8 September 2013
E&OE…
PETER VAN ONSELEN You’re watching Australian Agenda. I’m joined here in the Sky News centre by Sky’s political editor David Speers, senior columnist at The Australian Newspaper Troy Bramston and editor-at-large at The Australian Paul Kelly and we are joined now live out of Perth by Julie Bishop, the deputy leader of the Liberal Party.
Welcome to the program.
JULIE BISHOP Good morning.
PETER VAN ONSELEN Congratulations, I guess is the first thing to say. Are you surprised by the size of the result or did you start to get taken up in this momentum argument that was there that the Liberal Party might even get close to cracking a 100 seats?
JULIE BISHOP No, I always knew it was going to be close. We said throughout the campaign that it was very tough to win government from Opposition. It’s only happened on six previous occasions since the Second World War. So Tony Abbott always used the analogy it’s like climbing Mt Everest and it certainly was, but I’m delighted with the result.
There are still some seats in doubt but overall we’ve seen a fantastic result and that is certainly a testament to Tony Abbott’s extraordinary leadership.
