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Angus Taylor leads the Libs. How long before Andrew Hastie tries to roll him? · The Front

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Friday, February thirteen, twenty twenty six. Angus Taylor is
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  Speaker 1: the new leader of the Federal Liberals and leader of
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  Speaker 1: the Opposition, and his deputy as Liberal leader is Jane Hume.
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  Speaker 1: That's after a ballot where MPs dumped Susan Lee. Today
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  Speaker 1: Dennis Shanahan, our national editor, joins us for a look
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  Speaker 1: at what Taylor aims to do with the job, what
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  Speaker 1: went wrong for Lee, and whether the Glamour candidate Andrew
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  Speaker 1: Hasty might try and snatch the job back anyway. That's
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  Speaker 1: today's story. Dennis Shanahan is The Australian's National editor. Dennis,
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  Speaker 1: do you get a sense of deja vu when these
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  Speaker 1: leadership challenges come on? Do you wake up with a
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  Speaker 1: sense of dread that it might be happening today?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, it is a bit like that.
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  Speaker 3: I've seen quite a few over the years, and this
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  Speaker 3: one has been a little bit different. It's tried to
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  Speaker 3: follow some of the usual rules, but then it hasn't
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  Speaker 3: and a number of people have described as being weird.
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  Speaker 2: There's not the sense of normal momentum.
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  Speaker 3: There's a lot of speculation, a long way out, a
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  Speaker 3: lot of telegraphing well ahead of it, and really no
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  Speaker 3: action taken about it. And then in the end when
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  Speaker 3: the resignation came, it took about twenty four hours before
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  Speaker 3: the challenge was announced. So yes, this has been different,
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  Speaker 3: but in some ways always the same. Someone has a
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  Speaker 3: go and then you have a vote, and sometimes they
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  Speaker 3: get up and sometimes they don't. But generally when you
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  Speaker 3: have a vote like this, a challenge against an incumbent leader,
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  Speaker 3: it turns into a problem for the person who wins,
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  Speaker 3: but also an ongoing problem for the party. We've seen
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  Speaker 3: this over the last two decades where a challenge has
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  Speaker 3: occurred during the Rad Guillard radjyears, absolutely polluted the standing
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  Speaker 3: as a Labor party.
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  Speaker 2: If you ever thought about this, I'm now not the
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  Speaker 2: leader of the Labor Party, but I'm the Prime minister.
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  Speaker 2: Anything could happen, folks.
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  Speaker 4: I've been a little bit amused by those colleagues in
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  Speaker 4: the newspapers who have admitted that I have suffered more
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  Speaker 4: pressure as a result of my gender than other prime
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  Speaker 4: ministers in the past, but then concluded that it had
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  Speaker 4: zero effect on my political position or the political position
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  Speaker 4: of the Labor Party.
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  Speaker 2: It doesn't explain everything. It doesn't explain nothing. It explains
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  Speaker 2: some things.
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  Speaker 3: And then we had the Turnbull Abbot Morrison leadership challenges.
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  Speaker 5: We have lost thirty news polls in a row. It
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  Speaker 5: is clear that the people have made up their mind
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  Speaker 5: about mister Abbot's leadership.
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  Speaker 2: We are not the Labor Party.
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  Speaker 4: This country needs strong and stable government and that means
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  Speaker 4: avoiding at all costs Labor's revolving door prime ministership.
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  Speaker 5: In so far as there has been chaos this week
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  Speaker 5: that has been created by the wreckers, I have done
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  Speaker 5: everything I can to maintain the stability of government and
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  Speaker 5: the stability.
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  Speaker 2: Of the party.
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  Speaker 5: But of course if people are determined to wreck then
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  Speaker 5: you know they will continue to do so.
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  Speaker 3: And people get very tired of this because it looks
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  Speaker 3: like and it is the politicians only talking about themselves
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  Speaker 3: and their own futures.
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  Speaker 1: We often talk about Anthony Albanezi as a very adept
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  Speaker 1: tactical politician. He's shown time and time again that he
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  Speaker 1: knows how to play the kind of dirty game of politics.
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  Speaker 1: How much credit do you think he can take for
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  Speaker 1: the fall of Susan Lee, or at the very least
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  Speaker 1: the big trouble. The Liberals now find themselves in.
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  Speaker 2: Look.
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  Speaker 3: I think the official political scientist term for Anthony Albenese's
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  Speaker 3: approach is called rat cunning.
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  Speaker 2: He understands everything.
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  Speaker 3: He has such a feel for insider politics. He has
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  Speaker 3: a great understanding of parliamentary institutions and all of Susan
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  Speaker 3: Lee's problems, that is, the outside problems, not the one
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  Speaker 3: she created herself. But they go back to Anthony Albanese
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  Speaker 3: manipulating the whole process of the emergency sitting of Parliament
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  Speaker 3: to consider the anti Semitism and gun laws.
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  Speaker 2: It worked far better than he could have dreamed.
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  Speaker 3: He felt that he could at least put a wedge
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  Speaker 3: between the Nationals and the Liberals, the ones great party
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  Speaker 3: of the Liberal Party in the National Party.
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  Speaker 2: They've gone. They've gone.
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  Speaker 3: They've gone from being a party of well, the alternative
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  Speaker 3: party of government into playschool missus speaker in a play school.
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  Speaker 3: Not only did he do that, he completely split the coalition.
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  Speaker 3: They became the story for two weeks and now as
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  Speaker 3: a result of that, the polls have plummeted and Angus
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  Speaker 3: Taylor has actually now moved a challenge against Susan Lee.
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  Speaker 2: So if she.
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  Speaker 3: Fails as the Liberal leader in the ballot, then we
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  Speaker 3: can think to a large degree Anthony Albaneze's rat cunning
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  Speaker 3: for that as well as the split in the coalition.
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  Speaker 1: I thought on Thursday morning that Angus Taylor has started
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  Speaker 1: to look almost like an AI generated politician. He's handsome,
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  Speaker 1: he's tanned, he is standing in a field, he's saying
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  Speaker 1: all the right things and he's very articulate.
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  Speaker 6: The Great Australian Dream. I'm committing myself to the cause
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  Speaker 6: of restoring our party so that it can be the
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  Speaker 6: party that Australians expect and deserve, because we're running out
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  Speaker 6: of time and Australia is worth fighting for.
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  Speaker 1: How well do you think he's going to go at
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  Speaker 1: least getting his name known by the Australian public.
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  Speaker 2: Well, that's his biggest problem.
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  Speaker 3: That is his biggest problem as far as the public
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  Speaker 3: is concerned. The other Conservative contender, Andrew Hasty, is much
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  Speaker 3: better known in the public. He has a much better
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  Speaker 3: message to cut through. His viral video with the old
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  Speaker 3: Ford Falcon there really worked for Andrew Hasty in putting
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  Speaker 3: him up in lights.
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  Speaker 7: I don't know about you, but I have to remind
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  Speaker 7: myself that we used to make cars in this country.
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  Speaker 7: Check this car out. It's a beautiful piece of craftsmanship.
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  Speaker 7: It's horsepower, it's heritage, it's grit and it's an Aussie
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  Speaker 7: car made by Ossie workers for the Australian people.
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  Speaker 3: Angus Taylor, although he has been a minister in the
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  Speaker 3: Morrison government, he has been Shadow Treasurer, still doesn't have
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  Speaker 3: the recognition level of either Susan Lee or Andrew Hasty.
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  Speaker 3: Part of that is that he is very much a
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  Speaker 3: reserved person. His style is not to go out and perform,
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  Speaker 3: although we've seen over the last couple of days as
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  Speaker 3: he's tried to appeal to the public put out his
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  Speaker 3: own video with a haircut and standing under the trees,
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  Speaker 3: probably recorded beforehand.
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  Speaker 2: And also not a particularly good look when.
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  Speaker 3: Someone puts out a video saying what I stand for,
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  Speaker 3: Because if you're a politician, you're running to be leader
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  Speaker 3: of the opposition, running to be leader of the Liberal Party,
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  Speaker 3: and you're putting out a video saying what I stand for.
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  Speaker 3: This is like one time Kim Beasley stood under a
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  Speaker 3: placard saying what I stand for. This is not a
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  Speaker 3: good look and it has a portent of a real
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  Speaker 3: difficulty with Angus Taylor in public, performing in media, and
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  Speaker 3: importantly in the Parliament, because part of Susan Lee's problem
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  Speaker 3: has been her inability to cut through in parliament. Part
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  Speaker 3: of her problem has been to get away from the
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  Speaker 3: dominance of Antony alban Asi and Tony Burke in the parliament.
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  Speaker 3: And so Angus Taylor faces a real challenge in his
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  Speaker 3: personal presentation and his parliamentary presentation if he becomes leader,
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  Speaker 3: and this is part of his character, it's part of
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  Speaker 3: his personality and it will be part of the problem
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  Speaker 3: he faces going forward if he is in fact the
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  Speaker 3: Liberal leader.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, the video contained absolutely nothing about what he does
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  Speaker 1: stand for, though he said the phrase, but then he
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  Speaker 1: said that he stands for the Great Australian Dream and
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  Speaker 1: serving the Australian people and all stuff that any politician
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  Speaker 1: might say. What direction would he actually take the Liberal
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  Speaker 1: Party in? Do you think, Dennis Well?
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  Speaker 3: I think this is again in a shortcoming, and a
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  Speaker 3: lot of the video he did create was similar to
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  Speaker 3: Andrew Hastis, about values and so on. Just what didn't
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  Speaker 3: have the impact because it didn't talk about any policy.
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  Speaker 3: This challenge is about polling and personality, it's not about
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  Speaker 3: policy and all we have seen from Angus Taylor so
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  Speaker 3: far is to say that he's not Susan Lee. And
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  Speaker 3: although Susan Lee is a nice and courageous person, she
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  Speaker 3: can't lead the party, but he can. This is a
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  Speaker 3: real problem for somebody taking over one of the major
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  Speaker 3: parties as leader of the opposition. He's been in opposition
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  Speaker 3: for nine months and the Liberal parties in dire straits,
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  Speaker 3: dire straits. We can see that he says it, and
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  Speaker 3: he says this is a moment where the Liberal Party
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  Speaker 3: it's a moment to die if they're not careful. And
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  Speaker 3: yet he doesn't have an alternative agenda, an alternative.
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  Speaker 2: Vision to the leader who is trying to remove.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up more of my conversation with Dennis Shanahan. Susan
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  Speaker 1: Lee is, of course the first female leader of the
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  Speaker 1: Federal Liberal Party, and I've spoken to lots of Liberal
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  Speaker 1: women who in the past few years are pretty despairing
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  Speaker 1: about their prospects of ever advancing in a party. As
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  Speaker 1: obviously its popularity shrinks, you know, it's harder and harder
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  Speaker 1: to get any seat at all, really hard to get
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  Speaker 1: into a winnable seat, because you need to have done
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  Speaker 1: the work with pre selection committees and branch meetings that
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  Speaker 1: often women haven't had the time to do because they're
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  Speaker 1: raising families, building careers, are busy people. What do you
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  Speaker 1: think the fact that Susan Lee has only lasted such
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  Speaker 1: a short amount of time says about the Liberal Party's
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  Speaker 1: attitude to women or is it actually completely irrelevant?
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  Speaker 3: Look, it's not completely irrelevant, and in fact the Prime
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  Speaker 3: Minister in Parliament on Thursday made a great point about it,
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  Speaker 3: as does other ministers saying, oh, the Liberal Party doesn't
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  Speaker 3: treat women well, they don't have Liberal women in all
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  Speaker 3: levels of positions of power. It was all about trying
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  Speaker 3: to blacken Angus Taylor as being a misogynist who is
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  Speaker 3: undermining and trying to remove the first female federal Liberal leader.
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  Speaker 2: Now that is all pertinent.
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  Speaker 3: I think that as far as the Poles are concerned,
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  Speaker 3: as far as the draining of support in the polls
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  Speaker 3: and at branch level from the Liberals and the Nationals
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  Speaker 3: to One Nation, and we have in the latest News
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  Speaker 3: poll One Nation at twenty seven percent primary vote. This
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  Speaker 3: is a good eight or nine points above the coalition,
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  Speaker 3: making the Coalition the third party on primary support. And
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  Speaker 3: this really doesn't have anything to do with the gender
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  Speaker 3: of Susan Lee. It is about her own problems as leader,
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  Speaker 3: ineptitude in the House, and a lack of talent around her.
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  Speaker 3: One of the points here is after the devastating loss,
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  Speaker 3: the Liberal Party and the National Party have been reduced
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  Speaker 3: to their bare bones of talent, and a lot of
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  Speaker 3: the talent is in the Senate where it can't make
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  Speaker 3: an impact on the leadership and on the daily parliamentary
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  Speaker 3: attacks on the government. So I don't think it's irreli
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  Speaker 3: but I don't think it is a major issue.
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  Speaker 1: What do you think about the future of the coalition now, Dennis,
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  Speaker 1: We saw an embarrassing breakup and then get back together,
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  Speaker 1: then a break up again, and then they got back
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  Speaker 1: together again. Seems that's only a few days ago, and
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  Speaker 1: it seems pretty fragile. Can Angus Taylor hold this coalition
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  Speaker 1: together better than Susan Lee could?
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  Speaker 3: Well, you have to give Susan Lee credit because it's
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  Speaker 3: my view that the National Party was unrealistic in the
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  Speaker 3: way it went about the first breakup that we've had two,
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  Speaker 3: and then the second one was particularly bitter, with the
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  Speaker 3: National Party leader David Little Proud saying he couldn't work
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  Speaker 3: with Susan Lee.
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  Speaker 1: You're saying that you cannot work with Susan Lee. So
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  Speaker 1: who can you work with?
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  Speaker 2: Who should be leading the Liberal Party? Well that's up
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  Speaker 2: to the Liberal Party.
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  Speaker 3: Now that's unprecedented and it is not helpful for the
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  Speaker 3: Liberal leader, but I think for Angus Taylor if he
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  Speaker 3: becomes leader. One technicality here is that agreement that Susan
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  Speaker 3: Lee and David Little Proud signed only last week, which
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  Speaker 3: was a great victory for Susan Lee and David Little
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  Speaker 3: Proud saying we've got this agreement, we can all work together,
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  Speaker 3: we've got the imperative of winning.
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  Speaker 2: That agreement has to be signed again because it's.
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  Speaker 3: Between the leaders, and now Angus Taylor has to go
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  Speaker 3: and he can say, oh, I'm just going to tick
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  Speaker 3: this off and tick off the agreement that Susan Lee
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  Speaker 3: won last week, or are the Nationals going to say, oh,
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  Speaker 3: we think we might have a bit more here.
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  Speaker 2: So the coalition is still on.
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  Speaker 3: Very thin ice and at the mercy of just having
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: one or two National Party front benches, and I know
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  Speaker 3: there are one or two who are not happy with
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  Speaker 3: that agreement that David Little Proud signed with Susan Lee.
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  Speaker 3: And so the coalition could be right back where it
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: was last week at the end of this week or
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  Speaker 3: when parliament resumes, when all National Party members come back
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  Speaker 3: onto the front bench.
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  Speaker 1: It's a very long way back to the lodge from
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  Speaker 1: where the coalition is now. It's probably going to be
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  Speaker 1: two elections at least. Is this a bad time to
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: be getting the leadership given that you're going to have
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: to work very hard for not a lot of result
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  Speaker 1: for probably years on end, and then some glamour candidate
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  Speaker 1: might come in closer to victory time and you will
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  Speaker 1: have done it all for nothing.
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  Speaker 3: This is precisely the view of a lot of the
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  Speaker 3: Conservative supporters, because yes, the polling is terrible and it's
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  Speaker 3: probably going to get worse, particularly after another leadership challenge.
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  Speaker 3: So whoever becomes leader or is leader after the meeting
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  Speaker 3: on Friday, they will face further tough polling and a
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: drop in the polls. There's no doubt about that. And
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: for Angus Taylor, he will have had his shot and
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: if he's become leader he can then face all of
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: these difficulties we've talked about a whole range of difficulties,
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  Speaker 3: much beyond just the change of leader. This isn't going
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: to solve any of the Liberal Party's problems. And so
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: what we will see will be a continuation of poor polling,
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  Speaker 3: a continuation of disaffection with the Liberal Party, divisions within
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  Speaker 3: the coalition, and the prospect that Andrew Hasty, the other Conservative,
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: the frankly more popular, that is in the public's mind,
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  Speaker 3: candidate of Andrew Hasty will then be able.
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  Speaker 2: To drop in. As you say, the Glamour candidate.
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  Speaker 3: Andrew Hasty is considered the Glamor candidate former sas officer,
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  Speaker 3: good looking, young family, lots of ideas, likes Ford Falcons.
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  Speaker 3: So there's a much greater prospect of Andrew Hasty coming
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  Speaker 3: in for the next election and removing Angus Taylor.
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  Speaker 2: This is a real possibility.
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  Speaker 3: Or and remember Andrew Hast He's still young enough he
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: can hang around for the election after that. And so,
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: in the brief answer your question is it's not the
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: best of times to become.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: Leader of the Liberal Party.
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  Speaker 3: But there are people who take the view that is,
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  Speaker 3: if you're the leader and you get the opportunity to
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: be the leader, you.
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  Speaker 2: Take it no matter when and no matter for how long.
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  Speaker 2: It's a tough game. Dennis Shanahan. Thank you very much.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: Thank you. Claire Dennish Shanahan.
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  Speaker 1: Is The Australian's National editor. You can check out all
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: his reporting and analysis, and of course we'll be covering
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: all the leadership drama live at The Australian dot com
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: dot a