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  Interview: Warren Truss April 13, 2008  Watch our reportSunday political editor Laurie Oakes this week is talking to leader of the Nationals, Warren Truss. LO: Mr Truss welcome to the program. WT. Good morning. LO: Let’s talk about your coalition partners first.. Should the Liberals stick with a leader who says accurately, ‘I’m going nowhere’? WT: Well I think that the Liberals should give Brendon Nelson a fair go, he has a very difficult task. No one can expect that the opposition, the Liberal party, the National Party’s popularity will return to its government levels overnight, the public are very forgiving and want their new prime minister to succeed, so I think they should give Brendon a chance to do the job, he is working hard at it, he is doing it the right way by talking to people, street by street, town by town, and in the end that will deliver results. LO: But the national listening tour has hardly been a triumph has it? WT; Well these things don’t happen and change overnight. You’ve go to do the hard work in politics. You can’t expect that one speech or one article or one policy is going to make the difference. You need to make the contact with the people, talk day to day, listen and as a result build support. LO; What do you say to those who argue that Malcolm Turnbull would be a stronger leader, more capable of delivering a cut through message? WT; Well Malcolm Turnbull obviously has skills and he is contributing significantly to the team but what I do think is important is that we concentrate on rebuilding our organizations and our policy, that we put in place at a platform that is going to be appealing to the Australian people by the time the next election comes around. It doesn’t all have to be done this week or next week, we need to use this year ahead of us to rebuild so that we are a strong fighting force when the next election cycle starts. LO: Did you think Kevin Rudd did the right thing in publicly criticising China over human rights abuses in Tibet when he was in Beijing? WT: Well, there are certainly some significant issues in Tibet and those can't be ignored. If we either have a mature relationship with China and I think that's the kind of relationship that's been developing over the last 10 years or so, we do have to face the difficulties in the relationship, as well as the strengths, and I think it was appropriate for those problems to be raised. We need to … LO: Acknowledge? WT: Yes, publicly. We need to acknowledge, on the other hand, that many of the things that China has done to build education, hospitals, infrastructure and so forth in Tibet have improved the lot of the people who live in that region, but you can't turn a blind eye to human rights abuses where they occur. LO: You see, the reason I ask you that question is that Brendan Nelson criticised him for making the comments publicly. Brendan Nelson said, "I don't know whether it's wise to have broadcast it as publicly as he seems to be doing." Now, that's pathetic, isn't it? WT: Well I think we do need to have a mature relationship with our partners. China has become one of our most important trading partners, they buy a lot from us. Our trading relationship is important. We do need to conclude a free trade agreement with China. I was concerned about some elements of Mr Rudd's comments about the free trade negotiations. It's true that those negotiations have been slow, but on the other hand, one of the first things that the Labor government has done is to cut the Australian budget for continuing those negotiations. If we want to do a deal with China, there is a lot of hard work to be done. If we want to have a good deal, one that delivers benefits for both sides, and for that reason, talk something going to have to be tough. We're going to have to find a way through the difficult issues because the potential benefits are enormous. There are still problems to be resolved and Australia needs to devote the necessary resources and don't just blame the Chinese if that progress is slow. LO: But what do you think of an alternative Prime Minister who thinks Australia should be so timid that its Prime Minister should not criticise the Chinese publicly over something like this? WT: Well I don't think Brendan has been timid in his policy approach to policy issues around the country. He is addressing the hard issues, he is seeking to find answers to them, he is going back to the Australian people on a one-to-one basis to try and develop an appropriate response to issues when they come. Now he is also naturally going to have views on a range of foreign policy issues but I think rightly at this stage of the election cycle, he is concentrating on the people of Australia, the people who are worried about petrol prices, going up, who are worried about grocery prices going up, they are worried about the affordability crisis. These are things that the Rudd government promised to fix. He hasn’t done anything, and it is appropriate that Brendan Nelson and the coalition should in fact concentrate on those really important people issues for Australians. LO: Are you sure Dr Nelson will lead the Coalition at the next election? WT: Well, the choice of leader is obviously a matter for the Liberal Party. I'm working very well with Brendan. I've got a great deal of confidence in him. I think he has enormous ability, compassion and affinity for the Australian people that he will win hearts and minds and that he can do the job very well. LO: Could the Nationals work with Mr Turnbull? WT: Well, obviously we would try to work with whoever the Liberal Party chooses as a leader. We've been able to do that successfully in the past and I'm confident we could do that also in the future. LO: Right. Well, let's talk about your own party. What's the future for the Nationals? Do you have one? WT: Well, people have been predicting the demise of the National Party since the 1920s, but the party survives its critics. And as long as we are effective and bold and forthright in representing our people, we'll have a strong and positive future and it's my objective as leader that we play that strong and positive role. LO: But you've clearly been on the slide for a while now, and you are down to 10 seats in the House of Representatives, 9 if you loose the Gippsland by-election. It doesn't look like much. It looks like an inevitable destruction, doesn't it? WT: Well, the last federal election was not a good one for the National Party or the Liberal Party, but we have won extra seats in all of the recent State elections, so we've got some good results on the board as well. We have a task of rebuilding as well. We do work consulting with our constituency to make sure we have the best organisation and policies in place so that we can effectively represent those people who trust us. We have a review in place, it's making good progress, and as a part of that exercise, we will be wanting to make sure that the National Party is relevant and capable of delivering to the people who have confidence in us. LO: Well, the Victorian Nationals today are preselecting your candidate for the Gippsland by-election. It looks like being Darren Chester. Do you think he can win the seat? How do you rate your chances of holding Gippsland? WT: Well it will be a hard seat to win, but we think we do have a good chance of winning. It will be important for the people of Gippsland to choose someone who can be an effective representative for them in Canberra. You don't want just another member of the Rudd cheer squad. He has got plenty of power already. In a country now where Labor is in government in every State and at the national level, it's important that there are checks and balances in place, people who will stand up for the voters of Gippsland, the people whose jobs and livelihoods are at risk. So we will be wanting to choose a candidate and I'm sure Darren Chester would be such a person who has a strong local affinity with the Gippsland region and will be an effective voice for them in Canberra. LO: Have you tried to talk the Liberals out of running in Gippsland? They are obviously a major threat to you as well as Labor aren’t they? WT: Well the Liberals will make their own decision about whether or not they wish to run. We will be concentrating on our campaign to make sure that we have the best candidate, the best possible campaign that ensures that the people of Gippsland are effectively represented in the Parliament in the future. What we want is a candidate who is a part of the new generation of Coalition members who will take us to government at the next federal election. LO: Now, Senator Bill Heffernan approached an independent Craig Ingram to run in Gippsland as a joint Coalition candidate. He says that there should be a merger, it’s a no-brainer. Is a merger inevitable? WT: Well, the National Party is conducting a review of its future structures and a merger is one of the items that's on the agenda. We're also looking at whether we should be more aggressively in standing alone or whether there are better ways to do the kind of relationships we've had with our Coalition partners into the future. In Queensland, there is substantial support for a merger and obviously there has been more progress made in Queensland than in other states. I doubt that there will ever be a time when all states would be ready to move at the present time. Move forward towards a merger. There is, as I said, a ballot being conducted now in Queensland as to whether or not there ought to be a single non-Labor Party in Queensland, but I suspect that other states are not nearly that far advanced. LO: Well, you mentioned the Queensland move. What they are proposing is a brand new conservative party and it's pretty obvious that most Liberals are not going to be part of that. Won't that just cause further divisions and damage the coalition federally? WT: Well what you have to have is effectively a new party but also a merger. You have to bring the two major Conservative parties in Australia, the Liberals and Nationals together, rather than create a third party and therefore greater division. So, in my view, you need to have both a new party and a merger if it's going to work. Now, clearly there are particular problems in Queensland. The Coalition has been out of office and not looking like getting back into office for quite some period of time. And there are many people, therefore, that are prepared to look at radical change. But that's a matter for the organization. In Queensland that's being pursued in discussions between the parties. As I mentioned, there will be a vote of National Party members over the weeks ahead and there will also be some votes occurring within the Liberal Party. But .. LO: You oppose … WT: Our organisations need to work through these details and deliver to their membership something that's practical and more importantly, deliver to the voters in the streets an alternative to the current State Labor governments. LO: Will you be a member of a pineapple party that doesn't include a lot of Liberals? WT: Well I don't think the creation of a new party is a constructive step forward. And whilst I'm open-minded particularly in states like Queensland, about putting together a new organisation that embraces both the Liberals and the National Party, I don't support the establishment of new and additional political parties. LO: It would be farcical, wouldn't it, if this went ahead? You would be in a situation, leader of the National Party in Canberra, but a member of the pineapple party in Queensland. You are Deputy Leader as a member of the country liberal party in the Northern Territory. It would look like a joke. WT: Well, I'm not planning to be a member of a pineapple party. What I want to be is a part of an effective political force that can win government. What's most important about this whole exercise is not what sort of branch structure you might have, who is in which particular chair, but how we can best deliver for the people who trust us. And how can we best deliver an alternative government. And it's quite clear that in Queensland we haven't been providing a very substantial alternative to the Labor government, and there have been problems in many of the other states as well. So we need to have an effective organisation that the people can have confidence in as creating an alternative government. See, to win an election, you not only have to have a public that's willing to vote against the incumbents, but you have to have a credible alternative and we have to be honest and say we haven't been a credible alternative in many of our state elections over recent times. We have got to fix that, and we have got to fix it promptly and fix it in a way that the public can be absolutely convinced that if they elect a non-Labor government, it will be about to do the job and do it well. LO: But if you get a pineapple party, it will be a joke for Canberra, a damaging exercise won’t it? WT: Well I think that we have got to work through the exercises and make sure that the organisational structures that are put in place are appropriate for their needs, that they have not divisive, but they are in fact building a strong non-Labor force around the nation. LO: Mr Truss, we thank you. WT: You're very welcome. |
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