Member for Mallee - Transcript - ABC Radio Regional Victoria - Thursday 22 January 2026

‍DR ANNE WEBSTER MP

FEDERAL MEMBER FOR MALLEE

TOPICS: Mass resignation of Nationals shadow ministers - hate crimes bill debate - National Party solidarity - Liberal leadership - One Nation - Coalition Joint Party Room process

HEALEY

Dr Anne Webster is the federal member for Mallee, one of the ones who is now out and good morning to you.

WEBSTER

Good morning Nic, how are you?

HEALEY

Where does this leave the people of the Mallee who may well have voted you in with the expectation of you being part of a Coalition?

WEBSTER

The people of Mallee have written to me in their hundreds asking me not to vote for this legislation - Hundreds. There was not one - not one - email that came to me that asked me to please vote for this bill. So, I represent the people of Mallee. I take their views into consideration. When I go to Canberra, I represent them. That is my job. There is no question about that. So, when I'm sitting in a party room and we are discussing incredibly complex legislation, about national security, that is on the fly … I can't even tell you how poor this process has been. Thank you, Prime Minister. Firstly, trying to wedge us as a Coalition because we were never, as The Nationals, going to support gun reform. And then continuing with really an omnibus bill about various aspects. We were pleased to go and vote for the migration component. That was fine. But there were other aspects regarding freedom of speech and freedom of opinion, freedom of religion, all those things that were very complex and have, we are not confident at all that this bill now will do what it was designed to do, which was to stand against antisemitism and to be able to deal with as a criminal offence, Islamic extremism. So, let's be really clear about that. For the people of Mallee, I represent them. I go to a party room and I voice their views to my party room. Then, we as a party room discuss the issues at hand. We come up with a decision. We were making amendments. Thank you again, Prime Minister. We were making amendments literally as Michelle Rowland was standing in parliament presenting the legislation. This is not due process. This is not good process. It was appalling process. It was extremely stressful and we could not in all good conscience support this. So, we sent our senators, let me be very clear about this, Bridget McKenzie is a Victorian senator and one of my trusted colleagues that - we sent them as a Party, into the Senate with some amendments at 10pm on the Tuesday night, that went in and presented those amendments, they were voted down. We had already made the decision as a Party that if they were going to have to vote no, that we would be standing with them with the consequences of that. The consequences, according to protocol, are they tender their resignation. We had already made the decision, me with tears in my eyes that I would be standing with them and likewise handing in my resignation. Nobody's happy about this - let me be really clear, nobody's happy about where we're at right now. However, we have principles and we are going to stand on those principles and we will walk this through however it turns out. Right now, it's in the Liberals' hands and on a National Day of Mourning, I can tell you this doesn't make me happy either. But the reality is, this is politics, we've just got to do what we've got to do and get through this.

HEALEY

And doesn't this leave the National Party with less influence over government, no longer being part of a Coalition?

WEBSTER

I don't consider that we have less influence at all and I think... the Coalition is the best mechanism by which to hold the Labor government to account. Let's face it, they have a mile wide representation in the lower house, which is an inch deep. Let's see how that rolls out over the next two years. We will be working to unseat many of those members. We believe that Australians deserve better. The way that the Prime Minister Albanese has politicised this whole process since December 14 is abhorrent and awful.

HEALEY

Sure, but you're splitting with the Liberal Party. I mean, many people are asking if this is in some way a Nationals referendum on Sussan Ley's leadership. If she changes, does the National Party's opinion change?

WEBSTER

If she changes?

HEALEY

If she leaves.

WEBSTER

Oh, she leaves? Well you know these are processes that we'll go through … we've got  … that's not on the table at this point in time that's up to the Liberal Party they need to work out what they're going to work out we stand in solidarity behind David Littleproud's leadership. I watched his TV press service this morning and endorse absolutely everything that he said. As a Nationals party room I am extremely proud to stand side by side with my colleagues. This is the best, the healthiest, the most democratic party room that I have been in in seven years. We have incredible relationships and we have an ability to democratically speak and represent our electorates. That's what we're sent to Canberra to do and we will continue to do that.

HEALEY

Last Newspoll had One Nation as getting a slightly higher share of the vote than the Coalition. Are you concerned that this will strengthen the One Nation vote against The Nationals and maybe some of your party members will move over?

WEBSTER

Look, I note the headlines for the One Nations, it's one thing they're good at and getting headline grabs. It's a bit like the Labor Party playing politics, they're very good at that, they're incredibly terrible at actually governing Australia. But, One Nation is One Nation. It's not us. We know what we stand for. We know that our party position at this stage is incredibly healthy. We will continue to stand together.

HEALEY

The last split lasted about 48 hours. Can we expect a quick return to the Coalition in that case?

WEBSTER

I can't answer that. It's not up to me. It's certainly up to the Liberal Party to determine how they're going to move forward. Sussan Ley has made the statement that she will make comment tomorrow in honour of this day of mourning. That is up to her. I think there will be a lot of machinations going on in the background that we don't know about, and that's for them to decide.

HEALEY

Should the National Party have waited until tomorrow, given the National Day of Mourning?

WEBSTER

Look, we didn't bring on this awful process, legislative process. We have three senators who lost their jobs for standing for our party room. We're not going to let them be scapegoats and the fall guys for our party. We have to come out, as David has done, and he was urged to by our whole party, to come out as soon as possible and state our position that we will not allow them Bridget McKenzie, Ross Cadell, Susan MacDonald to be the fall guys for our party. We stand together.

HEALEY

But Anne, the perception that there should be unity on the Shadow Cabinet when it comes to voting is a pretty long-standing tradition within the Coalition. They knew they were breaking that.

WEBSTER

Well, as David made the comment this morning in his press, and I'm sure you've got a copy of it, he debates whether the proper process was followed in terms of the Shadow Cabinet. I'm not in Shadow Cabinet. I'm in the outer ministry. So, I don't know. I can't make a comment on that. I'll just take what David has said. The fact that we didn't have a Joint Party Room to endorse the position of the Cabinet. I think that's pretty serious. We should have had a Joint Party Room and that did not take place. That's not my call. That was the Liberal Party's call and I think they will have further discussions among themselves about where they go from here.

HEALEY

And a busy morning and I appreciate you having some time, so thank you.

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