TRANSCRIPT
INTERVIEW ON FIVEAA BREAKFAST WITH DAVID PENBERTHY AND WILL GOODINGS
23 January 2026
Topics: Coalition split, Liberal leadership, One Nation polling, immigration policy
E&OE…………………………………
DAVID PENBERTHY: We have Senator Ruston on the line now. Senator, good morning and thank you for your time.
ANNE RUSTON: My pleasure.
DAVID PENBERTHY: Do you see the relationship with the Nationals as being resolvable this term or do you think that now that both parties are just going to go their separate ways and see what happens after the next election?
ANNE RUSTON: Well, as the Liberal Party, we've always been strong coalitionists and we will remain strong coalitionists into the future. But what happened this week, quite frankly, was untenable, the actions of the National Party, and so we had to take the action that we did in response to the behaviour and the actions that they took. So, I think we need to focus forward on what we're doing as the alternative government, which is now the Liberal Party for the time being, focus on what the Australian people want. So, whilst I remain a coalitionist, you can't be a coalitionist at any cost.
DAVID PENBERTHY: Have you guys let Albo off the hook? I mean, over summer – this is our first week back working, but I was still paying attention to the news. You couldn't not, given the gravity and horror of what happened in Bondi. But there were really deeply seated and intense opinions about the manner in which the Government handled that atrocity, criticisms over some of the decisions it made in the lead up to that atrocity. And at the end this week, you guys are the story.
ANNE RUSTON: Well, this episode is particularly disappointing because of its timing and because of the issue over which it unfolded. I mean, yesterday was a day of mourning, it's a time when the country should be coming together and showing unity in seriousness and resolve about addressing what happened in December at Bondi. So, I think it was very, very disappointing that we saw these things unfold this week, because I think it was a time when Australians needed the Parliament to look like it was unified and that is not how it looked.
DAVID PENBERTHY: I take your point about yesterday, but equally though, Sussan Ley can't be low off the hook in this. I mean, you can't on the one hand go banging your fist on the table, demanding that parliament be recalled as a matter of urgency so that we can act on this, and then when you all get there, you can't agree on what you should do.
ANNE RUSTON: Well, I actually disagree. I think we should have brought the Parliament back and I think we should've brought it back a lot earlier than we did. It should have been brought back in December. We could have shown unity and paid our respects to the families and the communities of those 15 murdered in Bondi, and we should have sat down at that time and worked on the legislation together so that we actually could have ended up with something that truly was reflective and had bipartisan support. Instead, we got many days of delay, many weeks of delay. We had to force the Prime Minister to even consider a royal commission and then what we got last week, or this week, was a rushed piece of legislation that nobody had seen and the experts hadn't been involved in developing and we hadn't been involved in its development. So, I think Sussan was very, very rightly calling for the Parliament to be brought back, but it should have been brought back in December when we could have done something and we could've used that time to actually develop legislation that actually did what it was supposed to do.
DAVID PENBERTHY: Despite the supportive comments you just made for Ms Ley, Senator Ruston, do you think that for the good of the Party it's time to look for a different leader?
ANNE RUSTON: I think Sussan has done a phenomenal job as the leader of our party. She's navigated some pretty tough issues and she has done it incredibly well. And I think that her actions of this week are absolutely fully backed by the Liberal leadership group. But I haven't heard one person in my party who doesn't believe that the actions that the Leader took this week were not absolutely necessary.
WILL GOODINGS: What do you think the One Nation polling result says or what opportunities does it provide for the Liberal Party as you look towards the next election?
ANNE RUSTON: Well, obviously, we are focused absolutely on first and foremost holding this government to account. I think it's a terrible government, they're making a lot of mistakes and we've got to do better at holding them to account, because quite frankly that's what the Australian public expects of us. We also need to develop our policy platform that is based on the values of the Liberal Party.
The values that Robert Menzies laid out for the party haven't changed. The way we develop our policies to respond to them might have changed, but those values never change. You know, we believe in small government, we believe in the freedom of the individual, we believe in freedom of speech, we believe in reward for effort. All of those things haven't changed, so I think we need to focus very, very strongly on those and move forward and show the Australian public that actually we do have a solution to the challenges that they are continuing to face.
WILL GOODINGS: Under John Howard, the Party certainly believed in strong border controls. The immigration question is one that's resonating strongly and I think feeds into that One Nation vote. Is it time to make a more definitive statement about numbers and the circumstances in which people arrive in Australia?
ANNE RUSTON: Look, I think we would have been out earlier than we have been, perhaps we would've been out by now with some statements in relation to our policy on immigration, had it not been for the horrific events of Bondi which have consumed the nation and rightly so for the last six weeks. But yes, I think a strong immigration policy that is very clear for Australians to see is something that we will be getting out to Australians very, very shortly and I know that despite all the work that we had to do to try and clean up the mess that was this legislation this week that we will now start focusing on making sure that we've got a strong immigration policy that meets the needs of Australia.
DAVID PENBERTHY: Senator Anne Ruston, South Australian Liberal Senator, thank you very much for joining us this morning.
ENDS
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