Latest / Steve Price / Steve Price | 12 July

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Steve Price | 12 July · Steve Price

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Live.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: This is Steve Price.
• 0:05
  Speaker 3: Good evening, Welcome to Friday Nights. Steve Price with you
• 0:07
  Speaker 3: on What's by any measure being a remarkable day in
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: news with a bizarre rambling delayed by almost an hour
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: long media conference in Washington from a clearly unwell President
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: Joe Biden. More on Matt shortly while back home, ASO
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: and the AFP surprisingly today reveal that they have made
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: arrests over an attempted espionage sting by a Russian couple.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: As I said, it's been a busy, busy day. Well,
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: this is what we've got coming up tonight. I'll take
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: you to the US shortly and find out how that
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: televised train wreck media conference is being reported and what
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: it means for the Trump campaign during the election in November.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: Back home, the youth crime crisis that's gripping regional New
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: South Wales. We have Nationals Leader Google Saunders on the show.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: He's made a whistlestop tour to the worst affected areas
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: to find out what's dry that crime and more importantly,
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: he's got some ideas on how to fix it. Plus,
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: with our panel, we look ahead to a Sky documentary
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: to air Monday night looking back at sixty years of
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: the Australian newspaper's history and an exclusive interview with the
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: remarkable Rupert Murdoch and his assessment of various Australian prime
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: ministers he has dealt with. My first ever job was
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: at Rupert's first newspaper, The Adelaide News, fifty two years ago.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: Makes me feel a little old. Previews of that documentary
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: make it a must watch. But first tonight, Look, I'm
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: not as old as Joe Biden, and I must say
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: watching that performance of his at that unscripted media conference
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: that lasted almost an hour today was one of the saddest,
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: most confronting appearances by a world leader that I've ever
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: seen in my life. Right off the top, his mental
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: capacity was on full show when less than a minute
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: in he confused his own vice president's name with that
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: of his opponent and tormentor, Donald Trump.
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: Look, I wouldn't have picked Vice President Trump to be
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: vice president. I think she's not qualified to be president,
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: so let's start there.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: Unbelievable now, Later he started talking foreign policy in Australia
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: and we always like to be mentioned. Well we got
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: not one mentioned, but two in the same sentence.
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: The group from the South Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Australia.
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: I already mentioned Australia.
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: You just shake your head. Joe Biden swayed between rambling
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: crazily and losing his train of thought completely to suddenly
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: appear to walk from one dementia induced coma to start
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: shouting at the assembled media pack about things like gun
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: controlled bullets, kids and Trump.
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: We're sitting around.
• 2:56
  Speaker 5: What should it?
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  Speaker 4: I killed it about a bullet in any other cause
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: of death? The United States of America? What hell are
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: we doing? What are we doing? We go to candidate
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: promise here, don't worry. I'm not going to do with
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: thee I'm not going to do anything.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: What are we doing is a very good question. What's
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: he doing? It's unbelievable. Earlier in the day he confused
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: Vladimir Zelenski with his invading enemy, Vladimir Putin.
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: And now I want to hand it over to the
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: has determination, ladies and gentlemen, President Putin, President Putin. He's
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: got to be President Pusen, President Lynsky. I'm sure focused
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: on beating Putin. We got to worry about it anyway.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: Look, if this wasn't so important for the world, it
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: would be a clear case of a confused old man
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: being pushed out on stage by various close family members
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: who are clearly telling him he's fit enough to keep
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: going and stand again for election. But worse, if he wins,
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: he'll be the leader of the free world, and then
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: he would be eighty five at the end of the
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: next term. I mean, clearly the world needs someone else
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: doing that job. We have the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: We have deadly conflict in the Middle East with Israel
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: responding to a terrorist attack from Hamas, with Hesbalah raining
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: rockets down on Israel backed by Iran. And you've got
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: the Hooti rebels, also backed by Iran, attacking shipping. You
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: can add to that of belligerent China threatening not to
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: just invade Taiwan, but expanding in the South China Sea,
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: upsetting the Philippines and closer to US getting a foothold
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: over various South Pacific nations. Make no mistake, the alternative
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: Donald Trump is not much better popular at home in
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  Speaker 3: the US, but seen around the world as a loose
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  Speaker 3: cannon in dangerous times. His crazy taunting of Biden over
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: golf games is pretty childish stuff when you think what's
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: at stake. Look, it amazes most people, including me, that
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: a nation that gave us jfk Ronald Reagan, George W.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: Bush and Barack Obama can only deliver up these two
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: to vote for president. The Democrats should be embarrassed that
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: in all of the United States they not only can't
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: bring themselves to pull a pin on Biden, but they
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: can't find an alternative. They need someone, an inspiring, smart,
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: charismatic candidate to take on Donald Trump. The Republicans, likewise,
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: should have convinced Trumpy had his go. Thanks for your service,
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: but we are jumping generations and picking the future of
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: our party. But it's not just the US with uninspiring
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: week leaders. Look at the mess in the UK, look
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: at the mess in France, and closer to home, the
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: leadership of our own country by a disappointing first term
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: Prime minister in Anthony Albanesi, who lost a voice referendum
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: and is obsessed with driving our economy into the ground
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: with the renewable fantasy, ignoring even looking at nuclear and
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: who appears to be starting to lose control of it
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: borders while swamping us with migrant numbers. We clearly caun't
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: cope with the will today is a very dangerous place. Well,
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: let's break this all down with Bill Agostino. He's a
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: research analyst at the Media Research Center in the United States. Bill,
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: the only way I could describe what I watched today.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: To me, it looked like a train wreck.
• 6:26
  Speaker 6: Honestly, I would. I would call it a bit of
• 6:27
  Speaker 6: a political rorshact test.
• 6:29
  Speaker 7: You'd be surprised how many people on the left are
• 6:32
  Speaker 7: for some reason feeling revitalized by this, although I think
• 6:35
  Speaker 7: that for most people who have been aware of Biden's
• 6:38
  Speaker 7: state for some time, and for whom the debate two
• 6:43
  Speaker 7: thursdays ago wasn't a shock to the system. Yeah, we
• 6:46
  Speaker 7: see this as just another part of the pattern. Right,
• 6:48
  Speaker 7: This is a man who is very much in mental decline.
• 6:51
  Speaker 7: He's very much not all there. We saw him confuse
• 6:55
  Speaker 7: the name of his opponent with his vice president.
• 6:57
  Speaker 6: We saw him call Zelensky Vladimir Putin. So yeah, I would.
• 7:02
  Speaker 7: I would agree with you personally that it was a
• 7:04
  Speaker 7: train wreck. But believe believe it or not, there are
• 7:08
  Speaker 7: some people who are actually seeing this as hopeful for Biden.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: Gee, that would have to be highly optimistic and way
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: out to the lift to think like that, I'd imagine.
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: I mean, it wasn't just calling Zelenski putin, which was
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: bad enough. He then walks back out on another stage
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: with a new set of flags and as you said,
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: confuses Kamala Harris with Donald Trump. If I was one
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: of his advises sitting at the back thinking this was
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: going to side the campaign, I would have been throwing
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: chairs at the TV.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:37
  Speaker 6: Absolutely.
• 7:38
  Speaker 7: The I think that the real sticking point here is
• 7:42
  Speaker 7: that in general, he stayed on message and it resembled
• 7:45
  Speaker 7: something of a campaign speech. There weren't there weren't quite
• 7:48
  Speaker 7: as many I mean, I know it's not supposed to
• 7:50
  Speaker 7: be a campaign speech, but that's essentially what it was.
• 7:52
  Speaker 7: And there weren't quite as many horrifying trail off moments
• 7:56
  Speaker 7: where even if you even if you dislike Biden, you're
• 7:58
  Speaker 7: sitting there rooting for him to finish the sentence like
• 8:01
  Speaker 7: we saw in the debate. And so because of.
• 8:04
  Speaker 6: That, I think that this is actually kind.
• 8:06
  Speaker 7: Of the worst of all worlds for Democrats, because although
• 8:11
  Speaker 7: he does look fairly frail, he still looked surprisingly somewhat
• 8:16
  Speaker 7: better than he did a couple of weeks ago. And
• 8:19
  Speaker 7: I don't think that there was any one disastrous moment
• 8:22
  Speaker 7: that somebody can clip and point to and say, see,
• 8:25
  Speaker 7: this man is senile, this man is gone. And so
• 8:27
  Speaker 7: because of that, it doesn't really it doesn't do enough
• 8:30
  Speaker 7: to instill competence and I think the general public. But
• 8:33
  Speaker 7: there's also not quite enough there to be the straw
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  Speaker 7: that broke the camel's back for the Democrats behind the
• 8:40
  Speaker 7: scenes to actually remove him from the presidential race, as
• 8:44
  Speaker 7: I think many of them would very much.
• 8:46
  Speaker 8: Like to do.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they're going to have to stop being honest with themselves.
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: I think I wouldn't normally apply a grab as long
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: as this. But to the point you're making, and let's
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: put aside the confusion over people's names. Have a listen
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: here to how By loses he's trying of thought, this
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: is uh.
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  Speaker 4: Well, anyway, in vol investment in Russia, I mean, excuse me,
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: and uh in China, I'm catching hell from my wife. Anyway,
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  Speaker 4: whether or not he has we should be he should
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: be attacked. For example, should Zelenski he's not if he
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: had the capacity to strike Moscow. You'll see that our
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: military is work. I'm following the advice of my commander
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: in chief. My, my, my, the uh. Like I said,
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: when unions do better, everybody does better.
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: Bill, that's the leader of the free world.
• 9:51
  Speaker 7: Ostensibly, I think, really, what what this kind of conjures
• 9:56
  Speaker 7: up in people's minds is who is the leader of
• 9:58
  Speaker 7: the free world at this point? Because I genuinely do
• 10:02
  Speaker 7: not believe that it's this man. Right. He might be
• 10:05
  Speaker 7: rubber stamping the bills, he might be officially passing the
• 10:10
  Speaker 7: executive orders, but in reality, America doesn't really have a
• 10:15
  Speaker 7: democratically elected president right now. What we have is a
• 10:18
  Speaker 7: puppet and then a group of unelected people essentially sliding
• 10:22
  Speaker 7: policy across his desk, possibly even including the first Lady.
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: Bill, I live in a country that relies on you,
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: on the United States as our chief ally, and without you,
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: we're an open door to an aggressive China. You've got
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: Russia invading Ukraine, You've got the Middle East on the brink.
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: Please give me some confidence that there's someone there running
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: the defense strategies of the United States, so that I
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: can sit here and at least feel half sife.
• 10:50
  Speaker 7: Well, I can definitely assure you that there are people
• 10:53
  Speaker 7: pulling the strings as far as our defense budget, our
• 10:55
  Speaker 7: defense coordination, operating with other countries, etc. However, it's not
• 11:01
  Speaker 7: necessarily the people most folks would like to see pulling
• 11:05
  Speaker 7: those strings, right, I mean, Anthony Blinken comes to mind
• 11:09
  Speaker 7: for all intents and purposes. I think it's probably realistic
• 11:13
  Speaker 7: to say that on all issues pertaining to foreign policy,
• 11:16
  Speaker 7: Anthony Blinken is our acting present. So I suppose that
• 11:22
  Speaker 7: offers you as much reassurance as however good you feel
• 11:27
  Speaker 7: about Anthony blinkn that's how much reassurance it can offer you.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: Well, I'm not really confident in Donald Trump. By I mean,
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: he's heat out at Biden, He's slammed him for calling
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: Kamala Harris Trump. He doesn't need to do anything. He
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: just has to sit back and watch the train wreck.
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: I think someone quite a Napoleon today. Don't interfere when
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: your enemy is losing the war on his own.
• 11:47
  Speaker 7: Absolutely, yeah, Never interrupt your opponent when he's making a mistake.
• 11:52
  Speaker 7: I think that Trump is showing a remarkably uncharacteristic amount
• 11:57
  Speaker 7: of restraint over the past couple of weeks, and in fact,
• 12:01
  Speaker 7: the media have very much caught onto this, and they've
• 12:03
  Speaker 7: been complaining that Trump is not really doing anything right.
• 12:08
  Speaker 6: He's had the occasional rally, he's still.
• 12:10
  Speaker 7: Writing on truth social but he's not coming out and
• 12:14
  Speaker 7: making these bombastic statements. He hasn't really been shaking things
• 12:17
  Speaker 7: up all that much. I mean, he spoke with Victor
• 12:20
  Speaker 7: orbon Right, but there's not a whole lot going on
• 12:23
  Speaker 7: in Trump world right now, and that's kind of forcing
• 12:27
  Speaker 7: the media to either talk about the absence of Trump
• 12:30
  Speaker 7: kind of indignantly or deal with the mess that they,
• 12:35
  Speaker 7: in many ways made, because I'll remind your viewers, our
• 12:38
  Speaker 7: media were very much complicit in attempting to hide Biden's
• 12:43
  Speaker 7: physical and mental condition from the entire world.
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: Bill and hold you to it. But just finally, does
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: Joe Biden make it to the convention?
• 12:53
  Speaker 7: Yeah? I think he does. I think he does. I've
• 12:57
  Speaker 7: been saying that. I said that right after the debate.
• 13:00
  Speaker 7: I was saying it well before the debate, and I'm
• 13:02
  Speaker 7: going to stick to my guns on that one. I
• 13:04
  Speaker 7: might end up eating fro who knows, but that's the
• 13:08
  Speaker 7: sense that I have. I don't think that they can
• 13:10
  Speaker 7: truly reliably force him out unless there is another appearance
• 13:14
  Speaker 7: as truly disastrous as that debate two thursdays ago, and
• 13:19
  Speaker 7: thus far he has not delivered that.
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: Surely he's not going to have another debate, is he.
• 13:25
  Speaker 7: There's talk of the second one, although I don't believe
• 13:27
  Speaker 7: it's scheduled for or not schedule, but planned for before
• 13:30
  Speaker 7: the convention.
• 13:31
  Speaker 6: So at that point they will be very much stuck
• 13:33
  Speaker 6: with him.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: Bill Agustina, thank you very much for staying up like
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: for us.
• 13:38
  Speaker 6: Absolutely thanks for having me on.
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: I want to bring you some breaking news now out
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: of the Victorian Union movement. It's sproken late this afternoon,
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: we can bring it to you exclusively right now. The
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: CFMEAU boss John Setka is preparing to stand down, effective immediately.
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: He was due to retire in about six months.
• 13:57
  Speaker 5: Now.
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: I've got my hands on a release. It's been sent
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: out by the CFMU tonight and John Setka, who we're chasing,
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: by the way, trying to talk to on the program.
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: He says that he is quitting because of the ongoing
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: relentless stories written with multiple allegations, whether true or not,
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: about this great union. He said, these stories have been
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: constant and while I've been the target of many of them.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: Enough is enough. The ongoing false allegations continually do nothing
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: but harm the work that this great union does for
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: its members. I am stepping down and I hope this
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: can stop the malicious attack on our members. We are
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: chasing John Secca. As I said, there will be plenty
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: of people in Victoria tonight who wouldn't be too unhappy
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: that John Secca is leaving that union. He's been a
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: very divisive figure. He has promised to jump on Skype
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: and if you're watching, John, we're happy to have a
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: chat to you about the reasons why you have decided
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: to quit. Well back Home down and anyone who's driven
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: on any of Australia's back roads. And I'm not talking
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: remote roads. I'm talking about backroads in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria.
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: They're full of potholes, COVID and floods have made them
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: very dangerous, drop off edges of really killers. On a
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: recent trip in northeastern Victoria, I thought I was going
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: to blow a tire or rim you'd reckon. The state
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: government be out plowing money into this well Victoria is
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: so broke. The Allen government They've just slashed road maintenance
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: funding to an all time low and they spent just
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: thirty seven point six million. That might sound like a
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: lot on road resurfacing this year last year two hundred
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: and one million. Let's bring in Danny O'Brien, shadow Minister
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: for Roads and Road Safety in Victoria and the Liberal
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: member for Gippsland South. Danny, can I ask you first
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: about that news that's just broken that John Seca is
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: stepping down after a very long time leading the Milleton
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: CFMEU union. There'll be a lot of people in Victoria
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: who wouldn't be too unhappy about that.
• 15:54
  Speaker 9: Yeah, I heard you say that, Steve, and for the
• 15:56
  Speaker 9: record on national but yes, I think you'd be right.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: People in Victoria would be happy to see John go.
• 16:03
  Speaker 9: I think mister Seker over the years has led a
• 16:06
  Speaker 9: union that's been fined multiple times in the federal system
• 16:11
  Speaker 9: and hasn't done any favors for our budget bottom line
• 16:15
  Speaker 9: in terms of the blowouts on costs on some of
• 16:17
  Speaker 9: our building and construction, and that's why we're committed to
• 16:20
  Speaker 9: bring back a code of conduct for the building and
• 16:23
  Speaker 9: construction industry. So not aware of the details of why
• 16:27
  Speaker 9: he's going early, but I think it's goodbye down let
• 16:31
  Speaker 9: the door hit you on the way out.
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and you mentioned those major projects. The infrastructure projects
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: seems like the suburban rail loop, like the Northeast Link,
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: all the Metro tunnel. They are heavily unionized and much
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: of the union is the CFMEU, and they have cut
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: amazing deals for their members. I mean, he's done a
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: great job for his members. I'm not sure he's done
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: such a great job for the taxpayers of Victoria.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: Danny, Yeah, absolutely, I think you're right.
• 17:00
  Speaker 9: I'm sure his members have been very happy about that,
• 17:01
  Speaker 9: and obviously they deserve to be properly recompensed. But I
• 17:05
  Speaker 9: think we've seen at a time when you've got a
• 17:08
  Speaker 9: one hundred and eighty eight billion dollar state debt and
• 17:10
  Speaker 9: you've got workers holding a stop go sign on those
• 17:13
  Speaker 9: projects getting over two hundred thousand dollars. I think that's
• 17:17
  Speaker 9: a concern for all Victorians and it's led to significant
• 17:19
  Speaker 9: issues for all of us.
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: The details I gave there about the money budgeted to
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: fix up potholes and roads, and this is not just
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: a Victorian problem. It's national. You drive through New South Wales,
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: Queensland's pretty bad as well, but you know, so many
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: people I know who drive between Victoria and South Australia,
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: so the minute they go over the border into South
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: Australia the roads improved. Is Victoria so broke as a
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: state that we now can't afford to fix potholes and
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: we're asking hospitals to cut budgets so heavily that they're
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: told to turn the lights out when they walk out
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: of a room.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look at is that is the case?
• 17:55
  Speaker 9: Theve absolutely We've got one hundred and eighty eight billion
• 17:58
  Speaker 9: dollars of debt coming out. That'll be twenty five million
• 18:00
  Speaker 9: dollars a day in interest bills that we were paying
• 18:02
  Speaker 9: at the end of the forward estimates, and as a
• 18:05
  Speaker 9: result we are suffering the consequences. Labor can't manage money
• 18:09
  Speaker 9: and we've seen the spend on contracts on resealing and
• 18:13
  Speaker 9: resurfacing and Victoria dropped from two hundred and one million
• 18:16
  Speaker 9: dollars two years ago to just thirty seven million dollars
• 18:20
  Speaker 9: less than a fifth in the last financial year. And
• 18:23
  Speaker 9: the challenge with that, as you say, the roads are
• 18:25
  Speaker 9: in terrible state already, but this is the sort of
• 18:28
  Speaker 9: preventative maintenance that the government needs to do to our roads,
• 18:32
  Speaker 9: which just means that we're likely to see them actually
• 18:34
  Speaker 9: get worse again in future, and it's hard to comprehend
• 18:37
  Speaker 9: given how bad our roads already are.
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: You're the Nationals member for Gippsland. What's it like in
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: your area?
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 18:44
  Speaker 9: Look, country MPs have a fight all the time over
• 18:47
  Speaker 9: who's got the worst roads and how to say which
• 18:51
  Speaker 9: is the worst road in the state is a good
• 18:53
  Speaker 9: way of picking a fight. Look across our region, they're
• 18:57
  Speaker 9: in terrible state. What I think you touched on in
• 19:00
  Speaker 9: your intro as well is that, to some degree, sadly
• 19:04
  Speaker 9: us in the regional areas are used to having some
• 19:06
  Speaker 9: poor roads, but we're actually seeing in the last couple
• 19:09
  Speaker 9: of years even the freeways and major roads in the
• 19:11
  Speaker 9: city have had big issues as well, and we've seen
• 19:14
  Speaker 9: that again with this reduction in spending on the resealing
• 19:18
  Speaker 9: the metropolitan area in the last three years has actually
• 19:21
  Speaker 9: been significantly less than it was before that. So we're
• 19:24
  Speaker 9: actually seeing the government right across the state letting us
• 19:27
  Speaker 9: down because they can't manage money and as a result,
• 19:30
  Speaker 9: our roads are in a dire state and Victorians are
• 19:32
  Speaker 9: suffering the consequences.
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: Someone's going to get killed if they haven't been already.
• 19:37
  Speaker 9: Well, it certainly is an issue. The overwhelming reason for
• 19:41
  Speaker 9: fatalities and accidents, of course, still remains the usual thing, sadly,
• 19:46
  Speaker 9: whether that's speeding, drink driving, drug driving, in attentiveness. But
• 19:50
  Speaker 9: you're absolutely right, it's becoming an issue, and particularly for motorcyclists.
• 19:55
  Speaker 9: It's one thing to be in a car, safe and sound,
• 19:57
  Speaker 9: four wheels and a vehicle around you. When you're at by,
• 20:00
  Speaker 9: particularly at night, you come around a corner and there's
• 20:02
  Speaker 9: a pothole there, it can be catastrophic and it certainly
• 20:05
  Speaker 9: has been in certain instances I know over in the
• 20:07
  Speaker 9: last twelve months, so it's certainly an issue for that.
• 20:11
  Speaker 9: You also touched on another issue before about the damaged
• 20:14
  Speaker 9: under vehicles. In the last financial year, nearly twelve hundred
• 20:18
  Speaker 9: people lodged a claim for compensation due to the damaged
• 20:21
  Speaker 9: under their vehicles by the roads. You know, and we
• 20:23
  Speaker 9: were supposed to have roadworthy cars, but it doesn't seem
• 20:27
  Speaker 9: that the government's interested in providing car worthy roads.
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: Danny, how'd you like to be running a heavy, heavy
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: vehicle transport company. Imagine what it's doing to the suspension
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: on those trucks.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, yes, Steve.
• 20:39
  Speaker 9: I talked to trucking companies a lot, and they are
• 20:41
  Speaker 9: just aghast at the cost that they're suffering. Last year,
• 20:45
  Speaker 9: as in the Golden Valley in Sheperdon and a company
• 20:48
  Speaker 9: there said their bill had risen to about thirty thousand
• 20:51
  Speaker 9: dollars a month just on maintenance because they were doing
• 20:54
  Speaker 9: doing struts, doing wheels, doing all sorts of damage to
• 20:59
  Speaker 9: their trucks, the dammage and certainly, you know, you talk
• 21:02
  Speaker 9: to truckies and you get in a track, and I've
• 21:04
  Speaker 9: done that myself many times, you get a very different
• 21:07
  Speaker 9: perspective of the state of the roads and you really
• 21:09
  Speaker 9: see how bad they've got.
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: National MP for Gibson and South Danny O'Brien, thank you
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: very much for jumping online for us tonight. Now coming
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: up after the break, alleged Russian spies in Australia have
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: been busted today and we ask why the youth crime
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: crisis is a national issue needing a national response, especially
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: in our regions. Welcome back to Steve Price with you
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: on this Friday Night Now. News today that two Russian
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: born Australian citizens allegedly conspired to obtain secret information from
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: the Australia Defense Force and then feed it back to Russia.
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: The Brisbane married couple were arrested and charged last night,
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: with the AFP and ASIO holding a joint press conference
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: today revealing that Kira Koroloff, married to Igor Koroloff, had
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: worked with the Australia Defense Force for several is as
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: an information systems technician. I don't know what that job entails,
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: but it sounds like they would have access to material
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: that other people might be interested in, and she suspected
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: of involving her husband in getting some ADF material back
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: to Russia. She's alleged to have made unauthorized trips back there,
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: and the af people alleged she gave her husband access
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: to her work computer. ASIO chief Mike Burgess used the
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: conference to issue a renewed threat to foreign spies in Australia,
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: even suggesting that they out themselves.
• 22:32
  Speaker 10: The espionage threat is real. Multiple countries are seeking to
• 22:36
  Speaker 10: steal Australia's secrets. We cannot be naive and we cannot
• 22:40
  Speaker 10: be complacent. This year marks the seventieth anniversary of the
• 22:43
  Speaker 10: Petrov defections. Two Russian spies gave ASIO and our closest
• 22:48
  Speaker 10: allies the name of Russian assets in Western countries. If
• 22:53
  Speaker 10: you want to share your secrets, please reach out.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: Joining me now to see former Queensan p your Friday
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: Night regular Campbell. Yeaman, that was a pretty cheeky offer
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: from the head of ACO. If you want to share
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: secrets from your country with us, give me a call.
• 23:13
  Speaker 11: I guess so, mate.
• 23:14
  Speaker 12: But look, this is quite an interesting story, Steve, to
• 23:19
  Speaker 12: say the least. And while I commend the security or
• 23:26
  Speaker 12: agencies for nipping this in the butt, and we assume
• 23:31
  Speaker 12: these allegations are going to stand up, you then have
• 23:34
  Speaker 12: a whole series of questions and in the entrance of
• 23:38
  Speaker 12: interests of transparency and indeed the community's confidence in both
• 23:43
  Speaker 12: the ADF and the security agencies, I think there needs
• 23:47
  Speaker 12: to be some real revelations down the track about what's
• 23:51
  Speaker 12: going on, Because I just asked the question is how
• 23:55
  Speaker 12: does somebody who came to Australia in twenty sixteen, sorry
• 24:01
  Speaker 12: we've become a citizen in twenty sixteen and from another country,
• 24:05
  Speaker 12: how did they get a security clearance in the ADF
• 24:09
  Speaker 12: to access material? So again we don't know at this
• 24:12
  Speaker 12: stage what level of security issues were involved. In these allegations.
• 24:20
  Speaker 12: But how does someone get a security clearance when they're
• 24:25
  Speaker 12: a naturalized Australian and from Russia. So you know there's
• 24:29
  Speaker 12: a lot more to this, and I guess my little
• 24:32
  Speaker 12: message this evening is great to catch this, but I
• 24:36
  Speaker 12: think the media need to ask a lot of very
• 24:39
  Speaker 12: penetrating questions in the weeks and months in front and
• 24:42
  Speaker 12: not just accept that, oh, well, we can't tear anymore
• 24:45
  Speaker 12: because of security, because that often can be i'm afraid,
• 24:49
  Speaker 12: a sort of a way of protecting these organizations from
• 24:53
  Speaker 12: stuff they might have got wrong.
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a very good point, because I mean, Russia
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: invaded Ukraine two and a half years ago. I would
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: have thought anybody who was working in defense whose background
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: what's as they were born in Russia, a little red
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: light might have gone off and they might have been
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: called in two and a half years ago and had
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: a bit of a chat to the people in charge
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: of it. You make a very very good point, I mean,
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: and we do need to know more and how good
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: is the system that checks the backgrounds of these.
• 25:26
  Speaker 12: People absolutely all as you're aware on the former Defense
• 25:32
  Speaker 12: Force member And I remember going back years and years
• 25:34
  Speaker 12: ago when I had to go through security clearance processes.
• 25:38
  Speaker 12: You get to fill out a form that goes on
• 25:41
  Speaker 12: for about five million pages, and they ask you all
• 25:45
  Speaker 12: sorts of questions and then I suppose they flag you,
• 25:52
  Speaker 12: and depending on these flags.
• 25:56
  Speaker 11: You get a level of security clearance.
• 25:58
  Speaker 12: But I would find an extraordin that someone who had
• 26:02
  Speaker 12: come from Russia, had become a citizen in twenty sixteen,
• 26:06
  Speaker 12: would have been given access to anything of serious security implication.
• 26:13
  Speaker 12: So that's a big question, and again the media to
• 26:17
  Speaker 12: go to ask, I hope a lot of very serious
• 26:19
  Speaker 12: and pointed questions in the times ahead.
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot to come out on that. I'm sure,
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: and you're right. Queen's Lamer is the center of Anthony
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: Alberanzi's political world. Today's on a three day campaign blitz.
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: Now that sparked more speculation, obviously that we're in for
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: an early election. In fact, the PM himself almost admitted
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: that as much as that yesterday.
• 26:40
  Speaker 13: Have a look, this is a sign that we're prepared.
• 26:44
  Speaker 13: I've already announced candidates, We've got all our candidates in
• 26:47
  Speaker 13: South Australia. We'll be continuing to announce candidates right around Australia.
• 26:52
  Speaker 13: There's been redistribution. We want to make sure that we
• 26:56
  Speaker 13: have our candidates in the field seats campaigning.
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: Camber WA's your political antenna tell you about that. Well.
• 27:07
  Speaker 12: As a member of the Libertarian Party, I've got my
• 27:10
  Speaker 12: Senate candidates Jim Wilmot and Lock laid out there raring
• 27:14
  Speaker 12: to go and we're going to take that.
• 27:18
  Speaker 11: The Prime Minister could call election.
• 27:20
  Speaker 12: But frankly, I don't know that Queen's hand's going to
• 27:23
  Speaker 12: be particularly fertile ground for him. You know, last election
• 27:28
  Speaker 12: in twenty twenty two, like they had a red hot
• 27:30
  Speaker 12: go then at Peter Dutton and yes they got a
• 27:36
  Speaker 12: bit of a swing, but they didn't get there. And
• 27:38
  Speaker 12: I don't think they'll knock Peter Dutton off ever these days.
• 27:43
  Speaker 11: And it's quite interesting.
• 27:45
  Speaker 12: I think the opportunities for Labor are on some of
• 27:48
  Speaker 12: these seats that went to the Green So there are
• 27:50
  Speaker 12: three seats in Queensland the Greens hold and that's where
• 27:54
  Speaker 12: there's the opportunity perhaps to increase the ALP head count
• 27:57
  Speaker 12: for example in Iron that Green MP there.
• 28:05
  Speaker 11: Will lose, I believe, but I think it goes back
• 28:07
  Speaker 11: to the LNP.
• 28:08
  Speaker 12: However, in the Seed of Griffith, that's a contest where
• 28:12
  Speaker 12: the ALP may be able to get it back from
• 28:15
  Speaker 12: the Greens, and similarly in the Seed of Brisbane. So
• 28:18
  Speaker 12: that's where he does try and improve his numbers, but
• 28:21
  Speaker 12: I cannot see him taking seats from the LNP themselves
• 28:25
  Speaker 12: across queens and they can try, but I just don't
• 28:28
  Speaker 12: see it happening.
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: I'll get on to his comments about nuclear energy, but
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: I must say that news that we broke about twenty
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: minutes ago that the union leader from the CFMU in Melbourne,
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: John Setka, very divisive figure, been a very aggressive union
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: leader for a very long time. He's been complaining in
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: recent days that Tony Burke, the Federal Industry Relations minister's
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: trying to break up the CFMEU. In his statement and
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: why he quit, he talks about how a lot of
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: people are writing very nasty things about the CFMEU, that
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: union could almost be single handily held responsible for the
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: large debts of Victorian government has because all of their
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: big infrastructure projects are manned by CFMU members who've demanded
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: huge wages.
• 29:13
  Speaker 12: Campbell, well, look, you can say exactly the same thing
• 29:18
  Speaker 12: here in Queensland and the property developers that I deal
• 29:23
  Speaker 12: with them and I am in the property sector, not
• 29:24
  Speaker 12: a developer, but the developers who I talk to talk
• 29:28
  Speaker 12: about the CFMEU sort of tax which is adding twenty
• 29:32
  Speaker 12: to thirty percent on the price to say of a
• 29:35
  Speaker 12: new apartment in the CBD or a CBD frame in Brisbane. Yeah,
• 29:40
  Speaker 12: I mean, look, he has achieved outcomes and so has
• 29:45
  Speaker 12: his number Michael ravbar up here in Queensland. They've achieved
• 29:48
  Speaker 12: outcomes in terms of paying condition for their members. But
• 29:52
  Speaker 12: if they actually delivered productivity on work sites, you could
• 29:57
  Speaker 12: be more as a member of the public or taxpayer,
• 30:00
  Speaker 12: you could be more forgiving about the whole thing combination
• 30:03
  Speaker 12: of high wages but poor productivity on the work site
• 30:07
  Speaker 12: because of the bad ir combative I are.
• 30:11
  Speaker 11: That's what's costing taxpayers. That's what's costing all of us through.
• 30:14
  Speaker 12: Our hip pocket, whether we're trying to buy a new
• 30:18
  Speaker 12: home or we're trying to rent.
• 30:21
  Speaker 11: You know. So you know that's the practical reality of it.
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: Plus it's adding to inflation, homegrown inflation.
• 30:27
  Speaker 11: Oh bye.
• 30:29
  Speaker 12: Absolutely. But look you know again it was being echoed before.
• 30:33
  Speaker 12: I mean, you know, these guys have been effective union leaders,
• 30:37
  Speaker 12: and I suppose we can't take that away from them.
• 30:40
  Speaker 11: You just wish that there was a law. Look, the
• 30:42
  Speaker 11: union was Laura biding and it hasn't been.
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: Camberin Newman. It is great to catch up on a
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: Friday night. Thank you very much for that. Camberin Yuma.
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: Back with us next Friday. Now coming up. I've spoken
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: a lot about youth crime this week because it's a
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: crisis around the country. We know what happened in Alice
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: Springs at last weekend. There's real issues facing much of Australia,
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: all the way from the Alis to Metro Melbourne, especially
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: across regional Australia, and I suspect and the media's fault here.
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: We don't hear a lot about the regional problems of
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: youth crime. Now in Victoria, the crisis is out of control.
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: The Allen government had two days of talks. They're talking
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: about maybe tightening up the bail laws. But this goes
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: further Alice Springs, Queensland, regional communities. They all bear the
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: brunt of this, with kids as young as ten getting
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: into trouble. Now New South Wales National Party leader Google Saunders,
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: he's done the right thing. He's gone out on a
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: whistlestop tour around regional New South Wales to find out
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: why this is happening. Google joins us. Now it's a
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: serious problem. Tell us where you went, what you found, Google,
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: and I'm still good.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: To talk to you. Look, it started basically in Casino.
• 31:50
  Speaker 8: I'm in Dubbo and I'm based in Dubbo, and we've
• 31:52
  Speaker 8: had some significant issues here in my electorate. But I
• 31:55
  Speaker 8: wanted to connect with a few of the different regions
• 31:58
  Speaker 8: through the northern rivers at Casina, so I went down
• 32:00
  Speaker 8: through Kempsey and then finished in Tare And not surprisingly
• 32:05
  Speaker 8: in a way, there are lots of similarities around what
• 32:08
  Speaker 8: happens in regional communities, but then there.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: Are just certain pieces that aren't all the same.
• 32:14
  Speaker 8: And the problem we have with governments and there are
• 32:17
  Speaker 8: state governments are all around the country, and the federal
• 32:19
  Speaker 8: government and our state government here in New South Wales,
• 32:22
  Speaker 8: it is looking at a one size fits all approach
• 32:24
  Speaker 8: and Mate, as you know, and I know, you can't
• 32:27
  Speaker 8: do that. You can't have a cookie cutter and just
• 32:29
  Speaker 8: hope it's all going to fit the same because each community,
• 32:32
  Speaker 8: each town has a different capacity to deal with the
• 32:35
  Speaker 8: problem and you've got to work with what each town
• 32:38
  Speaker 8: and region has not assume it can take what you
• 32:41
  Speaker 8: want and make it work for it.
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: What are the parents in these towns that you spoke
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: to telling you.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: There's a range of things.
• 32:49
  Speaker 8: And when we've got parents of some of these young
• 32:52
  Speaker 8: offenders who don't know what to do.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: We've got parents.
• 32:54
  Speaker 8: Who have their children at school and are worried about
• 32:58
  Speaker 8: the impact of crime and violence at the schools that
• 33:01
  Speaker 8: they attend. We've got police at their wits end. We've
• 33:05
  Speaker 8: got a system of magistrates that doesn't quite seem to
• 33:08
  Speaker 8: understand the impact. We've got an amazing group of non
• 33:12
  Speaker 8: government organizations in the service sector who want to do
• 33:15
  Speaker 8: more and want to be supported to do more.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: And you put all of.
• 33:19
  Speaker 8: That together and there are local solutions. So in Casino
• 33:22
  Speaker 8: there's about thirty eight kids that have been identified as
• 33:25
  Speaker 8: the main problem.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: So can we not find.
• 33:27
  Speaker 8: A way of collaborating together non government orgs and the
• 33:31
  Speaker 8: government to make it better. So it needs to be
• 33:33
  Speaker 8: whole of government, though not just the police and not
• 33:36
  Speaker 8: just the justice system, but all of that health education
• 33:39
  Speaker 8: that needs to come.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: Around, wrap around and have a pathway.
• 33:43
  Speaker 8: And there are probably five or six different pathways depending
• 33:46
  Speaker 8: on the young person.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: We're talking about.
• 33:48
  Speaker 8: Now, we've got a young fellow here in Dubo who
• 33:51
  Speaker 8: has just turned twelve a couple of months ago. He's
• 33:53
  Speaker 8: had eighty five appearances Inbo local court. He keeps getting
• 33:58
  Speaker 8: bailed back to his family home, which simply does not
• 34:02
  Speaker 8: work because the cycle is never broken. He's in and
• 34:05
  Speaker 8: out of juvenile justice when he's rarely found to be
• 34:08
  Speaker 8: guilty of something. But the whole Dolly incapact scenario of
• 34:12
  Speaker 8: him not understanding under legal parameters what he's doing means
• 34:16
  Speaker 8: that he ends up getting out again. But this is
• 34:18
  Speaker 8: not helping this young boy. And there's stories like that
• 34:22
  Speaker 8: right across regional New South Whales.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: So we can do better.
• 34:25
  Speaker 8: We have to do better, but you've got to uplift
• 34:27
  Speaker 8: each community and the people in that community to help
• 34:30
  Speaker 8: do the job.
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: Some of these communities have got a reasonably large Indigenous population.
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: Is it a particular issue within the indigenous community or
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: is it wider than that?
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: Look, Steve, it is wider than that. I'd say there
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: is a high proportion.
• 34:44
  Speaker 8: And you're right, the communities we're talking about do have
• 34:47
  Speaker 8: a large percentage of Indigenous.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: But it's not just that.
• 34:51
  Speaker 8: It is more than just an indigenous problem, but we
• 34:54
  Speaker 8: do need to work really closely with our indigenous leaders
• 34:57
  Speaker 8: and some of the past pathways that they can provide.
• 35:00
  Speaker 8: And look, we have some of those already in place
• 35:03
  Speaker 8: in my area, for example with a curry court and
• 35:06
  Speaker 8: some circle sentencing that goes on, but we need to
• 35:10
  Speaker 8: change the regime. This is not a problem that gets
• 35:12
  Speaker 8: solved nine to five. It's five pm to nine am
• 35:16
  Speaker 8: where people need support and at the moment the only
• 35:19
  Speaker 8: frontline supporters we have are police and they're very busy
• 35:23
  Speaker 8: trying to keep all of the safe. They don't want
• 35:25
  Speaker 8: to be picking up the same eleven, twelve, thirteen year
• 35:27
  Speaker 8: old for stealing a car and going for a draw
• 35:30
  Speaker 8: ride as they did the week before.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: It's not fair, it's silly.
• 35:33
  Speaker 8: It put lives in danger, and we've seen that so
• 35:36
  Speaker 8: many times where that is just for notoriety. Young people
• 35:39
  Speaker 8: are looking to be notorious. They're on social media. It's
• 35:43
  Speaker 8: not necessarily for drug money. It's just literally to get
• 35:47
  Speaker 8: out and about and have a bit of fun. Sometimes
• 35:50
  Speaker 8: these young people are safe for being out of their
• 35:51
  Speaker 8: own homes than at home. So we need to find
• 35:54
  Speaker 8: ways of having different programs to help that and as
• 35:57
  Speaker 8: part of the path Why there's got to be a
• 35:58
  Speaker 8: different way of educating these young people.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: Some kids don't fit at school.
• 36:02
  Speaker 8: We hit a pilot program working with Backtrack, which is
• 36:05
  Speaker 8: based in Armadale and utilizing our resources here in Dubbo
• 36:08
  Speaker 8: to get kids out into a paddock or the lime
• 36:10
  Speaker 8: farm that one of the groups here owns to work
• 36:13
  Speaker 8: with them on different skills, keep them out of trouble,
• 36:15
  Speaker 8: keep them fed, get them on the medication they need,
• 36:18
  Speaker 8: the support services they need, the programs they need, and
• 36:21
  Speaker 8: have a pathway. If you just keep forgetting about each individual,
• 36:25
  Speaker 8: you don't ever find a solution.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: So it requires money, There's no doubt about that.
• 36:29
  Speaker 8: The FEDS need to dip in more and so does
• 36:31
  Speaker 8: each and every state government for a local solution.
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: Hey Mike, you're doing good work. Well done, gat thanks
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: for talking to us tonight. Doogle so on Tozire and
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: it's a tough issue. And good on him for as
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: a politician. You know what he's done there, and that's
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: why gratulated him. He went out and had a look himself.
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: Didn't sit up in Macquarie Street in an office coming
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: up are we headed for ten dollars coffees and one
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: hundred dollars Steak and Chips, I hope not. Plus The
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: Australian celebrates sixty years. Rupert Murdoch gives his assessment of
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: a number of Australia's prime ministers. You can't miss that.
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: Welcome back Steve Price with you. Let's get stuck in
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: tonight Friday Night panel. Amanda Rose joins us on a
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: regular basis. Great to see you face to face, Gary
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: Hargraves and Queens Angada. Gary, how are you welcome to
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: you both?
• 37:21
  Speaker 5: Good Steve, Hi, Amandareth.
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: Now, obviously today has been dominated by commentators pulling apart
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: the performance by Joe Biden. Then we'll get into that
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: in the sec But I've got to tell you on
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: Monday night here on Sky to recognize a very significant milestone,
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: which is the sixtieth anniversary of the first edition of
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: The Australian newspaper launched by that great Australian Rupert Murdoch
• 37:45
  Speaker 3: in Canberra on July fifteenth, nineteen sixty four. Now, I
• 37:48
  Speaker 3: had a sneak preview last night and Rupert was asked
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: about his critics, including one mister Malcolm Turnbull. He didn't
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: hold back.
• 37:59
  Speaker 5: Malcolm nuts I mean he's paranoid.
• 38:02
  Speaker 14: He didn't like it the fact that we support a
• 38:04
  Speaker 14: Tony Abbott versus him.
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: That's all is what Rupert rickins Malcolm. Is he being
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: a bit kind?
• 38:18
  Speaker 5: Yeah?
• 38:18
  Speaker 14: I think he is in fact understated beautifully, but look
• 38:21
  Speaker 14: he is quite nuts. He's self centered as well, so
• 38:24
  Speaker 14: if he was a bar of chocolate, he'd be a soft.
• 38:26
  Speaker 5: Nut really in a lot of ways.
• 38:28
  Speaker 14: Look, the sad part about Malcolm is it's all about Malcolm.
• 38:31
  Speaker 5: I like Kevin Rudd.
• 38:32
  Speaker 14: All about Kevin and both of them always left me
• 38:35
  Speaker 14: with the impression I was just lucky to have been
• 38:37
  Speaker 14: able to be in the same.
• 38:38
  Speaker 5: Room with them on occasions.
• 38:40
  Speaker 14: So look, look I can't disagree with anything that mister
• 38:43
  Speaker 14: Murdock said.
• 38:44
  Speaker 5: They're pretty simple.
• 38:45
  Speaker 14: I think he's got his finger on the pulse most
• 38:47
  Speaker 14: Australians do. Reminisce very strongly and rightly so about how
• 38:50
  Speaker 14: good the howardi is were and frankly, with the exception
• 38:53
  Speaker 14: of probably Tony Abbott, it's been he was the only
• 38:56
  Speaker 14: blip that came along and doesn't repair things haven't been
• 39:00
  Speaker 14: real that good, Samanda.
• 39:02
  Speaker 5: I think the one.
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: Ex Prime minister who's very well Julia Gillard, she's just
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: been nowhere.
• 39:09
  Speaker 15: Well, what's interesting is whether you liked Julia Gillard or not,
• 39:14
  Speaker 15: she was actually quite respectful to the people around her.
• 39:16
  Speaker 15: She didn't come across arrogant, she didn't come across self
• 39:19
  Speaker 15: righteous and everything that pretty much Malcolm Turnbull did. And
• 39:22
  Speaker 15: she really did try in a lot of areas to
• 39:26
  Speaker 15: help the people, and rightly so that you know. Unfortunately
• 39:29
  Speaker 15: Turnbull was all about Turnbull and oh.
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: He've telling you he's the smartest person in the room.
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: Don't tally about that.
• 39:34
  Speaker 15: When someone tells you that the smartest person in the room,
• 39:37
  Speaker 15: they're usually not right. It's usually, you know, superiority inferiority,
• 39:41
  Speaker 15: two sides of the same coin. So that should tell
• 39:43
  Speaker 15: you a lot about the man.
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: Gary. As I said, I started work as a seventeen
• 39:48
  Speaker 3: year old. Can you believe that at the Adelaide News,
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: which is Rupert's first paper way back in nineteen seventy two,
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: and The Australian in my view, and you have an
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: opinion on this for sure, Australian starting in sixty four
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: really changed the newspaper landscape and we were working on
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: pretty parochial tabloids and what the Australian did. Was it
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: encouraged a national conversation? Would you agree?
• 40:14
  Speaker 5: Absolutely?
• 40:15
  Speaker 14: And I think it's important that we are proud of
• 40:17
  Speaker 14: where we come from. We get pretty parochial here in Queensland,
• 40:21
  Speaker 14: almost as parochial as Victorians.
• 40:23
  Speaker 5: And I mean that's the point, Steve.
• 40:25
  Speaker 14: Everybody is proud of their particular parish. But to think
• 40:28
  Speaker 14: as Australians, I think is an important point and most
• 40:32
  Speaker 14: of us, I do believe loudly Australian. Whenever we travel overseas,
• 40:37
  Speaker 14: we like to explain our part of the big picture.
• 40:40
  Speaker 14: But the Australian has actually allowed a national conversation about
• 40:44
  Speaker 14: a lot of things. And so that vision, which was
• 40:46
  Speaker 14: a huge risk sixty years ago, I think has really
• 40:50
  Speaker 14: made Australia grow up a hell of a lot.
• 40:52
  Speaker 5: And that's good.
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: We talk about business a lot when we have you on.
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: I mean, he's got Rupert Murder. It's got to go
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: down as one of the greatest, if not the greatest
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: Australian businessman ever. With what he's achieved, Oh, pretty much especial.
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: The paper I started on was on North Terrace in Adelaide.
• 41:07
  Speaker 3: It was a small tabloid afternoon paper in the old
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: days when people were smoking clackanawaan typewriters. He's turned that
• 41:15
  Speaker 3: into a global company.
• 41:16
  Speaker 15: Well, that's right, and it's hard. So I think people
• 41:18
  Speaker 15: really underestimate how hard is to build a business of
• 41:21
  Speaker 15: any size, especially a media business where you know it
• 41:24
  Speaker 15: is now it's twenty four to seven. My goodness, you've
• 41:26
  Speaker 15: got to be on the pulse. But any business is hard,
• 41:29
  Speaker 15: and it's really like with The Australian in particular, they
• 41:33
  Speaker 15: cover a lot of businesses and small business stories, which
• 41:35
  Speaker 15: is crucial because they are the heart of the country
• 41:38
  Speaker 15: and often that's forgotten by the politicians.
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: Gary, I'll tell you why I loved working on that paper.
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: Guess what my first job was back then. This was
• 41:45
  Speaker 3: in nineteen seventy two in October and I was sent
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: up to the local courts, the magistrate's court because Joe Cocker,
• 41:57
  Speaker 3: who was touring with his band, had been arrested the
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: night before in possession of marijuana. And I had to
• 42:03
  Speaker 3: run up there as fast as my little legs would
• 42:05
  Speaker 3: take me, get the pictures of Joe Copper being dragged
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: into court, and head back down to the head office.
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: That's why I loved my job. From day one.
• 42:14
  Speaker 14: Mate, absolutely talk about horses for causes, but the fact
• 42:19
  Speaker 14: that they hired he was in itself probably a bit
• 42:21
  Speaker 14: of a risk, Steve, But good on you for having
• 42:23
  Speaker 14: that story. I understand that the late Joe Cock I
• 42:26
  Speaker 14: told that story to a lot of people over the years.
• 42:28
  Speaker 5: He remembered you, well, yeah he did.
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: You can watch the Australian sixty Years of News right
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: here on Sky on Monday night at eight o'clock. I
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: want to get your both reaction to Biden's terrible performance today.
• 42:40
  Speaker 3: It was meant to be the press conference he redeemed
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: himself at, but he failed so miserably. Amanda. It took
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: one question at the start and he started calling Donald
• 42:49
  Speaker 3: Trump the black Vice president. Kamala Harris.
• 42:54
  Speaker 15: I think now it's gotten to that stage that whoever
• 42:57
  Speaker 15: is putting him in public like that should be charged
• 43:01
  Speaker 15: right for filder abuse, absolutely, elder abuse. But it is
• 43:06
  Speaker 15: is what's going on? So why they keep doing that?
• 43:08
  Speaker 15: It's more than just the fact that they want to win.
• 43:10
  Speaker 15: What are they hiding? You know, because we're all talking
• 43:12
  Speaker 15: about it and we're not paying attention to what's really
• 43:15
  Speaker 15: going on in the country right now. So I think
• 43:18
  Speaker 15: someone if they had the time and the money to
• 43:20
  Speaker 15: actually investigates, if they don't get shot doing it, to
• 43:23
  Speaker 15: find out what's really going on. But what they're doing
• 43:25
  Speaker 15: to him is absolutely appalling and it's cruel, and it
• 43:28
  Speaker 15: breaks my heart seeing an elderly man with obvious issues
• 43:32
  Speaker 15: being absolutely used by not only his family, by the
• 43:36
  Speaker 15: Democratic Party because of their greed or whatever reason.
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: Gary I said at the top of the program, we
• 43:42
  Speaker 3: all need a strong America. I mean, they're our greatest. Ally.
• 43:44
  Speaker 3: We've got China sitting up there to the north and
• 43:47
  Speaker 3: making all sorts of aggressive noises about places like Taiwan
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: and other places. How is it that a country that
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: could produce people like you know, JFK, George W. Bush,
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: Barack Obama. Why can they not find two better candidates
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: than these two jokers.
• 44:07
  Speaker 14: Well, look, we certainly need another Ronald Wilson Reagan, who
• 44:10
  Speaker 14: I think was the best president in my lifetime so far. Steve,
• 44:13
  Speaker 14: I mean, that's just my take on it. A lot
• 44:15
  Speaker 14: of people would readily agree with that. Reagan ended the
• 44:18
  Speaker 14: Cold War. He tore the war well down with mister Gorbacheff.
• 44:21
  Speaker 14: But there's no vision, there's no plan, a big plan
• 44:24
  Speaker 14: for the future, and you know a lot of ways.
• 44:27
  Speaker 14: How sad it is that America has been subjected to
• 44:30
  Speaker 14: really a very slow con here. And now everybody knows that,
• 44:33
  Speaker 14: you know, film me once, shame on you, film me twice,
• 44:35
  Speaker 14: shame on me. But this bloke, Biden has been hidden
• 44:38
  Speaker 14: away from the public. He won in twenty twenty because
• 44:40
  Speaker 14: he was hidden in the bunker. COVID gave him the
• 44:42
  Speaker 14: cover and since then, I don't think he's been running
• 44:45
  Speaker 14: the country. And the serious part about this is it's
• 44:47
  Speaker 14: not whether he can actually contest and win the next election.
• 44:50
  Speaker 5: It's what going to happen at the next crisis, the
• 44:52
  Speaker 5: next problem.
• 44:53
  Speaker 14: Who's actually making the decisions, because evidently he's not. He's reminiscing.
• 44:58
  Speaker 14: He's talking about trying to finish off a job. Now,
• 45:01
  Speaker 14: we don't want people to go into Parliament just to
• 45:03
  Speaker 14: finish off a job. We want them to actually set
• 45:06
  Speaker 14: up the next generation for success. I see no vision
• 45:09
  Speaker 14: from Joe Biden. I see no certainty about Joe Biden.
• 45:13
  Speaker 14: I'm worried about what his job is going to be
• 45:14
  Speaker 14: like next week, not just simply next year and next term.
• 45:17
  Speaker 14: And I think Americans are starting to wake up with
• 45:20
  Speaker 14: the fact they've been conned over the last four or
• 45:22
  Speaker 14: five years by the Democrats.
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's been reported today that he hasn't even had
• 45:26
  Speaker 3: a cabinet meeting since last October. So you just don't
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: know how you can run an economy like America doing that.
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: I want to get onto these reports that show how
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: much our hospitality industry is struggling. Twice as many hospitality
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: businesses like cafes, restaurants going bus as they were ten
• 45:42
  Speaker 3: years ago. And to add insult to injury, major food
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: supplier Independent Food Distributors Australia warns we could soon be
• 45:49
  Speaker 3: facing ten dollar coffees and one hundred dollars stake in
• 45:52
  Speaker 3: chips if nothing gets done about rising costs. Now, Amanda,
• 45:56
  Speaker 3: you're out there all the time. I mean we're already
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: paying over five for a coffee that was costing us
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: probably three dollars a year or two years ago. Right,
• 46:05
  Speaker 3: everything has gone through the roof.
• 46:07
  Speaker 5: That's right.
• 46:07
  Speaker 15: And they're just the businesses that have stayed open the
• 46:09
  Speaker 15: ones that have closed and the employees are now unemployed.
• 46:12
  Speaker 15: But we need to always remind people don't blame the
• 46:14
  Speaker 15: small business for the ten dollar coffee vote. The labor
• 46:17
  Speaker 15: party out because they're the ones that have decimated the
• 46:19
  Speaker 15: small business community and if they're in for another term,
• 46:22
  Speaker 15: they will destroy it. Because it has literally been two
• 46:26
  Speaker 15: years and a thousand businesses are closing per.
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: Day, are here one a day to a day constantly.
• 46:31
  Speaker 15: So every time I'm online and I get messages from people,
• 46:34
  Speaker 15: those who aren't shutting down are working twenty four to seven,
• 46:37
  Speaker 15: seven days a week as a family business just to stay.
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: Afloat Gary, I was speaking of a bloke who runs
• 46:43
  Speaker 3: a chain of restaurants. A couple of weeks ago. He's
• 46:45
  Speaker 3: paying a barista on Sunday more than eighty dollars an hour.
• 46:52
  Speaker 14: Yeah, and that was a skill I wished i'd taken up.
• 46:54
  Speaker 14: But look, Steve, let's face it. Mates of mine who
• 46:57
  Speaker 14: are in small business. A restaurant, I know, He said,
• 47:01
  Speaker 14: how can I set my price on my menu when
• 47:03
  Speaker 14: I don't know what the price of my wages are
• 47:05
  Speaker 14: going to be? Superannuation is going up, which is wages
• 47:07
  Speaker 14: for gone insurance, your paybackup, but the boss pays it out.
• 47:11
  Speaker 14: Insurances have gone up absolutely. The cost of electricity is
• 47:14
  Speaker 14: a major driver because it's about keeping food cool as
• 47:18
  Speaker 14: well as cooking those sorts of things, Hock. He set
• 47:21
  Speaker 14: a restaurant meal price at the retail end when he
• 47:24
  Speaker 14: doesn't know what his input costs are going to be
• 47:27
  Speaker 14: six months from now. Plus he's got to get the
• 47:30
  Speaker 14: menus constantly reprinted, and that's another cost of the business.
• 47:33
  Speaker 14: So these are realities these labor union officials running the
• 47:37
  Speaker 14: country currently get don't care about. And frankly, there are
• 47:40
  Speaker 14: only a man of big business, big unions, big government.
• 47:43
  Speaker 3: We needed a real debate about the taxes that are
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: levied on businesses.
• 47:47
  Speaker 15: Absolutely, it's the number one thing I did a survey.
• 47:49
  Speaker 15: The number one thing is the taxes on small business.
• 47:51
  Speaker 15: They can't survive, and that no one is listening to
• 47:54
  Speaker 15: their local MPs. Their federal MPs are not listening to
• 47:57
  Speaker 15: and not returning calls or emails.
• 47:58
  Speaker 3: So it's a state issue. Benefit Absolutely roll text.
• 48:02
  Speaker 15: Yeah, both stayed in land, not returning their calls or emails,
• 48:05
  Speaker 15: and their calls of distress. It's like a deliberate action
• 48:08
  Speaker 15: to shut them down. And so as a community we
• 48:11
  Speaker 15: need to help each other as much as possible.
• 48:13
  Speaker 3: Gary, what's your upper limit on a skinny latte? Or
• 48:17
  Speaker 3: are you an almond? Late guy?
• 48:20
  Speaker 14: Uh no, a skinny one made a skinny cappuccino five
• 48:24
  Speaker 14: bucks twenty. If that's what the cost is, you got
• 48:26
  Speaker 14: to pay it. I paid that in Sydney the other day.
• 48:29
  Speaker 14: I must admit, Madam, I thought, wow, fort dollars was
• 48:32
  Speaker 14: pretty well the standard we make ours at home, which
• 48:35
  Speaker 14: is not good for retailers.
• 48:36
  Speaker 5: Brasy, that's the mandaddy. We're all looking for the deal.
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: Thanks for joining us. Yeah, we are good on you, Gary,
• 48:42
  Speaker 3: It was a pleasure to catch up you think mate.
• 48:44
  Speaker 3: Prime Time with Danika de Giorgio coming up, and make
• 48:46
  Speaker 3: sure you watch the Sky documentary on sixty years of
• 48:50
  Speaker 3: the Australian newspaper Monday night at eight o'clock. See you
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: next week.