Latest / Steve Price / Steve Price | 18 July

Transcript

Steve Price | 18 July · Steve Price

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This is Steve Price.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: We're working to Friday night. It's great to be back
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: after a week off, all spent in Japan. We'll have
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: a look at this later where there's virtually no government taxes.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Can you believe it? On cigarettes off the shelf a
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: pack of twenty in a convenience store that I saw
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: three dollars seventy In Australia, that packet of cigarettes would
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: be anywhere between thirty two and fifty dollars a packet.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Is there any wonder we have fed a massive black market?
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: As I said, more on that with former AFP officer
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Rowan Pike coming up on the program tonight. Also tonight,
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: the inaction of governments to fix a rural road link.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Now this was damaged in the Black Saturday bushfires of
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: twenty nineteen twenty twenty. Yes, that long ago. That road
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: links a national highway and the tourist town in Victoria
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: of Malakuda. Ten million dollars in funding was promised by
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: the federal government. What's happened. The Victorian state government have
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: not spent a cent of it. The local federal member,
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: Darren Chester, will join us and as we know, after
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: weeks and weeks and weeks Federal Parliament will actually sit
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: for the first time since the May three election win
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: by Labor. That starts on Tuesday next week. So what
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: should the priorities be. First up, we have a look
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: and talk with the Liberal front bencher and Teal slayer
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Tim Wilson be on the show and getting set for
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: the resumption of political argument and debate. Australia's best political cartoonist,
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Mark Knight will be back in his regular Friday night spot.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: So let's get started. Eleven weeks ago tomorrow. It's how
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: long ago it was we had a federal election where
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Labor was returned to office. As we know, with the
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: thumping majority, the Lower House resembles the sea of Red
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: and in the Senate Labor with the help of the Greens,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: where they can pass any legislation they like. Eleven weeks seriously,
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: as I mentioned, Parliament resumes Tuesday, and the biggest challenge
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: the Prime Minister, fresh back from his six day tour
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: of China, including pandas and walking the Great Wall of China,
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: is to contain any of the hubris and arrogance of
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: himself and his front bench colleagues.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: Now, if you compare the difference of this visit with
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: the failure of the coalition during the last term, during
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: the term in which I was opposition leader, they didn't
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: have a fun conversation with between a single minister in
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: Australia and our major trading partner. So you know, we
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: look at these things in perspective. What we've had is
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: constructive engagement.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Well, hang on a minute. The Prime Minister seems to
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: have forgotten that COVID existed. I mean during those years
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: where China Australia didn't speak because the Chinese wouldn't tell
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: us where the COVID pandemic had come from. I mean,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: he needs to rain ministers in, by the way, like
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Chris Bowen, who thought nothing last year. We learned of
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: this through a free of information of taking seventy five
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: seventy five public servants to a climate change conference in
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Baku and Azerbaijan. Well, the Prime Ministry himself thinking pictures
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: of him and fiance jod ewing and ring over panda
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: bears at a zoo and walking along the Great Wall
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: was a good look. When thirty four thousand jobs were
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: lost in Australia in June alone, those figures showed us yesterday.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: The unemployment rate has now spiked. It's now at four
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: point three percent. Guess what hire since twenty twenty one
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: and proof of what Australians not employed as millions are
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: by state or federal governments have known for months now.
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: We don't want it to tick up that we have
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: expected it to do so, and that's because global economy
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: is uncertain. Their own economy has been relatively soft. Those
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: higher intrace rates of the last couple of years have
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: been biting, as have cost a living pressures, and so
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: all of that's combined.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Well, come on, treasure of the economy is sick. Daily
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: we read businesses collapsing, construction, hospitality, media, entertainment all hit
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: especially hard. State governments, especially in Victoria, are gouging businesses
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: and property owners in a bid to retire strangling levels
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: of debt that are eye watering, land taxes, payroll taxes,
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: work cover, you name it. Doing business in this country
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: is getting harder and harder and harder. Add the insane
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: cost of energy, that of course spiked again on July one,
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: with consumers getting emails from gas and electricity companies talking
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: about and trying to justify more expensive bills. To keep
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: the lights on. It's why voters are wondering why it
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: took eleven weeks for the politicians to actually go back
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: to work. And what exactly you ask are the second
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: term priorities of this re elected labor government. Well, it's
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: very hard to say. They're determined to push ahead with
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: unachievable climate change commitments to net zero. We know that
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: we know that there is no turning back on wind
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: turbines and solar factories while ignoring the possibility of nuclear
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: They may have woken up someone on gas, but their
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: state counterparts, including in places like Victoria, want a bangas
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: on tax. Well they're going to have a round table
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: jibberfest that's unlikely to really deliver any meaningful tax reform,
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: meaning that you will continue to pay some of the
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: highest income taxes in the world. Foreign Policy sees the
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: Prime Minister still unable to get a one on one
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: with Donald Trump while cozing up to the Chinese. Not
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: a very optimistic start. I wouldn't have said to a
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: new political year, as I said, I'll talk to the Liberals,
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Tim Wilson, and I'll catch up with the Nationals Darren
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: Chester on that road debarcle shortly, but I can tell
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: you starting next week it's going to be a long
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: political year. Spare of politics, Let's join our Friday night
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: regular Campbell Newman now Campbell. Latest job figures revealed thirty
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: four thousand jobs lost in June. That makes the unemployment
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: rate now at four ero point three percent, highest level
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: since twenty twenty one. It does lead to some speculation
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: the reserve back may cut interest rates again. But I
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: tell you what this to me tells me that the
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: lag effectors at play here. You know better than me,
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: but I know so many people who've worked at companies
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: that have either gone bus gone into receivership, or they've
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: been made redundant. I think the reality is catching up
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: here and starting to hit the road.
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: What do you think, Well, the real economy is Steve
• 6:29
  Speaker 5: outside the bubble of federal, state, and local government is
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: actually crumbling at the edges because they're being hit with
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: a blizzard of regulation, high energy costs, crazy environmental regulations
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: and red tape everywhere you go, and poor ir legislation.
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: So there is a lag effect that's occurring. If it
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: wasn't for the massive numbers of people that have been
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: essentially employed in government or federal government fund business particularly
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: the ndis the numbers would have been falling away some
• 7:05
  Speaker 5: time ago, so it's no surprise to me. I mean,
• 7:09
  Speaker 5: I have just employed a young intern in my own
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: business in the last week or so, and that was
• 7:14
  Speaker 5: quite a decision. And I'm paying a young person who
• 7:17
  Speaker 5: has to be taken by the hand, very bright young person,
• 7:22
  Speaker 5: but has to be sort of given a total attention
• 7:25
  Speaker 5: during the working day. Got to pay them twenty nine
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: dollars an hours of casual plus twelve percent super plus
• 7:31
  Speaker 5: the impost of the state's workers compensation scheme. My premiums
• 7:36
  Speaker 5: have gone up double digit increase in the last twelve months.
• 7:39
  Speaker 5: I could go on to take on an employee at
• 7:42
  Speaker 5: the main in Australia is not for the fade harted
• 7:46
  Speaker 5: So you know, and what pains me, Steve, is all
• 7:51
  Speaker 5: this talk now about productivity from people who have done
• 7:55
  Speaker 5: nothing but in the last three years crush productivity and incentive.
• 8:00
  Speaker 5: All the narrative of these people is all about higher taxes.
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: We're just being groomed to expect the taxes have to
• 8:07
  Speaker 5: go up, and I say, no, they don't have to
• 8:09
  Speaker 5: go up. And for people in the senior ranks of
• 8:11
  Speaker 5: the top echelons of the business community. Stop accepting that stark,
• 8:15
  Speaker 5: start arguing for lower taxes, for complete a complete look
• 8:20
  Speaker 5: at regulation in this country, and looking at perhaps what's
• 8:24
  Speaker 5: going on in Argentina where the president there has absolutely
• 8:27
  Speaker 5: turned that country round in the past twelve to eight
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: ten months. Those are things I'd like to see the
• 8:33
  Speaker 5: national conversation looking at.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you make an excellent point, and I've
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: written about this this weekend there or sun. We're being
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: run by people who have never actually had to run
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: a business themselves. They've never, like you, employed anyone. They
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: haven't had to write out or transfer money to the
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: state government for work cover. They haven't had to pay
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: out twelve percent superannuation. These people, I mean, and I
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: talk not being abstract here. I'm talking about you know,
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Anthony Albanezi, Jim Charmers, Jacinta Allen before heard Daniel Andrews.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: They're all professional politicians. They've all been advisers to other
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: political ministers. They've never ever had to put their own
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: bank account on the line to survive, have they.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: Look they haven't.
• 9:23
  Speaker 5: But sadly, mate, the Liberal Party are full of people
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: like that now at state in federal level as well.
• 9:29
  Speaker 5: I mean it's slightly better than labor, but you know
• 9:33
  Speaker 5: they've caught the same set of disease with the staffers
• 9:36
  Speaker 5: coming through or the industry associations. That's what really pains me.
• 9:41
  Speaker 5: You know, like take take the housing crisis, the affordability
• 9:44
  Speaker 5: crisis one word. Government has caused that crisis through all
• 9:49
  Speaker 5: sorts of imposts on new homes, through the.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Red tape to stop.
• 9:53
  Speaker 5: The delivery new homes, through the industrialations environment where the
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: CFM you were allowed to run riot, and through things
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: like the moronic new national sort of building energy requirements
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: which really focuses on sort of energy efficiency. Steve, I'd
• 10:14
  Speaker 5: love to do a show with you with Sky about
• 10:17
  Speaker 5: the stupidity of this new housing cater nationally, which is
• 10:22
  Speaker 5: I've come across in terms of a renovation, a small
• 10:25
  Speaker 5: renovation my own own, but it goes on and on
• 10:27
  Speaker 5: and on in Australia and I think actually things are
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: now cracking up. That's why these unemployment stats will be
• 10:35
  Speaker 5: going the wrong way, unless, of course Jim Charmers decides
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: to spend even more money on make work programs funded
• 10:42
  Speaker 5: by government.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Well, speaking of charmers. I mean, we see leaked documents
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: this week that show that Treasury is telling him and
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: the government that they're housing promises are a pipe dream.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: They're not going to happen.
• 10:57
  Speaker 5: Of course they are. They are complete fantasy, and it's
• 11:00
  Speaker 5: because government is seeking top down steve to try and
• 11:04
  Speaker 5: deliver these outcomes where what needs to happen is the
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: shackles need to be taken off. That's what's happened in
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: Argentina with Malay. The shackles have been taken off. The
• 11:14
  Speaker 5: private sector and entrepreneurial spirits are are running wild and
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: actually the country is rebooting. And that would happen in
• 11:22
  Speaker 5: Australia if these idiot politicians across the political spectrum would
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: get the hell out of the way and actually understand
• 11:31
  Speaker 5: the deregulation in twenty twenty five is what it's going
• 11:35
  Speaker 5: to take to reboot Australia. That's what that's what's required.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll see what happens next week. It was a
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: pleasure to catch up. Thank you Campbell Newman there speaking
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: of politics, So I want to catch up with National
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: MP Darren Chester. Now I mentioned at the beginning of
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: the program that there is this extraordinary situation down in
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: East s Gippsland where during the tragic Saturday bush fires
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: there was a road that was severely damaged that connects
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: the National Highway Number one and the town of malaicut
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: Now there was ten million dollars in the after the
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: emotion of those fires, promised and pledged by the state
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: and federal governments. Now the Allen government's failure to upgrade
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: this road, it's the Malicuta Genoa Road which was damaged
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: during those fires, is unbelievable. Now there's ten million dollars.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: I don't know where the money is. One million has
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: only been spent. Joining me now is the local federal MP,
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Darren Chester. Good to catch up with you. I mean
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: this is five six years ago, Darren? What the hell
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: is going on?
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Well, great to join you, Steve.
• 12:42
  Speaker 6: But the anger, the disappointment, the frustration that you've just expressed,
• 12:46
  Speaker 6: can you imagine that on the ground in Malicuta, where
• 12:48
  Speaker 6: I went to the community in May twenty twenty one
• 12:50
  Speaker 6: and told them that the federal government had just allocated
• 12:53
  Speaker 6: ten million dollars will provide that to the state government
• 12:56
  Speaker 6: to help fix their road to improve safety.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: And now I.
• 12:59
  Speaker 6: Stand here four and a half years later, trying to
• 13:01
  Speaker 6: explain to them that the Allen Labor government has spent
• 13:05
  Speaker 6: five hundred thousand dollars on studies and actually hasn't started
• 13:09
  Speaker 6: a single improvement on the road in that four and
• 13:11
  Speaker 6: a half years. And now we get letters from the Minister,
• 13:14
  Speaker 6: the Responsible Minister, Melissa Horn saying it's gonna be sometime
• 13:17
  Speaker 6: next year before they start working. I've never seen anything
• 13:21
  Speaker 6: quite like in terms of complete incompetence. And keep in mind,
• 13:25
  Speaker 6: this is a project where we were giving the state
• 13:28
  Speaker 6: government the money and not requiring them to put any
• 13:30
  Speaker 6: of their own money on the table because we knew
• 13:32
  Speaker 6: they weren't interested in the Malakuta Janoah road. But the
• 13:35
  Speaker 6: community regarded that improving the resilience of that road as
• 13:38
  Speaker 6: their number one priority after those tragic Black Summer bush fires,
• 13:41
  Speaker 6: and that's why we came on more than a ten
• 13:43
  Speaker 6: million dollars. But we can't force them to spend it
• 13:45
  Speaker 6: if they're not prepared to actually get on.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: With the job.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: What really annoys me. And we were just seeing pictures there,
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: Darren and reminding Australia what we're actually talking about. So
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: when those fires swept through southern New South Wales and
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: eastern Victoria. I mean they were massive and the town
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: of Malakuda and I've been up and down that road
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: many times as one road in, one road out, and
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: the people couldn't get out. So we had to use
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: the defense force, as you remember because you're in government,
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: to get the people off the beach. There were people
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: standing on that beach with fire approaching them. There was
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: kangaroos on the beach with them and they were rescued
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: by the Navy. Now the road was damaged, for God's sake,
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: it can't be that hard. I've just come back from Japan.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: They would fix that road in about a week. I mean,
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: what does the Allen government say? When have you spoken
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: to the local state member when they raise it in
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: state parliament? What are they told?
• 14:41
  Speaker 6: Well, we you are right to remind people about the
• 14:44
  Speaker 6: extremities that people endured in Malicuda. The evacuation of locals
• 14:48
  Speaker 6: and visitors was the largest severne evacuation astrain history. We
• 14:52
  Speaker 6: had fifteen hundred people taken by HMOs Chuols and sycamore
• 14:56
  Speaker 6: off the beach and taken to safety after the fire
• 14:58
  Speaker 6: event and the road was closed in I think it
• 15:01
  Speaker 6: was for six weeks in total.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: That's why the locals wanted a more resilient road.
• 15:04
  Speaker 6: And that means just all they wanted was a little
• 15:06
  Speaker 6: bit of widening of the road so that it would
• 15:08
  Speaker 6: be safer, Removal of some trees on some dangerous beans,
• 15:11
  Speaker 6: some new shoulders put in place, some overtaking areas and
• 15:15
  Speaker 6: pull other areas for people carrying large caravans and boats.
• 15:18
  Speaker 6: They weren't looking for a four lane highway. They weren't
• 15:20
  Speaker 6: looking for some incredible infrastructure upgrade. That's all they wanted.
• 15:24
  Speaker 6: And my state colleague Tim Bulls raised in state Parliament
• 15:28
  Speaker 6: and we just get crickets, We just get excuses, we
• 15:30
  Speaker 6: get Oh, this technical study is underway, this cultural heritage
• 15:33
  Speaker 6: being assessed, this environmental overlays being considered. It's all rubbish, Steve,
• 15:37
  Speaker 6: because it's an existing road reserve. For God's sake, we've
• 15:40
  Speaker 6: got to start building roads inside the road reserves and
• 15:44
  Speaker 6: not getting tied up in this red tape and green
• 15:46
  Speaker 6: tape and cultural heritage overlays. When people's lives at risk,
• 15:50
  Speaker 6: people's lives are actually risk if we don't improve the resilience.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: Of that road.
• 15:53
  Speaker 6: And four and a half years later, the ten million
• 15:56
  Speaker 6: dollars doesn't buy you what it would have brought you
• 15:58
  Speaker 6: in twenty twenty one. The price of everything's.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: Gone up, so we'll see even less road work done.
• 16:03
  Speaker 6: But what strikes me is the oddest thing about this
• 16:06
  Speaker 6: whole fiasco is the Allen Labor government wasn't required to
• 16:10
  Speaker 6: provide anybody itself. It was all coming from the federal budget.
• 16:13
  Speaker 6: And they still haven't done the work.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: Where's the money?
• 16:20
  Speaker 6: Well, as far as I understand it, the money's still there.
• 16:22
  Speaker 6: I've written i think six times in the last four
• 16:25
  Speaker 6: and a half years to both the state and federal ministers,
• 16:26
  Speaker 6: and I've been reassured the money is still there. There's
• 16:29
  Speaker 6: a process underway, there's planning underway, there's more consultation underway.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: The community of sick of all the talking. They just
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: want a safer road.
• 16:36
  Speaker 6: And quite frankly, it's hard to believe that the bureaucrats
• 16:42
  Speaker 6: could do this if they actually went out there themselves
• 16:44
  Speaker 6: and met with local people and drove that road like
• 16:47
  Speaker 6: you've driven it and understood some of the challenges living
• 16:51
  Speaker 6: six hours from Melbourne. So these people aren't asking for much,
• 16:54
  Speaker 6: They're just asking for a safer access road. It's the
• 16:57
  Speaker 6: only access road for the people in Malicuta in and
• 16:59
  Speaker 6: out to the pre Highway. It is their safety route
• 17:02
  Speaker 6: if there's any more natural resources. And we know you
• 17:04
  Speaker 6: know where we live here in eas skips saying we'll
• 17:06
  Speaker 6: have more bush fires, we have more storms, we have
• 17:08
  Speaker 6: more floods, so we need resilient infrastructure to take people
• 17:11
  Speaker 6: with safety. And I just can't understand why we can't
• 17:15
  Speaker 6: get this road fixed in a more timely manner.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: It wouldn't happen in a safe labor seat. Darren Chester,
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: thank you. We'll keep in touch and make sure that
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: we keep putting pressure on about that road. It's just ridiculous.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: Darren Chester, thank you very much. Coming up after the break,
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: Leveraltpe Tim Wilson will join us ahead of Parliament returning.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: It's back next week I think the first sitting day
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: every Tuesday. Plus one State's council watchdog, I mean it
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: goes from bad to worse is called out for failing
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: to make any of its reports public in six years.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: Welcome back to Steve Price with you roundin coming up
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: at the top of the hour. Now, I mentioned at
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: the beginning of the program the unemployment figures that were
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: released this week. Now, I think it took a lot
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: of people by surprise, although if you're living in the
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: real world, I don't know why it would. I think
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: Jim Chalmers admitted today that he was seeing some numbers
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: that suggested unemployment might start to blow out a little bit.
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: But you know, all of us know someone who's been
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: either made redundant or owned a business that's gone into receivership,
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: gone broke, or had to lay people off. I mean
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: that's just the state of the economy at the moment.
• 18:23
  Speaker 7: Now.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: Charmers is going to sit down with his round table,
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: I think that is the next few weeks and try
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: and sort some tax issues out. But the real world
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: out there is tough at the moment. Joining me now
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: is the brand new shadow spokesman small Business, Industry Relations
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: and Employment. And as I said, the Teal slayer, Tim Wilson.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: Good to catch up with your Tim. When you saw
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: those numbers yesterday, and I know you talked to a
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: lot of people in your electorate, and a lot of
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: people in your electorate own small businesses, he wouldn't have
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: been surprised. I don't suspect sadly not.
• 18:55
  Speaker 7: Steve the reality is when businesses are going under and
• 18:59
  Speaker 7: we have records insolvencies right now, the only follow through
• 19:03
  Speaker 7: will be a rise in unemployment. Everything in this economy
• 19:07
  Speaker 7: and that should be going up, is going and is
• 19:09
  Speaker 7: going down. Everything should be going down is going up.
• 19:12
  Speaker 7: Energy prices are going up, Unemployment is going up, businesses
• 19:16
  Speaker 7: are going down, and where people are facing really difficult
• 19:20
  Speaker 7: choices about how they're going to operate, and it ultimately
• 19:23
  Speaker 7: flows through to jobs. And I'd like to say this
• 19:25
  Speaker 7: is going to be the end, but I can't say
• 19:27
  Speaker 7: that with confidence based on the Albanezy economic sinkhole model.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: And tim It's a combination of state and federal factors,
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: isn't it. I mean, you and I once had the
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: pleasure of being residents of Melbourne. We now are trapped
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: in the state of Victoria, where for small business people
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: trying to make it ends meet, it's even harder because
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: the amount of taxes that have been introduced local taxes
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: on businesses, including you know, land taxes and work cover
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: and all of those things have gone up. It's even
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: harder to do business in the state of Victoria, isn't it?
• 20:00
  Speaker 7: Resolutely yes? If you talk to small business people in Victoria.
• 20:04
  Speaker 7: What they'll tell you is demand is very challenging because
• 20:09
  Speaker 7: people have low disposable income. Government continues to spend a
• 20:12
  Speaker 7: lot of money borrow from tomorrow to pay for today.
• 20:15
  Speaker 7: That's putting upward pressure on inflation. That means interest rates
• 20:19
  Speaker 7: have remained and persisted to be high. That means that
• 20:22
  Speaker 7: people simply don't have the money in their hip pockets.
• 20:25
  Speaker 7: But then on the other side, they're paying massive energy
• 20:28
  Speaker 7: bills if they're an energy dependent business. Taxes are out
• 20:32
  Speaker 7: of control in this state, and it means that a
• 20:35
  Speaker 7: lot of people who might ordinarily consider Victoria just like
• 20:39
  Speaker 7: any other state as a destination for investment, is now
• 20:42
  Speaker 7: saying they're not going to And you're seeing this, for
• 20:45
  Speaker 7: instance in building where a lot of developers simply say
• 20:48
  Speaker 7: we can't build new projects in Victoria because the timeframe
• 20:52
  Speaker 7: between what we decide we want to do and then
• 20:54
  Speaker 7: going through to it, we could see land tax increases,
• 20:58
  Speaker 7: increases on other capital costs like the unreals capital gains tax,
• 21:02
  Speaker 7: the family savings tax that Federal Labor is introducing, which
• 21:06
  Speaker 7: directly disincentivizes future investment in not just Victoria and in
• 21:11
  Speaker 7: Australia and they're saying an uncertain environment means no investment
• 21:15
  Speaker 7: because people aren't confident about the future. And of course
• 21:18
  Speaker 7: that has a multiple duty of factors, including again it
• 21:22
  Speaker 7: hits consumers because they have to pay higher rents. As
• 21:25
  Speaker 7: a consequence, they have less money to then go and
• 21:28
  Speaker 7: spell spend in their local shop, in the local small
• 21:32
  Speaker 7: business and to be able to improve their quality of life.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: Tim, I know by nature you're an optimist. I mean
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: you'd have to be to stand for a second term
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: Federal Parliament and cross your fingers do all the hard
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: work get re elected. Do you have any optimistic feeling
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: about this tax round table that Jim Chalmers is going
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: to have. Well not really.
• 21:54
  Speaker 7: What we've seen from this government is they're pushing forward
• 21:58
  Speaker 7: with taxes that nobody voted for.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: Research.
• 22:03
  Speaker 7: Publicly released research shows that Australians didn't go into the
• 22:07
  Speaker 7: last election thinking they would be voting for a family
• 22:10
  Speaker 7: savings tax on unrealized capital gains. In fact, even Labors
• 22:14
  Speaker 7: Matt greg And the Federal electorate of Deacon told his
• 22:17
  Speaker 7: voters that that wasn't Labour's policy, but he is now
• 22:19
  Speaker 7: going to go on and vote for it in the
• 22:21
  Speaker 7: Federal Parliament. And this tax roundtable is only designed to
• 22:25
  Speaker 7: do one thing, which is to float taxes that Labor
• 22:29
  Speaker 7: had not raised before the last election and then put
• 22:32
  Speaker 7: them on the table. And I don't want to break
• 22:34
  Speaker 7: it to Steve. I've never seen a Labor government that
• 22:38
  Speaker 7: goes in talking about how they're going to cut tax
• 22:41
  Speaker 7: only what types of taxes they're going to increase. So
• 22:45
  Speaker 7: I don't have much confidence about it. But more importantly,
• 22:49
  Speaker 7: you can't trust this government when they proposed taxes after
• 22:53
  Speaker 7: an election that they simply didn't tell people about before
• 22:56
  Speaker 7: the election. This is an issue of trust and they're
• 22:59
  Speaker 7: going to.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: Tim just before you go. I know you keep an
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: eye on the rise of anti Semitism. You've got a
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: large Jewish constituency in Goldstein. How is it that people
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: are still allowed to march through the streets of Melbourne
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: chanting death, death to the idea.
• 23:18
  Speaker 7: We have the laws in place. What we have is
• 23:20
  Speaker 7: a lack of leadership and political will. It took literally
• 23:24
  Speaker 7: people trying to burn down the East Melbourne Synagogue before
• 23:28
  Speaker 7: both state and federal Premier and Prime Minister were prepared
• 23:33
  Speaker 7: to stand up and categorically condemn the rise of anti
• 23:37
  Speaker 7: Semitic violence. Up until that point. There has been too
• 23:40
  Speaker 7: many times where they've been silent or still on the sidelines,
• 23:45
  Speaker 7: not making any significant comment. They've dawodled to the point
• 23:49
  Speaker 7: of violence. And of course, when you have laws in
• 23:53
  Speaker 7: place to deal with the issues of anti Semitism, including
• 23:56
  Speaker 7: people who are actively speaking about committee acts of violence
• 24:00
  Speaker 7: or death, it's clearly a failure or continuing failure of
• 24:03
  Speaker 7: political will. We need leadership on anti semitism. The government
• 24:08
  Speaker 7: isn't providing it, and the consequences have already been felt
• 24:13
  Speaker 7: and will continue to be felt until they actually show it.
• 24:16
  Speaker 7: I mean we now have the government even delaying its
• 24:19
  Speaker 7: response to measures that have been proposed to address antisemiti Semitism.
• 24:25
  Speaker 7: Such is their lack of clarity moral clarity on this
• 24:28
  Speaker 7: important issue.
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: Absolutely disgraceful. Tim Wilson, good to catch up with you,
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: Thank you very much. Now Victoria's local government watchdog, you
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: won't believe this story has been slammed as a toothless
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: tiger following revelations. Wait for this, it has not made
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: any of its investigations public for six years, John, you
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: mean now to discuss this? The Victorian Shadow Minister for
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: Local Government and scrutiny of government. Bev MacArthur, who I
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: think I find perhaps overseas, Bev, what the hell are
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: these people doing? I presume we're paying them? Are we?
• 25:03
  Speaker 8: Oh, absolutely paying them something, but not enough to release
• 25:07
  Speaker 8: the report?
• 25:08
  Speaker 9: Steve. The Local Government.
• 25:10
  Speaker 8: Inspectorate in Victoria is absolutely a toothless tiger. It's more
• 25:15
  Speaker 8: lapdog than watchdog. And this has real life consequences. For instance,
• 25:21
  Speaker 8: they conducted an inquiry into the CEO's actions in a council,
• 25:26
  Speaker 8: did not release the report. Subsequently that CEO was employed
• 25:30
  Speaker 8: by another council with that knowledge of what was going
• 25:33
  Speaker 8: on and had to be.
• 25:36
  Speaker 9: Relieved of that position. These are a serious.
• 25:41
  Speaker 8: Activities and the Local Government inspect It needs to come clean.
• 25:45
  Speaker 9: The Minister washes his.
• 25:47
  Speaker 8: Hands of anything to do with local government, but labor
• 25:51
  Speaker 8: has a problem more generally, Steve, and that's in accountability
• 25:55
  Speaker 8: and responsibility. And now we've got the other integrity agencies
• 25:59
  Speaker 8: like Eye, Bad Beyond Book.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: Welcome back, Steve Price with you Mark Knight coming up
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: in a second. Well, I wanted to mention this tonight.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: There's been obviously ongoing concerns. The government's huge taxes on
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: tobacco is now driving people to go and find shonky cigarettes,
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: illegal cigarettes. Even the crackdown on vapes, I'm told he's
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: driving people back into illegal tobacco. Now, tobacco tax currently
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: sits at around a dollar forty per cigarette stick. Well,
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: I want to show you something. I've just returned from
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: Japan and I've got to show you this photo. Cigarettes
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: in a convenience store there now you can see it
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: on the screen, are only a few dollars for a
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: pack of twenty. Now, as I said, three dollars sixty
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: for a pack of twenty compared with up to fifty
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: dollars for the same packet of cigarettes here. It's crazy.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: Joining me now is former Federal police officer who helped
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: set up the Australian Border Forces Tobacco Strike Team. Rowan.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: Pike's also managing director of row and Pike Consulting, which
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: provides services to public and private sectors. Rowan, Welcome to
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: the program. I mean that example I gave of last
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: week in Kaido in Japan. No wonder the crooks want
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: to load up containers and bring illegal cigarettes into the country.
• 27:13
  Speaker 10: They certainly do.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: Stuve.
• 27:14
  Speaker 10: Yeah, the price has a huge impact and is the
• 27:17
  Speaker 10: primary driver of our listen, certainly cigarette market here. That
• 27:22
  Speaker 10: lever may have been effective in twenty years ago in
• 27:26
  Speaker 10: reducing smoking rates in Australia, but in the last fifteen
• 27:29
  Speaker 10: years or so that lever has just been pulled far
• 27:32
  Speaker 10: too far. It's a no brainer that smokers are going
• 27:35
  Speaker 10: to be attracted to ten dollar packet as opposed to
• 27:38
  Speaker 10: a fifty dollar packet, as you say. So, now in Australia,
• 27:42
  Speaker 10: criminals are actually selling more cigarettes than the legitimate companies
• 27:46
  Speaker 10: are selling, so it's over fifty percent, and of course
• 27:49
  Speaker 10: the vaping illicit rate is up over ninety five percent,
• 27:53
  Speaker 10: so that's a disaster. Australian tobacco policy is basically an
• 27:58
  Speaker 10: embarrassment on the internet national stage.
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's completely broken. I remember talking interviewing former Victorian
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: Police Commissioner Shane Patten who told me, well, you know,
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: of course the crims are going to try and import
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: illegal cigarettes because if they get caught, they'll get a
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: bit of a slap on the wrist instead of what
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: would happen to them if they were caught importing MDMA
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: or cocaine or other illegal drugs.
• 28:25
  Speaker 10: Yeah, that's right. The legislation regime is all wrong. It's
• 28:31
  Speaker 10: stuck in the past and needs to be updated to
• 28:34
  Speaker 10: reflect the criminality and the seriousness of these offenses.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: Where are most of this Where is most of this
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: illegal tobacco coming from Row?
• 28:47
  Speaker 10: Well, the cigarettes come from places such as the UAE,
• 28:51
  Speaker 10: from Cambodia, from all over Asia really, and the vapes
• 28:56
  Speaker 10: are mainly coming out of China now, so yes, at
• 28:59
  Speaker 10: least not of the vaping market is illegal Chinese vapes.
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: And how much of this is border force in interrupting
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: how much are they seizing and how much is getting through?
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: I mean, I know, I know, the figures are probably
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: almost impossible to address, but there's more getting in than
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: getting caught, I presume.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.
• 29:23
  Speaker 10: By their own admissions at centered estimates and various hearings,
• 29:27
  Speaker 10: they suggest that they're stopping twenty five percent. And if
• 29:31
  Speaker 10: they're stopping that much, then there's an awful lot coming in.
• 29:35
  Speaker 10: As you would have seen yesterday, they've been seizing record
• 29:39
  Speaker 10: numbers of both cigarettes and vapes, and rightly, they've done
• 29:45
  Speaker 10: their job, but they're simply not resource to stop everything
• 29:49
  Speaker 10: coming through. And when the criminals bombard the border, there
• 29:53
  Speaker 10: is going to be a large percentage of the products
• 29:56
  Speaker 10: getting through the border, and it's the problem of lack
• 29:59
  Speaker 10: of enforcement post border which is really letting us down.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's what I want to ask you about.
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's illegal, and yet you any vape shop
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: that you walk into on any main street anywhere in
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: Australia and you say, you've got some chop chop tobacco
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: that I can buy off your mate and you probably
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: if he doesn't believe you're a police officer, say yeah, sure,
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: how much do you want?
• 30:24
  Speaker 10: Yeah, No, it's embarrassing that it's so easy, and this
• 30:27
  Speaker 10: is how the criminals distribute their illegal product. And yeah,
• 30:32
  Speaker 10: it's just the embarrassment that there are so many shops
• 30:35
  Speaker 10: blatantly selling this illegal product all over the cities and
• 30:39
  Speaker 10: country towns. That definitely needs to be addressed. There are
• 30:43
  Speaker 10: some measures being taken place in states like South Australia
• 30:47
  Speaker 10: and Queensland, but New South Wales and Victoria where the
• 30:50
  Speaker 10: bulk of the problem is being very slow to catch up.
• 30:54
  Speaker 10: So of course they're casting blame back on the federal government,
• 30:59
  Speaker 10: which which is fair given that it's their policy that
• 31:02
  Speaker 10: has caused this mess in the first place. But they're
• 31:04
  Speaker 10: wanting to be recompensed for the outlayer and extra resources
• 31:09
  Speaker 10: that are needed to fix it.
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: In their own states, we have a tobacco shot torched
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: every night of the week. Rowan, thank you very much
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: for joining us and explaining that we'll keep an eye
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: on that situation. Joining me now. As I said, he's
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: back from a bit of leave here. Sun cartoonist Mark Knight,
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: you must be rubbing your hands together. You've got Parliament
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: back from next week, so you've got all the polly's
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: back that they haven't worked for eleven weeks, so you'll
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: have the pencil out being able to give Elbow a
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: bit of a touch up. You're loving him at the moment,
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: confess it, you're loving him.
• 31:44
  Speaker 9: He is good, Steve. I'm really warming to him and
• 31:48
  Speaker 9: really enjoying him and especially his trip with the political
• 31:51
  Speaker 9: Lifetime to China. I mean, what a what a great
• 31:55
  Speaker 9: trip to well. As we can see this first cartoon,
• 32:01
  Speaker 9: I was inspired to try and work out how Elbow's
• 32:04
  Speaker 9: going to balance the relationship between China and US, and
• 32:09
  Speaker 9: I think he's just discovering how hard it is to
• 32:12
  Speaker 9: have a foot in both camps, because that's where he
• 32:15
  Speaker 9: is at the moment.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: Does the cowboy hat give him away? Is he leaning
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: toward the US?
• 32:22
  Speaker 9: Do you think the well know, the acuba has become
• 32:25
  Speaker 9: a bit of his I guess an accessory. Now, you
• 32:28
  Speaker 9: remember when the voice campaign was on and he put
• 32:34
  Speaker 9: the acubra on so he'd sort of, you know, looked
• 32:36
  Speaker 9: like he was part of the outback the bush. It's
• 32:39
  Speaker 9: these little trinkets, these accessories that politicians wear to try
• 32:43
  Speaker 9: and give an impression, and so I like to add
• 32:47
  Speaker 9: them into the cartoons.
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: I must say. I imagine the night Household. You know,
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: you got out a good bottle of red when you
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: found out that Au was going to go and see
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: panda bears and be he was going to go on
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: the Great Wall of China. Let's start with Pandas. I mean,
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: you love drawing pandas. You've been drawing enough for years now.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: Elbow's done the right thing. But look at this, get
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: your puddle.
• 33:12
  Speaker 9: This is definitely not Kung Fu panda children, So please
• 33:15
  Speaker 9: look away. This is I like to sort of characterize
• 33:20
  Speaker 9: that the Chinese leadership as this giant panda which they're
• 33:25
  Speaker 9: trying to make themselves cuddly at the moment. But in
• 33:28
  Speaker 9: the past, the Chinese Panda has just torn our arms
• 33:30
  Speaker 9: off when it came to trade. But here we are
• 33:34
  Speaker 9: in this trip with China, and Zijinping said he wanted
• 33:38
  Speaker 9: to take the relationship to the next level. Well, of
• 33:40
  Speaker 9: course that brought up all sorts of connotations for me.
• 33:43
  Speaker 9: So here they are in bed together, and you know,
• 33:47
  Speaker 9: Trump can be very unpredictable, and I think the Chinese
• 33:50
  Speaker 9: are positioning themselves as a trading partner who's ever reliable
• 33:54
  Speaker 9: and you can depend on. I don't know. I think
• 33:58
  Speaker 9: he's smoking at the Panda is smoking a cigarette. Pois
• 34:02
  Speaker 9: post coitas trade negotiations.
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: Look, I mean, it's the golden age of cartooning when
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: you've got Elbow and pandas in China and Donald Trump
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: as well. Now, the PM decided to take Jody the
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: fiance with him on a walk along the Great Ball
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: of China, in the footsteps of his labor hero, all
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: the way back in nineteen seventy one when Gough Whitlam
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: did it. Gov's not too happy he's there.
• 34:31
  Speaker 9: Well, can you imagine an imperious Gough Whitlam seeing Elbow
• 34:37
  Speaker 9: trying to ride on his coattails. I mean, the only
• 34:41
  Speaker 9: thing I could think of was poor old Gough dismissing
• 34:43
  Speaker 9: them with the line grown tourists, you know, Albow. I
• 34:50
  Speaker 9: think a lot of labor leaders are always looking to
• 34:52
  Speaker 9: create history. It's always the most historic moment in history,
• 34:57
  Speaker 9: whether it be a budget or some sort of diplomatic win.
• 35:01
  Speaker 9: And on this case, I think Albo was trying to
• 35:03
  Speaker 9: set himself as a Gough Whitlam for you know, discovering
• 35:08
  Speaker 9: China basically again and as a trading partner. So I
• 35:13
  Speaker 9: had a bit of fun with that one for sure.
• 35:17
  Speaker 11: Yeah.
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: I think if I was Albo would be keeping away
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: from comparisons with Gough Whitland if I was him. Let's
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: go back to state politics of Victorian budget you've had,
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: you've had a look at that as well. Tell us
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: what you've got here, Oh is that running off the
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: rails or well in Melbourne?
• 35:35
  Speaker 9: Had we had were in Melbourne this week we had
• 35:37
  Speaker 9: a trail derayment, derailment on the metro system and it
• 35:40
  Speaker 9: was you know, on the Murnder and hurst Bridge lines
• 35:43
  Speaker 9: and it just caused absolute chaos. So it's been out
• 35:46
  Speaker 9: for nearly a week now and they brought in this
• 35:49
  Speaker 9: huge crane to try and get rid of the carriage.
• 35:51
  Speaker 9: But it reminded me of another derailment that we've have
• 35:55
  Speaker 9: in Victoria, and that would be the state budget. Now
• 35:58
  Speaker 9: that one is not going to be as easy to
• 36:01
  Speaker 9: get back on track. Let me tell you it's a
• 36:04
  Speaker 9: real train wreck, the Victorian budget. So I thought there
• 36:07
  Speaker 9: was a nice symmetry between the two issues.
• 36:10
  Speaker 7: There.
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: Great to catch up with you, my friend Mark Knight.
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: They're the best cartoonist in Australia. Now coming up after
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: the break, the panel joins me for an analysis of
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: that very trip that we've just been talking about, Mark
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: and I, the trip to China plus the UK. Can
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: you believe this? They're going to lie with the voting
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: age to sixteen. Guess what happens next? The Greens will
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: put their hand up and say, what a great idea,
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: let's do it right here in Australia. The panel next,
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: welcome back to Steve Price with you now, as we
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: know Parliament Federal Parliament will resume for the first time
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: in a leven weeks next week. I think the first
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: sitting day is probably Tuesday, although that'll be full a
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: lot of non parliamentary activity. There won't be much question time.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't have thought, but we'll get into it later
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: in the week, and the PM himself jets into back
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: into Camberdra tonight, I believe from his five or six
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: day trip to China. Let's bringing our panel research fellow
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: at Institute of Public Affairs, Mia Schlip. Great to see
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: you again, and Skoy News contributor Joe Hildebrand, who joined
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: us on Friday night in a regular basis. Mia to
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: you first. I mean I was just talking to Mark
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: Knight there he drew a cartoon about Anthony Albanesi trailing
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: in the footsteps of the Great Golf Whitlam, with Golf
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: saying well, I am tourist tier. I mean it's very dangerous.
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: I would have thought for Anthony Albanesi to be comparing
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: himself to Golf Whitlam, wouldn't it.
• 37:36
  Speaker 12: Yeah, absolutely, Steve. I mean, I have no doubt that
• 37:38
  Speaker 12: Anthony Albanesi holds GoF Whitlam up as some kind of
• 37:42
  Speaker 12: hero for himself. But for me, what I'm most concerned
• 37:45
  Speaker 12: about this trip is how did the Prime Minister find
• 37:48
  Speaker 12: six days to spend time in communist China, yet he
• 37:51
  Speaker 12: can't seem to find a single moment to meet with
• 37:54
  Speaker 12: our most important ally and Leader of the Free World,
• 37:58
  Speaker 12: President Donald Trump.
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and the other thing, Joe, I'm going I know
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: you probably defend the trip. And look, PM should make
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: global contacts, they should go overseas, China as a major
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: trading part all of the above, but it would have
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: been more sensible. And I saw Mike Bazzullo on with
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: Laura Jays this morning if he'd added in, you know,
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: Tokyo or Soul or Manila, our allies in the region
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: as well, rather than wandering around with pandas and visiting
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: the Great Wall. What do you think, Yeah, it's an
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: interesting one.
• 38:32
  Speaker 11: I suspect that any visit to Tokyo and perhaps even
• 38:36
  Speaker 11: sold but to Tokyo or India for example, would have
• 38:40
  Speaker 11: been seen as him favoring the Quad over Australia's direct bilateral,
• 38:45
  Speaker 11: as they like to say, relationship with China. So I
• 38:48
  Speaker 11: suspect that it was kind of just a kind of
• 38:51
  Speaker 11: respect thing, if you like. And I know that people
• 38:53
  Speaker 11: think that the government has been too bowing and scraping
• 38:56
  Speaker 11: to China. But China in particular is a culture which
• 39:01
  Speaker 11: relies very much on face. It relies very much on
• 39:04
  Speaker 11: that sort of performative engagement, and I think China probably
• 39:07
  Speaker 11: thinks that it's big enough and important enough to merit
• 39:11
  Speaker 11: its own visit and not just be a kind of,
• 39:14
  Speaker 11: you know, a place where you go as part of
• 39:18
  Speaker 11: a broader regional trip. And again, Albo, I have no
• 39:23
  Speaker 11: doubt we'll be meeting with Donald Trump and the US
• 39:26
  Speaker 11: at some point before the end of the year. It's
• 39:28
  Speaker 11: certainly not the Australian government that's refusing to find time
• 39:32
  Speaker 11: in its calendar. It's just a matter of getting an
• 39:34
  Speaker 11: audience with the most important and powerful person on the planet.
• 39:38
  Speaker 11: And you know they were going to at the G
• 39:40
  Speaker 11: seven that got canceled, And of course these things take weeks,
• 39:44
  Speaker 11: if not months to reschedule.
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: Like you me, I mean, if someone says to me tonight, well,
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: what did Anthony I have an easy achieve on that
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: trip to China. He may come back and make a
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: major announcement. I mean, we may sell twenty times more
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: crayfish and penfolds grange to China, but I don't recall
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: what exactly he's announced while he's been there. That actually
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: makes me feel that the trip was absolutely worthwhile.
• 40:13
  Speaker 12: Yeah, I completely agree. I mean, the purpose of this trip,
• 40:16
  Speaker 12: it's really unclear. I mean, I'm really concerned that we're
• 40:19
  Speaker 12: not taking our national security seriously. There seems to be
• 40:23
  Speaker 12: no conversations about that. I have no doubt that China
• 40:26
  Speaker 12: is an important trading partner. We need to have strong
• 40:30
  Speaker 12: commercial ties with them. However, I think the focus during
• 40:33
  Speaker 12: a time that ORCUST negotiations are in the background, the
• 40:36
  Speaker 12: focus needs to be securing our relationship with the United States.
• 40:42
  Speaker 9: Joe.
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: There's also been a report today that a Chinese businessman
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: who's allegedly linked to the Chinese Communist Party, he's been
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: tied into a couple of property deals, one at Port Kembler,
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: one at Newcastle. Now these two sites, of course are
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: shortlisted as future submarine bases incidents or something that me
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: and PEPs we should be having good look at.
• 41:04
  Speaker 11: Yeah, nothing that Chinese do is every coincidence prices, you know,
• 41:08
  Speaker 11: this is something they've done. Similar stuff around US military
• 41:11
  Speaker 11: bases where you know, a private quote unquote, because nothing
• 41:15
  Speaker 11: is really private in China. Chinese businessman just happens to
• 41:19
  Speaker 11: buy a farm that happens to be next to a
• 41:21
  Speaker 11: US Air Force base or whatever. Every company in China,
• 41:26
  Speaker 11: every major company, basically has links to the Chinese Communist Party.
• 41:29
  Speaker 11: Every senior businessman has links or as a member of
• 41:32
  Speaker 11: the Chinese Communist Party because it is a totalitarian state
• 41:36
  Speaker 11: nothing No business can operate without the authority of the CCP,
• 41:41
  Speaker 11: and all businesses, I believe, are required to hand over
• 41:45
  Speaker 11: any information they have, any industrial intelligence, whatever it is,
• 41:50
  Speaker 11: to the CCP, should they require it. So, yes, he
• 41:54
  Speaker 11: is definitely of concern. But again that's why you know,
• 41:58
  Speaker 11: bringing back the port of Darwin into Australian hands is
• 42:01
  Speaker 11: a really important first step. And I dare say that
• 42:05
  Speaker 11: once we get Orcus off the ground, and again I
• 42:08
  Speaker 11: have every confidence that that will happen. There's about four
• 42:10
  Speaker 11: international meetings before the end of the year where Albo
• 42:13
  Speaker 11: and Donald Trump will both be and I have no
• 42:17
  Speaker 11: doubt they'll meet it at least one or two of them.
• 42:20
  Speaker 11: I think, once it's been decided where that Orchest base
• 42:24
  Speaker 11: is going to be, I imagine the Foreign Investment Review Board
• 42:28
  Speaker 11: would have a few things to say about Chinese businessmen
• 42:33
  Speaker 11: just happy to buy up property next door.
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: Mea the Federal Greens, I reckon they'll be out celebrating tonight.
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: They'll be at their local vegetarian restaurant, riding down there
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: on their bat because the UK is planning to lower
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: the voting age to sixteen in general elections now is
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: what some of the young people in the UK had
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: to say about that change.
• 42:58
  Speaker 10: Sixteen to eighteen is quite like a maturity jump.
• 43:01
  Speaker 12: But like I think a lot of people, even from
• 43:04
  Speaker 12: a very young age, have very strong opinions.
• 43:06
  Speaker 9: It's always really annoying watching like older people vote and
• 43:09
  Speaker 9: then but there's not realistically it's not going to affect them,
• 43:12
  Speaker 9: it's going to affect our features. I've always been kind
• 43:14
  Speaker 9: of frustrated just watching politics and not being able to
• 43:17
  Speaker 9: do anything.
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: Maier, I wonder why labor in the UK would be
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: wanting to do that.
• 43:25
  Speaker 12: Well, absolutely, I couldn't agree with you more that the
• 43:27
  Speaker 12: Greens are licking their lips at the moment, at this opportunity.
• 43:30
  Speaker 12: And those comments from those young people, I mean, they
• 43:32
  Speaker 12: do not surprise me. When you read about what young
• 43:35
  Speaker 12: people are taught in school, in the school curriculum, it
• 43:38
  Speaker 12: is no shock that they're veering to the left. I mean,
• 43:40
  Speaker 12: young people are being taught that Australia has a history
• 43:43
  Speaker 12: that we should be ashamed of. They're being taught the
• 43:46
  Speaker 12: climate that due to climate change, the world's going to
• 43:48
  Speaker 12: explode tomorrow. That if they don't start taking petrol cars
• 43:51
  Speaker 12: off the road, the Earth's going to jump into a
• 43:54
  Speaker 12: giant ball of flames. I mean, no wonder they have
• 43:56
  Speaker 12: anxiety about their future because of this leftist ideology that's
• 44:00
  Speaker 12: drilled into them in the school curriculum.
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: Joe. Our old mate Nick g Reece. Now I think
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: Nick's I don't know what's happened to Nick. He's gone
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: right off the rail, got to his head, come out,
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: he's going to China on it. He's going off to
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: China for his own trip shortly. But he's come out
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: and said that people will be swimming in the Yarrow
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: River well before the year twenty fifty. You and I
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: know the Yarrow River very well, Joe. My two daughters
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: were given my size were Coxes for their school's rowing boats.
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: They used to come home and say, Dad, I saw
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: three dogs, a dead cat, a body and a car
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: in the ara today and I tried hard not to
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: fall out of the boat.
• 44:44
  Speaker 11: I mean, what is he talking about. It must have
• 44:47
  Speaker 11: been a good day, Steve. I'm surprised there was a
• 44:49
  Speaker 11: few more shopping trolleys. The old spare tire and you
• 44:52
  Speaker 11: know a missing person from ninety eighty four. Look, I
• 44:56
  Speaker 11: actually admire his optimism. We know that Jim Courier has
• 45:00
  Speaker 11: already blazed the trail here. He jumped into the Yarra
• 45:03
  Speaker 11: after winning the Australian Open once before. I think he
• 45:07
  Speaker 11: got the local knowledge that that was not a kind
• 45:09
  Speaker 11: of custom that people perhaps should partake in. And you've
• 45:13
  Speaker 11: got the Birdman rally, you know. So they all survived,
• 45:16
  Speaker 11: I think most of them except maybe the guy who
• 45:19
  Speaker 11: was wrapped in the cardboard boxes. So I think it
• 45:22
  Speaker 11: could be done, and we did it with Sydney Harbor.
• 45:24
  Speaker 11: Those people can't do the same thing, Joe. Those people
• 45:29
  Speaker 11: are lucky.
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: To belive be alive. I mean, Jim Thurry is lucky
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: he survived doing that. Being Joe great, thanks to having
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: with us all. Was a pleasure to catch up with
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: you boat. As I said, Rowandine coming up and from Monday,
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: I'm filling in for Sharry Marks in a week, so
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: I'll see you Monday night, eight o'clock