Transcript

Sharri | 26 November · Sharri

0:01
Speaker 1: Why On Sky News this is.
0:04
Speaker 2: Sharry Good evening shock, new inflation figures slam the door
0:10
Speaker 2: on future rate cuts and in question Time, a sudden
0:13
Speaker 2: blackout hands the opposition the perfect metaphor.
0:17
Speaker 3: For Labour's energy chaos.
0:19
Speaker 2: Senior Police are privately fuming as a man behind an
0:22
Speaker 2: anti Semitic vandalism and arson spree that caused over one
0:27
Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars in damages walks free.
0:30
Speaker 3: Police are asking where the.
0:32
Speaker 2: Deterrence is those details in a moment, and Donald Trump's
0:36
Speaker 2: special envoy, Steve Wickcoff, is caught on a leaked call
0:40
Speaker 2: coaching a top putinade on how to flatter the President.
0:44
Speaker 2: This scandal is rocking Washington and the White House is
0:48
Speaker 2: in damage control. More on that a bit later, but
0:52
Speaker 2: first tonight, Senior police are exasperated after one of the
0:57
Speaker 2: offenders behind a spree of racist hate attack walked free
1:01
Speaker 2: without a jail term. Just a year ago, Australians awoke
1:06
Speaker 2: to shocking scenes. Cars torched, graffiti smeared across homes and buildings.
1:12
Speaker 2: Even Matt Moran's restaurant Chiswick was targeted. These attacks rocked
1:18
Speaker 2: the country and shook our neighborhoods. Police worked tirelessly, under
1:24
Speaker 2: pressure and with limited resources.
1:27
Speaker 4: Is brason. It is offensive. The behavior of the people
1:32
Speaker 4: who did it is disgusting. This incident is an isolated incident.
1:37
Speaker 4: Those vehicles, like I said, there were ten that were
1:39
Speaker 4: graffitied and there were three premises and that's all that
1:42
Speaker 4: we have at the moment, and it hasn't been anything
1:44
Speaker 4: of this similar type of graffiti in recent times.
1:49
Speaker 2: Their work in tracking down the perpetrators was extraordinary. One
1:54
Speaker 2: of them was twenty year old Thomas Stodganowski.
2:02
Speaker 5: Police got the wrong person. I hate the state of.
2:12
Speaker 2: That was journalist Leah Mendy's from The Australian approaching him now.
2:16
Speaker 2: Thomas was arrested just a week after the crime spree
2:20
Speaker 2: in November last year at his South Sydney home. He
2:24
Speaker 2: was charged with twenty one offenses, fourteen counts of destroying
2:28
Speaker 2: or damaging property, three counts of entering land with intent
2:32
Speaker 2: to commit an indictable offense and two counts of destroying
2:36
Speaker 2: property using fire. Yet a year on, Judge Scott Nash
2:43
Speaker 2: at Sutherland Local Court has outrageously allowed Thomas to walk
2:49
Speaker 2: free no jail time.
2:52
Speaker 1: None man has avoided jail time for his role in
2:55
Speaker 1: an anti Semitic vandalism attack in Sydney's Eastern suburbs. Thomas
2:59
Speaker 1: Dodge Zanovsky was paid one thousand dollars to act as
3:02
Speaker 1: a lookout while another man scrawled offensive slogans on cars
3:06
Speaker 1: and buildings in Wallara in November.
3:08
Speaker 2: Last year, and instead Stodganowski has received an eleven month
3:13
Speaker 2: intensive corrections order, community service and a seven hundred and
3:18
Speaker 2: fifty dollars fine. Judge Nash acknowledged the graffiti was anti Semitic,
3:25
Speaker 2: but he found that Stodganovsky was motivated by money and
3:29
Speaker 2: not hate. The judge said, I accept his reason was
3:34
Speaker 2: financially motivated and was not to fund an extravagant lifestyle,
3:38
Speaker 2: but to fund illicit drugs. He said Stodgenovsky's case served
3:43
Speaker 2: as a reminder that there is simply no tolerance for
3:47
Speaker 2: this type of offending. But the sentence suggests the exact opposite.
3:54
Speaker 2: It sends a message that the court is tolerating this hate,
3:57
Speaker 2: this vandalism, this destruction on our streets, and his motivations
4:03
Speaker 2: are beside the point. What matters is that Stodginowsky committed
4:08
Speaker 2: crimes that had a profound impact on Australians, undermining public safety,
4:14
Speaker 2: jeopardizing lives, and sowing fear and anxiety. Serious crimes were
4:21
Speaker 2: committed and thus there should be serious punishment. A strong
4:26
Speaker 2: penalty also is crucial as a deterrent. We are still
4:31
Speaker 2: seeing protesters damage property and vandalized buildings. Without tough consequences,
4:37
Speaker 2: this violent behavior will only continue. Our police are exasperated,
4:44
Speaker 2: they're furious. I spoke with senior police figures today about
4:48
Speaker 2: this light sentence from Judge Nash, and one source told
4:53
Speaker 2: me on the angst it caused not just in the
4:56
Speaker 2: Jewish community, but the broader community, the penalty is di
5:00
Speaker 2: portionate to the harm that the incident caused. And I
5:03
Speaker 2: think that's the bottom line. Part of sentencing shouldn't just
5:07
Speaker 2: be about what's the individual circumstances of someone. It should
5:11
Speaker 2: be a deterrent to others to commit these crimes. We're
5:15
Speaker 2: losing that aspect when there's no jail time behind it.
5:21
Speaker 2: And a second senior police figure told me this the
5:26
Speaker 2: criminality of the accused is not reflected in the sentence
5:30
Speaker 2: and it does not reflect community expectations for these types
5:34
Speaker 2: of crimes. And that source made the point to me
5:38
Speaker 2: that if someone didn't like the Jewish community, they could
5:42
Speaker 2: simply pay an individual with no ideology to commit the crimes,
5:48
Speaker 2: if that individual was only motivated by money. So as
5:52
Speaker 2: you can see, this is highly problematic. And what's more,
5:56
Speaker 2: the Australian newspaper reports that when the sentence was had
6:00
Speaker 2: under down, the twenty one year old's face fleetingly broke
6:04
Speaker 2: into a seemingly wry smile. He hasn't apologized publicly, He's
6:11
Speaker 2: shown no public remorse. It's a similar situation in Victoria
6:17
Speaker 2: where an accused arsonist behind the Adas Synagogue fire bombing
6:21
Speaker 2: was granted bail and that caused more than twenty million
6:25
Speaker 2: dollars in damage. And then you can't quantify the damage
6:29
Speaker 2: it caused to our nation, the destruction of a place
6:33
Speaker 2: of worship in Australia. It was extremely difficult for police
6:38
Speaker 2: to track that individual down. And yet now he's out
6:42
Speaker 2: on bail. And then another Melbourne arsonist who set a
6:46
Speaker 2: different synagogue on fire was freed from jail after one
6:50
Speaker 2: hundred and thirty four days. Now, these attacks could easily
6:56
Speaker 2: easily have killed worshipers in sight light. Sentences like these
7:03
Speaker 2: are unfair to the police, unfair to the community and
7:07
Speaker 2: certainly not in the interests of public safety. Well, there
7:15
Speaker 2: was a bit of theater in question time today. Health
7:18
Speaker 2: Minister Mark Butler was in the middle of speaking when.
7:20
Speaker 3: As you know by now, the lights went out.
7:23
Speaker 2: The Opposition instantly jumped on it, lighting up their phone, tortures,
7:27
Speaker 2: pointing and some yelling blackout. Bowen from across the chamber
7:32
Speaker 2: at tension as those.
7:33
Speaker 6: Were of several order order no members on my left.
7:52
Speaker 2: During the chaos of the blackout, Opposition leader Susan Lee
7:55
Speaker 2: seized the opportunity to hold up a copy of the
7:58
Speaker 2: Coalition's New Energy and once the power was back, Deputy
8:03
Speaker 2: Leader of the Nationalist Kevin Hogan stepped up and twisted
8:06
Speaker 2: the knife, taking a jab at the renewable Transition OORDA.
8:10
Speaker 6: The member of the page has the pall.
8:15
Speaker 5: Thank you speaking. I hope the sun shines soon.
8:20
Speaker 7: Now.
8:20
Speaker 2: Meanwhile, Chris Bowen continues to cop heat over his COP
8:24
Speaker 2: thirty one presidency. He's now skipping the April fossil Field
8:28
Speaker 2: summit in Columbia amid coalition pressure over miss sitting days,
8:32
Speaker 2: travel costs and whether.
8:34
Speaker 3: He's a part time minister.
8:36
Speaker 2: We're joining be now to discuss fromer Victorian Liberal Party
8:39
Speaker 2: president Michael Kroger and Sky News host Joe Hilda Brand
8:44
Speaker 2: you Bote. So, Michael, with the blackout, the opposition was
8:48
Speaker 2: handed the perfect metaphor for the government's energy troubles, and
8:52
Speaker 2: Well Susan Lee seized on it.
8:54
Speaker 3: A nice haircut. By the way, Michael, Well had a.
9:00
Speaker 8: Very difficult six months. But when the wind's blown with you,
9:03
Speaker 8: it blows with you. And today she got the bonus
9:05
Speaker 8: of a blackout in Parliament, of all things to happen,
9:08
Speaker 8: I mean, the only thing could have been worse would
9:10
Speaker 8: have been happening if when Bowen was at the microphone,
9:14
Speaker 8: which he wasn't. But no, that was a shocking day.
9:17
Speaker 8: Look what's happening is here in Australia. These things can
9:22
Speaker 8: move quickly. I mean you've now got inflation up, interest
9:26
Speaker 8: rates are going up, electricity price has gone through the roof,
9:30
Speaker 8: the debt's going up, the deficit's going up. The economy
9:33
Speaker 8: has turned very quickly. The promises Labor made it the
9:36
Speaker 8: last election of all turned to dust with this austerity campaign.
9:40
Speaker 8: They're now going to have to run to sack public
9:42
Speaker 8: run to sack public servants. As they are in Victoria
9:46
Speaker 8: when they said out the election. I know that's what
9:48
Speaker 8: Dunton's going to do. It's turning south very quickly for
9:51
Speaker 8: the government and this is what going to happen in politics,
9:54
Speaker 8: and Bowen's appointment is another disaster. I mean, you can't
9:58
Speaker 8: see Bowen lasting as the Minister for Energy and Climate
10:02
Speaker 8: until the next election. You just can't see that happening.
10:05
Speaker 8: He's too much of an embarrassment out of the government.
10:07
Speaker 5: Yeah.
10:07
Speaker 2: Look, earlier in the week, Joe I reported that there
10:12
Speaker 2: were discussions or there have been discussions in the Albanese
10:15
Speaker 2: government about whether he now needs to either step back
10:18
Speaker 2: from cabinet to be the new President of Negotiations, or,
10:24
Speaker 2: as Cameron Milner told us on the show, split the
10:26
Speaker 2: portfolio so he stays climate Change cabinet minister and Andrew
10:30
Speaker 2: Charlton becomes the Energy Minister. I mean, you know, the
10:33
Speaker 2: Prime Minister has clearly pushed these.
10:35
Speaker 3: Decisions down the track.
10:36
Speaker 2: But as Michael Kroger just said, this could still happen
10:39
Speaker 2: in the new year.
10:40
Speaker 3: Yeah.
10:40
Speaker 5: Look, I'd be very very surprised. I don't think. Firstly,
10:43
Speaker 5: Anthony Albanese is incredibly loyal. He has formed a very
10:47
Speaker 5: strong connection and partnership with his former sort of nemesis
10:52
Speaker 5: in the New South Wales Right, which is basically run
10:54
Speaker 5: by Chris Bowen and Tony Burke. Chris Bowen is the
10:57
Speaker 5: national convener of the in Caucus and so that is
11:02
Speaker 5: a very powerful position. He wields a lot of clout.
11:05
Speaker 5: He will not be easy to get rid of. And
11:08
Speaker 5: I don't think the PM actually wants to either. He
11:11
Speaker 5: was made Climate Change and Energy Minister basically by his
11:15
Speaker 5: own will. He wanted to do it. It was Mark
11:17
Speaker 5: Butler who was speaking when the lights went out, of course,
11:20
Speaker 5: so you know the blackout was one portfolio change too late.
11:23
Speaker 5: But this was something that Bowen really wanted. And most
11:28
Speaker 5: of the things that Bowen wants he gets, And so
11:31
Speaker 5: I don't think there will.
11:32
Speaker 2: Be anything splitting the portfolio could be a it's not
11:36
Speaker 2: doing bow and over.
11:37
Speaker 5: That's right, so exactly right. So the idea that Boone
11:40
Speaker 5: would take a step back, I don't think we'll ever happen.
11:43
Speaker 5: If anything, it's possible, you might. And obviously by bringing
11:45
Speaker 5: Andrew Charlton in his cabinet secretary and getting himTo the
11:48
Speaker 5: cabinet room without having to dislodge a minister again, another
11:51
Speaker 5: masterful piece of Albanezy tactics. Charlton needs to be and
11:56
Speaker 5: will be a minister very very soon, and will be
11:58
Speaker 5: before anyone else's in the cabinet with a portfolio. He's
12:02
Speaker 5: got a huge pedigree in climate change and energy. It
12:07
Speaker 5: was his research, in fact, exclusively obtained by News Corp
12:11
Speaker 5: that was.
12:11
Speaker 3: Used to kick just bragging about your story zero no, no.
12:16
Speaker 5: A whole of company about the transition to zero. His
12:21
Speaker 5: company has led was the lynchpin of that.
12:24
Speaker 2: He's former company, out for Beta, has done climate policy
12:27
Speaker 2: work well. The Albertiezy government is suddenly bracing for public
12:32
Speaker 2: service cuts, yes cuts, now, this is the very thing
12:35
Speaker 2: they warned voters that Peter Dutton would unleash. They said
12:37
Speaker 2: this was inspired by Donald Trump. But now departments have
12:41
Speaker 2: been told to find lower priorities spending, with some bracing
12:46
Speaker 2: for cuts of up to five percent. Now, just a reminder,
12:50
Speaker 2: this comes after a full election campaign built on the
12:53
Speaker 2: message that only the Coalition would deliver cuts and chaos.
12:57
Speaker 3: Remember that this.
12:59
Speaker 9: Cuts to care will make our health system more like America.
13:02
Speaker 9: His job cuts will destroy public services. Our economy is
13:06
Speaker 9: only just recovering from a skyrocketing inflation and trillion dollar
13:10
Speaker 9: debt left by the last Liberal government. There's nothing stable
13:13
Speaker 9: about in Australia underdone ecuts.
13:16
Speaker 3: You pay Michael.
13:18
Speaker 2: That scare campaign was brutal, it was effective, and now
13:22
Speaker 2: it seems it's the reality for labor.
13:24
Speaker 3: They're looking at cutting the public service.
13:27
Speaker 8: Yeah, look, that's exactly right.
13:29
Speaker 5: Look, this is where the Liberal.
13:30
Speaker 8: Party is miles behind Labor. And always I've always been
13:34
Speaker 8: on the wrong side of arguments within the party about
13:36
Speaker 8: these things. These people in the Labor Party are so brutal,
13:42
Speaker 8: they're so dishonest, as they say, live sheet, commit any crime,
13:46
Speaker 8: but get elected, and that's what Labor do. They're at
13:50
Speaker 8: a different level to the coalition. The Coalition are basically
13:54
Speaker 8: amateurs when it comes to these elections. Yeah, you know
13:58
Speaker 8: we've got those intellectual musty take nuclear. Did Albert quote
14:04
Speaker 8: one hundred No, he quoted the six hundred billion number.
14:07
Speaker 8: Dunton was going to slash and burn, et cetera. And
14:09
Speaker 8: it goes on and on and on. Now Jim Charmers
14:12
Speaker 8: is talking about inflation, Well that was during the pandemic.
14:14
Speaker 8: Gym for goodness sake. I mean, these people are playing
14:18
Speaker 8: a different game you know, they're playing a different game
14:21
Speaker 8: to the Coalition, and that's why they keep winning. That's
14:23
Speaker 8: why they've been winning elections state and federal farm more
14:26
Speaker 8: than the Coalition has around this country in the last
14:29
Speaker 8: twenty years. And unless the Liberal Party wakes up to
14:31
Speaker 8: that and stops playing nice, it'll continue to lose. I
14:35
Speaker 8: have to say the last election, I'll give I'll give
14:38
Speaker 8: Labor their credit. The last election, they were answering the
14:41
Speaker 8: question that people were asking. The question people were asking
14:44
Speaker 8: was what can you do for me today? That was
14:47
Speaker 8: the question in the electric were asking. Labor had answers
14:50
Speaker 8: through all of them. If you talk about chief of childcare, medicines, wages,
14:52
Speaker 8: et cetera, students, et et cetera. Our answer was, look
14:55
Speaker 8: out there, there's a nuclear power station coming in ten
14:57
Speaker 8: to fifteen years.
15:00
Speaker 2: I think you're one hundred percent right, Michael. There's no
15:02
Speaker 2: question the Labor Party scare campaigns on this, on Medicare
15:05
Speaker 2: and so many different issues have been brutal because the
15:08
Speaker 2: Coalition's never going to cut Medica. Everyone knows that's a lie.
15:12
Speaker 2: It were except for the public, it seems, but anyone
15:16
Speaker 2: who follows the news, No, it's not true. But Joe,
15:19
Speaker 2: are you expecting now the unions to step in and
15:21
Speaker 2: mount a campaign against these public service cuts.
15:24
Speaker 5: Yeah, they will, as they inevitably doing. The Union's go
15:26
Speaker 5: to war with labor governments just as much as they
15:28
Speaker 5: go to war with coalition governments, not necessarily always as brutally,
15:33
Speaker 5: but often you struggle to put a cigarette papers difference
15:36
Speaker 5: between them. So they will. But again, of course the
15:39
Speaker 5: Labor Party is going to any government is going to
15:41
Speaker 5: cut a bloated public service, and I think it's naive
15:44
Speaker 5: to think that they ever Wouldn't I remember a friend
15:47
Speaker 5: of mine and the party naive.
15:48
Speaker 3: To believe them in the election campaign, you may.
15:50
Speaker 5: Yeah, well of course they're going to say. And again,
15:52
Speaker 5: Michael's absolutely right that even the way that the Coalition
15:56
Speaker 5: presented its public service cuts was basically a political suicide,
16:00
Speaker 5: not because I didn't specify the positions they were going
16:02
Speaker 5: to cut. So he had hundreds of thousands of public
16:04
Speaker 5: servants going, oh is it me? Is it me? Is
16:06
Speaker 5: it me? Is it? The soldiers in Townsville. You know,
16:09
Speaker 5: it's just like and again it was just typical of
16:11
Speaker 5: that vague, wooly lack of policy work that there wasn't
16:16
Speaker 5: that kind of you know, meat on the bone that
16:18
Speaker 5: they could point to and say no, it's not that,
16:20
Speaker 5: and then combining that with the working from home, which
16:23
Speaker 5: is the new sort of religion for public servants. Again,
16:26
Speaker 5: it was another ridiculous own goal. So of course Labor
16:30
Speaker 5: is going to use that against the Coalition, and that
16:32
Speaker 5: was the coalition's own folly for dropping the grenade at
16:35
Speaker 5: its feet.
16:36
Speaker 2: Paul Kelly and The Australian is now warning the Liberals
16:39
Speaker 2: that they're on a path to self harm. He writes,
16:43
Speaker 2: how bizarre is it that Conservatives rail against the folly
16:46
Speaker 2: of being labor light but seem happy about being handsome light.
16:52
Speaker 2: This was quite a column by Paul Kelly today. I
16:54
Speaker 2: actually saw him today and complimented him on it. But Michael,
16:58
Speaker 2: what do you think about his thesis there?
17:03
Speaker 8: Well, Kelly is one of the great writers in Australian history.
17:06
Speaker 8: We all know that. And I think the answer to
17:08
Speaker 8: what Paul's saying is the Federal Coalition needs to define itself,
17:14
Speaker 8: not let itself be defined by journalists one nation, the
17:18
Speaker 8: National Party on one side, et cetera. The Liberal Party
17:22
Speaker 8: in particular needs to define itself and if it starts
17:26
Speaker 8: on the policy prescriptions that Susan Lee has been talking about,
17:29
Speaker 8: it'll start to do that. I mean, she's made one
17:32
Speaker 8: of her major objectives going forward significant increases in personal
17:37
Speaker 8: income tax, the income tax cuts, I should say, so
17:41
Speaker 8: to reduce the rate of personal income tax. That is
17:43
Speaker 8: an extremely laudable goal. It's very traditional liberal policy, which is,
17:48
Speaker 8: you know, people should be able to spend their own money,
17:49
Speaker 8: not have the government spend it on their behalf. So
17:54
Speaker 8: if you can start putting numbers around that start you start,
17:57
Speaker 8: you know, you start defining yourself. And that's what she's
18:00
Speaker 8: been doing in various speeches which he's been giving. And
18:04
Speaker 8: so I would expect that twenty four to start increasing
18:06
Speaker 8: as people start liking what she and the Liberal Party
18:09
Speaker 8: are saying and the National Party is saying, and as
18:12
Speaker 8: they start to realize that they've been conned again by labor,
18:16
Speaker 8: and people start thinking to themselves, most importantly, this bull
18:21
Speaker 8: dust about energy prices being the cheapest under renewables, that's
18:25
Speaker 8: not their lift experience, and they're starting to say to
18:28
Speaker 8: each other, this is all cock and bull. This Nutter
18:32
Speaker 8: Bowen running around the world getting a promotion what he
18:35
Speaker 8: can't fix his own problem.
18:37
Speaker 10: As he fixes.
18:37
Speaker 8: He's done a disastrous job in Australia and he's been promoted.
18:40
Speaker 3: Really exactly exactly.
18:41
Speaker 2: I can't hope to fix the world's problems if you
18:44
Speaker 2: can't even lower our electricity bit correct. Now, just finally,
18:48
Speaker 2: this is absolutely shocking story. Revelations in the Australian Tonight
18:54
Speaker 2: that the Chinese leader who was here, Jao Lige, told
18:57
Speaker 2: alban Easy that he hopes he'll respect Beijing's core interests
19:02
Speaker 2: of Taiwan and the South China Sea. Now what's so
19:06
Speaker 2: extraordinary about this report is that the Prime Minister has
19:09
Speaker 2: been refusing, point blank refusing to reveal the details of
19:13
Speaker 2: what he spoke about with this very senior Chinese official.
19:17
Speaker 2: And remember this is the Chinese official that meant Cambra
19:20
Speaker 2: had to go into lockdown mode. People had to close
19:22
Speaker 2: their blinds, turn off their mobile phones on the advice
19:25
Speaker 2: of the security and intelligence agencies. And now we are
19:29
Speaker 2: getting more transparency Joe from China than from the Albanezi government.
19:34
Speaker 2: This says a lot about the lack of transparency in
19:39
Speaker 2: Canbra under this federal government.
19:41
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think so. I mean all governments again are
19:44
Speaker 5: going to protect their own interests and try to obfuscate
19:47
Speaker 5: things where they think it is in either their own
19:49
Speaker 5: political interest or Australia's national interest. To be honest, the
19:52
Speaker 5: PM is not doing anything different to what Donald Trump
19:55
Speaker 5: has done. He had a meeting with Jijiping that Jijingping
19:58
Speaker 5: actually revealed and Donald Trump did not. Again, we can
20:04
Speaker 5: only I may not think any conversation. I was getting
20:07
Speaker 5: texts from figures about the ridiculousness or the sinisterness of
20:11
Speaker 5: the security measures that were demanded by Jao. But I
20:14
Speaker 5: think that clearly the sort of stuff that they would
20:17
Speaker 5: have been talking about would have been incredibly sensitive from
20:21
Speaker 5: a national security And if the PM had come out
20:24
Speaker 5: and said, oh, we talked about how we both like
20:26
Speaker 5: pandas or about you know, our mutual as China just there.
20:30
Speaker 2: We spoke about Taiwan, we spoke about the sales China. See,
20:33
Speaker 2: you can put things on the table without saying yeah.
20:36
Speaker 5: But China is not putting that out as a matter
20:39
Speaker 5: of transparency and goodwill. China is trying to use that
20:43
Speaker 5: as pressure point diplomacy to put Elbow on the back
20:47
Speaker 5: foot and make it look like he has to answer
20:49
Speaker 5: those questions publicly. And it's kind of almost a game
20:53
Speaker 5: of chicken, and so again the Chinese are not behaving transparently.
20:57
Speaker 5: What they are trying to do is put albow in
20:58
Speaker 5: a box and make it look like with incredibly duplicitous
21:02
Speaker 5: and dodgy language, because we can all hope whatever I
21:04
Speaker 5: hope for a million bucks, but make it look like
21:07
Speaker 5: the PM is acquiescing to them, when in fact he hasn't.
21:09
Speaker 2: Its just them, whatever their motivation is, The reality is
21:13
Speaker 2: that the facts are. We have got information about this
21:16
Speaker 2: meeting from the Chinese, where there's no free speech, no
21:19
Speaker 2: free press, and we don't have.
21:20
Speaker 3: It with Reality's sure got a bunch alive, very quick response,
21:24
Speaker 3: because we've got to go.
21:25
Speaker 8: Michael Wells, albody's is having a meeting with the senior
21:29
Speaker 8: representative of one of the world's most brutal dictatorships and
21:32
Speaker 8: he won't reveal to us what he's talking about.
21:34
Speaker 2: Really, Yeah, exactly perfectly, said Michael Kroger.
21:39
Speaker 3: Jerry Uderat, thank you so much.
21:42
Speaker 8: Well.
21:42
Speaker 2: The case is mounting for a public apology and a
21:44
Speaker 2: full inquiry into the pursuit of Linda Reynolds by the
21:48
Speaker 2: mean girls in the Albanezy government. Yet there's news today
21:52
Speaker 2: that Attorney General Michelle Rowland's department has hired some of
21:56
Speaker 2: the most expensive barristers in the country to fight the
22:00
Speaker 2: claims brought by Reynolds.
22:02
Speaker 3: And her former chief of staff, Fiona Brown.
22:05
Speaker 2: Yet Rolands won't say whether they're being paid these barristers
22:09
Speaker 2: above the standard five thousand dollars a day rate, or
22:13
Speaker 2: whether she's personally approved any higher fees.
22:16
Speaker 3: And these aren't cheap barristers. Justice Gleeson SC is the
22:21
Speaker 3: former Solicitor General of Australia.
22:24
Speaker 2: He alone reportedly commands up to twenty five thousand dollars
22:28
Speaker 2: a day. Then there's Kate Eastman SC and Ruth Higgins SC,
22:34
Speaker 2: barristers who would be paid at least ten thousand dollars
22:38
Speaker 2: a day by commercial clients. Now this is in stark
22:42
Speaker 2: contrast to how swiftly the Commonwealth handed Britney Higgins that
22:47
Speaker 2: two point four million dollar payout after a single day
22:51
Speaker 2: of mediation, an amediation where Reynolds wasn't afforded due process
22:57
Speaker 2: in order to defend claims that two.
23:00
Speaker 3: Courts have now found to be false.
23:03
Speaker 2: Yet when Reynolds and Brown seek justice after years of
23:07
Speaker 2: reputational and personal ruin, the Commonwealth rolls out the most
23:12
Speaker 2: elite and expensive legal firepower to shut them down. Fiona
23:19
Speaker 2: Brown hasn't worked in four years, driven to the brink
23:23
Speaker 2: by false accusations of a political cover up, and Reynolds
23:27
Speaker 2: lost her job, her health and her reputation. And still
23:32
Speaker 2: the government won't explain why millions are being spent to
23:36
Speaker 2: fight these women. At every step from the outset, Labor
23:42
Speaker 2: politicized the Higgins issue in.
23:45
Speaker 6: The Prime Minister of Visor House.
23:47
Speaker 4: How the government has responded to the allegation a woman
23:50
Speaker 4: was sexually assaulted in the Defense Minister's.
23:53
Speaker 6: Office in March twenty nineteen.
23:56
Speaker 4: Has an appropriate duty of care for the woman been exercise?
24:00
Speaker 11: Yesterday, Britney Higgins issued a statement in response to the
24:03
Speaker 11: Prime Minister's remarks. In that statement, Miss Higgins said, and
24:07
Speaker 11: I quote the continued victim blaming rhetoric by the Prime
24:10
Speaker 11: Minister is personally very distressing to me and to countless
24:14
Speaker 11: other survivors. How does the Prime Minister respond to Miss
24:17
Speaker 11: higgins statement from yesterday?
24:21
Speaker 2: Courts in both the Lerman case and Reynolds's defamation win
24:25
Speaker 2: have been unequivocal there was no cover up. Yet the
24:30
Speaker 2: Albaneze government continues to throw taxpayer money at a top
24:34
Speaker 2: defense team, while refusing to answer questions about who approved
24:38
Speaker 2: the fees, whether they breached the five thousand dollars a
24:42
Speaker 2: day cap, and what exceptional circumstances supposedly justify it. Reynolds
24:48
Speaker 2: has put it bluntly, the Prime Minister and the Attorney
24:52
Speaker 2: General could end this tomorrow. Instead, they're choosing to fight
24:57
Speaker 2: and to seemingly spend whatever it takes to do it well.
25:01
Speaker 2: For a government that promised transparency, accountability and respect for women,
25:07
Speaker 2: this saga is steeped in hypocrisy. Right joining me now
25:14
Speaker 2: to discuss this and more Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg, who's
25:17
Speaker 2: in Canberra tonight. Andrew, thank you so much for joining us.
25:21
Speaker 2: What do you think the Commonwealth? Do you think the
25:24
Speaker 2: Commonwealth should be hiring the most expensive barristers in the
25:27
Speaker 2: country instead of calling a full inquiry issuing a public
25:32
Speaker 2: apology after two courts found that there was no cover
25:35
Speaker 2: up over the Higgins rape.
25:40
Speaker 7: Well, Shari, I say that I feel very sorry for
25:43
Speaker 7: Britney Higgins, and I think that's the most important point here.
25:48
Speaker 7: What happened here in this building was not okay, and
25:53
Speaker 7: I understand that as part of this long running saga
25:56
Speaker 7: that a lot of people have actually been injured, people
26:00
Speaker 7: like Linda and others that you mentioned, And I mean,
26:04
Speaker 7: these are not things that politicians should be traversing necessarily.
26:09
Speaker 7: I think that there are legal processes here that probably
26:11
Speaker 7: should take primacy. But in terms of the integrity of
26:15
Speaker 7: public funds and these other things, these are questions that
26:19
Speaker 7: can be asked at the Center Estimates when it meets
26:22
Speaker 7: next week.
26:24
Speaker 2: Everyone feels sorry for Brittany Higgins. It was found on
26:26
Speaker 2: a balance of probabilities that she was raped, but yet
26:30
Speaker 2: Andrew that rape was politicized, it was weaponized against the
26:35
Speaker 2: then Morrison government. Linda Reynolds was in hospital with a
26:38
Speaker 2: heart condition. She was accused of covering up the rape.
26:42
Speaker 2: That is found, as I said, by the New Southeales
26:45
Speaker 2: Federal Court, the WA Supreme Court, to be false. So
26:48
Speaker 2: why shouldn't there be an inquiry into this and into
26:51
Speaker 2: the two point four million dollar taxpayer funded payout over
26:55
Speaker 2: the cover up.
26:58
Speaker 7: Well, I think the last thing that we need is
27:00
Speaker 7: more politicians politicizing these matters one way or another. And
27:04
Speaker 7: as you say, these things have been politicized, and I
27:08
Speaker 7: don't think we should be seeking to apply the Labor
27:12
Speaker 7: Party standards to ourselves. So if there are matters of
27:16
Speaker 7: public integrity and the expenditure of public funds which need
27:19
Speaker 7: to be probed, then the appropriate place for that to
27:22
Speaker 7: happen would be next week at Senate estimates, and no
27:24
Speaker 7: doubt that will happen.
27:26
Speaker 2: Will you be there at Senate estimates? Will you be
27:28
Speaker 2: probing these matters?
27:32
Speaker 7: I think, I think you know that my portfolios are
27:35
Speaker 7: in the economic sphere, so I'll be doing the economics estimates.
27:38
Speaker 7: But no doubt others will be undertaking those lines of
27:42
Speaker 7: inquiry as appropriate. But I don't think that these are
27:45
Speaker 7: opportunities for politicians to be teeing off on one another.
27:48
Speaker 10: I mean, we should remember what this is all about.
27:51
Speaker 2: Well, what it's about is the fact that Linda Reynolds.
27:54
Speaker 2: What this is about is the fact that Linda Reynolds
27:57
Speaker 2: was accused of covering up a rape and she's demanding
28:02
Speaker 2: transparency and accountability for that. Turning to another topic now,
28:06
Speaker 2: the Head of Housing Australia, Carol Austin, quit just days
28:10
Speaker 2: before she was due to face the Senate grilling. This
28:12
Speaker 2: is amid reports by the Sydney Morning Herald of dysfunction
28:16
Speaker 2: allegations by the Herald of dysfunction, bullying and a mass
28:19
Speaker 2: exodus of executives. But it raises big questions about the
28:23
Speaker 2: agency that was meant to deliver Labour's one point two
28:27
Speaker 2: million homes agenda. Very far behind on that agenda. Andrew,
28:31
Speaker 2: you were the one who compelled Austin to front estimates.
28:35
Speaker 2: What did this resignation right before the hearing signal to you?
28:42
Speaker 7: Well, the Labor Party have spent or Our spending up
28:46
Speaker 7: to sixty billion dollars on housing to build fewer houses
28:48
Speaker 7: than the last government. So housing Australia is a hellhole
28:51
Speaker 7: of waste and dysfunction. And I think the report into
28:56
Speaker 7: the governance matters ought to be released by the Minister
29:00
Speaker 7: Claire O'Neil. I don't know why Clara O'Neil thinks she
29:02
Speaker 7: can get away with not releasing these documents which cost
29:05
Speaker 7: taxpayers thousands and thousands of dollars, and I think taxpayers
29:10
Speaker 7: would be asking the question, well, what's wrong with the
29:12
Speaker 7: housing agenda.
29:13
Speaker 10: They're spending all this money but we're not getting any houses.
29:17
Speaker 3: It's extraordinary.
29:18
Speaker 2: Do you have the latest figures on how many houses
29:20
Speaker 2: have been built at this point in time?
29:24
Speaker 7: Well, the governments say that after two years and ten
29:27
Speaker 7: billion bucks, they've built about eight hundred houses, but of
29:30
Speaker 7: course that eight hundred includes houses that they've actually purchased,
29:34
Speaker 7: so they're going around buying houses the Australians could actually
29:37
Speaker 7: own themselves, so thereby making the whole problem worse. So
29:41
Speaker 7: no wonder the housing system is in such a mess.
29:44
Speaker 2: Tet O'Brien gave a major speech today he called bracket
29:48
Speaker 2: creep and assault on young workers. Do you think this
29:52
Speaker 2: is going to resonate with the voters who feel that
29:55
Speaker 2: they just can't get ahead given the cost of living crisis,
29:59
Speaker 2: given in bracket creep and the slow wage growth.
30:05
Speaker 10: Well, I think braggit creep is a good thing to
30:07
Speaker 10: talk about.
30:08
Speaker 7: But I mean the income tax system is more fundamentally
30:11
Speaker 7: broken than that. We have top tax rate which is
30:13
Speaker 7: way too high. Middle income earners pay way too much tax.
30:18
Speaker 7: Where a country which is heavily taxed, heavily regulated, I mean,
30:21
Speaker 7: it's not a good place to do business. It's not
30:23
Speaker 7: a good place to feel that you're supported. We have
30:26
Speaker 7: an enormous welfare state where over half the population now
30:31
Speaker 7: receive a net benefit from the government, So we're very sick.
30:34
Speaker 7: We're becoming more like a European than an American country,
30:38
Speaker 7: which I think is very worrying, and I think people
30:40
Speaker 7: are over it. I think people feel the repression of
30:43
Speaker 7: the taxes and the regulation.
30:45
Speaker 10: So I think Ted's on the right track.
30:48
Speaker 2: All right, Andrew Bregg, thanks so much for your time.
30:52
Speaker 2: Now still to come, Trump's chief peacemaker accused of helping
30:56
Speaker 2: Russian officials manage the US president. There's major is tonight
31:01
Speaker 2: stunning Washington. And what's in today's shock inflation figures mean
31:05
Speaker 2: for interest rates?
31:06
Speaker 3: We'll talk about that after the break. Welcome back.
31:12
Speaker 2: Well, Inflation has jumped again three point eight percent over
31:16
Speaker 2: the year to October, and any hope now of near
31:19
Speaker 2: term rate cuts have evaporated. This is simply shocking news
31:23
Speaker 2: for homeowners. And the pressure is now squarely back on
31:27
Speaker 2: the government. And here was the Treasurer Jim Chalmers.
31:30
Speaker 12: Today, inflation is higher than we'd liked, but it is
31:34
Speaker 12: much much lower than we.
31:35
Speaker 5: Inherited from our predecessors.
31:38
Speaker 12: Even though it's moderated very considerably since we came to office,
31:42
Speaker 12: it hasn't moderated in a straight line. We've seen that
31:44
Speaker 12: around the world as well. Now Obviously, what we want
31:47
Speaker 12: to see is lower inflation. We've got inflation down, We've
31:50
Speaker 12: made a lot of progress. That's given the Reserve Bank
31:53
Speaker 12: the confidence to cut interest rates three times this year.
31:57
Speaker 3: And for more.
31:58
Speaker 2: I'm joined by the Chief Economist the Institute of Public Affairs.
32:01
Speaker 3: Adam Crichton. Adam, great to see you as always.
32:04
Speaker 2: So this is the fourth monthly rise in a row
32:08
Speaker 2: of inflation. It does look like the cycle of rates
32:13
Speaker 2: falling is over.
32:14
Speaker 3: Now do you think that's the case?
32:17
Speaker 13: Well, look, based on the current information, that's probably true.
32:20
Speaker 13: These figures today are very embarrassing for the government. We
32:22
Speaker 13: now have the highest inflation rate three point eight percent
32:25
Speaker 13: basically in the OECD, pretty much higher than the US,
32:28
Speaker 13: higher than the Eurozone, higher.
32:29
Speaker 10: Than the UK.
32:31
Speaker 13: Three point eight percent is actually pretty high. I mean
32:33
Speaker 13: before COVID, remember inflation had a one in front of it.
32:35
Speaker 13: Now it's three point eight percent. And that's not just
32:38
Speaker 13: the thirty seven percent increase in the price of electricity.
32:41
Speaker 13: Sharry driving that if you strip all of the extreme
32:43
Speaker 13: movements out, it's still three point three percent, which is
32:46
Speaker 13: above the RBA's target. So most the market pricing as
32:50
Speaker 13: of this afternoon was that there is going to be
32:53
Speaker 13: a rate hike rather than a rate cut as the
32:56
Speaker 13: next move, and of course that's bad news for people
32:59
Speaker 13: with home loans.
33:00
Speaker 10: So yeah, this is terrible for the government.
33:03
Speaker 2: So just breaking down a bit more what you just
33:05
Speaker 2: said there. So it's not only driven by electricity price rises,
33:09
Speaker 2: which as you said, we know they've increased now thirty
33:11
Speaker 2: seven percent over the past year. But if our inflation
33:15
Speaker 2: is now higher than the rest of the OECD, why
33:19
Speaker 2: is that.
33:21
Speaker 13: Well it's a complicated question, but it's probably because the
33:25
Speaker 13: growth rate of the money supply is extremely high in Australia.
33:28
Speaker 13: So that's called M three. It's a bit technical, but
33:31
Speaker 13: that is a bit technical.
33:32
Speaker 3: But is it the federal government's fault, let's get out
33:35
Speaker 3: of it.
33:36
Speaker 13: Well, yes, Also, spending is growing at a rapid clip.
33:39
Speaker 13: I mean I think from memory a nominal spending in
33:41
Speaker 13: the federal government is growing at something like five to
33:43
Speaker 13: seven percent a year.
33:45
Speaker 10: That's crazy.
33:46
Speaker 13: I mean, I've just come back from Argentina where I
33:47
Speaker 13: spent two weeks and you had a federal government there
33:50
Speaker 13: that is cut spending by thirty percent and inflation has
33:53
Speaker 13: dramatically dropped. And so here the contrast is extraordinary to me.
33:57
Speaker 13: Coming back, You've got seven percent spending growth and you
33:59
Speaker 13: have very high inflation rates for an OECD country, and
34:03
Speaker 13: I think part of that is obviously spending.
34:06
Speaker 5: I mean the ndos. Just look at the NOS.
34:08
Speaker 13: In the last three months, the number of people on
34:10
Speaker 13: the endos grew five percent to seven hundred and fifty
34:13
Speaker 13: one thousand people. I mean, that's that's kind of crazy, right,
34:16
Speaker 13: isn't it so? And not only that, but I think
34:18
Speaker 13: I saw reports today show you probably know them, but
34:20
Speaker 13: the public service has grown twenty five thousand in the
34:23
Speaker 13: last three years or no, sorry, to two hundred thousand.
34:27
Speaker 13: So you've got the NDOS, out of control, public sector,
34:29
Speaker 13: out of control.
34:31
Speaker 3: Stranger crisis adding to that as well, of.
34:34
Speaker 13: Course, I mean basically, you know, you know, we're becoming
34:36
Speaker 13: a Pirona state. Basically we're swapping places with Argentina.
34:41
Speaker 2: It's such a scary thought just looking at the coalition's
34:45
Speaker 2: economic policy now. In Paul Kelly's column today, he pointed
34:50
Speaker 2: out that Susan Lee has actually been pushing an economic
34:53
Speaker 2: agenda that's more bold than people realize. In fact, he
34:57
Speaker 2: described it as loaded with dangerous ambi. He says that
35:01
Speaker 2: Lee has pledged a personal income tax cut at the
35:03
Speaker 2: next election, which Abbot avoided. That she's put industrial relations
35:08
Speaker 2: back on the agenda again. Abbot Turnbull, Morrison and Dutton
35:12
Speaker 2: wouldn't do this, and she's signaled that she'd welcome and
35:18
Speaker 2: defyre the inevitable labor scare campaign triggered by her fiscal
35:21
Speaker 2: responsibility pledge. So I'm just keen to hear your thoughts
35:26
Speaker 2: on the policies she has put forward so far. Do
35:29
Speaker 2: you agree with Paul Kelly that it's a dangerous agenda,
35:34
Speaker 2: that it's too ambitious.
35:36
Speaker 13: Well, I think it's too early to know yet because
35:38
Speaker 13: the media is not focused on those things that you
35:40
Speaker 13: just said. They're focused on all of the internal party
35:43
Speaker 13: division of a net zero. But now that's been settled,
35:45
Speaker 13: I hope that they do focus more and we hear
35:47
Speaker 13: more about these broader policies you've just mentioned. I mean,
35:51
Speaker 13: it's a great thing. I think that the Coulition is
35:53
Speaker 13: promising to cut income tax, they're going to dump at zero,
35:56
Speaker 13: they're going to look at industrial relations. I mean, remember
35:58
Speaker 13: we've had a massive reregulation of Australia's industrial lation system.
36:02
Speaker 13: I mean it's you know, in some ways we've gone
36:04
Speaker 13: back to the nineteen eighties or earlier, so it needs
36:07
Speaker 13: to be looked at. And in fact, you know, so
36:09
Speaker 13: I don't mean to harp on Argentina, but I was
36:11
Speaker 13: telling them over there, you know, about our system, and
36:14
Speaker 13: in some ways our system is more regulated than theirs is, and.
36:17
Speaker 10: They were shocked by that. And it really is a
36:20
Speaker 10: crazy system.
36:20
Speaker 13: We've got all this micro managing of different industries, different wages,
36:23
Speaker 13: different tea breaks, all these conditions. It's got to be
36:26
Speaker 13: looked at. So I think it's a credit to Susan Lee.
36:30
Speaker 13: But the media is not focused on these things yet
36:32
Speaker 13: and sadly, and you know, because of the leadership ructions
36:35
Speaker 13: it might not be.
36:36
Speaker 3: Let's just wait and see, and.
36:37
Speaker 2: The regulations are only going to get worse because we're
36:39
Speaker 2: seeing in Victoria, you know, just into Alan planning to
36:43
Speaker 2: legislate mandatory work from home days and this is.
36:46
Speaker 13: That's not even constitutional. She won't be able to do that,
36:49
Speaker 13: but anyway, it's all politics.
36:51
Speaker 3: She is going to do it. She is doing it though.
36:54
Speaker 13: Well, but it's going to be struck down ultimately, I think.
36:57
Speaker 13: I mean, Victoria gave back all its IRS powers to
37:00
Speaker 13: the federal government under Jeff Kennett, because he tried to
37:02
Speaker 13: do very good things on IR. I think he tried
37:04
Speaker 13: to introduce a simple system in Victoria and he failed,
37:07
Speaker 13: and he just said, Okay, forget it, give it back
37:09
Speaker 13: to the commwealth. It sounds to me, I mean I'm
37:12
Speaker 13: not a lawyer, but it sounds to me like a
37:14
Speaker 13: work from home war is pretty much industrial relations and
37:17
Speaker 13: that's no longer Victoria's purview.
37:19
Speaker 2: I mean, I'd love to know who plans to take
37:22
Speaker 2: this to the High Court. I mean, if you're saying
37:24
Speaker 2: it's unconstitutional, who is the IPA.
37:27
Speaker 13: Business would maybe I don't know, I don't know, but
37:31
Speaker 13: some business probably will, but of course the stupid law anyway,
37:34
Speaker 13: Just to be clear, I mean it should be up
37:36
Speaker 13: to businesses and employees to make that decision.
37:39
Speaker 3: One hundred percent. All right, Adam Crichton, thank you so much.
37:43
Speaker 3: That's still to come.
37:44
Speaker 2: We'll return to our top story, why a criminal avoided
37:47
Speaker 2: jail after hatespury across Sydney and the leaked phone call
37:51
Speaker 2: scandal that is rocking Washington. Special end Voy Steve Whitcoff
37:55
Speaker 2: told a Kremlin official how to praise Donald Trump. That's
37:59
Speaker 2: after the break fresh revelations today about a leaked call
38:06
Speaker 2: between US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Vladimir Putin's top
38:11
Speaker 2: foreign policy aid Yuri Yushikov. Wikoff is accused of coaching
38:16
Speaker 2: Russia on how to best approach Donald Trump, even suggesting
38:20
Speaker 2: how Putin should flatter him, referencing Trump's Gaza piece plan
38:25
Speaker 2: and pushing a new twenty point piece plan for Ukraine.
38:29
Speaker 2: It's a window into the behind the scenes maneuvering that
38:31
Speaker 2: shaped the now infamous twenty eight point proposal that Washington
38:36
Speaker 2: urged Kiev to consider, and it's raising big questions about
38:40
Speaker 2: whether the US was coordinating with Moscow while Ukraine was
38:44
Speaker 2: fighting for leverage on the battlefield. Well, for more on this,
38:48
Speaker 2: I'm joined now by former advisor to Ukraine's Defense Minister,
38:52
Speaker 2: Yuri sak Yuri, Great to see you again. Look, what
38:56
Speaker 2: is your response to the allegations about this laked phone call?
39:04
Speaker 5: Good morning.
39:05
Speaker 14: Well, of course, I don't think anybody should be surprised,
39:09
Speaker 14: because diplomatic process is a very complex procedure with a
39:14
Speaker 14: lot of moving parts, and you know what we see
39:18
Speaker 14: announced after complex negotiations. Of course, it's only the final result,
39:24
Speaker 14: but what goes into this, you know, in terms of preparations.
39:28
Speaker 14: Of course, there are exchanges between the parties and the fact.
39:32
Speaker 14: You know, I'm pretty confident that Special Envoy Wikoff received.
39:39
Speaker 10: A task from Donald Trump make it happen. So to the.
39:43
Speaker 14: Best of his ability, he thought how to make this
39:46
Speaker 14: piece plan work. And what is important for us for
39:50
Speaker 14: Ukrainians is that by now it is very obvious and
39:54
Speaker 14: clear that everybody who is involved the US partners pe
40:00
Speaker 14: in countries, everybody has a very good understanding of what
40:04
Speaker 14: are the red.
40:05
Speaker 10: Lines for Ukraine.
40:06
Speaker 5: And you know, we are.
40:08
Speaker 14: Not afraid going into this negotiating process that they will
40:11
Speaker 14: be violated.
40:12
Speaker 2: I'm going to get to the red lines in a minute,
40:14
Speaker 2: but I just want to come back to this leaked
40:16
Speaker 2: call tonight because it is such a major scandal, massive
40:20
Speaker 2: news in the US. Now, the White House has responded,
40:23
Speaker 2: The President has responded, and Trump says this is typical
40:26
Speaker 2: of the negotiating process and that Wickcoff would be doing
40:30
Speaker 2: the same with Ukraine.
40:32
Speaker 3: Do you believe that's true?
40:36
Speaker 14: Well, I can't say for sure, but of course, look,
40:43
Speaker 14: I can give.
40:43
Speaker 10: You an example, my own example.
40:46
Speaker 14: So I have, for example, friends from the United States
40:49
Speaker 14: of America, who are you know, some of them are
40:51
Speaker 14: president in Ukraine, some of them are in the US,
40:54
Speaker 14: and I am always very appreciative of their advice as
40:58
Speaker 14: to how to reach out with our Ukrainian messaging to
41:02
Speaker 14: the American audiences. So it is normal, you know, if
41:06
Speaker 14: somebody wants a peace process to work, it is good
41:10
Speaker 14: to try to align the positions and make sure that
41:14
Speaker 14: everybody has heard. Of course, we hope that this will
41:19
Speaker 14: not disadvantage Ukraine. But at the same time, you know,
41:22
Speaker 14: our presidents said many times Ukraine will never be an
41:25
Speaker 14: obstacle to the peace process, and if these kind of
41:28
Speaker 14: behind the scenes calls have to happen for the peace
41:31
Speaker 14: process to move forward, we're fine with it.
41:33
Speaker 2: You are much more accepting of this than I imagine because
41:37
Speaker 2: Trumpet and Wickcoff in particular, I mean, there are calls
41:39
Speaker 2: for him to stand down over this.
41:41
Speaker 3: You know.
41:42
Speaker 2: Of course, the White House is arguing this is just
41:44
Speaker 2: a normal part of the negotiating process. That's in effect
41:47
Speaker 2: what you are saying as well, but the criticisms are
41:49
Speaker 2: quite brutal. Tonight, just finally back to those red lines.
41:53
Speaker 2: So it seems that territory or land swaps still remain
41:57
Speaker 2: the most politically explosive shoe. There is some acceptance that
42:02
Speaker 2: there'll have to be a security guarantee, But do you
42:05
Speaker 2: think Ukraine is actually prepared to concede any territory at
42:09
Speaker 2: this stage?
42:13
Speaker 14: I know for a fact that Ukraine is not going
42:16
Speaker 14: to accept any legal annexations of our lands now. I
42:21
Speaker 14: think by now it is obvious that the only possible
42:24
Speaker 14: way forward is to accept that the ceasefire should happen
42:27
Speaker 14: along the existing front lines. Ukraine will never concede the
42:32
Speaker 14: territories that we are still uh, you know, have our
42:35
Speaker 14: under control, and even long term, we will never accept
42:38
Speaker 14: the legality of Russians annexation of our lands and we
42:42
Speaker 14: will just work, you know, after the ceasefire, hopefully in agreement.
42:47
Speaker 9: We will work.
42:48
Speaker 14: Towards our goals through diplomatic channels. But we cannot appraise
42:51
Speaker 14: the aggressive, we cannot reward them for their war crimes,
42:55
Speaker 14: and and and that's I think that's a very obvious
42:57
Speaker 14: thing to understand.
43:00
Speaker 2: Do you think this deal is to being done? I mean,
43:02
Speaker 2: do you think we actually could see, like we did
43:05
Speaker 2: with the Middle East Peace Plan, a deal signed between
43:09
Speaker 2: Ukraine and Russia, you know, maybe the next month.
43:15
Speaker 14: Well, we are seeing a lot of optimism from the
43:17
Speaker 14: White House, We're seeing optimism from the Ukrainian side. What
43:22
Speaker 14: remains to be seen, of course, is what Russians have
43:25
Speaker 14: to say about this, because you know, and the reason
43:28
Speaker 14: why we are skeptical even though we are trying twenty
43:30
Speaker 14: four seven to make it work. But we're skeptical because
43:33
Speaker 14: every day Russia continues to bombard Ukraine to you know,
43:36
Speaker 14: launch missiles and DRAMs and civilian cities and killing people.
43:41
Speaker 14: So that doesn't indicate that they are interested in peace.
43:45
Speaker 14: What we are worried about that Russians will continue to
43:48
Speaker 14: play along the White House and trying to sort of
43:51
Speaker 14: buy more time because they hope that they will outlast
43:55
Speaker 14: Ukrainian this war. But we are confident, and actually this
43:58
Speaker 14: is an important thing about that with leaked calls, right,
44:02
Speaker 14: the fact that Russia is consulting or feels the need
44:06
Speaker 14: to consult US Special Envoy on such matters means that
44:11
Speaker 14: they understand that the US has the leverage to cripple
44:15
Speaker 14: their economy, and the moment their economy is crippled and
44:19
Speaker 14: you know it comes to a stall, that's when the war.
44:23
Speaker 2: Will end, all right, Uri sach Great to have you
44:26
Speaker 2: on the show again, Thank you very much. Still ahead,
44:29
Speaker 2: we'll return to our top story today, Sydney man walking
44:33
Speaker 2: free after helping unleash an anti Semitic vandalism spree, with
44:37
Speaker 2: the court ruling he wasn't driven by hate, just money.
44:41
Speaker 2: Police are furious. We'll talk about this more after the break.
44:48
Speaker 3: Welcome back.
44:48
Speaker 2: As we spoke about earlier, a man who helps unleash
44:51
Speaker 2: an anti Semitic vandalism spree, who caused tens of thousands
44:55
Speaker 2: of dollars in damages, torch the car, has walked free.
45:00
Speaker 2: The court says it was sheer luck no one was killed.
45:03
Speaker 2: Yet they accepted that he wasn't motivated by hate, just
45:06
Speaker 2: cash for drugs, so no jail time. But for Australians,
45:11
Speaker 2: including the Jewish community, that distinction doesn't make anyone feel
45:17
Speaker 2: any safer. Joining me now, Ajack executive manager Joel Bernie, Joel,
45:23
Speaker 2: thanks to your time. Look, this is very hard to stomach,
45:25
Speaker 2: given the devastation left behind, and surely we should be
45:30
Speaker 2: seeing punishments for an actual crime, not simply the motivation
45:35
Speaker 2: behind a crime.
45:38
Speaker 15: Well, it's clear that this sentence is manifestly inadequate and
45:42
Speaker 15: it's inadequate for lots of reasons. So firstly and most importantly,
45:45
Speaker 15: this is a community problem. This is an Australian problem.
45:48
Speaker 15: This is obviously a problem that was targeting the Jewish community.
45:53
Speaker 15: But an attack in the middle of Sydney in the
45:55
Speaker 15: early hours of the morning, some ten cars were torched
45:58
Speaker 15: and vandalism at a restaurant, which was essentially the start
46:03
Speaker 15: of what became a massive wave of violent attacks against
46:08
Speaker 15: the Jewish community over the last summer. This is an
46:12
Speaker 15: attack against the community and for this gentleman to get
46:16
Speaker 15: off into some type of corrections order without a custodial
46:21
Speaker 15: sentence is not proportionate to what the expectations of the
46:25
Speaker 15: community are. And the most critical part for our community
46:28
Speaker 15: in the Jewish community is is that the magistrate's determination
46:32
Speaker 15: that this gentleman was not motivated by hate, that was
46:34
Speaker 15: motivated by money. It's very kind of him to take
46:37
Speaker 15: that into consideration to mitigate his sentence. But what he's
46:41
Speaker 15: seemingly the magistrate that is hasn't taken into consideration is
46:45
Speaker 15: that his motivation, the criminal's motivation, had zero bearing on
46:49
Speaker 15: the amount of anxiety, stress and concern for the security
46:54
Speaker 15: of the Jewish community. That his acts actually did so
46:58
Speaker 15: if the magistrate had taken into account that it is
47:01
Speaker 15: irrelevant as to what he was motivated by the act.
47:04
Speaker 15: And criminal act itself had a profound impact on the
47:09
Speaker 15: fear and anxiety levels of what was already a besieged
47:12
Speaker 15: Jewish community in Australia. And there is an unfortunate pattern
47:16
Speaker 15: to this Sharry. So we had the issues in New
47:19
Speaker 15: South Wales. We had one of the arsenists, the accused
47:23
Speaker 15: arseness of the Das israel A synagogue attack in November
47:26
Speaker 15: last year, be released on bail. And now we have
47:30
Speaker 15: the perpetrator who tried to burn down the East Melbourne
47:33
Speaker 15: Synagogue on a Friday night on the Sabbath with over
47:37
Speaker 15: twenty congregants in the building. He was led off because
47:41
Speaker 15: he was having a schizophrenic attack because he forgot to
47:44
Speaker 15: take his pills. So we take into consideration that this
47:47
Speaker 15: person was allegedly having hallucinations thought this massive, well established,
47:53
Speaker 15: an old building with huge doors and clear Jewish insignia.
47:58
Speaker 15: He misplaced it as a residentidential home and had no
48:01
Speaker 15: motivation or knowledge that it was a synagogue. We're supposed
48:04
Speaker 15: to buy that. But then he is released with time serves.
48:08
Speaker 15: So the message to the community is is that there
48:10
Speaker 15: are loopholes and there are things that the magistrate and
48:13
Speaker 15: judges will take into consideration to essentially kick you off
48:18
Speaker 15: when you've done such criminal damage including ten cars torched
48:21
Speaker 15: in Willara and millions of dollars of damage in Melbourne
48:24
Speaker 15: and the synagogue. The deterrence is not there from the judiciary.
48:30
Speaker 3: That is so well said.
48:31
Speaker 2: And I think just one final point is that it
48:33
Speaker 2: particularly with the fire bombings, when there were worshipers inside,
48:39
Speaker 2: people could have lost their lives.
48:41
Speaker 3: This is very serious.
48:44
Speaker 15: It's an absolute miracle that no one did lose their lives.
48:47
Speaker 2: Joe I saw the new Southwest Premier, Chris Mins speak
48:51
Speaker 2: about these issues today about not the judiciary, about antisemitism,
48:56
Speaker 2: and it just struck me again. He is so he
49:00
Speaker 2: is so strong, he's a conviction politician, he has mainstream
49:05
Speaker 2: labor values and it's always such a surprise to hear
49:09
Speaker 2: him speak because it is so vastly different from what
49:14
Speaker 2: we hear coming from Albanizi or Tony Burke.
49:19
Speaker 15: And look, this has been a well reported difference that
49:22
Speaker 15: the Jewish community and many members of the Jewish community
49:25
Speaker 15: have pointed to Chrispinch.
49:29
Speaker 2: I apologize for interrupting, but we are out of time
49:32
Speaker 2: on that point.
49:33
Speaker 3: I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry.
49:35
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for joining us, and that is
49:38
Speaker 2: all we have time for tonight. But don't go anywhere,
49:40
Speaker 2: because my dear friend and colleague, Paul Murray is tonight
49:43
Speaker 2: celebrating fifteen years. He's lasted longer at the desk than
49:47
Speaker 2: thirty of Australias thirty one prime ministers. And it's no
49:51
Speaker 2: wonder why. He's honest, clever, passionate, charming, and he cares
49:57
Speaker 2: about what he talks about. He cares about you, viewers.
50:00
Speaker 2: He's incredibly generous, he has the biggest heart. So a
50:04
Speaker 2: huge congratulations, Paul. You deserve every round of applause and
50:08
Speaker 2: I can't wait to watch the anniversary special and everyone's
50:13
Speaker 2: singing your praises.
50:14
Speaker 3: Well here it is. Enjoy