Transcript

Sharri | 15 May · Sharri

0:07
Speaker 1: Good evening. We'll breaking news now. Pro Palestinian protesters have
0:11
Speaker 1: taken over a building at the University of Melbourne. They
0:14
Speaker 1: are vowing they will not move. University staff are warning
0:19
Speaker 1: the group leave now of face arrest. Victoria Police have
0:24
Speaker 1: told us they're monitoring the situation and police are in
0:28
Speaker 1: a position to respond should there be any public order issues. Now,
0:34
Speaker 1: what's unfolding right now at the University of Melbourne is
0:37
Speaker 1: a copycat of what took place at Columbia University in
0:41
Speaker 1: the US, where students took over Hamilton Hall. Now already
0:46
Speaker 1: classes at Melbourne Uni were canceled this afternoon as students
0:50
Speaker 1: renamed the Arts West Building Mummled Hall. They set up
0:55
Speaker 1: tents and moved away furniture.
0:57
Speaker 2: Have a look.
1:03
Speaker 1: Now this unfolding as we speak at the University of Melbourne.
1:09
Speaker 1: Protesters have occupied a building. The police are on standby.
1:13
Speaker 1: I'm going to cross live to a reporter who is
1:16
Speaker 1: on the scene shortly. The Australian newspaper is now reporting
1:20
Speaker 1: that the protesters are getting legal advice as they prepare
1:23
Speaker 1: for the police to move in. Will bring you all
1:26
Speaker 1: the breaking news on this as it unfolds. As I said,
1:29
Speaker 1: I'm going to Cross live to a reporter who's on
1:31
Speaker 1: the scene a bit later in the show. Now to
1:35
Speaker 1: the budget. All this fevered speculation in Canberra that the
1:39
Speaker 1: budget means Anthony Albanesi wants to head to the polls
1:42
Speaker 1: early is nonsense. The Prime Minister plans on going full term.
1:49
Speaker 1: Anthony Albanesi and Jim Chalmer's strategy is to bring down
1:53
Speaker 1: inflation with this budget and then call an election, perhaps
1:57
Speaker 1: later this year, but most likely next year. Alban Ezi
2:02
Speaker 1: even said this publicly today. He says we won't head
2:05
Speaker 1: to the polls this year. He's indicated the election will
2:09
Speaker 1: be held after March twenty twenty five, and even as
2:12
Speaker 1: late as August, although that's very unlikely. Will there be
2:17
Speaker 1: a budget before the next election.
2:19
Speaker 3: The budget will set a budget for March next year,
2:25
Speaker 3: the elections due in two thousand and twenty five, and
2:30
Speaker 3: we'll set out that timetable later in this year. You
2:36
Speaker 3: can't have a budget and an election at the same
2:40
Speaker 3: time in May, so we'll have to make that adjustment,
2:44
Speaker 3: just as has occurred in the past. You can actually
2:47
Speaker 3: hold the election later. You could hold it as late
2:51
Speaker 3: as August, I think is the advice.
2:56
Speaker 1: So alban Easy, making clear that he would prefer to
2:59
Speaker 1: stay in as Prime Minister as long as possible. In
3:03
Speaker 1: this sense, the budget is as much about politics as
3:07
Speaker 1: it is about the economy, and perhaps even more so.
3:11
Speaker 1: Plenty of sweetness, plenty of spending despite the need to
3:14
Speaker 1: keep inflation in check. Now The Australians Editor at Large
3:19
Speaker 1: Paul Kelly writes about the paradoxes in the budget and
3:23
Speaker 1: he says it's loaded with danger. In his view, it
3:27
Speaker 1: risks being the wrong response for our economic times. He writes,
3:31
Speaker 1: forget the orthodoxy. Labour now operates under new rules. It
3:36
Speaker 1: is spending money to cut inflation. It runs an expansionary
3:40
Speaker 1: fiscal policy as the Central Bank frets over interest rates
3:44
Speaker 1: and ditches two generations of pro market liberalism to build
3:49
Speaker 1: a new economy around state intervention and green industry policy. Now,
3:55
Speaker 1: this budget is highly controversial, especially the Future Made in
3:59
Speaker 1: Australia PAW package. That's the twenty two point seven billion
4:03
Speaker 1: dollar investment in the next ten years in green energy.
4:07
Speaker 1: This is where the government picks companies to give grants
4:11
Speaker 1: to or to invest in, rather than just leave it
4:14
Speaker 1: to the private sector, leave it to venture capital companies
4:18
Speaker 1: to work out. Even left leading journalist Michelle Gratton was
4:23
Speaker 1: worried that this would see taxpayer funds will, as she
4:27
Speaker 1: put it, go up in smoke.
4:30
Speaker 4: What these protections will be, What are the off ramps?
4:34
Speaker 4: Why people should have confidence that their money won't just
4:38
Speaker 4: go up in smoke.
4:41
Speaker 1: The Treasurer today seemed to acknowledge just how controversial the
4:45
Speaker 1: budget was, but he argued he was channeling Hawk and
4:49
Speaker 1: Keating in their reform agenda.
4:52
Speaker 5: Now, anything this ambitious will invite a range of responses.
4:56
Speaker 5: I'm relaxed about that. Not all of those responses, my view,
5:00
Speaker 5: are right. The great reformers of the nineteen eighties and
5:03
Speaker 5: nineteen nineties weren't successful because they looked back and reached
5:08
Speaker 5: for the solutions that might have been right for the
5:10
Speaker 5: problems of forty years prior. They were successful because they
5:14
Speaker 5: looked forward. They were successful because they recognized that the
5:18
Speaker 5: times had changed and the world was changing. They were
5:22
Speaker 5: successful because they were strategic rather than nostalgic.
5:27
Speaker 1: But critics disagree with the treasurer, and they question what
5:31
Speaker 1: impact the budget will have on interest rates. The Treasurer
5:34
Speaker 1: says the budget will take the pressure off inflation, but
5:38
Speaker 1: economists sphere it could make inflation worse. Now, Jim Chalmer's
5:43
Speaker 1: argument is that giving relief to areas like energy bills
5:47
Speaker 1: and rents reduces those components of CPI, But the risk
5:52
Speaker 1: is that the extra money some people have in their
5:54
Speaker 1: pocket could be spent elsewhere and thus contribute to inflation
6:00
Speaker 1: and the need for a rate rise.
6:03
Speaker 6: I still think the most likely outcome is right hikes,
6:06
Speaker 6: but maybe not through.
6:07
Speaker 7: The idea that this is somehow going to trick the
6:10
Speaker 7: Reserve Bank into reducing interest rates.
6:13
Speaker 8: Come on, it's a con job.
6:14
Speaker 5: This is inflationary.
6:16
Speaker 6: It's going to drive up inflation and therefore interest rates.
6:20
Speaker 1: So this is why the decision by labor to in
6:23
Speaker 1: effect spend their way out of an inflation crisis is,
6:27
Speaker 1: as Paul Kelly says, against the orthodoxy, it's high risk.
6:32
Speaker 1: Where Albin Eazy was questioned on this in the media today.
6:36
Speaker 9: You're entirely confident that the combination of the energy bill
6:39
Speaker 9: relief and the increase in common wealth franticisms will drive
6:42
Speaker 9: down inflation by that half a percentage point.
6:45
Speaker 3: Next to you, well, that's what Treasury have said.
6:48
Speaker 9: We should do back them because they get stuff wrong.
6:51
Speaker 9: They got the deficit, which is turned into a surplus
6:54
Speaker 9: wrong by about ten million dollars.
6:56
Speaker 4: No what we've done.
6:58
Speaker 1: If that calculation is wrong from Treasury and if rates rise,
7:03
Speaker 1: and they could do so of course for a variety
7:05
Speaker 1: of reasons. But if the government then is blamed for
7:08
Speaker 1: the rate rise, this will be a massive political issue
7:12
Speaker 1: heading into the next federal election. Now, Albanezi currently sits
7:16
Speaker 1: in the lodge with a slim majority. Labour has seventy
7:21
Speaker 1: eight seats, the coalition holds fifty five, Independence twelve and
7:26
Speaker 1: minor parties six. The coalition needs around nineteen seats to
7:31
Speaker 1: form majority government, but if an election were held today,
7:36
Speaker 1: it's likely that Labor would lose its majority at the
7:40
Speaker 1: very least now, with a four percent swing against Labor,
7:45
Speaker 1: they'd likely lose eleven seats, taking them down to sixty
7:50
Speaker 1: seven seats. Now, these eleven seats would be gains for
7:53
Speaker 1: the Coalition, bringing their tally up to around sixty six.
7:58
Speaker 1: This would of course mean a hung parliament, but then
8:02
Speaker 1: the Coalition might also win a seat or two back
8:04
Speaker 1: from the Teals, putting them ahead of Labor. Now, no question,
8:09
Speaker 1: the coalition recovering ground is a very tough ask, but
8:14
Speaker 1: Dutton's team believe that this budget makes their task of
8:18
Speaker 1: trying to win government just that little bit easier. Now
8:26
Speaker 1: coming up on the show tonight, can the Liberals win
8:28
Speaker 1: back the blue ribbon seat of Wentworth from the teal
8:31
Speaker 1: a legraspender will their new candidate Roe Knox will be
8:36
Speaker 1: joining me for her first exclusive interview later this show.
8:40
Speaker 1: A Labor politician also has today called for Israel's annihilation
8:44
Speaker 1: by repeating a hate chant that even Anthony Albanesi said
8:48
Speaker 1: has no place in Australia. So will he find the
8:52
Speaker 1: courage as Prime Minister to call out his own politician. Plus,
8:57
Speaker 1: Julie Bishop criticized for wearing expensive dress to a fashion
9:01
Speaker 1: week instead of shutting down anti Semitism at a and
9:05
Speaker 1: you where she's the chancellor. But first, now, let's bring
9:09
Speaker 1: in tonight's political panel, Liberal Senator Holly Hughes and Labor
9:13
Speaker 1: MP Andrew Charlton. Holly, Andrew, great to see you both. Look,
9:17
Speaker 1: let's of course start with the budget. The big question
9:21
Speaker 1: today has been inflation. The Treasurer committing seven point eight
9:24
Speaker 1: billion dollars on new cost of living measures. This includes
9:28
Speaker 1: a three point five billion energy bill relief package. There
9:32
Speaker 1: have been some concerns from economists that this will drive
9:35
Speaker 1: up inflation. Holly, what do you think do you think
9:39
Speaker 1: the budget here does risk increasing inflation and thus leading
9:46
Speaker 1: the IRBA to have to put up rates.
9:49
Speaker 10: Absolutely, But I think this three hundred dollar payment to
9:52
Speaker 10: every household is typical of this labor government, completely ill
9:57
Speaker 10: conceived because again no details about how it's going to
10:02
Speaker 10: be delivered and who it's going to be delivered to.
10:04
Speaker 10: And I know here with Andrew, I know there was
10:07
Speaker 10: a question, hypothetical question by Paul Fletcher in the House
10:10
Speaker 10: of Representatives today about someone who might have to mote
10:13
Speaker 10: from Bellvue Hill to Parramatta and also have a lovely
10:16
Speaker 10: holiday home in Palm Beach whether or not they would
10:18
Speaker 10: get payments for each of those homes. And we don't know,
10:22
Speaker 10: because again the devil is in the detail and it's
10:25
Speaker 10: completely lacking. But what we do know the one thing
10:29
Speaker 10: that the Treasurer has said that is true.
10:30
Speaker 1: This is a labor budget.
10:32
Speaker 10: This is a tax and spend, tax and spend, tax
10:34
Speaker 10: and spend budget. It is hugely putting pressures on families.
10:40
Speaker 10: The spending has cost thirty thousand dollars per person in
10:43
Speaker 10: Australia to people in Australia. I feel thirty thousand dollars
10:46
Speaker 10: better off since this government's been in No. The reality
10:50
Speaker 10: is every average family with a mortgage has had to
10:53
Speaker 10: find an additional thirty five thousand dollars per year while
10:57
Speaker 10: seeing their standard of living drop by over seven and
11:00
Speaker 10: a half percent. This is a budget that is just
11:02
Speaker 10: going to cause more and more pain, and more and
11:04
Speaker 10: more pain for longer.
11:06
Speaker 1: All right, Andrew, what's your response to this? I mean
11:09
Speaker 1: I quoted Paul Kelly in my introduction there that this
11:12
Speaker 1: is an unorthodox budget in the sense that labor is
11:15
Speaker 1: spending its way out of an inflation crisis. What do
11:19
Speaker 1: you think about that criticism today?
11:22
Speaker 7: Well, firstly, can I just say maybe Holly wasn't listening
11:25
Speaker 7: last night, but she just said that the government hasn't
11:28
Speaker 7: provided any details. They haven't said who it's going to
11:31
Speaker 7: go to, and that's going to everyone.
11:32
Speaker 11: It's going to be received for going to every time.
11:34
Speaker 7: I'm received as an automatic rebase.
11:36
Speaker 10: So if you've got a couple of houses to get
11:38
Speaker 10: it a couple of times, don't interrupt.
11:40
Speaker 1: That's the detail house.
11:41
Speaker 2: You've tried to attack me. Now you're trying to interrupt me.
11:43
Speaker 7: You ask two questions. The government has been incredibly clear
11:46
Speaker 7: on the answer to both of those questions. It goes
11:49
Speaker 7: to everybody and you get it automatically. So if those
11:52
Speaker 7: are your two main questions coming out of the budget,
11:54
Speaker 7: you need to read the budget papers more clearly, Charie,
11:57
Speaker 7: the reason why the Liberals are hopping up and about
12:00
Speaker 7: this is because Labor has delivered what they could not
12:03
Speaker 7: in three terms of government. They could not deliver a
12:06
Speaker 7: single budget surplus and Labor has just delivered too. And
12:11
Speaker 7: I understand they're mad about that. I understand that really
12:14
Speaker 7: sticks in their craw. But the truth is we have
12:16
Speaker 7: delivered the appropriate and prudent fiscal setting that they were
12:21
Speaker 7: unable to and that is why we have been able
12:23
Speaker 7: to reduce inflation now by more than half from what
12:27
Speaker 7: they left us. So all they've got is negativity and
12:30
Speaker 7: personal attacks and not reading the budget and you can
12:33
Speaker 7: see why Australia didn't vote for them at.
12:34
Speaker 6: The last time.
12:35
Speaker 1: Come on, Andrew, just say it, Just say it.
12:38
Speaker 10: Tell Australians they've never had it so good, because that
12:41
Speaker 10: is the rhetoric coming out of the Albanese government. And
12:44
Speaker 10: I'm yet to meet one Australian whose life has got
12:46
Speaker 10: better since this government has been in power. We've seen
12:50
Speaker 10: housing go up, groceries go up, insurance.
12:52
Speaker 1: Go up, fuel go up.
12:54
Speaker 10: We know that there's been twelve interest rate rises. No
12:58
Speaker 10: one is better off. He said before the election it
13:01
Speaker 10: wouldn't be easy under alban easy, and quite frankly was Yep,
13:04
Speaker 10: it's a slogan. It's proven very prophetic.
13:07
Speaker 2: Holly.
13:08
Speaker 7: You left all those prices going up. You left inflation
13:12
Speaker 7: at the end of your government, at the end of
13:13
Speaker 7: the rate. It is right now. You are the reason
13:17
Speaker 7: why all of those categories.
13:20
Speaker 1: This is homegrown inflation, and we have.
13:22
Speaker 7: Now brought the rate of inflation down by half. Can't
13:26
Speaker 7: argue numbers.
13:27
Speaker 2: One hundred abs.
13:30
Speaker 7: So Shari, we have hang on, just let me finish
13:33
Speaker 7: on this point. We have we have improved the budget
13:35
Speaker 7: position from what you left us by two hundred and
13:39
Speaker 7: fifteen billion dollars over the six years Andrew Andrew with
13:44
Speaker 7: a trillion dollars of debt.
13:46
Speaker 1: Andrew, you go, thank you. Look it's we have seen
13:51
Speaker 1: economists today who are not politically aligned, who are saying
13:55
Speaker 1: that yes, while the assistance on energy and rent might
13:59
Speaker 1: bring down those components of the CPI. Many Australians having
14:03
Speaker 1: the extra cash could mean that they'll spend it in
14:05
Speaker 1: the economy and that that's a risk that that will
14:08
Speaker 1: then raise inflation. So these are economists saying this today,
14:11
Speaker 1: not the liberals. What's your response to that concern? Do
14:15
Speaker 1: you admit that that is a concern.
14:19
Speaker 7: Well, the direct impact of these rebates and other costs
14:22
Speaker 7: of living measures the Treasury has forecast will reduce the
14:26
Speaker 7: rate of inflation this year and next year, and what
14:31
Speaker 7: that means is that we'll have a lower rate of
14:33
Speaker 7: headline inflation, and of course that takes pressure off prices
14:37
Speaker 7: and it also takes pressure off the RBA. There are
14:40
Speaker 7: plenty of different views out there about other consequences of
14:44
Speaker 7: that relief, but the Treasury has forecast and we've seen
14:48
Speaker 7: this in the previous round of relief that we provided,
14:52
Speaker 7: where the Treasury also forecast that there would be a
14:55
Speaker 7: negative impact on inflation, and we did see that negative
14:58
Speaker 7: impact on inflation coming through, and inflation has come down
15:02
Speaker 7: since that last set of relief measures. That's exactly what
15:05
Speaker 7: we anticipate with these relief measures. Done it before, we're
15:09
Speaker 7: proposing to do it again.
15:10
Speaker 1: Although they do although they do coincide, of course, with
15:15
Speaker 1: greater tax cuts that will come in from July one,
15:18
Speaker 1: so people will have more money in their pocket, Holly.
15:21
Speaker 1: Just to be even handed here, you know, it is
15:25
Speaker 1: unusual to see the Coalition arguing today that that three
15:28
Speaker 1: hundred dollars energy assistance. I mean, I mean the Coalition
15:32
Speaker 1: has been hammering Labor over the fact that he promised
15:37
Speaker 1: energy relief would be you know, two hundred and seventy
15:39
Speaker 1: if you'd have two hundred and seventy five dollars more
15:42
Speaker 1: in your pocket from your power bills. The Coalition has
15:44
Speaker 1: been hammering Labor over that promise, which has been a
15:47
Speaker 1: broken promise. Rightly, so Labor is now saying every single
15:50
Speaker 1: Australian will have three hundred dollars back in their pocket
15:54
Speaker 1: in energy relief. So I find it unusual that the
15:56
Speaker 1: Coalition has argued against this today. Wouldn't you be support
16:00
Speaker 1: of that?
16:02
Speaker 2: Well?
16:02
Speaker 10: I think that the difference is Shari that they promised
16:05
Speaker 10: to two hundred and seventy five reduction in your power
16:08
Speaker 10: bills so that your power bills would actually decline, that
16:12
Speaker 10: energy would not be as expensive. Instead we have seen
16:15
Speaker 10: it continue to do.
16:17
Speaker 1: This is going to be this is going to be three.
16:21
Speaker 10: Yeah, but it's three hundred dollars off what your bill is.
16:24
Speaker 10: The electricity costs the same. You're just getting a rebate
16:28
Speaker 10: or a subsidy or a payment, whatever you want to
16:31
Speaker 10: call it. Your electricity bill hasn't gone down. It's just
16:36
Speaker 10: three hundred dollars that the government is paying what mister
16:39
Speaker 10: Albnezy promised Australians.
16:42
Speaker 1: Why should it be means tested? Why shouldn't all Australians
16:45
Speaker 1: have that.
16:45
Speaker 10: I'm not saying that's what it should be. The question
16:48
Speaker 10: I have to Andrew that he brushed off. No, if
16:51
Speaker 10: you've got multiple houses. If you've got multiple houses, you
16:56
Speaker 10: know what's mess Andrew? Is your government and what's happening?
16:58
Speaker 10: Do you know what we've just been doing in this
17:00
Speaker 10: in the Senate chare This government is putting a billion
17:04
Speaker 10: dollars one billion dollars towards rebranding the Administrative Appeals Tribunal
17:10
Speaker 10: to the Administrative Review Tribunal. There is the only change
17:14
Speaker 10: will be the A to the R. Maybe a nice
17:17
Speaker 10: new font and let ahead, but mainly so they can
17:21
Speaker 10: stack it with labor apparachiks as Mark Dreyfuses want to
17:25
Speaker 10: do this is what we had a change of hours
17:28
Speaker 10: order in the Senate today so they could ram it
17:30
Speaker 10: through with some sweetheart deal with the Greens. You tell
17:33
Speaker 10: me a billion dollars is best spent on a rebrand
17:36
Speaker 10: of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal versus going to either cost
17:40
Speaker 10: of living measures. Think of all the money that's going
17:43
Speaker 10: to mental health. We're going to a mental health crisis.
17:45
Speaker 10: But no, let's do a rebrand for Mark Dreyfus. So
17:48
Speaker 10: if this is a government who's got priorities, right, I
17:50
Speaker 10: don't think so.
17:51
Speaker 1: All right, Andrew Charlton, you're a very serious economist, so
17:55
Speaker 1: I was quite surprised to see this video of you
17:59
Speaker 1: on social media. Have a look, Andrew, can you explain
18:10
Speaker 1: formally what is a fit check and what you were
18:13
Speaker 1: doing there?
18:15
Speaker 7: Look, I have to admit I don't know what a
18:18
Speaker 7: fit check is. I believe it is a TikTok trend.
18:23
Speaker 7: Some of my colleagues were having a bit of fun
18:26
Speaker 7: and they decided to jump on a TikTok trend. Some
18:30
Speaker 7: people will love it, some people will hate it. Most
18:33
Speaker 7: of the time in Canberra we're working pretty hard, doing
18:35
Speaker 7: pretty serious business. Every now and then we get a
18:37
Speaker 7: couple of minutes to have a little bit of fun.
18:39
Speaker 1: It looked a bit like a pre budget fashion parade,
18:45
Speaker 1: all right, Holly Hughes Andrew Charlton, thank you very much
18:47
Speaker 1: for that lively discussion tonight. Now don't go anywhere. The
18:51
Speaker 1: battle to win back seats from the Teals has begun
18:53
Speaker 1: and the liberals new candidate for the seat of Wentworth
18:56
Speaker 1: joins me next for her first exclusive interview. Plus, we'll
19:00
Speaker 1: get the latest on the takeover of a building at
19:03
Speaker 1: the University of Melbourne. Police are now on standby. Stay tune,
19:13
Speaker 1: welcome back.
19:13
Speaker 2: Well.
19:14
Speaker 1: The Liberals have a big fight ahead, not only to
19:16
Speaker 1: defeat Labor, but to win back inner city seats from
19:20
Speaker 1: the Teals. The price seat of Wentworth in Sydney's East,
19:23
Speaker 1: currently held by a Legras spender. Now, in a historic move,
19:27
Speaker 1: the New Southelia Liberals have selected their first ever female
19:31
Speaker 1: candidate for the seat, which was of course previously held
19:35
Speaker 1: by Malcolm Turnbull. Former Deloitte consultant and businesswoman Ronox joins
19:41
Speaker 1: me now for her first interview. Broth, thank you so
19:44
Speaker 1: much for joining us today.
19:46
Speaker 12: Chari, thanks so much for having me on the show.
19:48
Speaker 1: Now, look, before we get into some of the trickier questions.
19:51
Speaker 1: Can you tell us a bit about your background and
19:54
Speaker 1: how you came to be here?
19:56
Speaker 12: Oh, thanks, Chary. Yes, I studied law. I then went
20:00
Speaker 12: straight into management consulting. I worked in Chicago and New
20:05
Speaker 12: York with Deloitte Consulting, and I worked in financial services.
20:09
Speaker 12: So we worked for some of the biggest clients on
20:12
Speaker 12: Wall Street. Fantastic experience. Then a group of us left
20:16
Speaker 12: and we formed a small venture capital firm where we
20:19
Speaker 12: invested in pre market entrepreneurs. And now I'm a small
20:23
Speaker 12: business owner. I've lived in Wentworth for almost twenty years
20:27
Speaker 12: and I'm passionate about the community and I want to
20:30
Speaker 12: bring that big business experience, the entrepreneur experience, the small
20:34
Speaker 12: business experience, and my passionate and knowledge of the seat,
20:38
Speaker 12: so solving the great problems that are facing Wentworth and
20:40
Speaker 12: indeed the country.
20:42
Speaker 1: And you've left out the important fact you're a mum
20:44
Speaker 1: of course as well. I am a mum teenage kids.
20:47
Speaker 1: Yes i am.
20:48
Speaker 12: I am a most important job some good ig.
20:50
Speaker 1: Now let's start with the budget that Jim Chalmers handed
20:53
Speaker 1: down last night. I mean, as a former venture capitalist,
20:57
Speaker 1: you might have a view on the twenty two billion
21:00
Speaker 1: Made in Australia program. What do you think about it?
21:02
Speaker 12: I certainly have a strong view on that. My view
21:05
Speaker 12: is it's very unusual for a government to be investing
21:11
Speaker 12: this heavily, and there's been some significant concerns around the
21:14
Speaker 12: due diligence in terms of the industries that have been
21:17
Speaker 12: invested in. And I just know as a previous venture
21:21
Speaker 12: capitalist that it's really important to have a huge amount
21:25
Speaker 12: of transparency in what you invest in, and also that
21:28
Speaker 12: you have a really mixed portfolio of investments. And this
21:32
Speaker 12: feels very targeted and.
21:34
Speaker 1: Like they've picked some companies, particularly that one quantum computing
21:38
Speaker 1: company for a billion dollars instead of diversifying and well,
21:41
Speaker 1: if they had to invest taxpayer funds in a risky
21:44
Speaker 1: area at.
21:45
Speaker 12: All, absolutely very unusual and very unusual to just do
21:48
Speaker 12: one geographic area as well.
21:50
Speaker 1: What about this debate that's unfolding about whether the budget
21:53
Speaker 1: will be inflationary.
21:54
Speaker 13: What do you think.
21:55
Speaker 12: I have a lot of concerns the budget is inflationary,
21:58
Speaker 12: and we know that in is the biggest driver in
22:02
Speaker 12: the cost of living crisis. This cost of living crisis
22:05
Speaker 12: that has been created by the labor Albanesi government, and
22:09
Speaker 12: I'm very concerned it's going to continue that inflation. I'm
22:13
Speaker 12: also concerned in the budget there wasn't any there's no
22:16
Speaker 12: growth story, and we don't talk about productivity at all,
22:20
Speaker 12: and the Liberals are constantly talking both about growth, productivity
22:26
Speaker 12: and also obviously the vital importance of reducing.
22:30
Speaker 1: Inflation, although productivity of costs has been lagging for the
22:33
Speaker 1: best part of a decade. Look, you're the seat you're
22:36
Speaker 1: running in. Wentworth has one of the highest Jewish populations
22:40
Speaker 1: in the country. Anti Semitism has been a major issue.
22:43
Speaker 1: What's your view on the Albanesi government's response to this crisis.
22:48
Speaker 12: I think it's been very poor and very weak leadership.
22:53
Speaker 12: We've seen a huge rise in anti Semitism since the
22:56
Speaker 12: October seventh attacks, and this has been very very concerning
23:01
Speaker 12: for our community, and not only because of the anti Semitism,
23:05
Speaker 12: because it's indicative of a lack of social cohesion that
23:09
Speaker 12: we're seeing throughout the country, and that's because of the
23:11
Speaker 12: weak leadership by this Albanese labor government.
23:15
Speaker 1: Alegrisbander signed a letter calling for funding to resume to
23:20
Speaker 1: Unread despite its clear links to Hermas. Do you think
23:24
Speaker 1: the federal government should be funding UNRA. I don't.
23:28
Speaker 12: Israel has shown clear evidence that Anoir was involved in
23:33
Speaker 12: the attacks SPI Kamas on October seventh, and the view
23:38
Speaker 12: of the Teals for signing that letter was that there
23:40
Speaker 12: was no other way to get humanitarian aid into Gaza.
23:44
Speaker 12: And we know for a fact that the Americans were
23:46
Speaker 12: building water jetties. A day later they were doing air drops.
23:50
Speaker 12: So that view that that was the only way to
23:53
Speaker 12: get it in was completely unfounded, and I think it
23:55
Speaker 12: was very disappointing that that letter was signed.
23:58
Speaker 1: Do you support Natanya move into Rafa to defeat Hermas? So?
24:03
Speaker 12: I understand Israel's main objectives are to defeat Kamas, and
24:09
Speaker 12: I understand that I'm not.
24:11
Speaker 1: A military expert, and.
24:15
Speaker 12: My view is we need to focus on bringing home
24:18
Speaker 12: the one hundred and thirty two hostages, and I'll leave
24:22
Speaker 12: that up to the military experts whether moving into Rafa
24:25
Speaker 12: will actually achieve that or not.
24:27
Speaker 1: So you don't object to Natanyahu going into Rafa on
24:31
Speaker 1: a ground invasion, well.
24:33
Speaker 12: I think Israel has a right to defend itself. Israel
24:36
Speaker 12: is its own nation. It's able to make those military
24:40
Speaker 12: decisions it sees fit.
24:42
Speaker 1: All right, Look, the Liberals campaign in went Worth at
24:45
Speaker 1: the last federal election was highly criticized. What are you
24:49
Speaker 1: planning to do to defeat a lag respander and how
24:52
Speaker 1: do you think she's gone as an MP?
24:55
Speaker 12: So I think the issue with the Teals in general
24:58
Speaker 12: is many people voted for them at the last election
25:01
Speaker 12: because they thought they were independent, but unfortunately the Teals
25:06
Speaker 12: vote overwhelmingly with the Greens and Labor and we know
25:12
Speaker 12: in our seat of Wentworth the biggest issue. I've been
25:15
Speaker 12: talking to small businesses, I've been talking to people on
25:19
Speaker 12: the ground. The biggest issue for Wentworth is a cost
25:22
Speaker 12: of living crisis which is caused by the Labor Albanezi government.
25:28
Speaker 1: But Legrispender has gone as a local MP for Wentworth.
25:32
Speaker 12: I think she's been unable to deliver because the Teals
25:35
Speaker 12: don't have a seat at the table and they're unable
25:37
Speaker 12: to get any legislation through the Parliament. So she's been
25:41
Speaker 12: unable to deliver.
25:43
Speaker 1: All right, ro NOTx, thank you very much for your time.
25:44
Speaker 12: Miss Thank you so much, Sari.
25:47
Speaker 1: Now returning to the federal budget. Now for a more
25:50
Speaker 1: in depth analysis of the winners and losers. I'm joined
25:53
Speaker 1: by Macro Business Chief Economist Leith van Ansalen. Leith, thank
25:57
Speaker 1: you very much for joining me once again. Look, as
26:00
Speaker 1: I've been speaking about tonight, there are major concerns from
26:04
Speaker 1: economists about whether the spending in the budget could indirectly
26:09
Speaker 1: lead to rate rises. Do you think this is a
26:12
Speaker 1: legitimate concern?
26:14
Speaker 2: Not really.
26:15
Speaker 6: I'm not as concerned about the impact on inflation. So
26:18
Speaker 6: obviously the key signature measures were the cost of living
26:23
Speaker 6: relief in terms of rental subsease, energy substies.
26:26
Speaker 2: All those sorts of things.
26:27
Speaker 6: I think those will could bring down inflation marginally or
26:31
Speaker 6: have minimal impact. My bigger concern sharing is that these
26:36
Speaker 6: are band aids to basically cover over poor policy decisions
26:41
Speaker 6: and poor policy making by the federal government, and they
26:44
Speaker 6: do not address the underlying policy failures of this government. So,
26:47
Speaker 6: for example, I talk about it almost every week that
26:49
Speaker 6: view seems sharing with the rental crisis. The federal Government's
26:53
Speaker 6: going to spend our money to provide rental relief to
26:57
Speaker 6: a rental crisis that has been caused by the federal
27:00
Speaker 6: government's own policy failures, for example in mass immigration. So
27:04
Speaker 6: instead of addressing the policy failures directly, they're going to
27:08
Speaker 6: provide these substies. The same can be said about energy subsies.
27:11
Speaker 6: So Australia's an energy superpower, Sharry. We should have the
27:14
Speaker 6: cheapest energy in the world, but instead, through policy failure,
27:18
Speaker 6: we actually have some of the most expensive energy in
27:20
Speaker 6: the world and that's driving up our cost of living.
27:21
Speaker 6: It's also seeing our manufacturers broke. So instead of fixing
27:26
Speaker 6: the energy market directly and lowering the cost of energy
27:28
Speaker 6: for households and businesses, the federal government is instead going
27:32
Speaker 6: to spend our money to band Aid over its own
27:35
Speaker 6: policy failures. I think that's the bigger issue here, rather
27:38
Speaker 6: than focusing on, you know, whether or not it's going
27:39
Speaker 6: to impact inflation in the short run.
27:43
Speaker 1: Look, there have been concerns, you know, you speak about
27:45
Speaker 1: energy that people like Twiggy Forest will benefit from where
27:50
Speaker 1: the government's directing money and subsidies to in this budget.
27:53
Speaker 1: What's your take on that.
27:55
Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely.
27:56
Speaker 6: Look, Look, look the whole problem around around energy is
28:00
Speaker 6: Australia has incredibly high energy process. I'm talking about you know,
28:03
Speaker 6: electricity and gas. I'm not obviously talking about oil because
28:06
Speaker 6: we're on an oil producer, but we export the line
28:09
Speaker 6: share of our coal, the line share of our.
28:10
Speaker 2: Gas we should have.
28:11
Speaker 6: We are an energy superpower, we should have incredibly cheap energy,
28:15
Speaker 6: but through policy failures, we actually have some of the
28:17
Speaker 6: most expend expensive energy in the world. And as a result,
28:20
Speaker 6: we have a whole conger line of manufacturers that are
28:23
Speaker 6: going broke or that they're going to exit Australia. So Queenos,
28:27
Speaker 6: the Australia's last major plastics manufacturer, Aurica, the exposive manufacturer Nesle,
28:32
Speaker 6: and PepsiCo have all worn in the last month. But
28:35
Speaker 6: Australia's energy costs are far too high and they're going
28:37
Speaker 6: to either exit Australia or they already have exited Australia.
28:40
Speaker 6: So while the album is government bangs on about its
28:42
Speaker 6: future made policy, we have all these manufacturers who are
28:46
Speaker 6: effectively said Australia is a bad place to do business
28:48
Speaker 6: because the energy costs are so high. So I think
28:51
Speaker 6: the federal government needs to focus on fixing the energy
28:54
Speaker 6: marketing market delivered US cheap energy so then our manufacturers
28:58
Speaker 6: can actually survive, rather throwing money at all these boon
29:01
Speaker 6: doggle energy as all these boondoggle manufacturing projects look.
29:06
Speaker 1: Of course, the surplus last night and last year is
29:09
Speaker 1: definitely welcome, no question about that. But the deficits built in,
29:15
Speaker 1: you know, the debt over the next decade is quite terrifying.
29:19
Speaker 1: What's your take on whether enough has been done here?
29:23
Speaker 2: Yeah.
29:23
Speaker 6: Look, look, obviously the government's delivered a small surplus this
29:27
Speaker 6: financial years. It's supposed to bigger deficits over the next
29:31
Speaker 6: few years. By world standards, is not incredibly high, but
29:34
Speaker 6: obviously you always want you'd rather.
29:36
Speaker 2: Have surplaces than deficits.
29:37
Speaker 6: I think the bigger problem sharring is actually at the
29:39
Speaker 6: state bud the state government level. So you know, I
29:42
Speaker 6: talk about this with you previously. The federal government, through
29:45
Speaker 6: its high immigration policy, actually has boosted its own budget
29:48
Speaker 6: through tax receipts and company taxes. The problem is the
29:51
Speaker 6: cost of that is falling on the state governments, and
29:53
Speaker 6: now we're seeing states like Victoria drowning in monstrous amounts
29:56
Speaker 6: of debt, risking credit rating downgrades. New Southwell governments also
30:00
Speaker 6: getting buried. And a lot of the reasons for that
30:02
Speaker 6: is its populations have grown really quickly, but it doesn't
30:05
Speaker 6: have the money to provide the infrastructure services for that,
30:08
Speaker 6: and that's burying those governments in debt. So I think
30:10
Speaker 6: the bigger issues around state budgets.
30:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, Leith fan Onsen, thank you so much
30:14
Speaker 1: for joining me tonight. As always, Now, after the break,
30:18
Speaker 1: a labor MP breaks ranks to accuse Israel of genocide,
30:21
Speaker 1: ending her comments with a hate chart. Class will cross
30:25
Speaker 1: live to the University of Melbourne where students have seized
30:28
Speaker 1: a building and police are on standby. I'm also going
30:31
Speaker 1: to joined be joined by my political panel Josh Burns
30:35
Speaker 1: and Michael Koga. Stay jammed. All right, welcome back. Let's
30:44
Speaker 1: return to the breaking news now that as we speak,
30:46
Speaker 1: Pro Palestinian protesters are refusing to move from the University
30:50
Speaker 1: of Melbourne. They've taken over a building. Classes have been counseled,
30:55
Speaker 1: staff and students were told to avoid the area for
30:58
Speaker 1: their own safety. Lease are on standby. I'm joined now
31:02
Speaker 1: by The Herald's son In Melbourne's reporter Lauren Hutchinson, who
31:06
Speaker 1: is there live at the scene. Lauren, thank you so
31:09
Speaker 1: much for joining us. Take us through what's happening right
31:12
Speaker 1: behind you.
31:16
Speaker 2: Well.
31:16
Speaker 14: Currently either around eighty protests in and outside the buildings.
31:22
Speaker 14: At APM, the building was scheduled to close. However, at
31:27
Speaker 14: that time only more tenths were being brought in through
31:30
Speaker 14: the building. So there are a dozen of tenths inside
31:34
Speaker 14: the building and still no place on things.
31:37
Speaker 1: And so I understand that the protesters have been warned
31:41
Speaker 1: that they might be arrested. They've been getting legal advice.
31:45
Speaker 1: Can you tell us, you know you've overheard some of
31:48
Speaker 1: what's happening there. What are they preparing for this evening?
31:54
Speaker 15: Yes, well, only half an hour ago, protesters were briefing
32:01
Speaker 15: each other on what to do when they expect today's
32:05
Speaker 15: police sometime this evening.
32:07
Speaker 1: They were briefing each other on what to do when
32:11
Speaker 1: the great possibility that they will.
32:12
Speaker 15: Be arrested for trest parting adventures this evening, So they're
32:16
Speaker 15: preparing for the worst.
32:19
Speaker 1: All right, Lauren Hutchinson, thank you so much for joining
32:22
Speaker 1: us there to bring us that news that encampment happening now.
32:26
Speaker 1: Pro Palestinian protesters have taken over a building at the
32:28
Speaker 1: University of Melbourne. It's exactly what happened at Columbia University
32:32
Speaker 1: with Hamilton Hall that lasted some forty eight hours before
32:36
Speaker 1: police eventually moved in and arrested all the protesters and
32:40
Speaker 1: cleared out that building so that classes could resume. We'll
32:43
Speaker 1: see how the University of Melbourne handle it. The chancellors
32:46
Speaker 1: at all of the universities pretty much have been extremely weak.
32:51
Speaker 1: Now let's get back to our federal budget coverage. Now
32:54
Speaker 1: let's bring in former Victorian Liberal Party president at Michael
32:57
Speaker 1: Kroger and Labor MP Josh Burns. Thank you both very
33:01
Speaker 1: much for your time this evening. Michael Kroger, first to you,
33:05
Speaker 1: what's your takeout, what's your analysis of the budget handed
33:08
Speaker 1: down by Treasurer Jim Chalmers last night.
33:12
Speaker 13: Well, he's spending like a drunken salor, so you know,
33:17
Speaker 13: expenditure to GDP next year gets to twenty six point
33:21
Speaker 13: six percent, the highest in forty years. Putting aside the pandemic,
33:25
Speaker 13: he's got one hundred and twenty billion dollars worth of
33:27
Speaker 13: deficits coming in the next four years, which is why
33:30
Speaker 13: I don't think there'll be another budget before before the election.
33:34
Speaker 13: That's before you add the eighty billion dollars off balance
33:36
Speaker 13: sheet that he's spending, which is on sort of on
33:38
Speaker 13: capital account, not on the income and expenditure account. Spending
33:43
Speaker 13: is out of control under this government. He can't control
33:46
Speaker 13: his spending. He should be thanking the mining industry for
33:50
Speaker 13: keeping his budget afloat. But this guy's out of his depth.
33:55
Speaker 13: He's out of money. And if you want to know
33:58
Speaker 13: why it's so respet reponsible, you just look at the
34:01
Speaker 13: three hundred dollars. Right, these things, of course they should
34:04
Speaker 13: be means tested. Right, people who are well off do
34:07
Speaker 13: not need the three hundred dollars. But it was all
34:10
Speaker 13: too hard, so he just want to give them money.
34:11
Speaker 13: This is typical labor. It's all to just give it
34:13
Speaker 13: to everybody.
34:14
Speaker 2: Right.
34:15
Speaker 13: Australia is going backwards under Charmers. He's not good enough
34:19
Speaker 13: to be treasurer. He's a B grader and he's plundering,
34:23
Speaker 13: you know, the revenues to fulfill his insatiable desire to
34:29
Speaker 13: spend money. And you know, sooner or later the primeness
34:33
Speaker 13: has got to bring him to heal because you know
34:36
Speaker 13: he's damaging the Australian economy. And the final point is this,
34:40
Speaker 13: this is an inflationary budget. If you want to know why.
34:42
Speaker 13: If you want to know why, inflations three and a
34:44
Speaker 13: half percent, right, it was three percent in two thousand
34:46
Speaker 13: and seven, three percent. The Governor Reserve Bank in two
34:49
Speaker 13: thousand and seven said, I'm worried that inflation is getting
34:52
Speaker 13: more than three percent. I've got to increase interest rates,
34:54
Speaker 13: which he did before the election. You know, interest rates
34:57
Speaker 13: then were six and a half percent six he increased
35:00
Speaker 13: it to six point seventy five percent. Just before the election.
35:03
Speaker 13: The gap was three and a half percent between the
35:06
Speaker 13: cash rate and and inflation. And so what you've got
35:12
Speaker 13: in Australia now is a situation where the cash rate
35:16
Speaker 13: probably needs to be higher, even though I don't think
35:19
Speaker 13: there'll be three rate rises, it needs to be high
35:21
Speaker 13: to get inflation under control. And Charmers has done nothing
35:24
Speaker 13: except put oil on the fire.
35:27
Speaker 1: All right, Josh Burns, let's get your response to that.
35:29
Speaker 1: The main things that Michael Kroger just accused your government
35:33
Speaker 1: of spending out of control, The three hundred dollar energy
35:36
Speaker 1: payment should be means tested, and that the budget is inflationary.
35:40
Speaker 1: Josh Burns.
35:42
Speaker 8: Well, good evening, Shari, and good evening, Michael. I mean
35:45
Speaker 8: full credit to Michael for getting out the talking points.
35:48
Speaker 8: He did it with Gusto, but he missed a couple
35:50
Speaker 8: of key facts, one of which is that this is
35:52
Speaker 8: now the second budget in a row where we've delivered
35:54
Speaker 8: a surplus, something that the coalition didn't do despite winning
35:57
Speaker 8: three terms of government. They didn't do it under Tony Abbott,
36:01
Speaker 8: they didn't do it under Malcolm Turnbull, and they didn't
36:03
Speaker 8: do it under the previous bloke Scott Morris and Jim
36:07
Speaker 8: Charmers has done it twice. He's proven that he is
36:09
Speaker 8: managing the budget in a fiscally responsible way while also
36:13
Speaker 8: ensuring that across the country people who are facing the
36:16
Speaker 8: pressures of cost of living I get some support. And
36:19
Speaker 8: whether that's done through the redesigned tax cuts, whether it's
36:22
Speaker 8: done through re reforming the hex system or you know,
36:26
Speaker 8: I mean honestly, Sar. If Michael wants to lead the
36:30
Speaker 8: Liberal Parties charge of talking down lower power prices and
36:34
Speaker 8: a reduction in power prices for Australian families and hard
36:37
Speaker 8: working Australians, then be my guest.
36:40
Speaker 2: It's you should never.
36:41
Speaker 8: Interrupt your opponents where they're making mistakes.
36:43
Speaker 2: He told us, it's to give.
36:48
Speaker 8: By all means, By all means, you should.
36:50
Speaker 2: You should, you should lead.
36:51
Speaker 13: The two and seventy five dollars every year. Sure this
36:57
Speaker 13: and you know you didn't, by the way, Jose, who
36:58
Speaker 13: were doing it? You know, Josh, you know full will
37:02
Speaker 13: Our mutual friend Josh Vrodenberg delivered a budget surplus into
37:05
Speaker 13: eight A nineteen, but in those days it wasn't considered
37:08
Speaker 13: a surplus because the eight billion dollars from the Future
37:11
Speaker 13: Fund wasn't included in the budget. It is now. It
37:14
Speaker 13: is now, but if it had been included then he
37:17
Speaker 13: would have delivered on the same rules the seven billion
37:20
Speaker 13: dollar surplus. So this is all fluff from Jim Charmers,
37:25
Speaker 13: and the chickens are coming home to roost in the
37:26
Speaker 13: next four years. He's leaving us with one hundred and
37:28
Speaker 13: twenty billion dollars of deficits.
37:30
Speaker 1: Okay, We've got a couple of other issues to get to. Labor.
37:33
Speaker 1: Politician Fatima Payment has broken ranks to accuse Israel of genocide.
37:38
Speaker 1: Directly addressing Anthony out Albanezi, she told the SBS, and
37:42
Speaker 1: I'm quoting here, my conscience has been uneasy for far
37:46
Speaker 1: too long, and I must call this out for what
37:48
Speaker 1: it is. This is a genocide and we need to
37:51
Speaker 1: start pretending otherwise. She also said, from the river to
37:55
Speaker 1: the sea, Palestine will be free. Josh Burns, make of
38:00
Speaker 1: these comments from one of your own colleagues.
38:05
Speaker 8: Well, Shari, I mean this is this has been a
38:07
Speaker 8: really hard seven months and I personally am finding it
38:10
Speaker 8: really difficult. And one of the things that I think
38:13
Speaker 8: is really important is that we need to be able
38:15
Speaker 8: to agree and disagree respectfully. Clearly, I disagree. This is
38:19
Speaker 8: a situation where the Prime Minister has outlined our position
38:22
Speaker 8: on the River to the Sea chant, and I support
38:25
Speaker 8: the Prime Minister's stance on this. And you know, it's
38:30
Speaker 8: it's it's a hard thing, and I'm not going to
38:32
Speaker 8: be running sort of commentary on on on Fatima. I
38:35
Speaker 8: like Fatima a lot, She's a friend, and I can
38:38
Speaker 8: see she's hurting.
38:39
Speaker 9: But you know, I.
38:42
Speaker 1: Repeated a hate chant there, a hate chant that even
38:44
Speaker 1: the Prime Minister said has no place on our streets.
38:49
Speaker 8: Yeah, and and and I support the Prime Minister's position
38:52
Speaker 8: on this wholeheartedly. I think that we need to engage
38:56
Speaker 8: respectfully in these debates, and we support a two state solutions.
39:00
Speaker 8: It's really important that we worked towards a two state
39:04
Speaker 8: solution and that that be for a safer, secure Israel
39:07
Speaker 8: and also for one day a viable Palestinian state.
39:10
Speaker 2: And that's why we don't support it.
39:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, Just very quickly, before I go to Michael Kroger
39:15
Speaker 1: on this, topic. On the weekend, Alban Ezy and Penny
39:19
Speaker 1: Wang supported the vote at the UN to give Palestine
39:23
Speaker 1: Palestine a seat at the table. Do you agree with
39:26
Speaker 1: that position and if you disagree, did you make that
39:29
Speaker 1: clear to them?
39:31
Speaker 8: I did, and I outlined my position prior to the vote,
39:35
Speaker 8: and also outlined my position following the vote. I issued
39:39
Speaker 8: a statement which is publicly available for everyone to see,
39:42
Speaker 8: where I outlined some key principles, one of which is
39:45
Speaker 8: that there are still hostages in the ground in somewhere
39:48
Speaker 8: in Gaza. There's still over one hundred and thirty hostages
39:50
Speaker 8: who are unaccounted for, who were taken by a terrorist organization.
39:54
Speaker 7: And I also.
39:54
Speaker 8: Outlined the fact that in her recent speech, the Foreign
39:59
Speaker 8: Minister outlines really important principles, one of which is being
40:02
Speaker 8: that Hamas can play no future role in the governance
40:05
Speaker 8: of Gaza. The other ones being that Palestinian authority needs
40:08
Speaker 8: to be reformed, and then that reform Palaestinian authority cannot
40:13
Speaker 8: be a threat to the people of Israel. And I,
40:17
Speaker 8: in my view, shari I don't believe those conditions have
40:20
Speaker 8: been met yet. So I issued that statement and said
40:22
Speaker 8: that an abstention would have been more appropriate because it
40:25
Speaker 8: would have meant that we're open to future positions, but
40:28
Speaker 8: we're not there yet.
40:29
Speaker 1: Sorry, Michael, was just one last one for Josh.
40:33
Speaker 2: Josh.
40:33
Speaker 1: Look, there is a strong sense that Federal Labor has
40:36
Speaker 1: completely abandoned the Jewish community and Israel. You know, are
40:42
Speaker 1: you alone here and speaking publicly or do you have
40:45
Speaker 1: colleagues who are equally disappointed like you are in the
40:49
Speaker 1: positions that Penny Wong and Alban Easy have taken.
40:54
Speaker 8: Look, Shari, Australia remains a strong friend of Israel, and
40:59
Speaker 8: I'm I'm a customy of that relationship as well as
41:02
Speaker 8: my colleagues, and we've maintained that Israel has a right
41:06
Speaker 8: to defend itself and that following the atrocious attacks on
41:10
Speaker 8: October seven, that Israel, like any other country, has the right.
41:13
Speaker 1: To defend any of your content.
41:15
Speaker 8: I would also yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I
41:18
Speaker 8: would also say that, you know, I have been really
41:21
Speaker 8: hot by colleagues who have reached out. I mean, I'm
41:23
Speaker 8: not going to break their trust. And obviously I'm the
41:27
Speaker 8: only one who has spoken out but publicly, and if
41:30
Speaker 8: others wish to do so, that's a matter for them.
41:31
Speaker 8: But certainly colleagues have come to me and expressed their
41:36
Speaker 8: support and I really appreciate that.
41:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Look, it must be very tough having that
41:41
Speaker 1: isolated position. Michael Kroeger, you know, what do you think
41:45
Speaker 1: of what we're seeing tonight at the University of Melbourne
41:48
Speaker 1: where students pro Palestinian protesters have taken over a building.
41:54
Speaker 13: Well, first of all, can I say to Josh, well
41:58
Speaker 13: done to you on the extremely principled stand you've taken
42:02
Speaker 13: in difficult times. I know it's difficult for you. Everyone
42:05
Speaker 13: knows that. Everyone knows.
42:07
Speaker 1: I agree, but.
42:08
Speaker 13: It won't be much good within your party getting praise
42:11
Speaker 13: from me, mate, But standing on principlehing, there's nothing finer
42:15
Speaker 13: in politics than people of courage, and you've showed courage
42:18
Speaker 13: and I congratulate you, and I'm sure I speak for
42:20
Speaker 13: many many Australians.
42:21
Speaker 1: Well said.
42:21
Speaker 13: Secondly, Shari, let me just say Let me just say this, Shari,
42:26
Speaker 13: these are not pro Palestinian demonstrations. These are demonstrations of
42:31
Speaker 13: Jewish hatred. Right. All this nonsense about oh, we're opposed
42:35
Speaker 13: to the Israeli government, we're opposed again to Raffa, We're
42:38
Speaker 13: all about the Palestinians. What a lot of hogwash. Why
42:42
Speaker 13: don't they just come out and be honest and say
42:43
Speaker 13: we hate Jews? Right, Why don't the far left racists
42:47
Speaker 13: come out and be honest and say, look, we just
42:49
Speaker 13: hate Jews. That's why, that's why we're demonstrating. Go back
42:53
Speaker 13: to nineteen seventy, when I was only what thirteen? I
42:56
Speaker 13: never remember reading in the papers any demonstrations. When King
42:59
Speaker 13: Has of Jordan he expelled Arafat and all the Palestinians
43:03
Speaker 13: from Jordan because they were causing too much military strife.
43:07
Speaker 13: He expelled the Palestinians with their demonstrations. Then, no, with
43:11
Speaker 13: their demonstrations twenty three years ago, when Iran and Iraq
43:16
Speaker 13: killed one to two million dollars of each one to
43:19
Speaker 13: two million of each other's citizens, No, two thousand people
43:22
Speaker 13: killed in Yemen when Arabs were killing Arabs. No, when
43:25
Speaker 13: isis when al Qaeda was slaughtering other Muslims with their demonstrations. No,
43:30
Speaker 13: when our Sad was gaessing people in Syria, were their demonstrations?
43:34
Speaker 2: No?
43:35
Speaker 13: What is unique about this issue? What is unique about
43:40
Speaker 13: this issue that everyone's getting very up so all these
43:42
Speaker 13: young students are getting upset about what is unique that
43:45
Speaker 13: there are Jews involved, be honest, Shari. They should just
43:49
Speaker 13: come out and say we are racists, we hate Jewish people,
43:53
Speaker 13: and be honest, because they're just They're losing support all
43:59
Speaker 13: over the world, these people, amongst the amongst the middle classes.
44:03
Speaker 13: I mean, the people are just observing this Jewish hatred.
44:07
Speaker 13: You know, the people are getting thinking this is all just,
44:10
Speaker 13: this is all nonsense. Palestinians. They could have stood up
44:14
Speaker 13: for the Palestinians on any number of occasions, these students
44:16
Speaker 13: and their forebears over the last forty to fifty years,
44:19
Speaker 13: as I've demonstrated, we never heard a word from them, right,
44:22
Speaker 13: Arab against Arab, Muslim against Muslim, nothing, nothing, But when
44:26
Speaker 13: the Jews are involved, oh well, you know we have
44:29
Speaker 13: to demonstrate. Come on, be honest, be honest. Get these
44:33
Speaker 13: people at Melbourne UNI. You put up your signs that
44:35
Speaker 13: we hate Jews, to be honest with everybody for.
44:37
Speaker 1: Its right, completely right. Michael Kroger, Josh Burns, we're out
44:40
Speaker 1: of time, Josh. I echo Michael Kroger's comments about your courage.
44:44
Speaker 1: Thank you for coming on the show and for standing
44:46
Speaker 1: up for the community despite your government now still to come.
44:51
Speaker 1: More support for Trump as is New York hush money
44:54
Speaker 1: trial rounds up the Australians. Adam Crichton will join me
44:57
Speaker 1: live from Washington next. All right, let's go to the
45:05
Speaker 1: US now, and joining me is The Australian's US correspondent
45:09
Speaker 1: Adam Crichton. Adam, thank you so much for joining me. Look,
45:12
Speaker 1: Donald Trump's landmark hush money trial. It's heard from his
45:15
Speaker 1: former lawyer Michael Cohen. But according to some polls, this
45:20
Speaker 1: trial isn't turning US, isn't turning off voters.
45:26
Speaker 11: Yeah, look, I think more broadly, it's not hurting Donald
45:28
Speaker 11: Trump so far. I mean it's been in the news,
45:30
Speaker 11: you basically saturation coverage here for three weeks. But if
45:33
Speaker 11: you look at the political betting markets and the national
45:35
Speaker 11: polls over the past three weeks, Donald Trump has actually
45:40
Speaker 11: inched up slightly, So it's not hurting him yet. But
45:42
Speaker 11: of course the verdict is not out yet, and that
45:44
Speaker 11: actually could come just in a few weeks because the
45:46
Speaker 11: trial itself only has a couple more days to go,
45:49
Speaker 11: potentially maybe three or four more days. Michael Cohen was
45:52
Speaker 11: the last witness, and that of course is except if
45:56
Speaker 11: Trump himself decides to testify next year. But they could
46:00
Speaker 11: be a guilty verdict. Maybe that will have a big,
46:03
Speaker 11: big impact on Trump, but so far it's not.
46:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, and next week I think you mean the former
46:08
Speaker 1: president is reportedly ahead in five of the six key
46:12
Speaker 1: swing states. Adam, Let's talk about the US border crisis.
46:15
Speaker 1: You were at the Mexico border just last week. This,
46:19
Speaker 1: of course is one of the key policy battles that
46:23
Speaker 1: is going to change votes ahead.
46:24
Speaker 2: Of the election. Yes, that's right.
46:28
Speaker 11: Certainly, it's still the number one political issue in the
46:30
Speaker 11: US for most voters. Of course, there's been all the
46:32
Speaker 11: focus on the Trump trials, but it's still the border,
46:34
Speaker 11: you know, all of those millions of people that have
46:36
Speaker 11: been crossing. It was really interesting to go to Eagle Pass,
46:39
Speaker 11: which has been basically.
46:40
Speaker 2: The coal face of the crossings.
46:42
Speaker 11: I went there for a few days and one of
46:44
Speaker 11: the surprising things we actually two surprising things. Firstly, the
46:46
Speaker 11: numbers have fallen off extremely dramatically, so there's been a
46:49
Speaker 11: big drop and most of the locals aren't actually quite
46:52
Speaker 11: sure why.
46:53
Speaker 2: So that's part of the mystery.
46:56
Speaker 11: And secondly, I think the politics of these border chanwns
47:00
Speaker 11: is changing too.
47:00
Speaker 2: It's becoming a little more republican.
47:02
Speaker 11: These were Democrats strongholds for a long time, so that
47:05
Speaker 11: is quite significant too.
47:07
Speaker 1: Look, we're also hearing about this surprise decision where the
47:11
Speaker 1: US House of Reps will buy two nuclear class submarines
47:15
Speaker 1: next year. This was after a budget proposal which only
47:20
Speaker 1: indicated they might buy one. So what does this mean
47:23
Speaker 1: for the Orcus Security Pact.
47:27
Speaker 2: Well, it's actually quite good news.
47:28
Speaker 11: I mean, back in February and March, there are quite
47:30
Speaker 11: a few scary headlines that were basically saying the US
47:32
Speaker 11: government wasn't going to buy as much, sorry as many
47:35
Speaker 11: submarines as we first thought, And of course that would
47:38
Speaker 11: have been bad for August because we're meant to get
47:39
Speaker 11: three starting from twenty thirty two. But the Congress is
47:43
Speaker 11: basically pushed back against that and said no, are we
47:45
Speaker 11: going to buy two this year and two next year
47:47
Speaker 11: and two after that.
47:47
Speaker 2: So basically it's pretty good news for Australia in it.
47:52
Speaker 11: I mean, there's still a lot more subs that need
47:54
Speaker 11: to be built yet, but we're on a better track now.
47:58
Speaker 1: Are there still concerns about in the Republican Party not
48:01
Speaker 1: actually supporting not actually the Orcus Agreement as such, but
48:06
Speaker 1: the provision of nuclear submarines to Australia.
48:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, look, I think that's fair to say, it's true.
48:14
Speaker 11: I mean, it all depends on who's president in twenty
48:16
Speaker 11: thirty twenty thirty one, because then the president at the
48:18
Speaker 11: time has to say that selling these three subs to
48:21
Speaker 11: Australia will not hurt the US Navy, and right now
48:24
Speaker 11: the US Navy who has fallen massively behind in sub production,
48:28
Speaker 11: so it's really got to pick up the pace.
48:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, Adam Crichton, thank you so much for
48:32
Speaker 1: joining us live from Washington work. Of course, it's very
48:35
Speaker 1: early in the morning, and we appreciate his time. Look,
48:38
Speaker 1: that's all we've got time for tonight. Thanks so much
48:40
Speaker 1: for your company. I'll see you tomorrow at eight o'clock.
48:43
Speaker 1: But right now, the man of the hour, Paul Murray,