After the disappointment and failure of the 2019 general election, an independent post-mortem was carried out into what went wrong.

The findings of the Thornhill Review set a broad and challenging reform agenda for the party, which we’ve made good progress on implementing so far. On the role of the Federal Board itself, the Thornhill Review found that: The lack of connection between operational, political and governing parts of the party has created structures which foster a lack of collaboration and isolated decision making. (p.35) A fragmented organisation led to low collaboration and isolated decision making. (p.33) There is no clear ‘leadership team’ where the three pillars of the party – political, operational, federal – can make cohesive decisions, simply, quickly, and effectively. The Federal Board – 40+ members – is not, cannot, and should not be that team. (p.34) The Federal Board was often a ‘rubber-stamp’ and is too large a group to be a realistic decision-making body. (p.22)