The Liberal Party knows it needs to change. But the battle over how is already tearing the party apart. Sussan Ley has declared herself a “zealot” for getting more women into parliament. 

But she faces stiff resistance from the conservative wing of the party, including from some of its older statesmen which see quotas as undemocratic and an attack on the idea of ‘merit’, 

But gender imbalance is not the only problem they’re facing. Liberal insiders say unless the party finds a way to broaden its appeal it will continue to suffer “a spiral of disaster that feeds on itself” which will render itself incapable of ever returning to government.

Today, national correspondent for The Saturday Paper Mike Seccombe, on why the Liberal party can’t agree on how to save itself. 

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Guest: National correspondent for The Saturday Paper Mike Seccombe