From the Sky New Center. This is Paul Murray Live.
One of the bright spots of the past few days has been that Adam Band no longer part of the Australian political conversation. Well tonight the Liberal woman who helped take him down. Her name is Steph Hunt. She ran for the Liberal Party in Melbourne. She's a very accomplished person and she's one of these new faces.
That are in and around Australian politics.
And as always, something we've done over fifteen years of this show is introduced you to some new faces, to find new friends, to grow the family, and I look forward to Steph being part of that tonight. Don't worry, all your favorites still part of the family, all still very much in what we do. But every now and then we're going to introduce you to some new faces. And Steph is going to be first cap off the ring tonight, and why not. She deserves it after playing
her role in the demise of Adam Bant. Matt Canavan he has not spoken since the decision of his National Party colleagues to stick with what they've got in terms.
Of a leader. He wanted to be that leader.
He will talk to us tonight and we're off to Cans in North Queensland in just a couple of weeks time. What a magical part of Australia. This is the photos never do it justice. To be there with your own eyes is just to be in a form of heaven. If you'd like to join us in Cans for Our Town, not this Sunday, but a couple of Sunday's time, Sunday the twenty fifth, email Ourtown. It's gynews dot com dot you.
We've got a big, big space and I want to fill it with as many locals who watch this show as possible.
Ourtown. It's Gynews dot com dot Au.
Now some big news that is going to affect a lot of people around the world, at least for the next ninety days. In fact, it's close to breaking news because we know that Donald Trump one of his ideas about how to make sure that America is great again but also to stabilize the world is to introduce tariffs. Now virtually every country, including ours, got a ten percent tariff. But we also know that all of this was really
about a fight with China. Now we know that the stock markets, well they went particularly crazy after all of these things had been first announced, but I continue. The breaking news tonight is that China and the United States have agreed to not ramp up tariffs on each other. In fact, a ten percent tariff for most things coming out of China will be the same as the tariff paid by a country like Australia. Now the US and China have done this deal, it'll be for the next
ninety days. And the Wall Street Journal, both in their own copy and republished in Australia in the Australian newspaper, says this that the US and China have said on Monday that they agreed to suspend most of the tariffs on each other's goods while further trade negotiations continue. But simply we're now sitting in a ninety day period where everyone's starting to stand down.
The US said that.
It would lower its reciprocal tariff on Chinese goods from one hundred and twenty five percent back down to ten percent. China has said that it will do the same, back down to ten percent from the one hundred and twenty five percent u of tara. US tariffs, however, remain on things like fentanyl and other measures, so it's not everything.
Down to ten percent.
But basically all of that electronics, all of the global supply chain stuff that was going to make prices much more expensive in places like America and presumably a flow on to places like US. But the two countries say that they will establish a mechanism to continue discussions about economic and trade relations, meaning it won't be president to president,
it'll continue being effectively minister to minister. But this is very big news for the global economy and for those who'd like to pay attention to the stock market, I can tell you that the futures market, when the market opens in just a couple of hours time, is now sitting at forty two thousand. Now that's really important because that number is even better than the number or very close to the number when things started to fall through the floor. The stock market will not be back where
it was, say around February or December. That's up to forty four thousand, but remember it was dipping down to what about thirty eight thousand, and we remember the very calm reaction the Australian media.
Had to Australia's stock market reaction.
Tariffs tariffs tariffs are tariffs, tariffs, tariff terriffs.
Tariffs are tariffs, tariffs.
Tariff tariff, tariff, tariffs tariff.
Now you would recall the great setting on.
Fire of many people's hair, and yes, it became an important moment, in fact, one of the most important moments in and around the campaign. But something you haven't heard on the six pm news, something you don't read about and all of those people who were very interested when the market went down, is that, firstly, the American market seems to be on its way back up and the Australian market is actually higher than where it was when
the panic set in. Now, yes, there are plenty of people who get very concerned about what happens on any one day in the stock market, but the reality is, for anyone who's really in the stock market, it's not even about week to week, it's not even about month to month. It's about year to year. And if we can see again where the stock market has been, you can see the dip at eight thousand points has now been replaced by the performance that is.
Now three hundred points higher.
The Australian stock market is higher than the day before things started to go crazy. In fact, you can start to roll back that we're talking about more like March, not what was happening in and around April. Now, again, this did concern an awful lot of people. It was the stock market in particular that forced a very important group of voters to start to move from the coalition to labor.
But isn't it interesting all the wall.
Coverage of the panic in order to help get the political result? But where then, when all of those losses have been wiped out and now they are starting to go back above those numbers. Nothing to see here or somehow it's all Jim Chalmer's great work. And there's good Trump, there's bad Trump. There's decisions he makes that are fantastic, and there are ones that all of us will WinCE at, even those of us who support the president. But as I have said to anyone who will listen since November
last year, forget the panic. Wait a week, or in this case, just wait a few weeks, and then we can start to see what's going to happen.
Now.
I don't know what happens in the next ninety days, but if a stock market is rolling back to before the panic, and in the American market is probably going to surge way past where the dip was then who are the people who really were setting their hair on fire?
People actually losing money, people making money off huge amounts of stock trades, or people who wanted to ram home a political point in service of the election result that they wanted, of course to So that would be a So the Prime Minister has been juggling egos, most importantly his own.
But everyone must know he is all all amazing. It will rule for the next four hundred years.
Why because upon getting a third of the vote and another third in preferences, he of course has more than ninety seats in the Parliament. Today, as you know, he announced a whole collection of new ministers. Who are the old ministers moving to new portfolios?
Now? Who cares? Who's the winners and losers? But some of the.
Significant movements here are worth noting. Michelle Rowland who when she was the Communications Minister, remember wanting to censor the Internet to decide what was truth and not truth and the government would make the decision. Well, she's now the Attorney General of the country in charge of put simply the chief law officer of our country and how the system works. Tony Burke, who of course moved into the Home Affairs portfolio after clueless Claire O'Neill and that idiot
Andrew Giles did the damage that they did. Well, guess what he of course wouldn't call out hate preachers because that would be inconvenient to his own political process. Well, guess what one of his responsibilities are now going to be in Home Affairs. He's now going to be in charge of the Australian Federal Police and ASIO, both of which would have a significant role looking into hate preachers. Elections have consequences people. We will live with them for
many years to come. Also those that have been moving around aged care. Difficult issue for any politician to get their head around, but one where some politicians don't want to really get their hands dirty. So we've changed the letterhead and we've got this new body, and this new body's going to do all the work. So I'm not responsible for anything. But I tell you the person with the widest smile, the widest smile because they have got one heck of a promotion is Anika Wells, who replaced
Wayne Swann as the Labor member for Lily. She's, of course, somebody who considers herself to be quite the girl boss, but more importantly just amazing on social media. She's down with the kids, and she's not at all patronizing when she compares the federal budget to a math's dinner party like a mass.
Did a party.
This budgetweek has been filled with drama and intrigue. So welcome to policy as pop culture, your pre election guide.
To the big issues.
Now, it's been a busy week budget on Tuesday, last night's final din a.
Party on Mass perfect example about these sort of labor star with zero connections to the world of small business. And didn't she prove that when she was trying to ram home while she believed to be one of the problems with the Liberal parties policy which suggested that if you are a small business that you would be able to write off on your tax taking out your staff or a client for lunch. This is the rule, of course with big business and big banks and big unions.
But god forbid if you, the ABN holder, would be able to have the same tax break that a bank has. Here was a pretty arrogant performance, one that of course was rewarded by the media and went down like a treat on social media, where she liked to pretend that the average small business in Australia has enough money lying around that they could take whoever they wanted to the super Bowl, the grand final of American football in the United States, and claimant on tax according.
To the coalition's publicly defined parameters of their own policy, business could spand up to twenty thousand dollars of Elizabeth's own taxpayer funds to attend something like, for example, the Super Bowl, to lather themselves in buffalo wings and babyback rips, notdding along to Kendrick Lamar.
Now, one of the things that's really important to notice about people who have incredible ambition, and every single member of the Parliament wants to be the leader one day, regardless of what party they are sitting in, and all of them who say otherwise, please this might be a little bit of a look around the corner into future generations of the type of person who will be rewarded by the Labor Party, because you see, one of the smartest things that Anthony Albanezi did when he was a
government minister or in opposition was to never have a portfolio that really ever had to.
Deliver bad news.
This means that you're able to build up a caricaturer of yourself. And of course there's not a lot of enemies in the closet in terms of with the decisions that have been made. Now, Anika Wells is not going to get her hands dirty anymore when it comes to aged care. That's off to somebody else. So she has a superministry. That is the ministry every politician would dream of. She's the Sports Minister in Australia and they've also announced
today that she will be in charge of the media. Now, when it comes to being the sports minister, you get to go to all of the big major sporting events around the country and you get to go for free. Here she is in two thousand and two in the birdcage at the Melbourne Cup, when, of course she was told by Anthony Abernezi at the time, don't do it because it gives off a bad look.
But what does she care.
I'm the sportsman and I have to be there in the birdcage.
This job is also.
One that pays many hundreds of thousands of dollars and comes with it an.
Awful lot of free tickets.
In fact, I can scroll up on the TV for you right now, all of the different things that she has declared on her registry of gifts, like corporate tickets to the NRL, the AFL, the women's basketball tournaments, the tickets to the Prime Minister's eleven, also the NFL, the ARL FEB. There's also the as I say, women's basketball.
There's the Brisbane Lyons, there's the AFL Finals. There's a ticket donated by the Guardian for her to attend the Midwinter Ball where all of the media gets to play with all the politicians.
Isn't it a great system?
Plus a couple of corporate tickets for her, plus one to not one, but two State of Origin games. And then there's the list that Anika Wells has put out there of what she is completely legally entitled to. But why she's the happiest lady in the Cabinet because this is some of the travel and hospitality that she has received since becoming a minister. She's gone to the Sale GP, the Australian Tennis Open, She's gone to the McGrath Foundations
Pink Test in Sydney. She's also multiple times gone to multiple cricket events in fact, in fact, it's a very long list. The AFLW preliminary Final. She's been to the dally M Awards, She's been to the Brown Low, She's been to the Live Golf. She's even been to Motorsport Australia's President's Dinner. She's been to the Formula One, She's been to Taylor Swift and so on and so on
and so on. Why because, of course the Sports Minister has to be there and all of the sporting organizations are more than happy for her to get the freebee. Why because they wouldn't want to upset the dear person who could be in charge of regulating things in and around sport. Well, she gets an extra job. No longer having to worry about age care. She is now the
Communications Minister. As the Communications Minister, she is now in full control of the regulatory environment around radio, television, newspapers online. And yeah, she'll probably find some way to make it harder for me to do my job because I point
out everything I just did. But if you're the Sports Minister and you can go to all the sport in Australia for free, and you're the Communications Minister and nobody in the media will bag you, then you are going to be the happiest person in the cabinet, a person who in fifty five years, when the Prime Minister decides to move on, keep an eye on her, or she will move up the chain. She doesn't like criticism, she
can't stand what I've just shown you. She'll girl boss something and passive aggressively do something on social media, no doubt in the next little while. But the reality is, this is a person who is now in charge of the free speech that our nation is able to have or not have yet when it comes to her own constituents on her own Facebook page, if you're a critic blocked of course power bills. What the Prime Minister did make that foolish remark? Didn't he three years ago that
power bills would fall? And then, as we showed you during the election campaign, it wasn't dumb enough to make that promise again. So guess who stays exactly where they are?
The bloke with the responsibility for bringing power prices down, who, of course, will just spend billions of dollars off budget to continue to achieve what they all want to achieve, which is to make themselves look better at an international climate conference, which, according to labor activists, could push Australia towards a seventy five percent reduction in emissions.
It's currently forty three percent.
Oh and not by twenty fifty in twenty thirty five. Remember when the Prime Minister was all out of sorts when Peter Dutton was asked a question by Kyle and Jackie. Oh, it wasn't a policy announcement, he was just asked a question by Colin JACKIEO would you prefer to live in the Lodge? Oruld you prefer to live at Curabilly And being on a Sydney radio show, yes, also heard in Melbourne, no offense Kyle. He answered that yeah, I'd like to
live at Curriabilly House. Well, that was immediately run up the flag pile and turned into the outrage of the day when we weren't Parliament panicking about a stock market, which, by the way has completely recovered that the alternative prime minister was measuring the curtains. He was too up himself by even having an opinion about which house that he would live in, be it the Lodge or be it
Kirabilly House. Well, how would the Prime Minister describe himself the day before the federal election when he was already starting to plan for a third term of his own government. He's not just measuring the curtains. He's got the curtains and he can refurbish them whenever he wants. Similarly, Jim Chan says that he needs.
At least another two terms.
So three terms in government to fix the Australian economy. Also, it'll be interesting to know whether when the Prime Minister and the rest of his cabinet are sworn in tomorrow at Government House, will he make the full conversion to the deep and committed Christian that we know he is, because in twenty twenty two he took the oath of Affirmation, which was not swearing to God. He did not hold the Bible to be sworn in by. Now that's fine as a person not a faith I don't care whether
you do or you don't. But this is the guy who, of course was desperate to follow up on the Labor Party review into why in part they failed in the twenty nineteen election, which was to say, communities of faith have lost faith in the Labor Party. So even though the actual rubber hitting the road was I once swear on a Bible when it.
Was Easter Sunday. There he was in the front row, not campaigning.
Not campaigning of course when the Pope died as well. So we'll find out exactly what he'll do tomorrow when it comes to swearing in.
What will have changed in three years.
If he decides to pick up the Bible, What new confidence does he have in faith that he's willing to talk about, or will he do the secular thing because you don't want to upset all of the other or
the non faiths. And also when we talk about the arrogance of measuring the curtains, the bloke who's now got more than ninety seats in the Federal Parliament, who does honestly believe that there is no scandal that will cause him trouble, no opposition who will start to peg him back anytime in the next three, six or even nine years. Guess who's coming back? Well, Anthony Aberezi didn't go to
NATO because he wanted to be in Australia. He didn't want to be criticized for going overseas because you see there, what was that term that we had, Oh that's right, airbus albow wasn't just something said here by the way, it was a cartoon on top of the article written by Mark Riley, the guy who of course moderated the
debate for Channel seven. That's right, airbus albow. Well, guess what's back airbus albow, Because not only is he off to Indonesia in the next few days, he will then of course do his solemn duty as a committed person when it comes to faith that he will be there for the inauguration of the Pope, and then he's got a few other flights booked.
Yes, after swearing in his ministry tomorrow, the Prime Minister heads to Indonesia on Wednesday. Is also confirmed. He'll then go from Jakarta to Rome for the inauguration mass of Pope Leo. As a Catholic, there is significance for the Prime Minister, but also opportunity to meet with European leaders as the Australia EU free trade talks resume in the wake of Donald Trump's tariffs. The Prime Minister has likely trips to Asian in Malaysia and the G seven summit
in Canada, all in the coming weeks. It means he'll be trotting the globe as the new Liberal leader, whoever it is, gets their feet under.
The desk, airbus, albow back and ruin because he thinks he is now untouchable, and he may will be, But as long as we remain a free speech country, we will be able to criticize him, unless, of course, the new Minister for Communications finds a new and creative way to be able to do what the previous one and the previous Prime minister in this current Prime ministery is last and wanted to do, which was of course, to define what the truth is, to censor criticism conspiracy theory.
Now tomorrow the Liberal Party will make its choice about whom is going to be its next leader. Both Akus Taylor and Susan Lee both believe they've got the numbers, but in a much smaller party room, who knows what the numbers are. As Dave Sharma told us today on Sky News.
I think it is a close contest, and I think both candidates have strong claims and credentials.
But the media not willing to get this one wrong. Now, of course somebody will end up having more votes than the other. What's the official line tonight?
The Liberals will vote on a new opposition leader tomorrow. The contest between Susan Lee and Angus Taylor.
Ted tomorrow it's the Liberals turn to resolve what's expected to be a tight leadership contest.
All right, Well, regardless of whom they choose, let me tell you what the criticism of them will be straight out of the gate by the Labor Party.
Now.
Of course, if it's Susan Lee, well you were the deputy to Peter Dutton, meaning you are now the new Peter Dutton. I'm not entirely sure how they're going to make her the new Trump, but we'll all find out over the next couple of weeks or so. Well, the stock market's back from where it was, don't tell anyone, of course, if it's Angus Taylor, we already know this whole army of people on x or Twitter as they preferred to call it way back when with the little
water drops will be about water investments. And of course when it comes to this enterprise, well, she must be punished for leading the case against what many of the elites who now say the Liberal Party has no future and offer free advice to the Liberal Party that they never would have voted for. She will, of course must be punished because she, of course denied them. Now they'll try to make a lot out of things like her travel compared to somebody an MP who lives in the act.
But remember when you hear and read all of these stories, she lives in Alice Springs, where I'm pretty sure there's no direct flights to Canberra. In fact, to make a flight to make a meeting in Canberra, you've got to either flight at Brisbane or Darwin or maybe Sidney the night before before turning around and making your way towards Camberra.
But you know that before conspiracy there you don't talk about it.
As for Tim Wilson, the Teal slayer out of the seat of Goldstein, he is not going to be putting himself forward as leader.
Now.
I don't have a problem with this guy. I hope that he's shadow treasurer or shadow finance or something like that, because the work what he did on frankin Credits a few years ago excellent. But he's certainly somebody who is going to be very very media friendly. As a young man trying to find my place in the world, I realized the Liberal Party was the place for me. The relationship has been complicated, but it's been the right one.
I've never been a conservative nor a moderate. I've always been a liberal with a very liberal conviction, just you know, the type of language that every person in the street would completely understand.
But good luck to him.
Look forward to a conversation should he take our phone calls which was slightly different than anyway, if he wants to take our phone calls at any time, welcome to discuss anything on this show. But as for the Nationals, they made their decision today and it was to stick with David Little Proud. Matt Canavan did put his hand up today, did suggest that there was a different way, but they've decided no, let's double down. And the man
joining us right now in Canberra is the wonderful Matt Canavan. Matt, nice to see you mate. What did it feel like, even if you did or didn't know the numbers were, like when you saw a moment where this boy from Queensland had a chance to step up in national leadership. What was that moment like before you even knew what the result was.
Well, Paul, it.
Was just very humbling to receive the support of thousands of Australians has really been an outpouring. I think something like eleven thousand Australians sent emails over the weekend, had enormous support on social media, had people just random people generating content and support of me. And that's just very humbling to have people support you. To certainly put the
fire back in my belly to get cracking on this. Yeah, look, I just didn't think we had enough to fight for in the election campaign and I've got through that, but I don't think we gave a real choice to the austrain people. Over the past five days, I've got that fireback that we can do some things differently. We can fight for what we truly believe, and we can fight for a better future for our country. The problem we really had as I've gone through this, I've really clarified
my thinking, Paul, on what has gone wrong. If you like, the problem of the election was that we told everybody that the world has gone to hell, your life is rubbish, everything's costing more, but we're not going to propose any radical changes to fix it. Correct Now, those two things
don't add up. You can't say, yeah, albenez he's done all these terrible things, but they're not proposed of solutions that would actually fix those terrible things, and I've at least put forward a platform that I think would help us square that circle and say that, look, let's get rid of all these ridiculous green schemes that are costing a fortune. On the government's own research, net zero would cost nine trillion dollars to get to by twenty fifty.
We don't have nine trillion dollars. People don't have nine trillion dollars. And it's about time we put the Australian people first. So I'll keep fighting for that. I may have lost the battle today, but the war against this net zero madness is not over.
I welcome the.
Fact that the newly elected, re elected leader David little Brad has said today that he's open to reviewing that had zero policy. So if you'd like to see then net zero policy scrapped. If your viewers are like it scrapped, get onto David little Prad, get onto your local member of Parliament the Nationals Party, and tell them to get rid of this madness and actually put up a fight for our country.
So, after considering leadership and contesting leadership, and we know how involved in the fight that you are, and as clearly as you can define things. Do you want to try to serve in the shadow ministry? Is that a conversation you've had with David Little Proud, Because it would seem obvious to me that if you're a person who many of us will consider a leading light, that you've got to be in the room.
Look, I haven't had that conversation.
My position hasn't changed that I will not serve in a ministry that supports policy of zero emissions because I want to keep taking up the fight in the battle against that. I've been doing that ever since we adopted this ridiculous proposal a few years ago. There's never been a plan to achieve it, never been a proper outline of what's going to happen. And you should now a set of binding target like this with no flexibility when you don't really know how are you going to get there?
So look, I'll just keep fighting against that. Who knows what happens. I say, David has opened the window today about need zero being on the or least on the review table, so let's see what happens there.
We don't have a coalition agreement with the Liberal.
Party either yet, so I have no idea what the situation will be with a shadow ministry, so all of those questions of the future. But I won't stop fighting, Paul. This has never been about me being leader or trying to change the leadership sorry of the National's Party. Even It's actually been about changing the policy. That's why I put up this fight, and I think we've made progress on that in the last week.
Now, I said this POLITI to all National Party in pies or members, right, is it the tale that wags the dog or is it the dog that wags the tail?
Right?
And we know that the Liberal Party makes its choice tomorrow and under the coalition agreement. Essentially, obviously, while you're your own political identity, with its own machine and a very good record of being able to hold on to its seats, you are somewhat defined at times by what the Liberal Party does and what it chooses. Now you've heard everything in the past seven days, from get rid of nuclear to quotas for this, quotas for that, ditch this,
change this, rename everything, change the logo. You're a member of the NATS, which means you don't have a say in the way the Liberal Party goes, but you're obviously interested in how the head of the horse goes here, don't you.
Not?
Really, I've got so much I've got so much band with Paul. I've had a big day focused on my party.
Out. I'm vaguely aware.
There's something going on in the other room, but look, I yeah, I just don't have a mental capacity to think too hard about their problem that. Look, there's a lot of lot to do for us. There's a long way back here. I'm firmly of the view that we can win the next election, but I don't think we'll
have a fighting chance unless we've up a fight. So, however, the Liberal Party picked tomorrow, I hope well gird ourselves for that battle, to not be shy about standing up for what we believe in, to keep our focus duly square, square and duly focused on the interests of the Australian people. You know one thing I've got a bit sick and tired of since the election Paul is everybody talking about their values and principles of free markets and liberty and
all this stuff. It's all great, it all sounds fantastic, but my experience over the last ten years here is people don't always act in tune with that flowery language that gets trotted out after defeats like this, And I just want us to focus on action. We're here to act, We're here to do things, not write philosophical tree tisers. So let's think very hard about what we can do
tangibly do to benefit the Australian people. Whether it's to get back to producing energy with all of Australia's energy resources, it's not just exporting it to our competitors so they can take more of our jobs from us. Things like that. Maybe we should get back to building dams. Where's that gone from the conversation? Why are we building more dams? We built the rookerd Weir in central Queensland under the last Coestion government.
It's going great guns. Let's do more of that.
Why do I Why don't we have a real focus on lifting the birth rate. It's a shocking statistic at the moment, with only one and a half babies per woman.
That means the math on That means Paul that for every hundred Australians alive today, there will only be forty great grandchildren descended from them in three generations, just forty from one hundred, and our population will decrease from twenty seven million to just eleven million people descended from the Australians alive today in three generations unless we lift the birth rate from one point five babies per woman.
Well, and we know that that number that everyone looks to is forty four median people, forty four million people by the twenty sixty. So do the maths on as you say, the descendants of it.
The rest have to be from somewhere else and get.
Correct, right, and then of course the Ponzi scheme in and around all of that last question here, right, Because again I love talking to you. I look forward to our chats each and every Monday night. I'll obviously talk
to your fair but I assume those can continue. But I wanted to say this, right, which is I remember when we were talking about the voice, both on air and Orfair, right, and I'd showed you this pole, and we'd mentioned this in this and I remember always just saying, look, I don't care, believe in what you believe in, and essentially swing for the fences on.
Behalf of what you actually believe in.
How important is that while people are again turning themselves in knots imagining what three years, six years, nine years, looks like from now, do you agree it's time to swing for the fences. Back it up with all the smarts and the way to sell something.
But if you're going to go for change, go for change.
I mean, what have we got to lose. We've had the most crushing, worst defeat since the Second World War. That's why I was voting or trying to generate change today. What we did last time, I'd argue, what we'd have done the last couple of elections hasn't work. So what do we got to lose? Let's do something different. At least I have bloody fun if we argue for things we believe in. And courage is contagious, right, and it is.
There is something about having fun too. I mean it's trying, but I have had a lot of fun the last five days arguing for what I believe in, and with all these we actually call them dark Nats, Paul, the Darkknats groups online creating all this wonderful content.
That's been a huge amount of fun.
And it's interesting when you're with a group of people, with a band of brothers and sisters having fun, you know you're more motivated you're energized, and guess what more, people are probably likely to be convinced that you're got their best interest at heart if you really have conviction
and you show that you're having fun doing it. And I just think, look that the election campaign wasn't a lot of fun because we didn't really push for significant change which we genuinely believe with great conviction that would be better for the Istral people.
Except of course when you were joining me at seagulls and tweeteits. I know that was fun for you as well.
Thank you, Matte.
We love you mate.
I'm really proud of you today. Good on you for stepping up and always swing for the fences. Look forward to seeing you next week mate.
Thanks mate.
How good is he Matt Canavan of course, senator from Coins then good on him for ste stepping up today and you agree with what he's just had to say.
Some minima Paul at skynews dot com dot you all right.
Quick break back with more, including the lady who played her part and it was a massive part in getting rid of Adam Bands a new face to pull Mariray live in a moment along with the wonderful Frayer Leech, honesty, thank you so much for watching. You know, I don't like happy talk, but I like happy people. Freyer Leech is one of those, and we love having her as part of the family here at Port Murray Live and Sky News and a new face here. Steph Hunt is
her name. She's a lawyer, she's got her own legal practice. She's done incredible things in Melbourne, and she ran for the Liberal Party in Melbourne, and of course that Liberal vote and the preferences were the reason Adam Bant is no longer part of the fun. Frayer, love you to see you, Steph, love you to meet you. I've been following you on Instagram and I've loved all your enthusiasm for the past few weeks. How do you feel knowing that band is gone?
Relieved? Very so tell me arabel I believed. I mean it was a massive effort.
No, no, you go.
Sorry, we've got a little satellite delay here, so just power on. So give me an idea. Why did you get in the race?
Why did you want him gone?
Look? I just formed the view sometime last year, probably around May, that he was no longer in the national interest, He wasn't acting in the national interest and it was actually in the national interest to get rid of him.
So I put my hand up and I got endorsed as the Liberal candidate for the seat of Melbourne in July last year, and I ran a really hard, long campaign for nine months to unseat him basically, and it got to the point for me where, you know, I whether it was me or Sarah, and ultimately it was Sarah. I just I thought made the best woman win.
What sort of dirty technics did the Greens play along the way, because I have no doubt every opportunity you had to go to a public forum, it was all you know, boos and hisses and all the passive aggressive this and that. But give me an idea about the incoming and how did you turn that away? Because you kept a very very happy face and a happy warrior is the type of person that I want to see moral.
Yeah, thanks Paul, that means a lot. Look, it was pretty grueling, especially the start. I had people yelling, even when I was just doing door knocking in say Fitzroy for example, last year, I had people, you know, one of the most harrowing sort of instances was when a guy was walking with a Pram and he yelled out, get out of our neighborhood. You're in the wrong area, you know, as a liberal. And I said, well, actually it's don't you think it's good for democracy that you
get a choice of who you can vote for? And he said democracy. Excuse the language. You might be able to beat that out.
We'll get it in post. Yeah, we'll get it in post rocket roll.
Anyways, basically I did not expect that. I did not
expect that. I was like quite taken aback there I am, you know, doing doing what I believe is definitely in their democratic interest to know, you know, the other side of the equation, you know, when you've got the Greens leader who pits the haves against the have nots and makes you know, so many young people believe that genuinely you know that they've got it tougher, not because of the actual leader of the Greens who's been the one that's deserted everyone in Melbourne for so long, but for
f other forces. And it's just so divisive and polarizing that that's why when I started running, I had people, you know, really giving it to me and they're throwing it back. Was the stories on Instagram tagging me you know, how dare she come knock on my door? You know, well, yeah, I mean I did, and you know what, actually months in, right up until early voting, I did notice a change
and people were way more respectful. You know. I had those ads out there to show that I was listening and I had heard them when you know, all the residents were talking about you know, they wanted safety, affordability and support for small business. So there was definitely a change.
But that didn't mean that, you know, some of the Greens kind of I guess political intimidation tactics didn't come out like like slashing my my you know, billboards, and particularly one instance where you know, in Carlton, it was just one slash after another on my face up until you know, the point that the residents called the police because they were genuinely intimidated. So I just trailblazed through. But that's the that's a bit of a taste of what we what we saw in Melbourne.
Yeah, I mean again, one of the reasons it's great to talk to Steph, great to talk to you, is that it's one thing for us to see here look down the camera and talk about fight fight, Fightight, you guys have actually stood against like in the heart the belly of the beast right. And I think in part what Steph is saying that I like is when your political opponent you can frankly dehumanize or you can turn
into a caricature. Is one thing when you actually meet a candidate, you see a person, you see them multiple times where they start to see you for you. No, you, of course are not going to turn some hardcore lefty into somebody who's going to vote liberal. But there are
lots of shades in any single community. How important is that for those that again are going to sit there and sort of you know, bemome in the next three years when they're not going to have any of the experience that you and stepf are that it.
Is so important and just for people to see Liberal candidates on the ground in areas that you know, traditionally we have no chance in. But it's a message that the Liberal Party we're not going to give up. We're not going to stop fighting for Australians because ultimately this isn't about partisan politics. This is about what is in the best interests of Australia and that's why we do what we do. There was nothing in this for Steph when I ran for Balmain, and there was nothing in
it for me. But we do it because we love this country and we want to see it governed.
Well.
Yeah, so Steph and Frei, I want to ask both of you right where you're the counterculture? Right? The counterculture of somebody who's willing to stand up for and identify themselves not just as liberal supporter, but somebody wanted to be a Liberal member of parliament.
So again, what drew you to it?
What made you not just be somebody handing out but instead a person who was willing to wear the T shirt be a member? And will that passion continue or the harrowing experience of running makes you take a little time off.
Steph, great question. Look, I mean I just had to do it. I was morally compelled to do this. I could have sat on my hands and bided my time until the next election, having already run for pre selection prior or. I could have stood up and headed towards what I believed was the right way forward for Australia, and in the youngest electorate in the nation, on the basis of the last census data, I saw in you know, in Melbourne. I saw in Melbourne an opportunity for us
to take a different way forward. And for me, it was really important the fact that I was actually a southyarra A resident. You know, the time I was looking at and I still am a Southyara resident, and I was looking at how Adam Vance was dividing society, and you know, with so many young people that were sort of eating their Really, I just thought, this has got to the point where somebody has to do something. And if you know, if someone with nothing to gain doesn't
stand up. And I was well qualified. You know, I've been practicing law for over a decade, worked for two former foreign ministers for half a decade, and I've been behind some of the most significant legislation in the nation. I either Foreign Relations Act twenty twenty and Magnitski twenty twenty one. So I had the runs on the board to do this. And when it to Adam Ban, I mean I just thought, you're so polarizing and divisive. I don't know if you even know what the national interest means.
So it was I was morally compelled to do it, and that's why I stood up. You know, I'm running a practice, a law practice. You know, I knew that this would you know, take a toll on me as well as a thirty something. You know, we're not made of money obviously in terms of thirty something. It's like we're trying to get ahead and the best way that we know how. And for me, you know, big on small business, big on you know, my private sector experience
as well as my public sector experience. I was I was actually at a crossroads where I was like, well, do I, you know, do I do this and and you know, feeling morally compelled to do it, or you know, do I just go with my practice and expand into international obitration and mediation, which is what I'm specialized to do. And I decided that I wasn't going to sit on my hands. And I looked at the numbers. I thought to myself, this guy, how does he feel so entitled
to act this way? So polarizing and divisive and you know and kind of really making young people feel like they're you know, like that everyone owes them, owes them something, which really we've got to work hard. That's what That's what young people need to know, is we've got to work hard and we've actually got to you know, invest in the future, and you don't do that by you know, a race to the bottom. So that was that was
clear to me. When I saw that he had forty nine point seven percent primary at the last election, I realized, we'll hang on. That is zero point three percent off winning in his own right. If I don't stand up and do something, I mean.
Even if I don't win, that's it.
Then he then he may get there if he doesn't have somebody confronting him.
Right.
And also again when we talk about that age differences, right, remember all the way through the election, I talked about over fifty under fifty right in the seat of Melbourne. Over fifty is thirty eight under fifty seventy five sounds seventy five thousand.
So to see that Steph was.
There, Move that needle, Move that needle is really important, Ladies, stick about plenty more to talk about here on Paul Murray Live. Quick break back with more. Thanks for watching.
I'm loving this.
Happy warriors were in a second. Thank you so much for watching his Steph Hunter is a lawyer. She is an international negotiator and she tells it like it is, which means she's at home here on Paul Murray Live. She's the fotball Liberal candidate for the seat of Melbourne Frae Leachers with the Mensis Research Center.
She too, is a happy warrior.
I'm saying this a lot because I take it from Nigel Farage and I want the term to catch on and I want people to actually actually get it.
Let's talk about.
The decisions that have been made today by the Prime Minister and about whom he's decided to empower. Again, no one normal cares about the faction this and the faction that they don't care, right, But essentially some of the decisions do seem to be a little bit reflective of blindness to former failures and the embracing of a certain type of arrogance.
What do you think, Fray?
The most shocking decision out of Albanese's cabinet reshuffle was the promotion of Michelle Roland to Attorney General after probably the most disastrous piece of legislation certainly in the Albanese government's term but probably honestly in the last decade. That Misinformation Bill was truly shocking.
And now she's judge of all of all and now.
She's in charge of everything, and it attracted thousands of submissions, mass public outrage. It was a true shocker. And now this woman is being put in charge of every piece of legislation, she's the chief lawmaker in the country. It doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
Yeah, I mean against Steph this could look. I had no doubt She's going to be very capable and all the rest of it. She's a very smart person. But literally, when you know she went to the matt multiple times for or a bill that was going to have some level of government declaration of the truth. For that person to now be at the heart of the machine, it again speaks to me to what I think is a
blind spot of the government. Again maybe perhaps misinterpreting the result of last week, thinking that it's a vindication for everything in the past three years.
What do you think?
Yeah, I mean, the Misinformation Bill was not good, to say the least. In fact, it was pretty dangerous. So I'm going to hold off on further commentary until see what she does. But you know, I mean, the communications space was an area that I was very interested in, and so I was watching that closely. I think obviously the Attorney General space is a very serious portfolio and I will be watching that.
And in fairness, with a strong legal career in front of you, good to play that card. Good to play that card because I don't know if they can take the gun and bad job for you. I'm just not even a bush lawyer, but myself here on Telly. That said, I want to talk about an interesting thing that was around today talking about rapid population growth as we were with Matt Canavan, which was that Melbourne is on its way to being the size of New York. Now, of
course we're talking about population here. You've got to carry the one a couple of times, but still again stiff. We're happy for our cities to grow, but if the infrastructure goes with it. But also the reality is that you've got to go up, not out. And that is a great tension between two different types of Australia. How would you feel about Melbourne the size of Melbourne but having as many people as New York?
Well, I think Melbourne, honestly, we need to focus on being the most livable city in the world. Again, we should focus on the basics, safety, affordability and support for small businesses. That's what I heard loud and clear on the ground, whether it be you know, with small business owners or residents. I spoke to thousands and thousands of residents. In terms of the population, we are the biggest now Australia.
I don't think we're getting the basics right. So if I were the current member, I would be focusing on getting the basics right and I would be talking to you know, those in those senior cabinet physicians to be looking at population and making sure I'd be dealing with local council, State, you know, the state team as well and federal to ensure that we have the right critical infrastructure as well as other infrastructure and services to support
the population growth because at the moment, you know, it's really heading in one direction, and whether that's just to cap the recession, and you know, there's there's a question as to migration numbers and whether that should be as high as it currently is. Of course, what I would say would be, let's go get the basics right.
Yeah, and then that gets of course, you know, intentionally as it was at the last election.
Frey sadly thirty seconds. But your thoughts you.
Just can't keep bringing in millions and millions of people without building anything. And the problem is the Victorian Labor government are probably the most hopeless builders in the country. They can't build critical infrastructure to save their life. They have billions in costs, blowouts, project delays for years and so I think it's irresponsible and reckless of them, and they're putting their own interests ahead of those of the citizens of Melbourne.
All right, thank you so much, ladies. I really do appreciate it. Steph again, thank you so much for coming on the show. Look forward to seeing you down the track if you want to play again. And of course freyer Leach, we know you'll be back. Thank you very much to both of you. All right now, one more reminder about Our Town coming to Cairns in North Queensland. We'll be doing it in a couple of Sunday's time.
I'm doing lots of shout outs now because I want to fill the room as soon as possible with as many people who are the hardcore viewers of this program Ourtown. It's gone news dot com dot You. Nigel Farages on the show tomorrow.
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