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ABC News
27-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Liberal insiders say Voice triumph confused Coalition's election priorities
Was the "no" result in the Voice referendum a pyrrhic victory for the Liberal party? Our Four Corners story on the fight inside the Coalition over its future direction revealed something I didn't expect to. Even those who strongly advocated against the Voice believe it gave the party all the wrong messages about how Australians felt about a broader range of issues and established a sense of complacency that ultimately led to its historic belting. From the conservative to the moderate side of the Liberal Party room there is a growing consensus that the "no" vote fought for by the conservatives created the wrong impression for the party. Rising conservative star Andrew Hastie told me the Voice gave the Coalition "a false sense of confidence". "I think Australians are naturally, we're incrementalists," he said. "So the Voice was a massive change to our constitution, which is why I think it was defeated. But that's very different to who do you want to govern this country? And in order to win people over, you've got to demonstrate that you're fighting for them. And I just don't think we landed that argument." Asked if fighting against the Voice could have been damaging for Peter Dutton, Hastie answered: "Yes, perhaps. But I think we probably lingered over the voice for too long. Like I said, it was a tactical victory. Things can change very quickly in politics." That view is shared by former shadow attorney-general Julian Leeser, who resigned from his opposition portfolio in 2023 in order to campaign for the referendum. He argued on Afternoon Briefing yesterday that the Coalition's success in defeating the Voice to parliament referendum gave the Liberal party "a false sense of confidence" about its chances of victory in the federal election. Leeser says that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese "seemed to lose his way" after the Voice referendum was defeated and this, combined with what he says was Albanese's poor handling of the local antisemitism crisis, "gave so many in our party a false sense of confidence". Leeser says he was "shocked" that the internal polling conducted for the Coalition used the number of Labor voters who voted "no" in the referendum in his calculations of a swing against the government, which was instead returned in a landslide. The government's victory is so big it mirrors John Howard's 1996 election landslide. "Part of the reason my colleagues were successfully defeating the referendum was in 2023 the issue did not seem to be one of top priority for Australian voters," Leeser said. "Certainly, in 2025, it was completely irrelevant and I had no idea why the issue kept reappearing in our campaign." While Dutton regularly raised the Voice as one of several examples to demonstrate that Labor was out of touch, he campaigned in the last week of the campaign on what he said was a "secret plan to legislate the Voice" after Foreign Minister Penny Wong told a podcast "we'll look back on it in 10 years' time and it'll be a bit like marriage equality". "It indicated we were not in touch with the concerns of ordinary Australians," Leeser said. "People were not talking to me about those issues until we raised them; they were concerned about paying the electricity bills, their mortgage, about the future of their children and what sort of jobs they would have in a world where AI will present both threats and opportunities. "We were not talking about any of those enough, and instead focused on esoteric issues and I think it indicated a lack of discipline and real focus." Despite a deep schism over the future of the party and how to deal with vexed questions including whether to stay committed to net zero by 2050 — many in the party acknowledge that the Voice set them on a path which created false positives that didn't materialise in votes on election day. That revelation — if listened to carefully — provides warnings on how to rebuild. It is a cautionary tale on what to focus on and where Australians expect their political parties to be focused. The Liberals are now in negotiations to bring the Nationals back into the Coalition — with Nationals leader David Littleproud denying that his party "flip flopped" on its split with the Liberals. "There's no flip flopping from the National Party. We did not blink," he told Sky News. But it's Littleproud whose leadership is under pressure over the shambolic incident and he is on borrowed time according to key members of his own party room. Opposition Leader Sussan Ley may have a monumental task before her in settling issues that are red lines for many inside her party but her leadership has been strengthened by the recalcitrant junior Coalition partner's overreach. Her next job is to manage the divergence in her own party room. The Nationals may end up seeming like the easier job compared with managing some of the policy differences inside her own party. Watch Four Corners's Decimated, reported by Patricia Karvelas, on ABC iview. Patricia Karvelas is presenter of ABC TV's Q+A, host of ABC News Afternoon Briefing at 4pm weekdays on ABC News Channel, co-host of the weekly Party Room podcast with Fran Kelly and host of politics and news podcast Politics Now.
News.com.au
14-05-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
Ley can't repeat Dutton's mistakes - it's time to let her freak flag fly
COMMENT In the aftermath of the Labor Party's 2022 election victory, there was much praise for Peter Dutton keeping the show together without any big blow-ups. But as the Liberal Party surveys the scorched earth of their 2025 defeat, it's worth asking the hard question: Was this failure to have the big policy fights one of their biggest mistakes? The Liberal Party has been playing pretend for three years like they are still in government, too timid and too scared to rock the boat and have the fight. High on their own supply of fantasy football that they would be storming the Prime Minister's office after one-term in 2025, they wanted to keep a lid on the big debates. There wasn't even a leadership vote after the 2022 election. Queenslander Dutton got handed the top job without ever having a fight or spelling out why he wanted it or deserved it. Can you even remember any big policy barneys this term after the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison years? Even the opposition to Peter Dutton's ultimate position on the Voice referendum was a genteel affair, leading to one bloke few had ever heard of – NSW Liberal MP Julian Leeser – retreating to the backbench. Politics is meant to be a contest of ideas. The Liberal Party ended up looking like it didn't have any good ones. Bizarrely, this mob appeared to have more robust arguments about policy while running the government than during the freedom years of the opposition. Sure, Peter Dutton took a big gamble on nuclear power. But he then spent the entire campaign refusing to talk about it and refusing to back it in. He showcased all the policy timidity and equivocation and anxiety that ended up swallowing him whole during the election campaign. Liberal frontbenchers were tasked with coming up with acres of policy ideas that got buried in the leader's office. Mr Dutton, the big, bad, bald hardman of the Liberal Party, had a soft, gooey, frightened centre over policy fights like work from home. And it was his undoing. By contrast, the teary Prime Minister, who cried when he called the election and talked about Medicare or whenever anyone mentioned his mum Maryanne, has always hidden a ruthless political tough guy. Hell, Anthony Albanese this week even went around terminating cabinet enemies who got on his wrong side during his first term, including the NSW Right's Ed Husic. He even managed to get his deputy Richard Marles to take the blame. That's next level Machiavellian gear. People are complex like that and so are politicians. But the fights the Liberal Party needs to have now are about policy, not personalities. So here's the best piece of advice to the Liberal Party as it tries to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Have the policy fights. Let it all hang out. It's time to let your freak flag fly. The fundamentals of what the Liberal Party is supposed to stand for are just fine – lower, fairer taxes. Why that article of faith was trashed during the election by the brains trust of Mr Dutton and Angus Taylor is unfathomable. It's worth remembering that the seeds of victory inevitably lie in the lessons of defeat. Would John Howard have governed for as long as he did without John Hewson losing the 1993 election? Would Mr Albanese or his ALP campaign chief Paul Erickson have won the 2025 election without the brutalising experience of the 2019 election loss under Bill Shorten? Most pundits seem to think the Liberal Party has Buckley's chance of winning the next election. Those sort of predictions sometimes turn out to be wonky. But let's imagine it's true. This is the Coalition's big chance to knock down and remodel the Liberal Party for government in the future. Time to call in the demolition crew and the architects. To win government in the future, the Liberal Party must also fix two other issues. First, grow up over John Howard, and second, grow up about women. The former prime minister will always be a lion of the Liberal Party, the second-longest serving prime minister of Australia, after Sir Robert Menzies. He served from 1996 to 2007, a total of 11 years. He is rightly revered and his counsel sought. But the world has changed since that era and the Liberal Party has failed to change with it. The whole show just smells incredibly musty. You can respect Mr Howard without pretending that the issues that moved voters in the 1980s keep millennials up at night 40 years later. Which brings us to the ladies. The embarrassing Stockholm syndrome of women in the Liberal Party lining up to insist they don't need quotas because it's all about merit – it's too much. Here's the cold, hard truth. Please, please stop talking about merit when you have chosen the musty old crew of boring men you have on your frontbench. If that's merit, please don't say this out loud, as people will giggle. The problem with the bogus merit argument is staring us all in the face if you look at the frontbench photo under Mr Dutton. Just enough. Ladies, we recognise this is the only way you get preselected, by pedalling this nonsense to 90-year-old Liberals in Launceston putting their teeth in a jar. We get it. But it's not going to get you into government. If you talk to any blokes in the Liberal Party who have worked in the private sector, they will tell you. Corporates worked out years ago that they needed to promote women into leadership if they wanted to get women into leadership. They are not always ready. Neither are the men. But until you fix this, your entire party is going to smell like your grandmother's wardrobe. So, no you don't need to have quotas. Call it a target if you want. Call it a TimTam. Nobody cares. Just fix it. Good luck. Enjoy the freedom years. It could open the door to the government faster than you think.
ABC News
07-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Federal politics live: PM reveals date for new cabinet announcement as Liberal leadership race narrows
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he will reveal the Labor government's new ministry next Tuesday, the same day the governor-general is set to swear him in for his second term. Meanwhile, a divided Coalition continues to pick up the pieces after a devastating election loss, with Labor now guaranteed to finish with at least twice the number of seats as the opposition. The race to lead the Liberal Party has narrowed to just two likely contenders, with Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor supported by the party's dominant conservative faction, while acting leader Sussan Ley is being backed by moderates. Follow our live blog below. Submit a comment or question Log in to comment Live updates Latest Oldest 9m ago Wed 7 May 2025 at 9:02pm Liberal MP Julian Leeser releases statement on Greens' loss C By Caitlin Rawling Liberal MP for Berowra Julian Leeser has released a statement on the loss of the Greens' seat in the House of Representatives. You can read his statement in full below: "The loss of the Greens' seats in the House of Representatives is a repudiation of the antisemitism of the Greens and a vindication of Peter Dutton's decision to put them last. "In November 2023, I called on all the major political parties to put the Greens last. "We did so, but Labor continued to preference them second. "Greens senators will now be elected on the back of Labor preferences. "However, each Labor Member elected to the House of Representatives to replace the Greens would not be there without Coalition preferences. "It remains an indictment on Albanese that he could not bring himself to put the Greens last. "More broadly, it is a warning to the Left about the electoral consequences of entertaining antisemitism," the statement said. React React 15m ago Wed 7 May 2025 at 8:57pm 👋Welcome to the blog C By Caitlin Rawling Good morning and welcome to the federal politics blog. Vote counting is continuing for all those seats across the country too close to call. I'm Caitlin Rawling and I will be taking you through all the latest post election updates today. Let's get into it! React React
