Some questions for Sussan Ley's first big media outing

On Wednesday, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley will front the National Press Club. So why is that a big deal?
For one thing, her predecessor Peter Dutton never appeared there as opposition leader. For another, it's a formidable forum for a new leader.
It could all go badly wrong, but she's right to make the early appearance. It sends a message she is not risk-averse.
Ley wants to establish a better relationship with the Canberra Press Gallery than Dutton had. He saw the gallery journalists as part of the despised "Canberra bubble" and bypassed them when he could. That didn't serve him well - not least because he wasn't toughened up for when he had to face daily news conferences (with many Canberra reporters) on the election trail.
Ley's office has set up a WhatsApp group for gallery journalists, alerting them to who's appearing in the media, and also dispatching short responses to things said by the government (such as links to ministers' former statements). This matches the WhatsApp group for the gallery run by the Prime Minister's Office. One of Ley's press secretaries, Liam Jones, has also regularly been doing the rounds in the media corridors of Parliament House, something that very rarely happened with Dutton's media staff.
To the extent anyone is paying attention, Ley has made a better start than many, including some Liberals, had expected. She came out of the tiff with the Nationals well, despite having to give ground on their policy demands. Her frontbench reshuffle had flaws but wasn't terrible. She's struck a reasonable, rather than shrill, tone in her comments on issues, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's failure thus far to get a meeting with US President Donald Trump.
Her next significant test will be how she handles at the Press Club questions she and her party are confronting. So here are a few for her.
One (the most fundamental): How is she going to thread the needle between the two sides of the Liberal Party? Howard's old "broad church" answer no longer holds. The church is fractured. In an era of identity politics, the Liberals have a massive identity crisis. The party's conservatives are hardline, have hold of the party's (narrow) base, and will undermine Ley if they can. Its moderates will struggle to shape its key policies in a way that will appeal to small-l liberal voters in urban seats.
Two: How and when will she deal with the future of the Coalition's commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050? She has put all policies on the table (but made exceptions for several Nationals' core policies). There is a strong case for her staking out her own position on net zero, and getting the policy settled sooner rather than later. With younger voters having eschewed the Liberals, Ley told The Daily Aus podcast this week, "I want young people to know first and foremost that I want to listen to them and meet them where they are". One place they are is in support of net zero by 2050. If the Liberals deserted that, they'd be making the challenge of attracting more youth votes a herculean one.
For the opposition, net zero is likely THE climate debate of this term - and such debates are at best difficult and at worst lethal for Liberal leaders.
Three: Won't it be near impossible for the Liberals to get a respectable proportion of women in its House of Representatives team without quotas? Over the years, Ley has been equivocal on the issue. She told The Daily Aus: "Each of our [Liberal state] divisions is responsible for its own world, if you like, when it comes to [candidate] selections". This is unlikely to cut it: she needs to have a view, and a strategy. Targets haven't worked.
Four: Ley says she wants to run a constructive opposition, so how constructive will it be in the tax debate Treasurer Jim Chalmers launched this week? Ley might have a chat with John Howard about the 1980s, when the Liberals had internal arguments about whether to support or oppose some of the Hawke government's reform measures. Obviously, no total buy-in should be expected but to oppose reforms for the sake of it would discredit a party trying to sell its economic credentials.
More generally, how constructive or obstructive will the opposition be in the Senate? This raises matters of principle, not just political opportunism. In the new Senate the government will have to negotiate on legislation with either the opposition or the Greens. If the opposition constantly forces Labor into the arms of the Greens, that could produce legislation that (from the Liberals' point of view) is worse than if the Liberals were Labor's partner. How does that sit with them philosophically?
MORE FROM GRATTAN:
Five: Finally, how active will Ley be in trying to drive improvements in the appalling Liberal state organisations, especially in NSW (her home state) and Victoria?
The Liberals' federal executive extended federal intervention in the NSW division this week, with a new oversight committee, headed by onetime premier Nick Greiner. But the announcement spurred immediate backbiting, with conservatives seeing it advantaging the moderates. Ley is well across the NSW factions: her numbers man is Alex Hawke - whom she elevated to the shadow cabinet - from Scott Morrison's old centre-right faction, and she has a staffer from that faction in a senior position in her office. The faction has also protected her preselection in the past.
In Victoria, the factional infighting has been beyond parody, with former leader John Pesutto scratching around for funds to avoid bankruptcy after losing a defamation case brought by colleague Moira Deeming. Some Liberals think the state party could even lose what should be the unlosable state election next year.
That's just the start of the questions for Ley. Meanwhile, the party this week has set up an inquiry into the election disaster, to be conducted by former federal minister Nick Minchin and former NSW minister Pru Goward. Identifying what went wrong won't be hard for them - mostly, it was blindingly obvious. Recommending solutions that the party can and will implement - that will be the difficult bit.
On Wednesday, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley will front the National Press Club. So why is that a big deal?
For one thing, her predecessor Peter Dutton never appeared there as opposition leader. For another, it's a formidable forum for a new leader.
It could all go badly wrong, but she's right to make the early appearance. It sends a message she is not risk-averse.
Ley wants to establish a better relationship with the Canberra Press Gallery than Dutton had. He saw the gallery journalists as part of the despised "Canberra bubble" and bypassed them when he could. That didn't serve him well - not least because he wasn't toughened up for when he had to face daily news conferences (with many Canberra reporters) on the election trail.
Ley's office has set up a WhatsApp group for gallery journalists, alerting them to who's appearing in the media, and also dispatching short responses to things said by the government (such as links to ministers' former statements). This matches the WhatsApp group for the gallery run by the Prime Minister's Office. One of Ley's press secretaries, Liam Jones, has also regularly been doing the rounds in the media corridors of Parliament House, something that very rarely happened with Dutton's media staff.
To the extent anyone is paying attention, Ley has made a better start than many, including some Liberals, had expected. She came out of the tiff with the Nationals well, despite having to give ground on their policy demands. Her frontbench reshuffle had flaws but wasn't terrible. She's struck a reasonable, rather than shrill, tone in her comments on issues, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's failure thus far to get a meeting with US President Donald Trump.
Her next significant test will be how she handles at the Press Club questions she and her party are confronting. So here are a few for her.
One (the most fundamental): How is she going to thread the needle between the two sides of the Liberal Party? Howard's old "broad church" answer no longer holds. The church is fractured. In an era of identity politics, the Liberals have a massive identity crisis. The party's conservatives are hardline, have hold of the party's (narrow) base, and will undermine Ley if they can. Its moderates will struggle to shape its key policies in a way that will appeal to small-l liberal voters in urban seats.
Two: How and when will she deal with the future of the Coalition's commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050? She has put all policies on the table (but made exceptions for several Nationals' core policies). There is a strong case for her staking out her own position on net zero, and getting the policy settled sooner rather than later. With younger voters having eschewed the Liberals, Ley told The Daily Aus podcast this week, "I want young people to know first and foremost that I want to listen to them and meet them where they are". One place they are is in support of net zero by 2050. If the Liberals deserted that, they'd be making the challenge of attracting more youth votes a herculean one.
For the opposition, net zero is likely THE climate debate of this term - and such debates are at best difficult and at worst lethal for Liberal leaders.
Three: Won't it be near impossible for the Liberals to get a respectable proportion of women in its House of Representatives team without quotas? Over the years, Ley has been equivocal on the issue. She told The Daily Aus: "Each of our [Liberal state] divisions is responsible for its own world, if you like, when it comes to [candidate] selections". This is unlikely to cut it: she needs to have a view, and a strategy. Targets haven't worked.
Four: Ley says she wants to run a constructive opposition, so how constructive will it be in the tax debate Treasurer Jim Chalmers launched this week? Ley might have a chat with John Howard about the 1980s, when the Liberals had internal arguments about whether to support or oppose some of the Hawke government's reform measures. Obviously, no total buy-in should be expected but to oppose reforms for the sake of it would discredit a party trying to sell its economic credentials.
More generally, how constructive or obstructive will the opposition be in the Senate? This raises matters of principle, not just political opportunism. In the new Senate the government will have to negotiate on legislation with either the opposition or the Greens. If the opposition constantly forces Labor into the arms of the Greens, that could produce legislation that (from the Liberals' point of view) is worse than if the Liberals were Labor's partner. How does that sit with them philosophically?
MORE FROM GRATTAN:
Five: Finally, how active will Ley be in trying to drive improvements in the appalling Liberal state organisations, especially in NSW (her home state) and Victoria?
The Liberals' federal executive extended federal intervention in the NSW division this week, with a new oversight committee, headed by onetime premier Nick Greiner. But the announcement spurred immediate backbiting, with conservatives seeing it advantaging the moderates. Ley is well across the NSW factions: her numbers man is Alex Hawke - whom she elevated to the shadow cabinet - from Scott Morrison's old centre-right faction, and she has a staffer from that faction in a senior position in her office. The faction has also protected her preselection in the past.
In Victoria, the factional infighting has been beyond parody, with former leader John Pesutto scratching around for funds to avoid bankruptcy after losing a defamation case brought by colleague Moira Deeming. Some Liberals think the state party could even lose what should be the unlosable state election next year.
That's just the start of the questions for Ley. Meanwhile, the party this week has set up an inquiry into the election disaster, to be conducted by former federal minister Nick Minchin and former NSW minister Pru Goward. Identifying what went wrong won't be hard for them - mostly, it was blindingly obvious. Recommending solutions that the party can and will implement - that will be the difficult bit.
On Wednesday, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley will front the National Press Club. So why is that a big deal?
For one thing, her predecessor Peter Dutton never appeared there as opposition leader. For another, it's a formidable forum for a new leader.
It could all go badly wrong, but she's right to make the early appearance. It sends a message she is not risk-averse.
Ley wants to establish a better relationship with the Canberra Press Gallery than Dutton had. He saw the gallery journalists as part of the despised "Canberra bubble" and bypassed them when he could. That didn't serve him well - not least because he wasn't toughened up for when he had to face daily news conferences (with many Canberra reporters) on the election trail.
Ley's office has set up a WhatsApp group for gallery journalists, alerting them to who's appearing in the media, and also dispatching short responses to things said by the government (such as links to ministers' former statements). This matches the WhatsApp group for the gallery run by the Prime Minister's Office. One of Ley's press secretaries, Liam Jones, has also regularly been doing the rounds in the media corridors of Parliament House, something that very rarely happened with Dutton's media staff.
To the extent anyone is paying attention, Ley has made a better start than many, including some Liberals, had expected. She came out of the tiff with the Nationals well, despite having to give ground on their policy demands. Her frontbench reshuffle had flaws but wasn't terrible. She's struck a reasonable, rather than shrill, tone in her comments on issues, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's failure thus far to get a meeting with US President Donald Trump.
Her next significant test will be how she handles at the Press Club questions she and her party are confronting. So here are a few for her.
One (the most fundamental): How is she going to thread the needle between the two sides of the Liberal Party? Howard's old "broad church" answer no longer holds. The church is fractured. In an era of identity politics, the Liberals have a massive identity crisis. The party's conservatives are hardline, have hold of the party's (narrow) base, and will undermine Ley if they can. Its moderates will struggle to shape its key policies in a way that will appeal to small-l liberal voters in urban seats.
Two: How and when will she deal with the future of the Coalition's commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050? She has put all policies on the table (but made exceptions for several Nationals' core policies). There is a strong case for her staking out her own position on net zero, and getting the policy settled sooner rather than later. With younger voters having eschewed the Liberals, Ley told The Daily Aus podcast this week, "I want young people to know first and foremost that I want to listen to them and meet them where they are". One place they are is in support of net zero by 2050. If the Liberals deserted that, they'd be making the challenge of attracting more youth votes a herculean one.
For the opposition, net zero is likely THE climate debate of this term - and such debates are at best difficult and at worst lethal for Liberal leaders.
Three: Won't it be near impossible for the Liberals to get a respectable proportion of women in its House of Representatives team without quotas? Over the years, Ley has been equivocal on the issue. She told The Daily Aus: "Each of our [Liberal state] divisions is responsible for its own world, if you like, when it comes to [candidate] selections". This is unlikely to cut it: she needs to have a view, and a strategy. Targets haven't worked.
Four: Ley says she wants to run a constructive opposition, so how constructive will it be in the tax debate Treasurer Jim Chalmers launched this week? Ley might have a chat with John Howard about the 1980s, when the Liberals had internal arguments about whether to support or oppose some of the Hawke government's reform measures. Obviously, no total buy-in should be expected but to oppose reforms for the sake of it would discredit a party trying to sell its economic credentials.
More generally, how constructive or obstructive will the opposition be in the Senate? This raises matters of principle, not just political opportunism. In the new Senate the government will have to negotiate on legislation with either the opposition or the Greens. If the opposition constantly forces Labor into the arms of the Greens, that could produce legislation that (from the Liberals' point of view) is worse than if the Liberals were Labor's partner. How does that sit with them philosophically?
MORE FROM GRATTAN:
Five: Finally, how active will Ley be in trying to drive improvements in the appalling Liberal state organisations, especially in NSW (her home state) and Victoria?
The Liberals' federal executive extended federal intervention in the NSW division this week, with a new oversight committee, headed by onetime premier Nick Greiner. But the announcement spurred immediate backbiting, with conservatives seeing it advantaging the moderates. Ley is well across the NSW factions: her numbers man is Alex Hawke - whom she elevated to the shadow cabinet - from Scott Morrison's old centre-right faction, and she has a staffer from that faction in a senior position in her office. The faction has also protected her preselection in the past.
In Victoria, the factional infighting has been beyond parody, with former leader John Pesutto scratching around for funds to avoid bankruptcy after losing a defamation case brought by colleague Moira Deeming. Some Liberals think the state party could even lose what should be the unlosable state election next year.
That's just the start of the questions for Ley. Meanwhile, the party this week has set up an inquiry into the election disaster, to be conducted by former federal minister Nick Minchin and former NSW minister Pru Goward. Identifying what went wrong won't be hard for them - mostly, it was blindingly obvious. Recommending solutions that the party can and will implement - that will be the difficult bit.
On Wednesday, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley will front the National Press Club. So why is that a big deal?
For one thing, her predecessor Peter Dutton never appeared there as opposition leader. For another, it's a formidable forum for a new leader.
It could all go badly wrong, but she's right to make the early appearance. It sends a message she is not risk-averse.
Ley wants to establish a better relationship with the Canberra Press Gallery than Dutton had. He saw the gallery journalists as part of the despised "Canberra bubble" and bypassed them when he could. That didn't serve him well - not least because he wasn't toughened up for when he had to face daily news conferences (with many Canberra reporters) on the election trail.
Ley's office has set up a WhatsApp group for gallery journalists, alerting them to who's appearing in the media, and also dispatching short responses to things said by the government (such as links to ministers' former statements). This matches the WhatsApp group for the gallery run by the Prime Minister's Office. One of Ley's press secretaries, Liam Jones, has also regularly been doing the rounds in the media corridors of Parliament House, something that very rarely happened with Dutton's media staff.
To the extent anyone is paying attention, Ley has made a better start than many, including some Liberals, had expected. She came out of the tiff with the Nationals well, despite having to give ground on their policy demands. Her frontbench reshuffle had flaws but wasn't terrible. She's struck a reasonable, rather than shrill, tone in her comments on issues, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's failure thus far to get a meeting with US President Donald Trump.
Her next significant test will be how she handles at the Press Club questions she and her party are confronting. So here are a few for her.
One (the most fundamental): How is she going to thread the needle between the two sides of the Liberal Party? Howard's old "broad church" answer no longer holds. The church is fractured. In an era of identity politics, the Liberals have a massive identity crisis. The party's conservatives are hardline, have hold of the party's (narrow) base, and will undermine Ley if they can. Its moderates will struggle to shape its key policies in a way that will appeal to small-l liberal voters in urban seats.
Two: How and when will she deal with the future of the Coalition's commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050? She has put all policies on the table (but made exceptions for several Nationals' core policies). There is a strong case for her staking out her own position on net zero, and getting the policy settled sooner rather than later. With younger voters having eschewed the Liberals, Ley told The Daily Aus podcast this week, "I want young people to know first and foremost that I want to listen to them and meet them where they are". One place they are is in support of net zero by 2050. If the Liberals deserted that, they'd be making the challenge of attracting more youth votes a herculean one.
For the opposition, net zero is likely THE climate debate of this term - and such debates are at best difficult and at worst lethal for Liberal leaders.
Three: Won't it be near impossible for the Liberals to get a respectable proportion of women in its House of Representatives team without quotas? Over the years, Ley has been equivocal on the issue. She told The Daily Aus: "Each of our [Liberal state] divisions is responsible for its own world, if you like, when it comes to [candidate] selections". This is unlikely to cut it: she needs to have a view, and a strategy. Targets haven't worked.
Four: Ley says she wants to run a constructive opposition, so how constructive will it be in the tax debate Treasurer Jim Chalmers launched this week? Ley might have a chat with John Howard about the 1980s, when the Liberals had internal arguments about whether to support or oppose some of the Hawke government's reform measures. Obviously, no total buy-in should be expected but to oppose reforms for the sake of it would discredit a party trying to sell its economic credentials.
More generally, how constructive or obstructive will the opposition be in the Senate? This raises matters of principle, not just political opportunism. In the new Senate the government will have to negotiate on legislation with either the opposition or the Greens. If the opposition constantly forces Labor into the arms of the Greens, that could produce legislation that (from the Liberals' point of view) is worse than if the Liberals were Labor's partner. How does that sit with them philosophically?
MORE FROM GRATTAN:
Five: Finally, how active will Ley be in trying to drive improvements in the appalling Liberal state organisations, especially in NSW (her home state) and Victoria?
The Liberals' federal executive extended federal intervention in the NSW division this week, with a new oversight committee, headed by onetime premier Nick Greiner. But the announcement spurred immediate backbiting, with conservatives seeing it advantaging the moderates. Ley is well across the NSW factions: her numbers man is Alex Hawke - whom she elevated to the shadow cabinet - from Scott Morrison's old centre-right faction, and she has a staffer from that faction in a senior position in her office. The faction has also protected her preselection in the past.
In Victoria, the factional infighting has been beyond parody, with former leader John Pesutto scratching around for funds to avoid bankruptcy after losing a defamation case brought by colleague Moira Deeming. Some Liberals think the state party could even lose what should be the unlosable state election next year.
That's just the start of the questions for Ley. Meanwhile, the party this week has set up an inquiry into the election disaster, to be conducted by former federal minister Nick Minchin and former NSW minister Pru Goward. Identifying what went wrong won't be hard for them - mostly, it was blindingly obvious. Recommending solutions that the party can and will implement - that will be the difficult bit.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

West Australian

4 hours ago

• West Australian

Michelle Grattan: Key tests looming for Opposition leader Sussan Ley

On Wednesday, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley will front the National Press Club. So why is that a big deal? For one thing, her predecessor Peter Dutton never appeared there as Opposition leader. For another, it's a formidable forum for a new leader. It could all go badly wrong, but she's right to make the early appearance. It sends a message she is not risk-averse. Ley wants to establish a better relationship with the Canberra Press Gallery than Dutton had. He saw the gallery journalists as part of the despised 'Canberra bubble' and bypassed them when he could. That didn't serve him well — not least because he wasn't toughened up for when he had to face daily news conferences (with many Canberra reporters) on the election trail. Ley's office has set up a WhatsApp group for gallery journalists, alerting them to who's appearing in the media, and also dispatching short responses to things said by the Government (such as links to ministers' former statements). This matches the WhatsApp group for the gallery run by the Prime Minister's Office. One of Ley's press secretaries, Liam Jones, has also regularly been doing the rounds in the media corridors of Parliament House, something that very rarely happened with Dutton's media staff. To the extent anyone is paying attention, Ley has made a better start than many, including some Liberals, had expected. She came out of the tiff with the Nationals well, despite having to give ground on their policy demands. Her frontbench reshuffle had flaws but wasn't terrible. She's struck a reasonable, rather than shrill, tone in her comments on issues, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's failure thus far to get a meeting with US President Donald Trump. Her next significant test will be how she handles at the Press Club questions she and her party are confronting. So here are a few for her. One (the most fundamental): How is she going to thread the needle between the two sides of the Liberal Party? John Howard's old 'broad church' answer no longer holds. The church is fractured. In an era of identity politics, the Liberals have a massive identity crisis. The party's conservatives are hard line, have hold of its (narrow) base, and will undermine Ley if they can. Its moderates will struggle to shape key policies in a way that will appeal to urban small-l liberal voters. Two: How and when will she deal with the future of the Coalition's commitment to net zero emissions by 2050? She has put all policies on the table (but made exceptions for several Nationals' core policies). There is a strong case for her staking out her own position on net zero, and getting the policy settled sooner rather than later. With younger voters having eschewed the Liberals, Ley told The Daily Aus podcast this week,'I want young people to know first and foremost that I want to listen to them and meet them where they are'. One place they are is in support of net zero by 2050. If the Liberals deserted that, they'd be making the challenge of attracting more youth votes a herculean one. For the Opposition net zero is likely THE climate debate of this term — and such debates are at best difficult and at worst lethal for Liberal leaders. Three: Won't it be near impossible for the Liberals to get a respectable proportion of women in its House of Representatives team without quotas? Over the years, Ley has been equivocal on the issue. She told The Daily Aus: 'Each of our (Liberal State) divisions is responsible for its own world, if you like, when it comes to (candidate) selections'. This is unlikely to cut it: she needs to have a view, and a strategy. Targets haven't worked. Four: Ley says she wants to run a constructive Opposition, so how constructive will it be in the tax debate Treasurer Jim Chalmers launched this week? Ley might have a chat with Howard about the 1980s, when the Liberals had internal arguments about whether to support or oppose some of the Hawke government's reform measures. Obviously, no total buy-in should be expected but to oppose reforms for the sake of it would discredit a party trying to sell its economic credentials. More generally, how constructive or obstructive will the Opposition be in the Senate? This raises matters of principle, not just political opportunism. In the new Senate the Government will have to negotiate with either the Opposition or the Greens. If the Opposition constantly forces Labor into the arms of the Greens, that could produce legislation that (from the Liberals' point of view) is worse than if the Liberals were Labor's partner. How does that sit with them philosophically? Five: Finally, how active will Ley be in trying to drive improvements in the appalling Liberal State organisations, especially in NSW (her home State) and Victoria? The Liberals' Federal executive extended Federal intervention in the NSW division this week, with a new oversight committee, headed by onetime premier Nick Greiner. But the announcement spurred immediate factional backbiting. Ley is well across the NSW factions: her numbers man is Alex Hawke — whom she elevated to the shadow cabinet — from Scott Morrison's old centre-right faction. In Victoria, the factional infighting has been beyond parody, with former leader John Pesutto scratching around for funds to avoid bankruptcy after losing a defamation case brought by colleague Moira Deeming. That's just the start of the questions for Ley. Meanwhile, the party this week has set up an inquiry into the election disaster, to be conducted by former Federal minister Nick Minchin and former NSW minister Pru Goward. Identifying what went wrong won't be hard for them — mostly, it was blindingly obvious. Recommending solutions that the party can and will implement — that will be the difficult bit.

AU Financial Review

14 hours ago

• AU Financial Review

Kennett calls for Vic Libs clear-out, questions Battin's leadership

Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett has questioned opposition leader Brad Battin's capacity to lead the moribund state Liberals to government and called for a wipe-out of the parliamentary team, opening a fresh battle within the division already reeling from the fallout between MPs John Pesutto and Moira Deeming. Kennett made the comments at a private event hosted by MinterEllison and MST Financial on Thursday night, just as the Victorian Liberal Party's powerful administrative committee voted to provide Pesutto with a $1.55 million loan to help him repay his legal bills to Deeming.

7NEWS

16 hours ago

• 7NEWS

South Australian Liberal Nicola Centofanti repeatedly forgets names of FIVEAA hosts in radio trainwreck

So-called train wreck interviews must be avoided at all costs by politicians, and they usually are. But the Liberal leader in South Australia's Upper House must be wishing she'd stayed in bed for a sleep-in this morning rather than appear on breakfast radio. Nicola Centofanti volunteered her voice to radio station FIVEAA. She was explaining why the Liberals are attempting to block new government regulations which are aimed at making public transport safer, with potential lifetime bans for violent offenders. Centofanti got off to a rocky start calling the presenters by their wrong names. Instead of 'good morning, Will and David' she kicked off by greeting 'Matt and Dave'. They were the long-time arch enemies of AA on the radio waves, namely Matt Abraham and David Bevan on ABC breakfast radio. Abraham at least now contributes to AA, whereas Bevan has retired and ridden off into the well-superannuated sunset. AA announcers David Penberthy and Will Goodings were clearly unimpressed and corrected her for which she apologised. But 30 seconds later she doubled up, again wrongly referring to them as Matt and Dave. Penbo's fuse was getting shorter by the second, eventually accusing her of 'having the disrespect of not knowing our damned names'. Name calling, or miscalling, aside, why was Centofanti on in the first place? The Liberals have called for a tougher stance on law and order, but feel the new regulations are being pushed too quickly through the SA Parliament. 'These regulations are being rushed through without consultation,' she claimed. 'We need time for these regulations.' The Libs' new concern is of potential unintended consequences from lifetime bans for troublemakers. From July 1, the transport minister will have the discretion of banning commuters who cause trouble on trams, trains and buses. That may be for a week, a month, or life. Unions are in full support, having seen drivers assaulted with almost weekly incidents of violence towards passengers as well. It's hard to argue against strong action being needed sooner rather than later. Why the Libs are now trying to stall the regulations coming into force seems bewildering. In a muddled explanation, Centofanti claimed that victims of domestic violence could get caught up in the mayhem and be wrongly banned from catching public transport. But I've got news for her. The regulations are going to happen anyway. Centofanti and the Libs had a lot to learn from today's transport-related train wreck, pardon the pun. It's unforgiveable to get announcers' names wrong, especially when the other pair has been absent together from the airwaves for almost a decade. That howler and the basis of her wobbly argument were then ridiculed by the right pair as 'just amateurish'. With the state election nine months away, Centofanti is likely to become a Liberal voice for various campaign matters. If this maiden voyage is anything to go by, she may struggle for relevance. Any future appearance on FIVEAA breakfast is likely to be greeted with some mirth from David and Will. They're totally professional and not vindictive types, but deserve a better performance than Centofanti dished up, or perhaps Liberal leader Vincent Tarzia should take reins next time.