Latest / Steve Price / Steve Price | 3 April

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Steve Price | 3 April · Steve Price

0:01
Speaker 1: Live. This is Steam Price. Good evening, welcome to the
0:06
Speaker 1: show on this good Friday, Easter weekend, tempered a fair bit,
0:09
Speaker 1: of course by our fuel crisis, and we'll have updates
0:12
Speaker 1: on the Middle East conflict a little bit later. Here's
0:15
Speaker 1: what's coming up on the program tonight. First, fuel prices
0:19
Speaker 1: have dropped with that cut in diesel and petrol xise,
0:23
Speaker 1: but the picture across Australia varies widely. With one hundred
0:26
Speaker 1: and eighty two New South Wales stations we're told out
0:29
Speaker 1: of diesel. We'll cross to the Pilborough in remote WA.
0:32
Speaker 1: Talk to a local truck operator, Heather Jones, on the
0:35
Speaker 1: impact it's having on her business. One industry doing it
0:38
Speaker 1: particularly tough is the dairy industry, with their returns on milk,
0:42
Speaker 1: of course, attached to set contracts and their costs rising alarmingly.
0:47
Speaker 1: Friday regular Campbell Newman on the impact to the Australian
0:50
Speaker 1: economy in general. The Artemis iiO the Moonshot, It's well
0:55
Speaker 1: on its way to its ultimate destination and a sling
0:58
Speaker 1: shot around to the dark side of our moon. Astronomer
1:01
Speaker 1: Fred Watson updates us on the latest NASA mission. Can't
1:05
Speaker 1: wait to talk that plus local councils around Australia continue
1:10
Speaker 1: to waste rate payers money, with one huge Melbourne council
1:14
Speaker 1: spending millions on street art and cobblestones and not roads
1:18
Speaker 1: and rubbish council watchers. Dean Helstone with the latest on
1:21
Speaker 1: that first though, the fuel crisis Australia has let itself
1:25
Speaker 1: fall into after decades of neglected and complacency, and she'll
1:31
Speaker 1: be right attitude that we the dack taxpayers have allowed
1:34
Speaker 1: arrogant politicians to get away with, from the completely inadequate
1:39
Speaker 1: stored levels of diesel petrol navgas, to our shutting down
1:43
Speaker 1: of perfectly suitable fuel refineries down from six nationally of course,
1:48
Speaker 1: to just two, to our complacent belief that our Asian
1:51
Speaker 1: refined fuel providers would always fulfill their orders and the
1:55
Speaker 1: shipping lanes would always remain open. Now, Donald Trump and Benuabinette,
2:00
Speaker 1: who's justified attacks on the terrorist state of Iran, has
2:03
Speaker 1: put paid to that complacency and it has laid bare
2:07
Speaker 1: just what a soaring oil price and disrupted supplies will
2:11
Speaker 1: do to our economy. And I'm afraid, really afraid this
2:15
Speaker 1: will get a whole lot worse before it gets better. Strangely,
2:19
Speaker 1: the availability of fuel might right now be as good
2:22
Speaker 1: as it gets for the next few months. I mean,
2:25
Speaker 1: that's not scare mongering. It makes common sense that the
2:28
Speaker 1: longer that the Strait of Humu's lies shut or disrupted,
2:31
Speaker 1: given that twenty percent of the world's oil passes through there,
2:35
Speaker 1: that's what's going to happen, much of it on the
2:37
Speaker 1: way to Korea in Japan and Singapore, who of course
2:40
Speaker 1: then refine it into fuel for us. Then we have
2:43
Speaker 1: a problem, don't we. On Wednesday night, during his three
2:46
Speaker 1: minute ramble, the Prime Minister insisted that this was not
2:50
Speaker 1: like COVID.
2:51
Speaker 2: While there are significant challenges ahead and common sense changes required.
2:57
Speaker 1: This will not be like COVID.
2:59
Speaker 2: What we want life to look like here in Australia,
3:02
Speaker 2: even as the global situation becomes more challenging, so we
3:06
Speaker 2: do not have a repeat of the social dislocation of COVID,
3:11
Speaker 2: when people's financial stress and anxiety about the world was
3:16
Speaker 2: compounded by being cut off from family and friends and community.
3:19
Speaker 1: Not like COVID, Well, for many Australians that's exactly what
3:23
Speaker 1: it feels like. Easter trips canceled, being urged to work
3:26
Speaker 1: from home and catch public transport, states of emergency in
3:30
Speaker 1: various states. What's not COVID like about that? And just
3:34
Speaker 1: a footnote. Easter of this year is one week one
3:37
Speaker 1: of April. Back in twenty twenty it was the second
3:41
Speaker 1: week of April. Then the Prime Minister Scott Morrison in
3:44
Speaker 1: the week leading up to Easter urged people to stay home.
3:47
Speaker 1: Queensland beaches were shut, some states banned people from going
3:51
Speaker 1: to holiday homes into state borders were closed and in
3:54
Speaker 1: Victoria we were in lockdown. So yes, we are not
3:58
Speaker 1: there yet, but many of us, me included, have PTSD
4:01
Speaker 1: from those days, those times. Today the Prime Minister sent
4:05
Speaker 1: the worst performing minister, Chris Bowen, out to calm the crowds.
4:10
Speaker 1: It's not a wise choice. Here was the Energy Minister
4:13
Speaker 1: giving Australians some useful driving tips.
4:17
Speaker 3: For those Australians planning a road trip this weekend. Given
4:21
Speaker 3: our shortages are predominantly in rural and region Australia, makes
4:23
Speaker 3: sense to fill up in the city to help the
4:25
Speaker 3: country if you can, And little changes like checking your
4:28
Speaker 3: tire pressure before a long journey can really improve your
4:32
Speaker 3: fuel efficiency and help you save at the bowser and
4:35
Speaker 3: also reduce petrol.
4:37
Speaker 1: Use Please, Mother of God, help me pump up your tires. Look,
4:43
Speaker 1: I'm sure farmers unable to fill machinery to plant crops,
4:46
Speaker 1: or transport operators with sideline trucks, or the disabled unable
4:50
Speaker 1: to get a disabled TAXI really appreciated that advice from
4:54
Speaker 1: Chris Bowen, but Bowen wanted to make sure you knew
4:57
Speaker 1: he was on to the issue assuring us Australians that
5:00
Speaker 1: fuel supplies are secure.
5:03
Speaker 3: Completely get it when people turn up at a servo
5:06
Speaker 3: and find no fuel and say, well, how can this be?
5:09
Speaker 3: But we are dealing with massively increased demand and everyone's
5:13
Speaker 3: working very hard to keep up with that demand.
5:15
Speaker 1: We can all.
5:16
Speaker 3: Stick together and be reassured that there's still good supplies
5:21
Speaker 3: of fuel coming into Australia.
5:23
Speaker 1: Well he didn't convince me, I must say. And still
5:25
Speaker 1: we don't get real time information on how many fuel
5:28
Speaker 1: stations are closed, and this claim that fifty ships are
5:31
Speaker 1: on the way here, really can we believe that? Sadly,
5:34
Speaker 1: on what we have seen this week from Albanezi and Bowen,
5:38
Speaker 1: I still don't think that pair either realize or are
5:41
Speaker 1: in deliberate denial that this country runs on diesel now
5:45
Speaker 1: We know that Bowen hates fossil fuels and lives in
5:48
Speaker 1: a state of blissful ignorance that he can somehow turn
5:51
Speaker 1: Australia to, in his words, become a renewable energy superpower.
5:57
Speaker 1: What a joke. Well, we'll list crisis turning Morowle No,
6:01
Speaker 1: because he's too far down the green dream fantasy track
6:04
Speaker 1: to turn back. Alban Eazy should using this crisis take
6:08
Speaker 1: the opportunity to cut bow and loose from energy. Let
6:12
Speaker 1: him play with his windmills and his solar panels if
6:15
Speaker 1: he has to, and appoint the toughest minister he has
6:18
Speaker 1: to take charge of not just getting us through this crisis,
6:21
Speaker 1: but start setting us up for an energy future where
6:24
Speaker 1: we are all self sufficient. Now he won't do that,
6:28
Speaker 1: of course, because that would be to admit he has
6:31
Speaker 1: made a massive mistake. Well, President Donald Trump's addressed to
6:37
Speaker 1: the US and the world gave some indication of how
6:40
Speaker 1: the Middle East conflict might evolve in coming weeks, with
6:44
Speaker 1: the President indicating there are plans to increase attacks, but
6:47
Speaker 1: still no real indication of whether that will mean troops
6:51
Speaker 1: on the ground. We saw those spectacular pitches today of
6:53
Speaker 1: that bridget Iran being destroyed. But today news that Australia
6:58
Speaker 1: has sent this is leaked to one of the newspapers,
7:01
Speaker 1: send our own force of SAS troops to the conflict zone,
7:05
Speaker 1: where they will be on standby if the war continues
7:08
Speaker 1: to escalate. Here was Chris Bowen responding to that move today.
7:13
Speaker 3: We don't comment on the operational location of the SAS
7:17
Speaker 3: at any time for any purpose.
7:20
Speaker 1: That is highly secure information.
7:23
Speaker 3: But we are not going to participate in offensive action
7:27
Speaker 3: in this war. So I guess you asked me this
7:31
Speaker 3: truth to the rumor that we've deployed troops to participate.
7:34
Speaker 1: Yes, so that is known. Let's get stuck in with
7:38
Speaker 1: our Sky News Friday regular form of Queensland Premier Campbell
7:41
Speaker 1: Newman Campbell welcome, thanks for joining us on Good Friday.
7:45
Speaker 1: The SAA true SAS troops about ninety Special Air Service members.
7:51
Speaker 1: They've actually been in the region, I think for the
7:53
Speaker 1: past fortnight. The spin out of Canberra is they're not
7:56
Speaker 1: there offensively but to evacuate diplomatic staff if needed. Now
8:02
Speaker 1: I thought we had shut down our risk embassies anyway,
8:06
Speaker 1: and surely the SAS are not posted there to be
8:09
Speaker 1: used as babysitters for diplomats, are.
8:11
Speaker 4: They, Steve, you sort of make a good point. You know,
8:18
Speaker 4: no one was very adamant in the clip you just screamed,
8:23
Speaker 4: so well we take him at his word. I mean,
8:27
Speaker 4: you know, I could have I could see if it
8:30
Speaker 4: was a different government. Well, I could see, if it
8:32
Speaker 4: was a different government with a different political mindset, perhaps
8:36
Speaker 4: a Howard government, that the SAS would have been deployed
8:40
Speaker 4: to assist the Americans as a small but very meaningful
8:44
Speaker 4: and quite i guess, quite strong contribution in its own way,
8:50
Speaker 4: because the sas are well regarded by the American forces,
8:54
Speaker 4: and they would be able to take on some very
8:58
Speaker 4: difficult tasks in terms of any American offensive action which
9:02
Speaker 4: seems to be clearly coming. So if it was a
9:05
Speaker 4: different government, I could see that happening. With this government, well, gee,
9:10
Speaker 4: if they are indeed used in such a way, I
9:14
Speaker 4: will I will fight with surprise, mate, Because this group
9:18
Speaker 4: of sort of nineteen eighties university activists who've been very
9:23
Speaker 4: slow to back anything when it comes to the US,
9:27
Speaker 4: and for example, the whole thing to do with Gaza
9:30
Speaker 4: and what Israel's had to do, I just couldn't see
9:32
Speaker 4: them doing it.
9:34
Speaker 5: I'd be gobsmack.
9:36
Speaker 1: Well, I mean you mentioned the SAS's relationship with the Americans.
9:41
Speaker 1: I mean when we went into Afghanistan, the SAS were
9:45
Speaker 1: the first people in there. They went in there, Sarah
9:48
Speaker 1: Statis dropped into the Afghan mountains and they were there
9:52
Speaker 1: to give information to the American jet fighters on where
9:57
Speaker 1: the Taliban were so they could go and kill them.
10:00
Speaker 4: Absolutely, Steve, people that I served with during my time
10:04
Speaker 4: in the ADF, I obviously left it by that stage, but.
10:08
Speaker 5: Yes, they were there.
10:09
Speaker 4: We found out later on, but we never knew at
10:12
Speaker 4: the time, but they were there sort of as pathfinders
10:15
Speaker 4: for offensive action. But as I said before, I'd just
10:20
Speaker 4: be absolutely amazed if this government were to do that.
10:24
Speaker 4: If they did, I would be totally supportive of that
10:27
Speaker 4: because I think this is a very important piece of
10:32
Speaker 4: military action and it does serve Australia's strategic interests. Not
10:36
Speaker 4: that from polling many Australians would agree with me, or
10:40
Speaker 4: perhaps you if that's your view, but we will have
10:44
Speaker 4: to see what happened. So really, if they're there to
10:46
Speaker 4: sort of as a contingency plan to protect diplomats and
10:49
Speaker 4: Australians in the Golf region, well, I suppose that's well.
10:55
Speaker 4: I have to take mister Barnety's word at the moment,
11:00
Speaker 4: I think.
11:00
Speaker 1: I've said this to you before I get PTSD, and
11:02
Speaker 1: I think back to twenty twenty Easter. In twenty twenty
11:05
Speaker 1: we were in lockdown in Victoria. We're in lockdown for
11:08
Speaker 1: six weeks. Easter was at the start of that. And
11:12
Speaker 1: I really start to worry when you know we have
11:16
Speaker 1: wa going out on its own doing an state of emergency.
11:19
Speaker 1: You've got Tasmania with emergency things in place, a national
11:23
Speaker 1: cabinets splintering already. The Prime Minister keep saying this is
11:26
Speaker 1: not COVID. But if those ships can't get through and
11:31
Speaker 1: our supplies are not what they should become the end
11:33
Speaker 1: of this month or the start of the neck of May,
11:36
Speaker 1: we are going to have to have fuel restrictions. We
11:39
Speaker 1: are going to have to limit the movement of people
11:41
Speaker 1: around the country. We are going to have to reserve
11:44
Speaker 1: diesel for trucks to get food to people and for
11:47
Speaker 1: farmers to be able to plant crops. It's not that
11:50
Speaker 1: far off, and I don't want to scare people, but
11:52
Speaker 1: it's not that far off us having to go to
11:54
Speaker 1: some sort of COVID like restrictions.
11:59
Speaker 4: Steve, that probably should have been on the cards a
12:02
Speaker 4: couple of weeks ago, and I'd be really, I want
12:06
Speaker 4: to be very cautious about what I'm going to say now,
12:08
Speaker 4: and that is and you're sort of alluding to it.
12:12
Speaker 4: We saw such an overreaction with COVID, and it was
12:15
Speaker 4: quite evident by the way at the time, not just
12:17
Speaker 4: saying it after the event. So when you hear politicians
12:22
Speaker 4: talking about your work from home and all that, who
12:25
Speaker 4: are that's the sort of stuff that cripples small business
12:29
Speaker 4: restaurants and coffee shops that are in CBDs, for example,
12:33
Speaker 4: where most of the people who come to work in
12:35
Speaker 4: a CBD are coming by public transport normally. Anyway, Having
12:40
Speaker 4: said that, some sort of rationing like odds and evens
12:45
Speaker 4: in terms of the number plate system which we saw
12:48
Speaker 4: back in the nineteen seventies, stuff like that is sensible.
12:52
Speaker 4: Perhaps restrictions on people who come you turn up and
12:55
Speaker 4: want to fill to Jerry cans. I mean, you know
12:58
Speaker 4: that perhaps should be quashed. But what we saw the
13:04
Speaker 4: other night from the Prime Minister wasn't particularly helpful at all.
13:08
Speaker 4: Everyone I've spoken.
13:09
Speaker 1: Said that's mild.
13:11
Speaker 4: But what the heck was that all about? Why did
13:15
Speaker 4: I bother to even tune in. I thought he was
13:17
Speaker 4: going to tell me something.
13:18
Speaker 1: Important, unbelievable. Let's talk about milk. I mean, We've got
13:24
Speaker 1: to keep going back to these people, and I'm going
13:26
Speaker 1: to talk to a truck operator in the Pilborough shortly
13:30
Speaker 1: in remote Western Australia. But dairy farmers, for example, they
13:35
Speaker 1: are calling for the price of milk to increase by
13:37
Speaker 1: thirty cents a liter. Now, I don't know too many
13:40
Speaker 1: people have probably even noticed that if it happened the
13:43
Speaker 1: national dairy sector. See, they signed contracts to supply their
13:47
Speaker 1: milk and they get a milk check once a month,
13:49
Speaker 1: and those contracts are set. But now all of their
13:52
Speaker 1: costs have increased. They've obviously got a transport costs when
13:56
Speaker 1: they offload the milk to the trucks that pick it up,
13:59
Speaker 1: and the machinery that they've got to run. It's a
14:01
Speaker 1: pretty reasonable ask of them, and you would think that
14:04
Speaker 1: somebody would say, Okay, well that's not something that we
14:06
Speaker 1: should stop happening.
14:10
Speaker 6: Steve.
14:10
Speaker 4: The dairy farmers, over the last set of twenty five
14:13
Speaker 4: to thirty years have been squeezed and squeezed and squeezed.
14:16
Speaker 4: They operate on very small margins and only the biggest
14:21
Speaker 4: producers have survived in the environment since deregulation. And then
14:26
Speaker 4: you have the issue of the big supermarket chains having
14:30
Speaker 4: their own brand milk and particularly squeezing them with the
14:33
Speaker 4: contracts that you were just alerting to. So I think
14:36
Speaker 4: something's going to have to give there because their inputs
14:39
Speaker 4: are going up quite significantly. But if we just step
14:42
Speaker 4: away from that issue from moment, the big problem we're
14:45
Speaker 4: seeing right now is the response to all these issues
14:49
Speaker 4: by government. And if there is one word I give
14:53
Speaker 4: you and the viewers this evening is we need desperately
14:57
Speaker 4: deregulation in this country and we need less bureaucracy, less
15:02
Speaker 4: red tape for a whole range of reasons. Business in
15:05
Speaker 4: this country is absolutely being stifled by government at federal
15:10
Speaker 4: and state level. They cannot help themselves, the politicians and
15:14
Speaker 4: bureaucrats with more laws, more regulation, and when you have
15:18
Speaker 4: a crisis like this, that gives them an excuse to
15:22
Speaker 4: put even more in where ultimately the way to drop
15:25
Speaker 4: inflation is to deregulate, to make it easier to build
15:29
Speaker 4: a home, to make it easier to set up a
15:31
Speaker 4: business to run a business. Did you know only in
15:34
Speaker 4: the last few days there's been these new anti money
15:37
Speaker 4: laundering regulations introduced which have seen about what we had
15:43
Speaker 4: previously about ten to fifteen thousand businesses who had to
15:47
Speaker 4: sort of id customers and go through all sorts of
15:50
Speaker 4: processes and they are like banks and financial services businesses.
15:53
Speaker 4: That's gone to well over one hundred thousand, with real
15:56
Speaker 4: estate agents and accountants and lawyers now in the drag
15:59
Speaker 4: net that will be. That's just an example of the
16:02
Speaker 4: way that iron filings are being dropped in the gearbox
16:06
Speaker 4: of Australia. If we want to be more productive, if
16:09
Speaker 4: we want to respond in a more agile way to
16:11
Speaker 4: crisis like this fuel crisis, we need to deregulate and
16:15
Speaker 4: get rid of the red tape. And the last thing
16:18
Speaker 4: we need during the crisis is the unintended consequences that
16:22
Speaker 4: come from stupid regulations and stupid sort of restrictions the
16:26
Speaker 4: government put in place with good intentions, but continue to
16:30
Speaker 4: stuff the economy up.
16:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, well said, and I think my next guest will
16:35
Speaker 1: agree with that. Have a great Easter. Thanks for joining
16:37
Speaker 1: us on Good Friday, Campbe. We'll see you next week.
16:39
Speaker 1: I want to go back to the fuel crisis and
16:41
Speaker 1: the pressure it's putting on regional and rural Australia. We've
16:44
Speaker 1: read the scene about it. It's hurting there much more
16:47
Speaker 1: than I think in the major capital cities. Heather Jones
16:51
Speaker 1: is a truck ee small business owner based in the
16:53
Speaker 1: Pilborough in WA. You don't get much more remote than that,
16:57
Speaker 1: and she runs a family business she's built over twenty
16:59
Speaker 1: six years with her daughters. Says, the margins are already
17:03
Speaker 1: pretty slim, two to five percent and going out the
17:06
Speaker 1: back door fast. How long can they hang on? Let's
17:09
Speaker 1: talk to a heaven. Heather joins me now from the
17:12
Speaker 1: Pilbra Welcome, thanks very much for your time. Can you
17:16
Speaker 1: give me and our view as a snapshot of how
17:18
Speaker 1: your business operates?
17:19
Speaker 7: Heather, Oh, thanks, Steve.
17:22
Speaker 8: Look, we are actually in the middle of West Australia
17:25
Speaker 8: at the moment, carding grain helping out down there, cutting
17:29
Speaker 8: into the seaport of Geraldton. So on the second of
17:32
Speaker 8: the third so fuel my tank up at a dollar
17:34
Speaker 8: sixty six per liter for diesel. So I have one thousand,
17:37
Speaker 8: six hundred leters in my truck. It cost me two
17:40
Speaker 8: than six hundred and fifty six dollars on the thirty
17:43
Speaker 8: first at three dollars twenty a liter, it cost me
17:45
Speaker 8: five one hundred and twenty dollars to full my truck up.
17:50
Speaker 8: So Steve, we are very fortunate that we have got
17:53
Speaker 8: a fuel levy for the company that we work for.
17:56
Speaker 8: But the trouble is, you know, every day the fuel
17:59
Speaker 8: was going up and that's addressed once a week, so
18:02
Speaker 8: you know, from the first.
18:03
Speaker 7: Week of March.
18:05
Speaker 8: We still haven't seen that until the first end of
18:08
Speaker 8: first week in April, so we're sort of running on
18:12
Speaker 8: the smell of an.
18:12
Speaker 7: Aughty rag literally.
18:14
Speaker 8: But you know, I was really disheartened when I saw
18:17
Speaker 8: the Premiere in the Prime Minister three weeks ago, actually
18:19
Speaker 8: laughing in Parliament when some regional politicians brought up the
18:22
Speaker 8: fact that, you know, we are going to have serious issues.
18:25
Speaker 8: I don't think they absolutely had a clue what we
18:29
Speaker 8: have to do out here in the regional areas.
18:33
Speaker 1: My sisters are Gero local, so you know, I've been
18:36
Speaker 1: there plenty of times and I know the distances you're
18:38
Speaker 1: talking about. They're vast. Did the West Australian Premier declaring
18:43
Speaker 1: that state of emergency during the week does that help.
18:50
Speaker 8: I haven't seen any benefit from it, Steve. I think
18:53
Speaker 8: it's just it's caused a lot of anxiety between small
18:56
Speaker 8: to medium trucking operators. You know, you really don't know
19:02
Speaker 8: whether you can hang out another two or three or
19:04
Speaker 8: four weeks. The implementation of small loans and a few
19:09
Speaker 8: other things, the reduction and the fuel taxi exercise, the
19:13
Speaker 8: road user charges really hasn't even brought us back to
19:16
Speaker 8: anywhere near our dollar sixty six elter that we were paying.
19:19
Speaker 8: Whilst it's welcomed, it really we really need a lot
19:22
Speaker 8: more help than that.
19:25
Speaker 1: Any trouble would supply.
19:28
Speaker 8: There's a few service stations that have run out of
19:30
Speaker 8: fuel today, but I think that's from our tourists passing through.
19:34
Speaker 8: A lot of tourists on the road at the moment, Steve,
19:36
Speaker 8: and awful lots. So they're all obviously going on their holidays,
19:40
Speaker 8: you know. But for our own business, we've gone through
19:42
Speaker 8: our bank account and we've cut off a whole lot
19:45
Speaker 8: of nonsense and non essential things which will affect the
19:49
Speaker 8: local communities too, like our sponsorship and a whole lot
19:52
Speaker 8: of other things that we can no longer afford to do.
19:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, it'd almost say, you'd wish those tourists perhaps we're traveling,
19:59
Speaker 1: But then the the smaller communities, you know, like the
20:02
Speaker 1: cowberries and places like that, if they have no tourists,
20:05
Speaker 1: then they get hammered. So it's a bit of a problem.
20:08
Speaker 1: On that tank of fuel where you've gone from two
20:11
Speaker 1: thousand to five thousand in rough numbers to fill it up.
20:15
Speaker 1: Who bears that cost?
20:17
Speaker 8: We do one hundred percent, the trucking companies do.
20:23
Speaker 1: And so does that then ultimately pass through to the
20:28
Speaker 1: delivered wheat and then the price of the wheat being
20:31
Speaker 1: passed on to the manufacturers of whatever they do with
20:34
Speaker 1: that wheat. Does it go right through the food chain?
20:37
Speaker 1: Or are you getting hammered at the front and then
20:40
Speaker 1: everyone else doesn't really notice it.
20:43
Speaker 8: Well, we were hammered to start off with, but it's
20:45
Speaker 8: flowing down the chain now, so obviously our client and
20:48
Speaker 8: then we're delivering for overseas companies, so obviously they'll be
20:53
Speaker 8: paying the extra price as well. And it won't be
20:56
Speaker 8: too long before every single person in Australia will be
20:59
Speaker 8: paying awful lot more for every single thing on the
21:02
Speaker 8: grocery shelves and everywhere else. And you know, I'm not
21:05
Speaker 8: a doom and gloom naysayer. I sort of try and
21:08
Speaker 8: look at the positive and everything. But our little business
21:12
Speaker 8: is really concerned, and you know, you try not.
21:15
Speaker 7: To think about it. You sort of allocate you hour
21:17
Speaker 7: to have that worry bits.
21:18
Speaker 8: But every person you see and every truck driver you
21:21
Speaker 8: talk to, that's the first thing that comes out of
21:23
Speaker 8: their mouth. What are we going to do to keep
21:24
Speaker 8: the wheels keep turning? So it is a real, really
21:28
Speaker 8: big concern for all of us.
21:32
Speaker 1: Look, you know, given the troubles you've got, I must
21:35
Speaker 1: say you're fantastic. You're an ambassador for an awareness campaign
21:39
Speaker 1: which is Healthy Heads in Trucks and Sheds.
21:42
Speaker 5: Now.
21:42
Speaker 1: It was established obviously, I think, to help support the
21:45
Speaker 1: mental health of people under pressure, which you're right in
21:48
Speaker 1: the middle of right now. Tell us a bit about
21:50
Speaker 1: that charity and the work it does.
21:53
Speaker 8: I've been a support for supporting them for two years
21:56
Speaker 8: and last month I joined the board. So that was
21:59
Speaker 8: a fantastic opporture unity to actually do more for truck drivers.
22:02
Speaker 7: It's a great group of people.
22:03
Speaker 8: It's not for profit organization, totally funded by business and
22:09
Speaker 8: other organizations, and it actually supports if you go into
22:13
Speaker 8: BP you download the app, you can get cheaper healthy meals,
22:17
Speaker 8: so you know, healthy body, healthy mind, healthy behavior out
22:20
Speaker 8: on the highway.
22:21
Speaker 7: Also, there's quite a few podcasts that have been doing.
22:25
Speaker 8: Shane Jacobson, myself and another mental health practitioner did one
22:32
Speaker 8: just recently that actually gives you a few keys how
22:34
Speaker 8: to cope with financial problems, mental health problems, and also
22:41
Speaker 8: some places to get help from. You know, we can
22:43
Speaker 8: all go to our finance providers and put our repayments
22:48
Speaker 8: on freeze for three months. You can negotiate with your
22:51
Speaker 8: company for an extra fuel levy so that that can
22:55
Speaker 8: sort of help assist the cost, even though it might
22:57
Speaker 8: be a month's down the track. But there's a whole
22:59
Speaker 8: lot of the key things that we can do right
23:02
Speaker 8: now to address that high fuel cost and whatever the
23:05
Speaker 8: role on is effect for your mental health. But jump
23:08
Speaker 8: online to the Healthy Heads and Trucks and Sheds web page.
23:12
Speaker 8: There's beyond Blue and there's a whole lot of other
23:16
Speaker 8: organizations listed there that can help anyone that's going through
23:20
Speaker 8: any stresses and anxiety at the moment. And we really
23:24
Speaker 8: really hope that our trucks will use this because you know, a.
23:27
Speaker 7: Problem shared is a problem halved.
23:30
Speaker 8: And sometimes, you know, we like to be pretty tough
23:32
Speaker 8: when we sort of sit in the truck all day
23:34
Speaker 8: with everything in our own mind and our own head,
23:37
Speaker 8: thinking we can tough it out, but sometimes we just
23:40
Speaker 8: need a little bit of a hand to get us there.
23:41
Speaker 7: So that's what Healthy Heads and Trucks and Sheds is.
23:44
Speaker 8: Therefore, to support all of our brothers and sisters out
23:47
Speaker 8: there on the highways.
23:49
Speaker 1: I'll give it a plug for sure, and your positivity
23:52
Speaker 1: is inspirational. Heather, thank you very much for joining us.
23:55
Speaker 1: Where are you, by the way.
23:56
Speaker 7: I'm in Geraldon at the moment. Thanks Steve.
24:00
Speaker 1: Going to the corner surf shop and say gooday to
24:01
Speaker 1: my sister I will.
24:04
Speaker 7: And every other viewer can too.
24:07
Speaker 1: Thanks to see you later. Thanks a lot, and remind
24:10
Speaker 1: our health Heads in Trucks and Sheds as partner with
24:13
Speaker 1: Shane Jacobson for an episode on the podcast How You're Traveling.
24:17
Speaker 1: It's called under the Pump and you can listen to
24:20
Speaker 1: it right now and put your hand in your pocket
24:22
Speaker 1: if you can. All right, coming up, council spending, Speaking
24:25
Speaker 1: of money, why the local government is a habit of
24:27
Speaker 1: spending our money on stupid things? We'll get the latest
24:30
Speaker 1: analysis from a council expert who's lifted the lid on
24:33
Speaker 1: where your money is going. Plus the remarkable space mission
24:37
Speaker 1: a return to the Moon. We'll speak to an expert
24:40
Speaker 1: about that, the latest news from that mission for humanity.
24:43
Speaker 1: That's next. Welcome back to Price with you. I'll take
24:49
Speaker 1: you back to space shortly. I've written a couple of
24:52
Speaker 1: columns recently about the ineptitude of councils in Melbourne in particular,
24:56
Speaker 1: and particularly the Melbourne City Council. Last week is twenty
25:00
Speaker 1: two million dollars spent on street art with a giant
25:03
Speaker 1: bronze kangaroo, which is ridiculous. And this week, I mean
25:08
Speaker 1: they're going to spend ratepayers money on putting cobblestones down
25:11
Speaker 1: a lane way and raising the level of the road
25:14
Speaker 1: to be level with the footpath. I mean, no one's
25:17
Speaker 1: asking for that, and given that the council has massive debts,
25:21
Speaker 1: there's no reason why you should be doing that. And
25:25
Speaker 1: if you use that as an example, that's happening in
25:27
Speaker 1: councils right around the country. I mean they are wasting
25:31
Speaker 1: ratepayers money and they're not answerable to anybody. Really. They
25:36
Speaker 1: make promises when there is a council election on them.
25:39
Speaker 1: Once they get elected, they just drop them. Council Watch
25:42
Speaker 1: President Dean Hurlston knows all about this stuff. He's on
25:44
Speaker 1: the program. We talked to him on a regular basis.
25:47
Speaker 1: Dean I also wrote today about homeless people in the
25:50
Speaker 1: city Elizabeth and Flinders Street police having to deal with it.
25:54
Speaker 1: Council promises forever they're going to clean that up. Never happens, Steve.
26:00
Speaker 9: What we see out of our council budgets is what
26:03
Speaker 9: we would call a strategic bias. Councils are spending fifty
26:07
Speaker 9: to sixty percent of your rates just on the staff alone.
26:10
Speaker 9: In a case they mentioned of the City of Melbourne.
26:13
Speaker 9: What they're actually then spending on is about sixty million
26:16
Speaker 9: dollars on street scapes, those cobblestones, the things you're talking about,
26:20
Speaker 9: and about another fifty million dollars on their very own buildings.
26:24
Speaker 9: That's the lion share of council money going on themselves.
26:29
Speaker 10: Now.
26:29
Speaker 9: Of course we want really nice areas and beautification and
26:32
Speaker 9: all those things, but they're only spending eight million dollars
26:35
Speaker 9: on roads and nine and a half million dollars on
26:38
Speaker 9: new staff computers. The bureaucracy is focused yet again on itself.
26:44
Speaker 9: And it's the same across all councils in metropolitan and
26:48
Speaker 9: regional areas, particularly those cashed up councils in the metropolitan
26:53
Speaker 9: areas that keep spending on the bureaucracy. And it's because Steve,
26:58
Speaker 9: councilors cannot wrecked on the line idom. They can only
27:03
Speaker 9: be strategic, So the staff control of the budget and
27:08
Speaker 9: counselors essentially can't change much for the staff decide to
27:13
Speaker 9: spend on.
27:15
Speaker 1: We're showing some of the numbers that council what conducted
27:18
Speaker 1: with that analysis accuses the counselors of, as you say,
27:22
Speaker 1: prioritizing bureaucracy and cosmetic upgrades. And you found, I think
27:28
Speaker 1: nine percent of ratepayer cash is going to those non essentials.
27:32
Speaker 1: Who are they answerable to these organizations? Why is state
27:37
Speaker 1: government to all have local government ministers not saying, hang on,
27:41
Speaker 1: hold your horses, let's have a chat here about what
27:44
Speaker 1: you're actually spending the money on.
27:46
Speaker 9: Because Steve, in fact, it was this labor government who
27:49
Speaker 9: passed the legislation in twenty twenty that locked counselors out
27:54
Speaker 9: of the strategic decision making at a deeper level counselors.
27:58
Speaker 9: Now we elect them on all these promises, We elect
28:01
Speaker 9: them on the things we think they can do. And
28:03
Speaker 9: the reality is the six hundred and twenty councilors across
28:07
Speaker 9: Victoria can only be a strategic guider. They can tick
28:13
Speaker 9: or just tickle around the edges what is put in
28:16
Speaker 9: front of them by officers. And in fact, we are
28:19
Speaker 9: seeing a backlash of councilors across the state saying we've
28:24
Speaker 9: had a gut bull because we keep getting it from
28:27
Speaker 9: the public who are not happy with the direction of
28:30
Speaker 9: councils and the spending. What needs to change, Steve, is
28:34
Speaker 9: the legislation needs to be ripped up and counselors need
28:38
Speaker 9: to be in charge. And respectfully to the overpaid, b
28:42
Speaker 9: looted pat bureaucracies and CEOs, get back in your box
28:48
Speaker 9: and let the counselors decide where every dollar is spent.
28:55
Speaker 1: I heard an example of the council that controls the
28:58
Speaker 1: inner city suburb ofs Kilda recently, where you used to
29:02
Speaker 1: be able to go down to council and you could
29:04
Speaker 1: purchase for I think it was five dollars or ten
29:07
Speaker 1: dollars a one off daily parking pass if you were
29:10
Speaker 1: having a party and you didn't have off street parking,
29:14
Speaker 1: they've dropped that. And so now if you park in
29:17
Speaker 1: the streets when you say have a bar mitzvah or
29:20
Speaker 1: a twenty first or a wedding party or whatever, they'll
29:24
Speaker 1: just issue parking tickets to all the cars in the street.
29:27
Speaker 9: Yes, that's right, that's the City of Fort Phillip. And so,
29:30
Speaker 9: of course, not to be outdone, the reedy city of
29:34
Speaker 9: Stotington next door decided to benchmark against the City of
29:37
Speaker 9: Fort Phillip and uncovered that it's thirty three thousand residents
29:42
Speaker 9: who didn't pay for a parking permit were worth about
29:45
Speaker 9: sixty to one hundred dollars per car, and ignored all
29:49
Speaker 9: of the community frustration and feedback that we didn't want it,
29:53
Speaker 9: and then implemented it and counselors had the goal last
29:57
Speaker 9: week to say it is not fair for the seventy
30:00
Speaker 9: five percent of people in Stonington who don't have a
30:03
Speaker 9: permit to subsidize those who are parking on public roads
30:07
Speaker 9: out front of your house and use council assets the street.
30:12
Speaker 9: So now every resident thirty three thousand plus in Stonington
30:15
Speaker 9: that has a permit will be paying sixty to one
30:18
Speaker 9: hundred dollars a year at each, a nice little windfall
30:21
Speaker 9: for council. But what councilors didn't disclosed me is that
30:26
Speaker 9: they are exempt because they have a park anywhere free
30:31
Speaker 9: anytime in the city of Stonington permit.
30:34
Speaker 5: How's that the fair, Dean.
30:37
Speaker 1: I'm sure the things we're talking about are common right
30:40
Speaker 1: across our great country. Thank you, mate, I talked to
30:42
Speaker 1: you again soon, Dean Helston. They're okay. From councils and
30:45
Speaker 1: local grassroots politics to out of space, I'm just so
30:49
Speaker 1: much enjoying what the world is witnessing at the moment.
30:52
Speaker 1: I mean, the chaos of the global events obviously are depressing,
30:56
Speaker 1: but when I saw Artemis two launched yesterday, I had
31:00
Speaker 1: to stand up and stand and watch it. It was extraordinary.
31:05
Speaker 1: Space just gets you, I mean, it is incredible what
31:08
Speaker 1: this mission's going to do. They're going to they're already
31:11
Speaker 1: on their way to the Moon. They're going to slingshot
31:12
Speaker 1: around the back of the moon. Four crew on board,
31:16
Speaker 1: and then of course ultimately Ardamis Srie is going to
31:18
Speaker 1: take a moon landing again with men and women on
31:22
Speaker 1: the moon. Macquarie University astronomer Fred Watson joins me, professor,
31:28
Speaker 1: where are they and how are they?
31:31
Speaker 11: They're doing fine, thanks Steve, and look, I'm thrilled to
31:34
Speaker 11: hear you're as excited about this as I am, because
31:37
Speaker 11: this is the future being written in front of our eyes.
31:41
Speaker 11: The mission is absolutely on schedule. The highlight today was
31:47
Speaker 11: the burn of their service unit to put the spacecraft
31:52
Speaker 11: onto a trajectory which will, as you said, take it
31:55
Speaker 11: round the far side of the Moon. It will actually
31:59
Speaker 11: cover a figure of eight course very much in the lines.
32:02
Speaker 11: You want to remember this, you're too young, but the
32:05
Speaker 11: Apollo eight mission back in nineteen sixty eight did exactly
32:08
Speaker 11: the same thing, and it taught us for the first
32:11
Speaker 11: time a lot about the backside of the Moon are
32:14
Speaker 11: seen by human eyes rather than cameras.
32:18
Speaker 1: How you're very ConFlat. You're congratulating me. I'm certainly old
32:24
Speaker 1: enough to remember Apollo eight eleven. How crucial is it
32:29
Speaker 1: that that the crew and the space center get the
32:35
Speaker 1: trajectory just spot on?
32:38
Speaker 11: Oh absolutely, you know you've raised a point there that
32:41
Speaker 11: is at the heart of spaceflight and modern space navigation.
32:46
Speaker 11: It's all about velocity, actually pointing the thing in the
32:50
Speaker 11: right direction, giving it the right speed to start off with,
32:53
Speaker 11: and then gravity will do the rest for you. So
32:56
Speaker 11: if you get the initial conditions right, it's going to
32:59
Speaker 11: look after itself. Often there is what's called a mid
33:02
Speaker 11: course maneuver, which is where you might just tweak the
33:05
Speaker 11: course slightly to make sure that you're on the right
33:07
Speaker 11: trajectory to take you around the back of the Moon.
33:09
Speaker 11: And actually the critical part of that is at the
33:13
Speaker 11: end when you re enter directly into the Earth's atmosphere
33:16
Speaker 11: at the speed of about eleven kilometers per second. That's
33:19
Speaker 11: where you've got to get everything right so it comes
33:21
Speaker 11: down in the right place on the Earth's surface.
33:25
Speaker 1: When they go around the back to the dark side
33:27
Speaker 1: of the moon. Very good album, by the way, put
33:30
Speaker 1: that on a plane at the weekend when they're around
33:33
Speaker 1: the back side. Do we lose communication?
33:37
Speaker 11: Indeed we do. That's absolutely right, and it's you know,
33:40
Speaker 11: one of the features of human spaceflight involving the Moon
33:43
Speaker 11: that as soon as you go around behind it, there's
33:45
Speaker 11: this gigantic satellite blocking your view of the Earth.
33:49
Speaker 5: There isn't.
33:49
Speaker 11: In fact, you might know, Steve, there's a Chinese rover
33:53
Speaker 11: on the far side of the Moon. The only spacecraft
33:56
Speaker 11: that's ever landed softly there, which it can connects with
34:00
Speaker 11: via a relay satellite. They've put a relay satellite on
34:03
Speaker 11: the far side of the Moon, so it can see
34:05
Speaker 11: both the Earth and the rover, and that's how they connect.
34:09
Speaker 1: If ever we.
34:09
Speaker 11: Put humans on the Moon on the Moon's far side,
34:13
Speaker 11: that's how we'll do it. We'll have a relay station
34:16
Speaker 11: offside the Moon.
34:18
Speaker 1: Finally, what's your bidding on will put boots again on
34:21
Speaker 1: the surface.
34:24
Speaker 11: Oh, I'm look, petrol Optimus Steve. I would say we're
34:31
Speaker 11: pretty near one hundred percent because it's such a you know,
34:34
Speaker 11: it's a matter not just of national pride, but the
34:37
Speaker 11: whole science community is giving its best efforts towards this mission.
34:44
Speaker 11: It's actually not Artemis three that will lend astronauts on
34:47
Speaker 11: the Moon. That schedule has now been changed. It will
34:50
Speaker 11: be Artemis four, which will be in twenty twenty eight.
34:52
Speaker 11: I hope you and I can do this again so
34:54
Speaker 11: we can talk about the excitement of the first steps
34:56
Speaker 11: on the moon since nineteen seventy two.
35:00
Speaker 1: Well, I hope so. And I'm old enough to remember.
35:03
Speaker 1: We've got the day off school when Neil Armstrong stepped
35:06
Speaker 1: onto the moon. So it was quite extraordinary. Thank you
35:08
Speaker 1: very much Fred for joining us. It is very exciting.
35:12
Speaker 1: I'm going to keep a watch on the Artemis flight
35:14
Speaker 1: across the weekend. Coming up news overnight the US. The
35:18
Speaker 1: United Arab Emirates, i should say, has been increasingly targeted
35:21
Speaker 1: by Iran, ramping up the retaliation against its neighbors. We'll
35:25
Speaker 1: go to the UK and find out what that is
35:27
Speaker 1: all about. Next. Welcome back, Rowan Dean coming up after me.
35:34
Speaker 1: Let's go and find out the latest on the Middle
35:36
Speaker 1: East conflict. News overnight from the Ministry of Defense in
35:39
Speaker 1: the UAE. It says its defense system. Actually this is
35:43
Speaker 1: so in the United Ara of Emirates. Dubai in those
35:47
Speaker 1: places engaged nineteen ballistic missiles twenty six drones fired by
35:51
Speaker 1: Iran in just one night now. Incredibly, I was talking
35:55
Speaker 1: to the former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott off air
35:58
Speaker 1: last night. He this week flu London, Melbourne on Emirates
36:03
Speaker 1: through Dubai. Surprised me. That probably not him, but it
36:07
Speaker 1: surprised me. Sky News contributor to Adrian Hayes spends a
36:10
Speaker 1: lot of time in the UAE, joins us on the line.
36:13
Speaker 1: He's from London, so you can still use that massive
36:16
Speaker 1: transport hub there despite the fact that the Iranians are
36:20
Speaker 1: lobbing ballistic missiles into their aging.
36:23
Speaker 5: Yeah. See, while I was in the UE this week.
36:25
Speaker 12: I've just got back passed through there for a few
36:27
Speaker 12: days on the way back from Hong Kong to UK
36:29
Speaker 12: and I'll be back there in a month's time. Life
36:31
Speaker 12: is going on, and this is the message the uas
36:33
Speaker 12: sort of put it from the leadership right down that
36:36
Speaker 12: things are coming on. Emirates Airline doing a fantastic job
36:39
Speaker 12: while all the other airlines are sort of a canceled
36:42
Speaker 12: flights until June or September. They're keeping the show going
36:45
Speaker 12: and the flight from Hong Kong to do when I
36:47
Speaker 12: was packed.
36:48
Speaker 5: So it is going on.
36:49
Speaker 12: But you're right, the iran has stepped up its attacks
36:52
Speaker 12: in the last few days, very targeted attacks.
36:54
Speaker 5: You know, they're.
36:55
Speaker 12: Targeting the airport, targeting data centers because the UA puts
36:59
Speaker 12: a lot of emphasis on AI and data. So you
37:03
Speaker 12: know it is creating a little bit of unease, but
37:06
Speaker 12: most people are pretty resilient about it.
37:08
Speaker 5: All.
37:10
Speaker 1: You know your military and you know how they're used
37:13
Speaker 1: Australia in secret. Two weeks ago has sent ninety Special
37:18
Speaker 1: Air Service troops. The Australian sas very well regarded militarily
37:22
Speaker 1: right around the world by you guys, the Poms and
37:25
Speaker 1: also the Americans. They're at that air base outside Dubai.
37:29
Speaker 1: We're told officially that they're there because they might have
37:31
Speaker 1: to be used to evacuate diplomats. I don't buy that
37:34
Speaker 1: for a second. You're not sending elite special Forces troops
37:38
Speaker 1: there to sit there and babysit diplomats, are you.
37:42
Speaker 5: Well, yeah, you could put that.
37:44
Speaker 12: I mean the US is obviously building up troop numbers
37:46
Speaker 12: as well. I mean, you've got this. This would take
37:50
Speaker 12: the water whole new footing. If you're putting troops into
37:53
Speaker 12: a run Eroun's got a military the sire six hundred
37:56
Speaker 12: thousand something of that nature.
37:58
Speaker 5: It does change the the.
38:00
Speaker 12: Game plan a bit, I think, and I don't personally
38:04
Speaker 12: see that happening. On the other hand, the UA and
38:06
Speaker 12: Saudi have also threatened that they will join the US
38:10
Speaker 12: in in, you know, in a war against Iran. So
38:13
Speaker 12: if I knew that had a crystal ball, Steve, I
38:16
Speaker 12: know as much as you, but I you know, I
38:18
Speaker 12: don't all we can do is just follow the news
38:20
Speaker 12: and just see what's what we can envisage happening.
38:24
Speaker 1: What sort of weeks our old friends a keis starmahead.
38:30
Speaker 12: Not very good overnight he got the wrath of Donald
38:35
Speaker 12: Trump quite mockingly in fact of of of star Prime
38:39
Speaker 12: Mister Starva.
38:40
Speaker 5: So as I said last week.
38:42
Speaker 12: When I was on the show, I don't think there's
38:44
Speaker 12: a great friendship from the US president to our prime minister.
38:48
Speaker 1: At least he hasn't been according to Donald Trump, like
38:52
Speaker 1: Francis mccron being assaulted by his wife. Just closer to home,
38:56
Speaker 1: quickly on what's been the response to officials at Marx
38:59
Speaker 1: and Spencer's though blasted city Khan the Lord Mayor of
39:03
Speaker 1: failing to get to grips with the crime in London.
39:06
Speaker 1: My daughter lives in London. Is crime bad there now?
39:11
Speaker 12: Yeah, fair play to Marketers, best us for speaking out.
39:15
Speaker 12: It is bad, It's out of control. Let's be honest
39:18
Speaker 12: and Sadik Khr makes us great players to say for
39:20
Speaker 12: city in the world and all this rubbish city can
39:22
Speaker 12: by the way, the Mayor of London for your viewers
39:24
Speaker 12: who don't know, but who's more concerned everything through racism
39:27
Speaker 12: and far right, and climate change over that theres no,
39:30
Speaker 12: it's the so called low level crime, knife crime, muggings, theft,
39:34
Speaker 12: shoplifting is just out of control. And the reason not
39:37
Speaker 12: just from calm, but the police have lost control of
39:40
Speaker 12: the streets because they've gone on this progressive agenda to
39:43
Speaker 12: become a social services organization and the results are playing
39:47
Speaker 12: to see.
39:49
Speaker 1: Sounds very familiar to anyone who lives in Melbourne. I
39:51
Speaker 1: got to say, Adrian, have a great Easter, mate, thanks
39:53
Speaker 1: for joining us. I'll talk to you in a couple
39:55
Speaker 1: of weeks time, I say, coming up after the break
39:58
Speaker 1: the latest of those treaty in Victoria, you will not
40:01
Speaker 1: believe what they've now done. News that every law that
40:05
Speaker 1: gets passed through the Victorian Parliament will require the Indigenous
40:09
Speaker 1: stamp of approval. Plus the wash up from Anthony Albanesi's
40:13
Speaker 1: national address the other night, our Good Friday panel up next,
40:21
Speaker 1: welcome back. Well, I've been warning you for a long
40:22
Speaker 1: time what's going to happen here in Victoria since the
40:25
Speaker 1: treaty with Indigenous Victorians was passed into law through the
40:29
Speaker 1: Jacinda Allen government. Well we now know, with a bill
40:31
Speaker 1: passed through parliament yesterday that requires every new law debated
40:36
Speaker 1: in Parliament to receive the treaty stamp of approval before
40:40
Speaker 1: it goes through. That means every law such as tough
40:43
Speaker 1: and bail laws for example, street and place names. Panel
40:47
Speaker 1: time on a Friday, This good Friday is to Joe
40:49
Speaker 1: Hildebrand joins us and executive director of the Samuel Griffin Society,
40:53
Speaker 1: Mia Schlidt. Welcome to you both. Mia. Can I start
40:56
Speaker 1: with your you We said this would happen and here
41:00
Speaker 1: it is.
41:03
Speaker 13: Yeah, that's right, Steve, this was always bound to happen.
41:06
Speaker 13: We are now in a situation in Victoria where we
41:08
Speaker 13: have one group on the basis of race, who is
41:11
Speaker 13: making the who's deciding the outcomes for the rest of Victorians.
41:15
Speaker 13: We now have a third chamber of Parliament on the
41:17
Speaker 13: basis of race. But absolutely that was always the intended
41:20
Speaker 13: function of this legislation. This is no surprise and what
41:24
Speaker 13: makes it worse is Victorians never wanted this. The Instra
41:26
Speaker 13: Public Affairs did some research when this legislature was first
41:30
Speaker 13: introduced and fifty two percent of Victorians said they did
41:33
Speaker 13: not support the idea of treaty because they value democracy.
41:36
Speaker 13: So Victorians value democracy. Unfortunately, it's our leaders here who don't.
41:42
Speaker 1: Joe. It's a living, breathing example of what sixty percent
41:45
Speaker 1: of Australians voted know at the Voice referendum, isn't it.
41:48
Speaker 10: Yeah, Well, it's actually worse if this is your position
41:51
Speaker 10: than the Voice. The Voice was intended to be an
41:54
Speaker 10: advisory body on matters that related to Indigenous Australians, and
41:58
Speaker 10: the reason I supported it was was because it was
42:01
Speaker 10: meant to provide solutions and insights into problems that were
42:04
Speaker 10: facing Indigenous communities that can berns and MPs from the
42:09
Speaker 10: big cities simply did.
42:11
Speaker 1: Not know about or weren't aware of.
42:13
Speaker 10: And so it was meant to be something that cut
42:15
Speaker 10: through red tape, not something that added to it this
42:19
Speaker 10: treaty body in Victoria. I mean, there's only really two
42:23
Speaker 10: possible outcomes, isn't there. Either it slows up the passage
42:28
Speaker 10: of legislation and these measures end up sort of grinding
42:32
Speaker 10: to a halt in which you can bet your bottom
42:34
Speaker 10: dollar that it will quickly be reversed, or it is
42:37
Speaker 10: simply a tokenistic rubber stamping mechanism, in which case it
42:41
Speaker 10: is just a form of I suppose legislative virtue signaling
42:46
Speaker 10: so I think it's somehow managed, as often happens in Victoria,
42:50
Speaker 10: to take all the worst elements of the Voice proposal
42:54
Speaker 10: and implement them without taking any of what was good
42:58
Speaker 10: about the Voice.
43:00
Speaker 1: Another great win mia when you go to the practicality
43:04
Speaker 1: of this. I mean, you know, say a piece of
43:06
Speaker 1: legislation comes up in regard to changing the nature of
43:10
Speaker 1: the use of a piece of land, for example, that
43:13
Speaker 1: you're going to turn Not that the Victorian government never
43:15
Speaker 1: agree to this, but let's use the example turn that
43:18
Speaker 1: bit of land into a new coal mine or you're
43:21
Speaker 1: going to dig it up and make it into a dam.
43:23
Speaker 1: I mean, that is never going to get through Parliament
43:25
Speaker 1: because the Treaty Organization is not going to tick off
43:27
Speaker 1: on it.
43:29
Speaker 13: Well, that's absolutely right, of course, I'm not going to
43:31
Speaker 13: tick on something like that. And what makes it worse
43:34
Speaker 13: is this body is entirely unelected. I mean, there are
43:37
Speaker 13: some election mechanisms in place, but that's on the basis
43:39
Speaker 13: of people's race. So here we are in a situation
43:42
Speaker 13: in Victoria where we have some people making decisions because
43:45
Speaker 13: they are of a certain race that then goes and
43:48
Speaker 13: effects the outcomes for all the rest of Victorians. That
43:51
Speaker 13: is a terrible, terrible thing for the rule of law,
43:54
Speaker 13: and it is a very very dark time for democracy
43:56
Speaker 13: here in this state.
43:58
Speaker 1: Let's lighten things up a bit. We saw, of course,
44:01
Speaker 1: on Wednesday night the Prime Minister he's addressed to the nation.
44:06
Speaker 1: You and I talked about it when I was filling
44:07
Speaker 1: in for Shari the other day. But our mate Mark Knight,
44:11
Speaker 1: as his genius cartoonist, as we know, and you and I,
44:14
Speaker 1: as newspaper men, love our cartoonist. Have a look at
44:17
Speaker 1: this cartoon that he has driven a drawn. It's the
44:21
Speaker 1: great speeches. I'll read them to you. He's got Abraham Lincoln,
44:26
Speaker 1: Government of the People, by the people, for the people.
44:29
Speaker 1: Get his burg address. Winston Churchill, we shall never surrender
44:32
Speaker 1: World War two, Martin Luther King. I have a dream,
44:35
Speaker 1: Anthony ALBANIZI happy Easter, but leave you Jerry Cans at home.
44:40
Speaker 1: That sort of sums it up, doesn't it, Joe.
44:43
Speaker 5: Yeah, it does.
44:44
Speaker 1: I mean.
44:44
Speaker 10: The truth is Albo is not a great speech maker.
44:47
Speaker 10: He's never pretended to be. Really, He's a politician, not
44:50
Speaker 10: a poet. And the interesting thing is, I remember before
44:55
Speaker 10: he got the twenty twenty two election, when people say, oh,
44:58
Speaker 10: there's no GoF Whitlam. I said, good, do you know
45:01
Speaker 10: what happened to Gough Whitlam? And again you could sort
45:04
Speaker 10: of say the same thing. I mean, abe, Lincoln didn't
45:06
Speaker 10: end up particularly well. Winston Churchill defeated Hitler but still
45:10
Speaker 10: couldn't win re election, And in fact, it didn't even
45:13
Speaker 10: win an election until the nineteen fifties, and it was
45:17
Speaker 10: the only one he wanted a poll. So I think
45:19
Speaker 10: sometimes these big, sort of grandiose speeches, you know, they
45:24
Speaker 10: might look good in the history books, but they don't
45:26
Speaker 10: necessarily help politicians in the here and now. I didn't
45:30
Speaker 10: mind the Wednesday night address at all. People seem to
45:32
Speaker 10: be angry that he wasn't announcing any new kind of
45:35
Speaker 10: restrictions or any or any new sort of catastrophic developments.
45:40
Speaker 10: And I'm like, good, well, everything's going to be okay,
45:42
Speaker 10: everything fine, Oh.
45:43
Speaker 1: Fantastic, Mia. He's also been a victim of satire. I
45:48
Speaker 1: have a look at let's we'll have a look at this.
45:52
Speaker 6: The hopeful among he sorto was going to resign, which
45:56
Speaker 6: was hurtful. I could have said how much fuel we
45:59
Speaker 6: actually have in leaders? With a number I could have
46:05
Speaker 6: named all the countries who are sending us more, and
46:08
Speaker 6: I could have thanked them, I could have explained why
46:11
Speaker 6: petrol stations are charging you three dollars for fuel that
46:14
Speaker 6: was already in their tanks. Instead, I gave you a
46:17
Speaker 6: condescending grin and said, enjoy your easter.
46:22
Speaker 1: Oh he nailed that, Maya, he nailed that.
46:27
Speaker 13: Yeah, I absolutely reckon he did. Look, I've got to
46:29
Speaker 13: disagree on Joe on this one. If Albo had nothing
46:31
Speaker 13: to say, don't call the national address. I mean, here's
46:35
Speaker 13: the one who is who you know, set the stage
46:38
Speaker 13: for us will to get ready for some big announcement,
46:40
Speaker 13: and then he had nothing to say. Those are reserved
46:43
Speaker 13: for very specific circumstances. And this kind of plays into
46:46
Speaker 13: the confusing messaging that's played out throughout this whole fuel crisis.
46:49
Speaker 13: They've spent the whole time saying there's no crisis, there's
46:52
Speaker 13: no need for people to go from panic by but
46:54
Speaker 13: at the same time try and catch the bus, in
46:57
Speaker 13: the train wherever possible. And then they say, don't panic,
46:59
Speaker 13: don't worry, We're going to have a national address to
47:01
Speaker 13: get this all sort of.
47:02
Speaker 12: This is a big deal.
47:03
Speaker 13: But I'm going to jump up on stage and say
47:04
Speaker 13: it's not a big deal and nothing's changing. I mean,
47:06
Speaker 13: the message just does not make sense. Which one is it?
47:09
Speaker 13: Is it a crisis or is it not?
47:11
Speaker 7: Well?
47:11
Speaker 10: I think the irony is just to clarify. The PM's
47:14
Speaker 10: office was going around telling journos in the press gallery
47:17
Speaker 10: there is not going to be any new restrictions or
47:20
Speaker 10: any new big catastrophe. Announced there's not going to be anything,
47:24
Speaker 10: and was telling them that and people just simply wouldn't
47:28
Speaker 10: believe it. And so I think it's one of these
47:29
Speaker 10: cases where people wanting to be worried or fearful that
47:34
Speaker 10: things are worse than they in fact are getting away
47:39
Speaker 10: from them despite what they were actually being told.
47:42
Speaker 1: Joe, you and I know a few TV executives. So
47:45
Speaker 1: the PM's office rings up and bigs three minutes at
47:49
Speaker 1: primetime seven o'clock on every network, and then the next
47:52
Speaker 1: day the Prime Minister stands up and completely trashes their
47:56
Speaker 1: financial model by saying you can't run gambling edge during lives.
48:00
Speaker 1: Imagine how they're feeling today.
48:02
Speaker 10: Yeah, well, I think that's why he announced it on
48:04
Speaker 10: Thursday afternoon in the lead up to Good Friday, when
48:07
Speaker 10: some newspapers weren't even running so I think that was
48:12
Speaker 10: a good example of taking out the trash. Price here.
48:17
Speaker 1: He certainly did take the trash out, there's no doubt
48:19
Speaker 1: about that. Thank you, Joe, Thank you Mia. I appreciate
48:22
Speaker 1: you very much. I just hope all of our audience
48:24
Speaker 1: have a fantastic easter. Make sure you stay safe on
48:27
Speaker 1: the roads and trying, as the Prime Minister said, conserve
48:31
Speaker 1: fuel if you can try and leave it for the
48:33
Speaker 1: farmers who need it much more than we do. And
48:36
Speaker 1: keep your eye on Artemis two. It is going to
48:39
Speaker 1: be around the back of the moon while we're all
48:41
Speaker 1: having a big holiday. Rown Dean, he's up next.