Latest / Steve Price / Steve Price | 25 July

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Steve Price | 25 July · Steve Price

0:00
Speaker 1: Live.
0:01
Speaker 2: This is Steve Price.
0:08
Speaker 3: Welcome to Friday Night's Steve Price with you on today
0:10
Speaker 3: when our Prime Minister Anthony Albanezi has made his strongest
0:14
Speaker 3: statement yet on the ongoing war in Gaza, Following, of course,
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Speaker 3: the October seven, twenty twenty three terrorist attack on Israel
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Speaker 3: Bi Hamas. One thousand, one hundred and thirty nine innocent Israelis,
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Speaker 3: including children and women babies were slaughtered in the most
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Speaker 3: horrific of circumstances on that three months and a bit
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Speaker 3: to the second anniversary, the bloody conflict has now reached
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Speaker 3: a point where the world is asking, how can we
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Speaker 3: let what we are seeing continue to happen. We'll talk
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Speaker 3: with Opposition Senator James McGrath and get his reaction first
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Speaker 3: up to the Prime Minister's statement today. Also take you
0:50
Speaker 3: to News Call correspondent Sophie Ellsworth. She's got the greatest
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Speaker 3: job in the world. This weekend, she's in Scotland, the
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Speaker 3: head of Doppel Trump flying in to open another of
1:00
Speaker 3: his golf courses. Sophie coming up, plus the latest from
1:03
Speaker 3: Australian farmers on that very shock decision I think yesterday
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Speaker 3: to allow beef us beef into this country in bigger
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Speaker 3: quantities than ever before. We'll talk to the Farmers Federation
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Speaker 3: about that. But first up, I think we should all
1:17
Speaker 3: be very afraid of what might come of next month
1:20
Speaker 3: so called Economic Reform roundtable. This will happen in Canberra,
1:25
Speaker 3: a nice optimistic title, but with the federal budget headed
1:28
Speaker 3: toward decades of mounting debt, the Treasurer, as we now
1:32
Speaker 3: know from an inadvertent bungle by some public servant who
1:36
Speaker 3: didn't redact enough from an ABC freedom of information request,
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Speaker 3: has been told look, you've got to rain in spending
1:44
Speaker 3: and you will also have to increase taxes. Now. Talking
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Speaker 3: with ex Treasury official David Pearl on The Sharry Show
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Speaker 3: this week, he made the point to me that when
1:54
Speaker 3: we get these to get togethers round tables between politicians
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Speaker 3: and bosses trade unionists, the politicians think Jim Chalmers this
2:03
Speaker 3: time around, and in the past treasurers like Paul Keating
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Speaker 3: have already made up their minds on what they're going
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Speaker 3: to do. So they've been briefed by Treasury and you
2:11
Speaker 3: know it's just going to be a talk fest and
2:12
Speaker 3: then what will happen has already been decided. Now reporting
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Speaker 3: the Financial Review today reminded me of the great assets
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Speaker 3: test for the pension including your house battle of the
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Speaker 3: mid nineteen eighties. It was around nineteen eighty four Keating
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Speaker 3: was the Prime Minister, decided, probably off the bat he
2:31
Speaker 3: was Treasurer, probably off the back of a similar for
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Speaker 3: show Get Together, that he was going to introduce an
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Speaker 3: assets test for people applying for the age pension. Now,
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Speaker 3: the problem with this is the assets test was going
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Speaker 3: to include your family home. Now, the clear message out
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Speaker 3: of Canberra at that time was that, well, there's too
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Speaker 3: many people well off Australians were getting the pension and
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Speaker 3: this had to stop.
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Speaker 4: Now.
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Speaker 3: I was working in newspapers at the time at a
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Speaker 3: relatively senior level, and we decided this assets test, which
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Speaker 3: was originally going to include the family home, it was
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Speaker 3: simply going too far. We found example after example of
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Speaker 3: elderly Australians who could be called asset rich but cash poor.
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Speaker 3: In other words, a single pensioner eligible, a woman largely
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Speaker 3: living in a large house which back in those days
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Speaker 3: could have been worth say eight hundred thousand dollars, but
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Speaker 3: with no chance of working again, her working life was
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Speaker 3: over and unwilling to sell or downsize the house or
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Speaker 3: she was going to lose her pension now if these
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Speaker 3: changes had gone ahead. Keating tried to defend the change,
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Speaker 3: but it became obvious even to him that this was unfair.
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Speaker 3: Now is one pension to put it at the time?
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Speaker 3: You can't eat your house now. I raised this because
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Speaker 3: of a story in Today's Financial Review that I mentioned.
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Speaker 3: It caused me to have a clear case of deja
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Speaker 3: vus or here we go again. The fin Review reveals
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Speaker 3: that the Department of Social Services has advised their new minister,
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Speaker 3: Tanya Plibasek, that she and the government should look at
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Speaker 3: reforming the pension assets test. And I thought, yep, here
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Speaker 3: we go again. These faceless public servants want The Minister
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Speaker 3: of the warned the Minister of the generosity of pensions
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Speaker 3: talk about pensioners having significant assets in addition to their
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Speaker 3: homes and that this needs to be reformed. Now, imagine
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Speaker 3: that a taxpayer funded public servant living in permanent employment
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Speaker 3: and camera suggesting that a pensioner with a nice car,
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Speaker 3: some good furniture in a big house shouldn't be getting
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Speaker 3: the age pension after a life of paying taxes. Well,
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Speaker 3: I think it stinks and it hints that the family
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Speaker 3: home might be back on the agenda for that meeting
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Speaker 3: that we're seeing next month. Now to her credit, Plebasek
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Speaker 3: immediately ruled out the family home because she must have
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Speaker 3: a longer memory than the Uni graduate at Social Services.
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Speaker 3: The same Financial Review article, though, quotes a bloke from
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Speaker 3: the Gratton Institute, a blow called Brendan Coates, who says,
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Speaker 3: having a hang on retiree can live in Pot's Point
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Speaker 3: or they can live in two rap strange comparison, just
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Speaker 3: quietly with a five million dollar house and receive the
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Speaker 3: same pension that a person living in a half a
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Speaker 3: million dollar unit in Benigo or Bathist yep. So what
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Speaker 3: they're all still captured by the current assets tests. That
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Speaker 3: makes you add up your non housing assets to work
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Speaker 3: out if you get the pension or not. Why does
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Speaker 3: it matter where you live? And as our example from
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Speaker 3: all those years ago pointed out, you can't eat your
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Speaker 3: house now, coach says, quote, this system needs to change
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Speaker 3: now back in Keating's idea of including the family home
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Speaker 3: in the assets test. Now, Tanya's a smart politician. She
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Speaker 3: won't fall for that, I hope. But as they say,
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Speaker 3: where there's smoke, there is some fire. Coat, so went further.
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Speaker 3: As it stands, the first two hundred and fifty thousand
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Speaker 3: dollars of a home's value does count toward the assets test,
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Speaker 3: but after that the house value doesn't matter. Now this
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Speaker 3: Gratton Institute commentator says we should include the value of
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Speaker 3: any property above seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars in
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Speaker 3: the assets test. And he claims that would say four
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Speaker 3: billion dollars a year in pensions across the country not
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Speaker 3: paid and grow over time. As I said, here we
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Speaker 3: go again. He further claims this would encourage people, this
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Speaker 3: is the nub of it, to downsize, to sell. Let's
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Speaker 3: just hope Jim Chalmers doesn't read the financial review and
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Speaker 3: as I said, be very afraid of what might come
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Speaker 3: from that roundtable next month. Let's get into the program now,
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Speaker 3: joining me now LMP Senator James McGrath on the line
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Speaker 3: from Brisbane. Senator, great to see you. Let's start if
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Speaker 3: we can with this statement this afternoon from the Prime
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Speaker 3: Minister on Gaza issued on letterhead with the PM's name
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Speaker 3: at the top of the coat of arms. But it
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Speaker 3: is a statement from him on behalf of the government.
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Speaker 3: What did you make of it when you read it.
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Speaker 5: I was actually disappointed by the statement. First of all,
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Speaker 5: he probably should have delivered it in Parliament, and because
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Speaker 5: of the importance of the issue. But isn't it interesting
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Speaker 5: that his moral outrage fails to mention her Mass, a
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Speaker 5: mass who you mentioned at the start of the program
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Speaker 5: brutally murdered so many people, a mass who are the
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Speaker 5: ones who are actually stopping a lot of the aid
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Speaker 5: getting to the people who need the aid. Her Maas,
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Speaker 5: who are stealing the aid, her Mass who are still
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Speaker 5: holding fifty hostages, twenty who are believed to be alive.
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Speaker 5: So the Coalition we're very disappointed with the Prime minister
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Speaker 5: statement for what it didn't say. Having said that, we
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Speaker 5: do think that the worsting situation in Gaza needs needs
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Speaker 5: to be addressed, and we are calling upon the Israeli
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Speaker 5: government to work closely with relevant aid organizations to make
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Speaker 5: sure aid is getting to those people who do need it.
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Speaker 3: I think you make a really interesting point, and I
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Speaker 3: was going to ask about this anyway, knowing that Parliament
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Speaker 3: was sitting up until you question time three point thirty
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Speaker 3: yesterday afternoon, knowing that this statement was going to be made.
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Speaker 3: I presume the Prime Minister decided that he was going
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Speaker 3: to release it today. I would have thought it was.
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Speaker 3: If it was of such importance, why wouldn't you stand
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Speaker 3: up in parliament and so I'd like to make a
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Speaker 3: statement to the nation and the opposition about what my
8:27
Speaker 3: government is now saying about the situation in Gaza. I
8:30
Speaker 3: want the country to know about it. You could even
8:32
Speaker 3: book television time and make a statement to the nation.
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Speaker 3: Why would you just put out a press release in
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Speaker 3: the middle of the day on a Friday.
8:42
Speaker 5: Because the Prime Minister ultimately does not respect parliament. The
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Speaker 5: Prime Minister just sees the new parliament, especially with the
8:50
Speaker 5: supermajority that Labor have in the House of Reps, as
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Speaker 5: just being a robber stamp. It's just something that gets
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Speaker 5: in the way. It is so true. He should have
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Speaker 5: stood up in parliament and made this statement because of
9:02
Speaker 5: the concerns that he has, and that would have also
9:05
Speaker 5: have allowed the opposition to make a contribution to the debate.
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Speaker 5: But funnily enough, he doesn't want the opposition to be
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Speaker 5: able to make contributions to this debate because we've got
9:14
Speaker 5: a prime minister who is run by arrogance. We've got
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Speaker 5: a prime minister who's going to make GoF Whitnam look
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Speaker 5: like a conservative when it comes not just to domestic changes,
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Speaker 5: but to our international relations.
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Speaker 3: You just got to I mean, no one wants to
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Speaker 3: see those images we've been seeing out of Palestine. No
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Speaker 3: one wants to see children suffering. No one wants to
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Speaker 3: see people who are not able to access food. But
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Speaker 3: it's a much more complex case than that. What do
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Speaker 3: you imagine our great ally in the Middle East, the
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Speaker 3: only democracy there in Israel, is going to make of
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Speaker 3: what was what the prime ministers had to say this afternoon.
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Speaker 5: I think it'd be difficult for me to speak on
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Speaker 5: behalf of of the Israeli government. As you point out,
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Speaker 5: it is the only democracy in the Middle East, a
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Speaker 5: democracy that is a very vibrant and boisterous one at
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Speaker 5: the best of times. I think they would again be
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Speaker 5: disappointed by the failure of the Prime Minister to understand
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Speaker 5: the issues that are pertaining to Gaza, but also really
10:21
Speaker 5: disappointed that once again he's failed to bring his moral
10:24
Speaker 5: outrage to her. Muss a listed terrorist organization, a terrorist
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Speaker 5: organization who've been stealing aid from aid convoys and then
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Speaker 5: selling it on the black market. So you know, if
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Speaker 5: the Prime Prime Minister is so full of moral outrage
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Speaker 5: like his foreign minister Senator along, perhaps they could send
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Speaker 5: some of that moral outrage towards a Maas instead of
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Speaker 5: continually attacking the Israeli government, just send Ittor.
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Speaker 3: Back on domestic politics. You will have heard the points
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Speaker 3: I made about this roundtable. Next month we've got Jim Charmer,
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Speaker 3: the Union's Business various other advocates the ACTU this morning
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Speaker 3: saying that employers are to blame for the lack of productivity,
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Speaker 3: Not workers, but employers. What did you make of the
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Speaker 3: Gratton Institute now talking up the possibility of houses worth
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Speaker 3: over seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars now being included
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Speaker 3: in your assets as to whether you can get the
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Speaker 3: pension or not.
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Speaker 5: Australians should be worried. Those who own their own homes
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Speaker 5: of pensional age should be worried about organizations think so
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Speaker 5: called think tanks like the Graton Institute coming up with
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Speaker 5: quite frankly hair brained ideas like this. And as you
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Speaker 5: pointed out back in the eighties, other people had similar ideas.
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Speaker 5: This is bonkers. It is an idea that's just been
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Speaker 5: dreamt up by a bunch of bozos. And I would
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Speaker 5: hope that the Labor government and that PLEVERCEC Minister plever
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Speaker 5: Sec and all the other ministers do rule us out
11:58
Speaker 5: and make sure it is dead, buried and cremated to
12:01
Speaker 5: create a former leader of my party. We need to
12:04
Speaker 5: make sure that the family home stays out a family home,
12:07
Speaker 5: and it is something that should not be seen as a
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Speaker 5: source of taxation revenue for a Labor government. Don't forget.
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Speaker 5: I don't trust label when it comes to tax members
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Speaker 5: of the Labor Party who are going to tax unrealized
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Speaker 5: gains and people's super funds. Now, yes, it's at three
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Speaker 5: million dollars. We'd all love to have three million dollars
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Speaker 5: in our super but it's not CPI linked watch them
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Speaker 5: lower it down over the years, and once they do this,
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Speaker 5: they'll come after other assets. Also with Labor, I don't
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Speaker 5: trust what they say. I look at what they do
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Speaker 5: and that always scares me.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, and I'm also worried about that unredacted in a
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Speaker 3: document that the ABC got their hands on through freedom
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Speaker 3: of information that told the treasurer, Ah, you're not going
12:52
Speaker 3: to make your housing commitment. It's never going to happen.
12:55
Speaker 3: B You're spending too much money, and see you've got
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Speaker 3: to start taxing more.
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Speaker 5: And what the labor Poody don't realize is that if
13:07
Speaker 5: people start to cotton on to the fact that labour
13:10
Speaker 5: are going to come after the money that works so
13:14
Speaker 5: hard for people will then no longer invest money in
13:17
Speaker 5: the productive part of the economy. And we've got a
13:20
Speaker 5: talk fest coming up in a few weeks time. You
13:22
Speaker 5: only have to look at what's happening in the UK
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Speaker 5: at the moment, where the Labor Party there is taxing
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Speaker 5: what's called non doms and they thought that they're going
13:30
Speaker 5: to bring billions of pounds of revenue coming in. In
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Speaker 5: fact the opposite has happened because the non doms are
13:35
Speaker 5: all taking their money out of the country and leaving
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Speaker 5: the country. And in Australia we have a Labor Party
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Speaker 5: who wants to raise taxes on the sectors of the
13:44
Speaker 5: economy who produce and are productive, then the reverse is
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Speaker 5: going to happen.
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Speaker 3: Setting them macgra good on. You have a great weekend,
13:54
Speaker 3: thanks for joining us. I want to go back to
13:56
Speaker 3: the issue that we raised yesterday, and this is the
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Speaker 3: admission into Australia of US beef. Well more of it
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Speaker 3: already we get US beef, but we have very strict
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Speaker 3: biosecurity and any of the beef that comes to this
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Speaker 3: country has to be able to improven that it was
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Speaker 3: raised solely in the United States, the mainland, not in Mexico,
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Speaker 3: not in Canada. Now, President Trump has praised the Albanese
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Speaker 3: government that always worries you, decision to remove the biosecurity
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Speaker 3: rules which prevented that from happening. In a post on
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Speaker 3: truth Social President Trump said quote, now we are going
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Speaker 3: to sell so much to Australia because this is undeniable
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Speaker 3: and irrefutable proof that US beef is the safest and
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Speaker 3: best in the entire world. Well, I disagree with both
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Speaker 3: of those comments. Joining me in our National Farmers Federation
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Speaker 3: President David Jahiki, Good to see you again, David. We
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Speaker 3: all have to trust biosecurity. So let's put Donald Trump
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Speaker 3: to one side for a second. But are you, the
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Speaker 3: farmers of Australia confident that our biosecurity regulations will stand
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Speaker 3: up regardless of this change.
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Speaker 4: Well, for starters, Australian biosecurity rules are put into place
15:09
Speaker 4: to not only protect our production, our farmers, but also
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Speaker 4: our consumers, and we will not allow that to either
15:16
Speaker 4: be diminished or be removed in this agreement, we have called,
15:20
Speaker 4: along with the rest of the industry to have an
15:22
Speaker 4: inquiry to make sure that these standards are rigorous enough
15:25
Speaker 4: and that it is equivalent to what we would expect
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Speaker 4: for any other produce to come into Australia. As you
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Speaker 4: quite rightly said earlier, there is a pathway since twenty
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Speaker 4: nineteen for US beef that was born and raised and
15:40
Speaker 4: slaughtered in the US to come to Australia. The extension
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Speaker 4: to Canada and Mexico areas that we haven't verified ourselves.
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Speaker 4: We have got our governments ordered the process through the agencies,
15:56
Speaker 4: not through the actual avatoirs, which is where the contention
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Speaker 4: lies here. How do we have confidence that a system
16:03
Speaker 4: is being adhed to and that those animals have a
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Speaker 4: whole of life traceability which is what the real crux
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Speaker 4: of this is. When you have a disease or an
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Speaker 4: issue with in the supply chain, you have to be
16:13
Speaker 4: able to identify it from end to end, where it's been,
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Speaker 4: what exposure it's had, and then for us to be
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Speaker 4: able to either contain or remove it if a risk
16:21
Speaker 4: does occur. But on the flip side, of that if
16:23
Speaker 4: there is nothing to worry about. If it does meet
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Speaker 4: all those criterias, it has to stand up to public scrutiny,
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Speaker 4: and that can only happen if you have got a
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Speaker 4: full auditable system.
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Speaker 3: What if you had a road producer who just said, well,
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Speaker 3: they won't know. I mean, I'll get a couple of
16:38
Speaker 3: hundred head of steer out of Mexico. Who's going to know?
16:41
Speaker 3: And I'll put a slapper label on it export to Australia.
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Speaker 3: I mean, what's the risk do you think of that happening?
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Speaker 4: Well, at the moment, the US beef is at the
16:56
Speaker 4: production of cattle within the North American sector itself is
17:00
Speaker 4: a challenging scenario for those farmers. They have got a
17:03
Speaker 4: huge demand but a low supply scenario. Just as an oversight.
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Speaker 4: But the real issue is when we do see beef
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Speaker 4: that has gone out of a framework. And when we
17:14
Speaker 4: talk about trade, we talk about free trade, we talk
17:16
Speaker 4: about the ability to have a transaction for gooes outside
17:20
Speaker 4: a system. If that beef then enters into Australia, and
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Speaker 4: there are many diseases and risks that we don't have
17:26
Speaker 4: within Australia. If that enters into our either farmland or
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Speaker 4: into our supply chain. That's when we have massive concerns.
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Speaker 4: So could have happened. I'm man sure of it, but
17:38
Speaker 4: if it does, we have to be able to catch
17:40
Speaker 4: it early. We have to be able to identify it,
17:41
Speaker 4: we have to be able to remove it. And those
17:43
Speaker 4: are the questions that we need to have evidence that
17:46
Speaker 4: the agreement or the supply chain can manage.
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Speaker 3: You've called for an inquiry into how the decision was made.
17:55
Speaker 3: Did the NFF get surprised by this or were you
17:57
Speaker 3: expecting this change to come.
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Speaker 4: Book We were briefed by government that changes were at foot,
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Speaker 4: and this has been a long term plan for a
18:07
Speaker 4: pathway to be established. It is a questionable timing of
18:11
Speaker 4: maybe a political persuasion of why we have now launched
18:16
Speaker 4: this without fully engaging industry about all the questions that
18:19
Speaker 4: we have. But we also as an industry accept science.
18:22
Speaker 4: We have to be able to trust science. But as
18:25
Speaker 4: a part of that, we have to have a paper trail,
18:27
Speaker 4: and that's where our interest is to make sure that
18:30
Speaker 4: that is appropriate, so that whatever is said in the
18:32
Speaker 4: name of science is able to be verified by the
18:36
Speaker 4: right checks and balances. Once again, understanding that whenever we
18:40
Speaker 4: have a trade agreement. It has to go both ways
18:43
Speaker 4: and we accept that if it is safe, it should
18:45
Speaker 4: be allowed in, but we have questions around being able
18:47
Speaker 4: to identify and prove that.
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Speaker 3: David, clearly, the President's never eaten a grass fed Australian
18:55
Speaker 3: tea bone steak, has he?
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Speaker 4: Absolutely not. If any Australian would like to understand what
19:00
Speaker 4: good quality of red meat is, dis go to your
19:02
Speaker 4: local retailer. We have some of the world's best and
19:05
Speaker 4: that's why we are able to export in the so
19:07
Speaker 4: many different markets. And as an Australian producer, we're proud
19:10
Speaker 4: that you can go there and have a selection of
19:12
Speaker 4: not any production, but all those juicy cuts. And even
19:15
Speaker 4: right now, Steve, I think you've just made me hungry.
19:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've got a whole porterhouse to roast up this weekend. David,
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Speaker 3: good to catch up with you again, my friend. Thank
19:24
Speaker 3: you very much, David Jahiki there for the National Farmers
19:26
Speaker 3: Federation after the break. The Allen government in Victoria is
19:29
Speaker 3: facing growing pressure following another dreadful week of crime in Victoria.
19:34
Speaker 3: Plus we'll labor Learner's lesson from the latest greet hydrogen failure.
19:39
Speaker 3: I doubt it.
19:45
Speaker 6: Welcome back.
19:45
Speaker 3: There were some horrific crime stories out of Victoria this week.
19:49
Speaker 3: I was talking to Michael Kroger filling in Forshari during
19:51
Speaker 3: the week and he described Victoria now as basically a
19:55
Speaker 3: lawless state. I must say I agree with him. Just
19:58
Speaker 3: this week alone, a group of ma threatened supermarket staff
20:01
Speaker 3: with a machete and a crowbar. We see that night
20:04
Speaker 3: after night in suburb after the suburb. That was during
20:07
Speaker 3: a crime spree they are involved in. We had a
20:09
Speaker 3: man in his sixties who was actually shot during a
20:12
Speaker 3: home invasion. Last week, we had a bloke who was
20:15
Speaker 3: attacked with a machete in a shopping center people trying
20:18
Speaker 3: to rob him off his phone, lost his hand. The
20:21
Speaker 3: machete went straight through his wrist and he had to
20:23
Speaker 3: have an operation to take his hand off. Joining me
20:25
Speaker 3: now is Victoria's shadow crime Prevention Minister, Cindy mccleish. I
20:31
Speaker 3: think Kroger was right. We live in a lawless state,
20:34
Speaker 3: and I just didn't think I'd ever grow up to
20:36
Speaker 3: the point in Victoria, Cindy, where I would say that,
20:42
Speaker 3: do you.
20:42
Speaker 7: Know, just when you think things can't get any worse
20:44
Speaker 7: in Victoria, they seem to and The government keeps saying
20:47
Speaker 7: they're doing this and they're doing that, but things just
20:49
Speaker 7: are getting worse. They're not really tackling things the way
20:52
Speaker 7: it should be done.
20:55
Speaker 3: We've got a changes to machete laws, but the Premier
20:58
Speaker 3: keeps coming out saying, oh, well, yes, we're going to
21:00
Speaker 3: do it. You can't buy machetes now, I bet you can,
21:04
Speaker 3: and the carrying of them is going to be illegal,
21:07
Speaker 3: but not until September. Why do we have to wait
21:09
Speaker 3: till September.
21:12
Speaker 7: Look, this is crazy and I just don't understand what
21:14
Speaker 7: has taken the government so long. We've had four attempts
21:17
Speaker 7: since November twenty twenty three the Coalition to try and
21:21
Speaker 7: get machet's band classified as.
21:24
Speaker 8: A prohibited weapon.
21:25
Speaker 7: Now you think that wouldn't be so hard, and the
21:27
Speaker 7: government have just stepped every time. Actually they've stepped back
21:31
Speaker 7: from it and voted against it. And flick knives are
21:35
Speaker 7: actually a prohibited weapon, but machetes weren't.
21:38
Speaker 8: And we kept saying, you need to.
21:40
Speaker 7: Do something about this because it's getting.
21:41
Speaker 8: Out of control.
21:42
Speaker 7: And that incident where the gentleman ended up losing a
21:46
Speaker 7: hand was just one of the scariest and most terrific
21:49
Speaker 7: that you could imagine, and I can't see that people
21:52
Speaker 7: are going to be handing their machetes in with the
21:56
Speaker 7: amnesty that the government's expecting.
21:58
Speaker 8: You know, they've got them there in for sale.
22:01
Speaker 7: People have got them already and they're not prohibited carrying
22:05
Speaker 7: them and owning them until September.
22:07
Speaker 8: And that's just crazy.
22:10
Speaker 3: And you just buy them online. I mean it's ridiculous.
22:13
Speaker 3: And the premiere comes out, puts a hard hat on
22:16
Speaker 3: and says, well, we're getting tough, we're cracking down. Look,
22:21
Speaker 3: Melbournian's in particular, Victorians in general and Australians Australia wide
22:26
Speaker 3: look at this and go why is this happening? Because
22:29
Speaker 3: as far as I'm concerned, in you know where, every
22:32
Speaker 3: place is like Adelaide or Sydney, Yes they have minor crime,
22:36
Speaker 3: but no one else has a crime crisis like this
22:40
Speaker 3: state has. And the Premier simply won't accept that it's happening.
22:46
Speaker 8: That's exactly right, Steve.
22:48
Speaker 7: And we've had the reoffence's offenders continually being bailed, getting
22:55
Speaker 7: straight back out on the streets and doing the same
22:57
Speaker 7: work again, the same bad stuff that they've continue to
23:00
Speaker 7: do and to scare everybody and you know, the Coalition
23:04
Speaker 7: have been really positive here.
23:06
Speaker 8: We've been on the front foot with.
23:08
Speaker 7: Our break bail, Face jail, which is really about targeting
23:12
Speaker 7: repeat offenders and those who breach bail to actually suffer
23:16
Speaker 7: the consequences because at the community at the minute, it's
23:19
Speaker 7: a community who are doing all of the suffering and
23:22
Speaker 7: we need to reverse that, we need to get on
23:24
Speaker 7: top of it. And the Premier keeps saying, oh, we've
23:27
Speaker 7: tough and bail laws, We've done this well. Actually, over
23:30
Speaker 7: a year ago the bail laws were actually tougher than
23:33
Speaker 7: what they are now and the government are trying to
23:36
Speaker 7: claim some sort of credit in this space for making
23:39
Speaker 7: a difference and they're just not.
23:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, the government's delusional. Just for you go yes, say
23:45
Speaker 3: the Victorian Liberals and Nationals released a plan to reform
23:48
Speaker 3: childcare sector. I mean, we have seen horrific allegations of
23:52
Speaker 3: what's been going on in childcare centers and today former
23:56
Speaker 3: Victorian government senior advisor has claimed a register of childcare
24:00
Speaker 3: workers could be up and running by tomorrow. I mean,
24:03
Speaker 3: this alone should see this government thrown out of office.
24:09
Speaker 7: It's completely laughable that comment says it all, doesn't it.
24:12
Speaker 7: And the way that they're tackling it now. There is
24:15
Speaker 7: the Victorian Institute of Teaching have a registration system for
24:19
Speaker 7: kindergarten and primary secondary school teachers. They could roll that
24:23
Speaker 7: out straight away. But what they could do is actually
24:26
Speaker 7: flip it and look at the casual workforce first. That's
24:30
Speaker 7: where the highest risk is, and you've got less risk
24:33
Speaker 7: with the permanent workforce in a center that's been going
24:37
Speaker 7: along swimmingly for years, that's where the less risk is.
24:41
Speaker 8: They need to get on top.
24:42
Speaker 7: Of the casualized workforce force first and get that registration
24:47
Speaker 7: happening to keep all of our kids safe. And I
24:49
Speaker 7: think this is such an important policy that the coalition
24:52
Speaker 7: have come out with because we've got a plan for
24:55
Speaker 7: practical solutions to get on top of this, because our
24:58
Speaker 7: kids need to be safe.
25:00
Speaker 8: You can't start life with trauma.
25:02
Speaker 7: That's not a good way for anybody to go through
25:05
Speaker 7: their childhood.
25:08
Speaker 3: Absolutely right, Cindy, thank you very much for that. And
25:10
Speaker 3: I can't imagine what it would be like these days
25:12
Speaker 3: to be a parent of a young child who's going
25:14
Speaker 3: to be in childcare. I want to go back to
25:16
Speaker 3: this roundtable it's going to be held with the federal
25:21
Speaker 3: government in August. Now, the Albanizi government is you know,
25:27
Speaker 3: I just worry about what's going to come out of that.
25:29
Speaker 3: And at the heart of what we're talking about is
25:33
Speaker 3: the green energy pushed by this government also, which is
25:37
Speaker 3: it's collapsing around us. I mean, the government's called on
25:39
Speaker 3: Andrew Forrest's Fordescue now to pay back sixty million dollars
25:45
Speaker 3: that Fordescue got to for funding to set up a
25:49
Speaker 3: green hydrogen project in Queensland, and Fordescue is also ditched
25:54
Speaker 3: one in the United States, two projects in Queensland, one
25:58
Speaker 3: in Arizona. Joining me now to talk about this is
26:01
Speaker 3: MST Financial senior energy analyst Saul Cavonic. So sixty million
26:07
Speaker 3: dollars is not small change, is it.
26:11
Speaker 6: No, it's not.
26:12
Speaker 9: And unfortunately we saw governments federal and state essentially get
26:18
Speaker 9: sucked in for the hydrogen marketing hype, and some of
26:22
Speaker 9: them actually made election commitments on that basis and provided
26:25
Speaker 9: funding to projects like this based on the assertions by
26:30
Speaker 9: in this case Fortescue that they were committed and going ahead.
26:35
Speaker 9: And now of course it's all come to nothing. And
26:38
Speaker 9: you know, even though the money is probably ultimately going
26:41
Speaker 9: to be repaid, here what we don't get back is
26:44
Speaker 9: the several years of lost opportunity for good energy policy
26:49
Speaker 9: and good industrial policy development that's been lost as a
26:53
Speaker 9: result of this green hydrogen hype for a product that
26:58
Speaker 9: you know was said from the get go from folks
27:00
Speaker 9: like myself, but all the experts in the industry, you
27:02
Speaker 9: actually know green hydrogen that it really never had a
27:05
Speaker 9: chance in being competitive for our energy mix.
27:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was watching Ross Greenott on Sky to day.
27:12
Speaker 3: He makes a very clear point that if you're going
27:15
Speaker 3: to produce hydrogen, the best way to do it, the
27:18
Speaker 3: most efficient way to do it currently is using gas,
27:21
Speaker 3: which is not, of course green hydrogen. And so all
27:25
Speaker 3: of the investment that's gone into this idea that you
27:27
Speaker 3: could make green hydrogen has now gone out the window.
27:30
Speaker 3: People investors are just going, well, it's too expensive. I'm
27:34
Speaker 3: not going to invest in it.
27:36
Speaker 9: That's right. So just to give an indication here, like
27:38
Speaker 9: when you do industrial policy, you might see a sector
27:41
Speaker 9: with a lot of promise, but it might be a
27:43
Speaker 9: little bit too expensive, and so you provide some government support.
27:47
Speaker 9: This is not green hydrogen. Green hydrogen costs hundreds of
27:50
Speaker 9: percent more than competing energy sources. So even though like
27:56
Speaker 9: for example in the United States where Trump was pulled
27:58
Speaker 9: back support under the IRA. The truth is, even under
28:01
Speaker 9: the Biden administration with huge levels of support, these projects
28:04
Speaker 9: were struggling and just giving indication the level of subsidy
28:07
Speaker 9: that we still have in place in Australia of two
28:09
Speaker 9: dollars a kilogram for green hydrogen. If that equivalent subsidy
28:13
Speaker 9: was applied into our energy market, for example, to gas,
28:17
Speaker 9: we would have zero or even negative energy prices constantly
28:21
Speaker 9: twenty four to seven.
28:22
Speaker 2: Right.
28:22
Speaker 9: So, even with that level of subsidy, these green hydrogen
28:25
Speaker 9: projects aren't working, and it's the physics of its, it's
28:29
Speaker 9: the inefficiency of it, and we really need to move
28:32
Speaker 9: beyond this and start diverting them. Not throw any more
28:35
Speaker 9: good money after bad here, divert that funds into areas
28:38
Speaker 9: where Australia can win, areas like our rare earth supply chain,
28:43
Speaker 9: which are a lot more promise and actually could be benefiting,
28:47
Speaker 9: instead of wasting money in a sector that's never going
28:49
Speaker 9: to take off any time in the near future.
28:53
Speaker 3: So how do we convince the politicians that they've made
28:55
Speaker 3: a massive mistake. I mean, as you point out so
28:57
Speaker 3: quite rightly during election campaigns. We saw a politician after politician,
29:02
Speaker 3: particularly Chris Bowen and Anthony Alberizi and others hard hats
29:07
Speaker 3: on standing at these plants saying Australia is going to
29:10
Speaker 3: be a global leader in green industrial energy, including hydrogen.
29:15
Speaker 3: I mean, they nailed their colors to the mast on
29:18
Speaker 3: this stuff. Didn't someone tell them what you've just said
29:21
Speaker 3: that guys, this is not workable, it is uneconomic. What
29:25
Speaker 3: are you doing?
29:28
Speaker 9: Look, the warnings were there from the get go, and
29:30
Speaker 9: just to be clear, the coalition doesn't have clean hands
29:33
Speaker 9: here either. Part of the hydrogen statuary strategy was kicked
29:37
Speaker 9: off under the prior government. But what we've seen is
29:41
Speaker 9: green hydrogen was presented as this beautiful silver bullet right
29:46
Speaker 9: where the energy is green, it's high density, it's portable,
29:50
Speaker 9: it solves all the issues that you have with renewables
29:52
Speaker 9: of the intermediency. And so everybody wanted this fairy tale
29:56
Speaker 9: to be true. But unfortunately, like most fairy tales, it isn't.
30:00
Speaker 9: Now the problem we have is, you know, I was
30:02
Speaker 9: just at an event last month where that our Department
30:06
Speaker 9: of Climate Change and Energy is still committed to their
30:11
Speaker 9: green hydrogen programs and this is The problem here is
30:13
Speaker 9: it takes a few years for the government to set
30:17
Speaker 9: up its policy priorities, and then even when the market
30:20
Speaker 9: is clearly changed and you're seeing all the advocacy of
30:22
Speaker 9: green hydrogen pulling away from their projects. Remember it's not
30:25
Speaker 9: just Fortescue, it's a number of other companies have done.
30:27
Speaker 5: It as well.
30:28
Speaker 9: It's very a lot of inertia in the government system
30:31
Speaker 9: to all of a sudden recognize that there's been a
30:33
Speaker 9: mistake and pivot. And so I'm just concerned that we're
30:36
Speaker 9: going to now stick with these poor green hydrogen policies
30:39
Speaker 9: and waste more money for a number of years before
30:42
Speaker 9: you know, coming to our senses when we should really
30:44
Speaker 9: just pivot right now and put that money to better use.
30:50
Speaker 3: So thank you for talking common sense as you always do.
30:52
Speaker 3: Appreciate it very much. Now coming up after the break,
30:55
Speaker 3: speaking of the government and the concerns about crackdown on
30:58
Speaker 3: pensioners with assets over and above the family home. We've
31:02
Speaker 3: seen this story before. Bus we'll cross to the UK
31:05
Speaker 3: ahead of Donald Trump's visit to Scotland. Will talk with
31:08
Speaker 3: Sophie Ellsworth. Welcome Acktue Price with you on this Friday night.
31:17
Speaker 3: Now I've been down this assets test road many times
31:21
Speaker 3: over the years, fighting governments over trying to get their
31:25
Speaker 3: hands on assets like your family home and saying you
31:28
Speaker 3: can't get a pension because you own an expensive house. Well,
31:32
Speaker 3: news today that wealthy seniors who are getting taxpayer funded
31:36
Speaker 3: pensions despite owning what is described as substantial assets over
31:40
Speaker 3: and above the family home. I guess they mean cars
31:43
Speaker 3: or furniture. Well, the Minister to on your Plyversex Department
31:46
Speaker 3: is urging a crackdown broader social security reforms, warning that
31:50
Speaker 3: the current system helping retirees accumulate wealth for inheritance rather
31:55
Speaker 3: than supporting retirement needs. Our Friday Night regular form of
31:59
Speaker 3: Queensland pre Campbell, Newman joins us. Campbell, You and I
32:02
Speaker 3: about the only ones that could remember the mid nineteen
32:04
Speaker 3: eighties when Paul Keating tried to turn your access to
32:08
Speaker 3: a pension into an asset test against your principal house.
32:12
Speaker 3: We can't let that happen. Surely we are going to
32:15
Speaker 3: go down that road again, are we.
32:18
Speaker 2: Well, it's pretty problematic.
32:23
Speaker 10: Now people of quite modest means in a traditional sort
32:27
Speaker 10: of sense, who because they happen to live in a
32:30
Speaker 10: certain suburb where prices of skyrocket and they are sitting
32:34
Speaker 10: on a substantial asset, but they don't have the cash
32:38
Speaker 10: or the retirement savings the superannuation to actually live otherwise.
32:43
Speaker 10: So if someone has multiple assets, you know a lot
32:49
Speaker 10: of other residential properties or whatever, well I suppose that
32:53
Speaker 10: actually has to be taking into account. I mean, fundamentally, Steve,
32:56
Speaker 10: what we really need to do is recalibrate.
32:59
Speaker 2: We want people to be self reliant.
33:01
Speaker 10: Ideally, and that's why, you know, we should be encouraging
33:05
Speaker 10: people to save through the supersystem or have their own
33:08
Speaker 10: super fun and then we shouldn't be making all these
33:11
Speaker 10: damn changes that the government is making like unrealized.
33:14
Speaker 2: Gains at the moment, I'm talking about unrealized.
33:16
Speaker 10: Gains because that just discourages people and sends them the
33:19
Speaker 10: way of the pension.
33:22
Speaker 3: Well, governments see this huge pot of money which is
33:24
Speaker 3: super annuation, which of course since the early nineties everyone's
33:29
Speaker 3: been forced to put money into superby law. And now
33:33
Speaker 3: the government goes and how many times I can't count
33:35
Speaker 3: the number of times that we've changed the way super
33:39
Speaker 3: is treated from a tax point of view. I mean,
33:41
Speaker 3: Scott Morrison made a major change. I mean they just
33:44
Speaker 3: see it as a honey pot and they can't resist
33:47
Speaker 3: put in their hand in there.
33:50
Speaker 10: Although they just can't help themselves made and it really,
33:53
Speaker 10: you know, the icing on the cake. Now, I'm afraid
33:55
Speaker 10: is this unrealized gains thing. And I just say to
33:58
Speaker 10: people watching, think, what's the fuss about. Well, it's about
34:03
Speaker 10: upending the principles of taxation law.
34:07
Speaker 2: And they've started by.
34:08
Speaker 10: Going after the sort of self managed super funds essentially,
34:12
Speaker 10: but the principle then would be clearly implemented, sadly implemented,
34:17
Speaker 10: worryingly implemented to a whole range of other things. I mean, basically,
34:21
Speaker 10: if you had, imagine, if you had a small share
34:23
Speaker 10: portfilo from your savings, are you going to be required
34:27
Speaker 10: to pay tax every time your shares go up? Because
34:29
Speaker 10: we're sure as hell know what happens as well with
34:31
Speaker 10: shares they go down as well, and it's all about timing.
34:35
Speaker 10: So you know, I just wish the politicians would start properly, if.
34:40
Speaker 2: They're going to have a reform agenda, look at it.
34:43
Speaker 10: Properly about giving consistency and stability and thinking about the drivers.
34:50
Speaker 10: We want to encourage people again to look after themselves,
34:53
Speaker 10: and you don't do that when you're constantly changing the
34:56
Speaker 10: rules and sort of getting people then.
34:59
Speaker 2: To chop and change.
35:00
Speaker 10: I mean, if Jim Chalmers thinks he's going to make
35:02
Speaker 10: a whole lot of money from this new super tax,
35:04
Speaker 10: the unrealized gains things, think again.
35:07
Speaker 2: I mean, it's very clear.
35:08
Speaker 10: Right now people are readjusting their arrangements and he will not.
35:13
Speaker 10: Treasury will not get the sort of money they think
35:15
Speaker 10: they're gain to.
35:18
Speaker 3: Well, people have got more than three million dollars in
35:20
Speaker 3: superannuation would have smart financial advisors, they wouldn't, probably most
35:26
Speaker 3: of them not managing it themselves. And those smart financial
35:29
Speaker 3: advisors are already calculating ways to shift that money over
35:33
Speaker 3: three million into some other asset that can make, you know,
35:38
Speaker 3: make the person the income that they need to make
35:40
Speaker 3: off of it. And people are not mugs. They're not
35:43
Speaker 3: going to sit around and let the tax on that
35:45
Speaker 3: go from fifteen percent to thirty percent without trying to
35:48
Speaker 3: minimize it. Are they?
35:51
Speaker 2: No, they won't.
35:52
Speaker 10: And you know that's I don't know why history repeats
35:55
Speaker 10: itself time and time again. I think perhaps people and
35:59
Speaker 10: Treasury needs to get out not often and really think
36:02
Speaker 10: about how the real world operates.
36:04
Speaker 2: People will adjust. I mean, for example, suppose you've.
36:07
Speaker 10: Got a couple who are in their sixties and they
36:09
Speaker 10: could be eligible to start what's called a transition to
36:12
Speaker 10: retirement pensions.
36:13
Speaker 2: They don't have to be sixty five.
36:15
Speaker 10: If the husband had a super balance of over three midion,
36:19
Speaker 10: they could actually withdraw a fair bit of that money
36:21
Speaker 10: out in year one and send it the way of
36:24
Speaker 10: their spouse, who might be well under three million, they
36:27
Speaker 10: might be one and a half or two. They can
36:29
Speaker 10: shift that money, they can take it out as a
36:31
Speaker 10: TTR pension.
36:33
Speaker 2: They can then give.
36:35
Speaker 10: It to their spouse, and the spouse can then put
36:36
Speaker 10: it straight back into their own fund as an after
36:39
Speaker 10: tax contribution. And if both cut both the partners are
36:46
Speaker 10: over sixty five, well really they've got full control of
36:49
Speaker 10: the whole thing. So people won't just sit back and
36:52
Speaker 10: copy it. But the principle of this, to actually tax
36:56
Speaker 10: you on money you actually haven't got, is fundamentally wrong.
36:59
Speaker 2: It's really a smash and grab. Steve.
37:02
Speaker 10: If Jim Chalmers wants to have higher taxes on super,
37:05
Speaker 10: well he's a labor treasure. He needs to raise more money. Well,
37:09
Speaker 10: I guess I've got to. We've all got to cop that.
37:12
Speaker 10: But the unrealized gain thing is just anathema. It is
37:15
Speaker 10: wrong and it needs to be It needs to it
37:19
Speaker 10: needs it needs to be stopped.
37:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's hope, it's dumped. It was good to catch
37:25
Speaker 3: up with you. See your next Friday. That's Campbell Newman there.
37:27
Speaker 3: Let's go to Scotland now, where I think Sophie Ill's
37:30
Speaker 3: with the Sky News contributor and News Limited European correspondent
37:35
Speaker 3: has the best job of the weekend because it involves Scotland,
37:40
Speaker 3: golf and Donald Trump.
37:42
Speaker 4: How lucky are you.
37:45
Speaker 8: Look, Steve? Lucky because look at the weather here.
37:48
Speaker 2: Beautiful Scottish weather, cold raining.
37:52
Speaker 11: But I must say this is one of the most
37:53
Speaker 11: spectacular parts of the UK.
37:56
Speaker 2: Steve.
37:56
Speaker 11: It's absolutely sensational here. But I'm just a few kilometers
38:00
Speaker 11: from Turnbury here in Ayrshire in Scotland. And as you
38:06
Speaker 11: can see behind me, Steve, there's police signs and there's roadblocks.
38:11
Speaker 8: There's huge police presence here.
38:14
Speaker 11: There's fences around here around Turnbury to stop people coming through.
38:18
Speaker 11: We're waiting here in Scotland today for the US President
38:22
Speaker 11: Donald Trump to arrive. There is more than five thousand
38:25
Speaker 11: police that will be on the ground during this five
38:28
Speaker 11: day visit, Steve while he's here, and no doubt it's
38:32
Speaker 11: drawing international attention and is expected to draw protests here
38:37
Speaker 11: in Scotland on the weekend.
38:41
Speaker 3: Well, he owns Turnbury and this is described as a
38:46
Speaker 3: private trip, but I can't imagine what the security must
38:49
Speaker 3: be like around the golf club. Is he going to
38:52
Speaker 3: make any announcement or is he just coming there to
38:54
Speaker 3: play eighteen holes at his own golf course.
38:58
Speaker 11: Well, Steve, he's expected to open a new eighteen whole
39:01
Speaker 11: lavish golf course over in Aberdeenshire, over the other side
39:05
Speaker 11: of the country on the weekend, which is named after
39:08
Speaker 11: his late mother, who as we know, was born and
39:11
Speaker 11: raised here in Scotland. So that's one of the main
39:14
Speaker 11: reasons he's here. But look the First Minister, John Sweeney,
39:17
Speaker 11: as we can see on the screen there, he's come
39:19
Speaker 11: under fire because he's basically said if Scott's want to
39:23
Speaker 11: protest while the US President is here, basically go for it,
39:27
Speaker 11: just do it respectfully and peacefully. And that's definitely drawn
39:32
Speaker 11: some criticism here in Scotland. But look, he is expected
39:35
Speaker 11: to have several meetings while he is here in Scotland,
39:39
Speaker 11: with UK Prime Minister Sakias Starmer and also the First
39:43
Speaker 11: Minister John Swinney, which I must add, Steve will be
39:46
Speaker 11: really interesting because the First Minister endorsed Kamela Harris at
39:50
Speaker 11: the twenty twenty four presidential election, So that could be
39:54
Speaker 11: a frosty reception when the two meet. While the President
39:58
Speaker 11: is here in Scotland and he is expected to arrive
40:01
Speaker 11: later today. It's Friday morning here, so is expected to
40:04
Speaker 11: arrive here later today. Steve.
40:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, make sure you go and get me one of
40:09
Speaker 3: those Turnbrey hats from the pro shop if you don't mind,
40:12
Speaker 3: just before you want to go, before you go, very
40:14
Speaker 3: serious issue, Prime Mister Albanez. You put a statement out
40:17
Speaker 3: on Gaza today. The UK papers have run some very
40:22
Speaker 3: disturbing images and I warn our audience about what we're
40:24
Speaker 3: about to look at here in relation to Gaza. No
40:28
Speaker 3: one's denying the crisis, but these front pages, let's have
40:31
Speaker 3: a look at what the UK press is saying. The
40:35
Speaker 3: UK press is saying that is, for pity's sake, stop
40:38
Speaker 3: this now a horrendous picture on front of the Daily Express.
40:44
Speaker 3: You can imagine why political leaders now Sophie are reacting.
40:48
Speaker 3: When you see images like that, it is just horrendous.
40:53
Speaker 8: Well, Steve, there's no words for it.
40:55
Speaker 11: Really, it's absolutely shocking to see an emaciated child like that.
41:01
Speaker 11: There's no justification for that at all. But it's very
41:06
Speaker 11: interesting overnight with the French President Emmanuel Macron saying that
41:10
Speaker 11: he will recognize a Palestinian state, and whether other Western
41:14
Speaker 11: countries follow suit and do the same remains to be seen.
41:18
Speaker 11: But I must say, Steve, also from a reporting point.
41:21
Speaker 2: Of view, it's very important.
41:24
Speaker 11: There's been a lot of talk about this in the
41:26
Speaker 11: UK as to why journalists cannot get into Gaza and
41:30
Speaker 11: that they should be allowed to, So it makes it
41:33
Speaker 11: very difficult to report on what is actually going on
41:36
Speaker 11: in there, to make sure the world knows what is
41:39
Speaker 11: going on on both sides of this ongoing conflict in Gaza.
41:45
Speaker 3: Look after yourself. So if you've great to catch up
41:47
Speaker 3: with you and say gooday to President Trump for us
41:50
Speaker 3: now coming up after the break, Australia once led the
41:53
Speaker 3: world in quitting smoking, So how do we end up
41:56
Speaker 3: in the GLO as the global village idiot clinging to
42:00
Speaker 3: failed policies fuelling a booming black market. Plus Anthony Albanesi's
42:04
Speaker 3: beer attack is on ice, but cocktail lovers are still
42:08
Speaker 3: getting burned. Why small bars and young drinkers say Labour's
42:12
Speaker 3: cost a living relief should extend to the top shelf.
42:15
Speaker 3: That's up next with the panel Welcome back. It is
42:22
Speaker 3: Friday night panel Times Gone News contributors Jim Atonnuni and
42:25
Speaker 3: Joe Hildebrand. Welcome to you both. I want to start
42:28
Speaker 3: on that serious issue of Gaza. We saw those front
42:32
Speaker 3: pages out of the UK which are just horrendous. Now,
42:36
Speaker 3: as previously mentioned, the Prime ministers come out pretty hard
42:39
Speaker 3: today with a statement on that situation in Gaza. Michaulia
42:42
Speaker 3: Cash has hit back, saying the government continues to ignore
42:45
Speaker 3: Hamas Gemma. To you first, when you look at that
42:50
Speaker 3: issue of the picture of that child on the front
42:54
Speaker 3: page of that paper, you can understand that the world's
42:57
Speaker 3: attention has got to shift again, right.
43:02
Speaker 8: You can't argue with that, Steve.
43:04
Speaker 1: The other thing you can't argue with is that in
43:06
Speaker 1: this complex situation, multiple things are true at the same
43:10
Speaker 1: time that there is exceptionally distressing suffering happening in Gaza.
43:16
Speaker 1: That is that there are still hostages that for nearly
43:20
Speaker 1: two years have been kept by Hamas and its supporters
43:24
Speaker 1: in the dark tunnels below Gaza for nearly two years,
43:27
Speaker 1: while the international community ignores their plight. That is Israel
43:33
Speaker 1: is incapable of changing Hamas's course. And we know from
43:37
Speaker 1: Yaya Sinha's own documented messages reported by The New York
43:41
Speaker 1: Times almost a year ago, that the suffering of Gazans
43:45
Speaker 1: is part of the Hummas strategy. All of these things
43:49
Speaker 1: are true at the same time. So for the Albanezi
43:53
Speaker 1: government to blithely say, well, Israeli, you've got to fix it,
43:55
Speaker 1: and you've got to stop right now, is respectfully as
44:00
Speaker 1: Nettanna who said, disconnected from reality, mister Albanezi, Miss Wong,
44:06
Speaker 1: neither have even bothered to go to the site of
44:09
Speaker 1: the novamasacres. Neither of them have bothered to go to Israel.
44:12
Speaker 1: And the only minister, former minister that they sent, got
44:15
Speaker 1: punted from cabinet, so he's unable to inform the views
44:18
Speaker 1: of the current federal government. It is not as simple
44:20
Speaker 1: as saying bad Israel, go and stop this terrible suffering.
44:26
Speaker 3: As you can see on our screen there, we've got
44:28
Speaker 3: some breaking news that's just come through from Europe aus
44:31
Speaker 3: straight as longest serving Finance Minister, Matthias Corman, has been
44:36
Speaker 3: reappointed to a second and final five year term as
44:39
Speaker 3: the Secretary General of the OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation.
44:43
Speaker 3: He's a good operator, Mattias Corman. That's an important announcement.
44:47
Speaker 3: In a statement the OECD has said, the announcement reflected
44:51
Speaker 3: the quote strong and broad based confidence that members replace
44:55
Speaker 3: in Matias Corman. He's a good operator. Joe, what did
44:58
Speaker 3: you make of the PM's statement today.
45:01
Speaker 6: Yeah, look, I think it was a pretty strong statement.
45:03
Speaker 6: I think it needed to be just given the escalation
45:05
Speaker 6: of the crisis in Gaza. I'm obviously very pro Israel.
45:09
Speaker 6: I fully support its right to exist and defend itself,
45:12
Speaker 6: but it's not defending itself against a clear and present
45:15
Speaker 6: threat in her Mass. It's been incredibly effective in disabling
45:19
Speaker 6: the leadership of her mass. Is no longer really a
45:22
Speaker 6: fighting force. They should let the aid in and I
45:24
Speaker 6: know the PM did extremely strongly condemn her Mass and
45:28
Speaker 6: demand the release of the hostages as well as he should.
45:32
Speaker 3: Let's turn turn to an issue of smoking. I even smoked.
45:35
Speaker 3: Probably this will age me for forty five or fifty years.
45:39
Speaker 3: Thank god. Fiona Pattner used to be a Victorian member
45:42
Speaker 3: of Parliament. She was in the Legislative Council. She's now
45:46
Speaker 3: the leader of the Reason Australia Party. She says, quote,
45:50
Speaker 3: when it comes to smoking and vaping, Australia is now
45:53
Speaker 3: the laughing stock of the world. We led the world
45:55
Speaker 3: in quitting, but we're now clinging to policies that perpetuate harm,
46:00
Speaker 3: an empowered criminals and a black market. Jemmy, She's absolutely
46:04
Speaker 3: one hundred percent correct. I was in Japan two weeks ago.
46:08
Speaker 3: You can buy a packet of twenty cigarettes for the
46:11
Speaker 3: equivalent of three dollars sixty Australian. The same packet of
46:15
Speaker 3: cigarettes in this country fifty dollars.
46:19
Speaker 1: I don't know what to say. We are a nanny state.
46:21
Speaker 1: I've never smoked. I've never you know, I'm Bill Clinton.
46:25
Speaker 1: Actually I'm not Bill Clinton at all. But I've never inhaled.
46:27
Speaker 1: I've never even bothered. Let's hope not really a really
46:31
Speaker 1: poor analogy.
46:32
Speaker 8: It's been a long week and.
46:33
Speaker 1: It's let's forget that happened.
46:37
Speaker 8: But I've never smoked.
46:38
Speaker 1: I've never been interested in smoking or vaping. I've just
46:42
Speaker 1: got back from visiting my family in Italy. They love
46:45
Speaker 1: a dart in the mother country, and they love a vape.
46:47
Speaker 1: But here in Australia, we like to we like to
46:51
Speaker 1: tax things, and we like to put all sorts of
46:53
Speaker 1: regulations in place. And I don't really have an answer
46:57
Speaker 1: other than it doesn't surprise.
46:58
Speaker 3: Me, Joe, you and I are much more interested in
47:02
Speaker 3: beer the spirits industry today. They've caught on the government
47:06
Speaker 3: to extend the beer tax free, so leave it where
47:09
Speaker 3: it is, saying relief should not be dictated by whether
47:12
Speaker 3: you have a draft beer or a marga regier so
47:15
Speaker 3: they're saying, okay, why don't we get cheaper spirits? A
47:19
Speaker 3: good idea? Bad idea? I mean, given it now costs
47:22
Speaker 3: what fifteen bucks for a pint of beer?
47:24
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's right. I think the phrase in this case
47:27
Speaker 6: is points for trying on good effort. But no, that
47:30
Speaker 6: is not going to happen. I think beer is much
47:33
Speaker 6: more of an every man's drink. It's more importantly it's
47:36
Speaker 6: what I drink. I don't drink spirit. So I'll just
47:38
Speaker 6: take the beer tax a cut, thank you very much.
47:41
Speaker 6: And I don't know if we really want to make
47:42
Speaker 6: you udls cheaper. We all know who tends to drink them,
47:47
Speaker 6: and I don't think it's your sort of whiskey bar connoisseeur.
47:49
Speaker 6: And if you are a whiskey bar connoisseeur, I'm pretty
47:51
Speaker 6: sure you can afford to pay full freight. So just
47:55
Speaker 6: leave us the beer, thank you very much.
47:58
Speaker 3: Well, jem is going to cup. She strikes me, forget
48:02
Speaker 3: about it. She strikes me as a margarita.
48:06
Speaker 8: Drinker, no gin and tonic. But I don't drink beer
48:08
Speaker 8: at all.
48:08
Speaker 1: And I've never been the person who buys alcohol duty
48:11
Speaker 1: free because it just can't be bothered.
48:12
Speaker 8: But again, coming back through.
48:14
Speaker 1: Customs and through the airports is when I left the
48:17
Speaker 1: family last month, I saw the price of a bottle
48:19
Speaker 1: of gin, a bottle of very nicety, and I should
48:21
Speaker 1: say in judy free, and I would hang about. I'm
48:24
Speaker 1: gonna I'm actually going to buy that bottle of gin,
48:26
Speaker 1: and I'm going to cart it back to Australia because
48:28
Speaker 1: it's so much cheaper on you.
48:30
Speaker 3: We just go for it. That's the way to do.
48:33
Speaker 3: Judy free doesn't work all the time anymore. And forget
48:37
Speaker 3: about gem and smoking as well. Thank you both for
48:39
Speaker 3: joining us. I must say I've gone off I've gone
48:42
Speaker 3: off those fancy beers. I'm back in the cart and draft.
48:44
Speaker 3: I'll see you next week. Filling in for Peter Kredlin,