By Corey Everitt
The autopsy has begun on the Liberal Party’s campaign that saw their leader ousted from Parliament; the Trump Presidency and return-to-office policy are among the issues local MP Jason Wood has raised in this result that was “much worse” than he expected.
The Liberal Party will begin the process of choosing a new leader after Peter Dutton lost his seat of Dickson in what has been hailed as the worst election in the Liberal Party’s history.
La Trobe MP Jason Wood retained his seat and is now one of the most senior members of his dwindled party room, with 20 years in office to be achieved this term.
On election night, Wood said Trump’s ascendancy to the White House was originally hoped to boost the Coalition’s chances, but after the first 100 days of his administration, the 47th President became a “wrecking ball” for conservative parties across the world.
He described the policy of return-to-office for public service workers as one of the “dumbest policy announcements”, after it became interpreted as targeting working mothers.
On Monday 5 May, he appeared on ABC Melbourne and said the results were “much worse” than he expected.
He was questioned about other policies and said the bid to introduce nuclear power was dropped suddenly in the campaign.
“We pushed it out pretty hard, we did surveys and people thought yep it’s a good idea, but all of a sudden we dropped it,” he said.
“What do the public think? If you drop the policy, then it’s a bad policy.”
He said the strategy of “double trouble”, linking Prime Minister Albanese and Premier Jacinta Allan, “just didn’t cut through at all.”
The last week of the campaign was marked by Dutton raising the question of Welcome to Country ceremonies and their prevalence across various events, after its inclusion in the 2025 Melbourne Dawn Service was heckled.
Wood said Labor ran a good campaign and “exploited” these topics, but also admitted the Liberals should consider their words.
“You can find that your base has a very strong view on these and then your voters haven’t, so it’s trying to get that balance right.”
“I think we do have to moderate and tone down our language a bit in the future and I think that is what the voters want us to do to.”
The Liberal Party will soon enter the party room to decided a new leader with Acting Leader Sussan Ley, Wannon MP Dan Tehan, Hume MP Angus Taylor and Canning MP Andrew Hastie as favourites.
Though some outgoing Liberal MPs have lashed out at certain MPs and backed others for leader, Jason Wood said he will begin discussions with his colleagues to inform his choice.
“Given that there are still seats in play and yet to be decided, we will not hold a ballot until these outcomes are clear.”
