Leaking the Liberals' post-election analysis - another act of betrayal

The new Liberal leadership was right to reverse its previous promise to release the party's specially commissioned analysis of its devastating 2025 election defeat. That the report has now been leaked indicates the poor state of the Liberal Party and so Angus Taylor needs to brace for further undermining like his predecessor endured.

Thanks for reading Policy Insights! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Pledge your support

The authors of this latest review, former federal and state Liberal ministers Nick Minchin and Pru Goward respectively, were publicly upset at the decision not to release the report. Ms Goward says party members and supporters deserve "to understand what went wrong" and that "frank and critical assessment of the campaign would provide the new leadership with the impetus to change". Nick Minchin does not "really understand the reason" and is "surprised and disappointed" about this decision.

Well good luck to them! One might have expected a degree of circumspection from such seasoned political players given the current parlous state of conservative politics.

There has also been the expected "tutt-tutting" from the media about the failure to release the report, but Liberals should stop taking their cues from the media who are relishing the latest debacle.

While it has become usual practice these days for parties to release such post-election reviews, it is not mandatory. Parties used to do well enough without them being made public.

Indeed, given the nature of the Liberal Party's election defeat the promise to release this report should never have been made in the first place. It reflected poor judgement.

There were sound reasons for not releasing this report and it should have been commissioned on the basis that it would remain confidential and circulated to limited numbers.

First, such analysis would inevitably, be critical of the party's administration, campaign strategy, policies released, leadership, personal relationships and state branches' ineptness. It prolongs the focus on the Liberal Party rather than the government. That is now proving to be the case.

Second, expected critical comments about different personnel and relationships have been confirmed in the leaked document. It is now all there for us to see and the Labor Party to exploit. No matter how careful the reviewers, or even how justified, the criticisms of different people, reputations have now been trashed and blame allocated. Those mentioned will have no opportunity to defend themselves or to correct such negative assessments. This is not a good start to rebuilding unity in the party. It is of no help to a party short of any reservoir of people let alone those with talent.

Third, after months of bitter, damaging post-election public infighting and Angus Taylor's tortuous campaign to replace Sussan Ley as federal leader, Liberals still seem unable to settle down to focus on their task of rebuilding the party.