Federal Liberal Party’s leaked review of 2025 election campaign slams Peter Dutton as ‘captain and ballboy’

A “grim and introverted” Peter Dutton was primarily responsible for the Coalition’s devastating loss in last year’s election, according to an official campaign review the Liberal Party wanted to keep secret.

A leaked copy of the 64-page document reveals the Liberal leader and his office micro-managed the Opposition campaign, shutting out Federal director Andrew Hirst and a head-office team who were told, as late as three months before the election, they had a chance of unseating Anthony Albanese’s first-term government.

“Peter Dutton made himself captain, coach and ballboy,” one State party director told former-MPs Pru Goward and Nick Minchin, who conducted the review.

So disliked by women voters that some female candidates begged the leader not to visit their electorates, Mr Dutton and his senior staff took control of the campaign without consulting head office.

Daily conference calls between the two groups — meant to make crucial tactical campaign decisions — were regarded by some participants as a “joke” because of their lack of focus.

Usually in an election, the party leader is the chief spokesperson and the party director runs the campaign. Mr Dutton’s decision to combine the two roles made it hard to change strategy when challenges mounted, a problem exacerbated by incorrect internal polling telling him the Coalition was ahead.

“By the time the election was announced there was little trust and a poor working relationship between the party’s two most important campaign arms,” a copy of the review presented to the Liberal Federal executive in December states.

“Peter Dutton had little confidence in the director from the beginning of the term, which the director and the president (of the Liberal Party) consider were never, either directly, or through intermediaries, communicated to them.

“The leader and his chief of staff made key campaign decisions without sufficient consultation with the federal director, usurping his proper role as campaign director.”

Mr Hirst, who oversaw the party’s surprise 2019 election win, told the reviewers he felt shut out of decisions by Mr Dutton’s office.

The Liberal Federal executive, which manages the party on a month-by-month basis, last week decided to break convention and keep the review private. It did not give a reason, but it may have wanted to save Mr Dutton the embarrassment of being described as looking like “a politician who did not care”.

When rumours circulated during the campaign of tension between head office and Mr Dutton, senior party officials insisted the campaign was running smoothly.

There was no clear, effective message, either positive or negative. The campaign was disastrously misled in targeting and resourcing by its market research.

In reality, Mr Hirst and Mr Dutton had a distant relationship well before the campaign began, and could not agree how to attack Mr Albanese’s image or improve Mr Dutton’s.

Mr Dutton’s office complained head office hadn’t acted on repeated requests for a public relations campaign to improve his popularity. Head office said it was rebuffed when it requested meetings with his office to develop the campaign.

Mr Dutton eventually approved a personal marketing campaign in September, 2024, and then withdrew his approval, according to the report, which did not say why.

By the time adverts promoting Mr Dutton based on his family life and business experience were finally broadcast in January and February, at a cost of $1 million, the Opposition was already in trouble.

Voters did not like its plan for government-owned nuclear power plants or restrictions on working at home. They would later regard its decision to reject the Labor government’s income-tax cuts as contributing to an “incoherent” campaign, according to the review.

Young people, women and non-English speaking Australians turned on the party, leading to the lowest vote in its history.

“The 2025 Federal Liberal campaign failure is widely considered to be the worst campaign the party has ever fought,” the review’s conclusion states.

“There was no clear, effective message, either positive or negative. The campaign was disastrously misled in targeting and resourcing by its market research.

“The overall strategy, determined by the Leader, was unclear. The campaign was fatally flawed by the Leader and his office taking over the overall conduct of the campaign, leaving the party’s organisation responsible only for campaign mechanics.”

New leader Angus Taylor has promised to learn from the lessons of the election and rebuild the party, which has almost been wiped out in city seats.