Speaker 1: It took just nine months for the Liberal Party to
Speaker 1: turn on its first female leader. After months of internal
Speaker 1: agitation and sliding polls, a spill motion was called and
Speaker 1: by the end of it, Susan Lee was out replaced
Speaker 1: by a man many Conservatives had wanted all along, Angus Taylor.
Speaker 2: It is the greatest honor of my life to be
Speaker 2: elected as the leader of the Liberal Party.
Speaker 1: Taylor, a former energy minister and standard bearer for the
Speaker 1: party's right, has promised discipline, economic clarity, and a return
Speaker 1: to what he calls call liberal values, where culture wars
Speaker 1: aren't a distraction, they're the strategy.
Speaker 2: Our nation must be defended because our history, our culture,
Speaker 2: our values are worth celebrating and defending.
Speaker 1: For some, it's a reset. For others, it's a signal
Speaker 1: that internal battles are far from over. I'm Daniel James
Speaker 1: and you're listening to seven am today Political editor us
Speaker 1: dot com dot areu samanthemated and how the spill unfolded.
Speaker 1: Whether this puts the coalition in a stronger position than
Speaker 1: it was at the start of the week. It's that day,
Speaker 1: February fourteen, Sam, thanks so much for joining us. Many
Speaker 1: will see this as another moderate liberal woman being forced
Speaker 1: out of the parliament by conservative men. How will that play,
Speaker 1: especially with female voters.
Speaker 3: Look, I think it absolutely depends on the color of
Speaker 3: your stripes. So there will absolutely be probably people from
Speaker 3: the left and particularly people in the Labor Party and
Speaker 3: maybe even in the left of the Liberal Party. I
Speaker 3: think we call them moderates these days, who will think
Speaker 3: that she didn't get a fair go. But obviously people
Speaker 3: in the Liberal Party and the more conservative strain of
Speaker 3: that party, they assert that this is not about a
Speaker 3: gender at all. It is about performs and about merit,
Speaker 3: and it is about values according to them as well,
Speaker 3: because they just don't think that Susan Lee was basically
Speaker 3: conservative enough that she didn't represent their values, and that
Speaker 3: is why they argue that there's been this movement towards
Speaker 3: one nation.
Speaker 4: So they argue that she's.
Speaker 3: Not strong enough, she's not right wing enough, and that
Speaker 3: was why she went down in flames. And of course
Speaker 3: there's been this interesting side show which has been either
Speaker 3: organic and or organized depending on who you believe, that
Speaker 3: you've had this absolute role call of women lining up
Speaker 3: to attack Susan Lee. So they used to use that
Speaker 3: term handbag hit squad which is obviously rather pejorative. But
Speaker 3: if bag hit squads exist, there's been a really gnali
Speaker 3: one in the Liberal Party this week.
Speaker 5: The Liberal Party is crying out for change. We're at
Speaker 5: a critical juncture right now, Susan Lee. Now I know
Speaker 5: that the best days for our country and for the
Speaker 5: Liberal Party are ahead of us.
Speaker 6: Hard work starts today to make sure that we.
Speaker 4: We just couldn't go on like this time is of
Speaker 4: the essence.
Speaker 3: We are in a critical moment right now.
Speaker 4: We are losing members.
Speaker 6: I can't tell you.
Speaker 1: What have you been hearing from Angus Taylor's supporters were
Speaker 1: broughtly in terms of what they think he can bring
Speaker 1: to the leadership that Susan Lee wasn't able to bring well.
Speaker 3: Strength for a start, And I think that it's quite
Speaker 3: possible that Angus Taylor will enjoy a lot more loyalty
Speaker 3: and less disunity than Susan Lee has experienced, because there's
Speaker 3: almost this sense now of having you know, created a
Speaker 3: lot of buzz and a lot of agro around the
Speaker 3: scenes that people are now sort of saying, oh, right,
Speaker 3: we've got to put that all back in the box now.
Speaker 3: Now we've got to behave ourselves because we've got a
Speaker 3: new leader, so I think that they think that Angus
Speaker 3: Taylor will be a conservative. That's where he comes from
Speaker 3: in the party. He's already held a press conference on
Speaker 3: Friday where he's been talking about a crackdown on immigration.
Speaker 2: We'll stand for an immigration policy that puts the interests
Speaker 2: of Australians first and puts Australian values at the center
Speaker 2: of that policy. If someone doesn't subscribe to our core beliefs,
Speaker 2: the door must be shut.
Speaker 3: And of course he wants to get on the front
Speaker 3: foot in relation to income taxes as well, so he's
Speaker 3: acknowledged that that was a big stuff up at the
Speaker 3: last election of going to an election with higher taxes
Speaker 3: than the Labor Party.
Speaker 2: I'm particularly conscious that we got some big calls wrong,
Speaker 2: especially on personal income tax and it won't.
Speaker 4: Happen again now.
Speaker 3: Obviously there's a whole story about what went on behind
Speaker 3: the scenes with that, and he argues that he was
Speaker 3: pushing Peter Dutton to do more. But the bottom line
Speaker 3: is that's what happened when he was in charge of
Speaker 3: the Treasury portfolio of the Liberal Party, and he's accepted
Speaker 3: that that was a big stuff up and he says
Speaker 3: it's not going to happen again.
Speaker 1: When we look at Taylor's pitch during his speech on Friday,
Speaker 1: did it come across to you as though it was
Speaker 1: different enough from what Peter Dutton took to the last election.
Speaker 3: Look, I think that there are definitely similarities, Like, there's
Speaker 3: no doubt about that. Interestingly, I think that if you
Speaker 3: actually have a look at the people that worked most
Speaker 3: closely with Peter Dutton, whether it is Angst Taylor or
Speaker 3: indeed Andrew Hasty, there were some real differences of opinion there.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think that it's almost a bit counterintuitive
Speaker 3: because Peter Dutton looks like this big burley Queensland copper.
Speaker 3: But I think a lot of people thought that he
Speaker 3: wasn't brave enough. You know that he talked the talk
Speaker 3: when it came to being conservative, but he didn't always
Speaker 3: walk the walk. And you know, I mean they find
Speaker 3: it sort of absolutely astonishing that they went to an
Speaker 3: election with this bizarre policy of not embracing income tax
Speaker 3: cuts but having sort of this temporary, you know, fuel
Speaker 3: excise tax cut in there, whatever you want to say
Speaker 3: to it at the time. I think that the proof
Speaker 3: is in the election it didn't work and they really
Speaker 3: want to go back to core values for the Liberal.
Speaker 4: Party, which is always going to be about.
Speaker 3: Lower taxes, home ownership and sometimes about a pretty tough
Speaker 3: approach to immigration.
Speaker 1: Talking of immigration, Tony Abbott was quick to pop his
Speaker 1: head up on morning television once the spill had been declared.
Speaker 6: He is going to restore Australian stand of living and
Speaker 6: he is going to protect the Australian way of life.
Speaker 1: Anger Sturing. His speech seemed to be singing from the
Speaker 1: same hymn book.
Speaker 2: The first priority of the Liberal Party now under my
Speaker 2: leadership will be to restore our standard of living and
Speaker 2: protect our way of life.
Speaker 1: So my question is can we expect a newly energized
Speaker 1: to salt when it comes to the culture wars from
Speaker 1: the coalition, particularly when it comes to immigration.
Speaker 4: Well, I think we can expect more flags.
Speaker 3: I'm reliably informed that Susan Lee had four of them
Speaker 3: behind our last week, and Angus Taylor and Jane him
Speaker 3: had six, So that's a two flag upgrade there that
Speaker 3: they had. Once again, it depends on where you sit
Speaker 3: in this debate. For conservatives, they believe that the values
Speaker 3: debate is quite important right and they always have and
Speaker 3: I think that they always will. So whether that's about
Speaker 3: education where they have a big culture war about back
Speaker 3: to basics, literacy and unracy, getting what they regard as
Speaker 3: you know, dodgy lefty propaganda, possibly involving Bluey. I'm being
Speaker 3: a bit facetious, but you know, like this is a
Speaker 3: real thing. There is quite a good deal of evidence
Speaker 3: that culture wars sometimes can really work.
Speaker 4: John Howard. There's a lot of culture wars over.
Speaker 3: The times, and a lot of them were pretty successful politically,
Speaker 3: and conservatives would argue that it goes beyond the raw
Speaker 3: politics of you know, electoral arithmetic. I mean they think
Speaker 3: that these things are important that if you're going to
Speaker 3: be the government, you want to change the country, and
Speaker 3: so you've got to have your values front and center.
Speaker 1: Coming up the mountain Angus needs to climb to save
Speaker 1: his own party. Sam Angus Taylor has been around for
Speaker 1: a while, but not many people would know a great
Speaker 1: deal about him. So what is it about his track
Speaker 1: record that we should know as he takes the leadership
Speaker 1: of the Liberal Party.
Speaker 3: Well, he does look like the liberal MP from Central Casting,
Speaker 3: you know, I mean, he's got the arm. Williams he's
Speaker 3: got that kind of regional rural background.
Speaker 4: He went to a boarding school.
Speaker 3: He probably has a Cocca Spaniel or a Labrador. I
Speaker 3: have a Coccer Spaniel, so I'm not being disparaging of
Speaker 3: people with Cocka Spaniels. I like Cocka Spaniels a great deal.
Speaker 3: But he went off to Sydney University. I think he
Speaker 3: studied law there. He was a Rhodes scholar, so he's
Speaker 3: obviously good at some form of sport and forgive me,
Speaker 3: I don't even know which one it was. And then
Speaker 3: he's gone off to a British university and I think
Speaker 3: he did a master's in philosophy, so he's not stupid.
Speaker 3: Although Malcolm Turnbull rather unkindly, stay very unkindly, described Hi
Speaker 3: as an idiot.
Speaker 1: He's always here to help Malcolm.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's always here to help.
Speaker 3: And Malcolm basically said, which was probably his most brutal
Speaker 3: attack that he said that Rhodes scholarships are a dime
Speaker 3: a dozen, anyone can get them.
Speaker 6: A lot of people say about Angus Taylor is he
Speaker 6: is the best qualified idiot they've ever met. I mean,
Speaker 6: this is a tough thing to say, but what they're
Speaker 6: saying is this guy's got all these degrees. He's got
Speaker 6: all of these qualifications. Is Rhodes Scholet Mind you, there
Speaker 6: are a dime a dozen Look at me and Tony Abbott.
Speaker 4: So his wife is a barrister. She's super interesting. They've
Speaker 4: got four children.
Speaker 3: You know, they live a life that is both in
Speaker 3: the city, in Sydney, but in regional Australia as well.
Speaker 3: He's obviously made a bit of money over his time.
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't think he's a bazillionaire, but he's
Speaker 3: not short of a a quid either, And you know,
Speaker 3: I think that you never know, it could turn out
Speaker 3: to be more interesting than people are suspecting.
Speaker 1: Now that he's later, his task is to appeal to
Speaker 1: city voters to win back women, young people, while also
Speaker 1: having to keep the nationals happy and fend off a
Speaker 1: stampeding one nation in the regions. Some of that might
Speaker 1: be possible, Sam, But is all of it possible?
Speaker 4: Well, I guess we're going to find out.
Speaker 3: I mean, you'd have to sort of suppose that given
Speaker 3: the enormous majority that the Prime Minister has that that
Speaker 3: would be pretty difficult to peg back in one election.
Speaker 3: That said, I mean, we didn't really expect what happened
Speaker 3: to happen in this election, Like it's a pretty surprising
Speaker 3: thing that I've never seen before, the idea that you
Speaker 3: can be on a primary vote with the three in
Speaker 3: front of it and end up with a majority like that.
Speaker 3: So there's some wild sort of things going on. I
Speaker 3: suspect that angers could be a little bit more likable
Speaker 3: than people suspect. You know, Angus Taylor is clearly like
Speaker 3: a gen X person, right, and those sort of male
Speaker 3: gen X voters, they're exactly the ones that are going
Speaker 3: to one nation.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 3: I don't think necessarily that he fits that bill because
Speaker 3: he's obviously quite a wealthy, middle class, highly educated individual
Speaker 3: with did I mention a very interesting wife, So he
Speaker 3: doesn't necessarily fit that bill. But I think that he's
Speaker 3: you know, he's a younger generation of leaders than we've
Speaker 3: had in the past. To be fair, Peter Dutton was
Speaker 3: also gen xer, but you know, different generation to Tony
Speaker 3: Abbott and obviously a different generation to John Howard.
Speaker 1: Finally, Sam we started the week with a split coalition
Speaker 1: and Susan Lee as the leader of the Liberal Party.
Speaker 1: Now the Libs and the Nats are back together and
Speaker 1: Nagus Taylor is in charge. Does all of that put
Speaker 1: them in a better or worse spot than they started
Speaker 1: the week with?
Speaker 3: Look, I think at one hundred percent puts them in
Speaker 3: a better spot. Like, I don't have any doubt of that.
Speaker 3: They've got a new team. They're going to get an
Speaker 3: enormous amount of free meat out of that. You're going
Speaker 3: to have Jane Him Angus Taylor on all the programs.
Speaker 3: There's going to be spreads in the newspaper. It's going
Speaker 3: to be a new Dawn. How long that new door
Speaker 3: will last for, I don't know. But I also suspect
Speaker 3: that Angus Taylor is going to be more sympatico with
Speaker 3: David Little Proud. I mean, I think that David Little
Speaker 3: Proud gave Susan Lee a really rough time, not a
Speaker 3: lot of loyalty at all. And you know, I mean
Speaker 3: like the poor woman, like you know, I mean literally
Speaker 3: her I always remember that her mother had literally died,
Speaker 3: and David Little Prowd's giving these interviews going.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, you know, I try to be really sensitive.
Speaker 3: I went around like her mother's died, so you know,
Speaker 3: went to the town where she lived, like her mother
Speaker 3: has died.
Speaker 1: Anyway, I just need to make it clear to the
Speaker 1: listener that that wasn't actually David Little Proud speaking. It
Speaker 1: was just you're doing an impersonation of David Little Prowd.
Speaker 3: Sorry, that's right, you know, but it was just like,
Speaker 3: oh my god, this poor woman. And then she's been
Speaker 3: trying to sort of hold this crew together. She has
Speaker 3: been really undermined. It has been really tough. And you know,
Speaker 3: for I don't usually say this, but you know, she's
Speaker 3: on the old pension scheme. She's been in parliament for
Speaker 3: twenty five years. I can't help but think, my god,
Speaker 3: she's earned it. She has earned having a massively outrageous
Speaker 3: parliamentary pension and going off into the sunset and hanging
Speaker 3: out with their grandchildren. Now that to one side, yes,
Speaker 3: I do think that the Liberal Party is in a
Speaker 3: better place. I think they're going to get a lot
Speaker 3: of free media. I think that there is obviously the
Speaker 3: opportunity in that to make mistakes and go on Sunrise,
Speaker 3: gone to GB and say something stupid. I did enjoy,
Speaker 3: not that I'm all suggesting it was stupid. Jane Hume
Speaker 3: saying at the press conference, which was asked about migration
Speaker 3: that not only some of her best friends, but in
Speaker 3: fact her partner is Greek and her brother in Lawa's Chinese.
Speaker 5: My partner is Greek, my brother in LAWA is Chinese.
Speaker 5: Of course, it's part of all Australians. So when we
Speaker 5: say we want to talk to all Australians, that includes everybody.
Speaker 4: We are not discriminating one section or another. That's what
Speaker 4: other parties do, what we do.
Speaker 3: So there could be more exciting thrills and spills of
Speaker 3: that nature from Jane Hume because she sometimes says interesting
Speaker 3: things and sometimes you'd have to say.
Speaker 4: Rather ill advised things.
Speaker 3: But bottom line is yes, I think that they are
Speaker 3: absolutely in a better place at the end of the
Speaker 3: week than they were and I think that Angus Taylor
Speaker 3: will probably enjoy more loyalty than Susan Lee ever did.
Speaker 1: Sam fantastic, great move, well done and thanks for joining us.
Speaker 4: Thank you, it has been a big week.
Speaker 1: Seven Am is a daily show from Solstice Media. It's
Speaker 1: made by Atticus Bastow, Ariel Richards, Chris Dangate, Crystal Color,
Speaker 1: Nicole Johnston, Travis Evans, Zom Vecho and Me Daniel James.
Speaker 1: A theme music by Ned Beckley and Josh Hogan of
Speaker 1: envalode Bortio. Thanks once again for listening to seven am.
Speaker 1: Have a great weekend.