Latest / Credlin / Credlin | 27 December

Transcript

Credlin | 27 December · Credlin

0:01
Speaker 1: Peedo Krendlin live on Sky News Australia.
0:07
Speaker 2: Good evening and welcome to the show. Let's take a
0:10
Speaker 2: look at tonight's top stories. Here's what's coming up on
0:13
Speaker 2: the program. Another Jewish woman comes forward with allegations against
0:18
Speaker 2: radio stations skid Row after our explosive report earlier this week.
0:23
Speaker 2: I'll reveal the fresh accusation shortly. Victoria has a new
0:28
Speaker 2: opposition leader as John Persuto is toppled and Mauryer Deeming
0:33
Speaker 2: is back in. We'll speak to one of the MPs
0:36
Speaker 2: who orchestrated the coup shortly, But first, more disturbing revelations
0:44
Speaker 2: about the Sydney radio station accused of axing a Jewish
0:48
Speaker 2: host after she refused to support Hamas As Another brave
0:53
Speaker 2: woman comes forward. On Monday, we exclusively brought you the
0:58
Speaker 2: story of Nicole, the host of a Latino music program
1:02
Speaker 2: on community radio station skid Row based in the Prime
1:06
Speaker 2: Minister's own electorate of Marrickville. And a reminder, this was
1:12
Speaker 2: the video Nicole posted online after being called into a
1:16
Speaker 2: meeting with station management last Friday for covering up this
1:21
Speaker 2: free Palestine sticker in the studio with a record album
1:25
Speaker 2: while recording her show everyone.
1:28
Speaker 3: They just came out of a meeting with Radio skid
1:31
Speaker 3: Row eighty eight point nine FM, Sydney, where I was
1:34
Speaker 3: doing my radio show that was supposed to be a
1:37
Speaker 3: station that's all about peace, all about justice, all about
1:43
Speaker 3: you know, representation, and they basically just told me that
1:48
Speaker 3: if I cannot support the October seventh attacks as resistance
1:54
Speaker 3: and as something positive, basically saying also that it's not
1:59
Speaker 3: true that any he got killed or burned or anything,
2:03
Speaker 3: that if I cannot support the hostage is being kept,
2:08
Speaker 3: then I don't align with their values and I cannot
2:10
Speaker 3: be there.
2:11
Speaker 2: If I cannot.
2:12
Speaker 4: Support the fact that Israel doesn't have a right to
2:15
Speaker 4: exist and that Jews don't have a right to be
2:17
Speaker 4: in Israel, I can no longer be at their station.
2:21
Speaker 4: And when I started to cry because I was trying
2:24
Speaker 4: to have a respectful conversation about agreeing to disagree and
2:28
Speaker 4: respect each other's views even though I absolutely don't support
2:33
Speaker 4: terrorism and aggression and murder, they basically.
2:39
Speaker 3: Told me we don't appreciate your white women tears.
2:45
Speaker 2: The story has now been picked up by media in
2:48
Speaker 2: Australia and in Israel and has gone viral online. Liberal
2:53
Speaker 2: Senator Sarah Henderson tweeted, thank you for sharing this terrible
2:57
Speaker 2: story about the hateful anti Semitic treement of Jewish woman
3:01
Speaker 2: Nicole at Skidbow Community Radio. There must be consequences. We
3:07
Speaker 2: can now reveal the woman accused of making the comments
3:10
Speaker 2: about white women tears and laughing at Nicole is Ilan Abdi,
3:16
Speaker 2: who we're told Handel's recruitment for the station. Her LinkedIn
3:21
Speaker 2: profile says she's a mcquarie University and Sydney University graduate
3:26
Speaker 2: and has held positions at the Sydney Film Festival and
3:29
Speaker 2: the Sydney Opera House. We can also reveal another Jewish woman,
3:34
Speaker 2: who we've spoken to but has asked not to be identified,
3:39
Speaker 2: was frozen out of the station in early twenty twenty one. Rebecca,
3:44
Speaker 2: as well call her, believes her treatment was due to
3:47
Speaker 2: the discovery that she was a Zionist. Rebecca claims another
3:51
Speaker 2: volunteer in twenty twenty had an image of an Israel
3:56
Speaker 2: flag with a swastika overlapping the Star of Dave, and
4:00
Speaker 2: in the same year, two other women at the station
4:04
Speaker 2: had made statements about Jews being white and no longer
4:08
Speaker 2: subject to racism and that it's really annoying to hear
4:12
Speaker 2: Jews complain about white supremacy. This is very much the
4:16
Speaker 2: culture of Radio skid Row, she said, And I believe
4:20
Speaker 2: these people felt safe saying this stuff due to the
4:23
Speaker 2: environment they knew they were in. Now, as I said
4:27
Speaker 2: on Monday show, compounding the outrageousness over this is that
4:33
Speaker 2: you are paying for all of this. Radio skid Row
4:37
Speaker 2: is a registered charity and according to its last financial statement,
4:42
Speaker 2: it reported revenue of more than four hundred and seventeen
4:46
Speaker 2: thousand dollars in twenty twenty three, almost three quarters of
4:51
Speaker 2: which came from government funding close to three hundred and
4:55
Speaker 2: two thousand dollars including in grants. We've also discuss the
5:00
Speaker 2: charity's own treasurer, Doctor Nicole Joseph, has been a volunteer
5:05
Speaker 2: board director with a Community Broadcasting Foundation since twenty twenty one,
5:10
Speaker 2: the so called independent, not for profit funding body that
5:15
Speaker 2: administers and distributes federal government funding to community broadcasters. Until recently,
5:22
Speaker 2: doctor Joseph was a member of the foundation's Grants Advisory Committee,
5:26
Speaker 2: which provides quote independent advice on how content grants should
5:32
Speaker 2: be distributed and helped to shape funding policy. So the
5:37
Speaker 2: treasurer of one charity being in charge of who gets
5:41
Speaker 2: lucrative government grants. Now, depending on how that is managed,
5:46
Speaker 2: it may present a conflict of interest. What's more, Doctor
5:51
Speaker 2: Joseph herself has a long history of anti Israel remarks,
5:56
Speaker 2: posting on x the day after the October seven attacks
5:59
Speaker 2: Life last year, the thing is Israel has got away
6:03
Speaker 2: with so much without consequences. Does it really surprise anyone
6:07
Speaker 2: that Palestinians have had enough and are actually fighting back?
6:13
Speaker 2: And in a response to a tweet by Foreign Minister
6:16
Speaker 2: Penny Wong condemning a wave of terror attacks in Israel
6:20
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty two, she posted, this is so offensive.
6:24
Speaker 2: Labour needs to catch up and understand that you no
6:28
Speaker 2: longer need to bow down to Zionists now. We approached
6:32
Speaker 2: station manager Manu Montero to give him an opportunity to
6:36
Speaker 2: respond to the fresh claims, but he didn't reply. Instead,
6:41
Speaker 2: he sent all skid Row staff an email claiming they
6:46
Speaker 2: were the victims. Mister Montero wrote, we recently became the
6:51
Speaker 2: target of a far right racist barrage of threatening messages
6:55
Speaker 2: and calls after Steyn News ran a defamatory and high
7:00
Speaker 2: inaccurate report on us. The news report is clearly a
7:04
Speaker 2: politically motivated attack that tries to frame us as racist
7:09
Speaker 2: due to our support for the Palestinian community. Now it
7:14
Speaker 2: goes without saying that I stand by my reporting on
7:18
Speaker 2: this issue and that it is categorically untrue that this
7:22
Speaker 2: is a politically motivated attack. The reports are about management's
7:27
Speaker 2: alleged bullying and discrimination of Jewish volunteers, and its manager
7:32
Speaker 2: and some of its volunteers alleged extremist views. Mister Montero
7:38
Speaker 2: goes on to reveal the station's plan to handle this
7:41
Speaker 2: crisis is to stonewall media. He writes Sky News reporters
7:47
Speaker 2: now that would be me Singular have been trying to
7:50
Speaker 2: contact me as recently as this morning, but I have
7:54
Speaker 2: been screening and blocking their numbers. I would suggest screening
7:58
Speaker 2: unknown numbers. Two. Please do not talk to the media.
8:03
Speaker 2: We do not want to give them anything they can
8:05
Speaker 2: twist and use against us. The email also claimed skid
8:10
Speaker 2: Row had been contacted by the Community Broadcasting Association and
8:15
Speaker 2: they have offered their support. Tonight, we can also reveal
8:20
Speaker 2: the host of a weekly show on skid Row called
8:24
Speaker 2: Red Inverted Triangle, named after the hamas symbol for military
8:29
Speaker 2: targets is a public servant working as a project officer
8:34
Speaker 2: in the New South Wells Department of Climate Change, Energy
8:37
Speaker 2: and Environment and Water since twenty twenty one. He'd already
8:42
Speaker 2: come under investigation by the department last month after it
8:46
Speaker 2: was revealed he'd posted social media images of assassinated Hamas
8:51
Speaker 2: leader Ismael Haneia, calling him a martyr. A department spokesperson
8:57
Speaker 2: told us it is reviewing this matter and is unable
9:01
Speaker 2: to comment on individual staff. We reached out to the
9:05
Speaker 2: Broadcasting Community Broadcasting Association and the Community Broadcasting Foundation, where
9:11
Speaker 2: skid Row Treasurer Nicole Joseph is a director, but we
9:14
Speaker 2: didn't hear back. A spokesperson for the Australian Charities Not
9:19
Speaker 2: for Profits Commissions said by law it can't confirm whether
9:23
Speaker 2: it's investigating a charity, but the regulator does have the
9:27
Speaker 2: power to revoke a charities registration if it's found to
9:31
Speaker 2: have seriously breached governance standards.
9:35
Speaker 3: Now.
9:35
Speaker 2: The National Council of Jewish Women of Australia issued a
9:39
Speaker 2: press release about the story yesterday, and its president Linda
9:44
Speaker 2: ben Menochet, saying it is time for government to examine
9:48
Speaker 2: its funding with our taxpayer dollars of racist hypocrites like
9:53
Speaker 2: Radio skid Row, who clearly viewed Jewish women as soft targets.
9:59
Speaker 2: It is time for the Prime Minister to act on
10:01
Speaker 2: the jew hatred in his own backyard. Literally. The taxpayer
10:07
Speaker 2: funding is an important point. There is a much broader
10:11
Speaker 2: problem in Australia with the awarding of public money to
10:14
Speaker 2: people who hold extremist views. Take Mat Chun, the anti
10:20
Speaker 2: Israel children's author involved in the doxing of hundreds of
10:24
Speaker 2: Jewish creatives from a private WhatsApp group. The Australian reveal
10:28
Speaker 2: today Chun had received more than forty thousand dollars in
10:32
Speaker 2: taxpayers money to pen a book about the police, due
10:37
Speaker 2: to be published next year. Now. Chun's previous work includes
10:42
Speaker 2: a children's book called Pull It Down. Its cover is
10:45
Speaker 2: an illustration of the toppling of Captain James Cook's statue,
10:50
Speaker 2: and a blurb about the book on Chun's blog reads
10:54
Speaker 2: crooks and thieves and downright deadbeats. Colonial monuments are cooked.
11:00
Speaker 2: Then there's his fellow participant in the doxing, Runda abdel Fatah,
11:06
Speaker 2: the mcquarie University academic who came under fire earlier this
11:10
Speaker 2: year for hosting a Kid's excursion to Sydney University's pro
11:16
Speaker 2: Palestine encampment. Baba, we're back through this day, paradize Will
11:26
Speaker 2: from the Kalaesine movie three.
11:33
Speaker 5: Free Free goat State.
11:40
Speaker 2: Well. Yesterday, doctor abdel Fatas spent Boxing Day firing off
11:45
Speaker 2: a number of anti Israel tweets, including this, may twenty
11:50
Speaker 2: twenty five be the end of Israel. May it be
11:53
Speaker 2: the end of the US Israeli imperial scourge on humanity.
11:57
Speaker 2: May we see the abolishment of the death cult of
12:00
Speaker 2: Zionism and the end of US Empire. And she also
12:05
Speaker 2: tweeted this to hell with you all, every last Zionist.
12:10
Speaker 2: May you never know a second's piece in your sadistic,
12:13
Speaker 2: miserable lives. Doctor abdel Fattar is the recipient of a
12:19
Speaker 2: federal government funding grant at more than eight hundred thousand dollars,
12:23
Speaker 2: awarded in twenty twenty two for a four year research
12:26
Speaker 2: project Arab Muslim Australian's social movement since the nineteen seventies.
12:32
Speaker 2: At the time of the Kid's excursion, Federal Education Minister
12:36
Speaker 2: Jason Clair refused to intervene despite demands from the opposition,
12:41
Speaker 2: the grant be canceled It's bad enough that these vile,
12:45
Speaker 2: extremist views are so prevalent in Australia today, but it's
12:50
Speaker 2: beyond the pale that we are the ones funding them.
12:58
Speaker 2: And joining me now is the president of the National
13:00
Speaker 2: Council of Jewish Women Australia, Linda ben Manichet. Thank you
13:04
Speaker 2: so much, Linda for coming on tonight.
13:06
Speaker 6: Thank you, Caroline.
13:07
Speaker 2: Now I want to take you first to the story.
13:09
Speaker 2: I read some of the statement that you put out
13:12
Speaker 2: your organization about Nicole's story, calling for the government to
13:16
Speaker 2: re examine its funding of skid Row. Do you think
13:19
Speaker 2: that their station should be able to retain its charity
13:22
Speaker 2: status in light of these allegations.
13:26
Speaker 7: Well, I think as an Australian taxpayer, I'm pretty shocked
13:29
Speaker 7: to find that my money is funding people who will
13:33
Speaker 7: haul a Jewish woman into their office, a woman who
13:36
Speaker 7: has volunteered to work for them, and basically say to
13:39
Speaker 7: her that unless you unless you say that you know
13:44
Speaker 7: the rape, the abduction, the murder of your sisters in
13:49
Speaker 7: Israel is legitimate resistance. Unless you toe our party line,
13:54
Speaker 7: you can't work for us anymore. That's you know, that's
13:58
Speaker 7: totalitarian thought police stuff. And I am really shocked and
14:04
Speaker 7: horrified that they are being funded by me, through Sydney
14:08
Speaker 7: City Council and through federal funding like the Community Broadcasting Foundation.
14:12
Speaker 7: And I think that that's what that's what my fellow
14:15
Speaker 7: ossie's were saying. In the last couple of days. If
14:19
Speaker 7: you had a look at skid Row's social media accounts,
14:22
Speaker 7: they were absolutely flooded by ordinary ozsies saying this is disgusting,
14:26
Speaker 7: this is outrageous, we don't want to be paying for you.
14:29
Speaker 7: And skid Row clearly got the message because they shut
14:32
Speaker 7: down their social media accounts, hopefully out of shame.
14:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're right, They've shut down their ex account, their
14:38
Speaker 2: Facebook account, and their Instagram account. And clearly, as I
14:41
Speaker 2: showed fewers before, the approach to this is just to
14:46
Speaker 2: stonewall media and not answer any questions about this. Now,
14:50
Speaker 2: you know a second Jewish woman who has who we're
14:55
Speaker 2: calling Rebecca. She doesn't want to be identified. She claims
14:58
Speaker 2: she was frozen out by the state in twenty twenty one.
15:01
Speaker 2: What more can you tell us about her story?
15:04
Speaker 7: So when I saw Nicole's story on your program, the
15:07
Speaker 7: first thing I thought of actually was Rebecca, because I
15:10
Speaker 7: remember Rebecca an incredibly idealistic, brilliant young woman who told
15:18
Speaker 7: me a few years ago about an experience she had
15:22
Speaker 7: with a radio station.
15:23
Speaker 6: She was a volunteer like Nicole at this radio station.
15:27
Speaker 7: She had done work for them, quite a lot of
15:29
Speaker 7: work where she had done fundraising for them. She had
15:32
Speaker 7: done a lot of different things as a volunteer, and
15:37
Speaker 7: she didn't quite understand what was happening.
15:40
Speaker 6: But she started to get.
15:41
Speaker 7: Stonewalled by them, and she slowly realized that she was
15:46
Speaker 7: also involved with some other organizations with similar, shall we say,
15:52
Speaker 7: ideologically aligned people who basically said to her, unless you
15:57
Speaker 7: renounced Zionism, unless you say that Israel has no right
16:00
Speaker 7: to exist, you can't be part of our group. And
16:04
Speaker 7: basically radieskid Row just never returned her calls. They never
16:08
Speaker 7: called her in anymore. And so I called her after
16:11
Speaker 7: I saw your story and I said, Rebecca, was that
16:14
Speaker 7: the same radio station? She said yes, And I actually
16:18
Speaker 7: want to say something about both Rebecca and Nicole. You're
16:22
Speaker 7: probably aware that it's the Jewish festival of Knuka at
16:25
Speaker 7: the moment, that's eight days when we celebrate the Jewish
16:29
Speaker 7: people in the Land of Israel, who back two centuries
16:32
Speaker 7: before Christ were colonized by the Greek, the Seleucid Greeks,
16:37
Speaker 7: who came in and basically told those people, the indigenous Jews,
16:40
Speaker 7: you can't practice your religion, you can't worship your God,
16:43
Speaker 7: you have to bow down to Zeus, you can't use
16:46
Speaker 7: your temple.
16:48
Speaker 6: You basically have to toe our party line. And the
16:52
Speaker 6: Jewish people.
16:52
Speaker 7: Fought back, and this festival celebrates the fact that we won.
16:57
Speaker 7: We won against that cultural oppression. Jesus himself would have
17:00
Speaker 7: celebrated Kannoker he in the Gospel of John. I think
17:05
Speaker 7: it is there's a record of him going up to
17:07
Speaker 7: the Jewish temple in Jerusalem to celebrate the festival of Kanuka,
17:10
Speaker 7: and here.
17:11
Speaker 2: We are years later. Indeed, i'm were the same sorts
17:15
Speaker 2: of struggles. Now, you made a point in your statement
17:19
Speaker 2: that Jewish women are often soft targets. Can you expand
17:23
Speaker 2: on that?
17:25
Speaker 7: Yes, well, I would say that Nicole and Rebecca are
17:28
Speaker 7: pretty tough women, and I thought about them when I
17:31
Speaker 7: was lighting our Hunuker candles actually, but yes, Look, as
17:37
Speaker 7: the National Council of Jewish Women in Australia has been
17:39
Speaker 7: around for one hundred and one years, I'm their sixteenth president,
17:42
Speaker 7: so We're a very trusted organization. We're not a new
17:45
Speaker 7: kind of you know, extreme fringe group. There are some
17:49
Speaker 7: of those as well. We've been around for a long time.
17:52
Speaker 7: And so over the past fifteen months, since October seven,
17:56
Speaker 7: in fact, I have been supporting a number of women
17:59
Speaker 7: across this country, particularly here in New South Wales, who
18:02
Speaker 7: have been the victims of harassment, bullying in their workplaces.
18:07
Speaker 7: I would say, not like Nicole was girls harassed, bullied
18:12
Speaker 7: in school, straight out jew hatred, sometimes anti Zionism, but.
18:19
Speaker 6: You know, there have been some pretty horrific cases. And
18:24
Speaker 6: I would say that.
18:27
Speaker 7: Eighty to ninety percent of the people that I supported,
18:29
Speaker 7: so it wasn't just women, but about eighteen to ninet
18:31
Speaker 7: percent were women.
18:32
Speaker 6: It's easier to target women.
18:34
Speaker 2: And just look at the world how they reacted to
18:37
Speaker 2: the women who were raped during the October seven attack,
18:41
Speaker 2: to the women who were taken hostage and remain hostages
18:44
Speaker 2: of har mass and where is the global outcry, Where
18:47
Speaker 2: was the un support for them for many months before
18:51
Speaker 2: they even issued a wishy washy statement.
18:53
Speaker 7: Indeed, and that is deeply hurtful to Jewish women, who
18:58
Speaker 7: of course were among the founders of the feminist movement
19:01
Speaker 7: and other social justice movements. But yes, on December tenth,
19:05
Speaker 7: actually we organized a vigil in every city in Australia.
19:10
Speaker 7: Over a thousand Jewish women stood quietly with dignity to
19:15
Speaker 7: say women's rights are human rights. Jewish women's rights are
19:19
Speaker 7: human rights too. And please remember there are thirteen women,
19:23
Speaker 7: young women who are still hostages in Gaza in the
19:28
Speaker 7: tunnels today.
19:29
Speaker 2: Too many people have forgotten that. Now let's move on
19:32
Speaker 2: quickly to mcquarie University academic doctor Randa Abdelhatta, who's also
19:37
Speaker 2: a past winner of the Victorian Premiers Literacy Award. If
19:40
Speaker 2: you'll believe her latest tweet includes hopes that twenty twenty
19:44
Speaker 2: five is the end of Israel and the end of
19:47
Speaker 2: the US Israeli imperial scourge on humanity, as well as
19:51
Speaker 2: demands Zionists go to hell and never know a second's piece. Now,
19:55
Speaker 2: some viewers may recall this exchange that doctor abdelfhata had
19:59
Speaker 2: with up for work colleague Aaron Mollin.
20:03
Speaker 7: There is no way you can sit there and not
20:07
Speaker 7: condemn the actions of Hamas do you condemn the beheading
20:10
Speaker 7: of babies. First of all, the beheading story has been
20:13
Speaker 7: actually refuted by Israeli authority, So you are repeating or propagating,
20:17
Speaker 7: propagated it's not been refuted.
20:18
Speaker 2: By She went on to say Linda talking about Aaron's
20:25
Speaker 2: white women tears as well, it sounds a lot like
20:28
Speaker 2: our friends at skid row. Here in your view, is
20:30
Speaker 2: this a person who should be getting more than eight
20:34
Speaker 2: or allowed to keep more than eight hundred thousand dollars
20:38
Speaker 2: in federal government funds.
20:39
Speaker 7: It is deeply, deeply upsetting to me that a woman
20:44
Speaker 7: who said, after the body cam footage of rapes and
20:50
Speaker 7: mutilations and murders of Jewish women in Israel, and not
20:55
Speaker 7: just Jewish women, better in Muslim Thai and other women
20:59
Speaker 7: women said.
21:02
Speaker 6: This is not a me too moment. This is not
21:06
Speaker 6: a believe all women moment.
21:09
Speaker 7: If you are saying that Jewish women don't matter, then
21:13
Speaker 7: basically you are saying that no women matter. You are
21:17
Speaker 7: not a feminist, you are an exclusionary feminist. And if
21:20
Speaker 7: rape is resistance, then all women are in danger.
21:25
Speaker 2: It's a very disturbing place at the moment Australia sometimes,
21:29
Speaker 2: and I think, you know, I think some of these
21:32
Speaker 2: grants desperately need reviewing. At the stage Linda ben Manochet,
21:36
Speaker 2: thank you so much for coming in and for the
21:38
Speaker 2: conversation tonight. Now after the break, John Persuto has officially
21:43
Speaker 2: been kicked out of the top job after a party coup.
21:47
Speaker 2: One of the MP's who orchestrated it, Richard Riordan, joins me. Next.
21:55
Speaker 2: Welcome back. Now let's head to Melbourne where embattled Liberal
21:59
Speaker 2: leader John Pursuito has officially been kicked out of the
22:03
Speaker 2: top job after a tumultuous few days. Will Brad do
22:07
Speaker 2: a better job than you?
22:09
Speaker 1: Well, we're all behind Bred now and we're focused on
22:11
Speaker 1: winning the next election in twenty twenty six.
22:14
Speaker 2: Now, former police officer and business owner Brad Batten is
22:17
Speaker 2: the new opposition leader after toppling Pursuito during a leadership spill.
22:23
Speaker 8: I very much appreciate the support I've had from my party.
22:26
Speaker 8: It is now our time to come out as a
22:29
Speaker 8: united team to show you that we are the team
22:33
Speaker 8: to go into government in seven hundred and one day's time.
22:38
Speaker 8: It is just one hundred weeks. That one hundred weeks
22:41
Speaker 8: is our opportunity to put forward our message to ensure
22:45
Speaker 8: that Victorians know they can trust us to take into
22:48
Speaker 8: government policies that are in the best interests of each
22:52
Speaker 8: of them.
22:53
Speaker 2: Expelled MP Moira Deeming was also readmitted at the same meeting.
23:00
Speaker 2: I think they're.
23:00
Speaker 7: Probably wondering how I'm going to react to them, and
23:04
Speaker 7: to be honest, it has been a bit difficult.
23:06
Speaker 6: But a few people shook my hands.
23:08
Speaker 2: I have to actually give credit.
23:09
Speaker 6: To Johns you know, he did shake my hand and
23:12
Speaker 6: say sorry to me personally.
23:14
Speaker 2: Now among the Liberal and ps who orchestrated the coup
23:18
Speaker 2: was Richard Riordan and he joins me now, Richard, thank
23:21
Speaker 2: you for your time tonight. It wasn't exactly a quiet
23:24
Speaker 2: summer that perhaps some of the party may have been
23:27
Speaker 2: hoping for. Why were you involved in staging this coup?
23:34
Speaker 9: Well, a coup's an exotic way of saying leadership change, Caroline.
23:39
Speaker 9: But look, thanks for the invitation. It was important for
23:42
Speaker 9: Victorian Liberals, for the Victorian people, and for the party
23:46
Speaker 9: as a whole supporters people that want better government here
23:49
Speaker 9: in Victoria that we got our issue sorted before we
23:53
Speaker 9: started another year. The start of twenty twenty six will
23:56
Speaker 9: mean we're just under two years until Victorian's get to
24:00
Speaker 9: have a say again in how this state is run.
24:02
Speaker 9: There is no doubt, There is no doubt. With more
24:04
Speaker 9: debt than any other state in Australia, with crippling energy
24:10
Speaker 9: crisis on our doorstep, our roads are crumbling here in Victoria.
24:14
Speaker 9: There is a mess with a government that is taxing
24:18
Speaker 9: mum and dads, homeowners, rental providers. Everything's heading in the
24:23
Speaker 9: wrong direction here in Victoria. And it was important that
24:26
Speaker 9: the Liberal Party was in its best position and it's
24:29
Speaker 9: putting its best foot forward to start twenty twenty six.
24:32
Speaker 9: And look at the end of the day, today was
24:33
Speaker 9: a workday. There are thousands of Victorians out working all
24:37
Speaker 9: over the state today and particularly our volunteers. And I'd
24:40
Speaker 9: certainly like to make mention of all our hard working
24:43
Speaker 9: CFA and SEES volunteers that are doing the hard yards
24:47
Speaker 9: at the Grampian fires. There's no reason why we couldn't
24:50
Speaker 9: get on and get on with government and make sure
24:52
Speaker 9: that we're putting the best foot forward for all Victorians.
24:55
Speaker 2: Do you think the party will unite behind Brad Badden
24:59
Speaker 2: now as the new leader? Do you? I mean John
25:02
Speaker 2: Persuto sounded like he will, But do you think that
25:06
Speaker 2: was genuine himself?
25:09
Speaker 8: Oh?
25:09
Speaker 9: Look, I have no doubt the party room was overwhelming
25:12
Speaker 9: over seventy percent in favor of Brad. It's probably the
25:15
Speaker 9: largest margin a leader has come in the Victorian Liberal
25:20
Speaker 9: Party for quite some time. It's a resounding result from
25:24
Speaker 9: our party membership and our MPs. We've now got the
25:28
Speaker 9: Moier issue well and truly resolved, which has caused unending
25:31
Speaker 9: heartache for many inside and outside the party. We are
25:35
Speaker 9: on a great footing. There's a great team there. Brad
25:39
Speaker 9: not only brings to the job enormous small business experience,
25:44
Speaker 9: but also law and order and both those issues are
25:46
Speaker 9: so important in Victoria today, and there's a great group
25:50
Speaker 9: of people alongside Brad that will be able to bring
25:53
Speaker 9: the opposition. Victorians desperately want one that is focused fully
25:58
Speaker 9: on Victorians, the best outcomes Victorians, and most of all,
26:01
Speaker 9: Caroline restoring the pride the Victoria so desperately once. We
26:06
Speaker 9: don't want to be the highest taxing, the most indebted,
26:09
Speaker 9: the one with the most crumbling roads, with hospital waiting
26:12
Speaker 9: lists and law and order out of control. That's what
26:15
Speaker 9: we're about, and we're going to be able to show
26:17
Speaker 9: that very quickly and promptly. We've got two very critical
26:21
Speaker 9: by elections here in Victoria and we will be in
26:24
Speaker 9: a wonderful place to present to Victoria in the opposition.
26:27
Speaker 9: They want to see.
26:28
Speaker 2: There's been so much criticism for such a long time,
26:31
Speaker 2: Richard about the Victorian Liberal Party that it's been too
26:35
Speaker 2: consumed within fighting, especially over mo Redeeming, and it hasn't
26:39
Speaker 2: been able to offer a strong alternative to the Labor government.
26:42
Speaker 2: Do you really think Brad will be able to overcome
26:46
Speaker 2: all of that or bulletstick?
26:50
Speaker 9: I have no doubt Brad will bring it together. Brad's
26:53
Speaker 9: a great team player. He's shown great loyalty and commitment
26:58
Speaker 9: to not only the Liberal Party but the leadership teams
27:00
Speaker 9: that have been in place. We've had an issue in
27:03
Speaker 9: the Victoria Liberal Party. It needed to be resolved. It
27:06
Speaker 9: was resolved today, resoundingly resolved. There's a new leadership team
27:11
Speaker 9: in place. Everyone's well aware of what the Victorian community
27:15
Speaker 9: wants and we're going to work well with our national partners,
27:18
Speaker 9: the National Party in coalition to deliver not only a
27:22
Speaker 9: plan for here in Melbourne, but right across the state,
27:25
Speaker 9: from Mildura to Gippsland. Right across the breadth of this state.
27:31
Speaker 9: There is a desperate, desperate need for better policies, A
27:34
Speaker 9: better approach and a responsible government that restores control and
27:40
Speaker 9: impetus back to communities. We want a Victoria that you
27:44
Speaker 9: can be proud of where your hard work, your effort
27:47
Speaker 9: is rewarded. Not only is it rewarded, but the benefits
27:50
Speaker 9: flow on to everyone in the state, and that's been
27:52
Speaker 9: sadly lacking here in Victoria for a long time. Reward
27:55
Speaker 9: for effort is a cornerstone of good liberal policy and
27:59
Speaker 9: that's one that Brad and the team will absolutely deliver
28:02
Speaker 9: to all Victorians.
28:04
Speaker 2: You mentioned law and order earlier. Obviously, I said Brad Button.
28:07
Speaker 2: He has been a former cop. He has said he
28:11
Speaker 2: will be tough on crime. There is a big youth
28:14
Speaker 2: crime crisis in particular there in Victoria. How will about
28:17
Speaker 2: in government overcome that if you guys were elected.
28:23
Speaker 9: Well, quite simply, Brad has been our police spokesman's for
28:26
Speaker 9: a while. But there is one thing missing here in Victoria,
28:29
Speaker 9: and that's responsibility. Whether it's giving the police and law
28:34
Speaker 9: enforcements agencies the responsibility they need to keep people safe
28:39
Speaker 9: in their homes, in their streets and in their businesses.
28:42
Speaker 9: That's been missing here in Victoria. We've moved to a
28:45
Speaker 9: state where no one's responsible for anything. People aren't responsible
28:49
Speaker 9: for their own actions. The police are unable to fulfill
28:53
Speaker 9: their duties because they've been so overregulated and controlled by
28:58
Speaker 9: the state and not allowing them to us discretion and
29:01
Speaker 9: good common, old fashioned policing principles that have served communities
29:05
Speaker 9: so well for so long. That's what we'll see different
29:08
Speaker 9: here in Victoria. We're not going to have a state
29:11
Speaker 9: where people just feel that everyone gets away with anything
29:14
Speaker 9: all the time because the government no longer cares. We
29:18
Speaker 9: want a Victorian population. We want a community that knows
29:22
Speaker 9: that its government's got its back, will put the laws
29:24
Speaker 9: and the policies in place that keep people safe. We
29:27
Speaker 9: don't want a situation where people are no longer safe
29:30
Speaker 9: in their homes, no longer safe in their streets. And
29:33
Speaker 9: I'm quite frankly, I'm tired of small business operators and
29:36
Speaker 9: others contacting me about shoplifting and petty theft and other
29:42
Speaker 9: things and just know that no one will do anything
29:44
Speaker 9: about it. These things have to stop in Victoria. Victorians
29:48
Speaker 9: are tired of it.
29:49
Speaker 2: Well, let's hope some things change in the new year.
29:52
Speaker 2: Richard Riddan, thank you so much for joining me this evening.
29:55
Speaker 2: Now after the break, Tony Burke powers up for the
29:58
Speaker 2: new year in his latest big to act tough on detainees.
30:02
Speaker 2: Plus the Victorian government accused of underestimating its public sector wages,
30:07
Speaker 2: the bill blowing out almost three billion dollars in just
30:11
Speaker 2: one year. Welcome back. Let's return to one of our
30:19
Speaker 2: top stories today, and Liberal leader John Persuto has been
30:23
Speaker 2: officially ousted in a spill. Brad Batton is set to
30:27
Speaker 2: take over as the new Liberal Party leader in a
30:30
Speaker 2: special party room meeting that also heralded the return of
30:34
Speaker 2: ousted MP MOI Redeeming. Joining me now is our panel,
30:38
Speaker 2: Liberal MP Garth Hamilton and Sky News contributor James Bolt.
30:43
Speaker 2: Welcome to both of you now, Garth, I would have
30:45
Speaker 2: said in Persudo's position, and I did say, this became
30:49
Speaker 2: untenable the moment he lost his defamation battle against MOI Redeeming,
30:54
Speaker 2: and it became even more so after he used his
30:57
Speaker 2: vote to refuse her back into the party. Would you agree?
31:02
Speaker 1: I think your spot on there reminds me of a
31:04
Speaker 1: great line from Tennis and the authority forgets a dying King.
31:08
Speaker 1: Once the rott had set in, I think there was
31:10
Speaker 1: time for change and I'm glad to see Victorian Liberal
31:13
Speaker 1: Party have sorted that out today, and I hope this
31:15
Speaker 1: is the last time for a very very long time
31:17
Speaker 1: I'm asked about the Victorian Liberal Party. The last thing
31:21
Speaker 1: Australians want to hear is about the internal workings of
31:24
Speaker 1: political parties. We want to know what they're going to
31:26
Speaker 1: do for us, how they're going to make our lives better.
31:28
Speaker 1: Great to hear already the focus is going to be
31:30
Speaker 1: on law and order, restoring the budget and repairing Victoria's roads.
31:34
Speaker 1: These are things that people care about. I think it
31:36
Speaker 1: would be very wise to keep on those topics from
31:38
Speaker 1: now on.
31:40
Speaker 2: Garthur's right, James, and people are sick of the in fighting,
31:43
Speaker 2: and as soon as it became a case of Persuto
31:46
Speaker 2: against Deeming, I think people really wondered what was going on,
31:50
Speaker 2: that this wasn't a government an opposition that could form
31:54
Speaker 2: an alternate government in Victoria. Do you think that this
31:58
Speaker 2: new look party can be more competitive against the Allen government?
32:04
Speaker 10: I think time will tell. I think we just need
32:06
Speaker 10: to remember that four people in the Victorian Liberal Party
32:09
Speaker 10: woke up this morning thinking that they could be leader.
32:12
Speaker 10: Now one of them obviously was given the boot but
32:14
Speaker 10: I wonder if the other two are still thinking, Oh,
32:15
Speaker 10: if I can convince the right people. I mean, Baden
32:19
Speaker 10: isn't there because of some ideological shift in the party
32:21
Speaker 10: or because there's a whole new flux of members. He's
32:24
Speaker 10: there because the Victorian Liberal and Peace decide their political future,
32:28
Speaker 10: and the Expediency is better off with him than it
32:31
Speaker 10: was with Persudo. You only need a few people to
32:33
Speaker 10: change their minds on that, and we're right back to
32:35
Speaker 10: arguing against each other. Sorry, right, the Victorian Liberals are
32:38
Speaker 10: right back to arguing against each other. I just feel
32:41
Speaker 10: that this might not be the last we'll hear of
32:43
Speaker 10: the infighting, and that can become a bit of a
32:45
Speaker 10: culture that he's going to derail another election.
32:48
Speaker 2: Well, we see all too often when a leader is deposed,
32:51
Speaker 2: they don't exactly always go quietly. Even though John Perzuto
32:55
Speaker 2: said he would back in Brad Baddener will remain to
32:58
Speaker 2: be seen. We will stay. Let's stay in Victoria now.
33:01
Speaker 2: And we saw last week Tim Pallace stand down as
33:05
Speaker 2: state Treasurer, leaving behind debt hurtling towards one hundred and
33:10
Speaker 2: eighty eight billion dollars and the highest taxes in the nation.
33:14
Speaker 2: According to analysts, the Allen government has consistently underestimated its
33:19
Speaker 2: public sector wages in recent years, and the bill has
33:22
Speaker 2: now blown out by almost three billion dollars in just
33:25
Speaker 2: one year, sparking fears the state's net debt level of
33:29
Speaker 2: one hundred and eighty seven billion dollars is likely to
33:32
Speaker 2: continue rising. James, let's start with you now, I mean
33:36
Speaker 2: talk about big government.
33:41
Speaker 10: Yeah, well, one hundred and eighty seven billion is a
33:44
Speaker 10: terrifying number. The issue, I think is that for voters
33:48
Speaker 10: it's not something that they can feel or touch like
33:50
Speaker 10: it is with some other political issues. And therefore, I
33:53
Speaker 10: don't know how many people are going to sway their
33:55
Speaker 10: void based solely off the debt. And I think that's
33:58
Speaker 10: going to be interesting for Brad Adam because not a
34:00
Speaker 10: lot of people know who he is. He doesn't have
34:02
Speaker 10: the big name of Splash, so he is going to
34:06
Speaker 10: have to start promising things in the next election campaign.
34:10
Speaker 10: So is that going to be something where he can
34:12
Speaker 10: win an election based off I'm going to give you
34:14
Speaker 10: less things than the opposition or are they going to
34:17
Speaker 10: be able to capitalize on Hey, you voters actually don't
34:20
Speaker 10: care what the debt number is you just want free
34:22
Speaker 10: stuff here. It's the free stuff I think Brad Batten
34:25
Speaker 10: that's going to be a big.
34:26
Speaker 2: Test for him. Yeah, people love free stuff, that's true.
34:29
Speaker 2: But Garth, the government has said it's updated its public
34:33
Speaker 2: sector wages policy to support VICDRON workers in a cost
34:37
Speaker 2: of living crisis, and that's what's led to this public
34:40
Speaker 2: sector wages blowout. Do you think voters really are going
34:44
Speaker 2: to cop that sort of explanation, Well.
34:49
Speaker 1: They're not copying it when they hear it from Jim Chalmers.
34:51
Speaker 1: This is the same sort of automatic spending excuse that
34:55
Speaker 1: he's tried to use as well, that we just have
34:57
Speaker 1: to throw more money at this problem, and that by
35:00
Speaker 1: throwing more of your tax dollars back at you, we're
35:02
Speaker 1: going to pretend somehow that the structural problem that's causing
35:05
Speaker 1: this has been resolved. I don't think voters will put
35:09
Speaker 1: up with this for too much longer. But one thing
35:11
Speaker 1: I do think is really extraordinary here Victorian government consistently
35:14
Speaker 1: underestimating their spend. I don't believe that. I really don't.
35:18
Speaker 1: There's a whole heap of highly educated and quite frankly
35:21
Speaker 1: very competent people working in Treasury and for this Victorian
35:25
Speaker 1: government to year on year, I say they've underestimated this. Actually,
35:29
Speaker 1: I don't think that's right. I think when we get
35:31
Speaker 1: the chance to look into this behind the scenes that
35:34
Speaker 1: are future change of government, I think there'll be some
35:37
Speaker 1: political trickery that's gone on with those numbers that deliberately
35:40
Speaker 1: underreported them would be my guess, because there's just no
35:43
Speaker 1: way with the amount of people working in the treasury
35:46
Speaker 1: there that they could be wrong year on year.
35:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, they don't have a very good track record to
35:51
Speaker 2: they of getting it right. Now look a bit of
35:54
Speaker 2: a change of pace and two crew members on separate
35:57
Speaker 2: yachts have died during the Sydney to Hope Race overnight.
36:01
Speaker 2: Cruising Yacht Club of Australia Vice Commodore David Jacobs has
36:06
Speaker 2: spoken about the tragedy.
36:09
Speaker 5: We thought that he had been hit by the boom,
36:13
Speaker 5: as had Roy, but we now learned that that actually
36:17
Speaker 5: wasn't the case. That he was hit by the main
36:20
Speaker 5: sheet and the main sheet threw him across the boat
36:25
Speaker 5: and unfortunately he hit his head on the winch and
36:29
Speaker 5: that's what killed him Garth.
36:32
Speaker 2: These are the first deaths in the Zinny to Hobart
36:35
Speaker 2: since nineteen ninety eight when six people died amid storms.
36:39
Speaker 2: I mean, it's just such a tragedy and not one
36:41
Speaker 2: you would expect to wake up too on December twenty seven.
36:48
Speaker 1: I remember ninety ninety eight well, a very tragic day.
36:51
Speaker 1: So sad to see how that repeated. Obviously, thoughts are
36:55
Speaker 1: with friends and family, and of course with the emergency
36:57
Speaker 1: service personnel who are out there having to spawn to
37:00
Speaker 1: that situation. It's a difficult one. I sat with my
37:03
Speaker 1: sons watching highlights of that and had to explain to
37:06
Speaker 1: them the dangers of this such an iconic Australian sporting event.
37:12
Speaker 1: It's a difficult one to go through with young kids.
37:15
Speaker 1: And I'd hate to be involved in one of those
37:18
Speaker 1: crews right now what they be thinking.
37:20
Speaker 2: Oh, it is just terrific, and our hearts do go
37:22
Speaker 2: out to all the families of those two poor men. James.
37:27
Speaker 2: The boom on a boat can swing violently during storms.
37:30
Speaker 2: It is a well known risk. I was interested to
37:33
Speaker 2: see that crews aren't required to wear helmets in this event.
37:36
Speaker 2: Do you think that needs to perhaps be reviewed?
37:41
Speaker 11: Yeah?
37:41
Speaker 10: I saw that, and also that only half a crew
37:44
Speaker 10: needs to go through some pretty rigorous safety training. But look,
37:48
Speaker 10: I don't really see too much benefit in James bolts
37:51
Speaker 10: Go and his contributor weighing in on such a horrific
37:54
Speaker 10: tragedy and telling people what needs to change. So obviously
37:57
Speaker 10: it's such a terrible thing, they are going to do
37:58
Speaker 10: an investigation into it, people far more qualified than I am,
38:02
Speaker 10: So I think we should probably wait for the experts
38:04
Speaker 10: involved in that one.
38:05
Speaker 2: Well, look, let's move on to something else in federal politics,
38:09
Speaker 2: And as we count down the days to the new year,
38:12
Speaker 2: it looks like Tony Burke has already ticked off one
38:14
Speaker 2: of his resolutions. The Immigration Minister has quietly granted himself
38:19
Speaker 2: the power to impose electronic monitoring and curfews on dangerous
38:24
Speaker 2: non citizens released from detention, in a bid to put
38:28
Speaker 2: to an end to the politically damaging detainee debacle. Now, James,
38:34
Speaker 2: I won't criticize the new powers because I actually think
38:37
Speaker 2: it's a good thing that these people are being monitored
38:39
Speaker 2: and have strict curfews imposed. But do you think that
38:42
Speaker 2: this will correct the damage that has already been done
38:46
Speaker 2: to the government over its handling of all of this, Well,
38:51
Speaker 2: I don't think so.
38:52
Speaker 10: Because this story is coming out on Friday, the twenty
38:54
Speaker 10: seventh of December, and I think people morally interested in
38:57
Speaker 10: the fact that in the year five wickets down in
38:59
Speaker 10: the tests. So I just wonder what is with the
39:02
Speaker 10: timing of this from Labor to be like, hey, the
39:04
Speaker 10: Australian this is a good story for you, unless they
39:06
Speaker 10: are trying to run away from it. And you think
39:08
Speaker 10: that be people who vote Labor but they're leaning Liberal
39:12
Speaker 10: because of stuff like this that they could get back
39:14
Speaker 10: and so you want to make a big song and
39:16
Speaker 10: dance if a change like that. So really a Labour's
39:18
Speaker 10: internal polling showing them they're actually more at risk of
39:21
Speaker 10: losing voters to the Greens for these kind of policies
39:24
Speaker 10: and they actually want to kind of downplay the changes
39:27
Speaker 10: they're making.
39:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, Garthur, when these sort of stories slip in on
39:31
Speaker 2: a Friday during the summer period, you think it's something
39:35
Speaker 2: the government may want to bury. And the fact that
39:38
Speaker 2: and not draw any more attention, I guess to how
39:41
Speaker 2: it's handled this whole train wreck.
39:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, the story of Labour's mess of immigration this term
39:48
Speaker 1: has been a huge one. So how they can just
39:50
Speaker 1: try and hide this away. As James points out at
39:54
Speaker 1: this point, in the year. Look, firstly, I hope these
39:58
Speaker 1: powers are used. Well, I hope they used to keep
40:00
Speaker 1: Australian safe. It's very important. We saw some horrific images
40:04
Speaker 1: coming out during the nzyq cohort released story, and you
40:09
Speaker 1: know some quite confronting violent stories that have happened as
40:12
Speaker 1: a result of that. So I want Australians to be
40:15
Speaker 1: safe and I want the government to use the powers
40:17
Speaker 1: that it deems necessary to keep Australian safe. Having said that,
40:21
Speaker 1: I agree with James and yourself on this. I don't
40:24
Speaker 1: think this is about keeping Australian safe. I think this
40:26
Speaker 1: is about politics. I think Labour obviously hurting on this issue.
40:30
Speaker 1: They felt they had to do something about it. They've
40:33
Speaker 1: done it in a way that raises the least amount
40:35
Speaker 1: of attention to themselves. Look, this is just all politics.
40:39
Speaker 1: This is Labour's position on immigration. They just want to
40:41
Speaker 1: get through this without anyone really looking too closely at them.
40:45
Speaker 1: I just sincerely hope Australians are kept safe by these
40:48
Speaker 1: these powers.
40:49
Speaker 2: Well, let's talk now quickly about Matt Chun. Now, he's
40:53
Speaker 2: an anti Israel children's author who was involved in doxing
40:56
Speaker 2: Jewish creatives earlier this year and he was granted more
41:00
Speaker 2: more than forty two thousand dollars in taxpayer money to
41:03
Speaker 2: publish a new book about the police of all things gap.
41:07
Speaker 2: It is outrageous. I feel that every day OZI is
41:11
Speaker 2: hard earned money go to people like this who spew
41:14
Speaker 2: such hatred and hatred for Western values.
41:20
Speaker 1: Look, it is completely wrong and it's a terrible shame
41:22
Speaker 1: that astralaey be in a situation where we fund these
41:25
Speaker 1: sorts of activities. But look, I do want to I
41:28
Speaker 1: want to just take a different view on this. You know,
41:30
Speaker 1: we always get angry about this stuff. I want to
41:32
Speaker 1: laugh at this bloke. I want to laugh at this bloke.
41:34
Speaker 1: And this is someone who probably thinks of themselves as
41:37
Speaker 1: an intellectual, calls himself an author. There's a guy who's
41:40
Speaker 1: uncapable by presenting an adult, grown up argument on an issue,
41:44
Speaker 1: so he writes children's books to try and brainwash young kids.
41:48
Speaker 1: You know, this is a laughable, low level guy who
41:51
Speaker 1: has added nothing to any conversation other than just ridiculous
41:56
Speaker 1: servile activism. This is not a serious person. It's very
42:01
Speaker 1: serious what he's trying to bring about in Australia. The
42:04
Speaker 1: change and the hurt that he's trying to bring to
42:05
Speaker 1: our country. But this is not a serious person and
42:08
Speaker 1: we should look down and laugh at these people. They
42:10
Speaker 1: are ridiculous.
42:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, mockery is sometimes the best response. But Garth, be
42:14
Speaker 2: careful because you may end up on his blog. I've
42:17
Speaker 2: noticed that hit the reviews for himself been like people
42:22
Speaker 2: like you and I who've criticized him. So just watch
42:25
Speaker 2: out for that, Garth Hamilton, James Bolt, thank you both
42:28
Speaker 2: so much for your time tonight. Now after the break,
42:30
Speaker 2: we take a look at the escalating Middle East tensions.
42:34
Speaker 2: Plus a plane crashes in Kazakhstan killing at least thirty
42:38
Speaker 2: eight people. Don't go anywhere. Michael Schubridge will join me next.
42:45
Speaker 2: Welcome back. Let's turn to the Middle East, where Israel
42:49
Speaker 2: is continuously being held to impossible standards in modern warfare.
42:54
Speaker 2: It's been revealed that the head of the World's Health
42:57
Speaker 2: Organization was at Yemen's airport. It was hit with missiles overnight.
43:02
Speaker 2: It was the IDF's first ever attack on the airport
43:06
Speaker 2: in retaliation to Iran backed rebels who fired missiles on
43:10
Speaker 2: central Israel in recent days that were intercepted. The WHO chief,
43:16
Speaker 2: the chief of the who said one of our plane's
43:20
Speaker 2: crew members was injured. At least two people were reported
43:24
Speaker 2: killed at the airport. He added, our heartfelt condolences to
43:29
Speaker 2: the families who's loved ones lost their lives in the attack.
43:33
Speaker 2: Let's bring in Strategic Analysis Australia director Michael Schubridge. Now, Michael,
43:38
Speaker 2: great to see you. Now, Israel has been fighting enemies
43:42
Speaker 2: on three fronts during this conflict, but it always comes
43:46
Speaker 2: under fire, so to speak for responding.
43:51
Speaker 11: Yes, well, Caroline, you're right. Israel has been fighting Hasbola
43:55
Speaker 11: and Iran as well as Hamas, and so the Hoodies
43:59
Speaker 11: have been a very low priority for Israel. But now
44:02
Speaker 11: that it's removed the main danger from Hezbola and Iran,
44:06
Speaker 11: it can focus more energy on the Iranian backed hooties.
44:10
Speaker 11: Now the Hoodies have been sending drones and missiles into
44:13
Speaker 11: places like a children's playground in Tel Aviv. So I
44:17
Speaker 11: think this is just the start of a campaign by
44:20
Speaker 11: the Israelis against the Hoodies. And I don't think they
44:22
Speaker 11: really think attacking critical infrastructure like airports and ports will
44:26
Speaker 11: do the job. I'd expect them to target the Houti
44:29
Speaker 11: leadership and a whole lot of Houti facilities and weapons.
44:34
Speaker 2: Yes, and I imagine it will go much the same
44:36
Speaker 2: way as it has for the other terror groups across
44:39
Speaker 2: the region who've been attacking Israel and not Well. That
44:42
Speaker 2: is over to Central Asia, where an Azerbabaijan Airlines plane
44:48
Speaker 2: carrying sixty seven passengers crashed in the Kazakh city of Aktal,
44:53
Speaker 2: killing at least thirty eight people on board. Now videos
44:57
Speaker 2: have emerged detailing the crash and after math, with many
45:01
Speaker 2: speculating that the plane had been downed by Russian air
45:05
Speaker 2: defense systems. Michael, what did you make of these speculations.
45:11
Speaker 11: Well, Carol, I'm looking at the photos of the remaining
45:15
Speaker 11: chunks of the aircraft, like the tail section, and video
45:18
Speaker 11: from passengers inside the plane. It looks pretty clear that
45:23
Speaker 11: it was damaged by a surface to wear missile. That's
45:27
Speaker 11: the kind of shrapnel damage you see on the plane
45:29
Speaker 11: and inside the plane before it crashed. Then the Russians
45:32
Speaker 11: diverted it over four hundred kilometers from Grosny Off into
45:37
Speaker 11: Kazakhstan where it crashed. I think it crashed as a
45:40
Speaker 11: result of that surface to air missile attack. The Russians
45:44
Speaker 11: and the Chechens were under a lot of pressure to
45:46
Speaker 11: show they could protect Grosny from Ukrainian drones, and I
45:50
Speaker 11: think they've acted, overreacted and been on a hair trigger
45:54
Speaker 11: with their air defense systems. And now we're seeing a
45:56
Speaker 11: whole lot of smoke and mirrors from the Russians about
45:59
Speaker 11: alternative theories about what happened everything, but the truth.
46:03
Speaker 2: It's not unlike what happened with Malaysian Airlines flight I
46:06
Speaker 2: guess a few years ago either. Now let's stay in Russia,
46:10
Speaker 2: where we learned this week of the Australian soldier captured
46:13
Speaker 2: by Russian troops while fighting for Ukraine in the Donbas region.
46:18
Speaker 2: It's been reported that the release of Oscar Jenkins could
46:22
Speaker 2: take years, as the Ukrainian ambassador to Australia warns negotiating
46:27
Speaker 2: with Moscow to release fighters is a difficult and lengthy process. Michael,
46:33
Speaker 2: do you think that we are actually likely to ever
46:36
Speaker 2: see Oscar Jenkins returning home?
46:41
Speaker 11: Well, I would hope that we will, and I know
46:43
Speaker 11: the government, the Australian government will continue to put every
46:46
Speaker 11: effort into that. But even the Red Cross hasn't had
46:50
Speaker 11: good access to prisoners of war in Russia. During the
46:54
Speaker 11: Ukraine War, the Russian government again is failing to meet
46:58
Speaker 11: basic standards of things that it's signed up to, like
47:01
Speaker 11: the Geneva Convention. So I think our best hope looks
47:05
Speaker 11: like a prisoner swap between the Ukrainian government and the
47:08
Speaker 11: Russian government, and the Ukrainians have managed to do that
47:12
Speaker 11: because of Russians they've captured in their curse operation. So
47:16
Speaker 11: that's the best hope, but even that could be very extended.
47:21
Speaker 2: Well, we will keep across that store and see what
47:24
Speaker 2: happens with Oscar Jenkins. Let's move to Syria now, where
47:27
Speaker 2: head of the Kurdish led Syrian Democratic Forces, General Muslim Abdi,
47:32
Speaker 2: has warned that ISIS terrorists could attack Syrian cities over
47:37
Speaker 2: the new years, capitalizing on the chaos and growing spectra
47:41
Speaker 2: of a second civil war. Since the end of a
47:44
Speaker 2: Sides regime, He said, there is an increase in activity
47:48
Speaker 2: and a security vacuum. ISIS has obtained more weapons and
47:52
Speaker 2: capabilities and positions in the Syrian desert and have more
47:56
Speaker 2: freedom of movement. Michael, could this be the really the
48:00
Speaker 2: return of Isis?
48:03
Speaker 11: Well, that's one of the nasty things that looks like
48:08
Speaker 11: it's starting to happen in Syria right now. That Kurdish group,
48:12
Speaker 11: the SDF is really worth listening to. There've been a
48:15
Speaker 11: very good partner of international forces, including the Americans, in
48:19
Speaker 11: countering Islamic State ISIS, so they're credible. But really we're
48:24
Speaker 11: seeing Syria in at the end of the post assade
48:28
Speaker 11: euphoria and the nasty violence that people feared is starting
48:33
Speaker 11: to unfold. Former regime elements have killed fourteen HDS that
48:39
Speaker 11: the new rulers, Interior ministry people. There are curfews, there's
48:44
Speaker 11: a lot of violence, and the SDF, the Kurdish forces
48:48
Speaker 11: are opposed by both the new ruling group, the HDS,
48:51
Speaker 11: and the Turkish backed forces on the Turkish border. So
48:56
Speaker 11: the Kurds are central, but there's a whole bunch of
48:58
Speaker 11: ISIS fighters coming out of and big camps.
49:01
Speaker 2: It's not looking good. Michael Schubridge, thank you so much
49:04
Speaker 2: for your time this evening, and that is it for me.
49:06
Speaker 2: Thanks for your company this week. Next up James McPherson
49:09
Speaker 2: with the Bolt Report.