Latest / Steve Price / Steve Price | 18 September

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Steve Price | 18 September · Steve Price

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Live, this is Steve Price. Good evening, welcome to the show.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Steve Price with you this Friday evening as the AFL
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: and NRL finals dominate sport this weekend with all eyes...
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: on the Sydney Swans tonight attempting to do the impossible,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: to take down the best team of all year, the
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Freo Dockers, at the SCG, minus six of their best
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: players through injury and, of course, the so-called Pullman Five.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Here's what's coming up on this Friday night. In the
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: rush to green energy and increasingly ambitious net zero targets...
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: It's ordinary working Australians paying the price with 600 workers
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: in the industrial heartland of Wyala facing the loss of
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: their jobs as the blast furnace closes. We'll speak to
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: the local MP about how this community will actually pick
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: up the pieces. Also, some remarkable and disturbing warnings from
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: ASIO boss Mike Burgess, who tells former radio heavyweight Neil
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Mitchell that anti-Semitism remains disturbingly high and even warns owners
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: of Chinese-made EVs against having sensitive conversations in their cars.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: More on that soon. And our Friday regular from the UK,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Adrian Hayes, on explosive claims in a new book written
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: by the brother of Lady Diana Spencer, the Earl of Spencer, which...
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: has sparked a rare retort from the King, plus our
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: regular chat with Campbell Newman and cartoons of the week
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: with our old mate Mark Knight. But first, it seems
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: to me this three-way war on how many migrants should
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: we allow into the country every year has become a
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: convenient smokescreen for the federal government to hide behind while
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: the real issue that we should be talking about, cost
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: of living, gets ignored for a few weeks. The Labor
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: machine and the troops behind it are genius at creating
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: and causing diversions. As we know, six weeks late in
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: the minister in charge of people getting visas to come
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: here to study finally spoke. I mean, he had a
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: tour about the country. He talks about, you know, people
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: with backpacks. Australians don't want or can't do these jobs.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Tony Burke finally turned up at the press club yesterday,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: six weeks late, with Labor's version in numbers of pin
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: the tail on the donkey. Now, here was Tony Burke
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: trying to convince all of us that he has it
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: under control. Don't you worry, we will kick out of
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Australia overstayers.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Effectively, what we are going back to doing is simply
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: being able to make sure that if you overstay you
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: will not be able to say well there's no consequences
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: as if they're ever going to make sure that I leave.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: We need with the integrity of the program to make
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: sure that we can go back simply to what we
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: did before 2015.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Oh, yes, it's all so simple. I mean, how exactly
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: a left-leaning, woke, immigration-loving government intends to do any of
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: this is still not clear. We will have, as we
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: did under PMs Rudd and Gillard, detention centres perhaps, groaning
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: with numbers as do-gooder lawyers tie up deportation orders through
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: the courts, people not supposed to be here. We will
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: have border force officers dragging Uber Eats riders off their
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: bikes and taking them to the airport. I mean, that's
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: not going to happen. Who knows? But Burke certainly didn't
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: make it clear yesterday. Likewise, the policies of the Coalition
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: and One Nation don't provide actual details of how students
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: degree surfing or backpackers hiding out in orange groves are
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: actually going to be physically removed from the country. Here
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: was Angus Taylor reacting to Labor's version of a migration cap. Well,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: there were no cuts.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: This is the important point. This big hoopla This is
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: the second attempt he's made at his press club speech. Clearly,
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: they couldn't come to an agreement, which is why he
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: cancelled the first one. And when he finally makes a speech,
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: there are absolutely no cuts. In fact, we know that
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: there's been an increase in the immigration numbers because it's
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: been revealed this week.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Well, Taylor's right. Now we have the Greens, of course.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: They would let in students, their partners, plus mum and dad,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: all of the sisters, the brothers, probably even grandma. And
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Greens MP David Shoebridge dragged out the old fear campaign,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: trying to link, and this is laughable, anyone who plans
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: to cut numbers as being Trump-like. Seriously?
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: So Labor came out yesterday and said they don't want
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: their migration changes to be seen as some kind of
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: Donald Trump ICE program.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Well, we've got a message to Labor.
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: If you don't want your immigration changes to look like
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: what Donald Trump does, don't contract with the same private
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: multinational prison company to open detention centres in Australia, because
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: that's what Labor has said they're doing. We know that
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: when they open these detention centres, when they put the
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: extra 100 home affairs officers in their uniforms and send
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: families and kids into these detention centres, we know who's
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: going to run them. MTC, a US international prison company
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: that is notorious for corrupting governments, for abusing detainees, and
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: that's what Labor is choosing to do.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: So where are we now, maybe 19 or 20 months
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: out from a federal election? We have three policies, all
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: with different numbers, all with different attitudes to immigration, plus
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: dozens of lobby groups, everyone from labour hungry farmers to
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: the hospitality industry and medical employers with different stories about
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: how we got here. And once the saddest, one of
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: the saddest aspects to all of this is it seems Australians,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: especially younger Australians, non-migrants, have lost the hunger to work.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: And then you have, of course, our universities, whose business
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: models seem to be get as many foreign students through
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: the door as possible, paying as higher fees as we
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: can charge them. And look how much money we can make.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, seriously, take Sydney University. It's reported in their
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: last financial figures they raked in, wait for it, $ 1. 5
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: billion in one year in student fees. Of course they
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: want to keep the system as it is. Why would
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: you change it if you're making $ 1. 5 billion? Here was
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: former Labor leader and Canberra University Vice-Chancellor Bill Shorten with
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: his two bobs worth.
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: I think some of this debate about immigration is overcooked.
• 6:21
  Speaker 5: I mean, you could ask Australians, would you like less traffic?
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: And a lot of people want less traffic. But then
• 6:29
  Speaker 5: you could ask Australians, how important is that compared to
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: everything else? And a lot fewer would think it was
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: as important. So my point really about immigration is while
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: we chase the issue, while people are chasing the issue,
• 6:43
  Speaker 5: the reality is it's not the most important thing for
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: people in their daily lives.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: And the problem is, as we.
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: Chase the issue, even though it's not crucial to a
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: lot of Aussies at the end of the day, we
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: could potentially be damaging Australia for the long term.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: He's probably right, but he would say that. He's running university.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: So as I said, the diversion around migrants has worked
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: in a week where some economists predict we might be
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: in for not one, not two, but three interest rate rises.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: The economy's tanking. Workers are being sacked in ever-increasing numbers.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: and businesses collapsing at an alarming rate. And as one
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: of my mates reported to me today, he was paying
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: this afternoon a gobsmacking $ 2. 92 a litre for diesel in
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: regional Victoria. I want to go now, speaking of jobs,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: to the big news out of South Australia this weekend.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: That's the decision to shut down the Wyala Steelworks blast furnace. Now,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: it has been officially abandoned after months of failed attempts
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: to get it operating again, with up to 600, yep,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: 600 workers in that small community of Wyala facing redundancy. Now,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: the federal and South Australian governments have committed billions of
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: dollars to supporting the steelworks, with the cost of the
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: package now estimated at around $ 1. $ 2. 4 billion of your
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: money and potentially closer to $ 3 billion. But the collapse
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: of Wyala's blast furnace raises a much bigger question about
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: the future of Australian manufacturing everywhere and where the governments
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: have spent too long prioritising this reckless renewable energy transition
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: while failing to deliver reliable, affordable power to heavy industry.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: And if you believe the South Australian Premier, Peter Malinowskis,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: the writing has been on the wall forever. for some time.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: For all intents and purposes, this thing should not be operating, right?
• 8:39
  Speaker 5: And it's only been able to survive because there are
• 8:41
  Speaker 5: so many dedicated men and women who have kept it alive.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: No, it's only survived because of government money. Now, this
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: has raised fresh questions around the cost to taxpayers with
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: the estimated government support now equivalent to around $ 4 million
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: for every direct job at the plant. I thought it
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: important to talk more about this. Tom Venning is the
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: federal member for that massive seat of grey which encompasses Wyala.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: He joins us now. Tom, thanks for coming in to
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: the studio there in Adelaide. I'll come to the broader
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: issue in a moment. But what does this mean? And
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: I'm a South Australian, so I know Wyala well. And
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: what does it mean for the hundreds of local families
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: whose livelihoods depend on the steelworks?
• 9:23
  Speaker 6: Yeah, Steve, good to be with you on an otherwise
• 9:25
  Speaker 6: very challenging week for the Wyala community. absolutely devastating now.
• 9:30
  Speaker 6: You know, I took leave on Wednesday to go back
• 9:32
  Speaker 6: to Wyala and have some meetings with some stakeholders and
• 9:35
  Speaker 6: the steel workers. And, you know, it's not a very
• 9:38
  Speaker 6: happy town at the minute. There is a lot of,
• 9:40
  Speaker 6: you know, there's a lot of sense that they've been
• 9:42
  Speaker 6: let down, they've been lied to. And some community members
• 9:46
  Speaker 6: sort of say, you know, they felt like they've been
• 9:47
  Speaker 6: treated like mushrooms, kept in the dark and fed the proverbial. But,
• 9:52
  Speaker 6: you know, it's a sad day for the nation, not
• 9:54
  Speaker 6: just Wayala. We've lost 75% of our structural steelmaking capability
• 9:59
  Speaker 6: in this nation, of course. And now what we're going
• 10:03
  Speaker 6: to lean into now is what we're calling the valley,
• 10:05
  Speaker 6: the valley where we've lost this workforce. And, of course,
• 10:09
  Speaker 6: in four years, five years' time, we'll be wanting to
• 10:12
  Speaker 6: make steel again. But who's to say they're going to
• 10:14
  Speaker 6: stick around? They're not going to be twiddling their thumbs
• 10:16
  Speaker 6: for four years.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: I mean, in my old reporting days out of South Australia,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: that area was known as the steel triangle, of course.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Is Ryala savable? Yeah, the iron triangle. Is it savable?
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: It is savable.
• 10:34
  Speaker 6: But, you know, my concern is that we didn't necessarily
• 10:37
  Speaker 6: need to be here. What we need right now, what's
• 10:40
  Speaker 6: happened in the past, obviously this pursuit of green ideology,
• 10:43
  Speaker 6: reality has caught up with the ideology, but we are.
• 10:46
  Speaker 7: Where we are.
• 10:48
  Speaker 6: What we need now is a deal. A deal needs
• 10:50
  Speaker 6: to be signed yesterday. So that is with both the
• 10:53
  Speaker 6: state government and the federal government. That will provide some
• 10:56
  Speaker 6: level of certainty for that community. You know, we have
• 10:59
  Speaker 6: lost 600 jobs announced. It's more like 850 at the minute. And,
• 11:03
  Speaker 6: of course, it is increasing given the force multiplier of
• 11:07
  Speaker 6: manufacturing jobs. So we need a deal.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: We need certainty.
• 11:11
  Speaker 6: But longer term, Steve, in South Australia, we have the
• 11:14
  Speaker 6: highest power prices and gas prices in the industrial world.
• 11:19
  Speaker 6: And they're the two things that you use a lot
• 11:21
  Speaker 6: of in steelmaking. So we've got to put downward pressure
• 11:25
  Speaker 6: on both of those two things. Otherwise, we're kicking the
• 11:27
  Speaker 6: can down the road and we'll continue to continue to
• 11:30
  Speaker 6: bail out these heavy energy industries.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: You've got to give Malinowskis at least the credit that
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: he fronted up there and looked the workers in the face.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: So I know plenty of Labor politicians who wouldn't have
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: had the courage to do that. Is he on the
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: right track? I mean, do you have confidence?
• 11:48
  Speaker 6: I called him out yesterday.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Well, exactly.
• 11:50
  Speaker 6: He's jet-setting to New York right now and he could
• 11:53
  Speaker 6: have come to Wyoming like he did in February when
• 11:56
  Speaker 6: he sold them certainty. He's not doing it this time.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I can remember him standing there and I was
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: thinking to myself at the time, as if. So is
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Malinowskis on the right track?
• 12:09
  Speaker 6: Well, you know, at the end of the day, we export,
• 12:14
  Speaker 6: the most amount of metallurgical coal and iron ore in
• 12:17
  Speaker 6: the world. They're the two things you need to make
• 12:20
  Speaker 6: steel in the traditional way. And other countries are still
• 12:23
  Speaker 6: building these types of steelworks. Now, you know, we as
• 12:28
  Speaker 6: a coalition, we've committed to cutting net zero and changing
• 12:32
  Speaker 6: the EPBC to allow projects like this to potentially start
• 12:36
  Speaker 6: up again. Now, you've got to talk to these buyers. Now,
• 12:39
  Speaker 6: is it actually feasible to be making steel with a
• 12:43
  Speaker 6: DRI and an EAF, a lot of electricity and a
• 12:46
  Speaker 6: lot of gas, very expensive. Whereas if we reinvest in
• 12:50
  Speaker 6: thermal coal, sorry, in metallurgical coal and in iron ore,
• 12:54
  Speaker 6: we don't expose ourselves to those energy prices. So right
• 12:58
  Speaker 6: now the trajectory is under the two Labor governments towards
• 13:02
  Speaker 6: a DRI and EAF. But, you know, energy prices will
• 13:07
  Speaker 6: make it a very, is a real concern to make
• 13:11
  Speaker 6: that thing sustainable.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Tom, I mean, we seem to be on this, you know,
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: rush to destruction when it comes to steelmaking and using
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: our coal. I mean, I can remember in the, you know,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: it would have been 2018, 2019, South Australia blew up
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: a coal-fired power station in the Iron Triangle, didn't they?
• 13:32
  Speaker 6: They did, and that power station was only built in 1976,
• 13:34
  Speaker 6: so it wasn't very old at all. The turbines were
• 13:39
  Speaker 6: in perfectly good shape. I think it was an ideological thing.
• 13:42
  Speaker 6: to push over the coal fired power station and now
• 13:45
  Speaker 6: look where we are today. The regulators have their demand
• 13:48
  Speaker 6: curve for power consumption in this country and I think
• 13:51
  Speaker 6: it's been completely under baked. Now with the onset of
• 13:54
  Speaker 6: AI data centres there is huge demand for all energy
• 13:58
  Speaker 6: and that's why we need to remove all of these
• 14:01
  Speaker 6: obstacles to create new energy in this country including removing
• 14:05
  Speaker 6: the ban on nuclear power generation and step the step
• 14:09
  Speaker 6: the foot on everything more gas more rooftop solar more nuclear,
• 14:13
  Speaker 6: more coal, because there is an insatiable demand for energy
• 14:17
  Speaker 6: and electricity in this country.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: Joel, just sorry, Tom, just remind me how big the
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Cedar Grey is, biggest electorate in the country?
• 14:27
  Speaker 6: No, it's not quite the biggest, but it is 92.3%
• 14:29
  Speaker 6: of South Australia, bigger than New South Wales. There's a
• 14:33
  Speaker 6: couple in the west of the bigger than grey.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: Good to catch up with you. Thanks, Tom. Tom Venning there.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, extraordinary. We have to. I mean, you know,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: as he said, South Australia's got the most expensive power
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: prices in the world. OK, now to those reissued warnings
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: I mentioned at the beginning of the program from the
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: ASIO chief, Mike Burgess, a really good get by my
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: old colleague, Neil Mitchell. Burgess has said anti-Semitism remains at, quote,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: disturbing high almost three years after the Hamas October 7 attack.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: Australia's boss, Mike Burgess, issued this shocking warning in that
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: interview with Neil.
• 15:11
  Speaker 8: Iran is one actor. You've seen them actually, and we've
• 15:14
  Speaker 8: talked about this publicly, light the match and fan the
• 15:16
  Speaker 8: flames on anti-Semitism starting around October 2024. We started to
• 15:21
  Speaker 8: see them do that. Um, I wouldn't rule out the
• 15:24
  Speaker 8: possibility that Iran would want to kill prominent Jewish Australians. So, again,
• 15:31
  Speaker 8: no immediate threat that we're investigating, but we do have
• 15:34
  Speaker 8: that concern.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: Extraordinary. He can't rule out the fact that Iran would
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: want to kill Jewish-based Australians. The Director-General went on to
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: warn people, and this is extraordinary, against having sensitive conversations
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: in EVs, in electrical vehicles, saying they should avoid doing
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: so in the car, around phones and even iPads. Here
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: to discuss further, Executive Manager of the Australia, Israel and
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: Jewish Affairs Council, Joel Burney. Joel, we've got a Royal Commission.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: It's up and running. It's going to be completed in
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: time for the one-year tragic anniversary of what happened in Bondi.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: But it seems that while even though we have that
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Royal Commission up and running, the ASIO chief there says, well,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: anti-Semitism is as bad now as it's ever been.
• 16:21
  Speaker 7: Well, thanks, Steve, for having me on. And I think
• 16:23
  Speaker 7: that Neil Mitchell's 70-minute-odd podcast interview with Director General Burgess
• 16:29
  Speaker 7: should be viewed by as many people in this country
• 16:32
  Speaker 7: because what it does is and what it should do
• 16:34
  Speaker 7: to the Australian population is send shivers down all our
• 16:37
  Speaker 7: collective spines as to how bad things are and how
• 16:41
  Speaker 7: things remain after the greatest terror attack in Australia's history
• 16:45
  Speaker 7: on the 14th of December last year.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: The fact that 15.
• 16:48
  Speaker 7: Innocent people being gunned down after an explosion of anti-Semitism
• 16:53
  Speaker 7: over an elongated period of time wasn't enough for the
• 16:56
  Speaker 7: authorities or the government to do more to clamp down
• 17:00
  Speaker 7: on it. Close to a year later, we now have
• 17:02
  Speaker 7: the Director General in the same week that the former
• 17:05
  Speaker 7: Director General of ASIO, DFAT, and the Department of Defense
• 17:09
  Speaker 7: in Dennis Richardson in his Lowy speech, plus Mike Pizzullo,
• 17:13
  Speaker 7: the former Secretary of Home Affairs, seemingly try to wave
• 17:17
  Speaker 7: the warning flashes to the Australian public and hopefully to
• 17:21
  Speaker 7: the government that something.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: Needs to be done.
• 17:24
  Speaker 7: But unfortunately, Steve, over the past sitting period of Parliament,
• 17:28
  Speaker 7: and from my recollection since January when the Prime Minister
• 17:31
  Speaker 7: reluctantly called for the Royal Commission, the utterance of Jewish
• 17:35
  Speaker 7: people or anti-Semitism or this terrorism crisis that we have
• 17:40
  Speaker 7: in this country hasn't been uttered by the Prime Minister
• 17:43
  Speaker 7: or the ministers responsible for the Australian public safety. So
• 17:47
  Speaker 7: I think that we need to heed these warnings immediately
• 17:50
  Speaker 7: and a call needs to go out to government, to
• 17:52
  Speaker 7: opposition and everyone in Canberra that more needs to be
• 17:55
  Speaker 7: done in this country to keep Australians safe.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: I'm sure you've addressed this before, but I mean, how
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: disappointed are you that the Prime Minister and Tony Burke,
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: the Immigration Minister, and others have not been called before
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: the Royal Commission to be questioned about did they do
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: enough post the Bondi massacre?
• 18:16
  Speaker 7: To be fair to all of my, to be fair
• 18:19
  Speaker 7: to my community that has suffered greatly from the issues here,
• 18:25
  Speaker 7: I think there's two things to say. Firstly, we would
• 18:28
  Speaker 7: all want the ministers to be interrogated for what they knew.
• 18:31
  Speaker 7: So the education minister should be interrogated for what he
• 18:34
  Speaker 7: knew about the campus encampments. The minister for home affairs
• 18:38
  Speaker 7: should be interrogated and cross-examined into what he knew about
• 18:42
  Speaker 7: the operations of the agencies that fall under his purview.
• 18:45
  Speaker 7: And ultimately, if the greatest terror attack is going to
• 18:48
  Speaker 7: happen on the watch of the prime minister, you'd also
• 18:50
  Speaker 7: like him to be called to find out what he
• 18:52
  Speaker 7: knew and why he made the decisions that he did.
• 18:55
  Speaker 7: So there is an element of disappointment there. However, Steve,
• 18:58
  Speaker 7: I really need to make this clear. The commissioner still
• 19:01
  Speaker 7: has a right to hand down her recommendations on the
• 19:04
  Speaker 7: 18th of December. The absence of that cross-examination or interrogation
• 19:09
  Speaker 7: of those ministers is As disappointing as it may be
• 19:12
  Speaker 7: for myself and for the Jewish community that I represent,
• 19:15
  Speaker 7: it doesn't mean that the Commissioner will not be able
• 19:18
  Speaker 7: to come to the determination that we hope that she will.
• 19:21
  Speaker 7: As evidenced by the over 20,000 submissions of personal experiences
• 19:26
  Speaker 7: of mainly Jews, in the context of what they've experienced
• 19:29
  Speaker 7: in anti-Semitism. So what I'm trying to get at is
• 19:32
  Speaker 7: that even though we may have wanted a little bit
• 19:34
  Speaker 7: more from the Royal Commission, I don't want to suggest
• 19:39
  Speaker 7: or predict that she will be unable to come to
• 19:43
  Speaker 7: sufficient recommendations for government in terms of being able to
• 19:46
  Speaker 7: tackle this problem of anti-Semitism in our country.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: So, Joel, I mean, trying to be optimistic, or are
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: we too late? Is the scourge of anti-Semitism, is it
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: possible to put it back in the tin? Is it
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: possible to do something tangible that stops it getting worse now?
• 20:11
  Speaker 7: Anti-Semitism is an ancient hatred, Steve, right? It's been in
• 20:15
  Speaker 7: Australia for a very long time, but unfortunately, after the
• 20:18
  Speaker 7: horrific events of October 7, 2023, it was able to permeate,
• 20:23
  Speaker 7: it was able to rear its head, and unfortunately, through
• 20:26
  Speaker 7: a lack of what I would call a lack of leadership,
• 20:28
  Speaker 7: it's been able to become normalized in this country. But
• 20:31
  Speaker 7: hand on heart to all your great viewers that are
• 20:34
  Speaker 7: watching tonight and watching online afterwards, this is a great country, Steve.
• 20:38
  Speaker 7: I have to be optimistic about the opportunities and the
• 20:42
  Speaker 7: great potential and the great significance and historical significance of
• 20:46
  Speaker 7: our great nation and of the beautiful people that make
• 20:49
  Speaker 7: up this great nation. If we cannot, as Australians, come
• 20:53
  Speaker 7: together and fight this scourge of antisemitism together, then I
• 20:56
  Speaker 7: dare say that I don't think that any other nation can.
• 20:59
  Speaker 7: We are a brilliant country, we are brilliant people, and
• 21:02
  Speaker 7: we have amazing potential to do amazing things. So yes,
• 21:07
  Speaker 7: I am optimistic that if anyone in any nation can
• 21:10
  Speaker 7: come together and fight this scourge of historical anti-Semitism and
• 21:14
  Speaker 7: ancient anti-Semitism and Jew hatred, it's right here in this
• 21:18
  Speaker 7: great country of ours, in the great country of Australia.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Love to leave you on an optimistic note, Joel Burney.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much and very well said. Coming up
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: after the break, the wash-up after Tony Burke finally puts
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: a magic number on Australia's migration intake. But what does
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Labor's visa clamp actually mean for Australian farmers who rely
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: on seasonal workers? That's up next. Welcome back. Steve Price
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: with you. Mark Knight with the Cartoons of the Week
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: coming up shortly. Well, after a lot of delay, six weeks,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: and being pipped by One Nation on its migration policy,
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Labor now has finally come up with the magic number.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: It says we'll reduce the nation's migrant intake while ensuring
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: the wheels keep spinning. on Australia's service industries. If you
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: believe that, you believe anything. But Tony Burke's decision to
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: rein in the number of backpackers has been described by
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: farmers as, quote, reckless, with warnings it could leave growers
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: facing the same labour shortages we saw during COVID when
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: the borders were shut. The government says the changes are
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: about managing migration, and ensuring the system works in the
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: national interest. But for farmers who rely heavily on backpackers
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: to pick and pack crops, there are fears that these
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: changes could mean higher costs, less produce and ultimately higher
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: prices for all of us consumers. Friday night regular and
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: former Queensland Premier Campbell Newman joins us now. Campbell, great
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: to see you again. I didn't see all of Burke's
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: address to the press club yesterday. I've watched parts of it.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: But I do note at one point, and you'll laugh
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: at this, he blamed people who refused to downsize from
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: larger family homes into smaller places for creating part of
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: our housing crisis. Can you believe that? Look, God almighty, mate.
• 23:08
  Speaker 9: Look, you know, again, this is just sort of socialism,
• 23:11
  Speaker 9: you know, sort of on steroids. You know, we've all,
• 23:15
  Speaker 9: you know, these people don't obviously believe that we own
• 23:17
  Speaker 9: our own homes or, you know, we are masters of
• 23:20
  Speaker 9: our own destiny.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: It's very clear.
• 23:22
  Speaker 9: You know, the thing is, you know, the Labor Party
• 23:25
  Speaker 9: have overseen this huge increase in people coming and staying
• 23:30
  Speaker 9: to Australia and It's hard not to be very sceptical
• 23:33
  Speaker 9: about the then policy prescription.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: To deal with it.
• 23:37
  Speaker 9: And I do agree with the Farmer Peak lobby groups
• 23:42
  Speaker 9: that are very concerned about this. I mean, I, with
• 23:45
  Speaker 9: my business, have a client in far north Queensland who's
• 23:48
  Speaker 9: a very big banana grower. They rely on people coming
• 23:52
  Speaker 9: from the Pacific Islands under a thing called the PALM,
• 23:54
  Speaker 9: P-A-L-M scheme, which I've yet to see if that's going
• 23:59
  Speaker 9: to be impacted. But it's very similar, essentially, people to
• 24:02
  Speaker 9: the backpacker stuff. It's people come in from the Pacific Islands,
• 24:06
  Speaker 9: they come and do a job, and then they make
• 24:08
  Speaker 9: a lot of money, and then they go home. And
• 24:11
  Speaker 9: some come back for subsequent years. It's a well-run scheme.
• 24:16
  Speaker 9: It's been going for many years. And it actually helps
• 24:18
  Speaker 9: us in terms of produced food in Australia. Similarly, backpackers,
• 24:22
  Speaker 9: they come, they have a great holiday, they do important
• 24:25
  Speaker 9: economic work in regional Australia, and they go home. I
• 24:30
  Speaker 9: don't think that's where the problem areas are, and it's
• 24:32
  Speaker 9: right that there's some quite significant pushback on that from
• 24:38
  Speaker 9: various groups.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it seems they're targeting too much the wrong area.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I mentioned at the top of
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: the program that the Sandstone Universities, like the University of Sydney,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: in their financial documents for the last financial year revealed
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: that they made something like $ 1. 5 billion, with a B,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: out of overseas student fees. Now, that's a business model, obviously,
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: that works for the universities, but it certainly doesn't work
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: for the overcrowding of inner city Sydney, or in the
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: case of Melbourne, places like RMIT. I mean, if you're
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: looking for a problem in available places for people to
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: put their head on a pillow at night, you might
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: start with the number of student visas.
• 25:26
  Speaker 9: Well, they've actually been doing that, Steve, and I've had
• 25:29
  Speaker 9: a bit of a taste of this too because, again,
• 25:30
  Speaker 9: I'm involved in commercial property and watch the scene around
• 25:34
  Speaker 9: the CBD of Brisbane very closely. And I can tell
• 25:37
  Speaker 9: you that all the education providers I've talked to, these
• 25:42
  Speaker 9: are private colleges, they were under significant pressure as, well,
• 25:47
  Speaker 9: back at the end of last year. So the end
• 25:50
  Speaker 9: of last year, I think quietly under the radar, the
• 25:53
  Speaker 9: government was turning off the tap. They were screwing it
• 25:56
  Speaker 9: down with reducing, I believe, the places that were going
• 26:01
  Speaker 9: to be made available.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: The visa slots, et cetera.
• 26:05
  Speaker 9: I think it's now only that you know, that it's
• 26:07
  Speaker 9: become such a political issue that they've actually then sort
• 26:11
  Speaker 9: of fessed up what they were doing. So I think
• 26:12
  Speaker 9: they were cutting back. I mean, one thing that Burke
• 26:16
  Speaker 9: said that really made sense was this issue about family
• 26:19
  Speaker 9: coming along as well. You know, if we're serious about this,
• 26:22
  Speaker 9: if someone's coming to be a student, why are the
• 26:25
  Speaker 9: family coming along?
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, well... I couldn't believe that. Did you actually
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: know that? I think that's unacceptable. Did you know that?
• 26:33
  Speaker 6: I did, Steve.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: If you're here as a student studying, you can bring
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: your mum and dad with you? Well, I know.
• 26:41
  Speaker 9: I've known that probably for a few months since this
• 26:44
  Speaker 9: debate really heated up with some of the commentary. But
• 26:47
  Speaker 9: I find it extraordinary that, you know, your eligibility to
• 26:51
  Speaker 9: come as a student suddenly translates to other people coming.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Along as well. Ridiculous. Ridiculous. And that really.
• 26:58
  Speaker 9: And that is a burden on our country and our social...
• 27:01
  Speaker 9: services and our infrastructure. There's no doubt about that.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: I nearly fell off my chair this week. I read
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: that Australia's high-speed rail project, I didn't really know we
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: had one, is facing potential delays because highly skilled foreign
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: experts reportedly waiting up to 10 months for visas. Where's
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: this fast rail going to be built? Will it be
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: there in our lifetime? I doubt it.
• 27:26
  Speaker 9: Steve, I think you might have asked me about this
• 27:29
  Speaker 9: one before some time ago.
• 27:32
  Speaker 10: Look, well, the first thing is this thing.
• 27:33
  Speaker 9: Well, the first thing is that the people involved and
• 27:36
  Speaker 9: know about this project are saying we need, you know,
• 27:39
  Speaker 9: skills to advise, to actually work on the project. But
• 27:42
  Speaker 9: what's really going on, though, in terms of the project,
• 27:45
  Speaker 9: it's really an initial sort of feasibility study in layman's terms.
• 27:49
  Speaker 9: And it doesn't get delivered, get this, until 2028, right?
• 27:54
  Speaker 9: So don't hold your breath for a fast train between
• 27:56
  Speaker 9: Sydney and Newcastle anytime soon. We'll be long gone, mate.
• 28:01
  Speaker 9: And I think there are, by the way, I think
• 28:02
  Speaker 9: there are much more pressing infrastructure priorities in this country
• 28:07
  Speaker 9: than high-speed rail. I love travelling on high-speed railway lines
• 28:12
  Speaker 9: when I'm overseas, but I think we've got other priorities
• 28:14
  Speaker 9: in this country at the moment.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you mean 2038 or 2048, not 2028,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't have thought. That's just for the fees, though, mate. Oh,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: there's no trains. You can't actually go anywhere. Richard Miles,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: Defence Minister, he's been urged to pause this sell-off of
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: military facilities like Victoria Barracks. You'd be 100% behind the
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: idea that we should stop and have another think about this, right?
• 28:45
  Speaker 9: Oh, too right, Steve. You know, Vic Barracks has a
• 28:48
  Speaker 9: very special part of the psyche and the cultural history,
• 28:52
  Speaker 9: the traditions of the Australian Army. As a young army officer,
• 28:55
  Speaker 9: for example, I spent two weeks, I travelled down from
• 28:59
  Speaker 9: Brisbane with my soldiers and we spent two weeks mounting
• 29:02
  Speaker 9: the formal guard at the gates there on Oxford Street.
• 29:05
  Speaker 9: So I've literally been there and been part of that tradition.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: And, you know.
• 29:12
  Speaker 9: What happens to these sort of assets after they're sold?
• 29:16
  Speaker 9: I mean, you know, they're heritage listed.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: We know. You can't go and build sort of homes
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: on the fields and things like that. They'll build a
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: 25-storey apartment block. That's what'll happen.
• 29:26
  Speaker 9: Well, I think that would be just absolutely totally unacceptable.
• 29:30
  Speaker 9: These things shouldn't be being sold. And I really also
• 29:34
  Speaker 9: make the point that when I was in political office,
• 29:36
  Speaker 9: the Labor Party were always going on about the LNP
• 29:39
  Speaker 9: selling assets and selling our silverware and it shouldn't happen. Well,
• 29:44
  Speaker 9: here's a federal Labor government. It just shows what a
• 29:46
  Speaker 9: bunch of filthy pragmatists and hypocrites they are. They're flogging
• 29:50
  Speaker 9: off part of the national estate.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: Really, it shouldn't be happening. And it's only about a
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: cash-strapped government. Yeah, well said. Good on you, Campbell. I'll
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: see you next Friday. Campbell Newman there. I want to
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: go to the UK now where a little town has
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: made some very big news there in recent days. The
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: village of Piddington, not Paddington, Piddington, a village of 346
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: people in Oxfordshire in the southeast of England. Residents voted
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: to symbolically secede from Britain to protest against plans to house,
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: wait for it, there's 330 people in this village, 3,000
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: male asylum seekers at a nearby army depot. I mean, seriously.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: News 24 contributor, Friday night regular Adrian Hayes joins us.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: I mean, they're not serious that they're going to override
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: the wishes of the people of Pittington and flood them
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: with asylum seekers, are they?
• 30:42
  Speaker 10: Yeah.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: Good evening, Steve.
• 30:43
  Speaker 10: How does a little village that nobody had heard of,
• 30:46
  Speaker 10: even in the UK, let alone the world, make worldwide headlines?
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: It was actually 1,250 people.
• 30:52
  Speaker 10: Illegal immigrants, not 3,000, but even so, how do you absorb?
• 30:56
  Speaker 10: And they won't be confined to the camp. They would
• 30:58
  Speaker 10: have been free to roam the streets of this tiny
• 31:00
  Speaker 10: little village. So they voted to secede from the UK
• 31:04
  Speaker 10: and for the right of self-determination, obviously very symbolic. But
• 31:08
  Speaker 10: the point is, because this problem's not going away. And
• 31:11
  Speaker 10: I think by using a referendum, By peaceful protest, they
• 31:16
  Speaker 10: have made a very big point. 285 voted for it
• 31:19
  Speaker 10: and only 26 against. The BBC fell. One of the
• 31:22
  Speaker 10: ones who voted against, who claimed that the village was
• 31:26
  Speaker 10: under the influence of fifth-wave fascism for some obscure reason.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: I note your mates, the French, over the channel I
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: saw during the week, they've been loading people onto rubber
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: duckies again. Yeah, look, again.
• 31:43
  Speaker 10: This problem is not going to go away. And wherever
• 31:45
  Speaker 10: you try to house these illegal immigrants, the local residents
• 31:49
  Speaker 10: will be up in arms. Even the Green MP this
• 31:52
  Speaker 10: year said we can't have it here. It's not suitable. Look,
• 31:54
  Speaker 10: until Andy Burnham, the prime minister, said, look, it is important.
• 31:57
  Speaker 10: The government's position is to spread what they call asylum
• 32:01
  Speaker 10: seekers and refugees across the whole country. But of course,
• 32:04
  Speaker 10: you know, until you get to the nub of the
• 32:06
  Speaker 10: problem of stopping the people coming here in the first place,
• 32:10
  Speaker 10: it's never going to end.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: Do I need to get to the UK in a hurry?
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: Because if I don't, Wales, Scotland will have big wooden
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: stone fences up and I'll have to go through border
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: patrol to get to these independent countries. It's not going
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: to really happen, is it?
• 32:27
  Speaker 10: Yes, the leaders of all three independence parties in the
• 32:31
  Speaker 10: UK had a symbolic meeting and I think a terms
• 32:34
  Speaker 10: of reference or agreement to secede or hold independence referendums
• 32:38
  Speaker 10: from the UK.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: A lot of.
• 32:40
  Speaker 10: England is saying, actually now, go for it, because all
• 32:44
  Speaker 10: these three countries are spending way beyond their means. They
• 32:46
  Speaker 10: will be bankrupt within a year. And the other hypocrisy
• 32:50
  Speaker 10: is they want to join the European Union. Now, whatever
• 32:52
  Speaker 10: you think of the EU, one of the EU's values
• 32:55
  Speaker 10: is power and control.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: You are CC'd.
• 32:57
  Speaker 10: You're sort of leaving your own independence to be succession
• 33:01
  Speaker 10: to a big power control state called the EU. So
• 33:05
  Speaker 10: there's a little bit of hypocrisy in the air. But
• 33:07
  Speaker 10: this is where these nation leaders sense a little bit
• 33:11
  Speaker 10: of weakness. Andy Burnham promised Scotland that they could have
• 33:14
  Speaker 10: another independence referendum in the foreseeable future. So they're sensing
• 33:17
  Speaker 10: weakness and it's a bad path to go on.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: Well, Scotland could not survive on its own. I mean,
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: doesn't everybody just ask the obvious question that, OK, you
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: can go and be independent Scotland, you can be independent Wales.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: What happens when someone decides to invade England? Where's your
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: defence force?
• 33:40
  Speaker 10: Well, I suppose defence would be sort of put to
• 33:44
  Speaker 10: the whole nation, to the United Kingdom.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: But the point.
• 33:47
  Speaker 10: You say, you know, England is bailing out all three
• 33:51
  Speaker 10: nations into a high level. And as I said, once
• 33:54
  Speaker 10: they go on their own, they will be staring at
• 33:58
  Speaker 10: fiscal collapse within a foreseeable future. They simply cannot continue
• 34:02
  Speaker 10: living beyond their means.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about Princess Diana's brother, the Earl of Spencer,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: way back in the news again. He's got a book
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: coming out. I think it's going to be released next week.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: Excerpts of that have been obviously reported in the newspapers.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: I mean, the King's responded to claims that Spencer made,
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: reportedly made during a phone call just after Diana's death
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: in that car crash in Paris in 97. He said that,
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: you know, the King, who was then the Prince of Wales,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: sounded giggly with excitement that his wife has died. Can
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: anyone prove that?
• 34:37
  Speaker 7: No.
• 34:39
  Speaker 10: And I think there's a lot of people generally thinking,
• 34:41
  Speaker 10: a bit like the Sussexes, riding on the coattails of
• 34:45
  Speaker 10: their poor mother's death Spencer doing the same with his sister,
• 34:50
  Speaker 10: and he's got a book coming out. And what's better
• 34:53
  Speaker 10: to promote a book, a good nearly a year in
• 34:56
  Speaker 10: advance of the 30th anniversary of Diana's death, to make
• 35:00
  Speaker 10: some allegations, which people are saying, why was this never
• 35:03
  Speaker 10: raised before? And like the Sussex's book and allegations, most
• 35:07
  Speaker 10: many people are thinking this is simply being economical with
• 35:10
  Speaker 10: the truth, if not downright lies. To say that the King,
• 35:14
  Speaker 10: King Charles, Prince Charles Xen, was giddily elated when he
• 35:17
  Speaker 10: heard of his late wife's death is rather preposterous in
• 35:20
  Speaker 10: many people's ears.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: Possible to believe. Ed Sheeran, he's supposed to be the
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: nice guy of world music. What's going on with this
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: idea that Macklemore gets punted because he is pro-Palestinian?
• 35:32
  Speaker 10: Yeah, Sheeran's halfway through a world tour and Macklemore, a
• 35:36
  Speaker 10: US rapper, I'm sure you're one of his biggest fans, Steve.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: He came on.
• 35:40
  Speaker 10: Stage on New Jersey and started speaking, not just a
• 35:44
  Speaker 10: one-off line, he started speaking a lot about free Palestine
• 35:47
  Speaker 10: and showing pictures from Gaza. Robert Kraft, a Jewish US businessman,
• 35:52
  Speaker 10: has decided to pull the plug on the rest of
• 35:54
  Speaker 10: the tour. And Sheeran is caught in the middle. Everyone's
• 35:56
  Speaker 10: blaming him. The support acts have all withdrawn in support
• 35:59
  Speaker 10: of Macklemore. You've got a complete mess. I think where,
• 36:03
  Speaker 10: you know, I think a lot of people are getting
• 36:05
  Speaker 10: fed up. We go to music, music and sport are
• 36:08
  Speaker 10: the great unifiers. You know, they remove divisions. People go
• 36:11
  Speaker 10: to sport and music to be entertained. They don't want
• 36:14
  Speaker 10: to hear political lectures. What musicians do in their free
• 36:16
  Speaker 10: time outside, that's fine. But I do think there's something
• 36:19
  Speaker 10: the same as sport about this team agreements. Everybody being
• 36:22
  Speaker 10: on board, what the agreements of the tour or the match,
• 36:24
  Speaker 10: because people are sort of fed up with this virtue signaling.
• 36:27
  Speaker 10: Whatever your rights and wrongs are the cause about appearing
• 36:30
  Speaker 10: in things that should be a great unifier.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: Well said, Adrian. Catch up with you in a couple
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: of weeks. Thank you, mate. All right, after the break,
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: Cartoons of the Week. Herald Sun cartoonist Mark Knight will
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: be in here to show you his favourite cartoons this week.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome back. Steve Price with you. It's a big week
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  Speaker 1: for Mark Knight, the best cartoonist in the country from
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  Speaker 1: the Herald Sun. He joins us in the studio. I see.
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  Speaker 1: Footy Grand Finals and you have a famous, of course,
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  Speaker 1: poster of whoever wins the big dance. on Saturday week,
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  Speaker 1: the scarf. Can you explain that for us? Oh, I'm
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  Speaker 1: wearing my swan scarf. I had no idea.
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  Speaker 11: This weekend I draw the premiership posters for next week.
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  Speaker 11: We've got the two prelim finals. The two winning teams
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  Speaker 11: go through and I draw the two posters.
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  Speaker 1: So pressure's on. Well, you'd like the swans, obviously, from
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  Speaker 1: a rugby point of view. And as a Melburnian, you'd
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  Speaker 1: probably like Hawthorne to be there. I think a Hawks-Swans
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  Speaker 1: grand final would be a ripper. The last Hawks one
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  Speaker 1: you drew, I mean, you did the three-peat. Yep. The
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  Speaker 1: Hawks are easy to draw, I would have thought. Yeah, look...
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  Speaker 1: Or they become a bit repetitive.
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  Speaker 11: I got a bit tired. I think I drew them
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  Speaker 11: four years in a row. Then I drew tigers, like,
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  Speaker 11: you know, three or four.
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  Speaker 1: Now I'm drawing lions. Don't apologise for that. I got
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  Speaker 1: tired of drawing those tigers. I've got the tigers ones
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  Speaker 1: everywhere down at my house. Ben Carroll, subject to your
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  Speaker 1: pen this week numerous times. We once heard ScoMo say
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  Speaker 1: he doesn't hold a hose. You had to be across that.
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  Speaker 1: What did you draw with the hose remark? Look at that. Well,
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  Speaker 1: this cartoon.
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  Speaker 11: He legalised begging this week and we're all wondering why.
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  Speaker 11: Because he needs votes. Well, we discovered he's begging the
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  Speaker 11: public to vote him back in and he's flipping on
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  Speaker 11: all the policies that all these Labor policies are just
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  Speaker 11: going out the door.
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  Speaker 1: His head of hair does you favours. It's the best
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  Speaker 1: head of hair going around in politics. Someone's made the
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  Speaker 1: point to me, and we must get some audio of this,
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  Speaker 1: that he sounds like Michael Caine when he speaks. He
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  Speaker 1: does that well. Paws. Yeah. Every time he makes.
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  Speaker 11: This must be some sort of effect, but it's not
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  Speaker 11: like Michael Caine, is it?
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  Speaker 1: And you also tied the screws here after that devastating
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  Speaker 1: motor cycle fatality. That was just appalling outside of Ballarat.
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  Speaker 11: This poor chap goes for a Sunday ride, yep, and
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  Speaker 11: hits a pothole and unfortunately he's killed. And, you know,
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  Speaker 11: potholes are a major part of the Victorian campaign now
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  Speaker 11: and this is an opportunity to look at it.
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  Speaker 1: This is when he came out and said.
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  Speaker 11: I am not the roads minister.
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  Speaker 1: He's trying to con people into saying he's going to
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  Speaker 1: fill in $ 500, 000 before between now and the end of
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  Speaker 1: the year. Exactly. I mean, that's ridiculous.
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  Speaker 11: And he was the roads minister for two years, as
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  Speaker 11: you pointed out in your column tomorrow. It was a
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  Speaker 11: bit of a ScoMo moment when I had him saying, yeah,
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  Speaker 11: I don't hold a shovel, mate.
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  Speaker 1: Of course it was. Immigration and a lot of talk
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  Speaker 1: about immigration from all of the parties. Yeah. Where did
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  Speaker 1: we land on immigration? Well, I'm not quite sure, actually. Pauline!
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  Speaker 11: We fiddled around, but I.
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  Speaker 11: Pauline is controlling the tune here.
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  Speaker 1: I love that. So that's how low you can go. Well,
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  Speaker 1: you could probably go lower, Chris.
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  Speaker 11: I think Pauline wants to go to negative immigration, so
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  Speaker 11: she will be basically on her.
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  Speaker 1: That's fabulous. I love the limbo cartoon. How low can
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  Speaker 1: you go? Thank you. AI, I don't understand AI. I'm
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  Speaker 1: attempting to ignore it. Well... It's going to take over
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  Speaker 1: the world and kill us all.
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  Speaker 11: You don't understand it, Pricey, and I don't think the
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  Speaker 11: guys at Anthropic and OpenAI and even Elon Musk don't
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  Speaker 11: understand where it's going now because this week they came
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  Speaker 11: out and they said, hey, let's pull the handbrake on
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  Speaker 11: this because, you know, we're scared that some... rogue agent
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  Speaker 11: or some piece of, you know, non-aligned software is going.
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  Speaker 1: To destroy the world. So that's a monster from the
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  Speaker 1: old monsters.
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  Speaker 11: Well, you know, one of the great stories in history
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  Speaker 11: was the story of Frankenstein, of the crazy scientist who
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  Speaker 11: invents something that gets totally out of control.
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  Speaker 1: Comes back to repeat itself.
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  Speaker 11: We repeat art every day of our lives.
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  Speaker 1: I've written a column this week about Ben Carroll, the
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  Speaker 1: aforementioned Premier of Victoria. Yes. He... said during the week,
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  Speaker 1: as you said, I'm not the roads minister. It was
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  Speaker 1: like the I don't hold a hose. But he was
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  Speaker 1: roads minister. He was roads minister for two years and
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  Speaker 1: five months back during COVID. And that's when we should
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  Speaker 1: have fixed all the roads. Well, there was no-one driving. Exactly.
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  Speaker 1: So you could have had every truck out there filling
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  Speaker 1: every plot hole and he did nothing. What's it say here?
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  Speaker 11: Well, he also, remember when he came to power, he said,
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  Speaker 11: I'm not Daniel Andrews, I'm not Jacinta Allen. We know
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  Speaker 11: now he's not the roads minister. And so I've got
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  Speaker 11: the Victorian voters saying, well, I'm not going to trust
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  Speaker 11: Labor or fall for Labor.
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  Speaker 1: Good luck with the grand final posters and we might
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  Speaker 1: invale upon you to come and see us next week.
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  Speaker 1: We better do that. We better come in and hand
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  Speaker 1: up a couple. Good luck, Mark. Mark Knight, the best
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  Speaker 1: cartoonist in the country. After the break, Australia's debt bomb
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  Speaker 1: and the extraordinary claim from Labor that more than $ 500
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  Speaker 1: billion could be wiped from the nation's debt over the
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  Speaker 1: next four decades. My panel is up next. Welcome back.
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  Speaker 1: The world according to Rowan Dean coming up at the
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  Speaker 1: top of the hour. Time for our panel now. Battered
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  Speaker 1: Australian households, as we know, staring down now. It says
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  Speaker 1: some economists, a prospect of three interest rate hikes between
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  Speaker 1: now and I think the middle of next year and
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  Speaker 1: potentially a recession. Not great news for a Friday night.
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  Speaker 1: The IMF's warned Jim Chalmers, hey, mate, you've got to
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  Speaker 1: rein in government spending. Good luck with that. And Labor
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  Speaker 1: is pointing to Treasury forecasts, suggesting more than $ 500 billion
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  Speaker 1: could be wiped out from projected debt over the next
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  Speaker 1: four decades. I mean, seriously? Here to help pull this
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  Speaker 1: all apart, News 24 contributor Joe Hildebrand and Executive Director
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  Speaker 1: of the Samuel Griffith Society, Mia Schlitt. Welcome to you both. Joe,
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  Speaker 1: can I start with you? Jim Chalmers, any possibility that
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  Speaker 1: he might stop spending? I don't think so.
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  Speaker 13: Yeah, it doesn't look like it. And I just don't
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  Speaker 13: know why. I mean, as you say, this is not
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  Speaker 13: just some random economist who is predicting triple rate hikes.
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  Speaker 13: This is the International Monetary Fund. They know what they
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  Speaker 13: are talking about and clearly know more than what they
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  Speaker 13: are talking about than the Treasury does. The Treasury couldn't
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  Speaker 13: even predict what was going to happen in the four
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  Speaker 13: months after the budget, let alone today. the next four decades,
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  Speaker 13: by which time I dare say you and I and
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  Speaker 13: Jim Chalmers will all be dead. So this kind of
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  Speaker 13: pointing to.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks for that. Well, you know, like, I reckon, you know...
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  Speaker 1: It would be a world record if I'm not.
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  Speaker 13: Cracking the tonne would be a pretty... Cracking the tonne
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  Speaker 13: would be a pretty good... I've still got you backed
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  Speaker 13: in for that, Pricey. But, again, it is, you know...
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  Speaker 13: I mean, these sort of heroic forecasts that have absolutely,
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  Speaker 13: I mean, there's a reason why the budget only forecasts
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  Speaker 13: four years in advance because anything else is just laughable.
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  Speaker 13: So to point to four decades, you know, and again,
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  Speaker 13: I say this as an increasingly despondent, you know, Labor guy,
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  Speaker 13: you know, this is an absolute basket case of a
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  Speaker 13: budget and the government needs to simply accept that, accept
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  Speaker 13: that it is not doing what it was intended to do.
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  Speaker 13: and to dramatically change course, because three interest rate rises,
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  Speaker 13: voters will be taking brickbats to the next election.
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  Speaker 1: Mia, I mean, there seems to be no appetite with
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  Speaker 1: federal Labor to reduce spending at all. In fact, they're
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  Speaker 1: going all the other way. I mean, look at the
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  Speaker 1: billions of dollars that we're pouring into this green dream
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  Speaker 1: of net zero.
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  Speaker 12: Yes, Steve. This is a government who is addicted to
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  Speaker 12: spending at every single point. And I would like to
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  Speaker 12: point out this $ 500 billion that they say they're wiping off.
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  Speaker 12: That is a projection over the next 36 years. It's
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  Speaker 12: not like they've saved the country $ 500 billion. That's not
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  Speaker 12: what they're saying.
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  Speaker 11: That's it.
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  Speaker 12: So look, at the end of the day, the only
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  Speaker 12: way we can actually see this come to fruition is
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  Speaker 12: if governments over the next four decades actually stick to
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  Speaker 12: the plan. At the end of the day, Nobody trusts
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  Speaker 12: this federal Labor government. They've been found to be liars
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  Speaker 12: time and time again. Look, they said they weren't going
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  Speaker 12: to bring in the capital gains tax. They did. They
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  Speaker 12: said they'd lower power bills by $ 275. They haven't. So
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  Speaker 12: I don't think voters are going to fall for the
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  Speaker 12: line this time.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, we have a danger here of getting people
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  Speaker 1: to start throwing things at the television set, Mia, when
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  Speaker 1: I ask you about the fact Ben Carroll, the Premier, says, oh,
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  Speaker 1: I can't rule out that you, the taxpayer, might be
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  Speaker 1: covering the legal bills of Daniel Andrews and Jacinda Allen
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  Speaker 1: if they're called before the Royal Commission into Victoria's corrupt
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  Speaker 1: big build. Seriously?
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  Speaker 12: Oh, I think, Steve, Victorians would be outraged if that
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  Speaker 12: was the case. And I think we're seeing this pattern
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  Speaker 12: with Ben Carroll here where he continuously shirks responsibility for everything.
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  Speaker 12: He says, I'm not Jacinta Rowland, I'm not Dan Andrews,
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  Speaker 12: I'm not the Roads Minister and I have no say
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  Speaker 12: over whether taxpayers will have to foot the bill for
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  Speaker 12: these legal fees. And so we're continuously seeing that Ben
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  Speaker 12: Carroll takes responsibility responsibility for nothing but in a matter
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  Speaker 12: as serious as this with the kind of corruption allegations
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  Speaker 12: that are floating around I think it's about time that
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  Speaker 12: he put his foot down and got pretty clear about
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  Speaker 12: who would be footing this bill because I can tell
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  Speaker 12: you what Victorians are not going to be happy about it.
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  Speaker 1: Joe, I don't understand recycling. I try my hardest. I
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  Speaker 1: throw bottles in one bin and other stuff in other bins.
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  Speaker 1: The southern Grampian Shire are going around saying we're going
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  Speaker 1: to fine people $ 209 under a three-strike crackdown if you
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  Speaker 1: put a dog poo bag in the wrong bin. Really?
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  Speaker 13: Yeah, look, this has got to stop. I am an
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  Speaker 13: absolutely fastidious recycler. I've got OCD about it. I once
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  Speaker 13: unloaded my entire recycling into the back of the car
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  Speaker 13: and drove it to another place so I could offload
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  Speaker 13: it because it wasn't collected.
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  Speaker 1: It is all.
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  Speaker 13: And it is impossible. It is so difficult and so
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  Speaker 13: confused and there are so many different rules for different jurisdictions.
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  Speaker 13: There is no clear answer on how.
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  Speaker 13: Solid a piece of plastic has to be before it's
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  Speaker 13: recyclable or not you can recycle glass bottles but not
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  Speaker 13: glass glasses uh i mean it just goes on and
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  Speaker 13: on the green bin you can put you can put
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  Speaker 13: wood that's just been chopped down in the green bin
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  Speaker 13: does that mean you can put any piece of wood
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  Speaker 13: in it i still haven't got an answer to that
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  Speaker 13: it is just a basket case Or a bin case.
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  Speaker 1: Mia, amazing stuff. Yeah, bin case. Elon Musk and his
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  Speaker 1: company Neuralink overnight demonstrated a brain implant capable of turning
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  Speaker 1: imagined speech into words, offering another glimpse of, you know,
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  Speaker 1: the advance of AI. Amazing stuff. Have a look at this.
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  Speaker 10: Wait, you're syncing the words and they're popping up? I,
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  Speaker 10: I love you.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, my gosh.
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  Speaker 13: That is amazing.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good use of AI, I would suggest.
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  Speaker 1: That's extraordinary.
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  Speaker 10: Yes, absolutely.
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  Speaker 12: It's a huge message of hope. I think to see
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  Speaker 12: these kinds of breakthroughs really just shows that there is
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  Speaker 12: some kind of hope that we're using technology for the
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  Speaker 12: good in the future. I'd like to see more of this,
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  Speaker 12: particularly with conditions like MND, if we can find some
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  Speaker 12: kind of way to give some families of those who
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  Speaker 12: are suffering from such an awful disease some kind of
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  Speaker 12: hope that there could be a breakthrough in the future.
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  Speaker 12: I think that's a fantastic thing. And yes, there are
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  Speaker 12: a few know concerns about you know how this technology
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  Speaker 12: could be used but i mean really i think on
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  Speaker 12: balance this is a good news story i thought it
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  Speaker 12: was pretty ironic that we had the human rights commission
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  Speaker 12: coming out in response saying they were concerned about privacy
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  Speaker 12: and how that was going to use in which i've
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  Speaker 12: never really heard the human rights commission raise privacy concerns
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  Speaker 12: ever particularly when it comes to the australian government here
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  Speaker 12: with what they're doing with the new social media laws
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  Speaker 12: and all the ways they can invade our privacy with
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  Speaker 12: the new algorithms and things like that but that seems
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  Speaker 12: to be what the human rights commission is focusing on
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  Speaker 12: in this in this scenario.
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  Speaker 1: Yep. As I said, I don't, Joe or Mia, understand
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  Speaker 1: AI at all, so I'll leave it there. Thank you
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  Speaker 1: both for joining us. I'll see you both next week.
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  Speaker 1: Finals weekend coming up, NRL and AFL. It's one of
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: the great weekends of the year. But coming up next,
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  Speaker 1: the world according to Rowan Dean.