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May 26, 2025
KARL STEFANOVIC: Welcome back to the show. Well, the Liberal-National political Merry-Go-Round will continue this morning when Sussan Ley and David Littleproud sit down for more talks, this time to hopefully decide on a Coalition shadow cabinet. Joining us to discuss today's headlines is Liberal Senator James Paterson in Melbourne and Independent MP Allegra Spender in Sydney. Morning, guys. Hope you had a good weekend. James, is the band back together yet?
JAMES PATERSON: Well, mate, it's been a little bit messier and a little more public than we would have preferred, but I'm now very confident we're going to land in the right place, which is a strong coalition agreement between the Liberal and National parties. In this process, Sussan Ley has stood up for really important principles to Liberals, including the principle of Shadow Cabinet solidarity, where we're all bound by the decisions of Shadow Cabinet. And David Littleproud of the Nationals have secured four important policy areas for them, which frankly a lot of Liberals share, whether they're...[Technical issue]... On holding this government to account and developing a compelling alternative policy agenda for the next election.
KARL STEFANOVIC: Alright, so there's no sticking points at all, just water under a bridge?
JAMES PATERSON: That's right, we're just down to the details now, the kind of mechanical details, and I'm confident it'll be secured this week.
KARL STEFANOVIC: Alright, any front bench positions for you in all of that? Are you getting a promotion, demotion?
JAMES PATERSON: Mate, we will wait and see. That's a matter for the Leader. As you know in the Liberal Party, we don't elect our front bench like the Labor Party. It's up to Sussan Ley, and I'll have those conversations with her this week.
KARL STEFANOVIC: Allegra, I can see a little wry smile on everyone's face. I mean a good strong opposition is good for the country, is it not?
ALLEGRA SPENDER: Look, I think everybody needs the government always needs to be held to account, and I think, to be honest, with the Coalition in such disarray, I think you'll see more and more of that actually coming from the crossbench. But I'll be honest I am disappointed that what we've seen from the Coalition is willingness to just succeed to whatever the Nationals' political demands are, rather than saying hey you've just lost an election in a way you've never lost one before, this is the time to really come back to the voters and ask them what's important. I think that's such a really big missed opportunity. And again, my kind of question is, what do the Liberal Party, who are meant to represent, you know, who want to represent seats like mine, what do our communities get from this? It feels incredibly one-sided. For the Nationals to get all their political demands, and then the Liberals once again, sort of being the tail wagging the dog, it seems once again that's what we'll see.
KARL STEFANOVIC: I don't think you're the only person asking that question, and I'm sure those inside the Liberal Party are doing that, and maybe you've got a take on it, James. What is the Liberal Party?
JAMES PATERSON: Well, the Liberal party stands for the timeless values that we've always stood for, for smaller government, for lower taxes, for more freedom, for strong families, for strong national security and national defence. But, candidly, our policies haven't always well reflected those principles and those values and we need to make sure that happens. And we will be doing that careful process of listening to the Australian people, of hearing their verdict - you can't mistake the verdict that they rendered at the last election, it was a very clear one. And we'll be responding to that throughout this term, which I think will be an agenda which will inspire them that the country will get better under a Liberal-National government.
KARL STEFANOVIC: Ok, Allegra, so the Prime Minister and other politicians can defer their super tax payments until retirement, while everyone else gets the cough up now, this is becoming a bit more of a joke, isn't it?
ALLEGRA SPENDER: Look, I've been against this tax from the very start, and myself and other crossbenchers fought it last time and successfully worked with the Senate crossbench to make sure that it wasn't passed in the last sitting period. Look, sadly, I think this again is just another, you know, it's another problem that we have with this tax that, you now, some people get to defer it, other people don't. This is actually, and this is where I feel like the government still hasn't justified, particularly, why they were so willing to tax pay for profits, profits people will never see, and if it turns out someone's paid too much tax, they won't even get that tax back. So this is a problematic tax.
KARL STEFANOVIC: The horse has bolted though, right?
ALLEGRA SPENDER: Look, I think the horse, they've got the numbers probably to get it through with the Senate, with the Greens, but I don't think it means that the government shouldn't look again at this. I think they rushed it through the first time. I think this is the time to take a step back to consider, are there better options. They've made the case on why they want to tax high value super, but can they do this in a way that doesn't fundamentally violate some of the principles of our tax system? You don't tax pay for profits. You don't tax money that people may never see.
KARL STEFANOVIC: See, James, it wasn't that hard. That's all we needed to hear from you before the last election. You might have gone a bit better.
JAMES PATERSON: Well, Karl, we've learnt something important and new about the policy today, and Australians hate double standards, and they particularly hate double standards when it's politicians writing rules for themselves that apply differently to how they play for the rest of Australians. That's exactly what Jim Chalmers is doing. He's writing in a special rule for his boss, Anthony Albanese, who has a defined benefit pension, who won't have to pay this tax until retirement, unlike every other Australian who's subject to it. It's just another reason why this dodgy tax should be binned, and it should be binned today.
KARL STEFANOVIC: There we go. I can see that we're going to be hearing a lot more from you. Good on you, mate. Thank you so much. Allegra, thank you, too.
ENDS