Latest / Sharri / Sharri | 19 October
Transcript
- 0:06Speaker 1: Thanks, Andrew.
- 0:06Speaker 2: And we start tonight with the breaking news that independent
- 0:09Speaker 2: MP Helen Haynes has been struck by a car near
- 0:13Speaker 2: her electorate office in Victoria. The Prime Minister says this
- 0:16Speaker 2: appears to be a deliberate attack on a fiercely intelligent
- 0:20Speaker 2: and thoroughly decent politician. Victorian police have released a statement
- 0:25Speaker 2: saying that Haynes has critical injuries and they say they're
- 0:29Speaker 2: still investigating whether this is a terrible accident or a
- 0:33Speaker 2: politically motivated targeted attack. Victorian police say at this stage
- 0:38Speaker 2: police are investigating as to whether this was an intentional act.
- 0:42Speaker 2: It is not yet known if other parties, if the
- 0:45Speaker 2: parties are known to each other. And my sources have
- 0:50Speaker 2: confirmed that there is no known terror link to the
- 0:53Speaker 2: suspect at this point. The Herald Sun reports that Helen
- 0:58Speaker 2: Haynes was removing shopping from her parked car at around
- 1:02Speaker 2: 3.40 this afternoon when she was struck by a man
- 1:06Speaker 2: in a white Toyota Land Cruiser. Witnesses say he made
- 1:11Speaker 2: a U-turn. A citizen's arrest was made by a barber
- 1:14Speaker 2: who ran out of his store. The suspect is now
- 1:17Speaker 2: in custody. He's a 43-year-old man. And Helen is tonight
- 1:22Speaker 2: receiving urgent medical treatment in hospital for her critical injuries.
- 1:28Speaker 2: The Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister addressed the media
- 1:32Speaker 2: a short while ago, and Anthony Albanese described the incident
- 1:36Speaker 2: as an attack on Haynes. He said the Joint Counterterrorism
- 1:39Speaker 2: Team had been activated, with AFP, ASIO and Victorian Police
- 1:44Speaker 2: working together.
- 1:45Speaker 1: Victorian Police has the lead.
- 1:49Speaker 3: This afternoon, Helen Haynes, the member for Indi, was attacked
- 1:53Speaker 3: outside her electorate office in Wangaratta. All of our thoughts
- 1:58Speaker 3: are with Helen, her family, her friends, her team and
- 2:03Speaker 3: her community at this extremely difficult time. We are praying
- 2:08Speaker 3: for her full recovery. I want to thank the first
- 2:12Speaker 3: responders for their extraordinary work. There is a major police
- 2:17Speaker 3: investigation underway and I can confirm that a suspect is
- 2:22Speaker 3: in custody. The Australian Federal Police, Victorian Police and Asia
- 2:28Speaker 3: are working together on this. The Joint Counterterrorism Team has
- 2:32Speaker 3: been activated but the motive is not known.
- 2:38Speaker 2: And Tony Burke stressed it was early in the investigation.
- 2:42Speaker 4: We're still very early in the investigation, but importantly, someone
- 2:46Speaker 4: is in custody and acknowledges the family statement, has acknowledged
- 2:51Speaker 4: the bystanders, the health workers and the police.
- 2:55Speaker 2: The Home Affairs Minister also spoke about the number of
- 2:58Speaker 2: incidents against high office holders.
- 3:01Speaker 4: Last year, or the year before last, we had 951
- 3:04Speaker 4: reports of harassing and threatening behaviour against various high office holders.
- 3:10Speaker 4: The more recent financial year, that $ 9. 51 has gone to $ 1, 067.
- 3:16Speaker 2: There are also reports the driver had a flick knife
- 3:19Speaker 2: in his pocket. Opposition leader Angus Taylor posted on social
- 3:23Speaker 2: media a short while ago a statement saying, this is
- 3:26Speaker 2: a shocking day for our nation. No one should be
- 3:29Speaker 2: targeted in this way. Australians will be angry and appalled
- 3:33Speaker 2: by the attack on Helen outside her electorate office in Wangaratta.
- 3:38Speaker 2: He says our nation cannot become a place where violent
- 3:40Speaker 2: attacks are normalised. He said he's spoken with the Prime
- 3:44Speaker 2: Minister and they're united in their view that political violence
- 3:48Speaker 2: must never be accepted as part of public life. And
- 3:52Speaker 2: One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has also released a statement
- 3:56Speaker 2: saying she's alarmed by the attack. She said violence against
- 4:00Speaker 2: any elective representative, whoever they are and whatever they stand for,
- 4:03Speaker 2: is never acceptable in Australia. Members of Parliament and their
- 4:07Speaker 2: staff must be able to serve their communities without fearing
- 4:11Speaker 2: for their safety. So, again, law enforcement sources say there
- 4:16Speaker 2: is no counterterrorism connection to the individual that has been
- 4:20Speaker 2: uncovered thus far. And the Prime Minister has said there
- 4:24Speaker 2: is no known motivation, but he has said that it
- 4:27Speaker 2: appears to be a deliberate attack. This is based on
- 4:31Speaker 2: the accounts of bystanders and witnesses. Now, Albanese used the
- 4:36Speaker 2: press conference tonight to stress that the temperature and political
- 4:39Speaker 2: rhetoric should be lowered.
- 4:41Speaker 3: Got to look up. the interviews in which I've done
- 4:45Speaker 3: and called for the temperature to be turned down when
- 4:50Speaker 3: it comes to political discourse.
- 4:53Speaker 2: Well, look, this is the precise point that we've been
- 4:55Speaker 2: making right here, that Albanese and his own ministers need
- 4:59Speaker 2: to lower the temperature, whether it comes to language about
- 5:03Speaker 2: One Nation, Pauline Hanson or Israel. All politicians need to
- 5:08Speaker 2: refrain from using language that could encourage hatred or violence.
- 5:13Speaker 2: Of course, we need to engage in healthy political debate.
- 5:16Speaker 2: It's crucial to democracy, but not in a way that
- 5:20Speaker 2: incites violence. And social media is a huge part of
- 5:24Speaker 2: the problem. And just to reiterate, as we speak tonight,
- 5:28Speaker 2: Helen Haynes is in a critical condition in hospital. Her
- 5:33Speaker 2: family has released a statement saying this afternoon our beloved
- 5:37Speaker 2: Helen was involved in an incident outside her Wangaratta electorate
- 5:41Speaker 2: office and is receiving medical care. We thank the swift
- 5:45Speaker 2: assistance of bystanders and the dedicated health workers who assisted
- 5:49Speaker 2: her and police for their response. Our family and Helen's
- 5:53Speaker 2: staff will be making no further comment at this time
- 5:56Speaker 2: and ask that their privacy be respected by the public
- 5:59Speaker 2: and media. And of course, here at News 24, our
- 6:03Speaker 2: thoughts and prayers are with Helen and her family. The
- 6:09Speaker 2: 65-year-old is a mother of three. She's a former nurse,
- 6:12Speaker 2: midwife and health researcher. She was first elected as the
- 6:16Speaker 2: independent federal member for Indi in 2019. She's been credited
- 6:21Speaker 2: as a key figure behind the establishment of the National
- 6:24Speaker 2: Anti-Corruption Commission. And we can just pray tonight that she
- 6:30Speaker 2: will pull through.
- 6:31Speaker 1: We pray for her.
- 6:33Speaker 2: This is truly heartbreaking news. Let's bring in now for
- 6:37Speaker 2: more News 24 reporter, political reporter Cam Redden with the latest.
- 6:41Speaker 1: And Cam, after that.
- 6:43Speaker 2: Press conference tonight, the Prime Minister went on the ABC
- 6:47Speaker 2: 730 program and he went a bit further when he
- 6:50Speaker 2: said that this.
- 6:50Speaker 1: Does appear to be a deliberate attack. Have a look
- 6:54Speaker 1: at his comments.
- 6:56Speaker 3: There was a deliberate act, it would appear. We don't
- 7:01Speaker 3: know what motivation is. So that is the work that's
- 7:06Speaker 3: being undertaken by the Victorian Police together with the Australian
- 7:10Speaker 3: Federal Police.
- 7:12Speaker 2: Now, Cam, I said this a moment ago, this theory
- 7:14Speaker 2: that it was a deliberate attack comes from witnesses and
- 7:17Speaker 2: bystanders and the accounts that they've given to authorities.
- 7:23Speaker 5: Yeah, this is a truly unsettling moment, Shari. It will
- 7:25Speaker 5: have a long tail in Australian politics. We are about
- 7:28Speaker 5: to go into a Victorian state election campaign where MPs
- 7:31Speaker 5: and ministers and the Premier and The person who wants
- 7:35Speaker 5: to be the Premier, Jess Wilson, will be out walking
- 7:37Speaker 5: the street just about every day. And even in the
- 7:40Speaker 5: last hour or so, as news of this became apparent
- 7:43Speaker 5: and how serious it was, I've been in contact with
- 7:45Speaker 5: MPs and chiefs of staff and staff members of politicians
- 7:49Speaker 5: who are already reviewing their own practices when it comes
- 7:52Speaker 5: to looking for ways to improve their own processes and
- 7:55Speaker 5: security because she was simply, so go the reports, unloading
- 7:58Speaker 5: stuff out the back of her car, out the front
- 8:00Speaker 5: of her office, Shari. I mean, that's something that people
- 8:03Speaker 5: do every day, whether you're a politician or not. And
- 8:06Speaker 5: the idea that she has just by doing that become
- 8:09Speaker 5: a target is incredibly unsettling. So you've played a lot
- 8:13Speaker 5: of what the Prime Minister has said there. I doubt
- 8:15Speaker 5: we're going to get a great more deal of information tonight,
- 8:18Speaker 5: but tomorrow we may well get a clearer picture. The
- 8:20Speaker 5: police also saying that in terms of the medical response,
- 8:24Speaker 5: You mentioned she is in a critical condition. She had
- 8:26Speaker 5: to be medevaced away from this scene. Such was the
- 8:30Speaker 5: scene that many of those cars were still being looked
- 8:33Speaker 5: at and assessed even as of this evening. So we
- 8:36Speaker 5: will hope to get more information likely early tomorrow from
- 8:38Speaker 5: police and hopefully it is a positive medical update as well.
- 8:42Speaker 2: Cam, can you tell us a bit about Helen Haynes?
- 8:45Speaker 2: I mean, she's not a particularly controversial politician.
- 8:49Speaker 1: She is independent. She's well-liked, I understand, across political aisle.
- 8:56Speaker 5: Yeah, she's a genuinely good person, Shari, and it really
- 8:58Speaker 5: does stand out when you work in a place like
- 9:00Speaker 5: Parliament House, I've got to say, because she's someone who,
- 9:02Speaker 5: when you step away from the microphone, is the first
- 9:04Speaker 5: person to have a laugh with you and say g'day
- 9:07Speaker 5: and ask how you're going. She's been around this place
- 9:10Speaker 5: for 10 years or so, and from memory too, was
- 9:13Speaker 5: a history maker in the fact that she was the
- 9:15Speaker 5: first independent to have the baton passed from another independent.
- 9:20Speaker 5: When Cathy McGowan retired, she contested that seat as an independent.
- 9:24Speaker 5: It had never been done before in Australian politics where
- 9:26Speaker 5: one independent wins off another. So she was a history
- 9:29Speaker 5: maker in her own right, campaigned, as you mentioned, doggedly
- 9:33Speaker 5: for many years to establish the National Anti-Corruption Commission. But
- 9:36Speaker 5: would work across the parliament, was thought of as somebody
- 9:39Speaker 5: who was diligent, who took things issue by issue. She
- 9:43Speaker 5: would stand up with Labor, stand up with the Liberal
- 9:46Speaker 5: Party and work across the aisle and was a true
- 9:50Speaker 5: conviction politician and was a dying breed in the sense
- 9:54Speaker 5: of politics, Shari, that she would work and talk with everyone.
- 9:58Speaker 5: She would work with people behind the scenes. to hear
- 10:00Speaker 5: their issues out and to try and make the world
- 10:02Speaker 5: a better place. And I know that sounds like, you know,
- 10:06Speaker 5: just something to say, but at a time like this,
- 10:08Speaker 5: it's worth reflecting that politicians are human beings and that
- 10:11Speaker 5: these people go in to make their communities a better place.
- 10:14Speaker 5: And that's what she tried to do and still does
- 10:17Speaker 5: Every day I've noticed, certainly, and has tried to do
- 10:19Speaker 5: as a community independent.
- 10:20Speaker 2: Yeah, and of course, I know you were using the
- 10:23Speaker 2: past tense a bit there, but we do hope she
- 10:25Speaker 2: pulls through. We'll be praying that she is able to
- 10:28Speaker 2: make a full recovery and return to the vibrant political
- 10:32Speaker 2: life that she was leading. Cam, Victorian police have stressed
- 10:37Speaker 2: they're still investigating if this was a targeted attack. attack
- 10:41Speaker 2: or a tragic incident. Now, we've already spoken about the
- 10:44Speaker 2: Prime Minister's comments tonight. But the reality is we are
- 10:47Speaker 2: living in increasingly dangerous times where political rhetoric right across
- 10:53Speaker 2: the Western world can so easily turn violent. And we've
- 10:57Speaker 2: seen similar instances in the UK. I say similar instances, again,
- 11:02Speaker 2: stressing that police are still investigating.
- 11:04Speaker 1: But we have.
- 11:04Speaker 2: Seen instances in the UK and the US where politicians
- 11:08Speaker 2: have been targeted.
- 11:10Speaker 5: Yeah, I remember being in the UK not too long
- 11:12Speaker 5: after the Joe Cox incident, Shari, and you could feel
- 11:16Speaker 5: then that the mood was tenser around their politics, that
- 11:20Speaker 5: people were starting to think differently about how politicians were
- 11:23Speaker 5: engaging with the public. And Tony Burke mentioned those figures
- 11:26Speaker 5: of a thousand reports that have escalated to authorities of
- 11:29Speaker 5: threats to politicians in the last financial year. I remember
- 11:32Speaker 5: reporting earlier this year, Shari, of some meetings that had
- 11:34Speaker 5: been had, largely just pull aside meetings and mentions, but
- 11:38Speaker 5: with the Speaker of the House, Milton Dick, and some
- 11:41Speaker 5: members of parliament from different parties saying, gee, the mood
- 11:44Speaker 5: out there is pretty ordinary and people are getting really
- 11:46Speaker 5: fired up. We need to make sure that parliament on
- 11:50Speaker 5: tv that the look that we put out there and
- 11:52Speaker 5: present is calm is orderly and it doesn't look like
- 11:55Speaker 5: people are just at each other's throats all the time
- 11:57Speaker 5: because it's rubbing off and having an effect that's a
- 12:00Speaker 5: concern across the aisle and shari the the fear that
- 12:03Speaker 5: the prime minister and others have spoken about for months
- 12:05Speaker 5: now is that this might escalate into something like what
- 12:08Speaker 5: we've seen tonight with helen haynes obviously the full motivations
- 12:11Speaker 5: aren't yet known but the prime minister is the language
- 12:15Speaker 5: he is using, he is under no illusions that he
- 12:17Speaker 5: believes this was very much a targeted attack.
- 12:21Speaker 2: All right, Cam Redden, really appreciate your time.
- 12:23Speaker 1: Thank you very much for that update.
- 12:25Speaker 2: And let's bring in our Shadow Assistant Minister for Multicultural Affairs,
- 12:28Speaker 2: Dave Sharma. Dave, look, you actually knew Helen quite well,
- 12:34Speaker 2: worked with her on several committees.
- 12:36Speaker 1: What can you tell us about Helen?
- 12:40Speaker 6: Look, I'm sure there are many people in the parliament
- 12:42Speaker 6: who know her better than I do, but she is
- 12:44Speaker 6: a thoroughly decent, hardworking, generous, warm, kind, good human being.
- 12:50Speaker 6: I came into parliament the same year as her in 2019.
- 12:54Speaker 6: We've co-chaired a few different parliamentary friendship groups together, parliamentary
- 12:59Speaker 6: friends of cycling, this term parliamentary friends of maternal health.
- 13:03Speaker 6: And of course, Helen's a well-qualified maternal health and nurse
- 13:08Speaker 6: in a previous life. And You know, she brought that
- 13:11Speaker 6: level of care from her professional life into how she
- 13:14Speaker 6: dealt with the public sphere and other members of parliament.
- 13:16Speaker 6: So her and her family are very much in my
- 13:19Speaker 6: thoughts and I'm obviously joining the nation in hoping for
- 13:22Speaker 6: her fullest recovery.
- 13:24Speaker 2: Does this worry you if it is, as the Prime
- 13:26Speaker 2: Minister says, it appears to be a targeted deliberate attack?
- 13:34Speaker 6: It worries me deeply. Now, You know, I've seen what
- 13:37Speaker 6: the Prime Minister said. I've also noticed that, you know,
- 13:39Speaker 6: police and others are saying we shouldn't jump to conclusions
- 13:42Speaker 6: and I certainly don't want to do that. But I
- 13:45Speaker 6: think anyone in public life, you know, fears this sort
- 13:50Speaker 6: of thing and I think if it was indeed a
- 13:53Speaker 6: targeted attack, a deliberate attempt to hurt someone in public life,
- 13:58Speaker 6: you know, I think that's terrifying not only for elected representatives,
- 14:02Speaker 6: of course, but I think for our body politic, the
- 14:05Speaker 6: functioning of Australian democracy.
- 14:08Speaker 2: Both the Prime Minister and the Home Affairs Minister stressed
- 14:11Speaker 2: that the temperature of political discourse needs to be lowered.
- 14:14Speaker 2: Albanese said, you can pull up my previous remarks, this
- 14:17Speaker 2: is what I've been saying. Do you think this has,
- 14:22Speaker 2: if this is targeted, do you think this has played
- 14:24Speaker 2: into it, political rhetoric?
- 14:28Speaker 6: Look, I don't think we can draw those sorts of
- 14:29Speaker 6: conclusions yet, particularly since we don't know anything about the motive,
- 14:34Speaker 6: the identification of the perpetrator and indeed whether it was
- 14:39Speaker 6: an accident or whether it was intentional. You know, in
- 14:43Speaker 6: a free and open society like Australia with a parliamentary democracy,
- 14:47Speaker 6: it's the nature of politics for there to be public disagreement. Now,
- 14:50Speaker 6: does that need to be kept within civil bounds? Yes, absolutely. But,
- 14:55Speaker 6: you know, we have a free and open exchange of
- 14:57Speaker 6: ideas in Australia. That's the sort of society and the
- 14:59Speaker 6: sort of country we are. And, you know, we all
- 15:02Speaker 6: need to be careful about whoever we are in public life,
- 15:05Speaker 6: about making sure that whilst we might be, you know,
- 15:09Speaker 6: fighting or disagreeing with someone's ideas or views or policies,
- 15:13Speaker 6: we're not saying, you know, we're not disrespecting their entitlement
- 15:16Speaker 6: to their own opinion or indeed their entitlement to live
- 15:19Speaker 6: a peaceful and harmonious life. And I think that's something
- 15:22Speaker 6: we all in public life need to watch. But, you know,
- 15:25Speaker 6: it's an ongoing challenge in a free society such as ours.
- 15:30Speaker 2: Yeah, and the main motivation of law enforcement tonight is
- 15:33Speaker 2: investigating motivation, the motivation behind.
- 15:37Speaker 1: This attack, if it was indeed deliberate.
- 15:40Speaker 2: David, I just want to ask you about a couple
- 15:41Speaker 2: of other issues and then, of course, we are going
- 15:43Speaker 2: to come back to the breaking news on Helen Haynes
- 15:46Speaker 2: throughout the show and bring you every single development.
- 15:50Speaker 1: But, David, I want to get a.
- 15:51Speaker 2: Comment from you on the Paris riots that now seem
- 15:54Speaker 2: to be spreading throughout Europe. Is this a symptom of
- 15:57Speaker 2: Western civilisation in decay?
- 16:02Speaker 6: Look, I think it's a symptom of a public that's
- 16:05Speaker 6: frustrated about declining living standards and worsening economic conditions. I mean,
- 16:10Speaker 6: I think, you know, if you want to sort of
- 16:13Speaker 6: highlight what's unified the gilets jaunes, the protesters from eight
- 16:18Speaker 6: years ago who have resurfaced with the people, youngest people
- 16:21Speaker 6: who have been protesting about lack of investment in public education,
- 16:25Speaker 6: at heart it's the difficulty of the French state to
- 16:29Speaker 6: meet the expectations of the public.
- 16:32Speaker 7: And.
- 16:32Speaker 6: You know, let's not forget, I mean, the French Revolution
- 16:35Speaker 6: was itself the product of a fiscal crisis and a
- 16:38Speaker 6: cost of living crisis, the price of bread and a
- 16:41Speaker 6: government that couldn't pay its debts and couldn't borrow any
- 16:43Speaker 6: more money. So I think what we're seeing is a
- 16:45Speaker 6: level of public discontent about economic stagnation. And that picture
- 16:49Speaker 6: is not uniform across the Western world, but it's certainly
- 16:53Speaker 6: in parts of the Western world, including, frankly, here in Australia.
- 16:56Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. I mean, this has also been described as a
- 17:02Speaker 2: mass migration problem.
- 17:03Speaker 1: Would you agree with that characterisation?
- 17:07Speaker 6: I can't see the causal link there. I mean, you know,
- 17:10Speaker 6: other people might be able to, but as far as
- 17:12Speaker 6: I can tell, I mean, there were people who were protesting.
- 17:17Speaker 6: Those protests have been infected, as they often are, by
- 17:19Speaker 6: radical elements. Now, whether they are from the far left
- 17:22Speaker 6: or the far right or particular communities, I really don't...
- 17:25Speaker 6: But I think at the heart of this is, you know,
- 17:28Speaker 6: if you've got half a million people on the streets,
- 17:30Speaker 6: even if not all of them are violent, if you've
- 17:31Speaker 6: got half a million people on the streets, you know,
- 17:35Speaker 6: they're pretty angry about something and they're pretty upset about something.
- 17:38Speaker 2: Look, as I said, this does appear to be spreading
- 17:40Speaker 2: to other cities now.
- 17:42Speaker 1: Are you worried?
- 17:43Speaker 2: I mean, Australia always seems to follow suit, whether it's
- 17:46Speaker 2: the pro-Palestinian marches or the Black Lives Matter or climate protests.
- 17:50Speaker 2: Are you worried that this sort of violence will end
- 17:53Speaker 2: up here?
- 17:56Speaker 6: Look, I think it's, you know, we should always be
- 17:59Speaker 6: vigilant and on alert for that. But, you know, I
- 18:02Speaker 6: do think and believe, and I hope that's still the case,
- 18:04Speaker 6: that the political culture of Australia does not lend itself
- 18:09Speaker 6: to this sort of, you know, violent outbreaks. I mean,
- 18:12Speaker 6: France throughout its modern history has had these sorts of
- 18:15Speaker 6: quite large and quite violent protests, other countries less so.
- 18:20Speaker 6: So I would hope that we're not going to see
- 18:21Speaker 6: something like that here in Australia.
- 18:23Speaker 7: Yeah.
- 18:24Speaker 1: All right.
- 18:25Speaker 2: Dave Sharma, thank you so much, joining us live from Adelaide.
- 18:29Speaker 2: All right, let's bring in now, let's return to the
- 18:32Speaker 2: news tonight, the heartbreaking news that Helen Haynes has been hit.
- 18:37Speaker 2: And I'm joined by News24 host Steve Price and former
- 18:40Speaker 2: Speaker of the House, Bronwyn Bishop. Independent MP Bronwyn, Helen Haynes,
- 18:45Speaker 2: The PM says it appears to be a targeted attack.
- 18:49Speaker 2: Law enforcement, of course, say they're still investigating. No known
- 18:52Speaker 2: motivation at this point. What's your reaction to this?
- 18:56Speaker 7: I'm horrified.
- 18:57Speaker 8: I really am because Helen Hayes was an independent. She's
- 19:04Speaker 8: not a high profile politician as such. She would be
- 19:09Speaker 8: in her own electorate. Whatever the motivation is, it's horrendous
- 19:15Speaker 8: that it's occurred. And I just join with everyone saying
- 19:20Speaker 8: I just wish her a complete recovery so she can
- 19:23Speaker 8: resume her membership of the parliament and carrying out the
- 19:29Speaker 8: wishes of her electorate. But in order to allay the
- 19:35Speaker 8: sort of behaviour that's occurring, it's all very well for
- 19:38Speaker 8: the Prime Minister to say, lower the temperature. But he
- 19:42Speaker 8: doesn't do that with these actions. And from the time
- 19:46Speaker 8: of that demonstration that occurred after the 7th of October
- 19:52Speaker 8: and the march down to the Opera House and the
- 19:55Speaker 8: march across the bridge, the temperature has been rising. And
- 19:59Speaker 8: that's because no action was taken against it.
- 20:02Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's an important point.
- 20:04Speaker 2: The politicians often like to say the temperature needs to
- 20:06Speaker 2: be lowered, but they're speaking about their political opponents. They
- 20:09Speaker 2: need to take responsibility as well because there's rising violence
- 20:13Speaker 2: against different communities. I just want to bring in some
- 20:17Speaker 2: of the latest news from the Herald Sun. As I said,
- 20:22Speaker 2: the Prime Minister has said this wasn't an accident, but
- 20:25Speaker 2: also the Herald Sun's reporting that she might not she
- 20:29Speaker 2: might lose both of her legs because they're reporting that
- 20:32Speaker 2: the critical injuries were to her lower body and it
- 20:34Speaker 2: might lead to her losing both of her legs. Steve,
- 20:40Speaker 2: at this point, given the description from Victorian Police that
- 20:44Speaker 2: her injuries are critical, you know, we're just hoping that
- 20:47Speaker 2: she'll be able to make it.
- 20:52Speaker 7: Absolutely.
- 20:52Speaker 9: And, you know, if this turns out to be a
- 20:54Speaker 9: targeted attack, The ramifications of what occurred at 3.30 this
- 20:58Speaker 9: afternoon in Wangaratta will be extreme. We're five and a
- 21:03Speaker 9: half weeks out from a state election in Victoria and
- 21:07Speaker 9: we have One Nation polling extremely well, which means One
- 21:11Speaker 9: Nation leader Pauline Hanson will be in Victoria more than
- 21:14Speaker 9: she would have otherwise normally been. We already know that
- 21:17Speaker 9: security around the One Nation leader is extremely high. when
- 21:22Speaker 9: they have functions, they deliberately don't tell people where those
- 21:25Speaker 9: functions are going to be, because the risk threat that
- 21:28Speaker 9: they've been told about is extreme. You've then got, you know,
- 21:32Speaker 9: Labor Premier Ben Carroll and Jess Wilson, the Liberal leader,
- 21:35Speaker 9: they're going to be out in public on the streets
- 21:39Speaker 9: every day for the next five weeks. It's not just
- 21:41Speaker 9: a normal cycle in politics. This is an election campaign. And,
- 21:46Speaker 9: you know, let's just hope that that this is not
- 21:50Speaker 9: a target attack, if it turns out to be. I mean,
- 21:52Speaker 9: it just goes, and Tony Burke made this point tonight, Shari,
- 21:55Speaker 9: about the level and number of threats against high-ranking politicians
- 22:03Speaker 9: over the last 12 months have gone through the roof.
- 22:07Speaker 9: And we must remember in Victoria too, I mean, it's
- 22:10Speaker 9: not that far back. Then we had two Victoria police
- 22:14Speaker 9: officers shot dead by Desi Freeman. And then Freeman himself,
- 22:17Speaker 9: of course, was shot in the very same region of
- 22:20Speaker 9: where Helen Hayne's seat is. She, in fact, is the
- 22:23Speaker 9: local federal member of the town of Port Punker where
- 22:26Speaker 9: that all took place. So we're in very dangerous times
- 22:29Speaker 9: if this turns out to be targeted.
- 22:32Speaker 2: And just the Herald Sun is reporting that one source
- 22:35Speaker 2: has told them and it's not they haven't named who
- 22:37Speaker 2: it is. They're saying one source has told them that
- 22:39Speaker 2: she was hit multiple times. So that goes, if that
- 22:44Speaker 2: is true, if that is accurate, that goes to the
- 22:46Speaker 2: evidence that this was deliberate. Bronwyn, you know, just on
- 22:51Speaker 2: the political climate, you know, over the past few years,
- 22:55Speaker 2: there have been several politicians, often conservative politicians, who have
- 22:59Speaker 2: needed full-time security. At the moment, Pauline Hanson needs, you know,
- 23:06Speaker 2: police protection whenever she's in public. So we know there
- 23:10Speaker 2: is this level of of hatred, of political violence, this
- 23:15Speaker 2: dangerous climate, this volatile climate at the moment?
- 23:20Speaker 8: Well, Peter Dutton literally had people living on his property.
- 23:24Speaker 8: There is a danger in public life and there has
- 23:30Speaker 8: been examples where lots of us have had threats. But
- 23:35Speaker 8: this level, that description just sent the most ghastly shiver
- 23:40Speaker 8: down my spine. to think that that could be, if
- 23:43Speaker 8: it's true, that that's what was done to her. It
- 23:46Speaker 8: is just beyond, beyond the imagining of any threat against
- 23:51Speaker 8: a member of the parliament. And we pride ourselves in
- 23:55Speaker 8: this country. I know that we could walk around and
- 23:59Speaker 8: we could talk with people and interact with people. It's
- 24:01Speaker 8: part of what we do in this country, that you're available,
- 24:04Speaker 8: that people can come up to you and say hello.
- 24:07Speaker 8: And I've even had the odd kiss put on my face, um,
- 24:11Speaker 8: It's just the way it is. But to see this
- 24:14Speaker 8: sort of story come out, as I said, it sent
- 24:16Speaker 8: the most horrible shiver right down my spine.
- 24:19Speaker 2: I mean, you know, the climate here is nothing like
- 24:22Speaker 2: in the United States where, of course, President Trump has
- 24:25Speaker 2: been subject to multiple assassination attempts.
- 24:28Speaker 1: I mean, it's a miracle he is still alive, really.
- 24:32Speaker 2: Steve, I also want to go to the bravery of
- 24:34Speaker 2: this bystander, the barber, the local barber who... is said
- 24:40Speaker 2: to have seen the accident, who came out of his
- 24:42Speaker 2: store and pulled the man from his vehicle. We know
- 24:46Speaker 2: it's a 43-year-old man and he made this citizen's arrest.
- 24:49Speaker 2: He detained him until police got there. The 43-year-old's now
- 24:53Speaker 2: in custody. Fantastic, fantastic bravery from this barber.
- 24:58Speaker 7: 100%.
- 25:01Speaker 9: I mean, apparently he secured, according to some reports, a
- 25:05Speaker 9: flick knife that this person had on his person. and
- 25:09Speaker 9: managed to keep this person on the ground until police arrived.
- 25:12Speaker 9: I know Wangaratta really well. I've got relatives who live there.
- 25:15Speaker 9: I've been up there hundreds of times. It's a great
- 25:19Speaker 9: town in northeast Victoria. It's the centre of the rural
- 25:22Speaker 9: community up there. Daniel Andrews, bizarrely, He was actually born
- 25:28Speaker 9: in Wangaratta and raised and went to school there. So
- 25:31Speaker 9: it's a place that would be very shocked that this
- 25:34Speaker 9: had happened because, as I know well, Helen was very much...
- 25:39Speaker 9: a popular local. She's not a teal. She's an independent.
- 25:43Speaker 9: She might have some political views that we don't agree with,
- 25:45Speaker 9: but she represented that community very well. She's been re-elected twice.
- 25:50Speaker 9: So this is a woman who was respected in her community.
- 25:53Speaker 9: Her electoral office is in the main street. The main
- 25:55Speaker 9: street of Wangaratta is the main road going north when
- 25:58Speaker 9: you go back to join the Hume Highway. So the
- 26:01Speaker 9: town themselves tonight will be saying, why us? Why would
- 26:05Speaker 9: this have happened? We're just going to have to wait
- 26:07Speaker 9: and see.
- 26:07Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. I mean, one of the last posts she has
- 26:11Speaker 2: put up on social media or on Instagram just a
- 26:14Speaker 2: day ago was holding the Australian flag and saying that
- 26:18Speaker 2: our national flag is a powerful symbol of who we
- 26:20Speaker 2: are as Australians, our history, our values, the country we're
- 26:23Speaker 2: proud to call.
- 26:24Speaker 1: Home, you know, just a day ago.
- 26:27Speaker 2: So, you know, Bronwyn, I mean, just a day ago
- 26:31Speaker 2: the next post is from her family wishing her a
- 26:34Speaker 2: full recovery and expressing gratitude how devastated they are that
- 26:37Speaker 2: their beloved Helen has been hit by a car, a
- 26:42Speaker 2: white Toyota Land Cruiser, this afternoon outside her electorate office.
- 26:47Speaker 8: She's clearly a person who had a very close association
- 26:50Speaker 8: with her electorate and the people in it. And you
- 26:53Speaker 8: do build that as a local member. You do build
- 26:57Speaker 8: a rapport. You are available to them.
- 27:02Speaker 7: I agree with.
- 27:04Speaker 8: What you said about the bravery, Steve, of that man
- 27:09Speaker 8: who did the citizen's arrest. I mean, that says so
- 27:12Speaker 8: many good things about the Australian people, but nothing can
- 27:16Speaker 8: offset what's happened to her. I'm sorry.
- 27:18Speaker 7: I really, really feel.
- 27:20Speaker 8: That this is something that we've never seen the like
- 27:23Speaker 8: of before. We've seen the dreadful outcome of what happened
- 27:30Speaker 8: at Bondi, where hate was allowed to reign supreme. What
- 27:36Speaker 8: on earth would cause someone to do this to another
- 27:38Speaker 8: human being like this? It's beyond my comprehension.
- 27:41Speaker 2: And that's the question we're all asking. That's the question
- 27:44Speaker 2: that authorities will be investigating. Hopefully they will be questioning
- 27:50Speaker 2: the 43-year-old in custody and seeing... I mean, as the
- 27:53Speaker 2: Victorian Police statement said, it's not known whether the individuals
- 27:56Speaker 2: knew each other. It's not known what the motivation.
- 28:00Speaker 1: Is if this does..... if this is.
- 28:02Speaker 2: A targeted attack, as the Prime Minister's indicated it is.
- 28:06Speaker 8: Well, the indications that we've had, the reports that we've
- 28:09Speaker 8: had are horrendous, just horrendous.
- 28:13Speaker 1: All right, Bronwyn Bishop.
- 28:15Speaker 2: And I have to say, Bronwyn, I'm sorry this has
- 28:17Speaker 2: happened as well because it's your birthday today, 84th birthday,
- 28:20Speaker 2: and we wanted to have a wonderful, happy, fun show,
- 28:22Speaker 2: wishing you a big happy birthday. And here you are
- 28:25Speaker 2: on your birthday discussing this terrible news. But here's to
- 28:30Speaker 2: a year of good health and success for you.
- 28:33Speaker 8: Well, thank you very much. And can I simply say,
- 28:36Speaker 8: That's what I would wish for Helen.
- 28:38Speaker 1: Indeed, indeed.
- 28:39Speaker 2: And we are all praying for her. All right, Steve Price,
- 28:42Speaker 2: Bronwyn Bishop, thank you. All right, later on the program,
- 28:45Speaker 2: Emmanuel Macron has finally addressed the nation. France is still
- 28:48Speaker 2: burning to the ground. Brendan O'Neill will join us live.
- 28:52Speaker 2: And after the break, we'll get the latest news on
- 28:54Speaker 2: the Helen Haynes attack.
- 29:01Speaker 1: Welcome back.
- 29:02Speaker 2: And tonight, politicians from across the political spectrum, a warning
- 29:06Speaker 2: against political violence, saying that the temperature needs to be
- 29:10Speaker 2: lowered after the suspected targeted attack on independent MP Helen
- 29:15Speaker 2: Haynes this afternoon outside her electorate office. The Prime Minister
- 29:20Speaker 2: and Home Affairs Minister have made it clear that this
- 29:23Speaker 2: appears to be.
- 29:24Speaker 1: A deliberate attack.
- 29:25Speaker 2: Witnesses have described a man in a white Toyota Land
- 29:29Speaker 2: Cruiser doing a U-turn. And one source has told the
- 29:32Speaker 2: Herald Sun that Helen Haynes was repeatedly hit. She's in
- 29:37Speaker 2: a critical condition in hospital.
- 29:39Speaker 1: It's been reported.
- 29:40Speaker 2: that her lower body, her legs, are the most critically injured,
- 29:45Speaker 2: the most severely injured, and she may have to lose
- 29:48Speaker 2: both of her legs. We're all tonight praying that she'll
- 29:51Speaker 2: make a full recovery, and joining me now for more
- 29:54Speaker 2: is veteran broadcaster Ray Hadley. Ray, this is horrific news
- 29:58Speaker 2: that a politician has appears to have been targeted deliberately
- 30:02Speaker 2: outside her electorate office while she was.
- 30:04Speaker 1: Unpacking the shopping.
- 30:05Speaker 7: Well, in my lifetime, it's unprecedented. But I was thinking
- 30:11Speaker 7: about it when I was listening to Steve and Bronwyn.
- 30:13Speaker 7: We live in a violent world. And we're not talking
- 30:16Speaker 7: about France or Russia or the United States of America.
- 30:20Speaker 7: We're talking about here. Police have a very difficult job
- 30:25Speaker 7: dealing with teenagers who are being paid tens of thousands
- 30:28Speaker 7: of dollars... via encrypted apps to go out and kill people.
- 30:32Speaker 2: Sometimes it's even a couple hundred bucks.
- 30:35Speaker 7: So I haven't seen the level of violence that we're
- 30:39Speaker 7: seeing in this country ever before. And to have a politician,
- 30:45Speaker 7: a hardworking local member, an independent, not affiliated with either
- 30:48Speaker 7: of the major parties or One Nation, to be allegedly
- 30:51Speaker 7: targeted by someone in her own electorate is just horrific.
- 30:57Speaker 7: And the family must be just despairing at the news.
- 31:00Speaker 7: I mean, she's doing a shopping in a rural town
- 31:05Speaker 7: in Victoria and targeted in this fashion. And the Prime
- 31:09Speaker 7: Minister said targeted, so it must be targeted. Look, by
- 31:12Speaker 7: tomorrow and by Wednesday and Thursday and Friday, we'll know
- 31:16Speaker 7: more about it and who the person is that they
- 31:18Speaker 7: have detained at the moment. But it just means that
- 31:21Speaker 7: we are now living in a society where violence reigns supreme.
- 31:26Speaker 7: in all levels of society, whether it's in Western Sydney,
- 31:28Speaker 7: where a 13-year-old allegedly stabbed a man to death, where
- 31:31Speaker 7: men are in custody, along with women, for allegedly killing people,
- 31:35Speaker 7: and some of the people killed by mistake, including the
- 31:39Speaker 7: elderly gentleman from North Western Sydney. So it's just an
- 31:42Speaker 7: horrific time in our history. And as I said at
- 31:45Speaker 7: the start of our conversation, unprecedented. It hasn't happened before.
- 31:49Speaker 2: So you look at Victoria and crime has been a
- 31:51Speaker 2: major issue in the current state election campaign, particularly with
- 31:56Speaker 2: home break-ins, burglaries, car thefts.
- 31:59Speaker 1: You look at New South.
- 32:00Speaker 2: Wales, the gangland crime that you just referred to, but also,
- 32:04Speaker 2: of course, in both states, the anti-Semitic violence as well,
- 32:09Speaker 2: some of that paid for by Iran, you know, through
- 32:12Speaker 2: just cheap criminals. So And it's really New South Wales
- 32:16Speaker 2: and Victoria are the main places.
- 32:18Speaker 10: A lot of youth.
- 32:20Speaker 2: Crime as well in regional areas. Queensland, that's been an issue.
- 32:24Speaker 7: Tony Burke spoke about, and I heard you mention, the
- 32:26Speaker 7: number of threats that are made. Look, threats have always
- 32:30Speaker 7: been part. I mean, when I was on air, you know,
- 32:31Speaker 7: it would be a monthly event. You'd get a threat
- 32:33Speaker 7: of some description. And the police would say, you need
- 32:36Speaker 7: to worry when they start acting on those threats. But
- 32:39Speaker 7: what we have now are not threats. We have people
- 32:42Speaker 7: doing things. I mean, it's one thing to threaten someone.
- 32:45Speaker 7: It's a very big leap to actually do something about
- 32:48Speaker 7: the threat that you've made. I mean, the threat's unconscionable
- 32:50Speaker 7: to start with. But then to actually act on the threat,
- 32:55Speaker 7: it's horrible. It's terrifying. And, I mean, in the past,
- 32:58Speaker 7: I mean, politicians have been, you know, we can have
- 33:01Speaker 7: the argy-bargy debate about the merits of politicians, but they've
- 33:04Speaker 7: been a protected species, as they should be. They're our
- 33:07Speaker 7: elected officials. The same as judges. The same as, you know,
- 33:11Speaker 7: police officers. And there have been some terrible incidents involving
- 33:15Speaker 7: police officers that Steve mentioned in Victoria and also in Queensland.
- 33:19Speaker 7: But to a certain extent, those parts of society have
- 33:23Speaker 7: not been targeted in the manner that they're now being targeted,
- 33:25Speaker 7: along with a whole range of other people not connected
- 33:28Speaker 7: with either politicians, judges, magistrates or, in fact, the police officers.
- 33:33Speaker 7: It's just a terrible indication of where we are.
- 33:36Speaker 2: And you've got to say that social media has made
- 33:39Speaker 2: this a lot worse. I mean, threats back in the day...
- 33:43Speaker 2: would come in the post, right? Now, everyone has a
- 33:47Speaker 2: mobile phone. All the politicians have got social media. They
- 33:51Speaker 2: use it for campaigning. They want to use it for campaigning.
- 33:54Speaker 2: They're doing all these videos all the time on all
- 33:58Speaker 2: sides of politics. But then the threats are so easy.
- 34:01Speaker 2: And also the campaigns against people. And a lot of
- 34:07Speaker 2: the information isn't true.
- 34:08Speaker 1: It's not real.
- 34:11Speaker 7: Well, see, bullying is another aspect of this, and I'm
- 34:13Speaker 7: not suggesting that we, you know, trivialise the attack on
- 34:17Speaker 7: a politician about bullying. But, I mean, you know, an
- 34:21Speaker 7: old bloke, before social media, there was bullying, but not
- 34:24Speaker 7: in the form it is now, where it has a
- 34:26Speaker 7: wide audience and young boys and girls are being bullied
- 34:30Speaker 7: via social media. And I know we have, you know,
- 34:32Speaker 7: we're putting steps in place to try and stop that,
- 34:35Speaker 7: and people are very conscious of it. But at the
- 34:37Speaker 7: end of the day, society has changed. Yep. Via social media.
- 34:42Speaker 7: And I mean, the most obvious one is these, you know,
- 34:45Speaker 7: encrypted apps where people are commissioned to actually commit crimes. Yeah, exactly.
- 34:51Speaker 7: It doesn't happen. It didn't happen 30 years ago or
- 34:54Speaker 7: 20 years ago, probably 10 years ago. It's happening more
- 34:56Speaker 7: prevalently now. But look, the main concern of the moment
- 34:59Speaker 7: is for this poor lady, Helen Haynes. We've got to
- 35:01Speaker 7: hope and pray that she pulls through. Indeed. That's the
- 35:03Speaker 7: most important thing.
- 35:04Speaker 1: Ray, I want to ask you about another couple of
- 35:06Speaker 1: other topics.
- 35:07Speaker 7: Yeah, sure.
- 35:08Speaker 2: Now, a few weeks ago I had some polling on
- 35:10Speaker 2: One Nation. You've now got some, particularly two parts to it,
- 35:15Speaker 2: but first how it relates to the Nationals.
- 35:16Speaker 7: Well, I've been chasing it because, as usual, you're spot on.
- 35:20Speaker 7: So for the last couple of weeks I've been sniffing
- 35:22Speaker 7: around and I've got my hands on some secret One
- 35:25Speaker 7: Nation polling that confirms what you said. Now, currently the
- 35:29Speaker 7: Nationals in New South Wales hold 11 seats, obviously all
- 35:32Speaker 7: in rural areas. And they think based on, and this
- 35:36Speaker 7: is really important, based on primary votes, they can claim 9,
- 35:40Speaker 7: 10 or even 11, even Gurmash Singh at Coffs Harbour
- 35:43Speaker 7: is not safe for leader. And One Nation are very
- 35:46Speaker 7: confident they'll take quite a number of national seats in
- 35:50Speaker 7: the next election which comes up in March.
- 35:52Speaker 2: So you're saying there's currently 11 seats and this polling
- 35:55Speaker 2: shows they're taking at least 9?
- 35:57Speaker 7: At least 9 and maybe 10.
- 35:59Speaker 2: There'll be no nationals left? According to this secret One
- 36:02Speaker 2: Nation polling.
- 36:03Speaker 7: There might be one left in the lower house. But
- 36:04Speaker 7: then there's a really interesting seat in the Hunter Valley
- 36:07Speaker 7: called Cessnock, which has been held by Labor bar one
- 36:10Speaker 7: election since about 1927. And last time they thumped the
- 36:15Speaker 7: One Nation candidate. They'd never performed in that electorate before.
- 36:19Speaker 7: They got 15%. And, you know, two-party preferred they wipe
- 36:22Speaker 7: the floor with them. But now they've got a very
- 36:24Speaker 7: strong candidate, obviously the leader, Mike Newman up there.
- 36:28Speaker 4: But.
- 36:29Speaker 7: It's got a margin of somewhere between 19% and 20%.
- 36:32Speaker 7: The swing is going to be massive. But the research
- 36:36Speaker 7: I did on Cessnock, which is a Labor seat obviously,
- 36:38Speaker 7: is that Cessnock itself is a city, a tourism city,
- 36:42Speaker 7: used to be a mining city. In that they've got
- 36:44Speaker 7: Currie Currie, but to the north of Cessnock they've got
- 36:46Speaker 7: all these massive home estates where young people are there,
- 36:51Speaker 7: first home buyers. They can't buy in the city so
- 36:53Speaker 7: they go to these regional areas and then to the
- 36:55Speaker 7: east of Cessnock you come back to the coast and
- 36:58Speaker 7: And there are suburbs like Cameron Park, West Walls End
- 37:01Speaker 7: and others where there, again, are massive housing estates. And
- 37:05Speaker 7: they think that the people in those housing estates through
- 37:08Speaker 7: the mortgage belt. They're going to punish Chris Minns because
- 37:12Speaker 7: they can't punish Anthony Albanese nor Jim Chalmers.
- 37:15Speaker 11: Yeah.
- 37:16Speaker 7: So, I mean, it would be ridiculous to sit here
- 37:18Speaker 7: on national TV and say, oh, One Nation can win Cessnock.
- 37:22Speaker 7: But they really can.
- 37:23Speaker 2: They can. Well, Mike Newman, who's the One Nation leader
- 37:26Speaker 2: standing in Cessnock, he says his primary's in the 40s.
- 37:29Speaker 1: Yeah. So it's extraordinary.
- 37:32Speaker 7: I've spoken to a lot of... I've got some family
- 37:33Speaker 7: up there. I've spoken to a lot of young people
- 37:35Speaker 7: in Cameron Park. You know, I go up there a
- 37:38Speaker 7: little bit and... The buzz around there from the blokes
- 37:41Speaker 7: wearing the orange gear, the trade is they've had a gutful.
- 37:45Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 37:45Speaker 7: They've really had a gutful. Yeah.
- 37:47Speaker 1: Ray, thank you so much, as always. We'll see you
- 37:50Speaker 1: next week.
- 37:50Speaker 7: All the best. Thanks very much.
- 37:51Speaker 10: Cheers.
- 37:51Speaker 7: Thank you.
- 37:52Speaker 2: All right, still to come, Brendan O'Neill provides an update
- 37:55Speaker 2: on the chaos gripping France.
- 37:57Speaker 1: That's next.
- 38:01Speaker 2: Well, let's turn now to the catastrophic riot sweeping France.
- 38:05Speaker 2: And more than half a million people took to the streets,
- 38:07Speaker 2: 2,000 have been arrested and hundreds of police injured. These
- 38:13Speaker 2: are not peaceful protests. They're marked by violence, chaos, destruction
- 38:18Speaker 2: and hatred. City storefronts have been smashed, barricades burnt, landmarks toppled.
- 38:25Speaker 2: I mean, look here at the Place de Bastille, overrun
- 38:28Speaker 2: with protesters and the Palestinian flag flying. And look at
- 38:33Speaker 2: this burning building in Lyon on Saturday. The city hall
- 38:37Speaker 2: in the town of Limoges was also set alight and
- 38:40Speaker 2: there were carjackings. In Bordeaux, this Louis Vuitton store stormed
- 38:45Speaker 2: and looted. And the reason, as random and arbitrary as
- 38:49Speaker 2: the cost of living and education and the public servants,
- 38:53Speaker 2: but many activists were also seen waving the Palestinian flag.
- 38:57Speaker 2: There's no clear logical reason. This is pure civil unrest.
- 39:02Speaker 2: and French leadership are failing to contain the anger. Politicians
- 39:06Speaker 2: and police appear either powerless or gutless. And here was
- 39:11Speaker 2: President Emmanuel Macron in a televised address condemning the violence.
- 39:16Speaker 12: Yesterday, some hundreds and thousands of men and women and
- 39:20Speaker 12: fellow citizens protested with legitimate claims. And we should never
- 39:27Speaker 12: mix up those.
- 39:29Speaker 12: People, those men and women who protested peacefully, with looters
- 39:34Speaker 12: and rioters. The youth of our nation are expressing great
- 39:38Speaker 12: anguish and concern about the future.
- 39:41Speaker 2: And the far-right leader Marine Le Pen criticised his inaction.
- 39:46Speaker 2: And these protests will no doubt further bolster her prospects
- 39:49Speaker 2: at the next election, just six months away.
- 39:53Speaker 1: But France is falling. Europe is unravelling.
- 39:56Speaker 2: There are signs this thuggery is catching on in Italy too,
- 40:00Speaker 2: with Giorgia Maloney condemning two.
- 40:02Speaker 1: Days' worth of violent clashes. She called them hooligans. I mean,
- 40:07Speaker 1: this is an understatement.
- 40:08Speaker 2: This savagery is on full display for the world to see.
- 40:12Speaker 2: Western civilisation is in decline and it's only a matter
- 40:15Speaker 2: of time before Australia follows suit. And joining me now
- 40:19Speaker 2: for more is Spike's chief political writer, Brendan O'Neill.
- 40:23Speaker 1: Brendan, thank you. Look, what do.
- 40:26Speaker 2: You make of the riots we're seeing now spreading across Europe?
- 40:32Speaker 10: I think what we're seeing in France is really deadly serious.
- 40:36Speaker 10: I think more serious than a lot of people realise.
- 40:38Speaker 10: People are calling them school protests or cost of living
- 40:42Speaker 10: protests or protests spinning out of control. I actually think
- 40:45Speaker 10: we're watching a society come apart at the seams. This
- 40:49Speaker 10: is a real crisis of the entire French Republic. you're
- 40:52Speaker 10: absolutely right to mention the fact that the Palestine flag
- 40:55Speaker 10: has been flying almost everywhere in these riots, because these
- 40:59Speaker 10: are anti-Western riots. And that's what the Palestine cause has
- 41:03Speaker 10: come to represent. It has come to represent not only,
- 41:06Speaker 10: of course, anti-Israel sentiment, but anti-Western sentiment, anti-civilisational sentiment. And
- 41:12Speaker 10: I think what we're seeing in France is that if
- 41:13Speaker 10: you throw your borders open to half the world, if
- 41:16Speaker 10: you fail to assimilate the people who come to your country,
- 41:19Speaker 10: If you teach your own young people to hate the
- 41:22Speaker 10: country in which they live and to feel ashamed of
- 41:24Speaker 10: their history, they are going to behave like this. They're
- 41:27Speaker 10: going to tear down the society in which they live.
- 41:30Speaker 10: So these are the wages of the kind of woke
- 41:32Speaker 10: ideology that we've all been living under for the past
- 41:35Speaker 10: few years. And I think Germany could be next and
- 41:37Speaker 10: Britain could be after that.
- 41:41Speaker 2: I mean, looking at the scenes and how political leaders
- 41:44Speaker 2: are responding, what did you make of Emmanuel Macron's address?
- 41:50Speaker 10: Well, I'm glad he's taking it a bit more seriously
- 41:52Speaker 10: than he has been previously, but I still think he's
- 41:55Speaker 10: not getting to grips with the heart of what's going
- 41:57Speaker 10: on here. He's talking about the far left, and the
- 41:59Speaker 10: far left is involved in this. The far left has
- 42:02Speaker 10: been stirring up the mob. The far left in France
- 42:05Speaker 10: is very closely linked to Islamists. That's why the term
- 42:09Speaker 10: Islamo-left comes from France, because Islamists and leftists have been
- 42:13Speaker 10: working in concert for a long time now against French society.
- 42:17Speaker 10: So He's right to talk about the far left, but
- 42:19Speaker 10: it goes beyond that. It's about France's broken borders. It's
- 42:23Speaker 10: loss of belief in itself. It's unwillingness to send home
- 42:28Speaker 10: illegal immigrants or to assimilate the people who move into France.
- 42:31Speaker 10: All of those things are indicted by this violence, and
- 42:34Speaker 10: Macron is unable to get to grips with that.
- 42:37Speaker 2: The police seem powerless as well to stop it. So
- 42:41Speaker 2: many have been injured. I think it's either hundreds. There
- 42:44Speaker 2: are some reports that it's more than 1,000 have been injured.
- 42:47Speaker 2: I mean, what do you think needs to be done here.
- 42:50Speaker 1: To just stop this?
- 42:52Speaker 2: Because people are losing their entire livelihoods. Their stores are
- 42:56Speaker 2: being destroyed. All of the products are looted, ransacked. I mean,
- 43:01Speaker 2: you know, it is lawlessness at a mass scale.
- 43:05Speaker 10: You know, those clips that we've all seen of shop
- 43:10Speaker 10: owners and business owners begging the rioters to leave their
- 43:13Speaker 10: place of business alone. I mean, it's so distressing to
- 43:16Speaker 10: see that. It's just such wanton destruction, such cruel destruction.
- 43:21Speaker 10: And ordinary French people are fuming. Ordinary French people who
- 43:24Speaker 10: live outside of Paris, who work for a living, the
- 43:28Speaker 10: alarm clock French people who get up every morning and work,
- 43:31Speaker 10: they are fuming about this. And their response, I think,
- 43:33Speaker 10: will be very angry indeed. But I think the police
- 43:36Speaker 10: need to get more real. Lots of people are talking
- 43:39Speaker 10: about police violence or police brutality. That's not the truth
- 43:42Speaker 10: of it. In fact, the police have run away from
- 43:45Speaker 10: a lot of the conflict with these rioters. They have
- 43:47Speaker 10: had a kid gloves approach to some of the rioters.
- 43:50Speaker 10: They've let them just run riot. I think we need
- 43:53Speaker 10: a much tougher clampdown. They might even have to send
- 43:56Speaker 10: in the military at some point because a country cannot
- 43:58Speaker 10: spin out of control like this. It is utterly unjust
- 44:01Speaker 10: and unfair to law abiding French people.
- 44:05Speaker 2: Just on another topic quickly before you go, Brendan, Irish
- 44:08Speaker 2: author Sally Rooney, she's had her books pulled from UK shelves.
- 44:12Speaker 2: She said she was going to use the earnings from
- 44:14Speaker 2: her books to support a group called Palestine Action Group, which,
- 44:18Speaker 2: as I understand it, is actually banned in the UK,
- 44:22Speaker 2: deemed a terrorist organisation. But yet, you know, the left
- 44:26Speaker 2: are furious that they can't buy her books in the UK.
- 44:31Speaker 10: There is no one smugger than Sally Rooney, I have
- 44:34Speaker 10: to tell you this. The idea that she's a martyr
- 44:36Speaker 10: to free speech is just ludicrous. Palestine Action is a
- 44:39Speaker 10: really problematic organisation. It smashed up a Jewish business in London.
- 44:44Speaker 10: It has invaded Israeli businesses and attacked people, assaulted people,
- 44:49Speaker 10: including police officers. This is not a nice group. This
- 44:52Speaker 10: is not a normal protest group. So the fact that
- 44:54Speaker 10: she wants to give them money does not actually put
- 44:58Speaker 10: her in a good light. And then there's the hypocrisy.
- 45:00Speaker 10: So many Israeli authors and artists and dancers and musicians
- 45:04Speaker 10: are banned effectively from the West under the BDS, the
- 45:08Speaker 10: bigoted BDS system. And she supports that too. So free
- 45:12Speaker 10: speech for her, but not free speech for Israeli Jews.
- 45:15Speaker 10: That's really hypocritical.
- 45:16Speaker 2: Yeah, it is indeed. Brendan O'Neill, always love having you
- 45:19Speaker 2: on the program.
- 45:20Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
- 45:21Speaker 2: And after the break, we'll get an insight into who
- 45:24Speaker 2: Trump's next press secretary could be after he endorsed today
- 45:28Speaker 2: the Israeli PM.
- 45:29Speaker 1: That's next. Welcome back, Will.
- 45:34Speaker 2: White House Press Secretary Katie Zachariah, as you know, stepped
- 45:38Speaker 2: down after just five days into the role. The question
- 45:41Speaker 2: now is who will replace her? And joining me to
- 45:45Speaker 2: discuss Kosha Garda, News 24 contributor.
- 45:48Speaker 1: Kosha, great to see you again.
- 45:50Speaker 2: So who are the candidates, who are the leading candidates
- 45:53Speaker 2: being put forward after this ever so short-lived stint by Katie?
- 46:00Speaker 11: There are no confirmed reports yet. And it feels like
- 46:04Speaker 11: just yesterday, I guess it was exactly this time last week, Shari,
- 46:07Speaker 11: that she had been appointed. And we were talking about
- 46:09Speaker 11: her rocky debut press briefing. And here we are. Some
- 46:12Speaker 11: of the names that are out there in the rumor
- 46:15Speaker 11: mill are the current deputy press secretary, who is sort
- 46:19Speaker 11: of an establishment person. She did work. She was a
- 46:22Speaker 11: deputy under Caroline Leavitt, as well as the five days
- 46:26Speaker 11: of Katie Zachariah. And she was a spokesperson for the
- 46:29Speaker 11: RNC before, so sort of tried and tested and has
- 46:33Speaker 11: the credentials and the experience, though she's not a household
- 46:36Speaker 11: name yet. The other name that keeps getting floated around
- 46:39Speaker 11: is Scott Jennings, who's the lone conservative commentator on CNN
- 46:43Speaker 11: and goes into the lion's den every day, does battle
- 46:47Speaker 11: with them, defends Trump quite well, and Trump has spoken
- 46:49Speaker 11: positively about him, so that's another name out there. With Trump,
- 46:53Speaker 11: you never know. There could be a dark horse, somebody
- 46:55Speaker 11: that's not even on the radar that pops up, but
- 46:57Speaker 11: we will find out soon enough, I'm sure.
- 46:59Speaker 7: Yeah, indeed.
- 46:59Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think Scott Jennings has been terrific, at
- 47:02Speaker 2: least in the clips that I've seen on the likes
- 47:05Speaker 2: of CNN. Meanwhile, President Trump today made a last-minute endorsement
- 47:10Speaker 2: of Benjamin Netanyahu to stay on as Israel's prime minister
- 47:13Speaker 2: before the country heads to the polls next week. Kosha,
- 47:17Speaker 2: tell us about what he said.
- 47:20Speaker 11: So this is classic Trump, I would say. He's a
- 47:23Speaker 11: very transactional person and very superlative in the words and
- 47:26Speaker 11: adjectives that he likes to use. So he held this
- 47:29Speaker 11: very close to the election, which is just around the
- 47:32Speaker 11: corner on the 27th. And then he came out with
- 47:34Speaker 11: very effusive comments of how he's the best and he's
- 47:37Speaker 11: a warrior. and there's nobody else like Bibi Netanyahu. And
- 47:40Speaker 11: if they don't vote for him, then the U.S. is
- 47:43Speaker 11: going to be left to go at it alone, which
- 47:45Speaker 11: we're not inclined to do, that sort of thing. But
- 47:48Speaker 11: I think it was calculated. These two men have a
- 47:52Speaker 11: very pragmatic relationship. It's definitely— we know that there has been
- 47:56Speaker 11: friction along the way, and there have been moments where
- 47:58Speaker 11: they don't get along. But I think they do understand
- 48:00Speaker 11: each other and generally seem to work well together. And
- 48:04Speaker 11: that's why Trump prefers to have a partner that he
- 48:06Speaker 11: understands and can predict a little bit. And that's why
- 48:09Speaker 11: he held that endorsement and, of course, let it out
- 48:12Speaker 11: in the final news cycle before the Israeli election.
- 48:15Speaker 2: Yeah, they have had a really strong friendship and relationship
- 48:18Speaker 2: and they've had some great successes together militarily.
- 48:22Speaker 1: Of course, the Iran war as yet.
- 48:25Speaker 2: Well, you couldn't say it's quite been a success as yet,
- 48:27Speaker 2: but hopefully it will be. At least they have destroyed
- 48:30Speaker 2: a lot of the nuclear sites. Before you go, Kosh,
- 48:33Speaker 2: I want to turn to the latest with this Ilhan Omar,
- 48:37Speaker 2: you know, this raid that happened last week, this immigration
- 48:41Speaker 2: investigation into her.
- 48:43Speaker 1: What can you tell us? What's the latest? Where's this
- 48:46Speaker 1: up to?
- 48:47Speaker 11: You know, it does appear that she is in trouble
- 48:50Speaker 11: and they're closing ranks on her. They've seized her phone.
- 48:53Speaker 11: They've seized her passport. There are 11 subpoenas that have
- 48:56Speaker 11: been issued to people in her immediate orbit, family and
- 48:59Speaker 11: close friends. So they seem to be building a case
- 49:03Speaker 11: that's going across multiple dimensions. And what it seems to be,
- 49:06Speaker 11: this is not confirmed yet, is whether or not she
- 49:09Speaker 11: actually is a U.S. citizen who properly naturalized, derivative of
- 49:13Speaker 11: her father, who was a refugee. And the reporting out
- 49:16Speaker 11: there is that it is possible that he actually never
- 49:19Speaker 11: properly naturalized. which means she is not properly naturalized, which
- 49:22Speaker 11: would mean she's an illegal serving in Congress. So I
- 49:25Speaker 11: don't want to get ahead of myself. This is not
- 49:26Speaker 11: yet confirmed. But if that is what the case is
- 49:29Speaker 11: and that's what it appears to be building towards, that
- 49:32Speaker 11: is going to be a massive, massive scandal. So I
- 49:34Speaker 11: think all eyes are on this story and much more
- 49:37Speaker 11: to come.
- 49:37Speaker 7: Yeah.
- 49:38Speaker 2: All right, Koshia Garda, thank you so much for your time. And,
- 49:41Speaker 2: of course, tomorrow night on the show we will have
- 49:44Speaker 2: full information with the latest on the attack on Helen Haynes.
- 49:48Speaker 2: Paul Murray with the news now.