news, act-politics

Liberal leader Jeremy Hanson says he will do "whatever is best for the party" as internal speculation continues about his leadership following Saturday's election loss. He has also said he had no doubt his deputy Alistair Coe would be the next Canberra Liberals leader, whether that happened in two weeks or at some later point. The Liberals poor showing in the 2016 election came despite many in the party banking on an anti-Labor and anti-light rail sentiment in the ACT community. The opposition instead lost ground on its 2012 result, recording a swing against it of 3.3 per cent as of Sunday night. A clearly dejected Mr Hanson spoke to the media at his Holder home on Sunday, where a group of family, candidates, and supporters had gathered, including Mr Coe. "I've been reflecting, and I don't think there's much more that we could have done," he said. "We had a great term in opposition over the four years, we had great candidates out there, we took great policies to the election, and the campaign was fantastic." But one Liberal source told Fairfax some within the party felt Mr Hanson's performance in the campaign was less than convincing. Asked whether there would be questions about his leadership, he replied: "I'd say yeah, absolutely. I don't think anyone was really convinced by him during the campaign." "There were a number of poor strategic calls, which always fall at the feet of the leader." "I think there will be serious questions about how we managed to spend $500,000 and go backwards." Mr Hanson said there was a lot of soul-searching to come within the Liberal party. He described his concession speech last night as the hardest thing he'd ever had to do. He said his future as leader would be settled in coming weeks. "I'll always do what's best for the Liberal party. We'll wait until we've got a full party room, until we know who's going to be in there," he said. "When we do, it is the protocol, it is the tradition that the leadership will then become vacant and then people will be invited to stand. "Whether I stand or not is a decision I'm yet to take and it's something that I'll discuss with other members of the Liberal party and my family in the coming weeks." Deputy Coe is the most obvious replacement should a leadership change occur. He is favoured by the Young Liberals and more conservative elements of the party. Mr Hanson said he had "no doubt" that Mr Coe would be leader at some point. "I think he's a fantastic guy, we may end up being rivals for the leadership, but what I would say is there is no question in my mind that Alistair will lead the party some day, and I'm sure he'll lead it to success," he said. "He will be the next leader of the Liberal Party, whether that is in two weeks time or further down the track, that's just a matter for us to see." Mr Hanson said the Liberals campaign was strong, including in the field, and said they had fielded good candidates and strong policies. He agreed Labor ran a strong campaign, but said there was little the Liberals could have done differently, and remained optimistic about the Liberals' chances at some day forming government. "We've had Liberal governments here before, we will have Liberal governments here again. Not this time," he said. "If you look at NSW Labor, they went one term too far and it imploded. I think this government is a government that has gone one term too far."

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