The Liberal Party is now “fighting for its existence”, according to one of its own former federal MPs.

After the low of the 2025 federal election defeat, the party’s position as the major force in Australian conservative politics in under threat from an ascendant One Nation.

This weekend’s meeting of the party’s federal council in Melbourne will install former prime minister Tony Abbott as federal president. Behind the scenes, it will also see some internal soul-searching, whatever brave face the party seeks to put on publicly.

Former MP Keith Wolahan was one of the victims of last year’s election rout, narrowly losing his Melbourne seat of Menzies. Wolahan is a rare creature in today’s Liberal Party: a moderate, and an outspoken one at that.

He joined the podcast to talk about issues facing the Liberals, the party’s future, and how it should deal with One Nation.

Wolahan said his party was now “fighting for its existence” and shouldn’t have been surprised by a recent Redbridge poll, showing One Nation could win more than a third of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives, with the Coalition predicted to win just 12.

I think that poll is one of a long line of wake-up calls for the party. I think 2022 results, in terms of metropolitan seats, was a massive wake-up call for the Liberal Party. I thought the by-election defeats in Aston and Dunkley were wake-up calls. I thought that 2025 result obviously is a wake-up call. South Australia is a wake-up call, Farrer is a wake-up call. So the temperature has been turned up for so long now, I don’t think any frog in the water should be surprised that it is now boiling.

I think that poll is one of a long line of wake-up calls for the party. I think 2022 results, in terms of metropolitan seats, was a massive wake-up call for the Liberal Party. I thought the by-election defeats in Aston and Dunkley were wake-up calls. I thought that 2025 result obviously is a wake-up call. South Australia is a wake-up call, Farrer is a wake-up call. So the temperature has been turned up for so long now, I don’t think any frog in the water should be surprised that it is now boiling.

Working with One Nation to avoid ‘permanent opposition’

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