From the Sky News Center. This is Paul Murray Live. Well, good evening, Welcome to the show.
I'm James Macpherson filling in for Paul Murray. Let's take a look at what's making news tonight. Coming up on the program, Hundreds of thousands have gathered at Saint Peter's Square to watch the inauguration of Pope Leo the fourteenth, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanezi, who met with the Pope
just moments ago. But why was he really there to Former Liberal Premier Jeff Kennett has urged the public and his party to help John Pursuto cover his legal costs after that loss in the defamation case bought by More Redeeming. But does John Pursuito deserve help? Plus Trump and Putin set for a phone call tomorrow to discuss a potential cease fire proposal. Imagine if Trump gets a breakthrough, you reckon the world will honor him for it. All of
that and more coming up in a moment. But first, while Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi is at the Vatican for Pope Leo, those inaugural mass say a prayer for the Liberal Party having been crucified at the last federal election. They're now in the process of trying to work out what, if anything, they stand for. His senior Liberal senator and Rustin on the ABC this morning.
I think right now the most important thing for us to do as a Liberal Party and as a coalition for that matter, is to sit down and analyze every single contributing factor to our electoral loss. So it serves no purpose to say we're going to count this in today or that not in today. I think Susan's quite right and saying, you know, nothing's been abandoned, nothing's been adopted. Let's actually look at everything.
So if nothing is abandoned, then if nothing is adopted, then right now the Liberal Party's position on everything would seem to be nothing. Do they still believe in that zero no idea? What about nuclear?
Not sure?
Do they still want to slash immigration? Well, it's all Greek to me.
So if they need zero commitment from the Morrison era is now open for review. I'm just wondering what else is Around the same time the Morrison government signed Australia up to Orcus, is that under review.
Well, Susan made it very very clear that we are going back to basics on everything. But I'm sure, luting David, I'm sure, David, there will be many many policy positions that we took to the last election that have been adopted you know, laterly across our parties that will continue.
So Senator Rushton says she's sure the Liberals will still believe in many of the things they used to believe in. She just can't say which of what they used to believe they might still believe when they're through reviewing their beliefs.
Can you believe it?
Senator Rustin, who was the shadow Health spokesperson under Peter Dutton, was asked if the Liberal Party would stand by the health policies she was espousing just a few weeks ago.
Well, look, as I said, I'm not going to rule in, rule out.
No idea.
The most definitive statement the ABC could get on health from the former health spokesperson was this.
Your support for those billing incentives and other measures that Labor announced during the election campaign. Are they all now up in the air as well?
Well?
Obviously, the first thing I want to see in the health policy area is that the Labor Party actually delivers on what it's promised, Because Australians aren't doing it really tough when it comes to health. I mean, it's never been harder or more expensive to see a doctor. And so I really wish the Labor Party well in making sure that their policies are implemented so Australians can afford to go and see a doctrin.
I nearly choked on my corn flax watching that this morning. The only definitive Liberal Party position right now seems to be that the Liberal Party wish is the Labor Party well in implementing Labor Party policies. I can almost hear Anthi Alberenzi shouting Hallelujah from the Vatican. There was one issue, however, on which Senator Rustin was prepared to take a stand.
Some of your Liberal colleagues and National colleagues want to change abortion laws in Australia. Your South Australian Senate colleague Alex Antik and the Nationals Matt Canavan co sponsored a bill in the last Parliament. Is that now under review as well? Your position on abortion?
Well, as far as I'm concerned, the issue of abortion is something that's well and truly in the domain of the states and territories and it should stay there. But my understanding is that there is no proposal before to make any changes in relation to the small amount of responsibility that the Federal Parliament has for this issue.
Liberal Senator for South Australia Alex Antik, you'll remember, co sponsored a bill that would have required doctors to provide care for babies born alive after failed abortions. Now that bill was defeated. Anyway, I just found it interesting that after not ruling anything in or anything out, and Rusten was of the understanding that that particular issue had been ruled out. Not sure about energy policy, not sure about defense policy, not sure about immigration policy, not.
Sure about health policy.
But she was pretty sure the Libs wouldn't be revisiting the idea of treating unwanted babies humanly. Like I said at the top of the show, say a prayer for the soul of the Liberal Party. So how will the Liberal Party work out what they do and don't believe? Well, it'd already choked once on my breakfast cereal this morning, and I was about to choke again.
Well very interestingly, you know, last week after the election result, I just used some off the shelf AI just to ask what AI thought about the Liberal Party and the election result, and there was a I think probably well actually, more than anything, it showed me that there were so many different issues that Australians were considering when they went to the ballot box to vote that I think it shows us that we absolutely have to look at everything
because there was no clear theme apart from quite clearly the Australian public went to the ballot box and didn't vote for us.
You have got to be kidding.
The Liberal Party is apparently so clueless as to why they lost the election and what they should do moving forward.
They've asked AI for suggestions.
I think, so what did AI tell you?
Was it nuclear? Was it Peter Dutton?
Was the Public service cuts?
What it cit is?
It didn't.
There was no clear theme that came out of it, but it basically said that the product offering that we took to the Australian public were quite clearly Australians did not support, and we need to go back to the drawing board.
I'm honestly not sure what's more shocking that the Liberals are hoping chat GPT might write their policies for the twenty twenty eight election, or that they're admitting it straight
faced on national TV. So the Liberal Party now has a leader who added a consonant to her name because a numerologist said it would change her fortunes, and a senator who boasts on the ABC about asking Ai what their future policy direction should be the only thing missing from the Liberal Party room is a genie in lamp on this Pope Leo's inaugural mass. If you're a praying person, say a prayer for the Liberal Party, and while you're at it, for the country. Well, joining me now is
former Labor advisor Darren Barnett. Darren, thanks for your time tonight. I'll tell you what the Liberals have got to decide, and decide pretty fast what they stand for, don't they. I mean listening to interviews like that, I'm a Liberal Party supporter and I was shaking my head.
I'm not a Liberal Party supporter, and I really enjoyed it. So everyone's going to take what they want out of that interview. Look, it's utterly remarkable that someone is asking Ai why they lost the election. That is truly extraordinary. And you put that on a comedy skit and people
would think it was pretty funny. The fact that it's real makes it quite disturbing that I think they should be able to figure out what bits worked, what bits didn't, what voter cohorts liked the Liberal Party this time around, and who didn't. And I don't think they necessarily have to reinvent the wheel. At a majority of federal elections in the last twenty five years in Australia, the Liberal Party or the Coalition have been successful rather than not successful.
So don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, but just use some common sense to figure out what bits didn't make sense, what bits contradicted each other, what bits were made impossible by global events. And I say that meaning entirely Donald Trump and the way that he was approaching his presidency. The Liberal Party was not nimble enough during the election campaign and they got caught a number of times short of their ground. And that's not a
matter of chat GPT. That's a matter of just kind of getting or use a polite term, getting your stuff together, trying to make it a coherent policy offering and have people with an appropriate amount of time to chew on those policies and decide whether they liked them or not. The other thing being there was such an abundance of policies during the campaign. I don't think voters knew which
ones were liberal, which ones were labor. I think the whole thing was just a mess, and Anthony Elbanesi kind of lifted himself above the fray and it became an election campaign about what Peter Dutton was doing, what Donald Trump was doing, and really not a great deal about what Anthony Elberesi was doing.
Yeah, a really good point. I want to bring in Lisa Goddard from a DONI Media. Lisa, how did the Liberal.
Party work out what was just bad policy rejected by the electorate and what was poor communication, bad strategy, poor social media policy in terms of their campaign? How do they decide which of those things lost them the election? Did they really need to reevaluate every single policy moving forward?
Well, James, I think if you're talking about AI, which Darren just was, then that works on all the information that's plugged into AI. So all the Liberal Party really have to do is go back and look at what came out after loss in twenty twenty two. I would suggest it would all be there, So plug in whatever prompts you need and Arrer answers, because a lot of history was repeated. Number one, you're talking about the issue they have with women. They still have that on the
table right now. Look, I think Darren, the one thing you didn't mention there was all the lies, lie after life, lie from elbow, and I think the general public just just took that on face value. And the Liberal Party, as far as I'm concerned, they're one great failing was that they didn't call those out.
Maybe AI could call out labor lies in the future. Perhaps the Liberal Party could use that you mentioned, Lisa, the issue of women. The Liberal Party's new Deputy leader has called for his party to be more effective in representing modern Australia. Following their defeat, Toda O'Brien has acknowledged
the need for more women within the party. He told The Guardian, I absolutely believe we need to see a bigger Liberal Party which reflects modern Australia and represents modern Australia, and that includes more women, not just running as parliamentarians, but throughout the party. Well, the Liberal Party do seem to have a woman problem. His Liberal Party Vice president Fiona Scott last week, when asked how long how.
Long do you give her. I don't know.
I mean, a day's a long time in politics, Carls.
That's not exactly a re enforcement, Selisa.
I've got to ask, what's the point of getting more women into the Liberal Party if the women already in the party are treating other women in the party like that?
Very good question, James. I think the issue with that was she was trying to be funny. You would hope that that was the case, and it landed very, very badly. I think what we do need to do is support the women who are there. Look there, there's been a lot of people questioning the appointment of Susan Lee. Even now in days on now we still question whether it's Lee or Lay. You have to stop and think so her brand itself is an issue, But amongst the party, we all have to get behind all of the women,
have to get behind the female leader. We have to get behind unity within the party because otherwise what chance do we have. And I think what has to happen is you need to go back to grass roots. You need to look at the branches. And I can tell you if you've been to any of those branch meetings in the back rooms of a local library or a community hall. There are plenty of women there, perhaps not of the demographic that they need, and that's where they
need to work harder, but there are women there. When they're looking for their candidates, they need to do a better decision making process around where do they put the good women that they do have, because you look at what happens to female politicians, even male politicians. To put yourself forward to go into politics, you have to be a fairly brave person, I think, and you need to want to do it for the right reasons. You go in to cople lot of flak. You have to be
prepared for that. I think we need to back the women in and if they are putting their hands up and they are good candidates quotas, but are good candidates on merit, put them into seats that are winnable. Don't put them into the seats where they're likely to have to go in there for the fight of their life and most likely not win.
Lisa, you mentioned quotas, and that has been suggested by some in the Liberal Party.
I'll get to that in a moment.
But if you're going to stand for women, surely you've got to have the courage to say what a woman is.
Here's Peter Dutton during the election. The British Supreme Court yesterday has ruled that a woman is defined as a biological female and not someone who identifies as a woman. Do you think that's the right call? And in light of this ruling, what is your definition of a woman? Well, that's a matter obviously, it's been before the British courts.
I haven't seen the detail of the case and it's not something that's I think his front of mine's at this election. I think.
So Lisa riddled me this.
How can you claim to be worried about women when you won't address the issue of what a woman is?
Yeah, look, I do personally I think that was a failing. The answer that he gave there is one oh one in media training. It was complete the first question, don't give it answer. It was sitting on a fence, and at some point, when you sit on a barbed wiye fence, it's going to hurt. And I think that one hurts them.
It certainly did. Darren.
How far is having a female leader as the Liberals now have go in helping them increase their popularity with women in the electorate.
Look, I think there's a couple of different strands to this. Firstly, one problem that the Liberal Party has and is the type of women they want to encourage to run for the Liberal Party at the moment are running as teals, and that also extends to people who volunteer for those teals. If you look at the campaign launches of the various teals, a lot of it's probably at least fifty percent women,
probably women of maybe women of all ages. Actually it's a sort of very progressive young environmental focus in younger women, but a lot of older women also are very supportive of the tials, and that is in many ways it's a failing of the Liberal Party to not capture that cohort of people into their structures before the tials became
a thing. And beyond that, there's little voter segments. It's also the migrant vote, unusually was quite pro labor this time around, and younger voters, people under the age of twenty five, the voter that voter cohort went labor and went progressive. So there's multiple fronts that the Liberal Party needs to look at in order to try and lift its game. I think there's still a very strong future
for the Liberal Party. I don't try and say that there's anything else, but they do need to really do their homework and figure out how to get people to believe in what they believe in. And as you rightly point out, then they've got to figure out what they believe in. And that's a bigger question because at the moment the rule in, rule out game, even though they're in opposition, it doesn't leave Trueboo supporters overly and amored by the current product, and that becomes an issue. Susan Lee.
I agree, get behind Susan Lee as the leader, give her at least a couple of years, maybe a term, to try and figure out whether she can connect with the Australian people. But the type of things that we've seen today in the media and in general, she's not going to last that long if they can't get some discipline and figure out what they stand for.
Darren, just before we move on to another topic, you know both the Liberal Party and the Labor Party now have had one female leader. Labor had Julia Gillard, now the Liberals have Susan Lee. But I'm going to argue push back on me if you want that the Liberals should have more credit with women in the electric because Julia Gillard was installed by labor factions.
Where as Susan Lee she was.
Elected by a popular vote of the party room. So the Liberals should get some credit for that, shouldn't they?
What I would say, And as you know, I worked in Julia's office. If you come to the leadership in a close contest, or if there was someone who where the zeitgeis creates winners and losers, and the vote for Susan Lee was quite close, there's always going to be a drum beat behind you of those who frankly want
to see you fail. And I think that's one of the big problems that Susan Lee faces, that that leadership ballot was very close, and there'll be a lot of people who are looking for her missteps rather than her steps forward. And that was certainly the case in the Gillard era that we could always hear footsteps behind us. There were always mine fields ahead of us, and that becomes a really difficult environment in which to operate. So I wish Susan Lee well, but it's going to be
a difficult terrain ahead for her. I think.
You're probably right, And of course the sound of footsteps sneaking up behind you is going to be the case whether you're a male or a female in that leadership position, Ted O'Brien, as I said, the deputy in the Liberal Party has refused to confirm if he'll become Shadow Treasurer following rumors that Susan Lee offered positions to colleagues prior to her leadership. Run O'Brien was pressed on this by Andrew Clenel this morning.
Have a look, will you be taking on the shadow treasury role? Do you think.
Those conversations continue to be had, Andrew, we haven't finalized them, and until they are finalized, I won't be preempting any.
She promised it, and she promised it to someone else. Has she promised that job.
For myself, whether it be for myself or for anybody else.
In due course, Andrew, all of that will be made very clear.
Early days, we've had an issue.
Let me ask you, very very bluntly, sort of the yes or no question. Has susanly promised the shadow treasurer a job to some one other than yourself.
I understand your wish for a yes or no answer to any question, Andrew.
And I respect that I really do.
But again, my answer doesn't change where you're having these discussions.
At the moment, it looks absolutely shambalic. I would have thought that Susan Lee and Tedo O'Brien would have at least sorted the basics out. Maybe I'm being unfair, So I want to get two angles on this, Darren. I want to get from you the political machinations of this, and Lisa, I want to get from you whether or not you thought Ted O'Brien handled that well this morning, or if he could have done it better. I'll start with you, Darren. Is it strange that they've not sort
it out ted O'Brien's role as the deputy leader. They're still trying to figure that out.
He either has the option of portfolios or he doesn't. I would have thought that he did, and if he has the option of portfolios, he should say what it is. I have no doubt that he knows what job he's going to get. I'd respect at one level that they're trying to make it a flatter announcement, but those top two positions that should already be sorted So he probably should have just fessed up and given the answer as per the question.
Okay, so that's what I thought when I watched that interview this morning. But Lisa, you do media training, You advise politicians sometimes on how they should address difficult questions.
How did he fare there? Could he have done something different?
Look, he did the dance I think that he was instructed to do. He wasn't meant to give an answer. And whether he knows what portfolio will go into or not, the party ruling would be you do not talk about it. So he had to face down, clenel and do that dance where it's avoid the answer that you don't want to give it. If he doesn't, if he doesn't say it, they can't use it. So he has to hold that party line. At some point they will make that big announcement.
And look, it goes towards that need for the Liberal Party to look united. They can't have one person breaking ranks and folding in an interview and giving out information that they don't want out there yet.
So I think he did a good job.
It looks but he did a good job as far as staying on message.
A politician avoiding answering questions, I've never seen that before.
He did do a good job.
I want to talk about what's going on at the Vatican right now. People gathered in massive numbers today in Saint Peter's Square to witness Pope Leo the fourteenth inauguration. Many of our viewers would have been watching the broadcast earlier, and they were of course joined by world leaders, including Prime Minister Anthony Elberizi, who met with the Pope just
about an hour ago. Now, I want to talk about the PM's presence of the inauguration in a moment, but first, it's interesting to me that the Christian faith, much maligned these days, is front and center in world affairs. Again, the Catholic Church and the monarchy are the oldest institutions in Western civilization, Darren, How important is the Catholic Church still and what role does it have to play in the modern world.
Well, one point four billion Catholics around the globe that it is a very important job. And it's probably as political as it ever has been. And I think that Pope Leo is a good choice, is going to be an interesting pope, and I think everyone is quite excited, and certainly the Progressives are probably more excited than some others. But look I think the Pope has an incredibly valuable
role to play. There's suggestions he may get involved in some sort of ceasefire discussions in Russia Ukraine, for example. I don't know if he will or he won't. Previously there was a pope who one of the popes who got involved in Chile versus Argentina or and other conflicts predominantly in Catholic nations obviously, but I think the role itself is incredibly important and therefore it's getting the respect that it deserves from world leaders, including our own.
So, as I said, the Prime Minister was there.
Now he's been reluctant to speak publicly about his faith. He decided not to take an oath on the Bible when being sworn in as Prime Minister just the other day. But he has made a big deal about being the first Australian PM to attend a pope's inauguration. So we write to question whether his attendance is motivated by his
faith or whether it's just political. Remember back in twenty nineteen, the Labor Party did produce an internal report that said they needed to connect with people of faith in Australia better. Is this just part of that. Do we write to be cynical or do you think it's part of his personal faith journey.
I don't.
It does sound about the cynical James. Look, I think it's a great honor to have the opportunity to go and be there for a moment in history like this. The fact that he is Catholic, I think that would mean even more. Look, we're not always the greatest fans of Anthony Albanesi on these programs. However, I think as a Prime Minister, for him to be there representing the country, they're representing all of the Catholics in this country, including
that his faith himself. I think that's a very important day for him. What I found really interesting, and yes that the pageantry of what you see in that broadcast is something to behold, is when you look at anything to do with the royal family. What I found interesting this morning was an interview where I saw Anthony Albanesi being interviewed and in the background was Keith Pitt, who we know. Normally you would never have seen Pitt standing
behind Anthony Albanesi in any press conference whatsoever. He's now at the Vatican, So what a time and history for him.
To be there as well.
Yeah.
Absolutely, it was a pretty historic event obviously, and broadcast on this network just earlier tonight. Well, Darren Barnett and Lisa Goddard, thank you for your time tonight.
Appreciate your comments. Well, stick with us.
Because we're about to go to get more on the Pope's inauguration.
Joining me now live from.
The Vatican is Sky News political correspondent Cam Redden. Cam Thanks for joining me tonight. Obviously a massive day. Just describe the atmosphere there you've been taking it all in.
What was it like?
You can see Saint Peter's Basilica behind me here in the outskirts of the Vatican, James, It really is difficult to wrap your head around the sense of scale for this,
and Peter's Square is not an enormous space in itself. Yes, there's a sense of scale with the tall marble towers and this incredible sight of just a sea of people, but more than one hundred and fifty thousand people is the estimate, with flags on display from all corners of the world crammed in here for this two hour inauguration mass. Of course, Pope Leo, the first American pope. There were
plenty of American flags there. Jd Vance, the Vice President, had a front row seat to this, and about fifteen feet to his right was the Prime Minister Anthony Albanizi. It is quite a special occasion, obviously for the Catholics around the world, James, but standing here in amongst the press pack from all around the world, there were some people feeling genuinely emotional even just watching this play out.
The world is such an uncertain place at the moment, and the core message really at the heart of the homily from the Pope today was one of love, of faith, and of hope and endurance in difficult times. He drew much on one of his predecessors, Pope Leo the thirteenth. He deliberately took the name Pope Leo the fourteenth, given that his predecessor, at least in terms of the name, was one who steered the world and the church through
the Industrial Revolution. He's spoken about some of the changes the world faces today and the challenges of conflict, and of course also the upheaval of workforces through things like artificial intelligence. So that's why he chose that name. But the sense of scale, James, is what has really stuck with me well beyond the Basilica and the square as well, tens of thousands of people from all over the world flooding here to the streets of the Vatican and Rome to celebrate.
I'm curious it's something you just said there that you said members of the press pack, And we know the press pack can.
Be pretty cynical.
I mean they see lots of things good, bad and ugly, but getting quite emotional as the Pope spoke.
Just tell me more about that.
Well, we were in amongst the international media, so there are a few was he is there? A couple of dozen. We were standing next to some reporters from Peru who were covering the inauguration mass as well, and of course the Pope's connections with Peru were well known. He was there for more than a decade. He was a figure of leadership at a time where there was constant political and presidential change in Peru. And one of the women who was there became visibly quite emotional as the homily
was read out. The Peruvian Prime Minister was sitting next to JD. Vance and they were right in our eyeline as all of this was playing out. So perhaps there's just a sense of yes, the gravitas of this, James, but maybe that message hitting home as well also in the crowd there Voladimir Zelenski, who is leading his nation
through a wartime and an invasion. So that message from the pope perhaps striking home, Yes, with the many tens of thousands in attendance, But sometimes us journo, as our people as well, we do have to show a little bit of emotion from time to time.
Absolutely, Cam Absolutely, I'm intrigued as to the competing.
Attention.
You've got the Pope, obviously he's the star of the show with his inauguration, but you mentioned you've got Zelenski, You've got jd Vance, So everyone will be watching their body language after that awkward interaction in the White House earlier in the year, I got Anthony Albanezi and so
on and so forth. Members of the press, what are they focusing on more the actual inauguration or the body language and what's going on in the public arena where you've got some pretty high profile world leaders.
It's the show and then the slideshow. James, Absolutely, there'll certainly be an attention on the inauguration. But now that that's done, this is when a lot of the diplomacy will take place. The world leaders all descended from where they were in St. Peter's Square inside the Basilica, where they've been taken to private rooms for some mingling time, and that's where the real value, at least from a
diplomatic or political sense, is for those leaders. The Prime Minister is already scheduled to meet today with Ursula Vonderland, the head of the European Commission, who happened to be sitting next to Volodimir Zelenski as a part of the inauguration mass, and the Prime Minister also set to meet with Zelensky later today, as well as other world leaders
potentially tomorrow, including the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Karney. So there's always that sense of when in Rome, I suppose James, and when in a room with some of the world's most powerful people, to take that opportunity to say hello, to try and get that face time, all of that at once is so valuable and so rare to happen in a forum like this. So there'll certainly be attention on what will happen inside that room, and perhaps perhaps we never know, will there be some kind of communication
between the Prime Minister and Jade Vans. They were only separated by a few feet in the rows there, James. Perhaps the Prime Minister will have a chance to say gooday to the Vice President in the next few minutes.
Well, cam Redden, you mentioned when in Rome. I'm not there, but you are in Rome. Hopefully you've got a chance to enjoy the place now the inauguration is finished. I appreciate you filling us in what happened tonight.
Thanks so much.
We're going to take a quick break, but we'll be back in just a moment with.
More fired up debate.
I'll be with IPA Senior Fellow John Roscombe and pr Council's managing director at Christy McSweeney in just a moment. Welcome back to the program. Joining me now to chat about more of this weekend's top stories is John Roscombe, Senior Fellow at the IPA.
John Senior.
Figures within the Liberal Party have reaffirmed the importance of the coalition agreement they're still negotiating, obviously with the Nationals. Liberal front benches Ted O'Brien and Anne Rustin have separately claimed the Liberal Party is at its strongest it's united with the Nationals.
Have a listen.
There's no doubt Andrew that the Liberal Party and the National Party are at their strongest when they are in a coalition and they're working together. That's proven to be the case over many, many years, and it will continue to be the case, I believe.
So there you go, John, For all the talk of a split in the coalition, there's buckleys and none that the Nets would go their own way surely.
Well not necessarily, James.
I'm one of these people who thinks more voices, more alternatives is better. It was the Nationals that led the way on the voice. It's been the Nationals leading the debate about why NED zero is a disastrous policy for Australia. And I'm a coalition supporter, but I'd argue in opposition now both parties need to get their house in order that the more debate, the more argument we have, the better. And I'm not sure why either the Liberal Party or
the National Party would be rushing to coalition. There's much bigger issues to be debated than simply a top secret document between the leaders of the two parties and how you divvy out shadow portfolio positions.
Let me bring in Christy McSweeney from pr Council. CHRISTI the Liberal Party are going to take their time to work out whether they still believe in that zero or nuclear power, or slashing migration and.
A host of other issues.
You would have heard at the top of the show and Rustin's saying they're ruling nothing in and nothing out. Can you remember when a political party literally put everything on the table and said, look, we don't know what we believe and we won't for a while to come.
Look, I.
Really can't.
I don't think it's less of we don't know what we believe. It's more of what's palatable for us to hold the coalition agreement together and what's palatable to the electorate based on what we believe might not be electoral reality. So I don't remember the last time. This is extraordinary. But let's really be clear here, if we talk about coalition agreements, it nearly blew up in two thousand and six, two thousand and seven when Julian mcgarren defected to the
National Party. It's always been re engineered back together by the leader of the Liberal Party and the Federal Director and the leader of the National Party. Despite the descent down the pyramid. So let's see what happens this time. Of course, the coalition is not in a coalition. The coalition parties aren't in a formal coalition in Western Australia. They are not in a formal coalition in other states from time to time. Let's see what happens. Are they
right to argue for a higher representation of the front bench? Perhaps?
Perhaps I'm curious to know where does Senator Price stand now in terms of things. She's moved to the Liberal Party, ran for deputy, then decided to withdraw from that race.
Where does that leave her now?
Well, this is something that I think the coalition MPs, especially Liberal MPs, have to decide and understand that Jasinda Nambajimbra Price is an outstanding Australian.
What struck me watching her move from the National's.
Party room to the Liberal Party room is that so many women who had been calling for stronger representation of women were absolutely silent about her movement, about the potential for her to become the deputy leader of the Liberal Party because she's a Conservative and what the Liberal Party have to understand is she's a huge asset.
She has to be used.
Peter Dunton appointed her to the doge position just before the election. He gave her no resources, he gave her no capacity to shape the debate.
As she said, she was shut out of the campaign.
And if the Liberal Party is to remotely make itself electable in six years, let alone three years, then she has to be a key part of the rebuild.
Yeah, I would have thought.
So.
I want to talk about other Liberals with problems, and that's the Victorian Liberal Party. You've got former Liberal Premier Jeff Kennett urging the public and his party to support John Pisuto after he was ordered to pay two point three million dollars in costs following that loss in the defamation case sport by Moira Deeming. An online fundraiser has been launched in a bid to help him avoid the possibility of bankruptcy. The last I saw, I think it was up to about eighteen thousand.
Dollars, So it's got a way to go.
Jeff can it praise the former opposition leader as a good, proper and decent MP and he told The Guardian he's on the brink of bankruptcy. And I think if the public, the Liberal Party and its organizations came together, we can prevent that happening. Christy, imagine you're a Liberal Party member. Would you be handing over your hard earned cash to help out John pursuito or are you're expecting your donations to the party to go towards campaigning to win government.
Well, look, James, there's a tactical way to solve this problem, and that's a discussion for people who run the Coremac Foundation and two viewers. The Coremac Foundation is a philanthropic foundation set up in Melbourne to support the Liberal Party and it has some thirty odd million dollars, largely because
it's sold a significant CBD building. And John correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it's governed by board of people appointed who are separate to the Liberal Party, but no through you know, certainly involved in the Liberal
Party and are there to support the Liberal Party. So that is the current dispute, not whether members putting forward their donations should pay John or Being said, yes, the GoFundMe does look like it's asking for that, but the main request is for this very wealthy Cormac Foundation to pay the legal bills of somebody who led the Liberal Party. Now you know, who's to say that further leaders of the Liberal Party may get into trouble in a similar way or another way. And I'm not suggesting that it
was managed correctly. I'm not suggesting that you're either on that side or another side of what was the right thing to do and what wasn't the right thing to do. I'm suggesting that the Liberal Party probably has an obligation in some way to support somebody who led the party.
And you know, once it's done, we can put it behind it and go on campaigning with this free of being in the media and free of being a constant cause of commotion between the party rope for twenty twenty six with the election due in November, and as I say, there's wives of getting it out the way, fair.
Enough, Christy, But John tell me this, is it a matter of supporting someone who has led the party or is it a matter of avoiding a by election in the seat of Hawthorne that the Victorian Liberals could well lose.
Is that the real issue, James.
It's both of those issues.
And the point has been made that a by election in the Melbourne seat of Hawthorne, which John Persudo holds by just fifteen hundred votes in which at the federal election the booth swam to the Labor Party would cost the Liberal Party perhaps a million dollars to win because Brad Batten, as the relatively new Liberal leader here.
In Victoria, can't afford a lot.
That would be a huge blow to the momentum that the Liberal Party seems to be building. So it's a very difficult choice and us we've been talking about. It's something that to most Victorians is now past. I think they're more concerned about the Victorian budget coming up and the election November.
As we've just been talking about.
Just one more point on this, and I'll go to you Christy, maybe you can help me get my head around this. The Liberal Party have a problem with women, so the plan is to bail out a guy who persecuted a Liberal woman for standing up for women, and that's going.
To help.
Well, James, you know I don't agree with that argument. They are two separate arguments. As I said, it's not about whether you agree it was the right course of action or not. It's about somebody who led the Liberal Party that deserves to not be standing out there on a limb. Now, if we can argue the toss was it the right thing or the wrong thing? But different context.
I think if we look at should the Liberal Party be an organization that doesn't force someone who's let the party into bankruptcy even if they have done the wrong thing, I think we probably should be. Given that we want to wipe the slight clean and go into twenty twenty six, it's going to keep festering this wound if that is not done.
Okay, we'll see how everyone else views that. A group of students in far North, Queensland are taking part in a world first trial of identity verification technology that will help enforce social media age restrictions, which the government hopes will be in place by the end of this year now.
According to the Career Mail.
The technology being trialed includes age verification, estimation and inference applications from checking birth dates against official identity documents and biometric screening, as well as using email and phone history. John the bit that got my attention when I was reading this in the Career Mail this morning was biometric testing. Isn't this what critics of the legislation have been afraid of? That we're all concerned about young people's use of social media.
But we don't want biometric testing, do we? I mean that opens a whole Pandora's box in terms of privacy and government intrusion.
Or James, I'd go further, We don't want this at all.
I would argue, this is not just about biometric testing. This is not just about the enormous power that and information the government will have over us. It's about the government usurping the.
Role of parents.
And I was terribly disappointed when the Coalition gave its unquestioning support to a very dangerous proposal that remember, isn't just going to require under sixteen.
Year olds to verify their identity.
Anyone using social media will have to verify their identity because you have.
To prove that you're not you're not under sixteen.
So at every level, at a philosophical point, this is dangerous. The level of information, the data that is going to be collected. We saw during COVID how data that was collected and meant to be used for purely medical and health purposes was quickly quickly used for other purposes as well. There is no good thing that is going to come out of this, and I think we're going to see changes before too long, because when Australians realized how dangerous this is, they're going to be up in arms.
I hope you're right, John, Hey, John, Christy, stick around.
I've got more things I want to ask you about after the break. Don't go anywhere.
Will be back in just a moment. But welcome back to Paul Murray Live. I'm James macpherson filling in for Paul with my panel John Roscombe and Christy McSweeney. Now I want to go to Victoria. They've got a budget due on Tuesday. Jacinta Allen has given Victoria's to Victorians a taste of what they can expect. On Tuesday, she announced free public transport for children up to eighteen years old.
This follows her announcement yesterday where she promised free public transport for Victorian seniors aged over sixty on the weekends.
Here she was.
Announcing the policy while herself riding on a train free of charge.
I presume, by.
Focusing on what matters most, we're making public transport free for every Victorian senior every weekend, right across our great public transport network. That means every train, every tram, every bus right across Victoria every weekend, make it easier for seniors to perhaps go and see the grand kids, get out and about enjoying everything our great state has to offer.
John and Christy free public transport for kids for pensioners. On current projections, Victoria's debt will reach one hundred and eighty eight.
Billion dollars in just two years time.
So I guess this giveaway worth an estimated three hundred and eighteen million dollars isn't going to make much difference to anything.
John, Is that the way they think the debts so big would give away a few more million? What's the difference anyway?
Well, that is sadly how we've been thinking in Victoria for ten years. This is bad policy, it's inequitable. It favors those families lucky enough to live close to public transport. This is a labor government that has penalized motorists, that has cut spending on road maintenance.
You drive around Melbourne, we are bedeviled by potholes.
Country roads are dangerous, Land taxes going up, Farmers are being smashed by new taxes in the middle of a drought. And this is what we get from a labor government. In addition to the announcement a few days ago of several hundred million dollars more to do up the albert Grand Prix Track, which is a playground for millionaires. This is what we face here in Victoria for those of us unlucky enough to live in Melbourne.
Christy, you're in Melbourne too, I think, Christy, aren't you?
Do people vote for a credible path back to surplus? Is that going to fly with the electric or are people just it's the shiny thing? Free public transport? You know, we're going to upgrade the Grand Prix track. Can a government win election with something as serious as we're going to present a credible and realistic path back to surplus?
Well, an opposition could win an election based on a credible and a realistic path back to surplus if they presented such credible and realistic path. James and John, I'm sure you agree with me. I think the dashes up to about twenty four thousand per per person in Victoria, every man, woman and child. So I'm glad they're getting free public transport. They're going to get something back for their twenty four thousand dollars per person debt of every
citizen here in Victoria. If they ever happen to take a train. It is ridiculous. Victorians are just living with debt and deficent. We've had the big build infrastructure spending that can never ever be paid back. I hate to think what's going to happen to the credit rating of Victoria.
And this is we're in dangerous territory here where you know Victoria actually had to sell its state bank in the late nineties or under the Cane current government, we're getting back to being the most depressed economy in Australia. We already have the most depressed property and construction industry,
the highest costs, the most gridlocked traffic. And you know, last week we're seeing that Melbourne's going to be Australia's fastest growing, most popular city, to rival New York apparently, if you believe the demographers in the next a few decades. So how we're going to cope with infrastructure to sustain that population at with a state that has enough in the coppers to do it, I don't know, But I don't think anyone in the Allen Labor government has any idea either.
I'm sure they don't.
Hey, one last question before we wrap it up, Donald Trump is planning on meeting with Vladimir Putin tomorrow to try and work out a negotiated peace.
Settlement in Europe.
John, and I just wanted to ask you this without going into all the machinations of Putin and Zelenski and Trump and whether it can all work. Imagine Trump does bring peace. Obama got a Nobel Peace Prize after just nine months in office for having bought a climate of peace. Do you reckon if Trump achieves actual peace he'll get a Nobel Peace Prize?
James, what do you think?
I think there is absolutely zero chance if of Trump getting the Nobel Peace Prize if he brought peace to the Middle East, to Ukraine and to sub Sahara Africa, that is not going to happen.
I reckon. You're absolutely right.
I don't know whether he will achieve it or not, but I do know this, if he does achieve it, everyone will be critics of it and they'll find fault with it, absolutely guaranteed. John Christy, thanks for joining me tonight, and all you at home, thanks for tuning in. Paul Murray will be back tomorrow night, but don't go anywhere. Coming right up is the Royal Report good night,