TRANSCRIPT - SKY NEWS FIRST EDITION – DANICA DE GIORGIO

PAUL FLETCHER MP

Shadow Minister for Science and the Arts

Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy

Manager of Opposition Business in the House

TRANSCRIPT

SKY NEWS FIRST EDITION – DANICA DE GIORGIO

22 December

E&OE

Subject/s: Minister Wong’s Visit to China, Liberal Party Election Review

Danica De Giorgio: Joining me now live is the manager of Opposition Business, Paul Fletcher. Good to see you. Thank you for joining us. Is this a step in the right direction [Minister Wong’s visit to China]?

Paul Fletcher: Good to be with you. Look, the Coalition has certainly welcomed Minister Wong’s visit to China. Obviously we have consistently said that we want mutually respectful relations with China. As we know, Australia and China have gone through a challenging period over the last few years. It was China which essentially ceased ministerial visits and interaction and there've been some very difficult moments. The difficulties with trade in terms of exports like barley, wine, lobster, many others. Effectively China's suspending the imports of those products. That's been very difficult for many of our farmers and exporters. But we do have to recognise that while we want a mutually respectful relationship. At the same time, we are a democracy. Our systems are different and what's important is that while it's good that there are no ministerial visits occurring, it's important that we continue to respectfully put the issues that are of concern to us, be they human rights issues, be they concerns about security in the Asia Pacific and, of course, the appropriate treatment, transparent and fair treatment of detained Australians like Cheng Li and of course we do want to see our exports again being accepted into China. And so look, you know, we've seen some difficult times over the past few years, particularly the list of the 14 demands that were issued by the acting Chinese Ambassador a couple of years ago. Australia as a nation, I think, has consistently maintained our position and we've of course welcome the fact that Minister Wong has, has visited. But it is important that we're doing that from a position of maintaining our principles as a nation. We want a mutually respectful relationship that was consistently our position as a government and we welcome the extent to which there's been some consistency of approach from the new government.

De Giorgio: Hopefully it's a step in the right direction, but as you said, remains to be seen. Let's talk about the Liberal Party review now. It's expected to be made public. It it's found that the Liberal Party is not fit for purpose. They are very strong words. Why did it all go wrong?

Fletcher: Look they are strong words. If we're to be a high performing organisation, we have to have an honest assessment of what went wrong. We lost an election. We lost an election badly. We went from 77 seats Coalition in the House of Representatives to 58. We were up against a very substantial, full extensively funded, independent campaigns. You know, the two campaigns we saw. 2.1 million being spent in Wentworth. We saw 1.3 million being spent in North Sydney. These are unprecedented amounts of money to spend on a local campaign. This has been the Americanisation of Australian politics. It's been a troubling development, but at the same time the democratic marketplace is competitive. We need to be competitive in our campaign techniques. We need to be better at digital campaigning. And while I've not seen the report based upon the public reports, the media coverage of what's in it, and it's certainly I've I've engaged with the report writers and put my views based upon my own experience in my electorate of Bradfield and the campaign experience around NSW and around the country. Certainly it is an issue that we need to have more members and we do need to see a revitalisation of the way that our party organisation works in each state. If we are to be an effective campaigning organisation and if we're to be in a position to form government again.

De Giorgio: How long is it going to take to turn around? Though there seems to be a number of issues at grassroots level.

Fletcher: These things don't happen overnight, but at the same time we'll have another election coming up in two and a half years or less. So there's a degree of urgency. Obviously, one of the intentions of this report is that every party member can see what the analysis is of what went wrong. And so we can have a shared conviction about what needs to be done. We do need more professionalism in the way we campaign, our digital campaigning techniques need to be much more effective. We do need more women candidates. No question of that. Absolutely no question of that. So we've got work to do. Our fundamental values remain very sound. Many Australians are rightly extremely troubled about the interventionist instincts, the pro-union instincts, for example, of the current government, the Labor government. We heard a lot from Mr. Albanese about how he's going to govern, but it's pretty clear this Government is quite left wing, it's very anti-business and for Australians who care about our prosperity, the prosperity which is important so we can fund the roads and schools and hospitals and the services that Australians rely on. Our values Liberal values, are very important, but you need to be able to communicate them effectively, you need to campaign effectively. So we've got work to do.

De Giorgio: Yeah, well, no doubt another busy year ahead. I'm sure I know what your low light of the year was, but if you've got any highlights as we wrap up the parliamentary year?

Fletcher: Well, look, clearly one of the highlights was that when the election occurred, the Australian people made that judgement and all participants in the system respected that. We are not a country where the election results are met with tanks on the streets or met with protest. Yes. So that that very strong democratic culture that is shared across the political system and backed strongly by Australians is enormously important. So I think the peaceful transition of power is always a highlight. Clearly some of the lowlights have been the way that the Albanese Labor government has treated the Parliament as a rubber stamp. Very different from the rhetoric we saw from Mr. Albanese and the things he used to say when he was Manager of Opposition Business and things like, you know, when Parliament was recalled, we voted on the price cap legislation at midday on the Thursday. We only saw the legislation in its final form, 8:45 on the Wednesday night. That's not good.

De Giorgio: All right. Well, I can tell you what I reckon it's going to be another busy year ahead by the sounds of that one. Paul Fletcher, Merry Christmas, thank you for joining us.

Fletcher: Merry Christmas to you and your viewers.

Further information: Jack Abadee 0403 440 099