Speaker 1: From Schwartz Media. I'm Daniel James. This is seven am.
Speaker 1: After a week of turmoil, the coalition has gotten the
Speaker 1: band back together and Opposition leader Susan Lee has unveiled
Speaker 1: her shadow ministry. The appointments laid bare, how raw the
Speaker 1: coalition's wounds still are. At the same time, pressure is
Speaker 1: mounting on the Albanesi government with growing calls from within
Speaker 1: labor to take stronger action on Gaza, including imposing sanctions
Speaker 1: on Israel. The Prime Minister has shifted his language, but
Speaker 1: is yet to be seen where it will lead to
Speaker 1: a policy change. Today Press Gallery journalist and Commonest for
Speaker 1: Inside Story Karen Middleton on the winners and losers in
Speaker 1: the coalition reshuffle and where the battle lines the next
Speaker 1: parliament will be drawn. It's Friday May thirty.
Speaker 2: Well, good afternoon today. Dave and I have reached agreement
Speaker 2: formerly to reform the coalition and we can announce our
Speaker 2: new coalition shadow Ministry. I want to thank you David
Speaker 2: for the respectful and Karen.
Speaker 1: After some internal chaos, the Liberals and Nationals have managed
Speaker 1: to reconvene and Opposition leader Susan Lee has announced this
Speaker 1: shadow ministry. Can you take me through the new appointments.
Speaker 3: Yes, well, not surprisingly, Ted O'Brien, her deputy, has taken
Speaker 3: on the Treasury portfolio. The deputy leader traditionally gets to
Speaker 3: choose their portfolio, and he has chosen that now.
Speaker 2: I'm really excited to work with my new economic team
Speaker 2: Ted O'Brien as Shadow Treasurer and James Patterson in Finance.
Speaker 3: Latnine's Angus Taylor, who held that previously, is now in
Speaker 3: the defense portfolio. Michaulia Cash a bit of a surprise
Speaker 3: getting Foreign affairs. Alex Hawk, who was a numbers man
Speaker 3: for Susan Lee has been motor into the Industry Innovation portfolio,
Speaker 3: and Dan Tian takes on energy and they've renamed the
Speaker 3: climate change portfolio as Emissions Reduction, Energy and Emissions Reduction,
Speaker 3: so they're sending a little message about their intent in
Speaker 3: relation to climate change.
Speaker 2: I think Dan, working alongside our passionate and talented party
Speaker 2: room and the Nationals, will lead our work to deliver
Speaker 2: a plan that gets emissions down but also delivers a
Speaker 2: reliable grid in energy for Australians. Australia does have to
Speaker 2: play its part in the global response to climate change,
Speaker 2: but not at any cost.
Speaker 3: Interestingly, though, the Indigenous Affairs portfolio has gone to Karen
Speaker 3: Little and she goes into the senior ranks of the
Speaker 3: shadow industry. Just Iner Nabajinproprice is effectively demoted. She no
Speaker 3: longer has that portfolio, and she's moving to the outer
Speaker 3: ministry in the defense industry and personnel portfolio. And I
Speaker 3: guess among the most notable missions is Jane Hume, the
Speaker 3: former Shadow of Finance minister who was relegated to the backbench.
Speaker 3: A couple of other women also losing their positions, Claire
Speaker 3: Chandler and Sarah Henderson, but I guess Jane Hume is
Speaker 3: having the most attention.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so she's obviously the biggest casualty from the reshuffle.
Speaker 4: Jane Hume is not on the list at all.
Speaker 1: Did she ask not to be on the front bench
Speaker 1: or has she just been reliant?
Speaker 2: Well, I don't reflect on private conversations. I will say this.
Speaker 1: That the what do you think was the motivation behind
Speaker 1: dumping her from the ministry and the cabinet.
Speaker 3: Well, it's an interesting question. I think it's sort of
Speaker 3: shocked and surprised a number of people. There was some
Speaker 3: thinking that perhaps she might be demotive, but not necessarily
Speaker 3: dupped from the whole Shadow ministry on to the backbench.
Speaker 3: She was of course responsible for the working from Home policy,
Speaker 3: which turned out to be a political disaster for the
Speaker 3: coalition during the election campaign.
Speaker 5: It will be an expectation of a Liberal government that
Speaker 5: all members of the Australian public us work from the
Speaker 5: office five days a week.
Speaker 3: She also made some unfortunate comments alleging that Chinese spies
Speaker 3: were involved in campaigning for other parties.
Speaker 5: Don't need to go out that far on the polling booths, Claire.
Speaker 5: There might be Chinese spies that are hanging out for you,
Speaker 5: but for us, there's dozens, thousands, hundreds of young people.
Speaker 3: That didn't go terribly well, particularly in seats with high
Speaker 3: proportions of Chinese Australian voters. So it looks like punishment.
Speaker 3: And she's also seen to not be a strong supporter
Speaker 3: of Susan Lee, so a touch of maybe personal politics
Speaker 3: there as well, and there is a bit of a
Speaker 3: flavor of that in here. We're seeing some particularly women
Speaker 3: who were seen to be more conservative as not getting
Speaker 3: a guernsey in this lineup, and so Susan Lee is
Speaker 3: being seen to reward factional allies and perhaps isolate some
Speaker 3: who were not so much.
Speaker 2: Look of my shadow ministry is made up of women and.
Speaker 3: Across that party room more broad as many as not
Speaker 3: as many under the former Labor the party.
Speaker 2: The party is led by a woman, and can I
Speaker 2: say when we make the calls that we need to,
Speaker 2: I will be at the table for every single one
Speaker 2: of those big calls. I want to see those.
Speaker 3: And of course on the demotion and ostracization front, on
Speaker 3: the National side we're seeing Barnaby Joyce and Michael McCormack
Speaker 3: and Matt Canavan all relegated to the backbench. The selections
Speaker 3: from the National side were made by David Little Proud,
Speaker 3: and of course certainly McCormack and Joyce have been very
Speaker 3: critical of the way David Little Proud's been handling things
Speaker 3: in the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: Given all the machinations and the doing and throwing between
Speaker 1: the Nationals and the Liberals, is there any question about
Speaker 1: David Little Prowd's hustre as party leader after the way
Speaker 1: these negotiations were.
Speaker 3: Handled, I reckon there might be, maybe not immediately, but
Speaker 3: the tone and the content of the commentary from some
Speaker 3: of the Nationals in the last few days would sit
Speaker 3: that they are suggesting that they're kind of putting him
Speaker 3: on notice. He is arguing that he's had success, that
Speaker 3: what he wanted to do in walking out of the
Speaker 3: coalition and leading the party away was to force the
Speaker 3: Liberals to accede to some of the National's demands. He
Speaker 3: reckons he's done that.
Speaker 6: We stared the Liberal Party down and we didn't blink.
Speaker 6: We made it very clear that if they wanted to
Speaker 6: re sign the coalition with us, there were four policy
Speaker 6: principles we couldn't couldn't just let slide by. We needed again.
Speaker 3: He talked about nuclear power, Well, that has actually been
Speaker 3: negotiated down a little. It's no longer the policy that
Speaker 3: went to the election. It is now just removing the
Speaker 3: moratorium on nuclear power. But also this twenty billion dollar
Speaker 3: regional fund, the divestment powers for supermarkets, and better mobile
Speaker 3: coverage in the bush. All of those things in principle
Speaker 3: have now been agreed to buy the Liberals. So David
Speaker 3: Little Proud is claiming that as a success in event,
Speaker 3: but a number of his colleagues are still pretty unhappy.
Speaker 3: We've seen Barnaby Joyce criticize him publicly you can't look,
Speaker 3: you can think of all this really clever line you're
Speaker 3: going to say on this. They'll ask me this, and
Speaker 3: I'll say that there is no clever line about this.
Speaker 3: It was a complete chakra. So it is not a
Speaker 3: happy camp entirely. And there's been a lot of talk
Speaker 3: about the potential for replacing him with Michael McCormack, and
Speaker 3: Michael McCormack is playing along with all of that saying, oh, look,
Speaker 3: I've got no plans to challenge him anytime soon. Well
Speaker 3: we all know what that sort of caveat means. So
Speaker 3: i'd say David Little, probably looking over his shoulder for
Speaker 3: a while.
Speaker 1: After the break, what the coalition would rather be talking about, Karen.
Speaker 1: The Opposition must be loathed to be talking about themselves now.
Speaker 1: But one thing they are keen to talk about other
Speaker 1: changes to superannuation that the government has announced with the
Speaker 1: proposed increase to the tax rate on superbalances over three
Speaker 1: million dollars. It's something the government took to the election.
Speaker 1: So where is that proposal at.
Speaker 3: Well, it's interesting I think the opposition of seizing on
Speaker 3: this as a point of combat with the government and
Speaker 3: something that they've had some success on in terms of
Speaker 3: prosecuting arguments against Labor Party in the past. If we
Speaker 3: go back that to that twenty nineteen election where Labor
Speaker 3: was talking about making changes to franking credits, to the
Speaker 3: way that retire shareholdings were treated. The Coalition ran a
Speaker 3: very successful political campaign and that was led by Tim Wilson,
Speaker 3: who lost his seat but is now back in the
Speaker 3: Parliament and I think he will be itching to prosecute
Speaker 3: those kinds of arguments again. From the Labor government side,
Speaker 3: they argue that this effect it's a very small number
Speaker 3: of people. It only if that's superinuation balances that are
Speaker 3: above three million, doubling the tax from fifteen to thirty percent.
Speaker 3: But it's the aspect of it that's about unrealized capital gains,
Speaker 3: so gains on paper from within super funds that has
Speaker 3: got people worried. And I think there's plenty of room
Speaker 3: there for the Coalition to raise concerns and doubts and
Speaker 3: try to muddy the waters as they did back in
Speaker 3: twenty nineteen. They ended up successfully convincing some people that
Speaker 3: it was a bit like a death tax back then.
Speaker 3: Now I think they really will be pushing his hard
Speaker 3: and the government is yet, as I say, to legislate
Speaker 3: that'll be one of its top priorities when the parliament
Speaker 3: resumes in late July, so there'll be a bit of
Speaker 3: negotiating to do. They've got the Greens in the Senate
Speaker 3: now in a balance of power position, and the Greens
Speaker 3: favor this change, although they'd like the government to go further.
Speaker 3: But I think you will see a lot of politicking,
Speaker 3: if only for the fact that it is something that
Speaker 3: the opposition can sink its teeth into to really start
Speaker 3: putting pressure on the government in office.
Speaker 1: Karen, we've spoken about the internal tensions within the coalition.
Speaker 1: The government itself is having somewhat of a maybe a
Speaker 1: public or also internal debate over its own position on Gaza.
Speaker 1: In a recent doors Stop interview, Anthony Albanezi criticized Israel
Speaker 1: withholding humanitarian aid, using the strongest language we've heard from
Speaker 1: him on this topic.
Speaker 7: People are starving and the idea that a democratic state
Speaker 7: withhold's supply is an outreach.
Speaker 1: What do you make of his comments and what do
Speaker 1: you think has changed?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was interesting, Daniel. It was a press conference
Speaker 3: at the beginning of the week and the Prime Minister
Speaker 3: was asked about the withholding of aid from Gaza and
Speaker 3: the risk of starvation and famine there, and it was
Speaker 3: noticeably stronger rhetoric and much noticeably stronger response, and it's
Speaker 3: had a lot of attension since then.
Speaker 7: Australia finds these actions as completely unacceptable and we find
Speaker 7: Israel's excuses and explanations completely untenable and without credibility.
Speaker 3: You'd have to say that some of it is to
Speaker 3: do with the strength of his position as a re
Speaker 3: elected Prime minister. The overwhelming electoral result that he achieved
Speaker 3: is obviously giving him confidence to assert positions more forcefully.
Speaker 3: Australia didn't sign up to the statement that was put
Speaker 3: out by the UK, France and Canada recently, and his
Speaker 3: answer to that was they were G seven countries. You know,
Speaker 3: we're in the G twenty. But there will be I
Speaker 3: think increasing pressure from constituents of the labor side to
Speaker 3: be more forceful, and clearly the Prime Ministers indicated that
Speaker 3: he's willing to at least rhetorically speak out more directly
Speaker 3: against Israel's role in the conflict. We've got a conference
Speaker 3: upcoming in New York that will deal with issues around Gaza.
Speaker 3: It will be interesting to see what Australia as a
Speaker 3: government sears and does at that conference. But there's certainly
Speaker 3: now increased pressure on the government to even go as
Speaker 3: far as recognizing a Palestinian state. There will obviously be
Speaker 3: debate about whether that should come after the return of
Speaker 3: the hostages, etc. There's going to be debate about that timeline,
Speaker 3: but certainly that is a shift in the aggression that
Speaker 3: the government is taking and the willingness to assert itself
Speaker 3: in this conflict. We'll see just how far it goes
Speaker 3: in terms of action.
Speaker 1: And of course former Labor Front betcher ed hu Sieki's
Speaker 1: out in the media saying the government should be doing
Speaker 1: more to pressure Israel and that seems to be now
Speaker 1: followed through with ALP rank and file members who are
Speaker 1: debating motions calling for sanctions on Israel. Do you think
Speaker 1: there'll be movement on that front?
Speaker 3: Ed Husik has always been speaking out. When he was
Speaker 3: a minister, he was speaking out too, no.
Speaker 4: Food, fuel, medicines, water, and it's no surprise that there
Speaker 4: are some saying that this is the collective punishment being
Speaker 4: extended to Palestinians.
Speaker 3: Some ways, I feel like the tone of his contributions
Speaker 3: has changed a little. He's been obviously dumped from the
Speaker 3: ministry and he's very upset about that. But on this
Speaker 3: it was a thoughtful contribution. It was well argued, and
Speaker 3: you get the feeling that he rather than being a
Speaker 3: sort of an irritant as such, he's trying to be
Speaker 3: a constructive advocate from outside the ministry.
Speaker 4: One. I think what the Prime Minister did yesterday was
Speaker 4: critically important. I think it was vital that he speak
Speaker 4: up with the strength that he did to call out
Speaker 4: the fact that the withholding of aid is completely unacceptable. Two.
Speaker 4: I think the second thing that needs to actively occur
Speaker 4: is that we do consider those targeted sanctions so that
Speaker 4: we can work with our friends in the international community
Speaker 4: should the net and Yahu government fail to acknowledge broader
Speaker 4: global sentiment about this.
Speaker 3: So we'll see how far he's willing to go in
Speaker 3: terms of the political role he is playing between those
Speaker 3: broader constituents who are really wanting action like sanctions and
Speaker 3: his colleagues in the executive government who are treading or
Speaker 3: have historically been treading carefully.
Speaker 1: And finally, Karen, there's no pressure like pressure from a
Speaker 1: labor elder and former Foreign Affairs mister Gareth Evans has
Speaker 1: also come out and wait into this. How do you
Speaker 1: think the government's going to respond to that sort of
Speaker 1: pressure as well?
Speaker 3: You know, ex Foreign minister's, ex Prime minister's weighing in
Speaker 3: sometimes is not entirely welcomed. Incumbent governments often take a
Speaker 3: dim view of getting advice from the sidelines from people
Speaker 3: who've gone before, and certainly it's quite a while since
Speaker 3: Gareth Evans was Foreign Minister, but he is a respected
Speaker 3: figure in the international community and it's interesting that he
Speaker 3: is choosing to engage and give advice to the government
Speaker 3: on going a bit further in its actions in relation
Speaker 3: to the role of Israel. His view will be taken seriously.
Speaker 3: I think we've obviously seen a lot of division in
Speaker 3: the community in the last year and a half after
Speaker 3: two years, and the Prime Minister and his colleagues will
Speaker 3: be weighing all of that up as they decide what
Speaker 3: their position should be. But they certainly are in a
Speaker 3: stronger position electorally and that may well embolden them to
Speaker 3: take a little more action than they have in the past.
Speaker 1: Karen, thank you so much for your time. It's been
Speaker 1: great speaking with you.
Speaker 3: Thanks for having Me Daniel.
Speaker 1: Also in the news today, Trade Minister Don Ferrell says
Speaker 1: the Australian government will keep pushing for the United States
Speaker 1: to dunp tariffs on Australian goods entirely. The comments come
Speaker 1: after a US Corps blocked President Trump's so called Liberation
Speaker 1: Day tariffs from coming into effect, and the United Nations
Speaker 1: Aid warehouse and Gaza has been broken into by Hungary Palestinians.
Speaker 1: The UN says two people have died and more have
Speaker 1: been injured in the incident at the warehouse in central
Speaker 1: Gaza and it's continue viewing its calls for an immediate
Speaker 1: scale up of aid allowed into Gaza by Israel. Seven
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Speaker 1: Have a great weekend.