TRANSCRIPT - SKY NEWS POLITICS NOW - WEDNESDAY, 30 APRIL 2025

TOM CONNELL, HOST: Joining me live now for the final time at this side of the campaign, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister Patrick Gorman, former Liberal Member for Mackellar, Jason Falinski. Gentlemen, thank you both for your time. Look, let me just start with this, talking about certainty here, Pat. Give us this certainty. Just be honest with us, whether it's the Coalition or Labor, if you're a chance of forming minority. Not talking about deals. I'm not talking about quid pro quos, but you would seek, then surely supply and confidence you're not going to send us back to the polls are you?

PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm backing every single one of my Labor colleagues and our candidates across this country. I was out with Trish Cook this morning in Bullwinkel, and if people want a stable, certain government, put a 1 next to Labor on the green ballot paper. Number every box. That's going to give Australia the government that served us well through the uncertain times we've been navigating the last three years. There's a wild world out there, Tom. I want to make sure we've got a government that can govern well. That means a majority Labor government. That's what I'm campaigning for. The only thing I'm focused on.

CONNELL: Sure, but what's this farce? I mean, we know. Let's say you get 74 seats. What you're going to go "no, no, we're needed a majority".  And just go back to the polls. That's going to happen, is it?

GORMAN: What we're saying to all Australians as they go into vote, and here in my electorate of Perth, some 26 per cent of people have already cast their vote. But what I'm saying to those 74 per cent of people remaining is, make sure you vote for a majority Labor Government. We know that's the best path to get what we want to get done in housing. I was out at a Housing Australia Future Fund site this morning with Premier Roger Cook. That only happened because Labor had a majority in the House of Representatives and is building houses for people in my community and across Australia.

CONNELL: All right, well, you can get things done. We used to get told "we got all this legislation passed in the last minority under Labor". Help me cut through this. Jason, you willing to be a bit more upfront around what happens in these minority situations?

JASON FALINSKI, FORMER LIBERAL MP: Yeah. I mean, Patrick's turned into an election bot. I mean, he's on line. He's not deviating. There's no way anyone's going to be able to claim Patrick didn't do his job. Tom, the fact of the matter is, of course, Labor is going to do a deal with the Teals Of course they'll do a deal with the Greens to stay in government, and we know that because they've done preference deals with them. So Patrick comes on this show semi-regularly and bemoans the Greens. He never criticises the Teals to be fair, because they don't run against the Labor Party -

GORMAN: I do, Jason. I've agreed with you on a number of occasions.

FALINSKI: - and then does preference deals with them. And it's so amusing that Patrick points to that he is at a Housing Australia Future Fund event today they're going to get on with building houses. This is the fund that has so far built zero houses, like the middle of a doughnut is what they've managed to actually build. So if that's the best example of Labor getting on with it, well, you know.

CONNELL: Alright, but hang on, Jason, but you were going to cut through for me, and then you stuck to your own lines. In the same situation, the Coalition gets to mid 70s, they will get supply and confidence from somewhere to form government.

FALINSKI: Yeah, of course we would.

CONNELL: All right, there you go. Pat, are you willing to say the same?

GORMAN: Well, what we know is that the first thing that Peter Dutton would need to do if he became Prime Minister needs to do if he wanted to become prime minister is to get permission from Barnaby Joyce, David Littleproud, the National Party. The Liberal Party can't even govern on their own. They have to start a coalition. It's right there in the name.

CONNELL: Alright, okay Pat. There you go.

FALINSKI: It's a good point, Tom. It's a very good point.

CONNELL: Let me ask you this, Jason, in the interest of candour, what's your prediction for how Saturday will unfold? Let's say seats for the Coalition compared to Labor. Where is it at right now? Do you think?

FALINSKI: Look Tom, there are 20 seats, I'm sure even Patrick will concede this, there are 20 seats across the country which will obviously determine the election. It's very volatile in those seats. To be honest with you, I'd rather be Labor at this point than the Liberal Party, and they've run a very good election campaign with some very strong assists from the President of the United States. But the fact is, though it is very volatile, I wouldn't be confident making a prediction about the outcome and where it all lands. But yes, you'd probably prefer to be Labor at this point than running the Liberal Party campaign.

CONNELL: And Pat, aside from the fact that you're going to win all 150 seats, is there nervousness about this result? Do you feel like it's probably going to be tighter than some of the national polls suggest?

GORMAN: No, it's an important principle that Labor stands in every one of those 150 seats because we want to give people the opportunity to vote for an Albanese Labor Government. We've been saying all along that it's going to be tight. That's no surprise, and that's going to be the reality when you and others are analysing the results on election night. What I know is that the Australian people take this decision seriously, and they recognise that we're in very serious times and we need to have a stable government with runs on the board. That's the Albanese Labor Government, which also has a plan for the future. And one of the things I think Mr Dutton and his entire team, and I don't just blame Mr Dutton for this, I blame his entire Shadow Cabinet. They have failed to put forward a comprehensive plan for the future. They've got no plan on schools. They've got no comprehensive plan come up with their own when it comes to health care. They try and copy things from others, sometimes copying from overseas, sometimes copying from the Labor Party, never an idea of their own. It's only Labor that's got a comprehensive plan for the things that people care about. I think that's getting clearer and clearer, and it's clear here at Bedford pre poll, where people are making their decisions right now.

CONNELL: We need a two-shot of Jason when Pat's talking. There he is. That's for the viewers. That was Jason the whole time. I mean, I'm going to be cautious here. It's good that Pat's come on so close to the election, but I do feel like Pat the Election Bot has come out tonight, and there's no chance I'll get anything out of him. I don't know. We'll see if I can put him off his game. Jason, honesty, time for you again, because you know we need it today. What about the Teal seats? What's a pass mark? What's the pass mark for the Liberal Party in terms of winning back Teal seats?

FALINSKI: That's a really good question, Tom. I would say that we're a chance in all the seats. I'd say we're under pressure in Bradfield, but I think the Teals are under pressure in literally every single seat that they still hold. You saw the story today about Dr Sophie Scamps. Zali Steggall's now got a six-year track record of not actually achieving anything, so that's putting her under pressure. They've been throwing so much money at Bradfield, I think it's meant that they haven't had money, judging by Simon Holmes a Court's complete and utter meltdown on email about needing more money. So, like, it'll be interesting to see, to be honest, where that all ends up. What is the pass mark? Look, I think if we can get back half those seats, that's a pretty good pass mark. But, you know, at the same time, I think that all the local campaigns have put in a really good effort, and they deserve to win. I can't think of a Teal that deserves to hold their seat.

CONNELL: So, if you don't win any, and you feel like they're good local campaigns - is that a sign the national campaign has held Liberal candidates that are running back a bit?

FALINSKI: I think it's an indication that we need to massively update our machine, our campaign machinery, the amount of front groups that Climate 200 has set up in the last 6, 7, 8, months, the source of some of their funding, which, to be fair, this time around, the media has looked at. Like the connections to companies that have been blacklisted for human rights abuses That is something we need to take seriously. I mean, look after the last election, there was sort of a view among people, some parts of the Liberal Party, that maybe we didn't need to take back those seats. But now you see Climate 200 running campaigns in rural and regional areas, and of course, Cathy McGowan was the original Teal. So, I just don't think that we can ignore Climate 200. And there's a lot that we can learn from them in terms of the mechanics and their machinery of campaigning, but I think there's a lot that we have to do to expose their hypocrisy and frankly the sanctimonious nature of their campaigning.

CONNELL: We'll see. Pat, just in 15 seconds. If it all goes wrong for you on Saturday, what will you look back and think should have done that better?

GORMAN: I'm really proud of the campaign that Anthony Albanese has run. The whole team, what we've done, putting forward our plan, being consistent, making sure that we're focused on those things like supporting household budgets through our energy credits, supporting families through cheaper childcare, supporting Medicare, something that's an Australian institution that we and only Labor, can be trusted to strengthen. I'm really proud of the campaign that we've run. It's up to the Australian people to decide, and I'll leave the decision to them.

CONNELL: I've listened to you, Pat today, given that 150 seats is one of your predictions for Labor. So there you go. Pat, good luck. Look, we've given you a ribbing today. You're close to the end. You know, you can't make any errors. I don't think anyone can point to any today. So, thank you. We'll talk on the other side. Jason, thank you as well. It's been a good of you to give up your time during this campaign.

ENDS