Latest / Steve Price / Steve Price | 24 October

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Steve Price | 24 October · Steve Price

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This is Steve Price.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: We're having Friday Night, at the end of a week
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: where Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanez he finally got his
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: face to face sit down with the US President Donald
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Trump that entertained us All with Sky's Andrew Clenell outed
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Kevin Rudd with a question about his past trashing of Trump.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Great question, great Trump response, Absolutely made my week. Coming
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: up tonight, another week of violent crime and alleged machete attack,
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: lame political spin on so called tougher bail laws, and
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: still the revolving doors of justice roll on in Victoria.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Frustrated and Laura and Order commentator and former homicide detective
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Charlie Zina will join us to discuss the possibility of
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: even tougher bail laws. And speaking of frustrated, the self
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: made DIY tycoon Jim Penman of Jim's mowing fame and
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: much more these days, is to use his voice to
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: support a political movement in Victoria at next at this
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: year's next year's i should say, Victorian election, we'll find
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: out who is getting his voice on side. Plus whatever
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: happened to allege cop killing fugitives? Desi Freeman and will
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: police ever find him dead or alive? A special investigation
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: by the Australians John Ferguson has some surprise findings. Johnald
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: joined me tonight to walk through that. But first up
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: about crime. Just saying something's been fixed and then not
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: actually doing anything to fix the problem, as you know,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: is a recipe for disaster, and disaster is exactly what
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: the state of law and order and bail laws are
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: in Victoria right now. Now I'll talk as I said
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: to highly regarded former detective Charlie Bazina in a moment.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: But at the end of a violent week of hard
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: left socialist agitators throwing bluestone chunks of rocket right police,
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: yet again, Melbournians are forced to sit and watch people
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: accused of being armed with machetes walk away from a
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: court appearance on yep, you guessed, at court sanctioned bail. Now.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Here was Victorian Premier to Sinder Allen yesterday at some
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: hospital announcement, where as usual she was surrounded by a
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: backdrop of and this is all was the case, female
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: junior ministers and public servants all nodding away in support.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: Here's the Premier.
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: The changes we've made to toughen the bail settings requires
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: all bail making, bail decision makers across the justice system
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: to put community safety first, and it remains my expectation
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: that all bail decision makers comply with that requirement under
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: the legislation that has been set.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: She's kidding herself now. As The Herald's un reports today,
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: it's believed that the Premier would like to again toughen
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: the bail laws. But get this, she wouldn't get it
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: through her own cabinet. And that's the number the problem.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Victoria is run by a hard left factional government of
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Victoria in Labor, a bunch of rusted on socialists who
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: believe it's better to let teenage and juvenile alleged defenders
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: back on the streets rather than locking them up. Now
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Here again is the Premiere, when pushed on whether she
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: would like to again toughen up by a laws given
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: that she was in the Dan Andrews' cabinet that loosened
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: them in the first place.
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: I'm not going to respond to anecdotes that aren't on
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: the public record. I'm responding to what the work is
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: before us, and that is this brazen violent offending increasingly
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: being done by children. We're working with Victoria Police, I'm
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: working with my cabinet colleagues. I'm working with my caucus colleagues.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: But also too, we're sitting and listening to victims of crime.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: Seriously, you just shake your head. I mean, can you
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: imagine the behind the scenes meetings that that new x
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: ki We police Chief Mike Bush and Premier Allan are
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: having when this crime crisis continues to explode out of control.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: This bail example is a perfect example. Last Sunday, while
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: those hard left anarchist to are pitching rocks at police
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: plus glass bottles, I have you tell you three us,
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: one allegedly armed with a machete. We're accused of being
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: involved in a violent incident outside Saint Kilda's Lunar Park,
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: which is obviously a place where young kids go with
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: their families on the weekends. Now, the three were bailed,
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: including a nineteen year old Abbas Masahwi, who was suspected
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: of being involved in two other machete offenses this month alone.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: Now on the bench, Magistrate Felicity Broughton admitted young men
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: acting and behaving like this is quote a high risk
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: to the community, but in her reasoning cited the offender's age,
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: their first time in custody, and delays in getting the
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: case for granting bail. So what does any sensible person
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: believe an alleged defender thinks about before committing a crime. Well,
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: does anyone believe the hundred views who allegedly handle machetes
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: are going to wander down to the local police station
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: and voluntarily put them in a government provided machete bin.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: That's madness. Of course they won't, as top lawyer Paul Hayes, KC.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Told The Herald Son today when reviewing the instruction manual.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: So the booklet that is given to magistrates and judges,
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: these new laws still leave the door ajar. Why does
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: Hayes make that point? Well, the updated manual instruct judicial
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: offices that granting bail may ultimately be in the best
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: interests of the community in the long term. Door a jar,
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: the door's being blown off its hinges and the do
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: good are lefties in Spring Street actually like it that way?
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: For more on matlet's bring in. Former homicide Squad detective
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: Charlie Bzener is a regular on our program. Can you
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: believe where we're at?
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: The mind boggles?
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: When they come out with commons such as that for
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: the benefit of the community, how the.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Hell can you work that out?
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: It's ludicrous statements to be making in relation to that.
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: To let an alleged offender who's committed multiple alleged other
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: crimes to back in the community is absolutely nonsense.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: You've been in a situation, obviously where you've had to
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: convince a prosecutor to prosecute someone that you have arrested
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: in charge with a crime. When you're going to the court,
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: you know we need to be carefully and not all
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: magistrates and judges are the same. But when you're going
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: to the court, is your expectation that your case is
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: going to get across the line? Or were there times
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: in the past with previous judicial officials that you walked
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: into a court and thought, well, we've got no hope here.
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: No, you go to court with your strongest brief of
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: evidence and never forget the fact that we are representing
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: either the victim or the victim's family in relation to
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: the allegationists there, and you go with the strongest case
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: believing that you've got enough evidence there.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Sure, it's their discretion.
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: And their decision to make, but you know you've got
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: a strong case, and then they come back either with
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: an acquittal or a bail being released, and as you
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: shake your head and then try and explain that to
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: the poor or victim or the victim's family, it's heartbreaking
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: and say, well, it's out of my hands. We can
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: only produce the facts to the court and the courts
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: make that decision. But they're so far out of touch
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: it's absolutely mind boggling.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: The premier was in cabinet when Daniel Anders a premier.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: She ticked off presumably I don't know what happened in cabinet,
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: but she was there, and cabinet softened the bail laws
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: after an instant and I've mentioned this before involving an
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: Indigenous woman on a train heading toward Melbourne who was
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: intoxicated and who tragically died in prison. So the premier
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: they soften the laws. Then they've hardened them once. Do
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: you believe she actually wants to harden them again or
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: are they just took talking points from politicians.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: I think they're talking for politicians.
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: As we know Gagasulus who were mowed down six people
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: in Berg Street, mal That's what strengthened the laws because
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: he was on barle at the time. Then we've go
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: are the other incidents where these people have been on bail.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: We had Jill Maher that the.
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: Individuals on barle at the time and parole. But these
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: are the situations. We put our faith in the whole
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: justice system and the government in particular. They can lay
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: down the laws, but as time and time again you'll
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: see they put a law in, but they always put
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: escape clauses for these magistrates. They can direct magistrates to
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: do whatever, but they don't. They remain soft in it
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: and all she can come out with that's all and
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: come out and say this is horrible, this is a
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: tragic set of events. Well tell that to the victim.
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: Tell that to the victim that you're letting down time
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: and time again. You are accountable, you have blood on
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: your hands. You are the ones that can change this
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: and get on with it.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: Charlie, I mean, I know the legal profession does not
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: like mandatory sentencing. They just believe that it takes some
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: of the decision taking away from lawyer as well. Bad luck.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: Why can't we push for as a public and insist
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: that our politicians set up a system of mandatory sentencing
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: for individuals who commit more than one offense with an
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: armed weapon like a machete, and put next to it
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: a jail turn.
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah, well there are those in place at the moment,
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: but they do keep escape clauses out there. Relations are
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: given that to the magistrates. I understand that they don't
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: like mandatory sentencing, but we've got these leftists magistrates and
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: judges have put their own take on things and they
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: live in the utopia world and saying, well, it doesn't
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: affect me. I want you to talk to the victim.
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: I want you to talk to a victim that's been
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: slashed and nearly lost their arm and whatever the other
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: attack that they've had. Talk to them and convince them
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: as to why you are giving this individual bail and
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: how does that make the rest of the community safe.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Once you're in custody.
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: Recivitust offenders, hardcore precipitous offenders need to be taken out
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: of the system so they can protect you and I
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: and all in Sundry. Until that happens, you can come
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: up with all the retrick about how shocking it is, Well,
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: it's more than shocking. Is a life sentence for the
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: poor individual that carries it mentally and the human scars.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: I imagine last weekend, last Monday, when the senior Victorian
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: Superintendent Chiefsman actually dumped those rocks on a desk and
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: held one up and said this is what was being
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: pitched at Victoria Police last Sunday. Charlie Bezena would have
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: been watching his television and clapping his hands and saying,
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: that's the sort of Copple we need.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Very much.
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: I've worked with Wane with Homicide Squad and there's a
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: no nonsense sky and he's been through the mill. He's
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: got a good track record as of being a significant
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: crime investigator and that's what we need. On the back
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: of Inspector Banks that came out, and then we want
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: the support from the Chief Commissioner to come out and
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: support these guys. That is horrific. That is a rock,
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: that is a killing instrument in relation to it. When
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: are they going to wake up in relation to it?
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: And then she comes out Benja Cinde Allen, Oh the
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: city is safe. Well, you go and confront these people.
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: You sit there and you can see it. Don't worry
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: about your security guards go in during the event, and
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: I want you to absorb the threat, the terror and
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: the horror that we all face as servants to this
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: law in protecting the community. Get out there and see
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: it for the firsthand, and then you'll know the horror
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: and the terror that.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: You can fix.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: You can stop buying stroke of a pen and get
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: on with protecting this community.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: You're the one that can do it.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: I was there last Sunday and I saw some of
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: these ferals from the Alternative March. And when I saw
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: Cheeseman then describe how they know they hide behind barriers
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: and then jump up and pitch rocks at police officers.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: I mean, we should not as a community have to
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: stand for that. That is completely unacceptable. And I must
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: say you were the first person to say to me
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: that you thought the new commission of my Bush might
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: be the sort of bloke we need. I think I
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: now agree with you. I think he's going to really
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: try and his hardest to change the way that crime
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: is happening in Victoria.
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: But this is where we go back to accountability, getting
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: this permit system in. You put a permit system in
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: and then hold these people accountable to say it is
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: a affection of your group that have been arming themselves
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: with rocks.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: We want you to give them up to the police.
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: Because it protects your whole You've got the right to demonstrate, protest,
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: not a problem. But when you've got a splinter group
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: either attacking your restaurant over turning the tables and you've
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: got to spin a group with death missiles against the police,
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: you are responsible. Now, if you don't hand them over,
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: you're not going to get another permit. But will she
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: give her permits?
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: No? Why it's an obvious solution that works in New
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: South Wales. She can't say it doesn't and it should happen.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: Charlie Bezeena. Always great to catch up with your mate.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: Thanks a lot. Let's go to Queensland now, and there's
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: been some development up there in regard to Queensland's Indigenous councils.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: They've secured what appears to be direct access to the
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: state cabinet via a landmark accord. Now, anyone who understands
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: Victoria knows that Victoria's going through an even more extensive
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: treaty negotiation process right now. Now this is never mine
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: that you know. The mass majority of Queenslanders and Victorians
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: voted against the Federal Voice to Parliament. In that twenty
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: twenty three referendum, we all thought that was it. When
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: we had a referendum the majority of Australian said no
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: Friday regular from a Queensland Premier, Campbell Newman joins us,
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: Now this Indigenous Council Leader's accord. Have you had a
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: look at that and how much it gives Indigenous mayors
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: and counselors a clear line straight into government and that
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: they can argue on issues like water access in housing.
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: Steve, it is quite an interesting development and it's sort
• 13:59
  Speaker 5: of it doesn't sort of sit well with obviously the
• 14:03
  Speaker 5: vose of the Queensland population in the referendum, burning sixty
• 14:07
  Speaker 5: eight percent or so against it. It was a very
• 14:10
  Speaker 5: solid repudiation of a separate sort of system.
• 14:14
  Speaker 6: Running across the country.
• 14:16
  Speaker 5: Now there's a bit of background here that for many years,
• 14:20
  Speaker 5: if we go back to the sort of the Beatie
• 14:22
  Speaker 5: Bly era, the labor governments back then, senior public servants
• 14:28
  Speaker 5: and in doing ministers were given i suppose extra curricular
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: responsibilities to look after various communities across the state, in
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: the regional and remote areas, and so there was always
• 14:42
  Speaker 5: a bit of a mechanism there where they had what
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: were termed champions within government to try and get those
• 14:50
  Speaker 5: communities the support that they needed. So I'm not going
• 14:53
  Speaker 5: to sort of criticize this in a blanket outright way,
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: but the optics of it against what's happened more recently
• 15:01
  Speaker 5: with the vote doesn't really set very well, and there's
• 15:05
  Speaker 5: a lot of people quite negative about it. They're saying
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: this is a separate sort of system that's being set up.
• 15:13
  Speaker 6: I think time will tell.
• 15:14
  Speaker 5: I'm not sure that it was a good idea to
• 15:17
  Speaker 5: do it, given the vote against the Voice.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: Well, Kevin, I think you're right to be not to
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: have a broad brushed criticism of it, because what those
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: of us who don't live in Queensland probably often don't understand.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: It's a huge state with a big indigenous population. I
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: mean Victoria by comparisons tiny with a very small Indigenous population,
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: and yet where the government in Victoria is going is
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: way down the road on doing a treaty that would
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: basically establish a second chamber or third chamber of the
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: state parliament, which would be populated by elected Indigenous officials,
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: of which only Indigenous people can vote for. So that's
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: a completely different system, isn't it.
• 16:05
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I will look and that is quite outrageous in
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: my view. And even Victoria had had a strong vote
• 16:11
  Speaker 5: against the Voice. So the whole country has spoken on
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: this issue. But it's interesting that behind the scenes politicians
• 16:19
  Speaker 5: and indeed supporting bureaucrats are sort of pushing on with
• 16:24
  Speaker 5: their agenda. I'd say this about Victoria, what's happening is
• 16:29
  Speaker 5: quite quite diabolical because I think it will tie the
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: state up in incredible red tape. In contrast with what
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: Chris Fooley is doing, which I think will give Indigenous
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: communities a direct access to cabinet. But so long as
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: it doesn't get out of control, I think perhaps it
• 16:50
  Speaker 5: will continue on with the spirit of what Beatie was
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: doing twenty years ago. I think it doesn't. The trouble
• 16:59
  Speaker 5: is the optics of it, and for CHRISO. Fooley, rank
• 17:02
  Speaker 5: and file members of the LMP would be going, what
• 17:04
  Speaker 5: the hell's going on?
• 17:05
  Speaker 6: Why is he doing this?
• 17:08
  Speaker 5: I mean he did, of course put to bed and
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: I stopped dead in its tracks, the sort of the
• 17:15
  Speaker 5: similar process to the Victorian Labor Party that was going
• 17:18
  Speaker 5: on under Stephen Miles.
• 17:21
  Speaker 6: So he killed that got criticized for it.
• 17:25
  Speaker 5: Maybe he's seeing this as some sort of compromise, but
• 17:28
  Speaker 5: I don't think he needed to.
• 17:29
  Speaker 6: Do it really.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: Prime Minister Albaneze, he's back in Australia, jumped off his
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: jet this morning. I think it was wearing a Rock
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: and Roll T shirt. Well, that's one of his favorite bands.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: Apparently he got his meeting with Donald Trump earlier this week.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: We'll get onto yours are my favorite, Ambassador Kevin right
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: in a moment, But what did you think? How do
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: you think it went for the Prime Minister, but more importantly,
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: how do you think it went for Australia.
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: I have to say, Steve, I think it went well
• 17:58
  Speaker 5: for the PM, and I think it went well for Australia.
• 18:02
  Speaker 5: And you know, I think the fact that the meeting
• 18:06
  Speaker 5: went so smoothly that it was smiles and handshakes all round,
• 18:12
  Speaker 5: that there is this critical minerals deal which might have
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: marked to nothing, but also the affirmation of the President
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: himself of support for the orcust.
• 18:23
  Speaker 6: Deal and the Submarines.
• 18:24
  Speaker 5: I mean, it really doesn't get any better than that,
• 18:26
  Speaker 5: and I sort of have to line that up against
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: the expectations of many In the background, many people were
• 18:32
  Speaker 5: licking their chops, particularly on the right of politics, thinking
• 18:35
  Speaker 5: that perhaps the PEM was going to go into a
• 18:40
  Speaker 5: meeting where he got smacked around the chops by the
• 18:44
  Speaker 5: president in the way that other world leaders have and
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: I would have been so easy.
• 18:50
  Speaker 6: For Donald Trump to do that.
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: There's huge, a huge golf in terms of political philosophy
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: between the two leaders.
• 18:57
  Speaker 6: So I think it was a great week for the PA.
• 19:00
  Speaker 6: I've got to say that.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: Rud and I've had our moments in the past. He
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: wrote a particularly nasty letter to the editor of my
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: paper about two years ago and used some language that
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: clearly was very, very, very embarrassing for him. So I
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: was sort of, you know, clapping my hands when Donald
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: Trump went after Kevin. You've had your moments with Kevin
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: as well. What do you make of that.
• 19:26
  Speaker 6: I've got to be honest and say that I really
• 19:29
  Speaker 6: enjoyed it.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: See again to give credit, to give credit where credit's due,
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: and people are giving credit there.
• 19:39
  Speaker 5: Look, I mean that whole meeting had to happen in
• 19:42
  Speaker 5: that way as a result of efforts by the Australian
• 19:47
  Speaker 5: embassy in Washington, and he is the ambassador, and so
• 19:52
  Speaker 5: the smooth running of that meeting, the outcome for Australia
• 19:56
  Speaker 5: the political outcome.
• 19:57
  Speaker 7: For the PM.
• 19:59
  Speaker 6: Yeah, you've got to.
• 20:00
  Speaker 5: We've got a sort of acknowledge that it's probably due
• 20:02
  Speaker 5: to the efforts of Kevin Run, much as you and
• 20:04
  Speaker 5: I would.
• 20:07
  Speaker 8: Like to do otherwise.
• 20:07
  Speaker 5: I'm sorry, mate, this is an evening when I'm really surprising.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: You, mate, But I think we have to.
• 20:12
  Speaker 5: I mean I have, I have lots of history with
• 20:17
  Speaker 5: Kevin Run. I hate to have to say that, but
• 20:20
  Speaker 5: I've got to be a fait. I come on this
• 20:22
  Speaker 5: show to be a commentator and call it as it is,
• 20:24
  Speaker 5: and I'm afraid I have to. Much as I do it,
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: I'll send you through a grid of teeth through a
• 20:29
  Speaker 5: smile this afternoon.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: I'll send you a copy of the letter. You might
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: change your mind. Thank you very much. I'll see you
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: next week, Campbell Newman there out of Queen's Now after
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: the break, i'll have the latest update and the hunt
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: for the alleged cop killer Dessi Freeman. It's an extraordinary
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: piece done in the Australian newspaper by John Ferguson. He'll
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: join me next. Welcome back to see price with you.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: I want to turn our attention to that continued hunt
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: for the alleged police killer, Dessi Freeman that's still underwegh
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: in Victoria's High as the veteran Australian newspaper reporter and
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: I can call him that because I'm even older than him.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: John Ferguson has been covering this case since it's happened,
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: and in an interactive feature that I thought was extraordinary
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: in The Australian this week, it explains just how much
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: impact the deaths of those two police officers, extremely sad
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: and the search for Freeman has had on the town
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: of Poor Punker. Now. Together with journalist Mohammad Alfarez, the
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: story offers a real insight into the area where this
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: shooting actually happened, including images that I've never seen before
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: from inside Freeman's home and that caravan and bus that
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: he lived in, and an understanding of the sort of
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: terrain where it all played out. Have a look.
• 21:42
  Speaker 9: What's really interesting is that it's the only thing people
• 21:46
  Speaker 9: are talking about. You sit down at a cafe and
• 21:48
  Speaker 9: it's a journalist's job to pick up what people are saying,
• 21:51
  Speaker 9: and everyone's talking about it. Everyone knew, either Freeman or
• 21:55
  Speaker 9: his wife or the kids. You can't have a town
• 21:59
  Speaker 9: of that size and for people to not know everyone,
• 22:03
  Speaker 9: you know, there's no doubt that people have stories, and
• 22:08
  Speaker 9: some of those stories are unflattering about Freeman, but mostly.
• 22:11
  Speaker 7: With his life, she is held in quite high regard.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: John Ferguson's associate editor at The Australian, joins me, Now, Fergie,
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: welcome to you. Congratulations. It's a great piece of work.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: I must admit that when we first heard what had
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: happened outside that bus at his home in Paul Punker
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: with Freeman, I thought he'd be caught quite quickly. Did
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: you think the same.
• 22:40
  Speaker 7: When you go up there, Steve.
• 22:42
  Speaker 9: It's the terrain is so tough that he knows it
• 22:48
  Speaker 9: extremely well, and so once she knows, you look at
• 22:52
  Speaker 9: where he ran into and get an understanding of how
• 22:55
  Speaker 9: much time he's spent up there. No, I don't think
• 22:58
  Speaker 9: it was ever going to be easy for police to
• 23:00
  Speaker 9: find him, assuming that he's still alive, like he might
• 23:03
  Speaker 9: be dead.
• 23:03
  Speaker 7: But my hunch is that he's still up there.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: To be honest, I mean my experience with that region,
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: like most people is you know, you go to Mount
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: Buller a couple of times during the winter, or yes,
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: you've been to Paul Punker, but you just stop at
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: the baker and keep going. What is it about that
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: terrain that has made this so difficult when you consider
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: ferg that every resource that was available to the Victoria Police,
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: including help from me to state and from the military,
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: and they still couldn't find him.
• 23:32
  Speaker 9: Well, Steve, it's like seventy degree angles the hills, it's
• 23:37
  Speaker 9: just straight up, and in amongst those around those hills
• 23:41
  Speaker 9: and in the valleys, there's something like ten thousand former
• 23:45
  Speaker 9: gold mines, there are caves. The bush is extremely thick,
• 23:51
  Speaker 9: you know, there are so many places for him to
• 23:53
  Speaker 9: hide if he's still alive. It doesn't surprise me at
• 23:57
  Speaker 9: all that the police couldn't find him. They've had a
• 24:01
  Speaker 9: red hot crack at it. But at the same time
• 24:03
  Speaker 9: they were limited by the fact that he's a really
• 24:07
  Speaker 9: dangerous blokeherd allegedly murdered two police, shot allegedly another and
• 24:16
  Speaker 9: tried to shoot out a fourth.
• 24:19
  Speaker 7: So it's been very, very difficult.
• 24:21
  Speaker 9: From the train is ipreably tough, and he knows it
• 24:25
  Speaker 9: inside out, like he knows where to go. And there's
• 24:28
  Speaker 9: a chance also that locals may have helped him out,
• 24:32
  Speaker 9: and so he may not even be anywhere in the district.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was going to ask you about that. I
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: want to know whether you reckon he had a couples.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: But what about these images you got from inside that
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: bus and the compound that he had outside the town.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: Tell us what that's like.
• 24:49
  Speaker 9: Well, clearly Freeman and his wife and two and maybe
• 24:54
  Speaker 9: three of their children were living in very poor circumstances.
• 24:58
  Speaker 9: Basically it was a a repurposed bus with a couple
• 25:02
  Speaker 9: of annexes.
• 25:04
  Speaker 7: It's no way to raise children.
• 25:07
  Speaker 9: I suspect the pictures you're seeing that the Big Pole
• 25:10
  Speaker 9: have gone very hard in their search when they went
• 25:14
  Speaker 9: in there, so they may some of the some of
• 25:17
  Speaker 9: the mess may have been created in the search. But
• 25:20
  Speaker 9: you know, it's a pretty odd way for somebody to
• 25:22
  Speaker 9: be living, isn't it in T twenty five with young children. So,
• 25:30
  Speaker 9: and that, of course was the scene the bus, and
• 25:33
  Speaker 9: that main annex was the scene the shootings.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: I mentioned poor punk of the town. I mean, obviously
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: it is used as a stopover spot for people heading
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: to the alpine country during winter, and this all happened,
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: of course, right at the closing stages of the ski season.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: So a lot of those little businesses there. John would
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: have really suffered. What do the locals say when you
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: ask them about what happened, and they're knowledge and memory
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: of Freeman and his wife.
• 26:04
  Speaker 7: Steve, It's really interesting.
• 26:06
  Speaker 9: There's quite there are divisions in both both Poor Punker
• 26:10
  Speaker 9: and Bright, which is only six kilometers away. It's very
• 26:15
  Speaker 9: easy to find people who are sympathetic to Freeman and
• 26:18
  Speaker 9: his wife, just very easy to run into people who
• 26:22
  Speaker 9: will say things that you can't publish about the police.
• 26:26
  Speaker 9: So and I'm not saying that's the overwhelming sentiment because
• 26:30
  Speaker 9: it won't be. But let's just say that the communities
• 26:34
  Speaker 9: are divided. His wife, Freeman's wife, Marley, who is from
• 26:38
  Speaker 9: the Philippines. She's aged in the early forties. She's quite popular,
• 26:43
  Speaker 9: particularly in Bright, because she's taught a lot of people music.
• 26:49
  Speaker 9: You know, look, I think some people need to wake
• 26:51
  Speaker 9: up a bit and understand what Freeman has allegedly done.
• 26:54
  Speaker 9: But it's definitely that both communities really are divided, and
• 26:59
  Speaker 9: everyone in pot part population one thousand, knows of him
• 27:03
  Speaker 9: has either seen him or as him.
• 27:04
  Speaker 7: It's a small town.
• 27:06
  Speaker 9: He's got radical views on during lockdowns, and he's deeply
• 27:12
  Speaker 9: anti authoritarian. But you know, as I said, that there
• 27:15
  Speaker 9: are people there that still defend him, which I find
• 27:19
  Speaker 9: a bit unusual, but because of the awful tragedy that's
• 27:23
  Speaker 9: unfolded in terms of the police officers who have died.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: Well as a remarkable bit of work. Make sure that
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: you congratulate Muhammed for his role in it as well.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: I know you're on holidays, John, I really appreciate you
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: making time to talk to us tonight, and I urge
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: everyone to go back and have a look at the
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: work that John and Mohammad have done. Well. Mate, thank
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: you very much for joining us. John Ferguson there from
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: the Australian newspaper. You can read that interactive piece on
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: the hunt for Desi Freeman at the Australian dot com
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: dot au. Now coming up after the break, the founder
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: of Jim's Mowing on why he has chosen to back
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: the Libertarian Party ahead of Victoria's state election next year.
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: Jim's up next. Welcome back. Now, everyone watching us tonight
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: would have had some interaction with the company and the
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: founder of the company that I'm about to speak about.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: I mean, Jim's Mowing is right across the nation and
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: now Jim's is just about involved in every handyman job
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: that you can possibly think about. Now, the owner founder,
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: i should say, of Australia's most recognizable franchise. So fed
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: up as I am with Labour's economic management in Victoria
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: and it's faildy to address issues like crime, soaring energy costs, housing,
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: that he's become the latest backer of the Libertarian Party
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: ahead of the Victorian election which will be held in
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: November next year. And I'm pleased to say Jim Penman,
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: the founder of Jim's Mowing, joins me now, great to
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: see you again. You have dipped your toe into politics
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: particularly I remember during the dim dark days Jim of
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: COVID when Dan Andrews told your people they couldn't mow
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: a lawn. But you've not been a big political figure
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: yourself up until now. Why change?
• 29:04
  Speaker 8: Because housing is such an urgent issue and something we
• 29:08
  Speaker 8: can do something about. It's not there's a lot of
• 29:11
  Speaker 8: entrenched problems in this country, but high priced housing, high
• 29:15
  Speaker 8: rents is simply government policy. We could have rents could
• 29:19
  Speaker 8: go way down and housing prices could be much much
• 29:23
  Speaker 8: more affordable if government was prepared to change their policy.
• 29:26
  Speaker 8: And that's what we're after it's achievable.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: What's the key policy that you think needs to be
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: either abolished, fiddled with or changed?
• 29:37
  Speaker 8: Basically?
• 29:37
  Speaker 7: Zoning.
• 29:39
  Speaker 8: Basically, it costs eight times an average income to buy
• 29:43
  Speaker 8: a house. It used to cost like four when I
• 29:45
  Speaker 8: was I bought a house in the nineteen seventies as
• 29:50
  Speaker 8: a student with a part time lawn laying business, I
• 29:52
  Speaker 8: could buy a house. You couldn't even dream of that.
• 29:55
  Speaker 8: Now zoning has become so restricted. We don't allow people
• 30:00
  Speaker 8: to build what they want where they want, and they
• 30:03
  Speaker 8: just forced up the price of housing. I live on
• 30:05
  Speaker 8: five acres, Okay, five acres, five minutes from station, five
• 30:08
  Speaker 8: minutes from the shops. One house allowed. There should be
• 30:12
  Speaker 8: thirty people on this block. It's a beautiful place. Why
• 30:15
  Speaker 8: don't they allow that? Stupid zigoning restrictions?
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: But would you be a nimby saying not in my backyard?
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: I mean, you obviously can afford to live on five acres.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: Why would you want to be jammed in by other people?
• 30:27
  Speaker 8: Well, apart for me, think else, I'll make a lot
• 30:30
  Speaker 8: of money out of it too, because you could subdivide
• 30:32
  Speaker 8: the place.
• 30:32
  Speaker 10: I wouldn't do it to you badly?
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: Well, that's true. And this is a council issue as well. Clearly,
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: and local government in this country has control of planning policy.
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: Should we take it out of the hands of local government,
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: But god forbid Jim that we'd put it in the
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: hands of the state Victorian Labor Party.
• 30:52
  Speaker 8: Well, the state government controls it. Basically, it's a state issue.
• 30:56
  Speaker 8: It's not a federal issue. Local issue just does what
• 30:59
  Speaker 8: the state tubment. If the state government decided to basically
• 31:05
  Speaker 8: dismandle this dreadful zoning bureaucracy and have people able to
• 31:10
  Speaker 8: build what they wanted where they want, you would find
• 31:14
  Speaker 8: the price would come down way that the local council
• 31:16
  Speaker 8: will have to agree they could do what or do
• 31:18
  Speaker 8: In Texas, actually, they have a system there that if
• 31:20
  Speaker 8: you don't get a permit to do what you want
• 31:23
  Speaker 8: within a month, you can go to a town planner
• 31:25
  Speaker 8: or an architect and I'll do it for you. So
• 31:27
  Speaker 8: we can do the same thing. Get a bit of
• 31:28
  Speaker 8: all the town planning bureaucracy, complete, simple, basic, easy to
• 31:34
  Speaker 8: understand program, quick decisions, and just let's have affordable housing.
• 31:39
  Speaker 8: It's not that difficult. They've done it in New Zealand, actually,
• 31:42
  Speaker 8: starting in twenty seventeen. They've bought the price of housing
• 31:45
  Speaker 8: down in New Zealand, and rents is not what they do.
• 31:47
  Speaker 8: They've done it in Minneapolis. If you look at the US,
• 31:50
  Speaker 8: you look contract between countries, cities like say San Francisco,
• 31:54
  Speaker 8: where the average house price is over two million dollars
• 31:57
  Speaker 8: in Australian terms, compared with Houston where it's about half
• 31:59
  Speaker 8: a million again in Australians ms, so four times the
• 32:03
  Speaker 8: cost of housing simply because the zoning is different.
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: Why the Libertarian Party, Why have you chosen to put
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: your hand up and support them?
• 32:12
  Speaker 8: Well, I looked around quite a lot to see who's
• 32:15
  Speaker 8: the best, and they seem to have the nearest to
• 32:17
  Speaker 8: what I want. Zoning to me is the key issue.
• 32:22
  Speaker 8: House pricing is absurd. My daughter and a partner went
• 32:27
  Speaker 8: to rent a apartment. There were forty people turning up.
• 32:32
  Speaker 8: Forty people to rent and not even a cheap apartment.
• 32:35
  Speaker 8: And I actually went to the handloord and I said, hey,
• 32:38
  Speaker 8: I'll pay the whole thing a year in advance. They
• 32:40
  Speaker 8: still didn't get it. It's just lunatic the way they've
• 32:44
  Speaker 8: forced people to say. They've got this policy which says
• 32:48
  Speaker 8: let's bring a half million dollars half million new immigrants
• 32:51
  Speaker 8: into the country every year, and let's use the iron
• 32:53
  Speaker 8: hand of government for bid anybody to building up houses.
• 32:56
  Speaker 8: What could possibly go wrong?
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: Should we poor or at least cut back on the
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: level of immigration now you know, I'm pleased. I'm happy
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: to say that. I believe we need to at least
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: put a pause in it, because what's the point of
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: bringing in half a million people a year where they've
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: got nowhere to live, or if they have got somewhere
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: to live, they're pushing out people who are already living there.
• 33:19
  Speaker 8: I think given the situation where the government's forbidding building
• 33:23
  Speaker 8: of houses effectively, it's probably unwise to bring them so
• 33:27
  Speaker 8: many people. But having said that, there are a lot
• 33:29
  Speaker 8: of really wonderful people. My wife, she's an immigrant, first
• 33:33
  Speaker 8: generation immigrant. She employs about thirty Australians. She's a developer,
• 33:37
  Speaker 8: she runs conference center. She's a great asset. You need entrepreneurial, smart,
• 33:45
  Speaker 8: educated people. I think we're we're going to be more
• 33:47
  Speaker 8: careful is bringing in people who are refugees and poverished
• 33:50
  Speaker 8: refugees from war torn countries. They don't have similate very well.
• 33:54
  Speaker 8: Not good for us, not even good for them. So
• 33:56
  Speaker 8: I think we can be more careful in who we
• 33:59
  Speaker 8: choose that way. But you know, so many of my
• 34:02
  Speaker 8: franchisees are migrants and the wonderful men and women. I
• 34:06
  Speaker 8: love them dearly, so I'm a bit biased in that respect.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: Just before you go four years on from COVID, can
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: you still believe it that your lawn mowing people were
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: told they could not put on the noise reduction headphones,
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: start up a MA and what lawn on their own?
• 34:23
  Speaker 8: It was ludicrous. We went, we did a case against
• 34:27
  Speaker 8: the Victorian government to say, your own law, so you
• 34:30
  Speaker 8: cannot take a person's life had away without good reason.
• 34:34
  Speaker 8: That's that's their own law back from two thousand and eight.
• 34:37
  Speaker 8: So we said, okay, what was your reason for throwing
• 34:41
  Speaker 8: one hundred thousand plus Victorians out of work? You know
• 34:44
  Speaker 8: what the result response was, we don't have to tell you. Yeah,
• 34:48
  Speaker 8: in the court back then they said you can't take
• 34:50
  Speaker 8: a person's life without good reason. But the reason is
• 34:53
  Speaker 8: whenever the government says it is, and they don't tell
• 34:56
  Speaker 8: you what it is. It's just ludicrous. They had no
• 34:58
  Speaker 8: reason at all for doing that. There was no health reasons.
• 35:01
  Speaker 8: We had the worst lockdown of any city in this country.
• 35:06
  Speaker 8: One of the words tell me about the highest death rate.
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: Tell me about it, Jim. I was in the middle
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: of it with you, mate, Thank you for joining us.
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: Good luck with that campaign. Well time flies. Melbourne's law
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: Mayor Nick Reech and I've written a column about this today.
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: He's been one year in office. Now what's he achieved
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: in a year? Not much? I mean, is Melbourne less better, safer, cleaner?
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: Is it more livable under his leadership? I don't believe so.
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: Council Watch President Dean Hilston joins us the Melbourne City Council.
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: Reese has been on it for ten years and for
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: the last five he's been Deputy lawd mayor or mayor.
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: Has he done a good job?
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: Oh?
• 35:42
  Speaker 11: Look, unfortunately, I'd say I agree with you Price. He
• 35:45
  Speaker 11: hasn't done a spectacular job. I'm sure he means well.
• 35:48
  Speaker 11: Nick really does mean well, but it's not translating and
• 35:52
  Speaker 11: it really comes down to.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: Slogans don't work.
• 35:56
  Speaker 11: What we actually need is out pumped. The city is
• 36:00
  Speaker 11: full of crime, it's dirty, it's still not cleaned up.
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: Businesses are not feeling.
• 36:05
  Speaker 11: Happy or in any way good about the trading conditions,
• 36:08
  Speaker 11: and it's just not a place people want to be.
• 36:10
  Speaker 11: We already know that less than fifty percent of Victorians
• 36:14
  Speaker 11: want to go to the city at night because it's unsafe.
• 36:18
  Speaker 11: And until Nick can actually get out on the beat
• 36:21
  Speaker 11: and fix that problem, everything he says.
• 36:24
  Speaker 10: Counts for nought.
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: Well, Dan, what annoyed me and why I wrote this
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: column today was I went back and looked at a
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: list of promises that Nicholas Reese and I quite like
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: Nick made during the election campaign. He talked about, you know,
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: community safety officers. These people were going to be dressed
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: in kevlar vests and armed with handcuffs, and they're going
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: to wander around the street like PSOs. Those public service officers,
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: well a few of them are on a trial, but
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: not the number that he said. He said he would
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: clean up graffiti within twenty four hours with a graffiti
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: hit squad. That hasn't happened. He said, they change the
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: streets where bike lanes, particularly a place like Exhibition Street
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: have been ruined. That's not happened. If you're going to
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: make promises, you've got to actually deliver on some of them,
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: don't you.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you do.
• 37:11
  Speaker 11: And I think this is a wider issue that the
• 37:13
  Speaker 11: City of Melbourne is the exemplary example, so to speak.
• 37:17
  Speaker 11: What you have is a completely broken local government system
• 37:20
  Speaker 11: where what we keep hearing like from Nick is these
• 37:23
  Speaker 11: wonderful soundbites that actually never translate. And what your viewers
• 37:28
  Speaker 11: may not know, Steve, is that Nick designed, with the
• 37:31
  Speaker 11: former CEO of Kathy Alexander, the actual Local Government Act
• 37:34
  Speaker 11: in twenty twenty which stripped all of the powers from
• 37:37
  Speaker 11: counselors and actually handed them to the unelected CEOs and executives.
• 37:42
  Speaker 11: And the problem that the City of Melbourne councilors have
• 37:45
  Speaker 11: is no matter what they say, they cannot do anything
• 37:49
  Speaker 11: in the operational side of the business except present strategies,
• 37:53
  Speaker 11: slogans and ideas. And if that is how local government
• 37:57
  Speaker 11: is to be in this state, then it's damn time
• 37:59
  Speaker 11: we are abolished the role of counselors and turned it
• 38:02
  Speaker 11: into one big department of the state where we can
• 38:05
  Speaker 11: actually politically hold the government and a minister to account.
• 38:10
  Speaker 11: Right now, you can't get your counselor to do anything
• 38:14
  Speaker 11: except beg the executive to do something. And if the
• 38:17
  Speaker 11: execs don't want to do it, they ain't going to
• 38:19
  Speaker 11: do it, which is probably ninety nine percent of what
• 38:22
  Speaker 11: Nick wants them to do.
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm a little worried about handing over more control
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: to the Allen Labor government, but you're probably right, Dean.
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: And and what really annoyed me was when Nick Reece
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: came out in the last couple after that tragic stabbing
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: of that poor girl on her way to work at
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: seven forty in the morning, came out and said Melbourne
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: was safe. Well, crime rates, you just got to look
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: at the figures, and the ones that I could find
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: show that crimes up seventeen percent since he was elected
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: Lord Mayor. So you can't argue with the figures. The
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: figures are there and they're not great. Dean Hurlstone. Always
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: appreciate your time. Thank you very much for joining us.
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: Mate brack break. We'll rape wrap up the week with
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: a look back at that presidential roasting of Kevin Rudd.
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: Boy did that give me some joy? This week plus,
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: a new study has revealed the staggering monthly costs to
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: Australia of sticking to those net zero targets. That's next,
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: Welcome back panel time. Let's bring in our panelton I
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: GT Communications, Gematon Uni, great to see you in the studio.
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: Fantastic flash gons contributed Joe hildebring.
• 39:30
  Speaker 10: In the basket in the press Glory.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: Big news this week, of course, was the remarkable spray
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: that Kevin Rudd got amazing great question from our colleague
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: Andrew Clenell, which prompted.
• 39:42
  Speaker 12: It a belter.
• 39:44
  Speaker 10: It was a risk of everything going smoothly showed up.
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: And what dominated the reporting, Jemmy, I.
• 39:50
  Speaker 13: Mean it was it was Look, I am this will
• 39:53
  Speaker 13: not come as a shocking plot twister either if you'm
• 39:55
  Speaker 13: no fan of mister Rudd or mister Albanezi.
• 39:58
  Speaker 12: But I do feel like that was it was classic armp.
• 40:01
  Speaker 7: It was.
• 40:01
  Speaker 12: It was a bit of bad part, I mean it was.
• 40:04
  Speaker 13: Of course it was brilliant, right, nobody really likes Kevin do.
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: That when he said I don't like you and I
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: never will.
• 40:10
  Speaker 10: I have to I have to tell you.
• 40:11
  Speaker 14: Everyone I've spoken to in the Labor Party just could
• 40:14
  Speaker 14: not be happier. The government gets a massive win, Albow
• 40:18
  Speaker 14: gets a massive win, Australia gets a massive win and
• 40:21
  Speaker 14: Rudd gets a kick on the nuts on.
• 40:22
  Speaker 12: The But it was a proper kick on the nuts,
• 40:25
  Speaker 12: or was it?
• 40:25
  Speaker 14: Laura No I think it was Trump doing very strategically
• 40:30
  Speaker 14: what sort of Trump done, Like obviously he wasn't going
• 40:32
  Speaker 14: to bring it up. Sure, but Andrew Call brings it up.
• 40:35
  Speaker 14: Trump feigns igrance. What who is this little insect? I
• 40:38
  Speaker 14: heard of it, of course he had already because Nigel
• 40:40
  Speaker 14: Faraja told him about yeah as well. And then he
• 40:43
  Speaker 14: sort of said, you know, well, you know where is
• 40:45
  Speaker 14: he if you fired him?
• 40:46
  Speaker 10: Like what's going on?
• 40:47
  Speaker 14: And Albo just throws him under the bars and said,
• 40:49
  Speaker 14: so right over there, we can't.
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: Do Friday without having a look at it. He's a
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: reminder of how it went down.
• 40:56
  Speaker 6: Where is here?
• 41:00
  Speaker 8: You said bad.
• 41:02
  Speaker 7: Before I took this position to prison?
• 41:04
  Speaker 8: But I don't like you either.
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: That was just classic. I mean, I have my own
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: personal grief with Kevin Rudd. He once wrote a letter
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: to the editor of the paper I was working at.
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: It's actionable and I've never seen him. He called me
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: a doutlass coward and the conciential member of the Australian
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: media and the worst journalist has ever been. So I
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: don't like that. I still carried it around in my
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: diary just in case everyone says that he wouldn't have
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: done that, But do we have to give him some
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: credit for the deal that was pulled off?
• 41:38
  Speaker 13: I don't know it was the deal anything to do
• 41:40
  Speaker 13: with him or was he just an ornamental And if
• 41:42
  Speaker 13: it was to do with him, then for sure, absolutely,
• 41:45
  Speaker 13: but it doesn't diminish what was just.
• 41:47
  Speaker 12: A wonderful moment for a straight united the country.
• 41:51
  Speaker 10: Did you know the country? And look, this is the
• 41:52
  Speaker 10: thing with Kevin Rahman.
• 41:53
  Speaker 14: His Shakespeare and flaw is that he is can be
• 41:56
  Speaker 14: incredibly nasty to people. We know this, I was very
• 41:58
  Speaker 14: close to it. Can be incredibly nasty to people. You know,
• 42:01
  Speaker 14: he picks fights with people for no reason.
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: He he why didn't been easy like him so much?
• 42:08
  Speaker 14: Albanisi is just an incredibly loyal guy. Fault to an
• 42:12
  Speaker 14: atolute to it to an afluide fault, no back. He
• 42:15
  Speaker 14: backed to run in twenty ten and backed him again
• 42:18
  Speaker 14: in twenty thirteen.
• 42:19
  Speaker 10: Was well to do that.
• 42:20
  Speaker 14: I think it's just the way that the way that
• 42:22
  Speaker 14: the cards fell. I think he felt like I did that.
• 42:25
  Speaker 14: Whatever Rudd's myriad faults, rolling a first term prime minister
• 42:30
  Speaker 14: was the wrong thing to do. And then once once
• 42:33
  Speaker 14: he'd sort of done that, you know, he picks and sticks.
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: But I think, sorry, Joe Jemma, I think Susan Lee
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: made a mistake coming out too quickly. Oh, I think
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: a mistakes, but that was pretty dumb to do straight away.
• 42:46
  Speaker 13: I think there's a just like I think the theme
• 42:49
  Speaker 13: from my perspective anyway, do you remember during the election
• 42:51
  Speaker 13: campaign when there was that brew haha about the welcome
• 42:55
  Speaker 13: to country and it was I think it was at
• 42:58
  Speaker 13: the ANZACN Sir right and the respectfully the Coalition played
• 43:03
  Speaker 13: it so they got sucked into an issue that really
• 43:05
  Speaker 13: wasn't an issue.
• 43:05
  Speaker 12: They got distracted and they're talking about this cultural thing.
• 43:08
  Speaker 12: They're talking about the wrong thing.
• 43:10
  Speaker 13: Instead of saying, you know what, not our favorite person,
• 43:12
  Speaker 13: great deal for Australia. They come out and they look
• 43:16
  Speaker 13: petty and they look small, and they look visionless and
• 43:18
  Speaker 13: all of the things, and the rest of us, the
• 43:20
  Speaker 13: rest of us are just like going, can you just
• 43:23
  Speaker 13: get it together.
• 43:25
  Speaker 8: Together.
• 43:25
  Speaker 14: It's the same as writing a letter to all the
• 43:27
  Speaker 14: Republicans in the US when Albaneze was there for the
• 43:32
  Speaker 14: un COM saying don't worry, we're going to completely reverse
• 43:35
  Speaker 14: this policy.
• 43:35
  Speaker 10: That is something you just never do in Australia.
• 43:38
  Speaker 14: You're always showed bipartisanship to the rest of the world.
• 43:42
  Speaker 14: Argue about the policy when you're in Australia, argue about
• 43:45
  Speaker 14: it in the Parliament, but once that month's representing Australia.
• 43:47
  Speaker 10: To the world, you don't try to put out the
• 43:49
  Speaker 10: big issue.
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: Yes, getting off a plane wearing a rock and roll
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: T shit, I mean he's your mate.
• 43:55
  Speaker 10: Is a rock and roll guy, is he?
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: Though?
• 43:57
  Speaker 10: Dj Albow Hang oh with this, good.
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: Mate, me Chatfield, you're the image maker here, allegedly. I've
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: never seen a Prime Minister of Australia get off dressed
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: casually off a plane when they've been representing their country
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: in a high level delegation.
• 44:15
  Speaker 13: I think put a bit of effort in my perspective
• 44:17
  Speaker 13: is put a bit of effort in, Like we know
• 44:19
  Speaker 13: you like to party.
• 44:20
  Speaker 12: We know like you like to hear the tennis and the.
• 44:22
  Speaker 13: All of the things and the festivals and whatever. That's fine,
• 44:25
  Speaker 13: but you are it's the office, right.
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: I'm not being pedantic.
• 44:28
  Speaker 12: I'm not being petty to put a proper T shirt
• 44:30
  Speaker 12: on or put.
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: A shirt well, yeah, like a polo shirt the office.
• 44:34
  Speaker 12: Come on.
• 44:35
  Speaker 10: I think it was a joy division t filled with joy,
• 44:39
  Speaker 10: you know.
• 44:41
  Speaker 8: Joy unity.
• 44:42
  Speaker 12: How old is he, Joe.
• 44:43
  Speaker 14: It's old enough to be having a mid life Christ
• 44:49
  Speaker 14: were a joy division.
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: Someone's very close to me played me a joy division song,
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: spurning off her phone.
• 44:55
  Speaker 10: Yeah, I've never heard of them.
• 44:56
  Speaker 11: How don't you.
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: Please don't do that, Please don't do that now. Bill
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: Shorten speaking of X would be promin. He never quite
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: got there. He's now a university chancellor. He's advising the
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: opposition leader Susan Lee to unify her party by bringing
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: internal critics like Andrew Hasty we know and just into
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: nampatuper Price back into the fold, drawing on his own
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: experience in managing factions in the Labor Party.
• 45:25
  Speaker 10: Really it's true.
• 45:26
  Speaker 14: Well look the one thing that people in the party
• 45:29
  Speaker 14: do say about Bill Shorten, and it's true. He did
• 45:31
  Speaker 14: after a party that was just incredibly intractably divided and
• 45:35
  Speaker 14: divided sort of right up to you to the point.
• 45:38
  Speaker 14: You know, there was you know, Chris Bowen and Tony Burke,
• 45:41
  Speaker 14: the two great sort of consoles of the New South
• 45:43
  Speaker 14: Wales right. They were on either sides. You had internal
• 45:47
  Speaker 14: splits within the right, internal splits within the left.
• 45:50
  Speaker 10: And then biggest split all on the right and the
• 45:52
  Speaker 10: left and Shorton really did.
• 45:53
  Speaker 14: Shorten is the quintessential transactional politicians and he actually managed
• 45:58
  Speaker 14: to get everyone united.
• 46:02
  Speaker 13: Well, I think the issue is, like she may well,
• 46:04
  Speaker 13: I think his advice.
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: Is, I mean, by the way, this time next week
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: having this roundtable on net zero. So that's going to
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: be a pivotal moment for her.
• 46:12
  Speaker 13: The issue is she might bring them back, but can
• 46:15
  Speaker 13: they behave like members of parliament respectfully that can put
• 46:18
  Speaker 13: purpose over preference. And I've always said this about the
• 46:21
  Speaker 13: Labor Party. Your mob has way more discipline than our mob,
• 46:24
  Speaker 13: and we talk about a broad church. I think that
• 46:26
  Speaker 13: idea is broadly still true. But I think the iteration
• 46:29
  Speaker 13: has sailed.
• 46:30
  Speaker 12: And if I'm Andrew Hasty or Senator Price.
• 46:32
  Speaker 13: I'd be like, Okay, do I want to be in
• 46:35
  Speaker 13: opposition forever? And am I going to let that concept
• 46:39
  Speaker 13: for my own projects or issues or whatever, or am
• 46:42
  Speaker 13: I going to go right?
• 46:43
  Speaker 12: I'm part of a team. I believe in a better
• 46:45
  Speaker 12: way forward.
• 46:46
  Speaker 13: I want to support the leader, even if I don't
• 46:48
  Speaker 13: support the leader privately, I'm.
• 46:49
  Speaker 12: Going to be part of something.
• 46:52
  Speaker 13: My point is this, she could bring them back, will
• 46:54
  Speaker 13: they behave you change? Or will they continue to agitate
• 46:56
  Speaker 13: from within the tent. Is susan ly the kind of
• 46:59
  Speaker 13: leader who can crack some skulls and make it who's
• 47:03
  Speaker 13: in charge.
• 47:03
  Speaker 14: You can track a virtue of that as well, like
• 47:05
  Speaker 14: the Nationals or the Colors having Barnaby Joyce in the party.
• 47:08
  Speaker 10: Barnaby up to he's going to go to one nation.
• 47:10
  Speaker 12: I reckon, you reckon?
• 47:11
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I think so.
• 47:12
  Speaker 10: But but i'd.
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: Say that with any information or he just no.
• 47:15
  Speaker 10: I just I just know Barnaby.
• 47:16
  Speaker 14: I've just got a feeling that that's what he's going
• 47:18
  Speaker 14: to do. And you know, I don't think he's ready
• 47:20
  Speaker 14: to hang up his boots. He said when he was
• 47:22
  Speaker 14: on the back bench last time that he was struggling
• 47:24
  Speaker 14: to make ends meet on two hundred grand a year,
• 47:26
  Speaker 14: and so I reckon he wants to you know, I
• 47:29
  Speaker 14: reckon he's got more to do.
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: Big story out of Melbourne today, people are waiting ninety
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: minutes at a hamburger joint called Chard in Brunswick for
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: what's described as the fourteenth best burger in the world.
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: Would you wait fourteen minutes in a line out in
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: the street to get a hamburger?
• 47:46
  Speaker 13: I'd go past. When I take the metro into the city,
• 47:48
  Speaker 13: which is most days. There are three really good cafes
• 47:50
  Speaker 13: on the way through Martin Place. There's Sneaker Laundry, there's loom,
• 47:53
  Speaker 13: there's another one. When there is a line, I do
• 47:55
  Speaker 13: not stop.
• 47:55
  Speaker 12: I keep walking. I don't line up, say.
• 47:58
  Speaker 10: Someone who lived in Brunswick before it was cool.
• 48:01
  Speaker 14: Once you are waiting ninety minutes for a hamburger that
• 48:04
  Speaker 14: is no longer fast food.
• 48:06
  Speaker 10: I think you heard the.
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: Reviewer this morning talking about it, raving about that the fourteenth.
• 48:13
  Speaker 10: Best, Like what's the queue for the third?
• 48:15
  Speaker 12: Yeah, that's right? Like how good can it be? Really?
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know. I wouldn't wait. I wouldn't wait.
• 48:20
  Speaker 12: Nine line up for food. I don't line up for
• 48:22
  Speaker 12: I don't really drink much.
• 48:23
  Speaker 14: I'm in an age where I can't afford to wait
• 48:25
  Speaker 14: ninety for anything. I might be dead by the time
• 48:27
  Speaker 14: it's my turn.
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: Jemmy, great, have you? Thanks for having That's it for
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: us tonight. I should remember remind you that this time
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: next week, on Friday, we will actually have that issue
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: of the Roundtable with the Opposition coming up after this