Research consistently shows trust and authenticity to be a potent influence over voter behaviour. It’s little wonder Liberal leader Sussan Ley spent around a third of her June appearance at the Press Club telling her backstory.

It’s a compelling yarn that winds its way through shearing sheds, crop-duster cockpits and university campuses. Yet it cannot fill the void where a resonant vision and credible policies should be if she’s to succeed in her mission of rebuilding trust in the Liberals as a party of government.

Former opposition leader Peter Dutton and new Liberal leader Sussan Ley.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

It’s a monumental undertaking. Trust in former leader Peter Dutton was so low before the May election that he sat below Clive Palmer and Donald Trump on Roy Morgan’s Trust & Distrust Index. The disastrous result that followed was the worst ever performance for the Coalition or their predecessors, going back 115 years.

The task of detoxifying the Liberal brand is only growing. The Resolve poll published in July showed the Coalition’s primary vote has fallen a further three percentage points since the election.

Ley’s promise to lead a “constructive” opposition hopefully marks a return to the groundbreaking, bipartisan reforms of the 1980s and 1990s. Productivity growth has more than halved since 2000, a slump former Treasury secretary Ken Henry says has “robbed” the average full-time worker of around $500,000. It’s once again time to put policy ahead of politics, but old habits die hard.

Party founder, the late Sir Robert Menzies, famously said the future of the Liberals relies on having “something to........

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