Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
Speaker 1: It's Tuesday May thirteen, twenty twenty five. Vladimiw Zelenski is
Speaker 1: setting out for Turkey to await Vladimir Putin as the
Speaker 1: United States attempts to broker the first direct talks between
Speaker 1: the leaders of Ukraine and Russia. That's as world leaders,
Speaker 1: including Anthony Alberanzi pack their bags for Rome for the
Speaker 1: Pope's inauguration. Michelle Rowland is Australia's new Attorney General. Tanya
Speaker 1: Plibasek has been demoted and Labour rebel Ed Husick is
Speaker 1: on the back bench. As the re elected Labor government
Speaker 1: heads for ninety four seats. Anthony Albanesi has flexed his
Speaker 1: new muscle. The National Party has re elected David Little
Speaker 1: Proud as leader, defeating firebrand Matt Canavan, and this morning
Speaker 1: the Liberal Party will choose a new leader of their
Speaker 1: own and seek to chart away out of the wilderness.
Speaker 1: Today Canber's brutal power dynamics and who's coming out on top.
Speaker 1: Anthony Alberanzi is heading for ninety four or maybe even
Speaker 1: ninety five seats in the House of Representatives. And that
Speaker 1: means the Prime Minister has the power to do exactly
Speaker 1: what he wants.
Speaker 2: He's got a massive mandate, massive authority given those results.
Speaker 1: That's Jeff Chambers, the Australian's chief political correspondent.
Speaker 2: And the way that the labor machine works is that
Speaker 2: it's the factions who decide who is on the list
Speaker 2: of candidates for cabinet and ministry, and the Prime Minister
Speaker 2: then gets to decide who he appoints to witch portfolio.
Speaker 1: Albanesi has kept his closest leadership team intact. Richard Marles, Pennywong,
Speaker 1: Jim Chalmers, Katie Gallagher and Don Farrell all keep their jobs.
Speaker 1: The biggest promotion is Michelle Roland, the new Attorney General
Speaker 1: who's replacing sacked Minister Mark Dreyfuss.
Speaker 2: Michelle Roland holds the Western Sydney seat of Greenway, and
Speaker 2: in the first term of government she was the Communications
Speaker 2: Minister and she's a member of the once more powerful
Speaker 2: New South Wales Right faction. So when the decision came
Speaker 2: down as to who would have to give up a spot,
Speaker 2: Michelle Roland, being the only female cabinet member of that
Speaker 2: New South Wales Right faction, was always safe, so she
Speaker 2: moves up into the Attorney general's portfolio. But an interesting
Speaker 2: machinery of government change, which will be made clear on Tuesday,
Speaker 2: is that those very controversial alterations made under Mark Dreyfus's watch,
Speaker 2: where security agencies like ASIO and AFP were shifted out
Speaker 2: of home affairs into attorney generals, there is now going
Speaker 2: to be a shift back to where it was. Tony Burke,
Speaker 2: very powerful ally of the Prime Minister, takes on home affairs,
Speaker 2: but are much more beefed up home affairs, and you
Speaker 2: could probably argue that Michelle Rowland takes on an Attorney
Speaker 2: general's portfolio, that it isn't as powerful as it was
Speaker 2: under Mark Dreyfus, but still a very very important role.
Speaker 1: There was a horrendously awkward moment in this election campaign
Speaker 1: dubbed the air kiss of Death, when Senior Minister Tanya
Speaker 1: Plibersek approached the PM for a hug and he brushed
Speaker 1: her off with a handshake. At the time, Plipersek tried
Speaker 1: to make a joke of it on Sunrise, So.
Speaker 2: That's on me.
Speaker 3: I should have done the elbow, but I reckon you
Speaker 3: tea still getting along, of.
Speaker 1: Course, Plipersek and Albanesi are both in the New South
Speaker 1: Wales Left, but they've been rivals over the years. On Monday,
Speaker 1: when he announced the ministry, Albanezi revealed Plibisek is still
Speaker 1: in cabinet but has been moved to Social Services. Journalists
Speaker 1: first questions were all about Blibersk, and the Prime Minister
Speaker 1: sounded defensive.
Speaker 3: Do you see Tania Plibusk having that role until Winnex.
Speaker 2: Go over the election.
Speaker 4: I'm just announcing it today and you're asking me of
Speaker 4: people moving on. This is the ministry that I'm announcing today.
Speaker 4: I hope it continues for three years across the board.
Speaker 2: I think everyone is viewing that as a demotion. I
Speaker 2: don't remember the last time Social Services sat on its own.
Speaker 2: I think Ethony Albinezy gave it away a little bit
Speaker 2: when he talked about Murray Watt, who's a very close
Speaker 2: left faction ally and known in labor circles as mister
Speaker 2: fix It, and he described the environment portfolio as one
Speaker 2: of the most senior in his government and one of
Speaker 2: the most critical portfolios. So you could look at that
Speaker 2: and think Tanya Plibersek couldn't land the suite of nature
Speaker 2: positive reforms there was some criticisms about her handling of
Speaker 2: the salmon farming issues in Tasmania. The other criticism of
Speaker 2: Tanya Plibersik was that if you look at what Tony
Speaker 2: Burke and Chris Bowen did in that first term of government,
Speaker 2: is they really maximize that election victory by pushing through
Speaker 2: a lot of their ir and climate change reforms. And
Speaker 2: there were some criticisms internally that Tania Plibersik had left
Speaker 2: the key pillars of the nature positive planks of reform
Speaker 2: until too late. I'm sure she would argue differently in
Speaker 2: terms of what the government's priorities were, but I think
Speaker 2: that decision will very much be seen as Anthony Aberesi
Speaker 2: once again shafting a very long time Left Faction rival.
Speaker 1: Yeah, is the greatest crime to have just been Anthony
Speaker 1: Albanesi's rival.
Speaker 2: Oh look, I don't think it's helped at all. The
Speaker 2: two of them have known each other for a long time.
Speaker 2: They've both been in parliament for about twenty five years.
Speaker 2: Tanya was the deputy leader to Bill Shorten, another great
Speaker 2: rival of Anthony Abernese's, and in that last term of
Speaker 2: government we saw Bill Shorten and move on to take
Speaker 2: a senior role at the University of Canberra, and I
Speaker 2: think everyone who watches politics closely here wouldn't be overwhelmingly
Speaker 2: surprised if, at some point during this term Tanya Plivsek
Speaker 2: may move on out of politics.
Speaker 1: Plivasek herself says she's happy.
Speaker 3: Allocation of portfolios one hundred percent an issue for the PM.
Speaker 1: We already knew Albanezi would demote Ministers Ed Husick and
Speaker 1: Mark Dreyfus, the government's most senior Muslim and Jewish representatives, respectively.
Speaker 1: Husick dropped the mic on the way out, telling the
Speaker 1: ABC on Sunday he was being punished for speaking up
Speaker 1: about Gaza.
Speaker 3: You can't celebrate diversity and then expect it to sit
Speaker 3: in the corner, silent and blaming.
Speaker 1: Deputy Prime Minister Richard Miles.
Speaker 3: I think when people look at a Deputy Prime Minister,
Speaker 3: they expect to see a statesman, not a factional assassin.
Speaker 3: We've obviously got to be able to avoid these type
Speaker 3: of episodeses I think the factional grubbiness. There are better
Speaker 3: ways factional.
Speaker 1: Cusick claims he fell on his sword to save other
Speaker 1: members of the New South Wales Right faction because the
Speaker 1: election results meant the right lost a sport.
Speaker 3: I did not want to put my colleagues through a
Speaker 3: national ballot, and again I just did it in the
Speaker 3: interest of stability.
Speaker 1: When asked if he fought for Husick and Dreyfus, Albanzi
Speaker 1: was blunt.
Speaker 4: Look, we have a process in the lowe party caucus.
Speaker 4: You've been watching it for some time.
Speaker 1: Albanesi could have made one or both of them special envoys,
Speaker 1: but decided to leave them on the back bench.
Speaker 2: I think some people probably feel more sympathy for Mark
Speaker 2: Dreyfus in the fact that I think he's around sixty eight,
Speaker 2: almost seventy years of age, that he probably thought he
Speaker 2: had one more go in him and if it had
Speaker 2: been made clear to him that he wasn't going to
Speaker 2: get endorsed for the ministry, he may well not have run.
Speaker 2: But the flip side of that is he probably should
Speaker 2: have been across that himself. So there is some assumptions
Speaker 2: that Mark Drefus may move on from politics during this
Speaker 2: term and we might see our by election in the
Speaker 2: seat of Isaacs and with such a huge majority, these
Speaker 2: types of by elections matter not as much for Anythony
Speaker 2: alb and easy Ed Hughsick's a different case. He came
Speaker 2: out very aggressively. He's not happy, He's making his feelings
Speaker 2: felt really strongly, very publicly. And I've always thought of
Speaker 2: labor if you sort of keep your mouth shut, show
Speaker 2: a bit of respect, maintain a bit of o murder
Speaker 2: that at some point down the line, you'll get looked after.
Speaker 2: But if you put your head above the parapat, you
Speaker 2: might not get the spoils, but it'll be really interesting
Speaker 2: because Ed Musick is a very outspoken type of character
Speaker 2: and he won't sit there quietly on the back benches.
Speaker 1: Coming up, who'll lead the National and Liberal parties? Jeff.
Speaker 1: The Nationals have reelected their leader David little Prowd, rejecting
Speaker 1: the candidacy of Matt Canavan, who's a bit of a firebrand.
Speaker 1: What does that mean for the future of the National Party.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I've spoken to a lot of Nationals MPs
Speaker 2: and senators and Matt Canavan put himself forward without really
Speaker 2: thinking that he could win the vote, but just really
Speaker 2: wanted that discussion and debate post election. And the Nationals
Speaker 2: Party is unique in the fact that after every single
Speaker 2: election cycle they automatically open up the leadership for a vote,
Speaker 2: and quite often it's not contested. But after that last
Speaker 2: election David Little Proud rolled Barnaby Joyce and this time
Speaker 2: Matt Canavan put his hand up for it. But what
Speaker 2: I'm hearing is that it's a long way to go
Speaker 2: three years. They want to see what the Liberals do.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of discontentment in that room. Compared to
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two. They've got three less bodies. Just Enter
Speaker 2: Price is obviously defected to the Liberal Party. Peren Davy,
Speaker 2: the Deputy leader, has lost her new South Wales Senate spot,
Speaker 2: and Andrew g the member for Klaire who famously defected
Speaker 2: in the last term over his position on the voice.
Speaker 2: He's managed to win his seat on a lot of KPIs.
Speaker 2: David Little Proud has fallen short and I don't think
Speaker 2: that necessarily it's going to be smooth sailing for him
Speaker 2: towards the next election.
Speaker 1: The Liberal Party meets this morning to elect a new
Speaker 1: leader of their own. Jeff, what should we be expecting
Speaker 1: from that meeting?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so my mail is that the vote will be
Speaker 2: very tight. It could come down to a couple of votes,
Speaker 2: and you know that party room is so depleted so
Speaker 2: it's sitting in the fifties. That magic number will be
Speaker 2: around that twenty seven to twenty eight, and they're very
Speaker 2: split down the middle. You've got the former Deputy leader
Speaker 2: and Susan Lee, and you've got the Opposition Treasury spokesman
Speaker 2: in Angus Taylor. And for some of the younger rising
Speaker 2: star Liberal types like Andrew Hasty or Zoey McKenzie, they've
Speaker 2: decided that this isn't the time for them and that's
Speaker 2: probably the right call. So really Angus and Susan whoever
Speaker 2: gets up, are really seen as stopgap into Mijari figures
Speaker 2: whose job will be to rebuild the structures of the
Speaker 2: Liberal Party, which is a massive rebuild. It's been put
Speaker 2: to me that Susan Lays has a nose ahead, but
Speaker 2: the problem is there's a handful of Senators who will
Speaker 2: vote for Susan Lay, whose term expires in June thirty.
Speaker 2: I think for stability sake, the Liberals have got a
Speaker 2: fair way to go.
Speaker 1: Jeff Chambers is The Australian's chief political correspondent. You can
Speaker 1: read our unrival coverage of federal politics twenty four seven
Speaker 1: at the Australian dot com. Do reju