“There are excellent members, capable candidates who have lost their seats or prospects. And I regret that,” he mentioned last night.

Nationals leader David Littleproud stated that Labor succeeded by “ruining Peter Dutton’s image”, rendering him unelectable “in his own seat and nationwide”.

However, Nine national affairs editor Andrew Probyn noted that although Dutton’s unpopularity played a role, the Coalition’s inability to present a convincing case for change in government, despite voter dissatisfaction over cost of living, was also significant.

He pointed to its plan to stop public servants working from home, which was aborted early in the campaign and the pledge to slash 41,000 government workers.

The job cuts particularly seemed to be straight out of the playbook of US President Donald Trump, he said, an association not reduced by Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s “make Australia great again” comment.

“Restoring a viable opposition will start with recognising what went wrong and it’ll need a new leader who’s prepared to take the party in a new direction,” Probyn said.

“Among the contenders, Angus Taylor, Andrew Hastie, Sussan Ley and Dan Tehan.”

Former Coalition Minister Christopher Pyne called for his party to move back towards the centre.

Victorious Treasurer Jim Chalmers told the ABC’s Insiders that voters had rejected the Coalition’s “backward-looking pessimism”.

Nine political editor Charles Croucher said such a “seismic shift” required a lot of factors.

“Labor ran a very disciplined campaign, surprised the electorate with tax cuts and were brutally effective attacks on Peter Dutton,” he said.

“For the coalition, the campaign was disastrous. Donald Trump’s tariffs came at the worst possible time and the debate over nuclear power was lost. 

“Each of those things are bad for the coalition but bad plus bad plus bad equals really bad for Peter Dutton.”