We need to connect with voters, Morrison

Treasurer Scott Morrison has told the Liberal Party federal council that the party needs to make sure it's connecting with voters if it wants to retain power.

Scott Morrison

Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison has warned the Liberal Party that it needs to change. (AAP)

Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison has warned the Liberal Party that it needs to change to keep voters who are looking for "authentic outsiders" such as Donald Trump to change politics.

He's told the Liberal Party federal council in Sydney on Saturday that it's no longer enough to rely on an impressive track record or for the "other mob to always be worse".

"We will not get a leave pass from the Australian people for failing to constantly connect with them and their concerns, just because we have been a competent government with a good record of achievement," he said.

But he said Labor and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten would not fill that "authentic outsider" role in Australia.

"Bill Shorten is no political outsider. Nor is he defined by his authenticity," Mr Morrison said.

"Bill Shorten is not feeling Australians' pain, he is seeking only to cynically exploit it."

He said a surprising number of British voters backed Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn despite the May government and much of the press providing a "brutal assessment".

"Yet voters didn't care and turned out in larger numbers and voted for him," Mr Morrison said.

"Like Trump across the Atlantic, Corbyn took on the role of the authentic outsider; the one to challenge a system that voters did not think was serving them."

Labour didn't win in, but it's surprise result cut deeply into the Conservatives majority, and forced Prime Minister Theresa May to form a minority government.

Mr Morrison said the Liberal party needed to learn from those results.

"We need to show how we are pragmatically acting to change government, turn over the tables, reset the rules," he sad.

"We need to demonstrate how we are breaking the mould and siding with Australians on the issues that are seen to be working against them."

The Turnbull government snuck back into power with a one-seat majority and reliant on the crossbenches in the Senate at last year's July 2 double-dissolution election.

It has been struggling in the opinion polls since - something Mr Morrison has blamed on the way the public perceives politics, citing the surprise results with Donald Trump in the US and Jeremy Corbyn in the UK.


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Source: AAP


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We need to connect with voters, Morrison | SBS News