ABC Afternoon Briefing with Patricia Karvelas - 4 February

Melissa McIntosh MP 
Shadow Minister for Communications 
Shadow Minister for Women 
Federal Member for Lindsay 

04 February 2026 

Transcript 

ABC Afternoon Briefing with Patricia Karvelas

Topics:  Coalition split; Liberal leadership; Spanish Social Media ban.

E&EO … 

 

Patricia Karvelas

Shadow Communications Minister Melissa McIntosh is my guest. Welcome to the program. 

 

Melissa McIntosh

Thank you. 

 

Patricia Karvelas

Do you know if Sussan Ley's got the response from the Nationals? 

 

Melissa McIntosh

No, I'm unaware and I'm happy that the discussions are happening because I've said before, I said from the very beginning, I want us together as a big happy family and I think the communities of Australia want us back together. So, it's promising that they are talking now and we'll hear in due course. 

 

Patricia Karvelas

Do you personally support the demand for a six-month benching of these three Ministers, former Shadow Ministers?

 

Melissa McIntosh

Well, again, it's a decision of David and Sussan to get to those negotiations and I …..

 

Patricia Karvelas

….Is that a fair way of dealing with it? 

 

Melissa McIntosh

It's hard to make a judgment on all of the intricacies of the negotiations when you aren't part of the negotiations. So, I'm not going to comment on that particular point, but there's reasons why Sussan did that because they broke Cabinet solidarity and as a Shadow Cabinet member myself, we're all very aware of our obligations as being part of the Shadow Cabinet. 

 

Patricia Karvelas

Ok. Getting back together is an interesting one, Andrew Bragg was sitting in your chair yesterday. I've been here for the week, I love Parliament, and he told me that he thinks it's time for some time apart. There's no rush to get back together, that the Liberals have to refocus. You disagree with that? 

 

Melissa McIntosh

I think that we need to be together and actually be together, as opposed to being together but being on polar opposites. I think timing is going to be important, can't rush it because if we get back together, we need it to stick like any good relationship. So, the relationship does need work. You can't put your head in the sand about that one and the people of Australia are saying that our relationship needs work. Everyone's got their opinions on things, but I'll stand by mine when I'm out with my people. They like us as a Coalition; they support our positions on things like Net Zero and even nuclear was strong in my community and they were positions that we took as a Coalition. So, they're the reasons why I want us to be a Coalition. 

 

Patricia Karvelas

There's been a lot of anger at David Littleproud from many Liberal MPs. They've voiced it some on some off the record. You posted something pretty positive about David Littleproud. Do you think he's been wrongly criticised by Liberals? 

 

Melissa McIntosh

No, but again, I wasn't part of the early sort of breakup where emotions were high, and things may have been said or not said and I was looking at that purely from the lens of us as a Coalition and also my relationship with David. I'm not going to lie, I've got a good relationship with David, and I haven't had any issues. So, my comments around that, I still stand by those. But again, these things are happening at a different part of the party to me, within leadership and between the two leaders, and I think they need to have the time to be able to get through it. 

 

Patricia Karvelas

So, is Sunday the deadline that Sussan Ley set too soon, then? 

 

Melissa McIntosh

Well again, as a result of their negotiations and wanting things to move on and have a resolution to this. Which is fair enough. 

 

Patricia Karvelas

But do you think Sunday was a bit premature? 

 

Melissa McIntosh

No, I don't think so. I stand by why Sussan made those decisions and again, she's the one with all the details and she knows what needs to happen for us to get back together. So, I hope things move sooner rather than later and things are looking positive with what's going on this week. We're here in Parliament, it's the opportune time for us to get through some of these things, but it's up to the two leaders to make those negotiations. But again, it needs to stick once we're back together. 

 

Patricia Karvelas

Yeah, it needs to stick, right. So, should the Nationals have to actually stick to Shadow Cabinet solidarity, not breaking ranks? 

 

Melissa McIntosh

I think it's been made quite clear and it is important to have that, because if you don't have that, then it could be a free for all. It's really important that we do have cabinet solidarity. It's important that we do have our party room opinions put forward as well, and everyone gets a say. And these are part of conventions of our parties and there's a reason why they're there as part of the Westminster system. So, you know, I stand by that as well. 

 

Patricia Karvelas

Right after the election, you were in the Four Corners I did where we talked about the Liberals and the election loss, and you said to me in that interview that you were worried about the first female leader being torn down. We saw that picture last week of, I didn't see anyone other than men, very tall men, but that's ok, they're allowed to be tall, but all men meeting in Melbourne on the day of Katie Allen's funeral to sort of discuss the leadership. How did that land on you, given what you once said to me not that long ago? 

 

Melissa McIntosh

Yeah, I think there's a distinction between the two and I may have also said to you at the time, and I’ve certainly said it publicly. I also don't have any issues with the men in our parliamentary party. They've been very supportive of me, they've been mentors to me throughout my career and they're good colleagues. So, I probably can see the visuals of that. 

 

Patricia Karvelas

What did you mean by the visuals? 

 

Melissa McIntosh

Men in the party. But that's again, the media. So, the media wants ……

 

 Patricia Karvelas

I would have; I would have invited women to my meetings. Would you?

 

Melissa McIntosh

Well, that's up to, there's not many of us here, and that's another issue and I'd love to see more women and going through the ranks of the Liberal Party, I've been very open with this, you've got to change the culture of the Liberal Party before you can open the doors to more women and I stand by that. 

 

Patricia Karvelas

But this is not a good sign of culture shifting, though, is it? Come on.

 

Melissa McIntosh

It's contradictory to what I'm saying about those particular men who are really good friends and good supporters and I wouldn't point my finger at them and say they're anti women at all. I don't think that would be the context of why they're meeting. 

 

Patricia Karvelas

Ok. I don't think they're anti women, I wasn't alleging that, but the optics of no women being in that picture has been noticed, particularly because, of course, currently there is a woman, right. 

 

Melissa McIntosh

Yeah. But we can't always look at things under the lens of gender, and I don't think that's particularly helpful as well and yes, Sussan is a woman, but she's leader first and foremost. Yes, these are men, but there's no question there's more men in the parliamentary ranks than women, so it's not really a big thing that there are blokes coming together because there's not many women to be in that room. 

 

Patricia Karvelas

It's hard, but there's you. You could have been in that room. You've said you've got leadership ambitions. 

 

Melissa McIntosh

Yeah, I've been in plenty of rooms, and I'm not shy of putting myself forward, as you know, both publicly and within the party. 

 

Patricia Karvelas

Yep. I want to talk about your portfolio. Spain is now looking at implementing the social media ban, other countries are looking at it too. You've been a bit critical about the way Australia's done this, but doesn't it show that we're a world leader? 

 

Melissa McIntosh

It shows that we're good at doing PR on the world stage, that's for certain. I've been saying that I believe that the Minister shouldn't have gone overseas to New York to do the PR before we knew the success and it's all well and good that we want to protect our kids and every country does, that's great, that's great that they're picking up what we're doing, but doesn't mean that it's successful here. We still know that kids are online. I don't know if you went down to the shopping centre over Christmas, you just need to see kids and their heads are still in their phone and we know that they're migrating across to platforms that aren't included in the ban. So, there's still lots of questions. But, you know, that's great that other countries want to protect children online, that is the number one priority. 

 

Patricia Karvelas

Yeah, for sure. Melissa McIntosh, thank you for joining. 

 

Melissa McIntosh

Thank you.