Sky News with Chris Kenny - 28 January 2026

Sky - The Kenny Report

Chris Kenny

Now let's catch up with Shadow Communications Minister Melissa McIntosh. Thanks for joining us, Melissa. A lot of advice, gratuitous advice, some would say, coming from the nationals to the Liberals about who should lead them. Do you want to buy into the Nationals argument now? Do you think Colin Boyce is the man to lead the Nationals?

Melissa McIntosh

What do you think my answer's going to be, Chris? I think it's not a great idea to weigh into Nationals leadership discussions when we're a Coalition. It's probably an even less good idea right now, but I do want to say is I think we're stronger when we are together as a Coalition. I certainly feel that way and I've expressed that since the breakup, and I hope that we can work through things and get back to being a strong opposition. I know that's what my community wants out here in Penrith.

Chris Kenny

Yeah, I think there's no doubt that the fact that Nationals leader has basically said he wants the Liberals to change their leader has galvanised a lot of Liberals, you know behind Sussan Ley? Why should they change at the behest of the Nationals? But there's no doubt she's in strife. Do you expect to see a leadership change? You've spoken about your ambitions in the past. Would you put your hand up for a leadership position?

Melissa McIntosh

You're right, I have spoken about my ambitions publicly and I've also said, I do love our country and I love our party and it would be such an honour in the future, but that doesn't mean that's now. And Sussan does have my support as our leader, I always back the leader. It's been my mantra since I got into politics. When I go out into Penrith, and I've been doing that a lot, I think when there's a bit of strife around, the best thing to do is go back to your community. They want us to sort things out quickly and get back to thinking about them. Big issues here. I know Pauline thinks she owns the issue of immigration, but people in Penrith, I surveyed my community a number of weeks ago, even months now, around immigration and 90% of survey respondents said it's too high and they want it to come down. It's putting pressure on our schools, on infrastructure and services, definitely on our hospital and there's an element of people being concerned about the safety of our citizens, when it comes to immigration. I spoke about this in Parliament last week, and this is just one issue that people want us to focus on.

Chris Kenny

It's a really big issue. Another big issue for you, coming back to your shadow portfolio, is the social media ban. You've been critical of the way it was foisted on people and we still don't know how it's going to work out, right, it's been introduced. The kids aren't really back at school yet - we'll see what happens with it, but the Sky News, YouGov Pulse survey has shown incredible levels of support from the public. 69% of people all up support this social media ban. Do you think that that support is going to continue or do you think we're going to see problems unfold?

Melissa McIntosh

I stand by criticism and putting pressure on the government because they put this policy on Australians with a deadline of December 10, and I know support's strong because parents want to protect their kids. We all want kids to be safe, online in particular and not being subjected to abhorrent social media content, but I'm questioning, still, around the effectiveness of it. And the Prime Minister said, well, success is a national conversation. I don't think that's really success. Even today it's been reported, been reported that the age verification technology that the company is doing this for, Snapchat, aren't checking whether it's correct when somebody says they're a certain gender or certain age and I think that's a concern as well because we know kids are getting around it. You just have to go down to your local shopping centre and kids still have their heads in their phones and they're still on this social media.

Chris Kenny

I've seen a lot of teenagers on their mobile phones, absolutely. I think they might be getting around it. Either that or they're all watching Sky News on Flash. I wish it was so, but I don't think that's what the kids are doing. Thanks for joining us, Melissa. Really appreciate it.