Sunday 22 May 2022 07:10 AM Australia election: Fight for soul of Liberal Party underway after blue-ribbon ... trends now

The fight for the Liberal Party of the future is underway - and it is going to get very ugly.

Just hours after a bruising election defeat and the shock loss of a swag of inner-city seats to so-called teal independents, there is already fierce internal debate about what went wrong and how to win back power.

Conservatives such as Senator Alex Antic and former chief of staff to Tony Abbott Peta Credlin want to the party to move to the right to present a 'strong alternative' and appeal to the outer suburbs and regions. 

But leading moderates including Simon Birmingham and outgoing Treasurer Josh Frydenberg believe the next election will be won from the centre and the party must embrace climate change action to win back city seats stolen by teal independents.

The next leader is most likely to be right-wing conservative Peter Dutton with trade minister Dan Tehan ruling himself out of the running.

Moderates fear Mr Dutton will push the party even further to the right - making it harder to win back the seats lost to the teal independents.  

But Credlin summarised the argument in favour of a more conservative approach in her News Corp column on Saturday night.

After Anthony Albanese won power with a projected 77-seat majority, she claimed the Coalition lost because it was not right-wing enough.

She described Scott Morrison's government as a 'Labor-lite government that gave in on ''net zero'', compromised budget responsibility and freedom during the pandemic, and refused to fight any culture wars.'  

Credlin claimed Mr Morrison had shifted to the left, alienating conservative voters who turned to One Nation and the United Australia Party and did not preference the Coalition.

'Instead of sticking with the Quiet Australians who'd supported him to his miracle win last time, Morrison's shift to the left didn't placate the Teals, but it sure alienated one-time Coalition supporters who moved in droves to splinter parties on the right whose preferences haven't returned in anything like the numbers needed to hold government,' she wrote.