Latest / The Bolt Report / The Bolt Report | 15 January

Transcript

The Bolt Report | 15 January · The Bolt Report

0:11
Speaker 1: It's the fault Report.
0:15
Speaker 2: We're going to the Vault reports steep Price with you.
0:17
Speaker 2: Andrew will be back from leave come Monday. Well, this
0:20
Speaker 2: time last week Victoria was being smashed by bushfires that
0:23
Speaker 2: turned deadly. Now a week on, a flash flooding event
0:27
Speaker 2: like you'd never seen. Massive amounts of rain have swept
0:30
Speaker 2: through some of the busiest coastal towns at this time
0:33
Speaker 2: of year on Victoria's West coast. I talk of places
0:36
Speaker 2: like Lawn Why River, Kennett River and Separation Creek. Amazing
0:41
Speaker 2: pictures of vehicles being swept from caravan parks that are
0:45
Speaker 2: crowded at this time of year and into the ocean,
0:47
Speaker 2: and under bridges trapped under bridges.
0:49
Speaker 1: We'll have a full update for.
0:50
Speaker 2: You from a local mayor shortly and we'll keep you
0:53
Speaker 2: up to date as we go through the evening. Also
0:55
Speaker 2: coming up tonight, next week's recall of Parliament has descended
0:59
Speaker 2: into a slanging match between the Government and the Coalition
1:02
Speaker 2: and now the Greens the Liberals principally with a labor
1:06
Speaker 2: minister labelling them as a clown show. National's leader David
1:10
Speaker 2: Little Proud and I spoke a little earlier. He'll join
1:13
Speaker 2: us shortly. The world is on edge as Iran and
1:16
Speaker 2: the US appear headed for some form of conflict, as
1:20
Speaker 2: the Iranian regime continues to murder their own people, threaten executions,
1:24
Speaker 2: and shuts the Islamic nation down, including the airspace to
1:28
Speaker 2: the wider world. Professor Greg Barton up shortly plus Alex Ritchen, Co,
1:33
Speaker 2: Executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jury, will tell
1:36
Speaker 2: us what his organization thinks of the hate laws that
1:40
Speaker 2: go to Parliament next week and what they hope happens
1:43
Speaker 2: when Parliament resumes. But first, the tragic and Australia changing
1:48
Speaker 2: Bondai terrorist attack, the worst on Australian soil in our history,
1:53
Speaker 2: is going to have an impact maybe no one saw coming.
1:56
Speaker 2: December fourteen will change the face of Australian politics in
2:00
Speaker 2: my view, and it will make or break two central figures. First,
2:05
Speaker 2: Opposition Leader Susan Lee, today, in one of the strongest
2:08
Speaker 2: leadership performances I've seen from any politician in a long time,
2:13
Speaker 2: stamped her authority as coalition leader and got to the
2:17
Speaker 2: heart of what the laws should be being considered in
2:20
Speaker 2: a recalled Parliament next week. Islamic extremism now, as Lee
2:25
Speaker 2: and her fifteen minute media conference said over and over,
2:29
Speaker 2: Islamic extremism in all its forms is what needs to
2:33
Speaker 2: be attacked. But in the five hundred odd pages of
2:36
Speaker 2: this hate speech bill and gun law bill, the two
2:39
Speaker 2: words radical Islam do not appear once now, as she said,
2:45
Speaker 2: if you can't even speak the words, how do you
2:48
Speaker 2: solve the problem?
2:50
Speaker 3: The legislation does not address the real issues that gave
2:55
Speaker 3: rise to the Bondai attack. It doesn't address Islamic extremism,
3:02
Speaker 3: it doesn't address isis influence, and it doesn't address the
3:08
Speaker 3: rise of anti Semitism and the associated terrorist threat in Australia.
3:13
Speaker 2: Lee labeled the bill as being a clumsy attempt to
3:16
Speaker 2: address hate speech and gun laws and in her view,
3:19
Speaker 2: protects hate preachers and is unsalvageable. That's her words. Clearly,
3:24
Speaker 2: no amendments are going to save it with some Green's
3:28
Speaker 2: friendly changes, although they today are our complaining, but they
3:32
Speaker 2: will probably get those amendments and change it through the Senate.
3:35
Speaker 2: This clumsy bill that many believe will be used as
3:38
Speaker 2: a weapon against free speech, will actually pass next week.
3:42
Speaker 2: It will become law. Lee saved some of her strongest
3:45
Speaker 2: words and gave a glimpse of the sort of leadership
3:48
Speaker 2: we can expect from her.
3:50
Speaker 1: At last, we've.
3:52
Speaker 3: Been very clear under our package, our message to those
3:58
Speaker 3: who preach hatred, who preach radical Islamic extremist hatred, glorify
4:06
Speaker 3: terrorism or in site violence, it's very clear. If you're
4:10
Speaker 3: not an Australian citizen, you will be deported, and if
4:14
Speaker 3: you are an Australian citizen, you will be.
4:16
Speaker 1: Arrested, deported and giled.
4:20
Speaker 2: Look their views, comments and words that average Australians, I
4:24
Speaker 2: think of all faiths can recognize. Lee also made it
4:27
Speaker 2: clear on how she feels about the way that Anthony
4:30
Speaker 2: Alberanezi has handled his job.
4:32
Speaker 1: Since December fourteenth, we.
4:34
Speaker 3: Have the worst ever terror attack on Australian soil. The
4:38
Speaker 3: Parliament should have been reconvened then before Christmas to actually
4:45
Speaker 3: demonstrate leadership, compassion and the determination that I have spoken
4:51
Speaker 3: of every day since to tackle radical Islamic extremism and
4:56
Speaker 3: eradicate anti Semitism. The new South Wales Parliament came back
5:00
Speaker 3: before Christmas, but our Parliament still.
5:02
Speaker 4: Has not returned.
5:03
Speaker 3: Instead, we have had a Prime Minister who froze for
5:07
Speaker 3: twenty five days, unable to find a political fix for
5:13
Speaker 3: what he saw as a political problem when the nation
5:16
Speaker 3: demanded leadership, a moral courage and moral clarity.
5:21
Speaker 2: And Anthony ALBINIZI is the second figure whose political career
5:25
Speaker 2: will be defined by what happened on the beach in Bondai.
5:29
Speaker 2: Prime Minister Albanezi, I mean, we went from a lonely
5:33
Speaker 2: figure clutching a bunch of flowers at the Bondai shooting site,
5:37
Speaker 2: getting there before the crowds, so he was there on
5:39
Speaker 2: his own, to the searing images and audio that you
5:42
Speaker 2: can't unsee and unhear of a crowd of mourners and
5:45
Speaker 2: families at a memorial service, heckling our prime minister when
5:49
Speaker 2: his name was mentioned, to his non appearances and weak
5:53
Speaker 2: excuses why he didn't attend any funerals of the dead.
5:56
Speaker 2: Not the rabbis not even a ten year old girl.
5:59
Speaker 2: And Lee is right, he did freeze. He fluffed around
6:03
Speaker 2: for a month, refusing to call a royal commission, despite
6:06
Speaker 2: calls from the relatives of the dead, business people, sporting
6:10
Speaker 2: leaders and even former Labour MPs. Eventually he caved, but
6:14
Speaker 2: his character lack of leadership is dithering. His obsercation has
6:19
Speaker 2: mortally wounded Anthony Albanesi in my view, and will not
6:23
Speaker 2: be quickly forgotten by a lot of Australians. He might
6:26
Speaker 2: survive because of his crushing election victory, but Anthony Albanesi
6:30
Speaker 2: is a greatly diminished figure and his Prime ministership has
6:34
Speaker 2: been permanently scarred.
6:36
Speaker 1: Now.
6:36
Speaker 2: Susan Lee might never make it to the Lodge, but
6:40
Speaker 2: on her performance today alone, she deserves to. We'll get
6:47
Speaker 2: updates on the Iran shortly, but I want to stick
6:49
Speaker 2: with this issue now. The National Party, they've made themselves
6:52
Speaker 2: pretty clear, very clear, I should say, on where they
6:55
Speaker 2: sit in regard to this piece of legislation, particularly the
6:58
Speaker 2: issue around gun control. National's leader David little Proud has
7:02
Speaker 2: been in discussion with the coalition partners today and he's
7:07
Speaker 2: on the line. Thanks for joining us. Look, I made
7:10
Speaker 2: it pretty clear David myself at the start of the
7:12
Speaker 2: show about Susan Lee's comments this morning. I thought she
7:17
Speaker 2: was very impressive. I thought the way she laid out
7:19
Speaker 2: the Liberal Party's objections to the legislation very clearly. Are
7:24
Speaker 2: you as worried about this legislation as she is?
7:32
Speaker 1: I am.
7:32
Speaker 5: In fact, the Labor Party and the government lost the
7:35
Speaker 5: National party. They went after guns, but when we saw
7:40
Speaker 5: the hate speech legislation, that really was the icing on
7:43
Speaker 5: the cake. They couldn't get past first base with us,
7:46
Speaker 5: and then when they showed us second and third, there's
7:49
Speaker 5: no home run there. This is an overreach. This doesn't
7:53
Speaker 5: face up to the problem that this country has. It's
7:55
Speaker 5: not a gun problem. It's an extreme Islamic ideological problem
7:59
Speaker 5: that has been allowed to creep into this country. To
8:01
Speaker 5: this government is not prepared to face into, not prepared
8:05
Speaker 5: to look Australians in the eye and say that not
8:08
Speaker 5: just what happened on Bondi Beach, but what happened on
8:12
Speaker 5: the eighth of October twenty twenty three when that imam
8:15
Speaker 5: spewed hate on the steps of the Sydney Opera House,
8:19
Speaker 5: celebrating the slaughter of innocent Israelis by an Islamic terrorist organization,
8:24
Speaker 5: all the way through to what we saw in the streets,
8:26
Speaker 5: the burning of cars, and right through to the fire
8:29
Speaker 5: bombing of the synagogue. If we cannot face up to
8:32
Speaker 5: ourselves and focus on that as what is the issue
8:36
Speaker 5: in this country of anti Semitism and the rise of
8:40
Speaker 5: Islamic extremists in this country, then we as legislators have
8:45
Speaker 5: failed this country. And that is exactly what Anthony Alberinezi
8:48
Speaker 5: has done with what he's put forward.
8:52
Speaker 2: Knowing you you would have read through this bill, I
8:53
Speaker 2: mean you would have seen as Susan Lee has seen
8:55
Speaker 2: that there's no mention of radical Islam in the piece
8:59
Speaker 2: of legis itself.
9:02
Speaker 1: What does that tell you, Well.
9:05
Speaker 5: This is another diversion tactic like guns. The Prime Minister
9:09
Speaker 5: won't accept culpability like Chris Min's actually had the courage
9:13
Speaker 5: to do and actually acknowledge culpability for his part and
9:18
Speaker 5: not acting swiftly and harsh enough from the eighth of
9:21
Speaker 5: October twenty twenty three all the way through to what
9:23
Speaker 5: we saw in Bondi, and this Prime Minister doesn't want
9:26
Speaker 5: to face up to that culpability.
9:28
Speaker 4: He's looking for political diversions.
9:30
Speaker 5: But what makes this even more egregious by the Prime
9:32
Speaker 5: Minister is he's now trying to bring in a catch
9:37
Speaker 5: all of the other ideological views that he has around
9:41
Speaker 5: other parts of hate speech, to broaden it and to
9:45
Speaker 5: change society even more, to make it harder for the
9:48
Speaker 5: average person to criticize government and to make a reasonable,
9:53
Speaker 5: reasonable statements. And one of the things that the Parliamentary Library,
9:56
Speaker 5: after we went and some questions yesterday came back that
9:59
Speaker 5: if you to go out and to suggest.
10:02
Speaker 4: That you believe that we have too.
10:04
Speaker 5: Many Palestinian migrants coming into this country or soon these
10:09
Speaker 5: migrants coming into this country, you could be found guilty
10:12
Speaker 5: under this legislation because you have vilified or hurt, under
10:16
Speaker 5: a reasonable person's test, someone of that of that ethnicity,
10:21
Speaker 5: because of your statements, making just simple statements like that.
10:25
Speaker 5: And this is the overreach that Anthony Albanezi has tried
10:29
Speaker 5: to build into this, to see the political opportunism to
10:32
Speaker 5: be able to make political ground out of this.
10:35
Speaker 4: And he's angry.
10:36
Speaker 5: He's angry because he's angry with the Australian people for
10:39
Speaker 5: forcing him to a royal commission.
10:41
Speaker 4: So what he's done is revert to type.
10:43
Speaker 5: The puerile, petty university politics that he's played all his life.
10:47
Speaker 4: And now he's.
10:48
Speaker 5: Gone back and he's playing playing with legislation that has
10:51
Speaker 5: far reaching implications, not just for gun ownership, but now
10:55
Speaker 5: what we're seeing in this hate speech, so it would
10:56
Speaker 5: impinge on free free speech, and that that is the
11:00
Speaker 5: frightening aspect of the Prime Minister. His actions his government
11:04
Speaker 5: and what they are trying to do in the event
11:06
Speaker 5: of us hopefully.
11:08
Speaker 4: Coming together as a country. He's divided us even further.
11:13
Speaker 2: I said at the beginning of the program that I thought,
11:16
Speaker 2: once he was heckled at that Bondai Memorial service, that
11:20
Speaker 2: he took a great hit to his ego. I think
11:23
Speaker 2: he was shocked. I think he thought the majority of
11:25
Speaker 2: Australians and certainly some of the Jewish community, thought that
11:29
Speaker 2: he was a strong prime minister. Since then, he's shown
11:33
Speaker 2: himself to be very weak. You believe that his personal
11:37
Speaker 2: feelings have driven this piece of legislation that you're looking
11:41
Speaker 2: at right now.
11:44
Speaker 5: Well, exactly, he's had his ego dented and he's angry
11:47
Speaker 5: that he's been forced forced into a rule commission he
11:50
Speaker 5: did want to have because he will unearth the culpability
11:53
Speaker 5: of the failings of his government since the eighth of
11:56
Speaker 5: October twenty twenty three in Sydney and beyond across Australia.
12:01
Speaker 5: And so he's reverted to type that pure ole petty
12:04
Speaker 5: university politics that is just about revenge, it's about opportunism.
12:11
Speaker 5: I've actually seen a circumstance and then trying to also
12:16
Speaker 5: not only repay the pain, but also take more of
12:21
Speaker 5: the ideological boundaries that they want to extend under his leadership.
12:27
Speaker 4: And that's just a reflection on him.
12:29
Speaker 5: He hasn't shown the courage of his conviction and faced
12:32
Speaker 5: into the problem that we have in this country, which
12:34
Speaker 5: is extreme Islamic ideology, and he's done nothing about it
12:38
Speaker 5: despite the warning signs. And that's why Australians are so
12:43
Speaker 5: angry and frustrated about That's why they wanted a rule commission.
12:46
Speaker 5: I'm from Western Queensland. I've only seen twice in my
12:48
Speaker 5: life fear in the people's eye that I represent. The
12:51
Speaker 5: first was nine to eleven and the second was on
12:55
Speaker 5: the fifteenth of December when they woke up and saw
12:57
Speaker 5: what happened on Bondai. Bondai is this iconic place in
13:01
Speaker 5: Australia to many people in Western coins so we only
13:03
Speaker 5: ever hope to even see it one day, and for
13:06
Speaker 5: what happened there, for Australia to be attacked in the
13:10
Speaker 5: most egregious way, just created this fear, this anger, this
13:15
Speaker 5: frustration that they wanted leadership. They looked to somebody to
13:19
Speaker 5: lead them, and instead the Prime Minister look for political
13:22
Speaker 5: diversions on.
13:23
Speaker 4: Guns and anything else.
13:24
Speaker 5: And then when it came his moment of actually having
13:28
Speaker 5: a Royal commission and then facing up to what needs
13:31
Speaker 5: to happen and stopping these imams and facing up to
13:33
Speaker 5: anti Semitism in this country, he looked to politics again,
13:37
Speaker 5: not to the courage of his own conviction. And what's
13:39
Speaker 5: in the Australian people's minds and in their eyes and
13:42
Speaker 5: their hearts at that moment.
13:43
Speaker 4: They want this fixed. This is not the.
13:45
Speaker 5: Australia that we grew up in, where the custodians of
13:48
Speaker 5: this society and.
13:49
Speaker 4: We're the ones that will hand it over to the
13:50
Speaker 4: next generation.
13:51
Speaker 5: At the moment, we're going to hand over a broken
13:53
Speaker 5: one unless we've got the courage to look ourselves in
13:55
Speaker 5: the mirror and say we've got to fix anti Semitism.
13:58
Speaker 4: It's as narrow and it's as simple as that.
14:00
Speaker 5: That's the cause of this knock guns, not anything else,
14:03
Speaker 5: and the extreme Islamic.
14:04
Speaker 4: Ideology that's been allowed to creep in to.
14:07
Speaker 5: Manifest this anti semitism across the streets of our capital cities.
14:14
Speaker 2: You're the leader of one half of the coalition, the
14:16
Speaker 2: Australian's quoted this afternoon, and I'm loath to say this,
14:20
Speaker 2: but unnamed Liberal Party senior Liberal Party members saying they
14:24
Speaker 2: are surprised that Susan Lee said today that on Monday
14:28
Speaker 2: next week, when Parliament resumes that the coalition will have
14:32
Speaker 2: an alternative hate speech bill or hate speech amendments. Does
14:38
Speaker 2: that surprise you or are you across that detail and
14:40
Speaker 2: is that what's going to happen.
14:43
Speaker 4: Well, No, that's a surprise to me.
14:45
Speaker 5: And from the conversations I've had in the leadership between
14:48
Speaker 5: the National and Liberal Party, there will be no alternate
14:51
Speaker 5: bill the hate speech Bill or.
14:54
Speaker 4: We will be doing is scrutinizing.
14:56
Speaker 5: At this point, I would say that it's fairly likely
15:00
Speaker 5: the Coalition as a whole will come together and vote
15:02
Speaker 5: against the bill. So I was surprised, and I don't
15:06
Speaker 5: know whether there's some confusion about what was said in
15:09
Speaker 5: Susan Lee's press conference, but what she has said very
15:13
Speaker 5: clearly previously is that we would legislate much of the report,
15:17
Speaker 5: all the report. I should say of what the Special
15:22
Speaker 5: Envoy into anti Semitism put in her report back in
15:25
Speaker 5: June last year around a definition of anti semitism, around
15:31
Speaker 5: looking at our migration and particularly the screening of extremists
15:38
Speaker 5: and other parts, particularly looking at our education system and
15:42
Speaker 5: our arts sector about how they have manifested anti Semitism
15:47
Speaker 5: across our society as well. So I think there's some
15:49
Speaker 5: confusion about what Susan Lee said, but I'll let her
15:53
Speaker 5: address that. But from the National Party's perspective, there'll be
15:56
Speaker 5: no bill apart from the one in which the Labor
15:59
Speaker 5: Party will put And from where I've been from the
16:02
Speaker 5: very start, you know, they lost the National Party on guns,
16:06
Speaker 5: from the very first moment that Anthony Albernezi tried to
16:09
Speaker 5: use that as a diversion tactic. And we don't have
16:11
Speaker 5: a gun problem in this country. We have an extreme
16:14
Speaker 5: Islamic ideology that needs to be right wiped out of
16:18
Speaker 5: this country. That's the problem that we've got to face into,
16:20
Speaker 5: and that's the one Prime Minister hasn't been prepared to do.
16:24
Speaker 2: We've got a big week in store next week. David
16:26
Speaker 2: Little Proud, thank you very much for joining.
16:28
Speaker 4: Us, Thanks for having me.
16:33
Speaker 2: We'll have an update on the situation in a run shortly.
16:35
Speaker 2: But I want to go to Victoria now. Terrifying scenes
16:38
Speaker 2: on the West coast, places like Why River Separation, Creek,
16:42
Speaker 2: Kennett River, and even lawn with a flash flood, just
16:46
Speaker 2: an unbelievable flash flood. Car's being washed away and now
16:50
Speaker 2: over six five hundred homes we're told estimated to be
16:55
Speaker 2: without power. The popular destination spots along the southeast now
16:59
Speaker 2: left some holiday makers trapped in their caravans. I want
17:02
Speaker 2: to get a locals view on what's going on there
17:05
Speaker 2: right now. Kolak collac otwayh Shi Mayor Jason Schram joined us. Jason,
17:10
Speaker 2: thanks for joining me. I know that part of the
17:12
Speaker 2: coast extremely well. I have never seen that much water
17:15
Speaker 2: come down those three rivers along that part of the
17:19
Speaker 2: coast in such quick time.
17:20
Speaker 1: Have you ever seen it like that before?
17:23
Speaker 6: I know, I've certainly seen it a flood before, probably
17:27
Speaker 6: several times in my lifetime. But from all reports, that
17:32
Speaker 6: was a record amount of rain in under an hour.
17:36
Speaker 6: Up to one hundred and eighty millimeters fell and just
17:40
Speaker 6: didn't give time for people to evacuate. And it was
17:43
Speaker 6: quite incredible scenes with the amount of cars, caravans and
17:46
Speaker 6: debris getting washed out to see and thankfully no reports
17:51
Speaker 6: of any serious injuries at this stage.
17:55
Speaker 1: Which is staggering.
17:56
Speaker 2: I mean, it's a little like the bushfires last Thursday,
17:59
Speaker 2: Friday saturd today where tragically we lost one person, but
18:03
Speaker 2: it could have been so much worse. I just wonder
18:05
Speaker 2: how all of those people, particularly and you know very
18:09
Speaker 2: well that big four caravan park at why River, how
18:12
Speaker 2: they managed to get out unless they were you know,
18:15
Speaker 2: in town, away from away from the camping ground itself.
18:19
Speaker 6: Yeah, well I've only only heard stories that you know,
18:22
Speaker 6: the first signs were cars flooding past the pub and
18:29
Speaker 6: the store, i should say, and you know they're like,
18:32
Speaker 6: oh gee, we've got to get out of here. So
18:34
Speaker 6: they've done extremely well. The Cumberland River around close to
18:37
Speaker 6: the lawn, they've they've suffered just the same fate with
18:42
Speaker 6: incredible scenes and the bridges and things are a lot
18:46
Speaker 6: of stress too, but it's thankful no one got hurt.
18:51
Speaker 6: And so that that had been on a rainfall under
18:54
Speaker 6: and it was just incredible.
18:58
Speaker 2: Well there was no warning, was there. And I saw
19:01
Speaker 2: Ross Stevenson from three ow on Sky before he said
19:04
Speaker 2: that they were predicting today something like fourteen to twenty
19:08
Speaker 2: four meals of rain and then instead there was one
19:10
Speaker 2: hundred and eighty.
19:13
Speaker 6: Yeah, well you're not. Yeah, it sort of leaves me
19:17
Speaker 6: wondering what bang for our buck we got with our
19:19
Speaker 6: one hundred million dollars a bomb just spent that they
19:21
Speaker 6: can't predict the record rainfall and.
19:24
Speaker 4: Give residents chance to get out. It's just staggering really.
19:30
Speaker 2: This time last week, I mean, you were trying to
19:33
Speaker 2: battle those bush fires in the otways. I mean, if
19:37
Speaker 2: there's one good thing about this is that now managed
19:40
Speaker 2: to put all of that wet ground out of action.
19:42
Speaker 2: The fires are all now completely extinguished.
19:46
Speaker 6: I don't think there are one hundred percent around the fires,
19:49
Speaker 6: the ones particularly closest to Kolak here, they were hoping
19:53
Speaker 6: to get the containment lines around them by tomorrow with
19:57
Speaker 6: the favorable weather. We've had little bit of wind today
20:00
Speaker 6: and they certainly yeah, we predicted here in Coolak about
20:05
Speaker 6: five to ten mil eighty percent chance. We certainly didn't
20:09
Speaker 6: get the rain here on.
20:10
Speaker 4: The fire ground.
20:11
Speaker 6: They got down the coast, we might have only got
20:14
Speaker 6: several millimeters of rain, you know, if that in certain areas.
20:19
Speaker 6: It was concentrated right on the coast and just behind
20:23
Speaker 6: in that catchment. But as you said, we were praying
20:26
Speaker 6: for rain, and only this time last week we were
20:29
Speaker 6: evacuating those caravan parks with the threat of fires down
20:32
Speaker 6: the coast. It's quite incredible.
20:35
Speaker 2: We live in an extraordinary country. Jason, Jason, good luck.
20:39
Speaker 2: I hope everyone's okay across the weekend. Jason shram there
20:42
Speaker 2: from the kolak Opway local council.
20:44
Speaker 1: Well, let's go into national now.
20:46
Speaker 2: The US is pulling out military personnel from that giant
20:49
Speaker 2: airbase in Qatar. US President Donald Trump says he will
20:53
Speaker 2: take quote very strong action against Iran if it's ragim
20:57
Speaker 2: continues violence against their own people. Well, I mean executions
21:01
Speaker 2: and murders. This is what some of the president had
21:03
Speaker 2: to say earlier today.
21:06
Speaker 4: We've been told that the killing in Iran is stopping.
21:09
Speaker 5: It's stopped and stopping, and there's no plan for executions
21:14
Speaker 5: or an execution or executions.
21:18
Speaker 7: And its reaction is now off the table against Iran.
21:20
Speaker 4: Now we're going to watch and see what the process is.
21:23
Speaker 2: But we were given a very good, very good statement
21:26
Speaker 2: by people that are.
21:29
Speaker 8: Aware of what's going on.
21:32
Speaker 2: Let's go to Deacon University Islamic politics professor Greg Barton.
21:35
Speaker 1: Good to see you again, Greg.
21:38
Speaker 2: The situation there seems to have changed pretty rapidly during
21:41
Speaker 2: the day. I mean, we woke up this morning with
21:43
Speaker 2: the concept that you know, those pulling out of that
21:47
Speaker 2: airbase meant that perhaps the US was going to go
21:49
Speaker 2: into Iran. That seems to have just been something to
21:53
Speaker 2: do out of safety. What do you think President Trump
21:57
Speaker 2: does next.
22:00
Speaker 7: Steve His pattern these last twelve months is sort of quick,
22:03
Speaker 7: decisive actions that are sort of largely air based, so
22:06
Speaker 7: no boots on the ground, something quick in and out.
22:09
Speaker 7: Of course, Venezuela was exceptional again and it's planning and
22:12
Speaker 7: execution that did have a small number of personnel on
22:16
Speaker 7: the ground. What we do know with Iran is that
22:19
Speaker 7: it's deeply the security apparatus is deeply penetrated by Israeli intelligence.
22:25
Speaker 7: So you know, possibly if President Trump is persuaded by
22:29
Speaker 7: Prime Minister, you know that there are certain things that
22:31
Speaker 7: they could usefully do that might be enough to tip
22:33
Speaker 7: in that direction. But the key point here for the
22:36
Speaker 7: people of Iran is what happens with Iranian military as
22:39
Speaker 7: distinct from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. The standard military
22:44
Speaker 7: is much less ideological and religious. If they flip, the
22:49
Speaker 7: regime falls. If they don't flip, then it's hard to
22:52
Speaker 7: see the regime falling from everything that President Trump has said,
22:56
Speaker 7: he wants to see this regime end. So if he
22:59
Speaker 7: can see a part way of action that will bring
23:01
Speaker 7: the military out to side against the revolutionary guards called
23:07
Speaker 7: the Zealots who run the country, you know, possibly we
23:12
Speaker 7: might see action. I think President Trump wants to be
23:15
Speaker 7: seen as a man of action, so it seems unlikely
23:17
Speaker 7: he's going to do nothing.
23:21
Speaker 2: Well, you mentioned Israel. I mean we saw last year
23:23
Speaker 2: Israel managed to take out leaders of Habas that were
23:29
Speaker 2: in Iran, and there's that extraordinary assassination of one of
23:33
Speaker 2: their leaders where I think they blew it up with
23:36
Speaker 2: a telephone or some device that had been planted in
23:39
Speaker 2: his room. The Israelis would presumably be used by the
23:43
Speaker 2: Americans in a joint effort if they go in there
23:46
Speaker 2: to take that regime down.
23:49
Speaker 7: Well, I think that's right, Steve's the question, of course,
23:50
Speaker 7: of who's using who and sort of whether there's a
23:53
Speaker 7: strategic vision beyond the tactical brilliance that both Israel and
23:56
Speaker 7: America have displayed over the last twelve months. That strategic
24:00
Speaker 7: piece is keen, and as I said, it really depends
24:03
Speaker 7: on whether there's a course of action that could be
24:06
Speaker 7: executed that would bring the army out against the region,
24:09
Speaker 7: against the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and leader for a
24:13
Speaker 7: pathway to change. We've seen unprecedented processed protests and a
24:19
Speaker 7: precedented loss of life. I mean, this is perhaps the
24:21
Speaker 7: biggest loss of life in protests since there's a revolutionary
24:28
Speaker 7: state was formed in nineteen seventy nine. It's a remarkable situation.
24:34
Speaker 7: But most analysts say that we're there to be changed now.
24:37
Speaker 7: It's going to depend on the army. So what Israel
24:40
Speaker 7: and America does?
24:41
Speaker 8: You know?
24:41
Speaker 7: It could even you could exacerbate the forces of ultranationalism.
24:45
Speaker 7: That means that the army gets behind the regime, or
24:49
Speaker 7: it could see a cleavage between the ideological regime of
24:54
Speaker 7: the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and the army coming out
24:57
Speaker 7: on the side of the people. No signs of that yet,
24:59
Speaker 7: I must say. I mean, that's the thing to watch for.
25:03
Speaker 2: How capable is the Iranian military to strike back if
25:06
Speaker 2: America does do something.
25:09
Speaker 7: Well, we sort of put this to the test the
25:10
Speaker 7: middle of last year, didn't we, Steve. I mean, it
25:13
Speaker 7: turns out that they're very compromised by Israeli intelligence. Their
25:17
Speaker 7: air defense systems are very poor. When they launched a
25:20
Speaker 7: barrage of missiles at Israel at the beginning of the year.
25:22
Speaker 7: They gave warning, so that wasn't a fair test. But
25:26
Speaker 7: in the middle of the year when they're under serious
25:28
Speaker 7: pressure in that twelve day war, very few of the
25:31
Speaker 7: Iranian missiles and drones got through, so I think, you know,
25:34
Speaker 7: they're really in a low point. They're at their weakest
25:38
Speaker 7: point ever. I'm sure that many in Israel and the
25:41
Speaker 7: Israeli administration making this point in Washington, saying now is
25:44
Speaker 7: the time to strike and to do something. The question
25:46
Speaker 7: is whether they do something which makes things better, or
25:49
Speaker 7: whether they actually inadvertently contribute to a sort of rally
25:52
Speaker 7: around the flag effect that actually strengthens a weak regime.
25:58
Speaker 2: Greg Bartner was good to say, thanks for helping us
26:00
Speaker 2: out tonight. And interestingly, of course, the Iranians are absolute
26:04
Speaker 2: geniuses at putting out their own propaganda. We've seen vision
26:07
Speaker 2: all day long of funerals of so called dead Iranian soldiers,
26:12
Speaker 2: but we haven't seen too much of what's happened to
26:14
Speaker 2: the public after the break New South Wales police well,
26:17
Speaker 2: here we go again, bracing as protesters.
26:19
Speaker 1: Can you believe it?
26:20
Speaker 2: Begin preparations for a demonstration tomorrow night in Sydney's CBD.
26:26
Speaker 1: My panel of join me to discuss that next.
26:32
Speaker 2: Welcome back Jewish community leader Alex Ripchin will join us
26:36
Speaker 2: shortly now. As we told you last night, protests are
26:39
Speaker 2: now being planned across Sydney's CBD. This is going to
26:42
Speaker 2: happen tomorrow night, Friday night in response to Premier Min's
26:46
Speaker 2: anti protest laws that are still in place, by the way,
26:49
Speaker 2: and these people also want to protest against the invitation
26:52
Speaker 2: to Australia by Prime Minister Albanesi of the Israeli President
26:56
Speaker 2: Isaac Hertzog.
26:58
Speaker 1: He'll be coming here shortly.
27:00
Speaker 2: Artwai's police Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna, he's told these protesters
27:04
Speaker 2: not to do it, not to go on, give us
27:07
Speaker 2: a break was his words, but revealed that there will
27:09
Speaker 2: be a major police presence and it was revealed also
27:12
Speaker 2: that something called a Form one would not be issued
27:16
Speaker 2: to this protest. That means if these people march, they
27:19
Speaker 2: cannot block traffic, roads or the movement of other people
27:23
Speaker 2: or they risk arrest. In my view, given the protest
27:26
Speaker 2: laws were invoked post Bondai, these groups need to stay
27:30
Speaker 2: off the streets. Honor those Bondai victims by shutting up
27:33
Speaker 2: and staying away, and if they don't, well they should
27:36
Speaker 2: be arrested. Let's catch up with former Liberal MP Nicole
27:39
Speaker 2: Flint and Lisa Godard from a Doni Media. Nicole, I mean,
27:44
Speaker 2: what sort of person would turn up to a protest
27:47
Speaker 2: meeting almost exactly a month after fifteen people were slaughtered
27:51
Speaker 2: on Bondai to protest?
27:53
Speaker 9: I mean, seriously, Oh, look, a very disrespectful person would
28:00
Speaker 9: do this, Steve, And honestly, we should have seen these
28:03
Speaker 9: laws enacted immediately after October nine with those horrific Sydney
28:10
Speaker 9: Opera house protests. Things may have unfolded very differently if
28:14
Speaker 9: that had been the case. I sincerely hope we see
28:17
Speaker 9: a huge police presence if these protesters are stupid enough
28:22
Speaker 9: to go ahead with this protest, and I hope that
28:25
Speaker 9: they do arrest and charge anyone who breaks the law.
28:30
Speaker 9: The utterly ridiculous point of all of this is that
28:33
Speaker 9: they are still allowed to protest, They're just not allowed
28:36
Speaker 9: to march. So we've seen respectful protests in a single
28:40
Speaker 9: location by people understandably horrified by what's unfolding in Iran.
28:45
Speaker 9: That's happened this week, so people are not banned from protesting.
28:50
Speaker 9: So I hope we see a fierce police crackdown because Steve,
28:55
Speaker 9: I remember very clearly as I'm sure you do and
28:57
Speaker 9: viewers as well, during COVID, when people were just protesting
29:02
Speaker 9: for their freedom, genuinely protesting for their freedom. The police
29:05
Speaker 9: didn't hesitate to break up those protests, and they arrested
29:09
Speaker 9: a lot of people. So I don't want to see
29:11
Speaker 9: any double standards. I want to see the law enforced
29:14
Speaker 9: properly because people have to learn a lesson that we
29:17
Speaker 9: will not tolerate this disrespectful and on occasions, deeply dangerous behavior.
29:26
Speaker 1: Excellent point.
29:27
Speaker 2: I mean, Lisa, that Nicole makes there because she's just
29:31
Speaker 2: taken me back to COVID, which gives me all sorts
29:33
Speaker 2: of post traumatic stress while I'm sitting here on the desk.
29:37
Speaker 2: But there's a woman in Ballarat who arrested in her
29:40
Speaker 2: pajamas in her kitchen, and they had police walking through
29:43
Speaker 2: a park in Elizabeth Bay arresting people who were sitting
29:46
Speaker 2: on a park bench. I mean, do you think that
29:48
Speaker 2: the police will actually have the will, Lisa, to invoke
29:52
Speaker 2: the laws because the law says up until next Tuesday,
29:56
Speaker 2: when it runs out, you can't protest.
29:59
Speaker 10: Yeah, well the point is, Steve, if you think about
30:01
Speaker 10: what happened in COVID, everybody who watched that unfold must
30:04
Speaker 10: now look at what has happened with his protests. And
30:05
Speaker 10: here in Sydney it's been every weekend. We've had this
30:08
Speaker 10: now for almost two years of protest disrupting the city.
30:11
Speaker 10: You look at that and go, what are the police doing?
30:13
Speaker 10: So finally we've got some laws in place. This is
30:16
Speaker 10: the real test, not just for the police but for
30:18
Speaker 10: the government because they need to, as Nicole said, come
30:20
Speaker 10: out in force and be very very tough on anyone
30:23
Speaker 10: who does anything wrong and is disruptive at all, because
30:26
Speaker 10: at this point this city is still hurting, it is
30:29
Speaker 10: still trying to heal from what happened in Bondo. We
30:32
Speaker 10: don't need to see them out on the street. We
30:33
Speaker 10: don't need to see them disrupting the city, and we
30:35
Speaker 10: certainly don't need to hear the chance that we've been
30:38
Speaker 10: hearing since October ninth.
30:41
Speaker 2: Which we will hear, and the flags will be there
30:43
Speaker 2: and all the petals will be around their necks and
30:45
Speaker 2: all that pilava that they go on with list So
30:48
Speaker 2: I want to talk about these hate laws and what's
30:49
Speaker 2: going to happen next week in camera Nicole Labor MP
30:53
Speaker 2: Julian Hill. I saw him on Sky this afternoon. I
30:56
Speaker 2: couldn't believe what he said. He labeled the Coalition a
30:59
Speaker 2: clown show for their stance on the legislation.
31:03
Speaker 1: Have a look at what he said.
31:05
Speaker 11: We've had the opposition out now come to the Greens
31:07
Speaker 11: your question. We've had the opposition out literally every day
31:11
Speaker 11: for the last three or more weeks, calling for the
31:13
Speaker 11: Parliament to be recalled, calling for hate speech laws to
31:16
Speaker 11: be strengthened, and now some kind of angry clown show
31:20
Speaker 11: that they've turned into. They're signaling or saying they're going
31:23
Speaker 11: to vote against the laws that they've been calling for.
31:27
Speaker 2: Nicole a bit rich for him calling the coalition at
31:30
Speaker 2: clown show, given what we've witnessed in the last month
31:33
Speaker 2: with the refusal by the PM to have a Royal commission.
31:36
Speaker 9: And also Julian Hill's track record, he is the only
31:39
Speaker 9: clown in this discussion. Steve Look, I think everyone is rightly,
31:47
Speaker 9: deeply concerned about Labour's rushed and dangerous legislation.
31:55
Speaker 1: It goes way too far.
31:56
Speaker 9: They just needed to introduce something very specific, which is
32:00
Speaker 9: to deal with the horrific tragedy we saw on Australian
32:05
Speaker 9: soil in December where fifteen innocent people were killed because
32:10
Speaker 9: they were Jewish and they were killed by Islamic extremists.
32:15
Speaker 9: That's what we need to be dealing with, not this
32:19
Speaker 9: catchal bill that Labor have introduced. That there are right
32:24
Speaker 9: rightly very grave concerns about the extent of its scope
32:30
Speaker 9: and the genuine impact that it may have on freedom
32:33
Speaker 9: of speech. So the only clown here is Julian Hill,
32:36
Speaker 9: and I hope we see everyone oppose this bill. It
32:40
Speaker 9: looks like that's what's going to happen, and Labor go
32:43
Speaker 9: back to the drawing board and actually introduce very specific
32:48
Speaker 9: legislation to protect our Jewish Australians and to crap down
32:52
Speaker 9: on this anti Semitic hatred that we have seen since
32:57
Speaker 9: October seven.
33:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, well, you know they're now saying that the
33:02
Speaker 2: Greens are now saying they won't support it. But what
33:04
Speaker 2: that means in Green language is we say we won't
33:07
Speaker 2: support it, but then if you give us some of
33:09
Speaker 2: the changes we want made to it, then we will.
33:12
Speaker 2: And so we're going to end up an even worse
33:14
Speaker 2: bill I want to talk about though this ridiculous story today.
33:17
Speaker 2: It made me absolutely laugh. The Australian newspaper reported that
33:22
Speaker 2: Teal volunteers during the last election have described there and
33:27
Speaker 2: Nicole you know this very well their harrowing experience on
33:30
Speaker 2: the campaign trail. One volunteer said that rival volunteers shook
33:34
Speaker 2: their hands too hard, didn't accept their lollies, and even
33:38
Speaker 2: wouldn't talk to them. They also said they felt unsafe
33:42
Speaker 2: due to the number of volunteers. I mean, Nicole, you've
33:45
Speaker 2: been on you know, piling booth's your whole life?
33:49
Speaker 9: Seriously, yeah, seriously, the Teals strike again. Look, this is pathetic,
33:58
Speaker 9: I think is the polite describing their complaints. However, Steve,
34:03
Speaker 9: I have actually been on polling booths for most of
34:06
Speaker 9: my life, let's say at least three decades. My date
34:11
Speaker 9: of birth is a matter of public records, so yeah,
34:13
Speaker 9: I'm pretty old. Last election, though, I would say just
34:18
Speaker 9: the number, the sheer number of people on polling booths
34:21
Speaker 9: is out of control. I have genuine concerns about voters
34:25
Speaker 9: and their experience on the day, volunteers and their experience.
34:29
Speaker 9: AEC staff who are having to sort of adjudicate over
34:33
Speaker 9: these sorts of pathetic complaints. Oh they shook my hand
34:35
Speaker 9: too hard. Oh they wouldn't take my lollies right, because
34:38
Speaker 9: they often do get dragged into it. And also I
34:41
Speaker 9: think that we do have some considerations for the environment
34:44
Speaker 9: as well, because the amount of rap and plastic that
34:47
Speaker 9: just gets thrown out is just wrong. So I actually
34:51
Speaker 9: think we need to have a really close look at
34:53
Speaker 9: how many people were letting onto the polling booths first
34:57
Speaker 9: and foremost, just so voters can get in and vote.
35:00
Speaker 9: And in this day and age, with the range of
35:01
Speaker 9: communications that are available to political parties, you know, paper print, online,
35:09
Speaker 9: text messages, you know, everyone gets dammed. There's actually no
35:13
Speaker 9: need to have so many people on falling booths because
35:15
Speaker 9: you've got your information to the voters already.
35:19
Speaker 2: Lisa, I voted at a pre poll booth in a
35:22
Speaker 2: TL seat and imagine how I was received what I
35:24
Speaker 2: turned up there.
35:25
Speaker 10: But that's a challenge that ruined the goat. That is
35:28
Speaker 10: part of the fun, isn't it.
35:28
Speaker 1: Steve.
35:29
Speaker 10: I found it really interesting that Monique Ryan, remember it
35:32
Speaker 10: was her husband who got caught pulling down a liberal
35:35
Speaker 10: candidates sign and he was still doing it and quickly
35:38
Speaker 10: denied it after running away. And now one of her
35:40
Speaker 10: complaints I found was interesting was some woman with a
35:43
Speaker 10: poodle dared to pull down Monique Ryan's bunting and she
35:46
Speaker 10: ran away when Monique tried, all the people tried to
35:49
Speaker 10: film her. So you know, the Tills sit in a
35:50
Speaker 10: very rich position, don't they when they start to throw
35:52
Speaker 10: stones from where they sit.
35:55
Speaker 2: They do indeed, And it's great to see you both.
35:58
Speaker 2: Thank you have a great weekend. After the break, Executive
36:01
Speaker 2: Council of Australian Jury has come out and question the
36:03
Speaker 2: coalition stance on the contentious hate speech laws. The co
36:07
Speaker 2: Chief Executive Alex Ritchen will join me next Welcome back
36:15
Speaker 2: the late debate coming up at the top of the
36:16
Speaker 2: hour now. The co Chief Executive of the Executive Council
36:19
Speaker 2: of Australian Jury, Peter Worth time urged the Coalition not
36:23
Speaker 2: to make perfect enemy of good when it comes to
36:27
Speaker 2: these hate speech laws that go before the Parliament next week.
36:30
Speaker 2: This is some of what he had to say on
36:31
Speaker 2: Sky today.
36:33
Speaker 12: That my message to both is let's try and get
36:36
Speaker 12: this done. If this bill fails to pass in any form,
36:42
Speaker 12: then we are left with the status quo.
36:44
Speaker 1: And it's effectively.
36:47
Speaker 12: Going to leave us with our political leaders telling the
36:50
Speaker 12: country after what happened at Bondai Beach last month, that
36:53
Speaker 12: the status quo is okay, we can live with it,
36:56
Speaker 12: and frankly, we can't live with it.
37:00
Speaker 2: To say the other co Chief Executive of the Executive
37:02
Speaker 2: Council of Australian Jury, Alex riftand joins me, now, Alex,
37:06
Speaker 2: do you obviously you agree with what Peter had to
37:09
Speaker 2: say that.
37:11
Speaker 8: I do, and I think we need to bear in
37:13
Speaker 8: mind that we're not having a mere academic discussion about
37:16
Speaker 8: competing rights and interests and freedoms where where we are,
37:20
Speaker 8: because this country has permitted a situation where October seven,
37:24
Speaker 8: you could have an Islamic clerics standing on the streets
37:26
Speaker 8: of West Sydney and inciting his followers to slaughter, rape
37:32
Speaker 8: and abduct Jews, to call that effectively a religious duty.
37:35
Speaker 8: And the following day we had a mob that shared
37:38
Speaker 8: the exact ideology of the Bondai murderers, chanting Ojus, the
37:43
Speaker 8: armies of Muhammada cuming and they were beyond the reach
37:45
Speaker 8: of the law. And for months after that we had
37:48
Speaker 8: cleric after cleric inciting against our community using their positions
37:52
Speaker 8: of authority, hiding behind religious texts and endangering our community.
37:56
Speaker 8: And again they will be on the reach of the law.
37:58
Speaker 8: It was left to my organization DCAJ to bring an
38:01
Speaker 8: action under the civil law of Section ANTYENC the Racial
38:04
Speaker 8: Discrimination Act, which frankly is wholly inadequate for such serious offenses.
38:08
Speaker 8: So this is why we can't allow the situation to continue.
38:12
Speaker 8: We need laws in this country which bring consequences upon
38:15
Speaker 8: those who in cite hatred, which, as we've seen, leeds
38:19
Speaker 8: to death and violence. So I firmly support the laws.
38:23
Speaker 8: They may not be perfect, and we've criticized them in
38:26
Speaker 8: certain regards, and I think the Liberals and the Labor
38:28
Speaker 8: Party need to get together and through iron out any
38:31
Speaker 8: differences between them, work through any challenges, exclude the Greens
38:35
Speaker 8: from that process. They have nothing to contribute to this
38:37
Speaker 8: beyond more anti semitism, and we need to get to
38:40
Speaker 8: a result because there's too much of state for the
38:42
Speaker 8: communion wider society.
38:45
Speaker 2: What do you say to those who've read the bill
38:48
Speaker 2: and the particular part of the legislation that would allow
38:54
Speaker 2: preachers to use religious texts to make threats like they
39:00
Speaker 2: have already had, and that would not then trigger these laws.
39:05
Speaker 2: I mean, surely that is a failing.
39:08
Speaker 8: It is, but the context is critical. It's similar to
39:11
Speaker 8: the use of the swastika. For example, if someone uses
39:14
Speaker 8: Nazi imagery in the teaching of the Holocaust, the Nazi
39:18
Speaker 8: the rise to power, then that's obviously legitimate as a
39:21
Speaker 8: historical exercise. If one does so as a means of
39:24
Speaker 8: recruiting or inciting violence or glorifying Nazis, and that's obviously prohibited.
39:29
Speaker 8: And we've had a situation in this country for a
39:31
Speaker 8: considerable period of time, even before October seven, where clerics
39:35
Speaker 8: have used religious texts, not to hold them up as
39:37
Speaker 8: something outdated or something antiquated or irrelevant, but actually it's
39:42
Speaker 8: something that Muslims today are obligated to do and perform
39:47
Speaker 8: in pursuit of their religious duties and obligations. So that
39:50
Speaker 8: is wholly inadequate. That is absolutely unacceptable. We cannot have
39:54
Speaker 8: people using religious texts to incite violence against fellow Austraians
39:58
Speaker 8: in the present day. So it's all question of the
40:00
Speaker 8: application of the law, how the courts choose to interpret it.
40:03
Speaker 8: But if the carve out is strict and narrowed, and
40:05
Speaker 8: I think it's you know, it's fine, but if it's
40:09
Speaker 8: done in a way that allows clerics to hide behind
40:11
Speaker 8: scripture and incite violence against fellow Australians, that's utterly unacceptable
40:16
Speaker 8: and defeats the purpose of the law.
40:19
Speaker 2: So that needs to be extracted from the bill.
40:22
Speaker 8: Well, I think that's something that needs to be looked
40:24
Speaker 8: at it and we said so immediately. It's not something
40:27
Speaker 8: which we favor and it kind of stops short of
40:31
Speaker 8: where we would like to see the Act fall. But
40:34
Speaker 8: at the same time, you know, as Peter said, perfection
40:38
Speaker 8: may be the ultimate goal, but when you're talking about
40:40
Speaker 8: matters of legislation drafting, it's rarely attainable. But this is
40:43
Speaker 8: why we want to see Labor and Liberal sit down,
40:46
Speaker 8: put us ode political differences, think solely the welfare of
40:49
Speaker 8: our society and work through these issues and arrive at
40:52
Speaker 8: some sort of accommodation and an outcome for the good
40:55
Speaker 8: of our society.
40:58
Speaker 2: Given what your community has been through over the last
41:00
Speaker 2: two years, and your advocacy has been outstanding, is it
41:04
Speaker 2: not possible to speak to the leadership of the Labor
41:07
Speaker 2: Party And I agree with you, you've got to wipe
41:09
Speaker 2: the Greens out of the question. Completely the leaders of
41:12
Speaker 2: the Labor Party and the Coalition and say listen, you
41:16
Speaker 2: don't have to rush, but you need to get it
41:19
Speaker 2: right and you need to do it as soon as
41:21
Speaker 2: you can.
41:22
Speaker 1: But there seems to be this I mean, it's a.
41:24
Speaker 2: Month from BONDI I would have thought it could have
41:29
Speaker 2: been done earlier.
41:30
Speaker 1: But can't.
41:31
Speaker 2: They can't they get together as a mature Australians they're
41:35
Speaker 2: supposed to be leaders, sit down with you, and sit
41:39
Speaker 2: down with the Muslim leadership that are that are in
41:44
Speaker 2: favor of some of these laws as well, and get
41:47
Speaker 2: a better result.
41:49
Speaker 8: I believe so, Steve, there's nothing in practice to stand
41:52
Speaker 8: in the way of that of leaders putting aside differences,
41:56
Speaker 8: putting the national interest first on a matter of such
41:59
Speaker 8: important to our society and the future of our communities,
42:03
Speaker 8: and to get this done, and again to exclude the
42:06
Speaker 8: Greens from the process and not allow them to have
42:07
Speaker 8: any input into this law. If they had their way,
42:10
Speaker 8: they would send it in a whole new direction to
42:12
Speaker 8: defend their anti Semitic Propostini activism. So we need to
42:16
Speaker 8: ensure that leadership prevails here. And we hear leaders talk about,
42:21
Speaker 8: you know, putting partisanship aside and working together and going
42:24
Speaker 8: beyond politics. But too often that sort of phrases us
42:27
Speaker 8: as a veil for political maneuvers, and I think that's
42:30
Speaker 8: what we're seeing at the moment. But we want to
42:31
Speaker 8: see the leaders get together. We want to see community
42:34
Speaker 8: have its interests heard and addressed. That's what's at stake here.
42:38
Speaker 8: We had a situation where these killers were able to
42:42
Speaker 8: be indoctrinated, where they were consumed with an ideology and
42:46
Speaker 8: then carried out the mass slaughterer of Jewish people on
42:49
Speaker 8: Bondai Beach. It did not come through a spontaneous act,
42:53
Speaker 8: that did not come through a mental disorder. It came
42:55
Speaker 8: through a process of indoctrination of radicalization, and that's what
42:58
Speaker 8: we need to root out. No one wants to see
43:01
Speaker 8: the rights of debate and free speech tinkered with or
43:04
Speaker 8: limited anywhere whatsoever. We've been beneficiaries of that right. We've
43:07
Speaker 8: engaged in public debate on all matters of importance to
43:12
Speaker 8: our community and society for years, and we want to
43:14
Speaker 8: preserve that. But we're talking about something that goes beyond
43:17
Speaker 8: considered debate. We're talking about people using their positions of
43:20
Speaker 8: authority to threaten communities and incite hatred which leads to violence,
43:24
Speaker 8: the most extreme elements of that, and I think there's
43:27
Speaker 8: too much at stake for politics to take over this process.
43:32
Speaker 1: Again.
43:33
Speaker 2: Congratulations on your advocacy and talking to us on such
43:35
Speaker 2: a regular basis, Alex, You've done an extraordinary job. Thank you,
43:38
Speaker 2: and I hope the day morning next week is something
43:41
Speaker 2: that satisfies your community. Amazing, man, amazing. After the break,
43:45
Speaker 2: the British embassy has closed into Tehran as protests continue.
43:49
Speaker 2: We'll talk to scot And News contributor Esther Kraco from
43:52
Speaker 2: London next.
43:58
Speaker 1: Welcome back.
43:58
Speaker 2: Well, the Brits have shut down tearily, they say, the
44:01
Speaker 2: British embassy in Tehran with the escalating violence across the country.
44:06
Speaker 2: Joining me now to give us some more details go on.
44:08
Speaker 2: News contributor is to Krakhu. It's to good to see
44:11
Speaker 2: you again. They wouldn't have done that lightly. Did they
44:15
Speaker 2: give a reason as to why they felt they needed
44:17
Speaker 2: to get their people out?
44:19
Speaker 13: Yes, obviously, with the ongoing protests and the rising tension
44:22
Speaker 13: in Iran, British officials felt it was safer to evacuate
44:27
Speaker 13: members people that are working in the embassy in Tehran
44:30
Speaker 13: instead of letting things potentially escalate and leaving people stranded.
44:34
Speaker 13: We know that that would be terrible, both on a
44:36
Speaker 13: humanitarian front and certainly on a pr front. But unfortunately
44:41
Speaker 13: Britain hasn't really, especially for the last few decades, really
44:45
Speaker 13: been known for taking strong, hard, firm stances, especially when
44:48
Speaker 13: it comes to Iran. There's been so many scandals over
44:51
Speaker 13: the years that the British government should have taken firm
44:54
Speaker 13: action against a new to basically the threat from Iran
44:58
Speaker 13: where it popped up, particular on British soil, and it
45:01
Speaker 13: hasn't done that. You know, you have the Islamic Center,
45:05
Speaker 13: the Islamic Center in England opened and made a veil
45:08
Speaker 13: in London, despite the fact that it's been long accused
45:11
Speaker 13: of having relations or being linked to the regime in Tehran.
45:15
Speaker 13: You know, back in twenty fifteen when strong, potentially dangerous
45:19
Speaker 13: chemicals were discovered in a flat in North London, you know,
45:21
Speaker 13: this was kept hush hust even though a bunch of
45:24
Speaker 13: journalists were sniffing around because apparently the British state didn't
45:26
Speaker 13: want to derail the nuclear deal at the time. So
45:30
Speaker 13: this is one of those rare things that they're actually
45:31
Speaker 13: doing because they sense heightened danger. But the British state
45:34
Speaker 13: for a long time has been neuted on its approach
45:37
Speaker 13: to Iran, and you know, the country has suffered for it.
45:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, pretty extraordinary when you consider that Australia is to
45:44
Speaker 2: throw out the Iranian ambassador when they found out that
45:48
Speaker 2: Iranian forces had hired petty criminals in Australia to blow
45:52
Speaker 2: up a synagogue. I mean, why did I think that
45:56
Speaker 2: the Iranian dark forces are not having a similar sort
45:59
Speaker 2: of influence in UK?
46:01
Speaker 13: Oh, it's even it's much much greater than that. I mean,
46:04
Speaker 13: the Islamic Human Rights Commission is still functioning in the
46:07
Speaker 13: UK despite its obvious links and repeated accusations of its
46:13
Speaker 13: links to Tehran. But for some reason, and this is
46:15
Speaker 13: a problem that our foreign policy has had, it's been
46:17
Speaker 13: newted for years when it comes to Iran, because we
46:19
Speaker 13: have this warped view that if we just play nice
46:21
Speaker 13: and let a few terrorists run around so far as
46:24
Speaker 13: they don't actually blow anything up, then the Irunan regime
46:27
Speaker 13: is likely to play nice with us, which is completely misled.
46:31
Speaker 13: I think it just comes from this sort of historical
46:33
Speaker 13: guilt that the intelligencia in Westminster think that we must
46:37
Speaker 13: continuously atone for our sins in Britain, and that means
46:40
Speaker 13: just having a foreign policy that's completely detached from reality.
46:46
Speaker 2: Thank god, the compulsory digital idea is to gone.
46:51
Speaker 13: Yes, I mean yeah, you know, many people will be
46:54
Speaker 13: breathing a sigh of relief. But again, this is another
46:57
Speaker 13: U turn. I believe this is the sixteenth U turn
46:59
Speaker 13: by this government. What is the point of spending all
47:01
Speaker 13: this money on digital idea if it's not even going
47:03
Speaker 13: to be compulsory. And the actual reason that was initially
47:06
Speaker 13: given is now a moot point because the government wanted
47:09
Speaker 13: to implement this to be able to clam down on
47:14
Speaker 13: illegal migrants being able to work easily in the UK.
47:17
Speaker 13: But the issues in the fact that they don't have
47:19
Speaker 13: an idea on their phone that they're being forced to
47:21
Speaker 13: have by the government. It's the fact that law enforcement
47:24
Speaker 13: is completely underfunded and completely ineffective. It's easy to work
47:27
Speaker 13: in the UK, not because employers happen to forget that's
47:30
Speaker 13: illegal to employ people that are not legally allowed to
47:32
Speaker 13: work in the UK. It's happening and there are over
47:36
Speaker 13: a million estimated people working illegally in the UK at
47:39
Speaker 13: the moment. Because it's so easy. There's no law enforcements.
47:42
Speaker 13: They're completely underfunded. You know, people get away with getting
47:45
Speaker 13: cash in hand all the time. It's not like in
47:47
Speaker 13: mainland Europe or you need ID to basically do anything.
47:50
Speaker 13: And people are questioning why this is all necessary when
47:53
Speaker 13: you can just basically get law officials to just kick
47:57
Speaker 13: people out that are in the country illegally. You don't
47:59
Speaker 13: have to go through all this of nastics and make
48:01
Speaker 13: average law abiding citizens get like mandatory ideas when you
48:06
Speaker 13: can actually just enforce the law.
48:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think Tory leaderbad Not got it absolutely
48:13
Speaker 2: right esther when she actually called the Prime Minister Starmer
48:17
Speaker 2: absolutely clueless.
48:18
Speaker 1: Great to catch up with you.
48:19
Speaker 2: Andrew Bot will be back next week, so he'll catch
48:22
Speaker 2: up with you, I'm sure Estercracker there in the UK.
48:25
Speaker 2: As I said, Andrew will be back next Monday night.
48:27
Speaker 2: And of course next Monday Federal Parliament resumes for two
48:31
Speaker 2: days and this bill, which seems to be friendless at
48:34
Speaker 2: the moment, is actually going to be debated in Parliament
48:38
Speaker 2: and whether it gets up or not, I doubt it
48:40
Speaker 2: very much, although the Greens might just get it over
48:42
Speaker 2: the line. Andrew will have all the details for you
48:45
Speaker 2: on Monday night. I'll catch you up on Friday week