A secret review of the Liberal party\u2019s 2025 election has exposed the \u201cextraordinary\u201d catalogue of mistakes that combined to deliver its worst result in history.<\/p>\n
After the Liberal party\u2019s federal executive last week agreed to suppress the review, Guardian Australia obtained a leaked copy of the 64-page autopsy before Anthony Albanese tabled a copy in question time on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 2025 Federal Liberal campaign failure is widely considered to be the worst campaign the Party has ever fought,\u201d the review, authored by party elders Pru Goward and Nick Minchin, found.<\/p>\n
Here are six of the main takeaways.<\/p>\n
A \u2018grim and introverted leader\u2019<\/p>\n
Australian elections are increasingly presidential in nature, the review observed, making the leader the most \u201ccritical component\u201d of the campaign.<\/p>\n
In Dutton, that critical component was found to be fatally flawed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe electorate expects to see and hear an upbeat and inspiring leader,\u201d the review said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of that was lacking and the leader\u2019s grim and introverted demeanour, clothed in the ubiquitous suit whatever the occasion, did not change during the campaign and perhaps reflected the heavy and additional burden he imposed on himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having fashioned a \u201chard-man\u201d image throughout his political career, the review described Dutton as \u201cunattractive to women\u201d \u2013 so much so that some female candidates asked for him not to visit their electorates. He was also viewed as \u201clacking connection\u201d with younger voters.<\/p>\n
The former leader\u2019s concerns about the potentially defamatory nature of the findings caused the federal executive to delay its scheduled release prior to Christmas.<\/p>\n
Dutton did not respond to Guardian Australia\u2019s inquiries but in comments to other media described the review as an \u201cunprofessional attempt at a hit job<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n The 55-year-old lost his seat of Dickson in the election rout, ending a 24-year career in parliament.<\/p>\n A \u2018broken\u2019 relationship<\/p>\n The review laid bare a \u201cbroken\u201d and \u201cunworkable\u201d relationship between Dutton, his office and the party\u2019s federal director, Andrew Hirst, a campaign veteran who masterminded Scott Morrison\u2019s \u201cmiracle\u201d win in 2019.<\/p>\n Dutton had \u201clittle confidence\u201d in Hirst from the start of the term, the review found, while the director felt \u201cshut out\u201d. Ordinarily, the leader is the public face of the campaign while the head office oversee logistics, including polling and research, timing of announcements and the production of campaigning materials.<\/p>\n But in 2025, Dutton effectively seized control of \u201ccampaign management\u201d, sidelining Hirst and the party\u2019s Parramatta-based campaign team.<\/p>\n Dutton\u2019s \u201ctakeover\u201d resulted in a lack of coordinated strategy and \u201cchaotic travel and policy announcements\u201d, the review concluded.<\/p>\n In some cases, Dutton\u2019s team only shared details of announcements on the afternoon before their planned launch, leaving campaign headquarters scrambling to produce materials. The opposition leader sometimes decided to travel to a different location than the one decided earlier in the day.<\/p>\n \u201cPeter Dutton made himself captain, coach and ballboy,\u201d one unnamed Liberal state director told the review.<\/p>\n The review\u2019s first recommendation is that the party must never again allow the parliamentary leader and office to effectively run the campaign.<\/p>\n The Trump factor<\/p>\n Dutton, unkindly referred to by one candidate as \u201cTemu Trump\u201d was successfully painted as \u201cTrump-like\u201d by Labor, as the Australian public\u2019s view of the US administration quickly soured, the report found.<\/p>\n It stated the election of Donald Trump in November 2024 was initially welcomed, while Dutton was often likened to the Republican leader.<\/p>\n But announcements of the establishment of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), opposition to diversity targets and mass public sackings, while initially received positively in the US, \u201cquickly soured\u201d the Australian electorate\u2019s view of Trump.<\/p>\n Ahead of the election campaign, Dutton had described Trump as a \u201cdeal maker\u201d and a \u201cbig thinker\u201d over the US president\u2019s plan to displace Palestinians on the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n During the campaign, Dutton promised to cut at least 40,000 public service jobs, abolish working from home for public servants, and set up a shadow ministry for government efficiency.<\/p>\n Those policies were \u201cseen as Trump-like\u201d and were \u201cso deeply unpopular they were later reversed or modified\u201d.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s unpopular tariffs made the problem worse for Dutton, with the perceived similarity with Trump negatively affecting his approval rating. Shaking the association, the report said, would have \u201crequired a nimble and flexible response\u201d from the opposition leader.<\/p>\n The \u2018weird\u2019 nuclear fantasy<\/p>\n The Coalition\u2019s proposal to build government-owned nuclear reactors at seven sites across the country was arguably Dutton\u2019s biggest and most contentious policy.<\/p>\n The review revealed that head office had conducted research on the politics of nuclear power dating back to Scott Morrison\u2019s prime ministership, which confirmed a long public awareness campaign was necessary to shift the views of sceptical voters \u2013 specifically female voters.<\/p>\n The research was shared with Dutton\u2019s office but wasn\u2019t properly acted upon, allowing Labor to successfully prosecute arguments about the potential cost of the reactors.<\/p>\n A post-election survey conducted by CT Group, referenced in the review, found nuclear was \u201cdeeply unpopular\u201d among female voters, who \u201cconsidered it weird\u201d.<\/p>\n The nuclear plan was part of an \u201cincoherent\u201d policy agenda, that also included the aborted work-from-home plan and promise to reverse Labor\u2019s income tax cuts.<\/p>\n \u201cThe absence of a comprehensive suite of policies was the result of three years of poor policy processes followed by the parliamentary party, as we have already observed. There were not only significant policy gaps but also the promotion of policies which defied the Party\u2019s values, such as the opposition to an income tax cut and the denial of flexible working arrangements agreed between employees and employers,\u201d the review found.<\/p>\n \u2018Faulty polling\u2019<\/p>\n In the days leading up to the 3 May election, senior Liberal strategists were dismissive of the national polls and insistent the party could pick up a swag of Labor-held seats in the outer suburbs and regions.<\/p>\n The review found the party was \u201cdisastrously misled\u201d by \u201cfaulty\u201d research from polling firm Freshwater Strategy, which significantly overstated support for the Coalition.<\/p>\n Part of it was due to the \u201cfaulty weighting\u201d of the 2023 voice to parliament results \u2013 essentially the assumption that Labor supporters who voted against the proposition could be more likely to turn their backs on Anthony Albanese.<\/p>\n