Latest / Steve Price / Steve Price | 30 May

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Steve Price | 30 May · Steve Price

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Speaker 1: Live. This is Steve Price. We'recome to Friday Nights chepstea
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Speaker 1: Price with you and we take you around the nation tonight,
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Speaker 1: from the floods in New South Wales to a dreadful
0:13
Speaker 1: drought in Victoria, to a law and order emergency a
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Speaker 1: machete ban also in Victoria that simply, in my view
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Speaker 1: will not work coming up. Senior Liberal frontbencher and opposition
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Speaker 1: spokesman on police matters David Southwick joined us in the
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Speaker 1: studio on that machete ban and on his view on
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Speaker 1: whether the state Labor government, even with a change this afternoon,
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Speaker 1: is doing enough about a drought that's ravaging the west
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Speaker 1: of the Victorian state. Look, I promised last Friday, and
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Speaker 1: we always deliver on our promises, not to forget Kempsey
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Speaker 1: as it battles to recover from a once in a
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Speaker 1: generation flood event. The Mayor Kinny Ring will be back
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Speaker 1: with us to tell us how they are now coping,
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Speaker 1: plus with our panel. Should Melbourne Cup Dave you declared
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Speaker 1: a national holiday and how long will the coalition, the
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Speaker 1: Federal Coalition peace deal hold and will either party leader
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Speaker 1: still be there come the next election. I doubt that
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Speaker 1: very much first up though, as I said, we will
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Speaker 1: check in again with Kempse Shai mayor Kinney Ring as
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Speaker 1: we promised we would. As the heartbreaking cleanup from last
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Speaker 1: week's deadly floods across the mid North coast of New
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Speaker 1: South Wales. Look, I know they are doing it very
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Speaker 1: tough and the pictures of that flood event at its
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Speaker 1: peak were extraordinary. Australia was shocked. Towns like Kempsi and
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Speaker 1: Tari and smaller communities absolutely smashed. Prime Minister Anthony Albanezi
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Speaker 1: was quick to jump on a plane to visit. He
1:32
Speaker 1: got as far north as he could and I understand
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Speaker 1: that he was back there again this week now, the ADF,
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Speaker 1: the military, they were deployed. They're still on the ground
1:41
Speaker 1: there as they should be. But at the same time,
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Speaker 1: another disaster is unfolding in Western Victoria, a silent natural
1:48
Speaker 1: disaster that incredibly is being all but ignored federally by
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Speaker 1: not just the federal government, by the state government in
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Speaker 1: Victoria as well. Western Victoria is in the middle of
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Speaker 1: a crippling drought and it has reached disaster levels. Now
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Speaker 1: I'll talk shortly to Bernie Free He's with the Dairy
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Speaker 1: Division of the Victorian Farmers Federation. Hearing him on radio
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Speaker 1: this morning, I think caused a lot of city listeners
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Speaker 1: to get very angry. Bernie talked about a visit yesterday
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Speaker 1: from Victoria's Agriculture Minister, Roz Spence. He says, this is
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Speaker 1: his words, she did not want to be there and
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Speaker 1: offered no government assistance. He also talked about the mental
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Speaker 1: struggle dairy farmers like him and sheep and cattle farmers
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Speaker 1: are now going through now late today, and I presume
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Speaker 1: the Agriculture Minister got back from her visit and got
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Speaker 1: into the ear at the premiere. The Victorian government did act,
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Speaker 1: maybe because of Bernie's interview this morning. Now farmers will
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Speaker 1: now after a massive protest last week, a biggest, bigger
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Speaker 1: farmer protests you've never seen, they will now get a
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Speaker 1: one year reprieve from that hated emergency services fire levy.
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Speaker 1: A thirty seven million dollar rescue package was announced late today,
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Speaker 1: including something that is vague, a maximum five thousand dollars
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Speaker 1: grand for something called management improvements, whatever that is, and
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Speaker 1: for mental health support. There is also ten thousand dollars
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Speaker 1: to eleven council areas. Look forgive my cynicism here, But
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Speaker 1: this again seems too little, too late, and a knee
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Speaker 1: jerk reaction to something that should have been dealt with
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Speaker 1: months ago. Now, while the package is welcome for farmers,
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Speaker 1: their sleep is hard for them. They're not sleeping and
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Speaker 1: it's not just those on the land. All of the
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Speaker 1: surrounding communities are doing it tough as well.
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Speaker 2: Now.
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Speaker 1: The problem with drought emergency is unlike those floods we
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Speaker 1: saw last week, or like the bushfires we've experienced in
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Speaker 1: the past, this is, by its very nature, this drought
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Speaker 1: almost invisible and you can call on all the resources
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Speaker 1: you like, the ADF, but they can't make it rain. Look,
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Speaker 1: I'll also catch up with the oppositions David South because
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Speaker 1: I said he'll be up first tonight to get his
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Speaker 1: view on that state government package and what they ought
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Speaker 1: to be doing. Now. I've covered droughts like this before
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Speaker 1: and what often happens isolunteers load up trucks with feed
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Speaker 1: and that's what's urgently needed. But there's a drought just
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Speaker 1: as bad further west in South Australia, and those floods
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Speaker 1: have hit another of Australia's big dairy regions around Tai
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Speaker 1: and the like. So feed could be sourced, it would
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Speaker 1: need to be gotten from another part of New South Wales,
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Speaker 1: maybe from Queensland or WA. But trust me, this is
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Speaker 1: a national emergency that deserves the attention of our national
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Speaker 1: government in Canberra. As far as I can work out,
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Speaker 1: this is not really registered with the federal government. National
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Speaker 1: MPs in those areas need to start making a lot
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Speaker 1: of noise about financial relief. These Australians, these people in
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Speaker 1: Western Victoria, I think they feel like they're being forgotten.
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Speaker 1: They're under tremendous financial stress. Anecdotally, lives have already been lost.
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Speaker 1: And on top of all this, the incompetent State Labor
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Speaker 1: government has lobbed its new Emergency services levy on them
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Speaker 1: that replaces the existing fire services levy into the middle
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Speaker 1: of all of this. Late today the Premier decided they
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Speaker 1: wouldn't pay that for twelve month, but who knows whether
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Speaker 1: that will actually happen. It is a disgrace what's going
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Speaker 1: on there. The farmers in that region are really desperate.
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Speaker 1: You add to that intended superannuation law changes that the
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Speaker 1: alb and Easy and Charmers government want to use double
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Speaker 1: tax and unrealized profits on small self managed super funds
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Speaker 1: and you've got the perfect storm, Bernie free in a moment.
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Speaker 1: But as he said this morning, this is a natural
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Speaker 1: disaster on top of a financial wipeout and they really
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Speaker 1: do need help. Let's bring in Victoria Shadow please, Minister
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Speaker 1: David Southwick, can I start with the Western Victorian and
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Speaker 1: Malley drought. It seems the severity of this has only
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Speaker 1: just caught up with the Allen government, the Labor government.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, well, Steve, it's just beyond belief that something like
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Speaker 3: this that's been going for over twelve months and for
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Speaker 3: the Premier to finally wake up, she's just had a
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Speaker 3: head well and truly burying the sand on this one,
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Speaker 3: like many things. But where is the compassion, where is
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Speaker 3: the understanding and where is the action? Quite frankly, and
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Speaker 3: the fact that right in the middle of a drought
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Speaker 3: that many of these farmers have never seen, this premier
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Speaker 3: wants to slug them with an emergency services tax. And
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Speaker 3: I was at the Parliament only a week ago where
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Speaker 3: these farmers came out, many of them fifteen sixteen years
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Speaker 3: been working on a fire truck putting out fires, not
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Speaker 3: just on their farmers year.
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Speaker 1: Old hundred kilo farmers in tears, in.
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Speaker 3: Tears, and they're putting on fires on state government land
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Speaker 3: and having to pay to volunteer.
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Speaker 4: It just doesn't make any sense.
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Speaker 3: And tens of thousands of dollars increase on this levee.
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Speaker 3: But now the Premier seas we're going to give you
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Speaker 3: a stay of execution for twelve months.
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Speaker 4: This is going to be over the head of each.
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Speaker 3: And every one of those farmers for twelve months of
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Speaker 3: uncertainty at a time when they can't make a dollar.
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Speaker 3: They can't feed their families, let alone feed the rest
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Speaker 3: of Victoria.
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Speaker 1: I should remind everyone that the Liberal National Coalition, if elected,
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Speaker 1: would dump this.
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Speaker 3: We will scrap the tax because it's unfair. It's unreasonable,
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Speaker 3: not just for the farmers, it's small businesses. Its homes
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Speaker 3: would be hit with a fifty percent increase on these tax.
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Speaker 3: It's a land tax, it's a tax grab three billion
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Speaker 3: dollars that tips the budget into surplus. Without the three
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Speaker 3: billion dollars new tax, this budget that Ja cindere Ellen
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Speaker 3: just brought down would be a deficit budget. So she's
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Speaker 3: gone for this big grab to try and make a
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Speaker 3: budget look like a surplus.
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Speaker 4: But it's just a surplus.
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Speaker 1: Indus to mention the GST extra GST money that they
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Speaker 1: got without that in all sorts of troubles. What do
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Speaker 1: you make of this package this afternoon? I mean, am
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Speaker 1: I being too cynical? I mean it looks like something
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Speaker 1: cobbled together overnight. After the Agriculture Minister finally deaned to
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Speaker 1: go down there and talk to some farmers and I'll
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Speaker 1: talk to the dairy farmer. In the moment, Bernie, he
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Speaker 1: said she didn't even seem interested.
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Speaker 3: Well again, first visit from the agricultural minister. She doesn't care.
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Speaker 3: Government doesn't care. They've cobbled together some deal. Who knows
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Speaker 3: what it means, but it's not going to help those farmers.
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Speaker 3: And this is government that doesn't care, spends all their
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Speaker 3: time in Melbourne and has no care for anyone in Victoria.
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Speaker 1: Let's talk Machetes. The premiere again had to come to
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Speaker 1: Jesus moment. They decided after the Northland shopping center brawl
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Speaker 1: on the weekend last weekend, that she would outlaw Machetes
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Speaker 1: the sale of sale. Now the carry off doesn't come
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Speaker 1: till September. In what universe do you say? Okay? I
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Speaker 1: realized this is a big problem. Everybody from Bunnings to
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Speaker 1: might attend to a small hardway shop. You can't settle them,
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Speaker 1: get them off your shelves, but you still can't be
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Speaker 1: arrested for walking around carrying one.
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Speaker 4: Unbelievable.
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Speaker 3: So we've had four attempts to have these banned in
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Speaker 3: fifteen months. I had the fifth attempt only last week,
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Speaker 3: which the government knocked down. So as you're right, Steve,
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Speaker 3: this is a ban on the sale, not on the carry,
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Speaker 3: so you can still carry one around the other real
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Speaker 3: thing about this is the premier gave the retailers two
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Speaker 3: days to get rid of the machetes before the ban
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Speaker 3: on sale came in place, and we saw retailers selling
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Speaker 3: them for four dollars. Only when the band finally comes
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Speaker 3: into play in four months time. Are they hoping that
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Speaker 3: the four dollar machetes that have been sold off will
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Speaker 3: be handed into a police station in four months And
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Speaker 3: if you.
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Speaker 1: Read the legislation, it's machetes of twenty centimeters or longer.
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Speaker 4: Either government couldn't even define what a machete was.
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Speaker 1: People out there would take measures measuring.
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Speaker 3: These idea what it was, no idea how they're going
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Speaker 3: to get these machetes back, and in the meantime, what
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Speaker 3: we've been calling for is pretty plain and simple is
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Speaker 3: you carry one on the street, you should face a
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Speaker 3: jail term of two years. And the government won't legislate
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Speaker 3: that until September. So between now and September people have
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Speaker 3: got a holiday to carry him around and go for
9:43
Speaker 3: their life on the streets. They just can't buy them
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Speaker 3: from a retail store.
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Speaker 1: It's this government in some sort of chaos at the moment.
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Speaker 1: I mean, they've hired a new police commissioner. He's coming
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Speaker 1: from New Zealand. He may be the best police commissioner
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Speaker 1: we've ever had. He may be a tremendous copper. I
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Speaker 1: noticed also that they I've hired someone now to run
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Speaker 1: the Health Department who used to work Undercinda ad And
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Speaker 1: I don't know if we're over there recruiting jet to
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Speaker 1: cinder our doing ex public servants.
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Speaker 4: Well, no one here wants to work. They're well leaving.
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Speaker 1: So they didn't even work out that under the legislation
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Speaker 1: the new police commissioner has to be an Australian citizen.
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Speaker 3: So this police commissioner is almost packing his bags getting
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Speaker 3: back on a plane before even arrives.
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Speaker 4: So this is crazy stuff.
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Speaker 3: At a time where we've got fifty five percent confidence
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Speaker 3: in our police force, we're desperate for leadership. This will
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Speaker 3: be our fourth police commissioner in four months. There's been
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Speaker 3: a rotation door. That's why we can't get a police
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Speaker 3: commissioner locally that wants to work for this government. But
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Speaker 3: crazy to think that they've hired a police commissioner from overseas,
10:41
Speaker 3: but we don't have the laws to employ him here.
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Speaker 3: So these laws needed to be cobbled together overnight on
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Speaker 3: Thursday night to try and allow this to happen. And
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Speaker 3: still we don't have that pass through the Lower House.
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Speaker 3: It's just a government that's making up as they go
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Speaker 3: along in the middle of a crime crisis, Steve, like
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Speaker 3: we've never seen before, daily occurrences like you mentioned before
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Speaker 3: with the Northland shopping center. The government absolutely mia when
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Speaker 3: it comes to keeping people safe in Victoria.
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Speaker 1: Before you go, there's a deadline for your formerly to
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Speaker 1: John Psuto today to pay the legal cost of more redeeming.
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Speaker 1: I think that was close the business today. I've got
11:16
Speaker 1: no update on whether he's managed to get those funds together,
11:19
Speaker 1: but even if he hasn't he's still got three weeks legally,
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Speaker 1: I believe to raise that money.
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Speaker 3: Do you think that's my understanding. A lot of people
11:27
Speaker 3: are coming together and try and help through that. We
11:30
Speaker 3: don't want to see a by election in Hawthorne. And
11:33
Speaker 3: at the same time, you know, we just think that
11:35
Speaker 3: we need to get this ordered. We've got to stop
11:38
Speaker 3: as a party talking about ourselves. We've got so many
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Speaker 3: important things we've been talking about tonight, Steve, this is
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Speaker 3: the worst government that I think Victoria has ever seen.
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Speaker 3: That's my focus, and I think it is. You know,
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Speaker 3: it's a legacy that's just been carried on and made
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Speaker 3: worse by a financial incompetent premiere, and that's got to
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Speaker 3: be the Liberals focus is to get rid of j
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Speaker 3: Cidarellen next year and we'll be doing everything we possib
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Speaker 3: we can to do that.
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Speaker 1: David Southwick, thank you very much for joining us, and
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Speaker 1: we'll keep you updated on that John Perscuido situation. Now
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Speaker 1: more on the drought disaster described today as a natural disaster.
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Speaker 1: I'd never thought of it that way until I heard this.
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Speaker 1: Get my next guest on radio this morning. He was
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Speaker 1: on Radio three, A W. Bernie free'es emotional interview I
12:18
Speaker 1: reckon today should be replayed and listened to by every
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Speaker 1: state and federal politician in the country. Bernie joins us
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Speaker 1: on the line. Bernie, thank you for joining us. I
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Speaker 1: know it's for a dairy farmer. Every day is a
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Speaker 1: long day, but this has been a long day for you.
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Speaker 1: You sat down across a table with Minister roz Spence yesterday.
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Speaker 1: Did she get how bad the situation was? Do you reckon?
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Speaker 5: You know, Steve, I don't think she did.
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Speaker 1: She.
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Speaker 6: I mean, she's not a from the agriculture, she's not
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Speaker 6: from bural communities, but that doesn't mean that you can't
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Speaker 6: have some empathy and try and understand what the situation is.
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Speaker 6: Asked a question, you know, she never showed any empathy
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Speaker 6: and said, you know, I understand that things are tough
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Speaker 6: for the farmer that was talking about how tough it was.
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Speaker 6: I just thought it was, you know, sort of a
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Speaker 6: symbol of what the government's done in the past three weeks,
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Speaker 6: with the fire service levy coming on, no thought to
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Speaker 6: where we are in our cycle of profitability, and the
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Speaker 6: drought just creeping further and further across Victoria.
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Speaker 1: Bernie, I've covered a few of these droughts. I mean
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Speaker 1: probably the worst I saw was in New South Wales
13:37
Speaker 1: and the early two thousands. I mean I remember standing
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Speaker 1: on a sheep property with a sheep laying on its
13:43
Speaker 1: side in the dust, with crows pecking its eyes out.
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Speaker 1: Why is this one different and so bad?
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Speaker 6: You?
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Speaker 1: I thought, put it brilliantly this morning, saying this is
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Speaker 1: a natural disaster, not just a drought. What makes this
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Speaker 1: one different?
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Speaker 6: Mate, This one's different. South austra is in drought as well.
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Speaker 6: It's creeping across Victoria. You know, in western Victoria we
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Speaker 6: go to the Maley and the Wimmer and get our hay,
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Speaker 6: and then when we've used all of that, we go
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Speaker 6: over to the air Peninsula. Well, South Australia has already
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Speaker 6: used all that hay over there, and they've come to
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Speaker 6: Victoria as you would expect. And then we're both gone
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Speaker 6: to New South Wales. And now we're looking to get
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Speaker 6: hay from Queensland and Western Australia, and some we're pinching
14:28
Speaker 6: hay from the flooded areas in Queensland and New South
14:32
Speaker 6: Wales and Western Australia. I've been told that parts of
14:37
Speaker 6: that are sort of starting to go into drought. So
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Speaker 6: it's across the whole country that fodder is becoming scarce
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Speaker 6: and cattle can't live without fodder without hay.
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Speaker 1: Well, I mean I'm about to talk to to the
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Speaker 1: mayor of Kempse. I mean that's dairy country up there
14:58
Speaker 1: around Tari as well as you'd will not. So that's
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Speaker 1: all now covered with mud. So any excess fee they
15:04
Speaker 1: might have had is not coming your way. What roughly
15:07
Speaker 1: are you spending a week to keep your herd going?
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Speaker 1: And can you how long can you keep doing that?
15:12
Speaker 4: For?
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Speaker 6: Well, I can keep on going for as long as
15:16
Speaker 6: my wife says I can, which is a fortunate situation.
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Speaker 6: And after the announcement today at lunchtime, I'm not sure
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Speaker 6: how long that is. She was absolutely ropeable this morning
15:31
Speaker 6: the lunchtime today, you know. And I'm using two B
15:38
Speaker 6: doubles of hay a week at the moment, and it'll
15:41
Speaker 6: go increase further as we get further into winter. A
15:45
Speaker 6: B double of hay is you know, twenty five thirty
15:48
Speaker 6: grand when we shouldn't be spending that. So that's you know,
15:52
Speaker 6: fifty to seventy grand a week that we're spending that's
15:56
Speaker 6: extra that we shouldn't be spending if we had green grass.
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Speaker 6: And this has been going on, as you said earlier
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Speaker 6: on for two and a half years, and we haven't
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Speaker 6: been winging until six eight months ago.
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Speaker 1: That package announced today, forgive me, I don't get it.
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Speaker 1: What does that do to help?
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Speaker 6: Doesn't do anything for me, It doesn't do anything for
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Speaker 6: anybody in Western Victoria. Ten thousand bucks for infrastructure grant
16:25
Speaker 6: and then we have to find the other ten thousand dollars. Anyway,
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Speaker 6: we're all scrambling to find hay and to milk the
16:33
Speaker 6: cows and to keep the rest of the business going.
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Speaker 6: That's why we need it to be called a natural disaster,
16:39
Speaker 6: so they can open up some more money and make
16:42
Speaker 6: us be able to survive. At the end of the day.
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Speaker 6: We provide not only food for the country, but we
16:49
Speaker 6: provide employment for the local towns that were next to
16:53
Speaker 6: and the cities like Warnable and Colac and Mount Gambia.
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Speaker 6: You know, it's not just me that's going to end
17:03
Speaker 6: up with no job. It's the four or five people
17:07
Speaker 6: that I employed, plus all of those other people in
17:09
Speaker 6: the rest of the community.
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Speaker 1: Bernie, I really feel for you, mate, I mean the
17:17
Speaker 1: Premier today had the hide to say, she'll give you
17:21
Speaker 1: a year's break from having to pay an emergency services levy.
17:25
Speaker 1: You're the emergency services. You're the people go out and
17:27
Speaker 1: put out the fires.
17:29
Speaker 6: Well, you know, I'm not in the CFA, but there's
17:32
Speaker 6: a lot of farmers that are, and they do. They
17:35
Speaker 6: just drop everything and go. And then you've got all
17:38
Speaker 6: of the farms that are around these towns and around
17:41
Speaker 6: like the places like Hall's Gap where the fire the
17:45
Speaker 6: state government just says, oh, we'll just burn their land
17:47
Speaker 6: so that we can put the fire out. You know,
17:51
Speaker 6: you can imagine what farmers think beside the Grampians when
17:55
Speaker 6: the governments just said, oh, well we'll just let it
17:57
Speaker 6: burn and we'll burn a bit of your land and
18:00
Speaker 6: it'll be right, you'll survive. And then they want to
18:04
Speaker 6: go on Texas an absolute heap of money. It's just disgraceful,
18:09
Speaker 6: just no empathy, no thought. Seriously, has she ever been
18:16
Speaker 6: past the tram line? She says she lives in Bendigo.
18:19
Speaker 6: But as I've got a text message today, remember there's
18:24
Speaker 6: no farmers at the airport at Bendigo, meaning that she
18:29
Speaker 6: doesn't have to touch a farmer if she flies out
18:31
Speaker 6: of Bendigo Airport.
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Speaker 1: I love it. You can have some sort of a
18:36
Speaker 1: sense of humor. We'll keep in touch with you anyway,
18:38
Speaker 1: and forget about it. We'll keep coming back to you.
18:40
Speaker 1: And I know Peter Gretlin's invested in this story as well,
18:43
Speaker 1: so I'm sure you might hear from her next week.
18:45
Speaker 1: Good on your mate. After the break, I promised last
18:48
Speaker 1: week speaking of disasters, we're going to go back to
18:50
Speaker 1: Kempsey in New South Wales. The heartbreaking clean up continues.
18:54
Speaker 1: We head back there and we'll catch up with the
18:56
Speaker 1: Mayor Kinney Ring. Welcome back. Great to have you with
19:05
Speaker 1: us on this Friday night, Campbell Newman coming up shortly now.
19:08
Speaker 1: As I mentioned, flood smash communities on the mid north
19:11
Speaker 1: coast of New South Wales are going through what must
19:14
Speaker 1: be a horrendous job, and that's in the midst of
19:17
Speaker 1: a long recovery with more than I think one thousand,
19:21
Speaker 1: one hundred buildings deemed uninhabitable. I mean that's an extraordinary figure.
19:26
Speaker 1: Having some of the stories of the mud sludge and
19:29
Speaker 1: the damage, it's just heartbreaking. Now last week I spoke
19:32
Speaker 1: to KEMPSI Mayor Kinney Ring at the time, thousands remained
19:35
Speaker 1: cut off by those flood borders and people were beginning
19:39
Speaker 1: to panic. By a week later, the community is only
19:42
Speaker 1: just beginning, I presume, to assess the damage. I promised
19:46
Speaker 1: the mayor we would come back to her. Kinny Ring
19:48
Speaker 1: joined us again. How are you getting on? How is
19:51
Speaker 1: the recovery?
19:53
Speaker 2: We're getting well into the recovery now. But from when
19:56
Speaker 2: we first entered the CBD on Monday to see the
20:01
Speaker 2: damage and what had actually happened to some of our businesses,
20:04
Speaker 2: to some of our homes, it was truly devastating to see.
20:11
Speaker 1: Could you believe how bad it was?
20:14
Speaker 7: I really couldn't.
20:15
Speaker 2: One of our central supermarkets IgA they didn't have time
20:20
Speaker 2: to lift any of their stock and they lost hundreds
20:22
Speaker 2: of thousands of dollars worth of stock, and then another
20:27
Speaker 2: gym lost all of their cardio equipment. Homes completely inundated,
20:31
Speaker 2: with people losing all of their possessions, going to see
20:34
Speaker 2: primary producers and their addicts covered with mud, dead cows.
20:41
Speaker 2: It was really really shocking and heartbreaking.
20:47
Speaker 1: You're coping, okay, and what's the damage this is doing
20:50
Speaker 1: mentally to the people who live around the great town
20:53
Speaker 1: of kems.
20:55
Speaker 7: Well.
20:55
Speaker 2: Steve in the last I guess since two thousand and nine,
20:59
Speaker 2: our community has had twenty nine natural disaster declarations and
21:04
Speaker 2: we are quite a resilient community, but people are still
21:07
Speaker 2: dealing with the trauma of the twenty nineteen bush fires.
21:11
Speaker 7: But in saying that, when.
21:12
Speaker 2: These things do happen, we do band together and we
21:15
Speaker 2: do try and support one another, which has been really
21:18
Speaker 2: great to see, particularly as well fire and sees people
21:24
Speaker 2: from all over Australia have come to support us, and
21:28
Speaker 2: I think that that's what people need. They need that
21:30
Speaker 2: vision of hope right now to get through what comes next.
21:33
Speaker 2: Recovery has a lot of different phases. You know, there's
21:36
Speaker 2: the first acute bit and then there's the years that
21:39
Speaker 2: it can take to rebuild.
21:43
Speaker 1: I remember talking to the mayor of Lismore about this
21:46
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one when they had that problem, and
21:49
Speaker 1: when we got a couple of weeks down the road,
21:51
Speaker 1: a couple of months down the road, we had to
21:53
Speaker 1: urge people who were on the road to stop in
21:57
Speaker 1: the community and spend some money. Are you at that
21:59
Speaker 1: point yet or is it.
22:00
Speaker 7: Early next weekend?
22:02
Speaker 2: We actually have the south West Rox Running Festival and
22:05
Speaker 2: I think that would be the perfect time to welcome
22:07
Speaker 2: people back into the community. We've got some beautiful coastal
22:10
Speaker 2: towns here, and to be honest, our economy has been
22:13
Speaker 2: hit really hard, from primary producers to small businesses. We
22:18
Speaker 2: need all the support we can get and part of
22:20
Speaker 2: that is a boost to our visitor economy because that
22:23
Speaker 2: is really going to help. We obviously have had some
22:26
Speaker 2: communities that have been hit pretty hard, and there are
22:29
Speaker 2: places that there is a little bit of mud, but
22:30
Speaker 2: we still have our beautiful coastal villages and hinterland that
22:35
Speaker 2: are open for people to come and just enjoy.
22:40
Speaker 1: We're happy with you. Did you get to have a
22:42
Speaker 1: chat with Premier Chris Mint We did.
22:45
Speaker 2: I was really pleased to see the Premier here on Wednesday,
22:48
Speaker 2: as well as state ministers and Christy McBain also visited
22:52
Speaker 2: on Monday. That boots on the ground, coming and listening
22:56
Speaker 2: to people was really important. You know, there's images on
23:00
Speaker 2: the TV and they look shocking and you can kind
23:04
Speaker 2: of maybe think, oh, that's really heartbreaking, but coming and
23:07
Speaker 2: talking to our primary producers, our small business owners, our
23:10
Speaker 2: people affected, is how we really drive the message home
23:13
Speaker 2: of the support that we need. So I was really
23:15
Speaker 2: pleased to see the Premier here and the time he
23:18
Speaker 2: took to go talk to people, to listen and give
23:22
Speaker 2: us that opportunity to advocate, to advocate for what we
23:25
Speaker 2: need as a community.
23:28
Speaker 1: Kenny, if you need to get any messages out, I
23:30
Speaker 1: want to have another chat, you just let us know. Okay,
23:32
Speaker 1: we'll keep in touch.
23:34
Speaker 7: Thank you, Steve.
23:36
Speaker 1: Good on you, Kenny ring there in Kempsey. Now let's
23:38
Speaker 1: bring in my Friday Night regular Queensland Premier Campbell Newman.
23:41
Speaker 1: This time last week we were in the middle of
23:43
Speaker 1: that bizarre coalition split. They now p to be back together. Here, Campbell,
23:48
Speaker 1: is a question do you expect either leaders Susan Lee
23:53
Speaker 1: and David Little Proud to be the leader of their
23:56
Speaker 1: party at the next election in three years time.
24:00
Speaker 8: I think we might lose at least one along the way,
24:04
Speaker 8: but that really depends on if they get it on
24:07
Speaker 8: in into the fight.
24:08
Speaker 7: Steve, and I think in.
24:10
Speaker 8: The last week and a half, while I've been sort
24:14
Speaker 8: of engaged in this performance art, I'm really not impressed.
24:19
Speaker 8: But there's been a really big issue out there in
24:21
Speaker 8: this country, and that's been this taxation of unrealized gains.
24:25
Speaker 8: Don't believe the charmers spin about a modest increase in
24:30
Speaker 8: tax on the wealthiest people with self mattered super funds.
24:35
Speaker 8: This is a fundamental change to the tax system in Australia.
24:39
Speaker 8: It is a diabolically bad socialist sort of move which
24:46
Speaker 8: will destroy incentive in this country and mark my words,
24:51
Speaker 8: it will be extended to other things other than super funds.
24:54
Speaker 7: It's not about higher tax being paid in super.
24:57
Speaker 8: It's about actually changing the way taxes levit and so
25:00
Speaker 8: you need to pay even though you didn't get the cash.
25:04
Speaker 8: That's something the Coalition should have been fighting prior to
25:08
Speaker 8: the election. That's something they should have been fighting in
25:11
Speaker 8: the last week at half, and they should be fighting
25:13
Speaker 8: it in the coming weeks to come.
25:18
Speaker 4: Yeah.
25:18
Speaker 1: I've written a column about it in the Herald Sun
25:20
Speaker 1: that's up online now and in the paper tomorrow. And
25:23
Speaker 1: I did point out, of course that politicians get a
25:26
Speaker 1: much better deal when it comes to superannuation than ordinary
25:29
Speaker 1: Australians who are working hard and putting money into their super.
25:32
Speaker 1: I mean, we the taxpayer, top their super up by
25:35
Speaker 1: fifteen and a half percent every time they get paid.
25:37
Speaker 1: Let's talk about these floods and the drought emergency. They're
25:40
Speaker 1: just devastating for people living in regional areas. I don't
25:44
Speaker 1: know what it is, but do we need a better
25:45
Speaker 1: way of getting prepared for these things? I mean, Liz
25:49
Speaker 1: Moore in twenty twenty one is a classic case. After
25:51
Speaker 1: that disaster, Candle, they were promised a lot more spending
25:54
Speaker 1: on mitigation. Hasn't happened. Four years later, people are still
25:57
Speaker 1: out of their own homes, living in rented to commidation.
26:01
Speaker 1: I don't know what the answer is, but we just
26:03
Speaker 1: keep doing the same thing over and over again. I
26:06
Speaker 1: know we can't control the weather, but do we need
26:08
Speaker 1: some other way of looking at these things?
26:13
Speaker 8: Well, I think we've got a demand that both politicians
26:16
Speaker 8: and bureaucrats do look to the future. And instead of
26:20
Speaker 8: cleaning up each time and giving us warm hugs and
26:24
Speaker 8: sort of coming to give us moral support, we need
26:26
Speaker 8: real support in the future. And so you just mentioned drought, well,
26:31
Speaker 8: drought once upon a time, the response in this country
26:34
Speaker 8: is to go and build water supply infrastructure, dams and
26:38
Speaker 8: irrigation schemes. You know, literally we've stopped doing that in
26:42
Speaker 8: this country mainly because of environmental sort of reasons. Supposedly,
26:48
Speaker 8: when it comes to floods, you just mentioned flood mitigation schemes.
26:52
Speaker 8: Lis More is a good case. You know, there are
26:56
Speaker 8: flood mitigation projects you can undertake to protect the sea
27:00
Speaker 8: Brisbane and the city of Ipswich in southeast Queensland, and
27:04
Speaker 8: my government did a pre feasibility report on that ten
27:07
Speaker 8: years ago. The Department did it. There's real projects and
27:11
Speaker 8: yet no one, whether it be the state government, LNP
27:15
Speaker 8: State government or the LNP mayor and his administration in Brisbane,
27:19
Speaker 8: no one wants to talk about it. I mean, we
27:23
Speaker 8: might want to talk about the other priorities they seem
27:25
Speaker 8: to have.
27:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, just before you go quickly. I don't get what's
27:32
Speaker 1: going on with the funding of the Brisbane Olympics. I
27:34
Speaker 1: heard out thyl but easy to talk about it at
27:37
Speaker 1: a media conference. I didn't hear one word of what
27:39
Speaker 1: he was actually going to do. Why was it so?
27:42
Speaker 1: Are they so reluctant to commit proper money to that?
27:46
Speaker 8: Well, look, they've made a commitment to this project called
27:49
Speaker 8: Brisbane Live, which was a very exciting project in the
27:52
Speaker 8: heart of the city. But what's happening is the Chris
27:55
Speaker 8: of Foley government want to sort of negotiate a deal
27:58
Speaker 8: with that money goes to elsewhere in the whole thing
28:01
Speaker 8: to pay for the Olympics, so other infrastructure.
28:04
Speaker 7: Of the Olympics.
28:05
Speaker 8: Now I'm going to say something which isn't very popular,
28:07
Speaker 8: but this is all a bit out of control now, Steve.
28:09
Speaker 8: We're heading for at least a fifteen billion dollar bill
28:12
Speaker 8: for the Olympics. And this was sold to the community
28:14
Speaker 8: as cheap and cheerful. The former Lord Mayor of Bristo
28:18
Speaker 8: and Graham Quirk and other mayors said this would be
28:20
Speaker 8: done using existing infrastructure. And now we're off on the
28:23
Speaker 8: spendethon of all spendathons. And meantime, today the Prime Minister
28:27
Speaker 8: has hit up to provide funding for the story Bridge
28:30
Speaker 8: and I think quite rightfully said well no, And I
28:34
Speaker 8: think he should say no because the state government should
28:36
Speaker 8: be supporting Lord Mayor Adriansted to fix which is really
28:40
Speaker 8: regional infrastructure. Of course it doesn't get away from wise
28:44
Speaker 8: the bridge deteriorated to that state.
28:47
Speaker 7: But like, what are our priorities mate? Are they for?
28:51
Speaker 2: You know?
28:51
Speaker 7: Are they bred and circuses or they are on the
28:53
Speaker 7: real things.
28:54
Speaker 8: If we can't maintain an icon like the story Bridge,
28:57
Speaker 8: how can we then be saying we want to spend
29:00
Speaker 8: billions of dollars on Olympic infrastructure when it was meant
29:03
Speaker 8: to be done using the existing stadiums that we have.
29:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, I reckon. We'll have a longer conversation about infrastructure spending. Campbell.
29:12
Speaker 1: It's always great to catch up with you on a
29:13
Speaker 1: Friday night. Thank you very much for that. Now after
29:16
Speaker 1: the break, devastated families are pushing for Victoria's coward punch
29:19
Speaker 1: laws to actually be strengthened as a new study reviews
29:22
Speaker 1: few offenders have actually been sentenced. Plus the week in
29:26
Speaker 1: cartoons with our favorite cartoonist Mark Knight, Welcome back on
29:33
Speaker 1: this Friday night. Now, Devastated families of victims killed in
29:37
Speaker 1: coward punch attacks at demanding Victoria's laws be tightened as
29:42
Speaker 1: new research and this has surprised me reveals few offenders
29:45
Speaker 1: have been sentenced under the actual legislation. The research by
29:49
Speaker 1: the Monash University and the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine
29:53
Speaker 1: found it was quote extremely difficult in Victoria for the
29:57
Speaker 1: prosecution to prove three crucial points of the coward punch
30:01
Speaker 1: laws they were introduced in twenty fourteen. Joining me now
30:04
Speaker 1: to discuss this is Katerina Palita, who was instrumental in
30:08
Speaker 1: the campaign for the coward punch laws after tragically her
30:12
Speaker 1: son David was hit and died on New Year's Eve
30:15
Speaker 1: in twenty twelve. Katerina, thanks for joining us and you're
30:20
Speaker 1: very brave to be speaking out about it.
30:22
Speaker 9: Thanks Dave.
30:23
Speaker 1: How do you feel that these studies into the legislation
30:28
Speaker 1: show that the courts are just not putting people away?
30:32
Speaker 9: They're not They're failing victims, you know, for all the
30:38
Speaker 9: victims that have died as a result of one punch,
30:41
Speaker 9: a coward punch, they're not being used. Even when the
30:46
Speaker 9: difficult criteria is proved, they're not being used. So it's
30:52
Speaker 9: families are walking out of the courts, you know, even
30:56
Speaker 9: more devastated.
30:57
Speaker 1: The laws need to be rewritten to they they do.
31:00
Speaker 9: It's too hard to prove the four points that need
31:04
Speaker 9: to be proved, and even when they can be proved
31:08
Speaker 9: and it might be your caught on CCTV, the prosecution
31:13
Speaker 9: reluctant to push for it, saying that they don't want
31:18
Speaker 9: to upset the judges that are like mandatory minimums or
31:21
Speaker 9: we don't know if the first punch killed the person
31:23
Speaker 9: or the second punch, but there are options in.
31:28
Speaker 1: That law that have you talked to lawis about how
31:30
Speaker 1: you'd strengthen it.
31:32
Speaker 7: I haven't.
31:33
Speaker 4: I haven't.
31:33
Speaker 1: I know you've spoken to three attorney generals. Yes, no
31:36
Speaker 1: joy with them.
31:37
Speaker 4: No joy.
31:37
Speaker 1: They don't want to know.
31:40
Speaker 9: They they listened, very compassionate at the time when I've
31:45
Speaker 9: met with them, and even the new attorney or the
31:49
Speaker 9: new Treasurer I spoke to her week before she became
31:51
Speaker 9: Treasurer and sympathetic, but nothing's really moved from there, and
31:57
Speaker 9: we want to a law that works as it was intended.
32:01
Speaker 9: I'm not a lawyer, but as a layperson I can
32:04
Speaker 9: see the flaws in the law and it won't take
32:08
Speaker 9: much because it was introduced pretty quickly when we started
32:12
Speaker 9: our campaign after David was killed. And appreciate that it
32:16
Speaker 9: was done so quickly, but it needs to be fixed
32:20
Speaker 9: and it won't take much to fix to be able
32:23
Speaker 9: to get the ten year minimum across the line.
32:26
Speaker 1: I was in New South Wales when one punch laws
32:28
Speaker 1: were introduced. There is that legislation better.
32:32
Speaker 9: I don't think it is because as a mitigating factor
32:35
Speaker 9: of being intoxicated with a certain level of alcohol in
32:40
Speaker 9: their system. To get the minimum across the line. So
32:46
Speaker 9: we've got ten years here minimum. I think there's flaws everywhere,
32:52
Speaker 9: but I can only speak really for Victorian laws.
32:54
Speaker 1: I lost my dear friend, David Hooks, the cricketer. He
32:58
Speaker 1: was hit once outside the Beaconsfield Hotel and died. You
33:02
Speaker 1: lost your son, David. How hard is it to recover
33:07
Speaker 1: from something like that?
33:10
Speaker 4: You never do.
33:12
Speaker 9: It's it's almost like I put I've got two faces.
33:16
Speaker 9: You don't want to be the sad person. You know,
33:20
Speaker 9: it doesn't take much to bring it to tears. You know,
33:25
Speaker 9: at times it's very private, the grief. I know what
33:31
Speaker 9: what I had. He was such a good, great young man.
33:36
Speaker 1: Even he's liver to someone or a kidney or something.
33:38
Speaker 9: Yeah, you know, to have someone fly from overseas and
33:43
Speaker 9: he met for a few days, and to go to
33:46
Speaker 9: his cemetery where he's buried, and to search for two
33:49
Speaker 9: hours to see where he was buried.
33:51
Speaker 1: I mean, that's just it's a campaigning help with the grief.
33:54
Speaker 9: It does because I can put that grief to a purpose.
33:59
Speaker 9: And I know that even though we started this campaign,
34:02
Speaker 9: the stop one punch can kill for David and in
34:05
Speaker 9: his legacy, it's for all victims. And there are going
34:09
Speaker 9: to be more victims. But if and also if the
34:13
Speaker 9: punch doesn't kill the devastation, the trauma that it leaves victims,
34:19
Speaker 9: you know, the personal devastation for everyone that goes to it,
34:23
Speaker 9: the families. I need to I need to keep doing it.
34:28
Speaker 1: We'll get to work on the state opposition see if
34:30
Speaker 1: they can do something to help us out.
34:32
Speaker 9: Well, hopefully someone will listen, someone will take take it
34:36
Speaker 9: on board, make the changes that are hard to prove,
34:40
Speaker 9: and that we have a prosecution that's willing to get
34:44
Speaker 9: it across the line. Even if you tick every box,
34:47
Speaker 9: we've got to have the prosecution that's willing to push
34:50
Speaker 9: for it, and that judges need to accept that mandatory
34:53
Speaker 9: minims are going to be here to stay.
34:55
Speaker 1: I'll keep in touch and we'll do some campaigning on
34:57
Speaker 1: your behalf. Thanks for coming in.
34:58
Speaker 9: Thanks Steve.
34:59
Speaker 1: There you go, Arena, Thank you very much for coming in.
35:01
Speaker 1: Now let's switch things. This is a hard change. But
35:06
Speaker 1: Mark Knight is the best cartoonist in the country. Joins
35:08
Speaker 1: us every second week, and I'm sure Mark has drawn
35:11
Speaker 1: cartoons about that very issue. Good to see you, mate,
35:15
Speaker 1: he Steve.
35:15
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's a tough one and we really feel for
35:18
Speaker 5: that family, and I have drawn cartoons on that issue.
35:21
Speaker 5: And you know, I've got three kids. You just worry
35:26
Speaker 5: sometimes when they go out to bars that they will
35:28
Speaker 5: come home safe.
35:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, we do. And it's something that I feel very
35:34
Speaker 1: strongly about because the hooksie which you need David as well,
35:37
Speaker 1: and I intend to write a column in the Herald
35:40
Speaker 1: Sun at some point about that and try and do
35:42
Speaker 1: some campaigning. Let's talk about droughts and floods, which is
35:46
Speaker 1: no laughing matter either, very tough. Tell us about this
35:50
Speaker 1: cartoon that you've drawn about how the difference between Victoria
35:53
Speaker 1: and New South Wales is so stark.
35:56
Speaker 5: It's just incredible. I live in Victoria, but at the
35:59
Speaker 5: moment I'm spending a bit of time up north of
36:02
Speaker 5: Sydney in New South Wales with my parents, and it
36:06
Speaker 5: has not stopped raining up here. And I was up
36:10
Speaker 5: at Newcastle Airport the other day and the airport was
36:13
Speaker 5: flooded all around it. So there's this incredible divide between Victoria,
36:17
Speaker 5: which is begging for rain and New South Wales, which
36:20
Speaker 5: has too much rain. And I put it together in
36:23
Speaker 5: this cartoon and it's, you know, it's a ridiculous situation
36:28
Speaker 5: in the cartoon, but it does paint the picture of
36:32
Speaker 5: the difference between these two states, and I guess it's
36:36
Speaker 5: that contrast that is this amazing country of Australia, a
36:40
Speaker 5: land of droughts and flooding rains, and as the farmer
36:43
Speaker 5: in Victoria says, it never rains, and the New South
36:46
Speaker 5: Welshman is saying, but it.
36:51
Speaker 1: Yeah. I love the drawing. I think it's fantastic. Did
36:53
Speaker 1: you know we're going to have a mashetti ban in Victoria?
36:57
Speaker 1: It started on Wednesday. You can't buy one, but you
36:59
Speaker 1: can still walk down the street carrying one. You've drawn
37:03
Speaker 1: the premiere. She's getting very serious about machetes.
37:08
Speaker 5: She's getting very tough, so tough in fact, that she
37:11
Speaker 5: was going to ban them in a couple of days
37:13
Speaker 5: from when this latest run through happened at Northland, which
37:16
Speaker 5: just seems incredible. You're in a shopping center. I mean,
37:19
Speaker 5: we saw this in Sydney and Bondi Junction, the tragedy there,
37:23
Speaker 5: and then we have these youths running through Northland waging
37:28
Speaker 5: wars with machetes. So you just decided to get tough.
37:32
Speaker 5: She was going to ban the sale in a couple
37:35
Speaker 5: of days, and then they wait September. I'll even ban
37:38
Speaker 5: them if you don't drop that machete. So yeah, it's
37:42
Speaker 5: not really the toughest action.
37:45
Speaker 1: I think. I love the I love the pop gun.
37:48
Speaker 1: I thought that was a good touch. The Coalition, they
37:52
Speaker 1: gave you plenty to draw about this week. They decided
37:55
Speaker 1: one day they were going to split up. They were
37:57
Speaker 1: in a divorce, and that lasted three or four days,
38:00
Speaker 1: and then they got married again. What have you drawn here, Well.
38:03
Speaker 5: Well, one day David little Proud is dropping his coalition
38:07
Speaker 5: partner Susan lay at the farm gate with her bags
38:10
Speaker 5: pack and say I'll see you later. Obviously he's driven
38:16
Speaker 5: back to the farmhouse and he sat there in the
38:18
Speaker 5: kitchen on his own with the kelp in. He's thought, hmm,
38:21
Speaker 5: this is this is not good. Maybe I want her back.
38:28
Speaker 1: I love your I love your your sense of marrying
38:32
Speaker 1: things up, like farmer wants a wife. And they're back
38:35
Speaker 1: together now there, look at them, they're in the they're
38:37
Speaker 1: in the wheatfield about to harp.
38:40
Speaker 5: This is this is what we've discovered, Steve. The farmer
38:44
Speaker 5: actually does want a wife. And so I've gone from
38:47
Speaker 5: that to this cartoon a few days later, which is
38:50
Speaker 5: the coalition passionary kindled and you know, I imagine them
38:53
Speaker 5: running through a golden field of barley towards each other
38:57
Speaker 5: with their arms outstretched. And realized when I looked at
39:02
Speaker 5: the cartoon that I thought, jeez, I've drawn the cover
39:05
Speaker 5: of one of those schmaltzy paperback Mills and Boone romance novels.
39:09
Speaker 1: Fantastic. Absolutely. But if I've written a column about the
39:14
Speaker 1: super tax for the paper today to be in the
39:17
Speaker 1: print paper tomorrow, you've also drawn about the super tax
39:21
Speaker 1: this week? What's this one about?
39:23
Speaker 5: I love that column, Steve. It just paints out I
39:26
Speaker 5: guess the disparities between our super and MP Super and
39:32
Speaker 5: it reminded me of you know those ads we have
39:34
Speaker 5: for Industry Super on television about we're all in this together.
39:38
Speaker 5: Well we're not all in it today.
39:39
Speaker 1: Oh yes, they have a much better deal than us.
39:43
Speaker 5: And now Jim Charmers wants to take thirty percent of
39:47
Speaker 5: unrealized gains from our self managed super fun So I
39:51
Speaker 5: mocked up this commercial of the two guys having their haircut.
39:55
Speaker 5: One of course, is the poor old guy with his
39:57
Speaker 5: self managed super getting a haircut from Jim Charmers. Look
40:00
Speaker 5: at that haircut that's a beauty and on the other side,
40:03
Speaker 5: of course, is another blow that may be elbow and
40:07
Speaker 5: he's in a parliamentary super scheme. Compare the pair.
40:12
Speaker 1: I say, beautifully done. Mate. It's always a brilliant pleasure
40:17
Speaker 1: to have you draw on my column. Thanks mate, good luck.
40:19
Speaker 1: I talked to you in a couple of weeks. Mark Knight,
40:21
Speaker 1: the best cartoonist in the country. Now after the break,
40:24
Speaker 1: calls for judges to visit a new South Wales town.
40:27
Speaker 1: It's in the grip of a crime crisis amid concerns
40:30
Speaker 1: over the state's bail laws. Plus should the Melbourne Cup
40:34
Speaker 1: be a national holiday? The Panel? Joe and Amanda join
40:38
Speaker 1: us next. Welcome back Panel Time Small Businesswomen Australia CEO
40:43
Speaker 1: Amanda Rose, who I understand is her birthday today? And
40:47
Speaker 1: Sky News contributor Joe hilde Brown. Welcome to you both. Joe,
40:51
Speaker 1: what's happened? Have you dressed up on Amanda's birthday or something?
40:55
Speaker 10: I've got my quiet appearance tomorrow Price, so I thought
40:58
Speaker 10: i'd better know. I'm at a fantastic It's a charity
41:01
Speaker 10: gala fundraiser for a group called Survivors r US. They're
41:05
Speaker 10: a Newcastle based service that provides all sorts of on
41:09
Speaker 10: the ground basics for people who are fleeing domestic violence
41:13
Speaker 10: and need a bit of help getting back on their feet.
41:15
Speaker 10: And they've also been massively run off their feet in
41:18
Speaker 10: delivering flood relief to a huge number of people here
41:22
Speaker 10: in the Newcastle area who have been absolutely smashed by
41:25
Speaker 10: I know you mentioned earlier the appalling floods and storms
41:29
Speaker 10: that we've had, so there are a terrific grassroots organization
41:32
Speaker 10: and wanted him a big shout out.
41:36
Speaker 1: Good luck to you. We can give them a shout out.
41:38
Speaker 1: I don't know that you need to dress like that exactly,
41:41
Speaker 1: but we'll let you get away with it. Happy birthday
41:43
Speaker 1: to you, Amanda. Well done. Today, let's turn out attention
41:46
Speaker 1: to a very serious issue Maure Country town, ongoing crime crisis.
41:51
Speaker 1: We've talked and talked and talked about this. I know
41:53
Speaker 1: Joe has written about it. I've witnessed it when I
41:55
Speaker 1: was working in New South Wales. The state's judges and lawmakers,
41:59
Speaker 1: I mean they've been asked to come and spend a
42:02
Speaker 1: week in the shoes of the people who live in
42:04
Speaker 1: that town. Eight times the state average longtime resident Kylie Smith,
42:09
Speaker 1: she goes to bed every night this shouldn't happen to
42:11
Speaker 1: anyone in Australia fearing what's going to happen in her
42:15
Speaker 1: home It's going to be broken into. She experienced a
42:18
Speaker 1: home invasion last year. Joe Maurie. It's had problems forever,
42:22
Speaker 1: hasn't it. Yeah, it certainly has.
42:24
Speaker 10: And I think there's a lot of frustration that the
42:25
Speaker 10: Chief Justice has, as you would expect, defended magistrates over
42:29
Speaker 10: what many in the community see as lenient bail decisions,
42:33
Speaker 10: where people are being arrested by the cops and they're
42:35
Speaker 10: out on the street again later that same day. I
42:38
Speaker 10: think the problem is when you see an offender in
42:41
Speaker 10: front of you in the safety of a courtroom, when
42:44
Speaker 10: you've got a bailor or you've got a sheriff.
42:46
Speaker 1: Who you know is going to keep you safe.
42:49
Speaker 10: I think it's hard for the judiciary to sometimes get
42:53
Speaker 10: in the heads of the people who actually do fear
42:56
Speaker 10: for their safety and do fear for their lives and
42:58
Speaker 10: don't know when they're walking to the shop whether or
43:00
Speaker 10: not someone's going to have a crack at them, don't
43:02
Speaker 10: know if someone's going to break into their house, when
43:04
Speaker 10: they're sleeping, and so I think that's what that invitation,
43:09
Speaker 10: if you like, really speaks to people saying, listen, you
43:12
Speaker 10: don't know what it's like. These crimes aren't taking place
43:15
Speaker 10: in your courtrooms where you're making these decisions. They're taking
43:17
Speaker 10: place in our homes, in our streets. We need you
43:20
Speaker 10: to come and see it for yourself to understand.
43:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, Amanda Northland shopping center in Melbourne last weekend, shoppers
43:28
Speaker 1: were forced to run for their lives. They had to
43:30
Speaker 1: put up steel barriers on front of small stores because
43:34
Speaker 1: there was a bunch of lunatics running through the shopping
43:37
Speaker 1: center armed with machete. So the government that had already
43:40
Speaker 1: said it's going to make them illegal to carry in
43:43
Speaker 1: September suddenly says okay, we've got to ban them on Wednesday,
43:47
Speaker 1: and you can buy them online. I mean, this is
43:49
Speaker 1: just pathetic. This is not going to stop young blokes.
43:53
Speaker 1: They can buy these things for four dollars each online.
43:56
Speaker 1: The government's decided that they'll ban them. That's not work,
44:00
Speaker 1: and the small shopkeepers people in shopping centers are going
44:03
Speaker 1: to still have these crazies running through the streets with machetes.
44:07
Speaker 1: This is Australia in twenty twenty five.
44:09
Speaker 11: That's right, and you make good point. If someone wants
44:12
Speaker 11: to cause damage or they're aggressive, they will find a weapon.
44:17
Speaker 11: They will use anything as a weapon to do so.
44:20
Speaker 11: They need to look at the reason of why they're
44:23
Speaker 11: doing it, and one of the reasons is the fact
44:25
Speaker 11: that if they're repeat offenders, they've pretty much pretty much
44:29
Speaker 11: been conditioned that don't worry, you'll go to court, you'll
44:32
Speaker 11: get let off on bail, and you can just go
44:34
Speaker 11: on and continue with your life. There's no accountability, No
44:37
Speaker 11: one has any responsibility for this. It's like, oh sorry,
44:40
Speaker 11: we'll just ban machetes and look good. Actually know why
44:43
Speaker 11: they're acting this way, right, First, punish them, Actually punish
44:48
Speaker 11: them because their friends will see that they got locked
44:50
Speaker 11: up for their behavior, not let out on bail, and
44:52
Speaker 11: they'll question whether they're going to do that or not.
44:55
Speaker 11: And for some reason, no one wants to talk about that.
44:57
Speaker 11: And these ports security guards, mind you, So they get
45:00
Speaker 11: eight to ten days training and everyone expects them to
45:03
Speaker 11: act like police. Right, they're their security guards to monitor
45:07
Speaker 11: what's going on, but it's not their job to protect people.
45:10
Speaker 11: And the small business owners who are paying extremely high
45:13
Speaker 11: rents in different locations and trying to survive. Are the
45:17
Speaker 11: ones that have to close their shop and then people
45:19
Speaker 11: don't come anymore because they fear for their lives.
45:23
Speaker 1: Jade grew up in a pretty tough neighborhood in dan
45:26
Speaker 1: Andong in Victoria, where people running around with machetes.
45:28
Speaker 10: In those days, I don't think it was as bad
45:31
Speaker 10: as it is now. My mum still lives there and
45:34
Speaker 10: she has it gives me a bit of feedback to
45:37
Speaker 10: what's happening on the ground. But certainly, again, maybe why
45:41
Speaker 10: I feel so strongly about this is because I do
45:42
Speaker 10: know what it's like to walk down the street and
45:45
Speaker 10: constantly be looking over your shoulder, be looking at every
45:47
Speaker 10: group of people who were gathered, not knowing if you're
45:50
Speaker 10: going to be jumped for your rebock pumps. That was
45:52
Speaker 10: the big threat when I was there. Not that I
45:53
Speaker 10: had any rebock pumps, of course, But so it does
45:57
Speaker 10: a real disservice to pour or struggling communities when you
46:02
Speaker 10: do just sort of make excuses for this sort of
46:05
Speaker 10: thing and say, oh, well, you know, just pop them
46:07
Speaker 10: back out, they'll come good again. I think we deserve
46:10
Speaker 10: better than that. We should get better than that from
46:13
Speaker 10: our governments. We have a right to be as safe
46:16
Speaker 10: from crime as people in the lush, leafy suburbs do,
46:19
Speaker 10: and the government needs to take crime as seriously areas
46:23
Speaker 10: that are struggling as it does when they're doing carjackings
46:25
Speaker 10: in Turak and Paran.
46:29
Speaker 1: Absolutely Now, Amanda Melbourne Cup Day. I've lived in South Australia,
46:34
Speaker 1: I've lived in Victoria, and I've lived in New South Wales.
46:37
Speaker 1: Cup Day is not a public holiday around the rest
46:40
Speaker 1: of the country. It is in Victoria, but the rest
46:42
Speaker 1: of the country takes the day off. But the Prime
46:44
Speaker 1: Minister doesn't seem willing to say a Parliament doesn't need
46:48
Speaker 1: to sit on Cup Day and b we should make
46:50
Speaker 1: it a national holiday. I know what Joe's going to
46:53
Speaker 1: say about this, I suspect, but Amanda, I don't know
46:56
Speaker 1: that you'd be all that much in favor either, because
46:58
Speaker 1: as a spokesperson for small business, it means you've got
47:01
Speaker 1: to pay triple time and a half. Do we even
47:03
Speaker 1: open your shop on Cup Day?
47:06
Speaker 11: I know, let's not get into penalty rates and how
47:08
Speaker 11: it's essentially destroying the small business community, but I'm not
47:11
Speaker 11: a fan of making it a public holiday. And the
47:14
Speaker 11: reason why I'm not is because it's pretty much positioned
47:18
Speaker 11: around gambling, right, and a lot of alcohol. And from
47:21
Speaker 11: my perspective and the communities that I work with and
47:24
Speaker 11: the families I work with, I see the devastating impacts
47:27
Speaker 11: of excessive gambling excessive alcohol consumption. So for Australia to
47:31
Speaker 11: say that is so important to us, we want people
47:34
Speaker 11: to gamble and drink so much that we're going to
47:36
Speaker 11: make it a public holiday, to me is offensive. So
47:39
Speaker 11: I'm with the Prime Minister on this. I know, Joe,
47:41
Speaker 11: you'll fall over off your chair that I agree with him.
47:43
Speaker 11: But I'm happy to keep it a normal day and
47:46
Speaker 11: people go to Parliament and do what they're supposed to do.
47:49
Speaker 1: Oh dear, dear, public holiday or not.
47:52
Speaker 10: Absolutely it should be a public holiday, but only in
47:54
Speaker 10: Melbourne because everywhere else it's basically a public holiday anyway.
47:57
Speaker 10: I mean in Sydney you just bugger off at lunch
47:59
Speaker 10: and you never come and you don't have to give
48:01
Speaker 10: up one of your public So.
48:04
Speaker 1: Have the best of both worlds. I reckon it's a
48:07
Speaker 1: quasi public holiday. Just quickly give that charity you're working
48:11
Speaker 1: at tonight to plug please, thank you, mate.
48:13
Speaker 10: They're called Survivors Are Us and they are a terrific
48:17
Speaker 10: organization that was started by a survivor of domestic violence
48:20
Speaker 10: in their own community and they've now built up to
48:22
Speaker 10: have this huge hub where they distribute food and furniture
48:26
Speaker 10: and financial support to people who are in the same situation,
48:29
Speaker 10: women who are fleet from violent homes. They're absolutely terrific,
48:32
Speaker 10: and more power to organization, More.
48:36
Speaker 1: Power to them. And you're doing good job, Amanda and Joe.
48:39
Speaker 1: What was a pleasure to catch up. We'll see you
48:41
Speaker 1: next week. Coming up next the world, according to Rondine,