James Macpherson:
Well, conservative rivals, Andrew Hastie and Angus Taylor have held a face-to-face sit down in Melbourne with liberal power brokers as the right tries to settle on one challenger to Susan Lee. The meeting ended with neither man willing to back down, which raises the question, what was the point of that? Apart from to add to the perception of chaos. Say what you like about the National Party. At least they can organise a leadership spill. They’ve even put it in the diary. It’ll be held on Monday. Joining me now are National Senator Matt Canavan and IPA Chief Economist Adam Creighton. Welcome to you both. Adam, I’ll start with you. What do we read into Taylor and Hasty meeting? Is this the right trying to get its act together or is this the right still at war with itself?
Adam Creighton:
Well, look, I think it’s pretty clear that Susan Lee’s leadership is probably terminal. I don’t think that’s a controversial statement. It’s a question of how long it takes. And so it’s perfectly natural that there’d be other aspirants for that position. But the question for voters is what do the Liberal Party stand for? We don’t really know that. It’s been so many months since the federal election. They were meant to have a review on their policy standpoints. I know they have nominally dumped net-zero, but the Liberal Party rarely talks about that. They don’t seem to have a policy on immigration. So they really need a leader who’s going to have a new policy on those issues, a more decisive policy, a more decisive distinction with the government. I mean, the National Party, to their credit, they do have a distinction on immigration and on energy. We know where they stand. I, as someone who follows politics relatively closely, don’t know where the Liberal Party stands on those issues really. And so that’s the real issue that needs to be resolved.
James Macpherson:
Yeah, it’s a really good point. Let me go to you, Matt Canavan. No one believes Colin Voice can topple David Littleproud on Monday. I don’t even think Colin Voice believes he can do it. So what’s the point of the spill?
Matt Canavan:
Well, look, you’ll obviously need to ask Colin that, but he has publicly said he’d like to see liberal and nationals get back together and his view is that that would be easier under a new leader. Now, I don’t support this spill. I’m proud of the role the Nationals Party played to both improve the bill that did go through in the parliament and also oppose the more egregious restrictions on people’s speech. So I’m very proud of the fact that we stood by that. It did come at some cost to our party with the coalition finally ending at the end of the week. And of course, some shadow ministers losing their positions, their pay that go with those positions as well have taken pay cuts. So I’m very proud that we stood by our principles, even though it came at some personal cost. Now next week, going to next week, we don’t have a coalition right now, so my focus will be on pushing the policies that the Nationals Party are passionate about.
Adam’s done a good job at outlining some of those, but we’ve got to end net-zero to bring down power prices. We’ve got to bring some discipline back to government spending. There needs to be pressure on this government over yesterday’s inflation figures. Absolutely shocking. Probably an interest rate rise next week. And some people may have missed, but just before Christmas, the government put out a budget update and sort of been lost, but there needs to be exposure to the fact that we’ve had a record cost blow out in the budget. $55 billion increase in expenses in just six months. And there’s not enough explanation about why. Why have the government programmes blown out by so much and how much of that has contributed to this inflation and interest rate disaster hitting Australian families?
James Macpherson:
So Matt Canavan, you make a great point that there’s so much the Albanese government is doing wrong. And yet all of this is being forgotten because we’re all focused on the coalition. Adam, who’s the biggest loser here, the coalition or the country?
Adam Creighton:
Well, I think the country’s a huge loser. I mean, we have these shocking inflation figures, 3.8% from 3.4%. I mean, this is really lethal. People’s living standards are going backwards at a great rate. I don’t know about your wage, James, but mine’s not growing at 4% a year. And I’m sure that’s the case for the vast majority of people watching the show. We’re just ignoring all the serious problems. Spending growth at the government is completely out of control. We have the fastest growth since the Whitlam years. This is not my figures, this is Chris Richardson’s figures. We have the fastest growth in federal spending since the 1970s, and not enough people are talking about this. Of course, this has an impact on inflation. It’s completely obvious. We’ve got one of the highest inflation rates in the OECD, Australia, and we’re about to lift interest rates.
That’s going to hit hundreds of thousands of Australian households who have home loans. So not only are their prices going up, the interest rate’s going to go up on their loan. I mean, to me, it’s extraordinary the government is actually as popular or kind of unpopular as it is because we have a diabolical set of economic circumstances that we’re facing.
James Macpherson:
Indeed. Matt, Susan Lee reportedly wants a meeting with your leader, but he’s told her to wait while he sorts out his leadership issues. Was that a smart move? I would have thought if he breaks bread with Susan Lee, that would probably resolve his own leadership issues.
Matt Canavan:
Look, David’s made the principal decision not to take that meeting while there is a spill on his leadership. And I suppose taking the position that the party room has to decide that first before he were to take any particular positions with the leader. Look, I personally would have no problem, David, taking that meeting. As you’ve hinted at, I don’t think David is going to have any threat on Monday. And I’d like to see the coalition get back together. So I’m perfectly comfortable him having these discussions. There doesn’t seem to me to be a big reason about why we shouldn’t be in a coalition. In fact, the Nationalist Party have never had that position that we shouldn’t be. All we said was that we would vote with our principles, as I said, to defend the free speech of Australians. Now, because of that, the liberal leader decided to sack our ministers and that as a consequence led to the end of the coalition.
But in my view, I feel no ill will to liberal party members who came to a different position on a very complex bill. We just had a difference of opinion. It’s in the rearview mirror. We should get on with life and hold the government to account, but that is a decision that the liberal leader who sets, who appoints the shadow ministry would have to make.
James Macpherson:
Yeah. Fair enough. Fair enough. Well, we’ll all be waiting with bated breath to see what happens on Monday with the National Party. And then later in the week with the liberals, hopefully we can sort this thing out so we can get on withholding the Albanese government to account as God knows we need to. Matt Canavan and Adam Creighton, thanks so much to both of you.
This transcript of Adam Creighton speaking on Sharri – Sky News Australia from 29 January 2026 has been edited for clarity.
