Have Your Say

TRANSCRIPT: SKY NEWS INTERVIEW WITH HOLLY STEARNS

2 February 2026

Subjects: Coalition reconciliation

E&OE 

 

Holly STEARNS

Joining me live now is Nationals MP and former Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack. Lovely to have your company on Sky News this morning. The saga continues. Are you supporting David Littleproud?

 

Michael McCORMACK

Yes, for him. But whilst we’re talking about this and whilst people out there watching this think we’re just talking about ourselves, they’re actually paying 40% more for their power bills. They’re paying 22% more for their rent. The National Disability Insurance Scheme is a mess. You can’t get a bulk billing doctor out in regional Australia and the roads are crumbling in our country areas. They’re the issues that I think we should be talking about as MPs, listening to electorates coming back here and acting upon those things. And instead we’re talking about leadership, speculation, ambition and rolling one another. I mean, we really need to get back to core business. And core business is the people out there, the people who are listening and watching this telecast, Holly.

 

Holly STEARNS

Well, we should be talking about all of the issues that you just outlined there, but we’re not. And that’s no one else’s fault except for the Nationals themselves and The Coalition. So say David Littleproud stays. If David Littleproud stays as leader of the Nationals, what then? It’s still a mess.

 

Michael McCORMACK

Well, I think what we then need is diplomacy and discipline. And sometimes in politics you have to just eat a little bit of humble pie. And I think that probably needs to go on from both sides. Both sides weren’t entirely blameless, but the blame should have been sheeted home to Labor, who rushed nice and challenging legislation by way of hate speech and the gun reform through the Parliament in double quick time, not giving people the opportunity to debate these important reforms, not being able to give people the ability to speak up on behalf of their electorates on two pieces of legislation that were significant. We only had a matter of some hours to do just that for both bills. The debate was gagged that the Parliament had had the bills rushed through them and they should never have happened. And of course, then what unfolded was the unseemly mess of David and Sussan not being able to reach each other, shadow ministers putting in their resignations. And we all know what came as a result of that.

 

Holly STEARNS

Or the longer the split goes, the worse it gets. Arguably, neither party can survive without the other or let alone win. And the new polling doesn’t look good or help that fact today either. So what needs to happen here for the band to get back together?

 

Michael McCORMACK

Cool heads, cool heads, Holly. And, what I think needs to happen is, we need to…

 

Holly STEARNS

Or new leaders?

 

Michael McCORMACK

Well, no, I’m not going to go down that path. I mean, look, that will be up to the party room summit. I’d never tell the Liberal Party who their leaders should be. That’s entirely a matter for their MPs and senators. And what I would say, though, is Sussan Ley has not had the clear air that she deserves as a leader, as indeed the first female leader of an opposition party or of the Liberal Party, and the Liberal Party has been around since 1944. That’s entirely a matter for the Liberal Party. The National Party will have our meeting at 2:00 this afternoon, and we’ll see what transpires from there.

 

Holly STEARNS

And I think, you know, at the end of the day, Australians deserve a credible opposition. And people basically just want your party and the Liberals to get on with the job at the end of the day, because as you mentioned, people are really struggling at the moment. Inflation is up. We’re expecting a rate rise tomorrow. That’s where the focus should be on. So yeah, I really hope that we can see some unity moving forward now. So the story doesn’t have to be about this again next week.  Barnaby Joyce says that Pauline Hanson is the most authentic leader. Just get your response to that, Michael.

 

Michael McCORMACK

Well, Pauline’s been around politics in Canberra since 1996, since the mid 90s. I mean, what has she ever built? She’s very effective at getting publicity. She’s very effective at that clickbait publicity, with the wearing of the burqa the other day, which was just a stunt. She tried the same stunt seven years ago. I’m not quite sure what it achieves. One Nation is, but by and large, a protest movement and people, at the moment, they’re dissatisfied and so when the pollsters ring up, they’ll always tell a pollster, that they’re cranky and that yes, I’ll give One Nation a vote. But whether that transpires into a vote at the next general election, I doubt it. And it’s such a small cohort of people who actually ever get polled. It’s about 0.006% of the eligible voting public. So look, we’ll see what happens. We need to be a lot better as the National Party, as a Coalition. We need to reunite. And we do need to be a lot better at listening and making sure we act on people’s concerns. People out there, you’re right, there’s an interest rate decision tomorrow. People already paying $21,000 more on the average mortgage than they were when we were in government. This is unsustainable. And there are a lot of things out there which are, quite frankly, unsustainable for small business owners, for trucking companies, which are going to the wall in the construction industry, which is in freefall. And we’re talking about polling and ourselves. And it’s simply not good enough. We need to get back to basics.

 

Holly STEARNS

You certainly do. So the focus today will be very much on who your leader is at the end of the day. Michael McCormack, thank you, as always for your time on Sky News. We’ll see you soon.

ENDS

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