Latest / The Bolt Report / The Bolt Report | 24 June

Transcript

The Bolt Report | 24 June · The Bolt Report

• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Is the Bolt Report.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Good evening, Welcome to the report. I'm Steve Price filling
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: in for Andrew this week. Thank you for that. Peter
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: now coming up tonight, and it's a moving feast. I've
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: got to tell you. I'll take it inside the hardheads
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: of Washington politics as the US follows. It's devastatingly successful,
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: or so it seems. Bunker bomb attack on Iran with
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: a claimed peace deal which tonight very much looks like
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: it is crumbling. I cut up earlier, caught up earlier
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: today with Andrew Bolt regular and former White House Press
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Secretary Sean Spicer. He'll be up later in the program.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Plus we'll get the Israeli view from former IDF Colonel
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Mary Eisen on what happens now if that ceasefire is broken.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: She'll join me in just a moment, and back home.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: The disgraceful Victorian labor government and it's threat to find
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: farmers over sixteen thousand dollars each if they refuse to
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: allow massive transmission lines and towers to be erected on
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: their property, telling those farmers open the gates and will
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: find you. If you don't open the gates, we will
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: find you. Brett Hoskin from the Farmer's Federation later. Much
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: more on that developing story over the next hour and
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: reports as I said that that her fragile ceasefire is
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: already over and in the last few moments reports that
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: Iran has denied violating the agreement. This is a rapidly
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: developing story. We'll have all the breaking details over the
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: next hour. But first, am I one of the usual
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: suspects or one of the sum in the media that
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: are critical of Anthony Albanezi and his Foreign Minister Penny Wong.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: And they're handling of the alliance with the United States,
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: and they're conflicting remarks around Gaza and Israel and their
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: apparent lack of empathy at all for the Australian Jewish community.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: I hope so because we're being led by a flaky
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: agenda driven the Prime Minister who had to be dragged
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: kicking and screaming away from lifetime views that he and
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Penny Wong have held about America and Israel. Hard left
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: university campaigners who have been pro Palestine all their lives.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: I mean, listen to the Prime Minister with Kieren Gilbert
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: on Sky today in a brief interview following Donald Trump's
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: declaration of peace between Iran and Israel following Operation Midnight
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Hammer at the weekend. He started by denying he had
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: been slow and flat footed after the bunker bombing unleashed
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: on Iran on Saturday morning.
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: Our time the strikes, you backed them, but it did
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: take a day. It's been called slow and flat footed.
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: Now are you only by the usual suspects?
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Kieren And of course he couldn't let it go minutes later,
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: referring to some in the media.
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: And there are some in the media who have a
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: criticism of anything that the Labor government does.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Me included, I hope the Prime Minister, I think's got
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: quite the glass jaw, and he doesn't handle personal criticism
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: of his style at all well. And he seems to
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: be suggesting we ought to behaving like the ABC and
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: aiming our criticism at Donald Trump, not at him. I mean.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: He went on to defend himself by saying he'd been
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: to the United States five times since becoming Prime minister. Well,
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: the only problem with that is he was meeting with
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: sleepy Joe Biden, and apart from a couple of phone calls,
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: has had no relationship with Donald Trump. At all. Well
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: does that matter? Ell, it does. Australia had an open
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: embassy in tay Ran on Saturday. Since then it's been closed,
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: But there was no pre warning for Australia about midnight
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: hammer happening, unlike the call that went into the UK
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: and presumably Israel. We've now got three thousand Australian citizens
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: in Iran, which by the way seems like a hell
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: of a lot to me who want to get out,
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: and another thousand or so in Israel, where now the
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: shilling has started again, and the Prime Minister wants us
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: to believe everything's hunky dory between our most important and
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: powerful ally when clearly it is not now after the
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: embarrassing non meeting at the G seven and the inability
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: clearly of our diplomats to secure a sideline face to
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: face at this week's NATO gathering, meaning instead that the
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: Defense Minister, Richard Miles is there hoping to get a
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: sit down with the US President. I mean, does anybody,
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: any serious person, anyone seriously think that that will happen,
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: That Donald Trump will set aside time to talk not
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: with our leader but with his deputy at NATO. I
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: might be wrong, and I'll admit it if I am,
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: but surely that's not going to happen, Which brings me
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: to our old made ambassador, Kevin Rudd. He was a
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: captain's pick by the Prime Minister to take on that job,
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: following in the footsteps of successful Australian ambassadors to Washington
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: like Kim Beasley, Joe Hockey and Arthur Sinderdinas. Now, if
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: you measure the effectiveness of a diplomat in their ability
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: to smooth a path toward a relationship between leaders, Rudd
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: has been an absolute failure. He always talks the big talk, Kevin,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: but so far I reckon he's been a dud. As
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: I said, rapidly breaking news to know, let's go straight
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: to Israel, where the ceasefire agreement broken by the Americans
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: with Israel and Iran might have already collapsed now, as
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: I said, it's developing as we go to air benjaminette Yahu,
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: as we know, had already accepted a ceasefire plan proposed
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: by President Donald Trump to end what Trump called the
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: twelve Day War that shake the Middle East after Tehran
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: launched a retaliatory missileile attack on a US military brace
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: in Kata He's expected net Yahoo to speak in the
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: next few hours. Now, the Defense Minister of Israel Katz
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: has declared they will respond with force. That's a direct
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: quote after Iran's utter violation, adding that it will quote
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: continue the intensive operation to strike it around. Other Israeli
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: ministers have now joined calls pushing for an immediate response.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: As I said, around one thousand Australians are still desperate
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: to get out of Israel and get home. Former IDF
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: Colonel Mary Eisen is in Tel Aviv. She's been good
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: enough to join us. The shelling of beesheber with appear
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: might have just been the start of around breaking this
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: peace agreement.
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: The shelling of Beersheva itself was thirty minutes before the
• 6:29
  Speaker 5: end of the ceasefire. Doesn't make it any better. They've
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: already pulled four bodies out of the civilian complex, just
• 6:36
  Speaker 5: a residential area that was hit. But after that, and
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: that several hours later, after Iran said that the ceasefire
• 6:43
  Speaker 5: was going in after Israel the government announced that we
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: were in the ceasefire just in the last thirty minutes.
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: Again Siren's early warning up north, Iran has launched a
• 6:53
  Speaker 5: missile against Israel again. And in this case, this is
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: really about that Israeli response. We're not sitting around and saying, oh,
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: it's just another one. This is about the rules of
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: the game. If they think they Iran that they can
• 7:06
  Speaker 5: attack Israel via proxy, let alone directly, and us not respond.
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: I think in this case they're going to find it very,
• 7:13
  Speaker 5: very different.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: Mary, when you think back on it, did you ever
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: trust them to hold this side of the bargain.
• 7:22
  Speaker 5: I think that they have an interest to hold their
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: side of the bargain. I think that our air superiority
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: shows that when they don't hold their side of the bargain,
• 7:30
  Speaker 5: we can immediately attack in Iran, and so that twelve
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: day war. I'm still amazed by the fact as I
• 7:36
  Speaker 5: sit here in Tel Aviv and say, and Israelis are
• 7:39
  Speaker 5: attacking in Iran, and we have open air air superiority,
• 7:43
  Speaker 5: and we will go back and attack. So I would
• 7:45
  Speaker 5: have them put their rhetoric aside. I don't trust them.
• 7:49
  Speaker 5: I think that they are completely hollow in that sense,
• 7:52
  Speaker 5: and we will continue to do so. They keep showing
• 7:55
  Speaker 5: all sorts of different things they want to show how
• 7:57
  Speaker 5: much they did. It is a hollow back and right
• 8:00
  Speaker 5: now I do think that we probably are retaliating. I
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: don't know. I know that the Defense Minister said we did,
• 8:06
  Speaker 5: we would, the Chief of Staff said we would, and
• 8:08
  Speaker 5: how we're waiting to see what will happen.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: Well, Mary, it seems madness on their part of me. And
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: as you say, and the lead up to Operation Midnight
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: Hammer on Saturday Australian time, the Israelis have been in
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: there doing the hard work, and the air Force had
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: done an extraordinary job. You've taken out a number of
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: the leading the leaders of the Islamic Guard. You had
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: taken out some of their anti missile batteries, destroyed their
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: missile stockpiles. What the hell do they think they're going
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: to achieve? But by again igniting this, it just shows
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: that they're determined to destroy Israel. It makes no sense.
• 8:52
  Speaker 5: It doesn't make rational sense to you and to me.
• 8:55
  Speaker 5: It perhaps makes rational sense to a regime that actually had,
• 8:59
  Speaker 5: in the mean Suntri location of Tehran a clock that
• 9:03
  Speaker 5: was showing the countdown to the annihilation of the state
• 9:06
  Speaker 5: of Israel. We destroyed that clock day before yesterday, and
• 9:08
  Speaker 5: I'm sure that they will put it back up again.
• 9:11
  Speaker 5: This is about ideology. It's about the regime's ideology that
• 9:15
  Speaker 5: is enacted through the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, through their air
• 9:19
  Speaker 5: and space, which means the missiles and drones. I don't
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: think that I know how to change their ideology. We
• 9:24
  Speaker 5: don't know how to do it through our military capability.
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: But what we can do is deny them that offensive, illegal,
• 9:32
  Speaker 5: horrific capability that they've built, and add into it, we
• 9:35
  Speaker 5: can deny them the capability to resupply the proxies. Take note,
• 9:40
  Speaker 5: Chris Bala sat around for the last twelve days and
• 9:43
  Speaker 5: did nothing as the other allies or those proxies, And
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: this is part of our campaign. I'm sitting here. I'm
• 9:50
  Speaker 5: not willing to go back to what was before that
• 9:52
  Speaker 5: it's okay if the proxies do it that, it's okay
• 9:55
  Speaker 5: if they just fire one missile. No, they should be
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: very clear cut. And I'm not exactly what you would call,
• 10:01
  Speaker 5: you know, the right wing maniac in Israel. I'm very
• 10:04
  Speaker 5: run of the middle, very subdued in that sense. And
• 10:07
  Speaker 5: I said that very clearly right now.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: I get a sense of rising anger from you, which
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: I presume is pretty common across Israel to not with
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: this piece deal. Apparently falling over.
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: So it's not exactly anger, it's in its own way.
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: It's like here, I am disappointed in the Islamic regime
• 10:28
  Speaker 5: of Iran. Really am I about to be disappointed by them?
• 10:32
  Speaker 5: I don't trust them. I do think that it's not
• 10:34
  Speaker 5: a question of our having the upper hand when I
• 10:37
  Speaker 5: say air superiority, and this is something which means that
• 10:41
  Speaker 5: we right now can go and attack anywhere inside the
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: Islamic regime or their proxies for that matter. And right
• 10:47
  Speaker 5: now that air superiority doesn't seem to be bringing about
• 10:51
  Speaker 5: that change that I want to see. I don't need
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: to humiliate them. This isn't about them turning around and saying,
• 10:56
  Speaker 5: oh my god, everything we've said is wrong. But they
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: can stop fighting rockets and expecting us missiles, rockets, drones
• 11:04
  Speaker 5: through the proxies and expect us not to respond. The
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: rules of the game in that sense changed over the
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: last twelve days. And for me, it's after remember twenty
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: months of a horrific war, and it's a horrific war
• 11:16
  Speaker 5: for all civilians and all of the Middle East. But
• 11:18
  Speaker 5: it's been a horrific war where Israel was not only
• 11:20
  Speaker 5: attacked time and again, but We've been blamed for everything
• 11:24
  Speaker 5: going on.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: Mary, you and I are not about to be able
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: to predict what Donald Trump might now do. We do
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: know that he doesn't want to commit American boots on
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: the ground anywhere in the region. But he showed on
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: Saturday night the Bunker Busters aside that he can use
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: his submarine fleet to use to fire missiles inside Iran
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: and the Iranians don't even know where they're coming from.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: If we had to predict what Donald Trump might now do,
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: what do you think.
• 11:57
  Speaker 5: I don't think that the Iranians attacked a US site
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: in that sense when they did so yesterday in Katar.
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: If the you know what now, I'm going to do
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: what I don't always do and try to predict Donald Trump,
• 12:10
  Speaker 5: as you said, too difficult to predict. I think that
• 12:13
  Speaker 5: he would respond more because the US was attacked, but
• 12:17
  Speaker 5: he announced a ceasefire. And now it wasn't the US
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: that was attack, it was Israel. This is about the
• 12:22
  Speaker 5: rules of the game between the Islamic regime iron and Israel.
• 12:27
  Speaker 5: I think that that's what Israel wants to state very clearly.
• 12:29
  Speaker 5: It can't be that it's okay to attack Israel and
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: then everybody says no, no, but there's the ceasefire. No,
• 12:35
  Speaker 5: we're not going to allow that again. We've lived with
• 12:38
  Speaker 5: that against Ramas, against Chrisbala, the different proxies. I don't
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: think we'll allow it again. So I don't think that
• 12:44
  Speaker 5: they'll respond. I think that we will. And again I
• 12:47
  Speaker 5: don't know any of this.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: This is all speculation, good speculation and very sensible. Mary Austin,
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: really nice to catch up with you. Until we keep
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: your head down, keep side. Thanks for joining us. We'll
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: come back home net to some Tomas issues. I'll take
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: you back to the Middle East if their developments in
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: the next hour, and I'm sure Sharry marksill have updates
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: in her program after us as well. So back home now.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: As I said at the beginning of the program, The
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: PM Anthony Albanezi has pushed back on claims Australia as
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: being sidelined by global allies like the United States. He
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: was speaking on Sky News exclusively today. He addressed growing
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: concerns around international security. This is all before the ceasefire
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: fell over, mind you regional evacuations in Australia's terror threat
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: level now. He was asked by Kieran Gilbert I of
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: Australia is now quote the forgotten ally. After Donald Trump
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: gave advance notice to the UK but did not ring Australia,
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: the PM was quick to reject that idea.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: Here is President Trump did give advance notice to Keir Starmer,
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: not to you. He left the G seven, didn't give
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: you a heads up. Are we the forgotten ally at
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: the moment?
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: Not at all.
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: I met with President Trump key economic advices on the
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: sidelines of the G seven.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: And I mentioned the evacuations from the conflict zone. The
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: Prime Minister admitted that security issues had disrupted those plans. Well,
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: they're going to get worse with this latest development over
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: the last couple of hours of more missiles out of Iran.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: But he said a cease fire, which now looks like
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: falling over could change that. Well, there's one thing you
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: got right.
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: You've said that keeping Australian safe in the region is
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: your top priority. What is being done to get people
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: out of the zone.
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: It has been made more difficult by what has occurred.
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: There was a scheduled flight out of Israel that wasn't
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: able to be fulfilled becurse of the security situation. What
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: we hope is that a more secure position. A cease
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: fire will ensure that people don't fail the need to
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: get to safety.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: He was also asked by curing A the possible idea
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: of sleeper cell threats. They've talked about that in the
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: United States, and whether our own terror level at home
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: is under review. This is what he had to say.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: And the national terror threat level is that under review? Well,
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: we're here this talk about sleeper cells in the US.
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: Is this something you'll beaded on?
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: It is constantly monitored, but there's been no change in
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: the national security alert. We continue to have our national
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: security agencies to monitor the situation.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: Let's catch up with National Senator Matt Canavan. Senator, the
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: Prime Minister suggests that only the usual suspects and I'm
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: not sure who he means, but maybe the opposition have
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: criticized his slow reaction on Saturday when that big operation
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: was done by the Americans. There's a lot of us.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: Do you reckon the prome and it's got a glass jewel?
• 15:53
  Speaker 6: Well, he's shown that he has over many years. And
• 15:59
  Speaker 6: the concerning thing for Australians here is that the Prime
• 16:03
  Speaker 6: Minister has not been able to establish any kind of
• 16:05
  Speaker 6: relationship with our most important ally more than six months
• 16:09
  Speaker 6: since Donald Trump was elected. Now, I'm not going to
• 16:14
  Speaker 6: be too critical of the Prime Minister being sidelined over
• 16:18
  Speaker 6: the past week. We are not a major player in
• 16:20
  Speaker 6: the Middle East, and I suppose some comfort in not
• 16:25
  Speaker 6: having to be involved in this conflict, as terrible as
• 16:28
  Speaker 6: it is, but we do have interests in around what's
• 16:33
  Speaker 6: happened over the past few months in the region. We
• 16:35
  Speaker 6: have seen the United States move significant military assets from
• 16:38
  Speaker 6: the Pacific region. A carry strike group this week went
• 16:41
  Speaker 6: to the Middle East. That of course has an impact
• 16:44
  Speaker 6: on us. And the fact that we don't seem to
• 16:46
  Speaker 6: have a prime minister that can pick up the phone
• 16:48
  Speaker 6: or even get a meeting with the President to discuss
• 16:51
  Speaker 6: these matters of effect our national securities, who should concern
• 16:54
  Speaker 6: all Australians. I just get the feeling, you do get
• 16:57
  Speaker 6: the feeling here that the Prime minister's a little scared
• 17:00
  Speaker 6: of meeting Donald Trump and he's not trying all that hard.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: He probably breathed a sigh of relief last week.
• 17:08
  Speaker 6: When Donald Trump left the G seven and left albanezy
• 17:11
  Speaker 6: high and dry. But for the sake of our country,
• 17:13
  Speaker 6: I hope the Prime Minister rediscovers his confidence because we
• 17:17
  Speaker 6: need to get Australian issues, our security concerns in front
• 17:22
  Speaker 6: of our most important friend and ally as soon as possible.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: Maybe Kevin Rudd wasn't such a good choice to be ambassador.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: He doesn't seem to be out of open doors like
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: Joe Hockey or Kim Beasley or Arthur cinnadinas.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: Well. Look, I think the buckstops with the Prime minister. Ultimately.
• 17:41
  Speaker 6: It's a bit hard for me to know what Kevin
• 17:44
  Speaker 6: is up to over there in the US. But the
• 17:47
  Speaker 6: fact is the Prime Minister hasn't bothered even going to Washington,
• 17:50
  Speaker 6: d C. We've seen the prime ministers of other similar
• 17:53
  Speaker 6: countries to ourselves, like the UK Canada have their prime
• 17:56
  Speaker 6: minister prime ministers go to.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: The Oval Office meet Donald Trump.
• 18:00
  Speaker 6: We are one of the five IYSED partners along with
• 18:03
  Speaker 6: the UK and Canada. Why hasn't our prime minister done
• 18:06
  Speaker 6: the same? I just don't think the way the President
• 18:09
  Speaker 6: Trump operates it would mean that anybody in the ambassador role,
• 18:13
  Speaker 6: but Kevin Rud or somebody else, would be able to
• 18:15
  Speaker 6: break down the doors here as much as Joe Hockey
• 18:17
  Speaker 6: did in a fantastic job. It really does require the
• 18:20
  Speaker 6: Prime Minister to take up the slack here and get
• 18:23
  Speaker 6: himself involved.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: Reportedly, Matt, there's three thousand Australian passport holders within the
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: borders of Iran wanting to get out. That seems like
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: a hell of a lot of people to me.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it does seem like a lot.
• 18:39
  Speaker 6: Look, if they're Australian citizens, we should do what we
• 18:42
  Speaker 6: can to help them. I very much hope that the
• 18:45
  Speaker 6: ceasefire does hold, and notwithstanding we've seen some apparent breaches
• 18:48
  Speaker 6: of it in recent hours.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: It's been a scary time for the world.
• 18:53
  Speaker 6: I'm sure even more scary for those Australians stuck within
• 18:56
  Speaker 6: the conflict zone. It's obviously very hard for Australian governor.
• 18:59
  Speaker 6: I'm sure to help and assist those that are in Iran,
• 19:02
  Speaker 6: but I would support any efforts to help any Australia
• 19:05
  Speaker 6: and anywhere in the world.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: Hallelujah, Matt. You've got to believe it or not. The
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: Democrat dominated New York City is planning to build a
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: large nuclear plant, the first big project of its kind
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: in fifteen years. Would you be able to perhaps let
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: Chris Bowen know when Parliament goes back that he should
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: perhaps go over to New York and have a look.
• 19:28
  Speaker 6: Well, I think it matters how loud we scream about
• 19:32
  Speaker 6: these issues. Chris Barlin has his head in his hand,
• 19:35
  Speaker 6: so he's not going to hear us. I mean, this
• 19:37
  Speaker 6: is not surprising news. We've seen the UK Labor government
• 19:41
  Speaker 6: champion the construction of nuclear power. We've seen Microsoft, Google, Amazon,
• 19:46
  Speaker 6: all of them back nuclear power. Australia is the odd
• 19:50
  Speaker 6: man out here. It seems to think it can do
• 19:54
  Speaker 6: something that almost any o the other country in the
• 19:56
  Speaker 6: world's not doing, with the exception of Germany, and they've
• 19:59
  Speaker 6: just drawing their industrial economy. In Germany, they're losing industry left,
• 20:02
  Speaker 6: right and center. Now we are too. And what is
• 20:07
  Speaker 6: more concerning about our situations that don't Like Germany, We
• 20:10
  Speaker 6: have abundant amounts of natural resources and energy, including uranium,
• 20:15
  Speaker 6: the world's largest uranium at reserves. And how silly is
• 20:18
  Speaker 6: it for us to export that uranium to the world
• 20:22
  Speaker 6: but not allow us to use it ourselves.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: Crazy stuff. And you know you've got the Teals and
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: the Greens joining with Labor on this. It's just madness.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: You better go and let the dog in. I'll talk
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: to you soon. Good on you Matt Canavan Center, the
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: Matt Canavan they're coming up to the break. Still to come.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: Is Australia the forgotten ally of the United States? Now
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: we pose that question earlier this evening. We have been
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: left in the dark. We'll dissect that with my panel
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: after the break. Welcome back to dou Price in for
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: Andrew Bolt all this week. Catch up with our panel
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: in just a moment.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: I caught up earlier today Sean Spicer, from my Press
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: secretary to Donald Trump in his first presidency, to discuss
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: what was the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Now
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: that was prior to this late ceasefire. Bridge Joining me
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: now is form a White House Press Secretary Sewn Spice
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: and that Shawn, We've had a hell of a night.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: What do you make of the attack first up on
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: your US base in Katar and President Trump's description of
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: it being weak.
• 21:28
  Speaker 7: I think it was a show Iran needed to do something.
• 21:32
  Speaker 7: But number one, they gave us a heads up. Number Two,
• 21:35
  Speaker 7: there's a minimal damage according to the reports that we're
• 21:39
  Speaker 7: aware of, and no human casualty or injury, which is huge, right.
• 21:45
  Speaker 7: That basically shows that Iran needed to save a little
• 21:47
  Speaker 7: bit of face with their own people. But at the
• 21:50
  Speaker 7: end of the day, this shows that the might and
• 21:53
  Speaker 7: the force that the US exhibited Saturday evening was enough
• 21:57
  Speaker 7: to make them reconsider how long they wanted to protract
• 22:01
  Speaker 7: this engagement. To me, look, I think I've been studying
• 22:06
  Speaker 7: this stuff and dealing with it for almost three decades. This,
• 22:09
  Speaker 7: to me, is a military effort that will go down
• 22:13
  Speaker 7: in history as one of the best executed, most comprehensive
• 22:16
  Speaker 7: joint actions that the US military has ever performed. The
• 22:20
  Speaker 7: level of precision, engagement, deception, coordination, jointness between the Navy
• 22:27
  Speaker 7: and the Air Force is something that history books will record.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: I was going to get to that because you and
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: I we're old enough to have lived through this many times,
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: and you can only hold your breath now and go, okay,
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: have we finally got to that point where we can
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: see peace in the Middle East? My only quotion about
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: that is you're dealing here with a regime that was
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: happy to fund October seven in the hands of Hamas
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: I gave weapons to his the Hoosy's. Can you really
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: trust and believe that Iran is going to go rod?
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: That's it? Pacing that time?
• 23:09
  Speaker 7: No I think you're asking the absolute right question. Look,
• 23:12
  Speaker 7: I don't trust them as far as I can throw them,
• 23:14
  Speaker 7: and that's not very far.
• 23:16
  Speaker 8: What I do know is they were backed into a corner.
• 23:18
  Speaker 7: President Trump made it very clear that they had an
• 23:20
  Speaker 7: option and an opportunity for peace. They chose not to
• 23:23
  Speaker 7: take it. But here's what I do know that the
• 23:26
  Speaker 7: messages that are ran got, and frankly the entire world
• 23:29
  Speaker 7: is that when Donald Trump has to, while it may
• 23:32
  Speaker 7: not be his first option, he will always defend America's
• 23:35
  Speaker 7: interest decisively and very spectacularly, as was seen on Saturday Night.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: And so while I.
• 23:42
  Speaker 7: Don't necessarily trust them, I think that the message that
• 23:46
  Speaker 7: they got was if you screw with us again, if
• 23:49
  Speaker 7: you try to enrich uranium again, we.
• 23:53
  Speaker 8: Will take you out and we'll go further.
• 23:55
  Speaker 7: So again, I think that the takeaway from Saturday night
• 23:59
  Speaker 7: isn't about whether or not we can trust them or
• 24:01
  Speaker 7: whether we'll ever be friends with them, but it's a
• 24:03
  Speaker 7: question of did we scare them enough to realize that
• 24:07
  Speaker 7: one more misstep and it's not going to end well.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: It's really interesting, Sean. I heard a former military senior
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: military official earlier saying, what we've said to Iran and
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: the world is we can bomb your country and you
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: won't even know we're coming. You won't even know that's
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: right in advance, that something's going to happen. We can
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: do it and you have no clue.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 24:34
  Speaker 7: And that's the key is that they understand that's that
• 24:38
  Speaker 7: level of precision, coordination, surprise, deception that was exhibited the
• 24:45
  Speaker 7: other night is just a taste of what could come
• 24:48
  Speaker 7: their way. And I think that any leader, regardless of
• 24:51
  Speaker 7: whether it's the Ayatola or some student council president, recognizes
• 24:57
  Speaker 7: the moment that you're in, whether or not you've got
• 24:59
  Speaker 7: the power. They recognized that this wasn't an opportunity for
• 25:02
  Speaker 7: them that they wanted to give up. They would it
• 25:05
  Speaker 7: would not have ended well for them had this gone
• 25:07
  Speaker 7: on further. So I think President Trump deserves a lot
• 25:10
  Speaker 7: of credit. And I know, I don't know how close
• 25:13
  Speaker 7: you guys followed it in Australia or not, but this
• 25:16
  Speaker 7: was a political embarrassment for the Democrats in this country,
• 25:20
  Speaker 7: from Alexandria Casio Cortes to Bernie Sanders to the Leader
• 25:24
  Speaker 7: of the House Democrats, Hakeem Jeffries. They literally beclowned themselves
• 25:28
  Speaker 7: this weekend trying to appease the far left progressive base,
• 25:33
  Speaker 7: and forty eight hours left are standing there looking like
• 25:36
  Speaker 7: complete national embarrassments for how they handled the situation.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they ran out on Saturday morning and Stralon Thomas
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: that talking about impeachment for God's sake.
• 25:48
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, look, I get that that's reflexively what
• 25:53
  Speaker 7: they think they should do. And maybe it appeases the
• 25:56
  Speaker 7: very far extreme left of the party. That's the the
• 26:00
  Speaker 7: it's the base of who they are today. But at
• 26:02
  Speaker 7: the end of the day, Number one, it was politically stupid.
• 26:05
  Speaker 7: It just showed how stupidly reflexive they are as opposed
• 26:09
  Speaker 7: to thinking it through. And number two is that I
• 26:11
  Speaker 7: think for the vast majority of Americans, it showed how
• 26:14
  Speaker 7: unpatriotic they were. Bernie Sanders time and time again chooses
• 26:18
  Speaker 7: to come down on the side of terrorists, illegal criminals,
• 26:22
  Speaker 7: everybody but hard working Americans. And I think that it
• 26:25
  Speaker 7: was exposed even further this weekend. Who stands with the
• 26:29
  Speaker 7: American people and who stands with the enemy.
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: Let's take it back to Operation mid not Hammer. Now
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: you've been in that operations room. It's the one where
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: the world saw you know Issama bin Laden taken out.
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: We saw President Trump sitting there watching as the B
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: two's hit for Dow. That must be an incredible room
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: to ever be in watching a military operation as it unfolds.
• 26:55
  Speaker 8: Yeah, there's the room itself.
• 26:56
  Speaker 7: I've been in the situation room in the White House,
• 26:58
  Speaker 7: and I've also been in what we call a makeshift skiff,
• 27:00
  Speaker 7: a secure compartmentalized information, you know, facility. Here when I
• 27:06
  Speaker 7: was with the President Trump and we dropped bombs in
• 27:09
  Speaker 7: Syria during his first term, We're in a makeshift skiff
• 27:12
  Speaker 7: where we watched the bombs get dropped and.
• 27:14
  Speaker 8: The battle damage assessment come in.
• 27:17
  Speaker 7: It's not just the room that's that's kind of an
• 27:19
  Speaker 7: awesome thing to be part of historically, but sitting there
• 27:22
  Speaker 7: with the President of the United States and other key
• 27:24
  Speaker 7: national security leaders when it happens, watching the precision and
• 27:29
  Speaker 7: expertise and professionalism of the United States military at work
• 27:34
  Speaker 7: is just something that.
• 27:35
  Speaker 8: You can never ever see in a movie or read
• 27:38
  Speaker 8: in a book.
• 27:39
  Speaker 7: Being there firsthand and watching it happen is just an awesome,
• 27:41
  Speaker 7: awesome experience.
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: Sean, talk to me about Israel. I mean, you know,
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: Benjamin nittn Yaho He's got his own regional ambitions. He
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: wants regime regime change in Iran. We're told though, that
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: a ceasefire kicked in this afternoon Australian time between in
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: Israel and Iran. Does Donald Trump have knit In Yahoo
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: under control?
• 28:08
  Speaker 9: Ah?
• 28:08
  Speaker 7: Absolutely, Look I get I think net and Yahoo, if
• 28:12
  Speaker 7: left to his own accord, would want to continue prosecuting
• 28:15
  Speaker 7: the case against Iran. I don't think that's any secret.
• 28:18
  Speaker 7: He definitely would want regime change. But President Trump's made
• 28:21
  Speaker 7: it very clear what the US objectives and national interests are,
• 28:24
  Speaker 7: which is that Iran cannot have nuclear capabilities.
• 28:28
  Speaker 8: He wasn't concerned about regime change.
• 28:30
  Speaker 7: And so that's where I think Israel and the United
• 28:32
  Speaker 7: States somewhat diverged, and Donald Trump, I think has made
• 28:35
  Speaker 7: it very clear to Prime Minister net Yahoo that I'll
• 28:38
  Speaker 7: go as far as I can with you, but at
• 28:41
  Speaker 7: the end then there's a point at which I'm going
• 28:43
  Speaker 7: to stop because it's not necessarily in the US's national interest.
• 28:47
  Speaker 7: There is enough that Israel is tethered to the United States,
• 28:52
  Speaker 7: whether it's security or financially that I think President Prime
• 28:55
  Speaker 7: Minister net Yah, who knows where that red line is,
• 28:58
  Speaker 7: that he needs to stop.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: Just finally, How enhanced is Donald Trump's reputation globally after
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: what happened at the weekend.
• 29:10
  Speaker 8: Look, the media and the left in America.
• 29:14
  Speaker 7: I don't know how much you guys got it down under,
• 29:16
  Speaker 7: but it'd come up with this silly phrase called taco
• 29:19
  Speaker 7: Trump always chickens out, and they were trying to make
• 29:22
  Speaker 7: it seem like he never follows through. Donald Trump exhibited
• 29:26
  Speaker 7: decisive judgment this weekend, and I don't think that anybody,
• 29:32
  Speaker 7: whether it's China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, will ever question
• 29:38
  Speaker 7: his resolve again. He showed that during his first term,
• 29:41
  Speaker 7: as I mentioned with Syria, and he showed it again
• 29:44
  Speaker 7: this weekend. Look, Donald Trump is a man of peace.
• 29:47
  Speaker 7: He doesn't like watching death and destruction happen, but when
• 29:51
  Speaker 7: push comes to shove, he will always protect the American
• 29:54
  Speaker 7: people in our national interests, and the world got to
• 29:56
  Speaker 7: see that on display this weekend.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: Sean Spicer always great to catch up. Thank you, my friend.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: You that sir.
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: Well. At the top of the show, I mentioned how
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: I now think Anthony Albanez he seems far too worried
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: about his critics now right or wrong, rather than I
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: think acting like a strong leader of an island nation that,
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: let's be frank here, depends on its strongest ally, the US,
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: to defend itself. Now it seems we have entered this
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: pretend world where we can side with everybody but the
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: United States because it's led by Donald Trump. Now, thankfully
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: Trump wouldn't know this as he's been a little bit
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: busy lately. But with people like the Prime Minister and
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: with Penny Wong running foreign policy, you've got to ask
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: yourself this is Is this a clever way to go?
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: And I don't think it is. Now some critics are
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: now asking whether Australia is the United States forgotten ally
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: after it emerged that Camber was left out of the
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: loop on the weekend. I'd say the reverse, The US
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: is Australian government's forgotten ally. There is clearly among many
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: labor ministers and advisers and anti Trump dislike that is
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: distorting their thinking. Joined now by my panel, Scone News
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: contributor Louise Roberts and Aderni Media's Lisa Goddard. Louise Labor
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: used as a weapon. You might remember during the election campaign.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: I hate to take you back to the election campaign
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: because it was so dreary, but the idea that the
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: coalition was somehow too close to Donald Trump. I mean,
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: you remember just sent an anti jimber Price was absolutely
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: attacked by the government and the media for simply saying
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: let's make Australia great again. Given that the size of
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: action taken it the week, wouldn't we rather be close
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: than left out?
• 31:37
  Speaker 10: One hundred percent? I mean, I think what we're seeing now, Steve,
• 31:40
  Speaker 10: is the result of Labour's political posturing, when Anthony Albanesi
• 31:45
  Speaker 10: and Penny Wong have put so much energy into distancing
• 31:48
  Speaker 10: themselves from Donald Trump rather than putting the energy into
• 31:52
  Speaker 10: building a relationship with our strongest ally. And you make
• 31:55
  Speaker 10: a very good point about what they said about Just
• 31:57
  Speaker 10: Enterprise when she dared to say let's make Australia great again,
• 32:02
  Speaker 10: and instead of focusing on costs of living, Labor put
• 32:04
  Speaker 10: so much energy in their election campaign in attacking Peter
• 32:09
  Speaker 10: Dutton as Trump light. So I think what we see
• 32:12
  Speaker 10: here is we've sidelined ourselves. We've become in a situation
• 32:16
  Speaker 10: where we're not even considered as part of this discussion,
• 32:19
  Speaker 10: as maybe the G seven leaders were. So I think,
• 32:24
  Speaker 10: you know, mister Albanesi and Penny Wong need to really,
• 32:27
  Speaker 10: really really reconsider where we stand with the US and
• 32:31
  Speaker 10: do something to fix it.
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: Louis Lisa, Luis's right. I mean, wouldn't it have been
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: so much better on Saturday morning or Saturday lunchtime if
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: we'd whacked on Sky and you had the Prime Minister
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: Albanesi saying, well, I had a call from the US
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: President overnight. He told me what he was going to
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: do in Iran. He brought us into the whole operation
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: as in Australia. Would have felt much better about it.
• 33:00
  Speaker 9: But Steve, you would have watched that on the weekend
• 33:02
  Speaker 9: and I was watching the clock tick by and thinking
• 33:03
  Speaker 9: where is our prime minister? He just wasn't out there
• 33:06
  Speaker 9: saying anything. The fact that it was more than twenty
• 33:08
  Speaker 9: four hours before we heard from him says enough in itself.
• 33:11
  Speaker 9: Silence is very loud on days like that, and Louise
• 33:14
  Speaker 9: is right. He absolutely has done nothing to ingratiate himself
• 33:17
  Speaker 9: to the US President at all, and at this point
• 33:20
  Speaker 9: he appears on the world stage to be completely irrelevant.
• 33:23
  Speaker 9: And the one thing Albaneze doesn't like is to be
• 33:26
  Speaker 9: ridiculed every time he has asked some tough questions, and
• 33:29
  Speaker 9: we saw that on the weekend. He seems to take
• 33:31
  Speaker 9: it as some sort of personal insult, and we've watched
• 33:33
  Speaker 9: this over his last term as well. He very much
• 33:36
  Speaker 9: manages those press conferences. If you read Greg Sheridan this morning,
• 33:39
  Speaker 9: he was saying that basically there's a rule that you
• 33:41
  Speaker 9: can ask a question, but there are no follow up questions.
• 33:43
  Speaker 9: It doesn't seem to want to be held to scrutiny.
• 33:45
  Speaker 9: And the fact today that he was saying that, I'll
• 33:47
  Speaker 9: quote you, we've agreed him and Trump or him in
• 33:49
  Speaker 9: the White House that we will have a meeting and
• 33:51
  Speaker 9: that will take place at a time that is convenient
• 33:54
  Speaker 9: to both of us. Now, I don't know about you,
• 33:56
  Speaker 9: but I'm pretty convinced no one in the White House
• 33:58
  Speaker 9: is sitting around wondering about Anthony l but Easy's diary.
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: No in Luise, he seems to have a glass duror.
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: I mean that Chatty had today with Kieran Gilbert, I
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: mean Kilber put Kieran put the strong questions to him,
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: but he kept sort of saying, oh, well, there's some
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: people in the media who you know, no matter what
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: I do, they're not going to like what I do
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: and you know they're out of touchment. Why is he
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: so I don't know what the word is. Why is
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: he so worried about what people say about him? If
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: he's like that, he shouldn't be in the job.
• 34:31
  Speaker 10: We compare him to someone like Trump, who is a
• 34:33
  Speaker 10: bona fide a world leader. I would argue, who is decisive.
• 34:37
  Speaker 10: He makes up his mind, he takes action, it's effective,
• 34:39
  Speaker 10: and he stands by the action. He doesn't equivocate or
• 34:42
  Speaker 10: sort of panic that maybe someone may not like him,
• 34:44
  Speaker 10: or who he dropped off someone's Christmas card list or
• 34:46
  Speaker 10: something like that. He really shows what it's like to
• 34:50
  Speaker 10: have an iron will and actually put your country's interests first,
• 34:54
  Speaker 10: and we haven't seen that from mister Albanesi when it
• 34:56
  Speaker 10: comes to our relationship with the US.
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: Lisa just on the Australians that are in Iran and Israel.
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: This question often comes up when you have a global
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: conflict that breaks out suddenly and people can't get out.
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: My ol mate, Ross Greenwood from Sky Business News is
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: stuck in Doha tonight. He's sitting there waiting for another
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: nine hours to get a flight for some reason to Adelaide.
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: But he can't get out either because of the problems.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: We've got three thousand people in Iran who want to
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: come back to Australia and one thousand in Israel. How
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: much should it be the job of the government to
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: get your home if you've gone there by choice?
• 35:38
  Speaker 9: Well, you're right, and we hear this. Even when there's
• 35:40
  Speaker 9: a natural disaster, there's always that pressure on the government
• 35:42
  Speaker 9: to try to get people back, and I'm sure if
• 35:44
  Speaker 9: you were in that situation, is extremely frustrating that you're
• 35:47
  Speaker 9: at the other end of the line to some bureaucrat
• 35:49
  Speaker 9: who isn't necessarily being helpful. What I find interesting about
• 35:52
  Speaker 9: this is within the first of twenty four to forty
• 35:54
  Speaker 9: eight hours of the Middle East, going basically to Helen
• 35:59
  Speaker 9: a Handbake, I have a really blunk description of it,
• 36:01
  Speaker 9: there were Australians that I know of who were in
• 36:03
  Speaker 9: Israel and they managed to use the private sector to
• 36:06
  Speaker 9: get out of Israel. Now, if the private sector can
• 36:09
  Speaker 9: transition people out of Israel, what is the Australian government doing.
• 36:12
  Speaker 9: I understand it's dangerous, understand the risk. I understand there's
• 36:15
  Speaker 9: a lot of people, but the private sector were able
• 36:17
  Speaker 9: to somehow reach in there and extract these Australians. What
• 36:20
  Speaker 9: is our government doing?
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I know people who got out that way, but
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: somehow they either got on a bar so they got
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: their own private transport, they went over the border into Jordan.
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: They managed while Jordan airspace was open to get on
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: a plane and get to somewhere like Doha, or to
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: get back to Australia. You're right, I mean people did
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: get out. Let's talk about Vladimir Putin. He's weighed in
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: on all of this, the Russian president. He's met with
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: Iran's foreign minister. That happened yesterday following President Trump's announcement
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: of the bombing of the facilities. Putin condemned the attacks
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: on Iran, but stopped short of offering full support to
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: its ally. Now, Luise, what do you make of that?
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: I think that's says something about the behind the scenes
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: relationship between Trump and Putin that has not often talked about.
• 37:07
  Speaker 10: Yes, I wanted that myself, Steve, because Putin stopped short
• 37:11
  Speaker 10: of actually offering troops on the ground or any kind
• 37:13
  Speaker 10: of military action to support Iran, didn't he which I
• 37:16
  Speaker 10: thought was very interesting. Although obviously Russia and Iran a
• 37:19
  Speaker 10: sort of partners in destabilizing the Middle East. It was
• 37:22
  Speaker 10: interesting that he kept his power dry in that way,
• 37:25
  Speaker 10: and no doubt that they had a few shots of
• 37:27
  Speaker 10: Vodko Volare having a chat, and it's all about the
• 37:29
  Speaker 10: optics as well. So Trump knows that these two have
• 37:31
  Speaker 10: met and had a meeting and have done something to
• 37:34
  Speaker 10: sort of solidify their relationship. But I also found it
• 37:36
  Speaker 10: quite ironic that Putin would say Trump's action would cause
• 37:40
  Speaker 10: sort of nuclear war or nuclear disaster when this is
• 37:43
  Speaker 10: a man who obviously invaded the Ukraine, who arms Iran
• 37:48
  Speaker 10: and you know, makes threats about nuclear weapons and any
• 37:52
  Speaker 10: opportunity against the West. So I did find his comments
• 37:55
  Speaker 10: a bit hypocritical, to say the least. But yeah, there's
• 37:58
  Speaker 10: no doubt his relationship with Iran is strong. But for
• 38:03
  Speaker 10: whatever reason, as you say, there's obviously some backchanneling going
• 38:06
  Speaker 10: on with Trump as well.
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: Louise, Lisa, great to catch up with you, Thank you
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: very much. We'll catch you next week now coming up
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: after the break still to come. As I said, Prome
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: Minister Anthony Albanezy accused of being vindictive and nasty because
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: he's cut staff from the opposition. We'll catch up with
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: the Liberal James McGrath after the break, welcome back. I'll
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: get into this dreadful Victorian Labor Party Labor Government's finding
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: of Victorian farmers if they don't allow massive transmission lines
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: to be situated on their properties. I'll talk to the
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: Victorian Farmers Federation about that shortly. Now. No one likes
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: to lose an election, and the Coalition obviously has been
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: well trawled over. Lost the last election by a lot,
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: and you lose staff. If you're in government, you go
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: into opposition, you actually lose staff. Now the Coalition had
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: already obviously in opposition for one term, but Anthony Aberneese
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: has decided to cut the coalition's staff budgets by even more. Now,
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: the PM's decided to cut the number of staff for
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: the remaining Liberal and National Front benches, a move that
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: was spelled out in a letter to the Opposition leader
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: Susan Lee that's already stirring up a backlash. LMP Senator
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: James McGrath says, Anthony Abereze he has quote shown himself
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: to be that personally vindictive and nasty, He joins me. Now,
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: so I've already said tonight James and he's got a
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: glass jaw, you've now called him vindictive and nasty. How
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: bad are these cuts going to be?
• 39:43
  Speaker 11: What it means in a democracy like Australia you need
• 39:47
  Speaker 11: to have an effective opposition to hold a government to account.
• 39:51
  Speaker 11: And what this petty, vindictive prime minister has done is
• 39:54
  Speaker 11: he's cut the number of staff that the opposition have
• 39:57
  Speaker 11: by about twenty so we'll end up with about eighty
• 40:01
  Speaker 11: staff for the front bench. In the meantime, his ministers
• 40:05
  Speaker 11: will have about five hundred staff at the minimum. And
• 40:08
  Speaker 11: then you've got all the government departments and so on.
• 40:12
  Speaker 11: So you've got a strong Labor Party who've won the election.
• 40:15
  Speaker 11: They've got a super majority in the Reps. They've got
• 40:18
  Speaker 11: a majority with the Greens in the Senate.
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: But what this.
• 40:21
  Speaker 11: Guy's doing, because he's a sore winner, and let's come
• 40:24
  Speaker 11: to it, that's what he is. He's a glass jaw
• 40:27
  Speaker 11: saw winner, is cutting the ability of the opposition to hold.
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: Him to account.
• 40:32
  Speaker 11: Now we'll kick fighting, but it just shows how weak
• 40:35
  Speaker 11: this prime minister is.
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: How hard is it to be an effective opposition with
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: that little resources? I mean an extraordinary that you just
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: said that the government's got five hundred staff compared to you,
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: down in small double figures. It must be extremely hard.
• 40:53
  Speaker 11: Look, it's always tough in opposition, but no one likes Awina.
• 40:57
  Speaker 11: We lost the election. Our job is to hold this
• 40:59
  Speaker 11: government account. But what the Prime Minister has done has
• 41:02
  Speaker 11: broken decades of a convention where the opposition, regardless of
• 41:07
  Speaker 11: their political color, have twenty one percent of the government staff.
• 41:11
  Speaker 11: Now both sides have thought that's fair. It has Kevin
• 41:14
  Speaker 11: rudstuck to it. At Tony Abbott and John Howard stuck
• 41:18
  Speaker 11: to it. That was fair and bipartisan. This guy, this
• 41:23
  Speaker 11: sore winner, has seen fit to cut the number of
• 41:26
  Speaker 11: opposition staff because he doesn't like being held to account.
• 41:30
  Speaker 11: And I'll remind your viewers that before the twenty twenty
• 41:33
  Speaker 11: two election he promised to lead the most accountable and
• 41:36
  Speaker 11: transparent government ever. But in fact it looks like it's
• 41:39
  Speaker 11: the opposite. He's going to lead the least accountable and
• 41:42
  Speaker 11: the least transparent government ever.
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: Has he tried to justify this? I mean, as you say,
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: isn't there It wasn't there. Well, there was a gentleman's agreement,
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: but should there not be some sort of ratio based
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: on seats? I know you've copped a battering. But I
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: would have thought that it would be sensible of the government,
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: given that you've been in opposition two terms, to basically
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: leave the staff in the offices of the people who
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: got reelected.
• 42:12
  Speaker 11: Well, these are a staff who are allocated to the
• 42:16
  Speaker 11: shadow Cabinet and the shadow ministry, And regardless of the
• 42:18
  Speaker 11: size of the party room, the work of the shadow
• 42:21
  Speaker 11: ministers such as myself, continues regardles whether we've got sixty
• 42:26
  Speaker 11: people in the party room or we've got one hundred
• 42:27
  Speaker 11: people in the party room, because it's all about holding
• 42:30
  Speaker 11: the government to account. Now there is this ratio, the
• 42:33
  Speaker 11: twenty one percent ratio. It's been there for decades. It's
• 42:38
  Speaker 11: been bipartisan. The Prime minister, his only rationale has been
• 42:42
  Speaker 11: that he's also cutting some staff from labor. But remember
• 42:47
  Speaker 11: he's cutting us by seventeen percent. We're losing about twenty staff.
• 42:52
  Speaker 11: He's going to reduce the total head count in labor
• 42:54
  Speaker 11: that they have for their ministerial staff by about ten
• 42:59
  Speaker 11: It's not on and it shows the arrogance of this
• 43:01
  Speaker 11: Prime minister. We want to hold them to account. We
• 43:04
  Speaker 11: are going to hold them to account. That just shows Australia.
• 43:07
  Speaker 11: What's in future for us over the coming years with
• 43:09
  Speaker 11: this Labour Green government.
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: You and I've been around a long time. How disappointed
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: were you on Saturday that the PM was not able
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: to come out after Donald Trump announced midnight hammer the
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: operation on Iran and say, well, I've got a call
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: from the President earlier today. He told me that we
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: were going to do this. Australia was probably involved with
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: some of our bases here in the country. How disappointed
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: were you that he couldn't do that because he's got
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: no relationship at all with the boss of our greatest
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: Ally's very sad.
• 43:45
  Speaker 11: It's disappointing. I would like to point out that the
• 43:47
  Speaker 11: opposition came out very strongly supporting America. America is our
• 43:52
  Speaker 11: most important la and regardless of the views that people
• 43:55
  Speaker 11: in the government may hold about President Trump, he is
• 43:58
  Speaker 11: the elected president of America and we should always support America,
• 44:03
  Speaker 11: especially in this instance where they were destroying Iran's nuclear facilities.
• 44:10
  Speaker 11: It is not going to be a peaceful world if
• 44:12
  Speaker 11: Iran has the ability to create nuclear weapons. So I'm disappointed,
• 44:20
  Speaker 11: almost angry, but disappointed that the Prime Minister was so
• 44:23
  Speaker 11: weak that it took so long to come out, but
• 44:26
  Speaker 11: we've perhaps should be surprised about this. This is the
• 44:28
  Speaker 11: guy who wants to take staff off an opposition who
• 44:31
  Speaker 11: just got thumped in an election. He's a weak, pathetic, petty,
• 44:36
  Speaker 11: vindictive Prime Minister.
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: Senator, thank you very much for your time. Welcome back
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: to Canberra. Imagine being back at Canberra where it's minus
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: four or five every morning. Now, now those new laws
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: I mentioned around Victoria Energy Company is going to be
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: able to erect transmission lines and towers on a farmer's
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: property and if they say no then they will be
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: fined by the Victorian state government. Can you believe that?
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: I'll talk to Brett Hoskin from the Farmers Federation next,
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: Welcome back Steve Pryce in for Andrew Bolt, Shari Marks
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: and coming up now, the Victorian government has legislation that
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: wo be introduced to the parliament. Can you believe there's
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: defined farmers who refuse to have transmission lines or towers
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: built on their properties. It's a disgraceful act and in
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: my view, with his government bullying of people who should
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: be looked after. These people, many of them have just
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: been going through a drought. A construction company turns up
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: says open your gate. I want to put a tower
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: up on your property. That bill will allow energy companies
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: to enter private land. It should not happen. This is
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: all for something called the Western Renewables Link and then
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: West joined now by Victorian Farmers Federation President Brett Hosking.
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: I don't need to tell you how bad this is.
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: Do you feel like you're being bullied?
• 45:51
  Speaker 12: I look at it. It is pretty tough at the moment, Steve.
• 45:54
  Speaker 12: In terms of Gavin just gone through a drought. I
• 45:57
  Speaker 12: think we're still in a drought. There was dust storms
• 45:59
  Speaker 12: up in the northern Victoria today. You know, farmers are
• 46:03
  Speaker 12: still doing it incredibly tough at the moment. We've we've
• 46:06
  Speaker 12: seen a number of challenges come our way at the
• 46:09
  Speaker 12: hands of decision makers in the past a few months
• 46:12
  Speaker 12: with emergency services, volunteer fund levies, tax on CFA volunteers
• 46:18
  Speaker 12: and you know, and now we're seeing as they stand
• 46:20
  Speaker 12: up VIC Grid, we're starting to see is.
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: These tactics around.
• 46:25
  Speaker 12: You know, finding farmers if they're not allowing people onto
• 46:28
  Speaker 12: their property and that sort of thing.
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: The guts of the law overrides your use of privately
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: owned land. Is that it.
• 46:39
  Speaker 12: Yeah, look it does you know, and I guess the
• 46:43
  Speaker 12: message for government, the message for Vicgrid, who will be
• 46:46
  Speaker 12: the agency that will be executing this is just because
• 46:50
  Speaker 12: you have a power doesn't mean it's the right thing
• 46:52
  Speaker 12: to do to use it. You know, we need them
• 46:55
  Speaker 12: to come out. We need them to engage with our landholders.
• 46:57
  Speaker 12: We need them actually sit down and negotiate in good
• 47:00
  Speaker 12: faith like the landholders themselves are willing to do. That's
• 47:04
  Speaker 12: not anything we've seen so far in this process. So
• 47:06
  Speaker 12: we need it to start happening, and start happening today.
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: Have you taken legal advice? Not yet?
• 47:14
  Speaker 12: No, I guess the legislation just hit Parliament last Wednesday,
• 47:18
  Speaker 12: had its first read, second read on Thursday, and then
• 47:22
  Speaker 12: our Victorian Parliament Parliament House must be cold over winter, Steve,
• 47:27
  Speaker 12: because they've taken a couple of weeks off until it
• 47:29
  Speaker 12: gets a little bit warmer at the end of the
• 47:31
  Speaker 12: end of July. So I'll be back to debate the legislation.
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: Then, Brett. I know my colleague Peter Kredlin, you know
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: this is hot on this as well. He and I
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: are going to throw a few punches towards Spring Street
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: between now and when Parliament comes back, so we'll keep
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: in touch with you mate. Just make sure you let
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: all those farmers know that they've got some friends in
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: town who are happy to go to the map for them.
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: So keep up the good work, mate, we'll catch up
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: with you. Appreciate God on your Brett hosking there from
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: the Victorian Farmers Federation. I mean that is just a
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: disgrace what they're trying to do there. I'll have more
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: to say about that on my show on Friday. And Peter,
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: I know he's going to get stuck into it as well.
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: I wanted to remind you all at home that sky
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: News dot com dot au. The subscription for that is
• 48:18
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• 48:20
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• 48:23
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• 48:27
  Speaker 2: That's it for me. Sharie's up next.