Mr Frydenberg told a Liberal state council meeting the party needed a new game plan to win back seats in the outer suburbs and regional Victoria.

He said that strategy should start early and stretch over "multiple electoral cycles". Mr Frydenberg insisted voters in growth corridors shared Liberal values despite Labor's stronghold on many outer suburban electorates.

"The last time we as a federal division won a majority of seats in Victoria was nine elections ago in 1996," Mr Frydenberg said.

The Coalition holds just 15 of 38 federal electorates in Victoria. Mr Frydenberg said the party also needed to do better at state elections, having won just one of the past six in Victoria.

"Friends, what we need is a new strategy to build grassroots campaigns in the growth corridors in the west and the north, in regional and rural Victoria," he told the crowd.

Mr Frydenberg later told reporters the Morrison government's message was resonating "loudly" with Victorians.

"We've got the right message. We've got the right people. But we need to get out there and promote it and be more effective in our grassroots campaigning."

He said it was "absolutely possible" the Victorian Liberals could win the 2022 state election despite their massive loss in 2018. Mr Frydenberg backed Opposition Leader Michael O'Brien's performance, saying he was communicating key Coalition messages.

A recent report into the Victorian election loss by former federal director Tony Nutt, criticised the Coaltion's focus on "African gangs" as a "political tactic" in the lead-up to the 2018 election, rather than a plan to make the state safer.

The party's official report also roasts those responsible for arranging a lobster dinner with then-leader Matthew Guy and Tony Madafferi, who police allege is the head of Melbourne's mafia.

The party's money troubles, the leadership turmoil that dogged the Liberals at a federal level between 2015 and 2018, and the failure to heed the lessons of the 2014 defeat, were also factors in last November's Victorian election meltdown, the report found.

Meanwhile, Mr Frydenberg on Saturday played down tensions between federal MPs and the party's decision making body - the administrative committee - about the timing of preselections.

The administrative committee has moved to open up federal preselections within months.

Opponents of the plan say it could result in sitting MPs being disendorsed up to 18 months before the next election. But supporters argue it is crucial to maintaining proper processes within the party and ensuring members get a say on preselections.

Victorian Liberal president Robert Clark told the meeting the party should identify some of the traditional Labor seats it aimed to make marginal at the next election with the ultimate goal of winning them at later polls. He also called for targets for increasing party membership.

Mr Clark said the party should try to win a majority in both houses of the Victorian parliament in 2022.

"It's going to be a tough ask but it's not an impossible ask," he said.

Other items on Saturday's federal motions agenda included calling on the state and federal governments to build fast rail to Ballarat by quadruplicating and electrifying the line between Sunshine and Melton, and separating Metro Trains from high speed rail services between Melbourne and Ballarat within the current state government term, and buying an aircraft carrier.

The conference continues tomorrow, with state Opposition Leader Michael O'Brien addressing delegates.

- from The Age, with Alex Ford

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