The Liberal Party's federal vice president has been called on to resign by a senior colleague over comments criticising progressive candidates.
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Former finance minister Simon Birmingham said Teena McQueen's position is untenable, and failing to appeal to a broad base will condemn the coalition to opposition.
His comments came after Ms McQueen told a conservative conference on the weekend it was good her party's federal election loss meant "a lot of those lefties are gone".
"We should rejoice in that ... people I've been trying to get rid of for a decade have gone. We need to renew with good conservative candidates," she said.
Senator Birmingham called the comments offensive and disloyal.
"If she doesn't want to support endorsed Liberal candidates, sitting Liberal MPs, then she shouldn't be sitting on the federal executive," he told ABC radio.
"She should reflect upon her position, her position is untenable."
Deputy Liberal Leader Sussan Ley said she "wouldn't dignify (Ms McQueen's) remarks with a response" or give them further publicity or credence.
She told reporters in Sydney the loss of any Liberal MP was cause for concern.
"We need more Liberal MPs to be elected to form governments. That's the basic arithmetic of how the body politic works," she said.
"The loss of any Liberal MP is something we need to turn around."
Senator Birmingham added he wouldn't support Ms McQueen's re-election bid if she chose to recontest her position.
He said her role didn't cause day-to-day issues, but she had shown she couldn't support the Liberals' broad church of views.
Senator Birmingham also refused to write off any seats, such as inner-city electorates won at the election by the teal independents.
The independents won a host of seats after campaigning on greater climate change action and parliamentary integrity.
"We've got to appeal to a broad base of voters to be able to win," Senator Birmingham said.
"That's pretty clear from how we've constructed majority (governments) in the past.
"We have to make sure we are in a position to win back seats of Labor and the Greens as well as the teals if we are to form a majority government in the future."
Australian Associated Press
