Speaker 1: I'm Daniel James and you're listening to seven A Yen.
Speaker 1: Tony Abbott is back at the center of Liberal Party politics.
Speaker 1: The former Prime Minister has been elected unopposed as Federal
Speaker 1: Liberal Party President, a role at sounds administrative that carries
Speaker 1: real political weight and a moment of deep trouble for
Speaker 1: the coalition. The Liberals are watching voters drift to One Nation,
Speaker 1: while Abbott argues the answer is to take the fight
Speaker 1: directly to labor. But his return sharpens a deeper question
Speaker 1: inside the party about whether the Liberals can rebuild by
Speaker 1: reviving the politics of the Abbot era, or whether that
Speaker 1: only deepens the crisis they're trying to escape. Today Press
Speaker 1: Gallery veteran Paul bon Jorno when Tony Abbott's come back,
Speaker 1: the future of the Liberal Party and how the government
Speaker 1: is trying to turn the opposition's crisis into a test
Speaker 1: of its own authority. It's Saturday, June sixth, Paul. This
Speaker 1: week One Nation became the most popular political party in
Speaker 1: the country. It's obviously bad news for the coalition, which
Speaker 1: hasn't been very effective at fending off Hansen's party. But
Speaker 1: now former PM Tony Abbot has put his hand up
Speaker 1: to be the white Knight that saves the Liberals. As
Speaker 1: party president paul Is Abbot.
Speaker 2: The answer, well, I can tell you that the conservatives
Speaker 2: in the Liberal Party certainly believe he is and certainly
Speaker 2: have reached out to him. But mind you, I believe
Speaker 2: he reached out to them as well. And what we
Speaker 2: should keep in mind is that the so called right
Speaker 2: wing Liberals or conservative Liberals are dominant in the national
Speaker 2: party structure. So he always had the numbers. And it
Speaker 2: was quite interesting to see that the other potential savior,
Speaker 2: Alexander Downer, who all his life has been a very
Speaker 2: conservative liberal. Well, the moderates were behind Downer, but in
Speaker 2: the end Downer pulled out and everybody said, look, we've
Speaker 2: got to give Abbitt a go. We know you'll be
Speaker 2: like a dog with a bone. He's a brutally effective
Speaker 2: communicator and let's face it, our backs to the wall.
Speaker 2: So basically what they were counting on was the fact
Speaker 2: that Tony Abbott one in a landslide from opposition in
Speaker 2: twenty thirteen against the Rudd Gillard Rudd government. But that
Speaker 2: great victory, which was a landslide victory, said well, look
Speaker 2: he knows how to win government. Maybe forgot he didn't
Speaker 2: quite know how to hang on to government, but that's
Speaker 2: not quite their problem at the moment.
Speaker 1: As indicated that his focus will be on labor rather
Speaker 1: than one Nation.
Speaker 3: Obviously, we are in a degree of competition with other
Speaker 3: parties and voices on the center right. But in the end,
Speaker 3: our opponent, our enemy, if you like, is a really
Speaker 3: bad labor government, a really bad green left labor government.
Speaker 1: Is that the right strategy at this point?
Speaker 2: Paul, Well, there have been nine poles since the budget,
Speaker 2: and in those nine poles, the Coalition has gone backwards.
Speaker 1: In three poles.
Speaker 2: This week the coalition's primary vote was just twenty percent.
Speaker 2: And what we've seen is for the first time this
Speaker 2: week one nation in two poles even had more support
Speaker 2: than labor. So the strategy that's been employed since the
Speaker 2: budget by Angus Taylor and the Coalition to go hard,
Speaker 2: to attack labor, to talk about broken promises, to talk
Speaker 2: about how damaging it will be to Australia as we
Speaker 2: know it, all that sort of language. If anything, it's
Speaker 2: fed into one nation rather than fed into the coalition.
Speaker 2: All of this simply isn't working. And Paul Kelly, the
Speaker 2: Venerable Paul Kelly in the Australia and said that basically
Speaker 2: this is there's defeatism in the Liberals and the Nationals,
Speaker 2: with some of them saying, oh, we should form an
Speaker 2: alliance with one nation forgetting that one nation is part
Speaker 2: of the existential threat to the Liberals and the Nationals
Speaker 2: for a very good reason. If the primary vote stays
Speaker 2: where it is and where it's been for a while now,
Speaker 2: then the Liberal or National candidate will come in behind
Speaker 2: one nation and therefore their preferences will elect a one
Speaker 2: nation candidate at the expense of a Liberal. It's like
Speaker 2: cutting their own throats.
Speaker 1: And there's a bit of an.
Speaker 2: Example of this. Even though the Nationals did extremely well
Speaker 2: in Farah, they still didn't get a majority in their
Speaker 2: own right. They needed preferences to get over the line.
Speaker 2: And there is an argument and people within the Parliamentary
Speaker 2: Party are having this argument that had the Libs and
Speaker 2: the Nats preference, for example, the leading in de maybe
Speaker 2: that would have pushed her over the line, but it
Speaker 2: certainly would have sent the message that look, if you're
Speaker 2: inclined to our way of politics, then don't vote one
Speaker 2: nation instead by preferencing one Nation, and the way they
Speaker 2: did they helped it get up, and they I don't
Speaker 2: like to use the word legitimize. It's a democracy and
Speaker 2: they're a legitimate player, but it certainly, as it were,
Speaker 2: authorized one nation as a mainstream option. And this is
Speaker 2: a tactic that Abbot seems happy with that when you
Speaker 2: analyze it a bit further, does seem to be a
Speaker 2: recipe for even greater disaster.
Speaker 1: I've often wondered, Paul about party presidents of orbersphases. I mean,
Speaker 1: how much power does Abbot have as Liberal Party president
Speaker 1: and what does the party president actually do?
Speaker 2: Well? They make sure the party is organized, that its
Speaker 2: branches are there, that it's fundraising, that it's able to
Speaker 2: back up the parliamentary Party. In fact, Robert Mensies when
Speaker 2: he founded the Liberals, he wanted to make sure that
Speaker 2: the organizational wing, unlike the structure formerly of the Labor Party,
Speaker 2: was subservient to the parliamentary Party, couldn't direct it on anything,
Speaker 2: and was there merely to serve what the parliamentary leader
Speaker 2: and the parliamentary party wanted. However, what we do know
Speaker 2: that a party president, let's just talk Liberals for the moment,
Speaker 2: has the cachet of being leader of the organization when
Speaker 2: the organization is in such dire straits and they turned
Speaker 2: to someone like Abbot, a former prime minister, a political
Speaker 2: pugilist of some note, it's clear they're saying, look, we
Speaker 2: want you to be the president and probably lift us
Speaker 2: do more than just make sure we're fundraising.
Speaker 1: Look.
Speaker 3: I don't expect to be in the media every day,
Speaker 3: but on the other hand, I do think that my
Speaker 3: presence now in this senior role will demonstrate people who
Speaker 3: might have been skeptical that the Liberal Party is faired income,
Speaker 3: about abolishing that zero of faired income, about cutting back
Speaker 3: mass migration.
Speaker 2: And the danger here is that in making someone like
Speaker 2: Abbot the president, they're creating another focus other than the
Speaker 2: parliamentary leader.
Speaker 1: There will be some public facing to this role rather
Speaker 1: than it just being an administrative role.
Speaker 3: Look, the party president is the organizational leader, not the
Speaker 3: political leader. But I don't think there's ever been a
Speaker 3: party president who's taken a vow of silence, and I'm
Speaker 3: certainly not going to start.
Speaker 1: Do you think Tanny Abbott will be satisfied with just
Speaker 1: being party president or can we see him trying to
Speaker 1: make a full political comeback and return to Parliament. There's
Speaker 1: been a musing's port.
Speaker 2: Well, it's in his blood, there's no doubt about that.
Speaker 2: He has been asked this question and he's given the
Speaker 2: impression that if he ever does make a comeback, which
Speaker 2: not on his mind now, it'd be after after the
Speaker 2: next election. I guess one of his problems would be
Speaker 2: finding a seat where the voters would actually vote for him.
Speaker 2: Given that he lost his seat to he was the
Speaker 2: first to lose a rock solid Liberal seat to a
Speaker 2: teal independent. He knows how to do that.
Speaker 1: Coming up now, One Nation's rise is changing the calculation
Speaker 1: for Labor as well, Paul. If we go back to
Speaker 1: One Nation, the party has risen in every single opinion
Speaker 1: poll since the budget. Now the election is still a
Speaker 1: long way away two years. So where does this leave Labor.
Speaker 1: What's the worst case scenario for them?
Speaker 2: Well, if you take some of the work done by
Speaker 2: the Redbridge polling a group, first of all their MRP
Speaker 2: Pole which went to every electorate in Australia trying to
Speaker 2: work out which way they would go, and then just
Speaker 2: the normal.
Speaker 1: Pole if you like.
Speaker 2: This week that found One Nation the most popular political party.
Speaker 2: The challenge is there for Labor to hang on to
Speaker 2: government either as minority or majority or worst case scenario,
Speaker 2: depending on the trend of the polls, it seems to
Speaker 2: be established they could be pushed themselves into opposition, So
Speaker 2: you know, it's very high stakes. In fact, Wayne Swung,
Speaker 2: the national president of the Labor Party, sent out a
Speaker 2: fundraiser this week pointing out that the interview that Pauline
Speaker 2: Hansen gave last weekend on Sky, where she for the
Speaker 2: first time went into quite a bit of what she
Speaker 2: thinks and where she wants to head. Her agenda on
Speaker 2: workplace relations, on hiring and firing people, on who should
Speaker 2: be paid. What was basically revisiting of John Howard's work
Speaker 2: choices on steroids, where the employer has all the cards
Speaker 2: and the employee cops the hind most you.
Speaker 4: Can't even sack an one if they're not working, if
Speaker 4: they steal from you, then you see yourself through the courts.
Speaker 1: This has to change. It has to change.
Speaker 4: There's a give and take in employment and people have
Speaker 4: a right to employ who they want to. We've become
Speaker 4: too dogmatic and we're not listening to the employer out there.
Speaker 2: Well, Wayne Swan and the Labor Party jumped on this.
Speaker 2: They sent out a fundraising letter to their supporters and
Speaker 2: they pointed out that this is part of one nation's agenda,
Speaker 2: and furthermore, it's being bankrolled by billionaires. And the plea was, look,
Speaker 2: Labor has to get busy, we have to be fighting
Speaker 2: fit on the ground now, because the only time to
Speaker 2: begin holding onto power is now, not when an election
Speaker 2: is called. So the other point to make, too is
Speaker 2: that the budget, without a doubt, has cost Labor politically.
Speaker 2: But I was talking to a cabinet minister during the
Speaker 2: week who said, look, the political design of this budget
Speaker 2: is once it has passed, once it is no longer
Speaker 2: creating the headlines, people say, well, what was that all
Speaker 2: about it? Because they've grandfathered most of it and some
Speaker 2: of it doesn't come in for a couple of years,
Speaker 2: and anyway, it won't directly affect millions in the way
Speaker 2: in which you know, which the nay says are pointing out.
Speaker 1: I mean, if we look at the way that the
Speaker 1: commentary has gone around the budget, Paul, I mean, what
Speaker 1: have you made of the reaction from the mainstream media
Speaker 1: in particular when it comes to this. You mean, you
Speaker 1: watch the nightling years. You watch the commercial television, usual
Speaker 1: listen to commercial radio, and you would swear that the
Speaker 1: budget was the worst thing to happen to the country
Speaker 1: since federation. What have you made of it? As a
Speaker 1: veteran of the press gallery.
Speaker 2: You'd have to say that the Australian and the Murdock
Speaker 2: tabloids have become basically propaganda sheets, you know, if not
Speaker 2: of the liberals, certainly of the opponents of the Labor government,
Speaker 2: and make very little attempt to any sort of balanced
Speaker 2: approach to it. I mean, we just see acres of
Speaker 2: negative stories digging up the most extreme examples as reasons
Speaker 2: why this budget is such a failure. I was told
Speaker 2: in a group meeting with the Prime Minister about three
Speaker 2: or four weeks ago that the people at the Australian
Speaker 2: warned him that if you do touch negative gearing or
Speaker 2: capital gains tax, then we will go in hard on
Speaker 2: the broken promises. So Albanezi was given for warning that
Speaker 2: this sort of approach would happen. The government, however, says, look,
Speaker 2: we're at the stage where we could not just sit
Speaker 2: back and do nothing for the next two years without
Speaker 2: addressing the core the radical causes of what is a
Speaker 2: genuine housing crisis.
Speaker 1: And finally, Paul, as we turned to our great friends
Speaker 1: across the Pacific, the Americans. This week's been a busy
Speaker 1: week on that front too. First we were told we'd
Speaker 1: only be getting second hand subs from the US under
Speaker 1: the Orchestral and then Trump slapt day twelve point five
Speaker 1: percent tariff on US and forty three other countries. Is
Speaker 1: American making the government look good or bad right now?
Speaker 2: Well, it's making us look like a client state. And
Speaker 2: I'd have to say to you, General, that's exactly what
Speaker 2: we are. It's what we've come to. We're now in
Speaker 2: the situation where our most important ally is doing us
Speaker 2: and basically the rest of the world more damage than
Speaker 2: any of our pugative enemies. I mean, Trump's war in
Speaker 2: the Middle East has completely thrown the world trading order
Speaker 2: and economy into disarray at great cost. Now when it
Speaker 2: comes to Trump putting tariffs on us, well, the reality
Speaker 2: is that Trump has to pay for his excesses, especially
Speaker 2: for his massive tax cuts to himself these billionaire mates.
Speaker 2: And this is the way he's doing it. As we know,
Speaker 2: tariffs are actually attacks that American humers pay. But what
Speaker 2: it does of course, is make our exports dearer and
Speaker 2: hard to get in, harder to get into the market.
Speaker 2: But the other point, of course is the decision on
Speaker 2: the submarines. The discussion there is it's better to get
Speaker 2: in service submarines than used submarines. That did you see
Speaker 2: the argument put by the Defense minister that these nuclear
Speaker 2: powered submarines have thirty year life and if you get
Speaker 2: them in the first six years, it's like getting a demo,
Speaker 2: a demo car.
Speaker 1: They are sounding like used car salespeople. That's exactly right here.
Speaker 2: This demo is just so it's only got two hundred
Speaker 2: kilometers on the clock. So yes, so it looks like, well,
Speaker 2: what we've got up in lights is that we take
Speaker 2: what the Americans will give us. And of course Paul Keating,
Speaker 2: the former Prime Minister, just can't believe that we would
Speaker 2: see so much of our sovereign wealth to the Americans.
Speaker 2: You know, what is it, three hundred billion dollars worth
Speaker 2: in the process.
Speaker 1: Paul, it's hard to make sense of it all, but
Speaker 1: you are doing a really good job of it. So
Speaker 1: thank you once again for joining us.
Speaker 2: Thanks very much to Daniel by.
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