Transcript

Credlin | 14 October · Credlin

0:01
Speaker 1: Peter Credlin, live from News 24.
0:08
Speaker 2: Good evening, welcome to the program.
0:09
Speaker 3: Tonight, as I said to you last evening, I'll bring
0:12
Speaker 3: you more of my special investigation into taxpayer grants awarded
0:16
Speaker 3: to the Melbourne Muslim Group, my centre, and links to
0:19
Speaker 3: the Melbourne Imam, Samir Abu Hamzi Matadi. It's a group
0:24
Speaker 3: that's been drawn into the spotlight on the weekend as
0:26
Speaker 3: the AFP confirm they're investigating claims it's linked to the
0:30
Speaker 3: Fly Dubai co-pilot who allegedly tried to down that recent
0:34
Speaker 3: flight en route to Israel. Here's what else is on
0:38
Speaker 3: the show this evening. More questions tonight too for the
0:41
Speaker 3: Prime Minister. Taxpayer grants in the spotlight in Canberra. Multicultural
0:47
Speaker 3: groups under close scrutiny.
0:48
Speaker 2: $ 300, 000.
0:49
Speaker 3: Cancelled today for an Islamic media organisation which claimed anti-Semitic
0:56
Speaker 3: tax in the lead up to Bondi were fake. Pressure
1:00
Speaker 3: mounting on Labor over its support or lack thereof for
1:03
Speaker 3: small business on the brink as Minister Anne Arley struggles
1:07
Speaker 3: again in question time. We'll cross live to Sophie Ellsworth
1:11
Speaker 3: in the UK where an alarming report found that four
1:14
Speaker 3: in five new jobs created in Britain since 2014 have been.
1:19
Speaker 2: Filled by migrants.
1:21
Speaker 3: And Annika Wells today trying to convince us the government's
1:23
Speaker 3: use of fake online accounts has got nothing to do
1:27
Speaker 3: with censorship.
1:29
Speaker 4: We think that we should be able to mark tech platforms' homework.
1:33
Speaker 4: They should not get to mark their own homework.
1:37
Speaker 3: But first, as I foreshadowed, I want to revisit the
1:40
Speaker 3: Melbourne Muslim Organisation identified by authorities in the United Arab
1:45
Speaker 3: Emirates in connection with the investigation into the fly-to-buy co-pilot
1:50
Speaker 3: accused of attempting to bring down a passenger aircraft en
1:53
Speaker 3: route to Israel. According to the UAE Attorney General, the
1:57
Speaker 3: accused co-pilot became acquainted with individuals associated with a Melbourne
2:03
Speaker 3: Islamic organisation known as My Centre while studying in Australia
2:08
Speaker 3: at Melbourne's RMIT. My Centre is registered with the Australian
2:13
Speaker 3: Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission under the name Multicultural Youth Centre Limited.
2:19
Speaker 3: And there's another organisation with direct historical ties to My Centre.
2:25
Speaker 3: It's called the Islamic Information and Services Network of Australia,
2:29
Speaker 3: or IISNA. According to the Charities Commission, both organisations share
2:37
Speaker 3: the same registered address. But the connection goes much further
2:41
Speaker 3: than that. My Centre's own official website confirms that AISNA
2:49
Speaker 3: announced plans to establish My Centre back in 2010. In fact,
2:54
Speaker 3: the website identifies IISNA as having been founded by Melbourne
3:00
Speaker 3: Islamic preacher Samir Mokhtari, also known as Abu Hamza. So
3:05
Speaker 3: these aren't simply two organisations that share an address. My
3:10
Speaker 3: Centre's own published history establishes a direct connection between them both. Yesterday,
3:17
Speaker 3: the man at the heart of these organisations, Sumir Bakhtari,
3:21
Speaker 3: issued a statement rejecting the claims that the Fly Dubai co-pilot,
3:26
Speaker 3: that he was radicalised in Melbourne after coming into contact
3:29
Speaker 3: with the My Centre Muslim group. But he can't deny
3:33
Speaker 3: this from his own social media accounts.
3:37
Speaker 5: We don't believe in a state called Israel. And I
3:40
Speaker 5: swear by God, the Almighty, it's just a matter of time.
3:44
Speaker 5: before Palestine will only have one state.
3:47
Speaker 2: Only one state.
3:48
Speaker 5: The state of Palestine. I've always said and I've always
3:51
Speaker 5: believed that these Zionists are not normal. They're blood-sucking human beings.
3:57
Speaker 5: They're scavengers. They're not humans. I swear by Allah.
4:02
Speaker 3: Nor can the Imam dispute evidence that he gave in
4:05
Speaker 3: court in the 2008 trial of convicted terrorist Ben Barika
4:09
Speaker 3: that many Muslims, he said, regarded Osama bin Laden as
4:12
Speaker 3: a good man, him included. And he admitted there in
4:17
Speaker 3: the court proceedings to watching videos of Islamist beheadings. Nor
4:22
Speaker 3: can Samir Mohtadi hide from a sermon he gave in
4:26
Speaker 3: 2003 where he said it was permissible for men to
4:29
Speaker 3: rape their wives in marriage and to beat them provided
4:32
Speaker 3: that no bruising occurred as a result. Comments that when
4:36
Speaker 3: they surfaced, then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called out as
4:40
Speaker 3: he should.
4:42
Speaker 2: But as un-Australian as.
4:44
Speaker 3: Those views are, as shocking and reprehensible as they are,
4:48
Speaker 3: they are not my focus tonight. Instead, I raise some
4:52
Speaker 3: serious concerns about this Islamic organisation and Labor too, state
4:58
Speaker 3: and federal, given the hundreds of thousands of dollars of
5:01
Speaker 3: taxpayer money that's been handed over. Most concerning is the
5:05
Speaker 3: fact that the independent auditor for my centre is issued
5:09
Speaker 3: a qualified audit opinion in last year's documentation because it
5:14
Speaker 3: could not fully verify its cash donations. And this is
5:19
Speaker 3: especially interesting because similar concerns about cash controls were raised
5:24
Speaker 3: in the organisation's 2021 and 2022 audits. And there's another
5:30
Speaker 3: concerning finding in last year's audit where the auditor reported
5:35
Speaker 3: that he could not obtain the documentation for a Victorian
5:39
Speaker 3: government grant worth almost $ 240, 000. The auditor also said he
5:46
Speaker 3: was unable to verify whether the grant revenue had been
5:50
Speaker 3: recognised in accordance with the agreement's requirements. Now, interestingly, that
5:57
Speaker 3: qualified audit report was signed in August last year, just
6:01
Speaker 3: months after the board was reshuffled and a new constitution appeared. Now,
6:07
Speaker 3: I don't know whether the constitutional changes were connected to
6:10
Speaker 3: earlier audit concerns, but the timing certainly warrants further questions.
6:17
Speaker 3: Some of the other key findings in the auditor's report
6:19
Speaker 3: include the following, that my centre's financial statements disclose an
6:23
Speaker 3: amount of $ 1. 15 million recorded as a financial asset under
6:28
Speaker 3: the name Maktari MS in 2024, which had been reduced
6:34
Speaker 3: to a zero balance by June 2025. Now, this could
6:39
Speaker 3: be a loan, but that's not clear. What we do
6:43
Speaker 3: know is that my centre's longstanding director, Sameer Mokhtari, the Imam,
6:49
Speaker 3: also known as Sheikh Abu Hamza, the man who gave
6:52
Speaker 3: that evidence in the Ben Brika case, according to Osama
6:55
Speaker 3: bin Laden, and the beheadings. Now, I've checked all the
6:59
Speaker 3: publicly available records I can and haven't been able to
7:03
Speaker 3: establish his middle name or confirm the identity of the
7:07
Speaker 3: individual listed in the accounts as Mokhtari MS. But the
7:13
Speaker 3: shared surname does raise the legitimate question about whether the
7:17
Speaker 3: borrower has any connection to the organisation's leadership, although again,
7:22
Speaker 3: currently no evidence to confirm that. But given the substantial
7:27
Speaker 3: amount involved, $ 1. 15 million, I think it's worth investigating who
7:33
Speaker 3: received the original loan, why a registered charity advanced anyone
7:37
Speaker 3: $ 1. 15 million in the first place, whether it was a
7:41
Speaker 3: related party transaction and how the amount was ultimately settled.
7:47
Speaker 3: In the audit report, questions are also raised about a 54%
7:52
Speaker 3: increase in cash donations with the auditors specifically qualifying the
7:57
Speaker 3: accounts because controls over the collection of cash donations before
8:03
Speaker 3: their entry into financial records were insufficient to establish completeness.
8:09
Speaker 3: There's also been significant changes to the My Centre board.
8:14
Speaker 3: In 2024, it listed just three directors, Sumia Mohtadi, Jalal
8:20
Speaker 3: Suid and Murat Salik.
8:23
Speaker 2: But between February.
8:24
Speaker 3: And March last year, five new directors were appointed, including
8:29
Speaker 3: Ali Abdullah Mokhtari, Omar Mokhtari and Hamza Mokhtari. That means
8:37
Speaker 3: that four of the organisation's seven directors all share the
8:40
Speaker 3: Mokhtari surname. And just two months after this change, On
8:45
Speaker 3: the 2nd of May, the day before last year's federal election,
8:49
Speaker 3: a new constitution appeared on the website for the charities regulator,
8:54
Speaker 3: restricting membership to a limited number of trustees, all having
8:58
Speaker 3: substantial power over appointments, financial policy and property transactions. So
9:05
Speaker 3: just who are these trustees and who ultimately approves the
9:10
Speaker 3: organisation's substantial financial dealings?
9:14
Speaker 2: That's a question.
9:15
Speaker 3: Also worth looking at is My Centre's disclosure of another
9:19
Speaker 3: multi-million dollar transaction, this one with an outstanding amount of
9:24
Speaker 3: almost $ 1. 5 million from the Islamic Information and Services Network.
9:29
Speaker 2: Of Australasia, IISNA.
9:33
Speaker 3: This is an organisation also connected to Samir Moqtadi and
9:36
Speaker 3: it shares the same registered address as My Centre. According
9:41
Speaker 3: to the documentation, this is associated with the acquisition of
9:45
Speaker 3: land in Mickleham, whereas the Herald Sun reports today there
9:48
Speaker 3: are plans to build Australia's largest Islamic centre, including a
9:53
Speaker 3: new mega mosque, separate sex primary schools and high schools,
9:58
Speaker 3: as well as.
9:58
Speaker 2: A retirement village.
10:00
Speaker 3: According to the Herald Sun, concerned locals say they oppose
10:03
Speaker 3: these plans for the mega mosque, noting that similar plans
10:07
Speaker 3: for a nearby Christian school were rejected because of traffic concerns. Now,
10:11
Speaker 3: right now, Labor's State Planning Minister Sonia Kilkenny, well, she's
10:17
Speaker 3: got this application for the mega mosque on her desk
10:20
Speaker 3: after they applied for a ministerial planning permit back in May.
10:25
Speaker 3: With a state election due in now just 46 days,
10:28
Speaker 3: pressure will be piled on Kilkenny to approve the mega
10:31
Speaker 3: mosque lest Labor get thrown out of office and the
10:35
Speaker 3: plans get cancelled by Jess Wilson. Worth noting also is
10:39
Speaker 3: the almost $ 36, 000 donation from my centre to the Mokhtari-connected organisation,
10:47
Speaker 3: Islamic Information and Services Network.
10:51
Speaker 2: And there's more.
10:52
Speaker 3: Last year, my centre received $ 1. 17 million in rental income
10:56
Speaker 3: from the related entity, My College Limited, and that's up
11:01
Speaker 3: from just.
11:02
Speaker 2: $ 486, 000 the previous year.
11:07
Speaker 3: That's a whopping increase in rent in the order of 140%.
11:13
Speaker 3: My centre has also had a $ 150, 000 unsecured interest-free loan
11:19
Speaker 3: outstanding to my college with no fixed repayment terms. So
11:25
Speaker 3: what's this all mean? We now have a charity receiving
11:29
Speaker 3: substantial taxpayer funding from both state and federal Labor governments
11:35
Speaker 3: holding more than 20 million now in assets, engaging in
11:39
Speaker 3: significant related party transactions and receiving a qualified audit opinion
11:45
Speaker 3: concerning cash donations.
11:48
Speaker 2: To date, taxpayers have paid out.
11:50
Speaker 3: Hundreds of thousands of dollars to this organisation, My Centre,
11:54
Speaker 3: handed over by State Labor, the Allen Labor Government in
11:57
Speaker 3: Victoria and the Albanese Government in Canberra. Just on the
12:01
Speaker 3: information in audit reports alone, Legitimate questions are there about
12:07
Speaker 3: financial transparency, governance and what sort of due diligence has
12:11
Speaker 3: been undertaken by state and federal Labor governments before your
12:16
Speaker 3: money was handed over. In particular, I'd be interested to
12:21
Speaker 3: know whether the Victorian and Commonwealth governments reviewed those qualified
12:24
Speaker 3: audit opinions, those related party transactions, and looked at the
12:29
Speaker 3: financial controls before any of this money was handed over.
12:34
Speaker 3: After all, everything I've told you tonight is all there
12:37
Speaker 3: in black and white in the signed 2025 financial documents
12:41
Speaker 3: that are all filed and publicly available on the federal
12:45
Speaker 3: government's own Charity Commission's website. Now, given that the Australian
12:50
Speaker 3: Federal Police have confirmed to News24 that they are now
12:53
Speaker 3: investigating alleged links between the fly-to-buy co-pilot accused of terrorism
12:59
Speaker 3: and members of Melbourne's Muslim community, including and connected to
13:05
Speaker 3: My Centre, well, surely all funding to My Centre must now.
13:11
Speaker 2: Be immediately suspended.
13:13
Speaker 3: In just two months' time, on December 14, Australia will
13:17
Speaker 3: stand still to commemorate the one-year anniversary of our worst-ever
13:21
Speaker 3: terror attack on our nation's soil. And the idea, the allegation,
13:27
Speaker 3: that taxpayers are funding any organisation or any individual in
13:32
Speaker 3: any way potentially connected with radical Islam should see urgent
13:36
Speaker 3: and immediate action by the Prime Minister. What we cannot tolerate,
13:42
Speaker 3: what we must never tolerate, is a government that willfully
13:46
Speaker 3: buries its head in the sand or a judiciary that
13:49
Speaker 3: bails individuals accused of crimes connected to Islamic State, like
13:54
Speaker 3: Mohammed Bakit in Melbourne or the recently returned ISIS brides.
14:00
Speaker 3: We can never, ever tolerate that as Australians, but sadly
14:04
Speaker 3: this is what appears to be happening again and again.
14:13
Speaker 3: I know there's a lot of financial detail in there,
14:15
Speaker 3: but it is your money and it matters. Head to
14:19
Speaker 3: the News24 website for more. Let's go to Cameron now
14:22
Speaker 3: for the headlines with our political reporter, Cam Redden.
14:26
Speaker 6: Good evening.
14:27
Speaker 4: The Prime Minister and Treasurer are publicly jostling for.
14:30
Speaker 6: Credit over the ATO credit card intervention.
14:33
Speaker 1: Andrew did text me last Thursday morning and by Friday
14:39
Speaker 1: morning we had an announcement.
14:43
Speaker 6: Prime Minister and I were in discussions on Wednesday of
14:45
Speaker 6: last week. He had a view and I agree with it.
14:48
Speaker 7: How much more humiliation does the Treasurer have to endure
14:52
Speaker 7: before the Prime Minister puts him out of his misery
14:56
Speaker 7: and sacks him?
14:57
Speaker 8: The bloke who is in danger of being sacked is
15:00
Speaker 8: sitting right there.
15:02
Speaker 3: Labor will introduce its controversial digital duty of care bill tomorrow.
15:06
Speaker 3: Australia's digital duty of care will set basic safety standards
15:10
Speaker 3: for the online services we all use every day.
15:14
Speaker 8: This is effectively the broadest state surveillance regime I've ever
15:18
Speaker 8: seen in Australian law.
15:19
Speaker 9: This has a really bad stench about it and I
15:22
Speaker 9: think the government needs to go right back to the
15:24
Speaker 9: drawing board.
15:25
Speaker 2: We won't be supporting this.
15:26
Speaker 6: Cameron Redden, News 24, Canberra.
15:31
Speaker 3: All right, let's bring in now my panel senior fellow
15:33
Speaker 3: at the Menzies Research Centre, Nick Cater, and Deputy Executive
15:36
Speaker 3: Director at the IPA, Dan Wild. Well, welcome to you both.
15:39
Speaker 3: I'll get into all of those issues in a moment,
15:41
Speaker 3: but I don't want to miss Labor's new trust tax legislation.
15:46
Speaker 3: I mean, concerns about restructuring costs for those with a
15:50
Speaker 3: trust now could result in a $ 13 billion hit to business.
15:57
Speaker 2: This is extraordinary. Have a listen.
15:59
Speaker 10: Today, the Sydney Morning Herald quoted one Labor MP saying,
16:05
Speaker 10: tradespeople were told for years to use trusts and are
16:09
Speaker 10: now being made to feel like the government is coming
16:12
Speaker 10: after them. When will this minister start listening to Australians
16:16
Speaker 10: who have a go, axe Labor's toxic taxes impacting thousands
16:21
Speaker 10: of tradies and stop waging.
16:23
Speaker 2: War on small business?
16:26
Speaker 3: There's a whole lot of Labor MPs now, Nick, leaking
16:30
Speaker 3: to the newspapers, clearly unhappy, not just with this issue,
16:34
Speaker 3: with the.
16:34
Speaker 2: Broader carriage of the budget.
16:37
Speaker 3: And, of course, you saw there from Cam Redden, the
16:40
Speaker 3: Prime Minister really at odds now with his Treasurer.
16:44
Speaker 2: What do you make of things? I think it's astounding.
16:48
Speaker 1: The Treasurer just seems to be an amateur, rank amateur
16:52
Speaker 1: in policymaking. And was there nobody in Treasury, was there
16:55
Speaker 1: nobody in his own office who pointed out that if
16:57
Speaker 1: you make a change like this to a trust, which
17:00
Speaker 1: businesses and small businesses and families have used over the
17:03
Speaker 1: years to get them, you know, in order to be
17:06
Speaker 1: able to set up their business and get the right
17:08
Speaker 1: return on the risk they're taking, that it will have
17:11
Speaker 1: all sorts of ripple through consequences that you're probably not
17:14
Speaker 1: even aware of. You know, I just think that the
17:17
Speaker 1: amateur nature of the way this policy was put in,
17:21
Speaker 1: they are now reaping the benefit of that. But from
17:24
Speaker 1: a small business point of view, of course, it's cumulative.
17:26
Speaker 1: You know, small business is resilient. I mean, they will
17:29
Speaker 1: work through the night to fill in their BAS if
17:32
Speaker 1: they have to. But you just get one after the other.
17:36
Speaker 1: And with the tax office now coming down like a
17:39
Speaker 1: ton of bricks on anybody who's a minute late with
17:42
Speaker 1: their BAS statement and sending them a fine of, you know...
17:45
Speaker 1: All this adds up eventually. And of course, the tax
17:48
Speaker 1: office changes on credit cards. And that is the point
17:52
Speaker 1: at which businesses start to say, look, this is too hard.
17:55
Speaker 1: We're going to get out of this.
17:59
Speaker 3: How do you think business feels, small business, Dan? There's
18:03
Speaker 3: all of these pay rises, 25%, 30% for government employees
18:08
Speaker 3: that they are, small business, are paying for in their
18:11
Speaker 3: taxes like we all are. You've got the IMF saying
18:14
Speaker 3: that our inflation risk in Australia is some of the
18:16
Speaker 3: worst in the world. We've got talk of high unemployment
18:18
Speaker 3: headed our way. We've got now reports today of a
18:22
Speaker 3: fifth rate increase. They were saying two before, then they
18:25
Speaker 3: said three, now they're talking about five. And yesterday when
18:28
Speaker 3: he was trying to gee up court, because the Prime
18:30
Speaker 3: Minister's saying, don't worry, we'll be right, we'll be kicking
18:33
Speaker 3: with the.
18:33
Speaker 2: Wind in the fourth quarter.
18:38
Speaker 9: Well, the economy is not doing well. As you just
18:40
Speaker 9: pointed out, we have high inflation and now the risk
18:42
Speaker 9: of rising unemployment. There's a term for that, which is stagflation.
18:46
Speaker 9: So this is a real issue. And we've talked about
18:48
Speaker 9: this a couple of times, but I want to sort
18:50
Speaker 9: of hammer it home, which is that the issue we
18:52
Speaker 9: have is a government that is not focused on actually
18:54
Speaker 9: growing the economy. It is focused on redistributing what is there.
18:59
Speaker 9: I could not name... a single policy that this government
19:02
Speaker 9: has that is aimed at actually growing the economy and
19:05
Speaker 9: making all Australians better off. But I could name a
19:07
Speaker 9: hundred policies they have at redistributing what is already there.
19:11
Speaker 9: We have a situation where demand is very high because
19:13
Speaker 9: of all of this government spending. The RBA has made
19:16
Speaker 9: that very clear. We've had mass migration, so more people
19:19
Speaker 9: coming in spending more money at the same time as
19:22
Speaker 9: the productivity of our economy is flat or declining. So
19:25
Speaker 9: our supply capacity, our ability as an economy to generate
19:29
Speaker 9: wealth to produce wealth is declining at the same time
19:32
Speaker 9: as demand is going up. So this is why we
19:35
Speaker 9: have the combination of rising prices, slow growth and rising unemployment.
19:40
Speaker 2: So this is a real issue.
19:41
Speaker 9: And I guarantee you, if the economy keeps going backwards,
19:44
Speaker 9: the government is going to do stimulus, which means more
19:47
Speaker 9: demand on a wheat economy, which will mean even higher prices.
19:50
Speaker 9: So I'm not confident that the government knows exactly how
19:53
Speaker 9: to deal with these issues whatsoever.
19:57
Speaker 3: One of the ways, Nick, you know well, that we
19:58
Speaker 3: pay our way in the world is what we export
20:00
Speaker 3: in terms of resources, mining resources in particular, but also agriculture.
20:05
Speaker 3: We had that decision today that Tanya Plevisick's very dubious
20:10
Speaker 3: push to block.
20:11
Speaker 2: The $ 1.
20:11
Speaker 3: 3 billion Blaney gold mine has been overturned in the
20:15
Speaker 3: federal court. The whole Indigenous heritage order that she put
20:19
Speaker 3: on the project about the whole blue banded bee dreaming story, well,
20:25
Speaker 3: that was found to have lacked respect procedural fairness. You've
20:29
Speaker 3: got this whole issue with scope three emissions where Angus
20:32
Speaker 3: Taylor says we will take them out. We will not
20:35
Speaker 3: allow Australians to be punished for who burns our coal
20:39
Speaker 3: overseas or anything like that.
20:41
Speaker 2: It'll be treated like every other export.
20:43
Speaker 3: I think there's a reckoning coming about the economy and
20:47
Speaker 3: the budget bottom line.
20:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right, Peter. And look, the consequence of this
20:56
Speaker 1: decision is, well, it's very welcome. It's good to see
20:59
Speaker 1: the checks and balances kick in. It is open, I understand,
21:02
Speaker 1: to the federal government to appeal this decision. Let's, for
21:05
Speaker 1: goodness sake, hope they don't. But from the point of
21:09
Speaker 1: view of the activists who are driving this kind of
21:11
Speaker 1: thing through lawfare and other means, a win for them
21:15
Speaker 1: is a bonus. But their real intention is to slow
21:19
Speaker 1: the whole process down, lock companies up in courts in
21:23
Speaker 1: green and black and red tape so that eventually they
21:26
Speaker 1: give up because they can't afford to keep putting capital
21:29
Speaker 1: into a project that's not producing any revenue. So I
21:33
Speaker 1: really hope the government just lets this one through now
21:35
Speaker 1: and doesn't prolong it any longer because this is the
21:38
Speaker 1: way that we've got to drive this country broke and
21:41
Speaker 1: stop producing the wealth which has benefited my generation and
21:45
Speaker 1: your generation but won't benefit the next generation unless we
21:49
Speaker 1: allow business to get on with what they're doing.
21:53
Speaker 3: Dan, I want to go to the issue of this
21:55
Speaker 3: digital duty of care. And again, we saw Arnica Wells,
21:58
Speaker 3: it'll come into the parliament tomorrow, basically cloak it all
22:03
Speaker 3: in protection for children.
22:05
Speaker 2: Well, 16-year-olds aren't on social media.
22:07
Speaker 3: The government's already got a, well, we know they are,
22:09
Speaker 3: but they've already got a law in relation to that.
22:11
Speaker 3: We know if it relates to pornography or child exploitation,
22:14
Speaker 3: we've got.
22:14
Speaker 2: Laws about that now.
22:16
Speaker 3: If it relates to terrorist propaganda, we already have laws
22:20
Speaker 3: in relation to that.
22:22
Speaker 2: They are all illegal content.
22:24
Speaker 3: This is about trying to regulate harmful content, not illegal content,
22:29
Speaker 3: just things that the government doesn't like.
22:31
Speaker 2: All credit to the IPA.
22:33
Speaker 3: Thank you for getting Michael Schellenberger to Canberra the other
22:36
Speaker 3: day and briefing as many politicians as he can. Give
22:41
Speaker 3: me your honest assessment. Can we defeat this legislation?
22:48
Speaker 9: Well, the legislation can be defeated. Obviously, it won't be
22:51
Speaker 9: defeated in the lower house. It'll pass tomorrow. I assume
22:54
Speaker 9: it's going to pass tomorrow unless there's anything that changes,
22:56
Speaker 9: but it's pretty sure it's going to go ahead. But
22:58
Speaker 9: it can be defeated. Look, this is the third time
23:00
Speaker 9: that this government has tried to engage in widespread censorship.
23:04
Speaker 9: The first was the misinformation laws back in 2024, and
23:09
Speaker 9: they were ultimately defeated. In fact, they were so toxic
23:11
Speaker 9: that they weren't even voted on in the Senate because
23:14
Speaker 9: they were going to be defeated. Earlier this year, in
23:16
Speaker 9: the wake of Bondi, they tried to put in hate
23:18
Speaker 9: speech laws. Now, they got the hate group laws through,
23:21
Speaker 9: but they tried to do hate speech laws as well. Now,
23:24
Speaker 9: they were so toxic that they didn't go ahead either.
23:27
Speaker 9: So I am confident that this can be defeated, but
23:30
Speaker 9: it is going to take some public engagement to do so,
23:33
Speaker 9: because the only way the government can pass this is
23:36
Speaker 9: if they do a deal with the Greens in the Senate. Now,
23:38
Speaker 9: what's interesting about this is the Greens used to be
23:40
Speaker 9: the party of civil liberties. You know, when I was
23:42
Speaker 9: growing up, they were there to protect people's freedoms and
23:45
Speaker 9: civil liberties and the right to protest and so forth.
23:47
Speaker 9: And to their credit, they did oppose the misinformation laws
23:51
Speaker 9: two years ago. I don't know why they're now supporting
23:54
Speaker 9: these laws. They've indicated that they will support the laws
23:56
Speaker 9: in some form. But I think a lot of pressure
23:59
Speaker 9: that is put on politicians from Labor and Greens will
24:02
Speaker 9: work because you've seen Albanese and Annika Wells. They can't
24:06
Speaker 9: explain it.
24:07
Speaker 11: Right.
24:07
Speaker 9: When they are subject to questioning, they cannot explain or
24:11
Speaker 9: defend these laws because, frankly, they are indefensible. So, yes,
24:15
Speaker 9: they can be defeated, but it is an uphill battle.
24:17
Speaker 9: We've got about five weeks to do so, by the way,
24:20
Speaker 9: because it'll be the last sitting week in November that
24:22
Speaker 9: they try to get it through the Senate.
24:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, they'll try and ram it through with a guillotine. Dan,
24:27
Speaker 3: you're a great campaigner. The IPA are great campaigners. How
24:30
Speaker 3: can people get involved?
24:35
Speaker 9: Well, I think it's a matter of contacting your local
24:37
Speaker 9: member of parliament and, you know, doing it in a
24:39
Speaker 9: respectful way. You know, I'm not saying go out there
24:42
Speaker 9: and beat them over the head, but just ask them
24:44
Speaker 9: questions like, are you aware of this law? Are you
24:46
Speaker 9: aware of the problems with it? Why is it that
24:48
Speaker 9: you support it? Because if you put questions to your
24:50
Speaker 9: local member of parliament, I reckon nine out of 10
24:53
Speaker 9: of them are not going to be able to answer
24:56
Speaker 9: your questions because And as you know from your time
24:57
Speaker 9: in politics, Peter, if a local MP feels that their
25:00
Speaker 9: constituents are concerned about an issue, then that's going to
25:03
Speaker 9: make its way to the top, to Anthony Albanese and
25:05
Speaker 9: to others. So I would say, again, do it in
25:08
Speaker 9: a respectful way and do it in a balanced way,
25:10
Speaker 9: but ask the question of your local MP about why
25:12
Speaker 9: they're engaging in this widespread internet censorship.
25:17
Speaker 2: Dan Wilding, Katie, thank you.
25:18
Speaker 3: Well, let's go now to the front page of the
25:21
Speaker 3: Daily Telegraph newspaper today and those revelations that an Islamic
25:25
Speaker 3: media organisation was given $ 308, 000 in taxpayer funding, this is
25:31
Speaker 3: from Canberra, to promote so-called social cohesion while they've been
25:36
Speaker 3: called out publishing videos dismissing anti-Semitic attacks in Sydney as fake.
25:41
Speaker 3: and describing Zionists, so anyone who supports the state of Israel, as, quote,
25:46
Speaker 3: mortal enemies of Islam. It raises obvious and serious questions
25:51
Speaker 3: about how the Albanese government vetted any of these grants.
25:57
Speaker 3: Here is the Liberal MP Julian Lisa today.
25:59
Speaker 8: Why on earth did the minister give taxpayer funding to
26:03
Speaker 8: a group spilling hate-filled lies about Jews?
26:07
Speaker 7: The decision that the member refers to was a decision
26:10
Speaker 7: that was made by the department.
26:12
Speaker 12: The department has now sent one path a notice of
26:14
Speaker 12: intention to terminate.
26:17
Speaker 3: You've got to love how the department gets blamed all
26:20
Speaker 3: the time when they're in trouble, don't you? Bring in now,
26:23
Speaker 3: let's do this, Jason Morrison from The Daily Telegraph, someone
26:28
Speaker 3: who was front and centre with this story today. I
26:31
Speaker 3: have to say, Jason, a huge win for the telly tonight.
26:35
Speaker 3: You've got the minister today in the chamber saying that
26:39
Speaker 3: the grant will be terminated, but in her response, clearly
26:44
Speaker 3: they did not do any due diligence on on the
26:48
Speaker 3: millions and millions they have thrown at this whole media
26:52
Speaker 3: grants process in the first place.
26:55
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's pretty amazing, Peter. G'day. $ 9.
26:57
Speaker 8: 2 million is granted to independent media organisations and it's.
27:03
Speaker 6: All at arm's length, isn't it? Always at arm's length.
27:05
Speaker 8: What if I told you that the all-up multicultural grants
27:08
Speaker 8: in Australia have increased tenfold since this government came to power?
27:14
Speaker 8: This is a big cash splash and you don't have
27:16
Speaker 8: to really think too much through politics to understand what's
27:19
Speaker 8: at the heart of this and why the money is
27:21
Speaker 8: being flung around. But to who it's being given to. Look,
27:25
Speaker 8: it took 20 minutes of searching on the internet to
27:27
Speaker 8: have a look at the background of this joint, One Path.
27:31
Speaker 6: You didn't even have to go deep. It's all over
27:33
Speaker 6: their website.
27:34
Speaker 8: And in fact, if the department, once again, the department
27:37
Speaker 8: had actually done the checks and been really interested in
27:40
Speaker 8: that social cohesion thing, which this is meant to promote,
27:44
Speaker 8: They would have found what we found.
27:46
Speaker 6: And it's all there in video. It's not hidden in
27:48
Speaker 6: the backwaters of the internet. It's on YouTube. And there's
27:51
Speaker 6: 100,000 people who've.
27:52
Speaker 5: Looked at it.
27:54
Speaker 3: Well, this is exactly what I found tonight going through
27:56
Speaker 3: all the financials of my centre, the organisation that UAE
28:01
Speaker 3: officials say is linked to the alleged co-pilot terrorist in
28:06
Speaker 3: relation to that fly-to-buy flight. You say in terms of
28:09
Speaker 3: this multicultural funding that one in every $ 7 is going
28:14
Speaker 3: into the minister, Tony Burke's own electorate.
28:17
Speaker 6: It's amazing.
28:18
Speaker 8: Now, in fairness, I'm a Sydney person, so I understand
28:21
Speaker 8: Tony Burke's electorate of Watson.
28:23
Speaker 6: Is, well, I hate the phrase, but a very multicultural area.
28:27
Speaker 8: It's made up of people of lots of different backgrounds,
28:29
Speaker 8: lots of different races, lots of different religions. I guess
28:32
Speaker 8: if you're going to have multicultural grants, a fair bit
28:34
Speaker 8: of it will land there. But one in seven dollars
28:37
Speaker 8: across a vast country with so many different independent media organisations,
28:42
Speaker 8: they'd be genuine and, you know, really promoting cohesive organisations
28:47
Speaker 8: that would be looking at this tonight saying.
28:49
Speaker 6: What about us? Why didn't we get the money?
28:52
Speaker 8: Well, it turns out you didn't apply because it looks
28:54
Speaker 8: like just about anyone who applied got it.
28:56
Speaker 6: And the money is pretty good. As I said, three
28:59
Speaker 6: hundred eight thousand dollars for this one path.
29:01
Speaker 8: Group with very easily checkable And of course, the minister
29:06
Speaker 8: today has essentially confirmed that they don't check.
29:09
Speaker 6: There's no real system. Now they're going to use special
29:12
Speaker 6: AI systems to check.
29:13
Speaker 8: I mean, you'd know this better than most because you're
29:16
Speaker 8: involved with the government that set all home affairs up.
29:18
Speaker 8: But my memory of home affairs is part of the
29:21
Speaker 8: department is ASIO. You'd sort of hope that it'd be
29:25
Speaker 8: keeping an eye on things too and perhaps reporting around
29:28
Speaker 8: on these kind of organisations, because I'm going to suggest
29:30
Speaker 8: from what I've seen on these particular websites, ASIO would
29:34
Speaker 8: be well aware.
29:35
Speaker 6: Of this group's background.
29:36
Speaker 8: But when you go through the process of applications, I
29:39
Speaker 8: think it's category three, which is promoting social cohesion. I
29:44
Speaker 8: don't think anyone really checks. That's pretty clear because they
29:46
Speaker 8: wouldn't have given the money to them if they did.
29:47
Speaker 8: And if they did know that and they did check
29:50
Speaker 8: it and they gave the money to, that is utterly
29:52
Speaker 8: disgraceful beyond what's been exposed.
29:55
Speaker 3: They don't want to check, Jason Morrison. You know the
29:58
Speaker 3: hoops that a pensioner goes through to get even a
30:01
Speaker 3: modest little bit of money or support to pay their pharmaceuticals.
30:04
Speaker 3: Pensioners around Australia have form after form after form and
30:08
Speaker 3: all the acquittals that go into any support for families,
30:12
Speaker 3: that's all run through the rigour. But when it comes
30:14
Speaker 3: to these multicultural groups and Labor are the masters of it,
30:17
Speaker 3: this is a giant pork barrel to buy votes. They
30:21
Speaker 3: don't want to know about it. I think the whole
30:23
Speaker 3: lot's got to go to the Auditor-General.
30:25
Speaker 8: Well, when we first got these numbers, 325 million, I
30:30
Speaker 8: think it was, that had been splashed around in this
30:32
Speaker 8: term of government. In fact, it came from One Nation
30:35
Speaker 8: through their work initially. We kind of looked at it
30:39
Speaker 8: and said, this smells like sports rorts. And it's just
30:42
Speaker 8: a new version of it. Because when you look at
30:45
Speaker 8: the electorates it's targeted and you look at the areas and,
30:48
Speaker 8: of course, the voter growth that's gone on in these areas,
30:50
Speaker 8: you start to see a link between it. And yeah,
30:52
Speaker 8: Tony Burke, one in seven dollars goes into his electorate.
30:55
Speaker 8: He would say to you tonight, well, the reason is
30:57
Speaker 8: because I have a very diverse electorate. We also know
31:00
Speaker 8: there's another reason to it. And we're not fools.
31:03
Speaker 2: All right.
31:03
Speaker 3: Well, then how's the excuse from the prime minister about
31:07
Speaker 3: the golf club that gets tapped on the shoulder? You
31:10
Speaker 3: couldn't even apply for that money. And that's not about diversity.
31:13
Speaker 3: Six million dollars to a golf club. That's, you know,
31:17
Speaker 3: 200 metres from his back fence.
31:18
Speaker 6: Yeah, perhaps we should rename them survival grants.
31:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's clearly it's pork barrel. I mean, there's those
31:25
Speaker 3: community grants. You're talking about $ 560 million, 73% of those
31:30
Speaker 3: have gone to Labor held or key marginal electorates that
31:34
Speaker 3: Labor had to win in the last election. What did
31:36
Speaker 3: you say you've got there? $ 320 odd million in these
31:39
Speaker 3: multicultural grants. And the stats I saw from there were 85%
31:45
Speaker 3: going to Labor electorates.
31:48
Speaker 2: Yeah.
31:48
Speaker 6: And look, again, it's multicultural.
31:50
Speaker 8: So you're going to have, you know, an ethnically diverse
31:53
Speaker 8: base the money goes towards. But when you boil down,
31:56
Speaker 8: you know, if Australia is this giant melting pot and
32:00
Speaker 8: there's people from all different backgrounds here, you sort of
32:03
Speaker 8: scratch your head and wonder how so much of it
32:05
Speaker 8: lands in a certain number of seats.
32:08
Speaker 6: And hey, they're just all Labor seats. It's a weird
32:11
Speaker 6: coincidence that.
32:13
Speaker 3: Well, my viewers know how hard they work to pay
32:15
Speaker 3: their taxes. They've got to earn a lot to give
32:18
Speaker 3: it all over to the government. So keep it up,
32:19
Speaker 3: Daily Telegraph. Make sure they're not wasting our money as
32:22
Speaker 3: clearly they have been.
32:23
Speaker 10: Thanks.
32:23
Speaker 2: Thank you, Jason Morrison. Quick break after the break. Anne Arley, the.
32:29
Speaker 3: Small business minister, under real pressure today. Another shocking performance
32:34
Speaker 3: in question time.
32:35
Speaker 2: We'll get into that. We'll have another look at the
32:37
Speaker 2: grants with Bridget McKenzie.
32:39
Speaker 3: Thank you.
32:44
Speaker 2: Welcome back. Coming up, we'll cross to the UK.
32:47
Speaker 3: Anger building there over the number of jobs over the
32:49
Speaker 3: last 12 years.
32:51
Speaker 2: I was going to say 10.
32:52
Speaker 3: It's 12 going the way of migrant arrivals. But now
32:56
Speaker 3: back to the taxpayer-funded grants issue, this time in relation
33:00
Speaker 3: to multicultural organisations. Under scrutiny after a Western Sydney media
33:05
Speaker 3: group received 300,000 from the Albanese government, despite publishing claims
33:10
Speaker 3: that anti-Semitic attacks were a sham... raising serious questions about
33:15
Speaker 3: how public money is being allocated. Not to mention those
33:18
Speaker 3: claims out of the UAE that's got the AFP now
33:21
Speaker 3: investigating a Melbourne Muslim group that's planning to build Australia's
33:25
Speaker 3: largest ever Islamic centre in the city's northern suburbs. Let's
33:29
Speaker 3: bring in National Senator Bridget McKenzie, who sits on one
33:32
Speaker 3: of the committees looking into a number of these funding decisions. Senator, welcome.
33:38
Speaker 3: So you've got anti-Jewish hate funded by the taxpayer out
33:42
Speaker 3: of Sydney. You've got this issue in Melbourne, my centre
33:46
Speaker 3: and its proposed mega mosque. Questions there about how that
33:51
Speaker 3: organisation's run and those alleged links to the would-be terrorists
33:55
Speaker 3: out of the UAE. Surely every dollar going to these
33:59
Speaker 3: organisations must be suspended while they are under investigation.
34:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, I couldn't agree with you anymore, Peter. Absolutely.
34:11
Speaker 7: Taxpayers work very, very hard each and every day to
34:15
Speaker 7: send a lot of that money to Canberra. And the
34:18
Speaker 7: last thing they want to see is it being spent
34:21
Speaker 7: on organisations and individuals who that are actively working against
34:26
Speaker 7: social cohesion in our community. I mean, it's inconceivable that
34:30
Speaker 7: an Australian government would be providing grants to an organisation
34:36
Speaker 7: that actually publishes video that says Zionists are mortal enemies.
34:42
Speaker 3: Right?
34:42
Speaker 7: Now, I'm a Zionist. Many of your viewers are a Zionist.
34:46
Speaker 7: You know, you're a Zionist. I'm a Zionist. Anyone that
34:49
Speaker 7: believes that Israel as a Jewish state has a right
34:52
Speaker 7: to exist is a Zionist. But we have taxpayers' money
34:55
Speaker 7: effectively going to anti-Semitic Jew-hating organisations. And so I think
35:01
Speaker 7: this is more about buying votes, paying the ferryman, if
35:05
Speaker 7: you like, across our country, rather than actually doing what
35:09
Speaker 7: is in the national interest. The government should be bringing
35:12
Speaker 7: us together, particularly post-Bondi, and instead they seem to be
35:17
Speaker 7: funding one side of this horrific situation over the other.
35:25
Speaker 3: Okay, well then let's go to the FOI revelations that
35:29
Speaker 3: say the Prime Minister did not make, the government did
35:32
Speaker 3: not make a submission to the Royal Commission.
35:34
Speaker 2: I cannot believe that.
35:36
Speaker 3: Nor did the Prime Minister, says the FOI, make any
35:38
Speaker 3: preparations to give evidence.
35:43
Speaker 7: Well, this is the Royal Commission, Peter, that the Prime
35:46
Speaker 7: Minister was shamed into holding post-Bondi, the most horrific of
35:52
Speaker 7: terrorist attacks on our shores. Now, if you were a
35:56
Speaker 7: Prime Minister of any colour that wanted to bring Australians
36:00
Speaker 7: together and make it very clear that anti-Semitism and hating
36:06
Speaker 7: Australian Jews and wanting to murder Australian Jews was something
36:11
Speaker 7: you abhorred, then you would have made a submission and
36:15
Speaker 7: proudly presented to the Royal Commission to show our Jewish
36:20
Speaker 7: community that that you as our nation's leader were prepared
36:24
Speaker 7: to stand up to anti-Semitism proudly. I mean, I think,
36:30
Speaker 7: you know, anti-Semitism exists everywhere, but we want it to
36:33
Speaker 7: be on the extremes of our society, not at its
36:38
Speaker 7: very heart.
36:39
Speaker 4: Which under this Labor.
36:40
Speaker 7: Government who picks to side with those who are anti,
36:46
Speaker 7: you know, Jew haters, if you like. So our government
36:49
Speaker 7: chooses to side with and directly fund organisations and individuals
36:54
Speaker 7: who hate Jews, sends completely the wrong message and normalises anti-Semitism.
37:02
Speaker 2: And it's at odds with our values. I mean... Oh, absolutely.
37:06
Speaker 3: What's... What staggers me is at the very time of
37:09
Speaker 3: the government, we're not even 12 months on, Bridget, from
37:12
Speaker 3: the horrors of Bondi, at the time when it's not
37:15
Speaker 3: just Jewish Australians that want comfort from the government, that, A,
37:18
Speaker 3: they've got their national security house in order, that the
37:22
Speaker 3: agencies are resourced as they should be, but the government's
37:25
Speaker 3: got their heart in this fight. You know, what happened
37:28
Speaker 3: at Bondi happened to Jewish Australians, but it happened in
37:31
Speaker 3: our country to every Australian. It's a fight for every
37:35
Speaker 3: Australian and the Prime Minister who is supposed to lead
37:38
Speaker 3: the whole country is missing in action.
37:43
Speaker 7: Absolutely, Peter, and every time he gets the chance to
37:47
Speaker 7: stand up and put a stake in the ground for
37:51
Speaker 7: social cohesion, for harmony, for democracy, and for our Australian
37:57
Speaker 7: Jewish community, he.
38:00
Speaker 4: Walks the other way.
38:01
Speaker 7: Whether it's on the floor of the UN, whether it's
38:04
Speaker 7: giving us comfort that our federal intelligence agencies are working
38:08
Speaker 7: in sync with our state police forces, whether it is
38:13
Speaker 7: actually sending signals to communities, as you're seeing with the
38:16
Speaker 7: rollout of these grants.
38:18
Speaker 4: So at every.
38:19
Speaker 7: Point of time he's given the chance to stand up
38:22
Speaker 7: and with everyday Australians, he chooses.
38:26
Speaker 4: The other team. And, you know, I think Australians are
38:29
Speaker 4: awake to it.
38:31
Speaker 3: I mentioned at the top of the show my Centre,
38:35
Speaker 3: the Melbourne Centre, organisation with alleged links to the UAE
38:40
Speaker 3: would be terrorist. But, you know, I've gone through their financials.
38:44
Speaker 3: They're all there on the government's own website. I've gone
38:47
Speaker 3: through all that detail and the detail basically says there
38:50
Speaker 3: are serious questions about integrity and probity in.
38:52
Speaker 2: The handling of money.
38:53
Speaker 3: There's qualified auditor reports. We also know that one of
38:57
Speaker 3: the principals, the imam involved in these organisations, and there's
39:00
Speaker 3: a multitude of them, but he gave evidence in a
39:03
Speaker 3: trial related to Ben Bricker, one of our worst ever
39:06
Speaker 3: terrorists who was incarcerated and convicted, Bridget. He gave evidence saying, well,
39:11
Speaker 3: Osama bin Laden was liked by a lot of Muslims,
39:13
Speaker 3: me included, he says. He openly admitted to watching videos
39:17
Speaker 3: of beheadings. Now, that alone should disqualify anyone like that
39:22
Speaker 3: from getting Commonwealth money.
39:23
Speaker 2: How does it happen?
39:26
Speaker 7: Absolutely, Peter, and you've been in government, I've been a
39:28
Speaker 7: minister making decisions. The department has to send up the information.
39:34
Speaker 7: You make the decision as a minister. And this is
39:36
Speaker 7: what we're trying to find out as an opposition, to
39:39
Speaker 7: delve into the details.
39:40
Speaker 4: Who is making these decisions? On what evidence?
39:44
Speaker 7: Because it seems that everywhere we look, there's a cover-up
39:48
Speaker 7: going on. Now, we sadly, you know, I voted against
39:52
Speaker 7: the hate laws in January.
39:54
Speaker 4: But Schedule 2 of.
39:55
Speaker 7: Those, that particular suite of bills, gave the government the
39:59
Speaker 7: power to deport hate preachers. I am yet to see
40:03
Speaker 7: one hate preacher deported from our country, not even, you know, seven,
40:08
Speaker 7: eight months after the atrocities of Bondi. So if this
40:12
Speaker 7: government was serious, we'd see.
40:14
Speaker 4: Action and we're not. We're just seeing money go the
40:18
Speaker 4: other way.
40:20
Speaker 2: I've got to go. The boys are in my ear.
40:21
Speaker 3: But I want you to tell my viewers that you
40:23
Speaker 3: are going down a rabbit hole on that $ 6 million
40:26
Speaker 3: for the PM's mates at the Marrickville Golf Club.
40:30
Speaker 4: Wednesday and Thursday, Senate inquiry next week. Looking forward to it.
40:35
Speaker 3: All right, we'll have that hopefully on Sky at News 24.
40:38
Speaker 3: I'll be watching absolutely. Bridget McKenzie, thank you. Coming up
40:42
Speaker 3: after the break, we'll go to London. Fair bit there happening,
40:45
Speaker 3: particularly in relation to immigration and a broken British culture.
40:49
Speaker 2: Sophie Ellsworth, up next. It's Wednesday.
40:56
Speaker 3: The wonderful Kel Richards is coming up with Words Matter.
41:00
Speaker 3: And now to the UK, where reports found that four
41:02
Speaker 3: out of every five new jobs created in Britain since
41:07
Speaker 3: 2014 have been filled by migrants.
41:09
Speaker 2: Four out of five.
41:11
Speaker 3: Analysis by the Centre for Social Justice found the number
41:14
Speaker 3: of jobs recorded through the UK's pay-as-you-earn tax system increased
41:19
Speaker 3: by around 3.7 million between 2014 and the end of
41:23
Speaker 3: last year. Of that increase, around 734,000 jobs were taken
41:28
Speaker 3: by British nationals. EU nationals accounted for a further 408,000 jobs,
41:35
Speaker 3: while the number of jobs held by non-EU nationals rose
41:39
Speaker 3: by almost 2.5 million. Joining me from London is Our
41:44
Speaker 3: News 24 contributor and News Corp Australia's European correspondent, Sophie Ellsworth.
41:49
Speaker 2: Well, Sophie, shocking figures.
41:52
Speaker 3: You've already got a cauldron of discontent, as I often
41:55
Speaker 3: say there in Britain. There must be a backlash tonight
41:59
Speaker 3: as British taxpayers absorb that detail.
42:05
Speaker 12: Peter, great to be with you. Yes, this is flooding
42:07
Speaker 12: Talkback radio lines this morning. It's the front page of
42:11
Speaker 12: today's Daily Mail saying four out of five new jobs
42:15
Speaker 12: went to foreigners in the past decade. The Talkback radio
42:19
Speaker 12: was really interesting this morning, Peter, because there's a combination
42:22
Speaker 12: of people saying, is this Britain's being lazy and not
42:26
Speaker 12: wanting to go to work? Or is this a result
42:29
Speaker 12: of the government bringing in too many migrants? And there
42:32
Speaker 12: was also discussion about that you can get about 30,000
42:35
Speaker 12: pounds a year, which is about 60,000 Australian dollars, and
42:40
Speaker 12: be on welfare and not have to get up in
42:42
Speaker 12: the morning. So this is really concerning for Britons here
42:45
Speaker 12: that potentially so many migrants are coming into the country
42:49
Speaker 12: and taking jobs that really should be going to Britain's first.
42:54
Speaker 12: And also there should be incentives for Britons to get
42:57
Speaker 12: out of bed and go to work.
43:00
Speaker 3: Pretty much a similar debate here in the last few months, Sophie,
43:03
Speaker 3: as Australians comprehend that there's a whole lot of jobs,
43:06
Speaker 3: particularly in regional and rural areas on farms and elsewhere,
43:10
Speaker 3: that Australians just won't do. And we've got about a
43:13
Speaker 3: million Australians sitting on the dole and we're having to
43:16
Speaker 3: import workers because we're all too proud to clean a
43:18
Speaker 3: few bedpans or pick a few strawberries on a farm
43:21
Speaker 3: in a seasonal sort of timeframe. Is there a concern
43:26
Speaker 3: that perhaps these migrants are undercutting wages or part of
43:30
Speaker 3: the cash economy to take some of these jobs? Or
43:34
Speaker 3: are they all jobs that are, you know, salary terms
43:38
Speaker 3: above board?
43:40
Speaker 12: Well, the discussion today on this is that they're coming
43:43
Speaker 12: in and doing jobs that Britons don't really want to do. Now, Peter,
43:47
Speaker 12: there was an interesting stat here that I'll just make
43:50
Speaker 12: sure I get correct, that migrant workers soared by 2.1
43:54
Speaker 12: million from 2020 here in the UK, but the number
43:59
Speaker 12: of people on out-of-work benefits here in the UK rose
44:03
Speaker 12: by 2.3 million in that same timeframe. So this is
44:08
Speaker 12: a country who has a growing billion dollar huge welfare
44:12
Speaker 12: bill every year that they're running up. It's extremely expensive
44:16
Speaker 12: to live in London and in the UK. The wages
44:20
Speaker 12: here are not great. So this is really serious stuff
44:23
Speaker 12: for the British government to address and an issue that
44:27
Speaker 12: Andy Burnham has to get on top of in regards
44:30
Speaker 12: to the migration influx here in the UK.
44:34
Speaker 3: Okay, based on those numbers that you just gave us,
44:37
Speaker 3: it would be hard to avoid the conclusion that there
44:41
Speaker 3: is a huge influx of people coming in and basically
44:45
Speaker 3: going straight to some sort of heavy benefit load.
44:50
Speaker 12: Exactly right, Peter. I mean, there's a combination of people
44:53
Speaker 12: coming in and taking jobs here that perhaps Britons don't
44:57
Speaker 12: want to do. There's also a combination of Britons not
45:01
Speaker 12: wanting to do these jobs. So they're going to migrants
45:04
Speaker 12: who are coming in here and working. But then there's
45:07
Speaker 12: an awful lot of people who are living off the
45:09
Speaker 12: public purse and not going to work at all. So
45:12
Speaker 12: it seems like the issues here in the UK, as
45:15
Speaker 12: you have said, are very similar to what we are
45:18
Speaker 12: seeing in Australia.
45:20
Speaker 3: Hey, just quickly, J.K. Rowling, the ABC might as well be,
45:24
Speaker 3: the BBC is doing a doco about her influence and
45:27
Speaker 3: legacy and no doubt it's going to move into the
45:30
Speaker 3: whole issue of transgender advocacy and her support for biological women,
45:35
Speaker 3: but they're not even getting her involved.
45:39
Speaker 12: That's right. She's not involved in this two-part series at all, Peter.
45:43
Speaker 12: Very concerning, but we know she's incredibly outspoken and I'm
45:46
Speaker 12: sure she'll have plenty to say when this documentary does land.
45:52
Speaker 2: I hope she does. She never misses. Thank you very much, Sophie.
45:54
Speaker 2: Quick break. After the break, Kel Richards. Here he is.
46:02
Speaker 3: I know you'll wait for this every Wednesday, our wonderful
46:04
Speaker 3: good friend Kel Richards joins me now from Sydney and
46:08
Speaker 3: a bit of an anatomy lesson with a word twist,
46:11
Speaker 3: I think it is tonight, Kel, because we've got a
46:13
Speaker 3: bit of a flavour with things tonight.
46:16
Speaker 2: We'll start the first one.
46:17
Speaker 3: Eileen wants to know why do we call our little
46:20
Speaker 3: finger our pinky?
46:23
Speaker 11: Comes from a Scottish dialect word and originally in Scots,
46:26
Speaker 11: all your fingers were called pinkies. And then around 1808,
46:30
Speaker 11: it changed. It shifted under the influence of a Dutch word.
46:34
Speaker 11: And it was the Dutch word for pinky, where they
46:36
Speaker 11: used the word pinky to mean something very small. So
46:39
Speaker 11: pinky was restricted just to your little finger. The mysterious thing,
46:43
Speaker 11: as far as the linguists are concerned, is how does
46:46
Speaker 11: this change go from Dutch into Scots into the slang
46:49
Speaker 11: of both Australia and America? That's the kind of language
46:52
Speaker 11: path that baffles the linguists.
46:56
Speaker 2: My apologies to Aileen. I called her Eileen.
46:58
Speaker 3: It's Aileen who had that one for us. Barry wants
47:01
Speaker 3: to know, slip of the tongue.
47:03
Speaker 11: Started 1659 and it began, it means saying something you
47:07
Speaker 11: didn't intend to say, using words you didn't intend to use.
47:10
Speaker 11: And it began in 1659 because a young nobleman was
47:15
Speaker 11: writing to his lady love and he signed the letter
47:18
Speaker 11: not with love but within love. And when she wrote
47:22
Speaker 11: and berated him, he explained it as a slip of
47:25
Speaker 11: the pen. And that became widely known and that entered
47:29
Speaker 11: the language. So slip of the pen was the beginning
47:31
Speaker 11: of this. Then a bit later, 1725, someone thought of
47:35
Speaker 11: the bright idea of changing slip of the pen into
47:38
Speaker 11: slip of the tongue. So it would cover spoken English
47:41
Speaker 11: as well as written English. And how Lady Caroline coped
47:44
Speaker 11: with becoming famous through a slip of the pen, I've
47:47
Speaker 11: got no idea.
47:49
Speaker 3: All right, we're going to do some more next week.
47:51
Speaker 3: I'm sorry we're out of time, but I've got a
47:53
Speaker 3: few on my list. We'll roll them into next week
47:55
Speaker 3: and I'm going to make a big block of time
47:57
Speaker 3: to get through a whole lot.
47:58
Speaker 2: Kel, thank you. That's it for me.
48:01
Speaker 3: Parliament again tomorrow. We'll see what happens with that digital
48:04
Speaker 3: duty of care. Come on, get in touch with your MPs.
48:07
Speaker 3: We've got to fight this thing. See you tomorrow night.
48:09
Speaker 2: It's Andrew Bolt.