18 June 2025
E&OE…………………………………………………………………………………………………
Dan Tehan: It wasn't the best run campaign that we've seen. As a matter of fact, a lot of people have said it's one of the worst that they've seen. So I think we've all got to be prepared to provide feedback to make sure how we can do it better. I look at it as a football game. You've got to have your strategy right. You've got to have all your players performing well. And you've got to make sure all parts of your organisation are working well. And I think it's fair to say that we didn't have that. So we've really got to learn the lessons from that and I think each of us have something to say with regards to that so I'll be putting in a submission.
ABC News Breakfast: Dan, one of the issues that's going to be looked at in the review is the long-term challenge by Teal Independence. Now when it comes to Independents in general you saw a challenge in Alex Dyson, you held on. Why do you think you managed to do it but others in your party couldn't do it?
Tehan: Well look, I think that's one of the things we need to look at when it comes to the review and we have to look at, you know, were resources allocated where they needed to be allocated, did candidates have the support that they needed, were the financial resources provided, what was the ground game like, were people able to build that sort of local support base. I was very fortunate, I had over 1,700 people, in one way or another, who supported me and that in the end was absolutely critical. So I think there's a number of things that we need to look at but I think we also need to now understand that on the centre-right side of politics in Australia, we're now up against what I call a progressive front. The Labor Party, the Greens and the Teals are in many ways working as one to defeat us. And we've got to look at that as a new challenge now and how we can combat that. I think that's going to be one of the really important things of the review.
ABC News Breakfast: Just before we let you go, you stuck to your electorate like glue. I mean you really didn't feature too much in the national campaign. You were always on polling booths, things like that. Is that the lesson that you took out of this?
Tehan: Well, all politics is local, as we know, and I think it's incredibly important that you know and understand that the first thing you are is a representative for your local community. And that's something that I've always taken to heart and I've always saw as my number one responsibility is really being there for my local community. And that's a lot of hard work and a lot of effort.
And I think that making sure that all MPs, especially on our side, know and understand that that's their fundamental first responsibility, then everything else flows from that. And that's, you know, obviously good policy development if you're a Shadow Minister, and ultimately holding the government to account. And, you know, that's what I know Sussan will be seeking to do, holding the government to account, but also making sure that in three years' time we've got a very good policy offering to offer to the Australian people. We don't have a lot of time for that. Three-year cycles are very short and we've really got to make sure we get and start doing that work up until up until this stage, up until Christmas, because if we don't, you know, the next election will be on us before we know it.
