Leaders from around the world have congratulated Anthony Albanese on his decisive election win. While the prime minister is back in Canberra and preparing to choose his new frontbench, Liberal MPs are lining up to criticise their party's election campaign.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Well, Anthony Albanese was very jubilant today addressing media for the first time from the
00:08Prime Minister's courtyard since his resounding election win on Saturday night, and he provided
00:14some detail about his discussion this morning with the US President Donald Trump. It was
00:18the first time the two leaders have spoken since the US decided to impose universal tariffs
00:25of 10% on products for all countries. As we know, Australia was one of the individuals
00:32affected by that decision. And at the time, Mr Albanese described that action as not those
00:39of a friend. But for all intents and purposes, their discussion was very friendly. Today,
00:45Mr Albanese said that Mr Trump was very congratulatory and had very warm remarks to say to him,
00:52we don't have the full details of what exactly they spoke about. We don't know, for example,
00:58if there was any sort of trade or tariff exemptions secured. However, we do know that AUKUS was a
01:05discussion point and that Mr Albanese did agree to visit Washington DC at some point in the near
01:12future. He did, however, reveal that Mr Albanese, that is, that he will be making Jakarta his first
01:19item on his travel itinerary in the coming weeks and months. Here's a little bit about that
01:26discussion from earlier. I had a very warm and positive conversation with President Trump
01:32just a short while ago when I was at the lodge. And I thank him for his very warm message of
01:43congratulations. We talked about AUKUS and Tariff will continue to engage. We will engage with each
01:53other on a face-to-face basis at some time in the future. But it was a very warm, and I thank him
02:03for reaching out in such a positive way as well.
02:07And Olivia, it's about 48 hours now since that stunning loss for the Liberals. Where are they at
02:13now? Well, look, ultimately, they're still licking their wounds, really, and trying to figure out
02:19exactly what went wrong. As we know, they had an absolute walloping in the polls over the weekend.
02:25One of the key things they need to do is actually pick a new leader. And I have confirmed that Shadow
02:31Defence Minister Andrew Hastie has pulled out of that leadership race. So now it's a contest,
02:37really, between the Shadow Treasurer, Angus Taylor, the Shadow Immigration Minister, Dan
02:42Teehan, as well as the Deputy Opposition Leader, Susan Lee. And ultimately, those kinds of party
02:49processes can't take place until all the seats are finalised. So as we know, votes are still being
02:56counted. So it's not likely to happen until the end of the week, really. But ultimately, there's a lot
03:03of reflection taking place, a lot of soul searching. And time and time again, as I've been speaking with
03:09Liberal sources, both prior to the election, but also in the days afterwards, is this issue around
03:17the policy of formulation over the course of the election. And we did hear some pretty scathing
03:24remarks from, say, Holly Hughes today, Liberal Senator. She's taken direct aim at Angus Taylor,
03:29for example, as she says that he's failed to create a cohesive economic policy as Shadow Treasurer
03:36and actually has laid blame at his feet for the election loss, because as we know, the cost of
03:41living was such a key issue. We've also heard from Liberal MP Aaron Violi. He's one of the few MPs to
03:49actually see a swing towards him in his Melbourne seat. And he provided this sobering assessment on
03:55afternoon briefing a short time ago. The Australian people made the decision that they didn't believe
04:01we as a Liberal Party and the policies we put forward would help address the challenges that
04:06they faced. And that is a tough and bitter pill for us to accept. But that's what we need to do. So we
04:11need to move forward, holding the government to account, but also most importantly, offering those
04:16positive policies that will solve the tangible challenges that the Australian people face. And
04:21clearly, the electorate broadly didn't feel that we had the solutions to the challenges they face.
04:28We also heard from Donald Trump early this morning, and he made some complimentary remarks
04:34about Anthony Albanese. Ultimately, though, we'll remember that in the lead up to the election,
04:39Peter Dutton did say that he thought that he'd be better placed to deal with the White House. But
04:45the US president revealed this morning that he'd never heard of the opposition leader.
04:50And Olivier, you just mentioned before that Andrew Haysey that you've heard he's pulled out of the
04:54race. Have you heard any chatter as to why he has? Because he's a pretty strong performer, isn't he?
04:59Yeah, he's a really strong performer. And ultimately, you know, he's had a pretty good campaign. I mean,
05:06there were those issues, though, of course, he was called into question over some remarks that he'd
05:11made some time ago about his thoughts on women serving in sort of close to close combat during,
05:19I guess, in wars and in combat. But ultimately, it's my understanding that he sees the leadership
05:26sort of proposition as a long term thing. And I guess ultimately, at the moment, the Liberals are
05:31really in this period of reflection, and they're not likely to be able to form government for at least
05:36some time, there had been some hopes that they'd have this two term strategy. But as we saw on
05:41Saturday, you know, their seats are now in the 30s. And that's been sort of pushed into the the
05:46never ever. So my assumption is this isn't directly from him that he thinks that maybe it'd be better
05:52to do or I guess make a tilt for the leadership more into the future. Yeah, maybe that two term strategy
05:59has restarted now.