Latest / The Kenny Report / The Kenny Report | 24 March

Transcript

The Kenny Report | 24 March · The Kenny Report

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Line from the Skying New Center. This is the Kenny Report.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Thanks for joining me. Budget week election countdown, Bring it
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: on tonight. When will this reckless spending ever stop? Not
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: so long as Anthony Albanezi and Jim Charmers are in power,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: that's for sure. The tials promising to lift parliamentary standards
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: one minute, running down the road with their opponents posters
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: the next. The Instagram influencer claiming Muslims and Indigenous Australians
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: got this country started and colonizers have destroyed it. Seriously,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: can Australia really be a modern country without nuclear power?
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: And is it only politics getting in the way. All
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: those stories, plus Dave Shama, John Black on the polls
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: and a terrific panel with Caroline de Rousseau and Christy McSweeney,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: let's get started. Look, you'll hear a lot about the
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: budget over the next couple of days. I'll speak with
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: some experts tonight, but let's put all this into context.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: We're about to have the most clear cut pre election
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: budget ever. They're only delivering a budget now because they
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: got caught out by that cyclone and couldn't call the election.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: So Anthony Albanesi and Jim Charmers will deliver a budget
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: tomorrow and then call the election, perhaps on the weekend
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: for May third, or the following weekend for May tenth.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Now this is a problem for all of us. Why well,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: because the main thing this country needs from government is restraint.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: The Albanesi Labor government has added more permanent, recurrent government
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: spending to the budget than any government since GoF Whitlam's
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: disastrous run in the nineteen seventies. We need less government
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: spending and more private sector growth. That's the only way
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: to keep inflation down, get interest rates down, get taxes down,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: and ensure that we live than our means. But this
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: is all we get from Labor.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: A seven point two billion dollar announcement today to assist
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: with the Bruce Highway.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: We are investing billions and billions of dollars in strengthening Medicare.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Two billion dollars to supercharge Australia's luminium industry.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: With billions of dollars in new investment.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: An eight point five billion dollar commitment to deliver stronger medicare.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: So on a day where we've got a sixteen point
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: five billion dollar national education announcement.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Got here the billions keep rolling off the tongue, don't
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: they now? Remember Labour came to offer us promising to
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: reduce the cost of living.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: We will put in place mechanisms that provide cost of
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: living relief.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: Under Labor, you'll have a government which cares about cost
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: of living and has plans to deal with.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: It, build people's living standards up, a better future, with
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: real plans to address is as of.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: Living and to ease the pressure that too many Australians
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: are feeling.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well we all know they've clearly failed on that score.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: But Labor also came to power emphatically and repeatedly, promising
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: to cut electricity bills.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: Reducing power prices by two hundred and seventy five dollars.
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: Reducing power prices by two hundred and seventy five dollars.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: By twenty twenty five, two hundred and seventy five dollars
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: a year.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: One hundred and seventy five dollars a year will get.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: Power prices down by two hundred and seventy five dollars.
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: A year, two hundred and seventy five dollars for the
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: average house lower in twenty twenty five than today.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Well, that go goes down in history now is one
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: of the more infamous broken promises. They didn't even get close,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: did they. They've pushed prices up by about three or
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: four times what they promised to cut them. What we
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: desperately need in the budget are plans to deliver reliable
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: and affordable electricity, but will get more renewed folly and
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: more taxpayers money spent on subsidies to try to hide
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: the price increases. And we need spending restraint. But the
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: budget is going to sound a lot like this.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: Seven point two billion dollars.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Thirty two billion dollars of investment.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: Three billion dollars, seven billion dollars.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: Almost two billion dollars.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: Four point eight billion dollar, two billion dollars, one billion dollars,
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: two point eight billion dollars.
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: Twenty three billion dollar cost living relief plan.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: And when you throw money around like that, there'll be
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: deficits as far as the eye can see, and urban
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: easy and charmers will make it sound like this is
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: something happening to them from the events of the global economy,
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: rather than something that they choose to do to us
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: because they can't stop spending. They think voters are too
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: stupid to pick the difference, So we get back to
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: the key quesquestions we all need to be asking in
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: coming weeks. Are we better off or worse off? After
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: three years of Albanesi Labor government? Has Labor secured our
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: power grid and cut electricity prices or made things worse?
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Is labor constraining government spending? Public service numbers two and
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: union power? Are Australia's national security, defense and immigration programs
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: even under control? And have Albanesi and Labor taken responsibility
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: for any of their mistakes? Will any of their ministers
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: actually turn up here and discuss their plans for a
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: second term. No, they won't do that, and we'll see
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: what we get in the budget tomorrow. My fear is
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: even more spending. I mean, when you've got a prime
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: minister who now looks like he's selling stake knives, you
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: know we're in shallow politics and deep strife.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: Another one hundred and fifty dollars is coming off your
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: power bill. That's every household, no strings attached.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: No strings attached except that it's your money. He's promising
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: to use your money to try to keep your power
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: bills down because he promised to lower them, and then
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: he broke that promise, and now he's borrowing more money
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: on your behalf to try to push them down, but
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: only for another six months. After that, look out, they'll
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: go up again, no strings attached. He's got a nerve.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: But wait, there's more, just.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: Real money, straight up your bill. And that's on top
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: of the three hundred dollars we've already taken off.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: God, how cheap can you get? Yeah, he's so generous
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: with your money, isn't he real borrowed money that you'll
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: have to repay with taxes. He forgot to mention that.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: I only wish there was a money back guarantee. And
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: when it comes to the decade or more of budget
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: deficits coming up and the ballooning debt that they'll bring,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: well we know what labor will say about that. Yeah,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: they'll keep trying to wash their hands of this mess.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: But they are responsible, and the election is when voters
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: to get to hold them to account. We've spoken a
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: lot about social cohesion and the lack of it in
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: this country. The anti semitism of the past eighteen months
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: has been traumatic and unprecedented, and for the year or
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: so before that, the ugliness of the Voice referendum divided
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: the country. Indigenous issues continue to be used as political
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: weapons on university campuses, where indoctrination is replacing the contest
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: of ideas. And underlying all of this are ongoing debates
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: about our indigenous heritage, our history of colonization, and our
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: multicultural society. In these debates, there's far too little agreement
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: on settled facts, in a lot of manipulation of the
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: facts to promote particular views. So let me show you
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: an Instagram post from a young Muslim influencer, Sabrema Alam,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: who films and shares her travel adventures in the bush.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Now to give you some context. She is responding here
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: to a nasty comment that she wouldn't survive in a
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: Muslim country, let alone the bush. But haven't listened to
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: her argument in response, he's.
• 8:49
  Speaker 5: Something they don't teach you in school. Muslims have been
• 8:51
  Speaker 5: in Australia far longer than European colonization.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Really, there might be a reason that schools don't reach
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: this Muslim migrants. By the way, the early Afghan Camaliers
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: were actually part of colonization, the first arriving in South
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Australia in the eighteen thirties, but it seems Alam is
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: speaking about something else. Historical claims that Muslim traders from
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: what is now Indonesia traded with indigenous people on the
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: tropical North Coast in the seventeen hundreds.
• 9:24
  Speaker 5: Muslim's built real, respectful relationships with Aboriginal communities. They traded goods,
• 9:30
  Speaker 5: shared stories, built families, and they did it with integrity.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Well again, historians have referenced some contact, possibly some trade,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: but building families and relationships with Aboriginal communities. This is all,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: to say the least overstated, but worst of all, Alam's
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: spill becomes just another effort to attack Australian society, our history,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: and our values. Listen to how he reckons it is
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Indigenous and Muslim Australians that are the true builders of
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: this country as opposed to those evil colonizers.
• 10:10
  Speaker 5: Well, the colonizers destroyed. Muslim's built relationships based on trust
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  Speaker 5: and respect.
• 10:16
  Speaker 6: And this isn't just history.
• 10:18
  Speaker 5: It's connections. The Aussie bush is part of a land
• 10:21
  Speaker 5: that we've been connected to for centuries.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Wow, talk about divisive, talk about turning history on its head.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: The colonizers destroyed. Do you not see the wonderful modern
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: nation around you? You know, the one where your family
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: has come here and prospered, and now you get to
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: make a living as an Instagram influencer. This is why
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: the history wars matter. This sort of nonsense is divisive
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: and dangerous, but who has the courage to call it out.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: Let's know what you think. We all know what the
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Teals care about, don't we. They pretend they can save
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: the planet, but all their preferred policies, of course, push
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: up power prices. They care about women. They're organized and
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: funded by a man, Simon Holmes. A court sure, but
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: they are all women, and they tell us they care
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: more about women than the other parties, and they care
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: about integrity. They claim to be the leading the charge
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: when it comes to improving standards in politics. Here's til
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: MP Monique Ryan.
• 11:33
  Speaker 7: Trust in government continues to fall. The public believes us
• 11:37
  Speaker 7: less and less. The major parties seem to work together
• 11:41
  Speaker 7: only when colluding against their rivals.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, those nasty major parties. Okay, and here's Monique Ryan's
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: husband running off with a poster that promotes her liberal
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: opponent Amelia Hamer. Hang on, mate, what are you doing.
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  Speaker 8: I'm taking the fine out?
• 12:02
  Speaker 7: Yeah, beg you pardon, I'm taking the find out what
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  Speaker 7: are you doing that for?
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: It's on public landing. Yep, that's the husband of the
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Teal MP in Melbourne, Monique Ryan, running off with a
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: poster that does not belong to him, and here is
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: his wife.
• 12:20
  Speaker 7: Democracy is under threat globally and what we acknowledge is
• 12:23
  Speaker 7: a post truth world speaker. We can combat cynicism and
• 12:27
  Speaker 7: disbelief only by committing to openness.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Okay, openness, love a bit of openness. So let's go
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: back to Ryan's husband. Oh you, I'm not saying who
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: I am?
• 12:41
  Speaker 7: Who are you?
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Or you wearing a Teal t shirt? Hm, he's not
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: saying who he is. That's openness Teal style. He took
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: the poster and wouldn't say who he was. But that
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: is Peter Jordan and he's not only a supporter of
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: the TEALMP Monique Ryan, he is married to her, which
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: is all about ugly when the Tials have built their
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: whole brand on moral superiority.
• 13:05
  Speaker 9: As your member for Keoon, I will act with integrity
• 13:08
  Speaker 9: and honesty, and I will provide leadership and vision and
• 13:12
  Speaker 9: I stand for integrity, decency and honesty. I will always
• 13:17
  Speaker 9: hold our government to account for its actions.
• 13:21
  Speaker 10: Oh you.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying who I am, who are you? Or
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: you wear a teal T shirt, I'll start to film you.
• 13:27
  Speaker 11: Are you?
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Monic?
• 13:28
  Speaker 7: Ryan support of ripping down people's people's signs are?
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: Is that what you're doing? It belongs to me. Hey,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: you can take it off the property, but it belongs
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: to me. Manik Ryan and her husband have now apologized
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: for this episode. They admit that the incident should not
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: have occurred. That is, that Jordan should not have uprooted
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: and stolen the campaign poster of the Liberal candidate his
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: a wife's opponent. Aren't we all just so lucky that
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: the tials of come along to improve the standard of
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: politics in this country. Let's go to Dave Sharma, the
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: Liberal Senator for New South Wales, joining us live from Canberra.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: We're no doubt he'll be so excited about being back
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: in Parliament ready for the budget tomorrow. Thanks for joining us, Dave.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Are you surprised but by those campaign tactics of the
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: esteemed morally superior Tills and the husband's out there ripping
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: out posters?
• 14:30
  Speaker 12: No, I'm not to be honest. You know I saw
• 14:33
  Speaker 12: similar stuff in Wentworth when I was running in twenty
• 14:36
  Speaker 12: twenty two. I know the same sorts of tactics are
• 14:39
  Speaker 12: being deployed against the Liberal candidate Roe Knox there this time.
• 14:43
  Speaker 12: You know that it's unusual for the candidate themselves or
• 14:46
  Speaker 12: the candidate's party to get us our partner to get
• 14:49
  Speaker 12: caught red handed. But you know, I've heard a lot
• 14:52
  Speaker 12: of reports in Wentworth of the liberal candidate's poster is
• 14:55
  Speaker 12: getting torn down to face profeeded. I don't think I
• 14:58
  Speaker 12: don't think the teals have any more well, in fact,
• 15:01
  Speaker 12: they have considerably less integrity when it comes to these
• 15:03
  Speaker 12: things than the mainstream political parties.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Leave them there to explain their actions. Let's talk about
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: the budget tomorrow. I said at the outset on most
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: concerned that we're looking at more spending right on the
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: cusp of an election. There'll be money thrown around. The
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: latest that we know about is extending these rebates for
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: power prices. Labors failed to cut power prices that push
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: them further up. Now they're going to extend these rebates
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: for another six months. Eventually people are going to be
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: confronted by the real increases in electricity. How do you
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: count to that? Are the coalition for a Starter is
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: going to support these rebates being extended.
• 15:43
  Speaker 12: Well, Peter Duden has said that we will support this
• 15:46
  Speaker 12: next phase of the rebate because I think we recognize
• 15:49
  Speaker 12: that electricity prices are much higher than people are used
• 15:52
  Speaker 12: to it. It's people are finding it hard to pay
• 15:55
  Speaker 12: for them. But I mean, obviously this is a band
• 15:58
  Speaker 12: aid solution to a problem that actually needs a more
• 16:01
  Speaker 12: structural solution, and that's rising electricity prices. I mean, we've
• 16:04
  Speaker 12: seen the regulators already say that they expect electricity prices
• 16:07
  Speaker 12: to go eight percent next year, well above the pace
• 16:10
  Speaker 12: of inflation. And it's a sign that Labour's renewables only
• 16:13
  Speaker 12: strategy is not working. It's pushing up prices. It's not
• 16:17
  Speaker 12: adding to reliability supply. It's hurting manufacturing, it's hurting businesses
• 16:20
  Speaker 12: that use electricity, it's hurting household So if we are elected,
• 16:25
  Speaker 12: you know we're going to pursue a balanced approach to
• 16:27
  Speaker 12: the energy mix, which will over time bring down prices
• 16:31
  Speaker 12: over time.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Let's come we'll come back to that the moment. The
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: first up, here's the Prime Minister today refusing to say
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: that in this next term he'll get power prices down.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: Well, what we've seen is that in twenty twenty four
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: power prices fell twenty five point two percent. They would
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: have fallen just one point six percent without rebates.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's all about rebates. Now, how is the coalition,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: if you win government, going to get prices down in
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: the medium term.
• 17:02
  Speaker 12: Well, firstly, I think we will make sure that we
• 17:05
  Speaker 12: get more gas into the grid. We want to tackle
• 17:08
  Speaker 12: some of the obstacles to developing more gas fields, particularly
• 17:12
  Speaker 12: in the southern states, New South Wales and Victoria, which
• 17:15
  Speaker 12: are used for domestic supply, because the reality is that
• 17:19
  Speaker 12: gas sets the marginal price for power generational electricity generation,
• 17:23
  Speaker 12: so the market is largely set by the cost of gas,
• 17:26
  Speaker 12: and that has been at historic eyes in Australia. Obviously,
• 17:30
  Speaker 12: you know, we are open to extending the life of
• 17:32
  Speaker 12: existing including coal fired power plants. I notice I mean
• 17:36
  Speaker 12: New South Wales and Victorian labor governments are already reaching
• 17:39
  Speaker 12: this realization that they cannot pull these big assets out
• 17:42
  Speaker 12: of the grid and expect that there will be no
• 17:44
  Speaker 12: impact on prices. And then, of course we want to
• 17:46
  Speaker 12: pursue nuclear power as part of a balanced energy, mixed
• 17:49
  Speaker 12: zero emissions nuclear power over time, so it'll be threefold.
• 17:54
  Speaker 12: But I also don't want to pretend to you that
• 17:56
  Speaker 12: these problems will be changed overnight, and then they're quite
• 17:59
  Speaker 12: deep seated now, Labor and that will be a fair
• 18:01
  Speaker 12: bit of work to do to address what's been rampant
• 18:03
  Speaker 12: inflation in electricity prices.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's no doubt it'll take a while. Even just
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: bringing on gas will take a while. Do you think
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: that you could actually get prices stabilizing or going downwards
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: within a year or within the first term.
• 18:17
  Speaker 12: Look, I'm not going to be so bold to make
• 18:20
  Speaker 12: a commitment like that, Chris on air. You know, certainly
• 18:23
  Speaker 12: it's our intention to do everything we can to put
• 18:26
  Speaker 12: downwards pressure on prices, but there are obviously other factors
• 18:29
  Speaker 12: in the market that will help that will determine those prices.
• 18:32
  Speaker 12: So all I can say is we're going to pursue
• 18:35
  Speaker 12: a policy that's more focused on reliability and affordability than
• 18:41
  Speaker 12: Labour's policy, which is focused largely on ideology and international commitments.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: Just one question. A million miles away from the budget
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: and out of left field. You might have seen the
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Instagram influencer I showed at the top of the program,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: a young woman, Sabrina Allam As. She's saying that it
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: was a Muslim working with indigenous cultures that got this
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: country started, and that the colonizers have just destroyed the joint.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, how worried to you about these sorts of
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: views being permeated in our society. Presumably some people believe
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: this stuff.
• 19:17
  Speaker 12: Look, I think it's a very divisive message to be spreading.
• 19:20
  Speaker 12: I mean, yes, there was early contact between Muslim traders
• 19:24
  Speaker 12: predominately from Indonesia and the inhabitants and allthern Australia, just
• 19:27
  Speaker 12: as there was contact from Dutch explorers and others in
• 19:30
  Speaker 12: our pre colonial history. But I don't think you don't need,
• 19:35
  Speaker 12: in pointing out that factor, somehow discredit the settlement, British
• 19:39
  Speaker 12: settlement of Australia, because I think if you look around you,
• 19:44
  Speaker 12: with all its imperfections and with no doubt some regrets
• 19:47
  Speaker 12: along the way, we've built a pretty good country on
• 19:49
  Speaker 12: the whole that many people want to move to and
• 19:51
  Speaker 12: make their home in. And I don't think we need
• 19:53
  Speaker 12: to be going around trying to discredit that history and
• 19:56
  Speaker 12: trying to create some sort of picture of a false
• 19:58
  Speaker 12: utopia or false parallel universe which I think would never
• 20:02
  Speaker 12: have existed.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Spot on thanks to joining us, Dave, I appreciate it.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: Dave Sharma, their Liberal Senator for New South Wales, live
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: from Canberra. It's a bloody good country and that's why
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: so many people want to come here and to run
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: it down in those ways in such divisive terms. To me,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: is such a worry people, young people on Instagram. They
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: look at that stuff. They believe it, They think it's factual.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: I think it's true. It ain't. Let's stick with the
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: economy now and previewing tomorrow's budget. I'm joined on the
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: desk here. Ay Dmitri burstin from Eminence Advisory. Good to
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: see you again, Dmitri. Thanks Chris, nice to be back now.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: You've written in pretty strong terms about just what this
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: government has done with spending and with debt. How dire
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: is the situation and how much worse could it be
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: after tomorrow?
• 20:47
  Speaker 11: Oh, it's pretty dire and it can only get worse.
• 20:51
  Speaker 11: The only way Australia is going to see a surplus
• 20:53
  Speaker 11: anytime sooner if they redefine.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: The word really surely, surely, if we can straining government spending,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: eventually economic growth gets us there.
• 21:05
  Speaker 11: Yes, Chris, but I have no confidence in either this
• 21:08
  Speaker 11: government or the opposition constraining spending. We have out of
• 21:12
  Speaker 11: control spending all over the place with demands necessary demands
• 21:16
  Speaker 11: for example in defense, I mean ndis the government has
• 21:19
  Speaker 11: announced you know, one hundred billion dollars, more than one
• 21:22
  Speaker 11: hundred billion dollars since since it's been elected. And the
• 21:26
  Speaker 11: metric that I look at weekly is the level of
• 21:29
  Speaker 11: gross debt of this country. You know, budget accounting can
• 21:34
  Speaker 11: come and go, but the truth is in how much
• 21:36
  Speaker 11: debt we have, and as at this week, it's nine
• 21:38
  Speaker 11: hundred and fifty six billion dollars a debt, a mere
• 21:41
  Speaker 11: forty two billion dollars more than the start of the
• 21:45
  Speaker 11: calendar year, and five billion dollars on last.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Week and bearing down on a trillion.
• 21:49
  Speaker 11: Critic fast fast as Now.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: What I like about your commentary is you're an equal
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: opportunity critic. Of course, the coalition spending went away out
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: of control under COVID. Now they'll always blame the pandemic,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: but I would argue, there's no doubt you would that
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: they drastically over reacted to the pandemic. And the trouble
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: for them now is that labor is desperate for them
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: to oppose some spending so they can have a scare
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: campaign against them. So things like these electricity rebates and
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: medicare spends, the coalition saying tick yep, we'll add that
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: as well. No one's got a plan to pay for
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: any of it.
• 22:27
  Speaker 11: Well they do, they'll just leave it on the credit
• 22:29
  Speaker 11: card for our children and grandchildren to pay for it.
• 22:32
  Speaker 11: And yes, and with bracket creep, it'll just be'll squeeze
• 22:37
  Speaker 11: the young and the working, you know, as far as
• 22:39
  Speaker 11: they can until they said it enough, and they you know,
• 22:41
  Speaker 11: they might even stop working.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: I'll leave the country and leave us with what this
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: is The really worrying thing, isn't it When you talk
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: about just adding it to the future deficits and debt,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: it means taxes stay higher for longer. So what we're
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: talking about is paying for our weakness if you want
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: to call it that now or a lack of courage
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: now is our children.
• 23:00
  Speaker 11: Our children will be paying for this, children and grandchildren
• 23:03
  Speaker 11: and great grandchildren. I mean, let's recall that around was
• 23:07
  Speaker 11: that when Kevin Rudd was elected in two thousand and seven,
• 23:11
  Speaker 11: net debt was negative, it was zero, And in twenty
• 23:15
  Speaker 11: just under twenty years, we've racked up, you know, close
• 23:19
  Speaker 11: to a trillion dollars worth of debt.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Wow, it's so true. I remember so clearly that changing
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: government there the Howard Costello years handing over money in
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: the bank, no net debt, and we've gone a trillion
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: since then.
• 23:33
  Speaker 11: This reckless spending must end. I mean we've heard this before.
• 23:37
  Speaker 11: I'm waiting for the opposition to actually say something about
• 23:40
  Speaker 11: fiscal responsibility.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: So when does the reckoning come and what does it
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: look like? Because the important point to give context of
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: this is a lot of other countries are in this boat, right, America,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: European countries, a lot of them have even larger share
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: of debt. So there's a massive debt hanging over a
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: lot of Western countries. What does the reckoning look like.
• 24:04
  Speaker 11: Well, the reckoning will start with a credit rating downgrade,
• 24:07
  Speaker 11: which will increase the cost of debt to government. At
• 24:11
  Speaker 11: the moment the government's borrowing at around four point three percent.
• 24:15
  Speaker 11: That'll go up. That'll flow through to the banks, which
• 24:17
  Speaker 11: will flow through to mortgages, to business loans. It'll further
• 24:21
  Speaker 11: slow the economy down. The US and Europe, yes, they've
• 24:26
  Speaker 11: all got debt problems. But Australia has been recorded as
• 24:29
  Speaker 11: the fastest debt growth in the last twenty years. But
• 24:33
  Speaker 11: we're a different economy. We're a small, trade exposed economy.
• 24:39
  Speaker 11: And when we've got the Greens who want to stop
• 24:42
  Speaker 11: two of our three largest exports, and we have a
• 24:45
  Speaker 11: bipart as an energy policy which is asphyxiating our manufacturing sector,
• 24:50
  Speaker 11: you know we're in a different key. We're in a
• 24:53
  Speaker 11: much bigger world of hurts than Europe and the US
• 24:57
  Speaker 11: at the moment.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: The self harm is just incredible to imagine, even as
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: we see it happening around US Sex for joining us,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: did Dmitry burst on there for the grim news? Remember that, though,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: when you're watching the budget tomorrow, every time they promise
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: some money and every time the coalition promises to match it,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: this is money we don't have. This is money going
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: on the credit card for you and your kids and
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: your grandkids to pay in future taxes. You got to
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: take a break. On the other side of that, we'll
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: catch up with expert pollster and former Labour senter to
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: John black on where the parties are standing on the
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: eve of the election. Well, if you're a regular viewer,
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: you'll know that in the middle of Parliamentary terms. I
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: tend to be pretty dismissive of polls. I think there's
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: too much focus on polls. But when it's this close
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: to the election, the polls and the analysis of the polls, well,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: I reckon it really really matters. And there was some
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: more news poll analysis in The Australian this morning which
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: shows that both major parties have an issue with support
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: among women. Here's our Sky News reported the.
• 25:58
  Speaker 10: Numbers primary vote amongst women has dropped to twenty nine percent.
• 26:03
  Speaker 10: Support for the Greens has climbed by two points to
• 26:06
  Speaker 10: fifteen The number of women supporting Labor has dropped by
• 26:09
  Speaker 10: seven percent since the last election. The data indicates female
• 26:13
  Speaker 10: voters also have a negative view of Peter Dutton. Despite
• 26:16
  Speaker 10: mister Dutton's lack of support, the Coalition leads Labor in
• 26:19
  Speaker 10: the female vote on two party preferred fifty one to
• 26:24
  Speaker 10: forty nine.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: Let's get into this and some other aspects of the
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: polling with the expert number Cruncher, a former Labour senator
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: John Black joining us from Brisbane. John, I suppose that
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: this polling won't surprise everyone. People have talked about a
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: women problem, especially for the Coalition, but the fact that
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: it's hitting both major parties. What do you make of that.
• 26:46
  Speaker 6: Look, the fertility rate in Australia has a drop like
• 26:50
  Speaker 6: a stone in the last three or four years, and
• 26:52
  Speaker 6: the facts are that there are more younger women without
• 26:55
  Speaker 6: kids and they tend to vote more for the left,
• 26:57
  Speaker 6: particularly for the Greens. So that's I think is the
• 27:01
  Speaker 6: major explanation of what we're seeing here, but that both
• 27:04
  Speaker 6: the major parties are on the nose with their supporters,
• 27:07
  Speaker 6: whether they're male orfully.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Mark Chris, Yes, I'll come back to that in the
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: second because that's very important that the major party is
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: being on the nose, and you've written about that today.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: But back to that point about democratic demographics, that's so
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: important to get our heads around. I mean, you're saying
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: when women they're married or become mothers, partner it up
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: and become parents, then their political outlook changes. It's the
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: same for blokes. Presumably they've become more conservative, but as
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: young free spirits, they're left wing, and that's what we're
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: seeing play out.
• 27:44
  Speaker 13: This has been happening for quite some time.
• 27:46
  Speaker 6: If the actual the act of getting married and having
• 27:49
  Speaker 6: kids or partnering up and having kids makes you a
• 27:51
  Speaker 6: lot more conservative, Chris, you acquire a house, you acquire
• 27:56
  Speaker 6: responsibilities with kids. You've got to feed the little guys.
• 27:59
  Speaker 6: You've got a mortgage to pay, you've got to commute
• 28:01
  Speaker 6: to two jobs. You need two jobs to make ends meet.
• 28:04
  Speaker 6: So you become much more concerned about the economy and
• 28:07
  Speaker 6: you become much more likely to vote for the Conservatives.
• 28:10
  Speaker 6: As fertility to drop as it has, as I said,
• 28:12
  Speaker 6: like a stone since COVID, it's now down about one
• 28:15
  Speaker 6: point five, then there are more people who are footlosts
• 28:18
  Speaker 6: and fancy free, and as I said, they're much more
• 28:20
  Speaker 6: inclined to vote for the Greens. So I think that
• 28:22
  Speaker 6: explains a lot of what we're seeing. But at the
• 28:25
  Speaker 6: same time, the Greens have been losing votes amongst their
• 28:27
  Speaker 6: older and former supporters, of course, as they learn how
• 28:30
  Speaker 6: to add up Chris.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, now we can see, excuse me, we can see
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: how labors tackling this labor are having a big focus
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: on women and they pitch their medicare advertising fairly strongly
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: at women. I think we're going to see a big
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: focus on women in their budget tomorrow. What the Coalition
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: and Peter Dutton need to do, especially when his popularity
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: or lack of it stands out in the cohort of women.
• 28:57
  Speaker 6: Well, these voters are not only becoming more concerned, they're
• 29:00
  Speaker 6: becoming more volatile. So hence the large s from the
• 29:04
  Speaker 6: Labor Party towards childcare for example, which is which is
• 29:07
  Speaker 6: a big impost on this particular demographic. As they move
• 29:11
  Speaker 6: into having kids, then they lose an income and they
• 29:14
  Speaker 6: need childcare to secure to income. So it's a point
• 29:18
  Speaker 6: at which people are really volatile, particularly females. So yes,
• 29:22
  Speaker 6: they're throwing money at that. As to what the coalition
• 29:26
  Speaker 6: needs to.
• 29:27
  Speaker 13: Do, well, Chris, you know that's up to them, but you.
• 29:29
  Speaker 6: Can keep on saying me too for a while before
• 29:32
  Speaker 6: people start to get a little bit bored with what
• 29:33
  Speaker 6: you're offering. And we're seeing signs of that now. So
• 29:37
  Speaker 6: whatever they're going to do, I mean, the way to
• 29:39
  Speaker 6: increase productivity, obviously, you know, is to treat the cost
• 29:43
  Speaker 6: of childcare the same way that blokes treat the cost
• 29:46
  Speaker 6: of a new high lux yit mate, it's a tax deduction,
• 29:49
  Speaker 6: So that would be another obvious.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: Thing for people to look at. Yeah, you're singing my song.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: I've said that for a decade. Or we'll forget all
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: the regulation and subsidies of childcare just making it tax
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: deductible expense. But I think they figure that's too expensive
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: and to lass a fair let's go to your analysis.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: That's kind of the pressing to read for someone like men,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: and that is because you're saying that this drift away
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: from the major parties is continuing. That means we're going
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: to get this hotchpox of independence and minor parties. The
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: reason I hate that is because I think it leads
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: to terrible government. But you're saying the winner of this
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: election is going to be the major party that the
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: mob distrace distrust the least. They distrust both of them,
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: so it's sort of a race to the bottom.
• 30:33
  Speaker 14: You're saying, well, yeah, look, the facts are that a
• 30:36
  Speaker 14: few years back, twenty years back, around about eighty I
• 30:39
  Speaker 14: think out of one hundred and fifteen seats were being
• 30:41
  Speaker 14: determined on primary votes, so you know, the.
• 30:44
  Speaker 13: Major parties were the major parties, you know, in fact,
• 30:47
  Speaker 13: not just name.
• 30:49
  Speaker 6: And now we're seeing that that now down to I
• 30:51
  Speaker 6: think about fifteen seats. As at the last election in
• 30:54
  Speaker 6: twenty twenty two, labor One only eight out of the
• 30:57
  Speaker 6: seventy eight seats.
• 30:58
  Speaker 13: It's now holds primary votes.
• 31:01
  Speaker 6: Now, these are the seats where we're seeing, from all
• 31:04
  Speaker 6: of the research, the biggest wings against the Labor Party.
• 31:07
  Speaker 6: So on the evidence from all of the extrapolation of
• 31:11
  Speaker 6: these polls on individual seats, the Labor Party will not
• 31:14
  Speaker 6: win a single seat on primary votes at the next election. Wow,
• 31:19
  Speaker 6: like that one little bit for democracy as part of
• 31:22
  Speaker 6: being an old label. Like, I don't like it one little.
• 31:23
  Speaker 11: Bit there either.
• 31:24
  Speaker 13: But similarly, the Coalition Chris, they look like winning only
• 31:29
  Speaker 13: three out of the current fifty five odd seats that
• 31:31
  Speaker 13: they've got, so they're in a similar position that is
• 31:35
  Speaker 13: not healthy for democracy, and the evidence is.
• 31:38
  Speaker 6: That they are. Also that the Greens are suffering from
• 31:41
  Speaker 6: a loss of their primary support. So some of those
• 31:44
  Speaker 6: votes are spraying across to the coalition, some to Labor,
• 31:48
  Speaker 6: some are going from Labor to the Greens, and some
• 31:50
  Speaker 6: are going off to the coalition.
• 31:51
  Speaker 13: As I said, some of the Teals also.
• 31:54
  Speaker 6: Are coming back to Coalition voters in some of their
• 31:57
  Speaker 6: safest seats.
• 31:58
  Speaker 13: So I think it's fair to say the.
• 32:00
  Speaker 6: Poor old Moe punters aren't happy not just with the
• 32:03
  Speaker 6: major parties but also with the minor parties.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Wow, it's going to be messy. It makes me want
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: to start a conversation about getting rid of compulsory voting,
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: about having optional preferential voting, about first past the post,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: all those other options. We'll take those up with you
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: another time though, John, thanks so much for joining us.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: John Black their live from Brisbane. Yep, all those preferences,
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: that's what matters in This election is going to be
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: a messy, messy one, that's for sure. We'll take a
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: break down on the other side. We're going to ask
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: the question of whether Australia can really be a modern
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: country without nuclear power and is it only politics it's
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: getting in the way. Let's get back into the energy debate,
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: and in particular the nuclear energy debate, which, as you know,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: is going to be a point of contention right throughout
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: the election campaign. I'm joined on the desk by Bruce Wyman,
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: who heads up a group called Cold to Nuclear. Thanks
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: for joining us, Bruce. Tell us in a nutshell, what
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: your organization is about, why you formed it?
• 33:00
  Speaker 14: Right?
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: Okay, thanks so much.
• 33:02
  Speaker 11: Chris Colton.
• 33:03
  Speaker 8: Nuclear is looking at the energy transition in Australia and
• 33:08
  Speaker 8: looking at it from the point of view of not
• 33:10
  Speaker 8: just renewables but also incorporating nuclear into the mix. And
• 33:14
  Speaker 8: it came from me being an engineer forty years ago
• 33:19
  Speaker 8: on Loyang POWERstation and now potentially turning that off. Its
• 33:24
  Speaker 8: equivalent to around fifteen hundred wind turbines. So the practicality
• 33:30
  Speaker 8: of turning that off with wind turbines and batteries seemed unreasonable.
• 33:36
  Speaker 8: And I started studying nuclear engineering about four years ago
• 33:40
  Speaker 8: and I've been involved in advocacy since then.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: Just to flesh that out. Fifteen hundred wind turbines working
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: all the time.
• 33:47
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean they work on a capacity factor of
• 33:50
  Speaker 8: what they call of.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: About thirty percent exactly. Yeah, So to replace Loyang, would
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: you want the fifteen hundred or three times now, No,
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: fifteen hundred and five hundred spinning at a time, Yeah, theoretically. Now,
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: the point here about it cold to nuclear. I love
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: the name because they're so obvious, right. If you want
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: to reduce the emissions from our fixed generation plants, then
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: the obvious way to do it, if you took all
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: the politics and everything out of it, if we'd made
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: that decision back in the nineties or two thousands, then
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: the obvious way to do it would be to replace
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: each one of those coal fired power stations with a
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: nuclear facility, because you've got the industrial set up around them,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: and you've got the transmission links and you've replaced like
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: for like without the emission.
• 34:31
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: Look, that's exactly right, Chris.
• 34:33
  Speaker 8: It's a matter of when looking at a site, there
• 34:37
  Speaker 8: are so many metrics that are similar for both a
• 34:40
  Speaker 8: colfied POWERstation and a nuclear power station. You need the
• 34:43
  Speaker 8: water supply for the steam turbines, you need the greed
• 34:47
  Speaker 8: connection point, you need a labor force and a community nearby.
• 34:52
  Speaker 8: And our coal power station plants, both Latroe Valley and
• 34:58
  Speaker 8: Hunter Valley have those characters.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: All right. Well, it's become very much a political issue.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: Labor ardently opposed to nuclear energy for this country. Have
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: a look at what they've been saying.
• 35:09
  Speaker 4: Nuclear's the most expensive form of energy and it's been
• 35:11
  Speaker 4: modeled to increase energy bills by twelve hundred dollars a year.
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: The thing about nuclear is, apart from being expensive and
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: very slow, is that it's not flexible. You can't turn
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: it on and off. Nuclear is by far the most
• 35:24
  Speaker 4: expensive form of energy.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: It's too expensive and it's too slow. How does this
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: wash given most developed economies around the world use it.
• 35:32
  Speaker 6: Oh.
• 35:33
  Speaker 8: Look, I think you can spin a narrative any way
• 35:35
  Speaker 8: you want.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of.
• 35:36
  Speaker 8: Different parameters involved in assessing nuclear power, and if you
• 35:40
  Speaker 8: take a very negative view of every single parameter, you
• 35:45
  Speaker 8: can spin a negative narrative, which I feel is what
• 35:50
  Speaker 8: both LABOR and CSIO have done. Whereas if you look
• 35:55
  Speaker 8: at a more risk realistic scenario that not everything's negative.
• 35:58
  Speaker 8: There are positive characteristics and I won't go through them all,
• 36:03
  Speaker 8: but there's a lot in terms of lifespan and other things.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: But if you go through in.
• 36:06
  Speaker 8: A more balanced way, then the metric changes completely. And
• 36:10
  Speaker 8: then if you factor in that there's so many nuclear
• 36:13
  Speaker 8: power stations being built at the moment, the price points
• 36:16
  Speaker 8: also going to drop. So that assessment that's been done
• 36:20
  Speaker 8: is really out of touch with what's happening in the world,
• 36:22
  Speaker 8: and certainly if we're looking at twenty thirty five, it's
• 36:25
  Speaker 8: out of touch with what's going to happen in twenty thirty.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: Five when you look at AI and the enormous energy
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: demands for that, and of course the electrification we're talking
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: about of motor transport and all sorts of other parts
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: of the economy, The growing use of electricity if you're
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: going to go to net zero and you look at
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: what's happening in Finland, in France and America and the
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: UK and South Korea, Can Australia actually be a modern
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: economy and not have a domestic nuclear capability?
• 36:52
  Speaker 8: I don't think so. I think to give you a
• 36:55
  Speaker 8: bit of context, AI and data centers are now being
• 36:59
  Speaker 8: set up around energy hubs in the US where there's
• 37:02
  Speaker 8: access to gas and nuclear power, and they rely on
• 37:06
  Speaker 8: getting you know, one hundred percent reliability of twenty four
• 37:09
  Speaker 8: to seven power, which we can't get with intermittent renewables unfortunately, So.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: We just have to go down this path. What's stopping us?
• 37:17
  Speaker 8: Look, I think there's a historic perspective which is post
• 37:22
  Speaker 8: Cold War and nuclear testing and fear, and there's been
• 37:27
  Speaker 8: a push to mix the two issues, one being weapons
• 37:32
  Speaker 8: related with energy and they're two completely separate things.
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and what about the arguments I say that which
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: I find quite amusing that we don't sort of have
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: off the shore of small modular reactors available now, which
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: seems to ignore the fact that there's a lot of
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: ships and submarines going around the oceans now from defense
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: forces that are actually powered by what are effectively small
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: modular reactors. Yeah. Look, that's right.
• 37:57
  Speaker 8: They actually classify the ones that are the size of
• 38:00
  Speaker 8: shit inside ships and submarines as micro reactors. The small
• 38:04
  Speaker 8: modular ones are slightly more powerful, and those ones being
• 38:09
  Speaker 8: developed now in twenty five countries. I think there's eighty
• 38:12
  Speaker 8: designs in progress at the moment, so there's a lot
• 38:17
  Speaker 8: of development happening and you know, certainly by twenty thirty
• 38:21
  Speaker 8: five there's going to be a number of options on
• 38:23
  Speaker 8: the table.
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. Thanks for joining us, Bruce, I appreciate it, Thank you, Bruce.
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: Woman there from Cole to nuclear. We're got to take
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: a break on the other side of that, going to
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: catch up with Caroline Durisso and Christy McSweeney. We'll talk
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: about how Labour's still winging about the coalition's plan to
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: get public servants back to the office. Let's get into
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: everything now with our great panel, joined by Caroline Drusso
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: of course, host of the Royal Report live from Perth,
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: and Christy McSweeney from the pr Council joining us from Melbourne.
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: Good to have you both on board this work from
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: home and debate. It's a corker. I reckon. Surely it's
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: a no brainer that we've got hundreds of thousands of
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: federal public servants working from home instead of turning up
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: at their offices in camera that most voters would support
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: Peter Dutton's point of view. What do you reckon?
• 39:16
  Speaker 15: Well, it's apparently about sixty percent, And I'm not sure
• 39:21
  Speaker 15: what private company could support sixty percent of their workforce
• 39:26
  Speaker 15: at home. And it's one of those things that does
• 39:29
  Speaker 15: work for some people, it doesn't work for others. Some
• 39:31
  Speaker 15: people are more productive and some people just aren't. But
• 39:35
  Speaker 15: trying to make it a cost of living issue when
• 39:39
  Speaker 15: you know you're essentially funded by the taxpayer and there's
• 39:43
  Speaker 15: all these taxpayers out there like nurses and police and
• 39:48
  Speaker 15: bricklayers who don't get to work from home, and I'm
• 39:50
  Speaker 15: not quite sure how much sympathy they're going.
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: To have for you. Yeah, it's an interesting one. Labor
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: and the lefty media Christy have been very clever and
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: sort of twisting this into attack workplace flexibility and no
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: one working from home at all anymore. Whereas we all
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: know that that ship has sailed, that that flexibility is
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: a great thing and it's going to be there all
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: the time for some workers. But they're having a lend
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: of us labor, aren't they If they're going to let
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: sixty or seventy percent of federal public servants in Canberra
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: work from home on our dime.
• 40:22
  Speaker 16: Well, of course, Chris, you and I have spent over
• 40:25
  Speaker 16: twenty years in Canberra. Now we know that the commuting
• 40:28
  Speaker 16: time from someone to get from the suburbs of Canberra
• 40:32
  Speaker 16: to the Public Service District to Capitol Hill District is
• 40:35
  Speaker 16: not the same as somebody wanting who has moved their
• 40:39
  Speaker 16: family to say Bendigo or Ballarat or Gosford because it's
• 40:43
  Speaker 16: cheaper than Melbourne and Sydney, who can work from home
• 40:47
  Speaker 16: two to three days a week and commute into the
• 40:49
  Speaker 16: city the other days. That is not a comparable argument.
• 40:54
  Speaker 16: We've sent an influx of major corporations here in Melbourne
• 40:58
  Speaker 16: tap Court for example, their staff back in the office.
• 41:02
  Speaker 16: I think the world's longest lockdown that was entrenched here
• 41:05
  Speaker 16: in Victoria just means that it's hybrid work from here
• 41:09
  Speaker 16: on in, So a mixture of working from home and
• 41:13
  Speaker 16: working in the office, and that seems to work for
• 41:15
  Speaker 16: people and that's what they like. Another point, did Chris
• 41:18
  Speaker 16: Mins also want all the public servants back to work
• 41:21
  Speaker 16: absolutely true.
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: To the keeper.
• 41:23
  Speaker 16: When he kind of proposed it didn't he wasn't a
• 41:26
  Speaker 16: big deal when labor does it in New South Wales.
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's sensible, Labor Chris Mens. He says the public
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: services should be a worker in the main. I mean
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: the trouble is Albo and the fans have given into
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: the unions and said that, you know, they have the option.
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: Everyone has the first choice to work from home if
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: they want to, which begs the question of why they've
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: built all those buildings in canber I thought he gave
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: away his attitude and his disconnect from reality when he
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: said this yesterday. Have a look.
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: The idea that there are people sitting around in Canberra
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: doing nothing just shows how ada touched Peter Dutton is.
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: And he needs to explain where the thirty six thousand
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: cuts will come from.
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: Caroline, there's Prime Minister reckons you couldn't find thirty six
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: thousand public servants sitting around doing nothing. I say, where
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: on earth has he been looking?
• 42:18
  Speaker 15: Well, he's not looking because he doesn't want to look.
• 42:20
  Speaker 15: And you've got to remember that Labor hold the Lower
• 42:23
  Speaker 15: House seats in the Act and Obviously David pocock Is
• 42:27
  Speaker 15: is quite popular. They're in the Act as well. They
• 42:31
  Speaker 15: want to protect Katie Gallaher. So we can't do anything
• 42:34
  Speaker 15: which which upsets the Canberra public servants. But I think
• 42:42
  Speaker 15: it's I think it's interesting. I want to see where's
• 42:45
  Speaker 15: the commensurate improvement in services.
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: To the taxpayer.
• 42:49
  Speaker 15: What have they actually produced? So if someone can show
• 42:52
  Speaker 15: me the graph of the more people producing more stuff,
• 42:56
  Speaker 15: that means the rest of us are better off than fine.
• 43:00
  Speaker 15: But I have a feeling that that's not the case.
• 43:02
  Speaker 15: And I don't understand why in politics, and particularly these
• 43:06
  Speaker 15: people who have never had a real job, never had KPIs,
• 43:09
  Speaker 15: never signed off on a payroll, never signed a declaration
• 43:13
  Speaker 15: of solvency. How they always just think that adding more
• 43:17
  Speaker 15: money or more people fixes problems and in most cases
• 43:21
  Speaker 15: it does the exact opposite.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what we need is cost benefit analysis and we
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: never get it from our federal governments. Let's switch to
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: the campaigning side of politics at the moment, and the
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: genteel streets of Qong in the in the leafy suburbs
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: of Melbourne, and this is what's been going on. Have
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: a look. Oh, I'm not saying who I am?
• 43:42
  Speaker 7: Who are you?
• 43:43
  Speaker 13: Or you wearing a seal T shirt?
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: I'll start to film you.
• 43:46
  Speaker 8: Are you?
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: Monic Ryan?
• 43:47
  Speaker 7: Support of ripping down people's people's signs?
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: Is that what you're doing that belongs to me. Hey,
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: you can take it off the property, but it belongs
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: to me. Would not say who he was, would not
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: identify himself Christy. He is Peter Jordan. He is the
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: husband of Monique Ryan. And Monique Ryan was going to
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: bring goodness and integrity back to politics, wasn't she.
• 44:13
  Speaker 16: Look they've had a sense of humor. They would have
• 44:16
  Speaker 16: gone with every woman needs a man who's willing to
• 44:19
  Speaker 16: go out and do that for her and be filmed
• 44:21
  Speaker 16: and cause the biggest issue on the full election campaign.
• 44:26
  Speaker 16: It hasn't even started. Everyone's watching the major parties and
• 44:30
  Speaker 16: here we have Monique Ryan, the teal for Kuyong, kicking
• 44:34
  Speaker 16: it off.
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: That's not a good look.
• 44:36
  Speaker 16: Campaign issues can get you into trouble a lot of time,
• 44:41
  Speaker 16: and you do have to watch your campaign staff, but
• 44:43
  Speaker 16: your immediate family, you think they'd be pretty much across
• 44:46
  Speaker 16: the dos and notes of getting into trouble.
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: You'd think so. I think it's on one level hilarious
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: On one level. It makes me angry because there's such hypocrites,
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: the teals. But Carolina, I think the husband, I don't
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: think they'll let him out the rest of the campaign.
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: He's going to be in the back office licking envelopes.
• 45:05
  Speaker 15: Well, he'll be lucky to get to the back office
• 45:07
  Speaker 15: once he's out of the doghouse, which is where I
• 45:10
  Speaker 15: think he will be for the moment. And you're right, Chris,
• 45:13
  Speaker 15: like these sorts of things do happen in campaigns and
• 45:17
  Speaker 15: they're not great, but you know it's normally something that
• 45:22
  Speaker 15: doesn't cause this sort of controversy. But the simple fact
• 45:25
  Speaker 15: of the matter that the whole stick of these tials
• 45:29
  Speaker 15: has been about hectoring, moralizing and brow beating all La
• 45:35
  Speaker 15: Sime immortals who just don't quite measure up to the
• 45:39
  Speaker 15: high standards that they expect, mind you, of everyone else
• 45:42
  Speaker 15: except themselves. There is so much shoudenfreud of going on today,
• 45:47
  Speaker 15: and you know what, I'm not normally one for it,
• 45:49
  Speaker 15: but you know what, just just be normal, Just don't
• 45:53
  Speaker 15: think you're better than other people, because you never know
• 45:55
  Speaker 15: when Karmar is going to pay you a visit.
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and it gets worse. Sev look at these pictures
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: from the neighboring seat of Goldstein where Tim Wilson, the
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: former Liberal member, is running against a teal in Zoe Daniel.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: And I'm not accusing the tills here. We don't know
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: who's done this, but someone has turned his campaign poster
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: into a Hitler likeness. So that's very, very ugly, especially
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: in a part of Melbourne where there are a lot
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: of people in the Australian Jewish community. Let's go to
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: American politics, though, where there's good news for some of us,
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: because this woman isn't going away. Have a look.
• 46:32
  Speaker 6: That's why we're here today, because we have the ability
• 46:36
  Speaker 6: to see what can be unburdened by what has.
• 46:39
  Speaker 5: Been around.
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: You think you just fell out of a coconut tree.
• 46:49
  Speaker 8: You exist in the context.
• 46:52
  Speaker 3: Of all in which you live and what came before you.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the former Vice president Kamala Harris. I'm a
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: presidential candidate and Christy the Poles say that at the
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: moment she's favored as the most likely next Democrat candidate.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: Surely they couldn't run her again.
• 47:12
  Speaker 16: Do these people not ever want to win an election?
• 47:16
  Speaker 16: That's I mean, you know, we can look at that
• 47:20
  Speaker 16: and you know, the three of us here are pretty
• 47:22
  Speaker 16: educated about what elections entail and what people might vote for,
• 47:27
  Speaker 16: and learning perhaps from the disastrous result and the mistakes
• 47:32
  Speaker 16: that you made with a particular candidate to not run
• 47:35
  Speaker 16: them again at the top of your ticket. So I
• 47:38
  Speaker 16: don't know who's in charge of the Democratic Party. Perhaps
• 47:41
  Speaker 16: anybody who thought we can't sync with this ship has
• 47:46
  Speaker 16: left and the people in charge now at the top
• 47:50
  Speaker 16: think this is a good idea.
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: I think Kamala Harris and her supporters are daring to
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: see what can be unburdened by what has been. But
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: we shall see. I don't think it's going to happen.
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, Caroline and Christy. I will catch
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: you next week. I just want to finish up with
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: some of your feedback from last week's program. Er I
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: pointed about how An Albanisi's attack on Peter Dutton over
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: fundraisers was completely hypocritical because he ran a fundraiser in
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: the same city on the same day, and one viewer
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: says Queensland didn't want you there, Albow, it was a
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: cringe look for sure. Alan says, why would any Australian
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: and their right minds pay a few thousand dollars to
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: have a meal with Albo and why it says Anthony
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: Alberisi is a dictionary defined narcissist. He's also a poorly
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: spoken one too. And finally, one of viewer says, the
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: most frightening thing is not Albo himself, but the non
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: the Kenny Report viewers who will vote him back at
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: the next election. We shall see. I'll be back tomorrow
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: night to preview the budget. Here's Peter Quedlin