Transcript

Sharri | 9 April · Sharri

0:01
Speaker 1: Live on Sky News This is Sharry.
0:07
Speaker 2: Good Evening.
0:08
Speaker 3: In an exclusive interview tonight, Heston Russell speaks out on
0:12
Speaker 3: the Ben Robert Smith at rest, the media circus and
0:15
Speaker 3: whether a fair trial is still possible And.
0:18
Speaker 4: It really makes me wonder like, what is the motive here?
0:21
Speaker 4: Why are we pushing for drama? Why are the news
0:23
Speaker 4: cameras there?
0:24
Speaker 3: From Channel nine, the AFP is now looking into hate
0:28
Speaker 3: preacher with some Hadad after our bombshell revelations and tonight
0:33
Speaker 3: the pressure is on to see whether these new hate
0:36
Speaker 3: laws will finally be put to the test. And the
0:40
Speaker 3: ceasefire in Iran maybe holding for now, but the strait
0:43
Speaker 3: of hor moves is still a huge global risk. Will
0:47
Speaker 3: break down what happens next with Michael Schubridge. But first,
0:51
Speaker 3: a major development in our bombshell report from last night
0:55
Speaker 3: revealing the notorious Jahati preacher linked to one of the
0:58
Speaker 3: Bondai gunmen was back preaching hatred against Jews and now
1:03
Speaker 3: Christians too. The Australian Federal Police have this afternoon confirmed
1:08
Speaker 3: they're now looking into Sidney Cleric with some Hadad for
1:12
Speaker 3: a breach of Commonwealth laws. A spokesperson telling us the
1:16
Speaker 3: National Security investigations team in New South Wales is reviewing
1:20
Speaker 3: the matter to determine if the content reaches a criminal
1:24
Speaker 3: threshold to allow the AFP to lay charges. And in
1:28
Speaker 3: more positive news, YouTube has now removed the sermon.
1:33
Speaker 2: From its platform.
1:34
Speaker 3: A web page at the link now reading this video
1:38
Speaker 3: is no longer available because the YouTube account associated with
1:42
Speaker 3: this video has been terminated. The news isn't being taken
1:46
Speaker 3: too well by Hadad himself, who shared it with his
1:49
Speaker 3: followers on the encrypted app Telegram by claiming some kind
1:54
Speaker 3: of religious conspiracy was at play. He said video has
1:58
Speaker 3: been removed the attempting to erase the Dawa of Hauk.
2:03
Speaker 3: As we revealed last night, Haddad had used Telegram to
2:07
Speaker 3: share his new servant this week, which had also been
2:10
Speaker 3: uploaded to YouTube, in which he spreads more bile against
2:14
Speaker 3: Jews and now also Christians.
2:16
Speaker 2: Here was some of it.
2:19
Speaker 5: The Jews splits into seventy one six, one of which
2:23
Speaker 5: will be in Paradise and seventy in Hell. The Christians
2:27
Speaker 5: split into seventy two six, every one of which will
2:30
Speaker 5: be in the Hell, be in Hell and one in
2:32
Speaker 5: the Paradise.
2:34
Speaker 3: He also took aim at moderate Muslims who promote into
2:37
Speaker 3: faith dialogue using the word kafar, which means infidel in Arabic.
2:43
Speaker 5: One of them going as far as being in a
2:46
Speaker 5: video with a rabbi who said that we owe the
2:49
Speaker 5: children of God, and he's nodding his head as this
2:52
Speaker 5: person is saying this, and he is something with which
2:54
Speaker 5: we know is good.
2:54
Speaker 3: Ford Hadad is plainly thumbing his nose at authority and
3:00
Speaker 3: the Federal Court here, which found in July the preacher
3:03
Speaker 3: had breached the Racial Discrimination Act with sermons full of
3:07
Speaker 3: jee hating filth like this.
3:10
Speaker 6: Yes, the descendants of pigs and monkeys are stealing the
3:14
Speaker 6: organs of your brothers and sisters.
3:18
Speaker 1: It wasn't bad.
3:19
Speaker 6: Enough that they killed them, they also want to take
3:21
Speaker 6: the organs. They took their houses, they took their lands,
3:25
Speaker 6: and now they.
3:25
Speaker 1: Want the organs.
3:28
Speaker 3: The judge had ordered Haddad not to produce any more
3:31
Speaker 3: content like it, or he'd find himself in contempt. Opposition
3:36
Speaker 3: Assistant Morticultural Affairs Minister Dave Shimer last night called for
3:40
Speaker 3: Federal police to investigate the fresh sermon under the new
3:44
Speaker 3: hate speech and extremism laws introduced by the Federal Parliament
3:48
Speaker 3: in the wake of the Bonni massacre.
3:50
Speaker 2: Senator Shimer also.
3:52
Speaker 3: Referred the video to YouTube for removal on hate speech grounds.
3:56
Speaker 2: Tonight, I confirmed from a.
3:58
Speaker 3: New South Wales Police spokesper that New South Wales police
4:02
Speaker 3: officer had referred an alleged breach of section ninety three
4:07
Speaker 3: Z of the Crimes Act for legal advice, and the
4:11
Speaker 3: advice is that the threshold for those offenses has not
4:15
Speaker 3: been met. Perhaps it's because Hadad was quoting a religious
4:20
Speaker 3: text that the police believe Haddad can't be proven to
4:25
Speaker 3: be inciting violence. Here we have seen Haddad referred to
4:29
Speaker 3: authorities previously over that descendants of Pigs and Monkeys speech.
4:34
Speaker 3: I just showed you and others like this one.
4:38
Speaker 6: Towards the end of the times, when the Muslims will
4:40
Speaker 6: be fighting the Jews, the trees will speak, the stone
4:45
Speaker 6: will speak, and I will say, oh, Muslim O believer,
4:48
Speaker 6: there is a Yahodi behind me, come and kill him.
4:53
Speaker 3: Those referrals ended up going nowhere with a lack of appetite,
4:57
Speaker 3: apparently to test our existing laws of incitement to violence
5:01
Speaker 3: and racial vilification. Ultimately, it was left to the Peak
5:05
Speaker 3: Jewish Representative body to take legal action against this dangerous
5:09
Speaker 3: anti Semite themselves. It emerged later Bonnai Gunman Navide Akram
5:14
Speaker 3: had been a follower of with Some Hadad. Hadad is
5:19
Speaker 3: now brazenly flouting the court order that the Jewish group secured.
5:23
Speaker 3: So now it's over again to the authorities. After the
5:27
Speaker 3: Bondi terror attack of December fourteenth, the Albanese government was
5:31
Speaker 3: keen to look like it was taking action. The Prime
5:33
Speaker 3: Minister announced the new Combating Anti Semitism, hate and Extremism laws,
5:38
Speaker 3: to some criticism. It has to be said because we
5:41
Speaker 3: already had laws, and the critics said these new ones
5:45
Speaker 3: would just be used as a stick to fight other
5:47
Speaker 3: speech that the government of the day may simply not
5:50
Speaker 3: like we also saw IFP Commissioner Chrissy Barrett revealed the
5:54
Speaker 3: new Operation Antibus that focuses on hate preachers, and that
5:59
Speaker 3: was revealed the Senate Estimates hearing in February. So now
6:03
Speaker 3: here is the real challenge. Put this new legislation to
6:07
Speaker 3: the test. Prosecute hate preachers like Wi some Haddad, show
6:12
Speaker 3: us you're serious about fighting Islamic extremism and deadly Jewe
6:17
Speaker 3: hatred once and for.
6:24
Speaker 2: Well. Australia's fuel crunch.
6:25
Speaker 3: Has now forced an extraordinary intervention, with Anthony Albanizi striking
6:30
Speaker 3: a deal for the country's two largest fuel suppliers, Ampol
6:34
Speaker 3: and Viava, to bring additional fuel on shore as he
6:38
Speaker 3: heads to Singapore to shore up supplies. This comes as
6:41
Speaker 3: Labour's own MPs joined business and union leaders in calling
6:45
Speaker 3: for Australia to lift fuel reserves to the ninety day benchmark.
6:50
Speaker 3: Joining me in our former Liberal Senator Holly Hughes and
6:53
Speaker 3: DPG Advisory Solutions founding director David Gazard.
6:57
Speaker 2: Welcome both of you.
6:58
Speaker 3: Holly, first, your reaction to this fuel supply deal.
7:03
Speaker 7: I mean this is just a joke.
7:05
Speaker 8: I mean this entire fantasy this government has been chasing
7:08
Speaker 8: in this race to renewables, and the fact that they
7:10
Speaker 8: now have to acknowledge that they have just let Australians
7:14
Speaker 8: down without having the fuel resolves, the closure of refining here,
7:19
Speaker 8: the fact that every state government has a ban on
7:21
Speaker 8: any sort of drilling or exploration.
7:24
Speaker 7: For more oil and gas.
7:26
Speaker 8: If this isn't a wake up call to Australians in
7:29
Speaker 8: this government that we need to not only get to
7:31
Speaker 8: a ninety day fuel supply, we need to make sure
7:34
Speaker 8: that we have national sovereignty and our own supplies, so
7:38
Speaker 8: we're not on these sort of begging trips when these
7:41
Speaker 8: issues occur. And I mean, no one understands if we
7:44
Speaker 8: were forced to rely on renewables. We've got about four
7:47
Speaker 8: hours of battery storage, so forget thirty days of fuel,
7:50
Speaker 8: we've got about four hours of power. If it comes
7:53
Speaker 8: to the batteries. That Bowen is still spreaking as the
7:56
Speaker 8: answer to our energy sovereignty, it's just an absolute Joe David.
8:01
Speaker 3: It looks pretty bad for the government. That's some of
8:03
Speaker 3: its own MPs adjoining the calls to lift up your reserves.
8:07
Speaker 3: Clearly a critique that this wasn't handled properly in the
8:11
Speaker 3: first place.
8:12
Speaker 1: No, that's right.
8:13
Speaker 9: I mean, Holly makes some good points about the way
8:16
Speaker 9: we've been horrendously exposed and had to run to other
8:20
Speaker 9: countries cap in hand to sort of beg for fuel.
8:24
Speaker 9: And it's sort of I think the MP's in the
8:28
Speaker 9: Labor Party after watching an address to the nation which
8:32
Speaker 9: was really sort of all about they don't blame us here,
8:35
Speaker 9: this is all.
8:36
Speaker 1: Because of a war in the Middle East.
8:39
Speaker 9: You would sort of see a little deeper than that
8:41
Speaker 9: and say, well, this is why you actually have a
8:43
Speaker 9: strategic reserve in the first place. This is why you
8:47
Speaker 9: don't say, oh, well there was a bushfire that but
8:49
Speaker 9: my house down there was nothing I could do about it.
8:51
Speaker 9: That's why you get insurance. And that's what a strategic
8:55
Speaker 9: reserve is. Right, We've been hopelessly exposed over the.
8:58
Speaker 1: Last little while.
9:01
Speaker 9: And I mean, the one thing I'd say is a
9:04
Speaker 9: positive in this is that it has exposed this whole
9:08
Speaker 9: in fossil fuels. Now nonsense, that's about it from the
9:12
Speaker 9: extreme left, because we've all seen just how critical liquid
9:17
Speaker 9: fuels and other fossil fuels are into the supply chains
9:21
Speaker 9: to make this country run. Yeah, we can't do without it.
9:25
Speaker 9: We might be going through a transition, but we can't
9:28
Speaker 9: end them. Now, you know, at least we have a
9:30
Speaker 9: little bit more perspective than we had a.
9:33
Speaker 1: Few months ago.
9:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, that is such a good point, because David, we
9:37
Speaker 3: heard from Matt Cannevan yesterday. He came on the show
9:40
Speaker 3: and he was talking about you know where suddenly the
9:42
Speaker 3: alban Easy and the government weren't talking about the net
9:45
Speaker 3: zero target anymore and emissions. You know, suddenly that's become
9:51
Speaker 3: a naughty word or a bad word. And I guess
9:53
Speaker 3: it's because people during a fuel crisis don't want to
9:55
Speaker 3: hear about renewables. They know this is not going to
9:58
Speaker 3: be the answer for them. Let's talk more about the
10:01
Speaker 3: actual war. Because US President Donald Trump is now threatening
10:04
Speaker 3: a fifty tariff on any country court supplying military weapons
10:09
Speaker 3: to Iran, saying they would apply immediately with no exclusions
10:13
Speaker 3: or exemptions. David, I'll come to you first on this one.
10:17
Speaker 3: Is this a good idea from Trump?
10:19
Speaker 9: Look, I'm not a tariff guy, I'm not a not
10:22
Speaker 9: for protection and so on and so forth, But I
10:24
Speaker 9: can understand the frustration here.
10:27
Speaker 1: And it was alarming to read in some of.
10:29
Speaker 9: The papers over the last few days that some of
10:33
Speaker 9: our universities have been collaborating with Iran for new research
10:39
Speaker 9: into drone technology. Drone technology which is now being used
10:44
Speaker 9: against the West, and with a country that really has
10:49
Speaker 9: been a running sore for the last forty or fifty
10:52
Speaker 9: years in antagon antagonizing the West, fighting with the West,
10:58
Speaker 9: terrorizing the West, and terrorizing Israel. So the idea that
11:03
Speaker 9: our establishments would be collaborating with universities in Iran which
11:10
Speaker 9: have a stated objective of helping the government is alarming.
11:14
Speaker 1: And so I can understand the.
11:18
Speaker 9: Desire to put some sort of protectionism in or sanction
11:23
Speaker 9: against those countries. Now I haven't heard it in relation
11:25
Speaker 9: to Australia. It has been others, other countries that have
11:28
Speaker 9: been supplying, and most notably Russia and China. But you know,
11:34
Speaker 9: this permeates our own culture, which which I find really
11:37
Speaker 9: really deeply alarming.
11:40
Speaker 3: I think David raises a good point there wholly and
11:42
Speaker 3: at universities, if they have been found to be working
11:47
Speaker 3: or collaborating in some way with Iran, well, where are
11:50
Speaker 3: all the protesters, the student protesters who come out and
11:53
Speaker 3: call every other week for they university to cut any
11:57
Speaker 3: ties with Israel?
11:57
Speaker 2: Where are they protesting.
12:00
Speaker 7: Caroline, Stop being silly. Why would they do that? They
12:04
Speaker 7: only have.
12:05
Speaker 8: One agenda, and it's anti Semitic, it's anti Israel, it's
12:09
Speaker 8: anti Zionists. They do not care about the women of Iran.
12:12
Speaker 8: They do not care the way that Hamas treated women.
12:15
Speaker 8: And you know, you think what they do to homosexuals
12:18
Speaker 8: in Gaza, they throw them off the rooftops. No no
12:20
Speaker 8: protests there except we have quiz for Palestine.
12:23
Speaker 7: These people are just looking for a cause.
12:26
Speaker 8: They have no morals, they have no moral compass, and
12:29
Speaker 8: that becomes more and more evident every day. I actually
12:32
Speaker 8: thought Trump was quite restrained. I you know, David mentioned sanctions.
12:37
Speaker 8: I was more surprised that Trump didn't just declare sanctions
12:40
Speaker 8: rather than taris.
12:41
Speaker 2: Yeah.
12:41
Speaker 3: I was going to ask you why not go to
12:44
Speaker 3: that staff because it's mainly no known pat Russia and China.
12:48
Speaker 2: Nearly let's talk about this story.
12:50
Speaker 3: Nearly six hundred political staffers have pocketed a post election
12:54
Speaker 3: payour worth almost twenty three million dollars after morrison Ero
12:58
Speaker 3: contract tweak let them cash out at the end of
13:01
Speaker 3: the parliamentary term and then in many cases just heads
13:05
Speaker 3: straight back into another political office.
13:08
Speaker 2: Incredibly, more than.
13:09
Speaker 3: A third we're back working in politics by October after
13:12
Speaker 3: the May twenty twenty five election, So some walking away
13:16
Speaker 3: with a near forty thousand dollars windfall for barely a
13:19
Speaker 3: week out.
13:20
Speaker 2: Of the system.
13:21
Speaker 3: Holly, of course you've been in politics prior to your
13:25
Speaker 3: retirement from it for a long time. But this would
13:28
Speaker 3: have passed your own pubs test, would it.
13:30
Speaker 7: Well.
13:31
Speaker 8: The first thing I want to say, because I'm sure
13:32
Speaker 8: I'm going to get I got a lovely message last
13:35
Speaker 8: night which was full of beautiful, colorful language from someone
13:38
Speaker 8: who's clearly not a fan. I'd just like to say
13:40
Speaker 8: we do not get pensions anymore as former parliamentarians.
13:43
Speaker 7: They came out in two thousand and four.
13:45
Speaker 8: So before someone sends me an abusive message about how
13:48
Speaker 8: I'm living high on the hog of my parliamentary pension,
13:50
Speaker 8: not nonexistent. I actually was unaware of this because I
13:54
Speaker 8: know my staff. When I left, it was not of
13:57
Speaker 8: their choosing to leave, so they lost their job. Now
14:01
Speaker 8: two of my staff have gone back into political offices.
14:05
Speaker 8: One was recruited actually by another party, so it wasn't
14:09
Speaker 8: like a deliberate jump from my office straight into another one.
14:13
Speaker 8: So but I actually this was news to me because
14:16
Speaker 8: you know, about twenty years ago when I was staffing,
14:19
Speaker 8: it certainly was a very different set of rules. If
14:21
Speaker 8: you took the payout, you couldn't go back in somewhere else.
14:24
Speaker 2: So do you think it's fair should this payout exist?
14:27
Speaker 8: Look, I think the payouts fair. I'm not sure about
14:31
Speaker 8: the if you jumped straight back in is it's almost
14:35
Speaker 8: because you're employed by the member and so therefore if
14:39
Speaker 8: that member's left offers, there's no guarantee.
14:42
Speaker 7: And other members going to give you a job.
14:43
Speaker 8: So I understand it's basically like a redundance payment that
14:46
Speaker 8: anyone in the private sector would get, or in the
14:48
Speaker 8: public service for that matter, there are redundancy payments. But
14:52
Speaker 8: you know, it does seem a bit will be to
14:55
Speaker 8: me that you can get the payout and be back
14:57
Speaker 8: in another member's office within three days.
15:00
Speaker 7: That's a bit smelly.
15:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is, probably, David.
15:04
Speaker 3: And I mean, while I accept that it's not like
15:07
Speaker 3: your everyday office job, and you know, you lose your
15:10
Speaker 3: job when you're the person that you're working for, your
15:14
Speaker 3: boss loses theirs, I think that it wouldn't pass this
15:19
Speaker 3: neft task for a lot of Australians who were struggling
15:22
Speaker 3: with cost of living. To hear people are being paid
15:24
Speaker 3: out forty thousand dollars in the public service and just
15:26
Speaker 3: jumping right back in.
15:28
Speaker 10: No.
15:29
Speaker 9: I mean, the intention of this payment was for people
15:32
Speaker 9: who lost their jobs or the government lost they were
15:36
Speaker 9: working for a government minister and they chose to leave
15:39
Speaker 9: after working for a required period of time, I might add,
15:43
Speaker 9: and I've been part of that. It certainly was never
15:46
Speaker 9: intended to just do a merry go round.
15:50
Speaker 1: Sort of job.
15:51
Speaker 9: Shuffle where you took the severance and effectively ended up
15:54
Speaker 9: working back in government with a number of days.
15:56
Speaker 1: I mean that sounds quite outrageous to me.
16:00
Speaker 9: He was because you had lost your job, or you
16:03
Speaker 9: were leaving your job not to return and going into
16:07
Speaker 9: some other field, and you needed to go and find
16:11
Speaker 9: different employment, which could take some time, much like the
16:14
Speaker 9: private sector does.
16:15
Speaker 1: So the idea that this is some sort.
16:17
Speaker 9: Of shuffle that can create instant wealth was certainly never
16:22
Speaker 9: the intention back in our day, and I can't see
16:25
Speaker 9: this lasting very long, to be honest.
16:26
Speaker 1: Now that's been exposed.
16:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think they're going to close that loophole pretty soon.
16:30
Speaker 3: Let's talk about the Australian War Memorial because it's resistant
16:33
Speaker 3: calls to remove or relocate Ben Robert Smith's display in
16:37
Speaker 3: the Hall of Valor after his arrest, and that's despite
16:40
Speaker 3: the demands of some war historians and others too.
16:43
Speaker 2: I'm sure.
16:44
Speaker 3: Instead, a War Memorial spokeswoman said a plaque would be
16:47
Speaker 3: updated to include reference to his criminal charges.
16:51
Speaker 2: Holy your thoughts.
16:54
Speaker 8: I have absolute faith in Matt Anderson and the leadership
16:57
Speaker 8: of the Australian War Memorial.
16:58
Speaker 7: They he has done a new outstanding job since he's
17:01
Speaker 7: been there. I think this is disgusting.
17:03
Speaker 8: I think Ben is entitled to the presumption of innocence.
17:06
Speaker 8: I'm absolutely abbhored at the three hundred million dollars spent
17:10
Speaker 8: chasing him down. When you look at where a lot
17:13
Speaker 8: of his evidence is coming from. It's from you know,
17:16
Speaker 8: Afghani villagers who refer to non Muslims as infidels. I'm
17:22
Speaker 8: not quite sure where this court case will land, but
17:25
Speaker 8: the fact that he is entitled to the presumption of innocence,
17:28
Speaker 8: I absolutely think it's disgusting this the way it's been handled,
17:31
Speaker 8: It's been nothing but a political stunt or a public
17:34
Speaker 8: stunt in many ways, particularly when you look at the
17:36
Speaker 8: arrest of him and the fact that cameras were on hand,
17:40
Speaker 8: And I think it sends a terrible message to those
17:42
Speaker 8: in our defense force when we should always be giving
17:44
Speaker 8: them the most respect. And you know, if we were
17:47
Speaker 8: to face the crisis, I can tell you I would
17:50
Speaker 8: want someone like Brs at the front and not some
17:53
Speaker 8: pimply bureaucrat trying to defend us.
17:55
Speaker 1: Well.
17:55
Speaker 3: I'll talk a little bit more about Ben Robert Smith
17:58
Speaker 3: in a minute with hasn't rustle, but quickly want to
18:00
Speaker 3: get to this before we go, Clementine forward, Well, she's pulled.
18:04
Speaker 2: Out of the Gaza flotilla.
18:06
Speaker 3: I'm sure many people will be up sent to here
18:09
Speaker 3: after publicly declaring first that she was going and now
18:12
Speaker 3: saying the fuel crisis, that bloody fuel crisis means she
18:15
Speaker 3: may not be able to get back. Oh dear, well,
18:18
Speaker 3: I say she still goes instead, She'll be going for
18:21
Speaker 3: a nice walk instead. Let's have a look at what
18:23
Speaker 3: she had to say.
18:25
Speaker 11: People may know that I was set to join this flotilla,
18:27
Speaker 11: and my heart remains with them, But because I'm a
18:32
Speaker 11: single mother, I have some logistical obstacles that just pragmatically
18:38
Speaker 11: make it very difficult for me to go in a
18:41
Speaker 11: time where, because of the US fuel crisis, there's no
18:45
Speaker 11: guarantee that I'll be able to come home. I'm going
18:47
Speaker 11: to walk from nam Melbourne where I live, and I'm
18:50
Speaker 11: going to walk to Canberra.
18:51
Speaker 2: It's a political walk.
18:53
Speaker 3: She's walking from norm instead. How will the Palestinians survive
18:57
Speaker 3: without her?
18:58
Speaker 2: Tovid.
19:00
Speaker 1: If there is a.
19:01
Speaker 9: Loan bright spot to paying three dollars forty a liter
19:05
Speaker 9: for diesel, it is to see Clementine Ford having to
19:10
Speaker 9: admit that she can't make it.
19:12
Speaker 1: To Gaza because of fuel prices.
19:15
Speaker 9: I mean, it's one of the most comical things I
19:17
Speaker 9: think I've ever seen. But you know, I think there'd
19:20
Speaker 9: be probably people out there that would be willing to
19:22
Speaker 9: crowdfund to get her over the hump with those shocking
19:27
Speaker 9: fuel prices, to get her to Gaza.
19:30
Speaker 2: They can't come back.
19:32
Speaker 1: Look, I'm not.
19:32
Speaker 9: Sure whether the fund would go to to return trip,
19:37
Speaker 9: but I think we could get her over there if
19:39
Speaker 9: it was just fuel.
19:40
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, I for that.
19:43
Speaker 7: Look.
19:44
Speaker 8: I actually said to my front bath night, I said,
19:46
Speaker 8: you know what, maybe before we get on air tonight,
19:49
Speaker 8: I should set up the gofundly page to send her
19:52
Speaker 8: to Gaza. I thought we could send the Quis for
19:55
Speaker 8: Palestine to Gaza as well, since they're also key to
19:58
Speaker 8: embrace that life lifestyle and their hermus Clearly the Harmask
20:02
Speaker 8: supporters because they're so virently in support of them, and
20:06
Speaker 8: I'm pretty sure Australians out there would be very happy
20:08
Speaker 8: to send most of them to Gaza. And I'm pretty
20:11
Speaker 8: sure we only have to fund one way tickets Hereah.
20:13
Speaker 3: I think it's of course a lot of us would
20:15
Speaker 3: get behind David Gazzard, Hollo Hughes. Thank you both so
20:18
Speaker 3: much for your time. Let's return now to one of
20:21
Speaker 3: the biggest stories of the week, the arrest of war
20:24
Speaker 3: hero Ben Robert Smith on charges of war crimes. The
20:27
Speaker 3: Victoria Cross recipient has spent his second night behind bars
20:31
Speaker 3: at Sydney's Silver Water Prison after being arrested Tuesday on
20:35
Speaker 3: five counts of war crimes murder. Now, a source close
20:39
Speaker 3: to his legal team tells me that he's in solitary
20:42
Speaker 3: confinement in maximum security because he's there next to the
20:47
Speaker 3: very kinds of terrorists that he was sent to fight
20:51
Speaker 3: against in the Middle East. It's ironic and it's cruel.
20:54
Speaker 3: He needs protection from those kinds of people.
20:56
Speaker 2: Now.
20:57
Speaker 3: It's a case that has gripped the country and broken
21:00
Speaker 3: the hearts of millions of Australians, not least the members
21:04
Speaker 3: of our defense community. Experts of warning Australia's already strapped
21:08
Speaker 3: defense force will struggle even more in recruiting new soldiers,
21:13
Speaker 3: describing the target of eighty thousand personnail by twenty forty
21:17
Speaker 3: as now just a pipe dream. Former Commander Heston Russell
21:21
Speaker 3: knows better than most what it's like being.
21:23
Speaker 2: Accused of war crimes.
21:25
Speaker 3: The retired Special Forces major successfully sued the ABC, and
21:30
Speaker 3: the broadcaster was forced to pay close to four hundred
21:32
Speaker 3: thousand dollars in damages after it falsely claimed he was
21:36
Speaker 3: involved in killing an afgun prisoner, even editing in audio
21:41
Speaker 3: of extra gunshots to real footage. After Robert Smith's arrest,
21:46
Speaker 3: Russell posted online the circumstances of this arrest, involving media
21:51
Speaker 3: presence alongside police as he arrived with his daughter's off
21:55
Speaker 3: a plane, are deeply concerning. It raises serious questions out
22:00
Speaker 3: whether the integratory, the integrity of the process, and the
22:03
Speaker 3: presumption of innocence have already been compromised. I spoke exclusively
22:08
Speaker 3: to Heston Russell from California where he's traveling a short
22:12
Speaker 3: time ago, and began by asking whether he thought Ben
22:15
Speaker 3: Robert Smith could get a fair trial.
22:18
Speaker 1: Now we'll get out Caroline.
22:20
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a really interesting topic, isn't it. We've seen
22:23
Speaker 4: this play out through unfortunately civil defamation proceedings, which means nothing,
22:28
Speaker 4: and now Ben will be required to go through the
22:30
Speaker 4: criminal courts and through a jury of his peers, and
22:34
Speaker 4: it'd be hard to imagine how we could find someone
22:37
Speaker 4: in Australia who hasn't or isn't going to have some
22:40
Speaker 4: form of influence from what's occurred here all the last
22:43
Speaker 4: two years. But from the outset, regardless of what you
22:45
Speaker 4: think about Ben, all this case, the simple fact that
22:48
Speaker 4: there were cameras from Channel nine there that Ben has
22:51
Speaker 4: previously said to the police and the officers officer, the
22:55
Speaker 4: special Investigator that he will hand himself in if they're
22:58
Speaker 4: going to arrest him, and yet they waited for to
23:00
Speaker 4: return from a flight to Sydney Airport in public after
23:03
Speaker 4: the east along we can with his two twin teenage daughters.
23:06
Speaker 4: I'm just disgusted by that as an Australian citizen period,
23:11
Speaker 4: and it really makes me wonder like, what is the
23:13
Speaker 4: motive here? Why are we pushing for drama? Why are
23:15
Speaker 4: the news cameras there from Channel nine? Why are the
23:18
Speaker 4: police telling the media what they're going to do. It
23:21
Speaker 4: doesn't demonstrate one respect or two integrity in this process.
23:25
Speaker 1: In my opinion, I.
23:27
Speaker 3: Think you're spot on, and I think a lot of
23:28
Speaker 3: Australians are wondering the same thing. I'm interested in your
23:32
Speaker 3: thoughts about how the media has handled this at rest
23:36
Speaker 3: and this case, particularly because of your own experience Heston
23:39
Speaker 3: with the ABC, who you successfully sued for defamation in
23:43
Speaker 3: twenty twenty three after they falsely accused you of being
23:46
Speaker 3: complicit in war crimes.
23:48
Speaker 4: Well, I've just been disgusted by the whole situation in
23:51
Speaker 4: Australia whereby the media are legally allowed to call any
23:54
Speaker 4: veterans war criminals, and the burden is on us to
23:58
Speaker 4: afford civil defamation proceedings, which only requires evidence on the
24:01
Speaker 4: balance of probabilities before a single judge or multiple judges
24:05
Speaker 4: if you go to request a review of the decision,
24:08
Speaker 4: as opposed to recognizing the unique circumstances of not only
24:12
Speaker 4: military service, but combat and warlike operations. After putting the
24:16
Speaker 4: Australian people through a three year Royal Commission to Defense
24:19
Speaker 4: and veteran suicide, after so many veterans from Korea and
24:23
Speaker 4: Vietnam and Moore speaking out about these circumstances, it sounds
24:26
Speaker 4: so easy on paper for people to sit here and say, oh,
24:29
Speaker 4: you know, if the rules were broken, they need to
24:31
Speaker 4: be held to account absolutely, But it's not black and white.
24:34
Speaker 4: We're talking about special forces operations, counterinsurgaency operations in a
24:38
Speaker 4: theater of war in Afghanistan, where we can't even go
24:41
Speaker 4: to that country at the moment because under Taliban control
24:44
Speaker 4: from accusations over fifteen years ago. And this really ties
24:48
Speaker 4: to my previous point where Ben's not on trial for
24:51
Speaker 4: murdering Australians in Australia. This arrest did not need to
24:53
Speaker 4: happen anywhere near the level of drama and cinematography they've
24:57
Speaker 4: choreographed it for. Thoroughly look forward to seeing how this
25:02
Speaker 4: progresses to the criminal standards of beyond reasonable doubt before
25:05
Speaker 4: a jury. But this whole situation where our government, the
25:09
Speaker 4: MINISTERPA Communications, the Minnesopa Vetered Affairs who I went and
25:13
Speaker 4: met after I successfully sued the ABC, and the government
25:17
Speaker 4: is behoveen to the media and supporting what they call
25:20
Speaker 4: free media and freedom of speech as opposed to supporting
25:22
Speaker 4: those veterans who went away to fight for those same
25:26
Speaker 4: freedoms and their families and their teenage daughters that they're
25:30
Speaker 4: now arrested of in front of here in Australia, fifteen
25:33
Speaker 4: years after that conflict has ended.
25:36
Speaker 3: Will you say you're looking forward to how these claims
25:39
Speaker 3: will be tested. Is that a silver lining here for
25:42
Speaker 3: Ben Roberts Smith, who has always maintained his innocence that
25:46
Speaker 3: now these claims that have been made against him will
25:49
Speaker 3: finally be tested in a criminal court and not a
25:51
Speaker 3: civil one, which obviously has much lower standard of proof.
25:55
Speaker 12: Well, Carolyn, what we have, Caroline, So what we have
25:57
Speaker 12: seen in the last few months, even I've been on
26:01
Speaker 12: Shari Show and how to talk about you know, the
26:03
Speaker 12: seven hundred thousand dollars of hush money that was paid
26:05
Speaker 12: by Channel nine to a key witness in the Ven
26:07
Speaker 12: Roberts made civil defamation case.
26:10
Speaker 4: There's much higher burdens of proof. This is finally going
26:13
Speaker 4: to have to go through the criminal court proceedings, to
26:16
Speaker 4: the criminal standards of proof and be assessed by a
26:19
Speaker 4: jury and all of the issues and implications and context
26:24
Speaker 4: that is missing from this conversation. I was on the
26:26
Speaker 4: ground with ven robt Smith and his team in Afghanistan
26:29
Speaker 4: in twenty twelve when we were chasing Hekmatula who had
26:32
Speaker 4: just murdered three Australian soldiers in a green on blue
26:36
Speaker 4: attack at a time where the government said no one
26:38
Speaker 4: was allowed outside the wire unless they were special Forces.
26:41
Speaker 4: We just lost two other soldiers from Oscar platoon in
26:44
Speaker 4: the second Commander regiment, so five Australians killed in twenty
26:47
Speaker 4: four hours and myself a commander platoon, and Ben's team
26:51
Speaker 4: and an Essays troop were the only troops allowed outside
26:54
Speaker 4: the wire to chase down this murderer before he tried
26:57
Speaker 4: to escape to Pakistan. And the context of those orders
27:00
Speaker 4: coming from hambro keeping, the rest of our call signs
27:03
Speaker 4: Hamstrum and the pressure on us to produce results through
27:06
Speaker 4: to everything else that goes into what people love to
27:09
Speaker 4: call you in the heat of battle and the fog
27:12
Speaker 4: of war.
27:12
Speaker 1: I cannot wait for Prime.
27:14
Speaker 4: Minister's ministers, people who are responsible for these decisions for
27:17
Speaker 4: providing these orders to special forces like us on the ground,
27:20
Speaker 4: to be brought to and through this process, and for
27:23
Speaker 4: the Australian public to understand the true context of what
27:27
Speaker 4: our lads and ladies went through on the ground. I
27:31
Speaker 4: pity then having to go through this process, but we're
27:34
Speaker 4: finally where we should have been at the start, before
27:36
Speaker 4: any accusations were allowed to be raised by the media.
27:40
Speaker 4: They meet the threshold of requirements through the criminal courts,
27:43
Speaker 4: not the civil prosecution we've had to endure the last
27:45
Speaker 4: few years.
27:46
Speaker 3: Defense experts have now issued a warning that this will
27:50
Speaker 3: have a devastating impact on recruitment, despite Australia desperately needing
27:55
Speaker 3: to recruit more people to defend this country. Do you
27:58
Speaker 3: think that will be a case of result of this
28:00
Speaker 3: arrest and what was a very public arrest.
28:03
Speaker 4: Caroline, you and your viewers will be able to answer
28:07
Speaker 4: this question very easily. Where has defense been throughout this
28:10
Speaker 4: entire time?
28:10
Speaker 1: Where is defense?
28:11
Speaker 4: When the ABC was proven to falsely defame the light platoon,
28:15
Speaker 4: to add gunshots to edit footage. Where is defense now?
28:19
Speaker 4: The Defense force leadership is the issue with the recruitment
28:22
Speaker 4: and the culture and Defense for not stepping up and
28:25
Speaker 4: supporting our troops with the presumption of innocence in the
28:29
Speaker 4: court of public opinion and the court of law until
28:31
Speaker 4: they are taken to the criminal standards of evidence.
28:34
Speaker 1: It is an absolute.
28:36
Speaker 4: It is absolutely disgusting to see what we've been left
28:38
Speaker 4: to endure on the outside while Defense sits there and
28:41
Speaker 4: expects marketing campaigns on TV to recruit the future generations.
28:45
Speaker 4: I've had that many meetings and gave evidence of the
28:47
Speaker 4: Royal Commission discussing how the majority of people who enter
28:50
Speaker 4: our military do so given the recommendation of someone they
28:54
Speaker 4: know who has served, a veteran who has served in
28:56
Speaker 4: the military. That's where most of the lead generation for
28:59
Speaker 4: new recruits come from. And you just need to switch
29:02
Speaker 4: on social media at the moment to see how disgusted
29:05
Speaker 4: our veterans are with how our government and our defense
29:07
Speaker 4: force is treating our veterans after service. And you think
29:10
Speaker 4: any of us are recommending people to sign up to
29:12
Speaker 4: this right then you really need to reassess what's actually
29:18
Speaker 4: going on the ground outside and just read some of
29:20
Speaker 4: the comments.
29:21
Speaker 1: I'm sure you can see yourself.
29:23
Speaker 3: And I know it's concerning a lot of the veterans
29:25
Speaker 3: that I'm hearing from. Heston Russell, thank you so much
29:28
Speaker 3: for taking time out of your holiday to speak with
29:31
Speaker 3: us and offer your insights.
29:32
Speaker 2: It's much appreciated.
29:34
Speaker 3: Thanks Carol, And I just want to add here a
29:37
Speaker 3: lot of Australians are understandably distressed, like Heston by the
29:41
Speaker 3: very public nature of Ben Robert Smith's arrest in front
29:44
Speaker 3: of his traumatized children and with nine cameras just happening
29:48
Speaker 3: to be present. Clearly there was a leak to the
29:52
Speaker 3: network from somewhere. Now we don't know if it came
29:55
Speaker 3: from a source somewhere within the AFP, other agencies and
29:59
Speaker 3: people were involved in the.
30:01
Speaker 2: Operation after all.
30:03
Speaker 3: But I've been told by a source close to ben
30:06
Speaker 3: Robert Smith's legal team that at many times over the years,
30:10
Speaker 3: the war heroes lawyers have said, should this ever lead
30:13
Speaker 3: to an arrest, which they always feared could happen, Robert
30:17
Speaker 3: Smith would surrender himself to a police station. There may
30:21
Speaker 3: well be operational reasons for this very public arrest in
30:25
Speaker 3: front of his kids, and perhaps we'll find out what
30:28
Speaker 3: they are in court proceedings, but until then it's not
30:32
Speaker 3: the best look still to come. Anthony Alberzi pressed on
30:37
Speaker 3: Labour's fuel security failure as the government tries to turn
30:40
Speaker 3: the crisis into a renewables pitch. Plus outrage in Parliament
30:45
Speaker 3: over the One Nation staffer and convicted rapists still tied
30:49
Speaker 3: to the party. Llen p MP Garth Hamilton is demanding
30:54
Speaker 3: answers from the Speaker and Senate President. He joins me next,
31:01
Speaker 3: welcome back. Anthony Alberizi is denying he's failed his own
31:05
Speaker 3: test on fuel security. But four years on, no new
31:09
Speaker 3: refineries have opened and many stations while they're still out
31:12
Speaker 3: of fuel. Alberizi was confronted on that today by Skeynes's
31:16
Speaker 3: reporter Harry Clark.
31:18
Speaker 2: Take a look, he.
31:19
Speaker 10: Said, the government we need a government books forward and
31:22
Speaker 10: plans ahead, and Australia it stands.
31:24
Speaker 3: On a seignty.
31:24
Speaker 1: Feed boys in the r finn.
31:26
Speaker 4: Minister shipping out traveling to Singapore to shore up fuel supply.
31:29
Speaker 7: Is that a sign that you've failed in that aspiration.
31:31
Speaker 13: No, it doesn't at all. We have the largest reserves
31:36
Speaker 13: in fifteen years, the largest reserves in fifteen years. We're
31:41
Speaker 13: made sure on our watch no refineries have shut. The
31:46
Speaker 13: two were made sure that they're secure going forward as well.
31:51
Speaker 3: Joining me now, Allen p MP Garth, Hamilton Garth, Great
31:55
Speaker 3: to see you. I mean, is anyone buying the PMS
31:59
Speaker 3: denials here? I noticed the nodding heads in the background
32:02
Speaker 3: nodding away furiously.
32:03
Speaker 2: But is anyone else believing this?
32:06
Speaker 14: I don't think anyone's believing this at all. This was
32:08
Speaker 14: a great test for mister Albanesi how he would respond
32:11
Speaker 14: to this, and what he's decided to do is tell
32:13
Speaker 14: us that everything's not just okay, but the best it's
32:15
Speaker 14: been in fifteen years. I've got a tip on this one.
32:20
Speaker 14: I actually think this could be the start of the
32:23
Speaker 14: end mister Albenzi. I've got a colleague of mine who
32:26
Speaker 14: predicts that mister Albenze will be gone by Christmas time
32:30
Speaker 14: because of this issue, because no one's buying it. You
32:32
Speaker 14: ask anyone on the street, do you think mister Albanesi
32:35
Speaker 14: will Chris Bowen have a handle on this issue? No
32:38
Speaker 14: one does. I think this has got it out of
32:39
Speaker 14: control and they've got the wrong tone and how they're
32:41
Speaker 14: answering it.
32:42
Speaker 3: You really think that they would replace Albernesiu. I mean,
32:45
Speaker 3: I know One Nation has become a real threat and
32:48
Speaker 3: some stays even threatening Labor as well, but they still
32:51
Speaker 3: have such a huge majority of seats, surely they wouldn't
32:54
Speaker 3: replace him.
32:55
Speaker 14: They have a huge majority of seats. But if you
32:57
Speaker 14: have a look at some of the numbers from that
32:59
Speaker 14: South election in some of Labour's strongest seats, is where
33:03
Speaker 14: you see the biggest swings to One Nation. And as
33:06
Speaker 14: I pointed out to mister Albinez, you didn't like it
33:08
Speaker 14: when I told him this. In South Australia, Labor had
33:10
Speaker 14: a really popular leader in Melanoscus. In federal election, they've
33:15
Speaker 14: only got albow and he is not a popular leader.
33:17
Speaker 14: I think they are at real risk of one nation.
33:19
Speaker 14: They know they are, and labor are ruthless. They'll do
33:22
Speaker 14: whatever it takes to hold onto power, and that's a
33:24
Speaker 14: call to arms. For those of us who are don't
33:27
Speaker 14: share Labour's view for the future, we need to sort
33:30
Speaker 14: ourselves out and get really serious about this next election.
33:33
Speaker 3: Well, I think there'll be a lot of people at
33:35
Speaker 3: home hoping you're right and your prediction about Albernesi personally.
33:39
Speaker 3: Let's talk about Treasurer Jim Chalmers, because he is now
33:42
Speaker 3: taking advantage of this fuel crisis to make Labour's case
33:45
Speaker 3: for renewables. Read the room, Treasurer insisting he's insisting that
33:51
Speaker 3: the critics just don't get it.
33:53
Speaker 2: Let's take a look.
33:54
Speaker 15: They fail to understand that cleaner and cheaper energy and
33:57
Speaker 15: sovereign capacity are not just environ mental or economic issues,
34:01
Speaker 15: as important as those things are, but also national security issues.
34:05
Speaker 15: I mean, I find it bizarre, frankly, that in the
34:08
Speaker 15: context of what we've seen in the last month and
34:11
Speaker 15: a half that anyone would conclude from that that we
34:15
Speaker 15: should continue to have all of our eggs in one basket.
34:19
Speaker 1: We need cleaner and cheaper energy.
34:22
Speaker 3: Did he not see Chris Bowen's press conference yesterday when
34:25
Speaker 3: he would train wreck of a conference when he was
34:28
Speaker 3: ambushed by Liam Bartless on this issue. It's quite amazing
34:31
Speaker 3: they're still pushing renewables at a time like this.
34:35
Speaker 14: Well, surprise, surprise. That's the answer. Is that more renewables.
34:38
Speaker 14: It always is the answer. But the look, let's pull
34:40
Speaker 14: this apart really quickly. Renewables aren't cheaper. They're not if
34:43
Speaker 14: you have cheap energy in Australia. We need coal. We
34:45
Speaker 14: need more coal. We should be running it as often
34:48
Speaker 14: as we can. But let's think about the second thing
34:50
Speaker 14: he said about national security. Mister Chalmers wants us to
34:53
Speaker 14: believe that shipping in constantly shipping in solar panels from China,
34:57
Speaker 14: and every ten years when every panel needs replaced, we
35:00
Speaker 14: need another one. Or on this loop of solar panels
35:02
Speaker 14: from China. Somehow we're going to be more secure as
35:06
Speaker 14: a nation if our energy is completely reliant upon Chinese shipping.
35:11
Speaker 14: They've already had a trade war with us, we're going
35:14
Speaker 14: through one now. They decided they don't want to take
35:16
Speaker 14: any more of our beef. Chrying have already showed us
35:18
Speaker 14: what they're willing to do with regret to trade, and
35:22
Speaker 14: I don't think we should be exposing our energy to
35:24
Speaker 14: them in the fashion that Labour suggests we should. It's
35:26
Speaker 14: just it's insane.
35:27
Speaker 2: Yeah.
35:27
Speaker 3: The national security is also a really big concern too, Garth.
35:31
Speaker 3: You've written to the Speaker of the House and the
35:33
Speaker 3: President of the Senate demanding to know when One Nation
35:36
Speaker 3: staffer and convicted rapist Sean Black will be in Parliament
35:41
Speaker 3: so you can know and others. I suppose too, when
35:44
Speaker 3: there is a rapist in Parliament House the One Nation
35:47
Speaker 3: staffer is still tied to the party despite his twenty
35:50
Speaker 3: eighteen jailing for raping and assaulting his former wife. Garth,
35:54
Speaker 3: I'm not going to defend a rapist for one second.
35:57
Speaker 3: I don't think someone like this should have a public
35:59
Speaker 3: service role. But are you truly worried about your safety
36:03
Speaker 3: here or is this trying to take a shot at
36:05
Speaker 3: One Nation?
36:06
Speaker 2: What's happening?
36:09
Speaker 14: Look, I appreciate that you've been gracious enough to suggest
36:13
Speaker 14: it isn't politics. This was raised to me by staff members,
36:17
Speaker 14: it has been raised to me by other people in
36:19
Speaker 14: the Parliament, and we were quite shocked that One Nation
36:22
Speaker 14: have re employed a convicted violent sex offender. To come
36:27
Speaker 14: and work from in their party. Not only is there
36:30
Speaker 14: a question here on judgment, I don't think it passes
36:32
Speaker 14: the pub tests. I think most people are shocked to
36:34
Speaker 14: find that this is the case, but there are genuine concerns. Sorry,
36:37
Speaker 14: I take my sixteen year old daughter down to Parliament
36:40
Speaker 14: with me. I want to know that when she's walking
36:41
Speaker 14: around there, there isn't the slightest risk of someone who
36:44
Speaker 14: has been convicted of violent sexual assault walking around in
36:48
Speaker 14: the same building. I have young female staff, there are
36:50
Speaker 14: young female attendants who work down there in cleanness. I'm sorry.
36:54
Speaker 14: I do think there is a very very reasonable question
36:57
Speaker 14: that we should be asking here, and I would point
36:58
Speaker 14: out that every state Australia has a sexual offenders Register
37:02
Speaker 14: where you can go out and find out where these
37:04
Speaker 14: people are. I don't know why our workplace in cambrig
37:07
Speaker 14: should be any different, but this is a question for
37:09
Speaker 14: one nation. So far they refuse to answer it.
37:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is curious because Pauline Hanson says she's so
37:14
Speaker 3: tough on crime and she generally is on these issues,
37:17
Speaker 3: that they would still employ this person. God, thank you
37:20
Speaker 3: so much for your time. Tonight still to come is
37:22
Speaker 3: the strait of hor moos really closing and if it is,
37:26
Speaker 3: what happens next. Michael schubridg joins me on the Fragile seasfire,
37:30
Speaker 3: Trump's NATO warning and why America is quietly moving to
37:35
Speaker 3: lock in draft registrations. Then later David Pearl on whether
37:39
Speaker 3: this oil shop could do far more than cause pain
37:41
Speaker 3: at the Bowser and may push the global economy towards recession.
37:50
Speaker 2: Welcome back.
37:50
Speaker 3: Well, the ceasefire in Iran may be in place, but
37:53
Speaker 3: it's looking shaky, leaving it up in the air. What
37:56
Speaker 3: will happen to the Strait of hor Mooz Iran is
37:59
Speaker 3: currently claiming the world's most critical oil choke point is
38:04
Speaker 3: effectively shut, even if the White House insists traffic is
38:08
Speaker 3: picking up, with reports only a handful of shifts are
38:11
Speaker 3: getting through and no oil tankers transit. And yet join
38:15
Speaker 3: me now is strategic analysis Australian director Michael Schubridge. Michael
38:21
Speaker 3: tell us what is happening with the Strait of Humus?
38:24
Speaker 3: Will it fully open anytime soon? Do you expect?
38:28
Speaker 2: And if so, when, Carolyn?
38:32
Speaker 16: I don't think it will fully open until the core
38:37
Speaker 16: issue of what this cease fire means is sorted out.
38:42
Speaker 16: Because when the Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif announced the seas
38:45
Speaker 16: fire yesterday, his first sentence said that it included Lebanon,
38:51
Speaker 16: and since then Prime Minister NETANYAHUU of Israel has continued
38:57
Speaker 16: Israel's attacks into Lebanon. So Iran says that breaches the
39:01
Speaker 16: basic terms of the ceasefire and it reopening the strait
39:06
Speaker 16: was conditional on the ceasefire holding.
39:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, it doesn't seem like that issue is going to
39:13
Speaker 3: resolve anytime soon, does it, because Israel is adamant that
39:18
Speaker 3: it doesn't include Lebanon and the US seems to be
39:21
Speaker 3: backing Israel on that. So do you see this just
39:24
Speaker 3: returning to a.
39:25
Speaker 2: Full full out war.
39:29
Speaker 16: Well, it's ceasefires are often pretty tenuous early on, and
39:34
Speaker 16: it's normal for there to be some breeches as they
39:37
Speaker 16: get into place. But this is a much bigger issue
39:41
Speaker 16: than that. This does Israel respect this sease fire or
39:46
Speaker 16: will it keep its more into Lebanon going? And I
39:51
Speaker 16: can't see Iran throwing Hezbola under the bus here, because
39:56
Speaker 16: Hezbola was attacking Israel in response to Israel America attacking Iran.
40:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, and Hezballah, of course, is one of Iran's proxies. Look,
40:06
Speaker 3: let's talk about Trump. He is now weighing up a
40:09
Speaker 3: plan to punish NATO countries that he says failed the US.
40:13
Speaker 2: And Israel during the Iran War.
40:15
Speaker 3: Including shifting American troops out of countries like Spain and
40:19
Speaker 3: Germany and rewarding more supportive allies like Poland, Romania and Lithuania.
40:25
Speaker 3: That NATO's Secretary General is currently in Washington to meet
40:28
Speaker 3: with Trump, with White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt sharing
40:32
Speaker 3: this message from Trump on NATO.
40:38
Speaker 17: I have a direct quote from the President of the
40:40
Speaker 17: United States on NITO, and I will share it with
40:42
Speaker 17: all of you. They were tested and they failed. And
40:45
Speaker 17: I would add it's quite sad that NITO turned their
40:47
Speaker 17: backs on the American people over the course of the
40:49
Speaker 17: last six weeks when it's the American people who have
40:51
Speaker 17: been defunding their defense. As you know, President Trump will
40:54
Speaker 17: be meeting with Secretary Ruta in a couple of hours
40:57
Speaker 17: here at the White House, and I know he looks
40:58
Speaker 17: forward to having a very frank, in candid conversation with him.
41:02
Speaker 3: Michael, what do you see happening here? We know Trump
41:05
Speaker 3: makes a lot of threats sometimes they're a negotiating tactic,
41:11
Speaker 3: as his threat about the end of a civilization with Iran.
41:15
Speaker 3: But do you see this as something that he might
41:17
Speaker 3: potentially follow through and could it be extended to Australia,
41:20
Speaker 3: So who he's also accused of not sending help when
41:23
Speaker 3: it's been asked for.
41:27
Speaker 16: Well, that's interesting, Carolyn. The first thing that I thought
41:30
Speaker 16: when I saw this report was the Australian government is
41:35
Speaker 16: lucky that Australia is not in NATO, because Australia would
41:39
Speaker 16: be on that list in the White House of allies
41:42
Speaker 16: that were not supportive of this war in Iran, for
41:45
Speaker 16: right or wrong. I think this theme around America and
41:50
Speaker 16: NATO is now really hardening into US policy. I do
41:54
Speaker 16: think they will seek to punish NATO allies like Spain
41:59
Speaker 16: that we're deeply critical of this war. But I'm not
42:03
Speaker 16: so sure that moving more US troops into other European
42:07
Speaker 16: countries is going to be seen by those populations as
42:10
Speaker 16: a real boon. And there's the specter of Donald Trump
42:14
Speaker 16: sending a bill for countries having US troops there.
42:19
Speaker 3: Well, far be it from any of us to predict
42:21
Speaker 3: what the US president will do. I guess we'll wait
42:23
Speaker 3: and see I. Meanwhile, the US government is moving to
42:26
Speaker 3: automatically register eligible men for the military draft from December,
42:30
Speaker 3: after Congress signed it off in the twenty twenty six
42:33
Speaker 3: Defense funding bill last year. It means American men aged
42:37
Speaker 3: eighteen to twenty five who were already legally required to
42:40
Speaker 3: sign themselves up will instead be added through federal data
42:45
Speaker 3: matching as registration rates slip and concerns well again about
42:49
Speaker 3: what this could mean if a draft was ever brought
42:52
Speaker 3: back in What do you think there's signals?
42:54
Speaker 14: My call?
42:55
Speaker 3: Is there a concern that there will be more conflicts
42:59
Speaker 3: or that this current one could deepen?
43:04
Speaker 16: Well, as you say, this just gets America mails over eighteen.
43:08
Speaker 12: On a list.
43:09
Speaker 16: There have to be new laws passed to actually draft
43:12
Speaker 16: them into the military like they did last in Vietnam.
43:15
Speaker 16: But really i'd put this move alongside the record defense
43:20
Speaker 16: funding bill that the Trump administration has just put forward.
43:23
Speaker 16: They want one point five trillion US dollars in annual funding.
43:27
Speaker 16: That's about a four hundred billion dollar annual increase. So
43:31
Speaker 16: they're funding the biggest military build up and you kind
43:37
Speaker 16: of need people in the military as part of that.
43:41
Speaker 3: Michael Schubridge, thank you for your time tonight still to come.
43:44
Speaker 3: Is the Around conflict about to hit far more than
43:48
Speaker 3: just our petrol prices, with fears of stagflation even recession.
43:52
Speaker 3: Former Treasury Assistant Secretary David Pearl joins me on that next, Well,
44:01
Speaker 3: oil prices have been whipped around by the Iron conflict,
44:04
Speaker 3: but there's a fear this could become much bigger than
44:07
Speaker 3: just pain at the bowser. Governments are burning through billions
44:10
Speaker 3: of dollars on fuel excise cuts and subsidies just to
44:14
Speaker 3: push in the hit, and there is a real fear
44:17
Speaker 3: that high energy costs a fuel inflation crush, goat growth
44:22
Speaker 3: and push already debt heavy economies towards stagflation or even recession.
44:27
Speaker 3: Joining me now is former Treasury Assistant Secretary David Pearl. David,
44:32
Speaker 3: do you think these fears are balid?
44:36
Speaker 10: Look, I think the fears are reasonable, but I wouldn't
44:41
Speaker 10: be drawing a direct comparison between the oil shop we're
44:45
Speaker 10: seeing now and the two oil shops we saw in
44:48
Speaker 10: the nineteen seventies, which resulted in the price of oil
44:51
Speaker 10: quadrupling over a long period of time. But certainly, if
44:56
Speaker 10: we don't see a reopening of the strait of Hall
44:58
Speaker 10: moos anytime soon the risks of global growth slow down
45:06
Speaker 10: rise to some extent.
45:08
Speaker 3: Let's talk about the NDIS because labor has quietly set
45:13
Speaker 3: up an NDIS razor gang, it's been called inside the
45:17
Speaker 3: Health Department, led by former Treasury official Anthea Long, to
45:21
Speaker 3: find savings in a scheme that's now costing a whopping
45:24
Speaker 3: fifty two billion dollars a year ahead of the May budget.
45:28
Speaker 3: Now it comes as New anddis spending group ten point
45:31
Speaker 3: three percent last year, well above the government's eight percent target,
45:36
Speaker 3: and ministers are now scrambling to drag that growth rate
45:40
Speaker 3: back down to between five and six percent.
45:43
Speaker 2: David, do you think they're going to be able to.
45:45
Speaker 3: Find cut enough here to make the NDIS more sustainable.
45:51
Speaker 3: I mean, we've seen so much rarding of it. I
45:54
Speaker 3: think a lot of Australians have completely lost faith in
45:56
Speaker 3: the scheme altogether.
45:59
Speaker 10: I think they've been right to lose faith in the scheme.
46:01
Speaker 10: Let's go back to basics. It's costing fifty two billion
46:06
Speaker 10: dollars a year, which is more than Medicare. We have
46:09
Speaker 10: seven hundred and sixty thousand people benefiting from the NDIS.
46:14
Speaker 10: Almost half of those are fourteen or younger, and a
46:18
Speaker 10: large percentage of those are suffering from autism or somewhere
46:22
Speaker 10: on the spectrum. We do have a core group of
46:26
Speaker 10: profoundly disabled people who should always receive support from taxpayers,
46:31
Speaker 10: but we also have a burgeoning industry of entrepreneurs and
46:37
Speaker 10: others who are making a living from the taxpayer and
46:41
Speaker 10: the NDIS.
46:43
Speaker 1: Now, the government.
46:45
Speaker 10: Isn't proposing to cut the NDIS as far as I know.
46:48
Speaker 10: They're saying that they want to reduce the ten percent
46:52
Speaker 10: annual growth rate in the bill down to eight or six.
46:55
Speaker 10: But even at six percent, that's a ridiculously big price tag,
47:01
Speaker 10: and that's six percent compounds year or year. If the
47:04
Speaker 10: NDAs continues to grow at ten percent per annum, its
47:08
Speaker 10: costs will almost triple in ten years. So this program's
47:12
Speaker 10: not under control. To reroduce costs, Carolyn, you'd have to
47:18
Speaker 10: means test it. You'd have to limit it to profoundly
47:20
Speaker 10: disabled people. Politically and socially, that would cause outrage. So
47:26
Speaker 10: we're really in a bind with this program.
47:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know a lot of families are ready worried
47:31
Speaker 3: because I mean what they've been told that you know, changes,
47:34
Speaker 3: any changes would be grandfathered. People who are already on
47:37
Speaker 3: the scheme still can continue being on the scheme. Other
47:40
Speaker 3: kids who have autism, I mean parents who have autism,
47:44
Speaker 3: they worried that their kids won't be eligible for this.
47:48
Speaker 3: There's a new Thriving Kids program, but there's a lot
47:51
Speaker 3: of concern out there, I guess. But it was a
47:53
Speaker 3: scheme that was essentially for the most disabled, and that's
47:57
Speaker 3: how we understood it in the public, that that's what
47:59
Speaker 3: it would be or.
48:03
Speaker 10: Well, all of these flaws in the scheme were perfectly
48:06
Speaker 10: foreseeable at the time. The scheme was uncapped in the
48:11
Speaker 10: sense that the amount of assistance people could receive didn't
48:16
Speaker 10: have a limit, it wasn't means tested like so many
48:19
Speaker 10: other Australian welfare programs, and the definition of disability was
48:25
Speaker 10: always going to be broadened. And the other effect of
48:30
Speaker 10: the scheme has been to have state governments and other
48:33
Speaker 10: disability service providers depart and with draw services and leave
48:40
Speaker 10: it all for the common world to pick ups. All
48:42
Speaker 10: of these structural flaws in the scheme were perfectly foreseeable
48:47
Speaker 10: at the time it was brought in, and every billion
48:50
Speaker 10: dollars that is wasted through the NDIS, which is a
48:54
Speaker 10: major source of fraud and criminality in this country, I
48:57
Speaker 10: might add, is a billion dollars that can't go to health,
49:00
Speaker 10: they can't go to defense, that can't go to giving
49:03
Speaker 10: back bracket creep, and this is a time bomb. When
49:08
Speaker 10: entitlement programs like this start to swallow up more of
49:11
Speaker 10: the budget, it puts pressure on every other program to
49:15
Speaker 10: be scaled back or on the tax system. So I
49:19
Speaker 10: really do think that we face a very difficult dilemma.
49:22
Speaker 10: I think there'd be a split in the ALP if
49:25
Speaker 10: they tried to cut it, as some ALP senators have
49:28
Speaker 10: been arguing, and I haven't heard anything coherent from Angus
49:32
Speaker 10: Taylor on the nbaes or bracket creep or any of
49:35
Speaker 10: the other difficult.
49:36
Speaker 3: It's a hard one politically, but they have to do
49:38
Speaker 3: something about it. You're right, David Pearl. Thank you for
49:41
Speaker 3: your time and thanks for watching at home. It's been
49:44
Speaker 3: a pleasure hosting Shari this week. But up next Paul
49:46
Speaker 3: Murray hosted by James McPherson