State Liberal leader Matthew Guy is seeking to recast the Victorian Liberals as socially progressive on nationally contentious issues, including urging the Abbott government to allow same-sex marriage and vowing to support gay adoption.
In an interview with Fairfax Media, Mr Guy also said he would like Australia to take a more compassionate approach to asylum seekers and refugees, admitting he was concerned about children being held in detention centres.
Mr Guy said he wanted to modernise his parliamentary team with more women and people from non-English speaking backgrounds, and develop a platform that respected both the liberal and conservative strands on which the party was founded.
"I want to make sure that the Liberal Party is what its values ascribe it to be," Mr Guy said. "It is an amalgam of liberals and conservatives, it is a party that has very strong elements of both, and it should continue to have very strong elements of both."
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In the wake of Ireland becoming the first country to legalise gay marriage by popular vote, Mr Guy said it was "about time" Australia also allowed marriage equality, and that a conscience vote was needed to give his federal colleagues the freedom to vote as they saw fit.
"It is absolutely an inevitability that this country will move forward to allow same-sex couples to marry in the same way heterosexual couples do and I think that's a good thing," the 41-year-old said.
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