Transcript - 2SM Mornings - 4 November 2025

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

4 November 2025 

Transcript 

2SM Mornings with Chris Smith (prerecorded)

Topics: Party room; net zero; net zero survey; cost of living; energy affordability; Triple Zero; immigration; immigration survey.

E&EO … 

Chris Smith

Melissa McIntosh, thank you very much for your time.

Melissa McIntosh

Thank you. Thanks for having me on.

Smith

So, you're about to walk into a joint party room meeting. I wonder what the topic of conversation will be.

McIntosh

It's all calm and quiet and everyone's having a great day.

Smith

Just making arrangements for the Christmas party, no doubt.

McIntosh

That sounds like a good idea. Very good. I'll go in with that.

Smith

What's likely to happen? How do these things work? Do members of the National Party get up and look across the room and tell the Liberals to drop net zero? Is that. Is that how raw it is?

McIntosh

I think they've already done that, and you might be surprised. Sometimes you think it's going to be quite an explosive party room and nothing really gets said. And I haven't - I think maybe this might be one of those times. You know, I sit next to David Littleproud in question time, and we've got a really good relationship. So - and he's been pretty open with the Nats position. I've looked at their report and you know my position on net zero on behalf of my community. I think there's some real pragmatic solutions in the report that they're going off and I don't think we're going to be argy bargy. I feel like we're coming to some sort of resolution. I hope it's one that we can all live with and I've been prosecuting really hard why I think we should be listening to Australians - everyday Australians, like people in Western Sydney.

Smith

My view would be that if you keep with net zero, even if it is with restrictions on spending, that will be the end of the Coalition and has to be the end of the Coalition after 79 years. If you drop net zero, you could be in for a major rebuild and maybe even the phoenix rising.

McIntosh

That sounds like a good idea. Maybe I'll go into party room with that ambition. And I think you're right. And as long as we can, and it's often about the message, as long as, if we are, we do settle on dropping net zero. We don't let the Labor Party and the Greens and all the activists carry the message away from us that we can let the Australian people know we are doing it for them and for their lives and for their children, who right now are, you know, we've spoken about this before who can't barely, and it's the truth, can barely afford to put food on the table. Energy prices continue to go up. People want to do the right thing. So as long as we can get the message right and we don't fight about it because that would be a disaster then I think, I think you're right. It could be a new path forward.

Smith

It could be a new path forward. And more emphasis on adaptation as opposed to making no difference to the temperature of the planet.

McIntosh

Adaptation, even thinking about - and I've met with some nuclear experts yesterday and talked about data centers in Western Sydney. Why aren't we looking at it? Other countries are putting nuclear for data centres …

Smith

Yes.

McIntosh

Powering our nation for the future

Smith

Yes.

McIntosh

And why are we not discussing those opportunities that could open up for Australia? This is …

Smith

This is a no brainer. You're right on the money. This is a no brainer. We could be the AI capital of the globe.

McIntosh

You're right. You're right, and it wouldn't be that difficult for us to do because people want to do business in Australia. There are just so many, so many restrictions. So, unlock Australia. Let's keep our own, and my community said this as well like in the high 90s, keep our own resources for us. First we have to export of course, but let's start rebuilding our country's energy future.

Smith

The Triple Zero inquiry yesterday it was a shocking day for Optus.

McIntosh

Yeah. Yeah, but what a surprise. It's been a disaster from the very beginning and I'm so unimpressed with the way that I guess Australians lives are being, I don't want to say disregarded - but it's just where's the prioritisation of people both by Optus and by the government. I think it - the whole network, the whole telco ecosystem; everything to do we telecommunications need a thorough overhaul, thorough investigation. Let's look at it and again we're talking about the future. Right now the other option is satellites in the sky and all these satellites are foreign owned. So, you know, where's our again our future thing our sovereign capability in having Australia first in this. And with Optus the Optus CEO sat on the information we're finding out now for hours and hours before he let the government ...

Smith

17 hours.

McIntosh

Yep. Yep.

Smith

Just – it’s shocking. Shocking to even see that he can admit something like that. And the other question is where's the Minister?

McIntosh

Where's the Minister? She's in the country at the moment. She sits opposite me in question time. So, I know she's here but she's not doing a whole lot about it. I think you know her decision to have the telcos publish when they have an outage themselves on their own websites that's not good enough. We need a public register of outages so Australians can see what's going on and then they can make a choice which telco they go with. Because nobody wants to be spending their money with a telecommunications provider who's not doing the right thing by them. Why are we giving these big government contracts to these telco providers and then fining them at the same time? That is just nonsensical.

Smith

Yeah.

McIntosh

There's so much to this and I think that this as horrible as the outage was, and sadly lives were lost, I think it's just the surface. I think there's a lot more to come. We just need to keep the pressure on, be a strong Opposition, do our jobs and stand up for Australians.

Smith

One last issue. We've seen a survey today indicate that 80% of Australians want a reduction to immigration at the moment. So much for the mainstream media that called those mass immigration rallies anti-immigration rallies. They've got egg totally on their face. All the television stations, most of the radio stations. This is a survey that needs to be heeded, surely.

McIntosh

This is exactly right. And another part of my survey where we got the numbers on net zero and people's positions, 77% of my community say that immigration is too high and that we need to do something about it. 77% of people in the electorate of Lindsay. So - and this is not about race, this is about pressure on our hospitals, on our roads, people struggling. So, you know, I think we're on the right track in talking about this and doing something about it and not being made to feel bad, like we are bad people for wanting to reduce immigration. So, you know, I think that's the next issue coming down the line, that's for sure.

Smith

You enjoy your joint party meeting. Thank you very much for your time this morning.

McIntosh

Thank you very much.