Transcript

Sharri | 26 August · Sharri

0:07
Speaker 1: Good evening.
0:08
Speaker 2: Tonight, the Albanese government is losing the war on inflation,
0:12
Speaker 2: but insists the economy is better than ever. The verdict
0:16
Speaker 2: on the Royal Commission from leading security figures is damning.
0:20
Speaker 2: And former Home Affairs Secretary Mike Pozzuolo will join me live.
0:24
Speaker 2: He says the Royal Commission has lost its way. And
0:28
Speaker 2: the life and times of the Queen of Country Music,
0:31
Speaker 2: Dolly Parton.
0:32
Speaker 1: Plus, how Ooshies made.
0:34
Speaker 2: Woolworths an extra $ 165 million in just eight weeks. Russell
0:40
Speaker 2: Pillimer will join me to discuss later. But first, the
0:45
Speaker 2: final day of the Royal Commission's hearings today, and the
0:48
Speaker 2: Commission arrogantly not only rejected calls to extend its timeframe,
0:53
Speaker 2: but didn't even use all the time available to it
0:56
Speaker 2: this week. In a desperate intervention, Australia's top national security leaders.
1:02
Speaker 1: Have demanded it urgently be extended.
1:05
Speaker 2: They're raising concerns that no cabinet ministers have been called
1:09
Speaker 2: to give evidence and that the Commission hasn't investigated Islamist
1:13
Speaker 2: extremism properly. They're warning this will be a lost opportunity.
1:19
Speaker 2: Their statement says, As a matter of urgency, the federal
1:23
Speaker 2: government must extend the deadline for completion of the Royal
1:26
Speaker 2: Commission on Anti-Semitism. We call on the Prime Minister to
1:30
Speaker 2: allow whatever extension of time and resources is needed by
1:34
Speaker 2: the Commission to for it to complete a full and
1:37
Speaker 2: forensic inquiry. And they said they're concerned the inquiry hasn't
1:42
Speaker 2: called ministers to give evidence. It hasn't called members of
1:46
Speaker 2: Islamist organisations active in the protests after the Hamas attacks
1:50
Speaker 2: on Israel.
1:52
Speaker 1: And they say nor has it.
1:53
Speaker 2: Investigated the sources, origins and growth of Islamist extremism in Australia,
1:59
Speaker 2: with particular focus after the 7th of October and up
2:03
Speaker 2: until the Bondi massacre. Now, there are around 20 esteemed signatories,
2:09
Speaker 2: and they include the former Governor-General David Hurley, who was
2:14
Speaker 2: also chief of the Australian Defence Force. the former AFP
2:18
Speaker 2: Commissioner Mick Kelty, former Deputy Secretary of Home Affairs Mark Ablong,
2:23
Speaker 2: former Chief of Joint Operations Lieutenant General Gregory Bilton, Rear
2:28
Speaker 2: Admiral Peter Briggs and former Secretary of Home Affairs Mike Pizzullo, who,
2:34
Speaker 2: as I mentioned, will.
2:35
Speaker 1: Join me shortly. Many more names too.
2:39
Speaker 2: Now, on the point about government ministers not being called,
2:43
Speaker 2: here's what these experts say. They say, given the well-understood
2:47
Speaker 2: principle of ministerial responsibility, it is surprising and regrettable that
2:52
Speaker 2: ministers are unlikely to be called. It is the government,
2:56
Speaker 2: not officials, which determines budgets, sets policy priorities, has full
3:01
Speaker 2: access to the intelligence picture and ensures that officials are focused.
3:05
Speaker 1: On the key tasks. Now, these experts, they're just the latest.
3:11
Speaker 2: They join a growing group of leading figures demanding an
3:14
Speaker 2: extension to the Royal Commission.
3:17
Speaker 3: This isn't about me, but I think there are a
3:19
Speaker 3: lot of people who have expertise to offer that the
3:21
Speaker 3: Royal Commission, not because of lack of will on their part,
3:24
Speaker 3: but lack of time, has not been able to hear
3:26
Speaker 3: from them.
3:26
Speaker 4: The Royal Commission is not going to get the job
3:28
Speaker 4: done on the rushed timeline the Albanese government has given it. Now,
3:32
Speaker 4: if we need to go a couple of weeks longer.
3:35
Speaker 4: Given that most of the expense was spent setting it up,
3:41
Speaker 4: that would seem to be money well spent because both
3:43
Speaker 4: the federal and the state government are relying on these
3:46
Speaker 4: recommendations to shape some of our policy.
3:48
Speaker 5: The Royal Commission has been hampered from day one by
3:51
Speaker 5: the Prime Minister's decision to make it an 11-month Royal Commission,
3:56
Speaker 5: for the Prime Minister's decision to write the terms of
3:58
Speaker 5: reference that he has for the Royal Commission, I think
4:01
Speaker 5: the ball is firmly within the Prime Minister's court now
4:05
Speaker 5: to ensure that the Royal Commission can do its job
4:08
Speaker 5: by granting it an extension of time.
4:10
Speaker 6: This is a betrayal of the Jewish community. It is
4:13
Speaker 6: absolutely the wrong thing to do. This is a government
4:16
Speaker 6: that has never wanted this Royal Commission. They did it
4:18
Speaker 6: under duress and there are clear witnesses that need to
4:22
Speaker 6: be called that haven't been.
4:24
Speaker 2: And the most senior legal figure who's demanded an extension
4:28
Speaker 2: is Judge Ronald Sackville, who used to sit alongside Virginia
4:32
Speaker 2: Bell on the Court of Appeal, and he also expressed
4:35
Speaker 2: concerns with other aspects of how the Commission has been operating. Now,
4:40
Speaker 2: as Angus Taylor just said, you will recall that Anthony
4:43
Speaker 2: Albanese rejected calls for this Royal Commission for four weeks.
4:49
Speaker 3: Now, there's no way a Royal Commission would even be
4:52
Speaker 3: starting work... in any meaningful way by April.
4:56
Speaker 6: Well Royal Commissions take years and we need to be
4:59
Speaker 6: acting within weeks.
5:00
Speaker 7: The necessary outcome would be to re-platform and provide a
5:05
Speaker 7: public platform for some of the worst statements and worst voices.
5:13
Speaker 3: Where Royal Commissions are not as good is to consider
5:19
Speaker 3: things that are not agreed, where people have differences.
5:24
Speaker 2: Yet every excuse under the sun and the Prime Minister
5:27
Speaker 2: finally relented under overwhelming public pressure. He then, though, he
5:33
Speaker 2: then refused to consider the names put forward for Commissioner
5:36
Speaker 2: by some leading figures in the Jewish community. And instead,
5:41
Speaker 2: he insisted on his own hand-picked Commissioner, Virginia Bell. I
5:45
Speaker 2: broke this story that he wanted Bell on the night
5:48
Speaker 2: of January the 7th. The backlash from the Jewish community
5:53
Speaker 2: was intense. Josh Frydenberg very quickly released a public statement
5:57
Speaker 2: on social media. He said tonight the Prime Minister has
6:01
Speaker 2: floated the name of Virginia Bell to lead a Commonwealth
6:04
Speaker 2: Royal Commission into anti-Semitism and the events leading up to
6:07
Speaker 2: the Bondi massacre. He went on to say that after
6:11
Speaker 2: more than two years of unprecedented hate, harassment and violence
6:16
Speaker 2: directed towards the Jewish community, culminating in Australia's deadliest terror
6:21
Speaker 2: attack at Bondi, it is unthinkable the Prime Minister would
6:25
Speaker 2: choose a commissioner that did not have the total confidence
6:28
Speaker 2: of the Jewish community. And he ended his statement by
6:31
Speaker 2: saying this. This is Josh Frydenberg. He said, Prime Minister,
6:36
Speaker 2: I appeal to you. This is the time to do
6:38
Speaker 2: the right thing and call the Commonwealth Royal Commission with
6:42
Speaker 2: the appointment of the right commissioner whose leadership will provide
6:45
Speaker 2: the answers and solutions our country so urgently needs.
6:50
Speaker 1: Now, he wasn't the only one.
6:53
Speaker 2: The Australian newspaper published this article titled Jewish Leaders Unite
6:58
Speaker 2: Against Virginia Bell as Royal Commissioner. And it quoted prominent
7:02
Speaker 2: lawyer and chairman of the Israeli-Israel and Jewish Affairs Council,
7:05
Speaker 2: Mark Liebler, saying he didn't think the Jewish community would
7:09
Speaker 2: be comfortable with Virginia Bell as the royal commissioner.
7:14
Speaker 1: Here's what he said. He said.
7:19
Speaker 1: It is looking at issues.
7:21
Speaker 2: Which go to the heart of our society, which go
7:23
Speaker 2: to morality, which go into how you go about tackling
7:27
Speaker 2: the most serious evil which infects the world today. Therefore,
7:31
Speaker 2: it's important the Jewish community be comfortable with whoever is chosen.
7:38
Speaker 2: His son, Jeremy Leibler, gave similar comments and so did
7:42
Speaker 2: the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies President David Ossip.
7:46
Speaker 2: He said there needs to be consensus around the appointment
7:50
Speaker 2: to give the Jewish community confidence. Now, Osip was right
7:54
Speaker 2: to be concerned because, outrageously, he would later be cross-examined
8:00
Speaker 2: by pro-Palestinian groups during the commission about Israel's conduct in Gaza.
8:08
Speaker 9: And you appreciate and understand, don't you, Mr Osip, that Palestinians,
8:13
Speaker 9: both in the occupied territory and here in Australia, have
8:17
Speaker 9: also suffered deep psychological trauma.
8:23
Speaker 2: But the Prime Minister was calling the shots. His mind
8:26
Speaker 2: was not for changing. And he'd previously appointed Virginia Bell
8:30
Speaker 2: to conduct the inquiry into former Prime Minister Scott Morrison's
8:34
Speaker 2: decision to secretly appoint himself to five portfolios.
8:39
Speaker 1: During the pandemic.
8:40
Speaker 2: Morrison did that in case another minister was incapacitated. But
8:45
Speaker 2: Virginia Bell didn't disappoint. Her inquiry found Morrison's secret appointment
8:50
Speaker 2: to multiple portfolios was corrosive to public trust and fundamentally
8:55
Speaker 2: undermined principles of responsible government.
8:59
Speaker 1: She found it.
9:00
Speaker 2: Was unnecessary and that his explanations were difficult to reconcile. Now,
9:05
Speaker 2: the media had a field day with the use of
9:07
Speaker 2: her colourful report and slammed Morrison. Although Virginia Bell didn't
9:12
Speaker 2: actually speak to him directly for her report. She only
9:16
Speaker 2: dealt with his lawyers. This was a highly politicised issue.
9:21
Speaker 2: And Albanese at the time took full political advantage of
9:25
Speaker 2: her findings.
9:26
Speaker 3: This is a scathing report, which is an indictment on
9:31
Speaker 3: the Morrison government and the culture of secrecy.
9:36
Speaker 2: So then you come to the Bondi terror attack and
9:39
Speaker 2: it's little wonder that Albanese once again turned to Virginia Bell.
9:45
Speaker 2: Given the Prime Minister was facing serious allegations, not just
9:49
Speaker 2: from the Jewish community but from all Australians, of negligent
9:53
Speaker 2: inaction on anti-Semitism over the preceding two years, perhaps he
9:58
Speaker 2: felt more confident with Bell at the helm. And it
10:03
Speaker 2: seems he might have been right to feel that confidence.
10:06
Speaker 2: The government's inaction has not been scrutinised at all. Even
10:12
Speaker 2: though political leadership is the single largest factor in the
10:16
Speaker 2: rise of anti-Semitism because it's political will that sets the
10:20
Speaker 2: tone for law enforcement to act. We saw this very
10:23
Speaker 2: clearly during the COVID pandemic. It's political will that could
10:28
Speaker 2: have seen university chancellors take stronger action on hate. And
10:33
Speaker 2: it's political will that sends a message on social cohesion. Now,
10:38
Speaker 2: the Royal Commission has heard an enormous amount of evidence
10:42
Speaker 2: of lived experience. And this has been, no question, incredibly
10:48
Speaker 2: powerful and emotional testimony. And we saw more of that
10:53
Speaker 2: today from Rabbi Ullman, a brilliant figure whose son-in-law, Eli Schlanger,
10:58
Speaker 2: was tragically killed at Bondi.
11:01
Speaker 10: My prayer is that when my grandson is old enough
11:10
Speaker 10: to understand of what happened to his father, he will
11:28
Speaker 10: also be able to understand what Australia chose to do
11:35
Speaker 10: about it. And that he will be proud of the
11:39
Speaker 10: choice we made.
11:40
Speaker 1: It was moving. It was powerful.
11:44
Speaker 2: Go back and watch his entire testimony if you have time.
11:50
Speaker 2: But the Royal Commission hasn't heard from some of the
11:53
Speaker 2: most prominent Jews in this country, including Josh Frydenberg and
11:57
Speaker 2: many others.
11:59
Speaker 1: And one can only.
12:00
Speaker 2: Presume this is a political decision to protect the Albanese government.
12:06
Speaker 2: The Royal Commission is certainly better than nothing, and hopefully
12:09
Speaker 2: the recommendations will help.
12:13
Speaker 1: But you do also get the.
12:14
Speaker 2: Sense that this is an enormous missed opportunity to improve
12:19
Speaker 2: our nation, to improve Australia.
12:22
Speaker 1: For the better.
12:23
Speaker 2: I'm going to come back to that shortly with Mike Pizzullo,
12:30
Speaker 2: but let's have a look at some other big stories today.
12:33
Speaker 2: And fresh data reveals Labor is losing the war on inflation,
12:38
Speaker 2: an inflation crisis they've helped create. Headline inflation may have
12:42
Speaker 2: dropped to 3.5%, but it is well above the 3.3%.
12:43
Speaker 1: Anticipated by the market.
12:48
Speaker 2: And trimmed mean inflation, which is the RBA's preferred figure,
12:52
Speaker 2: wasn't any better, not budging at 3.6%. And this overshoot
12:58
Speaker 2: will force the Reserve Bank to once again consider another
13:02
Speaker 2: rate rise. We know from its board meeting that it
13:05
Speaker 2: considered that at its last meeting. And some economists are
13:08
Speaker 2: now predicting they'll hike it as soon as September. We're
13:12
Speaker 2: here with the Treasurer's Defence today.
13:15
Speaker 11: Inflation will bounce around a bit as it gets further
13:18
Speaker 11: down towards the Reserve Bank's target range. But we've seen
13:21
Speaker 11: it come down again for the fourth consecutive month and
13:25
Speaker 11: underlying inflation was steady as well.
13:29
Speaker 2: And joining me now, former Labor MP Michael Damby and
13:32
Speaker 2: former Victorian Liberal Party President Michael Kroger.
13:35
Speaker 1: Two Michaels tonight.
13:36
Speaker 2: I'm going to have to call you by your surnames
13:37
Speaker 2: to avoid confusion. Kroger, these inflation figures are worrying.
13:43
Speaker 1: There's no question.
13:46
Speaker 12: Well, of course, this is what happens when you put
13:47
Speaker 12: people in charge of the economy who have no business experience.
13:50
Speaker 12: And the trim inflation number today is not changing. And now,
13:56
Speaker 12: as you say, we've got the majority, actually, of the
13:59
Speaker 12: financial markets predicting a rate increase. For goodness sake, the
14:02
Speaker 12: property market is collapsing. Businesses are going broke all over
14:05
Speaker 12: the place. And yet we might get hit by higher
14:07
Speaker 12: interest rates. I mean, how incompetent can you be? A
14:10
Speaker 12: trillion dollars has been written off the value of the
14:12
Speaker 12: Australian property market. The market's falling through the floor. Inflation
14:16
Speaker 12: is still high. And this is partly because, mainly because,
14:19
Speaker 12: I would think, because you've got a government that delivers
14:22
Speaker 12: $ 30 or $ 40 billion in deficits every year, can't control
14:25
Speaker 12: its spending, you know, puts billions of dollars out into
14:28
Speaker 12: the marketplace, pays bigger salaries, et cetera, et cetera. So
14:33
Speaker 12: unless you can control your spending as a government, you
14:36
Speaker 12: can't control inflation. And this is a problem with Chalmers
14:40
Speaker 12: and Albanese. but people have been saying this forever. And now,
14:43
Speaker 12: of course, the chickens are coming home to roost, Shari.
14:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you're right.
14:47
Speaker 2: And spending is the major factor. I mean, Danby, if
14:50
Speaker 2: they did want to dramatically bring down inflation, then spending
14:54
Speaker 2: would be the place to start.
14:57
Speaker 13: Exactly.
14:58
Speaker 14: This is the problem of too many goods and services
15:01
Speaker 14: being consumed by the government and forcing up prices as
15:05
Speaker 14: a result. So we need to go back to Walsh-Keating
15:09
Speaker 14: economics that Chalmers and Albo have no understanding of and
15:13
Speaker 14: cut government expenditures because that will lower interest rates, that
15:17
Speaker 14: will lower inflation and allow the productive strength of the
15:22
Speaker 14: Australian people to work its way through. This is a
15:27
Speaker 14: government that has taken us to a trillion dollars debt.
15:30
Speaker 14: That's the level of pressure. on public expenditures. And that
15:37
Speaker 14: doesn't even include, Shari, the $ 1 trillion in accumulated state
15:41
Speaker 14: and local government debt. So Australia in total owes $ 2 trillion.
15:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
15:48
Speaker 2: Now, I brought you this news on Monday night about
15:51
Speaker 2: author Richard Flanagan's worrying comments at a festival on the weekend. Well,
15:56
Speaker 2: now we've got the video. I can show you what
15:57
Speaker 2: he actually said. Now, here's him suggesting that Jewish organisations
16:02
Speaker 2: in Australia, who he calls the lobby, have fuelled the
16:05
Speaker 2: anti-Semitism crisis.
16:08
Speaker 15: A question needs to be asked. To what extent has
16:12
Speaker 15: the Israel lobby itself contributed to anti-Semitism in Australia by
16:17
Speaker 15: consistently advocating for Israel's war in Gaza in a highly
16:21
Speaker 15: aggressive fashion, always seeking to identify all Australian Jewish people
16:27
Speaker 15: with Israel's actions, and with the lobby's own heavy-handed attempts
16:32
Speaker 15: to silence Australians.
16:35
Speaker 2: I mean, Kroger, this seems to be a case of
16:37
Speaker 2: victim blaming. It's certainly offensive and it comes as the
16:40
Speaker 2: Royal Commission is finishing prematurely, as I've been discussing.
16:45
Speaker 12: What, did he think Israel started the war on October 7,
16:47
Speaker 12: does he? Shari, this Royal Commission has been a terrible
16:53
Speaker 12: failure and I raised for the first time the prospect
16:56
Speaker 12: that if Angus Taylor wins that he'll have to have
16:58
Speaker 12: a second Royal Commission. This is a Clayton's Royal Commission.
17:01
Speaker 12: Why is Virginia Bell in such a hurry? I mean,
17:04
Speaker 12: one of the first things she was meant to do
17:06
Speaker 12: under the terms of reference is to investigate the nature
17:09
Speaker 12: of anti-Semitism in our institutions. If you have a look
17:12
Speaker 12: at the terms of reference, investigate the nature of anti-Semitism
17:16
Speaker 12: in institutions. What do you think that means? Probably means
17:18
Speaker 12: the universities. Has she called any vice chancellors?
17:21
Speaker 16: No.
17:22
Speaker 12: It means investigating the institution, the arts institutions. Anyone come
17:27
Speaker 12: from there?
17:28
Speaker 4: No.
17:28
Speaker 13: In government?
17:30
Speaker 16: No.
17:30
Speaker 12: John Howard gave evidence in the Wheat Board Royal Commission
17:32
Speaker 12: when he was Prime Minister.
17:33
Speaker 13: She called Albo? No.
17:34
Speaker 5: Burt?
17:35
Speaker 4: No.
17:35
Speaker 13: Wong?
17:36
Speaker 4: No.
17:36
Speaker 13: Human Rights Commission?
17:38
Speaker 4: No.
17:39
Speaker 12: Muslim hate preachers, the Islamic community who have been spewing
17:43
Speaker 12: this hatred against Jews and fermenting discontent and riling up,
17:47
Speaker 12: stirring up all these nutters around the country.
17:50
Speaker 13: She called any of them?
17:52
Speaker 10: No.
17:53
Speaker 12: I mean, I'm afraid to say that Virginia Bell has
17:55
Speaker 12: let herself down and she's let the country down. And
17:59
Speaker 12: there's going to have to be another Royal Commission because
18:01
Speaker 12: whilst we're hearing about what happened after October 7 and
18:04
Speaker 12: the anti-Semitism, she hasn't got to the core of the issue,
18:08
Speaker 12: which is why is there so much anti-Semitism in this country?
18:12
Speaker 12: Why is this Jewish hatred spewing forth in this country?
18:16
Speaker 12: And she hasn't touched any of these institutions where a
18:19
Speaker 12: lot of this hatred comes from. And it's going to
18:22
Speaker 12: be a Royal Commission which is going to profoundly disappoint
18:24
Speaker 12: this country. And as I said, Howard gave evidence at
18:28
Speaker 12: the Wheatboard Royal Commission when he was Prime Minister. There's
18:30
Speaker 12: absolutely no reason why she shouldn't have called Albanese Burke
18:36
Speaker 12: and Wong.
18:38
Speaker 2: Look, I think there has been this huge reluctance to
18:41
Speaker 2: criticise the Royal Commission because there's so much gratitude for
18:44
Speaker 2: the work that it is doing and it has so
18:46
Speaker 2: many staff and they're going through thousands and thousands, I
18:49
Speaker 2: mean some 26,000 submissions, and there is gratitude for that work, absolutely. But,
18:54
Speaker 2: you know, the inescapable.
18:55
Speaker 1: Fact is it is incomplete work.
18:58
Speaker 2: Without all the people that you just mentioned who've been called.
19:00
Speaker 2: And that's why leading national security figures have come out.
19:03
Speaker 2: That's why they're on the front page of The Australian today.
19:06
Speaker 2: And we just can't ignore the facts. And we do
19:08
Speaker 2: want the best outcome for this. I mean, Danby, you've
19:12
Speaker 2: also got, I think, I believe, some exclusive news for
19:14
Speaker 2: us that there are Labor figures who are also behind
19:18
Speaker 2: the scenes, have been trying to push to extend the
19:21
Speaker 2: Royal Commission.
19:22
Speaker 1: What can you tell us?
19:23
Speaker 14: Well, me and Mike Kelly and a number of other
19:26
Speaker 14: people whose names we'll probably start coming out tomorrow. But
19:29
Speaker 14: that list of national security people, including Pizzullo and including
19:33
Speaker 14: the former government.
19:33
Speaker 13: General, is truly extraordinary, Shari.
19:35
Speaker 14: And I knew when this inquiry was framed that Sir
19:41
Speaker 14: Humphrey rules from Yes Minister were being applied. That is,
19:45
Speaker 14: never hold an inquiry unless you.
19:47
Speaker 13: Know the results.
19:48
Speaker 14: They knew that Virginia Bell, who seems to be a
19:50
Speaker 14: decent and honest person, wouldn't challenge the framework of.
19:54
Speaker 13: The inquiry, i.e. its length.
19:56
Speaker 14: It was designed to be held well separate from a
19:59
Speaker 14: federal election. So any of the results, however unfortunate, might
20:03
Speaker 14: not reflect on the government, Albo, Burke and Wong, all
20:07
Speaker 14: of whom should have been called and all of whom
20:10
Speaker 14: should have faced the central question when the Director-General of
20:13
Speaker 14: ASIO in the middle of August 25 gave you advice
20:18
Speaker 14: about the terrifying prospect of anti-Semitic terrorism.
20:22
Speaker 13: What did you do, Albo?
20:23
Speaker 1: Exactly.
20:24
Speaker 14: What did you do, Burke? And the answer to that
20:27
Speaker 14: should have come out at this inquiry, along with all
20:30
Speaker 14: of the other people cast of evil characters that Kroger identified.
20:34
Speaker 2: So just very quickly, Michael, so you're saying that there's
20:36
Speaker 2: going to be a list of Labor figures coming out
20:39
Speaker 2: tomorrow urging the government to extend this?
20:41
Speaker 13: Yeah.
20:42
Speaker 1: All right. We'll watch for that then. But you heard
20:45
Speaker 1: it here first.
20:46
Speaker 2: Now, today the Queen of Country Music, Dolly Parton, tragically
20:49
Speaker 2: passed away aged 80. Here's a look back at some
20:53
Speaker 2: of her best moments, or most memorable, with Australian journalists.
20:58
Speaker 15: What was your first song that you wrote for her?
21:01
Speaker 17: It was little tiny tassel top. You're the only friend
21:05
Speaker 17: I got. I love you an awful lot.
21:07
Speaker 3: Hope you'll always stay.
21:08
Speaker 16: And that was a big seller, too.
21:10
Speaker 1: Oh, it was huge.
21:11
Speaker 17: Yeah, it was big around the house there for a
21:13
Speaker 17: few days.
21:16
Speaker 10: There was something going on.
21:18
Speaker 7: Well.
21:18
Speaker 5: That's it.
21:23
Speaker 17: You do something to me that I can't explain. Hold
21:28
Speaker 17: me closer and I feel no pain. Every beat of
21:32
Speaker 17: my heart, we got something going on.
21:39
Speaker 2: She was an incredible role model. I went to a
21:41
Speaker 2: concert many years ago and she came to Australia. Kroger,
21:44
Speaker 2: your favourite song?
21:48
Speaker 13: Yeah, all of them.
21:49
Speaker 12: But I think the most important thing to say is
21:52
Speaker 12: that Mike Munro and Carl Stefanovic, a bit like Michael
21:54
Speaker 12: Danby and I, they haven't aged a day, those two blokes.
22:00
Speaker 18: Not a day.
22:01
Speaker 2: I have to say I'm huge fans of both of
22:04
Speaker 2: their journalism, both Carl Stefanovic and Mike Munro. They're just
22:08
Speaker 2: the best of Australian television.
22:10
Speaker 1: You've got to say it. I don't care what anyone
22:12
Speaker 1: else says.
22:13
Speaker 2: Dambi, what about your song, Island in the Stream, 9
22:16
Speaker 2: to 5, what have you got?
22:17
Speaker 13: I've got her favourite deed.
22:19
Speaker 14: She was such an honest Christian woman, honest to her
22:22
Speaker 14: own faith, and she gave because she came from a
22:25
Speaker 14: family of 12 and had an illiterate father, $ 150 million
22:30
Speaker 14: of her own fortune to children around the world reading
22:34
Speaker 14: material so that they would be able to read unlike
22:37
Speaker 14: people in her family.
22:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, incredible. All right. The two Michaels, thank you so
22:41
Speaker 1: much for your time.
22:43
Speaker 13: Thanks, Shari.
22:44
Speaker 2: All right, we've got a lot coming up on the show,
22:45
Speaker 2: how Woolworths made an extra $ 165 million from Ooshies. But
22:49
Speaker 2: now let's bring in one of the signatories to that
22:51
Speaker 2: letter sent to the government, former Secretary of Home Affairs
22:54
Speaker 2: Mike Pizzullo. Mike, great to see you. Thanks for joining
22:58
Speaker 2: us live from Canberra. Hopefully Mike's coming up.
23:01
Speaker 1: There you are.
23:02
Speaker 2: Now, what are your concerns, Mike Pizzullo, about the Royal
23:07
Speaker 2: Commission and how it's been operating so far?
23:11
Speaker 13: Good evening, Cherry.
23:12
Speaker 8: The most critical gap that's now going to emerge in
23:16
Speaker 8: the final report, and there's no avoiding this now, is
23:19
Speaker 8: a lack of examination of ministers. And I don't say
23:23
Speaker 8: that from the point of view of seeking to shame
23:25
Speaker 8: ministers or seeking to put them on the stand in
23:27
Speaker 8: some humiliating fashion. I think the public would be surprised
23:33
Speaker 8: at just how powerful and important ministers are in our
23:37
Speaker 8: counter-terrorism and national security arrangements. They personally exercise very significant
23:41
Speaker 8: powers and to not have them called, regrettably, and I
23:45
Speaker 8: say this sorrowfully, means that the report of the Commission
23:50
Speaker 8: will lack credibility. It might come up with some good
23:53
Speaker 8: findings in other areas that are of second and third order,
23:57
Speaker 8: still very important, but on the central question of did
24:01
Speaker 8: this government keep us safe and particularly the Jewish community safe,
24:05
Speaker 8: but by extension all of us safe, that is going
24:08
Speaker 8: to be a hole in the report.
24:10
Speaker 2: Undermine its credibility. That's quite a big comment to make.
24:15
Speaker 2: Mike Bozzolo, do you think the Royal Commission has lost
24:17
Speaker 2: its way?
24:20
Speaker 8: Look, I think it started in a very promising fashion.
24:22
Speaker 8: I was very impressed when the Commissioner overruled the request
24:27
Speaker 8: for secrecy. over the split of resourcing within the intelligence agency.
24:32
Speaker 8: She said, no, I want to examine that. I thought
24:35
Speaker 8: that was a good sign. But I think with the
24:38
Speaker 8: departure of Dennis Richardson, it really pointed out, and I
24:41
Speaker 8: really want to say this respectfully, I don't want to
24:43
Speaker 8: engage in contempt of the Commission. I think they've done
24:46
Speaker 8: valuable work for the sorts of reasons you just said.
24:49
Speaker 8: I think the problem, though, is that a judge is
24:51
Speaker 8: going to approach this in a very particular way. There's
24:53
Speaker 8: a defendant almost and there's someone else and there's two
24:57
Speaker 8: parties that are largely equivalent and a judge kind of
24:59
Speaker 8: sits back and hears the evidence and weighs it up.
25:02
Speaker 8: Royal Commissions are not designed to do that. They're actually
25:04
Speaker 8: designed to be inquisitorial. Their job is to pierce through
25:09
Speaker 8: layers of confusion, of half-truths and get to... the essence
25:15
Speaker 8: of what's happened in a circumstance and to come up
25:17
Speaker 8: with recommendations about how to improve circumstances. That's why the
25:22
Speaker 8: Royal Commission's Act, the powers that are vested in a
25:25
Speaker 8: Royal Commission are contained in that Act. It's an inquisitorial process.
25:29
Speaker 8: It is not a courtroom process. And I think whether
25:32
Speaker 8: you want to say it's softly, softly or whether you
25:34
Speaker 8: want to say it's rather passive, I don't think that
25:37
Speaker 8: they've used the full power of that is available to
25:41
Speaker 8: a royal commission and a royal commissioner to get to
25:44
Speaker 8: the nub of, for instance, the very doctrine of responsible
25:49
Speaker 8: government that you mentioned in your editorial, which she clearly,
25:52
Speaker 8: as a High Court judge, she's an esteemed Australian with
25:55
Speaker 8: a very fine mind. She understands what responsible government is.
25:59
Speaker 8: That means that ministers are ultimately accountable for everything that
26:02
Speaker 8: goes on within a government, even if they're not personally culpable.
26:06
Speaker 3: Mm, mm.
26:08
Speaker 2: I mean, you mentioned there, of course, inquisitorial powers, you know,
26:11
Speaker 2: coercive powers as well to subpoena documents to interrogate people.
26:16
Speaker 2: How could these powers have been used?
26:20
Speaker 8: I think, leaving aside the question of examining ministers, and
26:23
Speaker 8: there's no suggestion that those powers needed to be exercised
26:27
Speaker 8: in that fashion, I think for some of these hate
26:30
Speaker 8: preachers spewing hate... I think it would have been both
26:34
Speaker 8: demonstrative to the Australian community that the full powers were
26:37
Speaker 8: being used, but I think it actually would have helped
26:39
Speaker 8: get to the truth to call them in, to examine
26:43
Speaker 8: them under compulsion.
26:45
Speaker 13: It's not a courtroom that you can compel, but.
26:49
Speaker 8: The upside of that for them is that they can't
26:51
Speaker 8: incriminate themselves in a in a proceeding that then has
26:54
Speaker 8: to be conducted separately in a criminal trial. A Royal
26:57
Speaker 8: Commission cannot find you guilty of anything. But the upside
27:00
Speaker 8: of that power is that they can require you to answer.
27:04
Speaker 8: and including things like what is your particular view of Islam,
27:08
Speaker 8: for instance, that leads you to make these horrible statements?
27:12
Speaker 8: Who are you conspiring with? Who are you working with?
27:15
Speaker 8: They could have used that inquisitorial capacity. The Royal Commission
27:19
Speaker 8: can also engage in, with search warrants, the search and
27:23
Speaker 8: seizure of.
27:23
Speaker 13: Property, for instance.
27:24
Speaker 8: It's quite astonishing the powers that a commission has.
27:28
Speaker 2: And astonishing that they simply have not been used at
27:32
Speaker 2: least It's not as far as we're aware they haven't
27:34
Speaker 2: been used.
27:35
Speaker 13: As far as we're aware, yeah.
27:36
Speaker 1: Exactly.
27:38
Speaker 2: Look, I'm keen to ask you about a couple of
27:39
Speaker 2: other things. You are the former Secretary of Home Affairs.
27:42
Speaker 2: There was big news last week that a Chinese robot
27:46
Speaker 2: can run faster than Usain Bolt, and there's discussion that
27:50
Speaker 2: this could see the use of similar types of robots
27:53
Speaker 2: in battle. Is this where you see warfare going, and
27:56
Speaker 2: do you think Australia's prepared?
28:00
Speaker 13: Look, I think this is the future of warfare.
28:03
Speaker 8: I think what will happen is as different countries start
28:05
Speaker 8: to generate more combat power through these droid armies that
28:09
Speaker 8: they're building, their potential adversaries or those who are concerned
28:13
Speaker 8: about that growing power then have to hedge that. And
28:16
Speaker 8: so they then build a droid army or a clone army.
28:19
Speaker 8: And so you get this sort of escalating manufacturing of
28:23
Speaker 8: these humanoid soldiers. I think you're starting to see a
28:27
Speaker 8: little bit of that in the Ukraine. In Ukraine, it's
28:30
Speaker 8: almost impossible to survive above the ground, about 20 kilometres
28:34
Speaker 8: or so either side of the battlefront where the trenches are.
28:37
Speaker 13: It's almost impossible to survive now.
28:39
Speaker 8: The surveillance from overhead drones, the ability of drones to
28:42
Speaker 8: get into trenches, to go underground and search out individual
28:46
Speaker 8: soldiers is something that we've never seen in warfare.
28:49
Speaker 13: So I think, regrettably, and it's a real shame.
28:52
Speaker 8: That humanity feels a need to devote enormous resources to
28:56
Speaker 8: these machines of death. But I think it's just inevitable
28:59
Speaker 8: that if one side in a strategic competition starts to
29:03
Speaker 8: develop these droids, sort of I'll call them droids, with
29:08
Speaker 8: weapons and sensors on them, then their potential future adversaries
29:12
Speaker 8: or their peers cannot be left behind. So in military technology, Shari,
29:17
Speaker 8: when someone has a breakthrough, the other person has to
29:19
Speaker 8: sort of trump that and go further.
29:21
Speaker 16: Yeah.
29:23
Speaker 2: Mike, you look at how far behind Australia is just
29:26
Speaker 2: on traditional defence capability.
29:29
Speaker 1: I mean, we'd be nowhere in this sort of tech,
29:32
Speaker 1: would we?
29:34
Speaker 13: I've got to be careful about what I say.
29:36
Speaker 8: In terms of the research and understanding how some of
29:39
Speaker 8: these technologies would be applicable, you'd be pleasantly surprised, we
29:44
Speaker 8: just can't talk about it, at our level of deep
29:47
Speaker 8: insight in a classified sense. But in terms of manufacturing
29:51
Speaker 8: and actually deploying these sorts of capabilities, look, there's some
29:55
Speaker 8: early evidence You know, green shoots, the Ghost Shark capability,
30:00
Speaker 8: which is an underwater robotic vessel, that's a good investment.
30:05
Speaker 8: There are other subsea and surface uncrewed vessels that have
30:09
Speaker 8: been developed, less so on the land. But, look, I
30:12
Speaker 8: think this is where warfare is going, regrettably. I think
30:16
Speaker 8: we've got high scientific capability and high technology capability. Do
30:21
Speaker 8: we have the will, the political will, to get it
30:24
Speaker 8: to scale? That's going to be the problem.
30:26
Speaker 16: Mm-mm.
30:28
Speaker 1: So interesting.
30:28
Speaker 2: Mike Pizzullo, thank you very much. Let's hope we never
30:32
Speaker 2: have to come up against a Chinese army like that.
30:34
Speaker 2: All right, still to come, contagion fears after a major
30:37
Speaker 2: property developer collapses. Russell Pillimer will explain what this means
30:41
Speaker 2: for the market shortly, plus how Ushi's made Woolworths another
30:45
Speaker 2: $ 165 million.
30:46
Speaker 1: That's coming up. Welcome back.
30:54
Speaker 2: Well, Labor MP Luke Gosling has finally stood aside as
30:57
Speaker 2: special envoy after he was charged with breaching bail conditions
31:01
Speaker 2: following an alleged assault. He's denied all allegations. Opposition leader
31:06
Speaker 2: Angus Taylor has said Albanese needs to take stronger action.
31:10
Speaker 6: Look, if someone's been charged and arrested with an assault offence,
31:16
Speaker 6: alleged assault, of course they need to be stood down, James.
31:20
Speaker 6: I don't think this is complicated. Look, I said when
31:23
Speaker 6: this first happened, it was a test of the Prime
31:25
Speaker 6: Minister's leadership. If it was a test then, it's an
31:29
Speaker 6: even stronger test today.
31:31
Speaker 13: He must act.
31:32
Speaker 6: It's completely unacceptable for a second charged to be placed
31:36
Speaker 6: on Luke Gosling.
31:38
Speaker 13: He should be stood down.
31:41
Speaker 6: Presumption of innocence is important in our system, but he
31:43
Speaker 6: should be stood down whilst these proceedings continue.
31:48
Speaker 2: And joining me now is News 24 Northern Australia correspondent
31:51
Speaker 2: Matt Cunningham. Matt, great to see you. So this breach
31:54
Speaker 2: of bail related to a cricket match.
31:57
Speaker 19: Is that right?
31:59
Speaker 13: That's right.
32:00
Speaker 19: We had the test cricket match up here about a
32:03
Speaker 19: week and a half ago between Australia and Bangladesh. Now,
32:07
Speaker 19: on the second day of the test match at Marara Stadium,
32:10
Speaker 19: I can tell you for certain that David Connolly was
32:12
Speaker 19: there because I saw him there myself. He is the
32:14
Speaker 19: Northern Territory administrator, of course, and the man. who Labor
32:18
Speaker 19: MP Luke Gosling is accused of assaulting, accusations that he denies. Now,
32:23
Speaker 19: on the same day, Luke Gosling posted pictures of himself
32:26
Speaker 19: on Facebook at that event. Now, why that was problematic, Shari? Well,
32:31
Speaker 19: if we go back to the original charges that were
32:33
Speaker 19: laid against Luke Gosling, two charges of allegedly assaulting the administrator,
32:37
Speaker 19: David Connolly, at the Darwin Thai Festival on July 18,
32:41
Speaker 19: the day after he was charged, he appeared in the
32:43
Speaker 19: Darwin local court. And he applied to have his bail
32:46
Speaker 19: conditions changed so he could continue to attend public events
32:51
Speaker 19: that the administrator was likely to be at. But there
32:53
Speaker 19: were strict conditions. He had to give 48 hours notice
32:56
Speaker 19: before his attendance and he had to stay at least
32:59
Speaker 19: 15 metres away from David Connolly at all times. So
33:04
Speaker 19: we know that both men attended the cricket on that day.
33:06
Speaker 19: I don't know the exact specifics of the charge that
33:09
Speaker 19: has been laid in relation to.
33:10
Speaker 13: The breach of bail. And Luke Gosling.
33:12
Speaker 19: in his initial statement that he put out, said that
33:15
Speaker 19: he wasn't aware either. But we do know that it
33:17
Speaker 19: does relate to his attendance at the cricket on that day.
33:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
33:21
Speaker 2: And, of course, finally he stood aside today, at least temporarily,
33:25
Speaker 2: insisting his innocence.
33:27
Speaker 1: Look, Matt, I want to turn to National Cabinet.
33:29
Speaker 2: It was held today, and despite the cosy photograph, you know,
33:32
Speaker 2: where they're all posed up, it was actually quite divided
33:36
Speaker 2: because Queensland and Northern Territory are rejecting Albanese's plan for
33:40
Speaker 2: an AI data centre, or this rule, which would basically
33:44
Speaker 2: force them to power new centres with renewable energy.
33:49
Speaker 19: Yeah, the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory has been
33:51
Speaker 19: really strong on this, Shari, and tonight she is claiming
33:54
Speaker 19: something of a win after National Cabinet today. She wanted
33:57
Speaker 19: the Northern Territory carved out from this National Data Centre
34:00
Speaker 19: plan that's been put forward by the Prime Minister and
34:03
Speaker 19: Chris Bowen that would mean that these data centres need
34:06
Speaker 19: to be powered more primarily by renewable energy with gas
34:10
Speaker 19: used only for firming and backup. Well, the NT has
34:13
Speaker 19: been pushing to use gas from the Beedaloo Basin for
34:16
Speaker 19: data centres here. In fact, there's a plan for a
34:18
Speaker 19: $ 40 billion data precinct just south of Darwin that was
34:24
Speaker 19: put forward only a few weeks ago by Beedaloo Energy,
34:27
Speaker 19: one of the companies drilling for gas in the Beedaloo Basin.
34:29
Speaker 19: So the NT government has been really clear on this
34:32
Speaker 19: and the Chief Minister has obviously made those thoughts known
34:35
Speaker 19: in national cabinet today. saying that in the Northern Territory,
34:38
Speaker 19: at least, these data centres need to be able to
34:41
Speaker 19: be powered by that vast gas resource that exists in
34:45
Speaker 19: the Northern Territory's outback.
34:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. Understandable reaction.
34:49
Speaker 2: Look, speaking of the Chief Minister, she's also urged the
34:52
Speaker 2: WA government to overhaul child protection laws to ensure that
34:56
Speaker 2: children's safety and not the image of whatever government department
35:00
Speaker 2: it is comes first.
35:02
Speaker 5: Now, Matt, these.
35:04
Speaker 2: Her comments were sparked by a truly devastating case in
35:07
Speaker 2: WA where the government was warned repeatedly by a grandmother
35:12
Speaker 2: to remove children but didn't and it ended in absolute tragedy.
35:18
Speaker 19: Wasn't it just shocking, this story, Shari, that was reported
35:21
Speaker 19: in The Weekend Australian, a devastating story involving a mother
35:24
Speaker 19: who killed her three children in Port Hedland. And the
35:29
Speaker 19: newspaper interviewed the children's grandmother, Dorothy Papertalk, a woman who
35:34
Speaker 19: said that she had repeatedly urged the Child Protection Department
35:37
Speaker 19: in Western Australia to remove those children from from their
35:41
Speaker 19: mother because they were not safe. The newspaper also reported
35:44
Speaker 19: that there were dozens of cases where police and other
35:48
Speaker 19: government agencies had raised concerns about the welfare of these children,
35:53
Speaker 19: but nothing was done. This was a case back in 2022,
35:56
Speaker 19: but we're just hearing more of these details for the
35:58
Speaker 19: first time now. Now, Leo Finocchiaro was pretty strong on this.
36:01
Speaker 19: They've introduced new child protection measures here in the Northern
36:05
Speaker 19: Territory following the death of Kumanjai Little Baby, the five-year-old
36:09
Speaker 19: girl who was allegedly murdered, abducted and murdered in Alice
36:13
Speaker 19: Springs in April.
36:15
Speaker 1: It was interesting.
36:16
Speaker 19: There was a lot of controversy around those child protection changes.
36:19
Speaker 19: And there was a letter written to the Northern Territory
36:21
Speaker 19: at the time by the Federal Social Services Minister, Tanya Plibersek,
36:25
Speaker 19: and all of the other state child protection ministers, except
36:28
Speaker 19: for Queensland, but including Western Australia, saying the Northern Territory,
36:32
Speaker 19: you're doing a terrible thing here. You know, you can't
36:34
Speaker 19: walk away from the Aboriginal child placement principle.
36:37
Speaker 4: Yeah.
36:38
Speaker 19: And so Leah Finocchiaro has basically now said back to
36:40
Speaker 19: Western Australia, well, maybe you need to look in your
36:43
Speaker 19: own backyard first because you've clearly got some serious issues
36:46
Speaker 19: going on here. You've got this horrific case with three
36:49
Speaker 19: children who are dead and here you are pointing the
36:51
Speaker 19: finger at other jurisdictions saying you're doing it wrong.
36:54
Speaker 13: Exactly.
36:54
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, the government departments are worried about
36:57
Speaker 2: being accused of another stolen generation, but they're not protecting
37:00
Speaker 2: these children, and that's the critical issue.
37:02
Speaker 1: Matt Cunningham, thank you so much for joining us.
37:05
Speaker 2: Still to come, the intrigue around President Donald Trump and
37:09
Speaker 2: his blonde advisor, plus how the Ushies craze made Woolworths
37:13
Speaker 2: an extra $ 160 million.
37:14
Speaker 1: That's next with Russell Pillemer. Thanks for tuning in.
37:21
Speaker 2: Well, all eyes are on the real estate market to
37:24
Speaker 2: see how it'll react to the spectacular collapse of property
37:27
Speaker 2: giant Bathla. The company has about 25,000 homes under construction,
37:32
Speaker 2: most in Western Sydney, but now all of them are
37:35
Speaker 2: in limbo since the firm called in administrators as it
37:39
Speaker 2: struggled to pay back loans of up to $ 3. 6 billion.
37:43
Speaker 2: And joining me now, Pangana Capital Chief Executive Russell Pillimer.
37:46
Speaker 1: Russell, great to see you again. Is this the canary
37:49
Speaker 1: in the coal mine?
37:50
Speaker 18: So I think it is a canary in the coal mine.
37:53
Speaker 18: The industry was already in trouble before this collapse and
37:58
Speaker 18: really driven by rising construction costs as well as inflationary
38:03
Speaker 18: pressures and interest rate increases as well. And then the
38:07
Speaker 18: collapse in the housing market has been the final nail
38:10
Speaker 18: in the coffin for this group. And I think we'll
38:14
Speaker 18: probably see that spread to other groups as well.
38:18
Speaker 2: I mean, the government likes to portray this line that
38:21
Speaker 2: the economy is so resilient, everyone's doing fine, but we
38:24
Speaker 2: are starting to see companies collapse like this.
38:27
Speaker 18: Yeah, so I think we've got a strange set of
38:29
Speaker 18: circumstances which are worrying, and that is that the housing
38:33
Speaker 18: market has come down quite substantially and yet inflationary pressures
38:38
Speaker 18: are still there. So we'd usually see the two move together,
38:41
Speaker 18: and it is very worrying at the moment.
38:44
Speaker 4: Yeah.
38:45
Speaker 2: Turning to superannuation, because Pauline Hanson has put forward this idea,
38:50
Speaker 2: which of course is popular with young homeowners, that they
38:54
Speaker 2: could dip into their super to maybe pay their mortgage
38:57
Speaker 2: or buy a house. Now, there's a bit of that
38:59
Speaker 2: already at the edges, but she's proposing this on a
39:01
Speaker 2: bigger scale. I personally don't agree with the idea. But
39:04
Speaker 2: you're more worried about the Prime Minister's comments when he
39:07
Speaker 2: says that there's real potential to see our super funds
39:12
Speaker 2: produce better returns not for individuals, but for the nation.
39:17
Speaker 1: Tell me about this.
39:18
Speaker 18: Yeah, so I think this is a cryptic way of
39:20
Speaker 18: saying we're going to direct super funds or try to
39:23
Speaker 18: direct super funds to invest according to our criteria, what
39:27
Speaker 18: we think is good for the nation, which is basically
39:30
Speaker 18: the government's political or social agenda. So you might find
39:33
Speaker 18: investments into housing in an electorate that they're trying to
39:37
Speaker 18: target or alternatively into a green energy source that they
39:41
Speaker 18: think is good for the environment, etc.
39:44
Speaker 1: Outrageous.
39:45
Speaker 18: It shouldn't be done. So superannuation should be there for
39:49
Speaker 18: the good of the investor. People are saving their hard-earned
39:52
Speaker 18: money and putting it into super for their retirement. And effectively,
39:56
Speaker 18: what this will do is it will reduce the returns
39:59
Speaker 18: that you make on your superannuation, because obviously, if these
40:02
Speaker 18: are great returns, then the money would go there in
40:05
Speaker 18: any case. The government wouldn't need to direct it into
40:08
Speaker 18: these investments. And really, that differential between what you would
40:11
Speaker 18: earn in a regular investment versus what you'd earn in
40:14
Speaker 18: a in a not so good investment that's been directed
40:18
Speaker 18: by the government is effectively like an additional tax that
40:21
Speaker 18: superannuation investors would have to pay.
40:23
Speaker 2: Well, because if your money's in a fund and the
40:26
Speaker 2: government's directing that fund to invest in its pet projects,
40:30
Speaker 2: even though they're not the best.
40:31
Speaker 1: Returns, I mean, that's punishing the individual. They'll get less
40:34
Speaker 1: in their retirement savings. Absolutely.
40:37
Speaker 18: And strangely enough, I think this will probably be more
40:40
Speaker 18: likely to impact the industry funds because I think they
40:43
Speaker 18: will listen to the government. They're filled with government or
40:47
Speaker 18: ex-Labour Party people who run those funds. And so the
40:52
Speaker 18: people who are likely to be hurt are actually people
40:54
Speaker 18: in the industry funds.
40:56
Speaker 1: It's incredible.
40:57
Speaker 2: They just think they can get away with so many
40:58
Speaker 2: small things, tweaks here and there, because they've got such
41:02
Speaker 2: a big grip on power with 94 seats.
41:04
Speaker 18: Yeah, and these things sound really nice as a headline.
41:06
Speaker 18: We're going to involve ourselves in nation building. But when
41:10
Speaker 18: you actually get into the details and you think about
41:13
Speaker 18: the consequences of what this entails, it's bad for people,
41:16
Speaker 18: bad for the economy.
41:17
Speaker 4: Yeah.
41:18
Speaker 1: All right, let's turn to this ushi story.
41:20
Speaker 2: Now, Russell, your kids are a bit old to be
41:22
Speaker 2: obsessed with ushis, but at our place, it's all about
41:25
Speaker 2: the ushis. And I was constantly being nagged to go
41:27
Speaker 2: to Woolworths, can we buy more groceries from Woolworths? And
41:30
Speaker 2: it seems like I wasn't the only parent. And if
41:33
Speaker 2: anyone at home doesn't know what ushis are, although I'm
41:35
Speaker 2: sure there are many grandparents and parents watching. They're those
41:39
Speaker 2: small toys, collectibles that Woolworths was, you know, had this,
41:44
Speaker 2: they were giving out when you bought $ 30, you got,
41:46
Speaker 2: I think, one or she, something like that. Amazing the
41:51
Speaker 2: results today, Russell, $ 165 million in just eight weeks.
41:55
Speaker 18: So this is pure genius. If you think about the
41:59
Speaker 18: tens of millions of dollars that the supermarket spends on
42:02
Speaker 18: advertising and fly-by programs and promotions, And these issues probably
42:09
Speaker 18: cost a couple of cents each, and yet they have
42:14
Speaker 18: driven $ 165 million of additional revenues for Woolworths. It's going
42:19
Speaker 18: to be interesting to see what Coles comes back with
42:22
Speaker 18: because Woolworths actually won a lot of market share from Coles.
42:25
Speaker 18: So parents are actually going to Woolworths instead of Coles.
42:28
Speaker 18: So the marketing department at Coles have got a big
42:31
Speaker 18: task ahead of them to try and win some of
42:33
Speaker 18: that back.
42:33
Speaker 2: Well, I was talking to one government minister about this
42:36
Speaker 2: today and he said his daughter took him, you know,
42:39
Speaker 2: he went to Coles and his daughter made him go
42:41
Speaker 2: to Woolworths, even though it wasn't the most convenient shop.
42:44
Speaker 1: But what was so clever about it is you had
42:45
Speaker 1: to collect all 40.
42:47
Speaker 2: So, you know, you just had to keep buying more
42:49
Speaker 2: groceries because if you didn't have the right ushis, you know,
42:53
Speaker 2: and you didn't know what you were going to get.
42:56
Speaker 1: Absolutely genius, yes. It really is. It really is.
42:59
Speaker 2: Look, just finally, I was talking to Mike Pizzullo.
43:02
Speaker 1: Earlier about AI in defence, and we're seeing this whole
43:05
Speaker 1: new industry. Now, this is also big business as well,
43:10
Speaker 1: isn't it?
43:11
Speaker 18: So this is a massive new part of the market.
43:14
Speaker 18: So AI defence is, I think, the next real winner
43:19
Speaker 18: in the whole AI investment market. These are private companies
43:23
Speaker 18: and these are companies that have been newly created. So
43:25
Speaker 18: the market leader is a group called Anderle in the US.
43:29
Speaker 18: It was created nine years ago by a 24-year-old by
43:33
Speaker 18: the name of Parker Luckey. It's a great name. And
43:37
Speaker 18: Parker Luckey, Palmer Luckey, he has created a business that
43:43
Speaker 18: has got a $ 100 billion market cap. If you look
43:46
Speaker 18: at that compared to Lockheed Martin, the oldest established name,
43:50
Speaker 18: I think they've been around for 110 years, they've got
43:53
Speaker 18: a $ 130 billion market cap.
43:55
Speaker 16: Wow.
43:55
Speaker 18: So Anderle is almost.
43:57
Speaker 13: As big as them.
43:58
Speaker 1: And they focus on AI defence.
43:59
Speaker 18: And focus on AI defence. And a year ago, they
44:01
Speaker 18: were only valued at $ 30 billion.
44:03
Speaker 3: Wow.
44:04
Speaker 18: And AR defence has become the most interesting part of
44:08
Speaker 18: the whole defence market. It's the drones, it's the autonomous vehicles,
44:13
Speaker 18: it's the autonomous navy boats, it's the smart bombs.
44:18
Speaker 13: Et cetera.
44:19
Speaker 1: And we've seen a lot of that in Russia, Ukraine.
44:22
Speaker 18: Yeah, the Russian-Ukraine war with those drone swarms of drones,
44:27
Speaker 18: which is basically winning the war for the Ukraine, that's
44:30
Speaker 18: all been created by a European company called Helsing.
44:33
Speaker 2: All right, we're just out of time, but I look
44:36
Speaker 2: forward to chatting to you more next week.
44:37
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, Russ.
44:38
Speaker 18: Thanks for having me.
44:40
Speaker 2: And coming up, the media circus is in a spin
44:43
Speaker 2: over President Trump's relationship with his aide. But is there
44:46
Speaker 2: anything to it? Plus, the tributes to Dolly Parton are
44:49
Speaker 2: flowing in. We'll get the latest from Kosher Garda.
44:55
Speaker 1: Well, tributes are.
44:56
Speaker 2: Flooding in around the world for Dolly Parton, who, of course,
44:59
Speaker 2: passed away aged 80 today. President Trump ordered all flags
45:04
Speaker 2: throughout the US to be lowered at half-mast in memory
45:07
Speaker 2: of the late singer. He said this is a true
45:10
Speaker 2: loss for millions of people. There's never been anyone like
45:13
Speaker 2: her and never will. And to discuss, News 24 contributor
45:17
Speaker 2: Kosha Garda joins me now. Kosha, of course, devastating news.
45:21
Speaker 2: What can you tell us about some of the other
45:23
Speaker 2: tributes flowing in?
45:26
Speaker 16: It really is a loss. And as you say, she
45:29
Speaker 16: was such a legend, certainly in music and business and
45:32
Speaker 16: entrepreneurship and a true American original. Just her entire story
45:37
Speaker 16: rags to riches, her business savvy and all the rest
45:40
Speaker 16: of it. And so the tributes flowing in kind of
45:42
Speaker 16: reflect that and remind us of the many facets of
45:45
Speaker 16: her backstory and her life and success. Certainly the music industry,
45:50
Speaker 16: Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift credit her with inspiring them as
45:53
Speaker 16: country stars who crossed over into pop. Legendary people like
45:57
Speaker 16: Paul McCartney, Elton John.
45:58
Speaker 1: Have weighed in.
45:59
Speaker 16: Eminem, this one caught my eye because he shared a
46:03
Speaker 16: letter that she wrote to him when he was inducted
46:05
Speaker 16: into the Hall of Fame, Music Hall of Fame, saying
46:07
Speaker 16: that she doesn't know much about the genre of rap,
46:09
Speaker 16: but she understands he's at the top of it and
46:12
Speaker 16: wished him well. And that was something that was quite interesting.
46:14
Speaker 16: Business people, Jeff Bezos and others as well, because she
46:18
Speaker 16: really was a savvy businesswoman in terms of her deals
46:21
Speaker 16: that she cut and owning the rights to her music
46:22
Speaker 16: and all of that. So they weighed in as well.
46:24
Speaker 16: And of course, President Trump, as you mentioned, and also
46:26
Speaker 16: former President Obama. So across party lines, people have come together.
46:31
Speaker 16: We don't see that a lot these days. So I
46:32
Speaker 16: think that's something, even in her passing, that is a
46:35
Speaker 16: gift that she gave to the world and to the country.
46:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, that's so interesting.
46:38
Speaker 2: I mean, there's very few people these days who just won't.
46:41
Speaker 1: Comment on politics.
46:42
Speaker 2: And she was under so much pressure at one point
46:45
Speaker 2: to come out against President Trump, and she just wouldn't
46:48
Speaker 2: do it. She said she respects her fans, she doesn't
46:51
Speaker 2: want to offend anyone, and she never commented on politics.
46:53
Speaker 1: And so both sides love her.
46:57
Speaker 16: Such a lesson in there. We had Michael Jordan famously
47:00
Speaker 16: who said Republicans buy sneakers too. And as you say,
47:04
Speaker 16: it's very nice to see some people still holding on
47:06
Speaker 16: to that. I think the entertainment industry overall could take
47:09
Speaker 16: a leaf out of that playbook and it would do
47:10
Speaker 16: them well.
47:11
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
47:12
Speaker 2: Now, there's been a lot of talk for about a
47:15
Speaker 2: week now in Washington about Trump's advisor, Natalie Harp. Now,
47:18
Speaker 2: of course, she's always at his side. She's his E.A.,
47:21
Speaker 2: and devoted, of course. But is there anything more to
47:24
Speaker 2: this or these simply really unkind rumours about a professional
47:29
Speaker 2: working relationship?
47:32
Speaker 16: So far, they are rumors because nothing has been verified
47:35
Speaker 16: or substantiated. And the media, of course, has a track
47:38
Speaker 16: record of making up things and having rumors as it
47:41
Speaker 16: relates to Trump in particular, from the Russia hoax to
47:44
Speaker 16: everything else that we've lived through in the last decade.
47:47
Speaker 16: These types of rumors, though, there's always a kernel of
47:49
Speaker 16: possibility because Trump, we know, is a well-documented womanizer.
47:52
Speaker 1: He's been married three times.
47:54
Speaker 16: These types of things have always sort of been in
47:56
Speaker 16: his orbit, even before the political scene. So that's why
47:59
Speaker 16: it's out there. But nothing has been verified. It's probably
48:02
Speaker 16: unfair to her. She could be a very devoted, loyal person,
48:06
Speaker 16: more so than him. I think she gets a little
48:08
Speaker 16: bit of sympathy if these things are untrue and they're
48:10
Speaker 16: just using her to get at him.
48:12
Speaker 1: Exactly. It would be terrible if that were the case.
48:14
Speaker 2: 30 seconds left. Tell us about Darlene Graham. Her late brother,
48:18
Speaker 2: Lindsey Graham, of course, passed away and she's won the
48:20
Speaker 2: Republican Senate runoff.
48:23
Speaker 16: Yes, she just won total newcomer to politics. And in
48:28
Speaker 16: this state, it's handily the Republicans are the ones who win.
48:31
Speaker 16: So at this point in time, she is favored to win.
48:33
Speaker 16: And it is interesting that she's coming in sort of
48:35
Speaker 16: on the sympathy in the back of Lindsey Graham. And
48:38
Speaker 16: she'll bring maybe a different flavor because she doesn't come
48:40
Speaker 16: from a political background. And she's not so much maybe
48:43
Speaker 16: in foreign policy the way he was. But the constituencies
48:47
Speaker 16: and constituents in her district have chosen her in her state.
48:51
Speaker 16: And so she will most likely be a sitting United
48:53
Speaker 16: States senator.
48:54
Speaker 2: Yep, keeping it in the family. Kasia Gardner, great to
48:56
Speaker 2: see you. And thanks, everyone, for your company tonight. I'll
48:58
Speaker 2: see you tomorrow at eight. Here's Paul Murray.