Latest / The Late Debate / The Late Debate | 31 December

Transcript

The Late Debate | 31 December · The Late Debate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Wait, wait said it, gentlemen, Welcome to the Late Fights.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the program.
• 0:07
  Speaker 3: I'm Frey Leitch, joined by Angela Mollard and Holly Hughes.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Coming up to nine. The Liberal Party will.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: Be hoping to leave twenty twenty five behind, but Howard
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: and Costello have given grim warnings about the future. Unless
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: things change. Can the Liberal Party make a comeback in
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: twenty twenty six we'll have our say.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Plus, last night we.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: Revealed how Australian universities are working on defense research with China.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: Well now it's been exposed that A and you was
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: also working with Russia. What has happened to our universities?
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: And finally, in honor of twenty twenty five almost being over,
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: we'll recap some of the top stories and moments from
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: the last year. But first, thousands of people are descending
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: on Sydney Harbor to watch the New Year's Eve fireworks tonight,
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: and some have even.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Been there since before dawn this morning.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: What time did you get here to forty five pretty earlier,
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: so we arrived before three am, so we've been here
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: since then.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: And how long have you been here this morning?
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Since morning?
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: Four o'clock three o'clock, I get up and get ready.
• 1:19
  Speaker 5: My kids.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: My kid's all there, so I came like, QUI yeah,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: my texting here and four o'clock.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: It's just incredible.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: Imagine being down at the harbor with your kids four
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: in the morning. It is I mean, I really think
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: fireworks are the great equalizer. I love that everyone can
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: get out there, they can go watch the fireworks for free.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: It's really just may the best man win and the
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: last the first person standing will get the best spot.
• 1:49
  Speaker 5: I can't think of anything worse than being in a
• 1:54
  Speaker 5: que camping, sitting around doing nothing for an entire day.
• 2:00
  Speaker 6: Fireworks.
• 2:01
  Speaker 5: Now, you would think after all the years that Sydney
• 2:04
  Speaker 5: has been putting on this spectacle, and of course we
• 2:06
  Speaker 5: know it gets global recognition. It's one of the first
• 2:09
  Speaker 5: that happens across the world, and the Harbor Bridge and
• 2:12
  Speaker 5: the Opera House is so iconic for Australia to have
• 2:14
  Speaker 5: that fireworks going off on them.
• 2:17
  Speaker 6: Have a ticket at event, even if the tickets are free.
• 2:20
  Speaker 5: Let people register have spots so that we don't have
• 2:24
  Speaker 5: people sitting there all day waiting for this.
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: Isn't that part of a fun holly godless, you know
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: you're a bill. You're a Brazilian backpacker, you're from the UK.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: You come out here.
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: I mean, this is if you're thinking about icond of
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: Australian experiences, this has.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Got to be up there.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Look, we'ves queued up. We took friends and family that
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: were from the UK and we've sat there for five
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: or six hours and the momentum builds and it is exciting.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: But you only have to do it once in a lifetime.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: But to your point, Holly, when I lived in the
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: UK for ten years, that my favorite thing around the
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: middle of a day in the UK before it was
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: New Year's if us being the first in the world.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: This costs about six million dollars to run the fireworks.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Is it not the best tourism campaign? It draws attention.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: There's everyone sitting in T shirts and shorts. We're showcasing
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: to the rest of the world that's freezing the Northern Hemisphere.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: How great we are. So you know, we spent we
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: criticized Tourism Australa a lot of the time. This is
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: the best tourism campaign.
• 3:24
  Speaker 5: Well, obviously clover Mare is still on holiday because we
• 3:27
  Speaker 5: are going to see a minora being lit up tonight,
• 3:29
  Speaker 5: and I'm not quite sure that would have been top
• 3:31
  Speaker 5: of her pops in the way that we've seen her
• 3:34
  Speaker 5: particularly pro Palestinian stance. And of course we've got Anthony
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: Albanesi now looking down the barrel of the end of
• 3:40
  Speaker 5: twenty twenty five, and he has done nothing that make
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: missteps when it comes to his response to the Bondai
• 3:45
  Speaker 5: massacre and pegrom that occurred on December fourteenth. We now
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: know that Albanezi is calling out so called experts who
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: have told him not to call for a royal commission,
• 3:55
  Speaker 5: whilst this is being disputed by over two hundred of
• 3:58
  Speaker 5: Australia's most senior barrels, as well as the seventeen families
• 4:02
  Speaker 5: of the victims of that December fourteen massacre. And now
• 4:06
  Speaker 5: we know that Chris Mins is not going to follow
• 4:09
  Speaker 5: up on the request by Kelly Sloan to put additional
• 4:11
  Speaker 5: pressure on Prime Minister Albanzi to call a royal commission.
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: And I think what I find so breathtaking when it
• 4:19
  Speaker 5: comes to albanesis response to what happened at Bondai is
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: his blatant refusal to even have the word antisemitism included
• 4:27
  Speaker 5: in the terms of reference.
• 4:28
  Speaker 6: For the Richardson review.
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: And the fact that he's so focused on everything that's
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: going to look at every agency and everybody else's response
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: and their actions in the lead up to and after
• 4:39
  Speaker 5: what happened at Bondai, But there will be no investigation
• 4:42
  Speaker 5: into what his government and his ministers did. And there
• 4:46
  Speaker 5: is absolutely no doubt post October seven what happened in
• 4:49
  Speaker 5: Israel that this government's response has allowed that antisemitism to
• 4:54
  Speaker 5: grow and to festa, and whether it's from what happened
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: on the steps of the Opera House right through to
• 4:59
  Speaker 5: the anti Semitic attack we've seen happening across the country.
• 5:02
  Speaker 5: This government has had plenty of warning, but we know
• 5:04
  Speaker 5: they've taken no action.
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: Exactly right, and it also just makes absolutely no sense.
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: Alexander Downer was quoted in this article saying it is
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: very unlikely that you would actually have intelligence agencies advising
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: that there shouldn't be a royal commission. That is a
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: government decision. And in fact, the head of the AFP
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: was asked, do you recommend that the government does not
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: pursue a royal commission? And she said that's a matter
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: for the government. So if Albineasy was fair Dinkham and
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: actually had a shred of credibility. He would name the
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: actual experts. Of course he won't because they don't exist.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: And the only experts that might be advising him against
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: the Royal Commission would be I don't know, Tony Burke,
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: probably his chief of staff, all his political advisors, any wong,
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: because they know what a Royal commission would uncover. It
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: would also be two years of terrible headlines. And Cohen's
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: with the next federal election and he will never live
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: this down. But I think Angela him digging in like
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: this and just coming up with more and more bizarre
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: excuses every day. I think it's making him look worse.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: I think it's making him a look worse and look,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: I think the key thing, of course, is that he
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: doesn't want to it uncover the government's role in that
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: growth and an antisemitism. But I think there's another couple
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: of factors at play. He is playing the twenty four
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: to seven news cycle. He's so familiar, He's in his
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: second term of government. He knows that stories move on quickly.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: What he hasn't reckoned on this time is the feeling.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Two things, the feeling within the populace that Australia is hurting.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: They're upset and they want answers. That's the first thing.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: The second thing is this is timed out for what
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: we in the media call silly season. There is a
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: news void, so there is not the wave of news
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: flowing through to take this off the agenda. And I
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: think that's a key fact that he has overlooked. This
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: is going to continue and if we were narrow to
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: an election, this would be the end of him.
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: It's interesting that you say that he's like counting on
• 7:05
  Speaker 5: the silly season in that new cycle. I think you're
• 7:07
  Speaker 5: exactly right. He's just been waiting for this story to
• 7:10
  Speaker 5: die down. And I don't think it's going anywhere, because
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: this isn't something that just impacts Jewish Australians. This is
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: leaving every Australian feeling unsafe, and it's attack on such
• 7:18
  Speaker 5: an iconic plays that I don't think it's going anywhere.
• 7:22
  Speaker 5: And I've just got this feeling at some point he's
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: going to have to call one, and you know, sooner
• 7:27
  Speaker 5: rather than later, Albanesi, because the longer he waits, the
• 7:30
  Speaker 5: worse it's going to get.
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: And it's also creating a wedge. And I'm sure behind
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: the scenes Chris Mins is personally infuriated with the government.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: He's state role commission.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: But now opposition that Kelly Sloan has come out and
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: written to him and said you need to urge Albanesi
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: to call a federal royal commission. Mins is trying to
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: downplay going. Look, I've made my decision, they're making their decision.
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: It's all good, but it's not because if you've called
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: one at a state level, why won't your labor counterpart
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: call one at a federal level. So I think if anything,
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: Chris Mins stepping up to the plate from a political
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: perspective has actually made Albanesi look even wetter and it's
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: eroded his position. And I do wonder as well, behind
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: the scenes in the labor caucus. You've got ninety four
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: labor MP's there, huge caucus. Surely there are some ambitious
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: people there. They would be looking at this, going, this
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: is our chance. If we are going to remove Albanesi
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: as a leader. He has failed so catastrophically in his
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: handling a Bondai, this would be the time to strike.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: I would think.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, And I think some MPs have already suggested that
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: they are in favor of a royal commission. I think
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: it's also interesting optics for the Liberals because it's the
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: first time we've seen any cohesion for months with them,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: So I think that's a really interesting thing to have
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: observed as well. Moving on interesting, the Australian tax payer
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: money and US military grants are being used to help
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: fund physics research program by a Russian scientist attached to
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: an institute at the center of Vladimir Putin's nuclear weapons program.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: So the A and U are, following on from your
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: story last night, has sustained links with Russia's nuclear complex,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: despite Albanesi's government sanctions against the Kremlin and the university's
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: public vow to cut ties with Russia and stand on
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: the right side of history. Now, I have a daughter
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: in the defense fills working against, you know, the threat
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: of China, the threat of Russia. To think that on
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: one hand, we are putting my money into defense, into
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: asio into basically making sure that we're not at war,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: or that we are skilled enough to be at war
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: with China and to fight on Ukraine side, that we
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: are giving our intelligence, our expertise. Why are we not
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: working with Australian scientists on this. This is intellectual property.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: There's also the risk of political interference from another country
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: if you have insight into A and u's program, into
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: its stuff, what's going on behind the scenes. I cannot
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: believe that the government hasn't shut down on this.
• 10:05
  Speaker 6: Well I knew, isn't that just an arm of the government.
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: I mean, this is the problem with most universities, there
• 10:10
  Speaker 5: are nothing but left wing think tanks, and probably didn't
• 10:13
  Speaker 5: think there was any problem at all engaging then sort
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: of research and joint venture with Russian scientists, and the
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: fact that we know that they're also doing joint projects.
• 10:23
  Speaker 6: With China is extraordinary.
• 10:25
  Speaker 5: I really do worry about this country and where we're
• 10:28
  Speaker 5: heading and whether or not we've just opened the door anyway,
• 10:31
  Speaker 5: And you know, this is a little bit different. But
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: when you look at what's happening in the climate change renewal,
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: will race to renewal, will transition, all the interconnectors with
• 10:40
  Speaker 5: the solar panels are coming from China. And I used
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: to hold the Shadow portfolio and ask the Department of
• 10:45
  Speaker 5: Climate Change and Energy what they had done. Consulting with
• 10:49
  Speaker 5: the Department of Home Affairs and concerns over threats to
• 10:52
  Speaker 5: our national sovereignty with regards to allowing foreign interference into
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: potentially controlling part of our grid. And they just looked
• 10:58
  Speaker 5: at me like they'd never even thought of that as
• 11:00
  Speaker 5: an issue.
• 11:01
  Speaker 6: And you know, what are we doing.
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: We're just opening the door to foreign actors and seem
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: to be oblivious to this influence coming through, whether it's
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: our energy system, our universities, or even our defense partnerships.
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's mind blowing. I mean what gets me the
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: first thing the fact that they spent a million dollars
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: in grant money from our taxpayers and also from the
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: US Department of Defense collaborating with Russian military researchers. We
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: don't want to be funding that. You're exactly right, Angela.
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: We should be funding the offensive against these countries, not
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: supporting their research taking advantage of our money and our expertise.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: But also this researcher.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: One of them that they collaborated with at A and
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: U is also affiliated with a center called the Kerchatov Institute,
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: which was sanctioned by the Albiteasy government in twenty twenty three,
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: and they also provide the Defense Research Nuclear University that
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: they work with in Russia is also providing education for
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: the Russian state owned nuclear corporate rection.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: I mean, when you look at this.
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: There's no way they can claim they did not know
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: what was going on.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: How can we send tanks to Ukraine and then help
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: with that. This is the work that they're doing in
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: these metasurfaces. This is high level tech. We want to
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: be at the forefront of tech. We don't want to
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: be sharing that expertise.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: No, it is.
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: That's breathtaking, yeap, completely, Well, let's move on now. And
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: something that also has been rather breathtaking over the last
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: year has been the Liberal Party, and now storwarts John
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: Howard and Peter Costello have come out and given a
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: rather grim warning about what the future involves unless the
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: party gets its act together. Howard said, the dramatic loss
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: of seats in metropolitan Australia at the last two elections
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: is either cyclical or it's existential, but that will be
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: determined at the next election.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: And I think that's right, Holly.
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: There is this sense now that the Liberal Party's sea
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: account is so low. They're getting twenty five percent of
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: the primary.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: Vote nationally in the polls at the moment.
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: They're facing dual threats from labor and the Teals on
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: the left, but then also now from an aggressive one
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: Nation on the right, and they really have unfortunately struggled
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: to define themselves this year and it really is hard
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: to see how they get through this well.
• 13:40
  Speaker 5: As a former member of the party, I can tell
• 13:43
  Speaker 5: you I have a look now, and I was a
• 13:46
  Speaker 5: staffer in the Howard Costello days, and I remember who
• 13:49
  Speaker 5: the MPs and senators were then, and a lot of
• 13:51
  Speaker 5: them had come from a small business background. They had
• 13:54
  Speaker 5: owned businesses, They had actually paid people's wages. They knew
• 13:57
  Speaker 5: what it was like to have to pay the bills,
• 14:00
  Speaker 5: bills and still try and keep a business operating. And
• 14:03
  Speaker 5: now I look at who is going into Parliament and
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: the party. It's the party of think tanks and management consultants,
• 14:09
  Speaker 5: not one of the people that you know. I'm sure
• 14:12
  Speaker 5: someone will send me a very nasty text message and
• 14:14
  Speaker 5: point out to me someone who does come from a
• 14:16
  Speaker 5: strong small business background, But honestly, I'm really stretched to
• 14:19
  Speaker 5: try and think of someone who's coming from that background.
• 14:21
  Speaker 5: A lot of them have had experiences as lobbyists, as consultants,
• 14:26
  Speaker 5: management consultants, as think tack. You know, experts having had
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: no world experience, but have certainly the ability to write
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: an essay, so therefore an expert on everything, and come
• 14:36
  Speaker 5: from these sort of think tanks and they just don't
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: have any real understanding. And even if you think of
• 14:40
  Speaker 5: John Howard, he came from a small law firm before
• 14:43
  Speaker 5: he went into politics. He had that background in a
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: sort of you know, a suburban law practice. Didn't come
• 14:49
  Speaker 5: out of a top, top tier law firm, you know,
• 14:52
  Speaker 5: he was actually coming from a firm that was on
• 14:54
  Speaker 5: the ground with people in a very different environment. And
• 14:56
  Speaker 5: I think that's where the liberal parties lost its way
• 14:59
  Speaker 5: because that I don't talk about industrial relations reform. And
• 15:02
  Speaker 5: we've got a hospitality business now, and I can tell
• 15:04
  Speaker 5: you paying award wages, I have actual.
• 15:07
  Speaker 6: Some sympathy for people that underpay because.
• 15:09
  Speaker 5: Our staff change rates halfway through a shift because after
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: a certain point you get paid differently. And I can
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: promise you looking around that party room now, there isn't
• 15:18
  Speaker 5: anyone that would probably really understand that. And until they
• 15:22
  Speaker 5: get back talking to those small business owners. That's where
• 15:25
  Speaker 5: the mortgage belt was. That was the Howard Battler's. They
• 15:27
  Speaker 5: were the people that stood up and said this is
• 15:29
  Speaker 5: my government and I support them because they understand me
• 15:32
  Speaker 5: and the challenges I have facing my family. And now
• 15:35
  Speaker 5: you've got people, you know coming at you from McKinsey
• 15:38
  Speaker 5: telling you if you listen to me, I'll tell you
• 15:40
  Speaker 5: how to run your life, not that I've ever run
• 15:42
  Speaker 5: one myself.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: Look, I think the real question here is existential or cyclical.
• 15:49
  Speaker 6: It's not sick now.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: The very fact that he's using the word existential means
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: it as existential. So how do the Liberal And to
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: be honest, the fact he's saying it to the Australian,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: I'm very surprised that he's not just having those discussions
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: within the party and that there is not the succession
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: planning that we see going on in other industries. We
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: all know that the election was abominable, but there were
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: easy wins. There still are easy wins. Education parents in
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: this country are completely defeated by the fact that our
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: education results are appalling. The New Zealand Conservative Party went
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: into their election up against Labor with a mandate over
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: on election. That was their number one policy because it
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: affects all stratas of society, It affects regional, it affects Urban.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: They won that election and they have turned round back
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: to basics teaching, as have the UK. Now, if we
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: do not focus on portfolios like education, housing, if the
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Liberal Party can't focus on those when yes they're they're
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: not easy issues, but they require sustained attention and they
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: require ideas and imagination. But putting the ideas in imagination
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: and pulling the electorate together, you are not going to
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: win back those tialed seats unless you apply appeal to
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: the masses. So yes, fiscal responsibility, industry relations, taxation, but
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: some of those social health and education and housing I
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: think are critical.
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: Well you talk about imagination, and that's a very good
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: point because I think if you're going to be successful
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: as a party, you need to actually have a vision
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: for our nation, and you need to have conviction in
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: that vision. I think a big problem with the last
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: election was what was the vision save twenty five cents
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: a leader that's not exactly compelling. And if we're going
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: to devolve into a politics of handouts, well labor will
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: always win because they will always be willing to spend
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: more money. So I agree, I think the party really
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: has to sort of stuff out. But get back to
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: those issues that do affect everyone, that do affect small businesses,
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: that do affect the families that are trying to balance
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: the budgets around the dinner table, because people are struggling
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: out there.
• 17:56
  Speaker 6: And people don't watch the news like they used to.
• 17:58
  Speaker 5: They're not watching the six o'clock news every night and
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: getting that update. Of course, those of you that are
• 18:03
  Speaker 5: sensible enough to be watching us tonight, I'm sure you
• 18:05
  Speaker 5: are very well across the brief and the issues. But
• 18:07
  Speaker 5: for a lot of families, just staying up today is
• 18:10
  Speaker 5: really difficult, and so you have to be able to
• 18:12
  Speaker 5: ensure that you are hitting them where it's actually not
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: necessarily hurting them, but certainly having an impact on their life.
• 18:18
  Speaker 5: But it's interesting, Angela, you talk about education, because I
• 18:22
  Speaker 5: do think we need to have a sense of humor
• 18:24
  Speaker 5: at all time, find the funny side of life. But
• 18:26
  Speaker 5: apparently some parents and some private schools are not finding
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: articles in the Batuta Advocate and Double Bay today that
• 18:34
  Speaker 5: take the mickey out of private school kids and their
• 18:37
  Speaker 5: parents terribly funny. They think that there's an underlying insidiousness
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: there that is causing problems, as well as an attitude
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: and a reflection against parents and the children that attend
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: private schools.
• 18:49
  Speaker 6: Now, personally, I went to a private school.
• 18:52
  Speaker 5: My kids have been to a mixture of public and
• 18:54
  Speaker 5: private schools at all sort of different.
• 18:56
  Speaker 6: Levels, and I find these articles hilarious.
• 19:00
  Speaker 5: And the reason they're so hilarious is they're usually a
• 19:02
  Speaker 5: little bit close to home, and that's why I think
• 19:05
  Speaker 5: some people might be a bit upset by them.
• 19:07
  Speaker 6: But Double Bay today, I think you're hilarious.
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: I love when they take the mickey out of folding
• 19:13
  Speaker 5: up the new Chinos to show off the labels of
• 19:16
  Speaker 5: the R and Williams boots, or the fact that the
• 19:20
  Speaker 5: Scot's educated or the Sydney grammar boy that went for
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: a luxury Airbnb weekend in the bush all of a
• 19:26
  Speaker 5: sudden has an R and Williams wardrobe.
• 19:28
  Speaker 6: I mean, look, what parents pay for private.
• 19:31
  Speaker 5: School fees is becoming exorbitant and abomination. But there's a
• 19:34
  Speaker 5: lot of families who do do it really tough and
• 19:37
  Speaker 5: make lots of sacrifices to send their kids to really
• 19:39
  Speaker 5: good schools. There's a lot of choice in the private
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: school sector, not all of them the same. But honestly,
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: these are funny, funny articles that we need to be
• 19:46
  Speaker 5: able to take.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: They are so funny.
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: Some of the headlines are Scott's College asks student who
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: grew up in Randwick to give speech an assembly about
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: overcoming adversity. Another one is Geg's Redlands School announced new
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: helicopter shuttle service so parents and students can avoid the
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: traffic on Military Road. I mean, that is just plainly hilarious.
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: But I do see, on the other hand, some of
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: the concern in that the nature of private schools have changed.
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: Of course the inner city you have those fifty thousand
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: dollars a year private schools that still exist.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: And are very competitive.
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: But you are in a lot of the growth areas
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: of Australia seeing a rise in low fee paying Anglican
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: and Catholic schools, and so it is a little bit
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: unfair to just say anyone who went to a private
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: school is automatically this entitled stuck up person. I think
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: that is just class warfare and it's not helpful.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: Well, look, my daughter went to a private school after
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: going to a selective school. She got a scholarship. We
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: could never have afforded a private school in Sydney's eastern subbs.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: And I remember the funniest day. And this is not
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: a headline on the double Bait this though. It was
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: lunchtime and one of the girls, the personal maids, came
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: in wearing an apron with the embroidery of the family
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: name on the apron to school to deliver the girl's lunch.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: And my daughter came home and told me about this,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: and I thought, where have we chosen to send you?
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: But what I would say is that I work in
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: the education and parenting group of editors at News Corps,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: and so we're writing We've launched an education pillar this year.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: The stories that go nuts. I mean this one written
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: by my colleagues Ceze O'Brien. He's got something like five
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: hundred comments on it. It will have caused us to
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: have more subscriptions, that sort of thing. This is such
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: a polarizing topic, and I think it's because, to your points,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: parents are investing so much that they expect an outcome
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: from it, and we cannot invest in our children's education
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: and expect that we will get a certain result, that
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: they will get into this university or they'll get an
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: ATAR of ninety nine point five. And that's that's where
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: I worry. The pressure is coming on that we actually,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: by spending so much money the schools, the parents and
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: then the children are taking on that pressure.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 22:09
  Speaker 5: I think also too, when you look at schools, not
• 22:10
  Speaker 5: every kid's right for every school, and so sometimes the
• 22:13
  Speaker 5: generational that this. You know, I'm the eighth generation at
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: this school. I mean, please, obviously you're not worried about
• 22:19
  Speaker 5: whether that's your child's education at best, or whether it's
• 22:22
  Speaker 5: just keeping it in the family, keeping up with the Jones,
• 22:25
  Speaker 5: et cetera.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: And that's the thing.
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: Thankfully, we live in a country where, to be honest,
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: it doesn't actually matter what school you did go to.
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: If you are.
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: Talented and you work hard and you apply yourself, you
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: can go from a regional public school to the best
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: universities in the country and go on to do incredible things.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: And that's awesome.
• 22:45
  Speaker 6: Just look at our Prime Minister.
• 22:46
  Speaker 5: I think he's told us a story once or twice
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: about coming from housing commission.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: Look, you can't pay for gret can you. You've either
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: got it or you haven't, and your can parents help you?
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: Speaking about schools. Look, I love this story. I think
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: it's really interesting, really healthy for debate respectful relationships in education.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Should be explicitly rebranded as violence prevention to elevate its
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: important and tackle misogyny head on in schools. According to experts,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: this call follows moves in the UK to upschools teachers
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: to spot misogyny in the classroom and to send high
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: risk students to behavioral courses to tackle prejudice against women
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: and girls. So this is instead of the soft speaking yeah,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: we're going to talk about nice things and we're communication
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: that sort of thing, they want to start using words
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: like misogyny, get away from the gender free language and
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: actually tackle it head on, with the purpose being that
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: the way that we're doing we're sending kids towards andrew
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Tate that sort of thing. Look, my issue with this
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: comes back to why are we saying it as a
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: school issue?
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: School?
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: This is a home issue. This is a family issue.
• 23:52
  Speaker 6: Teaching.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: It's not a theoretical thing. You don't stand up there
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: and talk about respectful relationships. You model respectful relationship and
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: then you talk about your child comes home from school
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: and they say that this happened to another child or
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: they felt this way about that. Now, what requires where
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: we have success with that is where we actually have
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: parents at home able to do that job, not just
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: processing their children when they get home from their double
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: income jobs, which they have to have.
• 24:20
  Speaker 6: So I thine it go back in private school.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: Fe absolutely so, I think it needs to go back
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: to actual housing is the issue. If you're not fearful
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: of paying for a mortgage, if you feel you can
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: manage that mortgage, you can take time off. And I'm
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: not saying it has to be the mother. I think
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: let's look at more split roles, flexibility in the workplace.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: So you know, mom might work these days, Dad, whatever
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: the parents are, whatever their configuration, they work different, you know,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: split the time children need their kids. That's where they
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: learn respectful relations from. It's where you intercept them when
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: they're saying something ridiculous in the back of the car.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: But if they're only learning these things at school, that
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: is a generic form. It's theoretical and it does not apply.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: It's not taken on board. We all know that storytelling
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: is how we best.
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: Learn, and I would say the actual risk here is
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: it does the opposite. Instead of convincing these young men
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: to go, oh, actually I should treat women with respect.
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: If you just bash them over the head and lecture
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: them about how well, you're a man, and you're misogynistic,
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: and you're dangerous, and you're a predator. Then that is
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: one way to ensure you build resentment towards women and
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: between genders. That's a huge issue right now. I think,
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: particularly young men and women, they are so polarized, they
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: are so disconnected. The war of the genders is real
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: among young people. I think the risk of this. Of course,
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: we want people to be respectful, but you're right, it
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: starts in the home. This is not the role of
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: the school, and in fact, I think this could backfire.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: Well.
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: But the other thing is, well, we're in this the
• 25:53
  Speaker 5: world that barely recognizes genders anymore. You know that all
• 25:56
  Speaker 5: boys can be girls, girls can be boys, boys can
• 25:59
  Speaker 5: use girls, change rooms and bathrooms whenever they want. There
• 26:03
  Speaker 5: is just such a confusion over where kids are in
• 26:06
  Speaker 5: the world, where they fall in the world, and it depends,
• 26:08
  Speaker 5: you know, are you in a conservative household that has
• 26:11
  Speaker 5: still gender boundaries or gender lines and believes that there
• 26:15
  Speaker 5: are two genders, or are you coming from a family
• 26:18
  Speaker 5: that's gender fluid and you can decide what gender you
• 26:21
  Speaker 5: are when you get older. I mean, kids don't know
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: whether they are Rathur or Matha these days or what
• 26:26
  Speaker 5: their roles should be. I think we've made a really
• 26:28
  Speaker 5: dangerous world for our young men, in particular, they don't
• 26:31
  Speaker 5: know where they stand anymore. And there's a whole raft
• 26:34
  Speaker 5: of issues here, whether it's around consent, whether it's treatment
• 26:37
  Speaker 5: of women. Certainly, as conservative women, we know we get
• 26:40
  Speaker 5: treated the worst of all, and none of the sisterhood
• 26:42
  Speaker 5: will ever be there for us at all. But you know,
• 26:45
  Speaker 5: I just think we're making such a mindfield of this
• 26:47
  Speaker 5: whole gender issue was never that confusing when we were kids.
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: Totally.
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: And look, just quickly before we go to a break,
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: A very funny story nine up in Brisbane has been
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: caught out in a massive blunder for putting up promotional
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: image of Brisbane showing frankly, just the wrong. Well, it
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: is apparently Brisbane, but there are two bridges, true story,
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: through two story bridges, high rise buildings that don't exist.
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: They make it look a lot more nice than cosmopolitan
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: maybe Brisbane.
• 27:18
  Speaker 5: Maybe if Channel nine do the ai of tonight's fireworks
• 27:21
  Speaker 5: will get fireworks on two seeping harbor bridges.
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm coming out of the opera exactly a bit
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: of a blunder there, but a very funny one. Nonetheless, well,
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: we're going to go to a break, and coming up
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: after the break, we're going to recap twenty twenty five.
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: There was some big moments in the White House here
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: in Australia, around the world. We're going to go through
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: our top ones for you. Stay tuned, welcome back to
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: the program. It's so good to be with you this evening.
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: To start off our twenty twenty five year in review,
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: I think we have to start with the Liberal Party, well,
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: the coalition, and then the Liberal Party, National Party and
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: the Coalition again. We started off in May of this
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: year with the federal election where the Liberal Party suffered
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: a historic defeat. It was so bad that even Peter
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: Dutton as the leader, lost his own seat, which I
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: don't think anyone truly predicted or expected to happen. Then
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: after the election we had the breakup and then the makeup,
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: more dramatic than my.
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: Year eight relationship.
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: A second, we had Andrew Hasty quitting the front bench.
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: We had just since a going Liberal front bench off
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: the front bench, and so it really has been holly
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: quite a tumultuous and truly unprecedented year for the party.
• 28:46
  Speaker 6: I got to tell you what my election feels like.
• 28:48
  Speaker 5: It was about three years ago, Like it just feels
• 28:51
  Speaker 5: so far away now, because so much has happened, and
• 28:54
  Speaker 5: so much happened within a couple of weeks of that
• 28:57
  Speaker 5: catastrophic result for the party, you know, starting with Dutton
• 29:03
  Speaker 5: lost his seat.
• 29:03
  Speaker 6: I was actually talking to a labor colleague before the election.
• 29:09
  Speaker 5: They were expressing to me shocked that they were hearing
• 29:14
  Speaker 5: that Dutton was in trouble in his seat, and the
• 29:17
  Speaker 5: conversations I then had within the party absolutely refuted that
• 29:21
  Speaker 5: and just said what a joke that was, and you know,
• 29:25
  Speaker 5: it was proven to be one hundred percent right. And
• 29:27
  Speaker 5: I think that's where the Liberal Party made its first
• 29:29
  Speaker 5: mistake was its polsters who just literally lay the results
• 29:34
  Speaker 5: from the No campaign over their interpretation of results. And
• 29:38
  Speaker 5: we saw how ineffective that was and how out and
• 29:41
  Speaker 5: out incorrect it was across the country, which was catastrophic
• 29:45
  Speaker 5: for the Liberal Party. And then to see what happened
• 29:48
  Speaker 5: after just shows you know the old outage. If you
• 29:51
  Speaker 5: can't govern yourself, you can't govern the country. And I
• 29:53
  Speaker 5: think what we saw happen in the Liberal Party straight
• 29:56
  Speaker 5: after the election is exactly in reference to that and
• 29:59
  Speaker 5: really does demons straight the predicament they found themselves in
• 30:03
  Speaker 5: and the inability to really find a narrative or a
• 30:05
  Speaker 5: pathway out of that. I think what's been really interesting
• 30:08
  Speaker 5: Susan Lee has grown into the role considerably. I think
• 30:11
  Speaker 5: she was ultimately the best choice and will be continued
• 30:13
  Speaker 5: to be seen that for a while because she is
• 30:16
  Speaker 5: someone who has real world experience, doesn't come from a
• 30:19
  Speaker 5: management will think tank background, has actually you know, flown choppers,
• 30:22
  Speaker 5: been a sheer, being a cook and seen worked in finance,
• 30:26
  Speaker 5: has senior tax degrees, has more understanding of that than
• 30:29
  Speaker 5: pretty much most of the party room put together, so
• 30:32
  Speaker 5: I think, and she's done very well through what's happened
• 30:34
  Speaker 5: in Bonda and the situation there, so I think.
• 30:37
  Speaker 6: She will continue.
• 30:38
  Speaker 5: I think what's interesting is the people who considered themselves
• 30:40
  Speaker 5: leadership contenders, hasty in the like, once they've spat the dummy,
• 30:45
  Speaker 5: once they've been unable, you know, and actually stopped talking
• 30:48
  Speaker 5: about themselves and how they are the great contributors to
• 30:51
  Speaker 5: the Liberal Party and it will be lost without them,
• 30:54
  Speaker 5: and start mounting their campaign once they stop talking about
• 30:57
  Speaker 5: themselves and stop undermining the Liberal Party and criticizing it
• 31:01
  Speaker 5: from a front bench position, they become irrelevant.
• 31:04
  Speaker 6: You don't hear from them ever again.
• 31:06
  Speaker 5: And not to say that some of them aren't still,
• 31:09
  Speaker 5: no doubt manipulating and conniving and scheming in the background.
• 31:12
  Speaker 5: I'm sure some of them still are. But the fact
• 31:15
  Speaker 5: that their relevance, their ability to contribute to the national debate,
• 31:17
  Speaker 5: for their ability to contribute to sensible policy is nil.
• 31:22
  Speaker 5: You know, Andrew resigned because he wanted to contribute to immigration. Well,
• 31:25
  Speaker 5: there's some pretty big immigration issues floating around this country
• 31:28
  Speaker 5: at the moment, and hide nor hair has been seen
• 31:30
  Speaker 5: of him because he doesn't have anything to say on it.
• 31:32
  Speaker 5: But he had to have a reason and a purpose
• 31:34
  Speaker 5: to have a dummy spit. And I think the Liberal Party,
• 31:38
  Speaker 5: if John Howard says they're in an extradential crisis, then
• 31:41
  Speaker 5: I think that's all we need to know. And John
• 31:43
  Speaker 5: Howard is a hero in the Liberal Party still. He
• 31:46
  Speaker 5: was one of our greatest prime ministers ever. And if
• 31:48
  Speaker 5: that's what he's saying, there are those of them that
• 31:50
  Speaker 5: are throwing rocks from the sidelines need to really start
• 31:52
  Speaker 5: to understand that. The Liberal Party also needs to understand
• 31:55
  Speaker 5: there's a broad church. It doesn't run from one end
• 31:58
  Speaker 5: of the MCG to the other. Can you actually have
• 32:00
  Speaker 5: to stand for something not represent every viewpoint in the country.
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: Welly, I do have to take you up on that
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: point though, because I would say yes Andrew Hasty. Obviously
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: not being in shadow cabinet, you do lose some of
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: your ability to practically influence policy. But the work he
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: has done, particularly on social media, I mean he is
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: shifting the.
• 32:19
  Speaker 6: Dial the car industry to come back.
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: Well, he's reaching so hundreds of thousands of people and
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: we cannot deny that the most successful politicians of our
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: generation are the ones who can cut through on social media,
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: whether we like it or not.
• 32:32
  Speaker 6: But is he talking about immigration?
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: Is? Well, he is.
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: I think he's shifted the dial on immigration. We're seeing
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: Susan Lee come out now and say people who would
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: hate preachers and spouting hate they should be deported. Would
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: would the liberal leader have said that a year ago?
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: I don't think so.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: And I think this is a really good point. You
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: were selling Susan lay hard then you were, you know, fan,
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: I feel like I don't really you know, You've told
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: me all everything that I need to know about it,
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: but policy, I cannot tell you anything. She genuinely stes
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: this zero and I cannot see her on social media
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: with any any great push through and cut through. Now
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: you cannot be a modern global politician and not have
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: a command, as you say, Freyer, of social media. If
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: you can think about an institution as traditional, as entrenched
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: in history as the Royal family, and their command of
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: social media is extraordinary. They have enormous cut through. They
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: have videographers making their content for them.
• 33:31
  Speaker 6: Now I can now.
• 33:32
  Speaker 5: Tell you the opposition leader and the Liberal Party doesn't
• 33:35
  Speaker 5: have the budget of the Royal Family when it comes
• 33:38
  Speaker 5: to employing video, even.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: If it's just and he has came themselves.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: And I want to know people and leadership and who
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: what you stand for matters more than anything now and
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: so to be able to talk to the people. I
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: mean in the past, if you had had leaders perhaps
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: like Howard and Tony Blair in the UK who were
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: using social media, we would know, you know, they would
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: have worked well on it. I think Howard for totally
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: different reasons than Blair would have, but you cannot underestimate that.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: But more more than that, they need cohesion in the party.
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: They can all.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: You know, they can be different factions, of course, but
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: you need to be able to unite because how can
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: we believe in them if they don't believe in each other.
• 34:20
  Speaker 6: That's the reality problem.
• 34:21
  Speaker 5: And that's what I say about from the length of
• 34:23
  Speaker 5: the MCG, you've got the breadth of views.
• 34:27
  Speaker 6: Actually depth of views.
• 34:28
  Speaker 5: Would be another matter, because I don't think there's that
• 34:31
  Speaker 5: much conviction in too many of them. But you know,
• 34:34
  Speaker 5: it's all about ambition, not conviction. But you've got an
• 34:37
  Speaker 5: issue where you've got people that shouldn't be in the
• 34:41
  Speaker 5: Liberal Party or technically I should be using my left hand,
• 34:43
  Speaker 5: because they are too far in this direction and their
• 34:46
  Speaker 5: views are not reflective of MENSI and liberalism. They're not
• 34:50
  Speaker 5: reflective of certainly conservative. But then you've also got those
• 34:54
  Speaker 5: on the right who's they are so conservative in their viewpoints. Again,
• 34:58
  Speaker 5: i'd suggest it's not deeply rooted conviction, but appealing to
• 35:02
  Speaker 5: a sliver of the electorate.
• 35:04
  Speaker 6: But it's too broad a church.
• 35:06
  Speaker 5: You cannot have everyone supporting each other when fundamentally they
• 35:11
  Speaker 5: disagree on some of the very fundamental issues.
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: But that's the challenge of the leader, and that's to
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: unite the party and one on the.
• 35:21
  Speaker 5: Far right is going to bring together the moderate wig
• 35:23
  Speaker 5: of the Liberal Party.
• 35:24
  Speaker 6: Absolutely not.
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: I do think there is still things that unite the
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: Liberal Party and there are core things they could focus
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: on that are easy and.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: You don't defense, education, housing.
• 35:34
  Speaker 6: And actually don't agree on housing. They don't agree on
• 35:37
  Speaker 6: a lot of these problem The.
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: Broad Church model is what will potentially save the Liberal
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: Party because they are being cannibalized on the right by
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: one Nation, But they also.
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: Have to win back teal seats.
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: You do need that diversity of views now, but you
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: have to do what Howard and Costello managed to do,
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: which was have the broad Church, but keep the ship united.
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: And that's the challenge for Susan.
• 35:58
  Speaker 5: The Church was never that broad I can assure you
• 36:00
  Speaker 5: back then the Church was not.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: But it's not just a challenge to the Liberal Party.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: It's actually a challenge to democracy because if we have
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: a weak part as weak as we have, then we
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: have a problem with the mobs.
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: So we moved on to Trump.
• 36:13
  Speaker 5: But yeah, obviously Trump the made for television president.
• 36:17
  Speaker 6: How good every every moment of the day. You just
• 36:20
  Speaker 6: never know what you're going to get with Trump.
• 36:22
  Speaker 5: But I think some of the highlights of Trump's second
• 36:24
  Speaker 5: term this year have really come to the fall when
• 36:26
  Speaker 5: you look at the relationships that he's had throughout the year,
• 36:30
  Speaker 5: and particularly the relationships.
• 36:31
  Speaker 6: That have been up and down.
• 36:33
  Speaker 5: Whether you've got his relationship, you know, his classic relationship
• 36:37
  Speaker 5: with Musk, the absolute bromance of the century that ended
• 36:42
  Speaker 5: with a breakup that is just of epic proportions.
• 36:46
  Speaker 6: I mean, it was a thing of beauty to look.
• 36:48
  Speaker 5: At those two go through this romance together, the appointment
• 36:51
  Speaker 5: to doge, how they ves, how they built that relationship
• 36:55
  Speaker 5: and were so close in every facet there he was
• 36:58
  Speaker 5: Elon Musk with his kids, the kid with the I
• 37:01
  Speaker 5: think that his name's like letters or something with an
• 37:05
  Speaker 5: odd number thrown in or whatever. But in the Oval
• 37:07
  Speaker 5: office with Trump, and then the next thing, maskers is
• 37:11
  Speaker 5: referring to the Epstein files. I mean, it was just
• 37:13
  Speaker 5: a breakup of epic.
• 37:14
  Speaker 6: Proportions, divorce lawyer's dreams.
• 37:17
  Speaker 5: But then he's also had his relationship with Zelensky, and
• 37:20
  Speaker 5: you've seen what happened with that relationship, and I think
• 37:23
  Speaker 5: it's really indicative as well. The relationships that we think
• 37:27
  Speaker 5: and we guess would be strong with Trump quite often
• 37:30
  Speaker 5: go the other way, and then you've got him having
• 37:33
  Speaker 5: it go at Kevin Rudd, which I think was one
• 37:36
  Speaker 5: of the highlights.
• 37:37
  Speaker 6: Andrew Clenell, you did really well on that question.
• 37:39
  Speaker 5: I think we might have a clip of that that
• 37:41
  Speaker 5: we can show you, just to refresh your memory.
• 37:45
  Speaker 4: Concern in Australia that it's taken nine months to get
• 37:48
  Speaker 4: this meeting. Have you had any concerns with this administration
• 37:51
  Speaker 4: with a stance on Palestine, climate change or even things
• 37:55
  Speaker 4: the ambassador said about you in the past. He's strain
• 37:57
  Speaker 4: an ambassador.
• 37:58
  Speaker 6: I don't know anything about him who said bad.
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: Then maybe he'll like to apologize. I really don't know
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: an ambassador to say something bad about it.
• 38:06
  Speaker 6: Don't tell me, I don't where is he?
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: Is he still working for me? Yeah, you said bad.
• 38:15
  Speaker 4: Before I took this positions to prison.
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: But I don't like you either, and probably never will know.
• 38:24
  Speaker 5: But you know, we then here that you know all
• 38:26
  Speaker 5: is now well between Trump and Rudd. But I think
• 38:29
  Speaker 5: the new governor of New York, Mayor of New York, MANDARMI.
• 38:33
  Speaker 5: I think we all expected that to be quite a
• 38:35
  Speaker 5: tumultuous meeting. Yet there was all the love in the
• 38:37
  Speaker 5: room there. It's just bizarre how these relationships work with Trump.
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it really is.
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: And I mean I think that Rudd Trump moment is
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: going to be one of the moments that defines twenty
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: twenty five because you can't.
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: Script this stuff just it's truly my way.
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: And just to then viality TV and to watch Kevin
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: Rudd's face like you almost feel bad for him, and
• 39:01
  Speaker 3: then you don't, and then you're like that, well, that's
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: not my problem. But the Zoraan stuff as well, when
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: you think, oh, they're going to have this terrible relationship,
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: we have another grab from that meeting and it surprised everyone.
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: Are you for me that you think.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: President Trump's a fascist?
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: I've spoken about that's okay, Okay, that's easier.
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: It's easier than explaining it better.
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: But just so Bizarren, I think when we look back
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: at Trump, because it's always interesting after you, you know, ten
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: twenty years after you've had a president or a prime minister,
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: there is a culture to who they are and it
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: only settles in history. You can't really grasp it at
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: the time. I think that, but you know, I'm gonna
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: have a go. I think that when we look back
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: at Trump, what we will actually appreciate is how amusing
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: and unpredictable he was. Look, there's things I don't want
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: for to stay. I don't want us to have the
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: language that he uses. I don't want the kind of
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: basicness of you know, you did bad. You know that
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: it's really not adding to our vernacular, and I would
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: like some more sophistication. But as to the Elon Musk
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: and the Trump partnership, it was risk taking. It was energetic.
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: We called it a romance, but things happened those was
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: an interesting proposition. It was filtered around the rest of
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: the globe. You know, the fact he can have a
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: relationship or a friendship with the New York mayor who's
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: a socialist that says to me that he's a man
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: at times that can really open up the agenda, not
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: go the way that we think he's going to go.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: And then you look at the work he's done the
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: Middle East. It has been astonishing. So you look at
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: the relationships and then you look at the work, and
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: it'll be really interesting in ten years time to look back.
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: You know, you look at Borsh, you look at Clinton,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: you look at Obama, and they all stand for something.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: Quite often they stand for failures in the Obama's case, of course,
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: with issues around healthcare, that it didn't push through some
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: of the things that he's so badly wanted. When we
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: measure Trump, I'm sure there will be a smile at
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: the bottom of the paperwork with a little a smiley face,
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: because he at least has amused.
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I mean one who hasn't amused. In twenty
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: twenty five, Prince Andrew another major event of the last year,
• 41:07
  Speaker 3: truly unprecedented to see him stripped of his royal titles.
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: He's been a prince since birth, the child of Queen
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: Elizabeth the Second, but now he's been stripped of his
• 41:17
  Speaker 3: royal titles and removed from the Royal Lodge. Angela, you've
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: come jumping in, well, tell us, I was outside.
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: I worked in London and when Princess Diana died and
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: I thought there would never be a bigger story than
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: covering that story for British newspapers as I did, and
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: I you know, I've covered everything from Charles's interview with Dimblebef,
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: the Panorama interview, which of course the BBC has, you know,
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: got those vironments, got that interview by Nefarius means, but
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: nothing prepared me for the Andrew story, for the nature
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: of the Andrew story, but more importantly than that, how
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: the monarchy dealt with it. Now, in the past things
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: work glacially. If you think about when Diana died, the
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: British government Alistair Campbell and Tony Blair had to convince
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: the Queen to both run the flag at half Mass
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: and to get the Queen back to London from Scotland.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: Now Here we have Andrew and the monarchy actually acting decisively.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: They stripped him of his titles, they stripped him of
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: his military positions. He's only a man of sixty five.
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: He could live for another thirty years. We still have
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: the material coming out from the Epstein files, and they
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: come out week after week after week, and they are
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: particularly damning. The way the monarchy has dealt with this
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: has been extraordinary inso much as the action has secured
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: the monarchy because had they not dealt with this the
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: way they had of and still of course, court cases
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: and police investigations around Andrew are still still ongoing. Had
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: they not done that, I think the monarchy would have
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: been in severe jeopardy.
• 42:55
  Speaker 5: I think it's so reflective as well, like you were
• 42:57
  Speaker 5: just talking about social media and the importance of through
• 43:00
  Speaker 5: on social media. When you look at Will's and Kate
• 43:03
  Speaker 5: and how they have conducted themselves and their performance, they
• 43:07
  Speaker 5: have a much greater understanding of the immediacy of social
• 43:10
  Speaker 5: media and the new cycle now than probably Queen Elizabeth
• 43:14
  Speaker 5: and Prince Charles now King Charles ever did.
• 43:16
  Speaker 6: And so I have no doubt that there's.
• 43:18
  Speaker 5: A lot of influence and you would have a lot
• 43:20
  Speaker 5: more expertise in this area than me, But you know,
• 43:23
  Speaker 5: Will would be having a lot more influence over his
• 43:25
  Speaker 5: father here to.
• 43:26
  Speaker 6: Say that's it. You got to Oh, absolutely, you've got
• 43:29
  Speaker 6: to pull the band aid off. You've got it.
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: And the time monarchy was the biggest thing he said.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: He said we were going to have a small royalty
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: when he becomes king. That says speaks volume.
• 43:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, someone who doesn't understand social media, or maybe
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: they do now. Actually was the Astronomers CEO and his
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: head of HR who went to the Coldplay concert and
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: they were caught.
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: Canoonling on camera. Have a look or don't have a look.
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: But you don't even need to see it because you
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: know exactly what I'm talking about without even seeing it.
• 44:03
  Speaker 6: No one needs a refresher.
• 44:05
  Speaker 3: This one, I think the biggest culture of twenty twenty five.
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: Just look at that, that is burned into our memory forever.
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: Well, how do you think this changed the year?
• 44:19
  Speaker 6: Well, just so many things come to mind.
• 44:22
  Speaker 5: A probably the hypocrisy of some people reporting on this
• 44:26
  Speaker 5: matter and condemning them of having an extramarital affair you
• 44:30
  Speaker 5: don't like, that's never happened before. But the fact that
• 44:33
  Speaker 5: it's also the head of HR. When HR likes to
• 44:36
  Speaker 5: get involved in any relationships within a workplace so quickly,
• 44:41
  Speaker 5: but usually not being at the center of them. But
• 44:43
  Speaker 5: the fact of the matter is, I think their reaction
• 44:46
  Speaker 5: made it so much of a bigger story because I
• 44:48
  Speaker 5: think if they'd have just let it go for the
• 44:50
  Speaker 5: five seconds or three seconds that it would have been
• 44:52
  Speaker 5: on them, a couple of people that might have seen
• 44:54
  Speaker 5: them might have noticed. But the fact that it went
• 44:56
  Speaker 5: global in the way that it did. But yeah, it
• 45:01
  Speaker 5: was a Coldplay concert. Who wants to go? If anyone
• 45:04
  Speaker 5: asked me out on a date to a Coldplay concert,
• 45:05
  Speaker 5: it will be an absolute night.
• 45:08
  Speaker 6: I'm not a cold Play.
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So you know, each to their own. Oh, free
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: tickets please, you can go for me then if so,
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: I thank you, Holly. My issue with this story is that, yes,
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: it was a massive global moment and everybody was interested
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: in it. I laughed at it, and then I felt
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: a bit ikey, and I tried to wonder. I tried
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: to examine why I felt a bit ikey when I
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: when I and I think what it came down to
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: is judgment. That what happens when we see a massive
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: social media pylon, and everybody is at risk of this
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: now because of the role that citizen journalism is constantly playing,
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: and of course we saw that with the Bondai massacre.
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: Stories play out differently now they If that had not
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: been captured by somebody at the concert, we wouldn't have
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: known about it. But I think it's not only our
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: ability to but it's our ability to always be certain
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: of what we think about it. We have lost the
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: ability to be uncertain, to wonder, oh, actually, I wonder
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: if anything was going on, what you know? How do
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: we know? We didn't know the nuance of it. And
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: of course this woman christ and Cabot did an interview
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: with in The Times just a couple of weeks ago.
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: Very press managed pr managed and what she spelled out
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: was this most distressing situation where her children were completely distressed, crying,
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: she couldn't get a job. Very very sad situation. And
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: it shows what a global pilon can do to somebody's
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: life and that level of bullying or not bullying, but pilons.
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: It's worrying.
• 46:36
  Speaker 5: And you know when the media snap smells blood in
• 46:39
  Speaker 5: the water, they will not let.
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: It go exactly.
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: Well, another just quickly, another moment that defined twenty twenty
• 46:44
  Speaker 3: five was celebrities venturing into space. Katie Perry went on
• 46:49
  Speaker 3: board a flight to space and was up there for
• 46:52
  Speaker 3: I believe a grand total of eleven minutes with Jeff
• 46:55
  Speaker 3: Bezos's wife as well, filmed some fun content, and then
• 47:00
  Speaker 3: came down and acted like she had just you know,
• 47:03
  Speaker 3: smashed the glass ceiling for women. Incredible breakthrough, a major
• 47:07
  Speaker 3: advancement for humanity.
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: A little bit crazy.
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: So my mum burned O Brah for this as modern feminism.
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: That makes me so sad.
• 47:16
  Speaker 6: It looks like a film clip.
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: I know it honestly could be a green screen.
• 47:21
  Speaker 3: Well, we're going to go to a break now, but
• 47:22
  Speaker 3: coming up after the break, we're going to bring you
• 47:25
  Speaker 3: a touching tribute to Matilda, the youngest victim of the
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: Bondai massacre. Welcome back to the program. Well, this New
• 47:36
  Speaker 3: Year's Eve feels very heavy in many ways. We're two
• 47:41
  Speaker 3: weeks on from Bondai and you can still feel the
• 47:45
  Speaker 3: pain from that tragedy and I don't think that will
• 47:48
  Speaker 3: be forgotten ever by Australians. But there have been some
• 47:53
  Speaker 3: very moving and touching displays from members of the public
• 47:59
  Speaker 3: down in in La Peruse. Someone who's built a beach
• 48:03
  Speaker 3: toy box to go on the beach and have kids
• 48:05
  Speaker 3: toys in it, and they've painted bees on the box
• 48:09
  Speaker 3: in honor of Matilda.
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: She went to school just nearby down in La.
• 48:13
  Speaker 3: Perus, and it's just beautiful to see people doing something
• 48:17
  Speaker 3: like that for someone they don't know. But it shows
• 48:19
  Speaker 3: you even as we head into this new year, I
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: think we're all still heavy in our hearts.
• 48:24
  Speaker 5: I think that shows the spirit of community and the
• 48:26
  Speaker 5: real resilience, and particularly for children, it's important that they
• 48:29
  Speaker 5: see that resilience.
• 48:31
  Speaker 6: But I think it's just beautiful.
• 48:32
  Speaker 5: It's a grandma that's made this toy box or toy library,
• 48:37
  Speaker 5: and it's her grandkids that have painted the bees on
• 48:39
  Speaker 5: and I think that's such a beautiful tribute to Matilda,
• 48:42
  Speaker 5: but it's also really inclusive of those kids and shows
• 48:44
  Speaker 5: the strength and resilience of kids and the love within
• 48:47
  Speaker 5: the community.
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: And I think tonight of those parents going into the
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: end of the year, they had no idea that going
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: to Hahna Caparti was going to end in this way,
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: and they will end the year with the daughter that
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: they loved. And I think I just I hope for
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: them peace. I hope for them a country that will
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: join together next year and will show the camaraderie that's
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: required to make sure that we get through this and
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: we get the answers that are necessarily exactly right.
• 49:14
  Speaker 3: Well, thank you so much for joining us this evening,
• 49:17
  Speaker 3: Happy New Year. We will be ringing in twenty twenty
• 49:20
  Speaker 3: six tonight, but of course our hearts are still very
• 49:23
  Speaker 3: heavy with everything that's happened over this last year. But
• 49:26
  Speaker 3: thank you for joining us.