Subjects: 2016 election result.
E&OE…
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Welcome back to Parliament House in Canberra, as we continue to pick our way through what last night’s count means. To help, we’ll get analysis from Barrie Cassidy and Sabra Lane, and we’ll be joined by Scott Ryan from the Liberal Party, Labor’s Stephen Conroy and one of the big winners from last night, Nick Xenophon. First to Melbourne and Liberal Senator Scott Ryan. Senator Ryan, tell us how you get to majority government?
SCOTT RYAN:
Chris, the Government’s currently ahead in 73 seats. There are five seats that we are behind. Cowan, Herbert, Hindmarsh, and a couple of others. The margins are quite narrow, and If postal votes reflect anything like they were in 2013, that gives us a very strong chance of overcoming the lead in all of those seats.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Is that likely or wishful thinking?
SCOTT RYAN:
I think there’s a very good chance. Postal votes are bit more stable than voting on the day and the Coalition has historically performed very well in postal votes. If we look at the numbers from the last election that was more than enough to overcome the lead in all of those seats.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Is your high water mark 76 seats?
SCOTT RYAN:
No. I think it’s possible we could go up to 78 if we pulled back the lead in all those five seats.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Scott Ryan, what went so badly wrong?
SCOTT RYAN:
Chris, it’s the day after the election and there will be plenty of time to discuss that. The most critical factor has been the outrageous Medicare lie and scare campaign run by the Labor Party. And I understand today the Queensland Labor Party has admitted it was involved with the text message that has been so important in misleading some voters.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
If it hadn’t have been for the 2014 Budget, there would never have been a question in anyone’s mind that you might have intentions for Medicare that they didn’t like?
SCOTT RYAN:
The important thing here, Chris, is that the Labor Party ran a campaign based on something that was explicitly denied by the Government, that commentators accepted wasn’t going to happen, the people in the sector like the AMA accepted wasn’t going to happen. It was a lie directed at scaring people in order to create the impression something that was explicitly denied – the privatisation of Medicare – was going to happen in order to drive into the polling booth under complete misapprehension.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Why didn’t people believe the PM and the Coalition’s denials, is it because they thought there was some truth in them?
SCOTT RYAN:
There were tens of thousands of robo calls in the last few days. There were reports of some people receiving four or five in the last 24 and 48 hours. Asserting a complete fabrication, an utter untruth.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
You’re going to end up with a Senate that’s worse than the one you just left. How will this Government, if it manages to cobble together the Lower House, get anything through the Upper House?
SCOTT RYAN:
The Senate has a long way to go in the count. There will be a substantial crossbench, it will be a different crossbench. And obviously we will wait and see how that comes out over the next three to four weeks of the Senate count. At the moment, we’re focused on scrutineering what’s happening in the Lower House in the short term. But I’ve got confidence that the Senate will be more workable than the last one.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Was this double dissolution election a gamble that went terribly wrong with you?
SCOTT RYAN:
The issue with the double dissolution, the point the Prime Minister made, is due to the sheer intransigence of the Labor Party and the Greens refusing a mandate from the Coalition that not only had we taken to two election and was clearly in place, a long-standing policy. A double dissolution was the only opportunity with a joint sitting to actually get the ABCC legislation through the Parliament because it was so important to bring back some form of rule of law in our industrial and construction workplaces.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
We’ll leave it there. Thank you.
SCOTT RYAN:
Thanks, Chris.
(ENDS)