Basil Zempilas tells conservative conference Liberals must re-emerge as political force

WA Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas has told a conservative conference the Liberal Party must stop haemorrhaging voters and re-emerge as a political force to win back "lost Australians".

"If you lose the people who work hard and do the right thing and just want a fair shot, then you don't just lose elections, you lose the very purpose of our movement," he said.

Mr Zempilas was speaking on Friday night at the first-ever Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Perth, a spin-off of the right-wing group in the United States that has served as a regular platform for US President Donald Trump.

But the organisers of CPAC Australia, which started in 2019, say they are not here to promote Mr Trump's MAGA movement.

Rather, their stated mission is to "protect liberty and opportunity for all" and explore new ideas in the tradition of former UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher, former Australian PM John Howard and former US president Ronald Reagan.

'Reset the west'

The question for the night in Perth was how to "reset the west" and spark a conservative revival in Western Australia.

The state Liberals have been in opposition since 2017 and the federal Liberals hold just four lower house seats in the state.

Mr Zempilas told the conference the hard truth was the Liberal Party was losing the outer suburbs, families, and aspirational voters.

"Just as John Howard did 30 years ago, today the Liberal party has to focus on that group, the lost Australians," he said.

"Our electoral success, our re-emergence absolutely depends on it. It depends on those lost Australians."

He said those people were losing faith in institutions, in political parties and were losing hope.

The key to giving back that hope, dignity and a stake in the community, he said, was making home ownership affordable once more.

The Liberal agenda would ensure government stopped being a barrier to home ownership, provided the infrastructure for growth in housing and freed up land where it was needed.

"Let's make home ownership normal again," he told the audience, which included CPAC Australia chair Warren Mundine, state Nationals leader Shane Love and several current and former state Liberal MPs.

Hastie calls for 'massive overhaul'

Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie also addressed the conference, contending the Liberal party had strayed too far to the centre left, while people were angry about cost-of-living and population pressures.

"The system is not working for Australians, and they are blaming the "uni-party", and yes that's the Liberals and Labor," he said.

"That's why One Nation, the teals and Greens have risen to prominence. They have acknowledged the system is broken, that it no longer supports the aspirations of mainstream Australians.

"And I think it's time we did the same thing, we acknowledged we got it wrong and the system needs a massive overhaul."

He said new Opposition Leader Angus Taylor had started that process.

The first CPAC Australia conference was held in 2019, organised by local founder Andrew Cooper, who is also the president of the conservative think tank LibertyWorks.

Guest speakers included former prime minister Tony Abbott and then-Brexit campaign leader Nigel Farage.