A new discussion paper from the Liberal Party has pushed the idea of a $10 digital membership in an attempt to reverse declining engagement and attract younger Australians and professional women. On paper, it reads like a modernisation effort. In reality? Cheaper access, flexible participation, and a “pipeline” into political life for those who don’t have the time or inclination for traditional branch meetings ain’t gonna cut it at this point.
Women and young people aren’t signing up to the Liberal Party over cosmetic issues like menial cost. They’re pushing back (in a big way) on the party’s increasingly archaic ideology. Women and younger voters simply don’t see their lives, pressures, or economic realities reflected in the policy agenda.
As we’ve previously reported, disillusionment with major parties is already fuelling a shift towards grassroots and independent movements, particularly among women who feel traditional party platforms have not delivered meaningful progress on issues like housing affordability, climate action, or workplace equity.
Mass female-voter support of Teal candidates in the past two elections, wasn’t just some cute aberration.
Because, for women in particular, the policy gaps are glaring. Affordable and accessible childcare remains a central barrier to workforce participation and economic equality. Domestic and family violence services continue to be under-resourced despite overwhelming demand. Housing affordability has become a structural barrier to independence for younger women. And climate policy is flatly ignored altogether.
While the current Labor government may be missing crucial marks here as well, they aren’t so glacially behind or backward as the Coalition. In fact, the only tenuous policy narrative coming through from the Liberal Party right now, is to drastically curb immigration, and especially restrict intake from countries they deem unsavoury.
In case the Coalition needed a steer, only about 33 percent of young Australians consider current immigration levels “too high,” compared to 59% of those over 60. And women consistently demonstrate higher average levels of support for immigration and multiculturalism compared to men, too.
All that a discounted membership tier does for the Liberal Party is risk appearing as a substitute for substantive policy renewal. It’s an attempt to repackage engagement without addressing why engagement has declined in the first place.
The discussion paper itself acknowledges that the party has lost ground among professional women and younger voters, and that its membership base is ageing and shrinking. But acknowledging the demographic shift is not the same as responding to its underlying causes.
Recent leadership and structural changes that have taken place in the Liberal Party, such as the appointment of Tony Abbott last week as the party’s president do nothing to rebuild trust with women voters.
At the heart of the issue is a widening gap between what the party is offering and what large segments of the electorate are asking for, which is tangible improvements in daily life.
That includes serious commitments to affordable housing supply and access, climate policy that moves beyond culture war positioning and acknowledges the economic transition already underway, properly funded domestic and family violence prevention and response systems and universal, affordable childcare.
Until those policy foundations are addressed, no membership discount is likely to meaningfully shift the trajectory for the Liberal Party.