At Perth CPAC, Liberals talk of ‘the lost Australians’ with no One Nation on stage

The rightwing Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) made its foray into Western Australia on Friday evening, with no sign of One Nation on a stage dominated by Liberal politicians. Dubbed Reset the West, the event was a rallying call for conservatives to work together, but what emerged was a Liberal party attempt to rebuild the centre-right with itself at its core.

It comes after the Liberals’ disastrous performance at state and federal elections, and polls now showing One Nation eclipsing the Liberals with 20–25% of the primary vote. Federal Liberal MP Andrew Hastie attacked Labor’s immigration policy and linked it to the housing crisis, telling the audience of 240 predominantly older attendees: “Immigration numbers are too high, while the standards are too low.

Our infrastructure has not kept pace with population growth. People see this growth pressure on the roads, in our hospitals, and in our essential services, and it’s also fuelling our domestic inflation, which remains at 4.9%.

Australia, Perth, Western Australia

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