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The Daily Aus

Are the Liberals still Australia's conservatives?

11 May 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What significant event prompted the discussion about the Liberal Party?

0.031 - 4.724 Zahra

Today's episode was made possible by our friends over at Nowscrewed. Ready?

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5.125 - 8.434 Billie Fitzsimons

And good morning! This is the Daily Oz. This is the Daily Oz.

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8.835 - 9.958 Angus Taylor

This is the Daily Oz.

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10.74 - 12.084 Billie Fitzsimons

Oh, now it makes sense.

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14.21 - 14.31

MUSIC

19.808 - 40.669 Emma Gillespie

Good morning and welcome to The Daily Oz. It's Tuesday the 12th of May, Budget Day. Happy Budget Day. I'm Emma Gillespie. Happy Budget Day. Big day for all of those in Canberra. I'm Billie Fitzsimons. Change or die. Those were some of the first words of the newly installed Liberal Party leader, Angus Taylor, in February this year.

40.909 - 53.072 Angus Taylor

If an election was held today, our party may not exist. by the end of it. But the choice is simple for the Liberal Party. Change or die. And I choose change.

53.204 - 77.372 Emma Gillespie

But three months later, the Liberal opposition has suffered an historic loss at the Farah by-election, losing control of a seat in southern New South Wales that it had held for nearly 80 years. The significance of that loss is overshadowed only by the significance of One Nation's victory, whose candidate, David Farley, becomes the first One Nation MP elected to the federal parliament lower house.

77.352 - 92.965 Emma Gillespie

The result has left voters and politicians wondering, are the Liberals still Australia's leading conservative party? Well, it's a question we are going to unpack in today's Deep Dive. But first, you're going to hear a quick word from TDA co-founder Zahra.

Chapter 2: How did the by-election results impact the perception of the Liberal Party?

700.822 - 720.807 Emma Gillespie

It describes its policies as protecting free speech. Pauline Hanson herself has been at the centre of countless controversies. She's a very divisive figure. But I would say that, you know, One Nation has traditionally been seen as a further right or quite a conservative party in the spectrum of Australian politics.

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721.187 - 739.75 Billie Fitzsimons

One thing that I want to say about the rise of One Nation is every time that the Daily Aus has covered this rise, I guess, in the last six months, some people in the audience have criticised us saying the media is making this such a bigger deal than it actually is and saying they don't have this support. It's the polls being inaccurate.

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739.73 - 759.527 Billie Fitzsimons

But I think, again, I know I've already said that now there is enough evidence to suggest that there is this rise, but I do really think that it is important that the media does report on the fact that there is this quite significant swing just in the last six months towards One Nation. Why do you think that is?

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759.507 - 770.512 Emma Gillespie

Well, you're absolutely right. It's not just a hunch. It's not just a feeling in the polls. We have the evidence at the state level and now at a federal level. We're talking about One Nation's first MP in the lower house in Canberra.

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770.833 - 784.839 Billie Fitzsimons

And just quickly on that, Barnaby Joyce is a One Nation MP in the lower house, but he defected. So he was elected. Yes. as a Nationals MP in the lower house. And then a year into him being elected, he changed to One Nation.

784.879 - 802.002 Emma Gillespie

Yes, sorry, good point. So this is their first elected representative in the lower house, but their second, which is significant of itself. But to your question of why, Billie, you know, we've seen this continued fallout with the Liberal Party from its difficult position after the 2025 election.

802.032 - 818.708 Emma Gillespie

the chain of events that that triggered, including the coalition breakups, the leadership spill, Taylor's appointment. But there are these real questions about the coalition's strategy that have yet to be answered. And I think that to give you a bit of a sense of those questions,

818.688 - 839.886 Emma Gillespie

The Liberal Party directed preferences to One Nation in FARA above the Independent, and it's received a lot of criticism over that decision. Angus Taylor told the ABC last month that this was basically about picking, in his words, the least worst option. He said,

839.866 - 847.858 Emma Gillespie

implying or explicitly actually stating at the time that teal policies are green policies and that that is further and further away from the Coalition's agenda.

Chapter 3: What factors contributed to the historic loss of the Farrer seat?

988.907 - 996.619 Billie Fitzsimons

I thought it was this wild conspiracy theory. And then the more that I think about space, the more I think there's no way that we could be the only people in the entire universe.

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996.639 - 1011.722 Emma Gillespie

Well, yeah, that's why it depends on your definition of aliens. Like, do I think that there are creepy little X-Files dudes out there on other planets like plotting against us? Not really. But I believe there's life form on other parts of the universe and life form elsewhere is alien.

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1011.742 - 1032.463 Billie Fitzsimons

Yeah. Did you see that over the weekend the US government released previously sealed files of UFO sightings that go back decades? Wow, I didn't know about this. Let me show you. Okay, so I know this is an audio platform, but if you are watching us on Apple or on YouTube, you'll be able to see my screen. Let me take you through...

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1032.443 - 1048.984 Emma Gillespie

The different things. Look. Okay, let me describe what I'm seeing. I'm seeing black and white, blurry images. Each of them seems to have some unexplained like little random object. Oh, that's Photoshopped. One of them looks like a blip has been Photoshopped. That's AI. Come on.

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1048.964 - 1058.461 Billie Fitzsimons

It is. That one's a sketch. But there's also this one where it's literally just a helicopter. And I'm like, guys, come on. That's not a UFO.

1058.501 - 1060.625 Emma Gillespie

The bar is low for this file. Yes.

1061.286 - 1086.826 Billie Fitzsimons

But it is quite interesting. And I feel like US President Donald Trump has been speaking a lot more about UFO and aliens. And the other interesting thing is that this falls under their war department. So one of the focuses of the war department is the sightings of UFOs and aliens in case we need to go to war with aliens. Star Wars IRL. Yeah. All right. That is all we have time for today.

1087.027 - 1103.676 Billie Fitzsimons

Em, thank you for taking us through that deep dive. Thanks, Billie. And thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Daily Oz. We'll be back later today with the evening headlines. And then tomorrow morning, we'll have the full breakdown of the budget. We are expecting a lot of announcements. We're expecting an announcement about capitalism.

1103.656 - 1111.449 Billie Fitzsimons

gains, about negative gearing, about housing, about trust funds. It will be a huge budget. Em, you have to skedaddle out of here because you're going to Canberra now.

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