Interview with Sally Sara on ABC RN Breakfast

‍Subjects: Election result, Liberal Party leadership, economic management

E&OE………

Sally Sara

It's 26 to 8:00 on Breakfast. This is Radio National Breakfast with Sally Sara. Well, Labor is celebrating a much larger than expected victory, and the Coalition is reckoning with the loss not just of the national vote and a swathe of seats, but also its leader. Deputy Leader, Sussan Ley, Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor, and Shadow Immigration Minister Dan Tehan, are now among the favourites to replace Peter Dutton. Andrew Bragg is a Liberal Senator from New South Wales, and counted among the party's moderates, and joins me now. Andrew Bragg, welcome back to Radio National Breakfast.

Senator Bragg

Good morning, Sally. How are you?

Sally Sara

Very well, thank you. Where did everything go wrong for the coalition? What happened with your campaign?

Senator Bragg

Well, I think ultimately, you can't blame a campaign when you don't have enough policies to offer the community. I think, largely speaking, we didn't do enough on the economy. I don't think we did enough to capture the centre of the Australian public's support. I think ultimately, that's where the campaign went wrong.

Senator Bragg

What do you mean?

Senator Bragg

The last few years... Well, ultimately, you've got to give people something to vote for. I think traditionally, people have voted for the Liberal Party for a better life, a better economy. I don't think we had enough strong economic policies to win the day.

Sally Sara

Some Liberal MPs and Senators say they felt frozen out of Peter Dutton's inner circle. Earlier this morning on Breakfast, Senator Hollie Hughes had this to say about the policies that she was proposing.

Senator Hughes

I can speak to my own personal experience in my portfolio, and we submitted seven fully costed policies around mental health and suicide prevention in October last year. They disappeared into some form of vortex, and we never heard anything about anything back from anybody.

Sally Sara

Did the same thing happen to you in your shadow portfolio?

Senator Bragg

Look, yes and no. But ultimately, the policy point, I I think is critical that you can't blame a campaign when the substantial point of having a political party is to develop policies which help improve people's lives. If you don't have enough of those and they're not out with enough time, then you're not going to have a successful endeavour. And, I think policy is the key going forward. I mean, ultimately, the government has a primary of only 35%. So, the future may not be as bleak as some commentators say. And I think the salvation here is making sure that we do regroup on policy, particularly economic policy. But, we've also got to avoid culture wars and other random issues which have at times come up over the last few years.

Sally Sara

There are a few things to have a look at there. Just going back to the previous question about whether the same experience for you about policies in your portfolio, you said yes and no. What do you mean by that? What happened with your policy proposals?

Senator Bragg

Well, I think, firstly, not every person's ideas are adopted by a party of government, so you can't expect that every single thing is going to be adopted. But I think we could have done more to help households decarbonize. I think we could have done more to help households with mortgages. I think we could have done more to help small businesses invest. I think we could have done more on deregulation. I think the deregulation piece is potentially very big for small and large businesses to help them invest and to employ more people. I just think there's a lot of things that we could have done better, and we now have opportunities in the years ahead to do that.

Sally Sara

Did you put forward policy proposals and not hear anything back?

Senator Bragg

I don't think arguing on the process is necessarily going to be all that helpful right now. I think it's really the fact that you've got to have an ambition to lead on the economy, and that ultimately will, I think, lead to the restoration of the Liberal Party standing in the community. But it's not just the economy, as you know. You've also got to understand the society in which you wish to lead. I think modern Australia is very diverse, and we've got to make sure that we are inclusive and understanding of the different parts of our community.

Sally Sara

But there has been a degree of criticism about a process policy formulation and being organised for this election. So, this question about policies being put forward and being either disregarded or disappearing is actually quite an important one. What happened in your case?

Senator Bragg

Yeah, but ultimately, it's about the ambition. You've got to have the ambition to lead on the economy. I don't think that's been evident over the last few years.

Sally Sara

What do you mean by that?

Senator Bragg

Well, I mean, this is one of our core equities as a Liberal Party, that we will always improve the economic life of Australians. We haven't had enough ambition there, so that's where we've got to make sure that we improve. But, I don't think that necessarily blaming an internal process is the way to go here.

Sally Sara

You were also talking earlier about the issue of culture wars and raising some questions about that. What role do you think culture wars played in this campaign, in a negative way? What issues are you talking about when you refer to culture wars?

Senator Bragg

Well, I think we need to understand the society in which we are living better. I think the work from home is a good example of fundamentally misreading the Australian society. I think more broadly, picking on issues which may be focused on one particular minority group I just don't think that's the way that Australians want to see their politicians talk, their leaders focus. I think we have a healthy live and let live ethos in this country, and we have diversity. And generally speaking, that's what most Australians are comfortable with. They don't want to see division. I think it's very important that we focus on the economic issues and that we avoid these cultural issues at all costs.

Sally Sara

Did Peter Dutton get that aspect wrong, in your view?

Senator Bragg

Look, I think Peter is a very decent, very honourable and principled person. I think we've just got to make sure that we, going forward, focus very heavily on the economic issues and that we avoid any social division issues, because I think that was a lesson from the 2022 campaign. In 2022, at the end of that Parliament, we've got to make sure that we hear the lesson. We've got to make sure that we hear the message from the community.

Sally Sara

You're talking about the need, the importance of this greater focus on economics. Did the Shadow Treasurer, Angus Taylor, is he responsible for that if there wasn't enough focus on that?

Senator Bragg

Look, I'm very reluctant to apportion individual blame. I don't think that's helpful or constructive. I think ultimately, we all have to take responsibility, and I take responsibility for my role in it as well.

Sally Sara

Who do you want to lead the party now that Peter Dutton has lost his seat?

Senator Bragg

Well, as you know, that's a discussion to have with colleagues, and I expect that that will be resolved in the next week or so.

Sally Sara

Can the Liberal Party still accommodate both city-based small-l Liberal supporters and more concerned conservative voters in the same party?

Senator Bragg

Well, definitely. I think the idea that you preference One Nation, I think, is very misguided. I think whether you are living in multicultural south-west Sydney or whether you are living in an inner part of Melbourne, I think that was very jarring to a lot of voters. I think we've got to make sure that we can throw the blanket over the whole Australian community and seek to govern for all Australians. I mean, I'm personally a product of the bush, but I live in the city, and I think people aren't all that different, frankly, across Australia, with some of their political views about the quality of these ideas. We've got to make sure that we don't look as if we are supporting extremist positions.

Sally Sara

What do you mean?

Senator Bragg

Well, I don't think preferencing One Nation is a good idea for the Liberal Party. I think John Howard was absolutely right about that. It's a very bad optical position for our party. I think it looks as if we're not learning the lessons that we need to recapture the centre. The elections in Australia are won in the centre. It's very clear that the pathway for the Liberal Party going forward is to ensure that we have clear and differentiated, ambitious economic policy and that we have an inclusive social agenda.

Sally Sara

Senator Andrew Bragg, thank you for your time this morning on Breakfast.

Senator Bragg

Thank you, Sally.

[Ends]

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