Transcript: Interview with Andrew Clennell, Sky News - 3 November 2025

TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEW WITH ANDREW CLENNELL, SKY NEWS

3 November 2025

Topics: Coalition energy policy, net zero, Joy Division t-shirt, aged care reforms, Labor’s bulk billing promises

E&OE…………………………………

ANDREW CLENNELL: Anne Ruston, thanks for your time. Let's start with my report this morning. There was a two-hour meeting of a Liberal leadership group yesterday, and I've reported you said it would be mad to drop net zero and the Nationals have a gun to the Liberal's head again. Is that your view?

ANNE RUSTON: Well, Andrew, the one thing I have never done is discuss matters that were discussed in private meetings. I've never done it in the past and I'm not going to start doing it today.

ANDREW CLENNELL: All right, well that's not a denial, that's for sure. Is it your view and is it the view of the moderates more generally that you might be prepared to split with the Coalition over this?

ANNE RUSTON: Look, I don't think this commentary is particularly useful. Right now, we need to be doing two things. We need to be making sure that we are developing up our policy, the same way as the National Party have developed up their policy, so that we've got a policy that has got a reliable and responsible way to reduce emissions, but at the same time we need make sure that we've got affordable and reliable power. The reality is, right now, the Government is the one who is failing Australians – emissions are not going down and power prices are going up. That's what we need to be focused on.

ANDREW CLENNELL: Are you a little bit annoyed with David Littleproud that he keeps front running on this stuff? First he did it to the voice, now net zero.

ANNE RUSTON: Look, we said right from the start, straight after the election, that the National Party would go through a process and the Liberal Party would go through a process about developing up in our own party rooms our positions in relation to climate policy and energy policy. The National Party concluded their policy and have released it over the weekend and we're in the final stages of doing ours. And, at the same time, we've been having very respectful discussions with each other. So, I don't think there's anything particularly surprising in what's happening at the moment.

ANDREW CLENNELL: Is it true the Liberals asked the Nationals to delay theirs, which would have been a more orderly process?

ANNE RUSTON: Look, I'm not aware of that, but I think that we've always been really clear that they were separate processes and that's exactly what's happened here.

ANDREW CLENNELL: It was told to me on the weekend there were 20 Liberal MPs who you're aware of who want to retain a policy, an aspiration, of net zero. Do you think that's fair?

ANNE RUSTON: I don't think there's any doubt that our party room has a range of views around energy policy and climate policy. But the one thing that there is absolutely universal agreement on is that we have a responsibility to make sure that we play our role in emissions reduction, but at the same time we understand that Australians are really hurting by increased power prices. I mean, last week we saw Tomago – over a thousand people, so a thousand families, thrown into uncertainty because the company actually said that the cost of their power was actually making their business unviable. So, I think we actually need to be addressing those two issues because that's what's important to Australians.

ANDREW CLENNELL: I just wonder though, what's the point of a Shadow Cabinet and a Shadow Cabinet process if the Nationals are going to keep coming out with their own decisions ahead of a Coalition position?

ANNE RUSTON: Well, you forget the fact that we are still in negotiations and we're still speaking to the National Party. I mean, they have their process, we have our process and I still remain very, very confident that we'll come to a position where we are able to meet those two obligations to Australians – reducing emissions and making sure that people's power prices don't continue to go up.

ANDREW CLENNELL: Is there anything wrong with this Nationals approach where they say the energy transition is going too fast, let's go at the same speed with other like countries?

ANNE RUSTON: Well, I don't think there's any doubt at all that the current process that the Labor Party is undertaking and the measures they're putting in place for their policy are failing Australians. We have not seen barely the dial moved when it comes to emissions reduction since this Labor Party's been in government. And despite promising $275 power reductions, we've seen over $1,300 increases, and the incoming government brief said that they're only going to go up. So, you know, this is absolutely a failure on behalf of the Labor Party.

ANDREW CLENNELL: So, what do you think of the Nationals target then, 30 to 40% sort of reductions by 2035 – less ambitious than what the Government's aiming for?

ANNE RUSTON: We need to be realistic about making sure that we have got a policy, a climate policy that tells Australians that we take climate change seriously, we're serious about emissions reduction, but at the same time we also understand that, quite frankly, Australians are buckling under the cost of their energy bills. I mean, we can walk and chew gum at the same time and that's what we need to working towards because we need be supporting Australians.

ANDREW CLENNELL: Do you think their target is enough though, 30-40%? That's what I'm getting at.

ANNE RUSTON: Well, obviously, we're in the process of developing our own policies. We'll continue working with the National Party, but I know that Australians are expecting their alternative government to be a government that is actually taking seriously the reduction of emissions.

ANDREW CLENNELL: Well, this can't go on too long. Is it your hope that in a Liberal Party room tomorrow morning you can come to a Liberal party position on this?

ANNE RUSTON: Look, we've got a process, it's well underway, and that will come to its natural conclusion. Obviously, the sooner, the better. But I think there's been a very firm commitment by Dan Tehan, who has been leading this process on behalf of the Liberal Party, that this matter will be resolved before the end of the year.

ANDREW CLENNELL: Why do you think the Liberal Party is polling 24% at the moment and One Nation 15%?

ANNE RUSTON: Well, I mean, obviously, polls come and go. I think the most important thing that we are focusing on at the moment are the issues that are important to Australians.

ANDREW CLENNELL: But when you saw that poll, what was your reaction?

ANNE RUSTON: Well, as I said, polls come and go. I mean, at this early stage in an election cycle, focusing on the polls serves no purpose whatsoever. What we need to be focusing on are the issues that matter to Australians. I mean, the reason you asked me on today was because we wanted to talk about the absolute catastrophe that's unfolding when it comes to the aged care sector, health and we saw last week around the NDIS. These are really important issues.

ANDREW CLENNELL: I'll get to that. But it does look like Sussan Ley's leadership is in a bit of a death roll, doesn't it?

ANNE RUSTON: Look, I wouldn't agree with that at all, Andrew. But, obviously, what we need to be doing as the alternative government is putting to the Australian public what we think and talking about the things that we think are important to Australians, but also at the same time - [interrupted].

ANDREW CLENNELL: Is the Joy Division t-shirt important to Australians?

ANNE RUSTON: Well, I think the issue of anti-semitism is a very, very important issue. And I think for the Jewish community in Australia this has been an issue that's been ongoing for the last two years and it's an incredibly important issue.

ANDREW CLENNELL: So Sussan made the right call there?

ANNE RUSTON: Look, I think the Prime Minister needs to be held to account for his poor judgement.

ANDREW CLENNELL: I had the Aged Care Minister on Sunday Agenda yesterday. He was defending the Government's aged care approach, saying they are doing record home care packages. He defended the fact that some elderly people will pay more. I guess it was bipartisan, this new structure. He said this is just the beginning of reform. What do you make of all that?

ANNE RUSTON: Well, I'd be really interested to know what he means by the beginning of reform, because certainly we thought that the most important thing that the Government should be doing is actually explaining to Australians what the existing reform package was about, before we actually start talking about more reform. And the other thing too that is, quite frankly, a blight on the Government is that they have 120 plus thousand people assessed as needing home care who haven't received packages and then another 120,000 who are waiting to even be assessed for packages. So, I think the Minister probably should address the current issues before he starts talking about future reform.

ANDREW CLENNELL: And he told me not to conflate those two numbers, what do you make of that?

ANNE RUSTON: Well, they are quite clearly two separate groups of people, both of which have been identified by their health professional or by the Government's various assessors as needing home care. So, they're quite separate numbers and you can quite honestly add them together and say that nearly 240,000 Australians as we sit here today, Andrew, either have been assessed as needing care and not getting it or are waiting to be assessed as needing care because their doctors say they need to be assessed.

ANDREW CLENNELL: What do you think the Government could do then to clear this backlog, improve the system, and does it require more taxpayer funding?

ANNE RUSTON: Well, the first thing the Government shouldn't have done was withhold aged care packages for a period of time. They promised Australians 83,000 packages in March in the lead up to the election. They then actively withheld those packages. We did not see one new package released for the first three months of this financial year. I mean, the Government quite clearly needs to explain to Australians why they're withholding care, when they've been assessed as needing it, and why they are breaking a promise that they said they'd release these packages on the 1st of July and they didn't release the packages until we forced them, by a motion of the Senate, to actually release them.

ANDREW CLENNELL: And the new bulk billing system, the new money came in on Saturday, what will be the end result of that? Do you think we'll all get free doctors visits now?

ANNE RUSTON: Well, I think most Australians know that Anthony Albanese, when he was running around telling Australians that going to a doctor was going to be free and all they'd need was their Medicare card - Australians know that that is absolutely not true. But most distressingly - [interrupted].

ANDREW CLENNELL: Well, they voted for him.

ANNE RUSTON: Well, indeed, and I think that they will see over the coming months and years that what Anthony Albanese told them was plainly not true. We saw a couple of weeks ago in estimates that the Department said that they thought that the reforms would not likely to reap results for up to four years, which is after the next election, and they belled the cat and said that despite Australians right now paying the highest ever out-of-pocket costs, they're expecting those out-of-pocket costs to rise. We saw that they have come out and said that probably only 13% of GP clinics will pick up the offer in relation to bulk billing. There was a lot of promises made at the last election and I've got to say, as we sit here today, most of them look like they will not be delivered. It looks like we've got a whole heap more broken promises coming our way.

ANDREW CLENNELL: Anne Ruston, thanks so much for your time.

ANNE RUSTON: Thanks, Andrew.

ENDS