Australians are ‘angry, broke, and have lost hope’: Nationals respond to new polling

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]Well, the One Nation March continues.

[00:00:02]They're coming for the coalition, but they're also coming for Labor. And a lot of this popularity seems to have surged postbudget. Joining me now is the shadow emergency services and tourism minister David Little Proud. David, uh, good to see you once again. What did you make of this latest polling?

[00:00:19]>> Oh, I think it demonstrates people are angry. They're broke and they've lost hope. They looked for an election where a budget where uh the government might have given them something to to see that this cost of living crisis was going somewhere, but it's not. It's staying around. It's being accelerated and then they lost hope of owning their own home uh by, you know, the way that this government is going after housing. If you tax something, you have less of it.

[00:00:43]And when you have less of it, prices go up uh and it puts it out of reach. And if you're a renter, are you going to pay more rent? uh this is really a government that's ideology isn't meeting the practical reality of the lived experience of Australians doing it tough and so Australians are lashing out. Now I think what that also shows is there's opportunity uh and while the government's taking a hit, we haven't seen any real benefit from it. But what it shows is the opportunity for us to cast our pathway forward uh with cogent policy about tackling bracket creep uh a generational reform uh that will not just help young people but help every working Australian help them uh actually keep more of what they earn. Uh and that's something that we need to be bold and courageous about and Angus Taylor's done that. And I think his his reply speech now is about us making sure that we've got those stakes in the sand that we can rally around uh on economics and on also on immigration. And we're not going to bring in 2 million people.

[00:01:38]We'll have a migration policy that works for Australia with the skills we need and where we need them to live, not just pour 2 million people into this country like Anthony Albanes has. So these are the types of opportunities that lay for us. Uh and I think that's where Angus has has set the groundwork in terms of his values and now it's about the detailed policy to support it.

[00:01:58]>> How much do you think this shift to one nation is temporary? Because whilst yes it is hurting Labor, it's really hurting uh the National Party and the Liberal Party as well. Is this a new permanent home for these voters or do you think it's just a you know a parking of the vote to express their displeasure if you like?

[00:02:20]I think it depends on what we do and this is the reality and the opportunity is that people are looking for hope.

[00:02:26]They're looking for a direction to to tackle the problems that they're facing that they've faced over the last four years. Their standard of living has dropped and so they want to see is the detail. And I think what you're what you're seeing at the moment is Australians lashing out because they've lost hope. They're going broke and they're looking for something. They don't know what it is at the moment and and in fact there's very little policy detail that would go to to address that uh from from one nation and we've only just put out our taxation policy around around bracket creep and explaining what bracket creep is to much of the Australian population does take time too but that's what I think Australians will look to at the moment they're angry as we get closer and further down the electoral cycle towards the election that's when they're going to be running the ruler over the policy ies that that actually will be able to shift uh their uh their own financial position. Uh and that's where they'll be judging and making that that judgment before they go into a ballot box. And that's why it's critical that we as a coalition continue to prosecute our taxation policy, our immigration policy, uh and make sure that we're out there with our energy policy showing that unless you fix energy, energy is the economy. Uh if you don't fix those three, then effectively we're going to be in a hiatus for some time to come.

[00:03:42]Tony Abbott is the new party president for the Liberal Party. Do you think a he's the right decision and and b you spoken about ending, you know, support for Labour's net zero? Does this mean pulling out of Paris and, you know, removing any kind of unambiguous support for, you know, net zero there?

[00:04:04]>> Yeah. Well, we've already got that. the National Party got that guarantee uh from the coalition uh back in back in early this year. So the reality was our policy has changed and we we don't support net zero uh that we do support all energy sources. We we want to do the right thing by the environment. That's about practical measures, not about an ideology that uh is is got us out of step with the rest of the world. I mean, they're asking us to reduce emissions by 4.7% a year and the rest of OECD countries are doing a bit over 1% when we are only about 1% of total emissions.

[00:04:38]So, why would we race ahead and cost you in your energy your energy bills a lot more than what they meant to be, that $275 reduction on your 22 price? You haven't got that because the physics and economics don't marry up. So, I think what Tony Abbott does is give a starch uh to to Angus Taylor uh and that cover and support, that structural support within the Liberal Party. Uh and I think this is a good thing to have that for Angus to be able to to have a party president that'll be there shoulder-to-shoulder with him. Uh and align with much of the values that the National Party has fought for and secured over the last 12 months. I think it's important because energy is the economy and and it's not about uh just trying to to make it all about whether you're left or right, but it's about the lived experience your energy bill and about the fact you've also had to pump out nearly 10 billion dollars worth of subsidies to keep Waller open to keep uh Port Perryi uh Gladston and and Mount Isaac.

[00:05:36]>> What about Snowy Hydro?

[00:05:39]>> We still holding on to that?

[00:05:40]>> I mean, well, look, I'm not a huge fan of snowy hydro. I never have and I think there needed to be a critical decision about whether that continued on. Uh when you look at the cost blowouts that you're talking out there um this this has turned into a significant white elephant that's going to cost us a lot.

[00:06:00]>> We would have built more than that. Uh in fact uh with what it's going to cost at the end you probably would have built three or four. Um so that's the reality that that we are facing uh from what what uh this ideology of trying to to go all renewables. It simply doesn't work and it costs a lot more than saying that it's just free energy. It's not. You got to plug it in. You got to have all that infrastructure uh to be able well uh to to distribute and generate that energy.

[00:06:27]And and that's what the lived experience is your energy bill, but also those subsidies that are trying to keep heavy industry going. And you're not going to have artificial intelligence in this country without base load power. Uh we won't we'll be left behind. We'll be a we'll be a tech lagard uh because we can't attract AI to this country and the data centers that are required because we don't have the energy grid to support it. That's the stark reality that we're facing into. That's what we're going to lean into. That's what uh we've done with our energy policy, our cheaper, better, fairer policy that we put out uh months ago as well as immigration and now taxation. Uh you've got to have the courage to tackle those and that's what we'll start to prosecute now. And I think over time you'll see when Australians run the ruler over the policies that are out there uh that ours are ones that can shift the dial and restore their standard of living and protect their way of life. David, Prime Minister Paul Lean, it's not out of the question, is it?

[00:07:25]>> Well, that's the beauty of living in a great country like Australia. Our democracy always determines that. Uh, and that's uh always a matter for the Australian people. We we believe that as a coalition. Uh, we've had a strong record of being able to build this country uh to create the wealth uh through people's hard work and effort and that's what uh we'll be prosecuting up to the next election. But the reality is we want to see the end of Anthony Albanzy and and what he's done to this country. We can't afford uh let alone the next two years of his government but three years after that. Uh so we'll be prosecuting our our case. I believe Angus Taylor is a man of great conviction, of great intellect, and I think he'd make a great prime minister and he has my support 110% and I'll be going hard with him shoulder-to-shoulder with him right up to election day.

[00:08:14]>> David, thank you. Appreciate your time.