Controversial Lib Antic absent as Angus Taylor rolls into town
As Labor member flood Adelaide for their national conference, Angus Taylor hosts his own Liberal function flanked by the current SA President Leah Blyth. There was no sign of the man wanting to take her job.
Amid speculation over who might take leadership of the SA branch of the Liberal Party, the party’s Federal Leader made an appearance in Adelaide this morning with the current SA President Leah Blyth by his side.
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor was fronting Liberal voters at the Arkaba Hotel for a Small Business Forum, where he spruiked the party’s plans to cut red tape, lower taxes and ditch Net Zero targets, on the same day as Labor takes over the city for the party’s national conference.
The event was organised by current SA Liberal Party President Leah Blyth – also a Federal Senator for South Australia. She was on stage with the Leader as speculation swirls over which horse Taylor would back in the race for the party’s SA presidency.
Federal SA Liberal Senator Alex Antic is reportedly also in the race for the top job, and was pictured during the SA Election campaign at The Exeter Hotel with One Nation’s Cory Bernardi.
There were reports this week about talk of the SA Liberal Party merging with One Nation’s state branch – a proposition slapped down by Taylor earlier this week: “That will not be happening; I can assure you of that”.
“The Liberal Party is strong in South Australia, and will remain strong in South Australia, and there won’t be any kind of movement or coalition,” Taylor told reporters earlier this week.
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Also at this morning’s event was Federal Liberal Member for Grey Tom Venning, South Australian Deputy Liberal Leader Josh Teague and Shadow Treasurer for SA Ben Hood.
When InDaily asked why he did not attend, Antic refused to comment unless this publication disclosed details around government funding for this masthead’s parent company Solstice Media.
SA Liberal Leader Ashton Hurn is currently on leave.
Taylor is yet to say who he is backing as SA Liberal President at the SA Liberal State Council AGM on 29 August, and Blyth is yet to rule out running against the firebrand Senator. Former SA Liberal MP Nicolle Flint was also understood to be in the running for the position.
InDaily asked Blyth whether she would run for SA President, but did not receive a response by publication.
Meanwhile at the Small Business Forum, Taylor faced tough questions including disillusion from the Liberal faithful, but the leader said: “I don’t want to be on an apology tour”.
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He faced down questions from self-described Liberal voters on whether the party was genuine in its promises to business owners.
“I want to believe what you’re saying, but over the past 12 years, the reality has not hit the road,” one audience member said.
Taylor said, “I hear you loud and clear, and we did some good things when we were in government, but I think there are a lot of things we could have done that we didn’t”.
“I don’t want to be on an apology tour for everything that’s been done wrong in the past, because there are things that we’ve done wrong when we were in government.
“But it’s incredibly important to know that what you get with me and the team I’m putting around me… is something very different from what we’ve had in the past.”
Taylor is on a tour around the nation to promote the party’s small business policies.
He also answered questions over the party’s plan for tackling the rise of One Nation on its right flank, saying “We’re no longer proud of who we are, we’re no longer proud of our flag, of what it is to be Australian”.
“That anger is real, and it has fuelled that One Nation vote in the opinion polls,” he said.
“I don’t think One Nation can deliver and our job is to convince people that our plan and our team can deliver.
“There’ll be lots in this room who have some sympathy with some things Pauline is saying, I understand that, but in the end she’s a one-person show. Barnaby [Joyce] can kick the dog, but she’ll kick Barnaby.
“She calls the shots. Her constitution makes her El Presidente for life. It’s a one-person show; you cannot run this country as a one-person show.”
Editor’s note: InDaily is a beneficiary of the Federal Government’s Journalism Assistance Fund introduced by the Liberal Morrison Government and continued by the Labor Albanese Government.
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