Liberals pledge to reverse net-zero, tax reforms in federal council address | ABC NEWS

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]Just months into their new jobs, the Liberal leadership team rallying the troops and not holding back.

[00:00:06]>> We're going to fight like hell and defeat this rotten Labor government.

[00:00:10]>> The Liberal Party conference this weekend is a moment for the party to try to regroup and rebuild. Old faces have returned as Labor's controversial budget provides a choice opening.

[00:00:22]>> Battle lines have been drawn with this budget. It's clear that the coalition and Labor stand for completely different things.

[00:00:30]>> Taking aim at state Labor governments, too, including Victoria's CFMEU corruption scandal.

[00:00:36]>> What is the point in paying tax when you know it's going to be stolen by criminals because the government is so effing useless.

[00:00:45]>> As the Liberals bleed votes to the left and the right, it's offered few counterattacks for over a year. But now a policy platform begins to take shape.

[00:00:56]Axe Labor's new housing taxes, scrap net zero to drill for oil and gas, end mass migration, and put Australians first.

[00:01:05]>> Labor has started a war on aspiration.

[00:01:09]A war on the very essence of being Australian. A war on the soul of our nation.

[00:01:14]We must fight and win this war.

[00:01:17]>> But the appointment of Tony Abbott as party president perhaps yearning for a bygone era.

[00:01:22]>> This is not a step forward for the Liberal Party becoming a party of a modern, future-looking young Australia.

[00:01:30]It's a party focused on the culture wars of the past and nobody says that more clearly than Tony Abbott.

[00:01:36]>> The Liberal Party has come out swinging with fighting words and rallying cries, but there's questions over whether the party is actually listening to its voters. Today's battle plan leans to the right, but it won't necessarily win the party back the seats it's lost if it fails to appeal to inner-city voters.

[00:01:54]Isabella Tolhurst, ABC News, Canberra.