How will Sussan Ley revitalise the Coalition?

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29-05-2025

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Sabra Lane: Good morning. Welcome to AM. It's Thursday the 29th of May. I'm Sabra Lane coming to you from Nipaluna, Hobart. They're reunited. After a week's split, the Liberal and National parties are back as a coalition. Yesterday, the Liberal leader Sussan Ley revealed a refreshed shadow cabinet. The messy separation played out while Ms Ley's mother died. The new Liberal leader announced the new-look opposition frontbench alongside Nationals leader David Littleproud. She spoke with me earlier. Sussan Ley, thanks for joining AM, but condolences on the loss of your mother.
Sussan Ley: Thank you so much, Sabra. It's good to speak with you. It's been a tough couple of weeks personally, but also I've reflected often on the incredible privilege of leading the opposition, leading the Liberal Party. And I'm so keen to get out there now that we've reformed the coalition to work hard for the Australian people and every single community in every single corner of this country.
Sabra Lane: Just on that, you thanked David Littleproud yesterday for being respectful and productive, but some Australians would be very puzzled by that because many think the way that the Nationals behaved in the past fortnight was anything but respectful, especially as you were dealing with your mother's illness and death.
Sussan Ley: There's a lot of to-ing and fro-ing. There's a lot of commentary. There's even commentary about the commentary with this, but David and I are firmly focused on the future. We walked into that party room yesterday and we walked out both chatting to each other about the communities we seek to represent and in particular, the flooding in Northern New South Wales and how quickly we wanted to work together to be on the ground to support those communities. So while the nature of coalition agreements can be vigorous debate, and as I said, back and forth, I'm delighted that as a coalition, we will be a team that takes the fight up on behalf of the Australian people. Every government sabre needs the strongest possible opposition. We both really believe that we work better when we work together.
Sabra Lane: Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who defected from the Nationals to join the Liberal Party for a tilt at a leadership position that fizzled, says of the new shadow cabinet, I'll be honest to say that there are probably some appointments that have not been predicated on experience or merit. This is the team we have to work with. How confident are you that the Senator is going to be a team player?
Sussan Ley: I'm very excited about the team. Can I say that, Sabra?
Sabra Lane: But on her words?
Sussan Ley: Well, she is part of that team. She's an incredible Australian in terms of her ability to connect. But I'm very proud of my team. I'm very proud of everything they offer. And it's not just the team in the shadow ministry. And that's an important message to get across. As I said yesterday, I spoke to every one of the 54 members of my party room, because everyone is involved. And I want to harness the talents of every single individual as we go out and do what we've been elected to do, which is work hard for the Australian people.
Sabra Lane: On the nub of the question, though, sorry, those words don't sound like she's fully on board.
Sussan Ley: Jacinta Nampijinpa Price is taking on a crucial role in defence as the shadow minister for defence industry and defence personnel. And I know working with Angus Taylor as our shadow minister for defence, this is going to be a terrifically important combination. We have Phil Thompson also in that team, and we've got work to do to present the case that we need to think carefully and work hard.
Sabra Lane: Much of the criticism about the coalition's performance at the election was that many policies were lacking, that hadn't been worked through or released too late. Some were out of touch with modern Australia. How is this team going to rectify that?
Sussan Ley: Modernising the Liberal Party is not about moving it to the left or to the right. It is about meeting people. Because it's true, Sara, we suffered a resounding defeat and we didn't meet the expectations of Australians. And we have to go out into those communities and we have to listen closely and we have to change. This is a new team with a fresh approach that will do things differently. We're not focused on the internals. We're not focused on what happens inside the building in Canberra, important though that is from time to time. We're very much focused on the work that we need to do.
Sabra Lane: On net zero, Australia signed up to an international agreement pledging to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The coalition has said it will review that commitment to the policy. If it's ditched, won't Australians just interpret that as the coalition being an organisation of climate change deniers?
Sussan Ley: Australia must play its role in reducing global emissions. There is an important role for us to play. But it is always a balance between power prices, what Australian households are paying and how they're struggling to afford to pay their power bills as we go into winter. And we must have...
Sabra Lane: The nub of that question, sorry, was again, people might view the coalition as just being an organisation of climate change deniers.
Sussan Ley: Well, I completely reject that. Australians, no, and that includes our team. We must reduce emissions, but we must have a stable, reliable energy grid. And that's the perspective that I will bring to the policy development in this space.
Sabra Lane: How will your leadership style be different, say, from Peter Dutton's?
Sussan Ley: Without reflecting on any previous leader, Sabra, I know that I bring two things to the team straight away, and that is my very strong work ethic and also my consultation. It's not about lecturing from the top. It shouldn't be in opposition. It's about listening. As we develop policy going forward, we will see them through the timeless prism of the values that we have as Liberals. And I know that, again, with the team that I have around me, we can do this job really well. Millions of Australians voted for us at the last election. Millions didn't. But right now, we're here for every single one to prove to them that we are up for the task and to earn their faith and trust in us.
Sabra Lane: Sussan Ley, thanks for talking to AM this morning.
Sussan Ley: It's a pleasure, Sabra.
Sabra Lane: And Sussan Ley is the new Federal Liberal Party leader. The new Federal Environment Minister, Murray Watt, has given preliminary approval to extend Woodside Energy's northwest shelf operations by 40 years. Woodside's welcomed it as delivering certainty. It now has 10 days to respond to the strict conditions the Minister's applied to the liquid natural gas plant. Indigenous custodians and environmentalists, though, are devastated by the decision. Annie Guest reports.
Annie Guest: Woodside Energy has spent seven years securing an extension beyond 2030 and CEO Meg O'Neill has welcomed the green light.
Meg O'Neill: I'm really delighted that we have received the Minister's proposed approval for the northwest shelf life extension. This decision has been a long time in the coming.
Annie Guest: The $34 billion northwest shelf project extracts gas off the Pilbara coast and processes it at an onshore plant covering 200 hectares not far from Aboriginal rock art on the Burrup Peninsula. The approval came shortly after UNESCO flagged it would reject a bid for World Heritage listing for the Burrup Peninsula, citing concerns about emissions degrading the Aboriginal rock carvings. Ngarluma Yinjibarndi woman, Kaylene Daniel, is a traditional custodian.
Kaylene Daniel: I'm feeling sad. Everything that we've all been going through, my family, the five language groups, it has been a long fight for us to do this. World Heritage listing is what we want and need. We don't need this extension. We don't want this, please.
Annie Guest: The Mayor of Karratha, Daniel Scott, is also concerned about World Heritage listing for the rock art and implications for tourism. But with 300 of Woodside's employees living locally, he says there's also an upside.
Daniel Scott: It's good news on one front. It's security for the people here that are directly employed by Woodside and the businesses that are directly impacted and have their services and income from Woodside.
Annie Guest: But environmentalists describe extending the gas operation as terrible for marine life and reefs and disastrous for the climate. WA farmer Simon Wallwork is the chair of AgZero 2030.
Simon Wallwork: Yeah, I'm really disappointed regarding this decision. It's the cost to agriculture hasn't been factored in. It's a very large amount of greenhouse gas emissions and that will have a cost on agriculture, particularly in the South West Land Division of Western Australia, where we've already lost significant rainfall and we're experiencing higher temperatures.
Annie Guest: Amid concerns about electricity price rises and warnings of domestic shortfalls, Woodside is under pressure to sell 15 per cent of gas locally.
Sabra Lane: Annie Guest and Angus Randall reporting there. Australia's anti-corruption watchdog is again under pressure, this time for mishandling a complaint involving one of its own commissioners. It's the latest in a string of internal stumbles, raising questions about whether the National Anti-Corruption Commission is meeting the standards it was set up to enforce. Political reporter Olivia Caisley has the exclusive story.
Olivia Caisley: It was created to restore trust, a powerful new watchdog with a promise to clean up politics. But nearly two years on, the Commission is under pressure again, this time over how it handled a complaint about one of its own. The ABC can reveal the NACC failed to comply with its own legislation by wrongly dismissing a complaint about a commissioner last November. Under its Act, any referral involving staff, even about conduct before they joined, must be passed to the independent inspector. It wasn't. In a letter seen by the ABC, Deputy Commissioner Kylie Kilgour admitted the error and apologised.
Kylie Kilgour statement: Unfortunately, the Commission staff who received your referral assessed only whether your matter raised a corruption issue ... and did not consider whether the matter should be referred to the Inspector. I apologise for this error.
Olivia Caisley: The commissioner at the centre of the allegation was never told about the referral, which was eventually passed on to the inspector, Gail Gurness, in February. She later found it fell outside her jurisdiction. This is the third such mandatory referral the NACC has made about its own staff. And it's not the first time the Commission has faced criticism over its internal decision-making. Last year, it initially refused to investigate senior public servants over robodebt, only to reverse course after public backlash. A later review found the Chief Commissioner Paul Brereton failed to fully recuse himself despite a declared personal link with one of the officials involved. Green Senator David Shoebridge, whose party holds the balance of power in the Upper House, says the latest incident is another significant credibility setback for the body.
David Shoebridge: Because there was a statutory obligation on the NACC because of that conflict of interest to immediately refer it across to the inspector.
Olivia Caisley: With growing scrutiny over how the watchdog polices itself, pressure is now mounting for clearer guardrails. Will Partlett from the Centre for Public Integrity says the Commission needs to update its triage process if it hasn't already.
Will Partlett: If they didn't know they should have known particularly on an allegation of corruption with the commissioner.
Olivia Caisley: Senator Shoebridge says it's time for rehabilitation.
David Shoebridge: We want the NACC to work. We want the NACC to have strong public support and we want it to do its job, free from distractions, to fight corruption at a Commonwealth level and it's not doing that right now. So again we say to the Labor government, let's have a program of reform.
Olivia Caisley: A spokesperson for the watchdog described the mistake as human error and said safeguards have been put in place to prevent it from happening again.
Sabra Lane: Olivia Caisley there. Israel's Prime Minister says the country's military has killed a senior leader of the militant group Hamas inside Gaza. Benjamin Netanyahu says it's proof Israel's strategy is working, yet some Israelis have marked 600 days since the war began with marches and protests calling for it to end. In New York, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations has broken down while delivering an emotional address on the escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Middle East correspondent Eric Tlozek reports.
Eric Tlozek: The Israeli military has been hunting Mohammed Sinwar for months. The younger sibling of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, he's thought to have taken a senior role in the group after the Israelis killed his brother last year. The Israel Defence Forces says there's still some doubt about his death, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israel's parliament it's been confirmed.
Benjamin Netanyahu: In 600 days of war of revival, we have changed the face of the Middle East. We repelled terrorists from our territory, entered the Gaza Strip with force and eliminated tens of thousands of terrorists. We cut off Hamas's weapons supply and nearly all rocket fire from Gaza into our territory.
Eric Tlozek: As families of hostages prepared to march in Tel Aviv, the Prime Minister went on to say the Israeli government believes 20 hostages remain alive in Gaza, with 38 thought to be dead. Hostage families are begging for a ceasefire deal that sees their relatives freed. But Benjamin Netanyahu insisted Israel's increasing military pressure would soon destroy Hamas.
Benjamin Netanyahu: In the past two days, we've been making a dramatic shift towards the complete defeat of Hamas. We are taking control of the food distribution in the Gaza Strip. This is their money machine. This is what fuels their terror army. And this is what dismantles their governing capabilities. We are committed to eliminating both their military and governmental capacities.
Eric Tlozek: The United Nations says it has no evidence Hamas stole any aid from the UN or any of its partners in Gaza. Hamas says it's accepted an American proposal for a ceasefire, which includes the release of 10 Israeli hostages. But the Israeli government's reportedly rejected it. And the United States says it's preparing to put forward a new proposal to end the war. US President Donald Trump is set to review it in the coming days.
Donald Trump: We're dealing with the whole situation in Gaza. We're getting food to the people of Gaza. It's been a very nasty situation, very nasty fight. October 7th was a very nasty day, the worst that I think I've ever seen. It was a horrible day and people aren't going to forget that either. So we'll see how that all works out.
Eric Tlozek: In the meantime, the mourning in Gaza continues, with dozens more Palestinians dying in ongoing Israeli strikes. The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations is among those begging powerful countries to stop Israel. Riyad Mansour told the UN Security Council the high number of children suffering in Gaza should move people to act.
Riyad Mansour: Dozens of children are dying of starvation. The images of mothers embracing their motionless bodies, caressing their hair, talking to them, apologising to them. It's unbearable. How could anyone tolerate this sorrow?
Sabra Lane: The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, ending that report from Eric Tlozek. That's all for today. Thanks for your company. I'm Sabra Lane.
Sam Hawley: Hi, it's Sam Hawley here, host of the ABC News Daily Podcast. Today we'll be considering the plight of Australia's farmers who've suffered through the devastating floods, but also consider those further south fighting their way through severe drought and ask the question, is Australia really still fit for farming? Look for the ABC News Daily Podcast on the ABC Listen App.