Transcript

Sharri | 21 September · Sharri

0:06
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show. I'm Nickity Giorgio filling in tonight
0:09
Speaker 1: for Shari Markson. Coming up on the program, Anthony Albanese
0:12
Speaker 1: is in New York preparing to receive his award for
0:15
Speaker 1: being an outstanding global citizen, yet has a domestic approval
0:19
Speaker 1: rating of minus 27. Perhaps the United Nations knows something
0:23
Speaker 1: we don't. The federal budget will not return to surplus
0:26
Speaker 1: for the next 40 years. So why is Jim Chalmers
0:29
Speaker 1: painting such a rosy picture? I'll get stuck into the
0:32
Speaker 1: intergenerational report with economist Shane Oliver. And a national day
0:36
Speaker 1: of shame, three women allegedly murdered by their male relatives
0:40
Speaker 1: in just 10 hours in New South Wales. I'll catch
0:43
Speaker 1: up with Nationals MP Michael McCormack shortly. But first tonight,
0:47
Speaker 1: there's a national scandal unfolding in this country and Anthony
0:50
Speaker 1: Albanese doesn't want a bar of it. It is a
0:54
Speaker 1: national disgrace what is going on in South Headland in
0:56
Speaker 1: Western Australia right now. Now, you would have heard about
0:59
Speaker 1: this investigation in the Australian newspaper, revealing that child protection
1:04
Speaker 1: agencies failed to intervene despite up to 15 children in
1:08
Speaker 1: South Headland living in squalor and fending for themselves at
1:12
Speaker 1: a property in Frisbee Court. Now, police were called more
1:15
Speaker 1: than 50 times to the trashed house and government authorities
1:18
Speaker 1: were alerted dozens of times without action being taken. Now,
1:23
Speaker 1: this is an abject failure on so many levels. It
1:28
Speaker 1: is the third world in our own backyard at the
1:30
Speaker 1: expense of vulnerable children, and key word there being children.
1:34
Speaker 1: And the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, seems to think that
1:37
Speaker 1: just because he's overseas at the UN, he's immune from
1:41
Speaker 1: discussing it.
1:42
Speaker 2: Concerned about the revelations that have come out about values
1:48
Speaker 2: in the child protection system in Port Hedland. Has it
1:51
Speaker 2: surprised you that there's that much dysfunction within the system
1:56
Speaker 2: and does there need to be a stronger oversight or
2:01
Speaker 2: more powers given to the federal government or even an
2:04
Speaker 2: inquiry um to oversee this.
2:06
Speaker 3: Well we're not about to intervene against the western australian government.
2:10
Speaker 2: So the federal government your your view is this is
2:12
Speaker 2: an issue for western australia not for your government.
2:14
Speaker 3: Well this is a western australian issue and uh you
2:19
Speaker 3: know i will uh refer you once again to melander
2:23
Speaker 3: mccarthy our minister in Australia. It is impossible to follow
2:28
Speaker 3: on an hour-by-hour basis what is happening in Australia from
2:34
Speaker 3: New York.
2:35
Speaker 1: Right, so not my issue. I'm in New York, therefore
2:37
Speaker 1: not following it, just like all the other times the
2:40
Speaker 1: Prime Minister's been unavailable.
2:43
Speaker 3: You know, I was concentrating on something else. I've been
2:46
Speaker 3: travelling in the car, so I haven't been advised about that.
2:54
Speaker 3: I attend lots of dinners in lots of places.
2:58
Speaker 1: We've seen all this before, and now the Prime Minister's
3:01
Speaker 1: own vanity project at the United Nations, accepting a Global
3:06
Speaker 1: Citizen Award... and staking his claim for a seat at
3:09
Speaker 1: the UN is more important. Now, over the weekend, a
3:12
Speaker 1: key architect of the voice to Parliament, Megan Davis, accused
3:16
Speaker 1: the federal government of having thrown their hands up and
3:19
Speaker 1: failed to show serious leadership to protect Aboriginal children. But
3:24
Speaker 1: the Prime Minister didn't want to hear about that either.
3:28
Speaker 2: Well, Melinda McCarthy will respond to that, sure. Prime Minister,
3:38
Speaker 2: in fairness, are you able to respond?
3:40
Speaker 3: In fairness, Melinda McCarthy, the minister, is the appropriate person
3:45
Speaker 3: to respond to that.
3:48
Speaker 4: I've got a.
3:50
Speaker 3: Lot to say when I'm in Australia about all of
3:54
Speaker 3: these issues.
3:56
Speaker 1: Unbelievable. The Prime Minister's had over a week prior to
3:59
Speaker 1: going to New York and didn't want to talk about
4:01
Speaker 1: it then when he was still in the country. He
4:03
Speaker 1: doesn't want to talk about it while he's overseas, and
4:06
Speaker 1: we're now led to believe that he will be rilling
4:08
Speaker 1: and ready to talk about it upon his return. When
4:11
Speaker 1: has the Prime Minister ever been ready to talk Indigenous issues?
4:15
Speaker 1: Don't forget he was dragged kicking and screaming to Alice
4:17
Speaker 1: Springs after riots there. He had a roundtable, took a photo,
4:21
Speaker 1: then fled to Melbourne for the Australian Open. But he's
4:25
Speaker 1: happy to lean into Indigenous history as part of his
4:29
Speaker 1: bid for a seat at the UN.
4:37
Speaker 5: Australia is a Pacific nation inhabiting an entire continent and
4:47
Speaker 5: connected to Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean and Antarctica.
4:53
Speaker 1: We are home to the oldest continuous culture on the planet.
4:58
Speaker 1: The hypocrisy stinks. I mean, he's happy to parade Indigenous
5:00
Speaker 1: culture on the world stage, but not address an Indigenous crisis. Now,
5:05
Speaker 1: speaking of the minister, where on earth is Malindiri McCarthy?
5:10
Speaker 1: Why is she still not on the ground in South Headland?
5:14
Speaker 1: This falls under her portfolio, does it not? And last week,
5:17
Speaker 1: as this scandal was unfolding, all she cared about was
5:19
Speaker 1: talking about Pauline Hanson's primitive comments and said the government
5:23
Speaker 1: was in discussions about a roundtable being held in Perth
5:26
Speaker 1: in the next fortnight. But all this exposes is a
5:30
Speaker 1: deeper failure. As former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer writes in
5:33
Speaker 1: Today's Australian, the federal government's response has been muted to
5:37
Speaker 1: the point of invisibility. That silence is revealing. It exposes
5:41
Speaker 1: the modern left's approach to Indigenous affairs, grand gestures, elaborate
5:46
Speaker 1: symbolism and moral posturing, but precious little practical action where
5:50
Speaker 1: it matters most. And look, he's not wrong. I mean,
5:53
Speaker 1: how many welcome to countries or acknowledgement of countries are
5:56
Speaker 1: we forced to sit through? It's in our faces all
5:58
Speaker 1: the time. When you're watching sport, you're at an event,
6:01
Speaker 1: it's welcome to country central. Anthony Albanese insists on standing
6:05
Speaker 1: in front of three flags, the alleged three flags of
6:09
Speaker 1: flying around buildings of woke institutions across the country. We
6:13
Speaker 1: were all dragged to the polls for the voice referendum.
6:15
Speaker 1: And I am going to get stuck into all of
6:17
Speaker 1: this with Warren Mundine shortly. But where has all this
6:21
Speaker 1: moral posturing got Indigenous Australians? Nowhere. Indigenous Australians have a
6:27
Speaker 1: life expectancy at birth that is at least eight years
6:31
Speaker 1: lower than other Australians. Indigenous children are twice as likely
6:35
Speaker 1: to die before their fifth birthday. None of the virtue
6:39
Speaker 1: signalling has helped close the gap, but the virtue signalling
6:42
Speaker 1: is much easier for Labor than removing a child from
6:45
Speaker 1: a violent or absent family or acting on these serious
6:49
Speaker 1: failures in remote areas. Earth to Anthony Albanese, where is
6:54
Speaker 1: the Prime Minister? Oh, that's right, he's too busy at
6:56
Speaker 1: the United Nations gearing up to claim his big award
7:00
Speaker 1: as a global citizen. Now, speaking of Anthony Albanese's award
7:07
Speaker 1: at the UN, I had to actually Google it to
7:09
Speaker 1: find out what it means. So the award recognises the
7:12
Speaker 1: accomplishments of key global citizens seeking to improve the state
7:16
Speaker 1: of the world. Extraordinary. Absolutely extraordinary, isn't it? Thank God
7:22
Speaker 1: Albo started with the easy stuff because apparently improving the
7:26
Speaker 1: state of Australia was perhaps a little too ambitious. So
7:31
Speaker 1: while Albo is preparing to collect his big trophy in
7:33
Speaker 1: New York, things back home are looking slightly less award worthy.
7:38
Speaker 1: The latest news poll has Labor's primary vote at 27 percent,
7:42
Speaker 1: its lowest level in 14 years. The PM's net approval
7:46
Speaker 1: rating is minus 27 and 62 percent of voters are
7:51
Speaker 1: dissatisfied with his performance. Not exactly something you'd engrave on
7:54
Speaker 1: a trophy. Then there's the latest interest rates warning. Money
7:58
Speaker 1: markets are predicting three rate hikes by May next year.
8:02
Speaker 1: The latest intergenerational report was released today, and I'll get
8:05
Speaker 1: stuck into that shortly with economist Shane Oliver. But it
8:09
Speaker 1: reveals that the federal budget will not return to surplus
8:12
Speaker 1: for the next 40 years. 40 years. Why? Because of
8:18
Speaker 1: long-term structural spending issues. Now, it lays bare the enormous
8:23
Speaker 1: pressure that record government spending is having as our population ages.
8:28
Speaker 1: The report shows the Australian economy is growing at its
8:31
Speaker 1: slowest sustained rate since World War Two. And no surprises,
8:36
Speaker 1: it says net overseas migration is bolstering population growth. Now,
8:41
Speaker 1: don't forget last week, the immigration minister, Tony Burke, told
8:43
Speaker 1: us that Labor was not pursuing a mass migration program. Now,
8:48
Speaker 1: without Labor's mass migration program, we would have been in
8:51
Speaker 1: a recession a long time ago. It is the only
8:54
Speaker 1: thing propping up Jim Chalmers' Ponzi scheme economy. Yet the
8:59
Speaker 1: Treasurer was back to his gaslighting best today. He's accused
9:03
Speaker 1: other politicians... of catastrophising Australia's economic position.
9:09
Speaker 6: If people are unmoored economically, generationally, they feel disconnected from
9:16
Speaker 6: and disregarded in our politics. At worst, that's what we're
9:21
Speaker 6: seeing now. At best, it's what's at stake. It's exacerbating
9:25
Speaker 6: the strain felt by younger Australians and younger generations in particular.
9:31
Speaker 6: And so the division in politics now is not between
9:34
Speaker 6: those who accept all of this and those who don't.
9:38
Speaker 6: It's between those who prey on it and pick at
9:40
Speaker 6: it and politicise it and catastrophise it and those who
9:45
Speaker 6: seek to alleviate it.
9:47
Speaker 1: Load of nonsense. It's not about politicising it when the
9:49
Speaker 1: figures speak for themselves. You at home are living through it.
9:53
Speaker 1: And much to his dismay, Anthony Albanese was forced to
9:56
Speaker 1: confront the disastrous domestic issues while overseas.
10:01
Speaker 7: Prime Minister, here in New York on Wednesday night, you
10:03
Speaker 7: will receive an award for being a global citizen. Don't
10:07
Speaker 7: you feel like a bit of a fraud accepting this
10:08
Speaker 7: award when at home you screwed up the response to
10:12
Speaker 7: the worst massacre since Port Arthur? In the polls, you're
10:16
Speaker 7: taking Labor to one point shy of Julia Gillard when
10:19
Speaker 7: you rolled her. And your net negatives are worse than
10:22
Speaker 7: Scott Morrison.
10:24
Speaker 1: Glass jaw was glass jawing. And well done to journalist
10:27
Speaker 1: Latika Burke for that question. Very, very strong. And so
10:31
Speaker 1: perhaps Anthony Albanese's Global Citizen Award should come with a
10:34
Speaker 1: disclaimer that results may vary in the recipient's country of origin.
10:38
Speaker 1: I mean, week in, week out, you're looking at your
10:41
Speaker 1: grocery bills, mortgages, energy bills, the cost of fuel. I
10:44
Speaker 1: could go on. And our Prime Minister, with a domestic
10:47
Speaker 1: approval rating of minus 27, is a Global Citizen and
10:51
Speaker 1: International Award winner? I mean, maybe the United Nations knows
10:55
Speaker 1: something that we don't. Or maybe there should be a
10:57
Speaker 1: new category, the Outstanding Achievement Award for swanning about overseas
11:01
Speaker 1: looking busy while everything goes pear-shaped at home. Albo might
11:05
Speaker 1: need a bigger trophy cabinet. Joining me now to discuss
11:11
Speaker 1: this and more is my panel, News24 host Steve Price
11:14
Speaker 1: and former Speaker of the House Bronwyn Bishop. Hi to
11:16
Speaker 1: both of you. Thank you so much for joining me
11:18
Speaker 1: on the show. We've got to start with this news poll.
11:20
Speaker 1: I want to take you through the key figures. So
11:22
Speaker 1: primary support for the government fell two points to 27%
11:24
Speaker 1: and year record low. All the while, One Nation surges
11:28
Speaker 1: ahead on 30% and the Coalition barely in the picture
11:31
Speaker 1: on 19%. Steve, it's, of course, the lowest result for
11:35
Speaker 1: Labor since the Gillard era back in 2012. And she
11:38
Speaker 1: got rolled. What does it mean for Anthony Albanese, do
11:41
Speaker 1: you think?
11:43
Speaker 8: Well, I don't think he's going to get rolled because
11:45
Speaker 8: they probably haven't got anyone any better than him anyway.
11:47
Speaker 8: And he does have a massive majority in the lower house.
11:50
Speaker 8: So this poll is a disaster for him. He's very lucky.
11:54
Speaker 8: The timing of the prime minister going to New York
11:57
Speaker 8: for this UN meeting is exquisite. And I say that
12:00
Speaker 8: for a number of reasons. Number one, the polls. So
12:03
Speaker 8: he's out of the country and doesn't have to deal
12:06
Speaker 8: with it. The other exquisite reason why he'd be happy
12:11
Speaker 8: that he's out of the country in New York is
12:14
Speaker 8: the AFL grand final is on Saturday, as everybody knows.
12:18
Speaker 8: And the entertainment at the grand final is... Kylie Minogue.
12:23
Speaker 1: Oh, gosh.
12:23
Speaker 8: Now, that's the same Kylie Minogue that the Prime Minister
12:27
Speaker 8: said he would like to shag. So he's not going
12:32
Speaker 8: to have to sit down at the top table with
12:35
Speaker 8: the boss of the AFL and Kylie Minogue on his
12:37
Speaker 8: right-hand side. So he's very happy he's out.
12:39
Speaker 9: Of the country.
12:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can imagine. I mean, that would be awkward
12:41
Speaker 1: because he's probably going to go. He wouldn't be at
12:43
Speaker 1: the AFL. He loves to swan about at events. 100%.
12:46
Speaker 8: 100%.
12:46
Speaker 1: He'd be there. How embarrassing watching the woman on stage
12:49
Speaker 1: that he'd like to shag, probably while sitting Jodie right
12:52
Speaker 1: next to him at the same time, Bronwyn. But let's
12:54
Speaker 1: talk about this polling. One Nation is still the clear
12:57
Speaker 1: favourite there. The Coalition's languishing, though, on 19%. What do
13:02
Speaker 1: you think this poll means for the opposition?
13:05
Speaker 10: Well, I think what it means is that immigration... remains
13:09
Speaker 10: the dominant issue. And one nation is out in front.
13:14
Speaker 10: And the government's pathetic performance by Minister Burke, which blamed
13:21
Speaker 10: the entire migration problem on people having too many spare
13:26
Speaker 10: bedrooms in their houses. The attack on older Australians is
13:32
Speaker 10: something that's very paramount for this Labor government. But let
13:35
Speaker 10: me say, The Australian people know there is mass migration.
13:42
Speaker 10: They know that the entire infrastructure has been overloaded, whether
13:47
Speaker 10: it's housing, whether it's hospitals, whether it's schools, whether it's roads,
13:52
Speaker 10: that the infrastructure isn't there to take this huge number
13:55
Speaker 10: of people who are coming in. And they want John
13:59
Speaker 10: Howard's dictum to be enforced. We will decide who comes
14:04
Speaker 10: to this country and the manner in which they come.
14:07
Speaker 10: And so they want to see the people who are
14:11
Speaker 10: invited to come to this country, people who are going
14:13
Speaker 10: to love the country, who are going to add to
14:16
Speaker 10: the country, not simply masses of people who are going
14:19
Speaker 10: to pay tax immediately as the government sees.
14:24
Speaker 1: Absolutely. It's extraordinary. Tony Burke says, no, we're not running
14:26
Speaker 1: a mass migration experiment. Well, I think the figures would
14:30
Speaker 1: absolutely beg to differ. And yeah, he declared war on
14:32
Speaker 1: spare bedrooms. Now, look, despite the bad polling, the prime
14:36
Speaker 1: minister's out in New York giving himself a pat on
14:38
Speaker 1: the back. He will accept an award this week as
14:43
Speaker 1: for being a global citizen. But he got hot under
14:45
Speaker 1: the collar. Let's just have a look at this exchange again.
14:49
Speaker 7: Prime Minister, here in New York on Wednesday night, you
14:51
Speaker 7: will receive an award for being a global citizen. Don't
14:55
Speaker 7: you feel like a bit of a fraud accepting this
14:57
Speaker 7: award when, at home, you screwed up the response to
15:01
Speaker 7: the worst massacre since Port Arthur? In the polls, you
15:04
Speaker 7: are taking Labor to one point shy of Julia Gillard
15:07
Speaker 7: when you rolled her, and your net negatives are worse
15:10
Speaker 7: than Scott Morrison.
15:12
Speaker 1: He didn't like that one, Steve, did he? How deserving
15:15
Speaker 1: do you think he is of this award?
15:18
Speaker 8: Well, he awards a joke. About as big a joke
15:21
Speaker 8: as what the UN is and, you know, we're now
15:23
Speaker 8: going to try and sit on the Security Council. But,
15:25
Speaker 8: I mean, Latika, to her credit, asked a very gutsy question,
15:29
Speaker 8: but she could have thrown in a whole bunch of
15:31
Speaker 8: other things, including our aforementioned remarks about melons and Kylie Minogue.
15:38
Speaker 8: She could have thrown in the $ 6 million grant to
15:40
Speaker 8: his local golf club, which he still refuses to answer
15:43
Speaker 8: proper questions about. The Prime Minister's had a shocking couple
15:46
Speaker 8: of weeks today He was probably very glad to get
15:49
Speaker 8: on that plane and turn up in New York. I mean,
15:51
Speaker 8: but to ask a question like that, I think, takes
15:54
Speaker 8: a lot of courage. And I'm pleased she did. There
15:56
Speaker 8: were other journos in the room that also asked tough questions.
15:59
Speaker 8: I mean, the question about the disgraceful treatment of young
16:03
Speaker 8: Aboriginal children in South Headland that you mentioned, Danika. I mean...
16:07
Speaker 8: Why couldn't he answer a question about that? I mean,
16:10
Speaker 8: what's the fact that he's in New York at the
16:13
Speaker 8: United Nations that are supposed to look after people like
16:16
Speaker 8: disadvantaged Indigenous kids? Why couldn't he answer a question about that?
16:20
Speaker 8: He just seems to dodge and weave and refuse to
16:24
Speaker 8: front up whenever he's asked a tough question.
16:26
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and on issues that are so important. I mean,
16:29
Speaker 1: we should be talking about what is going on right
16:31
Speaker 1: now in Western Australia and the Prime Minister doesn't want
16:33
Speaker 1: a bar of it. Bronwyn, not only is he getting
16:36
Speaker 1: this award, he also wants a seat at the UN.
16:38
Speaker 1: And last time this happened for us, it cost about
16:40
Speaker 1: $ 25 million. I don't understand how this can be justified.
16:44
Speaker 10: Well, the amount of money is called bribery. It literally
16:47
Speaker 10: is buying votes. And do you think that the average
16:50
Speaker 10: person who's in the supermarket who's looking at having to
16:54
Speaker 10: pay a higher mortgage tax monthly fee, do you think
16:58
Speaker 10: that people who are really struggling give a damn?
17:01
Speaker 1: No.
17:01
Speaker 10: No, of course they don't. What they see is a
17:03
Speaker 10: Prime Minister who's on summit season shuffle. He's out there,
17:08
Speaker 10: just away from the country all the time, dodging the questions,
17:12
Speaker 10: and Steve put it absolutely spot on, that he can
17:16
Speaker 10: just dodge and weave and we see it all the time.
17:19
Speaker 10: So what I would like to see is that the
17:22
Speaker 10: heaviness that is being put in the sorts of questions
17:26
Speaker 10: that Latika Burke is answering, also put on The Treasurer.
17:30
Speaker 10: Because that performance today, with regard to the intergenerational report,
17:35
Speaker 10: was just rubbish.
17:36
Speaker 11: Oh, shocking.
17:37
Speaker 10: Absolute rubbish. Like everything else he said, which is precisely
17:41
Speaker 10: why I've called him the snake charmer, because it's all.
17:46
Speaker 10: It's not real.
17:47
Speaker 1: Smoke and mirrors. It's all small. I guess this.
17:50
Speaker 10: Award that Albanese is going to get is about as
17:54
Speaker 10: valid as the one... that the treasurer's old boss got
17:58
Speaker 10: for being the best treasurer.
18:00
Speaker 1: Good point. And how did that turn out? That was
18:02
Speaker 1: another shocker. Now, look, speaking of the UN, of course,
18:04
Speaker 1: it's been 12 months since Anthony Albanese betrayed our votes,
18:08
Speaker 1: values for votes, when he did recognise the non-existent state
18:11
Speaker 1: of Palestine. It was meant to build momentum for a
18:14
Speaker 1: two-state solution, and still there is no two-state solution, Steve.
18:18
Speaker 1: So what on earth did the Prime Minister achieve in
18:20
Speaker 1: doing this?
18:22
Speaker 8: Well, absolutely nothing. And when you look back on that
18:24
Speaker 8: footage from last year, I mean, you just shake your
18:26
Speaker 8: head where he stood up there because he knows he's
18:29
Speaker 8: speaking to this audience who would expect people to be
18:31
Speaker 8: very pro-Palestinian. And deep down in his heart, and Bromwell
18:35
Speaker 8: would know this as well as anybody. He is very pro-Palestinian.
18:39
Speaker 8: I mean, this is a guy who's marched in the
18:41
Speaker 8: street for that very cause. As a young student activist,
18:45
Speaker 8: he was very, very embracing of what was going on
18:48
Speaker 8: in the Middle East as long as it didn't involve Israel.
18:50
Speaker 8: So the bloke, true to his nature, will say what
18:54
Speaker 8: he thinks he has to say at the time and
18:56
Speaker 8: he tries to hide his true feelings. I don't know
18:59
Speaker 8: what he's going to say when he addresses the UN
19:01
Speaker 8: later this week. And don't forget, by the way, to
19:03
Speaker 8: Bronwyn's point about him travelling and loving the fact that
19:06
Speaker 8: he's on the the global summit tour. He comes back
19:10
Speaker 8: here and then he goes back to the United States,
19:13
Speaker 8: to Mar-a-Lago, to the G20, where he's got a front
19:16
Speaker 8: up to Donald Trump. I'd love to be in the
19:19
Speaker 8: room when he and Donald Trump start talking about what
19:21
Speaker 8: Australia is trying to do to big tech in America.
19:24
Speaker 8: That's going to be a great conversation.
19:26
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, because we know that Donald Trump doesn't want
19:27
Speaker 1: a bar of that. He's not interested. Bronwyn, we're almost
19:30
Speaker 1: out of time, but I just want to quickly get
19:32
Speaker 1: your view on what on earth has been achieved the
19:34
Speaker 1: last 12 months since recognising Palestine.
19:37
Speaker 10: Well, it unfortunately led into the anti-Semitism that we've seen
19:41
Speaker 10: in this country. Everything he did with regard to the
19:45
Speaker 10: announcement of recognising Gaza was really for the Western suburbs
19:51
Speaker 10: voters who were in Labor Party seats. It had nothing
19:54
Speaker 10: to do with what is a real solution for what's
19:57
Speaker 10: going on in the Middle East. Nothing at all. The
20:00
Speaker 10: man is a total cynic and Steve is perfectly right.
20:03
Speaker 10: He has always been. anti-Israel in that sense.
20:06
Speaker 1: Betrayed our values for votes on the world stage and
20:08
Speaker 1: he's still swanning about the world stage. Steve Price, Bronwyn Bishop,
20:11
Speaker 1: great to speak with you both. Thank you very much
20:13
Speaker 1: for joining me. Well, let's move on now. It is
20:16
Speaker 1: very difficult to put into words what has happened this week.
20:18
Speaker 1: Three women were allegedly murdered by their male relatives in
20:21
Speaker 1: the space of just 10 hours in New South Wales,
20:24
Speaker 1: including one whose son is accused of decapitating her. Then
20:27
Speaker 1: in the Blue Mountains, a five-year-old was allegedly killed and
20:31
Speaker 1: two other kids seriously injured in a horrific stabbing attack.
20:34
Speaker 1: And their mother was also found with stab wounds and
20:36
Speaker 1: is being treated as a suspect. Joining me now is
20:39
Speaker 1: Shadow Veterans Affairs Minister Michael McCormack. Michael, really appreciate you
20:43
Speaker 1: joining me. Look, you've written about this in the Daily
20:45
Speaker 1: Telegraph today, calling it our day of shame. And one
20:48
Speaker 1: of the alleged incidents happened as well in Wagga, in
20:51
Speaker 1: your seat. You've called for an urgent summit. Will it help?
20:58
Speaker 9: Well, we need to do something, Danika, because when you
21:01
Speaker 9: have three women aged 23, 70 and 90 losing their
21:05
Speaker 9: lives on a day of infamy, on a day of
21:09
Speaker 9: national shame, when you have police in the Riverina, 70%
21:16
Speaker 9: of their call-outs are to deal with domestic and family
21:19
Speaker 9: violence issues. Something has to be done. We have to
21:25
Speaker 9: have more respect. Boys and men have to step up.
21:30
Speaker 9: Real men don't hit women, and women should never be
21:34
Speaker 9: the victims in this way, in any way, shape.
21:37
Speaker 4: Or form, let alone losing their lives.
21:40
Speaker 9: 23 years young, that woman in Wagga Wagga had her
21:43
Speaker 9: whole life ahead of her, and the city is in
21:46
Speaker 9: mourning today. There's just a pall of sorrow and a
21:50
Speaker 9: sense of shock right throughout the community.
21:54
Speaker 1: Look, it is. It's unfathomable. And what's clear, and I
21:58
Speaker 1: do agree with you, that what is happening, it's not working.
22:02
Speaker 1: And I think that the criminal justice system plays a
22:04
Speaker 1: big role here. You look at what happened, for example,
22:06
Speaker 1: with Molly Tyshurst. Her former partner was granted bail, despite
22:09
Speaker 1: Molly saying that she feared for her life, and then
22:12
Speaker 1: he went on to kill her. Has the justice system
22:14
Speaker 1: let the community down?
22:17
Speaker 8: Yes.
22:18
Speaker 9: That sentencing for Molly Tyshurst's killer was manifestly inadequate. He
22:24
Speaker 9: will be out potentially in less than 18 years. He
22:28
Speaker 9: will be out before he is 50. And that was
22:32
Speaker 9: a cruel, cold and calculated killing. Molly was loved by
22:37
Speaker 9: her Forbes community. She was a childcare worker. The little
22:40
Speaker 9: kids in her care absolutely adored her and so did
22:44
Speaker 9: her family and so did everybody who knew her. I
22:47
Speaker 9: went to her funeral. It was one of the saddest
22:49
Speaker 9: occasions I've ever attended. She didn't deserve that. The Forbes
22:54
Speaker 9: community didn't deserve that. And certainly something needs to happen.
22:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. Look, you're right. I mean, it is devastating,
23:02
Speaker 1: and I agree. I think that the justice system has
23:05
Speaker 1: a huge role to play in this, and I think,
23:09
Speaker 1: as a society, I think we're sick of bizarre decisions
23:12
Speaker 1: being made when, clearly, domestic violence is a big problem. So, no,
23:17
Speaker 1: I totally agree with you. Michael, I want to change
23:20
Speaker 1: pace here. I want to ask you about the latest
23:21
Speaker 1: news poll. If we look at the Coalition's primary vote,
23:24
Speaker 1: it's at 19%, down from 66.4% at last year's federal election.
23:29
Speaker 1: Is it a disaster for the coalition?
23:32
Speaker 4: We're getting our policies.
23:33
Speaker 9: We've announced the automatically halving the fuel excise, making sure
23:38
Speaker 9: that people can potentially save 27 cents a litre.
23:44
Speaker 4: That's a potential saving of $ 15 a tank.
23:47
Speaker 9: We've certainly been on the front foot protecting and preserving
23:51
Speaker 9: and upholding the values of our veterans, which made a
23:54
Speaker 9: backflip on that really bad public policy area where the
23:57
Speaker 9: government wanted to hurt our veterans to the point of
24:01
Speaker 9: having an arbitrary dollar figure, $ 5, 000 placed on their allied health.
24:05
Speaker 9: And it was the coalition who made sure that that
24:08
Speaker 9: wrong was righted. And we're out there, Angus Taylor's giving
24:12
Speaker 9: some headline economic speeches. Matt Canavan is talking about the
24:15
Speaker 9: things that regional Australians wanted to hear. And I think
24:20
Speaker 9: we're certainly looking as a team, we've got a plan
24:24
Speaker 9: and that's important. Now, yeah, poll to one thing, But
24:28
Speaker 9: the election is a good 18 months away. We'll certainly
24:33
Speaker 9: even get more policies out as that election looms. But
24:38
Speaker 9: people in regional Australia know that we will look after them.
24:41
Speaker 9: This government has absolutely abandoned regional Australia as far as
24:45
Speaker 9: services and infrastructure and road maintenance, et cetera, is concerned.
24:50
Speaker 9: And the water buybacks are hurting and crippling those irrigation
24:54
Speaker 9: communities and only going to place a higher price on...
24:57
Speaker 9: on the supermarket shelves. I'm going to Henny Machinery field
25:01
Speaker 9: days tomorrow. I'm looking forward to what I hear there.
25:03
Speaker 9: I think what we will hear is we need to
25:05
Speaker 9: get rid of a bad Albanese government.
25:07
Speaker 1: Yes, well, while you're on the ground, you know, looking
25:09
Speaker 1: to fix issues, you've got the Prime Minister swanning about
25:11
Speaker 1: the UN, about to receive an award, Michael, for being
25:14
Speaker 1: a global citizen. I mean, it's just extraordinary, the juxtaposition
25:18
Speaker 1: that's happening right now. Now, look, I've got to ask
25:21
Speaker 1: you about this latest intergenerational report that was released today.
25:24
Speaker 1: Australia is about to run deficits for the next 40 years.
25:28
Speaker 1: 40 years! That's extraordinary. And the Australian economy is growing
25:33
Speaker 1: at its slowest sustained rate since World War II. I've
25:37
Speaker 1: got to say the Treasurer seemed quite rosy about it
25:39
Speaker 1: all today. He was optimistic that we could face all
25:42
Speaker 1: the headwinds. Is that how you read this report?
25:48
Speaker 9: Well, Danica, wasn't it last August we had a productivity
25:50
Speaker 9: roundtable in Canberra?
25:51
Speaker 4: Wasn't that supposed to fix all the economy?
25:54
Speaker 9: Wasn't that supposed to improve output to make sure our
25:57
Speaker 9: balance of payment were where they needed to be and
25:59
Speaker 9: make sure that we got the cost of living situation.
26:03
Speaker 4: Where it needs to be? But we've got a housing
26:05
Speaker 4: crisis in Australia. We've got.
26:07
Speaker 9: small businesses going insolvent and going bankrupt and going to
26:11
Speaker 9: the wall in record numbers. And we've got a Treasurer
26:16
Speaker 9: somehow seemingly saying that this is all OK. We've got
26:19
Speaker 9: a Prime Minister getting an award for being a global citizen. Well,
26:22
Speaker 9: I've got nothing against him being on a roll stage.
26:25
Speaker 9: I think he needs to turn up to the UN
26:27
Speaker 9: and to ASEAN and to Chogham and to G20 and
26:29
Speaker 9: to other conferences. But at home, the situation is crook.
26:33
Speaker 9: It's as crook as I've seen it. And we've got
26:36
Speaker 9: a government that has just turned its back on regional
26:40
Speaker 9: Australia where the people, the hardworking farmers and business owners
26:45
Speaker 9: and manufacturers are keeping their lights on in this nation,
26:48
Speaker 9: keeping the nation fed, keeping and producing the fibre to
26:51
Speaker 9: put the clothes on their back. And yet they're not
26:53
Speaker 9: being rewarded by way of infrastructure and services. And right
26:56
Speaker 9: across the country, we've got a situation where we're bringing
27:00
Speaker 9: people in, they're going to all of the wrong areas,
27:04
Speaker 9: the western suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne, and out in
27:06
Speaker 9: the regions where we're crying out for workers, we can't
27:09
Speaker 9: seem to get them, and the crops are going to
27:11
Speaker 9: be left.
27:12
Speaker 4: Unharvested, the fruit's going to be left unpicked.
27:14
Speaker 9: This is a situation of crisis proportions, and we've got
27:17
Speaker 9: a government that has got a tin ear and a
27:19
Speaker 9: blind eye to it.
27:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. A real blind eye to it. Michael McCormack,
27:24
Speaker 1: we've got to leave it there. It's nice to chat
27:26
Speaker 1: to you. Thank you very much for joining me on
27:27
Speaker 1: the show. I appreciate it. Stay with us. Coming up
27:29
Speaker 1: after the break, I'm going to unpack that intergenerational report
27:33
Speaker 1: with AMP Chief Economist Shane Oliver, plus Warren Mundine will
27:36
Speaker 1: join me to discuss the Prime Minister's ducking and weaving
27:39
Speaker 1: when it comes to Indigenous children in the Pilbara. That's next.
27:45
Speaker 1: Welcome back. Let's get stuck into the intergenerational report now,
27:49
Speaker 1: handed down by Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Here he was today.
27:53
Speaker 6: One of the key conclusions I'm hoping that you draw
27:55
Speaker 6: from this intergenerational report when you've gone through it in
27:58
Speaker 6: detail is that every page of this IGR in one
28:03
Speaker 6: way or another justifies, validates and I hope one day
28:08
Speaker 6: vindicates the difficult decisions that we've taken reforming the housing
28:13
Speaker 6: market and reforming the tax system.
28:15
Speaker 1: Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson says we're going backwards.
28:18
Speaker 13: It projects out an environment of higher inflation, lower living
28:22
Speaker 13: standards and the destruction of wealth and wages, a potential
28:27
Speaker 13: compounding of debt out into the near horizon and the
28:29
Speaker 13: long horizon and higher taxes. The Reserve Bank has already
28:35
Speaker 13: highlighted and cited that the data underpinning the intergenerational report
28:40
Speaker 13: is unrealistic.
28:43
Speaker 1: Joining me now is AMP Chief Economist Shane Oliver. Shane,
28:46
Speaker 1: good to see you. Thanks for joining me. The Treasurer
28:48
Speaker 1: is out there painting a very rosy outlook that we
28:51
Speaker 1: are in a better place than other countries to weather
28:54
Speaker 1: all economic storms, yet Australia is about to run deficits
28:57
Speaker 1: for the next 40 years. So should we take it
29:00
Speaker 1: all as rosy?
29:02
Speaker 14: Well, I must admit, when I read it, I found
29:04
Speaker 14: it kind of bleak. Sure, the budget deficit projections are
29:09
Speaker 14: not as bad as in the 2023 report, but that's
29:12
Speaker 14: because of a bit of good luck over the last
29:14
Speaker 14: few years where we've had huge commodity-related revenue flowing to Canberra.
29:19
Speaker 14: But beyond that, it's a pretty depressing picture. Lower economic growth,
29:23
Speaker 14: the lowest level of per capita GDP projections for all
29:28
Speaker 14: of the intergenerational reports that started last 24 years ago,
29:32
Speaker 14: an ongoing budget deficit. So it's not a very good picture.
29:36
Speaker 14: And I must admit, I find it a little bit depressing.
29:40
Speaker 14: To me, it just highlights the need to reform the economy,
29:44
Speaker 14: to get the level of government spending back down, to
29:46
Speaker 14: make more room for the private sector, to deregulate it
29:49
Speaker 14: far more aggressively, and also reform the tax system. So
29:53
Speaker 14: all of those things were on show in the IGR.
29:57
Speaker 14: And as I said, to be honest with you, I
29:59
Speaker 14: found it to be somewhat depressing reading.
30:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I don't know how many more times Jim
30:02
Speaker 1: Chalmers can be warned about spending. He's been warned by economists,
30:06
Speaker 1: he's been warned by the RBA, and yet his spending
30:09
Speaker 1: is still out of control. What does the report say
30:12
Speaker 1: about our productivity growth? I mean, we know it's been
30:14
Speaker 1: on the decline, but what does this report say about
30:18
Speaker 1: what it looks like moving forward? Well, that's the interesting thing.
30:22
Speaker 14: Basically, the report says that it's going to stay the
30:25
Speaker 14: same over the next 40 years as it has been
30:27
Speaker 14: over the last 40 years, which was productivity growth of 1.2%
30:30
Speaker 14: per annum. I would regard that as a little bit
30:33
Speaker 14: on the optimistic side, even if you take a very
30:37
Speaker 14: favourable view of the impact of AI, artificial intelligence, and
30:41
Speaker 14: I think that will be a positive factor. The reality
30:44
Speaker 14: is that over the last 10 years, productivity growth has
30:48
Speaker 14: virtually stalled. It's running at just 0.2% per annum over
30:52
Speaker 14: the last 10 years. And over the last 12 months,
30:54
Speaker 14: it's been slightly negative. So I think it's fairly, it's
30:57
Speaker 14: pretty optimistic to assume that it's going to be 1.2%
31:01
Speaker 14: over the next 40 years, which is what it was
31:04
Speaker 14: over the last 40 years, to me that looks a
31:05
Speaker 14: bit on the optimistic side. In the absence of more,
31:11
Speaker 14: I guess, aggressive moves to reform the economy, then I
31:15
Speaker 14: fail to see where that productivity is going to come from.
31:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. Now, the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has also flagged
31:22
Speaker 1: a desire to deliver Australians a fresh round of tax cuts.
31:25
Speaker 1: So we've heard this narrative many times before, Shane. I
31:29
Speaker 1: feel like it's about as believable as that $ 375 that
31:33
Speaker 1: disappeared into the never-never. But is it a pipe dream,
31:36
Speaker 1: given the state of today's economy?
31:40
Speaker 4: Well, you could argue that.
31:41
Speaker 14: He did flag after the last budget that he would
31:45
Speaker 14: use that mechanism called WAITO, Working Australians Tax Offset, as
31:50
Speaker 14: perhaps a vehicle to deliver more tax cuts. I guess
31:54
Speaker 14: the excitement in the IGR, if you want to call
31:56
Speaker 14: it excitement, is that the government has sort of ruled
31:59
Speaker 14: a line at 24.2% in terms of tax revenue for
32:03
Speaker 14: from the early 2030s, implying that they're not going to
32:06
Speaker 14: just accept ongoing bracket prep, which is good, and they'll
32:09
Speaker 14: deliver some sort of tax cuts out there. But by
32:13
Speaker 14: the same token, you then got to assume that you're
32:16
Speaker 14: going to have an even worse budget deficit. To me,
32:19
Speaker 14: I think the big problem is that Australia does not
32:21
Speaker 14: have a revenue problem. It does not have a tax
32:24
Speaker 14: revenue problem. The government has plenty of that. The issue
32:27
Speaker 14: is that government spending has gone out of control over
32:31
Speaker 14: the last five years or so. and the IGR predicts
32:35
Speaker 14: that it will remain at these very high levels going
32:39
Speaker 14: forward compared to where it was prior to the pandemic. That,
32:42
Speaker 14: to me, is the main problem. If we can get
32:45
Speaker 14: government spending back down, then, yes, we should be able
32:48
Speaker 14: to have these tax cuts. But in the meantime, if
32:52
Speaker 14: we have the tax cuts, it will just lead to
32:53
Speaker 14: an even bleaker situation for the budget numbers.
32:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, as I said, I mean, I don't think that...
32:59
Speaker 1: The only person who doesn't realise about government spending seems
33:01
Speaker 1: to be Jim himself, which is such a big problem. Now,
33:05
Speaker 1: before we let you go, I've got to ask you
33:06
Speaker 1: about this exchange. The RBA has made a stunning admission
33:09
Speaker 1: while being grilled about how government cost-cutting could save mortgage
33:12
Speaker 1: payers money. Liberal MP Simon Kennedy asked the Governor, Michelle Bullock,
33:17
Speaker 1: whether reducing government spending could lower inflation, and here was
33:20
Speaker 1: the exchange.
33:22
Speaker 12: Any scenario if we cut government spending by 2%?
33:24
Speaker 14: We've not run that scenario.
33:25
Speaker 1: And you cannot run an infinite number of scenarios. No
33:28
Speaker 1: one can. We don't have the manpower to do that.
33:30
Speaker 8: So you've never run a scenario if we reduce government
33:33
Speaker 8: spending in your models?
33:34
Speaker 15: Never.
33:35
Speaker 12: Have you ever run a scenario where we reduce government spending?
33:39
Speaker 12: Have you ever looked at that scenario ever?
33:41
Speaker 1: We've not run that. You've never looked at a scenario
33:43
Speaker 1: where we've reduced government spending? Shane, no modelling. What on earth?
33:50
Speaker 14: Well, I think what they're trying to do is stay
33:53
Speaker 14: out of the politics to some degree. They don't want
33:54
Speaker 14: to get in trouble with the government. They may have
33:57
Speaker 14: done the modelling. I could have told you in my
33:59
Speaker 14: head that if you cut government spending, you will reduce
34:03
Speaker 14: demand in the economy. If you cut government spending by
34:06
Speaker 14: two percentage points, you can work out precisely what that means.
34:09
Speaker 4: For aggregate demand in the.
34:10
Speaker 14: Economy, we'll knock about 0.4% off. It's about 0.28 by 2%,
34:16
Speaker 14: whatever that is, a bit more than that, say about 0.4, 0.5%
34:20
Speaker 14: off overall aggregate demand in the economy. Hopefully my maths
34:25
Speaker 14: is right.
34:26
Speaker 4: I'm sure it is.
34:26
Speaker 14: It would knock that amount off government, off total demand
34:30
Speaker 14: and therefore free up space in the economy and take
34:32
Speaker 14: pressure off inflation. So it's fairly simple mathematics there to
34:37
Speaker 14: work that out. But I have a feeling the Reserve
34:39
Speaker 14: Bank didn't want to get themselves in a hot water
34:41
Speaker 14: on that one. I guess the other interpretation might be, well,
34:44
Speaker 14: the Reserve would conclude that they just take government spending
34:47
Speaker 14: as a given and they act within the framework of that.
34:51
Speaker 14: And maybe they can make an argument on that front.
34:54
Speaker 14: But I think most economists would tell you that if
34:56
Speaker 14: you cut government spending you would reduce aggregate demand in
35:01
Speaker 14: the economy and that will take pressure off inflation. And
35:04
Speaker 14: I personally think that, you know, if you think about
35:06
Speaker 14: the next week, next Tuesday the Reserve Bank meets, they're
35:09
Speaker 14: probably going to raise interest rates again. What could have
35:12
Speaker 14: headed that off? Of all the things that could have
35:13
Speaker 14: headed that off in the last six months, one thing
35:16
Speaker 14: would have headed it off and that is if we
35:18
Speaker 14: saw a decent cut to government spending back in the
35:20
Speaker 14: May budget.
35:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, and that clearly hasn't happened and now they're
35:24
Speaker 1: saying potentially another three rate rises to come by between
35:27
Speaker 1: now and May next year. Shane Oliver, we've got to
35:29
Speaker 1: leave it there. Good to catch up. Thanks very much
35:31
Speaker 1: for joining me. Well, let's return now to the story
35:33
Speaker 1: I brought you earlier in the show. Of course, the
35:35
Speaker 1: Prime Minister didn't want to know about it when he
35:37
Speaker 1: was asked about the crisis in South Hedland where child
35:40
Speaker 1: protection agencies failed to intervene despite children living in squalor
35:43
Speaker 1: and fending for themselves. Joining me now.
35:46
Speaker 3: We're not about to intervene against the Western Australian government.
35:50
Speaker 2: So the federal government, your view is this is an
35:52
Speaker 2: issue for Western Australia, not for your government?
35:54
Speaker 3: Well, this is a Western Australian issue.
35:59
Speaker 1: Joining me now is Indigenous leader and businessman Warren Mundine. Warren,
36:02
Speaker 1: good to see you. Thanks very much for joining me.
36:04
Speaker 1: So Anthony Albanese is out there parading Indigenous culture in
36:07
Speaker 1: a video urging the world leaders to back Australia's push
36:10
Speaker 1: for a seat on the UN Security Council, but spent
36:13
Speaker 1: his first day in the US refusing to actually talk
36:16
Speaker 1: about these issues at hand. What do you make of
36:18
Speaker 1: the PM's response?
36:21
Speaker 15: I just find this a complete joke. Here he is
36:24
Speaker 15: going to the UN saying, to get a seat on
36:27
Speaker 15: the Security Council, and he's promoting how good they are
36:30
Speaker 15: with Aboriginal people and how important it is. And here
36:33
Speaker 15: we have a crisis. Look, they're talking about Western Australia.
36:37
Speaker 15: I can tell you this, not only in Western Australia,
36:39
Speaker 15: it's across Australia. We have this huge amount of problems.
36:43
Speaker 15: We've seen the stuff in the Northern Territory, we've seen
36:45
Speaker 15: the stuff in Western Australia, we've seen the stuff in Queensland,
36:48
Speaker 15: we've even seen stuff in New South Wales and everything.
36:52
Speaker 15: They had no, when they got elected, they only had
36:56
Speaker 15: one policy and that was to have the voice. And
36:58
Speaker 15: when that didn't happen, they had nothing. For us, for
37:03
Speaker 15: everyone else, it was about whether the voice got up
37:05
Speaker 15: or not. It was about the work that we had
37:07
Speaker 15: to do to fix these areas. They just walked away
37:10
Speaker 15: and they haven't done a thing. All they did was,
37:13
Speaker 15: you know, we remember the Prime Minister flew up the
37:15
Speaker 15: Alice Springs and he spent, more time in the aeroplane
37:18
Speaker 15: than actually on the ground. And then he flew off
37:20
Speaker 15: to the tennis for a couple of days. You know,
37:22
Speaker 15: this is their attitude. I just cannot believe. that they've
37:26
Speaker 15: just walked away from this policy. Even the people who
37:30
Speaker 15: campaigned for the Yes campaign have now come out and
37:33
Speaker 15: said that the government's walked away.
37:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, Megan Davis, who was a key architect of the campaign,
37:38
Speaker 1: has said the exact same thing, that Anthony Albanese, that
37:40
Speaker 1: Labor's thrown its hands in the air. Labor's argument is, well,
37:44
Speaker 1: the Commonwealth does not have statutory child protection powers. OK, fine,
37:49
Speaker 1: but what can Labor do here?
37:52
Speaker 15: Well, Labor has the money. This is what I learned
37:55
Speaker 15: when I was, you know, I was the advisor to
37:57
Speaker 15: Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, was you do have powers
38:03
Speaker 15: in regard to sitting down at the National Cabinet and
38:06
Speaker 15: coming up with ideas and funding and spending and stuff
38:10
Speaker 15: like that. The biggest problem we've got here is that
38:14
Speaker 15: Aboriginal Affairs has been hijacked by this ideological push, you know,
38:20
Speaker 15: that you can't. have kids who are in trouble, and
38:24
Speaker 15: their safety is in trouble, but they're not being protected,
38:28
Speaker 15: is that they only can be put out to Aboriginal families.
38:32
Speaker 15: And we've seen the result of that. It's been a
38:35
Speaker 15: disastrous result. So my argument is the first thing they
38:39
Speaker 15: should be looking at is that it has to be
38:42
Speaker 15: the protection and safety of the child. That comes first
38:46
Speaker 15: before culture. That comes first before anything. And then we
38:51
Speaker 15: start looking about how we can fix family problems and
38:55
Speaker 15: issues within those communities.
38:56
Speaker 1: And the other thing is, I just spoke to Michael
38:58
Speaker 1: McCormack about tackling violence against women and children after it
39:01
Speaker 1: was a real horrific weekend in New South Wales. Yet
39:04
Speaker 1: when it comes to protecting vulnerable Indigenous children in the
39:07
Speaker 1: Pilbara or other parts of the country, many of whom
39:10
Speaker 1: are exposed to dangerous situations themselves, suddenly it's a matter
39:14
Speaker 1: for the WA government, according to the PM. Don't issues,
39:18
Speaker 1: both these issues deserve equal treatment?
39:21
Speaker 15: They deserve equal treatment. And we heard the words of
39:23
Speaker 15: that Aboriginal woman, the elder, who said, you know, why
39:27
Speaker 15: aren't free Aboriginal children's lives just as important as any
39:32
Speaker 15: free non-Aboriginal people? You know, the issue is that we've
39:36
Speaker 15: got to stop dividing the country upon race. The first thing,
39:40
Speaker 15: whether it's black, white, green or pink and purple, it
39:43
Speaker 15: is protection and safety of the child. And you see
39:45
Speaker 15: some of the issues that's happening within Aboriginal And this
39:48
Speaker 15: is where it's linked to the domestic violence issue. You've
39:52
Speaker 15: seen those kids that were killed. You've seen the kids
39:54
Speaker 15: who have been molested and attacked. It has all come
39:57
Speaker 15: out of domestic violence as well. So those two links there,
40:01
Speaker 15: and we've got to deal with those two links together.
40:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. It is really a national shame and it
40:07
Speaker 1: is a blight on this country when you've got Labor
40:09
Speaker 1: right now walking away, throwing their hands up in the
40:11
Speaker 1: air and saying, no, nothing to do with me and
40:13
Speaker 1: Anthony Albanese's disgrace over in the United Nations. Warren Mundine,
40:18
Speaker 1: we've got to leave it there. I always appreciate your
40:20
Speaker 1: insights on this. Thank you very much for joining me
40:22
Speaker 1: on the show. I appreciate it. Stay with us. Coming
40:24
Speaker 1: up after the break, guards protecting major ADF bases have
40:27
Speaker 1: been left unarmed under $ 2. 5 billion contracts. How does this happen?
40:32
Speaker 1: I'll speak to News 24 Defence Analyst Peter Jennings next.
40:38
Speaker 1: Welcome back. Joining me now is News 24 defence analyst
40:41
Speaker 1: Peter Jennings. Peter, good to see you. Thanks for joining me.
40:43
Speaker 1: I want to start with this exclusive investigation by the
40:46
Speaker 1: Daily Telegraph revealing that security contractors paid billions to protect
40:50
Speaker 1: the nation's most significant defence force bases are unarmed while
40:54
Speaker 1: on patrol. Now, according to whistleblowers, they've described ADF protection
40:58
Speaker 1: measures against credible threats as defenceless. How does something like
41:02
Speaker 1: this happen?
41:04
Speaker 12: Well, it may be a new story, but actually it's
41:08
Speaker 12: been a matter of fact that for about 25 years,
41:11
Speaker 12: unarmed security guards have been guarding Australian defence bases. It
41:16
Speaker 12: goes back to the Howard government, as a matter of fact, Danica.
41:19
Speaker 12: And so nothing particularly new there. But what has changed
41:22
Speaker 12: in the interim is that there is now, I think,
41:25
Speaker 12: a larger, more obvious threat to Australian bases. And you
41:30
Speaker 12: can think of that in a number of ways. A
41:32
Speaker 12: number of UK bases were attacked and, in fact, aircraft,
41:36
Speaker 12: Royal Air Force aircraft damaged by pro-Palestinian protest groups last
41:41
Speaker 12: year in the UK. We're pretty vulnerable to that type of,
41:45
Speaker 12: you know, domestic threat. And we are increasingly vulnerable in
41:50
Speaker 12: event of a conflict, of course, to, you know, longer
41:53
Speaker 12: range missile attacks, cyber hacking, along with good old fashioned espionage.
41:58
Speaker 12: So there's a whole bunch of things that have happened
42:00
Speaker 12: over the last quarter century, which really means we should
42:03
Speaker 12: be thinking differently about the security of our defence bases now.
42:08
Speaker 12: And that level of security should be significantly lifted. So,
42:13
Speaker 12: you know, an expenditure of $ 2. 5 billion, I assume these
42:15
Speaker 12: are new contracts which are being let, for practices that
42:20
Speaker 12: have been out of date for the better part of
42:21
Speaker 12: 20 years, that's not good enough. And Defence and the
42:25
Speaker 12: government should be looking much harder at what can we
42:27
Speaker 12: do now to actually strengthen these These very few facilities
42:31
Speaker 12: that we have where the bulk of the Defence Force
42:34
Speaker 12: assets are located.
42:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, especially in global times like the ones that
42:39
Speaker 1: we're in. Now, the Prime Minister wants a seat at
42:42
Speaker 1: the UN Security Council. What for, Peter? What is in
42:45
Speaker 1: it for Australia? Because the last time we ran for
42:47
Speaker 1: a seat, it cost about $ 25 million. $ 25 million.
42:51
Speaker 12: Yeah, I think, you know, there's a perception of international
42:54
Speaker 12: prestige on the line. But what's striking about this government's
42:58
Speaker 12: approach is that it doesn't seem to have very much
43:01
Speaker 12: to offer the United Nations by way of new policy.
43:06
Speaker 12: I think it's very striking that the last time we
43:08
Speaker 12: campaigned for a Security Council bid, the campaign was built
43:12
Speaker 12: around the idea of large scale Australian military presences in Afghanistan,
43:18
Speaker 12: in particular, peacekeeping, stabilisation roles in the South Pacific, all
43:23
Speaker 12: that's gone. And now the emphasis seems to be on indigeneity.
43:28
Speaker 12: But what does that actually mean from the point of
43:30
Speaker 12: view of Australia's foreign policy positions? What are we advocating
43:34
Speaker 12: in terms of arms control, in terms of security cooperation,
43:38
Speaker 12: the sorts of things that the Security Council would actually
43:40
Speaker 12: be interested in? So no substance. It's all show, like
43:46
Speaker 12: so many of the paper treaties that our government claims
43:49
Speaker 12: to be signing with neighbouring countries.
43:52
Speaker 8: Where's the beef?
43:53
Speaker 12: Where's the substance, Danika?
43:54
Speaker 4: That's what I think about.
43:55
Speaker 1: Well, that's right. Where is the substance and what is
43:58
Speaker 1: in it for us, I say. Now, Anthony Albanese has
44:01
Speaker 1: refused to categorically rule out Australia joining the European. He
44:05
Speaker 1: was pushed on it multiple times, but he sort of
44:07
Speaker 1: just diverged around it, didn't actually commit to an answer.
44:11
Speaker 1: And we know, of course, that the Canadian Prime Minister
44:14
Speaker 1: was offered to be the EU's first ever associate member. Peter,
44:19
Speaker 1: surely we wouldn't be considering any sort of move with
44:22
Speaker 1: the EU, right?
44:25
Speaker 12: Look, I wouldn't have thought so. I mean, we're back
44:27
Speaker 12: to the substance issue again. We concluded negotiations for a
44:32
Speaker 12: free trade agreement with the EU in March of this year.
44:36
Speaker 12: That's not yet been formally signed, but that's really where
44:39
Speaker 12: the dollars are in terms of our trade relationships with
44:42
Speaker 12: the Europeans. We have defence contacts with NATO, which is
44:46
Speaker 12: more appropriate than the EU for those types of defence engagements.
44:50
Speaker 12: The rest of it, I think, is just, you know,
44:52
Speaker 12: surface showmanship. Let's be clear that what Mark Carney is
44:57
Speaker 12: doing is kind of poking Donald Trump in the eye.
45:00
Speaker 12: This is a coded Canadian way of saying, well, we're
45:04
Speaker 12: getting closer to the Europeans because we don't have a
45:06
Speaker 12: good relationship with the Americans. There's an irony in that because,
45:11
Speaker 12: of course, Mark Carney is Prime Minister of Canada for
45:14
Speaker 12: one reason only, and that's because.
45:16
Speaker 8: Donald Trump was elected.
45:18
Speaker 12: And that led to a backlash against the Canadian Conservatives
45:21
Speaker 12: at their last federal election. Otherwise, they were looking pretty
45:23
Speaker 12: good for the election. And so Carney is there because
45:27
Speaker 12: of Trump. And now he's engaging in a bit of
45:31
Speaker 12: performative theatre with the Europeans.
45:33
Speaker 1: Yes.
45:34
Speaker 12: We should not be diverting ourselves into a similar kind
45:37
Speaker 12: of approach.
45:37
Speaker 1: No, especially when Europe's running a mass migration experiment. I
45:40
Speaker 1: wouldn't want to go anywhere near it. Peter Jennings, good
45:43
Speaker 1: to see you. Thanks very much for joining me on
45:45
Speaker 1: the show. Coming up after the break, Donald Trump strikes
45:47
Speaker 1: a deal with Greenland after threatening to take the island
45:50
Speaker 1: by force. Kosher Garda will break it down for us next.
45:56
Speaker 1: Welcome back. Joining me now is News 24 contributor Kosha Garda. Kosha,
45:59
Speaker 1: good to see you. Thanks for joining me. So after
46:01
Speaker 1: years of battling the fake news, Donald Trump has confiscated
46:05
Speaker 1: the press passes of journalists from CNN, MSNOW and Politico,
46:08
Speaker 1: denying the reporter's entry into the building's grounds. I don't
46:12
Speaker 1: know about this, Kosha. Whatever would we do without the
46:14
Speaker 1: theatre of the combative press conferences with the fake news?
46:19
Speaker 11: I guess for one of the greatest showmen on earth, Danica,
46:23
Speaker 11: he's had enough of it, at least for now. But
46:25
Speaker 11: he has tried this before in his first term with
46:30
Speaker 11: one of the other outlets. He famously sparred with Jim
46:33
Speaker 11: Acosta and took away his press pass of CNN and
46:36
Speaker 11: then lost that fight because CNN and Jim Acosta sued
46:38
Speaker 11: and he had to restore it. He also took away
46:41
Speaker 11: the press pass of the AP when the AP... said
46:44
Speaker 11: that they would not recognize the Gulf of America as
46:46
Speaker 11: the term, and they would continue to call it the
46:48
Speaker 11: Gulf of Mexico. He withdrew that. They sued, were successful,
46:52
Speaker 11: but then on appeal, it's actually been overturned. So that's
46:54
Speaker 11: making its way through the courts. I think this one
46:57
Speaker 11: probably won't stand because the law says that he can
47:00
Speaker 11: revoke press passes and limited forums, which is why he
47:04
Speaker 11: sort of is winning, at least for now, with the AP,
47:06
Speaker 11: but not wholesale. You can't do that because of the
47:08
Speaker 11: First Amendment in the broader briefing room. So it's probably
47:12
Speaker 11: going to get rejected. But for now, I guess he's
47:14
Speaker 11: making headlines and teaching them a lesson in some way.
47:17
Speaker 11: And it's just Trump being Trump.
47:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean, I'm not a fan of the
47:20
Speaker 1: liberal media myself, but I am all for freedom of
47:24
Speaker 1: the press. So I'm surprised that such a champion of
47:27
Speaker 1: freedom of the press would go against this. Now, look,
47:30
Speaker 1: Donald Trump has announced a plan to ramp up the
47:32
Speaker 1: US military presence in Greenland in an agreement that gives
47:35
Speaker 1: the US permanent control over security and other needs in
47:38
Speaker 1: the island. Kosher, it's been back and forth. He's been
47:41
Speaker 1: threatening to do this for so long. How will he
47:43
Speaker 1: get away with it, do you think?
47:46
Speaker 11: You know, it's a little bit anticlimactic, I have to say, Danika,
47:49
Speaker 11: from what we were seeing, all those AI-generated pictures of
47:52
Speaker 11: Trump Tower in Greenland, and people went out there and
47:55
Speaker 11: talks of purchasing it outright. That certainly would have been
47:57
Speaker 11: something for the history books. It has been done before,
48:00
Speaker 11: just not in the last... three-quarter century, I should say.
48:04
Speaker 11: But what this is is something that looks much more,
48:07
Speaker 11: I guess, palatable to people, where it's not a complete takeover,
48:11
Speaker 11: but it is, in theory, a permanent, this is how
48:14
Speaker 11: they're spinning it, a permanent military deal that gives the U.S.
48:17
Speaker 11: unfettered access to expand its military presence over there, which
48:20
Speaker 11: is very important strategically for the U.S., given its location.
48:23
Speaker 11: And also, importantly, non-NATO countries cannot have military bases there
48:27
Speaker 11: and cannot trade in sensitive materials like rare earth minerals
48:31
Speaker 11: or underground cables or other technologies or things like that
48:35
Speaker 11: without express written approval of the U.S. So if that holds,
48:39
Speaker 11: it's certainly something that is shoring up the U.S. 's
48:42
Speaker 11: position and defense posture over there and staving off Russia
48:45
Speaker 11: and China, which is what this was largely about for Trump.
48:48
Speaker 11: But I would note it is still more of a
48:50
Speaker 11: paper deal. And when we say things are permanent, I
48:53
Speaker 11: think everybody's always skeptical. What does that mean as administrations
48:56
Speaker 11: on both sides of the table change?
48:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see it play out.
49:00
Speaker 1: Just very quickly, we're almost out of time, but Donald
49:02
Speaker 1: Trump will welcome the Chinese President Xi Jinping to the
49:05
Speaker 1: White House this week. What's at stake, Kosha?
49:08
Speaker 11: You know, I think these two countries are in this
49:10
Speaker 11: managed stabilisation. It is in their interest to not rupture
49:13
Speaker 11: that relationship and maintain some sort of balance in this
49:16
Speaker 11: multipolar world that we're living in. He's always talking about
49:19
Speaker 11: him in love. terms, being adversarial about China, but always
49:22
Speaker 11: praising President Xi. So I think he will roll out
49:24
Speaker 11: the red carpet, as he's done before with the state dinner,
49:26
Speaker 11: but also have some difficult discussions where there is an
49:29
Speaker 11: adversarial friction point in technology, AI, all those things.
49:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, look, it's going to be fascinating to see this
49:35
Speaker 1: one play out because they certainly pick apart each other
49:38
Speaker 1: on the world stage, but now it seems that Donald
49:41
Speaker 1: Trump is really rolling out the red carpet for Xi Jinping. But,
49:44
Speaker 1: of course, Donald Trump does need China as much as
49:47
Speaker 1: China needs the US, so it's fascinating. Kosha Garda, good
49:49
Speaker 1: to see you as always. Thanks very much for joining me.
49:52
Speaker 1: Thanks for your company. Shari Markson will be back tomorrow night.
49:55
Speaker 1: Stay with us. Paul Murray is next. Good night.