Latest / Steve Price / Steve Price | 13 March

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Steve Price | 13 March · Steve Price

0:01
Speaker 1: Live. This is Steve Price. Good evening, Welcome Steve Price
0:07
Speaker 1: with you for the Friday edition. On a day when
0:09
Speaker 1: even the worst minister in the Federal government, Chris Bowen,
0:12
Speaker 1: has realized we actually have a Middle East war driven
0:16
Speaker 1: fuel emergency. Incredible it took him so long. More on
0:19
Speaker 1: that shortly. Here's what's coming up on the show tonight.
0:22
Speaker 1: Think you're doing it tough with exploding fuel prices, Wait
0:26
Speaker 1: until you're hear Blenna's transport owner and Queensland cane grower
0:31
Speaker 1: Les Blenner's story as it unfolded this week. That's coming
0:34
Speaker 1: up shortly. You won't believe it. Major developments in the
0:37
Speaker 1: Middle East have been unfolding on Sky all day, with
0:40
Speaker 1: a US refueling aircraft down in a parent accident and
0:44
Speaker 1: fresh threats from the new Iranian leadership. I'll be joined
0:48
Speaker 1: by Greg Barton with his assessment of where it goes now.
0:51
Speaker 1: Adrian Hayes, our Friday regular in the UK, on how
0:54
Speaker 1: the British are coping with fuel. I'll be very interested
0:57
Speaker 1: to find out if they have and I doubt it
1:00
Speaker 1: the same storage issues Australia does, and will get his
1:03
Speaker 1: view on the state of the UK US Alliance first,
1:07
Speaker 1: As I said, Energy Minister Chris Bowen has completely bungled
1:11
Speaker 1: the governments on the ground reaction to a diesel, petrol
1:15
Speaker 1: and avgas crisis driven by conflict in the Middle East.
1:19
Speaker 1: It is staggering, truly staggering to discover that with all
1:23
Speaker 1: the resources of the Federal Public Service and access to
1:26
Speaker 1: logistics experts across the nation, there was no plan in place,
1:31
Speaker 1: no day by day guide on what to do when Australia,
1:34
Speaker 1: which relies disgracefully on mostly imported fuel to keep the
1:39
Speaker 1: country running nothing. There was no plan. Even worse, Bowen
1:42
Speaker 1: was telling Parliament in question time as soon as last Tuesday,
1:48
Speaker 1: there's no crisis, there's no supply issues, nothing to see here.
1:52
Speaker 1: Boats are arriving. It's the other side of politics causing
1:55
Speaker 1: panic and they should be ashamed of themselves.
1:59
Speaker 2: Fundamentally, Australia's fuel security is strong. That is the point
2:03
Speaker 2: where I'm making. That is why there is no need
2:06
Speaker 2: for people to panic buy it, or to order one
2:09
Speaker 2: hundred or two hundred percent of what they normally order,
2:12
Speaker 2: which is what the Service Nation's Association told us was
2:15
Speaker 2: happening across the country.
2:17
Speaker 1: It was Tuesday. I mean seriously, this bloke who treats
2:20
Speaker 1: Question Time as some performance act, bouncing on his toes
2:24
Speaker 1: and wagging his finger at anyone who disagrees with his blind,
2:27
Speaker 1: almost religious obsession with plastering the nation with wind turbine,
2:32
Speaker 1: solar panels and transmission lines, carving ugly scars through the
2:36
Speaker 1: native bush and across food producing farmland. This bloke deserves
2:40
Speaker 1: to be sacked. In the space of three days since
2:44
Speaker 1: his assurance that we don't have a problem to today
2:47
Speaker 1: when he had to back up his useless move yesterday
2:50
Speaker 1: to release one hundred million liters of so called dirty
2:54
Speaker 1: petrol ninety one ron and not diesel fuel which is
2:58
Speaker 1: desperately needed by farmers, trucking companies in the fishing industry.
3:03
Speaker 1: I mean, seriously, have a look at what he's doing now.
3:07
Speaker 2: We have decided on my recommendation to reduce the minimum
3:10
Speaker 2: stock obligation for diesel from two point seven billion liters
3:16
Speaker 2: to two point two billion liters and for petrol from
3:19
Speaker 2: a billion liters to seven hundred million letters, to enable
3:22
Speaker 2: companies to better handle and better manage their supply chain
3:26
Speaker 2: more flexibly as they try and get more fuel to
3:29
Speaker 2: regional Australia Swall.
3:31
Speaker 1: Has been going for thirteen days and last Tuesday he
3:34
Speaker 1: said there wasn't a problem. Look this is incredible. Look
3:37
Speaker 1: I know Bowen drives a Tesla Model three and charges
3:41
Speaker 1: that car at Parliament House in Canberra, where of course
3:43
Speaker 1: you and me the taxpayers pay for the electricity. But
3:46
Speaker 1: is he's so clueless that, as experts have told us today,
3:50
Speaker 1: putting lower grade ninety one petrol in a vehicle that
3:53
Speaker 1: requires ninety five or ninety eight ron will do engine damage?
3:59
Speaker 1: Was he yesterday so clueless that he bragged about releasing
4:02
Speaker 1: petrol when the real issue was diesel. Here is a
4:06
Speaker 1: new South Wales farmer this morning talking with Peter Stefanovic.
4:10
Speaker 3: Well, it's the wrong fuel right now. We've got farmers
4:14
Speaker 3: across the country. You've run out or are running out
4:16
Speaker 3: of fuel, and others have a couple of weeks worth
4:20
Speaker 3: before they run out.
4:21
Speaker 4: But it's diesel, it's not petrol.
4:23
Speaker 3: So Minister Bowen's got it completely wrong, thinking that one
4:27
Speaker 3: hundred million leaders of petrol is somehow solving the problem.
4:31
Speaker 3: The reality is that we produce food and fiber and
4:34
Speaker 3: then truck it to the consumers with diesel.
4:39
Speaker 4: So petrol isn't going to help.
4:41
Speaker 1: We need more straight toorming farmers like Xavier. But I
4:44
Speaker 1: guess if you drive a Tesla and your seats in
4:47
Speaker 1: suburban Sydney, then you don't actually understand what keeps Australia running.
4:51
Speaker 1: It's diesel fuel, Chris, because guess what, there are no
4:54
Speaker 1: electric trucks rolling around Australia delivering food and supplies. And
4:59
Speaker 1: guess what, Chris, there's no electric headers, no electric tractors either. Again,
5:05
Speaker 1: why has this bloke still got a job? And who
5:07
Speaker 1: thought it was a good idea to combine energy and
5:09
Speaker 1: climate change in the same portfolio? Now earlier today, poor
5:14
Speaker 1: old Resources Minister Madeline King. She was wheeled out to
5:17
Speaker 1: try and defend Bowen and the government's handling of the
5:20
Speaker 1: fuel crisis.
5:23
Speaker 5: The assurance we as a government give is that we're
5:25
Speaker 5: working every single day to make sure that the Australian
5:29
Speaker 5: community has all the things that they need and that
5:33
Speaker 5: includes of course fuel. So we do have a supply.
5:38
Speaker 5: We have the minimum stockholding obligation which has been met.
5:42
Speaker 5: We still have supplies coming.
5:43
Speaker 1: In save me. Does that fill you with any confidence
5:47
Speaker 1: at all? I mean that makes me feel sick. Now
5:50
Speaker 1: she's pretty clueless obviously, National Leader Bridget Mackenzie Senator Mackenzie
5:54
Speaker 1: at least she understands. Reliable supplies of diesel is what
5:58
Speaker 1: keeps Austraighter's capacity to produce and transport food going.
6:03
Speaker 6: And one of the concerns we have is where is
6:07
Speaker 6: diesel In this announcement by the government, it talks a
6:12
Speaker 6: lot about petrol and I'm getting a briefing from the
6:15
Speaker 6: Minister's office later today because it is diesel that fuels
6:19
Speaker 6: our trucks, that get our products, not just from the
6:22
Speaker 6: regions to the ports, but everything that everyone in Wringer
6:25
Speaker 6: orders online, everything they purchase comes on the back of
6:29
Speaker 6: a truck powered by diesel.
6:31
Speaker 1: Well, let's hope Bowen and King actually listen to that,
6:34
Speaker 1: but laughingly if you can laugh at any of this stuff.
6:37
Speaker 1: Til Independent and the Federal member for the Northern Beaches
6:40
Speaker 1: of Sydney, Zalie Stegel, Well, she was more concerned about
6:45
Speaker 1: the health issues of releasing higher sulfur content petrol, even
6:49
Speaker 1: though we've been using that sort of petrol forever.
6:53
Speaker 7: The government is on notice to improve our fuel supply.
6:56
Speaker 7: They have lowered the standards, which means we now have
6:59
Speaker 7: a risk of air pollution and health issues as a result.
7:03
Speaker 2: Okay, so while you're there, are you against this release
7:06
Speaker 2: of the lower standard of fuel.
7:08
Speaker 7: Well, I'm concerned by it because it does have health
7:11
Speaker 7: implications air pollution.
7:13
Speaker 1: Soon we're not going to have any food. I mean, Zali,
7:16
Speaker 1: please get with the program. I mean, look at what
7:19
Speaker 1: this episode clearly has illustrated for us as a country.
7:23
Speaker 1: We as a nation have been and this is both
7:25
Speaker 1: sides of politics, not just labor blindingly ignorant about the circumstance,
7:31
Speaker 1: just like this, when imported fuel supplies are put at risk. Now,
7:35
Speaker 1: forget Bowen, who all we tried to suggest, well, we
7:38
Speaker 1: are better place than when that other lot we're in
7:41
Speaker 1: power and claiming depending on what day of the week
7:44
Speaker 1: you tuned in, that we had thirty six or thirty
7:46
Speaker 1: five or thirty two days of supply. Well, clearly, as
7:51
Speaker 1: the late great Jim Molan wrote in his book, that's
7:53
Speaker 1: not enough. And think about it. This supply crisis we
7:57
Speaker 1: are in is around Middle East oil largely being transported
8:01
Speaker 1: to places like Singapore, and late today we find out
8:04
Speaker 1: China's now locking up supplies and there are suggestions career
8:08
Speaker 1: in Japan might follow that fuel goes to Singapore, the
8:11
Speaker 1: oil goes to Singapore, it's then refined and it's sold
8:14
Speaker 1: to us. Now, what is the next crisis. What if
8:17
Speaker 1: it's China and they shut the shipping lanes that refined
8:20
Speaker 1: fuel travels along to get here. What do we do then?
8:22
Speaker 1: Where is the national debate about reopening Australia's oil refineries
8:27
Speaker 1: so we can refine our own oil, or what about
8:30
Speaker 1: this for an idea? Where is the debate about encouraging
8:34
Speaker 1: energy companies to actually drill for oil in Australia. Instead,
8:39
Speaker 1: we have fools like Bowen sneering at Donald Trump's election
8:43
Speaker 1: pledge of drill, baby, drill. Let's stay with this now,
8:50
Speaker 1: the wider consequences of the fuel shortages and costs around Australia.
8:54
Speaker 1: I think tonight, as we sit here, this is just
8:57
Speaker 1: getting worse and worse by the minute, by the way
9:00
Speaker 1: he's saying. Cane grower and national trucking company owner Les Blenner,
9:04
Speaker 1: he has urged the federal government to take action to
9:07
Speaker 1: ease the cost burden on transport operators. His transport group,
9:11
Speaker 1: Blender's Transport. They've got two hundred trucks with one hundred
9:15
Speaker 1: and twenty of those traveling the breadth of the National
9:17
Speaker 1: Highway with fruit and vegetables stuff you and I eat. Now,
9:21
Speaker 1: this is extraordinary. He expects his business fuel levy, which
9:25
Speaker 1: has been at twenty two percent, to which has gone
9:28
Speaker 1: up to thirty nine percent just next week alone, additional
9:32
Speaker 1: fuel charges might cost Blenner's transport two hundred and ninety
9:37
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars more. And that's got to be passed
9:40
Speaker 1: on to someone, And it means in some cases it
9:42
Speaker 1: becomes unviable for farmers to even bother picking their fruit
9:47
Speaker 1: because they'd be running at a loss, things like avocados.
9:50
Speaker 1: Lez joins me now from Tully in Queensland. Les. I
9:53
Speaker 1: hate to sound frustrated, but can you believe what a
9:56
Speaker 1: mess Chris Bowen has made of all of this?
10:00
Speaker 8: Oh see, thanks, thankful, let me come on the line.
10:02
Speaker 8: But yeah, this is the worst obsceenate in like thirty
10:05
Speaker 8: eight years of transport. What the price is gone through
10:08
Speaker 8: now and just this week alone. I think we started at.
10:11
Speaker 9: Around a dollar ninety in the local town there and.
10:15
Speaker 10: By the starting it's two dollars fifty. So we get our.
10:18
Speaker 9: Prices weekly from VP. We're a national cand.
10:21
Speaker 8: Of bps and on Thursday yesterday we got a letter
10:24
Speaker 8: saying that airfield is going to go up fifty five
10:26
Speaker 8: cents on Monday. So we have a fuel levy formula
10:30
Speaker 8: there which we put together and send out to our growlers.
10:32
Speaker 8: And today the phones have been running hot. Everyone is
10:35
Speaker 8: just up in arms about you know what our fuelby is.
10:38
Speaker 10: What are they going to do? You know we at.
10:40
Speaker 9: A North Queensland we carry farmers.
10:41
Speaker 8: So you've got your banana and tree, your man go
10:43
Speaker 8: an the three avocados which are in season now when
10:46
Speaker 8: the citrus.
10:47
Speaker 9: So it's really affecting.
10:48
Speaker 8: Our farmers who keep our price takers. They can't pass
10:51
Speaker 8: us on to the end consumer. So it's yeah, we
10:54
Speaker 8: we're in a bit of a disaster here at the moment.
10:57
Speaker 1: Well, as I saw some of the comments you made
10:59
Speaker 1: in the national media, has anyone from the state or
11:02
Speaker 1: federal government, either a minister themselves or anyone from their department,
11:08
Speaker 1: had the good grace to actually contact you and talk
11:10
Speaker 1: to you about how bad you think the situation could get?
11:15
Speaker 8: Not a sold Steve, And we haven't heard anyone. So
11:18
Speaker 8: like with these fuel prices, and as you understand the
11:21
Speaker 8: amount they're making out of the GSD at the bows
11:23
Speaker 8: Is and now I'd be asking federal members to try
11:27
Speaker 8: and give some of that fifty one cent field exits
11:30
Speaker 8: back back to transporters or farmers or whoever they need
11:33
Speaker 8: to because we've got to stay Bible. So were there
11:35
Speaker 8: without us, you guys have got nothing to eat. Those
11:37
Speaker 8: shelves are going to be empty, and our farmers with
11:39
Speaker 8: the prices I'm hitting with freight now now that it's
11:42
Speaker 8: getting to a point where it's not viable then for
11:44
Speaker 8: them to pick.
11:45
Speaker 9: So the federal government, I haven't heard from anybody.
11:48
Speaker 8: They've had made no announcements of anything they can do
11:51
Speaker 8: for anybody. We're just going day by day and watching
11:53
Speaker 8: some ambasses go through the roof and we're just hit
11:56
Speaker 8: a copper.
11:56
Speaker 10: We can.
11:58
Speaker 1: Well, as you point out, I mean, the GST on
12:01
Speaker 1: the excise is a tax on attacks. I mean, and
12:04
Speaker 1: they do federally have the ability as they did I
12:08
Speaker 1: think it was during COVID to drop the excise for
12:11
Speaker 1: a period of time. I think Josh Friedenberg did that.
12:15
Speaker 1: This government is so cash strapped they seem to be
12:18
Speaker 1: very much particularly charmers the Treasurer unwilling to even think
12:22
Speaker 1: about doing that.
12:24
Speaker 10: No, that's right.
12:24
Speaker 8: We've we've heard nothing from any federal members or they
12:27
Speaker 8: are a Prime minister anything that we're trying to help
12:29
Speaker 8: the situation in Australia at the moment with these fuel prices.
12:31
Speaker 8: So you know, if this goes on for another two
12:34
Speaker 8: weeks and so at these prices, we were in distraits.
12:36
Speaker 8: You know, are we going to run in a field?
12:38
Speaker 8: This week alone, we had Rama, which is a major
12:41
Speaker 8: fueld stop for our guys where they're going to Sidney, Melbourne,
12:45
Speaker 8: Adelaide or Birthday, goes through Roma and fuel up. Well
12:47
Speaker 8: that's that OURVP service station at no Field for two
12:50
Speaker 8: days we had to go down further down the road
12:52
Speaker 8: there and fill up at Saint George at the dearer price.
12:55
Speaker 8: So that's their first start of you know, starting to
12:58
Speaker 8: get shortages of prices. But it's your price to this
13:01
Speaker 8: federal government and we're going to start looking at wit
13:03
Speaker 8: to do something.
13:06
Speaker 1: I the highest I saw diesel retailed for in Melbourne
13:09
Speaker 1: to day was two dollars sixty, but I have heard
13:12
Speaker 1: there are places in other metropolitan areas of Australia where
13:15
Speaker 1: it's hit two dollars seventy. You're saying it's not quite
13:19
Speaker 1: that high where you are yet, but it's headed that way.
13:23
Speaker 1: I hear no discussion about rationing. Why wouldn't the federal government,
13:29
Speaker 1: which surely must now understand that the country runs on
13:33
Speaker 1: trucking businesses like yours to move food around so that
13:36
Speaker 1: people in supermarkets can get deliveries, Why wouldn't they be
13:39
Speaker 1: talking about rationing suburban use in suburban vehicles of diesel
13:44
Speaker 1: so that it could get to the places like you
13:47
Speaker 1: that need it.
13:49
Speaker 10: Exactly.
13:49
Speaker 8: That's what they're going to start looking at in the city,
13:52
Speaker 8: the public transport that everyone's still probably driving one person
13:55
Speaker 8: per car.
13:55
Speaker 10: They've burned up a few a lot of diesel.
13:57
Speaker 8: Cars out there there, But you know, we've got to
13:59
Speaker 8: have farmers not And you know one of the radio
14:01
Speaker 8: shows today where a guy with the feed lot he
14:03
Speaker 8: had to see mean, you need to go and get
14:04
Speaker 8: water for his feed lot, and his his fuel supply
14:06
Speaker 8: couldn't supply him. So he was in dire straits and
14:09
Speaker 8: what was going to do, you know, to go and
14:10
Speaker 8: get water for his feed lot. So that's just the
14:12
Speaker 8: start of it. So I don't know what's going to
14:14
Speaker 8: happen next week of the week after If this fuel
14:16
Speaker 8: price doesn't come down and our supply, our supply increases,
14:19
Speaker 8: but where's our thirty sixty day national supply that we're
14:24
Speaker 8: supposed to keep in stock.
14:24
Speaker 10: Like these fuel prices.
14:25
Speaker 8: Started going up the day the war started, you know,
14:28
Speaker 8: the first of this month, the fuel prices started rising,
14:30
Speaker 8: and they risen right through all this week, right through
14:33
Speaker 8: till the tenth or thirty today. Is so I don't
14:36
Speaker 8: know what's going on fuel price wise. And you know
14:40
Speaker 8: the A Triple CE is talking about one hundred million
14:42
Speaker 8: dollar fines for price gadging. To me, no one will
14:45
Speaker 8: get a fine. I can't see those guys getting out
14:47
Speaker 8: of the opposite and doing anything. So that's good to
14:49
Speaker 8: put that in the paper and on the news, But
14:50
Speaker 8: I don't think anything will happen there. But it's not
14:52
Speaker 8: the fuel the price gaedging. It worries us as transporters
14:56
Speaker 8: and farmers. We need supply.
15:00
Speaker 1: Has said that he's going to release I think it's
15:01
Speaker 1: about twenty percent of the reserve of petrol and diesel.
15:06
Speaker 1: But in the making that announcement, he said, well, it
15:09
Speaker 1: could take weeks maybe a month for that to flow through.
15:12
Speaker 1: You haven't got weeks and a month I wouldn't think.
15:15
Speaker 1: I mean you were talking. I think about avocado farmers
15:19
Speaker 1: who were saying, well, if you're going to have to
15:20
Speaker 1: charge me that to pick my fruit up to deliver it,
15:24
Speaker 1: there's no point me giving it for you to load
15:27
Speaker 1: onto the truck because I can't make money out of it.
15:30
Speaker 8: The markets, Yes, at the moment, the AVOs are on
15:34
Speaker 8: cost of production prices because you know there's an over
15:36
Speaker 8: supply of vvos on the markets.
15:37
Speaker 10: That's they're cost of production, so there increase.
15:40
Speaker 8: Just pick Melbourne, for instance, fifty dollars a palet straight
15:44
Speaker 8: away extra for the grower for their fuel levy to
15:47
Speaker 8: get those avocads to Melbourne. So doing that, it's getting
15:49
Speaker 8: to a stage where the freight, their cart and their labor.
15:52
Speaker 9: They're not going to get nothing back.
15:54
Speaker 8: So it's probably cheaper to just let the fruit drop
15:55
Speaker 8: on the ground and try and pack it because it's
15:58
Speaker 8: they've just got a negative figure for every trade that
16:00
Speaker 8: goes in the rollers.
16:03
Speaker 1: Just finally, the other people I feel for are the workers.
16:05
Speaker 1: I mean, you've you've got a workforce that you have
16:08
Speaker 1: established your business. You've got, as I said, about two
16:10
Speaker 1: hundred trucks. I mean at some point, if this goes
16:13
Speaker 1: on and on, you're going to have to start laying
16:15
Speaker 1: blokes off.
16:16
Speaker 10: Oh, I'd hope not, Steve.
16:17
Speaker 9: I think we're still traveling.
16:19
Speaker 8: You know, we're a national camp with bp SO and
16:21
Speaker 8: we've earned a lot of fuel, so we've got pretty
16:22
Speaker 8: good supply. And they do look garpress. But you know,
16:24
Speaker 8: I feel for the smaller one five trucker operator or
16:27
Speaker 8: truck owner, you know that that hasn't got a buying
16:30
Speaker 8: buying pair and what we spend with them that the
16:32
Speaker 8: probably day would.
16:33
Speaker 10: We get cut off first. So they're the guys that
16:35
Speaker 10: I feel for.
16:36
Speaker 9: And they're farmers.
16:37
Speaker 8: You know, we're without the farmers and like I'll make
16:39
Speaker 8: with his feed, not with no water. And the guys
16:41
Speaker 8: that want to start planning with no fuel, like you know,
16:44
Speaker 8: we're in dire straits.
16:45
Speaker 10: And this federal government there's just nothing coming out of them.
16:48
Speaker 8: There's no talk of you know, lowering their exercise, you know,
16:51
Speaker 8: even whether it's transporting farmers or for just for diesel
16:54
Speaker 8: only or something and added to keep everyone going. But
16:56
Speaker 8: there's there's just nothing coming at them at all. It's
16:58
Speaker 8: just a to me, this will be the worst comment
17:01
Speaker 8: I've ever seen since got Whitlam.
17:04
Speaker 1: Well, a lot of people saying that let's keep your
17:06
Speaker 1: head up, keep going, mate, We'll keep in touch with you.
17:08
Speaker 1: Thanks very much for join us tonight. Well there you go.
17:10
Speaker 1: That's the local issue. Let's go now of the global
17:13
Speaker 1: issue and the Middle East. Back in the Middle East,
17:16
Speaker 1: the Iranian new Supreme Leader, Majaba Humani is reportedly in
17:21
Speaker 1: intensive care, as some reports are suggesting with severe injuries
17:25
Speaker 1: after those US Israeli strikes, as even one report that
17:28
Speaker 1: he had been in a coma, and there is uncertainty
17:31
Speaker 1: about the leadership. He's not been seen or heard since
17:35
Speaker 1: this happened and since he was re elected or elected
17:38
Speaker 1: as leader. Some say he could be in pretty bad shape.
17:41
Speaker 1: Deacon University professor of Global Islamic politics, Greg Barton, regular
17:45
Speaker 1: on the program, joins us. Greg, we haven't heard from
17:48
Speaker 1: the new Iranian leader. What's your interpretation of him not
17:51
Speaker 1: being either seen or physically heard of.
17:56
Speaker 4: Good to be with you, Steve.
17:57
Speaker 11: A bit like Monty Python's infamous Harris Parrot sketch, you
18:02
Speaker 11: do wonder whether he's alive or just resting the fact
18:07
Speaker 11: that the only statement we've had from him was a
18:09
Speaker 11: written statement that was read on his behalf does beg
18:11
Speaker 11: the question of how seriously injured he is and what
18:15
Speaker 11: capacity has He apparently was in the residence that was
18:17
Speaker 11: hit when his father was killed, also his wife and
18:20
Speaker 11: his mother and some children. So you know, this is
18:24
Speaker 11: not over in terms of where the leadership goes. But
18:27
Speaker 11: I think the thing to understand, Steve, is, even though
18:30
Speaker 11: the Anian regime seems very hierarchical and top down with
18:33
Speaker 11: a supreme leader, actually it's world geared over decades of
18:37
Speaker 11: facing threats to function with thirty one separate divisions that
18:41
Speaker 11: can function without central control. So it's actually remarkably resilient,
18:46
Speaker 11: which is not good news for the people of Iran
18:48
Speaker 11: or for us, but throughality we're facing.
18:52
Speaker 1: So what's your handle on whether there is any possibility
18:56
Speaker 1: of genuine regime change to take the country back to
19:00
Speaker 1: what it was pre the Ayatolla.
19:04
Speaker 11: Well earlier this year, Steve, as you recall when there
19:06
Speaker 11: were many thousands of protesters in the streets being shot dead.
19:09
Speaker 11: You know, possibly some accounts as many as thirty thousand
19:12
Speaker 11: shot there.
19:12
Speaker 1: We don't know.
19:13
Speaker 11: It looked like the regime and had come to the
19:15
Speaker 11: end of the road and was so brittle and had
19:17
Speaker 11: lost so much public support in an economy that's in
19:20
Speaker 11: a perilous state, that it was going to fail. But
19:22
Speaker 11: actually the regime today looks stronger than it did a
19:25
Speaker 11: month ago. There is a rally around the flag effect,
19:28
Speaker 11: of course, mean a country comes under attack, you say, well,
19:31
Speaker 11: you know, better support the country. And if you don't
19:34
Speaker 11: see that the bombing is leading to your freedom anytime soon,
19:37
Speaker 11: then you know, people understandably say, well, we better stick
19:41
Speaker 11: with therasion we have and defend our country. So I
19:43
Speaker 11: think the regime is actually for the time being at
19:45
Speaker 11: least reasonably strong. You know where it goes from over
19:49
Speaker 11: the next year, it's you know, this can take a
19:50
Speaker 11: long time to run through. Perhaps it is mortally wounded,
19:54
Speaker 11: but it seems to be able to carry on fighting
19:56
Speaker 11: for the next few months. And that's the really important thing.
19:59
Speaker 11: America probably is going to struggle to fight beyond the
20:01
Speaker 11: next few weeks just because of shortages and supplies of
20:04
Speaker 11: defensive missiles the Patriot and other interceptor missiles, whereas this
20:09
Speaker 11: regime can probably throw out missiles drones and carry on
20:14
Speaker 11: a fight for many months to come. And the regime
20:16
Speaker 11: for the time being at least seems to be intact.
20:19
Speaker 1: So your assessment of Donald Trump yesterday saying that we've won,
20:22
Speaker 1: it's all over. Clearly, it's not all over. History's taught
20:26
Speaker 1: us that you have to have a plan B. It
20:29
Speaker 1: doesn't seem that Donald Trump does have a plan B.
20:33
Speaker 1: I saw Barack Obama's right hand man, Leon Panetta on
20:36
Speaker 1: Sky yesterday saying he didn't think Trump has a plan
20:39
Speaker 1: B at all.
20:41
Speaker 11: I think that's right. There's no joint for anyone, Steve.
20:44
Speaker 11: I don't think Trump had a plan A, much less
20:47
Speaker 11: a plan B. He wasn't clear what the strategic plan was.
20:50
Speaker 11: In the very beginning, things seemed to be going well.
20:53
Speaker 11: He seems to have fallen into what some people describe
20:55
Speaker 11: as the escalation trap. When you have tactical success. He
20:58
Speaker 11: had that in Venice, Whalery had it with the strikes
21:01
Speaker 11: and there any nuclear facilities middle of last year. That
21:05
Speaker 11: tactical success can make you feel like you know you're unbeatable.
21:08
Speaker 11: But if you go into any sort of conflict without
21:10
Speaker 11: a strategic plan, tactical success can set you up for failure.
21:13
Speaker 11: And that seems to be what's happening.
21:16
Speaker 1: Well. History teaches is that you only got to look
21:18
Speaker 1: at Afghanistan, don't you agree.
21:20
Speaker 11: Yeah, Afghanistan, Iraq, I mean Afghanistan. It was re understandable
21:24
Speaker 11: that something had to be doun Italy the nine to
21:26
Speaker 11: eleven attacks, and it was not surprising we went to
21:30
Speaker 11: Afghanistan that the problem was for twenty years we didn't
21:33
Speaker 11: have a clear plan, kept telling ourselves is going to
21:35
Speaker 11: be okay, and people Afghanistan are paying the price for
21:38
Speaker 11: that today and old Kaieda and Islamic State can need to.
21:41
Speaker 4: Be a threat.
21:42
Speaker 11: Iraq, of course, was worse. There was more time to plan,
21:45
Speaker 11: and there was better planning. This excursion, as the President
21:48
Speaker 11: calls it, in Iraq, doesn't seem to have had anything
21:50
Speaker 11: like the planning that sorry in Iran doesn't seem to
21:53
Speaker 11: have had anything like the planning that went into the
21:55
Speaker 11: two thousand and three invasion of Iraq. It seems to
21:58
Speaker 11: have been sort of made up on a fly, without
22:01
Speaker 11: a clear sense of where they're going, and that's a
22:03
Speaker 11: very dangerous thing to be doing. I mean, there has
22:06
Speaker 11: been spectacular tatical success. The Israeli penetration of the Iranian
22:10
Speaker 11: intelligence has let them get very accurate targeting, but that
22:14
Speaker 11: doesn't guarantee you get the results that you want.
22:18
Speaker 1: Just finally. I mean when Australians turn up at a
22:20
Speaker 1: Petro station and Jesus costing them two dollars seventy elter,
22:24
Speaker 1: this war is going to become very unpopular, very quickly.
22:26
Speaker 1: What did you make of Australia's contribution to the effort
22:29
Speaker 1: with this plane, radar, aircraft and some we're told missiles.
22:35
Speaker 1: What do you make of that?
22:37
Speaker 11: I think sending the wedge tile edborne early warning system
22:41
Speaker 11: to the Gulf makes sense. You can understand it. There
22:43
Speaker 11: is a sort of a logic to it. I think
22:45
Speaker 11: what doesn't make sense is the International Energy Agency has
22:49
Speaker 11: told us Steve that we should have ninety days a
22:51
Speaker 11: few reserves. You know, we would be lucky to have
22:54
Speaker 11: not three months, but three weeks at the moment. That's
22:56
Speaker 11: that's a mistake on our own half. You know, we
22:59
Speaker 11: could have done more about that. I think the fact
23:01
Speaker 11: that we're now getting involved with this aircraft and a
23:05
Speaker 11: small supporting team, I think it's just the reality that
23:09
Speaker 11: we're having to respond to a situation we didn't make.
23:11
Speaker 11: But we should have done more when it came to
23:12
Speaker 11: preparing ourselves in terms of resilience, in terms of fuel reserves,
23:16
Speaker 11: and I think that's one lesson we've got to take
23:17
Speaker 11: from this.
23:19
Speaker 1: Good on your Greg. Welcome back to Australia. I'll talk
23:21
Speaker 1: to you again soon, Greg Barton there after the break.
23:23
Speaker 1: More on the national fuel crisis. The price of oil
23:26
Speaker 1: has now jumped to more than one hundred dollars US
23:28
Speaker 1: a barrel. Plus protesters were arrested on the first day
23:32
Speaker 1: that Queensland's hate speech laws came into effect. We'll talk
23:35
Speaker 1: to Campbell Nywman about that. Welcome back to see price
23:43
Speaker 1: with you. I'm going to go take you to the
23:45
Speaker 1: UK shortly. We're going to find out what their fuel
23:48
Speaker 1: levels are like. I mean, surely there's got to be
23:50
Speaker 1: and the government won't want to do this. We won't
23:52
Speaker 1: want to talk about it the federal government, let alone
23:54
Speaker 1: the state governments. It's got to be some discussion. You
23:56
Speaker 1: would think at some point about rationing diesel. If we've
24:00
Speaker 1: got trucks that can't deliver food and farmers who can't
24:02
Speaker 1: produce it, surely having diesel fuel rations in the cities
24:08
Speaker 1: where there's thousands of large SUVs being driven to school
24:13
Speaker 1: pickup as I speak, by a single person loading children
24:17
Speaker 1: into it might be better to get the diesel into
24:20
Speaker 1: a tractor. I would have thought, well, Labour's declared as
24:23
Speaker 1: actually now finally a national crisis, but it's taken them
24:27
Speaker 1: days and days and days. They're going to take some
24:30
Speaker 1: of the reserves out. They're going to try and stop
24:32
Speaker 1: this price gouging. I bet no one gets fined oils
24:36
Speaker 1: now at one hundred dollars US of barrel. Reports today,
24:39
Speaker 1: by the way, that China has told all of their
24:41
Speaker 1: oil refiners to halt all fuel exports amid the conflict,
24:46
Speaker 1: casting doubt over at least two cargoes that are due
24:49
Speaker 1: to be shipped to Australia, and I think a lot
24:51
Speaker 1: of that fuel strangely is avgas. Now, what's that going
24:55
Speaker 1: to do about our airports? I read the today that
24:58
Speaker 1: Sydney Airport has gone a very small shortage of avgas
25:03
Speaker 1: at that airport. Joining me now Froda regular former Queensland premier,
25:07
Speaker 1: sky On News regular Campbell Newman. It's great to see
25:10
Speaker 1: you as always, but I mean you and I will
25:13
Speaker 1: both be very frustrated by the fact there happy is
25:16
Speaker 1: to have been no future planning. And when you were premier,
25:20
Speaker 1: I'm sure you would have done what if planning meetings
25:23
Speaker 1: to try and work out the worst case scenario. Scenario,
25:26
Speaker 1: there's a bad weather event in far North Queensland, what
25:30
Speaker 1: you would do in this case there seems to be nothing.
25:34
Speaker 12: Well, there does seem to be nothing, Steve.
25:36
Speaker 13: And you know, there have been plenty of people out
25:40
Speaker 13: there over the last four or five years on this
25:43
Speaker 13: network who have talked again and again about the fact
25:48
Speaker 13: that Australia doesn't have a fuel reserve. That's on the
25:52
Speaker 13: public record, and you know, the previous government, the coalition government,
25:56
Speaker 13: didn't do anything about it. And the labor of the
25:58
Speaker 13: government have been in for four you is now, and
26:00
Speaker 13: they can't blame the coalition. So the other thing that
26:04
Speaker 13: I find abs the extraordinary is the sort of Monday
26:07
Speaker 13: after the war started, I literally walked into my own
26:09
Speaker 13: little office and we're talking to my young employees and
26:15
Speaker 13: I said to them, guys, you better keep your tanks
26:17
Speaker 13: full because I remember nineteen seventy four. Anybody who's over
26:21
Speaker 13: the age of sixty would remember what happened with the
26:25
Speaker 13: oil shocks in the seventies that we did have queues
26:28
Speaker 13: at service stations, and service stations did run out of fuel.
26:31
Speaker 13: So the idea that the government wouldn't immediately have stepped
26:34
Speaker 13: on the accelerator, pun intended it actually had a plan
26:40
Speaker 13: to deal with fuel potential.
26:42
Speaker 12: Fuel shortages is unbelievable.
26:44
Speaker 13: Just to go back to what you were saying before,
26:46
Speaker 13: I think there's a compelling need if there is a
26:48
Speaker 13: crisis right now, we need to have some sort of
26:50
Speaker 13: odds and evens on the regio plate fuel rationing system
26:55
Speaker 13: implemented immediately.
26:56
Speaker 12: That would probably make a big difference.
26:59
Speaker 1: Obos places like Queensland, where you are in Western Australia,
27:03
Speaker 1: and I saw a farmer talking from there yesterday. Because
27:06
Speaker 1: you've got such bigger distances to cover, it's absolutely vital
27:11
Speaker 1: and crucial that the supply of diesel is kept up
27:14
Speaker 1: to those places, particularly when you've got farmers who are
27:18
Speaker 1: taking crops off or planting right now. I mean, we
27:22
Speaker 1: can't let avocados just rot in the ground because they
27:26
Speaker 1: can't get diesel to put into a machine to try
27:29
Speaker 1: and take them off.
27:32
Speaker 13: Well, Steve, knowing I was coming on this program, I
27:34
Speaker 13: was talking to a leading industry figure in the banana
27:37
Speaker 13: producers sector this afternoon from far North Queensland, and now
27:42
Speaker 13: they are basically one of the largest producers and marketers
27:47
Speaker 13: supplying about fifteen to twenty percent of Australia's needs. He
27:51
Speaker 13: told me that at the moment they can still get
27:53
Speaker 13: fuel to move the produce, but he said the issue
27:58
Speaker 13: is what price. So for example, the cost of getting
28:01
Speaker 13: a truckload of bananas from Tully to Brisbane now is
28:05
Speaker 13: up an extra thousand dollars.
28:07
Speaker 12: That's ten dollars a pallet of bananas.
28:12
Speaker 13: So you know that's immediately that inflation flows through.
28:16
Speaker 12: But he was very, very concerned about where this goes.
28:20
Speaker 1: I mean, there doesn't even seem to be any serious
28:23
Speaker 1: debate in Canberra about pel xi's being at least dropped,
28:28
Speaker 1: you know, while we get through this emergency. Jim Chalmers
28:31
Speaker 1: is so broke that he can't afford to do that,
28:33
Speaker 1: and so unlike Josh Fridenberg who did it, you know
28:36
Speaker 1: post COVID, it doesn't appear to be an option for
28:39
Speaker 1: the federal government.
28:42
Speaker 13: Well look you almost took the words out of a mouth, Steve.
28:45
Speaker 13: I mean, he's out for every dollar he can get
28:49
Speaker 13: at the moment.
28:50
Speaker 12: But look, you know.
28:51
Speaker 13: They've sort of carried on about the a triple C
28:54
Speaker 13: and price gouging. Well, I say, right now, yeah, there
28:56
Speaker 13: might be prosscouging going on, but the federal government is
28:59
Speaker 13: taking you know, windfall gains. They always carry on about
29:02
Speaker 13: mining companies all the people on the left, Well, this
29:05
Speaker 13: is a windfall gain in terms of tax that is
29:09
Speaker 13: quite unconscionable. And he should be cutting the excise and
29:12
Speaker 13: taking the same levels of tax if fuel prices were
29:16
Speaker 13: at their normal levels. And remember it's a tax on
29:19
Speaker 13: a tax. You know, the gst's in there as well,
29:21
Speaker 13: two taxes working on top of each other.
29:26
Speaker 1: And of course Chris Bowen told us on Tuesday there
29:28
Speaker 1: was no drama. We didn't have to worry about it.
29:30
Speaker 1: Supply was still coming ships. On the right, well he's
29:33
Speaker 1: got no clue.
29:34
Speaker 13: Yeah, well, well he is cloaks because you know, one
29:38
Speaker 13: minute he said yeah, one minute he's saying there is
29:40
Speaker 13: no problem, and next minute we're acknowledging there's a crisis.
29:43
Speaker 12: So there's there is a crisis.
29:45
Speaker 13: Get in and act and you know they should be
29:48
Speaker 13: burning the midnight or all this weekend in Canberra to
29:52
Speaker 13: actually come up with solutions in partnership with the states
29:56
Speaker 13: to ensure that this country can still operate.
29:58
Speaker 12: That's how serious it is right now.
30:00
Speaker 13: And I might add you know, we've talked about the
30:02
Speaker 13: war in the last few weeks on your program, and
30:06
Speaker 13: I just like to chip in and say, I am
30:08
Speaker 13: really disappointed. You know, a key strategic issue was always
30:13
Speaker 13: going to be passage of the tankers through the straits
30:17
Speaker 13: of all wars, and I just cannot believe that the
30:20
Speaker 13: American Navy, with all their firepower and the American military
30:25
Speaker 13: planners didn't see this coming. I mean, this always should
30:29
Speaker 13: have been a key consideration, and I'm afraid disappointingly President
30:34
Speaker 13: Trump's sort of statements are a bit threadbare. You know,
30:37
Speaker 13: you're not winning the war ultimately strategically if you can't
30:41
Speaker 13: keep the straits open.
30:44
Speaker 1: Just finally, I mean, we've got an alliance with the Americans. Obviously,
30:48
Speaker 1: thing extends into not weeks, but months, you know, becomes
30:52
Speaker 1: another Iraq or another Afghanistan. Eventually, the Americans are going
30:57
Speaker 1: to say to us, we need some support, we need help,
31:00
Speaker 1: we need personnel, whatever they might ask for. It's going
31:04
Speaker 1: to be very interesting pressure on Anthony alb and easy
31:07
Speaker 1: to say what his answer would be to a request
31:09
Speaker 1: for more help.
31:12
Speaker 13: Well, let's be very clear, I have no problem with
31:15
Speaker 13: the overall fact that there is this war happening because
31:18
Speaker 13: ultimately we couldn't let the Iranians proceed with their bomb make,
31:23
Speaker 13: nuclear bomb making and sort of ballistic missile program. Having
31:27
Speaker 13: said that, what I'm arguing about tonight is or I'm
31:30
Speaker 13: arguing that clearly the Americans haven't got this under control
31:35
Speaker 13: and their plan isn't working as effectively as it should
31:39
Speaker 13: have been. But having said all that, Australia really should
31:43
Speaker 13: be backing them right up.
31:44
Speaker 12: We really need to know if we've got an alliance.
31:47
Speaker 13: The alliance is worth nothing, I'm sure to the Americans
31:51
Speaker 13: if Australia doesn't participate in backing up that alliance. The
31:55
Speaker 13: Iranians committed terrorist acts or caused commit terrorist acts to
32:00
Speaker 13: be committed.
32:00
Speaker 12: On our shores.
32:02
Speaker 4: We're in this war.
32:05
Speaker 13: They committed terrorist acts against this country. That's good enough
32:09
Speaker 13: for me, and it should be good enough for the
32:11
Speaker 13: federal government.
32:13
Speaker 1: Absolutely. I'll talk to you about hate laws next week. Campbell,
32:16
Speaker 1: thanks for joining us. Have a great weekend, Campbell. Newman
32:18
Speaker 1: joined us. Every Friday night. After the break, we'll cross
32:20
Speaker 1: to the UK. I want to get the latest news
32:22
Speaker 1: from there, including that attack on British troops by Iranian
32:26
Speaker 1: drones in Iraq. Plus the extraordinary backlog of asylum appeals
32:31
Speaker 1: they've doubled in almost a year in the UK. So
32:33
Speaker 1: what does the trouble playing British PM do? What's he
32:36
Speaker 1: planning to do about it? Welcome back to Steve Price
32:44
Speaker 1: with you the word according to I Rondnacles coming up
32:46
Speaker 1: the top of the hour. Well, it was the war
32:48
Speaker 1: that the British PM didn't really want part of, but
32:51
Speaker 1: now seems he really has got no choice. He targeted
32:54
Speaker 1: British troops overnight, stationed at a base in Iraq. It's
32:58
Speaker 1: goy on News Friday Night regular Adrian Hayes is in
33:00
Speaker 1: Hampshire and Night and joins us. Adrian. What's been the
33:04
Speaker 1: reaction to that attack itself on the British I mean,
33:09
Speaker 1: once you start having your troops attacked in this conflict,
33:14
Speaker 1: surely the public's now saying, well we need to get
33:16
Speaker 1: more involved.
33:19
Speaker 14: Yeah, goodeaven Steve goodeamns all your viewers. It does change things.
33:23
Speaker 14: I think there was more reaction to.
33:25
Speaker 4: When the RIF bases on Cyprus were.
33:27
Speaker 14: Here a week or so ago, but it just sort of,
33:29
Speaker 14: as you said, it just gradually realized whether you like this.
33:32
Speaker 4: War or not, whether you want to be in it
33:35
Speaker 4: or not.
33:35
Speaker 14: We're being drawn into it because once, once we're attacked,
33:38
Speaker 14: we need to defend ourselves. Of course, our military is
33:41
Speaker 14: so woefully unprepared for this that we're in no position
33:44
Speaker 14: to defend ourselves.
33:45
Speaker 4: So there's a lot of things.
33:46
Speaker 14: But it will possibly change public opinion, which right now
33:50
Speaker 14: is increasing against the war, probably like a lot of
33:53
Speaker 14: western countries across the world.
33:56
Speaker 1: Well, the weakness of Keir Starmer wouldn't be helping. He
33:59
Speaker 1: doesn't appear to have any stomach for this. I mean, yes,
34:02
Speaker 1: you know, protect British assets. But what would he do if,
34:05
Speaker 1: say President Trump Avian rang him up and said, listen,
34:09
Speaker 1: this is going to get take longer, it's going to
34:10
Speaker 1: get messier than I thought. I need your help. I
34:13
Speaker 1: mean he might by the way, Kirstama read some history
34:17
Speaker 1: around say Winston Churchill pleading for US helping World War II.
34:21
Speaker 1: That might help.
34:23
Speaker 14: Yeah, our prime minister has managed to upset everyone, upset
34:27
Speaker 14: the US, the President of US, Cyprus, the Gulf States,
34:31
Speaker 14: all bemoaning that that he hasn't been supporting.
34:35
Speaker 4: Now you know, the trouble is the premise.
34:38
Speaker 14: Is beholden to his labor MPs he's a very weak
34:41
Speaker 14: prime minister.
34:42
Speaker 4: Because of this situation.
34:44
Speaker 14: He's frightened to death of the Muslim vote, which went
34:47
Speaker 14: to the Greens a week or so ago, just En
34:49
Speaker 14: mass And also he hides behind this thing called international law,
34:54
Speaker 14: which you know, whatever that.
34:55
Speaker 4: Is these days.
34:56
Speaker 14: So, and what happened when he initially refused the US
35:00
Speaker 14: permission to use the bases in UK and Diego Garcia.
35:04
Speaker 14: That was a major catastroph major muck up there, and
35:08
Speaker 14: he sort of came back on himself so of rekindled himself.
35:11
Speaker 4: But I think I think if the Prime Minister.
35:14
Speaker 14: Came out with conviction and said, look, I don't believe
35:17
Speaker 14: this war is right, I think people will respect him more.
35:19
Speaker 14: But he's trying to play all sides and as I said,
35:22
Speaker 14: upsetting everybody.
35:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, the world's very lacking in conviction. Politicians ask you
35:29
Speaker 1: about a domestic issue. We're trying ourselves in Notts here.
35:32
Speaker 1: Our price of fuel has gone absolutely through the roof
35:35
Speaker 1: of diesel in particular, but also petrol, and you know
35:39
Speaker 1: a lot of places are running out. We're having a
35:41
Speaker 1: debate now about having to release our reserves of petrol
35:45
Speaker 1: and diesel. Is it having the same impact in the
35:48
Speaker 1: UK or do you have a better supply and assured
35:53
Speaker 1: supplies of fuel.
35:55
Speaker 14: Well, you know, it's the crisis when fuel and toilet
36:00
Speaker 14: paper goes run short.
36:01
Speaker 10: You know.
36:02
Speaker 14: And by the way, I can assure people have done
36:03
Speaker 14: without toilet paper three months on an expedition. It doesn't
36:06
Speaker 14: harm you at all. But anyway, going back to the point,
36:08
Speaker 14: look we do there's noe. It is panic buying, and
36:11
Speaker 14: I expect it always happens. But look, it all depends
36:14
Speaker 14: and Campbell Newman I was listening to him just before,
36:17
Speaker 14: it all depends how long this war lasts. And as
36:20
Speaker 14: Campbell said, the failure to sort of react or anticipate
36:25
Speaker 14: that the rain around would close the straits of Horners
36:28
Speaker 14: was a miscalculation on Israel and the US. But so
36:34
Speaker 14: far it's okay. But I think it's all depends on
36:36
Speaker 14: the length of the wall.
36:39
Speaker 1: What's going on with the UK's asylum appeals, Becklock, I mean,
36:42
Speaker 1: this is at a record high. I doubled in size
36:45
Speaker 1: in a year. What's this? What what's caused that?
36:50
Speaker 4: When do we start? How long we got a few hours?
36:52
Speaker 10: Look the.
36:55
Speaker 14: Frankly, look that the whole asylum system is not fit
36:59
Speaker 14: for purpose.
37:00
Speaker 4: So let's let's put it like this.
37:01
Speaker 14: People want to come to the UK, but I want
37:04
Speaker 14: to take people back, your viewers, back to history. The
37:06
Speaker 14: asum sium system was started from the Refugee Convention of
37:11
Speaker 14: nineteen fifty one. It's been added which define a refugee
37:15
Speaker 14: of people under persecution.
37:17
Speaker 4: Now, you know, you look at that.
37:19
Speaker 14: The population the world back in ninety fifty one was
37:21
Speaker 14: two point five billion, it is now eight point three billion.
37:25
Speaker 14: Pakistan alone is one hundred two hundred and sixty million people.
37:30
Speaker 4: You know, we are what we are.
37:31
Speaker 14: We are thinking under the pressure and it is not
37:34
Speaker 14: people in general, you know, in persecution. It's people economic Migraine,
37:38
Speaker 14: migrants living in France crossing Europe, you know.
37:41
Speaker 4: And it doesn't need to sort of just a tinker.
37:44
Speaker 4: It needs a.
37:44
Speaker 14: Whole rip up and starting again, because we'll never go
37:47
Speaker 14: on top of that.
37:48
Speaker 1: We've had we've had the same problem, absolutely the same
37:51
Speaker 1: problem here in Australia, Adrian and economic refugees. We dealt
37:56
Speaker 1: with it. But we're lucky because we're a big island,
37:58
Speaker 1: a long way away from anywhere on you mate, have
38:00
Speaker 1: a great weekend. I'll talk to you in a couple
38:02
Speaker 1: of weeks time. Adrian there now all right, coming up
38:04
Speaker 1: to cinder Allen. This is the premier of Victoria. Surprior surprise,
38:07
Speaker 1: he's top to pol as Australia's least popular premier. No joking,
38:12
Speaker 1: but new polling lays bear the scale of voter discontent
38:15
Speaker 1: with the labor leader plus outrage with a major Australian
38:19
Speaker 1: age care operator. You won't believe this acting hot breakfasts
38:23
Speaker 1: for elderly residents. Friday Night panel up next, welcome back,
38:31
Speaker 1: going to our panel in a moment just under this weekend,
38:33
Speaker 1: how many people are going to spend the weekend trawling
38:36
Speaker 1: around our big cities trying to find fuel to fill
38:38
Speaker 1: their cars up with the regardless of what the price is,
38:41
Speaker 1: And how many people are probably going to say, well,
38:44
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know that I can take the
38:45
Speaker 1: kids to sport this weekend because I need to fuel
38:48
Speaker 1: in my car to get to work. This is really,
38:50
Speaker 1: I mean, it is a crisis now and it's quite
38:53
Speaker 1: extraordinary that Chris Bowen on Tuesday said we didn't have
38:56
Speaker 1: a problem. Well, here's a quiz question for our panel
38:58
Speaker 1: as they join us tonight. Which state premiere in a
39:02
Speaker 1: new poll out today rates a plus fifty three percent
39:06
Speaker 1: popularity figure and which one is scored at minus thirty seven.
39:11
Speaker 1: That's an extraordinary gap of ninety points from popular unpopular.
39:15
Speaker 1: Friday Night regular Joe Hildebrand and Women's Forum Australia head
39:19
Speaker 1: of Advocacy Stephanie Bastian joins me, great to see you both.
39:24
Speaker 1: I'm well now, Steph, Joe's not much good at mass.
39:26
Speaker 1: Who do you think the plus fifty three bloke might be?
39:30
Speaker 12: Well?
39:30
Speaker 15: I don't think it's any surprise that the minus thirty
39:33
Speaker 15: seven is to cinerell And I mean there's record crime,
39:36
Speaker 15: there's a missing fifteen billion dollars unaccounted for, and today
39:39
Speaker 15: there's two new scandals in the female prison system where
39:42
Speaker 15: a male pedophile is now using taxpayer funds to sue
39:46
Speaker 15: the Victorian government after a breach of human rights when
39:48
Speaker 15: he was put into solitary confinement after the media was
39:51
Speaker 15: about to report on him being housed with female inmates.
39:54
Speaker 15: Another trans identifying man facing over one hundred charges of
39:58
Speaker 15: sex fence has just been sent back to the men's prison.
40:02
Speaker 15: So it's any wonder that people are questioning the people
40:07
Speaker 15: are questioning our the female premiers leadership and that she
40:11
Speaker 15: is going down. She can't keep her people safe. There's
40:14
Speaker 15: record Debton, It's all falling apart. There so no surprises, Joe.
40:21
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the South Australian Premier. Peter malanowskis I
40:25
Speaker 1: mean I compare him and Christopher Mins is being very similar. Yes,
40:31
Speaker 1: I think you and I. You and I sometimes agree
40:33
Speaker 1: on things. I think we would both agree that those two,
40:38
Speaker 1: like you know in the past, Steve Brax and John Brumby,
40:41
Speaker 1: for example, they're the sort of labor leaders that the
40:45
Speaker 1: country's actually crying out for.
40:47
Speaker 16: I had one thousand percent, mate, and I actually wrote
40:50
Speaker 16: my whole column on Peter Malanowskus last night. So a
40:53
Speaker 16: bit of serendipity. That's the first topic we're talking about
40:55
Speaker 16: today as well. But he is the gold standard, him
40:58
Speaker 16: and Chris Mins absolute guiding light of the Labor Party.
41:03
Speaker 16: This is how it is done. You move the party
41:05
Speaker 16: unashamedly to the center of politics. You have no truck
41:09
Speaker 16: with the left, no truck with any sort of stupid
41:12
Speaker 16: culture wars or ideological pursuits or anything that resembles woke politics.
41:16
Speaker 16: And Malanauskus and Mins have both been absolutely rock solid
41:19
Speaker 16: on this and just yesterday, Malanauskus was telling David Pembathy
41:24
Speaker 16: and The Australian that Labor should be proud to be patriotic,
41:28
Speaker 16: that Labor should be proud to respect the Australian flag
41:32
Speaker 16: to celebrate our nation on Australia Day on January twenty sixth,
41:36
Speaker 16: and that this was something that Labour needed to reclaim
41:39
Speaker 16: that patriotism should be the domain of the mainstream and
41:43
Speaker 16: not just the domain of the populist right. And he's
41:46
Speaker 16: absolutely correct. It's the same sort of thing that Chris
41:48
Speaker 16: Mins has been saying, and it's also the same thing
41:51
Speaker 16: that Albo and some of his proxies on the left
41:54
Speaker 16: of the party even in Victoria, are now saying because
41:57
Speaker 16: they're realizing how toxic it is if perceived to be
42:00
Speaker 16: anti Australia.
42:03
Speaker 1: Stephan was doing a senior Liberal today and they're still
42:07
Speaker 1: fearful that they may not get across the line in November,
42:10
Speaker 1: and even though Jacinda Allen's rating what was at minus
42:14
Speaker 1: thirty five or whatever it is, that she might lose
42:17
Speaker 1: her seat, but Labor themselves the government might get back
42:21
Speaker 1: in again narrowly because the Liberals still don't seem to
42:26
Speaker 1: understand that you've got to stop fighting amongst yourselves.
42:30
Speaker 15: Yeah, I think there's a lot of concern across the
42:32
Speaker 15: board because of how bad Labour's going and what they're
42:35
Speaker 15: doing to the state, and the fact that there is
42:37
Speaker 15: a lack in the opposition here. I mean, the infighting
42:40
Speaker 15: is still ongoing. There seems to be a lack of
42:43
Speaker 15: policy still forthcoming. There's plenty of complaints and pointing out
42:47
Speaker 15: the errors, but there's very few solutions. And I think
42:51
Speaker 15: that it would be to the gentlemen of Victoria that
42:53
Speaker 15: the Allen Labour government gets re elected. But having said that,
42:57
Speaker 15: given all the recent press and all the scandals, I'd
42:59
Speaker 15: be very very surprised if Cinerellan actually makes it to
43:02
Speaker 15: the next election. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a
43:04
Speaker 15: leadership change beforehand.
43:07
Speaker 1: Joe, let's talk about fuel. I mean, you know, I
43:10
Speaker 1: think largely the Australian population, if US would probably be
43:14
Speaker 1: supportive of taking down the Iranian regime. I'm not sure
43:18
Speaker 1: that they're going to be that supportive of it when
43:21
Speaker 1: they turn up at the local shell BP or Ampulse
43:24
Speaker 1: station on the weekend and their diesel four wheel drive
43:27
Speaker 1: is going to cost them two hundred dollars to fill
43:29
Speaker 1: it up. But how can Chris Bowen four days or
43:32
Speaker 1: three days ago stand up in question time? So nothing
43:35
Speaker 1: to see here, It's all good, no drama. We got
43:37
Speaker 1: plenty of supply, there's ships arriving, fuel's being pumped into
43:40
Speaker 1: the system, and then now we've got a fuel crisis.
43:43
Speaker 1: I mean, is that bloke really that stupid? Yeah?
43:46
Speaker 16: I think there is often a tendency among politicians to
43:49
Speaker 16: deny anything until though it's impossible to actually deny it
43:53
Speaker 16: with a straight face. And I think that's unfortunate because
43:56
Speaker 16: you can often get a lot more credibility with the public,
44:00
Speaker 16: as people like Peter Beety and Bobca used to do,
44:02
Speaker 16: and say, yes, there is a problem and I'm going
44:04
Speaker 16: to fix it. I'm going to fix it now, and
44:05
Speaker 16: you sort of get ahead of the crisis. But he
44:08
Speaker 16: has done the right thing. He has released a whole
44:10
Speaker 16: bunch of extra fuel reserves by lowering the standard basically.
44:15
Speaker 16: But the other thing is that this is something we
44:17
Speaker 16: have known long before the first bomb dropped on Iran.
44:20
Speaker 16: For years and years and years, we have been telling
44:24
Speaker 16: the Australian governments of both colors that we do not
44:29
Speaker 16: have the fuel reserves that were bound to under our
44:33
Speaker 16: international treaty obligations. We promise the International Energy Agency that
44:37
Speaker 16: we are going to have a certain amount of different
44:39
Speaker 16: types of fuels in case of a crisis. That is
44:42
Speaker 16: just why we have them. When something like this happens
44:45
Speaker 16: and we simply haven't. We've been going so to She'll
44:47
Speaker 16: be right, mate, Oh no, it's not thirty days for this.
44:51
Speaker 1: It's a little bit there. But whatever, we'll.
44:53
Speaker 16: Always just get some more. And now we're finding out
44:56
Speaker 16: what happens when you don't actually do what you were
44:59
Speaker 16: supposed to do in the first place.
45:01
Speaker 1: Steph, what do you think would happen if the government
45:03
Speaker 1: suddenly on Monday decided, Okay, what we're going to do
45:06
Speaker 1: is because there's a real shortage of diesel and we
45:08
Speaker 1: need it for truck transport, farmers, machinery, production of food,
45:14
Speaker 1: we're going to ration diesel fuel. And imagine the two
45:17
Speaker 1: recon vore clues tractor set to tune up in massive
45:20
Speaker 1: full drives to pick one child up from school would
45:23
Speaker 1: do if they suddenly were told no diesel for you today, Madam.
45:28
Speaker 15: Oh look, I can already hear them rethinking their position
45:30
Speaker 15: on climate change but I think this really makes the
45:33
Speaker 15: case for sovereign fuel capability. I mean, Australia is down
45:36
Speaker 15: to two oil reserves to produce those fuels, we are
45:40
Speaker 15: totally reliant. Ninety percent of our fuel comes from overseas,
45:43
Speaker 15: and I think it's probably time the government looked at
45:46
Speaker 15: measures to make it more affordable, to make Australia more
45:50
Speaker 15: competitive and producing fuel here. It's absolutely absurd and for
45:54
Speaker 15: the first time in a long time, we're seeing what
45:57
Speaker 15: happens when there is a foreign conflict. We have capacity
46:00
Speaker 15: of our own and we should be really maximizing that.
46:04
Speaker 1: Joe News Limited had been doing great work on the
46:06
Speaker 1: issue of age care. It's something that I really care about.
46:09
Speaker 1: I've got a ninety one year old mother who I'm
46:11
Speaker 1: going to visit in Peter Malanowskas Sdelaide tomorrow and so
46:16
Speaker 1: I have to sort of sort things out for her.
46:19
Speaker 1: But opal healthcare we read this morning is trialing a
46:22
Speaker 1: two tier system where residents in their age care homes
46:26
Speaker 1: will pay extra daily for having a hot breakfast. If
46:30
Speaker 1: you don't pay, you get continental better snacks. And even
46:33
Speaker 1: there are reports there are mechanics going around unbolting televisions
46:37
Speaker 1: from people's rooms who don't pay this extra level. How
46:41
Speaker 1: can this be allowed to happen? How can you treat
46:43
Speaker 1: people like that?
46:44
Speaker 16: Yeah, it's absolutely disgusting and there's no other word for it.
46:47
Speaker 16: It is exploiting people when they are at their most
46:50
Speaker 16: absolute vulnerable. They often don't have the capacity to represent
46:54
Speaker 16: themselves or speak for themselves, and they rely on, you know,
46:58
Speaker 16: whenever their kids might happen to be in their state
47:01
Speaker 16: to be able to speak up for them. It is disgusting.
47:05
Speaker 16: I think even the idea of having a two tiered
47:09
Speaker 16: system in aged care, I think there's something pretty inhuman
47:13
Speaker 16: about that in the first place. I know we have
47:16
Speaker 16: different classes of plane travel and different levels of hospital cover,
47:20
Speaker 16: but I think when you're dealing with people at the
47:21
Speaker 16: very end of their lives, you give them all the
47:24
Speaker 16: dignity that you possibly can.
47:26
Speaker 1: Steph you're going to set up a situation in the
47:28
Speaker 1: nursing home itself where you're going to divide the home
47:31
Speaker 1: and we're people who have been mates. Some can afford
47:34
Speaker 1: to have this blue ribbon level of care, someone else can't.
47:40
Speaker 1: Suddenly you're going to have an argument whereas people are saying, well,
47:42
Speaker 1: how come you get fried eggs? And I get corn flakes.
47:46
Speaker 15: Yeah, I think this story is leaving a bad taste
47:48
Speaker 15: in everyone's mouth. But the reality is we've got to
47:50
Speaker 15: look at why this is happening. This is bad economic management.
47:53
Speaker 15: The cost to run these facilities has gone up, wages
47:56
Speaker 15: have gone up, cost of energy has gone up, the
47:59
Speaker 15: cost to do business in this country as skyrocketed. And
48:02
Speaker 15: it is elderly age care residents in this scenario that
48:06
Speaker 15: are paying the price. The government should be stepping in,
48:09
Speaker 15: looking at where there is waste in other areas and
48:12
Speaker 15: perhaps looking at topping up the pension to make sure
48:15
Speaker 15: that these elderly residents.
48:16
Speaker 9: Are cared for properly.
48:17
Speaker 15: It's just the situation is disgusting.
48:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, more power to you're reporting, Joe Stephanie. Thank you
48:24
Speaker 1: very much for that, mate. I mean my issue with
48:26
Speaker 1: this is not just that since the government's change is
48:28
Speaker 1: on November one, I mean, to get in home care
48:32
Speaker 1: for anybody, there's a delay, a waiting time for weeks
48:36
Speaker 1: and weeks and weeks to actually even been seen. It
48:39
Speaker 1: is disgusting. Rowan Dean is up next.