Latest news with #Mediscare
Sky News AU
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
'Not in the fight in any sense': Credlin's damning assessment of Liberal Party's election campaign following resounding defeat
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 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."
Sky News AU
04-05-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Sorry doesn't cut it: How female voters turned on the Coalition's confusing cost-of-living pitch in the space of just a few months
Just over two hours after polls closed on Saturday, the election results unfolded into a story not only about party leaders but about two women. There was the rightly-proud Jodie Haydon planting a passionate smacker on her victorious fiancé Anthony Albanese, now a back-to-back PM. And then stoic Kirilly Dutton, her eyes brimming and mustering up a smile on stage for her husband Peter while he apologised to the nation for losing the only political fight of his life that mattered. 'We didn't do well enough during this campaign,' Mr Dutton said, swallowing hard. 'That much is obvious tonight. I accept full responsibility for that.' But in reality the now ex Opposition leader should have said sorry for letting down Australian women, especially working mums, because he pitched confusion ahead of reassurance especially on household finance. It was no secret that women had abandoned Mr Dutton before Saturday's vote. For 11 days before the ballot box, we all knew via a Newspoll for The Australian that there was a staggering reversal in the attitude of female voters who once favoured the Coalition. A lead of 51-49 in January slumped to an eye-watering shift of 46-54 to Labor by April. Just like the Coalition failed to capitalise on momentum after the failed Voice referendum, they did not seriously address the concerns of women even though the data was there. Three words Mr Dutton - cost of living. And if you lose the CEO of households across Australia you are, to be plain speaking, stuffed. The Coalition's crushing defeat is more than a political misstep. It is a backlash from women fed up with being treated like a test subject in focus groups. No matter our views on Trump and a legitimate fatigue with woke ideology, we didn't want Mr Dutton to align himself with the MAGA movement as a campaign strategy. We didn't want more than a dozen campaign press conferences at petrol stations talking about 12 months of somewhat cheaper fuel, a tactic which only reinforced his blokey focus. Mr Dutton's ham-fisted attempt to roll back remote work then hit women the hardest and you have to wonder why he did not see the backlash coming. The eventual policy backflip did nothing to suture the wound especially when approximately 40 per cent of Australians now work from home on a regular basis. Sorry, Mr Dutton said. Again with the 'sorry' from the first Federal Opposition leader to then lose his seat. 'We made a mistake on the policy,' Mr Dutton later admitted. 'We got it wrong. We're listening to what people have to say and we apologise.' He also backed down on a goal to slash 41,000 public service jobs which meant many perplexed female voters I know were now asking one key thing. How will the Coalition deliver its major election promises when they are linked to savings from the public sector cuts? Sure Labor ran a dirty campaign with Mediscare and lured voters with fear politics but the party did prioritise the material concerns of women and made those policies public early, forcing the Coalition to play catch up. These included the much-vaunted universal early childhood education pledge for a guaranteed three days of subsidised childcare per week, investment in women's health and significant funding to tackling domestic and family violence. In his concession speech, Mr Dutton said: 'One of the great honours of being the leader of this party is we have met people from every side, every corner, the length and breadth of this country. And there are many amazing stories.' But did those stories - particularly from women - sink in? We are not liabilities to be managed. The message here for the freshly buffed-up Labor is important to note, too. The trust women have placed in your promises is not a blank cheque. You got the female votes and now it is time to deliver. Louise Roberts is a journalist and editor who has worked as a TV and radio commentator in Australia, the UK and the US. Louise is a winner of the Peter Ruehl Award for Outstanding Columnist in the NRMA Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism and has been shortlisted in other awards for her opinion work.
Sky News AU
03-05-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Federal Election 2025: Liberal Leader Peter Dutton addresses the nation after losing seat of Dickson and overal election
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has lost his seat of Dickson after more than two decades in office, leaving the Liberal Party without a captain. Labor candidate Ali France won the seat off Mr Dutton with a double digit swing in her favour, with votes still being counted. The outcome adds to mounting disaster for the Coalition, as it has yet to win even one additional seat. Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor and shadow defence minister Andrew Hastie have been seen as frontrunners to replace Mr Dutton as leader. Mr Dutton held the seat on 1.7 per cent margin after the federal election in 2022, but has suffered net negative approval ratings in recent months. His has been plagued with challenges, including comparisons to US President Donald Trump, an ongoing Mediscare campaign and backflip on the return to office mandate. The initial election count has shown dramatic swings against the Coalition in the traditional heartland of Queensland, as well as Victoria where it hoped to gain several seats.
Sky News AU
01-05-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
Labor accused of using ‘propaganda' tactics in election campaign as Chris Uhlmann unpacks government's misleading claims
Sky News Political Contributor Chris Uhlmann has unpacked the Albanese government's misleading election campaign. Joining Sky News host Peta Credlin, Mr Uhlmann listed a series of misleading claims made by the Labor Party in the lead up to the May 3 federal election. 'The one that stood out to me was the $600 billion claim… because they used it over and over again," he said. 'The Prime Minister used it, it was used in all their advertising campaigns and when you researched that and where it came from, well it didn't come from anywhere credible at all.' Mr Uhlmann said the staggering figure came from the Smart Energy Council, a lobby group for wind and solar agencies. 'When you went to their press release, what it said was their costings were between $116 billion and $600 billion. If you've got basically a half a trillion dollar gap in your numbers, that shows that that's not modelling, that's propaganda.' Mr Uhlmann, who recently went head-to-head with Energy Minister Chris Bowen over soaring electricity prices, also highlighted Labor's 'complete inability' to admit the infamous claim Australians were going to see a $275 cut to their electricity bills was 'never going to be met'. 'I found both of those things terribly disturbing. I know that we've seen misleading statements in campaigns before, and I'm sure that people (could) come up with a host of them over the years, but I thought that this was a pretty low point," he said. 'I think the other big one that the Coalition's got to worry about for several election campaigns in a row now is the whole 'Mediscare' campaign. 'They need to find a way to combat that, they've tried everything up to and including the fact that they want to give more money than the government most of the time to Medicare. That's clearly an issue for them that will have to be addressed before the next campaign.' Opposition Leader Peter Dutton on Thursday conceded that not calling out "Labor's lies" earlier in the election campaign was his one regret, as he faces potential defeat at the polls on May 3. "We should have called out Labor's lies earlier on," he said, adding bulk-billing rates are down 11 per cent and patients are forced to pay out of pocket fees for GP visits. "The Prime Minister won't tell people they're better off after three years because you're not. Now is the time to change a bad government." A YouGov poll published on Thursday shows Labor in the driving seat on a 53 per cent to 47 per cent two-party preferred margin just two days out from the Federal Election. It is also just ahead in the primary vote, 31.4 per cent to the Liberals' 31.1 per cent, followed by the Greens on 12.6 per cent, One Nation on 9.1 per cent and assorted independents on 8.1 per cent combined. The simulated outcome projects a 97.3 per cent chance of a Labor majority, with the party on track to gain several electorates while the Coalition will fall to 47 seats. Mr Uhlmann predicted a Labor minority government would emerge from the 2025 Federal Election, following the Calition's 'dreadful campaign'. However, he predicted Australians may 'well and truly be ready for a big change' come next election if the country sees 'destruction of wealth' due to Labor's policies.
Sky News AU
01-05-2025
- Health
- Sky News AU
Labor's Mediscare campaign working well against Coalition in federal election
Sky News contributor Chris Uhlmann discusses Labor's Mediscare campaign which is working against the Coalition. 'The Coalition has got to worry about, for several election campaigns in a row now, it is the whole Mediscare campaign,' Mr Uhlmann said. Mr Uhlmann sat down with Sky News host Peta Credlin to go over the final stretch of the election campaign battle between Labor and the Coalition.
