Transcript

Sharri | 26 June · Sharri

0:01
Speaker 1: Live on Sky News.
0:03
Speaker 2: This is Sharry Good evening Donald Trump's triumph at NATO
0:10
Speaker 2: as the Albanezy government left out in the cold. Shadow
0:13
Speaker 2: Defense Minister Angus Taylor will join me live to reveal
0:17
Speaker 2: how much he thinks we should be spending on our
0:20
Speaker 2: military Wall Street is scrambling after socialist influencer ma'm darney
0:25
Speaker 2: won the Democratic primary in New York. I'll discuss the
0:28
Speaker 2: fallout with John Lee and Howard Melbourne's street sweeper won
0:33
Speaker 2: a landmark case after he was sacked for objecting to
0:36
Speaker 2: the Welcome to Country, Plus the mysterious case of the
0:40
Speaker 2: missing Supreme Leader. Where is Iran's Iotola Kamani hiding. I'll
0:46
Speaker 2: speak with human rights lawyer Arsenalstrowsky later on the show,
0:51
Speaker 2: but first tonight, Donald Trump has wrapped up a successful
0:55
Speaker 2: whirlwind visit to NATO. And while the world is talking
0:58
Speaker 2: about the NATO gen or secretary calling him daddy, and
1:02
Speaker 2: we'll get to that in a moment. The substance of
1:04
Speaker 2: the meeting was deeply significant. It was a broad commitment
1:09
Speaker 2: from Europeans to lift defense spending to five percent of GDP,
1:14
Speaker 2: such as the precarious position of global security that NATO
1:18
Speaker 2: has reached this commitment. Zelenski's presence at NATO in a
1:23
Speaker 2: suit no less underscored the grave threat that the access
1:27
Speaker 2: of evil poses to democracy, and the talks took place
1:32
Speaker 2: in the shadow of America joining Israel to destroy Iran's
1:36
Speaker 2: nuclear sites. The lesson is that peace cannot be taken
1:42
Speaker 2: for granted. Protecting our sovereignty and guarding against aggressive enemies
1:47
Speaker 2: takes work. It takes a rigorous defense of our values
1:52
Speaker 2: and ensuring we invest in our military. NATO agreeing to
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Speaker 2: increase defense spending to five percent under Article five the
2:01
Speaker 2: Collective Defense Treaty was a watershed moment.
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Speaker 3: I've been asking them to go up to five percent
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Speaker 3: for a number of years and they're going up to
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Speaker 3: five percent. That's a big from two percent, and a
2:15
Speaker 3: lot of people didn't even prepare the two percent, So
2:18
Speaker 3: I think it's going to be a very big news.
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Speaker 3: NATO is going to become very strong with US.
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Speaker 4: NATAL leaders agreed on the the Hague Defense Investment Plan
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Speaker 4: and this will fuel a quantum leap in our collective defense.
2:35
Speaker 2: Now, while Australia isn't part of NATO, we are on
2:39
Speaker 2: the front line of an aggressive China and the expectation
2:43
Speaker 2: is that Albin Ezy should be pulling his weight as well.
2:47
Speaker 2: It's only Australia and Spain failing to get on board
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Speaker 2: with a serious commitment to defense. And listen to how
2:56
Speaker 2: Trump threatened Spain if it doesn't come to the table.
3:00
Speaker 5: Of course, you know on a Spain.
3:02
Speaker 2: Are you satisfied with today?
3:04
Speaker 1: Oh?
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Speaker 6: I think Spain's terrible what they've done.
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Speaker 2: No, I do.
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Speaker 6: They're the only country that won't pay the full up.
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Speaker 6: They want to stay at two percent. I think it's terrible.
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Speaker 6: And you know, they're doing very well. The economy is
3:14
Speaker 6: very well, and that economy could be blown right out
3:18
Speaker 6: of the water with something bad happening. You know, Spain
3:20
Speaker 6: is the only country that are you from Spain? Good congratulations.
3:24
Speaker 6: You're the only country that is not paying. I don't
3:27
Speaker 6: know what the problem is, it's I think it's too bad.
3:30
Speaker 2: So we'll make it up.
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Speaker 6: You know what we're going to do. We're negotiating with
3:33
Speaker 6: Spain on a trade deal. We're going to make them
3:35
Speaker 6: pay twice as much. And I'm actually serious about that.
3:39
Speaker 2: And like Spain, Australia also only spans two percent of
3:43
Speaker 2: our GDP on defense, so This would likely be how
3:47
Speaker 2: Trump speaks to alban Easy if he ever bothers to
3:51
Speaker 2: meet with him. Now, at the very same time that
3:54
Speaker 2: the NATO summit was taking place in the Netherlands, Treasurer
3:57
Speaker 2: Jim Chalmers once again ruled out increase to defense spending.
4:02
Speaker 7: We are actually already very substantially increasing our investment in defense.
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Speaker 7: We've found room in tight budgets for an extra eleven
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Speaker 7: billion dollars over the forward estimates and around fifty seven
4:14
Speaker 7: and a half billion dollars over the course of the
4:17
Speaker 7: next decade.
4:19
Speaker 2: And Defense Minister Richard Miles, who actually was at NATO
4:22
Speaker 2: and yet he would only promise to assess and review
4:27
Speaker 2: Australia's needs going forward.
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Speaker 8: We've gone through our own process of assessing our strategic landscape,
4:35
Speaker 8: assessing the threats that exist there and the kind of
4:40
Speaker 8: defense force we need to build in order to meet
4:43
Speaker 8: those threats, to meet the strategic moment, and will continue
4:46
Speaker 8: to assess what our needs are going forward.
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Speaker 2: A whole lot of waffle and no firm commitments there now.
4:54
Speaker 2: The Albanezy government insists it needs to be aligned with
4:57
Speaker 2: international partners when it comes to climb change and foreign policy.
5:02
Speaker 2: It's a point Albanezi has made over and over to
5:06
Speaker 2: justify the rush to renewables.
5:09
Speaker 9: Both Australia and Canada also share views about climate change.
5:14
Speaker 9: Focus on going forward, including meeting our net zero targets,
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Speaker 9: how we can collaborate on the net zero transition. Our
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Speaker 9: national interest lies with continuing to take action on climate change,
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Speaker 9: including through international accords.
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Speaker 2: So apparently being aligned with the international community is vital
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Speaker 2: when it comes to climate action, but apparently not for
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Speaker 2: defense spending. And this at a time when several international
5:44
Speaker 2: leaders now admit they're unlikely to meet their net zero targets.
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Speaker 2: It's embarrassing how Australia is so completely out of step
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Speaker 2: on defense. We're investing just two percent of GDP while
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Speaker 2: Europe is now at five percent. And by the way,
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Speaker 2: the five percent is comprised of three and a half
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Speaker 2: percent on defense and an extra one and a half
6:07
Speaker 2: percent on defense related infrastructure. And this is all within
6:12
Speaker 2: ten years. The Trump administration has only asked for our
6:16
Speaker 2: commitment to lift to three and a half percent, not five.
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Speaker 2: This should be an easily achievable commitment for Australia, especially
6:25
Speaker 2: over a ten year period, Yet the Prime Minister refuses
6:30
Speaker 2: to do this all while wasting billions of dollars paying
6:34
Speaker 2: off student hex debt, on the exploding NDIS, and sending
6:39
Speaker 2: millions to Gaza. Alban Ezy's refusal to increase our defense
6:44
Speaker 2: budget is stubborn, and we're already seeing the consequences of
6:48
Speaker 2: being at odds with the international community. The President counseled
6:53
Speaker 2: his meeting with Albenzi with an no phone call to
6:56
Speaker 2: compensate like he had with other world leaders, and the
7:00
Speaker 2: United States didn't inform Australia before the strikes against Iran
7:05
Speaker 2: despite our role in the Five Eyes community. Albanesi's left
7:10
Speaker 2: wing ideology and refusal to increase defense spending means that
7:15
Speaker 2: we now could even risk losing orcus now. Albinizi already
7:20
Speaker 2: had a reputation internationally for his center left woke government,
7:25
Speaker 2: but now his reputation is sliding into irrelevance. He was
7:31
Speaker 2: too scared to attend NATO and risk being left out
7:35
Speaker 2: in the cold by Trump on a second occasion, and
7:38
Speaker 2: that's what would have happened. But this is all self
7:41
Speaker 2: inflicted and it's a direct result of the hostile foreign
7:44
Speaker 2: policy he and Petti Wong have pursued to Australia's own detriment.
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Speaker 4: Now.
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Speaker 2: I've been making this point for a long time now
7:52
Speaker 2: that even the Biden administration was disappointed in Albanesi and
7:56
Speaker 2: Wong's foreign policy. But now the sequences of this government's
8:01
Speaker 2: actions are so obvious that they can't be ignored. Former
8:06
Speaker 2: Labor State Secretary Cameron Milner, our regular guest. He wrote
8:09
Speaker 2: in The Nightly this week that Australia, under Wong and
8:12
Speaker 2: Albanezi continually wants to pick our enemies over our allies.
8:19
Speaker 2: He says Albanese and his government are now a serious
8:21
Speaker 2: threat to Orcus and our role as a trusted partner
8:25
Speaker 2: of world superpowers. And The Australian's Foreign editor Greg Sheridan
8:30
Speaker 2: put it well when he wrote that it's difficult to
8:33
Speaker 2: think of a time when Australia has been so inconsequential,
8:37
Speaker 2: so powerless, so much without influence, so incapable of affecting
8:41
Speaker 2: its own destiny or anyone else's, as we have become
8:46
Speaker 2: under the Albanesi government. And Sheridan writes that it's just
8:50
Speaker 2: as well Alberzi didn't go to NATO. He says, imagine
8:53
Speaker 2: trying to get an appointment with Trump so you can
8:56
Speaker 2: whine about tariffs while all this is happening, And what
9:00
Speaker 2: about the embarrassment that NATO now wants member states to
9:03
Speaker 2: spend three and a half percent of GDP on defense
9:07
Speaker 2: while we can't spend a pitiful two percent, He says,
9:11
Speaker 2: nobody's saying could argue that the Albanese government is responding
9:15
Speaker 2: effectively to the strategic challenges we face. So, while the
9:21
Speaker 2: frosty relationship between Australia and the United States continues, it's
9:26
Speaker 2: a new dawn for the Europeans and the president. The
9:30
Speaker 2: NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutter has been fawning over Trump,
9:34
Speaker 2: with the President publishing the private text message he sent
9:38
Speaker 2: him before the summit, and in it Mark said, you
9:42
Speaker 2: are flying into another big success in the Hague this evening.
9:46
Speaker 2: It was not easy, but we've got them all signed
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Speaker 2: onto five percent. Donald, you have driven us to a
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Speaker 2: really important moment for American and Europe and the world.
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Speaker 2: You will achieve something no American president in debat could
10:00
Speaker 2: get done. Europe is going to pay in a big
10:04
Speaker 2: way as they should, and it will be your win.
10:09
Speaker 2: And that's very true. No other president, as much as
10:12
Speaker 2: they tried, could get this sort of five percent commitment
10:16
Speaker 2: to defense at NATO. Now, unsurprisingly, Trump loved that message
10:21
Speaker 2: private message, and he shared it on truth social This
10:24
Speaker 2: seems to be becoming a trend, Trump sharing private correspondence publicly.
10:29
Speaker 2: We presume he didn't ask for permission. Then, as we
10:33
Speaker 2: saw last night, Mark was equally taken with Trump at
10:36
Speaker 2: the NATO press conference. He's a Dutch politician. He's been
10:40
Speaker 2: in the role that NATO since last October. He seems
10:44
Speaker 2: quite eccentric and fun and everybody has been captivated by
10:49
Speaker 2: the moment. He described Trump as daddy.
10:53
Speaker 3: They've got a big fight, like two kids at a
10:55
Speaker 3: school yard. You know, they fight like hell, you can't
10:57
Speaker 3: stop them.
10:58
Speaker 10: Let him fight for about two three minutes.
11:00
Speaker 6: Then it's easy to staff up.
11:01
Speaker 4: And then Debby has sometimes do strong language.
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Speaker 2: It was a joke, of course, but it's unusual language
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Speaker 2: for senior diplomat and the situation became even more surreal
11:14
Speaker 2: when the President was asked about the comment at the
11:18
Speaker 2: official NATO press conference. Mark Britter, the NATO chief, who
11:24
Speaker 2: is your friend? He called you daddy earlier? Do you
11:28
Speaker 2: regard your NATO allies as kind of children?
11:32
Speaker 4: No, he likes me.
11:33
Speaker 2: I think he likes me.
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Speaker 10: If he doesn't, I'll let you know.
11:36
Speaker 2: I'll come back and I'll hit him hard. Okay, he did,
11:38
Speaker 2: he did it.
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Speaker 6: Very affectionate.
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Speaker 11: Daddy, here, my daddy.
11:43
Speaker 2: That was a lighthearted moment during a pretty long forty
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Speaker 2: five minute press conference where Trump took questions from dozens
11:50
Speaker 2: of international journalists, and he had an emotional moment with
11:55
Speaker 2: BBC Ukraine correspondent Marislava Petza.
12:01
Speaker 11: BBC News Ukrainian.
12:03
Speaker 6: Where are you from.
12:04
Speaker 2: I'm from Ukraine.
12:06
Speaker 11: So my question to you is whether or not the
12:09
Speaker 11: US is ready to sell anti air missile systems Patriot
12:15
Speaker 11: to Ukraine. We know that Russia has been pound in
12:18
Speaker 11: Ukraine really heavily. Right now, you're living yourself now and
12:21
Speaker 11: you my husband is there and I.
12:24
Speaker 6: Can see you very you know, it's amazing.
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Speaker 11: And me with the kids. I'm in also actually because
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Speaker 11: he wanted me to be.
12:31
Speaker 6: Your husband, the soldier.
12:33
Speaker 2: Now he's there now.
12:35
Speaker 6: Yeah, Well that's rough stuff, right, that's tough, and you're
12:39
Speaker 6: living here and you're a reporter.
12:43
Speaker 2: I am good.
12:44
Speaker 6: So let me just tell you. They do want to
12:46
Speaker 6: have the anti missile missiles, okay, as they call them,
12:51
Speaker 6: the Patriots, and we're going to see if we can
12:54
Speaker 6: make some available.
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Speaker 2: Isn't that amazing that Trump actually took the time to
13:01
Speaker 2: ask about her husband and her family, where she lives,
13:05
Speaker 2: in her job. He showed empathy and curiosity, and it
13:08
Speaker 2: was genuine, seemed genuine. It's rare for a politician to
13:12
Speaker 2: do that, to be genuinely interested in other people, not
13:16
Speaker 2: just themselves. It was a beautiful and heartwarming interaction. And
13:21
Speaker 2: so it was that NATO survived Trump. The war in
13:25
Speaker 2: Iran is over for the meantime, and Albinizi wakes up
13:29
Speaker 2: to a new reality where Trump isn't a villain of
13:32
Speaker 2: the international community and it's Albanezi who's the one shunned
13:37
Speaker 2: and out of favor. All right, big show coming up,
13:43
Speaker 2: But now let's bring in shadow Defense Minister Angus Taylor, Angus,
13:47
Speaker 2: thank you very much for your time. Now, if you
13:50
Speaker 2: were the defense minister, would you agree to lift our
13:53
Speaker 2: defense spend to three and a half percent of GDP
13:56
Speaker 2: within ten years?
13:59
Speaker 12: Well, Shari, thanks for having me, and we absolutely need
14:02
Speaker 12: to increase our defense expenditure, and of course during the
14:05
Speaker 12: election campaign we're now going to at least three percent
14:09
Speaker 12: and we've recommitted to that, and we need to do
14:11
Speaker 12: that because we're living in a dangerous and uncertain time
14:15
Speaker 12: where authoritarian regimes are flexing their muscles, whether it's in Russia,
14:19
Speaker 12: whether it's Iran directly attacking Israel or through proxies of course,
14:25
Speaker 12: or whether it's the military build up from the Chinese
14:27
Speaker 12: Communist Party, and all of these things mean, in the
14:31
Speaker 12: words of the Prime Minister Shari, that we are facing
14:33
Speaker 12: the most uncertain time since Second World War and we
14:37
Speaker 12: need to take appropriate action. Two percent of GDP is
14:40
Speaker 12: simply not enough. The government's Zone Defense Strategic Review is
14:46
Speaker 12: not properly funded. We need to make sure our submarines
14:49
Speaker 12: are properly funded. We need to manufacture missiles here in Australia.
14:53
Speaker 12: We need to have investment in drone and anti drone
14:55
Speaker 12: technology in the northern facilities that are so crucial at
14:59
Speaker 12: this time in our p part of the world. All
15:00
Speaker 12: of this needs investment. It's not getting the investment it deserves,
15:05
Speaker 12: and that's why we need to increase defense spending.
15:07
Speaker 2: So you just said they're three percent, Pete hagseth Out
15:11
Speaker 2: the Shangrilai Dialogue put forward a figure of three and
15:13
Speaker 2: a half percent. Is that something that you agree that
15:16
Speaker 2: we do need to commit to and just remembering this
15:20
Speaker 2: is a ten year window.
15:23
Speaker 12: Well, of course three is a lot closer to three
15:27
Speaker 12: and a half than two is. And the real problem
15:29
Speaker 12: we've got to the moment is we're just way short
15:31
Speaker 12: of the mark Shari. There's no question about that for
15:34
Speaker 12: what we need to do. And as I say, the
15:36
Speaker 12: government's own plan is not properly funded. So I mean
15:40
Speaker 12: it's there and very clear that there needs to be
15:43
Speaker 12: significant additional funding, and it's because we are facing this
15:46
Speaker 12: uncertain time and the places that need the investment are
15:51
Speaker 12: pretty clear. What's also clear is we need to make
15:54
Speaker 12: sure that every dollar is invested well, Shari, and I
15:57
Speaker 12: don't think all of the money invested into historically has
16:01
Speaker 12: been invested as well as it needs to be, and
16:03
Speaker 12: that's got to be a part of the focus as well.
16:05
Speaker 2: I mean, we've seen war played out in real time Russia,
16:10
Speaker 2: Ukraine as well in Iran, and we don't have the
16:13
Speaker 2: sort of anywhere near the sort of military equipment that
16:17
Speaker 2: is being used routinely, drones being the most mean and
16:22
Speaker 2: relatively inexpensive, we just don't have that capability automated drones.
16:27
Speaker 12: Yeah, yeah, you're absolutely right. I mean the drones is
16:30
Speaker 12: a good example, and counter drone technology, of course, we're
16:34
Speaker 12: seeing extraordinary advances on that in the Ukraine War. We
16:37
Speaker 12: also saw it from Israel with extraordinary use of technology
16:42
Speaker 12: by Israel in Iran very effective, and we've got to
16:45
Speaker 12: learn from this. We've got to move much faster, we've
16:47
Speaker 12: got to be way more agile, we've got to focus
16:49
Speaker 12: on delivery, not just retric and we've got to make
16:53
Speaker 12: sure that we are ultimately in control of our own
16:57
Speaker 12: sovereignty shari A line. This are incredibly important. They are
17:01
Speaker 12: unbelievably important. But you get good alliances because you're focused
17:05
Speaker 12: on your own sovereignty and that means we've got to
17:07
Speaker 12: manufacture our own missiles, for instance. So this is incredibly
17:10
Speaker 12: important at a time like now, and it needs to
17:14
Speaker 12: be a sharp focused for the government, and it.
17:15
Speaker 2: Isn't Sadly, do you think Albanzi is trashing our alliance
17:20
Speaker 2: with the United States, Well.
17:23
Speaker 12: I think it's in real trouble. I mean, it's clear
17:26
Speaker 12: this review of Orcas is proceeding at a time when
17:29
Speaker 12: we haven't even managed to get a meeting between the
17:32
Speaker 12: Prime Minister and the President. He seems more willing to
17:35
Speaker 12: get a meeting with the president of China than the
17:37
Speaker 12: president of the United States. And yet this is our
17:40
Speaker 12: key strategic ally, the United States, of course, So look
17:44
Speaker 12: that prime minister needs to get his gear together, that
17:47
Speaker 12: it needs to get focused on the right things here
17:50
Speaker 12: and most importantly needs to get a meeting with the
17:53
Speaker 12: president and needs to get defense spending up.
17:57
Speaker 2: Indeed, and in fact, you know, Albanesi could have a
18:00
Speaker 2: fourth meeting with Chinese President Hijinping before he even has
18:03
Speaker 2: his first one with Trump, who won the election in
18:07
Speaker 2: November nearly eight months ago. It's extraordinary. Now Albanize failed
18:12
Speaker 2: to come out and support America's strikes on Iran's nuclear
18:15
Speaker 2: facilities on Sunday. Should he have done this straightway in
18:19
Speaker 2: support of.
18:19
Speaker 12: Our ally, Yes, absolutely, I mean this was the right
18:26
Speaker 12: thing for the United States to do. Israel was entirely
18:30
Speaker 12: entitled to take action against Iran because there's an ongoing
18:35
Speaker 12: existential threat for Israel created by Iran, and not just
18:40
Speaker 12: through direct attacks but through proxies of course over a
18:43
Speaker 12: long period of time. And so it was well within
18:46
Speaker 12: the rights of Israel to do what it did, and
18:49
Speaker 12: absolutely appropriate for the United States to support it, and
18:52
Speaker 12: I think the United States has played a very deft
18:54
Speaker 12: hand in the approach it's taken on this. So yes, Albanize,
18:57
Speaker 12: he should have supported he didn't mean. What worries me here,
19:01
Speaker 12: Shari is that there seems to be an anti US
19:05
Speaker 12: alliance sentiment coming from Albanesi and others in the government,
19:09
Speaker 12: and I think that is very dangerous At a time
19:12
Speaker 12: like this, these autocratic regimes are flexing their muscles. Democracies
19:17
Speaker 12: and open societies like ours need to band together, and
19:19
Speaker 12: we need to work together, and that's the only way
19:21
Speaker 12: we're going to make sure that we're safe in a
19:23
Speaker 12: difficult time.
19:24
Speaker 2: Absolutely so refreshing to hear some common sense there now.
19:29
Speaker 2: Just on another topic, there's been debate about quotas today.
19:33
Speaker 2: Susan Lee has said she's open to them. You have
19:35
Speaker 2: said you don't support them. But the key point is
19:38
Speaker 2: having more women in politics, and there are now fewer
19:42
Speaker 2: women in Shadow Cabinet under Susan Lee than there were
19:45
Speaker 2: under Peter Dutton. Were you, Angus Taylor shocked to see
19:49
Speaker 2: your colleagues Jane Hume, Sarah Henderson just sent it ow
19:52
Speaker 2: bagmper Price and Claire Chandler dumped from Shadow cabinet.
19:57
Speaker 12: Well, of course, that's an extraordinary group of very capable
20:00
Speaker 12: women who I worked very closely with in the last
20:03
Speaker 12: term of government, in many cases before that last term
20:06
Speaker 12: of parliament sorry, and in many cases before that when
20:09
Speaker 12: we were in government as well. And yeah, it was
20:12
Speaker 12: disappointing not to see them in the cabinet. I am
20:15
Speaker 12: confident they will all play an important role in public
20:18
Speaker 12: life in the coming months and years, and we need
20:21
Speaker 12: more women like them, Shari and I certainly hope and
20:25
Speaker 12: encourage all of them and others to get on with it,
20:28
Speaker 12: because we need women exactly like them.
20:30
Speaker 2: You'd have them back if you became leader in the future.
20:36
Speaker 12: I'm not going to speculate on that. My focus is
20:39
Speaker 12: on defense and becoming the Defense minister, that's the goal.
20:43
Speaker 12: But what I would say is there an extraordinary group
20:45
Speaker 12: of very capable women and we need more like them.
20:49
Speaker 2: Indeed, all right, Angus Taylor, I really appreciate your time tonight.
20:51
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Don't you wish the actual Defense
20:55
Speaker 2: minister spoke like that? What we hear from miles and
21:00
Speaker 2: is not even the worst of them. Pennywong and Alban Easy,
21:02
Speaker 2: It's extraordinary. This is our government. Now. Victorian Liberals have
21:06
Speaker 2: launched an eleventh hour legal bid this afternoon to block
21:09
Speaker 2: the one point five to five million dollar loan they
21:12
Speaker 2: lent to former leader John Persuto to pay off his
21:15
Speaker 2: debts to Moridemi, but clearly the movers divided the party.
21:19
Speaker 2: Former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett defended pursuito and the loan,
21:23
Speaker 2: writing in The Australian Today that settling the case quickly
21:27
Speaker 2: was in the party's best interests to resolve and put
21:30
Speaker 2: this matter behind them in order to deliver on their
21:33
Speaker 2: primary function, which is to be an effective opposition. Well,
21:36
Speaker 2: I'd say their primary function is to try and win government.
21:39
Speaker 2: If they can do that, if they can get their
21:40
Speaker 2: act together. Let's bring in tonight's panel WA Liberal leader
21:44
Speaker 2: Basil Zemplus and Stein New's host Taylor Bond. Welcome to
21:47
Speaker 2: you both. Now, Basil, the legal bill obviously needs to
21:51
Speaker 2: be paid. The question is whether the Liberals should be
21:54
Speaker 2: footing the bill for John Pursuto when it's very unlikely
21:59
Speaker 2: they would have done this if it had been my
22:01
Speaker 2: redeeming's debt.
22:02
Speaker 10: What do you think possibly, yes, and then I accept
22:06
Speaker 10: that point of view. What we do know is is
22:08
Speaker 10: that more redeeming is owed an amount of money. She
22:11
Speaker 10: should be paid that amount of money in full, as
22:14
Speaker 10: it has been ruled by the courts. What's also then
22:17
Speaker 10: important is that a by election is avoided. That's very
22:20
Speaker 10: important for the Liberal Party in Victoria. And then, as
22:24
Speaker 10: we've just heard, and as we've heard you phrase it
22:26
Speaker 10: in a slightly different way, the Victorian opposition should get
22:30
Speaker 10: on with its job of holding the Labor government to
22:33
Speaker 10: account and trying to win the next election. They are
22:36
Speaker 10: the three priorities and those three things should happen, and
22:39
Speaker 10: happen as quickly as possible.
22:41
Speaker 2: I mean, Caleb, every time we think this matter is over,
22:43
Speaker 2: there's another step. Now there's this challenge to the Liberal
22:46
Speaker 2: Party lending of loaning John Persuto the money. What do
22:51
Speaker 2: you think should happen here?
22:52
Speaker 1: Well, artfully dodged the Abasil, well done, and moving from
22:55
Speaker 1: their journalism to politics, you've fitted in really well set
23:00
Speaker 1: more complicated than the Liberal partner.
23:03
Speaker 2: I guess cayleb.
23:07
Speaker 1: Basil can take it, because I'll be feeling for you
23:10
Speaker 1: next week.
23:11
Speaker 2: I'll give it to it. And I should say that
23:12
Speaker 2: normally Matt canavans here, but he's got a busted tire,
23:15
Speaker 2: he said, a photograph of the tire to prove it.
23:18
Speaker 2: So it's not an execution. We're likely to have Caleb
23:22
Speaker 2: on the desk tonight. That's already.
23:26
Speaker 1: It's friendly fire, which we enjoy him.
23:28
Speaker 2: But it's a little more.
23:29
Speaker 1: Complicated than Jeff Kennett made it sound in his column
23:34
Speaker 1: today in The Australian, because he's essentially saying it should
23:36
Speaker 1: be the same as if you're a minister of the
23:38
Speaker 1: Crown and you come into some legal trouble that would
23:40
Speaker 1: be covered by the public, of course, the taxpayer. And
23:43
Speaker 1: he's saying that Pursuto was doing his job in the
23:46
Speaker 1: course of his duties as an office bearer in the
23:48
Speaker 1: Liberal Party, and so the Liberal Party should indemnify him,
23:52
Speaker 1: except for the fact that my redeeming offered to settle
23:55
Speaker 1: this matter, and it was Pursuito himself who elected not
24:00
Speaker 1: to settle and to carry this on eventually to court,
24:03
Speaker 1: So that wasn't a decision of the Liberal Party. If
24:06
Speaker 1: he was being indemnified by the Liberal Party, the party
24:09
Speaker 1: should have been given the option to pay to settle
24:13
Speaker 1: all the way, all the way back then before all
24:16
Speaker 1: of this happened. The reason the Liberal Party is now
24:18
Speaker 1: on the hook for this money. Is because of a
24:21
Speaker 1: decision that John Pursuito made, after decisions he made as
24:25
Speaker 1: an office bearer for the Liberal Party, he put himself
24:28
Speaker 1: in this position. And I don't see why the members
24:31
Speaker 1: of the Liberal Party should have to stump up money
24:33
Speaker 1: for this loan that no one really quite knows how
24:37
Speaker 1: it's going to work. It's a thirty year loan on
24:40
Speaker 1: commercial interest of about six percent to go and raise
24:43
Speaker 1: money to try and pay it off.
24:44
Speaker 2: And not just members but donors, people who've worked hard
24:48
Speaker 2: then given their money to try and beat the Alan
24:52
Speaker 2: government and the Andrews government before it. So a lot
24:55
Speaker 2: of questions over this now fineance. Minister Icadi Gallagher admitted
24:59
Speaker 2: on ABC radio this morning that the Albanezy government actually
25:03
Speaker 2: checked the legality of Trump's strikes and Iran's nuclear facilities.
25:08
Speaker 2: Have a listen. Has advice been sought as to whether
25:12
Speaker 2: these military actions are legal under international law?
25:15
Speaker 8: Look, obviously advice has been sought by you know, I
25:18
Speaker 8: mean in government.
25:20
Speaker 7: As we're working through some of these issues, we get
25:22
Speaker 7: a whole lot of advice across the government.
25:25
Speaker 2: Basil it gets worse and worse. Their support was late,
25:28
Speaker 2: it was lackluster, given through gritted tweet teeth twenty four
25:32
Speaker 2: hours after the factor, now we hear they had to
25:34
Speaker 2: check whether it was legal first. This says everything we
25:37
Speaker 2: need to know about this left wing government, doesn't it.
25:40
Speaker 10: Certainly late and certainly lackluster. Really, it was almost embarrassing.
25:45
Speaker 10: It was as though they were very new parliamentarians having
25:48
Speaker 10: to check with the Media office, what are the talking
25:52
Speaker 10: points before we can go out and endorse this action
25:55
Speaker 10: that had been endorsed of one of our strongest and
25:58
Speaker 10: most steadfast allies, and check that it is okay to
26:02
Speaker 10: say we support what they have done, even though universally
26:05
Speaker 10: the other allies of the United States had done just that.
26:08
Speaker 10: And it tells you something about the instincts, the political
26:12
Speaker 10: and otherwise instincts of this labor government federally. It was appalling,
26:16
Speaker 10: It was late, it was slow, It was embarrassing.
26:18
Speaker 2: No, absolutely completely agree, Caleb, I mean surely, I mean
26:23
Speaker 2: this is just absurd. When you can't accept that destroying
26:27
Speaker 2: a nuclear site is the right thing to do straight away,
26:30
Speaker 2: You've got to go get your bureaucrats to look up
26:33
Speaker 2: if it's legal, as I said on your program last week,
26:37
Speaker 2: and I've repeated again on the channel throughout this week.
26:40
Speaker 1: I feel like the government has holed themselves up in
26:43
Speaker 1: this position where we know where they've stood on the
26:45
Speaker 1: war in Gaza, and so now they've convinced themselves that
26:49
Speaker 1: there is nothing that can possibly done by Israel or
26:52
Speaker 1: anything that's Israel adjacent that could be a good idea,
26:56
Speaker 1: i e. Wiping out nuclear armory in Iran. So they've
27:00
Speaker 1: sort of decided they have to be so ideologically pure
27:03
Speaker 1: on this matter that obviously good things that the rest
27:06
Speaker 1: of the West that isn't bad.
27:08
Speaker 2: I ran good, Well.
27:11
Speaker 1: Yes, I know. It is so preposterous, isn't it The
27:14
Speaker 1: fact that they couldn't just come out and say it
27:16
Speaker 1: straight away on Sunday and then to say, oh, well
27:19
Speaker 1: we put out a statement, sir. I mean a government
27:22
Speaker 1: spokesman putting out a statement is not the same as
27:25
Speaker 1: the Prime minister saying, yes, what happened today was good
27:29
Speaker 1: for the world. It seems pretty simple.
27:31
Speaker 2: No, it does. Indeed. Now I just want to end
27:33
Speaker 2: on this debate about quotas. Now, Basil, you're obviously the
27:36
Speaker 2: liberal leader in way. Susan Lee has said she'd leave
27:40
Speaker 2: it up to the state divisions to decide whether or
27:42
Speaker 2: not they should have quotas to get more women into politics.
27:45
Speaker 2: I mean, you'd probably just like more of any Liberals
27:48
Speaker 2: to join to get into parliament, doesn't matter their gender.
27:52
Speaker 2: But nonetheless, what do you think about quotas?
27:56
Speaker 10: Well, only seventeen of us here in the West Australian
27:59
Speaker 10: Parliament after the most recent state election back in March.
28:02
Speaker 10: But of those seventeen only for women. And the facts
28:06
Speaker 10: are the facts, that is not enough women and the
28:08
Speaker 10: Parliament of Western Australia, the Liberal Party that I lead,
28:13
Speaker 10: does not have enough women. We have not appealed to
28:16
Speaker 10: women enough in the community. And also you could say
28:20
Speaker 10: the same thing about our appeal to younger voters. Now
28:23
Speaker 10: I understand, as has been said by Simon Birmingham and others,
28:26
Speaker 10: that quotas are unliberal like. However, sometimes you're going to
28:30
Speaker 10: need a circuit breaker to get those numbers advanced. So
28:35
Speaker 10: whether it is quotas or some other drastic measures to
28:39
Speaker 10: move things along to get us to a point of
28:42
Speaker 10: close to or better towards equilibrium, everything should be on
28:46
Speaker 10: the table. And that's my position, everything whatever it is
28:49
Speaker 10: that gets us there, because we need to represent the
28:53
Speaker 10: community that we seek to serve with the same numbers
28:56
Speaker 10: that are in that community, in the makeup of that community.
29:00
Speaker 2: Really interesting because you know, if we have this debate
29:03
Speaker 2: about quotas, probably the official Liberal party position would be
29:06
Speaker 2: that there aren't quotas, and yet in reality there have
29:09
Speaker 2: been we know it, many of the Liberal preselections before
29:12
Speaker 2: the last federal election, Caleb, they weren't pre selecting men.
29:16
Speaker 2: A lot of the seat said no, we need a woman,
29:18
Speaker 2: we need a woman to run against a teal. So
29:20
Speaker 2: in effect, there is a quota system.
29:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I suppose there always has been in some
29:26
Speaker 1: way or another on various different factors. But the point
29:29
Speaker 1: should not be we need a woman. It should be
29:32
Speaker 1: primarily we need the best person for the job. But
29:34
Speaker 1: if you want to get more women into politics, as
29:37
Speaker 1: Basil points out, the party's probably not done enough to
29:40
Speaker 1: appeal to women. So saying oh, we'll have a quota,
29:43
Speaker 1: it doesn't fix that problem. It simply shoehorns people into
29:47
Speaker 1: positions so you can make it look like you fix
29:49
Speaker 1: the problem. You haven't fixed the problem. If the root
29:51
Speaker 1: issue is you haven't appealed to women enough, we'll fix
29:55
Speaker 1: that issue. Start getting on the phone to competent, capable,
29:59
Speaker 1: higher ranking women in this country that we would like
30:02
Speaker 1: to see in politics, and saying I want you to
30:04
Speaker 1: come and run for pre selection because you can't tell
30:07
Speaker 1: me that the pre selectors of the Liberal Party, the
30:10
Speaker 1: members of the Liberal Party are opposed to having women
30:14
Speaker 1: as candidates. They're not.
30:16
Speaker 2: They just have to be the best.
30:17
Speaker 1: People for the job. If you can get good women
30:20
Speaker 1: to run, you'll get good women in parliament.
30:22
Speaker 2: And there was actually probably I don't have the exact
30:25
Speaker 2: figures to hand, but there were a lot of women
30:26
Speaker 2: who were running for the Liberal Party. They just voters
30:29
Speaker 2: didn't vote them in, I mean, and it was an
30:31
Speaker 2: agenda thing. Voters didn't vote many Liberals in it all.
30:34
Speaker 2: So there lies the problem. Calebon, Basil Zamplers and Basil,
30:38
Speaker 2: you better watch out next Thursday, because Caleb's filling in
30:41
Speaker 2: for me next week.
30:42
Speaker 11: I will, I will say out.
30:43
Speaker 10: I was going to say, I can't get Mat Canavan
30:45
Speaker 10: back here quickly enough tonight, will.
30:48
Speaker 1: I will say, having been the bad copy, it will
30:50
Speaker 1: be the good cop and say I love your tie.
30:51
Speaker 2: To I love your tithes. Well, I never noticed men's ties,
30:55
Speaker 2: and I've been looking at yours. It is excellent. It
30:57
Speaker 2: even looks like there's some Greek letters in that alphabet.
31:00
Speaker 2: Is that is that true?
31:01
Speaker 3: Spot on?
31:02
Speaker 2: Well done, cherry.
31:03
Speaker 10: It is the Greek alphabet who, of course said the
31:06
Speaker 10: Greek said the home of democracy. So how appropriate, right, I've.
31:08
Speaker 4: Just come out of parliament.
31:09
Speaker 2: There you go, all right, basil zembliskated bone. Great to
31:12
Speaker 2: see you. All right, Still to come the landmark court
31:15
Speaker 2: case where a council worker one after being sacked for
31:18
Speaker 2: refusing to say the welcome to country. I'll get into
31:21
Speaker 2: that and more with the Daily Telegraphs James Willis. Plus
31:24
Speaker 2: what the latest intelligence says about whether Iran's nuclear sites
31:28
Speaker 2: were in fact destroyed. That's next welcome back. Well, there's
31:36
Speaker 2: intense debate about the level of damage done to Iran's
31:39
Speaker 2: nuclear program. The CIA today says it does have credible
31:43
Speaker 2: intelligence that the nuclear program was severely damaged by the bombs,
31:48
Speaker 2: and CIA director John Ratcliffe said their report includes new
31:52
Speaker 2: intel from a historically reliable and accurate source method that
31:56
Speaker 2: several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have
32:01
Speaker 2: to be rebuilt over the course of years. To discuss
32:05
Speaker 2: joining me now as senior fellow at the Hudson Institute,
32:07
Speaker 2: John Lee, John, great to see you again.
32:10
Speaker 13: Good evening.
32:10
Speaker 2: Now you what's your assessment of this intelligence? We've obviously
32:14
Speaker 2: seen conflicting reports. The Defense Intelligence Agency had a leaked
32:18
Speaker 2: report with an anti Trump journalist who said that the
32:22
Speaker 2: sites were just damaged. Where do you think the truth lies?
32:27
Speaker 13: Well, the fact is we don't know. A lot of
32:29
Speaker 13: it will come from satellite photos, some of it will
32:31
Speaker 13: come from signals, intelligence chatter in terms of what Iranians
32:35
Speaker 13: are saying, and some of it will come from sources
32:37
Speaker 13: on the ground that are informants. But until the inspectors
32:42
Speaker 13: go in and actually have a look, we won't really
32:45
Speaker 13: know for sure. So I think intelligence speak, you can
32:48
Speaker 13: say it's credible, but you wouldn't say it's high confidence.
32:51
Speaker 13: And the second thing I'd say is that we still
32:54
Speaker 13: have to find out what happened to the plutonium, this
32:58
Speaker 13: highly enriched sixty percent plutonium, because even if you destroyed
33:02
Speaker 13: those facilities, the second part of it is what has
33:05
Speaker 13: happened to that four hundred kilograms of plutonium?
33:08
Speaker 2: And when some officials have been asked about this, and
33:12
Speaker 2: I know Rubio and others have made the point, I
33:15
Speaker 2: think the ambassador as well. My Kakibir has made the
33:19
Speaker 2: point that the conversion facilities were destroyed, So even if
33:23
Speaker 2: that survived, and we don't know if it has, but
33:27
Speaker 2: the conversion facilities have been destroyed, so there's nothing that
33:29
Speaker 2: could be done with it. Is that accurate?
33:31
Speaker 13: Well, I mean technically it's accurate, but we need to
33:34
Speaker 13: confirm the conversion facilities were destroyed. But the second element
33:37
Speaker 13: is are there external players who may assist the Iranians
33:43
Speaker 13: in making use of this plutonium? So the point story
33:47
Speaker 13: remains that we can't really feel fully secure that Iran
33:51
Speaker 13: won't you foreseeable future, have access to a nuclear device,
33:56
Speaker 13: even a crude one, until we know where that plutonium is.
34:00
Speaker 2: It's interesting that defense intelligence report from CNN and the
34:04
Speaker 2: Washington Post that went global yesterday was actually a low
34:07
Speaker 2: level assessment from one particular in an agency that was inconclusive,
34:14
Speaker 2: and it looks like it was misquoted in the report.
34:17
Speaker 2: The journalist who published it is young, but has been
34:20
Speaker 2: behind a lot of other anti Trump stories throughout her
34:23
Speaker 2: career as well, So this looks like anti Trump stories
34:28
Speaker 2: that were later proven to be wrong, I should say,
34:31
Speaker 2: like Russia Gate. So this looks like it was a
34:33
Speaker 2: part as an attack.
34:35
Speaker 13: Unfortunately, in the American media environment now you have to
34:38
Speaker 13: look at the media outlet to make a judgment, to
34:40
Speaker 13: make a judgment about how reliable or what the motivation
34:44
Speaker 13: might be. Unfortunately, I've spent all the time in the
34:47
Speaker 13: United States. Unfortunately outlets like CNN President Trump is actually correct.
34:52
Speaker 13: Outlets like seen in New York Times, perhaps even a
34:56
Speaker 13: Washington Post, once very credible August outlets, are now very politicized.
35:01
Speaker 13: So when I see a supposed leak that early coming
35:07
Speaker 13: just to these outlets, I was immediately quite suspicious.
35:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then you look at the journalist to her history,
35:13
Speaker 2: and it makes human more suspicious. I mean, we need
35:16
Speaker 2: to know the truth. The world needs to know the
35:18
Speaker 2: truth whether those sites were completely obliterated or how much
35:21
Speaker 2: damage was done. So hopefully we will get that in
35:24
Speaker 2: the passage of time.
35:25
Speaker 4: Yeah.
35:25
Speaker 13: And look, the reason why all these matters is because
35:28
Speaker 13: the Uranians have been smashed, but their capacity has been smashed.
35:31
Speaker 13: The intent hasn't changed. They still want a nuclear weapon,
35:34
Speaker 13: they still want to threaten Israel, they still want to
35:37
Speaker 13: threaten the Arab neighbors, and they still want a hegemony
35:40
Speaker 13: over the Middle East, so until we can be absolutely
35:43
Speaker 13: clear they cannot get a nuclear weapon. I personally don't
35:47
Speaker 13: think President Trump should relax sanctions against Uranians or he
35:51
Speaker 13: should use that as something to force the Uranians to
35:56
Speaker 13: allow inspectors to clarify what has actually happened.
35:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, that access to the IAEA. Do you agree that
36:03
Speaker 2: this has been a very triumphant period for the president?
36:06
Speaker 2: I mean the successful strikes on Iran, this agreement at
36:11
Speaker 2: NATO today historic, the five percent on both of those matters.
36:16
Speaker 2: No other president was able to achieve this despite their
36:20
Speaker 2: stated desire.
36:22
Speaker 13: Look, that's correct. I know a lot of people say
36:25
Speaker 13: that the NATO General Secretary scene rather fawning or President Trump,
36:31
Speaker 13: but he was actually correct. President Trump has achieved what
36:34
Speaker 13: other presidents said they wanted to do, that is to
36:37
Speaker 13: raise NATO defense spending in Europe, but failed to do so.
36:41
Speaker 13: On the Iran issue, Trump took risk, There is no
36:43
Speaker 13: doubt about that.
36:44
Speaker 14: Look.
36:45
Speaker 13: I would actually like to give far more credit to
36:47
Speaker 13: the Israelis than Trump likes to do. They cleared the
36:49
Speaker 13: way for Trump to do that. But nevertheless, there are
36:53
Speaker 13: many presidents who I don't think would have done what
36:55
Speaker 13: Trump did in terms of taking out the facilities or
36:58
Speaker 13: using those bombs. When you take risk, it's high risk,
37:02
Speaker 13: it's high reward.
37:04
Speaker 2: Just very quickly, we're out of time, but you do
37:06
Speaker 2: spend a lot of time in Washington. You're at the
37:08
Speaker 2: Hudson Institute, which is US based. Is the alban Ezy
37:10
Speaker 2: government increasingly irrelevant?
37:13
Speaker 13: It hasn't been raised. And the anytime, YEO, when the
37:16
Speaker 13: easy government is raised is in a defense spending issue,
37:19
Speaker 13: which you've spoken about previously in your programs. The point
37:23
Speaker 13: is Australia is not raised as a can do nation
37:26
Speaker 13: right now. Australia is raised as a laggard. And the
37:28
Speaker 13: question I generally get to the extent that Albanezi government
37:31
Speaker 13: and Australias raises, what is actually going on in your country?
37:34
Speaker 2: Yeah? Indeed, what is going on in our country? Can
37:37
Speaker 2: someone answer that? John Lee, thank you very much for
37:39
Speaker 2: your time. Thank you now still to come around, Supreme Leader.
37:43
Speaker 2: Just as we've been on air, he's broken his silence
37:46
Speaker 2: after a week in hiding. Will tell you what he said.
37:50
Speaker 2: Plus Donald Trump's new nickname and the Welcome to Country debate.
37:53
Speaker 2: James Willis would join me on the desk to discuss
37:56
Speaker 2: all of that and more after this quick break. All right,
38:02
Speaker 2: plenty more news today, so let's get straight into it
38:04
Speaker 2: with the Daily Telegraphs James Willis, James, great to see
38:07
Speaker 2: you again.
38:08
Speaker 4: Hello.
38:08
Speaker 2: Now, this is a big story. This Melbourne street sweeper
38:11
Speaker 2: has won his unfair dismissal case after a notoriously left
38:15
Speaker 2: wing council fired him when he objected to saying the
38:19
Speaker 2: welcome to country before a weekly toolbox meeting. Now, James,
38:24
Speaker 2: this is going to raise interesting dilemmas for politically correct organizations.
38:29
Speaker 2: You know, can they order someone to say the welcome
38:32
Speaker 2: to country according to this ruling?
38:33
Speaker 9: No?
38:34
Speaker 5: Absolutely, And the first thing on the unfair dismissal decision,
38:38
Speaker 5: Sorry shery, early knock one.
38:41
Speaker 2: As they said in Regularlygue.
38:42
Speaker 5: There's a story that's come out in the last half
38:44
Speaker 5: an hour that the council claimed that this worker had
38:48
Speaker 5: done his online training modules, including the racism one, but
38:52
Speaker 5: it turns out his boss had done them for them.
38:54
Speaker 5: He was playing golf at the time, and the council
38:57
Speaker 5: tried to argue in this case that he had done
39:00
Speaker 5: the racism module and the other workplace modules, they were
39:03
Speaker 5: completed by his boss, who was sick of getting the
39:05
Speaker 5: illerse case. No, the same case. This is the same case,
39:08
Speaker 5: so exactly yes, and he was basically the council tried
39:12
Speaker 5: to argue that he knew about the racism training and
39:14
Speaker 5: everything else, complete fabrication. It is one of the worst
39:17
Speaker 5: unfair dismissial cases we've seen. But it's another example of
39:21
Speaker 5: what we've seen with Welcome to Country, which is when
39:23
Speaker 5: it's done well, when it's done at the appropriate occasion,
39:26
Speaker 5: it can be a fantastic part of an event, and
39:29
Speaker 5: I think sporting events would be one key example of that.
39:32
Speaker 5: But when you've got workplaces that have ten workers in
39:36
Speaker 5: the room, I hear stories all the time about zoom
39:38
Speaker 5: meetings where someone does an acknowledgment of country before they start.
39:42
Speaker 5: People are so frozen about what to do now that
39:45
Speaker 5: they just feel like they should do it anyway. And ultimately,
39:47
Speaker 5: we're not improving the lives of Indigenous people. We're not
39:50
Speaker 5: closing the gap. People think it's a box ticking exercise,
39:53
Speaker 5: and there are people starting to get fed up with it,
39:56
Speaker 5: which is what this worker did. He stood up for himself.
39:59
Speaker 5: He got sacked about what he knew about workplace training,
40:02
Speaker 5: and there's now grounds for him to be returned to
40:04
Speaker 5: his job, and that's what he wants. Remarkably, he wants
40:06
Speaker 5: to go back to.
40:07
Speaker 2: The council exactly. But I think it should be a
40:09
Speaker 2: reflection on councils more generally. They're getting into all this ideology,
40:14
Speaker 2: even foreign policy councils. Just take away the rubbish, clean
40:18
Speaker 2: the streets, do your job and stop with all the ideology.
40:21
Speaker 2: It's just not their job.
40:23
Speaker 5: Why do they have to be passing votes on the
40:25
Speaker 5: Middle East and standing out for Gaza and all that
40:28
Speaker 5: sort of stuff them in for God's sakes, while raising
40:30
Speaker 5: rates at the same time.
40:32
Speaker 2: It's just insulting not paying them for that. Now, James,
40:34
Speaker 2: you've written a concerning piece about the ad of control
40:37
Speaker 2: black market and you've done an interview with a global
40:40
Speaker 2: tobacco executive who said that Australia is alongside the South
40:44
Speaker 2: Africa and Malaysia as having the highest illicit market in
40:48
Speaker 2: the world.
40:49
Speaker 4: Yeah.
40:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, Is this a direct result of the Albanese government's
40:52
Speaker 2: tax policy?
40:53
Speaker 5: Well, it is firstly, but it's the result of the
40:56
Speaker 5: tax policy that goes back probably fifteen years in this country,
40:59
Speaker 5: where the exercise is been allowed to just spiral, reaching
41:02
Speaker 5: a high of sixteen billion dollars for tax pays in
41:05
Speaker 5: twenty nineteen twenty twenty now literally less than half of that.
41:09
Speaker 2: Look, it was a.
41:09
Speaker 5: Tricky interview to do because people go, why would you
41:12
Speaker 5: interview someone from big tobacco. We know that product unequivocally
41:16
Speaker 5: does kill people. But when you have a black market
41:19
Speaker 5: that is estimated to be more than half of the
41:22
Speaker 5: Australian cigarettes and vapes that are sold across this country, well,
41:26
Speaker 5: it's better in my view to be talking to the
41:28
Speaker 5: devil that you know, rather than the illicit market, which
41:31
Speaker 5: is the criminal gangs. And so basically we're in a
41:35
Speaker 5: situation now where yes, the exercise is too high, it's tanked,
41:38
Speaker 5: it's not earning the money it should for tax pays.
41:40
Speaker 5: But also it's the local enforcement and by the day,
41:44
Speaker 5: there is a growing argument here Sharry for the police
41:46
Speaker 5: to be getting involved in this. I'm not saying load
41:48
Speaker 5: the police up, but it's that day to day compliance.
41:51
Speaker 5: In the same way we saw with tattoo parlors, we
41:54
Speaker 5: see with firearms. There's certain things that police can check
41:57
Speaker 5: licenses and there's an argument to say that should happen
41:59
Speaker 5: here as well.
42:00
Speaker 4: Well.
42:00
Speaker 2: And we know that the new Southernwised Premier Chris Mins
42:03
Speaker 2: has been very vocal on this, calling for the federal
42:06
Speaker 2: government to make changes as well, which they're refusing to do. Now,
42:10
Speaker 2: just finally, I want to come back to the topic
42:12
Speaker 2: of the week. It's been. You know, Donald Trump has
42:14
Speaker 2: dominated the news agenda every day this week. There was
42:17
Speaker 2: first the strikes in Iran, then he was swearing at
42:21
Speaker 2: Israel and Iran. Now at NATO. It's not so much
42:25
Speaker 2: the five percent of GDP, although I've covered that heavily tonight,
42:29
Speaker 2: but the fact that the NATO Secretary General described him
42:32
Speaker 2: as daddy. That's had the whole world talking. I mean,
42:36
Speaker 2: Donald Trump is in the prime of his presidency at
42:40
Speaker 2: the moment, it's before the midterms. He seems to be
42:44
Speaker 2: taking it all in his stride. He's doing quite well.
42:46
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think some people need to pull their heads
42:49
Speaker 5: in with their criticism of Donald Trump. It's blind hatred
42:52
Speaker 5: and it's driven by things that he said previously, things
42:55
Speaker 5: that he's done, and if they're going to continue like
42:58
Speaker 5: that for the next three years, going to look very
43:00
Speaker 5: very silly. Look, that comment in isolation is a bit unfortunate,
43:04
Speaker 5: but you would have seen the whole clip the daddy King,
43:06
Speaker 5: but you know correct, and Donald Trump had said two
43:09
Speaker 5: kids that were fighting, and then he said it as
43:11
Speaker 5: a result. But all the left wing meetia is focusing
43:13
Speaker 5: on the daddy Trump as kind of him being the
43:16
Speaker 5: sort of.
43:16
Speaker 2: Boss, which is ridiculous. Look, what he has.
43:18
Speaker 5: Achieved in a short space of time is incredible, and
43:21
Speaker 5: I think these live updates are so unique, the way
43:24
Speaker 5: that he's sort of discussing what's happening with military and
43:28
Speaker 5: with his action on these things. But look, I think
43:30
Speaker 5: it's very, very silly to mock him and to say
43:33
Speaker 5: that he's not up to this job. What he can
43:35
Speaker 5: achieve in this space would be completely beyond what Joe
43:39
Speaker 5: Biden was capable of doing.
43:41
Speaker 2: A lot of these leaders.
43:42
Speaker 5: They need someone tough to stand up to them, to
43:45
Speaker 5: stand up and say I'm the boss, and he's done
43:47
Speaker 5: that in spade so far.
43:48
Speaker 2: Well, that's true. I mean, the diplomacy style is highly unorthodox,
43:53
Speaker 2: and it's sometimes uncomfortable to watch when you know, when
43:56
Speaker 2: he criticized Israel just after joining them in this formidable partnership,
44:01
Speaker 2: and then the next day he goes back and says
44:03
Speaker 2: he's proud of them. The swearing the live commentary on truth,
44:08
Speaker 2: social calling reporters scum that kind of language, even if
44:13
Speaker 2: they are, you know, objectionable or publishing things out of context.
44:18
Speaker 2: You know, it is so difficult for the president of
44:21
Speaker 2: the free world. But as you say, what he's actually
44:23
Speaker 2: achieved here, the five percent commitment from NATO countries. You
44:29
Speaker 2: know Obama would have loved to achieve that, Joe Biden
44:32
Speaker 2: would have loved to achieve that. None of them could
44:34
Speaker 2: get that serious defense commitment. And when you look at
44:38
Speaker 2: the world at the moment and the precarious situation wherein
44:41
Speaker 2: how emboldened the so called access of evil is. You know,
44:45
Speaker 2: we need that sort of commitment to defense. We're not
44:47
Speaker 2: getting it from our government.
44:48
Speaker 5: And I'm loving by the way the press conferences midair
44:52
Speaker 5: on Air Force One. I think they are hilarious when
44:54
Speaker 5: he's sort of talking through the shutter and taking a
44:56
Speaker 5: few questions and then going away. But look, he is
45:00
Speaker 5: the complete opposite of every president, every politician we've most
45:02
Speaker 5: probably ever seen.
45:04
Speaker 2: It's refreshing.
45:05
Speaker 5: And the problem is this hatred of him blurs people's opinions.
45:09
Speaker 5: But what he will be able to do in this
45:11
Speaker 5: space in terms of national security and world safety will
45:14
Speaker 5: be significant, I think in the next three years and.
45:16
Speaker 2: Already has all right, James Will, it's great to see you,
45:18
Speaker 2: good to see you. All right, coming up around, Supreme
45:21
Speaker 2: Leader breaks his silence. That's after the break. Welcome back,
45:28
Speaker 2: and let's bring in now international human rights lawyer Arson
45:31
Speaker 2: Ostrovsky Arson. The Supreme Leader Ali Kamani has not been
45:37
Speaker 2: heard from for nearly two weeks, and then just in
45:40
Speaker 2: the past hour he's uploaded a series of social media posts.
45:44
Speaker 2: What's he saying?
45:48
Speaker 14: Well, thank you chef for having me on. Look, it's
45:51
Speaker 14: been two weeks since we heard from Iatola has been
45:55
Speaker 14: missing an action much like the Iran's nuclear weapon sites.
46:00
Speaker 14: And he took him two weeks. Say something now, and
46:02
Speaker 14: he proceeded with a tire rate about how how the
46:07
Speaker 14: Iranian regime delta crushing defeat to the zionistentity and that
46:11
Speaker 14: it was a glorious victory. That, of course, is utterly delusional.
46:16
Speaker 14: It perhaps symbolic of someone who may himself have had
46:19
Speaker 14: a concussion during the during the blows in the last
46:23
Speaker 14: two weeks. The reality is that Iran under his leadership
46:26
Speaker 14: suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Israel. And
46:29
Speaker 14: with the support crucial support of the United States, the
46:34
Speaker 14: nuclear sites were obliterated. As the White House themselves said
46:38
Speaker 14: just the other day, Israel had total control of the
46:41
Speaker 14: Iranian airspace. The Runian military chiefs of staff leadership were
46:47
Speaker 14: taken out at will, one by one, and even the
46:50
Speaker 14: Iranian terror proxy's masses bullers, I mean, you had the hooties.
46:53
Speaker 14: They all failed to come to the Ruanian regime's rescue,
46:58
Speaker 14: which was really quite and embarrassing for the Iola. At
47:01
Speaker 14: the end of the day, this was no crushing defeat
47:04
Speaker 14: at all for Israel. On the contrary, this was a
47:07
Speaker 14: devastating victory for Israel, for the free world, for the Nates.
47:10
Speaker 14: That really just exposed that Iran as the paper tiger
47:13
Speaker 14: that it really is.
47:14
Speaker 2: Indeed, and of course he's always going to present this
47:17
Speaker 2: to the Iranians, and many of them don't have independent media.
47:22
Speaker 2: And now President Trump stepped in to defend his lady
47:24
Speaker 2: Prime Minister Benjamin Nettanna, who in a glowing social media
47:27
Speaker 2: post this morning, and he described Nadiya, who is a
47:30
Speaker 2: warrior like perhaps no other warrior in the history of
47:34
Speaker 2: Israel arsen why did he need to do this?
47:39
Speaker 14: Look, that's a good question. The President and Promise and Sienna,
47:43
Speaker 14: who enjoy a very close relationship and they have for
47:47
Speaker 14: many years, that's no secret. And the President has been
47:52
Speaker 14: very happy with Israel's conduct and the Prime Minister's conduct
47:56
Speaker 14: throughout this campaign, and we saw that obviously with America's
48:00
Speaker 14: entry with the B two bombers as well. And I
48:03
Speaker 14: think despite some colorful language perhaps one way to express
48:09
Speaker 14: it by the President a few days ago, he's really
48:12
Speaker 14: been consistent his support for his role for the Prime minister.
48:14
Speaker 14: And again just yesterday at the NATO meeting in Europe.
48:19
Speaker 14: Why he said what he said here, that's a good question.
48:22
Speaker 14: The President is not short of a legal drumons perhaps
48:25
Speaker 14: is looking at do a favor for as a friend,
48:27
Speaker 14: but I don't know if it'll make any your knows
48:30
Speaker 14: already support the Prime minis right.
48:32
Speaker 2: Got to go Aarsen. Great to see you as always,
48:34
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Now I'm off next week on holidays.
48:38
Speaker 2: Let's hope World War three does an unfold and I
48:40
Speaker 2: shouldn't joke about that, but I'll see you the week after.
48:43
Speaker 2: Just off next week, back the week after. Here's Paul
48:45
Speaker 2: Murray