Speaking at his first address outside Canberra since being elected Leader of the Opposition by the Liberal Party room, Angus Taylor joins CIS Executive Director Michael Stutchbury for a wide-ranging conversation on the Liberal Party’s direction under new leadership, Australia’s cost of living crisis, and the policy reforms needed to restore the country’s prosperity and way of life. Taylor outlines his agenda for economic renewal, centred on spending restraint, lower taxes, affordable energy, and reduced regulation — and issues a direct challenge to the Albanese government to join a bipartisan task force on budget repair.
The discussion examines the Liberal Party’s path to renewal, including Taylor’s candid acknowledgment of past electoral mistakes and his commitment to returning the party to its core values of free markets, economic liberalism, and individual choice. Taylor sets out his case against what he describes as Labor’s big-government model — marked by record regulation, rising taxes, and unchecked spending — and its consequences for inflation, interest rates, housing affordability, and business investment.
Turning to specific policy areas, Taylor addresses the urgent need to bring energy costs down by opening up all fuel sources, including gas and nuclear, and critiques the safeguard mechanism as an effective carbon tax on Australian manufacturing. On immigration, he argues for lower numbers and higher standards, grounded in values rather than race or religion, and calls for moral clarity in response to the Bondi terrorist attack and recent protests. The conversation also covers childcare flexibility, housing supply, defence force funding and recruitment, industrial relations reform, and the threat posed by militant unionism to major national projects including AUKUS.
Joining Taylor on stage, Michael Stutchbury draws on CIS research across energy, housing, productivity, and fiscal policy, while questions from the floor — including from CIS scholars, journalists, and business leaders — probe the hardest edges of the Liberal Party’s reform agenda.
The event forms part of CIS’s “Next 50” series marking its 50th anniversary and was recorded live in Sydney.
This event was presented by the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney, Australia, and recorded live at CIS.