Shadow Minister for Regional Health, Shadow Minister for Regional Communications - Member for Mallee - Transcript - Panel with James Macpherson 'The Macpherson Angle' with Colleen Harkin- News24 - Sunday 1 November 2026

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‍DR ANNE WEBSTER MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL HEALTH
SHADOW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL COMMUNICATIONS
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR MALLEE

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TOPICS:  Prime Minister's record length as Labor leader, inflation and government spending, energy policy, net zero

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MACPHERSON

Joining me now is shadow regional health minister Anne Webster and Victoria One Nation deputy leader Colleen Harkin.Welcome to you both.Anne, I'll start with youWill Anthony Albanese go down as one of the great Labor leaders?

WEBSTER

Well, it's a really interesting question, James.It's made me actually think about great leaders, and I would put some of those down like Margaret Thatcher or John Howard or even Ronald Reagan, because they left the country that they were serving. Let's remember what that job is as prime minister, serving their country by leaving it better in its sovereignty, in its safety, in its prosperity.There are so many descriptors, including integrity, that I just am not really seeing in the four and a half years that I have seen under this prime minister.So, you know, Australia will judge at the next election. Australia will judge whether Anthony Albanese is actually great or notI think we need to think about the term.

MACPHERSON

Yeah, good point.Colleen, you're in Victoria, as is Anne. Daniel Andrews is the longest serving Victorian Labor Premier. You don't last that long without being very good at politics, let's be honest. But being good at politics and being a good Prime Minister or Premier, in Dan Andrews' case, they're not always the same thing, are they?

HARKIN

No, they're definitely not the same thing and I think that one of the differences here is both of these, both the Premier Daniel Andrews and Albanese have had incredibly weak oppositions. So both of those people have lasted as long as they have, not because there's a huge swell of support for them, but because there hasn't been a genuine alternative. I think most people were incredibly surprised in Victoria when the Labor government was re-elected, and the same at the federal level. I think most people thought that the Liberal Party was going to get up and then it just fell apart, sort of would make announcements and run away from them. And particularly Dan Andrews, there's not anybody in Victoria who would say to you that they were pleased that he was there for as long as he was. So now I agree with you that just longevity is not at all a measure of greatness.

MACPHERSON

And yet in Victoria, you may get a statue.The RBA is expected to give us our fifth interest rate rise for the year when they convene on Tuesday.And you don't have to have written a thesis on Paul Keating to understand why inflation is still too high.Yet here's Finance Minister Katie Gallagher telling the ABC this morning, there's no guarantee the government will cutmore than it spends. Have a listen.

SPEIRS

But it's all involved more spending. Again, are you saying that it's just too difficult to bring that down?

GALLAGHER

No, I'm not saying it's too difficult, but I am saying that there should be some acknowledgement of the world in, you know, the world in which we are living and the pressures on the Commonwealth budget.And they are real, they are increasing.

SPEIRS

Is the aim to have a netsave, as in more savings than new spending?

GALLAGHER

Well, I can't, I don't want to pre-empt the ERC process.

SPEIRS

But surely the aim would be to have a net save rather than net spend.The economy doesn't need more spending now.

GALLAGHER

Well, I think, look at our record, David, and what I'm saying to you is we're doing a lot of work on the savings side, but I can't get ahead of decisions that haven't been made yet.

MACPHERSON

Anne Webster, I find this extraordinary. Inflation is too high. Cut back on spending.Is it that Labor can't cut spending or that they won't?

WEBSTER 

Well, they have got into power with a lot of sugar his to the public and that kind of spending, I mean, they literally see people's taxes as their money, what comes out of our pockets. I was talking to a businessman today whose payroll has just gone over a million dollars. Well he's in for more taxes. So we already know that the CGT and negative gearing and you know taking away rebate for PHI, sorry private health insurance, and a myriad of other taxes that are hitting our businesses right now means that they get more money in their coffers to spend. They don't have a clue about the economy. It is really evident and inflation continues to rise, productivity continues to flatline. They're doing nothing about improving our productivity. So, you know, they just can't manage. That's the problem here.

MACPHERSON

They say you get the politicians you deserve.So, Colleen, I want to ask you, is there a cultural problem?Have we created such an individualistic culturethere's just not much appetite for sacrifice on behalf of the nation.And so asking politicians of any stripe to make difficult decisions is almost asking the impossible, because they know they won't be reelected because of the culture. Is that a fair critique?

HARKIN

Look, I think it's certainly part of it, that we have got used to sort of payouts and sugar hits and bribes, effectively.Every time an election comes out, a couple of months beforehand, they start rolling out the lollies.But I don't think that actually lets Labor get away with what it's actually doingthey are the ones who are spending the money.In the last three years, they have increased the public service by 40,000 peopland all of the heads of business are telling them to stop spending and they're obstinately ignoring, pretending that government spend, give or take 27% of GDP, does not have any effect on inflation.And they're just arrogantly ignoring all of those measures.It's either ignorance 101 or it's perverse.They just, you know, they know the problem that they're causing and they're just ignoring it.We're heading towards $1.2 trillion of debt and they literally don't care.So to your point about whether voters will actually, you know,take any notice of restraint.I think people are starting to say, maybe we should because we can feel that the cost of living is really biting and that people don't want to keep heading down the path that we are.So I do think there is an opportunity there to be real with people and to start to do the measures that they should have been doing ages ago.

MACPHERSON

Just really quickly, Anne, I'm interested in your take on that.Do you think there is a change in the public mood and people are willing to vote for a party that says, Look, we're gonna make some hard calls.You may be affected, but for the good of the country, we need to do this.'Is there an appetite for it?

WEBSTER 

Oh, look, I think if we look at energy policy as, you know, 101, people want cheap, reliable energy. That is what they're crying out for, and our businesses are dying in part because of the energy costs. So changing from the all-renewable net zero approach that Labor have and that they're doggedly sticking to Is essential and I think you know what we're seeing is more people think that nuclear should be on the table, nuclear should be part of the mix going forward more people are certainly open to gas and coal. So I think yes, there is a cultural shift now people are saying, well, Net Zero might be part of the Paris Agreement ... I mean, it might be part of the UN Climate Council, but it's heading Australia in the wrong direction.

MACPHERSON

I wonder also if there's a realisation that things like continually funding the NDIS and other parts of the government social programs, as nice and as wonderful as they may be, just are not sustainable, and people are open to the discussion that, you know what, we're going to have to make some difficult calls.

Anne and Colleen, thank you so much for joining me tonight, always a delight.