The report, from Sydney academic Julian Leeser, was handed to the party's membership in a closed session of the state conference in Launceston yesterday.

However, there was some unrest among members that the full recommendations were not revealed, and they only got about the same information that was provided to the media.

Following the significant swing to Labor and the Greens in Tasmania, the review was commissioned to explain why the two- party-preferred vote ended up at 61:39 in Labor's favour.

The Liberal Party now holds only four of 12 Tasmanian Senate seats and has none of the five seats in the House of Representatives.

Mr Leeser's report found the party had become "smaller and older, and there is an imbalance between the sexes".

"The Tasmanian division needs to reach out to more women, young people and to business, professional and trades people," the report said.

The report also said the party needed to show unity of purpose.

"Like all political parties, it must remember the truism that in politics disunity is death," it said.

The report found:

•The threat of a returning WorkChoices hit home in Tasmania more because the state's "fragile" economy made people aware of the difficulty of finding a new job if they lost their job.

•Tasmanians felt like they would lose something if the National Broadband Network was scrapped, given it had already been rolled out here.

•Candidates were selected too late and did not have enough time to build a profile in the community.

•The national messages that worked well in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia did not resonate in Tasmania.

Mr Leeser's report made a number of recommendations, of which about two-thirds were made available to the public.

Mr Leeser said the remaining recommendations had been kept within the state executive to ensure the party's political opponents were not given any ammunition.

Some of the recommendations included:

•Candidates to be selected 12 months out from an election.

•Those candidates to be given training within a month of their selection.

•Briefings to be held with all prospective candidates informing them of what the campaign would be like and what to expect.

•The Young Liberals to produce a strategy for attracting more members.

•The party to hold biannual open nights where members were invited to bring a friend they thought might enjoy being part of the party.

•Informal women's groups to be established in Hobart, Launceston and the North-West Coast with interesting guest speakers and leaders in business to discuss issues with professional and business women. The groups should be led by the three female state MPs.

•A high-level "Future of Tasmania" working group of strategists and economists to produce a report on the future of Tasmanian industry, population and the likely effect on voting trends.

•Where possible, former state and local government election candidates with existing profiles should be more actively encouraged to nominate for preselection.