Transcript

Credlin | 15 October · Credlin

0:02
Speaker 1: Peter Credlin, live from News 24.
0:07
Speaker 2: Good evening. Welcome to the program. Here's what's coming up
0:10
Speaker 2: tonight on Credlin. More revelations tonight of Victorian money, the
0:14
Speaker 2: money pit under Daniel Andrews. An IPAC report today reporting
0:18
Speaker 2: almost a quarter of a billion dollars in COVID payments
0:22
Speaker 2: to people and businesses that were not eligible. We'll take
0:26
Speaker 2: a look again at that shocking use of abortion today
0:29
Speaker 2: as a political tactic in the Victorian campaign by a
0:32
Speaker 2: very desperate Labor. But a backflip response from the Liberals
0:36
Speaker 2: this afternoon. We'll talk about that. The inspiring mission of
0:40
Speaker 2: two former paratroopers using the power of remembrance to help
0:44
Speaker 2: tackle veteran suicide. This is a phenomenal story. I can't
0:48
Speaker 2: wait to meet them a bit later in the show.
0:51
Speaker 2: And Annika Wells out today selling her digital duty of care,
0:55
Speaker 2: a censorship legislation. Never mind, though, this Freudian slip today
1:00
Speaker 2: during her address to the press club.
1:04
Speaker 1: We are controlling suicide. We are not controlling free speech.
1:09
Speaker 1: We are not conducting covert surveillance.
1:15
Speaker 2: But first, we've discussed government wasting your money a fair
1:18
Speaker 2: bit this week, whether it's the $ 560 million spent on
1:22
Speaker 2: taxpayer grants to dodgy multicultural groups or the millions spent
1:28
Speaker 2: supporting other organisations that hate our country and hate our
1:32
Speaker 2: values and including that incredible case of the Western Sydney
1:36
Speaker 2: Islamic media group called One Path, who had their funding
1:40
Speaker 2: terminated yesterday after shocking revelations of Jew hatred splashed across
1:45
Speaker 2: the newspaper front pages. Then there's the $ 300 million pork
1:50
Speaker 2: barrel that Labor called their local and community grants program
1:54
Speaker 2: that integrity experts have confirmed has paid out money 73%
1:58
Speaker 2: of the time, to Labor seats in key marginals in
2:03
Speaker 2: a program where you can't even apply for support, you
2:06
Speaker 2: have to get a Labor MP to tap you on
2:09
Speaker 2: the shoulder. Now, I kid you not. Which is precisely
2:13
Speaker 2: what happened when the PM's mates at the Marrickville Golf
2:16
Speaker 2: Club got that $ 6 million sling one week out from
2:21
Speaker 2: last year's May election. But it's not just the big
2:25
Speaker 2: dollars where Labor wastes the money you work so hard
2:28
Speaker 2: to pay in taxes. It's the snouts in the trough
2:31
Speaker 2: stuff where voters are really angry. At a time when
2:35
Speaker 2: some 50,000 businesses have collapsed since this government was first elected,
2:41
Speaker 2: we've got a small business minister in Anne Arley who
2:45
Speaker 2: is so comprehensively out of her depth, it's embarrassing.
2:50
Speaker 3: Now, there's no doubt, Mr Speaker, that small businesses are
2:53
Speaker 3: doing it tough. The costs of doing businesses are getting higher,
2:57
Speaker 3: margins are getting thinner. and businesses are struggling through. We
3:03
Speaker 3: on this side of the house can and do and
3:06
Speaker 3: will continue to consult with small businesses, to listen to
3:10
Speaker 3: small businesses, to understand them and to bring their concerns
3:15
Speaker 3: to this parliament. Those on the other side can talk
3:20
Speaker 3: as much as they like, but they're not out there
3:22
Speaker 3: visiting small businesses.
3:26
Speaker 2: They're not out there visiting small businesses, she says. Well,
3:30
Speaker 2: incompetence is one thing. What's worse is she too can't
3:34
Speaker 2: help herself with your money. Revelations today that she has
3:38
Speaker 2: billed taxpayers more than $ 150, 000 for luxury overseas travel to
3:44
Speaker 2: nine countries, including Spain, Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar, twice to Qatar, Indonesia, Singapore,
3:51
Speaker 2: the UAE, India and Bangladesh. All very essential, she says.
3:56
Speaker 2: Will you be the judge? And then there's Annika Wells,
4:01
Speaker 2: the Sports and Communications Minister. When she's not trying to
4:05
Speaker 2: censor your digital device and crush free speech, you'll find
4:09
Speaker 2: her too at the pointy end of the plane living
4:11
Speaker 2: it up. A few days ago, Freedom of Information documents
4:15
Speaker 2: confirmed there was no meeting in the diary of South
4:18
Speaker 2: Australian Labor MP Chris Pickton, as Wells had claimed, when
4:23
Speaker 2: she was at his house in to celebrate his wife's
4:27
Speaker 2: 40th birthday. But it gets worse. We now have the
4:32
Speaker 2: Albanese government refusing to comply with new FOI requests to
4:36
Speaker 2: release other documents related to the birthday weekend junket. Well,
4:43
Speaker 2: they now say all the records have vanished. All up,
4:48
Speaker 2: Arnica Wells has billed taxpayers $ 2, 500 for flights between Brisbane
4:54
Speaker 2: and Adelaide. I mean, you could fly to London for
4:56
Speaker 2: that much. Almost $ 600 for her com-car limos. Another $ 430
5:02
Speaker 2: for her hotel room. Now, any wonder older Australians are angry,
5:07
Speaker 2: isn't it, when this sort of waste happens on an
5:10
Speaker 2: epic scale? Yet today the Albanese government said that they
5:14
Speaker 2: will again try and cut back their private health insurance rebates.
5:22
Speaker 4: The government is committed to moving ahead with this bill.
5:25
Speaker 4: Older Australians deserve better aged care services. The government is
5:29
Speaker 4: of the view that it is important that the parliament
5:32
Speaker 4: have a proper debate on these matters.
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Speaker 2: Knocked back in the Senate tonight, but Labor will keep
5:39
Speaker 2: coming after older Australians. But as bad as all of
5:43
Speaker 2: that might be, just listen to this. In Victoria today,
5:48
Speaker 2: the state's anti-corruption watchdog released a bombshell report into hundreds
5:53
Speaker 2: of millions of dollars rorted during the Daniel Andrews COVID era.
5:58
Speaker 2: Codenamed Operation Harmonia, IBAC revealed that almost $ 260 million was
6:06
Speaker 2: shoveled out by the Andrews government to applicants not even
6:10
Speaker 2: eligible for the money. It included $ 108 million paid to
6:14
Speaker 2: businesses that that haven't even fully traded during the time.
6:20
Speaker 2: And information regarding this multi-million dollar taxpayer loss was scrubbed
6:25
Speaker 2: from official documents. According to IBAC's bombshell report, these incredible
6:31
Speaker 2: overpayments were then covered up by senior public servants, all
6:35
Speaker 2: appointed by Labor, and erased from official financial records. We
6:40
Speaker 2: only know about the existence of this almost $ 300 million
6:44
Speaker 2: bogus operation because of the whistleblowers who went to IBAC
6:49
Speaker 2: not long after COVID ended. According to the IBAC report,
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Speaker 2: this industrial scale rort, quote, was not a one-off event,
6:59
Speaker 2: nor was it due to an oversight. Instead, the anti-corruption
7:03
Speaker 2: watchdog found that ethics and integrity were secondary considerations in
7:09
Speaker 2: the face of scrutiny. IBAC also found that more than
7:13
Speaker 2: 9,000 applicants took advantage of this opportunity to pick up
7:17
Speaker 2: free cash when governments, state and federal, blew the budget
7:21
Speaker 2: in sheer and utter panic over the arrival of the
7:24
Speaker 2: virus into Australia. When the fraud was discovered, says IBAC,
7:28
Speaker 2: rather than raising the alarm and stemming the losses, Andrew's
7:32
Speaker 2: government insiders, well, they just tried to make it all
7:35
Speaker 2: go away.
7:37
Speaker 5: But who.
7:38
Speaker 2: Who is shocked here?
7:40
Speaker 6: I can't specifically recall.
7:42
Speaker 2: I can't recall.
7:43
Speaker 6: I presume I did. I don't recall the conversation.
7:47
Speaker 7: And I have some memory, but not full memory.
7:49
Speaker 8: I don't recall specifically, not to my recollection.
7:52
Speaker 2: I have no recollection of that.
7:54
Speaker 6: I can't specifically recall.
7:55
Speaker 2: I mean, we know the Andrews government was rotten to
8:00
Speaker 2: the core. We know the anti-corruption reports from IBAC keep
8:04
Speaker 2: stacking up, but so supreme was Daniel Andrews' grip over
8:08
Speaker 2: Victoria that Labor Party corruption became just another byword for
8:13
Speaker 2: the broken state. It's why at the time I was
8:16
Speaker 2: one of the lone voices out there demanding a Royal
8:18
Speaker 2: Commission into Australia's COVID response. I mean, how on earth...
8:23
Speaker 2: Governments were allowed to lock us up, as they did
8:26
Speaker 2: for two years, to damage our young people, as they did,
8:29
Speaker 2: to kill the vulnerable, as they did with the sheer
8:32
Speaker 2: incompetence of hotel quarantine, and to bring so many small
8:36
Speaker 2: businesses to their knees. Well, that still staggers me today.
8:40
Speaker 2: And that's before we even get into those vaccine mandates
8:43
Speaker 2: that led so many people to lose their jobs. And
8:46
Speaker 2: when people protested, we saw the use of rubber bullets
8:50
Speaker 2: on the streets in Melbourne.
8:55
Speaker 6: Media! Media!
8:56
Speaker 9: They're throwing.
9:01
Speaker 5: Stuff now.
9:05
Speaker 10: OK, they're shooting.
9:07
Speaker 3: They're now shooting.
9:13
Speaker 2: We don't see any of that, do we, for the pro-Hamas, pro-Hezbollah,
9:17
Speaker 2: pro-Palestinian rallies, but they were just ordinary Australians sick of
9:22
Speaker 2: two years of lockdowns. And as much as I hold
9:26
Speaker 2: Daniel Andrews responsible for the terrible time and the loss
9:29
Speaker 2: of our democratic rights and liberties, all of those, all
9:32
Speaker 2: of those involved in the Morrison government, well, they bear
9:35
Speaker 2: their own responsibility too. Because it was the Morrison government
9:39
Speaker 2: that enabled the brutality of premiers like Andrews. It was
9:43
Speaker 2: the Morrison government, a Liberal government in name only, that
9:47
Speaker 2: bankrolled the cruelty and the waste of Daniel Andrews. Now,
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Speaker 2: I know that there's some who are playing the game
9:55
Speaker 2: of revisionism and self-justification, but no one should buy that.
10:00
Speaker 2: At any time, the Morrison government could have called its
10:03
Speaker 2: own inquiry into COVID to properly analyse all the things
10:07
Speaker 2: we got right as well as the things we got
10:10
Speaker 2: wrong so that Australia is better prepared for the next
10:13
Speaker 2: pandemic when it comes. And it will come. It will come. I,
10:19
Speaker 2: like many others, are concerned even now about reports out
10:22
Speaker 2: of Russia of the sudden death of a lab worker,
10:26
Speaker 2: allegedly the result of a breakout of a deadly pathogen,
10:30
Speaker 2: and understand that one of the new frontiers in warfare
10:34
Speaker 2: is the use of biological agents. So the idea that
10:38
Speaker 2: Australia has never done a comprehensive review into everything from
10:43
Speaker 2: border closures to lockdown protocols to our billions and billions
10:47
Speaker 2: in wasted spending is to the surge capacity of hospitals
10:52
Speaker 2: across the country, well, it's not only just stupid, it's
10:56
Speaker 2: criminally negligent. And knowing governors are due, the only reason
11:00
Speaker 2: they've not had an inquiry is that every politician involved
11:06
Speaker 2: is complicit in the backside covering that silence gives them.
11:12
Speaker 2: And given we were all cannon fodder in the COVID experiment,
11:16
Speaker 2: And given that every dollar they spent was our money,
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Speaker 2: even now, three years on, Australians deserve the truth because
11:24
Speaker 2: as this IBAC report today shows, we were lied to
11:29
Speaker 2: and we were treated with utter contempt. Let's go to
11:38
Speaker 2: Canberra now. Quite a lot happened there. It's a busy day.
11:40
Speaker 2: Big show at Canberra News tonight as well. Our political reporter,
11:44
Speaker 2: Cam Redden.
11:46
Speaker 8: Good evening.
11:46
Speaker 9: Green Senator Jordan Steele-John has taken leave from the party
11:50
Speaker 9: room and is under internal investigation after allegations were raised
11:54
Speaker 9: about inappropriate comments towards women. The allegations date as far
11:58
Speaker 9: back as 2017 and were laid out in a letter
12:01
Speaker 9: to new leader David Shoebridge on Tuesday.
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Speaker 11: What we need now is fairness and independence and timeliness.
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Speaker 9: News24 has since revealed these minutes from a NSW Young
12:14
Speaker 9: Greens meeting in 2018, suggesting that any proposal of a
12:18
Speaker 9: formal investigation into claims of sexual harassment into Jordan Steele-John
12:22
Speaker 9: be deferred. Senator Steele-John denies the allegations. Labor's Digital Duty
12:28
Speaker 9: of Care Bill has now been introduced to the Parliament.
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Speaker 1: So all Australians are protected from seriously harmful and illegal content.
12:36
Speaker 9: The government has narrowed the scope of powers that would
12:38
Speaker 9: enable the eSafety Commissioner or approved researchers to create so-called
12:43
Speaker 9: sock puppet accounts that could then be used to monitor
12:46
Speaker 9: or even generate content online. Regardless of the government's intent,
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Speaker 9: critics warn that creating this capability could enable government censorship
12:55
Speaker 9: or propaganda. Does it prevent that from happening?
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Speaker 1: Well, you can see in the section introduced, there is
13:01
Speaker 1: nothing in what you've just set out there as a
13:03
Speaker 1: worst-case scenario that is in the bill.
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Speaker 9: Would you just say in the bill that can't be
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Speaker 9: used for those purposes, government propaganda and so forth?
13:10
Speaker 10: It can't.
13:11
Speaker 9: In a worst-case scenario.
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Speaker 6: It can't.
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Speaker 9: The worst person you imagine gets the power of the
13:15
Speaker 9: key safety commissioner one day, for example.
13:18
Speaker 2: It cannot.
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Speaker 1: I don't know how to be more emphatic.
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Speaker 10: It doesn't exist.
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Speaker 2: It is not possible.
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Speaker 9: Cameron Redden, News 24, Canberra.
13:28
Speaker 2: Sorry, but we don't believe you, do we? Let's go
13:30
Speaker 2: down to my panel. News 24 contributor Carolee Katzenbarnes. and
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Speaker 2: Women's Forum Australia's Stephanie Bastian. We'll start, if we can, Carolee,
13:38
Speaker 2: excuse me, with the IBAC report. In the public domain today,
13:43
Speaker 2: an extraordinary $ 300 million-odd COVID business grant cover-up. Bureaucrats in
13:49
Speaker 2: Victoria knew what they were doing was wrong, knew that
13:53
Speaker 2: about 10,000 people were not entitled to this money. It
13:57
Speaker 2: was paid out and then covered up, but we're not surprised,
14:01
Speaker 2: are we? Well, we're not.
14:05
Speaker 12: I mean, it was titled Operation Harmonia. There's nothing harmonious
14:08
Speaker 12: about this. But the most worrying thing was the fact
14:11
Speaker 12: that ineligible businesses were able to backdate their GST registrations
14:16
Speaker 12: by up to four years. But even more worrying is
14:20
Speaker 12: the fact that it has actually come out that it
14:22
Speaker 12: was the fear of a ministerial backlash which led bureaucrats
14:26
Speaker 12: in the department to cover it up. Now, the then
14:29
Speaker 12: Victorian Jobs, Trade and Innovation Minister, Martin Bakula... even actually
14:34
Speaker 12: admitted himself to IBAC that his temper, he wasn't surprised
14:39
Speaker 12: that people were afraid of his temper. And there are many,
14:42
Speaker 12: many references throughout transcripts that say that a lot of
14:46
Speaker 12: these bureaucrats were worried about the backlash and the spray
14:50
Speaker 12: that they would get from Mr Pakula. And as I said,
14:53
Speaker 12: he conceded that they may well have been in fear
14:56
Speaker 12: of him, which led to.
14:57
Speaker 10: This absolute cover-up.
14:58
Speaker 12: And the people that are, you know, that are paying
15:01
Speaker 12: for it are the Victorian taxpayers because, as you've said,
15:04
Speaker 12: a quarter of these businesses in Victoria were not eligible
15:08
Speaker 12: and 9,000 of them were not eligible for these payments.
15:11
Speaker 12: But it also shows that no one's taking any responsibility.
15:14
Speaker 12: This is just disgraceful because you cannot have a government
15:17
Speaker 12: being run with bureaucrats in fear of a ministerial backlash.
15:24
Speaker 2: Yep, and you wonder why there's potholes all over Melbourne,
15:26
Speaker 2: all over Victoria. And the debt is skyrocketing and it's
15:30
Speaker 2: all borrowed money. This is the thing that really gets
15:33
Speaker 2: to me, Steph. We're in the middle of an election campaign.
15:36
Speaker 2: We'll talk about some other really disturbing issues out of
15:39
Speaker 2: Victoria today. But in the end, governments can only do
15:43
Speaker 2: what they've got the money to do. And when money
15:46
Speaker 2: is wasted, you get crazy outcomes like these land tax
15:50
Speaker 2: hikes in Victoria and more.
15:53
Speaker 8: Absolutely.
15:54
Speaker 7: I mean, businesses have been slogged with COVID levies to
15:57
Speaker 7: refill the debt. I mean, it's been appalling. This government
16:00
Speaker 7: spends like there's no tomorrow. There's very little accountability. And
16:04
Speaker 7: you look at the election coming up, they're now just
16:06
Speaker 7: doing one big spend after another to try and buy votes.
16:09
Speaker 7: It's absolutely ridiculous. There should be accountability. The people responsible
16:13
Speaker 7: for the cover-up should be made to face the consequences,
16:16
Speaker 7: face the tribunal and face consequences for what they've done.
16:20
Speaker 7: This is simply not good enough. And I think the
16:22
Speaker 7: Australian public, the Victorian public have had enough.
16:26
Speaker 2: Let's go to some fire in the belly today from
16:31
Speaker 2: Angus Taylor in the chamber. I think he's really finding
16:34
Speaker 2: his line and length in the parliament at the moment.
16:37
Speaker 2: You remember that the PM took all the credit for
16:39
Speaker 2: suspending that ATO credit card ban. It's not gone. Some
16:44
Speaker 2: people say it's gone. It's not gone. It's only been suspended.
16:46
Speaker 2: The Treasurer said, no, he did it. The PM said, no, no, no,
16:49
Speaker 2: it was all about me. Have a look at this
16:51
Speaker 2: exchange in the Chamber today.
16:53
Speaker 13: The Prime Minister overruled and publicly humiliated the Treasurer over
16:59
Speaker 13: his widow's tax, his death tax, his super tax, his
17:03
Speaker 13: cap on veterans' health care. and his botched ban on
17:07
Speaker 13: credit cards. What will the Prime Minister humiliate the Treasurer
17:11
Speaker 13: on next?
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Speaker 2: Now, I'm not saying, Stephanie, that he's cutting the Treasurer
17:16
Speaker 2: loose just yet, but the disquieting Canberra amongst Labor backbenchers
17:23
Speaker 2: is pretty strong.
17:25
Speaker 7: Well, I think it's very obvious Albo is on the
17:27
Speaker 7: nose with the Australian public. And he is now looking
17:30
Speaker 7: for a scapegoat. But the reality is the buck stops
17:33
Speaker 7: with Anthony Albanese. This is his government. He is fundamentally
17:37
Speaker 7: responsible for what goes out. And the fact that he
17:41
Speaker 7: had the amount of stress that he has put businesses through,
17:43
Speaker 7: first with imposing a ban on being able to pass
17:46
Speaker 7: on card charges. Then people using their lifeline to pay
17:51
Speaker 7: off their BAS bills, things that they have on credit.
17:54
Speaker 7: I mean, the pressure on businesses already is huge and
17:57
Speaker 7: it's just made it worse. So for Alba to come
17:59
Speaker 7: out and say he's going to save everyone after putting
18:04
Speaker 7: this policy in place is a little bit disingenuous, if
18:06
Speaker 7: you ask me.
18:09
Speaker 2: What about the stuff I spoke about at the top
18:11
Speaker 2: of the show, if I can, Carolee? Small business minister
18:13
Speaker 2: Anne Arley. She loves to travel. She loves a business
18:18
Speaker 2: class seat at the front of the plane. $ 150, 000, nine
18:23
Speaker 2: countries in just over a year. She's lecturing everybody in
18:28
Speaker 2: the chamber in the last week saying, you know, why
18:30
Speaker 2: aren't you out there talking to small businesses? Well, lady,
18:33
Speaker 2: you're not even in the country to talk to small business. Yeah, exactly.
18:40
Speaker 12: And, you know, meantime, ASIC has said that there are
18:42
Speaker 12: 30 small businesses going bust in Australia every day.
18:46
Speaker 10: It's also important to say that while.
18:47
Speaker 12: People are criticising Anne Ali, she was very prickly back
18:51
Speaker 12: in 2016 when she was the federal Labor candidate for the.
18:55
Speaker 10: West Australian seat of Cowan.
18:57
Speaker 12: She wrote a reference for a convicted criminal, Junaid Thorne.
19:01
Speaker 10: Now, a little bit of background with him.
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Speaker 12: He was a self-styled Islamic preacher who called himself a sheikh.
19:07
Speaker 12: He was born in WA. He went to Saudi Arabia
19:10
Speaker 12: when he was 10. His brother was then jailed for
19:12
Speaker 12: terrorism offences. He went out on strike against that. Saudi
19:16
Speaker 12: Arabia deported both brothers back to Western Australia.
19:20
Speaker 10: At the time, Dr. Anar Lee was a counter-terrorism expert.
19:24
Speaker 12: She was accused by the then Federal Justice Minister Michael
19:27
Speaker 12: Keenan and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop of actually using the
19:31
Speaker 12: taxpayer-funded position she had to write a reference for someone. Now,
19:36
Speaker 12: Junaid Thorne was found guilty of using a false name
19:40
Speaker 12: on a domestic flight within Australia, but he was jailed
19:44
Speaker 12: in 2021 for trafficking massive amounts of cocaine and ecstasy.
19:50
Speaker 12: He was due for parole back in December last year
19:53
Speaker 12: and he was refused twice by the New South Wales
19:56
Speaker 12: government because it found that whilst he was in jail,
19:59
Speaker 12: he had extensive contact with convicted terrorists And he also
20:04
Speaker 12: pledged support for Islamic State. There's plenty of stuff online
20:09
Speaker 12: with him giving sermons with an ISIS flag behind him. Now,
20:14
Speaker 12: getting back to Anne Ali, yes, she might be the
20:16
Speaker 12: small business minister now, but at the time, it actually
20:19
Speaker 12: drew into very sharp focus where, you know, her lack
20:25
Speaker 12: of judgment was in writing a reference for Jane Thorne.
20:30
Speaker 10: In the same way.
20:32
Speaker 12: She's showing a lack of judgment in flying around the world.
20:37
Speaker 10: And I note that I think.
20:38
Speaker 12: Around about $ 57, 000 was dropped on a trip to Spain
20:42
Speaker 12: to sign some gender equity equality program thing.
20:47
Speaker 10: That's not helping Australian businesses here whatsoever.
20:49
Speaker 2: And you know what?
20:50
Speaker 12: In case anyone wants to criticise, yes, it is very
20:53
Speaker 12: important that we bring up things that were done 10
20:56
Speaker 12: years ago because it's showing a progression of somebody that
20:59
Speaker 12: eventually made it into the federal Labor cabinet.
21:02
Speaker 10: But at the time, there was.
21:04
Speaker 12: A lack of judgment when she actually won the pre-selection.
21:07
Speaker 12: And it was a huge thing over Western Australia, absolutely massive. So,
21:11
Speaker 12: you know, leopards don't change their spots. And let's see
21:13
Speaker 12: what will happen. But that travel is just ridiculous.
21:17
Speaker 2: I love a bit of corporate memory. Thank you, Carolee.
21:20
Speaker 2: Let's go today to the use of abortion as an
21:22
Speaker 2: attempted political wedge in Victoria by Labor and Trades Hall.
21:27
Speaker 2: Here's the ad. I mean, it's got a coat hanger
21:29
Speaker 2: on the ad. I mean, I think that is absolutely deplorable.
21:34
Speaker 2: And this came after Labor announced a $ 30 million election
21:37
Speaker 2: pledge to make abortions free if they win in November.
21:41
Speaker 2: We're talking here about... later term surgical abortions and some
21:46
Speaker 2: medical abortions. And this incredibly weak response today from the minister,
21:52
Speaker 2: a Carroll government minister, who was called out by a journalist.
21:58
Speaker 1: He's politicising women's reproductive rights because this is a vote grab.
22:01
Speaker 2: Why not do it months ago?
22:04
Speaker 14: I don't agree with the premise of that question for
22:07
Speaker 14: a couple of reasons. Abortion care is health care. We
22:12
Speaker 14: are not playing politics with this at all.
22:17
Speaker 2: I don't like that term abortion care either.
22:18
Speaker 10: It's an abortion.
22:20
Speaker 2: One person might get care and the other person gets death.
22:22
Speaker 2: But anyway, the Liberals, they had two positions on this today.
22:26
Speaker 2: Here's Jess Wilson this morning.
22:29
Speaker 15: I think Victorians know where I stand on this issue.
22:32
Speaker 15: There will be no changes to abortion laws under a
22:35
Speaker 15: government I lead full stop. And I think it's incredibly
22:39
Speaker 15: disappointing to see Labor playing politics with women's reproductive rights
22:44
Speaker 15: five minutes before an election.
22:48
Speaker 2: But then this afternoon, there was a statement from the
22:50
Speaker 2: Liberals saying that they would in fact match Labor policy
22:54
Speaker 2: with Stephanie, I want your take here, but I tell
22:58
Speaker 2: you what, if they're going to make anything free in
23:00
Speaker 2: women's health, how about we make contraception free in Victoria
23:04
Speaker 2: rather than abortion free?
23:08
Speaker 7: Well, Peter, we're having a national conversation about our plummeting
23:11
Speaker 7: birth rate. Why not actually support women trying to care
23:14
Speaker 7: or have their babies? I mean, this is just funding
23:17
Speaker 7: one option. And there are plenty of people across this
23:21
Speaker 7: nation who are very unsettled with how far our.
23:23
Speaker 2: Abortion laws have gone.
23:24
Speaker 7: We have abortion up to birth in Victoria and in
23:26
Speaker 7: many states. This has been a wedge issue that other
23:29
Speaker 7: minor parties like One Nation have stayed away from or
23:32
Speaker 7: have committed for good reason to reduce the abortion rates
23:36
Speaker 7: because people are uncomfortable with the fact that it is
23:39
Speaker 7: terminating viable, healthy human lives in many situations. And so
23:44
Speaker 7: I think it's actually really disappointing that the Liberal Party
23:46
Speaker 7: have jumped on this I mean, talk about like a
23:49
Speaker 7: fiscal responsibility, $ 30 million to fund abortions. And then on
23:52
Speaker 7: top of that, you're doing it in the taxpayer's name
23:55
Speaker 7: when many people do not feel comfortable funding this. They
23:58
Speaker 7: have a moral objection to it. They don't like it.
24:02
Speaker 7: And I think this is why people are leaving both
24:05
Speaker 7: major parties in droves.
24:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think there is no.
24:13
Speaker 2: Social licence, if I can call it that, Carolee, at
24:15
Speaker 2: the moment for a change to the abortion laws in Australia.
24:19
Speaker 2: But there is a huge difference between an early abortion
24:23
Speaker 2: in the eyes of a lot of voters and anything
24:25
Speaker 2: that happens later in the pregnancies, particularly when, as Stephanie
24:30
Speaker 2: just said, the baby, if born alive, would be given
24:33
Speaker 2: absolutely every care and attention and become a viable young
24:37
Speaker 2: human being. Where do you stand?
24:43
Speaker 12: Well, at 23 weeks, one part of the hospital is
24:46
Speaker 12: trying to save the life of a premature baby, and
24:49
Speaker 12: at 23 weeks down the other end, they're wanting to
24:51
Speaker 12: actually end it. It is a very, very difficult topic. Previously,
24:56
Speaker 12: in elections, abortion has been kept out of it. I
24:59
Speaker 12: am very basic on this. If you've had unprotected sex
25:03
Speaker 12: and you miss a period... then it's 99% that you're
25:06
Speaker 12: actually pregnant. It should not take you more than a
25:10
Speaker 12: few weeks to know exactly the choice that you are
25:13
Speaker 12: going to make. Women have the right to make that choice.
25:17
Speaker 12: But if we just stop for a minute and think
25:19
Speaker 12: about what I just said, there are plenty of miracle
25:21
Speaker 12: stories that are covered where you see wedding rings and
25:23
Speaker 12: the baby the size of that.
25:25
Speaker 10: We have to think about this.
25:27
Speaker 12: People are always wanting to conflate, as you said, late-term
25:30
Speaker 12: abortion with early abortion. And as I said, this is
25:33
Speaker 12: a grab by the Carroll government 44 days out from
25:37
Speaker 12: an election to wedge Jess Wilson.
25:39
Speaker 10: She had to answer it. She's had to change the position.
25:43
Speaker 12: We are all for the best care of women as well.
25:45
Speaker 12: But this needs to be a proper conversation. But the
25:48
Speaker 12: time for the conversation is not now. Should have been
25:51
Speaker 12: done ages ago.
25:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's a real grubby tactic from Labor.
25:57
Speaker 2: They tried it in the recent Queensland election there as well.
26:00
Speaker 2: It fell flat, although it did make a little bit
26:03
Speaker 2: of movement in the tracking polls. We'll see what happens here,
26:05
Speaker 2: but we'll leave it there. Thank you both, Caroline and Stephanie.
26:08
Speaker 2: All right, quick break. After the break, we're going to
26:10
Speaker 2: get into a whole lot of issues out of the
26:12
Speaker 2: digital duty of care. Lots of promises today made by
26:15
Speaker 2: the minister, but a lot of concerns remain regarding censorship.
26:19
Speaker 2: Sarah Henderson after the break. Welcome back, Camille. A really,
26:26
Speaker 2: really good news story and don't we need it? We'll
26:28
Speaker 2: get to that one in a moment. We'll talk to
26:30
Speaker 2: some veterans out of the Gold Coast. But now to
26:33
Speaker 2: the digital duty of care legislation that's been ushered into
26:36
Speaker 2: the Parliament today. Here to discuss it now, Shadow Communications
26:40
Speaker 2: Minister Sarah Henderson. Sarah, that press club address today from
26:45
Speaker 2: the Minister, the Freudian slip, the lack of analysis of
26:50
Speaker 2: the detail, interesting to say the least. Let's have a
26:53
Speaker 2: quick recap.
26:55
Speaker 1: The digital duty of care is not a stepping stone
26:57
Speaker 1: for regulating misinformation and disinformation. If adults listen to Manosphere podcasts,
27:04
Speaker 1: or people post their views about the government, or make memes,
27:08
Speaker 1: or want to say the moon landing was fake, they
27:11
Speaker 1: can continue to do so without restriction. We are not
27:18
Speaker 1: controlling free speech. We are not conducting covert surveillance.
27:23
Speaker 2: Sarah Henderson.
27:28
Speaker 16: Well, I think the Minister might have let the cat
27:32
Speaker 16: out of the bag with that one because this is
27:34
Speaker 16: all about controlling free speech, Peter.
27:37
Speaker 2: This is dangerous.
27:39
Speaker 16: This is undemocratic. And we know that the Prime Minister
27:42
Speaker 16: has this agenda because he said so.
27:44
Speaker 2: He gave the game away in New York when he
27:46
Speaker 2: said that the.
27:46
Speaker 16: Next stage of this bill would be all about combating
27:49
Speaker 16: misinformation and and disinformation, as well as combating polarisation of
27:54
Speaker 16: political views on the left and the right. The other
27:57
Speaker 16: thing that I'll say, I had a departmental briefing with
28:01
Speaker 16: the minister's department, and when I asked what does it
28:04
Speaker 16: mean to have material or conduct which is hostile to
28:08
Speaker 16: to women or gender equality. The response from the department
28:14
Speaker 16: and the minister's advisor was, we are very concerned about
28:17
Speaker 16: the manosphere. We want to shut the manosphere down, basically.
28:21
Speaker 16: So this minister is not being truthful and we have
28:26
Speaker 16: seen that again in spades at the press club today. Yeah,
28:30
Speaker 16: they say that about the manosphere, you know, but they're
28:33
Speaker 16: all about having men in women's sport, you.
28:35
Speaker 2: Know, boys in girls' sport. You know, they bang on
28:39
Speaker 2: about all their quotas for women. They don't even know
28:41
Speaker 2: what a woman is and anyone can be a woman,
28:43
Speaker 2: so why do you need a quota? I mean, none
28:45
Speaker 2: of this stuff makes any sort of intellectual sense. They
28:50
Speaker 2: talk about young girls and anorexia videos going out to eight, nine-year-olds,
28:55
Speaker 2: but they've already got a ban for children under the
28:57
Speaker 2: age of 16 on social media. I mean, the hypocrisy
29:01
Speaker 2: in all of this, the lack of intellectual rigour, staggers me. Well,
29:07
Speaker 2: that's exactly right.
29:09
Speaker 16: So there's a social media ban which has fundamentally failed
29:11
Speaker 16: because Labor got the implementation peters so wrong. But there's
29:16
Speaker 16: other things about this exposure draft which are, sorry, now
29:19
Speaker 16: that it's a bill, as compared with the exposure draft, which.
29:22
Speaker 2: Are really concerning.
29:23
Speaker 16: So these wide-ranging exemptions, so anything in the public interest
29:29
Speaker 16: is exempt. Now, what does that even mean? That's sort
29:31
Speaker 16: of nonsensical because it's up to the Safety Commissioner to
29:35
Speaker 16: determine that. And she's now got these wide-ranging, unfettered, powers
29:40
Speaker 16: to make guidelines about the online harms. So the ministerial discretion,
29:46
Speaker 16: the unfettered powers of the minister has now shifted to
29:49
Speaker 16: the regulator. to the eSafety Commissioner, but there's also some
29:53
Speaker 16: nonsense in the exemptions. So the bill recognises that pornography
29:58
Speaker 16: is harmful.
29:59
Speaker 10: To children, but would you believe.
30:01
Speaker 16: That one of the bits of content that's exempt from
30:06
Speaker 16: the bill is material that's classified, including pornography?
30:11
Speaker 2: So this is.
30:12
Speaker 16: A complete and utter dog's breakfast. It makes no sense.
30:18
Speaker 16: They got rid, the Minister got rid of the online
30:20
Speaker 16: mandatory codes and standards which require the platforms to take
30:25
Speaker 16: all sorts of preventative action, including detecting and removing sexual
30:30
Speaker 16: abuse material and terrorism material. and to be replaced by
30:35
Speaker 16: this vague duty of care. And now those codes and
30:39
Speaker 16: standards have gone back in, but they can afflict to
30:42
Speaker 16: some degree with other definitions in the bill. Like it is,
30:45
Speaker 16: as a piece of legislation, it just goes to show
30:49
Speaker 16: that the Minister does not know what she's doing and
30:52
Speaker 16: she's also not being truthful with Australians. We know what
30:55
Speaker 16: Labor's agenda is. It's very insidious and that's why this
30:59
Speaker 16: bill cannot be supported.
31:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's the same woman who charged taxpayers $ 4, 000 to
31:07
Speaker 2: go down to her girlfriend's 40th birthday party in Adelaide
31:10
Speaker 2: and tried to fit the husband up, who's also a
31:13
Speaker 2: Labor minister in South Australia, for a quick and dirty
31:16
Speaker 2: sort of meeting to put in the diary. Only he
31:18
Speaker 2: won't play ball. He said, I didn't have a meeting
31:21
Speaker 2: in my diary. And now her case is coming out
31:24
Speaker 2: quickly unravelled. I mean, let's be honest about that. You
31:27
Speaker 2: had a big win last night in the Senate, you
31:29
Speaker 2: and the coalition team. You teamed up with the Greens
31:32
Speaker 2: and One Nation. You got rid of this cut to
31:35
Speaker 2: the private health rebate for older Australians. What I don't
31:40
Speaker 2: understand here, Sarah, and again, this is lack of intellectual rigour,
31:44
Speaker 2: If people can't afford with this rebate cut to keep
31:48
Speaker 2: their private health insurance and they get sick, which they
31:51
Speaker 2: will if you're over the age of 65, it's more
31:53
Speaker 2: likely you'll use a hospital than not, you'll go straight
31:56
Speaker 2: into the public system. So you'll cost the taxpayer 100%
31:59
Speaker 2: of the fee, whereas if you've got private health insurance,
32:04
Speaker 2: you've got an insurance scheme you've paid into that'll take
32:07
Speaker 2: the load from the taxpayer and So it's not about
32:10
Speaker 2: saving money. This is about hurting people, not helping people.
32:17
Speaker 3: That's right.
32:17
Speaker 16: And this is a terrible betrayal of older Australians, some
32:21
Speaker 16: three million Australians over the age of 65, who've depended
32:25
Speaker 16: on this discount to the private health insurance industry scheme
32:29
Speaker 16: to make sure that they can continue to pay for
32:32
Speaker 16: their health needs as they get older. And of course,
32:35
Speaker 16: we've discovered under Freedom of Information that almost 78,000 people
32:40
Speaker 16: would have been affected by being forced to basically go
32:45
Speaker 16: back to the public system. And that's almost double what
32:48
Speaker 16: the health minister announced. So we're really proud to have
32:51
Speaker 16: led the charge, to have got rid of this bill altogether.
32:55
Speaker 16: We will not stand for the way this government is
32:57
Speaker 16: betraying older Australians. It's a shocking attack on them and
33:01
Speaker 16: we stand with them and we're very proud to do so.
33:04
Speaker 2: So you'll keep fighting when this comes back, as Mark
33:08
Speaker 2: Butler said it would today?
33:09
Speaker 16: We are going to keep fighting tooth and nail to
33:13
Speaker 16: stop this shocking piece of legislation ever being passed.
33:18
Speaker 5: Terrific.
33:18
Speaker 10: I get a lot of.
33:19
Speaker 2: Feedback from viewers about that. Sarah, thank you very much.
33:22
Speaker 2: Now for the break, good news. As I said, a
33:25
Speaker 2: couple of wonderful veterans have launched a project. I'll tell
33:29
Speaker 2: you more after the break. International panel coming up. Some
33:36
Speaker 2: very interesting stuff in the States ahead of the midterms.
33:39
Speaker 2: A bit of a verdict on the first hit out
33:41
Speaker 2: from the new press secretary for President Trump and more.
33:45
Speaker 2: But now to a veteran-led charity using remembrance and service.
33:49
Speaker 2: to help tackle veteran isolation and suicide, bringing former military
33:53
Speaker 2: and police personnel together to restore the graves and tell
33:57
Speaker 2: the stories of those who served before them. Now, I
34:01
Speaker 2: happened across the project, it's called Project Norton, on my
34:04
Speaker 2: social media. I loved what I saw, didn't know much
34:07
Speaker 2: about it, but I thought I'd reach out and get
34:09
Speaker 2: them on the program because what they are doing is fantastic.
34:14
Speaker 2: It was founded by two former paratroopers, Luke Carney and
34:18
Speaker 2: Jasper Mueller, who served together in Iraq and later in
34:22
Speaker 2: the police force. While navigating medical retirement and the processes
34:26
Speaker 2: of DVA, and don't we know about those, they began
34:30
Speaker 2: clearing local war graves and discovered the powerful connection between
34:34
Speaker 2: commemorating the fallen and supporting veterans still with us today.
34:39
Speaker 2: They've now cleaned some 400 graves across Australia, France and Germany,
34:44
Speaker 2: with more than 80 veterans taking place. And I'm delighted
34:48
Speaker 2: to say the co-founders, Luke and Jasper, join me now
34:52
Speaker 2: from the Gold Coast. Well, gentlemen, I think this is fantastic.
34:57
Speaker 2: You know, one of the honours of my life is
34:59
Speaker 2: I've been through the war cemeteries on the Western Front
35:03
Speaker 2: in Belgium and France, and they make you feel very,
35:07
Speaker 2: very proud. but also pretty insignificant in the whole scheme
35:11
Speaker 2: of history. What triggered this for you, if I can
35:15
Speaker 2: ask Luke, what got you started here?
35:19
Speaker 17: We started off, well, catching up for coffee and sort
35:26
Speaker 17: of supporting each other that way.
35:30
Speaker 6: And then.
35:32
Speaker 17: We stumbled across, there was a grave that was almost
35:35
Speaker 17: black in a, you know, a little tropical rainforest area
35:39
Speaker 17: out the back of the northern rivers, went and tidied it,
35:43
Speaker 17: took some photos, and then we sort of sat down
35:46
Speaker 17: and looked at the photos and went, let's do that again.
35:48
Speaker 17: So we went and found another one, tidied that, and
35:52
Speaker 17: then by the time we got to about the fourth
35:54
Speaker 17: or fifth grave, we sat down and went, we need
35:57
Speaker 17: to get others involved because there's a certain healing quality
36:02
Speaker 17: to it that really helps, you know, In that when
36:08
Speaker 17: you're in a, you know, not a great mental health state,
36:14
Speaker 17: it's a really good for wellbeing sort of activity, yeah.
36:17
Speaker 18: Yeah, it's almost a little bit like we're doing it
36:22
Speaker 18: to help veterans... to clean the graves and also to
36:26
Speaker 18: spread the story of the veteran that's in the grave
36:28
Speaker 18: or the police officer that's.
36:30
Speaker 6: In the grave or the unit that the memorial's for.
36:33
Speaker 18: But we found that by doing that, we get all
36:35
Speaker 18: the feel-good sort of chemicals released in our brain to
36:39
Speaker 18: help us sort of connect and get over everything.
36:42
Speaker 2: I love it.
36:42
Speaker 18: And then it just snowballed from there and then people
36:45
Speaker 18: started volunteering and it's blown up.
36:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, Jasper, I love that point you make because once
36:52
Speaker 2: someone is remembered, they're never forgotten. And to tell their
36:54
Speaker 2: story to the next generation, those that come after them,
36:58
Speaker 2: I mean, we wouldn't be the country we are without
37:00
Speaker 2: the contribution of those graves that you tend. And I
37:04
Speaker 2: was shocked on the socials I saw. One of them
37:05
Speaker 2: was a VC grave that was basically in disrepair. Now,
37:10
Speaker 2: the idea that someone can be the recipient of the VC,
37:13
Speaker 2: come back to Australia, just, I don't know, assume normal life,
37:18
Speaker 2: and then their grave gets almost forgotten, that staggered me.
37:22
Speaker 2: Can you tell me about some of these examples? Yeah, go.
37:29
Speaker 6: Yeah, so I hear what you're saying, Peter.
37:33
Speaker 18: For someone to have done actions that have earned them
37:38
Speaker 18: a Victoria Cross, the highest award that they can receive,
37:43
Speaker 18: and then for their grave to be left and not
37:46
Speaker 18: tended to, or just the environmental conditions just let mould
37:52
Speaker 18: go crazy. People in government are doing the best they
37:58
Speaker 18: can with what little funding they're given and sometimes for
38:02
Speaker 18: the environmental factors it's just not enough.
38:05
Speaker 6: And not saying that.
38:08
Speaker 18: As well, that there's so many graves out there we've
38:12
Speaker 18: come across that are completely falling apart and they're the
38:14
Speaker 18: private graves that We've been in discussions with the Office
38:18
Speaker 18: of Australian War Graves and we're getting a bit of
38:21
Speaker 18: a MOU with them to be able to work on,
38:25
Speaker 18: hopefully one day, some official graves. But at the moment,
38:28
Speaker 18: due to contractual obligations and stuff like that, we're sticking
38:34
Speaker 18: to the private ones. And there's so many of them
38:36
Speaker 18: out there that that's keeping us very busy at the moment.
38:39
Speaker 17: The challenge with the private graves is... Because they're World
38:43
Speaker 17: War I, World War II veterans, they're one or two,
38:45
Speaker 17: sometimes three generations removed and some of the families may
38:50
Speaker 17: not even know where they are. And they, you know,
38:53
Speaker 17: their graves just kind of get left alone and, you know,
38:57
Speaker 17: if they're privately owned, there's, you know, no one to
39:00
Speaker 17: tidy them up.
39:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was going to ask you that point because obviously.
39:05
Speaker 17: There'd be around two million of those in Australia.
39:07
Speaker 12: Yeah.
39:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, Luke, I'll just jump in there. If someone was
39:10
Speaker 2: killed in action, obviously, there's usually that record at the
39:14
Speaker 2: war memorial and then if you go to, say, Villers-Bretonneux
39:17
Speaker 2: in France, you can get the book and you can
39:20
Speaker 2: go through and you can see whom exactly is from
39:23
Speaker 2: Australia buried in that cemetery. But when they've come back
39:26
Speaker 2: and assumed civilian life and they've just died, as we
39:28
Speaker 2: all do eventually in Australia, and are buried by their families,
39:32
Speaker 2: how on earth do you find out where these graves are?
39:39
Speaker 17: With difficulty in a lot of cases. There's a website
39:44
Speaker 17: we use called Find a Grave. It's an international website
39:47
Speaker 17: that logs graves... in many countries throughout the world, including Australia.
39:52
Speaker 17: And it's a fairly good resource. That's not 100% accurate, though.
39:56
Speaker 17: So here in Southport, for example, on Find a Grave,
40:00
Speaker 17: it showed there was around 80 veteran graves. And then
40:07
Speaker 17: when we actually turned up and walked around, we found 111.
40:10
Speaker 17: And that's the case for most cemeteries.
40:15
Speaker 6: We normally find more than what is... logged on the
40:20
Speaker 6: system for us. Yeah, OK.
40:22
Speaker 18: There's some graves that they'll have a unit name or
40:25
Speaker 18: they'll have a description saying they've died here or there
40:29
Speaker 18: during service or that.
40:30
Speaker 6: They're duty done.
40:32
Speaker 18: But there's a lot of graves out there because the
40:33
Speaker 18: family's done it and they just haven't put anything associated
40:38
Speaker 18: with military or policing on the headstone at all.
40:42
Speaker 6: So sometimes it is just walking around.
40:43
Speaker 12: Mm.
40:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll tell you, my grandfather was wounded in action.
40:47
Speaker 2: He was in the Army in New Guinea and there
40:49
Speaker 2: is no mention of his service on his grave because
40:53
Speaker 2: he was that sort of person. He didn't really talk
40:55
Speaker 2: about it. So I suspect there's plenty of them around
40:58
Speaker 2: the country. Hey, I've got to leave it now but
41:00
Speaker 2: we're going to come back to this because I just
41:02
Speaker 2: love this project. I'll tell people at home it's called
41:05
Speaker 2: Project Norden, N-O-R-D-E-N. Find them on Instagram as I did.
41:11
Speaker 2: Please follow them. What they do is amazing. There's also
41:13
Speaker 2: a website. I would like to stay involved with you guys.
41:17
Speaker 2: I want to hope that the War Graves Commission, when
41:19
Speaker 2: they redo contracts, get you and your veterans involved. But
41:24
Speaker 2: I'll come back after a few months and we'll check
41:26
Speaker 2: back in again. Thank you to you both. Isn't that amazing?
41:29
Speaker 2: All right, quick break after the break. We'll get into
41:31
Speaker 2: things with the international panel. That's coming up next. Project Norden.
41:39
Speaker 2: Have a look at that on the internet or, as
41:41
Speaker 2: I said, follow it on Instagram. Now it's time for
41:44
Speaker 2: the international panel, though. News 24 contributor Kosha Garda, former
41:47
Speaker 2: Labor MP Michael Damby with me in the studio. I
41:50
Speaker 2: want to go to the pressure on the Democrat Senator
41:52
Speaker 2: Ilhan Omar. It's mounting. It's been there for some time,
41:57
Speaker 2: but it is now at a point it cannot be ignored.
42:00
Speaker 2: She's facing a lot of scrutiny over her immigration paperwork
42:05
Speaker 2: amid renewed attention on the long-running allegations about her past.
42:09
Speaker 2: Here's Megyn Kelly.
42:12
Speaker 10: If this guy's her brother, they're going to figure that out.
42:15
Speaker 2: You tell me, if you were accused of marrying your
42:17
Speaker 2: brother and committing immigration fraud and you had not married
42:20
Speaker 2: your brother, wouldn't you just submit a DNA test? Pretty easy.
42:27
Speaker 2: Why'd I kill it off?
42:29
Speaker 5: Yep. And the more she denies it, this has been
42:31
Speaker 5: out there for years. She's been sitting United States congresswoman
42:33
Speaker 5: for years and years. This rumor has been out there.
42:36
Speaker 5: ample opportunity to deny it. So Megyn Kelly makes a
42:38
Speaker 5: great point. And it even goes deeper. Her father ostensibly
42:42
Speaker 5: reportedly falsified information on his immigration paperwork when they came
42:46
Speaker 5: in as refugees in the mid-90s, said he was an
42:48
Speaker 5: educator when he was a bit of a warlord. Then
42:50
Speaker 5: there's a second allegation that she was actually 18 and
42:53
Speaker 5: they falsified her year of birth.
42:55
Speaker 2: And when you're 18, you have to be basically assessed
42:57
Speaker 2: as an adult, not as the child of someone who
43:00
Speaker 2: has already come as a migrant.
43:02
Speaker 5: Correct. Which she maybe could have done, but this was
43:04
Speaker 5: a fast track way. So falsifying birth records and all that,
43:07
Speaker 5: if you come from those countries, not hard to do.
43:09
Speaker 2: Marry your brother, you get the whole family basically in
43:12
Speaker 2: the back door.
43:13
Speaker 5: But it almost looks like the lies or the problems
43:16
Speaker 5: get bolder and bolder with how she's done it. And
43:18
Speaker 5: then there's this whole other vector of financial fraud where
43:20
Speaker 5: she reported her husband owns a winery that went from
43:23
Speaker 5: $ 50, 000 in revenue to $ 30 million in revenue.
43:25
Speaker 2: And then back down again.
43:27
Speaker 5: So there's multiple vectors over here at play, but the
43:30
Speaker 5: heat is picking up because there was a search warrant executed,
43:32
Speaker 5: signed off by a federal judge, so this is not
43:34
Speaker 5: just political. And either it will run its course in court,
43:38
Speaker 5: or the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, could strip her naturalization, citizenship,
43:44
Speaker 5: and deport her. Now, that would be bold politically, but
43:47
Speaker 5: we shall see.
43:48
Speaker 2: Anything could happen with this government. We've had a lot
43:52
Speaker 2: of debate this week and the last week as well, Michael,
43:55
Speaker 2: about this digital duty of care and the laws, if
43:58
Speaker 2: they pass the parliament, that will enable the Labor government
44:01
Speaker 2: to create these fake accounts in order to basically police
44:06
Speaker 2: the internet. I came across some vision. I think I
44:09
Speaker 2: want people to understand what we're talking about here when
44:11
Speaker 2: we talk about bots and bot farms. Have a look
44:14
Speaker 2: at this.
44:15
Speaker 11: Bots are 50% of global internet traffic. just over 50 percent.
44:21
Speaker 8: These are the low estimates.
44:22
Speaker 11: The high estimates talk about 70 and even 80 percent. OK,
44:26
Speaker 11: so every second thing you see is a bot, which
44:30
Speaker 11: is crazy. And of course, now with this automation and
44:34
Speaker 11: bot system, we actually see a tremendous rise in antisemitism.
44:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is from the Institute for the Study of
44:42
Speaker 2: Global Antisemitism and Policy. Half the Internet's full of bots.
44:47
Speaker 2: It's full of hate, as we know. I've got no
44:51
Speaker 2: issue where things cross the legal threshold, Michael, but I
44:56
Speaker 2: am really uncomfortable with the power in this bill for
44:59
Speaker 2: the Labor government to basically play politics with what we see,
45:03
Speaker 2: what we hear, what we read.
45:05
Speaker 8: Well, it's ridiculous that the... Australian democratically elected government is
45:09
Speaker 8: going to compete with this international bot farms to disinform
45:17
Speaker 8: Australians because they don't want them to have misinformation or disinformation.
45:20
Speaker 8: How ridiculous. Yandex was three of their centres, the data
45:24
Speaker 8: centres that are the Russian version of Google, were blown
45:27
Speaker 8: up recently by the Ukrainians. And they freed Palestine and
45:32
Speaker 8: globalised the Intifada, fell off a tree. in international ratings.
45:38
Speaker 8: It just shows you that there is information war being
45:41
Speaker 8: planned by the alliance of Iran, North Korea, China and
45:47
Speaker 8: Russia against us. And we have to realise that that
45:49
Speaker 8: information warfare is very serious, but trying to imitate it,
45:54
Speaker 8: that's a very bad idea against the average Australian.
45:58
Speaker 2: Give us an update on where we are with the midterms,
46:01
Speaker 2: because it's certainly... the pace has picked up with the
46:05
Speaker 2: president and the rallies and a lot of the political activity.
46:09
Speaker 2: Where are things headed?
46:10
Speaker 5: Definitely in the home stretch and consensus from polling, from
46:14
Speaker 5: betting markets, from all different markers is that the Republicans
46:16
Speaker 5: are set to lose the House, maybe even the Senate.
46:20
Speaker 5: Or if they hold on to it, it's going to
46:22
Speaker 5: be 50-50 and then J.D. Vance as vice president is
46:24
Speaker 5: a tiebreaker. But that's razor thin margin is going to
46:27
Speaker 5: make it very difficult for any legislation to pass. A
46:30
Speaker 5: week is a lifetime in politics, so there might be
46:32
Speaker 5: twists and turns left.
46:33
Speaker 2: But right now.
46:35
Speaker 5: Trump is not popular. He actually, in the poll of polls,
46:37
Speaker 5: just went underwater across all polls in terms of his popularity,
46:41
Speaker 5: gas prices, inflation, the war is unpopular. All those macro
46:44
Speaker 5: issues remain. And seats that should be safe, like Texas, Kentucky,
46:49
Speaker 5: places like that, are getting very, very close. And we
46:52
Speaker 5: might even see some upsets.
46:54
Speaker 8: And even the far-left candidate will say, Ed seems like
46:56
Speaker 8: he's going to win in Michigan.
46:58
Speaker 5: He's leading.
46:58
Speaker 8: Against a mainstream person like former Congressman Rogers, just.
47:03
Speaker 5: And Tallarico in Texas is even crazier, but he is
47:06
Speaker 5: within striking distance as well.
47:08
Speaker 8: Oh, I dispute that he's crazier. I think the guy
47:09
Speaker 8: in Michigan is crazier.
47:11
Speaker 2: What's going on with the Trump attacks on Vladimir Zelensky?
47:16
Speaker 8: Well, Peter, like Andrew Bolt, I've been soft on Trump
47:21
Speaker 8: over the last year since he was elected. That's because,
47:25
Speaker 8: like you and many other people in Australia, we have
47:29
Speaker 8: an affection for the United States and we think it
47:31
Speaker 8: plays an important positive role in the world. But shame
47:35
Speaker 8: on Donald Trump for this. It meant that Ukrainian civilians
47:38
Speaker 8: couldn't get to their bomb shelters because they didn't have
47:40
Speaker 8: intelligence on when the Russian missiles and drones were going
47:46
Speaker 8: to arrive. This can't go on.
47:48
Speaker 2: You better explain what's happened. This is in relation to Stalin.
47:52
Speaker 8: He's slowed up the defensive intelligence that the Ukrainians can get.
47:58
Speaker 8: And they need that to get the two or three
48:00
Speaker 8: minutes to get into the bomb shelters. Now, I can
48:04
Speaker 8: see that Donald doesn't want their refineries being blown up
48:08
Speaker 8: because of the diesel price. But to deny them defensive intelligence,
48:12
Speaker 8: that's too far. That's disgusting. And it's against American law
48:17
Speaker 8: because there are two bits of legislation that would allow
48:22
Speaker 8: the president to take firm action against that. against Russia.
48:27
Speaker 8: Putin should be being pressured by him to accept a ceasefire.
48:35
Speaker 2: A quick comment, Rukosha.
48:37
Speaker 5: I think he's just trying to do what he can
48:39
Speaker 5: as he sees it to put pressure on both sides
48:42
Speaker 5: and bring this to a wrap.
48:43
Speaker 2: He's motivated by his midterms and fuel prices more than
48:46
Speaker 2: the lives of Ukrainians. And I think that's where I
48:48
Speaker 2: draw a line. Thank you to you both. Have a
48:50
Speaker 2: lovely weekend.
48:51
Speaker 8: You too.
48:52
Speaker 2: You have a lovely weekend too. I will certainly put
48:54
Speaker 2: my feet up, have a bit of a read, come
48:56
Speaker 2: back fired up for a big week next week. Parliament,
48:58
Speaker 2: of course, will be back. I'll see you then. Here's
49:00
Speaker 2: the Bolt Report.