Liberal party executive agrees to permanently bury review into catastrophic 2025 election defeat | Liberal party

The review into the Liberal party’s disastrous election defeat will be suppressed in a move to shield former leader Peter Dutton and current leader Angus Taylor from potentially damaging findings about their role in the campaign.

The Liberal federal executive met on Friday and decided to permanently scrap Pru Goward and Nick Minchin’s review of the 2025 election, which delivered the worst result in the party’s more than 80-year history.

“The review recognizes the party’s enduring strengths. It also reveals where processes have failed, where the connection with voters has broken down and where we need to do better,” the party said in a statement.

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“The May 2025 election result was a decisive defeat. We accept this decision. We also accept the responsibility to change.

“The federal government decided not to publish the review. The important thing now is to strengthen our party for the future.”

The autopsy report was planned to be released before Christmas but was postponed after Christmas. Dutton expressed concerns About some of the findings against him and his chief of staff, including his dealings with the campaign’s headquarters.

The review was commissioned under the chairmanship of Sussan Ley, and some Liberals believed Taylor would want it suppressed after winning the leadership.

Liberal sources familiar with the review confirmed the findings reflected negatively on Taylor and his deputy Jane Hume, who as shadow finance minister was responsible for the Coalition’s weak economic agenda.

Taylor was involved in Labor’s decision to oppose tax cuts, while Hume’s was the standard-bearer for the disastrous work-from-home policy that Dutton abandoned during the election campaign. Hume’s comment about “Chinese spies” was blamed on the vote shifting against the Liberals in seats with significant Australian Chinese populations.

Taylor and Hume are members of the Liberal federal executive.

The decision not to publish the review sparked criticism from some Liberal MPs who feared it would mean the party failed to learn from the historic defeat.

“The new leader and the new MP never wanted this to come to light,” one MP said.

Three sources familiar with Friday’s meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity said the decision to shelve the review was about a desire for a “fresh start” and not to protect Dutton, Taylor or Hume.

Sources said some members of the executive wanted to avoid airing the party’s dirty laundry just weeks before the South Australian election and federal by-elections in Ley’s former seat of Farrer.

A source said some members did not want to risk a potentially costly and embarrassing legal battle with Dutton, drawing comparisons to the John Pesutto-Moira Deeming case in Victoria.

In a column published in the Australian Financial Review on Friday, Goward, a former New South Wales state minister, said he was “deeply saddened” that the review had not been published.

He expressed confidence that the review could withstand legal challenges.

“Without reading the report, it will be impossible for future candidates, managers, and leaders to determine why the apparent chaos, flatfooting, and limited policy proposals in the campaign occurred and how the recommendations will help prevent any recurrence,” he wrote.

“The review was conducted with the best of intentions and with the assumption that there will always be a need for a broad-based centre-right party in politics. This report is in the hands of the party and it is not our job to expose it. We did our job.”

Taylor’s office has been contacted for comment.