Topics: Israeli President Herzog’s visit to Australia, Liberal leadership

SHARRI MARKSON: Joining us from Canberra - Liberal Senator Dave Sharma. Dave, good to see you. Look, I want to, we'll get to the Liberal leadership in, in a minute. But I want to start with President Isaac Herzog's visit. We've seen these violent clashes on the streets of Sydney tonight. This is despite some 3,000 police being deployed. When the president reads the news and sees, this sort of scenes, this is highly embarrassing, isn't it?

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DAVE SHARMA: I think it's incredibly poor taste. I think the protesters represent a small activist extremist fringe of Australia. The president has come here, President Herzog has come here to pay his respects to those who died in the Bondi Terrace massacre of December to comfort the families and to comfort the Jewish community. He's not coming with a message of ill will or ... to anyone, to any group of Australians. And the idea that someone who's coming with a good and noble intent in his heart like that should be greeted with these sorts of scenes, should be forced to have this huge security cordon put around him, I think is, it's to our shame as a nation.

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SHARRI MARKSON: Yeah. and he does have a message on anti-Semitism as well for the Albanese government, which I expect he'll deliver in a respectful, diplomatic fashion. But his message is there and it is strong as well. You just heard it a little while ago in his interview that he did with me.

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DAVE SHARMA: He did. He’s got a very strong message. I mean, he rightly makes the point that, anti-Semitism has been rising significantly in recent years, including in Australia and other western nations. That in many respects, the Bondi Terrorist attack took place in a climate of heightened antisemitism, that the government and the people and our institutions did not do enough to prevent and confront and deal with. And I hope that attitude is changing now and I think he, he's brought an important message to us and to our nation to hold us to account, to make sure that something like Bondi doesn't happen again. That no religious community or, or any community in Australia is made to feel as unsafe and unwelcome as the Jewish community has had to endure these past two and a half years.

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SHARRI MARKSON: Yeah, exactly. Well said. Now we saw, as we've been discussing, the Coalition primary vote has crashed to 18% in today's Newspoll. Is it now time for a new Liberal leader?

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DAVE SHARMA: Well, it's certainly time for a change in direction. I think... doesn't surprise me that the polls have been as bad as they have been given that the last three weeks we have been consumed to the detriment of the public, to the detriment of good government Australia with our own internal issues. We absolutely need to put those behind us. We need to focus on an alternative view for Australia, an alternative set of policies for Australia and holding the Albanese government to account. And I'm confident that if we can focus on that, which is the main game, not the diminishing spoils of opposition and not internecine disputes. If we can do that, then we can re-establish credibility. But I don't discount the fact that we have done ourselves, a serious amount of damage, these past three weeks.

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SHARRI MARKSON: There are discussions about a leadership challenge potentially as soon as, you know, the next few days with Angus Taylor as the main candidate. Do you think a change needs to happen?

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DAVE SHARMA: Well, look, I think we can focus on the leadership and that's a personnel change. But the more important question is it doesn't matter, who the leader is if we're not focused on the issues that matter to the Australian public. If you're not doing your job as an opposition in holding the government to account and developing alternative policies. And to me, that's the bigger concern that I have. It's not who's notionally in charge, it's we all pulling in the same direction as a team. And we haven't been doing that and we've got to start doing that.

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SHARRI MARKSON: Dave, you, uh, lost your seat of Wentworth to a Teal. We've seen One Nation's primary vote rise significantly though. I mean, soar. 27% according to Newspoll. It's unprecedented for One Nation. So, how do you balance this? That there are some electorates leaning towards Teals, but then you've got this really strong vote for One Nation everything it stands for?

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DAVE SHARMA: Look, I think, to a degree in Australia we're seeing a fragmentation of the two-party system like we've seen happen in, in other countries. Not all other western democracies, but many other western democracies around the world. That's a reality, uh, we need to live with. But I think the, the challenge there is not to be lured by the siren song of the successful political movement of the day. Whether that's Labor, whether that's the Teals, whether that's One Nation. Uh, we need to be true to our own values as Liberals, uh, and our own beliefs and our own principles. And I think if we are, and we put forward policies and positions that reflect and articulate those views and values, then the voters will find us. But I think if we go around trying to, you know, chase the latest fad. One Nation's doing well so maybe we should copy them. Labor's doing well, maybe we should copy them. The Teals were the last big thing. I think that the answer to our dilemma is not to be a replica of any other political movement, it's to be truly ourselves. And I think if we I'm confident that if we are true to ourselves, we will re-establish a position of size and strength in the Australian political system.

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SHARRI MARKSON: That was a very impressive answer to a difficult question. Thanks so much for your time, Dave. Appreciate it.

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[ENDS]

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