Transcript

Credlin | 17 March · Credlin

0:02
Speaker 1: Peter Kreanland live on Sky News Australia.
0:08
Speaker 2: Good evening and welcome to the program. I'm Caleb Bondi
0:11
Speaker 2: for Peter Creenlin. Tonight is what's coming up on the program?
0:14
Speaker 2: The Coalition calls for the CFMAU to be deregistered following
0:17
Speaker 2: shocking new allegations of domestic violence, crime and corruption. Signs
0:22
Speaker 2: Labour's smear campaign against Peter Dutton may be having an effect,
0:26
Speaker 2: as the opposition leader's approval rating switched behind the PM
0:29
Speaker 2: in the latest freshwater poll. A local community bands together
0:33
Speaker 2: against one of Labour's reckless renewable projects and which fears
0:36
Speaker 2: there please for greater transparency of falling on their fears.
0:40
Speaker 2: And Malcolm Turnbull wades into the spotlight once again by
0:43
Speaker 2: launching an extraordinary attack against the Orcast submarine deal.
0:48
Speaker 3: Orcas is a terrible deal. It is so unfair to Australia.
0:54
Speaker 3: We have no guarantee that we will ever get any submarines.
0:58
Speaker 2: Well, the again embroiled in allegations of corruption. Now you
1:03
Speaker 2: could argue that makes it a day ending in why
1:06
Speaker 2: and is somewhat unremarkable, which, to be honest, isn't entirely
1:09
Speaker 2: wrong it's not like this is the first we've heard
1:12
Speaker 2: of corruption or criminality in the construction union. But just
1:15
Speaker 2: you watch how everyone acts like they didn't know anything,
1:19
Speaker 2: and this is some great shock. I'll come back to
1:21
Speaker 2: that in a moment now. The latest allegations detailed in
1:25
Speaker 2: the Nine Papers Non sixty minutes last night that bikeys
1:28
Speaker 2: and other gangs have so successfully infiltrated the CFMEU that
1:33
Speaker 2: favored gang members were placed on government project work sites
1:37
Speaker 2: and quote unquote union delegates they were called earning taxpayer
1:41
Speaker 2: funded wages of up to eleven thousand dollars a week
1:45
Speaker 2: without showing up for work. They reported that companies have
1:48
Speaker 2: been paying large sums of money, as much as six
1:51
Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars to gangland and biking linked figures to
1:55
Speaker 2: ingratiate themselves with the CFMEU and secure work. Some of
1:59
Speaker 2: that is contractors paying to fixed problems with the union
2:03
Speaker 2: or make sure they get more work in future, but
2:05
Speaker 2: it's allegedly also bikis who've controlled government construction sites, particularly
2:10
Speaker 2: as part of the Big building Victoria, extorting subcontractors under
2:15
Speaker 2: the threat that bad things will happen or they won't
2:17
Speaker 2: get any more work. If they don't pay up the
2:20
Speaker 2: cost of entry to some work sites, it would seem
2:23
Speaker 2: is not just a sweetheart deal with the union but
2:26
Speaker 2: also paying off bikis. One example is that of Gangland
2:30
Speaker 2: figure Farook Orman, who was jailed in two thousand and
2:33
Speaker 2: nine for an underworld murder and later acquitted as part
2:36
Speaker 2: of the Lawyer x saga, allegedly took two hundred and
2:40
Speaker 2: fifty thousand dollars from two civil contractors to help negotiate
2:44
Speaker 2: an enterprise bargaining agreement with the CFMU giving them access
2:48
Speaker 2: to work on the big build. Ormond, it should be noted,
2:51
Speaker 2: has denied the allegations. They also claim that multiple women
2:54
Speaker 2: have been attacked and abused on CFMU work sites, including
2:58
Speaker 2: a CFMU backed man who allegedly locked a woman in
3:02
Speaker 2: a small room at the Foots Gray Hospital redevelopment while
3:05
Speaker 2: he smoked ice and blew it in her face. According
3:09
Speaker 2: to the Nine Papers, Nick Buris was put on the
3:12
Speaker 2: job at the behest of the CFMU after he was
3:15
Speaker 2: released from jail for stalking and threatening to kill a woman.
3:19
Speaker 2: He's allegedly still on Victorian building sites and according to
3:24
Speaker 2: Jeffrey Watson sc who was appointed by CFMU administrator Mark
3:28
Speaker 2: Irving to investigate corruption into the corrupt construction sector. They
3:33
Speaker 2: might be one and the same. Really, the Victorian government
3:36
Speaker 2: effectively ran a protection racket for the CFMU and its
3:40
Speaker 2: crime gang link mates by not properly scrutinating senior bureaucrats
3:44
Speaker 2: and ministerial officers.
3:47
Speaker 4: There Wilsome report, it seemed to me to be more
3:50
Speaker 4: of a cover up. Again, there was this generalization of
3:52
Speaker 4: bad culture here back culture. There. There was no solution
3:55
Speaker 4: given that there was a governmental inquiry. It needed actually
3:58
Speaker 4: to go inside the doors of the senior bureaucrats and
4:02
Speaker 4: actually into the ministerial offices in Spring Street. Didn't do
4:06
Speaker 4: any of that. There was I'm afraid a terrible disappointment.
4:13
Speaker 2: He also said that quote senior people in the bureaucracy
4:16
Speaker 2: know about it, because I've received information suggesting they were
4:20
Speaker 2: directly told about it. Now it seems to me, he says,
4:23
Speaker 2: they wouldn't have been doing their job properly if they
4:26
Speaker 2: were not communicating that with irrelevant ministers. Just Siner Allen
4:30
Speaker 2: was herself the minister responsible for the Big Build before
4:33
Speaker 2: she replaced Daniel Andrews's Premier and held transport infrastructure portfolios
4:38
Speaker 2: since twenty fourteen. She's previously denied any knowledge of misbehavior
4:43
Speaker 2: in the CFMEU. But here's the rub. No one seems
4:47
Speaker 2: to have known of any misbehavior in the CFMEU, despite
4:50
Speaker 2: the fact it's been plagued by trouble since its exception
4:54
Speaker 2: in the nineties. After, of course, its predecessor, the Builder's
4:57
Speaker 2: Laborers Federation, was to registered in nineteen eighty six by
5:01
Speaker 2: Bob Hawk for corruption. He was Allan's indignation today.
5:06
Speaker 5: Againt Heidi, if there are allegations, if there are allegations
5:10
Speaker 5: of at Heidi, if there are any allegations, any allegations
5:15
Speaker 5: that are made around criminal behavior, they must be referred
5:18
Speaker 5: to Victoria Police. And I note I was briefed this
5:21
Speaker 5: morning by the Acting Chief Commissioner of the investigations that
5:25
Speaker 5: have been underway since the middle of last year when
5:28
Speaker 5: I referred allegations to Victoria Police.
5:32
Speaker 2: She also announced a new police task force to investigate
5:35
Speaker 2: corruption on government construction sites. Now you'll remember this all
5:39
Speaker 2: kicked off last year when John Seker resigned as Secretary
5:42
Speaker 2: of the Victorian Division of the CFMAU, and then allegations
5:46
Speaker 2: of corruption involving Barkis and crime games were revealed. The
5:49
Speaker 2: federal government subsequently put the Construction Division of the union
5:53
Speaker 2: into administration and suspended it from the party's national executive.
5:57
Speaker 2: I wrote in my Advertiser column at the time, what's
6:00
Speaker 2: all the fuss about? I thought that the CFMU was
6:04
Speaker 2: an organized crime gang, or at least that we all
6:06
Speaker 2: sort of knew that it was. This was then Workplace
6:09
Speaker 2: Relations Minister Tony Burke at the time, and.
6:13
Speaker 6: The number one job of any union is to look
6:15
Speaker 6: after its members. That's a job of the union and
6:18
Speaker 6: it's a job.
6:19
Speaker 4: Of the officials.
6:20
Speaker 6: The reported behavior from the Construction Division of the CFMEU
6:24
Speaker 6: is the exact opposite of that obligation. It's ahurrent, it's intolerable.
6:31
Speaker 6: I said over the weekend that we would take action
6:35
Speaker 6: to address these issues, and we are.
6:38
Speaker 2: And where was Burke for the past two years of
6:41
Speaker 2: government while all this was going on. He was dismantling
6:44
Speaker 2: the Australian Building and Construction Commission, which the Turnbull government
6:48
Speaker 2: reinstated in twenty sixteen. The cop on the beat designed
6:51
Speaker 2: to keep militant unions like the CFMEU in check before
6:55
Speaker 2: the Albanese government killed it off. The ABCC had more
6:59
Speaker 2: than two hundred successful prosecutions and a ninety percent success rate. Now,
7:04
Speaker 2: when the Federal government scrapped the ABCC, Tony Burke bragged
7:08
Speaker 2: that the government was quote ending the unfair treatment of
7:11
Speaker 2: building and construction workers to ensure construction workers have these
7:15
Speaker 2: same rights as other workers. He complained that the ABCC
7:19
Speaker 2: had ridiculous powers and that it was politicized and a
7:24
Speaker 2: discredited organization established by the previous government to target workers
7:28
Speaker 2: purely for ideological reasons. It was, he said, set up
7:33
Speaker 2: by the Liberals and Nationals to discredit and dismantle unions
7:36
Speaker 2: and undermine the pay conditions and job security of ordinary
7:40
Speaker 2: Australian workers. And then two years later July last year,
7:45
Speaker 2: he was shocked to hear of corruption in the CFMEU
7:49
Speaker 2: and forced to do something about it. Well, maybe if
7:52
Speaker 2: he hadn't killed the cop on the beat, he wouldn't
7:54
Speaker 2: have been talking about this. His replacement as Workplace Relations Minister,
7:59
Speaker 2: Murray Watt, continued the pathetic indignation today on x where
8:03
Speaker 2: he tried to claim this was actually a win for
8:06
Speaker 2: the government. He posted tonight's sixty minutes allegations of corruption
8:10
Speaker 2: and violence towards women are appalling. I will refer them
8:13
Speaker 2: to police for further investigation. Uncovering this unacceptable conduct is
8:19
Speaker 2: testament to the hard work of the CFMEU administrator and
8:22
Speaker 2: his team appointed by the Albanesi government. Well bugger me.
8:27
Speaker 2: We got rid of the cop on the beat which
8:29
Speaker 2: allowed corruption to go basically unchecked. But we deserve a
8:33
Speaker 2: pat on the back for later doing something about it
8:35
Speaker 2: after a newspaper uncovered corruption which they allege has still
8:39
Speaker 2: been going on since they reported it, and you supposedly
8:42
Speaker 2: did something about it. Well done, mister Watt, what a hero.
8:46
Speaker 2: And props of course have to get to Nick mackenzie
8:49
Speaker 2: and his work for uncovering all of this stuff. It's
8:51
Speaker 2: no thanks to the government. It's him who's done most
8:55
Speaker 2: of the leg work on making all of this happen.
8:58
Speaker 2: But where has Murray what been today? He's been hiding
9:01
Speaker 2: from the cameras. He is the workplace Relations Minister. There
9:05
Speaker 2: are allegations of ongoing corruption in the CFMAU and he
9:09
Speaker 2: was nowhere to be seen. The only ministers to speak
9:13
Speaker 2: publicly about it were Treasurer Jim Charmers very briefly at
9:16
Speaker 2: a press conference this morning. Basically just to say that
9:19
Speaker 2: it was bad. Yeah, okay with you that, and then
9:21
Speaker 2: Housing Minister clar O'Neil just after four this afternoon.
9:26
Speaker 7: Now, I've seen some of the footage from last night's
9:29
Speaker 7: reporting and it's absolutely gut wrenching. The footage of a
9:33
Speaker 7: full grown male beating up a woman like it absolutely
9:37
Speaker 7: turned my stomach. You know, the union movements were supposed
9:40
Speaker 7: to be about standing up for people who can't protect
9:42
Speaker 7: themselves and I can't think of any more anti union
9:45
Speaker 7: thing that I've ever seen in that So it's just
9:46
Speaker 7: disgusting and I'm glad that these are being taken so seriously.
9:50
Speaker 2: But where's the workplace relations Minister? She didn't have an
9:54
Speaker 2: answer for that, and she made the most outlandish claim
9:57
Speaker 2: about the government's record on union corruption.
10:01
Speaker 7: I'm sure that Murray Watt will have more to say
10:04
Speaker 7: about this, and I know that he's in the process
10:06
Speaker 7: of referring the allegations from sixty Minutes to the Australian
10:09
Speaker 7: Federal Police. What I just say is that for all
10:12
Speaker 7: the complaining from Peter Dutton, the Coalition sat back and
10:15
Speaker 7: didn't do anything terribly much about the CFMU for a
10:18
Speaker 7: decade when we came to office, we did the toughest
10:20
Speaker 7: thing possible, and that is take the union away from
10:23
Speaker 7: wrongdoers and give it to an independent administrator.
10:27
Speaker 2: Can you believe it? The previous government reintroduced the ABCC
10:32
Speaker 2: to do something about the CFMU, And when you came
10:35
Speaker 2: to office, you got rid of the one thing keeping
10:38
Speaker 2: an eye on corruption in the union movement. Then when
10:41
Speaker 2: lo and behold a journalist found corruption in the CFMEU,
10:44
Speaker 2: you were forced to do something. How can you say
10:48
Speaker 2: you have the strongest record on fighting corruption in the
10:51
Speaker 2: union movement. That is pathetic And it tells you what
10:55
Speaker 2: the Labor Party, which of course took money from the
10:57
Speaker 2: CFMU for a very long time, thinks of all this.
11:01
Speaker 2: They dismantled the ABCC as a gift to their union
11:04
Speaker 2: thug mates. They got what they wanted, and taxpayer dollars
11:08
Speaker 2: are allegedly ending up in the hands of criminals. And
11:11
Speaker 2: the best we get is Clara O'Neill saying they've somehow
11:14
Speaker 2: been strong in fighting union corruption. Don't give us the
11:18
Speaker 2: Sergeant Schultz. I don't nah think corruption in construction is
11:23
Speaker 2: a tale as old as time. Don't pretend that you're shocked.
11:28
Speaker 2: This was oppositionallyad to Peter Dutton today.
11:32
Speaker 8: The CFMU has donated eleven and a half million dollars
11:35
Speaker 8: to mister Albanese's party and to Miss Allen's party. They
11:39
Speaker 8: are completely and utterly compromised and the corruption here goes
11:42
Speaker 8: to the heart of the Albanzi government.
11:45
Speaker 2: Now he said that they need to be deregistered. Don't
11:48
Speaker 2: hold your breath. The Albanzi government knew what it was
11:51
Speaker 2: doing when it dismantled the ABCC, just as the Allen
11:55
Speaker 2: government knew what it was doing when it commissioned an
11:58
Speaker 2: investigation that didn't look in to what government departments and
12:02
Speaker 2: ministers knew and the worst parties you are paying for it.
12:10
Speaker 2: Let's head to Camber now for tonight's political headlines with
12:13
Speaker 2: Scaran News political reporter Reuben Spargo.
12:16
Speaker 9: Labor is ruling out delivering a budget surplus next week
12:19
Speaker 9: due to rising costs and the impact of Cyclone.
12:22
Speaker 10: Out for it.
12:23
Speaker 9: The weather event has punched a one point two billion
12:26
Speaker 9: dollar hole in Australia's economy this year.
12:28
Speaker 11: We've been able to turn a big liberal deficit into
12:31
Speaker 11: a smaller deficit.
12:32
Speaker 9: Crop damage could increase grocery prices, while construction costs may
12:36
Speaker 9: rise as Australia's East Coast rebuilds.
12:39
Speaker 12: We've got Jim Chalmers out there looking for another excuse
12:43
Speaker 12: for why he is failing as Treasurer.
12:45
Speaker 9: Ahead of the budget, the Coalition is building the case
12:47
Speaker 9: for greater income tax relief to reduce bracket creep. The
12:51
Speaker 9: Opposition leader is calling for urgent racketeering laws to be
12:54
Speaker 9: moved in Parliament. It's in response to new allegations of
12:58
Speaker 9: misconduct on major construction sites. A dedicated Victorian police task
13:02
Speaker 9: force has been set up to investigate. The state's premier
13:06
Speaker 9: is reluctant to call an inquiry.
13:08
Speaker 8: Not surprisingly, somebody who was sanctioned and condoned the corrupt
13:11
Speaker 8: activity of the CFMU, inter Cidarell, provided a wet letters
13:15
Speaker 8: response today it was pathetic.
13:17
Speaker 9: Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is stepping up his criticism
13:21
Speaker 9: of the Orcast deal.
13:22
Speaker 3: A terrible deal. It is so unfair to Australia ocase.
13:27
Speaker 10: So I respect his opinion.
13:28
Speaker 11: I speak to him from time to time about Orcus
13:32
Speaker 11: and about a whole range of things. So that's not
13:34
Speaker 11: a new position that he's taken.
13:35
Speaker 9: Bipartisan support for this three hundred and sixty eight billion
13:39
Speaker 9: dollar deal is unwavering for now.
13:42
Speaker 2: We'll talk a bit more about that later in the meantime, though,
13:45
Speaker 2: the latest monthly Financial Review Freshwater Strategy poll has the
13:49
Speaker 2: coalition's primary vote slipping two points on last month. Peter
13:53
Speaker 2: Dutton's approval rating has also fallen below Anthony Albanezi's for
13:57
Speaker 2: the first time since May last year. Now, based on
14:00
Speaker 2: this data, Freshwater projects a hung Parliament, with Labour holding
14:04
Speaker 2: seventy one seats, the Coalition sixty six and thirteen split
14:08
Speaker 2: amongst the Greens and Independence. For more on this in
14:11
Speaker 2: the day's other political stories, I'm joined by Sky and
14:13
Speaker 2: News contributor Chris Yulman. Chris, great to see you. The
14:17
Speaker 2: poles sort of universally have been going against Dutton for
14:21
Speaker 2: the last couple of weeks. Is this a sign that
14:24
Speaker 2: Labor is clawing back territory?
14:28
Speaker 12: Look, it may well be color, But I've thought for
14:30
Speaker 12: some time, based on which pole you were reading, that
14:32
Speaker 12: within the margin of era, that nothing much had essentially
14:35
Speaker 12: changed since the last election. So maybe we're seeing some
14:37
Speaker 12: signs of that. So if you were Peter Dutton and
14:40
Speaker 12: his troops, you would be concerned. I'd be even more
14:42
Speaker 12: concerned about the result that we saw out of Western Australia,
14:45
Speaker 12: where everyone was predicting that although the Liberal Party would lose,
14:47
Speaker 12: it would do much better. In fact, it barely lifted
14:50
Speaker 12: its head above that extinction level event that we'd seen
14:53
Speaker 12: four years previously. And this goes to one of the
14:55
Speaker 12: really big problems that the coalition hasn't particularly the Liberal Party.
14:58
Speaker 10: It is completely dysfunctional in.
15:00
Speaker 12: West Australia, South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales is
15:04
Speaker 12: under administration.
15:05
Speaker 2: Now.
15:05
Speaker 12: If you don't have the troops to put boots on
15:07
Speaker 12: the ground during an election campaign, you are not going
15:09
Speaker 12: to win that campaign. And the numbers game is against Dutton.
15:12
Speaker 12: He's got to come from fifty seven seats to seventy six.
15:15
Speaker 12: The Labour Party sits on seventy eight. So you look
15:17
Speaker 12: at that equation, it is a very big gap to bridge.
15:20
Speaker 12: So I have always thought that the most likely outcome
15:23
Speaker 12: of the next election is a minority Labor government, which
15:27
Speaker 12: will be an interesting exercise for everyone.
15:29
Speaker 2: Indeed, and there's more or less what I've been saying
15:31
Speaker 2: as well, it's not impossible for the Coalition to claw
15:35
Speaker 2: back the twenty one seats that it needs in order
15:37
Speaker 2: to form a majority, but it is extremely difficult. It
15:41
Speaker 2: doesn't matter which way you cut it. I think we're
15:42
Speaker 2: going to end up in a minority government of some description.
15:45
Speaker 2: While we're talking about minority, of course, if it was
15:47
Speaker 2: a labor government, they may potentially be looking to the Greens.
15:51
Speaker 2: But there was another poll out today showing the Greens
15:54
Speaker 2: supposedly in real trouble in Queensland. This is from Advance Australia,
15:58
Speaker 2: which is of course a consider activists mob, so perhaps
16:01
Speaker 2: we take it with a grain of salt, but they're
16:03
Speaker 2: suggesting from this pole that they could lose two of
16:06
Speaker 2: their three Queensland seats the Greens to the Coalition, and
16:10
Speaker 2: the third is on a knife edge. Now, if that
16:12
Speaker 2: were to happen and they didn't pick up any other seats,
16:15
Speaker 2: that would leave Adam Band as the sole Greens in
16:18
Speaker 2: p in the Lower House. What's the likelihood of that?
16:21
Speaker 12: Yeah, look man, and again I don't have any problem
16:23
Speaker 12: believing that the Greens, particularly given that they essentially are
16:26
Speaker 12: a party of negativity in the Australian electorate, probably are
16:31
Speaker 12: reaping some of the things that they're selling, and they've
16:33
Speaker 12: moved a long way from being an environmental party to
16:35
Speaker 12: being activists and basically professional protesters in Parliament. So I
16:39
Speaker 12: can believe that the Greens numbers may well be falling.
16:42
Speaker 10: But even on that advanced pole, you'll see that the
16:45
Speaker 10: Green's numbers have fallen.
16:46
Speaker 12: Labors have either gone up slightly or stayed pretty much
16:48
Speaker 12: the same. And my experience from many election nights is
16:51
Speaker 12: that unless there's a four in front of the Liberal
16:53
Speaker 12: candidate so over forty percent, they usually don't pick up
16:57
Speaker 12: that many preferences. And there's a preference lock between the
17:00
Speaker 12: Greens and.
17:00
Speaker 10: The Labor Party.
17:01
Speaker 12: So the other way to read that poll is there's
17:03
Speaker 12: a possibility that the Labor Party could pick up both
17:06
Speaker 12: those seats, and on that election night we won't know
17:09
Speaker 12: the result. We'll have to wait for weeks to find out.
17:11
Speaker 12: So it could be good use for the Liberal Party,
17:13
Speaker 12: it might be bad use.
17:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, and there is other polling showing that Labor will
17:17
Speaker 2: pick up those seats. We'll see what happens when it
17:20
Speaker 2: all comes out in the wash. Now to eight days,
17:21
Speaker 2: of course, now until treasure Jim Chalmers hands down a budget,
17:25
Speaker 2: he's preempting what is likely to be a big black
17:28
Speaker 2: hole in government spending.
17:29
Speaker 11: Take a look, Treasury expects there will be about a
17:34
Speaker 11: one point two billion dollar hit to economic output just
17:37
Speaker 11: as a consequence of xtc Alfred. That's about a quarter
17:41
Speaker 11: of a percentage point in GDP.
17:44
Speaker 2: And you've also had a report by Deloitte Access Economics
17:47
Speaker 2: warning of deficits blowing out by thirteen billion dollars over
17:51
Speaker 2: the next four years thanks to growing government spending and
17:53
Speaker 2: declining revenues. That the forecast in this report is also
17:57
Speaker 2: that net debt will grow by more than two hundred
17:59
Speaker 2: billion over the NY four years to more than seven
18:01
Speaker 2: hundred and forty seven billion dollars, or nearly twenty four
18:05
Speaker 2: percent of GDP. But the Treasurer today seemed to be
18:08
Speaker 2: trying to blame it Chris on cyclone Albert.
18:13
Speaker 12: And the treasure of course, and I've got no doubt
18:16
Speaker 12: there it will be some hit to the budget from
18:17
Speaker 12: cyclone AB Albert. Let's just say it is one point
18:19
Speaker 12: two billion dollars. Let's have a look at what's happened
18:22
Speaker 12: to the figures over the time that Jim Chalmers has
18:24
Speaker 12: been Treasurer. He has enjoyed the biggest budget win for
18:28
Speaker 12: that is revenue writeops in Australia's history two years to date,
18:32
Speaker 12: one hundred and eighty seven billion dollars in the bank
18:35
Speaker 12: that he was not expecting. If you look at the
18:37
Speaker 12: forward projections, two hundred and seventy six billion dollars over
18:42
Speaker 12: three years that he was not expecting that went into
18:44
Speaker 12: his coffers.
18:45
Speaker 10: And what did we get over that time?
18:46
Speaker 12: Or we saw the size of government rise from twenty
18:49
Speaker 12: four percent of GDP to twenty seven percent of GDP,
18:51
Speaker 12: which is a permanent increase in the size of government
18:54
Speaker 12: in Australia, the biggest in the last fifty years. So
18:57
Speaker 12: with the things that Jim Charmers couldn't control, or they've
19:00
Speaker 12: got an enormous amount of money. With the things that
19:02
Speaker 12: he could control, he spent an even more enormous amount
19:05
Speaker 12: of money and has locked in permanent.
19:06
Speaker 10: Budget deficits forever. That's the true story.
19:10
Speaker 12: So lucky Jim has been lucky for him, but unfortunately
19:13
Speaker 12: it's not going to be terribly lucky for governments into
19:15
Speaker 12: the future.
19:15
Speaker 10: And again, unfortunately, I don't.
19:18
Speaker 12: See either side of politics tics being able to rain
19:21
Speaker 12: these deficits in.
19:22
Speaker 2: It's a disgrace. And speaking of unlucky, bad day or
19:25
Speaker 2: lucky use. But unlucky for the government today. I mean
19:27
Speaker 2: the CFMU stuff which I talked about before. Murray Watt
19:31
Speaker 2: is saying that this will be referred to police. They're
19:33
Speaker 2: all feigning indignation. Oh, I can't believe this is going
19:36
Speaker 2: on in the CFMU, as if they don't know that
19:40
Speaker 2: dodgy things happen in the CFM. You go all the
19:43
Speaker 2: way back to the BLIFT, it's never been any different.
19:46
Speaker 2: They dismantled the ABCC, and then you've got Claire O'Neill
19:49
Speaker 2: trying to claim that this government has a stronger record
19:53
Speaker 2: on stopping union corruption than anyone else. Please ah.
19:58
Speaker 12: And if you look at the Victorian Labor government and
20:00
Speaker 12: the way that that state has run, and the fact
20:02
Speaker 12: that for many, many years it ran a protection racket
20:06
Speaker 12: for the CFMU, and everyone knew about the way that
20:09
Speaker 12: it behaved, even a casual observer and knew about the
20:12
Speaker 12: way that it behaved, and shock and surprise, we now
20:15
Speaker 12: find that it's the new Moonlight state.
20:18
Speaker 10: Let's give it a name.
20:19
Speaker 12: Let's call it the Sopranos State, because in fact, what
20:21
Speaker 12: we're seeing in Victoria is organized crime using a protection
20:25
Speaker 12: racket to stand over.
20:27
Speaker 10: People on building sites.
20:28
Speaker 12: They literally cause a problem and then they'll tell you
20:30
Speaker 12: that they will fix it.
20:32
Speaker 10: Now, I agree with you.
20:33
Speaker 12: We need to give great cutos here to Nick McKenzie,
20:36
Speaker 12: who was, without the shadow of a doubt, is this
20:38
Speaker 12: nation's leading investigative journalist. It was him that drug up
20:42
Speaker 12: what was going on in Victoria. The Victorian government again,
20:45
Speaker 12: shock and surprise, we really didn't know this was going on.
20:48
Speaker 12: They conducted their own investigation, which the person who's working
20:53
Speaker 12: now for the administrator says was a cover up. Now
20:57
Speaker 12: that is a damning indictment of Victorian labor government and
21:01
Speaker 12: all of Labour knew about this for a very long time,
21:03
Speaker 12: and so did the ACTU and those people that were
21:06
Speaker 12: silent or they're responsible for criminal behavior in Victoria and
21:10
Speaker 12: violence against women, all those things which they claim there against.
21:14
Speaker 2: Spot on, Chris Yulman, thank you for your time. Now,
21:17
Speaker 2: this is a story Peter has been following on this
21:19
Speaker 2: program for some time. The imposition of massive renewable energy
21:23
Speaker 2: projects on communities in rural Victoria will concerned locals are
21:27
Speaker 2: gathering in western Victoria tonight to demand greater transparency over
21:31
Speaker 2: the controversial Western Renewables Link. The proposed on hundred and
21:35
Speaker 2: ninety kilometer overhead transmission line will move renewable power from
21:39
Speaker 2: Bulgana in western Victoria to Sydenham in Melbourne's northwest, and
21:43
Speaker 2: it's feared the planned transmission towers will destroy farms and
21:47
Speaker 2: homes and locals say it's been a struggle to have
21:49
Speaker 2: their concerns heard by the government. Joining me now to
21:52
Speaker 2: discuss this is Victorian farmer Emma Muir. Thanks for joining me, Emma,
21:57
Speaker 2: and what's the plan with the meeting tonight? What are
21:59
Speaker 2: you hoping to it?
22:02
Speaker 13: Thanks for having me, Caleb, and I'm here with Bev
22:03
Speaker 13: MacArthur from Western region of Victoria. Tonight we're hoping to
22:08
Speaker 13: hear from the local politicians both at a state and
22:12
Speaker 13: federal level as well as the CFA and have a
22:16
Speaker 13: really good information night for community who've been just so
22:18
Speaker 13: badly treated over the last four and a half nearly
22:21
Speaker 13: five years.
22:23
Speaker 2: How do you expect this project would impact your community?
22:27
Speaker 13: Well, there's a couple of really big things that will
22:30
Speaker 13: be struggling with is the environment. It will be just
22:33
Speaker 13: desecrated in the areas that they're proposing to put the
22:35
Speaker 13: power lines. We've got huge impact on agriculture, we've got
22:40
Speaker 13: the spud farmers in our region and just you know,
22:43
Speaker 13: everyday farming will have to change or stop as well
22:47
Speaker 13: as spy safety. We've just got an enormous amount of
22:50
Speaker 13: sixty two kilometers of bush fronts onto these transmission lines,
22:53
Speaker 13: and so far today we've had no explanation on how
22:57
Speaker 13: we'll be safe from any impact of these power lines.
23:00
Speaker 13: We're not saying that the power lines will start the fires,
23:02
Speaker 13: but they're going to inhibit the CFA's ability to fight
23:05
Speaker 13: the fires in our region.
23:06
Speaker 2: Well, this is the absurdity of these projects so often,
23:09
Speaker 2: isn't it? Because I mean I was talking last night
23:12
Speaker 2: on here about a story out of Brazil where the
23:14
Speaker 2: COP thirty conference is going this year and they're trying
23:17
Speaker 2: to work on how they get all these delegates to
23:19
Speaker 2: come into the meeting. Well, they're going to rip out
23:22
Speaker 2: large sways of the Amazonian rainforest so they can put
23:25
Speaker 2: down a four lane highway. So you destroy the environment
23:28
Speaker 2: in order to have a climate change conference where you
23:31
Speaker 2: talk about how you save the environment, and it seems
23:33
Speaker 2: to be much the same in this circumstance. You say, well,
23:36
Speaker 2: we must save the environment with the renewable power, because
23:39
Speaker 2: burning coal is bad for the environment, so we'll just
23:41
Speaker 2: tear through all this land and buger everyone who lives
23:44
Speaker 2: on it and is using it for profit and delivering
23:48
Speaker 2: food to the country who needs that, because we're saving
23:51
Speaker 2: the environment by destroying the environment.
23:54
Speaker 13: That's exactly your spot on. It's exactly what we're facing. Hair.
23:58
Speaker 13: We personally have panted ten thousand and trees. We have
24:00
Speaker 13: a biolink corridor through our property, and we just feel like,
24:03
Speaker 13: why why do we do it when you're going to
24:05
Speaker 13: come and put concrete on it, rip it up, put
24:08
Speaker 13: tracks in it, and just change all of the flora
24:11
Speaker 13: and fauna that we've worked so hard to rehabilitate in
24:14
Speaker 13: our communities and just wreck it. It just astounds me.
24:17
Speaker 13: I just can't understand how anybody could come to our
24:21
Speaker 13: properties and think this was a good idea.
24:23
Speaker 2: Of course, we're talking about prime farming land here right now.
24:26
Speaker 2: I would have thought that food farmed in Australia and
24:31
Speaker 2: transported within Australia will generally have a lower carbon footprint
24:37
Speaker 2: than food that you import from overseas because it has
24:40
Speaker 2: to do less movement, it goes on less planes, there's ships,
24:43
Speaker 2: et cetera, et cetera. So you take away the land
24:46
Speaker 2: that people are farming on to save the environment. Again,
24:50
Speaker 2: it doesn't make sense exactly.
24:54
Speaker 13: I'm not really sure. Food production doesn't seem to be
24:58
Speaker 13: an issue here SEMs to even ask about food security.
25:02
Speaker 13: And one of our early arguments, because we've been fighting
25:04
Speaker 13: this infinitely five years, was that during COVID, didn't we
25:07
Speaker 13: learn that we should need to produce everything ourselves. Well,
25:10
Speaker 13: why would we even jeopardize our beautiful farmland, our agricultural
25:14
Speaker 13: land here in Victoria to put transmission lines on that
25:17
Speaker 13: really are superseded and there are better alternatives, and the
25:20
Speaker 13: government knows that they knows there's better ways of doing
25:22
Speaker 13: this and cheaper ways to do this. I think that
25:26
Speaker 13: we're just the meat in the sandwich and going to
25:28
Speaker 13: suffer regardless, being bulldozed completely by all levels of the
25:32
Speaker 13: labor government.
25:33
Speaker 2: Indeed and of course the state government and another stakeholders.
25:36
Speaker 2: You have given you the cold shoulder, hopefully Emma from
25:39
Speaker 2: tonight and you will continued work. You can get some answers.
25:41
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for joining me after the break.
25:44
Speaker 2: Victorian Opposition leader Brad Batton on those explosive allegations of
25:47
Speaker 2: corruption and violence within the CFMUU class. Malcolm Turnbill launches
25:51
Speaker 2: an extraordinary attack on the Orchest submarine deal. Don't go Away,
26:00
Speaker 2: growing speculation about whether the Trump administration will actually follow
26:03
Speaker 2: through with the Orcus submarine deal. Will Former Prime Minister
26:06
Speaker 2: Malcolm Turnbull doesn't seem to know how to shut up.
26:09
Speaker 2: He's furnished us with his thoughts that no one asked for,
26:12
Speaker 2: which is that Trump will like the deal, but perhaps
26:15
Speaker 2: not for the reason. You might think.
26:18
Speaker 3: Orcas is a terrible deal. It is so unfair to Australia.
26:23
Speaker 3: And the reason it is unfair is that we are
26:27
Speaker 3: paying three billion US dollars to the Americans to support
26:31
Speaker 3: their submarine industrial base, but we have no guarantee that
26:35
Speaker 3: we will ever get any submarines. People say, does do
26:38
Speaker 3: Will Donald Trump like it?
26:39
Speaker 10: Well, of course he'd like it. It's such a bad
26:41
Speaker 10: deal for us.
26:43
Speaker 3: Will his only thinking, He'd be back of his mind.
26:45
Speaker 3: He'll be thinking, who are these dumb guys that agreed
26:47
Speaker 3: to this deal.
26:49
Speaker 2: One wonders how much of that commentary is to do
26:51
Speaker 2: with the fact that Scott Morrison scrapped his deal with
26:54
Speaker 2: France in favor of Orcus. But meanwhile, the plan to
26:57
Speaker 2: extend the life of our Colins class submarines might need
27:00
Speaker 2: to be scaled back because government and shipbuilder ASC apparently
27:04
Speaker 2: won't be ready in time to deliver the full upgrade
27:06
Speaker 2: for the first boat. Joining me now to discuss this
27:09
Speaker 2: is the Director of Strategic Analysis Australia, Michael Shubridge. Michael,
27:13
Speaker 2: how worrying are these revelations about the Colins class submarines.
27:17
Speaker 2: I mean, you know you've got one job.
27:21
Speaker 14: Well, they're very worrying. But it's not just ASC the company,
27:25
Speaker 14: it's Defense and the Navy. They have put too much
27:29
Speaker 14: risk into the Colins class. They're trying to turn an
27:32
Speaker 14: old submarine into a new submarine and now they've worked
27:36
Speaker 14: out that it's all too hard. So that's the big problem.
27:39
Speaker 14: It's like having a ninety six Ford Falcon that you're
27:43
Speaker 14: going to replace the sound system and all the electronics,
27:46
Speaker 14: but it turns out you haven't got time to do
27:48
Speaker 14: anything about the engine, the gearbox or the mechanicals.
27:51
Speaker 2: It sounds like something one of our contributors, Joe Hildebrand,
27:55
Speaker 2: actually did with his with his Ford Falcon. It should
27:58
Speaker 2: be should be noted it is utterly ridiculous to think
28:01
Speaker 2: that we say we're going to do this. We are
28:04
Speaker 2: in such a poor position when it comes to the
28:08
Speaker 2: on water infrastructure of our navy, be it ships or submarines.
28:13
Speaker 2: We have a supposed plan to make sure we can
28:16
Speaker 2: get through until such time as we have brand new
28:19
Speaker 2: nuclear submarines, and that doesn't even work. I mean we
28:22
Speaker 2: are sitting ducks.
28:23
Speaker 4: Really.
28:25
Speaker 14: Yes, So if we think that the surveillance of those
28:27
Speaker 14: three Chinese warships was badly managed this time, as our
28:32
Speaker 14: ANZAC frigates get old and taken out of service early
28:35
Speaker 14: and Collins goes down the same path, the Navy is
28:39
Speaker 14: getting weaker and weaker at a time we needed to
28:42
Speaker 14: get stronger.
28:43
Speaker 2: What did you make of Malcolm Turnbull's analysis that I
28:46
Speaker 2: played before that Orcus is actually a bad deal for us,
28:49
Speaker 2: and that is why don't think Trump would be into it.
28:54
Speaker 14: Well, I actually think there's a potential for Donald Trump
28:57
Speaker 14: to look at Aucus a completely different way. One thing
29:00
Speaker 14: Donald Trump is certain about is that his predecessor Joe
29:04
Speaker 14: Biden made bad deals. Any deal Biden made is a
29:09
Speaker 14: bad one that Trump can do better on. Well, guess
29:12
Speaker 14: who signed the UCUST deal Joe Biden. So the risk
29:16
Speaker 14: is Trump wants a better deal than he's already got.
29:19
Speaker 14: But a lot of this is irrelevant. That August submarine
29:22
Speaker 14: plan is a decades long thing. It doesn't deliver even
29:26
Speaker 14: if it goes well, any military power to Australia for
29:30
Speaker 14: at least a decade. We need to do a whole
29:33
Speaker 14: lot more, a whole lot faster, with unmanned drones that
29:37
Speaker 14: are armed and unarmed, under the water and in the air,
29:40
Speaker 14: and of course missile encounter missile system. So a lot
29:44
Speaker 14: of this aucust stuff is just just talk.
29:48
Speaker 2: You are right, Michael. Now, according to US officials, a
29:52
Speaker 2: Ukraine Russia cease far deal could be just weeks away,
29:55
Speaker 2: with Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin set to hold
29:57
Speaker 2: discussions in a matter of days. Of course, we know
30:01
Speaker 2: Ukraine is already on board with a ceasefire. Putin to
30:04
Speaker 2: this point is that there is no way it will happen.
30:06
Speaker 2: The terms he's putting forward for such a thing to happen.
30:09
Speaker 2: It is so ridiculous that presumably the US could never.
30:12
Speaker 10: See to them.
30:13
Speaker 2: How likely are we to actually see a deal for
30:16
Speaker 2: a ceasefire.
30:19
Speaker 14: I think it's a long way away. Because you're right,
30:22
Speaker 14: Putin is now thinking he can get even more than
30:26
Speaker 14: in his wildest dreams he thought was possible. He seems
30:29
Speaker 14: to be channeling that old quote I think it was Napoleon.
30:33
Speaker 14: Never interrupt your adversary when they're making a mistake. So
30:36
Speaker 14: he's happy to see wedges driven between the US and
30:40
Speaker 14: Ukraine and the US and Europe. Ukraine weakened, and he's
30:44
Speaker 14: happy to watch more of that happen. So I think
30:48
Speaker 14: any deal, particularly a durable peace, is a long way away.
30:54
Speaker 2: Just quickly. This business about the Prime Minister floating the
30:57
Speaker 2: idea of sending a small number of peacekeepers to Ukraine
31:00
Speaker 2: if there is a cease fire. He's kind of putting
31:03
Speaker 2: the car to ahead of the horse, isn't he.
31:07
Speaker 1: Yeah.
31:07
Speaker 14: Look, I think we've got to be prepared with mister
31:10
Speaker 14: Albinizi for another episode of The Mouse That Roared. So
31:13
Speaker 14: he's talking a big game. But anyone that's worried about
31:16
Speaker 14: thousands of Australian troops heading off to Ukraine can relax.
31:20
Speaker 14: This will be just like the contribution Australia's made to
31:24
Speaker 14: keeping the Red Sea shipping lanes open. We're asked for
31:27
Speaker 14: a warship. We sent five officers to coordinate things in
31:31
Speaker 14: her headquarters.
31:33
Speaker 2: You are probably right, Michael, thank you so much for
31:36
Speaker 2: your time. Let's return to those explosive new allegations, of
31:40
Speaker 2: course against the sea of him. You joining me now
31:43
Speaker 2: is Victorian opposition leader Brad Baton. Brad, great to see you, though,
31:47
Speaker 2: of course, under awful circumstances with what we're talking about here,
31:51
Speaker 2: their premier, Just Cinterer Allen sees today. Of course she
31:54
Speaker 2: reaffirms that she didn't know about any of this before
31:57
Speaker 2: it happened, and the government is not running any kind
32:01
Speaker 2: of protection racket to protect the CMEU and its thug
32:06
Speaker 2: mates in organized crime and biking games, etc. That does
32:11
Speaker 2: not wash. I mean, when you've got the bloke who's
32:13
Speaker 2: been sent off by the administrator coming back and saying
32:17
Speaker 2: the Allen government's investigation to this did not look at
32:21
Speaker 2: what the government and its departments knew, it's pretty clear
32:25
Speaker 2: what was going on.
32:29
Speaker 10: It's one hundred percent right.
32:30
Speaker 15: And you even had in the story had a detective
32:32
Speaker 15: superintendent who came out and said that nearly ten years
32:36
Speaker 15: ago he wrote to the government and explained that there's
32:38
Speaker 15: issues with challenges on the work sites here in state
32:42
Speaker 15: government projects. And what we've seen today is just since
32:44
Speaker 15: Alan is trying to backtrack, rewrite history to try and
32:47
Speaker 15: write herself out of it when the reality is not
32:50
Speaker 15: only as the premier now, but she was the minister
32:53
Speaker 15: in charge of the big build project. It's about time
32:56
Speaker 15: that just into Alan starts taking responsibility for the consequences
33:00
Speaker 15: of what is happening on those projects now, for the
33:02
Speaker 15: bikis that are there, for the organized crime that is happening,
33:06
Speaker 15: and the money that's been filtered taxpayers money has been
33:09
Speaker 15: filtered directly through state government projects.
33:11
Speaker 10: Into the hands of organized crime.
33:13
Speaker 15: This is from a government who won't lift a finger
33:15
Speaker 15: to help families that are struggling. Yet we're seeing organized
33:18
Speaker 15: crime figures driving around in Bentley's in souped up forward
33:22
Speaker 15: rangers that all the cars that we want, smoking cigars,
33:25
Speaker 15: having a great old time at the expense of the
33:28
Speaker 15: poor person who has to pay the taxpayers and increased
33:30
Speaker 15: taxes we get in this state.
33:32
Speaker 2: Well, let's look at the record of Jacinta Allen over
33:35
Speaker 2: the last few years. Of course, she was the minister
33:37
Speaker 2: for the delivery of the Commonwealth Games that was scrapped,
33:41
Speaker 2: that cost hundreds of millions of dollars for the Victorian
33:43
Speaker 2: taxpayer to not have the Commonwealth Games. She still hasn't
33:47
Speaker 2: answered what she knew about that before that decision was
33:50
Speaker 2: made and when the decision was actually made at an
33:53
Speaker 2: internal government level. She was responsible for the big build
33:57
Speaker 2: and she says she wasn't aware of alleged corruption by
34:00
Speaker 2: the CFMU an organized crime that was going on while
34:04
Speaker 2: she was responsible for the Big build. I mean surely,
34:06
Speaker 2: on that alone, even if she is admitting that she
34:09
Speaker 2: didn't know what was going on, that is an abrogation
34:13
Speaker 2: of her responsibility as the minister. She needs to own
34:16
Speaker 2: up to that and leave.
34:20
Speaker 10: And what you're saying there. If she's saying she didn't know.
34:23
Speaker 15: About it and she was not aware, then why is
34:26
Speaker 15: it the investigators coming out and saying that the blockage
34:28
Speaker 15: point at the moment is they can't speak to the
34:31
Speaker 15: ministers or see the information that they knew. If they've
34:34
Speaker 15: got nothing to hide, then come out and show what
34:37
Speaker 15: you knew at what times? Because the footage we've seen
34:40
Speaker 15: where women are being assaulted on work sites and for
34:44
Speaker 15: complaining they get black bann Yet the thugs who do
34:47
Speaker 15: it remain on these work sites that we're seeing. As
34:50
Speaker 15: I said, this money been filtered. It's taxpayers money straight through.
34:53
Speaker 15: How can they take not take any responsibility as a
34:57
Speaker 15: government that's been in power for ten years and the
34:59
Speaker 15: minister was in charge is now the premier.
35:01
Speaker 8: Now.
35:01
Speaker 15: I know she's come out recently and apologized, and since
35:04
Speaker 15: she got it wrong in relation to Bail, I wonder
35:07
Speaker 15: when she's going to come out and apologize to the
35:09
Speaker 15: victims who have been in these videos from these work sites.
35:12
Speaker 15: And we're just going to apologize to everyone in Victoria
35:15
Speaker 15: that she's let Biki's run state run projects, that she's
35:19
Speaker 15: allowing taxpayers who are struggling to put food on the
35:21
Speaker 15: table and pay their energy bill, to have increased taxes
35:24
Speaker 15: on the rent tax, health tax, all these things are
35:27
Speaker 15: going straight into the hands of organized crime.
35:30
Speaker 10: It needs to be cleaned up.
35:31
Speaker 15: This is a mess and the only way to make
35:33
Speaker 15: changes in that we need a royal commission. And we're
35:35
Speaker 15: staying to the government get on with it and do
35:37
Speaker 15: a proper royal commission so we can find out who
35:39
Speaker 15: really is to blame, including it if it is you,
35:42
Speaker 15: the Premier, and.
35:43
Speaker 2: I agree that there should be a real commission, but
35:45
Speaker 2: after that there needs to be action. As I said before,
35:48
Speaker 2: we have been talking about trouble with the construction industry
35:52
Speaker 2: and its union since the BLF, which was registered by
35:55
Speaker 2: Bob Hawk in nineteen eighty six, and here we are
35:58
Speaker 2: still having these discussions to day. Brad Baton, thank you
36:01
Speaker 2: for joining me after the break. Despite their tagline of
36:04
Speaker 2: a tax cut for every taxpayer, your research suggests you'll
36:07
Speaker 2: still pay more tax under Labor. Adam Crichton will have
36:10
Speaker 2: more on that, plus how much extra you've paid for
36:13
Speaker 2: groceries under the Albanzi government. The panel will weigh and
36:16
Speaker 2: soon that go away. Now, the federal government's budget next
36:23
Speaker 2: week will probably be a cost of living budget to
36:26
Speaker 2: end all cost of living budgets. This is Anthony Albanesi
36:29
Speaker 2: and Jin Charmer's last throw at the dice before the election.
36:33
Speaker 2: They are going to try to literally buy your vote.
36:36
Speaker 2: So the Coalition is getting ahead of that, going around
36:38
Speaker 2: Marginal's seat this week waving research that choose the average
36:41
Speaker 2: Aussie worker paid three thousand, five hundred dollars more tax
36:45
Speaker 2: last financial year than before Labor was elected. Shadow Treasurer
36:49
Speaker 2: Angus Taylor will also claim workers will pay nearly nine
36:53
Speaker 2: thousand dollars more in tax by twenty twenty nine, and
36:57
Speaker 2: this has become a big problem. The federal government is
36:59
Speaker 2: a dick to tax, particularly income tax. The mid year
37:03
Speaker 2: Economic and Financial Outlook in December said that income tax
37:06
Speaker 2: receipts would increase twenty one and a half billion dollars
37:10
Speaker 2: more than expected over the forward estimates. Income tax alone
37:14
Speaker 2: is expected to rake in four hundred and ninety six
37:17
Speaker 2: point zero seven billion dollars this financial year. Just a
37:22
Speaker 2: decade ago, that number was two hundred and fifty eight
37:25
Speaker 2: point eight billion, around half of what it is today.
37:28
Speaker 2: All tax revenue across all levels of government increased from
37:32
Speaker 2: four hundred and thirty two point seven billion in twenty
37:36
Speaker 2: thirteen fourteen to seven hundred and fifty five point eight
37:39
Speaker 2: billion in twenty twenty two twenty three. That far outstrips
37:44
Speaker 2: the rate of inflation. And yes, there has been significant
37:47
Speaker 2: inflation over the past decade, about thirty and a half percent,
37:51
Speaker 2: but not enough to explain a doubling of income tax revenue.
37:54
Speaker 2: The working population between November twenty fourteen and November twenty
37:58
Speaker 2: twenty four increased by two twenty five percent, and yet
38:01
Speaker 2: income tax receipts jumped by ninety two point twenty four percent.
38:07
Speaker 2: For more on this I'm joined by chief economist at
38:09
Speaker 2: the Institute of Public Affairs, Adam Crichton. Thank you for
38:12
Speaker 2: joining me, Adam. You know, I know we all thought
38:14
Speaker 2: that it won't be easy under alb and easy campaign
38:17
Speaker 2: was a bit annoying, but it's proven right every second day. Yes, look,
38:23
Speaker 2: certainly that's right.
38:24
Speaker 16: The addiction to tax certainly by this current government has
38:27
Speaker 16: really quite extraordinary and depressing.
38:30
Speaker 2: Really.
38:30
Speaker 16: I mean, of course that effects spending, and we've seen
38:34
Speaker 16: growth in spending from twenty four percent of GDP to
38:36
Speaker 16: twenty seven percent of GDP at the federal level just
38:39
Speaker 16: in the last three years. And that's basically the most
38:42
Speaker 16: rapid growth in federal government spending I think since the
38:44
Speaker 16: Whitlam years. So this is a very worrying trend and
38:47
Speaker 16: we have to do something about it. But frankly, neither
38:49
Speaker 16: side of politics really seems serious about reigning and government
38:53
Speaker 16: spending and of course raining and the taxation as well.
38:56
Speaker 16: The coalition obviously is talking about the problem of indexation and.
38:59
Speaker 2: Bracket CREP, and that is good, but remember they.
39:02
Speaker 16: Were in office for nine or ten years just recently
39:05
Speaker 16: and they did very little about it.
39:06
Speaker 2: Sadly, indeed, and of course, you know, they tried to
39:08
Speaker 2: do something with their tax cuts, got through to stage three,
39:12
Speaker 2: which of course was then fiddled with by the federal government.
39:14
Speaker 2: Day said oh, well, that will deliver everyone a tax cut.
39:17
Speaker 2: In effect, it hasn't. I mean, yes, it might have
39:19
Speaker 2: been a tax cut from what you would have paid,
39:22
Speaker 2: but it's not a tax cut in real terms compared
39:25
Speaker 2: to what you were paying before. We have not had
39:28
Speaker 2: a genuine discussion about tax reform in this country for decades.
39:32
Speaker 2: It's about time we did.
39:36
Speaker 10: Yeah, look, that is right.
39:37
Speaker 16: One of the frustrating things about the Australian press and
39:39
Speaker 16: media in general is they keep talking about tax cuts
39:42
Speaker 16: when actually there hasn't been a real tax cut. What
39:45
Speaker 16: we've seen is a fiddling with the tax thresholds in
39:48
Speaker 16: recent years, and that is somewhat reduced what bracket creep
39:51
Speaker 16: would have been, but it's really just a partial reimbursement
39:54
Speaker 16: of an unlegislated tax cut, which was certainly never explained
39:57
Speaker 16: to most workers. And the other frustration I find with
39:59
Speaker 16: bracket creek two is that people think you need to
40:01
Speaker 16: move into a different tax bracket for it to happen.
40:04
Speaker 16: But that's not right basically at any level. Of income
40:08
Speaker 16: trees increase with the tax system, we have a larger
40:12
Speaker 16: share of income will be taxed at on high rate.
40:14
Speaker 16: So that is the source of bracket creep and that
40:17
Speaker 16: is economically very damaging over time.
40:20
Speaker 2: Indeed, and I think the argument needs to be run,
40:22
Speaker 2: and it never really is that bracket creep disproportionately hurts
40:25
Speaker 2: young people because of course everyone says, oh, it's the
40:28
Speaker 2: boomers who are earning too much money and they're on
40:30
Speaker 2: good salaries, et cetera. But it is young people who
40:32
Speaker 2: will progress in their careers and in perhaps ten or
40:35
Speaker 2: fifteen years time, be going up through the tax brackets
40:38
Speaker 2: that will be hurt by this the most. That's the
40:40
Speaker 2: argument that needs to start to running, but no one
40:42
Speaker 2: seems to want to do it. Adam Michael talking about
40:44
Speaker 2: this all night, but I don't have the time. Thank
40:46
Speaker 2: you for joining me after the break. Malcolm Turnbull has
40:49
Speaker 2: appeared very keen to seize the headlines recently, first on
40:52
Speaker 2: tariffs and now orcus. But what is he trying to achieve?
40:56
Speaker 2: But shocking new data shows just how much grocery prices
40:59
Speaker 2: have surged under labor. That's up with this, Let's bring
41:07
Speaker 2: in tonight's Panel Liberally, MP James Stevens neili in p
41:11
Speaker 2: Senator James McGrath. Let's start with Malcolm Turnbull. I played
41:14
Speaker 2: earlier this clip of him slamming the Orcist deal. He
41:17
Speaker 2: sided with Labor when it comes to a Ukraine peacekeeping force.
41:21
Speaker 2: Of course, last week he had that war of words
41:24
Speaker 2: with Donald Trump. James Stevens. What on earth is Malcolm
41:28
Speaker 2: Turnbull playing at? Why has he decided now is the
41:31
Speaker 2: time to pop up?
41:35
Speaker 17: I don't know, Caleb. I'm a bit concerned about his contributions,
41:39
Speaker 17: particularly being from Adelaide, because of course we're very excited
41:42
Speaker 17: about building nuclear submarines here for the future of the
41:46
Speaker 17: Royal Australian Navy and it's a fantastic capability increase for
41:51
Speaker 17: our navy, so sledging obtaining that technology just makes no
41:55
Speaker 17: sense whatsoever. I suppose he's got some sensitivities around under
42:00
Speaker 17: the legacy of his own government, but I'm a very
42:03
Speaker 17: proud Liberal that sees that as a great legacy of
42:07
Speaker 17: the Morrison era and something that will transform our capability
42:11
Speaker 17: into the future.
42:12
Speaker 2: Indeed, James McGrath, I know that he once talked about
42:16
Speaker 2: miserable ghosts hanging around but he has become the miserable ghost.
42:21
Speaker 2: I don't think anything that he has to say is
42:23
Speaker 2: particularly useful to the current government or to your position
42:27
Speaker 2: for that matter. Why can't he do what Julia Gillard did,
42:31
Speaker 2: which is just go off and enjoy life and do
42:34
Speaker 2: some good things for the world.
42:37
Speaker 1: I agree one hundred percent. The best thing that Malcolm
42:40
Speaker 1: Turnbook could say would be to say absolutely nothing. You
42:44
Speaker 1: look at what Ted Heath did when Margaret Satcher rolled
42:47
Speaker 1: him for leadership to Tory Party in nineteen seventy five.
42:50
Speaker 1: Ted Heath had a sulk that lasted for decades. Well,
42:54
Speaker 1: Malconturnable seems to want to emulate Ted Heath. I think
42:59
Speaker 1: Malcolm should just go He's got lots of money going
43:02
Speaker 1: and enjoy life and stop trying to damage the chances
43:07
Speaker 1: of the Liberal National Party winning the coming election, because
43:11
Speaker 1: I think he's trying to stop us from winning, and
43:13
Speaker 1: for Australia's sake, we need to win.
43:16
Speaker 2: It's amazing what Ego can do, isn't I mean, it's
43:18
Speaker 2: the whole reason he hung around to become Prime Minister.
43:21
Speaker 2: He thought he had a god given right for it.
43:23
Speaker 2: The bloke could be in a different country every day
43:25
Speaker 2: for the rest of his life, traveling around enjoying himself.
43:28
Speaker 2: But he had to have that Prime ministership and he's
43:31
Speaker 2: still salty about the fact that it was eventually taken
43:34
Speaker 2: away from him. Moving on, though, exclusive analysis by the
43:37
Speaker 2: News Court Papers has found that Australian families have been
43:40
Speaker 2: left three thousand dollars a year poorer during the first
43:43
Speaker 2: term of the Albanese government because grocery bills have risen
43:47
Speaker 2: by thirty percent. They found that a basket of twenty
43:50
Speaker 2: nine items from Coals is thirty six percent more expensive
43:53
Speaker 2: than it was in June twenty twenty two. At Woolli's
43:57
Speaker 2: the cost has jumped by thirty percent. At Aldi it's
44:00
Speaker 2: twenty six percent. James Stevens, this is the stuff that
44:03
Speaker 2: will cut through. I mean you add this to, of course,
44:06
Speaker 2: what we heard about power bills last week. Surely when
44:09
Speaker 2: people hit the ballot box, they've got to be thinking
44:12
Speaker 2: about their hip pocket.
44:16
Speaker 17: Absolutely, Caleb. But I'm hearing some really sad stories in
44:19
Speaker 17: my own electorate, of course, people saying they're not buying
44:21
Speaker 17: fresh vegetables anymore, they're going to the frozen section because
44:24
Speaker 17: they can't afford. That's not a luxury purchasing fresh vegetables.
44:29
Speaker 17: But people are getting hit so hard thanks to interest rates, rents,
44:34
Speaker 17: electricity bills are out of control, and those same costs
44:37
Speaker 17: are on the businesses that are producing our food and
44:40
Speaker 17: under labor. These skyrocketing costs are having so many consequences
44:44
Speaker 17: for the household budget. I think people are going to
44:48
Speaker 17: send a very clear message to labor at the ballot
44:50
Speaker 17: box in a few weeks time, just what they think
44:53
Speaker 17: about their performance on these fundamental issues.
44:56
Speaker 2: This was a crazy story in the odds. Today, law
44:58
Speaker 2: students at McCrory University risk failing a key exam if
45:02
Speaker 2: they refuse to give a good enough acknowledgment of country.
45:06
Speaker 2: Students have been told that an acknowledgment of country is
45:08
Speaker 2: one of the five marking areas for the presentation, which
45:12
Speaker 2: is worth thirty percent of their final grade. James McGrath
45:16
Speaker 2: and this is insane. The founding chief executive of the
45:19
Speaker 2: Ramsey Center for Western Civilization, Simon Haynes, said that they
45:22
Speaker 2: need to review at the UNI needs to review it.
45:24
Speaker 2: He said, the critical error here is the confusion of
45:27
Speaker 2: categories the academic and the political activist. I mean, how
45:31
Speaker 2: in any way is the manner in which, or if
45:35
Speaker 2: you even give an acknowledgment of country related to law studies.
45:43
Speaker 1: It is completely an arty, not related to law studies.
45:46
Speaker 1: We want our law students to learn about contract law,
45:50
Speaker 1: commercial law, our constitutional law, to go out and have
45:54
Speaker 1: fun and drink too much on a Friday night. We
45:56
Speaker 1: don't want our law students to be indoctrinated into the
45:59
Speaker 1: fail aliures of the voice referreendum which tried to divide
46:03
Speaker 1: Ashins on the basis of race. I can tell you
46:06
Speaker 1: that Queenslanders tell me they are sick of being welcome
46:08
Speaker 1: to their own country. I'm down here in Taste May
46:10
Speaker 1: at the moment doing work with Susie Bowers. Tast millions
46:13
Speaker 1: are sick of being welcome to their own country. They
46:16
Speaker 1: just want to get on and deal with the cost
46:17
Speaker 1: of living crisis and make sure that they've got enough
46:20
Speaker 1: food on the table, rather than this PC nonsense being
46:23
Speaker 1: rammed down our throats.
46:25
Speaker 2: James Stevens, I'm sure you're probably aware the Greens are
46:27
Speaker 2: going around d knocking in your election of Stir saying
46:30
Speaker 2: that they could win that seat at the federal election,
46:33
Speaker 2: which seems like a pretty extraordinary thing to say, but
46:35
Speaker 2: they're pushing now for a national four day work week
46:38
Speaker 2: by running a test case in the Fair Work Commission
46:41
Speaker 2: and starting the National Institute for the Four Day work Week.
46:45
Speaker 2: Under this policy, workers would have their hours scaled back
46:49
Speaker 2: to eighty percent, but they'd still receive one hundred percent
46:53
Speaker 2: of their pay. It seems like a great idea, doesn't it,
46:56
Speaker 2: James Winn. We've got a productivity crisis in this country
46:58
Speaker 2: to have people going to work less.
47:03
Speaker 17: Yeah, look, Caleb, it's that you know, magic putting economics,
47:06
Speaker 17: isn't it. I mean, effectively, that policy is just saying
47:09
Speaker 17: let's reduce the productivity of our entire nation by twenty percent.
47:13
Speaker 17: That means making all of us poorer by twenty percent,
47:16
Speaker 17: and this is the last thing that the Australian economy
47:20
Speaker 17: needs right now. That kind of lunacy from the Greens.
47:23
Speaker 17: But unfortunately it's no surprise that they've got a lot
47:26
Speaker 17: of other crazy ideas. This is the latest one. We're
47:29
Speaker 17: going to hear more and more about it through the
47:31
Speaker 17: campaign and I encourage my voters in Stirret and voters
47:34
Speaker 17: across the country to simply look at the policies of
47:38
Speaker 17: the Greens, because you only have to go to their
47:40
Speaker 17: own website to find out why not to vote for them.
47:44
Speaker 2: James McGrath quickly before we go. Labour's promised to splash
47:47
Speaker 2: seven million dollars in upgrading the Medical Costs fund a
47:50
Speaker 2: website if it wins the election. This site was set
47:54
Speaker 2: up by the Coalition government in twenty nineteen to help
47:56
Speaker 2: Australians shop around for affordable healthcare, but Labour claim that
48:00
Speaker 2: only seventy opts out of eleven thousand specialists have actually
48:04
Speaker 2: voluntarily displayed their fees. Again, you know, I always wonder
48:08
Speaker 2: when these promises made we'll do something after the election.
48:10
Speaker 2: If it's been this much of a problem, why didn't
48:13
Speaker 2: they do something in the last three years?
48:17
Speaker 1: Exactly, Alban Easy this week Prime Minister. We have has
48:20
Speaker 1: been prime minister. Haven't helped us for three years. But
48:22
Speaker 1: do you know it's never been more expensive to see
48:25
Speaker 1: a GP in Australia at the moment because of the
48:27
Speaker 1: Labor Party. Do you know it's actually more it's harder
48:30
Speaker 1: to see a GP in addition to being more expensive
48:33
Speaker 1: because of the Labor Party. And now they did want
48:36
Speaker 1: to throw some money around the place. It's too little,
48:38
Speaker 1: too late, and we need to get rid of this more.
48:40
Speaker 2: Indeed, and of course they should start talking about what
48:43
Speaker 2: they're going to do with bulk billing. I mean they
48:45
Speaker 2: keep saying, oh, we're going to save Medicare, We're going
48:47
Speaker 2: to save medicare, bringing back the medi scare thing. But
48:49
Speaker 2: bulk billing has gone through the floor under this government.
48:53
Speaker 2: It contributes to the cost of living, the payments haven't
48:56
Speaker 2: kept up with the cost of doing business anymore. The
48:58
Speaker 2: whole thing's broken. James Stephen, James Magra, thank you so
49:01
Speaker 2: much for joining me, and thank you for your company tonight.
49:04
Speaker 2: Of course I'll be back on the Late Debate as
49:06
Speaker 2: normal tomorrow. Up next is the Bolt Report. Good Night,