Young Liberals urge Coalition to distance itself from Sky News and blame Maga ‘mirage' for Dutton loss
In a submission to the party's election postmortem, obtained by Guardian Australia, the New South Wales Young Liberals division said the 'fringe right' of the Liberal membership had too much influence over policy and campaign media, causing 'a mirage of the Maga movement' which turned off women and multicultural voters.
The 31-page assessment, handed to the review being led by Liberal elders Pru Goward and Nick Minchin, is scathing of the campaign run by Dutton and his frontbench team, describing them as badly outplayed by Labor and out of touch with traditional Liberal constituencies.
The document has not been released publicly and was provided to Guardian on the condition of anonymity.
'The 2025 election proved that being one of the loudest media voices in the room does not mean voters are listening to you,' it said.
'Viewership data shows that most Australians do not engage with overtly political commentary on traditional media, such as evening commentators on Sky News. Yet much of our party's policy agenda and media appearances during the campaign were stuck in a conservative echo-chamber.'
Sign up: AU Breaking News email
Labor won 94 seats, its biggest victory in decades, while the Coalition was reduced to 43 seats in the lower house.
Pointing to Dutton directly, the submission said the parliamentary leader must 'front up' to a range of media outlets, including those not considered 'traditionally friendly' to the Liberal and Nationals parties.
Ahead of his 3 May defeat, Dutton did the opposite. He was criticised for not regularly fronting the Canberra press gallery in the lead-up to the campaign and dubbed the ABC and Guardian 'hate media' in the final days before the poll.
The Young Liberals called out senior figures for demonising Chinese-Australians and exacerbating division related to war in the Middle East.
Frontbencher Jacinta Nampijinpa Price was criticised for declaring a Dutton government would 'make Australia great again,' echoing Trump's slogan just as the Coalition was trying to distance itself from the unpopular US president's policies and rhetoric.
'The Coalition must refrain from pursuing culture war issues and respect the intelligence of the Australian people by formulating nuanced, meaningful policy,' it said.
On promises to voters, the submission was equally downcast. It said major policies should be announced with more lead time and accompanied by sufficient costings detail. It criticised Dutton's signature plan for development of nuclear power in Australia, and the decision to oppose Labor's tax cuts.
'Coalition policies such as the promise to cut 40,000 public service jobs, Peter Dutton's refusal to stand before the Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander flags, and a crackdown on 'woke' culture in schools all reinforced the perception of a party more interested in symbolic battles than addressing serious domestic and international issues,' it said.
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, has commissioned Minchin and Goward to assess the loss, and ordered a second review into the Liberal party's structure.
One question being considered is how to boost female representation in Coalition ranks. The Young Liberals have called for a 2015 party review to be implemented, including an aspirational national target for 50-50 gender parity in parliament, but suggested Labor-style quotas could be required.
'Ultimately, the Liberal Party doesn't look like modern Australia. Australians notice, and it matters,' the submission said.
Submissions to the review were due by Friday, with a report expected by the end of the year.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
Australian politician refuses to stand down despite being jailed for rape
An Australian politician has refused to stand down despite being jailed for rape, sparking an urgent court battle to expel the sex offender from a state parliament. Gareth Ward, a New South Wales state politician, was found guilty last month of sexually abusing two young men, aged 18 and 24, between 2013 and 2015. The 44-year-old former Liberal Party member has refused to stand down from state parliament, despite sitting in prison while awaiting sentencing for his crimes. Chris Minns, the state premier, said Ward had 'no shame', pledging to move a motion that would expel him from parliament, saying it's the 'first and most obvious choice'. 'Unconscionable situation' Mr Minns said: 'It's an unconscionable situation to have someone who's currently sitting in jail in Silverwater, convicted of serious sexual offences, who is demanding to remain a member of parliament and continue to be paid.' But Ward has so far stymied these efforts, obtaining a temporary injunction late on Monday that prevented the Labour government from removing him. Mark Speakman, the opposition leader, joined calls for Ward to step aside. The leader of the NSW Liberals, which Ward was formerly a part of, said: 'Every day he clings to his seat from a jail cell, taxpayers are footing the bill and the people of Kiama are left voiceless. It's not just wrong, it's offensive.' Ron Hoenig, the leader of the House, said the government would seek an urgent hearing this week to have the injunction lifted. He told reporters: 'The issue is, as you would appreciate, of considerable significance. 'The House needs to be able to make its judgment to protect itself. And we will be seeking a review of the judge's decision.' Ward said he planned to appeal his convictions, and should remain in parliament until this appeal is heard. He is due to be sentenced next month, for three counts of indecent assault and one count of rape.
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Labor MPs urge government to prioritise reform of ‘failed' job-ready university graduates scheme
Labor MPs are increasing pressure on the government to speed up reform of the controversial Morrison-era job-ready graduates (JRG) scheme that has 'failed' students. The Albanese government has flagged its intention to reform the scheme, but MPs have told Guardian Australia it should be a priority early in Labor's second term. Louise Miller-Frost, a South Australian Labor MP, said the JRG scheme, which has been widely condemned for hiking the cost of humanities and social science degrees, has angered voters. 'It is something that gets raised quite often, particularly when I'm talking to students about the 20% off Hecs which is very popular and people love it, but this is the next step,' she said. Sign up: AU Breaking News email 'It is a priority to make sure that we have the best possible access for university … I do see it as an intergenerational equity [issue].' The matter has also been raised with Victorian MP Carina Garland, who studied humanities and has worked as an academic. She said the reforms needed to be done as soon as possible. 'I would hate to see the scheme becoming too entrenched,' Garland said. 'It's really clear from my community that they want the government to act on the current job-ready graduates scheme, and it should happen sooner rather than later. 'The [universities] accord was pretty clear in its assessment and the minister has said we will move progressively to implement the recommendations. I've advocated for change [directly] to the minister's office and will continue to do so.' The scheme, introduced in 2021, changed the fee structure for university courses to increase costs for subjects including arts and law, and lowered course fees for degrees in Stem areas. The scheme also introduced a rule to remove Hecs debt eligibility for students who failed more than 50% of their units. Labor commissioned the universities accord to outline a reform path across the entire sector, which made several key findings on the JRG scheme. In July 2023, the accord released its interim report, which found the fee structure needed to be 'redesigned before it causes long-term damage to Australian higher education by increasing the cost of gaining a qualification', and recommended the 50% pass rule should be scrapped. Labor immediately abolished the 50% pass rule, and later established the Australian Tertiary Education Commission (Atec) to make recommendations on changing the fee structure under the scheme. The education minister, Jason Clare, has provided no timeline on when Atec, which has been in place since 1 July, will make its recommendations. Clare said the accord had 'made a number of recommendations and called out the previous government's job-ready graduates program as a failure'. 'We've bitten off a big chunk of its recommendations already – 31 of 47 in full or in part. This includes changes to make the repayment system for Hecs fairer, which we passed through parliament last week,' he said. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'There's more work to do and we'll take it one step at a time.' Labor MP Sally Sitou railed against the 'failed' rules in parliament last week. Sitou told Guardian Australia the previous Morrison government 'actively undermined and underfunded the university sector' and said reform was 'complex' and would take time. '[The Coalition government] introduced the job-ready graduate scheme which the universities accord said [has] failed, and it made recommendations about how to address this,' she said, adding that Atec would 'help to steer reform across the sector, including advice on the setting of course fees'. Sitou said Labor had made significant progress on reform, and wants a rethink of the rules. The parliament's youngest-ever senator, Labor's 21-year-old Charlotte Walker, said 'stigma' around arts degrees, exacerbated by the JRG program, must end. 'There's a stigma around, 'Oh, why would you want to do that? You're not actually going to be able to get a job'. I do genuinely think that sort of stigma turns students away from studying things,' Walker said. 'I really hope we can start moving past that.'
The Guardian
4 hours ago
- The Guardian
Hundreds of jobseeker payments cancelled illegally by government IT system, watchdog finds
The legality of the system designed to penalise jobseekers has been thrown into doubt after the commonwealth ombudsman found a government department's automatic system unlawfully cancelled payments. The ombudsman has found 964 jobseekers had their payments unlawfully cancelled between April 2022 and July 2024 by the automated IT system that underpins the targeted compliance framework (TCF) system. TCF is designed to make sure jobseekers meet requirements such as attending meetings with an employment provider and applying for jobs to continue to receive their payments. Payment cancellations have been paused since January after the government found a further 1,326 people had financial penalties 'applied incorrectly' due to an IT issue. On top of this, 45 people had their payments illegally cancelled because the system continued to operate in error. On Wednesday, the ombudsman found the payments had been cancelled unlawfully and recommended the government continue to pause cancellations until the it could review the legality of the entire TCF system. The ombudsman, Iain Anderson, said he investigated cancellations where public servants working at the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations had failed to consider individual circumstances before cancelling a payment as laid down by law. 'They were just automating the cancellation without considering the individual circumstances of the jobseeker and whether it was appropriate to cancel the payment or not,' he told Guardian Australia. 'The target compliance framework itself has been very problematic in that regard.' Anderson said that in 2022 DEWR was also meant to put in a 'digital protection framework' to ensure jobseekers were treated fairly, but the department had failed to do so. Anderson said the secretary of DEWR, Natalie Jones, needed to be 'completely confident' the system was working properly before the cancellations resume. 'The targeted compliance framework has had a number of different problems, and so the secretary of DEWR needs to do much more than simply look at the unlawful cancellation issue. 'They need to be really certain that the entire target compliance framework is going to comply with the law and be fair.' He said there were also concerns as to whether the suspension of payments, which happens in tens of thousands of cases each month, was legal. 'We have some concerns as to whether the suspension process is happening fairly and reasonably,' he said. On top of this, Guardian Australia understands a Deloitte report into the IT system that underpins the TCF has found that it is not functioning within the proper legal frameworks. The Deloitte report – which has yet to be published – recommends overhauling the TCF's IT system to ensure that the suspension or cancellation of payments is done legally. The Greens have called for the government to abolish the TCF and release the report. 'It is clear that the TCF is an expensive hangover from a conservative government which has been heartlessly prolonged by this Labor government for far too long,' senator Penny Allman-Payne said. The DEWR is also conducting a legal review to examine the way decisions are being made under the legislation. The Ombudsman will continue to investigate the TCF with another report due out later in the year.
