Face of Nation : Senior Labor frontbencher Mark Butler has refused to pre-empt the review of this party’s failure in the May federal election but he says it must be “ruthless and unsparing”.
Mr Butler, a former national president of the Labor party, said it was the third election loss in a row and it had now only won a majority once in the House of Representative in the past 25 years.
“We have to get everything right if we’re in a position to win a majority government and that means having a very, very clear review, clear idea about what went wrong in 2019 and making sure we’re in the best position possible to do better in 2022.”
Former Labor treasurer and now national president Wayne Swan has urged the party to stick to its tax-and-spend agenda, a position many believe was the reason why the party performed badly in May. Mr Butler says Mr Swan is a very experienced member of the Labor party and is entitled to his view. “But I think he accepts also that this was a very deep election loss,” he said.
