Transcript

Sharri | 3 September · Sharri

0:07
Speaker 1: Thanks, James. Good evening.
0:08
Speaker 2: Tonight, two former prime ministers have made urgent calls for
0:12
Speaker 2: the Royal Commission to be reopened. saying it would be
0:15
Speaker 2: a travesty and look like a whitewash if key witnesses
0:19
Speaker 2: aren't called. Former Prime Ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott
0:23
Speaker 2: are the latest eminent Australians to publicly demand the Albanese
0:27
Speaker 2: government extend the Royal Commission. Howard spoke to Chris Kenny today,
0:32
Speaker 2: saying that Anthony Albanese himself should.
0:34
Speaker 1: Appear before the Commission.
0:37
Speaker 2: This comes after Dawn Fraser, sporting legend, made the same
0:41
Speaker 2: point to me earlier this week.
0:43
Speaker 1: Well, here's John Howard.
0:46
Speaker 3: I believe that the Prime Minister should appear. And I'm
0:52
Speaker 3: really calling on the government because they set up the
0:56
Speaker 3: Royal Commission. Rather than calling on her, it's a bit
0:59
Speaker 3: isolating of her. I'd say to the Prime Minister, you're
1:04
Speaker 3: the man who called this Royal Commission. I know you
1:08
Speaker 3: didn't want to, but why don't you be man enough
1:11
Speaker 3: and just extend the terms of reference? and give her
1:14
Speaker 3: the flexibility that I think the public would agree with
1:19
Speaker 3: and would appreciate.
1:21
Speaker 2: Now, Albanese wouldn't be the first Prime Minister to give
1:24
Speaker 2: evidence to a Royal Commission. Howard made the point that
1:28
Speaker 2: when he was PM, he appeared before a similar inquiry
1:32
Speaker 2: investigating the Australian Wheat Bod scandal, and he willingly answered
1:37
Speaker 2: difficult questions.
1:38
Speaker 3: I remember when I called a judicial inquiry into... The
1:43
Speaker 3: Australian Wheat Board allegations, I went into the witness box.
1:47
Speaker 3: I was cross-examined under oath, as was my trade minister
1:51
Speaker 3: and my foreign minister. So I don't see why Mr
1:55
Speaker 3: Albanese should evade that.
2:01
Speaker 4: We can't learn the right lessons if you don't call
2:03
Speaker 4: the relevant ministers, if you don't call the relevant security officials,
2:08
Speaker 4: if you don't expose the Islamist hate creatures, unless hearings
2:14
Speaker 4: can be resumed and people who know what went wrong.
2:19
Speaker 5: Are put on the stand. This is going to.
2:22
Speaker 4: Look like a whitewashed Royal Commission, a travesty.
2:26
Speaker 3: I remember when I called a judicial inquiry into the
2:31
Speaker 3: Australian Wheat Board allegations, I went into the witness box.
2:35
Speaker 3: I was cross-examined under oath, as was my trade minister
2:39
Speaker 3: and my foreign minister. So I don't see why Mr
2:43
Speaker 3: Albanese should evade that.
2:47
Speaker 2: And as you heard there in the middle of those
2:49
Speaker 2: two John Howard comments, Tony Abbott told Peter Credlin today
2:53
Speaker 2: that more people needed to give evidence to the Royal
2:56
Speaker 2: Commission if the lessons of Bondi are to be learned.
2:59
Speaker 2: And as you heard, he said it would be a
3:01
Speaker 2: whitewash if that doesn't happen. And I agree, it would
3:04
Speaker 2: be a missed opportunity if the right people are not
3:08
Speaker 2: called to give evidence. And that includes those Islamist organisations
3:13
Speaker 2: behind the hate, It includes key figures from universities, university chancellors,
3:19
Speaker 2: and then witnesses like Josh Frydenberg, who have so many
3:22
Speaker 2: lessons to impart. So much knowledge wasn't caught.
3:28
Speaker 1: You can only presume it's a political decision.
3:32
Speaker 2: And the Albanese government today formally approved Friday, December the 18th,
3:37
Speaker 2: as the day the Royal Commission would publish its findings.
3:41
Speaker 1: Friday, December 18th. Well, that is the Friday before Christmas.
3:45
Speaker 2: It's often known as taking out the trash day when
3:48
Speaker 2: the government wants to bury.
3:50
Speaker 1: Or hide bad news.
3:52
Speaker 2: And you can't help but wonder if this government is
3:55
Speaker 2: trying to avoid scrutiny when people are going off on
3:58
Speaker 2: the Christmas holidays. We're expecting the Royal Commission report to
4:02
Speaker 2: be hundreds of pages long, multiple volumes. It needs to
4:06
Speaker 2: be properly analysed and examined. Now, the backstory to the
4:11
Speaker 2: Royal Commission and why Anthony Albanese finally relented to the
4:17
Speaker 2: mounting pressure is explained in detail in our upcoming book,
4:21
Speaker 2: Bondi Terror, which is available already right.
4:24
Speaker 1: Now on Amazon and Booktopia.
4:27
Speaker 2: Alex Rivchin and I also investigate and examine many of
4:31
Speaker 2: the areas that the Royal Commission should be interrogating.
4:35
Speaker 1: We do that in this book.
4:38
Speaker 2: We've actually got an extract of our book running this
4:40
Speaker 2: weekend in the Weekend Australian magazine. And here's a sneak
4:44
Speaker 2: peek of the cover of the magazine, which is.
4:47
Speaker 1: Out on Saturday. And a huge thank you to.
4:50
Speaker 2: Michelle Gunn and Liz Coleman for supporting our book. The
4:55
Speaker 2: extract running this weekend features our exclusive interview with ASIO
5:00
Speaker 2: Director-General Mike Burgess. It also includes some of our sit-down
5:04
Speaker 2: interview with New South Wales Premier Chris Minns. In our book,
5:09
Speaker 2: Minns reveals for the first time the advice he was
5:12
Speaker 2: given that led him to allow the pro-Palestinian march to
5:16
Speaker 2: go from town hall to the upper house. I asked
5:20
Speaker 2: him in our interview if he was given advice to
5:24
Speaker 2: allow the protesters to let off steam. And here's what
5:27
Speaker 2: Mintz told me. He said the short answer to that
5:29
Speaker 2: is yes. And I think that manifested itself when I
5:33
Speaker 2: was a new premier, a baby premier, and we saw
5:36
Speaker 2: the march move from the town hall down to the
5:38
Speaker 2: Opera House. The constant advice I got from police at
5:42
Speaker 2: the time was that's the way we do it.
5:44
Speaker 1: We marshal protests.
5:46
Speaker 2: We just let them go a few more streets, let
5:48
Speaker 2: them get it out of their system, and then they
5:51
Speaker 2: dissipate and there's not a conflict. The phraseology they often
5:55
Speaker 2: use is we don't make a bad situation worse. Well,
5:59
Speaker 2: here's what Chris Min said to that. He said, I'm
6:00
Speaker 2: not disputing the motive for that theory. I think it
6:04
Speaker 2: comes from not a bad place.
6:05
Speaker 1: It's just wrong.
6:07
Speaker 2: It doesn't work because the group that marches from the
6:09
Speaker 2: town hall to the opera house, it then turns into
6:12
Speaker 2: an agri mob where they chant hateful slogans. And does
6:17
Speaker 2: anyone really believe they then go home and say, we've
6:20
Speaker 2: got that out of our system.
6:22
Speaker 1: Now we can go back to being good Australians. And
6:24
Speaker 1: I love my Jewish brothers and sisters. He says, it's bullshit.
6:30
Speaker 1: It doesn't work.
6:31
Speaker 2: I learned a bitter lesson that night and it's really
6:34
Speaker 2: guided the government's policy ever since. Now, in my experience,
6:41
Speaker 2: people are often far more open to for a book
6:44
Speaker 2: interview than they would be in normal circumstances. And so
6:48
Speaker 2: it was the case with Chris Mintz. He was very
6:51
Speaker 2: revealing and vulnerable and honest. And we're grateful to him
6:55
Speaker 2: for sitting down with us. And by the way, as Premier,
7:00
Speaker 2: he has had the courage to front many inquiries, to
7:04
Speaker 2: answer uncomfortable questions on a variety of topics. Prime Minister
7:09
Speaker 2: Anthony Albanese would do well to take a leaf out
7:11
Speaker 2: of Minza's book and front up to the Royal Commission
7:14
Speaker 2: and be accountable for his lack of action on anti-Semitism
7:19
Speaker 2: since October 7. Well, the chairman of Australia's largest real
7:29
Speaker 2: estate listing site is warning of the far-reaching consequences of
7:33
Speaker 2: the Albanese government's tax hikes, not just to the housing market,
7:37
Speaker 2: but to bank dividends and retirees. The $ 23 billion REA
7:42
Speaker 2: Group chairman, Hamish McLennan, tells me today that what we're
7:46
Speaker 2: seeing extends far beyond a housing crunch. He says even
7:51
Speaker 2: the living standards of retirees will be severely impacted. And
7:56
Speaker 2: this comes as the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, today acknowledged that
7:59
Speaker 2: his tax changes were contributing to a housing market downturn.
8:05
Speaker 2: And I'll bring you his comments in a moment. But first,
8:08
Speaker 2: I spoke to Hamish McLennan today, and he says the
8:11
Speaker 2: Albanese government could nuke the dividends over time, which many
8:16
Speaker 2: self-funded retirees rely on. He says what no one is
8:20
Speaker 2: talking about is that so many Australians hold shares in
8:23
Speaker 2: Aussie banks and And if banks aren't writing loans, their
8:27
Speaker 2: profits may come off. You may earn less money in
8:31
Speaker 2: dividends because the banks pay, they pay out over 90%
8:35
Speaker 2: of their profits in dividends. So if you're a retiree,
8:38
Speaker 2: you love the banks, which have been going up in value.
8:42
Speaker 2: So super funds have also generally been increasing in value
8:45
Speaker 2: and dividends. But now the government has nuked that. It
8:50
Speaker 2: runs the risk of nuking it. McLennan also oversees Mortgage Choice,
8:56
Speaker 2: one of the nation's largest mortgage-broking networks, and he says
9:00
Speaker 2: the result of the government sweeping tax changes in the
9:03
Speaker 2: May budget means there's less movement in the property market
9:07
Speaker 2: because the negative.
9:08
Speaker 1: Gearing changes are grandfathered.
9:11
Speaker 2: He says if you've already got an investment property, it's grandfathered,
9:15
Speaker 2: so no-one is going to want to sell and lose
9:17
Speaker 2: that benefit. Instead, he says landlords are pushing the rents
9:21
Speaker 2: up So you're not getting that turnover of stock that
9:24
Speaker 2: you usually have when people buy and sell. So the
9:28
Speaker 2: very people the government is trying to help will really struggle.
9:35
Speaker 2: And Hamish will be on the show on Monday night
9:37
Speaker 2: to speak about all of this. His warning comes as
9:40
Speaker 2: Treasurer Jim Chalmers continued to defend his tax policies. But
9:45
Speaker 2: he did admit that the changes to capital gains tax
9:47
Speaker 2: and negative gearing were one of the reasons fuelling the
9:50
Speaker 2: fall in house prices.
9:53
Speaker 6: So you don't think the current changes are because of
9:55
Speaker 6: your changes to capital gains tax?
9:59
Speaker 7: I think that's... one of a number of reasons. I
10:02
Speaker 7: think that there's not one factor driving softness in the
10:05
Speaker 7: housing market. We saw house prices and auction clearance rates
10:08
Speaker 7: soften even before the budget, reacting to interest rate changes
10:12
Speaker 7: and developments in the economy more broadly.
10:16
Speaker 2: It's an admission of SOTS. But remember, as Federal Treasurer,
10:21
Speaker 2: and the Prime Minister as well, they're responsible for the
10:24
Speaker 2: economic climate. They've controlled the economy for almost five years.
10:29
Speaker 2: And the political pressure is only just beginning for the
10:32
Speaker 2: Albanese government over the way its controversial tax hikes are
10:36
Speaker 2: decimating the economy. Opposition leader Angus Taylor told me last
10:40
Speaker 2: night that Treasury's modelling failed to predict this and it
10:44
Speaker 2: should be publicly released.
10:51
Speaker 1: Should it be released?
10:55
Speaker 8: Oh, absolutely it should. Of course it should. Of course
10:58
Speaker 8: they won't.
10:58
Speaker 9: I mean, transparency is not one of the strengths of
11:01
Speaker 9: this government, but they should release it and they should
11:04
Speaker 9: fess up to why it's so wrong.
11:08
Speaker 2: He's also worried about the politicisation of the important Treasury Department.
11:13
Speaker 2: And it is true that the Treasury only predicted a
11:15
Speaker 2: minor 2% fall in house prices, while, as you know,
11:19
Speaker 2: banks are forecasting a deep decline in property values of
11:23
Speaker 2: between 10% to 18%. And some even point to a
11:27
Speaker 2: housing crash. Today, ANZ's head of economics, Adam Boynton, said
11:32
Speaker 2: falling house prices are not even helping first home buyers.
11:37
Speaker 2: And NAB's chief economist said rents will increase by 4%
11:41
Speaker 2: a year over the next 18 months, and that is
11:44
Speaker 2: faster than inflation.
11:46
Speaker 10: But we have that part of the inflation basket lifting
11:49
Speaker 10: about 4% year on year over the next 12 to
11:53
Speaker 10: 18 months.
11:55
Speaker 2: So these changes are hurting first home buyers and young
11:59
Speaker 2: buyers just as much as they're impacting Australian homeowners and investors.
12:04
Speaker 2: But what's deeply worrying is that neither the Albanese government
12:09
Speaker 2: or Treasury forecast these devastating reverberations that their tax changes
12:14
Speaker 2: are having throughout the economy. Well, the Coalition has vowed
12:23
Speaker 2: to slash the tax on cigarettes by 80% in a
12:27
Speaker 2: bid to move smokers away from the black market. The
12:30
Speaker 2: cut will mean that a standard pack of cigarettes, now
12:33
Speaker 2: costing upwards of $ 40, will be brought down to just $ 16,
12:38
Speaker 2: and vapes would also be legalised. This is a move
12:42
Speaker 2: that many experts say will shut down the illicit trade,
12:45
Speaker 2: which has sparked a crime wave, but Labor disagrees.
12:50
Speaker 1: What's wrong with that plan?
12:51
Speaker 9: It will kill people.
12:53
Speaker 11: Seriously, we have some of the lowest smoking rates in
12:58
Speaker 11: the world because cigarettes are expensive.
13:04
Speaker 1: And joining me now, Nationals leader Matt Canavan.
13:06
Speaker 2: Matt, thanks for your time. You just saw Tanya Plibersek there.
13:10
Speaker 2: She says your policy will kill people.
13:13
Speaker 1: What's your response?
13:16
Speaker 12: Look, it's an absurd reaction to an obvious problem. The
13:19
Speaker 12: facts are the current policy settings are killing people. At
13:23
Speaker 12: least six homicides have been connected to the illicit tobacco
13:25
Speaker 12: trade in Victoria alone and over 200 firebombings. I was
13:29
Speaker 12: in Melbourne today with Angus Taylor and Jane Hume and
13:33
Speaker 12: Mary Aldred. Mary's done fantastic work on this for us.
13:37
Speaker 12: And I saw the human impact of this trade. Now 80%
13:41
Speaker 12: of cigarettes sold in Australia are done by criminals. That
13:46
Speaker 12: makes about $ 4 billion to $ 7 billion a year for
13:51
Speaker 12: criminal gangs that they obviously use to then go into
13:55
Speaker 12: all other types of crime as well. And I saw
13:57
Speaker 12: today a shop that had been firebombed just a couple
14:01
Speaker 12: of months ago. It took out multiple other shops next
14:04
Speaker 12: door as well, totally innocent small businesses.
14:06
Speaker 8: And something has got to be done here.
14:09
Speaker 12: The other problem with what Tanya says is that the ABS,
14:12
Speaker 12: Australian Bureau of Statistics, actually showed that In recent years,
14:15
Speaker 12: it looks like there's been an increase in the amount
14:17
Speaker 12: of tobacco consumed in Australia, not decreased. Now, she said,
14:22
Speaker 12: Tanya just sent you a clip, a lot of errors
14:24
Speaker 12: in just a short clip, but she said that, you know,
14:27
Speaker 12: we've got some of the lower smoking rates because smokes
14:30
Speaker 12: are expensive in Australia. Well, no, they're not because 80%
14:33
Speaker 12: of smokes sold now in Australia are being done on
14:35
Speaker 12: the black market and the cigarettes on the black market
14:38
Speaker 12: are $ 15 to $ 20 a pack or less. They're very
14:41
Speaker 12: cheap now and we've got to do something to smash
14:45
Speaker 12: this criminal trade that's emerged. I cannot believe the government's
14:49
Speaker 12: just got its head in the sand.
14:50
Speaker 8: It seems stubborn.
14:51
Speaker 12: It's a pattern of behaviour from this Labor government. This
14:53
Speaker 12: is one massive public policy failure. But whether it's tax,
14:57
Speaker 12: whether it's energy.
14:57
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's amazing.
14:59
Speaker 12: whether it's migration, the government just can't admit that it
15:02
Speaker 12: might have got things wrong and maybe it should change.
15:03
Speaker 8: It just wants to do more of the same.
15:06
Speaker 2: Look, this is just a fascinating... policy absolute stuff up.
15:10
Speaker 2: It's been a debacle because they increased the excise in
15:13
Speaker 2: the first place to get more revenue.
15:15
Speaker 1: In fact, they're getting less revenue.
15:17
Speaker 2: They've sparked this, you know, black market, a wave of
15:20
Speaker 2: firebombings in Sydney and Melbourne. You said you went to
15:24
Speaker 2: a tobacco shop that was firebombed today and the health
15:27
Speaker 2: rates aren't going down.
15:28
Speaker 1: So it's been a complete failure.
15:29
Speaker 2: It's why even Labor Premier Chris Minns was one of
15:32
Speaker 2: the first to come out.
15:33
Speaker 1: Yeah.
15:34
Speaker 2: A year ago and call on the federal government to
15:37
Speaker 2: change the policy?
15:41
Speaker 8: It's just common sense.
15:42
Speaker 12: And I don't understand why the Labor Party are being
15:46
Speaker 12: so stubborn. Look, we put forward a plan. It's not
15:48
Speaker 12: just about the excise, though, I want to stress. It's
15:50
Speaker 12: a comprehensive plan. It is also about investing in police
15:53
Speaker 12: resources so we can make sure the trade is killed. Obviously,
15:56
Speaker 12: we believe keeping getting smokes down to about the same
15:59
Speaker 12: price will lead Australians to go back to the legal market.
16:01
Speaker 12: I don't think Australians want to be part of this trade,
16:05
Speaker 12: but we'll help finish the job with those resources. We'll
16:08
Speaker 12: also legalise vapes and nicotine pouches, which are proven and
16:12
Speaker 12: effective quit-smoking tools in other countries. They're legal in almost
16:16
Speaker 12: every other country in the world.
16:17
Speaker 8: We are so out of step with this.
16:18
Speaker 1: I didn't realise vapes.
16:19
Speaker 2: They are much less harmful.
16:21
Speaker 1: They were illegal.
16:22
Speaker 2: I mean, you see people vaping the whole time. But anyway,
16:25
Speaker 2: I do want to move on.
16:26
Speaker 12: Well, it's the same as the illicit trade, about 95%
16:28
Speaker 12: of vapes, not 80%, 95% of vapes are illegal.
16:31
Speaker 8: There are some very small amounts that are legal in
16:33
Speaker 8: this country.
16:33
Speaker 12: But they're pretty restrictive flavours in restricted shops, and it's
16:37
Speaker 12: not working.
16:38
Speaker 8: That scheme's not working either.
16:40
Speaker 1: I hate smoking. I should just make that clear.
16:41
Speaker 2: I'm not supporting smoking, but I think the way they've
16:44
Speaker 2: gone about this policy has had... the opposite effect that
16:46
Speaker 2: they intended on every front. Matt, you are an economist.
16:51
Speaker 2: I want to ask you about the economy. We saw
16:53
Speaker 2: GDP figures come out yesterday, anemic growth, 0.4% growth, and
16:58
Speaker 2: that was for the June quarter. The current quarter will
17:00
Speaker 2: be even worse than that. We've seen economists predicting that
17:03
Speaker 2: we could be facing stagflation, even recession potentially.
17:06
Speaker 1: What do you think about those warnings?
17:11
Speaker 12: Look, the most concerning statistic in our And our GDP
17:14
Speaker 12: numbers for some years now has been productivity. And I
17:18
Speaker 12: know it's an arcane concept, but it's so important because
17:21
Speaker 12: it is at the heart of the reason of why inflation.
17:23
Speaker 8: Has ticked up in Australia.
17:25
Speaker 12: We have had the highest inflation rate in the developed world.
17:28
Speaker 12: It's then why interest rates have to go up to
17:31
Speaker 12: tackle that inflation. We've had 15 interest rate rises under
17:34
Speaker 12: this government and we have now the second highest interest rates,
17:39
Speaker 12: government bond rates in the developed world.
17:40
Speaker 8: We have had actually the highest.
17:42
Speaker 12: The UK has just tipped us since their new Prime
17:44
Speaker 12: Minister has come in. And so we've got economic failure
17:47
Speaker 12: on a range of fronts and the government did recognise this,
17:50
Speaker 12: but latently a year ago finally the Treasurer woke up
17:54
Speaker 12: and decided that maybe we should do something about productivity
17:57
Speaker 12: He had a massive productivity roundtable. Do you remember that?
18:00
Speaker 12: Brought all the major movers and shakers to Canberra.
18:04
Speaker 8: And nothing has happened.
18:05
Speaker 12: Productivity has actually fallen since Jim Chalmers convened that roundtable.
18:09
Speaker 12: And now, over the first four years of this government,
18:13
Speaker 12: productivity in Australia has fallen by more than 5%. To
18:16
Speaker 12: put that in context, we have never had a four-year
18:19
Speaker 12: period where productivity growth has been negative, let alone 5% negative.
18:24
Speaker 12: is off the charts the bad economic performance of this government.
18:27
Speaker 12: And they don't have a plan to lift it.
18:30
Speaker 8: That's the worst thing.
18:30
Speaker 12: There's no economic plan to lift productivity. Their plan now amounts,
18:34
Speaker 12: their economic agenda amounts to jacking up taxes.
18:38
Speaker 8: That's not going to help productivity.
18:40
Speaker 12: It is destroying confidence in the property market, our most
18:42
Speaker 12: important asset class. The damage here is all over the economy.
18:47
Speaker 12: And just like that excise debate earlier, the government's got
18:50
Speaker 12: to just admit it's got things wrong and change tack.
18:55
Speaker 2: I don't want to go without getting to this last topic.
18:58
Speaker 2: You've made news this week speaking about what you're calling
19:01
Speaker 2: the feminisation of the school curriculum. And look, if this
19:06
Speaker 2: is wrong, tell me this is what you've been quoted.
19:08
Speaker 1: As saying in the Daily Telegraph. You're saying that the.
19:11
Speaker 2: Respectful relationships curriculum, so this is what teachers consent, is
19:16
Speaker 2: lecturing young men and turning them toward the manosphere. Now, Matt,
19:20
Speaker 2: explain this to us, because surely consent classes are important,
19:24
Speaker 2: particularly at the moment when we're seeing all these allegations
19:28
Speaker 2: of sexual assault.
19:31
Speaker 12: Absolutely, such classes would be important, but the details are
19:34
Speaker 12: important too. I don't think I used the term manosphere.
19:37
Speaker 12: That might not have been a direct quote. But if
19:42
Speaker 12: you go to some of this material, so take, for example,
19:44
Speaker 12: a toolkit that's been prepared for respectful relationships, education, Uh,
19:50
Speaker 12: Program done in conjunction with the Victorian Department of Education,
19:53
Speaker 12: that toolkit says, it's notionally about consent and all these
19:57
Speaker 12: good things, but when you read the detail, that toolkit
20:00
Speaker 12: says that the program, and I quote, provides opportunities for
20:05
Speaker 12: young boys to explore the and reflect on their personal
20:08
Speaker 12: male privilege and power.
20:10
Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
20:11
Speaker 8: That's what's in that document. Wow. And so it's a
20:14
Speaker 8: direct quote. Yeah, well, exactly.
20:15
Speaker 12: I mean, this is why it's important because the consent
20:19
Speaker 12: classes absolutely are important, but they are being used here.
20:23
Speaker 12: They're being abused as a smokescreen to put in an
20:25
Speaker 12: ideology that I think most parents would be aghast at.
20:28
Speaker 12: I hear this feedback from young men and boys too
20:31
Speaker 12: that they are taught this kind of stuff. It's not
20:34
Speaker 12: just written in documents. It does get through to them.
20:38
Speaker 12: And what do you think a young boy is going
20:40
Speaker 12: to do when lectured to and patronised in such a way?
20:45
Speaker 8: They're going to find alternative voices. It's a predictable outcome.
20:48
Speaker 12: And that's why I have said, yes, in effect, these programs,
20:52
Speaker 12: as well-intentioned as they might be, that sort of ideological
20:55
Speaker 12: content is only actually going to attract them to those toxic,
20:59
Speaker 12: some of those toxic voices online. And it's not all
21:01
Speaker 12: boys and it's not all voices online, but there are
21:04
Speaker 12: some very toxic, elements of the internet. And I don't
21:06
Speaker 12: think that's helped by teaching an anti-boy agenda in our schools.
21:11
Speaker 1: Understandable. Matt Canavan, great to have you on the show
21:14
Speaker 1: as always. Thank you so much.
21:15
Speaker 2: Nationals leader there. All right, well, let's turn to this
21:18
Speaker 2: crime wave in Sydney streets. The gangland war seemed to
21:22
Speaker 2: be out of control. Now, within the span of just
21:25
Speaker 2: a few days, we've seen two innocent men have been killed.
21:28
Speaker 2: We're told it's a case of mistaken identity in both instances.
21:32
Speaker 2: Joshua McDonald, the latest victim, shot in broad daylight with
21:36
Speaker 2: two children in the home yesterday afternoon. And then this
21:41
Speaker 2: comes after 23-year-old Marco Tapia was shot dead in his
21:44
Speaker 2: Glen Alpine home, innocent and asleep in his bed. A
21:48
Speaker 2: bright student, we're told. Detectives are investigating whether the shootings
21:52
Speaker 2: are linked. It started a whole firestorm with the police
21:55
Speaker 2: and the government under pressure.
21:57
Speaker 11: I do not accept that this is out of control because,
22:01
Speaker 11: as I said, we will not surrender our streets to
22:04
Speaker 11: organised crime gangs.
22:05
Speaker 1: Not now, not ever. I'm not playing politics with this.
22:09
Speaker 1: This is about our community.
22:10
Speaker 13: Whilst we have 150 dedicated resources at the moment, I
22:13
Speaker 13: will increase... the number of proactive resources we have at
22:16
Speaker 13: the moment, those highly visible police, to provide additional reassurance
22:20
Speaker 13: to the public.
22:22
Speaker 2: And The Daily Telegraph's crime editor, Mark Murray, joins me now. Mark,
22:26
Speaker 2: these are very brazen killings. I mean, is it right
22:29
Speaker 2: that they're mistaken identity? And if so, these gangs seem
22:33
Speaker 2: to have a complete disregard for life, even young, innocent kids.
22:37
Speaker 10: Yeah, that's right. They have made mistakes. This is probably
22:40
Speaker 10: the sixth or seventh fatality relating to the gang wars
22:44
Speaker 10: of the last couple of years where innocent people have
22:47
Speaker 10: been killed. There have been scores, if not dozens, of
22:50
Speaker 10: other homes shot up which have been the wrong addresses.
22:53
Speaker 10: They've got them wrong. They've kidnapped the wrong people. It
22:57
Speaker 10: is really this generation of young crook that's out there
23:02
Speaker 10: is terribly underestimated the sort of dangers. They're wreaking havoc
23:10
Speaker 10: right across the Sydney community now.
23:12
Speaker 1: Why is this happening?
23:13
Speaker 2: I mean, I just don't understand how they can get
23:16
Speaker 2: it wrong so many times.
23:18
Speaker 10: You've got to realise half these, most of those that
23:21
Speaker 10: have been employed to do these crimes now are very young,
23:25
Speaker 10: they're not very educated, they're not very bright and they
23:28
Speaker 10: don't give a stuff about anybody except for themselves and
23:31
Speaker 10: they're carrying these crimes out for very little money. You know,
23:35
Speaker 10: some of these are getting, you know, $ 20, 000 for a
23:38
Speaker 10: shooting that can be fatal and they're doing it for
23:40
Speaker 10: that sort of little money. The police have locked up
23:43
Speaker 10: over 700 people in the last year over these wars,
23:47
Speaker 10: and the minute they've locked up one crew, straightaway there
23:50
Speaker 10: are now the young men and women willing to go
23:53
Speaker 10: straight back in to fill their shoes and go on
23:56
Speaker 10: committing all these crimes.
23:57
Speaker 2: Police Minister Yasmin Catley is under a lot of pressure
24:01
Speaker 2: over this. We just saw the clip of her there.
24:03
Speaker 2: How do you think she's handling this? Should the government
24:06
Speaker 2: be doing more?
24:07
Speaker 1: What should it do?
24:09
Speaker 10: They've got to... try and help New South Wales police
24:12
Speaker 10: put pressure on these overseas governments.
24:15
Speaker 8: That's the big problem.
24:16
Speaker 10: This war particularly has been fought out between the Coconut Cartel,
24:20
Speaker 10: whose leader, Pele, is hiding in the jungle in Vietnam,
24:23
Speaker 10: and then you have the Rafats who are hiding in Lebanon. Now,
24:27
Speaker 10: New South Wales police can't get there. They can't go
24:30
Speaker 10: and arrest them over there in that country. So we
24:33
Speaker 10: need to have some, you know, assistance from the government
24:36
Speaker 10: because these guys are just on their encrypted devices there
24:39
Speaker 10: going to.
24:40
Speaker 8: people that they have.
24:41
Speaker 10: Here in Sydney and getting them to go and hire
24:44
Speaker 10: people to do these shootings. So, as I said, it
24:46
Speaker 10: doesn't matter what we do here, we can keep locking
24:48
Speaker 10: them up, but there's just another crew ready to go
24:51
Speaker 10: and do it again. I don't really see where the
24:54
Speaker 10: answer has to lie, a lot higher than just street
24:57
Speaker 10: level and putting more cops on the street. I mean,
25:00
Speaker 10: these guys are just.
25:00
Speaker 8: Going to keep going.
25:02
Speaker 1: You think there's going to be more deaths, more murders?
25:05
Speaker 10: Oh, there will be. As we're speaking now, there will
25:08
Speaker 10: probably be probably half a dozen people marked to be
25:13
Speaker 10: shot at and if not killed, probably in the next
25:16
Speaker 10: few weeks. Without doubt, it's going to continue.
25:20
Speaker 1: It's terrible.
25:22
Speaker 2: Mark Murray, thank you so much for your reporting. God,
25:25
Speaker 2: you're braver than I am to report on this. And
25:27
Speaker 2: good luck with your speaking tour that you're on.
25:29
Speaker 1: At the moment.
25:30
Speaker 10: That's right. It's a combination of music and talk. My
25:35
Speaker 10: old mate is a piano player from King's Cross, Geoff Begood.
25:38
Speaker 10: It's called bargangland.com.au.
25:41
Speaker 8: Go there.
25:42
Speaker 10: We're playing up and down the coast.
25:43
Speaker 8: It's going to be a lot of fun.
25:44
Speaker 1: When you're in Sydney, I'll come. I'll come sing along.
25:47
Speaker 10: You can sing even though you're tone deaf like me.
25:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't actually sing, but it doesn't stop me. Thanks, Mark.
25:53
Speaker 1: Good to see you.
25:55
Speaker 2: Well, wooing younger voters is key to winning elections. Politicians
26:00
Speaker 2: from both sides are turning to social media to And
26:04
Speaker 2: it's not pretty to try and win over young voters.
26:08
Speaker 1: Sometimes it can be pretty cringe-worthy. Have a look.
26:12
Speaker 4: Labor's coming after the savings of Australians who have worked
26:15
Speaker 4: hard and planned for the future.
26:19
Speaker 6: Because when Labor runs out of money, they come after yours.
26:22
Speaker 10: And Giraffe owns the house that he lives in.
26:25
Speaker 1: He also owns a second house that he rents out
26:28
Speaker 1: to Zebra. Housing demand outpaced housing supply. Or in other words,
26:33
Speaker 1: there's been a shortage of whooshies. We're banning supermarket price gouging.
26:41
Speaker 10: How are the Secret Lives of Women and Wives and
26:42
Speaker 10: headline inflation related?
26:50
Speaker 2: And joining me now, former New South Wales Police Minister
26:52
Speaker 2: David Elliott and former Liberal Senator, now One Nation member,
26:56
Speaker 2: Holly Hughes.
26:56
Speaker 1: Great to see you both. I mean, David, those clips,
27:00
Speaker 1: people hate it. It's embarrassing.
27:02
Speaker 2: And you can get a big audience on Instagram like
27:05
Speaker 2: James Patterson does with serious videos sending your message.
27:10
Speaker 6: It's just cringeworthy. I mean, what these politicians need to
27:13
Speaker 6: realise is that we live with the most cynical generation ever.
27:18
Speaker 6: in the history of the world right now. World wars,
27:20
Speaker 6: pandemics meant nothing to this generation, and they can see
27:25
Speaker 6: through this like a glass. I mean, I live with
27:29
Speaker 6: two of them, and double that when they bring their
27:32
Speaker 6: girlfriends home. They will not be conned. And I think
27:35
Speaker 6: what we're seeing right there is them belittling the intelligence
27:38
Speaker 6: of our young people, and they won't combat it. You've
27:41
Speaker 6: got to also remember political parties have relied in the
27:45
Speaker 6: past of the loyalty of of their parents and their grandparents,
27:48
Speaker 6: it just doesn't exist anymore. The kids are not going
27:52
Speaker 6: to be locked into the political persuasion of the family
27:55
Speaker 6: anymore and this is going to turn them off it.
27:57
Speaker 2: It's also so infuriating, Holly, that taxpayer funds are being
28:01
Speaker 2: wasted hiring full-time social media managers who are creating this
28:06
Speaker 2: nonsensical content.
28:08
Speaker 14: Well, you know, they've always said that politics was show
28:11
Speaker 14: business for ugly people, and quite clearly these people aren't
28:14
Speaker 14: in show business for a reason.
28:16
Speaker 9: They are awful.
28:17
Speaker 14: They are embarrassing. They can't act.
28:20
Speaker 1: I don't know why they're trying.
28:22
Speaker 14: I mean, as you say, there are ways to communicate
28:25
Speaker 14: with audiences. that can be entertaining, but they don't have
28:29
Speaker 14: to be so puerile. But again, One Nation, we've got
28:32
Speaker 14: the Please Explain videos that are funny, the cartoons that
28:35
Speaker 14: are funny, that actually talk about real issues without the
28:39
Speaker 14: cringiness we see here. That's really nothing above the intellect
28:44
Speaker 14: of a... In fact, I was going to say kindergartner,
28:46
Speaker 14: but that's actually probably insulting to kids in kindergarten.
28:51
Speaker 1: I just want to.
28:51
Speaker 2: Actually ask you, David, as a former police minister, you know,
28:55
Speaker 2: I showed... the comments that the.
28:57
Speaker 1: Current police minister, Yasmin Catley, made. How do you think
29:00
Speaker 1: she's handling this from a political perspective?
29:02
Speaker 8: Well, it's very difficult.
29:03
Speaker 6: And Yasmin is the police minister and her main job.
29:07
Speaker 5: She's got two jobs.
29:08
Speaker 6: One, to provide as much money as she possibly can
29:10
Speaker 6: from Treasury to the New South Wales Police Force. And,
29:13
Speaker 6: of course, then give the police commissioner all the political
29:17
Speaker 6: air cover that he can... that she can muster. And
29:19
Speaker 6: she's got to do that. She's basically got to say
29:20
Speaker 6: to the police commissioner, this is your battle. I will
29:23
Speaker 6: give you the political air cover to do what's necessary.
29:26
Speaker 1: But she was fighting with the journalists.
29:27
Speaker 8: Yeah.
29:28
Speaker 1: Saying it's not a crime way.
29:29
Speaker 6: Yeah, well, that's not healthy. But I think what we
29:31
Speaker 6: need to do is support her so that she can
29:34
Speaker 6: give the political air cover. Now, my view is that
29:39
Speaker 6: they're going.
29:39
Speaker 8: To need to.
29:40
Speaker 6: just absolutely empower the old gang squads, Raptor. and those
29:46
Speaker 6: police units that will stop at nothing to crack the crime.
29:51
Speaker 6: Mark Murray just said, you know, they're doing it for
29:54
Speaker 6: $ 20, 000 a pop. I've been told it's as low as
29:56
Speaker 6: $ 5, 000 a pop. They are dumbing it down so much.
29:59
Speaker 6: They're outsourcing it to kids, as he said, as Mark said,
30:02
Speaker 6: and he's across it much better than I am. But,
30:05
Speaker 6: you know, when you've got kids that are prepared to
30:08
Speaker 6: take a life for $ 5, 000, well, then you're in serious trouble.
30:11
Speaker 15: Mm, mm.
30:12
Speaker 2: I mean, Holly, it just strikes me. I don't think
30:15
Speaker 2: Yasmin Katli is a good media performer at all. You know,
30:18
Speaker 2: you think back to when she was other instances where,
30:21
Speaker 2: you know, the pro-Palestinian protest and she was on with
30:24
Speaker 2: Mark Levy and they just ended up in this massive fight.
30:27
Speaker 2: She's always arguing with the journalists instead of saying, yes,
30:30
Speaker 2: clearly we do have a problem and we need to
30:32
Speaker 2: fix it.
30:33
Speaker 1: And look, David's right.
30:34
Speaker 14: You know, the police need the resources to start fighting this.
30:37
Speaker 1: And here's a tip.
30:39
Speaker 14: Here's a good first step. And that would be let's
30:42
Speaker 14: get out of this ridiculous gun buyback announced after Bondiak.
30:47
Speaker 14: because that's a billion dollar of taxpayer money. And I
30:50
Speaker 14: can promise you, these kids that are conducting these crimes
30:54
Speaker 14: aren't doing it with registered weapons. So this punishment that
30:57
Speaker 14: we're seeing of farmers, of sporting shooters, of those that
31:00
Speaker 14: have registered guns and gun licences, we know that's not
31:03
Speaker 14: what caused Bondi. It was radical Islam. Instead, we're carrying
31:07
Speaker 14: on with this farce of somehow that by buying guns back,
31:11
Speaker 14: it'll solve a problem. That's the first thing they should
31:14
Speaker 14: eradicate and put a billion dollars back into policing.
31:19
Speaker 2: Just turning to the Royal Commission, I started my show
31:21
Speaker 2: tonight with the comments from two former prime ministers, John
31:24
Speaker 2: Howard and Tony Abbott, who've come out today to say
31:27
Speaker 2: that the Royal Commission.
31:29
Speaker 1: Needs to be extended. The government needs to do this.
31:32
Speaker 1: The prime minister needs to front up to the commission.
31:36
Speaker 1: They're not going to do it. And worse, David, the
31:39
Speaker 1: report's coming out the 18th of December.
31:41
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think your point about it being dumped on
31:44
Speaker 6: trash day was exactly right. And we knew that all along.
31:47
Speaker 6: I mean, the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, was dragged kicking
31:51
Speaker 6: and screaming into this, eventually by his own political party.
31:54
Speaker 6: John Howard obviously has set the agenda. He's appeared before
31:57
Speaker 6: parliamentary inquiries. I could tell you a dozen parliamentary leaders,
32:01
Speaker 6: both prime ministers and opposition leaders that have been that appeared,
32:04
Speaker 6: presented themselves to inquiries, royal commissions or judicial inquiries, it
32:09
Speaker 6: does still feel like there's something that's been hidden and
32:12
Speaker 6: that's not healthy. That's not healthy for the Jewish community.
32:15
Speaker 6: It's not healthy for those who want to support the
32:17
Speaker 6: Jewish community because they'll believe they haven't been given the
32:21
Speaker 6: totality of the problem that's at hand.
32:24
Speaker 9: Why?
32:25
Speaker 6: Because it's not convenient for Anthony Albanese to be able
32:28
Speaker 6: to explain to some of those Western Sydney electorates that
32:31
Speaker 6: their people were in the wrong.
32:34
Speaker 2: Holly, you know, there were two weeks of closed-door, you know,
32:39
Speaker 2: in-camera confidential hearings where AFP, ASIO, law enforcement agencies were called,
32:45
Speaker 2: and I do know they were interrogated very deeply about
32:48
Speaker 2: their resourcing, and we know that there's been a decline
32:52
Speaker 2: in counter..... because I've reported it, counter-terrorism resourcing over... you know,
32:57
Speaker 2: the period over before.
32:59
Speaker 1: Leading up to Bondi.
33:00
Speaker 2: But there are a lot of people that haven't been called,
33:04
Speaker 2: the Islamist organisations, the hate preachers, the university chancellors. The
33:09
Speaker 2: list goes on. And, you know, this will be an
33:12
Speaker 2: incomplete Royal Commission.
33:14
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
33:15
Speaker 14: And so, in effect, it will be a waste of taxpayers'
33:18
Speaker 14: money because it won't achieve the outcomes that we know
33:21
Speaker 14: that it should be able to achieve. But if Albanese
33:24
Speaker 14: is too scared to front up now, let's hope that
33:28
Speaker 14: that part of the report when it is released isn't
33:30
Speaker 14: so heavily redacted so that the Prime Minister and his
33:34
Speaker 14: government can be asked the questions about resourcing. This was
33:39
Speaker 14: a government that was going to run through transparency. We
33:42
Speaker 14: know that this guy just cannot lie straight in bed.
33:46
Speaker 14: But this is just beyond the pale now that this,
33:50
Speaker 14: as we've all said, he didn't want it. We knew
33:52
Speaker 14: he'd try and create a whitewash.
33:54
Speaker 5: It's exactly what it is.
33:56
Speaker 14: But as those that support the Jewish community and the
33:58
Speaker 14: Jewish community say, never forget. And so I would say
34:02
Speaker 14: to all of your viewers, never forget the despicable activities
34:07
Speaker 14: of this Prime Minister.
34:08
Speaker 2: On everything from social cohesion to the economy, the property market.
34:12
Speaker 9: Everything.
34:12
Speaker 1: Tobacco tax. The list is endless and it's depressing.
34:16
Speaker 2: David Elliott, Holly Hughes, thank you both so much.
34:20
Speaker 1: Well, coming up, Richard Miles has been told to lift.
34:22
Speaker 2: His game after meeting with the Secretary of War in
34:25
Speaker 2: the US, Pete Hegseth. Plus, no water, no clothes, no money.
34:30
Speaker 2: How survivors of the disaster in Nepal are coping. Amanda
34:33
Speaker 2: Hodge is on the ground.
34:34
Speaker 1: She'll join me live after the break. Welcome back.
34:41
Speaker 2: The death toll in Nepal has reached 1,200 and 38
34:46
Speaker 2: Australians are still missing. The physical damage to townships has
34:50
Speaker 2: also been devastating. Shops and houses either stripped, laid bare
34:55
Speaker 2: or swept away completely. It's the case for the town
34:58
Speaker 2: of Gauchi, where residents, including 75-year-old furniture maker Shivranda Gona,
35:04
Speaker 2: told The Australian, I lost everything.
35:07
Speaker 1: We had no clean water, no clothes, no money whatsoever.
35:11
Speaker 1: There's nowhere else to stay. All right.
35:15
Speaker 2: I've just been told we don't have Amanda Hodge. Her
35:19
Speaker 2: line has just cut out. So hopefully we will get
35:23
Speaker 2: her back up shortly. If not, we are going to
35:28
Speaker 2: bring in another guest in one moment.
35:31
Speaker 1: We'll be back in a moment.
35:36
Speaker 2: All right, we're having technical issues with Amanda Hodge, so
35:39
Speaker 2: we may have her shortly. If not, we're going to
35:42
Speaker 2: move ahead. The Albanese government is now proceeding with its 30%
35:45
Speaker 2: tax on discretionary trusts.
35:47
Speaker 1: The laws have been slightly.
35:49
Speaker 2: Watered down, but the government is refusing to say whether
35:52
Speaker 2: it'll result in any less tax revenue than the nearly
35:56
Speaker 2: $ 45 billion that it originally forecast. And joining me now
36:00
Speaker 2: to explain more is Pangana Capital Chief Executive Russell Pillimer.
36:05
Speaker 1: Russell, great to see you again.
36:06
Speaker 5: Great to see you.
36:07
Speaker 2: Now, this is yet another tax. I mean, the government's
36:11
Speaker 2: already caused havoc with the capital gains tax and the
36:15
Speaker 2: negative gearing changes. Now we're hearing that there are slight
36:18
Speaker 2: changes to the discretionary trusts.
36:20
Speaker 1: Is it enough?
36:21
Speaker 16: So I think these aren't necessarily slight changes. These are
36:25
Speaker 16: potentially major changes. And the problem with the government is
36:31
Speaker 16: they keep on backflipping. They keep on putting in place
36:35
Speaker 16: proposed legislation that hasn't been fully thought through. And this
36:40
Speaker 16: is just another example of that. Now, many Australians have
36:44
Speaker 16: already had to go through exercises of deciding what they
36:48
Speaker 16: might want to do. Now, it's early days. But yes,
36:51
Speaker 16: it's occupied a lot of time for people. Now, the
36:56
Speaker 16: government has not explained how much they will save.
36:59
Speaker 5: This was a cash grab.
37:00
Speaker 2: $ 45 billion cash grab.
37:02
Speaker 5: Massive. Absolutely.
37:04
Speaker 16: But we don't know what it will be now. So
37:07
Speaker 16: it's entirely possible that it could be a lot less.
37:10
Speaker 16: And I suspect the reason why we don't know is
37:13
Speaker 16: once again they're making up the legislation on the run
37:15
Speaker 16: and they actually.
37:16
Speaker 5: Haven't done the work.
37:17
Speaker 2: And even if they do the modelling, can we trust it?
37:19
Speaker 2: Because we've seen how bad the Treasury modelling has been
37:23
Speaker 2: when it comes to the impact of the controversial tax
37:25
Speaker 2: changes on the housing market. Treasury thought it would bring
37:28
Speaker 2: down prices by 2%. I mean, now we're seeing predictions
37:30
Speaker 2: of up to 18%.
37:32
Speaker 16: Yes, so these are very complicated forecasts to make because
37:35
Speaker 16: they've got so many factors involved.
37:38
Speaker 5: And I think once again, this will be similar to that.
37:41
Speaker 9: Yeah.
37:41
Speaker 2: Well, just turning to the property market now, I mean,
37:45
Speaker 2: we spoke about this, I think, last week on the show.
37:49
Speaker 2: But now we're starting to hear predictions that it's looking
37:52
Speaker 2: more likely we're going to see another interest rate rise.
37:55
Speaker 16: Yeah, another interest rate rise or even potentially another two
37:59
Speaker 16: interest rate rises.
38:01
Speaker 5: And this could be quite catastrophic.
38:04
Speaker 16: I don't want to alarm people, but really another two
38:06
Speaker 16: interest rate rises this year could really hurt us badly.
38:11
Speaker 16: And I think the government needs to understand that we
38:13
Speaker 16: are on the edge of a crisis and they need
38:16
Speaker 16: to start acting like we are on the edge of
38:18
Speaker 16: a crisis and start taking actions that are required at this.
38:22
Speaker 5: Point in time.
38:23
Speaker 1: When you say we're on the edge of a crisis,
38:25
Speaker 1: do you mean.
38:26
Speaker 2: in the housing market, or are you saying economy-wide, potentially
38:29
Speaker 2: a recession?
38:30
Speaker 16: I'm saying economy-wide because if you look at some of
38:33
Speaker 16: the key indicators, they seem to all be going in
38:35
Speaker 16: the wrong direction. So inflation is going up. The productivity
38:41
Speaker 16: is going down. Government spending or deficits are.
38:45
Speaker 5: At an all-time high.
38:47
Speaker 16: And these can't all coexist together. So you put them
38:51
Speaker 16: all in the same bucket and the potential.
38:54
Speaker 5: Result is quite... quite catastrophic.
38:58
Speaker 1: And do you think that'll be the back half of
39:00
Speaker 1: this year? When do you think we're looking?
39:03
Speaker 16: Yeah, look, I think there's a long way to go
39:07
Speaker 16: and things have to play out. So I hate making
39:08
Speaker 16: predictions because there's so many factors involved. But at the moment,
39:13
Speaker 16: you would be very concerned about what it looks like.
39:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's such a worry.
39:19
Speaker 2: Public sector growth is one of the big issues that's
39:23
Speaker 2: really strangling the economy as well. Albanese has grown the
39:28
Speaker 2: public sector by 23 We're told that's around 28 new public.
39:33
Speaker 1: Servants a day, which is extraordinary.
39:35
Speaker 2: Are you worried this is one of the major issues
39:39
Speaker 2: that's holding the economy back?
39:40
Speaker 16: This is absolutely a major issue. In fact, if you
39:42
Speaker 16: look at Australia relative to the US, we have something
39:46
Speaker 16: like 35% more public sector employees per capita than the
39:51
Speaker 16: US has.
39:52
Speaker 1: Really?
39:53
Speaker 5: On a relative basis, absolutely.
39:55
Speaker 16: And the problem with having such a large public sector
39:59
Speaker 16: is that it does strangle the private sector. So it's
40:01
Speaker 16: really hard. for private sector employers to get workers. And
40:08
Speaker 16: the public sector is there in order to deliver government services.
40:12
Speaker 5: They are not there.
40:14
Speaker 16: For productive purposes. So the more people that are employed
40:18
Speaker 16: in the public sector, the worse the productivity issue becomes.
40:22
Speaker 16: And so productivity and innovation are absolutely suffering at the moment.
40:27
Speaker 5: That has to be fixed.
40:29
Speaker 16: As productivity goes down, we all get poorer and the
40:33
Speaker 16: government needs to get onto this ASAP.
40:36
Speaker 1: Just finally, some big news in the business world.
40:39
Speaker 2: Betting company Polymarket are seeking to raise capital at a
40:43
Speaker 2: valuation of more.
40:43
Speaker 1: Than $ 20 billion. Is that right? US dollars.
40:46
Speaker 5: US dollars.
40:47
Speaker 16: So Polymarket is only five years old, created by a
40:51
Speaker 16: 22-year-old university dropout.
40:53
Speaker 1: Another young kid. Absolutely.
40:56
Speaker 16: And Polymarket is a really interesting business because it was
41:00
Speaker 16: started initially... as a platform for people to bet on
41:04
Speaker 16: certain topics. And it came to prominence during the US election,
41:09
Speaker 16: where they were much better at forecasting results of the election,
41:14
Speaker 16: as opposed to the pollsters who all had their own
41:16
Speaker 16: political leanings. But what polymarkets has now become is a
41:20
Speaker 16: way for companies or corporates or investors to hedge their bets. So,
41:26
Speaker 16: for instance, if you've got an investment in a Taiwanese
41:30
Speaker 16: company and you're worried that the Chinese might invade Taiwan
41:34
Speaker 16: next year, you can actually take a bet that China
41:36
Speaker 16: will invade Taiwan in order.
41:38
Speaker 5: To get a payout.
41:39
Speaker 16: So that will hedge your exposure to a Taiwanese company.
41:44
Speaker 5: So it's being used.
41:46
Speaker 16: There was $ 80 billion of these trades last year, and
41:50
Speaker 16: that's increasing by the day. And then there's also the
41:53
Speaker 16: really good fun stuff on polymarkets. For instance, during the
41:57
Speaker 16: Soccer World Cup when Brazil was playing Scotland, somebody came
42:00
Speaker 16: up with the idea to take a bet that aliens
42:03
Speaker 16: would land in the middle of the game and abduct
42:06
Speaker 16: somebody from the stadium. And $ 4 million was bet on
42:10
Speaker 16: that trade.
42:11
Speaker 8: Absolutely.
42:11
Speaker 1: That's ridiculous. Russell, so fine having you on the show
42:14
Speaker 1: as always. Thank you very much.
42:16
Speaker 5: Great to be here.
42:17
Speaker 2: All right, and now we're going to try and get
42:19
Speaker 2: to Amanda Hodge in Nepal. Amanda, thank you very much
42:22
Speaker 2: for being with us finally. And, look, you must have
42:26
Speaker 2: been having such a tough time in Nepal. It must
42:30
Speaker 2: be so difficult to be there for you personally. Can
42:33
Speaker 2: you tell us some of the harrowing stories that you've
42:35
Speaker 2: come across?
42:39
Speaker 11: Yeah, it's been a long week but nowhere near as
42:41
Speaker 11: long as for the people of Nepal, obviously, and the
42:44
Speaker 11: Australians themselves. Australian families who are looking for relatives here.
42:49
Speaker 11: But we, yeah, we've been across all the affected areas
42:54
Speaker 11: in the past week from Trishuli, Newarkot, Dudding, and all
42:59
Speaker 11: the way up into Resua District, which is where everyone
43:05
Speaker 11: would have seen by now that enormous inland tsunami wash
43:09
Speaker 11: over the border crossing between Tibet and Nepal. It's very
43:14
Speaker 11: hard to get, impossible in fact, to get to that
43:17
Speaker 11: area without chopper. But we drove a sort of 12-hour
43:23
Speaker 11: bone-crunching journey across a mountain pass to get to some
43:26
Speaker 11: of those towns below Rasuagadi and Timore. And the devastation
43:32
Speaker 11: in some of those was absolutely complete, just total. And,
43:37
Speaker 11: you know, we got to one town, Betrawati, on Sunday
43:41
Speaker 11: and there was hardly anyone there. And it was because
43:44
Speaker 11: the estimates are only 10% of that town survived. You know,
43:49
Speaker 11: we saw an old man sort of standing helplessly on
43:53
Speaker 11: the riverbanks. His wife was buried in the mud, but
43:55
Speaker 11: there was no one to help him. He's been calling
43:58
Speaker 11: police for days. I mean, a day after we got there,
44:01
Speaker 11: I understand the Nepali police got to that town and
44:05
Speaker 11: pulled literally just harvesting bodies, right? There were 24 pulled
44:10
Speaker 11: from one building alone. And we spoke to the headmaster
44:15
Speaker 11: who was in a shelter.
44:16
Speaker 1: Above that town. He told us that.
44:19
Speaker 11: 70 children had lost every single member of their family.
44:25
Speaker 11: There were 74 orphans in that shelter alone. And in
44:29
Speaker 11: his school, 200 of the student body had perished in
44:34
Speaker 11: the floods. I mean, it's just beggar's belief.
44:38
Speaker 2: So for the families around the world, including Australians who
44:41
Speaker 2: are waiting to hear about.
44:42
Speaker 1: Their loved ones, I mean, it's just.
44:45
Speaker 2: A matter of, as you say, pulling bodies from the rubble,
44:48
Speaker 2: but some might never be found. Okay, I think we've
44:58
Speaker 2: lost Amanda Hodge again. It's obviously very difficult trying to
45:02
Speaker 2: get connection in Nepal.
45:04
Speaker 1: Amanda, you're not there anymore.
45:05
Speaker 9: Are you?
45:06
Speaker 1: Can you hear us?
45:08
Speaker 9: Yes.
45:08
Speaker 1: Okay, we'll give it one more shot. Sorry, go for it.
45:13
Speaker 11: Oh, look, I was saying it's going to be a long,
45:14
Speaker 11: hard road and people who have been following this story
45:19
Speaker 11: will have already read will have already read that so
45:24
Speaker 11: many of those bodies are impossible to identify visually. The
45:29
Speaker 11: force of the floods was just so ferocious that, you know,
45:32
Speaker 11: the sort of injuries that these bodies, that these people
45:36
Speaker 11: sustained before their deaths were catastrophic and it's very hard
45:40
Speaker 11: to identify. On top of that, you know, there is
45:42
Speaker 11: just not enough refrigeration in this country. They've made multiple
45:47
Speaker 11: appeals for that. But it's just so slow coming. So
45:51
Speaker 11: there's had to be mass burials in multiple spots around
45:55
Speaker 11: the country, including Kathmandu.
45:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just terrible.
45:58
Speaker 2: Amanda, thank you so much and stay safe and thank
46:01
Speaker 2: you for your incredible reporting.
46:04
Speaker 11: You're welcome.
46:06
Speaker 2: After the break, how did Richard Miles fare in his
46:08
Speaker 2: meeting with Pete Hegseth? Jono Kersley joins us live in
46:12
Speaker 2: Washington next. Let's turn to the US, where Defence Minister
46:20
Speaker 2: Richard Miles met with his American counterpart, Secretary of War
46:23
Speaker 2: Pete Hegseth. Boosting American military on Australian soil dominated the talks.
46:29
Speaker 15: The work that we are doing today, the way in
46:31
Speaker 15: which our two defence forces are so closely embedded and
46:36
Speaker 15: integrated with each other, and the programs and challenges and
46:41
Speaker 15: progress that we're making in terms of what we have ahead,
46:44
Speaker 15: and AUKUS is a good example of that.
46:47
Speaker 2: And joining me now is Washington correspondent Jonathan Kersley. And Jonathan,
46:51
Speaker 2: it looks like defence spending also came up, which probably
46:56
Speaker 2: would have been uncomfortable seeing as the Albanese government hasn't
46:58
Speaker 2: done much to lift its share of defence from GDP.
47:06
Speaker 9: Once again, the United States Trump administration and the Secretary
47:09
Speaker 9: of War, Pete Hegseth, made their case to Australia to
47:13
Speaker 9: lift their game when it comes to defence spending.
47:15
Speaker 8: It was a point... that was stressed in the readout.
47:17
Speaker 9: And it's a point we've heard before, from the Shangri-La
47:20
Speaker 9: dialogue to previous meetings. And Australia's not alone. The Trump
47:23
Speaker 9: administration is America first. It wants allies to do more
47:26
Speaker 9: to lift defence spending. Richard Marles said yesterday, US time,
47:31
Speaker 9: Australia is doing its part in his eyes, that they
47:33
Speaker 9: have been lifting defence spending. over the course of the
47:37
Speaker 9: last few years. But the United States is wanting to
47:40
Speaker 9: see more. Obviously, there's a recognition of the threat that
47:43
Speaker 9: China poses when it comes to strategic threats in the Indo-Pacific.
47:46
Speaker 9: And the United States is saying to Australia, well, look,
47:48
Speaker 9: we understand that you get this is a serious threat,
47:51
Speaker 9: but we also need you to do more in order
47:53
Speaker 9: to be part of this relationship. Obviously, there's going to
47:56
Speaker 9: be increased force posture there. US sailors going out to
48:00
Speaker 9: Western Australia as part of the submarine Navy rotation that
48:03
Speaker 9: he's going to continue through into next year. But Richard
48:07
Speaker 9: Miles making the point, in his eyes at least, he
48:10
Speaker 9: thinks the relationship is firm and is moving forward. But still,
48:13
Speaker 9: we are seeing once again from the Secretary of War,
48:15
Speaker 9: who gave a very steely gaze as we left the
48:18
Speaker 9: room yesterday, Australia, lift your game.
48:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. And we wish it would. We absolutely wish
48:23
Speaker 1: it would. It needs to. I want to talk about
48:26
Speaker 1: Charlie Kirk now.
48:27
Speaker 2: Now a judge has ruled that his alleged killer, Tyler Robinson,
48:30
Speaker 2: can receive the death penalty if he's found guilty. He's
48:33
Speaker 2: going to face trial for seven charges, including aggravated murder.
48:37
Speaker 2: I mean, quite bizarrely, Jonathan, he's so far pleaded not guilty.
48:43
Speaker 8: He has.
48:44
Speaker 9: He's maintained this not guilty plea throughout this process. Tyler
48:49
Speaker 9: Robinson was arrested in the days after Charlie Kirk's assassination
48:53
Speaker 9: at a university in Utah. We are approaching in just
48:56
Speaker 9: a matter of days, it will be the one year
48:58
Speaker 9: anniversary since the death of Charlie Kirk and that is
49:01
Speaker 9: going to be commemorated, his life commemorated. At the very
49:05
Speaker 9: same university he was shot and killed at, the attack
49:10
Speaker 9: that ended his life, the footage had been seen around
49:13
Speaker 9: the world of the gunman running on the rooftop in
49:16
Speaker 9: the moments after shots rang out.
49:20
Speaker 8: Out that killed Charlie Kirk.
49:21
Speaker 9: But Tyler Robinson, who was found, was reported to police
49:27
Speaker 9: and then effectively handed himself in is going to face trial.
49:33
Speaker 9: This is going to be one that will be watched very,
49:36
Speaker 9: very closely indeed. There was a great sense here in
49:38
Speaker 9: the United States, Shari, in the moments after that shooting
49:42
Speaker 9: about what would happen to the political conversation in this country.
49:45
Speaker 9: Charlie Kirk, obviously somebody who was quite happy to hear
49:47
Speaker 9: from both sides, but you get a sense really how
49:51
Speaker 9: much has changed over the course of the last year. Well,
49:54
Speaker 9: perhaps not much, but yes, that trial of Tyler Robinson
49:57
Speaker 9: will be watched very closely indeed.
49:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, indeed, it's terrible some of the podcasters who've
50:01
Speaker 2: been hounding poor Erica Kirk. Just very quickly before we go,
50:07
Speaker 2: President Trump has weighed in on this Meghan and Harry debacle.
50:10
Speaker 1: We've got about 45 seconds. What did he say?
50:15
Speaker 9: He said, ta-ra, bye, see you, thanks for coming. Never
50:19
Speaker 9: really liked you much anyway. Essentially, that was it from
50:22
Speaker 9: the President in a nutshell. Harry and Meghan, see you later.
50:25
Speaker 9: They're now the United Kingdom's problem. No longer here in
50:28
Speaker 9: the United States. They can take their British passports.
50:31
Speaker 8: They're gone. And President Trump says, well, never really liked
50:35
Speaker 8: you much anyway.
50:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, and fair enough.
50:38
Speaker 2: And I think we learned they're going to be settled
50:40
Speaker 2: in the Cotswolds somewhere, so... closer to the royal family, which,
50:44
Speaker 2: as we know, Meghan so loved.
50:45
Speaker 9: Yes, a nice little country escape for the prince. Exactly,
50:49
Speaker 9: a nice little quiet country escape. A long way for them.
50:51
Speaker 8: Not to see Doha.
50:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right.
50:53
Speaker 2: Jonathan, thank you so much. Got to go thank you
50:55
Speaker 2: for your company this week. Here's Paul Murray.