The federal Liberal Party, to the surprise of absolutely nobody, appears to have moved on from Freshwater Strategy, the pollsters used for last year’s federal election, in which the Libs were so unequivocally battered the party is still trying to figure out what it is and who it’s for.
Now CBD hears the party’s federal executive has started preparing to kick off a process for securing a replacement polling firm. The Liberal Party has recently sounded out Leanne White over her interest in the job, according to two sources familiar with the situation, not authorised to speak publicly.
White, who runs market research firm Insightfully, is already well regarded among the party’s federal executive and within senior ranks of the parliamentary party. She has also done work for the Victorian Liberal Party. But it’s far from a done deal.
The Liberal Party has historically kicked off a formal process inviting pollsters to make their case for why they should lead its election research operation about 18 months before polling day. The contract – or “account”, as it’s known in corporate parlance – is expected to go into the market later this year, said one of the sources.
Given the hammering suffered by the Liberal Party at the election, and the subsequent questions raised over the role its polling played in the result, we don’t blame the party’s federal director, Andrew Hirst, for trying to get his ducks in a row early.
The Liberal Party didn’t respond to a request for comment.
In a December draft of the party’s election review, since tabled in parliament by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, the party pointed at Freshwater for overestimating the Liberal vote in its polling, which was overlaid with the results of the Voice to parliament referendum.
“Some Liberal candidates and MPs also assumed that the defeat of the Voice meant those who voted No would vote Liberal, not accounting for the difference between the behaviour of Australian voters at referendums and elections,” the review reads.
“The election results in ALP-held seats, for example, suggests Labor voters clearly voted against the Voice referendum without then deciding to vote Liberal in a general election in which the Voice no longer figured. The two votes were much less connected than Freshwater assumed.”
The polling was a major pain point within the party in the immediate aftermath of the election, and quickly triggered finger-pointing in conservative circles. Freshwater declined to comment.
Freshwater is led by Dr Mike Turner, who defected from CT Group – formerly known as Crosby Textor – to set up shop with colleagues in 2022 after running the Libs’ polling operation through previous elections. Despite the federal election result, the firm still does work for the Liberal National Party in Queensland and the Nationals.
Never say never, of course, but we’d be stunned to see the firm back at the wheel for the Liberal Party at the next federal election.
Fund manager lines up controversial $1.7m reno in Longueville
Has Owen Chen ever seen a property in his lower north shore neighbourhood he didn’t want to buy? The fund manager and lender has stumped up in excess of $88 million on properties between Longueville and Northwood on Sydney’s lower north shore.
But it turns out not all of them have been turnkey ready. Chen brought in the high-profile architect Susan Rothwell this month to help redesign his family’s 1890s federation home in Longueville, which the Chens snapped up for $25 million last year, setting a suburb record.
The planned work is set to cost around $1.7 million and would include “demolition” of the house and pool – to make way for a new house and pool. The proposal has already drawn objections from the Longueville Residents Association, which has called on Lane Cove Council to get a heritage consultant to prepare a heritage impact statement before determining whether the demolition is appropriate.
“Longueville’s character is shaped by a mix of early dwellings and later development. The removal of one of the suburb’s oldest houses may contribute to a gradual reduction in the diversity and historical depth of the area’s built form,” the association’s president, Ron Gedeon, wrote in the submission.
When reached on Wednesday, a Lane Cove Council spokeswoman said the council has not yet considered whether a heritage assessment would be required.
“It is however noted that the building is not heritage listed and is not located within a heritage conservation area under the Lane Cove Local Environmental Plan,” the spokeswoman said.
Goodbye, Federation home. Hello, Lego box.
Google hires another lobbyist
You’d be forgiven for losing count – or interest – but Google may just be making a play for having the deepest corporate lobbying bench in Canberra.
On Tuesday, the $5.1 trillion company was listed as a new client of the lobby shop Pearl Consulting, which is run by Gillian Pearl, who has worked stints at Microsoft in Canada and Singapore. Pearl joins Hawker Britton and SEC Newgate as the company’s hired guns in Australia as it moves to work the government on tech-friendly AI policy and faces mounting pressure to strike new deals with media companies.
The boutique firm’s clients have included Facebook, Visa, Microsoft, Unilever and Oxfam, according to Pearl’s LinkedIn. But Google was in no mood to enlighten us on the hire.
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