Transcript

Credlin | 19 June · Credlin

0:02
Speaker 1: Peter Krendland live on sky Ingins Australia. Good evening, Welcome
0:07
Speaker 1: to the show, Steve Price in for Peter Kredlin all
0:10
Speaker 1: week and back of course on Friday in this same
0:13
Speaker 1: time slot. My menus day. You've got to say in
0:16
Speaker 1: politics with the opposition's nuclear announcements, plenty around that, including
0:20
Speaker 1: reactions of the state premiers, and boy does that look
0:23
Speaker 1: ugly for Peter Dutton. Here's what's coming up though on
0:27
Speaker 1: the show tonight, and it's a busy one. Before Peter
0:30
Speaker 1: Dutton had even stopped speaking about his seven planned locations
0:34
Speaker 1: for nuclear power stations, the state premiers were lining up
0:38
Speaker 1: to say no thanks, not in our backyard, including in
0:41
Speaker 1: recent days the Queensland LNP opposition leader David Chris of Fooley. Unbelievably.
0:47
Speaker 1: I'll catch up with former Queensland Premier Campbell Newman on
0:50
Speaker 1: that unhinged decision chilling vision today of the Russian leader
0:54
Speaker 1: of Vladimir Putin on his first visit to North Korea
0:57
Speaker 1: in a quarter of a century. What will that mean
1:00
Speaker 1: for the rest of the world. I'll talk with Credlin
1:02
Speaker 1: regular Greg Sheridan from the Australian newspaper their Foreign editor
1:06
Speaker 1: and as we've seen big time today, the climate was
1:09
Speaker 1: between a renewable obsessed federal labor government and a now
1:13
Speaker 1: nuclear powered opposition have gone to the next level. Graham Lloyd,
1:17
Speaker 1: the Australian's Environment reporter, will add that all up for us.
1:21
Speaker 1: And it's Wednesday, of course that means word Smith kel
1:24
Speaker 1: Richards will be in with his words of the week.
1:28
Speaker 1: First up, my views on the nuclear debate in a moment,
1:31
Speaker 1: But I want to start tonight with a question for
1:33
Speaker 1: the Australian federal police, the local Victorian police, and state
1:38
Speaker 1: and federal politicians. Overnight a federal MP's electorate office was attacked.
1:44
Speaker 1: Let's not beat around the bush. It was an attempted
1:47
Speaker 1: fire bombing. The MP, Josh Burns is Jewish. His electorate
1:51
Speaker 1: offices in Melbourne Saint Kilda and that's home to a
1:54
Speaker 1: large Jewish population. I went there today and had a
1:57
Speaker 1: look at the damage on that site this morning, crawling
2:00
Speaker 1: with police. Make lown mistake. This was a dangerous, potentially
2:04
Speaker 1: deadly attack with residents living above that very office. Now
2:09
Speaker 1: my question tonight why is this not as I think
2:12
Speaker 1: it should be, being labeled and called an act of terror?
2:16
Speaker 1: A terrorist attack. If fire bombing the office of a
2:19
Speaker 1: federal Jewish MP in a suburban neighborhood in the middle
2:23
Speaker 1: of the night isn't terrorism, you have to ask what is.
2:27
Speaker 1: Josh Burns himself used interesting language today. He described it
2:30
Speaker 1: as being a politicized attack.
2:33
Speaker 2: Here he is, it's obviously has an extra lay because
2:37
Speaker 2: I'm a federal member of Parliament and this is obviously
2:41
Speaker 2: politically motivated attacks.
2:45
Speaker 1: A fellow retired State Labor MP tweeted, looking at you
2:48
Speaker 1: the Greens, he said. Now, for some reason, reporters that
2:51
Speaker 1: that Burns media conference didn't ask him what he meant
2:55
Speaker 1: by calling it a political attack. Police believe that five
2:58
Speaker 1: people I think it's now sick were involved. That street
3:02
Speaker 1: would be crawling with CCTV cameras, and surely by now
3:05
Speaker 1: vic Pole must have a task force looking at these
3:08
Speaker 1: attacks on MP's offices. But as far as I'm aware,
3:12
Speaker 1: this is the first time that they've had to have
3:15
Speaker 1: tried to torch the premises of a politician. Radio three
3:19
Speaker 1: OUW has some three AM phone footage of the group
3:23
Speaker 1: running from the scene after setting fires in a couple
3:26
Speaker 1: of communication pits telstra pits. Can I repeat this is
3:30
Speaker 1: not as is being widely reported vandalism. It's out and
3:34
Speaker 1: out anti Semitic terrorism. Former treasurer and host of a
3:38
Speaker 1: SkyTV documententary on anti Semitism, Josh Friedenberg issued this statement.
3:44
Speaker 1: He called the event quote despicable and dangerous and one
3:48
Speaker 1: that requires more than words of condemnation. And he's gone further.
3:53
Speaker 1: This stuff has gone way over the line. And remember
3:56
Speaker 1: in Sydney when Bishop Maramanuel was allegedly stabbed by a
4:01
Speaker 1: knife wielding sixteen year old in a church while his
4:04
Speaker 1: sermon was being live streamed, causing a riote outside New
4:08
Speaker 1: South Wales. Police and politicians were quick to label that
4:11
Speaker 1: a terrorist attack. One alleged attacker attacking alone with a
4:16
Speaker 1: knife is labeled terrorism an arson attack by it said,
4:20
Speaker 1: five or six individuals smashing windows with hammers, drawing horns
4:24
Speaker 1: on Burns's photo and daubing anti Semitic slogans on windows
4:29
Speaker 1: like Zionism is fascism and that's called vandalism. Give me
4:34
Speaker 1: a break now, by chance, no one was injured in
4:37
Speaker 1: se Kilda last night, thank god, But this is an
4:40
Speaker 1: attack aimed at terrorizing a federal Jewish MP because he's
4:45
Speaker 1: Jewish and a member of a government that radical pro
4:48
Speaker 1: Palestine supporters believe is not doing enough to support Palestinians. Now,
4:54
Speaker 1: as I said, an attack aimed at terrorizing anyone who
4:58
Speaker 1: doesn't support their cause is terrorism. Is a bit more
5:02
Speaker 1: of what Josh Burns, it was clearly rattled by this attack,
5:05
Speaker 1: had to say this morning.
5:07
Speaker 2: My team turning up to work and being abused and
5:09
Speaker 2: being screamed at, And I've got really good people working
5:12
Speaker 2: for me. They are hard working, decent, kind people who
5:17
Speaker 2: have no role in a conflict on the other side
5:19
Speaker 2: of the world, and their place of work has just
5:22
Speaker 2: been smashed in by really dangerous idiots.
5:27
Speaker 1: Now, this radical terrorizing of MP staff and MPs, including
5:31
Speaker 1: people like the Prime Minister Bill Short and Mark Dreyfuss
5:34
Speaker 1: and others, should not just be labeled as vandalism. Call
5:37
Speaker 1: it out for what it really is, a hatred of
5:40
Speaker 1: anything Jewish, a dangerous attack on federal parliamentary property, a
5:45
Speaker 1: campaign of terror that is totally unacceptable in this country.
5:49
Speaker 1: We must call this out for what it is, radical
5:54
Speaker 1: anti Jewish political terrorism aimed at intimidating politicians with violent
6:00
Speaker 1: attacks on their places of work. Let's head to Canberra
6:08
Speaker 1: now for tonight's political headlines with scott News political reporter
6:12
Speaker 1: Truey Macintosh.
6:13
Speaker 3: Australian politics goes radioactive.
6:16
Speaker 4: We go to the next election seeking a mandate from
6:18
Speaker 4: the Australian People.
6:19
Speaker 3: Opposition leader Peter Dutton revealed his nuclear power pitch.
6:23
Speaker 4: We need to make sure that our economy can function
6:26
Speaker 4: twenty four to seven and we can only do that
6:28
Speaker 4: with a strong baselow power.
6:30
Speaker 5: Seven sites selected, all on existing coal fired power stations,
6:34
Speaker 5: Callide and to Wrong in Queensland, Mount Piper and Laddell
6:38
Speaker 5: in New South Wales, lay Yang in Gippsland, Victoria, and
6:41
Speaker 5: two small modulary actors, one in Port Augusta, the other
6:45
Speaker 5: at Collie in WA's Southwest. Taxpayers will pay to build them,
6:49
Speaker 5: but Peter Dutton won't reveal the price tag.
6:51
Speaker 4: It will be a fraction of the government's cost, but
6:54
Speaker 4: it will be a big bill. There's no question about that.
6:56
Speaker 3: Labour is relishing the nuclear fight.
6:58
Speaker 6: It might be the policy ever put forward.
7:02
Speaker 4: This is a joke.
7:03
Speaker 6: It's a serious joke because it threatens our.
7:06
Speaker 5: Transition, arguing the plan is full of holes, including where
7:09
Speaker 5: the communities can say no.
7:11
Speaker 1: If a community is absolutely adamant.
7:14
Speaker 7: Well then we will not proceed, but we will not
7:18
Speaker 7: be looking beyond these seven sites.
7:21
Speaker 5: Mister Dutton claims the first reactor could be built between
7:24
Speaker 5: twenty thirty five and twenty thirty seven, and that is achievable.
7:27
Speaker 4: It's a sensible.
7:28
Speaker 7: Rollout now that would be in and of itself, the
7:31
Speaker 7: fastest nuclear rollout in the world in a country that
7:35
Speaker 7: doesn't have a nuclear industry.
7:36
Speaker 5: The coalition would need Parliament federally and states to overturn
7:40
Speaker 5: existing nuclear bands and there's no appetite so far from
7:44
Speaker 5: premiers to get on board. Nose right across the country.
7:47
Speaker 5: Mister Dutton is banking on states changing their tune.
7:50
Speaker 4: I think somebody famously said I wouldn't stand between a
7:53
Speaker 4: premier in a bucket of money.
7:54
Speaker 3: Trudy Macintosh, Sky News, Canberra, good.
7:59
Speaker 1: On your truity. Thanks so that. What about Chris Bowen?
8:01
Speaker 1: What a joke he is?
8:02
Speaker 6: Now?
8:02
Speaker 1: Just before I get to my first panel tonight, Caroline
8:04
Speaker 1: Marcus and cam Redden, the big nuclear announcement we were
8:08
Speaker 1: talking about there and talking about all day. We all
8:10
Speaker 1: need to remember a key point here. This idea of
8:13
Speaker 1: seven sides Australia wide is going to be taken to
8:16
Speaker 1: you to the Australian people, to the voters. This will
8:20
Speaker 1: be front and center at a federal election either late
8:23
Speaker 1: this year or early next year. If the Opposition were
8:26
Speaker 1: to win that election, then the state labor premiers would
8:29
Speaker 1: find themselves in a very difficult position. Just enter Alan Chrismin's,
8:33
Speaker 1: Peter Melanowskis and Roger Cook in Wa will all still
8:37
Speaker 1: be in their jobs after that next federal election. But
8:42
Speaker 1: just as with sixty percent of Australians voting know on
8:45
Speaker 1: the voice, would these premiers ignore the will of the
8:48
Speaker 1: majority of the Australian people on having nuclear power plants
8:52
Speaker 1: in their states. The premiers were singing from the same
8:56
Speaker 1: in book today when asked their views here, they are, Look.
9:00
Speaker 8: Our band stays in place. We're not repealing it.
9:02
Speaker 9: I am fine with nuclear power as long as it
9:05
Speaker 9: doesn't make electricity bills more expensive.
9:09
Speaker 6: And what we know from report after report is.
9:13
Speaker 9: That in the Australian context it will make power more expensive.
9:17
Speaker 10: Nuclear energy is toxic, it's risky, it's more expensive, and
9:22
Speaker 10: it is decades and decades away.
9:27
Speaker 1: Can you believe Jacinta Allen, the Premier of Victoria, calling
9:29
Speaker 1: modern nuclear power toxic? She sounds like a green supporting
9:33
Speaker 1: university student. But then we have weak need liberals like
9:37
Speaker 1: the hapless John Pursuito, who's the opposition leader in Victoria,
9:42
Speaker 1: who's unelectable, by the way, saying he doesn't support nuclear
9:45
Speaker 1: I've got a bit of news on that a bit later.
9:47
Speaker 1: By the way, that won't matter because he'll never be
9:49
Speaker 1: Premier of Victoria. But more worryingly, LNP Queensland leader, the
9:53
Speaker 1: man who will likely lead Queensland after the next state election,
9:57
Speaker 1: David Chris A. Fooley, says he doesn't support it either.
10:00
Speaker 1: It does give Dutton a clear picture of the difficult
10:03
Speaker 1: road ahead, I guess. But if he were to win
10:06
Speaker 1: a federal election with this nuclear policy front and center,
10:10
Speaker 1: it would be very hard for state premiers to look
10:13
Speaker 1: the other way. And just before we talked to Caroline
10:17
Speaker 1: and Cam I couldn't stop laughing. When Energy Minister Chris
10:21
Speaker 1: Bowen bobbed up for a media conference later today to
10:25
Speaker 1: respond to Peter Dutton, virtually no one from the media
10:28
Speaker 1: turned up. I think his staff were probably in the
10:30
Speaker 1: back of the room asking questions. He was asked a
10:33
Speaker 1: couple and then he scurried off.
10:36
Speaker 6: I didn't come up with his fantasy he did. Don't
10:38
Speaker 6: have to ask him, all right, thank you.
10:46
Speaker 1: What a joke he is. We've got a long way
10:48
Speaker 1: to go on all of this, all right. Obviously, much
10:51
Speaker 1: of the focus today has been on the coalition's nuclear announcement,
10:54
Speaker 1: which we'll get to with the details shortly, but there's
10:57
Speaker 1: still plenty of other news to get across. So joining
10:59
Speaker 1: me now, Sky new senior reporter Caroline Marcus and political
11:02
Speaker 1: reporter cam Reddin. Welcome to you both. Caroline, let's start
11:06
Speaker 1: with this attack on Josh Burn's office. So I spoke
11:09
Speaker 1: about that at the top of the show. He called
11:11
Speaker 1: it politically motivated. Seriously, I think we need to get
11:14
Speaker 1: stronger in our language here when it comes to this
11:17
Speaker 1: sort of stuff, because this is not the first instance
11:20
Speaker 1: of officers being attacked. This is getting worse. It's rampant
11:23
Speaker 1: anti semitism, and as I said, it comes down to
11:27
Speaker 1: urban terrorism in my view, what do you think.
11:30
Speaker 11: I think you're absolutely absolutely right, Pricey, and it needs
11:34
Speaker 11: to be called out as such. But because before we
11:36
Speaker 11: can really confront a problem, we need to define what
11:40
Speaker 11: it is. This is domestic terrorism, it is anti semitism.
11:46
Speaker 11: The definition of it we can't continue to tolerate it
11:51
Speaker 11: and provide cover for this kind of thing, because we've
11:54
Speaker 11: seen where this can lead over the past eight months.
11:57
Speaker 11: Ever since October seven, it's just been escalating in terms
12:02
Speaker 11: of the amount of violence and threat of violence that
12:07
Speaker 11: these pro Palestinian protesters have been allowed to get away
12:11
Speaker 11: with with little effect. But it's one thing to call
12:15
Speaker 11: it out and it's another thing to act on it.
12:17
Speaker 11: So while I think that I would like to see
12:20
Speaker 11: stronger language from people, including Josh Burns, who I have
12:23
Speaker 11: no doubt thinks can see that this is anti semitism
12:27
Speaker 11: himself as a Jewish politician and the Prime Minister who
12:32
Speaker 11: failed to use the a word anti semitism himself today,
12:36
Speaker 11: it's their actions that are most important, and we've seen
12:39
Speaker 11: the authorities fail time and time again to act. When
12:44
Speaker 11: it came to the judicial review into anti Semitism on
12:48
Speaker 11: campuses in Australian universities, the government failed to back that
12:53
Speaker 11: that couldn't get up and that type of conduct that
12:56
Speaker 11: we've seen on university grounds, as it turns out, including
13:00
Speaker 11: from his book to Rear an extremist group, is what
13:03
Speaker 11: has led these activists to become so emboldened that they
13:07
Speaker 11: think that they can carry out these kinds of brazen
13:09
Speaker 11: attacks on an electoral office like this. It's disgusting.
13:15
Speaker 1: Cam you're in Parliament when it sat last we saw
13:18
Speaker 1: both the le Prime Minister and the Opposition leader turned
13:21
Speaker 1: toward Adam band and slammed the Greens for spurring on
13:25
Speaker 1: this sort of violent protest. Adam Bant did condemn condemn
13:29
Speaker 1: the attack from last night, putting out this tweet. Do
13:32
Speaker 1: you think after this we'll see more pressure be applied
13:35
Speaker 1: to the Greens. I imagine we're going to have to.
13:37
Speaker 1: I mean, he's still not he still doesn't get it.
13:40
Speaker 1: I mean there were six people there. They were armed
13:43
Speaker 1: with hammers, kerosene, and they had fire extinguishers loaded with
13:49
Speaker 1: red paint that they were squirting through the holes that
13:52
Speaker 1: they'd smashed in the windows and doors with hammers. And
13:55
Speaker 1: then they set fire to two communication telstrap pits with
13:58
Speaker 1: Caro ran away people sleeping upstairs. I mean, seriously, what's
14:03
Speaker 1: Adam ban on about.
14:06
Speaker 9: Well, there's certainly a great deal of anger and fury.
14:09
Speaker 9: I think it's fair to say within senior members of
14:11
Speaker 9: the government steve about the way that the Greens have
14:13
Speaker 9: handled this issue, particularly over the last few months and
14:15
Speaker 9: some of the messaging we saw direct accusations from the
14:18
Speaker 9: government last time we sat here in Canberra that the
14:21
Speaker 9: Greens were spreading misinformation about the government's position. Some were
14:25
Speaker 9: singling out the involvement of state and federal Greens MPs
14:28
Speaker 9: in protests. Worth noting to Adam bant Is adamant that
14:31
Speaker 9: no MPs have been involved in the sort of violent
14:34
Speaker 9: acts that we'd seen there in any of any of
14:36
Speaker 9: the incidents that we'd seen around particular offices. But the
14:40
Speaker 9: pressure that was applied to the Greens was unique in
14:43
Speaker 9: some ways the last time we sat here, with both
14:45
Speaker 9: Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanezis, senior members of the two
14:48
Speaker 9: major parties, turning in unison during question time to mount
14:52
Speaker 9: the pressure on the Greens and the Greens leader in particular.
14:55
Speaker 9: The minutia of the political reality I think for the
14:57
Speaker 9: Greens is fascinating here too, Steve. We know this issue
15:00
Speaker 9: is going to play out at the ballot box in
15:02
Speaker 9: a number of seats come election time in Western Sydney, yes,
15:05
Speaker 9: and in Melbourne too. And for Josh Burns personally, remember
15:09
Speaker 9: he only narrowly held off a challenge from the Greens
15:12
Speaker 9: to keep his seat of McNamara at the last election.
15:14
Speaker 9: It was in limbo for a couple of days he
15:16
Speaker 9: eventually fell over the line. My understanding from the mood
15:19
Speaker 9: within Labor is that his presence publicly on speaking for
15:23
Speaker 9: his community on this particular issue will strengthen his handcome
15:27
Speaker 9: the next election, and that McNamara might actually be a
15:30
Speaker 9: slightly safest seat if you like, given Josh Burns prominence
15:34
Speaker 9: in speaking out on this issue and representing the Jewish
15:37
Speaker 9: community in that seat. But there's no doubt that this
15:40
Speaker 9: is a difficult issue for the Greens leader to navigate,
15:42
Speaker 9: particularly facing pressure from both major parties now, and I
15:46
Speaker 9: think you're right, we'll only see that ramp up the
15:48
Speaker 9: next time we're here in Canberra, Carol, and you've done a.
15:52
Speaker 1: Lot of work on this. I guess the point I'm
15:54
Speaker 1: trying to make here is it goes from some graffiti
16:00
Speaker 1: bad as that was on Jewish schools on a wall.
16:04
Speaker 1: It ends up with occupying university campuses and damaging them
16:10
Speaker 1: and having Jewish students too scared to go to lectures.
16:14
Speaker 1: You go the next step and you've got the Prime
16:17
Speaker 1: Minister's offer shut for months because they've got people out
16:20
Speaker 1: the front saying that he's not doing enough on Palestine.
16:23
Speaker 1: We're now at a point where we've got hammers, kerosene
16:29
Speaker 1: fire extinguishers full of red paint. The authorities have got
16:33
Speaker 1: to actually start arresting people. I mean, you can't have
16:37
Speaker 1: I mean, this is in the middle I went there today.
16:40
Speaker 1: It's at the end of Ackland Street in Saint Kilda.
16:42
Speaker 1: It's on Barkley Street. It's a tourist destination. There's all
16:46
Speaker 1: sorts of people there. The number of young children, Jewish
16:49
Speaker 1: children that would have done past that office today on
16:52
Speaker 1: their way to school. It's disturbing, and.
16:56
Speaker 11: Yet nothing seems to be done about it. You're quite right, Price.
17:00
Speaker 11: I mean, there have been many attacks on electorate offices
17:05
Speaker 11: of particularly labor politicians in recent weeks, and there have
17:11
Speaker 11: been no arrests as far as where it where in
17:14
Speaker 11: any of those cases. There must be some information, but
17:16
Speaker 11: it's not surprising because we've seen hate preachers, particularly in
17:20
Speaker 11: Southwest Sydney, who have openly preached for violence against Jews,
17:26
Speaker 11: and nothing has been done from the government perspective, from
17:30
Speaker 11: a police perspective, it's been left up to the Jewish
17:32
Speaker 11: community to actually take up a civil case in that matter,
17:36
Speaker 11: and again with the universities. I reveal last week that
17:40
Speaker 11: it was the Jewish community that is now putting out
17:45
Speaker 11: calls for a potential class action lawsuit against the University
17:49
Speaker 11: of Sydney, which has been one of the biggest offenders
17:52
Speaker 11: on this issue, and taking it upon themselves to act
17:56
Speaker 11: because the authorities don't seem to want to do it,
17:59
Speaker 11: to do their jobs on this issue. And I've reported
18:02
Speaker 11: on so many cases, as you point out recently about
18:06
Speaker 11: a family and a bakery who made a Hamas themed
18:09
Speaker 11: birthday cake and a Hammas themed party for a four
18:13
Speaker 11: year old. Authorities have yet.
18:15
Speaker 3: To act on that.
18:16
Speaker 11: I understand AFP has been investigating for that for a
18:18
Speaker 11: number of weeks, but no charges, no offenses in that one. Yeah,
18:23
Speaker 11: there was a man who wore a shirt with October
18:26
Speaker 11: seven and the Palestinian flag on it to a major
18:30
Speaker 11: tourist destination in New South Wales. Police found the man,
18:34
Speaker 11: confiscated the shirt, no charges laid. Again, I mean, what
18:38
Speaker 11: does it take actual violence to be perpetrated on people
18:43
Speaker 11: and people to die.
18:44
Speaker 1: I don't act. I just can't work it out. I mean,
18:49
Speaker 1: there's vision on radio stations got mobile phone vision cam
18:54
Speaker 1: of these six people running away. This office is the
18:58
Speaker 1: property of the Federal Parliament, the Australian people. The AFP
19:02
Speaker 1: is supposed to have the best equipment in the world
19:05
Speaker 1: to run down terrorism. They've got an anti terrorist unit.
19:09
Speaker 1: Why don't they use that technology to find who these
19:11
Speaker 1: people are, charge them and put them before the courts.
19:17
Speaker 9: Well, ultimately that is up to the authorities to purshure
19:19
Speaker 9: those steved. The reality is these are criminal activities and
19:22
Speaker 9: that is up to the authorities to attempt to hold
19:25
Speaker 9: those people to account where they believe that they can
19:27
Speaker 9: find them and track them down. I suppose the practical
19:30
Speaker 9: difficulties are the same wherever those incidents might occur. We know,
19:35
Speaker 9: I think, just to broaden the issue out as well,
19:37
Speaker 9: we know the government's preparing a range of other laws
19:40
Speaker 9: to deal with things like hate speech and what that
19:42
Speaker 9: might cover up. But there's not a lot of ambiguity
19:45
Speaker 9: around some of the scenes we've seen around these offices,
19:48
Speaker 9: including Josh Burns today. I think whether it was that office,
19:51
Speaker 9: whether it was anywhere else, it's the action you look at,
19:53
Speaker 9: and I think that's where the authorities will focus their
19:56
Speaker 9: attention on more so than even motivate taken into account. There,
20:01
Speaker 9: it's the activities that are quite concerning and those would
20:04
Speaker 9: already be outlawed under laws I would imagine.
20:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, good on your Caroline and Camp. Thank you very
20:10
Speaker 1: much for that. I just repeat, I think that the
20:12
Speaker 1: language has got to change here and people have got
20:15
Speaker 1: to get a lot more serious about it. Okay, let's
20:17
Speaker 1: get to across both domestically and internationally. So let's bring
20:21
Speaker 1: in the Australian's Foreign editor, Greg Sheridan. Gregor, was a
20:23
Speaker 1: pleasure to see you on a Wednesday night. I'll get
20:26
Speaker 1: into Vladimir Putin's trip to North Korea shortly, but just
20:30
Speaker 1: starting domestically. Peter Dutton very eager to link their nuclear
20:34
Speaker 1: announcement to the Orchest agreement and the submarines. Here here's
20:39
Speaker 1: what he said this morning.
20:40
Speaker 4: Would a Prime minister sign up to an Orchest deal
20:46
Speaker 4: using this nuclear technology to propel the submarines and to
20:50
Speaker 4: have our members of the Australian Navy on those submarines
20:56
Speaker 4: twenty four to seven if he thought or she thought
20:58
Speaker 4: that that technology was safe. No. And so you don't
21:02
Speaker 4: even hear the Labor Party talking about the technology being unsafe,
21:08
Speaker 4: not a.
21:08
Speaker 1: Bad comment or a too long a bow to draw.
21:13
Speaker 6: No, it's Steve. Great to be with you. Look, Dutton
21:15
Speaker 6: is absolutely right on this. You know me, Steve.
21:18
Speaker 12: I'll criticize both sides, and I'll give both sides credit
21:21
Speaker 12: where it's due. Dutton deserves enormous credit for this. This
21:25
Speaker 12: is the only development I've seen since the announcement of
21:29
Speaker 12: Orcus which gives me any reason to think that UCUST
21:32
Speaker 12: will ever come to anything. One of the big contradictions
21:36
Speaker 12: in UCUS is that we're planning to become the only
21:39
Speaker 12: nation in the world, and the only nation in the
21:42
Speaker 12: history of the world, which has ever operated and owned,
21:46
Speaker 12: much less built a nuclear submarine which doesn't have a
21:50
Speaker 12: nuclear industry.
21:52
Speaker 6: Now, all the other nations in the world.
21:53
Speaker 12: Which own and operate nuclear submarines have big nuclear energy industries.
21:57
Speaker 12: That means they have hundreds of nuclear engineers, nuclear technicians.
22:03
Speaker 12: They are masters of nuclear technology, from go to woe,
22:08
Speaker 12: every aspect of it. Now, the idea that we could
22:11
Speaker 12: build nuclear submarines in Adelaide, while we don't do a
22:14
Speaker 12: single other thing and have shown no get up and
22:18
Speaker 12: go on the issue at all. The Albanesi government is
22:21
Speaker 12: too timid even to say where an East Coast submarine
22:24
Speaker 12: base might go, too timid to say where it's going
22:26
Speaker 12: to store the waste from our nuclear submarines reactors. The
22:31
Speaker 12: idea we could do this without having any other nuclear
22:33
Speaker 12: industry is just one of the many sort of fanciful, unbelievable.
22:37
Speaker 6: Aspects of UCUST.
22:39
Speaker 12: But if we were developing a national nuclear industry, which
22:42
Speaker 12: is a terrifically good idea, I mean, it solves climate change,
22:45
Speaker 12: it solves energy reliability, it gives Australia back its energy
22:49
Speaker 12: comparative advantage, it's much cheaper in the long run. If
22:54
Speaker 12: we're doing the two things together, then they reinforce each
22:57
Speaker 12: other and that means the ORCUST subs have got a
23:01
Speaker 12: chance of actually coming into existence. And as Dunton says,
23:05
Speaker 12: the argument against nuclear reactors on safety are completely absurd.
23:12
Speaker 12: If you argue that having nuclear reactors inside military vessels,
23:18
Speaker 12: surrounded by weapons, whizzing around the ocean at high speed
23:21
Speaker 12: and resting in Australia's major cities is perfectly safe, but
23:25
Speaker 12: having a settled, stable, singular nuclear reactor with the most
23:29
Speaker 12: proven technology in the world providing energy is somehow unsafe.
23:33
Speaker 6: Well, of course, that's crack us.
23:35
Speaker 12: So I think this is a very good development for
23:37
Speaker 12: August if it comes about.
23:41
Speaker 1: I love the way you put it. The language you
23:43
Speaker 1: use is delightful. Thank you, Greg Sky. Journalist Chang Lai,
23:47
Speaker 1: as we know, described being blocked from a second press
23:50
Speaker 1: event now being held by the Chinese. She's written about
23:53
Speaker 1: it on the Sky website tonight. Everyone should go and
23:57
Speaker 1: read it. She said, why could I not turn up?
23:59
Speaker 1: I had served by sentence, I was deported from China.
24:02
Speaker 1: I'm employed by an Australian news organization. I've got a
24:05
Speaker 1: media pass for Parliament House. I don't act out of turn.
24:08
Speaker 1: Why do they this whole treatment of her in her
24:15
Speaker 1: own country in the Parliament of Australia. This has really
24:20
Speaker 1: shone a light on this visit in a very poor way,
24:22
Speaker 1: has it not?
24:25
Speaker 6: Well? That's right, Steve.
24:26
Speaker 12: The Chinese state cannot help but disclose its true character.
24:31
Speaker 12: So this is not a criticism of Chinese people and
24:33
Speaker 12: the Chinese ethnic Chinese and Australia are wonderful, but the
24:36
Speaker 12: Chinese Communist Party regime in Beijing is a totalitarian stalinist regime.
24:42
Speaker 12: It doesn't respect democracy, it doesn't respect anyone's laws. It
24:47
Speaker 12: thinks the law is the Communist Party. So Chang Lei
24:51
Speaker 12: is an Australian citizen, a journalist with press credentials and
24:55
Speaker 12: all the rest of it, and they are trying to
24:58
Speaker 12: manhandle her in our own parliament house now. Albernizi's reaction
25:03
Speaker 12: to it initially was utterly pathetic, claiming he didn't know
25:07
Speaker 12: anything about it. Every time the Prime Minister has asked
25:10
Speaker 12: a difficult question, he gives you the same answer.
25:12
Speaker 6: The dog ate my homework. I don't know what you're
25:15
Speaker 6: talking about.
25:16
Speaker 12: And it wasn't until there was a wave of community
25:19
Speaker 12: criticism of him that the next day he said he
25:22
Speaker 12: raised it with the Chinese premiere. But this whole visit
25:25
Speaker 12: shows the schizophrenic and difficult and paradoxical nature of our
25:29
Speaker 12: relationship with China. We do make a lot of money
25:32
Speaker 12: out of them by trade, and we should, as a
25:35
Speaker 12: matter of national policy, try to diversify our trade, but
25:37
Speaker 12: we're very bad at that. But at the same time
25:41
Speaker 12: they are the chief strategic threat to us. They routinely
25:46
Speaker 12: bridged the rights of Australian citizens on our own soil,
25:50
Speaker 12: especially Australian citizens of Chinese extraction. The long history of
25:55
Speaker 12: cyber espionage, foreign interference, and as the Premiere left, Australia
26:02
Speaker 12: joined in allied denunciations of the Chinese for another reckless
26:06
Speaker 12: incident in which they collided with a Philippines ship in
26:10
Speaker 12: waters which China has no legal claim to and severely
26:14
Speaker 12: injured and Philippines sailor. But with our normal pusillanimity, we
26:18
Speaker 12: waited till the Chinese premiere had flown off before we
26:23
Speaker 12: joined in that statement. So one minute in Canberra we're
26:27
Speaker 12: proclaiming that China is a comprehensive strategic partner. The next
26:32
Speaker 12: minute we're saying we've got to acquire nuclear submarines to
26:35
Speaker 12: defend ourselves against China, and we condemned their military actions
26:38
Speaker 12: in the Philippines and the final thoughts to this military communication.
26:43
Speaker 12: That's all great, But the problem with the Chinese military
26:46
Speaker 12: incidents at sea has not been a lack of communications.
26:49
Speaker 12: They weren't confused about what they were doing when they
26:52
Speaker 12: deployed sonars and injured our Australian sailors, when they drove
26:56
Speaker 12: dropped chaff in front of an Australian helicopter and so on,
27:00
Speaker 12: you exactly what.
27:00
Speaker 6: They are doing.
27:01
Speaker 12: Their communication was perfectly sound this ridiculous visit was all
27:05
Speaker 12: about panda diplomacy and trying to redefine China as a
27:09
Speaker 12: benign force in Australian life, and I think too many
27:14
Speaker 12: of our politicians went along with it too uncritically. I'm
27:17
Speaker 12: not against having the guy visit, but it was too
27:20
Speaker 12: uncritical and Albanez he should have called out the treatment
27:23
Speaker 12: of chung Ley straight away. He shouldn't have had to
27:25
Speaker 12: be hounded into doing that the next day.
27:29
Speaker 1: Well said Greg, Greg Sheridan, Thank you very much as
27:31
Speaker 1: usual for your time. Now coming up after the break
27:35
Speaker 1: still to come, we'll get into the minutia of the
27:38
Speaker 1: coalition's nuclear announcement today and how it actually could work
27:41
Speaker 1: in practical terms. Plus why on earth is the Queensland
27:45
Speaker 1: Opposition leader David Chris of Foley so opposed to this plan.
27:48
Speaker 1: I'll have more on that with Campbell Newman coming up.
27:55
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Steve Price in for Peter Cretlin. Peter
27:57
Speaker 1: will be back next week. Get back to the big
28:01
Speaker 1: issue of the day, nuclear energy in Australia. The coalitions
28:03
Speaker 1: now put in its pitch. We learned where the Coalition
28:07
Speaker 1: is planning to build their nuclear reactors seven in total
28:10
Speaker 1: across sites, there will be a number in most states
28:14
Speaker 1: of the country. What remains unknown and something labor will
28:17
Speaker 1: no doubt continue to hammer the coalition about is the
28:20
Speaker 1: cost to build those reactors. It's very clear that the
28:23
Speaker 1: Coalition has laid down this Scotland for the next election.
28:26
Speaker 1: This is going to become like the Voice a referendum
28:30
Speaker 1: on energy policy. Skin into some more of the detail
28:33
Speaker 1: with the Environment editor from The Australian Graham Lloyd Lloydy.
28:38
Speaker 1: Do you think that Peter Dutton is on the right
28:42
Speaker 1: side of history with this very brave pitch to the
28:46
Speaker 1: Australian people.
28:49
Speaker 13: Well, hello, Steve. It certainly is a very brave pitch
28:55
Speaker 13: to the Australian people, and he has cleverly tied the
28:59
Speaker 13: issue of energy security to cost of living and presented
29:05
Speaker 13: a framework through which the Coalition can really push an
29:10
Speaker 13: aura of strength if you like, for the election campaign.
29:15
Speaker 13: Whether he is on the right side of history remains
29:19
Speaker 13: to be seen. I think certainly there are many countries
29:24
Speaker 13: around the world that are trying to get to a
29:27
Speaker 13: position where nuclear energy will solve their decarbonization problems. It's
29:32
Speaker 13: probably inevitable, it will be hard of the mix whether
29:36
Speaker 13: it's a defining battle for the future. We'll need to see.
29:43
Speaker 1: The scare campaigns will start pretty much immediately. We've already
29:47
Speaker 1: had the Victorian Premier, Jacida Allen, who's from the hard left.
29:51
Speaker 1: She's come out today said that we know nuclear reactor
29:53
Speaker 1: in Victoria while I'm premiere. She's labeled nuclear generated power
29:59
Speaker 1: as tox is it.
30:03
Speaker 13: Well, the truth is nothing comes risk free. That includes solar,
30:08
Speaker 13: it includes wind, oil, gas, coal, nuclear and everything. But
30:13
Speaker 13: nuclear has some pretty good things going for it, the
30:17
Speaker 13: biggest one being that it is greenhouse gas emissions free,
30:22
Speaker 13: so it really addresses the main issue that people are
30:26
Speaker 13: trying to solve. And interestingly, in terms of the number
30:29
Speaker 13: of people injured in the industry, nuclear is the benchmark
30:34
Speaker 13: against which other industries are measured. It's safer than oil, gas,
30:39
Speaker 13: coal and even wind, and it's something that's you know,
30:46
Speaker 13: there are issues around the disposal of nuclear waste, but
30:50
Speaker 13: on that score, I think there's a misconception about the
30:54
Speaker 13: volume of waste that's involved and the nature of radioactivity itself.
30:59
Speaker 13: It's not as big a problem as most people think.
31:05
Speaker 1: Chris Bowing likes to toss around the claim that it's
31:08
Speaker 1: the most expensive power you can possibly generate. Surely, when
31:12
Speaker 1: you have that discussion, you've got to compare it with
31:14
Speaker 1: the expense of establishing a whole new transmission system for
31:18
Speaker 1: solar and wind power that is not connected to the
31:22
Speaker 1: grid currently. Is it really expensive or in the long term,
31:26
Speaker 1: given that these things, as Dunton said today, can last
31:29
Speaker 1: up to sixty years cost effective.
31:34
Speaker 13: There's a lot of misinformation and misunderstandings being put around
31:39
Speaker 13: about the cost. I think nobody can say with certainty
31:43
Speaker 13: what it would cost in the Australian context, but it's
31:46
Speaker 13: probably less than the fearmongers would suggest the thing. As
31:51
Speaker 13: you have just said, the big costs are upfront, they
31:54
Speaker 13: last a long time, and you really need to take
31:57
Speaker 13: a whole of system calculation to see how it compares
32:01
Speaker 13: with other technologies and even the high cost valuations of
32:07
Speaker 13: places like the CSIRO, nuclear still compares very favorably, particularly
32:13
Speaker 13: with offshore wind.
32:16
Speaker 1: Graham Lloyd, it was a pleasure to catch up with him,
32:18
Speaker 1: my friend. Thank you very much for your time. Okay,
32:20
Speaker 1: let's get back into the politics of nuclear and go
32:23
Speaker 1: to how the plan has been received in various states,
32:26
Speaker 1: particularly Queensland, though where under the coalition's plan, it would
32:30
Speaker 1: receive two nuclear reactors. Problem for the coalition is that
32:34
Speaker 1: the LNP under David Chris A Foley, who will probably
32:38
Speaker 1: win the next election, has remained steadfast in his opposition
32:42
Speaker 1: to adopting nuclear power. And if the positive believed as
32:45
Speaker 1: I said, he's going to be the premier come October.
32:48
Speaker 1: For more on this, let's bring in former Queensland Premier
32:51
Speaker 1: Campbell Newman. Campbell, great to see you on a Wednesday
32:53
Speaker 1: night as opposed to a Friday night. Can you please,
32:57
Speaker 1: as an ex premier, excellent mayor of brisbe someone plugged
33:01
Speaker 1: into Queensland politics, please explain what's going on in David
33:05
Speaker 1: Chris of Fooley's head.
33:08
Speaker 14: Well, look, he's just done this final straight as he
33:11
Speaker 14: sees it to an election victory in October with this
33:14
Speaker 14: small target strategy, and he ain't taking any risks at all.
33:18
Speaker 6: And it's very sad.
33:21
Speaker 14: It's very very sad. It's Steve indeed, because I think
33:23
Speaker 14: he's misread the mood of the electorate out there. I mean,
33:26
Speaker 14: for example, today the career Marl had run an online
33:29
Speaker 14: poll and I know it's just a slice, but that
33:32
Speaker 14: was running all day at seventy eight percent support for
33:35
Speaker 14: nuclear in their region. So this is a Queensland sort
33:39
Speaker 14: of a pole if you like. And I'm sure though
33:44
Speaker 14: it holds up. And Chris of Fauley and his team
33:47
Speaker 14: were totally wrong in assessing what the community's views were
33:50
Speaker 14: an example on the voice and things like treaty, and
33:55
Speaker 14: he also is very much against the rank and file
33:59
Speaker 14: of his membership. I mean, my part of the Libertarian
34:02
Speaker 14: Party have been supporting this in a wholehearted way for
34:05
Speaker 14: the last.
34:06
Speaker 6: Four years or so.
34:07
Speaker 14: We totally support what Dutton said today. It's just that
34:11
Speaker 14: Chris of Fawley ain't going to take a risk.
34:15
Speaker 1: That same poll and the Herald's son and the great
34:17
Speaker 1: socialist state of Victoria, you'd be pleased to know Campbell
34:20
Speaker 1: was ninety four percent of people said that they supported
34:23
Speaker 1: nuclear energy. So maybe Peter Dutton's reading the tea leaves
34:26
Speaker 1: better than anyone else. But you know, back to Chris
34:29
Speaker 1: of Foley, all he needed to do was say, listen,
34:33
Speaker 1: this nuclear question is going to go to a federal
34:36
Speaker 1: election where the people of Australia, including everyone in Queensland,
34:41
Speaker 1: is going to have a vote. If the vote installs
34:44
Speaker 1: Peter Dutton as the next Prime Minister. He has a
34:47
Speaker 1: mandate to establish nuclear energy, including two plants in Queensland,
34:53
Speaker 1: and if he wins the election and the public want it,
34:56
Speaker 1: I'll support it. That's all he had to say.
34:59
Speaker 14: Yeah, well, exactly. I think that's a really good point.
35:02
Speaker 14: I mean, you know, I won't stand in his way.
35:05
Speaker 14: That would be the absolute sort of position, and indeed
35:09
Speaker 14: it's a sensible position because you know, David Christ of Fawley,
35:13
Speaker 14: he is going to be the premier. He has to
35:15
Speaker 14: deliver that cheap, reliable electricity. He's got to deal with
35:20
Speaker 14: the cost of living crisis for queens and families. But
35:24
Speaker 14: he's also been quite happy to sign up to emissions
35:27
Speaker 14: reduction targets. So how's he going to do that. If
35:30
Speaker 14: he's against carbon emissions, he's obviously got to be against
35:34
Speaker 14: the cheap coal fired power that keeps this place going,
35:37
Speaker 14: provides seventy percent of electricity needs right now, so he's
35:40
Speaker 14: got to see those phased out. So he's got a
35:43
Speaker 14: back back renewables and renewables are going to need those
35:47
Speaker 14: transmission lines you said before, huge cost plus, they're going
35:50
Speaker 14: to need storage. But he's also said Steve that he's
35:53
Speaker 14: against the labor party's large pumped storage projects. So frankly,
36:00
Speaker 14: here's the stark reality of where he is now. He
36:04
Speaker 14: doesn't actually have a repliable plan for electricity. I mean,
36:07
Speaker 14: Steve Stephen Miles sort of has one that's incredibly expensive
36:12
Speaker 14: and I wouldn't back. But I don't think Chris the
36:14
Speaker 14: faoley's gone because he doesn't back the stories that's required
36:18
Speaker 14: and he's not going to back nuclear.
36:19
Speaker 6: So how is he going to deliver?
36:21
Speaker 14: I mean, this is the problem when you actually don't
36:24
Speaker 14: have a fundamental bedrock of principle going into an election.
36:28
Speaker 14: He's tying himself into all sorts of knots that he's
36:33
Speaker 14: going to have to extricate himself from as a new premier.
36:37
Speaker 1: I'd love to be a fly on the wall or
36:40
Speaker 1: listening into the conversation between Peter Dutton and chrisp fully
36:44
Speaker 1: next time they speak. Cam when you have been great
36:45
Speaker 1: to catch up. We'll see you on Friday on our
36:48
Speaker 1: normal program. Now after the break, more evidence amounts of
36:50
Speaker 1: just how damaging the COVID lockdowns were to children and
36:54
Speaker 1: their education. And a little later, our favorite guest Kel
36:57
Speaker 1: Richards with plenty of words to get through Tonight, Welcome back,
37:06
Speaker 1: to sue Price with your Peter kredline back next week.
37:08
Speaker 1: I knowe that dear old Malcolm Turnbull, former Prime Minister,
37:11
Speaker 1: has managed to bob up on Twitter late today and
37:14
Speaker 1: started bagging Peter Dutton's nuclear options. Of course he would, Malcolm,
37:18
Speaker 1: of course design snowy two point zero, which is a
37:22
Speaker 1: big tunneling machine stuck in a bit of rock in
37:25
Speaker 1: a mountain and costing us a fortune. A lot of
37:28
Speaker 1: talk today, of course, about the nuclear energy. Federal government
37:31
Speaker 1: is forging ahead with their plans, their renewable plan. Opposition
37:36
Speaker 1: has come up with an alternative, but no state governments
37:39
Speaker 1: so far are on board.
37:40
Speaker 14: Now.
37:41
Speaker 1: The Victorian premier, I mentioned this before, she's labeled nuclear toxic,
37:45
Speaker 1: vowed never to let Victoria become a nuclear state, although
37:50
Speaker 1: if the people vote for it, I'm not quite sure
37:51
Speaker 1: how she's going to maintain that stance. Let's face it, though,
37:55
Speaker 1: there's no way that could afford to keep out if
37:57
Speaker 1: Dunton went ahead with this. Meanwhile, the opposit position leader
38:00
Speaker 1: in Victoria, the lamentable John Pursuito, says it's too early.
38:05
Speaker 1: He had a media conference today, too early to say
38:08
Speaker 1: whether he will back or block the plan. Now this
38:11
Speaker 1: has caused him a few problems in state parliament. In
38:14
Speaker 1: question time today where the Premier Jacinda Allen referenced a
38:19
Speaker 1: Herald Sun column that I wrote two weeks ago based
38:22
Speaker 1: on leak leaked shadow Cabinet documents revealing that in fact,
38:27
Speaker 1: the opposition's policies Liberal opposition policy in Victoria actually does
38:32
Speaker 1: endorse nuclear Here's the Premier.
38:35
Speaker 3: There are some who we know have a secret plan.
38:38
Speaker 3: Although after reading Steve Price's.
38:40
Speaker 10: Article that's it's not so secret after all, speaker, not
38:44
Speaker 10: so secret, after all, there are those who have a
38:47
Speaker 10: plan to join arm in arm with their federal Liberal
38:51
Speaker 10: National colleagues to support this nuclear plan.
38:54
Speaker 6: Well, we will.
38:55
Speaker 10: Stand with you plan.
38:58
Speaker 1: Whoops, p old John pursudo. Read the column, mate, Now
39:01
Speaker 1: for more. I'm joined by our Wednesday panel Shadow Environment Minister,
39:04
Speaker 1: Senator Jonathan Dunneim. It's great to have him on given
39:07
Speaker 1: what's unfolded today. And senior fellow at the Menzies Research
39:11
Speaker 1: Center and a visiting fellow at the Danube Institute, Nick Kate.
39:16
Speaker 1: Great to have you both with us.
39:18
Speaker 6: Nick.
39:19
Speaker 1: I got to say, and I know you're I think
39:21
Speaker 1: you're back in Budapest. Some pretty weak need reactions from
39:25
Speaker 1: state liberal leaders on this today. They've really got a
39:29
Speaker 1: man up on this, don't they.
39:33
Speaker 7: Yeah, they do. Look, I'm back in Budapest, and fifty
39:35
Speaker 7: percent of the electricity that's powering this camera here is
39:38
Speaker 7: coming from a nuclear power plant, So there you go. Look,
39:41
Speaker 7: I just think that this is a clownish to bake.
39:43
Speaker 7: We're having it, particularly at state level. But Chris Boone
39:46
Speaker 7: is guilty of this too. It's ill informed, it's based
39:49
Speaker 7: on prejudice, it's based on no facts whatsoever. Now, if
39:53
Speaker 7: you said to Alan wants to say no to nucleus,
39:55
Speaker 7: you can do that. But spoiler alert, we know how
39:58
Speaker 7: this story ends, because that's exactly what Angela Merkel did
40:01
Speaker 7: in Germany twelve years ago. The German economy is now
40:05
Speaker 7: in a woeful state. It's losing heavy industry and the
40:09
Speaker 7: car manufacturing at tremendous rate. It's losing jobs because electricity
40:13
Speaker 7: is the most expensive in Europe. That's what happens if
40:16
Speaker 7: you decide that you can get by without nuclear. And
40:19
Speaker 7: I'm afraid that Jacinta Allen is burying her heads in
40:22
Speaker 7: the sand. Obviously she doesn't want to go against what
40:24
Speaker 7: Albanesi and Bowen are saying, but somebody in Labor surely
40:27
Speaker 7: should have the guts to stand up and say this
40:30
Speaker 7: is the obvious way forward.
40:34
Speaker 1: Jonathan Chris Kenny tonight was telling us about the reaction
40:39
Speaker 1: to nuclear by the Greens in Finland and he showed
40:44
Speaker 1: that the Greens Party and Nick might have more to
40:47
Speaker 1: say about this a bit later. But the Greens Party
40:49
Speaker 1: in Europe, particularly in a place like Finland, they support nuclear.
40:53
Speaker 1: They in fact want more, according to polls that are
40:56
Speaker 1: being run there.
40:58
Speaker 15: Yeah.
40:58
Speaker 8: Well, I think, as we've said repeatedly, see you know,
41:02
Speaker 8: there is no developed country out there with a credible
41:06
Speaker 8: pathway to net zero, or certainly not a credible pathway
41:09
Speaker 8: to the power that doesn't have nuclear as part of
41:10
Speaker 8: the mix. So of course the Greens would be on
41:13
Speaker 8: board with this. They support the idea of getting to
41:16
Speaker 8: net zero. But sadly we're seeing with Labor leaders and
41:21
Speaker 8: indeed the Greens here in Australia that it's all about division,
41:24
Speaker 8: it's all about fear, it's about stoking fear and listening
41:27
Speaker 8: to that ridiculous incompetent minister from Victoria Lily Dan Brosio,
41:32
Speaker 8: Jessina Allen's colleague talking about all nuclear technologies being dangerous
41:38
Speaker 8: and all of it leads this inflammatory language based on
41:42
Speaker 8: zero knowledge and zero facts and zero science, just proves
41:46
Speaker 8: that regardless of how good the suggestion might be, if
41:49
Speaker 8: it doesn't meet up with their ideology, they.
41:51
Speaker 6: Won't go with it.
41:52
Speaker 8: So the people that move out, of course, are the
41:54
Speaker 8: people of Victoria. And it's going to be a brave
41:56
Speaker 8: state government that goes against policies that actually bring our
42:00
Speaker 8: power prices most importantly, but then achieve their holy grail
42:04
Speaker 8: reaching net zero by twenty fifty.
42:08
Speaker 1: Well, Nick, the sensible debate is being had in Europe,
42:11
Speaker 1: as we know when you look at Australia. Here we
42:15
Speaker 1: had a referendum and you were very vocal during it
42:18
Speaker 1: on the Voice. Sixty percent of Australian said no, we
42:22
Speaker 1: don't like that. We're not going to vote yes. We're
42:24
Speaker 1: going to vote no. Peter Dutton's going Everyone's got to
42:27
Speaker 1: remember this. Peter Dutton's going to an election, a federal
42:30
Speaker 1: election where every member of his party and the National
42:34
Speaker 1: Party that are standing, including John O, they're going to
42:37
Speaker 1: go to people and say this is our nuclear plan.
42:39
Speaker 1: If the Australian public vote the coalition in surely that's
42:44
Speaker 1: a mandate that all of these premiers are then going
42:46
Speaker 1: to have to go. Okay, we get it. The Australian
42:49
Speaker 1: public are spoken.
42:53
Speaker 7: It is a mandate, but we have to remember that
42:55
Speaker 7: under the constitution, energy is actually responsibility of the States
43:00
Speaker 7: have enormous influence on this, and the states have individual
43:03
Speaker 7: moratoriums on nuclear power which would have to be lifted.
43:06
Speaker 7: But surely, given the way things are happening, they've got
43:09
Speaker 7: to come on board. I mean, you can't have Victoria
43:11
Speaker 7: just standing out like an island if everybody else suddenly
43:14
Speaker 7: seeks the light. I mean, certainly we know that the
43:16
Speaker 7: Labor government in South Australia is very seriously considering nuclear
43:21
Speaker 7: and we're saying a lot more about it. If they
43:23
Speaker 7: didn't weren't so careful not to embarrass Anty now Ben
43:26
Speaker 7: easy So I think I think this is you see
43:28
Speaker 7: the point in Europe and you've just made that point, Steve.
43:30
Speaker 7: It's not a political debate here in most countries. In Finland,
43:34
Speaker 7: everybody in parliament backs nuclear you know, the only six
43:39
Speaker 7: percent of the public are opposed to it, and that
43:41
Speaker 7: is that is taking that's happening in Sweden to and
43:45
Speaker 7: other countries even Ireland now talking about nuclear So it's
43:49
Speaker 7: not a political debate here. It's a debate about how
43:51
Speaker 7: you keep the lights on in the most reliable fashion
43:55
Speaker 7: and in the cheapest way.
43:58
Speaker 1: Jonathan, we hate to remember the best had old days
44:00
Speaker 1: of COVID and the pandemic and what happened to school
44:03
Speaker 1: kids and them being locked out of schools and not
44:06
Speaker 1: being able to go for years. I understand that in
44:09
Speaker 1: the US, the former director of the US National Institute
44:12
Speaker 1: of Infectious Diseases, that bloke, Anthony Fauci's admitted, I love this.
44:17
Speaker 1: It was a mistake to close schools for more than
44:19
Speaker 1: a year at the height of the pandemic. Finally someone
44:23
Speaker 1: said what all of us were saying right through that time.
44:27
Speaker 8: Well, frankly, depriving kids from social interaction, from the capacity
44:35
Speaker 8: to learn, and having three boys at very different stages
44:38
Speaker 8: of their education during lockdown. Admittedly ours wasn't as bad
44:42
Speaker 8: as it was in safe states like Victoria, was impossible
44:46
Speaker 8: to keep up with the various things that they needed
44:49
Speaker 8: to do in each of their selected areas of study.
44:53
Speaker 8: But frankly, the fact that there's an admission now it's
44:56
Speaker 8: too little, too late, and we are seeing kids now
45:00
Speaker 8: far behind their peers, and this is why if we
45:03
Speaker 8: ever face circumstances like this again, we need to think
45:07
Speaker 8: seriously about the pathway we go down when it comes
45:09
Speaker 8: to lockdowns, when it comes to the exclusion of people
45:13
Speaker 8: from services because of whether or not they're vaccinated and
45:16
Speaker 8: the like. These are all serious questions that sadly went
45:20
Speaker 8: unanswered at the time, But with the benefit of hindsight,
45:23
Speaker 8: I think they'd be a few things done differently, including
45:26
Speaker 8: how we handle kids going to school or not.
45:30
Speaker 1: One hundred percent fout to you, by the way, is
45:32
Speaker 1: flogging a book, which would surprise nobody. Jonathan, Thank you Nick,
45:36
Speaker 1: thanks for making time for us again in Buddhapest and
45:39
Speaker 1: we'll talk to you again next week. Peter will be
45:41
Speaker 1: back to have a chat to you next week. Coming
45:43
Speaker 1: up next, Peter Kretlin's favorite regular, Kill Riches is in
45:47
Speaker 1: with Words that Matter. Welcome back to Steve Price in
45:54
Speaker 1: for Peter. I should be back next week. As I've
45:55
Speaker 1: mentioned now, wordsmith and broadcast to kill Richards is Peter's favorite.
46:00
Speaker 1: He answers your questions each week about where words and
46:03
Speaker 1: phrases come from. Cal great to see you again. I
46:07
Speaker 1: think it's probably a really interesting word to start with.
46:11
Speaker 1: Let's start with the word phobia. Terence asked, where exactly
46:15
Speaker 1: or when exactly did it more from fear of into antithropy.
46:22
Speaker 15: Yes, it's a good question, isn't it, Because phobia means
46:25
Speaker 15: literally fear of, but now it's used to mean we
46:28
Speaker 15: dislike so and so. It actually began in nineteen sixty
46:32
Speaker 15: nine with the coining of a word homophobia. Now, I
46:36
Speaker 15: think it was always a badly coin word. It was
46:39
Speaker 15: basically the gay community pretending that anyone who disagreed with
46:42
Speaker 15: them did so because they were afraid of them. Badly
46:45
Speaker 15: coin word and a fairly wrongheaded, silly way to think
46:49
Speaker 15: about things. But it bred a whole looney lexicon of
46:52
Speaker 15: similarly structured words, and we've been stuck with him ever since.
46:55
Speaker 1: Steve, timely, given we're talking about nuclear power, are in
47:00
Speaker 1: the phobia around having a nuclear power plant, perhaps located
47:04
Speaker 1: in your town.
47:05
Speaker 15: Just as unreasonable a phobia?
47:09
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Now we've got boffen. I love this word, boffin.
47:13
Speaker 1: Mike has contacted and says, where and when did the
47:16
Speaker 1: word boffen? It's a lovely word, boffen enter the vernacular.
47:22
Speaker 15: You are right, Steve, it is our lovely word. World
47:24
Speaker 15: War II started off in the British Navy nineteen forty one,
47:29
Speaker 15: and they used it just to mean an elderly naval officer.
47:32
Speaker 15: But the word was borrowed by the RAF and they
47:35
Speaker 15: changed the meaning. They started using boffin to mean the
47:38
Speaker 15: backroom boys, the technicians and engineers who built the clever
47:42
Speaker 15: new devices that they used, so they became the Boffins.
47:45
Speaker 15: Where does it come from? The great Eric Partridge had
47:48
Speaker 15: a brilliant idea. He reckons it comes from Charles Dickens,
47:51
Speaker 15: because there is a character called Nicholas Boffin in Our
47:55
Speaker 15: Mutual Friend. So maybe from Dickens to the Navy, to
47:58
Speaker 15: the Air Force to the word we know to day.
48:02
Speaker 1: Extraordinary that literature delivers those words and then people manufactureing
48:08
Speaker 1: them into what they want them to.
48:09
Speaker 15: Mean exactly exactly happens all the time.
48:14
Speaker 1: Now Melbourne. This morning, when I went outside to get
48:17
Speaker 1: a coffee in the paper, the temperature was two degrees.
48:21
Speaker 1: I had been snug as a bug in a rug
48:24
Speaker 1: before I got out of that rug and went out
48:26
Speaker 1: the front, Tanya from the act where it would be
48:31
Speaker 1: minus two there today, I'd reckon, where does the phrase
48:34
Speaker 1: snug as a bug in a rug come from? And
48:37
Speaker 1: what does it actually mean?
48:38
Speaker 15: Actually, in the light of what you said a moment ago, Steve,
48:41
Speaker 15: this is yet another one from literature. Comes from a play.
48:44
Speaker 15: It was a play put on in London in seventeen
48:47
Speaker 15: ninety seven by David Garrick, the legendary British actor and
48:51
Speaker 15: producer and so on, and it had this line in
48:53
Speaker 15: it of snugg as a bug in a rug, and
48:55
Speaker 15: it's simply caught on and it would have died out
48:58
Speaker 15: except for the fact that it's got this really nice
49:01
Speaker 15: rhythm and this really nice rhyme. So we use it
49:03
Speaker 15: with little kids these days. But you'll remember doing that
49:06
Speaker 15: with kids, Steve. You called you know, you'll be a
49:08
Speaker 15: snugg as a bugging a rug, we say as we
49:10
Speaker 15: tuck them into bed.
49:13
Speaker 1: Forget the children. I do it for myself. When I
49:16
Speaker 1: say I want to keep warm at night, I'm coming
49:19
Speaker 1: to it. I'm going to get me. I'm going to
49:21
Speaker 1: be very snug as a bug in a rug tonight.
49:23
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you it's going to be even
49:24
Speaker 1: colder tomorrow.
49:26
Speaker 15: You're a wise man.
49:29
Speaker 1: Well, I don't know about that. Let's talk Tim's been
49:32
Speaker 1: in touch.
49:33
Speaker 6: Now.
49:33
Speaker 1: This is very timely given what we've been talking about
49:35
Speaker 1: all day today. Tim asks about the origins of the
49:39
Speaker 1: word renewables and how it came to be applied to
49:42
Speaker 1: wind turbines and solar panels.
49:45
Speaker 15: Well, it's got a little history from the verb to
49:48
Speaker 15: renew We got the word renewables back in the sixteenth century.
49:51
Speaker 15: Then quite a long time ago, eighteen ninety seven, renewable
49:55
Speaker 15: energy turned up. Then in nineteen fifty seven that the
49:58
Speaker 15: lural of renewables meaning water and wind and solder and
50:03
Speaker 15: so on, And a very clever reader of my website
50:05
Speaker 15: said they're called renewables because every twenty years we've got
50:08
Speaker 15: to pay all the money to renew them again.
50:11
Speaker 1: Exactly. It's probably the most overused word in the language.
50:15
Speaker 1: Thank you, Kel, See you next week. Kel Richard's there
50:17
Speaker 1: coming up after the break. Danika de Giorgio filling in
50:21
Speaker 1: for Andrew the Bolt Report