Latest / The Bolt Report / The Bolt Report | 9 July

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The Bolt Report | 9 July · The Bolt Report

0:11
Speaker 1: He's reform it.
0:15
Speaker 2: Tonight. How embarrassing Melbourne University hired fake aboriginy Bruce Pascoe
0:20
Speaker 2: as his professor of Indigenous Agriculture, but is now pleading
0:25
Speaker 2: for donations to keep his own farm going. Plus new
0:28
Speaker 2: court documents put the heat on Labor Finance Minister Katie Gallagher,
0:32
Speaker 2: part of a plot allegedly hatched by Britney Higgins so
0:35
Speaker 2: falsely accused the Liberals of covering up her rape. I
0:39
Speaker 2: go through those and pressure grows on Senile Joe Biden
0:42
Speaker 2: to drop out as president while his wife snaps at
0:45
Speaker 2: reporters demanding answers on his mental decline. Plenty more coming up,
0:50
Speaker 2: including claims you're being fooled by our top science body,
0:53
Speaker 2: very left nuclear power. But first you might expect me
0:58
Speaker 2: to be cheering. The Prime Minister's the announcement today is
1:01
Speaker 2: now going to do something about this terrible jew hatred
1:05
Speaker 2: that is out there. Great stuff, right wrong.
1:10
Speaker 3: We have seen since October seventh last year, a significant
1:15
Speaker 3: rise in anti Semitism in Australia and that is why
1:20
Speaker 3: the government has made the decision to appoint a Special
1:24
Speaker 3: Envoy on Anti Semitism.
1:28
Speaker 2: Well after nine months of watching this a special envoy.
1:33
Speaker 2: Now it's true, there has been plenty of antisemitism around
1:36
Speaker 2: from almost the very day that hamasteris slaughtered twelve hundred Israelis,
1:40
Speaker 2: raped women and took two hundred and fifty odd hostages
1:44
Speaker 2: starting this war. Remember this mob of Jew hunters outside
1:48
Speaker 2: the Sydney Opera House disrupting a commemoration of the Israeli dead.
2:02
Speaker 2: And since then Jews have been bashed, harassed, their shops, banned,
2:06
Speaker 2: their concerts, disrupt the Jewish worshipers, abused outside their synagogue,
2:11
Speaker 2: while the university students changed for the destruction of Israel,
2:15
Speaker 2: the only Jewish country from the river to the sea.
2:25
Speaker 2: All this jew hatred. So the Prime Minister is right
2:29
Speaker 2: about that.
2:31
Speaker 3: I have spoken with members of the Jewish community here
2:34
Speaker 3: in Melbourne, right around Australia who have not felt safe
2:40
Speaker 3: members of the Jewish community. His children are worried about
2:44
Speaker 3: wearing their school uniform in our capital cities. That's not acceptable,
2:52
Speaker 3: not acceptable.
2:53
Speaker 4: Ever, it's not.
2:56
Speaker 2: But after nine months of all this, the government thinks
2:59
Speaker 2: this special envoy, a lawyer, businesswman, she can fix this, really, really,
3:06
Speaker 2: she can do it and get this special envoice very
3:10
Speaker 2: first action believe it or not is to fly to
3:14
Speaker 2: Argentina next week for a conference there. I think you've
3:20
Speaker 2: got to be kidding me. Now, maybe if this envoy
3:23
Speaker 2: was going to knock on the door of every Jew
3:27
Speaker 2: hater in this country, track down every hate preaching shaker,
3:30
Speaker 2: maybe should do some good. But even then, no doubt
3:34
Speaker 2: it would do much that would at least be better
3:37
Speaker 2: than flying to Argentina. So you've got it. I'm sure
3:42
Speaker 2: this is just been This is a big government, bureaucratic
3:46
Speaker 2: response to a problem this same government has actually helped
3:49
Speaker 2: to create and failed to confront. So the government throwing
3:52
Speaker 2: a cup of water on its own bonfire. This Jew
3:55
Speaker 2: hatred has, in my opinion, been made worse and in
3:59
Speaker 2: the justified to many by the government's exaggerated criticisms of
4:04
Speaker 2: Israel by implying, for instance, it was recklessly bombing hospitals
4:09
Speaker 2: that were actually taken over by Hamas terrorists, one actually
4:12
Speaker 2: hit by a mass rocket or Islamic jihad rocket. Now,
4:17
Speaker 2: the government was also muted in criticizing calls for Israel's
4:20
Speaker 2: destruction or in damning Muslim hate preachers. Here, all the
4:24
Speaker 2: leftist radicals in the streets and the university protests as
4:27
Speaker 2: well were whipping up more of this hatred. In fact,
4:31
Speaker 2: the Prime Minister was today very keen not to offend
4:35
Speaker 2: the ethnic community where a fair bit of this due
4:38
Speaker 2: hatred is actually coming from hatred like this.
4:42
Speaker 5: Ahamsifa me sifakilahod hiah a nahum shabun mutatationly safki dima
5:01
Speaker 5: shahaban your ship saftat them.
5:06
Speaker 2: So even today appointing this special envoy to fight Jee
5:10
Speaker 2: hatred Albanies, it was very quick to tell Muslims to
5:13
Speaker 2: do the very same for them, as if they face
5:16
Speaker 2: the very same harassment, threats and persecution as our Jews.
5:21
Speaker 3: Shortly we'll also be announcing an envoy on Islamophobia that
5:27
Speaker 3: will be important as well.
5:30
Speaker 2: And of course, being Albernisi, there is no better place
5:34
Speaker 2: to attack Israel yet again than at a press conference.
5:38
Speaker 2: We're announcing you're appointing an on board to fate Jee hatred.
5:42
Speaker 3: And we've expressed in statements, including statements I've made with
5:46
Speaker 3: the Prime Minister in New Zealand and Prime Minister of Canada,
5:50
Speaker 3: my concern about some of the actions that have led
5:56
Speaker 3: to an unacceptable lasts of innocent life in Gaza.
6:05
Speaker 2: It's a farce, and why really stop with a special
6:08
Speaker 2: envoys to fight anti Semitism and it's amophobia? And I
6:12
Speaker 2: asked that because Albanezy but was at a loss today
6:17
Speaker 2: about what to do about yet another hatred unleashed by
6:21
Speaker 2: these pro Palestine protesters, a hatred of Australia itself.
6:27
Speaker 3: When you have the war memorials, for example, descrid as
6:32
Speaker 3: they were a short time ago, I just shake my
6:35
Speaker 3: head at how that can occur in Australia in two
6:40
Speaker 3: thousand and twenty four.
6:44
Speaker 2: Well, rather than shake his head, why not appoint a
6:47
Speaker 2: special envoy to fight anti Australianism as well? But here again,
6:53
Speaker 2: you know, if Albanyzy really wanted to fight that kind
6:57
Speaker 2: of hatred, then maybe you should end the government funded
6:59
Speaker 2: tribalism that's dividing us in this nation of three flags. Now,
7:04
Speaker 2: how about ending exactly the official race based tribalism that
7:08
Speaker 2: is new envoy against anti Semitism countdown to today?
7:13
Speaker 6: Can I just also acknowledge the Galligle people of your
7:15
Speaker 6: own nation and pay my respects to their elders past
7:18
Speaker 6: present of emerging.
7:21
Speaker 2: Ah heavens, I mean the whole race business now, that's
7:25
Speaker 2: got to be fought from the ground up, from the
7:27
Speaker 2: schools up. I mean, just appointing a special envoy for
7:30
Speaker 2: the losers in these identity politics wars. That's going to
7:34
Speaker 2: do nothing in a country where more and more we're
7:37
Speaker 2: being divided officially by our race or even faith, and
7:42
Speaker 2: not united as Australians. First well, well, well, the New
7:53
Speaker 2: York Times, very lift wing newspaper is reporting like it's
7:58
Speaker 2: breaking news that many atoll islands like them All Daves,
8:02
Speaker 2: that we were told would drown because of global warming,
8:05
Speaker 2: rising seas, they are drowning at all. Some actually many
8:10
Speaker 2: are growing. Now. To you viewers or readers of my column,
8:16
Speaker 2: you have known this for years. I mean I've quoted
8:19
Speaker 2: many times some of the main experts in New York
8:21
Speaker 2: Times now has found and I've said the same thing
8:24
Speaker 2: for at least fifteen years now, which again proves that
8:28
Speaker 2: the difference between a conservative and a leftist is time.
8:33
Speaker 2: Time to let the real world prove their theory is wrong. Now,
8:37
Speaker 2: the short explanation for the refusal of these islands to
8:40
Speaker 2: drowns that waves thump sand and dead coral on them, etc.
8:43
Speaker 2: But this actually old news about them All Daves exposes
8:48
Speaker 2: one of the most famous stunts to ever push this
8:51
Speaker 2: drowning island scare and how the media fell for it.
8:54
Speaker 2: You remember, I'm sure the president of the alldaves holding
8:58
Speaker 2: a meeting of his cabinet underwater in two thousand and
9:02
Speaker 2: nine to scare us into thinking global warming could Bipoder's
9:05
Speaker 2: low lying country forever and we should spend big money
9:08
Speaker 2: to save them and the other islands. The media bought it.
9:12
Speaker 2: In fact, some on the left, like the left wing Guardian,
9:16
Speaker 2: they're still trying to flog this fake scare. Joining me
9:19
Speaker 2: every Tuesday is Matt Canavan, the National MP and Form
9:22
Speaker 2: of Resources Minister. Matt Canavan, Good to see you. What
9:25
Speaker 2: does this latest example of that debunked scared tell.
9:30
Speaker 4: You, Well, it tells us that we really should look
9:35
Speaker 4: again at all of this. We're constantly told that this
9:39
Speaker 4: is the science, that the science is in. But when
9:42
Speaker 4: you dig down on this scare campaign of what was
9:45
Speaker 4: global warming now climate change or sometimes extreme weather events,
9:49
Speaker 4: invariably it is based on computer modeling, on projections, on predictions,
9:55
Speaker 4: very rarely on what actually has happened. And what has
9:58
Speaker 4: actually happened is that the models, the predictions of the
10:03
Speaker 4: particularly the alarmist climate scientists have been proven to be
10:07
Speaker 4: wrong and very very very wrong. And that, Andrew, is
10:10
Speaker 4: like what real science should be. Real science should be
10:13
Speaker 4: about making a prediction, testing a hypothesis against real world data,
10:18
Speaker 4: and if that data contradicts the hypothesis, and you throw
10:22
Speaker 4: that out. And what should be throwing out is the
10:25
Speaker 4: alarmist suggestion that we're on track for some existential threat
10:29
Speaker 4: now because of growing anthropogenic carbon emissions. That's just not
10:33
Speaker 4: the case.
10:35
Speaker 2: But I'm afraid to say, Matt that these scares do work.
10:41
Speaker 2: You have a look at the scare campaign right now
10:43
Speaker 2: against the coalition's plan for nuclear power. Now, what disappoints
10:47
Speaker 2: me is that the Queensland Liberal Nationals under David chrisof
10:51
Speaker 2: Fooley is too frightened to even discuss your plan at
10:55
Speaker 2: the state conference on the weekend, which I know is
10:58
Speaker 2: ahead of the election. They want safe but Chrystophili has
11:01
Speaker 2: actually said nuclear power is not part of his plans.
11:04
Speaker 2: What's wrong with this guy?
11:09
Speaker 4: Well, look, I might leave that to others. Andrew put
11:11
Speaker 4: me in a difficult position. Obviously, I have a different
11:14
Speaker 4: view than David Christophully here. I think our energy system
11:18
Speaker 4: desperately needs reliable sources of power. I mean, one thing
11:20
Speaker 4: that David Chrystophili is going to do is make sure
11:23
Speaker 4: we get that cul fired POWERstation going again. That's important.
11:27
Speaker 4: So he's talking about that. He actually mentions the word cole,
11:29
Speaker 4: which is pretty rare among political leaders right now, and
11:33
Speaker 4: I think we need that for many, many more years.
11:36
Speaker 4: But we do have emerging gaps. Admittedly for David, those
11:39
Speaker 4: gaps are more emerging in New South Wales, Victoria, more
11:42
Speaker 4: imminit in those states. He's not planning to be the
11:45
Speaker 4: leader of those states, and we do need leadership there
11:48
Speaker 4: to show well, what are we going to do if
11:50
Speaker 4: these coul fired power stations do go out of service,
11:54
Speaker 4: how are we going to replace them? We know we
11:57
Speaker 4: can clearly see that wind and solar cannot replace these
12:00
Speaker 4: power stations without the large scale loss of thousands of
12:03
Speaker 4: manufacturing jobs and escalating power process for Australians. So we
12:08
Speaker 4: have to think of other ways. I think Peter Dutton
12:11
Speaker 4: deserves credit for showing some courage here. And yes we'll
12:14
Speaker 4: have the mother of all scare campaigns out there, but yeah,
12:18
Speaker 4: you're right about the scare campaigns our concern, but also
12:20
Speaker 4: think Australians are waking up, and you can see that
12:22
Speaker 4: in the growing support for nuclear energy.
12:26
Speaker 2: Well, i'll tell you what I worry about the quality
12:28
Speaker 2: of the debate here though, Matt, I visited three countries
12:32
Speaker 2: last month and happily used nuclear power. I didn't see
12:35
Speaker 2: any three eyed fish or three eyed bears or whatever
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Speaker 2: the CSRO our top science body has come up with,
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Speaker 2: in my opinion, completely dodgy report claiming nuclear power is
12:47
Speaker 2: much more expensive than it really is. Does it shock
12:51
Speaker 2: you when you see how it Well, I'll give you
12:53
Speaker 2: an example. Vastly underestimated how long nuclear power stations would
12:58
Speaker 2: stay in business, which of course then make them cheaper
13:00
Speaker 2: to round if they can stay what eighty years in business?
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Speaker 2: Much cheaper.
13:06
Speaker 4: I wish I could say it did shock me, Andrew,
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Speaker 4: But the problem has been that our public service has
13:12
Speaker 4: degenerated and been degenerate to a state of politicization over
13:16
Speaker 4: many years. So it doesn't really shock me that we
13:18
Speaker 4: have some public servants willing to genuflect to the governor
13:22
Speaker 4: of the day and whatever message they would like to hear.
13:25
Speaker 4: They become used to that. The days that our public
13:28
Speaker 4: service would provide frank and fearless advice to their ministers
13:31
Speaker 4: or to the general public a long long go, and
13:33
Speaker 4: that just doesn't happen anymore. And that is sad and
13:36
Speaker 4: I think real weakness in our institutions compared to what
13:39
Speaker 4: was their a generation ago. But it's just very hard
13:42
Speaker 4: to find any of that courage and leadership across the
13:44
Speaker 4: public servants. And unfortunately and sadly, the CSIRO are just
13:48
Speaker 4: the latest example of that. I mean, you compare the
13:52
Speaker 4: CSIRO's conclusions again, their conclusions are based on modeling, on projections,
13:57
Speaker 4: not in real world data. It's a bunch of assumptions
13:59
Speaker 4: and puts into a spreadsheet. Compare that to the conclusions
14:02
Speaker 4: of the International Energy Agency, which look at real world data,
14:06
Speaker 4: real well powerstations across the world, and they conclude that
14:09
Speaker 4: nuclear energy is the cheapest low carbon form of power.
14:13
Speaker 4: And I've never seen the mainstream media press Chris bow
14:17
Speaker 4: and on, well, why is it that the International Agency,
14:20
Speaker 4: it looks at all of these things across the world,
14:22
Speaker 4: has a vastly and diametrically different conclusion than the CSIRO,
14:26
Speaker 4: who are not really investigating the real world at all.
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Speaker 2: And why are so many countries building so many more
14:32
Speaker 2: nuclear power plants? And we think, oh too evil to do. Really, mccanavan,
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Speaker 2: thank you so much for your time. Now let me
14:40
Speaker 2: say it again. I don't hate Professor Bruce Pasco, the
14:45
Speaker 2: dark im you author. I don't want to destroy him,
14:48
Speaker 2: and my interest really has been in this phenomenon. How
14:52
Speaker 2: is it that so many people of the left believe
14:55
Speaker 2: Austrode's most famous fake aboriginity to Spade all the evidence
14:58
Speaker 2: we've given that it is fake and his fate claimed
15:01
Speaker 2: that Averages used to be farmers, raising crops and living
15:05
Speaker 2: in towns of a thousand people, which no evidence now
15:08
Speaker 2: can exist can be found with. That claim now looks
15:13
Speaker 2: even sillier because Pasco sent a begging letter asking for
15:17
Speaker 2: help to save his Black Duck Foods business, which sells
15:22
Speaker 2: supposedly aboriginal food that he's grown on his farm. And
15:25
Speaker 2: he writes, to be honest with you, Black Duck Foods
15:28
Speaker 2: is currently living hand to mouth. We need your help
15:31
Speaker 2: to keep going. Together, we can recenter indigenous knowledges and
15:35
Speaker 2: agricultural practices at Austral's heart to secure a strong, resilient,
15:40
Speaker 2: as sustainable future. Well, that letter must be embarrassing for
15:45
Speaker 2: the University of Melbourne, which actually appointed Pasco as this
15:48
Speaker 2: enterprise professor of Indigenous agriculture, so he could preach that
15:52
Speaker 2: everything would be peachy if he just grew and ate
15:56
Speaker 2: more aboriginal foods, like the flower from native grass that
16:00
Speaker 2: has grown on his farm. Flower that he sells for
16:04
Speaker 2: ninety dollars for just two hundred and fifty grams. That
16:08
Speaker 2: works out to three hundred and sixty dollars a kilo,
16:10
Speaker 2: which he says flower which he says is great for
16:12
Speaker 2: making bread or pancakes. Joining me is author and Quadrant
16:16
Speaker 2: columnist Tony Thomas has written extensively on this Bruce Pasco phenomenon.
16:23
Speaker 2: Tony Thomas, great to see you again this begging letter
16:26
Speaker 2: from Bruce Pasco. What's gotten wrong with his farm and
16:29
Speaker 2: his dream of growing aboriginal food?
16:34
Speaker 7: Well, it was never viable. It was all just a fantasy.
16:37
Speaker 8: And the trouble is that trying to grow these native seeds,
16:42
Speaker 8: they're very low yield, and that's.
16:44
Speaker 7: All involves a heap of handwork.
16:46
Speaker 8: So he's had to have three to five full time
16:50
Speaker 8: paid aboriginal laborers on his little farm fifty hectares for
16:55
Speaker 8: the past four years, and this has cost the charity
16:58
Speaker 8: that he runs one point two million dollars and for
17:03
Speaker 8: the output from the farm is barely forty thousand dollars.
17:07
Speaker 8: So one point two million just in wages forty thousand
17:11
Speaker 8: worth of output. It's not a very brilliant economic model.
17:18
Speaker 2: But there have been a lot of donations already to
17:21
Speaker 2: this farm, to this business as well, haven't they.
17:27
Speaker 8: Well, in four years he's taken in a million dollars
17:30
Speaker 8: in donations. Keep in mind that this is a charity
17:33
Speaker 8: at arms length from him personally. He's the landlord of
17:37
Speaker 8: the farm and the charities the tenant. So I can
17:40
Speaker 8: actually tell you where he had one million dollars donations
17:46
Speaker 8: and then he had one point two million taxpayer grants
17:50
Speaker 8: one way or another. So that's two point two million
17:53
Speaker 8: dollars has gone into the farm and basically nothing's come
17:57
Speaker 8: out of it.
17:58
Speaker 7: So it might be one of you ask well, where
18:00
Speaker 7: did all.
18:01
Speaker 8: That two point two million go? And so apart from
18:04
Speaker 8: the wages a one point two million, he spent three
18:08
Speaker 8: hundred thousand dollars on consulting, The farm paid him one
18:13
Speaker 8: hundred and fifty thousand dollars rent, the farm bought his
18:17
Speaker 8: farm gear, and I suppose tractors and stuff for eighty thousand.
18:20
Speaker 8: He spent sixty thousand on new vehicles, and he spent
18:24
Speaker 8: another sixty thousand just on legal and accounting ritzy law firms.
18:31
Speaker 8: So that's where all the money's gone. And he only
18:35
Speaker 8: when I last checked a year ago, he just had
18:38
Speaker 8: one hundred and fifty thousand in the bank, but his
18:40
Speaker 8: loss rate was running at two hundred and fifty thousand,
18:43
Speaker 8: So I could see quite clearly that and this he
18:46
Speaker 8: can get a lot more donations.
18:47
Speaker 7: He wasn't going to last.
18:51
Speaker 2: Well, you say that the output is small, but when
18:53
Speaker 2: he's selling his native grass flour for three hundred and
18:58
Speaker 2: sixty dollars a kilo, how can that be?
19:03
Speaker 7: Yeah, just a little boutique stuff for tourists.
19:10
Speaker 8: Basically, nobody can make a loaf of bread out of
19:15
Speaker 8: flower at that sort of cost.
19:17
Speaker 4: It's just.
19:19
Speaker 8: A crazy nich idea. I mean, he never really wanted
19:23
Speaker 8: to make money out of it. He just wanted to
19:25
Speaker 8: prove that the aboriginal farming thesis that he had for
19:30
Speaker 8: before settlement was a real thing and not just all
19:34
Speaker 8: made up. So the farm was meant to prove how
19:37
Speaker 8: you could farm a native seeds, and in fact it's
19:41
Speaker 8: proved the opposite.
19:42
Speaker 7: You can't.
19:44
Speaker 2: Well, that is exactly the point, isn't at Tony? And
19:47
Speaker 2: I'm not having this segment just to dance on his
19:51
Speaker 2: grave so to speak. You know, for me, really the
19:55
Speaker 2: reception to PASCO has been the big thing. His message
19:59
Speaker 2: has been, Yeah, we can save the country. Who can
20:02
Speaker 2: stop global warming by growing these things? And even with
20:05
Speaker 2: the benefit of all these millions of dollars of donations
20:09
Speaker 2: and grants, and even with all the free publicity he
20:12
Speaker 2: has gotten, even with modern machinery, you can't make it work.
20:17
Speaker 2: And the bigger message there is that isn't that you know,
20:21
Speaker 2: the wicked colonial system of producing food with wheat and
20:25
Speaker 2: all that actually works. That is what stops us from
20:30
Speaker 2: going going to starvation.
20:34
Speaker 8: Yeah, well, the Australia and a broad acre farming is
20:37
Speaker 8: the envy of the world. We are the world's greatest
20:41
Speaker 8: and most productive farmers. Our productivity is just enormous. So
20:46
Speaker 8: instead of disparaging this, which school kids are being taught
20:49
Speaker 8: to believe that our traditional broad acre farming is the
20:55
Speaker 8: spoiling the environment and heating up global warming, and PASCO
20:59
Speaker 8: says we should get rid of all cattle, all.
21:02
Speaker 7: Livestock, all Hardhoorft Livestock. Well wouldn't that be great?
21:09
Speaker 2: But what message then should this send to Melbourne University
21:12
Speaker 2: about its enterprise professor of Indigenous agriculture, Because you know,
21:18
Speaker 2: he invented the subject of indigenous agriculture, like you know,
21:22
Speaker 2: with his claims that averages were grown crops and living
21:25
Speaker 2: in big towns. What should it actually tell the university
21:29
Speaker 2: now about it giving him this honor this subject matter
21:35
Speaker 2: in its university.
21:38
Speaker 9: Well, it was just a terrible appointment.
21:41
Speaker 8: An enterprise professor is not a normal professor. They're meant
21:45
Speaker 8: to be titans of industry, globally respected for their entrepreneurship,
21:51
Speaker 8: their fantastic business success, things like you know, huge success.
21:55
Speaker 7: In Silicon Valley and things like that.
21:58
Speaker 8: And in fact, I can tell you what I an
22:00
Speaker 8: enterprise professor is meant to have.
22:02
Speaker 7: They're meant to have peak level leadership. This is must have.
22:07
Speaker 8: They got to be outstanding an industry, an outstanding track record,
22:11
Speaker 8: and they've got to have highly developed expertise and commanding
22:15
Speaker 8: respect from all over the world's industry, which you think
22:21
Speaker 8: that Bruce Pasco would live up to any of this.
22:24
Speaker 7: So the university just in a moment of.
22:27
Speaker 8: Madness, led by the Vice Chancellor and Marcia Langton, trotted
22:33
Speaker 8: out Bruce as their great new acquisition of an enterprise professor.
22:42
Speaker 2: Let me just correct you, as their aboriginal enterprise professor.
22:46
Speaker 2: They made a big fascint time about him being aboriginal.
22:49
Speaker 2: I know they now sailent on that they have removed
22:52
Speaker 2: those claims from his website, but that was why they
22:55
Speaker 2: appointed him. And now is neither aboriginal nor successful in
23:00
Speaker 2: even a small farm by the methods that he recommends
23:03
Speaker 2: for the whole country. So hiding the Melbourne University, he
23:06
Speaker 2: should look to it's looking at soul and realize it's
23:10
Speaker 2: made full of itself by appointing him. Tony Thomas, thank
23:14
Speaker 2: you so much for your time. Okay, thanks. After the break,
23:20
Speaker 2: US President Joe Barden is raging, his wife is snapping.
23:24
Speaker 2: But can they stop Joe from being forced out over
23:27
Speaker 2: his mental decline? And would that help Trump? Really? I'll
23:31
Speaker 2: talk to a Trump insider who's worried how long before
23:38
Speaker 2: a mentally incompetent Joe Barden is blasted out of the
23:41
Speaker 2: White House. Barden's wife, Jill snapped that reporters overnight, asking
23:46
Speaker 2: whether her husband should step aside as a Democrat candidate
23:49
Speaker 2: in the November election.
23:55
Speaker 7: Democrats of the Red.
24:09
Speaker 2: Except she didn't, but Joe Biden did. He rang a
24:12
Speaker 2: left wing new TV show to challenge critics in his
24:15
Speaker 2: party to run against him at next month's Democrat conventional Shut.
24:19
Speaker 1: Up, I'm going to sew frustrated, but by the elite.
24:23
Speaker 2: Now, I'm not talking about you guys, but about the
24:25
Speaker 2: elite in the party who they know so much more.
24:29
Speaker 8: But any of these guys, I don't think I should
24:31
Speaker 8: run against me, And now the president challenge.
24:36
Speaker 2: Me at the convention. Meanwhile, the White House press corps,
24:40
Speaker 2: most of which covered up Barden's decline for years, now,
24:43
Speaker 2: demanded to know why an expert in Parkinson's disease had
24:47
Speaker 2: visited the White House at least eight times in the
24:49
Speaker 2: past year. Biden spokesman said no, he didn't have Parkinson's
24:53
Speaker 2: and insists that if Barden had had some unnamed neurologists
24:56
Speaker 2: check him out just three times and clear him.
25:00
Speaker 6: So I am telling you that he has seen or
25:03
Speaker 6: a neurologists three times while he has been in this presidency.
25:06
Speaker 6: That's what I'm saying. I also said to you, for
25:08
Speaker 6: security reasons, we cannot share names. We cannot share names.
25:14
Speaker 9: We have to we have to others he.
25:15
Speaker 2: Would have met with.
25:16
Speaker 10: We can't names.
25:17
Speaker 2: In regards to if someone came here, we.
25:19
Speaker 6: Cannot share We cannot share names of specialists broadly, from
25:24
Speaker 6: a dermatologist to a neurologists, we cannot share names. There
25:28
Speaker 6: are security reasons.
25:33
Speaker 2: Like you did the Democrats not me though, is that
25:35
Speaker 2: if Biden doesn't want to go, they can't make him.
25:38
Speaker 2: He won the ballot, the re selection, and the only
25:43
Speaker 2: person who could replace him without a brawl and legally
25:46
Speaker 2: use his campaign donations is Vice President Kamala Harris, widely
25:51
Speaker 2: dismissed as an airhead. I mean, check what Harris did
26:06
Speaker 2: with the one big job she was given. I mean,
26:08
Speaker 2: to stop illegal immigrants from crossing the Mexican border. Is
26:11
Speaker 2: the job say she seemed to dodge. Is eight million
26:14
Speaker 2: illegal immigrants?
26:16
Speaker 11: Board in this whole thing about the border. We've been
26:19
Speaker 11: to the border. We've been to the border.
26:22
Speaker 2: You haven't been to the border, and.
26:24
Speaker 11: I haven't been to Europe, and I don't understand the
26:28
Speaker 11: point that you're making.
26:31
Speaker 2: Joining me is Sean Spiceer, the first White House spokesman
26:33
Speaker 2: of President Donald Trump. Sewn SPICEI thank you so much
26:38
Speaker 2: for your time. Look, this pressure on Joe Biden is
26:41
Speaker 2: now getting immense. Do you think he really will be
26:44
Speaker 2: forced to step aside?
26:47
Speaker 12: Look, Andrew, I think this is a critical week. The
26:50
Speaker 12: House and the Senate are back in Washington. Why does
26:52
Speaker 12: that matter? Well, because reporters, instead of trying to track
26:55
Speaker 12: them down, can actually just walk up to them, put
26:58
Speaker 12: a microphone in their face and get an answer. Okay,
27:01
Speaker 12: so that's number one. Number two, You've got this NATO
27:03
Speaker 12: conference in Washington, d C.
27:06
Speaker 9: Same scenario.
27:07
Speaker 12: Now you have foreign leaders and their top aides similarly
27:11
Speaker 12: being asked questions. And then third, as they're referring to it,
27:14
Speaker 12: I cannot believe this, But if the White House is
27:17
Speaker 12: calling it a big boy press conference on Thursday, all
27:21
Speaker 12: three of those things present opportunities for Biden to have
27:26
Speaker 12: a some kind of incident or issue arise, high risk,
27:31
Speaker 12: low reward. Three major issues happening this week alone. So
27:35
Speaker 12: to answer your question, I think if he gets through
27:37
Speaker 12: Thursday without a major stumble, they can probably limp into
27:42
Speaker 12: the convention.
27:44
Speaker 9: And he has been defiant. We've seen it here.
27:46
Speaker 12: Joe Biden, his wife is doubling down I think if
27:50
Speaker 12: he doesn't screw up the rest of the week, but
27:52
Speaker 12: if he has one more high profile member of Congress,
27:57
Speaker 12: particularly somebody who you know, a black Democrat, that's where
28:01
Speaker 12: he's really held the base together. But if he starts
28:04
Speaker 12: losing the support from a key coalition black elected officials,
28:08
Speaker 12: that's going to be a problem, natal leaders leaking out
28:11
Speaker 12: that he didn't seem alert in meetings or forgetful. And
28:15
Speaker 12: then obviously this big press conference on Thursday. All three
28:18
Speaker 12: of those are opportunities for him to really flush everything
28:22
Speaker 12: down the drain and for the Democratic Party to say
28:25
Speaker 12: we tried, but we just can't be with you.
28:29
Speaker 2: In the end, though, it's really got to agree to
28:32
Speaker 2: step down, and the only body could do it without
28:35
Speaker 2: a major have a handover to someone else without a
28:39
Speaker 2: major party brawl would be to go to the Vice president,
28:43
Speaker 2: Kamala Harris. How would have switch to that work? Do
28:46
Speaker 2: you think would Donald Trump re view that?
28:52
Speaker 9: Well?
28:52
Speaker 12: First, I just want to say I appreciate your level
28:56
Speaker 12: headedness on the reality of the situation. So many folks
28:59
Speaker 12: in the US don't appreciate what you just said, and
29:02
Speaker 12: I think that the audience there in Australia should understand
29:05
Speaker 12: that you're nailing this right on the head, that this
29:08
Speaker 12: is his to give up. That's what they have to understand.
29:10
Speaker 12: First and foremost, there's no pushing him aside. He is
29:14
Speaker 12: the recipient of the requisite number of delegates to be
29:17
Speaker 12: the nominee of the Democratic Party, So first and foremost
29:20
Speaker 12: he would have to agree by his own volition to
29:24
Speaker 12: step aside, and there's no signs yet that that's going
29:28
Speaker 12: to happen.
29:28
Speaker 9: That's number one.
29:30
Speaker 12: Number two is you're absolutely right. Look, if it's not
29:33
Speaker 12: going to be him, it's going to be Harris for
29:36
Speaker 12: a variety of reasons, many of them legal in terms
29:40
Speaker 12: of the campaign apparatus and logistical infrastructure that is existing,
29:45
Speaker 12: it can only be transferred to her as somebody who
29:48
Speaker 12: is on the ticket with him. Now, could the delegates
29:51
Speaker 12: potentially do something different at the convention? Yeah, I actually
29:55
Speaker 12: see a scenario where he gets through the convention and
29:58
Speaker 12: then if something were to happen, it would be after
30:00
Speaker 12: that point in time when it's all locked in. I
30:03
Speaker 12: think Republicans know exactly what the playbook is right now.
30:06
Speaker 12: The American people know who Joe Biden is, they know
30:08
Speaker 12: where blame needs to be put.
30:10
Speaker 9: Squarely in terms of the results of the policies.
30:12
Speaker 12: I mean, I don't know how many people in Australia
30:14
Speaker 12: follow US baseball, but I know the batter, right, I
30:17
Speaker 12: know that he's not good behind the plate right now,
30:21
Speaker 12: I don't want to put another batter in.
30:22
Speaker 9: I don't know.
30:23
Speaker 12: Maybe Kamala Harris attracts more women voters, maybe she gets
30:27
Speaker 12: the African American community here in America fired up. I
30:30
Speaker 12: don't know, but I just don't like variables that I
30:34
Speaker 12: have to guess about. And we know who Joe Biden is,
30:37
Speaker 12: we know the campaign to run against him, and the
30:39
Speaker 12: American people know. Any new variation of that worries me, admittedly,
30:46
Speaker 12: And that being said, I get how unpopular she is,
30:50
Speaker 12: but it's just a change in the dynamic that I
30:53
Speaker 12: don't think we need to be encouraging.
30:55
Speaker 9: We know we can beat Joe Biden.
30:57
Speaker 12: We know that they'll probably lose the House and the
30:59
Speaker 12: Senate along with the presidency.
31:01
Speaker 9: So why risk it?
31:03
Speaker 12: Why try to put in anybody new, regardless of where
31:06
Speaker 12: they may sit right down in the palls.
31:10
Speaker 2: I think a lot of voters, given you be a
31:13
Speaker 2: bit of leeway, they want to have a look at
31:15
Speaker 2: them they're not instantly negative to them. So I do
31:19
Speaker 2: think you'd be an unknown candidate. I mean, it depends
31:21
Speaker 2: on her ability to step up, of course, but we
31:24
Speaker 2: shall see you if that all happens. Sean. The one
31:28
Speaker 2: big thing that makes me worry about a Trump win
31:32
Speaker 2: is that he seems too soft and Russian dictator of
31:34
Speaker 2: Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine, which is just dreadful.
31:39
Speaker 2: I mean, now we're seeing horrible footage of the latest
31:41
Speaker 2: Russian terror attacks in the Ukrainian cities, including this missile
31:45
Speaker 2: attack on a children's hospital of all things, in Kiev.
31:49
Speaker 2: What do you say to those of us, You say,
31:51
Speaker 2: look overall, you know, we prefer Trump to Baden, except
31:56
Speaker 2: for this very, very big question, which of course affects
32:02
Speaker 2: the world.
32:05
Speaker 12: So you know, when President Biden, prior to the debate,
32:09
Speaker 12: was asked about his age, he would say, watch me,
32:12
Speaker 12: and I think that the same thing could be said
32:14
Speaker 12: of President Trump when it comes to foreign policy.
32:17
Speaker 9: Watch him. Look at his record.
32:19
Speaker 12: For the first time in several US administrations of both parties,
32:24
Speaker 12: Putin didn't invade or annex any land during the four
32:28
Speaker 12: years of Trump. He was worried about him. He couldn't
32:31
Speaker 12: predict Trump. He was I think, frankly a little scared
32:34
Speaker 12: of Trump. And so my point is, look at Trump's record,
32:39
Speaker 12: what he did in four years. Putin fears Trump at least,
32:43
Speaker 12: he finds him unpredictable at the very least. And so
32:46
Speaker 12: I think that Trump would cut a deal with Putin.
32:48
Speaker 12: I think Putin recognizes that Trump would want to show
32:51
Speaker 12: strength in the face of any further aggression by Putin.
32:54
Speaker 12: So I would just tell anybody that's worried about foreign policy,
32:58
Speaker 12: look at the four years of Trump and the security
33:02
Speaker 12: and the safety that permeated during those four years, and
33:05
Speaker 12: I think you'll get more of the same.
33:09
Speaker 2: Well, I hope. So the only thing is cutting a
33:11
Speaker 2: deal with Putin? What would that look like for Ukraine?
33:15
Speaker 2: John Spicer, thank you so much in d for your
33:18
Speaker 2: time you.
33:19
Speaker 13: At Andrew after the break Bombshell claims that Britney Higgins
33:26
Speaker 13: had a plot to destroy a Liberal minister and a
33:29
Speaker 13: Liberal government and Labor helped then about it.
33:37
Speaker 2: Now the news is tightening around some in Labor for
33:39
Speaker 2: how they exploited the Britney Higgins rape claims. Now the
33:43
Speaker 2: Australi Newspaper's got hold of court documents, which you say, says,
33:46
Speaker 2: reveal the strategy of Higgins and her husband, David Scheraz
33:49
Speaker 2: to burn down the house of the then Liberal government.
33:53
Speaker 2: These are the statement of claims of Linda Reynolds, who
33:58
Speaker 2: was the Defense Minister when Liam and rape Higgins in
34:01
Speaker 2: her office, or so judge's ruled. Reynolds is now suing
34:05
Speaker 2: Higgins and Scheraz for defamation for suggesting she covered up
34:09
Speaker 2: that rape and treated Higgins badly, claims the judge said,
34:13
Speaker 2: we're completely false. Now. Reynolds' statement outlines how Higgins and
34:18
Speaker 2: Chias cooked up a plan to falsely accuse of trying
34:21
Speaker 2: to stop Higgins from talking about the rape going to police.
34:24
Speaker 2: Reynolds says the couple fed this false information to Katie
34:28
Speaker 2: Gallagher and Penny Wong, both now Senior Alberan Ezig Ministers,
34:32
Speaker 2: which they used to break her.
34:35
Speaker 8: Senator Gallagher, I did answer your questions to the point
34:38
Speaker 8: that you ground me to the ground and ended me.
34:40
Speaker 7: Ended up in hospital.
34:42
Speaker 9: But I'm bad. I'm answering questions.
34:45
Speaker 7: I'm answering questions.
34:46
Speaker 14: You just did age that we put you in hospital.
34:49
Speaker 7: You just let I put you in hospital.
34:51
Speaker 10: At Senator Reynolds.
34:54
Speaker 8: Well, if so, you're the big Higgins Senator Wong.
34:59
Speaker 7: Nobody's taking.
35:01
Speaker 6: Questions, nobody takes pleasure.
35:06
Speaker 14: I'd like to respond to having two sorts yell at
35:10
Speaker 14: me at the same time.
35:13
Speaker 2: But here's the thing. When Reynolds confronted one and Gallagher
35:16
Speaker 2: in those Senate here as you just saw correctly saying
35:19
Speaker 2: they had been given this supposed dirt on her ahead
35:22
Speaker 2: of it hitting the media, got good denied it.
35:25
Speaker 7: Two weeks before. I had no knowledge of this.
35:29
Speaker 10: No one had any knowledge.
35:31
Speaker 9: Okay, how dare you order now?
35:35
Speaker 14: We will move yourself.
35:38
Speaker 2: Gelager denies misleading partn with that answer, but you'd be
35:42
Speaker 2: the judge. The Prime Miise refused to comment today.
35:46
Speaker 3: I have no intention and I don't need to have
35:49
Speaker 3: Jillian's legal qualifications to know why it's inappropriate to comment.
35:56
Speaker 2: I'm joined by my Tuesday panel, Will Kingston, host of
35:59
Speaker 2: at Bill, a weekly podcast from the Spectator and Politics
36:03
Speaker 2: and Culture, and SCO news host Danika did Giorgio's Everywhere
36:07
Speaker 2: in our station these days, Deaneika, We're going to leave
36:10
Speaker 2: all these allegations for the courts. That discaber once again,
36:13
Speaker 2: I asked why the Albanize government was so quick to
36:16
Speaker 2: give Higgins two point four to four million dollars of
36:20
Speaker 2: our taxpayer money for conduct which included the alleged bad
36:24
Speaker 2: treatment she got from Reynolds and the government, which even
36:27
Speaker 2: a judge this year said that did not happen.
36:34
Speaker 9: Yeah, your spot on, Andrew.
36:36
Speaker 15: We still don't know why or how Labor plucked this
36:39
Speaker 15: figure out of obscurity and handed it to Brittney Higgins
36:43
Speaker 15: on a silver platter, Just as Michael Lee, when he
36:46
Speaker 15: handed down his verdict in the defamation case of Bruce
36:49
Speaker 15: Lherman and Lisa Wilkinson earlier this year, found that Britney
36:53
Speaker 15: higgins claims that there was a political cover up of
36:56
Speaker 15: her rape were untrue. He said that she made a
37:00
Speaker 15: series of false claims about her time in Senator Linda
37:03
Speaker 15: Reynolds's office which led to that two point four million
37:07
Speaker 15: dollar payout, And he was also very scathing of that
37:10
Speaker 15: Project interview which basically suggested that both Linda Reynolds and
37:15
Speaker 15: then Chief of Staff Fiona Brown had covered up the incident.
37:20
Speaker 15: Now we know it was all untrue, that there was
37:23
Speaker 15: no political cover up, and yet you've got Brittany Higgins
37:26
Speaker 15: and her husband David Scharaz wanning about France in a
37:31
Speaker 15: chateau leving off the taxpayer dime, and all Iabor can
37:34
Speaker 15: say was, oh, well, it was for our humiliation and
37:38
Speaker 15: loss of earnings. It's completely unacceptable and we need to
37:42
Speaker 15: know exactly why that payment was given.
37:46
Speaker 2: Well, will you know Linda Reynolds has now asked the
37:50
Speaker 2: new National Anti Corruption Commission to investigate this payout.
37:53
Speaker 10: Should it it should, with the one caveat being that
37:58
Speaker 10: I'm worried that this is become Australia's Penance Andrew and
38:02
Speaker 10: we are doomed to rehash this sort of societa for
38:06
Speaker 10: the rest of time.
38:08
Speaker 14: And it's just the very worst of Australian politics, the grubbiness,
38:13
Speaker 14: the mediocrity, the pursuit.
38:16
Speaker 10: Of power over principle.
38:18
Speaker 14: And I think we do have to wonder why what
38:21
Speaker 14: Labor Party could very well have got sucked in by this.
38:25
Speaker 14: And I think you have to go back to the
38:28
Speaker 14: context in which occurred nineteen to twenty twenty one, when
38:32
Speaker 14: the Australian Me Too movement was in full swimming, when
38:35
Speaker 14: the world was going crazy with identity politics. I think
38:38
Speaker 14: this whole thing is a real lesson that if you
38:41
Speaker 14: do get sucked into the identity politics game, the valorization
38:45
Speaker 14: of victimhood. You can sometimes lose track of what's really
38:49
Speaker 14: important and the real principles that you should be following.
38:52
Speaker 14: I think the Labor Party may have got sucked in.
38:54
Speaker 2: Here well, and I would add to that, will this
39:00
Speaker 2: a lesson about what comes also of hiring to In
39:03
Speaker 2: my opinion, it is my opinion mediocrates to be advisers
39:08
Speaker 2: to a defense minister. I mean, it's unbelievable these two
39:11
Speaker 2: people were in that office. But anyway, that's just my opinion.
39:15
Speaker 2: I have to ask again for the entertainment of our
39:19
Speaker 2: viewers in New Zealand as well, Danika, what is it
39:23
Speaker 2: with the Greens? You know, what is it with the Greens?
39:27
Speaker 2: Our Greens they're hate preachers that have gone right off
39:31
Speaker 2: the reservation. But you look at New Zealand's Green Party.
39:34
Speaker 2: They've got one MP, Darlene Tana, that they've expelled and
39:38
Speaker 2: now out of parliament over the alleged exploitation of foreign
39:42
Speaker 2: workers in her husband's business. Would you believe he denies that?
39:46
Speaker 2: They've got another. Their former Foreign Affairs spokesman, who had
39:49
Speaker 2: to quit over shoplifting charges, pleaded guilty to four and
39:52
Speaker 2: a transport spokesperson who's been accused of bullying after getting
39:56
Speaker 2: right in the face of another politician in Parliament. I mean,
40:01
Speaker 2: what does it tell you about the kind of people
40:04
Speaker 2: attracted to the supposedly empathetic, sympathetic, peace loving Greens.
40:12
Speaker 15: Well, what it tells me, Andrew, is that suddenly across
40:16
Speaker 15: the world the Greens have become a complete, unhinged pack
40:20
Speaker 15: of misfits, misfits where really everything and anything goes. You
40:25
Speaker 15: could be anyone and suddenly you've joined the Greens and
40:28
Speaker 15: no longer is it about the environment, the koalas, the
40:31
Speaker 15: tree hugging, but now it's about extremism and hate. And
40:37
Speaker 15: you gave some very good examples there. But I would
40:39
Speaker 15: also add, just recently in the UK, for example, when
40:44
Speaker 15: a Greens councilor was elected to a local council there
40:47
Speaker 15: in his victory speech, while he didn't talk about net
40:50
Speaker 15: zero or carbon emissions, instead he chanted aluakba. So this
40:55
Speaker 15: is a trend we're seeing around the world where this
40:57
Speaker 15: party has gone completely and utterly rogue, and it is
41:02
Speaker 15: to the detriment of citizens who are actually electing these people.
41:09
Speaker 2: Well, in fact, will whenever I look at the Greens
41:12
Speaker 2: here or there. No, there are exceptions. Peter wish Wilson,
41:14
Speaker 2: I'll say it again, a senator in Canberra, Green Senator,
41:19
Speaker 2: where are you mate? I'm sure this party no longer
41:23
Speaker 2: speaks for you now. I think these are people, by
41:26
Speaker 2: and large would be dangerous with real power. Am I
41:29
Speaker 2: being too ungenerous?
41:32
Speaker 1: Not?
41:32
Speaker 14: It's almost always the people who cloak themselves in kindness
41:36
Speaker 14: and compassion who are capable of truly abhorrent behavior. And
41:41
Speaker 14: I think Danika is right to call this out as
41:43
Speaker 14: a global trend. It's not just Australia. It's seeing that
41:46
Speaker 14: there are far left politicians all around the world who
41:50
Speaker 14: are acting poorly. And the reason they can do that
41:53
Speaker 14: is because they're not held to the same level of
41:55
Speaker 14: scrutiny as the so called far right. There is still
41:58
Speaker 14: this mentality amongst too much of the media class that
42:01
Speaker 14: says the far right whatever that means, is evil, and
42:04
Speaker 14: the far left are fundamentally well meaning, if a bit
42:07
Speaker 14: cooky and occasionally a bit unhinged, to use Dnika's term,
42:11
Speaker 14: they are just as dangerous and more dangerous than any
42:14
Speaker 14: elements of the fringe right. Andrew and until we start
42:16
Speaker 14: calling it out, You're going to see more and more
42:18
Speaker 14: of this type of behavior all around the world.
42:22
Speaker 2: Well exactly, I'd look at even France, where they were saying, well,
42:26
Speaker 2: look if the far right win, it'll be terrible and
42:29
Speaker 2: all these leftists are going to burn powers down. And
42:32
Speaker 2: even when they won, they had leftist rights in Paris
42:36
Speaker 2: burning things and attacking police. People have got to realize
42:39
Speaker 2: where the real threat of violence is coming from at
42:41
Speaker 2: the moment, to think it to Georgio Wilkinson, thank you
42:43
Speaker 2: both for your time. After the break. What kind of
42:46
Speaker 2: gifts so your local counselors get in and is it
42:50
Speaker 2: really because they're so nice and cute? I'll talk to
42:53
Speaker 2: a watchdog you' sound in the alarm. Now, local councils
43:00
Speaker 2: actually have a lot of power, but almost no one
43:01
Speaker 2: pays much attention to them, I mean not the media
43:03
Speaker 2: for a stardom, and yet these councilors thin get more
43:06
Speaker 2: than forty five billion dollars of revenue each year. It's
43:09
Speaker 2: worth having some tough rules and lots of scrutiny. But
43:12
Speaker 2: here's the thing. Look how hard it is just to
43:16
Speaker 2: find out what gifts these counselors get for well, not
43:20
Speaker 2: for being so lovely but obviously because of their power.
43:24
Speaker 2: Joining me is Dean Hurston, head of Council Watch. Dean,
43:28
Speaker 2: great to see you. I've raised this issue because you
43:31
Speaker 2: did just try to find out what gifts were being
43:34
Speaker 2: showered on counselors. What happened?
43:37
Speaker 1: Yes, well, actually, Andrew, we found that councilors were quite
43:39
Speaker 1: difficult to navigate. Many of them didn't want to give
43:42
Speaker 1: us the information, hadn't updated it, or couldn't locate it
43:47
Speaker 1: in some cases. So we persevered it. We will persevere
43:50
Speaker 1: for every council in Australia. We've done Victoria already and
43:54
Speaker 1: we found some pretty horrible stuff.
43:58
Speaker 2: Like what what kind of gifts are we talking about?
44:01
Speaker 1: So the current mayor of Port, Philip heed Consolo, accepted
44:05
Speaker 1: a gift from the Grand Prix Corporation of seven hundred
44:10
Speaker 1: dollars tickets tickets to the Grand Prix. I don't know
44:14
Speaker 1: about you, but that sounds extraordinary. That's a lot of money.
44:18
Speaker 1: A few hundred dollars maybe, but seven hundred dollars. And
44:21
Speaker 1: other gifts from other organizations. We found that the City
44:25
Speaker 1: of Melbourne, Sally Cap took a fifteen thousand dollars.
44:28
Speaker 2: Holiday paid for by.
44:29
Speaker 1: Lindsay Fox, the City of Glenira councilor, and a Pantasopolis
44:34
Speaker 1: took Melbourne Victory tickets for eight hundred and ninety five dollars. Hume,
44:38
Speaker 1: former mayor councilor who Wheel, took six hundred and thirty
44:41
Speaker 1: dollar tickets to the Australian Open tennis. And we found
44:44
Speaker 1: that a Golden Planes council the CEO and staff and
44:47
Speaker 1: councilors accepted over four thousand dollars andrew in free tickets
44:51
Speaker 1: to music festivals to check out the security and functioning
44:56
Speaker 1: of those festivals.
44:57
Speaker 2: And we also found.
44:58
Speaker 16: One that right and one that wasn't on your list
45:02
Speaker 16: that we recently just found out was that former mayor
45:05
Speaker 16: of Stonnington, Jamie Glassaris, and a councilor Matic Coasts both
45:10
Speaker 16: took five and six hundred dollars tickets respectively for themselves
45:13
Speaker 16: to go to tennis matches at the quy On Classic,
45:16
Speaker 16: for example, where there was no official business conducted.
45:19
Speaker 1: This has got a stop. There is no justification for
45:23
Speaker 1: elected councilors local councilors to take expensive gifts like this.
45:28
Speaker 1: Currently they just have to declare them if they're more
45:30
Speaker 1: than five hundred dollars they do generally put them on
45:34
Speaker 1: a gift register. They do put them on an interest
45:36
Speaker 1: return if they're more than five hundred dollars. But some
45:38
Speaker 1: of these gifts give extraordinary concern around conflicts of interest
45:43
Speaker 1: and the rise of what's in it for you at
45:46
Speaker 1: taking such an extraordinary gift.
45:50
Speaker 2: Now, let's be clear that the examples that you've given
45:53
Speaker 2: have been declared they're above board by the rules. We're
45:57
Speaker 2: not alleging that any quid was given pro quo or
46:01
Speaker 2: quo for the quid. But you know, there is a
46:05
Speaker 2: risk without proper scrutiny. And I've got to ask you.
46:10
Speaker 2: You know, in most industries, I get little lectures about
46:15
Speaker 2: you know, company wide lectures will be very careful about
46:18
Speaker 2: gifts and all that. Don't accept this, all that and
46:20
Speaker 2: that generally, I think, and as you've pointed out, most
46:24
Speaker 2: industries okay to get token gifts up to you know,
46:28
Speaker 2: fifty dollars of value, but these.
46:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it just doesn't pass the pub test. And
46:35
Speaker 1: you know, I just wonder what's going through some of
46:37
Speaker 1: these councilors' heads when they think it's acceptable or they
46:41
Speaker 1: double down. You know, We've asked a couple of questions
46:43
Speaker 1: and the Mayor of Port Phillips said, oh, I was
46:46
Speaker 1: advocating to you know, get better outcomes for.
46:48
Speaker 2: The Grand Prix.
46:49
Speaker 1: Really, seven hundred dollars you and your partner, you can't
46:54
Speaker 1: advocate in the middle of races and events. It's you know,
46:57
Speaker 1: it's a junker, call it what it is. At the
47:00
Speaker 1: end of the day, we want to see these banned.
47:03
Speaker 1: We just don't think when the ordinary person in their
47:06
Speaker 1: normal job can't take gifts or has a limit of
47:08
Speaker 1: fifty dollars, that that should apply to publicly elected officials
47:12
Speaker 1: who are overseeing andrew hundreds of millions of dollars of
47:17
Speaker 1: public money every year. No gifts must end because at
47:22
Speaker 1: the end of the day, this really scary thing at
47:24
Speaker 1: Port Philip with some counselors the year before took five
47:28
Speaker 1: hundred dollar tickets to the Grand Prix, declared them and
47:30
Speaker 1: then passed the motion months later in unanimous support for
47:34
Speaker 1: the Grand Prix. That just doesn't look right. We've had
47:38
Speaker 1: the same at City of Kingston Land. We've had the
47:41
Speaker 1: same at City of Kingston where councilors have been accused
47:44
Speaker 1: of taking free hospitality and tickets to the footy and
47:47
Speaker 1: then gifting those footy clubs five million dollars worth of
47:50
Speaker 1: ratepayers public money. That doesn't smell right. It doesn't mean
47:54
Speaker 1: it's corrupt, but it's not right.
47:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we're not saying they they did it as
48:00
Speaker 2: a consequence of the gift, but it's got to also
48:04
Speaker 2: look right and there will be inevitably in the future
48:07
Speaker 2: some people where the gift does come with a thank
48:10
Speaker 2: you of a vote or so. Now amount of time
48:14
Speaker 2: but very very quickly. Were the gift registers all easily accessible.
48:22
Speaker 1: No, in fact, some of them we have had to
48:24
Speaker 1: push back an FOI because the councils don't want to
48:27
Speaker 1: make them publicly available to councils today said you can
48:31
Speaker 1: come and inspect them, but you can't know what's in
48:33
Speaker 1: them unless you physically come and inspect them. We're not
48:36
Speaker 1: in the dark, Ages Andrew these think that's.
48:38
Speaker 2: Not good enough public websites, No, that's not good enough, Dean,
48:44
Speaker 2: Dean Heilson, thank you so much for your effort in
48:47
Speaker 2: trying to uncover these things. This is important. Thank you
48:49
Speaker 2: so much. That's it from me. Coming up now is
48:53
Speaker 2: Caleb Bond, who's hosting Cherry