Jonno Duniam on the ‘frenzy’ over hate speech laws and the Coalition split

Last week, the Coalition fell apart for the second time since the last federal election – which was just eight months ago.

Both the Liberals and Nationals are in crisis. Sussan Ley’s leadership of the Opposition now appears to be terminal. And Nationals MP Colin Boyce today declared he would call for a spill of that party’s leadership next week.

Only weeks ago, it was the Albanese government with its back against the wall, after extensive criticism of its handling of the aftermath of the December 14 Bondi massacre.

But after Parliament returned early to pass restrictions on guns and take further measures against hate speech and organisations promoting hate, it ended up splitting the Liberals and their former Coalition partners, the Nationals.

Liberal Senator Jonathon (Jonno) Duniam, the shadow minister for home affairs, was one of the key players in last week’s events. He joins us today to discuss whether the Liberals will end up facing off against the Nationals at the next election, a surge in public support for One Nation and more.

On vocal concerns that new hate speech laws would limit freedom of speech, Duniam says the bill now has adequate safeguards – and blames “social media influencers” who had “whipped up a frenzy” of misinformation.

One thing that’s become apparent to me over the course of the last three weeks is that there are a huge number of social media influencers who seem more interested in boosting their algorithm and boosting their subscribers or viewer numbers than they are in facilitating passage of true information. And that is something that is very concerning to me.

When you’ve got people suggesting that political parties like One Nation might end up as a hate group, which is just patently false […] it’s just nuts. But yet there are people out there spreading this stuff through their 30-second videos, and of course it has whipped up this frenzy.

On the Coalition split, Duniam says he would like it to be re-formed, but at the moment it’s “impossible”.

I think it is probably a good thing for the Liberals and the Nationals to have time apart. I think that the Nationals have a range of issues they need to work through internally. Some of those were on display for all to see in the last sitting week, as they couldn’t agree amongst themselves on their position on legislation and various elements of those bills.

And let’s not forget, it’s the second time in 12 months that the Nationals have precipitated a separation of this nature […] When the Nationals are willing to be a part of such a coherent opposition then I think that it would be great to have them back. But at this point in time I don’t think they are.

Duniam said Boyce’s new push to spill the Nationals leadership “could indeed change things” – but “we don’t need to rush back into Coalition”, even if that meant Liberals and Nationals running against each other at the next election.

Indeed, that is a possibility. And I’m not going to predict anything here, but on the current course we’re on, that’s what’s going to happen.

On the rise of One Nation in recent polls, Duniam acknowledges there’s more the Liberals could do to win back voters.

I think there’s a job for us in centre-right parties to certainly call out [minor] parties that have been all care and no responsibility […] They can say whatever they like and vote however they do in Parliament, with no regard for some of the bigger problems that come along for parties of government.

We need to be clearer in our communication, we need to be clearer in making sure people understand what it is we stand for. And I take responsibility for this as well. I don’t think we’ve done a very good job with that – not just in the last nine or whatever months it’s been since the election, but the last term, too. That’s why we’re in opposition. That’s why we got smashed at the last election.

On bridging the ideological gulf between the Liberal Party’s moderates and conservatives, Duniam says that divide is not as great as people make out.

I think we have been able to do that quite a lot and it’s lost in the froth and bubble of everything that’s going on at the moment. I mean, let’s look at the last six months. Sussan Ley was able to settle a net zero position where the moderates, as they’re called, while they might have had concerns and issues with particular elements of what we were doing, they came along. They didn’t leave the party.

[…] I don’t think there is quite the gulf. What we do need to do is clearly tell people what we stand for, and why, and how much better off they will be as a result of that. I think we can happily work – conservative and moderate – in our party. Because at the end of the day we’re all Liberals and we all want the best for our country.

[…] And at this point in time, we’re spending a bit too much time talking about ourselves and not the people of Australia. So the sooner that settles down, the better.