Transcript

Credlin | 9 January · Credlin

0:01
Speaker 1: Peter Kredlin live on Sky News Australia. Hello and welcome
0:08
Speaker 1: to the program. I'm James Morrow, filling in for Peter Kredlin.
0:11
Speaker 1: Here's what's coming up on the show tonight. Three people
0:14
Speaker 1: unaccounted for As devastating fires rage across Victoria. Sky News
0:19
Speaker 1: is on the ground and we'll bring you the latest updates.
0:22
Speaker 1: Plus arrogant Anthony Albanezi cops it as he refuses to
0:26
Speaker 1: admit that he was wrong about not calling a royal commission,
0:31
Speaker 1: and mass protests breakout across I ran demanding freedom and
0:35
Speaker 1: an end to the authoritarian Iatola's regime. But first I thought,
0:41
Speaker 1: as we came up to the end of the first
0:44
Speaker 1: real week of the year, it was only fair to
0:46
Speaker 1: have a look at the past and where we're going.
0:50
Speaker 1: And you know what I was thinking about this today,
0:53
Speaker 1: and I reckon that it's only fair to say, as
0:56
Speaker 1: we close it out that the first quarter of the
0:59
Speaker 1: twenty first century well hasn't really lived up to expectations.
1:05
Speaker 1: I mean, instead of flying cars, what do we get?
1:08
Speaker 1: We got nine to eleven Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza, a global
1:12
Speaker 1: migration crisis, the COVID pandemic, the invasion of Ukraine and
1:16
Speaker 1: China threatening to pull the trigger on Taiwan. Feel free,
1:20
Speaker 1: by the way, to add your own disasters to the
1:22
Speaker 1: list at home. Even our most remarkable technologies we developed,
1:27
Speaker 1: smartphones and AI, well, they've mostly just made us lose
1:30
Speaker 1: our ability to think while feeding us an endless diet
1:33
Speaker 1: of cat videos and deep fakes, which is a real shame,
1:37
Speaker 1: because you know what, I still want my flying car.
1:41
Speaker 1: Yet that said, there is a little glimmer of hope
1:44
Speaker 1: as we enter the second quarter of the twenty first
1:47
Speaker 1: century that things might, and I say repeat, might just
1:52
Speaker 1: be looking up. Here's why I say that, because when
1:56
Speaker 1: you put aside all the black pilling commentary about the
2:00
Speaker 1: end of the post World War II order, you know,
2:03
Speaker 1: all the stuff about how suddenly it's Trump and not
2:06
Speaker 1: the very nature of humanity that is causing war and
2:10
Speaker 1: chaos all over the place, two things reveal themselves. One,
2:15
Speaker 1: contrary to all the talk about a new age of
2:18
Speaker 1: dictators and strong men, if you look at it, freedom
2:22
Speaker 1: is actually on the move and in places where no
2:24
Speaker 1: one previously had dared to hope to see it happen.
2:28
Speaker 1: And the second point is that around the globe, the
2:32
Speaker 1: enemies and adversaries of the West are actually beginning to
2:36
Speaker 1: teeter under the weight of political and economic crises. I mean.
2:41
Speaker 1: The massive pro freedom, anti regime protests in Iran obviously,
2:45
Speaker 1: are exhibit a in all of this, and a story
2:47
Speaker 1: that deserves far more attention than it has for the
2:50
Speaker 1: most part received in the West, because, after all, since
2:54
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine, when mad shecheied clerics took over the country,
2:58
Speaker 1: Iran has been a disaster both for its own people
3:01
Speaker 1: and the world, crushing its citizenry at home and sponsoring
3:06
Speaker 1: terror organizations like Hezbollah that spread death and destruction around
3:10
Speaker 1: the Middle East and beyond. Today, though funny things happening,
3:15
Speaker 1: the regime appears to finally be on the brink. The
3:20
Speaker 1: country is in the midst of a currency crisis, and
3:22
Speaker 1: demonstrators has been burning government buildings across the nation. According
3:27
Speaker 1: to one report of The Times of London, the country's
3:29
Speaker 1: leadership has a plan to flee to Russia if things
3:32
Speaker 1: finally get so bad that their enforcers switch sides, stop
3:37
Speaker 1: shooting civilians and join the protests. Venezuela too has some
3:42
Speaker 1: hope now for change, with the removal of socialist dictator
3:45
Speaker 1: Nicholas Buduro, though it is sure to be a long
3:48
Speaker 1: road before that country becomes the prosperous democracy. It was
3:52
Speaker 1: in the twentieth century that said Maduro's removal by the
3:56
Speaker 1: US President Donald Trump, which was held over and lamented
4:00
Speaker 1: over by those who think dictators should be allowed to
4:03
Speaker 1: hide behind the fig leaf of international law, is a
4:06
Speaker 1: necessary first step to freedom. Even so, Maduro's hasty exit
4:12
Speaker 1: at the hands of a Delta Force removal team has
4:14
Speaker 1: set off something of a chain reaction in nearby Cuba,
4:18
Speaker 1: which has withered under communist dictatorship since nineteen fifty nine.
4:22
Speaker 1: Well again, that nation is on the break of economic
4:25
Speaker 1: collapse as well, with its Venezuelan oil supplies cut off. Russia,
4:30
Speaker 1: which in the old days of the Cold War was
4:31
Speaker 1: Cuba's chief sponsor as it looked to taunt the US,
4:34
Speaker 1: is in similar trouble. They're burning through cash to support
4:37
Speaker 1: their war effort in Ukraine and are hamstrung by the
4:41
Speaker 1: same sanctions that war has provoked. As a result, the
4:45
Speaker 1: resource rich Putin government is going through be one of
4:48
Speaker 1: the biggest losers as Venezuelan oil floods the market, keeping
4:53
Speaker 1: prices down. You may have already noticed that at the
4:57
Speaker 1: pump early days again. But here's to the good guys
5:00
Speaker 1: getting some runs on the board in the second quarter
5:03
Speaker 1: of this the twenty first century. All right, now, look,
5:10
Speaker 1: it's Friday night. I though we should have a little
5:12
Speaker 1: fun here. I've got my martini tie on. Let's have
5:15
Speaker 1: a little bit of fun. This week, the Internet has
5:18
Speaker 1: exploded with memes about Marco Rubio, playing off a long
5:23
Speaker 1: running joke about the number of jobs the man has
5:26
Speaker 1: had to hold at one time in the Trump administration,
5:29
Speaker 1: Secretary of State, national Security Advisor, head of the National
5:33
Speaker 1: Records Agency, And at one time he held all three of
5:35
Speaker 1: those jobs, as well as being the head of the
5:38
Speaker 1: US Agency for International Development. And with everything going on
5:43
Speaker 1: in the world, the internet is having a lot of
5:45
Speaker 1: fun imagining a lot of future gigs for Rubio to
5:48
Speaker 1: take on, using AI to imagine him being told all
5:52
Speaker 1: about his new gigs. Here's one take on Rubio when
5:56
Speaker 1: he realizes that he is going to have to be
5:59
Speaker 1: the governor of Minnesota and with the Iranian government on
6:03
Speaker 1: the Breakwell, here's Rubio when he also finds out he's
6:07
Speaker 1: going to be the new Supreme Leader of Iran. But
6:10
Speaker 1: first he may also have to take on the role
6:12
Speaker 1: of being the new El president day of Venezuela. And
6:16
Speaker 1: with all the talk of the US potentially taking over Greenland,
6:20
Speaker 1: well here's Rubio once he's been told that he's going
6:23
Speaker 1: to be the new Greenland governor, all rugged up. There.
6:27
Speaker 1: One Catholic priest in North Carolina, father Ian van Heusen,
6:30
Speaker 1: even imagined Rubio finding out that he's going to be
6:33
Speaker 1: in charge of the Latin mass ordinaria it. So there
6:37
Speaker 1: you go, Ai, maybe it's not just all cad video slop,
6:41
Speaker 1: but also a bit of fun. Good luck on the
6:43
Speaker 1: new gigs, mister Rubio. All right, let's have some fun
6:50
Speaker 1: here with my first panel PR Council Managing Director and
6:53
Speaker 1: founder Christy McSweeney and instead of poblic Affairs research fellow
6:57
Speaker 1: Colleen Harkin. Guys, thanks so much for joined me this
7:00
Speaker 1: evening on Friday night. We're now twenty six days out
7:04
Speaker 1: from the Bondai massacre. Anthony Albanizi has finally caved and
7:07
Speaker 1: called that role commission that pretty much everybody in Australian
7:11
Speaker 1: public life was calling for. But while this commission is
7:14
Speaker 1: of course welcomed and good on and for finally doing it,
7:17
Speaker 1: it has been soured by the exhausting weight, receiving fierce
7:20
Speaker 1: backlash from Australians as well as the Jewish community. And
7:24
Speaker 1: when the Prime Minister was asked why it took so
7:27
Speaker 1: long by the host of the Today Show this morning, Albinisi, well,
7:31
Speaker 1: have a look at this. He didn't seem too happy.
7:35
Speaker 1: This is actually record Tom for a by calling a
7:39
Speaker 1: role commission if you go back in history. Okay there, Christie, Well,
7:45
Speaker 1: I mean a lot of humility there. We are used
7:47
Speaker 1: to seeing humility from Anthony Albanisi. But he refused to
7:50
Speaker 1: apologize for the delay, saying he needed time to think.
7:54
Speaker 1: What do you make of this?
7:59
Speaker 2: Making decisions is hard and correctly choosing what the mood
8:04
Speaker 2: of the country is is obviously something that the Prime
8:06
Speaker 2: Minister has had difficulties in the past. We know is
8:08
Speaker 2: still very scarred from going all in on the voice
8:12
Speaker 2: and perhaps that's led to not judging the mood of
8:15
Speaker 2: the country, not judging how difficult this is and how
8:19
Speaker 2: prevalent this is in Australia and taking this long. And
8:25
Speaker 2: of course there's a significant reframing of the narrative here.
8:28
Speaker 2: Don't forget the government has spent the first twenty five days,
8:32
Speaker 2: trying to make this issue about gun laws, about gaps
8:36
Speaker 2: in security legislation, about working with ASIO, everything but anti Semitism.
8:45
Speaker 2: And now they have had to accept that the country
8:49
Speaker 2: and particularly Jewish Australians, but Australians United, I feel wanting
8:55
Speaker 2: a royal commission. They can't reframe that narrative. It hasn't worked.
9:00
Speaker 2: And of course let's look at the politics of this.
9:03
Speaker 2: There is a bare reason why the government took so long.
9:05
Speaker 2: It is how can we frame a narrative so we
9:08
Speaker 2: can make the politics of this work for us, so
9:11
Speaker 2: our term in government, the rest of our term is
9:14
Speaker 2: not clogged up by a royal commission into anti Semitism
9:19
Speaker 2: and bringing forth issues that exist. Perhaps in six seats
9:23
Speaker 2: in Western Sydney they had a friendly opening with Chris Mins.
9:27
Speaker 3: They could have done it.
9:28
Speaker 2: Then they didn't jump on the back of New South
9:31
Speaker 2: Wales and say we'll take a federal royal commission. They
9:34
Speaker 2: let that go and go and go. Twenty five days.
9:37
Speaker 2: It's not good enough.
9:38
Speaker 1: Well it's not, you know only that he claims it
9:41
Speaker 1: well as the record times and say called once the
9:42
Speaker 1: fact that he's trying to get us to forget that
9:44
Speaker 1: for three and a half weeks, he went out there
9:46
Speaker 1: saying no, a royal commission is not the answer, Colleen.
9:49
Speaker 1: A royal commission can't answer the questions. A royal commission
9:52
Speaker 1: will take too long. It would just be some retired judge.
9:55
Speaker 1: As he dismissively said in one of his press conferences, Colleen,
9:59
Speaker 1: is he hoping that Australians just have the memory of
10:01
Speaker 1: a goldfish on this one?
10:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right.
10:05
Speaker 4: I mean everything that Christy has said I agree with.
10:08
Speaker 4: But I think Albin EASi must think that we're pretty stupid.
10:11
Speaker 4: I distinctly remember only about a week ago him saying
10:14
Speaker 4: that we did not need to have a Royal Commission,
10:17
Speaker 4: that experts had advised that we should not have one,
10:20
Speaker 4: and that it would give platform to people that we
10:22
Speaker 4: don't want to hear from. I distinctly remember that a
10:25
Speaker 4: few days ago he is finally relented and listened to
10:30
Speaker 4: the will of the people. I mean, that's maybe the
10:32
Speaker 4: one thing that Australians are united about. Maybe the only
10:34
Speaker 4: thing that Australians united about at the moment is the
10:37
Speaker 4: need for a Royal Commission. There is no doubt that
10:39
Speaker 4: we need one. I don't know why what they were
10:42
Speaker 4: trying to protect, what they've been trying to hide. We
10:45
Speaker 4: must have it, and we must also have the terms
10:47
Speaker 4: I believe extended to actually address the even harder issues,
10:51
Speaker 4: because this is not just about anti Semitism. This is
10:54
Speaker 4: about the broader picture of immigration in Australia, because we
10:58
Speaker 4: can't forget that the ceased now gunman was here twenty
11:02
Speaker 4: five years came in on a student visa, and the
11:06
Speaker 4: alleged gunman who's in jail was schooled here, was born
11:09
Speaker 4: and schooled here. So we have to have the hard
11:12
Speaker 4: decisions and the hard conversation about who we let into
11:15
Speaker 4: this country and why, and what has happened to our
11:18
Speaker 4: own culture, our own standards, and our own values. There
11:23
Speaker 4: it is the Jewish community at the forefront of this,
11:26
Speaker 4: but the big conversation also has to be addressed.
11:30
Speaker 1: Indeed, you're absolute right, and we need to talk about
11:32
Speaker 1: things like immigration and why so many people in Western
11:35
Speaker 1: Sydney a decade ago thought there'd be a great idea
11:37
Speaker 1: to run off and join ISIS. But in a more
11:40
Speaker 1: positive bit of news here, Bardai Beach hero Ahmed al
11:44
Speaker 1: Ahmed has met with a billionaire in New York who
11:47
Speaker 1: presented it with an extravagant gift in show of gratitude
11:52
Speaker 1: in New York City. Bill Ackman, a financier, honored Ahmed
11:56
Speaker 1: with a large called Manora for his bravery at Lavish
12:00
Speaker 1: dinner in New York City. Have a look at the speech.
12:05
Speaker 5: Represents URIs Peurwish persistence and life and Lathe indurance.
12:16
Speaker 6: And the Spanish jurisism.
12:23
Speaker 1: Christy McSweeney, this is you know, I think this is
12:26
Speaker 1: one of the great sort of unifying stories here. Along
12:28
Speaker 1: with the real Royal commission that we all wanted, this
12:30
Speaker 1: is the one sort of positive thing. It's great to
12:32
Speaker 1: see this Australian getting so much recognition around the world.
12:36
Speaker 2: It's really extraordinary, isn't it. Look it's a great success
12:40
Speaker 2: story of Australian multiculturalism at home, and it's a great
12:44
Speaker 2: success story of Australian heroism abroad in New York. And
12:50
Speaker 2: it's also a fantastic story about the linkages of the
12:54
Speaker 2: Jewish community in Australia and the US and just how
12:58
Speaker 2: far this and the heroism of this man has resonated
13:04
Speaker 2: across the world amid what is a significant tragedy and
13:09
Speaker 2: huge tragedy and so awful for Australia and recognizing internationally
13:14
Speaker 2: is being so awful. This part of the story that
13:18
Speaker 2: has come out of it, the positive lot of the
13:21
Speaker 2: story that has come out of it is wonderful.
13:25
Speaker 1: And Ahmed A Lavid said he wanted to meet Donald Trump.
13:28
Speaker 1: We're hoping that invitation comes through for the man. So
13:30
Speaker 1: we're going to keep tuning on that situation. But Colina,
13:33
Speaker 1: what we go on to another story here too, because
13:36
Speaker 1: the Albanezi government has been accused of impotence after they
13:40
Speaker 1: said that they were simply monitoring the situation in the
13:44
Speaker 1: Atlantic Ocean where the United States seized vessels that were
13:47
Speaker 1: allegedly part of a secret Russian shadow fleet smuggling oil
13:51
Speaker 1: out of Venezuela. Now, Colin, I thought this was really
13:54
Speaker 1: interesting because it suggests how little sway our defense capabilities
13:59
Speaker 1: seemed to have, particularly you consider a couple of years
14:01
Speaker 1: ago that we were unable to contribute even a patrol
14:04
Speaker 1: boat to go and take part in a monitoring operation
14:07
Speaker 1: in the Red Sea against the who th is that
14:10
Speaker 1: we had been asked to by the United States. With
14:14
Speaker 1: the United States upping their defense budget by half a
14:17
Speaker 1: trillion dollars, Colin don't you think that maybe we should
14:20
Speaker 1: be able to do more than monitor a situation?
14:25
Speaker 3: Oh?
14:25
Speaker 4: Absolutely. I mean there's no point having sanctions unless you're
14:29
Speaker 4: going to do something with the sanctions that you've put
14:31
Speaker 4: in place. And that's what Trump has shown is the
14:34
Speaker 4: strength of leadership that I think a lot of Australians
14:36
Speaker 4: look at admiringly and say, we need some of that
14:40
Speaker 4: commitment to purpose. But from a defense budget point of view,
14:44
Speaker 4: we've got this sort of merely mouthed responses. So as
14:47
Speaker 4: we'll increase our defense budget in ten years a tiny bit,
14:50
Speaker 4: that's basically the bottom line. We have to get serious
14:53
Speaker 4: about our national security and our ability to contribute at
14:56
Speaker 4: the broader level. We need to up it to at
14:58
Speaker 4: least three percent more. And we're in a position where
15:03
Speaker 4: we are very vulnerable. You know, the idea that other
15:06
Speaker 4: people will look after us and we can't pull our
15:07
Speaker 4: own weight is very worrying. And the idea that we
15:11
Speaker 4: just sort of look at things and monitor them but
15:12
Speaker 4: we can't contribute to them is not where we should be.
15:14
Speaker 4: We have to get serious about it. Defense mechanisms, well, yeah.
15:18
Speaker 1: And Christy, you know, at the start of the show,
15:20
Speaker 1: I talked about all the different ways in which actually
15:23
Speaker 1: a lot of totalitarian regimes are starting to fall onto
15:25
Speaker 1: the ropes. But at the same time, you know, we
15:27
Speaker 1: still have China which says that it was to take
15:30
Speaker 1: Taiwan sometime in the not too distant future. This would
15:33
Speaker 1: of course be catastrophic for US if war were to
15:37
Speaker 1: break out, a hot war in the North Pacific, and
15:40
Speaker 1: we would almost surely be involved. But it feels to
15:43
Speaker 1: me like this government really doesn't take these things seriously,
15:47
Speaker 1: that they just want to rely on other nations and
15:50
Speaker 1: our allies and so on to do the heavy lifting
15:52
Speaker 1: and hope that we're far enough away from the action.
15:56
Speaker 2: Well judge to take a non serious look at it.
15:58
Speaker 2: I mean, New Zealand pilots are now a key pillar
16:02
Speaker 2: of our defense monitoring strategy.
16:04
Speaker 3: You know, we had to.
16:05
Speaker 2: Rely on them to tell us, you know, when Chinese
16:08
Speaker 2: warships are undertaking activity off the coast of Australia. And
16:13
Speaker 2: so that is what defense looks like, and that is
16:16
Speaker 2: the tussle between the Defense Department and eminent defense experts
16:21
Speaker 2: organizations such as asby in Australia and intelligence agencies and
16:28
Speaker 2: the government. Of course, we have seen for the last
16:31
Speaker 2: twelve months, the US asking Australia to up their defense
16:35
Speaker 2: spending contribution and how that is going to affect Australia
16:39
Speaker 2: with American investment.
16:40
Speaker 3: Are they going to.
16:40
Speaker 2: Ask us for more money or pull infrastructure from US
16:44
Speaker 2: if we don't agree. Those questions are still on the table.
16:47
Speaker 2: They still exist, we just haven't seen them be prevalent.
16:51
Speaker 2: But of course with this type of news coming out,
16:53
Speaker 2: we're going to have to readdress that.
16:54
Speaker 1: And finally, cal and I want to ask you about
16:57
Speaker 1: a story that really picked my interest today that there
17:00
Speaker 1: is a disability use advocacy group here which is saying
17:04
Speaker 1: that they might bring an action against the Albanezy government
17:08
Speaker 1: if they make cuts to the ndies, saying that it
17:12
Speaker 1: would make some sort of violation of our treaty obligations. Colleen,
17:17
Speaker 1: can you walk me through just how this sort of
17:19
Speaker 1: thing is supposed to work?
17:22
Speaker 4: Well, there's a slightly different component to it. My understanding
17:25
Speaker 4: of what they're concerned about is taking basically taking the
17:29
Speaker 4: authority of parents out of the picture. That this sort
17:32
Speaker 4: of whole of government approach will mean that the potential
17:38
Speaker 4: for school teachers or medicals or people like that to
17:40
Speaker 4: make decisions about a child's invertcoma's well being without the
17:45
Speaker 4: parental consent. And so these organizations are rightly saying it
17:51
Speaker 4: is not the government's role to parent a child and
17:53
Speaker 4: to make those decisions. It's the parent's job, and it does.
17:56
Speaker 4: We already do have situations where there are decisions made
18:01
Speaker 4: that we already have my mature Minor legislation that has
18:05
Speaker 4: been weaponized, and we already have situations where parents have
18:09
Speaker 4: been taken out of the communication about their child's development.
18:14
Speaker 4: So it'll be interesting to see how this pans out.
18:17
Speaker 4: But it is a boiling frog scenario where increasingly government
18:21
Speaker 4: are taking over the parenting rights of the developing child.
18:26
Speaker 1: That is very disturbing. Thank you so much for explaining
18:29
Speaker 1: that to us, and we're going to keep a very
18:30
Speaker 1: close eye on that. We're going to have to leave
18:32
Speaker 1: it there for the but but Colleen Harken from the
18:34
Speaker 1: IPA and christ McSween from the pr Council, thank you
18:36
Speaker 1: both for joining me tonight. Now let's move on to
18:39
Speaker 1: Victoria and those terrible fires which have broken out. More
18:43
Speaker 1: than seven hundred firefighters are battling out of control blazers
18:47
Speaker 1: across the state as Victoria experiences the worst conditions since
18:52
Speaker 1: the Black Summer Fires just over five years ago. Georgie
18:56
Speaker 1: Dickerson is in Seymour enjoins me. Now, Georgie, what's the.
19:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, good evening, James were here.
19:04
Speaker 7: We in Seymour and it's around an hour from where
19:07
Speaker 7: those large scale fires are burning.
19:11
Speaker 3: At the moment.
19:11
Speaker 7: Tens of thousands of hectes has already been burned and
19:14
Speaker 7: there are multiple emergency warnings in place for residents to
19:18
Speaker 7: leave their homes if it's not safe to leave, to
19:21
Speaker 7: bunker down now. As you mentioned, these are some of
19:24
Speaker 7: the worst fires that this area has seen since twenty nineteen,
19:27
Speaker 7: and it certainly people are hearing the warnings. They evacuating
19:32
Speaker 7: from their homes, taking their belongings.
19:34
Speaker 3: Where they can. Tens of thousands of hectores.
19:37
Speaker 7: Has already burned and reinforcements are being brought in from
19:40
Speaker 7: interstate due to how large scale these.
19:43
Speaker 3: Fires are now.
19:44
Speaker 7: Yesterday, Victoria, we did have a slight reprieve from the heat,
19:47
Speaker 7: but that has done little to ease this fire. Today,
19:50
Speaker 7: temperatures just a few hours ago were tops of forty
19:53
Speaker 7: four degrees. We're really seeing these wind gusts come through
19:57
Speaker 7: here in Seymour. But here was the deputy man speaking
20:00
Speaker 7: a short time ago.
20:02
Speaker 8: It frightens the living daylights out of me. It is
20:05
Speaker 8: a beast. Do not try and outrun it, do not
20:08
Speaker 8: try and dictate it. Don't try and predict it, because
20:10
Speaker 8: it will beat you every day of the week. This
20:13
Speaker 8: is the worst I've seen it, and it is it's
20:17
Speaker 8: art breaking, but it's also terrifying because we don't know
20:21
Speaker 8: what's going to happen. The next twenty four hours. Is
20:25
Speaker 8: really watchweight see.
20:30
Speaker 7: An evacuation center has also been set up at Seymour.
20:33
Speaker 7: We all located there earlier today and there was a
20:36
Speaker 7: steady flow of people coming into that evacuation center. One
20:40
Speaker 7: lady in particular that we spoke to she suffered through
20:42
Speaker 7: the two thousand and nine Black Saturday Bush Buires, where
20:45
Speaker 7: one hundred and seventy three people lost their lives. She
20:48
Speaker 7: said it was quite an eerie feeling coming here today
20:51
Speaker 7: after escaping her home.
20:52
Speaker 3: Take a listen for what.
20:55
Speaker 6: We could see. It's less than five kilometers from my
21:00
Speaker 6: house and if the wind turns, I wasn't waiting for
21:04
Speaker 6: it to knock at my front door, and especially when
21:08
Speaker 6: I was in the CFA and did twelve years, and
21:11
Speaker 6: my husband's done thirty one years as a CFA volunteer
21:15
Speaker 6: and he's at Pucker at the moment, was waiting for
21:18
Speaker 6: fires and basically told me it was my choice to
21:23
Speaker 6: what I do. Um, So I set the sprinkler on
21:27
Speaker 6: the roof and came in.
21:28
Speaker 2: Everybody's been wonderful.
21:30
Speaker 9: It hasn't been any problems with anything.
21:33
Speaker 3: No, it's been really fantastic.
21:35
Speaker 10: We've got a really generous community here and Seymour and
21:38
Speaker 10: there's so many people that are just stopping by and
21:39
Speaker 10: saying how can I help. People have been dropping off
21:42
Speaker 10: Carton's water, KFC have donated all this chicken for lunch.
21:44
Speaker 10: So that's that's the sentiment of Seymour really.
21:50
Speaker 7: Now at this stage in Longwood East, three people do
21:52
Speaker 7: remain unaccounted for. A man, a woman and a child.
21:56
Speaker 7: They were last seen by fieries yesterday when fire is
22:00
Speaker 7: returned through. That fire had swept through, the home was
22:03
Speaker 7: perished and those three people would know where to be seen.
22:05
Speaker 7: Authorities are still looking for them, but they authorities say
22:09
Speaker 7: today this is an example that people need to listen
22:12
Speaker 7: to authorities and evacuate from their homes. Here's what one
22:16
Speaker 7: of the authority members had to say in terms of
22:18
Speaker 7: if the person has not been able to leave their home,
22:21
Speaker 7: what they should do to bunker down inside.
22:24
Speaker 11: Do not take shelter in the center of the home.
22:29
Speaker 11: Stay on the inside the home, but on the outskirts
22:32
Speaker 11: where you are able to see the outside of the
22:35
Speaker 11: home and the condition outside. Many people who die in
22:40
Speaker 11: houses are subject to bushfire do so because they lose
22:43
Speaker 11: their situational awareness to what is going on around them
22:46
Speaker 11: and the home catches fire without their knowledge. Stay on
22:50
Speaker 11: the outside of the home, watch for safe conditions outside,
22:54
Speaker 11: and when safe to do so, leave the home and
22:57
Speaker 11: await for fire authorities.
23:00
Speaker 7: So, James, it's certainly a rapidly changing situation here in
23:04
Speaker 7: Victoria on the firefight front, and it's certainly going to
23:07
Speaker 7: be a long night for emergency services and residents here
23:11
Speaker 7: in the area.
23:13
Speaker 1: Georgie, thank you so much for that update. Please stay
23:15
Speaker 1: safe there. It just looks absolutely terrifying. Thank you so
23:18
Speaker 1: much for that update. Stick around, though, because still to come,
23:21
Speaker 1: Victoria grapples with yet more youth crime. How long can
23:26
Speaker 1: the Allied government keep looking the other way? It'll be
23:30
Speaker 1: a while, I reckon stick around. David Limbrick. After the break,
23:38
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the program. I'm James Borrow, sitting in
23:40
Speaker 1: for Peter Kredlin.
23:41
Speaker 5: Well.
23:41
Speaker 1: Joining me now is Victorian Liberal Party leader David Limbrick. David,
23:46
Speaker 1: Victoria's Northeast Link project is under fresher scrutiny after a
23:51
Speaker 1: sinkhole opened up in Heidelberg's, sparking fears of further structural
23:55
Speaker 1: issues along the construction corridor. This incident has reignited debate
24:00
Speaker 1: over the Allen government's infrastructure planning, cost blow us and accountability. David,
24:05
Speaker 1: this sinkhole, I've seen pictures of it. This is absolutely crazy.
24:10
Speaker 1: What is going on here in Victoria. I mean, you've
24:12
Speaker 1: got the crime, you've got the protests, and now you've
24:15
Speaker 1: got the earth opening up underneath you.
24:20
Speaker 12: Well, I just hope that their solution isn't to fill
24:22
Speaker 12: this whole with taxpayer money, but one way or another,
24:25
Speaker 12: that's really what's going to happen here. I think what
24:28
Speaker 12: we need to think of is the bigger picture here,
24:30
Speaker 12: because this is an indicative of the type of thing
24:33
Speaker 12: that can go wrong with these major projects. And in
24:35
Speaker 12: Victoria we've got this massive, hundreds of billions of dollar project.
24:39
Speaker 12: The suburban rail loop, and many people, including myself, are
24:43
Speaker 12: concerned that this is going to send the state broke.
24:45
Speaker 12: And really, next year at the election, it's our last
24:48
Speaker 12: chance to knock this project on the head before it
24:50
Speaker 12: becomes too big to fail.
24:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, and David in it. By the way, I want
24:53
Speaker 1: to apologize because a moment ago I asserted with you
24:55
Speaker 1: with the Victorian Liberal Party. Terrible insult. I meant to
24:59
Speaker 1: see libertarian. That's my bad. Please don't take it personally.
25:03
Speaker 1: I wasn't trying to offend you. But there's plenty of
25:07
Speaker 1: other things too as well. You know, I said when
25:09
Speaker 1: we were talking about this whole here that Victoria, of
25:13
Speaker 1: course obviously has all his problems with protests. And this
25:16
Speaker 1: may not come as as prize reviewers, but apparently Melburnians
25:19
Speaker 1: are now on their one hundred and sixth pro Palestine
25:24
Speaker 1: protests since the October twenty seventh massacre. I mean, we've
25:28
Speaker 1: already had a ceasefire, and I thought everybody was moving
25:31
Speaker 1: on to Venezuela. Now on the loony left anyway, but
25:35
Speaker 1: activists are prepared their first major protests since the Bondai massacre. David,
25:39
Speaker 1: I mean, I know, we love our free speech here,
25:41
Speaker 1: but this really seems you know, inappropriate and bad taste.
25:49
Speaker 12: Well, look, I've got not much sympathy for these sort
25:51
Speaker 12: of unholy alliance of Marxists and is Lamas that marched
25:54
Speaker 12: the streets every week. But in a free society, the
25:58
Speaker 12: government doesn't decide who protests and who doesn't. But what
26:01
Speaker 12: I would say is when these people protest and intentionally
26:05
Speaker 12: infringe on the rights of other Victorians by intentionally blocking
26:09
Speaker 12: transport routes, by intentionally blocking access to businesses, that's when
26:14
Speaker 12: the police should get involved and make sure that they
26:16
Speaker 12: clear the roads and this sort of thing. Also when
26:19
Speaker 12: they cause property damage and violence, as we have seen
26:22
Speaker 12: in some of these protests, there should be consequences for that.
26:25
Speaker 12: I mean, personally, I'd like to see, like, rather than
26:27
Speaker 12: them intentionally blocking the streets, maybe the police could usher
26:31
Speaker 12: them into the park or something, because we've got you know,
26:33
Speaker 12: we've got treasury gardens, flagstaff gardens. They could easily accommodate
26:36
Speaker 12: tens of thousands of people. I think that, you know,
26:40
Speaker 12: I have a lot of sympathy for these businesses that
26:42
Speaker 12: are being disrupted, and police should be doing whatever they
26:44
Speaker 12: can to make sure that the rights of other Victorians
26:48
Speaker 12: are not infringed by these protests.
26:50
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, and we know, David that a lot
26:52
Speaker 1: of Jewish Melbournians have not felt comfortable going into the
26:55
Speaker 1: city on days when these things are happening, which is
26:57
Speaker 1: pretty terrible. But would you have any sympathy to an
26:59
Speaker 1: Ela has been talked about in New South Wales around
27:03
Speaker 1: getting the protesters to actually pay for some of this
27:06
Speaker 1: police protection, which costs you're already know rather bankrupt treasury
27:12
Speaker 1: quite a lot of money.
27:16
Speaker 12: Look, I know this idea sounds good in theory, but
27:19
Speaker 12: like there's real problems with this, Like are we really
27:21
Speaker 12: going to say that you can't protest unless you have
27:25
Speaker 12: financial resources to be able to protest? Like can you
27:28
Speaker 12: imagine this sort of thing, like if it had happen
27:30
Speaker 12: during the pandemic. I mean, that's what I always think about,
27:33
Speaker 12: Like any of these things that any of these powers
27:36
Speaker 12: that the police are given, that the government give them
27:38
Speaker 12: can always be used against people that you don't like,
27:40
Speaker 12: but they can also be used against you as well.
27:43
Speaker 12: And as I say, like, I don't think that the
27:44
Speaker 12: government should be deciding who can and can't protest. We
27:47
Speaker 12: already pay taxes to pay for the police. I think
27:51
Speaker 12: that the police should be focusing on and forcing protecting
27:54
Speaker 12: the rights of all Victorians, not just the protesters.
27:57
Speaker 1: Yeah no, look, David, I think you're right and I
27:59
Speaker 1: am that sort of principles stand on free speech, which
28:01
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people in Australia forget about sometime.
28:04
Speaker 1: But speaking of the police and what they're supposed to
28:06
Speaker 1: be doing, well, shouldn't they be spending more time, you know,
28:09
Speaker 1: fighting crime because that crime in Victoria problem continues to
28:13
Speaker 1: escalate with the carjackings, gang attacks, home invasions, beach brawls,
28:19
Speaker 1: all sorts of things teen violence are now leaving beach
28:21
Speaker 1: goers from Saint Kilda to more dial act fearful ahead
28:25
Speaker 1: of the summer. What is happening here with this and
28:29
Speaker 1: why haven't the police been able to crack down effectively
28:32
Speaker 1: on you know, some of these really hideous beach brawls
28:35
Speaker 1: and so on. Considering that the beach is what we
28:38
Speaker 1: consider the epitome of the Australian way of life, where
28:41
Speaker 1: we should all be able to go and have a
28:43
Speaker 1: good time with our families and be safe.
28:48
Speaker 12: Yeah, well, the police spread pretty thin and the Mortiolic
28:52
Speaker 12: Beach incident that happened that's actually in my electorate. I
28:55
Speaker 12: got a phone call from a lifeguard that volunteers down there.
28:59
Speaker 12: They really can s and about the effect it will
29:01
Speaker 12: have on lifeguards because you know, many people don't want
29:03
Speaker 12: to get involved and they're worried about this sort of
29:06
Speaker 12: crime that's happening. And you know, this was like a
29:09
Speaker 12: huge group of youths. And I think there's two problems
29:12
Speaker 12: that are going on here. Firstly is that there's a
29:15
Speaker 12: lot of young people who think that they can get
29:19
Speaker 12: away with anything without consequence. In many cases, that's true
29:23
Speaker 12: in Victoria. So there needs to be consequences when people,
29:26
Speaker 12: you know, initiate violence or theft in Victoria. Secondly, where
29:32
Speaker 12: are the parents here, Like, I mean, this was a
29:34
Speaker 12: huge group of people. We're talking hundreds of parents here.
29:37
Speaker 12: I think the parents need to be asking questions about,
29:40
Speaker 12: you know, what are their children actually doing out on
29:43
Speaker 12: the beach and ask some hard questions because what happened
29:47
Speaker 12: the other day at Mortilic and recently at Si Kilda
29:49
Speaker 12: as well is actually totally unacceptable.
29:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, Devid, I think you're right, and I
29:53
Speaker 1: think there's a good libertarian idea in that that parents
29:56
Speaker 1: in the families need to be exercised in war controller
30:00
Speaker 1: their kids so that the state doesn't have to via
30:03
Speaker 1: the police. David Limbrick, always fascinating to chat with you.
30:06
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time. Now stick around
30:08
Speaker 1: because those incredible scenes I talked about at the top
30:11
Speaker 1: of the program across Iran, protests erupting across the nation.
30:15
Speaker 1: Kosha Gada joins me with the latest after the break.
30:22
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the program. I'm James Morrow, sitting in
30:25
Speaker 1: for Peter Kredlin. Well, all that news coming out of Iran,
30:28
Speaker 1: I wanted to bring in Sky News contributor Kosha Gata. Kosha,
30:33
Speaker 1: we have been watching four days now, almost two weeks
30:36
Speaker 1: anti regime protests in the streets of Iran in cities
30:40
Speaker 1: from one end of the country to the other, fires ablaze,
30:44
Speaker 1: buildings being burnt, but also disturbing reports that the regime
30:48
Speaker 1: has been firing back, opening fire with machine guns on
30:52
Speaker 1: protesters in at least one case. Kosha, what's the latest,
30:56
Speaker 1: what do we know about this and what are the
30:58
Speaker 1: prospects that the RAGI, this horrific regime which since nineteen
31:03
Speaker 1: seventy nine has dealt death and destruction around the world
31:06
Speaker 1: through its proxies could be finally on its way out. Koshagata.
31:13
Speaker 13: Yes, this is James's you know, picking up momentum. We've
31:16
Speaker 13: been watching it for weeks. I think the death toll
31:19
Speaker 13: now is on like twenty five to forty five protesters
31:22
Speaker 13: have been shot and killed, including children. A couple thousand
31:24
Speaker 13: have been arrested, So the government is certainly fighting back.
31:27
Speaker 13: But this seems to be from all reports, grassroots and organic.
31:32
Speaker 13: There's always a question mark, is that is that one
31:34
Speaker 13: hundred percent the case? Are there other actors or agents
31:37
Speaker 13: fomenting it, But it does seem to be so far
31:39
Speaker 13: by all accounts organic, just based on the scale and
31:41
Speaker 13: pace with which it's rising.
31:43
Speaker 3: It's reached a.
31:43
Speaker 13: Breaking point because of economic malaise. Half the countries in poverty.
31:48
Speaker 13: Their inflation is up forty two percent, and there were
31:51
Speaker 13: some dramatic scenes of the trigger point in the Grand
31:54
Speaker 13: markets when shops just started shuddering, when the Iranian reality
31:58
Speaker 13: is completely plummeted overnight. Those are kind of the conditions
32:01
Speaker 13: over here. Perhaps what we saw in twenty twenty five
32:04
Speaker 13: certainly also played a role with the Twelve Day War,
32:07
Speaker 13: Syria collapsing and sor being taken out next door, and
32:10
Speaker 13: you know other things around that nature. What that means
32:13
Speaker 13: for the prognosis of this the iron grip of this
32:16
Speaker 13: regime is anybody's guests.
32:18
Speaker 3: We've seen this movie before.
32:19
Speaker 13: Unfortunately it does not always end the way people would
32:22
Speaker 13: think or want. But it seems to be reaching a
32:25
Speaker 13: breaking points. I think the weeks and days ahead we'll
32:28
Speaker 13: tell us more.
32:28
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, Kocha. You know, the last time we
32:30
Speaker 1: saw really huge protests and Iran, it was under the
32:33
Speaker 1: feckless regime of Barack Obama, who decided, in his wisdom
32:37
Speaker 1: that would be a brilliant idea to allow them to
32:40
Speaker 1: keep going with a nuclear program for some bizarre reason
32:43
Speaker 1: best known to himself. So when those protests occurred, the
32:46
Speaker 1: White House wasn't backing them at all. But now Donald
32:49
Speaker 1: Trump has come out and said that if they do
32:52
Speaker 1: shoot proof protesters, which they have, that the US might
32:57
Speaker 1: even get involved somehow kinetically on half of the freedom movement.
33:02
Speaker 1: What prospects do you see for that or could this
33:04
Speaker 1: happen with some sort of strike via Israel.
33:10
Speaker 13: You do raise an important point that in terms of
33:12
Speaker 13: the externalities, it is a different day and age right
33:15
Speaker 13: now compared to the last time under Obama. Totally different strategy,
33:18
Speaker 13: totally different president.
33:19
Speaker 3: For sure.
33:20
Speaker 13: The internalities in the country that I talked about before
33:23
Speaker 13: you have been dragging on for some time and are
33:25
Speaker 13: more or less the same. But that is a big
33:27
Speaker 13: different externality. As you know, the Trump administration, they're threading
33:31
Speaker 13: this needle because his base does not want the US
33:35
Speaker 13: to get sucked into another quagmire, does not like boots
33:38
Speaker 13: on the ground.
33:38
Speaker 3: There's already controversy around.
33:40
Speaker 13: Other moves that he's been making spectacular though they were
33:43
Speaker 13: in Venezuela and elsewhere, so that one is tricky. He
33:45
Speaker 13: has certainly used rhetoric like we are quote locked and loaded.
33:49
Speaker 13: He certainly isn't shy to engage in quick surgical military
33:52
Speaker 13: action at least that much. He's willing to push and
33:55
Speaker 13: even go against his base. But the thoughts of troops
33:58
Speaker 13: on the drownd on the ground, really getting into it,
34:00
Speaker 13: I think he would want to avoid that. Israel, on
34:04
Speaker 13: the other hand, different story, Yeah, and it is much
34:06
Speaker 13: more in their backyard and much more strategically relevant to them.
34:09
Speaker 13: So I think you know, they know that Ron's leadership
34:11
Speaker 13: is weak right now, and I would not be surprised
34:13
Speaker 13: if they see this as an opportunity to take some
34:15
Speaker 13: action in some way.
34:16
Speaker 1: Well, I can only hope that this is it for
34:19
Speaker 1: that regime and that these mullas do fall in the
34:22
Speaker 1: reigning people do get their freedom back, which they richly deserve.
34:25
Speaker 1: But I whant to we want some other news, Kosha too,
34:28
Speaker 1: because we've had all of these stories around the United
34:32
Speaker 1: States intercepting a Russian oil tanker, and as we go
34:36
Speaker 1: to air, there's reports that the US may be tracking
34:39
Speaker 1: as many as four other Russian flag ghost ships coming
34:43
Speaker 1: from Venezuela. Tell us about what's going on with these tankers?
34:48
Speaker 1: Why are they so important for the United States to intercept?
34:52
Speaker 1: And it just seems kind of funny because you know,
34:54
Speaker 1: for years now, I've been told that Donald Trump was
34:57
Speaker 1: Vladimir Pute's little buddy. Why is he going going and
35:00
Speaker 1: seizing his oil tankers. Maybe they're actually not such good
35:03
Speaker 1: pals after all.
35:06
Speaker 3: Yes, he is a realist.
35:08
Speaker 13: He serves what he believes to be in America's national interest.
35:11
Speaker 13: He wants to get along with everybody, but he certainly
35:14
Speaker 13: isn't shy about punching back if he needs to, or
35:17
Speaker 13: if he thinks something is going on that's not in
35:19
Speaker 13: America's best interest, be that Plutin, be that Zelenski, be
35:22
Speaker 13: that anybody else in the world. These ships, I mean,
35:24
Speaker 13: they definitely give us a hunt for Red October vibes.
35:27
Speaker 13: And it was a story that people were tracking on
35:29
Speaker 13: the internet for weeks before it sort of spilled into
35:31
Speaker 13: mainstream media now because it's quite remarkable.
35:34
Speaker 3: The US Coast Guard was in pursuit of.
35:36
Speaker 13: One of the ones that had a false flag before
35:38
Speaker 13: it did not have a Russian flag on it. They
35:40
Speaker 13: were in pursuit for a couple of weeks and finally
35:43
Speaker 13: seized it. Russia at some point did put a flag
35:46
Speaker 13: on there, and through diplomatic channels, had requested that the
35:49
Speaker 13: US sees that pursuit and dropped the pursuit, but the
35:52
Speaker 13: US did not. So that's leading to many people thinking
35:54
Speaker 13: is it just about oil? That's the ostensible reason, that
35:57
Speaker 13: it's about enforcing sanctions that are in place against Russia.
36:00
Speaker 13: Iran Venezuela also, of course, after the move last week,
36:04
Speaker 13: now all of Venezuelan and oil is under US controls.
36:06
Speaker 13: It's about that, But who knows was it just about
36:09
Speaker 13: that or is there more than meet ci more than
36:11
Speaker 13: what we would ever even find out about who else,
36:15
Speaker 13: what else was on the ships. This is just me speculating,
36:17
Speaker 13: but the level of pursuit is certainly amazing.
36:19
Speaker 3: Eyebrows. Is it only about oil or is it about
36:21
Speaker 3: something more?
36:22
Speaker 1: Well, I suspect there's something more, And I suspect that
36:24
Speaker 1: there might have been something other than oil on at
36:26
Speaker 1: least one of those ships that the United States was
36:28
Speaker 1: very very interested in. But finally, before I let you
36:31
Speaker 1: go here, a fascinating thing happened over Donald Trump sat
36:35
Speaker 1: down with the New York Times for a two hour
36:40
Speaker 1: interview with four New York Times reporters. Now the New
36:44
Speaker 1: York Times is, of course, is a very hostile news
36:47
Speaker 1: outlet to the Trump administration. Yet he took them around
36:50
Speaker 1: the White House. He talked for two hours about everything
36:52
Speaker 1: from international law to White House renovations. I thought that
36:56
Speaker 1: this was absolutely fascinating because, among other things, you know,
37:00
Speaker 1: could you ever imagine Joe Biden doing two hours with
37:03
Speaker 1: four hostile reporters and welcoming them into the White House
37:06
Speaker 1: and then, you know, being able to handle all of
37:08
Speaker 1: this stuff. It's quite an extraordinary performist. No matter what
37:12
Speaker 1: you think about Trump, himself.
37:15
Speaker 13: And I'm sure begrudgingly those four reporters will be admitting
37:18
Speaker 13: that privately themselves, they never would have had the chance
37:21
Speaker 13: to do such an interview even as a friendly outlet
37:23
Speaker 13: to Biden, let alone being an adversarial one. It was
37:26
Speaker 13: classic Trump, wide ranging talked about everything from the morality
37:31
Speaker 13: and legality that bounds the US president's authority, to specific
37:36
Speaker 13: foreign policy actions that have been taking place or that
37:38
Speaker 13: he's planning ahead, to domestic actions. They even watched a
37:42
Speaker 13: video of the shootout that happened with the Ice agent
37:45
Speaker 13: the other day with the woman who attacked them live
37:48
Speaker 13: during the interview, and transcribed Trump's reaction around that, and
37:52
Speaker 13: then he closed with taking them for a tour around
37:54
Speaker 13: the White House and all the renovations, including the Trump
37:56
Speaker 13: Ballroom and everything else.
37:57
Speaker 3: I do find it.
37:58
Speaker 13: Fascinating because he has his love hate relationship with the media.
38:01
Speaker 13: He brates them, he calls them fake news. He's almost
38:04
Speaker 13: at his best really when he is adversarial with them.
38:07
Speaker 13: But he does still love to invite the New York Times,
38:09
Speaker 13: this of the world into the fold and speak to them,
38:12
Speaker 13: sometimes to the chagrin of his base. But he does
38:14
Speaker 13: seem to do it, and I think he is in
38:16
Speaker 13: the alpha position right now. And I think he still
38:18
Speaker 13: feels that he can beat the mainstream media in some
38:21
Speaker 13: way into submission.
38:22
Speaker 3: That's why he keeps doing it.
38:23
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, no, and I think he's not took a
38:24
Speaker 1: bad job. He doesn't have the little note cards of course,
38:27
Speaker 1: that Joe Biden used to have to have when he
38:29
Speaker 1: was talking to report his Kosha Gatta, thank you so
38:31
Speaker 1: much for your time toight really appreciate it. Now stick
38:33
Speaker 1: around because I've got news about a totalitarian nation that's
38:38
Speaker 1: about to pull the plug on social media. Oh no, wait, sorry,
38:41
Speaker 1: it's Kear Stamer in the UK. We're going to talk
38:43
Speaker 1: about all of that and a lot more after the break.
38:50
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the program. James Borrow here is sitting
38:53
Speaker 1: in for Peter Kretlin and here to help solve.
38:55
Speaker 3: All the problems in the world.
38:57
Speaker 1: I've got the Daily Telegraphs, Tim Blair and News Corps
39:01
Speaker 1: senior writer Patrick Carlyon. Jents. Thanks for joining me. Tim.
39:04
Speaker 1: I wanted to go to you first though, before we
39:06
Speaker 1: start talking about global affairs. You are in Northwest Victoria
39:11
Speaker 1: in Horsham. Tell us what is happening around you with
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Speaker 1: these fires that have been raging across the state.
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Speaker 5: It seems at this point locally that matters have calmed
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Speaker 5: down a little. We had at some point a lot
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Speaker 5: of evacuates from outside of town in areas of smaller
39:26
Speaker 5: towns around Horsham and in the Wimmer area were evacuated
39:30
Speaker 5: into Horsham. At one point the town hall was being
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Speaker 5: used and a little alarmingly, but I guess, you know,
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Speaker 5: you do what you can. One of the local funeral
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Speaker 5: homes opened its doors in case people need an emergency
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Speaker 5: accommodation things. At this point in time, we've got slightly
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Speaker 5: calmer weather. The raging winds which were the real driving
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Speaker 5: force behind these grass fires which we can see right there.
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Speaker 5: Those winds were whipping along man, and it seems to
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Speaker 5: have calmed down a serious amount here. But all greeted
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Speaker 5: the people who fought the fires, all people. All credit
40:00
Speaker 5: to the people who followed the official directives and were
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Speaker 5: incredibly diligent and respectful and took themselves out of Ham's
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Speaker 5: way in gret style. It was very impressive work, old people.
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Speaker 1: All right, Well, good to hear there went around you there.
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Speaker 1: Tim is safe and we hope that that continues now.
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Speaker 1: Let's move over to the US. Here this remarkable story
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Speaker 1: that he has been coming on out of Minnesota, where
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Speaker 1: there have now been massive protest erupting not just in
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Speaker 1: Minnesota but across the United States in the wake of
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Speaker 1: a shooting of a woman who was involved in a
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Speaker 1: protest against immigration enforcement actions. Patrick Carlyon, let's go to
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Speaker 1: you on this first here. I've been saying for a
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Speaker 1: long time that this year the left was going to
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Speaker 1: find some sort of issue to turn into a crisis,
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Speaker 1: to create mass protests across the US, to put pressure
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Speaker 1: on Trump before the mid terms. Patrick Carlyon, are we
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Speaker 1: now seeing does this feel organized to you that there's
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Speaker 1: a something beyond just tragedy of this woman getting killed,
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Speaker 1: that the response feels like there's a real opportunistic edge
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Speaker 1: to it.
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Speaker 9: Look possibly, James. I mean, look, you've got to watch
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Speaker 9: that footage. I mean, I've watched it from all the
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Speaker 9: different angles. That footage looks dreadful. You had President Trump
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Speaker 9: talking about self defense, and you've had local leaders and
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Speaker 9: state leaders across America calling it murder. It doesn't look good.
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Speaker 9: And you've got the other incident in Portland, and we're
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Speaker 9: still getting facts about that and the Ice agents there,
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Speaker 9: you've had the Ice agent's been very unpopular doing rage
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Speaker 9: in major cities, major proud cities like New York and
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Speaker 9: LA and Chicago. I mean, this has been brewing for
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Speaker 9: some time and maybe it has been organized. But I
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Speaker 9: would go back to that footage. That footage looks dreadful.
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Speaker 1: Well, Tim, what do you make of that footage? Because
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Speaker 1: you know we've heard about also two other people getting
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Speaker 1: shot in Portland, although apparently according to reports, see we're
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Speaker 1: trend to Arnaguar gang members who had driven at police
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Speaker 1: again and then wound up getting shot. But Tim, what
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Speaker 1: did you make of that footage? Of these demonstrations in
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Speaker 1: these Democrat anti Trump strongholds.
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Speaker 5: Patrick is exactly correct. The broad images that we're seeing
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Speaker 5: of someone heavily armed shooting an unarmed woman in a car, Yes,
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Speaker 5: very very bad indeed, And then you look more, I
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Speaker 5: think at the detail the car was headed in the
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Speaker 5: direction of the official of the Ice authority. What the
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Speaker 5: person was doing in there in the first place was
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Speaker 5: to hinder ice activities. When you put yourself in a
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Speaker 5: situation where there are armed, armed authorities taking going through
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Speaker 5: what they have to do as part of a police action.
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Speaker 5: When you put yourself in the middle of that, you
42:47
Speaker 5: can generally expect things to not go well. Obviously, you
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Speaker 5: don't expect it to go so badly that you get killed.
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Speaker 5: But you know you made a big mistake in the
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Speaker 5: first place by blocking ice officials and then potentially attempting
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Speaker 5: to run over one of them, And the vehicle did
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Speaker 5: actually contact the body. We've seen it from that. Patrick
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Speaker 5: would have seen the angles as well. The vehicle does nudge,
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Speaker 5: at least nudge. I might be being too gentle with
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Speaker 5: the phrasing. There does at least hit the art official
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Speaker 5: before he shoots, So for me it's a bit more
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Speaker 5: fifty to fifty. But I totally accept what Patrick is
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Speaker 5: saying about the terrible optics of it all.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, look, I mean the arctics are terrible, but
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Speaker 1: it is going to be used very much, I think
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Speaker 1: as a political weapon against Trump. Patrick, iment just go
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Speaker 1: to you on this very quickly again, because it's a
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Speaker 1: fascinating case, because these Democrat mayors and governors are asserting
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Speaker 1: their right to basically determine immigration policy and say immigration
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Speaker 1: officials aren't welcome in their states. But Patrick, that does
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Speaker 1: seem like they're really undermining what the American system is
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Speaker 1: all about, which is that mayors don't get to set
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Speaker 1: immigration policy.
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Speaker 9: Look, that's true, and Trump got elected by saying to
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Speaker 9: deal with illegal immigration, and he has said about trying
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Speaker 9: to do that. What you found though, if you look
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Speaker 9: at Chicago I think I mentioned before, and New York,
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Speaker 9: there's been this massive pushback. There's been this sort of
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Speaker 9: fear and suspicion about these these sort of squads coming in.
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Speaker 9: Some of them they're wearing face masks. Sometimes they're not identifiable,
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Speaker 9: and that's really crabbed this culture of fear. And Look,
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Speaker 9: I think you might be right, James. I think there
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Speaker 9: has been a growing pushback against this kind of operation
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Speaker 9: in America and has been going for some months. And
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Speaker 9: I think we're at a crossroads. Now.
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Speaker 3: Where will it go?
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Speaker 9: I mean we're seeing what happened yesterday. Where will it
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Speaker 9: go in the next few months? I mean, I think
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Speaker 9: that's the big question.
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Speaker 1: Well, yeah, hey, Tim, I want to go to another
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Speaker 1: story because this is absolutely fascinating to be here. You know,
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Speaker 1: Prime Minister kre Starber in the UK has been having
44:46
Speaker 1: a huge blow up with Eli Musk, the founder of
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Speaker 1: x among Or, the owner of X among many other things,
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Speaker 1: and now Kere Starbra is willing to titen social media
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Speaker 1: laws with a potential threat to ban tim. This is
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Speaker 1: remarkable to me because this is coming out just as
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Speaker 1: I Ran has turned off the Internet in its country.
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Speaker 1: It feels like Starmer is getting more and more totalitarian
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Speaker 1: every day.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, it is incredibly difficult to avoid the suspicion, James,
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Speaker 5: that Starmer is acting to sweep X aside or Twitter aside,
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Speaker 5: and he's using the excuse of the chatbot, child porn
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Speaker 5: whatever whatever deep fakes. It'd be a little like banning
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Speaker 5: cars because of speeding tickets. It's it would be I think,
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Speaker 5: a great and very obvious and transparent overreaction. This is
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Speaker 5: a government that is locking up a lot of people
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Speaker 5: for saying things online, and they're not really backing down
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Speaker 5: from that, are they. They're getting more mulletish as time
45:49
Speaker 5: goes on.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and Patrick, I mean just on this too. If
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Speaker 1: it wasn't for X, we wouldn't be having an awful
45:55
Speaker 1: lot of the conversations that they've been having in the
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Speaker 1: UK around things like the Pakistani rap gangs. It seems
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Speaker 1: like there's a big fear of officialdom in Australia as well,
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Speaker 1: about people actually talking about things that they just don't
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Speaker 1: want talked about because they're inconvenient for the narrative and
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Speaker 1: the people in charge.
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Speaker 9: Look, I think that's true, James. I think we sort
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Speaker 9: of live in a kakuma about six months behind the
46:19
Speaker 9: rest of the Western world. Quite often when it comes
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Speaker 9: to debates about you know, wakeness or whatever, we do
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Speaker 9: sort of follow the leader on these things in a way,
46:28
Speaker 9: and that perhaps that's part of the privilege of being
46:31
Speaker 9: in Australia. You do actually get to sit back. You
46:34
Speaker 9: don't have to deal with these things front on in
46:37
Speaker 9: the way that England deals with them and other parts
46:40
Speaker 9: of the Western world deal with them. We actually get
46:42
Speaker 9: to sit back and then sort of try and adopt
46:44
Speaker 9: sometimes well the best parts of what's been decided over there.
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Speaker 1: I think, yeah, indeed. And finally, Tim, here I want
46:52
Speaker 1: to talk to you about what's going on with the
46:55
Speaker 1: Adelaide Raiders festival here. This was absolutely fascinating. To bet
46:59
Speaker 1: you a few thoughts on this. They've dropped pro Palestine
47:03
Speaker 1: author Randa abdel Fatah from their program, but and I mean,
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Speaker 1: just this just makes me want to cancel my players
47:10
Speaker 1: to go to the Adelaide Writers Festival because Peter fitz
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Speaker 1: Simon's and Jane Carrow have now said they're going to
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Speaker 1: boycott the event, saying that this undermind's freedom of speech. Tim,
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Speaker 1: I mean, should I just tear up my tickets now
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Speaker 1: for the Adelaide Writers Festival?
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Speaker 5: Yes, I know you were first of the que for
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Speaker 5: that one.
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Speaker 1: Jack, I had my tote bag, I had my toe
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Speaker 1: bag ready.
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Speaker 5: Absolutely wouldn't if you were a writer's festival, wouldn't you
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Speaker 5: boycott Peter fitz Simon's Because it's not as though he
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Speaker 5: can write. It seems sort of the direction he is
47:44
Speaker 5: inappropriate for him to be boycotting a runners festival. There's
47:48
Speaker 5: an irony that's kind of rich.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean I wonder if his research assistants
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Speaker 1: are also going to boycott the festival. Hey, Patrick Carlyon,
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Speaker 1: what do you reckon?
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Speaker 3: Is this?
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Speaker 1: Uh? This whole sort of this is an attack on
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Speaker 1: free speech that seems a little bit over egged.
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Speaker 9: Look, I think it's an attack on hate speech if
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Speaker 9: you actually look at the form of this author. I mean,
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Speaker 9: she was advocating, she was celebrating the massacre of thirteen
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Speaker 9: hundred innocent Jewish people back on October seventh. In twenty
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Speaker 9: three she has said that Zionis have no right to
48:19
Speaker 9: feel safe in Australia. I mean all this is all
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Speaker 9: hate speech that goes to the whole anti Semitic sort
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Speaker 9: of thing that we're looking at now in the wake
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Speaker 9: of Bondai. Indeed, and the Royal Commission really should be
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Speaker 9: looking at these things.
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Speaker 1: No, look, you're absolutely right, both of you, gentlemen. Thank
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Speaker 1: you so much for your time, Tim Blair, Patrick Carline
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Speaker 1: really appreciate it, and I appreciate your company all week.
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Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Stay tuned because James McPherson on
48:43
Speaker 1: the Bolt Report is coming up now.