Imagine if a strong female teal candidate had spent $400,000 on the Dunkley byelection instead of the angry Advance Australia lobby group.

The Liberals seem to have done an excellent job convincing themselves that last Saturday’s result is an endorsement of Peter Dutton’s strategy.

But in reality, even in a cost-of-living crisis with no teal contesting the seat, their primary vote managed only to pick up the votes that One Nation and Palmer’s UAP abandoned by not running candidates.

On byelection night, those spinning hardest for Dutton talked up the Liberals’ performance in the more affluent southern end of Dunkley. Hilariously, the Opposition Leader’s entire strategy since he opposed the Indigenous Voice and supported nuclear power has been to chase lower-income, outer-suburban voters.

Put simply, last Saturday, the Liberals picked up voters Dutton isn’t chasing and failed to win over those he is. Whoops.

Former Liberal MPs Tim Wilson and Jason Falinski were quick to make the case for why the party needs to change strategy, and maybe leader, if it is to win back the kind of wealthy inner-city seats that duo so spectacularly lost. Their 769-word opinion piece made a clear case to prioritise getting them........

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