Election 2025: ‘More work to do’: Coalition worried as Peter Dutton struggles

Former deputy PM Michael McCormack says it’s clear the Coalition has ‘more work to do’ before getting voters onside by May 3, as Liberal MPs raise concern over recent ‘missteps’ taken by party leadership.

Former deputy PM and Nationals leader Michael McCormack says more work to be done before May 3. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

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Former deputy prime minister Michael McCormack says it’s clear the Coalition has “more work to do” before getting voters onside by May 3, as Liberal MPs raise concern over “missteps” taken by the party leadership in the weeks before the election was called.

The warning from members of the opposition came amid tightening Newspoll figures for the Coalition, which has fallen behind Labor on a two-party-preferred basis, and as Peter Dutton faced Labor accusations of displaying “hubris” for declaring he would live in Kirribilli over The Lodge should he become prime minister.

Mr Dutton enjoyed a significant advantage over Anthony Albanese on his personal approval ratings at the start of the year, but the trend has been virtually reversed, with the Coalition leader now at his lowest ebb in 18 months and lower than any score Mr Albanese posted in opposition.

“Newspoll reflected what my sense of things has been,” one Liberal MP said. “We haven’t had a good last three weeks and since the cyclone we had a few missteps and gaffs.

“Strategically our challenge now is to convince people that we are a good alternative. The case has been made that Labor is a bad government – people have made their mind up about them but not about us.”

When confronted by the Newspoll figures, Mr Dutton said Australians weren’t paying attention yet to the election.

“I think there are a lot of Australians at the moment who couldn’t even tell you there’s an election coming up, because they’re busy running their kids around, they’re busy with school, they’re busy at work,” he told Sky News

“I think people will tune in when we get closer to the election. And I don’t think a lot of people have heard our budget reply message, which was to reduce the fuel tax by 25 cents a litre, so that people are saving $14 every time they fill up their tank.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton visits the Cougar Mining Equipment factory in Newcastle on Monday. Picture Thomas Lisson / NewsWire

Stressing the campaign had barely begun, Mr McCormack said it was clear the Coalition was “not the favourite”.

“Well look, we’ve got some work to do,” said the Nationals leader from 2018 to 2021.

“If anyone thinks the Coalition is the favourite, they’re dreaming. It’s only day four and everywhere is going to be a battle ground. But yes, it will be tight.”

Another former Nationals leader, Barnaby Joyce, also admitted he didn’t always “get on” with Mr Dutton, and that some people found his style of politics “disconcerting”.

“At times, I don’t get along with him, at times I do,” he told Sunrise.

Mr Dutton has for weeks declared the Coalition is the clear “underdog” in the 2025 election campaign.

But he also said that while the opposition has a chance of forming majority government, there was “no prospect” of Labor doing the same.

The Coalition leader is also facing scrutiny over his declaration he would live in Kirribilli, rather than the Lodge in Canberra, should he get the top job, with Mr Albanese arguing the comment meant Mr Dutton was taking Australians’ vote “for granted”.

“You know, everyone likes the (Sydney) harbour, but your job is to be close to where the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet is, where meetings happen almost every day,” Mr Albanese said.

Blowback over the comment follows a series of attacks by Labor on other issues, including Mr Dutton’s decision to leave his electorate for a fundraiser on the eve of ex-tropical cyclone Alfred, and internal concerns not enough focus has been applied to economic policy.

Mr Dutton on Monday visited flood-affected areas of Queensland and announced $10m for BOM radar stations.

But despite this and other small funding announcements, one MP said the most worrying element of the Coalition campaign remained the fact the party was still light on economic policies.

“Belief in our economic management is not what it should be. We should be stronger on that than we are,” they said. “We really need to establish dominance.”

Another Liberal MP, who spoke to The Australian just weeks after the partyroom had been urged against criticising leadership in the media, said it was clear the contest had narrowed in recent months.

“I got the sense over December and January there was misplaced optimism from our side,” the MP said.

“Labor hadn’t even started campaigning. The question now is this the beginning of a trend? We won’t know that for a few weeks from now.”

Despite the concern, all Coalition MPs agreed Mr Dutton and opposition energy spokesman Ted O’Brien had made the right call by declaring they would not release a dollar figure on how much energy prices would go down by under a Coalition government.

“That would have been foolhardy,” one MP said.

Mr Dutton on Monday continued to prosecute the argument Australians were no better off than three years ago.