Transcript

Credlin | 9 December · Credlin

0:00
Speaker 1: Peedo Kredlin live on Sky News Australia.
0:07
Speaker 2: Welcome the show, a huge show for you tonight. Here
0:09
Speaker 2: is what's coming up on Kredline. Three days later, the
0:13
Speaker 2: authorities are finally labeled the fire bombing of the Melbourne
0:15
Speaker 2: Synagogue as a terror attack.
0:17
Speaker 3: Now, why the delay?
0:18
Speaker 2: Why has the Prime Minister been slow to call his
0:21
Speaker 2: National Security Committee of cabin together and why the refusal
0:25
Speaker 2: to allow the opposition leader? Are police briefing the latest
0:28
Speaker 2: news poll out today reports the vote the Prime minister
0:31
Speaker 2: is the weakest they've had in decades. It's a shocking
0:34
Speaker 2: assessment from voters. There's a lot of chicken rounce back
0:37
Speaker 2: from in politics, but weakness isn't one of them.
0:41
Speaker 3: Class.
0:42
Speaker 2: With Syrian rebels capturing Damascus and Basha Alasad fleeing the country,
0:46
Speaker 2: where to next for the Middle East? Are we joined
0:49
Speaker 2: by a strategic analysts later in the show to break
0:52
Speaker 2: down the power vacuum that's now been created. The Alisade
0:56
Speaker 2: regime was brutal but a lot of real concerns.
0:58
Speaker 3: Now for what comes next?
1:01
Speaker 2: And Peter Darton today visiting the Adas Israel Synagogue, vowing
1:06
Speaker 2: to crack down on anti Semitism I'll be speaking to
1:09
Speaker 2: the Opposition leader later in the program.
1:12
Speaker 4: The fact that the counter Terrorism Task Force and the
1:17
Speaker 4: AFP weren't engaged immediately at the Prime Minister's direction, I
1:21
Speaker 4: just think it's without president. It was obvious from the
1:25
Speaker 4: start that this was a terrorist attack.
1:28
Speaker 2: Peter Upton speaks about a lot of things, including the
1:31
Speaker 2: Australian flag.
1:32
Speaker 3: He won't miss what he's had to say there.
1:34
Speaker 2: But first, no mystery behind the Prime Minister's collapsing polls
1:38
Speaker 2: as more and more voters regard him as out of
1:41
Speaker 2: touch and weak because he is out of touch and
1:45
Speaker 2: he is weak. A strong and decisive leader would never
1:49
Speaker 2: have allowed this country to suffer through increasing ways of
1:52
Speaker 2: anti Semitism, culminating in a domestic terror incident in the
1:56
Speaker 2: early hours of Friday morning, as a Melbourne synagogu was
2:00
Speaker 2: fire bond with people inside CCTV showing marks ben spreading
2:05
Speaker 2: accelerant around the building and then setting it a light
2:10
Speaker 2: and a leader in touch with the national mood would
2:12
Speaker 2: not have waited until almost four days later to deal
2:15
Speaker 2: with it publicly, as it finally did today fronting a
2:18
Speaker 2: press conference with ministers and officials, but really should have
2:22
Speaker 2: been held on Friday morning as the events of the
2:26
Speaker 2: synagogue became clearer. Now I'm also dumbfounded as to why
2:30
Speaker 2: he waited until today to convene his National Security Committee,
2:35
Speaker 2: the body with all the intelligence agencies and experts around
2:39
Speaker 2: the table. Why is it taking the Prime Minister so
2:41
Speaker 2: long to get the NSC together. When the Linter siege
2:46
Speaker 2: happened in Sydney, then Prime Minister Tony Abbott well, he
2:49
Speaker 2: convened the NSC within hours, and the NSC continued to
2:54
Speaker 2: meet day and throughout the night as the siege was
2:58
Speaker 2: finally brought to an end at around two thirty in
3:01
Speaker 2: the morning. And yet under this Prime Minister, there's no
3:05
Speaker 2: time for a weekend security meeting, but he can find
3:08
Speaker 2: time for a game of tennis, something he was asked
3:11
Speaker 2: about today by the media given the.
3:14
Speaker 3: Visit to Perth.
3:15
Speaker 5: Was it a misjudgment to be playing tennis on the
3:17
Speaker 5: Saturday morning when the community.
3:19
Speaker 6: Well, I wasn't playing tennis on the Saturday morning. Tis,
3:22
Speaker 6: I wasn't playing tennis on the Saturday morning.
3:24
Speaker 3: Wrong, Yeah, that is wrong.
3:26
Speaker 7: I had this a view on Facebook.
3:28
Speaker 6: I had six appointments on Saturday after they had concluded
3:33
Speaker 6: late in the afternoon.
3:34
Speaker 3: I did some exercise.
3:36
Speaker 6: That's what That's what people do.
3:40
Speaker 2: Sorry, if you've got time to play tennis in the afternoon,
3:43
Speaker 2: you've took time to get back on your plane. You've
3:46
Speaker 2: got a raft jet, get back on your plane and
3:48
Speaker 2: get across to the eastern side of the country. As
3:51
Speaker 2: I wrote in my newspaper column yesterday, imagine if a
3:55
Speaker 2: mosque was firebombed during Friday prayers. Do you really think
3:58
Speaker 2: the government's response could have waited until Monday? Well Tony
4:03
Speaker 2: Abbott or John Howard have gone off to play tennis
4:06
Speaker 2: rather than taking their plane back to Melbourne and meeting
4:09
Speaker 2: with officials in the Jewish community Victorian police. I think
4:14
Speaker 2: we all know the answer to that, don't we. For
4:16
Speaker 2: almost four days, the weakened, diminished man running our country
4:20
Speaker 2: couldn't bring himself to call this synagogue bombing a terror attack,
4:25
Speaker 2: claiming that that's the job.
4:26
Speaker 3: For the police commissioner. I'll give you the memo.
4:29
Speaker 2: Real leaders don't refuse to state the bleeding obvious or
4:33
Speaker 2: claim that it's.
4:33
Speaker 3: Someone else's job to do it. Real leaders lead.
4:38
Speaker 2: It's no wonder that Anthony Albanese's Newspole rating for being
4:42
Speaker 2: strong and decisive has fallen five points to forty four percent,
4:47
Speaker 2: compared to Peter Dutton on sixty percent. Now, this is
4:51
Speaker 2: a lower score for a prime minister since two thousand
4:53
Speaker 2: and eight, when news poll first began to measure.
4:57
Speaker 3: Strong and decisive week and morally confused.
5:01
Speaker 2: It's about the only way to describe our Prime minister's
5:04
Speaker 2: leadership since the October seven atrocity last year. Indeed, his
5:08
Speaker 2: whole government's been twisting itself into knots to appear as
5:12
Speaker 2: a unity ticket of extreme leftists who see Israel as
5:16
Speaker 2: some outpost of settler colonialism and inflammists who want to drive.
5:21
Speaker 3: All Jews into the sea.
5:24
Speaker 2: Just this morning, Chris Bowen got himself into all sorts
5:27
Speaker 2: of trouble trying to insist that Islamophobia is no less
5:32
Speaker 2: a problem than anti Semitism, even though it's only synagogues
5:36
Speaker 2: that have been firebombed and Jewish areas vandalized.
5:40
Speaker 8: He said that they shouldn't be that Islamophobia shouldn't be
5:43
Speaker 8: mentioned in the same sentence as the Prime Minister has done.
5:46
Speaker 8: If James Patterson thinks there's no as Lamophobia in Australia,
5:49
Speaker 8: he's wrong.
5:49
Speaker 1: He didn't say that, though he said that when something happens,
5:52
Speaker 1: it should be enough to just denounce.
5:55
Speaker 8: Anti semitism, and he went on to say that they're
5:57
Speaker 8: not at the same levels the polilament.
6:00
Speaker 1: Minut Are you saying they are at the same levels
6:02
Speaker 1: because we've just seen a targeted attack on a synagogue.
6:04
Speaker 8: I'm saying, Patricia, that both exist, and I'm saying that
6:07
Speaker 8: both can be called out.
6:10
Speaker 3: You are a clown Bowen.
6:12
Speaker 2: I also want to draw your attention to this outrageous
6:14
Speaker 2: slur from Labor grub Minister Murray what claiming Josh Fredenberg's
6:19
Speaker 2: criticism about the government's woeful response and anti semitism was
6:23
Speaker 2: somehow Fredenberg playing politics, not the response of a concerned
6:28
Speaker 2: Jewish Australian.
6:30
Speaker 9: I respect the fact that mister Friedenberger is of the
6:33
Speaker 9: Jewish faith and he has very strong feelings about this,
6:35
Speaker 9: but I don't think we can separate the fact that
6:37
Speaker 9: he has a very long career as a Liberal Party
6:40
Speaker 9: politician and is that that is no doubt one of
6:42
Speaker 9: the reasons he's made these comments.
6:46
Speaker 2: She's bob hawked in like anti semitism. He's not playing
6:49
Speaker 2: politics and was he? I mean, that's a low blow
6:53
Speaker 2: for even Murray what over the weekend the Jewish labor
6:57
Speaker 2: mpe Josh Burns Well, he was booed at a Jewish
7:00
Speaker 2: vigil in Melbourne. He then went on to apologize for
7:03
Speaker 2: his party's handling of the anti Semitism crisis. He said,
7:07
Speaker 2: and I quote there's more to be done. You can
7:10
Speaker 2: say that again, but what can never be undone is
7:15
Speaker 2: the government's soup pine response on this issue. Thus, far
7:20
Speaker 2: from October seven last year onwards, the prime ministers consistently
7:24
Speaker 2: failed to call out anti Semitism without linking it in
7:27
Speaker 2: the same breadth to the all but non existent Islamophobia.
7:32
Speaker 2: Within scarcely a fortnight of the harmas atrocity, Senior Minister
7:36
Speaker 2: Tony Burke, who's got twenty five percent of his electorate
7:40
Speaker 2: as Muslim voters, well, he said that harmas terrorism has
7:44
Speaker 2: to be seen in its historical context. Now he was
7:48
Speaker 2: cheered for those comments at a Queensland festival, saying that
7:52
Speaker 2: the history of the Middle East and I quote did
7:55
Speaker 2: not begin on the.
7:56
Speaker 3: Seventh of October.
7:58
Speaker 2: In all the Prime Minister's trap and he loves to
8:01
Speaker 2: go overseas, unlike the leaders of other countries like the US,
8:04
Speaker 2: the UK, France and Bauer, Well, he's never found time
8:07
Speaker 2: to stop even for a couple of hours in Israel,
8:11
Speaker 2: and when his Foreign Minister Penny Wong visited there earlier
8:14
Speaker 2: this year, she refused to visit any of the massacre sites.
8:19
Speaker 2: It took our Prime Minister, let's not forget, nearly a
8:21
Speaker 2: fortnite to call his Israeli counterpart after the worst attack
8:25
Speaker 2: on Jews since the Holocaust. Yet he was on the blow,
8:28
Speaker 2: or wasn't he within twenty four hours after an Australian
8:31
Speaker 2: had been killed in an Israeli air strike that went
8:34
Speaker 2: horribly wrong, even ordering an inquiry into it, not into
8:38
Speaker 2: the Hamas misdeeds, but into how Israel had handled a
8:43
Speaker 2: terrible accident. After fourteen months of hate speech, illegal encampments, frequent, large,
8:50
Speaker 2: aggressive and disruptive protests, not a single hate preacher has
8:55
Speaker 2: been charged or deported, and not a single disruption has
9:00
Speaker 2: been banned or dispersed. It's as if the Labor Party
9:04
Speaker 2: in power almost everywhere across the country sees calling for
9:09
Speaker 2: the extermination of Jews from the river to the sea
9:12
Speaker 2: is just a bit of over the top retric rather
9:15
Speaker 2: than the advocating of genocide, which it surely is.
9:21
Speaker 3: And for any leader of this.
9:22
Speaker 2: Country to all but excuse terrorism inducing hatred, which is
9:27
Speaker 2: what anti Semitism is, as something that's been around a
9:31
Speaker 2: long time, as a Prime minister did on Friday, Well
9:36
Speaker 2: this is gutless and repugnant not to Australian Jews alone,
9:42
Speaker 2: but to all of us, to every Australian, regardless of
9:46
Speaker 2: our faith. The only way to describe Labour's moral compass
9:50
Speaker 2: on this issue is deranged.
9:53
Speaker 3: Imagine the reaction.
9:54
Speaker 2: If the gas the Jews, the f the Jews protest
9:57
Speaker 2: is back on October nine the Opera House had been
10:02
Speaker 2: equally vociferous about gay people, or people with the disability,
10:06
Speaker 2: or god forbid, Indigenous Australians, there would instantly have been
10:12
Speaker 2: multiple arrests. But letting it run as he did allow the.
10:18
Speaker 3: Store to fester.
10:19
Speaker 2: The saw has a fested and Friday is what happens
10:24
Speaker 2: when hate is all but sanctioned by the state. Because
10:28
Speaker 2: it's not just weakness that our Prime minister's displayed, it's
10:31
Speaker 2: double standards too, and Australians know it. I believe it's
10:37
Speaker 2: why he's got one almighty reckoning coming his way when
10:41
Speaker 2: eventually he does call that election. I lots of news around,
10:50
Speaker 2: not just stoughts happening in Melbourne, but right around the country.
10:53
Speaker 2: I'll go to Camber now for the headlines. Sky Andese
10:55
Speaker 2: political reporter cam.
10:56
Speaker 10: Reddin Friday's ars an attack on Melbourne's synagogue formally declared
11:02
Speaker 10: a terrorist incident.
11:04
Speaker 11: I am very confident that we now have had an attack,
11:08
Speaker 11: a terrorist attack on that synagogue.
11:10
Speaker 10: The AFP responding with a new Anti Semitism task Force
11:14
Speaker 10: following a string of attacks in Sydney and Melbourne.
11:18
Speaker 12: Counter terrorism investigators who will focus on threats, violence and
11:22
Speaker 12: hatred towards the Australian Jewish community and parliamentarians.
11:26
Speaker 7: The national terrorism threat level remains it probable.
11:29
Speaker 10: Opposition leader Peter Dutton visiting the site.
11:32
Speaker 4: I'm very sorry for what the community's gone through so
11:34
Speaker 4: candor how much Jesus Man containing dreadful thirteen months.
11:37
Speaker 10: The Prime Minister will follow later this week, but has
11:40
Speaker 10: been forced to return serve on criticism after he was
11:44
Speaker 10: snapped playing tennis on Saturday afternoon while on a tour
11:48
Speaker 10: of Western Australia.
11:50
Speaker 6: I had six appointments on Saturday. After they had concluded
11:54
Speaker 6: late in the afternoon, I did some exercise.
11:57
Speaker 10: Within days. The coalition will unveil the cost of its
12:00
Speaker 10: nuclear power plan. Ahead of the announcement, top science agency,
12:04
Speaker 10: the CSIRO, has updated its figures to suggest nuclear would
12:08
Speaker 10: cost twice as much as renewables.
12:11
Speaker 4: Looks to me like there's a heavy hand of Chris
12:14
Speaker 4: Bowen and all of this.
12:15
Speaker 12: I don't care what he says about me.
12:16
Speaker 8: I couldn't give two hoots, but it makes my blood
12:20
Speaker 8: boil when he attacks the integrity and independence of the CSIRA.
12:25
Speaker 10: Cameron Reddin's Sky News Canberra.
12:29
Speaker 2: All right, in a moment, we're going to cover all
12:31
Speaker 2: the stories making headlines today. But before we do, given
12:34
Speaker 2: her exclusive access today to the Addas Israel Synagogue in Melbourne.
12:39
Speaker 2: I want to read my colleague Sharry Markson, who joins
12:41
Speaker 2: me now here in Melbourne. Charry, I know you're going
12:44
Speaker 2: to cover this in great detail tonight, but you've been
12:47
Speaker 2: given exclusive access to the fire bomb synagogue in Melbourne.
12:52
Speaker 2: I've seen some of the pictures, show some to my
12:55
Speaker 2: viewers tonight. You'll talk about this on your program, but
12:58
Speaker 2: it's an artist scene of devastation.
13:00
Speaker 3: It really is.
13:01
Speaker 1: And I think because a lot of the footage has
13:03
Speaker 1: been from outside the Adashed Synagogue, you just don't realize
13:07
Speaker 1: how devastating the destruction has been until you walk through it.
13:12
Speaker 1: The first thing that hits you is the overwhelming smell.
13:15
Speaker 1: I mean, a synagogue is a place of beautiful music,
13:20
Speaker 1: beautiful harmonious singing, children running up and down the stairs, mums.
13:24
Speaker 3: Telling them to be quiet.
13:26
Speaker 1: Walking through this today, deserted, destroyed. What touched me the
13:32
Speaker 1: most was seeing the prayer books, hundreds of them, burnt
13:37
Speaker 1: on the ground. I mean, to me, it was reminiscent
13:39
Speaker 1: of krystal Nacht, the Night of broken Glass, the synagogue's
13:43
Speaker 1: destroyed in the Holocaust era. But also you know the
13:46
Speaker 1: story we remember it Knukah of the synagogues destroyed more
13:51
Speaker 1: than two thousand years ago in the Roman Empire. That again,
13:55
Speaker 1: just walking through this burnt out synagogue with the prayer
13:59
Speaker 1: books on the ground, it brought that back so strongly.
14:02
Speaker 1: As a jewet was so horrifying to see when I
14:05
Speaker 1: walked through, because basically no one has been in there
14:08
Speaker 1: since the fire, now declared a terrorist attack. On Friday morning,
14:12
Speaker 1: someone else who's a member of the synagogue who spends
14:15
Speaker 1: a lot of time there, came in at the same
14:17
Speaker 1: time as us, a grown man tears were just rolling
14:21
Speaker 1: down his face.
14:22
Speaker 3: This is such a tragedy and it's a desecration.
14:25
Speaker 2: I mean, I think that's definitely regardless of what faith
14:28
Speaker 2: you have, if your place of worship is reduced to rubble,
14:31
Speaker 2: which this is. And I think when people heard there'd
14:34
Speaker 2: been a fire in the synagogue, they thought, you know,
14:37
Speaker 2: perhaps some scorching around the center Dais or you know,
14:41
Speaker 2: in my parlance as a Catholic, you know, some damage
14:44
Speaker 2: to the altar. But this is a bomb. It is
14:48
Speaker 2: a fire bomb, but it is a bomb, and there
14:50
Speaker 2: are perpetrators still at large, and there isn't a sense
14:53
Speaker 2: of urgency from the authorities.
14:55
Speaker 1: I mean, the Prime Minister had to be forced into
14:58
Speaker 1: some sort of action today.
15:00
Speaker 3: It's been fourteen months.
15:01
Speaker 1: We've been warning him, you and I and other sky hosts,
15:04
Speaker 1: we've been warning him that something terrible was going to happen.
15:08
Speaker 3: I'm scared there might be more.
15:09
Speaker 1: And it's good that he acted today, But a task
15:13
Speaker 1: force been what about cracking down on the hate speech
15:16
Speaker 1: that happens every single weekend that's made our cities no
15:19
Speaker 1: go zones? You know, why aren't there any prosecutions over
15:22
Speaker 1: hate speech or deportations Jerry.
15:25
Speaker 3: One hundred percent.
15:26
Speaker 1: And what about the judicial inquiry into anti Semitism at
15:29
Speaker 1: university campuses that the Albanezy government voted against when the
15:32
Speaker 1: Coalition put it up, when Julian and Lisa put it up.
15:35
Speaker 1: There's so much more they could do on this. The
15:37
Speaker 1: Prime Minister has been playing tennis, he's had his eye
15:39
Speaker 1: off the ball.
15:40
Speaker 3: He still hasn't visited. It's been four days.
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Speaker 1: This is a terror attack and the Prime Minister hasn't visited.
15:47
Speaker 3: It's a disgrace.
15:49
Speaker 2: I know that the Melbourne Jewish community, the Victorian Jewish
15:52
Speaker 2: community are going to take a lot of heart from
15:54
Speaker 2: you being down the state today. They feel as Jews
15:58
Speaker 2: do it around the country. Of course, I feel under siege.
16:00
Speaker 2: So good on you for making the trip down here,
16:03
Speaker 2: and thanks. We'll watch show it ow o'clock. Thank you,
16:06
Speaker 2: don't miss it. Plenty of exclusive footage. As I said,
16:08
Speaker 2: she's been inside the synagogue today, she's spoken to everyone
16:11
Speaker 2: who has suffered through the events of the last few days.
16:14
Speaker 2: So there you go, shery Marks. At eight o'clock tonight,
16:17
Speaker 2: I'm going to cover this terror event. Obviously with Peter
16:19
Speaker 2: Dutton coming up in a moment, so let's go to
16:21
Speaker 2: some other headlines now.
16:22
Speaker 3: I'm joined by Sky News political reporter Cam Reddin.
16:25
Speaker 2: Daily Telly's reporter out of Cydney, James Willis. Welcome to
16:29
Speaker 2: you both, Cam. The Bureau of Metarology warning today of
16:32
Speaker 2: a long hot summer ahead caution though they warned about
16:36
Speaker 2: this last year and it didn't eventuate, but it certainly
16:38
Speaker 2: feels like it's coming. We've had some high tempts already.
16:42
Speaker 2: We're being told because of that, we've got to prepare
16:44
Speaker 2: for rolling power blackouts.
16:47
Speaker 3: They say.
16:48
Speaker 2: The renewable energy system we have will stall. The Victorian
16:52
Speaker 2: energy minister recently approved a forty five percent tax hike
16:57
Speaker 2: for power companies, even though she warned, as will we
17:01
Speaker 2: pass through to those customers, This is outrageous.
17:08
Speaker 3: Yea.
17:08
Speaker 10: And the explanation for this, Peter, is that they needed
17:10
Speaker 10: more money for the state's energy regulator. This is the
17:13
Speaker 10: body that oversees the entire network, but in particular they
17:16
Speaker 10: look at renewables projects. So as more of them come online,
17:19
Speaker 10: it's the regulator's job to make sure that they're connected,
17:22
Speaker 10: that things are working properly, that there's somebody watching the
17:25
Speaker 10: whole roll out, and as a result, they've gone looking
17:27
Speaker 10: for money. They've said it's unviable with the current budget,
17:30
Speaker 10: so the government's gone to tap the industry. So that's
17:32
Speaker 10: the reason they've done it. But as best as I
17:34
Speaker 10: can tell, there isn't a safeguard in place to protect
17:38
Speaker 10: consumers from those higher taxes then being passed on to them.
17:41
Speaker 10: There's not a no pass on rule, if that's even possible,
17:44
Speaker 10: if you like. So that's the reason that consumers in
17:47
Speaker 10: Victoria may see a direct bump in their bills from this.
17:51
Speaker 10: In terms of what relief might be forthcoming, we know
17:53
Speaker 10: that state governments have been rolling out in some cases
17:57
Speaker 10: in the Queensland, for example, thousands of dollars in rebut
18:00
Speaker 10: the Albanezer government federally mindustanding is still considering another round
18:04
Speaker 10: of energy rebates. That may not though come in my
18:07
Speaker 10: EFO next week. Peter the Treasurer is playing down that
18:10
Speaker 10: is a big opportunity for announcements, So there may be
18:13
Speaker 10: something a bit closer to the election, but in the
18:15
Speaker 10: meantime they may have to wait for a bit more relief.
18:19
Speaker 3: Cam do we ever confirmed day for my AFO.
18:22
Speaker 10: Yet, believe it's the middle of next week. Peter I'll
18:26
Speaker 10: have to double check the day, but my understanding is
18:29
Speaker 10: it will be next week, so right in the run
18:31
Speaker 10: up to Christmas. As I know a lot of people
18:33
Speaker 10: will be on holidays from sort of the end of
18:34
Speaker 10: next week, but it will be next week at least
18:37
Speaker 10: announce that.
18:38
Speaker 3: Is what they would be hoping.
18:40
Speaker 2: All right, let's go to the whole issue with the
18:43
Speaker 2: Environmental Defender's Office, the Federal Coalition. They want it investigated
18:48
Speaker 2: by the National Anti Corruption Commission. Their concern about overseas donations,
18:53
Speaker 2: foreign donations being provided to the EDO, and concerns they
18:57
Speaker 2: may have influenced the conduct of public officials. This is
19:01
Speaker 2: all about the gas case. The project and the team
19:04
Speaker 2: will see that Santos was moving on but had been
19:08
Speaker 2: hit with legal action in relation to claims of Indigenous
19:11
Speaker 2: heritage James. In that case, of course, the EDIO was
19:15
Speaker 2: slammed by the judge, accused of distorting and manipulating documents,
19:19
Speaker 2: accused of coaching witnesses, accused of confecting evidence. But they
19:25
Speaker 2: still get millions and millions of state and federal government funding.
19:30
Speaker 5: Yeah, Peter, this is crazy, And when you really break
19:33
Speaker 5: this down, it is hard to believe that taxpayers you
19:36
Speaker 5: and I are actually funding this kind of activism to
19:41
Speaker 5: take place against companies that are legitimately trying to invest
19:44
Speaker 5: in Australia. Now, it's hard enough to get some of
19:47
Speaker 5: these gas projects or some of these projects over the
19:49
Speaker 5: line when you have to jump through all of the
19:52
Speaker 5: hoops along the way, only for the EDO to turn
19:55
Speaker 5: around and fight this tooth and nail while taxpayers actually
20:00
Speaker 5: fund this action. The Teewee Island cases a disgrace and
20:03
Speaker 5: if anyone reads the judgment basically as you've outlined, there
20:07
Speaker 5: were witnesses that were coached, there were dodgy maps, there
20:10
Speaker 5: were inaccurate accounts of meetings with traditional owners which were
20:15
Speaker 5: ultimately thrown out in the end. But the fact that
20:17
Speaker 5: there are foreign companies and billionaires overseas are including the
20:21
Speaker 5: people behind Patagonia, one of the popular but very green
20:25
Speaker 5: and woke brands that are giving millions of dollars on
20:28
Speaker 5: top to help fight this activism. I mean, forget the
20:31
Speaker 5: corruption watchdog, forget an inquiry. The whole thing should be
20:34
Speaker 5: blown up. Why are taxpayers funding this and stopping legitimate
20:38
Speaker 5: projects from getting over the line.
20:39
Speaker 3: I just think the whole thing's crazy.
20:43
Speaker 2: Let's stay in a related issue cam in Victoria, traditional
20:46
Speaker 2: owners they do not want consultation to be public. In
20:50
Speaker 2: relation to the Mount Arapolese Park decision, you remember, it's
20:55
Speaker 2: been very controversy. You're banning people from climbing on the rock.
20:59
Speaker 2: The government and oppression in Victoria said well, look we're
21:01
Speaker 2: going to revisit this, we'll have another look at it,
21:03
Speaker 2: we'll have public consultations. But the indigenous leaders they don't
21:08
Speaker 2: want public consultations. They want it behind closed doors, and
21:11
Speaker 2: they don't want what they are calling, quote the views
21:14
Speaker 2: of the radical rock climbing minority to be factored in.
21:20
Speaker 10: Yeah, and viewers will remember, Peter, there was a similar
21:23
Speaker 10: dispute around the rock climbing on Ularu about five years ago,
21:27
Speaker 10: and after a long process, the result there was that
21:29
Speaker 10: rock climbing was banned altogether. My understanding in this case,
21:32
Speaker 10: it's about half the park that's being looked at to
21:35
Speaker 10: be locked away, and Parks Victoria said originally, well, we
21:39
Speaker 10: don't actually have to consult as part of the legislation.
21:41
Speaker 10: They could have just gone through anyway. But once this
21:44
Speaker 10: started becoming an issue, they did run this consultation process
21:48
Speaker 10: and the Parks of Victoria the boss of that has
21:50
Speaker 10: left in recent weeks, so there's a change at the
21:52
Speaker 10: top that's further complicating matters. It goes to show Peter
21:55
Speaker 10: whenever an issue like this pops up, and we've made
21:57
Speaker 10: this point when it comes to the Bladey gold Mine,
21:59
Speaker 10: for example in New South Wales, that whenever there isn't
22:02
Speaker 10: from the get go very open, very consultative processes in place,
22:07
Speaker 10: if the community doesn't feel like they've had to say,
22:10
Speaker 10: you've almost set yourself back from the get go, and
22:13
Speaker 10: now it's almost trying to retrofit this process of consultation
22:16
Speaker 10: and every as well if you don't get it right
22:18
Speaker 10: off the blocks. And it's just another example in a
22:20
Speaker 10: long running list of these kind of cases.
22:24
Speaker 2: James quick one before we go, the civil case from
22:27
Speaker 2: that car accident involving the wife a former Victorian Premier
22:31
Speaker 2: Daniel Andrews, looks to enter the Supreme Court next year.
22:35
Speaker 3: There was mediation today, it failed. It go to trial.
22:39
Speaker 3: Now I'm not saying it's well, let's just leave.
22:42
Speaker 2: It for the courts. I'll leave it there, but this
22:45
Speaker 2: is not going away at all for the Andrews family.
22:48
Speaker 2: And there's also these reports that have been popping up
22:50
Speaker 2: in the media in Melbourne that basically he can't get
22:53
Speaker 2: the former premier a booking in any restaurant in town.
22:56
Speaker 2: He rings up, we're told, and is then told in
22:59
Speaker 2: no uncertain to by the restauranteur to go packing calm
23:03
Speaker 2: against you.
23:04
Speaker 3: Eventually doesn't It certainly does.
23:06
Speaker 5: And there's a few golf courses that don't want him
23:08
Speaker 5: as well. And I have heard those same reports. But
23:10
Speaker 5: to be honest, Peter, when you've locked down your state
23:13
Speaker 5: for almost the longest period in the world, then you
23:17
Speaker 5: sow what you reap. It may be time for Dan
23:19
Speaker 5: Andrews to move into state if anyone will have him.
23:23
Speaker 3: All Right, we'll leave it there, James, thank you very much.
23:26
Speaker 3: All right, after break?
23:27
Speaker 2: Why is the Prime Minister still yet to convene in
23:29
Speaker 2: the National Cabinet, especially now that the synagogue attack's been.
23:32
Speaker 3: Declared a terror event?
23:33
Speaker 2: Plus Peter Dutton joins me soon he'll talk leadership, terrorism,
23:37
Speaker 2: migration and more. Welcome back Composition Leader Peter Dutton coming up.
23:46
Speaker 2: Wide ranging interview, will of course talk about the issues
23:49
Speaker 2: in relation to the Melbourne synagogue, but it could be
23:52
Speaker 2: in a couple of weeks. He's in an election campaign.
23:55
Speaker 2: Is he ready to go? I ask him some tough
23:57
Speaker 2: questions about gas and some other policies, but let's get
24:01
Speaker 2: into other things now. Bad poles keep coming from labor.
24:05
Speaker 2: The latest News poll shows the Albanezi government still six
24:07
Speaker 2: points behind the coalition on primary vote, while the parties
24:10
Speaker 2: are again neck and neck fifty to fifty on two
24:12
Speaker 2: party preferred. Perhaps most telling, though, is the fact that
24:15
Speaker 2: voters now consider Anthony Albanezi the weakest prime minister in decades,
24:20
Speaker 2: trailing Peter Dutton's, who's perceived to be stronger and more decisive.
24:25
Speaker 2: For more of this, I'm joined down by Sky News
24:26
Speaker 2: contributor Chris Yelman. Well, in campaign terms, Chris, I don't
24:31
Speaker 2: reckon there's anything worse when I run a campaign for
24:33
Speaker 2: your boss to be labeled week and out of touch.
24:37
Speaker 3: It's hard to come back from that because these.
24:40
Speaker 2: Are emotional judgments coming from the voter. They're not railing
24:44
Speaker 2: against a new tax or some sort of policy decision
24:47
Speaker 2: you can fix. This is a character based assessment. What
24:52
Speaker 2: did you make of these sort of assessments today?
24:57
Speaker 11: Well, Peter, the primers selects clarity, he lacks definition. We
25:00
Speaker 11: always knew that he was a bad performer from the
25:02
Speaker 11: last election. He doesn't appear to have got a new bed.
25:04
Speaker 11: And if I could quote revelations, be either hot or cold,
25:07
Speaker 11: or I'll spitch you from my mouth. And I think
25:09
Speaker 11: that's what we're seeing with the electorate at the moment.
25:12
Speaker 11: If you can't pick a position and stick to a position,
25:14
Speaker 11: then people will begin to wonder what it is that
25:17
Speaker 11: you stand for. I think with something like the terror
25:19
Speaker 11: attack which we clearly saw, the Prime Minster should have
25:22
Speaker 11: called it a terror attack. Now he can wait for
25:24
Speaker 11: the agencies to start to make their assessments of it.
25:28
Speaker 11: But if an attack on a synagogue at a time
25:30
Speaker 11: when there's heightened tensions everywhere around the world and particularly
25:36
Speaker 11: inside Australia that we have seen, if a fire bomb
25:38
Speaker 11: of attack on a synagogue isn't an act of a
25:41
Speaker 11: terror and you wonder what actually it is. And the
25:44
Speaker 11: Prime mister shouldn't have taken as long as he did
25:46
Speaker 11: to at least come to that conclusion.
25:48
Speaker 3: But I think the.
25:49
Speaker 11: Lack of clarity in the end goes to the lack
25:51
Speaker 11: of clarity in your own mind. He is torn at
25:53
Speaker 11: the moment between the fight within his own party, which
25:56
Speaker 11: is more or less pro Palestinian and the fear that
25:58
Speaker 11: he has of the green and those electrics in Western
26:01
Speaker 11: Sydney and how they might break. So I think that
26:04
Speaker 11: explains his lack of definition.
26:08
Speaker 2: We were playing tennis in the afternoon. I mean he
26:10
Speaker 2: made the point to Dad his press conference.
26:12
Speaker 3: He got quite ttchy.
26:13
Speaker 2: Now I've been to all these other appointments, he says,
26:15
Speaker 2: I had six things in my diary here. But mate,
26:18
Speaker 2: you still finish the day playing tennis. Why do you
26:20
Speaker 2: get on the plane you have a plane at your
26:22
Speaker 2: disposal and get across to a community in Melbourne who
26:26
Speaker 2: are desperate to see some leadership.
26:29
Speaker 11: Yeah, those images, as we know Peter, can be very
26:32
Speaker 11: very damaging. It goes back to that statement too that
26:35
Speaker 11: we heard from Scott Morrison, remember the picture of him
26:38
Speaker 11: on the beach at the time of the bushfires and
26:40
Speaker 11: saying that he didn't hold a hose. Mate, Well, that
26:42
Speaker 11: actually could be one of those kinds of images, one
26:45
Speaker 11: of those kinds of moments for Anthony Albanzi. Now, I
26:49
Speaker 11: do think that our community is very split on this.
26:51
Speaker 11: The problem the Prime Minister has got is he needs
26:53
Speaker 11: to work out where he stands on this and to
26:55
Speaker 11: make that very clear and I would have thought that
26:57
Speaker 11: from the outset, the very clear message that you send
27:00
Speaker 11: is obviously there's a lot of pain in the community.
27:02
Speaker 11: There are views on either side, but it is utterly
27:05
Speaker 11: unacceptable that the people in Australia are frightened in their
27:09
Speaker 11: own schools and their own houses of worship, and that
27:12
Speaker 11: anyone who approaches anywhere near a house of worship or
27:16
Speaker 11: a school with the intent of trying to cause disruption there.
27:20
Speaker 3: There are existing laws.
27:21
Speaker 11: We don't need new laws. Like the Victorian police are
27:23
Speaker 11: happy to shoot people with plastic bullets because they were
27:26
Speaker 11: turning out during COVID. So where are the laws being applied?
27:30
Speaker 11: The laws as they stand now.
27:35
Speaker 2: I have to show you a picture. I picked it
27:37
Speaker 2: up online. I think it's worth putting on air tonight.
27:40
Speaker 2: This is a photo of Pope Francis inaugurating a Nativity
27:44
Speaker 2: scene at the Vatican. Now it has gone viral because
27:47
Speaker 2: it shows Baby Jesus laying on a cafea Now it's
27:51
Speaker 2: part of a series of Nativity scenes designed by Palestinian
27:54
Speaker 2: artists from Bethlehem. I've been to Bethlehem. I've been to
27:58
Speaker 2: the Church of a Nativity in Bethel. I didn't see
28:01
Speaker 2: a kafa anywhere inside that church. I find this As
28:05
Speaker 2: a Catholic christ I find it offensive, I find it political.
28:08
Speaker 2: I also find it historically inaccurate because let's not forget
28:12
Speaker 2: Jesus was born a Jew or has the pope forgotten that?
28:17
Speaker 11: Yeah, and even more importantly, he died a Jew. Don't
28:20
Speaker 11: forget that it was Peter and Paul who essentially set
28:23
Speaker 11: up the church. So when that church was being set up,
28:25
Speaker 11: it was a Jewish sect which morphed into the religion
28:29
Speaker 11: of Christianity. So that is absolutely its foundation stone. And look,
28:34
Speaker 11: there are many views things that this particular pope does
28:37
Speaker 11: that I find somewhat baffling. But the thing that I
28:41
Speaker 11: think of when I see a kafa is the fact
28:43
Speaker 11: that that it was Yasser Arafat who really made that
28:46
Speaker 11: the kind of uniform of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. And
28:49
Speaker 11: Yasser Arafat twenty five years ago was given the opportunity
28:53
Speaker 11: to have a settlement which would have given the people
28:56
Speaker 11: of Palestine East Jerusalem as their capital, ninety six percent
29:01
Speaker 11: of the West Bank and four percent of Israel, and
29:03
Speaker 11: he walked away from that deal. So that's one of
29:07
Speaker 11: the things that symbolizes for me is the missed opportunities
29:11
Speaker 11: that were given to the Palestinians to make a state
29:15
Speaker 11: of their own, and that, for me, among one of them,
29:17
Speaker 11: was one of the great tragedies of history.
29:20
Speaker 3: But it was a.
29:20
Speaker 11: Deliberate decision by leadership to walk away from a peace settlement.
29:27
Speaker 3: Thank you, Chris.
29:28
Speaker 2: You might remind you, your niece's, nephew's grandchildren, all of
29:31
Speaker 2: those that are watching the show that when we get
29:33
Speaker 2: to Christmas, of course, and your grandkids want to tell
29:36
Speaker 2: you that the Jesus stolen the land in Palestine.
29:40
Speaker 3: Let's not forget.
29:40
Speaker 2: At Christmas time we celebrate the birth of a Jew
29:44
Speaker 2: two thousand plus years.
29:46
Speaker 3: Ago, in that very era, all right.
29:49
Speaker 2: Ever, since October ninth, when that anti Israel mob took
29:52
Speaker 2: the steps to the Opera House, our Jewish community in
29:55
Speaker 2: this country have been desperate for leadership. They've called out
29:58
Speaker 2: for leadership.
30:00
Speaker 3: Now.
30:00
Speaker 2: Sadly, since that night, things have gone from bad to worse.
30:02
Speaker 2: Anti Semitism allowed to festa for over a year now,
30:06
Speaker 2: culminating in.
30:07
Speaker 3: The shocking events of last Friday. So where to now?
30:10
Speaker 3: How do we turn this around?
30:12
Speaker 2: Joining me now, the co CEO of the Executive Council
30:15
Speaker 2: of Australian Jewelry Alex Rivkin.
30:18
Speaker 3: Alex, we get that press.
30:20
Speaker 2: Conference today about time involving politicians and the police, but
30:25
Speaker 2: we're still getting very little detail about the event's last
30:28
Speaker 2: Friday morning.
30:29
Speaker 3: I know my colleague, I've spoken to her.
30:31
Speaker 2: Showy Markson's been inside the burnt synagogue today. There are
30:35
Speaker 2: reports that bullets were also found in the ashes. We
30:39
Speaker 2: know there were perpetrators that have been seen on CCTV.
30:43
Speaker 2: They are now terrorist actors and they are at large
30:49
Speaker 2: in the Australian community.
30:51
Speaker 3: What can you tell us in terms of these events.
30:55
Speaker 7: Well, basically what you've reported there, Peter. We know at
30:58
Speaker 7: this stage we're here that there's three suspects, but further
31:02
Speaker 7: details aren't being revealed. We have heard that there was
31:04
Speaker 7: a bullet or bullet casing found at the scene. There
31:08
Speaker 7: was extensive damage obviously to the synagogue, to the premises.
31:10
Speaker 7: There were two individuals inside. Orthodox Jews tend to come
31:14
Speaker 7: to synagogue very early in the morning to do their
31:16
Speaker 7: prayers before they go to work. It's a miracle that
31:20
Speaker 7: there weren't more people then that nobody was killed. This
31:23
Speaker 7: is clearly an act at the very least a despicable
31:26
Speaker 7: hate crime intended to terrorize our community, and at worst
31:29
Speaker 7: it's an act of terror. It took the Prime Minister
31:32
Speaker 7: a long time to I think, come to that realization,
31:34
Speaker 7: which is really typical of his approach to this issue
31:37
Speaker 7: for fourteen months now. But the community is clearest to
31:41
Speaker 7: what's happening to us. We're clear as to the exclusion
31:45
Speaker 7: that we're feeling in society. We're clearest to the fact
31:48
Speaker 7: that Jews are being pushed out of professions, are feeling
31:50
Speaker 7: unsafe in their place of worship, in their homes and
31:53
Speaker 7: their schools, and the fact that we are where we
31:55
Speaker 7: are in Australia in this time. This is not a
31:58
Speaker 7: Jewish concern, something that is a blight on our freedom
32:01
Speaker 7: and our democracy and our multiculturalism in this country.
32:06
Speaker 2: What about personal security, alex Because the Prime Minister announced
32:10
Speaker 2: more funding and we spend, sadly in this country many
32:13
Speaker 2: millions of dollars trying to keep Jewish schools and places
32:16
Speaker 2: of worship safe. More money is on the table now,
32:19
Speaker 2: but calls from the opposition to allow Jewish institutions the
32:22
Speaker 2: flexibility of armed guards. The Prime Minister says, you can't
32:27
Speaker 2: use that money for armed guards. How does your organization,
32:31
Speaker 2: your community feel about that.
32:34
Speaker 7: Well, no Jewish Australian wishes to see schools looking like
32:38
Speaker 7: penitentiaries and kindergartens requiring guards, some of them armed, standing
32:44
Speaker 7: out the front of those institutions. These are places that
32:47
Speaker 7: want to welcome people. Synagogues for those who've been into
32:50
Speaker 7: a synagogue, a warm, embracing, welcoming places, their place of
32:54
Speaker 7: song and solemn reflection and tradition and joint celebration. We
32:57
Speaker 7: want to welcome people. But we have for years in
33:00
Speaker 7: this country, and especially the last fourteen months, received specific threats,
33:04
Speaker 7: intelligence that has been conveyed to us about risks that
33:07
Speaker 7: the community faces, and unfortunately, as a result of these
33:10
Speaker 7: sorts of measures are necessary. But the fact that after
33:13
Speaker 7: this assault on a synagogue, an assault on all of us,
33:17
Speaker 7: the solution that's proposed is higher walls, more fences, more guards.
33:22
Speaker 7: It's again, it's an indictment on this society that this
33:25
Speaker 7: is necessary, and the fact that it's been allowed to
33:28
Speaker 7: come to this, it's so predictable. We've seen this progression.
33:31
Speaker 7: You mentioned the opera house steps where they were burning flags.
33:34
Speaker 7: They went from burning flags to burning electric officers, to
33:37
Speaker 7: burning cars, and now burning synagogues. Anyone could have seen
33:40
Speaker 7: this could happen. And the fact that it's been allowed
33:43
Speaker 7: to happen. The fact that we as a community have
33:44
Speaker 7: been crying out for meaningful reform, for leadership for fourteen
33:49
Speaker 7: months and this has been allowed to happen. The fact
33:51
Speaker 7: that a community of proud Australians whose roots are traced
33:54
Speaker 7: back to the First Fleet, who are loyal to this country,
33:58
Speaker 7: who love this country, having to be fearful and question
34:01
Speaker 7: their future in this society. It's an immense failure of government.
34:06
Speaker 7: We've had over three hundred percent increase in instance in
34:09
Speaker 7: the past year and this government has presided over that.
34:12
Speaker 7: And it requires action. That's why we've called for meaningful action,
34:15
Speaker 7: to move beyond words, to actually do something to solve
34:19
Speaker 7: this crisis.
34:22
Speaker 2: Alex, I know it's just words from me, but as
34:25
Speaker 2: a non Jewish Australian, I can tell you we are
34:28
Speaker 2: ashamed at the treatment of Jewish Australians by the governor,
34:32
Speaker 2: lack of action, lack of leadership, and.
34:34
Speaker 3: We stand with you.
34:35
Speaker 2: I know my audience does, and I know many people
34:37
Speaker 2: who read my columns and things in the paper may
34:39
Speaker 2: contact with me. So please rest assured. If the Prime
34:43
Speaker 2: Minister doesn't have your back, we do.
34:45
Speaker 3: Thank you for you, thank you. It's horrific, horrific.
34:49
Speaker 2: History tells you exactly what happens when you start Bernie
34:51
Speaker 2: Flaggs as Alex did. Then you trash synagogues and you
34:54
Speaker 2: have terror attacks all.
34:55
Speaker 3: Right after break.
34:56
Speaker 2: The man who could be Prime Minister in a few
34:58
Speaker 2: months time joins me, Opposition leader Peter Dutton.
35:05
Speaker 3: Welcome back to the calm.
35:07
Speaker 2: What exactly do we know about the group that took
35:09
Speaker 2: over Syria on the weekend. What does it mean for
35:11
Speaker 2: the broader Middle East conflict with a genuine concern about
35:15
Speaker 2: some of the al Qaeda elements that are involved. First,
35:19
Speaker 2: I want to stick with what we're seeing in Melbourne
35:22
Speaker 2: with the Opposition leader Peter Dutton today doing what the
35:25
Speaker 2: Prime Minister should have done, visiting the synagogue in the city.
35:30
Speaker 2: Joining me now is the Opposition leader Peter Dutton. Peter,
35:33
Speaker 2: welcome to the program. Thank you for your time. I
35:37
Speaker 2: want to start with a news poll today voters regard
35:39
Speaker 2: the Prime Minister as the weakest prime minister in decades.
35:44
Speaker 3: Now are they right?
35:46
Speaker 2: Given the synagogue attack has now been declared a terrorism event,
35:50
Speaker 2: what would you have done differently?
35:55
Speaker 4: Well, Peter, it's great to be on the show, so
35:56
Speaker 4: thank you. I think it's obvious to all Australians over
35:59
Speaker 4: the course of the life two and a half years
36:01
Speaker 4: they ended up with something very different than what they
36:03
Speaker 4: voted for in twenty twenty two. Our national security is weaker,
36:07
Speaker 4: our economy is weaker, and Australian families are saying to
36:11
Speaker 4: themselves that they just couldn't afford another two and a
36:13
Speaker 4: half another three years ahead of this bad government. So
36:16
Speaker 4: I think in relation to this specific issue, it's clear
36:19
Speaker 4: the Prime Minister should have stood up a multi agency
36:24
Speaker 4: arrangement to start with a task force to deal with
36:28
Speaker 4: anti Semitism. We've had a seven hundred percent rise in
36:31
Speaker 4: anti Semitic conduct over the course of the last thirteen
36:35
Speaker 4: fourteen months and the Prime Minister has been trying to
36:37
Speaker 4: please a domestic political audience and the problem there is
36:40
Speaker 4: that you just can't walk both sides of the street,
36:42
Speaker 4: which is what the Prime Minister has tried to do.
36:47
Speaker 2: And it's not just defensive to Jewish Australians Pedadat, it's
36:49
Speaker 2: offensi to all Australians. I understand you sought a briefing
36:53
Speaker 2: from the Australian Federal Police on Friday in the aftermath
36:56
Speaker 2: of this attack, but that briefing request was refew Now
37:00
Speaker 2: you've called for an urgent national security meeting, You're called
37:03
Speaker 2: for that over the weekend. It didn't happen until today.
37:07
Speaker 2: I made the point of the top of the show.
37:08
Speaker 2: During Sydney's Lynt siege, I remember NSC meeting multiple times
37:13
Speaker 2: during that day and well into the night. That's not
37:17
Speaker 2: what's happened here. What's going wrong in Canberra.
37:22
Speaker 4: I just don't think the Prime Minister, given that he's
37:25
Speaker 4: never worked in the national security space, he's never held
37:28
Speaker 4: a portfolio that would give him that experience, and it
37:32
Speaker 4: shows he must be shunning the advice of the national
37:35
Speaker 4: security advisors around him. As we know, people from the
37:40
Speaker 4: National Security Committee were excluded from the National Security Committee composition,
37:46
Speaker 4: which means that you're not hearing on a regular basis
37:48
Speaker 4: or forming relationships with those closest advisors. And I just
37:53
Speaker 4: don't think the Prime Minister has any instinct when it
37:55
Speaker 4: comes to national security of these matters, And you're right
38:00
Speaker 4: warning James Patterson and I announced that we believe very
38:03
Speaker 4: strongly that there should be an anti Semitism task Force
38:06
Speaker 4: established with the AFP, with OSTRAK, with the ACIC, the
38:10
Speaker 4: Intelligence Commission, as well as other agencies including Border Force,
38:14
Speaker 4: because we should strengthen the five to oh one cancelation
38:18
Speaker 4: provisions under the Migration Act so that people who are
38:22
Speaker 4: non citizens involved in anti Semitic conduct should be kicked
38:25
Speaker 4: out of the country. The Prime Minister has picked that
38:28
Speaker 4: up this afternoon, but it's all too little, too late.
38:33
Speaker 4: I requested a meeting, as you say, with the AFP
38:36
Speaker 4: Commissioner immediately and that was denied to us. I ended
38:41
Speaker 4: up speaking with him earlier today because we'd written again
38:44
Speaker 4: to the Prime Minister that we're still refused a meeting
38:48
Speaker 4: with the Director General of Asia, because I wanted to
38:51
Speaker 4: speak to the Commissioner and speak to the Director General
38:53
Speaker 4: to understand why this hadn't been declared a terrorist incident.
38:57
Speaker 4: Straight up, when you've got a fire bombing of a
39:00
Speaker 4: religious place of worship, well you know you're starting to
39:05
Speaker 4: get a very clear picture very quickly. But the Prime
39:07
Speaker 4: Minister just seem to resist that, and I honestly think
39:10
Speaker 4: it really comes down to him trying to win Green
39:13
Speaker 4: votes in Western Sydney and Inner City Melbourne as well,
39:17
Speaker 4: and that seems to be what drives him at the moment.
39:20
Speaker 4: But he's ostracizing a whole part of the community.
39:25
Speaker 2: And not just the community. I mean, we've seen this
39:28
Speaker 2: picked up internationally. We've seen him rebuke from the Prime
39:31
Speaker 2: Minister of Israel and the President of Israel. I think
39:34
Speaker 2: many of our Ollis in the United States in particular,
39:37
Speaker 2: they feel abandoned by Australia on recent votes for the
39:39
Speaker 2: United Nation. I mean, is it as simple as this
39:42
Speaker 2: being seen through the prism of the Muslim vote in
39:45
Speaker 2: labor electorates in Western City in particular.
39:48
Speaker 3: Is it that simple?
39:51
Speaker 4: I think it's that simple. I think it's about trying
39:53
Speaker 4: to save Tony Burke and save Chris Bowen. I think
39:57
Speaker 4: it's about Tanya Plevsek and Anthony even Easy being Aaronoid
40:00
Speaker 4: about losing their inner city seats to the Greens. And
40:03
Speaker 4: so why would you bring in people from a terrorist
40:06
Speaker 4: controlled zone in Gaza in the thousands without doing the
40:09
Speaker 4: proper security checks. Why would you compromise our national security?
40:13
Speaker 4: And I think it's deplorable. It's best to call him out.
40:16
Speaker 4: He doesn't like it because he's got a glass jaw.
40:18
Speaker 4: But that's the reality of what we've got. I just
40:22
Speaker 4: can't imagine any of his predecessors who would have conducted
40:25
Speaker 4: themselves in this.
40:25
Speaker 3: Way, nor can I.
40:29
Speaker 2: I want to move on to some other issues now,
40:31
Speaker 2: some general issues, but before I do, there seems to
40:34
Speaker 2: be some ambiguity with comments he made to my colleague
40:36
Speaker 2: Andrew Klanell. But I claimed somehow that you're walking away
40:41
Speaker 2: from your previous commitments about reducing the migration intake. Noww
40:46
Speaker 2: previously you've said you cut the permanent intake to around
40:50
Speaker 2: one hundred and forty one hundred and sixty thousand people
40:53
Speaker 2: per year.
40:54
Speaker 3: Do you stand by this.
40:58
Speaker 4: Yes, of course we do. I saw some of the boding.
41:00
Speaker 4: I think it first came off an ABC headline, so
41:02
Speaker 4: there's a misrepresentation effort.
41:04
Speaker 3: What was said.
41:05
Speaker 4: There's no change to our policy. We've said that we
41:07
Speaker 4: would cut by about twenty five percent the permanent intake.
41:11
Speaker 4: That would reduce it down to one hundred and forty
41:12
Speaker 4: thousand year one, and again in year two it ramps
41:16
Speaker 4: up to one fifty and one sixty thousand. In year four,
41:19
Speaker 4: it opens up housing, rental accommodation for Australians and in
41:24
Speaker 4: the end I want Australians to achieve hime ownership. I
41:27
Speaker 4: want there to be accommodation for people who at the
41:29
Speaker 4: moment are sleeping raugh were in cars or CouchSurfing, and
41:33
Speaker 4: the government's bringing in a person every forty four seconds,
41:36
Speaker 4: which is unsustainable, particularly given the supply constraints in relation
41:40
Speaker 4: to housing.
41:43
Speaker 2: I know you've got your nuclear costings coming out this week.
41:46
Speaker 2: I won't waste a question on nuclear, but will you
41:48
Speaker 2: have a response a policy on gas this side of
41:52
Speaker 2: Christmas or before the election.
41:56
Speaker 4: I will have a lot to say about gas and
42:00
Speaker 4: way in which that is integrated into a nuclear base
42:04
Speaker 4: load system. There's a lot of gas required in the system, Peter,
42:08
Speaker 4: and as we've said before, it needs to come into
42:10
Speaker 4: the mechanism as well, the capacity mechanism. And if we
42:14
Speaker 4: don't do that, then lights are going out if we
42:16
Speaker 4: don't have base load twenty four to seven power. This
42:20
Speaker 4: fantasy of being able to pretend that the batteries can
42:22
Speaker 4: last for forty hours or four days or whatever it
42:25
Speaker 4: might be of nonsense. They can last for four hours,
42:28
Speaker 4: and we're deindustrializing. Labor is smashing our economy at the moment,
42:33
Speaker 4: and large part because of their renewables only policy, and
42:37
Speaker 4: not only a price is going up. But obviously, as
42:39
Speaker 4: we saw in New South Wales last week, you've got
42:43
Speaker 4: a premiere telling people to turn off their appliances because
42:47
Speaker 4: the network can't carry that load. It's just completely and
42:50
Speaker 4: utterly absurd.
42:53
Speaker 2: I want to ask you one question before we go,
42:55
Speaker 2: and it might seem small in the scheme of things,
42:57
Speaker 2: but honestly, I am constantly having.
43:01
Speaker 3: People raise this issue with me.
43:03
Speaker 2: When I look at you in a press conference, I
43:04
Speaker 2: see there's only one flag behind you.
43:08
Speaker 3: It's our national flag.
43:10
Speaker 2: If you are elected Prime Minister, will that remain the same?
43:16
Speaker 3: Yes, it will.
43:17
Speaker 4: I'm very strongly of the belief, Peter, that we're our
43:20
Speaker 4: country united under one flag, and if we're asking people
43:23
Speaker 4: to identify with different flags, no other country does that,
43:28
Speaker 4: and we are dividing our country unnecessarily. Now. We should
43:31
Speaker 4: have respect for the indigenous flag and the Torres straight
43:34
Speaker 4: hole in the flag, but they are not our national flags,
43:36
Speaker 4: and I think the Prime Minister sends a very confusing message.
43:40
Speaker 4: The Prime Minister is not out there calling out Warlworths
43:42
Speaker 4: and not out there calling the pub so you don't
43:44
Speaker 4: want to celebrate Australia, etc. Because he wants to be
43:47
Speaker 4: all things to warll people, which is why people rightly
43:50
Speaker 4: perceive him as being the weakest prime minister that we've
43:53
Speaker 4: had in our country's history. I think the fact is
43:56
Speaker 4: that we should stand up for who we are, for
43:57
Speaker 4: our values, what we believe in. We are united as
44:01
Speaker 4: a country when we gather under one flag, which is
44:04
Speaker 4: what we should do on AUSTRALIAA. We should value and
44:07
Speaker 4: respect our heritage, and we should also speak a lot
44:10
Speaker 4: more about our migrant story, the incredible story of people
44:14
Speaker 4: who came here, particularly in the post Second World War period,
44:17
Speaker 4: with nothing and have worked hard as tradees, as farmers,
44:23
Speaker 4: and they've educated their children. The next generation has done
44:27
Speaker 4: incredibly well. They've done well themselves. We're a great country
44:30
Speaker 4: today because of that. We don't talk anything of that
44:32
Speaker 4: part of our history. And so that's the view that
44:36
Speaker 4: I've taken.
44:39
Speaker 3: I'm going to hear my audience cheering Peter Dutton. Thank
44:41
Speaker 3: you for your time.
44:43
Speaker 4: Thanks Peter, appreciate it, Thank you.
44:46
Speaker 3: Well.
44:47
Speaker 2: Illly you to one flag all Right after the break,
44:49
Speaker 2: what next to the Middle East? Does the fall of
44:51
Speaker 2: the Assad regime and some of these rebel groups have
44:54
Speaker 2: links or had links to al Qaider, So what are
44:57
Speaker 2: we actually going to get now? Welcome back, let's say
45:05
Speaker 2: now to in the Middle East, where Syria's Assad regime
45:07
Speaker 2: is collapsed. After rebel forces stormed the capital of Damascus
45:10
Speaker 2: on Sunday, President Basha al Assad and his family have
45:14
Speaker 2: reportedly fled to Russia, where they've been granted political asylum.
45:18
Speaker 3: The big question now is.
45:19
Speaker 2: Who or what will fill the political vacuum in this
45:22
Speaker 2: very unstable part of the world. Shore to me now
45:25
Speaker 2: discussed this the director of Strategic in Olys Australia, Peter Jennings. Well,
45:30
Speaker 2: he's ruled Syria Bala a Ala Assad for about twenty
45:36
Speaker 2: four years. Before that, of course, his father was in
45:38
Speaker 2: office from about the early nineteen seventies. Now that he
45:43
Speaker 2: has fled, who or what's going to fill the vacuum?
45:47
Speaker 3: Peter?
45:50
Speaker 12: So, Peter, Syria remains a patchwork of different insurgent groups,
45:56
Speaker 12: tribal groups, great powers with their own interests in that
45:59
Speaker 12: part of the world. The group which has had significant
46:03
Speaker 12: success in taking Damascus is called Hayat Tahrea al Sham
46:09
Speaker 12: or HTS, which we haven't heard of much before. Apparently
46:14
Speaker 12: it's spun out from al Qaeda in twenty sixteen, and
46:19
Speaker 12: it's largely been running Idlib Province, which is a province
46:22
Speaker 12: of Syria, in a way which balances Sunni extremist Islam
46:28
Speaker 12: with somewhat more of a moderate approach. They don't appear
46:32
Speaker 12: to be forming a caliphate or saying that life should
46:36
Speaker 12: be led under Sharia law. And we have a leader
46:40
Speaker 12: in the form of Muhammad al Jelani, who seems quite photogenic.
46:44
Speaker 12: He's giving interviews to the New York Times Peter. On
46:47
Speaker 12: the face of it, they look like a group which
46:49
Speaker 12: is interested in taking power as a political operation rather
46:54
Speaker 12: than as an Islamist caliphate. We'll have to see what
46:58
Speaker 12: comes from that. The other thing which I think is
47:01
Speaker 12: worth mentioning is that there is reporting to say that
47:05
Speaker 12: this group HDS and others around it appear to have
47:08
Speaker 12: a degree of Turkish support, and I think that's interesting
47:12
Speaker 12: because Turkey occupies a long northern border with Syria. It's
47:17
Speaker 12: been fighting for decades Kurdish elements on that border, both
47:23
Speaker 12: north and south of the border. Turkey has a pressing
47:26
Speaker 12: interest in who runs Syria, so it's a welcome change.
47:32
Speaker 12: Alasad was a butcher but I don't think we can
47:35
Speaker 12: assume at this point that the HDS group that's taken
47:38
Speaker 12: over is necessarily going to be better, just different. I
47:42
Speaker 12: think that's where we should start viewing their behavior and
47:45
Speaker 12: we'll see what happens from here.
47:48
Speaker 3: Yeah.
47:49
Speaker 2: After say, when you say they've got to al Qaeda DNA,
47:52
Speaker 2: which is what I'd read earlier over the weekend, I
47:55
Speaker 2: think that's a concern in itself. Talk to me about
47:57
Speaker 2: the Kurds. I suspect this going on, big trouble there,
48:01
Speaker 2: and there's been obviously decades and decades of difficulty, and
48:04
Speaker 2: we know through that corridor from Turkey there was a
48:08
Speaker 2: lot of movements of Westerners radicalize Westerns into Islamic state.
48:14
Speaker 2: What about Iran and all of this as well.
48:19
Speaker 12: So Iran continues to lose badly in twenty twenty four.
48:23
Speaker 12: It's had its proxy forces decimated both in Gaza and
48:27
Speaker 12: in Lebanon, and Hezbola, which has a military presence in Syria,
48:32
Speaker 12: has gave up the fight before they actually had to
48:36
Speaker 12: encounter HTS. This is bad news for Iran strategy to
48:41
Speaker 12: try and strangle Israel by relying on proxy forces like Hezbulas.
48:46
Speaker 12: So a big setback from them for them, and a
48:49
Speaker 12: big setback for Russia. It seems like the Russians may
48:53
Speaker 12: have cut a deal. Whether it's permanent or temporary, we
48:56
Speaker 12: don't know. They didn't fight the HTS group, but they're
49:00
Speaker 12: keeping their air base and their maritime port at least
49:04
Speaker 12: for the moment, or maybe they're just planning a more
49:06
Speaker 12: orderly withdrawal. But the countries that benefit, I think so
49:09
Speaker 12: far we can say is Israel, potentially the United States.
49:15
Speaker 12: The countries that are losing is Iran and Russia and
49:19
Speaker 12: the poor old people of Syria. They lose because they've
49:21
Speaker 12: traded one nasty regime potentially for another.
49:27
Speaker 2: I want to ask you a question in your capacity
49:30
Speaker 2: as someone who's worked at the very highest levels of
49:32
Speaker 2: national security portfolios in government in the past. So we
49:37
Speaker 2: have a ter We now know it as a terror incident,
49:39
Speaker 2: but b Line pretty could have told you that there
49:41
Speaker 2: on Friday morning, we've got a terror incident in relation
49:43
Speaker 2: to this synagogue in Melbourne. The Prime Minister takes three
49:47
Speaker 2: plus days to even convene an NSC meeting.
49:51
Speaker 3: He refuses an.
49:52
Speaker 2: Opposition later request on Friday for an AFP briefing. I
49:56
Speaker 2: understand that was held late today, but he denied it
49:59
Speaker 2: for a number of days. He only announces this multi
50:02
Speaker 2: agency task force on combat Anti Semitism after the opposition
50:07
Speaker 2: demanded he set went up. He's put money on the
50:10
Speaker 2: table for extra security, but he won't allow Jewish leaders
50:12
Speaker 2: to use it for armed guards despite this terror attack.
50:16
Speaker 2: What do you make of that sort of behavior from
50:19
Speaker 2: the Prime Minister.
50:22
Speaker 3: Well, it is a.
50:22
Speaker 12: Case that he's never had the reflexes to deal with
50:26
Speaker 12: national security issues and that's been on display in this event.
50:31
Speaker 12: You know, I asked myself the question, Peter, what would
50:33
Speaker 12: John Howard have done knowing that an attack on a
50:37
Speaker 12: synagogue had taken place? As he got on to an
50:39
Speaker 12: aircraft to fly to Perth, he would have said, as
50:41
Speaker 12: soon as I'm off the plane, I want to have
50:43
Speaker 12: a virtual NSC meeting. That meeting would have had police
50:47
Speaker 12: and other security officials there, and I think could have
50:51
Speaker 12: decided pretty much on the spot, that is to say,
50:54
Speaker 12: by Friday afternoon that this was something to be treated
50:57
Speaker 12: as a potential terrorist attack. And I think John Howard
51:01
Speaker 12: would then have come back to Australia to visit the
51:04
Speaker 12: synagogue on Friday, not this shambolic idea of visiting a
51:09
Speaker 12: totally different synagogue in Perth on Saturday on Shabbat and
51:14
Speaker 12: somehow breaking into a youngster's bar mitzvah. All of this
51:18
Speaker 12: is strategically hamfested and politically ham fisted.
51:23
Speaker 2: You're not you are not wrong. I got all over there.
51:26
Speaker 2: I apologize, Peter, but your spot on. Thank you for
51:28
Speaker 2: your time. All right, I've had had time to see.
51:30
Speaker 2: Tomorrow night at six, here's Andrew