The federal Liberal Party machine must transform itself and modernise to take on the "cashed up cabal" of Labor, the Greens, unions and GetUp, according to outgoing acting director Andrew Bragg.
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In a strongly-worded speech to be delivered to the party's Federal Council on Saturday, Mr Bragg will say the Liberal Party's opponents "are formidable but beatable. Beat them we must for they want to radically change Australia".
"The Liberal Party must commit to a broad reform and modernisation agenda to win elections in a campaign landscape which is unrecognisable from just a decade ago," he will say.
He will point to research that showed more than $300 million had been spent in the last financial year by the "anti-Liberal, anti-freedom, anti-business cabal" - including unions, Labor and GetUp - whereas pro-Liberal groups had spent just $120 million.
This had created a "democratic deficit" which the Liberal party needed to tackle head on.
Mr Bragg has been acting as federal director for two months and was Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's first choice to replace Tony Nutt as federal director.
But the new federal director announced at the council meeting was Andrew Hirst, who was chosen as a unity candidate because of disquiet in some sections of the party over Mr Bragg's relative lack of experience in campaign politics.
Mr Hirst is a well-respected figure in Liberal circles who served as deputy chief of staff to Tony Abbott as prime minister, as well as stints working for Mr Turnbull and Brendan Nelson in opposition, and former prime minister John Howard.
In addition to Mr Hirst's appointment, significant changes to the upper levels of the Liberal party machine were confirmed on Friday night.
Former NSW premier Nick Greiner has replaced Richard Alston as president, while four vice-presidents were elected - Fay Duda, Trish Worth, Karina Okotel and Allan Pidgeon.
Mr Greiner called for party unity, said the Turnbull government were "slight underdogs" but would be "highly competitive" in the next election and underscored the need for continuous campaigning.
An ebullient Malcolm Turnbull, speaking to 550 delegates at the council dinner, hailed the successful passage of the Gonski school funding reform package before delivering a message billed as a "defence of western values".
Speaking ahead of an address by former US General David Petraeus, Mr Turnbull said "the foundation of our security is that American alliance, but it goes much further than that. It is a deep, heartfelt family tie".
The Prime Minister highlighted the growing threat of Islamism and said military cooperation and intelligence was the key to tackling it.
However, "fleets and armies are not enough, the foundation the pax Americana, the prosperity we have seen in our region…the foundation of that have been the values for which Australian and the United States stand".
The council meeting will also debate a range of motions across Friday and Saturday, including on Western Australia's share of the GST, gas royalties being paid to land owners, the need for a national base load electricity target, a push for Australia to acquire anti-ballistic missile defence capacity and increased defence presence in the Indian Ocean.
