Leaked election review says Liberal party’s opposition to Labor tax cuts damaged its economic credentials

A decision by former shadow treasurer Angus Taylor and other members of the Liberal leadership team to oppose tax cuts ahead of last year’s election damaged the Opposition’s economic credentials, according to a confidential party review.

The 64-page document, leaked to The Nightly, has given new internal party insights into the disastrous 2025 campaign by former opposition leader Peter Dutton, where the Liberals recorded its lowest vote on record.

During the ill-fated campaign Angus Taylor, then shadow treasurer, was involved in the Opposition’s decision to oppose Labor’s election eve tax cuts, while his now deputy Jane Hume caused further damage with her “Chinese spies” comments.

“The leadership group’s decision to oppose an income tax cut, which many MPs told us they had not been consulted about and would have opposed, immediately impacted on the Coalition’s economic credentials, historically, a strong part of the Coalition’s brand,” the review states.

“Members of the former leadership group explained they had made the decision in the Budget lock-up because the tax cut was effectively ‘a handout’ and that supporting it restricted their ability to spend more on Defence, in line with the new expectations of the US Government.”

“The campaign was seen as incoherent: nuclear and working-from-home policies were widely criticised as politically mistimed or alienating; economic management and tax policy were viewed as confused and short-term,” the document concludes.

“Conversely, members expressed appetite for serious reform in housing, productivity and energy security, coupled with clear Liberal values. (Almost all those we interviewed reflected these concerns.)” review authors Nick Minchin and Pru Goward write.

The leaked review also reveals the Liberal party aligned Menzies Research Centre, established “specifically to assist the Coalition parties with policy development, had no formal role in policy development during the term”.

“Policy work that the Centre had done, such as on indexation of income tax thresholds was not adopted as election policy.”

We need to look forward, not backwards.

Late last week the Liberal Party confirmed it would not release the sensitive election analysis, but on Monday new Opposition Leader Angus Taylor acknowledged the document had already been leaked.

“We need to look forward, not backwards. A whole lot of finger-pointing at this point about the election which we know was a bad outcome, we know there’s much to be learnt from it,” Mr Taylor told reporters in Canberra.

“In my first press conference I made that point. And I talked about some of those areas where we made mistakes and we need to make sure we don’t again and from here on in I’m about looking forward”

The review also acknowledges the damage done to the Liberal party’s standing among Chinese voters by Victorian Senator Jane Hume, who accused “Chinese spies” of helping Labor’s campaign.The review authors say former Liberal MP Keith Wolahan, who then represented the Federal electorate of Menzies with a large number of voters with Chinese heritage, told them the comments hurt the party’s chances of holding such seats.

“It was Mr Wolahan’s assessment that the party was making inroads, but it collapsed in the final days when the dominant coverage was Senator Hume’s unfortunate “Chinese spies” comment, which went viral in local Chinese language platforms.”