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May 26, 2025
KIERAN GILBERT: Someone who will be very interested and a participant, of course, Liberal frontbencher, James Paterson. Senator, thanks for your time. I noticed this morning that you described the therapy sessions that politicians and political parties undertake after an election. It's done in public, it's very unusual in that sense, but in a way as messy as it has been, isn't it also a good thing that voters say, okay, well, look, they are thinking about what went wrong and how to rebuild and regroup.
JAMES PATERSON: Kieran, you're right we are a unique profession in that sense. When your team finishes at the bottom of the ladder it's not normally a public debate to the same degree between the players about how the strategy went wrong and what they should do different next season. Or when a business has a particularly bad annual or quarterly result, they don't normally flesh it out to the extent that we do. But it's a feature of democracy that we have to demonstrate to the Australian people that we have listened to them, that we have heard them, that we understand the very strong message they sent us at the last election, which is unambiguous, that what we're offering was not what they wanted. And so we have to go through that period of reflection. I would probably prefer it weren't quite as messy and quite as public as it is. But we are being honest with where we're at and what we've got to do.
KIERAN GILBERT: And as you've pointed out as well, it clearly wasn't a close election either, so it can't be one of those things where there's a review and it sits on the shelves to gather dust.
JAMES PATERSON: That's right, Kieran, and that's why I think it was right of Sussan Ley to say after the election that everything's up for review, that everything is up for grabs. When a defeat is this comprehensive, you can't pretend that it was any one thing, that it was just the policy agenda, that it was just the polling, that it was just the advertising, that it was just our communications or our social media. Everything went a bit wrong to contribute to a result that is this bad, and the review must be comprehensive. And it must be genuinely soul-searching so that we never again underperform in the way we did. And we never again fail to inspire the Australian people, that life will get better for them and that our country will be stronger if they vote Liberal and National.
KIERAN GILBERT: Are you at least relieved that the advice of the likes of John Howard and Tony Abbott, among others, saying you've got to get back together, that the Coalition can only govern in Coalition, and you need to be a credible opposition, you've got to combine forces?
JAMES PATERSON: I am Kieran and I agree with John Howard and Tony Abbott that the best form of Coalition is a united one between the Liberal and National parties, that we gain nothing by dividing the spoils of opposition, the very meagre spoils, between us and I am pleased that it's now back on track. I'm also pleased though that Sussan Ley stood up for really important principles for the Liberal Party like the principle of Shadow Cabinet solidarity. And I'm equally pleased that David Littleproud and the National Party have secured policy commitments that are important to them, because frankly, some of those policy commitments are very important to Liberals as well, whether they're urban Liberals or regional Liberals. And I think it's good that we've now settled those big features of the Coalition agreement. It's now just down to the minor details, and I expect that that'll be settled in a timely way this week.
KIERAN GILBERT: Now, it might be premature to say, you know, to give your sort of broader view on where to in any detail, but when you look to Tim Wilson and Goldstein, to me, that at least shows that the Liberals can win back urban seats and win back Teal seats.
JAMES PATERSON: I agree with you, Kieran. The Liberal Party is at its best when it aspires to represent all Australians, and sometimes we have a bit of a phony debate in the Liberal Party about whether we should pursue outer suburban seats, not inner city seats or regional seats, not suburban seats. I completely disagree. We're one of the only political parties that aspires to represent and govern for all Australians. And the results in Goldstein that Tim achieved which are extraordinary, but also the swing that we achieved towards us in Kooyong which didn't quite get Amelia Hamer over the line, but made that an even more marginal seat, shows that the Teals are able to be defeated, that there are people who live in our cities who still want to vote Liberal, and that if we give them a better national campaign and a more inspiring policy agenda, I think we can win those seats, along with our traditional suburban seats like Menzies and Deakin and Aston in Victoria, and the outer suburban seats. We should aspire to represent all those constituencies.
KIERAN GILBERT: And is one of the key issues that you just need to be laser like in the message as well, whether it be via the social media platforms that Labor clearly out campaign the Liberal Party on, but just more broadly to keep the message as sharp as possible and where you need it to be as opposed to being distracted and thrown off course. So often, as I felt the coalition, the Liberal campaign was during a recent election campaign. You would have felt that yourself as the spokesperson?
JAMES PATERSON: I think that's a fair observation, Kieran. I think message discipline is critical in modern communications, particularly because we have such a diverse media and social media landscape. It is not just a couple of channels as it was 20 or 30 years ago. There are so many different channels to reach people. And if you have different messages or contradictory messages, if you don't have focus, then you're not going to clearly get the message through to the audiences that you want to reach. But you also have to have a vision, an inspiring vision for the future. And I don't think we've always achieved that over the last three years, and that's got to be a core part of our mission in this term, as well as making sure that our policies reflect our values. We always have to be the party of lower taxes, for example. We never want to confuse Australians. What they know and expect and understand to hear from the Liberal Party they must hear from the Liberal Party
KIERAN GILBERT: Indeed, and just finally, I know during the last term, and sometimes we can forget some of the wins the opposition had, because you did put a lot of heat on the government at various times on immigration issues in your Home Affairs responsibilities, are you determined to, well obviously it comes down to what Sussan Ley decides in a sense, but would like to stay in national security where you did make some mileage at various times during the last term of government?
JAMES PATERSON: Kieran, you're right. We had some big political wins in the Home Affairs portfolio, securing the demotion of both the Home Affairs Minister and the Immigration Minister, and some big policy wins, one of which has been a bit unheralded. The Albanese government has just implemented our election commitments on the Home Affairs portfolio, restoring ASIO, the ACIC, the AFP, and AUSTRAC to the Home Affairs portfolio. It's pretty unusual that they implement the Opposition's agenda. And yes, I do remain very passionate about national security. But I'll have those conversations privately with Sussan and work out where I can best fit into the team.
KIERAN GILBERT: Thanks for making the time. We'll talk to you soon.
JAMES PATERSON: Thanks, Kieran.
ENDS