'Not in the fight in any sense': Credlin's damning assessment of Liberal Party's election campaign following resounding defeat

Sky News AU

05-05-2025

The Liberal Party's failure to fight back against Labor's campaign messaging was a key factor in Opposition Leader Peter Dutton's landslide defeat in the federal election, according to Sky News host Peta Credlin.
Labor secured a monumental victory on Saturday, currently holding 87 seats over the Coalition's 39 with some seats still yet to be called.
Speaking on Monday night, Credlin said it was not the result she was "hoping" for, but that she ultimately had to concede the Liberal Party got it wrong.
"The Liberals ran a bad campaign. It was a shocker...now it hurts to say because a lot of the people I know in the campaign team, in the Liberal Party and with the Leader, I've worked with closely in elections where we have won," she said.
Credlin said the Liberal Party was "found wanting" almost across the board as it fell short in a number of areas where it needed to be strong in order to pose a threat in the election.
"Ads ran way too late, no real negative campaign to speak of, a failure to tackle the character hits against (Mr Dutton), completely flat-footed on Labor's lies around things such as Mediscare," she said.
"Now they knew that would come at them. Previous experience told them MediScare would come at them.
"This was a Liberal Party campaign full of the sugar hit of announcements, but without the substantive policies that underpin them. Where were the documents? Where were proper costings? Where were things properly socialised months and months earlier so that people had a chance to digest them, understand them, know how the policies would help them?
"The campaign team... they wear the blame here, sure, but ultimately, policy comes down to the work of the shadow ministry and if the MPs don't do the work, then you end up with the result we got on Saturday night."
The host criticised the Liberal Party's lack of fight in the campaign, as it struggled to bite back against Labor's messaging.
"You've heard me say it time and time again. You will lose 100 per cent of the fights you are not in. This is exactly what happened on Saturday night. The Liberals were not in the fight in any sense," she said.
"Not in the policy work, not in negative campaigning, the lack of rebuttal of Labor lies, not in picture value day-to-day, not in message simplicity, not in how they put their key players like Jacinta Price and Andrew Hastie in the freezer.
"Now why? We'll never know."
Credlin said the Liberals never challenged Labor on its claim Mr Dutton's nuclear plan would cost $600 billion, nor did it fight back in response to Labor's scare campaign on Medicare.
She said in order to beat a first-term government the Opposition had to "go early" and "keep the contest simple".
Credlin also pointed to how deceptive the results of a federal election could be, arguing how the size of Labor's victory was down to where the votes fell, but that the overall margin of counts has been much more slim.
"You've got 4.62 million Australians who voted Labor and 4.23 million who voted for the Coalition. Now that's a difference of just 390,000 votes," Credlin said, as the national votes are still being counted.
"But thanks to where they all fell and the preference flows, tonight, Labor has got 87 seats and the Coalition hasn't even bagged 40."
The Prime Minister won the election convincingly despite recording a primary vote of only about 34.7 per cent, a number which will continue to change as ballots are counted.
In comparison, when Labor won in a landslide in 2007, Kevin Rudd did it with a primary vote of 43.4 per cent.
When Labor candidate Bill Shorten lost in the 2016 election, he had a primary vote at 34.73 per cent, around the same as Anthony Albanese's figure while enjoying a major victory.
A significant drop in voter turnout has also likely affected the lowly numbers recorded so far.
"In 2022, Australia had the lowest voter turnout since the First World War of 89.82% of the electorate. Right now, according to the AEC's website, that turnout is tracking at 77 per cent," Credlin said.
"So to put that too into perspective, that's a massive drop that says voter engagement in our elections is falling fast. See, this is why you need perspective and analysing election results. You've got to know how to read the numbers because in the end, for all the spin, the numbers are key."