Transcript

Credlin | 28 October · Credlin

0:02
Speaker 1: Peter Credlin, live from News 24.
0:08
Speaker 2: Good evening. Welcome to the program. Here's what's coming up
0:10
Speaker 2: tonight on the program. It's official. Victoria's an economic basket case.
0:15
Speaker 2: A new report out today paints a bleak picture for
0:18
Speaker 2: business in the troubled state. And it comes as the
0:20
Speaker 2: state's interest bill on the debt hits almost $ 25 million
0:24
Speaker 2: a day. More tonight on the Golf Grant saga with
0:29
Speaker 2: Anthony Albanese and ministers tying themselves in knots over the
0:33
Speaker 2: $ 6 million deal for his mates at Marrickville. Not only
0:37
Speaker 2: has the Prime Minister misled the House, but so too
0:40
Speaker 2: his minister today, Catherine King. Plus, almost a decade since
0:45
Speaker 2: the infamous bike boy car crash involving Daniel Andrews and
0:50
Speaker 2: his wife Catherine, well now the heat's on the former Premier.
0:54
Speaker 2: Victoria's current police commissioner now referring the case to IBAC
0:58
Speaker 2: for investigation. And the latest inflation data's in, another hit
1:02
Speaker 2: for everyday Australians and small business. More pain on the way,
1:07
Speaker 2: but from the government, it's just platitudes and excuses.
1:12
Speaker 3: These are tough economic times right around the world. And
1:15
Speaker 3: they're far from over. We have a plan to get
1:18
Speaker 3: through it. and the government that I lead will continue
1:21
Speaker 3: to do everything we can to shield Australia from the
1:24
Speaker 3: worst of the impact.
1:28
Speaker 2: But first, it's not the crime that gets you, it's
1:30
Speaker 2: the cover-up. And that's the problem for the Prime Minister
1:33
Speaker 2: with the continuing scandal of his $ 6 million grant to
1:37
Speaker 2: the Marrickville Golf Club. Last month, when Anthony Albanese's 14
1:42
Speaker 2: years of undeclared honorary membership at the club was exposed, well,
1:47
Speaker 2: he scrambled to explain... why a simple clubhouse upgrade could
1:51
Speaker 2: warrant a multi-million dollar spend. Questions were also asked about
1:56
Speaker 2: his personal links to the club, 200 metres from his
1:59
Speaker 2: own Marrickville investment property, and the probity around a closed
2:04
Speaker 2: grants process that was invite-only. Now, at the time, analysis
2:08
Speaker 2: from the Centre for Public Integrity found that 73% of
2:12
Speaker 2: the funding was allocated to Labor-held or key marginal seats.
2:16
Speaker 2: And when pushed in the Parliament... Albanese made two admissions
2:21
Speaker 2: that have come back to haunt him. Firstly, he said
2:25
Speaker 2: that he was not the decision maker for the $ 560
2:29
Speaker 2: million local and community grants program. That was the Minister
2:34
Speaker 2: for Infrastructure, Catherine King, he said. And secondly, that the
2:38
Speaker 2: grant to the Marrickville Golf Club was costly because it
2:42
Speaker 2: included long overdue sewerage works to prevent runoff from the
2:46
Speaker 2: club's septic system and into the nearby Cooks River, telling
2:51
Speaker 2: the House this on 9 September.
2:55
Speaker 4: It's existed for a long period of time, almost 100 years,
2:59
Speaker 4: and they have a septic tank which, because when it
3:03
Speaker 4: is on the floodplain, when it floods in Marrickville, raw
3:07
Speaker 4: sewage flows into the Cooks River.
3:10
Speaker 1: That is what the funding is for.
3:15
Speaker 2: That is what the funding is for, he said. I mean,
3:18
Speaker 2: the problem for Albanese is that the first time he
3:21
Speaker 2: connected that grant to Sewerage Works was just one month ago,
3:27
Speaker 2: back then in September. At no earlier time from the
3:31
Speaker 2: first instance when he announced the $ 6 million back on
3:34
Speaker 2: the 27th of April last year, until last month in
3:39
Speaker 2: the House, did the word Sewerage ever appear. It's not
3:44
Speaker 2: in any of the Prime Minister's media releases, transcripts, podcasts, newsletters,
3:50
Speaker 2: websites or interviews. He's never mentioned it once before last
3:55
Speaker 2: month in the House. Nor was it ever on the
3:57
Speaker 2: table with the Marrickville Golf Club or the Inner West
4:01
Speaker 2: Council that's now led by former Albanese staffer, the Mayor,
4:05
Speaker 2: Darcy Byrne.
4:07
Speaker 5: Because we've just found out that the Prime Minister of Australia,
4:09
Speaker 5: Anthony Albanese, has committed that if re-elected, an Australian Labor
4:13
Speaker 5: government will commit $ 6 million to the full renovation of the.
4:17
Speaker 6: Marrickville Golf Club.
4:19
Speaker 5: We've got here Andrew Tai, the president of the club,
4:21
Speaker 5: Matt Howard, your local councillor, who helped to fight to
4:24
Speaker 5: keep it as an 18-hole course, and Juliette Barr, a
4:27
Speaker 5: long-time champion of saving Marrickville Golf Course. Andrew, I want
4:30
Speaker 5: to ask you, what will this mean for the club?
4:32
Speaker 2: Oh, this is a fantastic day for the club.
4:33
Speaker 7: We are going to be able to bring all these
4:36
Speaker 7: wonderful community events to the club now.
4:37
Speaker 5: We'll be able to refurbish the clubhouse and welcome everybody
4:40
Speaker 5: down here. And you're already going gangbusters. There's so many
4:43
Speaker 5: events and live music and cultural events taking place here.
4:46
Speaker 5: Now we're going to see even more.
4:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's great. The community has really embraced the club.
4:49
Speaker 2: We really appreciate it.
4:50
Speaker 5: We've been an open club for years and years and years,
4:53
Speaker 5: and this is going to bring everybody down.
4:54
Speaker 8: It's going to be great.
4:56
Speaker 2: I mean, there are dozens of social media posts like
4:59
Speaker 2: that and not one mention of sewerage. So clearly it's
5:04
Speaker 2: a cut and dried case of a Prime Minister misleading
5:06
Speaker 2: the House. Or is it? This week, again under pressure
5:10
Speaker 2: in the Parliament, Albanese has tried to retrofit that claim
5:15
Speaker 2: of sewerage works to say he wasn't aware that the
5:19
Speaker 2: scope of the grant had changed from what he told
5:22
Speaker 2: the House last month.
5:25
Speaker 3: Will the Prime Minister give Australians a straight answer, admit
5:29
Speaker 3: he misled the House and correct the record? Now, Mr Speaker,
5:33
Speaker 3: during election campaigns, people make commitments. I have said that
5:38
Speaker 3: was not correct.
5:40
Speaker 9: It was not correct.
5:41
Speaker 3: The state government have moved in and are funding the project.
5:45
Speaker 2: OK, well, that doesn't stack up either. Even before New
5:50
Speaker 2: South Wales announced last September, September 25, that it would undertake...
5:54
Speaker 2: the necessary sewerage and septic tank works at a cost
5:58
Speaker 2: of some $ 270, 000, neither Albanese, the golf club or the
6:04
Speaker 2: Inner West Council had ever included sewerage works in any
6:10
Speaker 2: upgrade plans, meaning that Albanese can't claim that the plans
6:13
Speaker 2: have changed, that the scope of works had been varied
6:17
Speaker 2: when sewerage works were never involved in the first place.
6:22
Speaker 2: A review of the Inner West Council minutes from 2025
6:27
Speaker 2: and 2026, that confirms it also. So too, as I said,
6:32
Speaker 2: multiple social media posts involving the Mayor, Byrne and Club
6:36
Speaker 2: President Andrew Tai. A lot of crowing about the big
6:39
Speaker 2: win of $ 6 million from their number one patron, Anthony Albanese,
6:43
Speaker 2: but not one word, not mentioning at all, sewerage. Until
6:48
Speaker 2: that is, of course, the Prime Minister clutched at the
6:51
Speaker 2: words under pressure in the House last month. And those
6:55
Speaker 2: sewerage claims were then backed in by Minister Catherine King
7:01
Speaker 2: in a News24 interview on Sunday where she said this.
7:05
Speaker 10: Did the money end up going to sewerage works, as
7:08
Speaker 10: the PM has said in the Parliament?
7:12
Speaker 11: Well, I have to go back. Yes, that is the works.
7:15
Speaker 11: There's two levels of works. So both of it is
7:18
Speaker 11: to look at the water outflow from the golf club
7:22
Speaker 11: itself and to deal with the sewerage issue. And there's
7:25
Speaker 11: also some facilities. The scope of works is still being developed,
7:28
Speaker 11: but that is my understanding very clearly that it is
7:31
Speaker 11: both for the sewerage works and some of the facilities
7:34
Speaker 11: development out there.
7:37
Speaker 2: Okay. But again, that's not the truth. Three days earlier,
7:43
Speaker 2: so last Thursday, the 22nd of October, a senior official
7:48
Speaker 2: in her own department gave evidence to a Senate inquiry
7:52
Speaker 2: that's probing the integrity of the whole program. This is
7:55
Speaker 2: Jacinta McDonald. She's the Assistant Secretary in the Department of Infrastructure,
7:59
Speaker 2: and she told the hearing this.
8:03
Speaker 12: The grantee must deliver the design and upgrade of the
8:06
Speaker 12: Merrickville Golf Club. including the following deliverables. The club precinct refurbishment,
8:14
Speaker 12: which includes a range of elements, installation of a stormwater
8:18
Speaker 12: harvesting system, including storage tanks and pump, creation of a
8:23
Speaker 12: botanical garden and biodiversity area, and an upgrade of the
8:27
Speaker 12: existing electrical capacity to 200 amps. The sewerage works are
8:33
Speaker 12: not in the scope of this grant.
8:35
Speaker 6: This grant focuses on the stormwater.
8:38
Speaker 2: Look, I almost feel sorry for Catherine King. I mean,
8:40
Speaker 2: what's a minister to do? Tell the truth and throw
8:43
Speaker 2: a boss under the bus or fudge it and hope
8:47
Speaker 2: no one bothers following up? Well, unfortunately for her, Senate
8:51
Speaker 2: estimates was the next day and a lie was exposed
8:55
Speaker 2: when the Assistant Secretary again was back under oath and
8:59
Speaker 2: once more confirmed that sewage works were never included at
9:04
Speaker 2: any time in the golf club project.
9:08
Speaker 12: So as part of the approval brief that was provided
9:10
Speaker 12: to Minister King, we outlined the scope of the project.
9:14
Speaker 6: And the scope of the project.
9:17
Speaker 13: Did it include sewerage works or not sewerage works, which
9:21
Speaker 13: is why I wanted to confirm your evidence from last week?
9:25
Speaker 2: It does not include sewerage works.
9:27
Speaker 12: Righto.
9:30
Speaker 2: But it gets worse for the Minister. Macdonald went on
9:33
Speaker 2: to admit under questioning that the Department had provided their Minister...
9:37
Speaker 2: with an approvals brief to duly sign off the $ 6
9:41
Speaker 2: million Marrickville grant and that sewerage works were not in it.
9:46
Speaker 13: Has Minister King's office ever requested advice from the department
9:50
Speaker 13: as to whether the $ 6 million grant is or is
9:53
Speaker 13: not funding the sewerage problem?
9:57
Speaker 12: So the department provided the minister with the approval brief
9:59
Speaker 12: for the project.
10:00
Speaker 2: Which outlined the scope.
10:02
Speaker 6: And the scope that the Department.
10:05
Speaker 13: Sees is being funded doesn't include sewerage work.
10:09
Speaker 6: Does or it doesn't?
10:11
Speaker 2: It does not include sewerage work. I mean, you've got
10:15
Speaker 2: to wonder what other documents these Ministers sign that spending
10:20
Speaker 2: millions and billions that seemingly they don't comprehend. Or how
10:25
Speaker 2: hard King's willing to lie to protect the Prime Minister.
10:30
Speaker 2: Here she is today in Question Time.
10:34
Speaker 8: Last Thursday, the minister's own department confirmed to a Senate
10:38
Speaker 8: inquiry that Labor's $ 6 million grant to the Marrickville Golf
10:43
Speaker 8: Club was not to fix sewerage flows. Then, on Sunday,
10:48
Speaker 8: the minister told Andrew Clennell on News 24 the $ 6
10:52
Speaker 8: million grant was to fix sewerage flows. Can the minister
10:57
Speaker 8: explain why her department said one thing to the Senate
11:01
Speaker 8: and she said something completely different to the Australian people.
11:05
Speaker 11: And as I said multiple times during that interview, I
11:07
Speaker 11: would have to check exactly what was being delivered through
11:10
Speaker 11: that grant. So if you actually had have listened to
11:12
Speaker 11: the interview, I understand that the Prime Minister addressed this
11:16
Speaker 11: issue in question time yesterday. But to repeat, but to repeat,
11:23
Speaker 11: when this funding commitment was made in April 2025, part
11:28
Speaker 11: of the commitment included.
11:32
Speaker 2: Well, calm down, Catherine. I can assure you I've listened
11:34
Speaker 2: to the interview, and as I've shown you, here's the
11:37
Speaker 2: announcement again from April last year. April, she mentions April,
11:41
Speaker 2: from the Prime Minister, and there's no mention of Sirij.
11:44
Speaker 2: The word does not appear in his press release. So
11:48
Speaker 2: not only has Albanese misled the House, but his minister
11:52
Speaker 2: today has also misled the Parliament. But it doesn't end there.
11:57
Speaker 2: Back to Albanese's assertion last month that Catherine King was
12:01
Speaker 2: the decision-maker. Well, again, serious questions arise here with another
12:06
Speaker 2: of her answers on Sunday. When asked who was involved
12:10
Speaker 2: in the process of awarding these grants, King admitted that
12:15
Speaker 2: Labor Party head office was involved in deciding where the
12:18
Speaker 2: money went.
12:20
Speaker 10: Was Labor's head office involved in that process?
12:25
Speaker 6: Yeah, absolutely.
12:26
Speaker 11: Yeah, absolutely, because it's an election commitment process.
12:29
Speaker 6: It's a political process.
12:31
Speaker 14: So, of course.
12:33
Speaker 11: you know, that is done through the party machinery, not
12:36
Speaker 11: through government machinery.
12:37
Speaker 10: So you've got this MPs go to the party machinery,
12:41
Speaker 10: give their wish list. The party machinery decides it's all right,
12:46
Speaker 10: as opposed to you, the infrastructure minister, and then post-election
12:49
Speaker 10: you put it through the formal process.
12:52
Speaker 1: Is that right?
12:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, we have to. There's a process for administration. Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, absolutely. Now,
13:03
Speaker 2: Understand this. What King confirms in that exchange is that
13:08
Speaker 2: unelected Labor Party operatives, well, they make the call regarding
13:12
Speaker 2: the allocation of half a billion dollars of taxpayer funding
13:15
Speaker 2: with the department just brought in at the back end
13:18
Speaker 2: to get the money out the door. That's all they did. Remember,
13:21
Speaker 2: this was an invite-only grants program. It's not as if
13:26
Speaker 2: they even had to assess grant applications or measure them
13:30
Speaker 2: against a transparent set of guidelines. Labor HQ had already
13:34
Speaker 2: decided who was going to get what, what seats were
13:37
Speaker 2: going to get the money, with Labor MPs like the
13:40
Speaker 2: Prime Minister rushing out those press releases in the last
13:44
Speaker 2: days of the election campaign. The Department... Well, they were
13:48
Speaker 2: just window dressing a process that a highly respected constitutional
13:53
Speaker 2: expert in Antumi has already labelled as grey corruption. Now,
13:58
Speaker 2: you can see now why this whole sordid mess needs
14:01
Speaker 2: to be urgently referred to the National Anti-Corruption Commission, don't you?
14:06
Speaker 2: After all, Albanese can hardly object having declared this to
14:12
Speaker 2: the Parliament in October 2020.
14:15
Speaker 3: Is the reason why the Morrison Government hasn't introduced legislation
14:19
Speaker 3: for a National Integrity Commission because of the corrupt sports
14:23
Speaker 3: rort scheme, the Leppington Triangle land scandal, stacking the AAT
14:28
Speaker 3: with Liberal mates, the Liberal mate that paid more than
14:30
Speaker 3: a million dollars for market research, wasting $ 20, 000 on Cartier watches,
14:36
Speaker 3: and the Minister of Energy's involvement in countless scandals. Too
14:39
Speaker 3: many to mention.
14:43
Speaker 2: He's got the hide. to circulate a dirt sheet questioning
14:47
Speaker 2: the integrity of Helen Haynes. Talk about pot calling kettle black.
14:56
Speaker 2: More on that. We'll speak to Senator Bridget McKenzie, who's
14:59
Speaker 2: been in the fight in the Estimates hearings over all
15:01
Speaker 2: the detail. But let's get the camera now for the headlines.
15:03
Speaker 2: Our political reporter, Rym Spargo. Good evening.
15:07
Speaker 15: Pressure is mounting on the Reserve Bank to raise interest
15:10
Speaker 15: rates on Melbourne Cup Day as inflation moves in the
15:13
Speaker 15: wrong direction. The headline rate jumped to 4.3% in the
15:17
Speaker 15: year to September, underlying inflation edged up to 3.6%.
15:22
Speaker 2: Increasing more in other countries than here. but we know
15:25
Speaker 2: that this doesn't make it any easier.
15:27
Speaker 4: They know they're the ones who are paying the price
15:30
Speaker 4: for his active inflation agenda and his spending addiction.
15:33
Speaker 15: The Treasurer is refusing to commit to net savings in
15:36
Speaker 15: next month's mid-year budget update. The Speaker of the House
15:39
Speaker 15: has issued a scathing rebuke after a coalition MP swore
15:43
Speaker 15: at the Prime Minister in Parliament. Anthony Albanese was being
15:46
Speaker 15: pressed to justify $ 8. 7 billion in spending on the climate
15:50
Speaker 15: change department.
15:51
Speaker 3: Increasing numbers and frequencies and intensity of extreme weather events.
15:59
Speaker 1: Now those.
16:00
Speaker 6: Order, order.
16:02
Speaker 2: Swearing in the parliament is completely unacceptable. I won't accept it.
16:08
Speaker 13: Australia won't accept it.
16:09
Speaker 15: Milton Dick later delivered a warning to both the Prime
16:12
Speaker 15: Minister and opposition leader.
16:14
Speaker 2: You're going to stop yelling at me.
16:16
Speaker 1: Order.
16:17
Speaker 2: No leader of the opposition has behaved like that.
16:19
Speaker 15: The Prime Minister can assist by lowering the temperature as
16:21
Speaker 15: well with the language being used.
16:23
Speaker 2: Order.
16:24
Speaker 15: MPs have been asked to show greater respect in political debate.
16:30
Speaker 2: Fair play to the Speaker too. All right, let's get
16:32
Speaker 2: into the inflation data out today. A bleak picture painted
16:35
Speaker 2: for the Australian economy. Here was the opposition leader's opening
16:39
Speaker 2: salvo to the Parliament.
16:41
Speaker 9: Last year, your Treasurer boasted... The worst of the inflation
16:45
Speaker 9: challenge is now well and truly behind us. Today, inflation
16:50
Speaker 9: went up again to 4.3% as Australians brace for a
16:57
Speaker 9: 17th interest rate increase under Labor. Will the Prime Minister
17:02
Speaker 9: acknowledge reality, accept his Treasurer was wrong and admit Labor's
17:07
Speaker 9: out-of-control spending is forcing families and small businesses to pay
17:12
Speaker 9: more for everything.
17:15
Speaker 2: Let's bring in our News 24 business editor, Ross Greenwood. Well,
17:20
Speaker 2: fair enough with all of the commentary there, of course,
17:22
Speaker 2: from the opposition leader. I know there was a debate
17:25
Speaker 2: that this has been driven, and it is, by high
17:28
Speaker 2: fuel prices. Of course, the concern is if you look
17:31
Speaker 2: around the world, Ross, everybody's impacted by these high fuel costs.
17:37
Speaker 2: No one's got numbers looking as bad as ours do.
17:39
Speaker 2: No one's had 17 rate hikes before. or 16, likely 17,
17:44
Speaker 2: like Australia has. And our cash rate, well, it's one
17:47
Speaker 2: of the highest in the developed world. So when is
17:50
Speaker 2: the Treasury, the government, going to take some responsibility here.
17:55
Speaker 7: Well, you'd have to say never, right? That's the issue.
17:58
Speaker 7: You'd understand that they won't. And effectively, they will continue
18:02
Speaker 7: to deflect that this is basically something that's been inherited
18:06
Speaker 7: from overseas. Now, the Treasurer does say we have an
18:09
Speaker 7: inflation issue of our own. Now, too right we do,
18:12
Speaker 7: because it's not only caused by the fact that the
18:16
Speaker 7: the government itself has clearly spent a lot more money
18:19
Speaker 7: and continues to spend, not just in terms of its
18:22
Speaker 7: own expenditure, but in the indirect handouts that it makes.
18:25
Speaker 7: And so, therefore, if it gives money to you and
18:28
Speaker 7: you spend that money, that is private spending, not government spending.
18:32
Speaker 7: And so it all gets blurred. But here is the
18:35
Speaker 7: bottom line of this. If every nation on Earth is
18:38
Speaker 7: also undergoing the same inflationary pressures caused by the Middle East,
18:43
Speaker 7: and by the Ukraine wars, then they should all be
18:46
Speaker 7: raising interest rates the same as we are. And as
18:48
Speaker 7: you make the observation, if we go to, I don't know,
18:51
Speaker 7: we go to the UK, they have zero interest rate
18:54
Speaker 7: rises this year. Go to the United States, one interest
18:57
Speaker 7: rate rise this year. Canada, Zero interest rate rises this year.
19:01
Speaker 7: New Zealand, two. Europe, two. Australia, about to be five.
19:06
Speaker 7: And that says that something is not equal in the
19:10
Speaker 7: world in the way in which different nations have absorbed
19:13
Speaker 7: the inflation that's come as a result of these increases
19:17
Speaker 7: in fuel prices. So, therefore, it actually suggests that there
19:21
Speaker 7: is something different happening in Australia's economy, which is really
19:25
Speaker 7: that the government has allowed wages... and prices to get
19:29
Speaker 7: out of control. This is the government, after all, it
19:31
Speaker 7: celebrates when wage rises occur, when the Fair Work Commission
19:35
Speaker 7: hands out above inflation rate wage rises. But those things
19:39
Speaker 7: actually lead to a slowing of our economy, an increase
19:43
Speaker 7: in our unemployment rate, and ultimately, therefore, really the demise
19:48
Speaker 7: and a Reserve Bank that's got nowhere else to go.
19:49
Speaker 7: simply because the government hasn't pulled the leaves it could
19:52
Speaker 7: have done to basically make the Reserve Bank's job easier.
19:55
Speaker 2: OK, and when we've got an inflation rate running as
19:59
Speaker 2: it is now at 4.3%, how do we get wage
20:03
Speaker 2: rises coming through the public servants of 25% 35, there
20:08
Speaker 2: was a push yesterday for a 35% wage hike. You've
20:12
Speaker 2: got small businesses, John Howard makes a point yesterday, barely
20:16
Speaker 2: able to survive. They're not giving themselves a wage rise
20:19
Speaker 2: at all, let alone 35%. He spoke about a bloated
20:23
Speaker 2: public service. He spoke about a productivity across the economy
20:27
Speaker 2: that's near non-existent. I mean, we are really struggling. Yeah.
20:32
Speaker 7: Now, if you look at the various estimates, there are,
20:34
Speaker 7: since this government was appointed, an extra between 38,000 and
20:38
Speaker 7: 40,000 additional public servants. I've done a rough calculation on that.
20:42
Speaker 7: I'd say $ 120, 000 a year. I know that's lowballing it,
20:44
Speaker 7: but that's $ 4.
20:44
Speaker 10: 6 billion a year.
20:49
Speaker 7: In extra expenditure on those wages and salaries. And so
20:52
Speaker 7: when the Treasurer says, well, tell me ways in which
20:54
Speaker 7: we can cut expenditure, well, there's 40,000 people who didn't
20:58
Speaker 7: have a job previously, give or take, who clearly the
21:01
Speaker 7: public service, is it more efficient? Is it working more?
21:04
Speaker 7: better for you? Well, I'm not sure it is, but
21:06
Speaker 7: the reality is there's clearly trimming that can be made.
21:10
Speaker 7: The second factor also is when it comes to productivity. Well,
21:13
Speaker 7: if the government had made really our country more competitive
21:18
Speaker 7: and really allowed other businesses to invest significant amounts of money...
21:23
Speaker 7: in this nation, well, guess what? Our productivity would improve.
21:25
Speaker 7: If our productivity were better, the Reserve Bank would not
21:28
Speaker 7: be pressured to put the interest rates up as it
21:31
Speaker 7: is now. And the real problem here is not only
21:34
Speaker 7: will it be a per capita recession, but chances are,
21:37
Speaker 7: as time goes on, if these interest rate rises continue
21:40
Speaker 7: to smash our economy, that there ultimately could be a
21:43
Speaker 7: real recession as well. And the chances of that are
21:46
Speaker 7: now starting to rise. Most economists don't have it as
21:48
Speaker 7: their central case, but the reality is that this government
21:51
Speaker 7: now could face a recession and higher interest rates and
21:56
Speaker 7: higher unemployment at the very time that they go into
21:59
Speaker 7: the polls in 18 months' time.
22:01
Speaker 2: Hey, I'm out of time, Ross, but I reckon the
22:03
Speaker 2: only bet we've got that is a sure back on
22:06
Speaker 2: Cup Day is that we will have our 17th rate hike.
22:11
Speaker 7: I think that's pretty much the odds on favourite that day.
22:15
Speaker 2: I don't think anyone would give you odds for anything
22:16
Speaker 2: other than an increase. Thank you, Ross. All right, let's
22:19
Speaker 2: go now to the panel. Lots of other stories around.
22:22
Speaker 2: News24 host James Morrow, senior reporter Carolyn Marcus. Welcome to
22:26
Speaker 2: you both. Okay, the politics on this, James. Let's go
22:29
Speaker 2: to the politics. Put the economics to one side, the
22:31
Speaker 2: budget pressures, et cetera. 17 rate hikes all on Labor's watch,
22:37
Speaker 2: you know, foregone conclusion come next Tuesday. You've got the
22:41
Speaker 2: blame being sheeted home by the government to absolutely everybody.
22:45
Speaker 2: This is not going to wash anymore. Everybody out there
22:49
Speaker 2: knows that the government's got a big part of the
22:52
Speaker 2: blame here and they want to see someone take responsibility.
22:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, Peter, it's really fascinating here because there's
22:59
Speaker 1: something that links this story to, of course, the other
23:02
Speaker 1: big story, which is the story about the golf course grant.
23:05
Speaker 1: And in both of these cases, they illustrate this government's
23:10
Speaker 1: major character flaw, which is that it is preternaturally unable
23:15
Speaker 1: to take responsibility when things go wrong on their watch
23:19
Speaker 1: and it's their fault. And people are not falling for
23:22
Speaker 1: this now. You know, I think Ross Greenwood did a
23:24
Speaker 1: very good job saying, Other countries aren't raising their interest
23:27
Speaker 1: rates anywhere near as much, even though they all have
23:29
Speaker 1: the same fuel pressures. People here are cottoning on to
23:33
Speaker 1: the fact that spending, government spending, the bloated size of government,
23:38
Speaker 1: the so-called care economy, is driving the private sector to
23:44
Speaker 1: the wall and it is driving prices through the roof.
23:47
Speaker 1: You know, you're starting to see this come through in
23:48
Speaker 1: a lot of the polls. The most recent are News
23:51
Speaker 1: poll from maybe two weeks ago said 55 percent of
23:54
Speaker 1: Australians said cut government spending. There was a Roy Morgan
23:57
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago. It had put government spending
24:00
Speaker 1: at the second biggest concern, right below cost of living.
24:04
Speaker 1: Australians get it. And this is a huge problem because
24:08
Speaker 1: now Chalmers is saying, oh, well, we might not cut anything.
24:12
Speaker 1: And they look very weak and they look like they're
24:14
Speaker 1: being controlled by world events. Oh, don't blame us. It's
24:17
Speaker 1: the fuel prices. Oh, don't blame us. It's Donald Trump.
24:20
Speaker 1: We need something better than that, Peter.
24:23
Speaker 2: And the vote buying is the back of the spending.
24:25
Speaker 2: Let's be clear about that. You've got an update for us, Carol,
24:29
Speaker 2: on the alleged Bondi government, Naveed Akram. The case was
24:32
Speaker 2: back in the court. What's the latest here?
24:34
Speaker 16: Well, we won't have a hearing again for another four months, Peter.
24:38
Speaker 16: Viewers are going to have to wait until the end
24:41
Speaker 16: of February to see where this case is up to.
24:44
Speaker 16: After prosecutors asked for a mammoth 17-week extension for In
24:49
Speaker 16: this matter now, Naveed Akram was set down for a.
24:53
Speaker 2: Brief mention in court this morning.
24:56
Speaker 16: He didn't have to appear on video link from custody,
24:59
Speaker 16: but the prosecutors say they need a lot more time
25:02
Speaker 16: in order to consult Naveed. victims and next of kin
25:07
Speaker 16: who were involved in the Bondi massacre about the exact
25:12
Speaker 16: charges they intend to proceed with. So he's facing 78
25:17
Speaker 16: offences at the moment. We now know that the prosecution
25:22
Speaker 16: will submit more evidence about some of the purchases that
25:27
Speaker 16: Navid Akram and his father, Sajid Akram, who was shot
25:31
Speaker 16: dead by police during the incident, some of the purchases
25:35
Speaker 16: they made in the lead up to the attack are
25:37
Speaker 16: going to form part of the evidence. But prosecutors wanted
25:41
Speaker 16: more time to consult families. And that's why we're going
25:45
Speaker 16: to have to wait even longer to see what happens
25:47
Speaker 16: in this case.
25:49
Speaker 2: James, a new survey out today, yet another one, saying
25:52
Speaker 2: a majority of Australians believe our immigration intake's too high.
25:56
Speaker 2: And this comes as Tony Burke faces more questions over
26:00
Speaker 2: his Nauru solution following the report in The Australian that
26:03
Speaker 2: the Congolese serial rapist has been permitted to remain in
26:07
Speaker 2: Australia under a Direction 110 order. This is an individual
26:12
Speaker 2: known only to us as JKWL. Shocking offences committed against
26:17
Speaker 2: his then 13-year-old daughter. But he gets to stay in
26:21
Speaker 2: Australia because of concerns about his wellbeing. That's why he's
26:26
Speaker 2: not deported. He's a convicted child rapist, a serial rapist,
26:31
Speaker 2: but they're worried about his welfare and not the rest
26:34
Speaker 2: of the country.
26:35
Speaker 1: Ah, yes, Peter, the fruits of postmodern liberalism here. This
26:39
Speaker 1: is where we wind up here. You've got this person,
26:42
Speaker 1: but not only him. We know from Direction 110, which
26:45
Speaker 1: replaced the old Direction 99, which was the old orders
26:49
Speaker 1: to the then-AAT, now Administrative Review Tribunal, on what do
26:53
Speaker 1: you do about people of this sort of thing who've
26:57
Speaker 1: been convicted with serious cases. More than half of them,
27:00
Speaker 1: we're talking about, I think, 114 out of 227 who've
27:04
Speaker 1: been put before the ART on similarly horrific, grotesque charges
27:10
Speaker 1: have been allowed to stay. As you say, because what? Oh,
27:13
Speaker 1: because we have to be kind to them. We have
27:16
Speaker 1: to be nice to them. And, you know, I think
27:18
Speaker 1: most Australians will look at this and say, If you
27:20
Speaker 1: do crimes like this and you get deported back to
27:23
Speaker 1: your home country and something happens to you, this is
27:27
Speaker 1: not our problem.
27:30
Speaker 2: There's something wrong with that minister's department because this is
27:32
Speaker 2: the same department who wouldn't give us an update on
27:35
Speaker 2: the convicted terrorists due to come out on Monday and
27:39
Speaker 2: whether or not the government was applying for a control
27:41
Speaker 2: order because... of concerns about his privacy. Kerry, here's another
27:46
Speaker 2: one for you. This one's a shocker. The Albanese government
27:48
Speaker 2: today standing by a taxpayer-funded website that tells pedophiles not to,
27:55
Speaker 2: and I quote, beat themselves up for sexual fantasies about kids. Now,
28:01
Speaker 2: this is a module on the website that's linked to
28:03
Speaker 2: the Stop It Now Australia website. It reads, I quote again,
28:08
Speaker 2: for many people, it is simply not realistic to never
28:12
Speaker 2: have sexual fantasies about children. Now, how the heck are
28:18
Speaker 2: we paying for this?
28:20
Speaker 16: It makes me feel physically ill, Peter.
28:24
Speaker 14: $ 9.
28:24
Speaker 16: 4 million of taxpayer money has gone towards setting up
28:28
Speaker 16: this website and a hotline. And ongoing, there'll be $ 4
28:32
Speaker 16: million a year of our money going towards subsidising this. Now,
28:37
Speaker 16: it's not a one off example that you've just read
28:40
Speaker 16: out to readers. I mean, there's plenty of examples you
28:44
Speaker 16: can find looking through this site where it appears to
28:47
Speaker 16: normalise having sexual fantasies about children. In one instance, it
28:53
Speaker 16: compares trying to stop thinking about that and fantasizing about
28:59
Speaker 16: it with gay conversion therapy. And it advises people who
29:05
Speaker 16: might have these thoughts to walk it off or do
29:08
Speaker 16: a jigsaw puzzle. I mean, I know the attorney general
29:13
Speaker 16: has said that this was a recommendation out of the
29:16
Speaker 16: Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse. But
29:21
Speaker 16: this is not OK. People who have these kinds of thoughts...
29:25
Speaker 16: should be reporting themselves for professional help or to authorities.
29:30
Speaker 6: They're criminal thoughts.
29:32
Speaker 2: They are perverse and disgusting.
29:34
Speaker 16: We shouldn't be normalising them and we certainly shouldn't be
29:37
Speaker 16: putting our money towards telling the pedophiles to just go
29:41
Speaker 16: and do a 1,000-piece puzzle.
29:45
Speaker 2: It is shocking and I'm staggered that it hasn't been
29:49
Speaker 2: a feature of Parliament in the last couple of days.
29:51
Speaker 2: Thank you for the updates. We'll leave it there. After
29:53
Speaker 2: the break, the golf funding scandal... The Prime Minister cornered
29:57
Speaker 2: again today in the Parliament. We'll speak to the woman
30:00
Speaker 2: after the break who's led the questioning in Senate Estimates.
30:08
Speaker 2: Coming up, the Police Chief in Victoria has now referred
30:10
Speaker 2: the Bike Boy scandal involving the former Premier Daniel Andrews
30:15
Speaker 2: off to the state's Anti-Corruption Commission for investigation. I'll get
30:19
Speaker 2: you that update. But now to Labor's dodgy grant scheme
30:22
Speaker 2: and the $ 6 million that was dished out to the
30:24
Speaker 2: Prime Minister's mates, at the Marrickville Golf Club. Joining me,
30:27
Speaker 2: someone who's prosecuted the case before the Senate, Victorian Senator
30:31
Speaker 2: Bridget McKenzie. Well, Bridget, you know, fantastic work. You've got
30:36
Speaker 2: the public servants. I don't expect they're going to make
30:38
Speaker 2: friends with their minister telling the truth last Thursday and
30:42
Speaker 2: again this Monday. It would appear that sewerage has never
30:46
Speaker 2: been involved in this at all. anywhere, and we go
30:50
Speaker 2: back to the announcement from the Prime Minister, that press
30:53
Speaker 2: release a couple of days before the election last April,
30:56
Speaker 2: he never mentioned sewerage. He only ever put it on
31:00
Speaker 2: the table last month because he was feeling a bit
31:03
Speaker 2: of heat in the House. Well, it's proven to be wrong.
31:07
Speaker 2: He has misled the Parliament then.
31:11
Speaker 6: Absolutely, Peter.
31:13
Speaker 13: He has misled the Parliament and the Coalition today pressed
31:18
Speaker 13: the case.
31:18
Speaker 6: We pressed the case again.
31:20
Speaker 13: Yesterday because, as you rightly say, the Prime Minister had
31:25
Speaker 13: only mentioned sewerage once the story broke that there was
31:28
Speaker 13: a problem with this grant. His own press release doesn't
31:33
Speaker 13: mention it. The minutes of the local council welcoming the
31:37
Speaker 13: announcement during the election campaign do not mention sewerage works
31:42
Speaker 13: at all. And the department itself has made it very,
31:46
Speaker 13: very clear that sewerage is not in the scope of
31:48
Speaker 13: the project.
31:49
Speaker 6: And as you know, Peter....
31:52
Speaker 13: What you would have done when this was mentioned in
31:54
Speaker 13: Parliament back in your day when you were running the PMO,
31:57
Speaker 13: you would have got on the phone in the office,
32:00
Speaker 13: got on the phone to Minister King's office and said.
32:03
Speaker 6: Is sewerage part of this project? And you would have
32:05
Speaker 6: been told no.
32:07
Speaker 13: And instead what happened in the Prime Minister's office is
32:10
Speaker 13: they went on the attack, developed a dirt sheet for
32:13
Speaker 13: anybody that was questioning the integrity of this grant, whether
32:17
Speaker 13: it was Helen Haynes, whether it was opposition members of
32:20
Speaker 13: Parliament like Dan Tehan or Ben Small, or indeed go
32:24
Speaker 13: on the attack for the media who actually had the
32:27
Speaker 13: gall to run the gauntlet up to the PM on this.
32:32
Speaker 2: So Catherine King said to my colleague Andrew Clennell on
32:35
Speaker 2: Sunday that sewerage was in the works. But when you
32:40
Speaker 2: pushed the public servants on Monday, they said, no, it
32:43
Speaker 2: wasn't and never has been. But more than that, they
32:46
Speaker 2: said that there is an approvals brief with the minister
32:49
Speaker 2: for her to sign, or she signed it already, that
32:52
Speaker 2: makes that very clear. So how on earth does she
32:55
Speaker 2: say sewerage is in when the department says, well, no,
32:58
Speaker 2: the brief that authorises the $ 6 million doesn't have sewerage
33:02
Speaker 2: in it? You've got to wonder what these ministers are
33:05
Speaker 2: signing and if they're not across the detail?
33:09
Speaker 13: Well, you have to be across the detail when you're
33:11
Speaker 13: signing the brief. And Minister King today in question time, again,
33:17
Speaker 13: attempted to cover up for the Prime Minister and for
33:20
Speaker 13: his denials that Surge was somehow always.
33:24
Speaker 6: Part of this project. That is not the case. There
33:27
Speaker 6: is no.
33:28
Speaker 13: Evidence available, whether through FOIs, through Senate estimates... you know,
33:34
Speaker 13: questioning public officials or indeed in the public domain that
33:37
Speaker 13: Sue Ridge has been a part of this project. And
33:39
Speaker 13: so the Minister herself, Minister King, in trying to cover
33:44
Speaker 13: up for the Prime Minister today in question time, has
33:47
Speaker 13: herself misled the Parliament and she needs to do the
33:50
Speaker 13: right thing.
33:52
Speaker 6: Yeah, absolutely.
33:53
Speaker 2: I'll play that again if you don't mind. Here's Catherine
33:56
Speaker 2: King in the Parliament today.
33:58
Speaker 11: I understand that the Prime Minister addressed this issue in
34:02
Speaker 11: question time yesterday. But to repeat, but to repeat, when
34:08
Speaker 11: this funding commitment was made in April 2025, part of
34:13
Speaker 11: the commitment included... Well, Bridget.
34:18
Speaker 2: It never did. I've been for every document like you.
34:21
Speaker 8: No.
34:21
Speaker 2: If she thinks it has and if he thinks it has,
34:24
Speaker 2: why doesn't the opposition tomorrow demand they table the evidence?
34:28
Speaker 2: Where does it say sewerage anywhere over the last 18 months?
34:35
Speaker 13: Well, they won't be able to table such a document, Peter,
34:38
Speaker 13: because I don't think such a document exists. I think
34:40
Speaker 13: the Prime Minister has attempted to punch this out. As
34:44
Speaker 13: I said, first mention of sewerage was when the story
34:47
Speaker 13: broke on the $ 6. 05 million grant to Marrickville Golf Club.
34:54
Speaker 6: And remember, he didn't hold an honorary membership.
34:57
Speaker 13: Forgot that the sewerage got paid for by the New
35:00
Speaker 13: South Wales government. He makes a mistake and puts sewerage
35:04
Speaker 13: into the public domain and instead of admitting it, he
35:08
Speaker 13: thinks he's going to punch right through it and intimidate
35:10
Speaker 13: anyone who dares to question it. Well, we're going to
35:13
Speaker 13: continue to pursue this. We've got another hearing on the
35:15
Speaker 13: 12th for the Senate inquiry that we're doing. We've got
35:19
Speaker 13: the ANAO coming. We've got Prime Minister and Cabinet coming
35:22
Speaker 13: because we're going to get to the bottom of those
35:24
Speaker 13: codes of conduct questions. And we've got the Merrickville Gotfield
35:28
Speaker 13: Club themselves coming. So we are going to get to
35:32
Speaker 13: the bottom of this because, as the public officials showed,
35:36
Speaker 13: these are similar to court proceedings. You are under oath
35:41
Speaker 13: to provide truthful evidence to senators and we're going to
35:44
Speaker 13: get to the bottom of it.
35:46
Speaker 2: Just really quickly, I want to get your comment on
35:49
Speaker 2: this admission from Catherine King on Sunday.
35:54
Speaker 11: Candidates and MPs, are asked to put forward, obviously, their
35:58
Speaker 11: election commitments and what their preference is in their local areas.
36:02
Speaker 10: Was Labor's head office involved in that process?
36:07
Speaker 6: Yeah, absolutely.
36:08
Speaker 11: Yeah, absolutely, because it's an election commitment process.
36:11
Speaker 6: It's a political process.
36:13
Speaker 11: So, of course, you know, that is done through the
36:16
Speaker 11: party machinery, not through government machinery.
36:21
Speaker 2: OK, she admits it's political. I wonder if she realises
36:24
Speaker 2: what she's done, that head office was calling the shots,
36:27
Speaker 2: not elected officials, not government bureaucrats, that it was a
36:31
Speaker 2: closed process, Bridget. No one could apply. So it's a
36:35
Speaker 2: highly political process now confirmed by the minister. Surely this
36:40
Speaker 2: now goes to the anti-corruption watchdog.
36:44
Speaker 13: Well, Peter, I found that whole interview staggering that she
36:49
Speaker 13: admitted the Labor HQ and candidates were essentially picking projects.
36:55
Speaker 13: We heard similar evidence from Finance Minister Katie Gallagher last
36:59
Speaker 13: night in Senate Estimates when I went to why some
37:02
Speaker 13: of the projects were actually listed in PFO 2025 and
37:06
Speaker 13: what process did they actually go through. She tried to
37:09
Speaker 13: tell me they didn't go through a budget process. They
37:13
Speaker 13: went through a Labor Party process. So there's a lot
37:16
Speaker 13: more to play out on the involvement of Labor HQ
37:20
Speaker 13: over the processes that we all go through in committing
37:25
Speaker 13: to funding and approving election commitments.
37:28
Speaker 6: We all need to make them.
37:29
Speaker 2: We're in a democracy, but we need to deliver them.
37:33
Speaker 2: I'll be tuning in on the 12th of November for
37:36
Speaker 2: round two. Thank you, Bridget McKenzie. All right, before we
37:38
Speaker 2: go to the break, I want to give you an update,
37:40
Speaker 2: an exclusive story today from Seb Costello in The Herald Sun.
37:43
Speaker 2: This is the bike boy crash involving the former Victorian
37:47
Speaker 2: Premier Dan Andrews, his wife Catherine as well, well, now
37:51
Speaker 2: referred to Victoria's anti-corruption watchdog IBAC. It's come about because
37:55
Speaker 2: the Victorian Police Chief Commissioner, Mike Bush, has been handed
38:00
Speaker 2: new evidence from another former Chief Commissioner, Cal Gleer in July,
38:04
Speaker 2: who Bush has had a look at it, assessed it,
38:07
Speaker 2: and he's sent it on to IBAC. It follows, of course,
38:11
Speaker 2: a four-year private investigation into the 2013 crash and a
38:16
Speaker 2: report from the former Victorian Police Assistant Commissioner, Ray Shuey,
38:21
Speaker 2: pointing to, he says from evidence, an overt cover-up to
38:26
Speaker 2: avoid implicating a political figure. This goes back nine years now.
38:32
Speaker 2: It's on its way to IBAC. Daniel and Catherine Andrews,
38:35
Speaker 2: of course, say consistently they have not done anything wrong. Well,
38:40
Speaker 2: now it's up to IBAC and perhaps the courts to adjudicate.
38:44
Speaker 2: After the break, Victoria officially the worst state in the
38:47
Speaker 2: country to do business. No surprises there. After that, after
38:51
Speaker 2: the break with the panel. Welcome back. A new report
38:59
Speaker 2: from the Business Council of Australia has ranked Victoria as
39:02
Speaker 2: the worst state in the country to do business in
39:05
Speaker 2: for the third year in a row. It found Victoria
39:08
Speaker 2: needs to fix land tax, stamp duty and planning efficiency.
39:12
Speaker 2: But it also says businesses are dogged by the rate
39:15
Speaker 2: and threshold of payroll tax, licensing and regulatory requirements. Joining
39:20
Speaker 2: me now on my panel, News24 host Jamie Rogers and
39:24
Speaker 2: the Deputy Executive Director at the IPA, Dan Wild. Well,
39:27
Speaker 2: not only that, Jamie, news today that 60% of the
39:30
Speaker 2: state's record $ 200 billion of debt and it's $ 25 million
39:35
Speaker 2: a day on interest, well, that's held by foreign investors.
39:40
Speaker 17: And, Peter, that's up from the historic average of 27%,
39:43
Speaker 17: which is a huge jump. But to your point in
39:48
Speaker 17: your opening statement is why would a business want to
39:51
Speaker 17: operate in Victoria? There are so many high taxes and
39:55
Speaker 17: red tape. And within that AFR article that was just
39:57
Speaker 17: shown on the screen, it says that in order to
40:00
Speaker 17: even open up a cafe in Victoria, you need 34
40:03
Speaker 17: different licenses before you can even pass over a cup
40:06
Speaker 17: of coffee. Now, Ben Carroll is coming out saying that
40:09
Speaker 17: he is fiscally conservative, but You've got to remember, he's
40:13
Speaker 17: been part of this government for so many years now.
40:16
Speaker 6: And I think that that's going to.
40:17
Speaker 17: Really stick with him. It's going to be hard to
40:19
Speaker 17: shake it. Jess Wilson has certainly come out and said
40:22
Speaker 17: that she'll be able to get the budget back to
40:24
Speaker 17: a cash surplus within six years. And that's the sort
40:27
Speaker 17: of thing that I think Victorians want to hear because
40:30
Speaker 17: you were once an economic powerhouse and it's just devastating
40:33
Speaker 17: to see what's happened in the state.
40:36
Speaker 2: Basket casters, you've got to love these Labor MPs or leaders,
40:39
Speaker 2: don't you, Dan? Kevin Rudd was an economic conservative too
40:43
Speaker 2: until he blew the budget when he took over from
40:45
Speaker 2: John Howard. We had no debt in Australia then. He
40:47
Speaker 2: went crazy in the GFC. And, of course, now suddenly
40:51
Speaker 2: he's an economic conservative too when he wants to win
40:53
Speaker 2: an election, says Ben Carroll. The gas crisis in Victoria,
40:57
Speaker 2: there's a leaked government briefing note that's making it plain.
41:02
Speaker 2: We've talked about it, you and I. The IPA now
41:04
Speaker 2: has warned about it, that the state faces critical gas shortages,
41:08
Speaker 2: which means bills will be higher and higher and blackouts
41:12
Speaker 2: are likely unless there's billions spent in new infrastructure. Yeah,
41:20
Speaker 2: you're right.
41:20
Speaker 14: We have been warning about this for a very long time. And,
41:23
Speaker 14: you know, sadly, this day was always going to come.
41:25
Speaker 14: And we've also had warnings, by the way, from the
41:27
Speaker 14: energy market operator. This is not just the IPA or
41:31
Speaker 14: News 24. This has come from the institutions that are
41:33
Speaker 14: there to oversee the actual energy system, saying that we're
41:36
Speaker 14: going to have what they call demand side management. You
41:38
Speaker 14: know what that means? That means blackouts. It means you're
41:40
Speaker 14: going to have to turn off your fridge. You're going
41:42
Speaker 14: to have to turn off everything that's running in your
41:44
Speaker 14: house to stop the system collapsing. And we've seen actually
41:47
Speaker 14: large industrial players over the last couple of years being
41:50
Speaker 14: told they have to load shed, which means they have
41:51
Speaker 14: to turn off their power for a certain amount of time. So,
41:54
Speaker 14: you know, this is what happens. This is the inevitable
41:57
Speaker 14: result of policies like net zero. When you're prioritizing costly,
42:02
Speaker 14: inefficient power sources, purely for ideological reasons over coal and
42:07
Speaker 14: over gas, you're going to get shortages. You're going to
42:10
Speaker 14: get higher prices. Businesses, as you've just discussed, are going
42:14
Speaker 14: to the wall. This is one of the major issues
42:15
Speaker 14: facing any business here are energy costs, let alone when
42:19
Speaker 14: you're talking about industrial and manufacturing players. So, look, sadly,
42:22
Speaker 14: this day has been long coming. I hope that we
42:25
Speaker 14: don't get blackouts, but it's going to be difficult to avoid.
42:29
Speaker 2: You've got taxpayers, of course, paying the power bills, the
42:33
Speaker 2: gas bills of a lot of industry to keep them
42:35
Speaker 2: in Australia, in Victoria too. You've got an enormous supply
42:40
Speaker 2: of gas in the ground in Victoria that they're too
42:43
Speaker 2: green and too woke to get out of the ground.
42:45
Speaker 2: I mean, we are a laughingstock internationally, aren't we, Jamie?
42:49
Speaker 17: Peter, I'm glad you actually said that to me because
42:52
Speaker 17: I came across an article a few days ago and
42:55
Speaker 17: it was in the Japan Times and you're not going
42:58
Speaker 17: to believe what the headline was. Australia's energy transition offers
43:02
Speaker 17: a warning to the world.
43:04
Speaker 6: And as I read through this article, it's what you've.
43:06
Speaker 17: All been saying and we've been calling for is that
43:08
Speaker 17: you don't turn off your baseload power until you've got
43:12
Speaker 17: a reliable substitute.
43:14
Speaker 6: Of which we have not.
43:16
Speaker 17: And this article was saying Australia is filled with resource
43:19
Speaker 17: rich minerals of which we are choosing not to use
43:21
Speaker 17: like uranium and coal.
43:24
Speaker 6: And the entire article, it said, this is a warning
43:26
Speaker 6: to the world.
43:27
Speaker 17: Have a look at Australia and do everything opposite to
43:30
Speaker 17: what they have done.
43:31
Speaker 6: We are literally a joke.
43:34
Speaker 2: Dan, if you stuffed up, right, if you were accused
43:38
Speaker 2: of wasting and hiding $ 260 million of COVID payments, you'd
43:44
Speaker 2: be out in your ear or maybe you'd be in
43:46
Speaker 2: court charged with a crime. Well, not so if you're
43:49
Speaker 2: a Victorian bureaucrat, A story today in The Age that
43:53
Speaker 2: two such bureaucrats accused of covering up COVID grants that
43:58
Speaker 2: should not have been paid to businesses that were not eligible,
44:02
Speaker 2: well now they've been promoted into top jobs with the NDIS.
44:10
Speaker 14: Well, this is not good enough. And, you know, looking
44:13
Speaker 14: at the numbers, they're staggering. I think something a bit
44:15
Speaker 14: over 100 million of that was actually given to businesses
44:19
Speaker 14: that had been that had ceased operating some six months
44:22
Speaker 14: before the pandemic even kicked off. You know, so this
44:25
Speaker 14: is insane what happened. And as you suggest, the cover up,
44:29
Speaker 14: the cover up is worse than the crime, as they
44:31
Speaker 14: often say. And so to me, this gets down to
44:34
Speaker 14: an issue of trust. The NDIS is one of the
44:38
Speaker 14: single biggest spending programs in the nation's history. It is
44:41
Speaker 14: the fastest growing spending program that we have on the books.
44:45
Speaker 14: It is eating up a larger and larger share of
44:47
Speaker 14: the economy, yet many people are not even getting the
44:50
Speaker 14: help that they need. We're spending an insane amount of money,
44:52
Speaker 14: but people aren't actually getting what they need out of it.
44:54
Speaker 14: It is a failure of a system and the public
44:57
Speaker 14: doesn't trust it. The public already has a very low
44:59
Speaker 14: regard for public servants and bureaucrats, especially in Victoria, because
45:04
Speaker 14: of how they became politicised throughout COVID. So what needs
45:08
Speaker 14: to happen is there needs to be a restoration of trust.
45:11
Speaker 14: And you're not going to get that by pointing people
45:13
Speaker 14: to these very important positions that have a history of failure.
45:17
Speaker 14: And I would say a history of having gone along
45:20
Speaker 14: with the politicisation of the public service. So I think
45:22
Speaker 14: this spells more trouble for a public service in Victoria
45:26
Speaker 14: that is unfortunately held in pretty low regard.
45:29
Speaker 8: As it is.
45:31
Speaker 2: Well, you're taking the Victorian disease and you're making it
45:33
Speaker 2: national with steroids on it, actually, because you're going from
45:38
Speaker 2: a couple of hundred million to hundreds and hundreds of million,
45:41
Speaker 2: billions of dollars on the NDIS. I honestly think it's criminal.
45:46
Speaker 2: I honestly think this stuff has got to be stamped
45:48
Speaker 2: on and you've got to wonder who these individuals are.
45:51
Speaker 2: They're not named in the article. What connection they have
45:53
Speaker 2: to politicians. If IBAC says these two players are responsible
45:59
Speaker 2: for this amount of loss and I'll call it corruption,
46:03
Speaker 2: they should not be getting a job anywhere in the country,
46:05
Speaker 2: let alone be promoted to the public service in Canberra.
46:09
Speaker 2: I'll leave it there. Thank you both for your time.
46:10
Speaker 2: Let's go to a quick break. After the break, some
46:12
Speaker 2: good words with Kel. Welcome back. Well, I promised you
46:19
Speaker 2: more time, Kel. My readers, my listeners will be happy.
46:23
Speaker 2: Let's bring you in now because we're about that time
46:25
Speaker 2: of year before we start to come in with all
46:28
Speaker 2: of these words of the year from all the various dictionaries.
46:31
Speaker 2: We've got one out there now. It's not even October,
46:34
Speaker 2: is it? Well, it is October. It's not even November.
46:37
Speaker 2: This one's from dictionary.com and the word is maxing.
46:43
Speaker 18: Yes, as always, when they bring out their word of
46:46
Speaker 18: the year, it's got to be something really trendy and
46:48
Speaker 18: fairly new. I mean, we've been talking for years about
46:51
Speaker 18: maxing out your credit card, but this one with the
46:53
Speaker 18: double X in the middle is different. This is an online,
46:56
Speaker 18: very cute spelling of maxing. And it means optimising a
47:00
Speaker 18: part of your life. And normally, dictionary.com tell me it's
47:04
Speaker 18: used in combination with other things. So they can talk
47:07
Speaker 18: about looks maxing as one word, which means maximising.
47:12
Speaker 2: Sleep maxing. I love to sleep max.
47:14
Speaker 7: Yes.
47:14
Speaker 18: Well, looks maxing is maximising your appearance. Token maxing is
47:20
Speaker 18: maximising your use of AI at work. There's even one
47:23
Speaker 18: called non-maximising, which is how you make your life better
47:27
Speaker 18: by behaving like an Italian grandmother. It is really very,
47:30
Speaker 18: very silly, but it is often silly words that get up.
47:33
Speaker 18: And you're right about the time of year. Still October.
47:36
Speaker 18: It's a bit like Christmas turning up earlier and earlier
47:38
Speaker 18: every year in the supermarkets. Well, now they're doing the
47:41
Speaker 18: word of the year as early as this. It's as
47:44
Speaker 18: though they're saying no new words will turn up between
47:46
Speaker 18: now and the end of the year.
47:48
Speaker 2: We'll keep them coming. We'll stay on them right the
47:51
Speaker 2: way through to Christmas. Hey, Megan wants to know about
47:53
Speaker 2: the expression, you know, I won't have a bar of that.
47:57
Speaker 2: She says, where does the bar come from in that expression?
48:02
Speaker 18: Lovely expression because this is another one of ours. It
48:05
Speaker 18: always gets me excited, as you know, Peter, when I
48:07
Speaker 18: discovered that something is an Australian coinage and that was
48:10
Speaker 18: coined here in the early years of the 20th century. Now,
48:13
Speaker 18: the bar, I won't have a bar of it, is
48:15
Speaker 18: not an iron bar. It's not a bar in a pub.
48:18
Speaker 18: It's not a sandbar in a river. It's a bar
48:21
Speaker 18: of music. When you say, I won't have a bar
48:23
Speaker 18: of that, you're saying, I won't even listen to a
48:26
Speaker 18: few notes of the song you're singing. Isn't that clever?
48:29
Speaker 18: That's a lovely bit of Aussie invention.
48:32
Speaker 2: That's fantastic.
48:33
Speaker 12: Yes.
48:33
Speaker 2: Well, this is probably ours as well. Margaret wants a
48:37
Speaker 2: bit of info about the phrase beating around the bush.
48:41
Speaker 18: Actually, this is not ours. This is very old. Yes,
48:45
Speaker 18: recorded 1505. It's a very old one. And it goes
48:48
Speaker 18: back to the time when the landed nobility used to
48:51
Speaker 18: go hunting and they would send out their staff on
48:54
Speaker 18: the menial task of getting the birds out of their nests.
48:58
Speaker 2: Oh, they're called beaters.
48:59
Speaker 1: That's right.
49:00
Speaker 18: They were the beaters. They originally shot them with longbows
49:02
Speaker 18: and crossbows and later with rifles. And a really lazy beater.
49:07
Speaker 18: wouldn't bother beating the bush. They'd just walk around the
49:09
Speaker 18: bush a bit and make a few gestures. They were
49:12
Speaker 18: beating around the bush. So they were not doing the
49:15
Speaker 18: job properly. They were avoiding the job. And ever since then,
49:19
Speaker 18: avoidance has been... beating around the bush.
49:23
Speaker 2: Have we got time for Sick as a Dog?
49:25
Speaker 6: Have we got one?
49:26
Speaker 18: Yeah, yeah. Sick as a Dog is also fairly old,
49:29
Speaker 18: about 1704. And it turned up at a time when
49:32
Speaker 18: a whole bunch of similar expressions turned up. Sick as
49:35
Speaker 18: a dog, sick as a horse, sick as a parrot.
49:38
Speaker 18: The one that caught on is sick as a dog.
49:40
Speaker 18: And the thing that strikes me about this is it's
49:42
Speaker 18: a very negative expression about dogs. You and I have
49:45
Speaker 18: talked about this before, about every idiom about dogs in
49:48
Speaker 18: English is negative. You know, you've gone to the dogs or,
49:51
Speaker 18: you know, you've got the dog's disease or what have you.
49:53
Speaker 2: So we love our dogs. Or the barking dog at
49:57
Speaker 2: Andrew Bolt will get me into trouble. I'll leave it there.
49:59
Speaker 2: We'll come back to it tomorrow and then next week.
50:01
Speaker 2: Thank you, Kel. Here is Andrew.