Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories - Shadow Minister for Regional Communications- Transcript - Interview ABC Radio Mildura -Swan Hill - 29 May 25

DR ANNE WEBSTER MP

SHADOW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND TERRITORIES

SHADOW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL COMMUNICATIONS

FEDERAL MEMBER FOR MALLEE

TRANSCRIPT

Murphy

It's been less than 24 hours since Dr Anne Webster was announced as the new Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Regional Communications and Local Government and Territories. It's a promotion for Dr Webster, who was the Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health and Regional Development in the previous term of Parliament. A fast fact: the last time a Member for Mallee held a Shadow Ministry role was in 1984 when then member for Mallee Peter Fisher was the Minister for Sports and Recreation in Andrew Peacock's Shadow Ministry.

Dr Webster is The National Party's federal member for Mallee and one of the Coalition's key voices in the regions. But the Coalition is looking very different today. Peter Dutton is out, after losing his seat. The Liberals are newly-led by Sussan Ley and questions are swirling about who's really in control, and what the Coalition even stands for anymore. After years of division over climate, the Voice, energy policy and leadership, are The Nationals and Liberals really a team again or just clinging to each other in panic? And with all this reshuffling, are they focused on the future of the country or just the future of their own political survival? With Peter Dutton gone and the Coalition scrambling to rebrand itself after a break up and now back together, what exactly is holding the Nationals and Liberals together? Is this still a functioning partnership, or just a marriage of convenience to try and win back power? Dr Anne Webster is in studio.

Anne, a lot of people feel like they're watching a political soap opera. Leaders losing seats, backroom deals, party realignments. Meanwhile, cost of living is out of control. Rural health services are on life support and communities like yours are crying out for action. Do the people come second to the politics, right?

Webster

Look, it's a really good question and nothing has been glorious, shall we say, except that our position as The Nationals has been to stand for principles and the principles were, actually long standing principles, that whatever policies were developed together as a Coalition, whatever we agreed on, would remain on the table, unless they were reviewed and then taken off the table. Sussan Ley in her rightful place as leader of the Opposition, decided that they would be off the table and then reviewed to come back on the table. So it's a different position for us now. Some of those wins, such as nuclear energy, such as the Regional Australian Future Fund, $20 billion and, one billion each year for regional communities into perpetuity, ensuring that our roads and our infrastructure in the regions, will be repaired and maintained and built, and so on. They're just two. They are important policies that we had come to an agreement on, we don't want them off the table, and hence we got to a position. It was a party room decision, not just David Littleproud. This was a party room. I was there. I heard it - and I agreed to it that we would step away for a period of time. Unfortunately coinciding with Susan Ley's mother's passing and, you know, life is complex.

You can't sort it all out, really, necessarily in a simple way or in a simple process. Sometimes things take longer. So eventually Sussan asked David to continue talks, actually, just as we had been advised of our own shadow positions. So, it was a very, very interesting place to be over the last couple of weeks, but I perfectly understand people who live in regional Australia, or people across Australia generally, who are Liberal/ National supporters being bewildered, I absolutely understand that. We were really concerned, particularly in NSW, where they've had horrendous flooding, some of our Members have been on the ground every day despite what is going on, you know, welcome to politics.

Murphy

You mentioned just a moment ago about investments in roads, which has been a huge issue for you. What about its current funding structure doesn't work, and what else needs investing in regional communities?

Webster

It doesn't work. People of Mallee are fully aware and I travel on them all the time, so I know firsthand, that the roads are in terrible repair and the funding the process for gaining funding from the federal government to the state government was slowed down enormously by Catherine King in the last parliament. She had a 90 day review. Let's not forget that that actually went on 200 days and then Mallee got very, very little. There have been a lot of political decisions that have been made under Labor that have left Mallee residents out in the cold - and we can talk about energy. How long have you got?

Murphy

Not too long this morning, but I also sort of following on with that - Peter Dutton, he's gone, but the policy positions he pushed on nuclear energy, immigration, social policy still linger. Will the Coalition walk those back, or are we just going to get a different face, pushing the same hardline narrative?

Webster

Look, these are discussions for the Coalition party rooms, so The Nationals: we come to our own decision. We'll be having a partyroom meeting. We had one yesterday via Teams, but we'll be having a face-to-face in the next couple of weeks,  is my understanding, and the Liberal Party will be doing the same. Once we've come to our own positions, then we come together and then we discuss and debate and come to an understanding about what will be Coalition policy. Some of those things are going to take time because they're very complex.

Murphy

So, in those meetings that you have just with the other Members of the National Party, do you discuss, you know, if it goes one way, what? The rebuttal? And do you look at different options and ways that you'll be able to sort of achieve what your goals are?

Webster

Absolutely. I'm excessively proud of being part of a Nationals team who every Member in that room, and some of our new ones, are outstanding, will stand up and speak for our regions. We stand up to fight for our regions and the best interest of our regions. Some of the things that I might fight for might be harmful in another region, so you know, we have to be mature and adults in the room. We've got to find a way that we can move forward and sometimes that might take some time and we might need to get expertise in the room and we've done that before many times.

Murphy

Now I imagine there must also be a slight sense of relief, even though the Liberal Party is looking quite different to how it was, because while Sussan Ley and yourself are members of different parties within the Coalition, Liberals and Nationals respectively, you do share common ground on several policies and both of you represent areas that are similar in demographic and in key issues like agriculture. Both of you have expressed cautious approaches to climate policy. As Sussan Ley has signalled a reluctance to pursue net zero emissions, and I quote “at any cost”, reflecting internal collision debates on climate targets, while yourself representing a region heavily reliant on agriculture, have also shown concerns over policies that might adversely affect your constituents livelihoods. So, is this a win for Sussan a win for you also? And do you think having her as leader of the Liberals will make it easier to achieve your goals within the region?

Webster

Look, I think you're right - where you come from, you bring to the party room and the issues around renewables and the damage that it is doing to Mallee.  We're talking about the lack of social licence, the pitting neighbour against neighbour, that has been going on with renewable cowboys that have been, you know, freelancing around the electorate for some years now, incredibly bad policy by the Victorian Labor Government and I could go on about that for some time. These are issues that we need to discuss and we need to find a way forward that is going to, yes, reduce emissions -  we all want a cleaner planet - but not at any cost. I'm about to do a survey across all of my electorate. Every person in Mallee, every household in Mallee, will receive a survey. So, Ben, you can fill it in yourself. I want to know what people, what matters to people, and to what extent they're prepared to have emissions reduction. For example, let's put net zero and Paris agreement aside - net zero means a tremendous amount of renewables under the Labor Government. It's the only way to go, i.e. they will only do renewables. They're not going to look at nuclear and they're certainly not going to prolong coal, so, how much is it important for people in Mallee and I want them to tell me if it's going to cost them $500 a year, are they OK with that? If it's going to cost them $2000 a year, are they OK with that? Because it's all about what it's going to cost me as an individual.

Murphy

You mentioned there nuclear there, is the Coalition’s decision not to pursue its election commitment to build 7 nuclear power plants an admission that the policy was unpopular with Australian voters?

Webster

I don't believe so. I think there's a lot to come out in the reviews that the Liberal Party will be doing. I know that in Mallee the last survey that we did, which was about two years ago, we had 63% of people in Mallee were pro nuclear, 63%! There has been a tremendous amount of misinformation that Labor got away with scot-free, some would call it lies, including myself, through the election campaign. I want to see them held to account. I want to see the people of Mallee and the people in regional Australia across Australia not being treated as the slaves who just, you know, wear the cost of whatever urban people are wanting. I don't believe that people in urban Australia really understand what it's costing regional Australians.

Murphy

We do need to wrap up. So, with the leadership reset, can you give Australians, especially people in rural and regional areas, one clear tangible vision of what the Coalition will actually deliver if they get back into government, not a slogan, but a real plan?

Webster

I think we need time as new Coalition, there are a lot of new members, obviously we're a very depleted Coalition now, Liberals lost a lot of seats – Nationals, I want to point out, did not lose one and we transitioned three. We have to come to a position where we have policies that we can freely speak about. We're not at that point yet. We have just come literally come back together yesterday. So, give us time when that happens. I'm very happy to talk to you about it, Ben.

Murphy

So do you think the Facebook status update would currently be, relationship status “It's complicated”?

Webster

Look, I think every relationship is complicated and I think it requires give and take on both parties. That's a standard and it will be an ongoing standard going forward. So, it's going to be up to our parties and it's going to be up to our leaders, David Littleproud and Sussan Ley to make this work.

Murphy

That's Doctor Ann Webster. There. Thank you so much for your time.

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