Latest / The Kenny Report / The Kenny Report | 26 August

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The Kenny Report | 26 August · The Kenny Report

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: This is The Kenny Report.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Thanks for joining me tonight.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Expectations increase for another interest rate hike as the Treasurer,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Jim Chalmers, struggles to get inflation under control.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: The Bondi Royal Commission.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Rats up despite calls for an extension and I'll show
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: you a classic case of victim blaming when it comes
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: to anti-Semitism. One Nation's opinion poll surges. We'll discuss where
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: it's all heading with Tom Switzer In the UK, the
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: link between illegal immigrants and crime dominates debate.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: I'll cross to Esther Krakow.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: And in The Wrangle with Justin and James, we'll look
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: at taxi drivers as an endangered species.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Let's get cracking.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: In the political debate, the most important topic at the
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: moment must be the economy. The cost of living crisis,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: the housing crisis, the government debt crisis, rampant government spending,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: high inflation, interest rate rises, escalating energy costs and falling
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: energy reliability and our lack of productivity growth.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: This is what.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Matters to our country now and into the future. The
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Albanese Labor government is not improving any of this. It's
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: only added to costs, regulation, and taxes, and it's done
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: nothing to boost productivity. In fact, it's only constrained it
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: by increasing union power. And there was more bad news today,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: with inflation falling slightly, not as much as markets expected,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: and underlying inflation remaining firm. And not enough of this,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: there's not enough of a fall here to take pressure
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: off interest rates. But, of course, the Treasurer was as
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: smug as ever.
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: But we've seen it come down again for the fourth...
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: consecutive month and underlying inflation was steady as well. So
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: we welcome this moderation in inflation. It does mean that
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: inflation is substantially lower than the budget forecast.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, underlying inflation is steady, i.e. still too high, and
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: the markets felt a little less optimistic than the Treasurer,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: with fears of another interest rate rise before the end
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: of the year growing. A trillion dollars in government debt,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: government spending higher than ever. Half of all households in
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: this country relied on government for most of their income.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: What could possibly go wrong?
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Now, just to emphasise where we are as a nation,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: I want to read... a list of countries to you. Finland,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: the United States, Estonia, Sweden, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: the UK, Latvia, Luxembourg, Canada, Germany, Austria, New Zealand, Lithuania, Hungary,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: the Czech Republic and Japan. All those countries, all 20
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: of them, are doing better than us. Those are the
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: countries that rank higher than Australia on the Business Council
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: of Australia's list of investment competitiveness, a list of countries
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: where it's best and most productive to invest. Australia has
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: slipped four places in recent years. Now, the reason so
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: many countries rank higher than Australia is they have simpler regulation,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: more flexible labour markets and competitive company tax regimes. We're
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: going backwards in all those areas. Plus, we're pushing energy
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: costs higher and we're even demanding not only that new
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: investments like data centres provide their own energy, but that
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: it has to be renewable energy. It's like we're trying
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: to scare investment away rather than attract it. If the
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Coalition is wondering how to surge forward, how to overcome
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Labor and how to leave one nation in the shade,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: then the economy offers endless opportunities. They might even be
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: brave enough to identify where they would shrink government. where
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: they would reduce costs and spending because voters just might
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: be smart enough to know that that's just what's needed.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: I mean, if Albanese and Chalmers can.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Add 45,000 extra public servants without a single person noticing
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: any improvement in any government services, then surely a decent
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: government could implement a public service hiring freeze without any
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: harm being done to government services. The Albanese government is
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: a lost cause, so we desperately need a bold approach
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: from the opposition. The Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: Cohesion wrapped up today. This is the inquiry that Anthony
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Albanese was dragged kicking and screaming into calling in the
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: weeks after the Bondi terror attack. Yet this Royal Commission
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: didn't even hear from the Prime Minister about why he
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: did so little despite early, repeated and powerful warnings and
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: pleas for the government to lead the fight against rising
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: levels of antisemitism, anti-Zionism and Islamist extremism.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Nor did the.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Commission call the hate preachers or protesters who have led
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: the hateful gatherings on the streets of our cities. The
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: inquiry has finished early with a shadow of emissions hanging
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: over it. Unless the Royal Commissioner surprises everyone, it'll be
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: a damp squib, largely a waste of time, except that
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: it has enabled some people to share their experiences. So
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: as the Commission wraps up, let me share with you
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: another example of the sort of victim-blaming that allows anti-Semitism
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: to fester in this country. Listen to author Richard Flanagan
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: at the so-called Festival of Dangerous Ideas.
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: A question needs to be asked. To what extent has
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: the Israel lobby itself contributed to anti-Semitism in Australia by
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: consistently advocating for Israel's war in Gaza... in a highly
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: aggressive fashion, always seeking to identify all Australian Jewish people
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: with Israel's actions and with the lobby's own heavy-handed attempts
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: to silence Australians.
• 6:13
  Speaker 5: Really?
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: We're to get references here to the Israel lobby, always
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: describing Jewish groups as some kind of secret but powerful force?
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, how dare people defend the right of Israel
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: to defend itself? How dare Israel not just sit back
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: and accept innocent civilians being slaughtered by Hamas with terror attacks,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: invasions and rocket bombardments? This talk really is as obscene
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: as it is ludicrous. And Flanagan offers up this odious
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: commentary as some kind of justification for hatred against Jews.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: He seems to be saying that Jews are asking for
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: trouble by sticking up for Israel and challenging some of the.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: Lies told against it.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: It's ugly and ignorant stuff, pushing this blood libel of genocide,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: the lie of genocide, such an absurd proposition that it
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: renders the English language meaningless.
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: As anger around the genocide grew, could it have been
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: the lobby's own acts fueling antisemitism? For the Israel lobby
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: has to answer to all Jews for such acts of
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: grotesque injustice as the unlawful sacking of ABC presenter Antoinette Latouf,
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: a decision Justice Daryl Rangaya found was made quote, to
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: appease pro-Israel lobbyists behind a campaign of complaints after Latouf
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: shared a Human Rights Watch post about starvation being used
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: as a tool of war in Gaza.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: No, honestly, there's so much there, isn't there?
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: Two years of war against Hamas operating within a population
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: of two million people in a dense urban environment, yet
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: the casualties total 70,000, including tens of thousands of terrorists.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: And the whole population has been sustained by food, power,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: water and medical aid.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: Facilitated by Israel.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: Yet people like Flanagan push this grotesque lie of genocide,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: the most incompetent genocide in history, given Israel's power over Gaza.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: And Flanagan supports Latouf's lies about starvation as a tool
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: of war, something that simply was never true.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: These are the lies that fuel hatred.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Yet Flanagan uses them to suggest the victims of anti-Semitism
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: in this country are to blame for the hatred directed
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: at them. This should have been called the festival of
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: obscene ideas. But listen to this bloke on the Bondi massacre.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: He says he doesn't want to focus on the worst
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: terror attack in our history being the alleged manifestation of
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Islamist extremist hatred. Rather, he wants it remembered for the
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: goodness of those who ran to help.
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: In that moment, Australians saw other Australians and rushed to help.
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: That is the story that needs to be remembered. Amidst
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: that terrible horror of that day, it is a good
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: story about who we are and who we are not.
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: And yet it was almost immediately drowned out by the
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: myth of the massacre being the end result of a
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: tsunami of Australian anti-Semitism.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: Of course there were heroes at Bondi, but for the
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: 15 families who lost loved ones and the dozens more
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: seriously injured, not to mention the thousands of others still
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: living in fear.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: None of this is a myth, Richard Flanagan.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: He also demonstrated his poor connection to reality when he
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: said 300,000 people marched across the Harbour Bridge. That's three
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: times the police estimate. And he denied it was anti-Semitic,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: even though it included hate preachers, terrorist symbols, chants for
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: death and a poster of the world's leading sponsor of
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Islamist terrorism and anti-Jewish bile. By the way, Flanagan's victim-blaming
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: bile was shared and endorsed on social media by former
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Foreign Minister and former New South Wales Premier, Bob Carr.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: This is a.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Toxic element of public debate and it's deeply worrying. It
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: shows just how important the Royal Commission is and why
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: it's a pity it's been so brief and superficial. This
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: country's in a mess about what's acceptable and what's not
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: in public debate. Pauline Hanson, you'll know, has been found
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: to have breached racial discrimination laws by telling Senator Maureen
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Faruqi to piss off back to Pakistan after Faruqi said
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: she wouldn't mourn the Queen because she had presided over
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: a racist empire. Yet apparently it's acceptable for a hate
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: preacher to celebrate the slaughter of innocent Israelis.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: Smiling and I'm happy! I'm elated.
• 11:13
  Speaker 6: It's a day of courage.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: And it's apparently within the law to chant threatening abuse
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: at Jews.
• 11:21
  Speaker 6: Where's the Jews?
• 11:23
  Speaker 7: Where's the Jews?
• 11:24
  Speaker 6: Where's the Jews?
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: It's also apparently OK to publicly call for terrorist uprisings
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: against Jews and Israel.
• 11:33
  Speaker 6: Gadigal to Gaza!
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: Globalise the Intifada!
• 11:37
  Speaker 6: One more time!
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: From Gadigal to Gaza!
• 11:40
  Speaker 6: Globalise the Intifada!
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: It was even acceptable, legally apparently, to call for Intifada
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: on the beach at Bondi.
• 11:52
  Speaker 6: And a few months later.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: We got into FADA at Bondi Beach. What we say matters.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Words matter. Public hatred matters. Anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and Islamist extremism
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: have run unchecked for too long and too many people
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: are either hateful or irresponsibly ignorant.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: Right now on these matters, there is no cause for optimism.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Such a sad passing today and a great life to celebrate,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: the passing of a great woman with news breaking overnight
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: that Dolly Parton had died at the age of 80
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: after a short cancer illness.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: What an incredible talent.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Dolly Parton was a singer, songwriter, actress, entertainer, businesswoman and philanthropist.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: She was even a kind of homemade philosopher. If you
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: see someone without a smile, she'd say, give them one
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: of yours. Parton was such a flamboyant personality that sometimes
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: her greatest talent, I reckon, was overlooked, and that is
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: her wonderful songwriting, something she always spoke about in a
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: humble fashion.
• 13:13
  Speaker 8: I'll wake up sometimes from a dream and think, I
• 13:15
  Speaker 8: better get up and write that down or I'll forget it.
• 13:17
  Speaker 8: And I just will either write down a title or
• 13:20
  Speaker 8: sometimes a melody will come to me. I'll put it
• 13:22
  Speaker 8: on tape so I don't forget it. But usually the songs...
• 13:27
  Speaker 8: the words and the music usually come at the same time.
• 13:29
  Speaker 8: I'll just be thinking of something or have a good title,
• 13:32
  Speaker 8: and I'll just think on that, and usually there'll be
• 13:35
  Speaker 8: a kind of melody spinning in my head. Before you
• 13:38
  Speaker 8: know it, I've got a song. They're not all good,
• 13:40
  Speaker 8: I would say. I've probably written at least 3,000 songs.
• 13:42
  Speaker 8: I've probably got three good ones out of that.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: Well, there were many more good ones than that. And
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: let's talk about one of the best. Yeah, that was
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: a big country hit for Dolly Parton, but she was
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: such a canny businesswoman that when Elvis Presley wanted to
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: record it, she was excited but then said no because
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: his management demanded publishing rights.
• 14:25
  Speaker 8: He said, well, then we can't record the song, and
• 14:27
  Speaker 8: I was just heartbroken. I said, well, I'm really sorry,
• 14:31
  Speaker 8: but I can't do that.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: So I didn't.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: That took guts.
• 14:35
  Speaker 9: Well, it didn't to me.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: It seemed to be the thing to do.
• 14:37
  Speaker 8: It hurt me because I was so disappointed that I
• 14:39
  Speaker 8: was going to have to tell my friends Elvis didn't
• 14:41
  Speaker 8: record it. But I just knew that that was not right.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: Still, the song was so good that many, many years later,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: it emerged through a new voice and a new interpretation
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: to be bigger than ever. Dolly Parton had nothing but
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: praise for Whitney Houston and shed a tear when that
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: song was played at Whitney's funeral. She also leaves a
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: huge charity legacy sponsoring education for poor children, especially.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: In her home state.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: And just to highlight how Dolly Parton's musical legacy will
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: live on, have a listen to another one of her
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: classics performed by her goddaughter, Miley Cyrus. Yeah, Dolly Parton's
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: songs and spirit will outlive her by generations. Born in
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: Tennessee and died in Nashville, Tennessee, as a music legend.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: Rest in peace. Dolly Parton.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Let's get back to the Bondi Royal Commission now, and
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: I'm joined on set by the Australia-Israel Jewish Affairs Council
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Executive Manager, Joel Burney. Thanks for joining us, Joel. Quite
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: incredible that this Royal Commission has wrapped up. Hasn't heard
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: from any government ministers, haven't heard from any of the
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: hate preachers.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: What are your thoughts?
• 16:35
  Speaker 10: Look, Chris, you know, at the start, after the greatest
• 16:38
  Speaker 10: terror attack in Australia's history... Two years of an explosion,
• 16:42
  Speaker 10: an increase of the volume of anti-Semitism. I, for one,
• 16:46
  Speaker 10: like many of my colleagues in the Jewish community, begged
• 16:50
  Speaker 10: government to do something about it, knowing that if nothing
• 16:53
  Speaker 10: was done, it would culminate in the events of December 14.
• 16:57
  Speaker 11: Unfortunately, we turned out to be right.
• 16:59
  Speaker 10: And the only solace that we had after that event
• 17:02
  Speaker 10: was calling for a royal commission, the highest judicial body
• 17:05
  Speaker 10: in the land that could investigate exactly what happened and
• 17:08
  Speaker 10: interrogate those who refuse to be interrogated.
• 17:12
  Speaker 11: Now we've got to the end of.
• 17:13
  Speaker 10: The public hearings, over 20,000 submissions, many from a high
• 17:18
  Speaker 10: portion of Jewish Australians have been afforded the opportunity to
• 17:22
  Speaker 10: give their perspectives on antisemitism. Even though there have been
• 17:26
  Speaker 10: some high profile people that haven't been called, Josh as
• 17:29
  Speaker 10: one of them, and for one, I wouldn't mind the
• 17:32
  Speaker 10: education minister to be called and find out what he
• 17:34
  Speaker 10: knew about what was going.
• 17:35
  Speaker 11: On with encampments at university. I wouldn't mind.
• 17:37
  Speaker 10: Minister Burke being called to find out the problems inside
• 17:41
  Speaker 10: the agencies that are under his purview. And ultimately, I
• 17:44
  Speaker 10: wouldn't mind hearing from the prime minister as to the
• 17:47
  Speaker 10: things that went wrong, what he knew, what he did
• 17:49
  Speaker 10: do and what he didn't. However, the vehicle is, is
• 17:52
  Speaker 10: what we have now with the submissions that we have.
• 17:55
  Speaker 10: I'm still hopeful and optimistic, Chris, that at the end
• 17:59
  Speaker 10: of this process is very hard process for our community,
• 18:02
  Speaker 10: that the commission will come with a set of recommendations
• 18:05
  Speaker 10: that will be helpful not just for the Jewish community,
• 18:08
  Speaker 10: but for Australia to move forward.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: Well, all hope now rests, of course, on the Royal Commissioner,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: the former High Court Judge Virginia Bell.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: Here's what she had to say today.
• 18:17
  Speaker 12: I am satisfied that I am currently in a position
• 18:22
  Speaker 12: to give a full and fair account of the term
• 18:26
  Speaker 12: of reference which asks whether, in relation to the Bondi-Harnaker attack,
• 18:32
  Speaker 12: our intelligence and our law enforcement agencies... operated or performed
• 18:39
  Speaker 12: to maximum effectiveness.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: See, this is where I think the whole Royal Commission
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: misses the point. We know it was an intelligence failure.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: We know it was a failure in security. The detail
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: is important.
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: But we know it.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: What it hasn't addressed is those public calls, the political
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: debate for demanding that the government, state and federal, take
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: a lead against Islamist extremism and rising levels of anti-Zionism
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: and anti-Semitism. We just haven't addressed that. That whole public
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: debate aspect has been ignored.
• 19:07
  Speaker 11: Now, I get those concerns.
• 19:09
  Speaker 10: Those concerns are amplified by many of fair-minded people in
• 19:12
  Speaker 10: my community, Chris. But at the end of the day,
• 19:15
  Speaker 10: it appears as though the Commissioner has decided to carry
• 19:17
  Speaker 10: out this commission her way, in a very legalistic manner, where, ultimately,
• 19:23
  Speaker 10: if there have been absences within the process themselves that
• 19:26
  Speaker 10: I or you or others may be debating or deliberating,
• 19:30
  Speaker 10: it doesn't necessarily mean that she doesn't understand the systemic
• 19:33
  Speaker 10: problem of antisemitism in this country. Nor does it mean
• 19:36
  Speaker 10: that she won't be able to make recommendations, which is
• 19:39
  Speaker 10: the start of a very long process that we as
• 19:42
  Speaker 10: Australians and this great nation of ours needs to go
• 19:44
  Speaker 10: on that path.
• 19:45
  Speaker 11: So, again, I understand the concerns. I'm open to them,
• 19:49
  Speaker 11: but I am.
• 19:50
  Speaker 10: I am still deeply optimistic that hopefully the demands of
• 19:54
  Speaker 10: the Jewish community in terms of this vehicle of the
• 19:56
  Speaker 10: Royal Commission will ultimately come out with something positive.
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: At the end. Let's hope so.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: I want to get your thoughts on Richard Flanagan, the author,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: and what he's had to say. You, by extension, I presume,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: are part of the Israel lobby that he refers to
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: that he seems to think is all-powerful in this country.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: But he's effectively saying that it's not the lies about
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: genocide in Gaza that are the problem. The problem is
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: that Jews and Israelis and supporters of Israel... defending those
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: lies as exposing those lies rejecting those lies that's the
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: problem that draws hatred towards jews this to me seems
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: perverse yeah jews.
• 20:36
  Speaker 10: We have been collectively punished for what people perceive uh
• 20:39
  Speaker 10: israel is doing um any attachment that we have to
• 20:42
  Speaker 10: the historic self-determination of the jewish people or our biblical
• 20:47
  Speaker 10: ancestral home seemingly is is diminished to some type of
• 20:51
  Speaker 10: political movement that can be criticised and chastised on a whim.
• 20:54
  Speaker 10: We're done with it. I, for one, am done with
• 20:57
  Speaker 10: non-Jewish people telling me what's in and out of my religion.
• 21:00
  Speaker 10: I point to Senator Nick McKim's comments about Zionist influence
• 21:04
  Speaker 10: in the Federal Senate last week. We are not prepared
• 21:09
  Speaker 10: to accept delineations and demarcations within my religion.
• 21:14
  Speaker 11: From those that are external to it.
• 21:16
  Speaker 10: We are sick and tired of the collective punishment for
• 21:18
  Speaker 10: what people perceive is going on in Israel. No other
• 21:21
  Speaker 10: minority in this country or anywhere else has to suffer
• 21:24
  Speaker 10: from that type of prejudice. So we strongly push back
• 21:26
  Speaker 10: against that. We are not in a position now to
• 21:29
  Speaker 10: divorce our attachment to Israel for anyone.
• 21:32
  Speaker 11: It is a central tenet of our religion and will
• 21:34
  Speaker 11: continue to be so.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, Joel. Appreciate it. Joel Burney there
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: from AJAC. Let's get on to the federal political debate
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: and cross to Adelaide to catch up with Shadow Health
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: Minister Anne Rustin.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us, Anne. Underlying inflation hasn't shifted.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: It's steady, says the Treasurer. That is, steady at a
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: higher rate than the Reserve Bank wants.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: Does this mean we're going to see another rate rise
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: before the end of the year?
• 21:58
  Speaker 13: Well, the concern is that the commentators are suggesting that
• 22:03
  Speaker 13: the figures from today are likely to mean that there
• 22:07
  Speaker 13: will be another rate rise.
• 22:08
  Speaker 9: I mean, obviously, we have to wait and see whether
• 22:10
  Speaker 9: that actually eventuates.
• 22:11
  Speaker 13: But it's pretty sad news for Australians who are already
• 22:14
  Speaker 13: struggling under the cost of living pressure to think that
• 22:17
  Speaker 13: they've got this hanging over their head until the next
• 22:19
  Speaker 13: time the Reserve Bank makes a decision. And, you know,
• 22:22
  Speaker 13: for Jim Chalmers to be out there crowing that this
• 22:24
  Speaker 13: is somehow good news for Australians when, you trim the
• 22:27
  Speaker 13: inflation rate and take out the July figures for 2025,
• 22:30
  Speaker 13: it's a pretty sad state of affairs. And, you know,
• 22:33
  Speaker 13: they need to take some responsibility for their part in
• 22:37
  Speaker 13: this higher than anybody expected inflation that just remains sticky
• 22:41
  Speaker 13: and causing such grief to Australian households and businesses.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: Jim Chalmers seems to be incredibly smug. I can remember
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: when they used to say that Treasurer Peter Costello was smug. Well,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Costello had much to be smug about because he got
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: the country into a fantastic position where living standards kept
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: rising and we got rid of all of our debt.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: But Jim Chalmers is smug about nothing.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: Here he is today.
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: Inflation will bounce around a bit as it gets further
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: down towards the Reserve Bank's target range, but we've seen
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: it come down again for the fourth time. consecutive month
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: and underlying inflation was steady as well.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: See, this is the point. Underlying inflation is what matters
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: and it hasn't shifted.
• 23:25
  Speaker 13: Yeah, look, this idea that, you know, it's bouncing around,
• 23:29
  Speaker 13: that's cold comfort to Australian families who are paying, you know,
• 23:33
  Speaker 13: tens of thousands of dollars more for their mortgage every month.
• 23:36
  Speaker 13: I mean, you know, I just cannot believe the disconnect
• 23:39
  Speaker 13: between the Treasurer and the reality of of Australian families
• 23:42
  Speaker 13: who are struggling to pay their mortgages and Australian businesses
• 23:45
  Speaker 13: who are struggling to pay their loans. It just beggars
• 23:47
  Speaker 13: belief that anybody could be so completely and utterly ignorant
• 23:51
  Speaker 13: to what's going on in the electorate.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: I want to get back to your portfolio and the
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: budget changes to private health rebates for those people who
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: are over 65. This is a big issue for anyone
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: over 65 and reports today suggest that over a million
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: people could be affected.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: Does that surprise you?
• 24:11
  Speaker 13: Well, the really, really concerning news is the government's own
• 24:16
  Speaker 13: submission to the inquiry actually suggested that it's not just
• 24:22
  Speaker 13: the 1 million, it's actually 3.2 million people who will
• 24:25
  Speaker 13: be affected, but over 1 million of them are people
• 24:27
  Speaker 13: who are full-aged pensioners. These people have got no capacity,
• 24:32
  Speaker 13: they're on fixed incomes, they can't change anything, they're already
• 24:35
  Speaker 13: living on incredibly tight budgets, and this government didn't even bother...
• 24:40
  Speaker 13: to measure how many of those people would be impacted
• 24:42
  Speaker 13: by this. And we find out because the department just
• 24:46
  Speaker 13: accidentally put the figures into a submission. So the government's
• 24:49
  Speaker 13: got a lot to answer for, that it's actually attacking
• 24:52
  Speaker 13: older Australians who live on the pension, who've paid their
• 24:56
  Speaker 13: private health insurance all of their lives, and just at
• 24:58
  Speaker 13: a time when they're likely to need it most, the
• 25:01
  Speaker 13: government is ripping the rug out from underneath them and
• 25:04
  Speaker 13: probably forcing them into the public system where they're going to,
• 25:07
  Speaker 13: cause pressure on our overburdened public health system and get
• 25:12
  Speaker 13: on to the end of incredibly long wait lists. But
• 25:15
  Speaker 13: that also impacts younger Australians. So this idea that this
• 25:17
  Speaker 13: is some sort of intergenerational equity, you know, sort of flattening,
• 25:22
  Speaker 13: is ridiculous. Younger Australians will ultimately pay more for their
• 25:25
  Speaker 13: private health insurance or join longer queues in the public system.
• 25:29
  Speaker 9: I mean, it's just a nonsense of a policy.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, 1.2 million pensioners, therefore people on fixed incomes.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: We're going to have to somehow.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: Absorb this extra cost in private health or drop out.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Here's what the health minister, Mark Butler, had to say today.
• 25:44
  Speaker 14: Our independent modelling done by our officials suggests that maybe
• 25:48
  Speaker 14: at most 44,000 people out of several million would drop
• 25:52
  Speaker 14: off private health insurance because of this measure. That's a
• 25:55
  Speaker 14: very small percentage, not even 1%, not even half a
• 26:00
  Speaker 14: percentage point.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: A small percentage, he says, and no doubt that'll be
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: an underestimation, but even on their numbers, 44,000 extra people
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: who want private health insurance.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: Let's be clear about that.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: They would prefer to have private health insurance, but they're
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: going to.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: Be forced to give it up.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: That's 44,000... extra patients into the public system at least, and,
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: as you say, another 1.16 million struggling to find those
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: extra payments?
• 26:34
  Speaker 13: Well, the stupidity of what the Minister just said is,
• 26:36
  Speaker 13: first of all, it's 44,000.
• 26:38
  Speaker 9: I'll believe that one when I see it.
• 26:40
  Speaker 13: The modelling that we've seen from the sector suggests it's
• 26:42
  Speaker 13: in excess of 60,000. The private Infinity report that was
• 26:46
  Speaker 13: provided to the government says 91,000 people. They have not
• 26:50
  Speaker 13: even bothered to model the people who dropped their level
• 26:52
  Speaker 13: of cover, maybe from gold to silver, and obviously that
• 26:55
  Speaker 13: will have a consequential impact as well. And the thing
• 26:59
  Speaker 13: that the Minister fails to tell Australians is this might
• 27:02
  Speaker 13: go on his budget bottom line, but the cost will
• 27:05
  Speaker 13: come off the budget bottom line of the states and territories.
• 27:08
  Speaker 9: So, in the end, taxpayers will.
• 27:10
  Speaker 13: End up paying more for this than they currently are,
• 27:13
  Speaker 13: It's just that Jim Chalmers' budget bottom line will end
• 27:16
  Speaker 13: up getting a bit of a sweetener, but the state
• 27:18
  Speaker 13: and territory governments will get hit with this and their
• 27:21
  Speaker 13: public hospitals, which are already under incredible pressure, will come
• 27:25
  Speaker 13: under even more pressure. I mean, the Minister needs to
• 27:28
  Speaker 13: come true and be honest with Australians. This policy will
• 27:31
  Speaker 13: cost Australian taxpayers more than currently it is costing them.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, shocking stuff. Thanks for joining us, Anne.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Senator Anne Ruston there joining us live
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: from Adelaide. We'll get to a break. We'll talk about
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: One Nation. Did a deep dive on One Nation and
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: other issues last night. We'll find out a little bit
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: more from Tom Switzer as to where they're all going up.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: In the polls again today.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: Now, One Nation is still closing the gap on Labor,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: now just three points behind, according to the latest News24
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: Pulse poll. It comes as the nation sees a political shift,
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: of course, with voters deserting the major party's and backing
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: Pauline Hanson. As I explored last night in the documentary,
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: The Fight for the Right, and thanks so much for
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: watching and supporting the doco, Pauline's rise doesn't come without
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: its challenges, something that columnist Tom Switzer pointed out in
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: the documentary.
• 28:28
  Speaker 15: I think the big danger for her is trying to
• 28:30
  Speaker 15: find the right candidates who can resonate with ordinary people,
• 28:34
  Speaker 15: but in a way that doesn't put off the political centre.
• 28:39
  Speaker 15: You want to have a sense of serious policy grit
• 28:42
  Speaker 15: if you really want to win over middle Australia.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: And Tom Switzer joins me live now. Tom, that was
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: a comment from you in the documentary about candidates and
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: the risks there for Pauline Hanson.
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: That still remains very large.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: She's got a few MPs in the parliament now, state
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: and federal, but she's going to have to select a
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: lot more candidates in Victoria to start with, and then
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: New South Wales and then federally.
• 29:04
  Speaker 15: She's tapping into legitimate and widespread anxieties all across the
• 29:08
  Speaker 15: community on costs of living, mass immigration, net zero. We've
• 29:13
  Speaker 15: talked about this before. but her big weakness, as I
• 29:15
  Speaker 15: mentioned there, is that she's sometimes incapable of understatement, but
• 29:19
  Speaker 15: also her candidates need to actually sell and articulate sound
• 29:24
  Speaker 15: public policy. One of the candidates you interviewed on the
• 29:28
  Speaker 15: program said that his priority was to tackle the cost
• 29:30
  Speaker 15: of living crisis. Great, but what policies would you put
• 29:33
  Speaker 15: in place? And an obvious thing to say is don't
• 29:35
  Speaker 15: pump prime the economy with government spending, which just puts
• 29:38
  Speaker 15: upward pressure on interest rates.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's... now an MP in the lower house in
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: South Australia. He had nothing to say there. But mind you,
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: what else he had to say about the government and
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: supporting small business and rejecting the major parties, that's what's
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: resonating rather than the policy detail.
• 29:53
  Speaker 15: And my sense is, and you're getting this with this
• 29:54
  Speaker 15: sticky inflation, I think the discontent in the community is
• 29:58
  Speaker 15: only going to intensify over the next few years because
• 30:01
  Speaker 15: of the deteriorating global economy, but also the deteriorating national economy,
• 30:05
  Speaker 15: which is largely due to Labor's incompetence.
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: And this is where the Coalition needs to be bold.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: They need to be up front and say, we need
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: smaller government. Yeah.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: You can't add 45,000 federal public servants for no net
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: gain for the population. So you've got to be able
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: to say that you will actually... reduce government spending. I
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: think Claire Chandler's been pretty strong in saying that, but
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: politicians get worried about saying that because then they think
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: it's too easy to run a scare campaign.
• 30:30
  Speaker 15: If you look at the election campaign last year, there
• 30:32
  Speaker 15: was a poll around February, March last year that showed
• 30:36
  Speaker 15: something like.
• 30:37
  Speaker 11: It was a news poll.
• 30:38
  Speaker 15: 85% or thereabouts of the Australian people believe that government
• 30:42
  Speaker 15: should spend more to address cost of living pressures. Now,
• 30:45
  Speaker 15: Labor's always going to win that battle.
• 30:47
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 30:47
  Speaker 15: But one of the problems with One Nation's public policy
• 30:49
  Speaker 15: agenda is They're essentially interventionists on economics.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah. You know, they're.
• 30:53
  Speaker 11: Protectionists and they are spenders.
• 30:56
  Speaker 15: And that's not the kind of public policy agenda you
• 30:59
  Speaker 15: need to rein in spending and put downward pressure on
• 31:02
  Speaker 15: interest rates.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: See, one of the things I hate about the public
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: debate is there's too much politicking. It's too much on,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: you know, team red, team blue, how do they get
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: the ascendancy? I prefer to talk about what the country needs, right?
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: And the country desperately needs sound economic management. smaller government,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: more freedom for private enterprise to generate productivity and prosperity, right?
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's a given, right? You'd agree with that.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: But when you come to the politics, it's actually the
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: strong suit for the coalition, so they should be there,
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: and it's also the area where they expose their advantage
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: over One Nation, not just Labor. So why they aren't
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: talking about the economy and economic issues every day is
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: beyond me.
• 31:39
  Speaker 15: Well, you're talking the language, and I talk the language.
• 31:41
  Speaker 11: Of Howard and Costello.
• 31:44
  Speaker 15: But this is an international problem. Trump doesn't represent Reaganomics.
• 31:48
  Speaker 15: Farage and even the Tories don't represent Thatcherism.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: No.
• 31:52
  Speaker 15: And the French and a lot of those European populists
• 31:55
  Speaker 15: are interventionists on the economy. They're not talking about fiscal
• 31:58
  Speaker 15: prudence and deregulation.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: So they won't talk about it until it hits them
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: in the back of the head, because we'll end... The
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: issue is we will get back to sound and constrained
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: economic management eventually.
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: It's a matter of whether you do it voluntarily or
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: you do it through a crisis.
• 32:14
  Speaker 15: I think eventually... Canberra and the public at large will
• 32:17
  Speaker 15: get mugged by reality. And when that happens, we'll have
• 32:21
  Speaker 15: fiscal prudence. But it might be a while before we
• 32:23
  Speaker 15: get to that stage, Chris.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: Now, of course, one of the key policy areas that's
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: really underpinned the rise of One Nation and continues to
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: is immigration. And you've written in The Australian today that
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: pointing out to most people who wouldn't have remembered this,
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: it's the 25th anniversary this week.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: Of the Tampa crisis.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: And that's when John Howard really stamped down his authority
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: on border protection we will decide who comes to this
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: country and the manner in which they come how important
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: was that well.
• 32:53
  Speaker 15: The context is important if you go back to the
• 32:55
  Speaker 15: late 90s and early 2000s there was a people smuggling
• 32:57
  Speaker 15: racket yep there was something like four to five thousand
• 33:01
  Speaker 15: uh unlawful arrivals that came in every year and then
• 33:04
  Speaker 15: it all came to a head with the Tampa asylum
• 33:06
  Speaker 15: seekers standoff And the Howard government, led by the Prime Minister,
• 33:10
  Speaker 15: John Howard, but also the then Immigration Minister, Philip Ruddock,
• 33:14
  Speaker 15: your old boss, the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, took a
• 33:17
  Speaker 15: principal position. And the fundamental line was tough border protection
• 33:22
  Speaker 15: policy helps boost public confidence in what had been large-scale,
• 33:26
  Speaker 15: non-discriminatory immigration policy. Now, we do have a backlash against
• 33:30
  Speaker 15: that large-scale immigration because it has got out of control
• 33:32
  Speaker 15: since COVID-19. especially under Albanese. But at least that public
• 33:36
  Speaker 15: policy stance on border protection helped boost public confidence, and
• 33:40
  Speaker 15: that's what's been lacking all across Europe and even North
• 33:43
  Speaker 15: America until recently.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: You know, Tom, you've redeemed yourself today because you mentioned
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: that I used to work for Alexander Downer, a man
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: I worked with for six years and I'm still on
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: good terms with, rather than pointing out that I had
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: a short stint with Malcolm Turnbull.
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: LAUGHTER Don't start. I might do it one day again.
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: Great to see you, Tom.
• 34:02
  Speaker 11: Thanks, Chris.
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: Tom Switzer there. You can read his stuff in The Australian.
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: We're going to take a break.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: On the other side of that, we're going to check
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: in on immigration issues in the UK.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: Don't go away.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: Let's head overseas now as the migration debate heats up
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: and there's been some shocking data out of Europe. 80.5%
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: of African asylum seekers in Switzerland... have been accused of
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: one or more criminal offences according to government numbers there.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: Reform UK's Shadow Home Secretary, Zia Yousaf, has highlighted this
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: staggering number, posting on X or the old Twitter that...
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: Let's go live now to London to catch up with
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: the writer and broadcaster.
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: Esther Krakow.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: Esther, has the British government hidden the numbers when it
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: comes to illegal migrants and crime?
• 34:59
  Speaker 5: Well, they've certainly refused to release data when it comes
• 35:02
  Speaker 5: to demographics and crime. So we are currently in a
• 35:06
  Speaker 5: battle with our Home Office to try to understand why
• 35:09
  Speaker 5: constant freedom of information requests keep getting denied when the
• 35:13
  Speaker 5: country or when various journalists on behalf of the country
• 35:15
  Speaker 5: want to see a breakdown of the figures with regards
• 35:19
  Speaker 5: to nationality and crime. particularly when it comes to sexual
• 35:22
  Speaker 5: crime and all of that. And I suspect we know why.
• 35:25
  Speaker 5: And the statistics that we've just seen from Switzerland don't
• 35:29
  Speaker 5: come as a surprise. But if you wanted to contextualize
• 35:31
  Speaker 5: it for the case of the UK, you know, since 1997,
• 35:34
  Speaker 5: one in five people convicted of terrorism offensive in the
• 35:37
  Speaker 5: UK have had an asylum background. What we all suspect
• 35:41
  Speaker 5: we're probably going to see, at least from what we're
• 35:42
  Speaker 5: seeing from the news and what we're seeing from you know,
• 35:45
  Speaker 5: various sort of small, isolated incidents of kind of local unrest,
• 35:50
  Speaker 5: is that you're seeing men, surprisingly, and I tell you,
• 35:53
  Speaker 5: this shocks me, from parts of the world where they
• 35:56
  Speaker 5: are maybe slightly homophobic and treat women like hairless, perfumed cattle,
• 36:01
  Speaker 5: but they may not have the most progressive attitudes towards
• 36:04
  Speaker 5: women and women's safety. So what we are likely to see,
• 36:07
  Speaker 5: what most people are expecting to see, is that men
• 36:09
  Speaker 5: from cultures that do not respect women and that there
• 36:11
  Speaker 5: are high levels of violence and including sexual violence against
• 36:14
  Speaker 5: women tend to translate in how they live their lives
• 36:17
  Speaker 5: in the UK and.
• 36:18
  Speaker 6: Their approach towards women. Now, that is just a hunch.
• 36:21
  Speaker 5: But, you know, it looks like the data might prove
• 36:25
  Speaker 5: to point in that direction, and for some reason the
• 36:28
  Speaker 5: government doesn't want to release it.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: Well, it seems to be a hunch that's borne out
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: by the government's other actions, because we heard earlier this
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: week the government is giving pamphlets to illegal arrivals, overwhelmingly men,
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: as you've pointed out, and it's telling them that sex
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: without consent is actually against the law and that there
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: is an age of consent in the UK, sort of...
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: warning these illegal migrants about their responsibilities under the law.
• 36:55
  Speaker 5: Yes, and that they should not rape and that they
• 36:57
  Speaker 5: should not steal a woman's identification documents so that she
• 37:01
  Speaker 5: cannot leave. I mean, that entire pamphlet was astonishing, but
• 37:04
  Speaker 5: it did make many women in the UK feel more
• 37:06
  Speaker 5: secure because in the face of potential sexual violence, it
• 37:10
  Speaker 5: always makes us feel good to know that the government
• 37:11
  Speaker 5: is sending out a very sternly worded pamphlet.
• 37:16
  Speaker 6: That's the kind of thing that makes us feel good.
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: If only Winston Churchill had thought of that during the
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: Second World War, we could stop them with pamphlets. Meanwhile, energy,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: as in Australia, energy, including the prices of energy.
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: Is dominating debate. What are the concerns at the moment?
• 37:34
  Speaker 5: I mean, with energy in the UK, the particularly obscene
• 37:37
  Speaker 5: thing that we've seen with now the price cap.
• 37:39
  Speaker 6: Looking set to increase... in the UK.
• 37:41
  Speaker 5: So households are going to be paying 4% more on
• 37:43
  Speaker 5: average for the energy every year.
• 37:45
  Speaker 6: The really obscene bit about that is.
• 37:47
  Speaker 5: The decade plus of hundreds of billions of pounds of
• 37:51
  Speaker 5: investment in renewable energy that we were told was supposed
• 37:55
  Speaker 5: to bring down our energy bills that have not materialized
• 37:58
  Speaker 5: one little bit. And I think, you know, we're focusing on,
• 38:01
  Speaker 5: on this price cap for households, but you have to
• 38:03
  Speaker 5: remember there's no price cap for businesses. So even though
• 38:06
  Speaker 5: households are certainly facing a price increase, so are businesses.
• 38:09
  Speaker 5: And that has a ripple effect into every aspect of
• 38:11
  Speaker 5: our lives, from grocery prices to people's salaries. I mean,
• 38:16
  Speaker 5: every aspect of the economy is reliant on energy prices.
• 38:19
  Speaker 5: And it just looks like our economy is staring further
• 38:22
  Speaker 5: into the abyss because we've just had basically no coherent
• 38:25
  Speaker 5: energy policy, which means that we're heavily reliant on Norway
• 38:30
  Speaker 5: and the US for natural gas, for example, while our
• 38:33
  Speaker 5: own renewable energy sources are not producing the kinds of
• 38:36
  Speaker 5: price cuts that we were told we should be expecting.
• 38:38
  Speaker 6: And, again, no-one is going to be held accountable for this.
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: A salient lesson for us here as well. Thanks again, Esther.
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: Appreciate it. Esther Crackley there, live in London. We're going
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: to get to a break.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: On the other side, we'll wrangle with Justin and James.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: One of the things we'll look at is taxi drivers.
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: They are soon to become, apparently, an endangered species.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: Let's get into the wrangle now.
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: We've got Justin Smith joining us from Melbourne and James
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: Bolt here on the desk with me. And I want
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: to start off talking about One Nation, gentlemen, given I've
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: spent the last few months talking about One Nation, but
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: especially on the back of the documentary last night. And
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: also the polling out today, the News 24 Pulse poll,
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: showing One Nation again challenging Labor, well ahead.
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: Of the Coalition, challenging Labor for supremacy here. Justin, you're
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: in Victoria. That's where the next electoral test... will be.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: Any signs that this juggernaut is going.
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: To fall over? No, look, I don't think so.
• 39:37
  Speaker 16: And as I mentioned to you a couple of weeks ago,
• 39:39
  Speaker 16: I just hope that for every political party that they
• 39:43
  Speaker 16: get the tough questions as they go in. And I
• 39:46
  Speaker 16: really hope One Nation... like the other parties, doesn't get
• 39:49
  Speaker 16: a free ride or an easy ride into it. But, no,
• 39:53
  Speaker 16: it's not slowing up, and it's going to be one
• 39:55
  Speaker 16: hell of a show in November. And I know we
• 39:58
  Speaker 16: had a bit of a look at it in South Australia,
• 40:00
  Speaker 16: but I think this is going to be a real test.
• 40:04
  Speaker 16: in November.
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a real test.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: There's a massive difference between the South Australian state election, James,
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: and the Victorian state election, and that is in South
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: Australia you had a good and popular Labor government. So
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: it was just One Nation and the Coalition, just the
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: Liberals in South Australia, fighting amongst a small number of seats.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: In Victoria, you've got a bad Labor government, an unpopular
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: Labor government, a movement for change, and One Nation is
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: in the mix.
• 40:30
  Speaker 17: Yeah, I think this is going to be a huge test.
• 40:31
  Speaker 17: I mean, look, One Nation, we barely know the candidates.
• 40:35
  Speaker 17: I know Mark Nicholson, like a friend of the show,
• 40:37
  Speaker 17: he's out there, but we barely know a whole lot
• 40:39
  Speaker 17: of other ones. They've got about 80 to go. They've
• 40:41
  Speaker 17: got 80 to go. And, look, this is a One
• 40:44
  Speaker 17: Nation rise. It was off the back in Victoria of
• 40:46
  Speaker 17: us really not knowing anything. So it is a pure
• 40:48
  Speaker 17: and simple protest vote. They are sick of everything that's
• 40:50
  Speaker 17: going on. I just think, like, yeah, it's just such
• 40:54
  Speaker 17: an incredible test because you would think, like, a protest
• 40:57
  Speaker 17: vote would be the Liberal Party. I think they're going
• 40:59
  Speaker 17: to skip quite far and go very heavy on the
• 41:01
  Speaker 17: One Nation.
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: Could be incredible.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: We just ran some pictures here from the documentary last night.
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: some of the people I got to speak to. And, Justin,
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: the thing I found most illuminating about the documentary was
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: meeting people around the country who have made the switch
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: from the Coalition to One Nation and them talking about
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: the reasons why. There's a lot of disenchantment with the
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: major parties and they seem to be aware of the
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: lack of experience and, you know, runs on the board
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: for One Nation, but they're prepared to give them a go.
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's pretty extraordinary.
• 41:35
  Speaker 16: I mean, we've been watching this unfold with amazement and
• 41:40
  Speaker 16: the people who are most amazed and unhappy about it
• 41:42
  Speaker 16: are obviously the major parties because they're trying to figure
• 41:46
  Speaker 16: out what the magic formula is and what is stupid
• 41:48
  Speaker 16: about that. is they had the magic formula. Both the
• 41:52
  Speaker 16: blue and the red teams had people who were willing
• 41:55
  Speaker 16: to just turn up blindly on polling day and vote
• 41:58
  Speaker 16: for them, and they took it for granted. Both sides
• 42:03
  Speaker 16: took it for granted. And it's no wonder there's been
• 42:05
  Speaker 16: a rise of somebody else.
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: And we've already.
• 42:08
  Speaker 16: Obviously, we've already seen it with some independents as well.
• 42:11
  Speaker 16: Just no shock at all. You know what would be terrific?
• 42:14
  Speaker 16: If people abandoned political parties from their mind... went out
• 42:19
  Speaker 16: and spoke to the candidates that were on offer, three
• 42:21
  Speaker 16: or four or five candidates on offer, talked to them,
• 42:24
  Speaker 16: asked them a few questions, find out what they're about
• 42:27
  Speaker 16: and then base their vote on that. If that happened,
• 42:30
  Speaker 16: we'd see a completely different country in a political landscape.
• 42:34
  Speaker 16: It would be lovely to see something like that. I
• 42:36
  Speaker 16: think we've had a gutful of parties, to be frank.
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: Barnaby Joyce was at the Bush summit today and had
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: this to say.
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: About the polls.
• 42:47
  Speaker 7: I never get ahead of ourselves in the polls. Don't
• 42:49
  Speaker 7: get upset when I go down. Don't get all excited
• 42:51
  Speaker 7: when I go up. Just keep one foot going in
• 42:53
  Speaker 7: front of the other and don't get hebristic. Work hard.
• 42:57
  Speaker 7: Keep the trust of the Australian people. I'm off to
• 42:59
  Speaker 7: Dubbo as we speak right now to do precisely that.
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: Well, I misled you.
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: He was on the front veranda just before he headed
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: off to the Bush summit, but he still spoke about
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: the polls.
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: There we go, James.
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: Now, the interesting thing here is I think this is incredible, really,
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: the One Nation Constitution.
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: Says that Pauline Hanson chooses her successor. That's it. It's
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: purely in her gift. to choose her successor?
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: Do you reckon she would choose Barnaby or might he
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: be worried that her daughter, Lee, will get into Parliament
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: next time and become the favourite?
• 43:31
  Speaker 17: I think, yeah, I think it would be Lee Hanson's
• 43:33
  Speaker 17: to lose at this point because, I mean, look, the
• 43:36
  Speaker 17: whole party is just built on the force of personality
• 43:39
  Speaker 17: that is Pauline Hanson.
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: It's called Pauline Hanson.
• 43:41
  Speaker 17: Yeah, if Pauline Hanson says, this is my successor, I
• 43:43
  Speaker 17: think it's going to be like Donald Trump and the
• 43:44
  Speaker 17: Republican Party. Whoever Donald Trump says is his successor is
• 43:47
  Speaker 17: ultimately going to be the successor. And Barnaby can talk
• 43:50
  Speaker 17: down the polls as much as he wants, but, like,
• 43:52
  Speaker 17: you know, that was the kind of messaging you say
• 43:53
  Speaker 17: when you get one or two good ones. This has
• 43:55
  Speaker 17: been six months.
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: This is for real.
• 43:56
  Speaker 17: I think people are really sick of it. When I
• 43:58
  Speaker 17: talk to people.
• 43:58
  Speaker 16: What kind of bloody constitution is that?
• 44:01
  Speaker 15: Yeah.
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: Honestly. It's certainly not democratic. It becomes.
• 44:04
  Speaker 16: If the Labor Party had that or the Greens had that,
• 44:06
  Speaker 16: you'd go out and march in the.
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: Street or something like that.
• 44:09
  Speaker 17: Well, if the Labor Party was completely tied to the
• 44:11
  Speaker 17: success of the campaign led by one person, then that
• 44:14
  Speaker 17: one person would get to say it. I mean, now
• 44:15
  Speaker 17: that he's been Prime Minister for so long, whoever he
• 44:18
  Speaker 17: says success to.
• 44:18
  Speaker 16: What, written in the Constitution that the leader gets to
• 44:21
  Speaker 16: pick the next person in line?
• 44:23
  Speaker 6: Oh, it's not our Constitution.
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: Oh, come on. It's not the Australian Constitution. No, no, no.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: It's the One Nation Constitution, very similar to Kim Jong-un's
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: Constitution in.
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: North Korea. But it's pretty similar to Labor, Justin.
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: In Labor, it just says the next leader will be
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: whoever the left-wing unions choose.
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: Oh, OK. Fair enough.
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: Speaking of Labor and accountability, Luke Gosling, the Labor member
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: for Solomon, who was facing those charges over alleged assault
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: of the administrator out there, now he's facing a charge
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: of breaching bail. He's supposed to stay away from the administrator.
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: Anthony Albanese has finally sacked him, James, from the very
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: prestigious position of spokesman special envoy for Defence and Veterans Affairs.
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: Why didn't they just get rid of him at the outset?
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: That's the question.
• 45:11
  Speaker 17: I mean, again, Luke Gosling had to tell us himself
• 45:13
  Speaker 17: that he was stepping down as envoy. Anthony Albanese has
• 45:16
  Speaker 17: never had to go on camera and say it's inappropriate
• 45:18
  Speaker 17: of him to be there. He should go. I think
• 45:20
  Speaker 17: this has just been an absolute failure of leadership from
• 45:23
  Speaker 17: Albanese from the start. And, I mean, of all the
• 45:26
  Speaker 17: people to drag this out for, of all the people
• 45:29
  Speaker 17: to hide away from responsibility for, I can't believe it's
• 45:32
  Speaker 17: Luke Gosling. Like, that's the guy that you're willing to
• 45:34
  Speaker 17: drag this whole saga out for.
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: If it takes all this to have an envoy, a
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: special envoy, which is a made-up position, Justin, if it
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: takes all that to get him stood aside for a
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: short while, Lord knows when we'll ever get rid of
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: Chris Bowen for completely stuffing up the country's electricity grid.
• 45:54
  Speaker 16: Well, a couple of different things rolled in there.
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: The court case is obviously.
• 46:00
  Speaker 16: Still ongoing and, you know, innocent until proven guilty because
• 46:04
  Speaker 16: they should have fixed that a lot quicker, a hell
• 46:08
  Speaker 16: of a lot quicker. I mean, when someone's facing charges
• 46:11
  Speaker 16: like that, it should have been instant. People are so
• 46:15
  Speaker 16: slow these days for fear that they're going to lose
• 46:18
  Speaker 16: a vote or two. Where's the leadership in that one?
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: Now, I mentioned we were going to talk about taxi
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: drivers being an endangered species because a new survey suggests
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: that there will just be no drivers. We'll have self-driving
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: cars soon. But you've heard about that before, and we'll
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: believe it when we see it all. Because I just
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: want to finish off on a topic that we don't
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: want to run out of time on, and that is
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: the bittersweet news today of the passing of Dolly Parton
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: at age 80. I want to talk about this. Of course,
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: it's sad that she's passed away, but what a life.
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: What a life to celebrate. Here's a little bit of
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: Dolly Parton.
• 46:53
  Speaker 17: And I will.
• 46:55
  Speaker 8: Always love you I will always love.
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: James, I know many people of your vintage and older
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: have thought this was the Whitney Houston song. They're staggered
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: to know that Dolly Parton not only had a hit
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: with it but wrote it.
• 47:19
  Speaker 17: My Spotify listening age is 75, so I can go listen.
• 47:23
  Speaker 15: To the old.
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: Go use James.
• 47:25
  Speaker 17: anyone.
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: You're a good man.
• 47:26
  Speaker 17: Not only did Jolene write that song, she also wrote
• 47:28
  Speaker 17: Jolene on the same day. Like, if you write one
• 47:32
  Speaker 17: of those songs, you're an American icon forever. Like, that's
• 47:35
  Speaker 17: just enough contribution you have to American music. To write
• 47:38
  Speaker 17: both of them on the same day, no one is
• 47:40
  Speaker 17: ever going.
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: To top that.
• 47:41
  Speaker 17: No one will ever top that.
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: Justin, such a great songwriter, singer, entertainer, philanthropist.
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: She was so generous. Your thoughts?
• 47:50
  Speaker 16: She was just, and such a strong and intelligent person.
• 47:55
  Speaker 16: You know, go onto YouTube and watch some of those
• 47:57
  Speaker 16: old interviews she did. Whoever she spoke to, she was
• 48:00
  Speaker 16: kind and loving, but she just ran rings around them.
• 48:04
  Speaker 16: She was so smart. And I'm sad today. I've always
• 48:07
  Speaker 16: loved Dolly. She's magnificent and bless her memory.
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: Good on you, Justin. Good on you, James. Thanks very much.
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: We'll catch up with you next week.
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: Just time to squeeze in a little bit of your
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: feedback on the Fight For The Right documentary that aired
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: last night. Of course, you can get it on follow-up
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: screenings and, of course, via the website. But one viewer said,
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: what I saw was a mainstream media journalist seemingly under
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: instructions to do a hit.
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: Job on Pauline Hanson.
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: But then this other viewer says, I naively expected equal
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: time between One Nation and the Coalition, but I concluded
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: it was more of a hit job... for your own
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: One Nation political bias, which you have provided nightly on
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: your News 24 scheduled appearance.
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: So, I don't know, was it a.
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: Hit job on the Coalition or a hit job on
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: Pauline Hanson? I just thought it was good TV and
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: I'm glad that most of you enjoyed it.
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: I'll see you tomorrow night. Here's Peter Credlin.