Transcript

Credlin | 2 December · Credlin

0:02
Speaker 1: Peter Kremblad live on Sky News Australia.
0:06
Speaker 2: Good evening, Great to have your company here. So what's
0:08
Speaker 2: coming up on the program this evening? More problems for labor,
0:13
Speaker 2: Fresh data showing that power prices are surging across the country.
0:17
Speaker 2: You know that you pay the bills, but what's going
0:20
Speaker 2: to happen when the rebates go. They're due to end
0:22
Speaker 2: on New Year's Eve. More on that defense free structure yesterday.
0:26
Speaker 2: Those of the not say there's little detail to back
0:29
Speaker 2: up the bold claims from Defense Minister Richard Miles, all
0:32
Speaker 2: the while Australia's outgoing intelligence chief bears we could be
0:36
Speaker 2: at war with China within the decade plus a Uburg
0:40
Speaker 2: that documents the pain and debt ridden legacy of the
0:43
Speaker 2: Daniel Andrews period as Premiere of Victoria. It's important that
0:47
Speaker 2: labor are never allowed to hide him away. If the
0:50
Speaker 2: Leaps were smart, the bloke would feature in every ad
0:53
Speaker 2: between now an election day, given how close he years
0:57
Speaker 2: with just into Allen, I'll take you through that book moment.
1:00
Speaker 2: And in a ten Senate exchange today, Petty Wong persistently
1:04
Speaker 2: dodging questions on her Britney Higgins cover up claims. More
1:09
Speaker 2: on that a bit later, but here is how it
1:10
Speaker 2: played out.
1:12
Speaker 3: Are you prepared to admit that those accusations made by
1:16
Speaker 3: you on many occasions were unfounded?
1:19
Speaker 4: I'd refer you to my previous answers, Senator.
1:23
Speaker 2: But first, it was billed by the Albanezer government as
1:25
Speaker 2: the biggest quote reform in fifty years. But what did
1:29
Speaker 2: yesterday's defense procurements shake up really amount to? Well, if
1:33
Speaker 2: you ask Credlin, regular are the Australian's Foreign editor, Greg Sheridan,
1:37
Speaker 2: not much.
1:39
Speaker 5: We have no idea about how any of this is
1:41
Speaker 5: going to work because there were no supporting documents the
1:43
Speaker 5: biggest change in half a century, and the total sum
1:48
Speaker 5: of the supporting documents are a one and a half
1:50
Speaker 5: page press release. This is the government as usual, pretending
1:54
Speaker 5: to do something when in defense it's doing absolutely nothing.
1:58
Speaker 2: What the government did tell said that three public service units,
2:02
Speaker 2: the first the Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group, second the
2:06
Speaker 2: Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordinance Group, and SERVE the Naval
2:11
Speaker 2: Shipbuilding and Sustainment Group, will eventually be consolidated into the
2:15
Speaker 2: new Defense Delivery Agency, And if Defense Minister Richard Miles
2:20
Speaker 2: is to be believed. This changed to the department's all
2:24
Speaker 2: chart and a whole lot of new titles for bureau
2:27
Speaker 2: caucrats will supposedly end decades of delay and billions of
2:32
Speaker 2: dollars of wasted spending in defense procurement. Really, while the
2:37
Speaker 2: boss of this new agency will be appointed by July
2:40
Speaker 2: next year, so in six months time, the actual agency
2:44
Speaker 2: itself won't be up and running until the middle of
2:47
Speaker 2: twenty twenty seven. As experts remind us constantly, these are
2:52
Speaker 2: the most dire strategic circumstances we are facing since just
2:57
Speaker 2: before the start of the Second World War, and yet
3:00
Speaker 2: the government's latest response to this increasing threat level is
3:04
Speaker 2: a bureaucratic shakeoup that won't take place for eighteen months
3:08
Speaker 2: if it even happens on time, and as we know,
3:12
Speaker 2: very little happens in defense on time or on budget.
3:17
Speaker 2: We're also told the bureaucrats currently staffing the three existing units,
3:21
Speaker 2: so all the units as they are, all the bureaucrats
3:25
Speaker 2: will keep their jobs, even though plainly they're not doing
3:28
Speaker 2: them well enough, or you wouldn't need to upend the
3:32
Speaker 2: whole system. So here's the shakeup that's supposed to break
3:36
Speaker 2: decades long culture problems in defense in procurement, end the
3:41
Speaker 2: complacency and the cover ups. Stop wasting billions and billions
3:45
Speaker 2: of dollars, like the money we wasted when we purchase
3:48
Speaker 2: those Taipan helicopters that Army then withdrew early from service
3:52
Speaker 2: after they were played with problems, including a fatal crash.
3:57
Speaker 2: All of that, but everyone gets to keep the job.
4:00
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, I just don't buy this. I do not
4:03
Speaker 2: buy it at all. Now I could remember, as I
4:05
Speaker 2: said last night, being a senior staff at the Defense
4:08
Speaker 2: Minister and the Howard era Robert Hill, and all the
4:11
Speaker 2: fanfare that was attached then to the establishment of the
4:14
Speaker 2: Defense Material Organization it was called the DMO. Now, back then,
4:19
Speaker 2: putting them all together was supposed to win the delays
4:22
Speaker 2: and the cost overruns in defense procurement. Back then, as
4:27
Speaker 2: I said, all brought together to improve oversight and efficiencies,
4:32
Speaker 2: until it was then thrown out, rejigged in favor of
4:35
Speaker 2: going back to these separate entities that were now replacing,
4:39
Speaker 2: as we heard yesterday, bringing them together to do in
4:43
Speaker 2: a single body what the single body and the Howard
4:47
Speaker 2: era the DMO was set up to do but couldn't
4:52
Speaker 2: when You can see the pattern here, can't you. Defense bureaucrats,
4:55
Speaker 2: and I'm talking here about the public service arm not
4:58
Speaker 2: the men and women in uniform. They know that their
5:01
Speaker 2: procurement timelines outlive ministers and outlive governments. Something decided to
5:08
Speaker 2: say back in the John Howard era doesn't even enter
5:11
Speaker 2: active service until the time of Julia Gillard, perhaps even
5:15
Speaker 2: Scott Morrison, or by then the public servant will have
5:19
Speaker 2: grabbed their pension and retired after earning twenty something years
5:22
Speaker 2: of a six figure salary. No accountability for the fact
5:27
Speaker 2: that they fail to deliver what was promised. And yes,
5:31
Speaker 2: we taxpayers pay dearly for this unsatisfactory performance. But it's
5:35
Speaker 2: those in uniform who we really let down, given they
5:39
Speaker 2: don't get the equipment they need to keep us safe
5:42
Speaker 2: and in tragic circumstances for them, it can cost them
5:46
Speaker 2: their lives. A big problem here is that this line
5:50
Speaker 2: from Defense that they need to alter everything we buy
5:53
Speaker 2: to make it uniquely Australian, that equipment in use by
5:57
Speaker 2: the Brits or the Americans is good enough to use
6:00
Speaker 2: in Australia without millions and millions to redesign it. Let's crap,
6:06
Speaker 2: haven't we asked the soldier, and they'll tell you what's
6:09
Speaker 2: needed in the field. How don't we do that? Because
6:13
Speaker 2: they just want the best kit now, not what's promised
6:17
Speaker 2: in decades and decades away. If we were serious, if
6:20
Speaker 2: we were serious about reform, and we were serious about
6:24
Speaker 2: reform hitting the mark, we would involve the on the
6:27
Speaker 2: ground soldier a whole lot more in the choice of
6:30
Speaker 2: what we do and what we do or don't buy
6:33
Speaker 2: for them to use now. Once we then get that
6:36
Speaker 2: information from the soldier on the ground, our job should
6:38
Speaker 2: then be to build out the capability gap at express speed,
6:43
Speaker 2: so that when the balloon goes up, as it very
6:45
Speaker 2: well might, our soldiers and airmen and sailors are well
6:48
Speaker 2: equipped as anyone's will be, to hold their own in
6:52
Speaker 2: any fight. As the recent Chinese naval circumnavigation of Australias showed,
6:58
Speaker 2: China under the Communists is not only rolling back its
7:01
Speaker 2: domestic freedoms, but it's trying to intimidate those abroad, and
7:05
Speaker 2: with a new naval squadron from China, as reported yesterday,
7:09
Speaker 2: likely heading our way, that intimidation or worse is only
7:14
Speaker 2: likely to increase. Greg Sheridan shrewdly pointed out, if yesterday's
7:19
Speaker 2: announcement really was that big, why was it not a
7:22
Speaker 2: company by more than just a press release. Where's the
7:26
Speaker 2: background detail, the documents, the papers, the evidence of proper planning.
7:32
Speaker 2: But that's so typical of this government. It makes big
7:35
Speaker 2: ground announce the grand announcements about addressing some problem. But
7:40
Speaker 2: having made the announcement and gained whatever cutos and headlines
7:43
Speaker 2: there were to be had, it assumes that the problem
7:46
Speaker 2: is being fixed without the constant attention needed for successful implementation.
7:54
Speaker 2: The same people doing the same things, only at a
7:56
Speaker 2: renamed amalgamated agency. So manyful reform to me, I mean,
8:02
Speaker 2: real change in this area would be raising defense spending
8:05
Speaker 2: to three percent of GDP, roughly the amount needed to
8:08
Speaker 2: cover the cost of these new submarines without cannibalizing the
8:13
Speaker 2: rest of our armed forces. And naturally that was a
8:17
Speaker 2: step too far for the Albanezy government. Instead, all we've
8:21
Speaker 2: got ore tweaks to an all chat while the world
8:23
Speaker 2: around us gets more and more perilous. Honestly, the Albanezy
8:28
Speaker 2: government makes Neville Chamberlain look and sound positively Churchillian. Now
8:38
Speaker 2: to this incredible story from my colleagues, Senior reporter Carolyn Marcus.
8:44
Speaker 6: Nicki Gaylard feels betrayed and heartbroken about what happened to
8:49
Speaker 6: her daughter, Courtney. Courtney just said I didn't want to
8:52
Speaker 6: be their mom, but I didn't know what to do.
8:55
Speaker 6: The mother of six is said to file a lawsuit
8:59
Speaker 6: against the South of Australian Government in Adelaide's District Court
9:04
Speaker 6: after a presentation at Renmark High School to year nine
9:08
Speaker 6: girls last year allegedly referenced best Reality and incest presenters
9:14
Speaker 6: using the terms sister love and brother love, and my
9:19
Speaker 6: daughter comes home and feels uncomfortable hugging her brother because she's.
9:23
Speaker 2: Confused about whether that's because it's her run.
9:29
Speaker 6: Miss Gaillard says the girls were also shown graphic images
9:33
Speaker 6: of a topless woman post gender transition surgery, the surgical
9:37
Speaker 6: scars visible. The mum withdrew her teenager from the school
9:42
Speaker 6: the same day. School Principal Matt Evans apologized at the
9:47
Speaker 6: time for the inappropriate material and for not seeking parental
9:52
Speaker 6: consent ahead of the presentation. The South Australian Education Department
9:58
Speaker 6: suspended provider Headspace Vary from delivering the Respectful Relationships program
10:05
Speaker 6: to public schools. Miss Gailard says she's taking legal action
10:09
Speaker 6: to ensure this doesn't happen to any other family.
10:13
Speaker 7: There was zero protection from my daughter that day, zero nothing.
10:20
Speaker 2: She had no one she could go to.
10:21
Speaker 6: The lawsuit is being funded by faith based legal organization
10:26
Speaker 6: ADF International spokesperson Lois McLatchy. Miller was previously in Australia
10:32
Speaker 6: supporting a Canadian activist in successful action against the E
10:37
Speaker 6: Safety Commissioner. She says the South Australian case shocked the organization.
10:43
Speaker 5: This was an incredibly strong case.
10:45
Speaker 6: This really gets to the roots of the problem that
10:48
Speaker 6: we're seeing across the world. While legal proceedings are yet
10:51
Speaker 6: to be filed in the court, sky Neese understands these
10:55
Speaker 6: are imminent and will name the state of South Australia
10:59
Speaker 6: as the respondent. An Education Department spokesperson said while what
11:04
Speaker 6: happened at the school was unacceptable, it was an isolated
11:09
Speaker 6: incident and steps have been taken to ensure it doesn't
11:13
Speaker 6: happen again. A Headspace National spokesperson admitted aspects of the
11:18
Speaker 6: presentation were inappropriate and it had since strengthened its guidance
11:23
Speaker 6: to center operators. Caroline Marcus Sky.
11:26
Speaker 2: News you heard it there incest bestiality. Since when does
11:34
Speaker 2: this pass for sex education of the kind our young
11:36
Speaker 2: people need to know as they move through their teenager years.
11:40
Speaker 2: I mean, how have we gone from giving them basic
11:42
Speaker 2: but important biological information and a proper understanding of the
11:46
Speaker 2: laws around consent to thinking that information about sex with
11:51
Speaker 2: animals is somehow valid, even though why I'm surprised is
11:55
Speaker 2: even beyond me. After all, our education system in this
11:58
Speaker 2: country doesn't even know what biology is anymore, certainly not
12:02
Speaker 2: when it comes to the invasion of boys and men
12:05
Speaker 2: in spaces once reserved for those with xx chrime zomees.
12:10
Speaker 2: What really staggers me is how this is allowed to
12:13
Speaker 2: happen behind the backs of parents, just like in Victoria,
12:18
Speaker 2: where young children are allowed to transition their gender at
12:21
Speaker 2: school without the knowledge or consent of their parents. We
12:26
Speaker 2: need a parent's revolution here on this and a whole
12:31
Speaker 2: lot of other subjects, including the childcare system that denies
12:35
Speaker 2: parents are choice in how they raise their family. Now,
12:38
Speaker 2: this makes you angry, and I'm sure it does that.
12:41
Speaker 2: I urge you to remember your anger on polling day,
12:44
Speaker 2: because I'll tell you what, If you vote for this rubbish,
12:48
Speaker 2: I guarantee you will get more of it, more and
12:51
Speaker 2: more of it. If you think enough's enough, you must
12:56
Speaker 2: speak up. All right, let's go to Cambra. Now for
13:02
Speaker 2: the headlines. It's got news political reporter Rubon Spargo.
13:07
Speaker 8: A scathing report into Canberra's Jobs for Mates culture has
13:10
Speaker 8: found government bord appointments have been repeatedly abused. Labor received
13:16
Speaker 8: the one hundred and eight page review in twenty twenty three,
13:19
Speaker 8: but only released it today. It's chosen not to proceed
13:22
Speaker 8: with several key recommendations.
13:24
Speaker 9: They railed against Jobs for Mates under the Morrison government,
13:28
Speaker 9: and now that they're in there, they quite like having
13:30
Speaker 9: that discretion.
13:31
Speaker 8: Finance Minister Katie Gallagher has outlined a new framework aimed
13:35
Speaker 8: at tightening the appointment process. The Bureau of Meteorology is
13:39
Speaker 8: facing fresh questions over its heavily criticized website overhaul at
13:43
Speaker 8: center estimates. The agency's new chief defended the ninety six
13:47
Speaker 8: million dollar price tag.
13:48
Speaker 10: The website itself and the front end has not meant
13:52
Speaker 10: all all user needs.
13:55
Speaker 8: The Bureau confirmed the broader technology upgrade will total around
13:59
Speaker 8: eight hundredhundred million dollars, aimed at strengthening its systems against
14:04
Speaker 8: cyber threats.
14:05
Speaker 2: All right, let's get into those issues now. Joining me
14:07
Speaker 2: Sky's political leeditor Andrew Clanell. Well, let's talk about power prices.
14:11
Speaker 2: Let's talk about the politics, not so much the policy
14:14
Speaker 2: detail that we can argue that up Ear and Downdale.
14:17
Speaker 2: But now that the Coalition has got a policy difference
14:21
Speaker 2: with labor, I think there's ground here for this to
14:25
Speaker 2: be absolutely front and center with punters. We know that
14:28
Speaker 2: hardship payments have increased. We know people are struggling with
14:32
Speaker 2: their power bills. We look at that stuff today in
14:34
Speaker 2: the news call papers. They've done some analysis work between
14:37
Speaker 2: what labor promised on energy and the lived reality for households.
14:41
Speaker 2: Have look at this charts on the screen now, the
14:43
Speaker 2: pink lines or what labor model. That's what they said
14:46
Speaker 2: they would deliver on power prices and that's right across
14:49
Speaker 2: the country. But the blue is what people are actually paying.
14:55
Speaker 2: So Andrew, it's not an easy fix for labor here
14:58
Speaker 2: on this issue. And of course they're going to ramp
15:00
Speaker 2: up these targets. It's going to get harder in terms
15:03
Speaker 2: of the price pain for voters. So how does the
15:07
Speaker 2: government navigate this?
15:09
Speaker 11: I don't think they know. Look Honestly, it's not that easy.
15:15
Speaker 11: It's not a quick fixed thing. They put the band
15:19
Speaker 11: aid on it, they put they masked it, right, It's
15:21
Speaker 11: like putting makeup on your face on a scar beta.
15:25
Speaker 11: But once the makeup comes off, it's still there. That's
15:28
Speaker 11: what the rebates did and that's what this AER report showed.
15:32
Speaker 11: Thirteen hundred dollars in rebates in Queensland have just come
15:36
Speaker 11: off thirteen hundred a year, just like that state and
15:40
Speaker 11: federal and that you know they're going to take this
15:43
Speaker 11: other rebate off. They're going to promise a gas reservation,
15:46
Speaker 11: but is that really going to make a difference. And
15:49
Speaker 11: one of the big issues is the network costs. If
15:52
Speaker 11: you move from a coal approach to a renewables approach,
15:56
Speaker 11: you've got to roll out all these poles and wires.
15:58
Speaker 11: That's got to be paid for in our electricity.
16:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we've been arguing this on the show for
16:05
Speaker 2: a decade now. But I guess the problem for the
16:07
Speaker 2: government is that their salesman is Chris Bowen. I think
16:11
Speaker 2: people now the rubbers hit the ride absolutely with the bills.
16:13
Speaker 2: They've had two elections where Labour's promised a cut in
16:16
Speaker 2: prices that cuts not manifested. In fact, as you're pointing out,
16:20
Speaker 2: it's gotten a whole lot worse. They've had this papering
16:23
Speaker 2: over the craps with cracks, with rebates they have now dissipated.
16:27
Speaker 2: So the pain will now be increased. How do they
16:30
Speaker 2: navigate it politically? I mean, do they have to move
16:33
Speaker 2: bowing on? Do they have to change the salesman? Do
16:36
Speaker 2: they pull back some of the emissions targets and slow
16:39
Speaker 2: the pain? Is that what they do?
16:42
Speaker 11: I honestly have no idea, but they probably need to
16:44
Speaker 11: get more coal fired power into the daily sort of system.
16:48
Speaker 11: And how maybe you do that? Encourage the regulator to
16:51
Speaker 11: do that on the Quiet, you know. And the other
16:54
Speaker 11: thing is maybe you do need to slow your roll
16:57
Speaker 11: out of the networks, but maybe you need to do
17:00
Speaker 11: that on the Quiet, and of course the gas reservation
17:02
Speaker 11: that will probably help a little bit. But there's no
17:05
Speaker 11: quick fix for them. So really what we're going to
17:08
Speaker 11: look at is a situation where they try and ride
17:11
Speaker 11: it out and try and stop the bills going up further.
17:14
Speaker 11: They're never getting them down now, they're never getting them down.
17:17
Speaker 11: They've got to stop them going up further. And then
17:20
Speaker 11: the only pressure, that will really work, and it's to
17:23
Speaker 11: slow burn. These things will be newspole pressure. Frankly, Peter,
17:28
Speaker 11: if the opposition can get to a scenario where it's
17:30
Speaker 11: forty eight fifty two. And they were quick to tell
17:33
Speaker 11: me the opposition this morning, by the way, I look
17:35
Speaker 11: at this red bridge, we're fifty four to forty six,
17:37
Speaker 11: not fifty six forty four. Well that's great, guys, your
17:41
Speaker 11: primary still about twenty six. But if you get that
17:45
Speaker 11: sort of newspole pressure, polling pressure, if the opposition can
17:49
Speaker 11: stay disciplined and together, and Lee has started to perform better.
17:53
Speaker 11: So if they want to roll Lee, they need to
17:55
Speaker 11: make it quick at some point next year, right, They've
17:58
Speaker 11: got to get behind her until they feel it's hopeless
18:02
Speaker 11: for it. So they've got to stay united so they
18:04
Speaker 11: can keep the focus on the government. The government has
18:08
Speaker 11: no quick fix, I'm pretty sure. I mean, they could
18:11
Speaker 11: try price caps again, they could try all these different measures,
18:15
Speaker 11: but the evidence is in that what's really kind of
18:19
Speaker 11: kept the pressure off is the rebates, and the rebates
18:22
Speaker 11: have to come off otherwise, you know, you may as
18:25
Speaker 11: well just have government paying everyone's electricity bill and so,
18:28
Speaker 11: you know, just blowing the budget completely.
18:31
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what if Labour thought that would win
18:33
Speaker 2: them the next election, do not rule it out. There's
18:35
Speaker 2: not a dollar of our money that they will not
18:38
Speaker 2: spend for a political outcome. I have seen this for
18:40
Speaker 2: many years. But I guess one of the things that
18:42
Speaker 2: concerns where you look at the jobs dowted, you look
18:44
Speaker 2: at the lack of productivity growth in this country, you
18:47
Speaker 2: look at the RBA governor's speeches in recent times and
18:50
Speaker 2: minutes from the meeting, we've got real pressure there in
18:53
Speaker 2: the economy. We've got what it call sort of the
18:55
Speaker 2: old economy, the big manufacturing jobs. They're on their way
18:59
Speaker 2: out because we haven't got affordable power in this country.
19:02
Speaker 2: Our resources. We're saying we can't use it here, but
19:05
Speaker 2: we don't really want to have to export it either.
19:07
Speaker 2: We're winding back some of that stuff to our peril.
19:10
Speaker 2: And then the new economy is information technology and all
19:13
Speaker 2: the stuff we talk about, and data centers are key
19:15
Speaker 2: and all of that Andrew, but they are if you
19:18
Speaker 2: think that the electricity system is hungry now, data center
19:23
Speaker 2: is nothing compared to say a smelter. We think smelters
19:26
Speaker 2: about data data centers are extraordinary and everyone out there
19:30
Speaker 2: now is saying, hang on, maybe we need to put
19:33
Speaker 2: the brakes on emissions, these emissions targets, because if we
19:36
Speaker 2: do not do that in Australia, we are not going
19:39
Speaker 2: to get in the game of data. So is that
19:43
Speaker 2: the fig leaf that the government grabs onto Who knows.
19:46
Speaker 11: But you raise a good point about the rebates and
19:48
Speaker 11: maybe they take them off now and then a year
19:51
Speaker 11: and a half out they whack a huge one.
19:53
Speaker 12: You know.
19:54
Speaker 11: But if you want to see stressed, I reckon, have
19:58
Speaker 11: a look at the Jim Chalmers and Katie Gallaha at
20:00
Speaker 11: the moment. You can see it on their faces, Peter,
20:04
Speaker 11: whereas alb Albanese is not stressed at all when you
20:08
Speaker 11: look at him, because they know they're the ones who
20:11
Speaker 11: have to somehow run in this budget, deliver all these
20:15
Speaker 11: spending promises and ultimately the energy rebeats rebates fall into
20:20
Speaker 11: their purview as well. And they've got to, you know,
20:25
Speaker 11: they've got to deliver the promises. They've got to get
20:27
Speaker 11: the states on board the nd I. They're struggling with that,
20:30
Speaker 11: and they've got to cut the budget. And they said
20:32
Speaker 11: they wouldn't do public service cuts. Well we all, yeah,
20:36
Speaker 11: that's what I mean the State Hospitals ndis so you
20:39
Speaker 11: know they're aging daily for old Jim Javas and Katie
20:43
Speaker 11: Gallaha because and just one other thing, inflation's back up.
20:47
Speaker 11: And when you take the rebates off and you know,
20:50
Speaker 11: help your budget and inflation comes back up. Like there's
20:54
Speaker 11: a lot of headaches. The one thing they absolutely have
20:57
Speaker 11: going for them, as you know, is historically low on
20:59
Speaker 11: HM play, so at least there's that for them. It
21:01
Speaker 11: could be even worse, but it's not a healthy situation.
21:07
Speaker 11: And the problem is they had that thumping victory, but
21:10
Speaker 11: with their promises, they paid for it. They paid for
21:13
Speaker 11: the victory and now perhaps will pay for it well.
21:18
Speaker 2: And I'm just on the Prime Minister. I want to
21:20
Speaker 2: make the point too. He is now in the history
21:22
Speaker 2: books for labor. He does not need to go around again.
21:25
Speaker 2: The reason why he's happy and smiling enough of his
21:28
Speaker 2: honeymoon is he doesn't have to worry about any of this,
21:31
Speaker 2: you know, like he has his legacy in place in
21:33
Speaker 2: history security, the labor pantheon. He can walk out, he
21:36
Speaker 2: leaves a mess for somebody else, thank you very much,
21:39
Speaker 2: see you later. He doesn't have to worry about it,
21:40
Speaker 2: so I think that's exactly the aspector.
21:42
Speaker 11: I mean, look, I could be you can change my
21:45
Speaker 11: mind on this, but don't you think he will go
21:47
Speaker 11: around just one last time and then maybe.
21:50
Speaker 2: Because he's got that seat buffer. Yes, I think that
21:52
Speaker 2: that would be attractive, that seat buffer. He could take
21:55
Speaker 2: a significant haircut and still survive. But I'm leaving with
21:59
Speaker 2: his legacy where it is. He's in his sixties now,
22:01
Speaker 2: he's just got married, he's bought that beautiful place up
22:04
Speaker 2: on the coast. I think he's going to want to
22:06
Speaker 2: enjoy leaving out on a high after that many years,
22:10
Speaker 2: we'll see, we'll see well Leedg's case.
22:11
Speaker 11: I'll make this prediction, if you don't mind, he'll run
22:13
Speaker 11: again and then he'll retire after and then he will
22:17
Speaker 11: be the first prime minister since I think MENSI used
22:20
Speaker 11: to do that because they all get dragged out in
22:22
Speaker 11: a box usually, don't they They do metaphorically.
22:27
Speaker 2: Leave it there. We'll leave it there. Thanks Andrew up
22:31
Speaker 2: for the break. Concerns about the lack of detail and
22:33
Speaker 2: the Richard Miles defense overhaul, We'll get into that plus
22:37
Speaker 2: the demise of Victoria. To understand it, you have to
22:42
Speaker 2: understand that man on the screen right now, Daniel Andrews
22:47
Speaker 2: will get into his Dark Legacy in a moment. Welcome back.
22:53
Speaker 2: Well now to a new book launched tomorrow by me,
22:56
Speaker 2: and I am delighted to launch this for the IPA.
23:00
Speaker 2: It's about the social and economic costs of Australia's most
23:04
Speaker 2: controversial premiere. The book's called The Dark Legacy of Daniel Andrews,
23:09
Speaker 2: and it argues that the former Labor leader reshaped the
23:11
Speaker 2: state through centralized power, ideological governance and policy, over each
23:16
Speaker 2: which we can democratic norms blew out the debt and
23:20
Speaker 2: undermine the freedoms of victorians. Well, if you watched my
23:24
Speaker 2: show during COVID, absolutely no arguments from me, I'm pleased
23:28
Speaker 2: to say. The bloke who edited the book, the director
23:30
Speaker 2: of research at the Institute of Public Affairs, Morgan Beg,
23:33
Speaker 2: joins me. Now, I always say in politics that you
23:39
Speaker 2: might remember your enemy or your opponent, but eventually the
23:42
Speaker 2: voters move on, in part because to survive they have
23:46
Speaker 2: to move on. And I think, particularly for Victorians, is
23:48
Speaker 2: a whole lot of PTSD associated with that period, the
23:51
Speaker 2: worst of it, particularly due COVID with Daniel Andrews. So
23:55
Speaker 2: a book like this is so important to nail his
23:59
Speaker 2: rotten lefegacy to his political epitaph is that what drove
24:05
Speaker 2: you to pull this together.
24:07
Speaker 1: That's exactly right. I mean, as you said, you know
24:10
Speaker 1: the last ten years as a period that many Victorians
24:12
Speaker 1: will want to forget, and with very good reason. But
24:14
Speaker 1: we actually do need to tell this story. Daniel Andrews
24:19
Speaker 1: accumulated a vast amount of political power and he used
24:23
Speaker 1: that to great effect, to the extent that he exercised
24:27
Speaker 1: untraveled power through a cowd business community, a demoralized opposition
24:32
Speaker 1: of politicized public service. And the outcome of that is
24:36
Speaker 1: Victorians are less free than they were ten years ago,
24:38
Speaker 1: They're less prosperous than they were ten years ago, and
24:41
Speaker 1: the state is less democratic than it was ten years ago.
24:44
Speaker 1: We need to understand how we got here before we
24:48
Speaker 1: can get back on track. That's the only way we'll
24:50
Speaker 1: get back on track.
24:52
Speaker 2: The political animal I me is never just tough on
24:57
Speaker 2: my opponent because I don't like this politics. I try
25:02
Speaker 2: and be as analytical as I can in looking at
25:04
Speaker 2: how in this case he consolidated his power, his ruthlessness.
25:08
Speaker 2: I said last night on the show that they are
25:10
Speaker 2: the most professional political operation Labam machine in Victoria that
25:16
Speaker 2: I have ever seen, and I don't look at it
25:20
Speaker 2: with admiration, but I do acknowledge what the center right
25:24
Speaker 2: side of politics is up against in this state. And
25:26
Speaker 2: even though he has departed, he's got his underling there
25:29
Speaker 2: in the premier's job and she runs smiley a face, sure,
25:33
Speaker 2: but she runs the show as he runs the show.
25:37
Speaker 2: In your book, you look at everything. You look at
25:40
Speaker 2: the economics, you look at the social, you look at
25:41
Speaker 2: the cultural, you look at the democratic. What do you
25:44
Speaker 2: think is the most destructive of his legacies?
25:50
Speaker 1: I think, arguably it's the reinvention and the reorganization of
25:55
Speaker 1: the state around the premier office. The premier's office he
26:00
Speaker 1: saw in this period. So, just to go back, Daniel
26:03
Speaker 1: Andrews comes into power in twenty fourteen in an unlikely victory,
26:08
Speaker 1: and he comes to office with a great deal of
26:10
Speaker 1: political capital and a great deal of control over the
26:14
Speaker 1: Labor Party, and he uses that control quite ruthlessly, to
26:17
Speaker 1: the extent that all decision making in that era came
26:20
Speaker 1: from the Premier's office.
26:23
Speaker 2: And it cut the knees out of the union, It
26:26
Speaker 2: cut heads off colleagues.
26:28
Speaker 1: I mean it wasn't zactly, it's the colleague. Traditional cabinet
26:32
Speaker 1: government was dismantled, the role of an independent public service
26:37
Speaker 1: was dismantled, the role even of the media, through his
26:41
Speaker 1: belligerents and his weaponization of social media, was defancd the
26:47
Speaker 1: extent that economic activity in this state is actually dependent
26:52
Speaker 1: on the government now because of the dramatic expansion of
26:57
Speaker 1: government spending and programmed.
26:59
Speaker 2: At none of they've ever ten jobs in Victoria, exactly right.
27:02
Speaker 1: So the business community now, which might have been a
27:04
Speaker 1: sort of non government check on power, they've been taken
27:07
Speaker 1: off the board as well.
27:09
Speaker 12: And so what we have.
27:11
Speaker 1: Now is, you know, we call it colloquially a one
27:14
Speaker 1: party states. That's kind of the situation that we were
27:17
Speaker 1: put in by Daniel Andrews. And this is the world
27:21
Speaker 1: that we're still living in. Yes he's gone, yes, but
27:23
Speaker 1: the system he's built is still there and it's still
27:26
Speaker 1: being used.
27:27
Speaker 2: And with sixteen seats to win, this will be the
27:28
Speaker 2: challenge for the liberals because that system is in place
27:31
Speaker 2: to help labor continually win elections under this model. Where
27:35
Speaker 2: can people get this book if they want to read it.
27:37
Speaker 1: It's available at all good bookstores and it was published
27:39
Speaker 1: by Conocourt Publishing, so available at their website and on
27:42
Speaker 1: Amazon and online bookstores.
27:44
Speaker 2: Well, I'm delighted to be launching it tomorrow, but I
27:47
Speaker 2: encourage Victorians read it and never forget.
27:50
Speaker 12: Absolutely.
27:51
Speaker 2: Thank you Morgan got onto the IPA too. Let's return
27:54
Speaker 2: out to the defense restructure announced yesterday by the Minister.
27:57
Speaker 2: Richard Males joined me now for his take. Former Army
27:59
Speaker 2: direct to General Retired Brigadier Ian Langford, and thank you
28:03
Speaker 2: for your time. I kicked off the show with my
28:06
Speaker 2: thoughts about this, but the announcement yesterday no supporting documents,
28:11
Speaker 2: just a one and a half page press release. I
28:14
Speaker 2: work for Robert Hill in two thousand and five when
28:16
Speaker 2: we created the DMO, we bought it all in together
28:19
Speaker 2: for procurement didn't work, we dismantled it at all. It
28:22
Speaker 2: feels like we're going back to the future because we're
28:24
Speaker 2: doing it all over again.
28:26
Speaker 13: Yeah, thanks Peter, great to be here and good evening
28:28
Speaker 13: to you. View is it does feel that with one
28:30
Speaker 13: and a half pages as a press release, that there
28:33
Speaker 13: is a need for greater detail. We've seen the Department
28:36
Speaker 13: and the Deputy Prime Minister acknowledge it. There is a
28:39
Speaker 13: problem with defense procurement. But we've seen part of the solution,
28:43
Speaker 13: if you like, in the limited information release yesterday that
28:46
Speaker 13: it seems to be a return of the days of
28:49
Speaker 13: the Defense Material Organization, which, as you said, was disbanded
28:52
Speaker 13: in twenty fifteen under the First Principles Review. What's really
28:57
Speaker 13: important here is to acknowledge that we have a problem.
29:00
Speaker 13: The challenge will be now in seeing the detail in
29:03
Speaker 13: understanding critically how we leverage our acquisition system to be
29:07
Speaker 13: agile enough to meet the challenges of our time. We
29:09
Speaker 13: all acknowledge that we have reduced or zero warning time
29:12
Speaker 13: now for conflict. We understand the urgency around defense capability,
29:17
Speaker 13: and what is important and critical at this time is
29:20
Speaker 13: that we move away from a process that's focused on
29:23
Speaker 13: bureaucracy and committee based decision making to something that enables
29:28
Speaker 13: service chiefs, soldiers, salors and aviators to have a voice
29:32
Speaker 13: that puts urgency into buying the platforms and systems they
29:35
Speaker 13: need to win wars. On behalf of this nation.
29:39
Speaker 2: Couldn't agree more, and I said as much that we've
29:42
Speaker 2: got to put I guess the people who use the
29:44
Speaker 2: KIT at the front line of the decision making, not
29:47
Speaker 2: just at the frontline of using it. I also think
29:49
Speaker 2: a problem. I will just say something to on the jobs.
29:52
Speaker 2: All these bureaucrats that have contributed to the broken system
29:55
Speaker 2: have all been guaranteed their jobs. Again, well, I think
29:58
Speaker 2: that's crackers, you know, figuratively put them against the wall
30:01
Speaker 2: and shoot half of them and start again. I mean,
30:03
Speaker 2: bring in some external private sector experience if we need
30:07
Speaker 2: to deliver the same sort of private sector outcomes that
30:09
Speaker 2: we just can't seem to deliver in the public sector.
30:12
Speaker 2: But why in Australia do we insist on getting something
30:16
Speaker 2: that's working very well in the United Kingdom or in
30:19
Speaker 2: the United States saying well, we need that kit here
30:21
Speaker 2: at Australia and then we'll just play with it, make
30:24
Speaker 2: it better, and it'll cost us double the money and
30:27
Speaker 2: double the time. Why don't for half of this stuff
30:30
Speaker 2: Ian we buy it off the shelf and get it
30:34
Speaker 2: into the field as soon as possible.
30:37
Speaker 12: It's a really good point, Peter, you make.
30:39
Speaker 13: And again I'd just point to the examples in this
30:41
Speaker 13: country around the acquisition about ten years ago of the
30:44
Speaker 13: C seventeen heavy lift aircraft, which was necessary to get
30:47
Speaker 13: us urgently in and out of the Middle East. Army
30:51
Speaker 13: has procured Chinook, black Hawk and Apache helicopters through a
30:55
Speaker 13: foreign military sale program, which again comes literally out of
30:59
Speaker 13: the box at cost and on time. And Navy bought
31:02
Speaker 13: the Bay class A ship the HMAS Chills to meet
31:05
Speaker 13: a capability need urgently in twenty eleven, which again was
31:08
Speaker 13: another direct commercial sale from the UK. So those three
31:11
Speaker 13: examples are where an operational need has been met through
31:14
Speaker 13: either a foreign military sale or a direct commercial sale.
31:18
Speaker 13: Is an example of what right looks like going forward.
31:21
Speaker 13: And I think you know the Defense Department tries to
31:24
Speaker 13: do its best on behalf of the taxpayer, but the
31:26
Speaker 13: inertia and the bureaucracy and the process that leads to
31:31
Speaker 13: an acquisition outcome which is either overpriced, overscheduled, or insufficient
31:36
Speaker 13: a capability is not what we need going forward.
31:40
Speaker 2: And when you and I are talking and Greg Sherdan
31:42
Speaker 2: others experts here are talking about how urgent this need is,
31:46
Speaker 2: that we are ready to go to war if required
31:49
Speaker 2: in a quick paced time, it can't have been clearer
31:53
Speaker 2: than comments made from the head of our intelligence agency.
31:57
Speaker 2: Is the outgoing chief Andrew Sharer, who was in Senative
32:00
Speaker 2: estimate and this is his last periods, of course, but
32:03
Speaker 2: he made a not too thinly veiled swipe at Beijing
32:07
Speaker 2: and their activities in our region. Of course, We've got
32:10
Speaker 2: surveillance ships to our north as we speak tonight. Have
32:13
Speaker 2: a listened to Andrew Scherer's comments.
32:16
Speaker 10: Crises are overlapping and intersecting, bringing threats on shore faster,
32:23
Speaker 10: sometimes in real time. Morning times are shorter, meaning we
32:28
Speaker 10: have to act now if we are to be prepared
32:31
Speaker 10: for what may be coming. And some of the assumptions
32:35
Speaker 10: that underpinned international stability for decades can no longer be
32:39
Speaker 10: taken for granted.
32:42
Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm a student of history, so I
32:44
Speaker 2: feel like we're a Chamberlain government when we should be
32:47
Speaker 2: at cher Chilean one.
32:50
Speaker 13: That's right, And I mean your viewers may not be aware,
32:53
Speaker 13: but we've had confirmed through intelligence sources that we have
32:56
Speaker 13: a Type seventy five amphib assault ship. We've got a
32:59
Speaker 13: Type fifty to destroy, a Type fifty four frigate, and
33:02
Speaker 13: a Type nine Zho three replenishment ship, which is the
33:05
Speaker 13: Chinese Naval task Force, which has been detected in the
33:08
Speaker 13: South Philippines Sea, heading possibly to our location, like the
33:13
Speaker 13: earlier taskrip did in February this year. But the DG's
33:15
Speaker 13: comments are absolutely right. What's really interesting is effectively the
33:20
Speaker 13: CCP and the PLA have signaled everything they're doing, so
33:25
Speaker 13: you know, their ambition around modernizing their nuclear deterrence, their
33:29
Speaker 13: ambition around reclaiming and controlling the South China Sea as
33:33
Speaker 13: sovereign waters to gain the disagreement of the international community,
33:37
Speaker 13: and the presence of what the DG of ASIO talks
33:41
Speaker 13: about foreign espionage activities that include up to sabotage on
33:46
Speaker 13: complex critical systems and key infrastructure all evidence of what's
33:51
Speaker 13: happening around us. And part of the challenge here is
33:53
Speaker 13: to have an honest and frank assessment about how we
33:56
Speaker 13: manage our economic and our security relationship with in an
34:01
Speaker 13: age where they're in competition with the US to be
34:03
Speaker 13: the single significant power in eastern North Asia and this
34:07
Speaker 13: will define very much Australia's future over the next fifteen
34:10
Speaker 13: to twenty years. So listening to Andrew Sharer making sober
34:14
Speaker 13: and frank assessments in terms of what are our interests
34:17
Speaker 13: and how we secure them in the context of a
34:19
Speaker 13: changing world is the number one role of the government.
34:22
Speaker 13: I think right now.
34:25
Speaker 2: You can't keep banging the drum here enough In honestly,
34:29
Speaker 2: we need voices like yours and the media as often
34:31
Speaker 2: as possible, because I think we're absolutely in a position
34:35
Speaker 2: if we do not wake up the Australia we know
34:39
Speaker 2: will be gone in quick time. Because she has already said,
34:42
Speaker 2: as you know, it's a lifetime thing for him, this
34:44
Speaker 2: is not on the long finger and the blokes in
34:47
Speaker 2: his seventies. He hasn't got a lot of time left
34:49
Speaker 2: and this is now becoming urgent. Thanks for joining me tonight.
34:54
Speaker 2: This is the time, isn't it to make yourself so
34:56
Speaker 2: energy vulnerable that they could just walk in here because
34:58
Speaker 2: you won't even have the lights on all. Right, after
35:01
Speaker 2: the break, we're going to look at this Senate exchange
35:04
Speaker 2: with Penny Wong all about the ins and outs of
35:07
Speaker 2: the Britney Higgins saga. We'll get to that in a month.
35:13
Speaker 2: Welcome back now to Canberra, the House of Reps. Peter,
35:16
Speaker 2: you're telling me it's finished for the year. Sure it is,
35:19
Speaker 2: the Senators and not they've been cramming in a final
35:22
Speaker 2: week of Estimate, where Penny Wong has repeatedly refused to
35:26
Speaker 2: admit her accusations of a liberal cover up in the
35:29
Speaker 2: whole Brittney Higgins saga were baseless.
35:34
Speaker 3: So, given the findings of the two superior Australian courts,
35:39
Speaker 3: will you now acknowledge that accusations by you and your
35:43
Speaker 3: government of a coverer were in fact unfounded.
35:48
Speaker 4: Well, I've already given that answer. I've said the independence
35:53
Speaker 4: of the jiujitiaries and the central element of the Westminster
35:56
Speaker 4: system so to his accountability to the Parliament and the
35:59
Speaker 4: role of the opposition.
36:01
Speaker 3: But that is not what I'm asking about. And I
36:04
Speaker 3: draw to your attention your comments on several occasions where
36:10
Speaker 3: you made the accusation of a cover up, and so
36:14
Speaker 3: I'm just asking, on the basis of the findings of
36:17
Speaker 3: these two courts, are you prepared to admit that those
36:21
Speaker 3: accusations made by you on many occasions were unfounded.
36:25
Speaker 4: I'd refer you to my previous answers.
36:27
Speaker 2: Senator that will Senator Sarah Hannison joins me now from Canberra.
36:33
Speaker 2: Senator welcome. Lamour still needs in addition to that acknowledgment,
36:39
Speaker 2: I have perceive an apology please to Linda Reynolds. They
36:42
Speaker 2: also need to explain why taxpayers are footing the bill
36:46
Speaker 2: for these top tier silks to fight Reynolds and a
36:50
Speaker 2: former chief of STAF Fiona Brown, who have been vindicated
36:54
Speaker 2: now by the courts, but of fighting them on a
36:57
Speaker 2: compensation claims when they never ever Eva resisted that multi
37:02
Speaker 2: million dollar claim for Brittany Higgins.
37:07
Speaker 14: Well, this is a disgraceful scandal, Peter, and it is
37:12
Speaker 14: very very disappointing that Minister Wong could not have the
37:15
Speaker 14: decency to apologize and to acknowledge the grave error that
37:21
Speaker 14: she made in falsely accusing Linda Reynolds and Fiona Brown
37:25
Speaker 14: of covering up a sexual assault in Parliament House. She
37:29
Speaker 14: needs to apologize the Minister for Women, who I don't
37:32
Speaker 14: think is fit to be the Minister for Women. She
37:34
Speaker 14: also needs to apologize. The Prime Minister needs to apologize,
37:38
Speaker 14: and the claims that Linda and Fiona have now against
37:42
Speaker 14: the Commonwealth.
37:43
Speaker 2: Need to be resolved very quickly.
37:45
Speaker 14: It is very clear that the damage and the harm
37:49
Speaker 14: that has been levied on both Fiona and Linda continues,
37:53
Speaker 14: and Senator Wong is now compounding that error by her
37:57
Speaker 14: evidence in Senate estimates.
38:01
Speaker 2: Let's go to a startley exchange from you this afternoon.
38:04
Speaker 2: Revelations that in October this is last year. The regulator
38:08
Speaker 2: knew that Samsung devices would not be able to connect
38:12
Speaker 2: to the Triple zero network after the THREEG network was
38:16
Speaker 2: shut down. They knew that, and yet they took absolutely
38:20
Speaker 2: no action to alert the public. The result was the
38:24
Speaker 2: death of a man in Western Sydney. Have a listen
38:28
Speaker 2: to this.
38:29
Speaker 14: My question was why wasn't more done to alert the
38:32
Speaker 14: community back more than a year ago?
38:35
Speaker 15: So this issue, I think, Senator, the process was really
38:41
Speaker 15: around the networks knowing which devices wouldn't work.
38:46
Speaker 14: There was no community alerts or information.
38:50
Speaker 15: The Senator that responsibility was given to the telcost.
38:55
Speaker 14: The minister didn't issue any alerts or the government didn't
38:58
Speaker 14: make any statements at the time.
39:01
Speaker 2: I'll pass my colleague. We're talking about five hundred thousand,
39:07
Speaker 2: so half a million potentially defective Samsung devices here. Now,
39:13
Speaker 2: this government can't scratch itself without putting up a public
39:16
Speaker 2: information ad campaign. If it's about promoting the Labor brand,
39:20
Speaker 2: why on earth couldn't they have done something, even a
39:23
Speaker 2: press release or a press conference with the Prime Minister
39:25
Speaker 2: something that said if you have a Samsung device, we're
39:28
Speaker 2: about to turn off three G you need to be
39:31
Speaker 2: alert to the fact your Triple zero might not work.
39:35
Speaker 2: Now what staggers me, Sarah is sadly it was only
39:38
Speaker 2: one life loss, but it was just one. It could
39:42
Speaker 2: have been a whole lot worse.
39:46
Speaker 14: Well, the details, Peter, are very murky because of course
39:49
Speaker 14: there was the three G shut down last year which
39:52
Speaker 14: affected a whole range of devices. But then in October
39:56
Speaker 14: this year the government was alerted and the regular that
40:01
Speaker 14: thousands upon thousands of Australians had Samsung devices and some
40:06
Speaker 14: old iPhone devices as well, which would not work on
40:11
Speaker 14: the Triple zero service, so they could not call for
40:14
Speaker 14: emergency help. So my questions today was, given what you
40:18
Speaker 14: knew that so many Australians, and yes it's more than
40:21
Speaker 14: five hundred thousand potentially affected right across this country, Given
40:27
Speaker 14: what the government knew, given what the regulation knew, Peter,
40:31
Speaker 14: why wasn't there a public information campaign, why wasn't the.
40:35
Speaker 2: Red flag raised?
40:36
Speaker 14: I mean, yes, we understand there are all these technical
40:39
Speaker 14: complex complexities with old devices. They couldn't have software upgrades,
40:44
Speaker 14: some don't work at all, but ringing from emergency help
40:47
Speaker 14: is the fundamental right of every Australian and the fact
40:51
Speaker 14: that the Minister sat on her hands I'm so angry.
40:53
Speaker 2: About it, Peter.
40:54
Speaker 14: The regulator sat on its hands saying this was a
40:58
Speaker 14: matter for the telecommunications companies.
41:00
Speaker 2: Is not good enough, and.
41:01
Speaker 14: To be fair to the telcos, they even pleaded with
41:05
Speaker 14: the ahrible c for a recall of devices to get
41:08
Speaker 14: those devices out of the hands of Australians to protect them.
41:12
Speaker 14: So something has gone terribly wrong. Of course, we've had
41:15
Speaker 14: three people who've died as a result of the Optus outage.
41:19
Speaker 14: Now another person has died as a result of having
41:22
Speaker 14: a defective Samsung device. Heads have got a role on this, Peter.
41:27
Speaker 14: The labor of action from this government is disgraceful and
41:32
Speaker 14: we are going to keep on going. We've got another
41:34
Speaker 14: hearing in Canberra next week, the OPTS Triple zero hearing,
41:37
Speaker 14: the special inquiry that is underway, and we are going
41:41
Speaker 14: to be demanding many more answers next week as well.
41:45
Speaker 2: Keep it going. We'll stow across that next week. Sore it.
41:47
Speaker 2: We'll speak to you then, thank you. Let's take it
41:49
Speaker 2: a quick breakout of the breaker one A point six
41:52
Speaker 2: million dollars for a room, just a room for the
41:55
Speaker 2: Greens in Parliament House. We'll get to get after the
41:57
Speaker 2: break well, lots I want to get into. Let's bring
42:03
Speaker 2: the panel in now our nation. Chief of Staff James Ashby,
42:06
Speaker 2: former LIVEL MP Nicole Flint. Let's go if I can
42:09
Speaker 2: to you, James Ashby. First, asbestos in wind farms. We've
42:12
Speaker 2: now got three. This one is the one just recently
42:15
Speaker 2: opened in central Queensland by Twiggy Foresis's Clark Creek wind Farm.
42:21
Speaker 2: Asbestos there too in the turbines Chinese manufacture. Jesus surprised me.
42:27
Speaker 2: Surely now we must stop this roll out.
42:32
Speaker 9: You know that won't happen, But if it was a
42:34
Speaker 9: mind sight or an aviation, it would.
42:37
Speaker 12: This is the difference.
42:38
Speaker 9: The green dream gets let off with a light slap
42:41
Speaker 9: on the wrist.
42:42
Speaker 12: In fact, nothing will occur here.
42:43
Speaker 9: We should be saying at the very port in which
42:46
Speaker 9: these wind turbines come in, enough's enough. We will not
42:49
Speaker 9: accept the certificate from China that says they're asbestos free.
42:53
Speaker 9: They're going to be stopped and we need to do
42:54
Speaker 9: complete inspections on them. But you know very well as
42:57
Speaker 9: well as I do, Labor will not do anything. And
43:00
Speaker 9: unfortunately I don't believe what Squadron are saying here that
43:03
Speaker 9: everyone's safe. I'm sorry, one fiber is all it takes
43:07
Speaker 9: to kill somebody with aspestos related diseases, and unfortunately here
43:11
Speaker 9: in Australia we lose the lives of four thousand Aussies
43:14
Speaker 9: every year because of that disease.
43:17
Speaker 2: Well, Nicole and I are at the same age we
43:19
Speaker 2: went through law school. We remember James Hardy and all
43:21
Speaker 2: the cover ups that went on there for such a
43:23
Speaker 2: long time until eventually there was justice. So this has
43:26
Speaker 2: the same I think long tail of ramification. Let's go
43:30
Speaker 2: to the NDIS Nick. Today we learn that people are
43:32
Speaker 2: putting in invoices written on the back of a serviette.
43:35
Speaker 2: I mean, it's like Stephen Conroy and the NBN on
43:37
Speaker 2: the back of that coaster that time with Kevin Rudd.
43:40
Speaker 2: We've got two hundred and twenty thousand children on the
43:44
Speaker 2: NDIS for autism. Now, either we've got this dramatic increase
43:48
Speaker 2: in autism in this country, or it's been radically underreported
43:51
Speaker 2: for a long time, or we've got a wrought. Could
43:54
Speaker 2: be a combination of all three. But we've also got
43:58
Speaker 2: the breakdown of costs in the NewsCorp Some local council
44:01
Speaker 2: areas poor, our tax phase are pumping a billion dollars
44:05
Speaker 2: of NDIS funding into these communities. I mean, this is
44:10
Speaker 2: a mess.
44:12
Speaker 7: It is a total mess, Peter. And what really worries
44:15
Speaker 7: me is that the people who suffer most the people
44:19
Speaker 7: with genuine disabilities who desperately need this support. And as
44:24
Speaker 7: an advanced, wealthy Western democracy, we have one job, which
44:27
Speaker 7: is to care for our most vulnerable in society and
44:30
Speaker 7: to help their families care for them. Now that said,
44:34
Speaker 7: when we know through various case examples that we now
44:38
Speaker 7: have that the system is being brought to by providers
44:42
Speaker 7: or by NDIS companies that have popped up everywhere, it's
44:47
Speaker 7: people who need the help that suffer. So I think
44:50
Speaker 7: there are actually some really easy wins that unfortunately labor
44:54
Speaker 7: seeming capable of achieving, which is why aren't they using
44:58
Speaker 7: AI or real really careful forensic analysis to start picking
45:03
Speaker 7: up on as you've just said, the invoice is submitted
45:06
Speaker 7: on serviettes, because that is clearly utterly inappropriate, and you
45:10
Speaker 7: really wonder what sort of brought to going on. So
45:13
Speaker 7: why don't we bring in some technology to or look
45:17
Speaker 7: at providers who are invoicing above and beyond what a
45:21
Speaker 7: comparable business is invoicing. I think we could clean things
45:24
Speaker 7: up quite quickly.
45:27
Speaker 2: Let's go these revelations out of the Senate estimates. This
45:30
Speaker 2: is about the Greens. They get a tarted up new
45:34
Speaker 2: party room, right, a room, a room. It's got fifteen
45:37
Speaker 2: leather chairs in it's eleven MP's but fine have a
45:39
Speaker 2: few thinking they might expand their their numbers. It's one
45:43
Speaker 2: point six million dollars. James I looked at the average
45:48
Speaker 2: cost of a house in Australia. This is Australia wide, obviously,
45:51
Speaker 2: but it's a million dollars. This is more for one
45:53
Speaker 2: room than it costs to buy an Australian house. House
45:58
Speaker 2: is fair taxpace.
46:01
Speaker 12: No, well let's not. And this is labor. This is
46:03
Speaker 12: always on labour's watch.
46:05
Speaker 9: We just see these incredible expenditures and these cost blowouts.
46:09
Speaker 9: This isn't even a cost blowout. This is just unnecessary spending.
46:12
Speaker 9: We've got a party room now ourselves for one nation.
46:14
Speaker 9: It's nothing flash, but you know what you get in there,
46:17
Speaker 9: You do what's required. You don't need expensive leather or
46:20
Speaker 9: probably the Greens case, it's probably pleather, but expensive pleather
46:23
Speaker 9: couches or chairs to sit on. You just need a
46:27
Speaker 9: spot to go and do the work, get in, get out.
46:30
Speaker 9: This is outrageous and no wonder the Australian public have
46:33
Speaker 9: had a gutful of the Greens who are going backwards.
46:35
Speaker 9: What are they now on nine to ten percent in
46:37
Speaker 9: this country? They're going backwards labors. I can't believe they're
46:41
Speaker 9: still trending the way they are, given the blowouts and
46:44
Speaker 9: one nation's going up because we're the only ones talking
46:46
Speaker 9: common sense when it comes to raining in the spending
46:49
Speaker 9: and being fiscally responsible with taxplayers money.
46:53
Speaker 2: Let's go to mental health days, Nicole. Young Australians are
46:57
Speaker 2: missing a title of twenty six million days a year
47:01
Speaker 2: for mental health reasons. This is analysis by Macquarie University
47:05
Speaker 2: Victorian workers, women and those age between eighteen and twenty nine. Again,
47:11
Speaker 2: I'm not surprised by the age bracket are found to
47:14
Speaker 2: be the most stressed. Well, lack of discipline, lack of resilience,
47:18
Speaker 2: you know, the woke society. We've raised these kids in
47:22
Speaker 2: no wonder our productivities in the.
47:24
Speaker 7: Toilet absolutely, Peter and I feel really sorry for this
47:29
Speaker 7: generation because they've been failed by the education system in
47:33
Speaker 7: particular that taught them that every child wins a prize
47:37
Speaker 7: and you know, it doesn't matter when you come first
47:39
Speaker 7: or last, or whether you work hard or not, just
47:41
Speaker 7: turning up so okay, it's not okay.
47:43
Speaker 2: And as you've just said.
47:45
Speaker 7: No wonder we have a national productivity crisis when we
47:49
Speaker 7: have a generation who haven't been raised to understand what
47:54
Speaker 7: it is to work hard and get ahead. I noticed,
47:57
Speaker 7: Peter also some of these statistics were showing that people
48:00
Speaker 7: in admin and retail are the ones who are most unhappy,
48:03
Speaker 7: whereas the mining industry, for example, has some of the
48:06
Speaker 7: lowest mental health days and sick days. I just think
48:10
Speaker 7: this is where we are as a society. We don't
48:12
Speaker 7: have enough people who are out there building things, making things,
48:15
Speaker 7: knowing that they are contributing properly to the economic bottom line.
48:20
Speaker 7: And perhaps when we saw people in more productive employment,
48:24
Speaker 7: they might have more pride in themselves and their work,
48:26
Speaker 7: and maybe that would help.
48:27
Speaker 2: To just quickly on your support, James. We know it's
48:32
Speaker 2: rocketing up. You're at eighteen percent in the latest poll.
48:34
Speaker 2: But when we look at gen X blokes, I'm gen X,
48:38
Speaker 2: but we're talking about the blokes here one in four
48:41
Speaker 2: are coming your way. What's doing that?
48:46
Speaker 9: I think they don't have faith in the two major
48:48
Speaker 9: parties in particular. But Peter, I'll say this, Victoria is
48:51
Speaker 9: now our strongest state for membership, very closely followed by
48:54
Speaker 9: Queensland and New South Wales.
48:55
Speaker 12: But there's some real shift going on in this country.
48:58
Speaker 9: We've now tripled our men membership since the May election
49:02
Speaker 9: and we don't know where it's going to end. All
49:04
Speaker 9: I hope is it ends with more seats and one
49:07
Speaker 9: nation either in government or in a very strong balance
49:10
Speaker 9: of power position come this next election.
49:13
Speaker 2: All Right, we will watch this closely, but I'm not
49:15
Speaker 2: surprised about Victoria. I'll tell you what. Thank you both.
49:18
Speaker 2: That's it for me. See tomorrow night. Here's Andrew