The Coalition is in crisis (again)

I'm Ruby Jones and you're listening to seven Am. The Coalition is again in crisis. The latest News poll puts their primary vote at twenty seven percent. It's worst on record, and with one front bencher sacked over immigration comments and others threatening to quit of a climate policy, the party seems more divided than ever. Today Press Gallery journalist Karen Middleton on the ideological battle lines tearing the party apart. It's Monday, September twenty two.

So Karen, let's go back to the first trouble in this latest saga for the coalition. I think a good starting point is the sacking of Tenter Nabujeba Price. So tell me what happened there.

Well, we remember there were protests in capital cities about the levels of immigration, and the flyers that were put out ahead of those protests at which some neo Nazis spoke were complaining in particular about the levels of Indian immigration. Senator Senter Nampajimpur Price did an interview on ABC Afternoon briefing the ABC twenty four program.

Senator, welcome to the program, Thanks for having me. It's National Flag Day and you've written a piece.

You say Australia should criminalize the destruction of the desecration of the national flag.

Why do you think she was on the program?

Ostensibly because in Parliament that day to mark National Flag Day, she had got up wrapped herself in the Australian Flag chambers.

For the benefit of all Australians in this country. Yes, snark all you like, it's revolting. You don't love this country the way I do, certainly not like most Australians do.

So, and she got some questions about the immigration protests and her views, and she appeared to endorse the sentiment that there were too many Indian migrants and all said she believed the Labor government was bringing Indian migrants into Australia to boost their vote as we've seen you know, mean you yourself mentioned that there is a concern with the Indian community, and only because there's been large numbers and we can see that reflected in the way that

May I take this opportunity as leader of the Liberal Party to apologize to all Indian Australians and indeed others who were hurt and distressed by the comments that were made, Comments that I said at the time should not have been made.

So she was trying to fix that up, and the suggestion was made that Jacinto Nampajepreprice should apologize, and in the end a few days later, when she was asked about it, she still didn't apologize, and in fact she double down.

Unfortunately, the issue that's of great concern, which you know I won't be silenced on, is the issue of mass migration in our country.

And when asked if Susan Lee as leader had her support, she declined to give it. Repeatedly, do you have confidence in her leadership?

Look again, those matters are for our party room. Those matters are for our party room. My focus is to go forward and to ensure that.

We're Susan Lee had to do something about it in terms of her position, and she was removed from the front.

Bench and all of this led straight into the boiling over of another struggle inside the coalition Net zero. So tell me about that and why the Coalition at this moment in time is still seeming unable to settle on a climate policy.

Well, because there's still a constituency in the Coalition on the right, in the Liberal Party and within the Nationals

The Coalition voted against legislating net zero target by twenty fifty and we voted against the twenty thirty target, and now obviously we're going through a process of review of the net zero position both parties.

So this decade's long conflict inside the coalition about whether to take action on climate change about energy transition continues, and in some ways it's also a bit of a proxy war for the factional infighting, particularly in the New South Wales Liberals. Alex Hawk is from New South Wales. He's a prominent figure, as I said, in that center faction. He was Scott Morrison's sort of key lieutenant when Morrison

So they don't seem to accept.

That it was one of the key reasons the Coalition lost the election, and they are continuing to prosecute the case, and that means it also becomes a vehicle to destabilize Susan Lee's leadership with those factional tensions underneath.

Leta, as you touched on, you don't agree with the twenty thirty five targets were set via the government, but what do you think that target should be?

We don't believe in setting targets at all from opposition or from government, thanks ever.

But stumbling over her words on climate change and emissions reduction, as Susan Lee did on Friday when she suggested the Coalition didn't support setting targets even in government is not going to help her. Sorry, guys just want to say she's got to add to.

She had to come back out and clean that up immediately.

Now that's just a gift to her political opponents, whether it's Anthony Albanezi or the people inside her own party.

What I meant to.

Say was that I don't support the targets that the government sets while we're in opposition.

So I misspoke.

And when you say they continue to prosecute the case, tell me more about what this group on the right of the Liberal Party and the Nationals.

So people like Barnaby Joyce Andrew Hasty.

Tell me what we're hearing from them about net zero right now?

Well, and Juicy inter NAMPAJMP Prices is in that group as well. She holds the same view that they shouldn't be pursuing a net zero emissions by twenty fifty policy. Barnaby Joyce and Michael McCormack, both former Deputy Prime Minister. There's former leaders of the Nationals, have come out very strongly saying they believe the coalition should oppose that policy firmly. They are arguing that their rural constituents are distressed and alarmed at the way the energy transition is playing out

Would he be if they did that? He'd be out of a job.

If Susan Lee, though, supports net zero by twenty fifty, where does that leave you? That leaves me without a job? Go on, elaborate on that. That would be it for you.

I've mailed, I've nailed my colors to the mask. Gary like, if I go out with a tide in two and a half years, that's great, you know.

So he seemed to actually be saying in the moment, if voters vote me out because I'm opposing net zero and this level of climate action and the renewables transition, so be it, but it was interpreted as him saying I'll quit the front bench, and he hasn't corrected that. He's almost sort of surfed that wave since, and so that is now seen as a sort of a different kind of direct challenge to Susan Lee and to the suggestion that they may continue to adopt a net zero policy.

And that review, as you say, is underweight still. But are there any signs as a result of all of this that nuclear power could be back on the table as coalition policy?

Well, this is the pointy end of this whole debay, isn't it. Really.

We've heard David Little from the Nationals in the last few days re endorsing nuclear power, I.

Believe passionately in it region. Australia is more than just a place littered with transmission lines, solar panels and wind turbines.

Pointing to the argument that the more we use artificial intelligence, the more data centers we're going to need to manage that the greater the power need and the only way to supply that power is with nuclear power. I think the problem with that argument is the data centers are going to be needed a lot earlier, and the extra power is going to need a lot earlier, and then nuclear power stations could be built. So there's a timeline flaw in the argument. But he is indeed pressing that point.

Coming up, how the global far right is influencing Australian politics, Karen. When Susan Lee took over as leader after that catastrophic election for the Coalition, her task was to bring the party back to the center, to recapture the mainstream that the party seem to have lost. But as we're seeing these tussles play out over immigration over climate, does this show that she is failing at that task?

Well, I think to be fair Susan Lee, she's only been in the job for four months. We don't have another election for almost three years, so she's got a way to go yet. But it's certainly difficult and It tells you that these issues, these old slawny issues, these ideologically divisive issues like climate change, like immigration, continue to play out in our politics now. They come to the fore particularly strongly when people are under economic stress, and

Also a Conservative.

She's replaced a conservative with a Conservative and a woman with a woman. But she's made some enemies in her whole front bench, shaping the likes of Jane Hume, who was a prominent front bencher and shadow Finance Minister who's much more moderate in the previous coalition shadow ministry under Peter Dutton. She lost her front bench position and there are others in the party unhappy. So she's got a

War going on underneath.

She needs him for her factional protection, but he's also potentially a liability in that factional sense.

And karent to what extent do you think that this ideological struggle within the coalition is being influenced by what's happening to the right wing of politics overseas, Because obviously you've got this populist authoritarian ESQ government in Trump and the MAGA movement in the US, but also in other places in the UK, the far right Reform Party has been gaining popularity. So how much notice do you think that certain people within the coalition are taking of these global trends.

A lot of notice, and this is a very interesting influence. We are seeing the rise of leaders on the what you might call the far right. I mean, as you mentioned in the United Kingdom, Nigel Farage, his party seems to be on the ascendant, But the incumbents in a couple of other countries are from the center left or the left, you know, Keir Starmer in the United Kingdom, Mark Carney in Canada, like minded or ideological allies of Anthony Albanesi, the Prime minister here.

So there's this ascendancy of the right.

But if you look back to our election campaign, Donald Trump was elected in November. He was inaugurated in January, our election campaign began soon after, and our election was in May. And the way the Trump arrival played out during that campaign was that it seemed to advantage Anthony Albanesi, who was critical of Trump's policies, all the kinds of policies that Donald Trump was espousing. So being sort of against Donald Trump is seen to have had a political

So it's a hard it's a hard thing for them.

To wrestle with how best to present themselves to voters at the next election in a way that they might actually defeat the current government now in its second term.

So a big task I had then for Susan Lee. How do you think she's going to approach it?

Haha?

Well, I mean to pull the party together. The first thing you really got to do is you've got to get that poll rating up. I mean it was in the last News poll it was down to twenty seven percent.

That's diabolically low.

In order to do that, she needs to find issues on which she can differentiate from the government and prosecute a strong case. Now, the government's emissions reduction targets for twenty thirty five are a good example. She's choosing to prosecute a case on those. At the same time, she's got people in her party who are pulling her in opposite directions on that very issue. So it's a huge

The next election.

Karen, thank you so much, Viatain, thanks for having me.

Ruby.

Also in the news today, twenty five Republican lawmakers in the United States have warned world leaders they'll face punitive actions if they recognize Palestinian statehood. Prime Minister Anthony Alberinezi arrived in New York on Sunday morning along with other world leaders for the UN General Assembly, where multiple countries

I'm Ruby Jones.

This is seven am. See you tomorrow,