Latest / The Bolt Report / The Bolt Report | 30 June

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The Bolt Report | 30 June · The Bolt Report

0:11
Speaker 1: He's the Report.
0:15
Speaker 2: Good evening and welcome to the Bolt Report. I'm James Macpherson.
0:18
Speaker 2: Coming up tonight. Penny Wong sets off to Washington. The
0:21
Speaker 2: Mid reports that Kevin Rudd is the reason the Trump
0:23
Speaker 2: administration won't schedule a meeting with our PM. Greg Sheridan
0:27
Speaker 2: joins me later. The BBC have slammed a rap duo
0:30
Speaker 2: who led a music festival crowd in chance of death
0:33
Speaker 2: to Israeli soldiers. But should the BBC really have been surprised?
0:37
Speaker 2: I'll get the latest from Esther Craku in London. Amazon
0:41
Speaker 2: found that Jeff Bezos got married at the weekend. Congratulations,
0:45
Speaker 2: but there were so many haters. My panel will weigh
0:47
Speaker 2: in on whether it's appropriate to protest a couple's wedding
0:51
Speaker 2: just because you don't like their politics and their wealth.
0:53
Speaker 2: And the Melbourne street sweeper sacked for questioning why there
0:56
Speaker 2: needed to be an acknowledgment of country performed before his
0:59
Speaker 2: work work meeting. Will He'll join me in a moment
1:02
Speaker 2: to tell his side of the story, but first in
1:06
Speaker 2: an active generosity, the likes of which have not been
1:09
Speaker 2: seen since the Trojan horse arrived bearing gifts. China's ambassador
1:13
Speaker 2: to Australia has offered US economic advice. Ji Jinping's top
1:18
Speaker 2: diplomat has kindly assured Anthony Albanezi there's no reason to
1:22
Speaker 2: increase Australia's defense spending, none at all. And besides, if
1:26
Speaker 2: we spend money on self defense, how would we afford
1:29
Speaker 2: our various social welfare programs. Ambassador Schiao has told our
1:33
Speaker 2: government via an op ed in the Australian dramatically increasing
1:37
Speaker 2: military spending places a heavy fiscal burden on the countries involved,
1:42
Speaker 2: undermining their efforts to boost economies and improve livelihoods.
1:47
Speaker 3: Did you get that.
1:48
Speaker 2: Any lift in defense spending would undermine our economic development? Actually,
1:54
Speaker 2: missiles raining down on Sydney would tend to undermine our
1:57
Speaker 2: economic development as well, But I digress. The point is
2:00
Speaker 2: you can't have national defense and therapeutic cuddles for people
2:04
Speaker 2: on the NDIS, so maybe give the air defense system
2:07
Speaker 2: a miss Now you might think that's a bit rich,
2:09
Speaker 2: coming from a regime that builds artificial islands, deploys by
2:13
Speaker 2: balloons like it's a party trick, and runs the world's
2:16
Speaker 2: fastest growing navy like they're preparing to invade I don't
2:19
Speaker 2: know Taiwan, but no. China's man in Canberra, by which
2:24
Speaker 2: I mean they're ambassador, not our Prime minister assures us
2:27
Speaker 2: that the Chinese military build up is all and I
2:29
Speaker 2: quote normal. So China conducting the biggest military build up
2:35
Speaker 2: since World War II, that's normal. But for Australia to
2:39
Speaker 2: even fantasize about working submarines, I don't know a decade
2:43
Speaker 2: from now, well that's a threat to world peace.
2:46
Speaker 3: You'd have to be Paul Keating to.
2:47
Speaker 2: Believe that the Chinese ambassador's open letter was actually quite touching.
2:52
Speaker 2: Dictatorships don't usually lose sleep over someone else's welfare budget.
2:56
Speaker 2: But mister Shiao, well he's only got Australia's raw minerals
2:59
Speaker 2: sorry interests at heart.
3:02
Speaker 1: Now.
3:02
Speaker 2: I know some of you cynically believe the Chinese ambassador
3:05
Speaker 2: is only saying such things because well, he's wanting Australia
3:08
Speaker 2: left defenseless as the Chinese military threat grows, But that
3:12
Speaker 2: would be a very cynical take. Xijingping's man has assured
3:15
Speaker 2: us that China and Australia are quote friends, not foes,
3:19
Speaker 2: and of course we are. I mean, who else but
3:23
Speaker 2: friends hack your parliament, economically, blackmail your exports, and fantasize
3:27
Speaker 2: openly about a future where the Pacific is exclusively Manderin speaking.
3:32
Speaker 2: If that's not makeshift, I don't know what is The
3:35
Speaker 2: timing of the ambassador's warning that Australia would be unwise
3:39
Speaker 2: to lift defense spending is interesting. Penny Wong heads to
3:42
Speaker 2: the US this week, where should be a gain petition
3:45
Speaker 2: to raise our defense spending, a request the Albanese government
3:48
Speaker 2: has so far resisted to put us all at ease.
3:52
Speaker 2: The Chinese ambassador reminded Anthony Albanese is that his nation
3:55
Speaker 2: spends just one point five percent of GDP on its
3:58
Speaker 2: military tara strain, just a little one point five percent. Now,
4:03
Speaker 2: of course, when you have the world's second largest economy,
4:07
Speaker 2: one point five percent of your GDP works out to
4:09
Speaker 2: be a military budget larger than the GDP of most
4:12
Speaker 2: of Southeast Asia combined. But don't worry, the ambassador writes,
4:16
Speaker 2: and I quote Chinese. China has always been a steadfast supporter,
4:21
Speaker 2: defender and promoter of world peace. Of course, the almost
4:26
Speaker 2: three hundred billion dollars China spent on defense last year,
4:29
Speaker 2: that's a conservative estimate. Well that was just for neighborhood watch.
4:33
Speaker 3: So there you have it.
4:34
Speaker 2: The ambassador of a regime which spends billions ensuring its
4:38
Speaker 2: dominance warns Australia not to spend any money ensuring its survival.
4:43
Speaker 2: The real message, of course, here, is simple and rather obvious.
4:47
Speaker 2: China wants Australia defenseless and docile, not because we're friends,
4:51
Speaker 2: but because it's easier to invade a mate who's left
4:53
Speaker 2: their front door open to save on electricity. When a
4:56
Speaker 2: communist dictatorship tells you not to spend money on defense,
5:00
Speaker 2: it's probably time to double it, you know, like to
5:03
Speaker 2: five percent of GDP. Only a fool would think otherwise.
5:07
Speaker 2: And what kind of a man do you reckon? The
5:09
Speaker 2: CCP believes is running Australia.
5:16
Speaker 3: Now, it's no.
5:17
Speaker 2: Secret our Prime minister is struggling to secure a meeting
5:19
Speaker 2: with Donald Trump.
5:21
Speaker 3: There's just a few obstacles.
5:22
Speaker 2: I mean, First, there's Australia's stubborn refusal to lift defense spending.
5:27
Speaker 2: Apparently offering thoughts and prayers in lieu of missiles doesn't
5:29
Speaker 2: quite cut it with a man who tried to buy Greenland.
5:32
Speaker 2: Then there's our increasingly petulant stance on Israel. The Urban
5:36
Speaker 2: Ezi government's foreign policy seems to involve crossing off American
5:40
Speaker 2: allies and sucking up to their adversaries, which brings US
5:43
Speaker 2: neatly to China. The PM appears more comfortable reciting Jijinping's
5:47
Speaker 2: talking points than defending the West's interests. But according to
5:52
Speaker 2: Trump's former polster Brent Buchanan, the real deal breaker may
5:56
Speaker 2: not be policy at all.
5:57
Speaker 3: It might just be Kevin.
5:59
Speaker 4: Rad Donald Trump needs to find an Australian that he likes,
6:03
Speaker 4: or Australia needs to find an Australian that Donald Trump
6:06
Speaker 4: likes and let that person take point, because so much
6:08
Speaker 4: with Donald Trump is personal relationship.
6:11
Speaker 5: Do you think this is personal He simply doesn't know
6:13
Speaker 5: Anthony Ibanezi or he doesn't like him.
6:15
Speaker 4: I think he doesn't like the current ambassador, and that's
6:17
Speaker 4: one of the biggest issues.
6:18
Speaker 2: Really, come on, I can't imagine why Rudd's presence ad
6:22
Speaker 2: point man for the relationship with Trump as an issue,
6:25
Speaker 2: can you? I mean, okay, he tweeted the Trump was
6:28
Speaker 2: and I quote the most destructive president in US history,
6:32
Speaker 2: and sure Rudd referred to Trump in a twenty twenty
6:34
Speaker 2: one webinar as a village idiot, and okay, there was
6:38
Speaker 2: that time that he said the US President was a
6:40
Speaker 2: quote a traitor to the West. But I mean, apart
6:43
Speaker 2: from all of that, now, the Albanezy government knew these
6:47
Speaker 2: comments would be a problem. I mean, heck, Kevin Rudd
6:50
Speaker 2: himself knew they'd be a problem. That's why he busily
6:53
Speaker 2: deleted comments critical of Trump from his Twitter account back
6:56
Speaker 2: in November last year. What was that other than an
7:00
Speaker 2: admission that sort of Trump people in the Trump administration
7:03
Speaker 2: suffering amnesia. His position was obviously untenable. That Albanezy backed
7:09
Speaker 2: Rudd as our ambassador to the US spoke volumes, that
7:13
Speaker 2: Albanezy continues to back Rudd, speaks volumes. Albanezy wonders why
7:18
Speaker 2: Trump won't hear him, I'd argue that Anthony Albaneze has
7:21
Speaker 2: already been heard loud and clear. Well, Kevin Rudd remains
7:25
Speaker 2: in our US embassy. Is there really anything left to say?
7:31
Speaker 2: Joining me now is my panel Former Labor MP Michael
7:33
Speaker 2: Danby and former Labor Senator Stephen Conroy. Michael, are you
7:38
Speaker 2: surprised to hear that Kevin Rudd may well be the
7:41
Speaker 2: reason Donald Trump won't meet with our PM?
7:44
Speaker 6: Well, if Laura's interview with that Polster is right, that's
7:48
Speaker 6: very alarming. I hadn't we had no empirical proof of
7:53
Speaker 6: the programmatic specicificity, as Kevin would say it, of that previously,
7:58
Speaker 6: But that that is alarming.
8:03
Speaker 7: Look, Kevin needs to.
8:04
Speaker 6: Get a full court press of Australians who are sympathetic.
8:08
Speaker 6: Call Joe Hockey, call everyone back over there, get Conroy
8:12
Speaker 6: when he goes over to Washington.
8:15
Speaker 7: We can't just work the Congress.
8:16
Speaker 6: And we really need to sort of see if we
8:19
Speaker 6: can get into the White House.
8:21
Speaker 7: I suspect Eldridge Colby.
8:24
Speaker 6: Who is the President's man in the Department of Defense,
8:29
Speaker 6: who is the person who has got the keener size
8:33
Speaker 6: on Kevin. So if there can be some peace agreement
8:36
Speaker 6: creative between those two, that would be good for Australia.
8:40
Speaker 6: If not, then Albow and Wongs have got problems.
8:47
Speaker 2: Well, you know everything in life flows through relationships, Stephen.
8:51
Speaker 2: If the US relationship is so important, why doesn't Albanezy
8:55
Speaker 2: simply replace Kevin Rudd with an ambassador who doesn't have
8:58
Speaker 2: the baggage of a Kevin Rudd.
9:02
Speaker 8: Well, look, I agree with almost everything that Michael just
9:07
Speaker 8: described you, but I mean it is very obvious that
9:12
Speaker 8: the only way you can be allowed to deal with
9:14
Speaker 8: Trump is if you're prepared to grovel to him in
9:18
Speaker 8: just the same way as Jujinping wants you to grovel
9:21
Speaker 8: and bend the knee to him as well. So let's
9:25
Speaker 8: not mince words about what these leaders require. They want subservience,
9:31
Speaker 8: and Trump is no different to wanting that subservience from Australia.
9:37
Speaker 8: You can see in how he's treating his other allies,
9:40
Speaker 8: our other allies in Europe, in the UK, in Canada.
9:45
Speaker 8: He expects you to grovel to him if you want anything.
9:50
Speaker 8: It's not about relationships, it's about being prepared to grovel.
9:55
Speaker 8: So I very much disagree with you where you've framed
9:58
Speaker 8: your question, because it's absolutely you know about relationships that
10:05
Speaker 8: the way Trump wants you to behave towards him. And
10:10
Speaker 8: it doesn't matter whether you.
10:11
Speaker 2: Can let me pick you up on that Stephen, because
10:14
Speaker 2: if you've let me pick you up, if you've got
10:15
Speaker 2: an ambassador, if you've got an ambassador who's describing the
10:18
Speaker 2: US president as a traitor to the West, a threat
10:22
Speaker 2: to democracy.
10:23
Speaker 3: A village idiot, you're not groveling to him.
10:26
Speaker 2: By finding an ambassador who may be a little more
10:28
Speaker 2: you know able to communicate with the current president than
10:32
Speaker 2: Kevin rut That's not groveling.
10:33
Speaker 3: That would just be wisdom, would it not.
10:38
Speaker 8: All I'd tell on that is, you know, the only
10:41
Speaker 8: person that Trump seems to allow to not grovel to him,
10:47
Speaker 8: who plays him on a break is Vladimir Vladimir Putin.
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Speaker 8: So let's be clear, Pewtin doesn't grovel, but Putin is
10:56
Speaker 8: able to get what he wants out of Trump because
11:00
Speaker 8: for some bizarre reason, Trump views him in a way
11:04
Speaker 8: he views no other human being. Uh, you know, he's
11:07
Speaker 8: a great admirer of Putin, chats with them apparently all
11:10
Speaker 8: the time. I asked him to help with Iran, you know,
11:12
Speaker 8: all this sort of stuff. So in terms of the
11:15
Speaker 8: way Trump is behaving, Kevin is simply trying to do
11:21
Speaker 8: the best for Australia. And I agree with Michael that is.
11:25
Speaker 2: Run Trump actually totally close. I think Trump actually told
11:31
Speaker 2: Putin I don't need your help. What I need you
11:33
Speaker 2: to do is sort out what's happening over in Europe
11:35
Speaker 2: and let me worry about Iran. But anyway, quickly, Michael,
11:38
Speaker 2: before we move on, who would be a better ambassador
11:41
Speaker 2: in terms of helping our relationship with the US than
11:43
Speaker 2: Kevin rud if you had to nominate someone else.
11:47
Speaker 7: Greg Norman, the prison placed golf with him him.
11:52
Speaker 6: He's not political. A warm and elbow could manage him.
11:57
Speaker 6: See probably is snowboarded with him. I don't know, you know,
12:01
Speaker 6: sort of.
12:02
Speaker 7: He's a good guy, is mister Australia.
12:05
Speaker 6: So but you know, Trump souring on Putin and if
12:10
Speaker 6: we have to do what mister Rutter didn't call him
12:12
Speaker 6: daddy in order to get not to get punity in
12:15
Speaker 6: Paris in Australia, that's.
12:17
Speaker 7: What we've got to do.
12:18
Speaker 6: Steve, that's not groveling, that's that's like the guys, the narcissists.
12:23
Speaker 7: You just use the language.
12:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, I might be on Steven with regards to that one, Michael.
12:29
Speaker 2: I think referring to Trump as daddy may be going
12:32
Speaker 2: just a touch.
12:34
Speaker 7: Move on to other topics to Dutch.
12:39
Speaker 2: Let me move on to other topics because we've got
12:41
Speaker 2: to keep moving. But the a n Z Bank has
12:43
Speaker 2: called for immediate action to secure our food supply in
12:47
Speaker 2: the event of war breaking out. They've said we rely
12:50
Speaker 2: too heavily on imports for food production and they recommend
12:53
Speaker 2: that food security needs.
12:54
Speaker 3: To align with national defense plans.
12:57
Speaker 2: Michael, is this just another way in which Australia seems
13:00
Speaker 2: totally unprepared for conflict breaking out in our region?
13:04
Speaker 7: Well, I was alarmed during COVID.
13:05
Speaker 6: I think we all were about our reliance on pharmaceuticals
13:09
Speaker 6: and medical products that came from elsewhere. We don't seem
13:12
Speaker 6: to have enough coastal shipping to move our ships to
13:16
Speaker 6: move our goods around around the coasts. So I think
13:19
Speaker 6: this is just a replication of also defense products. And
13:24
Speaker 6: the worst of it all is oil. I mean, we've
13:27
Speaker 6: got our strategic oil reserve in the United States. We
13:30
Speaker 6: should be using the existing refinements that exist to sotore
13:34
Speaker 6: oil as a strategic reserve.
13:39
Speaker 2: Steven, I can hear you laughing in the background, But
13:41
Speaker 2: I mean the federal government's.
13:42
Speaker 3: Own petroleum twenty two days.
13:46
Speaker 8: No, No, I'm a green with Michael.
13:47
Speaker 3: Wa there you go.
13:48
Speaker 8: I'm a green with Michael one hundred percent. I was
13:52
Speaker 8: only laughing because it's so absurd that we've allowed ourselves
13:55
Speaker 8: to get into this situation. And Michael picked the most
13:58
Speaker 8: extraordinary like oil we have. I think you said twenty
14:01
Speaker 8: two days worth of oil. It's like you can cripple
14:04
Speaker 8: this country very very quickly, and I absolutely endorse whether
14:11
Speaker 8: it's food, national security materials, defense armaments. I mean, you
14:16
Speaker 8: saw Europe almost run out of bullets. Old is that
14:19
Speaker 8: as a simple way, you know, like Europe almost ran
14:22
Speaker 8: out of bullets in you know a couple of weeks
14:25
Speaker 8: of the fight, had to treble its production, et cetera.
14:28
Speaker 8: Australia is an even worse situation re arming ourselves if
14:31
Speaker 8: there's a conflict. We still don't have any missiles, you know, drones,
14:36
Speaker 8: all that capability. Whether it's was the Liberal Party's promises
14:39
Speaker 8: in the last election, you know they were just as
14:43
Speaker 8: often than never never, as Labor has criticized and been
14:47
Speaker 8: criticized for.
14:49
Speaker 1: We are both parties.
14:50
Speaker 8: Are committed to increasing, just not at the rate that
14:53
Speaker 8: Donald Trump is demanding. If it's a five percent, like
14:56
Speaker 8: Australia just could not manage that in any shape or
14:59
Speaker 8: form without causing casastrophe across the rest of the economy.
15:04
Speaker 8: Australia couldn't build in US and enough drones, couldn't build
15:08
Speaker 8: enough missiles in time.
15:10
Speaker 6: James, we need to spend more than we're spending because
15:14
Speaker 6: we can't afford to keep the current ADF and do
15:18
Speaker 6: the future funding of the submarines.
15:20
Speaker 7: It's quite clear now that both of the two don't
15:22
Speaker 7: fit together.
15:23
Speaker 6: So we've got to raise it at least from two
15:25
Speaker 6: point three to over three. So that would keep Trump
15:30
Speaker 6: off our back with the tariffs foo. So I hope
15:33
Speaker 6: when Albow eventually.
15:34
Speaker 7: Gets to seat in the sit in the Zelenski seat.
15:37
Speaker 6: He's got something in his back pocket like that that
15:40
Speaker 6: matches our own interests. So it's not you're not doing it,
15:43
Speaker 6: Albow because it's American interest. But you've got to pay
15:46
Speaker 6: for the existing ADYF and all of the things that
15:48
Speaker 6: it needs.
15:49
Speaker 7: Plus the submarines need to go to more than three percent.
15:55
Speaker 2: So let me ask you this, Steve Conroy, because you've
15:57
Speaker 2: been at senior levels of government. People sitting at home
16:00
Speaker 2: would be astonished. We don't have food security. We've got
16:04
Speaker 2: enough AMMO for a week, maybe a couple of weeks
16:06
Speaker 2: if war broke out. We don't have enough fuel for
16:08
Speaker 2: even a month in the event that shipping lanes are blocked.
16:12
Speaker 3: We can't afford basic defense.
16:15
Speaker 2: How does a government where the liberal or labor allow
16:18
Speaker 2: our nation to get to such a perilous position, and
16:22
Speaker 2: why does there not seem to be urgency. Just forget
16:25
Speaker 2: partisan politics. How do our national leaders allow us to
16:30
Speaker 2: get to that point? And what are they thinking? It
16:32
Speaker 2: seems obvious to all of us. Why is it not
16:35
Speaker 2: obvious to them?
16:38
Speaker 8: Yeah? So look just in terms of take food, Australia
16:42
Speaker 8: has supported the sort of international trading system opening ourselves
16:48
Speaker 8: to the world, and Australians have had an extraordinary lift
16:52
Speaker 8: in their wealth over a long period of time because
16:55
Speaker 8: we've been a big supporter and an active player in
16:59
Speaker 8: the international tre system trying to get fair, honest and
17:02
Speaker 8: transparent training rules across the worlds and Australians have benefits
17:08
Speaker 8: from that. What it means though, as a threat emergers
17:12
Speaker 8: like China has that the world has not responded quickly enough.
17:18
Speaker 8: I mean Trump is now promising bring cars back them
17:20
Speaker 8: and you've got a factory open, there'll be a bunch
17:22
Speaker 8: of robots and no actual jobs for human beings and
17:25
Speaker 8: a new car plant in the US. But we are
17:29
Speaker 8: in a position we were vulnerable. To give you the
17:31
Speaker 8: silliest example but incredibly terrifying, there's one magnet that the
17:37
Speaker 8: F thirty five's are key plane and around the world
17:41
Speaker 8: to keep playing. There's one magnet that keeps it flying
17:44
Speaker 8: without it doesn't work, and that magnet is produced in China.
17:47
Speaker 8: I mean, how on earth did anybody, including the Americans,
17:50
Speaker 8: allow ourselves to get in that situation, which is why
17:53
Speaker 8: the rare earths. I mean, if there's two issues that
17:56
Speaker 8: we're talking about that you might want to advance with Trump,
17:59
Speaker 8: it's earths that Australia have. We haven't done enough to
18:02
Speaker 8: refine and build them and refine them here in Australia.
18:07
Speaker 8: There's some improvement on that government to put money into
18:12
Speaker 8: one company in Australia to refine. And then there's a
18:17
Speaker 8: defense spend that I think there's a growing in. Both
18:21
Speaker 8: Albanies and Miles have both been saying, you know, we'll
18:24
Speaker 8: consider this. We've got to find the right kit to buy.
18:26
Speaker 8: He use a phrase. So I think between the rare
18:29
Speaker 8: earths and a sensible spend in defense, we can reach
18:34
Speaker 8: the sort of things that Mike Laig yourself have been
18:36
Speaker 8: talking about. But we are victim to being a big
18:38
Speaker 8: supporter of the international trading system. It's just it's now
18:42
Speaker 8: not being played fairly by China, and the Americans have
18:44
Speaker 8: decided to misuse their economic power in the way they have.
18:48
Speaker 8: I mean, many people in America still think, you know,
18:50
Speaker 8: the economists still think the American economy is going to
18:52
Speaker 8: tank because of the stupidity of the tariff argument.
18:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, well there there's still seems to be a lot
18:59
Speaker 2: of lethargy in Canberra despite all those other factors you've mentioned.
19:02
Speaker 2: Steven Conroy, Michael Dan, we appreciate your time tonight. Well,
19:06
Speaker 2: after the break, Penny Wong is off to Washington to
19:08
Speaker 2: selvage what's left of our relationship with the US. Greg
19:11
Speaker 2: Sheridan joins me in the moment, and I'll talk to
19:14
Speaker 2: the Council street sweeper sacked for questioning why his weekly
19:17
Speaker 2: work meeting needed an acknowledgment of country stick around, Welcome
19:25
Speaker 2: back to the program. Well, as Foreign Minister Penny Wong
19:27
Speaker 2: prepares to head to Washington, I'm joined by Foreign editor
19:30
Speaker 2: for The Australian, Greg Sheridan.
19:32
Speaker 3: Greg, good evening and thanks for being with me.
19:35
Speaker 2: How would you describe the Albanezy government's relationship with the
19:38
Speaker 2: Trump administration at this point right now?
19:43
Speaker 9: Oh, James, good to be with you. Look, it's pretty frosty.
19:47
Speaker 1: You know.
19:47
Speaker 9: The Albaneza government's arguments on defense spending are just ridiculous.
19:51
Speaker 9: They're utterly ludicrous. They don't make any sense to anybody.
19:53
Speaker 9: Even friends of the government like Stephen Conroy can't defend them.
19:57
Speaker 9: We spend two percent, not two point three percent, been
20:00
Speaker 9: two percent of GDP on defense. We spent two percent
20:03
Speaker 9: of GDP on defense. When Alberanzi first came to office,
20:08
Speaker 9: he said to me in an interview that he would
20:10
Speaker 9: raise it beyond two percent if that was necessary. Since then,
20:14
Speaker 9: we've had report after report, government statement after government statement
20:17
Speaker 9: that these are the most dangerous strategic circumstances we've faced
20:21
Speaker 9: since World War Two. We've also embarked on the massively
20:24
Speaker 9: expensive project of acquiring nuclear submarines. Now, the dollar amount
20:29
Speaker 9: of our defense budget has gone up because of inflation,
20:33
Speaker 9: and so everything is at a record high spend in
20:36
Speaker 9: dollar terms, nds, everything you like. But the real increase
20:41
Speaker 9: in defense spending has been extremely small, and we have
20:45
Speaker 9: not produced anything like the range of capabilities we said
20:49
Speaker 9: we would produce in the Defense Strategic Review. Every single
20:53
Speaker 9: person the Albanese government has asked to advise it on
20:55
Speaker 9: defense has told it it needs to go to three
20:57
Speaker 9: percent of GDP and beyond, And the Americans are asking
21:01
Speaker 9: all their allies to do more in their own defense. Now,
21:06
Speaker 9: it seems to me we've got a very ugly situation here.
21:08
Speaker 9: The Albanesi government is saying, well, you can't get rid
21:12
Speaker 9: of us as an ally because you need our northern bases. Well,
21:16
Speaker 9: what a dismal and pathetic basis that is for an alliance.
21:19
Speaker 9: And they're also saying, you know, the Chinese have told
21:22
Speaker 9: us not to spend any more on our defense budget.
21:25
Speaker 9: They're not saying this, but this is a reality, and
21:27
Speaker 9: we're not going to spend any more on our defense budget.
21:29
Speaker 9: The Chinese ambassador had a piece in The Australian Today
21:32
Speaker 9: telling Albanese not to do anything more on defense. Alberese
21:36
Speaker 9: was asked if this was interference, and he was annoyed
21:38
Speaker 9: at the questioner. Certainly wasn't going to say anything critical
21:41
Speaker 9: of China.
21:42
Speaker 10: Now.
21:42
Speaker 9: The Trump administration doesn't spend much time thinking about Australia,
21:46
Speaker 9: but it notices all this and it thinks we've got
21:49
Speaker 9: a deadbeat government. We're a dead beat ally.
21:53
Speaker 2: One of the issues you raised there is Labour's stubborn
21:56
Speaker 2: refusal to lift defense spending as requested by the Trump administration.
22:01
Speaker 2: But Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke hinted over the weekend
22:04
Speaker 2: that Albanesi may budge if the Trump administration asks Australia
22:09
Speaker 2: for more defense capability rather than just an arbitrary increase.
22:15
Speaker 3: Is that something of a backflipboard? Is Tony Burke just
22:17
Speaker 3: playing games here?
22:21
Speaker 9: I know, I didn't think there was anything in Burke's interview.
22:23
Speaker 9: Look in the end, if Trump puts the acid on Albanezi,
22:26
Speaker 9: he'll have to give in an increased defense spending. It's
22:29
Speaker 9: utterly pathetic that we have to have the Americans force
22:32
Speaker 9: us to do the most elementary thing in our own interest.
22:36
Speaker 9: And this idea that you go for capabilities not percentages
22:40
Speaker 9: of GDP.
22:41
Speaker 1: What utter rubbish.
22:43
Speaker 9: That is what futiling nonsensical balderdash. That is I'm prevented
22:47
Speaker 9: from using more accurate terms.
22:49
Speaker 1: James.
22:50
Speaker 9: You know, another half percent of GDP would be about
22:53
Speaker 9: fourteen or fifteen billion dollars and that would be used
22:57
Speaker 9: to buy capabilities. We might sustain our ships so that
23:01
Speaker 9: they could put to sea. We might upgrade our submarines.
23:05
Speaker 9: We might put more lethal weapons on our frigates. We
23:11
Speaker 9: might buy some drones rather than the single one armed
23:16
Speaker 9: drone which we have now in our order of battle.
23:18
Speaker 9: We might buy the fourth squadron of F thirty five's
23:21
Speaker 9: that were always going to buy and was canceled by
23:24
Speaker 9: the Albanesi government. We might buy the naval supply ships
23:27
Speaker 9: with which the Defense Strategic Review said we needed in
23:31
Speaker 9: order to enable our navy to operate further from shore
23:34
Speaker 9: than one hundred meters.
23:36
Speaker 1: Now, all of.
23:36
Speaker 9: These are capabilities. You wouldn't get them all for a
23:39
Speaker 9: half percent of GDP. So the Alberanzi government to say
23:42
Speaker 9: it's interested in capabilities but not percentage of GDP.
23:45
Speaker 3: This is just baffling the.
23:49
Speaker 9: People with BS frankly, and it just shows what a
23:52
Speaker 9: profoundly unserious government this is. In defense.
23:58
Speaker 2: You mentioned earlier op ed in The Australian Today from
24:02
Speaker 2: the Chinese ambassador.
24:03
Speaker 3: I spoke about it at the top of the show, the.
24:05
Speaker 2: Ambassador warning it's not in our interests to increase defense spending.
24:09
Speaker 2: It's so self serving to the point of parity, and
24:13
Speaker 2: yet there he was saying it with a straight face.
24:16
Speaker 2: What does that tell you about the way China views
24:19
Speaker 2: the Albanese government and what does Albanese's response. You mentioned
24:23
Speaker 2: he was annoyed that he had to even respond to
24:25
Speaker 2: it tell the world about where the Albanese government sits
24:28
Speaker 2: in terms of its relationship with China. I note Albanese
24:32
Speaker 2: is not shy and criticizing the Trump administration, but he
24:35
Speaker 2: dare not say anything about China.
24:39
Speaker 7: Yeah.
24:40
Speaker 9: I think the Chinese government would be extremely pleased with
24:42
Speaker 9: the Albanese government, very very pleased. What a bizarre position
24:45
Speaker 9: Australia is in our most important ally, which provides ninety
24:51
Speaker 9: nine point nine percent of our security. I'd say about
24:53
Speaker 9: ero point one percent of our security is provided by
24:56
Speaker 9: our own efforts. Ninety nine point nine percent of its
24:58
Speaker 9: supplied by the United sis States. Is asking us like
25:01
Speaker 9: it's asking other allies to do more in our own
25:04
Speaker 9: interests for our own self defense, and we're telling it
25:07
Speaker 9: to go to blazers. Don't interfere with us. We'll do
25:10
Speaker 9: as we like. Blah blah blah. China, on the other hand,
25:13
Speaker 9: which sends its navy to conduct live fire exercises in
25:21
Speaker 9: the Tasman Sea without giving us notice and interrupts aviation routes,
25:25
Speaker 9: sends warships to scope out targets on our mainland and
25:28
Speaker 9: circumnavigate the Australian mainland has had many dangerous interactions with
25:32
Speaker 9: Australian forces in our own waters, not even far afield,
25:38
Speaker 9: and is engaged, according to Defense Minister Richard Marles, in
25:41
Speaker 9: the most dangerous and concerning military upgrade since World War II.
25:45
Speaker 9: It tells us not to do anything more than we're
25:48
Speaker 9: doing on defense, and Albanez he won't even say mind
25:51
Speaker 9: your own business, China. He is like a scared rabbit
25:55
Speaker 9: when confronted with the Chinese, and he is now effectively
25:59
Speaker 9: doing what China wants him to do, even to the
26:01
Speaker 9: point of defenestrating the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, which was
26:06
Speaker 9: one of China's embassy's demands a.
26:08
Speaker 1: Couple of years ago.
26:09
Speaker 9: He do absolutely everything China wants, including never ever ever
26:13
Speaker 9: criticizing them, very unlike his first year in office. And
26:17
Speaker 9: on the other hand, he refuses any reasonable request from
26:22
Speaker 9: the Americans. We wouldn't send a vessel to help secure
26:25
Speaker 9: the Red Sea, even though we ask America to provide
26:28
Speaker 9: for our security, and we won't pay anything like a
26:33
Speaker 9: reasonable amount in our own defense, even though we've been
26:36
Speaker 9: politely asked by the Americans. So I think you know,
26:41
Speaker 9: it's frankly a pathetic performance by the Australian government.
26:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not sure what reception Penny Wong is expecting
26:49
Speaker 2: in Washington this week, but I'm sure it's not going
26:52
Speaker 2: to be warm. Greg Sheridan, always a pleasure to talk
26:55
Speaker 2: to you. Thanks for your time. Well, the whole of
26:58
Speaker 2: Australia now knows about the Robin street sweeper who was
27:01
Speaker 2: sacked for daring to question whether or not an acknowledgment
27:04
Speaker 2: of country was necessary at the start of a work meeting.
27:08
Speaker 2: Last week, Sean Turner won his unfair dismissal case against
27:12
Speaker 2: the Darrabin Council and he's now waiting to find out
27:14
Speaker 2: whether he'll be giving his job back or receive compensation.
27:18
Speaker 2: He joins me, Now, Sean, thanks so much for coming
27:21
Speaker 2: on with me. Just take me back to when all
27:24
Speaker 2: this started. You turn up for a pre work meeting,
27:28
Speaker 2: presumably to talk about how you'll be cleaning rubbish from
27:31
Speaker 2: the streets that day, only to find those instructions can't
27:34
Speaker 2: be given before Indigenous people are acknowledged.
27:37
Speaker 3: Have I got that right?
27:40
Speaker 11: Yes, that's correct, James here, Dan, Yeah, that's thanks. It
27:45
Speaker 11: was a group of about group of about eight ten
27:48
Speaker 11: people there and the supervisor coming and just for the
27:53
Speaker 11: first time in our toolbox and decided he was going
27:56
Speaker 11: to do the acknowledgment of the country. And I sort
27:59
Speaker 11: of questioned what was he doing? And that's sort of
28:05
Speaker 11: where it started about twelve fourteen months ago.
28:12
Speaker 2: So you questioned why this was happening, what was your
28:15
Speaker 2: objection to it.
28:19
Speaker 11: I just thought it was overdoing it, Like we're at
28:24
Speaker 11: a toolbox meeting, no special occasion or anything like that,
28:29
Speaker 11: and I just thought it's getting overdone. If you gain
28:35
Speaker 11: eight meetings, you're probably going to get eight acknowledgment of
28:39
Speaker 11: the country. So you spent half your day at acknowledgement
28:42
Speaker 11: of the country. So I just thought it was a
28:45
Speaker 11: strange thing to do without any knowledge that it was
28:48
Speaker 11: going to happen.
28:51
Speaker 2: So next thing you know, you're pulled aside and you're
28:54
Speaker 2: in an HR meeting being criticized and threatened with your job.
29:02
Speaker 1: Now it was about eight weeks later.
29:04
Speaker 11: I was traveling home and I got a phone call
29:09
Speaker 11: saying I was going to be stood down, and I
29:12
Speaker 11: wasn't quite sure why, but then it was an explanation
29:15
Speaker 11: of what happened at the meeting. Then, so I was
29:19
Speaker 11: stood down and then then started the process of onto
29:23
Speaker 11: the dismissal.
29:27
Speaker 2: So I've got to ask you this, Sean, you objected
29:30
Speaker 2: to an acknowledgment of country. Are you racist? You have
29:33
Speaker 2: a problem with Indigenous people?
29:37
Speaker 11: No, I had no problem with Indigenous people. It's a
29:40
Speaker 11: pretty easy word to throw at someone.
29:43
Speaker 1: That you're racist. You look at someone.
29:48
Speaker 11: Different, and they'll just come back with your racist or
29:52
Speaker 11: what are you looking at this thing?
29:53
Speaker 1: Now? I'm not racist.
29:54
Speaker 11: My nieces actually Aboriginal, and she's got very beautiful boys
30:03
Speaker 11: and one wild daughter.
30:06
Speaker 1: So I have no problems we have Originals. I grew up.
30:10
Speaker 1: I grew up in broad Meadows.
30:11
Speaker 11: We had a great family of Aboriginal boys, all great
30:15
Speaker 11: footballers playing football with us out there. And one of
30:19
Speaker 11: them happened to be close friend of mine and he
30:22
Speaker 11: ended up with my sister.
30:24
Speaker 1: Here.
30:27
Speaker 2: Is it correct that you represented yourself at the Fair
30:30
Speaker 2: Work Commission hearing because the union didn't want to get
30:33
Speaker 2: involved in your case when you were sacked for objecting
30:36
Speaker 2: to Welcome to Country?
30:37
Speaker 7: Is that right?
30:39
Speaker 1: The Union helped me all through.
30:42
Speaker 11: The emma from the union was pretty good, help me
30:46
Speaker 11: all the way until I was sort of dismissed, and
30:48
Speaker 11: then and then I sort of put it into the
30:51
Speaker 11: Fair Work Commission and then asked the union, who then
30:55
Speaker 11: asked their solicitors, and their solicitors were weren't prepared to
31:00
Speaker 11: take the case on, so I was sort of left
31:03
Speaker 11: to handle a law myself.
31:07
Speaker 2: I can't imagine the emotional turmoil, the anxiety. I mean,
31:11
Speaker 2: no one wants to be threatened with, let alone lose
31:15
Speaker 2: their job. You complained about an acknowledgment of country. Looking back,
31:20
Speaker 2: was it worth it?
31:24
Speaker 1: From the reactions that.
31:25
Speaker 11: Have gone on from the majority of the silent majority,
31:31
Speaker 11: it seems to have stirred up a bit of a
31:33
Speaker 11: hornet's ness.
31:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, probably, it probably was. Probably it was a good
31:39
Speaker 1: thing to do, because.
31:41
Speaker 11: It's just getting out of hand, like a toolbox mote
31:45
Speaker 11: get fed income. There was no foreign dignitaries there, so
31:50
Speaker 11: it was a bit strange.
31:55
Speaker 2: Just quickly before I'll let you go, you mentioned the
31:57
Speaker 2: feedback you've had, and I imagine it's a big decision
32:00
Speaker 2: to go public with this because there'd be people on
32:03
Speaker 2: both sides. But just generally, what sort of feedback have
32:07
Speaker 2: you had? Have people been supportive or have people been
32:09
Speaker 2: mostly critical?
32:13
Speaker 1: All as I've had is support. I suppose I haven't
32:17
Speaker 1: really read all the feedback because I've sort of.
32:23
Speaker 11: Been flat out and then you and from the Australian
32:27
Speaker 11: finally found me.
32:28
Speaker 1: I was pretty.
32:30
Speaker 11: I was sort of hidden away there for a bit
32:32
Speaker 11: and then youw and got old of me and then
32:35
Speaker 11: say yeah it was It seems to be some fairly
32:39
Speaker 11: good feedback. So yeah, it's been all right.
32:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, Sean, I think there's a lot of viewers
32:47
Speaker 2: who would be very encouraging of you for taking a
32:50
Speaker 2: stand on an issue that a lot of us are
32:52
Speaker 2: pretty fed up with. I trust that things work out
32:55
Speaker 2: for you, whether you get your job back or get compensated,
32:58
Speaker 2: but I really appreciate you coming on tonight and sharing
33:00
Speaker 2: his story.
33:01
Speaker 3: Thanks so much.
33:03
Speaker 1: Now, Ari, Thanks James.
33:07
Speaker 2: All right, well, coming up after the break, Amazon founder
33:10
Speaker 2: Jeff Bezos was married at the weekend and oh how
33:14
Speaker 2: the haters hated on him and his fiance. Plus the
33:18
Speaker 2: East Coast of Australia is being worn to prepare for
33:20
Speaker 2: a bomb cyclone.
33:22
Speaker 3: We really need the dramatic language my panel up next.
33:28
Speaker 2: Have you noticed modern weather reports range from somewhere between
33:32
Speaker 2: partly cloudy and run for your lives? Case in point,
33:35
Speaker 2: New South Wales residents are being worn to prepare for
33:38
Speaker 2: armageddon later this week.
33:40
Speaker 12: We're being worn tonight of a dangerous weather system called
33:43
Speaker 12: a bomb cyclone, which could strike our coast in the
33:46
Speaker 12: next few days.
33:47
Speaker 3: The warning area extends one thousand kilometers from Coffs to Beager,
33:51
Speaker 3: with Sydney right in the middle.
33:53
Speaker 12: Residents right now along the East Coast are seriously bracing
33:56
Speaker 12: for damaging rain, winds and hazardous serf this week as
34:00
Speaker 12: a bomb cyclone threatens to wreak plenty of havoc.
34:04
Speaker 2: Bomb cyclone sounds like something Bruce Willis would defuse at
34:07
Speaker 2: the end of Hollywood Thriller, but it was actually the
34:10
Speaker 2: ABC who diffused it, explaining what a bomb cyclone means
34:14
Speaker 2: in practical terms.
34:16
Speaker 13: And if you're on the East Coast, well, you are
34:18
Speaker 13: going to have to brace yourself for some very chilly nights.
34:23
Speaker 3: Put those socks on.
34:24
Speaker 13: Those others come back on again now, because we're expecting
34:27
Speaker 13: a decent amount of rain in the coming weeks. A
34:30
Speaker 13: low pressure system is forming off the coast. It's heading
34:33
Speaker 13: towards New South Wales and to Queensland.
34:36
Speaker 2: Brace yourself for some very chilly nights and the only
34:39
Speaker 2: way you'll.
34:39
Speaker 3: Survive is with socks.
34:42
Speaker 2: Choining me is my panel, history lecturer and author Stephen
34:45
Speaker 2: Shiva and my late debate co host Freyer Leitch Freyer.
34:49
Speaker 2: Is it just me or do the media tend to
34:51
Speaker 2: catastrophize weather that will just used.
34:54
Speaker 3: To be weather?
34:56
Speaker 14: Well, definitely, and it sounds like it's basically just a storm.
34:59
Speaker 14: And the bomb comes from the fact that it's a
35:01
Speaker 14: rapidly developing weather system, but that doesn't change the actual
35:05
Speaker 14: weather system itself. It just means it comes on quicker,
35:08
Speaker 14: which is why it's called a bomb. But I think
35:10
Speaker 14: it's really unhelpful of the media to perpetuate this panic,
35:15
Speaker 14: because we don't want to see people rushing out panic buying,
35:19
Speaker 14: preparing for armageddon when in all honesty, it will probably
35:24
Speaker 14: just be a severe storm. But we have storms like
35:27
Speaker 14: that all the time.
35:30
Speaker 2: Well, Steve, And of course I don't want to downplay
35:33
Speaker 2: the fact that you know, there may well be strong
35:34
Speaker 2: winds and people may lose you know, roofs of houses
35:38
Speaker 2: in some cases, could be flash flooding, So I'm not
35:40
Speaker 2: trying to downplay it. But bomb cyclone, is this a
35:46
Speaker 2: bid to you know, attract viewers or is it a
35:50
Speaker 2: bid to be a bit more political and jazz people
35:52
Speaker 2: up about the weather generally because of course climate change.
35:57
Speaker 12: Yeah, well, these used to be called explosive cyclogenesis, and
36:02
Speaker 12: I guess that wasn't considered sensational enough, and so they
36:05
Speaker 12: changed it to you a bomb cyclone or bomber genesis.
36:09
Speaker 12: I actually don't think they're going far enough, and I
36:11
Speaker 12: just think that what we need to start doing is
36:14
Speaker 12: have across our screens when these weather events happen, kaboom
36:19
Speaker 12: in old nineteen sixties batman riding kaboom weather event, and
36:23
Speaker 12: that will frighten people enough to be able to sort
36:26
Speaker 12: of muster up the motivation to make sacrifices and propitiations
36:32
Speaker 12: to the climate change gods. And those sacrifices and propitiations
36:36
Speaker 12: are best done through more diversity, equity, and inclusion, and
36:40
Speaker 12: then everything will be made right.
36:44
Speaker 3: Again.
36:45
Speaker 2: I want to emphasize, you know, there may well be
36:47
Speaker 2: flash flooding and so on as a result of the
36:49
Speaker 2: weather in the coming days. I don't want to downplay that,
36:52
Speaker 2: but bomb cyclone a little bit extreme. Amazon found the
36:57
Speaker 2: Jeff Bezos tied the knot in Venice over the weekend
37:00
Speaker 2: in a modest little ceremony that reportedly cost just fifty
37:03
Speaker 2: million dollars, which in billionaire terms is basically rummaging for
37:07
Speaker 2: change in the yacht cushions. The guest list looked like
37:09
Speaker 2: a who's who have Woke Royalty, Leonardo DiCaprio, Oprah Winfrey,
37:13
Speaker 2: and Bill Gates, to name just a few.
37:16
Speaker 3: Am I a fan of any of them?
37:17
Speaker 2: Not particularly, But then again, it wasn't my wedding, so
37:20
Speaker 2: what business is the list the guest list?
37:23
Speaker 3: To me?
37:24
Speaker 2: What shocked me though, was how angry people got about
37:28
Speaker 2: this wedding green peace and extinction rebellion.
37:31
Speaker 3: They staged protests.
37:33
Speaker 2: Local Venetians didn't want their city overrun by tourists, which
37:37
Speaker 2: is like a kebab shop owner complaining about drunk people.
37:40
Speaker 2: And now adding the final sprinkle of sanctimony, Charlie Charon
37:44
Speaker 2: popped up at a Hollywood event on Saturday to tell
37:47
Speaker 2: the crowd and I quote, I think we might be
37:49
Speaker 2: the only people who didn't get an invite to the
37:51
Speaker 2: bezos wedding, But that's okay because they suck.
37:55
Speaker 3: And we're cool.
37:56
Speaker 2: Stephen Jeff Bezos is worth billions and to the left,
37:59
Speaker 2: represents the excesses of capitalism. But does that make it
38:03
Speaker 2: okay to hate on his wedding.
38:06
Speaker 12: No, and this just shows that the really dark side
38:10
Speaker 12: of the left, this hatred of success. We talk a
38:15
Speaker 12: lot these days about the great sort of evil of inequality,
38:20
Speaker 12: but I would propose that that's really not what a
38:23
Speaker 12: great evil is. A great evil would be something like
38:26
Speaker 12: great poverty, not necessarily inequality, because there's nothing wrong with
38:30
Speaker 12: someone becoming immensely successful. And someone like Jeff Bezos has
38:34
Speaker 12: become immensely successful because he's created things, and he has
38:39
Speaker 12: created a way for millions of people around the world
38:43
Speaker 12: to get things that they need, to get things that
38:45
Speaker 12: they want. And so many of the people when you
38:47
Speaker 12: see it, you see them at these protests against the rich,
38:50
Speaker 12: you know, eat the rich, and those kinds of things.
38:53
Speaker 12: These are people who, I would wager the overwhelming majority
38:57
Speaker 12: of whom have not started anything, created anything, have not
39:01
Speaker 12: taken any great risks whereby they could themselves be ruined
39:06
Speaker 12: if it doesn't work, have never employed anyone. And these
39:10
Speaker 12: are things that many of the rich have actually done. Certainly,
39:13
Speaker 12: Jeff Bezos has done it. How many thousands, maybe millions
39:17
Speaker 12: of people has he employed? How many millions of people
39:20
Speaker 12: have had their lives improved by things that they have
39:23
Speaker 12: brought through Amazon, and so it's a complete it's the
39:26
Speaker 12: really resentful side of the left shining through.
39:32
Speaker 2: We'll have a listened to the Democratic candidate for New
39:34
Speaker 2: York Mayor, Zohan Mamdani.
39:37
Speaker 3: He doesn't believe billionaires should even exist. Do you think
39:41
Speaker 3: that billionaires have a right to exist?
39:45
Speaker 10: I don't think that we should have billionaires because, frankly,
39:48
Speaker 10: it is so much money in a moment of such inequality,
39:51
Speaker 10: and ultimately what we need more of is equality across
39:55
Speaker 10: our city and across our state and across our country.
39:57
Speaker 10: And I look forward to work with everyone, including billionaires,
40:01
Speaker 10: to make a city that is fairer for all of them.
40:04
Speaker 3: H Frear.
40:04
Speaker 2: It's effective life. Someone's always going to have more than you.
40:08
Speaker 2: But the answer to that inconvenient truth isn't to outlaw wealth.
40:12
Speaker 2: Surely and certainly not the government deciding who can have what.
40:16
Speaker 14: It's going to backfire on New York massively. I mean,
40:19
Speaker 14: wealthy people in New York are already getting nervous. I've
40:22
Speaker 14: seen reports of people already looking at ways to move
40:26
Speaker 14: their assets out of New York. And that's what's going
40:28
Speaker 14: to happen. The US has a genuinely competitive taxation system,
40:32
Speaker 14: and a lot of wealthy people are moving from these
40:35
Speaker 14: left wing democrat areas to states like Florida, states like
40:39
Speaker 14: Texas where they have basically no income tax, very low
40:43
Speaker 14: company tax. And guess what those states are thriving. And
40:47
Speaker 14: when you attract wealthy people, the wealthy people pay taxes,
40:50
Speaker 14: the wealthy people create jobs, and everyone is better off.
40:53
Speaker 14: But that is what the radical left does not understand
40:56
Speaker 14: economics one oh one. Wealth is not a zero sum game.
41:00
Speaker 14: Everyone benefits from wealthy people who create jobs, who invest
41:04
Speaker 14: in the local economy. So if New York genuinely does
41:08
Speaker 14: elect Zorhan Mamdani as they're mayor in November, I think
41:12
Speaker 14: they will be in a world of pain. You will
41:14
Speaker 14: see massive capital flight and the city as we know
41:17
Speaker 14: it will change. It can't possibly remain the center of
41:20
Speaker 14: global finance and business.
41:22
Speaker 3: When you have a radical socialist.
41:24
Speaker 2: Mayor ah Freya, you're appealing to logic when the politics
41:30
Speaker 2: of envy is far more emotional and likely to result
41:33
Speaker 2: in votes. One more thing before we go, stephen A
41:37
Speaker 2: pride parade in Canada has featured naked men marching through
41:40
Speaker 2: the CBD in full view of children, I'll show you
41:43
Speaker 2: the footage and God bless the pixels.
41:57
Speaker 3: All right, just quickly, if men did.
41:58
Speaker 2: This outside of school, that be arrested, but slap a
42:02
Speaker 2: rainbow sticker on the event and they're cheered.
42:04
Speaker 3: I've never understood that contradiction. Yeah, that's right.
42:08
Speaker 12: I mean that's because a lot of the the sort
42:10
Speaker 12: of the militant sort of gay rights, gay liberation movement,
42:14
Speaker 12: it has always been about not just removing tabooze against homosexuality,
42:20
Speaker 12: but also removing taboos about really any public, private, whatever
42:25
Speaker 12: expression of sexuality. And so for a lot of people,
42:28
Speaker 12: the idea of children being exposed to naked men in
42:32
Speaker 12: the streets that would be morally abhorrent to them. But
42:35
Speaker 12: for a lot of the radicals that is not morally
42:38
Speaker 12: a borrorin as well, that is a form of liberation.
42:40
Speaker 12: They believe in even liberating children from the stuffiness of
42:44
Speaker 12: sexual morality. So there's a real ideology behind the refusal
42:49
Speaker 12: to condemn these men for perversely parading themselves against children
42:55
Speaker 12: in front of chip.
42:56
Speaker 2: Absolutely, it's absolutely about ideology. You're totally right, Stephen and Freyer. Freyer,
43:01
Speaker 2: of course, will be back at ten pm on the
43:03
Speaker 2: Late Debate. Thanks for joining me well after the break.
43:07
Speaker 2: Was it a music festival or a hate festival? Esther Cracker,
43:10
Speaker 2: who joins me from London to discuss all the fallout
43:13
Speaker 2: from that disgraceful weekend rap performance broadcast by the BBC.
43:21
Speaker 2: You've heard the expression irony is dead. Well I'll tell
43:24
Speaker 2: you how it died. It was trampled to death by
43:27
Speaker 2: two hundred thousand music festival goers in the UK at
43:29
Speaker 2: the weekend. Imagine young people going to a music festival
43:33
Speaker 2: to chant in support of terrorists who less than two
43:36
Speaker 2: years ago murdered hundreds of young people at a music festival.
43:39
Speaker 2: You don't get any more progressive than that. The Glastonbury
43:43
Speaker 2: Music Festival crowd chanted free Free Palestine before being led
43:46
Speaker 2: in a chant calling for Jewish soldiers to be killed.
43:51
Speaker 10: To idf idf idf.
43:58
Speaker 2: Joining me now is writer and broadcast to Ester krekhu Esther,
44:02
Speaker 2: was it a music festival or a hate festival?
44:06
Speaker 5: It was really more.
44:07
Speaker 3: Hate than music.
44:09
Speaker 5: You would be surprised to know that many of the
44:11
Speaker 5: performances there were not something that normal working people know of.
44:15
Speaker 5: It's usually the kind of obsession of middle class young
44:19
Speaker 5: people that have four hundred pounds to spend getting drunk
44:22
Speaker 5: in a field with very questionable hygiene choices. Look, the
44:26
Speaker 5: biggest scandal here is the fact that the BBC actually
44:28
Speaker 5: aired this. You know, this was a surprise to no one.
44:31
Speaker 5: We've known that Glastonbury over the years invites a certain
44:33
Speaker 5: type of person, usually a very young, left leaning, quite
44:37
Speaker 5: naive of the world individual who's politics are questionable.
44:41
Speaker 7: We've always known this.
44:42
Speaker 5: We've known for years when storm Z decided to stand
44:45
Speaker 5: up on stage and start swearing at Boris Johnson and
44:48
Speaker 5: encouraging the crowd to swear at their then Prime Minister.
44:51
Speaker 5: But it is the fact that the BBC didn't foresee
44:54
Speaker 5: this sort of behavior that people find astonishing. You know,
44:58
Speaker 5: we've seen riots and protests the streets of London basically
45:01
Speaker 5: since October the seventh. We've seen the behavior of people
45:04
Speaker 5: that feel quite incensed by the situation going on in
45:07
Speaker 5: Israel and Gaza, and yet our national broadcaster did nothing
45:11
Speaker 5: to prevent it. They had, you know, the audacity to
45:13
Speaker 5: air a bunch of people basically saying death to the
45:16
Speaker 5: Idea and a bunch of other anti Semitic things, much
45:20
Speaker 5: of the horror of tens of millions of people in
45:22
Speaker 5: this country that are paying the license fee. I'm wondering, actually,
45:25
Speaker 5: what are we getting for our money. You know, a
45:27
Speaker 5: lot of broadcasters sensibly would actually create a delay in
45:30
Speaker 5: the broadcast so that if they see this sort of thing,
45:32
Speaker 5: that they would actually be able to stop it. But
45:34
Speaker 5: the BBC didn't do that, and they then came out
45:36
Speaker 5: with a groveling apology as they usually do when they've
45:38
Speaker 5: proven to fallen asleep at the wheel, and then said, oh, actually,
45:42
Speaker 5: you know what, we're not going to make this available
45:43
Speaker 5: on catch up, as if that's supposed to make the
45:45
Speaker 5: situation better. We know what to expect from people from
45:48
Speaker 5: from Glastonbury. We know that their IQ and their level
45:51
Speaker 5: of political knowledge is not probably where the rest of
45:55
Speaker 5: the publics is. We know that they're a bunch of young,
45:57
Speaker 5: easily manipulated people, a bunch of gretter tunebergs that find
46:01
Speaker 5: a new grievance to get excited about every week. But
46:04
Speaker 5: it's the fact that the BBC, the adults in the room,
46:07
Speaker 5: lack the editorial foresight to actually see this happening and
46:10
Speaker 5: be able to stop it. Because this is an embarrassment.
46:12
Speaker 5: It's completely embarrassing that this is happening here in the UK,
46:15
Speaker 5: and the West and world are watching what is actually
46:16
Speaker 5: happening to this country?
46:20
Speaker 2: Well, according to the UK Telegraph, the band have song
46:22
Speaker 2: lyrics that include lines like hanging today, come and see
46:26
Speaker 2: the hanging lynch, your leaders kill the fin Queen burn Britannia.
46:30
Speaker 3: I wipe my backside with that flag.
46:33
Speaker 2: You'd think someone might have noticed these guys, weren't you
46:36
Speaker 2: know exactly the Wiggles de hence need to roll the BBC.
46:40
Speaker 3: Will there be any consequences at all?
46:43
Speaker 5: There won't be any consequences, I suspect, but public trust
46:46
Speaker 5: is going to keep getting gradually eroded and the constant
46:49
Speaker 5: debate about the BBC license fee is going to be
46:50
Speaker 5: coming back in the news. You know, there have been
46:52
Speaker 5: people that have been talking about arresting this band, especially
46:55
Speaker 5: because now in Britain we have thirty people being arrested
46:57
Speaker 5: every day for online messages and you think, surely this
47:00
Speaker 5: should fit in. But like I said, we don't want
47:03
Speaker 5: to turn Britain into the place where free speech all
47:04
Speaker 5: but vanishes. And like John Stuart Mill said, you know,
47:08
Speaker 5: shouting outside a corn dealer's house to kill the corn dealer,
47:11
Speaker 5: and shouting in a field somewhere randomly are two different things.
47:14
Speaker 5: We have to have a very strict definition of incitement
47:16
Speaker 5: to violence, and I'm sure her Mass are not sitting
47:18
Speaker 5: there waiting for a bunch of left wing middle class
47:21
Speaker 5: people to pay four hundred pounds a ticket to get
47:25
Speaker 5: their orders from them, you know. I'm sure her Mass
47:27
Speaker 5: are doing other things, and I'm not concerned by what
47:30
Speaker 5: people are going to Glastonbury have to say about them
47:32
Speaker 5: and engaging in all sorts of debauchery, which ironically her
47:34
Speaker 5: Mass would probably throw them off buildings for. So it's
47:37
Speaker 5: just a complete disgrace all around, and the country is
47:39
Speaker 5: just astonished that the BBC didn't even foresee this. It's
47:43
Speaker 5: so embarrassing and it's such a disgrace and I feel
47:45
Speaker 5: so sorry for everyone that had to see that and
47:47
Speaker 5: was personally offended by it.
47:51
Speaker 2: Estra, I've only got a few seconds left, so I
47:52
Speaker 2: just need a really quick response to this one. But
47:55
Speaker 2: this band is due to play at another music festival
47:57
Speaker 2: in Manchester at the weekend. Should they be scrapped from
48:01
Speaker 2: the lineup or should they be allowed.
48:02
Speaker 3: To continue performing? Just really quickly, I think that should.
48:05
Speaker 5: Be allowed to continue performing. I think the bigger threat
48:07
Speaker 5: to Britain and life from Britain is free speech, and
48:10
Speaker 5: unfortunately free speech sometimes involves abhorrent speech, but we have
48:13
Speaker 5: to be willing to defend it at all costs or else,
48:15
Speaker 5: you know, someone like me, you could be getting arrested
48:17
Speaker 5: for something that people don't agree with.
48:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, fair cool, fair cool esther.
48:22
Speaker 2: I'm sorry I don't have more time to talk to
48:24
Speaker 2: you tonight, but it's always a joy to catch up
48:27
Speaker 2: and I really appreciate your time this evening. Well, thanks
48:30
Speaker 2: to you at.
48:30
Speaker 3: Home for watching. I really appreciate your viewership. That's all
48:33
Speaker 3: from me, but stick around.
48:35
Speaker 2: Coming up now is Sharry, hosted by my mate from
48:37
Speaker 2: the Late Debate, Caleb Bond.
48:39
Speaker 3: Good Night,