Latest / The Bolt Report / The Bolt Report | 1 October

Transcript

The Bolt Report | 1 October · The Bolt Report

• 0:11
  Speaker 1: This is the Bolt Report.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Well, good evening and thanks for joining me on The
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Bolt Report. I'm James McPherson. Here's what's coming up tonight.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: The Albanese government has announced they'll fix the cost of
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: living crisis by making your morning cup of coffee more expensive.
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: More on that in a moment.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Taxpayers have been forced to bail out yet another aluminium
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: smelter as Labor continues to lie about their renewables fantasy.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: And over in the UK, council staff are being taught
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Islam's view on women is the same as Christianity's because
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: we'll marry the mother of Jesus wore a hijab. I'll
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: cross to London later in the show for that. But first,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: I woke up pretty excited this morning, driving to my
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: local cafe to order my latte.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: Extra hot, one sugar.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: I was excited at the prospect of paying slightly less.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: And let's face it, when the cost of anything goes
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: down these days, even if only by a few cents, well,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: that's cause for excitement. But my excitement was only heightened
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: when I opened my social media and found this message
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: from the federal treasurer waiting for me. He wrote, And
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: then there was this from Jim Chalmers. Now, I've got
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: to admit.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: I was initially skeptical. I mean, how does $ 1. 6 billion
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: of banking fees just vanish into thin air when the
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: card processors are still charging for their services?
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: But hey, it's Dr. Jim Chalmers. He knows what he's doing, right?
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: And I haven't written a PhD thesis on the life
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: and times of Paul Keating, so what do I really know?
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Andrew Lee was on my social media feed this morning
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: as well, waving around a cup of coffee while promising
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: the $ 1. 6 billion in fees was quote-unquote going away. And again,
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: I was sceptical, but he is the Assistant Minister for
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: Productivity and his serious tone, not to mention the dramatic
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: musical score in the background, gave me confidence to believe
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: all of this, though unlikely, must be true. Ever noticed
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: that when you tap your card, The price is slightly
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: higher than what the coffee was meant to cost on
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: the menu.
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: Every year, Australians pay $ 1.
• 2:25
  Speaker 5: 6 billion in credit card fees. From the 1st of October,
• 2:30
  Speaker 5: those fees are going away.
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: Well, there you go.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: Maybe the Albanese government really is able to make costs
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: disappear by simply declaring them disappeared on social media posts. Anyway,
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: the Prime Minister said it was all true and he
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: wouldn't lie.
• 2:46
  Speaker 6: Every time you tap, those little surcharges add up. Right now,
• 2:49
  Speaker 6: they're costing Aussies $ 1. 6 billion each and every year. But
• 2:54
  Speaker 6: from today, they're banned, saving you money every time you tap.
• 2:58
  Speaker 6: So whether you're at the supermarket, paying bills, or buying
• 3:01
  Speaker 6: a cup of coffee, the price you see is the
• 3:03
  Speaker 6: price you pay.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: So that's what I was being told as I made
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: my way to the cafe this morning. The PM and
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: his ministers promising that from now on, I'll save around
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: 10 cents on my cup of coffee, which will go
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: a long way to helping offset yesterday's interest rate rise.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Can you imagine my surprise when I paid for my
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: coffee this morning and I didn't save any money at all?
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: Because while the cafe is not allowed to charge me
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: a card processing fee, they're still having to pay those
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: fees themselves. So instead of putting a card processing fee
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: on my bill, they just added it to the price
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: of my coffee. Who could possibly have seen that coming?
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Turns out the PM and his treasurer confused hiding costs
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: with lowering costs. It's not the same thing, which is
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: a bit of a worry since they're running the entire economy.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: This guy interviewed on News 24 this morning seemed to
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: understand the difference rather better.
• 3:58
  Speaker 7: I think it's just built into the price, so I
• 4:01
  Speaker 7: don't think it'll change much really, but it's nice that
• 4:05
  Speaker 7: I guess we're not hit or feeling it every time,
• 4:07
  Speaker 7: so it's more about an emotion when you go to pay.
• 4:10
  Speaker 7: rather than an actual financial benefit.
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: Too right.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: Elbow was offering us nothing more than an emotional saving,
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: the kind of saving you feel in your heart while
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: your bank account remains completely unimpressed.
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: But it got even worse.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: When my local cafe added the bank's processing fees to
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: the price on the menu... Well, it meant that all
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: of their menus, not to mention their signage, was immediately wrong.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: So they added the cost of updating all their menus
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: and their signage to the price of my coffee as well.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: So now the PM's promise of cheaper coffee had actually
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: made my coffee more expensive. By now, I was thinking
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: this policy must have originated in Chris Bowen's office.
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: But I digress.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: Now, if you can believe it, things got even worse still.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: You know, sometimes when I'm organised, I pay cash for
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: my coffee. That way, I avoid the card surcharge altogether.
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: But now, I don't even get that.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Advantage since the bank fees have been added to food
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: and drink prices generally. So whether I pay by card
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: or by cash, I'm still paying for the card transaction,
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: even if I never made one. So now my coffee
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: is more expensive.
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: And for what?
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: So I can subsidise a transaction I never made. So
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: an Albanese government policy promising cost of living relief does
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: nothing but.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: Bring more cost of living pain. And then it dawned
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: on me.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: This is how the Albanese government works. They portray themselves
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: as our saviours, promising to rescue us from economic doom,
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: usually economic doom that their policies have created. And so
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: they rush in with some amazing subsidy or scheme, promising
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: it'll take the pressure off. The problem, though, is someone
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: has to bear the cost of that policy, and in
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: the end, it invariably gets passed back to you and I.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: And so then we end up paying more than we
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: used to pay before the Albanese government's most recent grandstanding gesture.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: So we're worse off than before they got involved. And
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: you know what happens then? Well, then they portray themselves
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: as our saviours, promising to rescue us from this latest
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: economic doom that they just created. And so the more
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: they rescue us, the more worse off we are. And
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: the more worse off we are, the more they rescue us. Well,
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: investigations are continuing into the suspected terror attack thwarted by
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: brave Jewish passengers on board a flight from Dubai to Israel.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: Passengers overpowered the Amani pilot who allegedly stabbed his co-pilot
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: in a reported bid to hijack the plane and crash it.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: US President Donald Trump described how a plumber saved the
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: lives of all on board.
• 6:57
  Speaker 8: An Israeli plumber never flew a plane, was rarely in planes,
• 7:02
  Speaker 8: very rarely flew. An Israeli plumber saw what was happening
• 7:07
  Speaker 8: and strong, you know, when you lift pipe all day,
• 7:09
  Speaker 8: you're strong. And he saw what was going on and
• 7:12
  Speaker 8: he heard the screaming. He was toward the front where
• 7:16
  Speaker 8: you had security in the back, you know, you had
• 7:19
  Speaker 8: security and you had another flight crew.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: But they didn't have time.
• 7:23
  Speaker 8: The plane was going sharply down at an unbelievable angle,
• 7:26
  Speaker 8: so sharp that the rudder ripped off the back.
• 7:28
  Speaker 7: Of the plane.
• 7:28
  Speaker 8: The plane wasn't designed to go at a speed anywhere
• 7:32
  Speaker 8: near that. And so it was well beyond its limits.
• 7:37
  Speaker 8: And he ripped, with as g-forces as they were, he
• 7:40
  Speaker 8: ripped this guy out of the seat, threw him back.
• 7:43
  Speaker 8: The crowd got him. The passengers got him.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: It's a pretty incredible story.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: The man then grabbed the controls of the plane and
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: levelled it out before pilots who had been off duty
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: and sitting up the back of the aircraft took over
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: the controls. Now, this plumber, he'd never flown before, but
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: he'd reportedly watched episodes of air crash investigations.
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: So there you go.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: With the plane saved and the attacker taken into custody,
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: officials from Saudi Arabia and from Israel are now interrogating
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: him to find out exactly what he'd been planning and
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: who else was involved. Now, of course, we've got to
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: wait for all the details to emerge, but Benjamin Netanyahu,
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: stopping short of calling the hijacking a terror attack, did
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: tell The New York Times that those on board had
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: prevented another 9-11 and he vowed to find out if
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: Iran was behind it.
• 8:34
  Speaker 9: Almost all the passengers on the flight were Israelis. During
• 8:39
  Speaker 9: the flight, when they approached the country, one of the
• 8:43
  Speaker 9: pilots hit the other pilot, and apparently he tried to
• 8:47
  Speaker 9: hang the plane on his seat. I spoke with one
• 8:50
  Speaker 9: of the Israeli passengers. He told me that the plane
• 8:54
  Speaker 9: entered into a vacuum and began to float. He told
• 8:57
  Speaker 9: me that there was no way he would be able
• 9:00
  Speaker 9: to fly the plane with one of the crew and
• 9:04
  Speaker 9: together with the landing crew, while trying to bomb the
• 9:06
  Speaker 9: aircraft's wings. Another air force that was in the aircraft
• 9:10
  Speaker 9: entered the aircraft's wing and managed to land the aircraft.
• 9:14
  Speaker 9: I commend these heroes who discovered courage and courage of heart.
• 9:19
  Speaker 9: They saved many lives. They prevented a heavy disaster.
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: We'll find out more in the coming days.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: But about the reporting on this, the New York Times
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: reported what happened like this. They wrote, a plane flying
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: from Dubai to Israel was diverted after an altercation between
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: the pilot and the co-pilot. An altercation, just an altercation
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: between a couple of unfriendly pilots. When readers complained that
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: an altercation between pilots was grossly understating what had happened,
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: the New York Times replied with this. Quote, our headlines
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: and live coverage contain all the facts we're able to
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: confirm as we confirm them. Unlike activists and partisans, we
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: don't publish speculation or unverified information. Well, fair enough. But
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: hang on a second. Where was that caution when they
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: reported this? At least 500 people were killed by an
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: Israeli airstrike at a Gaza hospital, the Palestine Health Ministry says.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: Don't publish speculation or unverified information unless it's supplied by
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: the Palestine Health Ministry. Of course, US and French intelligence
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: later said the hospital explosion was most likely caused by
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: a misfired Palestinian missile. So when it looks like a
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: possible attack on Israel, well, we can't be too quick
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: to speculate. But when it looks like a possible attack
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: by Israel, can't speculate fast enough. Well, how many times
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: have we been told renewable energy is the cheapest form
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: of energy? If that's true, why are taxpayers having to
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: subsidise power bills to keep major industries from closing? The
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: federal and Tasmanian governments have just announced a $ 200 million
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: taxpayer-funded rescue package... for Rio Tinto's Bell Bay aluminium smelter.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: The smelter, which uses more than a quarter of Tasmania's electricity,
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: couldn't afford power costs, despite the fact, or maybe because
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: of the fact, the state's grid is powered almost entirely
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: by renewables. So this is the miracle of cheap renewable energy.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: It's so cheap, we have to help industry to afford it.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: The government says the $ 200 million will protect jobs and
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: sovereign manufacturing capability, which I suppose is fair enough. But
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: maybe there's another way to protect Australian industry. What if,
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: and I'm just spitballing here, we just stop making energy
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: artificially expensive? The PM was announcing the bailout for Rio
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: Tinto when he was asked how it was that overseas
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: fuel prices are responsible for soaring inflation. Now, have a
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: listen to his answer and then tell me this. How
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: come he understands this principle when it comes to the
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: price of fuel, which he doesn't control, but fails to
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: understand this principle when it comes to the price of power,
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: which is well within his ability to influence?
• 12:25
  Speaker 6: I hope you communicate to them the fact that when
• 12:28
  Speaker 6: petrol goes up in price, then everything, for example, that
• 12:33
  Speaker 6: goes on a supermarket shelf gets carried there on a truck.
• 12:37
  Speaker 6: That increases the price. people going to and from work,
• 12:44
  Speaker 6: engaging in work, often using their vehicles, that adds to price.
• 12:51
  Speaker 6: It has an inflationary impact.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: I'm glad the Prime Minister understands that. But isn't it
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: exactly the same with the price of power, which jacks
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: up the price of everything else? Although the government takes
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: no responsibility for that. Joining me now is One Nation
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: MP and former Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce.
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: Barnaby, welcome to the program. Always good to see you.
• 13:14
  Speaker 5: Thanks, Matt. Thanks, James.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: The Prime Minister says the Rio Tinto bailout is an investment.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: In Australian industry, I think it's more a very expensive
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: cloak to hide government policy failure.
• 13:26
  Speaker 5: It is total failure. Look what happened when we had
• 13:29
  Speaker 5: terrible coal-fired power stations, James. We had a plastics industry.
• 13:33
  Speaker 5: We had a urea industry. We had a glass industry.
• 13:35
  Speaker 5: We didn't need bailouts for Tom to go. We didn't
• 13:38
  Speaker 5: need bailouts for what's happening in Tasmania. We didn't have
• 13:43
  Speaker 5: record insolvencies in small business. We had manufacturing that wanted
• 13:47
  Speaker 5: to come to Australia. Not one major manufacturer wants to
• 13:50
  Speaker 5: come to Australia now. Not one. It's because you've got
• 13:52
  Speaker 5: data centres that call that manufacturing. And this is because
• 13:55
  Speaker 5: of the idiotic energy policy that believes that intermittent power
• 13:59
  Speaker 5: of windmills and fields of solar panels and hills of
• 14:02
  Speaker 5: windmills can actually run an industrial economy. Now, it's driving
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: you into the dirt. And if they're honest about it,
• 14:08
  Speaker 5: they'll tell you what they're spending in the capacity investment schemes,
• 14:11
  Speaker 5: which they won't. It's commercial and confidential, not for publication.
• 14:15
  Speaker 5: It's a complete swindle. But here's the good news. When
• 14:18
  Speaker 5: One Nation has a say, we'll have a royal commission
• 14:20
  Speaker 5: into all this garbage and people can tell us their
• 14:23
  Speaker 5: dirty little stories in front of a royal commissioner.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, this is the third such bailout this
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: year after $ 2. 5 billion to a facility in New South Wales.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: There was another $ 2 billion to a smelter in Queensland.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: Do you support at the moment providing this money? I mean,
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: it is what it is, right? Until if there's a
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: one nation government and you can change things, it is
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: what it is. So as it currently stands, do you
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: support these bailouts?
• 14:53
  Speaker 5: We support trying to make sure the workers keep their jobs,
• 14:55
  Speaker 5: but they've got to understand this is a severance payment,
• 14:59
  Speaker 5: not a bailout, because unless you fundamentally change the price
• 15:02
  Speaker 5: of energy, we're just going to wait for the next
• 15:04
  Speaker 5: bailout and then the next one. There is no solution
• 15:07
  Speaker 5: to this because they have botched the energy sector. And
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: unless we get honest about it and go back to
• 15:14
  Speaker 5: coal-fired power, go back to what worked, these companies will close.
• 15:19
  Speaker 5: They have to. They are unviable. I'll tell you about
• 15:22
  Speaker 5: the viability of these companies. Companies like Rio Tinto, who
• 15:26
  Speaker 5: very well understand our energy policy, and they're the ones
• 15:30
  Speaker 5: who say, we're out of this country. They're crazy. Yeah, correct.
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: Correct.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: Alright, AMP said today there's no sign the property price
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: falls will stop. They're now expecting housing prices to tumble
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: by as much as 15%.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: That's from peak to trough.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: And to add insult to injury, right before crashing the
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: property market, we all know the government encouraged more than
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: 100,000 first home buyers to buy homes with their 5%
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: deposit scheme, which means many of those first home buyers
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: are going to end up with a mortgage that's worth more.
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: Than their house. For his part... The PM didn't seem
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: too concerned today.
• 16:06
  Speaker 6: The truth is that people are investing when you invest
• 16:10
  Speaker 6: in your home. It's an investment in long term. It's
• 16:13
  Speaker 6: an investment in the security that comes from a roof
• 16:16
  Speaker 6: over your head. And having a security of roof over
• 16:19
  Speaker 6: your head enables you to plan with certainty.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: The PM's pretty casual about it.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: Barnaby, should recent home buyers be just as casual?
• 16:29
  Speaker 5: Is he just endorsing One Nation's policy that you can
• 16:31
  Speaker 5: take money out of super to make payments on your
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: house and to keep a roof over your head? It
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: sounds very much like he was. I want to congratulate
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: the PM on an endorsement of One Nation's superannuation policy
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: that allows you to use up to 3%. for three
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: years to keep a roof over your head. Thank you, Anthony.
• 16:48
  Speaker 5: I appreciate your endorsement. But as far as your other
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: policy goes, the 95% debt policy, which is a 5%
• 16:56
  Speaker 5: deposit policy, the 95% debt policy, the 95% debt policy
• 17:00
  Speaker 5: is now turning into the 100% debt policy, negative equity policy.
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: And that means a lot of people are in dire
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: circumstances because there is no fat on the bone. And
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: I've actually worked in banking for a while. The bank
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: will go in to secure their position. They will say,
• 17:16
  Speaker 5: I'm sorry, but you're outside your terms of credit and
• 17:20
  Speaker 5: you must deliver more money into our account to secure
• 17:25
  Speaker 5: your house, and if you don't, we must sell you up.
• 17:29
  Speaker 5: And that is what the Labor Party has done. They're
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: ludicrous changes to the Capital Gains Act. This has been
• 17:35
  Speaker 5: a train wreck, and it shows that people who have
• 17:38
  Speaker 5: never run a business should never run the country because
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: it ends in a train wreck, which you're seeing before
• 17:43
  Speaker 5: your eyes right now. They are actually proud of the
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: fact that Australian people are becoming poorer, substantially poorer. If
• 17:50
  Speaker 5: you own a house in a capital city, especially Sydney
• 17:54
  Speaker 5: and Melbourne, to be frank, you are becoming poorer thanks
• 17:57
  Speaker 5: to Labor Party policy.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: All right, I spoke last night about pro-Palestine groups planning
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: what they're calling vigils for Gaza to be held Wednesday,
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: which will be the third anniversary of the October 7
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: slaughter of 1,200 Israelis. New South Wales Premier Chris Minns
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: today expressed his frustration at not being able to stop
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: these events. He said it's very difficult because of repeated
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: Supreme Court and High Court decisions around the implied freedom
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: of political communication for us to shut down static protests,
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: particularly once they describe it as a silent vigil. We'll
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: see if it is a silent vigil. Barnaby, I have
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: a problem with this because, OK, the law is a problem, but...
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: Isn't it the responsibility of politicians to legislate and to
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: create laws so that we don't end up with situations
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: like we're likely to end up with later on next week?
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: If One Nation was in government, what would you do
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: about stuff like this?
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: What we've done in One Nation is we've been brave
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: enough to talk about the specific issue that's at hand,
• 19:01
  Speaker 5: which is Islamic fundamentalism. This is... This is the issue
• 19:04
  Speaker 5: that has caused the murder, the massacre at Bondi. And
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: so it wasn't Presbyterian fundamentalism or Anglican fundamentalism or Buddhist fundamentalism.
• 19:15
  Speaker 5: It was Islamic fundamentalism. And so you have to have
• 19:18
  Speaker 5: the bravery to say exactly what it is. And this
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: is something that's actually lacking in the Labor Party. And
• 19:24
  Speaker 5: I'll give a classic example in the Royal Commission that's
• 19:27
  Speaker 5: currently at foot. Why hasn't Wassam Haddad been called before
• 19:31
  Speaker 5: the Royal Commission to explain his views about about anti-Semitism.
• 19:36
  Speaker 5: Why are not some of the fundamentalist Islamic figures that
• 19:40
  Speaker 5: we all know who they are before that commission? I'd
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: say it's because they terrify the Labor Party and therefore
• 19:47
  Speaker 5: they don't have the capacity to call it for what
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: it is. Now, this segues very much into what Premier
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: Minns says, but if Premier Minns, does he want to
• 19:56
  Speaker 5: go out and say, look, I think the Royal Commission
• 19:59
  Speaker 5: should be broadened so that we can get absolutely into
• 20:02
  Speaker 5: what is happening in the sort of subculture of large
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: sections of Sydney and other areas.
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: I have.
• 20:10
  Speaker 5: You have to be careful when you start utilising any
• 20:13
  Speaker 5: mechanism that the Labor Party can later utilise to censor
• 20:17
  Speaker 5: what's happening in Australia, because they're doing that with... They've
• 20:19
  Speaker 5: done it with the hate speech laws. They'll do it
• 20:22
  Speaker 5: with the online media laws. The Labor Party love the
• 20:25
  Speaker 5: idea of censoring and shutting things down. They'll always start
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: with a virtue and finish with censorship. So you've got
• 20:32
  Speaker 5: to really think about it, about what you're actually doing.
• 20:36
  Speaker 5: But if you want to deal with legislation, make it specific.
• 20:40
  Speaker 5: That if you say these things against the Jewish people,
• 20:44
  Speaker 5: if that If that is what you are doing, that
• 20:47
  Speaker 5: is illegal. Absolutely. Thank you very much. That is illegal
• 20:52
  Speaker 5: and we will call you to account for that.
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I couldn't agree more.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: All right, before I let you go, I want to
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: quickly play you a comment from the Prime Minister earlier today.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: He was responding to the Greens leader, David Shoebridge, criticising Labor.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: I just took note of the way the PM characterised
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: your party, One Nation.
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: Have a listen.
• 21:11
  Speaker 6: It was somewhat concerning, I think, that At a time
• 21:15
  Speaker 6: where we see a rise of a far right-wing party,
• 21:19
  Speaker 6: Senator Shoebridge took the opportunity to actually criticise Labor.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: I was just watching you, Barnaby, as we played that
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: clip and I saw you roll your eyes and shake
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: your head. Does that one easy calling One Nation far
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: right tell us something about One Nation or does it
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: tell us something about the Prime Minister?
• 21:36
  Speaker 5: It shows how concerned he is about losing his own job.
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: That's what it shows us. The Australian people are not
• 21:42
  Speaker 5: far right. The Australian people... Our polling is a reflection
• 21:45
  Speaker 5: of the views of the Australian people. I think it's
• 21:47
  Speaker 5: disgraceful that he calls that, you know, 20% to 30%
• 21:50
  Speaker 5: of Australians far right. Are they all extremists at the
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: balding here at Yarraba? Are the people who are now
• 21:58
  Speaker 5: voting for One Nation, they're not... What they are, they're
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: sick of you, Mr Albanese, and they're sick of the socialists,
• 22:03
  Speaker 5: because that's actually what you are. There are no labourers
• 22:07
  Speaker 5: on the frontbench of the Labor Party. There are no
• 22:09
  Speaker 5: labourers on the frontbench of the Labor Party. They are
• 22:12
  Speaker 5: not the Labor Party. They are the Socialist Party. They
• 22:15
  Speaker 5: are socialists. And socialism is an incredibly bad form of
• 22:20
  Speaker 5: government that is driving our economy into the dirt. That
• 22:24
  Speaker 5: is the debate that I wish to have with Mr Albanese.
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: I think people know me pretty well. They know others.
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: Pauline Hanson is straight down the barrel, actually. You know,
• 22:34
  Speaker 5: Aunty Pauline doesn't care if you get a little bit
• 22:38
  Speaker 5: upset because it's coming from a good place. She's trying
• 22:40
  Speaker 5: to tell you how to pull the country back out
• 22:44
  Speaker 5: of the corner of my heart's end. And I'm sure
• 22:47
  Speaker 5: people know me. I don't think you see me as
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: fascist or racist, but I'm certainly a conservative and I
• 22:53
  Speaker 5: want to remove socialism from our government in Australia.
• 22:55
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: Barnaby Joyce, it's great to chat.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: Next week, Andrew Bolt is back in the chair and
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: I'm sure he would love it if you did your
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: segment with Andrew Bolt next week outside the Bolt Inn.
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: I'm sure he would totally appreciate that. So I appreciate
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: you joining me tonight.
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: Thank you, Mark. Lots of support is here too. Thank you.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: Very good.
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: Thanks, Barnaby. Appreciate it. All right, we're going to go
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: to a break.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: When we come back, the Australian Electoral Commission is worried
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: that AI deep fakes in political ads could be putting
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: Australian democracy in danger. Alex Antic will join me after this.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: Welcome back to the program. The Australian Electoral Commission, the
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: body in charge of overseeing federal elections, has warned that
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: AI-generated deep fakes of politicians are putting democracy in danger. Yep,
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: apparently AI images like these, where small businesses mocked the
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: Prime Minister as a business partner after he hiked capital
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: gains taxes in May, well, these images are a threat.
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: To Anthony Albanese or to the electoral process? I'm not sure.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: In a submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Artificial Intelligence,
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: the AEC said, And then they added this. AI is
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: increasing the speed, scale and complexity of threats to electoral integrity.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: And if the legal and regulatory regime does not keep pace,
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: may put at risk Australians' trust in democracy and... So
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: in light of all of this, the AEC says it
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: wants to impose mandatory labelling of AI-generated election ads. Joining
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: me now is Liberal Senator and President of the South
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: Australian Liberal Party, Alex Antic.
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: Alex, welcome to the program.
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: Does the Australian Electoral Commission have a point here?
• 24:48
  Speaker 10: Well, James, look, I mean, I think the one thing
• 24:51
  Speaker 10: we can say from the outset that we don't need
• 24:53
  Speaker 10: in our election cycle and is any more regulation, probably
• 24:56
  Speaker 10: in our parliament, I have to say, you know, is
• 24:59
  Speaker 10: the first point of call. But look, I mean, all
• 25:03
  Speaker 10: of those images you just showed are blatantly, clearly, obviously
• 25:08
  Speaker 10: generated by AI or whatever. And this is not actually
• 25:11
  Speaker 10: a new phenomenon. I mean, the ability to Photoshop things
• 25:13
  Speaker 10: and The ability to have on election posters dark-looking photos
• 25:19
  Speaker 10: of the opposition, whichever party you're coming from, is a
• 25:23
  Speaker 10: routine thing. I mean, both sides do it. It's been
• 25:26
  Speaker 10: going on for a long period of time. But I
• 25:28
  Speaker 10: do find it interesting how... consistently critical the machinery of
• 25:34
  Speaker 10: government is about online content and social media at a
• 25:38
  Speaker 10: time where, you know, it seems to be like there
• 25:41
  Speaker 10: are a whole heap of other issues that should be
• 25:43
  Speaker 10: being tackled. I mean, it's probably a little bit cute
• 25:46
  Speaker 10: to suggest it, but we've got a trillion dollar debt
• 25:49
  Speaker 10: and the fastest fall in living standards all over the world.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure whether or not.
• 25:54
  Speaker 10: Very obviously government AI-generated content like that, with exceptions, obviously,
• 26:00
  Speaker 10: are the highest priority for the machinery of government at
• 26:02
  Speaker 10: the moment.
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: I absolutely agree with you.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: And the funny thing is, I don't seem to remember
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: the Australian Electoral Commission, and maybe I'm wrong, but I
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: don't remember them being concerned about AI fakes when the
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: Labor government was campaigning against nuclear power at the last
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: election with images like these. That apparently didn't raise any
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: concerns about democracy being under threat.
• 26:26
  Speaker 10: Yeah, those are perhaps a little more obvious than not.
• 26:29
  Speaker 10: The technology has changed. Look, I think on one level,
• 26:31
  Speaker 10: there is room for continuing to monitor evolving technology. And
• 26:36
  Speaker 10: I've often thought that this tech would come up. Some
• 26:39
  Speaker 10: of the AI generator stuff now is pretty hard to
• 26:42
  Speaker 10: tell from reality, but certainly none of the examples you've
• 26:44
  Speaker 10: shown there would require legislative intervention.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't have thought.
• 26:48
  Speaker 10: I'd just be inclined to have the AEC managing elections
• 26:52
  Speaker 10: in the more basic sense than worrying about this.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: Just before we move on, what's the greater threat to democracy?
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: Is it the AEC trying to regulate what images are
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: allowed to be shown online? Or is it the danger
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: of fake images being shown online? Which is the bigger
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: problem here?
• 27:09
  Speaker 10: Well, one of the things that occurred to me when
• 27:11
  Speaker 10: I saw this story today was, you know, the very
• 27:13
  Speaker 10: difficulty you have with, you know, with.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: Governments having so much intervention.
• 27:18
  Speaker 10: We see that with These digital duty of care laws
• 27:21
  Speaker 10: that have been proposed. It seems like every time we
• 27:24
  Speaker 10: turn up to Canberra, we're being asked to rubber stamp
• 27:26
  Speaker 10: something which would give bureaucrats more power in the electoral process.
• 27:31
  Speaker 10: So as a general principle, I think keeping the bureaucracy,
• 27:35
  Speaker 10: the unelected, with their hands out of the process as
• 27:38
  Speaker 10: much as is humanly possible is paramount.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: All right, the Coalition has promised to scrap laws favouring
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: union-backed firms for government contracts and to bring back the
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: Australian Building and Construction Commission, which the Albanese government disbanded
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: in 2023. I think it's funny how the Labor government
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: always paints itself as the saviours from discrimination, but when
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: it comes to issuing government contracts, the way the government
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: seeks to discriminate in favour of the union movement has
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: just been quite shameless, hasn't it?
• 28:10
  Speaker 10: Yeah, look, I mean, this is, you know, it feels
• 28:12
  Speaker 10: like we're talking about this every single, you know, election cycle,
• 28:15
  Speaker 10: every single day. But it is a true point. I mean,
• 28:18
  Speaker 10: you know, these things have got to be done on merit.
• 28:20
  Speaker 10: And Jane's quite right about that. It cannot be the
• 28:24
  Speaker 10: case that, you know, as a general principle, that we're
• 28:27
  Speaker 10: not getting the best workers for the best job, the best,
• 28:29
  Speaker 10: you know.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: Involvement for the job.
• 28:32
  Speaker 10: So as a general principle, yes, I think it's absolutely
• 28:35
  Speaker 10: right to say that there needs to be some overview
• 28:38
  Speaker 10: on that.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: And look, I would say, again, I mean, it goes.
• 28:41
  Speaker 10: Broader than that. The regulatory environment now for some of this,
• 28:45
  Speaker 10: you know, particularly the building and construction, you know, world,
• 28:49
  Speaker 10: if you can imagine a world where there's as much
• 28:51
  Speaker 10: demand for housing as there is at the moment in
• 28:53
  Speaker 10: a world in which it's never been more difficult to
• 28:56
  Speaker 10: actually build and construct, that sort of tells you the
• 28:59
  Speaker 10: story about where we're up to. I think you could
• 29:02
  Speaker 10: almost go to an election with a plan to just
• 29:03
  Speaker 10: spend an entire term repealing laws and Full stop. And
• 29:08
  Speaker 10: you would find a lot of, I guess, fans of that.
• 29:12
  Speaker 10: I certainly would. Labor have spent the last four years
• 29:15
  Speaker 10: rushing laws through, guillotining them through. I keep coming back
• 29:18
  Speaker 10: to this example, but if you look at the digital
• 29:20
  Speaker 10: ID laws, which are set to fundamentally change the way
• 29:23
  Speaker 10: in which Australians live, that entire debate in the Senate
• 29:26
  Speaker 10: was guillotined. No one was allowed to speak to it
• 29:27
  Speaker 10: and just pushed through. So, I mean, they have rammed
• 29:31
  Speaker 10: laws through, and I think it does give cause to
• 29:34
  Speaker 10: look at repealing a whole raft of them, this included.
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: I spoke at the top of the show about how
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: angry small businesses... owners are about the Albanese government's claims
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: that the ban on card surcharges coming into effect today
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: is somehow a cost of living measure. One of those
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: business owners, Peter Pappas, who owns some Greek restaurants here
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: in Sydney, he had this to say about the surcharge ban.
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: Have a listen.
• 29:57
  Speaker 11: That couple of cents in our case, for example, adds
• 30:00
  Speaker 11: up to well over $ 100, 000 a year. We seem to
• 30:03
  Speaker 11: be the punching bag for the state and federal government
• 30:06
  Speaker 11: in terms of increasing taxes. They say we are the
• 30:09
  Speaker 11: backbone of the economy, the small business owner. Why are
• 30:11
  Speaker 11: we being punished? Inflation is up. Interest rates are up.
• 30:14
  Speaker 11: Energy costs are up. And now you've got to pay
• 30:16
  Speaker 11: more for your coffee.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: Alex, I said at the top of the show, everything
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: this government does to make things better ends up making
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: things worse every single time.
• 30:27
  Speaker 10: Yeah, and this, of course, he's absolutely right. This is
• 30:29
  Speaker 10: going to fall on the small business owner to wear
• 30:31
  Speaker 10: this cost. And somewhere along the line, that will get
• 30:34
  Speaker 10: returned to the consumer. You can guarantee to unless you
• 30:36
  Speaker 10: pay cash, which is always a good thing to do
• 30:37
  Speaker 10: as well. But look, I mean, I think the same
• 30:40
  Speaker 10: principle applies here as well.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: This is just.
• 30:43
  Speaker 10: Another example of the machinery of government and the government
• 30:47
  Speaker 10: of the day not understanding what is actually causing the
• 30:50
  Speaker 10: cost of living crisis. I mean, look, we would always
• 30:54
  Speaker 10: hope that you could get a better deal at the cafe,
• 30:56
  Speaker 10: and as long as that's supporting small businesses, which this is.
• 30:58
  Speaker 5: Not, but.
• 30:59
  Speaker 10: You know, as I said, we're a trillion dollars in debt.
• 31:02
  Speaker 10: There have been, you know, to the extent of 30%
• 31:04
  Speaker 10: increases in insurance, in energy costs across the board. And
• 31:09
  Speaker 10: this is what the government comes up with. I mean,
• 31:11
  Speaker 10: I think largely this is performative and it's pulling the
• 31:13
  Speaker 10: wrong lever for small business. There's no question about that.
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: And by the way, if you pay cash, you're still
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: getting hit with these charges because now it's been added
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: to the menu. So whether you pay with cash or
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: your card, you still end up subsidising these costs.
• 31:27
  Speaker 8: So.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: You're even worse off than we ever were before. It
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: just never ends.
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: Alex Antica, I appreciate you joining me this evening. Thanks
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: so much.
• 31:35
  Speaker 10: Yeah, thanks, James.
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: All right, stick around.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: After the break, Communications Minister Annika Wells makes Time magazine's
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: top 100.
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: Most influential rising stars.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: And Australian politicians are world leaders in giving speeches.
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: Written by AI.
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: Does that make our pollies incredibly efficient or incredibly lazy?
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: I'll ask my panel about that after the break. It's
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: a strange thing, you know. The more this government is
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: loathed at home, the more it's loved overseas. Last month,
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: the Prime Minister was given a Global Citizen Award and today,
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: Time magazine named Communications Minister Annika Wells one of the
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: world's top 100 most influential rising stars. No, not for
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: influencing her colleagues to take maximum advantage of taxpayer-funded travel allowances.
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: They don't need any encouragement there. Annika Wells was recognised
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: for being, and I quote, one of the most significant
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: voices in a growing global movement to reframe the relationship
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: between technology.
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: and the.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: Wellbeing of our children, which is a long-winded way of
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: saying she's shown communication ministers around the world with censorious
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: instincts how to.
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: Disguise them better.
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: If you can believe it, Annika Wells' nomination as one
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: of the world's top 100 up-and-coming influencers came from none
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: other than Julia Gillard, who wrote,' Future generations will look
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: back on her landmark changes as courageous and trailblazing.' kind
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: of the way we all look back on Gillard's changes
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: to the Sex Discrimination Act. Personally, I think this award
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: for our social media banning, algorithm hating, harmful content destroying
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: communications minister is well deserved. I just think it comes
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: at the wrong time. It should have been given in 1984.
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: It's instructive, is it not? When the communications minister starts
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: telling us it needs to control what we can see,
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: what we can say, what we can access online, we
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: all respond with.
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: Alarm, while the global elites, they give her an award.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: Joining me now is PR counsel, Christy McSweeney, and Bondi
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: Partners senior advisor, Peter McGowan.
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: Welcome to you both. Christy, where do we even start
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: with this award?
• 33:51
  Speaker 4: Look, I actually really admire Julia Gillard for her post-political dignity.
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: She's sort of breaking my faith in her conduct here,
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: nominating Annika Wells for this award. Look, it's produced mountains
• 34:04
  Speaker 4: and mountains of wonderful talkfest transcripts. But if you speak
• 34:09
  Speaker 4: to anybody in the media technology industry, the legislation in
• 34:14
  Speaker 4: and of itself when introduced in Parliament was threadbare, ill
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: thought out and with no concept of how it could
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: actually be implemented and it still hasn't worked. So wonderful
• 34:26
  Speaker 4: to receive accolades for an idea, but.
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: It doesn't work.
• 34:31
  Speaker 4: It hasn't worked and the government still has no plan
• 34:34
  Speaker 4: for it to work.
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: Hey, imagine what will happen when she actually makes it work.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: She'll get a Nobel Peace Prize or something, I imagine. Peter,
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: the thing I hate about this is, you know, Albanese
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: gets a Global Citizen Award and now this for Annika Wells.
• 34:51
  Speaker 3: They get all these awards.
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: It's just going to encourage their worst instincts. It's going
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: to encourage them to keep going. We just want them
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: to stop.
• 34:58
  Speaker 12: I don't think they need any international encouragement to wreck
• 35:02
  Speaker 12: the country anymore, James.
• 35:05
  Speaker 5: Look.
• 35:06
  Speaker 12: Annika Wells wouldn't be in the top half of competent
• 35:09
  Speaker 12: ministers in the ministry, and that's saying something. She's been
• 35:13
  Speaker 12: in witness protection for more than a year following, of course,
• 35:17
  Speaker 12: the issues surrounding her claims and her excesses on sporting
• 35:23
  Speaker 12: events and the like. She didn't have a great deal
• 35:27
  Speaker 12: to do with negotiating the passage of the legislation through
• 35:31
  Speaker 12: the Senate, which only the Liberal Party and the Coalition,
• 35:35
  Speaker 12: I should say, got it through. So look, it's a
• 35:39
  Speaker 12: tin pot award.
• 35:41
  Speaker 3: Everybody would see it.
• 35:42
  Speaker 12: So straight to the pool.
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: Room with it. Well, I reckon you would.
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: You'd frame the Time magazine cover, or she probably won't
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: be on the cover, but page, and you would definitely
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: put it in the pool room. And if you don't
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: have a pool room, you'd get a pool room, I think,
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: if you're in time. For the past couple of weeks,
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: this government hasn't stopped warning us. You know, AI poses
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: major threats to humanity. Here's the PM when he was
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: at the UN.
• 36:07
  Speaker 6: Recently, an artificial intelligence agent infiltrated an Australian government website.
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: This is unacceptable.
• 36:16
  Speaker 6: And it is why Australia has been leading the way
• 36:19
  Speaker 6: in establishing Australian standards for AI. Standards to ensure that
• 36:26
  Speaker 6: AI will work and deliver for people, not the other
• 36:29
  Speaker 6: way around.
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: I've just got one question, guys.
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: How do we know Albanese's speech there on the dangers
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: of AI wasn't written by AI? Because analysis from The
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: Economist has found that Australian politicians are more likely to
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: read AI-generated speeches than MPs anywhere else in the English-speaking world.
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: It's estimated that over the past 12 months, more than 20%
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: of speeches in our parliament were AI-generated or AI-assisted. The
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: only positive is that at least our MPs delivered their
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: AI-generated speeches better than this Canadian politician, Bill Oliver, who
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: forgot to edit out the AI prompts.
• 37:09
  Speaker 13: One of the dangers associated with creating advocacy offices is
• 37:13
  Speaker 13: that citizens often develop expectations that exceed the powers actually
• 37:17
  Speaker 13: granted them. to those offices. Here's a more natural flowing
• 37:22
  Speaker 13: version of that section that reads like a legislative speech
• 37:25
  Speaker 13: rather than a series of short points.
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: I just cannot watch that too many times. Chris, the
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: AI generated speeches, is this efficiency on the part of
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: our MPs or just sheer laziness?
• 37:39
  Speaker 4: Well, if we look at what the government's actually done
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: about AI, first of all, they've created an office of
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: AI with no AI policy. It's an infrastructure coordination with
• 37:48
  Speaker 4: the states to get the large companies that want to
• 37:51
  Speaker 4: build data centres about energy and power and water. Again,
• 37:56
  Speaker 4: nothing to do with AI. So when we talk about AI,
• 37:59
  Speaker 4: when our politicians talk about AI... No wonder they're using
• 38:03
  Speaker 4: AI to generate their speeches. They don't know anything about it.
• 38:07
  Speaker 4: The technology community turns up to Parliament and tries to
• 38:10
  Speaker 4: speak to them and the eyes glaze over. Technology has
• 38:15
  Speaker 4: accelerated so far beyond what the government is capable of understanding,
• 38:20
  Speaker 4: which is why we have nothing. We have no AI policy,
• 38:25
  Speaker 4: no matter how hard the Prime Minister tries to say
• 38:29
  Speaker 4: that building data centres is knowledge AI and not just infrastructure.
• 38:34
  Speaker 4: No wonder they are using it to write their speeches.
• 38:37
  Speaker 4: They don't have any other choice. They've got no information
• 38:39
  Speaker 4: or understanding on AI.
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: Peter, what's the difference between an AI generated speech and
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: a speechwriter generated speech?
• 38:49
  Speaker 12: Firstly, the AI is a robotic providing of tech, so
• 38:56
  Speaker 12: you come across as programmed. A speechwriter, yeah, sure, you
• 39:02
  Speaker 12: can read out the entire speech that somebody's written for you,
• 39:06
  Speaker 12: but mostly it's a collaborative effort and almost all speechwriters
• 39:10
  Speaker 12: I've ever known want that. They don't want you just to,
• 39:14
  Speaker 12: read it out as you wish. They want to talk
• 39:16
  Speaker 12: about style and so on. So, look, the greatest currency, James,
• 39:20
  Speaker 12: in politics is authenticity. And no wonder we think so
• 39:24
  Speaker 12: many of them are, of course, remote and distant and
• 39:28
  Speaker 12: garrulous and unable to communicate Do you think Pauline Hanson
• 39:32
  Speaker 12: ever has an AI text prepared speech?
• 39:35
  Speaker 14: Of course not.
• 39:36
  Speaker 12: She speaks from the heart and speaks genuinely and directly
• 39:39
  Speaker 12: on issues.
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: And that's what people want.
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: I was going to say, if Pauline Hanson is using
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: chat GPT, it's totally gone rogue. The Albanese government is
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: passing the hat around to state and territory leaders, asking
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: them to tip in for a space mission. We need
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: 160 million bucks to send Australian of the Year Catherine
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: Benelpeg to the International Space Station in 2028. Other Australians
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: have been to space, but Benelpeg would be the first
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: professionally trained Australian astronaut. Acting Chief Minister of the Northern Territory,
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: Gerard Maley, said it's reckless and shows the PM's priorities
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: are out of touch with Australians. The federal government cannot
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: tell Australians there isn't enough money for the things they
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: need here on the ground and then spend $ 160 million going.
• 40:24
  Speaker 3: To the moon.
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: Christy, is it reckless or is this precisely the sort
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: of thing we should be encouraging?
• 40:31
  Speaker 4: Oh, James, how many moonshots does this government want to
• 40:34
  Speaker 4: try and shoot for?
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: Very good.
• 40:36
  Speaker 4: I mean, aren't they full? I think that, on the
• 40:41
  Speaker 4: one hand, I think, wow, how amazing that Australia has
• 40:44
  Speaker 4: produced an astronaut, a female astronaut. And a little bit
• 40:48
  Speaker 4: of part of me thinks, well, maybe we should take
• 40:51
  Speaker 4: away some of the money we give to PNG for
• 40:53
  Speaker 4: rugby league teams and defund the AFL a little bit
• 40:56
  Speaker 4: and all these male sports so we can give the
• 40:58
  Speaker 4: female astronaut a go. and celebrate something in this country
• 41:02
  Speaker 4: that is in science and technology. That's a little part
• 41:05
  Speaker 4: of me. The other part says, wow, priorities, inflation's hit 4%,
• 41:11
  Speaker 4: interest rates are 15 years high, and you're asking the
• 41:14
  Speaker 4: states to punt in for something that really has no
• 41:18
  Speaker 4: economic return value for Australia. It's a European space agency mission.
• 41:23
  Speaker 3: And guess what?
• 41:24
  Speaker 4: France just gave them € 3 billion for the last three years.
• 41:29
  Speaker 4: It's clearly a European focus, you know, but I can
• 41:33
  Speaker 4: see the other side of it.
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: We've only got a couple of seconds, Peter. I reckon
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: it's a good idea. It'd be inspiring.
• 41:41
  Speaker 5: True, James.
• 41:42
  Speaker 12: The tragedy is we can't afford it, and in political
• 41:44
  Speaker 12: terms it won't happen, but Australia's always been part of
• 41:48
  Speaker 12: international consortiums in regard to the square kilometre array in
• 41:52
  Speaker 12: Western Australia, a billion dollars, part of the Magellan telescope,
• 41:56
  Speaker 12: optical telescope, project in Chile. We've always punched above our weight.
• 42:02
  Speaker 12: And this is just another indication of our decline.
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: Certainly is.
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: Christy McSweeney and Peter McGowan, always enjoy catching up.
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: Thanks so much. All right, stick around.
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: After the break, we'll head to the UK, where details
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: of a suspected terror attack on a Royal Air Force
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: base are just getting stranger and stranger.
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: And did the Virgin Mary wear a hijab?
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: According to a taxpayer-funded course designed to stop Islamophobia, the
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: answer is yes.
• 42:29
  Speaker 3: That's after the break.
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: Well, investigations are continuing into the suspected terror plot at
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: a UK Royal Air Force base last week. It seemed
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: at first like a major terrorist attack had been thwarted.
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: An alert farmer observing strange vehicles and masked men near
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: the base contacted authorities and five men were arrested on
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: suspicion of explosives offences. And politicians in the UK as
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: well as in America were indicating this had all the
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: hallmarks of a foreign-sponsored terrorist attack.
• 43:02
  Speaker 3: Here's the UK Prime Minister.
• 43:04
  Speaker 7: There are strong indications that Iran played a part in
• 43:09
  Speaker 7: what happened over the weekend at RAF Fairford.
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: OK, but just one question, if that's true, why were
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: the five suspects released on bail? Reform UK leader Nigel
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: Farage added to the intrigue.
• 43:24
  Speaker 14: One of the five himself called the emergency services. Why
• 43:29
  Speaker 14: would they do that? These five, and perhaps a few
• 43:32
  Speaker 14: others involved, were a dummy run for a proper terrorist
• 43:38
  Speaker 14: attack on US forces in at RAF Fairford, and by
• 43:44
  Speaker 14: one of the five ringing the emergency services, he was
• 43:48
  Speaker 14: testing response times. That is what I believe was going on.
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: Joining me now is Spiked Online editor Tom Slater, who
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: always knows what's going on.
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: Tom, what's going on?
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: I wish I could answer that question neatly, James.
• 44:03
  Speaker 15: I mean, this story can't decide whether it's an episode
• 44:06
  Speaker 15: of Homeland or a carry-on film.
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: There's been so many bizarre twists and turns so far.
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: You've laid it out perfectly there.
• 44:13
  Speaker 15: This has all the hallmarks of a sort of terrorist attack,
• 44:15
  Speaker 15: and yet at the same time, You have them released
• 44:18
  Speaker 15: on bail, this latest revelation that one of the would-be attackers'
• 44:22
  Speaker 15: suspects calls the police on himself and his co-conspirators. And then,
• 44:27
  Speaker 15: of course, this comment from Andy Burnham suggesting it's got
• 44:30
  Speaker 15: all the hallmarks of something that Iran might have been
• 44:33
  Speaker 15: involved with.
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: It's very difficult to say.
• 44:36
  Speaker 15: One thing that is clear is that we know that
• 44:38
  Speaker 15: the Iranians are trying to sponsor attacks like this, which
• 44:41
  Speaker 15: are very much about just sort of prodding and pushing
• 44:44
  Speaker 15: and trying to create fear. You know, hiring often kind
• 44:47
  Speaker 15: of just local ne'er-do-wells to inflict attacks. We've seen that
• 44:50
  Speaker 15: against synagogues. Maybe that's something that we're seeing in relation
• 44:53
  Speaker 15: to RAF Fairford. But the more that the government is
• 44:56
  Speaker 15: kind of cagey about this, the more that we have
• 44:58
  Speaker 15: these inexplicable decisions from counter-terror police and others, It's going
• 45:01
  Speaker 15: to set more and more hairs running as to what
• 45:03
  Speaker 15: the hell went on here. So as much as is possible,
• 45:05
  Speaker 15: a bit more openness from the government about what they
• 45:08
  Speaker 15: know and what they don't would probably do a lot
• 45:10
  Speaker 15: to smooth over concerns over it.
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: It's always fascinating to watch what the government in the
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: UK want to be open about and what they are
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: cagey about. And you learn a lot about their priorities
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: and what they... think is important to protect. Taxpayer-funded workshops
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: designed to fight Islamophobia are making.
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: Some very strange claims.
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: A presentation to North Yorkshire Council told staff that Islam's
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: attitude to women doesn't conflict with Western values, not at all,
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: because Mary, the mother of Jesus, according to this seminar,
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: wore a hijab And Jesus had a beard, so there
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: you go, he was basically a Muslim. Council staff were
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: also told Sharia law was just like Christian doctrine. Tom,
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: where do you want to start with this stuff?
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: I mean, this is just ridiculous.
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: Oh, it is. It's also quite funny.
• 46:02
  Speaker 15: If you heard that someone was going around saying that
• 46:05
  Speaker 15: there's fundamentally no difference between Islam and Christianity because they've
• 46:08
  Speaker 15: also got beards and head coverings potentially. in common is
• 46:11
  Speaker 15: such an absurd, almost, some might say, an Islamophobic way
• 46:14
  Speaker 15: to talk about this particular issue. There's the rewriting of history,
• 46:18
  Speaker 15: the idea that Mary was, in any sense, almost like
• 46:22
  Speaker 15: a kind of proto-Muslim woman, despite the fact she was
• 46:24
  Speaker 15: walking the earth north of 500 years before Islam. even
• 46:27
  Speaker 15: got going just shows how absurd this rewriting history is
• 46:31
  Speaker 15: and also this the fundamental point the idea that islam
• 46:34
  Speaker 15: hasn't got.
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: A problem where misogyny is concerned you need.
• 46:37
  Speaker 15: Only look at essentially every muslim majority country where.
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: You know at the at the lighter end.
• 46:43
  Speaker 15: Women are second-class citizens at the tougher end face horrific
• 46:47
  Speaker 15: violence if they stray out of what the morality police
• 46:50
  Speaker 15: of that particular nation deemed to be acceptable.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: But the fact.
• 46:55
  Speaker 15: I come back to the fact, what this is happening
• 46:57
  Speaker 15: in this country is being taxpayer-funded.
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 47:00
  Speaker 15: If this is about trying to foster a kind of
• 47:02
  Speaker 15: multicultural harmony, it strikes me it's going to have the
• 47:05
  Speaker 15: exact opposite impact and it's just going to make people
• 47:07
  Speaker 15: think this kind of work is just divisive and absurd
• 47:11
  Speaker 15: at the same time.
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: Indeed.
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: All right, before I let you go, Harry and Meghan
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: have slammed photographers for lurking around the perimeter of the
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: school that they're Kids are attending?
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, quite.
• 47:23
  Speaker 15: I mean, this is one of those things where Harry
• 47:25
  Speaker 15: and Meghan, they want to be A-list celebrities, yet they
• 47:28
  Speaker 15: don't want any of the unfortunate business that comes with that.
• 47:32
  Speaker 15: If they'd have actually stayed in the royal family, if
• 47:34
  Speaker 15: they hadn't flounced off so spectacularly, as they would know,
• 47:38
  Speaker 15: they would have been guarded against this kind of thing.
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: Particularly in Britain.
• 47:41
  Speaker 15: There's this kind of agreement between sections of the press
• 47:44
  Speaker 15: and the royal family that kids aren't going to be photographed,
• 47:46
  Speaker 15: that those things are slightly more... controlled out of a
• 47:48
  Speaker 15: sense of kind of deference essentially to the institution but
• 47:51
  Speaker 15: you know they want it to be hollywood superstars they're
• 47:53
  Speaker 15: going to be treated like hollywood superstars and if they're
• 47:55
  Speaker 15: going around especially as they have over the past few
• 47:57
  Speaker 15: months just constantly kind of telegraphing their.
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: Movements we're moving back to the uk we're probably.
• 48:02
  Speaker 15: Going to settle in this kind of area maybe there's
• 48:04
  Speaker 15: a film deal in that being filmed in that particular
• 48:06
  Speaker 15: area what do you expect when when the global privacy
• 48:10
  Speaker 15: tour continues in this sort of fashion uh they can't
• 48:14
  Speaker 15: be surprised when people are going to take notice of
• 48:16
  Speaker 15: them including the photographers.
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: I i got to admit my sympathies are probably with
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: uh the sussexes on this one and and everything you
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: say is true but at the same time photographers do
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: make a decision to uh do that and to bring
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: the kids into it when everyone should know they're off
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: limits so i don't know on this one i reckon
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: i might be in team harry and megan um Gee,
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: I hope not many people watch me say that and
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: don't remember that.
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: There you go.
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: Tom, I've got to go. Thanks for catching up tonight.
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: That's all I've got time for.
• 48:47
  Speaker 3: Stick around.
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: Coming up right now hosting the Showery program is my
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: good mate, Caleb Bond.