Latest / The Kenny Report / The Kenny Report | 27 February

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The Kenny Report | 27 February · The Kenny Report

0:00
Speaker 1: Lone from the Skoying New Center.
0:03
Speaker 2: This is the Kenny Report.
0:06
Speaker 3: Thanks for joining me tonight.
0:07
Speaker 1: Labor and damage control over that Chinese live fire exercise
0:12
Speaker 1: and why the Prime Minister said we were warned when
0:15
Speaker 1: clearly we were not. I'll speak with China expert Lavina
0:19
Speaker 1: Lee and former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. I'll also expose
0:23
Speaker 1: the idiocy of that labor dirt file attack against Peter
0:27
Speaker 1: Dutton that we now know came directly from the Prime
0:30
Speaker 1: Minister's office. Also the election and the prospect of a Labor,
0:35
Speaker 1: Greens and Tills minority government. I'll get an independent perspective
0:39
Speaker 1: from Dye Lee and an energy perspective from a gas
0:42
Speaker 1: industry leader. All that plus Mark Nicholson and Tim Blair
0:46
Speaker 1: on albow and responsibility.
0:49
Speaker 3: Let's get into it.
0:53
Speaker 1: Let me just expose the idiocy and the tactics of
0:57
Speaker 1: Labour's dirt file attacks on Peter Dutton over buying bank
1:01
Speaker 1: shares way back in two thousand and nine, I should
1:04
Speaker 1: say I was working for the coalition leader at that time,
1:07
Speaker 1: so I remember the period.
1:08
Speaker 3: Well. This was the height of the.
1:10
Speaker 1: GFC and the government guarantees and other measures to support
1:14
Speaker 1: the banks were being announced and discussed almost every day.
1:18
Speaker 1: But Labour's mere now is that somehow Peter Dutton might
1:22
Speaker 1: have had secret information from opposition mind you to cash
1:26
Speaker 1: in on a Rudd government bank bailout about to be announced.
1:31
Speaker 4: My jaw fell to the floor. Why because I was there.
1:36
Speaker 4: I was there at that time, and I saw the
1:41
Speaker 4: Australian economy on fire. I saw the Australian share market
1:46
Speaker 4: fall by more than sixty percent, destroying wealth for millions
1:49
Speaker 4: of Australians. But what we now know is that there
1:52
Speaker 4: was one political leader who was not focused on the
1:56
Speaker 4: national interest. That political leader was focused on his own
2:00
Speaker 4: financial interest and he admitted that today.
2:05
Speaker 1: Andrew Charlton was Kevin Rudd's economics advisor at the time.
2:09
Speaker 1: He later parlayed that government experience into a business career
2:13
Speaker 1: that made him a multi millionaire and now he's a
2:16
Speaker 1: Labour MP and as he would know, there's an easy
2:20
Speaker 1: way to check whether Dutton's bank share purchases were unusual.
2:25
Speaker 1: We can just look at the volume of sales on
2:27
Speaker 1: those days. Were a lot of people trading or was
2:30
Speaker 1: it just a select feud. The data clearly shows many
2:34
Speaker 1: investors were trading in bank shares. On the crucial day,
2:38
Speaker 1: January the twenty third, two thousand and nine, seven point
2:42
Speaker 1: seven million Commonwealth Bank shares were traded and that was
2:45
Speaker 1: more than double the amount traded exactly a week earlier.
2:49
Speaker 1: The numbers were similar for NAB, another bank that Dutton
2:52
Speaker 1: picked up on that day, again heavy volumes double the
2:56
Speaker 1: previous friday. As for Dutton's third bank purchase, Westpac, more
3:01
Speaker 1: than ten million shares were traded, again about double the
3:05
Speaker 1: previous friday. So what does this tell us, Well, it
3:09
Speaker 1: just tells us that Dutton's purchases weren't unusual. Many sellers
3:14
Speaker 1: and buyers were active when he was with bank shares
3:17
Speaker 1: at an historic low, and whatever was happening in media
3:21
Speaker 1: and market debates on that day, there were plenty of
3:24
Speaker 1: buyers that are going around and for every buyer, of course,
3:27
Speaker 1: there was obviously a willing seller. And there was a
3:30
Speaker 1: fundamental economic point that Charlton and the ABC missed last
3:34
Speaker 1: night as Charlton hammed up his faux outrage.
3:39
Speaker 4: And when I saw that somebody had been trading Australian
3:43
Speaker 4: bank shares during a banking crisis, as I said to you,
3:48
Speaker 4: I was shocked.
3:50
Speaker 1: Really, the whole point of the bank bailout was to
3:54
Speaker 1: support the banks, to increase confidence in the banks, and
3:59
Speaker 1: therefore to encourage people to you know, invest in them,
4:03
Speaker 1: to stop the plunge in the share market, including in
4:07
Speaker 1: banking shares.
4:08
Speaker 3: In other words, by investing in bank shares.
4:11
Speaker 1: On that day, Dutton and other Australians were doing exactly
4:15
Speaker 1: what the RUD government wanted them to do. In fact,
4:18
Speaker 1: they were doing exactly what the RUD government's policies were
4:21
Speaker 1: designed to encourage people buying bank shares. Weren't fueling the GFC,
4:27
Speaker 1: they were fighting back against it.
4:30
Speaker 3: Anyway.
4:31
Speaker 1: One aspect the ABC did interrogate last night was the
4:35
Speaker 1: origin of this Dutton dirt file attack.
4:39
Speaker 4: I learned it when I saw the information that had
4:41
Speaker 4: come out that had come out in relation to his
4:45
Speaker 4: register of interest. You mean this week? No, before this week.
4:48
Speaker 4: I was made aware of it by whom by the
4:51
Speaker 4: Prime Minister's office, who had been looking at it.
4:54
Speaker 5: Oh.
4:54
Speaker 1: Really, it all came from Anthony Albanesi's office, don't say,
5:01
Speaker 1: but didn't Halbo say this yesterday?
5:05
Speaker 6: I make no comment about Peter Dutton's matters. That's the
5:11
Speaker 6: matter for him.
5:13
Speaker 1: I told you his disinterest seemed disingenuous and didn't he
5:18
Speaker 1: say this the day before?
5:20
Speaker 4: Is Labor chusing you opposition leader inside of training?
5:24
Speaker 6: But that to matter for Peter Dutton to explain?
5:29
Speaker 3: Oh really Nowbo washes his hands of it all.
5:33
Speaker 1: But it turns out the information was pulled together and
5:36
Speaker 1: fed out, as we all suspected, by the Prime Minister's
5:40
Speaker 1: office at a time of its own political choosing.
5:45
Speaker 4: I'm not sure it was saved up at all. I
5:47
Speaker 4: think it was released promptly.
5:48
Speaker 7: Well, how promptly?
5:49
Speaker 8: When did you become aware of it.
5:50
Speaker 4: Reasonably shortly before it was made available?
5:53
Speaker 9: Maybe I'm sorry, I'm sorry, mister Chelton, but what's reasonably?
5:56
Speaker 10: Sir?
5:56
Speaker 4: Very happy to answer this question. It will have been
5:58
Speaker 4: a matter of days or.
5:59
Speaker 9: Weeks, weeks, so as long ago as seven days.
6:02
Speaker 4: Ago, could have been more than seven days ago, more
6:05
Speaker 4: than seven days ago.
6:07
Speaker 3: Good lord?
6:09
Speaker 1: Is there nothing this government and this Prime minister can
6:12
Speaker 1: do with competence? And is there nothing they will actually
6:18
Speaker 1: accept responsibility for.
6:23
Speaker 3: Now?
6:24
Speaker 1: The alban Easy Labor government's weakness on national security and
6:27
Speaker 1: its inability to level with the public continues to be exposed.
6:31
Speaker 1: After a day of damage control over the Chinese live firing,
6:35
Speaker 1: exercises in the Tasman Sea last week. As we showed
6:39
Speaker 1: you last night, Australia was given no warning about China's actions.
6:43
Speaker 1: We didn't know about the live firing exercise until about
6:47
Speaker 1: an hour after it started because an alert was picked
6:51
Speaker 1: up by a Virgin Airlines pilot security.
7:00
Speaker 11: To our knowledge that there was the notification was that
7:04
Speaker 11: call that had made from when the firing window open,
7:08
Speaker 11: and that, in our view is inadequate notification as well.
7:12
Speaker 12: That's not inadequate. It's after it started.
7:14
Speaker 11: Well, that's when the civil aircraft heard the call. We
7:19
Speaker 11: can't be definitive on whether there was a call made
7:22
Speaker 11: by the Chinese vessels earlier than that.
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Speaker 12: But you're now telling me that notification was not received
7:28
Speaker 12: at least by defense by Australia until after it commenced.
7:32
Speaker 12: That's not any notification at all.
7:34
Speaker 13: Is it.
7:35
Speaker 14: No?
7:37
Speaker 1: There you go, that's what the Defense chief says. But
7:41
Speaker 1: this is what the Prime Minister said last Friday.
7:44
Speaker 6: Well, China issued, in accordance with practice, an alert that
7:49
Speaker 6: it would be conducting these activities, including the potential use
7:55
Speaker 6: of live fire.
7:58
Speaker 1: And as you saw here last night, the opposition has
8:01
Speaker 1: called out this weakness.
8:04
Speaker 15: If we'd done that in the South China Sea, or
8:06
Speaker 15: if we'd done that near to China and disrupted their
8:08
Speaker 15: commercial flight paths, that'd be held to pay for us.
8:11
Speaker 15: And so the fact that the Prime Minister hasn't called
8:14
Speaker 15: this out is completely keeping with the pattern of behavior
8:19
Speaker 15: he's shown over the last two years, which is weak leadership.
8:22
Speaker 1: Attempting to repair the damage today, the Deputy Prime Minister
8:26
Speaker 1: and Defense Minister Richard Males insisted Anthony Albanizei had misled nobody.
8:33
Speaker 16: The Prime Minister made clear that there was a notification
8:36
Speaker 16: from the Chinese, but in the same breath made clear
8:40
Speaker 16: that that notification was inadequate.
8:43
Speaker 3: Well, that's just not true.
8:45
Speaker 1: Last Friday, the Prime Minister made no mention of inadequate warnings.
8:50
Speaker 1: In fact, all he did was make excuses for China.
8:55
Speaker 6: Well, China issued, in accordance with practice, an alert that
9:00
Speaker 6: it would be conducting these activities, including the potential use
9:06
Speaker 6: of live fire. It's outside of Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone.
9:14
Speaker 1: It was only the following day, after a public outcry
9:18
Speaker 1: that we finally heard words of complaint.
9:22
Speaker 6: Well, it's important as well and Defense have confirmed that
9:25
Speaker 6: China did comply with the international law, and that's important
9:31
Speaker 6: to not suggest that that wasn't the case. What we
9:35
Speaker 6: have done is to make appropriate representation through diplomatic channels,
9:40
Speaker 6: including Foreign Minister to Foreign minister face to face in
9:44
Speaker 6: South Africa where they are both at the G twenty
9:47
Speaker 6: Foreign Ministers Meeting, that we believe it would be appropriate
9:52
Speaker 6: to have been given more warning of this potential event
9:58
Speaker 6: taking place.
10:00
Speaker 1: Oh, he finally gets there two days in at the
10:03
Speaker 1: end of all that, or we might have done with some.
10:06
Speaker 3: More warning, i e. Any warning at all.
10:10
Speaker 1: Once again, weakness dragged along by events, not standing up
10:15
Speaker 1: strongly for Australia, and it leaves his colleagues struggling to
10:19
Speaker 1: explain why China would be treating Australia so disrespectfully.
10:24
Speaker 3: Well, we.
10:26
Speaker 16: Have made representations about the inadequacy of the notice that
10:31
Speaker 16: was provided, so we completely agree. And it was the
10:35
Speaker 16: point that the Prime Minister was making on Friday.
10:39
Speaker 1: Except he didn't make that point on Friday.
10:41
Speaker 3: Others made that point.
10:43
Speaker 1: Alban Easy just rolled over until he caught up the
10:46
Speaker 1: next day.
10:49
Speaker 17: I've never seen a Prime minister floundering like this Prime
10:52
Speaker 17: minister on the issue of national security. The first charge
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Speaker 17: of the Prime Minister is to keep our country safe
10:57
Speaker 17: and to make sure that we have in place the
11:00
Speaker 17: settings which protect us against any acts of aggression. The
11:03
Speaker 17: Prime Minister is either making this up, shooting from the hip,
11:06
Speaker 17: or completely out of his depth, or maybe all three.
11:10
Speaker 1: This is just a terrible episode for alban Easy and
11:13
Speaker 1: Labor on the cusp of the election. It shows either
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Speaker 1: extreme incompetence or endemic weakness, or both. I suspect it
11:23
Speaker 1: makes you worry that the PM might view these issues
11:26
Speaker 1: the same way as former Chief of Defense and now
11:29
Speaker 1: climate activist Chris Barry, given a platform again on the
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Speaker 1: ABC this morning.
11:35
Speaker 18: Frankly, it's almost none of our business provided it's conducted
11:41
Speaker 18: on the high seas.
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Speaker 4: What about when there are flights going over this area.
11:46
Speaker 3: Well, this happens all the time.
11:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, happens all the time, says Barry. There'd been an
11:51
Speaker 1: overreaction to China's actions, he reckons, and he somehow turned
11:55
Speaker 1: it into an attack on Donald Trump.
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Speaker 18: China is a glob power, and I think now starting
12:02
Speaker 18: to see its future in a different way as President
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Speaker 18: Trump is dismantling the global rules based.
12:11
Speaker 7: System as fast as.
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Speaker 18: He can, and a lot of the thought of things
12:15
Speaker 18: that we've fought for over the last fifty years have
12:18
Speaker 18: been done away with.
12:20
Speaker 7: Why should we be surprised.
12:21
Speaker 3: That China's doing this?
12:22
Speaker 14: Was, as I.
12:23
Speaker 18: Say, goodwill visits to this part of the world, which
12:27
Speaker 18: should be welcomed from.
12:29
Speaker 1: The Chinese cheapest and we wonder why our defense force
12:33
Speaker 1: is in poor shape. Of course, there was no pushback
12:36
Speaker 1: from the ABC even when it got even nuttier, and
12:39
Speaker 1: Barry said climate change was a bigger threat than China.
12:43
Speaker 1: It makes you wonder if he's ever noticed the staggering
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Speaker 1: growth in China's emissions as it turns our coal and
12:49
Speaker 1: iron ore into the largest maritime fighting force in the world.
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Speaker 1: China now has more than two hundred and thirty warships
13:00
Speaker 1: the US and then newer too, with more than seventy
13:03
Speaker 1: percent of them built in the past fifteen years alone.
13:08
Speaker 1: All this is nothing to worry about, though, according to
13:11
Speaker 1: the Green Left and one last thing about China's Tasman
13:15
Speaker 1: Sea live firing provocation. The Virgin pilot who heard the
13:20
Speaker 1: alert and passed it on. He's been given the unofficial
13:23
Speaker 1: nickname at Virgin of Biggles. He's a long time Virgin
13:27
Speaker 1: pilot who's not interested in speaking publicly about this, But
13:31
Speaker 1: what we're told is that it's a very unusual aviation
13:36
Speaker 1: warning and response. But thanks anyway to Biggles, it was
13:39
Speaker 1: good work. Without you, will might have been none the wiser.
13:47
Speaker 1: Many people were pretty dismayed by that protest outside Granville
13:52
Speaker 1: Boys High School in Western Sydney yesterday. The protest played
13:56
Speaker 1: into the anti Semitism crisis across the country and the
14:00
Speaker 1: animosities over the Middle East. A school counselor, Sheik Wesam Chaikawi,
14:05
Speaker 1: who happens to be the man behind.
14:07
Speaker 3: The Muslim Votes movement.
14:09
Speaker 1: He'd been stood down because of social media posts making
14:12
Speaker 1: excuses for the atismitic bile circulated on that nurse's video
14:17
Speaker 1: early this month. Other school staff and teachers and apparently
14:22
Speaker 1: students are supporting Shaik Wissam, which led to the protest.
14:37
Speaker 3: Look, this is deeply worrying.
14:38
Speaker 1: They should be condemning this man's comments, not supporting him,
14:42
Speaker 1: and why are they changing religious slogans? This episode only
14:46
Speaker 1: serves to highlight broader concerns about religious animosities and a
14:51
Speaker 1: lack of integration in some Muslim communities. But while the
14:54
Speaker 1: state Labor Education Minister condemned the protest, it was only
14:58
Speaker 1: over politics.
15:00
Speaker 19: When politics comes into our schools is not acceptable. There
15:05
Speaker 19: is a code of conduct for a reason. That is
15:07
Speaker 19: not the expectation. We need teachers teaching, and we need
15:10
Speaker 19: students at school actually participating in lessons.
15:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've got to do more as a country on
15:16
Speaker 1: this stuff. And it comes by the way, just as
15:19
Speaker 1: we learned that when she visited the United Nations General
15:22
Speaker 1: Assembly last September, our Foreign Minister Penny Wong met with
15:26
Speaker 1: representatives of Iran and with the Palestinian authority.
15:31
Speaker 3: But not with Israel.
15:34
Speaker 1: That's pretty extraordinary in the circumstances, and speaks volumes about
15:38
Speaker 1: Labour's abandonment of Israel in its most difficult hour. Overnight
15:43
Speaker 1: in Israel, thousands of people lined the streets to pay
15:47
Speaker 1: their respects to the Bibas family buried. There was a
15:52
Speaker 1: funeral for mother Shiri and her little boys, Ariel and Kafir.
15:59
Speaker 11: Shiri.
16:00
Speaker 5: I'm sorry I couldn't protect you all. If only I'd
16:03
Speaker 5: know what would happen, I wouldn't fire. I think about
16:05
Speaker 5: everything we went through together. There are so many beautiful memories.
16:09
Speaker 5: I remember Ariellen Kafir's births. I remember the days we
16:13
Speaker 5: would sit at home or in a cafe, just the
16:15
Speaker 5: two of us talking for hours about everything. It was wonderful.
16:19
Speaker 5: I missed those times deeply.
16:22
Speaker 1: That was Yaden Bibas, Shari's husband and the father of
16:25
Speaker 1: those boys. Look, it's just too painful toed well on,
16:28
Speaker 1: isn't it. Hamas returned four more dead hostages today in
16:33
Speaker 1: the final stages of these repugnance cease fire deals. One
16:37
Speaker 1: of those was the body of Shaki Idan, His teenage
16:41
Speaker 1: short daughter was shot dead as the terrorist stormed his
16:44
Speaker 1: family home on October the seventh, twenty twenty three. They
16:48
Speaker 1: then lived streamed the family's torment. I want to show
16:53
Speaker 1: you some of this. It's very traumatic to watch, but
16:57
Speaker 1: the family released it to share the horror of that attack.
17:01
Speaker 3: And that's why I'm showing it to you now.
17:04
Speaker 8: A terrified family held at gunpoint by her mass It's
17:15
Speaker 8: shocking and upsetting to watch, but they wanted us to
17:18
Speaker 8: show their ordeal. Just out of this picture lies the
17:26
Speaker 8: lifeless body of eighteen year old Mayan, the oldest daughter.
17:31
Speaker 8: Her father's hands are still covered with her blood.
17:37
Speaker 10: I see you.
17:37
Speaker 20: It was always the nightmare of nightmares, and suddenly it
17:41
Speaker 20: was really The war is going on around my house
17:46
Speaker 20: and they are inside.
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Speaker 8: The family isn't a whole anymore?
18:00
Speaker 1: Yes, After that horrific and murderous ordeal, the terrorists took
18:05
Speaker 1: the father saki Idan as a hostage to Gaza, but
18:10
Speaker 1: he was killed and today it was his remains that
18:14
Speaker 1: were returned. In response, Israel has released hundreds of Palestinian
18:20
Speaker 1: detainees and convicted terrorists. Hamas still holds more than fifty
18:25
Speaker 1: five hostages. Israel believes the majority of them have been killed.
18:36
Speaker 1: Let's get back to domestic politics now. I want to
18:38
Speaker 1: catch up with Die Lee. She's the independent MP for
18:41
Speaker 1: Fowler in the Western suburbs of Sydney, and she joins
18:43
Speaker 1: me live good to talk to you, Die Hi, Hi.
18:47
Speaker 13: Chris Hawaii. You's been a long day from get out here.
18:50
Speaker 1: I know you've had another busy day the life of
18:53
Speaker 1: a marginal seat MP in the lead up to the election.
18:56
Speaker 1: I want to start actually on what you've been doing today,
18:58
Speaker 1: because you've been focusing on the cost of living. We
19:01
Speaker 1: do have a cost of living crisis in this country.
19:04
Speaker 1: It's getting worse today with news that private health insurance
19:08
Speaker 1: levies are going to be increased by up to five percent.
19:11
Speaker 1: Tell us about how the cost of living is affecting
19:15
Speaker 1: your community and what you were doing to help out today.
19:18
Speaker 3: Yeah.
19:19
Speaker 13: Look, I mean today's event was my initiative. My office
19:23
Speaker 13: started in twenty twenty four to start of it corporing
19:26
Speaker 13: your Bill Day and it gives the community an opportunity
19:30
Speaker 13: and bringing all the services together, such as you know,
19:34
Speaker 13: government agencies, such as not for profit organizations bringing their
19:39
Speaker 13: bills because a lot of people don't actually don't know
19:41
Speaker 13: how to read their bills they get, they don't know
19:44
Speaker 13: that they're entitled to rebate and they don't know, you know,
19:50
Speaker 13: in terms of how you know where to seek support.
19:53
Speaker 13: So today's it was my third event and it was
19:57
Speaker 13: held in Liverpool and you know who was in undated
20:01
Speaker 13: this morning with people coming with their bills be it
20:05
Speaker 13: phone bills, energy bills, water bills as well as you know,
20:10
Speaker 13: people are asking for food voucher this morning apparently.
20:13
Speaker 19: Wow.
20:13
Speaker 3: So it's a great initiative.
20:15
Speaker 1: It's a great initiative you're doing that because a lot
20:17
Speaker 1: of this stuff people don't know about. I know, there's
20:19
Speaker 1: that toll rebate the state gup and handing back people
20:22
Speaker 1: are cash back on tolls and you have to apply
20:24
Speaker 1: for it, so people if they don't, they're not proactive,
20:26
Speaker 1: they miss out.
20:28
Speaker 3: Is this cost of living?
20:29
Speaker 1: Is that is the budget squeezed in households the number
20:32
Speaker 1: one issue of concerns in your electric.
20:35
Speaker 13: Absolutely and I think it's I think a lot of
20:38
Speaker 13: people in Fouler, in Southwest Sydney, and I think Middle
20:42
Speaker 13: Australia are really feeling the pains of the cost of
20:47
Speaker 13: living increase through energy bills. A lot of people come
20:51
Speaker 13: with the energy bills, their telephone bills, their water bills.
20:56
Speaker 13: Insurance costs have gone up, as you know, and talking
20:59
Speaker 13: about health insurance, I mean people are telling me that
21:01
Speaker 13: they can't pay their housing and insurance, house insurance or
21:06
Speaker 13: car insurance, let alone health insurance. So it's you know,
21:10
Speaker 13: and people are telling me how much is expensive it
21:13
Speaker 13: is today this day and age to go out and
21:15
Speaker 13: get a grocery a bag of grocery. So today we
21:20
Speaker 13: had angl Care there who told us that they've had
21:22
Speaker 13: so many requests.
21:23
Speaker 10: For food vouchers.
21:25
Speaker 13: And I have seen that in the last few weeks
21:27
Speaker 13: because I volunteer at the Sydney Helping Angels. Just last
21:31
Speaker 13: week where we were having to pack a lot of
21:35
Speaker 13: food hampers and donated by a Second Bite, so we're
21:41
Speaker 13: packing food for them. So it's really a struggle out here, Chris,
21:45
Speaker 13: and I have been listening to your program and all
21:47
Speaker 13: these other issues, and you know how Labor's putting out
21:50
Speaker 13: dirt files and they're not really and of course it's
21:53
Speaker 13: election time and I have no doubt there'll be dirt
21:56
Speaker 13: and ship files coming up. Well, sorry, you know, we
22:00
Speaker 13: know what you mean that.
22:01
Speaker 1: I've got to get you on the politics. There's a
22:03
Speaker 1: lot of talk about the possibility of a minority government
22:05
Speaker 1: and we know where the Greens will line up and
22:07
Speaker 1: most of the tills if there's a minority government.
22:10
Speaker 3: You're going to be clear with your community.
22:13
Speaker 1: Would you be inclined to support the Albanezi government continuing
22:17
Speaker 1: or would you be inclined to give support to Peter
22:20
Speaker 1: Dutton and the coalition?
22:22
Speaker 13: Chris, So many people have asked me that question, and
22:25
Speaker 13: I have said this line over and over. I don't
22:28
Speaker 13: want to be presumptuous in terms of the election outcomes.
22:34
Speaker 13: I will work and I have continued to work since
22:36
Speaker 13: I got elected, to serve and to fight for my community,
22:40
Speaker 13: and should I get elected re elected again to serve
22:45
Speaker 13: the community of Fouler. My answer has been that I
22:48
Speaker 13: will fight to ensure that we get the best outcome
22:51
Speaker 13: for Fouler. Now, whoever gives me the best outcome for Fouler,
22:55
Speaker 13: then that means we have an opportunity to talk and
22:58
Speaker 13: discuss and put it on the table in terms of
23:01
Speaker 13: what will be delivered here, we'll.
23:02
Speaker 1: Keep coming back to this question with lots of MPs
23:05
Speaker 1: and the lead up and candidates and the lead up
23:07
Speaker 1: to the election, no doubt.
23:08
Speaker 3: Thanks so much for joining us, Die.
23:09
Speaker 1: I appreciate a dy Lee there, the member for foul
23:12
Speaker 1: I want to go to Lavina Lee now, who's the
23:14
Speaker 1: associate professor at the NFLOW at the US Study Center,
23:18
Speaker 1: and she's joining us live from Sydney. I want to
23:20
Speaker 1: get to on this issue with China. Thanks for joining
23:22
Speaker 1: us at Levina. I've got to get your assessment of
23:26
Speaker 1: this Chinese group of vessels going down the East Coast.
23:30
Speaker 1: I've now rounded Tasmania and they're heading across into the
23:33
Speaker 1: Great Australian Bite. We're told they had that live firing exercise.
23:37
Speaker 1: They gave Australia no advance warning. What's your assessment of
23:41
Speaker 1: what China was trying to do here.
23:45
Speaker 7: I think that personal thanks for having me, Chris. I
23:48
Speaker 7: think there's really three objectives. One is to normalize the
23:52
Speaker 7: presence of the Chinese navy in our near borders. They
23:57
Speaker 7: want to demonstrate that they can interdict shipping if they
24:01
Speaker 7: wanted to. They can then force our navy to operate
24:06
Speaker 7: closer to our own shores to protect and defend Australia
24:10
Speaker 7: rather than joining allies and partners in any kind of
24:13
Speaker 7: naval exercises or any type of operations further Afeel in
24:18
Speaker 7: East Asia with our partners. I think the other two
24:23
Speaker 7: objectives are to test Australia's reaction.
24:26
Speaker 10: How how will we react to it? Did we will
24:29
Speaker 10: we protest?
24:30
Speaker 7: We will we downplay the significance of the operation. They
24:35
Speaker 7: also want to test the United States and Australia's alliance.
24:40
Speaker 7: They want to test how the alliance operates. Has Australia
24:44
Speaker 7: even asked the United States to support us in any way?
24:49
Speaker 7: Is the United States distracted by what is going on
24:52
Speaker 7: in Gaza and Ukraine and Russia?
24:55
Speaker 3: Fascinating?
24:56
Speaker 10: That's what it appears that when when you talk.
24:58
Speaker 3: About those objectives, be well pleased.
25:01
Speaker 1: Wouldn't they about the meek response from Anthony Albanesi.
25:06
Speaker 7: Well, I mean it was obviously a display of power,
25:11
Speaker 7: a means to intimidate and for worse, Australia. The fact
25:16
Speaker 7: that they didn't actually give us any warning, which has
25:18
Speaker 7: now become apparent, I think that obviously increases the shock
25:23
Speaker 7: value of what they've done, and it emphasizes our own
25:27
Speaker 7: vulnerabilities and our lack of defense preparedness.
25:30
Speaker 10: So I think they would be quite happy with the
25:34
Speaker 10: fact that.
25:35
Speaker 7: The government so far seems to want of a downplay
25:38
Speaker 7: the significance of the operation rather than the opposite.
25:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a bit of a win for them, the
25:44
Speaker 1: fact that Anthony Alberesi was almost apologetic about it. Now
25:47
Speaker 1: you mentioned I'm interested in what Anthony Alberenzi, what Australia
25:51
Speaker 1: should have done in response, and you mentioned communication, perhaps
25:55
Speaker 1: publicly as well as privately with the United States. I
25:58
Speaker 1: noticed that a US Coastcard so came into Sydney last Saturday.
26:03
Speaker 3: I actually saw that with my own eyes. That would be.
26:05
Speaker 1: Related, wouldn't it, as Really, is there any possibility the
26:08
Speaker 1: Coastguard vessel was keeping an eye on what was going
26:11
Speaker 1: on here with China.
26:13
Speaker 7: Look, I can't tell you whether that's the case. I
26:16
Speaker 7: don't think it's been claimed to be related at all,
26:20
Speaker 7: and I don't think we've had any There's nothing being
26:24
Speaker 7: released publicly about whether Australia has actually asked the United
26:28
Speaker 7: States to do anything on our behalf, to make any
26:31
Speaker 7: diplomatic representations. I would say, though, that unless we protest,
26:38
Speaker 7: if we don't protest ourselves in a very significant way,
26:43
Speaker 7: I don't think it's really realistic for the United States
26:45
Speaker 7: to protest on our behalf.
26:48
Speaker 10: It would be almost awkward for the United States to
26:51
Speaker 10: protest more strongly than the Australian government about something that
26:56
Speaker 10: concerns our national interest directly exactly.
27:00
Speaker 1: So this is where where you say we should be
27:01
Speaker 1: talking to them, but presumably behind the scenes.
27:04
Speaker 3: You would discuss the tech thic.
27:05
Speaker 1: Australia might complain, and then the US would come in
27:08
Speaker 1: publicly behind us.
27:10
Speaker 7: Yeah, I see it as you know, if you have
27:12
Speaker 7: a friend in the playground who's being bullied and you
27:15
Speaker 7: go in aggressively and say, hey, you know, leave them alone,
27:19
Speaker 7: but then they put up their hands and say, oh,
27:21
Speaker 7: actually everything's fine, that would make you look quite foolish.
27:26
Speaker 7: So I think the United States would be I would
27:29
Speaker 7: think at this point would be waiting to see whether
27:33
Speaker 7: the Prime Minister or Foreign Minister now comes out and
27:36
Speaker 7: directly says much more strongly that this was unacceptable, dangerous,
27:42
Speaker 7: putting civilians at lives at risk, and frankly, I mean
27:46
Speaker 7: our relationship is meant to be stabilized, and one of
27:51
Speaker 7: the benefits of that stabilization was meant to be that
27:56
Speaker 7: we could raise awkward questions more easily. Yep, we have
28:00
Speaker 7: an opportunity.
28:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
28:02
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, Leavena, I appreciate it, Associate Professor
28:05
Speaker 1: Lavina Lead there from the US Studies Center in Sydney.
28:09
Speaker 3: That's insightful, isn't it. If we don't arc up about this,
28:13
Speaker 3: it's going to keep happening and worse. Now we're going
28:15
Speaker 3: to get to a break.
28:16
Speaker 1: On the other side, energy chiefs are warning that a
28:18
Speaker 1: hung parliament would be a nightmare for this country. I'll
28:22
Speaker 1: catch up with one of the next so let's get
28:27
Speaker 1: back on to the energy debate. Down the imminent election campaign,
28:30
Speaker 1: industry leaders from across the spectrum are warning that a
28:33
Speaker 1: minority government dominated by Greens and tear independence will be
28:37
Speaker 1: a nightmare, leading to a drop in living standards and
28:41
Speaker 1: unreliable energy grid.
28:42
Speaker 3: Plagued by blackouts. Of course, let me bring in Brett Woods.
28:45
Speaker 1: He's the managing director and chief executive of Beach Energy.
28:49
Speaker 3: Thanks for joining us, Brett'sie.
28:52
Speaker 1: You know, people in business and industry are often very
28:55
Speaker 1: loath to come out and speak on politics, but you
28:58
Speaker 1: and others feel compelled to say that a minority government
29:01
Speaker 1: would be a disaster for the country.
29:03
Speaker 3: Why well, I.
29:07
Speaker 21: Think you just have to look at our nearest neighbors
29:09
Speaker 21: in New Zealand through the Deern government, who had a
29:12
Speaker 21: minority position between twenty seventeen and twenty twenty, and they
29:16
Speaker 21: elected not to support the energy sector. They elected not
29:19
Speaker 21: to continue to find hydrocarbons and utilize their own hydrocarbons,
29:24
Speaker 21: and they put their own economy at massive rits with
29:26
Speaker 21: energy prices climbing by four times. They pivoted back to
29:30
Speaker 21: importing coal, a high sulfur coal out of Indonesia. They've
29:33
Speaker 21: had to shut industry down to make sure that there's
29:36
Speaker 21: no blackout. So what we don't want to see, what
29:39
Speaker 21: I certainly don't want to see is manufacturing Australia failed
29:43
Speaker 21: through the lack of affordable and sustainable energy supply.
29:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would have thought to.
29:48
Speaker 1: In fact, I argue publicly in the Australian and here
29:51
Speaker 1: that the number one economic damage being done to this
29:55
Speaker 1: country by the current government is the energy self harm
30:01
Speaker 1: and obviously the toils and the Greens they want even
30:04
Speaker 1: more action, They want even more of a focus on
30:07
Speaker 1: renewables and their anti gas as well as coal. So
30:11
Speaker 1: it would only get worse if it was labor with
30:13
Speaker 1: the tools and the Greens. But do you fear also
30:16
Speaker 1: that a coalition government could give into that push if
30:20
Speaker 1: they needed, say some tools to form government.
30:26
Speaker 21: I think you know what we don't want to have is,
30:30
Speaker 21: you know, just arbitrarily, say somewhere like the best entrance
30:33
Speaker 21: of the Wentworth electorate dominating the energy supply.
30:37
Speaker 3: Issues for all of Australia.
30:39
Speaker 21: We need to make sure that there is coaching energy
30:43
Speaker 21: policy that emanates around and delivering value for all Australians
30:47
Speaker 21: and making sure that.
30:49
Speaker 3: The industry moves forward.
30:50
Speaker 21: You know, we've seen fantastic moves by a Minister King
30:53
Speaker 21: to try and build reform through the legislation to allow
30:57
Speaker 21: our projects to move forward smoothly, but only did it
30:59
Speaker 21: be blocked this year by the Greens. So we need
31:03
Speaker 21: to see strong leadership. We need to know we can't
31:07
Speaker 21: run a country through a committee. We need to see
31:11
Speaker 21: definite moves, positive moves to make sure that we sure
31:14
Speaker 21: up Australia's energy and manufacturing industries.
31:17
Speaker 1: So your message is in a way bipartisan or a
31:20
Speaker 1: political You're saying, labor or coalition, please don't give all
31:24
Speaker 1: the powers to the independence.
31:29
Speaker 21: Yeah, well, you know, I certainly have my preference, but
31:32
Speaker 21: you know I would rather see that whoever wins, wins
31:38
Speaker 21: by a majority, and I think that majority is the
31:42
Speaker 21: right of the Australian people to see lead the country.
31:46
Speaker 21: I don't want to have a Theresa May situation or
31:49
Speaker 21: an Adderned situation which which cripples the country for another
31:52
Speaker 21: three years. We need to we need to continue to grow,
31:54
Speaker 21: we need to continue to develop. We've got cost of
31:57
Speaker 21: living pressures that are affecting so many mums and dads
32:00
Speaker 21: out there, and people losing their jobs because there's not
32:02
Speaker 21: enough energy supply. We need to make sure that we
32:04
Speaker 21: have an environment that supports our communities and we have
32:08
Speaker 21: to have a voice that is supportive of delivering Bay
32:12
Speaker 21: for All.
32:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you're absolutely right, and I think a
32:14
Speaker 1: minority government would be felt worse in the energy and climate.
32:18
Speaker 3: Sector than anywhere else.
32:19
Speaker 1: There are other issues that play into but most of
32:21
Speaker 1: the independence that the teals and the Greens, they're all
32:24
Speaker 1: about climate action and that's going against the trends globally.
32:28
Speaker 3: It's not just Donald Trump. They were saying drill, baby, drill.
32:32
Speaker 1: Let's have a listen to BP, massive conglomerate of course
32:35
Speaker 1: Global all an energy producer. They're now pulling back on
32:39
Speaker 1: their renewables investment and doubling down on their fossil fuels.
32:43
Speaker 22: Have a look, and the piece of transition and decarbonization
32:47
Speaker 22: all important was not as fast as envisioned, and energy
32:51
Speaker 22: demand continues to rise. Our optimism for a fast transition
32:56
Speaker 22: was misplaced and we went too far, too fat.
33:01
Speaker 1: Too far too fast on the transition. We need more
33:03
Speaker 1: fossil fuels. Sounds a bit like Australia too, Yeah, I.
33:10
Speaker 3: Think that is.
33:11
Speaker 21: You know, that is kind of a feature that we've
33:13
Speaker 21: seen globally, whether through the issues in Ukraine or even
33:19
Speaker 21: these local issues at home. You know, Beach Energy was
33:22
Speaker 21: the first company in a decade to get a production
33:25
Speaker 21: license awarded in Victoria. Very much through the pressures that
33:29
Speaker 21: we've seen against our industry. But now we're in a
33:32
Speaker 21: world where we need to make sure with AI, with
33:36
Speaker 21: global demands for energy increasing, that we've got to make
33:39
Speaker 21: sure that we've got our cost of living pressures right.
33:42
Speaker 21: We've seen what renewables have done to the cost of
33:45
Speaker 21: energy in Australia. We've got to make sure we have
33:47
Speaker 21: that balance so that gas sits beautifully alongside. You know,
33:51
Speaker 21: Australia's biggest ever industrial investment is mums and dads putting
33:55
Speaker 21: rooftop solar in. Having that alongside gas to make sure
33:58
Speaker 21: that we have power at night and on those days
34:01
Speaker 21: that the wind doesn't shine and the sun doesn't blow
34:04
Speaker 21: delivers us a future that we can afford.
34:06
Speaker 3: I think that's important for everyone. It's non negotiable. Thanks
34:09
Speaker 3: for joining us, Brett. It's my pleasure.
34:13
Speaker 1: Thanks Brett Woods there from Beach Energy, joining us live
34:16
Speaker 1: from Adelaide. We're going to get to a break on
34:18
Speaker 1: the other side, labor on the defense as the Chinese
34:20
Speaker 1: warship controversy continues. On to catch up with former Foreign
34:24
Speaker 1: Minister Alexander Downer find out what he thinks. Let's go
34:32
Speaker 1: back to Adelaide and catch up with former Foreign Minister
34:34
Speaker 1: Alexander Downer and who joins me live good to talk
34:37
Speaker 1: to you and Alexander. I spoke earlier to Lavina Lee
34:41
Speaker 1: about this Kafaffal and controversy over the Chinese warships and
34:45
Speaker 1: the live firing exercise. She made the very good point
34:48
Speaker 1: I thought that we should have been talking to the
34:51
Speaker 1: US about this, and that if Australia was making some
34:54
Speaker 1: public protests about this, well then maybe.
34:57
Speaker 3: The US would come in as well.
34:58
Speaker 1: But at the moment has got exactly the response they wanted,
35:02
Speaker 1: that is meek apologies from Anthony Albanesi.
35:08
Speaker 23: Well, what they wanted to do was to test our capacity,
35:13
Speaker 23: particularly our defense capacity. And when you have a Virgin
35:17
Speaker 23: Airlines pilot reporting their live firing exercise rather than the
35:22
Speaker 23: Australian Defense Force or the New Zealand Defense Force, and
35:26
Speaker 23: the failure by our defense force to monitor the activities
35:31
Speaker 23: of this small group of ships, it's just extraordinary. And
35:36
Speaker 23: what it telegraphs to China is that our our defense
35:41
Speaker 23: force and our defense readiness is weak. And add to
35:44
Speaker 23: that the confusion coming from the mouth of the Prime Minister,
35:48
Speaker 23: the Defense Minister, the chief of the Defense Force, and
35:52
Speaker 23: Australia just looks a defense shambles. So I think the
35:57
Speaker 23: whole exercise has proved to be very embarrassing for US.
36:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, on terms of capability. Look, I know there are
36:04
Speaker 1: a number of ships in Sydney Harbor at the moment,
36:08
Speaker 1: they're not doing much there. But the Defense Minister, Richard
36:12
Speaker 1: Miles and Defense officially says that they've had one vessel
36:16
Speaker 1: shadowing this group as they've gone through the Tasman Sea.
36:20
Speaker 1: But that raises the question of whether that's sufficient.
36:23
Speaker 3: And also if.
36:24
Speaker 1: They're shadowing the group, why didn't they pick up the
36:27
Speaker 1: warning about a live fire exercise.
36:31
Speaker 23: Well, I think the term shadowing must be an exaggeration
36:35
Speaker 23: because they're not shadowing them to the extent that apparently
36:39
Speaker 23: Virgin Airlines is on this plate from wherever it was Sydney,
36:44
Speaker 23: Sydney to Queenstown. I mean, I mean the government is
36:49
Speaker 23: just making political points to cover themselves. But I think
36:53
Speaker 23: what this demonstrates is something a very harsh lesson to
36:58
Speaker 23: Australians that we've let defense, our defense force go over
37:02
Speaker 23: the years. We haven't been investing sufficiently in it. Obviously
37:07
Speaker 23: a lot of diver resources are being diverted into this
37:12
Speaker 23: idea of building nuclear submarines in Adelaide. I think it
37:16
Speaker 23: would be better just to buy them off the shelf
37:18
Speaker 23: from America rather than do that and waste money on
37:21
Speaker 23: building them in Adelaide and instead put the money into
37:26
Speaker 23: enhanced defense capability. I mean, we spend something like two
37:30
Speaker 23: percent of GDP on defense. It's approximately that much, whereas
37:36
Speaker 23: the UK, with a labor government, is lifting its investment
37:39
Speaker 23: to two point five percent of GDP and they're cutting
37:43
Speaker 23: their aid budget to pay for it. And that's a
37:45
Speaker 23: labor government. So I mean, we have to think about
37:49
Speaker 23: think about our vulnerability and building our defense capacity. But defense,
37:55
Speaker 23: you know, over the last few years has been struck
37:58
Speaker 23: from the agenda or a whole time talking about sort
38:02
Speaker 23: of climate change and more welfare handouts and so on,
38:06
Speaker 23: and all the time, aren't defense capability has become degraded?
38:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, A strong call to action there, Alexander Ray. I
38:13
Speaker 1: want to go to Ukraine though, and get your thoughts
38:15
Speaker 1: on this. We've talked about it a lot. But an
38:18
Speaker 1: idea that coming from Donald Trump now, which I think
38:22
Speaker 1: cuts to why this bloke can sometimes sometimes be an
38:25
Speaker 1: evil genius really to use that term, because everyone is
38:29
Speaker 1: talking about a security guarantee for Ukraine from the US,
38:33
Speaker 1: and he says there's no way that the US will
38:35
Speaker 1: do that, there's no way US troops will be on
38:38
Speaker 1: the ground in Ukraine. But he wants the minerals from Ukraine. Well,
38:42
Speaker 1: now he's gone some way to doing that. And the
38:44
Speaker 1: way he explains it is if there's American companies and
38:47
Speaker 1: American people in Ukraine helping to extract their minerals, that
38:51
Speaker 1: kind of provides a sort of security guarantee.
38:54
Speaker 24: Have a look, it's a great deal for Ukraine too,
38:57
Speaker 24: because they get us over there and we're going to
38:59
Speaker 24: be working over there on the land, and you know,
39:01
Speaker 24: in that way, it's there's sort of automatic security because
39:03
Speaker 24: nobody's going to be messing around with our people when
39:06
Speaker 24: we're there.
39:08
Speaker 3: Does he have a point?
39:11
Speaker 23: He has a very good point. First of all, we're
39:14
Speaker 23: talking here about rare, rare earths, rare minerals, strategically important minerals,
39:19
Speaker 23: and Ukraine needs to develop them and find markets for them.
39:23
Speaker 23: So having American investment there makes a lot of sense
39:27
Speaker 23: rather than having the Russians take control of those minerals,
39:31
Speaker 23: which by the way, is the alternative. Secondly, I know
39:35
Speaker 23: President Trump's language is sort of outrageous and totally undiplomatic,
39:41
Speaker 23: there's no doubt about that. But the media take what
39:45
Speaker 23: he says too literally. The broad plan is coming together.
39:50
Speaker 23: I mean, somehow this war has to stop after somewhere
39:54
Speaker 23: between half a million and a million people have been killed,
39:58
Speaker 23: and somehow that has to involve Russia. I mean, it's
40:02
Speaker 23: not going to stop without Russia stopping, and so he
40:05
Speaker 23: has to engage with President Putin to get the war
40:09
Speaker 23: to stop. Sure, Zelenski has to become involved at the
40:12
Speaker 23: right time as well, because the war contend without the
40:15
Speaker 23: Ukrainians ending it as well. But I think there's a
40:19
Speaker 23: whole strategy here which is clouded by the most extraordinary rhetoric.
40:26
Speaker 23: Rhetoric President Trump uses and it is outrageous. But on
40:31
Speaker 23: the other hand, let's see what results he can achieve,
40:35
Speaker 23: because nothing has been achieved except bloodshed over the last
40:39
Speaker 23: three years.
40:40
Speaker 3: Yeah.
40:40
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I couldn't agree more. The proof of the pudding,
40:43
Speaker 1: as they say, we shall see. Thanks for joining us, Alexander,
40:46
Speaker 1: I appreciate it again. Alexander down alive in Adelaid. Let's
40:49
Speaker 1: go to Melbourne now and catch up with the Liberal
40:51
Speaker 1: MP for Flinders, Zoey mckinzi.
40:54
Speaker 3: Great to catch up with you again, Zoe.
40:55
Speaker 1: We really want to focus on the cost of living,
40:58
Speaker 1: and I'm really focused on this point that others are
41:01
Speaker 1: starting to report on and discuss, and that is that
41:03
Speaker 1: Labour's pump three and a half billion dollars into energy bill.
41:07
Speaker 3: Rebates as sort of an electoral ploy.
41:12
Speaker 1: There's no way known they're going to go to the
41:14
Speaker 1: election with them running out, are they? This is going
41:16
Speaker 1: to splurge on these again, so that so that people
41:19
Speaker 1: know they're not going to get a sudden three hundred
41:22
Speaker 1: sudden three hundred dollars jump in their power bills in
41:24
Speaker 1: a few months.
41:26
Speaker 22: Yeah.
41:26
Speaker 9: Look, the bandaid job that I was doing throwing cash
41:29
Speaker 9: around the most extraordinary figures we've seen. Even since January,
41:32
Speaker 9: I think we're up through about twenty billion dollars just
41:35
Speaker 9: to basically get them through the election and get to
41:37
Speaker 9: the other side. So who knows what they'll promise emulation
41:40
Speaker 9: to energy rebouts. What we do know is that but
41:42
Speaker 9: for these rebates, the price of electricity be out by
41:45
Speaker 9: about thirty four percent now, and it's the same with gas.
41:49
Speaker 9: You see those figures bleeding into other areas of the economy.
41:52
Speaker 9: You've got health insurance up today. It's because the cost
41:54
Speaker 9: of working, the cost of energy, the cost of materials,
41:58
Speaker 9: it's all still going up. So they've done nothing to
42:01
Speaker 9: curb inflation. This constant new spend actually challenges their ability
42:06
Speaker 9: to get core inflation down. The Reserve Bank is given
42:09
Speaker 9: its judgment, which is that it's very unlikely to get
42:12
Speaker 9: it down again enough to give them comfort to have
42:15
Speaker 9: another interest rate cup this year. So it's just a
42:19
Speaker 9: constant litany of disasters from this government in terms of
42:22
Speaker 9: managing the Australian economy.
42:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, whatever happens with energy rebates is going to be bad.
42:27
Speaker 1: Eventually it has to end and then there's a big
42:30
Speaker 1: inflationary jolt coming and in the meantime, deficits and debt
42:34
Speaker 1: builds up. I want to get you on another cost
42:36
Speaker 1: of living measure you mentioned there, and that is private
42:38
Speaker 1: health insurance.
42:39
Speaker 3: This is such a.
42:40
Speaker 1: Problematic area, right because we need people to have private health.
42:44
Speaker 1: You need them to use private health to keep the
42:46
Speaker 1: pressure off the public system. So when it goes up
42:49
Speaker 1: and more people drop out, it just increases the crisis
42:52
Speaker 1: in the public system.
42:54
Speaker 9: Yeah, it shored us. We know that health costs up
42:56
Speaker 9: by at least ten percent. We also know that bulk
42:58
Speaker 9: billing rates are down from ady sorry, at top of
43:00
Speaker 9: eighty eight percent at the end of the last coalition government,
43:02
Speaker 9: down to seventy seven now, and so again it falls
43:06
Speaker 9: to the public to make up for Labour's failures. I've
43:09
Speaker 9: got a really high density of private health insurance here
43:12
Speaker 9: in Flinders. We have an older population, a lot of
43:14
Speaker 9: people rely on their private health insurance and this gobbles
43:18
Speaker 9: up whatever they got back in the interest rate cut
43:21
Speaker 9: last month almost immediately overnight. So it's really bad news.
43:25
Speaker 9: And as you say, it pushes people out of private health,
43:27
Speaker 9: which just means greater and greater impost on the public system.
43:32
Speaker 9: You need a balance otherwise eventually the system will cave in.
43:36
Speaker 3: Yes, indeed, thanks for joining us.
43:37
Speaker 1: Soe good to catch up with you, Zoey mackenzie there
43:40
Speaker 1: in Melbourne.
43:40
Speaker 3: We got to get to a break.
43:41
Speaker 1: On the other side, our panel, Tim Blair and Mark
43:43
Speaker 1: Nicholson will make sense of it all.
43:45
Speaker 3: They're going to talk to us about Albo.
43:47
Speaker 1: And the fact that doesn't take responsibility for anything.
43:50
Speaker 3: You know, I keep going on about this, but proved
43:52
Speaker 3: me wrong.
43:56
Speaker 1: I like to think of it as our Thursday, National Cabinet.
43:59
Speaker 1: Tim Blair from the Daily Telegraph in Victoria's Whimra and
44:02
Speaker 1: did Melbourne Martin Nicholson from step Maker Studio is good
44:05
Speaker 1: to speak to both of you.
44:07
Speaker 3: We've got to talk about Albou this week.
44:09
Speaker 1: And you know I don't lean on you Mark to
44:14
Speaker 1: do Albow impersonations, even though I'd probably love to hear.
44:17
Speaker 3: One every week. But you know, the thing is, how
44:20
Speaker 3: do you satirize Elbow?
44:22
Speaker 9: Now?
44:22
Speaker 1: We had a Prime minister last Friday when China is
44:25
Speaker 1: a chub thumping with live rocket fire or live fire testing.
44:31
Speaker 3: In the Testament City and.
44:34
Speaker 1: Our Prime minister is apologizing for China.
44:37
Speaker 3: He's explaining why China is doing this. I mean, how
44:40
Speaker 3: do you satirize that?
44:43
Speaker 2: You can't. He's literally a parody of himself. It's ridiculous
44:47
Speaker 2: that like he's I can't make him look any weaker
44:49
Speaker 2: in cartoon form, no matter what I try and do.
44:52
Speaker 2: And at first I thought the impression was bad. Oh
44:54
Speaker 2: please stop it, please, it's that one else's fault.
44:57
Speaker 16: But it is.
44:58
Speaker 3: It's exactly how to blow. He's a weasel.
45:01
Speaker 2: There's no other way. He's so good at handballing things away.
45:04
Speaker 2: He takes no responsibility. You've said it. Once you see it,
45:07
Speaker 2: you can't unsee it. He just he's so quick to
45:10
Speaker 2: deflect and throw it on someone else's plate and say
45:12
Speaker 2: it's their fault. It's such weak leadership. It's appalling. To
45:16
Speaker 2: keep your eyes peeled, folks, because it's so bad.
45:19
Speaker 1: It is extraordinary, and Tim, I'm thinking, like in China,
45:22
Speaker 1: they would have wall gained this right, what's going to
45:24
Speaker 1: happen when we do this? I think, first of all,
45:25
Speaker 1: the thing they might send like six ships out there
45:28
Speaker 1: and you know, a diesel powered submarine or something, but
45:30
Speaker 1: there's a one boat appeared on the horizon, and then
45:33
Speaker 1: they forgot. The big problem was they forgot about Virgin
45:37
Speaker 1: Airlines and how good their pilots are, and they would
45:41
Speaker 1: have been ready for America to denounce them in Australia
45:44
Speaker 1: to appeal to her. The one thing they never would
45:47
Speaker 1: have expected was that Albow would explain their actions.
45:51
Speaker 14: It is extraordinary. It's extraordini as well when you measure
45:54
Speaker 14: it against recent developments in the US, where Trump is
45:57
Speaker 14: being accused of kissing up to Putin and being in
45:59
Speaker 14: a polis for Vladimir Putin, a terrible, terrible you know,
46:02
Speaker 14: he's on the side of a dictator, and our guy
46:06
Speaker 14: is not only kissing up to the communist regime in
46:09
Speaker 14: China but actively making excuses for them. He's actually gone
46:12
Speaker 14: beyond the whole Trump putin stuff into a whole new level.
46:16
Speaker 3: Oh, it's extraordinary.
46:18
Speaker 1: Let's go through it a little bit further, right, because,
46:21
Speaker 1: as we now know because of what Andrew Charlton said
46:23
Speaker 1: on the seven thirty program last night, the dirt file
46:26
Speaker 1: about Dutton and these shares came from the Prime Minister's office.
46:30
Speaker 3: It was worked up in.
46:31
Speaker 1: The Prime Minister's office and that comes from.
46:33
Speaker 3: A labour MP. Yet have a look what Albo said
46:36
Speaker 3: just a couple of days ago.
46:38
Speaker 25: Is labor accusing your position leader inside of training.
46:42
Speaker 6: That's a matter for Peter Dutton to explain.
46:47
Speaker 3: Nothing to do with him.
46:48
Speaker 1: Mark, don't you ask me about the dirt file.
46:50
Speaker 3: That my office cooked up? Yeah, exactly.
46:54
Speaker 2: May get a counter going for the election when it
46:56
Speaker 2: actually finally does get called. The amount of times this
46:58
Speaker 2: boke's going to say Peter Dutton, he's going to be
47:00
Speaker 2: extraordinary because that's all.
47:01
Speaker 7: He can do.
47:02
Speaker 2: He's a dodgeball World champions, a slippery little sucker he's
47:05
Speaker 2: just gonna he's going to miss him and he's going
47:06
Speaker 2: to hurdle them back. And it's always Peter Dutton's fault.
47:09
Speaker 2: It's never my fault unless it's inflation. It unless it's
47:12
Speaker 2: inflation that it was all because of me. I take
47:14
Speaker 2: all the credit, not Australian people. It's always Peter Dutton's fault.
47:17
Speaker 1: It's not always Peter Dutton's fault. Sometimes it's just because
47:20
Speaker 1: he's in a car or something. Have a look at
47:22
Speaker 1: some of the excuses here.
47:24
Speaker 6: A share does his job and scrutinizes intelligence issues on
47:29
Speaker 6: behalf of Australia. I've been traveling in the car, so
47:34
Speaker 6: I'm not I haven't been advised about that. Of course,
47:38
Speaker 6: the state bail schemes are run by the state is
47:42
Speaker 6: the big Australia and independent body, and the government doesn't
47:45
Speaker 6: direct them on what to do.
47:48
Speaker 3: He's just not interested in anything.
47:50
Speaker 1: He's not He has no responsibility, no power, this guy.
47:54
Speaker 1: I'm imagine when Jodie comes home and says, why haven't
47:56
Speaker 1: you hung out the washing, he'd just say, I didn't
47:58
Speaker 1: know there was anything what washed?
48:00
Speaker 14: What? Yeah, I was in the car, in the car,
48:05
Speaker 14: your car. As he got by the way, one that
48:06
Speaker 14: doesn't have any kind of electronic connectivity. It's a rare
48:09
Speaker 14: kind of bugle these days. I would I would point out, though,
48:11
Speaker 14: imagine the local precipitation. I guess you'd call it in
48:15
Speaker 14: the room when when the Prime Minister was asking people
48:18
Speaker 14: to make Dutton. You know, let you explain the ssh
48:21
Speaker 14: because that would have been a bit of a liquid element.
48:25
Speaker 1: Well, as you guys have have explained, and as we
48:28
Speaker 1: all say, it's why this is his theme song.
48:36
Speaker 14: Shut he gets up.
48:42
Speaker 1: He thinks, yeah, he's not responsible for anything except explaining
48:53
Speaker 1: China's aggression. Lest anybody get disturbed, I want to do
48:57
Speaker 1: a quick contrast here in the time we got left,
49:00
Speaker 1: because Donald Trump is a bloke who always accepts responsibility, and.
49:04
Speaker 3: Perhaps too much of it.
49:05
Speaker 1: Have a look at this cabinet meeting when he when
49:08
Speaker 1: he talks to his cabinet members on the back of
49:10
Speaker 1: a journo's question about they might be how they might
49:13
Speaker 1: be worried about Elon Musk's cost cutting.
49:17
Speaker 25: President Trump put a truth social today saying that everybody
49:21
Speaker 25: in the cabinet was was happy with you. I just
49:24
Speaker 25: wondered if that's if you had heard otherwise.
49:28
Speaker 14: Let the cabinets.
49:34
Speaker 3: If you are a well, throw them at just superb.
49:41
Speaker 1: You're all going to have to cost cut your budget.
49:43
Speaker 1: Don't winjoy, you're out.
49:46
Speaker 14: It is terrific and it's so much fun to see
49:49
Speaker 14: journalists being able to ask a president questions.
49:52
Speaker 17: Again.
49:53
Speaker 14: They might not like the replies, and they might feel,
49:55
Speaker 14: you know, belittled and shunned and scorned by the new president.
49:59
Speaker 14: But he takes question and he answers questions. I think
50:01
Speaker 14: more than a thousand in his first period as president.
50:05
Speaker 14: That's great.
50:06
Speaker 1: It's a hell of a contrast to Joe Biden, who
50:07
Speaker 1: would have just responded with Tonga or Tuesday or something.
50:12
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, magnificent and Tim Blair will keep
50:15
Speaker 1: you next week.
50:16
Speaker 3: Catch up with you next week. We're right out of time.
50:18
Speaker 3: Here's Peter Gridle