TRANSCRIPT
INTERVIEW ON ABC RADIO ADELAIDE BREAKFAST
11 September 2025
Topics: Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, energy policy, South Australian agal bloom disaster
E&OE…………………………………
RORY MCCLAREN: Anne Ruston is a South Australian Liberal Senator, the Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care, NDIS and Sport. Anne Ruston, welcome.
ANNE RUSTON: Good morning.
RORY MCCLAREN: Did Opposition Leader Sussan Ley have no choice but to dump Jacinta Nampijinpa Price from the frontbench?
ANNE RUSTON: Look, there is absolutely no question that confidence in the leadership is absolutely critical for anybody serving on the Shadow Ministry. Jacinta's decision not to provide that confidence meant that it was the appropriate thing for her to go to the backbench.
SONYA FELDHOFF: Did she talk to you about it before or any other Cabinet members, Shadow Cabinet members?
ANNE RUSTON: Look, I don't know who Jacinta's been having conversations with, I – [interrupted].
SONYA FELDHOFF: I meant Sussan Ley. Did she discuss with Shadow Cabinet her decision to demote her?
ANNE RUSTON: Well, I can certainly assure you I have many conversations with my leader, as do other people, particularly in the leadership roles in our party. Obviously, the matter of those conversations, I'm not going to discuss on the radio. But yes, of course, we have very regular conversations about all of the matters that are affecting our party.
JULES SCHILLER: Are you wondering why she joined the Liberal Party if she won't back the leader so soon after that?
ANNE RUSTON: Well, obviously, these are matters for Jacinta to decide and she clearly made the decision yesterday to take the action that she did. And, you know, obviously she's still very welcome in our party room. You know, she's made a great contribution to Australian politics over the time that she's being in the Parliament. And so, I welcome her continued contribution from the backbench, because I'm sure she will continue to contribute.
RORY MCCLAREN: Are you concerned about what this could mean for unity within the party room?
ANNE RUSTON: Well, unity is one of those things that just isn't negotiable when it comes to Shadow Cabinet. But I can absolutely assure you the leader has the total support of her shadow ministry and she has the overwhelming support of our party room. So, I think the Australian public want us to focus on the matters that are important to them, and that's exactly what we need to be doing. So, we need move on today and start focusing on the things that Australians want.
RORY MCCLAREN: Anne Ruston, there might be unity, as you say, within the frontbench, but what about the party room more broadly off the back of this decision?
ANNE RUSTON: I absolutely believe, in fact I know, that Sussan has the overwhelming support of the majority of our party room, and that's the way it should be. And, you know, she won the leadership and she continues to have overwhelming support.
JULES SCHILLER: Anne Ruston, for those who have Indian heritage listening right now, Jacinta Price did make the claim, which she walked back from, didn't apologise for, that Labor was keen on Indian migration because they overwhelmingly vote Labor. What do you have to say about those comments?
ANNE RUSTON: Well, look, I think Jacinta has acknowledged the mistake in her comments. I don't believe she ever meant any harm in her remarks, but quite clearly they have caused genuine distress to the Indian community. And I think, you know, we have to absolutely affirm, and I absolutely affirm, that I and the Liberal Party deeply value the Australian Indian community and the huge contribution that they make to our society. And that is absolutely the view of the Liberal Party.
SONYA FELDHOFF: She walked it back, but she didn't apologise. Do you think Jacinta Nampijinpa Price should have apologised for those comments?
ANNE RUSTON: Well, as I said, she has accepted and acknowledged the mistake in her comments, and I think, you know, we, as the Liberal Party, need to absolutely affirm our commitment to the Indian community because it is absolutely true. They have made an incredible contribution to the Australian community and will continue to do so into the future. But, you, know, it's a matter for Jacinta – She has made her choice and I think now is the time to move on and make sure that every one of our migrant communities feels welcome in this country, because they should be made to feel welcome.
SONYA FELDHOFF: Could she have stayed on the frontbench if she had apologised?
ANNE RUSTON: The issue here is around her refusal to provide the confidence to the leader that I think every leader deserves to have. That is the reason why she's not on the frontbench.
SONYA FELDHOFF: So Senator Ruston, do you support your leader's decision to move Jacinta Nampijinpa Price on?
ANNE RUSTON: Absolutely. If you cannot provide confidence in the Leader, you cannot sit in the Shadow [Ministry]. So I absolutely support this decision.
JULES SCHILLER: Now before we get to the algal bloom and moving forward, do you support net zero?
ANNE RUSTON: Well, obviously, the conversation that we need to be having in this country right now is making sure that we have got an energy grid that is reliable, providing Australians with reliable and affordable power, but obviously we also have an obligation, an international obligation to the future generations, to make sure that we play our role in reducing carbon emissions. And so, I think that is the story that we need to be talking about right now, is making sure we have an energy policy that reflects modern Australia.
JULES SCHILLER: Which might seem to suggest that net zero is something you're leaning towards?
ANNE RUSTON: We have to play our role in reducing global emissions, but I think every Australian – You know, our economy is underpinned by affordable energy, whether that be making sure households can afford to pay their bills, but most particularly to make sure that businesses are able to afford to produce the things that our economy relies on here in Australia. So, affordable energy must always underpin our economy, but equally, as I said, we need to play our role in making sure that we reduce carbon emissions into the future, because our future generations deserve nothing less from their government.
SONYA FELDHOFF: You're hearing from Senator Anne Ruston, South Australian Liberal Senator, here on 891 ABC Radio Adelaide with Sonya and Jules and Rory.
RORY MCCLAREN: Senator, the Select Committee into the algal bloom, the Senate Inquiry, rather, into the algal bloom has been up and going. It's been taking evidence across South Australia already this week. Are you continuing to follow that inquiry today in Ardrossan and what are you expecting to hear if so?
ANNE RUSTON: Well, I'm assuming we're going to hear exactly the same thing that we've been hearing from these devastated communities for quite some time now, and that is this algal bloom is having an incredibly devastating impact on their entire communities. But the thing that's probably been most distressing this week was when some of the government departments appeared on Tuesday at a hearing at Seacliff – They don't know what's caused it. They seem to think that hope is the strategy that they're looking towards to see this bloom disappear. They seem very flat-footed and don't really have a plan on how to address it. I was very distressed to hear the evidence that we received from the South Australian Government departments on Tuesday, because I think South Australians are very, very frustrated about not really knowing what's going on and what the Government's actually doing about it.
JULES SCHILLER: Specifically, what do you think could have been done earlier?
ANNE RUSTON: Well, I think the first thing is that we should have known earlier. I mean, the fact that the Government sat flat-footed from probably last November, when it should have been well aware that this was a problem that was starting to occur, and they just sort of hoped that it would, you know, the weather conditions would make it go away. Then in March, when it had appeared that clearly they weren't, they've been very ad hoc in terms of their response to the bloom. They were very late to start drawing on international expertise around this, and by the time they did, the bloom was so large that most of the things that they might have been able to use to address the bloom were no longer available, because the bloom is plainly too big. So, I think the Government has got a lot of questions to answer about why it let this go on so long before it really did anything about it.
JULES SCHILLER: Anne Ruston, SA Liberal Senator and Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care and the National Disability Insurance Scheme and Sport. Thank you for your company this morning.
ENDS
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