Rita Panahi:
Joining me now is Institute of Public Affairs, Deputy Executive Director Daniel Wild. Dan, we are also likely to have a fight for the deputy role. We’ve got the likes of Senator Jane Hume expected to challenge Ted O’Brien for the position. Tim Wilson, Zoe McKenzie, Dan Tehan, and Melissa McIntosh are also potential candidates. Does that fill you with confidence?
Daniel Wild:
Well, it’s a start. Obviously, some change is needed in a leadership capacity. I mean, you can’t go to an election on a 15 or a 16% primary. It’s going to be all over. It was only a matter of time before leadership was changed. But look, the thing is that no matter who the leader is, no matter who the deputy leader is, there needs to be more than just a change of the personalities. There needs to be a change of policy direction. It needs to be very sharp, it needs to be convincing, and it needs to be unrelenting on the issues that actually matter. For example, on immigration, on policies like Net Zero, on the direction of our country and our culture.
So look, we’ll wait and see as to whether the next leader of the party and the deputy leader understand that and are able to communicate and create a contest. They actually have to create a contest with the government. We all know that interest rates are up, we all know that cost of living is up and so forth, but what are you actually going to do about it? And how are you going to communicate to Australians that you offer a different alternative?
The other point I’ll make is that the challenge that the liberal party faces is that there’s a real lack of trust in it among the community. So they have a massive, if you want to use a marketing term, a brand equity issue. People don’t really listen to liberals at the moment because of the 10 years in government, most of which was wasted. So, I don’t know whether they understand that they’re in the Tory territory now. It’s not just like another normal cycle, it’s people actually don’t trust the brand anymore. So a change of leadership will help, but this is pretty structural at the moment.
Rita Panahi:
Can you see Angus Taylor repairing that trust with the liberal base and with voters in general? ‘Cause this is all about policies. If you don’t actually stand for anything consequential, then you can change leaders as much as you like. You’re not going to win back that support from disaffected voters.
Daniel Wild:
That’s right. It remains to be seen. So I keep an open mind about whoever the leader is. It looks like it’ll be Angus, so keep an open mind about it. But the first thing they have to do politically speaking is, they have to actually win back to One Nation voters. So they’re actually fighting a war on two fronts. So, there’s no point in taking the fight to the government unless you take the fight to One Nation first. But this is what they have to understand is that their current opponent is not Labour, their current opponent is One Nation. And they need to make sure they retain the status as the actual opposition party. So, that’s step number one.
And I don’t think it’s actually that difficult to do in terms of policies. It’s just a question of whether they want to do it or not. Now, this reveals something much more fundamental, which is half of the parliamentary party doesn’t want to do that because they’re ashamed of it. Half of the party is ashamed of working class Australians. They thumb their nose at cultural issues. They think it’s beneath them. A lot of them are quite snobbish about it. So whether they actually have the capacity to make that move and to… I’m not saying you just appeal to One Nation voters for the sake of it, but politically that’s the only way they survive.
And the broader point here is that, can this massive structural split within the party be repaired or is it sort of too fundamental? Can you have a party that exists when half of it want net zero, half of it don’t, half of it want mass migration, half of it don’t? So, that’s the task of the leader. And we’ll wait and see as to whether it can actually be fixed up.
Rita Panahi:
I think you just hit the nail on the head. You’ve got too many within that party that have utter disdain for working class Australians, people out in regional areas, people in the outer suburbs. They want to appeal to that teal electorate almost exclusively. And those people within the party are why they’re getting a primary vote of around 15% right now.
Dan, let’s switch to Victoria now, and the full extent of the alleged criminal activity within the CFMEU has been revealed in a report by Geoffrey Watson SC. Among those who have benefited from corrupt conduct, systematic corrupt conduct, are convicted and alleged killers employed as CFMEU health and safety officers. Yes, the report also alleged outlaw motorcycle gangs were embedded in the CFMEU, and were using government building sites as drug distribution centres. The mass rioting, Dan, is estimated to have cost Victorian taxpayers around $15 billion. Some are estimating the real figure is closer to 30 billion.
Daniel Wild:
Yeah, well, the big build is a big riot, and we’ve known that for a long time now. There is actually a smoking gun or several smoking guns. It was always somewhat hard to establish in sort of an objective way, the kind of behaviour that was going on that most people knew that was going on, but it was never actually established with any evidence-based. But now that is provided, I think this will be a turning point.
Labour in Victoria has sort of gotten away with it for a pretty long time. And the allegations of corruption have never really stuck fundamentally. But now that you’ve got an actual evidence base for it, I suspect this will be a turning point. It’s taken far too long. And if nothing else, as you mentioned, the cost to taxpayers, because a lot of these projects, while a lot of the projects are necessary, the road projects and the bridges and tunnels are probably necessary infrastructure projects. But the premium, the cost premium that’s put on them through doing work almost exclusively through CFMEU is unconscionable. So, I think this is going to probably damage Jacinta Allan. And it may actually be the end of her as a result.
Rita Panahi:
Dan Wild, thank you for your time tonight.
This transcript with Daniel Wild talking on The Rita Panahi Show Sky News Australia from 12 February 2026 has been edited for clarity.
