Zoe McKenzie MP
Shadow Assistant Minister for Education and Early Learning
Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health
Member for Flinders
TRANSCRIPT – SKY NEWS NEWSDAY WITH KIERAN GILBERT AND REBECCA WHITE
Thursday, 25 September 2025
Topics: Albanese photo with Donald Trump; Kevin Rudd hug with Gavin Newsom; Andrew Hastie social media comments
ANDREW GILBERT: Let’s bring in the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, Rebecca White, and Shadow Assistant Minister for Education, Zoe McKenzie. Great to see you both. Zoe, do you give the Prime Minister a tick for this visit? He got that handshake with Donald Trump. We even saw a selfie. And then he’s got the bilateral coming up next month at the White House.
ZOE MCKENZIE: I must admit, when I woke up and saw the photo, I thought originally he was standing there with a wax figure, but it turns out it really was the President. In a fleeting moment, the Prime Minister got a photo. Good on him. But we still have to wait another month. The Prime Minister has to make yet another trip to actually sit down with the President one-on-one, a trip he could have easily made from Peru when he was there last year when the President had just been elected, as a number of other world leaders did. Nevertheless, he’s been there. He’s put a number of positions on the table that I think the President will struggle with, as well as the US administration in general. So get ready for some fireworks on the 20th October, I suspect.
ANDREW GILBERT: Rebecca White, the points of difference are pretty clear, whether it be the recognition of Palestine, even the age care, sorry, not the age care, I should say the age assurance technology for social media, which I know is bipartisan. Donald Trump’s not so pleased with it when it comes to the regulation of big tech. So there are a few points of divergence with the White House that the Prime Minister will have to and has to manage, Rebecca.
REBECCA WHITE: And I’m confident that he can do that. We’re talking about two… two very long-term leaders in their respective countries now being able to sit down and have a conversation. And just like all friends, you don’t have to agree on everything, but when it comes to the key issues, Australia and the United States have a long and strong relationship. And I know both leaders would go into that meeting expecting to continue to discuss the things that we do agree on. And no doubt those other matters will be raised as well, as you would anticipate for any bilateral meeting. But I’m confident that… Prime Minister Anthony Albanese can sit down in a constructive and mature way and have a conversation with the President of the United States.
ANDREW GILBERT: The biggest military in the world, it’s still the biggest military. The fourth biggest economy is California. I want to show you this picture, Zoe. I’ll go to you first on this. Kevin Rudd having a hug with Gavin Newsom, the Governor of California. That’s fine, but he’s also one of Donald Trump’s biggest political irritants right now, Zoe, and probably will be over the next three years.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Did Chris Bowen get a hug too? It certainly looks like a bit of a love-in there. Poor Kevin, we really can’t get a foot right, I think, in this relationship. I would suspect that his historical comments about Trump, which were not favourable, are front of mind with the President. We’ve heard the President has a good memory and he’ll remember the things that Kevin Rudd said. I know he’s been working hard, though. Of course he’s there working hard in the interests of all Australians and to try and re-establish the strategic relationship. But this might be another one that’s countered against Team Australia. And we’ll see, as I said, fireworks on the 20th of October.
ANDREW GILBERT: Rebecca White, I can see why the Energy Minister and their former Prime Minister want to deal with California. Despite the national government, California is still a massive renewable powerhouse in terms of clean energy, so you can see why, but maybe that was the hug just a step too far?
REBECCA WHITE: Oh, look, I’m not going to comment on people having a hug. You know, if they’re friends, then why shouldn’t they be allowed to do that? I think people are reading a little bit too much into these interactions. At the end of the day, Australia does have a very strong relationship with the United States of America, and that includes relationships with different states where we have a lot of trade and economic opportunity that, of course, Australia is seeking to make sure we capitalise on. We want jobs here in Australia. We want to be able to have a good trading relationship with the United States. And I’m pleased to see there are good relationships with both state leaders and national leaders, because that’s in all of Australia’s interest.
ANDREW GILBERT: Zoe McKenzie, your colleague, Andrew Hastie, made some very stark remarks about the future of the Liberal Party in the last 24 hours. He was on 2GB this morning and he said, I think unless we get our act together, we’re going to be potentially in further decline and perhaps one day extinct. That’s why what we do over the next two years is so important. The world has changed. We have to change with it. People are frustrated about rising energy. People are struggling to get into a house. What do you make of the latest intervention from Andrew Hastie on social media, following it up in radio today?
ZOE MCKENZIE: To be fair, I haven’t seen all of Andrew’s socials. I’ve been busy in my electorate, but his main points in the last week, that it would be good if we made more in Australia. Absolutely right. To do so, we need affordable and abundant energy. And that’s what we are working towards. Dan Tehan’s recently been in the United States looking at micro-reactors and small-module reactors. I’ve been in Denmark looking at the wind power industry there, because it’s planned to have a renewable energy terminal by the Victorian Government in my electorate. So we’re all out there doing what we should be, which is investigating the options, understanding the choices, but more importantly, understanding what that will mean for the average Australian in terms of their electricity bill. Remember, the average Australian is still wanting their $275 ongoing reduction to their bills, not the sugar cane hand out that they’ve had in the last couple of years from this government which will end and electricity prices will go up as the RBA confirmed the other day in a hearing before the Parliament. So Andrew is hungry for us to have propositions on the table and for us to be competitive at the next election and we all are. We do recognise we had a bad result at the last election but let’s be mindful, Labor had a 34% primary and ended up with 94 seats we had a 32% primary and ended up with 43 seats so Labor’s not particularly popular with the average Australian either they have managed the economy badly. Australians are still doing it tough but we must put a more compelling platform together and I encourage my colleagues to think widely, to investigate like I am and to think about how we reach those Australians who didn’t vote for us at the last election.
ANDREW GILBERT: Yeah it’s interesting it reminds me of that old saying, things are never as good as they appear or never as bad as they seem. Rebecca White is that a risk that Labor needs to stay vigilant on issues like migration for example or the Liberals will be able to get a bit of momentum as Mr Hastie is seeking to do?
REBECCA WHITE: We haven’t taken our eye off our job which is to deliver for Australians and that’s what we’re doing every single day. The Liberal Party is talking about themselves, fighting amongst themselves, posting things on social media, trying to reach an audience. We’re there working in our communities delivering on behalf of government the commitments that Australians did vote for. We are not taking action to build more houses. That’s got to be a priority for us with working with jurisdictions to make sure that we can deliver on that 43 billion dollar commitment, a large part of which was opposed by the Coalition when they were in opposition in the last term of government. So there are key priorities for us whether it’s health or housing, making sure we invest in more renewable energy, creating jobs to support the growth of our community and economy. That’s what our government’s getting on and doing every single day. We haven’t taken our eye off that task.
ANDREW GILBERT: Rebecca White, Zoe McKenzie, thank you both. We’ll catch you next week.
ENDS.
