Latest / The Kenny Report / The Kenny Report | 20 October

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The Kenny Report | 20 October · The Kenny Report

0:02
Speaker 1: This is The Kenny Report.
0:05
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining me tonight.
0:07
Speaker 3: Political violence under the microscope as federal independent MP Helen
0:11
Speaker 3: Haynes loses one leg reportedly and fights for her life
0:16
Speaker 3: with the whole nation behind her. I'll cross to Wayne
0:19
Speaker 3: Garata and talk to Liberal frontbencher Dan Tehan. While the
0:22
Speaker 3: Prime Minister calls for a cooling down of political debate...
0:26
Speaker 3: I'll expose his hypocrisy. Also, the National Australia Bank cuts
0:31
Speaker 3: thousands of jobs. Is recession on the way? And with
0:35
Speaker 3: the US midterms just a fortnight away and Donald Trump
0:38
Speaker 3: facing a beating, Kristen Tate joins us from the US.
0:42
Speaker 2: All that, lots more, of course, with Susie and Stephen
0:44
Speaker 2: on the panel. Let's get cracking. As a nation, we're
0:51
Speaker 2: going through an ugly, divisive period.
0:53
Speaker 3: There are many factors involved, which I'll discuss later, but
0:58
Speaker 3: what manifested in Wangaratta yesterday was sickening and un-Australian.
1:03
Speaker 2: Of course.
1:05
Speaker 3: Our thoughts and prayers, our love and strength are all
1:08
Speaker 3: directed towards the independent member for Indi, Helen Haynes.
1:13
Speaker 4: This is something that is very clear, was aimed at
1:18
Speaker 4: causing harm to Helen Haynes. There are other details that
1:23
Speaker 4: it's up to the police to make public and will
1:28
Speaker 4: allow them to do their investigation. But that is why
1:34
Speaker 4: I think this has shaken the community. Helen Haynes is
1:39
Speaker 4: someone who is widely respected because she is so respectful
1:45
Speaker 4: of people right across the political spectrum.
1:49
Speaker 5: I have always found her to be a polite, a dedicated,
1:54
Speaker 5: determined local member. And I developed a huge respect for
2:00
Speaker 5: her in that role. And I think that's what we've
2:04
Speaker 5: all seen. She is exactly what we need in elected representatives.
2:10
Speaker 1: Helen's a beautiful lady. We may have differences with politics
2:14
Speaker 1: and that type of thing. But for this to happen
2:16
Speaker 1: to her and in a critical condition... Helen Haynes.
2:22
Speaker 3: Remains in hospital in Melbourne. Reportedly, she has lost a
2:25
Speaker 3: leg and is in a critical condition. She is, as
2:29
Speaker 3: you've just seen, widely respected. We've had her on this show.
2:33
Speaker 3: Her politics are a little teal for my liking, but
2:35
Speaker 3: she is an articulate, level-headed politician who acts with integrity,
2:41
Speaker 3: compassion and respect.
2:42
Speaker 2: And consistency. But in a way, that's irrelevant.
2:45
Speaker 3: It doesn't matter which politician this horrific attack was directed at,
2:49
Speaker 3: even if it was the most divisive or unlikable politician
2:53
Speaker 3: in the country.
2:53
Speaker 2: It is, of course, abhorrent.
2:56
Speaker 3: We can never accept political violence in our democracy directed
3:01
Speaker 3: at anyone at any time.
3:04
Speaker 2: Democracy is the opposite of violence.
3:06
Speaker 3: It's about settling matters through dialogue.
3:08
Speaker 2: It's about losers' consent. It's about the.
3:11
Speaker 3: Absence of brutality and replacing force with reason. But we
3:16
Speaker 3: have seen political violence before in this country. Prince Alfred,
3:20
Speaker 3: the Duke of Edinburgh, was shot and wounded in the
3:23
Speaker 3: very first royal tour.
3:24
Speaker 2: Way back in 1868.
3:26
Speaker 3: Labor federal opposition leader Arthur Caldwell was shot in a
3:30
Speaker 3: failed assassination attempt in 1966. Former Liberal candidate and anti-drugs
3:36
Speaker 3: campaigner Donald Mackay was killed in Griffith in 1977 and
3:41
Speaker 3: New South Wales Labor MP John Newman was killed in
3:45
Speaker 3: Sydney's Cabramatta in 1994. And then there was the disgraceful
3:51
Speaker 3: Parliament House riots when unionists and other leftist activists protested
3:56
Speaker 3: against the Howard government in 1996. So there is a
4:01
Speaker 3: history there. We are a lucky... but not entirely blameless democracy.
4:08
Speaker 3: But that doesn't diminish the shock of this sickening, inexplicably
4:14
Speaker 3: cruel and cowardly scenario of a man allegedly deliberately driving
4:21
Speaker 3: his four-wheel drive into Haynes, who was unloading the boot
4:24
Speaker 3: of her car. The only bright side was the way
4:27
Speaker 3: that locals, of course, stepped in to help.
4:31
Speaker 6: A lot of people got involved immediately and they didn't
4:34
Speaker 6: even check for danger. They just ran to help. The
4:38
Speaker 6: driver was still in the car. The car was still
4:41
Speaker 6: on and they sat in front of a rolling car.
4:46
Speaker 6: That's not an exaggeration. There is a man that sat
4:50
Speaker 6: in front of a moving car. I had no choice
4:52
Speaker 6: but to take him out of the car because it
4:56
Speaker 6: was the right and safest thing to do.
4:59
Speaker 7: Ricky had the fella pinned, and so I was able
5:03
Speaker 7: to help him, keep him down, calm him down as
5:08
Speaker 7: much as possible. I needed poles to unpin Helen from
5:12
Speaker 7: her boot and everything else, and yeah, I was able
5:15
Speaker 7: to help provide those.
5:17
Speaker 2: He was very erratic.
5:18
Speaker 7: And irrational in his thoughts. He wasn't emotionally regulated either.
5:23
Speaker 7: He was more concerned about, from what I recall, his
5:27
Speaker 7: passenger door, his phone and his wallet.
5:31
Speaker 3: Haynes would be known to most people in the northern
5:34
Speaker 3: Victorian town of Wangaratta and, of course, surrounding areas.
5:38
Speaker 2: There is no obvious motive, no.
5:40
Speaker 3: Particular campaign or policy debate that had heightened local tensions.
5:46
Speaker 3: The suspect is in police custody and he's a local,
5:49
Speaker 3: Brendan Nugent, and he has a history of hard-left climate
5:53
Speaker 3: activism and anti-Israel social media posts. It's a simple matter
5:58
Speaker 3: of fact, ignored by much of the media, that political
6:01
Speaker 3: hatred and violence in this country has tended to emanate
6:06
Speaker 3: from the hard left. I've seen this from the inside.
6:09
Speaker 3: When I worked for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, he had
6:12
Speaker 3: years of close personal protection. Two armed AFP officers with
6:17
Speaker 3: him 24-7. They became an embedded part of our team
6:21
Speaker 3: because of threats linked to the Iraq war. I was
6:24
Speaker 3: there when anti-war protesters stormed a stage and police had
6:27
Speaker 3: to intervene and when university protesters hounded Downer off the
6:31
Speaker 3: Adelaide University campus. And I had to intervene with other
6:35
Speaker 3: patrons to wrestle a man to the ground when he
6:38
Speaker 3: tried to attack Downer at a restaurant. But the evidence
6:42
Speaker 3: suggests all this is getting worse. The Home Affairs Minister,
6:46
Speaker 3: Tony Burke, last night revealed... This is intolerable. Apart from
6:59
Speaker 3: anything else, the extra security it demands only puts extra
7:03
Speaker 3: distance between voters and politicians, and that's a bad thing
7:07
Speaker 3: for democracy. And it's another reason some of our best
7:11
Speaker 3: people will keep resisting the calling of politics. For now, though,
7:16
Speaker 3: this is all about Haynes, her battle for life, for
7:20
Speaker 3: good health, and her return to her family and friends.
7:24
Speaker 3: Politics can wait for her. And all our hearts, surely,
7:29
Speaker 3: around the country, go out to her and her loved ones.
7:36
Speaker 3: The fallout from all of this will be highly political.
7:39
Speaker 3: That can't be avoided because the Prime Minister, I'm afraid
7:43
Speaker 3: to say, has again shown almost unimaginable levels of hypocrisy.
7:49
Speaker 3: There are many factors that have driven the current ugly
7:53
Speaker 3: divisiveness of our national politics, but undoubtedly high among them
7:59
Speaker 3: is a clear lack of political leadership.
8:02
Speaker 2: When our nation's.
8:03
Speaker 3: Leaders show no moral clarity and no political courage, we
8:09
Speaker 3: end up a little rudderless.
8:11
Speaker 2: Anything goes. And that can lead.
8:13
Speaker 3: Us to dangerous and deadly places, as we've seen at Bondi.
8:19
Speaker 3: In the wake of the horror in Wangaratta, Anthony Albanese
8:23
Speaker 3: had this to say.
8:25
Speaker 4: We need to turn the heat down. You know, we
8:29
Speaker 4: can have disagreements, in politics without personalising it and we
8:35
Speaker 4: all have a role to play in raising the level
8:40
Speaker 4: of political discourse and turning down the personal attacks and
8:47
Speaker 4: the level of division and rancour which is there. We
8:52
Speaker 4: need less shouting and more discussion.
8:57
Speaker 3: Now, we could all agree with that sentiment. No-one would
9:00
Speaker 3: disagree with that. But the rank hypocrisy of Albanese, who
9:05
Speaker 3: plays politics as hard as anyone and who has absolutely
9:09
Speaker 3: gone missing in action over the past three years of
9:12
Speaker 3: hateful protests in this country, for him to tell everyone
9:16
Speaker 3: to calm down, well, it's just astounding. In the Daily
9:20
Speaker 3: Mail today, Peter van Onselen reported that the Prime Minister's office...
9:25
Speaker 3: had been shopping around a dirt file on Helen Haynes
9:28
Speaker 3: just weeks ago because she had dared to criticise the
9:33
Speaker 3: $ 6 million grant to Albanese's local golf club.
9:38
Speaker 1: PM, you have a look at it. You say to
9:40
Speaker 1: tone it down. Well, then I'll tell the PM, you
9:43
Speaker 1: tone it down. Get rid of your dirt file that
9:47
Speaker 1: goes on against parliamentarians, including my party, which I'm constantly
9:51
Speaker 1: dealing with all the time. It comes from the top.
9:55
Speaker 1: Tone it down yourself.
9:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, Albanese and his team need to cool their rhetoric
10:02
Speaker 3: and actions and inaction and stop their divisive attacks, like.
10:06
Speaker 2: This one against One Nation last year.
10:09
Speaker 4: Across the world, hard-right populists are on the march, peddling
10:14
Speaker 4: politics that is dangerous, divisive and downright dishonest. We simply
10:20
Speaker 4: must defeat them. We owe it to history. We owe
10:23
Speaker 4: it to the nation. And we will defeat them.
10:27
Speaker 3: Love Pauline Hanson or hate her, there is no doubt
10:30
Speaker 3: she has attracted more abuse and more threats than any
10:34
Speaker 3: other politician.
10:36
Speaker 1: For the protest marches that are happening throughout our country,
10:39
Speaker 1: on our streets, and especially in Melbourne, every week it
10:42
Speaker 1: goes on, and the signs that are allowed to be shown,
10:46
Speaker 1: the placards of, you know, kill this one or kill
10:49
Speaker 1: that one.
10:50
Speaker 6: It's unacceptable.
10:52
Speaker 1: It should not be allowed.
10:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, the left are wont to demonise their opponents. They
10:59
Speaker 3: choose to hate them and describe them as a threat
11:02
Speaker 3: to our.
11:03
Speaker 2: Way of life at every turn.
11:06
Speaker 3: Incredibly, Zali Stegall was at it again even today.
11:10
Speaker 8: I find it just so deeply offensive to have to
11:15
Speaker 8: follow that narrative by Pauline Hanson, who sells and pushes
11:22
Speaker 8: hate and division non-stop. And Helen is the complete opposite.
11:30
Speaker 3: The tone of debate continues to sink, yet it's Albanese
11:34
Speaker 3: who has sidled up to the podcasters and so-called influencers
11:40
Speaker 3: who peddle hatred online. One of them, former Play School
11:45
Speaker 3: host Rhys Muldoon, was part of the select crew invited
11:49
Speaker 3: to Albanese's wedding, and he was sacked just weeks ago
11:53
Speaker 3: from a Labor government job because of misogynist attacks against
11:58
Speaker 3: Peter Quedlin. Albanese has also joined podcaster Abby Chatfield, who
12:04
Speaker 3: just a few months later pushed extreme political hatred, as
12:09
Speaker 3: reported here by our media show host, Jack Houghton.
12:13
Speaker 9: Here she was last July, apparently calling for Americans to
12:17
Speaker 9: assassinate President Donald Trump.
12:19
Speaker 10: Americans, when are you going to do it? Why isn't
12:22
Speaker 10: it already done? Every day there's another happening, right?
12:30
Speaker 2: Awful for your country. Awful, right?
12:34
Speaker 10: Why don't we redirect this energy.
12:38
Speaker 9: To something else?
12:39
Speaker 11: You know, there's all these incels that.
12:42
Speaker 10: Are going, oh, my God, f * * * me.
12:43
Speaker 2: So they go and do.
12:45
Speaker 1: You know what would actually make people respect you a
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Speaker 1: little bit and make people want to f * * *
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Speaker 1: you is if you did it.
12:53
Speaker 2: Just appalling.
12:55
Speaker 3: And on breakfast television this morning, we heard from another hateful,
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Speaker 3: hard left podcaster and ABC favourite, Hannah Ferguson.
13:04
Speaker 11: I think when we're talking about turning the temperature down,
13:06
Speaker 11: I think healthy debate and respectful discourse is a big
13:08
Speaker 11: part of that.
13:09
Speaker 2: But I also want to.
13:10
Speaker 11: Point out that Helen Haynes was not someone who engaged
13:12
Speaker 11: in unhealthy debate. When we talk about this temperature and
13:15
Speaker 11: this conversation, like, Helen Haynes is one of the best
13:18
Speaker 11: members of Parliament that there is. Yes, there is unhealthy
13:20
Speaker 11: discourse on social media, but when we see a woman
13:23
Speaker 11: like Helen Haynes targeted, I think it speaks to a
13:25
Speaker 11: bigger issue of male violence against women in Australia as well.
13:28
Speaker 2: Really?
13:29
Speaker 3: How could Ferguson's view be taken seriously? when you see
13:34
Speaker 3: her response to Charlie Kirk's assassination just last year, again
13:39
Speaker 3: reported by Jack Houghton.
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Speaker 9: And let me read you something that Hannah Ferguson wrote
13:44
Speaker 9: about the assassination. Must we condemn every act of political violence?
13:50
Speaker 9: Should violent views be met with violence? What is the
13:54
Speaker 9: most moral approach? And should we take the high road?
13:59
Speaker 9: How much empathy can you give someone who rejects that
14:01
Speaker 9: fundamental human notion? What chain of events does an assassination
14:06
Speaker 9: set off? What does our global response to Kirk's death
14:10
Speaker 9: say about us? While these important questions are asked, the
14:14
Speaker 9: right is mobilising to make a martyr of Kirk.
14:18
Speaker 3: Look, these ignorant, hard-left influences are hateful.
14:24
Speaker 2: They pollute the minds of the young. They conjure resentment.
14:28
Speaker 3: And no decent politician should have anything to do with them.
14:33
Speaker 3: But Labor courts them and promotes them. Still, where Albanese
14:38
Speaker 3: has failed even more spectacularly is his lack of action
14:43
Speaker 3: in combating rising anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and Islamist extremist rhetoric
14:51
Speaker 3: over the past three years. Remember, all the way back
14:54
Speaker 3: to October 2023, when Sheikh Ibrahim Dadoon led celebrations at
15:00
Speaker 3: Lakemba over the slaughter of innocent Israeli men, women and
15:05
Speaker 3: children and claimed October the 7th as a great victory,
15:09
Speaker 3: the Prime Minister did nothing.
15:13
Speaker 2: Absolutely nothing. Instead, this is all he had to say. Well,
15:19
Speaker 2: there's nothing.
15:20
Speaker 4: To celebrate by the murder of innocent civilians going about.
15:29
Speaker 3: Even worse, when we saw those infamous protests descend on
15:33
Speaker 3: the Opera House, when there was more celebration, more hatred
15:38
Speaker 3: and even threatening chants against Jews, again the Prime Minister
15:43
Speaker 3: did nothing. No national summit, no special media conference, no
15:48
Speaker 3: legal action, no charges. All Albanese did was say this.
15:54
Speaker 4: Look, Kieran, I've now seen the images just recently and
15:59
Speaker 4: they're horrific, quite clearly. Slogans which are anti-Semitic and just
16:06
Speaker 4: appalling with no place. And I did say that that
16:11
Speaker 4: demonstration shouldn't have gone ahead and I stand by that.
16:17
Speaker 2: Weak. Just a spectator. Weak at a moment of national crisis.
16:23
Speaker 3: And sure enough, as hatred and violence escalated against Israel
16:28
Speaker 3: and Jews, the Prime Minister did next to nothing to
16:31
Speaker 3: stop it. He only fanned the flames by demonising Israel
16:35
Speaker 3: and amplifying lies about its actions in Gaza. And last year,
16:40
Speaker 3: when there was a major anti-Israel protest on the Harbour Bridge,
16:44
Speaker 3: there were terrorist symbols displayed, a poster of the then
16:49
Speaker 3: Ayatollah of Iran, the global sponsor of Islamist terrorism. Hate
16:54
Speaker 3: preachers were there too. And there were chants for death. Well,
16:59
Speaker 3: even with all that going on, the whole event got
17:02
Speaker 3: the PM's endorsement.
17:05
Speaker 4: And yesterday's march was peaceful and was an opportunity for
17:09
Speaker 4: people to express their concern about what is happening in
17:15
Speaker 4: Gaza and the images that we've seen. It's not surprising
17:20
Speaker 4: that so many Australians... have been affected in order to
17:26
Speaker 4: want to show their concern at people being deprived of
17:35
Speaker 4: food and water and essential services.
17:39
Speaker 3: Just fanning the flames with lies. No, it wasn't peaceful. Sure,
17:44
Speaker 3: there were many well-meaning people there. But the extreme elements
17:48
Speaker 3: promoted hatred. They encouraged violence. We'd seen it for years. Remember,
17:55
Speaker 3: we warned you, Prime Minister, every day, right up to
18:00
Speaker 3: and including the weekend of the Bondi massacre. But Albanese
18:05
Speaker 3: didn't listen. Hatred has festered. And now he tells people
18:09
Speaker 3: to lower the temperature. Prime Minister, I implore you again
18:14
Speaker 3: to summons some leadership. Show some spine.
18:20
Speaker 2: This is about all of us.
18:23
Speaker 3: Think about the chaos in France at the moment and
18:26
Speaker 3: remember what else the protesters chanted at the Opera House
18:31
Speaker 3: all those years ago now.
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Speaker 10: Shame, shame, Australia! Shame, shame, Australia!
18:37
Speaker 4: Shame, shame, Australia!
18:38
Speaker 2: Shame, shame, Australia!
18:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, we need to understand there are elements within our
18:45
Speaker 3: own country.
18:46
Speaker 2: Who will work against it?
18:50
Speaker 3: So, Prime Minister, you must finally crack down on hatred,
18:56
Speaker 3: crack down on violence, show some courage. If you can't
19:02
Speaker 3: lead the country, go and.
19:04
Speaker 2: Retire to your beach house.
19:07
Speaker 3: Our politics are divided, our standards are slipping, our nation
19:12
Speaker 3: is strained and rudderless.
19:16
Speaker 2: Stand up, PM, or stand down.
19:19
Speaker 3: I want to go to Wangaratta now and catch up
19:25
Speaker 3: with the Mayor, Irene Grant. Irene, thanks so much for
19:29
Speaker 3: joining us on such a traumatic day for your community.
19:32
Speaker 3: First up, let's focus on Helen Haynes, and no doubt
19:36
Speaker 3: she's got the best wishes of everybody in your community
19:39
Speaker 3: as she faces the struggle of her life in that
19:41
Speaker 3: Melbourne hospital.
19:45
Speaker 12: Absolutely, Chris, and it's been a devastating day for Wangaratta.
19:49
Speaker 12: And I think I described it as an incident which
19:55
Speaker 12: we just can't believe that it's happened. And now our
19:59
Speaker 12: thoughts are with Helen and we're wishing her a speedy
20:04
Speaker 12: and safe recovery. But this has been something that has really...
20:09
Speaker 12: rocked and devastated our community.
20:14
Speaker 3: Helen's been very prominent in the national debate, very prominent
20:18
Speaker 3: in Canberra, but I would guess in Wangaratta and right
20:22
Speaker 3: across northeast Victoria, she would be highly visible and very
20:26
Speaker 3: well known.
20:29
Speaker 12: And that, I think, is one of her great strengths,
20:32
Speaker 12: is that she is highly visible. You know, she's someone
20:35
Speaker 12: that you see at most events... You know, you see
20:37
Speaker 12: her in the supermarket. You know, she's around. She's approachable.
20:41
Speaker 12: She's hardworking. She's, you know, very engaging. And I think,
20:45
Speaker 12: you know, regardless of, you know, what politics you support,
20:49
Speaker 12: you know, Helen is someone that is very much admired
20:54
Speaker 12: and respected by our community.
20:57
Speaker 3: You must be proud of the citizens who both cared
21:00
Speaker 3: for her yesterday afternoon and apprehended the driver, the man...
21:05
Speaker 3: in custody now. The suspect that the police are holding
21:08
Speaker 3: is Brendan Nugent. Such is the way in smaller communities
21:13
Speaker 3: that we're led to believe that Helen Haynes knows his
21:18
Speaker 3: stepmother very well, Chris Cunningham, who's very prominent in the
21:22
Speaker 3: medical circles in Wangaratta.
21:24
Speaker 2: We have a photo of the two of them here
21:26
Speaker 2: together recently.
21:27
Speaker 3: So the closeness of this must really hit home.
21:33
Speaker 2: Well, it does.
21:34
Speaker 12: And, you know, I think in a community like Wangaratta,
21:37
Speaker 12: where if you don't know people personally, you know of them.
21:42
Speaker 12: You know, you work together, you go to social functions together.
21:47
Speaker 12: You know, you see people on the street, in the supermarket. So,
21:51
Speaker 12: you know, the separation between the citizens of Wangaratta is
21:55
Speaker 12: never a great one.
21:56
Speaker 11: And in a.
21:57
Speaker 12: Situation like this, it really hits home. just, you know,
22:00
Speaker 12: how affected not only Helen's family but the perpetrator's family
22:07
Speaker 12: and the impact that that will have on that family
22:09
Speaker 12: as well.
22:10
Speaker 3: Speaking in general terms, because we want to avoid any
22:13
Speaker 3: legal difficulties, of course, your community, the broader community there,
22:17
Speaker 3: has been affected by what happened in the High Country
22:20
Speaker 3: and the shooting deaths of two police officers. Wangaratta is
22:24
Speaker 3: where a lot of people would turn off the highway
22:25
Speaker 3: to head up to the High Country.
22:28
Speaker 2: And Desi Freeman, as we now know.
22:29
Speaker 3: Has departed this earth. But do you have any concerns
22:34
Speaker 3: about loners, if you like, radicalised people in your community,
22:41
Speaker 3: be they on the hard left or the hard right?
22:43
Speaker 3: Is this an issue that you think your community is
22:46
Speaker 3: dealing with?
22:50
Speaker 12: Well, it's not an issue that we've had to deal with.
22:53
Speaker 12: I think we've always had people, you know, and certainly
22:57
Speaker 12: in leadership roles where you have people that will disagree
22:59
Speaker 12: with a decision that you might have made, and sometimes
23:04
Speaker 12: the discussion gets more heated than it needs to be.
23:08
Speaker 12: But I think in the main, I think we're a
23:10
Speaker 12: very united community, and I think one of the things
23:13
Speaker 12: about Wangaratta and the community at large is that we're
23:17
Speaker 12: a very... functional, high rates of volunteerism. We've got wonderful
23:24
Speaker 12: facilities and we're a wonderful community. And I think now
23:28
Speaker 12: as we move forward from this particular incident, we've got
23:32
Speaker 12: to focus on what's good about our community and what's
23:35
Speaker 12: good about the people that live here and how they
23:38
Speaker 12: contribute and how we work together. And I think it
23:41
Speaker 12: gives us pause for thought about the next steps forward.
23:45
Speaker 12: And I see it's important now that we need to
23:48
Speaker 12: focus on the things that are positive.
23:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, I can only vouch for that. I know it's
23:53
Speaker 3: a great community. I was in your neck of the
23:55
Speaker 3: woods recently. I know your team, one of the Wangaratta teams,
23:58
Speaker 3: won the premiership this year and there'll be a lot
24:01
Speaker 3: of happiness about that.
24:02
Speaker 2: But this is a terrible tragedy.
24:04
Speaker 3: And we will join you around the country wishing all
24:08
Speaker 3: the best for your community and especially for Helen Haynes' recovery.
24:11
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for joining us, Irene. I appreciate it.
24:14
Speaker 12: And our community also wishes that.
24:16
Speaker 1: Thank you.
24:16
Speaker 12: Thank you, Chris.
24:18
Speaker 2: Brilliant stuff.
24:19
Speaker 3: Irene Grant there leading her community, the mayor of Wangaratta,
24:22
Speaker 3: at this very, very difficult time. Let's go to another
24:24
Speaker 3: person from regional Victoria, and that is Dan Tehan, who's
24:28
Speaker 3: the Shadow Energy Ministry, joins us from Melbourne. Dan, you
24:31
Speaker 3: know regional Victoria like the back of your hand. It's
24:34
Speaker 3: where you've grown up. You must be shattered by what's
24:37
Speaker 3: unfolded here, not just for Helen Haynes, which is our
24:40
Speaker 3: main concern, but also, of course, for that community.
24:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, Chris.
24:48
Speaker 13: And thoughts and prayers are with Helen and her family
24:51
Speaker 13: at this time. I've grown to know and respect Helen
24:56
Speaker 13: since she joined the Federal Parliament. And there's two things
25:00
Speaker 13: that have sort of really held our friendship together.
25:03
Speaker 2: One was.
25:05
Speaker 13: She grew up in Colac in my electorate, which is
25:08
Speaker 13: another really strong local rural community. And hearing the mayor there,
25:15
Speaker 13: you know, the one thing that gives me, you know,
25:18
Speaker 13: some hope of all this, I know the Wangaratta community
25:21
Speaker 13: well and they will come together, they will rally and
25:26
Speaker 13: they will deal with this because it.
25:28
Speaker 2: Has a strength.
25:29
Speaker 13: Like the Colac community in which Helen Haynes grew up in.
25:34
Speaker 13: And the other thing about Helen was that, you know,
25:37
Speaker 13: what you see when it came to the parliament was someone,
25:41
Speaker 13: you know, fairly serious and took issues very seriously and
25:44
Speaker 13: stood up for her community very seriously. But Chris, I've
25:49
Speaker 13: got to mention this. She was a mad Richmond supporter.
25:52
Speaker 13: And behind the scenes, she loves the Tigers. And I
25:56
Speaker 13: can tell you, I will never forget bumping into her
25:59
Speaker 13: on Bridge Road after the 2017 grand final. She was
26:03
Speaker 13: with her family. And both of us were just overcome
26:07
Speaker 13: with joy after that. And you really saw, you know,
26:11
Speaker 13: this was a person outside of politics also who was very,
26:15
Speaker 13: very human, loved a good time, was out having a
26:19
Speaker 13: celebratory drink. And, you know, all I say to her
26:24
Speaker 13: family is just we're wishing you all the very, very best, Helen,
26:29
Speaker 13: because we want you, if you can, get back in
26:33
Speaker 13: the parliament. And, you know, we don't want to see
26:36
Speaker 13: this thing happening in Australia and least of all in
26:40
Speaker 13: our rural communities, because if you're going to be a
26:43
Speaker 13: rural MP... You have to be out amongst the people.
26:46
Speaker 13: You've got towns spread right around your electorate. You've got
26:50
Speaker 13: to advertise you're going to be there. You want to
26:52
Speaker 13: go to footy and netball games. You want to do
26:55
Speaker 13: all that. You have to be out there amongst your people. And,
26:58
Speaker 13: you know, we've got to make sure that we can
27:00
Speaker 13: continue to do this in this wonderful country we have.
27:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, well said, Dan.
27:05
Speaker 3: Now, what about the Prime Minister's calls for cooling down
27:08
Speaker 3: the rhetoric? Haven't we seen hatred and calls for violence...
27:13
Speaker 3: on our streets consistently for three years now, as we've
27:17
Speaker 3: complained about in the lead up to Bondi, 15 people slaughtered.
27:21
Speaker 2: At Bondi and dozens injured.
27:24
Speaker 3: And yet still there doesn't seem to be any resolve
27:28
Speaker 3: from the government to crack down on the hatred. And
27:31
Speaker 3: we don't know the specifics of the motivations of the
27:34
Speaker 3: lunatic who did this.
27:36
Speaker 2: But we do know about this building.
27:38
Speaker 3: Culture of hate speech and violent protests on our streets.
27:45
Speaker 13: Look, Chris, I think you make a very valid point. And,
27:49
Speaker 13: you know, obviously we're all in shock as to what
27:52
Speaker 13: has happened and we'll have time to be able to
27:56
Speaker 13: look at what's happened and to be able to consider
27:59
Speaker 13: it and have a look at where fault lies. I mean,
28:03
Speaker 13: at this moment, obviously, just all our thoughts and prayers
28:07
Speaker 13: are with Helen, but everyone is going to have to
28:11
Speaker 13: have a look at what has happened here and everyone's
28:15
Speaker 13: going to have to have a look at their performance
28:18
Speaker 13: and it does strike that that's going to mean that
28:22
Speaker 13: the Prime Minister from the very top is going to
28:24
Speaker 13: have to as well because if we're all asking people
28:28
Speaker 13: to turn the dial down, there have been opportunities where
28:32
Speaker 13: that could have been called for loud and clear over
28:36
Speaker 13: the last 12, 24, 36.
28:36
Speaker 2: Months and it hasn't happened. So let's not.
28:42
Speaker 13: Just sort of take a moral high ground here, lets
28:46
Speaker 13: everyone self-reflect when something like this happens, and that needs
28:50
Speaker 13: to start at the top.
28:52
Speaker 2: Dan Tehan, thanks for joining us. I appreciate it.
28:55
Speaker 3: Dan Tehan there, he's the Shadow Energy Minister joining us
28:58
Speaker 3: from Melbourne. He also is a Victorian federal MP. We're
29:02
Speaker 3: going to get to a break. On the other side,
29:04
Speaker 3: we'll catch up with Tim Blair. One of the things
29:06
Speaker 3: I want to talk to him about is why he
29:08
Speaker 3: reckons the Coalition needs to apologise over net zero. Let's
29:17
Speaker 3: go to Western Victoria and catch up with Tim Blair.
29:22
Speaker 3: I've got to start with you, Tim, on this shocking
29:24
Speaker 3: news from yesterday. It's still so fresh in our minds
29:26
Speaker 3: and we're still, of course, wishing for the best for
29:29
Speaker 3: Helen Haynes as she's in hospital. No doubt in your community,
29:33
Speaker 3: in Horsham and in the Wimmera, it was all the
29:35
Speaker 3: talk today, people wishing her the best and astounded that
29:38
Speaker 3: such a shocking thing could happen.
29:40
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
29:41
Speaker 14: And Dan Teer makes a very good point that rural
29:44
Speaker 14: MPs have far greater demands upon their time in terms
29:47
Speaker 14: of meeting the public and getting out and around because
29:51
Speaker 14: just on geographical reasons, there's a lot of space to
29:53
Speaker 14: cover out here and you've got to put some considerable
29:55
Speaker 14: effort into meeting people. Helen Haynes, regardless of what you
29:59
Speaker 14: think about her politics, and she seems to be obviously
30:02
Speaker 14: pretty closely meshed with the politics of the community and
30:05
Speaker 14: represents them very strongly. She did get out and about.
30:08
Speaker 14: She was engaged with her people. And you see that
30:11
Speaker 14: in a lot of electorates here in the Wimram Alley.
30:14
Speaker 14: We have politicians who umpire in VFL, sorry, AFL games
30:18
Speaker 14: on the weekends. So, you know, there's all manner of
30:21
Speaker 14: different means of connecting with people, but you've got to
30:23
Speaker 14: do it and you can't put barriers up.
30:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, Freudian slip there, mate. It is the VFL.
30:27
Speaker 15: But just.
30:30
Speaker 2: Just quickly on that point.
30:31
Speaker 3: Because it's crucial, of course the number one aim here
30:34
Speaker 3: is for Helen Haynes to recover and get back to
30:37
Speaker 3: her family and her life. But the implications are if
30:41
Speaker 3: we have to have additional security for MPs, then it
30:44
Speaker 3: is harder for them in the country, in the city,
30:46
Speaker 3: just to meet people on the street and actually therefore
30:48
Speaker 3: represent people.
30:49
Speaker 2: So that's bad for everyone.
30:51
Speaker 3: And the other thing is it's just another reason that
30:53
Speaker 3: good people will resist going into politics.
30:57
Speaker 14: Oh, absolutely. And if... If ever we needed to make
31:01
Speaker 14: things easier or more welcoming for good people to get
31:03
Speaker 14: in politics at the moment, we really do. We've got
31:07
Speaker 14: to turn things around on lots of sort of areas.
31:09
Speaker 14: It is fascinating, though, to me that a lot of
31:12
Speaker 14: people look at the impulses that drive these people. We
31:15
Speaker 14: look at their social media history, in the case of
31:17
Speaker 14: the alleged attacker here in Wangaratta, and people draw rational
31:21
Speaker 14: conclusions from very irrational actions.
31:24
Speaker 2: I think it's.
31:24
Speaker 14: Always we should take a step back. We don't know
31:26
Speaker 14: what the final thing was that turned someone into an
31:29
Speaker 14: alleged attempted murderer and I think the simplicity or the
31:33
Speaker 14: simplism of drawing conclusions is probably something to be avoided
31:39
Speaker 14: until we get the whole story in court.
31:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
31:41
Speaker 3: Let me move on to other issues and you talk
31:44
Speaker 3: about people getting back into politics or attracting good people
31:46
Speaker 3: into politics. Last week there was a lot of talk
31:50
Speaker 3: about Josh Frydenberg around.
31:51
Speaker 2: The release of his book.
31:53
Speaker 3: I had him on this program and you've highlighted in
31:56
Speaker 3: your column this exchange. Do you admit that net zero
32:01
Speaker 3: in particular was a grave error by the Coalition? Well,
32:05
Speaker 3: net zero is not the Liberal policy and I'm very
32:08
Speaker 3: comfortable with that and I support.
32:10
Speaker 2: The Coalition's position. Yeah, he didn't want to apologise.
32:14
Speaker 3: And you make the point that this is a big mistake.
32:17
Speaker 2: There should be some sort of proper reckoning, proper apology.
32:21
Speaker 14: It really should. And this is what was extraordinary. There
32:24
Speaker 14: was extraordinary television, by the way, and... People who missed
32:27
Speaker 14: it can obviously look up the News 24 account and
32:30
Speaker 14: have another look at it because you gave him a
32:32
Speaker 14: couple of opportunities to do the big sorry, to do
32:34
Speaker 14: the big mea culpa, and Josh wasn't buying it. Right
32:38
Speaker 14: in those few minutes, we saw exactly why the Liberals
32:41
Speaker 14: have lost so much public support, why they've lost the
32:44
Speaker 14: support of people who've been with them since they first voted.
32:48
Speaker 14: And it's because not only did they turn against the
32:51
Speaker 14: core of their party on the issue of net zero...
32:54
Speaker 14: but because they won't apologise for it. At some point
32:57
Speaker 14: during his response, Josh Frydenberg actually said, I'm not apologetic.
33:03
Speaker 14: He meant it in terms of, you know, I'm not
33:04
Speaker 14: apologetic in seeking lower prices overall for energy. But even
33:10
Speaker 14: to hear those words in this broader context of a
33:12
Speaker 14: debate over net zero, that's exactly why the Liberals are
33:16
Speaker 14: in the position they're in and that's why I don't
33:18
Speaker 14: think Josh's recovery or return to politics is going to
33:21
Speaker 14: go as he hopes.
33:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, look, I think it's spot on. I think if
33:24
Speaker 3: he wants to get back in, you've got to deal
33:26
Speaker 3: with those issues. And the moment he's back in Parliament
33:28
Speaker 3: or running for Parliament, this is what people are going
33:31
Speaker 3: to want to know. Do you apologise? Why did you
33:33
Speaker 3: make this mistake? How can we trust the Liberals not
33:36
Speaker 3: to make this mistake again? And I'd say the other
33:39
Speaker 3: one that goes into that category is COVID overreach.
33:42
Speaker 7: Yes.
33:43
Speaker 3: Josh Frydenberg and even his great mentor and a man
33:45
Speaker 3: we all admire very well, John Howard, who wasn't in
33:48
Speaker 3: government then, but they talk about this as the great
33:51
Speaker 3: success story of Morrison and Frydenberg, and I say no.
33:56
Speaker 2: At least half of the country.
33:58
Speaker 3: Realises it was drastic overreach, it infringed on everybody's liberties
34:03
Speaker 3: and it created the ungodly amount of debt that is
34:07
Speaker 3: saddling us and giving us inflation today.
34:10
Speaker 14: This is exactly right. And it's a mixed, a series
34:13
Speaker 14: of severely mixed messages that the Liberal Party and the
34:16
Speaker 14: Coalition were sending out. One, we're responsible curators of the
34:19
Speaker 14: economy and we're not going to go crazy for all
34:20
Speaker 14: that greeny, you know, teal nonsense. Two, we'll sign up
34:24
Speaker 14: for it. And then on the other side, you had
34:26
Speaker 14: this other one too. We are the scrupulous and conscientious
34:30
Speaker 14: managers of the economy who will get debt down to zero.
34:33
Speaker 14: And they did. 2007, we were done. We were out
34:37
Speaker 14: of debt.
34:38
Speaker 2: It was beautiful.
34:40
Speaker 14: This beautiful little moment of greatness. Then, of course, Labor
34:43
Speaker 14: got in and destroyed it. And then on top of that,
34:45
Speaker 14: the Liberals in the coalition compounded the mistake. They out-rutted
34:50
Speaker 14: Kevin Rudd.
34:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
34:51
Speaker 14: Which is a pretty bad thing to do.
34:53
Speaker 2: And, look, there's plenty they could claim to have got right,
34:57
Speaker 2: but you've got to admit that.
34:58
Speaker 3: And you can make the excuses about, you know, once-in-a-lifetime
35:02
Speaker 3: pandemic and the rest of it, but admit that you
35:04
Speaker 3: got this stuff wrong because we have to be able
35:06
Speaker 3: to trust you in the future.
35:07
Speaker 4: Yeah.
35:08
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us, Tim. We'll catch you later in
35:10
Speaker 2: the week. Tim Blair there.
35:11
Speaker 3: You can read his stuff on The Daily Telegraph and
35:14
Speaker 3: via the News Corp websites.
35:15
Speaker 2: We're going to get to a break. On the other side,
35:16
Speaker 2: we'll go to the US.
35:17
Speaker 3: We'll catch up with Kristen Tate, talk about how Donald
35:20
Speaker 3: Trump and the Republicans are shaping up for the midterms.
35:23
Speaker 2: Only a fortnight away.
35:29
Speaker 3: Let's look at the US now, where those midterm elections
35:31
Speaker 3: are fast approaching. They're being framed by many as a
35:34
Speaker 3: referendum on the Republicans' management of the economy, and with
35:38
Speaker 3: spiralling fuel prices, things aren't looking too good for President
35:42
Speaker 3: Trump's party.
35:44
Speaker 16: Starting off in the Senate, where Fox News is currently
35:46
Speaker 16: projecting an even split between Democrats and Republicans, 47 seats each.
35:52
Speaker 16: Six seats remain as toss-ups.
35:54
Speaker 2: Now to the House.
35:55
Speaker 16: Right now, Democrats are projected to lock in at least
35:58
Speaker 16: 219 seats. It takes 218 seats to hold the majority
36:03
Speaker 16: in the House. Now, a good night for the Democrats
36:05
Speaker 16: would be winning all 18 of the districts we have
36:08
Speaker 16: identified as toss-ups. That would give them 237 seats.
36:14
Speaker 2: I asked our U.S.
36:15
Speaker 3: Analyst, Kristen Tate, how painful it would be for the
36:18
Speaker 3: president if he lost the House.
36:21
Speaker 10: It would not be good, Chris. And, you know, the
36:23
Speaker 10: interesting question isn't really whether voters are angry with Trump.
36:27
Speaker 10: It's actually whether they're reconsidering the Republican Party more broadly
36:32
Speaker 10: and what that means for conservatism after Trump. Because remember,
36:35
Speaker 10: Trump's on his second term. When he's gone, we have
36:38
Speaker 10: to find a new leader of this movement. and it
36:41
Speaker 10: won't really be about Trump anymore. And many voters that
36:45
Speaker 10: I'm talking to on the ground, I'm in close contact
36:47
Speaker 10: with a lot of the tight races up here in
36:50
Speaker 10: New England, voters are telling us that the most important
36:55
Speaker 10: issues to them are of course the high prices that
36:57
Speaker 10: are very stubborn, And the war in Iran, those are
37:00
Speaker 10: obviously related issues, but they are both the top issues.
37:04
Speaker 10: And we're hearing things not just about Trump, but about
37:07
Speaker 10: Republicans and people feeling kind of disappointed because, look, we
37:11
Speaker 10: dealt with sky-high inflation under Joe Biden. We were all
37:15
Speaker 10: talking about high prices. Guess what? A couple of years later,
37:18
Speaker 10: we're still talking about high prices and Republicans are in control.
37:21
Speaker 10: So voters are kind of scratching their heads thinking, well,
37:24
Speaker 10: we voted for Republicans. The prices are higher than they
37:27
Speaker 10: were a few years ago. They're kind of just sickened
37:31
Speaker 10: by both parties at this point. That is what we
37:34
Speaker 10: are hearing.
37:34
Speaker 2: On the ground. Yeah, it's kind of fundamental, isn't it?
37:37
Speaker 3: It harks back to the old Clinton war room phrase
37:40
Speaker 3: of it's the economy, stupid. Here's Donald Trump on the
37:43
Speaker 3: economy just now.
37:46
Speaker 17: The inflation, once that oil comes down, that'll be the
37:48
Speaker 17: final straw. If the Republicans win, you're going to have
37:53
Speaker 17: $ 5, 000 in your pocket and economic success for our country
37:58
Speaker 17: like we have never, ever seen before.
38:00
Speaker 2: Two big things here, Kristen.
38:02
Speaker 3: As you say, it's really a protest vote because it's
38:04
Speaker 3: not as if the Democrats are offering any salvation on
38:07
Speaker 3: the economy. But the two points here are petrol prices
38:11
Speaker 3: or gas prices, as you would call them, and this
38:14
Speaker 3: points to why Trump has.
38:16
Speaker 2: Been prepared to do that.
38:17
Speaker 3: Dirty deal with Vladimir Putin to try and put downward
38:20
Speaker 3: pressure on diesel. But the second point is this $ 5, 000
38:24
Speaker 3: electoral bribe. Now, electoral bribes are not new in politics.
38:28
Speaker 3: We see them all the time from both sides of
38:30
Speaker 3: the aisle. But this is the most brash one we've
38:32
Speaker 3: ever seen, surely.
38:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is.
38:36
Speaker 10: I mean, look, we're kind of at the last few
38:41
Speaker 10: weeks here. I'm not sure if any of these plans
38:43
Speaker 10: by the administration are going to move the dial too
38:47
Speaker 10: much here. I always find it much more informative to
38:49
Speaker 10: follow campaign money than campaign rhetoric. And right now, Chris,
38:53
Speaker 10: we have Democrat campaigns spending money in deep red states
38:57
Speaker 10: where normally they wouldn't have a shot. And they actually
39:00
Speaker 10: have a shot now. A couple races that we're going
39:03
Speaker 10: to watch very closely are the one in Texas. That's
39:06
Speaker 10: one of them between Ken Paxton and James Tallarico. Texas,
39:10
Speaker 10: I lived there for over a decade. Deep red state
39:13
Speaker 10: in America, right? Kind of the sort of symbol of
39:16
Speaker 10: American conservatism, Texas is. And yet now you have a
39:20
Speaker 10: seat there that could go to a Democrat, not just
39:23
Speaker 10: a Democrat, mind you, but a pretty radical Democrat. Whereas
39:25
Speaker 10: Ken Paxton, he's the Republican. He's very closely aligned with Trump.
39:30
Speaker 10: Another race to watch is actually up here in New England,
39:32
Speaker 10: in New Hampshire.
39:34
Speaker 2: You have John E.
39:34
Speaker 10: Sununu battling Chris Pappas for a Senate seat that could actually,
39:38
Speaker 10: on the other side, flip red. So that's good news
39:41
Speaker 10: for Republicans. There are pockets where things are looking better
39:44
Speaker 10: for them. And in those races, the trend we are seeing, Chris,
39:47
Speaker 10: where Republicans are doing well, they are localizing their races
39:51
Speaker 10: and making these races about issues in their particular states,
39:54
Speaker 10: not necessarily these big national issues. And it's certainly not
39:59
Speaker 10: about Trump.
40:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, not about Trump but about the local candidates and
40:03
Speaker 3: local issues.
40:04
Speaker 2: Exactly.
40:04
Speaker 3: This would also explain Trump himself, hasn't he, has been
40:06
Speaker 3: campaigning and mainly in Republican states, defensive campaigning rather than aggressive?
40:14
Speaker 10: Yes. And there's a lot of questions as to whether
40:16
Speaker 10: Donald Trump is doing more harm than good in some
40:19
Speaker 10: of these states. He was in Alaska a few days
40:21
Speaker 10: ago and some voters there said, look, we love Trump.
40:25
Speaker 10: A lot of us really like him, but we kind
40:27
Speaker 10: of wish he would just leave Alaska alone and let
40:30
Speaker 10: us deal with these campaign issues because to moderate voters,
40:34
Speaker 10: he's not necessarily going to help Republicans. Republicans already have
40:38
Speaker 10: those hardcore MAGA voters on lock. What they are trying
40:41
Speaker 10: to do right now is mobilize those people who are
40:43
Speaker 10: kind of in the middle. You know, they might not
40:45
Speaker 10: love Trump, but they also don't like the radical left.
40:48
Speaker 10: Those are the voters up for grabs. And I'm not
40:50
Speaker 10: sure that Donald Trump being on the ground is going
40:53
Speaker 10: to help move the needle with those particular voters. In fact,
40:56
Speaker 10: it could actually end up hurting Republicans.
40:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, fascinating insight.
41:00
Speaker 3: In the meantime, he's had a bit of trouble with
41:01
Speaker 3: his own communications with his new press secretary, Katie Zachariah,
41:06
Speaker 3: lasting less than a week. We looked last week at
41:09
Speaker 3: how she was having trouble. It didn't look like she'd
41:11
Speaker 3: be around long, but it only took a couple of days.
41:14
Speaker 3: Here's a refresher of some of her contributions.
41:18
Speaker 18: He had a historic one-day war, and now we have
41:21
Speaker 18: a booming economy and a great relationship with Venezuela... And
41:27
Speaker 18: something President Trump is delivering on, just like he delivers
41:31
Speaker 18: on every promise. In addition to that, we will be...
41:38
Speaker 18: There is $ 54 billion.
41:42
Speaker 3: She wasn't much good, Kristen. Tough gig, and she had
41:46
Speaker 3: big shoes to fill, but not surprising. But the hunt
41:48
Speaker 3: is on now for a replacement.
41:50
Speaker 2: What are you doing?
41:53
Speaker 10: Oh, man, that's got to be a very hard job. Chris,
41:56
Speaker 10: maybe the second hardest job in D.C. after being president
42:00
Speaker 10: of the United States. I feel sorry for Katie Zachariah.
42:04
Speaker 10: I really do. I mean, no one wants to be
42:06
Speaker 10: publicly humiliated like this. But what strikes me is how
42:10
Speaker 10: avoidable this embarrassment was, right? You have a woman who
42:13
Speaker 10: seems to be pretty unprepared for this job. You have
42:17
Speaker 10: questions about her professional credentials. And look, I'm a conservative.
42:22
Speaker 10: I want Republicans to have a great spokesperson out there,
42:25
Speaker 10: especially because we're 15 days out from an extremely critical
42:29
Speaker 10: midterm election. And what are we all talking about? this
42:33
Speaker 10: failed press secretary. So, please, the Trump administration, I'm begging
42:37
Speaker 10: them to find someone good, find someone competent. But from
42:41
Speaker 10: what I've heard right now, they are solely focused on
42:43
Speaker 10: these midterms, and I'm not sure that this post will
42:47
Speaker 10: have someone in it before the midterms.
42:49
Speaker 2: Hell of a known goal there. Thanks for talking to
42:51
Speaker 2: us again, Kristen. Appreciate it.
42:53
Speaker 10: Thank you, as always, Chris.
42:56
Speaker 3: I reckon Kristen would do the job well, as long
42:58
Speaker 3: as she keeps crossing to us at.
43:00
Speaker 2: Least once a week. We've got to get to a break.
43:02
Speaker 3: After that, we've got Susie and Stephen on the panel.
43:04
Speaker 3: We'll talk about what's unfolded in Victoria and other issues.
43:13
Speaker 3: Let's go to our regular Tuesday panel with Stephen Senatiempo
43:16
Speaker 3: from Breakfast Radio 2CC in Canberra and Susie O'Brien, National
43:21
Speaker 3: Education Editor for News Corp Newspapers, joining us from Melbourne. Susie,
43:25
Speaker 3: you've had some shocking crimes in Victoria in recent times.
43:29
Speaker 3: This must have shaken people up a lot. Helen Haynes,
43:31
Speaker 3: just so widely respected.
43:36
Speaker 15: Oh, there's such a lot of sadness here in Victoria
43:38
Speaker 15: and as well as all around the country. And it's
43:41
Speaker 15: really heartbreaking. The person who is in custody at the moment,
43:45
Speaker 15: his family had links to Helen Haynes. They were friends.
43:48
Speaker 15: His father and stepmother were friends for 20 years. And
43:52
Speaker 15: it's really hard to see. There doesn't appear to be
43:54
Speaker 15: anything in particular that sparked this particular attack. But, you know,
43:58
Speaker 15: Helen was unpacking her car on the main street of
44:01
Speaker 15: Wangaratta and now she's fighting for her life in hospital,
44:04
Speaker 15: has lost one leg, perhaps two. But, you know, the
44:07
Speaker 15: only thing that people are hanging on to at this
44:09
Speaker 15: point is that she does appear to still be, she
44:12
Speaker 15: is alive and she's going to pull through. So that's
44:16
Speaker 15: really keeping people going at the moment.
44:18
Speaker 3: It's just the battle of her life. But as you say,
44:21
Speaker 3: pulling through, she's going to be having, suffering such difficulties,
44:26
Speaker 3: massive injuries, just a, a shocking and cowardly alleged attack here, Stephen.
44:33
Speaker 19: Yeah, and an opportunity for all of us to take
44:35
Speaker 19: a long, hard look at ourselves about how we contribute
44:37
Speaker 19: to the political discourse in this country. And there's an
44:39
Speaker 19: irony that those that are calling for calm and for
44:42
Speaker 19: things to be toned down are some of the worst perpetrators.
44:44
Speaker 19: But I just think, you know, there's a few things
44:48
Speaker 19: at play here. Obviously, there's the level of political discourse
44:52
Speaker 19: that leads people to behave like this or allegedly behave
44:55
Speaker 19: like this. But We saw a statement from the alleged
44:57
Speaker 19: offender's family suggesting that he's been acting erratically lately. We
45:02
Speaker 19: need to look at mental health services in this country,
45:04
Speaker 19: not just more broadly, but particularly in the bush and
45:07
Speaker 19: regional areas like Wangaratta. And, I mean, we're experiencing here
45:10
Speaker 19: in Canberra a lack of services, but we know it's
45:12
Speaker 19: even worse in those regional and rural centres where if
45:16
Speaker 19: people are struggling and we do have this political discourse
45:19
Speaker 19: that is, I guess, revving people up even further, where
45:22
Speaker 19: do they go?
45:23
Speaker 3: Also drugs, though, which is linked, of course, but there
45:26
Speaker 3: are reports that this man, Brendan.
45:31
Speaker 2: Nugent, was..... was... He was suffering the effects.
45:38
Speaker 3: Of alcohol or drugs. He wasn't in his normal frame
45:42
Speaker 3: of mind, apparently. But you talk about motives here.
45:45
Speaker 2: We don't know. We don't know what triggered it.
45:47
Speaker 3: But social media also churns up a lot of hatred
45:50
Speaker 3: and a lot of... And this bloke had been tweeting
45:54
Speaker 3: a lot of hateful stuff that we've become familiar with
45:56
Speaker 3: against Israel. Also a lot of climate activism. Now, I
46:02
Speaker 3: know if it was the other way around, Susie, there
46:04
Speaker 3: would be reading in all the media everywhere some sort
46:06
Speaker 3: of hard right figure. But it sounds like this bloke
46:09
Speaker 3: was a hard left activist and hateful with it.
46:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's all sorts.
46:17
Speaker 15: I mean, people have been trawling through his social media today, anti-logging.
46:21
Speaker 15: He was pro-plants, whatever that means. He had very strong
46:26
Speaker 15: views about the high country, cattle in the high country,
46:31
Speaker 15: which is a big issue, about some, like the forestry workers. But,
46:37
Speaker 15: you know, in terms of... what Stephen was saying about
46:40
Speaker 15: the tone of debate. I mean, already we can see
46:43
Speaker 15: that this is having an impact. I would hope that
46:47
Speaker 15: we're not going to see a continuation of the kind
46:49
Speaker 15: of divisive populism kind of rhetoric from the Prime Minister.
46:53
Speaker 15: But also, you know, Pauline Hanson, who just yesterday was
46:57
Speaker 15: saying that Jackie Lambie should get over it when she
47:00
Speaker 15: was some really vile comments made about her in the
47:04
Speaker 15: name of satire, comments made about her vaginal prolapse. Now
47:08
Speaker 15: Pauline has come out today and actually said she's sorry
47:11
Speaker 15: and she's going to have another look at those Please
47:13
Speaker 15: Explain videos. So already we see things are starting to shift.
47:17
Speaker 3: We'll talk to Mark Nicholson about that later in the week.
47:21
Speaker 2: But the point is, that was a matter of poor taste.
47:26
Speaker 2: That was a matter of.
47:28
Speaker 3: A joke that was in poor taste. There was nothing
47:30
Speaker 3: that suggested violence of the like here. What concerns me
47:33
Speaker 3: in this debate, and look, I'll be upfront, and I've
47:36
Speaker 3: said this for years and I believe it's borne out.
47:38
Speaker 3: Of course, you can get a lot of extremes on
47:41
Speaker 3: the left and the right, but there's so much of
47:43
Speaker 3: the leftist vitriol against the right is always hateful. It's
47:47
Speaker 3: always the other mob are going to destroy the country,
47:50
Speaker 3: destroy the world. It's your moral duty to defeat them.
47:54
Speaker 3: Our enemies are morally inferior to us. Just have a
47:57
Speaker 3: look at this from the Prime Minister last year speaking
48:00
Speaker 3: at the ALP conference in Queensland.
48:04
Speaker 4: Across the world, hard-right populists are on the march, peddling
48:08
Speaker 4: politics that is dangerous, divisive and downright dishonest. We simply
48:14
Speaker 4: must defeat them.
48:15
Speaker 3: We owe it.
48:16
Speaker 4: To history, we owe it to the nation, and we
48:19
Speaker 4: will defeat them.
48:21
Speaker 3: And it's been worse, Stephen, but one nation are horrible,
48:26
Speaker 3: you've got to defeat them.
48:28
Speaker 2: They're a threat to this country. I mean, they take
48:31
Speaker 2: it too far, don't they?
48:33
Speaker 19: Yeah, no two ways about it. Yet when it comes
48:35
Speaker 19: to calling out Islamic extremism or calling out anti-Semitism.
48:39
Speaker 2: There's almost... He's soft.
48:40
Speaker 9: Crickets.
48:41
Speaker 19: Yeah.
48:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely soft.
48:42
Speaker 19: And we saw the worst culmination of that in December
48:45
Speaker 19: last year in Bondi, 15 innocent people killed. We've now
48:49
Speaker 19: seen Helen Haynes attacked... in an equally horrific attack. But,
48:54
Speaker 19: I mean, where does it end? At some point, we
48:57
Speaker 19: need real leadership in this country, and I don't know
48:59
Speaker 19: where that comes from at the moment. I don't know
49:01
Speaker 19: that the next real leader is in the parliament.
49:04
Speaker 3: When it comes to this sort of stuff, Susie, this
49:05
Speaker 3: is right up your alley with education. That is, we've
49:08
Speaker 3: seen school students and university students routinely on the streets
49:12
Speaker 3: either chanting for sort of death to Israel, but more recently,
49:15
Speaker 3: death to Pauline Hanson and One Nation. Now, where are
49:18
Speaker 3: they getting this from? Answer, school and social media. And
49:23
Speaker 3: it's just not right. That sort of talk will lead
49:27
Speaker 3: to violence.
49:31
Speaker 15: Yeah, and you look at how violent some of those
49:33
Speaker 15: occupation of the university campuses were by the... the pro-Palestinians,
49:39
Speaker 15: where Jewish students felt afraid to go on campus. These
49:43
Speaker 15: are campuses they're part of, they're paying money for, they
49:46
Speaker 15: have every right to be there. And, you know, they
49:48
Speaker 15: were afraid to turn up to campus. So we have
49:51
Speaker 15: already seen that and we're continuing to see that.
49:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, shocking stuff. Thanks for joining us, Susie and Stephen.
49:58
Speaker 3: We'll catch you next week. Just a bit of time
50:00
Speaker 3: to share some of your feedback. from what I had
50:02
Speaker 3: to say last night about what's been occurring in France.
50:04
Speaker 3: And one viewer said, when rioters in France destroy a building,
50:08
Speaker 3: they hang Palestinian flags on it before they leave.
50:11
Speaker 2: What do you think that means?
50:13
Speaker 3: Another viewer says, let's hope other Western democracies begin to
50:16
Speaker 3: take heed of the consequences of continuing down the same path.
50:21
Speaker 3: Thanks for joining me. I'll be back tomorrow night at five.
50:24
Speaker 3: I have a very special guest.
50:26
Speaker 2: Don't miss it. Five o'clock tomorrow night. Here's Peter Credlin.