Latest / The Bolt Report / The Bolt Report | 31 August

Transcript

The Bolt Report | 31 August · The Bolt Report

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: This is the Bolt Report.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Well, good evening and welcome to The Bolt Report. I'm
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: James McPherson. Here's what's coming up tonight. Bloated bureaucracy.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: The Albanese government might not.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Be able to grow the economy, but fresh figures show
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: it can sure grow the government by a whopping 28
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: public servants every single day. Donald Trump's bizarre AI-generated video
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: after the United States launches its first strikes on Iran
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: in more than a month, and experts warn that China
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: is keen to exploit America's depleted military resources.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Greg Sheridan joins me shortly.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: And we'll cross to Samara Gill in the UK, where
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: people have lined the streets to observe, well, whatever this
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: is supposed to be.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: We'll get to that shortly.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: But first, there's a dangerous road being travelled in Australian politics,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: and Pauline Hanson is being driven down it, not by herself,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: but by her opponents. Now, disagree with Pauline Hanson and
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: her policies as much as you want. She shouldn't be
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: immune from criticism. But she's entitled to campaign for lower
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: immigration without being called a racist. She's entitled to question
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: multiculturalism without being labelled a fascist. She's entitled to worry
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: about the growth of Islam without being called divisive. She's
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: entitled to disagree with welcome to country without being smeared
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: as a hater. And surely she's entitled to upset the
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: cosy two-party status quo without being slammed as dangerous by
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: the Prime Minister. But have a listen to Anthony Albanese yesterday,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: speaking after voters overwhelmingly backed Pauline Hanson's party in Labor's
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: once safe West Australian seat of Secret Harbour.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: This is a crucial time for our movement because across
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: the world, hard right populists are on the march, peddling
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: politics that is dangerous, divisive and downright dishonest.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Dangerous, divisive, downright dishonest. That's quite the rap sheet.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: How dangerous does the Prime Minister want us to think
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: that Pauline Hanson is?
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Well, have a listen to what he says next.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: We simply must defeat them. We owe it to history.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: We owe it to the nation.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: There's a big difference between attacking someone's political ideas and
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: trying to turn the person holding those ideas into a
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: political monster. When you describe One Nation as dangerous and
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: then frame the battle with One Nation in existential terms,
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: we owe it to history and.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: To the nation to defeat them.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Well, you've gone a long way past arguing about immigration numbers.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Now you're floating the idea that Pauline Hanson is a
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: threat to our way of life. And listen to how
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: he went on to describe Hanson and her One Nation colleagues.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: They'll say anything and do anything to win votes, bend
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: any facts, peddle misinformation and disinformation, turn Australian against Australian.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: Now, this is not mere political disagreement. This is moral denunciation.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Pauline Hanson doesn't just have bad ideas. She's portrayed as
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: someone who lies, deceives and deliberately turns Australians against one another.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: It's exactly the sort of rhetoric that helps fuel stuff
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: like this. And it's the sort of rhetoric that leads
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: to stuff like this. You tolerate that, and it's not
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: long before a political opponent has been transformed into such
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: a demonic figure that people start saying things not behind
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: closed doors, but publicly, that would once have been unthinkable. Now,
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: the Prime Minister, who didn't condemn any of that, isn't
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: responsible for what other people say. He is responsible, though,
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: for the temperature he creates. If you spend your time
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: telling people that your political opponent is dangerous, dishonest, divisive
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: and something that must be defeated for the sake of
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: history and the country, well, you shouldn't be shocked when
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: some people decide that defeat requires rather more than casting
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: a ballot. The Prime Minister should try acting pre-ministerial. He
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: should be reminding people that Pauline Hanson is a political opponent,
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: not an enemy of the state. Threats to Pauline Hanson
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: aren't theoretical. The police presence at the National Press Club
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: when Pauline Hanson spoke there in June was greater than
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: when the Prime Minister spoke. So when she told journalists
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: today that the PM was putting her in danger, she
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: wasn't being melodramatic.
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: He's never called anyone else out as being dangerous. He's
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: been getting that many death threats and that's happening. It
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: never happened in a country like this before. And the
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: incitement that is happening is through our educational system and
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: a Prime Minister who should know better than that.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: Pauline Hanson called on the Prime Minister to lower the temperature.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: And just like that, the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister,
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: Patrick Gorman, reached for the thermostat.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately, he turned it the wrong way.
• 5:34
  Speaker 5: The ideas of One Nation are dangerous.
• 5:36
  Speaker 6: I agree with the Prime Minister on that.
• 5:38
  Speaker 7: I think it would be very dangerous to take Medicare
• 5:40
  Speaker 7: away from the Australian people.
• 5:42
  Speaker 8: They are dangerous, populist and dishonest.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: So there you go.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: Apparently the solution to inflammatory political rhetoric is more inflammatory
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: political rhetoric. Victorian Labor Premier Ben Carroll went a step further.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: He argued the.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: Prime Minister was showing leadership by turning the heat up.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: The Prime Minister.
• 6:03
  Speaker 9: We're showing leadership and making sure that we do not
• 6:07
  Speaker 9: have divisive populism and divisive politics anywhere in our nation.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Seriously, there's a certain irony in declaring you're fighting divisive
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: politics while repeatedly describing millions of voters' preferred political representative
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: as dangerous, dishonest and divisive. It's about the only luxury
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: anyone can afford in Labor-run Victoria these days, except we
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: can't afford it. This graffiti was reported in Bendigo this morning.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: It said, kill Pauline Hanson. It comes a couple of
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: weeks after an event at Adelaide University where the One
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: Nation leader was depicted as Adolf Hitler.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: On and on it goes. I could show you more
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: and more examples. This was earlier today.
• 6:52
  Speaker 10: Why have you.
• 6:53
  Speaker 8: Got neo-Nazis in the party?
• 6:55
  Speaker 11: Why have you been inculcated by neo-Nazis?
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: Why are you allowing neo-Nazis in your party?
• 7:04
  Speaker 12: She wants domestic abuse!
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: She wants domestic violence!
• 7:09
  Speaker 8: About any of you!
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: She doesn't give a s * * *!
• 7:13
  Speaker 8: She hangs out with Nazis! You want your kid hanging
• 7:16
  Speaker 8: out with Nazis?
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: So you've got to ask, what comes after that? The
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: left love to compare One Nation to MAGA and Pauline
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: Hanson to Donald Trump.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: So let's do that because there are some uncomfortable comparisons.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: You'll remember for years, Trump was described not merely as wrong,
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: but as evil. Hitler, fascist, authoritarian dictator, threat to democracy,
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: existential threat. Eventually, the argument became that Trump wasn't simply
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: a politician to defeat, he was a threat to be stopped.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: And here's Anthony Albanese and the left in this country
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: doing almost the exact same thing to Pauline Hanson. Instead
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: of cooling the temperature, the Prime Minister's pouring petrol on
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: the fire and then his colleagues like Matt Thistlethwaite feign
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: surprise that people can smell smoke.
• 8:08
  Speaker 12: We're explaining to the Australian people One Nation's voting record.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: They are a threat for workers. They're a big threat
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: for workers.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: There's a road you go down for political and policy debate,
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: and the road we're on currently, well, that ain't it.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: I just hope the Prime Minister and his colleagues perform
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: a U-turn before we end up with a crash. All right, well,
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: joining me now is former Victorian Liberal President Michael Kroger
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: and former Labor Minister Stephen Conroy.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: Welcome to you both. Michael, I'll start with you.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: Is Pauline Hanson right to complain about the Prime Minister's rhetoric?
• 8:41
  Speaker 7: Well, I think she is. He knows exactly what he's doing.
• 8:45
  Speaker 7: He knows she's faced death threats. You know, for goodness sake,
• 8:48
  Speaker 7: he's faced death threats. He's talked about turning the temperature down.
• 8:52
  Speaker 7: But to me, James, this was a diversion. I mean,
• 8:55
  Speaker 7: what else can he talk about? He can't talk about
• 8:58
  Speaker 7: the housing industry. Well, it's in collapse, prices. The construction
• 9:02
  Speaker 7: and building industry is in collapse. The renewables rollout has
• 9:06
  Speaker 7: been a disaster. He can't talk about debt. He can't
• 9:09
  Speaker 7: talk about interest rates. He can't talk about the tax lies.
• 9:13
  Speaker 7: He can't talk about social cohesion. He can't talk about
• 9:16
  Speaker 7: the Royal Commission and this new scandal that Peter Credlin's
• 9:19
  Speaker 7: just uncovered. He can't talk about mass immigration. I mean,
• 9:23
  Speaker 7: there isn't much left. So what he does is he
• 9:26
  Speaker 7: goes to this diversion of sort of saying one nation
• 9:28
  Speaker 7: is dangerous. No, he should get back on to some
• 9:32
  Speaker 7: policy issues. But as I said, there aren't many things
• 9:35
  Speaker 7: he can talk about which are good news for the government, mate.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: Stephen, I agree with everything Michael's just said. I mean, dangerous, divisive, dishonest.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: I mean, the Prime Minister didn't specifically address policies at
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: the weekend. He just smeared Pauline Hanson and, by inference,
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: millions of people who support her.
• 9:55
  Speaker 5: Well, I think you're drawing a very long bow to
• 9:57
  Speaker 5: try and suggest that he's making any commentary about one-nation voters.
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: I just reject that completely. I would disagree with you
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: on one point. Sometimes it's hard to understand Melbourne political culture,
• 10:12
  Speaker 5: but Melbourne has long had a very poor culture of
• 10:17
  Speaker 5: the far-left... being violent extremists on our streets. We could
• 10:21
  Speaker 5: go back to the attack on Andrew Bolt. We could
• 10:24
  Speaker 5: go back to a string of recent events when the Defence.
• 10:32
  Speaker 6: Convention was here a year or so ago.
• 10:34
  Speaker 5: We could go back to, I could take you back
• 10:37
  Speaker 5: to 1991 when George Bush Senior visited Australia.
• 10:41
  Speaker 6: He went to Sydney, no one cared.
• 10:42
  Speaker 5: Came to Melbourne, protests in the streets, attacks on police horses,
• 10:46
  Speaker 5: marbles under the horses' feet. There has been a violent
• 10:49
  Speaker 5: subculture in the Victorian hard left for a long period
• 10:54
  Speaker 5: of time. It's distressing to see it raising its head
• 10:58
  Speaker 5: again when it comes to Pauline Hanson. But unfortunately, it's
• 11:03
  Speaker 5: existed long before Pauline Hanson was relevant to Australian politics.
• 11:07
  Speaker 6: It's not that I support it. I condemn it.
• 11:08
  Speaker 5: 1991, I condemn it in 2026. But it's been there
• 11:14
  Speaker 5: a long time.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: Well, I guess that being the case, and you're absolutely right,
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: doesn't it behove the Prime Minister to recognise what you've
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: just articulated so well and maybe show some leadership in
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: the way he speaks?
• 11:29
  Speaker 5: Well, I think you're, again, trying to conflate different things.
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: I mean, the more you talk about... and give publicity
• 11:36
  Speaker 5: to these pathetic, fringe, violent activists, the more you promote them.
• 11:40
  Speaker 5: In the same way when we unfortunately now have got
• 11:42
  Speaker 5: to start talking about the neo-Nazis, which Pauline Hanson called
• 11:47
  Speaker 5: out for infiltrating her party.
• 11:48
  Speaker 6: So let's be clear.
• 11:50
  Speaker 5: Pauline Hanson said there were extremists, neo-Nazis, that she doesn't
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: want to infiltrate her party. But the more you talk
• 11:56
  Speaker 5: about them, the more they stage marches, the more they
• 11:59
  Speaker 5: get publicity, the more people unfortunately join their marches. And
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: so you get this situation where the more you talk
• 12:07
  Speaker 5: about these people, whether they're on the far left or
• 12:09
  Speaker 5: the far right, the more you encourage them to do
• 12:13
  Speaker 5: performance theatrics like you just were showing a moment ago.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I also think that the more you describe Pauline
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: Hanson as dangerous and say we owe it to history
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: to defeat her, you're also encouraging these people. Michael, is
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: there a part of you that.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Is worried about where this could go?
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: The federal election is still a long way off. We've
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: got student protests. We've got university students saying and doing
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: all sorts of vile things. We've got the political rhetoric
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: ramping up. Things are only going to get more heated,
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: are they not?
• 12:46
  Speaker 7: Look, I think so because, and I agree with what
• 12:49
  Speaker 7: Stephen said about this nasty, underbelly, toxic, racist, left-wing fascism,
• 12:55
  Speaker 7: you know, Spartacists, anarchists... you know, Nazis in Victoria. We
• 13:03
  Speaker 7: do have a nasty underbelly here. But, look, what's happened
• 13:07
  Speaker 7: is the left, the hard left, haven't realised this. They're
• 13:12
  Speaker 7: actually losing support for their cause. I mean, you know,
• 13:15
  Speaker 7: all these attacks on One Nation, their votes have gone
• 13:17
  Speaker 7: from six to 30. So how do you think all
• 13:20
  Speaker 7: these attacks are going? The hard left in Australian politics,
• 13:23
  Speaker 7: which is the Greens, their vote has not increased. It
• 13:26
  Speaker 7: hovers around 12 per cent, plus or minus 2 per
• 13:28
  Speaker 7: cent at every election. They're not going anywhere. So these
• 13:33
  Speaker 7: nasty anti-Semitic and pro-Palestinian demonstrations, this toxic Jewish hatred which
• 13:39
  Speaker 7: is spewed into the Australian streets under Albanese's leadership, it
• 13:47
  Speaker 7: is not helping the left. It's certainly not helping Labor
• 13:51
  Speaker 7: because the ordinary Australians are sick of it. They're disgusted
• 13:53
  Speaker 7: by it. They're appalled by it. It's not Australia, right?
• 13:56
  Speaker 7: It's not Australia. Those toxic demonstrations give a rise to
• 14:03
  Speaker 7: the one nation vote because people think they are exactly
• 14:06
  Speaker 7: what we don't want our country to look like, James.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: Stephen, I know you said it's a long bow to
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: draw saying that Pauline Hanson is dangerous and thereby, as
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: I say, smearing all of the people who support her.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: But I want to ask you, could this have been
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: Anthony Albanese's basket of deplorables moment? You remember Hillary Clinton
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: famously said Republicans were a basket of deplorables and lost
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: a whole lot of the country. If you say that
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: Pauline Hanson is dangerous, dishonest, divisive, by implication, if I
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: support Pauline Hanson, I'm supporting someone who's dangerous.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: I'm supporting someone.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: Who's dishonest and divisive, so I must be that kind
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: of person. As Michael just said, could this backfire on
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: the Prime Minister?
• 14:49
  Speaker 6: Let's be clear.
• 14:52
  Speaker 5: You've drawn the bow even longer in trying to still
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: connect descriptions of Pauline Hanson. Now, I don't know if
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: you watched Michaela Cash just on the show just earlier.
• 15:06
  Speaker 5: Her rhetoric was, and I love Michaela, I've known her
• 15:09
  Speaker 5: for a long time, and she is a really effective
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: spokesperson for Liberals. She was vicious in her descriptions of
• 15:17
  Speaker 5: Anthony Albanese. I mean, just roll the tape back an
• 15:19
  Speaker 5: hour and you will see what I'm talking about. Repeated denunciations,
• 15:25
  Speaker 5: I'll just use that phrase, of the Prime Minister. So
• 15:28
  Speaker 5: I don't think you can try and pretend just because
• 15:30
  Speaker 5: Michaela said that about Anthony Albanese, she's attacking every single
• 15:34
  Speaker 5: Labor voter. So I think, again, you're just trying to
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: draw a long bow to try and draw it back
• 15:40
  Speaker 5: to Hillary Clinton's stupidity, which cost her probably a chance
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: to be the president of America.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: I'm just wondering if One Nation voters will hear it
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: that way, whether it's a long bow or not. The
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: latest news poll has 30% of Australians saying they'll vote
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: for One Nation. Labor trails on 29%, with the coalition
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: on 19%. Michael, this poll was taken in the midst
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: of confusion within One Nation over immigration targets, but that
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: doesn't appear to have hurt them at all.
• 16:09
  Speaker 7: No, it won't hurt them because it's the wrong question
• 16:11
  Speaker 7: people are asking. I mean, you know, the old left-wing
• 16:13
  Speaker 7: press say, oh, you know, Barnaby said this and the
• 16:16
  Speaker 7: bloke in Ferris said that. The only question people ask
• 16:18
  Speaker 7: themselves is this. If you're interested in immigration, which party's
• 16:21
  Speaker 7: going to lower immigration the most? One Nation is the answer.
• 16:25
  Speaker 7: They don't care about anything else. They're not interested in
• 16:26
  Speaker 7: all the details, right? The left press seem to think
• 16:30
  Speaker 7: that we all, all the public, sit down all day
• 16:33
  Speaker 7: long and analyse every speech and every interview and everything else. No,
• 16:36
  Speaker 7: people aren't news junkies like us. They've actually got jobs
• 16:39
  Speaker 7: to do. And so on immigration, they have a massive
• 16:42
  Speaker 7: lead and all this so-called confusion. It's just inside the beltway.
• 16:46
  Speaker 7: People aren't hearing it. And that vote on the weekend was,
• 16:49
  Speaker 7: I must say, I was surprised. It was a stunning result.
• 16:52
  Speaker 7: It was a similar result to Farah in the sense
• 16:55
  Speaker 7: that One Nation, 39% primary in Secret Harbour, same in Farah, 57-43,
• 17:00
  Speaker 7: same in Farah. This was an excellent result for them.
• 17:04
  Speaker 7: It was a shocking result for Labor. I think it
• 17:06
  Speaker 7: was the biggest five-year collapse in primary vote in Australian
• 17:09
  Speaker 7: history from 77% primary vote in the 2021 Western Australian
• 17:16
  Speaker 7: election to 24% on Saturday. There's never been a 53%
• 17:20
  Speaker 7: collapse in a primary vote. I think people have stopped
• 17:24
  Speaker 7: listening to Albanese. I think they've stopped listening to Chalmers.
• 17:27
  Speaker 7: They've been promised so many things. It's all bulldust. And
• 17:31
  Speaker 7: people have now worked out these people have no idea
• 17:33
  Speaker 7: what they're really doing, whether it's on housing, interest rates, tax, immigration, renewables,
• 17:40
  Speaker 7: electricity prices, social cohesion, the Royal Commission, on and on
• 17:44
  Speaker 7: the list goes, right? On and on the list goes.
• 17:47
  Speaker 7: I think people are thinking this elbow, he really doesn't
• 17:49
  Speaker 7: have a clue.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: Well, Stephen, everyone said One Nation's bubble would burst. Then
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: they said One Nation was a threat to the coalition,
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: which they no doubt are. Can we now say One
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: Nation is a threat to Labor?
• 18:02
  Speaker 6: Well, I think anyone who... I don't think anyone at senior.
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: Levels of Labor has actually thought that this bubble was bursting.
• 18:09
  Speaker 5: I think from my conversations, they very much are aware
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: of the danger it presents both to the Victorian Labor
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: government and to the national government and the New South
• 18:19
  Speaker 5: Wales government. So I think One Nation are not going away.
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: The economic circumstances that is leading people to scream with
• 18:26
  Speaker 5: rage at both political parties.
• 18:29
  Speaker 6: Is there, whether.
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: If you watched Alan Kohler last night on the ABC News,
• 18:34
  Speaker 5: he did an excellent job of going through how Australians
• 18:38
  Speaker 5: have had real wage reductions over the last five years.
• 18:43
  Speaker 5: Interest rates going up, prices going up, and their wages
• 18:46
  Speaker 5: have been going down in real terms. and people are
• 18:50
  Speaker 5: screaming with rage. And those people who are voting for Pauline,
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: they're not just voting about immigration, though there is a
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: very large block of them that are.
• 19:00
  Speaker 6: But they're angry. They believe that both political parties.
• 19:04
  Speaker 5: And the COLA material said the next generation that are
• 19:08
  Speaker 5: growing up now, 18 to 25s, they are going to
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: be the first generation since the war worse off than
• 19:17
  Speaker 5: their parents... Every Australian wants to be able to say
• 19:20
  Speaker 5: their kids are going to be, you know, better off
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: than they were.
• 19:24
  Speaker 6: That's every parent's ambition.
• 19:26
  Speaker 12: Yep.
• 19:27
  Speaker 5: And for the first time we're seeing statistics to back
• 19:31
  Speaker 5: up how people are feeling, my kids are going to
• 19:33
  Speaker 5: be worse off than me. And they are filthy at
• 19:35
  Speaker 5: the system. They are filthy at it.
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: Just very quickly before we go to a break, we've
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: only got a moment, Michael, but how worried should Andrew
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: Hastie be?
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: Well, of course, he should be worried.
• 19:49
  Speaker 7: You know, any member of Parliament that takes their seat
• 19:51
  Speaker 7: for granted should be... is a fool, and he ain't that.
• 19:55
  Speaker 7: He's very popular, though. He got a swing to him
• 19:57
  Speaker 7: at the last election. So I would expect Hastie to
• 20:01
  Speaker 7: hold that seat quite comfortably. But, of course, he should
• 20:03
  Speaker 7: be worried, given the massive vote for One Nation and
• 20:06
  Speaker 7: the disappointing vote for the Liberal Party.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: All right, appreciate both of you coming on the program.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much. We're going to go to a break,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: but when we return, Trump.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: Posts a bizarre AI-generated video after the US launches its
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: first strikes on Iran in more than a month, plus
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: warnings that America's prolonged war with Iran is depleting its resources,
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: providing ample temptation for China to take advantage. Greg Sheridan
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: will join me after this. Well, the United States yesterday
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: launched its first strikes on Iran in more than a month.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: The US struck two Iranian launches on Lark Island, which
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: it says were spotted preparing to launch mines into the
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: Strait of Hormuz. There's no vision of the attack, but
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: the US president did post this on Truth Social with
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: the caption, Carg Island being blown to smithereens. Like I said,
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: that wasn't the attack. That was how the attack appeared
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: in Donald Trump's mind. What strange times we live in.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: Iran's Revolutionary Guards retaliated by attacking US military bases in
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: the Kingdom of Jordan. Jordan later claimed to have intercepted
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: eight missiles. Joining me now is the foreign editor of
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: the Australian newspaper, Greg Sheridan. Greg, the US attack came
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: after Central Command claimed to have finished clearing sea mines
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: from the international shipping lanes last week. What's the state
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: of the Strait of Hormuz? Who controls it and how
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: many ships are getting through at the moment?
• 21:40
  Speaker 6: Well, James, great to be with you.
• 21:42
  Speaker 12: Yeah, the story is that the Americans have cleared out
• 21:45
  Speaker 12: the mines from the shipping lanes. Very, you know, big
• 21:48
  Speaker 12: achievement for American military technology. But that does not make
• 21:52
  Speaker 12: the Strait of Hormuz safe. The Iranians can still fire
• 21:56
  Speaker 12: on ships which pass through. So very, very few ships
• 22:00
  Speaker 12: are making that effort. The Strait of Hormuz, you might say,
• 22:04
  Speaker 12: is still effectively all but closed. And then the Americans
• 22:08
  Speaker 12: apparently saw the Iranians getting ready to launch more sea
• 22:14
  Speaker 12: mines into the Strait. And so they struck to disable
• 22:18
  Speaker 12: that operation. Then the Iranians struck back at Jordan. But
• 22:22
  Speaker 12: as you reported, their missiles didn't get through. I think
• 22:25
  Speaker 12: this kind of neuralgic tit for tat kind of sub
• 22:30
  Speaker 12: critical conflict is going to go on for a long time,
• 22:33
  Speaker 12: probably at least until the US midterm elections, which the
• 22:37
  Speaker 12: Iranians profoundly hope Donald Trump suffers a big drubbing in.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: Well, you've provided the perfect lead in to the next
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: thing I want to ask you about, which is a
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: Washington Post article last week reporting US allies are worried
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: that America is spending so much of its ammunition on Iran,
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: as well as positioning all their ships, which will need
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: maintenance and servicing, thus leaving a window of vulnerability where
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: China could make a move in Asia and the US
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: would be short of resources to defend Japan, the Philippines,
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: South Korea, Taiwan.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: How serious is that concern?
• 23:11
  Speaker 12: Well, James, it's a very serious matter. I've been writing
• 23:13
  Speaker 12: about this for some months. There have been definitive studies,
• 23:17
  Speaker 12: not least from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies,
• 23:20
  Speaker 12: which just totaled up how many Patriot missiles, how many SAM-3s,
• 23:27
  Speaker 12: how many other munitions the US had used up to
• 23:31
  Speaker 12: the point when it was still telling us. It stopped
• 23:34
  Speaker 12: telling us after a while and it had used many
• 23:38
  Speaker 12: more than half of its munitions in a whole lot
• 23:41
  Speaker 12: of categories. Now, there are some things that it can
• 23:44
  Speaker 12: produce in huge quantities rapidly, but it doesn't produce these
• 23:48
  Speaker 12: things in huge quantities. So this is a massive failure
• 23:51
  Speaker 12: of planning on behalf of the United States. The United
• 23:54
  Speaker 12: States is a global superpower. It's fighting a war with
• 23:58
  Speaker 12: a middleweight at best, Iran, and it has just about
• 24:02
  Speaker 12: exhausted it's high tech munitions. So it shouldn't have started
• 24:07
  Speaker 12: the war if that was going to happen. Alternatively, it
• 24:10
  Speaker 12: should have developed low cost counter drone measures. You know,
• 24:14
  Speaker 12: for the first months of the war, it was shooting
• 24:16
  Speaker 12: down Iranian Shahid drones, which cost $ 10, 000 with missiles, which
• 24:22
  Speaker 12: cost $ 2 million. Even the US can't sort of spend
• 24:26
  Speaker 12: that kind of resource. And it should have transformed its
• 24:33
  Speaker 12: military industrial base a long time ago. Now, all the allies,
• 24:37
  Speaker 12: including Australia, we're worse than anyone else, are in the
• 24:40
  Speaker 12: same boat. We don't produce enough munitions, whereas all of
• 24:44
  Speaker 12: our adversaries, Russia, China, North Korea and Iran, have dedicated
• 24:50
  Speaker 12: their whole economies to producing munitions. So this is quite
• 24:56
  Speaker 12: a grave and serious matter. And I think one of
• 24:58
  Speaker 12: the many reasons that Donald Trump has been desperately searching
• 25:03
  Speaker 12: for an off-ramp for this conflict for quite a few months.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Well, you mentioned China.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: The Chinese government has been accused of interfering in this
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: year's Pacific Islands Forum Summit. After the Solomon Islands, Prime
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: Minister joined the leaders of Vanuatu, Samoa, Kiribati on the
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: list of no-shows. A source told the Australian newspaper, this
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: is China, they're deeply worried about the treaty with Australia
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: and they've definitely been running a campaign to get leaders
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: not to attend... The summit, this, of course, comes after
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: Australia signed security agreements with Fiji and Vanuatu after China's
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: recent nuclear missile test in the Pacific. The prime minister
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: has touched down for talks at the summit where he's
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: going to talk about security and climate. They're the top issues, but.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: A couple of questions, Greg. Can you get real outcomes
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: with so many absentees? And is the no-show list a
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: worry for Australia that despite all of our overtures, the
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: Chinese Communist Party influence still holds sway?
• 26:03
  Speaker 6: Yes, it is a real worry. It is a real worry.
• 26:05
  Speaker 12: You can't get real outcomes without the leaders, but you
• 26:08
  Speaker 12: don't get real outcomes at the Pacific Island Forum. You know,
• 26:11
  Speaker 12: if you're looking for real outcomes, that's the wrong address.
• 26:13
  Speaker 12: You know, don't send the letter to the Pacific Islands Forum.
• 26:16
  Speaker 12: But it is a tremendous display of China's blocking power
• 26:21
  Speaker 12: still in the Pacific. Now, the Albanese government deserves credit
• 26:25
  Speaker 12: for the efforts it's making in the South Pacific to
• 26:28
  Speaker 12: block Chinese influence. Now, it won't tell the Australian people
• 26:31
  Speaker 12: honestly just how dangerous Chinese behaviour is towards Australia in
• 26:38
  Speaker 12: cyber security, in military engagements, in political interference. but it
• 26:44
  Speaker 12: is working very hard to limit Chinese influence in the Pacific.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: The way it's.
• 26:48
  Speaker 12: Doing this is by negotiating defence treaties with Pacific nations,
• 26:53
  Speaker 12: which involve us guaranteeing the Pacific nations security and giving
• 26:57
  Speaker 12: them a lot of money. It's a good thing as
• 26:59
  Speaker 12: far as it goes. But of course, our guarantee of
• 27:01
  Speaker 12: their security is all but meaningless if they ever got
• 27:04
  Speaker 12: into an argument with China. We have no military resources
• 27:09
  Speaker 12: which could do them any good whatsoever. So we're making
• 27:12
  Speaker 12: We're writing checks that we couldn't possibly cash if they
• 27:15
  Speaker 12: ever were needed to be cashed, but probably everyone knows that.
• 27:19
  Speaker 12: The other thing is that although the treaties, you know,
• 27:24
  Speaker 12: explicitly or implicitly prevent the Pacific nations from having simultaneous
• 27:29
  Speaker 12: security treaties with China, that could still happen. Certainly the
• 27:34
  Speaker 12: retreat of the Solomon Islands Prime Minister, Matthew Wale, is
• 27:38
  Speaker 12: a very big worry for Australia because he is a
• 27:40
  Speaker 12: China sceptic. He was willing to make an agreement with
• 27:43
  Speaker 12: Australia and limit China's influence in the Solomons. China has
• 27:47
  Speaker 12: a lot of influence in the Solomons, which it's got through,
• 27:50
  Speaker 12: you know, brown paper, money, politics and all kinds of
• 27:53
  Speaker 12: nefarious activities. So this is part of the ongoing struggle
• 27:57
  Speaker 12: that we are endlessly involved in in the South Pacific,
• 28:01
  Speaker 12: even as the government won't tell the Australian people at all.
• 28:06
  Speaker 12: about the nature of our strategic competition with China, presumably
• 28:09
  Speaker 12: because it's also our biggest trade partner.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: Greg, we've run out of time, but I do want
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: to mention the article you've got published in The Australian tomorrow,
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: marking the 75th anniversary of the ANZUS Treaty signed in 1951,
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: committing the US, Australia and New Zealand to responding as
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: one to threats in the Pacific. Just very quickly, give
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: me a preview of that article. Is the need for
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: ANZUS greater now than it was when it was first
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: conceived and how strong would you say the partnership is?
• 28:38
  Speaker 12: James, ANZUS is very important. Actually, there's been a slight miscommunication.
• 28:42
  Speaker 12: My article tomorrow is about the 25th anniversary of the
• 28:45
  Speaker 12: Tampa incident with the refugees. But the American alliance is
• 28:51
  Speaker 12: fundamental to our security and the Albanese government has got
• 28:55
  Speaker 12: most things wrong on defence and national security, but it's
• 28:58
  Speaker 12: been quite good about maintaining security the US relationship. Given
• 29:02
  Speaker 12: that we have almost no defences of our own, we
• 29:05
  Speaker 12: rely overwhelmingly on American provision of security. Now, Trump makes
• 29:11
  Speaker 12: alliances difficult, but Trump will be gone in two years.
• 29:15
  Speaker 12: And this alliance has stood the test for 75 years.
• 29:19
  Speaker 12: It's profoundly in Australia's interests. It's also in the global interest.
• 29:24
  Speaker 12: And although Australians don't like Trump, they value the US
• 29:28
  Speaker 12: alliance and their right.
• 29:29
  Speaker 6: To do so.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: Very good. Greg Sheridan, always a joy to catch up.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: Coming up after the break, Revelations Labor's been adding 28
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: public servants every day to the federal.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: bureaucracy since 2022. Can you believe it? Plus, is the
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: communications minister a good communicator?
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: Anika Wells tries to explain the housing crisis using ushis
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: from Woolworths. My panel, Danika DiGiorgio and James Bolt, join
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: me after this. Well, figures out today show the Albanese
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: government is adding new public servants at the rate of
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: 28 a day. This Labor government might not be able
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: to grow the economy, but this government can sure grow
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: the government. Give Albanese and Chalmers a blank organisational chart
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: and they can grow the public service faster than bamboo.
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: Under Albanese, the size of the federal public service has
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: grown from... just over 159,000 workers in 2022, to almost
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: 200,000 at the end of last year. That's an increase
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: of about 36,700 staff in three years, an explosion of 23%.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: At this rate, I can only assume Canberra's long-term economic
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: plan is to eventually employ everyone. And when there aren't
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: enough Australians left to employ, the government will no doubt
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: create a department to investigate why. Analysis by the Australian
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: Financial Review found that 92 out of 103 federal agencies
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: had increased their staff... under this Albanese government. Let me
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: give you some highlights and stick with me because I'm
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: saving the best part for the end. Under Anthony Albanese,
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: the Australian Human Rights Commission, they've grown by 67 staff.
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: The Clean Energy Regulator has added 116 workers. The National
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: Indigenous Australians Agency That's grown by 220 employees. Treasury got
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: an extra 291. The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations,
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: that's ballooned by 1,306 new staffers.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: And you'll be shocked to learn.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: That 2,420 bureaucrats have been added to the Climate Change Department.
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: And the number of public servants administering the National Disability
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: Insurance Agency, that's grown by a whopping 5,986 people. in
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: just three years. But I told you I'd leave the
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: best till the end, so here's the best part. One
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: of the few agencies to shrink under the Albanese government is.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: The Productivity Commission. Honestly, you couldn't make this stuff up.
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: Labor has a productivity problem, and so Labor has fewer
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: people working on productivity. Its staff numbers have been cut
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: by 11% over the past three years.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Now, I know what you're wondering.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: You're wondering, what is all this costing us? But you
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: only wonder that because, well, you're a taxpayer. Now, according
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: to the Australian Financial Review, the cost of all these
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: bureaucrats is well over $ 30 billion a year. That's an
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: awful lot of money. But don't worry, I'm sure the
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: government will appoint someone to look into it and then
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: another person to supervise him and then a committee to
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: make sure the supervisor is properly resourced and then an
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: assistant deputy secretary to ensure the committee is meeting the
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: It's diversity targets, because if there's one thing the Albanese
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: government has demonstrated it can grow, it's the government. Joining
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: me now to discuss is News24. com. au afternoon editor James Bolt
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: and News24 host Danika DiGiorgio.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: Welcome to you both.
• 32:50
  Speaker 6: That was fantastic.
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: James, when you look at the way the country is going,
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: is there any way to justify such massive growth in
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: the bureaucracy?
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: No.
• 32:58
  Speaker 10: Well, the Productivity Commission's doing a pretty good job. They're
• 33:01
  Speaker 10: actually increasing their productivity. What I love about this is that,
• 33:05
  Speaker 10: according to the federal budget, the cost of our public
• 33:07
  Speaker 10: service is actually going to go down. So, if you
• 33:10
  Speaker 10: have signed a contract with the APS recently, double-check it,
• 33:14
  Speaker 10: make sure you're getting paid, because, like, if we're going
• 33:16
  Speaker 10: to be employing all these people, all these extra people,
• 33:19
  Speaker 10: at the same time bringing down the cost of the organisation,
• 33:22
  Speaker 10: I think someone's going to lose out, or, alternatively, the budget,
• 33:24
  Speaker 10: you know, might be playing a bit of funny numbers
• 33:26
  Speaker 10: with the budget from the Labor Party.
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: Fair call.
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: Tanika, there's two things this government absolutely loves... They love
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: more migrants and they love more public servants.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: But I can't figure out why.
• 33:37
  Speaker 13: Yeah, well, I can tell you, firstly, with migrants, it's
• 33:39
  Speaker 13: the only thing that's propping up the Ponzi scheme economy.
• 33:42
  Speaker 13: So when we find out that debt has reached a
• 33:44
  Speaker 13: trillion dollars, don't worry about it.
• 33:46
  Speaker 8: We've got migrants coming in.
• 33:48
  Speaker 13: But as for the public service, don't you think it's
• 33:50
  Speaker 13: like an episode of Yes Minister?
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: You know, remember the old British comedy?
• 33:53
  Speaker 13: It's a little bit like that, isn't it? And do
• 33:55
  Speaker 13: you remember the former Liberal Party under Peter Dutton, they
• 33:59
  Speaker 13: took a Doge-style policy to the election.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: Is this not more.
• 34:03
  Speaker 13: Evidence as to why we need a razor through the
• 34:06
  Speaker 13: public service? I mean, how is it that the most
• 34:08
  Speaker 13: incompetent minister in the Labor government manages to get a
• 34:12
  Speaker 13: bloated bureaucracy within the climate change and energy department? It
• 34:17
  Speaker 13: just beggars belief at a time when Labor is already
• 34:21
  Speaker 13: spending our money like drunken sailors. And you look at
• 34:23
  Speaker 13: the private sector, God, I feel for the private sector
• 34:26
  Speaker 13: right now.
• 34:26
  Speaker 8: They're stuck with IR laws.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: They're stuck with so much.
• 34:29
  Speaker 13: Red tape, high energy costs. And I think in the
• 34:32
  Speaker 13: public service, all they're deciding on is which days they're
• 34:35
  Speaker 13: going to be working from home.
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: But I think the other thing, though, James, is migrants
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: typically will vote for Labor. And public servants certainly aren't
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: going to vote for One Nation, who are promising to
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: get rid of the climate change department, or for the Coalition,
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: who always talk about reducing the public service.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: So it's in.
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: The government's interest to grow the government, is it not?
• 34:54
  Speaker 10: Yeah, because the more people that you can make financially
• 34:57
  Speaker 10: dependent on the government existing, the more people are going
• 34:59
  Speaker 10: to vote for parties that have large governments. So I
• 35:01
  Speaker 10: think that's mainly... You know, it's hard to play the
• 35:04
  Speaker 10: conspiracy hat because I think they also just genuinely think
• 35:06
  Speaker 10: the government does a better job of running these departments
• 35:09
  Speaker 10: than the private sector... But I don't think they'd be
• 35:11
  Speaker 10: very mad to think that there's a lot of people
• 35:13
  Speaker 10: that have become financially dependent on the government and that
• 35:16
  Speaker 10: keeps them in voting.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: No doubt.
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: All right, now, you at home, I'm sure you're probably
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: conservatives and I know you probably detest the Labor Party,
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: especially in its current form, but you would have to
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: admit you would crawl over broken glass for the opportunity
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: to vote for a Labor politician like Kim Beazley right now.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: I'm 100% sure you would. I would too.
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: Because here's the Communications Minister, Anika Wells, explaining the housing
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: crisis today.
• 35:41
  Speaker 11: What do these guys and the Australian housing market have
• 35:44
  Speaker 11: in common? Both the Ushi market and the Australian housing
• 35:47
  Speaker 11: market are dictated by supply and demand. The problem right
• 35:50
  Speaker 11: now is that supply of Ushis and supply of housing
• 35:52
  Speaker 11: is not keeping pace with demand. How do we fix it?
• 35:55
  Speaker 11: To fix the Ushi crisis, Woolies has the ability to
• 35:58
  Speaker 11: deliver Ushi equilibrium, whereby Ushi supply meets the relentless demand
• 36:02
  Speaker 11: of all the youths. That's pretty easy.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: Woolworths, the ball is in your court.
• 36:07
  Speaker 11: For the last 15 years, housing demand outpaced housing supply.
• 36:11
  Speaker 11: Or in other words, there's been a shortage of whooshies.
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: I cannot for the life of me work out why
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: people are flocking to One Nation, can you? As far
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: as Anika Wells goes, and I can't believe I'm saying this,
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: but I actually liked her better, Danika, when she was
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: using our money to fly her family to sporting events.
• 36:25
  Speaker 8: I know.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: Who would have ever thought?
• 36:27
  Speaker 13: Gosh, I miss those days and the ski fields and
• 36:29
  Speaker 13: the sporting trips. They were the easy days for Anika Wells,
• 36:32
  Speaker 13: weren't they? I love it that she was holding up
• 36:34
  Speaker 13: a little Buzz Lightyear then, and I actually think it's
• 36:36
  Speaker 13: a great metaphor for our housing tech sector, infinity and beyond.
• 36:40
  Speaker 13: It's completely up in the realms of space. It's in
• 36:42
  Speaker 13: the never-never. No-one knows where it is. You know, our
• 36:45
  Speaker 13: housing sector is in such a crisis right now and
• 36:48
  Speaker 13: this government thinks that they're big jokers.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: It's one big comedy act.
• 36:52
  Speaker 13: You've got young people who can't get in the market,
• 36:54
  Speaker 13: young Australians who were able to afford a home are
• 36:56
  Speaker 13: now in negative equity. Auction clearance rates at record lows
• 37:00
  Speaker 13: because of the taxes that have just been imposed.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: I mean, I could go on.
• 37:03
  Speaker 13: Building approvals at 20-year lows and Labor has not achieved
• 37:06
  Speaker 13: not one of its housing policies under its own national accord.
• 37:09
  Speaker 13: They're saying that that 1.2 million home target is going
• 37:12
  Speaker 13: to be pushed out into the 2030s. And Annika Wells thinks,
• 37:15
  Speaker 13: you know what, this is a really great time to
• 37:18
  Speaker 13: rip out what they keep shoving down your throat at Woolworths,
• 37:21
  Speaker 13: these little toys, and I'm going to do a song.
• 37:23
  Speaker 8: And dance about it.
• 37:24
  Speaker 13: I mean, there's nothing that's serious in this Labor government.
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: Well, it begs the question, James, is the Communications Minister
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: a good communicator?
• 37:31
  Speaker 10: I was at an open home over the weekend. My
• 37:33
  Speaker 10: wife and I are looking for our first house. And,
• 37:35
  Speaker 10: you know, people were trying to explain to me, like,
• 37:36
  Speaker 10: you know, supply... housing, you know.
• 37:39
  Speaker 6: Construction costs.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: And I actually.
• 37:40
  Speaker 10: I broke down in the house.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: I broke down.
• 37:42
  Speaker 10: And it's quite ironic that you played that video because
• 37:44
  Speaker 10: I broke down screaming, can someone please explain this to
• 37:47
  Speaker 10: me in terms of ushies? Just something that I can understand. Look,
• 37:51
  Speaker 10: Annika Wells, like, the Labor Party, they do all these
• 37:53
  Speaker 10: social media videos and, you know, they can be cringe.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: I think they kind of work.
• 37:57
  Speaker 10: There's a line between, you know, fun, informative ways and
• 38:01
  Speaker 10: then there's a line of talking to people like they're
• 38:03
  Speaker 10: five years old. Yeah. And then four kilometres past that
• 38:06
  Speaker 10: line is what you just saw there because that was crazy. Now,
• 38:08
  Speaker 10: here's a freedom of information request idea for anyone from
• 38:12
  Speaker 10: the website or at home.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: Who bought the Ushies? Did the Australian taxpayer buy the Ushies?
• 38:17
  Speaker 6: That's a good question.
• 38:18
  Speaker 10: It's just my question.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: I have no inside information. I'm just wondering. That was
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: a lot of Ushies. Or maybe she collected them at Woolies.
• 38:24
  Speaker 10: Maybe she's a frequent customer at Woolies. I have no
• 38:29
  Speaker 10: problem with this.
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: My theory is that that was the way the housing
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: crisis has been described to her by her staff, and
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: she thought, you know what, that makes so much sense,
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: let's make a video about it. All right, talking about
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: politicians who drive us nuts, TLMP's Ali Steggall has been
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: left red-faced. after she was caught breaking her own climate rules.
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: She put out a roadmap to net zero for people
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: in her electorate, and it had three rules, all of
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: which she's broken. She told locals they need to go paperless.
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: Now we discover she spent.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: $ 199, 000 on printing.
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: She told locals they should not use disposable plates and cups,
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: but earlier this month posted a photo on Facebook of
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: a lunch at her electorate office where everyone was eating lunch.
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: from disposable plates, and she told locals they should think
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: twice about buying new clothes.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: But earlier this year disclosed.
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: She gets discounts from high-end clothing store Saba. And when
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: confronted about all of this today, she replied, and I quote,
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: I don't claim to be perfect.
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: James, is that a decent retort?
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: Look, we.
• 39:30
  Speaker 10: tend to think of these climate issues as, like, economic.
• 39:33
  Speaker 8: Debates, right?
• 39:33
  Speaker 10: But clearly from that stuff and clearly from the way
• 39:35
  Speaker 10: that Zali Stegall's putting it, it's become a quasi-religious thing. Like,
• 39:40
  Speaker 10: you have to suffer, personal expenses must be paid to
• 39:44
  Speaker 10: appease the gods.
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: Like.
• 39:46
  Speaker 10: Plates aren't going to do it.
• 39:47
  Speaker 12: Like, buying.
• 39:48
  Speaker 10: Staying away from new clothes isn't going to do it.
• 39:49
  Speaker 10: Going paperless isn't going to do it. I mean, if
• 39:51
  Speaker 10: you really want net zero, just get rid of mining.
• 39:53
  Speaker 10: But you can't do that because that's ridiculous. But you
• 39:56
  Speaker 10: can sell the idea of, like, you, Danica, you, James,
• 39:58
  Speaker 10: you can do something. But it's ridiculous. Like, the only
• 40:02
  Speaker 10: thing that can be done to save, you know, the
• 40:03
  Speaker 10: world from all these emissions is China doing something... There's
• 40:07
  Speaker 10: nothing going there, so just make people feel guilty about
• 40:09
  Speaker 10: buying paper plates.
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: And this is a problem, isn't it?
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: When you get climate catastrophists who lecture everybody about doing
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: the right thing, then obviously people expect more of you
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: and you start getting scrutinised for everything and no-one can
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: live up to it.
• 40:24
  Speaker 13: No, but we'll look at Mike Cadden-Brooks. He's always travelling
• 40:27
  Speaker 13: in his private jet. Prince Harry, for goodness sake, arrives
• 40:30
  Speaker 13: in Birmingham last week in his private jet, and yet
• 40:33
  Speaker 13: he's been lecturing us all along. There's something you two
• 40:35
  Speaker 13: are really forgetting in this whole debate. Don't forget the
• 40:37
  Speaker 13: tills are built on integrity. So, please, you know, Zali
• 40:42
  Speaker 13: is just... She's just trying to show us integrity. She's
• 40:44
  Speaker 13: not perfect, James.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: What do you expect?
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: Well, stuff like this really just completely undermines their cause.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: And I don't know how they.
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: Expect anybody to take, you know, changing the climate or
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: reducing emissions seriously when this stuff keeps happening.
• 41:00
  Speaker 10: Well, yeah, I mean, it's just... It's the same old,
• 41:04
  Speaker 10: same old, you know, the tiny changes you can make
• 41:07
  Speaker 10: in your life that just aren't going to make any differences.
• 41:09
  Speaker 10: But on the global issue, it's like China's the one
• 41:12
  Speaker 10: that needs to change, the US is the one that
• 41:13
  Speaker 10: needs to change, not Australia. So take that thinking and
• 41:15
  Speaker 10: put it down into the individual. It's the same sort
• 41:17
  Speaker 10: of principle.
• 41:18
  Speaker 12: All right.
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: Well, no more paper plates for you.
• 41:19
  Speaker 6: OK.
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: And, Danika, everything digital. Get rid of all this paper.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: LAUGHTER No more Saba outfits for me.
• 41:25
  Speaker 6: So I can't eat off that paper.
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: OK, well. Appreciate you both joining me. Thanks so much.
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: All right, stick around. Coming up after the break, there
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: are a couple of cultural festivals in the UK at
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: the weekend.
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure either of them said anything good about
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: the culture. Plus Fergie's on her way back to England.
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: How much can the English bear? All of that with
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: Samara Gill after this. Well, two events were held over
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: the weekend in the UK that made me sit up
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: and think, what on earth has happened to our cousins
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: in England? Saturday was the Manchester Gay Pride event, and
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: I think it's fair to say that what began in
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: 1985 as a march against discrimination has morphed into something
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: else entirely.
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: I'm just not exactly sure what.
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: The other event was the Notting Hill Carnival, which began
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: in 1966 to promote cultural unity between blacks and whites.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: Let me give you just a small taste of what
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: people lined up the streets.
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: to see over the weekend, first the Pride Parade, then
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: the Notting Hill Cultural Unity Festival.
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: You may want to send the kids out of the room.
• 42:28
  Speaker 12: MUSIC PLAYS.
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: Joining me now is Samara Gill, host of Triggered with
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: Samara Gill on Talk TV.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: Samara, these aren't fringe events. What do they tell us
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: about contemporary British culture?
• 42:54
  Speaker 14: They tell us that it's all gone to hell. I mean,
• 42:57
  Speaker 14: this is seriously knotting hell. I'm triggered by what I
• 43:00
  Speaker 14: just saw. We call it over here the carnage festival
• 43:04
  Speaker 14: because that's kind of what it's become. I mean, the
• 43:07
  Speaker 14: crime stats that have already come out, and mind you,
• 43:09
  Speaker 14: the big day is actually Monday, which, of course, we're
• 43:12
  Speaker 14: in the morning over here, so it's bound to happen.
• 43:14
  Speaker 14: They've already arrested multiple people. I think it was around
• 43:20
  Speaker 14: 169 arrests have already happened. You've had 400 people banned
• 43:24
  Speaker 14: from the event. They've actually confiscated over 70 zombie knives,
• 43:29
  Speaker 14: which are not your average kitchen knife. They're sort of
• 43:31
  Speaker 14: these gangland killing machine type of knives.
• 43:34
  Speaker 8: They're about that big.
• 43:37
  Speaker 14: And of course, you know, we've had a litany of
• 43:39
  Speaker 14: attacks over the past couple of years, especially with the
• 43:41
  Speaker 14: Notting Hill riots. carnival, whereby people have been murdered. There
• 43:46
  Speaker 14: is constant statistics of stabbings. Sadiq Khan, our mayor, who
• 43:51
  Speaker 14: likes to call this the cultural event of the year,
• 43:54
  Speaker 14: has deployed 7,000 police officers. And I was there yesterday
• 43:59
  Speaker 14: in a journalistic capacity, of course. It's really not my
• 44:03
  Speaker 14: cup of tea, that sort of thing. And it was shocking,
• 44:06
  Speaker 14: to be honest, the blatant debauchery that was going on.
• 44:09
  Speaker 14: And Sunday is meant to be the family fun day out. Unfortunately,
• 44:13
  Speaker 14: I witnessed a lot of very drunk parents acting extremely inappropriately.
• 44:17
  Speaker 8: In front of their kids.
• 44:19
  Speaker 14: While I'm not one to, you know, put my finger
• 44:21
  Speaker 14: towards people, it's totally their right to do whatever they
• 44:24
  Speaker 14: want to do, that's not exactly the celebration of family, fun,
• 44:28
  Speaker 14: multiculturalism that I would associate with what it was, which
• 44:32
  Speaker 14: is such a good point.
• 44:33
  Speaker 8: It used to be something good. It's turned into something hellish.
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: For me, there's just such a jarring contrast. I mean,
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: you read the UK papers and there's warnings of war
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: with Russia, Iran infiltrating British infrastructure.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's a lot of serious problems.
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: And then you get this stuff on the street being
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: clapped by, you know, no less than the mayor of London.
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: It's just that the contrast is so jarring, serious problems
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: and a completely unserious culture.
• 45:07
  Speaker 8: Exactly.
• 45:07
  Speaker 14: I mean, if you were to attach these crime statistics
• 45:10
  Speaker 14: to Glastonbury or Strawberry Fields or any sort of festival
• 45:14
  Speaker 14: that you might have in Australia or any other festival
• 45:17
  Speaker 14: in the UK, it would have been shut down tomorrow.
• 45:21
  Speaker 14: But unfortunately, because of all the cultural implications, and especially
• 45:24
  Speaker 14: after BLM, that's when the crime stats totally jumped up
• 45:28
  Speaker 14: because the The police didn't feel empowered to go and
• 45:31
  Speaker 14: stop and search, check people and keep the rest of
• 45:34
  Speaker 14: the community safe. That's when, unfortunately, a mother was murdered
• 45:37
  Speaker 14: in front of her child at the Notting Hill Festival
• 45:39
  Speaker 14: in 2024. We really do. We've hit a roadblock here.
• 45:44
  Speaker 14: There needs to be something done. We can't just live,
• 45:47
  Speaker 14: as you say, in this fantasy land where everything's fine
• 45:50
  Speaker 14: and we're all holding hands and kumbaya because there's The
• 45:53
  Speaker 14: crime stats that come out of this festival are absolutely
• 45:57
  Speaker 14: shocking and horrendous. It's one of the most dangerous events
• 45:59
  Speaker 14: that the country has held.
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: And you're right.
• 46:02
  Speaker 14: The politicians, Sadiq Khan, all the wet lefty liberals don't
• 46:06
  Speaker 14: want to confront what is on their doorstep. And I
• 46:09
  Speaker 14: think that actually is the problem. It gets to the
• 46:11
  Speaker 14: root cause of what's going on in the West. We
• 46:14
  Speaker 14: just want to live in this fantasy land where everyone's fine.
• 46:17
  Speaker 14: And that's not the reality.
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: Well, speaking of fantasy land, in the time we've got left,
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: Harry and Meghan aren't the only ones returning to the UK.
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: Fergie's coming back.
• 46:27
  Speaker 8: Yeah, two gingers for the price of one, it seems.
• 46:31
  Speaker 8: I'd probably get ripped. I love a ginger, by the way.
• 46:33
  Speaker 8: Love the gingers.
• 46:34
  Speaker 14: Something about that. But I do feel bad for the
• 46:36
  Speaker 14: royal family. It's been a horrendous week for them. Fergie
• 46:39
  Speaker 14: potentially will be doing a tell-all. I mean, she can't
• 46:42
  Speaker 14: keep her nose out of the trough, that woman. I really,
• 46:45
  Speaker 14: really think that she needs to be reeled in, but
• 46:47
  Speaker 14: she's one of the biggest liabilities for the royal family.
• 46:50
  Speaker 8: She's a loose cannon.
• 46:51
  Speaker 14: She knows where all the bodies are buried, and she
• 46:53
  Speaker 14: hasn't been dragged through the same scrutiny that Andrew has,
• 46:57
  Speaker 14: even if, dare I say it, she actually, in terms
• 46:59
  Speaker 14: of the emails that have come out, et cetera, she's
• 47:02
  Speaker 14: just as bad as him in some capacity, apart from.
• 47:05
  Speaker 8: of course, some of the other allegations against Andrew.
• 47:07
  Speaker 14: But I think if she does do this tell-all, the
• 47:10
  Speaker 14: royal family is in for yet another body blow and
• 47:13
  Speaker 14: it's not going to end well for anyone in this case.
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: What is her motivation for a tell-all? Is it money
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: or is she hoping that somehow she might be able
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: to garner sympathy and paint herself as a victim in
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: all of this?
• 47:28
  Speaker 8: I think it's a.
• 47:29
  Speaker 14: Bit of both, to be honest. Of course, we know
• 47:31
  Speaker 14: that she's money hungry. That's self-proclaimed. That's exactly her hubris.
• 47:34
  Speaker 14: That's what got her into this mess in the first place,
• 47:37
  Speaker 14: chasing after Jeffrey Epstein like some hopeless hooligan, wanting a
• 47:41
  Speaker 14: free dinner and a trip to an island on a
• 47:43
  Speaker 14: private plane.
• 47:45
  Speaker 8: But I actually think also she wants money and also vindication.
• 47:49
  Speaker 14: She probably wants to be able to operate and go
• 47:51
  Speaker 14: around and live the life that she used to live
• 47:53
  Speaker 14: without being sort of looked at sideways by the rest
• 47:56
  Speaker 14: of society.
• 47:58
  Speaker 8: Or high society.
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: We've only got a couple of seconds left, Samara, but
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: I reckon Megan is probably happy about Fergie coming back,
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: distract and deflect some of the hatred away from herself.
• 48:11
  Speaker 14: I'm sure she is, but I'm not sure it's going
• 48:13
  Speaker 14: to work. I mean, those two women are both equally hated.
• 48:15
  Speaker 14: I don't know if it's completely justified. I'm Meghan hater,
• 48:18
  Speaker 14: I know that.
• 48:19
  Speaker 8: That's for sure. But, yeah, it might distract maybe for
• 48:22
  Speaker 8: a week. One week Meghan will get.
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: We'll see what happens. Good luck to you, Brits. I
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: hope you survive. Thanks for joining me. All right, stick around.
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: Coming up right now is Shari Markson.