‘We’re F***ed’: Inside the LNP’s campaign meltdown

The beers were flowing and plates of half-eaten pizza slices sat cooling as the Gold Coast’s LNP faithful watched on grim-faced. They had won the local races – but nationally they were facing a nightmare.

“We’re f***ed” uttered a well-known LNP figure while tucking into cheese and biscuits at Tallebudgera Surf Life Saving Club just before 9pm on Saturday night.

The beers were flowing and plates of half-eaten pizza slices sat cooling as the LNP faithful watched on grim-faced as the party’s hopes of returning to government went down in flames.

There were occasional cheers from the blue-and-gold shirted supporters as  the results for McPherson flashed up on the screen showing candidate Leon Rebello edging ahead of Labor’s Alice Price.

Mr Rebello, who on Sunday appeared on track to win the seat with a reduced margin from predecessor and retired LNP veteran Karen Andrews, was greeted as a hero by supporters who gave him hugs and congratulated him.

But as the numbers rolled in and more previously safe Liberal seats fell across the county, the disappointment was writ large on the face of the true believers who had hoped that Peter Dutton would defy history and defeat a first-term government.

Shortly after 8pm it was clear the Coalition couldn’t possibly form majority government and within an hour, the scale of the calamity facing conservative politics was dawning.

A concerned Hermann Vorster and Leon Rebello keeping an eye on the screens at Tallebudgera SLSC. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

Party insiders, hardened by decades in the political trenches, opened up on what went wrong.

“(LNP) headquarters deserves all the blame for this one and it shouldn’t reflect at all on Leon and his team who did a really great job, so they shouldn’t get tarred by this,” they said.

“The biggest problem was that we had bad policies which were badly developed.

“None of it was road-tested and none of it worked.

“The nuclear thing was half-hearted and the work-from-home policy and the backflip was a total disaster.

“None of it worked at all.”

Dutton had staked his bid on rolling out nuclear power stations across the country including a reactor in his own electorate of Dickson which he would go on to lose as well.

As the results continued to flow through, supporters kept their eyes glued to the television screens and smartphones, rapidly refreshing the Australian electoral commission website looking for any hope.

Election parties are a strange beast, attracting campaign volunteers who spent the day at polling booths, along with party supporters and political figures past and present.

They can prove a powder keg of emotions, depending on the result.

Some are bittersweet wakes as the die-hards commiserate over a loss, expected or otherwise and look to the future while mourning what could have been.

Others - in the event of an unexpected victory - are wild.

The prime example was Ford MP Bert Van Manen’s party on the night of Scott Morrison’s shock “miracle” win in 2019 as his blue-shirted supporters jumped up and down screaming “Labor sucks” and cheering as results came in.

Leon Rebello with his supporters at Tallebudgera SLSC on election night. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

Mr Rebello’s event fell very much in the former camp than the latter.

Nobody was screaming this time as political figures looked on and absorbed the news that the LNP was facing at least another three years in the political wilderness and one of its worst election beatings in history.

Karen Andrews, the LNP’s outgoing McPherson MP was a conspicuous absence after making a low-key exit from politics.

A who’s-who of conservative politics on the southern Gold Coast attended, including state MPs Ros Bates, Hermann Vorster and Laura Gerber, former state MP Michael Hart and Robina councillor Dan Doran.

Party leaders made the rounds “calming the farm”  as  the results continued to show a wipeout in safe seats.

Around 100 people packed onto the deck of the surf club during the early part of the evening but the numbers began to thin rapidly once Labor’s victory appeared assured and it became clear that Mr Dutton had lost his Brisbane seat of Dickson.

At 9.33pm, as Mr Dutton gave his graceful concession speech, one LNP supporter wearing a curly blue wig yelled at the screen.

“There’s potato head. We still love you Dutton, you potato,” he said.

Mr Rebello gave a short speech to his supporters and, while he was speaking about his own seat, his words could more broadly be seen to speak towards the situation facing the Liberal Party as it licks its wounds from this devastating result.

“While we are still waiting on the results, there is hope,” he said.

“The night is young and we are still waiting on final results. We are all optimistic and hoping for the best.”

The party faithful will need all the hope they can get after this weekend.  

Originally published as ‘We’re F***ed’: Inside the LNP’s campaign meltdown