Latest / The Kenny Report / The Kenny Report | 13 October

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The Kenny Report | 13 October · The Kenny Report

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: This is The Kenny Report.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Thanks, Ross.
• 0:06
  Speaker 3: Tonight, small business is finally front and centre in the
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: political debate. But what's the small business minister actually doing?
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: In fact, who is the small business minister? John Howard
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: condemns the Albanese government's lack of action against anti-Semitism and
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: Islamist extremism as the Israeli embassy warns that Australia is
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: not safe. the incredible publicity machine behind Josh Frydenberg's book.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: It's even grabbing attention from Labor. And my old colleague
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: joins me for some serious reflections. Kristen Tate on Donald
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: Trump doing a diesel deal with Vladimir Putin, plus Tim
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: Blair on our PM and dumb ideas, plus Susie O'Brien
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: and Stephen Senatiempo on that American execution and live streaming.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Let's get cracking.
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: We heard last night that small business people around the
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: country reckon they're being taxed and regulated out of existence,
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: not to mention being squeezed by escalating power prices, you know,
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: the ones Labor promised to cut. And small business operators
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: don't think the government's listening, let alone helping.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Here's a reminder from last night.
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  Speaker 4: I like to say that I don't think they're against
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: small business. I just think that they do not understand
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: small business and that's a major problem.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: I think she's a bit too kind there, actually. Labor
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: is predisposed not to care about small business because it's
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: not heavily unionised. The only businesses Labor listens to are
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: the major ones where union power is strong.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: We've seen that again today.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: With more than $ 600 million of taxpayers' money going towards
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: wage rises for health, disability and community service workers. But
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: there won't be any taxation receipts for Labor's handouts unless
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: the productive parts of the economy can thrive, or at
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: least survive. Yet Labor has now forced them to absorb
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: all credit card costs by banning surcharges, and it's imposing
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: a new minimum tax on trusts that also will hurt
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: many small businesses. The Coalition took up the fight in
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: Parliament today, questioning the small business minister.
• 2:16
  Speaker 5: When will this minister start listening to Australians who have
• 2:19
  Speaker 5: a go and stop waging war on small business?
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: So who is this small business minister? Have you ever
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: seen her?
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: Do you know who she is? Has she been out
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: and about arguing the case for small business? Have you
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: seen her on this desk for an interview? Has she
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: ever run a small business? The Small Business Minister is
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: West Australian MP Anne Ali, who's spent her life working
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: in government and academia, although just before entering politics, she
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: ran a policy consultancy. I guess that's some kind of
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: small business. Here's part of her response in Parliament.
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  Speaker 6: I'll inform the Leader of the Opposition that we do
• 3:00
  Speaker 6: listen to small businesses. Over the last two weeks, I've
• 3:04
  Speaker 6: been in regional Queensland, as I mentioned yesterday, and in Darwin.
• 3:08
  Speaker 6: One of my many trips around the country where I
• 3:11
  Speaker 6: hold small business roundtables with various small businesses.
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  Speaker 1: Roundtables. That'll do it. Only someone who's spent too much
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: time working.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: In bureaucracies could possibly suggest a roundtable is the solution.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: But there was another part of her answer that I
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: found remarkable.
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  Speaker 6: Those on the other side can talk as much as
• 3:34
  Speaker 6: they like, but they're not out there visiting small.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Businesses, Mr Speaker.
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  Speaker 6: There is absolutely no evidence that they're actually out there talking.
• 3:42
  Speaker 7: To small businesses. Wow.
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: That's some claim, isn't it? The Liberal Party is the
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: party of small business. It was formed largely to represent
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: small business, and it's full of people who know small business. And,
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: of course, the Nationals represent the farmers and other small
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: business people of the region. So it was a strange
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: accusation to make against the Coalition, coming from a small
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: business minister who's been invisible up till now. Just to
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: be clear, the opposition leader has made a point of
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: visiting small businesses. Here he was just yesterday in a cafe,
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: and last Friday he was at the markets in Brisbane
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: and meeting with other small business owners, and the week
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: before he was at the Bobby Bakehouse in Sydney's Hills District,
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: and on it goes. The Coalition haven't been travelling too
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: well this past year or so, but they have campaigned
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: strongly against policies that are imposing higher power prices in
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: and higher taxes on small business. And you can expect
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: to see a lot more of it between now and
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: the election. Labor is about as familiar with small business
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: as we are with their small business minister. I spoke
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: last night about Anthony Albanese's failure to confront and combat
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: anti-Semitism and Islamist extremism after October the 7th atrocities in
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: the lead-up to the Bondi massacre as well and since
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: that horror. Speaking today, the former Prime Minister, John Howard,
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: underscored this point by singling out the inaction from Albanese
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: after October the 7th and those sickening celebrations and protests
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  Speaker 3: here in Sydney.
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  Speaker 8: My criticism then and still is But the government, particularly
• 5:32
  Speaker 8: the leaders of the government, was not so... I don't
• 5:34
  Speaker 8: blame them for anti-Semitism. You can't do that. But you
• 5:38
  Speaker 8: can blame people for passively allowing it to grow and fester.
• 5:44
  Speaker 8: And that is what unfortunately happened.
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  Speaker 3: And there's more today on the revelations we covered yesterday
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  Speaker 3: about the alleged Australian connections of the fly Dubai pilot
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  Speaker 3: who allegedly tried to hijack a plane en route to Israel...
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  Speaker 3: and then, in a 9-11-style plot, crash into a building,
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: killing all on board and more on the ground.
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  Speaker 1: Thankfully, he was thwarted.
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  Speaker 3: But the Israeli embassy in Australia has shared its concerns
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  Speaker 3: about the safety of Jews in this country 10 months
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  Speaker 3: on from the Bondi attack. The embassy's closely monitoring reports
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  Speaker 3: about the radicalisation of the FlyDubai flight terrorist, it said
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: in a statement to the Australian newspaper today. Growing evidence
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: indicating that the perpetrator underwent radicalisation in Australia is of
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  Speaker 3: great concern and illustrates the scale of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: even in Western liberal countries. Unfortunately, this reinforces the fact
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: that the tragic events of October the 7th and Bondi
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: have not yet brought about the changes necessary to keep
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  Speaker 3: Jewish Australians and indeed.
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  Speaker 1: All Australians safe.
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  Speaker 3: This is true, of course, and we shouldn't need a
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  Speaker 3: foreign embassy to point it out. The threat troubles me greatly,
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: and I assume it worries you too. Our current terror
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: alert level in this country remains at probable, yet we
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: still have a government averting its eyes while it continues
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: to demonise Israel, which can only indirectly fuel the extremist hatred.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: And while the Bondi Royal Commission will hold an extra
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: secret session on Monday... looking at intelligence and security in
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: the lead-up to Bondi, it still looks more like a
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: royal omission. It needs to call more evidence. It must
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: cross-examine the Prime Minister, the Home Affairs Minister and the
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: Foreign Minister about their actions and their lack of action,
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: the intelligence and warnings that went to them, the consequences
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: of their recognition of the non-existent state of Palestine. and
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: it must call, the Royal Commission must call, some of
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: the people who have preached hate, like Sheikh Ibrahim Dadoon,
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: who led celebrations of the slaughter of innocent people, including
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: women and children, on October 7th, and those who chillingly
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: chanted F Israel and Where's the Jews?
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: At the Opera House the following night.
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: Without examining the hatred and testing the actions of government,
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: How can the Royal Commission come up with anything worthwhile?
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: Let's catch up with the Shadow Cabinet Secretary, Zoe McKenzie,
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: live from Parliament House, Canberra.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, Zoe. Have you been visiting any
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: small businesses lately?
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  Speaker 9: Sorry to get the giggles, but what a silly thing
• 8:45
  Speaker 9: for Anne Ali to say. It's pretty much all we do.
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  Speaker 9: I mean, I spend most of my days when I'm
• 8:51
  Speaker 9: at home going from business to business or bit of
• 8:53
  Speaker 9: a chat to a bit of a chat, but it's
• 8:54
  Speaker 9: always small business owners. 98% of the businesses in my
• 8:57
  Speaker 9: electorate are small businesses. So whether I'm meeting with Ray's
• 8:59
  Speaker 9: Blastering or I'm down at Hobson's Cafe or, you know,
• 9:04
  Speaker 9: just anyone on the street. I was with some horticulturalists yesterday.
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  Speaker 9: They came up here. We're having a chat to them
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  Speaker 9: as well. They're from my electorate. It's kind of all
• 9:10
  Speaker 9: we do, right? Take the temperature of what's going on.
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  Speaker 9: How's business going? How are you tracking what's keeping you
• 9:17
  Speaker 9: awake at night? And let me tell you at the moment,
• 9:19
  Speaker 9: it's a really long list of what's keeping them awake
• 9:21
  Speaker 9: at night.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's why I just found it an astounding line
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  Speaker 3: to come from Anne Ali today.
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  Speaker 1: No-one knew she was the small business.
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  Speaker 3: She got zero visibility, even though these issues are running
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: really hot at the moment and have been doing for
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: at least a year or so, as things have got tougher.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: But, as you know, I've worked with Liberal.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: Ministers and a Liberal premier and a Liberal opposition leader.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: And in the Coalition, that's all that they do.
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  Speaker 3: In their daily lives, go about small businesses and take soundings.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: That's what they get. Most of their branch members are
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: involved in small businesses in some way.
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  Speaker 3: So I thought it was a really desperate and telling
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  Speaker 3: attack from Ann Ali today.
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  Speaker 9: Them ourselves, right? I ran a small business before I
• 10:02
  Speaker 9: came into this place. But yesterday, Anne, for starters, couldn't
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  Speaker 9: work out whether it was the ATO or the RBA
• 10:07
  Speaker 9: who had decided that you couldn't pay your tax by
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  Speaker 9: credit card... And then she accused Angus Taylor of doing
• 10:14
  Speaker 9: a cosplay, like pretending to go to small businesses. It
• 10:17
  Speaker 9: was just a very weird day, frankly. But I assume
• 10:20
  Speaker 9: one of just obfuscation because they were desperate to get
• 10:23
  Speaker 9: off the topic, which is there is no small business capacity, familiarity,
• 10:28
  Speaker 9: capability or experience on.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: That front bench. Literally none.
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  Speaker 9: They've got two people who actually know something about economics.
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  Speaker 9: That's Dan Molina, who's in Whoop Whoop, and then Andrew Charlton,
• 10:37
  Speaker 9: who's in even more Whoop Whoop behind him.
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  Speaker 10: Yes.
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  Speaker 9: It's run by union hacks and professional Labor staffers who
• 10:45
  Speaker 9: every day make another dumb decision as far as small
• 10:48
  Speaker 9: business or indeed any business is concerned in this country.
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  Speaker 9: We're going backwards in terms of productivity. They've got no
• 10:54
  Speaker 9: plan to address it. It's getting really urgent that we
• 10:58
  Speaker 9: have better economic management in this country and Albo and
• 11:02
  Speaker 9: Jim are not capable of providing it.
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  Speaker 3: Well, this is why the timing today, the announcement of
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: another $ 630 million to pay for pay rises in disability care,
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: health care and the like, is so telling. Now, we
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: all support people who work in these areas. We all
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: want them to be paid fairly. But this is government
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: money paying for more pay rises while they're crushing the
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: parts of the economy that actually produced the tax to
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: make those wage increases. On top of that, of course,
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: it's got to be inflationary in the current situation.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 11:32
  Speaker 9: You have described to perfection the vicious circle that this
• 11:36
  Speaker 9: government is repeatedly making. Inflation running rampant, one of the
• 11:41
  Speaker 9: highest inflation rates in the whole world. Therefore, 16 interest
• 11:45
  Speaker 9: rate rises, indeed more pressure on the average household. $ 31, 000
• 11:49
  Speaker 9: in additional interest to be paid for the average mortgage
• 11:54
  Speaker 9: every single year. And because they just can't get a
• 11:57
  Speaker 9: grip on inflation and keep throwing more money into the
• 12:00
  Speaker 9: Australian economy... People just get blocked and they cannot find
• 12:04
  Speaker 9: their way through. And so then their solution is to
• 12:06
  Speaker 9: throw more taxpayer dollars into wages. Now, these are important industries,
• 12:10
  Speaker 9: important jobs. And yes, they need real wage increases. But
• 12:17
  Speaker 9: I was talking to someone in the airline industry the
• 12:18
  Speaker 9: other day and they said to me, hey, this is
• 12:20
  Speaker 9: how things used to work, right? Inflation would be 1.5%
• 12:23
  Speaker 9: to 2%. Every year there'd be a request for a 3%
• 12:25
  Speaker 9: pay rise. At the time, the payrolls would be adjusted
• 12:29
  Speaker 9: against productivity. You'd be able to pay the 3%. It
• 12:33
  Speaker 9: was a real increase because inflation was 1.5 to 2%.
• 12:36
  Speaker 9: But here's the extra bit. Because of the productivity, airfares
• 12:39
  Speaker 9: got lower. So everybody was a winner. We are so
• 12:43
  Speaker 9: far from that virtuous circle now under the settings of
• 12:46
  Speaker 9: this government, it is a bonfire of incompetence.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: The whole argument is productivity. The whole secret to our
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: future prosperity... is productivity. And the unions will never help
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: you deliver that unless they're forced to. And of course,
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: electricity prices mitigate against that as well. I mean, we've
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: got so much debt, we can never repay it just
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: chugging along. We have to dramatically grow the economy. And
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: that's got to be through productivity measures. And we're seeing
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: it's all going in the opposite direction from Labor. Just
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: before I let you go, you and I were both
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: staffers back in the day with Josh Frydenberg, he went
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: on to be Treasurer, of course, and now he's out
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: of politics.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Everyone's asking him the same question.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: But do you begrudge him putting his memoir out at
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: the moment in some way because of all the attention
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: it's stealing in the political debate?
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: Oh, no, I'm sure.
• 13:36
  Speaker 9: Look, it's probably because he wants it to be a
• 13:37
  Speaker 9: big seller for Christmas or something. I don't really understand
• 13:40
  Speaker 9: the logic of when books come out. But, look, Josh
• 13:43
  Speaker 9: has got an important voice in the Australian political system.
• 13:47
  Speaker 9: And may I say, particularly in relation to anti-Semitism, I've
• 13:51
  Speaker 9: heard Josh speak about anti-Semitism for years. I actually replaced
• 13:54
  Speaker 9: him in the Attorney's Office almost 30 years ago this weekend.
• 13:58
  Speaker 9: And he's been speaking about Jewish contribution to Australia and
• 14:03
  Speaker 9: all through the time that I have known him. And
• 14:06
  Speaker 9: the speech he gave at Bondi was extraordinary. Josh will
• 14:09
  Speaker 9: be one of the greatest voices in showing Australia what
• 14:13
  Speaker 9: has happened to us in terms of our anti-Semitism, but
• 14:15
  Speaker 9: also leading us beyond that. I'm really proud of the
• 14:19
  Speaker 9: way he's conducted himself in relation to that debate. I've
• 14:22
  Speaker 9: had him down in my electorate speaking about it as well,
• 14:24
  Speaker 9: and that'll be a big part of this book. I
• 14:26
  Speaker 9: haven't read it yet, but I'll get around to it
• 14:27
  Speaker 9: at some point. Maybe over Christmas. Maybe that was the
• 14:29
  Speaker 9: point of releasing the book now.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: Good on you, Zoe. Thanks so much.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: Zoe McKenzie there, the member for Flinders, joining us live
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: from Canberra. Now, let's go to that politician who is
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: no longer there. He's not in politics, that is, but
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: he's been everywhere over the past few days, winning huge
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: amounts of publicity for his memoir. Josh Frydenberg's official book
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: launch was in Sydney today, with former Prime Minister John
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: Howard doing the honours in front of a crowd that
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: was a who's who of business, media and politics. The
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: former Treasurer's book, we're told, is selling like hotcakes on
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: the back of this PR blitz.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: But back in Canberra, you'd swear.
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: He was still running Treasury because the current Treasurer seemed
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: a little obsessed.
• 15:09
  Speaker 11: And a lot of our work in the four and
• 15:11
  Speaker 11: a half years we've been in office has been to
• 15:13
  Speaker 11: clean up the mess that Josh Frydenberg left behind. In
• 15:16
  Speaker 11: Josh Frydenberg's last budget he had no savings.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: And that's when inflation was higher.
• 15:21
  Speaker 11: Than 6% and absolutely rocketing. And we know that the
• 15:25
  Speaker 11: best way to go about addressing these challenges that are
• 15:28
  Speaker 11: coming at us from around the world is to continue
• 15:30
  Speaker 11: to provide the responsible economic management that this opposition leader
• 15:34
  Speaker 11: would be incapable of and which Josh Frydenberg.
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: Was incapable of as well.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: We have made some progress.
• 15:39
  Speaker 11: Cleaning up the mess left behind by those opposite and
• 15:43
  Speaker 11: by Josh Frydenberg when they were in office.
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: Good Lord, hey, every day we see charmers in the job,
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: the better Frydenberg looks.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: And he got a good rap today, that is Frydenberg.
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: He got a good rap from the man he once
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: served as a staffer.
• 15:58
  Speaker 8: Josh, you've made a big contribution to the Liberal Party.
• 16:02
  Speaker 8: You've made a big contribution to the Australian community and
• 16:06
  Speaker 8: you have given hope and leadership... to the Australian Jewish
• 16:10
  Speaker 8: community at a time when it was needed.
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: I caught up with Josh Frydenberg after the launch and
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: noted that most Australians and most politicians would welcome an
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: endorsement like that from John Howard.
• 16:22
  Speaker 12: Well, it was obviously very special to have him launch
• 16:25
  Speaker 12: the book, Chris, because he's been part of this political journey.
• 16:29
  Speaker 12: I've been on pretty much every step of the way.
• 16:31
  Speaker 12: I had the opportunity to work in his office and
• 16:34
  Speaker 12: learn so much.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: He was one of two.
• 16:37
  Speaker 12: referees for my successful pre-selection alongside Andrew Peacock and then
• 16:44
  Speaker 12: in politics he was a mentor and I consulted him
• 16:48
  Speaker 12: before I ran for the deputy leadership as well as
• 16:51
  Speaker 12: during COVID when we were announcing major economic initiatives like
• 16:54
  Speaker 12: JobKeeper and then since politics he's been a friend.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: Well, it was a terrific launch. I was there.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: I picked up my copy of the book, Full Toed Odds,
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: as you'd expect. But John Howard picked up on your
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: rather modest title, A Grateful Son, and he had a
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: bit of a dig at you.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: Have a look.
• 17:13
  Speaker 8: Can I say, Josh, somebody said to me the other day,
• 17:17
  Speaker 8: that's a very modest, self-effacing title. Josh Frydenberg, it must
• 17:22
  Speaker 8: be the only modest, self-effacing thing he's ever said.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: LAUGHTER A lot of laughs there in the crowd who.
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: Have been overwhelmed by the enormous publicity for this book. Josh, now,
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: forget about politics, forget about merchant banking.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: You need a career in publicity.
• 17:43
  Speaker 12: Well, that was a very funny line from John Howard
• 17:46
  Speaker 12: and obviously resonated with many people. But the truth is,
• 17:50
  Speaker 12: with that title, I was walking to the elevator one
• 17:53
  Speaker 12: day at work and it just came to me. And
• 17:56
  Speaker 12: it does reflect, Chris, how I feel. I'm grateful particularly
• 18:00
  Speaker 12: to my family, my parents. I'm grateful to my community.
• 18:03
  Speaker 12: I'm grateful to the Liberal Party for giving me the
• 18:06
  Speaker 12: opportunity to represent them and a constituency.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: In the Parliament.
• 18:11
  Speaker 12: But I'm also grateful to my country particularly too because
• 18:16
  Speaker 12: it provided my family, my mother in particular, with a
• 18:20
  Speaker 12: warm embrace when her family was escaping the horrors of
• 18:24
  Speaker 12: the Holocaust and Without that warm embrace, if Australia had
• 18:27
  Speaker 12: closed its doors to my family, we wouldn't be here
• 18:30
  Speaker 12: to tell that story.
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: So I am truly a grateful son.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: Well, I want to go to the Middle East.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: And back in the days when you and I worked
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: together in Foreign Minister Alexander Downer's office when we first met,
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: we travelled to Iraq together after Saddam Hussein was toppled.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: I've got a great picture here of you and I
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: in front of that ominous... commemoration, really, of.
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: The swords, where the Iraqis commemorate the war with Iran.
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: You dealt on that trip and other issues with Alexander
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: Downer and when you worked with John Howard with the
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: issues in the Middle East, with Islamist extremism, with terrorism
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: in our region, of course, the Bali bombing.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: That must have been very.
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: Difficult for you, given your strong Jewish connections and Jewish faith.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: Well, to be honest, I didn't.
• 19:22
  Speaker 12: Allow or indeed I didn't see that my faith had
• 19:27
  Speaker 12: any impact on how I was dealing with those issues.
• 19:31
  Speaker 12: What I've always been focused on in those roles and
• 19:35
  Speaker 12: since is what is in the Australian national interest and
• 19:40
  Speaker 12: clearly we have been the subject of Islamic extremism and
• 19:46
  Speaker 12: their attacks and that's been seen with the Link Cafe
• 19:49
  Speaker 12: siege in Sydney. That was seen, obviously, with the Bali attack,
• 19:53
  Speaker 12: where 88 Australians tragically lost their lives. And, obviously, that's
• 19:57
  Speaker 12: been seen with the Bondi massacre, where 15 people most
• 20:00
  Speaker 12: recently lost their lives. And so Islamic extremism is a
• 20:04
  Speaker 12: threat to the Australian community, whether you're Jewish or you're non-Jewish.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's no doubt about that.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: and that is why we need to ensure that everything
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: is done.
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I suppose my point was that you had a
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: deep grounding in those issues through your work with the
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: Foreign Minister and the Prime Minister, the threat of Islamist extremism,
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: both overseas and in Australia, leading up.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: To, of course, last year, the worst terror attack.
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: In Australian history, 15 people killed at Bondi, and what
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: I think is perhaps your best moment in public life,
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: even though you're out of politics, when you spoke to
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: the nation from Bondi Beach.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: Here's a reminder.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: Our Prime Minister, our government.
• 20:47
  Speaker 12: has allowed Australia to be radicalised on his watch. It's
• 20:52
  Speaker 12: time for him to accept personal responsibility for the death
• 20:56
  Speaker 12: of 15 innocent people, including a 10-year-old child. It's time
• 21:01
  Speaker 12: our Prime Minister accepted accountability for what has happened here.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: Josh, those were stirring words that helped lead to the
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: Royal Commission. The Royal Commission is still going. It's going
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: to have a secret hearing next week. Does the Royal
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: Commission not need to call the Prime Minister, to call
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: the Home Affairs Minister, to call people like Sheikh Ibrahim Dadoon,
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: who celebrated the death of Jews in Israel, to call
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: some of the hate preachers to really delve into this
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: issue properly?
• 21:31
  Speaker 12: Well, Chris, we're better off for having a Royal Commission
• 21:33
  Speaker 12: than not. That's always been my position. and we await
• 21:38
  Speaker 12: the recommendations and the findings and obviously the government response.
• 21:42
  Speaker 12: But to be effective, to be comprehensive, the Royal Commission
• 21:45
  Speaker 12: does need to dig deep into the dark corners of
• 21:49
  Speaker 12: the country where this hate has been allowed to fester
• 21:53
  Speaker 12: and has indeed been fostered. And you talk about the
• 21:56
  Speaker 12: radical preachers, which I mentioned in that speech, the extremist organisations.
• 22:02
  Speaker 12: that should be banned, the hateful protests that have been
• 22:05
  Speaker 12: allowed to go unchecked. And, of course, our education system
• 22:09
  Speaker 12: needs to be improved where young people are taught a
• 22:13
  Speaker 12: more balanced perspective of the history of the Middle East,
• 22:17
  Speaker 12: but also where this anti-Semitism, this racism, this hate can
• 22:21
  Speaker 12: actually end up. And the warning signs were ignored by
• 22:26
  Speaker 12: our government, by others, in the lead-up to the Bondi attacks.
• 22:30
  Speaker 12: I did that documentary, as you know, for News 24,
• 22:33
  Speaker 12: some 14 months before the Bondi attack, where we documented
• 22:38
  Speaker 12: in detail what was happening across our country, yet there
• 22:41
  Speaker 12: was far too little action, and those cries of despair
• 22:46
  Speaker 12: were ignored, and the result was what we saw at Bondi.
• 22:50
  Speaker 12: And that's why it's so important that there is accountability.
• 22:54
  Speaker 12: I would have liked to have seen the Prime Minister,
• 22:57
  Speaker 12: the Home Affairs Minister... and others called before the Royal Commission. Obviously,
• 23:01
  Speaker 12: that is not my decision. But I expect that there
• 23:05
  Speaker 12: is accountability, not just answers for what we need to
• 23:10
  Speaker 12: take forward as a country.
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: Talking about accountability, you in the book talk about a
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: path forward for the Liberal Party, how.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: It needs to reclaim the centre.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: It's being attacked at the moment from the Teals on
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: the left and One Nation on the right. Now, aside
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: from immigration, I would have thought two of the key
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: drivers for people to go to One Nation from the
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: coalition are pandemic overreach, especially vaccine mandates. A lot of
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: resentment still about that. but also net zero. Do you
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: admit that net zero in particular was a grave error
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: by the Coalition?
• 23:43
  Speaker 12: Well, net zero is not the Liberal policy, and I'm
• 23:45
  Speaker 12: very comfortable with that, and I support the Coalition's position.
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: Well, let me interrupt you for just a moment, because
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: I want to show you what you were saying about
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: that just four years ago.
• 23:56
  Speaker 12: Well, we're listening on a whole range of issues and
• 23:58
  Speaker 12: we're acting and take the issue of climate change as
• 24:00
  Speaker 12: we're committed to net zero by 2050. We've put in
• 24:04
  Speaker 12: place significant policies to help ensure that smooth transition.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: So you were supporting net zero.
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: Was it a mistake back then under Scott Morrison for
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: the coalition to adopt net zero where surely the party
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: has to admit that error so it can be trusted
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: in the future?
• 24:22
  Speaker 12: Well, I think your viewers and I think the Australian
• 24:24
  Speaker 12: people are more interested, actually, in what is our policy
• 24:26
  Speaker 12: today and what are we taking forward to the next election.
• 24:31
  Speaker 12: And that is not a net zero policy. My view
• 24:34
  Speaker 12: has always been that we're going to need a mix
• 24:37
  Speaker 12: of energy sources. And I spoke in my first speech
• 24:40
  Speaker 12: in Parliament, Chris, about nuclear power. We need to obviously
• 24:44
  Speaker 12: keep the coal assets that are generating important baseload power.
• 24:49
  Speaker 12: We need to take more gas... out of the ground
• 24:51
  Speaker 12: because that's a reliable source of energy. There is going
• 24:54
  Speaker 12: to be a rollout of renewables, but that's all part
• 24:59
  Speaker 12: of a mix. And where our focus should be unequivocally
• 25:03
  Speaker 12: is on two things.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: How do we lower prices?
• 25:06
  Speaker 12: Because, as you know, Labor went to the election when
• 25:11
  Speaker 12: we were against them, promising that electricity prices would fall.
• 25:15
  Speaker 12: They never have, and they've gone up substantially since. and
• 25:18
  Speaker 12: also the stability of the grid, because when the energy
• 25:21
  Speaker 12: mix changes and there's increased demand, particularly as we're bringing
• 25:25
  Speaker 12: data centres and other technological changes to the economy to bear,
• 25:31
  Speaker 12: there's going to be more demand for electricity.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: We need to ensure stability of the grid.
• 25:34
  Speaker 12: So I'm unapologetic that my priority, the Coalition's priority, the
• 25:40
  Speaker 12: focus when it comes to energy policy must be, first
• 25:45
  Speaker 12: and foremost, on prices.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: and the stability of the grid. That's what we need
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: to focus on.
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: Alright, let me finish on, I thought, a really telling
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: point from your speech today, and that was when you
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: talked about what a pivotal moment this is for the
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: country and for the world, with economic challenges aplenty, with
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: war in the Middle East, war in Ukraine, tensions elsewhere.
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: a rapidly changing environment with artificial intelligence. You painted that
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: picture for us. But how do we grasp the moment
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: in Australia? What should be our top priority in order
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: to manage this situation?
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: Is it getting the budget back into balance? Is it
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: improving our defence?
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: What do we need to do right now to make
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: sure we navigate this difficult period well?
• 26:33
  Speaker 12: Budget management is critically important. The difference between... The budget
• 26:39
  Speaker 12: that I left in 2022 and Jim Chalmers has most
• 26:44
  Speaker 12: recently put down is an extra $ 400 billion in revenue
• 26:48
  Speaker 12: that he has enjoyed. Yet he's delivered two surpluses, one
• 26:52
  Speaker 12: of $ 15 billion and one of $ 22 billion, and is
• 26:54
  Speaker 12: projecting a decade of deficits. They have squandered the rest.
• 26:58
  Speaker 12: And spending as a share of GDP is 2.5% higher
• 27:02
  Speaker 12: than it was under our government. And that's not with
• 27:05
  Speaker 12: the pandemic. That's not with a crisis that we had
• 27:09
  Speaker 12: to deal with. So we need to get spending under control.
• 27:12
  Speaker 12: Tax as a share of the economy is at all
• 27:14
  Speaker 12: times highs. And we've seen the government put in place
• 27:18
  Speaker 12: higher taxes on superannuation, higher taxes on investment, higher... They
• 27:23
  Speaker 12: didn't go forward with the Stage 3 tax, Income tax cuts,
• 27:26
  Speaker 12: which they said that they would. They put higher taxes
• 27:29
  Speaker 12: on discretionary trusts. So they're putting in place higher taxes.
• 27:32
  Speaker 12: So we need less spending, lower taxes, a deregulation agenda,
• 27:38
  Speaker 12: more flexibility in our labour market, sensible energy policy, and
• 27:42
  Speaker 12: then we need to adopt technology where it's going to
• 27:45
  Speaker 12: be productivity enhancing. All of these things, I think, will
• 27:48
  Speaker 12: create for a better, more prosperous Australia. On social cohesion,
• 27:53
  Speaker 12: immigration is critical. Because I do think that we have
• 27:57
  Speaker 12: been less rigorous than we need to be. The numbers
• 28:00
  Speaker 12: have been too high and the standards have been too low.
• 28:03
  Speaker 12: And then, of course, when it comes to national security,
• 28:06
  Speaker 12: I talk about the more uncertain world that we're in
• 28:09
  Speaker 12: and Australia needs to be more self-reliant. We're going to
• 28:11
  Speaker 12: need to lift spending as a share of GDP on defence.
• 28:15
  Speaker 12: We're going to have to gain access to the greatest technologies. And,
• 28:19
  Speaker 12: of course, we need AUKUS and we need ANZUS, but
• 28:22
  Speaker 12: we can't just rely on those two policies. We need
• 28:27
  Speaker 12: to have a broader policy of self-reliance in our country.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us again, Josh. Congratulations on the book.
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: And if I ever write another book, I might ask
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: you for a bit of advice on publicity.
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: Thanks, Chris.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: Josh Frydenberg there.
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: Two things out of that interview. One is I had
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: to chuck in a little photo to prove that both
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: Josh and I.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: Once had hair. But secondly, he'll be back. You just
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: know it, don't you?
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: Coming up after the break, Tim Blair on our Prime
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: Minister and his penchant for dumb ideas. Let's catch up
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: with our friend from The Daily Telegraph, Tim Blair in
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: Western Victoria.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: Good to talk to you, mate.
• 29:11
  Speaker 13: Good to be here, absolutely.
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: Tim, I often refer to your columns in this segment
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: and the one you've written about Albo saying yes to
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: dumb ideas is so good.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: I've just got to read some of it. You've got
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: the staff saying.
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: Hey, Albo, want to be interviewed about imaginary sexual partners
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: on a show called Bush Deep? Hey, Albo, want to
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: fall off a stage and then lie about it and
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: lie about tax cuts and lie about everything else? Hey, Albo,
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: want to invite serial online smearer and Labor lovey Reese
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: Muldoon to your wedding? Hey, Albo, want to recognise Palestine?
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: It's just brilliant, mate. And Albo says yes to all
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: of this.
• 29:49
  Speaker 13: Yeah, sometimes they do right themselves, don't they, Chris? But yeah,
• 29:53
  Speaker 13: he's got a lot of advisers and none of them
• 29:55
  Speaker 13: give good advice. I've come back to this theme a
• 29:57
  Speaker 13: few times because it's not a small amount of money
• 29:59
  Speaker 13: being spent on this parliamentary cohort of mates that he's got.
• 30:04
  Speaker 13: And apparently the word no is not in their vocabulary
• 30:07
  Speaker 13: unless they're being asked to greenlight a Royal Commission into
• 30:11
  Speaker 13: one of the worst atrocities that we've ever known on
• 30:13
  Speaker 13: Bondi Beach. So, yeah, he said no to that for
• 30:16
  Speaker 13: nearly a month.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: He said no to that.
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: But, yeah, just to remind everyone, he said yes to
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: the Bush Deep podcast.
• 30:22
  Speaker 14: Yep.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: The Japanese Prime Minister brought a melon.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: She?
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: Did she smuggle it? I don't know.
• 30:27
  Speaker 13: Oh, I'm expecting.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: Got a couple of melons. She brought two. She brought two,
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: as you do.
• 30:33
  Speaker 13: She just came in looking like Pamela Anderson.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: Just astounding.
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: But, of course, as you highlight in your column, Tim,
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: even now, with all the serious issues he's facing and
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: all the fallout from that shocking podcast, he starred in
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: another one.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: Here's an excerpt. Hello, darling. Dad!
• 30:52
  Speaker 5: And who's this?
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: Dad, this is my boyfriend, James. Well, nice to.
• 30:55
  Speaker 8: Meet you, mate.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: You are meeting me.
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: Bear in mind, I'm very protective of my daughter.
• 31:04
  Speaker 8: And if you break her heart, I can reinstate your
• 31:07
  Speaker 8: hex debt.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: I don't know what's going on there, Tim. I mean,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: he doesn't have a daughter. It's not funny.
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: This bloke would have paid off his hex debt about
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: 20 years ago.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: I mean, what's going on?
• 31:20
  Speaker 13: Actually, there's another interesting thing here, besides the fact that
• 31:23
  Speaker 13: Albo can't act, which is kind of rare for a
• 31:25
  Speaker 13: parliamentarian of his experience. They generally have a bit of
• 31:28
  Speaker 13: stage presence. But apparently the thing was filmed in February,
• 31:32
  Speaker 13: so I'm assuming there's been a lot of, negotiation, a
• 31:35
  Speaker 13: lot of back and forth between the production between those
• 31:39
  Speaker 13: comedians and the Prime Minister's office. I wonder what that
• 31:43
  Speaker 13: was all about. It took them eight months to get
• 31:45
  Speaker 13: that to air. So something a bit squirrelly is going
• 31:48
  Speaker 13: on perhaps.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, if they've got any outtakes, send them in. We
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: would love to have a look at them.
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: But it's already, it's so squeamish, all this stuff, it's
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: just so bad.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: That there are now.
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: Satirical versions, spin-offs of Albo's horrible podcast performances.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Have a look at this spoof.
• 32:09
  Speaker 15: Albo, aren't you the Prime Minister?
• 32:10
  Speaker 13: Shouldn't you be at work or something?
• 32:12
  Speaker 10: I'm going to tax the absolute f * * *
• 32:14
  Speaker 10: out of you, mate.
• 32:16
  Speaker 9: And no matter how hard you work, you're never going
• 32:19
  Speaker 9: to own.
• 32:19
  Speaker 7: A f * * * ing house.
• 32:24
  Speaker 5: It's funny.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: It's funny because it's true.
• 32:28
  Speaker 13: It's probably not the best thing in the world when
• 32:30
  Speaker 13: your attempted comedy is made fun of and the funnier
• 32:33
  Speaker 13: version is like getting clicks and notice. It was kind
• 32:38
  Speaker 13: of set for that. That's the thing about this and
• 32:41
  Speaker 13: his podcast with Albo is that At least with the
• 32:46
  Speaker 13: One Nation cartoons, which our friend Mark Nicholson is responsible for,
• 32:50
  Speaker 13: at least with those, although there might be some differences
• 32:52
  Speaker 13: of opinion about them, we know that there's a dedicated
• 32:55
  Speaker 13: fan base that do find them funny, including me.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: They're hilarious. Exactly. But with.
• 33:02
  Speaker 13: This stuff, no-one's saying, give me more Albo. I can't
• 33:06
  Speaker 13: wait for the next Albo podcast or the next Albo video.
• 33:08
  Speaker 13: He's so funny.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: No-one ever says that.
• 33:11
  Speaker 13: With the One Nation ones, there's probably, you know, even
• 33:13
  Speaker 13: the people who say they don't find them funny, they
• 33:15
  Speaker 13: really do find them funny secretly.
• 33:17
  Speaker 4: Exactly.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: They might be offended by the humour, but they know
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: it's funny. Albo, stick to your day job. Don't waste
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: your time trying to be funny.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: Actually, don't.
• 33:26
  Speaker 13: No, don't do that either.
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: Don't do that either, actually.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: Retire to the beach house. Do something else. Thanks for
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: joining us, Tim. We'll catch up with you later in
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: the week. Tim Blair will be back on Thursday with
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: Mark Nicholson.
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: We've got to take a break. On the other side,
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: we'll cross to the US, catch up with Kristen Tate,
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: talk about Donald Trump doing that diesel deal with none
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: other than Vladimir Putin. The weekend deal by Donald Trump
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: with Vladimir Putin to import Russian diesel to the US
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: shows just how much fuel prices are hurting in America.
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: The deal's been condemned by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky because
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: it helps.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: To boost Russian coffers. But for Trump, as ever, it's
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: all roses.
• 34:10
  Speaker 16: That is massive amounts of oil coming into our country,
• 34:13
  Speaker 16: and I want to thank President Putin, to be honest
• 34:15
  Speaker 16: with you. We have massive amounts of oil coming into
• 34:20
  Speaker 16: our country, and it's diesel, which is what we want.
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: As I put to our US analyst, Kristen Tate, this
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: looks like a desperate move to try and push fuel
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: prices down in the lead-up to next month's midterm elections.
• 34:33
  Speaker 7: That's all anyone's talking about here. Everything is so expensive.
• 34:38
  Speaker 7: And a lot of the prices, even for just normal
• 34:41
  Speaker 7: things like groceries, are stemming from the high diesel prices.
• 34:46
  Speaker 7: So this is something that is very important to the
• 34:48
  Speaker 7: administration to get these prices down. And he's getting a
• 34:51
  Speaker 7: lot of pressure from these Republicans running in tight races.
• 34:56
  Speaker 7: Even up here in New England, there's a Republican running
• 34:58
  Speaker 7: for Senate in New Hampshire, actually, who has a real
• 35:01
  Speaker 7: shot at winning a Senate seat. and taking back a
• 35:04
  Speaker 7: seat for the Republicans. And the number one issue that
• 35:07
  Speaker 7: voters up here are complaining about, as the rest of
• 35:09
  Speaker 7: the country, is these high prices. So the administration is desperate,
• 35:13
  Speaker 7: as you said. And look, I think that the sentiment
• 35:16
  Speaker 7: among voters is if buying Russian diesel helps create an
• 35:20
  Speaker 7: off-ramp for a war that a lot of people are
• 35:23
  Speaker 7: tired of and don't support anymore, then they're kind of
• 35:26
  Speaker 7: open to it.
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: Another big controversy today with the Home Affairs Security, Homeland Security,
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: actually raiding the office of Democrat Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Here's
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: what the president's had to say about that. She's a
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: terrible person, just a complainer.
• 35:45
  Speaker 16: She comes from a country that is a non-country and
• 35:48
  Speaker 16: then she comes over here and she complains about our Constitution.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: I think she's a terrible person.
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: Now, this is extraordinary by any means, Kristen, but I
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: have a look at what Omar actually had to say.
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: She says, make no mistake, this is an attempt to
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: target political enemies and weaponise federal law enforcement.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: I will not be silenced.
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: Now, ordinarily you might think that's a reasonable statement, but
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: I can't believe these people. They have spent years weaponising
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: federal law enforcement against Donald Trump and failed.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: Now they reckon they're getting some of that treatment. Is
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: there any truth in it?
• 36:25
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, these are the people who indicted President Trump.
• 36:28
  Speaker 7: There was a mugshot taken of the former president of
• 36:31
  Speaker 7: the United States, now current president of the United States.
• 36:34
  Speaker 7: And I want to remind viewers, a search warrant is
• 36:37
  Speaker 7: not a conviction. We shouldn't pretend it is. But this
• 36:40
  Speaker 7: also isn't just like a social— a Truth Social post
• 36:44
  Speaker 7: or a Twitter post. This is real. This really happened,
• 36:47
  Speaker 7: which means that federal investigators had to actually persuade a
• 36:51
  Speaker 7: judge to authorize a search of a sitting congressperson's house.
• 36:55
  Speaker 7: That means there really is something there to investigate. This
• 36:58
  Speaker 7: isn't just hearsay. Something is going on. Nobody's above the law.
• 37:03
  Speaker 7: This is what the Democrats have loved to tell us
• 37:05
  Speaker 7: for the past few years. So, yeah, that's right. Nobody's
• 37:09
  Speaker 7: above the law. So let's hold everybody accountable. The irony
• 37:13
  Speaker 7: is delicious, Chris. After years of these Democrats telling us
• 37:18
  Speaker 7: that immigration paperwork is sacred and, you know, violations are serious, great.
• 37:23
  Speaker 7: Then the rules can apply to members of Congress, too.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: Spot on.
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: Now, one of the things I do like about Donald
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: Trump is he's so transparent. When there was that terror
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: plot foiled in the UK and the US withdrew some
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: of its aircraft from that UK defence base, all the
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: official channels and the British government were saying little about it.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: It was President Trump.
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: Who first said, yeah, this was a terror plot that
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: we think involved Iran. Well, now the UK Prime Minister,
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: Andy Burnham, has agreed that that is the case.
• 37:56
  Speaker 10: Here he is.
• 37:57
  Speaker 14: I can confirm our assessment that it is highly likely
• 38:01
  Speaker 14: to have been coordinated in Iran, almost certainly directed by
• 38:07
  Speaker 14: Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard. We will not tolerate these threats
• 38:11
  Speaker 14: on our soil. We will crack down on Iran's use
• 38:14
  Speaker 14: of criminal networks, using our full range of powers to
• 38:17
  Speaker 14: target them and their funding streams. And we will bring
• 38:21
  Speaker 14: further sanctions to restrict the capacity of Iran and the
• 38:25
  Speaker 14: IRGC to do us harm.
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but Donald Trump told the world about this a
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: week ago. It's a good thing, isn't it? People should
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: applaud leaders sharing information with them. Of course.
• 38:37
  Speaker 7: And, yes, once again, Donald Trump was right on day one.
• 38:41
  Speaker 7: But this is scary stuff, Chris. This is warfare on
• 38:44
  Speaker 7: a budget. You don't need to hire a fleet of
• 38:46
  Speaker 7: bombers if you can use criminals and drones and light
• 38:49
  Speaker 7: fires to create enough fear that you force your enemy
• 38:53
  Speaker 7: to move billion-dollar aircraft to... And, you know, we need
• 38:56
  Speaker 7: to talk about deterrence here. I don't think sanctions are
• 38:59
  Speaker 7: necessarily going to be enough. Sanctions are starting to kind
• 39:01
  Speaker 7: of sound like the Western world's version of thoughts and prayers. So,
• 39:06
  Speaker 7: you know, the question is if sanctions are going to
• 39:08
  Speaker 7: be enough to kind of change the behavior we've been
• 39:12
  Speaker 7: seeing in these terror plots. But yes, once again, Donald
• 39:16
  Speaker 7: Trump was correct.
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: And you're right, sanctions have been tried against Iran for
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: 50 years and they haven't worked.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: So the action that's underway now hopefully will work.
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: Just before we let you go, there's some bad news
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: for you because there are reports that Kamala Harris's husband
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: is urging her not to run.
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: I know.
• 39:34
  Speaker 7: He needs to stop this. We need her to run.
• 39:38
  Speaker 7: She's the star on the left. Everybody loves you, Kamala. Please, please,
• 39:42
  Speaker 7: please run again. You have a huge base of voters
• 39:45
  Speaker 7: just dying to vote for you.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: Please.
• 39:48
  Speaker 7: We all want to see you run again.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: Kamala, don't listen to your hubby. Listen to Kristen Tate.
• 39:52
  Speaker 16: Yes, yes.
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us again, Kristen. You have a big
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: base of voters, Kamala.
• 39:56
  Speaker 7: Thank you, Chris. Always a pleasure.
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: I've got a great Condoleezza Rice badge at home.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: It says, run, Condi, run. We need one for Kamala. Run, Kamala, run.
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: After the break, I'm going to catch up with Susie
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: O'Brien and Stephen Senatiempo. We'll talk about plenty, including that
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: American execution and whether it should be live streamed. Let's
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: get into the Tuesday panel with Susie O'Brien and Stephen Senatiempo.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: Great to see both of you. I want to talk
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: about small business.
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: Again and red tape and taxes and charges and all
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: the rest of it. Stephen, we learned today that Jim
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: Chalmers is actually sitting on a report from the tax
• 40:37
  Speaker 3: office about red tape and how you could free.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: Up the economy by cutting a lot of regulation.
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: We always hear talk about this, but he's sitting on
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: this report.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: Surely this should be sort of.
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: top of his agenda if you want to improve the economy,
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: improve productivity and give small business some help in this country.
• 40:55
  Speaker 15: Yeah, but I think that's the point, Chris. They don't
• 40:57
  Speaker 15: want to give small business help. I mean, look at
• 40:59
  Speaker 15: what's going on with these credit card surcharges. We've got
• 41:02
  Speaker 15: every Labor minister out there still trying to defend the indefensible,
• 41:05
  Speaker 15: where small businesses have had to absorb this charge or
• 41:07
  Speaker 15: pass it on to their customers. Prices have gone up
• 41:11
  Speaker 15: in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis. And if he
• 41:14
  Speaker 15: releases this report now, can you imagine the optics of it,
• 41:17
  Speaker 15: saying this is all the red tape that we should
• 41:19
  Speaker 15: have been cutting, on top of the fact that you've
• 41:22
  Speaker 15: just copped it in the neck because of these credit
• 41:24
  Speaker 15: card surcharges and because the ATO won't take your credit
• 41:27
  Speaker 15: cards anymore, although.
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: We've delayed that.
• 41:29
  Speaker 15: Not stopped it, delayed it. I don't know if small
• 41:32
  Speaker 15: business can actually take any more of this government. We've
• 41:35
  Speaker 15: got a Prime Minister that's never had a real job,
• 41:37
  Speaker 15: a Treasurer that doesn't understand basic economics and basic... mathematics,
• 41:41
  Speaker 15: and then we've got a finance minister who's claimed to
• 41:43
  Speaker 15: fame as sending the ACT government broke. So, I mean,
• 41:46
  Speaker 15: these are the people running an economy where small business,
• 41:49
  Speaker 15: the largest employer in the country, are absolutely on their knees.
• 41:53
  Speaker 15: We've had something like 4,000 businesses go broke in the
• 41:55
  Speaker 15: last two years, and we've got government ministers saying, oh, well,
• 41:59
  Speaker 15: you know, maybe they should have been better at it.
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: I mean, fair dinkum.
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: They're just copping hit after hit, Susie, where there's tax increases,
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: skyrocketing electricity prices, this new ban on surcharges, the tax
• 42:12
  Speaker 3: changes around trusts and the like. And the government doesn't
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: seem to get it or care. If you saw the
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: top of the show, I've given away the answer here, Susie.
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: But would you even know who the federal small business
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: minister is?
• 42:27
  Speaker 4: No, no one would know. No one really cares. But,
• 42:29
  Speaker 4: you know, it's interesting because Chalmers was always seen as
• 42:33
  Speaker 4: the successor to Albo. And, you know, now this sort
• 42:37
  Speaker 4: of absolute farce, problem after problem in terms of the economy,
• 42:42
  Speaker 4: and sitting on this report, are they waiting to lead
• 42:46
  Speaker 4: up to the election so they can suddenly come in
• 42:49
  Speaker 4: and rescue small business from the crisis that they caused themselves?
• 42:55
  Speaker 10: Yeah.
• 42:55
  Speaker 4: Small businesses, as Stephen is saying, sitting at the dinner
• 42:59
  Speaker 4: table at the end of the evening, having to be
• 43:02
  Speaker 4: a banker, an HR expert, an accountant, work safe expert.
• 43:08
  Speaker 9: And there is help.
• 43:09
  Speaker 4: We know that there is help out there for them.
• 43:12
  Speaker 4: So why aren't they getting it?
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, unreal.
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: Let me stay in your state of Victoria, Susie.
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: I want to talk about this proposal being put up
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: by the Libertarians where they're saying that if you're defending
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: your home from a home invasion, you should basically have
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: free reign to be able to defend yourself and see
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: them off. Here's David Limbrick, the Libertarian MP.
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 43:32
  Speaker 5: The F around and find out bill. Lots of people
• 43:35
  Speaker 5: feel unsafe. They feel like they have no means to
• 43:38
  Speaker 5: protect themselves. And I think in many ways it's gone
• 43:41
  Speaker 5: out of control. The number of home invasions that we've seen.
• 43:44
  Speaker 5: I've spoken to so many people in the southeast that
• 43:46
  Speaker 5: have had their homes invaded.
• 43:49
  Speaker 3: We understand the concern, Susie, but we don't need these laws,
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: do we?
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, you have self-defence. You're entitled to defend yourself.
• 43:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I absolutely agree with you. I think he's over... Like,
• 44:02
  Speaker 4: we all know there is a problem and you just
• 44:04
  Speaker 4: have to look at the home invasions and how just
• 44:06
  Speaker 4: terrifying it is. But we can already defend ourselves. We
• 44:10
  Speaker 4: can already use reasonable force. We shouldn't have to be
• 44:12
  Speaker 4: using deadly force, which is what he's asking. And people
• 44:16
  Speaker 4: carrying pepper spray, which is illegal in Victoria. I mean,
• 44:20
  Speaker 4: it just creates this American style where everybody's in siege
• 44:25
  Speaker 4: and there's this sort of vigilante culture. Absolutely, that's the
• 44:28
  Speaker 4: last thing we need.
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: Speaking of America, Stephen, what do you think about live
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: streaming the execution?
• 44:36
  Speaker 15: Look, Chris, I'm philosophically against the death penalty. So, I mean,
• 44:40
  Speaker 15: that's my first problem with this. But, I mean, what
• 44:42
  Speaker 15: kind of macabre world do we live in where we
• 44:44
  Speaker 15: actually want to watch somebody being executed?
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, I find it extraordinary when you're.
• 44:49
  Speaker 15: Watching TV shows and they have an audience for executions
• 44:52
  Speaker 15: in America, but to put a bloke in front of
• 44:54
  Speaker 15: a firing squad and live stream it, what are we
• 44:57
  Speaker 15: trying to prove here? I mean, is the guy going
• 44:59
  Speaker 15: to die more... Is he going to be more dead
• 45:03
  Speaker 15: because we all see it on the internet? And to
• 45:05
  Speaker 15: people out there who want to watch this, we've got
• 45:08
  Speaker 15: a real problem if this is the world we live
• 45:10
  Speaker 15: in today.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: Well, they have the.
• 45:11
  Speaker 3: Audiences there because you have to have accountability. That's why
• 45:15
  Speaker 3: you have live audiences in there. There's often journalists, family
• 45:17
  Speaker 3: and friends, obviously, journalists.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: But you've got to record it. There's got to be
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: some accountability.
• 45:22
  Speaker 3: And I would have thought the live streaming is an
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: attempt to build on that.
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: A lot of people are opposed to it, even in
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: the US, of course. We don't know whether they'll go
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: ahead with it. I think it's a Trump decision in
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: the end.
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: But here's Barnaby Joyce in Australia, also with Sarah Hansen-Young
• 45:36
  Speaker 3: on the same topic.
• 45:38
  Speaker 10: No, this is Roman amphitheatre stuff. No, I don't agree
• 45:42
  Speaker 10: with that. We don't have the death penalty in Australia
• 45:45
  Speaker 10: and I certainly don't want any children or anybody, to
• 45:49
  Speaker 10: be honest, to witness another human being being shot by
• 45:53
  Speaker 10: a firing squad.
• 45:55
  Speaker 17: The Australian government should pick up the phone to the
• 45:58
  Speaker 17: big tech platforms, to Meta, to YouTube, to TikTok, and
• 46:03
  Speaker 17: tell them we will not accept the live streaming of
• 46:07
  Speaker 17: an execution here in Australia.
• 46:11
  Speaker 3: Well, we've all seen, well, perhaps not all of us,
• 46:13
  Speaker 3: but I've certainly seen shocking things online, Susie. I'd be
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: surprised if the digital companies didn't do something to censor
• 46:23
  Speaker 3: this themselves. But if you're opposed to the death penalty,
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: maybe this brings the horrors of that to everybody's attention.
• 46:32
  Speaker 4: I think it's a barbaric act. I think once you've
• 46:34
  Speaker 4: got One Nation and the Greens agreeing with anything, it
• 46:38
  Speaker 4: goes to show they're both making reasonable points. I agree
• 46:42
  Speaker 4: with Stephen. I just think it's absolutely barbaric. We have
• 46:46
  Speaker 4: no place in our society. society for this. And I
• 46:51
  Speaker 4: remember some of those, you know, the orange hoods and
• 46:54
  Speaker 4: people being shot at close range. And it was absolutely terrifying.
• 47:00
  Speaker 4: I was quite young at the time and there were
• 47:01
  Speaker 4: images going through my mind for weeks afterwards. We do
• 47:05
  Speaker 4: not want people to be watching this. I don't care
• 47:08
  Speaker 4: about accountability. This is, even if you kill 13 people,
• 47:12
  Speaker 4: on a military base, it should not be a blockbuster
• 47:17
  Speaker 4: viewing opportunity. No way.
• 47:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, one of the things that really concerns me about
• 47:21
  Speaker 3: this is there's an Islamist extremist element and this will
• 47:24
  Speaker 3: just increase this bloke's notoriety as a martyr, I.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: Would have thought, to the extremists.
• 47:30
  Speaker 3: Let's finish off with some fun and games from the
• 47:32
  Speaker 3: climate crazies. Here's one of them taking to the floor
• 47:35
  Speaker 3: of the New South Wales Parliament this afternoon.
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: I love that, Stephen. I love that. Cease the broadcast.
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: Cease the broadcast. Send him to the dungeon. Yeah.
• 47:58
  Speaker 15: Look, I don't know if they've still got dungeons in
• 47:59
  Speaker 15: the basement of Macquarie Street, but let's hope they do.
• 48:02
  Speaker 15: I mean, these clowns, seriously... Is this doing... Is there
• 48:06
  Speaker 15: a single person out there that is convinced of their
• 48:09
  Speaker 15: cause because some... I won't use the word I want
• 48:12
  Speaker 15: to use. Let's say clown, Muppet, storms the floor of
• 48:16
  Speaker 15: Parliament and carries on like that?
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: Just a Muppet. Just a Muppet. We all agree.
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: Muppet's a good enough word. Thanks for joining us. Appreciate it.
• 48:24
  Speaker 3: Susie and Stephen, we'll catch you next week. I just
• 48:26
  Speaker 3: want to squeeze in a little bit of your feedback
• 48:28
  Speaker 3: on the traumas that are confronting small business. One viewer says,
• 48:32
  Speaker 3: any small business owner in Australia... He's more qualified to
• 48:35
  Speaker 3: be Treasurer than Chalmers. He is a surcharge himself, wrecking
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: the nation's economy and the real lives of real people.
• 48:42
  Speaker 3: And Alan says, so Chalmers says he stepped in to
• 48:46
  Speaker 3: fund the ATO's surcharge fees. That means taxpayers are now
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: funding the ATO to cover the surcharge, another recurring unnecessary expense.
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: Wake up, Labor.
• 48:57
  Speaker 3: Everything you touch turns sour. What more is there to add?
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: I'll see you tomorrow night. Here's Peter Quidlin.