TRANSCRIPT
INTERVIEW WITH SALLY SARA, ABC RADIO NATIONAL BREAKFAST
23 January 2026
Topics: Liberal Party and National Party, Bondi attack response
E&OE…………………………………
SALLY SARA: Well, let's hear from the Liberals now. Anne Ruston is a South Australian Senator and Shadow Minister for Health and Age Care and joins me now. Senator Ruston, welcome back to Breakfast.
ANNE RUSTON: Thanks, Sally.
SALLY SARA: Before we begin, let's have a listen to Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, who has been giving a couple of interviews this morning. She has been asked about the situation with the relationship between the National and Liberal parties. Let us have her listen.
[Recording plays]
SUSSAN LEY: The door between a coalition, between our two parties, from my point of view, is still open. But I'm not looking at that door. I'm looking at the Australian people, because they're counting on us to deliver for them.
[Recording ends]
SALLY SARA: What does that mean?
ANNE RUSTON: Well, obviously, we believe in the Coalition and we would like to see a coalition continue, but the circumstances around the actions of the National Party this week left the Leader with no option but to accept the resignations of three people who, by their own admission, broke the very fundamental rule of a coalition and that is Shadow Cabinet solidarity. So, I think the Leader is absolutely right. The most important thing that we can do, as of today, is to focus on the future, responding to the needs of the Australian public because that's what they elected us to do.
SALLY SARA: Was yesterday, a national day of mourning for the Bondi terror attack victims, was yesterday an appropriate day in your view for the National Party to be focused on internal politics?
ANNE RUSTON: Well, I certainly know that the Leader of the Opposition Sussan Ley made it very clear that she believed the focus yesterday needed to be on the National Day of Mourning, and I certainly agreed with that and made no comment in the media about anything yesterday because I believe that it was a very solemn day and a day that was incredibly important for the coming together of Australia after the worst terror attack. So, I absolutely support the Leader's decision not to make any public comment yesterday.
SALLY SARA: Was it disrespectful for the National Party to be airing internal grievances yesterday?
ANNE RUSTON: Well, that's obviously a matter for the National Party and their deliberations as to why they chose yesterday as a day to make public comment, and I'm not going to make any further comment than that.
SALLY SARA: Nationals leader David Littleproud has effectively said that his party won't reunite with the Liberal Party under Sussan Ley's leadership. Is it appropriate for him to be making these comments about the leadership of the Liberal Party?
ANNE RUSTON: No, it's not. I mean, the decision as to who is the leader of the Liberal Party is a matter for the Liberal Party. It's not the matter for the National Party or anybody else for that matter. And I believe absolutely that the Liberal Party has the right to make decisions about its leader and we will not be dictated to by anybody as to who our leader will be.
SALLY SARA: Is there though a similar view from the Liberal Party that if the Coalition is to reunite, it won't work with David Littleproud?
ANNE RUSTON: Well, obviously, this week has been an unfortunate week in terms of the breakdown between the Liberal Party and the National Party. But, as I said earlier, there was no option left on the table for the Liberal Party but to respond to the actions that were taken by the National Party in the way that we did. You know, hopefully some cool heads will prevail in the National Party over coming weeks and months, but the most important thing that we can do as the Liberal Party is to focus on doing the things that we're supposed to be doing and that is responding to the things that the Labor Party does wrong and holding them to account and building a policy platform to go through to the next election. And that's exactly what we'll be focusing on right from today.
SALLY SARA: Are you concerned that the actions of the National Party are having a damaging effect on the Liberal Party's electoral prospects?
ANNE RUSTON: Well, look, obviously the Liberal Party will continue going forward from here, putting forward the views that we've always put forward and the values that we have always stood by, the values of Menzies that stand the test of time even today. What the National Party does from here is a matter for the National Party and I'm not going to make any commentary about the National Party, but I am very, very focused on making sure that the Liberal Party provides the alternative government proposition that the Australian public so desperately needs.
SALLY SARA: Are you concerned that any members of your party could defect to One Nation?
ANNE RUSTON: Look, no. I haven't heard anything to the effect that any of our members are likely to defect to One Nation. Certainly all the people that I've spoken to are very focused on the things that I'm focused on and very supportive of the actions that have been taken by the Leader this week.
SALLY SARA: Yesterday, your Liberal colleague Jacinta Nampajimpa Price told Sky News she thought it was quite a huge mistake of the Opposition to put pressure on the Government to recall Parliament and pass legislation. Is she right?
ANNE RUSTON: I think we should have recalled the Parliament earlier than we did because – let me firstly be clear, the concerns that had been raised by many were not in this bill. The laws on freedom of speech had been removed from this bill under pressure from us and others. So, the Bill that passed the Parliament was not about free speech. I think we need to be very, very clear about that. But I think that we should have brought back the Parliament earlier because we should've been working on legislation in a bipartisan way. And what we got instead was the PM and the Labor Party trying to jam through legislation that nobody had even seen. So, what we got last week I think was very unfortunate. But if we'd come back earlier in a bipartisan way, showed our respect to the victims of the worst terror attack on Australian soil ever and actually sat down and worked together with the experts, did the proper consultation, that would have been the right thing for the Prime Minister to do. What we saw in the end was much more of a political response to Bondi than I think a genuine attempt to be bipartisan and bring Australia together.
SALLY SARA: Anne Ruston, I appreciate your time this morning.
ENDS
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