Transcript

Sharri | 30 October · Sharri

0:01
Speaker 1: Why on Sky News, This is Sharry.
0:06
Speaker 2: Good Evening.
0:07
Speaker 3: Welcome to the show. Well, I start tonight with some
0:10
Speaker 3: breaking news. I can reveal the Prime Minister's flight upgrades
0:15
Speaker 3: were handled by Quantus senior executives, including Andrew Parker. Just
0:21
Speaker 3: before we went to air tonight, Anthony Albertezi sought to
0:24
Speaker 3: downplay this scandal by saying in a statement that an
0:28
Speaker 3: audit found he never called Alan Joyce for upgrades, But
0:33
Speaker 3: sources familiar with the matter tell me it was Parker,
0:37
Speaker 3: the then Group executive for Government and International Affairs, who
0:42
Speaker 3: often handled Albanize's flight upgrades to business class. I'm also
0:47
Speaker 3: told that Albanezy even attended Andrew Parker's housewarming party. It
0:52
Speaker 3: was at a warehouse in Annandale. I understand there was
0:56
Speaker 3: even a plaque on his house that said it was
0:59
Speaker 3: officially opened by Albanezi. I've tonight asked Albanese's press secretary
1:05
Speaker 3: for comment on this.
1:06
Speaker 2: I've asked the following questions.
1:08
Speaker 3: Did the Prime Minister, his EA or his staff request
1:12
Speaker 3: upgrades through Andrew Parker? Did the Prime Minister attend his housewarming?
1:19
Speaker 2: As we go to air?
1:20
Speaker 3: We don't as yet have a comment from the Prime Minister.
1:24
Speaker 3: If he does come back to us within the hour,
1:26
Speaker 3: I'll bring that to you. If he comes back to
1:28
Speaker 3: us a bit later, Paul Murray, we'll bring it to you.
1:31
Speaker 3: There's a lot more to this story. Another very close
1:34
Speaker 3: connection is that Alan Joyce's top government relations executive was
1:39
Speaker 3: previously David Epstein. David Epstein is now Albanese's principal private secretary.
1:47
Speaker 3: The Prime Minister's carefully worded statement tonight just raises more
1:50
Speaker 3: questions than it answers. He told Sam Maiden at News
1:54
Speaker 3: dot Com. The Prime Minister did not ever call Alan
1:58
Speaker 3: Joyce seeking an up great. All travel has been appropriately
2:02
Speaker 3: declared and is a matter of public record, and that
2:07
Speaker 3: was through a spokesperson. Now, as you can see, that's
2:10
Speaker 3: a cryptic statement. Alberizi has failed to rule out whether
2:14
Speaker 3: he requested upgrades through anyone at Quantas.
2:18
Speaker 2: Who worked for Alan Joyce.
2:20
Speaker 3: Could have been any of the senior executives, including Andrew Parker,
2:24
Speaker 3: and he only denied their calling Joyce directly.
2:28
Speaker 2: Have a look at that statement again.
2:30
Speaker 3: He says the Prime Minister did not ever call Alan
2:33
Speaker 3: Joyce seeking an upgrade, so he hasn't ruled out other
2:37
Speaker 3: forms of communication. And we've even seen this week that
2:41
Speaker 3: publicly the Prime Minister has already admitted there was a
2:45
Speaker 3: number that he called for upgrades. Have a look, did
2:50
Speaker 3: you call Alan Joyce personally for these upgrades?
2:53
Speaker 4: The idea Quannas have a number in terms of bookings
3:01
Speaker 4: that are private bookings.
3:04
Speaker 3: So albinezy, they're already admitting requesting upgrades, which would appear
3:09
Speaker 3: to be in breach of the Ministerial Code of Conduct,
3:12
Speaker 3: which specifically states that ministers must not seek or encourage
3:17
Speaker 3: any form of gift in their personal capacity. Now this
3:21
Speaker 3: all comes as former Prime Minister Tony Abbott today revealed
3:25
Speaker 3: that he turned down flight upgrades as a matter of integrity,
3:30
Speaker 3: and Peter Dutton has once again demanded that this matter
3:35
Speaker 3: be further investigated.
3:37
Speaker 5: When he was Transport Minister of our country, did he
3:40
Speaker 5: pick the phone up to the CEO of Quantus and
3:42
Speaker 5: ask for a free upgrade? That's the question that he
3:45
Speaker 5: refuses to answer it. Now, he can tie himself in
3:46
Speaker 5: all sorts of knots, but the reality is that he
3:49
Speaker 5: needs to answer that fundamental question.
3:51
Speaker 3: Now this has erupted into a major political scandal. It
3:55
Speaker 3: was front page of virtually all the newspapers today and yesterday. Yeah,
4:00
Speaker 3: the Prime Minister didn't appear in public today. He didn't
4:03
Speaker 3: want to answer questions in person. He got into such
4:06
Speaker 3: a muddle yesterday as you know, so it was left
4:09
Speaker 3: to the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, who was trying to announce
4:12
Speaker 3: falling inflation data, to have to deal with the tricky
4:16
Speaker 3: and basically unanswerable questions.
4:20
Speaker 6: He's done a number of interviews this week and Sunday,
4:24
Speaker 6: certainly I think yesterday from memory, and so he's made
4:27
Speaker 6: himself available as he often does, to answer these sorts
4:31
Speaker 6: of questions.
4:33
Speaker 3: And you can only imagine how frustrating this would be
4:35
Speaker 3: getting for labor and ps who week after week now
4:39
Speaker 3: are having to deal with questions about their Prime minister's
4:42
Speaker 3: conduct and integrity. In the past two weeks it was
4:45
Speaker 3: about the four point three million dollar Cliff Top mansion.
4:48
Speaker 3: Also the one hundred million dollar taxpayer funded road upgrade
4:53
Speaker 3: for the road that leads to alban Easy's new mansion.
4:57
Speaker 2: So, if you're just.
4:57
Speaker 3: Tuning in breaking news tonight, the Time Minister has denied
5:01
Speaker 3: calling Alan.
5:03
Speaker 2: Joyce for upgrades. He says his office has done an audit.
5:06
Speaker 2: But I've just.
5:07
Speaker 3: Reported that All of his upgrades to Business Class were
5:11
Speaker 3: handled by other executives at Quantas, including senior executive Andrew Parker,
5:17
Speaker 3: and at the time he was the group Executive for
5:19
Speaker 3: Government and International Affairs. He was later promoted to be
5:23
Speaker 3: Group Executive for Sustainability. And I've also revealed that the
5:27
Speaker 3: relationship was so close that Albanezi even is said to
5:31
Speaker 3: have attended his housewarming party. We're on standby waiting for
5:36
Speaker 3: a response from Albanezi to these fresh revelations, and I'm
5:40
Speaker 3: going to come back to this topic shortly with Michael
5:42
Speaker 3: Kroger and Graham Richardson. But clearly this scandal isn't going away.
5:48
Speaker 3: There are serious integrity issues about whether Albanezi requested upgrades
5:53
Speaker 3: from Quantus in breach of the Ministerial.
5:56
Speaker 2: Code of Conduct.
6:01
Speaker 3: It's now seven days until the US election, just a
6:04
Speaker 3: week until we know whether Donald Trump Orkamala Harris will
6:07
Speaker 3: be president. This is an important topic I'm going to
6:10
Speaker 3: bring in now. Michael Kroger and Graham Richardson, welcome to
6:16
Speaker 3: you both. Now, Cherry, we're going to come back to
6:19
Speaker 3: Quantas in just a minute. But Michael, where do you
6:22
Speaker 3: think this US election is headed? A week from today,
6:25
Speaker 3: we should if it's not a close result, we should
6:28
Speaker 3: know the answer. Michael, do you think we're looking at
6:30
Speaker 3: a Trump presidency as the polls are starting to suggest?
6:36
Speaker 7: Well, the answer that question should be that Trump looks
6:39
Speaker 7: like the obvious winner. But the reason I'm cautious about
6:44
Speaker 7: declaring him the winner is this that the polls were
6:47
Speaker 7: wrong by a huge margin four years ago. In Wisconsin,
6:53
Speaker 7: the polls had Biden winning by ninety one by one.
6:56
Speaker 7: In Pennsylvania they were five out.
7:00
Speaker 1: So what I don't know.
7:02
Speaker 7: Is have the polsters allowed for the shied Trump voter
7:07
Speaker 7: effect in these new poles which show level or one parload.
7:10
Speaker 1: One in front.
7:11
Speaker 7: I don't know how much shy Trump voter effect they've
7:14
Speaker 7: taken into account in reaching these poles, because, as people
7:18
Speaker 7: might know by now, the polling figures that are produced,
7:21
Speaker 7: they're not ral figures. They're all altered because you might
7:24
Speaker 7: have too many women to any men, too many young people,
7:26
Speaker 7: too many old people. So they're all adjusted these poles
7:28
Speaker 7: to give a more balanced number. But what I don't
7:32
Speaker 7: know is how much shyed Trump voter effect is in
7:34
Speaker 7: these poles, which is why I don't know whether the
7:37
Speaker 7: Trump's going to win easily or whether she's going to
7:38
Speaker 7: win narrowly. It looks like a Trump victory, but it's
7:41
Speaker 7: very hard to know without knowing how much of shy
7:44
Speaker 7: Trump voter effect is in these polls.
7:45
Speaker 3: Charry and Richard, what about the number of people who
7:49
Speaker 3: are voting early?
7:50
Speaker 4: Do you?
7:51
Speaker 3: And both camps are imploring their base to get out
7:55
Speaker 3: and vote. Of course, in the US there's not compulsory voting. Richard,
7:59
Speaker 3: how are you reading the election campaign at the moment?
8:02
Speaker 4: Well, I'd love to be able to open a few
8:03
Speaker 4: ballot boxes and find out because this early voting trend
8:07
Speaker 4: in America is growing. You know, they didn't have it
8:12
Speaker 4: for a long time. Now they've got everyone wants to
8:14
Speaker 4: try and do it. And both sides are urging people
8:17
Speaker 4: to get out and vote early, not I hope vote often.
8:22
Speaker 4: So if that's what they're doing then, and both sides
8:26
Speaker 4: are doing it, then it's hard to pick which you know,
8:28
Speaker 4: whether you should be saying this must be going well
8:31
Speaker 4: for one or the other, I don't really know. But
8:34
Speaker 4: what you can detect is a movement back towards Trump
8:37
Speaker 4: over the course of the last couple of weeks, and
8:41
Speaker 4: he's now not only in it with a real show,
8:43
Speaker 4: you'd have to say he's the slight favorite over Harris Michael.
8:50
Speaker 3: You've been quite analytical in your comments when we talk
8:53
Speaker 3: about the US election. Do you have a strong view
8:55
Speaker 3: over which candidate would be better for Australia?
9:03
Speaker 7: Well, I think probably Trump, because you know, for all
9:08
Speaker 7: his immense faults, I'm sort of in the Greg Sheridan category.
9:11
Speaker 7: Sheridan's written about Trump extensively, and I tend to agree
9:14
Speaker 7: with Gregg's views on Trump, and I'm very worried as
9:18
Speaker 7: a bat a physician on the Ukraine, which I find inexplicable.
9:21
Speaker 7: But the reason I don't wouldn't vote for her, and
9:24
Speaker 7: I prefer not to vote for him either. But the
9:26
Speaker 7: reason I wouldn't vote for her is I think she's
9:28
Speaker 7: completely vacuous. I don't think she's got a clue. She
9:32
Speaker 7: is like an actress, and the advisors have said to her,
9:35
Speaker 7: here are the eight things. Just repeat these eight things, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump,
9:39
Speaker 7: you know, put it behind us and all the you know,
9:41
Speaker 7: these phrases. She keeps using these word salads as they
9:44
Speaker 7: call it. I don't think she's got a clue. And
9:47
Speaker 7: if you've been around politics for as long as I have,
9:48
Speaker 7: and you've seen politicians interview, you know, she hasn't got
9:51
Speaker 7: a clue. And there are very there are very strong
9:54
Speaker 7: telltale signs. When that couple asked in that town hall meeting,
9:57
Speaker 7: what do we to do about? What are you going
9:58
Speaker 7: to do about inflation and the high and there was
10:02
Speaker 7: this terrible pause and she said prices are going up,
10:06
Speaker 7: and it got worse from there. And I'm thinking she
10:09
Speaker 7: has no idea about economic policy whatsoever about zero zilch.
10:13
Speaker 7: So I think she'll be terrible, And like Biden, she
10:16
Speaker 7: won't be running American foreign policy because I don't think
10:18
Speaker 7: she knows anything about it.
10:21
Speaker 3: Well, just on foreign policy, I mean, you know, I
10:24
Speaker 3: do think overall, Donald Trump is much stronger and he
10:27
Speaker 3: will be a much stronger president in terms of acting
10:31
Speaker 3: as allowing America to return to its place where it
10:35
Speaker 3: does act as a deterrent because we have seen that
10:38
Speaker 3: North Korea, Iran, Russia and North Korea around, Russia.
10:44
Speaker 2: And China are on the march.
10:45
Speaker 3: They're on the rise, that working together in a way
10:48
Speaker 3: that they never have before, not as closely as this,
10:51
Speaker 3: and this is highly concerning. The US just keeps calling
10:54
Speaker 3: for a ceasefire. You know, it doesn't want to take
10:57
Speaker 3: its rightful historic place as a world leader. The only
11:02
Speaker 3: think that does concern me is that Donald Trump, when
11:06
Speaker 3: he did his interview with Joe Rogan a couple of
11:09
Speaker 3: days ago, I mean again, he had to flatter those dictators.
11:14
Speaker 3: It just you know, he doesn't need to do that.
11:17
Speaker 3: You can't imagine anyone in the past flattering other dictators
11:21
Speaker 3: like Hitler, and even the Wall Street Journal, by the way,
11:24
Speaker 3: their editorial board wrote about this, and they say that
11:27
Speaker 3: the US military's advantage over adversaries has also declined. The
11:32
Speaker 3: fact that Trump has done little to acknowledge or worn
11:34
Speaker 3: about in his campaign. It will take more than flattery
11:38
Speaker 3: and unpredictability to re establish American deterrence, and that will
11:42
Speaker 3: include Western rearmament and reliable alliances. Richard, what do you
11:47
Speaker 3: think about about this point about Trump's tendency to flatter
11:51
Speaker 3: these dictators.
11:53
Speaker 4: Well, I think He's always had it. You know, he's
11:56
Speaker 4: made a big thing of being a mate of Kim
11:58
Speaker 4: Il Sung's. Swiss would if we were made of Kimil Songs,
12:02
Speaker 4: would want to keep it as the biggest secret in town,
12:05
Speaker 4: because you know, he's a murderous thug who's killed members
12:11
Speaker 4: of his own family who get in the road, and
12:13
Speaker 4: yet Trump touts him as some sort of good person.
12:18
Speaker 2: Very weird.
12:19
Speaker 4: Trump has a very weird sense in foreign policy. His
12:23
Speaker 4: foreign policy is a ratic it always has been, and
12:27
Speaker 4: it comes down to likes and dislikes rather than looking
12:31
Speaker 4: at American you know what's good for the Americans and
12:34
Speaker 4: what's not. And so I'm a bit I'm disappointed in
12:39
Speaker 4: Trump to some extent. I thought he well, I've never
12:42
Speaker 4: been a great fan. I thought he would be better
12:44
Speaker 4: than that.
12:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, let's have a look now at this
12:48
Speaker 3: Quantus scandal. I've just reported tonight exclusively that the Prime
12:52
Speaker 3: Minister's upgrades to business class were handled by senior executives
12:56
Speaker 3: at Quantus, including Andrew Parker. There's also an interesting connection there,
13:00
Speaker 3: of course, that I just mentioned with David Epstein. Michael,
13:04
Speaker 3: there are integrity issues here. This is absolutely going to
13:08
Speaker 3: dominate question time next week when Parliament resumes. But Michael,
13:12
Speaker 3: how do you think the Prime Minister's handling this at
13:14
Speaker 3: the moment?
13:17
Speaker 8: Well?
13:18
Speaker 7: I think bad. I mean, he was obviously appallingly briefed
13:20
Speaker 7: yesterday when he said that Joe Asten hadn't made admissions
13:23
Speaker 7: about his Liberal Parties staffing and having worked for Quantus.
13:27
Speaker 1: Well, I bought the book yesterday. I have of them.
13:28
Speaker 7: Page three. That's a full page picture of Joe Aston
13:31
Speaker 7: in his Quantus gear in back two thousand and eight
13:33
Speaker 7: or whatever, with his job description, standing next to Quantus plane.
13:37
Speaker 7: And then you go on to him to describe that
13:39
Speaker 7: you know he did work for Liberal ministers. So Albou
13:42
Speaker 7: was very poorly brief. Tonight's statement is ridiculous. I mean
13:46
Speaker 7: that statement should say I never spoke to Joyce. I
13:51
Speaker 7: never sent him a text, I never sent him an email.
13:54
Speaker 7: None of my staff or anyone on my behalf ever
13:57
Speaker 7: requested an upgrade. The upgrades I received were all offered
14:02
Speaker 7: by Quantus without any request from us. That's what his
14:06
Speaker 7: statement should have said. And sooner or later that'll be
14:08
Speaker 7: wrestled to the ground. But keeps saying the bigger issue,
14:12
Speaker 7: the bigger issue is and this is what he can't
14:15
Speaker 7: get out of. And by the way, this has been
14:17
Speaker 7: on the public record for ten years and it took
14:18
Speaker 7: Joe Eston to uncover it. By the way, this bloke
14:21
Speaker 7: was the minister regulating Quantus and took tens of thousands
14:26
Speaker 7: of dollars of cash from Quantus in the form of
14:29
Speaker 7: ticket upgrades. If this man was a member of the
14:33
Speaker 7: Howard government, he would have been sacked on the spot
14:37
Speaker 7: the first time he'd made a declaration.
14:39
Speaker 1: He would have been sacked.
14:40
Speaker 7: By John Howard and probably by other prime ministers. But
14:45
Speaker 7: the fact that he took cash, what was the guy thinking? So, yes,
14:49
Speaker 7: the whole question of who made the request is important
14:51
Speaker 7: from the ministerial code, But how does he explain away
14:56
Speaker 7: being paid money by Quantus who he is regulating. That
15:00
Speaker 7: is something you cannot get out of, and that is
15:03
Speaker 7: an extremely serious thing that he's done.
15:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, Richo, that does seem like a very serious conflict
15:10
Speaker 3: of interest, even if it was disclosed.
15:12
Speaker 4: What do you think, Well, I think we're all getting
15:15
Speaker 4: carried away here. I don't know how many upgrades I've
15:18
Speaker 4: received over the years, but it's a hell of a lot.
15:22
Speaker 4: I wasn't paid cash, I was given upgrades. So what
15:27
Speaker 4: In fact, most of the time, I think, all the time,
15:30
Speaker 4: I ever think they eve or asked for one. They
15:32
Speaker 4: just see your name there and they upgrade you.
15:34
Speaker 3: But Richard politics came before all of the ministerial codes
15:39
Speaker 3: of conduct you know, I don't mean to be disrespectful
15:42
Speaker 3: about your age at all, but you do come from
15:44
Speaker 3: a different era of politics before there were these strict
15:48
Speaker 3: ministerial Code of conduct guidelines in place. I mean they
15:52
Speaker 3: were introduced by Julia Gillard.
15:55
Speaker 4: Yeah, although we did have some I mean I can
15:58
Speaker 4: remember making those declarations, so we had we had some rules.
16:04
Speaker 4: They were not as strict as they became, but they
16:06
Speaker 4: were there, so you did have to be careful about it.
16:10
Speaker 4: There's not about that. But look, I think there were
16:14
Speaker 4: all the things we could discuss, the important things in
16:17
Speaker 4: the world. We're discussing Albo getting an upgrade. Did you
16:20
Speaker 4: find this ridiculous, Michael.
16:23
Speaker 7: And he was the minister regulating quantits? How could it
16:26
Speaker 7: be ridiculous, mate, It's.
16:27
Speaker 4: Not ridiculous at all, regulating of his bloody career. Give
16:32
Speaker 4: me a break.
16:33
Speaker 3: I mean, these upgrades could be worth up thousands of dollars.
16:37
Speaker 3: It could be worth fifty thousand dollars, it could be
16:39
Speaker 3: worth one hundred thousand dollars.
16:40
Speaker 2: We don't know.
16:41
Speaker 3: We know how much a business class ticket is, you know,
16:45
Speaker 3: between eight and ten or twelve grand, depending on the flight.
16:48
Speaker 2: So this is serious money.
16:50
Speaker 3: As Michael said he was the minister regulating quantas. And
16:55
Speaker 3: don't forget that Barrio Farrell's New South, I was premier
16:58
Speaker 3: had to go for a b of grange that he
17:01
Speaker 3: didn't declare one bottle of graine, you know, not tens
17:05
Speaker 3: of thousands of dollars of flights.
17:08
Speaker 2: Richoe, Minnesters.
17:09
Speaker 7: I have been sacked, but full perceived conflicts of interest, Graham,
17:13
Speaker 7: perceived conflicts of interest. Boy, this is more than perceived,
17:17
Speaker 7: isn't it.
17:18
Speaker 4: Am. I am aware of the fact that ministers have
17:20
Speaker 4: been sacked for for things including the bottle of wine.
17:24
Speaker 4: I remember the bottle of wine incident very well because
17:28
Speaker 4: I remember it because I said, well, I would resign too,
17:32
Speaker 4: because I'd bring him up and say, what did you
17:34
Speaker 4: send me a dozen?
17:37
Speaker 2: This is what I'm talking about.
17:38
Speaker 3: You're from a different era of politics, this is what
17:41
Speaker 3: I mean.
17:43
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I think I think thats eras do vary,
17:48
Speaker 4: and I have to say my era was a little
17:51
Speaker 4: while ago.
17:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, all right, oh dear, all right, well,
17:56
Speaker 3: there is a lot more to go on this, no doubt,
17:59
Speaker 3: I mean, my do you think there's any chance Albanezi's
18:03
Speaker 3: enemies will use this against him to come after him.
18:08
Speaker 7: No, the election's four or five months away. There's no
18:12
Speaker 7: single challenger. You've got to change the caucus rules to
18:15
Speaker 7: get rid of the membership ballot and just have a
18:17
Speaker 7: caucus vote. And whilst you've got five or six people
18:21
Speaker 7: who want to be leader and not one single challenger,
18:24
Speaker 7: it's far too messy for anything to be organized. So
18:28
Speaker 7: I don't think there's any chance at all he'll be replaced,
18:31
Speaker 7: although this is doing labor immense damage in the marketplace.
18:35
Speaker 7: You know, he's got free tickets to the tennis he went.
18:38
Speaker 7: He went to El Springs for three hours and then
18:40
Speaker 7: spent many more hours at the tennis. He's got free
18:43
Speaker 7: Taylor Swift tickets. This guy has lost the plot and
18:48
Speaker 7: he's drowning in freebies. And I'll tell you you're walking
18:52
Speaker 7: up and down the streets of Melbourne. People are appalled,
18:54
Speaker 7: they're shocked, they're horrified.
18:57
Speaker 1: You know.
18:57
Speaker 7: They think he's like a pig with his snout with them,
19:00
Speaker 7: a massive schnout in a massive trough and that I
19:02
Speaker 7: like it.
19:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, Michael Kroger graem Richardson, So great to
19:07
Speaker 3: see you as always on a Wednesday. Now I should
19:10
Speaker 3: just mention that I have a big exclusive on the
19:13
Speaker 3: show tonight. It's coming up a bit later Penny Wong,
19:16
Speaker 3: as you know, she's been criticizing Israel over the decision
19:20
Speaker 3: to ban UNRA because of its links to terrorism. But meanwhile,
19:24
Speaker 3: behind the scenes, there's a top secret investigation going on
19:28
Speaker 3: in the Australian government into AUNRA. I'm going to bring
19:31
Speaker 3: you those details a bit later. But now let's look
19:34
Speaker 3: at the cost of living crisis and the latest inflation
19:37
Speaker 3: figures have been released today, the headline rate falling to
19:40
Speaker 3: two point eight percent in the third quarter. Underlying inflation,
19:45
Speaker 3: this is the preferred indicator for the IBA, remains still
19:49
Speaker 3: above the IBA's target band. Here was the Treasurer when
19:53
Speaker 3: he wasn't having to take questions about the Prime Minister's
19:55
Speaker 3: flight upgrades. Here he was speaking about this earlier.
19:59
Speaker 2: Today.
20:00
Speaker 6: Today's numbers show that we are on track for a
20:04
Speaker 6: soft landing in our economy. We are confident, but not
20:07
Speaker 6: complacent about the substantial progress that we are making as
20:12
Speaker 6: a country. Inflation is back in the band.
20:16
Speaker 3: Okay, let's bring it now. Economist leaf van on slend
20:19
Speaker 3: Leath growth to see you again. Look what's your interpretation
20:22
Speaker 3: of this data today? Today, both the underlying inflation rate
20:26
Speaker 3: and the headline figure.
20:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, Goday, Sherry.
20:29
Speaker 9: Look, I think it certainly means that the Reserve Bank's
20:31
Speaker 9: going to be on hold until next year.
20:33
Speaker 1: So obviously, yes, the.
20:34
Speaker 9: Headline inflation rate fell to two point eight percent, and
20:36
Speaker 9: that's great, But the reason for this fall was that
20:40
Speaker 9: we had a big fall on electricity prices because of
20:43
Speaker 9: the government's electricity subsidies and also petrol prices. So just
20:47
Speaker 9: put it into perspective, electricity prices subtracted point four percent
20:51
Speaker 9: from the quarterly inflation result and fuel prices point two
20:54
Speaker 9: five percent. But Sharry, the Reserve Bank is repeatedly stated
20:58
Speaker 9: that it's going to ignore the headline result, is going
21:00
Speaker 9: to look at the underlying inflation and that came in
21:03
Speaker 9: at point eight percent for the quarter and three point
21:05
Speaker 9: five per cent year on year, So both in quarterly
21:08
Speaker 9: terms and in annual terms, it's still.
21:09
Speaker 1: Above the RBA's target.
21:11
Speaker 9: And Australia still has among the highest core inflation in
21:15
Speaker 9: the advanced world. So I think based on that the
21:18
Speaker 9: Reserve Bank's going to be on hold until next year.
21:21
Speaker 3: Well we've seen you know, you say Australia has among
21:24
Speaker 3: the highest inflation rates in the world, and we've seen
21:26
Speaker 3: the IMF forecasts back that up. I mean Australia was
21:29
Speaker 3: the worst out of I think forty two countries. Why
21:33
Speaker 3: is the CPI here, you know, remaining sticky where as
21:38
Speaker 3: it's starting to fall elsewhere around the world.
21:41
Speaker 9: Yeah, look, look, look to be fair, Australia's inflation started
21:44
Speaker 9: to rise later than the other countries, so it's it's big.
21:48
Speaker 1: Because of that.
21:49
Speaker 9: It's obviously starting to fall later. But we do have
21:51
Speaker 9: domestic prescires yere. So obviously we've had very very strong
21:55
Speaker 9: housing inflation, so housing inflation, some paling about rents and
21:59
Speaker 9: construction costs and those sorts of things have accounted for
22:02
Speaker 9: zero point two to twenty percent to half of a
22:07
Speaker 9: lot of the inflation over recent quarters.
22:09
Speaker 1: And we've also had obviously.
22:10
Speaker 9: This high energy inflation due to failures in energy policy
22:15
Speaker 9: and those sorts of things which the government is trying
22:17
Speaker 9: to sweep under the.
22:18
Speaker 1: Carpet with its subsidies.
22:19
Speaker 9: So we have had a lot of sticky domestic issues
22:22
Speaker 9: here which is driven up inflation.
22:25
Speaker 3: In terms of the homegrown factors, do you think these
22:29
Speaker 3: are higher than in other parts of the world. I mean,
22:32
Speaker 3: you've mentioned the housing crisis. We've previously spoken about the
22:35
Speaker 3: immigration rates pushing up inflation. Do you think those homegrown
22:38
Speaker 3: factors are still a big factor here and keeping inflation
22:42
Speaker 3: I mean it is falling, of course, but keeping it
22:44
Speaker 3: more persistent than elsewhere around the world.
22:47
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely.
22:49
Speaker 9: So we've had the factor that's driven down that's actually
22:53
Speaker 9: pulled down Australias inflation has been the tradable inflation. So
22:56
Speaker 9: that's all the stuff that you can pull off a
22:58
Speaker 9: container ship. So the tradable inflace, you know, running at
23:01
Speaker 9: a low level, about one half percent, but it's the
23:04
Speaker 9: non tradable stuff, so that's all you're domestically driven inflation
23:07
Speaker 9: that's still running at around four percent. So we do
23:10
Speaker 9: have high, sticky domestic inflation unfortunately, and that's the reason
23:13
Speaker 9: why Australia's core inflation is among the highest.
23:15
Speaker 1: In the world.
23:17
Speaker 3: Immigration numbers were meant to start to fall. I mean
23:20
Speaker 3: the Albanezi government about six months ago announced that they
23:24
Speaker 3: were going to have it doesn't look like they're coming down.
23:27
Speaker 3: I think those forecasts are going to be proven utterly wrong.
23:31
Speaker 3: How do you think this is going to affect the
23:33
Speaker 3: housing crisis moving into twenty twenty five.
23:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, look, certainly so.
23:38
Speaker 9: The May federal budget tip that we'd have net overseas
23:40
Speaker 9: migration of three hundred and ninety five thousand. Now, based
23:43
Speaker 9: on the data we've had to date, it's going to
23:44
Speaker 9: top five hundred thousand. I'd be around about five hundred thousand,
23:47
Speaker 9: so they've missed by about one hundred thousand. And all
23:49
Speaker 9: indicators are that this financial year where they tiped two
23:53
Speaker 9: hundred and sixty thousand, we're probably going to get about
23:55
Speaker 9: three hundred and fifty thousand plus. So we've got much
23:58
Speaker 9: high immigration than what the government bridget. And what this
24:01
Speaker 9: means is that basically the rents are going to be
24:03
Speaker 9: higher than they should be. Otherwise we're going to have
24:06
Speaker 9: this persistent rental inflation. It is coming off, but we
24:10
Speaker 9: are going to have this high rental inflation than we
24:12
Speaker 9: should It's also going to put up with pressure on
24:14
Speaker 9: new home prices, those sorts of things which will keep
24:16
Speaker 9: the inflation fires burning unfortunately.
24:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, Lead Banonsen, thank you so much for
24:21
Speaker 3: your time.
24:22
Speaker 2: As always, Now.
24:24
Speaker 3: As I mentioned, a major exclusive still to come behind
24:27
Speaker 3: closed Doors. Pennywong clearly has a very different take on
24:30
Speaker 3: the discredited un Agency UNRA. I'm going to discuss this
24:34
Speaker 3: with international human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrowsky next plus which
24:39
Speaker 3: state has given up completely on the war against drugs?
24:43
Speaker 2: It's not that hard to guess.
24:44
Speaker 3: I'll be joined a bit later in the show by
24:46
Speaker 3: Keith Pitt and Daniel Molino, or also debate Quantus with
24:50
Speaker 3: them as well. Stay tuned, welcome back. Okay, my exclusive
24:58
Speaker 3: with Penny Wong and the secret investig into anraat's coming up.
25:02
Speaker 3: But right now let's bring in our political panel, Labor
25:05
Speaker 3: MP Daniel Melino and Liberal MP Keith Pitt should say
25:09
Speaker 3: National MP Keith.
25:10
Speaker 2: Pitt ll llenp Welcome to you both.
25:14
Speaker 3: Let's start with a Quantus upgrade scandal, which is the
25:18
Speaker 3: biggest political story at the moment affecting the Prime Minister.
25:22
Speaker 2: Daniel.
25:22
Speaker 3: Look, I feel so bad that you come on the
25:24
Speaker 3: show every week in good faith, ready to battle it
25:28
Speaker 3: out for your Labor government, and yet you're always having
25:31
Speaker 3: to fend off these questions about Alban Easy buying a
25:34
Speaker 3: cliff top home and now his flight upgrades. But surely
25:39
Speaker 3: even Labor and Peace can see that this is at
25:42
Speaker 3: the very least a perceived conflict of interest that he
25:46
Speaker 3: was getting these flight upgrades worth tens of thousands of
25:49
Speaker 3: dollars when he was Transport Minister regulating quantus.
25:55
Speaker 8: Well, thanks for having me on, Shari.
25:59
Speaker 10: Let's definitely talk inflation or an economic topic next week.
26:03
Speaker 10: But look, the issue that you've raised has been dealt
26:08
Speaker 10: with in a lot of detail by the Prime Minister.
26:11
Speaker 10: He's somebody that has been in public life for thirty
26:14
Speaker 10: years and throughout that period he's been very committed to
26:18
Speaker 10: transparency on these issues. He's declared all of his upgrades,
26:24
Speaker 10: but he's also declared anything.
26:26
Speaker 8: That the rules have required him to declare.
26:29
Speaker 10: I just want to make that point up the front
26:31
Speaker 10: because Peter Dutton, when he was challenged in an interview
26:35
Speaker 10: I think it was today with the fact that he's
26:37
Speaker 10: received exorbitant flights with Gina Reinart, his defense.
26:42
Speaker 8: Of himself was that he's declared them.
26:44
Speaker 10: So it does appear that the defense that Peter Dutton
26:48
Speaker 10: will use for himself isn't good enough for others. But
26:51
Speaker 10: not only that, the Prime Minister has late late today
26:55
Speaker 10: clarified that at no time has he reached out and
27:00
Speaker 10: made a call to Alan Joyce to seek an upgrade.
27:04
Speaker 8: So he's gone beyond.
27:07
Speaker 10: The declaration as required by the rules, and directly answered
27:12
Speaker 10: accusations that have been put by members of the opposition.
27:16
Speaker 10: So I think he's gone above and beyond what's required
27:20
Speaker 10: and what all of us are required to do, and
27:23
Speaker 10: being very very clear today.
27:25
Speaker 3: Well, he said he didn't phone Alan Joyce. He hasn't
27:28
Speaker 3: said clarified any other forms of communication, and he has
27:32
Speaker 3: refused to answer the question Keith about whether he contacted
27:35
Speaker 3: any other executives at quantas.
27:37
Speaker 2: Do you want to respond to what.
27:38
Speaker 3: Daniel Malino had to say. They're in defense of his boss,
27:42
Speaker 3: the PM.
27:42
Speaker 11: Well, the reason Daniel has to keep defending him is
27:44
Speaker 11: this just keeps happening over and over and over. And
27:47
Speaker 11: as for Peter getting a lift on a charter plane, well,
27:50
Speaker 11: the other option is the taxpayer pays for it. So
27:52
Speaker 11: I know which one the tax payer would prefer as
27:54
Speaker 11: an option. One thing that hasn't come out too much
27:56
Speaker 11: and this is where are these self appointed defenders of
27:59
Speaker 11: part of nary integrity? The teals where they wanted the
28:03
Speaker 11: knack They demanded all of these things around alleged corruption
28:06
Speaker 11: in the Parliament, of which I've got to tell you
28:07
Speaker 11: I don't see any and yet we see nothing from them.
28:10
Speaker 11: In fact, Pocock walked away from it today. So I
28:12
Speaker 11: think this will eventually come to a head when the
28:14
Speaker 11: election is on and the Australian people will work this out, Sharry,
28:17
Speaker 11: They'll be the ones that decide.
28:19
Speaker 3: Darwin has suggested that the Prime Minister should refer himself
28:22
Speaker 3: to the integrity of the Corruption Commission. If that doesn't happen,
28:26
Speaker 3: do you think the coalition should refer the Prime Minister?
28:30
Speaker 8: Well, I think the.
28:31
Speaker 11: Question would be whether the thresholders met which has been
28:33
Speaker 11: said it is a new organization with some new rules
28:37
Speaker 11: which I don't know that well, I've got to toe you,
28:39
Speaker 11: but I do know that it shouldn't be used for
28:41
Speaker 11: political purposes. If there was a genuine issue here to
28:44
Speaker 11: be dealt with.
28:44
Speaker 8: Then absolutely.
28:45
Speaker 3: What do you think, Daniel, would this be just better
28:48
Speaker 3: sided out by the Corruption Commission?
28:50
Speaker 8: Well?
28:51
Speaker 10: Can I just go back very briefly to one point
28:53
Speaker 10: that Keith rays where he said that his boss taking
28:58
Speaker 10: flights with Gina Reinhart isn't the problem because it's saving
29:00
Speaker 10: the tax payer money. But that raises all sorts of
29:03
Speaker 10: questions of conflicts of interest, because if you're getting expensive
29:07
Speaker 10: gifts of a private sector interest and you're then it's
29:12
Speaker 10: making policies that affect her.
29:15
Speaker 8: It raises all sorts of issues. So but Peter Dutton says, well, look,
29:19
Speaker 8: I'm declaring it. End of story.
29:21
Speaker 3: So can I just say that alb alban Easy has
29:24
Speaker 3: also and this is on the public record, he's also
29:27
Speaker 3: caught a private helicopter owned by Lindsay Fox. So you know,
29:31
Speaker 3: I don't know why Labour's going down this line of
29:33
Speaker 3: attack because alban Easy has also taken private flights by
29:38
Speaker 3: billionaires by Lindsay Fox.
29:41
Speaker 8: You know, I wasn't really raising the point of private
29:43
Speaker 8: flights per se.
29:44
Speaker 10: What I was really making the point was that when
29:46
Speaker 10: those flights were raised with Peter Dutton, his defense of
29:50
Speaker 10: himself was I've declared them. And my point is that
29:54
Speaker 10: fall of stakeholders, that they raise all sorts of issues,
29:57
Speaker 10: of potential conflicts, just there's all sorts of other interaction
30:00
Speaker 10: with the private sect to do. But Peter Dutton's defense
30:02
Speaker 10: of himself is I've declared it. Nothing more to see,
30:05
Speaker 10: end of story. That's my point there, Shari, and I
30:09
Speaker 10: guess my point to Keith's point about saving taxpayers money
30:13
Speaker 10: is well, you know, Peter, getting lots of flights off
30:16
Speaker 10: a billionaire potentially does raise perceived conflicts of interest, So
30:20
Speaker 10: let's just be careful with people throwing stones from glasshouses here.
30:24
Speaker 2: Do you want to respond to that before we move on?
30:27
Speaker 11: It's a four hundred and fifty billion dollar part of
30:29
Speaker 11: the economy and I've been on some of those flights
30:31
Speaker 11: and they are full of stakeholders. And guess what as
30:34
Speaker 11: politicians were engage with stakeholders, particularly ones that are driving
30:37
Speaker 11: tens of thousands of jobs in this country.
30:40
Speaker 3: All right, well, once again Victoria is proving that it
30:44
Speaker 3: takes the title of the wokest state very seriously because
30:49
Speaker 3: now pill testing is about to become legal. This legislation
30:52
Speaker 3: just passed state parliament on Tuesday. There was opposition from
30:56
Speaker 3: the coalition. I'm very concerned about this. I think it
31:00
Speaker 3: sends the wrong message to teenagers when parents are trying
31:04
Speaker 3: to tell them stay away from drugs. Daniel Malino, what
31:07
Speaker 3: do you think?
31:09
Speaker 10: Look, I think this is a really complicated issue, and
31:12
Speaker 10: I think if you had asked me five years ago,
31:14
Speaker 10: I would have said that I have real concerns about
31:16
Speaker 10: the mixed messages that it sends to teenagers.
31:20
Speaker 8: What has made me reconsider my position.
31:23
Speaker 10: On these issues is when I was a STADI MP
31:25
Speaker 10: and I was on one of the committees that looked
31:27
Speaker 10: at injection rooms, and I went into that with an
31:29
Speaker 10: open mind. As part of that inquiry, I traveled to
31:33
Speaker 10: King's Cross to an injecting room that had been operating
31:35
Speaker 10: there for some time, and I talked to the police.
31:38
Speaker 10: I talked to people that had evaluated that injecting room.
31:41
Speaker 10: The police were very strong in saying that harm reduction
31:45
Speaker 10: outweighed other considerations in their minds. And there have been
31:49
Speaker 10: evaluations of that injecting room in Sydney which showed that
31:53
Speaker 10: on balance, it hadn't led to more use.
31:56
Speaker 3: When compare, isn't that injecting room that's used by drug addicts.
32:00
Speaker 3: Isn't it that's used by drug addicts as opposed to
32:03
Speaker 3: these pill testings at festival at music festivals, that's going
32:06
Speaker 3: to be used by teenagers who the majority of which
32:09
Speaker 3: you wouldn't be full blown.
32:10
Speaker 2: Drug addicts, you'd hope not.
32:12
Speaker 3: And yet this sends a message Keith that it might
32:15
Speaker 3: be okay to try a pill because the experts here.
32:18
Speaker 2: Will test that it's safe. I mean, that's nonsense.
32:21
Speaker 11: This is the ridiculous part of it. It is being
32:24
Speaker 11: put forward as if these things are built to a
32:26
Speaker 11: pharmaceutical quality, that they've been made in a factory with
32:29
Speaker 11: quality controls and management everything out.
32:31
Speaker 1: They're not.
32:32
Speaker 11: There is no way that you get consistency in these pills.
32:35
Speaker 11: It is a small sample. And the idea that the
32:38
Speaker 11: tax payer will fund quality control for drug dealers for kids,
32:43
Speaker 11: I'm opposed to one hundred percent.
32:46
Speaker 3: I think it's so dangerous, it's so worrying. The message
32:48
Speaker 3: should just be so clear, say no to drugs. You know,
32:52
Speaker 3: we need a return to those old school campaigns. I
32:54
Speaker 3: mean when I was growing up, it was when Anna
32:56
Speaker 3: Wood was sadly dyed from a drug ose she was fifteen,
33:01
Speaker 3: and the message after that was saying no to drugs.
33:05
Speaker 3: It wasn't this confused message from state governments of all
33:09
Speaker 3: places that oh, it's okay, here's pill testing to make sure.
33:12
Speaker 2: I don't know, god knows what what.
33:14
Speaker 3: Are they actually testing for, because it's still an illicit
33:17
Speaker 3: drug banned under the law.
33:19
Speaker 2: It's just outrageous, all right.
33:22
Speaker 3: The Albanezy government has looked over a local defense company
33:25
Speaker 3: from a major contract in favor of a French owned one,
33:29
Speaker 3: Labor's announced that TAILS Australia will run the operations behind
33:33
Speaker 3: a new plant to produce artillery shells instead of the
33:36
Speaker 3: Queensland based Noyer Daniel, Does this make sense to you
33:41
Speaker 3: this decision?
33:44
Speaker 10: Well, look, I think so long as the process was rigorous,
33:47
Speaker 10: so long it was against the selection criteria, and I
33:51
Speaker 10: think what we find with most of these projects is
33:55
Speaker 10: that there's a local component and they're often partnered with
33:58
Speaker 10: an international company. And I think that the company that
34:00
Speaker 10: you'd referred to, which was locally based, did have an
34:04
Speaker 10: international partner which they work with.
34:07
Speaker 8: So look, I think so long as.
34:09
Speaker 10: There's a rigorous process and selection criteria are used, I
34:14
Speaker 10: think it stacks up.
34:15
Speaker 11: What do you think, Keith, Well, somehow the government, the
34:18
Speaker 11: Labor government has to defend this decision, so they've awarded
34:21
Speaker 11: it to a contractor for a factory that doesn't exist
34:24
Speaker 11: that will take four years to build, against an Australian
34:26
Speaker 11: company which already has a facility based in regional Queensland
34:30
Speaker 11: at Merriborough, just outside of my electorate, and they're.
34:33
Speaker 1: Ready to go.
34:33
Speaker 11: They could be up and running eighty months, So it's
34:35
Speaker 11: four years Greenfield. No current approvals do you know this company, well,
34:39
Speaker 11: I know them very well. They're in Lewar Bryan's elector
34:41
Speaker 11: of Wide Bay. They receive significant funding from the Commonwealth
34:44
Speaker 11: to be able to set this facility up at Merriborough.
34:47
Speaker 11: And now let's be clear, at a state level, this
34:49
Speaker 11: was a labor seat up until the weekend. They're well known,
34:52
Speaker 11: they're a good company, they're international level, and yet somehow
34:55
Speaker 11: an existing facility is overlooked for one that has to
34:58
Speaker 11: be built. So I think there are a real quiet answer.
35:00
Speaker 2: Is again, let's have a look at university. Part of
35:04
Speaker 2: me university fees.
35:05
Speaker 3: We know that Australia's top universities relied too heavily on
35:09
Speaker 3: international students, and now they're set to hike the tuition
35:12
Speaker 3: fees by seven percent in twenty twenty five for international students.
35:18
Speaker 3: This comes as the Abenezi government is looking at introducing
35:21
Speaker 3: or preparing to introduce a cap on international student numbers. Daniel,
35:27
Speaker 3: do you think this fee increase is a direct result
35:31
Speaker 3: of the reforms that are capping the number of international students?
35:37
Speaker 10: Well, just taking a step back, I think that I
35:39
Speaker 10: would think that both sides of politics at the moment
35:43
Speaker 10: would say that we need to reduce overall numbers of
35:47
Speaker 10: international students. So we might differ on the exact numbers
35:51
Speaker 10: or on the exact methodology, but I think everybody's agreed
35:54
Speaker 10: that we need.
35:54
Speaker 8: To reduce the numbers of international students.
35:57
Speaker 10: I was at a conference last week where I was
36:00
Speaker 10: engaging with a lot of stakeholders on this issue. It's
36:02
Speaker 10: a very complex issue because you want to pair back
36:05
Speaker 10: the numbers, but in a way where you're sensitive to
36:08
Speaker 10: different institutional needs, considering the GA, considering regional universities and
36:14
Speaker 10: so forth. Look, I think that part of this might
36:17
Speaker 10: be a reflection of that, in the sense that if
36:19
Speaker 10: you have a certain amount of demand and you reduce
36:22
Speaker 10: the number of spots, one of the factors that might
36:24
Speaker 10: change is the price. I mean, this is economics, but
36:28
Speaker 10: I think everybody's agreed that we do need to reduce
36:31
Speaker 10: the overall numbers. For me, it's just a question of
36:33
Speaker 10: doing it in a way which is staged sensibly and
36:36
Speaker 10: takes account of all the different institutions and needs.
36:39
Speaker 3: All right, Daniel Molino, Keith Pitt, thank you both very
36:41
Speaker 3: much for your time and good to see you here
36:43
Speaker 3: this person in Sydney tonight. Keith all right, A major
36:46
Speaker 3: exclusive still to come behind closed doors. Pennywang must have
36:50
Speaker 3: a different take on the discredited and terror aligned UNRA.
36:54
Speaker 3: I'm going to discuss that with a human rights lawyer next. Plus,
36:57
Speaker 3: Kamala Harris delivers her final pitch to undercided voters and
37:02
Speaker 3: it shows an obsession with Trump. Trump's former Attorney General
37:06
Speaker 3: Matt Whittaker would join me from the campaign trail.
37:09
Speaker 2: That's all coming up well.
37:14
Speaker 3: Penniwong's department has launched a secret investigation into UNRA, despite
37:19
Speaker 3: the Foreign Minister publicly backing the terror riddled organization. I
37:24
Speaker 3: can exclusively report that DFAT has commissioned a comprehensive due
37:28
Speaker 3: diligence assessment of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine.
37:32
Speaker 2: Refugees in the Near East.
37:35
Speaker 3: This is despite Pennywog repeatedly backing UNRA and continuing to
37:39
Speaker 3: spend millions of taxpayer funds on the organization. Now, Israel
37:45
Speaker 3: has this week introduced laws to ban UNRA from operating
37:49
Speaker 3: in Israel because its ties to terror organizations like Hermus.
37:53
Speaker 2: Are just so extensive.
37:56
Speaker 3: The Albnezi government, including Pennywong, dared to criticize Israel well
38:00
Speaker 3: for this, yet they obviously have concerns otherwise, why commission
38:04
Speaker 3: due diligence?
38:06
Speaker 1: Why?
38:06
Speaker 3: I asked the Foreign Minister's offers about this, and a
38:08
Speaker 3: spokesperson said the Foreign Minister has previously signaled that future
38:12
Speaker 3: funding agreements for UNRA would include stringent conditions such as
38:16
Speaker 3: guarantees of staff neutrality, what a joke staff neutrality and
38:20
Speaker 3: confidence in supply chains.
38:22
Speaker 2: The Minister has been clear that the.
38:24
Speaker 3: Humanitarian situation in Gaza is catastrophic and only UNRA has
38:28
Speaker 3: the mandate and infrastructure to receive and distribute aid on
38:31
Speaker 3: the scale needed right now in Gaza means staff neutrality.
38:36
Speaker 3: They must support it. Some of them even took part
38:39
Speaker 3: in October seventh. There are other aid organizations. Peter Dutton
38:44
Speaker 3: said that no funds from taxpayers should be going to UNRA.
38:48
Speaker 2: Have a look.
38:49
Speaker 5: There are serious questions and concerns being asked and raised
38:53
Speaker 5: in relation to ANRA, and we're very open to the
38:56
Speaker 5: conversation with the government to support legislation to port measures
39:01
Speaker 5: that would stop money going from Australian taxpayers who are
39:04
Speaker 5: working harder than ever before under this government, to put
39:07
Speaker 5: every dollar in their pocket from going into the hands
39:10
Speaker 5: of terrors, to terrort sympathizers.
39:14
Speaker 3: Let's bring in now human rights lawyer and CEO of
39:17
Speaker 3: the International Legal Forum, Arsen Ostrowsky.
39:20
Speaker 2: Arsen, good to see you again.
39:22
Speaker 3: Look, AIM is critical, no question, but don't we need
39:26
Speaker 3: to be certain that the tens of millions of dollars
39:28
Speaker 3: in Australian taxpayer funds, along with the millions from around
39:31
Speaker 3: the world.
39:32
Speaker 2: Are going to aid and not to support terrorism.
39:37
Speaker 12: Look you one hundred percent correct, Shari. I mean I
39:40
Speaker 12: think instead of directing their outrage at Israel and the
39:42
Speaker 12: international community, including Australia for that matter, ought to have
39:45
Speaker 12: been demanding accountability from UNRA, which and instead of turning
39:49
Speaker 12: that collective backs at the repeated and endless warnings from
39:53
Speaker 12: Israel and others about their complicity with HAMAS. And you
39:57
Speaker 12: are right, you know, there is no dispute, no art
40:00
Speaker 12: human about the fact that eight must and should go
40:03
Speaker 12: through to Gaza. But the issue is that it should
40:06
Speaker 12: not go through UNRA, which has become really an inseparable
40:09
Speaker 12: and indistinguishable arm of HAMAS mass creating as a relief agency.
40:13
Speaker 12: There are ample other organizations out that are not compromised
40:17
Speaker 12: in the manner that HAMAS is, and quite Honestly, it
40:20
Speaker 12: is not a few Roden apples, as UNRO Summer may
40:24
Speaker 12: may claim. The entire organization quite frankly is rodden to
40:28
Speaker 12: the core and infested with terrorism. And you're you're right,
40:31
Speaker 12: Australian tax payers and in fact all nations who provide
40:36
Speaker 12: funding to UNRA or to demand the capability and ort
40:38
Speaker 12: to be asking why are the tax dollars going towards
40:42
Speaker 12: an organization that has been systematically involved in the widespread massacre, torture,
40:47
Speaker 12: rape and abduction of civilians.
40:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's not just a one off incident. This
40:51
Speaker 3: has been going back years and years and years now.
40:55
Speaker 3: Hesboa has announced a new leader, one of the long
40:59
Speaker 3: term deputy of the political arm I understand, Naim Kassem.
41:03
Speaker 3: This is to replace Hassan Nasralla, who of course was
41:07
Speaker 3: killed last month in that Israeli air strike while Benjamin
41:11
Speaker 3: Netanyahu was giving an address at the United Nations General Assembly. Well,
41:15
Speaker 3: I kind of love this response from the Israeli government
41:18
Speaker 3: on X there was this post. His tenure in this
41:22
Speaker 3: position may be the shortest in the history of this
41:25
Speaker 3: terrorist organization if he follows in the footsteps of his predecessors.
41:29
Speaker 3: Hassan Israela and Hushem Safadin Arsen. It seems like it's
41:34
Speaker 3: only a matter of time before he meets the same fate.
41:40
Speaker 12: Yeah, Melik, I wouldn't exactly want to be underwriting his
41:43
Speaker 12: life insurance policy quite honestly. Board Kassem is one of
41:47
Speaker 12: the founders of Hasbala. He has been one of the
41:50
Speaker 12: central figures in their leadership, serving as the deputy to
41:53
Speaker 12: a former leader, Hassanzraela. And you know what, Leopards don't
41:59
Speaker 12: change their spot, So I don't think anyone ought to
42:01
Speaker 12: be expecting or holding their breadth that are sam under
42:04
Speaker 12: his leadership, Hesbla has seen the light and become some
42:06
Speaker 12: kind of pastist organization.
42:08
Speaker 1: They have not. They remain committed.
42:10
Speaker 12: As he as a blood perst that you heard as
42:12
Speaker 12: ter groups, wants to Israel's destruction, and I would advise
42:16
Speaker 12: him that if he does, wants to see out the
42:18
Speaker 12: rest of the week and outlive his bit assessor, he
42:21
Speaker 12: wants to withdraw Hesbela forces outside of a sudden lebanon
42:28
Speaker 12: and drop drop their arms and actually agree to bude
42:30
Speaker 12: by the Unsecurity Council Resolution seventeen oh one.
42:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, it doesn't need to be a new deal. Just
42:35
Speaker 3: bye by the United Nations Resolution seventeen oh one demant
42:39
Speaker 3: militarize the South move beyond little tiny river.
42:43
Speaker 2: Arsen Ostrowsky is so good to see you again. Thank you.
42:47
Speaker 8: Well.
42:47
Speaker 3: After the break, we go live to the United States,
42:49
Speaker 3: where Trump's former attorney general will give us insider information
42:54
Speaker 3: on the latest from the Trump campaign because he's been
42:57
Speaker 3: on the trail. Also, we'll go to Joe Biden's comment
43:00
Speaker 3: today where he basically called half of Americans garbage. Stay tuned, Okay, Well,
43:09
Speaker 3: with just a week to goo until the US presidential election,
43:13
Speaker 3: let's go live now to American and I'm joined by
43:16
Speaker 3: Donald Trump's former acting Attorney General, Matthew Whittaker.
43:20
Speaker 2: Good to see you again. Look, can you first before
43:23
Speaker 2: we get.
43:23
Speaker 3: Into all the detail of the drama that's unfolding, I'd
43:27
Speaker 3: love to get your response to Joe Biden because he
43:30
Speaker 3: has managed to insult half of Americans today with this comment.
43:35
Speaker 5: Have a look Puerto Rico, where I'm in my home
43:38
Speaker 5: state of Delaware.
43:40
Speaker 8: They're good, decent, honorable people.
43:42
Speaker 1: The only garbage ice floating down there is his supporters.
43:46
Speaker 3: Now, of course, he was initially speaking about that comedian
43:50
Speaker 3: who gave the off color remark about Puerto Ricans at
43:52
Speaker 3: Trump's rally. But Matthew he then went to say that
43:57
Speaker 3: Trump supporters, so around half of Americans on garbage. Do
44:02
Speaker 3: you think this is reminiscent of Hillary Clinton's basket of
44:05
Speaker 3: Deplorable's comment?
44:08
Speaker 13: It absolutely is. And it's good to join you this
44:10
Speaker 13: morning here in the United States. You know, it's it's
44:14
Speaker 13: it's strange to me. You know, yesterday we spent all
44:18
Speaker 13: day the mainstream media telling us that this insult, comics,
44:23
Speaker 13: you know, joke that failed in the room. I was
44:26
Speaker 13: there was somehow the worst thing that was ever said
44:31
Speaker 13: about anyone, and they tried to extrapolate it not from
44:33
Speaker 13: just you know, an insult by one person to Puerto Rico,
44:36
Speaker 13: but you know, painted across all of President Trump supporters.
44:40
Speaker 13: And then you know, obviously this comment by the President
44:43
Speaker 13: of the United States saying that people like me that
44:46
Speaker 13: have supported Donald Trump our garbage. And you know, I
44:50
Speaker 13: mean again, it's I don't worry too much about this.
44:53
Speaker 13: This is a little bit silly season, but it's just,
44:56
Speaker 13: you know, it's I think the problem is is that
44:59
Speaker 13: they spent you know, entire day, entire news cycle try
45:03
Speaker 13: to convince us that this comics that nobody's ever heard of,
45:06
Speaker 13: quite frankly, a very fringe comic in the United States,
45:09
Speaker 13: was somehow speaking for the Trump campaign. And now you know,
45:12
Speaker 13: the President of United States goes and says this. It's
45:14
Speaker 13: a really it's extraordinary. But you know, Joe Biden is
45:18
Speaker 13: I don't think trying to help Kamala Harris win the
45:21
Speaker 13: White House. At least that's what it appears from my perspective.
45:26
Speaker 2: I've got to agree with you.
45:27
Speaker 3: I mean, if you're trying to win over voters from
45:29
Speaker 3: the other side or undecided voters, you don't want to
45:31
Speaker 3: be calling them garbage, that's for sure.
45:34
Speaker 2: Matthew.
45:34
Speaker 3: I want to get your thoughts on Kamala Harris's closing
45:37
Speaker 3: argument speech at the Ellipse.
45:40
Speaker 2: You know, she's said to.
45:40
Speaker 3: Have mentioned Donald Trump around twenty four times. Do you
45:45
Speaker 3: think that the comments she made are enough to convince
45:48
Speaker 3: those who are still considering whether to vote for her.
45:53
Speaker 13: Well, remember what Kamala Harris is having to do, and
45:56
Speaker 13: that is she's trying to convince her base to turn out.
45:59
Speaker 1: And who is her base.
46:01
Speaker 13: Well, in this case, it is the bureaucrats in Washington,
46:04
Speaker 13: d C. That she needs to motivate and scare that
46:08
Speaker 13: Donald Trump is going to somehow fundamentally change government and
46:12
Speaker 13: be a threat to the permanent bureaucracy. In Washington d C.
46:17
Speaker 13: DC is not a swing state. It votes for about
46:20
Speaker 13: eighty five percent to ninety percent for Democrats, including Joe
46:24
Speaker 13: Biden in twenty twenty. I would expect the same numbers
46:27
Speaker 13: for Kamala Harrison. So instead of going to places like
46:30
Speaker 13: Pennsylvania and North Carolina and Michigan, Georgia, you know, she's
46:34
Speaker 13: going to Washington d C. I think it's also you know,
46:37
Speaker 13: telling to me that she gives this speech at the Ellipse,
46:42
Speaker 13: you know, the site of obviously the January sixth rally.
46:45
Speaker 13: It doesn't have Joe Biden there, who is literally two
46:47
Speaker 13: hundred yards behind her in the White House. You know,
46:51
Speaker 13: it just shows you how toxic their administration has become
46:55
Speaker 13: and how it's not working for the American people who
46:58
Speaker 13: are going to be the judge of this election in
47:00
Speaker 13: just the six short days.
47:03
Speaker 3: Can you give us some behind the scenes detail about
47:06
Speaker 3: Donald Trump and how he's doing on the campaign at
47:08
Speaker 3: the moment. How is he feeling about the battleground states.
47:12
Speaker 3: Does he think he's going to be president in a
47:15
Speaker 3: weeks time.
47:17
Speaker 1: Yeah.
47:17
Speaker 13: So I was just with him in New York City,
47:19
Speaker 13: and what I can tell you is that he, you know,
47:22
Speaker 13: has a lot of energy. He knows that he's it's
47:25
Speaker 13: a sprint to the finish. He's going to go to
47:27
Speaker 13: all of these swing states and make his closing argument,
47:30
Speaker 13: and it's quite simple. You know, things were better under
47:33
Speaker 13: my administration four years ago, and that is the closing argument.
47:37
Speaker 13: And it's actually very compelling because if you think about
47:40
Speaker 13: all of the problems, whether it's inflation, crime, and so
47:45
Speaker 13: many other things, war in multiple countries and places around
47:50
Speaker 13: the globe, you know, it is clear that Donald Trump
47:54
Speaker 13: had had a better administration, and so you know, he
47:57
Speaker 13: is ready to win. But I think I think he
48:00
Speaker 13: is not taking anything for granted this time.
48:02
Speaker 1: All of us are out there.
48:03
Speaker 13: I'll be in Pennsylvania really for starting on Friday on
48:08
Speaker 13: a bus tour with so many of those of us
48:11
Speaker 13: that support President Trump and served in his cabinet or
48:15
Speaker 13: elected Republicans making the closing arguments because Pennsylvania really is
48:20
Speaker 13: ground central, for ground zero for this election.
48:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, no question about that, all right, Matthew Whitaker. Really
48:25
Speaker 3: appreciate you getting up so early for us over there.
48:28
Speaker 3: I think it's coming up to five am in the
48:30
Speaker 3: United States, very early.
48:32
Speaker 1: Pleasure.
48:33
Speaker 2: Thank you. That's all we have time for tonight.
48:36
Speaker 3: Make sure you tune in tomorrow night because I have
48:38
Speaker 3: a big exclusive interview that you don't want to miss.
48:42
Speaker 2: I'll see you then at eight o'clock. And right now,
48:44
Speaker 2: here's Paul Murray.