading moderate Senator Simon Birmingham are both looking at the work done by former British prime minister David Cameron,who created an A-list of diverse potential candidates when he was elected leader of the Conservative Party in 2005,when only 17 of the party’s MPs were female and only two were from backgrounds other than European.

Local associations were then encouraged to select candidates through primaries opened up to non-party members.

While controversial at the time,the measure helped modernise the party and the Conservatives are now on track to produce Britain’s first leader of colour or third female prime minister when Boris Johnson’s successor is chosen in September. The four contenders remaining are former chancellor Rishi Sunak,Foreign Minister Liz Truss,Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt and MP Kemi Badenoch.

Hastie said he had been “taken aback” by how diverse the Tory leadership candidates were,saying the Liberal Party could copy Cameron’s A-list.

“If there’s talent out there we want to see it realised and an approach like that,I’d be very open to. In fact,I’m confident our party would support that approach,” he toldThe Sydney Morning HeraldandThe Agein London.

“We do need to have a conversation about women,we did take on a lot of water on that issue and that’ll be something we need to address. I’m very open to talent ID. We do it with sport,we do it in the military,we do it in business,” the former Special Air Service captain added.

Birmingham,the Liberal Party’s most senior moderate,also backed an A-list approach,saying voters had told the Coalition it looked “out of touch”.

A number of so-called “teal” independent candidates ousted Liberal incumbents at the May election,including Allegra Spender in the wealthy inner-Sydney seat of Wentworth.Credit:James Alcock

“We have to move beyond the new setting of targets to more proactive intervention to ensure preselectors have to give us more diversity or have outstanding choices that lead them to preselecting more diversity,” he said.

“We have to look more like modern Australia.”

Birmingham said he consulted Cameron about how to modernise the Liberals when the former Tory leader visited Australia last month.

“Cameron was keen to emphasise that an A-list was not a silver bullet and that you needed strong support behind it and you had to make sure that you carried the local memberships as part of that journey.”

He said he was confident members,who preselect candidates,understood the party needed to address the issue.

“While it would have been preferable to have achieved this years ago,the time absolutely is now to ensure that,from a very low base of seats,we build back with the type of representation that cements a broader outlook for the future,” Birmingham said.

Tony Barry,a former deputy director of the Victorian Liberal Party and Liberal pollster,said the party membership needed to look less like the Australia Club and more like the Essendon Football Club.

“If the Liberal Party is smart,it will follow the lead of the Tories and widen its base and therefore its electoral appeal,” he said.

Dutton returns from leave on Wednesday. He has previously ruled out a Labor-style quota,which is different to Cameron’s A-list,and lamented that diverse candidates,including female and gay MPs,were voted out at the last election.

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world.Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.

License this article