Transcript

Credlin | 13 March · Credlin

0:02
Speaker 1: Peter Krandland live on Sky News Australia.
0:08
Speaker 2: Good evening and welcome to the show. I'm Caleb Bond
0:10
Speaker 2: filling in for Peter Kredlin. Tonight is what's coming up
0:13
Speaker 2: on the program More Power? Bill pain is on the
0:15
Speaker 2: way with the regulator outlining price spikes across the country.
0:19
Speaker 2: So just how high will it go and what does
0:22
Speaker 2: this mean for a government already under the pup on
0:24
Speaker 2: cost of living. The war of words over Trump's tariff
0:28
Speaker 2: ramps up, with Dutton suggesting a coalition government could get
0:31
Speaker 2: a deal done. Plus what exactly went on at a
0:34
Speaker 2: speaking event with Penny Wong and Daniel Andrews aimed at
0:37
Speaker 2: Chinese Australian voters when non Chinese people were seemingly shut out.
0:42
Speaker 2: An update on what's a bad look for the government
0:44
Speaker 2: later on, and has time run out for the hapless
0:47
Speaker 2: Chris Bowen now a massive albatross around the government's neck.
0:52
Speaker 3: If the Prime Minister doesn't sack Chris Boone, I don't
0:54
Speaker 3: know when he would sack him, because he deserves to
0:57
Speaker 3: lose his job.
0:59
Speaker 2: Some days, I I wonder why those in power can't
1:02
Speaker 2: see what you and I can plainly see. I feel
1:05
Speaker 2: a bit like the hamster in the wheel. You know,
1:08
Speaker 2: I'm running as fast as I can. I keep pointing
1:10
Speaker 2: out what's going on, and I keep pointing it out,
1:13
Speaker 2: and I keep pointing it out day in and day out,
1:16
Speaker 2: and yet somehow we end up in the same position.
1:19
Speaker 2: And that's probably how many of you feel at home
1:22
Speaker 2: looking at your bank statements.
1:23
Speaker 4: You're on that hamster wheel.
1:25
Speaker 2: You just keep running faster and faster to keep up,
1:29
Speaker 2: but you're not really moving forward at all. And it
1:32
Speaker 2: was one of those days. Today power prices are going
1:35
Speaker 2: up by as much as nine percent in New South Wales,
1:38
Speaker 2: six percent in Southeast Queensland, and five percent in South Australia.
1:43
Speaker 2: Now this is the default market offer from the Australian
1:47
Speaker 2: Energy Regulator. It's effectively the benchmark against which retailers are
1:51
Speaker 2: allowed to set their prices. There's a federal election coming
1:55
Speaker 2: in a couple of months. Anthony Albanezi wants another term
1:58
Speaker 2: as Prime minister. Never forget what he said three years.
2:02
Speaker 5: Ago, reducing power prices by two hundred and seventy five dollars.
2:07
Speaker 3: By twenty twenty five, two hundred and seventy five dollars
2:10
Speaker 3: a year.
2:10
Speaker 5: One hundred and seventy five dollars a year will get.
2:14
Speaker 3: Power prices down by two hundred and seventy five dollars
2:17
Speaker 3: a year.
2:18
Speaker 2: Now, farbad from me to give free advice to the coalition.
2:21
Speaker 2: I'd much rather do it for money.
2:22
Speaker 4: But here's a tip.
2:24
Speaker 2: Just start running that buy ad space and just run
2:27
Speaker 2: that add nauseum into the federal election, because this is
2:32
Speaker 2: the stuff that will cut through. It is a blatant lie.
2:36
Speaker 2: These increases come into effect from January first or July first,
2:40
Speaker 2: i should say, the next financial year, and when they do,
2:44
Speaker 2: for some people in New South Wales, their bills will
2:47
Speaker 2: have increased by eight hundred and six dollars since Alberanizi
2:51
Speaker 2: came to power. It's seven hundred and thirty in Queensland
2:54
Speaker 2: and six hundred and twenty eight bucks in South Australia.
2:58
Speaker 2: So in New South Wales you'll you'll be paying more
3:00
Speaker 2: than one thousand dollars more. You're one thousand dollars worse
3:04
Speaker 2: off than what Albanezi promised you when you take into
3:08
Speaker 2: account that two hundred and seventy five he said he'd
3:11
Speaker 2: give you as a discount. It's not just bad, it's
3:13
Speaker 2: diabolical and the Energy Minister, Chris Bowen, had the goal
3:18
Speaker 2: today to say that if you're not happy with your
3:20
Speaker 2: power bill, you should do something about it, and he's
3:23
Speaker 2: somehow making that easier.
3:26
Speaker 6: And I think these figures show an important opportunity to
3:29
Speaker 6: remind Australians that you can do better and shop around
3:33
Speaker 6: for a better deal.
3:35
Speaker 4: I mean, excuse me.
3:37
Speaker 2: He's effectively saying it is our fault that we're paying
3:41
Speaker 2: too much for power. And here's the cape crusader, Bowen
3:45
Speaker 2: coming in to show you how to get a cheaper
3:47
Speaker 2: deal with a government website, comparison website. Please now, the
3:52
Speaker 2: regulator charges that a fault offer changes it sorry every year.
3:55
Speaker 2: It takes into consideration the wholesale cost of electricity, the
4:00
Speaker 2: cost of moving electricity around, and compliance with government rules
4:04
Speaker 2: and regulations, and then comes up with a price that
4:06
Speaker 2: it thinks, based on those costs is reasonable. So, of course,
4:10
Speaker 2: if the wholesale price of electricity goes up, or the
4:13
Speaker 2: cost of the infrastructure or dealing with regulations goes up,
4:17
Speaker 2: so does the default offer. And so the obvious question
4:21
Speaker 2: is why have these costs gone up? The Prime Minister
4:25
Speaker 2: said it has nothing to do with him.
4:28
Speaker 5: Well, the Australia is not separate from world movements, and
4:34
Speaker 5: what we've seen is substantial world movements in energy prices
4:38
Speaker 5: as a direct result of the long tail of COVID
4:42
Speaker 5: and supply chain issues, but also of the Russian invasion
4:46
Speaker 5: of Ukraine that has seen enormous spikes.
4:49
Speaker 2: I mean, how many times can he trot that one
4:52
Speaker 2: out and Chris Bowen quell surprise, blames it on coal.
4:57
Speaker 6: One of the reasons for this decision today is spikes
5:01
Speaker 6: caused by coal fire power stations breaking down. Not a
5:05
Speaker 6: day in the last two years have we had a
5:08
Speaker 6: coal fire POWERstation not breakdown somewhere in Australia. Not talking
5:12
Speaker 6: about plane maintenance, sometimes talking about unexpected breakdowns which sends
5:16
Speaker 6: the energy prices spike.
5:18
Speaker 2: This bloke is completely divorced from reality, because yes, the
5:23
Speaker 2: unreliability of coal fired generators has been a major contributor
5:28
Speaker 2: to price volatility in recent years. But has Bowen ever
5:32
Speaker 2: bothered to ask why he is the reason why we're
5:37
Speaker 2: repeatedly told that renewable energy is the cheapest form of
5:40
Speaker 2: power available, and yet prices keep going up because we're
5:44
Speaker 2: decommissioning coal and gas much faster than we're commissioning solar
5:48
Speaker 2: and wind. Now, if you're a big energy provider and
5:51
Speaker 2: agal or an origin, you are going to spend your
5:54
Speaker 2: money where you can make the most money, and right
5:57
Speaker 2: now that's renewables because they're heavily subsidized, so that's where
6:01
Speaker 2: they're investing. It makes economic sense for them as a business.
6:04
Speaker 2: They exist, of course, to turn a profit. And while
6:07
Speaker 2: they're spending all this money over here on renewables, over there,
6:12
Speaker 2: there's no encouragement to maintain their coal plants to the
6:15
Speaker 2: higher standards because they're running at a higher and higher cost. Now,
6:20
Speaker 2: it's hardly a surprise that a natural consequence of that
6:23
Speaker 2: would be the degradation of these plants. That's why things
6:27
Speaker 2: keep going wrong and they keep going offline unannounced. I mean,
6:31
Speaker 2: why would you stump up big money to pre empty
6:34
Speaker 2: issues with a power plant that you're planning to close
6:37
Speaker 2: within a decade, Because that's what the federal government wants
6:40
Speaker 2: for coal to go away. But by heavily subsidizing and
6:44
Speaker 2: encouraging renewables so fast and effectively moving all that investment
6:48
Speaker 2: from coal to renewables, vended up in a situation where
6:52
Speaker 2: we don't have enough power because we can't build the
6:55
Speaker 2: renewables fast enough to keep up with the coal that
6:58
Speaker 2: we're losing. And of course if you have a scarcity
7:01
Speaker 2: of a resource, then the cost of it goes up.
7:04
Speaker 2: It's simple market forces and it's the removal of gas too.
7:08
Speaker 2: The Energy Market Operator's teen year Outlook update last year
7:12
Speaker 2: said that withdrawal of South Australian gas generators has increased
7:16
Speaker 2: reliability risks from twenty twenty four to twenty five onwards
7:20
Speaker 2: jointly in South Australia and Victoria because AGL walk back
7:24
Speaker 2: a plan to turn a two hundred megawatt gas fired
7:27
Speaker 2: unit at Torrens Island back on and ingy Mothball diesel
7:30
Speaker 2: power generators at Port Lincoln and Millicent three and a
7:33
Speaker 2: half years ahead of schedule. And it was the same
7:36
Speaker 2: story in their annual electricity Statement of Opportunity in August.
7:41
Speaker 2: South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales are facing power
7:45
Speaker 2: shortages from this summer onwards unless extra generation is brought
7:50
Speaker 2: in urgently. It's the same story again and again. Fossil
7:55
Speaker 2: fuel power goes offline because the federal government has disincentivized it.
7:59
Speaker 4: There's not an from RBLE Energy.
8:00
Speaker 2: To replace it, you get blackouts and higher prices, and
8:04
Speaker 2: then Chris Bowen, who's helped design all of this, has
8:07
Speaker 2: the hide to say that it's coal's fault. You have
8:11
Speaker 2: companies like Nippies, the juice maker that said last year
8:14
Speaker 2: it's power bill had more than doubled in a year,
8:17
Speaker 2: despite the fact it was using less power and had
8:20
Speaker 2: installed a million dollars worth of solar panels. This is
8:23
Speaker 2: the great green dream under Bowen and Albanisi, and the
8:27
Speaker 2: state governments have had to pay to clean up the
8:29
Speaker 2: mess of the FEDS so we can still turn the
8:32
Speaker 2: lights on New South Wales Premier Chris Min's last year
8:35
Speaker 2: agreed to cover the losses of Origins, a rearing coal
8:38
Speaker 2: fired power station, to keep it open for another two years,
8:41
Speaker 2: given it provides a quarter of the state's power and
8:45
Speaker 2: was meant to close this year. The Victorian government also
8:48
Speaker 2: has agreements with Energy Australia to keep your lawn open
8:51
Speaker 2: until mid twenty twenty eight and age Eel's lawyer yang
8:55
Speaker 2: A until twenty thirty five, and the terms of those
8:58
Speaker 2: deals by the way seat. But either way you pay
9:02
Speaker 2: more because the government has gone too hard, too fast
9:06
Speaker 2: on renewables. South Australian Premier Peter malanawsk has put it well.
9:10
Speaker 2: At the Bush Summit last year, he said, the nonsense
9:13
Speaker 2: of the climate wars at a federal level has undermined
9:16
Speaker 2: investment and unfortunately it looks like it's continuing today. That
9:21
Speaker 2: in turn is resulting in an energy rich country that
9:25
Speaker 2: exports power to the rest of the world paying a
9:28
Speaker 2: higher domestic power price than the very countries that we.
9:31
Speaker 4: Are exporting our own energy to.
9:34
Speaker 2: And if that is not the best example of policy failure,
9:38
Speaker 2: then I'm not too sure what is bang on. And
9:42
Speaker 2: you know what we're exporting to the rest of the world,
9:45
Speaker 2: coal and gas, cheap, reliable power.
9:50
Speaker 4: Here we are strangling.
9:51
Speaker 2: Ourselves with sky high power bills because we don't want
9:54
Speaker 2: to burn it, so we can marginally reduce our one
9:56
Speaker 2: point three percent of global emissions.
9:59
Speaker 4: But I'll let you in on a little secret. We
10:01
Speaker 4: all live in the same world.
10:03
Speaker 2: Doesn't matter whether Australian coal and gas is burnt here
10:07
Speaker 2: or in China or in India. The emissions all spew
10:10
Speaker 2: out into the same atmosphere, the same world that we
10:14
Speaker 2: all live in, the same air that we all breathe.
10:17
Speaker 2: And while I'm quoting Labor premiers, I'll give the last
10:20
Speaker 2: word to Chris Mins.
10:22
Speaker 4: He said this last May. I'd just like to make the.
10:24
Speaker 2: Point that nothing will extinguish community and popular support for
10:29
Speaker 2: this energy transition more than a massive price back resulting
10:33
Speaker 2: in people not being able to pay their bills. Don't
10:37
Speaker 2: forget Chris Bowen and Anthony ALBANIZI promised you a two
10:42
Speaker 2: hundred and seventy five dollar cut to your power bill.
10:46
Speaker 2: Instead they have given you an eight hundred dollars hike.
10:50
Speaker 2: It is a broken promise, a huge one, and they
10:53
Speaker 2: can't be forgiven for it. And if they're return to
10:56
Speaker 2: government in May, it will just get worse. Let's head
11:03
Speaker 2: to Canbrin now for tonight's political headlines with Sky News
11:06
Speaker 2: political reporter Reuben Spargo.
11:09
Speaker 1: Electricity prices could increase by up to nine percent in
11:13
Speaker 1: a cost of living blow for Australians. Australia's independent energy
11:17
Speaker 1: UMPIRE has drafted its latest default market offer. It's set
11:21
Speaker 1: to lift the ceiling on the maximum price retailers can
11:23
Speaker 1: charge for their electricity. New South Wales residents and businesses
11:28
Speaker 1: will be hit the hardest. The government came to power
11:31
Speaker 1: on the promise of a two hundred and seventy five
11:34
Speaker 1: dollars cut by twenty twenty five.
11:36
Speaker 6: Policies were modeled in twenty twenty twenty twenty one, and
11:39
Speaker 6: of course we've seen energy price spikes right around, right
11:42
Speaker 6: around the right, around the world, says there.
11:45
Speaker 1: The Coalition is now calling for Anthony Alberzi to pull
11:48
Speaker 1: the plug on the Energy Minister.
11:50
Speaker 3: He has let Australians down.
11:51
Speaker 1: While the opposition pushes for more gas supply. The government's
11:55
Speaker 1: Cost of Living Fix is a three hundred dollars yearly
11:58
Speaker 1: handout for electricity bills. It's set to end in July.
12:02
Speaker 7: Fails to solve the underlying problem, and then day in,
12:06
Speaker 7: day out puts a band aid on a bullow wound.
12:08
Speaker 1: Attention is turning to the government's budget to see if
12:11
Speaker 1: relief will be extended and if it will energize voter confidence.
12:15
Speaker 1: The United States Common Secretary is targeting Australia after pressing
12:19
Speaker 1: ahead with metal tariffs. Howard Lutnik was dismissing concerns about
12:23
Speaker 1: the economic impact of tariffs on American prices when he
12:27
Speaker 1: made the remarks, and We're not.
12:29
Speaker 8: Going to stand for chaina dumping, Japan dumping Australia does
12:33
Speaker 8: a lot of aluminum below cost.
12:36
Speaker 9: I mean this has got to end and the President
12:38
Speaker 9: is on it.
12:38
Speaker 1: The Trump administration has floated the idea of a tariff
12:42
Speaker 1: on agricultural products and medicines. Concerns are high as Australia
12:46
Speaker 1: deals with the steel and aluminium fallout.
12:49
Speaker 3: It's a question of how the Prime Minister of Australia responds.
12:52
Speaker 3: And the Prime Minister of Australia can't even get a
12:54
Speaker 3: phone call with the President. He would have gone to Washington,
12:57
Speaker 3: but President Trump won't meet with him.
12:59
Speaker 1: The Prime Minister is now appealing to those at home.
13:03
Speaker 5: All Australians can join this effort and support our industries
13:07
Speaker 5: by taking the opportunity to buy.
13:09
Speaker 1: Australian Reuben Spargo, Sky News Canberra.
13:13
Speaker 2: Well on all this business about power bills jumping up
13:16
Speaker 2: per by nine percent, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton didn't mince
13:19
Speaker 2: his words today.
13:22
Speaker 3: Chris Bowen and Anthony Alberizi have presided over a broken
13:25
Speaker 3: promise of a two hundred and seventy five dollars electricity
13:28
Speaker 3: cut which was made on ninety seven occasions before the election,
13:32
Speaker 3: and now power bills have gone up by thirteen hundred dollars.
13:35
Speaker 3: Chris Bowen has been a disaster and he has let
13:38
Speaker 3: Australians down. If the Prime Minister doesn't sack Chris Bowen,
13:40
Speaker 3: I don't know when he would sack him, because he
13:43
Speaker 3: deserves to lose his job.
13:45
Speaker 2: For more on this than the day's other big stories,
13:47
Speaker 2: I'm joined by Sky News political reporter cam Redden and
13:50
Speaker 2: Daily Telegraph journalist James Willis.
13:52
Speaker 4: Welcome to you both.
13:54
Speaker 2: James, the Opposition leader says there that Bowen ought to
13:58
Speaker 2: be sacked, and maybe he deserves to be sacked. But
14:02
Speaker 2: if I were Peter Dutton, I'd be wanting him exactly
14:05
Speaker 2: where he is because he is a great asset to
14:09
Speaker 2: your position. People will look at the numbers today and
14:13
Speaker 2: it will cut through.
14:17
Speaker 10: Yeah, there's no doubt about that, Caleb. And look, ultimately,
14:20
Speaker 10: this promise, which the Labor insiders are now saying, oh no,
14:24
Speaker 10: but look, prices were always going to go up and
14:27
Speaker 10: this was just going to help them come down a
14:28
Speaker 10: little bit. This promise was one of the worst political
14:32
Speaker 10: promises we've seen in recent times, and anyone from Labor
14:36
Speaker 10: while they're in opposition, should have realized how to look
14:39
Speaker 10: at the market, how to look at the trends, how
14:42
Speaker 10: to look at the lack of renewable energy and the
14:45
Speaker 10: outgoing coalfide power base lead power that we had in
14:47
Speaker 10: the grid, and realize that prices were not physically going
14:51
Speaker 10: to be able to come down by twenty twenty five
14:54
Speaker 10: as they claimed, as Peter Dutton just said almost one
14:57
Speaker 10: hundred times in the lead up to the twenty twenty
14:59
Speaker 10: two election. Now, ultimately, whether Cris Bowen stays or goes
15:03
Speaker 10: the decisions in regards to energy in this country and labor,
15:07
Speaker 10: yes have been responsible for them for the past three
15:10
Speaker 10: years and have had to water down or tighten policies
15:13
Speaker 10: based on deals with the Greens. But the decisions that
15:15
Speaker 10: Australia has made on energy in the past decade, and
15:18
Speaker 10: that includes coalition governments both stayed and federal, to demonize coal,
15:23
Speaker 10: to scare off coal investors, to make it impossible for
15:27
Speaker 10: gas to be drilled and used in this country, and
15:31
Speaker 10: as you said in your editorial, to have a situation
15:34
Speaker 10: where we can export it for other countries to burn
15:37
Speaker 10: and use at a cheaper price. But for some reason
15:40
Speaker 10: we're causing climate change is the worst thing that has
15:44
Speaker 10: happened in this country for a long period of time.
15:46
Speaker 10: It's caused prices to strike, it's sent businesses broke and
15:49
Speaker 10: as a result we are in a mess. And it
15:51
Speaker 10: doesn't actually matter Caleb, who wins this next election, whoever
15:54
Speaker 10: gets in, is not going to be able to fix
15:56
Speaker 10: this any time soon. We're in big trouble on the
15:59
Speaker 10: energy front exactly.
16:01
Speaker 4: You can't turn it around overnight.
16:02
Speaker 2: But the Opposition needs to campaign hard on this because
16:06
Speaker 2: I mean, as far as broken promises go, this is
16:08
Speaker 2: a serious one. You know, in New South Wales you
16:11
Speaker 2: are one thousand dollars worse off than the Prime Minister
16:14
Speaker 2: promised you would be.
16:15
Speaker 4: That's not an insignificant number now, Cam.
16:17
Speaker 2: It was a colorful afternoon at the National Press Club today.
16:21
Speaker 2: The Trumpet of Patriots chairman Clive Palmer addressed the room basically,
16:25
Speaker 2: only he can take a look.
16:28
Speaker 11: One of the things about politics is that it can
16:30
Speaker 11: be extremely boring, especially when you're dealing with politicians. For
16:35
Speaker 11: Trumpet of Patriots believe it's time to throw out the
16:37
Speaker 11: politicians to look at policies that are best for Australia
16:41
Speaker 11: and how we can reinvigorate the nation in Australia. For
16:44
Speaker 11: too long Australians have suffered over the duopoly of power,
16:49
Speaker 11: labor and liberal parties against the interests of all Australians.
16:52
Speaker 11: It's either tweedled dumb or tweedled d It's dumber or dumber,
16:57
Speaker 11: or it's B one or B two.
16:59
Speaker 6: We want to change the Do you believe then that
17:01
Speaker 6: Taiwan should be given to China?
17:07
Speaker 11: I don't believe that anyone should be given to anybody.
17:10
Speaker 11: So my wife that Tim Tams, So you can't stop
17:12
Speaker 11: me here.
17:15
Speaker 4: I'm sorry.
17:15
Speaker 2: I'm trying to find at Tim Tam here so I
17:17
Speaker 2: can reenact it. But I seem to have failed to
17:19
Speaker 2: bring my problem with me.
17:21
Speaker 12: But I not fine in the fridge, I'm terrible. Oh
17:24
Speaker 12: you put them in the fridge. That's not that I
17:25
Speaker 12: don't put them in the fridge. I don't like chocolate
17:27
Speaker 12: in the fridge because not here. But Cam, Look, it
17:29
Speaker 12: was it was, it was entertaining. But do we really
17:33
Speaker 12: think that this is going to go anywhere? We know
17:36
Speaker 12: what happened last time Palmer spent you know, about one
17:39
Speaker 12: hundred million dollars in advertising, et cetera.
17:42
Speaker 4: He got one sentence suit.
17:46
Speaker 7: Yeah, but he got one senten set. I suppose Caleb
17:48
Speaker 7: is the flip side to that. We can look at
17:50
Speaker 7: the eating of the Tim Tams and the jokes and
17:52
Speaker 7: the laughter and not take it very seriously. But Kwai Palmer,
17:55
Speaker 7: despite some of the antics, is very serious about his
17:59
Speaker 7: role that he could play in this election campaign. Heap
18:01
Speaker 7: in mind, of course, is not running himself. He's got
18:03
Speaker 7: one hundred million dollars to burn and that time last
18:07
Speaker 7: time netted him about four percent of the vote nationwide.
18:10
Speaker 7: You think four percent, okay, who cares? But it is
18:12
Speaker 7: enough potentially to shift some of those seats that come
18:16
Speaker 7: down to raise the thin margins on election night rely
18:19
Speaker 7: on the preferences from the trumpet of patriots, So maybe
18:24
Speaker 7: change the seat from one hand.
18:26
Speaker 9: To the other.
18:26
Speaker 7: So Caleb, even if he does only keep the one
18:29
Speaker 7: senator that he's got, and look, there's an asterix there
18:31
Speaker 7: because technically Ralphervett.
18:32
Speaker 9: Isn't going with him.
18:33
Speaker 7: He's staying with the UAP, which no longer exists if
18:36
Speaker 7: he's still following. This is all very messy, but at
18:39
Speaker 7: the end of the day, that four percent, if he
18:40
Speaker 7: can replicate a Clive Palmer, may be enough to swing
18:43
Speaker 7: some seats. The lights of Bruce perhaps in Melbourne, where
18:46
Speaker 7: the vote was a bit higher in twenty twenty two
18:49
Speaker 7: for the likes of the UAP and one nation does
18:52
Speaker 7: that collect a similar kind of vote in the eight
18:54
Speaker 7: to nine percent range.
18:56
Speaker 9: It is just too much to not.
18:57
Speaker 4: Take seriously, Caleb.
18:59
Speaker 7: If they got thirty five it's in one state, okay, fine,
19:02
Speaker 7: But if he gets four five percent nationwide, where those
19:05
Speaker 7: preferences go could be key. And there's still not a
19:08
Speaker 7: lot of clarity on exactly what will happen seat by seat.
19:11
Speaker 7: Keep in mind, as far as I've checked from their
19:13
Speaker 7: last website update, there's still only one candidate that they've announced,
19:17
Speaker 7: even though they said that we're running everywhere, so we
19:19
Speaker 7: still don't know exactly who these patriots are. That Clive
19:22
Speaker 7: Palmer is a parody trumpeting.
19:24
Speaker 4: It's a good point.
19:26
Speaker 2: They could have chosen a bitter name, though, Trumpet of Patriots.
19:29
Speaker 2: I just don't think it will cut through in the
19:31
Speaker 2: same way that you know United Australia Party does. But
19:33
Speaker 2: we know he went through the motions to try and
19:35
Speaker 2: get that back. Why he de registered it in the
19:37
Speaker 2: first place, I don't know. I suspect he.
19:39
Speaker 4: Regrets that now.
19:40
Speaker 2: Of course, we found out this week that the Dural
19:42
Speaker 2: caravan terror plot was all an elaborate hoax by an
19:45
Speaker 2: organized crime game to gain leverage. Apparently, now the New
19:49
Speaker 2: South Wales Greens are claiming that the Men's government quote
19:52
Speaker 2: massively overreacted and jumped the gun with their knee jerk
19:57
Speaker 2: overreaching criminal laws. Now they're talking about laws that effectively
20:01
Speaker 2: made it illegal to protest outside places of worship.
20:04
Speaker 4: Will today.
20:05
Speaker 2: Chris Mins responded, saying that the New South Wales government
20:08
Speaker 2: will not be repealing hate speech laws passed in parliament
20:12
Speaker 2: last month.
20:13
Speaker 4: James, is he right?
20:17
Speaker 10: I think the Greens are dead wrong and I think
20:20
Speaker 10: for the Greens to be lecturing anyone on criminal legislation
20:24
Speaker 10: is just a joke. These are the people that are
20:25
Speaker 10: against protests. They've fought against extinction, rebellion and these mobs
20:30
Speaker 10: being having the book thrown at them with tough legislation.
20:34
Speaker 10: They've pushed back against all sorts of protest laws. They've
20:36
Speaker 10: pushed back against youth crime and strengthening all those sort
20:40
Speaker 10: of things. This is a really difficult one, Kaylor, But
20:42
Speaker 10: I don't think the legislation that passed Parliament during this
20:46
Speaker 10: period is somehow flawed or was done on the wrong premise.
20:51
Speaker 10: I think there is absolutely no doubt whether an alleged
20:54
Speaker 10: criminal mastermind was behind this caravan plot and some of
20:59
Speaker 10: the attacks that we saw. That doesn't diminish the fear
21:03
Speaker 10: and concern rightly that the Jewish community had in Sydney.
21:06
Speaker 10: In other parts of the country, we have to remember
21:09
Speaker 10: that there was a terror attack in Melbourne where a
21:11
Speaker 10: synagogue was firebombed as well. So look, certainly, even if
21:15
Speaker 10: there was a criminal mastermind that had a much larger
21:17
Speaker 10: alleged plot behind this, I don't think in any way
21:22
Speaker 10: the Jewish people had any right to feel any less scared.
21:25
Speaker 10: I think it was a very terrible time and I
21:27
Speaker 10: still think it still is. So I'm not sure that
21:30
Speaker 10: can be linked to laws that needed to be rushed through,
21:32
Speaker 10: and I think we really did need them in New
21:34
Speaker 10: South Wales.
21:35
Speaker 5: Well.
21:35
Speaker 2: The definition of terror, of course is to create terror terrorism.
21:39
Speaker 2: The point is to create terror. Now, whether or not
21:40
Speaker 2: to actually carry out an attack is rather beside the point.
21:43
Speaker 2: It is still terrorism if you make people feel terror.
21:47
Speaker 2: Strange story this one movie star Leonardo DiCaprio. He stopped
21:51
Speaker 2: flitting around with whatever latest twenty year old girly hangs
21:54
Speaker 2: out with too, where it takes some time to blast
21:57
Speaker 2: the federal government for approving the clearing of nature of
22:00
Speaker 2: vegetation in WA's Jarrah Forest for the expansion of a
22:03
Speaker 2: book site mine. He of course, it took to social
22:06
Speaker 2: media the Titanic star that he is, with images of
22:10
Speaker 2: some native animals, writing, this operation will destroy critical habitat
22:14
Speaker 2: for over eight thousand species, eighty percent of which are
22:18
Speaker 2: found nowhere else on Earth. Cam put him in charge
22:22
Speaker 2: of the Environment Department, shall we? Perhaps Sir Albert will
22:25
Speaker 2: get along better with him than he will tell you.
22:27
Speaker 4: Bibasic.
22:30
Speaker 7: Yeah, maybe you can inception that idea in somebody's mind.
22:34
Speaker 4: Caleb.
22:34
Speaker 7: I'm pretty sure he was in that film, Wasn't he
22:36
Speaker 7: not a bad one? But I'm not sure the government
22:37
Speaker 7: will be taking his advice on this. Yeah, this issue
22:40
Speaker 7: in Wa is red hot. We saw the result in
22:42
Speaker 7: the election even in Wa. Look at a state level,
22:46
Speaker 7: labor got out pretty much scott free. But at a
22:48
Speaker 7: federal level it's caused them all sorts of issues. There
22:51
Speaker 7: will be one of the factors on federal election night
22:53
Speaker 7: if we do see some of those seats shipped back.
22:56
Speaker 7: The nature positive laws may be a part of that
22:58
Speaker 7: of course they have been shelled. Labor is saying they
23:01
Speaker 7: do want to revisit those if they.
23:03
Speaker 9: Are re elected.
23:04
Speaker 2: Cam James, thank you so much for your time. After
23:06
Speaker 2: the break, I'll be joined by an energy expert to
23:09
Speaker 2: cut through the government spin when it comes to this
23:11
Speaker 2: disastrous default market offer plus the insane electoral vehicle electric
23:16
Speaker 2: sorry vehicle tax loophole that disproportionately benefits the well off.
23:20
Speaker 4: I'll tell you more about that soon.
23:26
Speaker 2: Well, back to our top story this evening that despite
23:29
Speaker 2: being told we'd have two hundred and seventy five dollars
23:32
Speaker 2: off our power bills by this year, electricity prices are
23:35
Speaker 2: set to increase yet again.
23:37
Speaker 4: It's bad for you.
23:38
Speaker 2: It's obviously bad for the government with an election around
23:41
Speaker 2: the corner and cost of living being far and away
23:44
Speaker 2: the top issue on people's minds. And this isn't just
23:47
Speaker 2: a small increase. The Australian Energy Regulator says it'll vary,
23:51
Speaker 2: but New South Wales residents are likely to cop the
23:53
Speaker 2: biggest whack of nearly ten percent, and Chris Bowen, of
23:57
Speaker 2: course says this is all the fault of coal.
24:00
Speaker 4: But to help cut through.
24:01
Speaker 2: The government spin, aid Morrison he's the director of Energy
24:04
Speaker 2: research at the Center for Independent Studies. He joins me, Now, Aiden,
24:09
Speaker 2: is this all the fault of coal, as Chris Bowen says,
24:12
Speaker 2: or is it the fault of the war in Ukraine
24:15
Speaker 2: as the Prime Minister says?
24:16
Speaker 4: Or is it something else?
24:20
Speaker 13: It's certainly the fault of neither of those things. The
24:22
Speaker 13: war in Ukraine has totally washed through the energy price
24:24
Speaker 13: system at the moment. What it probably is the fault of,
24:27
Speaker 13: at least in New South Wales case, is Keen. Matt Keen,
24:30
Speaker 13: this is the first time we've seen the actual costs
24:32
Speaker 13: flow through from the renewables energy program, the big New
24:36
Speaker 13: South Wales electricity roadmap that he's produced as a signature
24:39
Speaker 13: piece of legislation when he was Energy Minister, And for
24:42
Speaker 13: the first time we're seeing how those costs will actually
24:44
Speaker 13: flow through to consumers. And at the moment about half
24:47
Speaker 13: a billion dollars annually is assumed to be transferred to
24:50
Speaker 13: New South Wales consumers based on infrastructure like the Central
24:54
Speaker 13: Western Runner renewbal Energy Zone which is nowhere near it
24:56
Speaker 13: yet constructed, or the Renewable Energy Zone and New Inn
25:00
Speaker 13: which is nowhere near yet constructed. There could also be
25:02
Speaker 13: the other costs passed on, including subsidies and underwriting for
25:06
Speaker 13: battery schemes and wind farms and solar farms that don't
25:09
Speaker 13: have a full commercial contract that covers their costs. These
25:12
Speaker 13: are the subsidy schemes that have been put in place,
25:14
Speaker 13: and now we're just starting to see the costs creep
25:17
Speaker 13: into consumers bills, and they probably account for a couple
25:19
Speaker 13: of percentage points of wine use.
25:21
Speaker 9: Whales sticks out above the rest.
25:22
Speaker 13: But the other states are going to catch up to
25:24
Speaker 13: when all their initiatives to force renewables into the system,
25:27
Speaker 13: catch up into the regulatory system and start to have
25:29
Speaker 13: their costs added up to.
25:31
Speaker 2: And the point I've been making is that that Bowen
25:34
Speaker 2: isn't entirely incorrect when he sees that coal is a faulty.
25:37
Speaker 2: But the reason coal is at fault is because you've
25:40
Speaker 2: had coal fired power stations degraded because there's no investment
25:45
Speaker 2: in them, because they're about to be shut down anyway.
25:48
Speaker 2: All of the big energy operators say, you know, by
25:51
Speaker 2: twenty thirty five most of them will be gone. So
25:53
Speaker 2: why would they be investing in a coal fired power
25:56
Speaker 2: station today when there's big backs to be made of
26:00
Speaker 2: the subsidies that are put on renewable energy. That's why
26:03
Speaker 2: they fail every fart minutes, because they're not being maintained.
26:06
Speaker 2: But then Bowen turns around it says, well, that's the
26:09
Speaker 2: fault of coal, as though it were the resource itself
26:12
Speaker 2: rather than the infrastructure that we're using to burn it.
26:18
Speaker 13: That's exactly right. The open secret about the renewable energy
26:22
Speaker 13: transition is that they need everything else in the system
26:25
Speaker 13: to start operating in this ad hoc up and down
26:28
Speaker 13: totally intermittent pattern as well to work around renewables, and
26:31
Speaker 13: coal suffers most from that, which are designed to work
26:34
Speaker 13: in a steady state. Pretty Much all machinery works best
26:37
Speaker 13: in a relatively steady state, so yes, it does cop
26:40
Speaker 13: the worst of the heating up and cooling down that's
26:42
Speaker 13: required to ramp up and shut down all the time.
26:44
Speaker 13: But also, as you point out, when the industry is
26:46
Speaker 13: being told continually they have no future, there's no incentives
26:49
Speaker 13: to do the sorts of deep maintenance activities that would
26:52
Speaker 13: keep these things operating more stably. So there is some
26:55
Speaker 13: grain of truth to the idea that these have had
26:57
Speaker 13: some more unexpected outages then expected. However, it has also
27:02
Speaker 13: been grossly exaggerated as well. So, for example, there's been
27:06
Speaker 13: a common sort of it's not quite technically alive, but
27:09
Speaker 13: a common statement's been wheeled out time and time again
27:11
Speaker 13: to say there's not been a single day in the
27:13
Speaker 13: last eighteen months or the last two years where there
27:15
Speaker 13: hasn't been an unforeseen coal outage. That is not because
27:18
Speaker 13: every day there has been a new coal fired plant
27:20
Speaker 13: that has something blow up and go wrong. It's because
27:23
Speaker 13: a couple of years ago in Queensland there was one
27:25
Speaker 13: coal power station that blow up really badly and it's
27:28
Speaker 13: been off ever since. So on a really kind of
27:30
Speaker 13: poor technicality, the situation has been grossly exaggerated, and that
27:35
Speaker 13: was quite a new one as well. So really coal
27:37
Speaker 13: is not nearly as unreliable as people actually are making
27:40
Speaker 13: out in this situation, but certainly there's been no incentive
27:43
Speaker 13: to do the deep kind of investment that would keep
27:44
Speaker 13: it operating smoothly and keeping downward pressure on prices consistently.
27:48
Speaker 14: Well.
27:48
Speaker 2: As a resource, it's terribly reliable. That's why everyone else
27:51
Speaker 2: overseas is buying coal. And that's what I quoted Peter
27:54
Speaker 2: Melanowskis earlier saying, you know, this is the greatest policy
27:58
Speaker 2: failure of all time, that we are actual resource rich
28:01
Speaker 2: country and everyone else is buying our resources, and yet
28:04
Speaker 2: we are paying more for energy in this country than
28:07
Speaker 2: the people who are buying energy resources from us. But
28:12
Speaker 2: what can we do or what can be done about
28:14
Speaker 2: this in the short term It seems almost impossible to
28:17
Speaker 2: turn around.
28:22
Speaker 13: We've certainly put ourselves into a very tricky position, and
28:25
Speaker 13: I think it's actually fair to say that it's going
28:26
Speaker 13: to be a real challenge for whatever incoming government if
28:29
Speaker 13: they want to put pressure down and pressure on electricity
28:32
Speaker 13: prices to actually achieve that. In particular, I think we've
28:35
Speaker 13: just started to see the very tip of a positive
28:38
Speaker 13: tsunami of additional transmission costs that are coming. As I said,
28:42
Speaker 13: this is the first time we've got a whiff of
28:43
Speaker 13: the state based plans being shifted onto energy bills from
28:46
Speaker 13: the new South Wales Electricity Roadmap. So it's going to
28:51
Speaker 13: be actually to actually put short term down pressure. Incoming
28:55
Speaker 13: governments are going to have to identify which projects really
28:58
Speaker 13: don't stack up economically and cancel the projects that have
29:01
Speaker 13: already been announced by previous governments. Because we're just starting
29:04
Speaker 13: to see the tip of the iceberg, and I'm sure
29:06
Speaker 13: there is so much more that's going to come. The
29:09
Speaker 13: regulator has done their very best to kick every possible
29:12
Speaker 13: can further down the road. There are more concealed costs coming.
29:16
Speaker 13: There are still decisions that aren't finalized for the distribution
29:19
Speaker 13: networks that could actually see things go up even further further.
29:22
Speaker 13: They've compressed the retails. They've squeezed their screws as tight
29:25
Speaker 13: as they possibly can last year in order to avoid
29:27
Speaker 13: announcing a big increase this year. They've kept those screws
29:31
Speaker 13: super tight, tight than there should be to allow new
29:33
Speaker 13: entrants to come and keep new competition in the market.
29:36
Speaker 13: So there are certainly going to be there is a
29:38
Speaker 13: pent up dam of pressure. Even in this determination which
29:41
Speaker 13: has shown as a sort of up to ten percent
29:42
Speaker 13: increase in New South Wales. There is so much more
29:45
Speaker 13: around the corner coming that it will be very very
29:48
Speaker 13: hard and will require some very tough decisions to basically
29:51
Speaker 13: call out past mistakes and cancel projects that have been
29:54
Speaker 13: committed to that do not make economic sense because those
29:57
Speaker 13: business cases were never there.
30:00
Speaker 2: And of course this infrastructure, it's regulatory assets, which essentially
30:03
Speaker 2: means there is a guarantee profit for the people who
30:06
Speaker 2: invest in it and who pays that you do in
30:08
Speaker 2: your power bills. It's a ridiculous situation. Adan Morrison, thank
30:11
Speaker 2: you so much for your time. Now, look, as far
30:14
Speaker 2: as I'm concerned, taxation is theft, so anything we can
30:17
Speaker 2: do to reduce it is a good thing. But there
30:19
Speaker 2: comes a point where fear is fair, or more to
30:22
Speaker 2: the point, unfair is unfair, which is the way it's
30:25
Speaker 2: gone with electric vehicles.
30:27
Speaker 4: Now, I get it.
30:28
Speaker 2: You give people tax breaks to get them to buy evs,
30:32
Speaker 2: and more people buy evs.
30:33
Speaker 4: It makes sense.
30:34
Speaker 2: But our old made Chris Bow and signature policy to
30:37
Speaker 2: boost the uptake of evs by exempting them from fringe
30:40
Speaker 2: benefits tax has blown out of all proportion. Treasury forecast
30:44
Speaker 2: it had cost fifty five million dollars this financial year. Well,
30:48
Speaker 2: it's actually costing the federal budget, you and me, the taxpayer,
30:51
Speaker 2: more than half a billion dollars a year, five hundred
30:55
Speaker 2: and sixty million dollars. Joining me now to discuss is
31:00
Speaker 2: senior motoring journalist Paul gob Paul, welcome, I'm an idiot.
31:04
Speaker 2: A hell of a lot of money that is being
31:06
Speaker 2: spent on this subsidy.
31:08
Speaker 4: And of course, by the nature of how.
31:10
Speaker 2: This works, because it goes through novated leases, so your
31:15
Speaker 2: employer salary sacrifices in order for you to be able
31:18
Speaker 2: to lease the vehicle. Generally it's for people on higher incomes.
31:23
Speaker 2: You know, someone working as a checkout chickdown at Woolies
31:26
Speaker 2: probably isn't getting this deal. So it is a tax
31:28
Speaker 2: deal that disproportionately helps higher income earners.
31:34
Speaker 15: It does, indeed, Caleb, and there it is a loophole,
31:39
Speaker 15: and it seemed like a good idea. But if you
31:41
Speaker 15: had a look at the sales rate for electric cars lately,
31:45
Speaker 15: they have fallen off a cliff last month, worst figures
31:49
Speaker 15: in a long time.
31:50
Speaker 9: The other thing about this is, and I'm not.
31:52
Speaker 15: Sure if you're aware of this, this subsidy, if you like,
31:56
Speaker 15: applies also to what are.
31:58
Speaker 9: Called plug in the hybrid cars.
32:01
Speaker 15: So these are cars that have a bigger battery than
32:03
Speaker 15: a normal hybrid, can typically run up to about eighty
32:06
Speaker 15: kilometers purely battery electric. And they're now the EV lobby
32:10
Speaker 15: is now claiming them as being EV car. Yeah, I know,
32:14
Speaker 15: that's what they have under the bonnet, a combustion engine
32:18
Speaker 15: and based on the experience in other countries, including the UK,
32:22
Speaker 15: where they used to give a huge tax break. Most
32:25
Speaker 15: people don't plug them in. They get it as their
32:28
Speaker 15: company car or their private car. They have a fuel
32:31
Speaker 15: card and they run it as a combustion car. So
32:34
Speaker 15: are actually subsidizing people to buy in some cases at
32:37
Speaker 15: least a combustion car.
32:39
Speaker 4: Well, it's a rip a deal. Why wouldn't you get
32:41
Speaker 4: in on it.
32:41
Speaker 2: I know a number of people who've bought an EV
32:44
Speaker 2: or taken a lease on an EV through their employer
32:46
Speaker 2: for exactly this reason, because the tax rebates and the
32:51
Speaker 2: incentives are so good that they would be stupid not
32:54
Speaker 2: to do it. But it's the only reason they've bought
32:57
Speaker 2: an EV. There is no other reason that they would
32:59
Speaker 2: have taken one. So does the industry actually survive on
33:04
Speaker 2: its own without these kind of tax breaks existing.
33:09
Speaker 15: Well, the experience in Europe will tell you no. In Europe,
33:14
Speaker 15: sales are dropping dramatically. In Australia electric the take up
33:18
Speaker 15: of electric vehicles has stalled as subsidies have come off,
33:23
Speaker 15: and there's no sign of it getting any better because
33:25
Speaker 15: market forces.
33:26
Speaker 9: Are now coming in.
33:27
Speaker 15: Instead of people buying an electric vehicle because they live
33:31
Speaker 15: in the city and it makes sense, or they want
33:32
Speaker 15: a virtual signal at a dinner party. They're now having
33:36
Speaker 15: to convert the second wave, if you like, of electric
33:39
Speaker 15: car buyers and they're not buying it. And the other
33:42
Speaker 15: thing that I found fairly recently from talking to some
33:45
Speaker 15: wholesalers is you can expect up to fifty percent depreciation
33:50
Speaker 15: in the first year. So somebody I know was looking
33:53
Speaker 15: to price some Tesla cars last month. They had been
33:58
Speaker 15: more than sixty grand when their brand new you best
34:00
Speaker 15: ticker get was about thirty five thousand from a wholesaler.
34:04
Speaker 2: There you go, And I mean you took about to
34:06
Speaker 2: virtue signaling at dinner party. Is the only signal I
34:09
Speaker 2: wanted at dinner party is the burble of mark xhaust
34:11
Speaker 2: pipe when I rock up at the front.
34:13
Speaker 4: But you mentioned Tesla there.
34:14
Speaker 2: They've been having issues over the past few days with
34:18
Speaker 2: their stocks plummeting. You've had senior executive directors leaving. James
34:23
Speaker 2: Murdoch is one of them who's selling out. How much
34:26
Speaker 2: trouble is Tesla in.
34:30
Speaker 15: Tesla is in trouble, no doubt about it. Elon's taken.
34:34
Speaker 15: He's spreading himself too thin. He's not on the day
34:37
Speaker 15: to day ball with what's happening at Tesla. If you
34:40
Speaker 15: look at in the USA, Tesla has now got more
34:46
Speaker 15: opposition than it's ever had. It's still running behind on
34:49
Speaker 15: a lot of its deliverables in terms of what models
34:51
Speaker 15: it was going to do and when and pricing, but
34:54
Speaker 15: also there's a political move. A lot of the people
34:57
Speaker 15: who have bought Tesla vehicles have been fans of Busk.
35:01
Speaker 15: They're left generally speaking, a bit left leaning, and they've
35:05
Speaker 15: realized that he is not left leaning, in fact, quite
35:07
Speaker 15: the opposite, and they've said they're not going to buy
35:10
Speaker 15: another Tesla. So that's happening here in Australia, the Tesla situation.
35:15
Speaker 9: Their sales have tanked in the last couple of months now.
35:18
Speaker 15: Part of that is down to deliveries and the fact
35:21
Speaker 15: that they haven't delivered on.
35:22
Speaker 9: These new models.
35:22
Speaker 15: But again it's also coming back to the same thing,
35:26
Speaker 15: what's the resale value? Because in Australia, you know, a
35:29
Speaker 15: car is a big asset and when you're doing your
35:32
Speaker 15: household finances, you don't really want to have one of
35:34
Speaker 15: your biggest assets depreciating as fast as electric cars are.
35:38
Speaker 4: Indeed, Paul Gover, thank you so much for your time.
35:41
Speaker 2: After the break, the war of words over tariff's heats up,
35:44
Speaker 2: with industries preparing for the worst as labor fails to
35:47
Speaker 2: secure a car outs things far out of control at
35:50
Speaker 2: a labor event chasing the Chinese boat.
35:52
Speaker 4: More on that later.
35:58
Speaker 2: Well, fresh from his public spat with President Trump, former
36:00
Speaker 2: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has now undercut Peter Dutton, the
36:04
Speaker 2: leader of the Liberal Party, of which he is still
36:06
Speaker 2: a member, by the way, by suggesting it'd be unfair
36:09
Speaker 2: to blame the federal government if the US administration refuses
36:13
Speaker 2: to grant Australia a tariff exemption. The Coalition has of
36:17
Speaker 2: course been on the attack, suggesting that the PM must
36:20
Speaker 2: be some responsibility.
36:21
Speaker 3: Prime Minister of Australia can't even get a phone call
36:24
Speaker 3: with the President. He would have gone to Washington, but
36:26
Speaker 3: President Trump won't meet with him. Ambassador rd can't get
36:30
Speaker 3: a phone call returned, he can't get into the White
36:32
Speaker 3: House or into the West Wing.
36:34
Speaker 2: And meanwhile, Trump's Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik, accused Australia of
36:38
Speaker 2: dumping cheap aluminium and steel on the United States.
36:41
Speaker 8: Serverynight, you've got dumpers in the rest of the world,
36:45
Speaker 8: Japan dumb steel, Chana dumb Steele, and we're not going
36:49
Speaker 8: to stand for China dumping, Japan dumping. Australia does a
36:53
Speaker 8: lot of aluminum at below cost.
36:55
Speaker 9: I mean this has got to end, and the President
36:57
Speaker 9: is on it.
36:59
Speaker 2: Joining me now is Principle at Eminence, Advisory and contributor
37:02
Speaker 2: to The Australian Dmitri bursht Inn. Dmitry, thank you for
37:05
Speaker 2: joining me on the desk tonight. I'm not sure it's
37:07
Speaker 2: necessarily true that we're dumping aluminum and steel on the
37:11
Speaker 2: United States, and I don't think it really matters in
37:13
Speaker 2: this case. To be perfectly honest, Trump said this tariff
37:16
Speaker 2: would apply to everyone, and it has applied to everyone.
37:20
Speaker 14: I think that's a fair point, Caleb, and I hate
37:23
Speaker 14: to agree with former Prime Minister Turnbull, but he's right.
37:27
Speaker 14: If Malcolm, excuse me, if President Trump is prepared to
37:30
Speaker 14: do to Canada what he's done, he's given no exemptions
37:34
Speaker 14: anywhere else. I think it's it's childish to quibble about
37:39
Speaker 14: the fact that Australia got no exemptions. I think the
37:42
Speaker 14: greater issue for US is the flow on effects of
37:45
Speaker 14: the tariffs that will be applied to other countries, particular China.
37:50
Speaker 4: Is this really as bad as it's been made out
37:53
Speaker 4: to be.
37:53
Speaker 2: I mean, what is it zero point two percent of
37:55
Speaker 2: our exports or something.
37:57
Speaker 4: Is it really going to hurt us in the long run, Well, if.
37:59
Speaker 14: You were, If you're a business owner wh's effected, of
38:01
Speaker 14: course is going to hurt you. But in the macro sense,
38:04
Speaker 14: I think our exports to China are about ten times
38:07
Speaker 14: greater than what they are to the United States. I
38:10
Speaker 14: don't think it'll hurt us directly, but indirectly because it will.
38:15
Speaker 14: These tariffs will inevitably slow down the global economy.
38:19
Speaker 4: Our exports to.
38:20
Speaker 14: Other nations will be impacted. There will be a bit
38:22
Speaker 14: of a softening because Australia has a flexible exchange rate,
38:27
Speaker 14: so there'll be a softening of the impact. But it
38:30
Speaker 14: cannot but impact the Australian economy in.
38:33
Speaker 2: Terms of our exports to other nations. Though, doesn't this
38:36
Speaker 2: give us an opportunity to find another market for our
38:38
Speaker 2: aluminum steel, much like you know, China cut off our
38:41
Speaker 2: wine for a while there, so we went and found
38:43
Speaker 2: other people who would buy it, and we're not going
38:45
Speaker 2: to do the same thing here again.
38:47
Speaker 14: Yes, it's possible. But you know what will happen is
38:51
Speaker 14: when the US government applies I think it's you know,
38:56
Speaker 14: between thirty and fifty percent on China and China starts
38:59
Speaker 14: buying less gas sign or Le's cale, Korea, Japan, these
39:03
Speaker 14: are all markets for our commodities. What's going to happen
39:06
Speaker 14: and we're going to receive fewer dollars on that This.
39:10
Speaker 2: Idea of protectionism that you know, we all sort of
39:12
Speaker 2: thought was left behind decades ago, and Trump has jumped
39:17
Speaker 2: back on board with Is he going.
39:19
Speaker 4: To bring it back in vogue? I mean he's doing it.
39:21
Speaker 2: Is there a chance now that other nations start going
39:23
Speaker 2: down the same road?
39:24
Speaker 14: Well, the last time this was brought back in vogue
39:26
Speaker 14: was you know, brought on the Great Depression with the
39:29
Speaker 14: Smooth Holy Act. President Trump has been speaking a lot
39:33
Speaker 14: about the twenty fifth president, William McKinley, who was really
39:36
Speaker 14: big on tariffs. But that was at a time when
39:39
Speaker 14: the US federal government had no income tax and it
39:42
Speaker 14: was around two percent of the US economy. It's around
39:45
Speaker 14: twenty five to thirty percent of the economy with lots
39:48
Speaker 14: of income tax. Adam Crichton has on Sky News and
39:53
Speaker 14: in the paper has suggested this is a means to
39:56
Speaker 14: generate tax revenue to you know, to reduce the the
40:00
Speaker 14: US government's deficit. But you cannot, as Australia will soon learn,
40:05
Speaker 14: fix a budget problem by raising taxes, because all you're
40:07
Speaker 14: going to do is slow the economy and reduce other
40:10
Speaker 14: sources of tax revenue.
40:11
Speaker 4: Well, you mentioned taxes there.
40:12
Speaker 2: Of course, we've got a federal budget coming up at
40:14
Speaker 2: the end of the month March twenty fifth. The tax
40:17
Speaker 2: take income tax take now is through the roof three
40:20
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty billion dollars this financial year in income tax,
40:24
Speaker 2: which is the highest rate it's been out in a
40:27
Speaker 2: very long time, nineteen years. Are we likely to see
40:31
Speaker 2: any relief in this space. I highly doubt it. I
40:34
Speaker 2: mean we've got our supposed Stage three tax cuts, but
40:37
Speaker 2: the government has become so addicted to it, of course,
40:40
Speaker 2: through bracket creep, which Stage three was meant to address.
40:43
Speaker 2: They don't want to address bracket creep because it's easy money.
40:46
Speaker 14: Of course, the case Australia actually did have indexation of
40:51
Speaker 14: tax brackets once before. It was in the early seventies,
40:54
Speaker 14: excuse me, in the latter seventies, Malcolm Fraser went to
40:56
Speaker 14: an election promising to index brackets. He did than maybe
41:00
Speaker 14: one or two years before. That wasn't generating enough money.
41:04
Speaker 14: The Australian government hasn't got a tax problem. It's got
41:06
Speaker 14: a spending problem.
41:07
Speaker 2: Correct, And you said it's not generating enough money. It's
41:11
Speaker 2: money that they want, not money credit they need to make.
41:14
Speaker 14: Well, what they're going to do, if I may just
41:15
Speaker 14: find it, they're going to balance their budget by destroying
41:18
Speaker 14: household budgets.
41:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, Well, they've already done that. I think they're
41:22
Speaker 2: well on the way to doing it even more. Dmitri,
41:23
Speaker 2: thank you so much for joining me. After the break,
41:25
Speaker 2: the balls now in Putin's court as Trump ramps up
41:28
Speaker 2: pressure to accept the cease fire, you'll plus things fill
41:31
Speaker 2: out of control of a labor Chinese event in Melbourne,
41:34
Speaker 2: don't go away. Well. After Ukraine yesterday accepted a thirty
41:41
Speaker 2: day cease fire, you'll put up by the United States.
41:44
Speaker 2: The pressure is now on Putin to do the same.
41:47
Speaker 2: Today Donald Trump ramped up the pressure on the Russians.
41:50
Speaker 16: There are things you could do that that wouldn't be
41:53
Speaker 16: pleasured in a financial sense. I can do things financially
41:57
Speaker 16: that would be very bad for Russia. I don't want
41:58
Speaker 16: to do that because I want to get by. I
42:00
Speaker 16: want to see peace, and we'll see. But in a
42:03
Speaker 16: financial sense, yeah, we could do things very bad for Russia.
42:06
Speaker 16: It would be devastated for Russia. But I don't want
42:08
Speaker 16: to do that because I want to see peace.
42:11
Speaker 2: Joining me now to discuss this and plenty more scar
42:14
Speaker 2: And News contributed Kosher Gada and former Foreign Affairs and
42:17
Speaker 2: Defense Committee Chair Michael Danby. Welcome to you both. Michael,
42:22
Speaker 2: how is this going to play out now?
42:24
Speaker 17: Well, two seasoned foreign policy experts, Rubio and Waltz negotiated
42:30
Speaker 17: this with the Ukrainians, and I think that's an explanation
42:34
Speaker 17: of the fact that they came out with a sensible result.
42:38
Speaker 17: It's now in Putin's court. I'm not sure at all
42:42
Speaker 17: that Putin will agree to Trump's terms, and that will
42:45
Speaker 17: mean the Americans who resumed intelligence and armed supplies will
42:49
Speaker 17: just have to continue to do that and Donald Trump
42:52
Speaker 17: will have to stare down mister Putin. The Ukrainians are
42:56
Speaker 17: being compliant, some people say they're being extraor I'm not
43:00
Speaker 17: sure about that, but I do worry that the Trump
43:06
Speaker 17: administration will be perplexed by Russia. And not know what
43:11
Speaker 17: to do with it if Putin refuses to agree.
43:14
Speaker 2: Well, Putin's basically said today kosher that it's not going
43:18
Speaker 2: to happen. He hasn't addressed it directly, but he's made
43:20
Speaker 2: overtones that it's not going to happen. He talks about
43:24
Speaker 2: Trump that is financial pain. What sort of financial pain
43:28
Speaker 2: could he put upon Russia.
43:32
Speaker 18: There's a few things, but they may be limited for
43:34
Speaker 18: a couple of reasons. So one is tariffs, which is
43:37
Speaker 18: Trump's favorite measures as we all know. However, because of
43:41
Speaker 18: the sanctions that have been put on Russia over the
43:43
Speaker 18: past couple of years, exports from Russia to the US
43:45
Speaker 18: have dropped by eighty percent, so that actually won't hit
43:49
Speaker 18: them that much the way would other countries that Trump
43:51
Speaker 18: is wielding this the tariff sword with. The other thing
43:54
Speaker 18: he could do is expand the sanctions a little bit.
43:57
Speaker 18: Financial sanctions. Where there are some exemptions right now where
44:00
Speaker 18: Russia can still receive payment for energy exports, which is
44:03
Speaker 18: the lifeblood of their economy. He could tighten that and
44:06
Speaker 18: make that more difficult, and he could maybe do things
44:09
Speaker 18: like undercut some of the deals that Russia has with
44:13
Speaker 18: energy exports. Given that part of Trump's policy is expanding
44:16
Speaker 18: US energy dominance, and maybe there's a way that he
44:18
Speaker 18: could increase competitive pressure over there. But those kinds of
44:22
Speaker 18: sticks are a little bit limited, just because Russia has
44:24
Speaker 18: demonstrated that notwithstanding these sanctions, they've been able to actually
44:27
Speaker 18: maintain their economy more or less. There are also carrots
44:30
Speaker 18: that he could offer on the other side, such as
44:32
Speaker 18: lifting sanctions or giving some sort of commitment of demilitarizing Ukraine.
44:37
Speaker 18: Those kinds of things will be a step in the
44:38
Speaker 18: other direction and will ruffle some feathers, but you could
44:41
Speaker 18: look at something like that as well.
44:42
Speaker 2: Indeed, ultimately, I just hope they can put an end
44:45
Speaker 2: to this walk because too many young men have died
44:47
Speaker 2: on both sides for something essentially is just going nowhere
44:52
Speaker 2: a little closer to home. This one's for you, Michael,
44:54
Speaker 2: as a labor man. But what on earth was going
44:57
Speaker 2: on last night in box Hill in Melbourne? Testers were
45:01
Speaker 2: barred from a labor Chinese town hall event with keynote
45:04
Speaker 2: speaker Penny Wong. Daniel Andrews was meant to be there,
45:08
Speaker 2: but he was apparently a no show because he was
45:10
Speaker 2: sick or something.
45:11
Speaker 4: I'll notice.
45:12
Speaker 2: Spokesperson for Victoria Labor said this was about connecting multicultural
45:17
Speaker 2: communities and it is unfortunate. They said that protesters sought
45:21
Speaker 2: to disrupt the event. But the protesters, it would seem,
45:26
Speaker 2: had the view that the only way you could get
45:28
Speaker 2: into this room was to be Chinese, which would seem
45:31
Speaker 2: a little odd.
45:33
Speaker 17: It is odd. There shouldn't be people barred from any
45:37
Speaker 17: political town hall where they have valid tickets. It's a
45:41
Speaker 17: shame that police barred people who had apparently valid tickets.
45:46
Speaker 17: Let's be honest about this, So Calebn kosher. There is
45:50
Speaker 17: a fear of the Chinese Australian vote that has seized
45:55
Speaker 17: the Labor Party and also concerns Peter Dutton and the
46:01
Speaker 17: new Liberal foreign spokesman. And it's very bad that via
46:06
Speaker 17: Waibow and we chat, this influence is being used to
46:11
Speaker 17: curtail free speech in Australia, whether it's out of town
46:13
Speaker 17: hall or whether we can openly talk about the Chinese
46:18
Speaker 17: navy circumnavigating Australia and US having not enough defense assets
46:22
Speaker 17: to properly deal with it, particularly tailor if there was
46:25
Speaker 17: a submarine underneath those two ships that were on the service.
46:28
Speaker 2: Indeed, and it does raise questions does it not kosher
46:32
Speaker 2: about foreign interference in Australia, even.
46:34
Speaker 4: If it's not overt covert in some way?
46:39
Speaker 18: Absolutely, And I think colvert interference is just becoming more
46:43
Speaker 18: and more of the norm around the world, and sometimes
46:45
Speaker 18: it bubbles up into the ether and we talk about
46:48
Speaker 18: it like this thing. And there's all sorts of a
46:50
Speaker 18: host of things happening all the time, from social media
46:53
Speaker 18: influence and bots to money that's getting put into everything else.
46:57
Speaker 18: And I think just in this multicultural, big immigration world
47:01
Speaker 18: that we live in, you're going to see that kind
47:02
Speaker 18: of thing happen more and more.
47:04
Speaker 2: Trump was asked today about how he feels personally about
47:07
Speaker 2: the layoff of federal workers.
47:08
Speaker 4: Easy bit of what he had to say.
47:11
Speaker 16: Sure, I do, I feel very badly, But many of
47:13
Speaker 16: them don't work at all. Many of them never showed
47:16
Speaker 16: up to work. Many of them many of them never
47:18
Speaker 16: showed up to work.
47:19
Speaker 4: Kelly, has all this being received over they kosher?
47:25
Speaker 2: You know?
47:25
Speaker 18: I think in d C Central and the orbit of
47:28
Speaker 18: elites that surrounds d C Central not very well as
47:31
Speaker 18: you would imagine. These people, a lot of them have
47:33
Speaker 18: had a sweet deal, great job security, good pay, the
47:38
Speaker 18: wealth of the zip code surrounding Washington, DC are among
47:41
Speaker 18: the richest in the whole country, and yet that is
47:43
Speaker 18: a part of the country that doesn't actually produce anything
47:46
Speaker 18: or make anything, and that does not go unnoticed. However,
47:49
Speaker 18: when you look at the electorate overall, the heartland flyover
47:52
Speaker 18: country as it's called, it's actually being received very, very well,
47:55
Speaker 18: because even if people aren't in the weeds of exactly
47:57
Speaker 18: which cuts are more legitimate or less legitimate, they know
48:00
Speaker 18: that government bloat has been going on and on. There's
48:03
Speaker 18: a lot of waste, fraud and abuse. This is being unwound.
48:06
Speaker 18: And in a world where everybody else is worried about
48:09
Speaker 18: job security and cost of living and real wages, this
48:11
Speaker 18: seems like a welcome equalization and kind of a return
48:15
Speaker 18: to a more recalibrated government that is not too big
48:18
Speaker 18: and a better size for what its sculpt should be.
48:21
Speaker 2: Now, Michael, we talked about China before. Just further on China,
48:24
Speaker 2: the Trump administration is demanding that Australian researchers who collaborate
48:28
Speaker 2: with US federal agencies declare any links they have to China,
48:32
Speaker 2: as well as complying with the Trump's administrations to genders policy.
48:37
Speaker 4: It seems pretty common sense to me.
48:40
Speaker 17: Well, we had a great report written by a young
48:43
Speaker 17: Australian researcher on how Australian universities are being used to
48:47
Speaker 17: leverage Chinese research for their military. Young mister Joski's report
48:54
Speaker 17: deeply influenced people all around the world. And not only that,
48:58
Speaker 17: should we comply with it because of what the Trump
49:00
Speaker 17: administration says, we should do it in our own national
49:03
Speaker 17: security interests. And you know, I think that's the bottom
49:07
Speaker 17: line as far as the Australian perspective will.
49:10
Speaker 4: Miss Kosher twenty seconds.
49:15
Speaker 18: Yes, I think you know. This whole thing about USAID
49:17
Speaker 18: and the tentacles of it that are going out into
49:19
Speaker 18: the world and causing all sorts of funding to come
49:22
Speaker 18: through is now being exposed. And if the goal is
49:26
Speaker 18: to curtail Chinese influence in the US and other allied countries,
49:29
Speaker 18: this is one measure that does it. But they should
49:31
Speaker 18: be doing it in their own writers, Michael.
49:32
Speaker 2: Said, indeed, and pulling a bit of government money back
49:35
Speaker 2: into government control, because of course USAID was operating essentially
49:39
Speaker 2: is its own body, which is not good for anyone.
49:42
Speaker 2: Kosher Michael, thank you so much for your time. I'll
49:44
Speaker 2: see you again tomorrow night, filling in for Steve Price
49:47
Speaker 2: in the meantime, stick around for Andrew Bolt.
49:49
Speaker 4: Good Night,