Audio excerpt – Peter Dutton:

“Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Well, tonight's not the night that we wanted for the Liberal Party or for our Coalition or indeed for our country.”

KAREN:

As I saw Dutton on Saturday night giving his concession speech, I saw a gentleman, I saw grace.

Audio excerpt – Peter Dutton:

“Earlier on, I called the Prime Minister to congratulate him on his success tonight. It's an historic occasion for the Labor Party, and we recognise that.”

KAREN:

And he took complete responsibility for the loss.

Audio excerpt – Peter Dutton:

“Now, we didn't do well enough during this campaign. That much is obvious tonight, and I accept full responsibility for that.”

KAREN:

Which someone in the Liberal Party described it to me as a demolition to the party. I mean, what a humiliation for Dutton. 24 years in parliament and there he is. The first Opposition Leader to lose his seat.

[Theme Music Starts]

RUBY:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ruby Jones. This is 7am.

The Liberal Party’s soul searching has begun as it looks to select a new leader and consider its future direction.

But as some in the Liberal Party call for a return to its traditional values, the question of where to now is complicated.

Firstly, by Peter Dutton having led the party further to the right, and then the election itself having wiped out so much of the party’s moderate wing.

Today, chief political correspondent for The Saturday Paper Karen Barlow, on what’s next for the Liberal Party.

It’s Tuesday, May 6.

[Theme Music Ends]

RUBY:

So, Karen, I thought we could begin by talking about Peter Dutton's speech on election night. He took to the stage after it was clear that the Liberal Party had been decimated and he had lost his own seat. One of the other things that Dutton said was that the Liberal Party will rebuild. Obviously, that is a very big task after a political wipeout like this. So, tell me a bit about the questions that the party is going to be asking itself as they try and work out the way forward.

KAREN:

You're right, it's going to be a big job. And it was a big job after the ‘22 loss. We saw an election review then by Jane Hume and Brian Loughnane, major recommendations at that time, which have largely been ignored, especially to do with women. Labor does have a super majority now of 87, but the Coalition have to build on what we see at the moment of, like, 38, 39, but they have to sort out the leadership first. That's a big question. How are they going to go forward? And then they'll do another review about what went wrong. Hopefully they'll listen this time. In the meantime, what we're left with is anger and frustration, so many different arguments about what went wrong, but one Liberal MP told me on background that it was choosing to run without proper policy development and that was reflecting arrogance. It shows that they weren't really listening to backbenches and highlights that you shouldn't let Peta Credlin, the former Chief of Staff to Tony Abbott, run your campaign. So that was this criticism about Coalition members pretty much only talking to the Sky: After Dark crowd, which is pretty much an echo chamber.

Audio excerpt – Peta Credlin:

“And I argue that we need a national register of child sex offenders. If you were PM, would you bring that in?”

Audio excerpt – Peter Dutton:

Yes. Yeah, very much so. I think it’s important. We tried to push it when we were in government, the states largely weren’t interested.”

KAREN:

And not listening to the wider community and their concerns, particularly in a cost of living election. And, you know, where were these policies?

RUBY:

Okay. And so, obviously there's a lot going on behind the scenes. Lots of phone calls, people doing the numbers. How long could all of this take before we have an Opposition leader?

KAREN:

Well, the first thing that the party has to do is wait. They have to wait, unfortunately, until all the seats are counted and all have been declared. And that will take some days. And then, while all these calls are being made behind the scenes to get support, the MPs have to come together in Canberra as a party room to decide who is going to be put forward and who's going to be chosen as the next leader and deputy leader. And also, I would say for the position of manager of opposition business. So, we need a leadership team for the Liberal Party, but in the meantime, the deputy opposition leader is the acting leader of the Liberal Party.

RUBY:

And is there any word yet on who the frontrunner is?

KAREN:

I think Angus Taylor has been talked of for a long time. He's certainly very ambitious and he is in a very prominent portfolio of shadow treasurer, but he has a lot of baggage as well.

Audio excerpt – News Host:

“Let’s start with the surprise from the budget, the tax cuts. Will the Coalition support them?”

Audio excerpt – Angus Taylor:

“Well, can I say, this is a budget for the next five weeks, not for the next five years and beyond. And what was offered was a bribe, an election bribe, of 70c a day, starting in a year’s time, and frankly this is not even going to touch the sides of the economic pain that Australian households have felt over the last two and a half years since Labor’s been in power.”

KAREN:

We've also got Dan Tehan, who also did well up against Alex Dyson, the independent candidate in Wannan, to retain his seat. And we've got Sussan Ley, who is the deputy opposition leader, currently acting Liberal leader. She's holding the fort at the moment until they sort it out.

Audio excerpt – Sussan Ley:

“We need more homes. State governments have failed us, let’s be honest. We’re stepping right up here and we’re saying we will provide the impetus to actually build these homes at local government level, and local governments around the country have got projects waiting to go. They talk to me about them all the time.”

KAREN:

They're the three people being spoken of at the moment, but no clear number one. There's also a chance for the defence spokesperson, Andrew Hastie. He's widely seen as a potential future Liberal leader, but perhaps now is not his time. I would have to say though, that being opposition leader after such a trouncing is a poison chalice and would be very difficult for someone to carry through to the next election. So there is a certain thought that perhaps they might give the job to the woman, and Susan Ley might have to step into that role, which is quite difficult to carry through to the next election. And hopefully we'll sort it out pretty soon because Parliament will resume as soon as the Prime Minister sorts his side out as well.

RUBY:

And you mentioned that Angus Taylor carries a lot of baggage as the shadow treasurer. He probably had the highest profile during the election campaign, other than Peter Dutton. So, does the fact that the Coalition's message on cost of living failed to cut through – does that failure lie with Angus Taylor and will that hinder his chances to become the leader?

KAREN:

That is a live potential, I have to say. Some of the Coalition members that are coming out at the moment, the likes of Andrew Bragg comes to mind. He's a moderate. He has been pointing out the economic message failure during the campaign.

Audio excerpt – Andrew Bragg:

“We didn't do enough on the economy and I don't think we did enough to capture the centre of the Australian public support. And, I think, ultimately that's where the campaign went wrong.”

KAREN:

You would have to then, you know, take the next step forward in your mind and go, well, who's responsible for that? Well, Angus Taylor and Jane Hume came up with a number of those policies and they didn't really cut through. So now that is being pointed out by people such as Andrew Bragg, but also Hollie Hughes – no friend of Angus Taylor, they've got some history – she's also pointing out the failings of Angus Taylor. So that's very much out in the media at the moment.

Audio excerpt – Hollie Hughes:

“I'm on the record publicly, so I'm not worried about saying this. I've said it before. I have concerns about his capability. I feel that we have zero economic policy to sell. I don't know what he's been doing for three years.”

RUBY:

And Karen, under Peter Dutton, the Liberal Party has been more to the right. There's been this focus of immigration. There was, of course, the opposition to the Voice to parliament. And then more recently, he waded into the, quote unquote, culture wars, talking about Australian flags on Australia Day and Welcome to Country. So, do you think that the Coalition is going to start to walk away from those sorts of topics, those sorts of talking points, now that Dutton is out?

KAREN:

That's very much a wait and see. They're certainly being advised to stop doing that and they should focus more on the economic message rather than matters of culture.

Audio excerpt – Sarah Ferguson:

“We saw you wearing a Make Australia Great Again hat at a time when Donald Trump was poisoned to the world.”

Audio excerpt – Jacinta Nampijinpa Price:

“Oh my goodness.“

KAREN:

We are seeing the likes of the firebrand Senator Jacinta Nampetjibba Price come out and say in a statement that the Coalition should have, in fact, stood taller on some of these issues and shouldn't go backwards and go more to the centre.

Audio excerpt – Sarah Ferguson:

“We saw you give a speech in which you used a Donald Trump value statement to ‘make Australia great again’. So can I come back to the question, are you partly responsible for what the Liberal Party has suffered tonight and Peter Dutton's loss of his seat?”

Audio excerpt – Jacinta Nampijinpa Price:

“Let me come back to the question. That's a whole lot of mud you just slung right there, can I just say. In terms of wanting this country to be great, Donald Trump doesn't own those four words, right?”

KAREN:

But on the other side, the numbers of the moderates are even smaller now than they were in the last election and they were being gutted then and certainly, they're very small in number now. And so, while the moderates that are left are calling for the Coalition to go back to the centre, and that's where the main votes are, the main election fights usually are, they are still being dragged further to the right.

RUBY:

After the break – the infighting in Labor over its new frontbench.

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RUBY:

Karen, Anthony Albanese is set to renew his ministry as well. Before the election, he said that he would keep his core leadership team in place, but he wouldn't be drawn on on what that would mean for other cabinet ministers, so people like Tanya Plibersek, for example. So, let's talk a bit about their relationship and what is at the heart of the tension.

KAREN:

Well, basically, while they were friends back in the early days for them within the Labor Party, it does come down to who backed who when Albanese was running for the leadership and who backed Bill Shorten. Tanya Plibersek backed Bill Shorten and so therefore there is this view on Albanese's side of the betrayal and this has played out ever since. The 2022 election win, when Albanese was giving out the portfolios, despite her great standing within the party, she was actually tipped by Julia Gillard as a future Labor Prime Minister. He gave Plibersek the environment portfolio. Very difficult for a Labor Minister to champion because you have to do tough things like approve coal mines. And environmental reform has been a tough gig. And for whoever does get the environment portfolio going forward, it still will be a tough gig. You know, the prime minister has had this huge election win. He has the power to do pretty much whatever he wants with whoever gets whatever portfolio. But at the same time, you know, he says he has to, sort of, respect the caucus, respect factions, he's an institutionalist, he loves the Labor Party, and it's for him to sort out amongst the factions, the left and right, and for the states.

Audio excerpt – Anthony Albanese:

“Richard Marles in defence, Penny Wong in foreign affairs, Jim Chalmers in treasury, Don Farrell in trade, and Katy Gallagher in finance, bring a stability to the show that is really important.”

KAREN:

During the campaign, he did say that the main leadership group, with the likes of Jim Chalmers as treasurer, the Deputy Prime Minister as Defence Minister, Katie Gallagher as Finance Minister, those sort of leadership group members will stay the same, but it did appear that everything else was up for grabs.

Audio excerpt – Latika Bourke:

“So would you have a wider cabinet reshuffle but leave those leaders in place that you named?”

Audio excerpt – Anthony Albanese:

“We're not getting ahead of ourselves, in terms of the broader issues and the caucus make-up. Of course, the caucus select the front bench, but quite clearly the leaders' team and the economic team are important.”

KAREN:

This is what's being sorted out now. It's gonna be fascinating to see who gets what, but he did say that Plibersek would stay as a cabinet minister.

RUBY:

And Anthony Albanese always said that he wanted to be a two-term prime minister, that he was thinking about the next election when he won the first one. And I think, because of that, his first term was quite measured. He didn't want to go beyond his first-term mandate. But I think the question now that a lot of people have is that with this huge victory, is there a case for a more bold Albanese government. Do you think we will see that?

KAREN:

Yeah, ambition was certainly put to the Prime Minister by journalists during the campaign and it was something that he addressed at the first prime ministerial press conference back at Parliament House when he got back to work.

Audio excerpt – Anthony Albanese:

“We're not getting carried away. We're being an orderly government. We've been a reform government. The thing that I reject is the idea that we haven't been ambitious. Look at our agenda on the clean energy economy, on childcare, on gender equality, on education where we went beyond where we said we would.”

KAREN:

He does have space, though, I would say, to be more ambitious. What he has now is a large mandate from the voters being that he has a seat buffer so large and a lot more possibility of getting items through the Senate, even though he has to depend on the Greens. But I do note, you know, when you talk about the two-term strategy, here's a Prime Minister who's now confidently looking at the possibility of a third term. He's also, I would have to say, really talked about big reforms of past Labor governments and, you know, that we're talking there about Medicare and superannuation. And he's been talking up himself about the move towards universal childcare, something he's gonna set in and have a legacy item. But certainly this is a prime minister who has confidence, he has swagger and he'll probably need to check himself throughout his term to not get ahead of himself like he promised he wouldn't.

RUBY:

Well, Karen, thank you so much for your time today.

KAREN:

Thanks very much.

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RUBY:

Also in the news...

US President Donald Trump has praised Anthony Albanese on his election victory, telling reporters in the US the pair are “very friendly”, while proclaiming to have, quote, “no idea who the other person is that ran against him”.

The statement comes as Albanese confirmed in his first Prime Ministerial press conference that he had a “warm” conversation with Trump and promised the two leaders would meet soon.

And,

In the same Prime Ministerial press conference, Albanese confirmed his number one priority for the new government is reducing student debt.

The government promised to cut student debt by 20% if re-elected, amounting to about $16 billion of debt forgiveness, applied to HECS-HELP debt as well as vocational education and apprenticeship support loans.

Albanese said he expects the legislation to pass before the start of the next financial year.

I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am. See you tomorrow.