Speaker 1: From Sports Media. I'm Daniel James. This is seven am.
Speaker 1: Yesterday the coalition was dead. Today it's back on life
Speaker 1: support after a dramatic split. The Liberals and Nationals are
Speaker 1: suddenly back at the table trying to patch things up
Speaker 1: after a breakup neither side seemed to plan for now.
Speaker 1: All eyes are on Susan Lee. The decision she makes
Speaker 1: in the next few days will not just shape her
Speaker 1: leadership but the future of the party itself. Today chief
Speaker 1: political correspondent for the Saturday Paper Karen Barlow, and while
Speaker 1: the Coalition are back talking again and whether they can
Speaker 1: really trust each other moving forward. It's Friday May twenty three, Karen.
Speaker 1: After the standoff earlier this week, we've now seen both
Speaker 1: leaders head back to the table. What shifted in the
Speaker 1: last twenty four hours to make reconciliation suddenly plausible?
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a sense of will politics slow down here
Speaker 2: at Parliament House? What shifted is there's been a very
Speaker 2: important concession from David Little Proud. There was much tooing
Speaker 2: and throwing over whether he demanded cabinet solidarity being broken
Speaker 2: up by the Nationals and that there would be the
Speaker 2: possibility of a free vote for the Nationals if they
Speaker 2: were still in the coalition, so they could speak freely
Speaker 2: on issues important to them which would be separate to
Speaker 2: the Liberals.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Initially Susan Lee said that that had been discussed, David
Speaker 2: Little Proud said it hadn't been, and then there was
Speaker 2: this tooing and throwing on live TV on seven point
Speaker 2: thirty ABC, where Lee's office interjected by a text message
Speaker 2: and said, well, it actually had been. So that sounds messy,
Speaker 2: but really cabinet solidarity is an absolute essential point for
Speaker 2: the coalition. They have to be together. I've been told
Speaker 2: that no other leader had that asked of them before.
Speaker 2: Tony Abbott, John Howard, Malcolm Turnbulls, Scott Morris and nobody
Speaker 2: had been asked that but Susan Lee. Susan Lee said
Speaker 2: no because it's not done, and Little Proud. It took
Speaker 2: another day for Little Proud to come out in a
Speaker 2: doorstop interview at Parliament House to say actually, yes I
Speaker 2: did ask for it. I do understand it was an
Speaker 2: impossible ask for Susan Lee and I immediately back down.
Speaker 3: She made it very clear the cabinet solidarity that we've
Speaker 3: had and the processes around that will remain that's why
Speaker 3: it wasn't up for debate. I think I thought it
Speaker 3: was fair and reasonable what Susan Lee put back in writing.
Speaker 2: So that's where we're at. They basically had a disagreement
Speaker 2: over something really important to the coalition and now we're
Speaker 2: free to potentially talk about whether the coalition should still exist, and.
Speaker 1: So both leaders met yesterday to talk through it a
Speaker 1: little bit more. How much do we know about the
Speaker 1: path ahead for Susan Lee and Little Proud.
Speaker 2: Well, for David Little Proud, the four sticking points that
Speaker 2: he has demanded on behalf of the party room still
Speaker 2: exists and is still firm on that, and that is
Speaker 2: for nuclear power, the twenty billion dollar Regional Future Fund,
Speaker 2: universal phone service, and divestiture powers to break up the
Speaker 2: big supermarkets. That's still important to Dave Little Proud. He's
Speaker 2: standing firm.
Speaker 3: But these four policy areas are important to the lives
Speaker 3: and the livelihoods of people that I represent. And the
Speaker 3: fact that the Liberal Party Room is now prepared to
Speaker 3: have that conversation I think speaks volumes about the fact
Speaker 3: that we should allow that to happen.
Speaker 2: The issue for Susan Lee is she has now agreed
Speaker 2: to take those four positions to her party room and
Speaker 2: see if they're acceptable or not. So that will be
Speaker 2: a process. We don't know how long it will take.
Speaker 2: It could be days, it could be weeks, but certainly
Speaker 2: you would understand that it would be before Parliament returns,
Speaker 2: which has just been announced as being July twenty two.
Speaker 1: So Susan Lee has addressed those for fours sticking points and
Speaker 1: agreed to take them to her party room. Does that
Speaker 1: concession signal real.
Speaker 2: Movement considering we were talking about the end of the
Speaker 2: coalition and it being a historic moment. Yes, it is
Speaker 2: real movement, but it doesn't mean that the party room
Speaker 2: will take them on. It's entirely likely that many of
Speaker 2: them will. So the Universal Phone service agreement highly likely,
Speaker 2: the twenty billion dollar Regional Future Fund highly likely as well.
Speaker 2: I think the real sticking point will be nuclear power.
Speaker 2: There is a thought inside the Liberal Party that it
Speaker 2: was a drag on its particular vote and a big
Speaker 2: explainer for the May three election loss and how devastating
Speaker 2: it was, so they really do want to have a
Speaker 2: good hard think about that. So we're not sure really
Speaker 2: how it's going to go forward, but that's what the
Speaker 2: Nationals want and the Liberal Party at this point has said, well,
Speaker 2: we'll have a chat about it before Parliament resumes.
Speaker 1: That's the fact that talks regimes so quickly tell you
Speaker 1: that both parts this must have been worried about how
Speaker 1: destructive a breakup would be.
Speaker 2: Oh, certainly there was a lot of talk inside and
Speaker 2: outside the two parties about how destructive this riffed, this
Speaker 2: absolute fissure of the coalition would be going forward. There
Speaker 2: were individuals quite senior people such as Darren Chester, Barnaby
Speaker 2: Joyce and the former Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack. They
Speaker 2: were urging inside the party and talking to journalists at
Speaker 2: the same time saying we want this ending sooner rather
Speaker 2: than later. There was some talk that you know, for
Speaker 2: the Liberals there was a silver lining and perhaps being
Speaker 2: unshackled from the National Party would help them reach out
Speaker 2: to the people that had felt abandoned by the Liberal Party.
Speaker 2: But I spoke to a senior Liberal and he told
Speaker 2: me that this was an act of mutually assured destruction
Speaker 2: and would harm both the Nationals and the Liberal Party.
Speaker 2: He was talking about, you know, as you lead up
Speaker 2: to the next selection due in twenty twenty eight, if
Speaker 2: there were three cornered contests with both the Nationals and
Speaker 2: Liberal Party running candidates up against say till type climate
Speaker 2: two hundred candidates, there would be problems on both sides
Speaker 2: because they would be drags on the votes for each other.
Speaker 2: It would also be a problem he said, for the
Speaker 2: likes of Bridget Mackenzie and Senator Ross Keddell. Their Senate careers,
Speaker 2: I was told would be over because there would be
Speaker 2: no joint Senate tickets, so they would actually then be
Speaker 2: further down and likely lose their positions. And then you've
Speaker 2: got the case of the Nationals where they would be
Speaker 2: with the decision of coming out of the coalition, foregoing
Speaker 2: extra staffing, extra pay, the prominence of being the official opposition.
Speaker 2: There was a lot at stake in this, and we
Speaker 2: still haven't had it resolved, but I was told that,
Speaker 2: you know, as you get closer to the election, this
Speaker 2: is really something for the Liberal Party to consider, because
Speaker 2: it's not just good for them because they would be
Speaker 2: seen forever as being tied to the coalition. They can't
Speaker 2: government without the National Party in that coalition. Drawing their
Speaker 2: numbers towards what they need as a majority in the
Speaker 2: House of representatives and that people would be forever thinking
Speaker 2: what is the National Party going to do to affect
Speaker 2: what the Liberal Party will stand for in Parliament.
Speaker 1: Coming up after the break the choice Susan Lee has
Speaker 1: to make. Susan Lee has been praised for showing leadership
Speaker 1: and not being held to ransom by the Nationals. But
Speaker 1: now she's suddenly willing to negotiate. So what does that
Speaker 1: say about her first test as leader.
Speaker 2: Well, certainly she had two options. She could have given
Speaker 2: into the Nationals or she could have stood up for
Speaker 2: the Liberal Party, and she chose to stand up for
Speaker 2: a party. So certainly she's getting kudos from Liberal MPs
Speaker 2: for being that sort of leader. There is a question
Speaker 2: over whether the National Party would have pulled this on
Speaker 2: Angus Taylor should he have been elected by the Liberal
Speaker 2: Party room as leader, and David Little Proud assured everyone
Speaker 2: that certainly that would have been the case, that they,
Speaker 2: as the Nationals, had this principal position and they were
Speaker 2: going to stand up for the people that voted them in.
Speaker 2: But you know, we are seeing this muscled up National Party.
Speaker 2: They're doing something that they haven't done before after an election.
Speaker 2: They've actually decided to break free and ask for more.
Speaker 2: So certainly they're emboldened by how they held their ground
Speaker 2: electorally and didn't really lose seats except for a Senate
Speaker 2: position in the loss of the Deputy Leader, Peren Davy.
Speaker 2: So you could argue whether they've actually misread the moods. Regardless,
Speaker 2: because there's that question over they were a drag on
Speaker 2: the Liberal Party and therefore a drag on the entire coalition.
Speaker 1: So I was looking at one point as other Liberals
Speaker 1: would be alone as the opposition, meaning they get the
Speaker 1: plumb jobs, the better money, and more questions in Parliament.
Speaker 1: If they do get back together, well, let's still be
Speaker 1: the case.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess if they sort it out and they
Speaker 2: are a coalition again and they've agreed to cabinet solidarity
Speaker 2: and they'll speak as one voice on policies, then they
Speaker 2: go back to as normal normal as it can be,
Speaker 2: as the coalition is vastly reduced in numbers in the
Speaker 2: House of Representatives and we've got the Labor Party which
Speaker 2: is going to return to Parliament with this super majority
Speaker 2: likely to be ninety four. Certainly as we hear the
Speaker 2: parliamentary return day is July twenty two. Certainly, all eyes
Speaker 2: will be on how they will perform in Parliament against
Speaker 2: an emboldened Anthony Albanezi.
Speaker 1: So, as you just said, Karen, Parliament does return on
Speaker 1: July the twenty second, So stepping it out, what's the
Speaker 1: windy here for Lee a little proud to strike a
Speaker 1: fresh coalition deal.
Speaker 2: Well, we don't know. It could be days, it could
Speaker 2: be weeks. Certainly they would have to do it before
Speaker 2: Parliament returns. They do want their front bench, that's all
Speaker 2: on pause. And I think the advice they've had from
Speaker 2: party elders, including John Howard, is that the longer you
Speaker 2: put this off, the harder it is to return to
Speaker 2: a combined United front bench for the coalition. So all
Speaker 2: eyes will be on them to sort this out pretty soon.
Speaker 1: It seasonally is choice ultimately between having a coalition and
Speaker 1: the strength of that, or having the freedom to modernize
Speaker 1: a wing back urben voters.
Speaker 2: I think she does need to do both. I think
Speaker 2: she needs to modernize the Liberal Party. I wouldn't be
Speaker 2: surprised to see new branding as the New Liberals, as
Speaker 2: the New Labor emerged in the United Kingdom not so
Speaker 2: long ago. There is also this need to be the
Speaker 2: coalition they just cannot form government. They cannot be this
Speaker 2: bigger force without combining with the Nationals, and it will
Speaker 2: be interesting to see who she does put on her
Speaker 2: front bench. Certainly there's talk that Ted O'Brien, the Deputy
Speaker 2: leader of the Liberal Party, will probably take Shadow Treasurer
Speaker 2: and leave an open question as to where she'll put
Speaker 2: the likes of Angus Taylor and just intera Napagin proprice'
Speaker 2: got to remember that the defection of just Inter Napage
Speaker 2: Proprice really upset the Nationals and may have had something
Speaker 2: to do with how they've behaved over the past week
Speaker 2: in actually pulling this extraordinary act of causing this rift
Speaker 2: to the coalition.
Speaker 1: And do you think there's going to be trust issues
Speaker 1: moving forward?
Speaker 2: I think in the background there's always trust issues, but
Speaker 2: there are paying to tell us it's a trusted relationship.
Speaker 2: Up until this point, it had survived apart from a
Speaker 2: couple of circumstances, the last in nineteen eighty seven, for
Speaker 2: eighty years. This is something that they know they need
Speaker 2: each other. But never forget that within political parties, within
Speaker 2: things like the Coalition, there are probably more enemies than
Speaker 2: those on the other side. So yeah, You'll never know.
Speaker 2: But trust is an issue in politics, isn't it.
Speaker 1: It certainly is, Karen, Thank you so much for being
Speaker 1: on top of all of this, no worries.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Also in the news, two people have been found dead
Speaker 1: and there are grave fears about three people missing in
Speaker 1: floodwaters in New South Wales. The New South Wales Premier
Speaker 1: Chris means that the state is bracing for more bad
Speaker 1: news over the next twenty four hours. There are floodwaters
Speaker 1: in several parts of the state. The federal government has
Speaker 1: activated disaster recovery allowances for some of the most effective communities,
Speaker 1: including Kempsey, Port, Macquarie and Dungog and to Israeli ambusy
Speaker 1: staff have been shot dead outside the Capitol Jewish Museum
Speaker 1: in Washington, d C. Police have arrested a suspect who
Speaker 1: reportedly shattered pro Palestinian slogans while in custody. Authorities are
Speaker 1: treating the shooting as a possible hate crime. Seven Am
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