Sunrise host Nat Barr has confronted new Liberal leader Angus Taylor over how he plans to turn around the party’s collapsing support after taking over as leader from Sussan Ley.
‘You lost nine seats at the last election,’ Barr said. ‘Polls show you are losing 7,000 voters every day. What can you do that Sussan Ley couldn’t?’
Taylor said the party must now refocus on bringing down the cost of living for Australians.
‘Well, first of all, we’ve got to admit the mistakes we made in the past,’ he said.
‘But the priority has to be restoring Australians’ standard of living and protecting their way of life – making sure we’ve got an energy policy that’s not ideological and that brings prices down; an immigration policy that puts Australians first, raises standards, reduces numbers, and says to people who don’t accept our way of life that the door is shut; making sure housing is at the centrepiece of the Australian dream.
‘And we need a strong economy that can restore our standard of living at a time when we’re seeing inflation rising, interest rates going up and people losing hope, losing hope of owning a home, starting a business, getting ahead, and that must be turned around straight away.’
He also hinted that the Liberal Party will be open to nuclear power plants.
Sunrise host Nat Barr grilled new Liberal leader Angus Taylor over how he plans to reverse the Coalition’s electoral slide after replacing Sussan Ley.
‘I think we need to open up our energy system to all available technologies. The ideology we have seen from Labor, where they only like some fuels and hate others, is leading to huge price increases, almost 40 per cent since Labor came to power.’
Barr later pressed Taylor on his comments about migration and what he meant by saying Australia should shut the door on people who hate the country’s way of life.
Taylor said he was referring to people who reject core democratic values.
‘Well, we’re talking about people who don’t accept the most basic beliefs that have made us successful as a country,’ he said.
‘We believe in democracy. We believe you need to obey the law. We believe in basic freedoms of speech and religion. And if people don’t accept those things, they shouldn’t come to our country. The door should be shut.’
Barr then asked deputy leader Jane Hume if the party was ‘going to become One Nation?’
‘Jane, you’re almost being overtaken by One Nation. How are you going to get those votes back? Are you going to move more to the right? Are you going to become One Nation?’ Barr asked.
‘The Liberal Party will never become a party of grievance or reactionary politics. We don’t need to move to the right or the left.
‘We just need to remind people who the Liberal Party stands for and who we fight for.
Barr later challenged deputy leader Jane Hume on whether the party risked drifting toward One Nation territory
‘We speak for the unrepresented. We don’t look after sectional interests like big unions or big business. We look after Australian families. We look after small businesses – anybody who wants to get ahead.’
Taylor is expected to soon unveil his overhauled frontbench, with policy announcements likely to be accompanied by a reshuffle that could see exiled conservatives and former leadership agitators Andrew Hastie and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price return to senior roles.
‘They’re magnificent members of our team,’ Taylor said on Sunday of the pair, whose previous frontbench stints ended due to migration-related issues.
The first poll since Taylor became Liberal leader, published by Nine newspapers on Monday, showed Labor with 32 per cent of the primary vote and One Nation and the Coalition tied on 23 per cent.
The Resolve poll of 1800 people conducted between February 8 and Saturday found a Mr Taylor-led coalition three percentage points ahead of a Ley-led opposition.
One Nation recorded primary support of 27 per cent in the latest Newspoll, conducted before Taylor toppled Ley as leader, with the coalition on 18 per cent.
