Transcript

Credlin | 1 January · Credlin

0:01
Speaker 1: Peter Krandland live on Sky News Australia.
0:07
Speaker 2: Well, good evening and happy New Year.
0:09
Speaker 3: I'm James macpherson filling in for Peter Kredlin coming up tonight.
0:12
Speaker 3: Woolley's officially backflip on their boycott of Australia Day merchandise,
0:16
Speaker 3: But will Australians forgive and forget? Plus viewers slam woke
0:21
Speaker 3: messaging in the ABC's coverage of New Year's fireworks. The
0:25
Speaker 3: national broadcaster just can't seem to keep politics out of
0:29
Speaker 3: our celebrations, and Donald Trump's pledge to end the Russian
0:32
Speaker 3: Ukraine War faces a setback with Putin rejecting his team's proposal.
0:37
Speaker 2: So where to next? But first let's.
0:40
Speaker 3: Talk about New Year's Did you make a New Year's resolution?
0:43
Speaker 3: Most people resolve to lose weight, maybe get up earlier,
0:46
Speaker 3: read more books. Others, though, have different kinds of dreams,
0:50
Speaker 3: like maccrorie University academic doctor Abdul Fatar. Her new Year's resolution,
0:55
Speaker 3: posted on Twitter went like this, may twenty twenty five
0:59
Speaker 3: be the end of Israel. Now, I'm not sure the
1:03
Speaker 3: seven point two million Jews living in Israel would share
1:05
Speaker 3: her hopes, but that's the beauty of diversity.
1:08
Speaker 2: Right.
1:08
Speaker 3: Doctor abdul Phatar was a judging panel chair for last
1:11
Speaker 3: year's Multicultural New South Wales Award.
1:14
Speaker 2: Say it with me, diversity is our strength.
1:17
Speaker 3: Doctor abdul Phatar was so excited about her twenty twenty
1:20
Speaker 3: five resolution for the destruction of Israel she couldn't even
1:23
Speaker 3: wait until today to post it. The tweet was fired
1:26
Speaker 3: off the day after Christmas. Peace and goodwill toward all
1:29
Speaker 3: men evidently doesn't.
1:31
Speaker 2: Go that far. But there was more.
1:33
Speaker 3: Doctor abdul Phatar wrote, quote, may it be the end
1:37
Speaker 3: of the US Israeli imperial scourge on humanity?
1:41
Speaker 2: Right? So what did you hope for in the year ahead?
1:45
Speaker 3: Well, I hoped for good health, love, prosperity, the end
1:48
Speaker 3: of the Israeli imperialist scourge on humanity, you know, the
1:51
Speaker 3: usual kind of stuff. But the imperialist scourge of humanity
1:56
Speaker 3: was for the doctor just a warm up act.
1:58
Speaker 2: The university academic really hit.
2:00
Speaker 3: Her stride with the next line, quote, may we see
2:03
Speaker 3: the abolishment of the death cult of Zionism and the
2:07
Speaker 3: end of US Empire and finally a world where the slaughter,
2:10
Speaker 3: annihilation and torture of Palestinians is no longer daily routine. Now,
2:16
Speaker 3: I have to say, it's at this point that as
2:18
Speaker 3: a parent whose child attends McCrory University, you start to
2:22
Speaker 3: wonder if maybe you should have directed your son more
2:24
Speaker 3: towards doing a trade instead. And you have to wonder,
2:27
Speaker 3: does mccauy University have any Jewish students? Universities are always
2:32
Speaker 3: banging on about creating safe spaces, aren't they. How is
2:36
Speaker 3: mccaory University a safe space for Jewish kids when you've
2:39
Speaker 3: got prominent academics calling for their homeland to be destroyed,
2:43
Speaker 3: But the university academic wasn't done, she continued, quote and
2:48
Speaker 3: to achieve that is to snowball collective liberation, because the
2:52
Speaker 3: tentacles of Western imperialism are press and dehumanize us. All Ah, Yes,
2:57
Speaker 3: the tentacles of Western imperialism. Those tentacles provided the good
3:01
Speaker 3: doctor with a taxpayer funded research grant of eight hundred
3:04
Speaker 3: and seventy thousand dollars, which she didn't hesitate to receive.
3:07
Speaker 3: I might add, I'm trying to get my head around
3:10
Speaker 3: the kind of oppression that sees you given almost a
3:13
Speaker 3: million dollars of other people's money so you can complain
3:16
Speaker 3: about how oppressed you are thoughts and prayers. Doctor Abdul
3:20
Speaker 3: phatarh concluded her New Year's resolution with this, may every
3:24
Speaker 3: baby slaughtered in Zionism's genocide haunt you who openly support
3:29
Speaker 3: or acquiesce through your gutless silence. Now call me gutless,
3:34
Speaker 3: call me boring artists kind of think the hostages should
3:37
Speaker 3: be released anyway, you might have imagined Doctor abdul Fatar
3:40
Speaker 3: would be feeling a little reticent about spewing that kind
3:43
Speaker 3: of anti Israel bile. She's already been investigated by her
3:47
Speaker 3: employer after being involved in a kid's excursion to the
3:50
Speaker 3: anti Israel encampment at Sydney University earlier this year, an
3:54
Speaker 3: excursion where children led to each other in chance for
3:57
Speaker 3: an interfada against Israel, and the Coalition raised the matter
4:01
Speaker 3: of her generous taxpayer funded grant in a recent Senate
4:05
Speaker 3: Estimates hearing, suggesting.
4:06
Speaker 2: Maybe it should be clawed back.
4:08
Speaker 3: But as the academics New Years Tweak demonstrates, those who
4:12
Speaker 3: rile against Israel have no.
4:15
Speaker 2: Fear of reprisals.
4:16
Speaker 3: They know that neither the university event, vice chancellors nor
4:20
Speaker 3: government ministers could give two stuffs about the anti Israel comments.
4:24
Speaker 3: No matter how much they might tut tut it publicly.
4:27
Speaker 3: The irony is that dr abdul Fatar is a woman
4:30
Speaker 3: whose research specialty is Islamophobia. So while publicly wishing for
4:36
Speaker 3: Israel to be destroyed, she ponders reasons why people might have,
4:40
Speaker 3: you know, concerns about Islam.
4:43
Speaker 2: Well, I can't imagine.
4:45
Speaker 3: McCrory University issued a statement saying, and I quote, the
4:49
Speaker 3: university is aware of comments made on social media by
4:52
Speaker 3: a member of its staff that may have caused concern
4:55
Speaker 3: and distress among some members of the community.
4:58
Speaker 2: The statement went on to.
5:00
Speaker 3: Say that the university had policies and procedures in place
5:03
Speaker 3: to balance its commitments both to providing a safe and
5:07
Speaker 3: welcoming environment for all and to lawfully free speech and
5:10
Speaker 3: academic freedom. Don't you love policies and procedures and balancing
5:17
Speaker 3: the safety of students with academic freedom.
5:20
Speaker 2: I would submit that if you're having.
5:22
Speaker 3: To balance the safety of students with other considerations, you're
5:26
Speaker 3: not that committed to the safety of students. Now, this
5:29
Speaker 3: is not the first time that Abdulphatar has come under
5:32
Speaker 3: fire for her anti Israel activity. In November, the New
5:36
Speaker 3: South Wales Police Force posted on social media saying they
5:40
Speaker 3: would not tolerate Hesbllah flags at anti Israel protests. But
5:44
Speaker 3: while you and I saw a post from police warning
5:46
Speaker 3: people don't promote terrorism, well, the Macquarie University academic she
5:51
Speaker 3: saw something else. Dr Abdulphatar commented by quote brought to
5:56
Speaker 3: you in the colors of Israel's flag, seeming to insinuate
6:01
Speaker 3: that the Australian police force was now acting on behalf
6:04
Speaker 3: of Israel.
6:06
Speaker 2: Now.
6:06
Speaker 3: It's true, blue and white are the colors of the
6:08
Speaker 3: Israeli flag, but they're also the colors of Argentina, Greece, Finland,
6:11
Speaker 3: El Salvador and the North Melbourne football club. Oh and
6:14
Speaker 3: they're also the colors of the New South Wales Police.
6:17
Speaker 3: Who knew what kind of madness exists when New South
6:22
Speaker 3: Wales Police can't even warn against supporting terrorism without university
6:26
Speaker 3: academics seeing some kind of conspiracy. But doctor Abdul Fatara
6:31
Speaker 3: is not the real problem here. The real problem is
6:34
Speaker 3: Macquarie University. What kind of academic institution continually hides behind
6:40
Speaker 3: policies and procedures when assessing retrick like this from a
6:43
Speaker 3: staff member charge with educating young minds? What kind of
6:47
Speaker 3: academic institution vacillates trying to find the right balance between
6:51
Speaker 3: the welfare of its Jewish students and a staff member's
6:54
Speaker 3: desire to call for the abolition of the world's only
6:57
Speaker 3: Jewish homeland. McQuary academic can publicly wish for the end
7:02
Speaker 3: of Israel, and the university's vice chancellor has to go
7:05
Speaker 3: scurrying away to find his Policies and Procedures manual in
7:08
Speaker 3: order to know what to do about it. Tells you
7:10
Speaker 3: all you need to know about our tertiary institutions. There
7:15
Speaker 3: are places you'd think twice about sending your kids. And
7:17
Speaker 3: if you're Jewish, well you'd give McQuary University a very
7:20
Speaker 3: wide birth in twenty twenty five, wouldn't you?
7:24
Speaker 2: Now?
7:24
Speaker 3: For me, writing to the vice chancellor at McQuary University
7:28
Speaker 3: wasn't on my New Year's resolution list, but it is now.
7:32
Speaker 3: I get that different people can have different views on
7:34
Speaker 3: the Gaza conflict and the way in which it's being conducted.
7:38
Speaker 3: But staff at the institution where my son is being
7:41
Speaker 3: educated to openly call for the erasure of Israel, well,
7:45
Speaker 3: that's more than a disagreement over politics.
7:48
Speaker 2: It crosses a line.
7:49
Speaker 3: As a parent you don't spend eighteen years pouring your
7:52
Speaker 3: heart and soul into your kids, trying to raise them right,
7:56
Speaker 3: only to then send them off to university so that
7:59
Speaker 3: academics can fill their minds with hate. Well, dr abdul
8:02
Speaker 3: fatak and wish for the end of Israel in twenty
8:04
Speaker 3: twenty five.
8:05
Speaker 2: If she wishes, many.
8:07
Speaker 3: Parents like myself will wish for McQuary University to explain
8:10
Speaker 3: why we should continue to send our kids there.
8:13
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty five.
8:18
Speaker 3: Well, let's excuse me get into what's making news today.
8:23
Speaker 3: Joining me is the Menzies Research Center, freyer Leach and
8:26
Speaker 3: News Corps senior writer and columnist Patrick Carline. Let's start
8:31
Speaker 3: with Woolworths. They've decided they don't want to repeat last
8:34
Speaker 3: year's debacle and they're bringing back Australia Day merchandise, So
8:38
Speaker 3: thank god for that. Last year's controversial decision to ditch
8:42
Speaker 3: the Australia Day paraphernalia saw a lot of Australian's boycott
8:45
Speaker 3: the supermarket chain and eventually led to the resignation of
8:49
Speaker 3: their CEO. But yesterday, a Woolworth spokesman said, while we
8:54
Speaker 3: did make changes to our merchandise range last Australia Day
8:57
Speaker 3: due to decline in demand in our store. We listened
9:01
Speaker 3: and recognized that many customers and teams wanted us to
9:04
Speaker 3: do more to help them celebrate the day.
9:07
Speaker 2: I guess there's.
9:08
Speaker 3: Nothing like a boycott to help corporations listen, is there?
9:12
Speaker 3: But maybe we shouldn't be too excited because well, Woollies
9:15
Speaker 3: will have a perfect for Australia Day section. It will
9:18
Speaker 3: mostly focus on food. Ossie flags will be available in store,
9:21
Speaker 3: but you'll have to go online to purchase other Australia
9:25
Speaker 3: Day themed items. Frail, let me start with you. Do
9:28
Speaker 3: you think Willies have learned their lesson? Is that the
9:30
Speaker 3: message here?
9:32
Speaker 4: Ah?
9:32
Speaker 5: I mean how could they not? I mean it's pretty
9:35
Speaker 5: embarrassing that there was a national boycott and I still
9:38
Speaker 5: know people that are hesitant to shop in Woolies. I'm
9:41
Speaker 5: one of them myself whenever I go, and I kind
9:43
Speaker 5: of cringe thinking about the fact that I'm supporting a
9:46
Speaker 5: company which hates our country. So I think, good on
9:49
Speaker 5: them for backflipping. But it's only out of necessity and
9:53
Speaker 5: it's because money talks.
9:57
Speaker 3: Patrick Peter Dutton was derided for calling on he is
10:00
Speaker 3: to boycott Wilworth's last year. But maybe he's not looking
10:04
Speaker 3: so silly now.
10:07
Speaker 4: He got it right, James didn't he And I think
10:09
Speaker 4: throughout last year look at twenty twenty four, it was
10:11
Speaker 4: a pretty grim year in so many ways.
10:14
Speaker 6: But one of the bright spots was this sort.
10:16
Speaker 4: Of pushing back against wokeness. And we saw it in
10:18
Speaker 4: so many ways here in Australia and in America and
10:21
Speaker 4: in Europe, and Peter Dutton often did that.
10:24
Speaker 6: He often said the things.
10:25
Speaker 4: That are the silent majority of you, like were too
10:29
Speaker 4: afraid to say for fear of being censured. And I
10:32
Speaker 4: think this is just one example of many where he
10:34
Speaker 4: sort of got it right. And certainly Australians we don't
10:37
Speaker 4: like big companies telling us how we ought to think.
10:39
Speaker 4: And I think that was a bright spot from last
10:42
Speaker 4: year that started to shift and I think that's good.
10:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, I really like that Peter Dutton is having the
10:49
Speaker 3: courage to take on some of these issues. I remember
10:51
Speaker 3: when Scott Morrison became PM and he said he didn't
10:54
Speaker 3: want to touch the culture wars, and I think a
10:56
Speaker 3: lot of people really thought he would and were quite
10:58
Speaker 3: disappointed because, as the example proves, ozzies are just sick
11:02
Speaker 3: and tired of having our culture and our traditions stripped
11:07
Speaker 3: from us in the name of diversity and inclusion and
11:10
Speaker 3: whatever else. Just sticking with Peter Dutton, he has accused
11:14
Speaker 3: social media companies of having no moral lens. During a
11:18
Speaker 3: lengthy podcast interview he did with the Olympic diver Sam Fricka, mister,
11:22
Speaker 3: Dutton said efforts to crack down on child exploitation material
11:26
Speaker 3: online when the Coalition was in power was for him
11:30
Speaker 3: an eye opening experience. Have listened to some of what
11:32
Speaker 3: he said.
11:34
Speaker 7: When we dealt with the companies at that stage, with
11:37
Speaker 7: Facebook and Matter and others, they basically just gave us
11:42
Speaker 7: the middle finger and said that we're not going to
11:45
Speaker 7: help you in stopping that information being distributed between these networks.
11:50
Speaker 7: And it was a real eye opener to me at
11:52
Speaker 7: the time because I just thought that they would have
11:55
Speaker 7: the same moral lens as.
11:59
Speaker 6: Anybody in course of the world.
12:01
Speaker 7: Yeah, and what it said to me at the time,
12:04
Speaker 7: and I think what's really been reinforced since is it
12:06
Speaker 7: that they just they see a fourteen year old as.
12:11
Speaker 6: You know, as a revenue model.
12:13
Speaker 2: Freya.
12:14
Speaker 3: Peter Dutton says that that experience informed his views when
12:17
Speaker 3: it came to banning under sixteens from social media. Now,
12:21
Speaker 3: I think you've been a vocal opponent of the social
12:23
Speaker 3: media band. Does Dutton's explanation changed your mind on that subject?
12:28
Speaker 5: Well, I think he is absolutely correct that for social
12:31
Speaker 5: media companies, each eyeball is a product that is revenue
12:37
Speaker 5: that they're generating, and we know from leaked internal Facebook
12:41
Speaker 5: documents that they have intentionally designed a platform that is
12:47
Speaker 5: all about getting children hooked and addicted to social media
12:52
Speaker 5: as early as possible, and the effects of this strategy
12:56
Speaker 5: is just undeniable. We've seen a fifty six percent inc
13:00
Speaker 5: in young women being hospitalized because of self harm, two
13:04
Speaker 5: hundred and twenty one percent increase in under fourteen year
13:07
Speaker 5: old girls being hospitalized because of self harm. Last year,
13:10
Speaker 5: thirty nine percent of young people reported having a mental illness.
13:14
Speaker 5: So I think the effects of social media on young
13:18
Speaker 5: people cannot be cannot be denied or ignored, and I
13:23
Speaker 5: actually support the social media ban for under sixteens. But
13:28
Speaker 5: I think the devil is in the detail, and it
13:30
Speaker 5: really depends how it's done. Labor is trying to use
13:33
Speaker 5: the band to push through a whole raft of other
13:36
Speaker 5: anti freedom legislation. For example, when they introduce the ban
13:41
Speaker 5: into Parliament last year, that same week they introduced the
13:45
Speaker 5: Misinformation Bill again, and so they're trying to use this
13:49
Speaker 5: social media ban to get cover for the other anti
13:53
Speaker 5: freedom bills that they're trying to push through. So I
13:55
Speaker 5: actually support the ban because I think that young people
13:59
Speaker 5: are suffering in im mensely because of social media and
14:02
Speaker 5: we need to do something. But I don't support the
14:05
Speaker 5: way Labor is going about it, which is trying to
14:08
Speaker 5: package it up with a whole bunch of other censorship laws.
14:11
Speaker 5: I think you just have the ban and then you leave,
14:13
Speaker 5: you basically leave the rest of the Internet alone, and
14:16
Speaker 5: that's how you protect kids while also protecting the freedom
14:19
Speaker 5: of speech of ordinary Australians.
14:23
Speaker 3: Well, Patrick, I'm with Freyer in the sense that I
14:26
Speaker 3: don't think under sixteen should be on social media. But
14:29
Speaker 3: as Freyer said, the problem is how you achieve that
14:32
Speaker 3: without a whole lot of other consequences that we don't want,
14:36
Speaker 3: ie invasion of privacy collecting people's data. There's still no
14:41
Speaker 3: real answer as to how the government intends to implement
14:44
Speaker 3: this ban, and that's the problem, isn't it. They're making
14:46
Speaker 3: policy without first working out the details.
14:49
Speaker 2: That's never good governance.
14:52
Speaker 4: Well, no one knows how the band's going to work,
14:54
Speaker 4: as you say, James, is it going to be facial recognition?
14:57
Speaker 6: Is it going to be hand gestures?
14:59
Speaker 4: Apparently young people use your hands differently to older people.
15:02
Speaker 4: The federal government can't tell us how the band will
15:04
Speaker 4: work if you look at experiences from other parts of
15:07
Speaker 4: the world. Look, a ban is a noble idea, I think,
15:11
Speaker 4: but actually putting it into practice fails on all sorts
15:14
Speaker 4: of levels.
15:15
Speaker 6: And let's be honest, kids are smart.
15:17
Speaker 4: If there's a ban on alcohol, there's a ban on
15:20
Speaker 4: social media, clever kids find a way to get around it.
15:23
Speaker 6: And just the.
15:24
Speaker 4: Fact that this legislation has been pushed through so quickly
15:28
Speaker 4: and we don't even understand how it's meant to be
15:30
Speaker 4: working is bizarre, I think, and I think the rest
15:32
Speaker 4: of the world is watching quite with fascinations, saying how
15:35
Speaker 4: is this going to go?
15:38
Speaker 3: Call me old fashioned, but I've got an idea as
15:40
Speaker 3: to how you could ban under sixteens from social media.
15:43
Speaker 3: You could just not buy your kids a smartphone. You know,
15:45
Speaker 3: you could always try that. I want to talk to
15:48
Speaker 3: you about doctors for a second. I know, Fray, you're
15:50
Speaker 3: saying that's not how it's going to work. I still
15:52
Speaker 3: recon it's the way to go. Though, there's growing concerns
15:55
Speaker 3: that Australia may soon be facing a GP shortage, with
15:58
Speaker 3: new figures revealing nearly ten percent of our nation's doctors
16:02
Speaker 3: are over seventy years of age. Well now, the peak
16:05
Speaker 3: body regulating Doctors, along with the Medical Board of Australia,
16:08
Speaker 3: are considering a proposal to mandate health checks for doctors
16:13
Speaker 3: aged seventy and older. But there's fears that this is
16:16
Speaker 3: only going to increase strain on the system. The Royal
16:18
Speaker 3: Australian College of General Practitioners as slamm the move, describing
16:22
Speaker 3: the proposal as quote, another regulatory burden are necessarily imposed
16:27
Speaker 3: on the general practice profession without evidence to support effectiveness. Patrick,
16:31
Speaker 3: let me ask you do you think this health check
16:34
Speaker 3: proposal giving doctors over the age of seventy a regular checkup?
16:38
Speaker 2: Do you think it's a good move.
16:41
Speaker 4: Look, I can understand why the medical fraternity is pushing
16:44
Speaker 4: back on these, but if you look at the numbers James,
16:46
Speaker 4: over the last few years, I think notifications which are
16:49
Speaker 4: basically complaints against doctors who are older than seventy have
16:53
Speaker 4: increased by eighty one percent, and the number of notifications
16:57
Speaker 4: for those older doctors between twenty fifteen per year in
17:01
Speaker 4: twenty twenty three have double. There was a reason for that,
17:04
Speaker 4: and actually understanding that reason, I think might actually give
17:07
Speaker 4: us a lot more clarity. In the meantime, the patient
17:11
Speaker 4: welfare has to is paramount. It has to be the
17:14
Speaker 4: highest priority. Doctors make life and death decisions every day.
17:18
Speaker 4: If they're making errors, then putting in place measures that mitigate.
17:24
Speaker 6: Those errors perhaps can't be a bad thing, can it?
17:29
Speaker 8: All? Right?
17:30
Speaker 2: Let me move on to a different subject. It's the
17:32
Speaker 2: new year.
17:32
Speaker 3: Many people will be planning overseas trips. But if you're
17:35
Speaker 3: thinking of going overseas this year, you might have to
17:38
Speaker 3: update your passport, and I can tell you it's going
17:40
Speaker 3: to cost you. We'll be forced to pay four hundred
17:43
Speaker 3: and twelve dollars for a new ten year passport from today,
17:46
Speaker 3: with indexation leading to a three point five percent priceite now.
17:50
Speaker 3: This will make Australian passports the most expensive in the world,
17:54
Speaker 3: followed by Mexico at three hundred and fifty three dollars
17:57
Speaker 3: ninety cents. In the United States, where passports lost two
18:00
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty two dollars Freyer, what do you make
18:04
Speaker 3: of this? Overseas travel is expensive enough, isn't it? Without
18:07
Speaker 3: the government then slamming you four hundred and twelve dollars
18:11
Speaker 3: for your passport.
18:12
Speaker 5: Travel in Australia is becoming prohibitively expensive for most people.
18:19
Speaker 5: And I think that's a really sad thing. A lot
18:22
Speaker 5: of my friends, we're young. It's the thing. You go
18:25
Speaker 5: to Europe, you go to New Zealand, wherever you backpack.
18:28
Speaker 5: That is a formative experience that people go through. But
18:32
Speaker 5: the cost of everything is going up in Australia, and
18:36
Speaker 5: passports is just another one of that. Aviation costs through
18:40
Speaker 5: the roof. And I think this is the thing people
18:42
Speaker 5: need to understand about government spending. Labor has added three
18:46
Speaker 5: hundred and forty seven billion dollars in spending since coming
18:50
Speaker 5: into government two and a half years ago. That three
18:53
Speaker 5: hundred and forty seven billion dollars. It doesn't just evaporate.
18:56
Speaker 5: It flows through the economy and pushes the prices of
19:00
Speaker 5: everything up, whether it's your GP, education, costs, electricity, and
19:05
Speaker 5: now travel as well. So this is the result of
19:08
Speaker 5: a homegrown inflation crisis. Nothing is safe. Everything will be
19:14
Speaker 5: compromised by higher inflation, and that includes something as basic
19:19
Speaker 5: as your passport.
19:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, absolutely right. We are getting hit on every
19:25
Speaker 3: side by price hike. So I'm going to talk about
19:27
Speaker 3: Victoria a little later. New Year's Day in Victoria's brought
19:30
Speaker 3: a whole lot more taxes and increased prices. It's just unbelievable.
19:35
Speaker 3: I get to that a little later, but Freyreon Patrick,
19:37
Speaker 3: thanks for joining me tonight. Happy New Year to both
19:40
Speaker 3: of you. Well, we've now entered an election year and
19:43
Speaker 3: well it remains to be seen when exactly the poll
19:46
Speaker 3: will take place. It's no secret some of the major
19:49
Speaker 3: issues will be, as we've just said, cost of living
19:52
Speaker 3: as well energy and certainly housing. There's already rumors of
19:55
Speaker 3: a new medi scare campaign being launched against the coalition.
19:59
Speaker 3: Will Labor will obviously come under fire for its broken
20:01
Speaker 3: promise to deliver a two hundred and seventy five dollars
20:04
Speaker 3: reduction in power.
20:05
Speaker 2: Bills by this year. We're meant to have that.
20:08
Speaker 3: Joining me now to discuss all of this and how
20:10
Speaker 3: it might play out is One Nation Chief of Staff
20:13
Speaker 3: James Ashby.
20:14
Speaker 2: James, Happy New Year and thanks for joining me.
20:16
Speaker 3: Twenty twenty five is set to be a pretty important
20:19
Speaker 3: year for our country, going to the polls at some
20:22
Speaker 3: point before May. What do you think the big issues
20:25
Speaker 3: of this campaign are likely to be?
20:29
Speaker 9: Well, Happy New Year to you, James and all your viewers,
20:32
Speaker 9: and here's to a change of government for twenty twenty five.
20:35
Speaker 9: Let's just put it that way. And if you're out
20:37
Speaker 9: there making Newyears resolutions, the best one put Labor in
20:41
Speaker 9: the Greens last. That's an easy one that everyone can do.
20:43
Speaker 9: Later this year. Look, some of the biggest challenges that
20:47
Speaker 9: we'll be facing, the Coalition and other conservative parties like
20:51
Speaker 9: One Nation will simply be building the trust in voters
20:56
Speaker 9: because they have been severely let down over the last
20:58
Speaker 9: three years by this Labor government. They made a whole
21:01
Speaker 9: lot of promises before coming into power, and unfortunately none
21:05
Speaker 9: of those promises have stacked up. The biggest of those
21:08
Speaker 9: lies that Labor told was the fact they'd reduced power
21:11
Speaker 9: prices across the country by two hundred and seventy five.
21:14
Speaker 2: Dollars each year.
21:16
Speaker 9: Well, we know that that is not the case, and
21:19
Speaker 9: we also know that new figures have come out in
21:23
Speaker 9: just last month. In fact, November it was that suggests
21:27
Speaker 9: that Australians are on the hook for six hundred and
21:30
Speaker 9: forty two billion dollars to reach out renewable targets over
21:35
Speaker 9: the next twenty five years, and that comes at a
21:37
Speaker 9: cost to every household of two and a half thousand
21:39
Speaker 9: dollars a year. I don't know about you, but I
21:42
Speaker 9: cannot afford a two and a half thousand dollars increase
21:45
Speaker 9: in my power prices every single year for the next
21:48
Speaker 9: twenty five years. That's just the stark reality of the
21:51
Speaker 9: labor and unfortunately the Coalition have forced us into keeping
21:56
Speaker 9: in mind it was coalition that signed us.
21:57
Speaker 6: Up to net zero.
21:59
Speaker 9: So government, whoever it may be, they're in for a
22:02
Speaker 9: challenging time. Cost of living is going to be massive.
22:05
Speaker 9: It's the biggest driving issue on people's minds. Getting a house,
22:09
Speaker 9: Securing a house, Securing the right interest rate when you
22:13
Speaker 9: go to the bank is another big issue that's playing
22:15
Speaker 9: on people's minds. And none of these things are going
22:18
Speaker 9: to ease up over the next few months between now
22:21
Speaker 9: and that next election.
22:24
Speaker 3: That old political adage it's the economy stupid, I think,
22:28
Speaker 3: is certainly going to ring true over the next number
22:30
Speaker 3: of months, and there's a whole lot of other issues
22:33
Speaker 3: as well. I mean, social cohesion is a big thing,
22:36
Speaker 3: the mess that this government's made of our foreign policy
22:38
Speaker 3: and so on. But at the end of the day,
22:40
Speaker 3: people have got to be able to buy groceries, they've
22:42
Speaker 3: got to be able to fight immigration, but you've got
22:44
Speaker 3: to find somewhere to live. Those issues I think are
22:48
Speaker 3: really going to be the key ones that will decide
22:51
Speaker 3: the way people vote. I want to talk to you
22:53
Speaker 3: about a major native title battle underway in Queensland. The
22:58
Speaker 3: state government has confirmed it will continue to fight a
23:01
Speaker 3: claim by the woolp of Borough people for exclusive use
23:04
Speaker 3: of Great Keppel Ireland. A number of our viewers have
23:07
Speaker 3: probably holidayed there over the years well. The Whoop of
23:10
Speaker 3: Borough traditional owners were already given exclusive use over parts
23:14
Speaker 3: of the island back in twenty twenty one, but they've
23:17
Speaker 3: now been given rights to the former resort and the
23:19
Speaker 3: airstrip area, which had been separate from the agreement because
23:23
Speaker 3: they were remarked for Earmarch for redevelopment. Now, if negotiations
23:28
Speaker 3: between the Queensland Government and the traditional owners break down,
23:31
Speaker 3: the whole thing's going to end up in court, which
23:34
Speaker 3: it seems to me like then Queensland has just paid twice.
23:38
Speaker 3: Not only is land that was once available to all
23:41
Speaker 3: being sectioned off for indigenous groups, but then taxpayers have
23:46
Speaker 3: to pay legal fees as well. How concerned are you
23:49
Speaker 3: about this claim and the way that it might play
23:51
Speaker 3: out over the course of the next twelve months.
23:55
Speaker 9: James I raised this issue during the state election. That's
23:59
Speaker 9: how the public life locally here found out. It's part
24:01
Speaker 9: of my hometown here. It's nineteen kilometers off the coast
24:05
Speaker 9: here of Yupoun and Great Kepel Island makes up about
24:09
Speaker 9: twenty five percent of the money that is brought in
24:12
Speaker 9: to our region here, so it's a significant part of
24:16
Speaker 9: our makeup our fabric as a region, and certainly from
24:19
Speaker 9: a tourism point of view, I use it regularly. I've
24:21
Speaker 9: got my jet ski and I head over there with
24:24
Speaker 9: friends and family on boats regularly. The issue here is
24:27
Speaker 9: that the Native title on Great Kepyl Island is at
24:31
Speaker 9: fourteen percent as it sits. There's been a fresh native
24:35
Speaker 9: title claim here for a further seventy percent. That will
24:39
Speaker 9: take the total of eighty four percent on Great Kepel Island.
24:43
Speaker 9: And the most concerning part is it's where the as
24:46
Speaker 9: you've rightfully poured it out. We've got a great little
24:49
Speaker 9: runway there. It's a sealed runway for small aircraft. We've
24:52
Speaker 9: had the previous resort there as well, which has been
24:55
Speaker 9: shut down for some years now. But not only has
24:58
Speaker 9: native title been divinguished on this portion that they're trying
25:01
Speaker 9: to make a claim on for a second time. Because
25:05
Speaker 9: let's not forget the state government at the time when
25:07
Speaker 9: those leases were extended for ninety nine years to tell
25:10
Speaker 9: holdings determined at that point there was no native title.
25:13
Speaker 9: It's been through the federal courts a second time where
25:17
Speaker 9: they determined only fourteen percent of the island was deserving
25:20
Speaker 9: of giving native title to now a fresh application for
25:24
Speaker 9: exclusive use, that is, to the exclusion everyone who's non indigenous.
25:29
Speaker 9: I've referred to seventy percent, James, it'll ruin this area.
25:33
Speaker 9: People have had a gutfull. I think what's important here
25:36
Speaker 9: is the fact that the L ANDP have finally spoken
25:40
Speaker 9: out and said they will fight this. But I would
25:43
Speaker 9: as the government here in Queensland, be calling on the
25:45
Speaker 9: federal government to expedite this one because the determination has
25:49
Speaker 9: been made once before. We've got thirty million dollars in
25:52
Speaker 9: a pot sitting here in council at the moment, I
25:55
Speaker 9: don't want to see that money spent if we're only
25:57
Speaker 9: going to hand it over to an indigenous mob for
26:00
Speaker 9: their exclusive views. So I think it needs to be
26:02
Speaker 9: expedited through the courts and give people here locally some
26:06
Speaker 9: breathing space to know that they can continue holidaying and
26:09
Speaker 9: using that island like I do on a regular basis.
26:13
Speaker 3: You know, it's certainly an issue we're going to keep
26:15
Speaker 3: an eye on over the course of the next number
26:16
Speaker 3: of months. James Ashby, Happy New Year, and thanks for
26:19
Speaker 3: joining me tonight. We'll stick around because after the break
26:22
Speaker 3: reports Israel's preparing for war against the Iranian backed Hooti rebels,
26:27
Speaker 3: plus viewers slam the ABC's New Year's Eve coverage for
26:31
Speaker 3: its woke messaging all of that in just a moment.
26:38
Speaker 2: Welcome back.
26:38
Speaker 3: Well, let's turn our attention to the Middle East, where
26:41
Speaker 3: Israel is reportedly preparing for war with the Uranian backed
26:43
Speaker 3: Hooti rebels. This comes after weeks of attacks from the
26:46
Speaker 3: yemen rebels and after Israel delivered a stern warning in
26:49
Speaker 3: the United Nations that they wouldn't tolerate any more rocket attacks,
26:53
Speaker 3: and to be honest, why should they, An Israeli security
26:56
Speaker 3: source told London Times quote, we're going fully in joining
27:01
Speaker 3: me now to discuss this and more is Skyny's contributed
27:03
Speaker 3: Kosher Gatasher Israel having gotten into the conflict with Hamas,
27:09
Speaker 3: they've pretty much destroyed Hamas, They've pretty much rendered Hezbala ineffective.
27:16
Speaker 3: We've seen a sad runoff from Syria or a regime
27:19
Speaker 3: change there. They're on a bit of a role. They
27:22
Speaker 3: might as well keep going and deal with all their
27:24
Speaker 3: enemies now rather than have these things drag on.
27:28
Speaker 2: Don't you think.
27:31
Speaker 8: That is definitely the perspective they're taking. And they're obviously
27:34
Speaker 8: out there defending their sovereignty and their security, which by
27:38
Speaker 8: and large most people support. I think where the situation
27:41
Speaker 8: gets a bit trickier murkier is does it end with
27:44
Speaker 8: these terrorist groups or these rebel groups, or does Hesbula
27:49
Speaker 8: lead into something with Iran, which is obviously a bigger conflict,
27:52
Speaker 8: is a US getting dragged in militarily because that is
27:54
Speaker 8: a position that is not popular back home domestically in
27:57
Speaker 8: terms of how much involvement should extend beyond dimblomatic or
28:00
Speaker 8: financial support of Israel and to militarily. And then obviously
28:04
Speaker 8: we've got a new leadership coming in into the US.
28:06
Speaker 8: And while Trump is definitely very pro Israel and pro
28:09
Speaker 8: them going out and defeating these rebel groups, he's also
28:12
Speaker 8: balancing that with generally being very non interventionalist in nature
28:15
Speaker 8: and not wanting US involvement. So lots of dynamics in
28:17
Speaker 8: place in that flashpoint with October seventh, but they certainly
28:21
Speaker 8: are on a rule and militarily it would make sense
28:23
Speaker 8: from their perspective that they continue this and at least
28:26
Speaker 8: try to take out these rebel groups.
28:29
Speaker 3: The other part of this Kosha is that, I mean,
28:32
Speaker 3: I'm very much of the opinion why should Israel have
28:34
Speaker 3: their civilians continually bombarded with rockets. No country should tolerate that.
28:41
Speaker 3: But the Hutis are not only a threat to Israel.
28:44
Speaker 3: They've continually disrupted international shipping, So the economy of the
28:48
Speaker 3: world is being affected. Shouldn't the international community back Israel
28:53
Speaker 3: in dealing with these terrorists? So, as I said, I'm
28:56
Speaker 3: not only threatening Israel, they're threatening international trade.
29:00
Speaker 8: Yes, the Red Sea, which they control, is a big
29:04
Speaker 8: sea lane for shipping in global supply chains. And there
29:06
Speaker 8: was something that had happened about eighteen months ago when
29:08
Speaker 8: they sort of rose up and that got a lot
29:11
Speaker 8: of attention. People could feel it even in the commercial sector,
29:13
Speaker 8: so that's definitely one aspect to it. There are US
29:16
Speaker 8: warships out there that have been harassed or attacked a
29:20
Speaker 8: little bit, which is another reason why the US would
29:21
Speaker 8: want to get in. But you know, with this conflict
29:24
Speaker 8: being as messy and just the world changing as much
29:27
Speaker 8: as it is, you also saw at that time that
29:29
Speaker 8: they were giving special passage to Russian and Chinese ships,
29:32
Speaker 8: for example, So you could see that as well. When
29:34
Speaker 8: we look at the world in this multipolar situation that
29:36
Speaker 8: we're in, there's just different factions and alliances coming together,
29:40
Speaker 8: and not all of them are clean or helpful always.
29:43
Speaker 8: But for sure, I think the supply chain risk aspect
29:46
Speaker 8: of that Red Sea lane that these control is something
29:49
Speaker 8: that makes it a little bit more relevant in other
29:51
Speaker 8: people's national interests.
29:54
Speaker 3: Well, you talk about a multipolar world, we've got conflict
29:57
Speaker 3: in the Middle East, and then of course we've got
29:58
Speaker 3: conflict in Europe. I want to get your thoughts on
30:01
Speaker 3: Ukraine and where the war against Russia is likely to
30:04
Speaker 3: go Russia's foreign minister has rejected the peace proposal being
30:08
Speaker 3: floated by Trump and his team to end the ongoing conflict.
30:12
Speaker 3: And of course Trump made a big deal about once
30:14
Speaker 3: he gets into office, he's going to end that conflict
30:16
Speaker 3: very quickly. But the Russian foreign minister said at a
30:19
Speaker 3: news conference quote, we are not happy, of course, with
30:22
Speaker 3: the proposals made by members of the Trump team to
30:26
Speaker 3: postpone Ukraine's admission to NATO for twenty years and to
30:30
Speaker 3: station British and European peacekeeping forces in Ukraine.
30:34
Speaker 2: Now. The minister also warned Trump.
30:35
Speaker 3: That even if he quote tries to relaunch bilateral ties,
30:39
Speaker 3: he'll have to swim against the stream now, Kosha. Trump's
30:43
Speaker 3: made a big deal of his ability because of his
30:45
Speaker 3: relationship with Zelenski and with Putin in particular, that he
30:49
Speaker 3: can sort this out. Is that looking unlikely now?
30:55
Speaker 2: You know?
30:56
Speaker 8: He certainly did. He famously said on the campaign trill
30:58
Speaker 8: in twenty four hours, he's going to have this war,
31:00
Speaker 8: and so we'll see. All eyes are watching him. Obviously,
31:02
Speaker 8: there's a difference between rhetoric and what he'll actually be
31:05
Speaker 8: able to do. These proposals that have allegedly been floating.
31:08
Speaker 8: I think it's important to note that who knows what
31:10
Speaker 8: they are. They could be trial balloons where they're trying
31:12
Speaker 8: to sort of eke out a position and get some
31:15
Speaker 8: response unofficially, since he isn't actually a president yet, he's
31:18
Speaker 8: actually not even permitted to represent the United States formally
31:21
Speaker 8: in that time, so it's sort of like teeing it up.
31:24
Speaker 8: I think you know the big picture, James, and I
31:25
Speaker 8: think we all have to remember, though, is ultimately any
31:28
Speaker 8: p settlement, there's always a way in any negotiation, there's
31:31
Speaker 8: always a position out there. But the question is who's
31:34
Speaker 8: going to have to concede how much? And there has
31:36
Speaker 8: always been strategic asymmetry in this region where it is
31:40
Speaker 8: a vital national interest to Russia much more than it
31:43
Speaker 8: is to the US or the West. That's just a
31:45
Speaker 8: harsh reality of this whole picture. And because of that,
31:48
Speaker 8: I think the terms and Russia's willingness to concede is
31:52
Speaker 8: going to set the or lack of willingness to concede.
31:54
Speaker 8: I should say, it's going to set the tone of
31:56
Speaker 8: what happens, and that's what it's going to come down to.
31:58
Speaker 8: I think of how much pressure the US can put
32:01
Speaker 8: on the Ukrainian side of it to accept certain concessions,
32:04
Speaker 8: and maybe previously under the Biden administration they were not
32:07
Speaker 8: willing to do. I think what most people expect is
32:09
Speaker 8: Trump is going to push in that direction, knowing that
32:11
Speaker 8: Russia really is in the box position here more so
32:14
Speaker 8: than Ukraine.
32:16
Speaker 3: All right, I've only got one more minute, Koshing, but
32:19
Speaker 3: I did want to quickly ask you about a major
32:21
Speaker 3: security breach incident. Chinese hackers have been accused by the
32:25
Speaker 3: US Treasury of accessing several workstations and unclassified documents after
32:31
Speaker 3: a third party software service provider, call Beyond Trust Love
32:34
Speaker 3: that name had been compromised. It's always a concern when
32:38
Speaker 3: you've got foreign entities compromising places like the Treasury. But
32:43
Speaker 3: this is particularly concerning being China, isn't it.
32:48
Speaker 8: Yes, And they have of course come up with a
32:49
Speaker 8: statement as we were expect, saying it's not them. You know,
32:52
Speaker 8: this is the world that we live in where there
32:54
Speaker 8: are state actors hacking each other all the time. China
32:57
Speaker 8: and others are masters at cyber warfare, if you will.
33:01
Speaker 8: And on the flip side of it, we're also living
33:02
Speaker 8: in a world where we just have larger and larger
33:04
Speaker 8: digital footprints, and citizens are either for convenience or even
33:08
Speaker 8: being compelled to upload more and more of their highly
33:10
Speaker 8: sensitive data into these government databases, whether directly or indirectly
33:14
Speaker 8: in this case with the Treasury. And that's just, unfortunately
33:16
Speaker 8: a very tough position that we're in, and it's almost
33:19
Speaker 8: part for the course. So we're always going to expect
33:21
Speaker 8: that there are defenses that are hopefully getting better, but
33:24
Speaker 8: it feels like the defensive side is always behind the
33:26
Speaker 8: eight ball and these hacks just keep coming.
33:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, these hacks are almost every other day lately, so
33:33
Speaker 3: we'll keep an eye on that. Kosher garda, thanks for
33:36
Speaker 3: joining me, Happy New Year and look forward to chatting
33:38
Speaker 3: to you more in twenty twenty five.
33:40
Speaker 2: After the break.
33:41
Speaker 3: The ABC is accused of politicizing the New Year's Eve fireworks.
33:45
Speaker 3: Plus you're not going to believe what's already on the
33:47
Speaker 3: shelves of woollies and coals on the first day of
33:51
Speaker 3: the year. We'll show you that in just a moment
33:57
Speaker 3: Welcome back. The ABC has been la for its coverage
34:01
Speaker 3: of the nine PM New Year's Eve fireworks in Sydney,
34:04
Speaker 3: with a lot of Australians taking issue with what they
34:06
Speaker 3: called the woke during the event. The theme of the
34:10
Speaker 3: first fireworks display was Calling Country, said to be a
34:13
Speaker 3: celebration of land, sea and sky, created by indigenous artists.
34:18
Speaker 3: The National Broadcaster also included, of course, a welcome to
34:22
Speaker 3: Country at the beginning of the program. Joining me now
34:24
Speaker 3: as Director of Research at the Institute of Public Affairs,
34:27
Speaker 3: Morgan Beg Morgan, the nine pm fireworks is meant to
34:31
Speaker 3: be for kids and families. Really did they have to
34:35
Speaker 3: have political messages during all of that? And might I
34:38
Speaker 3: add at seven point thirty they had a smoking ceremony
34:41
Speaker 3: as well.
34:42
Speaker 2: Of course, is all of this stuff necessary just to
34:45
Speaker 2: see in the new year? Let's just have.
34:46
Speaker 6: Fireworks exactly right? I mean?
34:50
Speaker 1: And New Year's Eve. It's a very simple idea. You know,
34:54
Speaker 1: people are in a mood of celebration. They're coming together
34:57
Speaker 1: to say farewell to one year and welcome in next.
35:00
Speaker 1: It's actually quite a unifying kind of occasion. But of
35:04
Speaker 1: course the ABC would not let an opportunity go to
35:07
Speaker 1: waste to proselytize their own ideology. And it's exactly this
35:12
Speaker 1: sort of thing that's killing the ABC. In isolation, we
35:16
Speaker 1: wouldn't be talking about this, but every day on ABC TV,
35:20
Speaker 1: ABC Radio and on their online applications. They're doing this
35:25
Speaker 1: sort of thing and people and the results are obvious.
35:30
Speaker 1: You know, people are no longer tuning into the ABC.
35:32
Speaker 1: People no longer feel that the ABC represents their values.
35:37
Speaker 1: And that's the point. The ABC doesn't seek to represent
35:39
Speaker 1: the community. They seek to lecture the community. The IPA
35:44
Speaker 1: research found in the twenty twenty four financial year that
35:47
Speaker 1: the ABC had spent upwards of twenty one million dollars
35:52
Speaker 1: just on audience research and promotions, trying to find an
35:57
Speaker 1: audience to which it could spread its message. But they
36:00
Speaker 1: forgot one very basic thing, which is that you may
36:03
Speaker 1: be able to force Australians to pay for the ABC,
36:06
Speaker 1: but you can't force people to watch it. And that's
36:09
Speaker 1: why the ABC's relevance is in free fall.
36:13
Speaker 2: Here.
36:13
Speaker 3: And of course the fewer viewers and listeners they have,
36:17
Speaker 3: the more money they demand from taxpayers, as if just
36:21
Speaker 3: continuing to throw money at things will change our viewing habits.
36:25
Speaker 3: I don't know why they need to spend that much
36:27
Speaker 3: money to work out what we want to watch. We
36:29
Speaker 3: just want to watch entertainment without having political messaging shoved
36:33
Speaker 3: down our throats.
36:34
Speaker 2: I want to get your thoughts.
36:35
Speaker 3: Staying on this theme on an interesting column from American
36:39
Speaker 3: author Lionel Shreiver in which she argues that there are
36:41
Speaker 3: growing signs now across the West that universities and businesses
36:46
Speaker 3: are finally seeing through this woke agenda. And a piece
36:49
Speaker 3: for The Times, Miss Shriver writes that quote across the
36:53
Speaker 3: non left media world, it's now an article of faith
36:56
Speaker 3: that Donald Trump's symphatic victory is a woke watershed. I've
37:00
Speaker 3: heard a lot of my friends say this as well.
37:02
Speaker 3: Do you agree with her analysis? Does the election of
37:05
Speaker 3: Donald Trump represent a turning point? We've reached peak woke
37:10
Speaker 3: and now we're going to start to get back to
37:11
Speaker 3: some normality.
37:13
Speaker 2: I suppose.
37:16
Speaker 6: I think it could be correct.
37:18
Speaker 1: There's no doubt that in the American election that the
37:21
Speaker 1: Democratic Party represented the politics of woke, the identity politics,
37:26
Speaker 1: the critical race theory, the gender theories, and that Donald
37:29
Speaker 1: Trump's victory was in a sense of referendum on those ideas.
37:34
Speaker 2: But it's not just.
37:35
Speaker 1: An American story.
37:36
Speaker 10: You know.
37:36
Speaker 1: What happens in America is so often flows through to
37:41
Speaker 1: the rest of the Western world, and that's especially the
37:43
Speaker 1: case in Australia. I think The question for us in
37:46
Speaker 1: Australia is twenty twenty five year one of the post
37:51
Speaker 1: woke era, and one thing that we should always be
37:55
Speaker 1: cautious of is beginning to celebrate when there's still lap
38:00
Speaker 1: left in the race. You know, Australia had its woke
38:04
Speaker 1: watershed as well. In October of twenty twenty three. The
38:08
Speaker 1: Voice referendum asked Australians whether they would support a change
38:13
Speaker 1: to the Constitution in which separate legal and political rights
38:17
Speaker 1: would be assigned to Australians based on their race, and
38:20
Speaker 1: it was defeated in a landslide. It was conclusive proof
38:24
Speaker 1: that the politics of division were actually a minority position
38:29
Speaker 1: in this country. The problem is the same people that
38:34
Speaker 1: wield economic, political and cultural power in this country that
38:37
Speaker 1: endorsed the Voice are still wielding that power now, and
38:41
Speaker 1: they're still committed to making those changes. We will only
38:45
Speaker 1: secure this advance, this opportunity to move past woke if
38:50
Speaker 1: people become active, and they become involved, and they demand
38:53
Speaker 1: from their leaders or become leaders themselves that demand an
38:58
Speaker 1: end to the politics of division.
39:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're right.
39:02
Speaker 3: And Lionel Schreiver makes this point in her column that
39:06
Speaker 3: even though the genuine populace might be turning against woke.
39:10
Speaker 3: Many of those in positions of power have a vested
39:12
Speaker 3: interest in keeping it going because of financial gain and
39:15
Speaker 3: their own positions. So it's only when people start to
39:18
Speaker 3: really speak against it and continually that those things change,
39:22
Speaker 3: and when people of course take up those positions of
39:25
Speaker 3: power and bring back a sense of normality. It's going
39:28
Speaker 3: to be interesting to see what the election of Donald
39:30
Speaker 3: Trump means for America and how that flows through to Australia.
39:33
Speaker 3: I know Peter Dutton with his decision to only stand
39:36
Speaker 3: in front of the Australian flag, clearly he's read some
39:39
Speaker 3: of the signs as you said, from the referendum. It'd
39:42
Speaker 3: be interesting to see where Australia goes the next twelve
39:45
Speaker 3: months in that regard. I appreciate you joining me tonight.
39:48
Speaker 3: Happy New Year and all the best to you and
39:50
Speaker 3: your loved ones for twenty twenty five. We're going to
39:53
Speaker 3: go thanks so much. We're going to go to a break.
39:56
Speaker 3: When we come back. Victorians set to face more in
40:00
Speaker 3: the new year with fresh price hikes, plus will robots
40:04
Speaker 3: and artificial intelligence put our jobs at risk.
40:06
Speaker 2: My panel will deal with all of that in just
40:08
Speaker 2: a moment.
40:12
Speaker 3: Well, welcome back and happy new year, although maybe not
40:15
Speaker 3: so much in Victoria, where long suffering taxpayers will be
40:18
Speaker 3: forced to suffer even more after the state government increased
40:22
Speaker 3: prices for tolls in a city parking and then they
40:25
Speaker 3: added the seven point five percent holiday home tax that
40:28
Speaker 3: takes effect from today. To discuss all of this, let's
40:32
Speaker 3: bring in today's panel. Mark Nicholson from step Mate Studios
40:35
Speaker 3: and the Daily Telegraphs Tim Blair. Mark, it's not a
40:39
Speaker 3: very happy start to new year for Victorians and it's
40:42
Speaker 3: getting hit from every side.
40:45
Speaker 2: You're dead on, James Mane.
40:46
Speaker 10: It's what a sobering way to start the new year.
40:49
Speaker 9: Eh.
40:49
Speaker 10: Like. A lot of people clicked their glasses last night
40:52
Speaker 10: hoping that twenty twenty five was going to bring a
40:54
Speaker 10: little bit of relief.
40:54
Speaker 6: We've had a bit of a.
40:55
Speaker 2: Heavy spending period.
40:57
Speaker 10: They woke up this morning, checked their bank accounts with
40:59
Speaker 10: one eye open and went, jeez, the state's got one
41:01
Speaker 10: hundred and eighty billion dollars worth of debt and we've
41:04
Speaker 10: got to claw it back somehow. So the state government's
41:06
Speaker 10: just going to collect and claw it back however they can,
41:09
Speaker 10: and all of it's going to hurt the innocent people
41:11
Speaker 10: here in the People's Republic of Victoria.
41:14
Speaker 2: Just yeah, once again, it's one.
41:15
Speaker 10: Of my favorite sayings. It's Socialism's all well and good
41:17
Speaker 10: until you run out of everyone's money. And that's exactly
41:20
Speaker 10: what's happened here in the People's Republic of Victoria.
41:22
Speaker 2: It's very sad.
41:26
Speaker 3: That the truth and of course Tim, I mean it's
41:28
Speaker 3: worse than you can imagine because not only are Victorians
41:30
Speaker 3: being hit with all of these extra costs, they're also
41:34
Speaker 3: paying to not host the Commonwealth Games.
41:37
Speaker 11: Yes, but you know, look on the bright side of things, guys,
41:40
Speaker 11: like everyone's been you know typical Sky and New is
41:42
Speaker 11: always been negative about you know, socialist idiots. But you know,
41:46
Speaker 11: if you look at the bright side, look at what
41:48
Speaker 11: the Victoria text players are not not paying. The host
41:51
Speaker 11: still am on twenty four hour Race two do Go Championships.
41:55
Speaker 11: They're not paying to not host those. You don't count
41:57
Speaker 11: give lessings. Also, those people in Melbourne at the hub
42:02
Speaker 11: of this this horror state, get the hell out of there.
42:05
Speaker 11: I've lived like four hours away from Melbourne. We've just
42:08
Speaker 11: got rid of parking in my town out here, parking fees.
42:12
Speaker 11: Rather so, while they're introducing them in the cities out here.
42:16
Speaker 11: We'll live in like free people. But I'm not going
42:19
Speaker 11: to give away the precise location. I want to go
42:21
Speaker 11: all to myself.
42:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, for a second, Tim, I thought I was interviewing
42:27
Speaker 3: For a second, I thought I was interviewing Jim Chalmers.
42:29
Speaker 3: You're so optimistic and seeing the bright side of life
42:32
Speaker 3: on everything. And I want to talk about Jim Charmers
42:34
Speaker 3: for a second, because his financial record is not great,
42:39
Speaker 3: and now he's being slammed by liberal powerhouses John Howard
42:42
Speaker 3: Peter Costello. They've both come out and lashed labor for
42:46
Speaker 3: their chronic economic mismanagement. John Howard has warned that the
42:49
Speaker 3: nation's deteriorating budget means there may be no immediate risk
42:53
Speaker 3: to our credit rating, but eventually there will be.
42:55
Speaker 2: And meanwhile, Peter.
42:56
Speaker 3: Costello has described Treasury as an institution in decline that
43:00
Speaker 3: no longer defends tax players against extravagantly spending governments. But
43:05
Speaker 3: of course, as I said, Tim, you've got Jim Chalmers
43:08
Speaker 3: out there telling Australians it's time for optimism. You can
43:12
Speaker 3: look forward to a sunny twenty twenty five. Do you
43:15
Speaker 3: trust Charmers or are you more inclined to believe. You know,
43:17
Speaker 3: John Howard and pitt A Costello.
43:20
Speaker 11: Well, you can do both. You can trust charmers that
43:23
Speaker 11: you will have a nice, positive, wonderful, uplifting twenty twenty
43:26
Speaker 11: five if the Albanzi government has voted out sometime this year.
43:30
Speaker 11: So yes, you know tick there. But also obviously Costello
43:33
Speaker 11: and Howard not only built a great economy while they're
43:36
Speaker 11: in power, but now have the entirely justified right to
43:40
Speaker 11: look back on it and assess the greatness of that
43:44
Speaker 11: period relative to what.
43:45
Speaker 6: We have now.
43:46
Speaker 11: I'd also argue that you know, the people who are
43:48
Speaker 11: online back during the Howard years, all the lefties rather
43:53
Speaker 11: who are online during the Howard years, we're all complaining.
43:55
Speaker 11: Every one of those guys is now a property millionaire
43:57
Speaker 11: at least, so you know, they all complained about Howard,
44:01
Speaker 11: but they cashed in hugely at the same time.
44:07
Speaker 3: Mark, are you buying Jim Charmer's encouragement for optimism?
44:11
Speaker 2: Do people really listen to that?
44:12
Speaker 3: Or do people as I expect, they go to the supermarket,
44:16
Speaker 3: they scan their groceries, they look at the receipt and
44:18
Speaker 3: they're not optimistic at all.
44:20
Speaker 2: No matter what this government is saying one hundred percent mate.
44:24
Speaker 10: And look, and I think all they can do now
44:27
Speaker 10: is lie and pretend to be optimistic. I think that's
44:29
Speaker 10: all that they've got left because the numbers just they
44:33
Speaker 10: don't stand by what they're lying about anymore. It's absolutely absurd,
44:37
Speaker 10: you said, And as you accurately pointed out as well
44:40
Speaker 10: as that Jim Chalmers in that announcement just before Christmas,
44:42
Speaker 10: that sneaky little announcement just before Christmas, was smugly smiling
44:46
Speaker 10: as he's delivering horrible news like a budget blowouts of
44:50
Speaker 10: twenty three billion dollars. This surplus that they were they
44:55
Speaker 10: had a massive head wobble about for so long was
44:57
Speaker 10: completely gone, and he's going to be gone for the
44:59
Speaker 10: next ten years. I actually think the majority of people
45:02
Speaker 10: now they're economic iq and their fiscal intelligence is way higher.
45:07
Speaker 10: Five years ago, I didn't know what the word inflation meant.
45:10
Speaker 10: Now I can kind of explain it on very basic terms,
45:13
Speaker 10: and I think most people.
45:14
Speaker 2: Are like that.
45:14
Speaker 10: They're understanding what's going on. They're taking interest because it's
45:17
Speaker 10: hurting them so much it's going to come back to
45:19
Speaker 10: bid them in the bum. This they can't keep lying
45:21
Speaker 10: to people's faces. Because we know better now and they
45:24
Speaker 10: think we're stupid, but we're seeing the effects of it.
45:26
Speaker 10: We're understanding these really big principles much better now. We
45:31
Speaker 10: didn't understand them back of the Howard eraror And really
45:34
Speaker 10: that was the last time I had any trust in
45:36
Speaker 10: a government and these guys have completely eroded it today.
45:40
Speaker 10: But I think it's going to come back to bid
45:41
Speaker 10: them in the bum. They think we're stupid, but I
45:43
Speaker 10: don't think we are anymore.
45:46
Speaker 3: The problem, Mark is we all now know what inflation is.
45:49
Speaker 3: It just wish Jim Chalmers knew what inflation was. Where
45:53
Speaker 3: we're four months out from Easter, and we're four months
45:57
Speaker 3: out from Easter, right, so you know, a week since
46:01
Speaker 3: Christmas and it's the first out of the year. But
46:03
Speaker 3: guess what willis and coal shoppers have already spotted and
46:07
Speaker 3: I know you'll be able to guess this hot cross
46:09
Speaker 3: buns or on shelves already. So a week after Christmas,
46:13
Speaker 3: Easter is already being marketed to us. Tim is this
46:17
Speaker 3: just commercial realities or should we just be given a
46:20
Speaker 3: bit of a break, because I mean, if it's Easter
46:22
Speaker 3: already in January, it kind of loses its meaning doesn't it.
46:27
Speaker 11: Well, hang on, We've got to look at this from
46:29
Speaker 11: another side. Perhaps are these hot cross buns too early
46:33
Speaker 11: or they or are they just really late? They are
46:37
Speaker 11: they around on the shells now since last March? And
46:42
Speaker 11: I mean we could build emergency public housing with these
46:45
Speaker 11: things potentially if they've been as great us. I think
46:50
Speaker 11: we're going to look at it as rather a late
46:52
Speaker 11: rival and step punishingly early, because I mean sooner or later.
46:56
Speaker 11: If they keep getting earlier, you're going to overlap. It's
46:59
Speaker 11: going to be wet before the next is to up,
47:03
Speaker 11: the one coming up, So it's going to be gotten
47:08
Speaker 11: fans of the Rabbits and these propler friends, isn't it?
47:13
Speaker 3: Mark already, get one more topic done before we finish,
47:17
Speaker 3: and I want to talk to you about quickly robots.
47:19
Speaker 3: World companies are reportedly starting to incorporate robots big and
47:23
Speaker 3: small into their workplaces. Amazon are doing it in your
47:27
Speaker 3: South Wales. They're center there has robots operating. They're trying
47:31
Speaker 3: to obviously use them more and more. Is this a
47:34
Speaker 3: good thing do you think for the workforce? I mean,
47:37
Speaker 3: I can understand employers not wanting to deal with unions
47:40
Speaker 3: and staff that want a four day week.
47:42
Speaker 2: Robots just keep on going.
47:44
Speaker 3: But of course there's gonna be a lot of low
47:45
Speaker 3: paying jobs which will be eradicated because of this. Is
47:48
Speaker 3: this just the way of the future, or is it
47:50
Speaker 3: something that we should be concerned about.
47:54
Speaker 10: I think it's a bit of a bit of column
47:55
Speaker 10: a bit of columbany. I think it's I think it's
47:57
Speaker 10: I for one, I'm going to welcome our new robot overlalls,
48:01
Speaker 10: but it is also something that we need to be
48:02
Speaker 10: careful of in terms of what's going to be going.
48:05
Speaker 10: I've got a business with about twenty employees, and I
48:07
Speaker 10: reckon there's going to be a few of them that
48:09
Speaker 10: are going to get replaced by robots. I saw it
48:11
Speaker 10: was like only forty five grand for a robot. That's
48:13
Speaker 10: pretty good. I can get that done. But there's definitely
48:16
Speaker 10: benefits in the private industry. But in the theme of
48:19
Speaker 10: today's show, where we're really going to see the benefits
48:22
Speaker 10: of this, and we've called bureaucrats figurative robots for a
48:25
Speaker 10: long time, I reckon we replace them with physical robots, productivities,
48:29
Speaker 10: high costs down. We can save the country with these robots.
48:33
Speaker 2: It's done.
48:34
Speaker 10: I think that's what we should be doing. It's just
48:35
Speaker 10: replacing the whole bureaucracy, potentially even politicians with robots program
48:39
Speaker 10: not to lie done fixed.
48:43
Speaker 3: Can I just say, Mark and Tim, I don't know
48:45
Speaker 3: that there's a problem in the world. You guys can't
48:47
Speaker 3: spin and make me feel good about the life. After all,
48:50
Speaker 3: everything is going to be all right. After talking to
48:53
Speaker 3: both of you, Happy New Year to both of you.
48:55
Speaker 2: I appreciate your time tonight.
48:56
Speaker 6: Happy to ow.
48:56
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining me. Well, I saw I've got time
49:00
Speaker 2: for tonight.
49:01
Speaker 3: I appreciate you joining me, but don't go anywhere because
49:04
Speaker 3: coming up in just a moment is the Bolt Report
49:06
Speaker 3: with Dnika de Giorgio.
49:08
Speaker 2: Good Night,