Transcript

Credlin | 27 October · Credlin

0:02
Speaker 1: Peter Krandland live on Sky News Australia.
0:08
Speaker 2: The Eping Welcome to the program. Here's what's coming up
0:10
Speaker 2: tonight on Kredlin. A busy first day of a sitting
0:13
Speaker 2: we call the eyes of course, on the Coalition as
0:16
Speaker 2: the battle over energy policy drags on.
0:18
Speaker 3: Now some will say this.
0:19
Speaker 2: Is a distraction, but the truth is that we need
0:22
Speaker 2: this debate. Our country needs a proper debate on the
0:26
Speaker 2: cost of net zero as a nation. A small victory
0:29
Speaker 2: for the brave Queensland child psychiatrist doctor Gillian Spencer, who's
0:34
Speaker 2: had her termination placed on hold amid an ongoing legal battle.
0:38
Speaker 2: Now she has been steadfast and calling out the potential
0:42
Speaker 2: risks of puberty blockers and gender medicine on young Australians.
0:46
Speaker 3: She joins me later in the show.
0:49
Speaker 2: Last Soldiers Still in Limbo following the Brewerson Report. There's
0:52
Speaker 2: a new book out that launches tomorrow highlighting the courage
0:57
Speaker 2: of our special forces at one of the most significant
0:59
Speaker 2: battles in the Afghanistan War. We'll speak to the author
1:03
Speaker 2: there and Prime Minister of course. A notable absence today
1:06
Speaker 2: from the Parliament meeting instead with the Chinese premier at
1:10
Speaker 2: the Assian summit. So what about comments from him to
1:17
Speaker 2: Beijing about the Chinese jet last week very close, dangerously
1:22
Speaker 2: close to Australian aircraft.
1:26
Speaker 4: How do you marry calling the Premier League friend when
1:30
Speaker 4: China is.
1:31
Speaker 5: Firing flares at Australian rap aircraft.
1:33
Speaker 1: Well, we have disagreements and friends are able to discuss issues.
1:38
Speaker 3: Frankly I did that directly. We'll get to that in
1:44
Speaker 3: a moment with Chris Hulman. At first.
1:46
Speaker 2: Even if the Prime Minister was in the country and
1:49
Speaker 2: he isn't, of course you just saw there his overseas,
1:51
Speaker 2: he would not be the focus of the nation's attention
1:54
Speaker 2: in the Parliament this week. Instead, it's the coalition that's
1:57
Speaker 2: the focus, not because they've got any big new policy
2:00
Speaker 2: that they're unvailing, or because they're taking up the fight
2:04
Speaker 2: to a bad government.
2:05
Speaker 3: Quite the opposite.
2:06
Speaker 2: In fact, the coalitions in the headlines because of the
2:09
Speaker 2: decisions it has not taken, the policy choices it has
2:13
Speaker 2: not made, and it's seeming inability to toughen up to
2:16
Speaker 2: the job of opposition. This week before the House of
2:20
Speaker 2: Representatives is Labour's legislation to radically remake the Federal Environment
2:25
Speaker 2: Protection Act, and while the MPs will debate what's in
2:28
Speaker 2: and what's out, and how we get environmental laws to
2:31
Speaker 2: coexist with the development we must have to maintain a
2:35
Speaker 2: productive economy. The coalitions going through convulsions trying to work
2:39
Speaker 2: out who they are and what they stand for. As
2:43
Speaker 2: a result, while many commentators will attack the coalition for
2:46
Speaker 2: being divided on energy and on emissions policy, as I
2:51
Speaker 2: just said, this is the fight it's got to have.
2:55
Speaker 2: This is the debate that our country needs, and the
2:58
Speaker 2: only way it can be resolved in the national interest
3:01
Speaker 2: is if the coalition has these internal debates and then
3:05
Speaker 2: comes to a new position.
3:07
Speaker 3: Now.
3:07
Speaker 2: Get it right, and the Coalition can fight its way
3:10
Speaker 2: back into the political game. Get it wrong, they consign
3:15
Speaker 2: themselves to irrelevance, and not just for this term under
3:18
Speaker 2: this leader, but quite possibly for a lot longer than that.
3:23
Speaker 2: Let's remember that whenever the Coalitions had a clear and
3:26
Speaker 2: distinct policy on energy and emissions twenty ten, twenty thirteen,
3:31
Speaker 2: and twenty nineteen, it's done well electorally, and every time
3:35
Speaker 2: it's me to labor by supporting net zero in twenty
3:39
Speaker 2: twenty two, in twenty twenty.
3:41
Speaker 3: Five, it's lost, and lost badly.
3:45
Speaker 2: Today Barnaby Joys said that he'd continue to sit with
3:47
Speaker 2: the National Party in the Parliament, but he would absent
3:51
Speaker 2: himself from the party room at least until the Nationals
3:54
Speaker 2: had resolved to dump NED zero in every form.
3:59
Speaker 6: Here is no I don't need to be part of
4:01
Speaker 6: a discussion. In fact, it's probably better that I'm not there.
4:04
Speaker 6: And that is so that the room can have the
4:07
Speaker 6: confidence of what they say stays in the room.
4:11
Speaker 4: So if they come to a position where they're not
4:12
Speaker 4: backing net zero at all, will you rejoin the party.
4:16
Speaker 6: Room, come and talk to me then, Laura.
4:19
Speaker 3: So in the meantime, what are you are you still
4:22
Speaker 3: in that?
4:24
Speaker 6: I'm Barnaby Joyce and I'm very proud of it, and
4:27
Speaker 6: I avau you every time I look at my name
4:29
Speaker 6: tag and it looks Laura. I'm a parliamentarian that's had
4:33
Speaker 6: the incredible blessing of representing the people of New England
4:36
Speaker 6: and I'll continue to do what is best for the
4:38
Speaker 6: people of New England and I believe the people of Australia.
4:43
Speaker 3: Now rightly.
4:44
Speaker 2: Joyce said that net zero's wrecking the economy and destroying
4:47
Speaker 2: rural Australia. Already on the books of plans to roll
4:50
Speaker 2: that wind turbines and solar panels across land that's close
4:53
Speaker 2: to twice the size of Tasmania. That will desecrate some
4:57
Speaker 2: of our best farmland, a national parks, regional communities, and
5:01
Speaker 2: said many of our farmers to the wall, and Joyce's
5:05
Speaker 2: right to be trying to dump, to drive the Coalition
5:08
Speaker 2: to dump net zero and not just jump ship to
5:11
Speaker 2: one nation, because why should we be denying ourselves the
5:15
Speaker 2: use of Australia's abundant coal and gas reserves to give
5:19
Speaker 2: ourselves reliable and affordable electricity, And why should we be
5:23
Speaker 2: imposing massive costs on ourselves when nothing we do here
5:27
Speaker 2: in Australia will make the slightest difference to global emissions
5:32
Speaker 2: given China, India and Trump's America are all putting their
5:35
Speaker 2: prosperity ahead of emissions reduction. This issue is coming to
5:40
Speaker 2: a head inside the Coalition where the Joint Partner in
5:43
Speaker 2: session on net zero.
5:45
Speaker 3: Scheduled for Friday.
5:47
Speaker 2: Now, Unfortunately, for reasons I can't fathom, it's reported that
5:51
Speaker 2: Liberal leader Susan Lee won't be in the room to
5:54
Speaker 2: listen to the net zero debate.
5:57
Speaker 3: Now that's a mistake.
5:58
Speaker 2: Because the most important job with the opposition leader is
6:01
Speaker 2: to get the party out of opposition, and you can
6:03
Speaker 2: only do that if you spend time getting the policies right.
6:08
Speaker 2: That can't happen unless you're in the room and willing
6:11
Speaker 2: to listen. Here's hoping that between now and Friday Lee
6:15
Speaker 2: changes her mind or someone changes it for her before then.
6:20
Speaker 2: As I flag, there's the environmental approvals legislation that will
6:23
Speaker 2: feature in.
6:24
Speaker 3: The House this week.
6:25
Speaker 2: The Coalition has asked the Government to split the bill
6:29
Speaker 2: into two parts, one the approval's process and the other
6:34
Speaker 2: part the actual environmental standards to be applied, and it's
6:38
Speaker 2: promised it will pass the approvals parts swiftly, which will
6:42
Speaker 2: create a new so called independent environmental regulator. But with
6:47
Speaker 2: environmental regulations taking far, far too long and then being
6:52
Speaker 2: subject to endless green law fare, frankly, I'm pretty skeptical
6:56
Speaker 2: about any new independent regulator from Labour. In twenty twenty,
7:02
Speaker 2: a review of the EPBC Act found that complex major
7:07
Speaker 2: projects were taking three years to get federal approval. Many
7:11
Speaker 2: take much much longer than that. Think about the Northwest
7:16
Speaker 2: Shelf gas extension that's already taken six years, or the
7:20
Speaker 2: Adani mind well, that took close to a decade. Any
7:23
Speaker 2: new independent regulator is almost bound to be captured by
7:26
Speaker 2: the Green lobby and require endless processes in order to
7:30
Speaker 2: defeat legal challenges because they will come anyway. This is
7:34
Speaker 2: because Howard era legislation gave every green group in the
7:40
Speaker 2: country legal standing to bring actions in court. In twenty fifteen,
7:45
Speaker 2: the Avid government tried to repeal those Howard era provisions,
7:49
Speaker 2: but it was knocked back in the Senate. The Greens,
7:52
Speaker 2: for their part, well, they're against the changes to what
7:55
Speaker 2: it calls business approval laws and they want to climb
7:58
Speaker 2: a trigger included in the legs that all projects will
8:01
Speaker 2: have to pass. Now there's a law, but guarantee that
8:04
Speaker 2: we know new coal mines or gas fields ever approved
8:07
Speaker 2: again in Australia. Business will there urging the coalition to
8:12
Speaker 2: support the government's legislation on the grounds that otherwise, they say.
8:16
Speaker 3: It'll be terrible.
8:18
Speaker 2: The government will do a deal with the Greens and
8:20
Speaker 2: the legislation will be even worse.
8:23
Speaker 7: Do you want season need to can't remove it an artist?
8:27
Speaker 5: As I say, for us, we favor having everything on
8:30
Speaker 5: the table at the same time, and we think that
8:32
Speaker 5: that approach assures us the best basis for getting the
8:36
Speaker 5: right balanced outcome.
8:41
Speaker 2: Why should the Coalition back a bill that, on balance,
8:44
Speaker 2: is likely to make economic development even harder. What's needed
8:49
Speaker 2: here is a straightforward, time limited process for project approval,
8:53
Speaker 2: with ultimate decision making in the hands of elected and
8:56
Speaker 2: accountable ministers, not faceless bureaucrats. And while at it, I'd
9:00
Speaker 2: limit the appeals process so that activists can't use the
9:03
Speaker 2: courts to delay projects almost indefinitely, diliventually the company takes
9:08
Speaker 2: its project and the money and the jobs offshore somewhere else.
9:13
Speaker 2: And just on business, it's time they grew a spine
9:17
Speaker 2: on net zero. Most businesses hate the financial impost of
9:21
Speaker 2: all these climate costs, but they're too scared to say
9:23
Speaker 2: so publicly. Worse, still, outfits like the BCA or they
9:28
Speaker 2: say they're opposed to the Coalition dropping their zero on
9:31
Speaker 2: the grounds they say that business needs certainty. Okay, well,
9:35
Speaker 2: what's better certainty around intrusive, expensive rules that amount to
9:40
Speaker 2: a global futile green gesture or the hope of a
9:45
Speaker 2: more rational system that maximizes Australia's comparative advantage. Now I've
9:51
Speaker 2: been critical of the Coalition for following rather than leading here.
9:56
Speaker 2: But if there's one group that's been a total surrender
9:58
Speaker 2: monkey to the Green left, it's been Big Business on
10:01
Speaker 2: the recent Voice referendum, gold Over, on ever higher immigration.
10:06
Speaker 2: They're silent most of all on climate policy. Businesses like
10:11
Speaker 2: Turkey's voting for Christmas supporting a net zero policy that
10:15
Speaker 2: will ultimately close down much of our primary industry. Nearly
10:19
Speaker 2: all of Australia is manufacturing, and for what not a
10:22
Speaker 2: sintilla of change in global emissions. It was Lenin who's
10:28
Speaker 2: thought to have said that the capitalists will sell us
10:30
Speaker 2: the rope by which we will hang them. There's a
10:34
Speaker 2: term for people like this, isn't it useful?
10:37
Speaker 3: Idiots?
10:38
Speaker 2: Well, let's hope the Coalition politicians this week don't join them.
10:46
Speaker 2: Right day one, a busy sitting week in cambridejoining me
10:50
Speaker 2: now for the latest political reporter, cam Reddin. These laws
10:55
Speaker 2: I've just prefaced for my viewers. Now, what's on the
10:58
Speaker 2: table in terms of this legislation. It looks like it's
11:01
Speaker 2: got a rough passage through parliament if at all. The
11:05
Speaker 2: Greens are basically ruling out negotiations the coalition has, I
11:09
Speaker 2: said once the bill split in two what's the latest.
11:15
Speaker 8: Well, I've got an update on that for you, Petter.
11:17
Speaker 8: Just in the last few minutes. It's been confirmed to
11:18
Speaker 8: me splitting the bill is dead. That's not going to happen.
11:21
Speaker 8: The Coalition is now giving up on that. They've had
11:23
Speaker 8: conversations with Labor trying to find a way to deal
11:26
Speaker 8: with some parts of that bill that they agree with,
11:28
Speaker 8: things like speeding up administrative processes and removing some of
11:31
Speaker 8: the red tape that everyone agrees is a no brainer,
11:34
Speaker 8: so that was one option that was considered. Labor has
11:37
Speaker 8: said that's not going to happen. The Coalition is now
11:39
Speaker 8: conceding to the bill won't be split, so that means
11:41
Speaker 8: it will have to be dealt with as one big bill.
11:44
Speaker 8: You're right that the Greens are fairly stuck to their
11:47
Speaker 8: guns on the issue of a climate trigger, which Labor
11:50
Speaker 8: will not accept. So there doesn't seem to be an
11:52
Speaker 8: avenue opening for a deal with the Greens, at least
11:55
Speaker 8: not yet. Things can change, but for the coalition's part,
11:58
Speaker 8: that really is the pathway that Labor and Murray what
12:01
Speaker 8: the minister is looking at. Remember, Peter, he was brought
12:03
Speaker 8: in as a fixer, went back to the drawing board
12:06
Speaker 8: and has staked his success as the Environment Minister and
12:09
Speaker 8: getting a deal with the coalition. But whether one can
12:12
Speaker 8: be struck in these remaining three sitting weeks, it's going
12:14
Speaker 8: to be really tough.
12:18
Speaker 2: Yes, and it hasn't escaped me to to remember that
12:20
Speaker 2: Susan Lee was a former Environment Minister, so she will
12:24
Speaker 2: have some legacy commitments on this legislation. I know it
12:28
Speaker 2: was certainly looked at during her time. We'll see how
12:31
Speaker 2: that plays out. Talk to me about the Nats, because
12:33
Speaker 2: Barnaby Joyce did not attend party room today in question
12:36
Speaker 2: time though I had a good look around. He was
12:38
Speaker 2: they're sitting with the Nationals. He says, I'm not going
12:42
Speaker 2: to go to the room. I'm not going to sit
12:43
Speaker 2: in the party room. My position on net zero is clear.
12:47
Speaker 2: I will only return to the National Party party room
12:50
Speaker 2: when they throw out net zero. We know there's this
12:53
Speaker 2: meeting set for Friday, but it's really going to come
12:57
Speaker 2: to a head this week by the look of it.
13:00
Speaker 8: Yeah, we first reported that meeting Peter. It was initially
13:04
Speaker 8: a couple of backbenches trying to rally a few people
13:07
Speaker 8: into a room to thrash out their views, but soon. Well,
13:10
Speaker 8: I suppose in recent days really this has become a
13:13
Speaker 8: focal point of the coalition's process when it comes to
13:16
Speaker 8: developing that policy.
13:17
Speaker 3: We know that certainly within corners of.
13:19
Speaker 8: The Liberal Party and definitely within the National Party, there
13:22
Speaker 8: is a view that there needs to be a decision
13:25
Speaker 8: this year, whatever that is, whether it's to abandon net
13:28
Speaker 8: zero to tweak it. Somewhere in the middle, there is
13:30
Speaker 8: a growing appetite to rip the band aid off and
13:33
Speaker 8: come to a decision that might cost them MPs like
13:36
Speaker 8: Barnaby Joyce, he could, depending on what the final outcome is,
13:41
Speaker 8: defect to one nation. He's ruled out we know today
13:43
Speaker 8: sitting as an independent, could it see another fracturing of
13:46
Speaker 8: the coalition. There certainly a view Peter in parts of
13:49
Speaker 8: the Liberal Party that if there is a view of
13:52
Speaker 8: keeping net zero but with a few tweaks, that it
13:55
Speaker 8: would be very difficult to keep the Nationals on board
13:58
Speaker 8: with a coalition going forward give and they are most
14:00
Speaker 8: likely to adopt a position abandoning it. But Barnaby Joyce,
14:04
Speaker 8: for his part, is more or less in political exile
14:06
Speaker 8: at the moment. He's not sitting with the nuts in
14:08
Speaker 8: the party rooms and not engaging with the process. As
14:11
Speaker 8: you show there, he's sitting with them in question time.
14:13
Speaker 8: But as one senior National puts to me today, it's
14:16
Speaker 8: hard to see how that is tenable going forward. There's
14:18
Speaker 8: a growing expectation he might need to either be fully
14:21
Speaker 8: in or fully out sooner rather than later.
14:26
Speaker 2: I don't think it'll be the only one, because I've
14:28
Speaker 2: said this before, Cam. I think it's intellectually dishonest in
14:32
Speaker 2: policy terms in particular, but also politically. If they can't
14:35
Speaker 2: adopt the twenty thirty five targets and they rule those
14:37
Speaker 2: out within two hours of Labor announcing them that, I
14:41
Speaker 2: can't see how they can agree to anything in twenty
14:43
Speaker 2: forty in twenty fifty. If you can't back twenty thirty,
14:47
Speaker 2: it won't be met. And you certainly are rejecting twenty
14:50
Speaker 2: thirty five, you know, like you're trying to build a
14:52
Speaker 2: house on foundations that aren't there. I think it's crazy.
14:55
Speaker 2: Let's go the Prime Minister. As I said, he's out
14:58
Speaker 2: of the Parliament. He's at the se summit. Goodness me,
15:01
Speaker 2: it's frequent. Flieres must be up because he's hardly ever home.
15:05
Speaker 2: He met with Premier Lee today and it's only days after,
15:09
Speaker 2: of course, that military skirmish between our raft pilots and
15:13
Speaker 2: the Chinese.
15:15
Speaker 3: I know they spoke.
15:16
Speaker 2: He was not that forthcoming afterwards when the media spoke
15:20
Speaker 2: to him.
15:20
Speaker 3: What can you tell us there?
15:23
Speaker 8: Yeah, this is not the first incident either, Peter. This
15:25
Speaker 8: is where a Chinese navy I should say a Chinese
15:28
Speaker 8: Air Force jet fired flares in a very close vicinity
15:31
Speaker 8: to an Australian aircraft. That happened a week ago. The
15:34
Speaker 8: Prime Minister says he raised it with a Premier League today,
15:38
Speaker 8: as he has done in other areas, but this time
15:40
Speaker 8: face to face at the Yazian summers. He says that
15:43
Speaker 8: friends can disagree the Prime Minister, that's the way that
15:46
Speaker 8: he framed it. And of course our chief anchor, who's
15:49
Speaker 8: there traveling with him, Kiran Gilbert, put to him this
15:52
Speaker 8: latest issue, Peter, a very concerning one where two US
15:55
Speaker 8: aircraft were downed in recent days in South China Sea
15:59
Speaker 8: within half an hour of one another. Now the US
16:01
Speaker 8: has not blamed anybody for that, but it does go
16:04
Speaker 8: to show the severity of those incidents, how one miscalculation
16:09
Speaker 8: or one misstep could end in catastrophe. But thankfully in
16:12
Speaker 8: all those cases, nobody was harmed.
16:16
Speaker 3: Just quickly.
16:17
Speaker 2: The CFMBU reports out today serious concerns about the union's behavior,
16:22
Speaker 2: allegations in relation to the administrator and certainly a feature
16:26
Speaker 2: of question time from the opposition to the minister. Why
16:30
Speaker 2: this particular line of.
16:31
Speaker 8: Attack today, Yeah, So the CFMU has been in an
16:36
Speaker 8: administration now, Peter, for about a year. This was previously
16:39
Speaker 8: Murray Watt's last project before fixing the environmental laws.
16:42
Speaker 3: They were put in administration.
16:44
Speaker 8: An administrator was put in, but there's growing concern that
16:47
Speaker 8: he might not be able to do the job on
16:49
Speaker 8: his own. There are new allegations now of further corruption,
16:53
Speaker 8: allegations of a bribery and misconduct and other things.
16:56
Speaker 5: Peter.
16:56
Speaker 8: The coalition is putting the blowtorch on the government, looking
16:59
Speaker 8: for more involvement here. They want to bolster the administrator.
17:03
Speaker 8: Some questions about whether he's able to do the job
17:05
Speaker 8: on his own. And we know the building industry, the
17:07
Speaker 8: business sector is calling potentially for a greater involvement of
17:12
Speaker 8: police when it comes to investigating those claims in the union.
17:18
Speaker 3: Right, I leave it there, thank you very much.
17:20
Speaker 2: Right, let's go down to Chris yuelman Our political COJBA
17:23
Speaker 2: who joins me every Monday, let's kick off this never
17:27
Speaker 2: ending fun about net zero. I made the point of
17:30
Speaker 2: the top of the show, Chris. I think that the
17:32
Speaker 2: media focus on division and yes, it's untidy and all
17:36
Speaker 2: this stuff sort of misses the point when you are
17:39
Speaker 2: in opposition, whether it's labor or the liberals. I want
17:43
Speaker 2: to see them debate the tough issues. I want to
17:46
Speaker 2: see them go through the yes and the no and
17:48
Speaker 2: the maybes, formulate a position and then either contest or support.
17:54
Speaker 3: What the government's trying to do.
17:55
Speaker 2: I think part of the problem for the Coalition is
17:57
Speaker 2: they have papered over this issue ever since the Glasgow
18:00
Speaker 2: meeting where they went out there with net zero and
18:03
Speaker 2: frankly getting two net zero, all these other males stones.
18:06
Speaker 2: They've now said that they can't support. The targets are
18:09
Speaker 2: not being met, the money is not there, the science
18:13
Speaker 2: is not there, and so I think.
18:15
Speaker 3: This is a good thing. I see this as healthy. Chris.
18:20
Speaker 7: You know what I wish to meet you would do
18:21
Speaker 7: is focus on the government. Let's be honest. There is
18:24
Speaker 7: no way, shape or form than in the next two
18:26
Speaker 7: terms that the Coalition forms governments. So what their targets
18:29
Speaker 7: are sentially immaterial. But what we can see by looking
18:33
Speaker 7: around Australia is that the cost of the current program
18:36
Speaker 7: that's being run and the only model that you need
18:38
Speaker 7: is your electricity build because we've seen prices rise and
18:41
Speaker 7: when you look in your electricity build you'll see a
18:43
Speaker 7: government subsidy that keeps arriving over six billion dollars. Now,
18:47
Speaker 7: when are is the government going to get rid of that?
18:49
Speaker 7: They've got any confidence that the price is going to
18:50
Speaker 7: come down, they have to get rid of those subsidies.
18:52
Speaker 7: And when those subsidies go, people's power prices will reflect
18:55
Speaker 7: what's actually going on in the marketplace, one that other
18:59
Speaker 7: than the one that's being dis guys while their taxpayers
19:01
Speaker 7: dollars being recycled back through their electricity bills. And the
19:05
Speaker 7: other thing too is the system is becoming less stable.
19:07
Speaker 7: Business is becoming harder and harder to do in this country.
19:11
Speaker 7: So if the coalition could just get its act together
19:14
Speaker 7: and focus on the government and everything that on an
19:17
Speaker 7: almost daily basis shows you that we are on the
19:21
Speaker 7: wrong track, then they actually could do some serious damage.
19:24
Speaker 7: But I think on the media front too, it is
19:26
Speaker 7: high time that the Australian media tried to do the
19:29
Speaker 7: complex business of looking at what's actually happening here and
19:34
Speaker 7: telling the Australian people the truth. And the truth is
19:38
Speaker 7: this plan is not working. This is a road to nowhere.
19:44
Speaker 2: No one is doing it the way we're doing it
19:46
Speaker 2: and as fast as we are doing it anywhere in
19:49
Speaker 2: the world. So you know, square this circle for me.
19:54
Speaker 2: Business joined with the government and our media come and
19:58
Speaker 2: use Corp over the weekend say that we've got to
20:00
Speaker 2: get out there and manufacture more things in Australia.
20:02
Speaker 3: And I couldn't agree more.
20:04
Speaker 2: But we are a high wage economy and we are
20:07
Speaker 2: now a high energy cost country. We're not competitive. Business
20:14
Speaker 2: say make more things in Australia. But business are also
20:17
Speaker 2: out there, you know, in behind the government on zero.
20:20
Speaker 2: But if you expect them privately, you can barely find a
20:23
Speaker 2: business out there who wants more pain pressure, particularly on
20:28
Speaker 2: their power prices. And that's partly why they're leaving this country.
20:31
Speaker 2: So why don't they be honest as well, not just
20:33
Speaker 2: about the fiscal problems, the budget problems here, but also
20:37
Speaker 2: the engineering reality that they cannot do what Chris Bowen
20:41
Speaker 2: is trying to make them do. By twenty thirty, by
20:44
Speaker 2: twenty thirty five, by twenty fifty just can't be done.
20:49
Speaker 7: Well, look, if you look at the record of the
20:51
Speaker 7: Business Council, I think you've already raised this Peter on
20:54
Speaker 7: industrial relations. What happened in the Albanez's government's first term, Well,
20:58
Speaker 7: the Business Council and organizations like completely played. Everybody could
21:01
Speaker 7: see that coming. Tony Burke took them for a ride
21:04
Speaker 7: and then changed the laws and made the wages bill
21:08
Speaker 7: in Australia higher For the people that are represented by
21:11
Speaker 7: the Business Council of Australia and the other business groups
21:14
Speaker 7: in Australia, they got completely played and now they're on
21:17
Speaker 7: the same bad way with this. They don't want to
21:19
Speaker 7: be saying that they're against net zero because they believe
21:21
Speaker 7: that they're membership or that you know, the people that
21:23
Speaker 7: are funding their organizations don't want to hear that message. Well,
21:27
Speaker 7: you go into any small business, as I did the
21:30
Speaker 7: other night, by the way, I went to have dinner
21:31
Speaker 7: with Tony Abbitt after the very successful launch of his
21:34
Speaker 7: book Here in the Act, and we asked the local
21:36
Speaker 7: restaurant to well, tell us about the cost of your
21:38
Speaker 7: electricity bill, and he said, in the last two years
21:41
Speaker 7: it's doubled from two thousand dollars a month to five
21:43
Speaker 7: thousand dollars a month. Plus on top of that they've
21:45
Speaker 7: got higher wage costs. So you add those things up
21:48
Speaker 7: and in future, no one will be making anything in Australia,
21:50
Speaker 7: will barely be able to have any businesses that are
21:53
Speaker 7: making any profits at all.
21:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll bet Sue you couldn't you double the price
21:59
Speaker 2: at the steak or the bowl of pastor or whatever
22:01
Speaker 2: you had to eat there, because otherwise you're not price competitive.
22:07
Speaker 3: No, this is just it.
22:08
Speaker 7: And so there are two inputs really that really really matter,
22:11
Speaker 7: and one is the cost of energy and the other
22:13
Speaker 7: one is the cost of wages. And on those two fronts,
22:15
Speaker 7: I would say that the people who represented businesses in
22:17
Speaker 7: Australia have abjectly failed. And I'd like them to explain
22:21
Speaker 7: to me how the plan that they're backing is going
22:23
Speaker 7: to bring down the price of energy, because there is
22:25
Speaker 7: no evidence anywhere in the world that when we put
22:27
Speaker 7: high levels of wind and solar onto a grid that
22:29
Speaker 7: anything other than the price rise happens. That's the international experience.
22:33
Speaker 7: So I'd love to see how they think it's going
22:35
Speaker 7: to turn out any different here.
22:39
Speaker 3: I really gagged on my weddings. This morning.
22:41
Speaker 2: I was reading Chris Bowen in the Australia and supposedly
22:44
Speaker 2: he pended it certainly had his.
22:45
Speaker 3: Name, but it was written by somebody else.
22:47
Speaker 2: Nonetheless, there was an up ed there claiming that small
22:50
Speaker 2: nuclear module reactors way too expensive. He says would require
22:54
Speaker 2: too many subsidies. He says it's false hope, and he
22:59
Speaker 2: wrote that not one has been built in the Western world.
23:02
Speaker 3: What he doesn't tell people, Chris.
23:04
Speaker 2: Is that just last week, the left wing government in Canada,
23:08
Speaker 2: this is Mark Carney's government, announced plans to build four
23:12
Speaker 2: small modular reactors reactors in Ontario.
23:17
Speaker 3: They're putting in two billion dollars.
23:18
Speaker 2: To do it, and in doing so, says Carney in
23:22
Speaker 2: the press release, we will be the first G seven
23:24
Speaker 2: country to bring SMR technology online. And just one of
23:30
Speaker 2: these reactors, Chris can powers some three hundred thousand homes.
23:36
Speaker 2: I mean, this is the conversation we should be having.
23:39
Speaker 2: We are treating Australians like mushrooms.
23:43
Speaker 7: Yeah, look at Bill Gates. Now terror Power has cleared
23:46
Speaker 7: one of its environmental hurdles is now in the process
23:49
Speaker 7: of getting towards the last part. And it's a very
23:51
Speaker 7: big process in the United States to clear all of
23:53
Speaker 7: those regulatory hurdles, but it's getting closer and closer. And frankly,
23:57
Speaker 7: I'd like a large nuclear reactor Hereutralia because they're extremely useful,
24:01
Speaker 7: the last for one hundred years and you can recycle
24:03
Speaker 7: the fuel. But this is the thing that gets me, Peter,
24:06
Speaker 7: when Peter Chris Bowen or whoever his advisor is sitting
24:09
Speaker 7: down typing this and they say, what do we put
24:11
Speaker 7: in here? There's going to be vast amounts of government
24:13
Speaker 7: subsidies are going to be required for this. You think
24:15
Speaker 7: you think that anyone might pick us up on that,
24:17
Speaker 7: because what's happening with the stuff that we're building. Didn't
24:20
Speaker 7: Roscarnot say that there's no large scale wind or solar
24:23
Speaker 7: project at the moment that doesn't require enormous amounts of
24:26
Speaker 7: government subsidies. Not Don't we have a capacity investment scheme,
24:29
Speaker 7: which where we've hidden the amount of money that we're
24:31
Speaker 7: using from taxpayers to try and fund oh wind and
24:34
Speaker 7: solar scheme. So everything that Chris Bowen says essentially comes
24:38
Speaker 7: undone on the internal logic. You don't actually have to
24:41
Speaker 7: read very far through anything that he writes or anything
24:44
Speaker 7: that he says to come up against something, which is,
24:48
Speaker 7: what do you think you're doing at the moment. You're
24:49
Speaker 7: building a vastly expensive system that actually is not going
24:52
Speaker 7: to function at least with nuclear energy.
24:54
Speaker 2: We know it works, and we're paying out poor our
24:58
Speaker 2: punters for their powers.
25:00
Speaker 3: Try and shut them up the ballot box.
25:01
Speaker 2: Hey, I imagine you were in the room with Anthony
25:04
Speaker 2: Albertezi and Premier Lee and they have this discussion about
25:08
Speaker 2: the rap aircraft and Chinese aircraft over South China Sea.
25:12
Speaker 2: Do you think our boss whips out a baseball bat
25:16
Speaker 2: to hit the Chinese or does it get out of
25:17
Speaker 2: wet lettuce?
25:18
Speaker 3: What do you think happened?
25:20
Speaker 7: Oh, look, I think I'm pretty sure the wet lettuce
25:22
Speaker 7: was out, and sort of it would be the shuffling
25:24
Speaker 7: of seats and sort of like you know about that
25:26
Speaker 7: stuff in the South China Sea and we're actually we're
25:28
Speaker 7: international wars. We'd rather hope that you wouldn't try and
25:31
Speaker 7: bring down one of our planes because that might be
25:34
Speaker 7: a tad dangerous. I mean, let's look at the actual
25:38
Speaker 7: form of China when we talk and I'm not saying
25:41
Speaker 7: that we shouldn't trade with China. We have to trade
25:42
Speaker 7: with China with outsourced absolutely everything that we need to
25:45
Speaker 7: make this country work. So obviously we've got to trade
25:48
Speaker 7: with China. But the other side of the coin is
25:51
Speaker 7: that it is undoubtedly a threat to our national security.
25:54
Speaker 7: It happens on a Daarni basis as they attack our
25:56
Speaker 7: infrastructure and they plan essentially what's the equivalent of virtual bombs,
26:01
Speaker 7: and now they're literally attacking our aircraft in the South
26:06
Speaker 7: China Sea. Now this is a very difficult I understand
26:09
Speaker 7: this is a very difficult road to walk, but I
26:11
Speaker 7: think that no one respects anyone who's weak, and there
26:14
Speaker 7: should have been a robust conversation which is essentially this
26:17
Speaker 7: is completely unacceptable, and the only way I think to
26:20
Speaker 7: do that is to start calling this stuff out publicly.
26:23
Speaker 7: I think you actually do have to draw a line
26:25
Speaker 7: in the sand and use very strong public language to
26:29
Speaker 7: say we're not going to put up with this. We're
26:31
Speaker 7: in international awards, like you know, you've claimed most of
26:34
Speaker 7: the South Choina Sea. We dispute that we're going to
26:36
Speaker 7: continue to run these exercises. Otherwise we're essentially in some
26:41
Speaker 7: kind of retreat and eventually Chinese will get what they
26:44
Speaker 7: want and we will retreat from that part of the world.
26:49
Speaker 3: We will watch what happens. Sane Chris out of the ray.
26:52
Speaker 2: I guess more victory for the very brave Queensland doctor
26:55
Speaker 2: Jillian Spencer. Her termination notice has been frozen, I mean
26:59
Speaker 2: an ongoing battle. Will get the latest there and a
27:02
Speaker 2: bit later on to this new book about our special
27:05
Speaker 2: forces and battles in Afghanistan, in particular the Battle of
27:09
Speaker 2: Shah wally Kott. This was where Ben Roberts Smith earned
27:14
Speaker 2: his the Sea.
27:16
Speaker 3: Get to that shortly, Welker back.
27:22
Speaker 2: We'll talk to her author about this new book on
27:24
Speaker 2: Australia's most significant battle during the Afghan War. It's actually
27:29
Speaker 2: our most significant five day battle since we were in Vietnam,
27:34
Speaker 2: and this was of course the battle where Ben Robert
27:36
Speaker 2: Smith rose to national prominence. We've got the Brereton Report
27:40
Speaker 2: still hanging our soldiers out to dry.
27:42
Speaker 3: We'll have a look at that in a moment.
27:44
Speaker 2: First you recall doctor Jillian Spencer, the child psychiatrist who's
27:48
Speaker 2: been locked at a legal battle with Queensland Health after
27:50
Speaker 2: she was set in employment termination notice by Queensland's Children's Hospital.
27:56
Speaker 2: She has, as you know, and with your support, consisted
28:00
Speaker 2: spoken out about the potential harm of puberty blockers and
28:03
Speaker 2: gender affirming care when it comes to children and her win. Well,
28:08
Speaker 2: now her termination notice because of this pending legal actions
28:11
Speaker 2: being put on hold. It's a welcome reprieve, but it's
28:15
Speaker 2: just one step in a long legal bid for doctor Spencer.
28:20
Speaker 2: I'm pleased to say, she joins me now, Jillian Spencer,
28:23
Speaker 2: thank you for your time. I am always in awe
28:27
Speaker 2: of your bravery taking on this fight, not just because
28:29
Speaker 2: you believe in it, but because so many of us
28:32
Speaker 2: stand with you and we think this is absolutely important,
28:35
Speaker 2: particularly when you look at what's happening around the world.
28:38
Speaker 2: Everybody seems to be rethinking this madness other than Australia.
28:48
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I think last time I spoke to you,
28:49
Speaker 4: I was desperately hoping that the Queensland Health Minister, mister
28:53
Speaker 4: Tim Nichols would intervene to prevent me from being fired,
28:56
Speaker 4: but unfortunately he decided not to do that. So so
29:00
Speaker 4: thank heavens for good lawyers and my lawyers have launched
29:04
Speaker 4: a Supreme Court judicial review of the termination notice on
29:09
Speaker 4: two grounds. The first being that the notice didn't consider
29:12
Speaker 4: my implied right to freedom of political expression under the Constitution,
29:17
Speaker 4: and the second that the notice didn't consider my human
29:20
Speaker 4: rights under the Human Rights Act, so that gives me
29:23
Speaker 4: a stay of termination until that judgment is delivered. And
29:27
Speaker 4: then I'm still waiting for the whistleblower decision through the
29:31
Speaker 4: Industrial Relations Commission. I've been waiting for seventeen months now,
29:34
Speaker 4: and all my hopes they're arresting on Commissioner Christopher Gazmbeek.
29:41
Speaker 2: And do we have a sense of the timing. I
29:43
Speaker 2: read that your directions hearing in the legal matter won't
29:47
Speaker 2: happen until next year. We're going to get resolution of
29:50
Speaker 2: any of these other issues before then.
29:55
Speaker 4: Oh, I have no control over that. All I can
29:56
Speaker 4: do is just wait.
30:01
Speaker 2: The CHRISTOPHI the government is having this review into the
30:03
Speaker 2: use of puberty blockers, and things are on pores there.
30:07
Speaker 2: But as I said, the other states in Australia, particularly
30:10
Speaker 2: where I am in Victoria, they are pretty much bloody minded.
30:14
Speaker 2: And of course in Victoria, and we now learn in
30:16
Speaker 2: Tasmania too, children can be socially transitioned at schools under
30:21
Speaker 2: government policy without the parents ever being told.
30:25
Speaker 3: This is what is happening to their children.
30:29
Speaker 2: There are plenty of psychiatrists and other child experts that
30:32
Speaker 2: have been in the media about this, and they say
30:35
Speaker 2: that there's a danger that once you start to socially
30:38
Speaker 2: transition a child, they end up going down the path
30:42
Speaker 2: of further medical transition, whereas if you don't socially transition them,
30:48
Speaker 2: it may well be a phase that they come out
30:51
Speaker 2: of naturally.
30:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right.
30:55
Speaker 4: I was really concerned about this because what we know
30:58
Speaker 4: from the clinical experience of the network underground network of
31:02
Speaker 4: very brave clinicians who are treating children with gender distress
31:05
Speaker 4: with an exploratory approach and not affirming them, is that
31:09
Speaker 4: early affirmation really locks in the gender distress. So children
31:14
Speaker 4: that are socially transitioned can get really stuck. They get
31:17
Speaker 4: preoccupied with how they're appearing and concerned about how other
31:22
Speaker 4: people are perceiving them. They get used to pretending to
31:25
Speaker 4: be something that they're not, and it takes over their lives.
31:28
Speaker 4: So what you don't want in childhood and adolescence is
31:31
Speaker 4: for a child to be internally preoccupied and self conscious.
31:35
Speaker 4: You want them to be relaxed so that they can
31:36
Speaker 4: learn and they can gradually explore their world around them.
31:42
Speaker 3: Explain to me.
31:43
Speaker 2: Then you mentioned the exploratory method as opposed to gender affirming.
31:47
Speaker 2: How would an exploratory method works. Say a child presented
31:52
Speaker 2: to you twelve or thirteen year old and was gender confused,
31:56
Speaker 2: how would you treat them under the exploratory method.
32:02
Speaker 4: Yeah, the exploratory method is one where you take an
32:05
Speaker 4: open mind about what's going on for the child, and
32:07
Speaker 4: you consider that other experiences, historical experiences in their life
32:11
Speaker 4: or current experiences may be contributing to their distress. So
32:15
Speaker 4: you keep an open mind rather than assuming that the
32:17
Speaker 4: child is naturally transngender diverse, and you make an effort
32:21
Speaker 4: to treat any comorbidities. You do family therapy if required,
32:25
Speaker 4: you do school liaison, and you give the time to
32:28
Speaker 4: the child time to gradually explore their identity. You encourage
32:31
Speaker 4: exploration but without the harms of medicalization. And you may
32:36
Speaker 4: be quite explicit about the harms of medicalization.
32:41
Speaker 2: I know, as I said, my viewers are behind you
32:43
Speaker 2: two hundred percent. I know they are willing you to succeed,
32:47
Speaker 2: and I know many of them contacted the Christophility government.
32:49
Speaker 2: Tim Nichols in particular, as I did to voice our
32:53
Speaker 2: support of you. Where can they go now to continue
32:57
Speaker 2: this support?
33:00
Speaker 4: Oh, thank you so much much, Peter, and thank you
33:02
Speaker 4: to your viewers. It's the wonderful Human Rights Law Alliance
33:06
Speaker 4: that are handling my claim that I've been politically discriminated
33:10
Speaker 4: against by the Queensland Children's Hospital. And if we win
33:14
Speaker 4: that case, then Australians in their workplaces will be able
33:19
Speaker 4: to be open about their belief in biological reality that
33:23
Speaker 4: people can't change sex and they won't have to fear
33:26
Speaker 4: being fired or disciplined for that. So any donations to
33:30
Speaker 4: my case through the Human Rights.
33:32
Speaker 3: Law Alliance are very very appreciated. Thank you, Jillian.
33:37
Speaker 2: I know that to my viewers, if they can support you,
33:39
Speaker 2: they will. They certainly are sending me a lot of
33:41
Speaker 2: messages of support. Please keep up the fight and I
33:44
Speaker 2: want you to be heartened that so many Australians behind you.
33:48
Speaker 3: Thank you for joining me tonight. All right after break Soldiers,
33:52
Speaker 3: as I said, still in limbo.
33:53
Speaker 2: The brewrit and report still has them with the sort
33:56
Speaker 2: of damocles hanging over their head.
33:58
Speaker 3: But a new book.
33:59
Speaker 2: Out Matt's open up some of the real backstory here
34:03
Speaker 2: and this is about the courage of the SAS and
34:05
Speaker 2: Commando regiments in Afghanistan.
34:08
Speaker 3: That's coming up.
34:09
Speaker 2: Plus a sneak peek it's some polling you polling out
34:12
Speaker 2: tomorrow the car serious doubt over the government's emissions targets.
34:21
Speaker 2: Geez you quick already, I've got emails coming in support
34:24
Speaker 2: of Jillian Spencer.
34:24
Speaker 3: Yes, she is amazing.
34:26
Speaker 2: I agree with you, and yes we've got to keep
34:29
Speaker 2: up the fight and God, we've got to. We're going
34:32
Speaker 2: to get to also this push to decrease country speed
34:35
Speaker 2: limits from one hundred k's an hour to eighty k's
34:38
Speaker 2: an hour. This is all about money that they're not
34:41
Speaker 2: putting into maintaining our roads and this push has rightly
34:45
Speaker 2: been ridiculed by the NRMA. We'll get to that too,
34:47
Speaker 2: but first let's go to this new book out tomorrow
34:51
Speaker 2: on Australia's credits victory during the Afghanistan War. The book
34:55
Speaker 2: is titled The Lost Bat The Last Battle, The Last
34:59
Speaker 2: Battle Australia sas Commandos and our greatest victory in our
35:03
Speaker 2: longest war, and it focuses on the five day Battle
35:06
Speaker 2: of sharhwally Kott. It was our most significant battle since
35:10
Speaker 2: the days of Vietnam and it was during these at
35:13
Speaker 2: five Long Days that former SAS Corporal Ben Robert Smith
35:18
Speaker 2: earned his Victoria Cross for valor. I'm pleased to say
35:22
Speaker 2: the author, someone who has covered this war extensively, Aaron Patrick,
35:26
Speaker 2: joins me. Now, well, Larn, it's a big endeavor to
35:30
Speaker 2: write a book like this given all the other controversy
35:33
Speaker 2: and military history that has surrounded this war and indeed
35:38
Speaker 2: this particular battle. What inspired you bravely to take on
35:43
Speaker 2: the job.
35:46
Speaker 9: Well, Peter, in partly because it's just an unbelievable story.
35:50
Speaker 9: And when I started looking into it, I didn't realize
35:53
Speaker 9: it was what was how complex and how in twists
35:56
Speaker 9: and turns they were going to them. But what I
35:58
Speaker 9: found out was is that this whole battle for which
36:01
Speaker 9: we had the first battle Lion has awarded since Vietnam,
36:04
Speaker 9: was based on a mistake which was essentially, I think
36:08
Speaker 9: was the greatest intelligence failure in the history of the SAS.
36:11
Speaker 9: Because you had a whole troop of soldiers, including Ben
36:13
Speaker 9: Roberts Smith, sent in there to a village to capture
36:16
Speaker 9: a Taliban leader and they were told they were going
36:18
Speaker 9: he was going to have three to five guards. What
36:22
Speaker 9: they didn't know was there was actually eighty plus Taliban
36:24
Speaker 9: in this little village in shah Wali Kopp, which everyone
36:28
Speaker 9: knew was a notorious Taliban stronghold. Even Delda Force was
36:33
Speaker 9: worry about going there. They wouldn't go there during the day.
36:35
Speaker 9: It's just too dangerous. And the Sas guys were lucky
36:38
Speaker 9: to get our life. It was just unbelievable. It's just
36:41
Speaker 9: because they were so damn good at what they did
36:43
Speaker 9: that they're able to turn around the situation and emerge victorious.
36:46
Speaker 9: But it could have gone the other way. And I
36:48
Speaker 9: think this is a story that Australians don't know, that
36:51
Speaker 9: the Army hasn't told us, and I think Australians deserve
36:54
Speaker 9: to know the truth.
36:58
Speaker 2: I have had the eye when I worked in government
37:01
Speaker 2: to be there when vcs are awarded. Of course, one
37:05
Speaker 2: to Cameron Beird was awarded posthumously. He lost his life
37:09
Speaker 2: in the battle that earned.
37:11
Speaker 3: Him the VC.
37:12
Speaker 2: But when you read these citations, and I'd encourage anyone
37:15
Speaker 2: at home you can read the citations, they're publicly available.
37:19
Speaker 2: You stand in awe about what our soldiers have done
37:23
Speaker 2: wearing our uniform and in our name.
37:25
Speaker 3: But I think there is none more terrifying.
37:30
Speaker 2: In the gravity and the threat level and just the
37:37
Speaker 2: I mean crazy brave, I'd have to call it. Actions
37:41
Speaker 2: of Ben Roberts Smith won't be the only one on
37:44
Speaker 2: that day who did those five days aaron who did
37:47
Speaker 2: extraordinary things. But when you read that, you understand as
37:52
Speaker 2: you say that they went in expecting something very different
37:55
Speaker 2: than they got. It's really bloody hard to criticize them
37:59
Speaker 2: from the safe of our lounge rooms.
38:04
Speaker 9: Well, and there was so much more to what happened
38:08
Speaker 9: than in the citation, because Ben Robert Smith was part
38:11
Speaker 9: of a team of six men who were there trying
38:14
Speaker 9: to basically save everyone else because they were all pinned down.
38:19
Speaker 9: They were trapped on a creek bed, their air support
38:22
Speaker 9: wasn't working. They didn't feel they could wipe out the
38:25
Speaker 9: whole village with bombers. They had no form of escape.
38:29
Speaker 9: The helicopters couldn't come in because they'd be shot down.
38:32
Speaker 9: The nearest Australian forces were in a valley. They were
38:34
Speaker 9: commandos sort of five or six kilometers away, and at
38:37
Speaker 9: some point they actually put in a call. Headquarters put
38:40
Speaker 9: a call saying the commandos might have to go over
38:42
Speaker 9: and rescue the sas that had happened, they would have
38:45
Speaker 9: fundamentally were written Australian history, particularly history of the Special Forces.
38:48
Speaker 9: And what happened was this one team called Epic One,
38:51
Speaker 9: which Ben Robert Smith was the deputy of They went
38:53
Speaker 9: in there and they essentially charged an enemy machine gun position.
38:57
Speaker 9: They didn't know that's what they were doing, but that's
38:59
Speaker 9: what they ended up doing. And I just sort of
39:00
Speaker 9: described those moments in minute by minute, sometime second by second,
39:05
Speaker 9: because it is the most incredible war story I think
39:09
Speaker 9: in modern Australian history, and I want people to know
39:11
Speaker 9: what happened.
39:14
Speaker 3: Who did just speak to?
39:15
Speaker 2: I mean, you don't have to name names, but give
39:17
Speaker 2: us a sense of the breadth of the people you
39:20
Speaker 2: spoke to to tell this story.
39:24
Speaker 9: I spoke to privates who fought for their lives up
39:28
Speaker 9: to General David Hurley, who was head of the Head
39:31
Speaker 9: of the Defense Force and obviously became Governor General. I
39:34
Speaker 9: spoke to officers. I spoke to snipers. I spoke to signalman.
39:40
Speaker 9: I spoke to American Special Forces embedded. I spoke to
39:44
Speaker 9: American planning officers. I spoke to pilots. I spoke to
39:49
Speaker 9: every single person I could to try and find out
39:53
Speaker 9: how this battle came about and what happened, and so
39:55
Speaker 9: I tell it from multiple different angles. So there are
39:59
Speaker 9: a lot of different character involved, and a lot of
40:01
Speaker 9: people made big contributions. And Ben Robertsons is a very
40:04
Speaker 9: important character, but he's not probably the most important character,
40:08
Speaker 9: because there are other people who played very big roles
40:10
Speaker 9: in this battle too, And so I've tried to give
40:12
Speaker 9: a very broad perspective on what happened.
40:16
Speaker 2: I mean, everyone's going to have a different view about
40:19
Speaker 2: Ben Robert Smith and our soldiers Afghanistan. Generally I think
40:24
Speaker 2: Brereton Report, but I guess i'd be saying that people
40:28
Speaker 2: go and read your book, have an open mind to
40:32
Speaker 2: a broader view. And surely we've got to put pressure
40:35
Speaker 2: on the government to deal with the Brereton Report. If
40:37
Speaker 2: they cannot charge anyone and I understand any one soldier's
40:40
Speaker 2: being charged, todate if you can't charge any more soldiers
40:44
Speaker 2: after all of this time, put it away and clear
40:47
Speaker 2: their names.
40:51
Speaker 9: Well, look, I've tried to be very balanced in my
40:53
Speaker 9: treatment of Ben Robert Smith, and I canvas and I
40:58
Speaker 9: go for our and explain the origins of the campaign
41:02
Speaker 9: against him, and I describe how the information got out.
41:06
Speaker 9: I described key meetings with journalists, gotting very prominent journalists
41:10
Speaker 9: and how they came across the information that ended up
41:14
Speaker 9: in the public domain and led to what happened in
41:17
Speaker 9: terms of his defamation case. I've tried to be very
41:19
Speaker 9: fair and very neutral so readers can make up their
41:22
Speaker 9: own mind. But it's there's no doubt that we're in
41:25
Speaker 9: a very strange situation because the government has spent seventeen
41:29
Speaker 9: million dollars per investigating each veteran. Now, in some cases
41:35
Speaker 9: these are offenses alleged to have happened more than fifteen
41:39
Speaker 9: years ago. They've only charged one person. He will not
41:42
Speaker 9: go to trial until twenty twenty seven, so we could
41:45
Speaker 9: be in the twenty thirties before we get a resolution
41:49
Speaker 9: to these cases. So straight has to face up. Are
41:52
Speaker 9: we going to prosecute middle aged men for things they
41:57
Speaker 9: are alleged to have done twenty years ago in a
42:00
Speaker 9: dirty war that we sent them to do? And I
42:03
Speaker 9: think this is a really profound argument that Australians need
42:06
Speaker 9: to discuss and think about, because these men did do
42:09
Speaker 9: these things.
42:10
Speaker 3: In our names.
42:10
Speaker 9: And I'm not trying to forgive war crimes, but I
42:15
Speaker 9: don't think Australians really have come to terms with what's
42:18
Speaker 9: going on here. We've already spent three hundred million dollars
42:21
Speaker 9: investigating nineteen soldiers and only one prosecution so far. So
42:28
Speaker 9: this is I think a matter of profound national importance.
42:33
Speaker 3: I couldn't agree more.
42:34
Speaker 2: Aaron beautifully said it books out tomorrow, The Last Battle.
42:37
Speaker 3: Please.
42:37
Speaker 2: I'm certainly going to get a copy and read it myself,
42:39
Speaker 2: but I read it was coming on the weekend.
42:41
Speaker 3: I wanted to speak to you tonight.
42:42
Speaker 2: Thank you for joining me right quick break after the break,
42:46
Speaker 2: we've got to talk about net zero and this big
42:48
Speaker 2: poll out tomorrow. We've got to steak peak in one. Okay,
42:55
Speaker 2: let's bring you my Monday night panel Mendsy's Research Center,
42:57
Speaker 2: So and your fellow Nikita and the deputy executive director
43:01
Speaker 2: of the Institute of Public Affairs. Gosh, it's aboutful Dan
43:04
Speaker 2: Wild Dan. Before we get into some other issues, we're
43:07
Speaker 2: just talking about books there with Aaron Patrick. I am
43:10
Speaker 2: absolutely going to get that military book. But Tony Abbott's book,
43:14
Speaker 2: The History of Australia. I've just seen some data out there.
43:17
Speaker 2: It is the number one non fiction book in Australia.
43:21
Speaker 3: Wow.
43:21
Speaker 10: Well, justifiably so. And you know who would have thought
43:24
Speaker 10: a book about Australia that doesn't hate the country might
43:27
Speaker 10: actually sell well. So it's some marketing genius there. But
43:30
Speaker 10: great to see the book going well. And if anyone
43:32
Speaker 10: hasn't got it, I would encourage you to pick up
43:34
Speaker 10: a copy.
43:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, well under the.
43:35
Speaker 2: IPA, because I know they were very instrumental in all
43:37
Speaker 2: the research. There nick some interesting polling set for release
43:40
Speaker 2: tomorrow from the Page Research Center about Australia's and at
43:45
Speaker 2: zero targets.
43:45
Speaker 3: Tell us more.
43:48
Speaker 1: Well, this is very interesting polling, Peter. It shows if
43:51
Speaker 1: you ask the question should we abandon that zero, you
43:54
Speaker 1: get about a twenty percent response, But if you put
43:57
Speaker 1: that in the context of rising electricity prices or jobs,
44:01
Speaker 1: fifty to sixty percent of Australians say yes, we should
44:04
Speaker 1: revisit this, which net zero should just become an aspiration
44:08
Speaker 1: if you like, but we need to focus primarily on
44:11
Speaker 1: electricity prices and jobs. Interestingly that the hard core support
44:17
Speaker 1: for net zero is around about thirty one thirty two percent,
44:20
Speaker 1: so two thirds of the country are not wedded to it.
44:22
Speaker 1: They would very happily see it amended or abolished altogether.
44:27
Speaker 1: This I think should give Coalition MPs some courage as
44:30
Speaker 1: they start thinking about this issue. Sticking with net zero
44:35
Speaker 1: as legislated as a legislated target is not popular and
44:40
Speaker 1: is no doubt likely to become less popular the more
44:43
Speaker 1: people realize the implications for the cost of energy.
44:49
Speaker 2: Let's go to see i FMU because they were a
44:50
Speaker 2: feature of Question Time today. The administrator Mark Irving under
44:54
Speaker 2: fire for disbanding anti corruption teams and promoting a union
44:58
Speaker 2: official who was later slow sacked for alleged corrupt dealings.
45:03
Speaker 2: This is federal Labor, but down to Victoria to leaked
45:06
Speaker 2: government emails reveal the Premier was briefed about CFMU misconduct
45:11
Speaker 2: on Victoria's a big build and that was a year
45:15
Speaker 2: before the scandal broke. Labour want to tell you today
45:18
Speaker 2: in question Time that they've done more to clean up
45:20
Speaker 2: the CFMAU than anyone here.
45:22
Speaker 3: Dan, I don't believe them.
45:25
Speaker 10: No, Look it's more of the same, Peter, and Look.
45:27
Speaker 3: The reality is the issue.
45:28
Speaker 10: It's not just the alleged criminal behavior or corrupt behavior
45:31
Speaker 10: of certain unions, but the fact that they have a
45:33
Speaker 10: lot of political leverage. I think only about ten percent
45:36
Speaker 10: of Australians through in a union. Yet unions have the
45:39
Speaker 10: command of the Labor Party when it comes to significant
45:42
Speaker 10: economic policy, and it pushes costs onto everybody. The high
45:45
Speaker 10: cost on job sites means building a hospital, building a road,
45:48
Speaker 10: the costs of that to go up, and of course
45:50
Speaker 10: there's a backdoor money funnel from unions into the Labor Party.
45:55
Speaker 10: So look, I certainly don't expect there's going to be
45:57
Speaker 10: any serious action taken, and Labor just wanted to look
46:00
Speaker 10: like they're doing something, but I don't think anything serious
46:04
Speaker 10: is going to happen.
46:05
Speaker 2: Peter, let's go to Rhodes because as a plan to
46:08
Speaker 2: drop the speed limit on country roads from one hundred
46:10
Speaker 2: k's an hour to eighty k's an hour, it's been
46:14
Speaker 2: panned nick by the NRMA. I think it's panned about
46:18
Speaker 2: anyone who lives in regional Australia right across the board,
46:21
Speaker 2: because we know if you live in country areas that
46:24
Speaker 2: this is just because they don't want to spend the
46:26
Speaker 2: coin repairing roads. If you get I was going to say,
46:29
Speaker 2: if you get outside of Melbourne. It's even in Melbourne
46:31
Speaker 2: there's horrific potholes. But this is about not doing the
46:34
Speaker 2: right thing about road use. And it's also because they
46:38
Speaker 2: just don't want cars and the road full stop.
46:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's about punishing people in the country, isn't it.
46:44
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're an hour from the local supermarket,
46:47
Speaker 1: you know, then this all adds time to your journey.
46:51
Speaker 1: It's just this blanket ban Peter that gets me. You know.
46:54
Speaker 1: So you're going to drive on a flat road, perfect
46:56
Speaker 1: visibility through your neck of the words, through the malley,
47:00
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, there's no problem whatsoever. Obviously if
47:03
Speaker 1: there are bends or if there's gravel, you take more
47:06
Speaker 1: care and most drivers will do that automatically. We don't
47:10
Speaker 1: need this blanket eighty kilometer ban on or an eighty
47:14
Speaker 1: kilometer limit on all country roads. It makes no sense whatsoever.
47:18
Speaker 1: And it's just another way in which country people's habits
47:23
Speaker 1: and what they have to do to make a living
47:25
Speaker 1: is just not featured in the way the bureaucrats think
47:28
Speaker 1: about this thing.
47:29
Speaker 3: In Canberra.
47:32
Speaker 2: Well, I live in Melbourne, in a city, and we've
47:34
Speaker 2: gone from sixty k to the road in front of
47:36
Speaker 2: me to fifty ks now to forty ks. There's even
47:40
Speaker 2: talk it will be thirty k's Now I can run
47:44
Speaker 2: faster than my car will go at thirty k's.
47:46
Speaker 3: I think this is part of again.
47:48
Speaker 2: A whole push cars off the road and get down emissions,
47:52
Speaker 2: because the slower you drive, the lowering of the emissions happen.
47:56
Speaker 2: You know, as a matter of course, and Dan, this
47:59
Speaker 2: is about how reporting back to you n bodies to
48:02
Speaker 2: make our target adherents look better when it's not actually better,
48:06
Speaker 2: which is driving slower.
48:08
Speaker 10: Well, that's right, and I think what Nick said is
48:10
Speaker 10: spot on us. It's an example of the continued war
48:13
Speaker 10: on normal people, on mainstream Australians. And look, this is
48:17
Speaker 10: all under the rubric of net zero and as I've
48:19
Speaker 10: been saying all the time, net zero is about control
48:22
Speaker 10: over the food we can eat, the cars that we
48:24
Speaker 10: can drive, the lifestyle that we can have. And I
48:27
Speaker 10: just think this is targeting stream Australians and as you say,
48:30
Speaker 10: getting cars off the road under this sort of rubric
48:33
Speaker 10: of un reporting. But does this really do anything for
48:36
Speaker 10: the climate, of course it doesn't.
48:37
Speaker 2: Well, let me play a video from one of the
48:39
Speaker 2: youngest members of the Australian Parliament, my Dame Sean.
48:52
Speaker 3: I'm a senator and I'm twenty one years old.
48:55
Speaker 2: This is your sign to drink water, to hea vegetables,
48:59
Speaker 2: to get a good night's sleep, to slay and most
49:02
Speaker 2: importantly to.
49:03
Speaker 3: Follow me quick one from unich Cata.
49:08
Speaker 2: Is she really there to make laws for the for
49:10
Speaker 2: the Australian public with that sort of social.
49:13
Speaker 1: Media absolute clown doing all that on the taxpayers money.
49:18
Speaker 1: She doesn't deserve to be in Parliament. Well she's a
49:21
Speaker 1: labor senator. That's the way it lives.
49:25
Speaker 2: I wouldn't even want her as my barista making her coffee, Dan,
49:28
Speaker 2: that'll low making laws.
49:30
Speaker 10: Yeah, although I've got to say social media the bar
49:32
Speaker 10: is set pretty low parliamentarians. So look, there's there's a
49:36
Speaker 10: time and a place for it. I just hope it's
49:38
Speaker 10: used to communicate some serious issues.
49:40
Speaker 2: Right. I'll leave it there, Jens, thank you very much.
49:42
Speaker 2: See you next week.
49:43
Speaker 3: Big night, Tonight, Big boys back and grew Bolt up
49:47
Speaker 3: next