Transcript

Credlin | 30 May · Credlin

0:01
Speaker 1: Peter Kreenland live on Sky News Australia.
0:07
Speaker 2: Good evening and welcome to the show. I'm Caleb Bond
0:09
Speaker 2: in for Peter Kredlin. Here's what's coming up on the
0:12
Speaker 2: program tonight. One of the architects of Australia's defense policy,
0:16
Speaker 2: Paul Dibb, has come out swinging at the rhetoric we've
0:18
Speaker 2: seen from the Labour government, but of course a lack
0:21
Speaker 2: of follow through when it comes to our defense force.
0:23
Speaker 2: Paul will join me a little bit later in the show.
0:26
Speaker 2: More bad news for business, with mounting concerns that Tanya
0:29
Speaker 2: Plipper six new Environmental Protection agency which has caused more
0:33
Speaker 2: onerous green tape at a time when businesses have their
0:37
Speaker 2: backs to the wall and power prices continue to climb,
0:40
Speaker 2: this is the last thing we need. Plus how much
0:43
Speaker 2: can we link the government's obsession with the tobacco excise
0:47
Speaker 2: to the spate of organized crime we're seeing associated with
0:50
Speaker 2: the product. I'll speak with an expert laker in the show.
0:54
Speaker 2: And it's the end of the sitting week and one
0:56
Speaker 2: thing's for sure. I bet the embattled Immigration Minister Andrew
0:59
Speaker 2: Jarles is glad it's over.
1:02
Speaker 3: Can My question is the Minister for Immigration.
1:05
Speaker 4: Question is to the Immigration Minister in a Home Affairs
1:08
Speaker 4: brief to the Immigration Minister, did the Prime Minister commit
1:12
Speaker 4: to change the ministry or direction regarding the removal of
1:15
Speaker 4: New Zealand citizens.
1:18
Speaker 2: Speaking of which the time for him to go has
1:20
Speaker 2: well and truly passed. We learned today have even more
1:24
Speaker 2: foreign criminals who've been allowed to stay in the country
1:27
Speaker 2: due to Direction ninety nine. And look the litany of
1:30
Speaker 2: crimes you will find truly shocking. But I think it's
1:33
Speaker 2: important that you understand just who has been allowed to
1:37
Speaker 2: stay under Minister Jiles. Watch this time it's two more
1:40
Speaker 2: child sex offenders and a man who bashed his pregnant
1:44
Speaker 2: girlfriend in the hopes he'd kill her unborn child. Oakley Arthur.
1:49
Speaker 2: He was twenty when he came from the United States
1:51
Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety one and was convicted two years ago
1:55
Speaker 2: of having sex with a child and interfering with another.
1:59
Speaker 2: He started having said X with a girl who was
2:01
Speaker 2: fourteen or fifteen shortly after arriving in Australia, according to
2:05
Speaker 2: the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, and then when he was twenty seven,
2:09
Speaker 2: he sexually interfered with her younger sister. He was allowed
2:13
Speaker 2: to stay because most of his family were here. Hayden
2:16
Speaker 2: John Smith from New Zealand managed to shop in country
2:20
Speaker 2: New South Wales with his girlfriend and sexually abused a
2:23
Speaker 2: fifteen year old girl who worked there part time. He
2:27
Speaker 2: was allowed to stay because he just had a daughter
2:29
Speaker 2: in Australia. I mean, how sick to think that a
2:33
Speaker 2: man who had sex with an underage girl had his
2:36
Speaker 2: deportation overturned so he could remain in the life of
2:41
Speaker 2: a young girl. She was robbed of the chance to
2:44
Speaker 2: grow up without the presence of her sex offender father.
2:48
Speaker 2: His girlfriend also has three other children. Jeffrey's Shottou from
2:53
Speaker 2: the Solomon Islands. He attempted to strangle his pregnant girlfriend,
2:57
Speaker 2: repeatedly punched her in the stomach trying to kill the child,
3:00
Speaker 2: threw her to the ground and bashed her head against
3:03
Speaker 2: the floor, and then locked her in a room for
3:05
Speaker 2: the day for being quote unquote disrespectful. His mental health
3:10
Speaker 2: and the ill health of his mother's sister and daughter,
3:13
Speaker 2: the one he tried to kill meant he was allowed
3:16
Speaker 2: to stay. The Australian has now uncovered more than eighty
3:20
Speaker 2: serious offenders who had their deportations overturned thanks to Direction
3:25
Speaker 2: ninety nine. At first it was a joke. Then it
3:28
Speaker 2: was a sick joke. Now it is beyond a joke.
3:33
Speaker 2: Just like the hopeless handling of the High Court ruling
3:36
Speaker 2: that then, of course, led to the release of hundreds
3:38
Speaker 2: of immigration detainees, the government has been ten steps behind
3:43
Speaker 2: and unable to pick up the pace. Giles is a bumbling,
3:47
Speaker 2: supine fool, but he's not the only man to blame.
3:51
Speaker 2: He's still the Immigration Minister for a reason. He has
3:54
Speaker 2: the support of the Prime Minister, at least for the
3:57
Speaker 2: time being. Ministers are empowered to make decisions, but they
4:01
Speaker 2: rarely are made in a vacuum, particularly when they relate
4:05
Speaker 2: to something as important as serious criminals being given the
4:08
Speaker 2: benefit of the doubt against deportation. Asked today, though, who
4:13
Speaker 2: was to blame for Direction ninety nine, mister Giles took
4:17
Speaker 2: the fall.
4:18
Speaker 5: Was Direction ninety nine an initiative of the Minister thanks Beaker?
4:22
Speaker 6: Yes?
4:25
Speaker 2: Anthony Albanezi meanwhile, couldn't give a straight answer as to
4:29
Speaker 2: how involved New Zealand was in the decision to implement
4:32
Speaker 2: Direction ninety nine.
4:35
Speaker 7: Did the Prime Minister implement Direction ninety nine? At the
4:38
Speaker 7: request of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacintada.
4:41
Speaker 5: I thank the Deputy Leader for his question. What we
4:43
Speaker 5: do her question. What we do is we determine our
4:48
Speaker 5: own policy, our own policy according with our own interests,
4:53
Speaker 5: and that is what that is what we have done.
4:57
Speaker 5: And indeed, the request publicly from New Zealand was to
5:03
Speaker 5: remove section five oh one.
5:06
Speaker 2: We did not do that.
5:07
Speaker 3: We did not do that.
5:08
Speaker 5: We've created a pathway for better citizenship for New Zealand
5:14
Speaker 5: people who've visits to have that pathway to citizenship. And
5:19
Speaker 5: I'm pleased that. Indeed, twenty thousand plus keywords now call
5:25
Speaker 5: themselves Australian citizens as well.
5:28
Speaker 8: That's a good thing.
5:30
Speaker 5: That's a good thing, so they can fully participate in society.
5:35
Speaker 2: Section five oh one that he talks about there is
5:38
Speaker 2: section five oh one of the Migration Act, which allows
5:41
Speaker 2: visas to be refused or canceled on character grounds, as
5:45
Speaker 2: is often used for foreigners who commit crimes in Australia. Now,
5:49
Speaker 2: of course that was never going to be removed. No
5:52
Speaker 2: Prime Minister, no migration minister, would ever take away the
5:56
Speaker 2: ability to pick and choose who is allowed in the
5:59
Speaker 2: country on the basis of character. But Jacinda r Dern
6:03
Speaker 2: and the New Zealand government had very clearly requested that
6:07
Speaker 2: Australia stop sending back New Zealand nationals who had lived
6:11
Speaker 2: most of their lives here. Direction ninety nine achieved that
6:16
Speaker 2: without deleting Section five oh one. So sure he didn't
6:20
Speaker 2: do exactly what Ardun asked for, but he found another
6:24
Speaker 2: way to achieve what she really wanted. As Christopher Pine
6:28
Speaker 2: once famously said on this channel, I've fixed it. They
6:32
Speaker 2: haven't fixed anything here though they've broken it. And listened
6:35
Speaker 2: to Giles talking exclusively to Kieran Gilbert today, filling us
6:40
Speaker 2: with the confidence that has now become his trademark, how.
6:44
Speaker 1: Did you feel when you were told of that New
6:46
Speaker 1: Zealand citizen who raped his fourteen year old step daughter
6:51
Speaker 1: having his deportation overturned? As minister? How did you feel
6:56
Speaker 1: when you were notified of.
6:57
Speaker 9: That as minister and as a him being Obviously that's shocking,
7:02
Speaker 9: absolutely shocking, and it goes to the real challenge here
7:05
Speaker 9: which I'm up for, which is making sure that we
7:08
Speaker 9: are right on top of this, that I'm working day
7:11
Speaker 9: and night to deal with these.
7:12
Speaker 2: Issues, making sure he's on top of it. He shouldn't
7:17
Speaker 2: have to make sure he's on top of it. He
7:19
Speaker 2: should be on top of it. It should be automatic.
7:23
Speaker 2: He and the Prime Minister brought Direction ninety nine into being.
7:27
Speaker 2: Now they were either too stupid to see what would
7:30
Speaker 2: happen or too reckless to care about the consequences. But
7:34
Speaker 2: the reality is bad things have happened. And now the
7:38
Speaker 2: minister who has effectively allowed child rapists to stay in
7:41
Speaker 2: this country when they could have been deported, since he's
7:44
Speaker 2: going to make sure he's on top of it. And
7:47
Speaker 2: as for working day and night, he must be taking
7:50
Speaker 2: a hell of a lot of tea and smokeo breaks
7:52
Speaker 2: because the response has come at a slumbering pace. Not
7:56
Speaker 2: that there was an excuse at any point, but there's
7:59
Speaker 2: certainly no excuse of any kind. Now. This has been
8:03
Speaker 2: a disastrous week for the government. Again and again the
8:07
Speaker 2: Albanesi government has shown itself to be unable to step
8:11
Speaker 2: up in a crisis. It's chronically underprepared, bereft of solutions
8:16
Speaker 2: and constantly trying to shift the blame. Never forget when
8:20
Speaker 2: it came to the High Court decision and those immigration
8:23
Speaker 2: detainees that the government was warned months in advance that
8:26
Speaker 2: in Zyq could win his case and open the floodgates,
8:30
Speaker 2: and instead of doing something to be prepared for the
8:32
Speaker 2: eventuality draft some laws to keep these people locked up
8:37
Speaker 2: when the decision comes down, they sat on their hands
8:40
Speaker 2: and feigned ignorance. When the decision did come down. It
8:43
Speaker 2: then took them the better part of a week to
8:45
Speaker 2: come up with legislation to control the released detainees. And
8:49
Speaker 2: they only had teeth due to the amendments from the opposition,
8:52
Speaker 2: which the government opposed the morning of the vote and
8:55
Speaker 2: then supported by two pm. By the way, Anthony Albanesi
8:59
Speaker 2: was out of the country on that day. It was
9:02
Speaker 2: Richard Marles calling the shots. Then it took weeks to
9:06
Speaker 2: come up with harder legislation to put serious criminals with
9:09
Speaker 2: a clear risk to the community, you know, murderers, sexual
9:12
Speaker 2: deviance back in the click. And how many people have
9:16
Speaker 2: been locked back up thanks to those laws. None, not one.
9:21
Speaker 2: And that was a masterclass in cockups from Andrew Giles,
9:25
Speaker 2: Claire O'Neill and of course the Prime Minister Anthony Alberanisi.
9:28
Speaker 2: And here we have the same crew doing the same
9:32
Speaker 2: things all over again, just as they blamed Peter Dutton.
9:36
Speaker 2: Then they try to deflect heat onto the opposition. Now,
9:39
Speaker 2: and if it's not the opposition, it's the Immigration Department.
9:43
Speaker 2: I mean, you're only the minister, but it's the department's fault.
9:46
Speaker 2: And if it's not the department, it's the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
9:50
Speaker 2: And we now know that Giles, sorry, was warned by
9:55
Speaker 2: Home Affairs that issuing Direction ninety nine would affect thousands
9:59
Speaker 2: of CA. He can't plead ignorance or shift blame. The
10:03
Speaker 2: truth is there in black and white. If you look
10:06
Speaker 2: up weakness in the dictionary, you will find a photo
10:10
Speaker 2: of this government. Now, Giles should fall on his sword,
10:13
Speaker 2: and he deserves to do so. But even when that happens,
10:16
Speaker 2: don't believe that the slate has been white clean. The
10:20
Speaker 2: weakness and incompetence of this government flows from the top,
10:24
Speaker 2: and for as long as Albanizi is there, that will
10:27
Speaker 2: not change. They's head to canber Now for tonight's political
10:33
Speaker 2: Headlines with scarn used political reporter Oliviakaysley.
10:38
Speaker 7: Immigration Minister Andrew Giles says the government is using drones
10:42
Speaker 7: to track ex detainees released under last year's High Court decision.
10:46
Speaker 7: He revealed the operational tactic. In an interview with Kieran
10:49
Speaker 7: Gilbert as the government comes under pressure over the handling
10:53
Speaker 7: of non citizens who commit crimes in Australia, he said
10:56
Speaker 7: the government had tipped an additional two hundred and fifty
10:59
Speaker 7: million dollars into monitoring the in z YQ cohort, even
11:03
Speaker 7: if no electronic monitoring was applied to certain individuals.
11:07
Speaker 9: That's enabled things like using drones to keep track of
11:10
Speaker 9: these people we know, but I want to just have
11:12
Speaker 9: them all with electronic monitor because the law doesn't allow it.
11:16
Speaker 7: Sky News understands Anthony Alberesi asked his Immigration minister to
11:20
Speaker 7: get Direction ninety nine over the line amid political pressure
11:23
Speaker 7: from New Zealand over criminal deportations. A source with close
11:27
Speaker 7: knowledge of how the issue was handled within Home Affairs
11:30
Speaker 7: so there was internal pushback within the department over the
11:33
Speaker 7: change and describe the task as one set for Andrew
11:36
Speaker 7: Giles by Anthony Alberesi. The Prime Minister's office denies it
11:40
Speaker 7: was a political directive, but mister Giles had this to say.
11:43
Speaker 1: Essentially, you were doing our current request from him.
11:47
Speaker 9: In doing the job that I do, I'm focused on outcomes,
11:51
Speaker 9: not political arguments. Relentlessly focusing day and night on ensuring
11:56
Speaker 9: that visas which need to be canceled.
11:57
Speaker 7: Are canceled, as New Zealand's for Our Minister called on
12:00
Speaker 7: Australia to not rip up the deals struck in June
12:03
Speaker 7: twenty twenty two, sources told Sky News the Kiwi government
12:07
Speaker 7: repeatedly sought to be engaged over the process of Direction
12:10
Speaker 7: ninety nine's creation, even asking Home Affairs why it was
12:13
Speaker 7: taking so long to get the advice.
12:15
Speaker 10: Changed sycophantic relationship with Jacindra Adurn ahead of the safety
12:19
Speaker 10: of Australias.
12:20
Speaker 5: Angers there in just one question, the anger the abyuse.
12:25
Speaker 7: Eight visas reinstated by an appeals tribunal have been canceled
12:29
Speaker 7: amid a political funeroor over convicted rapists and robbers being
12:32
Speaker 7: allowed to stay in Australia.
12:34
Speaker 2: Prime Minister, did you receive any advice that your Direction
12:37
Speaker 2: ninety nine would result in more criminals having to stay
12:41
Speaker 2: in Australia.
12:41
Speaker 5: Well, that is a question appropriately given to the minister, because.
12:50
Speaker 9: Because it's my.
12:53
Speaker 2: It's not my direction.
12:55
Speaker 7: Beijing has removed more than half a billion dollars worth
12:57
Speaker 7: of tariffs imposed on Ossie beef, five major meatworks previously
13:02
Speaker 7: prohibited from exporting to China can trade once more. The
13:05
Speaker 7: reversal will have an immediate effect, very good.
13:08
Speaker 11: News for a lot of farmers across the country.
13:11
Speaker 7: A number of tariffs totaling twenty billion dollars worth of
13:13
Speaker 7: products have already been lifted for now, Tariffs on two
13:16
Speaker 7: beef exporters and lobster remain.
13:19
Speaker 12: Of course, farmers need more markets to diversify to sell
13:24
Speaker 12: their product in.
13:26
Speaker 7: The progress on trade comes ahead of a visit to
13:28
Speaker 7: Australia by the Chinese Premier Li Chang next month.
13:32
Speaker 2: Well, as you just heard, Agriculture Minister Murray Watt has
13:35
Speaker 2: confirmed today that China has reversed a ban on beef
13:38
Speaker 2: imports from five major Australian meat producers, And of course
13:41
Speaker 2: this comes just weeks before the Chinese premiere is due
13:45
Speaker 2: to visit. Bands remain in placed though for two other
13:47
Speaker 2: Australian meat works. Of course, on Australian lobster imports, Let's
13:51
Speaker 2: bring in scar and News political reporter Cam Redden and
13:54
Speaker 2: Deputy Executive Director of the IPA, Daniel Wilde. Cam. Obviously
13:59
Speaker 2: this is news for these meat producers, What will it
14:03
Speaker 2: actually mean for them in terms of you know numbers
14:05
Speaker 2: of dollars.
14:07
Speaker 8: Yeah, it is a massive breakthrough for these farmers, Kayleb.
14:10
Speaker 8: Keeping in mind they've been locked out of the Chinese
14:12
Speaker 8: market for the best part of four years.
14:13
Speaker 2: Now.
14:14
Speaker 8: All up, it'll be about half a billion dollars worth
14:16
Speaker 8: of product going back into the Chinese market. It might
14:20
Speaker 8: sound like only a handful five exporters, but they're five
14:23
Speaker 8: big ones, many of them in Queensland. As I say,
14:26
Speaker 8: about half a billion dollars of trade with them all up.
14:29
Speaker 8: Three were removed and that is sanctions off of beef
14:32
Speaker 8: exporters earlier this year, five more today, two more still
14:35
Speaker 8: to go and then it's just lobster and that's it.
14:38
Speaker 8: We remember too, you mentioned the timing Kayleb, prior to
14:41
Speaker 8: the Prime Minister's trip to Beijing. That's when we started
14:44
Speaker 8: to get progress on wine and I think Bali as
14:46
Speaker 8: well around then. The timing is hard to overlook here
14:49
Speaker 8: less than a month out when the Premier visits. There's
14:52
Speaker 8: still a great deal of optimism within the government that
14:54
Speaker 8: those remaining sanctions on the two last beef exporters and
14:57
Speaker 8: lobster will be removed, certainly by this year. But the
15:01
Speaker 8: hope is within the coming weeks or months.
15:03
Speaker 2: Well as someone who very much enjoys the fine produce
15:06
Speaker 2: we create in this country. Both be fanned wine. I
15:10
Speaker 2: think everyone in the world deserves to get a piece
15:12
Speaker 2: of it, including the Chinese. Now Sky News revealed today
15:16
Speaker 2: that Immigration Minister Andrew Jarles was asked by the Prime
15:19
Speaker 2: Minister to get Direction ninety nine over the line and
15:21
Speaker 2: New Zealand attempted to have direct involvement in that drafting process. Now,
15:26
Speaker 2: I think we was sort of know by this point
15:28
Speaker 2: it was an attempt to appease former New Zealand Prime
15:31
Speaker 2: Minister Jacinda R. Dun She had talked quite publicly about
15:36
Speaker 2: how she had concerns over criminals being sent back to
15:39
Speaker 2: New Zealand even though they had spent a lot of
15:41
Speaker 2: time living in Australia. Now you've got the Deputy Prime
15:45
Speaker 2: Minister over there, Winston Peters, is one of the great
15:48
Speaker 2: political survivors of New Zealand. He wants urgent talks with
15:52
Speaker 2: the government here over these Direction ninety nine reforms that
15:55
Speaker 2: have been flagged. Now he's also the Foreign Minister. He's
15:59
Speaker 2: saying he does want to see Australia deport New Zealand.
16:02
Speaker 2: As you have little connection to the country, back to
16:05
Speaker 2: New Zealand, regardless of the crimes they have committed here.
16:09
Speaker 2: But we know what happened last time, Daniel, we listened
16:12
Speaker 2: to New Zealand. I think it's about time the government
16:15
Speaker 2: said no, we've got to put our own interests first.
16:17
Speaker 2: To you. Thanks.
16:20
Speaker 13: I agree, Caleeb. New Zealand should not be running Australia's
16:24
Speaker 13: migration policy, and plainly that's what's happening as it relates
16:27
Speaker 13: to these detainees. If you are a migrant in this
16:31
Speaker 13: country and you have committed a serious crime, particularly the
16:35
Speaker 13: crimes of the nature that you were outlining in your monologue,
16:38
Speaker 13: then you should be deported back to your country of origin,
16:40
Speaker 13: whether you have a so called meaningful connection or not.
16:44
Speaker 13: To me, this gets to a much bigger issue, Kleeb,
16:47
Speaker 13: which is who is actually in control of Australia's migration program.
16:50
Speaker 13: When we look beyond just the detainee issue, we've got
16:53
Speaker 13: this mass migration program that's been run by this government
16:56
Speaker 13: from the get go. We know it benefits the big
16:59
Speaker 13: corporates because it puts downward pressure on wages. We know
17:02
Speaker 13: it benefits the universities because they get the rivers of
17:04
Speaker 13: gold from the international students. We know it benefits the
17:07
Speaker 13: government because they get more revenue and the headline GDP
17:11
Speaker 13: is bigger, so they look like better economic managers. But
17:14
Speaker 13: the people who suffer are mainstream Australians. That per capita
17:17
Speaker 13: growth is going backwards. We've had four consecutive quarters of
17:20
Speaker 13: negative per capita GDP growth. The last time that happened
17:24
Speaker 13: was in the early nineteen eighties in the middle of
17:26
Speaker 13: a global economic recession. And we've also seen the stresses
17:30
Speaker 13: and strains on our social cohesion. So I think this
17:33
Speaker 13: detainee issue is an exemplar of a much bigger problem
17:36
Speaker 13: we have in our migration system.
17:39
Speaker 2: As I showed before, Andrew Giles sat down with our
17:42
Speaker 2: colleague today here in Gilbert. Here's a little bit again
17:45
Speaker 2: of what he had to say, and it.
17:47
Speaker 9: Goes to the real challenge here which I'm up for,
17:50
Speaker 9: which is making sure that we are right on top
17:52
Speaker 9: of this, that I'm working day and night to deal
17:55
Speaker 9: with those issues. We're working day and night to get
17:59
Speaker 9: on top of this, to ensure that my priority, community
18:02
Speaker 9: safety is the priority that we see across the both.
18:05
Speaker 2: Systems day and night, night and day. I mean it's
18:09
Speaker 2: a government camp that sat on his hand for the
18:12
Speaker 2: better part of six months and now they're working to
18:15
Speaker 2: fix the problem. But you know, they're working day and night,
18:17
Speaker 2: and we're on top of the issue. You are in Canberra,
18:21
Speaker 2: I think to everyone outside of canbra it is extraordinary
18:25
Speaker 2: that there is not a smell that you know, mister
18:27
Speaker 2: Giles is a dead man.
18:29
Speaker 8: Walking, but not for like a trying from the opposition, Kayla.
18:34
Speaker 8: They're working really hard and there is a genuine belief
18:36
Speaker 8: within the opposition that they can take a political scalp
18:39
Speaker 8: here and force Andrew Giles out of his job and
18:42
Speaker 8: claim a political win on that front. It hasn't happened
18:44
Speaker 8: yet though. You can really see in the last twenty
18:47
Speaker 8: four hours though this changing approach from the opposite Andrew Giles,
18:50
Speaker 8: but also from the government more holistically, I think to
18:53
Speaker 8: try now and take this on head on this issue
18:57
Speaker 8: for many months we were asking questions in Canberra. Many
19:00
Speaker 8: media outlets were why we weren't hearing more publicly from
19:03
Speaker 8: Andrew Giles, the Immigration Minister, or from Claire O'Neill, the
19:07
Speaker 8: Home Affairs Minister. All the way back to when the
19:09
Speaker 8: High Court released one hundred and fifty detainees at the end.
19:11
Speaker 2: Of last year.
19:12
Speaker 8: In the last twenty four hours we've heard now three
19:14
Speaker 8: times from the Immigration Minister, including on Sky News with
19:17
Speaker 8: Kieran today, where clearly there's a pivot. They're now trying
19:21
Speaker 8: to take this head on, and I suppose from a
19:22
Speaker 8: personal political standpoint, he's managed to survive the week when
19:26
Speaker 8: perhaps it looked a little shakier on Tuesday, and even
19:29
Speaker 8: in question time today the Prime Minister and the senior ministers,
19:33
Speaker 8: including Andrew Giles, seemed a little more willing to push
19:36
Speaker 8: back against the criticisms from the coalition, trying to turn
19:39
Speaker 8: much of that on its head. So it seems like
19:42
Speaker 8: a change.
19:42
Speaker 6: Of approach Kayla.
19:43
Speaker 8: Whether or not that filters through to polling as the
19:46
Speaker 8: months go on, we'll see. Interesting to note though, that
19:49
Speaker 8: even six and a bit months on from the NZYQ ruling,
19:52
Speaker 8: the government in opposition a more or less at least
19:54
Speaker 8: five years poll in the same spot they were at
19:57
Speaker 8: the last election, So we'll see whether or not this
19:59
Speaker 8: particular she does built a throat.
20:01
Speaker 2: Just quickly, while we're on mister Jarles, it's been revealed
20:04
Speaker 2: that drones. I can't believe his drones are being used
20:07
Speaker 2: to track detainees that were released in that in Zyq cohort.
20:12
Speaker 2: So you know, we learned yesterday that at least two
20:14
Speaker 2: murderers and twenty six sex offenders have had electronic monitoring removed.
20:19
Speaker 2: But at the same time the government is deploying drones
20:23
Speaker 2: of the Daniel. Seriously, what are they going to do next?
20:29
Speaker 6: Well, that's right.
20:30
Speaker 13: I mean I think a lot of Australians look at
20:31
Speaker 13: this and they don't understand why this hasn't been resolved
20:34
Speaker 13: many months ago when the Immigration Minister says he doesn't
20:39
Speaker 13: have the power. It's not the law to be putting
20:41
Speaker 13: ankle blazers, So we'll.
20:42
Speaker 2: Change the law.
20:43
Speaker 13: You've got the power to change the law to have
20:45
Speaker 13: a much more sensible approach. So look, this is an
20:47
Speaker 13: example of a spectator government. They have agency to fix this.
20:51
Speaker 13: They can fix this. If they wanted to fix it tomorrow,
20:54
Speaker 13: they could. You've got Anthony Abernezer who say, well, I
20:57
Speaker 13: didn't make the direction. This is just like him saying
20:59
Speaker 13: well I don't have an opinion on the ICC ruling
21:03
Speaker 13: with regards to Benjaminett and Yahoo. So again, this is
21:07
Speaker 13: a spectator government that is allowing this to happen when
21:10
Speaker 13: they could take action if they wanted to.
21:13
Speaker 2: Now, Laura Tingle, I don't think the trouble's going to
21:15
Speaker 2: go away anytime soon. Peter Dutton today weighed in on,
21:20
Speaker 2: of course, the comments that she made at the Sydney
21:22
Speaker 2: Writers Festival last weekend.
21:24
Speaker 10: Laura Tingle's outed herself now as somebody who is a
21:28
Speaker 10: part of san She's a green slash labor supporter. She
21:32
Speaker 10: is political in nature, and therefore her credibility as a
21:37
Speaker 10: journalist really is shot.
21:40
Speaker 2: It's fairly scathing, and I think there was a time
21:42
Speaker 2: where Tony Haven't actually banned cabinet ministers from going on
21:45
Speaker 2: Q and A. One wonders whether that could perhaps come
21:48
Speaker 2: to the seven point thirty report, And of course you
21:50
Speaker 2: had the editorial director, the news director. Yesterday Justin Stevens
21:57
Speaker 2: put out a statement saying that she'd been can't. Managing
22:01
Speaker 2: director of the ABC, David Anderson has fronted up to
22:04
Speaker 2: Senate estimates today and he's given a defense of Tingle.
22:10
Speaker 11: A mature nation, regardless of political views, should be able
22:13
Speaker 11: to discuss such issues in a respectful and intelligent way.
22:17
Speaker 11: The ABC's role and the work of our journalists like
22:20
Speaker 11: miss Tingle is to help facilitate those debates on our platforms. Finally,
22:25
Speaker 11: Miss Tingle does not deserve the ferocity and frankly vicious
22:28
Speaker 11: attacks that we've seen this week.
22:30
Speaker 2: Oh vicious attacks. Daniel vicious.
22:35
Speaker 13: I don't know how he said that with a straight face.
22:37
Speaker 13: You know, the AABC pretending to care about free speech
22:40
Speaker 13: and debate. Where were they in COVID? Where were they
22:43
Speaker 13: on the climate debate? Where were they on the voice?
22:45
Speaker 13: Now this is just the ABC defending one of their own.
22:49
Speaker 13: Not only that, but Laura Tingle doubled down on her
22:51
Speaker 13: comments today, saying well, we have a problem with racism
22:55
Speaker 13: in this country. Well, I've never heard anyone on the
22:59
Speaker 13: ABC another country that they think is less.
23:02
Speaker 6: Racist than Australia.
23:04
Speaker 13: And what this show's colab, this whole episode shows that
23:08
Speaker 13: what Laura Tingle said is what the vast majority of
23:12
Speaker 13: those that the ABC think.
23:13
Speaker 6: They really do believe we are a bad nation, that
23:15
Speaker 6: we are a racist nation.
23:16
Speaker 13: And that's why they're ratings, particularly the inner city radio
23:19
Speaker 13: programs are in free fall because Australians listen to that
23:23
Speaker 13: and they look at those comments and they say, well,
23:25
Speaker 13: that doesn't reflect my experience in this country. Clearly Laura
23:28
Speaker 13: Tingle needs to be sacked, but the ABC is at
23:31
Speaker 13: left wing staff collective and I wouldn't be holding my
23:33
Speaker 13: breath for that to happen anytime soon.
23:36
Speaker 2: And Anderson was also asked about whether or not she
23:39
Speaker 2: should remain on the ABC board and you sort of
23:41
Speaker 2: fob that question off too, you know. It wasn't unequivocal support,
23:45
Speaker 2: I have to say. But of course the decision about
23:47
Speaker 2: whether or not she's on the board lies with the staff.
23:50
Speaker 2: She's staff elected, and therein lies the problem. Now very quickly,
23:53
Speaker 2: before we move on, Cam, there's just been some news
23:57
Speaker 2: out of Canberra with Labor senator fat Payment. Now, of
24:00
Speaker 2: course she's the one who said from the River to
24:03
Speaker 2: the Sea, what's the update.
24:06
Speaker 8: She also accused Israel of genocide as well, Caleb. I've
24:10
Speaker 8: just managed to confirm before coming on with you this
24:12
Speaker 8: evening that she has now Fatima Payment resigned from two
24:16
Speaker 8: committees on which she was a member inside Parliament, both
24:20
Speaker 8: of them related to Foreign affairs, Defense and Trade, including
24:23
Speaker 8: a quite significant one which is the Joint Standing Committee
24:25
Speaker 8: on such matters. The long and the short of it
24:27
Speaker 8: is she's been under pressure from some time, particularly from
24:30
Speaker 8: the opposition to resign from those positions following she after
24:34
Speaker 8: she made those comments, not in the floor of Parliament
24:37
Speaker 8: but in a prepared statement at Parliament House. So that's
24:40
Speaker 8: just happened in the last half an hour or so.
24:42
Speaker 8: She has stepped back from those committees. I'm told it's
24:44
Speaker 8: a resignation that she did that of her own choice.
24:47
Speaker 8: She has had some backing publicly from the cabinet minister
24:50
Speaker 8: even ed Hughsick for at least speaking out her mind,
24:53
Speaker 8: even if she was chastised for using that particular phrase.
24:57
Speaker 8: We'll see what the reaction is to this tomorrow, Oh,
25:00
Speaker 8: Caleb Worth, noting that this was only made public once
25:03
Speaker 8: most of the office here is knocked off, I should
25:05
Speaker 8: point out though she is still currently incented estimates and
25:07
Speaker 8: a part of those hearings ongoing. So we'll see what
25:10
Speaker 8: the reaction today is tomorrow. But she has now resigned
25:12
Speaker 8: from two committees.
25:13
Speaker 2: I love a good quote unquote resignation. It's never usually
25:17
Speaker 2: their own choice, is it. Daniel cam thank you so
25:19
Speaker 2: much for your time. Now tenure Plipper six plan to
25:22
Speaker 2: create a standalone environment protection agency you complete, of course
25:26
Speaker 2: with approval and enforcement powers. You know, stop work powers
25:30
Speaker 2: all this sort of thing seems to have fallen flat
25:32
Speaker 2: all round. It's failing to find support from business, which
25:36
Speaker 2: is somewhat unsurprising, but conservationists and even the Greens are
25:41
Speaker 2: speaking out against this. The Nature Positive Plan has been
25:44
Speaker 2: dubbed a waste of time by the Climate Council and
25:47
Speaker 2: it's set to fate sif opposition from the key cross
25:50
Speaker 2: benches in the Senate who would be relied on to
25:53
Speaker 2: try and get it across the line. For more on this,
25:55
Speaker 2: I'm joined by The Australians Environment editor Graham. Lloyd Graham, Well,
26:00
Speaker 2: I mean it's failing to find favor pretty much from anyone.
26:04
Speaker 2: Why is tanu Plavacic bothering to go ahead with this.
26:10
Speaker 14: Good inning calib Certainly environmental reform is one of those
26:15
Speaker 14: big issues that is on Labour's agenda and it's trying
26:20
Speaker 14: to decide how to progress it. The opposition that we're
26:24
Speaker 14: hearing to it, particularly from Climate Council and the Greens
26:28
Speaker 14: and others, isn't that there's going to be an independent EPA.
26:33
Speaker 3: That they want much.
26:34
Speaker 14: Tougher regulations and powers for the EPA to administer. This
26:38
Speaker 14: particularly includes a trimate a climate trigger in the EPBC Act,
26:45
Speaker 14: which means that all projects would have to be considered
26:48
Speaker 14: for the impact that they would have on climate change.
26:52
Speaker 14: This is the debate that it is playing out. Tanya
26:56
Speaker 14: Plubusk has been forced to proceed with half of it,
27:00
Speaker 14: whichure certainly is something that the environment movement has been
27:03
Speaker 14: calling for for a long time, but it's not everything
27:06
Speaker 14: they want.
27:07
Speaker 2: But if you're only doing a half baked version of it,
27:09
Speaker 2: why bother doing it in the first place?
27:11
Speaker 6: Right?
27:12
Speaker 2: So you set up a body that will be able to,
27:14
Speaker 2: as I alluded to before, have sort of stop work powers.
27:17
Speaker 2: They can walk onto a site and stop land clearing
27:20
Speaker 2: or work being done because they believe something is a
27:23
Speaker 2: dodgy is going on. So you're beefing them up with
27:26
Speaker 2: a certain number of powers. You'll certainly create more green tape,
27:30
Speaker 2: and then that leads to extra costs and expenses and
27:33
Speaker 2: whatever that drives projects through the roof in terms of
27:37
Speaker 2: the money that has to be spent. But it doesn't
27:40
Speaker 2: have what the environmental activists are actually asking for. So
27:44
Speaker 2: if you can't deliver what they want, what is to
27:47
Speaker 2: be gained in delivering half of it?
27:51
Speaker 14: Well, I think you have to see it as a
27:53
Speaker 14: two card trick. And this is what the companies are
27:57
Speaker 14: most concerned about. That you have this innocuous body put
28:03
Speaker 14: in place and say, don't worry, it's nobody supports it.
28:07
Speaker 3: It's not going to have any powers to do anything.
28:10
Speaker 14: And then subsequently you bring in those powers, and that
28:15
Speaker 14: is the real battleground.
28:16
Speaker 3: What are those powers going to be?
28:19
Speaker 14: And business is concerned that once the EPA is up,
28:22
Speaker 14: which is delivering on a promise that has been made
28:25
Speaker 14: by Labor through its natural National Conference, then the second
28:31
Speaker 14: part comes into play and that's bad news for business.
28:35
Speaker 2: And along those lines, we've learnt that the Environmental Defender's
28:39
Speaker 2: Office has recently been allocated millions more in taxpayers money
28:43
Speaker 2: from this government. And there's still a review looking into
28:46
Speaker 2: their conduct. By the way, when it came to the
28:49
Speaker 2: Voroca gas project that they held in Limbo, amongst many
28:52
Speaker 2: other projects, it's estimated they could receive as much as
28:55
Speaker 2: fifteen million dollars in public funds before the turn of
28:59
Speaker 2: the decade. Now we know what bear track record is.
29:03
Speaker 2: Their modus operandi is to use green law fare to
29:07
Speaker 2: hold up major important projects. It seems like in a
29:12
Speaker 2: similar way to what you're talking about with the EPA
29:15
Speaker 2: there that the government uses the Environment Defender's Office as
29:20
Speaker 2: a body that is not attached to them, but they
29:24
Speaker 2: give the money to them to go out and fight
29:26
Speaker 2: these projects, etc. Because the government is too afraid to
29:31
Speaker 2: actually do it themselves, because they know what would happen
29:34
Speaker 2: if they did well.
29:38
Speaker 14: Well, Certainly, I don't think the government is always on
29:40
Speaker 14: the same page as the EDO, And as an ethic
29:43
Speaker 14: you say, well, it's really a public legal service for
29:47
Speaker 14: the environment. But of course law fare in the environment
29:52
Speaker 14: space has become a growth industry. One thing you can
29:55
Speaker 14: say is fifteen million dollars sounds like a lot of money,
29:58
Speaker 14: but when you get to court and you engage laws
30:01
Speaker 14: and things, it doesn't go very far. But really the
30:05
Speaker 14: EDO has to be judged on its actions, and what
30:08
Speaker 14: we're seeing is they've taken very partisan positions. They are
30:12
Speaker 14: advocating for really a zero tolerance approach to fossil fuel developments,
30:18
Speaker 14: which is probably not what most people would consider to
30:21
Speaker 14: be the bigger remit of environmental defense. Certainly, there's criticisms
30:27
Speaker 14: that they're not doing enough to protect the nature space
30:30
Speaker 14: when it comes to the role out of renewable energy projects.
30:33
Speaker 14: And other things.
30:35
Speaker 3: So it is the behavior of the EDO that matters
30:38
Speaker 3: just as much as the funding.
30:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I mean, you know, fifteen million. You're right,
30:42
Speaker 2: the in the grand scheme of a government budget isn't
30:45
Speaker 2: all that much money. But it's still fifteen million they
30:47
Speaker 2: didn't have before they ought to be getting zero. Really,
30:50
Speaker 2: and I love this, This is so funny. One of
30:52
Speaker 2: the world's largest energy companies, Shell, they have quietly shelled
30:56
Speaker 2: plans for an offshore wind project in Victoria, which of
30:59
Speaker 2: course will a massive blow to the state's target of
31:02
Speaker 2: generating twenty percent of its energy from offshore wind by
31:06
Speaker 2: twenty thirty two. I mean, Shell, it would seem found
31:09
Speaker 2: that offshore wind was too expensive, it was too hard
31:13
Speaker 2: to do. So it's a bit of a red flag
31:14
Speaker 2: for other wind projects around the country, isn't it. And
31:17
Speaker 2: we've already seen the massive areas that the government have
31:20
Speaker 2: flagged for use for offshore wind slowly dwindling. This is
31:24
Speaker 2: all sort of falling apart.
31:28
Speaker 14: Yes, Look, the real thing to say is that it's
31:31
Speaker 14: heavy weather in the offshore wind industry everywhere. Big projects
31:37
Speaker 14: are being canceled in the UK, they've been canceled in
31:41
Speaker 14: America and other places, simply because the costs are too high,
31:45
Speaker 14: the reliability is too low. The problems are there in
31:50
Speaker 14: terms of the connections between the wind turbines offshore and
31:55
Speaker 14: the cables that run them onto the mainland. So all
31:59
Speaker 14: these things are blowing out the costs. They're not working
32:03
Speaker 14: as people had hoped they would. So Industry and Michelle,
32:08
Speaker 14: this is a big company that's really in there in
32:11
Speaker 14: the big projects, is decided this is not money well spent.
32:15
Speaker 14: That bodes pretty badly for the ambitions, particularly of the
32:20
Speaker 14: Victorian government, which is putting so much store in building
32:24
Speaker 14: an offshore wind industry down there, which at the moment
32:27
Speaker 14: is delivering at the prices that are being achieved elsewhere.
32:32
Speaker 14: It's going to cost twice as much as we're currently
32:34
Speaker 14: paying for power if they ever go ahead.
32:37
Speaker 2: Well, forget about offshore wind. Just put a turbine up
32:40
Speaker 2: in Andrew Jarles's office. There's plenty of onshore wind in there.
32:43
Speaker 2: Graham Lloyd, thank you for your time. After the break,
32:47
Speaker 2: how the now onerous taxes on tobacco, which is of
32:50
Speaker 2: course a legal product, is creating a violent black market.
32:54
Speaker 2: More on that, ser well. The illegal tobacco has been
33:00
Speaker 2: exploding recently quite literally. Really, you've got gangs fire bombing
33:05
Speaker 2: rival stores. They're fighting for control of the booming black market.
33:10
Speaker 2: They also target shops that refuse to sell their illegal products,
33:15
Speaker 2: and these arson attacks have been particularly bad in Victoria,
33:18
Speaker 2: where it was reported by the Herald Sun this week
33:20
Speaker 2: that many stores are choosing now to cop a fine
33:24
Speaker 2: for selling the illegal tobacco rather than risk being fire
33:28
Speaker 2: bombed by these gangs for refusing to sell the illegal
33:33
Speaker 2: products despite it being legal to smoke. The excise on
33:36
Speaker 2: a packet of twenty five is now thirty two dollars,
33:40
Speaker 2: which is a two hundred and ten percent increase sorry
33:44
Speaker 2: over the last decade. I mean an average pack of
33:46
Speaker 2: cigarettes is on the way to costing fifty dollars. It
33:51
Speaker 2: is extortionate. Now you've got South Australia they're going to
33:54
Speaker 2: spend sixteen million dollars we find out today to crack
33:58
Speaker 2: down on illegal tobacco and vapes. Joining me to discuss
34:01
Speaker 2: as criminologists at Deacon University, doctor James Martin, it would
34:06
Speaker 2: seem pretty clear James that as the excise has gone
34:10
Speaker 2: up and it's really reached a saturation point now and
34:14
Speaker 2: if you look at the budget forward estimates, the budget
34:18
Speaker 2: that came out just a few weeks ago. It shows
34:21
Speaker 2: for the first time, basically ever, that there is a
34:26
Speaker 2: prediction that the tax take on tobacco excise will actually
34:30
Speaker 2: decrease over the next few years at the same time
34:35
Speaker 2: as the excise keeps going up. Now, for the last
34:38
Speaker 2: ten years, the excise has been young up and up
34:40
Speaker 2: and up, and smoking rates have gone down or remained
34:43
Speaker 2: reasonably stagnant. The tax has gone through the roof while
34:47
Speaker 2: they've had fewer smokers, which of course means they're making
34:50
Speaker 2: more money out of fewer people. Now they're going to
34:53
Speaker 2: make less money out of those people. I suspect it's
34:57
Speaker 2: not because you've got fewer people smoking. It's because they
35:01
Speaker 2: found a different product, and that's illegal tobacco or vapes,
35:06
Speaker 2: and that has caused this massive outbreak of gang crime.
35:11
Speaker 15: Yeah, that's right, kaylor. But it's been a pretty remarkable
35:14
Speaker 15: transformation that we've seen over the last few years in particular,
35:17
Speaker 15: but it's really been brewing for some time. The price
35:20
Speaker 15: of cigarettes he mentioned, has increased dramatically, more than doubling
35:25
Speaker 15: over the past ten years, and that's almost exclusively due
35:28
Speaker 15: to increase his in taxation.
35:30
Speaker 6: And there's a really.
35:32
Speaker 15: Predictable outcome that comes from this, and that is as
35:35
Speaker 15: the price of legal smokes gets further and further out
35:39
Speaker 15: of the reach of ordinary people, many of whom are
35:41
Speaker 15: disproportionately concentrated in lower socioeconomic groups, that people start to
35:46
Speaker 15: look for alternatives from the black market. And that's what
35:48
Speaker 15: we're seeing now with this huge explosion in black market violence.
35:52
Speaker 15: We've had more than eighty fire bombings not even over
35:56
Speaker 15: the past eighteen months, mostly concentrated in Victoria, but there
35:59
Speaker 15: have been similar in since advance around the country as well.
36:02
Speaker 15: So as we government looks to increase tobacco tax excises
36:08
Speaker 15: even even further, this this violence and the market share
36:11
Speaker 15: that belongs to these organized crime groups is like that
36:14
Speaker 15: to grow.
36:15
Speaker 2: So who is this actually benefiting. I mean, so you've
36:18
Speaker 2: got the tobacco excise goes through the roof, which of
36:20
Speaker 2: course creates a big black market for illegal tobacco, and
36:24
Speaker 2: I think it's something around twenty percent of the entire
36:26
Speaker 2: tobacco market in Australia at the moment is basically illegal tobacco. Then,
36:31
Speaker 2: of course you've got vapes, which the federal government have
36:33
Speaker 2: now decided instead of regulating, they have banned. So the
36:37
Speaker 2: only way you can get one is through your doctor.
36:40
Speaker 2: But I mean you can walk into pretty much any
36:42
Speaker 2: convenience store in the country and get your hands on
36:45
Speaker 2: a vape. These are opportunities where the government could have
36:48
Speaker 2: actually made some tax if they'd left the tax a
36:51
Speaker 2: little lower and regulated the market a little better. Instead,
36:55
Speaker 2: what they have created is a market for crime, which
36:59
Speaker 2: benefits no one. They've created a market for substandard products
37:04
Speaker 2: that aren't tested and don't have to be regulated in
37:07
Speaker 2: any way, which is good for no one. How can
37:11
Speaker 2: the government justify any of this as a public health measure?
37:16
Speaker 15: Well, I think it's pretty simple politically for the government
37:20
Speaker 15: at the moment, and that is, you know, politically, most
37:23
Speaker 15: people don't really care about smokers, and they don't care
37:25
Speaker 15: about vapes, you know, people who vape at the moment either.
37:28
Speaker 15: You know, these are pretty stigmatized groups these days, even
37:32
Speaker 15: though despires as you noted before that cigarettes at least
37:36
Speaker 15: remain legal in the country. So but in terms of
37:40
Speaker 15: the health sort of aspect, then you've got there is
37:44
Speaker 15: a rationale for having you know, some tax levied on
37:47
Speaker 15: these products. You know, products that come with health arms
37:49
Speaker 15: or other sort of social harms to try and deter
37:52
Speaker 15: people away from using them, or at least using them
37:55
Speaker 15: at very high levels. But there is a sweet spot there,
37:58
Speaker 15: and it looks so that goverment has now increased the
38:01
Speaker 15: taxes beyond the point of revenue generation and beyond the
38:05
Speaker 15: point that they're simply shifting consumer behavior, because we're seeing
38:09
Speaker 15: the development of these black market sources, and as the
38:11
Speaker 15: black market grows further, that pricing signal that the government's
38:14
Speaker 15: trying to send just gets further and further diluted.
38:17
Speaker 2: And of course, by doing so, creating that black market,
38:20
Speaker 2: you know, they've essentially found a way to funnel money
38:22
Speaker 2: into organized crime, which, as we know, funds murder and
38:25
Speaker 2: sexual slavery and rape and all sorts of terrible things.
38:29
Speaker 2: How much of the business that organized crime and bikie
38:32
Speaker 2: gangs and whatever are doing now is being made up
38:36
Speaker 2: of illegal tobacco and vapes versus drugs, because of course,
38:40
Speaker 2: traditionally we think about drugs as being their stock in trade.
38:44
Speaker 2: Now you've got all this illegal tobacco coming onto the market.
38:47
Speaker 2: How bigger a market has that become for those games.
38:51
Speaker 15: Well, they're absolutely huge, and you know, these are drugs.
38:55
Speaker 15: You know, we draw a sort of arbitrary line as
38:57
Speaker 15: to what drugs are legal and what drugs are illegal.
39:00
Speaker 15: And I think the arbitrariness is that is becoming apparent
39:02
Speaker 15: now as we've got, you know, an increasing de facto
39:05
Speaker 15: prohibition on cigarettes, is they're increasingly priced out of the
39:08
Speaker 15: reach of regular consumers. And now we've got this prescription
39:11
Speaker 15: only model for vapes, which ninety three or over ninety
39:14
Speaker 15: percent of people who vpe don't have a prescription, so
39:16
Speaker 15: they're doing that illegally. In terms of the overall size,
39:20
Speaker 15: it's absolutely massive. We know just from vapes in particular
39:23
Speaker 15: that you know, ninety percent of people who do that
39:27
Speaker 15: do so illegally. That's about one point five million consumers.
39:31
Speaker 15: So you know, these are Australians that would otherwise be
39:33
Speaker 15: purchasing legal products if they could get their hands on them,
39:36
Speaker 15: but of course they can't. So with one point five
39:38
Speaker 15: million consumers that's just with vapes alone, that makes it
39:41
Speaker 15: the second largest illegal drug market in the country after cannabis.
39:44
Speaker 15: So you know, we're talking absolutely astronomical numbers.
39:47
Speaker 2: Yep. I just I can't believe they've done it. If
39:50
Speaker 2: you look at the smoking rate in Australia which is
39:52
Speaker 2: at nineteen percent, and the smoking rate in the US
39:55
Speaker 2: which is about twelve percent, and a packet of dariesy
39:57
Speaker 2: costs you about fifty bucks and over in the US
40:00
Speaker 2: it costs about twelve dollars US, I think is the average,
40:03
Speaker 2: and the smoking rates are pretty much the same, even
40:06
Speaker 2: though you have such a stark difference in the price.
40:09
Speaker 2: It's been greed from government as far as I'm concerned,
40:12
Speaker 2: and it's led to a massive crime market which is
40:15
Speaker 2: bad for everybody. Thank you very much for your time, mate.
40:18
Speaker 2: After the break bad news for labor. Has any hopes
40:21
Speaker 2: of a rate cut this year look near impossible. Plus
40:24
Speaker 2: the barrister has been brave enough to question some of
40:27
Speaker 2: the pronoun madness that's managed to find its way into
40:30
Speaker 2: the court system. But he's been punished. I'll put about
40:33
Speaker 2: that soon. Let's bring in the panel now, Paul In
40:39
Speaker 2: Hanson's One Nation chief of staff James Ashby and Spectator
40:42
Speaker 2: Australia columnist Terry Barnes. James, Terry, welcome the latest inflation figures.
40:48
Speaker 2: I think fee to say pretty much dashed hopes of
40:51
Speaker 2: a rate cut later in the year, which is of
40:54
Speaker 2: course going to be a problem for the federal government because,
40:57
Speaker 2: going by the budget they put out, they were banking
40:59
Speaker 2: on before they get to the next election. Now we're
41:02
Speaker 2: being warned of a possible rate hike in August. The
41:05
Speaker 2: chief economist for Deutsche Bank said there is a quote
41:09
Speaker 2: unquote material possibility of an August hike after, of course
41:13
Speaker 2: we had the monthly CPI rose to three point six
41:16
Speaker 2: percent for April. It was up three point five percent
41:21
Speaker 2: in March. What do you make of all this, Terry,
41:23
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, it would be an absolute disaster
41:27
Speaker 2: for the federal government if there was another rate hike.
41:31
Speaker 2: Possibly the worst thing you thought this week was bad,
41:34
Speaker 2: It's possibly the worst thing that could happen to them.
41:37
Speaker 4: Well, Caleb Bluke, I think that mister Alberinezi and doctor
41:42
Speaker 4: Chalmer's the treasurer, have actually staked their entire political hopes
41:46
Speaker 4: on a rate cut, not a rate rise, before the
41:49
Speaker 4: end of the year. And I think when you've had
41:51
Speaker 4: two higher than expected implation figures the last two months,
41:55
Speaker 4: I'm actually starting to think, not being an economist though,
41:58
Speaker 4: I'm starting to think though that be looking at a
42:00
Speaker 4: rate rise earlier than August, maybe even July. But that's
42:05
Speaker 4: really going to knock the political strategy for the budget
42:08
Speaker 4: out of the water, isn't it. I mean, basically, Jim
42:11
Speaker 4: Chalmers insisted that things were going to get better, but
42:14
Speaker 4: they're going to get worse by all indications. So how
42:17
Speaker 4: he's going to manage that, especially if his entire political
42:20
Speaker 4: strategy around the budget goes down the tube, is going
42:23
Speaker 4: to be very interesting to see. I think the government's
42:25
Speaker 4: going to be struggling on this front.
42:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I've been saying for I don't know
42:29
Speaker 2: the better part of eight nine months now that the
42:32
Speaker 2: next election will be based entirely on interest rates going down,
42:36
Speaker 2: and it will be an election James where the government says,
42:40
Speaker 2: you know, you're stuck with us. We got through the
42:42
Speaker 2: hard yards. Now we need your support to get the
42:45
Speaker 2: job done. You know, let's stick together, let's see it through.
42:48
Speaker 2: To borrow a line from a nineteen eighties campaign that
42:51
Speaker 2: Bob Hawk used, but we've got some data here of
42:54
Speaker 2: how much people are behind on their mortgages. I mean,
42:57
Speaker 2: you know, everyone knows it's tough, know that average Aussie
43:01
Speaker 2: families are struggling, but putting up interest rates is just
43:06
Speaker 2: it's such a blunt instrument that affects a small number
43:11
Speaker 2: of people, about thirty percent of the population, because of
43:14
Speaker 2: course the rest are renting or are they own their
43:16
Speaker 2: homes outright, and those portion of people are the ones
43:21
Speaker 2: that the government needs to back them in to win
43:23
Speaker 2: another term.
43:26
Speaker 12: Or the biggest issue here is people don't have despisable
43:29
Speaker 12: income anymore, and all it takes is something as simple
43:32
Speaker 12: as a toothache and a visit to the dentist and
43:35
Speaker 12: you're out of pocket a couple of thousand dollars. Well,
43:38
Speaker 12: you're going to put your health first before you put
43:40
Speaker 12: your mortgage first. And this is why so many new
43:42
Speaker 12: people are entering that delinquency of thirty days and in
43:46
Speaker 12: some cases they're exceeding sixty to ninety and we're seeing
43:49
Speaker 12: banks record that now. But equally so we're seeing these
43:54
Speaker 12: interest rates impact upon businesses. We're seeing a record number
43:58
Speaker 12: of people lose their business. The ATO haven't gone easy
44:01
Speaker 12: on people either. They are demanding money out of people
44:04
Speaker 12: who owe the ATO, and so therefore this snowball effects
44:08
Speaker 12: is impacting on businesses as much as it is on
44:10
Speaker 12: households as well, and people are forgetting about the small
44:13
Speaker 12: business out there because they need cash flow.
44:16
Speaker 6: There's not a great deal of cash out there at
44:18
Speaker 6: the moment.
44:18
Speaker 12: So while customers aren't coming through their doors, the banks
44:21
Speaker 12: are certainly knocking on their doors simply saying we want
44:24
Speaker 12: the money.
44:24
Speaker 6: The ato are doing the same.
44:26
Speaker 12: It's making life very, very difficult, and it rests on
44:29
Speaker 12: the shoulders of this government.
44:31
Speaker 6: Yep.
44:31
Speaker 2: And I mean the AEO has been going hard ever
44:33
Speaker 2: since the COVID lockdown's finished. And perversely the government probably
44:38
Speaker 2: doesn't mind that a because it's a way for them
44:40
Speaker 2: to get more money, but also it is technically anti inflationary,
44:44
Speaker 2: because if you're putting people out of business, it means
44:46
Speaker 2: they're not doing business. It's just it's a terrible situation
44:49
Speaker 2: we're in. Now, this story I cannot get over. It
44:52
Speaker 2: got this barrister in New South Wales. He's been sacked
44:56
Speaker 2: as the chair of one of the state's major legal
44:58
Speaker 2: committees because he questions the use of the gender neutral
45:02
Speaker 2: pronoun m X. Now. I think it's pronounced ms, which
45:08
Speaker 2: sounds like something a New Zealander would say, you know,
45:10
Speaker 2: a mix FM or something. But the term mix was
45:14
Speaker 2: used in a practice note for lawyers and it it
45:16
Speaker 2: told them to advise the court. We're appropriate of forms
45:20
Speaker 2: of address such as ms. Mister missus, mix, doctor, professor
45:25
Speaker 2: and so on. Now, this fellow Lindsay Ellison sc he's
45:28
Speaker 2: a silk he on his website at least his preferred
45:33
Speaker 2: pronouns as hew hehaw ha ha ha on the blue
45:38
Speaker 2: on the Wardell Chambers website. So clearly he's a man
45:42
Speaker 2: with a sense of humor, and he makes a lot
45:44
Speaker 2: of other jokes on there about you know how. He
45:46
Speaker 2: has no desire to play golf or have a work
45:49
Speaker 2: life balance, and he's got no interesting cars, and he's
45:51
Speaker 2: probably the most boring person you've ever met. He's a
45:54
Speaker 2: bloke with a sense of humor. It's clearly a joke.
45:57
Speaker 2: But he ended up being dismissed from the Succession and
46:00
Speaker 2: Detective Law Committee following a complaint being made. He was
46:04
Speaker 2: in a meeting when he questioned this mixed thing and
46:07
Speaker 2: he was reminded of the Bar Association's lgbt QI principles
46:12
Speaker 2: of inclusiveness. And then come on, Terry, well.
46:18
Speaker 6: I'd wear that sacking as a badge of honor.
46:20
Speaker 12: To be quite honest with you, I think that'll be
46:23
Speaker 12: the best news ever been sacked.
46:24
Speaker 6: For this.
46:26
Speaker 12: Look, there's going to come a point where a judge
46:28
Speaker 12: is going to be faced by somebody fronting their courtroom
46:31
Speaker 12: and that person says, my pronouns are your honor and
46:36
Speaker 12: not guilty. What are the courts going to do when
46:39
Speaker 12: they're presented with someone who's a smart alect like that.
46:42
Speaker 6: What are they then going to do? These are the problems.
46:45
Speaker 12: I've had a gutful of these pronouns as far as
46:47
Speaker 12: I'm concerned. If you look male, you're going to be
46:49
Speaker 12: mate he. If you're a woman, you're a she. That's
46:53
Speaker 12: as far as skills.
46:54
Speaker 6: I think that the greater public.
46:56
Speaker 12: Yeah, look, I wouldn't go that far, but I think
46:58
Speaker 12: the greater public have had a gutful of It's just
47:00
Speaker 12: getting too complicated. We are being distracted from the real
47:03
Speaker 12: issues in this country. And instead of the courts worrying
47:07
Speaker 12: about pronouns, just get on with the case load and
47:10
Speaker 12: get through the volumes of people that sadly building up
47:14
Speaker 12: in our court system.
47:16
Speaker 3: Yeah.
47:16
Speaker 2: Well, I think my pronouns are judge, jury, and executioner.
47:22
Speaker 2: I think That's what I'm going to go with now, Terry,
47:26
Speaker 2: You've had, of course, knife Crumb has been ramping across
47:28
Speaker 2: the country. Big issue. Recently, New South Wales brought in
47:31
Speaker 2: tougher knife laws in June last year, doubling maximum jail
47:35
Speaker 2: time for carrying a knife in public and all this
47:38
Speaker 2: sort of thing. One person has been jailed in the
47:41
Speaker 2: first six months. Terry, what a great success.
47:47
Speaker 4: Well you've got to start somewhere, don't you k little
47:49
Speaker 4: bit really, I think when our barristers have a bad
47:54
Speaker 4: case of mix and mitosis, as it seems to be
47:56
Speaker 4: near South Wales, I mean I think law enforcement actually
47:59
Speaker 4: has to focus on getting this right. And as we
48:03
Speaker 4: saw sadly in Sydney and April with those two awful incidents,
48:08
Speaker 4: particularly what happened in Bondi Junction, the Australian public, not
48:14
Speaker 4: just a few people. I think the general public wants
48:17
Speaker 4: knife crime to be stamped out, just as we've dealt
48:19
Speaker 4: with gun crime back and gun control back in the nineties.
48:24
Speaker 4: I think it's time that we actually cracked down on this.
48:27
Speaker 4: Peter Dutton talked about in his budget in reply, and
48:29
Speaker 4: he was mocked by Labor. I think he was actually
48:31
Speaker 4: on the money. He was actually reflecting what Australians want.
48:34
Speaker 2: Yep, I think you're James Terry, thank you so much
48:37
Speaker 2: for your time. That's it from me. I'll be back
48:39
Speaker 2: at ten pm for the late debate. Stick around now
48:41
Speaker 2: for the Bolt Report with made Lake debate compadre James McPherson.
48:45
Speaker 6: Good night,