Speaker 1: Our country is in trouble. The Labor government has failed
Speaker 1: and the Liberal Party has lost its way.
Speaker 2: The knives are out the leader. The spill is on.
Speaker 1: Because we're running out of time and Australia is worth
Speaker 1: fighting for.
Speaker 2: Today, Liberal MP Angus Taylor will challenge Susan Lee for
Speaker 2: the leadership and a party room showdown at nine am.
Speaker 2: Their colleagues scrambling to pick sides as the face off looms.
Speaker 3: This cannot go on. If it goes on, there'll be
Speaker 3: nothing left of the Liberal Party by the next election.
Speaker 3: To effectively knife the Liberal Party's first female leader in
Speaker 3: under a year, it's actively, in my view, unacceptable.
Speaker 2: I'm Daniel James, and you're listening to seven AM today
Speaker 2: Contributing editor at The New Daily, Amy Remikus on Taylor's chances,
Speaker 2: the gender question, and whether a leadership change can save
Speaker 2: the Liberal Party. It's Friday, February thirteen. Amy, How is
Speaker 2: the last twenty four hours planned out? I mean, what
Speaker 2: has Angus Taylor said about his reasons for challenging now?
Speaker 4: The last twenty four hours have been a pretty big mess,
Speaker 4: mostly because Angus Taylor was pushed to doing this leadership challenge.
Speaker 5: Now it was a real shit to get.
Speaker 4: Off the pot moment for the Liberal Party where Susan
Speaker 4: Lee basically was saying, if you're going to challenge me,
Speaker 4: challenge me. Now Susan Lee is hanging on to her
Speaker 4: job but only just surviving today's Liberal Party room meeting
Speaker 4: without a leadership spill. It was only when he came
Speaker 4: out on Thursday morning that he said yes, I am
Speaker 4: going to challenge for the leadership, and that included a
Speaker 4: very snazzy social media video that he did, complete with
Speaker 4: very you know, swelling, swelling orchestral music behind it.
Speaker 1: I'm dedicated to serving you, the Australian people and giving
Speaker 1: you I.
Speaker 2: Thought it was very much a case of good job
Speaker 2: Bang as well done.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, good job Bang is well done.
Speaker 4: Fantastic He put that out and then we started seeing
Speaker 4: a lot of his supporters joining him in quitting the
Speaker 4: shadow cabinet.
Speaker 1: Jess and I made the decision that there's no more
Speaker 1: talking about it, no more whispers, no more talking about ourselves.
Speaker 2: We are getting this on some of our colleagues that
Speaker 2: they think she should be given until the budget.
Speaker 4: I don't think delivering a budget and reply is going
Speaker 4: to save us in this crisis.
Speaker 3: It's for those reasons that this morning I tended my
Speaker 3: resignation to Susan Lee as to the leader of Liberal Party,
Speaker 3: Susan Lee.
Speaker 4: The happiest person maybe was Victorian Senator Sarah Henderson, who
Speaker 4: was almost glowing with happiness as she announced that the
Speaker 4: leadership spill would happen, which dates back to when Sarah
Speaker 4: Henderson didn't get a shadow Cabinet position and basically has
Speaker 4: sworn vengeance ever since.
Speaker 3: I am just going to say at the moment that
Speaker 3: I cannot support the way things are with Susan Lee
Speaker 3: as leader. It sounds like you're not supporting her positions leader. Well,
Speaker 3: I can't back in the way things are pete and
Speaker 3: I've got to be.
Speaker 4: So you're seeing a lot of petty vengeances being played out.
Speaker 4: But the interesting thing for political watches is that Ankus
Speaker 4: Taylor hasn't actually mapped out anything that he would do
Speaker 4: different to Susan Lee. His platform is that he wants
Speaker 4: to protect Australia's way of life and focus on the economy.
Speaker 1: You know, at the end of the day, what we're
Speaker 1: seeing is household standards of living collapsing in front of
Speaker 1: our eyes.
Speaker 4: And if you've listened to Susan Lee for the last
Speaker 4: nine months. That is pretty much all she's been saying
Speaker 4: that she wants to maintain Australia's way of life. Right now,
Speaker 4: Australians are struggling even more with the cost of living crisis.
Speaker 4: This is Labour's We don't have any policies from the party,
Speaker 4: so we can't say if Angus Taylor's policies would be
Speaker 4: any different. He's just saying we need a decisive leader
Speaker 4: and that's going.
Speaker 3: To be me.
Speaker 2: Like you said, Susan Lee hasn't been given a full
Speaker 2: year in the job nine months. Some of her supporters
Speaker 2: just said that she hasn't been given a fair crack
Speaker 2: at the top job. In your view, Amy, has she
Speaker 2: been given a fair go?
Speaker 4: It's hard to answer because I mean, okay, she probably
Speaker 4: hasn't been given a fair go, but I'm not sure
Speaker 4: if anybody could in that party. But she didn't have
Speaker 4: any authority when she stepped into the leadership. She didn't
Speaker 4: have any policies, she didn't have any direction. And guess
Speaker 4: there have been times when it's been out of co control,
Speaker 4: like the tantrums that we've seen from the National Party.
Speaker 4: You know, there was Australia's worst terrorist attack, she's been
Speaker 4: dealing with all of that. It was also her decision
Speaker 4: to politicize that attack, that horrendous attack, by demanding Parliament
Speaker 4: be recalled, by demanding all of this legislation that then
Speaker 4: led to the latest breakup with the coalition because of
Speaker 4: rushed laws that she originally had called on the Prime
Speaker 4: Minister to do. And then you have to look back
Speaker 4: and say, well, Susan Lee has been in the Parliament
Speaker 4: for a long time, she has been a senior member
Speaker 4: of that parliament for a long time. She is also
Speaker 4: responsible for the direction of the Liberal Party, and so
Speaker 4: is Angus Taylor. So you can't say that they haven't
Speaker 4: been able to change course because the architects of the
Speaker 4: last six years of Liberal Party policy, and you know
Speaker 4: that this decline that we've seen in the vote are
Speaker 4: the same people who are telling you now that they
Speaker 4: can take the Liberal Party in a different direction.
Speaker 2: So despite all that, though, it's not really a great
Speaker 2: look to knife the first female leader the Liberal Party
Speaker 2: has ever had, especially given the problems that the party
Speaker 2: has with women. Did gender play a role in this decision?
Speaker 4: I mean, it's hard to look at the Liberal Party
Speaker 4: and say that gender didn't play a role in the decision.
Speaker 4: I think that the fact that it has only been
Speaker 4: nine months gender does play a role in that there's
Speaker 4: a lot of people in the Liberal Party who were
Speaker 4: never going to vote for Susan Lee, who have not
Speaker 4: actually wanted her to have any time, or wouldn't even
Speaker 4: afford her the grace, and her being a woman would
Speaker 4: play into that. Not saying that you know that they
Speaker 4: that's their only reason, but it's certainly one of the
Speaker 4: reasons I think that they feel so comfortable in moving
Speaker 4: this quickly against Susan Lee. I think though, the bigger
Speaker 4: problem for Susan Lee was when you hand women the
Speaker 4: hospital pass of a failing job, or a failing party
Speaker 4: or a failing organization, it always seems to be the
Speaker 4: woman who's meant to clean up the mess and then
Speaker 4: when it all, you know, inevitably implodes, that ends the
Speaker 4: woman's career. That is not unique to the Liberal Party,
Speaker 4: but Susan Lees had her own issues in that any
Speaker 4: principle or policy that she has previously supported in her
Speaker 4: time in Parliament, she has turned her back on in
Speaker 4: this quest for the leadership, and that has meant that
Speaker 4: she has lost allies, she has lost the foundation of
Speaker 4: principle to be able to guide the party, and she's
Speaker 4: lost authority. She never had it walking into the leadership.
Speaker 4: So this is really it was inevitable that we would
Speaker 4: reach this point.
Speaker 2: So what she tipped in Amy is Anger's going to win.
Speaker 4: Look, you can never know, as Malcolm Turnbull once said
Speaker 4: that the only person that you can actually trust in
Speaker 4: a leadership spill is the one telling you that they're
Speaker 4: absolutely not going to vote for you. So you know,
Speaker 4: and these are tight numbers. They haven't really changed since
Speaker 4: May when they first did this. She only won by
Speaker 4: a couple of votes then, and it's only going to
Speaker 4: be a couple of votes now.
Speaker 5: There's been a changeover in the Senate.
Speaker 4: Some of Susan Lee's supporters like Holly Hughes are no
Speaker 4: longer there. They've been replaced by Angus Taylor supporters like
Speaker 4: Jess Collins. But that doesn't mean that Angus Taylor absolutely
Speaker 4: has its sewn up. I would say it's the most
Speaker 4: likely outcome, but it's still going to be close, I think,
Speaker 4: and I don't think it's actually going to solve any
Speaker 4: of the Liberal's fundamental problems, which is, what is the
Speaker 4: Liberal Party in twenty twenty six, what does it stand for,
Speaker 4: what direction is it heading in? And who does it
Speaker 4: want to vote for it? Because at the moment, the
Speaker 4: answer to all of those questions are very.
Speaker 2: Unclear coming up. Can a leadership change fix the Liberal
Speaker 2: Party's problems? Amy The Liberal leadership may in dispute, but
Speaker 2: what is not in dispute is that the Liberal parties
Speaker 2: in distrates. Will it change in leadership go any way
Speaker 2: to solving the problems?
Speaker 4: I would say on the face of it, no, I
Speaker 4: don't think that people know who Angus Taylor is, and
Speaker 4: I don't think that people were necessarily marking the Liberal
Speaker 4: Party down because of Susan Lee. I think they were
Speaker 4: marking the Liberal Party down because of the Liberal Party.
Speaker 5: And that's not just been in this last nine months.
Speaker 4: That's been at the twenty twenty five election and then
Speaker 4: the twenty twenty two election, and again Angus Taylor hasn't
Speaker 4: offered up any changes of how he would take the
Speaker 4: fundamental problem of that tension between what is left of
Speaker 4: the moderate wing the Liberal Party who want to win
Speaker 4: inner city seats that the Teals hold, and then the
Speaker 4: national right of the Liberal Party, which are very focused
Speaker 4: on just fighting off one nation. So unless you find
Speaker 4: some way to solve that problem of how the Liberal
Speaker 4: Party appeals to the city while also trying to face
Speaker 4: off against one nation, then you are not going to
Speaker 4: see any material change in how people view the Liberal Party.
Speaker 2: It's no secret that despite their Happy Families press conference
Speaker 2: on Sunday, it was only Sunday.
Speaker 5: Press bakers for lifetime.
Speaker 2: Nationals leader David Little Proud wants Susan Lee gone. Despite
Speaker 2: what he said in the press conference. What does this
Speaker 2: change in leadership do if it happens due to the coalition.
Speaker 4: Well, I think David Little Proud will probably work a
Speaker 4: little easier with Angus Taylor than he has with Susan
Speaker 4: Lee because it will calm down a lot of the
Speaker 4: rabid conservatives within the National Party. But again, that doesn't
Speaker 4: mean that that solves the Liberals problem, because if Angus
Speaker 4: Taylor is going to be looking after the Nationals and
Speaker 4: making sure that they get their policy positions in place,
Speaker 4: then that means that any Liberal who wants to win
Speaker 4: or hold on to an inner City seat can pretty
Speaker 4: much just kiss that chance goodbye. I also think that
Speaker 4: this idea that Angus Taylor is going to be able
Speaker 4: to communicate better to people who are flirting with one
Speaker 4: Nation than Barnaby Joyce and Pauline Hanson is a bit
Speaker 4: of wishful king. Angus Taylor has never been a great communicator.
Speaker 4: Jim Chalmers in the Parliament this week equipped that Angus
Speaker 4: Taylor had been born with a silver foot in his mouth.
Speaker 3: The Member four Hume was born with a silver foot
Speaker 3: in his mouth, mister speaker.
Speaker 4: Now, just when we thought that they couldn't go any
Speaker 4: law and it got a very big laugh, not just
Speaker 4: from the Labor benches but also from Angus Taylor's own
Speaker 4: colleagues because.
Speaker 5: It rings true.
Speaker 4: So you've already got the attacks that Labor is lining
Speaker 4: up here, which is going to hurt those inner city
Speaker 4: liberals as well as you know, the alter suburban liberals,
Speaker 4: which is this is a misogynistic move by the Liberal
Speaker 4: Party to get rid.
Speaker 5: Of their first female leader in under a year.
Speaker 4: That makes it a lot easier for the Labor Party
Speaker 4: to carry out this battle in this current political climate
Speaker 4: because it's not somebody you know coming down on a
Speaker 4: woman leader. It's man against man, and that's a lot
Speaker 4: easier political fight to have.
Speaker 2: And finally, Amy, it's been an incredibly dramatic few weeks
Speaker 2: for the coalition and I guess I won't say for
Speaker 2: the country. We saw the breakup, then the makeup. Now
Speaker 2: this is this the end of the chaos?
Speaker 4: Amy, No, I'd say that we'll be talking many, many,
Speaker 4: many more times about the chaos within the Liberal Party.
Speaker 4: It's just it's not something that they can arrest with.
Speaker 5: A change of leadership.
Speaker 4: You just have to look at the polling and you know,
Speaker 4: people like a Redbridge group caused Samaras who are saying, well,
Speaker 4: you know, the Liberal Party are not reaching women, they're
Speaker 4: not reaching people in the regions, they're not reaching young people.
Speaker 5: None of this is new.
Speaker 4: This has been a problem for the Liberal Party for
Speaker 4: years now and they have not arrested the slide. And
Speaker 4: I don't think that someone like Angus Taylor, who has
Speaker 4: been an architect of Liberal Party policy that has got
Speaker 4: them to this place. I don't see how well anything
Speaker 4: is going to change now that he's going to be
Speaker 4: directing Liberal Party policy moving forward.
Speaker 2: Well, Ami, it looks like we're going to be speaking many, many,
Speaker 2: many more times in the near to distant future. So
Speaker 2: thank you so much for your time anytime. Also in
Speaker 2: the news, New South Wales Premier Chris Mins says he
Speaker 2: won't apologize to the Muslim community after police were filmed
Speaker 2: disbanding a prayer session at Monday's mass protest against the
Speaker 2: Israeli president. The New South Wales Police Commissioner has apologized
Speaker 2: after condemnation for Muslim groups and the Grand Mufty of Australia,
Speaker 2: but only for any offense that may have been taken.
Speaker 2: The sheikh leading the prayer has described police actions as
Speaker 2: unhinged and aggressive. A Reserve Bank Governor Michelle Bullach has
Speaker 2: lashed out at National Senator Matt Canavan. Canavan accused her
Speaker 2: of gaslighting millions after she said the economy was quote
Speaker 2: doing okay when their lived experience is terrible. Billick said
Speaker 2: she was not gaslighting anyone, saying she only stated that
Speaker 2: certain parts of the economy are doing well. I'm Daniel James.
Speaker 2: You've been listening to seven Am. We'll be back tomorrow.