Liberal leaders are working to repair damage to the party’s brand after a series of fractious debates and turmoil at state and national level.
Federal Opposition Leader Sussan Ley continues to focus on power prices after her Liberal colleagues agreed to scrap their commitment to a net-zero emissions reduction target by 2050.
The party’s energy plan further embraces fossil fuels in a major policy pivot to focus on lowering power bills.
She linked rising power prices to struggling manufacturing businesses in Victoria.
“Victorians are really hurting, they really are and a lot of this comes down to manufacturing,” she told Sydney radio station 2GB.
Ms Ley faces the difficult task of selling the Liberals’ reneging of their emissions reduction policy in metropolitan seats, where climate change is a major issue among voters.
The party was all but wiped out in inner-city electorates around the country at May’s election.
But MPs think lower power bills, which would then have a flow-on effect to other productions as manufacturers have reduced overhead costs, can cut through to people struggling to make ends meet.
The Liberals’ electoral fortunes are looking up in Victoria, with a poll revealing new state leader Jess Wilson already leads as preferred premier.
Almost half of respondents believe she would make a stronger leader, compared with 33 per cent who back Premier Jacinta Allan, according to the poll in The Australian on Saturday.
The coalition holds a 51-49 lead in the two-party-preferred vote.
NSW Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane, who took over the top job on Friday, faces a bigger challenge to turn her party’s fortunes around.
She will also have to contend with selling the Liberal brand among federal dysfunction after the climate debate tore at the seams of the national party room.
This includes fighting with the state Nationals and federal colleagues over abandoning a net-zero emissions target after her party agreed to retain the commitment.
Pollster Kos Samaras said the Liberals would continue to lose inner city votes if it failed to have a strong climate policy as only 10 per cent of Gen Z – “the generation most animated by climate” – supported the party.
That compares with a 51 per cent primary vote for Labor within the cohort.
The Liberals also needed to win over more multicultural voters, with only 17 per cent of diverse Australians supporting the Liberals compared with 46 per cent backing Labor, according to his polling.
The numbers are even more dire in Sydney and Melbourne.
Ms Ley is expected to unveil a migration plan in the coming weeks after months of fractious infighting between moderates and conservative MPs on energy policy, undermining her leadership.
While the party pushes to cut Australia’s immigration intake, negative rhetoric about migrants resulted in diverse communities abandoning the party in droves.
Ms Sloane used her first day trip as NSW Liberal leader to tour Little India in western Sydney’s Harris Park, across the city from her well-heeled electorate of Vaucluse.
She met with local businesses and community members as the Liberals work to embrace multicultural communities and win back seats in the city’s diverse suburbs.