Latest / The Bolt Report / The Bolt Report | 14 September

Transcript

The Bolt Report | 14 September · The Bolt Report

0:11
Speaker 1: This is the Volt Report.
0:14
Speaker 2: Good evening and welcome to The Bolt Report. I'm James McPherson.
0:17
Speaker 2: Here's what's coming up tonight. Outrage after comments Pauline Hanson
0:21
Speaker 2: made last year, branding Aboriginal Australians the most primitive race
0:25
Speaker 2: on earth, suddenly resurfaced today. But whoever brought them to
0:29
Speaker 2: the media's attention was likely less concerned with protecting Indigenous
0:33
Speaker 2: Australians than they were with attacking One Nation. Plus, Australians
0:37
Speaker 2: gripped with fear over Albanese's economic incompetence. A fresh poll
0:42
Speaker 2: today reveals 74% of voters are worried about our federal
0:45
Speaker 2: debt and 57% of people no longer trust Labor about
0:49
Speaker 2: anything at all. And speaking of Labor, bombshell revelations. They've
0:54
Speaker 2: appointed a defence firm with links to China to advise
0:58
Speaker 2: on the security of Australia's military bases. Our top Joint
1:01
Speaker 2: Strike fighter base is already being protected using their technology.
1:05
Speaker 2: Greg Sheridan will have more on that shortly. But first,
1:08
Speaker 2: after a month discussing melons, mums and memes, the national
1:14
Speaker 2: conversation has finally got back around to migration. And once again,
1:18
Speaker 2: it's Pauline Hanson who's setting the national.
1:21
Speaker 1: Agenda, which is really quite remarkable.
1:24
Speaker 2: If you believe many in the media, Pauline Hanson is
1:27
Speaker 2: divisive and unfit to govern. Now, to be fair, I
1:30
Speaker 2: could never work out whether that was criticism or a
1:33
Speaker 2: recommendation that she'd be perfectly at home in a federal
1:36
Speaker 2: Labor cabinet meeting, but I digress. While Labor is still
1:40
Speaker 2: arguing about how they can balance a cut to immigration
1:43
Speaker 2: while simultaneously protecting the things they actually care about, like...
1:47
Speaker 2: papering over their hopeless economic performance and keeping every minority
1:51
Speaker 2: group firmly on side. And while the Liberal Party promised
1:55
Speaker 2: to tie migrant numbers to housing construction, which sounds smart
1:59
Speaker 2: until you realise they're going to end up building lots
2:01
Speaker 2: of new homes for lots of new migrants.
2:04
Speaker 1: Pauline Hanson.
2:06
Speaker 2: Well, she's actually put a proposal on the table. One
2:09
Speaker 2: Nation is proposing three years of negative net migration, a
2:13
Speaker 2: plan that would cut 750,000 student and family visas, a
2:19
Speaker 2: plan that would stop migrants whose visas expire using taxpayer
2:23
Speaker 2: funds to argue they should remain in the country. It's
2:26
Speaker 2: a plan that would give illegal migrants three months to
2:29
Speaker 2: leave the country or else be removed and banned from
2:32
Speaker 2: ever returning. A plan that after three years would return
2:36
Speaker 2: migrant numbers to 2017 levels and leave them at those
2:40
Speaker 2: levels moving forward. It's a plan that had Labor and
2:43
Speaker 2: Liberal Party MPs jumping to attention faster than a welcome
2:47
Speaker 2: to country on Anzac Day.
2:48
Speaker 3: A headline number and a few slogans, well that will
2:52
Speaker 3: send the economy into shock and potentially into recession.
2:56
Speaker 1: That would be dire for all Australians.
3:00
Speaker 2: I like Jane Hume, but here's what Liberals like Jane
3:03
Speaker 2: Hume don't seem to understand.
3:05
Speaker 1: They call Pauline Hanson's plan a slogan. Well, it's not.
3:09
Speaker 2: It's actually quite specific. But what's the Coalition's immigration plan?
3:15
Speaker 4: The numbers are too high and the standards are too low.
3:18
Speaker 4: The numbers have been too high and the standards have
3:21
Speaker 4: been too low. The numbers have been too high as
3:23
Speaker 4: well as the standards have been too low.
3:26
Speaker 2: Now, to be fair, the Liberals' immigration policy is a
3:29
Speaker 2: slogan I think most Australians would agree with, but it
3:31
Speaker 2: raises the question, and?
3:35
Speaker 1: And what are you going to do?
3:36
Speaker 2: Well, that's right, tie the number of new arrivals to
3:39
Speaker 2: the number of newly constructed homes.
3:42
Speaker 1: What's that, if not a slogan?
3:43
Speaker 2: Worse, it sounds suspiciously like a slogan that means building
3:47
Speaker 2: houses so that more people can come here.
3:50
Speaker 1: What about everyone who's already here?
3:52
Speaker 2: As for Jane Hume warning that One Nation's plan would
3:55
Speaker 2: hurt the economy, here's the problem. We're old enough to
3:59
Speaker 2: remember when a Liberal government shut down the entire country
4:01
Speaker 2: and paid people.
4:03
Speaker 1: To sit at home. We don't just remember it, we're
4:06
Speaker 1: still paying for it.
4:07
Speaker 2: Of course, Jane Hume wasn't Robinson Crusoe when it came
4:11
Speaker 2: to warning that Pauline Hanson was about to destroy the country.
4:15
Speaker 5: One Nation's policy is a recipe to destroy the Australian
4:19
Speaker 5: economy and drive the Australian economy into recession.
4:23
Speaker 2: I've got to say, it's refreshing to hear a senior
4:25
Speaker 2: government minister concerned about the economy.
4:28
Speaker 1: And maybe Murray Watt is right.
4:29
Speaker 2: Maybe such a dramatic cut to migration numbers would hurt
4:32
Speaker 2: economic growth. But here's where Labor is in danger of
4:36
Speaker 2: losing the argument, even if they're right. The Labor Party
4:40
Speaker 2: has spent years doing everything it can to stymie productivity
4:44
Speaker 2: while importing more and more migrants to hide the fact.
4:48
Speaker 2: The Australian newspaper reported this morning that Jim Chalmers was
4:50
Speaker 2: on track to deliver the worst decade of productivity since
4:54
Speaker 2: records began. And now they warn, oh, we can't cut
4:58
Speaker 2: immigration or we'll kill the economy. Most of us say,
5:02
Speaker 2: hang on a second, you guys killed the Australian economy
5:04
Speaker 2: years ago. You just hid the corpse under millions of
5:07
Speaker 2: newly arrived migrants, hoping we wouldn't notice. You can't drastically
5:12
Speaker 2: cut migration.
5:12
Speaker 1: Or you'll ruin the economy. So what's Labor's alternative?
5:17
Speaker 2: An increasing number of Australians are calling out Labor for
5:19
Speaker 2: what looks a lot like a Ponzi scheme. And here's
5:23
Speaker 2: the thing about Ponzi schemes, whether it's Labor trying to
5:25
Speaker 2: sell you on immigration or your dodgy brother-in-law trying to
5:29
Speaker 2: sell you on the latest miracle cryptocurrency, they aren't sustainable.
5:33
Speaker 2: Mass immigration isn't economically sustainable and it doesn't appear to
5:37
Speaker 2: be socially sustainable. Pauline Hanson isn't an extremist for calling
5:42
Speaker 2: this out, unless, of course, we now define an extremist
5:45
Speaker 2: as someone who says out loud what millions of us
5:47
Speaker 2: have been thinking for years but have been too afraid
5:49
Speaker 2: to say for fear of being called an extremist.
5:53
Speaker 6: I know you're doing it tough. Australians are competing with
5:56
Speaker 6: hundreds for rental accommodation. They're stuck in ambulances because there
6:02
Speaker 6: aren't enough hospital beds. Labor and the Liberals caused this
6:06
Speaker 6: mess by letting migration spiral out of control to prop
6:10
Speaker 6: up their poor economic management. They couldn't give a damn
6:15
Speaker 6: about the impact mass migration has had on everyday living
6:19
Speaker 6: standards of Australians.
6:21
Speaker 1: Well, it's hard to disagree with that.
6:23
Speaker 2: And when we complain about social cohesion, well, we're told
6:27
Speaker 2: diversity is our strength. And when we recoil at horror
6:30
Speaker 2: with the Bondi massacre, we're told we should be careful
6:33
Speaker 2: not to upset society.
6:34
Speaker 1: The Muslim community.
6:36
Speaker 2: When we notice the number of houses being built doesn't
6:38
Speaker 2: even match the number of new arrivals, we're chastised for
6:41
Speaker 2: thinking racist thoughts at property auctions. And when we're told
6:45
Speaker 2: that Australia now looks like one big melting pot, well,
6:48
Speaker 2: we're subjected to a history lesson about the First Fleet.
6:50
Speaker 1: It was very multicultural, you know. On and on it goes.
6:55
Speaker 2: And the major parties, having dismissed our concerns about mass
6:58
Speaker 2: migration with platitudes and moralising, wonder why Pauline Hanson has
7:03
Speaker 2: our attention and they don't. Well, perhaps it's because she's
7:07
Speaker 2: now talking seriously about what they've spent years refusing to
7:11
Speaker 2: talk about.
7:13
Speaker 6: Temporary visa holders have risen from about 2 million in
7:17
Speaker 6: 2022 to nearly 3 million today. Since taking office, Labor
7:22
Speaker 6: has brought in more migrants than the population of Adelaide.
7:28
Speaker 6: It plans to bring in another million over the next
7:30
Speaker 6: four years. The Liberals' answer is to build.
7:34
Speaker 7: More homes, then fill them with millions of more migrants.
7:39
Speaker 6: Businesses admit many arrivals lack the skills Australia needs.
7:45
Speaker 2: Oh, but Murray Watt warned there'd be dire consequences if
7:48
Speaker 2: we vote for Pauline Hanson's plan.
7:50
Speaker 5: I don't know when Pauline Hanson or Barnaby Joyce last
7:53
Speaker 5: stepped into an abattoir, onto a farm, into a hospital,
7:57
Speaker 5: into an aged care facility. Every single one of those
8:00
Speaker 5: enterprises relies on a degree of migrant labour.
8:04
Speaker 2: To which I'd reply, I don't know when the last
8:07
Speaker 2: time Murray Watt walked through the CBD on a Saturday.
8:11
Speaker 2: Hang on, you can't. The streets are blocked by pro-Palestinian protesters.
8:15
Speaker 2: As for the huge number of migrants working in hospitals, well,
8:18
Speaker 2: I had occasion to take my son to the hospital
8:21
Speaker 2: a few weeks ago, and there were certainly migrants working
8:24
Speaker 2: there and a whole lot of migrants waiting to be seen.
8:27
Speaker 2: And this is where attacks on One Nation's immigration policy
8:30
Speaker 2: will fall flat with the public, even if they contain
8:33
Speaker 2: a kernel of truth to them. When Labor and the
8:36
Speaker 2: Liberals warn that One Nation's policy will ruin the country,
8:39
Speaker 2: many of us reply that the country's already been ruined.
8:42
Speaker 2: We've been warning about it for years and the major
8:45
Speaker 2: parties have simply ignored us. So rather than tell us
8:48
Speaker 2: why One Nation's idea is a disaster, Labor should tell
8:52
Speaker 2: us what they plan to do. Hang on a second,
8:55
Speaker 2: they don't know what they plan to do yet because,
8:57
Speaker 2: as it turns out, it's devilishly difficult to devise an
9:00
Speaker 2: immigration policy that looks like you're doing something while actually
9:04
Speaker 2: changing very little. And as for the Liberal Party, well,
9:08
Speaker 2: they don't have much more on the table. We're told
9:10
Speaker 2: they're responsibly and methodologically working through a policy. What I
9:16
Speaker 2: don't understand about that is that this issue didn't spring
9:19
Speaker 2: out of nowhere this afternoon. This has been an issue
9:22
Speaker 2: for a decade, and the major.
9:24
Speaker 1: Parties are flat-footed. You know what's really insulting?
9:29
Speaker 2: What's insulting is that after years of complaining about runaway immigration,
9:34
Speaker 2: the Labor and Liberal parties are suddenly mobilised, but not
9:37
Speaker 2: because they share our concerns about immigration, it's because of
9:41
Speaker 2: their own concerns about the polls. I think most Australians
9:45
Speaker 2: would rather take the hard medicine Pauline Hanson is offering
9:49
Speaker 2: than be kept on life support by the major parties
9:51
Speaker 2: while they stroke us on the head and insist we're
9:54
Speaker 2: living our best life. Well, comments Pauline Hanson made about
10:02
Speaker 2: Aboriginal Australians on a podcast last September have suddenly resurfaced today,
10:09
Speaker 2: which has Kind of curious, because the interview's been sitting
10:12
Speaker 2: around for a year, apparently causing no great national emergency.
10:17
Speaker 2: And then, just hours after One Nation announced its immigration policy,
10:22
Speaker 2: someone remembered this podcast existed.
10:26
Speaker 7: We're actually all leaning towards this Aboriginal, you know, teaching
10:29
Speaker 7: about Aboriginal culture and language.
10:31
Speaker 8: For what?
10:32
Speaker 9: What?
10:33
Speaker 7: And I'll say it on your program. What the hell
10:35
Speaker 7: have they done in this country for, suppose, you know,
10:38
Speaker 7: supposedly 60,000 years, they'd never invented the wheel.
10:42
Speaker 10: There was nothing there.
10:44
Speaker 7: What are we actually holding up?
10:46
Speaker 9: A few, you know, rock paintings?
10:49
Speaker 1: Sorry.
10:50
Speaker 7: They're the most primitive race on earth. And we're supposed
10:54
Speaker 7: to be holding up and saying what they've achieved. They've
10:57
Speaker 7: achieved nothing.
11:00
Speaker 2: When Pauline Hanson gave that interview, perhaps a few hundred
11:03
Speaker 2: people heard it. Now, thanks to its carefully timed resurrection,
11:07
Speaker 2: that number will grow exponentially, which raises an interesting question.
11:12
Speaker 1: Who brought it back?
11:14
Speaker 2: Presumably someone who thought these comments could damage Pauline Hanson,
11:18
Speaker 2: and presumably they thought they could damage her because the
11:21
Speaker 2: comments might offend Aboriginal Australians. Well, that creates a rather
11:26
Speaker 2: awkward contradiction, does it not? If your primary concern is
11:30
Speaker 2: protecting Aboriginal people from offensive comments, why would you take
11:34
Speaker 2: an obscure interview heard by a couple of hundred people
11:38
Speaker 2: and give it an audience of potentially millions? Why turn
11:41
Speaker 2: a forgotten insult into a national broadcast? You could leave
11:44
Speaker 2: it buried, but instead you dig it up, dust it off.
11:48
Speaker 1: And hand it a megaphone.
11:50
Speaker 2: So perhaps the objective isn't really to protect Aboriginal Australians
11:54
Speaker 2: from being offended. Maybe the objective is to make sure
11:58
Speaker 2: as many Aboriginal Australians and everyone else gets the opportunity
12:01
Speaker 2: to be offended. Because there's a difference between caring about
12:05
Speaker 2: someone's feelings and and weaponising their feelings against your political opponent.
12:10
Speaker 2: And if the latter is what's happening here, then Aboriginal
12:14
Speaker 2: Australians aren't being protected from political exploitation. They're being recruited
12:19
Speaker 2: into it. I suspect Aboriginal hurt over these comments is
12:24
Speaker 2: not the concern.
12:25
Speaker 1: No, no. It's the ammunition.
12:31
Speaker 2: Well, joining me now is the political panel, former Liberal
12:34
Speaker 2: Senator Holly Hughes, who's now with One Nation, and former
12:37
Speaker 2: New South Wales Liberal Minister David Elliott.
12:39
Speaker 1: Welcome to you both. Holly, I'll start with you. Is
12:43
Speaker 1: it worth crashing the economy to reset immigration numbers?
12:47
Speaker 3: What I couldn't get over, both Jane Hume and Murray
12:49
Speaker 3: Watt saying, this will send us into a recession. We
12:53
Speaker 3: have been in a per capita recession for years.
12:57
Speaker 9: These people are living on an alternate planet.
13:00
Speaker 3: To the rest of Australians who are consistently finding their
13:03
Speaker 3: standard of living drop.
13:05
Speaker 9: It is getting.
13:06
Speaker 3: Tougher and tougher to put groceries on the table, keep
13:09
Speaker 3: the lights on, pay the kids' school fees.
13:12
Speaker 9: Pay for the excursions and the new shoes and the.
13:14
Speaker 3: Doctor's appointments and the medicines, that is where Australians are at.
13:19
Speaker 3: We are everything but a recession by name, and that
13:22
Speaker 3: is only because Labor is fudging the numbers, as you
13:25
Speaker 3: rightly pointed out, by bringing in all.
13:28
Speaker 9: Of these migrants.
13:30
Speaker 3: It's just so obvious that the uni party, those two
13:35
Speaker 3: parties that seem to be so arrogant that they are
13:38
Speaker 3: the only possible party's government... that they have nothing of
13:43
Speaker 3: their own to offer except attacks and smears.
13:47
Speaker 2: Well, David, how much pressure does this put on Labor
13:50
Speaker 2: now to come up with genuine immigration cuts?
13:53
Speaker 1: I mean, we're still waiting for their policy.
13:56
Speaker 11: Well, I've got two words for the Labor Party when
13:57
Speaker 11: it comes to immigration policy, and that is secret harbour.
14:01
Speaker 11: It's proof positive that by-election result that the traditional conservative
14:06
Speaker 11: working-class Labor people are sick to death. of being forced
14:10
Speaker 11: out of markets, forced out of the, as Holly mentioned,
14:12
Speaker 11: about the groceries, forced out of the real estate market,
14:15
Speaker 11: potentially forced out of the jobs market. I have a
14:18
Speaker 11: little bit of a different view, though, on the numbers.
14:20
Speaker 11: I'm kind of agnostic when it comes to the numbers
14:22
Speaker 11: that are coming in. And I heard the commentary before
14:25
Speaker 11: about political slogans. I actually liked what Angus said about
14:29
Speaker 11: the numbers are too high. Yeah, whatever, they might be.
14:31
Speaker 11: but the quality is too low. My strong view is
14:35
Speaker 11: that if you get the right number of people into
14:37
Speaker 11: the right parts of Australia with the right qualifications, this
14:40
Speaker 11: will be good for the economy. And I think that
14:42
Speaker 11: if you go out to Griffith, where I'm going tomorrow,
14:46
Speaker 11: if you go out to Dubbo, to Woomba, you're going
14:48
Speaker 11: to find businesses and mayors who are going to be saying, listen,
14:51
Speaker 11: I don't know why you're so opposed to immigration because
14:53
Speaker 11: I'm desperate for people out here. It's the ones in
14:55
Speaker 11: Western Sydney and the outer suburbs of Melbourne that are
14:58
Speaker 11: saying we cannot put up with any more numbers. So
15:01
Speaker 11: I think we need a national debate about who comes
15:03
Speaker 11: in with what qualifications. We need the post-war immigrants that
15:06
Speaker 11: came out and built Snowy River and built those houses
15:09
Speaker 11: that they now live in, and they built our kids'
15:10
Speaker 11: houses as well. And then, of course, make sure that
15:13
Speaker 11: we highlight to the Department of Immigration and the Commonwealth
15:17
Speaker 11: that they really need to get strict and definitive about
15:20
Speaker 11: where the immigrants go, because there are certainly parts of
15:23
Speaker 11: Sydney and Melbourne and Brisbane that are going to vote
15:26
Speaker 11: One Nation purely because the other political parties have failed
15:29
Speaker 11: to be able to identify the quantity as well as
15:34
Speaker 11: the quality of immigrant that we're getting.
15:37
Speaker 2: Holly, the other interesting thing we're observing at the moment
15:40
Speaker 2: is whatever you think of One Nation, and obviously you
15:43
Speaker 2: are One Nation, but whatever people watching think of One Nation,
15:46
Speaker 2: and there'll be a variety of opinions, they are setting.
15:49
Speaker 1: The political agenda, which is quite extraordinary, really, isn't it?
15:53
Speaker 3: Well, it is, and it's because, I mean, really, I
15:56
Speaker 3: think today was almost an own goal with the podcast
15:59
Speaker 3: that they've reflected on 12 months later. If I was
16:03
Speaker 3: Senator Malindiri McCarthy, I would be embarrassed that she has
16:07
Speaker 3: not been to Port Hedland after the reports of child
16:10
Speaker 3: abuse that have been occurring and were reported on the weekend.
16:13
Speaker 3: I would be embarrassed that Senator McCarthy has done absolutely
16:18
Speaker 3: nothing to protect children that we know are being harmed
16:21
Speaker 3: in camps and we saw the most devastating.
16:24
Speaker 9: Outcome of that only earlier this year.
16:27
Speaker 3: The Indigenous industry that we know has failed Indigenous Australians
16:32
Speaker 3: for decades is something that this Labor government and the
16:37
Speaker 3: Greens stood in the way of any inquiry into when
16:41
Speaker 3: I was in the Senate because this money is going into,
16:45
Speaker 3: you know, possibly the pockets of the few. It's certainly
16:48
Speaker 3: not helping the many. And the fact that children are
16:52
Speaker 3: being left at risk because of some cultural ideology I
16:56
Speaker 3: find absolutely disgusting and disgraceful. But the reality is every
17:01
Speaker 3: time they bring these things out, look, isn't she a bigot?
17:04
Speaker 3: Isn't she divisive? Isn't Pauline racist? They're also saying it
17:08
Speaker 3: about every single One Nation person and One Nation supporter.
17:11
Speaker 9: So, quite frankly, they can bring out.
17:13
Speaker 3: Pauline's kindergarten scrapbook next because I'm sure that's where they're
17:17
Speaker 3: going every time Pauline shows them up in a policy
17:20
Speaker 3: side again that they're caught flat-footed on, but she will
17:25
Speaker 3: start the conversation because for too long, and I'll say
17:28
Speaker 3: it again, The Uni Party have arrogantly thought that they
17:31
Speaker 3: are just entitled to government without ever being challenged. And
17:36
Speaker 3: we need to get back to the basics, particularly when
17:38
Speaker 3: it comes to Indigenous affairs in this country.
17:41
Speaker 2: Well, I sure hope we don't end up seeing Pauline
17:43
Speaker 2: Hanson's childhood scrapbook. We'll hopefully just leave that to the side.
17:47
Speaker 2: I want to talk to you about petrol because all
17:50
Speaker 2: of us are struggling to fill up our vehicles at
17:52
Speaker 2: the moment, unless you own an EV. Labor's reportedly pondering
17:55
Speaker 2: fresh cuts to the fuel excise because of the conflict
17:58
Speaker 2: in the Middle East. as it continues to intensify. A
18:02
Speaker 2: senior Labor source has told The Australian the government is
18:05
Speaker 2: contemplating the cuts because it fears fuel prices could soar
18:09
Speaker 2: back to their previous peak of $ 2. 60 a litre for
18:11
Speaker 2: petrol and $ 3. 27 per litre for diesel. On the other hand,
18:16
Speaker 2: economists are warning that if we cut the excise, it's
18:18
Speaker 2: going to put more upward pressure on inflation. David, I'll
18:22
Speaker 2: go to you on this one. Cut or not cut
18:24
Speaker 2: the excise?
18:25
Speaker 1: Well, we've got to cut.
18:26
Speaker 11: And if anybody thinks that not cutting is going to
18:31
Speaker 11: create inflation, they haven't read year seven commerce textbooks, because
18:36
Speaker 11: what's going to create inflation is the increase in the
18:39
Speaker 11: grocery bills, the increase in transport costs in a country
18:42
Speaker 11: that relies heavily on transportation to to maintain a circular
18:48
Speaker 11: flow of income. So I'm quite, it is without doubt
18:53
Speaker 11: the most important economic decision that this government's got to
18:55
Speaker 11: make in the next three to six months. We're heading
18:58
Speaker 11: into the Christmas season, which means that consumption levels are
19:01
Speaker 11: high anyway. You add on top of that high economic
19:07
Speaker 11: activity the extra cost of transportation, the extra cost of fuel.
19:11
Speaker 11: You're going to find families cancelling holidays. You're going to
19:14
Speaker 11: find families and businesses reducing their expenditure and particularly their
19:19
Speaker 11: discretionary expenditure. that's going to be a disaster, an absolute disaster.
19:23
Speaker 11: So I don't know why they suspended it in the
19:28
Speaker 11: first place two months ago, because, you know, it certainly
19:32
Speaker 11: was a very popular thing politically, but it was also
19:35
Speaker 11: a good indication that the government has got a tin
19:38
Speaker 11: ear when it comes to the cost of living crisis
19:40
Speaker 11: facing families.
19:42
Speaker 2: All right, before I let you go, the latest Resolve
19:45
Speaker 2: poll in the Nine Papers today has revealed voters are
19:47
Speaker 2: gripped with fear over Labor's handling... of the economy, so
19:51
Speaker 2: maybe the economy's starting to bite. 74% of voters worried
19:57
Speaker 2: about federal debt levels and 48% saying the government needs
20:01
Speaker 2: to slash spending. Labor's primary vote remained the same as
20:05
Speaker 2: in last month's poll, but both One Nation and the
20:08
Speaker 2: Coalition have risen by 1%. support for the Greens and
20:11
Speaker 2: independents slipping slightly. Holly, concern about the economy probably feeds
20:16
Speaker 2: into the point I made in my editorial earlier that
20:19
Speaker 2: people are going to believe the government's warnings about what
20:22
Speaker 2: One Nation might do to the economy or not be
20:25
Speaker 2: so attentive to them when they believe the government are
20:28
Speaker 2: already messing up the economy.
20:30
Speaker 9: The government has messed up the economy, end of story.
20:32
Speaker 3: Remember $ 275 was coming off your electricity bill?
20:35
Speaker 9: Instead, they've tripled.
20:37
Speaker 3: This is a government who we've seen things like insurance
20:40
Speaker 3: and energy.
20:40
Speaker 9: Costs go through the roof.
20:42
Speaker 3: So businesses are going under, not necessarily because of costs
20:45
Speaker 3: of staff, because of costs of good, but because of
20:48
Speaker 3: all of those external factors that they can't do anything about.
20:51
Speaker 3: The over-regulation, the fact that we have three levels of
20:54
Speaker 3: government and that is crawling small business across the country.
20:57
Speaker 9: And, of course, that flows on right through the economy.
21:00
Speaker 3: The majority of Australians work for small businesses and they
21:03
Speaker 3: will see that hours are going to be cut, businesses
21:05
Speaker 3: are shutting down. Australians are not stupid. When they feel
21:08
Speaker 3: it in their hip pocket, they know exactly who's at
21:12
Speaker 3: fault when they look at a government who is addicted
21:14
Speaker 3: to spending and just cannot seem to stop them.
21:18
Speaker 2: Well, Australians aren't stupid either because they've got ears and eyes.
21:22
Speaker 2: According to this poll, 57% of Australians say they don't
21:26
Speaker 2: trust the Albanese government.
21:28
Speaker 1: Only 26% say they do. The rest, 17%, aren't sure.
21:33
Speaker 2: David, that much distrust in the electorate, that's a major
21:38
Speaker 2: problem just generally, isn't it?
21:39
Speaker 1: Well, it is, and it's not healthy.
21:41
Speaker 11: It's not healthy by any stretch of the imagination because
21:43
Speaker 11: those that want to do our economy harm, particularly foreign
21:48
Speaker 11: people that want to interfere from overseas, they'll be looking
21:50
Speaker 11: at this and looking at how vulnerable we are, where
21:53
Speaker 11: we're vulnerable. I'm struggling to find in my 56 years
21:57
Speaker 11: a time when a Commonwealth government had mishandled the economy
22:00
Speaker 11: so badly, and I think we're seeing... I think we're
22:03
Speaker 11: seeing Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers take the mantle off
22:08
Speaker 11: Paul Keating and his record interest rates and unemployment. I
22:10
Speaker 11: think we've got to go back to the Whitlam government
22:14
Speaker 11: to find a time when the Commonwealth had mishandled the
22:16
Speaker 11: economy so much. It will take another Peter Costello, John
22:20
Speaker 11: Howard-type leadership team for us to... for the Coalition to
22:24
Speaker 11: bring us back into the black. It can be done.
22:27
Speaker 1: We've got a pretty.
22:28
Speaker 11: Robust economy, but those figures are absolutely devastating for the Commonwealth.
22:34
Speaker 11: And you watch, they'll start to now take some serious
22:37
Speaker 11: risks when it comes to public discourse. And, I mean,
22:40
Speaker 11: my only appeal is to them to find some people
22:42
Speaker 11: in their... in their caucus who do understand economics and
22:46
Speaker 11: put them in the leadership roles because I think we're
22:50
Speaker 11: marching into darkness at the moment.
22:52
Speaker 2: And on the issue of trust, when almost six in
22:54
Speaker 2: 10 Australians say, we don't believe anything this government says,
22:57
Speaker 2: I mean, you would hate for there to be an
22:59
Speaker 2: international crisis. that required action from Australia where we really
23:03
Speaker 2: had to trust our government because that currency is just
23:07
Speaker 2: not there right now and they've got only themselves to blame.
23:11
Speaker 2: Holly Hughes and David Elliott, thanks for your time this evening.
23:14
Speaker 2: We're going to go to a break. When we come back,
23:16
Speaker 2: shocking revelations that Labor is using a China-linked company to
23:20
Speaker 2: secure Australia's military bases, plus local Labor branches are pushing
23:24
Speaker 2: the Albanese government to adopt an even more extreme stance
23:28
Speaker 2: against Israel. Greg Sheridan will join me after this. Welcome
23:34
Speaker 2: back to the program. You might remember a story earlier
23:37
Speaker 2: in the year about our Defence Force bases being buzzed
23:41
Speaker 2: by drones. According to reports at the time, our soldiers
23:44
Speaker 2: were told to close the curtains on base to avoid
23:47
Speaker 2: the drones spying anything they shouldn't.
23:49
Speaker 1: It was quite the security measure. Well, here's the good news.
23:52
Speaker 2: It seems we've taken some steps to better protect our
23:55
Speaker 2: military bases from drones. The Albanese government has appointed a
23:59
Speaker 2: defence technology company to advise on security arrangements at military
24:03
Speaker 2: bases and for critical infrastructure.
24:06
Speaker 1: But here's the bad news.
24:08
Speaker 2: The bad news is that the Melbourne-based company has close
24:11
Speaker 2: links to China and its rebadged anti-drone system bears a
24:15
Speaker 2: close resemblance to one designed by a Chinese group. The
24:19
Speaker 2: appointment comes after revelations this same counter drone system is
24:22
Speaker 2: protecting Australia's main F-35A joint strike fighter base. Joining me
24:28
Speaker 2: now is foreign editor of The Australian, Greg Sheridan. Greg,
24:32
Speaker 2: what do you make of these revelations and how concerned
24:36
Speaker 2: should we be?
24:38
Speaker 12: Well, James, great to be with you. Look, I think
24:40
Speaker 12: this is a very concerning story. We don't know for
24:44
Speaker 12: sure that there's something wrong, but we don't know for
24:47
Speaker 12: sure that there's not something wrong. And the government and
24:50
Speaker 12: defence are doing their usual trick of not giving us
24:54
Speaker 12: any information at all. Now, this company seems to be
24:58
Speaker 12: rebadging Chinese technology. We don't know that for sure, but
25:03
Speaker 12: that seems to be the implication.
25:05
Speaker 9: Now, it is.
25:07
Speaker 12: If that's the case, it's insane. China should be nowhere
25:10
Speaker 12: in the supply chain for critical military technology we're using
25:15
Speaker 12: to protect our most important combat assets, our F-35s, because
25:21
Speaker 12: we all know that Chinese designed and built equipment can
25:26
Speaker 12: have backdoors, which allows China to use them for surveillance,
25:32
Speaker 12: or can have a kill function, which allows China to
25:35
Speaker 12: kill them and stop them from working, or can have
25:38
Speaker 12: functions which allow Chinese agents to take them over. Now,
25:41
Speaker 12: none of that may apply in this case. There may
25:44
Speaker 12: be good answers to all the problems that have been
25:46
Speaker 12: raised here, but defence and the government have told us nothing,
25:50
Speaker 12: and given their abysmal performance over the years, We cannot
25:55
Speaker 12: just take that silence as reassurance.
25:58
Speaker 2: Well, I was going to say you would think if
26:00
Speaker 2: the government are sure there is no issue, they would
26:02
Speaker 2: immediately come out and say there is no issue. What
26:06
Speaker 2: does it tell you that we're not completely sure? And
26:09
Speaker 2: it seems they're not either. It hardly gives you confidence
26:12
Speaker 2: in the decisions they're making about our national security.
26:16
Speaker 12: Well, that's absolutely right, James. In a sense, they've said
26:19
Speaker 12: there is no issue, but they haven't given us any
26:21
Speaker 12: explanation or evidence about this. So my colleagues at The
26:24
Speaker 12: Australian submitted very, very detailed questions and got a two-line
26:28
Speaker 12: response saying everything is in order. It's all been done
26:31
Speaker 12: according to defence procedures. Well, defence procedures have given us
26:36
Speaker 12: nothing but a catalogue of failures and budget blowouts and
26:40
Speaker 12: incapable capabilities and messes and equipment which has to be
26:44
Speaker 12: ditched and Chinese penetration of supply chains. So that's not
26:49
Speaker 12: reassuring at all. What they need to give us is
26:51
Speaker 12: chapter and verse. of what tests were undertaken, how they've
26:56
Speaker 12: achieved assurances that this is not Chinese compromised technology. Now,
27:01
Speaker 12: we know that in a lot of defence applications, the
27:05
Speaker 12: government has had to rip out Chinese technology in the past.
27:08
Speaker 12: So far from acquiring stuff properly, they've had to rip
27:12
Speaker 12: out Chinese cameras and the like. from defence facilities. Now,
27:17
Speaker 12: we have a burgeoning drone industry in Australia which sells
27:22
Speaker 12: drones to Ukraine, but has a great deal of trouble
27:25
Speaker 12: selling them to the Australian government. It seems to me
27:28
Speaker 12: passing strange that to make even the most limited pitiful
27:34
Speaker 12: efforts at self-defence of our most precious defence assets, it
27:39
Speaker 12: seems that we may be using equipment which has a
27:43
Speaker 12: critical Chinese element in the supply chain. We don't know
27:47
Speaker 12: that for sure because Defence hasn't told us, but we
27:50
Speaker 12: need chapter and verse on this to feel any reassurance.
27:54
Speaker 1: It's an absolutely incredible story.
27:57
Speaker 2: Greg, what do you make of Western nations, the UK, France,
28:00
Speaker 2: Canada in particular, accusing or putting sanctions on Israeli settlements
28:06
Speaker 2: in the West Bank where they accuse the Israelis of
28:08
Speaker 2: ethnic cleansing? And second to that, what do you think
28:11
Speaker 2: about the push within the Labor Party for Australia to
28:14
Speaker 2: apply similar sanctions despite the idea pushed by Ed Husick
28:18
Speaker 2: being shut down at the Labor conference earlier in the year?
28:21
Speaker 12: Well, this is very disturbing, James, and it is a
28:24
Speaker 12: sign of the burgeoning crisis of anti-Semitism throughout the West. Look,
28:28
Speaker 12: Israel is not perfect. No nation in the world is perfect.
28:31
Speaker 12: It's like no human being. And after the terrible atrocities
28:37
Speaker 12: of the Hamas massacres, Israel has reacted in a pretty
28:41
Speaker 12: tough way, and you can't blame them. I mean, proportionally,
28:43
Speaker 12: they had much more people killed than the United States
28:47
Speaker 12: had on 9-11, and look how the United States reacted
28:50
Speaker 12: to that. So there is room for legitimate criticism of
28:53
Speaker 12: some Israeli actions. But the idea that this rises to sanctions.
28:58
Speaker 12: So have all these center-left governments put sanctions on China
29:02
Speaker 12: because of its treatment of Tibet and the Uyghur minority?
29:07
Speaker 12: Have they had boo to say about what seems to
29:11
Speaker 12: be a genuine genocide in Sudan? This is the most
29:15
Speaker 12: massive double standards and hypocrisy. Now, The Albanese government, as ever,
29:21
Speaker 12: is caught in a conflict of disloyalties and cowardice. And
29:24
Speaker 12: it didn't let Ed Huzik's maximal anti-Israel resolution go through
29:29
Speaker 12: the national conference, presumably because it was so embarrassed about
29:33
Speaker 12: the staggering level of anti-Semitism which has grown up in
29:37
Speaker 12: Australia under the Albanese government. But it never makes an
29:41
Speaker 12: argument in principle for anything. So no one in the
29:44
Speaker 12: Albanese government ever says a single word in defence of
29:48
Speaker 12: Israel in principle. And the rank and file of the
29:52
Speaker 12: Labor Party have become haters of Israel. And this hatred
29:56
Speaker 12: of demonisation of Israel is one millimetre away from rank anti-Semitism.
30:03
Speaker 12: The government provides no leadership on this at all. And tragically,
30:08
Speaker 12: across the West, Israel has lost the centre-left parties. This
30:12
Speaker 12: is a great victory for Hamas. This is a great
30:15
Speaker 12: victory for murderous, sick terrorism that they have turned the
30:19
Speaker 12: world against Israel after conducting a massive massacre of Israeli civilians.
30:26
Speaker 12: And of course, if you're looking for moral leadership from
30:29
Speaker 12: the Albanese government on this, you've just come to the
30:31
Speaker 12: wrong address.
30:32
Speaker 2: Well, Greg Sheridan, it's always great to get your insights
30:36
Speaker 2: and I really appreciate you joining me this evening.
30:38
Speaker 1: Thanks so much.
30:40
Speaker 4: Thanks, James.
30:41
Speaker 2: Alright, coming up after the break, more reaction to Pauline
30:44
Speaker 2: Hanson's comments about Aboriginal Australians, including from the Indigenous Affairs
30:49
Speaker 2: Minister who calls them racist. But that same Indigenous Affairs
30:53
Speaker 2: Minister was unable to tell journalists what actions she'd taken
30:57
Speaker 2: in response to reports that up to 15 Aboriginal children
31:01
Speaker 2: as young as five were being left unsupervised in squalid conditions.
31:06
Speaker 1: My panel is next.
31:11
Speaker 2: Well, Pauline Hanson has been severely criticised over the past
31:14
Speaker 2: week for calling Andrew Hastie a traitor, for criticising the
31:17
Speaker 2: PM's mum, and today for comments about Indigenous culture.
31:21
Speaker 1: She's nasty, we're told.
31:23
Speaker 2: Well, we'll get onto all of that in a moment,
31:25
Speaker 2: but I wonder if all of those having a shot
31:28
Speaker 2: at Pauline Hanson for things she said will say boo
31:31
Speaker 2: about this remark in the Senate today from Sarah Hanson-Young.
31:36
Speaker 5: Well, they say if you want a friend in politics,
31:38
Speaker 5: get a dog.
31:40
Speaker 13: But it seems as though for the leader of One Nation,
31:43
Speaker 13: Pauline Hanson, get a Gina.
31:47
Speaker 1: Get a dog or a Gina, as in Gina Reinhardt. Wow.
31:51
Speaker 1: I think we all know how Canberra works.
31:53
Speaker 2: That particularly tasteless remark will probably go unremarked. But as
31:57
Speaker 2: for Pauline Hanson, well, she's dismissed Aboriginal culture, suggesting on
32:01
Speaker 2: a podcast recorded last year that Aboriginal culture hasn't produced
32:05
Speaker 2: much beyond a few rock paintings.
32:08
Speaker 7: They're the most primitive race on earth. And we're supposed
32:12
Speaker 7: to be holding up and saying what they've achieved.
32:14
Speaker 9: They've achieved nothing.
32:17
Speaker 2: As you can imagine, there was a fairly swift response
32:19
Speaker 2: from Indigenous Affairs Minister Melindiri McCarthy.
32:24
Speaker 8: I certainly feel for First Nations people in regards to
32:27
Speaker 8: the comments made by Senator Hanson. It's totally outrageous, completely racist,
32:34
Speaker 8: but it also divides our country in a way that
32:37
Speaker 8: we do not want to see. happen right here in Australia.
32:40
Speaker 8: There is rich history in this country and you only
32:42
Speaker 8: have to travel to places like the Great Barrier Reef,
32:46
Speaker 8: to Cape York, to see incredible cultural significance, dance, songs
32:52
Speaker 8: and stories. But that's just one part of Australia. The
32:56
Speaker 8: rest of the country is rich with First Nations culture.
33:00
Speaker 2: And meanwhile, Liberal Senator Jacinta Nampajimpa Price responded on Instagram
33:04
Speaker 2: to Pauline Hanson's comments. She wrote, all decent Australians I'm
33:08
Speaker 2: sure would condemn such comments and would rightfully be shocked
33:12
Speaker 2: that they came from the leader of a political party.
33:15
Speaker 2: Some of the issues raised by Pauline Hanson are serious debates,
33:18
Speaker 2: many of which I've been very vocal about.
33:20
Speaker 1: But yet again, Senator.
33:21
Speaker 2: Hanson has dragged the conversation into appalling territory. Senator Hanson's
33:27
Speaker 2: statement asking what the hell have they done in this
33:29
Speaker 2: country is a demonstration of willful ignorance on her part
33:33
Speaker 2: and reveals her complete failure to understand Australia's First Peoples.
33:38
Speaker 2: Joining me now is News24. com. au afternoon editor James Bolt and
33:42
Speaker 2: News24 host Danika DiGiorgio. All right, interesting to unpack this. James,
33:49
Speaker 2: I'll start with you. Does cultural critique... equal racism or
33:53
Speaker 2: can you be critical of another culture without being a racist?
33:56
Speaker 14: You can, but that's not what Pauline Anselm was doing there.
33:59
Speaker 14: That was just a hateful attack out of absolutely nowhere
34:02
Speaker 14: and extremely mean-spirited. I mean, look, she posted the video
34:05
Speaker 14: on X going, well, everyone just look at what I
34:08
Speaker 14: said in full. I saw what she said in full.
34:10
Speaker 14: That was a conversation about cross-cultural priorities in the Australian curriculum. Now,
34:16
Speaker 14: there's a million decent ways you can have that debate
34:18
Speaker 14: without saying what Pauline Anson has said there about primitive, which,
34:21
Speaker 14: by the way, isn't true. I'm a big nerd right now.
34:23
Speaker 14: I'm reading a book on the Belgian occupation of the Congo.
34:26
Speaker 14: We have been discovering Stone Age civilisations up until the 1900s.
34:30
Speaker 14: We're still discovering them today. And as far as primitive goes,
34:32
Speaker 14: with the Western knowledge of what that word goes, give
34:35
Speaker 14: me Indigenous culture any day over ritualistic human sacrifice or cannibalism,
34:39
Speaker 14: as we've seen around the world. I just think it
34:41
Speaker 14: was disgusting comments. It just completely derails any other good
34:44
Speaker 14: points she makes. And you can have cultural criticism, but
34:46
Speaker 14: those kind of comments are just beyond the pale.
34:48
Speaker 2: I don't want to get too much into the primitive comments,
34:50
Speaker 2: although I would say it seems to me that's quite
34:53
Speaker 2: a subjective statement. It depends on what you're comparing with what.
34:58
Speaker 2: Is there a double standard, though, Danika, because you criticise
35:03
Speaker 2: Indigenous culture? And I agree with you, James. I thought
35:06
Speaker 2: it's typically the way with Pauline Hanson. It's often not
35:09
Speaker 2: just what she says, it's the way it comes out. But, gee,
35:13
Speaker 2: if you say anything about Western culture, Danika, no-one bats
35:16
Speaker 2: an eyelid at all.
35:17
Speaker 1: You can say whatever you want.
35:18
Speaker 2: In fact, we've got university classes dedicated to trashing white
35:23
Speaker 2: European culture.
35:24
Speaker 15: Yeah, and this is what bothers me the most, the
35:25
Speaker 15: double standards. So, you know, we're racist because we love
35:28
Speaker 15: our country. We're racist if we want to talk about migration.
35:31
Speaker 15: We're racist if we fly the Australian flag.
35:33
Speaker 1: But then when you.
35:34
Speaker 15: And bear in mind, we're also a country based on
35:36
Speaker 15: Judeo-Christian values and we are a Western liberal democracy. So
35:40
Speaker 15: it's OK for the left, it's OK for universities, the
35:43
Speaker 15: left-wing media, left-wing institutions to attack that culture. But as
35:48
Speaker 15: soon as somebody talks about another culture... then, no, well,
35:51
Speaker 15: you can't say that that's racist or that's disrespectful. Now,
35:55
Speaker 15: I've said this many times on this network, that Pauline
35:58
Speaker 15: Hanson I don't think thinks before she speaks sometimes and
36:00
Speaker 15: sometimes she just comes out very bluntly with maybe what
36:03
Speaker 15: she's saying and I don't think it comes out right.
36:06
Speaker 15: But I don't think that it is fair that if
36:09
Speaker 15: we're willing to dish out on Western culture... well, you
36:11
Speaker 15: can't just clutch at your pearls every time.
36:14
Speaker 10: The shoe is on the other foot.
36:16
Speaker 15: And that is what bothers me about the double standards
36:18
Speaker 15: that we've got right around the world. This isn't just
36:20
Speaker 15: an issue pertaining to Australia. Right around the world right
36:23
Speaker 15: now with different issues and different cultures, no, we better
36:26
Speaker 15: not go there because, you know, somebody might be offended.
36:29
Speaker 2: Just pulling out from the Pauline Hanson comments and talking
36:32
Speaker 2: more broadly... I mean, in the UK, there's been a
36:35
Speaker 2: debate about first cousin marriage. And a lot of people
36:39
Speaker 2: say we shouldn't talk about it because, you know, it's
36:41
Speaker 2: a cultural issue and there's sensitivities It's funny how I
36:46
Speaker 2: guess we have moral relativism where what's right for me
36:49
Speaker 2: might not be right for you. And so neither of
36:51
Speaker 2: us can say anything is right or wrong. It's just
36:53
Speaker 2: personal opinion. If you start with moral relativism, you're going
36:57
Speaker 2: to end up with cultural relativism, which then means you
37:00
Speaker 2: can't say this is right or wrong about another culture.
37:03
Speaker 2: So everything comes down to people's feelings, doesn't it?
37:06
Speaker 14: I just think you can say those things. You can
37:08
Speaker 14: have meaningful debates and, you know, respectful debates where we
37:11
Speaker 14: talk about some parts of other cultures which we don't
37:14
Speaker 14: agree with, some parts of our culture that others don't
37:16
Speaker 14: agree with. You can have respectful debates, frank debates, hard
37:19
Speaker 14: debates on that, but to say that comments like Hanson's
37:23
Speaker 14: there belong in that debate and should be treated just
37:26
Speaker 14: as similar as, you know, comments we have here on
37:28
Speaker 14: News 24 all the time... I mean, that just degrades
37:30
Speaker 14: us by association. So if we can't say that Hanson's
37:33
Speaker 14: comments are beyond the pay, we can't really have those
37:34
Speaker 14: debates because we'd be lumped in with that.
37:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course. Well, again, going more broadly... Yeah.
37:42
Speaker 2: isn' t critiquing culture, not rudely, not disrespectfully, but being able
37:47
Speaker 2: to speak honestly about what's good about a culture or
37:50
Speaker 2: what you don't like about a culture, I mean, that's
37:53
Speaker 2: how you reject the bad you... take up the good,
37:56
Speaker 2: that's how you progress and move forward as a civilisation,
37:59
Speaker 2: is it not?
38:00
Speaker 10: Well, that's what you would think, right?
38:01
Speaker 15: I mean, you look at Australia, for example, we are
38:04
Speaker 15: a multicultural society. Now, I would argue that there was
38:08
Speaker 15: a point of time where multiculturalism did work in this country. However, in,
38:13
Speaker 15: you know, recent decades... The more people that we have
38:16
Speaker 15: let in from cultures who are incompatible with ours, incompatible
38:20
Speaker 15: with a Western democracy, it has changed our fundamental culture. Now,
38:24
Speaker 15: it is important for us now in 2026 to start
38:28
Speaker 15: having these conversations about the types of people we're letting
38:31
Speaker 15: into this country and where they have come from. And
38:33
Speaker 15: with that does come criticism of... other people's culture. Now,
38:38
Speaker 15: that is what whatever they want to do in their
38:39
Speaker 15: own country, they can do. It doesn't necessarily mean it's
38:42
Speaker 15: going to work in our country.
38:44
Speaker 1: But we see this. We've been talking.
38:46
Speaker 15: About migration today off the back of Pauline Hanson's comments.
38:49
Speaker 15: If we don't start having the tough conversations now, James,
38:53
Speaker 15: when are we going to have them? You just spoke
38:55
Speaker 15: about the United Kingdom. The UK is buggered. They are
38:59
Speaker 15: absolutely buggered. We don't want to end up like that
39:02
Speaker 15: if we already are down that track. So, yes, we
39:06
Speaker 15: should have the right to criticise other people's cultures and
39:08
Speaker 15: that doesn't make us racist and it doesn't make us offensive.
39:11
Speaker 1: It means we believe in our own values.
39:14
Speaker 2: Alright, let me get back to the Indigenous Affairs Minister.
39:16
Speaker 2: She addressed the media about Pauline Hanson's hurtful comments and
39:20
Speaker 2: after she'd finished, journalists asked about reports over the weekend
39:23
Speaker 2: that up to 15 Aboriginal kids as young as five
39:27
Speaker 2: were being left unsupervised in squalid conditions. as well as
39:30
Speaker 2: reports of rape and violence in the West Australian town
39:33
Speaker 2: of Port Hedland.
39:36
Speaker 8: I certainly read those stories on the weekend in The
39:38
Speaker 8: Australian and deeply disturbing and incredibly difficult reading. But I
39:45
Speaker 8: am reaching out to the West Australian government as well
39:48
Speaker 8: to see what is going on in West Australia and
39:50
Speaker 8: I'm happy to keep you across that.
39:52
Speaker 12: Have you already reached out to them?
39:54
Speaker 8: I will be doing that. Well, let me get through
39:57
Speaker 8: this first and I'll be in touch with you.
40:00
Speaker 2: It was that last statement, James, let me get through
40:03
Speaker 2: panning Pauline Hanson for hurtful words and then I'll make
40:07
Speaker 2: some inquiries as to what's happening to Indigenous kids in
40:10
Speaker 2: Port Hedland.
40:11
Speaker 1: Is that problematic? It is problematic.
40:14
Speaker 14: And, look, this gets into, you know, the voice and
40:17
Speaker 14: stuff like the treaty, stuff like that, which is when
40:19
Speaker 14: left-wing politicians get to get up on a pedestal and go, well,
40:22
Speaker 14: I'm standing against racism, therefore I'm the friend of Indigenous people,
40:25
Speaker 14: while all these horrible stories keep on coming out from
40:27
Speaker 14: Western Australia. I know I keep on bringing up the
40:29
Speaker 14: Pauline Hanson comments and the Ra White issues here, but
40:31
Speaker 14: this is exactly what the problem is in that people
40:34
Speaker 14: like Malindra E. McCarthy and other leaders today get on
40:37
Speaker 14: a pulpit and go, how dare Hanson, how dare she
40:40
Speaker 14: say those things? Indigenous Australians should, you know, reject those
40:43
Speaker 14: kind of thoughts. And we're not having those... Look, we
40:45
Speaker 14: are having this conversation on media, that's good, and we should,
40:48
Speaker 14: but every other network is right now talking about Hanson's
40:51
Speaker 14: comments when they could be talking about that story, but unfortunately,
40:53
Speaker 14: because of Hanson, we're all distracted.
40:55
Speaker 15: Well, Melandiri McCarthy didn't seem to want to be talking
40:58
Speaker 15: about that.
40:59
Speaker 10: Isn't that the problem?
41:00
Speaker 15: Isn't that the exact problem that you're saying here, James?
41:04
Speaker 15: I mean, she didn't want to talk about it. If
41:06
Speaker 15: she did, why wasn't she on a plane there to
41:07
Speaker 15: Port Hedland? Why isn't she over there right now dealing
41:10
Speaker 15: with it? So, I mean, I understand your point and
41:12
Speaker 15: I get what you're saying, but the point is we've
41:14
Speaker 15: got to look at these left-wing politicians as well because
41:17
Speaker 15: they are three-quarters of the issue here that we're dealing
41:19
Speaker 15: with because she should have been on a plane today
41:21
Speaker 15: instead of just standing in front of the camera going,
41:23
Speaker 15: Pauline this, Pauline that.
41:24
Speaker 1: There's bigger issues at play. Yep, very good point.
41:27
Speaker 2: Alright, James Bolt, Danica DiGiorgio, appreciate both of you coming
41:30
Speaker 2: on the program.
41:30
Speaker 1: We're going to go to a break.
41:32
Speaker 2: When we come back, could Andy Burnham be the last
41:35
Speaker 2: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom? Well, he will be
41:38
Speaker 2: if the Scots, the Irish and the Welsh have their way.
41:41
Speaker 2: They're demanding their independence.
41:42
Speaker 1: That's next.
41:46
Speaker 2: Well, Great Britain has existed as the United Kingdom for
41:49
Speaker 2: more than 300 years.
41:51
Speaker 1: It's endured the Napoleonic.
41:52
Speaker 2: Wars, it's survived world wars, Brexit and more recently the
41:56
Speaker 2: COVID-19 pandemic. But in 2026, well, the United Kingdom faces
42:01
Speaker 2: another hurdle. Tonight, at an unprecedented summit in Cardiff, the
42:06
Speaker 2: First Ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will meet
42:10
Speaker 2: to sign a joint declaration demanding the right to hold
42:14
Speaker 2: independence referendums. So are we about to witness the breakup
42:19
Speaker 2: of the United Kingdom? Joining me now is the host
42:21
Speaker 2: of Triggered with Samara Gill on Talk TV, Samara Gill. Samara,
42:25
Speaker 2: there have been independence referendums before, but this one feels
42:30
Speaker 2: a little different.
42:31
Speaker 1: Would you agree?
42:33
Speaker 10: Yeah, no, I completely agree with you.
42:35
Speaker 13: I mean, for the first time, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland,
42:38
Speaker 13: they're all led by parties that actually do want to
42:41
Speaker 13: break away from the United Kingdom. So this isn't fringe
42:44
Speaker 13: politics anymore. This is kind of separatists actually running these
42:47
Speaker 13: governments and wanting... this partition to happen. I think it's
42:52
Speaker 13: really interesting. It is to explain to the Australian audience
42:55
Speaker 13: the equivalent of like the premiers of Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania,
43:00
Speaker 13: meeting at a five-star hotel in Canberra and sort of deciding.
43:03
Speaker 10: That their states want to be independent.
43:06
Speaker 13: So when we look at the constitutional reality of it,
43:09
Speaker 13: it's a little more complicated. But, you know, President Trump
43:12
Speaker 13: has weighed in. He said that he wants to see
43:15
Speaker 13: United Ireland over the weekend.
43:17
Speaker 10: That ruffled quite a few feathers, I can tell you
43:19
Speaker 10: that much.
43:20
Speaker 13: But you've got John Swinney, the SNP leader of the
43:23
Speaker 13: Scottish National Party, saying Burnham will face the idea, as
43:28
Speaker 13: you said, of being the last prime minister of the
43:30
Speaker 13: United Kingdom. And for me, that's a very scary thought,
43:33
Speaker 13: to be honest. Burnham's a big fan of devolution. He
43:36
Speaker 13: wants everyone to live their separate lives in separate parts of.
43:40
Speaker 10: The United Kingdom. But it hasn't gone well.
43:42
Speaker 13: When you look at Scotland and Wales, who have been
43:44
Speaker 13: quite separate from the UK, their education system, their health system,
43:50
Speaker 13: it is in a mess compared to how Britain is.
43:52
Speaker 13: And so this can't go well for anyone involved.
43:55
Speaker 2: Moving from the current British Prime Minister to a former PM,
43:59
Speaker 2: Boris Johnson was just two kilometres from the Polish-Ukrainian border
44:04
Speaker 2: when the train behind his was targeted by a Russian drone.
44:09
Speaker 2: Mr Johnson was returning from a security conference in Kiev
44:12
Speaker 2: where Western officials met with Zelensky's government to discuss possible
44:15
Speaker 2: peace negotiations with Russia. Thankfully, Ukrainian authorities confirmed there were
44:20
Speaker 2: no casualties among the the 200 or so passengers on
44:24
Speaker 2: the train. But Samara, these trains were only two Ks
44:27
Speaker 2: from the Polish border. That's awfully close to NATO territory.
44:32
Speaker 12: Isn't it?
44:34
Speaker 10: Very close.
44:34
Speaker 13: You know, I only smile because I just think of
44:37
Speaker 13: how goofy Boris is, even when he goes into these
44:39
Speaker 13: war zones. He's just sort of like a bull in
44:42
Speaker 13: a China shop, just going around and rattling his saber.
44:46
Speaker 13: But it is, you're right, he had a very, very
44:48
Speaker 13: lucky escape. And this was literally two kilometers from member
44:53
Speaker 13: NATO Poland. And it would have been a very different
44:55
Speaker 13: story if that drone had struck and A, killed a
44:58
Speaker 13: former prime minister.
44:59
Speaker 10: And then be struck into a NATO territory.
45:02
Speaker 13: We could be talking about World War III right now, genuinely.
45:06
Speaker 13: But I think we need to ask ourselves the question,
45:08
Speaker 13: you know, five years on, all these leaders keep saying
45:11
Speaker 13: Ukraine is going to win, we must win this, we
45:13
Speaker 13: will do anything to win it. You know, the Australian
45:16
Speaker 13: taxpayer has spent over $ 1. 6 billion into Ukraine, a territory
45:21
Speaker 13: that's very far from you guys. We spent tens of
45:24
Speaker 13: billions of dollars into Ukraine, and I'm not saying that
45:27
Speaker 13: they need that support. But we've got our own military,
45:30
Speaker 13: which our defense secretary had to resign over because we
45:33
Speaker 13: couldn't fund it properly. So I think there are questions
45:36
Speaker 13: that need to be posed about, yes, whether Russia is
45:39
Speaker 13: really reaching boiling point with how they are going at this,
45:42
Speaker 13: but also the fact that when are we going to
45:44
Speaker 13: reach peace? When is there going to be an agreement
45:46
Speaker 13: in place? According to Trump, it's just because the two
45:49
Speaker 13: men absolutely hate each other.
45:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean, you mentioned the money spent by
45:54
Speaker 2: the UK military. I read the other day, I think
45:56
Speaker 2: we talked about it last week, that sections of the
46:00
Speaker 2: UK military were told to stop training so they could
46:03
Speaker 2: save some dollars. So that never bodes well. Boris Johnson
46:07
Speaker 2: posted on X, the Ukrainians are going to win. That
46:10
Speaker 2: much was clear from the last three days in their
46:12
Speaker 2: wonderful country. but we will get this dreadful war over
46:16
Speaker 2: much faster if we all get serious and give them
46:18
Speaker 2: what they need and deserve. So I guess, Samara, the
46:22
Speaker 2: Brits can look forward to shelling out some more dollars
46:25
Speaker 2: to Ukraine. Before we go, because we're running out of time,
46:28
Speaker 2: I do have to ask you about Meghan and Harry.
46:31
Speaker 2: They just can't help themselves, can they? On the one hand,
46:34
Speaker 2: they want privacy, but on the other hand.
46:37
Speaker 1: They crave attention.
46:38
Speaker 2: So Megan has posted vision to her Instagram account of
46:42
Speaker 2: the family enjoying the British countryside. I think we've got
46:46
Speaker 2: some of that coming up on screen.
46:48
Speaker 1: There we go. It's amazing.
46:50
Speaker 2: They always seem to have cameras on hand to capture
46:53
Speaker 2: the back of their heads as they go about their business.
46:57
Speaker 13: Yeah, privacy now comes in portrait mode, doesn't it? I mean, honestly,
47:01
Speaker 13: it just looks dreary and underfunded from what I saw
47:04
Speaker 13: over the weekend on her social media.
47:06
Speaker 9: It looks depressing.
47:08
Speaker 10: It's not Sonny Montecito, that's for sure.
47:10
Speaker 13: And I think, honestly, nobody quite invades privacy like the
47:15
Speaker 13: Sussex invade their own. I mean, Megan is the biggest
47:19
Speaker 13: paparazzi in her own life and she needs to give
47:22
Speaker 13: it a rest. I mean, last time I checked, Britain
47:25
Speaker 13: was a colonial racist hellhole, according to her. And now
47:29
Speaker 13: it's sort of like this wonderful Dickensian existence that she
47:33
Speaker 13: wants to live and she wants to have tea and
47:36
Speaker 13: enjoy all that Britain has to offer.
47:38
Speaker 10: She's been spotted at the local Soho house, as we discussed.
47:41
Speaker 13: All roads lead back to Soho house. And she's fully
47:44
Speaker 13: assimilating back into the lifestyle as if she didn't spend
47:47
Speaker 13: the last six years with Harry trashing Britain's very existence.
47:52
Speaker 2: Well, it's funny you say that because, yeah, she did
47:54
Speaker 2: leave the UK because it's racist and it's not safe.
47:58
Speaker 2: But on their Instagram, they've posted a UK flag with
48:01
Speaker 2: a heart emoji beside it. We've only got about 20
48:04
Speaker 2: seconds left, but they're trying to make a point, aren't they?
48:08
Speaker 13: Yes, and whatever point they're trying to make, we're not
48:11
Speaker 13: falling for it over here.
48:12
Speaker 10: We know what you really think, Megan.
48:16
Speaker 1: It's too funny.
48:17
Speaker 2: I tell you what, whatever you think of them, they
48:19
Speaker 2: provide endless entertainment and amusement. And for that, we are
48:23
Speaker 2: eternally grateful. Samara Gill, always wonderful to chat. Appreciate you
48:26
Speaker 2: coming on the program this evening. And thanks to you
48:29
Speaker 2: at home for watching. I'll see you again tomorrow night, 7pm.
48:34
Speaker 1: But stick around. Don't go anywhere. Right now, here is
48:37
Speaker 1: Shari Markson.