Retiring Liberal senator Jonno Duniam on his party's challenges

Jonno Duniam (0:05)

You're listening to SBS News.

Anna Henderson (0:08)

Senator Duniam, thanks for joining SBS.

Jonno Duniam (0:10)

Thanks, Anna.

Anna Henderson (0:11)

In terms of your decision, are you now just leaving a sinking ship?

Jonno Duniam (0:16)

No, I don't believe so at all. I think, as I said in my final speech, there is a lot of work for my colleagues to do, for the team I'm a part of, and I'll always be a Liberal.

I will support them in whatever way I can. Yes, there's enormous challenges that my party faces, but the fact is, the hard work followed through with an effective communications plan and getting out and talking to people is where it's at.

We got marked down in 2022, at the end of our time in government, for being out of touch. In 2025, people didn't see we'd heard what they said at the last election, and so they marked us down even further, and for the first nine months of this term, of course people felt like we weren't listening. There were no signs of life. And so I do truly believe under Angus that the work is being done, that you're seeing that rolled out now. There are policies coming out that people can look at, understand, get a handle of, and a team that's committed to getting out and communicating it. Because as I said, of course, it's about identifying the problem, coming up with the solution, communicating what you do and how much better off people will be, and then hopefully people will vote for you. That's the whole point in politics. And so I believe that work is happening, it's having results. Yes, we've got to see a turnaround in the polls, but I believe that will happen under Angus' leadership with the work he's got going on.

Anna Henderson (1:40)

What is the switch that you think is being flipped here? Because when you look at Susan Lee's time in the leadership and then the polling now, it's actually gone backwards. So, what is the change that you think is going to resonate with the public here?

Jonno Duniam (1:55)

I think being deliberate and actually being relevant are the two things that people were looking for. Of course, if you look at the issues that dominated public debate, and One Nation themselves claim that, of course, the Road 2 and the events of Bondi meant that they were able to resonate with the community, because what they'd been saying about immigration and what impact that was having on the social fabric of Australia meant that they were the most relevant. Now, maybe that is true, but a range of things feed into this. Of course, they do have a core equity when it comes to immigration policy, despite the fact that they can't tell us what their policy is. And even this week we saw Barnaby Joyce admit that they haven't really properly finished working out their policy by not being able to tell us what their permanent migration number would be. In fact, they said they haven't decided yet, bizarrely.

But the thing is, once we deal with the issues that they love talking about and talk then about the issues Australians need us as a parliament to talk about, like tax, the economy, jobs, what we're doing to create an environment where people will invest and create jobs, then I think people will start to look beyond the One Nation rhetoric and start listening to us again. And so that's why we are talking about things like energy, like tax, like the impact of those changes this government have announced on small businesses and farmers. Those things, I believe, with, again, a good, strong communications plan means we will be able to speak to people and they will understand what we're saying, they will hear us, and if we get our message right, they'll take what we're saying and trust us and cast a vote in our direction.

Anna Henderson (3:37)

That's your argument.

It's about differentiation between the two areas of politics, between One Nation and the Liberal National Opposition. Why go to the CPAP conference? Why have members of the opposition talking about the need to understand you're a party of the right wing? Doesn't that alienate the middle ground?

Jonno Duniam (3:58)

Well, I think you have to talk to all audiences. You can't talk to one or other, exclude groups.

I mean, there are people who will vote or intend to vote One Nation who have formerly voted Liberal. I'd love them to come back. Again, in my final speech, I made it very clear that the way we win people back is by being deliberate and with conviction pursuing our values framework.