Latest / Credlin / Credlin | 3 September

Transcript

Credlin | 3 September · Credlin

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Good evening. Welcome to the program. It's been a big week.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Here's what's coming up tonight on Credlin. More on the
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Bondi Royal Commission. A second whistleblower coming forward. And the
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: AFP Association said the police union, they'll join me live
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: tonight as they confirm warnings were sent to the government...
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: just weeks before the Bondi attack. More reasons why this
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Royal Commission must be reopened. An update in the fight
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: against the highly controversial New England Renewable Energy Zone. Locals
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: fighting a growing revolt against a 305 kilometre transmission corridor
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: as farmers and residents.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Battle to protect their land.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: It's National Flag Day today, 125 years ago to the
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: day since the Australian flag was first raised in Melbourne.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Plenty of you have sent me your flags. We'll get
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: them up on the screen shortly. So we celebrate our
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: country and our flag as we should. And the Coalition
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: unveils its tobacco tax alternative, vowing to wipe out the
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: illegal trade, end the tobacco wars and light a fire
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: under Labor for creating the mess in the first place.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: More crime, more smoking, and the result is Australians are
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: worse off and less tax.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Revenues for the government.
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: So it's been a complete disaster.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: But first, if the report by the Bondi Royal Commission
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: is handed down as planned on the 18th of December,
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: it will be one of our shortest ever royal commissions
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: into our worst ever terror attack. If that happens, I
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: don't believe it will have done what Australians expected this
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: Royal Commission to do. To get to the bottom of
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: how and why in a country like this, 15 innocent men,
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: women and children could be gunned down in an act
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: of terror. And to exhaustively examine what obviously went wrong
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: so that we do whatever it takes to make sure
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: acts of terror have no place in Australia. But thus far,
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: from everything I've read, all the witness testimony I've heard,
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: and now what whistleblowers are telling me, I just don't
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: think that's going to happen. And we can't accept that,
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: can we? Because unless Virginia Bell urgently reopens public hearings
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: and this Royal Commission starts taking evidence from people like
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: the brave police officer who made sure I saw his
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: submission exposing critical capability flaws in counterterrorism, Well, we won't
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: get a royal commission with fair dinkum recommendations. We won't
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: get a royal commission that honestly deals with the acts
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: and omissions of government and those that should have done
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: better will never be held account. Unless Virginia Bell urgently
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: reopens his royal commission, the risk is that she will
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: deliver a report that's too bad, so sad, and we
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: all move on. Remember, this is what happened in the
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Daniel Andrews era, that infamous coat inquiry into hotel quarantine
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: failures that cost the lives of some 1,000 Victorians. All
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: those MPs, the Premier, everyone, and ministers too, all there
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: on the stand saying, I don't know, I don't remember,
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: with the ultimate conclusion when the report was handed down
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: that it was catastrophic failure across the board, but no
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: one individual responsible.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: And that was it. That was the end of it.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: No consequences and definitely no changes as to how government
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: might deal with a future pandemic crisis. Part of Cote's
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: problem was that she never had the powers of a
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: royal commission. to compel documents and subpoena witnesses. But that's
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: no impediment to Bell. A Royal Commission is the most
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: powerful vehicle we have as Australians to get to the truth.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: But those powers are only applicable if the Commissioner is
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: prepared to use them. Now, I go back to the
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: point that if Virginia Bell has not called the head
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: of the Australian Federal Police, Chrissie Barrett, to give evidence
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: to the Royal Commission, then how serious is it How
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: can we have heard testimony from Netball Australia but not
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: the boss of the AFP? Indeed, the only senior AFP
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: evidence that's been put publicly has come from the Assistant Commissioner,
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: Stephen Nutt, and even then he was only in the
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: stand for 38 minutes.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Well, not good enough.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: After I broke news of this submission here on Monday
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: night and the detail in it, that memo from counter-terrorism
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: commanders to the AFP top brass, where they pleaded for
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: additional resources after other former AFP police have since now
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: made contact with me. Tonight, I want to share you
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: this from a man we'll call John to protect his identity. Now,
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: John's had three decades in the job, working across a
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: number of frontline specialist capabilities in the AFP, including counter-terrorism.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: He says he did not make a submission to the
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: Royal Commission because he feared it would be ignored. But
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: after he watched my program on Monday night, he said,
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: I felt it was important to offer corroboration to what
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: was being reported because he says things in the AFP
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: need to change. As a man of integrity, John says,
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: I'm prohibited from providing operational specifics, but I hope what
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: I have to say adds weight to what you have reported.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: So here it is.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: He writes, I am not a disgruntled ex-employee motivated by
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: revenge or ill will. On the contrary, I offer this
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: information in the belief of the truth and that things
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: could improve for those operational members who remain in the AFP.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: He says key covert capabilities of the AFP that support
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: CT in the field are in fact frequently understaffed, writes John,
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: when measured against best practice parameters. He says covert teams
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: are often deployed with lesser numbers than what best practice
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: requires and for extended periods of time. This is often
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: contrary to training. He says officers frequently perform duties absent
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: of effective command and control, that they are often in
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: the field absent of suitable equipment needed to protect themselves
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: and others from harm. This is particularly concerning, he says,
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: given the targets of CT operations are within or approaching
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: radical mindsets and considering radical responses. In the very least,
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: the targets are suspected to be so, hence the deployment
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: of AFP resources. As John, this former AFP officer, tells me,
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: it's not uncommon for a member working in a counter-terrorism
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: covert capacity for their only training to be their foundation training,
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: their basic course, he says. That is, it is common
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: for there to be no formal skills maintenance, recertification, or
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: skills enhancement for some frontline members who work counter-terrorism targets.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: Many AFP members working in counter-terrorism are declared competent in
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: their roles only once.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: He says skills atrophy.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: Shifts in methodology and technology are not accounted for in
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: any credible way across some capabilities that support CT operations.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: The AFP commonly places managers in charge of capabilities for
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: which they have no personal qualification or operational experience in.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: He says these managers therefore can have no operational empathy
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: for members in the field and do not understand fully
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: the practical risks. He says pressures and complications members face
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: in the challenging counter-terrorism environment are all there. Now go
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: back to the information I reported on out of that
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: internal memo on Monday, the memo that was co-authored back
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: in May 2024 by four counter-terrorism commanders, because that memo
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: is damning if accurately describing what a former officer said,
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: a former officer, of course, who was never called to
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: give evidence. That internal memo reported 25% overall shortfall in
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: counter-terrorism staffing nationally, including a 38% critical capability shortage in
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: New South Wales. It noted unsustainable leadership vacancies, in particular,
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: disabling the Enduring Risk Investigations team, which is responsible for
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: monitoring high-risk terrorism offenders. And in a line that demands
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: answers from the Albanese government and ministers, these commanders note
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: an earlier decision of the National Security Cabinet Committee. It
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: was to exclude the AFP from seeking additional resources due
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: to budget constraints and that this posed a direct risk
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: to the commands and the AFP's ability to meet Australia's
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: national security requirements. Now, there is nothing in this information
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: tonight from my second whistleblower that's at odds with that
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: memo is there. Indeed, it just underscores how seriously challenged
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: our counter-terrorism unit appear to be because they just don't
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: have the resources that frontline officers say they need. Now,
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: what disturbed me most in this latest material I've received
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: from this second whistleblower is this. John says, the AFP
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: has experienced much success in CT operations. Those operational members
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: deserve thanks for doing great work within an internal AFP
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: environment that is not conducive to such success. See, this
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: is the stuff, this is the stuff that should be
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: put under the microscope in a Royal Commission. Not Netball Australia, please,
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: we've had enough of that.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: We want the.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: Operational reality that counter-terrorism police live under every day to
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: try and keep us safe from terrorism. And as I've
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: said before, I want to see the politicians under oath
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: questioned long and hard about what they did and didn't
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: do when it comes to Bondi. All of that must
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: be on the table. Otherwise, why are we spending $ 130
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: million on this Royal Commission? We don't just want a report.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: Do we?
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: We want change and we want the truth. We owe
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: the dead the truth. And if we don't get the truth,
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: we will have failed them. Because in failing the dead,
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: we fail ourselves as a nation to do our best
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: to ensure this sort of terrorism never happens again. I
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: tell you, it's a crock. Let's head to camera now
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: for the headlines. Sky News political reporter. News 24 political reporter,
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: there you go.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: Ruben Spargo.
• 11:49
  Speaker 5: Good evening.
• 11:50
  Speaker 6: The Coalition is pledging to slash the tobacco excise by 80%
• 11:54
  Speaker 6: under a new plan to crush organised crime. It would
• 11:58
  Speaker 6: also legalise, regulate and tax vapes and nicotine pouches for adults.
• 12:02
  Speaker 6: $ 200 million would be spent on a nationwide law enforcement surge.
• 12:06
  Speaker 6: The Coalition's plan would knock about $ 24 off a packet
• 12:10
  Speaker 6: of cigarettes.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: This has got to stop.
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: And it's got to stop now.
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: What's wrong with that plan?
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: It will kill people. Like, seriously.
• 12:19
  Speaker 6: It's estimated around 80% of tobacco consumed in recent years
• 12:23
  Speaker 6: has been illicit. Economists are telling borrowers to prepare for
• 12:27
  Speaker 6: one or even two more interest rate rises this year.
• 12:31
  Speaker 6: Mortgage stress is now at its highest level since the
• 12:34
  Speaker 6: global financial crisis.
• 12:35
  Speaker 7: And we think that probably one is not going to
• 12:38
  Speaker 7: be quite enough, that they may very well have to
• 12:39
  Speaker 7: come in and deliver two hikes to get inflation to
• 12:42
  Speaker 7: head back to target.
• 12:43
  Speaker 6: Home values are continuing to fall. HSBC is the latest
• 12:48
  Speaker 6: bank to downgrade its price predictions. The Prime Minister is
• 12:51
  Speaker 6: on his way home from the Pacific Islands Forum in Palau.
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: Beijing loomed over the talks.
• 12:57
  Speaker 6: Leaders were unable to reach a consensus statement condemning China's
• 13:00
  Speaker 6: missile test, near Tuvalu in July.
• 13:03
  Speaker 5: We made an immediate response to that.
• 13:06
  Speaker 8: It's a clear response.
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: It's unequivocal. And China has certainly heard that message.
• 13:13
  Speaker 6: The Prime Minister opened a new Australian-funded solar farm worth
• 13:17
  Speaker 6: $ 31 million before departing.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: Right, let's bring in my panel now for the issues
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: of the day. We'll get across them all for you now.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: News24 contributor Carolee Katzenbarnes says And News 24 host James Morrow.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Welcome to you both.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: I want to start with the shocking news out of
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: New South Wales today, James. What's believed to be a
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: second mistaken identity killing in just 48 hours. Here's the
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: state opposition leader, Liberal Kelly Sloan.
• 13:46
  Speaker 7: To have two people, mistaken identities, where police believe it's
• 13:51
  Speaker 7: been a case of mistaken identity, lose their lives at
• 13:55
  Speaker 7: their homes, in their bed, in their driveways.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Is absolutely terrifying.
• 13:59
  Speaker 7: And the people of Sydney are right to be terrified
• 14:02
  Speaker 7: and they're right to feel like they've been let down
• 14:04
  Speaker 7: by their government, a government that has lost control of
• 14:08
  Speaker 7: organised crime on our streets.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she's right to say terrifying.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: It's absolutely terrifying in your bed, in your driveway, and
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: they're never meant to kill you. You know, we know
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: from what police have said today, James, that some of
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: these contract killings are conducted by kids, obviously by idiots
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: who are getting the wrong person. But it's very, very
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: cheap now to source this stuff on the dark web
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: and we've got ordinary civilians in the crossfire here. Are
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: police on top of this? Is the government on top
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: of this? because I fear people in Sydney tonight could
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: be justifiably worried they're not.
• 14:46
  Speaker 9: Well, particularly if you live, Peter, in Western Sydney and
• 14:49
  Speaker 9: some of the areas where a lot of this sort
• 14:50
  Speaker 9: of thing takes place. You know, the last 48 hours,
• 14:52
  Speaker 9: we've had two shocking cases, one believed to be mistaken identity,
• 14:57
  Speaker 9: where a young university student was murdered in his house.
• 15:00
  Speaker 9: They had the wrong house. The second case... Today, it's
• 15:04
  Speaker 9: believed to have been a tradesperson who was visiting a
• 15:07
  Speaker 9: house that may have had a connection to some sort
• 15:10
  Speaker 9: of organized crime activity that's all being investigated. But again,
• 15:13
  Speaker 9: another innocent victim. The cops are doing what they can here,
• 15:17
  Speaker 9: but the government is clearly has clearly lost control of
• 15:21
  Speaker 9: this one. There's a lot to unpack here. Number one,
• 15:23
  Speaker 9: of course, you said these are kids, idiot kids a
• 15:25
  Speaker 9: lot of times doing this. But they're doing it because
• 15:28
  Speaker 9: they know that the penalties for various crimes are less
• 15:32
  Speaker 9: when you are a kid, when you are younger. So
• 15:34
  Speaker 9: there's a legal issue around that. There's also a cultural issue, Peter,
• 15:39
  Speaker 9: within the gangs where the gangs have now taken on
• 15:43
  Speaker 9: a motivation, I think, where they think, well, anybody who's
• 15:46
  Speaker 9: vaguely associated with a target or a target family is
• 15:50
  Speaker 9: now fair game. So it's become quite tribal now. And
• 15:53
  Speaker 9: it's really disturbing because if this continues, you know, it
• 15:57
  Speaker 9: just becomes real lawless stuff.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it becomes like, you know, those gang wars we
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: saw in Los Angeles a couple of decades ago. Let's
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: go to this from the Climate Change Authority today. It
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: says concerns about the cost of energy or the impact
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: of renewables on regional communities is, quote, misinformation. This is
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: a new paper out. It argues that narratives that seek
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: to Increase uncertainty about climate policies, technology solutions that focus
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: on the cost of living, energy prices, reliability, jobs, regional impacts,
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: all of that.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: They're asking whether or not this stuff should be reported on.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: They're claiming it's misinformation if we go down this path, Carol.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Well, it's an inconvenient truth for them, but they're facts.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: They're facts.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: The prices are going up. Regional communities are cranky. I mean,
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: this is all well and in the extreme.
• 16:48
  Speaker 5: Absolute gaslighting of every Australian. I mean, if there's any
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: misinformation around, isn't it the $ 275 decrease that was meant
• 16:55
  Speaker 5: to happen with our power bills? We have spent billions
• 16:59
  Speaker 5: on these renewable energy projects. They're just not working. I mean,
• 17:03
  Speaker 5: the irony is we export all our uranium. 31 countries
• 17:08
  Speaker 5: around the world get their electricity from nuclear, and yet
• 17:12
  Speaker 5: we export it. We're not willing to actually invest in
• 17:15
  Speaker 5: our own technology. Now, it doesn't matter how we do it,
• 17:18
  Speaker 5: but renewables, they're not working. Wind farms, green energy, hydrogen plants.
• 17:23
  Speaker 5: We've done all that with billions of taxpayer dollars done
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: for subsidies. It's an absolute cheat that the Climate Authority
• 17:29
  Speaker 5: has even done this. They're the ones responsible for the misinformation.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: Let's go to that news today, the policy announcement for
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: the Coalition. They've pledged to slash the tobacco excise, a
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: tobacco tax, by... 80%, they'll legalise vapes, they'll crack down
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: on the illicit market if they win the election. I
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: have to say, James, I don't think they can do
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: anything else here. The government talks about law enforcement. Horses
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: bolted on that. The government was critical of the coalition
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: foregoing all this revenue.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: Well, memo to the government, have you look at your books.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: You're not getting this revenue because people are not buying
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: legal tobacco anymore.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: It's got to happen, I assume. It's got to happen.
• 18:11
  Speaker 9: Well, it has to happen. And I can tell you
• 18:13
  Speaker 9: that me and fellow host here, Paul Murray, will be
• 18:15
  Speaker 9: cheering this every step of the way. But, you know,
• 18:18
  Speaker 9: it is the basic economics of this are when you
• 18:21
  Speaker 9: tax something past a certain point, it's called the Laffer curve.
• 18:24
  Speaker 9: You get less of the tax because you've just discouraged
• 18:26
  Speaker 9: the activity. With tobacco, of course, you can get the
• 18:29
  Speaker 9: illegal stuff because it's very light and easy to smuggle.
• 18:32
  Speaker 9: And there you have the situation we are today. But
• 18:34
  Speaker 9: it's very funny we're talking about this when we started
• 18:36
  Speaker 9: this segment talking about organized crime. The big thing is
• 18:40
  Speaker 9: here is that all of this money is getting shoved
• 18:42
  Speaker 9: into organized crime. I mean, today, as the coalition announced
• 18:46
  Speaker 9: this policy, I think there were two firebombings in Melbourne
• 18:49
  Speaker 9: thought to be connected to this trade. It's just like
• 18:52
  Speaker 9: the untouchables in Chicago and the old days of prohibition.
• 18:56
  Speaker 9: You know, at some point, the government has to back down.
• 18:59
  Speaker 9: They'll cut the excise tax dramatically. And I guarantee you
• 19:02
  Speaker 9: they're going to get more money out of it.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: Carol, I was pretty outspoken last night about pill testing.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: I don't like it.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: I don't support it.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: I think if something is illegal, it's illegal. You can't
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: have a mixed message on it. You're a mum of
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: three teenagers. Let me have your take.
• 19:20
  Speaker 5: And I'm a tough mum, and I actually wrote a
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: column on this 10 years ago that when it did,
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: it got shed 30,000 times, and it was.
• 19:28
  Speaker 5: Ice addicts, why is it never their fault? I got
• 19:30
  Speaker 5: trolled mercilessly because I don't agree with pill testing whatsoever.
• 19:35
  Speaker 5: It is actually endorsing illicit and illegal drug use. Saw
• 19:38
  Speaker 5: Kel Richards last night as well. Because no one ever
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: wants to take responsibility. No one asks people to take drugs.
• 19:45
  Speaker 5: Nobody's life ever got better by taking an illicit drug.
• 19:49
  Speaker 5: And the problem that I've got... is that no one
• 19:51
  Speaker 5: is prepared to actually say it as it is. You
• 19:53
  Speaker 5: thankfully did. The problem is in Victoria, they introduced this
• 19:57
  Speaker 5: with music festivals. Christmans had said, oh, I was a sceptic,
• 20:01
  Speaker 5: now I'm doing it. What message are we sending young people?
• 20:05
  Speaker 5: Why are we spending billions of dollars on Australian education?
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: and giving them drug education use when we're actually endorsing
• 20:11
  Speaker 5: something that actually is illegal. The other thing is, not
• 20:15
  Speaker 5: only does it lead to a very weak stance on drugs,
• 20:19
  Speaker 5: such as decriminalisation, but people going to music festivals that
• 20:22
  Speaker 5: get their pills done. Where is the liability for taxpayers
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: and the liability for the pill tester? Because if the
• 20:30
  Speaker 5: pill tester tests it, I mean, what else are in
• 20:32
  Speaker 5: these illegal drugs? People that are taking it know that
• 20:35
  Speaker 5: there's solvents and all bits and pieces in there. But
• 20:38
  Speaker 5: if you're a pill tester and you say to somebody,
• 20:40
  Speaker 5: this is unsafe, are you really happy for them to
• 20:42
  Speaker 5: then take their drugs, go away and do it? Where's
• 20:45
  Speaker 5: the moral thing of grabbing it out of their hand
• 20:47
  Speaker 5: and wanting to actually destroy it? But the one thing
• 20:49
  Speaker 5: I do want to share with you, Peter, is I
• 20:51
  Speaker 5: got trolled mercilessly that I had to rebuild social media
• 20:54
  Speaker 5: because because people didn't like what I said. One person
• 20:57
  Speaker 5: that did was the mother of a girl that had
• 21:00
  Speaker 5: taken her own life. She was left looking after the grandchildren.
• 21:04
  Speaker 5: She hand-wrote me a letter and sent it to where
• 21:07
  Speaker 5: I was working, and she said, thank you for actually
• 21:10
  Speaker 5: saying it. Nobody asked my daughter to go down the
• 21:12
  Speaker 5: drug path. I've been left raising two grandchildren. My daughter
• 21:16
  Speaker 5: didn't take responsibility, left a huge burden for everybody else.
• 21:20
  Speaker 5: And she said, why is the Australian taxpayer always having
• 21:23
  Speaker 5: to do this? pill testing, quality control for drug dealers,
• 21:28
  Speaker 5: and it's endorsing something that is illegal in Australia. And
• 21:31
  Speaker 5: people need to be stronger and just call it out
• 21:33
  Speaker 5: for what it is. And no, I do not agree
• 21:36
  Speaker 5: with it at all.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: Let's just have a look before we go to my
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: next guest. This Oz poll voting intention data has been
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: put up this afternoon, and this is really interesting. This
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: is the first time we've seen a poll that's in
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: positive territory like this for the Liberals in a long,
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: long time.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: It's the 4%. move there.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: This is a central Guardian's poll. So Guardian's no friend
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: of the Liberal Party. 26% there. Evens with Labor on 26.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: They've done a 5% drop. One Nation's at 23%. The Greens,
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: sort of where I'd peg them at, at 13%. There
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: you go. I think that's pretty interesting. We'll see what
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: happens in the next sort of series of polls from that.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: But those people that say the Libs are dead, I
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: think that's telling you something else.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: See you both.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: I'll see you on Sunday, James, when I watch Insiders
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: and your show, of course. The US report on Friday night.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: Let's go now to Victoria. This week, the truth appears
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: to have come back to bite, to haunt new Premier
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: Ben Carroll. Revelations that despite claiming he was in the dark,
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: the Labor cabinet was well and truly briefed about the
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: secret transport tax a long time ago in 2024 and
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: when at the time, of course, Carol was Jacinta Allen's deputy.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: Joining me now, Victorian political editor at The Australian, Anthony Galloway. Well,
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: this is utter BS now, Anthony. He prevaricated, sat on
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: the fence there for a couple of weeks. We couldn't
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: get a straight answer from him. He can't pretend he
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: didn't know now that we.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Know he knew.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: And he was even dodging these questions from our own
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: Georgie Dickerson.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Have a look. Were people not.
• 23:10
  Speaker 7: Doing their job properly if they weren't reading the cabinet
• 23:12
  Speaker 7: brief and documents in June 2024 if no one seemed
• 23:14
  Speaker 7: to know about this charge until now?
• 23:17
  Speaker 10: It's very unfair to say something was put in a
• 23:20
  Speaker 10: cabinet minute that was decided on seven months earlier. It
• 23:27
  Speaker 10: was unfair from the very first day that that cabinet
• 23:31
  Speaker 10: meeting occurred with Andrews, Pallison, Allen and Molino in 2021.
• 23:38
  Speaker 10: They should have said, this is what we're looking at
• 23:40
  Speaker 10: and being transparent with the public.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: Anthony Galloway, if you get pulled over by police and
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: you say, I didn't know about that law, they'll tell
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: you ignorance.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Is no excuse.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: This is in his own cabinet papers. He's paid a
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: big whack of money then to be the Deputy Premier.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: If he hasn't read it, not our fault, he knows.
• 24:03
  Speaker 11: Yeah, so up until I broke this story the other day,
• 24:06
  Speaker 11: Ben Carroll was maintaining... He only found out when he
• 24:10
  Speaker 11: became a member of the Budget and Finance Committee in
• 24:14
  Speaker 11: very late 24. And it was an issue that the
• 24:19
  Speaker 11: Deputy Premier took a year. So Jacinta Allen took a
• 24:22
  Speaker 11: year to allow her own Deputy Premier to enter what
• 24:26
  Speaker 11: is the equivalent of the Expenditure Review Committee at the
• 24:30
  Speaker 11: federal level. But what I revealed the other day is
• 24:33
  Speaker 11: he should have known by at least June 2024. There
• 24:38
  Speaker 11: were cabinet minutes presented in your briefing cabinet packs to
• 24:43
  Speaker 11: every single minister, every single cabinet minister in June 2024
• 24:48
  Speaker 11: that was referencing a December 2023 subcommittee meeting that decided
• 24:54
  Speaker 11: on progressing with this $ 8 billion secret tax. And it
• 24:58
  Speaker 11: was then being tied to the suburban rail loop. to
• 25:03
  Speaker 11: help pay for the first stage of the suburban rail loop.
• 25:07
  Speaker 11: No one denies that under Jacinta Allen and Daniel Andrews,
• 25:11
  Speaker 11: there was this issue of putting too much power in
• 25:15
  Speaker 11: these subcommittees, especially the Budget and Finance Committee. It was
• 25:19
  Speaker 11: a kitchen cabinet being run by Andrews and then Allen.
• 25:23
  Speaker 11: But I understand, you know, Alan's retort to that any
• 25:26
  Speaker 11: time it was raised is, don't you read the minutes?
• 25:29
  Speaker 11: This is actually declared at Cabinet. So clearly Ben Carroll
• 25:33
  Speaker 11: and now Deputy Premier Gabrielle Williams didn't pick it up
• 25:37
  Speaker 11: at the time because they both found out subsequent to that.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: I will endorse that point you make there. In relation
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: to Jacinta Allen saying that subcommittee decisions are endorsed or
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: provided in the minutes to the General Cabinet, that is
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: actually right.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: That's proper process.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: They don't stand as decisions of a subcommittee unless they
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: are then endorsed endorsed by the next meeting of Cabinet.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: She was clearly following the right process. Old mate, the
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: new Premier, was clearly not reading his papers. You wonder
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: why we paid him what he did. Hey, you've also
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: got another cracking yarn today, $ 134, 000 for this Dan Andrew
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: statue that's, I suppose, going to be melted down. It's
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: partway on its way to being created, of course. Carol's
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: now saying it's going to be scrapped. But you've revealed
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: Jacinta Allen personally signed this off And it's in her
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: own handwriting.
• 26:34
  Speaker 11: Yeah, and it's amazing, 70-odd pages of FOI documents that
• 26:39
  Speaker 11: were released to me yesterday. And it's amazing how quick,
• 26:44
  Speaker 11: after Daniel Andrews had resigned, that the Department of Premier
• 26:49
  Speaker 11: and Cabinet, at the direction of Jacinta Allen's office, were
• 26:53
  Speaker 11: expediting this process to create a statue of Daniel Andrews
• 26:57
  Speaker 11: at the cost of $ 134 million.
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: It just it was clearly our priority.
• 27:02
  Speaker 11: So six days into Jacinta Allen's premiership, the work was
• 27:07
  Speaker 11: being done. It was being approved by the departmental secretary.
• 27:15
  Speaker 11: And then it did then take a little bit for
• 27:17
  Speaker 11: Jacinta Allen to approve it on October 1, 2024. But
• 27:22
  Speaker 11: she wrote this handwritten addition to her approval that said,
• 27:28
  Speaker 11: keep me updated on negotiations with the company Meridian, which
• 27:32
  Speaker 11: was then being engaged to do this bronze statue of
• 27:37
  Speaker 11: Daniel Andrews. It was clearly a priority of the government.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: All right, let's go to the third leg of your
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: news-breaking trifecta this week, this ratings agency warning telling Ben
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: Carroll ahead of the election, don't go out there and
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: have the usual cash splash. All of your spending commitments
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: and other things are putting at risk Victoria's budget position
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: and a further downgrade. It's already had a couple of downgrades,
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: but a further downgrade of the state's credit rating.
• 28:10
  Speaker 11: Yeah, so S & P Global Ratings and other credit
• 28:13
  Speaker 11: agencies are clearly concerned about a number of announcements Carroll
• 28:17
  Speaker 11: has made since taking over the premiership. He and the
• 28:21
  Speaker 11: new treasurer, Colin Brooks, have clearly signalled that they want
• 28:24
  Speaker 11: to exercise a lot more fiscal restraint than Daniel Andrews
• 28:29
  Speaker 11: and Jacinta Allen. But they've announced a lot of new spending,
• 28:32
  Speaker 11: including they upped the teacher pay deal by $ 400.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: Million.
• 28:38
  Speaker 11: They've announced this week a string of new road commitments,
• 28:44
  Speaker 11: and it seems unclear what is coming out of consolidated
• 28:47
  Speaker 11: revenue and what is actually new money. But the credit
• 28:50
  Speaker 11: agencies are also concerned about the axing of this $ 8
• 28:53
  Speaker 11: billion secret tax. Yes, it was $ 8 billion all the
• 28:57
  Speaker 11: way to 2062, but this was a tax that was
• 29:01
  Speaker 11: originally tied.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: To the $ 33. 5 billion suburban rail loop.
• 29:06
  Speaker 11: So if you're a credit agency, you're asking the Victorian
• 29:09
  Speaker 11: government now, where else are you getting that $ 8 billion from?
• 29:14
  Speaker 11: So they're saying it's not any one decision, but they're
• 29:17
  Speaker 11: going to be closely watching all these decisions in totality.
• 29:21
  Speaker 11: You know, revenue downgrades, new spending commitments to assess whether
• 29:27
  Speaker 11: Victoria can keep its AA credit rating at the minute.
• 29:33
  Speaker 11: And it has already been downgraded two notches since COVID,
• 29:37
  Speaker 11: as you mentioned.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and of course, you know, if things get tough
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: in Victoria and they lean on the federal government, as
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: they will, it becomes every state's problem, not just poor
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: old Victorians.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: Well done, Anthony. Keep it up. Let's go for a
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: quaddie next week.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: Let's see what you can break next week in The Australian.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: Thank you for your time. All right, National Flag Day today.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Just before the break, let's get into this.
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: 125 years since the Australian flag was first raised.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: Points if you know where. Royal Exhibition Buildings in Melbourne.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: But before I.
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: Show you the flags that you have been flooding my
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: inbox with, what about this?
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: Canberra today.
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: Two rogue flags in and around the 44 that were
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: put up to celebrate Australian Flag Day.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: Illegalised, tell me there. Look at those red stars.
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: They're New Zealand flags, not even Australian flags. All right,
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: let's go to the emails from you because you certainly
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: know what an Australian flag is.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: I'll put them up at the screen now. They are fantastic.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: I love your front yards.
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: I love all the native animals with them. Plenty of
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: you are pretty good on the mower, things neat and
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: tidy around your part of the world. Keep these pictures coming.
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: I've got some beautiful shots of coastal areas, regional Australia,
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: big backyards, little front verandas, the whole box and dice.
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: I've got them on utes. I've got them on boats.
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: I've got them on planes. I've got them wherever possibly
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: you can put the flag up. So this really makes
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: me happy. I know it makes a lot of the
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: viewers happy to see them. Keep them coming into my inbox.
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: That is absolutely fantastic. We've got to keep our culture
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: and our identity right after the break. Pressure mounts to
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: reopen the Bondi Royal Commission. A former Prime Minister is
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: now weighing in.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: Welcome back.
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: Coming up, the AFP union boss who also warned the
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: federal government about staffing concerns just a month before the
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: Bondi terror attack. but will stay with this issue and
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: calls to reopen the Bondi Royal Commission. Former Prime Minister
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: Tony Abbott's also joined the fight, demanding fresh hearings since
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: revelations here on News 24 Monday night about the evidence
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: from an AFP whistleblower who lodged a submission but was ignored.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: Joining me now from the Institute of Public Affairs annual
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: dinner in Melbourne, former PM and Liberal Party President Tony Abbott.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: Tony, welcome. You've been pretty strong today.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: You say it's downright bizarre that key figures have not
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: been called to discuss all the issues, including this stark
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: warning to AFP leaders 20 months before Bondi about a
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: lack of resourcing in counter-terrorism.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Yes, Peter.
• 32:28
  Speaker 12: The whole point of the Royal Commission is to ensure
• 32:31
  Speaker 12: that something like the Bondi Massacre never happens again. And
• 32:37
  Speaker 12: that means that we've got to learn the right lessons.
• 32:39
  Speaker 12: But we can't learn the right lessons if you don't
• 32:42
  Speaker 12: call the relevant ministers, if you don't call the relevant
• 32:45
  Speaker 12: security officials, if you don't expose the Islamist hate creatures.
• 32:50
  Speaker 12: And in particular, you won't learn the right lessons if
• 32:53
  Speaker 12: you ignore submissions... from senior counter-terrorist police talking about the
• 33:00
  Speaker 12: deficiencies and the gaps in our counter-terrorist program.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: So unless.
• 33:06
  Speaker 12: Hearings can be resumed and people who know what went
• 33:12
  Speaker 12: wrong are put on the stand, this is going to
• 33:15
  Speaker 12: look like a whitewashed Royal Commission, a travesty, and the
• 33:20
  Speaker 12: Australian people are owed better than that.
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: You know, the whole point about responsible government, it isn't
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: just a nice phrase.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: It's in the Constitution.
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: You know, elected government officials are responsible to us and
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: they are responsible for decisions that occur in their departments.
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: Surely the Prime Minister should be called. Surely we should
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: hear from the Head of Home Affairs, from the Attorney-General,
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: from anyone who might have been able to prevent what
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: happened last December.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: Exactly right, Peter.
• 33:58
  Speaker 12: The worst terrorist atrocity in our history happened on Anthony
• 34:03
  Speaker 12: Albanese's watch, and this is why the relevant ministers need
• 34:07
  Speaker 12: to be called and asked what they knew, what they did,
• 34:12
  Speaker 12: and what they should have done. And as I said,
• 34:16
  Speaker 12: if that doesn't happen, this Royal Commission looks like it
• 34:21
  Speaker 12: was set up to fail.
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: What about those claims, Tony, that the Albanese government forced
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: counter-terrorism police, and this was through the police, obviously, and
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: Home Affairs, to shift their focus from Islamic extremism, which
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: police tell me was the number one issue, to concerns
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: about the far right, which police again say, between Islamic
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: extremism and the far right, there's daylight. Surely the government,
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: if it's true that they meddled with the focus of
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: counter-terrorism police, have got to be called to account.
• 35:02
  Speaker 12: And that's exactly the kind of issue, Peter, which a
• 35:06
  Speaker 12: fair dinkum Royal Commission would have explored... And it's exactly
• 35:11
  Speaker 12: the kind of question that should be put to the
• 35:15
  Speaker 12: counter-terrorism officers in the field who have said to me
• 35:20
  Speaker 12: that that is exactly the instruction that they were given.
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: Let's go to that Perth-born paediatrician, Tarek Kamla, infamously now
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: known as Dr Jihad. He's in jail in Iraq. There's
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: reports today he's likely to face a mass trial.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: Now, the important point.
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: To pull out here out of the reports is that
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: Baghdad has called on countries, including Australia, to, quote, assume responsibility.
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: For the fate of their nationals. Tony, this... I'm reading
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: the code here.
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: This says to me that Iraq will expect Australia now
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: to take back this bloke, whatever the verdict. If he
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: has to be jailed, they'll expect him to be jailed
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: in Australia. So what are we not being told?
• 36:09
  Speaker 12: Well, Peter, if he's committed crimes in Iraq, as almost
• 36:14
  Speaker 12: certainly he has, he should be punished in Iraq. If
• 36:17
  Speaker 12: people commit crimes in Australia, they're punished here. And certainly
• 36:22
  Speaker 12: there's no way on God's green earth that we should
• 36:25
  Speaker 12: be expected to take back someone who looks very much
• 36:30
  Speaker 12: to be a hardened terrorist who hates our way of
• 36:33
  Speaker 12: life and could be expected to continue to be a
• 36:36
  Speaker 12: terrorist should he return.
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: Why don't we get a straight answer from the government
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: on anything to do with these ISIS-linked individuals?
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: The government goes to ground. It's like pulling teeth.
• 36:50
  Speaker 11: Look.
• 36:51
  Speaker 12: Ever since the October 7 atrocity, this government has been
• 36:55
  Speaker 12: seriously conflicted. It hasn't been able to mention anti-Semitism without
• 37:02
  Speaker 12: in the same breath mentioning an all but non-existent Islamophobia.
• 37:07
  Speaker 12: It's a government which has chronically failed to counter the
• 37:11
  Speaker 12: due hatred of which there's been an abundance of evidence
• 37:14
  Speaker 12: in our country over the last couple of years.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: And I fear that.
• 37:20
  Speaker 12: It will be in order to avoid upsetting certain minority
• 37:25
  Speaker 12: groups in Western Sydney and Western Melbourne, which will drive
• 37:29
  Speaker 12: the actions of the Albanese government.
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: Hey, I've got to get a quick comment before we go.
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: Shocking stories out of the Pilbara. A meth addict mother,
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: Margaret Hawke, murdering her three children. We learned today there
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: is not one individual on welfare in the Pilbara who
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: is having their income managed. And this is despite warnings
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: from Aboriginal leaders that drugs and alcohol purchased with welfare
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: cash are exacerbating the issues with child protection.
• 38:02
  Speaker 9: Um.
• 38:03
  Speaker 12: Peter, this has been an epic failure at every level.
• 38:09
  Speaker 12: Of course, welfare-dependent communities with drug and alcohol problems should
• 38:15
  Speaker 12: be put on income management. But in this particular case,
• 38:19
  Speaker 12: based on press reports, it seems that there was.
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: Report after report after.
• 38:24
  Speaker 12: Report that these kids were in danger. But the preservation
• 38:28
  Speaker 12: of culture, in inverted commas, was put ahead of... of
• 38:32
  Speaker 12: the protection of life and that's just dead wrong and
• 38:38
  Speaker 12: it's got to change.
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: And just quickly, I can see you've got a great
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: big flag behind you. I absolutely expect the Institute of
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: Public Affairs to honour and display our flag. But, you know,
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: you go overseas, I know you frequently are away and
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: you see other nations flying their one national flag. We've
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: got to do it more often and we've got to
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: stop flying multiple flags. We've just got to honour our
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: one flag that unites us all.
• 39:12
  Speaker 12: And the trouble is, Peter, that the current government is
• 39:17
  Speaker 12: ambivalent about our history. It's uncomfortable with our core Anglo-Celtic culture.
• 39:26
  Speaker 12: It's uncomfortable with our fundamental Judeo-Christian ethos. and this is
• 39:31
  Speaker 12: why you can't see government ministers stand up in public
• 39:35
  Speaker 12: without flying three flags instead of the one beautiful national
• 39:42
  Speaker 12: flag that represents every single Australian.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: Well, you're not ambiguous, Tony Abbott. Thank you.
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: Thanks for your time tonight and thanks for fighting for
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: the reopening of justice for everyone killed at Bondi and
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: for all Australians too. We all should care about the
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: events of last year and hope they never happen again.
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: All right, after the break, more on the warnings sent
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: by the AFP's police union to the federal government before
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: that Bondi terror attack has caused Wyden to reopen the
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: Royal Commission.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: Welcome back. Coming up, more news.
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: On those warnings from the AFP union to government. But
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: now to the campaign against the hugely divisive New England
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: Renewable Energy Zone, in which local communities are taking up
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: the fight against a 300 kilometre transmission corridor that the government.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: Wants to impose on them.
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: Now, we've covered this closely before, but tonight I want
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: to make sure we get you an update as Campaigners
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: say the scale of local opposition is now impossible for
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: the New South Wales government to ignore. Joining me now
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: from Wolca, Wolca High Country Guardian campaigner and generational young farmer,
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: Nathaniel Brazel. Nathaniel, thank you for your time. I am
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: often asked by my viewers, what's happening in Wolca? Peter,
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: you've got to get back to Wolca. We've sorted things
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: out in Victoria. We've got to fight for New South
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: Wales now. So give us the latest.
• 41:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, g'day, Peter. Thanks very much for having me.
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, Penny Sharp and EnergyCo are still pushing forward
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: with this transmission project and the infrastructure build for the
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: whole res. So they're chasing down an ESI currently and
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: have recently announced the workers' camps, which are going to
• 41:26
  Speaker 3: have massive effects on local communities.
• 41:29
  Speaker 4: And the announcement in that was a debacle in itself.
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: So, you know, they're still pushing forward ahead really hard,
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: despite the fact that there's been obviously quite a bit
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: of pushback from local communities, as well as pushback and
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: input from other government constituents and government bodies, infrastructure, energy
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: infrastructure have also had inputs, but there's still, you know,
• 41:57
  Speaker 3: no response from them or no likelihood of turning around.
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: But one of the things in your favour, of course,
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: is the March state election in New South Wales. How
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: about this map? The Walker team has given me this
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: map to put on the screen. I mean, it is
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: striking just how many landowners are dead against this renewable
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: project in your region. 508 properties mapped, 357 of them,
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: these are the ones in red, are outright opposed to
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: hosting renewables infrastructure of any sort. Only 28% of the
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: property survey there, and over 500 were saying that they
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: were willing to support renewables.
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: Tell us more.
• 42:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you're exactly right, Peter.
• 42:40
  Speaker 3: So a massive effort with this map. It would be
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: one of the most in-depth maps of any regions in
• 42:49
  Speaker 3: regards to renewable energy. And so, as you can see,
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: there's lots of people that don't want it.
• 42:58
  Speaker 4: By and large, farmers do not want the distraction of renewables.
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: They're very passionate about their produce that they produce on
• 43:09
  Speaker 3: their farms. They do not want it dissected by transmission
• 43:14
  Speaker 3: lines and they don't want turbines sitting on them. And
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: this is the kind of information that should have been
• 43:21
  Speaker 3: done at the start. They should have had this information.
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: EnergyCo and the government should have done this work originally
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: instead of listening to energy.
• 43:31
  Speaker 4: Salesmen telling them, hey, guys, green light here.
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: Like we are two-thirds the size of the Urana Res
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: and they expect us to produce energy. two times more
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: than Iran-Erez. Where's the appetite for this? It's just not there.
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: And they've been fed a lie from the start.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: Well, as I said, March election coming out, where can
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: people go to show their support and force a back
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: down from Penny Sharp on this?
• 44:01
  Speaker 4: You're exactly right.
• 44:02
  Speaker 3: Like this is going to come down to an electoral issue,
• 44:06
  Speaker 3: election issue.
• 44:07
  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: So, you know, people just need to be be talking
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: to their um local mps and and whatnot but also
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: throwing support behind local community groups um like ourselves there's
• 44:19
  Speaker 3: there's 12 or 13 along the line here that that
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: are really starting to push back and gain some traction
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: um so if you can support them in in any
• 44:26
  Speaker 3: way um to help make our voice louder and and
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: make sure the regional communities are really heard um Like
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: I said, it's not only regional communities, it's other government bodies,
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: it's the industry as well. AEMO have said that this
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: res doesn't need to be as large and also, you know,
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: people like the CEO of Origin Energy have come back
• 44:50
  Speaker 3: and said the appetite there isn't there anymore for the turbines.
• 44:54
  Speaker 4: You know, so we just.
• 44:56
  Speaker 3: Need to keep building that story for government to actually
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: listen to.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: Well, keep it up.
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: You've got plenty of my viewers telling me that I've
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: got to keep on the issue, so I will. I'll
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: catch up with you soon, but let's try and turn
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: this into a bigger news story right around the country
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: because what you're facing is what so many are facing
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: around Australia. Thank you, Farmer, there, of course. Nathaniel Brazel,
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: thank you, Nathaniel. Great to have you on the show,
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: as always. Alex Kawana, he's the head of the AFP
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: Police Union. He joins me after the break. Let's get
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: straight into things with my next guest, Alex Kawana. He's
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: the head of the AFP Association, so the police union,
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: and he issued a message in November last year, so
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: a month before Bondi, to the AFP about the huge
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: workload for officers, talking about a 280% increase since 2015
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: in counter-terrorism resourcing requirements. Alex Kawana joins me now from Canberra. Alex,
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: just in the interest of brevity, I'm not going to
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: speak any more. You know more about this than anyone.
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: I have been inundated this week from officers, the people
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: that wear the uniform, not the decision makers at the
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: top of the AFP tree, saying that they don't have
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: the resources they need, they're not getting what they're promised
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: and they find it increasingly difficult to keep Australians safe
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: and they don't feel the Royal Commission is getting to
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: the bottom of the problem.
• 46:29
  Speaker 8: Yeah, look, it's across the board. It's not just for
• 46:31
  Speaker 8: national security. It's for all parts of the AFP that
• 46:35
  Speaker 8: we're finding that members are telling me, pardon me, and
• 46:40
  Speaker 8: their management, their bosses, that they need more resources, they
• 46:43
  Speaker 8: need more staff. And the government imposed a 5% ban
• 46:46
  Speaker 8: across the whole public service. And unfortunately, the government lumps
• 46:50
  Speaker 8: us in with the public service.
• 46:52
  Speaker 4: And we're very different from the public service.
• 46:55
  Speaker 8: And that 5% dividend that we needed to hand back
• 46:59
  Speaker 8: is having some real effective negative effects on us operationally.
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm surprised you went quarantine because at a state level,
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: when they have cuts across public servants, they quarantine frontline services.
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: And you're absolutely right.
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: I mean, the health department in Canberra doesn't hire doctors
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: or nurses, but the AFP, the federal police, does hire police.
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: Why weren't you protected?
• 47:25
  Speaker 8: Look, I'm not sure. I think because the AFP budget
• 47:28
  Speaker 8: is so big that it's a very easy place for
• 47:31
  Speaker 8: the government to make savings. Certainly when it comes to
• 47:35
  Speaker 8: EA bargaining, it's often tested in that sphere. So our
• 47:39
  Speaker 8: concern is really about the safety of our members and
• 47:42
  Speaker 8: the safety of the community. And when the members are
• 47:43
  Speaker 8: consistently coming up to us to say the Commissioner has
• 47:47
  Speaker 8: been told by the government that this is the bucket
• 47:49
  Speaker 8: of money that we've got and it's okay to say
• 47:50
  Speaker 8: no to jobs, none of our members are actually going
• 47:53
  Speaker 8: to say no to a job because who wants to
• 47:55
  Speaker 8: be the end of that public criticism or internal criticism
• 47:58
  Speaker 8: when or if they make the decision not to go
• 48:01
  Speaker 8: forward with the job.
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: I've got to ask you, Alex, then have you been
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: asked to give evidence?
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: To the Royal Commission?
• 48:08
  Speaker 8: No, we haven't. We've provided our statements and that's it.
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: Are you dismayed that they were closed and we didn't
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: hear from Chrissy Barrett, that we didn't hear from the
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: AFP Minister, that we didn't hear from the Attorney-General at
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: all in this Royal Commission?
• 48:24
  Speaker 8: Look, I think it's important that it is closed because
• 48:27
  Speaker 8: we don't want to have a lot of that information
• 48:29
  Speaker 8: going out there and, one, creating a bit of a
• 48:32
  Speaker 8: public fear.
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: Now, I hear you on the confidentiality, Alex, but are
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: you upset that we haven't had a Christy Barrett called
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: to give evidence in camera or publicly?
• 48:43
  Speaker 8: Look, I think all the levels of the AFP should
• 48:47
  Speaker 8: be in there giving evidence and explaining why certain decisions
• 48:50
  Speaker 8: were made.
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: All right, I'm out of time.
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry we've had issues with your technical end. Let's
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: talk again next week because I think this is far
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: too important to let go. Thank you for your time, Alex, there.
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: Of course, the police union boss at the AFP. That's
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: it for me. Have a lovely weekend.
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: Go Carlton. I'm with Carlton tomorrow night. Here's the Bolt Report.