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May 21, 2025
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ANDREW BOLT: Back to what I said at the top of the show, it's got to be possible for new Liberal leader Sussan Ley to make a deal with the Nationals fast, now preferably. To go back to the Coalition when the Nation's four demands seem so obvious. One, nuclear power. Two, guarantee minimum phone services for the Bush. Three, a $20 billion development fund for the Bush. And four, powers to potentially break up supermarket chains. Joining me is Senator James Paterson, who was the Coalition spokesman during the campaign and was Home Affairs spokesman before that. James, great to see you again. Look, why can't Sussan Ley say yes to these demands, say by the end of this week? You yourself have said it cannot be hard to reach an agreement. So why not do it now?
JAMES PATERSON: Andrew, my view is that we must have an objective of putting the Coalition back together comfortably before the next election because it is not in the Liberal Party's interest, the National Party's interests, or the interests of the people that we represent to go to the next election competing with each other. We've got enough other parties to fight in the election before we add any new ones to that. And it's also my view that the ideological gap between our parties is not so great that it cannot be bridged and that those policy issues you identified can't also be resolved. They were resolved in the past. I think we can resolve them again. We have to go through our party process to do that. I wish we had been given the time to do that because I think we could have arrived at a landing that would have been acceptable to the National Party. The one sticking point that I think does have to be addressed is, according to media reports, and I haven't been involved in the negotiations myself, is that the National Party wanted an à la carte option to not be bound by shadow cabinet solidarity. Now that is untenable in a Westminster parliamentary democracy. We have 200 years of political tradition that explains why it's important to have that collective responsibility so that you can offer a stable government.
ANDREW BOLT: I agree with you on that one, but let's face it, that wasn't actually one of the four key demands the Nationals put in their press conference yesterday. They keep saying the four demands, I've listed them, that just seems to have been thrown into the conversation, you don't even know if it's there. So I just put that to one side. You simply, apart from that, restated my premise. It is easy. It can't be hard. You can do it. And my point is, why not do it this week and stop talking about process? You've got to have the outcome now. Why not do it this week on those four gimme kind of policies and get this thing done?
JAMES PATERSON: Well, Sussan Ley is absolutely right to say that she's not going to have captain's calls as leader, that she is going to take anything through the party room and the shadow cabinet. I think that's the right approach, and she shouldn't have made commitments on behalf of the Liberal Party to the National Party without consulting the Liberal Party. But I hope that if we're given the time to do that and we resolve these issues, and I think we can, that the door does remain genuinely open to the National Party to put the Coalition back together.
ANDREW BOLT: Look, you've got this little phone right now on you, you're hooked on your phone, I know that, and there's a little thing, you know, Teams or whatever, and you could do that this evening. You could do this evening, that's my point. You know, all this talk about process, no one's telling you, hey listen, you got to resolve all the policies, just these four ones, like the nuclear one, which you yourself backed, why can't that be done quickly? I just think we're in this bureaucratic process thing. Which means the Liberals aren't making a decision now when it needs to be made. And I wonder why you can't do it.
JAMES PATERSON: Well, I hear you, Andrew, but I think there are two really important points to make. One is that we just lost the election, and not by a little bit. So everything does need to be up for review, and we need to make sure we demonstrate we've heard the verdict of the Australian people and we reflect on it carefully.
ANDREW BOLT: We are talking about four things, four things.
JAMES PATERSON: But secondly, the process that you're talking about, sure, I hear you, Andrew, and I've explained my view on those things. But the process you talk about, I know that seems like a minutiae and a detail and a bureaucracy, but actually it is really important. We do not want to have a period in the Coalition where captain's calls are made that go on to do us political harm. Every Liberal must own the positions that we then take to the next election, and we shouldn't lightly enter into it. Now, I think we can get this done. I think those issues are resolvable and I hope that the door remains open with the National Party to re-form the Coalition and quickly.
ANDREW BOLT: Well, I won't push it, but I didn't say captain's calls, and I didn't say every policy. The way you're putting it, the four easy things to sort to get the Nationals back, there are only four. You're going to now wait for a process where you decide, you know, item number 506 on our list, do we still believe in that? Until all that's sorted, then you can come back to the Nats. I mean, they're only asking for four. Take nuclear, do you think nuclear, that the Liberals should now run away from nuclear or stick with it?
JAMES PATERSON: No Andrew, I don't think we should run away with it. I've been on the public record for at least a decade advocating that Australia adopt nuclear power as part of a mix and we don't have to take exactly the same form of a nuclear power policy as we did to the last election to the next election. But it is inconceivable to me that we will reduce emissions in Australia by 2050 or any other date without having it in the mix or that we will have a sustainable productive economy without having nuclear in the mix. And the option that David Littleproud has floated himself in the media of repealing the moratorium seems to me like a pretty good place to start.
ANDREW BOLT: Well, ok, so you agree on nuclear. I know that Garth Hamilton agrees on nuclear, I'm pretty sure Ted O'Brien still agrees on nuclear. I mean, we've already got three. It can't be hard, you haven't got that many people left, for a quick whip round by the end of the evening to sort out, hey, we can agree to that, come back to the Nationals. I just think this is ridiculous. We're in this, look, dare I say, feminised idea of process, process, process, instead of outcome, outcome, outcome. Now listen, meanwhile, Labor's National Secretary Paul Erickson boasted at the National Press Club today about how genius Labor was, how terrible your campaign was, and that bit is at least true, and failed to mention Labor won with massive lies and bribes using borrowed money. But he did also say this about your party. Listen to this.
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PAUL ERICKSON: They operate in an echo chamber. They are more concerned with the prejudices of their hardcore supporters than the experiences of working people. They've imbibed a mistaken analysis of how Tony Abbott won in 2013. That overlooks the role played by division within Labor in the demise of the last Labor government. And on the transition to renewables, they remain fatally committed to denial and delay.
[CLIP END]
ANDREW BOLT: Is he right on every respect or wrong in almost everything?
JAMES PATERSON: Full credit to Paul Erickson, he ran a devastating campaign and he won the election for Labor very comprehensively. But I really hope that the lesson that Labor Party takes out of this election is they were perfect, we were terrible, that nothing needs to change on their side and they continue to govern in this term as they did in the last term. Because I have seen my own party misinterpret election victories to be an endorsement of everything we've done when it is anything but. Sometimes elections are actually a repudiation of the opposition and not an endorsement of the government. But I hope Paul Erickson and Anthony Albanese and all the Labor Party think that this was a big endorsement because then they will overreach. Then they will make mistakes. Then they will be arrogant. And that's when we'll catch them.
ANDREW BOLT: I think you're absolutely right. Thank you very much for your time, James Paterson.
ENDS