Costello slams Liberal party chiefs

Former treasurer Peter Costello has dropped a bucket on the organisational wing of
the federal Liberal Party, saying it has done nothing since the coalition lost
government in 2007.
In a broadside aimed at the federal party's president, Alan Stockdale, and its
federal director, Brian Loughnane, Mr Costello says the party needs to rebuild with
new talent and reform its organisation and its campaign financing.
"... organisationally, the party has done nothing since the 2007 defeat," Mr
Costello said in an interview with ABC radio on Monday to promote a revised version
of his 2008 political memoir.
"It is pretty obvious that the Labor Party will outspend the Liberals by multiples
at the next election and so campaign finance is going to be absolutely crucial for
the election, which is, by the way, due next year."
He criticised the party for its failure to release a report of an investigation into
the election loss by a former federal president and Fraser government minister, Tony
Staley.
"Apparently there was a report done on the reasons for the defeat with
recommendations in relation to campaigning, finance and all the rest," Mr Costello
said.
"If that report has been concluded, nobody knows about it."
Asked about the outburst while in Queensland on Monday, Opposition Leader Malcolm
Turnbull said Mr Costello was entitled to his opinion but the party had been through
the poll result "so many times".
"We learn lessons from the past but we are focused on the next election," Mr
Turnbull told reporters.
"There have been hundreds, if not thousands, of hectares of trees sacrificed to
print the newspaper columns that have talked about it and the discussions that have
been about it."
It is understood that Mr Staley conducted a series of interviews with a wide range
of campaign officials, staffers and MPs in the wake of the loss, which ended the
11-and-a-half-year reign of the Howard government.
A number of Liberal frontbenchers contacted by AAP on Monday declined to discuss Mr
Costello's comments while one said privately he thought the report should be made
public.
Mr Loughnane did not return calls from AAP.
Mr Costello, who will retire from politics at the next election having never
achieved his dream of becoming prime minister, also had some advice for Mr Turnbull.
He needed to talk up the measures put in place by the Howard government that
protected the economy in the global financial crisis, as well as the need for
further labour market flexibility and better school results.
"These are the things I think the party has got to develop," Mr Costello said.