Liberals’ women problem persists, while leader ‘unattractive to women’ hampered disastrous 2025 election

The Liberals still haven’t learned from repeated warnings about a women problem and were hampered by a leader “unattractive to women” during the disastrous 2025 election loss, an internal review has found. The report — which the party has sought to keep secret but has been obtained by The Nightly — was collated over months by Liberal elders Nick Minchin and Pru Goward in the wake of Peter Dutton’s historical May 3 loss. It found women, young people and multicultural communities had deserted the party and little had been done to reengage female voters despite warnings in successive reviews. “The female vote is clearly a problem for the Liberal Party. After at least a decade of a declining female vote it remains a mystery that the Party has not performed a deep-dive into its causes,” it stated. Not only was Mr Dutton deemed “unattractive” but the party also had policies “seen as female-unfriendly” and failed to target women’s interests. “The combination of a Leader unattractive to women, and policies or messaging that alienated women was a major factor in 2025,” it stated. “While Peter Dutton was never opposed or criticised openly by his parliamentary colleagues, there was widespread acknowledgement that he lacked appeal, especially to women, but his image was never successfully remade or addressed.” So concerned by how “disliked by women” Mr Dutton was, many female candidates had asked the leader not to campaign in their electorates. Post-election polling and analysis painted a bleak picture for the female vote. It found that in a country where there are more women than men, only 42.1 per cent of female voters chose the Coalition — marking a 4.7 per cent gender gap. “Women in all age and socio-economic demographics predominantly voted for non-Liberal parties,” it stated “Seats with a higher female to male voter ratio were less inclined to vote Liberal.” Professional women, who used to vote Liberal, had particularly turned against the party with strong criticism for now-Liberal Deputy leader Jane Hume’s remarks during the election about working from home. “At least one regional candidate considered the Working from Home policy was the turning point which cost her the seat,” it stated. Women also considered the party’s nuclear plan “weird”, adding that the “policy was deeply unpopular with women”. It noted that “excellent female candidates failed to be elected” which it attributed less on the local campaign and more on the party’s policies. “The Party had high-quality female candidates in many seats, who could not overcome the leadership and policy obstacle,” it stated. “It is important to ensure unsuccessful female Liberal candidates remain connected to the Party. Some attributed the loss to a “lack of female candidates in winnable seats” and called for quotas while others counselled against gender targets. The review also found that the party didn’t lean on the expertise and experience of multiple women’s networks at their fingertips, including the Hilma’s Network and Women for Election. Yet both described a “lack of interest” in their work from MPs and even “distrust and hostility” from the former Leader’s Office. It also noted that the former leader had a male, top heavy workforce, with a “absence of senior female staff in the Liberal Secretariat” yet “excellent contributions” from women across their “fundraising, finance and data teams”. “Despite previous reviews having identified a problem with the female vote, there is no women’s officer or senior female official in the Secretariat with direct input into strategy, campaign materials and communications,” it stated. “We are not aware that such positions exist at state levels, where a similar lens is also required” Across the more than 300 submissions received, most reported logistical problems with the campaign. Some claimed the campaign was dragged down by “catastrophe communication”. It included a domestic violence announcement held in Tasmania a week out from the election, which the leader’s office had forced female MPs and Senators to scramble to get to last minutes. “It’s doubtful it impacted on a single vote,” the review stated. While the party has refused to publicly release the review, it had been raised in Angus Taylor’s recent Liberal party room meeting when parliament returned this week. YOUNG PEOPLE Voters aged between 18 to 34 were also a key concern in the two-party preferred data, with just 26.8 per cent saying they would vote for the Coalition. The report listed Coalition’s Opposition to Labor’s HECS debt cutting promise without an alternative offering a “lost opportunity”. “The lack of policies for young people were also viewed as mistakes,” it stated. Authors suggested that a similar deep-dive on young voters and their rejection of the Coalition would also be helpful. It also flagged Labor’s use of influences, content creators and third-party endorsements as “powerful”. It cited that female digital creators engaged by Labor had effectively attacked Mr Dutton to their followers with “personal remarks which would not have been acceptable from political figures”. “The Liberal Party needs to make a concerted effort to cultivate supportive third-party campaigns. Whatever reluctance Party members might feel - engaging and encouraging like-minded online groups would greatly enrich digital media campaigning.”