Topics: Labor’s tax changes, AUKUS agreement, One Nation

TRUDY MCINTOSH: Let's get more reaction now from Liberal Senator Dave Sharma. Dave, great to see you. Strikes me Pauline Hanson is doing you guys a favour. She's going to use all of the $3 million she says to exclusively target Labor seats.

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DAVE SHARMA: So she says. I think, look, the level of success— it has been a very successful fundraising effort by all the accounts— think reflects the level of dissatisfaction with this government, not only over the way they're running the economy but over their broken promises and their increased taxes. so if that war chest is going to be used to highlight Labor's broken promises, highlight the damage they've been doing to the economy, that's an objective that we share as the Liberal Party.

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TRUDY MCINTOSH: But does the Liberal campaign effort need to pick up its game? Why was One Nation able to capitalize so well on the fire the liar idea and the Liberals can't?

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DAVE SHARMA: Look it's— got this into action very quickly, and I you know, at a professional level. respect them for that, and I think they did a good job. know, we as Liberals should be capitalizing on it too. I think we've made a good job of holding the government to account for this, for their broken promises, uh, and we've certainly seen— I've seen a level of energy and enthusiasm amongst our members and supporters that I have not seen in a few years now. I know we're not out there doing public fundraising efforts of this sort, but I think we're seeing a lot of people come back to politics because they know what an existential threat the government poses to them.

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TRUDY MCINTOSH: But Dave, are coming back to you? Are you seeing a groundswell of people returning to Liberal branch meetings, or is the beneficiary of this anger going to One Nation?

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DAVE SHARMA: Look, I am— obviously can't speak for everyone's experience and I don't know what it is, but I've certainly, I've been at number of Liberal events and small business events over the past week, and the people I've seen who, know, who are more motivated now than they have been in several years because the Labor government's posing a threat to their way of life, whether it's their business, it's the prospects of their children getting into a home, whether it's a you know, testamentary family tax structure they have, whether it's a negatively geared property. I've seen amongst our membership a level of enthusiasm and activity I haven't seen in a few years. And I've also noticed people coming back who've dropped out of circulation for the past 3 or 4 years. That's an encouraging sign. I also appreciate that One Nation's getting a wave of interest as well. But I think what's driving this is its hostility towards the Labor government's radical agenda.

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TRUDY MCINTOSH: Did your colleague Tony Pasi, a member of the shadow ministry under Angus Taylor, put his foot in it this week? Talk about dividing and conquering seats with One Nation. It seems to feed into the impression to me that the Coalition thinks it doesn't stand much of a chance if it's got to divide seats with One Nation.

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DAVE SHARMA: Look, I'm not going comment on what a colleague said. know Angus Taylor, the leader, has already responded to that. my view is it's very important that we focus on ourselves and in the sense that we need to get our own competitiveness up and focus on the problems and challenges facing the Australian people and show that we are ready to be a credible alternative government. I mean, I think all this talk about horse trading and preference flows and everything else, we will deal with that closer to an election time and it'll be done like it normally does, is done on a seat-by-seat basis at a party-to-party level. There's nothing unusual in that. That's how we always do it. But our big challenge is to convince Australians that the Labor government is bad and that we are a credible and viable alternative and get our primary vote up. And if we can do that, then we will be in a good position. I think that's what we should all be focused on. Not, you know, going through the various permutations and hypotheticals of something that is still at least a year and a half to 2 years away.

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TRUDY MCINTOSH: Dave, we're waiting for this inquiry into Labor's tax changes to start on Monday. There's only 2 days of hearings. Plenty of people are going to miss out and plenty of people are saying publicly that they should be speaking. Is there negotiations underway to try and extend this, or is this a fait accompli that they've only 2 days to scrutinize the detail?

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DAVE SHARMA: Well, I don't think the Labor government has shown themselves to have any willingness to conduct a genuine good faith inquiry. mean, the number of submissions received has overwhelmed the system. You know, they haven't all been published, not even close to it, simply it takes too long to deal with that. A number of people who've wanted to appear and the Labor government's not giving them that. The Labor Control Committee is not giving them the ability to do so. I think this is clear that this is just a rubber-stamping exercise. I we will certainly highlight some of the fatal flaws in this tax agenda on the 2 days of hearings that we've got. But I don't think Labor is interested in a genuine consultation exercise because they know that their policies don't stand up to scrutiny. So they're trying to minimize scrutiny. Now, I would like to see the hearings extended, but I don't think Labor is interested in that. It's only— it's a question of whether other, you know, minor parties and the crossbench are.

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TRUDY MCINTOSH: Have you heard any update on whether there could be a quid pro quo with the Greens? Extend this inquiry if you get inquiry too?

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DAVE SHARMA: Oh, look, sorry, that one's above my grade, Trudy. I'm not aware of it. know there's been speculation, I think—

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TRUDY MCINTOSH: Pretty big pay grade, on, Dave.

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DAVE SHARMA: I don't know how to tell you that. No, I think we would welcome it, but I don't have any update to offer there. I mean, think we believe it's in the public interest, it's in the national interest to have a decent inquiry into this, because, you know, even in the short number of weeks since the budget, there have been all manner of untold consequences emerge, whether it's giving to charities, whether it's giving to religious organizations that are potentially going to be hit, whether it's discretionary family trusts used to preserve an inheritance for children when they're under 18, whether it's the structure of family businesses, whether it's the rental market in Sydney. We’ve heard from so many people about the risks of this budget, and I think we need to properly consider them before we move further. Now, Labor is not interested in that, I don't think, because they know that their budget doesn't stand up to scrutiny. So they just want to all this thing through as quickly as they can.

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TRUDY MCINTOSH: Dave, a quick final one. saw overnight the UK defence secretary with this very abrupt resignation, concerned that Keir Starmer hasn't done enough to lift defence spending. But the question for us here at home is, does this signal trouble for the AUKUS submarine pact? Is it really right to have all of our eggs in this basket?

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DAVE SHARMA: Well, I'd make two points. One is the British defence secretary has done the honourable thing by resigning because he couldn't he didn't support the direction of government policy. In Australia, we have a not too dissimilar situation where this so-called increase in defence spending has been massaged and manipulated and moved in a way that undercuts the government's credibility to increase defence spending. But you don't see Richard Marles making the same points or noise. The second thing I'd say, though, is that, look, the UK is dependent on this new class of submarine, the AUKUS submarine, for their nuclear deterrent capability. Now, that doesn't mean it's 100% guaranteed, but it means their interest in, the AUKUS class of submarine is just as acute and possibly more acute than ours. So, you know, yes, the turmoil is unfortunate. Yes, there's a lot of debate in the UK about the level of defence spending, their nuclear deterrent is basically, you know, essential to their security posture and their defence needs in the UK. So, it depends on this new class of submarine. So that gives me a degree of confidence that notwithstanding the political turmoil, The project is on track.

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TRUDY MCINTOSH: Liberal Senator Dave Sharma, really appreciate you coming on. Thanks.

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DAVE SHARMA: Thanks so much.

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[ENDS]