Latest / Steve Price / Steve Price | 19 December

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Steve Price | 19 December · Steve Price

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Speaker 1: Live.
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Speaker 2: This is Steve Price.
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Speaker 3: Welcome to Friday Nights. Steve Price with you. At the
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Speaker 3: end of one of the most confronting weeks modern Australia
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Speaker 3: has witnessed with the terrorist attack at Bondi. Look I've
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Speaker 3: lived through, covered the Port Arthur massacre that took thirty
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Speaker 3: five lives, the Barley bombings that took eighty eight Australian lives,
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Speaker 3: the Hottle Street shootings and Queen Street. But in this
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Speaker 3: modern social media age, the images of the alleged gunment
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Speaker 3: father and son unloading those weapons on innocent people celebrating
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Speaker 3: Harneker will scare, unsettle and disturb many of us, me included,
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Speaker 3: for a very long time. Coming up tonight, while we
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Speaker 3: concentrate on the bigger picture of shutting down radical Islamic terror,
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Speaker 3: we should turn our attention to the actions of local
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Speaker 3: government and in light of the actions of one Melbourne
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Speaker 3: councilors defied Act this week, what can be done to
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Speaker 3: stop councils flying Palestinian flags and sponsoring due hate speech.
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Speaker 3: Council Watch Dean Hill is coming up shortly, bravely shown
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Speaker 3: by ordinary people carrying out extraordinary actions, plus police going
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Speaker 3: beyond the edge to save others. We will talk to
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Speaker 3: former homicide Squad detective Charlie Bezina about what it's like
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Speaker 3: to face the fear of death and how police are
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Speaker 3: trained to respond. Also tonight, what a year it's been
1:19
Speaker 3: in news, sport, politics, social media, change, Donald Trump, you
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Speaker 3: name it. Star cartoonist Mark Knight, a regular on this program,
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Speaker 3: has logged it all and he'll join us on the desk.
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Speaker 3: But first, an exhausted Australia heads into the Christmas week
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Speaker 3: with heavy hearts after the events of last Sunday on
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Speaker 3: our famous beach, BONDI sad and angry that terrorism, as
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Speaker 3: we have been constantly warned, has finally landed on our
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Speaker 3: very own shores, and as we mourn the deaths of
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Speaker 3: fifteen innocent people, men, women, and a ten year old child,
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Speaker 3: I think we approach the upcoming holiday season with a
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Speaker 3: sense of trepidation, in some cases fear. Let me explain
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Speaker 3: Bondo Beach and a Jewish festival of Light. Harneker was
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Speaker 3: the softness of soft targets, wide open space, a sense
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Speaker 3: of fun and community. A Harneker celebration at the end
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Speaker 3: of two and a bit years of wild anti Semitism
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Speaker 3: that's broken out around our country and governments have done
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Speaker 3: nothing about it. But as prominent Jewish leaders, Josh Friedenberg
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Speaker 3: among them, has been warning. He says that he and
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Speaker 3: the Jewish community always knew, not feared, that this day
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Speaker 3: was coming.
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Speaker 4: I'm here to mourn, but I'm also here to warn.
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Speaker 4: Unless our governments, federal and state, take urgent, unprecedented and
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Speaker 4: strong action. As night follows day, we will be back
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Speaker 4: grieving the loss of inner life in another terrorist attack
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Speaker 4: in our country. Our prime minister, our government has allowed
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Speaker 4: Australia to be radicalized on his watch.
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Speaker 3: Sad but true. And then, in an exclusive interview aired
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Speaker 3: on Sky News this morning, when Shari Marksen managed to
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Speaker 3: quiz Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin net and Yahoo when he
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Speaker 3: ominously warned of flag burnings and turning our backs on
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Speaker 3: the signs that this might happen.
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Speaker 1: That's what these people are about. Now. They hate Israel.
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Speaker 1: Let me tell their head Jews, let me tell you
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Speaker 1: they also hate Australia. They burn our flag, but they'll
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Speaker 1: burn your flag and they'll burn you. So understand that
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Speaker 1: they're against our common civilization. And if you just sit
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Speaker 1: back and say, well, we can let this go. No,
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Speaker 1: it won't let you go. If you flee from terrorism,
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Speaker 1: it will chase you and it will hunt you down.
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Speaker 3: Extraordinary interview. He then turned his dismay and anger to
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Speaker 3: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
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Speaker 1: I think it was I think the writing was on
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Speaker 1: the wall. You saw the anti Semitic attacks. Well first
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Speaker 1: the anti Semitic incitement, these marches that called to globalize
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Speaker 1: antifi or what does that mean. It means murdered innocent
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Speaker 1: Jews around the globe wherever you can. And the radical
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Speaker 1: Muslims ISIS and the Muslim Brotherhood fan it all the time.
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Speaker 1: And you know, you know that they go to the
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Speaker 1: places where Jews are not protected. And I called for
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Speaker 1: the I call now too for the intensification of security
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Speaker 1: arrangements around Jewish institutions. I'll talk about that a little more,
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Speaker 1: going actively against these terrorist cells and these radical Islamic cells,
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Speaker 1: acting to put them in jail, stop them before they act. Yes,
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Speaker 1: I wanted all that to be done. And I say
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Speaker 1: now to the Australian government, damn it, wake up. You
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Speaker 1: don't need any more warnings. You've already received enough.
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Speaker 3: Indeed, wake up that sense of trepidation I mentioned. I
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Speaker 3: don't think there would be too many Australian families that
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Speaker 3: haven't had the very same conversation I've been having with
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Speaker 3: family and friends. After Sunday, we don't believe Bondai will
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Speaker 3: be the end of it. And when you think about
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Speaker 3: the dozens of large gatherings scheduled over the next month,
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Speaker 3: without exaggerating, I think many people will avoid those large crowds.
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Speaker 3: I know I will, And people will say, look, don't
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Speaker 3: be afraid, don't let the terrorists win. That's what they
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Speaker 3: want to make you scared. Well, as I sit here tonight,
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Speaker 3: they have foot fear into many of us. I walk
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Speaker 3: this morning past a very small synagogue in Melbourne's Inner East.
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Speaker 3: I won't name the suburb or the synagogue. I go
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Speaker 3: to this spot regularly, and I knew there was a
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Speaker 3: Jewish preschool there, but I now know that there is
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Speaker 3: also a city their goog as well. How we'll parked
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Speaker 3: out the front is a police car and I presume
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Speaker 3: does that mean every Jewish place of worship in Melbourne
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Speaker 3: is now under a police guard with a police vehicle,
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Speaker 3: you know, a police branded vehicle. I presume so. And
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Speaker 3: then we have the counter terrorism operation in Sydney that
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Speaker 3: started yesterday with New South Wales heavily armed and camouflaged
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Speaker 3: police intercepting two cars on a public street. Now here's
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Speaker 3: what police have told us.
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Speaker 5: All seven males are known to the Victorian Police and
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Speaker 5: traveled from Victoria. Whilst the specific threat posed by the
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Speaker 5: males is unknown, I can say that the potential of
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Speaker 5: a violent offense being committed was such that we were
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Speaker 5: not prepared to tolerate the risk and interdicted accordingly.
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Speaker 3: Mark Murray, Crime edited the Daily Telegraph, told Laura Jays
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Speaker 3: this morning that what he knew about.
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Speaker 6: This high risk interception is what they call that. You know,
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Speaker 6: they don't like doing that sort of thing in front
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Speaker 6: of the public because it can endanger the public themselves
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Speaker 6: while they're doing it. So for them to do what
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Speaker 6: they did shows you the degree of danger they thought
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Speaker 6: was a possibility and that's why they had to do
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Speaker 6: it so quickly.
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Speaker 3: So I'm breaking news. In the last few hours, New
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Speaker 3: South Wales Police have confirmed the seven men, age between
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Speaker 3: nineteen and twenty four, have been released from custody without charge,
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Speaker 3: pending further investigations. Now our Commissioner Dave Hudson justified the
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Speaker 3: intercept and arrests using delicate language. He explained that they
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Speaker 3: had a common extremist Islamic ideology. ASIO had one of
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Speaker 3: these men on a watch list. Others have said it,
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Speaker 3: and I agree. Australia change forever. On Sunday and we
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Speaker 3: all now cry out for strong leadership, I'll talk to
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Speaker 3: Greg Barton, who studied these terror groups for years. Shortly, indeed,
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Speaker 3: Greg joins US now now to the revelations that Australia's
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Speaker 3: anti money laundering and counter terrorism financing systems actually failed
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Speaker 3: to flag any suspicions and any suspicious spending by the
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Speaker 3: alleged Bondi terror suspects during those weeks that they went
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Speaker 3: to the Philippines. It's a known terror hotspot as we
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Speaker 3: now know. It's raised serious questions about intelligence and banking oversight.
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Speaker 3: As I said, Deacon University's Global Islamic Politics Chair, Professor
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Speaker 3: Greg Barton, who I've spoken to many times over the
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Speaker 3: years about this issue, joins us now. Greg, how could
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Speaker 3: individuals already known or at least one of them to
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Speaker 3: ASIO travel and spend freely for weeks in a high
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Speaker 3: risk terror region without some red flag going off or
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Speaker 3: ostrak or bank alerts. How can that happen?
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Speaker 7: Yeah, it seems incredible to us, Steve, doesn't it yet
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Speaker 7: when you sort of stop and break it down. Asio
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Speaker 7: investigated in October twenty nineteen. By April they decided that
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Speaker 7: Nave didn't represent a risk, they couldn't lay charge, and
9:01
Speaker 7: so they moved on to other sort of more pressing
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Speaker 7: cases that I think is understandable. But what is really
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Speaker 7: hard to understand in terms of the consequences of last Sunday,
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Speaker 7: the worst terror attack in Australian soil, is that no
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Speaker 7: one appears to have checked in on Navin and his
9:16
Speaker 7: family to see what was happening as far as we know.
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Speaker 7: So that's the reason why when they traveled to the Philippines, where,
9:23
Speaker 7: to be fair, tens of thousands of Australians go for
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Speaker 7: cheap and you know, fun beach holidays, good food, friendly people.
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Speaker 7: They were staying at a budget hotel, so in a sense,
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Speaker 7: none of that was likely to be automatically raising alarm
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Speaker 7: unless somebody was keeping an eye on this family. And
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Speaker 7: you know, for reasons that we'll find out in weeks
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Speaker 7: to come, it looks like having dropped the investigation in
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Speaker 7: April twenty twenty. In the last five years, no one
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Speaker 7: went back to sort of just check to see how
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Speaker 7: to changed, and that's the reason why we didn't pick
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Speaker 7: up any clues.
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Speaker 3: This pair went in through me now and then went
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Speaker 3: to that island. You're one of the few experts that
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Speaker 3: actually been to that region, although I think it's probably
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Speaker 3: was too dangerous to go where a lot of this
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Speaker 3: training is said to happen. Tell us what isis is
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Speaker 3: up to in that region.
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Speaker 7: So Steve, there's been insurgencies and in Mindanel, the southern
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Speaker 7: island of the Philippines and the islands to the west
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Speaker 7: of Mindanao for the last half century or more. When
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Speaker 7: al Qaida emerged, many people travel from the Philippines, also
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Speaker 7: Malaysia Indonesia trained in al Qaeda camps. Al Qaida was
10:33
Speaker 7: determined to train up people who go back and take
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Speaker 7: the fight home, and that's when these insurgencies in Mindenol
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Speaker 7: turned to al Qaeda. When camps were closed in Afghanistan
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Speaker 7: Pakistan in the mid nineties, a lot of people went
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Speaker 7: to Camp Aulbaka in Mindanaw to carry on their training.
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Speaker 7: Eventually that was closed in twenty fourteen. These groups led
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Speaker 7: by Abulseayeth group, the biggest known for its piracy and kidnapping.
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Speaker 7: I said they were going to swear allegiance now to
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Speaker 7: Islamic State. It was a rising brain We thought it
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Speaker 7: was just brain building. But in twenty seventeen, there was
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Speaker 7: a siege of the largest Muslim city in the Philippines, Morawi,
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Speaker 7: the west of Mindanao. That siege went on for seven months.
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Speaker 7: It was only ended when the city was destroyed. That
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Speaker 7: did see the end of the Islamic State aligned insurgency.
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Speaker 7: Many were killed, many were arrested, Many surrendered and said
11:20
Speaker 7: we don't want to be involved in this anymore. But
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Speaker 7: hundreds remained sort of true believers. And in the rugged
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Speaker 7: hills and mountains of West Mindanao, heavily forested, it's really
11:30
Speaker 7: hard to go and get them. I mean, if you're
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Speaker 7: a police officer or an army officer, you know what's
11:34
Speaker 7: happened to colleagues in the past. They've been caught in
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Speaker 7: ambushes and shot dead. So they're not controlling great amounts
11:40
Speaker 7: of territory, but the bits they do control, you don't
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Speaker 7: want to sort of get caught out going there. And
11:44
Speaker 7: they're confident enough to be operating in cities like Daval,
11:47
Speaker 7: which is where this father and son went. We don't
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Speaker 7: know that they left this capital of Mindadalo, but they
11:52
Speaker 7: didn't need to to meet people from Islamic State. Given
11:54
Speaker 7: they went November one, came back November twenty eight, launched
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Speaker 7: their terrible terror attack decemb fourteen. You'd have to assume
12:01
Speaker 7: that it had made up their minds before they went
12:03
Speaker 7: to the Philippines, and it was not a pleasure trip.
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Speaker 7: It was a business trip. And the only thing that
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Speaker 7: makes sense would be to meet people from Islamic State
12:09
Speaker 7: who would affirm that they're on the right path and
12:11
Speaker 7: give them the sort of psychological conviction to carry on
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Speaker 7: doing this murderous mass killing. That's what we can assume,
12:20
Speaker 7: but we don't know because we haven't had that confirmed.
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Speaker 3: Greg ASIO have lost a lot of staff recently. There's
12:27
Speaker 3: been a strategic shift away from terrorism, which you'd have
12:32
Speaker 3: to say left to Australia exposed. I mean, has the
12:35
Speaker 3: government let us down by not staffing ASIO correctly and
12:41
Speaker 3: concentrating on the things that we need to concentrate on.
12:43
Speaker 3: I mean, we've paid a terrible price.
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Speaker 7: We have pad atall real price, and there's still the risk,
12:48
Speaker 7: as you say, Steve, something else happening again in future.
12:51
Speaker 7: Lone after attacks, as Mike Burgess, head of ASIO tells us,
12:54
Speaker 7: are the hardest to predict and the hardest to prevent.
12:57
Speaker 7: So that hasn't gone away. Now there's a threat of
13:00
Speaker 7: big out attacks. I don't think it's fair to say
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Speaker 7: it's simply a mistake on asio's part. They will tell
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Speaker 7: us when they hopefully they'll tell us when they investigate
13:07
Speaker 7: what's gone wrong. This is bigger than ASIO, and it's
13:10
Speaker 7: actually bigger than counter terrorism intelligence. My supposition, this is speculation,
13:16
Speaker 7: but I've been looking at this for decades, is that
13:19
Speaker 7: the funding for counter terrorism intelligence, including ASIO and police,
13:22
Speaker 7: which has gone up steadily over the years, is probably sufficient.
13:26
Speaker 7: We could always do with more. It's true that ASIA
13:29
Speaker 7: has to deal with neo Nazi terrorism as well. It
13:32
Speaker 7: has to deal with foreign interference. That takes a lot
13:34
Speaker 7: of their time, they tell us. I think the problem, though,
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Speaker 7: is not so much on the counter terrorism incident response
13:40
Speaker 7: intelligence side. I think it's on the follow up of
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Speaker 7: people like Navid Okay, he's not on a sort of
13:46
Speaker 7: a high list of concern but who checks in a
13:49
Speaker 7: year later, two years later five years later, just to
13:51
Speaker 7: be sure that he hasn't gone back to what seemed
13:53
Speaker 7: to be a path of extremism, hasn't met new people
13:56
Speaker 7: who are a Malian influence. Had we checked in, you know,
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Speaker 7: probably we could have prevented this. And that's more about
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Speaker 7: countering violent extremism. It's this sort of soft side of
14:07
Speaker 7: engaging with people more than the incident response and the
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Speaker 7: straight intelligence.
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Speaker 3: Good only Greg Greg Barton there who really knows this stuff. Now,
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Speaker 3: I want to admit all the reports on Sunday's attack,
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Speaker 3: there has been some criticism in New South Wales Police command,
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Speaker 3: which I really think is very unfortunate. I mean, I think,
14:27
Speaker 3: given no one had any clue that this was going
14:29
Speaker 3: to occur, that they did an excellent job. But an
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Speaker 3: analysis of the terror attack raises some serious questions about
14:37
Speaker 3: why young, lightly armed general duty's police were left to
14:41
Speaker 3: actually confront these alleged armed terrorists. Now I know for
14:46
Speaker 3: a fact that one of those young police officers has
14:48
Speaker 3: only been months out of the academy. He was just
14:51
Speaker 3: armed with a Police Service revolver and sadly it looks
14:54
Speaker 3: like he's going to lose the sight of one eye
14:57
Speaker 3: and potentially he could lose the site in both I
15:00
Speaker 3: mean they were just patrolling BONDI. They weren't there to
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Speaker 3: protect people at that Harneker event. Someone who knows how
15:08
Speaker 3: these things are staffed and who makes those decisions is
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Speaker 3: former Victorian Homicide Squad Detective Charlie Bersina. Charlie, great to
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Speaker 3: see you again. I just want to get your thoughts
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Speaker 3: right at the top here about something that struck me
15:21
Speaker 3: very much about what happened on Sunday. You're an experienced
15:26
Speaker 3: police officer. You've carried arms yourself many times. There was
15:30
Speaker 3: a detective, Senior Constable Caesar Barazza, who has risked his
15:36
Speaker 3: own life. He hid behind a tree. We've seen that vision.
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Speaker 3: He took out killed one of the gunmen, the father,
15:42
Speaker 3: with a police pistol, Charlie, from forty to fifty meters away.
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Speaker 3: What sort of effort is that.
15:51
Speaker 8: That's an amazing effort and we are hearing it. He
15:54
Speaker 8: does quite proficient in hidden forarms training. I think he
15:58
Speaker 8: was a member of a pistol club, which is unusual
16:00
Speaker 8: because that's not across the board general duties police officers.
16:05
Speaker 8: So we were very very fortunate, as they all were there,
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Speaker 8: that he had that skill was able to within forty
16:11
Speaker 8: meters shoot him with a handgun and have the accuracy.
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Speaker 8: And that's just that out of the box. And again
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Speaker 8: fate of where we are and what you say is right.
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Speaker 8: We've got these members and they're all driven by, in fairness,
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Speaker 8: the police command, what intelligence there is, and we know
16:27
Speaker 8: that the Jewish community are targets, but there's always a
16:30
Speaker 8: threat assessment made and clearly not a high thread assessment
16:34
Speaker 8: was made in this particular gathering. Hence the only attendance
16:38
Speaker 8: of general duties police.
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Speaker 3: I think the Kiwi's Charlie their patrol cars are equipped
16:45
Speaker 3: or with at least one long arm like a rifle,
16:50
Speaker 3: a more powerful weapon than the police revolver. Is there
16:53
Speaker 3: any reason why Australian police and I don't believe general
16:57
Speaker 3: service police have a weapon like that in their car?
17:00
Speaker 9: Do they?
17:03
Speaker 8: The only general service police that I'm aware of, if
17:05
Speaker 8: things haven't changed, are the country police officers. And it's
17:07
Speaker 8: basically putting stock down if a stocker are injured or
17:11
Speaker 8: animals are injured. But it becomes very problematic in relations
17:14
Speaker 8: to training because of the high turnover the uniform people
17:19
Speaker 8: to be proficient enough in long arms and be able
17:21
Speaker 8: to have that training to do that. Whilst it would
17:25
Speaker 8: be a good aspect to have in another fallback position
17:28
Speaker 8: because there's no use taking on a thirty thirty high
17:30
Speaker 8: power rifle or pump action shotgun with a seventeen shot clock.
17:35
Speaker 8: But I think it's problematic in that training and make
17:38
Speaker 8: them proficient because it's close quarters, it's in the high
17:42
Speaker 8: community area about shooting an innocent person. So I think
17:46
Speaker 8: they're erring on a side of caution by not giving
17:49
Speaker 8: them long arms and not being proficient enough to use them.
17:54
Speaker 3: The training of police, I mean, how do you train
17:56
Speaker 3: someone to run toward danger rather than run away from it?
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Speaker 8: So matter training, it's what's in all of us in
18:05
Speaker 8: relation to what you sign up for. They get the
18:08
Speaker 8: basic training and what they should be doing. And I've
18:12
Speaker 8: never heard of a situation where the police are running
18:15
Speaker 8: away because they know that's where the line is. That
18:17
Speaker 8: now just looking behind them, they are the ones where
18:19
Speaker 8: the buck stops. And good leadership and their own fortitude
18:23
Speaker 8: to be able to say, you know what, I've got
18:25
Speaker 8: to go there. I'm the one that's going to stop this.
18:27
Speaker 8: I'm the one that's going to prevent loss of life.
18:29
Speaker 8: I'm going to it's up to me and nobody else.
18:31
Speaker 8: So I think more often than not that's what occurs,
18:34
Speaker 8: and they run into danger while other people are running
18:37
Speaker 8: away from it.
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Speaker 3: The anti Semitism that's broken out since October seven, over
18:43
Speaker 3: the last two and a bit years, has been very
18:46
Speaker 3: serious right around the country, none more so than in Victoria,
18:50
Speaker 3: where we had, of course a synagogue fire bombed, and
18:53
Speaker 3: we've had attacks on other Jewish businesses. The police force
18:57
Speaker 3: is already struggling with resources. I saw a marked police
19:03
Speaker 3: vehicle park that side a very small synagogue in a
19:06
Speaker 3: Melbourne eastern suburb this morning. How the police going to
19:09
Speaker 3: cope with guarding twenty four hours a day, seven days
19:12
Speaker 3: a week, every synagogue in Melbourne.
19:18
Speaker 8: Well, simply they can't. Given the resources. We've got the
19:22
Speaker 8: retail crime situation, we've got family violence, we've got all
19:25
Speaker 8: these other aspects to look at. And when you look
19:27
Speaker 8: at it, the actual strength of police numbers is just
19:31
Speaker 8: below fifteen thousand and three of those three thousand of
19:35
Speaker 8: those detectives. So and then you've got nine weeks to leave,
19:38
Speaker 8: you've got sick leave, you've got part on policing, so
19:41
Speaker 8: that reduces it quite significantly to be able to do that,
19:44
Speaker 8: and it's really upsetting to see not many people be
19:48
Speaker 8: aware of that. In a suburb in Melbourne where there's
19:52
Speaker 8: the Jewish schools and other facilities, they've employed armed guards.
19:56
Speaker 8: There's armed guards at the Jewish schools and you know,
20:00
Speaker 8: we might as a bit like Europe, but it's en
20:02
Speaker 8: up to the police to be able to do It's
20:04
Speaker 8: very difficult, but they then need the powers. It's up
20:07
Speaker 8: to the government to be able to eradicate that. And
20:09
Speaker 8: when Albanesi came in and said I'm going to eradicate it,
20:12
Speaker 8: I don't know what he's smoking, but that's impossibility. It's
20:16
Speaker 8: too late, too little, too late to those fifteen souls
20:19
Speaker 8: that have lost their life, and they shouldn't.
20:20
Speaker 3: Have on government policy. Just finally, Charlie, I mean this
20:25
Speaker 3: weekend of all weekends, so seven days after fifteen innocent
20:29
Speaker 3: people get slaughtered at Bondi, we're going to have protest
20:33
Speaker 3: marches in our major capital cities of Sydney and Melbourne.
20:36
Speaker 3: Now it appears these marches from the outfit that is
20:40
Speaker 3: trying to reclaim Australia. They say their peaceful marches. They
20:44
Speaker 3: march under the Australian flag and they may have the
20:47
Speaker 3: best of intentions, but you can back the horse in
20:51
Speaker 3: that the pro Palestinian crowd in both those cities will
20:54
Speaker 3: try and get involved. That again soaks up massive police resources.
20:59
Speaker 3: Surely we have to have legislation that bans these marches.
21:03
Speaker 3: And can't these people have some sort of common sense
21:07
Speaker 3: about and some sympathy for what's happened here.
21:13
Speaker 8: No, well they don't, and that's the whole problem.
21:14
Speaker 10: It's all about them.
21:15
Speaker 8: And this is why it's so important that you said
21:17
Speaker 8: only came out the other day and said, oh, well,
21:19
Speaker 8: they shouldn't be conducting these protests. Well, she's got the
21:22
Speaker 8: power to say, you know what, you're going to get
21:24
Speaker 8: a permit, introduced a permit which works in other states,
21:28
Speaker 8: so the don't say one thing and not do something else.
21:31
Speaker 8: And then this hate crime in relation to it, give
21:33
Speaker 8: the police the powers to charge these people. You're not
21:36
Speaker 8: going to charge them all, but show the fact that
21:39
Speaker 8: we run the town here, it's our town. And sure
21:42
Speaker 8: we've got an issue with our Human Rights Charter. We're
21:45
Speaker 8: the only state in this country that's got the Human
21:48
Speaker 8: Rights Charter. It was introduced by holes the Attorney general
21:53
Speaker 8: many years ago, and that's a big stumbling block for us.
21:55
Speaker 8: Sure you've got the right to protest peacefully, but at
21:58
Speaker 8: least license them so there's some accountability back for the police.
22:01
Speaker 8: They're be able to say, you know what, you had
22:03
Speaker 8: a splendid group that attacked a Jewish facility and you're
22:07
Speaker 8: now a cannibal. So you're not going to get another permit.
22:09
Speaker 8: So make them accountable, and the government's got the power
22:12
Speaker 8: to do that.
22:12
Speaker 10: Wake up.
22:15
Speaker 3: Wise words, Charlie. Was good to catch up with your
22:17
Speaker 3: Charlie Berzina there from a homicide squad detective. Now after
22:20
Speaker 3: the break, what regulation should local government be following when
22:23
Speaker 3: it comes to political statements? Plus an assessment on our
22:27
Speaker 3: political leaders in a moment of crisis that's coming up
22:31
Speaker 3: after the break. Now back to that issue I raise
22:37
Speaker 3: at the start of the program, a issue of Melbourne
22:40
Speaker 3: councilor who, only days after the Bondi terror attack targeting
22:45
Speaker 3: Jewish people, decides to go into a council meeting. We're
22:48
Speaker 3: a Palestine in Kefia to this council meetium and the
22:51
Speaker 3: councilor in question is Sue Bolton from the mary Beck Council,
22:55
Speaker 3: which is infamous when it comes to these sorts of things.
22:57
Speaker 3: She's defended her actions, her explanation.
23:02
Speaker 2: It was quite discreet.
23:05
Speaker 1: It wasn't a full cathea.
23:07
Speaker 11: I reject the idea that any symbol of Palestine is
23:14
Speaker 11: anti Jewish.
23:17
Speaker 3: How insufferable. Critics including a Jewish councilor and a colleague
23:21
Speaker 3: of slammed the movers completely insensitive. I mean, this is
23:25
Speaker 3: the council, by the way, and I've written a column
23:26
Speaker 3: about this for The Herald Sun tomorrow. This council, which
23:30
Speaker 3: this councilor is a member of. She's been re elected
23:32
Speaker 3: four times. She boasts on her website that they were
23:37
Speaker 3: the first council in Australia to vote to hoist the
23:41
Speaker 3: Palestinian flag above their town hall. As far as I'm aware,
23:46
Speaker 3: it flies there to this day. Council Watch founder Dean
23:49
Speaker 3: Helston joins us Dean welcome, Well, none of this would
23:53
Speaker 3: surprise you. But I mean, why are these local councils
23:58
Speaker 3: feeling that they need to somehow get themselves involved in
24:01
Speaker 3: the politics of the Middle East.
24:04
Speaker 10: Thanks Steve.
24:05
Speaker 9: Look, I think in what is a horrific week for
24:07
Speaker 9: so many in our Jewish community and our wider community,
24:11
Speaker 9: what's being exposed is that activists have captured our councils.
24:16
Speaker 9: And these activists who don't actually care about potholes and
24:20
Speaker 9: rubbish and off street parking and over development and all
24:24
Speaker 9: the things that the ordinary resident wants counselors to focus on.
24:29
Speaker 9: These activists have infiltrated it deliberately our councils, and they
24:33
Speaker 9: have taken their attention in directions that none of us
24:36
Speaker 9: could have imagined. But sadly, too often we see all
24:39
Speaker 9: the time, enough is enough. As you rightly said today, Steve,
24:45
Speaker 9: this is not what we want our counselors focused on.
24:49
Speaker 9: We want them focused on the basics, the things that matter,
24:53
Speaker 9: the cost of living, pressure on us to pay our rates,
24:57
Speaker 9: not international and global conflicts, and certainly not doing things
25:02
Speaker 9: that incite more fear and more division and more trouble
25:07
Speaker 9: in our communities. I mean, haven't the Jewish community been
25:09
Speaker 9: through enough already?
25:12
Speaker 3: They certainly have. I mean, look, this woman's been doing
25:15
Speaker 3: this for a long time, but you think even she
25:18
Speaker 3: would have the good manners to not do it this week,
25:21
Speaker 3: or this month, or maybe ever again, given what happened
25:24
Speaker 3: in BONDI I mean, she's a member of the Socialist Alliance,
25:26
Speaker 3: and so she's probably typical, as you say, Dean, of
25:31
Speaker 3: a group of people green left activists who managed to
25:34
Speaker 3: get themselves voted in on small numbers of votes in
25:38
Speaker 3: councils Inner Melbourne and in parts of Sydney where the
25:44
Speaker 3: community goes, oh well they're a greenee or they're from
25:47
Speaker 3: the left, so we'll vote for them. I mean, but
25:50
Speaker 3: it's doing nothing for the rate payers. I mean, why
25:53
Speaker 3: would that council be allowed to fly a Palestinian flag
25:56
Speaker 3: on a flagpole above the council chambers.
26:00
Speaker 9: Because again, as you say, Steve, we've got these radical activists,
26:04
Speaker 9: these lefties that are so left it's not funny. Now,
26:06
Speaker 9: no one has a problem with considering these issues, but
26:09
Speaker 9: a council can't do anything about something that's happening in
26:12
Speaker 9: the Middle East. So it's just nonsense and wasting everybody's time.
26:16
Speaker 9: If you want to do that, go run for federal
26:18
Speaker 9: parliament and get away from the local council.
26:21
Speaker 2: Steve.
26:21
Speaker 9: The other thing I really wanted to point out, which
26:23
Speaker 9: we wrote about today on our Facebook, is that Azio
26:26
Speaker 9: has been warning every council in Australia since two thousand
26:31
Speaker 9: repeatedly that bad actors and foreign influence powers are trying
26:37
Speaker 9: to infiltrate usurp and distract our councils. And it's no secret,
26:43
Speaker 9: but that's exactly what's happening. They have infiltrated, particularly in Victoria,
26:47
Speaker 9: a lot of our councils in sort of inner suburbs.
26:50
Speaker 9: The same in New South Wales. I mean, for goodness sake,
26:53
Speaker 9: can New South Wales. You've got clover More marching across
26:55
Speaker 9: the Sydney Harbor Bridge. This is not what we want
26:59
Speaker 9: to say our counsel is doing. We are sick and
27:02
Speaker 9: tired of it and we know that it is bad
27:05
Speaker 9: actors and foreign influence and ASIO has been warning. This
27:09
Speaker 9: just shows that our counsels are out of their depth,
27:12
Speaker 9: out of their league, and are radically being infiltrated. We've had,
27:15
Speaker 9: for goodness sake this week Hobson's Bay Council looking to
27:19
Speaker 9: put a motion to stop Jewish and you know Israeli
27:22
Speaker 9: procurement right after the massacre happened. What is their level
27:28
Speaker 9: of ASIO experience and foreign affairs and where the bloody
27:32
Speaker 9: hell is their sensitivity? There isn't any And I think
27:36
Speaker 9: what we need every single Victorian to do is to
27:39
Speaker 9: focus on figuring out who these radical people are and
27:43
Speaker 9: ensuring that they never ever have a place or a
27:47
Speaker 9: voice in our local councils. Again, get our councils back
27:51
Speaker 9: to potholes, roads and rubbish bins for goodness sake.
27:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, at leads to a wider question. I'm going to
27:59
Speaker 3: talk Amil Newman in a moment, who of course ran
28:02
Speaker 3: the City of Brisbane, the biggest local council in the country.
28:06
Speaker 3: Does not lead to it, and this is a longer discussion.
28:08
Speaker 3: We can have it another time, but doesn't lead to
28:11
Speaker 3: a serious debate about the number of councils we need
28:14
Speaker 3: and how we should limit the amount of councils we have.
28:17
Speaker 3: Make it, make one count, one huge council much bigger,
28:21
Speaker 3: and then you might get rid of some of these activists.
28:23
Speaker 10: Yeah.
28:24
Speaker 9: Look, we're the first people to say that we don't
28:26
Speaker 9: want to see it all just pushed off to the state.
28:28
Speaker 9: But I tell you what, Steve, If we've got six
28:30
Speaker 9: hundred and twenty councilors in the state of Victoria, you know,
28:34
Speaker 9: two and a half thousand across the country, and this
28:37
Speaker 9: is what they want to spend their time on, then
28:39
Speaker 9: let's get rid of the vast majority of them make
28:43
Speaker 9: some super councils and make it so much harder for
28:46
Speaker 9: them to have their flights of fancy wasting millions of
28:49
Speaker 9: dollars on rubbish that isn't their job. Let's amalgamate these councils.
28:54
Speaker 9: Let's start driving some efficiency. Let's get rid of at
28:57
Speaker 9: least two thirds of the CEOs and counselors that are
29:00
Speaker 9: literally woke ideology, ideology, you know, fantasists, and start focusing
29:06
Speaker 9: our councils on the stuff that hurts our hip pocket.
29:09
Speaker 9: This is just duplication of federal stuff and they have
29:12
Speaker 9: no idea what they're doing. Get them out of this.
29:17
Speaker 3: Well, said Dean. Thank you, we'll catch up with you shortly.
29:19
Speaker 3: As I said Friday Night, regular queens and liberal former
29:22
Speaker 3: queens and liberal premier and the Lord Mayor of Brisbane,
29:25
Speaker 3: the biggest council in the state, joins us Campbell. Do
29:28
Speaker 3: we need to have a debate about how many councils
29:31
Speaker 3: every city in the country has.
29:36
Speaker 10: Well, Look, I think Dean was making some great points,
29:38
Speaker 10: and you know, I think there is a case for
29:41
Speaker 10: amalgamation of councils in various parts of Australia. It's been
29:46
Speaker 10: very politically difficult for various leaders premiers who've tried that.
29:52
Speaker 10: Peter Beady had quite a fight on his hands when
29:55
Speaker 10: he tried it in queens A and he did do
29:57
Speaker 10: some amalgamations. I know that in Tasmania they have an
30:03
Speaker 10: enormous amount of councils for a very small population of
30:07
Speaker 10: anty around half a million. So I think there is
30:10
Speaker 10: a case, but it has been politically difficult. But to
30:13
Speaker 10: the point the Dean was making, I just want to
30:15
Speaker 10: make another point on top of that. I totally agree
30:17
Speaker 10: with his concerns and I think what we've seen in
30:21
Speaker 10: that particular council in Melbourne is just outrageous, so disrespectful.
30:28
Speaker 10: But this is what really needs to happen, is that
30:31
Speaker 10: when we go to a council election as voters, and
30:35
Speaker 10: we should take attention of this, we need to hose
30:39
Speaker 10: these people out of office. We need to put in
30:41
Speaker 10: place people who are decent, hard working, community minded people
30:46
Speaker 10: who know what the role really is. That's the secret here,
30:49
Speaker 10: That's what we really need mate. No, not more rules
30:52
Speaker 10: and regulations and codes of conduct. We need people to
30:55
Speaker 10: put their hand up and stand. We need great people
30:58
Speaker 10: to be elected.
31:01
Speaker 3: One hundred percent. I mean, if you were still the
31:03
Speaker 3: Lord Mayor of Brisbane, how hard would you be banging
31:06
Speaker 3: on the door of Premier David Chris of Foley saying mate,
31:09
Speaker 3: these marches that we're having every weekend Saturday Sunday, particularly
31:13
Speaker 3: in Sydney and Melbourne, also Brisbane. Mate, You've got to
31:16
Speaker 3: stop them because it's ruining our CBDs and we can't
31:20
Speaker 3: put up with it anymore.
31:24
Speaker 10: This has been a really difficult one for me, Steve.
31:26
Speaker 10: You've talked about it with me in the last year
31:29
Speaker 10: or so on the show, because I'm a member of
31:31
Speaker 10: the Libertarian Party and the last thing I want to
31:34
Speaker 10: do is curb people's rights to protest. What I say
31:38
Speaker 10: to you this evening is. Over the last two years, though,
31:41
Speaker 10: time and time and time again, we've seen the display
31:46
Speaker 10: of the symbols of declared terrorist organizations. We've seen chants that,
31:52
Speaker 10: as far as I'm concerned, as a layman, as a citizen,
31:56
Speaker 10: cross the line. We have hate speech laws. The trouble
31:59
Speaker 10: is haven't been enforced. You know. The very night of
32:03
Speaker 10: that infamous protest of the Opera House people, it's reported
32:07
Speaker 10: fired flares at the sales which were being lit up
32:10
Speaker 10: in the colors of the Jewish state. Now, if you
32:13
Speaker 10: or I did that, if we went down there this
32:15
Speaker 10: afternoon and did that, I can tell you now we'd
32:18
Speaker 10: have been hauled away by the police. But the police
32:22
Speaker 10: that evening only arrested one person's I recall, and it
32:25
Speaker 10: was a Jewish gentleman. So here's the problem. For two
32:30
Speaker 10: years we have not seen the law enforced in a
32:34
Speaker 10: whole variety of scenarios, and we've not seen the book
32:38
Speaker 10: thrown at people by magistrates for example, as well, you know,
32:42
Speaker 10: invasions of restaurants in the CBD of Melbourne. You know,
32:46
Speaker 10: I think those people got off quite lightly. So that's
32:49
Speaker 10: what needs to happen. Mate. I don't think we need
32:52
Speaker 10: you higher gun laws. We need your authorities to enforce
32:55
Speaker 10: the laws and get their act together in terms of
32:59
Speaker 10: you know, whose own guns and if they're on a
33:01
Speaker 10: terrorist watchlist we need. We don't need more hate speech laws.
33:05
Speaker 10: We need the laws that we used against Andrew Bolt,
33:07
Speaker 10: who works on this network. They were used effectively against
33:11
Speaker 10: him as a right wing speaker, and we saw the
33:15
Speaker 10: QUT case. We're young students were dragged in to the
33:19
Speaker 10: process on eighteen c So you know that's what I
33:22
Speaker 10: would do. Sorry for the long answer, but you know
33:25
Speaker 10: that's how this thing would have been shut down and
33:27
Speaker 10: quelled and we wouldn't have got to Bondi Sunday night.
33:32
Speaker 3: On the Bondai massacre and the political responses since I
33:37
Speaker 3: couldn't help, but compare the comments made on this network
33:41
Speaker 3: by former Prime Minister John Howard who was interviewed and
33:44
Speaker 3: then went to Bondi armed with some flowers, and he
33:50
Speaker 3: was warmly accepted. There. There was people singing out in
33:54
Speaker 3: the crowd. Bring back John Howard. I couldn't help, but
33:56
Speaker 3: compare that with Tony Burke being booed as he turned
34:00
Speaker 3: up there after dark and try to sort of snuck
34:02
Speaker 3: in and out again, or even our own Prime Minister
34:05
Speaker 3: John Howard, who turned up very early in the morning
34:07
Speaker 3: with a very cheap looking bunch of flowers, stayed there
34:10
Speaker 3: for eight minutes, left and hasn't gone back. What is
34:14
Speaker 3: your interpretation of the level of leadership that we have
34:18
Speaker 3: seen from our federal government and compare it, if you can,
34:22
Speaker 3: to someone who I think has done an outstanding job,
34:25
Speaker 3: and that's Labor Premier Mints.
34:30
Speaker 10: Well, I've been incandescent with anger and just heartbroken since
34:35
Speaker 10: Sunday night and I watched the whole thing unfurled, and
34:39
Speaker 10: I could do a show with you on my feelings
34:41
Speaker 10: about this, mate, But as quickly as I can. We
34:44
Speaker 10: have seen no leadership from Federal Labor, no leadership at all.
34:49
Speaker 10: We've seen craven political considerations about certain voting bases in
34:54
Speaker 10: Western Sydney, that there is there sort of wrapping in
34:57
Speaker 10: cotton Ball. They don't want to offend people. Plus the
35:00
Speaker 10: great internal problem they've got in the Labor Party which
35:03
Speaker 10: is full of anti Semites who are anti Israel, who
35:07
Speaker 10: just cannot help themselves. We've seen that in the reports
35:11
Speaker 10: and what happened in the Labor Federal Electric Council of
35:15
Speaker 10: Wentworth where they all have been quite insensitive in only
35:20
Speaker 10: recent days. So we've see no leadership from Labor. The
35:23
Speaker 10: community get that. I hope any member of the Jewish
35:26
Speaker 10: community in Australia now would get where they really stand
35:29
Speaker 10: with Federal Labor. Now. You mentioned Chris Means Well, I
35:33
Speaker 10: think he has done a good job in dealing with
35:36
Speaker 10: things now. But this is the bloke who never acted
35:40
Speaker 10: properly over the last two years. I go back to
35:43
Speaker 10: it again, Why did the New South Wales police deal
35:46
Speaker 10: with the Opera House event of October twenty twenty three
35:49
Speaker 10: in the lame way that they did. Now that's something
35:52
Speaker 10: that really someone should look at. How is it on
35:55
Speaker 10: that evening there was the son I know, there was
35:57
Speaker 10: one son of a New Whale's upper House labor member
36:02
Speaker 10: who was down there, who's an office bear at the time,
36:05
Speaker 10: was an office bearer of the Labor party. Who's a
36:07
Speaker 10: union official, a paid union official. This is the problem
36:12
Speaker 10: and this is why labor have been so bad ways
36:15
Speaker 10: because in their rank, in their ranks there are there
36:18
Speaker 10: are people who have been anti Israel from the beginning
36:23
Speaker 10: from October the seventh. So, you know, I'll give Chris
36:26
Speaker 10: Mins his due, but you see, the labor approach in
36:29
Speaker 10: the last few days has been about obfuscation. It's about, look,
36:34
Speaker 10: we're going to do something about guns. Well, mate, Steve,
36:38
Speaker 10: it's got nothing to do with guns. It could have
36:39
Speaker 10: been a truck, it could have been knives, it could
36:41
Speaker 10: have been God forbid chemicals to create some sort of
36:45
Speaker 10: gas or poison. You know, they will always find a way.
36:49
Speaker 10: It's about the ideology and it's about putting a lid
36:52
Speaker 10: on it and finding these people and getting them out
36:54
Speaker 10: of this country if we possibly can.
36:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's why we need a Royal com I mean,
37:00
Speaker 3: Campbell has been a pleasure speaking to you every Friday
37:02
Speaker 3: night in twenty twenty five. I love to do it
37:04
Speaker 3: again in twenty twenty six when we come back. So
37:08
Speaker 3: you have a good Christmas and really appreciate your your contribution.
37:12
Speaker 3: That's been fantastic Campbell Newman there now. Next, how does
37:15
Speaker 3: a cartoonist approach what has been one of the most
37:17
Speaker 3: shocking weeks in our recent history? Cartoons of the Week
37:21
Speaker 3: with Mark Knight Up next, Welcome back to the Price
37:29
Speaker 3: with you and Mark Knight, the best cartoonist in Australia.
37:32
Speaker 3: I know he gets an embarrassed when I say that.
37:34
Speaker 3: He joins us every couple of weeks, taking us through
37:38
Speaker 3: the cartoons that he's drawn during the week. When you
37:42
Speaker 3: hear something like Sunday happens, as a cartoonist, how do you, YEA,
37:50
Speaker 3: how do you process that and think I've got to
37:53
Speaker 3: draw something that says something about this.
37:57
Speaker 2: I think the first thing that I look at is
38:00
Speaker 2: sort of set the.
38:00
Speaker 11: Politics aside and just look at the tragedy and the
38:03
Speaker 11: grief of the situation and just empathize with the community
38:08
Speaker 11: and those affected.
38:09
Speaker 2: So that's I think, your first cartoon. Then you know,
38:12
Speaker 2: as days go by, we start.
38:14
Speaker 11: Looking at the political reasons why and commenting on that
38:18
Speaker 11: sort of thing.
38:18
Speaker 2: But you know, I am.
38:21
Speaker 11: An Australian and I have a lot of Jewish mates,
38:25
Speaker 11: and I'm affected by this just as they are.
38:28
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm so sad.
38:29
Speaker 3: The whole country. You know, there's nothing good about it.
38:34
Speaker 3: But the heroes that emerged. You drew a cartoon of
38:38
Speaker 3: Arkhmed Akhmed who tackled that government. I mean, let's have
38:42
Speaker 3: a look at that cartoon. I mean, yeah, that is
38:45
Speaker 3: a superhero.
38:46
Speaker 2: Well, this is where you start.
38:47
Speaker 11: You start with these, as you say, these are great tragedies,
38:50
Speaker 11: but from them emerge moments of.
38:52
Speaker 2: The best of humanity. And this was one of them.
38:55
Speaker 11: And we all saw that image and I thought, how
38:58
Speaker 11: can I just tweak this to say some thing?
39:00
Speaker 2: And I just thought the image of the cape just
39:04
Speaker 2: lightly on his back, and he is he is a dead.
39:08
Speaker 3: Set here, a genuine hero. I love that cut. Now.
39:12
Speaker 3: The speech of the week came from Josh Frodenberg, from
39:15
Speaker 3: Treasurer of our Country, a guy that you and I
39:18
Speaker 3: know very well, yes, and you've drawn him. Explain this
39:22
Speaker 3: to me.
39:23
Speaker 2: Josh stood up when he did. The Prime Minister wasn't
39:27
Speaker 2: and hadn't at that stage.
39:29
Speaker 11: And you know, Josh is a Jewish Man and was
39:35
Speaker 11: very passionate, and he was showing leadership for the first.
39:38
Speaker 2: Time and by a ex political figure, but he was
39:42
Speaker 2: showing leadership.
39:42
Speaker 11: And I saw the parable of you know, leading the
39:45
Speaker 11: Israelites through the parting of the sea. And then we
39:48
Speaker 11: were a bond eye and there's Josh parting the waves
39:51
Speaker 11: at Bondi and.
39:53
Speaker 3: A pavilion in the background.
39:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, just those little things.
39:55
Speaker 11: And if you'll note to the right there are the
39:58
Speaker 11: two gum and just to just to playing the situation.
40:01
Speaker 2: But you know, there is Josh.
40:03
Speaker 11: And someone has to lead us to an Australia that's
40:06
Speaker 11: free from anti cinema, isn't.
40:08
Speaker 3: Of course, Bondi is synonymous with life savers. Yes, And
40:14
Speaker 3: so at some point in the Mark Night put two
40:17
Speaker 3: and two we get that Fog've decided here it is
40:21
Speaker 3: and explain this this oneful hour.
40:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, well it is.
40:24
Speaker 11: It's you know, the Bondo risk. We've all watched Bondou Rescue.
40:27
Speaker 11: We've all seen BONDI life savers. They are iconic to
40:30
Speaker 11: this country. And so you know, I decided that Albow
40:34
Speaker 11: as I guess our chief life saver, what would he
40:37
Speaker 11: do in that situation? And he's here, he is summarizing
40:40
Speaker 11: the situation. We have these massive sharks terrorizing us on
40:43
Speaker 11: the beach, which a symbolic of radical Islam and anti Semitism,
40:48
Speaker 11: the fire bombings in Melbourne, and Albow thinks the problem
40:51
Speaker 11: is gun laws.
40:53
Speaker 3: That's that's really another outstanding a cartoon.
40:56
Speaker 2: And the terror on the you know, people running in terror.
40:59
Speaker 3: On the beach like it all that much. But anyway, no,
41:03
Speaker 3: I don't think you would. As we end the year,
41:05
Speaker 3: You've done some great work. You've got a couple of
41:06
Speaker 3: favorites of your own.
41:08
Speaker 2: I thought I'd bring in a couple of favorite Trump.
41:09
Speaker 3: How can we go end the year without Donald Trump?
41:13
Speaker 3: What is this?
41:14
Speaker 11: Well, this is to remember kiss Cam kiss Cam was
41:19
Speaker 11: one of the great stories.
41:20
Speaker 2: Those two executives that the rock at the Coldplay.
41:22
Speaker 3: Concert come out today ruined it a light.
41:25
Speaker 2: Well, that's a reminder of this cartoon.
41:27
Speaker 11: But I thought it would be Elbows snuggling up with
41:31
Speaker 11: Zi Jing Ping while he was trying to get it
41:34
Speaker 11: on with you know, while he was trying to build
41:35
Speaker 11: a relationship with Donald Trump.
41:37
Speaker 2: So I thought, that's an awkward situation.
41:39
Speaker 3: And Kim johng Un, one of the great love drawing him.
41:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's my favorite. Oh it's Dan and.
41:48
Speaker 11: That now I used to get taking the task for
41:51
Speaker 11: drawing Dan as Dictator Dan.
41:53
Speaker 2: People would say, you're being terribly unfair.
41:55
Speaker 12: Well, I think I was ahead of myself, Stephen, because
41:59
Speaker 12: there we have When Dan turned up at China in
42:04
Speaker 12: Beijing at.
42:05
Speaker 2: The military parade, bully was to go there. That was
42:08
Speaker 2: a clanger.
42:09
Speaker 3: I mean, that is one of the biggest clowns of
42:10
Speaker 3: the year. Seriously, I mean, I hope he gets well.
42:13
Speaker 3: He's in hospital.
42:14
Speaker 2: Ye, we wish him all the best.
42:15
Speaker 3: We do wish him all the best. It's been a
42:16
Speaker 3: brilliant year at your cartooning as I don't know you'll
42:19
Speaker 3: think you've reached another level. Thanks, it's been absolutely outstanding.
42:23
Speaker 3: When does your cartoon of the year get published?
42:26
Speaker 2: Front back page of the Herald Sun.
42:28
Speaker 11: New Year's Eve it publishes, So I'm trying to get
42:30
Speaker 11: it finished now.
42:31
Speaker 3: Good man, thanks very much for joining us.
42:33
Speaker 2: We loved very Christmas.
42:35
Speaker 3: Mart Knight is a superhero himself. Now after the break
42:39
Speaker 3: is Anthony Albanez. He's rebooted gun by back scheme. Will
42:42
Speaker 3: this actually work or will it just mean only people
42:45
Speaker 3: who want some money back will hand their guns in? Plus,
42:48
Speaker 3: the Prime Minister is still in camera, dodging tough questions
42:52
Speaker 3: from gallery journo's but why isn't he in BONDI this week?
42:56
Speaker 3: Our Friday Night panel is up next. Let's go straight
43:03
Speaker 3: to our Friday and Night PANELSCO One News host Caroline
43:05
Speaker 3: de Rosso, who's been very generous with her time all
43:08
Speaker 3: year and I appreciate it very much. Also, Joe Hildebrand, Joe,
43:11
Speaker 3: thank you very much for joining us on a Friday night.
43:14
Speaker 3: Look's going to be a very tough couple of months
43:17
Speaker 3: for everybody, none more so than the Jewish community. I
43:19
Speaker 3: don't know how they're going to recover from this. The
43:22
Speaker 3: PMS announced the national gun Buyback Scheme, labeling it the
43:26
Speaker 3: largest measure since John Howard. I should say, I think
43:30
Speaker 3: Joe that when John Howard did introduce that gun buyback,
43:34
Speaker 3: I mean, people made the very obvious point that it's
43:37
Speaker 3: not the criminals who are handing in the guns, it's
43:40
Speaker 3: people who just want to get rid of guns they
43:42
Speaker 3: don't want anymore. Is gun buy back the answer.
43:45
Speaker 13: Look, it's not the only answer, it's part of the solution.
43:48
Speaker 3: But you're absolutely right.
43:49
Speaker 13: Someone who's planning on carrying out a mass shooting or
43:52
Speaker 13: a terror attack isn't going to say, oh, a good price,
43:55
Speaker 13: I'll hand in my semi automatic rifle and take the money,
43:58
Speaker 13: thanks very much. What it does do so is it
44:00
Speaker 13: takes as many of these high powered weapons out of
44:04
Speaker 13: circulation as possible, makes it just that little bit of course,
44:08
Speaker 13: the fewer that are in circulation, either legally or illegally,
44:11
Speaker 13: the harder it is for people who are planning evil
44:15
Speaker 13: to get their hands on them. Makes it just a
44:17
Speaker 13: little bit easier for the police to do their jobs
44:19
Speaker 13: and to track the ones that are out there. So
44:23
Speaker 13: this is part of a suite of changes that the
44:26
Speaker 13: PM and the state government in New South Wales is
44:29
Speaker 13: putting in place. I think front and center has got
44:32
Speaker 13: to be an exposure of and condemnation of, and the
44:36
Speaker 13: ability to prosecute people for hate speech in terms of
44:42
Speaker 13: incitement to violence. The real problem here, I mean, the
44:44
Speaker 13: truth is there are always going to be radical extremists
44:47
Speaker 13: who want to kill other people, and there will always
44:49
Speaker 13: be radical Islam that targets Jews and Israel. But what
44:55
Speaker 13: you want to do is make sure that those people
44:57
Speaker 13: are singled out for the extremists that they are, that
45:00
Speaker 13: they get no comfort from other extremist radicals on the left,
45:04
Speaker 13: that they did not get a fig leaf of legitimacy,
45:07
Speaker 13: and that is the most important thing. And then of course,
45:10
Speaker 13: once we know that those people are extremists and they're
45:12
Speaker 13: identified and categorized as such, we make it as difficult
45:15
Speaker 13: as possible for them to get their hands on a gun.
45:18
Speaker 3: Caroline gun buy back a convenient diversion or I mean,
45:23
Speaker 3: no one's going to argue about whether we need to
45:25
Speaker 3: get guns out of the community. But it seems like
45:28
Speaker 3: it was the way that the government just seized upon
45:32
Speaker 3: because they didn't want to talk about radical Islam.
45:37
Speaker 14: And it is this is straight out of the Democrat playbook,
45:40
Speaker 14: you know. And the situation with gun laws in Australia
45:43
Speaker 14: is totally different to the US. And you look at
45:46
Speaker 14: after Port Arthur and the buyback scheme that happened. Then
45:49
Speaker 14: there was a significant change. But you know, all the
45:53
Speaker 14: talk that has been coming out of labor is or
45:56
Speaker 14: there's more guns than ever on the street, and you
45:58
Speaker 14: know we're buying them back, but actually, per capita, there's
46:01
Speaker 14: less guns than there were in nineteen ninety six and
46:05
Speaker 14: obviously across the subsequent decades. I feel like the government
46:09
Speaker 14: is running cover for a conversation that they don't want
46:13
Speaker 14: to have, and I think everyone sees through it.
46:16
Speaker 2: And sure, like Joe said.
46:17
Speaker 14: It might make this a little bit better or a
46:19
Speaker 14: little bit easier, but ultimately I'll get back to the
46:22
Speaker 14: question of how was someone who was being monitored by
46:26
Speaker 14: ASIO able to live in the same house as a
46:30
Speaker 14: licensed gun holder. And I think we've already got so
46:33
Speaker 14: many laws. How about we put that money into resources
46:36
Speaker 14: to enforce the ones we already have.
46:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, a very good point, Joe. Look, I know you've
46:41
Speaker 3: got a strong relationship with Anthony Albaneasy, but you call
46:44
Speaker 3: it out when you see it. His his actions this week,
46:50
Speaker 3: they've not been great. He went to Bondi once, he
46:54
Speaker 3: was there for eight minutes holding a pretty pathetic bunch
46:57
Speaker 3: of flowers, and now he's retreated to Canberra. He can't
47:01
Speaker 3: go back there because he knows that if there are
47:04
Speaker 3: Jewish people there on Sunday that he's going to get
47:07
Speaker 3: booed like Tony Burke did. What's he do now? How
47:10
Speaker 3: does he regain some of the gravitas of the Prime
47:14
Speaker 3: Minister's office that I believe, and I know Carolina will
47:16
Speaker 3: agree with me, I think has been lost this week.
47:20
Speaker 10: Yeah.
47:20
Speaker 13: Look, I think what he did on Thursday, which is
47:23
Speaker 13: deeds not words, which frankly have always been his strong point. Anyway,
47:27
Speaker 13: He's not a great sort of soaring speechmaker. I think
47:31
Speaker 13: in times of crisis like this, people look to some
47:34
Speaker 13: sort of great sort of form of words that can
47:37
Speaker 13: heal the community, and Albo is much more of a
47:40
Speaker 13: sort of more practical, hands on kind of fixer type
47:43
Speaker 13: of politician. And what he is doing now belatedly, but
47:46
Speaker 13: I think nonetheless welcomely is trying to do all those
47:51
Speaker 13: things that he should have done in terms of implementing
47:54
Speaker 13: the recommendations of the Anti Semitism Review and to make
47:59
Speaker 13: sure or that you know, when we do have hate
48:02
Speaker 13: preachers in our community who are saying that Jews have
48:04
Speaker 13: to die or praying for other to die, or you
48:06
Speaker 13: do have people saying, you know, globalize that interfada on
48:10
Speaker 13: our harbor bridge, that that is recognized for what it is,
48:13
Speaker 13: which is hate speech and a call to violence, and
48:16
Speaker 13: a mechanism to be able to deal with that. So
48:19
Speaker 13: I think he is aware of it. However, lately may
48:21
Speaker 13: becoming he is aware and he's doing something.
48:24
Speaker 3: Caroline Joe again, thank you very much for making time
48:27
Speaker 3: for us on a Friday and on a particularly difficult week.
48:29
Speaker 3: I appreciate it. Thank you both very much. I must
48:32
Speaker 3: say the image that I want to keep in my
48:34
Speaker 3: head over the weekend is that paddle out at Bondi
48:36
Speaker 3: that happened today. I think that's the image we will
48:39
Speaker 3: want to leave with. I'll be back next year, see
48:42
Speaker 3: you then. Rondine's up next.