A secret review of the Liberal Party’s 2025 federal election campaign, described as the worst in its history, has been made public after an attempt to suppress it. The 64-page autopsy, authored by party elders Pru Goward and Nick Minchin, was leaked to Guardian Australia before Prime Minister Anthony Albanese tabled a copy in parliament on Tuesday.
The review catalogues an “extraordinary” series of mistakes, including a damning assessment of former leader Peter Dutton, who was described as “unattractive to women”. It also criticised the party’s “weird” nuclear policy, which contributed to the devastating defeat.
The Liberal Party’s federal executive had agreed to suppress the document last week, but the leak and subsequent tabling have exposed the full extent of the campaign’s failures. The review concludes that the 2025 effort was “widely considered to be the worst campaign the Party has ever fought”.
