As the Liberal Party embarks on an entirely predictable post-mortem of its election loss, there is really only one question left to ask. Will the Party have the intestinal fortitude to confront the elephant in its own room?

Instead of setting up sub-committees, review commissions and focus groups to attempt to discover the flaws in its policies and campaign strategy, the Party will completely forfeit its opportunity to re-set its future if it refuses to address the underlying — and perhaps the only — reason for its electoral loss: the grotesque failure of its executive chairman/CEO to manage the Party’s succession two years before the election.

This is not about Howard-bashing or culture wars. This is a fundamental structural issue about the Liberal Party’s systemic failure to ensure that a highly successful government running a hugely successful economy did what the board and CEO of any large, well-run organisation is mandated to do — manage its internal succession at the right time in a professional and seamless fashion.

The Coalition should never have lost this election. Arguably it almost certainly would not have lost if the Liberal Party had engineered a smooth leadership succession from John Howard in 2006 and then embarked on policy renewal and reinvigoration under a new leadership team for at least 18 months before the election. It was presiding over a purring economy and, despite the inevitable missteps of a decade-old government, was widely regarded as a successful administration.

By allowing its leader to effectively hijack its internal governance, for his own selfish reasons, the Liberal Party lost a federal election and has now lost its direction. By not openly addressing — and fixing — this transparent failure of process, the Party will condemn itself to a repeat performance. It should fess up and fix itself up.