Chaney thinks Julie Bishop may have changed Libs (5 May 2025)
Interviewer:
In Western Australia, independent Kate Chaney has retained the wealthy Perth seat of Curtin despite a concerted effort by the Liberals to win it back. Her family has a long connection to the Liberal Party, with her grandfather and uncle both having been Liberal parliamentarians. But Ms Chaney is pointing to the party's failure to elect Julie Bishop leader in 2018 as one of the reasons it's struggling now. Ms Chaney, what difference do you think it would have made to the Liberal Party if then Foreign Minister Julie Bishop had been elected leader in 2018?
Kate Chaney:
Well, it's very difficult to know how things could have turned out differently. But certainly, if Julie Bishop had been leading the Liberal Party instead of Scott Morrison, I think she was likely to be a lot more aligned to the values of my electorate and perhaps would have resisted this shift to the right that we've seen in the Liberal Party in the years since then.
Interviewer:
You're one of the so-called Teal members. Do you think that the Teal movement, which saw several independent female MPs elected in 2022, would have even developed if Ms Bishop had been Liberal leader or if the party had had more women MPs wielding power?
Kate Chaney:
Well, I certainly think that if there had been greater female representation in the Liberal Party, more women may have seen that there was a role for them down that path. I myself was not looking for a political career, so I don't know that I would be here other than having been asked by my community to run. But certainly, I think that it would have shown a very different perspective on where the Liberal Party was going to women all over Australia.
Interviewer:
In Australian politics, there's been a habit of installing a woman as leader when things are going downhill for a party or government. Do you think Susan Ley should be the next Liberal leader?
Kate Chaney:
I'm going to leave it to the Coalition to work out who it should put in as a leader. As an independent, I don't have to think about those things, so it's really up to them. But I think that it would be great to see more women across the board. Certainly going into parliament with a group of other strong independent women who've had successful careers elsewhere, I think we've been able to shift the culture a bit and bring some different thinking to the parliament. And I think that's been really good for our democracy.
Interviewer:
Your seat, Curtin, in WA was tipped to be one of the so-called teal seats that could be reclaimed by the Liberals. You've hung onto it. Why do you think you managed to retain it?
Kate Chaney:
Well, a few reasons. Firstly, there was really very little policy coming out of the Liberal Party and very little leadership being shown—just culture wars. I don't think Peter Dutton represents our values here in Curtin. There was a lot of focus on fear and division and no courage. The other thing that I think made a big difference is we ran a completely positive campaign in the face of a barrage of negative personal attack ads through every medium. And I think that's exactly the sort of politics that people are sick of.
Interviewer:
Your family has a long connection to the Liberal Party. I'm not sure you want to give them advice, but how do you think the party—the Libs—do need to regroup?
Kate Chaney:
I think it would be really helpful if they have a good hard think about what it is that they stand for. Not so much how do we win back power, whose votes do we need to get, but more what is it that actually holds us together, what is our vision for the long term of the country that is a positive vision, and start to rediscover some of the courage I think that the Liberal Party has had in years gone by.
Interviewer:
That's independent Kate Chaney who has retained her seat of Curtin in Perth.
