Latest / The Bolt Report / The Bolt Report | 29 September

Transcript

The Bolt Report | 29 September · The Bolt Report

0:07
Speaker 1: This is the Bolt Report. Good evening and welcome to
0:15
Speaker 1: The Bolt Report. I'm James McPherson.
0:17
Speaker 2: Here's what's coming up tonight as interest rates rise to 4.6%.
0:21
Speaker 2: The only thing hotter than inflation is the blame game.
0:24
Speaker 2: The Treasurer is saying one thing, the RBA another. I'll
0:27
Speaker 2: talk to Dan Tehan shortly. We've been promised a green
0:30
Speaker 2: dream will turn us into a renewable superpower, but is
0:34
Speaker 2: our over-reliance on cheap Chinese batteries making our entire way
0:38
Speaker 2: of life completely reliant on a foreign power system? I'll
0:41
Speaker 2: talk to Peter Jennings about the risks. And the Greens
0:44
Speaker 2: are in need of a new leader. I'm gonna get
0:47
Speaker 2: my panel to help me sift through the contenders, and
0:50
Speaker 2: I promise you, it is quite the lineup.
0:52
Speaker 1: We'll get to all of that shortly, but first.
0:55
Speaker 2: Emmy Award-winning actress Cameron Manheim was giving a speech at
0:58
Speaker 2: the Human Rights Campaign dinner over the weekend, where she
1:02
Speaker 2: revealed something apparently that every mother dreams about, a gay son.
1:08
Speaker 3: I always wanted a gay son.
1:12
Speaker 1: I did.
1:13
Speaker 4: Let's just admit it.
1:14
Speaker 3: Gay sons are the best, right?
1:17
Speaker 1: Well, there you have it. For years, we were told
1:19
Speaker 1: it was terribly.
1:20
Speaker 2: Wrong for parents to have expectations about their children's sexuality.
1:25
Speaker 2: Turns out that only applies to, you know, certain expectations
1:29
Speaker 2: like heterosexuality. Mannheim explained that during her child's son's childhood,
1:36
Speaker 2: things had been looking extremely promising. By which I mean,
1:39
Speaker 2: he was displaying all the approved cultural indicators.
1:44
Speaker 3: I have photographs of my son in high heels, in
1:48
Speaker 3: full drag. He knows every word to every musical ever written. Truly,
1:54
Speaker 3: I thought I had this thing locked up. But no, no,
1:59
Speaker 3: he's the only straight guy in his entire musical theater company.
2:05
Speaker 2: Imagine spending so many years carefully reading all the cultural
2:09
Speaker 2: tea leaves only to have your son come home and
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Speaker 2: announce he likes women.
2:14
Speaker 1: Where did she go so wrong? But it got even worse.
2:17
Speaker 2: Mannheim finished her speech by sharing that when she discovered
2:21
Speaker 2: her friend had a gay son, well, she reacted with
2:23
Speaker 2: the sort of envy normally reserved for someone finding out
2:26
Speaker 2: their friend had won Powerball.
2:28
Speaker 3: When Marsha called me... About 10 years ago, to tell
2:33
Speaker 3: me that her son had come out to her as gay,
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Speaker 3: all I said was, oh my God, you are so lucky!
2:41
Speaker 1: A couple of points. Why are the left so heterophobic?
2:46
Speaker 2: Can you imagine if she'd said that she wished her
2:48
Speaker 2: gay son was straight? Imagine her standing in front of a,
2:51
Speaker 2: I don't know, a Christian audience and sharing disappointment that
2:54
Speaker 2: her poor baby boy had turned out to be gay.
2:57
Speaker 1: If she'd done that, we would never hear the end
3:00
Speaker 1: of it. There'd be apologies, boycotts.
3:02
Speaker 2: Emergency statements from publicists, and I dare say her next
3:06
Speaker 2: acting role would be playing third woman from the left
3:10
Speaker 2: in a community theatre production of Oklahoma. But apparently, wishing
3:14
Speaker 2: your straight child was gay, well, that's charming.
3:17
Speaker 1: You heard the crowd cheering.
3:19
Speaker 2: In our supposedly non-judgmental culture, there are still some perfectly
3:24
Speaker 2: acceptable biases, apparently.
3:26
Speaker 1: They've just changed direction.
3:28
Speaker 2: And the cultural moment, well, it got even stranger during
3:31
Speaker 2: the week because at the same time that Mannheim was
3:34
Speaker 2: giving that speech, actress Naomi Watts was parading her trans
3:38
Speaker 2: son like a woke fashion accessory in front of the press.
3:54
Speaker 2: And all of this coincides with the publication of the
3:57
Speaker 2: latest edition of New York Magazine, in which this month's
4:01
Speaker 2: theme is men's style. So of all the stylish men
4:05
Speaker 2: they could find to put on the cover, who do
4:07
Speaker 2: you reckon they got? biological woman, Elliot Page, displaying the
4:12
Speaker 2: results of what they politely call chest surgery. Now, I'm
4:16
Speaker 2: not mocking any of this. I'm just noticing, which at
4:19
Speaker 2: the moment I think is still legal. Speaking of things
4:23
Speaker 2: you notice, how is it that during a cost of
4:26
Speaker 2: living crisis, when Australians are counting every dollar at the
4:29
Speaker 2: supermarket and wondering whether turning on the heater constitutes reckless
4:32
Speaker 2: financial behaviour, the taxpayer funded ABC still has money for this?
4:38
Speaker 3: Let's talk about kink.
4:40
Speaker 5: If someone is new to this kink and they want
4:42
Speaker 5: to start exploring it or exploring kink more generally, what's
4:45
Speaker 5: something they should take into consideration?
4:46
Speaker 6: Just reach out to your local pub.
4:49
Speaker 7: We're here to have fun, express ourselves and show the
4:52
Speaker 7: world what pubs are made of.
4:53
Speaker 3: Grace McKinnon, ABC News.
4:57
Speaker 2: Somewhere between covering wars, interest rates, the housing crisis and
5:00
Speaker 2: the cost of living, someone at the National Broadcaster decided
5:04
Speaker 2: Australians urgently needed to know how to get started in
5:08
Speaker 2: pup kink. There was once a quaint idea that institutions
5:12
Speaker 2: existed to reflect the society they served. Now, increasingly, it
5:16
Speaker 2: feels as though institutions exist to lecture society about what
5:20
Speaker 2: they ought to become. Hollywood celebrates a mum wishing her
5:25
Speaker 2: straight son was gay. A magazine's feature on men's style
5:29
Speaker 2: features a biological woman displaying chest surgery scars. And the
5:33
Speaker 2: ABC explains kink to taxpayers.
5:36
Speaker 1: Again, I'm not mocking.
5:37
Speaker 2: I'm just noticing, though increasingly noticing, maybe the most subversive
5:43
Speaker 2: thing you can do. Well, the Reserve Bank raised interest
5:50
Speaker 2: rates today for the fourth time this year and for
5:52
Speaker 2: the 15th time since the Albanese Labor government came to power.
5:56
Speaker 1: Here's Treasurer Jim Chalmers.
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Speaker 8: This is a full-blown cost-of-living crisis and now interest rate
6:03
Speaker 8: rises are about to be part of the pain.
6:07
Speaker 2: That, of course, was Jim Chalmers back in 2022 when
6:10
Speaker 2: Scott Morrison was Prime Minister and Jim Chalmers enjoyed the
6:13
Speaker 2: comfort of opinion without the discomfort of responsibility. Here's some
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Speaker 2: more of Jim Chalmers back in the day.
6:21
Speaker 8: If only you could pay your mortgage with Scott Morrison's excuses.
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Speaker 1: Nice line.
6:27
Speaker 2: If you could pay your mortgage with Scott Morrison's excuses, well,
6:30
Speaker 2: you could probably afford several mortgages in a couple of
6:33
Speaker 2: months in the Maldives using the excuses Jim Chalmers used
6:36
Speaker 2: is now producing for rate rises on his watch. Government
6:40
Speaker 2: spending at near record levels causing inflation?
6:44
Speaker 1: Don't be silly. Here he was today.
6:47
Speaker 8: A main driver of inflation in our economy and indeed
6:51
Speaker 8: around the world is the war in the Middle East.
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Speaker 8: Australians are paying a very hefty price for that war
6:56
Speaker 8: in the Middle East and today that price became a
7:00
Speaker 8: bit steeper.
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Speaker 2: Just in case you missed the memo about this rate
7:04
Speaker 2: rise having nothing to do with Labor's excessive spending and
7:07
Speaker 2: everything to do with events overseas, events for which the
7:11
Speaker 2: Albanese government could not possibly be held responsible, here's some
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Speaker 2: more of Jim Chalmers today.
7:17
Speaker 8: Made worse by the war in the Middle East. The
7:19
Speaker 8: war in the Middle East turbocharged by a war on
7:22
Speaker 8: the other side of the world. Australians are paying a
7:25
Speaker 8: very hefty price for that war in the Middle East.
7:28
Speaker 8: Re-escalation of... The war in the Middle East, a big
7:32
Speaker 8: driver of that is the war in the Middle East,
7:34
Speaker 8: prolonged war in the Middle East. A main driver of
7:37
Speaker 8: inflation in our economy and indeed around the world is
7:40
Speaker 8: the war in the Middle East, re-escalation of the war
7:43
Speaker 8: in the Middle East, war in the Middle East, re-escalation
7:46
Speaker 8: of the war.
7:48
Speaker 2: In a 20-minute press conference, Jim Chalmers mentioned the war
7:51
Speaker 2: in Iran 10 times. Jim Chalmers blamed Australia's interest rate
7:55
Speaker 2: rise on the Iranian war so many times, I imagine
7:59
Speaker 2: even the Ayatollah was starting to feel a little defensive.
8:03
Speaker 2: Here's Jim Chalmers back in 2022 when rates rose under
8:06
Speaker 2: the coalition government.
8:08
Speaker 8: This Prime Minister has an excuse for everything and a
8:11
Speaker 8: plan for nothing.
8:14
Speaker 2: And here's Jim Chalmers with rates rising on his watch today.
8:18
Speaker 8: The Reserve Bank statement makes it really clear that we
8:22
Speaker 8: have an inflation challenge in our economy which is made
8:24
Speaker 8: worse by the war in the Middle East. The statement
8:28
Speaker 8: makes it abundantly clear that one of the main drivers
8:32
Speaker 8: of inflation in our economy is a conflict on the
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Speaker 8: other side of the world.
8:37
Speaker 2: Like he said back in 2022, an excuse for everything.
8:41
Speaker 2: But then came an awkward interruption to the excuse factory.
8:44
Speaker 2: Just minutes after Chalmers blamed Trump for all his woes,
8:48
Speaker 2: the RBA Governor Michelle Bullock indicated the war in Iran
8:50
Speaker 2: was a factor, but she said the biggest problems were
8:54
Speaker 2: domestic pressures, low productivity and higher than expected spending.
8:59
Speaker 9: Inflation is too high and has been driven by domestic
9:01
Speaker 9: capacity pressures. The inflation impulse from the Middle East conflict
9:06
Speaker 9: is in addition to this. Domestic spending and investment have
9:10
Speaker 9: been stronger than expected.
9:12
Speaker 1: So there it is. The war matters.
9:14
Speaker 2: But according to the Reserve Bank, it's in addition to
9:17
Speaker 2: the domestic inflationary pressures, which is a slightly inconvenient phrase
9:22
Speaker 2: when the Treasurer has just spent 20 minutes explaining why
9:25
Speaker 2: Australians should look exclusively overseas for someone else to blame.
9:29
Speaker 1: But Michelle Bullock went a little further.
9:32
Speaker 2: She said interest rates couldn't come down while demand continued
9:35
Speaker 2: to outstrip supply within the economy, and so the onus
9:38
Speaker 2: was on the government, I'll use her words here, to
9:41
Speaker 2: grease the wheels of the economy by easing regulations to
9:45
Speaker 2: boost productivity.
9:46
Speaker 1: Grease the wheels.
9:48
Speaker 2: That sounds like a pretty reasonable economic prescription. The only
9:52
Speaker 2: problem is that this government, with its renewable fantasies and
9:56
Speaker 2: its love of the public service, seems rather more interested
10:00
Speaker 2: in putting sticks in the spokes. Well, joining me now
10:07
Speaker 2: for more on today's rate rise is Shadow Energy and
10:09
Speaker 2: Emissions Reduction Minister Dan Tehan.
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Speaker 1: Dan, welcome to the program.
10:13
Speaker 2: Just imagine with me for a moment that we had
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Speaker 2: a government in Canberra that did take responsibility for the
10:18
Speaker 2: state of the economy. What would such a government be
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Speaker 2: doing to get inflation under control?
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Speaker 10: Well, the first thing they'd be doing is they'd be
10:28
Speaker 10: cutting spending. And as we know, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has
10:32
Speaker 10: an addiction to spending like he has an addiction to spin.
10:37
Speaker 10: And it's incredible seeing your introduction there, James, because it
10:41
Speaker 10: just highlights the absolute hypocrisy.
10:45
Speaker 6: Of Jim Chalmers.
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Speaker 10: And now that he is the Treasurer, the fact that
10:48
Speaker 10: he's got no idea about what he's doing. I mean,
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Speaker 10: two things he needs to do, stop the spending and
10:55
Speaker 10: get productivity going. And, you know, as Michelle Bullock said,
11:00
Speaker 10: you know, grease the wheels. Well, the problem is I
11:04
Speaker 10: think grease is still a fossil fuel, so they're probably
11:06
Speaker 10: allergic to using it. So that's why we're not doing
11:10
Speaker 10: anything on productivity. I mean, it is, it's a farce
11:14
Speaker 10: and the sad reality is, households are going to pay
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Speaker 10: the bill and they're paying an ever-increasing bill and they're
11:21
Speaker 10: looking at the government just saying, no plan, no idea,
11:25
Speaker 10: and please, please stop hurting us like you are.
11:29
Speaker 2: Well, I wanted to ask you about how you think
11:31
Speaker 2: this plays with the public. I mean, we're all aware
11:34
Speaker 2: there's a war in the Middle East and we all
11:36
Speaker 2: are aware that it's putting huge pressure on the economy,
11:40
Speaker 2: including jacking up inflation. So we're not denying that's a
11:44
Speaker 2: part of it. But the fact Chalmers, as I said,
11:47
Speaker 2: mentioned it 10 times in just 20 minutes. Clearly, that's
11:51
Speaker 2: the thing he wants people to be focusing on. Do
11:53
Speaker 2: you think Australians will will swallow that?
11:58
Speaker 6: I don't think so.
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Speaker 10: And I think Australians are really starting to wake up
12:01
Speaker 10: to the fact that we've got higher debt and it's
12:05
Speaker 10: ever-increasing debt, both at the state level and at the
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Speaker 10: federal level. They know that the government is spending and
12:13
Speaker 10: can't stop spending. And they're not stupid. So they understand, sure,
12:18
Speaker 10: as you said, the war has played a part of this.
12:21
Speaker 6: There's no question about it. But I would say also.
12:24
Speaker 10: If Chris Bowen had done his job and we'd had
12:27
Speaker 10: more oil exploration and more oil.
12:29
Speaker 6: Production, we mightn't be as reliant as.
12:31
Speaker 10: We are on overseas oil because that's hurting us. There's
12:36
Speaker 10: no question about that. But everyone knows that if you're
12:39
Speaker 10: going to... do anything about inflation. You've got to cut
12:42
Speaker 10: your spending. And the data out over the last few days,
12:46
Speaker 10: which shows we've basically got the highest spending government in
12:51
Speaker 10: about 30 years and the highest taxing government in about
12:56
Speaker 10: 30 years, just shows that this government just cannot deal
13:01
Speaker 10: with inflation. I think the Australian people are absolutely awake
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Speaker 10: to that.
13:05
Speaker 2: Dantien, you can't be the highest spending government if you're
13:08
Speaker 2: not also the highest taxing government.
13:10
Speaker 1: I mean, those two things go together.
13:13
Speaker 2: To emphasise just how tough things are under Labor, as
13:15
Speaker 2: if we needed more evidence, have a look at the
13:17
Speaker 2: latest Demography International Housing Affordability Report, which has listed the
13:22
Speaker 2: world's 10 least affordable cities. We'll put them up on
13:26
Speaker 2: screen for viewers here. Four of the 10 least affordable
13:29
Speaker 2: cities in the world... Our Australian city, Sydney, was ranked
13:33
Speaker 2: second least affordable, coming just shy of Hong Kong with
13:37
Speaker 2: a score of 14, meaning the average house price in
13:39
Speaker 2: Sydney is 14 times.
13:42
Speaker 2: The median household income. Adelaide came in as fourth least affordable,
13:46
Speaker 2: Brisbane eighth, Melbourne ninth. And that's despite the housing market
13:50
Speaker 2: crash we saw thanks to Labor's budget changes in May.
13:53
Speaker 2: I can understand why house prices are sky high, say
13:57
Speaker 2: on islands like Hong Kong, Singapore, but for a country
14:00
Speaker 2: like ours to have the highest housing prices in the
14:04
Speaker 2: world is just nuts.
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Speaker 10: It is nuts and it once again shows a complete failure.
14:11
Speaker 10: And here it's at all levels of government, especially at
14:14
Speaker 10: the state government level, to be not releasing the land
14:17
Speaker 10: and to literally cut some of these building codes. But
14:21
Speaker 10: it's getting worse because you will have seen the Reserve
14:25
Speaker 10: Bank Governor in the note that came out today also
14:27
Speaker 10: saying that housing loans have plummeted. So the sad reality
14:33
Speaker 10: is that housing prices are high, even though we've got
14:36
Speaker 10: so much land. But we're also seeing because of government
14:39
Speaker 10: policy and mainly their taxes in the budget, that all
14:43
Speaker 10: of a sudden housing loans have fallen through the floor.
14:46
Speaker 10: So especially first homeowners. and not getting access to the
14:51
Speaker 10: loans they need to get into the market. It's a
14:53
Speaker 10: complete catastrophe. And I'll be very interested to see what
14:58
Speaker 10: Claire O'Neill's got to say tomorrow about this, because she's
15:02
Speaker 10: been saying this was all about getting young Australians into
15:05
Speaker 10: a home. Well, the Reserve Bank data shows that clearly
15:08
Speaker 10: that is not happening.
15:11
Speaker 2: Dan, climate change and energy minister Chris Bowen has come
15:14
Speaker 2: out swinging against your new energy policy. He's told the
15:17
Speaker 2: Australian newspaper that your plan is a coal keeper crusade
15:21
Speaker 2: created by deniers and delayers. Tell you what, if alliteration
15:26
Speaker 2: could power the grid, Chris Bowen would be a raging success.
15:29
Speaker 2: He claims renewables are actually making our grid more reliable
15:33
Speaker 2: because they've been filling the gaps left by ageing, unreliable
15:36
Speaker 2: coal-fired power stations, which he says break down every single day.
15:40
Speaker 2: And it's actually these breakdowns that are spiking prices, not
15:43
Speaker 2: the intermittency of renewables.
15:46
Speaker 1: Is he right?
15:48
Speaker 6: No, he's not right.
15:49
Speaker 10: And everything with Chris Bowen is completely and utterly laughable.
15:54
Speaker 10: He's saying that coal, baseload power, is unreliable. Well, you know,
16:00
Speaker 10: we all rooftop solar, large-scale wind, large-scale solar. They have
16:06
Speaker 10: its part. But, you know, what happens when the sun's
16:09
Speaker 10: not shining and the wind's not blowing? They're not doing
16:12
Speaker 10: anything either. And the fact is that coal's their 24-hour
16:17
Speaker 10: day doing its role. And, sure, there has to be
16:20
Speaker 10: maintenance and there's got to be repair of.
16:23
Speaker 6: of certain parts and everything like that, we all get that.
16:25
Speaker 10: But if it's not there, then we've got real problems.
16:29
Speaker 10: And the proof of this is in what state governments
16:32
Speaker 10: are doing. Labor state governments in New South Wales and
16:35
Speaker 10: Victoria are paying to keep coal.
16:39
Speaker 6: Why?
16:39
Speaker 10: Because they need it for reliability and they need it
16:42
Speaker 10: for affordability.
16:43
Speaker 6: And that's why our policy is so sensible.
16:46
Speaker 10: And I've got to say, James, if Chris Bowen's out
16:48
Speaker 10: criticising our policy, I know that we've done something right.
16:52
Speaker 10: Because if he was agreeing with it, I'd be saying,
16:55
Speaker 10: we've made a few errors here. But the fact that
16:58
Speaker 10: he's out saying... This is not good policy. I'm wearing
17:01
Speaker 10: that as a badge of honour. We've done the right
17:03
Speaker 10: thing and we're going to keep going and keep selling it.
17:05
Speaker 6: Just to remind your viewers, net zero goes.
17:09
Speaker 10: We're going to absolutely say to the regulators, affordability has
17:13
Speaker 10: to be front and centre of what you do and
17:16
Speaker 10: that's going to drive everything about our energy policy is affordability,
17:21
Speaker 10: reliability and security.
17:23
Speaker 2: If Chris Bowen doesn't like it, it's a good idea.
17:26
Speaker 2: I can't fault that logic, Dan. That's perfect. Another one
17:30
Speaker 2: of Labor's green energy brainwaves is threatening to hike the
17:33
Speaker 2: price of flights. The government has mandated that biofuels have
17:37
Speaker 2: to be blended into Australia's aviation fuel supplies. The problem,
17:40
Speaker 2: of course, is biofuels cost up to five times more
17:44
Speaker 2: than traditional jet fuel. So what do you reckon Qantas
17:47
Speaker 2: and Virgin are thinking about doing? Will they do what
17:50
Speaker 2: any of us would do if we were running businesses?
17:52
Speaker 2: They're considering adding a fuel levy to the price of
17:55
Speaker 2: airline tickets. Dan, this is more bad news for Australians.
18:00
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
18:01
Speaker 6: This is a carbon tax on your air ticket. That's
18:05
Speaker 6: what it is, pure and simple.
18:07
Speaker 10: So In a cost of living crisis, when we've just
18:09
Speaker 10: had another interest rate rise, what's the government thinking of doing?
18:14
Speaker 6: Jacking up the price of an airline ticket.
18:17
Speaker 10: So when you want to fly and see your loved
18:19
Speaker 10: ones for Christmas, you're going to pay more, thanks to
18:22
Speaker 10: Chris Bowen and Anthony Albanese. I mean, they just cannot
18:25
Speaker 10: stop these green taxes. And that's why we've said we'll
18:29
Speaker 10: take a chainsaw to them, every single one of them,
18:32
Speaker 10: because all it does is put costs into your economy
18:36
Speaker 10: and make everything more expensive. And you think of the
18:40
Speaker 10: food that's freighted around this country, that'll go up as
18:44
Speaker 10: a result of this, because all their green ideology comes
18:48
Speaker 10: with a cost.
18:49
Speaker 6: And this is just another example of it. And they.
18:53
Speaker 10: They just won't stop until they've made people poorer and
18:57
Speaker 10: poorer and poorer, sadly.
19:00
Speaker 2: Dan Tehan, you're obviously very smart and very intelligent, but
19:03
Speaker 2: it occurs to me you actually don't need to be
19:05
Speaker 2: that smart to be the opposition energy minister. You just
19:09
Speaker 2: make up your policies by looking at what Chris Bowen's
19:11
Speaker 2: doing and do the exact opposite, right?
19:15
Speaker 6: Well, I've got to say, James, I think you're onto something.
19:18
Speaker 10: You know, the fact that he's come out and criticised
19:20
Speaker 10: our policy, I literally do take that as a badge
19:22
Speaker 10: of honour.
19:23
Speaker 1: I think if we just.
19:24
Speaker 10: Keep doing the opposite to what he's doing, we're going
19:26
Speaker 10: to go well. I'll tell you what we won't do.
19:28
Speaker 10: We won't spend $ 150 million sending activists and bureaucrats and
19:33
Speaker 10: politicians to Fiji and.
19:35
Speaker 6: To Bulu either.
19:36
Speaker 10: So there's another example of doing the complete opposite to
19:40
Speaker 10: what Chris Bowen's doing, because that's next week.
19:43
Speaker 6: During a cost of living crisis, another interest rate rise.
19:47
Speaker 6: Guess where Chris.
19:48
Speaker 10: Is going with all these activists? going to Fiji and
19:51
Speaker 10: Tuvalu to get away from it. Australians will struggle with
19:55
Speaker 10: another cost to their household balance sheet.
19:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, very good point. Dan Tehan, always a delight to
20:01
Speaker 2: catch up. Thanks so much for joining me tonight. All right,
20:04
Speaker 2: after the break, will our over-reliance on Chinese batteries come
20:08
Speaker 2: back to bite us? And OpenAI says sorry for breaking
20:11
Speaker 2: into Medicare, so should we kiss and make up? Peter
20:14
Speaker 2: Jennings will answer those questions after the break. The founder
20:22
Speaker 2: of Australian battery startup, Sakona, has warned the Albanese government
20:25
Speaker 2: that Australia's over-reliance on cheap Chinese batteries poses a serious
20:29
Speaker 2: risk to our national sovereignty. This comes after previous warnings
20:33
Speaker 2: that Chinese batteries could potentially be booby-trapped with software capable
20:38
Speaker 2: of making them explode, rather like the pages Israel turned
20:41
Speaker 2: into disguised bombs to take out Hezbollah operatives. So that's
20:46
Speaker 2: one problem, but there's another threat, and this one doesn't
20:48
Speaker 2: require anyone to press a button. Sukona founder Christian Jordan
20:52
Speaker 2: says that if Australia ever found itself at war with China,
20:56
Speaker 2: Beijing could cripple us by simply cutting off the supply
20:59
Speaker 2: of batteries. Because if Chinese batteries are powering everything from
21:02
Speaker 2: our cars to our energy grid, and China suddenly decides
21:06
Speaker 2: it's no longer interested in supplying them, well, then eventually
21:09
Speaker 2: Australia just, you know, kind of stops. And this is
21:13
Speaker 2: the extraordinary vulnerability created when a country becomes so dependent
21:17
Speaker 2: on on a foreign power for critical infrastructure. Our entire
21:20
Speaker 2: way of life rests on the goodwill of a communist
21:24
Speaker 2: foreign power. Perhaps the most remarkable part of the renewable
21:29
Speaker 2: energy transition is this very point. Our government is assuring
21:32
Speaker 2: us that they're making us more secure by increasing our
21:35
Speaker 2: dependence on a foreign adversary. Joining me now is News24
21:39
Speaker 2: defence analyst Peter Jennings.
21:42
Speaker 1: Peter, welcome to the program. How real is this threat
21:45
Speaker 1: and what should we be doing about it?
21:47
Speaker 4: So, James, first, great to be here in Sydney with you.
21:50
Speaker 4: This is a real threat. By changing the electricity grid
21:53
Speaker 4: to much more dependence on renewables and batteries... What's happening
21:58
Speaker 4: is that there are thousands of new attack vectors, as
22:02
Speaker 4: the cyber specialists call them, where the grid can be
22:06
Speaker 4: hacked effectively. And because most of those components come from China,
22:12
Speaker 4: what that means is that we're giving the Chinese the
22:14
Speaker 4: capacity to hack into our system, overload the grid. It
22:18
Speaker 4: becomes a very much more sensitive piece of critical infrastructure
22:21
Speaker 4: when you've got thousands and thousands of inputs. So we
22:24
Speaker 4: should be taking it seriously. And I think the pace
22:28
Speaker 4: of the so-called green energy revolution means that cyber security
22:32
Speaker 4: is not keeping up. And so there's a whole new
22:35
Speaker 4: vulnerability which is being applied to a critical part of
22:38
Speaker 4: Australian infrastructure.
22:39
Speaker 2: I hear warnings like this and I suppose my initial
22:42
Speaker 2: reaction is we're too far down the path now to
22:45
Speaker 2: do anything. I mean, as you said, these Chinese pieces
22:48
Speaker 2: of infrastructure are right through the grid now. Is it
22:52
Speaker 2: too late to go back? And if we were to
22:54
Speaker 2: try and undo all of this, where would we even start?
22:57
Speaker 4: It's never too late to try and strengthen national security,
23:00
Speaker 4: I guess is my line. The first thing that I
23:02
Speaker 4: think we have to do is work out, can we
23:04
Speaker 4: put technical overlays over the ability of foreign countries to
23:09
Speaker 4: remotely access these batteries and other grid components? you know,
23:15
Speaker 4: they're often sold as actually being a plus that a
23:18
Speaker 4: country can remotely hack in to alter your settings and
23:22
Speaker 4: things of that nature. So we can potentially put some
23:24
Speaker 4: sort of overlay on that. But you make a good point.
23:28
Speaker 4: We've gone so far and so fast down this particular track,
23:31
Speaker 4: it is going to take a remedial effort to bring
23:34
Speaker 4: it back. And that means a lot more spending on
23:36
Speaker 4: cyber security.
23:38
Speaker 2: If electric batteries are now so ubiquitous through everything, should
23:41
Speaker 2: we be manufacturing our own?
23:44
Speaker 4: We should, or we should certainly be manufacturing the components
23:47
Speaker 4: that connect these things to the grid. You know, in
23:50
Speaker 4: some respects, I think we're always going to be reliant
23:52
Speaker 4: on China for the cheap supplies of lithium and things
23:55
Speaker 4: of that nature. But we can at least provide the
23:58
Speaker 4: sort of technical overlay of protection. What I think has
24:02
Speaker 4: happened here is that so many companies are now involved
24:05
Speaker 4: in providing into this bonanza of solar and wind. But
24:10
Speaker 4: a lot of them are small and they don't really
24:12
Speaker 4: have the capacity to manage their own cyber security. So
24:15
Speaker 4: there are things that can be done, but we are
24:17
Speaker 4: certainly coming from behind in terms of our security situation
24:20
Speaker 4: right now.
24:21
Speaker 6: All right.
24:21
Speaker 2: Well, speaking of defence, Deputy PM and Defence Minister Richard
24:25
Speaker 2: Miles is facing bipartisan backlash after appearing to mock generals
24:29
Speaker 2: who were stationed at the historic Victoria barracks in Sydney,
24:32
Speaker 2: which his government wants to sell. Here he was making
24:35
Speaker 2: some inflammatory comments on News 24.
24:38
Speaker 7: It is not my priority for Defence to be a
24:40
Speaker 7: heritage organisation. It's not my priority to see Defence manage
24:44
Speaker 7: the oldest wine cellar in Australia. It's nice that it's
24:47
Speaker 7: at Victoria Barracks, Sydney, but it's not core interest. So
24:49
Speaker 7: to put this in the hands of the diggers is
24:51
Speaker 7: actually quite wrong. You know, there are a few former
24:54
Speaker 7: generals who liked hanging out there who are lamenting this.
25:00
Speaker 1: Wow, shots fired.
25:01
Speaker 2: Liberal Senator Jess Collins, who's chairing an upper house inquiry
25:04
Speaker 2: into Labor's proposed divestment of 67 military sites nationwide, says
25:09
Speaker 2: the defence minister is punching down on those he's supposed
25:12
Speaker 2: to be leading and that his position is now untenable.
25:15
Speaker 2: And even New South Wales Labor MP Greg Warren slammed
25:18
Speaker 2: Miles as arrogant, calling the remarks a disrespectful and absurd response...
25:24
Speaker 2: that displays a serious lack of understanding. Peter, of all
25:27
Speaker 2: the things that could bring the Defence Minister into disrepute
25:31
Speaker 2: with Diggers, this was probably not the one I had
25:34
Speaker 2: in mind.
25:35
Speaker 4: No, it was very sulky stuff, and I have to
25:37
Speaker 4: say the last refuge of the scoundrel for a guy
25:40
Speaker 4: that likes to be in the front end of the
25:42
Speaker 4: VIP flights that he takes very regularly from his electorate. Look,
25:47
Speaker 4: there's a couple of points which I think are really
25:49
Speaker 4: worth making here. The first is... There is no big
25:52
Speaker 4: money that can be made to be put back into
25:55
Speaker 4: defence by selling these sorts of properties. Victoria Barracks is
25:59
Speaker 4: always going to be heritage listed. At best, it might
26:03
Speaker 4: remove into the ownership of New South Wales and be
26:05
Speaker 4: turned into a museum, something of that nature. No money
26:08
Speaker 4: for defence is going to come from that. And what
26:11
Speaker 4: is going to happen to the military is that they're
26:13
Speaker 4: going to be moved into a defence plaza, it's called,
26:16
Speaker 4: in Pitt Street, which is pretty unimpressive accommodation. The other
26:20
Speaker 4: thing is Victoria Barracks can actually act because of parade
26:23
Speaker 4: grounds as a site where helicopters can go if there's
26:26
Speaker 4: a counter-terrorism operation required in the city. And I think
26:31
Speaker 4: Richard Miles, you know, frankly, in putting out this policy,
26:33
Speaker 4: he didn't consult widely enough. He didn't think deeply enough.
26:37
Speaker 4: The other group of people that are complaining to him
26:40
Speaker 4: are his own backbenchers because they don't want to see
26:42
Speaker 4: these properties being sold off either. So he's created a
26:46
Speaker 4: horrible mistake for himself. And to sound as arrogant and
26:49
Speaker 4: out of touch as he did and so unconcerned with
26:52
Speaker 4: what defence people are thinking, I think that's a very
26:54
Speaker 4: bad mark for a defence minister.
26:56
Speaker 1: Indeed.
26:56
Speaker 2: All right, I want to ask you about OpenAI. They've
27:00
Speaker 2: apologised after one of their AI agents went rogue and
27:03
Speaker 2: hacked into Australian government websites in a lengthy blog post
27:07
Speaker 2: which they entitled Rebuilding Trust with Australians. They said they
27:12
Speaker 2: should have handled their response to this better and they
27:15
Speaker 2: announced they will fly their chief strategy officer to Australia
27:19
Speaker 2: to appear before the Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence
27:22
Speaker 2: that's sitting on October 6. Is this apology and an
27:27
Speaker 2: in-person briefing sufficient?
27:30
Speaker 4: Look, I think it's probably the right steps for the
27:32
Speaker 4: company to take. They clearly made a mistake here. They
27:36
Speaker 4: unleashed one of their agent's out onto the internet, into
27:41
Speaker 4: the wild, you might say, without really having thought enough
27:43
Speaker 4: about how to protect the systems that they were moving into.
27:49
Speaker 4: So I think looking a bit apologetic is the right
27:51
Speaker 4: thing to do. The other thing that I think all
27:54
Speaker 4: of these companies should be worried about, James, is that
27:56
Speaker 4: just as we're actually becoming more dependent on AI, people
27:59
Speaker 4: are becoming more suspicious about it. You know, what does
28:01
Speaker 4: it mean for me? What will it mean for my job?
28:03
Speaker 4: Those sorts of things. So the companies need to do
28:06
Speaker 4: a better job of engaging And I think rather than
28:09
Speaker 4: just beating them up in committees, what we should be
28:12
Speaker 4: doing is trying to find intelligent ways to talk to
28:14
Speaker 4: them to see if we can cooperate.
28:16
Speaker 2: Well, at the same time as they're doing a mea
28:18
Speaker 2: culpa to the Australian government, OpenAI has just announced they
28:22
Speaker 2: won't be releasing their latest artificial intelligence model. It's called
28:25
Speaker 2: ChatGPT Astra 6.1 after internal testing found it didn't meet requirements.
28:31
Speaker 2: Safety requirements. Now, this is what they have said specifically.
28:35
Speaker 2: It didn't quite meet the bar in terms of staying
28:38
Speaker 2: within scope and authorisation, which I suppose, in other words,
28:42
Speaker 2: means it went rogue.
28:44
Speaker 4: Yeah, you want your chat GPTs to be staying in scope,
28:46
Speaker 4: I think would be my advice there. So they'll release
28:49
Speaker 4: chat GPT 6.2 in a few months' time and that
28:51
Speaker 4: will be so much better. You know, the demand for
28:54
Speaker 4: these things remains great. People want them. They want to
28:57
Speaker 4: be able to talk to Claude. They want to be
28:59
Speaker 4: able to have these sorts of interactions. this cannot be stopped, James,
29:04
Speaker 4: but we need more intelligent, more thoughtful approaches, both on
29:07
Speaker 4: the part of the private sector and governments, to make
29:10
Speaker 4: sure that it can be managed without crazy things happening.
29:12
Speaker 6: Yeah, very good point.
29:13
Speaker 1: Peter Jennings, always a joy to catch up. Thanks so
29:16
Speaker 1: much for joining me on the desk.
29:17
Speaker 4: Thank you.
29:17
Speaker 2: All right, coming up after the break, we head to
29:20
Speaker 2: the USA, where President Trump has spoken out over the
29:23
Speaker 2: foiled UK terrorist plot. And what did Donald Trump show
29:27
Speaker 2: the Chinese president to make him laugh so much?
29:29
Speaker 1: That's up next with Sean Spicer.
29:35
Speaker 2: Well, five men arrested yesterday over a suspected bomb plot
29:38
Speaker 2: at a UK military base have been released on bail,
29:41
Speaker 2: which is incredibly strange. I mean, post a funky comment
29:45
Speaker 2: on social media and the British police are inclined to
29:48
Speaker 2: lock you up and lose the key. Get caught in
29:50
Speaker 2: what looks like a plan to explode bombs on a
29:53
Speaker 2: military base used by American planes for missions against Iran
29:56
Speaker 2: and you're out on bail the next day. Here's the
29:59
Speaker 2: UK's head of counter-terrorism policing, Lawrence Taylor.
30:03
Speaker 11: The five men who were arrested are being released on
30:06
Speaker 11: police bail this afternoon. To be very clear, this does
30:11
Speaker 11: not mean that the investigation is over. They are subject
30:15
Speaker 11: to stringent conditions on their movement and contact with others.
30:20
Speaker 1: And then, extraordinarily, he added this.
30:23
Speaker 11: Be assured, we are considering this from every possible angle.
30:28
Speaker 11: including that this may be actively committed by proxies or
30:34
Speaker 11: individuals either knowingly or unknowingly working on behalf of a
30:38
Speaker 11: foreign state.
30:40
Speaker 2: So you've got five men who counter-terrorism police say may
30:44
Speaker 2: have been part of an Iranian plot to attack a
30:47
Speaker 2: British military base out on bail. But don't worry, they're
30:50
Speaker 2: subject to stringent conditions. Well, thank God for that. US
30:54
Speaker 2: President Donald Trump could barely hide his dismay.
30:58
Speaker 12: I would have said, don't let them have bail, cashless bail.
31:03
Speaker 12: I wonder, is it cashless bail, I guess? I'm surprised
31:06
Speaker 12: that they released them. I wouldn't have done that. Look,
31:08
Speaker 12: they've been very good. They worked with us very closely.
31:11
Speaker 12: We know everything about them. We would not have released them.
31:15
Speaker 2: Joining me now is former White House press secretary to
31:18
Speaker 2: Donald Trump, Sean Spicer. Good evening, Sean. Great to have
31:21
Speaker 2: you on the program. Obviously, this is being monitored very
31:24
Speaker 2: closely in the United States because the alleged attack was
31:27
Speaker 2: on a Royal Air Force base being used by US
31:31
Speaker 2: forces against Iran. When the men were arrested, Trump told
31:34
Speaker 2: reporters he knew all about what was going on and
31:37
Speaker 2: that America had been monitoring the situation even before the arrests.
31:41
Speaker 2: Now the Brits have released them in on bail and
31:43
Speaker 2: Trump says there's no way he would have done that.
31:46
Speaker 1: What's going on here?
31:48
Speaker 4: Well, James, I mean, look, you noted it.
31:50
Speaker 13: They're monitoring very stringently. It's very stringent. So, I mean,
31:54
Speaker 13: if they want to blow something else up, there's a
31:57
Speaker 13: good chance, a decent chance they'll know about it. So,
32:00
Speaker 13: you know, rest assured that it's very stringent. Here's the
32:04
Speaker 13: thing that I don't understand. Is it worse that it's
32:07
Speaker 13: on a Royal Air Force base, meaning that potentially it
32:10
Speaker 13: was an attack on the homeland? or that it was
32:13
Speaker 13: an attack on the United States, an ally of yours.
32:15
Speaker 13: I'm not sure. But in either case, the notion that
32:18
Speaker 13: you can describe it as that serious and then say,
32:22
Speaker 13: but guys, none of them are getting dessert tonight. None
32:25
Speaker 13: of them. They are not getting dessert when they get home.
32:28
Speaker 13: This is being taken very seriously. The degree to which
32:32
Speaker 13: this is being reflected here in the United States, I
32:35
Speaker 13: think that President Trump was extremely restrained And hopefully behind
32:40
Speaker 13: the scenes, we're having a much more serious conversation. But
32:43
Speaker 13: if I were the British citizenry, I would be equally
32:47
Speaker 13: concerned that if, God forbid, these individuals were trying to
32:51
Speaker 13: cause harm to the base because it's British as opposed
32:54
Speaker 13: to it being used by the Americans, that that's how
32:57
Speaker 13: you're treating threats to the homeland. The entire thing literally
33:02
Speaker 13: boggles my mind. And I couldn't have possibly scripted it worse.
33:08
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
33:09
Speaker 2: Well, in that same press conference, Donald Trump was asked
33:11
Speaker 2: about petrol prices, and his response was essentially this. You
33:15
Speaker 2: think petrol prices are bad? Imagine a nuclear war.
33:18
Speaker 1: Take a look.
33:20
Speaker 12: When the war ends, two things are going to happen.
33:24
Speaker 12: The one thing already has happened. Iran will never have
33:27
Speaker 12: a nuclear weapon. That's a very big thing. Because if
33:30
Speaker 12: you want to see turmoil and a travesty, let them
33:35
Speaker 12: take out a city with a nuclear weapon. Let them
33:37
Speaker 12: hit us with a nuclear weapon. For all those stupid
33:40
Speaker 12: people that think it's OK, I deal with them. And
33:43
Speaker 12: they are crazy. There's no question about it. They are
33:45
Speaker 12: very crazy people. I tell them that all the time.
33:48
Speaker 12: I said, you're crazy, man.
33:49
Speaker 2: So like I said, Sean, that response was to a
33:52
Speaker 2: question about petrol prices. Just help us understand Trump's thinking there.
33:59
Speaker 13: Well, look, gas prices are the most visible part of
34:04
Speaker 13: people's budget. Whether you're filling your tank up or not, generally,
34:07
Speaker 13: I get up in the morning, I go get a
34:09
Speaker 13: cup of coffee, and there's a gas station next to
34:11
Speaker 13: the place where I get it. And I look at
34:12
Speaker 13: the price almost every morning. And it is the most
34:15
Speaker 13: tangible and visible way that Americans can determine something that
34:18
Speaker 13: is having an impact on their budget. So whether you
34:21
Speaker 13: commute to work, you drop these kids off, you drive
34:24
Speaker 13: an Uber or whatever it is.
34:25
Speaker 6: Most people.
34:26
Speaker 13: are impacted by the price of gas. And the president
34:28
Speaker 13: was trying to explain that, yes, this is a short-term
34:31
Speaker 13: problem that's affecting your budget and your affordability, but God
34:37
Speaker 13: forbid we don't take this issue head on and the
34:40
Speaker 13: Iranians were to do something absolutely horrific and horrible. Can
34:45
Speaker 13: you imagine the consequences of that? And so, you know,
34:49
Speaker 13: I get what he's getting at. To be honest with you,
34:51
Speaker 13: I'd like this a little bit more fine-tuned because most
34:53
Speaker 13: people get the fact that we're willing to make sacrifices
34:57
Speaker 13: to protect the homeland. But I think it's got to
35:00
Speaker 13: be a little bit more— the message has got to be
35:01
Speaker 13: a little tighter.
35:03
Speaker 2: I want to ask you about the U.N. meetings in
35:05
Speaker 2: New York last week. Let's start with the big one,
35:08
Speaker 2: Trump's meeting with Xi Jinping.
35:10
Speaker 1: To me, it seemed very heavy on optics.
35:13
Speaker 2: I mean, the Americans went to great lengths, I thought,
35:15
Speaker 2: to honor the Chinese dictator, but pretty light on substantive agreements.
35:21
Speaker 1: Is that a fair assessment?
35:24
Speaker 13: It is, but I would argue, James, that we need
35:26
Speaker 13: to keep this in context. So during several aspects of
35:31
Speaker 13: the Biden administration, they couldn't get the Chinese to return
35:34
Speaker 13: their calls. And when I mean they, the most senior
35:36
Speaker 13: leaders in our military could not get their counterparts in
35:38
Speaker 13: the Chinese military to pick up the phone on their side.
35:42
Speaker 13: That's a concern when your number one adversary won't even.
35:46
Speaker 6: Talk to you.
35:47
Speaker 13: So President Trump, as a businessman, understands the value of
35:50
Speaker 13: good relationships, the ability to have a conversation, open and honestly,
35:54
Speaker 13: about the challenges that the two countries faces, the problems
35:57
Speaker 13: that we face militarily, economically, and how to find a
36:02
Speaker 13: path forward. This is something that we have dealt with
36:05
Speaker 13: for decades. I remember back when I was the assistant
36:07
Speaker 13: US trade rep under President Bush, we had something called
36:10
Speaker 13: a strategic economic dialogue. The key word in that phrase
36:15
Speaker 13: is dialogue. Keeping that line of communication open is critical.
36:20
Speaker 13: That's why I think it's important to understand the context.
36:22
Speaker 13: For a while, the Chinese had literally just stopped talking
36:25
Speaker 13: to their counterparts in the US and The president was
36:27
Speaker 13: keen on making sure that that relationship was strong again
36:30
Speaker 13: and that they had an open and honest thing. They're
36:32
Speaker 13: going to meet again in November. They'll probably meet at
36:34
Speaker 13: least a couple other times at the G20. They'll meet
36:36
Speaker 13: at AIPAC. There's another opportunity for a bilat as well.
36:40
Speaker 13: So keeping that conversation going is critical both militarily, artificial intelligence-wise,
36:47
Speaker 13: and then economically.
36:49
Speaker 2: One of the lighter moments of Xi and Trump's meeting,
36:52
Speaker 2: I thought, was when Trump was showing the Chinese leader
36:55
Speaker 2: all the portraits of US presidents. And then they came
36:59
Speaker 2: to the portrait of former President Joe Biden, which is, in.
37:02
Speaker 1: Fact, an auto pen. Take a look. Even Xi Jinping
37:14
Speaker 1: got the joke.
37:15
Speaker 6: I like that.
37:16
Speaker 13: He didn't need a translator, did he? He didn't need
37:18
Speaker 13: a translator for that. It was a lighthearted moment. I think,
37:22
Speaker 13: like I said, the timing wasn't, in my opinion, perfect
37:26
Speaker 13: because we're 40 days out from a midterm election and
37:29
Speaker 13: people want you concentrating on them. But at the end
37:31
Speaker 13: of the day, there is nothing when you talk about
37:34
Speaker 13: the consequences of and importance of this relationship for us strategically, militarily, economically.
37:40
Speaker 13: It's critical. Obviously, the U.S., we're dealing with a massive,
37:44
Speaker 13: massive alarm on the consequences of artificial intelligence. Our competitor
37:50
Speaker 13: in this is China. So having the ability to have
37:52
Speaker 13: a discussion with them about solutions that can potentially avoid
37:57
Speaker 13: war and fog of war issues are important. So I
38:01
Speaker 13: think having those two individuals He's going to be president
38:03
Speaker 13: for the next two and a quarter years. So I
38:08
Speaker 13: think that this was a good reset of that relationship.
38:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, indeed. Sean Spicer, always a delight to catch up.
38:15
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining me tonight.
38:17
Speaker 4: You bet, James.
38:17
Speaker 14: Thank you.
38:18
Speaker 1: All right, stick around.
38:19
Speaker 2: After the break, the Victorian Premier calls for Wharfie time,
38:23
Speaker 2: suggesting he could do a Brisbane Lions and snatch victory
38:26
Speaker 2: from the jaws of defeat. And with Larissa Waters stepping
38:29
Speaker 2: down from the Greens leadership, we'll look at those who
38:31
Speaker 2: could wear the crown. I tell you, it's not a
38:34
Speaker 2: pretty list. My panel will dissect it with me after this.
38:42
Speaker 2: Victorian Premier Ben Carroll is drawing inspiration from the Brisbane Lions'
38:46
Speaker 2: extraordinary come-from-behind win over the Fremantle Dockers in the AFL
38:50
Speaker 2: Grand Final. Now, if you're not an AFL fan, let
38:52
Speaker 2: me set this up for you. Fremantle were comfortably in
38:56
Speaker 2: front with just four minutes left when they started celebrating
38:59
Speaker 2: what their supporters call Wharfie time.
39:01
Speaker 1: Unfortunately for the Dockers, the.
39:03
Speaker 2: Lions had other plans, staging a stunning comeback to snatch
39:07
Speaker 2: a famous victory. And apparently, Ben Carroll has decided this
39:10
Speaker 2: is a metaphor for for the Victorian election.
39:12
Speaker 10: Do you think that your government can have a last-minute
39:16
Speaker 10: comeback like the Lions?
39:18
Speaker 6: Look, it's war-free time.
39:21
Speaker 2: And we know, Liberals and One Nation, think they've got
39:23
Speaker 2: it in the bag, but we've got a message for them.
39:25
Speaker 4: It's warfare time and we know Victorians will want a
39:28
Speaker 4: positive plan for the future.
39:31
Speaker 2: Oh, this is what you call desperation with a side
39:33
Speaker 2: order of delusion. For a start, the Victorian Labor Party
39:36
Speaker 2: better resembles Essendon right now than the Brisbane Lions. As
39:40
Speaker 2: for his statement, Victorians want a positive plan for the future,
39:42
Speaker 2: I think he's right. The polls suggest Victorians are absolutely
39:45
Speaker 2: positive they don't want Labor in their future.
39:48
Speaker 1: And as for the Premier himself.
39:49
Speaker 2: He's only 12 months into the job, but looking like
39:52
Speaker 2: he needs to change his batteries. Have you ever seen
39:54
Speaker 2: someone so flat on the campaign trail? Joining me is
39:58
Speaker 2: Michael Danby, former Labor MP and chairman of the Joint
40:00
Speaker 2: Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, and Mia Schlitt,
40:03
Speaker 2: executive director of the Samuel Griffith Society. Mia, Ben Carroll's
40:08
Speaker 2: kidding himself, isn't he? I mean, here's another difference. The
40:11
Speaker 2: Brisbane Lions, they have their own silverware. The Victorian Labor
40:14
Speaker 2: Party's silverware is all stolen from taxpayers.
40:19
Speaker 5: Well, look, James, to be fair to Ben Carroll, there
40:22
Speaker 5: is one similarity. Just like Brisbane Lions are the back-to-back
40:25
Speaker 5: reigning champs, the Victorian Labor Party are the reigning champs
40:29
Speaker 5: here when it comes to Victorian elections, so there is
40:31
Speaker 5: that similarity. But unlike the Brisbane Lions, who had a
40:35
Speaker 5: huge wake-up call and had a burst in performance, certainly
40:38
Speaker 5: by the looks of Ben Carroll, it doesn't seem like
40:41
Speaker 5: the Labor Party here in Victoria is anywhere close to
40:44
Speaker 5: that same kind of burst. But however, I do think
40:47
Speaker 5: that is symbolic of their position in this election. I mean,
40:50
Speaker 5: I don't think Ben Carroll or the Labor Party here
40:53
Speaker 5: has any intention to suddenly start performing because they know
40:56
Speaker 5: that this is not an election that they will live
40:58
Speaker 5: on primaries, win on primaries. This is all about preference
41:01
Speaker 5: flows in this election. Labor intends to win this election
41:05
Speaker 5: on the preference flows. That is ultimately what will determine
41:08
Speaker 5: Labor's victory here in this state.
41:10
Speaker 1: And if There aren't.
41:11
Speaker 5: Enough Victorians who suddenly swing to putting Labor last on
41:15
Speaker 5: the ballot paper. It could be very well likely that
41:17
Speaker 5: we see Labor take another term of government.
41:20
Speaker 2: You know, you're quite right with your point about, you know,
41:22
Speaker 2: the Brisbane Lions. I think the Brisbane Lions were going
41:25
Speaker 2: for a three-peat, right? I think Labor are going for
41:29
Speaker 2: a four-peat in Victoria.
41:30
Speaker 1: So there you go. Michael, he does sound to me
41:33
Speaker 1: like a man who well and truly knows his fate.
41:36
Speaker 15: Well, poor Ben was selected, mainly, James, because he's not
41:39
Speaker 15: in the socialist left. because he's not Jacinta Allen, because
41:42
Speaker 15: he's not Dan Andrews. But please, Ben, voters hate it
41:47
Speaker 15: when program politicians use lines like it's, you know, it's
41:52
Speaker 15: Wharfie time. Most people who watch that don't necessarily follow
41:57
Speaker 15: the football and might think he's invoking the Wharfies. It
42:01
Speaker 15: couldn't be anything worse. Amir's right, though. The main thing
42:04
Speaker 15: that might save him is the compulsory preferential system where Greens' preferences...
42:10
Speaker 15: will elect many Labor members and where, God forbid, if
42:15
Speaker 15: the Liberals continue to give their preferences to inner-city Green MPs,
42:22
Speaker 15: Labor may lose 16 seats and be preserved on a
42:25
Speaker 15: couple of Green Party members. James, things in Victoria would
42:32
Speaker 15: be worse than they are now.
42:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're quite right.
42:36
Speaker 2: Well, we'll all see what happens in November. All right,
42:39
Speaker 2: I want to talk to you about the Greens because
42:40
Speaker 2: they're set to elect a new leader either tomorrow or Thursday.
42:45
Speaker 2: This comes after Larissa Waters' shock resignation yesterday. She announced
42:49
Speaker 2: she's walking away from the leadership to focus on managing
42:52
Speaker 2: a pre-existing kidney disease. And we certainly all wish her
42:55
Speaker 2: the very best with her health. I want to have
42:57
Speaker 2: a look at the key contenders to fill her Birkenstocks.
43:02
Speaker 1: Michael's laughing already. Wait till you see the contenders, Michael.
43:05
Speaker 1: You've got... Let me give you the first one.
43:07
Speaker 2: So you've got Sarah Stinking Salmon Hanson Young.
43:11
Speaker 1: Have a look.
43:12
Speaker 13: For a rotten, stinking, extinction salmon.
43:15
Speaker 1: Senator Hanson Young.
43:16
Speaker 3: Extinction salmon.
43:18
Speaker 1: Senator.
43:20
Speaker 2: I think it's fair to say she's a catch. But
43:24
Speaker 2: if you prefer, there's David Shoebridge, who apparently thought this
43:27
Speaker 2: was something the Australian Prime Minister should have on his
43:30
Speaker 2: mind when meeting with the President of the United States.
43:34
Speaker 13: I wonder if they mentioned Donald Trump's thousands and thousands
43:37
Speaker 13: of mentions in the Epstein files in their phone call.
43:41
Speaker 2: Oh, nothing says I should be the leader of a
43:43
Speaker 2: political party, quite like sounding as though you spend all
43:46
Speaker 2: your time scrolling through Reddit. But who knows that the
43:49
Speaker 2: Greens might surprise and go with an actual environmentalist. Here's
43:53
Speaker 2: Nick McKim explaining his sunny vision for humanity.
43:58
Speaker 4: Death!
43:59
Speaker 14: Disease, displacement, starvation, people dying of thirst, arable farming lands
44:06
Speaker 14: turning into desert and most likely billions of people dead
44:11
Speaker 14: by the end of this century and the collapse of
44:14
Speaker 14: the ecosystems that actually support all human life on this planet.
44:19
Speaker 14: That's what people like Senator Canavan have got to answer for.
44:23
Speaker 2: I'm not sure about the temperament, but he's certainly got
44:25
Speaker 2: the optimism required for leadership. But my money is on
44:29
Speaker 2: the current deputy leader, Maureen Faruqi.
44:32
Speaker 13: This place has broken me with its racism. This place
44:36
Speaker 13: has broken.
44:37
Speaker 5: Me with its attacks on Muslims, on Palestinian refugees, on
44:41
Speaker 5: disabled people and on women.
44:44
Speaker 1: So there you have it, guys.
44:45
Speaker 2: It's less a leadership contest and more a choose-your-own-adventure in
44:49
Speaker 2: progressive politics. Whoever wins the leadership contest, Mia, I don't
44:54
Speaker 2: think they'll become more moderate. That would be altogether too radical,
44:57
Speaker 2: wouldn't it?
44:59
Speaker 5: No, James, I don't think it's likely. But, hey, maybe
45:01
Speaker 5: that's more fitting. The Greens are losing supporters by the day.
45:06
Speaker 5: They are a fringe party and those who support them
45:09
Speaker 5: represent a very fringe portion of Australia. It is a
45:12
Speaker 5: narrow portion of Australia. And despite the increasing vocalness of
45:16
Speaker 5: the Greens, they don't actually speak to that many people.
45:19
Speaker 5: So perhaps it is more fitting that there is a
45:20
Speaker 5: change of leadership who are very clear about what it
45:23
Speaker 5: is that they stand for and the fact they do
45:26
Speaker 5: stand for very extreme ideas. I mean, all three of
45:28
Speaker 5: these potential contenders have at some stage made it clear
45:31
Speaker 5: that they don't like Australia and they're not here to
45:33
Speaker 5: advocate for Australian values. And the louder they are about that, well,
45:37
Speaker 5: I think the sooner we'll see fewer and fewer of
45:39
Speaker 5: them in Parliament, and that's probably a good thing.
45:42
Speaker 2: So, Michael, who should take up the mantle of Greens leader,
45:45
Speaker 2: in your opinion, if you had to decide, of the four?
45:49
Speaker 15: Adam Bank, the previous lady, was thrown out by the electorate,
45:53
Speaker 15: as were three of the four people in the lower house.
45:56
Speaker 15: The Greens in the Australian Senate seem to be increasingly extreme. McKim, Shoebridge, Faruqi,
46:04
Speaker 15: they compete with each other to denounce each other as
46:08
Speaker 15: heretics and as fanatics. Honestly, Sarah Hansen-Young is an old-fashioned,
46:15
Speaker 15: interested in environmental issues like salmon farming. She might be
46:20
Speaker 15: the best hope they have of retaining any power in
46:23
Speaker 15: the upper house, but God forbid if they have continuing
46:28
Speaker 15: power in the Australian Senate to determine legislation. I think
46:32
Speaker 15: that's going to be the big change at the next election.
46:35
Speaker 15: One nation's real success will be in the Senate, where
46:38
Speaker 15: they replace the Greens as the swing factor, together with
46:43
Speaker 15: the Conservatives, constituting a majority.
46:46
Speaker 2: Mia, in my honest opinion, I think it does come
46:49
Speaker 2: down to two candidates. I don't think Nick McKim or
46:52
Speaker 2: David Shoebridge would have the support, although it's hard to
46:55
Speaker 2: know because the Greens' process is so secretive, right? But
46:59
Speaker 2: if it comes down to Sarah Hansen-Young, then I suppose
47:03
Speaker 2: they'd be a little bit more environmentally minded. But if
47:06
Speaker 2: Maureen Faruqi takes over the leadership, I could see the
47:09
Speaker 2: Australian Greens very much going the way of the UK Greens,
47:13
Speaker 2: which means completely loopy.
47:16
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think this really will come down to be
47:18
Speaker 5: a real show of who the Greens actually are these days.
47:21
Speaker 5: I mean, they started out advocating for themselves as some
47:23
Speaker 5: kind of party representing the environment, and that was the
47:26
Speaker 5: causes that they originally spoke about. So if that's where
47:29
Speaker 5: the party would like to return, then I think it
47:31
Speaker 5: would be more fitting for Hanson Young to take the leadership,
47:34
Speaker 5: but I don't think that's likely because I think the
47:37
Speaker 5: Greens have shifted from their original base, and I think
47:41
Speaker 5: they're increasingly a radical party who are more concerned about
47:43
Speaker 5: about social causes, things like mass migration and legalising drugs,
47:48
Speaker 5: and I think that's why we'll see Farooqi take the job.
47:50
Speaker 1: So that's your tip? You reckon Farooqi will get it?
47:53
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's my guess, James.
47:55
Speaker 15: She's dead on the ball, James.
47:58
Speaker 14: Exactly right.
47:58
Speaker 15: Farooqi, amongst fanatics, you picked the most fanatical person And
48:03
Speaker 15: Faruqi clearly is that.
48:05
Speaker 2: I tell you what, if she doesn't get it, I
48:07
Speaker 2: bet she will stand up and accuse them all of racism.
48:10
Speaker 1: So they had better pick her.
48:12
Speaker 2: Michael Danby, Mia Schlitt, always wonderful to catch up. Thanks
48:15
Speaker 2: so much for being with me tonight. That's all I've
48:17
Speaker 2: got time for. I appreciate your company. I'll be back
48:20
Speaker 2: again tomorrow night at 7pm. But don't go anywhere. Up
48:24
Speaker 2: right now is the brilliant Shari Marks.