Latest news with #AnneRuston
The Guardian
18-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Divisions on net zero and nuclear power ‘no secret', senior Liberal frontbencher admits as party braces for internal brawl
The divisions within the Liberals on climate and energy policy are 'no secret', senior frontbencher Anne Ruston has admitted, as the party braces for an internal brawl on net zero and nuclear power that could fracture the Coalition. The commitment from the new Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, to review its entire policy agenda has raised the prospect the Coalition could abandon net zero by 2050, ending bipartisan political support for the long-term climate target. On Sunday, the rightwing Liberal senator Alex Antic intensified his push to dump the goal, claiming it was the 'only way this party is going to appeal to the electorate'. His new party room colleague Jacinta Nampijinpa Price meanwhile blamed net zero for causing the cost-of-living crisis in a weekend interview with the Australian. The comments set the stage for a heated internal contest as competing forces attempt to pull the party in different directions in the wake of its devastating election defeat. Speaking on ABC's Insiders program, Ruston – the Liberals' deputy leader in the Senate – admitted the party was split on climate and energy policy. 'Emissions reduction is an important part of policy going forward because energy is the economy and we need to get the policy right,' the South Australian senator said. 'But there's no secret there is a divergence of views in our party room about how we achieve that. But right now, I absolutely think the thing we need to concentrate on is making sure that people can afford their power bills.' Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Former prime minister Scott Morrison signed the Liberals and Nationals up to net zero by 2050 in late 2021 as he sought to defuse criticism of the government's climate action policies. A rump inside the Nationals was always opposed to net zero, with the junior Coalition partner only signing up after securing a swag of concessions – including an extra spot in cabinet. But the postmortem to the opposition's 3 May election defeat has exposed tensions inside the Liberal party as well, leaving its support for what the climate minister, Chris Bowen, described as the 'bare minimum' policy hanging in the balance. The tussle over net zero is tied to a parallel debate over nuclear power and whether the opposition should abandon its proposal to build taxpayer-funded reactors across the country. Guardian Australia understands the Nationals leader, David Littleproud, is under pressure from colleagues to secure a commitment to nuclear power before signing a new Coalition agreement with the Liberals. Liberal sources confirmed Ley would resist such a move after assuring colleagues that there would be extensive consultation before any policies were settled. On Sunday, Ruston said policy positions should be thrashed out in the Liberal and National party rooms rather than enshrined in Coalition agreements. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion The agreements – which are always secret – include a formula that dictates the number of frontbench positions the Liberals and Nationals are entitled to. Ruston and the new deputy Liberal leader, Ted O'Brien, hoped the two parties would remain in a Coalition as they rebuild from the election. '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,' O'Brien told Sky News on Sunday. As reported in Guardian Australia, some Liberal MPs are comfortable lifting the federal moratorium on nuclear power, but want to rethink the idea of taxpayer-funded reactors. The supposed $600bn price tag for the power plants, and what government services could be cut to fund them, was the focal point of Labor's anti-nuclear attacks during the campaign. O'Brien would not concede his signature policy was a mistake, acknowledging only that voters 'did not accept what the Coalition was offering across its policy suite'. However, he confirmed the option of lifting the nuclear ban and then leaving the private sector to decide if it wanted to invest was a 'proposition that might come to the table'. 'That proposition and all propositions will be duly considered. We won't be rushing to any conclusions.'
Daily Mail
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Liberal powerbroker's truly astonishing admission about her search for answers after election defeat exposes how clueless the party has become: 'Can't make this up'
Liberal senator Anne Ruston has come under fire for revealing she used artificial intelligence to find the policy shortfalls that cost her party the federal election. Viewers of ABC Insiders on Sunday morning were shocked to hear Ruston admit she'd used 'off the shelf' AI to assess the reasons behind the loss. Although she was unable to draw a 'clear theme' from her research, the online response to her interview made one thing clear: Aussies don't want AI in politics. 'Anne Ruston is aware that AI isn't magic right? She knows it's not an oracle?' one social media user wrote on X. 'Anne Ruston, Liberal Senator, tells ABC she has asked AI why the Liberal Party ran such a poor electoral campaign and lost the election. Is this more evidence the Liberal Party is now a political entity that can be best be described as having artificial intelligence?' another said. 'What a wooden, uninspiring interview with Anne Ruston. Even AI can't help here,' another wrote. 'They need to use AI because none of them show any intelligence at all!' another said. 'Senior Liberal Anne Ruston suggesting the Liberal party should ask AI to get a better handle on why the party failed at the last election. God forbid they talk to and believe what ordinary Aussies tell them,' another wrote. Insiders host David Speers took his interview with Ruston as an opportunity to quiz her on what role AI could play in the Liberal party. 'Very interestingly, last week after the election result I just used some off the shelf AI to ask what AI thought about the Liberal Party and the election result,' Ruston said. '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. '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.' When pressed more on whether she believed the best way for the party to analyse its election results was through AI, Ruston backtracked and said it could be used as part of a larger process. 'There's many ways that we need to address this,' she said. 'We need to speak to our party members, we need to speak to the front bench and the backbench. We need to speak to the Australian public. 'But, obviously technology gives us an opportunity to be able to collate the broader commentary across Australia, that's something that we haven't had access to before and we should use that as well.' A parliamentary inquiry in October 2024 released a report regarding the effects of AI on Australian democratic processes. It found AI could be used to 'help voters better understand political debates, legislation and policy proposals, and to undertake data analysis'. However, it also carried several risks included the creation of fake political content - such as videos and speeches through deepfakes, the spread of political disinformation, and sharing its own biases. The committee made several recommendations on how the government could safeguard against these risks, including enforcing mandatory watermarks on AI-generated content. It also called on politicians to voluntarily disclose their use of AI. 'The ANU Tech Policy Design Centre noted that politicians had an important role to play in maintaining the integrity of elections,' the report stated. 'It recommended the development of a pledge for transparent and democratic use of AI in campaigning for politicians, by which they could publicly disclaim any use of AI in their advertising in order to maintain trust and engagement in the election process.' Daily Mail Australia contacted Ruston for further comment.
West Australian
18-05-2025
- Politics
- West Australian
Abortion a matter for states, territories: Liberal senator Anne Ruston
A senior Liberal senator has not confirmed if the Coalition's position on abortion could change, as the opposition rethinks its national platform in the wake of its election decimation. Labor's landslide win on May 3 left the Liberals leaderless and exposed severe tensions within the Coalition, with the Nationals faring far better than their blue colleagues and therefore demanding more power. The Liberal and National party leaders have been hashing out a Coalition agreement, which includes a review of policies. Anne Ruston — who was opposition health spokeswoman under Peter Dutton — on Sunday kept tight-lipped about whether abortion was up for debate after a push from some in her party. '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 should stay there,' Senator Ruston told the ABC. 'But my understanding is that there is no proposal to make any changes in relation to the small amount of responsibility that the federal parliament has for this.' Nationals senator Matt Canavan and Liberals senator Alex Antic co-sponsored a bill last year that aimed to force doctors to save a child born alive after an abortion. A parliamentary inquiry found no basis for the bill and Mr Dutton had ordered the Coalition senators to withdraw it — an order they refused. The bill would be an unprecedented use of federal powers on the issue. Abortion access is legal in all states and territories, but it is not federally or constitutionally protected. Senior Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie has described abortion as a 'moral dilemma', while Jacinta Nampijinpa Price — whose shock defection to the Liberal party room added greatly to the Coalition's internal tensions — tried to put abortion on the national agenda after a vote to wind back access narrowly failed in South Australia last year. It also popped up in the Queensland state election. Senator Ruston played down commentary the Liberal Party has shifted too far to the right, saying her party was a 'broad church'. 'That's where we work best, when we're tolerant of the broad range of views that we have, but our values are all the same,' she said. 'I don't think anybody in my party doesn't believe that aspiration is the most important thing we should strive to be able to enable every Australian to be able to achieve.' Senator Ruston added she was 'very happy to be re-elected and looking forward to being part of the broader team nationally to rebuild our party in the interests of a party that reflects modern Australia'.
News.com.au
18-05-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
Abortion a matter for states, territories: Liberal senator Anne Ruston
A senior Liberal senator has not confirmed if the Coalition's position on abortion could change, as the opposition rethinks its national platform in the wake of its election decimation. Labor's landslide win on May 3 left the Liberals leaderless and exposed severe tensions within the Coalition, with the Nationals faring far better than their blue colleagues and therefore demanding more power. The Liberal and National party leaders have been hashing out a Coalition agreement, which includes a review of policies. Anne Ruston — who was opposition health spokeswoman under Peter Dutton — on Sunday kept tight-lipped about whether abortion was up for debate after a push from some in her party. '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 should stay there,' Senator Ruston told the ABC. 'But my understanding is that there is no proposal to make any changes in relation to the small amount of responsibility that the federal parliament has for this.' Nationals senator Matt Canavan and Liberals senator Alex Antic co-sponsored a bill last year that aimed to force doctors to save a child born alive after an abortion. A parliamentary inquiry found no basis for the bill and Mr Dutton had ordered the Coalition senators to withdraw it — an order they refused. The bill would be an unprecedented use of federal powers on the issue. Abortion access is legal in all states and territories, but it is not federally or constitutionally protected. Senior Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie has described abortion as a 'moral dilemma', while Jacinta Nampijinpa Price — whose shock defection to the Liberal party room added greatly to the Coalition's internal tensions — tried to put abortion on the national agenda after a vote to wind back access narrowly failed in South Australia last year. It also popped up in the Queensland state election. Senator Ruston played down commentary the Liberal Party has shifted too far to the right, saying her party was a 'broad church'. 'That's where we work best, when we're tolerant of the broad range of views that we have, but our values are all the same,' she said. 'I don't think anybody in my party doesn't believe that aspiration is the most important thing we should strive to be able to enable every Australian to be able to achieve.' Senator Ruston added she was 'very happy to be re-elected and looking forward to being part of the broader team nationally to rebuild our party in the interests of a party that reflects modern Australia'.
Perth Now
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Perth Now
Liberal's big call on ‘domain' of abortion
A senior Liberal senator has not confirmed if the Coalition's position on abortion could change, as the opposition rethinks its national platform in the wake of its election decimation. Labor's landslide win on May 3 left the Liberals leaderless and exposed severe tensions within the Coalition, with the Nationals faring far better than their blue colleagues and therefore demanding more power. The Liberal and National party leaders have been hashing out a Coalition agreement, which includes a review of policies. Anne Ruston — who was opposition health spokeswoman under Peter Dutton — on Sunday kept tight-lipped about whether abortion was up for debate after a push from some in her party. Liberal senator Anne Ruston has not confirmed if the Coalition's position on abortion access is up for debate. NewsWire / Martin Ollman Credit: News Corp Australia '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 should stay there,' Senator Ruston told the ABC. 'But my understanding is that there is no proposal to make any changes in relation to the small amount of responsibility that the federal parliament has for this.' Nationals senator Matt Canavan and Liberals senator Alex Antic co-sponsored a bill last year that aimed to force doctors to save a child born alive after an abortion. A parliamentary inquiry found no basis for the bill and Mr Dutton had ordered the Coalition senators to withdraw it — an order they refused. The bill would be an unprecedented use of federal powers on the issue. Abortion access is legal in all states and territories, but it is not federally or constitutionally protected. Ousted opposition leader Peter Dutton ordered Coalition senators to withdraw an abortion Bill. NewsWire / Martin Ollman Credit: News Corp Australia Senior Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie has described abortion as a 'moral dilemma', while Jacinta Nampijinpa Price — whose shock defection to the Liberal party room added greatly to the Coalition's internal tensions — tried to put abortion on the national agenda after a vote to wind back access narrowly failed in South Australia last year. It also popped up in the Queensland state election. Senator Ruston played down commentary the Liberal Party has shifted too far to the right, saying her party was a 'broad church'. 'That's where we work best, when we're tolerant of the broad range of views that we have, but our values are all the same,' she said. 'I don't think anybody in my party doesn't believe that aspiration is the most important thing we should strive to be able to enable every Australian to be able to achieve.' Senator Ruston added she was 'very happy to be re-elected and looking forward to being part of the broader team nationally to rebuild our party in the interests of a party that reflects modern Australia'.
