Latest / Credlin / Credlin | 15 September

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Credlin | 15 September · Credlin

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Peter Credlin, live from News 24.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Good evening. Welcome to the program. Here's what's coming up
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: tonight on Credlin. 16 potential terror attacks disrupted since Bondi.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: So why has our terror threat level remained unchanged? Former
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Home Affairs boss Mike Pizzulo joins me on the growing
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: threat of terrorism. The battle over biological sex, gender identity
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: and women's rights... And the laws that critics say are
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: silencing debate. We'll speak to the author of a new
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: book which sounds the alarm for Australia at a time
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: when the rest of the world is changing course. And
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: as anti-Semitism takes hold across the West, one of Britain's
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: leading historians has a warning for Australia and a message
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: about how we defend free speech while confronting extremism. Lord
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Andrew Roberts joins me later. And Pauline Hanson today returning
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: serve to her critics.
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: I've always put my foot in my mouth and why
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: I come out and say things. I'm not the most
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: eloquent speaker in how I deliver something, what I say.
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: That upsets a lot of Indigenous Australians.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: I don't... Well, then I regret saying that because I
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: don't want to upset people.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: But first, last night while I was here on air,
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: the Senate voted to establish an inquiry into the Albanese
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: government's controversial community grants program... labelled by critics as nothing
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: more than a pork barrel fund. Analysis by the Centre
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: for Public Integrity has found that 73% of projects approved
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: under this taxpayer-funded scheme were in Labor-held seats or key
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: marginals that the government was campaigning to win at last
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: year's election. An invitation-only scheme, this is where the $ 6
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: million grant paid to the Marrickville Golf Club came from.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: a grant that we now know has many close links
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: to the Prime Minister, although it seemed he didn't want
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: voters to know about that connection, did he?
• 2:12
  Speaker 5: In 2012, I've been advised that I got honorary membership.
• 2:17
  Speaker 5: Someone made a decision. I don't have a card. I
• 2:21
  Speaker 5: don't go to the club.
• 2:23
  Speaker 6: 14 years ago.
• 2:26
  Speaker 5: But I make this point, Mr Speaker. If anyone wants
• 2:30
  Speaker 5: to join what is affectionately known as Royal Marigold, what
• 2:34
  Speaker 5: they need for two years' membership is $ 5. We'll get
• 2:39
  Speaker 5: them two years' membership.
• 2:41
  Speaker 6: For two years!
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: And then there's the multi-million dollar homes he's owned close by.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: One property that he still owns today, rented out now
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: while he's living in the lodge, worth around $ 3 million,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: is just 200 metres from the club. Yesterday, the Prime
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Minister was pushed hard about what role he had in
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: the allocation of $ 6 million to a golf club where
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: he's described by the local mayor, Darcy Byrne, as the
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: club's most famous patrons.
• 3:14
  Speaker 7: The Prime Minister sits in the Expenditure Review Committee of
• 3:16
  Speaker 7: Cabinet— that' s the Budget Committee— and he chairs Cabinet. When this funding
• 3:21
  Speaker 7: allocation for the Marrickville golf course came into either meeting
• 3:25
  Speaker 7: for sign-off, did the Prime Minister declare he was, in
• 3:29
  Speaker 7: the words of the local mayor, the golf club's most
• 3:32
  Speaker 7: famous patron and neighbour? Did the Prime Minister declare a
• 3:36
  Speaker 7: conflict of interest and recuse himself from the funding decision?
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: Now, the PM's response to that question was this.
• 3:45
  Speaker 5: The question goes to cabinet processes.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: I'm the decision maker.
• 3:49
  Speaker 5: The decision maker is the Minister for Infrastructure.
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: I'm not even the decision maker.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: On the face of it, that might be true. But
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: the PM was not the decision maker, as he says,
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: if the decision to fund the Marrickville Golf Club was
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: taken during this term of parliament. But that's not what happened.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Because it was the Prime Minister himself during the election
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: campaign who announced that his government would make this $ 6
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: million grant if re-elected. That's right, he's now being called
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: out red-handed here. Here's the Prime Minister's own press release
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: dated April 27, 2025, confirming what I have just uncovered.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: And there's nothing in the entire press release that even
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: once references the Minister, Catherine King. Well, she doesn't get
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: a look in. It's just Anthony Albanese alone announcing $ 6
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: million to the Marrickville Golf Club, the golf club, his
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: local neighbours. And look at that date, April 27. Well,
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: that's just seven days out from polling day. Now, how
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: does Albanese reconcile the reality of his own press relief
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: with what he said in the parliament? Listen to the
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: parliament again.
• 5:10
  Speaker 5: The decision-maker is the Minister for Infrastructure.
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: I'm not even the decision-maker.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: Okay, so who's telling the truth here? Albanese there in
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: the House or Albanese in writing via that press release
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: during last year's election campaign? Because they both can't be right,
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: can they? The other complicating factor here, of course... is
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: the fact that the Prime Minister can't try and explain
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: this away as a decision by a faceless bureaucrat either.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: Because in April last year, when he personally made this
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: multi-million dollar promise to his local golf club, caretaker conventions, well,
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: they were in operation. Meaning this was not a public
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: service decision. This was a political decision to fund the
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: golf course and a very political decision at that. But
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: there's more, because a bit more digging confirms that Minister
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: King didn't even open grants from this half a billion
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: dollar fund until the 1st of September last year. That's
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: six months after Albanese had already promised his golf club
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: mates a $ 6 million check. Here it is, it says
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: via the Department of Infrastructure website, the major and local
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: community infrastructure program opened on 1 September 2025. And as
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: we know now, critically, access to the taxpayer millions was
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: by invitation only. So who invited the golf club to
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: pick up this $ 6 million windfall and when? You've got
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: to assume it was Albanese or his office, don't you,
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: given it's his name and his name only on that
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: press release announcement. But here's the kicker. Here is where
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Anthony Albanese's got serious questions to answer now about integrity
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: and probity when it comes to this golf club grant.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: And it centres on these admissions last week from the Minister,
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: Catherine King. Admissions that I don't think she even realised
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: she had made. On ABC Radio, King explained that Labor
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: first had an internal process for determining election commitments. And
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: it was only after the election, when the program was
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: set up, that she then became the person who signed
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: off the funding. So months and months and months after
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: the decision was made and then announced. Here's the minister.
• 7:47
  Speaker 8: There is a process internally within the Labor Party to
• 7:51
  Speaker 8: determine election commitments.
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: Internally inside the Labor Party, not the government, the Labor Party.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: In this interview, the ABC asked King directly whether she
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: knew that Albanese was an honorary member of the Marrickville
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: Golf Club, to which she failed to give a straight answer. Indeed,
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: rather than a yes or no, King said this.
• 8:18
  Speaker 8: First thing is the Prime Minister is not the decision
• 8:20
  Speaker 8: maker of this program. I am the decision maker of
• 8:23
  Speaker 8: the programs. The only person who would need to declare
• 8:26
  Speaker 8: something who would have a conflict would be me as
• 8:28
  Speaker 8: the decision maker.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Well, hang on, I've just revealed to you that the
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: decision to grant the golf club millions of dollars was
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: made and announced by Albanese and Albanese alone six months
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: before King was even involved. As King herself admitted, quote,
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: there's a process internally within the Labor Party to determine
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: election commitments. So to the important issue of conflict now,
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: because that's the crux of the issue. How can Albanese
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: deal with conflicts here, the fact that he's a member
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: of the club, the fact that he owns a multi-million
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: dollar home some 200 metres from the golf course, if
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: he's the only name on the announcement? Where's the probity here?
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: Who would he have declared any conflict of interest to
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: if he's the only one making the announcement? This whole
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Marrickville Golf Club grant sticks to high heaven. This was
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: an invite-only slush fund worth a whopping half a billion dollars,
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: with 73% of projects approved in Labor-held seats or key
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: marginals that Labor was desperate to win at last year's election.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: What's clear now from all the evidence publicly available that
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: I've put out here again tonight is that Albanese owned
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: homes in a street across from the Marrickville Golf Club,
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: that they got a $ 6 million grant announced by him
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: and him alone during last year's election campaign, some six
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: months before there was even a fund set up and
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: administered to pay out the money. And now neither Albanese
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: or King can explain why the Marrickville Golf Club was
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: selected in the first place. This is a joke. And
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: the joke's on the taxpayer. Any wonder voters don't trust
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: the Prime Minister? Let's hope this new Senate inquiry gets
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: to the bottom of the racket. Now, look, I want
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: to say something about this man, Rhys Muldoon, a former
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: children's TV presenter on the ABC, turned fellow kids' book
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: author with Kevin Rudd, turned general Labor hanger-on, turned Labor
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: taxpayer-funded staffer, at least until this morning, when he was
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: finally sacked for racist comments said about Jacinda Nampajimpa Price,
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: for anti-Semitic comments said about a whole host of others,
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: and for vile, highly sexual comments said about me. I
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: think I've demonstrated more than most, so I've got a
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: pretty thick skin, but honestly, when is this going to end?
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: I wasn't sure I was even going to say something
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: about Muldoon tonight, but I'm sick of this. I've copped
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: it for years, going back to the time when Clive
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: Palmer attacked me publicly over IVF. And on and on
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: and on it went back then. It even followed me
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: to Victoria when I took on Daniel Andrews during the lockdowns,
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: and then I copped death threats as a result. This
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: has never stopped. What is it about weak men and
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: strong women? What is it about conservative women like me
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: and Jacinta that we're considered fair game when others get defended?
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: I mean, Muldoon isn't just a garden variety labour idiot
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: who thinks she beat opponents in the battle of ideas
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: by going after them personally. He's a close friend of
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: the Prime Minister. I mean, so close in fact that
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: when Almanese invited just 70 people to his wedding on
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: the lawns at the Lodge last year, Muldoon, well, he
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: was one of them. And his comments about me, Jacinta,
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: Dave Sharma and others, well, they were all out there
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: on his social media feed. And I don't for a
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: minute believe that this was missed when he was vetted
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: for his job as a Labor staffer.
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: I don't.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: I don't. Because I know that Labor vet people thoroughly.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: So it's my view that someone saw these comments and
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: thought they could get away with them. That the target
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: was a conservative woman, so who cares? that giving a
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: cosy job to the PM's best mate was worth it. Now,
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: I'm all up for anyone wanting to take me on intellectually,
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: to disagree with me about policy, to argue and debate
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: the direction in which our country should go and who
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: should lead it. But time and time again, opponents on
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: the left have made it personal. That says everything about them.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: They're small minds and weak character. Now, if the left
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: think they can make me cower or that I'll give
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: up and walk away, well, think again. What's that saying
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: up where I was born and raised? As strong as
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: a mallee bull? Well, you bet I am. I am
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: not going anywhere. This only makes me want to dig
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: in and go harder. Enough said. Right, well, let's go
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: to the cesspit of Canberra tonight for the headlines. Our reporter,
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: Trudy McIntosh.
• 13:38
  Speaker 9: The Albanese government insists it won't bow to pressure from
• 13:41
  Speaker 9: AI giants to water down copyright laws. Companies like OpenAI
• 13:45
  Speaker 9: want to set up shop in Australia, promising big investment
• 13:48
  Speaker 9: in return for the government retreating on copyright protections for creatives.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: It's not new that there are challenges in respect of copyright.
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: I don't think friends or allies make these kinds of threats.
• 14:00
  Speaker 9: And a rare retreat from Pauline Hanson today. Apologising for
• 14:03
  Speaker 9: comments calling Indigenous Australians the most primitive race.
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: If I've offended people by using that, yes, I will apologise.
• 14:10
  Speaker 9: And an apology of sorts for comments about Anthony Albanese's
• 14:13
  Speaker 9: mother's social housing background.
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: I don't think my comments were derogatory towards his mother
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: at all. If he's taking offence to it, well, I'm
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: sorry for that.
• 14:22
  Speaker 9: The One Nation leader also defended her sweeping cuts to migration.
• 14:26
  Speaker 9: She concedes her plan could trigger a recession.
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: So if it's going to hit the bottom line for
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: a couple of months, but I think then it will improve.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: People's quality of life will improve. Isn't that what it's about?
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: It would take the economy.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Yes, it's important to bring numbers down, absolutely, but you
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: have to do it in a way that doesn't destroy
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: the economy.
• 14:45
  Speaker 9: Trudy McIntosh, News 24, Canberra.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: Let's jump into it all now with my colleague, News24
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: political editor, Andrew Clennell. Welcome, Andrew. Immigration today, front and
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: centre again. Talks breaking down between Labor and the Coalition
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: on what they might be able to agree on when
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: it comes to fundamental principles. But here we are, One Nation,
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: the only party still with an actual policy out there
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: on the table publicly. Where is this up to? We
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: were promised that speech from Tony Burke, this big reform speech,
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: almost about two months ago now. What are insiders telling you?
• 15:20
  Speaker 6: Well, I think it's just bizarre. I mean, I've heard,
• 15:24
  Speaker 6: and it's been denied to me, but I've heard from
• 15:26
  Speaker 6: a pretty reputable source that Tony Burke and Jim Chalmers
• 15:29
  Speaker 6: were at loggerheads because, of course, all the measures affect
• 15:31
  Speaker 6: the budget and the economy. And we know treasurers from
• 15:35
  Speaker 6: Scott Morrison on have relied on the immigration numbers to
• 15:37
  Speaker 6: prop up their budgets. But then it became a story of, oh,
• 15:42
  Speaker 6: we've got to reach agreement with the opposition. But that's
• 15:44
  Speaker 6: only part of the measures. That's measures like getting rid
• 15:47
  Speaker 6: of appeal rights and in the Administrative Review Tribunal, and
• 15:50
  Speaker 6: that requires legislation. Not all of this requires legislation. So
• 15:53
  Speaker 6: whether some of it's being quietly done behind the scenes anyway,
• 15:56
  Speaker 6: as I suspect, to get the net migration numbers down,
• 15:59
  Speaker 6: that could be the case. But to not have that announcement,
• 16:02
  Speaker 6: it looks like inertia, it looks like division, it looks
• 16:05
  Speaker 6: like incompetence. especially because Tony Burke jumped the gun and,
• 16:11
  Speaker 6: you know, presumably with the permission of PMO and announced
• 16:14
  Speaker 6: that press club speech. That's the worst look. If it
• 16:16
  Speaker 6: wasn't for that, maybe you could kind of get away
• 16:19
  Speaker 6: with it for a little bit, but it looks like
• 16:21
  Speaker 6: they just can't get their you-know-what together. So I think
• 16:27
  Speaker 6: they need to hurry up and do it. Now, Albanese's
• 16:30
  Speaker 6: going to hunger. I wonder whether it's one of those
• 16:32
  Speaker 6: things they do when he's gone. How's that feel about it?
• 16:35
  Speaker 6: You know, they take out the trash a bit with
• 16:37
  Speaker 6: these things. controversial proposal, but it'll have to go to caucus.
• 16:42
  Speaker 6: So don't you need Albanese at the head of that
• 16:44
  Speaker 6: caucus to get the changes through? What has to go
• 16:48
  Speaker 6: through caucus, by the way, is legislation. So you could
• 16:51
  Speaker 6: announce it all, our intention of the legislation, and then
• 16:54
  Speaker 6: I guess you're saying to caucus, well, here it is.
• 16:57
  Speaker 6: But I think some Labor MPs will arc up because
• 16:59
  Speaker 6: they'll be worried about the family reunion changes and that
• 17:01
  Speaker 6: kind of thing. So I think whenever it happens, it'll
• 17:05
  Speaker 6: be an issue. It'll be a problem. Now, I guess
• 17:08
  Speaker 6: they feel they have to do legislation on the appeal rights,
• 17:11
  Speaker 6: so they had to do an announcement. Otherwise, you can
• 17:13
  Speaker 6: do a lot of these things without an announcement, Peter.
• 17:15
  Speaker 6: Tony Burke could have just quietly gone away issuing ministerial directions.
• 17:20
  Speaker 6: I wonder if that would have been a better.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: Approach in a lot of respects. I think that's the
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: problem for them. They need him to make an announcement
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: to claw back the vote that they're losing to One
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: Nation or or have been losing to One Nation. That's
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: why he was selling it in as this big speech. And, look,
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: you're right to point to the summit season at the
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: end of the year because that will be a big
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: distraction with the Prime Minister out of the country. What
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: are their messaging on a lot of these issues? They're
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: fighting fires almost every week in relation to One Nation.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: And I think on something like migration, they do need
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: it to go through caucus, at least in principle. even
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: without the leech, because you've got to hold sort of,
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: you know, all the frogs in the wheelbarrow and a
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: lot of them will be a bit antsy, those in
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: green seats, those with high migrant populations, about how Labor's
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: changes will be read amongst the Labor faithful. But that
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: gets harder because, what, he's got five or six trips
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: before Christmas.
• 18:13
  Speaker 6: Yeah, how's that going to affect the polls? You know,
• 18:16
  Speaker 6: they're already, I mean, I know it's a long time
• 18:18
  Speaker 6: until an election, Peter, but you get a rate rise
• 18:21
  Speaker 6: next week. He takes off to about five summits. You
• 18:26
  Speaker 6: think that's going to be good news for the Labor
• 18:27
  Speaker 6: Party in the polls against One Nation as well as
• 18:30
  Speaker 6: the Libs? So we're in for an interesting period down here.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: All right, talk to me about Pauline Hanson. Not many
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: politicians ever apologise, but she's better than the PM. I'll
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: give her that. She's admitted she got this wrong today.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: She says, I'm not always great at articulating my points,
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: but she certainly cuts through. The polls will tell you
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: she mightn't be articulate, but the punters understand exactly what
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: she's saying. This won't impact her, I don't suspect, at all.
• 18:58
  Speaker 6: No, I don't think so. But, I mean, I do
• 19:01
  Speaker 6: think what is interesting is the apology because I reckon...
• 19:05
  Speaker 6: You'd be able to count on one hand the amount
• 19:06
  Speaker 6: of apologies Pauline Hanson's given since she won the seat
• 19:09
  Speaker 6: of Loxley here in 1996.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: Or any politician, Andrew, any politician.
• 19:14
  Speaker 6: Well, I'll tell you what, a lot more of them
• 19:16
  Speaker 6: are doing it these days, Peter, because they think it'll
• 19:18
  Speaker 6: work for them. But I think.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: The bloke in the top job hasn't. He's never apologised. Yeah, yeah.
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: I think....
• 19:28
  Speaker 6: There might have been one time he apologised, wasn't there?
• 19:31
  Speaker 6: I'll have to look that up for our next cross.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: I think that....
• 19:36
  Speaker 6: I think it's more a sign of a bit of
• 19:39
  Speaker 6: political astuteness from her team that they're just trying to
• 19:42
  Speaker 6: kill off issues, you know, just, oh, let's get rid
• 19:45
  Speaker 6: of this, do the apology.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: Deny oxygen.
• 19:47
  Speaker 6: I think they're doing it.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: It's about denying oxygen.
• 19:48
  Speaker 6: They're doing a lot of very astute things. You know,
• 19:52
  Speaker 6: where's the Liberal Party? Because every Monday of a sitting week,
• 19:55
  Speaker 6: past few weeks, One Nation have an announcement, a front
• 19:57
  Speaker 6: page announcement. They grab the agenda on that Monday, which
• 20:00
  Speaker 6: is always a bit of a soft news day. And
• 20:04
  Speaker 6: I think they're playing things pretty smart politically at the
• 20:06
  Speaker 6: moment and media-wise.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: I think the thing is they're nimble, right, and you're
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: right to point out that Monday because Monday is when
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: the Cabinet is on for the government but it's also
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: when Shadow Cabinet is there for the Libs and they're
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: both constrained about what they drop out on the Monday.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: They drop more of their stuff on the Tuesday once
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: they've got everyone to agree. Well, One Nation could do
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: their Cabinet meetings over the phone. I mean, they could
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: do them on the Sunday night around a barbecue. They're
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: clearly doing some internal discussion. Do they have cabinet meetings? Well,
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: you never know. They look like they've got the rack
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: together more than in years past, Andrew. So they're dropping
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: stuff out. I read their papers. I'm sure you do too.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: There's a level of detail in their documents that hasn't
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: been there in the past. So I think they're taking
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: it up a gear and I think they are setting
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: the agenda at the start of sitting weeks. Hey, I've
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: got to ask you about these golf club grants, that
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: golf club grant, but there's a half a billion dollars
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: of Labor grants there elsewhere. It's now going to a
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: Senate inquiry. I just revealed then, the Prime Minister says
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: in the Chamber yesterday that he wasn't the decision-maker. Well,
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: I can prove, in fact, that he put the announcement
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: out on the 27th of April, a week out from
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: polling day, and that Minister King did not establish her
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: process for until another six months down the track on
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: the 1st of September. And then she called for those
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: that were invited to put their paperwork in. So, you know,
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: he announced exactly the same sum that she basically signed
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: off six months later. You can't tell me that he
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: didn't make the decision.
• 21:34
  Speaker 6: Minister King is very close to Anthony Albanese. That's all
• 21:38
  Speaker 6: I'll say.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she's covering up.
• 21:43
  Speaker 6: She's one of his closest... She's one of his closest...
• 21:46
  Speaker 6: people in the parliament. So I don't know if that's
• 21:48
  Speaker 6: how it occurred or how it occurred, but what I
• 21:50
  Speaker 6: do know, and I think Albanese claims it was previously
• 21:53
  Speaker 6: in Linda Burnie's seat or something, but it was down
• 21:55
  Speaker 6: the road from him, it was his old place. Now,
• 21:59
  Speaker 6: he put the press release out.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: I don't care where it was. He put the press
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: release out.
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah, well, exactly.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: Only his letterhead.
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: Only his letterhead.
• 22:06
  Speaker 6: But, look, the point I'm trying to make is we
• 22:08
  Speaker 6: all know that there was a lot of talk about
• 22:10
  Speaker 6: in the Qantas... issue, favours for Qantas. King was the
• 22:14
  Speaker 6: minister and Albanese was the PM. And it's his former portfolio,
• 22:19
  Speaker 6: transport and infrastructure, so he knows it back the front.
• 22:22
  Speaker 6: And there's a perception in this place that he guides
• 22:25
  Speaker 6: Catherine King pretty closely in that portfolio, just as there's
• 22:29
  Speaker 6: a perception that he guides Annika Wells pretty closely in communications.
• 22:33
  Speaker 6: And they are two ministers who will do what the
• 22:36
  Speaker 6: Prime Minister wants to happen. I mean, I'm sure a
• 22:38
  Speaker 6: lot of them do. But what I'm saying is there
• 22:40
  Speaker 6: is a particular relationship between Catherine King and Anthony Albanese,
• 22:45
  Speaker 6: which is longstanding, both of the left faction for many
• 22:49
  Speaker 6: years and close colleagues, very close colleagues. So what I'm
• 22:52
  Speaker 6: suggesting is when I hear that as a political observer,
• 22:55
  Speaker 6: I do tend to think that Albanese's had a hand
• 22:57
  Speaker 6: in that.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: And I think the chronology, six months between when he
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: announced it and the six months later when she signed
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: it off, tells you that, you know, that he's barking
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: and she's following the bark. It's very, very clear. So
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: this puts paid to his comments in the House that
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: she was the decision maker when he announced it six
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: months earlier. We'll go back to this one tomorrow, I'm assuming,
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: in the House. Andrew Clennell, thank you. Let's go now
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: to that extraordinary warning from former ASIO, former current ASIO
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: boss Mike Burgess, where he revealed Australia's domestic intelligence agency
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: has disrupted some 16 potential terror attacks in the nine
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: months since the Bondi massacre. Now, 16 is a huge number.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: Former boss of the Home Affairs Department, Mike Pozzuolo, joins
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: me now. Mike, thank you for your time. I think
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: 16 is a lot if I'm remembering my maths from,
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: previous years in Canberra, but you're the expert. How do
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: you rate this level if we've got 16 disruptions? Talk
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: me through that. But if the threat is this high,
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: why is the national threat level itself not changed?
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: Good evening, Peter.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: Well, that very first point, that last point you make
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: is the first point I want to make. Mr Burgess'
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: statement on Friday was incredibly important. It was put out
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: on a Friday afternoon. the 9-11 commemorations perhaps overshadowed it
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: to some extent. I just want to read you out,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: if I might, Peter, a couple of excerpts. Please do.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: I want to be very, very factual here. Probable, which
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: is the terrorism threat level that was lifted in August
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: of 24, you might recall, 2024, Mr Burgess says, does
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: not tell the full story. I think that's an incredibly
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: important point. He says the next level up on the
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: scale is expected. And he says that would only apply
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: where we had intelligence about a specific attack and we
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: do not. But we do know that the environment is degrading,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: and I continue to read, and acts of politically motivated violence,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: which is a legal term, it includes terrorism, but it
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: also includes things like political assassinations, are becoming, quote, more
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: likely than probable suggests. So there's something already askew, if
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: you will, Peter, in our methodology for warning the public
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: and alerting the public, there's almost like a highly probable
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: or another layer of probability that sits between probable and expected.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: But it gets worse and it gets even more ominous
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: than the headline that you just had up in your graphic.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: And I dug into this comparing it to his annual
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: threat assessment of only a couple of months ago, the
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: 24th of June. And this is in plain sight. I
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: did a bit more research once you and I entered
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: into discussions about me coming on tonight. He says on
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Friday that ASIO and our partners have foiled 33.
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: Major terrorism plots since 2014. 33.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: That's the number that we thought we'd heard before. And
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: the Director-General defines those as imminent, serious imminent plots where
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: the planning is advanced. Well, guess what the number was
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: in June 24, in June of this year, I should say,
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: only 10 weeks ago. That number was 31. So either
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: the annual threat assessment that was issued by the Director-General
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: in June, and I commend him for his transparency. He's
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: the only one, along with the AFP Commissioner, and I've
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: come to some of the statements she's been making recently.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: They're the only ones belling the cat, and I'm really
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: concerned that they're out there on their own. But let
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: me just dig into the annual threat assessment. In June,
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: the Director-General said 31 major terrorism plots had been disrupted. Now,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: On Friday, he said 33. What explains the two? There's
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: either a typographical error in one of the documents. I've
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: got them here, Peter. I'm going to hold them up.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: I've got two documents. There's either a typographical error, unlikely.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: They've maybe gone back to historical data and maybe reclassified
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: some disruptions of years past and assigned a greater seriousness
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: to them, a greater level of imminence.
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: So they've gone from 31 to 33.
• 27:14
  Speaker 8: Or....
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: The other logical and only plausible explanation, and you and
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: your viewers can make their own decisions on this, they
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: can just go to the ASIO website, is that ASIO
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: and its partners have foiled two major terrorist attacks just
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: in the last 10 weeks because there's no other explanation
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: for this variation in numbers.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and my point about context in terms of 16
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: a lot is 32 a lot. I certainly don't remember
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: in my time working in Canberra this sort of quantum
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: of terror attacks at the stage you're saying that they've
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: been foiled. So where is the press conference from the
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: Prime Minister and the senior ministers, or as John Howard
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: would routinely do when we had that terrible period after
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: 9-11 and in and around the two Bondi terror attacks, sorry,
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: Bali terror attacks, where he would give a statement, an update,
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: a formal update to the parliament saying, to give the
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: public as much information as we could reasonably have, transparently have,
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: but also the reassurance that the agencies had what they
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: needed to have in terms of resources and powers to
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: best keep us safe. We've got the bosses out there,
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: the agencies, we've got all this chatter that they're under-resourced,
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: that they haven't got what they need, and that's in
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: and around the Bondi Royal Commission, and we're hearing nothing
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: from the people that we elect to run the whole show.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: Well, Peter, just to round off the two data points,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: because that's going to reinforce the point you've just put
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: into the question, the 16 number that you talked about
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: at the top of this interview are of a lesser character.
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: That is to say early disruptions, they were serious.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: But they got them early. 16 just since December. 16
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: over nine months. So what we've talked about tonight is
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: two major terrorist plots thwarted, we think, in the last
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: 10 weeks, and 16... I'm going to call them lesser.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Had they come about, they would have been tragic, but
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: they were caught at an earlier stage, 16 since December. Separately,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: the AFP commissioner, and the AFP, I should say, before
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: her ascension to the commissioner's job, going back to January
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: of 24, when the new offence of violent extremist material possession, distribution,
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: dissemination was introduced, they've had over 40 persons charged, over 40,
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: most recently on Saturday night, a fellow trying to get
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: away to the Middle East and he was arrested at
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: the airport. What is going on, Peter? Now, to your point,
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: I think in a parliamentary democracy, what is owed to
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: the public is this transparency from the agency heads is wonderful.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: I really do commend the both Director-General Burgess and Commissioner
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: Barrett for what they're doing. What we need, though, in
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: a democracy, to your point, is a ministerial statement, and
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: I would cover the following things. An articulation by the
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: government of what the security environment is, if it's degrading
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: and it's even more probable than probable, that needs to
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: be stated. I would, and you'll recall this going after 9-11,
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: Bali and the London bombings, the institution known as the,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: or the creation of the National Security Hotline, 1800 123 400.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: One call, and my department, when I ran Home Affairs,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: used to manage that call, that hotline. One call could
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: make a difference, Peter. So where is the public, if
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: you like, awareness campaign? Where is it on our social
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: media feeds? Where are the ads? Where's the public communications
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: effort behind the hotline? Where is the national security counter-terrorism exercise?
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: You and I will well recall 20 years ago, and
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: this is confronting, and I don't want to say this
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: from the point of view of alarming and causing anxiety.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: But having live exercises in the street, including with actors
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: with fake blood and having first responders come in and
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: helicopters coming in with the tactical assault group, that is
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: important for the muscle memory of the first responders and
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: the tactical responders.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: Couldn't agree more.
• 31:15
  Speaker 4: Couldn't agree more. But it's also muscle memory for the community.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: It elevates our vigilance and our awareness without that becoming,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: if you like, so anxiety-causing that, you know, we become helpless.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: A couple of other things very quickly. We've got to
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: really look at these de-radicalisation programs.
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: Just quickly, I've got to get to a break.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: Are they working?
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: And finally, duty of care.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: If this violent extremist material is on social media, it
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: has to be taken down.
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'll just underscore that point. There was an
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: inquiry set up today, the parliamentary joint committee, Committee into
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: Intelligence and Security that they would, by Easter, report on
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: these DRAD programs. Mainly the discussion is what is making
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: young people so susceptible to radicalisation? Well, I want an
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: audit of the programs. I want to know who's delivering them,
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: where they are being delivered, why they are not working.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: The latest stats that I went through last night show
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: that they are not working. In some cases, they're making
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: no difference at all. That's the vast majority. In some cases,
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: they are actually making the kid more radical than ever before.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: So I think that has to be on the parliamentary
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: table as well as all the other things you went through.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: Mike Pozzuolo, did you good? That's absolutely what Australians need
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: to hear. Thank you for your time. Right after the break,
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: Australians gaslit in the debate over gender ideology. Well, wait
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: till I tell you who my next guest has written
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: a book with. That's after the break. Coming up shortly,
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: a distinguished historian, a member of the British House of
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: Lords on what Australia must do to confront antisemitism and
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: a whole lot of other things as well. But now,
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: to the debate around gender identity laws that critics say
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: are eroding the rights of protections historically afforded to biological women,
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: particularly around single-sex spaces, children and freedom of speech. Libby
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: Connors is the co-author of a new book with her husband,
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: former Greens co-founder Drew Hutton. It's called Over the Rainbow,
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: A Challenge to Cancel Culture. It argues that laws designed
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: to protect gender identity have created a conflict with women's
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: sex-based rights and are increasingly forcing Australians to accept contested ideas.
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: I'm delighted to say Libby joins me now. Welcome to
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: the program, Libby. I mean, I love that article that
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: was in The Australian on the weekend where you said
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: this law is a political weapon. It's state-sanctioned gaslighting. It
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: forces us to say things we know are false. and
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: it punishes us for saying things we know are true. Now,
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: I'm with you here. Why does this new right of
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: someone to deny biological reality force me to accept, force
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: me to deny what I know is scientific biological fact?
• 34:04
  Speaker 10: Yes, indeed. Thanks, Peter. That was a direct quote I
• 34:11
  Speaker 10: took from a former sergeant of police in Victoria saying,
• 34:14
  Speaker 10: who of course in the course of her career had
• 34:17
  Speaker 10: dealt with many male offenders. And the problem is now
• 34:21
  Speaker 10: that under Victorian law and almost every state law in Australia,
• 34:27
  Speaker 10: if an offender, after they've been arrested, declares that they
• 34:32
  Speaker 10: are transgender, then it is a requirement of everyone to
• 34:39
  Speaker 10: respect that identity. And that's now been enshrined in Commonwealth
• 34:43
  Speaker 10: law under the Sex Discrimination Act.
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: OK, so so what's changed more broadly and not just
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: legally changed, but what's changed in this country, particularly on
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: the left Libby, where the fight for women's rights really
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: had its genesis in left politics? I'm in my mid 50s.
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: I felt we'd got got to a level of equality.
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: And I was basically going to sit back and enjoy
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: that equality. And now I feel like I'm back in
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: the 1950s fighting for women's rights all over again because
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: it's mainly men invading women's spaces. It's men, biological men,
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: coming back at women's rights, having a fight that I
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: thought was won.
• 35:28
  Speaker 10: Yes, and that's exactly how Drew and I came into
• 35:31
  Speaker 10: this as well, when he was cancelled in the Greens,
• 35:34
  Speaker 10: and then we discovered that there were more than 40
• 35:37
  Speaker 10: women who'd been expelled or forced to leave the party. And,
• 35:42
  Speaker 10: of course, it wasn't only happening in the Greens. It's
• 35:46
  Speaker 10: been happening around the world. It's happened in different countries
• 35:53
  Speaker 10: of Europe with their Green parties. It's happened in the
• 35:56
  Speaker 10: US Democrats. It's happened in the Green Party of England
• 36:01
  Speaker 10: and Wales. In our book, we approached prominent figures in
• 36:06
  Speaker 10: the UK. So we've got two chapters about what happened
• 36:09
  Speaker 10: in the Green Party of England and Wales. We've also
• 36:11
  Speaker 10: got a chapter by Cara Dansky, an activist in the
• 36:14
  Speaker 10: US Democrats who's been trying to get the Democrats to
• 36:18
  Speaker 10: see sense. Even once they've been trounced by Donald Trump,
• 36:23
  Speaker 10: their inability to realise how much working Americans hate this
• 36:30
  Speaker 10: set of ideas that has been imposed on the community
• 36:33
  Speaker 10: from above without proper discussion and debate was part of
• 36:38
  Speaker 10: the reason why we set about to write this book.
• 36:41
  Speaker 10: Essentially what's happened is that this set of ideas are
• 36:47
  Speaker 10: being imposed from above. So activist groups and lobby groups
• 36:52
  Speaker 10: convinced social democratic parties around the world that this was
• 36:55
  Speaker 10: a good idea. And they said, but for goodness sake,
• 36:58
  Speaker 10: don't have public discussion about it. That will just trigger
• 37:02
  Speaker 10: a backlash. So just introduce them and, you know, everything
• 37:07
  Speaker 10: will be fine. And tell everybody it's the kindest way
• 37:11
  Speaker 10: to behave. So there was consultation when they amended the
• 37:17
  Speaker 10: Sex Discrimination Act in Australia. A consultation process began in
• 37:21
  Speaker 10: 2012 and was organised by the Australian Human Rights Commission.
• 37:26
  Speaker 10: But the final report from the Australian Human Rights Commission
• 37:31
  Speaker 10: noted that women's groups had opposed the amendments and did
• 37:37
  Speaker 10: nothing about them, otherwise ignored them. So that's why it's
• 37:41
  Speaker 10: possible for Julia Gillard to state publicly that, you know,
• 37:45
  Speaker 10: she didn't expect these consequences because they weren't, that's the
• 37:50
  Speaker 10: way they operate. Lobby groups get control of political parties
• 37:55
  Speaker 10: and once they're in control, they suppress all debate and
• 38:00
  Speaker 10: it's having a terrible effect throughout community, throughout civil society,
• 38:05
  Speaker 10: which is the bedrock of our system. Our freedom to
• 38:09
  Speaker 10: organise and to speak in our community, in our own groups,
• 38:14
  Speaker 10: has now been terribly compromised, particularly for women.
• 38:18
  Speaker 8: Wow.
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: I do know when I was in the UK recently,
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: of course, they've had a number of court decisions that
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: have righted this wrong, that have reasserted biological identity in
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: a way that we haven't in Australia. Unfortunately, it's got
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: worse in Australia with that decision out of the High
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: Court on Friday afternoon. So it gives me hope if
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: the left in Britain have turned the tide and they've
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: now reinstated women's biological rights, A book by someone like
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: you delving into the history on the left maybe will
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: give women and men on the left a reason to
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: pause and think that they do need to recast this
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: in Australia. But I look forward. I haven't read your
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: book yet, Libby. I read the story in the paper
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: on the weekend. I look forward to reading it. But
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: I'm hoping my viewers will get out and read it
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: too because we've got to have a grassroots fight about
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: this because I don't think the politicians are willing to change.
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us tonight, Libby. The big con is there.
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: You must get that book. Over the rainbow. Over the rainbow.
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: All right, quick break after the break. The wonderful man,
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: the historian, the British man, Andrew Roberts of Belgravia in
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: a moment. Fart up, Panalantia, Lucy, Zelig, Jamie, Rogers. I
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: want to really rip into Rhys Muldoon. We'll enjoy that,
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: won't we, in a moment. But first, before that, let's
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: go to my next guest, the distinguished historian, Lord Roberts
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: of Belgravia, who is, as his title suggests, a member
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: of the British House of Lords, but it's in his
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: capacity as a great thinker and author of some 21
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: books that we're going to speak to him tonight. He's
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: in Australia to deliver the John Beneithen Lecture in Sydney
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: tomorrow night for the Centre for Independent Studies. And on
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: Thursday night in Melbourne... He'll then give the Menzies Oration
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: for the Robert Menzies Institute of Urban Unity. I'm on
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: the board. I declare that now publicly. And that's to
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: mark the 75th anniversary of the ANZUS Alliance. Lord Roberts,
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: welcome to the program.
• 40:18
  Speaker 11: Thank you, Peter.
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: We'll get to your speaking. We'll get to your speaking
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: engagements in a moment. We're delighted to have you in
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: the country. But I want to get a comment from
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: you on the news overnight about this renewed push to
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: dissolve the United Kingdom following that landmark meeting of First
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: Ministers from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It feels like
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: it was just yesterday there was a Scottish referendum to
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: leave the UK. That was lost. How serious is the
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: latest push and what's the likely level of support amongst voters?
• 40:46
  Speaker 11: It's not serious in the slightest. It's true that the
• 40:50
  Speaker 11: three of them are nationalists, and that's the first time
• 40:53
  Speaker 11: this has happened, so one would expect them to get together.
• 40:56
  Speaker 11: The only reason that at least the Scottish and the
• 40:59
  Speaker 11: Welsh PMs are in power is because Labour did so badly.
• 41:04
  Speaker 11: It was a vote against Labour rather than a vote
• 41:06
  Speaker 11: for the nationalists, let alone for independence. And as you
• 41:10
  Speaker 11: pointed out, we had a once-in-a-generation coalition in Scotland in
• 41:17
  Speaker 11: 2014 and the Scottish Nationalists comprehensively lost it.
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: Let's go down to your Australian engagements if I can.
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: December's Bondi massacre, Jewish Australians experienced unimaginable horror and not
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: just obviously on the beach last December but really since
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: the Hamas attacks of October 7. We have gone down
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: a path that most Australians don't recognise as being a
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: part of this country. I know it's been tough in
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: Britain as well, but it's been incredibly difficult for Jewish
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: Australians and all Australians actually who don't want to see
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: anti-Semitism on their streets like we have. How does a
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: liberal democracy like ours confront this sort of extremism without
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: losing our ability to maintain and treasure free speech?
• 42:10
  Speaker 11: Well, that's the key question, isn't it? And you're absolutely right.
• 42:13
  Speaker 11: I was at the Bondi massacre site this morning. The
• 42:18
  Speaker 11: obscenity of it, especially on a beautiful summer's day like today,
• 42:22
  Speaker 11: sunny day like today, is all the more powerful, really.
• 42:27
  Speaker 11: We must be able to tell the difference between free
• 42:30
  Speaker 11: speech and incitement to violence. And all too often, especially,
• 42:34
  Speaker 11: of course, in Britain, with our weekly hate marches that
• 42:37
  Speaker 11: the pro-Palestinian protestors movement puts out, still organises. We see
• 42:43
  Speaker 11: the line being crossed, phrases like from the river to
• 42:48
  Speaker 11: the sea and globalise the intifada and having posters of
• 42:52
  Speaker 11: paragliders and so on. That is anti-Semitic hate speech and
• 42:56
  Speaker 11: that has to be cracked down on. So I'm going
• 43:00
  Speaker 11: to be arguing for a much more comprehensive and sort
• 43:04
  Speaker 11: of all of society look at this. Of course, I
• 43:07
  Speaker 11: don't want to in any way prejudge the results of
• 43:10
  Speaker 11: your Royal Commission inquiry?
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: We follow very closely what's happening in Britain and I
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: think Australia, like so many Brits, fear you're in some
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: sort of terminal cultural decline. That's certainly what many people
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: who we interview on this program fear themselves. How do
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: we in the West... protect our Judeo-Christian fundamentals. They feel
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: like they're under siege.
• 43:38
  Speaker 11: Well, actually, we also in Britain watch what's going on
• 43:42
  Speaker 11: in Australia. If a politician wants to make a policy popular,
• 43:48
  Speaker 11: he or she says the Australia-style policy X, and that
• 43:53
  Speaker 11: automatically puts it up five points in the public estimation.
• 43:56
  Speaker 11: So where you go, a lot of other parts of
• 44:01
  Speaker 11: the English-speaking peoples follow. And I'm hoping that's obviously going
• 44:04
  Speaker 11: to be the case with regard to anti-Semitism, because we
• 44:09
  Speaker 11: all need, right the way across the English-speaking peoples, to
• 44:12
  Speaker 11: stand up for our Judeo-Christian values. They are superior in
• 44:18
  Speaker 11: terms of providing freedom and freedom of expression, of course,
• 44:23
  Speaker 11: and freedom of religion and representative institutions than our laws
• 44:28
  Speaker 11: and so on. than the alternatives. And when the alternative
• 44:33
  Speaker 11: is totalitarian China, then we really absolutely have to look
• 44:39
  Speaker 11: to the system that we've got in place. You mentioned
• 44:42
  Speaker 11: earlier with your earlier guest about the left finally coming
• 44:47
  Speaker 11: round to the truth about biology. But actually it wasn't
• 44:52
  Speaker 11: the left. It was the Supreme Court. It was our
• 44:55
  Speaker 11: senior court that stated that biological sex is real. And
• 45:01
  Speaker 11: that comes, our legal system goes back to Magna Carta.
• 45:04
  Speaker 11: These are things worth fighting for.
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: You are right to remind me it was the courts
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: that then forced the left parliamentarians to adopt what the
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: court had decided. I look forward to seeing you on
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: Thursday night at the event in Melbourne.
• 45:18
  Speaker 11: Thank you so much.
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: Thank you for your time. All right, there's two events there.
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: They'll be on the screen. cis.org.au in Sydney. If you
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: are able to go, I encourage you to go to
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: that dinner there on Wednesday. But if you're in Melbourne,
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: come to the one at the robertmenziesinstitute.org.au. There's tickets available there.
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: And that one, of course, I'll be at that one.
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: Looking forward to it too. All right, quick break after
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: the break. Oh, these girls are good. These girls are good.
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: Join me for my panel, Lucy and Jamie, in a moment.
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: All right, let's just head straight into it with my
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: Tuesday night powerhouse duo, Lucy Zellig, broadcaster, of course, Sky
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: News contributor and Sky News host. Gosh, News 24 host,
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: listen to me, News 24 host, Jamie Rogers. Welcome to
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: you both. I'm just going to let you kick off
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: on this guy, Rhys Muldoon, a low-life Labor pretender, best
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: mate of the Prime Minister, of course, front and centre
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: at the wedding. Sacked today for offensive comments at Jacinta Nambujo-Price.
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: directed it myself as well. I mean, Lucy, I am
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: sick of this as a conservative woman. I'm all up
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: for an intellectual debate. Any of these bozos could come
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: here any night of the week and take me head on,
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: but they don't. They tweet from the safety of their
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: dirty little bedrooms or whatever they do. This is the
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: hypocrisy of the left. Over to you.
• 46:43
  Speaker 12: You're absolutely right, Peter. The hypocrisy stinks to high heaven.
• 46:47
  Speaker 12: But I don't even think that this is a conservative
• 46:49
  Speaker 12: or progressive issue, because at the end of the day,
• 46:53
  Speaker 12: if you are the type of person that can take
• 46:54
  Speaker 12: to social media and can speak about women in this way,
• 46:58
  Speaker 12: there is something deeply sick and depraved about you, Mr Muldoon.
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: I hope you hear this.
• 47:04
  Speaker 12: I think you're a vile, disgusting and despicable creature. And
• 47:07
  Speaker 12: there's an ancient proverb that goes to the tune of,
• 47:10
  Speaker 12: a man is known.
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: By the company that he keeps.
• 47:13
  Speaker 12: The fact that he was able to, Mr Muldoon, score
• 47:15
  Speaker 12: a highly coveted ticket to the Prime Minister's wedding where
• 47:19
  Speaker 12: only 80-odd people were able to go and there were
• 47:21
  Speaker 12: photographs of him kissing our Prime Minister tells you everything
• 47:25
  Speaker 12: that you need to know about the type of circles
• 47:27
  Speaker 12: that this man moves in. And the fact that this
• 47:30
  Speaker 12: man was a children's entertainer, he co-authored a children's book,
• 47:34
  Speaker 12: I mean, it is absolutely repulsive. But this side of
• 47:37
  Speaker 12: politics has form when it comes to this. The greatest
• 47:40
  Speaker 12: shame that I have the most resentment over is that
• 47:42
  Speaker 12: they had the gall to accuse the Liberal Party of
• 47:44
  Speaker 12: having a women problem, but now you've got a Prime
• 47:46
  Speaker 12: Minister who voted down Mr Abbott's motion in 2012 regarding
• 47:51
  Speaker 12: Peter Slipper, who only addressed Parliament today in Question Time
• 47:54
  Speaker 12: saying that this was, quote, unacceptable. and goes on podcasts
• 47:58
  Speaker 12: and demeans and disrespects his wife and mocks other women
• 48:01
  Speaker 12: and fantasises about sleeping with other women. I mean, don't
• 48:04
  Speaker 12: ever let them fool you that the right side of
• 48:07
  Speaker 12: politics have a problem with women when that, that title
• 48:11
  Speaker 12: rests with them, Peter.
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: I had an interview in the paper on the weekend
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: in the Sunday Telegraph, the Sunday Herald Sun, in the
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: Stella magazine, Jamie, and in it I talked to about
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: the fact that some of my greatest mentors and supporters
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: in my life, starting back with my dearly departed dad,
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: have been males. I've had some amazing men in the
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: Liberal Party, people that I've worked for mainly, but men
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: I've worked with who've been in my corner. So it's
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: not all men. I want to make that absolutely clear.
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: I've got enormous regard for good men, but I just
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: hate this stuff in politics because I've got a thick skin,
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: but it's just relentless against women on the right.
• 48:52
  Speaker 8: It is.
• 48:53
  Speaker 13: And Peter, I should also add that men within the
• 48:55
  Speaker 13: Liberal Party have been really great mentors to me as well.
• 48:58
  Speaker 13: It was actually a male in Mike Baird that was
• 49:01
  Speaker 13: the one that was really encouraging me to run for
• 49:03
  Speaker 13: Warringah and they're in my corner. But to this left hypocrisy,
• 49:07
  Speaker 13: could you just imagine for a moment, Peter, if it
• 49:10
  Speaker 13: was a Liberal staffer or a staffer of Angus Taylor
• 49:14
  Speaker 13: or Scott Morrison or Tony Abbott that had made those
• 49:16
  Speaker 13: disgusting comments?
• 49:18
  Speaker 12: There would be outrage.
• 49:20
  Speaker 13: And unfortunately, though, Peter, because you are seen as a
• 49:22
  Speaker 13: conservative commentator and Jacinta Jhimpu Price is a conservative woman,
• 49:27
  Speaker 13: There is complete silence from those on the left. The
• 49:31
  Speaker 13: Labor women.
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: Have a lot to stay for.
• 49:33
  Speaker 13: They've been absolutely silent when it came to standing up
• 49:36
  Speaker 13: for the Japanese Prime Minister regarding the Mellon situation. And
• 49:40
  Speaker 13: now here again, when women need you to stand up,
• 49:43
  Speaker 13: they are there that are silent, but they're the first
• 49:45
  Speaker 13: ones to all be very up and proud that they're
• 49:48
  Speaker 13: all about for women.
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: Well, all it does, as I said tonight, we all
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: just dig in a little bit harder. We go a
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: little bit harder. We all get a little bit thicker
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: in the skin, but we don't back away, do we, ladies? Nope. Never. Nope.
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: I'll leave it there. I'm out of time. Thank you
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: for your time on Tuesday, as always. Thanks for being
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: in my corner. My phone is lit up like a
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: Christmas tree. My audience, you are warriors and you are wonderful.
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: I'll see you tomorrow night. And my poor old mum,
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: she's upset about it too, but, Mum, I am fine.
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: I'll come back again tomorrow night and go harder again.
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: See you then. Here's the Bolt Report.