Former minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt has blamed Peter Dutton’s “doubling down on culture wars”, specifically in Indigenous affairs, as a significant contributor to what Coalition insiders have called a “catastrophic” election loss.
“To be divisive on a cultural and socio-economic group that lives with disadvantage is not the way in which you lead a country,” the former Liberal Party MP told the ABC’s Indigenous Affairs Team.
“It is about statesman-like leadership; it is about looking at what is good for all within our nation.
“Doubling down on cultural wars, including ethnic minorities in Australia, in respect to particular issues in capital cities, is not the way you bring people forward,” he said, adding the party failed to show it was “relevant” to women and young people.
After a Neo-Nazi heckled an ANZAC Day Welcome to Country, Mr Dutton condemned the incident but later intensified his critiques of the cultural gesture as “overdone” and suggested it was not warranted on Anzac Day.
Mr Wyatt said some of the electorate “would have been offended” by Mr Dutton’s critiques of Welcome to Countries and his vow not to stand in front of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags at official press briefings.
“I previously said that of the 60 per cent of Australians who voted no in the referendum because of the way it was managed, do not abandon their support for Indigenous reform and change,” the Noongar, Yamatji and Wongi man said.
Ken Wyatt said the result of the election showed “a rejection of the divisiveness” of the campaign. (ABC: Keane Bourke)
Career pathways, economic stability and home ownership would have been a better strategy in reaching these voters, in Mr Wyatt’s view, than “this symbolic, divisive behaviour [and] the Trumpian approach in some of the rhetoric”.
Although Mr Dutton has apologised for boycotting the 2008 National Apology to the Stolen Generations — saying he failed to grasp its “symbolic significance” at the time — Mr Wyatt said he was not convinced the former opposition leader learned lessons in his approach to Indigenous affairs.
“If I take just the simple notion of walking out of the apology, then that is a reflection of a position you hold,” he said.
“However, what you would expect of any leader is for them to learn from that and to go back to a fundamental, basic approach of leading this country for all [and] not to be divisive.”
Mr Wyatt also had concerns about Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s leadership.
“I have a view about the way in which the portfolio should be handled. I wouldn’t handle it the way that Jacinta did,” he said.
“So what I’m pleased about is that Malarndirri McCarthy is the minister …
“So there is relief because there was certainly concern about Jacinta becoming minister for Indigenous Australians, some of her commentary have frightened and dismayed a lot of people.”
Coalition ‘misread’ Voice result, says pollster
Pollster Kos Samaras agrees the Coalition “completely misread” the 2023 vote against the Voice.
“They took all the wrong lessons from the referendum and basically inserted their own biases in thinking that Australians have very strong views on the issues of Indigenous rights that are in line with their views,” said the Redbridge director.
“They were absolutely incorrect … they obviously thought that the outer suburbs voting no meant that the outer suburbs were animated by this issue, when in reality, they voted no because it wasn’t a top-order issue for them.”
Redbridge pollster Kos Samaras says young voters swung hard towards the government on polling day.
It is the reason, in Mr Samaras’s view, why Liberal leadership embarked on culture war politics that “backfired” for the party and “contributed” to its election loss.
Spending significant time and resources on campaigning against the Voice also hurt the Coalition among gen Z voters, who split two in three towards Labor on preferences, according to the former Victorian Labor strategist.
Liberal member Warren Mundine says a “weak campaign” cost the party in the 2025 election. (ABC: Chris Taylor)
Calling the Liberals’ campaign “clumsy”, Nyunggai Warren Mundine — who campaigned against the Voice — said he was surprised the party did not do enough early on to capture Labor voters who were opposed to the Voice.
“Everyday Australians, it is about hip pocket,” the Liberal member said, adding that “non-issues” Welcome to Countries and flags were currently not important to Australians.
“It weakened their [cost of living] message.”
Mr Mundine wanted to see crime highlighted in the campaign, as well as Closing the Gap issues like education and jobs.
“One of the sad things about this election was, it’s probably the first time that I’ve seen a federal election in decades where Aboriginal affairs was not front-and-centre,” he said.
Mr Mundine, who missed out on Liberal preselection in the Bradfield electorate earlier this year, added there were “huge problems” within the Coalition and said it must sort out the “factional fighting” and do a lot of “soul-searching”.
Labor also ‘miscalculated’ electorate’s Voice vote: Mayo
Prominent Yes campaigner Thomas Mayo says Labor “needs to get serious about policy” for Indigenous people. (ABC News: Billy Cooper)
Thomas Mayo, Yes campaigner and signatory to the Uluru Statement, said “the Coalition put a lot of energy and effort into punching down” on First Nations Australians during the campaign, reflecting “a continuing nastiness” since the referendum.
“They are the party that attacks minorities to try and win some votes, and it didn’t work for them this time,” the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander author said.
Mr Mayo also accused the prime minister of “walking away” from his 2022 election night commitment to implement the Uluru Statement — including Treaty and Truth-telling — in full.
“He [Mr Dutton] has created a very strong mandate for Labor now that the rejection of the Voice was not a rejection of progress in Indigenous Affairs,” he said.
“Labor made a calculation to avoid that to get re-elected … I don’t think it was the right calculation.”
Senator Kerrynne Liddle says, “this is a time for reflection and review” for the Liberal Party. (ABC: Justin Hewitson )
Liberal senator Kerrynne Liddle said it will take time to work out what happened on the weekend, saying they will be using this time for “reflection and review”.
The Arrernte woman dismissed the idea the vote was a rejection by a large part of the electorate of so-called culture war issues.
“I think most of the Australian public would think that it was pretty silly to suggest that it is a single issue that has resulted in the outcome that we’ve seen.”
She said “there is a place for acknowledgements, but it’s not every single day, in meetings, within workplaces”.
“There is doing the hard work that makes a difference to the lives of those people that need it. That’s what I will remain focused on, not putting a prize-winning bunch of words together that make people feel good about it.”
The shadow minister, whose portfolio includes child protection, family violence and Indigenous health, remains committed to an audit of Indigenous affairs spending and said the opposition would continue to hold Labor to “account” on these issues.
‘Labor pretend to be our friends’: Thorpe
Reflecting on the results of the weekend, independent senator Lidia Thorpe said she was “not too impressed” with the outcome.
“We got rid of an overt racist political party, and we’ve got a covert one,” the Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung woman said.
“I’m disappointed that we didn’t get more independents in and more minor parties with seats that could hold Labor accountable for their hollow words on justice for our people.”
Senator Lidia Thorpe is disappointed more independents didn’t get elected into the 2025 parliament. (ABC: Patrick Stone)
But now Labor has been voted in for a second term, Senator Thorpe — who has long called for Treaty and Truth-telling — said it now had the power to “make a real difference”.
“[Under Labor] we see the rise in stolen children, the rise in kids in out-of-home care, we’re seeing the rise of incarceration of our people [and] the rise of Black women incarcerated,” she said.
“Labor pretend to be our friends, but they stab us all in the back every day, and I am sick of begging the Labor Party to give us the justice that we deserve.”
The ABC requested an interview with Minister for Indigenous Affairs Malarndirri McCarthy and Shadow Minister Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.