Why Peter Dutton’s campaign has not gone to plan

Why Peter Dutton’s campaign has not gone to plan

Released Monday, 28th April 2025
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Why Peter Dutton’s campaign has not gone to plan

Why Peter Dutton’s campaign has not gone to plan

Why Peter Dutton’s campaign has not gone to plan

Why Peter Dutton’s campaign has not gone to plan

Monday, 28th April 2025
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0:01

This is The Guardian. I'm

0:10

not Haidar, coming to you from

0:12

Gadigal Land, and this is

0:14

the full story. With

0:18

five days until Election

0:21

Day and early voting

0:23

already underway, opinion polls

0:25

suggest the path to

0:27

victory for the coalition

0:29

is evaporating. The

0:31

Liberal Party's campaign has been

0:33

defined by major shifts on

0:35

policies, few details

0:37

on others and candidate

0:39

scandals. While opposition leader

0:41

Peter Dutton began the

0:43

campaign attempting to recast

0:45

his hard man image

0:47

with just days to go,

0:49

he appears to be leaning

0:52

back into culture wars. Forget about what

0:54

you've been told by the ABC and

0:56

the Guardian and the other hate media, forget

0:58

about that. Attacking media

1:00

outlets and... welcome

1:02

-to -country ceremonies. I think

1:05

a lot of Australians think it's overdone and

1:07

it cheapens the significance of what it was

1:09

meant to do. It divides the country not

1:11

dissimilar to what the Prime Minister did with

1:13

the others. But will it work

1:15

come Saturday? Today,

1:18

Guardian Australia political reporter

1:20

Dan Gervispari on the Liberal

1:22

Party's mixed messaging and

1:24

why Peter Dutton's campaign has

1:27

not gone to plan. It's

1:29

Tuesday, the 29th of April. This

1:37

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1:39

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start protecting yourself and your loved

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ones. That's a-u-r-a.com/safety. Terms apply, check

2:28

the site for details. Hi

2:32

there, Dan. Hey, Noah. So you've

2:35

been following the campaign closely. You've

2:37

spent time on the road and

2:39

you've written a deep dive this

2:41

weekend about the Liberal Party's campaign

2:43

and what's gone wrong for them.

2:45

And in the piece, you take

2:47

us back to Peter Dutton's first

2:49

public appearance of 2025. My friends,

2:51

it's great to be back in Victoria. Thank you

2:53

very much for being here today. Tell me about

2:56

that day. Yeah, it seems like a

2:58

lifetime ago now. So this was

3:00

on the 12th of January. The Liberal

3:02

Party at a state and federal level

3:04

is back in town. It was a Liberal

3:06

Party rally to sort showcase their

3:08

key message. This year, Australians will have

3:10

an opportunity to elect a new government. and

3:13

a new strong coalition government to get

3:15

our country back on track. And

3:17

these events, to start to hear a

3:20

significant, sort of setting the scene right.

3:22

And as he was going through the

3:24

speech, he got through all the messages,

3:26

they sort of laid out the vision.

3:28

But it was a very striking image

3:30

of him, and he was very clearly hot.

3:34

He was sweating over the course

3:36

of the speech and at multiple

3:38

times. during the address he reached

3:40

for his handkerchief and had to

3:42

wipe the sweat off his forehead.

3:44

But I think as we look

3:46

back on that now and seeing

3:49

the way that the coalition campaign

3:51

has turned out, in some

3:53

ways it's turned into a bit of

3:55

an analogy for the way that his

3:57

campaign has gone, that when the heat

3:59

has been applied, when he's been put

4:01

in the furnace of an election

4:03

campaign, that he has really felt it.

4:05

Yeah, you had a great line

4:07

in your piece where you said that

4:10

Peter Dutton appears to have wilted

4:12

in the election furnace. What about the

4:14

election environment or an election campaign

4:16

environment? Do you think created that? Elections

4:19

are really high pressure environments.

4:21

So politicians are in the public

4:23

spotlight constantly. Peter Dutton's been

4:25

in parliament for a long time.

4:27

He's had to face The

4:29

media election campaigns are different and

4:31

they really can't be replicated

4:33

unless you've lived through them as

4:36

Anthony Albanese found out in

4:38

in 2022 and in terms of

4:40

the kind of practicalities of

4:42

them. Peter Dutton is known to

4:44

shun. one -on -one interviews with

4:46

large sections of the media. You

4:48

just can't do that during

4:50

the course of the election campaigns.

4:53

You've got the entirety of the

4:55

press gallery from Sky News and

4:57

News Corp through The Guardian and

5:00

the ABC. You have to

5:02

front up to them every day and answer

5:04

questions. And then after that's done,

5:06

you can't go to ground for three or four

5:08

days. You have to face up to them

5:10

again. It is an environment. that

5:12

is unique in the political cycle and

5:14

if you have a bad day the pressure

5:16

builds to the next day and the

5:18

next day and the next day and

5:20

that's what we saw Dutton certainly over the

5:23

course of the first week, the

5:25

pressure built over the course of the week

5:27

and you could really see him straining. And

5:30

his face scrutiny and questioning

5:32

over his policies. And when

5:34

it comes to policies, the

5:36

Liberal Party has junked some,

5:39

it's announced others with little detail, some

5:42

policies, big policies have hardly been

5:44

spoken of during the campaign. How

5:46

much has that helped

5:48

Labor's campaign? Yeah, it's been

5:51

really significant. So I think for

5:53

oppositions, the challenge that

5:55

they face is twofold. One,

5:57

you have to identify to

5:59

voters the problem, essentially why the

6:01

government is a bad government, why things

6:03

aren't going well, but then there's

6:05

the second part of the equation and

6:07

that is to essentially set out

6:09

what you're going to offer, the alternative

6:11

that you'll provide and that's where

6:13

the policies come in. So

6:15

consider this scenario, had Cyclone

6:17

Alfred not come, we

6:20

would have had a situation where Anthony Albanese

6:22

In all likelihood, would have called the

6:24

election for April 12. And at

6:26

that point, the coalition had no centrepiece

6:29

cost of living policy, nothing on

6:31

income tax cuts. They had no short

6:33

-term plan to bring down energy prices.

6:35

They had nothing on defence spending. They

6:38

had a few policies on housing, but

6:40

nothing significant. Now, what

6:42

we've seen subsequent to that,

6:44

both through what Peter Dutton announced

6:46

during the budget reply speech, is

6:49

the cut to the fuel excise,

6:51

there's been things that have been

6:53

announced subsequently but it's all been

6:55

rolled out relatively late in the

6:57

piece. Now in terms of what

6:59

that's meant for Labor is the

7:01

coalition created a vacuum and politics

7:03

loads a vacuum because somebody is

7:05

going to fill it and what

7:07

Labor has been able to do

7:09

because of the vacuum that the

7:11

Liberals have created from a policy

7:13

sense is they've been able to

7:15

fill that with their message, both

7:17

their positive message for building Australia's

7:19

future, but also the negative message

7:21

in terms of painting Peter Dutton

7:23

as somebody that is going to

7:25

cut Medicare to pay for his

7:27

nuclear reactors. They've been the

7:29

ones that have been able to define

7:31

the election campaign really from the

7:33

start. And the lack of

7:35

policies from the coalition has played a

7:38

big part in that. And

7:42

what have people on the

7:44

inside told you about the way

7:46

the Liberal Party has played

7:48

this campaign, about the vacuum that

7:50

was created? Yeah, there's

7:52

been a mix of,

7:55

from MPs certainly and Liberal

7:57

Party supporters and members, a

8:00

mix of frustration. exasperation,

8:05

there has been people that have

8:07

been perplexed. And as we got

8:09

closer to the election, the MPs

8:11

themselves started to get worried that

8:13

they didn't have policies to be

8:15

able to sell to voters when

8:17

they started to interact with them.

8:19

There's a sense that just the

8:21

groundwork hadn't been done to be

8:23

able to prosecute the case for

8:25

change. And the reason why it's

8:27

so frustrating for MPs is that

8:29

they genuinely feel that the Albanese

8:31

government has been, for one of

8:33

a better phrase, there for the

8:35

taking, that they're not a good

8:37

government. They're a lackluster government. There

8:40

has been an economic environment that

8:42

is conducive to a change of

8:44

government. We've seen it all around

8:46

the world where incumbents have really

8:48

struggled to hold power. because of

8:50

the cost of living crisis. So

8:52

there has been a combination

8:54

of sort of negative emotions about

8:57

the way that it's played

8:59

out. And I don't think you

9:01

could find anyone, even the

9:03

strongest liberal supporters that would think

9:05

that this has gone to

9:07

plan. It's interesting, Dan, your piece

9:09

suggests that the opposition leader

9:11

has been hamstrung by party officials

9:14

who are trying to control

9:16

the message and the strategy. And

9:18

sources have told you that

9:20

voters haven't had a chance to

9:22

see Dutton be Dutton. What

9:25

would that look like, Dan? Yeah,

9:27

it's an interesting challenge. And it goes

9:29

to, I guess, almost the central

9:31

tension that the Liberal Party faces at

9:33

the moment is they're facing so

9:35

much competing pressure from the right of

9:37

their party. And I'm sure we'll

9:40

get to Donald Trump at some point,

9:42

people wanting them to go further

9:44

in that direction. also facing a

9:46

challenge. Do we try and appeal to

9:48

voters in teal seats that we lost

9:50

last time? So they've really

9:52

struggled, I think, to really get

9:54

a clear sense of who do we

9:56

want to be and how do

9:59

we want to portray the message that

10:01

we want to. What we've seen

10:03

with Dutton, everybody that's

10:05

followed politics over certainly

10:07

over the last five or

10:09

10 years, would have a clear

10:11

idea of who Peter Dutton

10:13

is. He's the former Queensland cop

10:15

who's hardline on immigration. And

10:18

there was a sense, certainly over

10:20

the course of the last, really probably

10:22

from the voice to parliament referendum

10:24

onwards, that some of those

10:26

traits were actually playing favorably

10:28

for them, that voters were resonating

10:30

with this guy who we

10:32

might not agree with what he

10:35

says. but he's clear and

10:37

he's direct and he doesn't back

10:39

down and you contrast that with Anthony

10:41

Albanese who is kind of a

10:43

bit wishy -washy, the coalition was able

10:45

to paint him as weak. What

10:47

we've seen over the course of

10:49

the campaign is Peter Dutton on a

10:52

few occasions he's admitted mistakes. Look

10:54

I think we've made a mistake in

10:56

relation to this policy syrup and

10:58

I think it's important that we say

11:00

that and recognise it. We saw

11:02

during the course of one of the

11:04

debates He made the concession that

11:07

he didn't know Donald Trump. You trust

11:09

him was the question. Well, we

11:11

trust the United States and I don't

11:13

know the President. I've

11:15

not met him, the Prime Minister obviously.

11:18

has been able to... So you're not going

11:20

to say you trust Trump? I don't

11:22

know. Donald Trump is my point. There's been

11:24

an attempt to kind of soften his

11:26

image a little bit. He's brought his family

11:29

out. Now, you might have seen over

11:31

the last couple of days Peter Dutton's son

11:33

Harry has been with him on the

11:35

campaign trail. I am saving up for a

11:37

house and so is... My sister back

11:39

and a lot of my mates, but as

11:41

you've probably heard, it's almost impossible to

11:43

get it. But it is perplexed. Some people

11:45

who think, well, it is who he

11:47

is. Why don't you just let him

11:50

do that, play to his strengths? What we've seen.

11:52

Supposed strength. Supposed, supposed strength. What we've seen

11:54

in contrast is a kind of a

11:56

mix of like, who is this guy? you're

12:01

putting yourself up to be the

12:03

prime minister, that's the last thing that

12:05

you want. It's

12:07

not the first time we've seen

12:09

Peter Dutton attempt to reinvent himself

12:11

Yeah, I mean we saw during

12:14

that the famous one is during

12:16

the the leadership spill in 2018

12:18

where he Came out and said

12:20

look I can smile a little

12:22

bit more now that that didn't

12:24

last Particularly long. No, it's it

12:26

has led to the question of

12:29

who is the real done I

12:31

Want to talk about the Trump

12:33

factor. Yeah, Peter Dutton began the

12:35

year echoing some of Donald Trump's

12:37

policies and rhetoric. It took aim

12:39

at diversity and inclusion. In

12:42

late January, he also reshuffled

12:44

his cabinet, created a shadow minister

12:46

for government efficiency. It

12:48

looked like the Liberal

12:50

Party saw success in aligning

12:52

themselves with some of

12:55

Trump's so -called anti -woke agenda.

12:58

What's happened? Yeah, I think it's probably

13:00

worth going back to even before

13:02

that at the time that Donald Trump

13:04

won. There was a real sense

13:06

within the Liberal Party and the broader

13:08

political circles that Trump's election is

13:10

going to play well for the Liberals

13:12

for a series of reasons. One

13:15

is there was a sense that Trump's

13:17

victory didn't occur in a vacuum.

13:19

It was a part of a kind

13:21

of broader shift to the right

13:23

that was occurring globally. another

13:25

example of a rejection of the

13:27

sort of wokeness that Peter Dutton

13:30

has spent a long time fighting.

13:32

So it felt like the ground

13:34

was really rich for a leader

13:36

like Peter Dutton to come along.

13:38

What has become clear over recent

13:40

months, and this has probably always

13:43

been true in Australia, is that

13:45

Trump has never been popular. So

13:47

I think what we've seen

13:49

here is there was echoes

13:51

of Donald Trump in Dutton's

13:53

agenda. and all of

13:55

the parties would be getting research

13:58

that was done through focus groups

14:00

and polling that would show the

14:02

way that the community was responding

14:04

to that. We've almost seen in

14:06

real time the coalition realise that,

14:08

yes, there might have been elements

14:10

of Trump's election victory that were

14:13

good for us, but any association

14:15

with Trump is a negative. And

14:18

Labor, who would also be

14:20

getting research on this front,

14:22

have made very deliberate attempts

14:24

to try and make those

14:26

connections. Now today he threatened

14:28

cuts to school funding, which

14:30

was right from the Doge

14:32

playbook. To the point where

14:35

it has become very damaging.

14:37

This is Dogey Dutton taking

14:39

his cues, his

14:41

instructions and his policies straight

14:43

from the US in a

14:45

way that will make Australians

14:47

worse off. And Dan,

14:49

we saw an example of that

14:51

very thing that you've just described

14:53

at a campaign event in Perth.

14:55

Yeah, so we saw Peter Dutton

14:58

appearing with just Enterprise. We have

15:00

all candidates right around the country

15:02

that I'm so proud to be

15:04

able to stand beside. He appointed

15:06

her to the Government Efficiency portfolio.

15:08

She was the rock star of

15:10

the Voice to Parliament referendum and

15:12

really embodies this sort of Trump -style

15:15

element of the Liberal Party. And

15:17

during the course of her remarks

15:19

to this Liberal event, she used

15:21

the phrase, that we can make

15:23

Australia great again, that we can

15:25

bring Australia back to its former

15:27

glory, that we can get Australia

15:29

back on track. I

15:33

don't have to explain to you

15:35

what that has echoes of. And

15:37

of course, as soon as just

15:39

Enterprise and Peter Dutton faced reporters,

15:42

immediately after that, they were asked about it.

15:44

You said you wanted to make Australia great

15:46

again. Is that an ode to Donald Trump? No,

15:50

if I said that, I don't even realise I said that,

15:52

but no. Just enterprise. Whether she was

15:54

playing dumb or she genuinely forgot, she

15:56

said, I couldn't remember that I said that.

15:58

And just to clarify, it

16:00

is not an ode to Donald

16:03

Trump. The media, you're all obsessed

16:05

with Donald Trump. We're not. We're

16:07

not obsessed with Donald Trump. We're

16:09

actually obsessed with ensuring that we

16:11

can improve the circumstances for Australians.

16:13

But what that moment did is

16:15

it sort of encapsulated this internal

16:17

struggle that the Liberal Party had

16:19

been going. through the coalition have

16:21

been going through where there are

16:24

people like just Enterprise whether she

16:26

meant to say that or not

16:28

who want the party to go

16:30

in this direction. Dutton

16:32

is clearly being advised to walk

16:34

away from it and you

16:36

could see over the course of

16:38

that press conference where just

16:40

Enterprise was peppered with questions and

16:42

she was really in in

16:44

full flight. He had the opportunity

16:46

to sort of to shut

16:48

that press conference down and he

16:50

made a decision in that

16:52

moment to let her go, answer

16:54

questions and show that side

16:56

of her and show that side

16:58

of the party. We'll

17:05

be right back. Hi,

17:16

I'm Barry Cassidy. And I'm Tranny Barry,

17:18

co -host of Guardian Australia's Back to Back

17:20

Berries. It's the final week of the campaign

17:23

and the leaders are doing a final

17:25

dash to Saturday's polls. But is

17:27

it all a bit too late to deliver a

17:29

message that cuts through? We'll be here

17:31

twice this week, Thursday and Sunday, and we want

17:33

to hear from you. What's going to make

17:35

your mind up and what are the big issues that you're observing?

17:37

Let us know. Email us

17:39

at back2backberries at theguardian.com. Dan,

17:47

it was always going to be

17:49

a steep climb for the coalition to

17:51

form minority government. But there was

17:53

a moment earlier this year where that

17:55

seemed possible, or at least that's

17:57

what the polls were suggesting. Tell

17:59

me about, I guess, what

18:01

was happening at that time and

18:03

how that shifted. So I think

18:05

fast forward to now, the way that

18:07

people reflect on those polls, was

18:10

that those polls Not that

18:12

they were wrong, but what they were

18:14

reflecting was not the way that people

18:16

were feeling about Peter Dutton. There wasn't

18:18

some surge in support to Peter

18:20

Dutton. The sense is that there wasn't

18:22

also a massive anger towards Anthony Albanese.

18:24

What those polls were essentially showing was

18:26

it was just gauging the mood of

18:29

the electorate. People were fed up.

18:31

People were feeling the pinch from cost

18:33

of living. So those polls,

18:35

as one source described to

18:37

me, were illusionary. And what we've

18:39

seen as we've got closer

18:41

to the election day is what

18:44

the polling numbers are showing

18:46

is a more accurate description of

18:48

how people feel about Anthony

18:50

Albanese versus Peter Dutton. As people

18:52

have honed in on that

18:55

choice, the polls have

18:57

shifted. And this is certainly

18:59

the view in the Labor side. And they

19:01

were confident all along that this would

19:03

happen when it became a question of the

19:05

choice. the polls would turn

19:07

and turn in their favour. So

19:09

we're now at a situation where

19:11

all of the published polls suggest that

19:13

it's really just a case of

19:15

will it be labour in minority, in

19:17

which case they'll need support of

19:19

the crossbench to form government or labour

19:21

majority. And when you think back

19:23

to what the polls were suggesting only

19:25

a couple of months ago, that

19:27

in and of itself is remarkable. Dan,

19:30

we are now just under a

19:32

week from polling day. Where

19:34

has Peter Dutton focused his

19:37

attention and where has

19:39

he been notably absent? Yeah,

19:41

so just as he

19:43

launched his year with that

19:46

rally in the seat

19:48

of Chisholm in Melbourne on

19:50

Sunday, sort of six

19:52

days out from the election, he

19:54

did another rally this time in

19:56

the seat of Hawke in Melbourne's

19:58

Western suburbs. Again, that's not

20:01

a coincidence. They think that that

20:03

there is an opportunity to pick

20:05

up multiple seats in Victoria, really

20:07

tapping into what they think is

20:09

anger at the Labor brand, principally

20:11

at the Premier, just into Allen.

20:13

So Peter Dutton has spent a

20:15

lot of time in those areas.

20:17

He's made multiple trips to the

20:19

seat of McEwen in Melbourne's out

20:21

of Northern suburbs. He's spent quite

20:23

a lot of time in Western

20:26

Australia where the Liberals think they

20:28

can win three seats, Kurt and

20:30

Tangy and Bullwinkle. He

20:32

spent quite a lot of time

20:34

in Western Sydney. That's where

20:36

he launched the campaign. So there's

20:38

certainly a strategy there in

20:40

terms of trying to win out

20:42

of suburban seats, something that

20:44

Scott Morrison tried in 2022. He

20:46

couldn't pull it off. Peter

20:48

Dutton thinks that's the pathway to

20:50

victory. For the bulk

20:53

of the campaign, he had

20:55

avoided the teal seats, so these

20:57

are the affluent seats in

20:59

Sydney, Melbourne and Perth that the

21:01

Liberals lost in 2022. Traditionally

21:03

strong Liberal voting electorates. Yeah, they

21:05

were the jewels in the

21:07

crown of the Liberal Party. Now,

21:09

he'd spent time in the

21:11

early parts of the campaign in

21:13

Curtin, so that's the seat

21:15

in the western suburbs of Perth,

21:17

but other than that had

21:19

avoided the other TLCs. Now that's

21:21

changed. On Sunday he spent

21:23

time in McKellar, which is held

21:25

by Sophie Scomps. That's a

21:27

seat in Sydney's northern beaches. We

21:30

expect over the course of

21:32

the final days of the

21:34

campaign that he'll spend time

21:36

in other TLCs. So that

21:38

could be Cuyong and Goldstein

21:40

in Melbourne, went

21:42

worth potentially in

21:45

Sydney. So There's

21:47

really, in the last week of the

21:49

campaign, there's only so much time.

21:51

They'll do everything they can to visit

21:53

as much territory as they possibly

21:55

can. But we can draw a lot

21:57

from the places that they choose

22:00

to go in the short period of

22:02

time that they have left. We

22:04

know that polls have been wrong before.

22:06

2019 was a clear example of

22:08

that. Obviously, we don't know

22:10

how Saturday will unfold. What's

22:13

the mood amongst... insiders and

22:15

strategists that you've been speaking to.

22:17

So they're certainly not giving

22:19

up and they wouldn't write like

22:21

it would. This is

22:23

elections are not like a game

22:25

of footy where you put a

22:27

score on the board and we

22:29

can see that as it goes

22:31

on. We're not going to know

22:33

the result until election night, potentially

22:35

days after election night. So the

22:37

coalition insiders that I've been speaking

22:40

to that the research

22:42

that they've been conducting over the

22:44

course of the campaign paints

22:46

a different, far rosier picture of

22:48

the state of play. Now,

22:50

certainly in those marginal

22:53

seats, all of the

22:55

pollsters that you speak to, they

22:57

all say that this election is

22:59

unique because of the very large

23:01

proportion of voters who are yet

23:03

to make up their minds. Now,

23:05

both of the major parties would

23:07

be getting research daily and they

23:09

would see that that number of undecided

23:11

voters is shrinking, but it is

23:14

still large. The hope for

23:16

the coalition is that when those

23:18

undecided voters start tuning in and

23:20

we have compulsory voting in Australia,

23:22

once they ultimately have to cast

23:24

their ballot, that they will give

23:26

their vote to the coalition. So

23:28

that is what's giving them hope

23:30

at this stage. And

23:32

what then comes next

23:35

for the Liberal Party

23:37

and for Opposition Leader Peter

23:39

Dutton if Saturday goes

23:41

the way the polls are

23:43

currently indicating. Yeah, I

23:45

suppose it depends. I mean,

23:47

I'm going to give a boring

23:49

answer and say it all

23:51

depends on what happens on Saturday.

23:53

So let's sort of work

23:55

through the potential scenario. So let's

23:57

say Labor wins in majority. Let's

24:00

say the coalition goes backwards. If

24:03

you consider that outcome relative to where

24:05

the expectation was at the start of

24:07

the year, that would be

24:09

seen as more or less a

24:11

disaster for Peter Dutton. And I

24:13

think he would find it very

24:15

difficult to address his party room

24:18

after the election and say, give

24:20

me another three years. I think

24:22

in all likelihood in that scenario, Peter

24:24

Dutton would step down on the

24:27

opposite end of the spectrum. Let's

24:29

say all the polls are wrong,

24:31

the liberal research is right, Peter

24:33

Dutton wins, of course he

24:35

stays on, he's Prime Minister.

24:38

The interesting, slightly more

24:40

complicated scenario is what

24:42

happens if, let's say,

24:45

Labor gets bumped into

24:47

a minority situation. what

24:49

happens then. So one school of thought

24:51

that MPs on the liberal side are

24:53

preparing for is, if that were to

24:55

happen, yes, it wasn't the outcome that

24:57

they were hoping for, that they thought

24:59

might happen at the start of the

25:01

year, but Labor's going to

25:03

be in minority. We saw

25:05

what happened last time there was a

25:07

minority in terms of the instability and the

25:09

problems that Labor caused for themselves. So

25:11

in that scenario, there's a sense that maybe

25:14

Peter Dutton, when he addresses the party

25:16

room after the election, can say, look

25:18

on the guide to be

25:20

able to kind of tear at

25:22

this instability and give me

25:24

another three years and I can

25:27

use this to leverage an

25:29

election win. So this far out,

25:31

it is really just speculation. A

25:34

waiting game. But I do think that

25:36

if they do have that really bad

25:38

result, I think not only will we

25:40

see a situation where Peter Dutton is

25:42

no longer the leader, but there is

25:44

going to be a very significant reckoning

25:46

within the Liberal Party about What direction

25:48

do we take our party in? Who

25:50

do we stand for? And

25:52

where is our place in

25:54

the electoral landscape of Australia

25:57

going forward? Well,

25:59

Dan, thank you for that very

26:01

comprehensive breakdown of the three potential

26:03

scenarios we might be looking at

26:05

come Saturday. Appreciate your time.

26:07

It's my pleasure. That

26:11

was Guardian Australia political reporter,

26:13

Dan Gervis -Party. You can find

26:15

more of Dan's work on TheGuardian.com

26:18

and we've linked to his

26:20

latest piece on the Liberal Party's

26:22

campaign on the full story

26:24

page. That's it for today.

26:26

This episode was produced by Miles

26:28

Herbert, Elimani Close and Camilla Hannan,

26:30

who also did the sound design

26:32

and mixing. The executive

26:35

producer of Full Story is Hannah

26:37

Parks. If you like this

26:39

episode, don't forget to subscribe or

26:41

follow Full Story wherever you listen to

26:43

podcasts. You can also leave us

26:45

a review. I'm Naut Haider. Catch

26:48

you next time.

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