Transcript

Sharri | 2 September · Sharri

0:06
Speaker 1: Thanks, Jane.
0:07
Speaker 2: Good evening. Angus Taylor tonight demands the Treasurer release the
0:11
Speaker 2: modelling that failed to predict a housing market crash. My
0:15
Speaker 2: exclusive interview in a moment. The Minsk government sends the
0:18
Speaker 2: wrong message to teenagers about drugs as it mandates pill testing.
0:24
Speaker 2: Will Victorian Liberal leader Jess Wilson dump controversial working from
0:28
Speaker 2: home laws? I press her in our interview this evening.
0:33
Speaker 2: And another explosive day in court with Ray Hadley admitting
0:37
Speaker 2: he said of Alan Jones, we won't rest until we
0:40
Speaker 2: bury him. More on that in a moment. But first,
0:44
Speaker 2: the New South Wales government today announced pill testing would
0:47
Speaker 2: be permanent at music festivals. And starting next month, 15
0:52
Speaker 2: festivals a year will have a drug checking service where
0:55
Speaker 2: young people can take their illicit substances to check for
1:00
Speaker 2: unexpected or toxic contents. Here's Health Minister Ryan Park today.
1:06
Speaker 3: This is a very difficult area of drug reform and
1:09
Speaker 3: drug reform is challenging by its very nature. There'll be
1:13
Speaker 3: people who today say that I haven't gone far enough
1:16
Speaker 3: and there'll be people who today say I've gone way
1:18
Speaker 3: too far.
1:19
Speaker 4: I understand that.
1:20
Speaker 3: Today, based on the evidence of the trial, we're making
1:23
Speaker 3: this happen. And if we save a single young person
1:28
Speaker 3: by introducing this reform, it is going to be worth it.
1:32
Speaker 2: Now, previously, Premier Chris Minns was against this policy idea,
1:38
Speaker 2: putting him at odds with many of his own colleagues.
1:41
Speaker 2: And here he was arguing against pill testing just a
1:44
Speaker 2: few years ago.
1:45
Speaker 3: I know they want me to change our policy today,
1:48
Speaker 3: but I'm not going to do that.
1:50
Speaker 5: The truth is that there's no safe quantity to take
1:53
Speaker 5: of these illegal substances.
1:56
Speaker 2: And Chris Minns was concerned that pill testing would lead
1:59
Speaker 2: to the mistaken belief that drugs were safe simply because
2:02
Speaker 2: no contaminant was detected. But then, as Ryan Park spoke about,
2:07
Speaker 2: they held a trial of pill testing and a University
2:11
Speaker 2: of Sydney evaluation of that trial indicated that hospitalisations were down.
2:17
Speaker 2: There were 2.3 hospital presentations per festival day during the trial,
2:22
Speaker 2: compared with 3.6 over the previous two years. But I'd
2:28
Speaker 2: argue that Chris Minzer's original position is the sensible one.
2:32
Speaker 2: Condoning drugs sends the wrong message, that pill testing is
2:37
Speaker 2: safe because a government service is checking the illicit substances.
2:42
Speaker 2: In my view, this is a dangerous move. Opposition leader
2:46
Speaker 2: Kelly Sloan came out pretty strongly today, arguing that Labor
2:50
Speaker 2: is raising the white flag on drugs and is sending
2:53
Speaker 2: mixed messages.
2:55
Speaker 6: They've allowed drug driving in this state and now they
2:58
Speaker 6: are allowing pill testing. All the while, organised crime gangs
3:04
Speaker 6: who make their profits off of selling poison to our
3:06
Speaker 6: kids are literally killing people on our streets, in their
3:10
Speaker 6: beds at home. This is a case of getting your
3:13
Speaker 6: priorities all wrong.
3:16
Speaker 2: She's absolutely right. Kelly also rejected the notion that pill
3:20
Speaker 2: testing will save lives.
3:22
Speaker 6: We had the knockout festival in October last year where
3:25
Speaker 6: there were 14 drug overdoses while there was pill testing.
3:28
Speaker 2: There is no safe way to take drugs. There just isn't.
3:32
Speaker 6: And I think by being permissive, by effectively sending a
3:35
Speaker 6: signal that it's OK or that your drug is safe
3:39
Speaker 6: just because it's been tested to be of the purity
3:42
Speaker 6: you thought.
3:43
Speaker 2: It's a wrong message.
3:45
Speaker 1: A drug.
3:45
Speaker 6: It can be tested for purity. It can be tested
3:48
Speaker 6: for being what the person actually thinks it is. But
3:51
Speaker 6: there is no way of telling the impact on an
3:53
Speaker 6: individual's body. A person can take a drug and they
3:57
Speaker 6: might be OK. The next person, it may kill them.
4:02
Speaker 6: That is the fact of the matter.
4:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree with her. The message to teenagers should
4:07
Speaker 2: be one of zero tolerance, that taking drugs can lead
4:11
Speaker 2: to death. There needs to be more public awareness campaigns,
4:15
Speaker 2: just as there were in the past. I'll never forget
4:19
Speaker 2: growing up the tragic case of Anna Wood, the beautiful
4:23
Speaker 2: 15-year-old whose life was cut short after taking an ecstasy pill.
4:27
Speaker 2: She took ecstasy at a dance party in 1995. Her
4:31
Speaker 2: friends who took pills from the same batch survived.
4:36
Speaker 5: It was here police say she took the ecstasy capsule
4:38
Speaker 5: on Saturday night.
4:40
Speaker 3: By 11 the next morning, she was on life support
4:43
Speaker 3: in Royal North Shore Hospital.
4:45
Speaker 7: Anna was brain dead. Her family, dad Tony, mum Angela
4:49
Speaker 7: and big sister Alice, made the heartbreaking decision to turn
4:53
Speaker 7: off her life support and donate her organs. That saved
4:57
Speaker 7: five lives.
4:58
Speaker 2: It's hard to believe that it's now 30 years on.
5:04
Speaker 2: Her dad, Tony Wood, has long argued against pill testing.
5:10
Speaker 1: Drugs are EDSN credit.
5:11
Speaker 8: You just don't know how they're going to affect anybody
5:13
Speaker 8: at any given time.
5:15
Speaker 5: That's why this pill testing is just a load of rubbish.
5:17
Speaker 1: You can't test these things so they're safe.
5:22
Speaker 2: And after Anna's death, her parents travelled to high schools
5:24
Speaker 2: across Australia warning about the dangers of drugs. And because
5:29
Speaker 2: of the strength of Anna's story, because of the unnecessary tragedy,
5:34
Speaker 2: an entire generation heard that warning. But now pills are
5:39
Speaker 2: an issue again, with criminals profiting from even deadlier synthetic substances.
5:45
Speaker 2: And the lessons of Anna's story seem to have been lost.
5:49
Speaker 2: And problematically, now medical experts and the men's government want
5:54
Speaker 2: a different approach, not zero tolerance, but minimising risk. And
6:00
Speaker 2: to me, this seems like giving up. We know that
6:04
Speaker 2: drug education works. We know that a powerful public campaign works.
6:11
Speaker 2: This should be the approach rather than sending the message
6:14
Speaker 2: that it's fine for young people to take a pill
6:17
Speaker 2: after it's been cleared by an official drug testing unit
6:21
Speaker 2: sanctioned by the New South Wales government. I'll come back
6:28
Speaker 2: to that topic a bit later with Daily Telegraph editor
6:30
Speaker 2: Ben English. But let's turn now to the bombshell text
6:34
Speaker 2: messages sent by Ray Hadley about Alan Jones. They emerged
6:38
Speaker 2: in court today. It was during a sensational hearing of
6:41
Speaker 2: Jones's indecent assault and sexual touching trial. Hadley told an
6:46
Speaker 2: alleged victim that Alan Jones needs to be destroyed, that
6:50
Speaker 2: he'd be in a fetal position when he reads an
6:53
Speaker 2: expose about him, and that, quote, I won't rest until
6:57
Speaker 2: we bury him. The toxic relationship between Australia's most famous
7:02
Speaker 2: broadcasters has been laid bare. Caroline Marcus was in court
7:07
Speaker 2: today and here's her report.
7:11
Speaker 9: A former talkback titan now forced to stay silent.
7:15
Speaker 4: I'd love to talk to you, but I can't.
7:17
Speaker 9: Ray Hadley warned by the judge not to discuss his
7:21
Speaker 9: evidence with media, including foul-mouthed messages about long-time rival Alan
7:27
Speaker 9: Jones like this.
7:29
Speaker 2: That * * * *.
7:30
Speaker 9: Will be in a fetal position when he reads the
7:32
Speaker 9: story in the morning. It's been 15 years in the making.
7:36
Speaker 9: That text sent to one of Mr Jones's accusers after
7:40
Speaker 9: the man's allegations were revealed by the Sydney Morning Herald's
7:44
Speaker 9: Kate McClymont in 2023. Another read, the low * * * *
7:49
Speaker 9: is not just taking on victims, he's taken on me
7:53
Speaker 9: and Kate. I won't rest until we bury him figuratively,
7:57
Speaker 9: if not literally. Alan, what was it like hearing all
8:00
Speaker 9: those nasty things.
8:02
Speaker 2: That Ray Hadley said about you?
8:04
Speaker 9: The court heard of a secret $ 4 million deal to
8:07
Speaker 9: dump Mr Jones from his breakfast show and install Mr Hadley.
8:12
Speaker 9: A few months later, the contract was binned. after then-9
8:16
Speaker 9: chairman Peter Costello insisted Mr Jones remain. The defence is
8:21
Speaker 9: trying to prove Ray Hadley was out to destroy Alan
8:25
Speaker 9: Jones after losing that coveted breakfast slot, so much so
8:30
Speaker 9: he encouraged one of the complainants to fabricate his allegations
8:35
Speaker 9: of indecent assault. Mr Jones denies groping the man or
8:39
Speaker 9: kissing him. Mr Hadley returned to the witness box Thursday.
8:44
Speaker 9: Caroline Marcus, News 24 Sydney.
8:49
Speaker 2: And Alan Jones denies all allegations. And make sure you
8:52
Speaker 2: tune in to News 24 tomorrow. Caroline's coverage of the
8:56
Speaker 2: trial will continue. Well, the CBA is the latest major
9:03
Speaker 2: financial institution to declare that we're facing a housing correction.
9:08
Speaker 2: And today, the Treasurer wouldn't rule out a housing crash.
9:13
Speaker 2: Former Treasury Secretary Phil Gaetjens and another official, Jean Tunney,
9:18
Speaker 2: have both spoken publicly in The Australian about how Treasury
9:22
Speaker 2: didn't predict the sweeping impact of their tax changes. It's
9:27
Speaker 2: Treasury Secretary Jenny Wilkinson under fire today for incorrect predictions
9:31
Speaker 2: that house prices would fall by just 2%. CBA predicts
9:36
Speaker 2: the capital city average will be around a 10% decline.
9:42
Speaker 2: Jim Chalmers was grilled on these assumptions today and it
9:46
Speaker 2: wasn't comfortable.
9:48
Speaker 10: Do you stand by Treasury analysis that house prices will
9:52
Speaker 10: continue to grow over the next couple of years or
9:55
Speaker 10: do you concede that the Treasury and the government has
9:59
Speaker 10: underestimated the impact of the tax changes?
10:02
Speaker 11: Well, first of all, the Treasury assumptions in the budget
10:06
Speaker 11: are over the next couple of years, not the past
10:08
Speaker 11: couple of months. And so it would be unusual to
10:11
Speaker 11: compare outcomes or forecasts from the first couple of months
10:16
Speaker 11: and compare that with the Treasury assumptions over a couple
10:19
Speaker 11: of years. That's the first important point. If you just
10:23
Speaker 11: let me finish my answer to your question, Greg, I'll
10:26
Speaker 11: go through each part of it. It's wrong to attribute
10:30
Speaker 11: softness in the housing market or auction clearance rates to
10:34
Speaker 11: any one factor.
10:35
Speaker 1: Does that mean yes or no?
10:37
Speaker 11: I think I've answered your question very comprehensively, Greg.
10:41
Speaker 2: Well, clearly, Treasury got its modelling wrong. It underestimated just
10:46
Speaker 2: how the market would react to the scrapping of negative
10:49
Speaker 2: gearing and the capital gains tax discounts. Treasury officials, so
10:54
Speaker 2: removed from reality, thought this would only impact the so-called
10:58
Speaker 2: top end of town. In fact, there have been flow-on
11:01
Speaker 2: effects through the entire market, and coupled with rate rises
11:06
Speaker 2: and high inflation, there's an enormous loss of confidence. And
11:10
Speaker 2: young homebuyers aren't even better off. Some are now in
11:14
Speaker 2: negative equity. Treasurer Jim Chalmers was also grilled today on
11:19
Speaker 2: whether there will be a housing crash. And he couldn't
11:22
Speaker 2: rule it out. Here he is with Kieran Gilbert.
11:25
Speaker 12: We won't see a crash.
11:28
Speaker 11: Well, the Commonwealth Bank, for example, which has been in
11:30
Speaker 11: the media today, they're expecting prices to grow next year.
11:35
Speaker 11: And so that's another reminder that in the last couple
11:37
Speaker 11: of decades we've seen prices come off, but overwhelmingly we've
11:40
Speaker 11: seen prices grow in the housing market.
11:43
Speaker 12: So we won't see a crash? Are you confident of that?
11:46
Speaker 13: Yeah.
11:47
Speaker 11: I think you need to judge the housing market the
11:49
Speaker 11: way that Australians do when they're buying a house, which
11:51
Speaker 11: is not week to week or month to month or
11:53
Speaker 11: not based on one set of bank forecasts or another,
11:57
Speaker 11: but over a longer period people should assess and judge
12:00
Speaker 11: our policies and their impact on the housing market over
12:03
Speaker 11: the coming years and decades.
12:05
Speaker 2: So Chalmers then admitted that the housing market, yes, had softened,
12:09
Speaker 2: but he claimed prices were already falling before the budget,
12:14
Speaker 2: and that's before their controversial tax changes took effect, which
12:17
Speaker 2: have tanked prices substantially and reduced confidence. Well, Kieran Gilbert
12:23
Speaker 2: also questioned him on this.
12:25
Speaker 12: Given what you're saying, that there was already signs that
12:29
Speaker 12: things were cooling in In hindsight, is it better if
12:32
Speaker 12: you're going to make a change like that, do it
12:34
Speaker 12: when there's an uptick as opposed to a downtick? Because
12:37
Speaker 12: if you do it now, it exacerbates the down.
12:40
Speaker 11: Well, we've still had, over the course of the last
12:42
Speaker 11: couple of years, we've still had strong price growth. And
12:46
Speaker 11: so it is as important now as ever that we
12:52
Speaker 11: try and help first home buyers get a fair crack
12:54
Speaker 11: in a market which has locked them out for too long.
12:58
Speaker 2: The Coalition is arguing that families are worried about rates
13:01
Speaker 2: going up, worried about inflation and the value of their homes,
13:05
Speaker 2: their greatest asset. And there's concern that rates will rise
13:09
Speaker 2: at least another one time, possibly more, before the end
13:13
Speaker 2: of the year. I discussed all of this with Opposition
13:16
Speaker 2: Leader Angus Taylor when I sat down with him a
13:19
Speaker 2: little earlier. Angus Taylor, great to see you again. Do
13:23
Speaker 2: you think Australia is at risk of a housing crash?
13:30
Speaker 1: Great to be with you, Shari. Absolutely we are.
13:33
Speaker 5: And we've got expert after expert and bank after bank
13:38
Speaker 5: now saying exactly that. Another big bank saying that there's
13:43
Speaker 5: a crash in housing prices happening right now. But what
13:47
Speaker 5: we've seen under Labor is a trifecta of failure when
13:50
Speaker 5: it comes to the housing market. Higher rents, a collapse
13:54
Speaker 5: in building, less construction and and a collapse in confidence.
13:59
Speaker 1: And of course, that's the worst of all possible worlds.
14:01
Speaker 5: Now, Labor say they're doing this because they want to
14:04
Speaker 5: get first home buyers into the market. But we're also
14:07
Speaker 5: seeing a reduction in loan applications for first home buyers.
14:11
Speaker 5: So this is not working for anyone. It's destroying prosperity
14:15
Speaker 5: and wealth of Australians. And Labor is finding all sorts
14:19
Speaker 5: of ways to do that, including in what we've seen
14:22
Speaker 5: in the national accounts today, where we just simply don't
14:25
Speaker 5: have an economy where people can get ahead.
14:28
Speaker 2: Look, the government initially claimed that housing prices would fall
14:32
Speaker 2: around 2% as a result of their tax changes in
14:35
Speaker 2: the budget. We're seeing now far more disastrous effects, as
14:40
Speaker 2: you refer to predictions from various forecasters from the banks
14:44
Speaker 2: that it could fall between 10% and 18%. Do you
14:48
Speaker 2: think there needs to be more scrutiny on this Treasury
14:50
Speaker 2: modelling that seems to have grossly underestimated the extent that
14:54
Speaker 2: housing prices would fall?
14:59
Speaker 5: I worry about the politicisation of Treasury and the politicisation
15:02
Speaker 5: of Treasury modelling. I mean, this is Labor. This is
15:06
Speaker 5: what they do. They have a policy to tax more.
15:10
Speaker 5: They want to take more from Australians because they've run
15:13
Speaker 5: out of money and this is what they do when
15:14
Speaker 5: they run out of money. And they ask the bureaucrats
15:17
Speaker 5: to come up with modelling to support their case.
15:20
Speaker 1: But clearly, reality is very different. And what we're.
15:24
Speaker 5: Actually seeing is a collapse in housing prices, a collapse
15:27
Speaker 5: in confidence, a collapse in building of houses.
15:31
Speaker 1: And, of course, an increase of rents.
15:32
Speaker 5: So this is an absolute disaster in our housing market.
15:36
Speaker 5: And we all pay for that, Shari. We all pay
15:39
Speaker 5: for Labor's failures.
15:41
Speaker 2: Do you think we need to see this Treasury modelling?
15:43
Speaker 2: Should it be released?
15:47
Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely it should. Of course it should. Of course
15:50
Speaker 1: they won't.
15:50
Speaker 5: I mean, transparency is not one of the strengths of
15:53
Speaker 5: this government, but they should release it and they should
15:57
Speaker 5: fess up to why it's so wrong.
16:00
Speaker 1: It clearly is wrong.
16:01
Speaker 5: I mean, almost every bank and expert is now saying
16:04
Speaker 5: that those numbers are wrong only a couple of months
16:07
Speaker 5: after they were put out. So why did they get
16:09
Speaker 5: it so wrong? Or, in fact, is Treasury just being
16:13
Speaker 5: used as a political arm of the government? And it
16:14
Speaker 5: would be very disappointing if that's where we've got to.
16:18
Speaker 2: Look, I want to turn to the Royal Commission into anti-Semitism.
16:21
Speaker 2: I saw you went to Bondi today and met with
16:24
Speaker 2: survivor Yankee Super. Now, Aussie legend Dawn Fraser, she's come out.
16:29
Speaker 2: She told me, I reported this on the show last night,
16:31
Speaker 2: she says the Royal Commission fails the pub test, that
16:34
Speaker 2: it's failed to call government ministers and also Islamist organisations
16:38
Speaker 2: responsible for hate. Do you agree with her? Do you
16:41
Speaker 2: think it needs to be extended further?
16:46
Speaker 5: It absolutely should be extended, and I absolutely agree with
16:50
Speaker 5: that point. It does fail the pub test. I mean,
16:52
Speaker 5: this is a community that is hurting and wants answers,
16:56
Speaker 5: and it's not just our Jewish community here in Australia
16:59
Speaker 5: that want answers. I think all Australians want answers to
17:03
Speaker 5: the questions here.
17:05
Speaker 1: They've cut it short.
17:06
Speaker 5: There are many people who should have been called who
17:09
Speaker 5: have not been called Shari. whether it's vice chancellors, whether
17:14
Speaker 5: it's ministers, whether it's other interested parties, commentators who haven't
17:20
Speaker 5: had the opportunity to speak to the Commission. And we
17:23
Speaker 5: are seeing increasing evidence that there were decisions made on
17:28
Speaker 5: the way here that were bad decisions, how much they
17:31
Speaker 5: affected the outcomes. I think there's real questions about that.
17:34
Speaker 5: I mean, the cutback counter-terrorism spending. We're seeing more and
17:38
Speaker 5: more evidence of that. We know Labor abolished the Home
17:42
Speaker 5: Affairs Intelligence Unit. These are important issues where the questions
17:48
Speaker 5: have not been answered. But as always with Labor, they
17:51
Speaker 5: don't want transparency. They want a political outcome, not an
17:57
Speaker 5: outcome that ensures that we never, ever see a.
18:00
Speaker 1: Repeat of this again.
18:01
Speaker 5: And You know, as I talk to members of the
18:05
Speaker 5: Jewish community today, they.
18:08
Speaker 1: Want answers and they deserve answers.
18:10
Speaker 2: Just finally on this point, I mean, you did visit
18:13
Speaker 2: the site at Bondi today, as I mentioned. You first
18:16
Speaker 2: went there a couple of days after it happened and
18:19
Speaker 2: I had you on the program live. I mean, what's
18:21
Speaker 2: your sense? We are nine months or so on. What's
18:26
Speaker 2: your sense of how Australia and particularly the community is recovering?
18:34
Speaker 5: Look, I think there's both despair and resilience, and you
18:38
Speaker 5: see both. I mean, Australians are resilient. Our Jewish community
18:42
Speaker 5: here in Australia are resilient. They've had to be over
18:45
Speaker 5: a long period of time. The Jewish community across the
18:48
Speaker 5: world have had to be resilient.
18:51
Speaker 1: But I think there is also a sense.
18:52
Speaker 5: Of despair that this could happen in our beloved country,
18:56
Speaker 5: in this great country. How could this have happened? At
19:00
Speaker 5: North Bondi, of all places, and that despair... is there... Shari,
19:04
Speaker 5: you know I was there just after it happened and
19:06
Speaker 5: it was very emotional being there.
19:08
Speaker 1: I know it was emotional for you. It certainly was
19:10
Speaker 1: for me as well. And it was emotional to.
19:13
Speaker 5: Go back there and see some aspects of it I
19:17
Speaker 5: hadn't seen before. But it does mean that we need
19:22
Speaker 5: answers to those hard questions we were talking about earlier.
19:24
Speaker 5: And frankly, this is not a government that seems to
19:27
Speaker 5: be interested in the answers.
19:29
Speaker 14: Yeah, yeah.
19:31
Speaker 2: Look, on One Nation, the result on the weekend in
19:33
Speaker 2: Secret Harbour in WA, this shows that the support for
19:37
Speaker 2: One Nation extends right around the country, even in a
19:41
Speaker 2: state with a seemingly popular Labor premier. Are you starting
19:45
Speaker 2: to get panicked about this?
19:50
Speaker 5: No, not at all, Shari. I mean, I worry about
19:54
Speaker 5: our country. I worry about the direction of the country.
19:57
Speaker 5: And like the majority of Australians, I believe this.
19:59
Speaker 1: Country is heading in the wrong direction.
20:01
Speaker 5: And I know Australians feel a degree of grief and
20:04
Speaker 5: frustration and even anger about what they're seeing around them.
20:08
Speaker 5: But I also know the answer to that is a
20:11
Speaker 5: strong plan and a strong team that can get the
20:14
Speaker 5: country back to where it needs to be, fix our economy,
20:17
Speaker 5: protect our way of life. And, you know, if we
20:20
Speaker 5: were just talking about Bondi, we need to know that
20:23
Speaker 5: we are living in a safe country where all people
20:26
Speaker 5: who come to this country and know that they are safe.
20:29
Speaker 5: But we also need to have an economy where people
20:32
Speaker 5: can get ahead, where there is reward for hard work,
20:35
Speaker 5: where enterprise is valued, where Australians know that they can
20:38
Speaker 5: get into a home and raise a family.
20:40
Speaker 1: And we are not seeing that right now.
20:42
Speaker 5: And so the key for me is to get out
20:44
Speaker 5: and talk about our plan, to axe Labor's toxic taxes,
20:48
Speaker 5: to scrap net zero, to have a migration policy that
20:51
Speaker 5: works for us, to end mass migration and get back
20:53
Speaker 5: to skilled migration, and to put Australia and Australians first.
20:56
Speaker 2: The issue is cutting through to voters, though, isn't it?
20:59
Speaker 2: Because One Nation's primary seems to have settled on the 30% mark.
21:03
Speaker 2: So how do you make sure that you end up
21:06
Speaker 2: as the Prime Minister and not Pauline Hanson?
21:10
Speaker 5: Look, there's lots of different polls and they say lots
21:12
Speaker 5: of different things every day. But my focus is on
21:15
Speaker 5: the plan. My focus is on the direction of our country.
21:18
Speaker 5: My focus is on getting our country back. Because I
21:21
Speaker 5: think too many Australians rightly feel right now that we're
21:24
Speaker 5: losing the country that we love.
21:26
Speaker 2: Yeah. All right.
21:27
Speaker 1: We want it back. And that's why I'm in politics,
21:30
Speaker 1: to get it back.
21:31
Speaker 7: All right.
21:32
Speaker 2: Angus Taylor, really appreciate your time. Thank you so much. Well,
21:38
Speaker 2: Penny Wong's salary is set to match that of the
21:40
Speaker 2: Prime Minister's this week, while Albanese is at the Pacific
21:43
Speaker 2: Island Forum. Under a new rule, Rob Harris reports that
21:47
Speaker 2: any minister who's acting PM will be paid the same
21:50
Speaker 2: as him. And joining me to discuss is News24 host
21:54
Speaker 2: Joe Hildebrand and former Victorian Liberal Party President Michael Kroger.
21:57
Speaker 2: Great to see you both. Good evening.
21:58
Speaker 4: Lovely to be here.
21:59
Speaker 2: So Michael Albanese is paid around $ 622, 000 a year. Is
22:04
Speaker 2: he worth it? And is Penny Wong worth that for
22:07
Speaker 2: a four-day rate?
22:09
Speaker 14: Oh, yeah, they're worth more, obviously, Shari. I think one
22:12
Speaker 14: of the problems here, I think the problem here, by
22:14
Speaker 14: the way, is there are these remuneration tribunals around the country.
22:18
Speaker 14: These people have completely lost touch with reality, with community
22:23
Speaker 14: expectations of these salaries. They look at these salaries and think, oh, well,
22:26
Speaker 14: they need an increase this year for inflation and blah, blah, blah. No,
22:29
Speaker 14: I think like leases that are sometimes reviewed to market
22:33
Speaker 14: after five years, we need to review these salaries to market.
22:35
Speaker 14: I mean, the British Prime Minister gets paid the equivalent
22:37
Speaker 14: of $ 330, 000 Australian dollars. And Donald Trump's salary is $ 560, 000
22:43
Speaker 14: Australian dollars and the Australian Prime Minister gets over $ 600, 000.
22:47
Speaker 14: So it's completely out of kilter with what it should be.
22:51
Speaker 14: It should be a couple hundred thousand dollars less. And
22:53
Speaker 14: whilst they're at it, these remuneration tribunals and independent consultants
22:58
Speaker 14: should have a look at Vice-Chancellor's salaries. I mean, Vice-Chancellor's
23:01
Speaker 14: being paid $ 1. 5 million. Are you kidding me? A policeman gets.
23:05
Speaker 5: $ 100, 000.
23:05
Speaker 14: What, are university Vice-Chancellors worth 15 policemen or nurses?
23:09
Speaker 2: Really?
23:09
Speaker 14: I don't think so.
23:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, I completely agree with that.
23:12
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's absolutely bonkers. And, again, ironically, the remuneration tribunals
23:17
Speaker 8: do the politicians no favours when they look for reasons,
23:22
Speaker 8: almost excuses, to bump up salaries.
23:24
Speaker 2: Oh, come on, Joe. The politicians love it. It is just.
23:27
Speaker 8: Well, you won't see.
23:28
Speaker 2: I've never seen a politician saying, I'm not going to
23:30
Speaker 2: take that pay rise.
23:30
Speaker 8: You won't see too many complaining about it. I believe
23:32
Speaker 8: Chris Minns, I think they did actually... Look, you know what?
23:35
Speaker 2: He would be the only politician who did something like that.
23:36
Speaker 8: the New South Wales government did freeze their own pay.
23:39
Speaker 8: And I think there were moves at some point in
23:41
Speaker 8: the federal government. But the, I mean, the idea that
23:45
Speaker 8: you would come up with, and again, this is something
23:46
Speaker 8: I think they came up with last year and it's
23:48
Speaker 8: only just kicked in this year. So it's something that
23:50
Speaker 8: was actually devised in the middle of a cost of
23:54
Speaker 8: living crisis. It's not like, oh, we did this when
23:56
Speaker 8: the economy was going great. And then the, you know,
23:58
Speaker 8: they started to crunch just when the pay rises kicked in.
24:02
Speaker 8: They actually conceived of these pay rises in the middle
24:06
Speaker 8: of a time when everyone else's pay was going backwards.
24:08
Speaker 4: It's just bonkers.
24:09
Speaker 15: Yeah.
24:09
Speaker 7: Yeah.
24:09
Speaker 2: If there's any politician in the government who doesn't deserve
24:12
Speaker 2: a pay rise, it's Penny Wong. And meanwhile, while their
24:16
Speaker 2: pay keeps rising, productivity and economic growth, as we've been
24:19
Speaker 2: talking about, is stalling. I mean, the GDP barely grew
24:23
Speaker 2: at 0.4% over the June quarter. Productivity fell 0.2% in
24:28
Speaker 2: annual terms. And Michael, some economists are now saying that
24:32
Speaker 2: we could be headed for either stagflation or even a recession.
24:36
Speaker 14: Quite possibly. Don't forget, these figures are way out of date.
24:38
Speaker 14: These are April, May and June. So the real data
24:42
Speaker 14: I think you better look at is the September quarter.
24:44
Speaker 14: And I'll tell you why. On the 4th of August,
24:46
Speaker 14: the ABS released weak household expenditure data. And then the
24:50
Speaker 14: real hit came on the 10th of August when Westpac
24:52
Speaker 14: announced that owner-occupier loans since the budget, owner-occupier loan requests
24:58
Speaker 14: that were down 18% and investor loans since the budget
25:02
Speaker 14: were down 26%. And then from early August onwards, the
25:05
Speaker 14: bank shares started to fall heavily. And it's in early
25:09
Speaker 14: August when the market realised that things were bad and
25:12
Speaker 14: there was going to be a housing crisis in this country.
25:14
Speaker 14: There is a housing crisis. We're not heading to one.
25:17
Speaker 14: There is a housing crisis.
25:18
Speaker 4: $ 1 trillion.
25:19
Speaker 14: $ 1 trillion has been lost by Australian household owners since
25:27
Speaker 14: Albanese and Chalmers went on this ill-fated experiment. about taxes.
25:32
Speaker 14: So that data is out of date. You want to
25:36
Speaker 14: look at the data from August onwards in the September numbers.
25:39
Speaker 14: They should break out at July, August, September because August,
25:41
Speaker 14: September will be shocking.
25:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's where economists are predicting that it could
25:45
Speaker 2: be 0% or 0.1%, really small, Joe.
25:49
Speaker 4: It's terrifying.
25:50
Speaker 8: And I think it was on this exact show, on
25:52
Speaker 8: this exact panel with my two favourite co-panellists that I
25:57
Speaker 8: said we could be heading for stagflation. And this is
26:00
Speaker 8: something that I'm not an economist, I'm an art student.
26:02
Speaker 8: If even I can see it... then we are in serious,
26:05
Speaker 8: serious trouble. So you say, are we heading for a recession?
26:07
Speaker 8: That could be the lesser of two evils. The Reserve
26:09
Speaker 8: Bank could actually move to deliberately drive Australia into recession
26:14
Speaker 8: because if you have stagflation, which is high inflation, but
26:17
Speaker 8: not driven by high economic growth or high economic activity,
26:20
Speaker 8: but by other factors. So the economy is tanking and
26:23
Speaker 8: going down, but prices are still going up. And unemployment
26:27
Speaker 8: is also going up when it should be going in
26:29
Speaker 8: the opposite direction. If you have that, that is the
26:31
Speaker 8: sort of thing that crippled economies in the 70s.
26:33
Speaker 2: Although we still have relatively low unemployment at this point
26:37
Speaker 2: in time, not to argue with your definition of stagflation. But,
26:41
Speaker 2: you know, I think that the issue with the economy
26:44
Speaker 2: is that... The Albanese government deliberately created these circumstances. We
26:49
Speaker 2: didn't have to be here. Their high government spending, which
26:53
Speaker 2: meant that inflation has been very difficult for the Reserve
26:56
Speaker 2: Bank to tackle, and then these tax changes, Michael, this
26:59
Speaker 2: is all of their own creation.
27:01
Speaker 14: This disaster is all of their own creation. But look,
27:05
Speaker 14: you've got people who are very inexperienced in business, no
27:08
Speaker 14: experience in business. I can't find a Labor Prime Minister
27:11
Speaker 14: since Federation that's ever started and run a business. I
27:15
Speaker 14: can't find a Labor treasurer or a Labor finance minister
27:20
Speaker 14: who has ever started and run a business. There's been
27:22
Speaker 14: a few independent contractors. Billy Hughes opened an umbrella shop
27:29
Speaker 14: in 1890. But these people have never run a business.
27:35
Speaker 4: I mean, they've got no idea.
27:37
Speaker 14: And if they had a single idea about what was
27:40
Speaker 14: going to happen in the budget, Chalmers would have said
27:42
Speaker 14: it on budget night. These tax changes I announced tonight
27:45
Speaker 14: to negative hearings and capital gains taxes will result in
27:50
Speaker 14: a 10% decline in house prices across the country, costing
27:55
Speaker 14: house owners over $ 1 trillion. They'll ultimately lead to a
27:58
Speaker 14: crash in bank share prices where banks will go down
28:01
Speaker 14: in terms of their market cap by $ 90 billion over
28:05
Speaker 14: the next few months, blah, blah, blah.
28:07
Speaker 4: He didn't say any of that.
28:08
Speaker 12: Why?
28:08
Speaker 14: Because he had no idea and Treasury had no idea.
28:11
Speaker 2: Exactly.
28:11
Speaker 7: Exactly.
28:12
Speaker 2: Now, before we go, I want to quickly get to
28:14
Speaker 2: this story. Now, you'll recall this jihadi ISIS doctor, Tariq Kamla.
28:19
Speaker 2: He's known as Dr Jihad. We all thought he was dead.
28:22
Speaker 2: Turned out he's alive and he's facing criminal trial in Iraq,
28:26
Speaker 2: along with thousands of other captured jihadis. Now, Joe, Iraq
28:31
Speaker 2: reportedly wants the countries where these jihadis came from to
28:35
Speaker 2: actually take responsibility for them. I mean, the last thing
28:38
Speaker 2: we need is more literal ISIS fighters coming to Australia.
28:43
Speaker 8: Yeah, absolutely. We definitely do not want them. And the
28:46
Speaker 8: question is whether we have the legal capacity to refuse them.
28:49
Speaker 4: The other sort of weird thing.
28:50
Speaker 2: Well, the political will too.
28:52
Speaker 8: Well, the other problem... Well, this is the thing. If
28:54
Speaker 8: they present and they, you know, they're free to get
28:58
Speaker 8: a passport.
29:00
Speaker 4: As.
29:00
Speaker 8: We know from the ISIS brides, there is little that
29:02
Speaker 8: we can do to stop them. And there are concerns
29:04
Speaker 8: about changing the law and what that would do. And
29:07
Speaker 8: the other thing is, I believe, I think this is
29:08
Speaker 8: part of a cohort that we told the Americans we
29:10
Speaker 8: would take because the Americans want to shut down the
29:13
Speaker 8: camps that a lot of them are in. That was
29:15
Speaker 8: certainly the case with the ISIS brides.
29:17
Speaker 4: I'm not sure if it's the case with this individual.
29:18
Speaker 2: This cohort have actually been in prison. So we just
29:21
Speaker 2: didn't really know about it. Michael, very quickly, I mean,
29:24
Speaker 2: this is going to be another politically difficult situation for Albanese,
29:27
Speaker 2: but he doesn't seem to have any, can I say,
29:30
Speaker 2: balls when it comes to this matter of ISIS fighters.
29:33
Speaker 14: No, of course he doesn't. And we all know why, Shari.
29:36
Speaker 14: We should do a deal with another country, Papua New
29:38
Speaker 14: Guinea or another country, for them to issue passports to
29:41
Speaker 14: these people so that they're not rendered stateless if we
29:43
Speaker 14: remove their passports. And so we can stop them coming
29:45
Speaker 14: back to Australia. These people have abandoned Australia. Why should
29:49
Speaker 14: we be taking them back? They've said, we don't want
29:51
Speaker 14: to live in Australia. We don't want anything to do
29:53
Speaker 14: with your democracy. We want to live under this caliphate.
29:56
Speaker 14: So I say these people have abandoned Australia because the
29:59
Speaker 14: High Court is taking a very left-wing view of these things.
30:02
Speaker 14: Have passports issued by third countries. They can go and
30:04
Speaker 14: live there.
30:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. Like if people are angry about the ISIS brides,
30:07
Speaker 2: they will be furious about these terrorists.
30:10
Speaker 8: I hope they run jail in Iraq.
30:13
Speaker 2: Michael Kroger, Joe Hildebrand, thank you so much.
30:15
Speaker 4: Thank you, Shari.
30:16
Speaker 8: Thanks, Michael.
30:17
Speaker 2: Well, still to come, I ask Victorian opposition leader Jess
30:20
Speaker 2: Wilson whether she'll scrap Labor's working from home laws and
30:24
Speaker 2: is she open to a deal with One Nation? Plus
30:26
Speaker 2: the $ 6 million accommodation splurge for Chris Bowen and his buddies.
30:31
Speaker 2: The teleeditor joins me next. Welcome back. Well, we've been
30:38
Speaker 2: speaking about the housing crash as a result of the
30:41
Speaker 2: Albanese government's tax policies. But sometimes a great front page
30:45
Speaker 2: just captures the public sentiment brilliantly. And here's tomorrow's Daily
30:50
Speaker 2: Telegraph front page, First Home Liars. And joining me now
30:55
Speaker 2: is Telegraph editor Ben English. Oh, this is brilliant, Ben.
30:59
Speaker 4: Thanks, Shari. Well, as you say, I think this all
31:01
Speaker 4: captures the mood at the moment. It's pretty hectic in homeland,
31:06
Speaker 4: like basically home mortgage land. But not just that, it's
31:09
Speaker 4: the renters as well. It's across all these fronts. And
31:11
Speaker 4: why we're describing it as first home buyers, Claire O'Neill,
31:15
Speaker 4: remember she said rents won't go up? She also said
31:18
Speaker 4: this will be a fantastic time for first home buyers. Well,
31:21
Speaker 4: the figures are out today and first home buyers are
31:24
Speaker 4: running for the hills. Their applications are down 30% in
31:27
Speaker 4: the first quarter since the budget. And, of course, Albo,
31:30
Speaker 4: he lied about these new taxes coming in and now
31:33
Speaker 4: Jim Chalmers has been insisting that that there will be
31:37
Speaker 4: no crash in property prices. Well, they're already down 9%, 10%
31:41
Speaker 4: in Sydney.
31:42
Speaker 2: He backed off his language a bit today in that
31:44
Speaker 2: interview with Kieran Gilburn. Kieran asked him twice, is there
31:47
Speaker 2: going to be a crash? And he just spoke about
31:49
Speaker 2: the CBA data that had prices coming back up, you know,
31:52
Speaker 2: in the next year or the year after. But he
31:54
Speaker 2: didn't rule it out. He can't say there's not going
31:56
Speaker 2: to be one because everyone's panicked and none of them
31:58
Speaker 2: saw this coming.
31:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, and what they've underestimated, I mean, none of these
32:01
Speaker 4: Labor people have actually lived in the real world. None
32:04
Speaker 4: of the ERC, they've got no idea about market economics.
32:09
Speaker 4: And so they underestimated the impact that a move like
32:13
Speaker 4: that has on sentiment. And property really relies on confidence
32:18
Speaker 4: and it is bereft of confidence now.
32:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, and a lot of young buyers in negative equity
32:23
Speaker 2: as well.
32:23
Speaker 7: Absolutely.
32:23
Speaker 6: Absolutely.
32:24
Speaker 2: Well, you had this great story in your paper today
32:26
Speaker 2: about Chris Bowen and that he's charging taxpayers nearly $ 6
32:29
Speaker 2: million for hotel bills for his climate summit in Fiji.
32:33
Speaker 2: A summit, by the way, that only five world leaders
32:36
Speaker 2: outside of the Pacific are actually going to. Here was
32:40
Speaker 2: Chris Bowen, not too happy to be asked about this
32:42
Speaker 2: at a press conference. Albanese as well.
32:45
Speaker 14: The invitation list has been worked up in consultation with
32:47
Speaker 14: the Pacific.
32:49
Speaker 8: The people attending moves around, as you'd expect.
32:51
Speaker 6: It's not yet finalised or a There are people who
32:54
Speaker 6: are saying they'd like to come, but they're finding it difficult.
32:56
Speaker 8: There's others who say they're likely to come, but can't
32:58
Speaker 8: completely confirm.
33:00
Speaker 3: With respect, you are being so disrespectful to the Pacific
33:04
Speaker 3: leaders who are here.
33:06
Speaker 4: Did they count Fiji?
33:07
Speaker 1: Did they count Australia?
33:10
Speaker 2: Oh, he really snapped Albo. He wasn't happy with that.
33:13
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's losing patience. And as you just said off air,
33:17
Speaker 4: it's like trying to explain why no one came to
33:18
Speaker 4: your party. And it has to be said, why does
33:21
Speaker 4: he have to have it in Fiji? Why not just
33:23
Speaker 4: have it in Canberra or, you know, somewhere where they're
33:26
Speaker 4: already renting a place?
33:28
Speaker 2: Well, we shouldn't have to pay for it at all.
33:30
Speaker 2: Don't have the climate summit. Let someone else have it.
33:33
Speaker 2: Get rid of it. The budget can't afford it.
33:36
Speaker 15: No.
33:36
Speaker 4: We're already spending an extra $ 36 billion, which I guarantee
33:40
Speaker 4: will be a lot more than that. The $ 36 billion
33:42
Speaker 4: increase which they announced on Budget Night, it'll be $ 50
33:44
Speaker 4: billion by the time we get to the next budget.
33:46
Speaker 4: It's a disgrace.
33:46
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, the budget papers are outdated as soon as
33:49
Speaker 2: they're published, as we've seen. I want to get your
33:52
Speaker 2: view on this pill testing. So the New South Wales government,
33:55
Speaker 2: as I spoke about a bit earlier, today mandated pill
33:58
Speaker 2: testing at 15 festivals. Kelly Sloan came out very strongly.
34:02
Speaker 2: I already spoke about this earlier in the show. I
34:04
Speaker 2: completely agree with her. What do you think, Ben, and
34:07
Speaker 2: where do you think your reader sentiment is on this?
34:10
Speaker 4: It's a dumb idea. It's a stupid idea because it's
34:13
Speaker 4: sending a tacit signal to teenagers that this is somehow... Oh,
34:17
Speaker 4: it's authorised. It's actually been cleared. So the shorthand for
34:20
Speaker 4: that for kids is, well, if the government is doing testing,
34:23
Speaker 4: then it must be OK. And if they've given me
34:24
Speaker 4: the Clean Bill of Health, you know, it'll be fine.
34:27
Speaker 4: But as we've seen, and we've been campaigning on this
34:30
Speaker 4: for years, as you well know, there's no such thing
34:34
Speaker 4: as a healthy ecstasy pill. Remember that spate of deaths
34:38
Speaker 4: from about four years, five years ago? All of them
34:41
Speaker 4: were 100% pure ecstasy. So it's not the impurities. I mean,
34:45
Speaker 4: they're going to clear it of having other things in it,
34:48
Speaker 4: but the pure ecstasy can kill you.
34:50
Speaker 2: You know what really gets me? The governments are cracking
34:53
Speaker 2: down on gambling advertising around children, social media around children. Oh,
34:58
Speaker 2: but illicit drugs, that's fine. We'll test them for you.
35:02
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's completely bonkers. It's another example of where governments
35:06
Speaker 4: have lost their way and, as you say, have completely
35:09
Speaker 4: lost touch with the real world.
35:12
Speaker 2: Like, gambling ads can't kill your teenagers. Drugs can.
35:16
Speaker 4: Well, Tony Wood was consistent in his campaigning.
35:20
Speaker 12: You know, and.
35:20
Speaker 2: Well, why don't they do those powerful public ads anymore?
35:23
Speaker 2: Do a big campaign for teenagers. The drugs will kill you.
35:26
Speaker 2: That's where they should put their money in.
35:28
Speaker 4: You're so right, and Kelly Sloan's right too. They've put
35:31
Speaker 4: up the white flag.
35:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, it makes it so much harder for parents, doesn't it,
35:34
Speaker 2: trying to tell their kids you can't take drugs? Well,
35:37
Speaker 2: the kids will say, well, look, the government's got these
35:38
Speaker 2: pill testing.
35:39
Speaker 4: They've got the testing. It's fine, Mum.
35:41
Speaker 7: Mm.
35:42
Speaker 2: Makes me so annoyed, so angry. Not to mention the
35:45
Speaker 2: drug driving as well.
35:46
Speaker 4: Disgraceful.
35:47
Speaker 2: We need the roads safer as well. Now tell me, Ben,
35:51
Speaker 2: there's been this spate of shootings linked to the gangland,
35:57
Speaker 2: the bikie gangs, the criminal gangs, and they've been mistaken identities.
36:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is the ninth and two in two days.
36:04
Speaker 4: And there's a renewed gangland war now. They seem to
36:09
Speaker 4: be moving from gang to gang. At the moment, what
36:11
Speaker 4: we've got is the Coconut Cartel, which is a challenging,
36:16
Speaker 4: up until now, the predominant gangland or gang in Sydney,
36:21
Speaker 4: which is the Alameddines. Now, what's different about this is
36:24
Speaker 4: that they're actually not going after particular gang members. They're
36:27
Speaker 4: going after anyone who's remotely related to them. So this
36:30
Speaker 4: is the new rule book. If you're related to a target,
36:33
Speaker 4: you're fair game, which is just unbelievable. I mean, we
36:36
Speaker 4: saw former NRL star Matt Utai's son, Isaiah Utai, who's
36:40
Speaker 4: in hiding somewhere in the world. They think they might
36:42
Speaker 4: be in Asia or something like that. Disgustingly sending a
36:48
Speaker 4: crying with laughter emoji and saying, oh, they popped the
36:51
Speaker 4: wrong guy. I mean, these guys are psychopaths and this
36:55
Speaker 4: is a problem for Chris Minns because this gangland war
36:59
Speaker 4: is now spilling into the mainstream and innocent people are
37:02
Speaker 4: getting killed.
37:03
Speaker 2: You know what really got me about the case yesterday
37:05
Speaker 2: is that it was a young, very bright engineering student.
37:09
Speaker 4: Yeah, he was a scholar and he was doing really well,
37:12
Speaker 4: 23 years old. It just breaks your heart and his
37:15
Speaker 4: family are picking up the pieces. This guy had nothing
37:18
Speaker 4: to do with anything. So, look.
37:21
Speaker 2: He had his whole life ahead of him and it
37:23
Speaker 2: sounded like he was, yeah, extremely intelligent.
37:25
Speaker 4: It's heartbreaking.
37:27
Speaker 2: Ben, thank you. Love your front page tomorrow. First home liars.
37:30
Speaker 2: We're all going to read it. We'll see you next week.
37:33
Speaker 15: Thanks.
37:34
Speaker 2: Still to come, Pete Hegseth reportedly eyeing off the presidency
37:38
Speaker 2: and how Labor snuck through a secret public transport tax.
37:42
Speaker 2: Opposition leader Jess Wilson joins me after the break. Thanks
37:50
Speaker 2: for tuning in. Well, Victorian Premier Ben Carroll is under
37:53
Speaker 2: fire after it was revealed that he knew about Labor's
37:57
Speaker 2: secret public transport tax. I spoke about this and more
38:01
Speaker 2: with Victorian opposition leader Jess Wilson a little earlier. Jess Wilson,
38:06
Speaker 2: welcome to the program. Great to have you on. Look,
38:08
Speaker 2: big news today that Labor secretly slapped an $ 8 billion
38:12
Speaker 2: levy on public transport users two years ago. Now, Ben
38:16
Speaker 2: Carroll is saying he'll abolish it, but he's refusing to
38:19
Speaker 2: say when he knew about it. Well, that's right.
38:23
Speaker 15: Great to be with you, Shari. What we've seen time
38:26
Speaker 15: and time again from the new Premier in Ben Carroll
38:30
Speaker 15: is his failure to be honest with Victorians. You simply
38:34
Speaker 15: cannot trust this guy. He was the public transport minister
38:38
Speaker 15: when this tax, this secret tax, was first come up
38:42
Speaker 15: with in 2021. And then he was part of the
38:45
Speaker 15: Budget and Finance Committee that ticked off on this tax.
38:48
Speaker 15: And now what we've seen today, further evidence that it
38:51
Speaker 15: was in the cabinet papers that he received as a minister.
38:55
Speaker 15: And yet he's refusing to be honest with the Victorian
38:57
Speaker 15: people that he knew about this tax. He's claiming today, Shari,
39:03
Speaker 15: that it's unfair to say that it was in the
39:04
Speaker 15: cabinet papers. Well, either Ben Carroll was incompetent and lazy
39:09
Speaker 15: and didn't read his cabinet papers as a cabinet minister,
39:13
Speaker 15: failing to discharge his duty to Victorians, or he's lying
39:17
Speaker 15: to Victorians. And I think Victorians know you just can't
39:21
Speaker 15: trust this guy and you cannot trust this Labor government.
39:24
Speaker 2: So this levy or tax, as you put it, was
39:26
Speaker 2: reportedly to help pay for the suburban rail loop. I mean.
39:30
Speaker 2: is the suburban rail loop an albatross around the Victorian taxpayers' neck?
39:35
Speaker 2: And even if you were to cancel the contract, wouldn't
39:38
Speaker 2: the poison pill left by Labor cost taxpayers more than
39:41
Speaker 2: $ 10 billion?
39:44
Speaker 15: Well, I have serious concerns about the suburban rail loop
39:47
Speaker 15: to the point that you make that It means that
39:50
Speaker 15: all the Victorian's eggs are going in one basket. It
39:53
Speaker 15: means that we're not being able to see the infrastructure
39:56
Speaker 15: desperately needed right across our state, in the growing communities
39:59
Speaker 15: in the west and the north and in regional Victoria,
40:02
Speaker 15: because it's all going towards the suburban rail loop. But
40:05
Speaker 15: we don't have visibility of the contracts and that's why
40:08
Speaker 15: we've committed to pausing and reviewing this project very quickly
40:12
Speaker 15: when we come to government to make a decision in
40:14
Speaker 15: the best interests of Victorians. But time and time again,
40:18
Speaker 15: we are seeing further information come from the Auditor-General in
40:22
Speaker 15: last week's report that demonstrates that this is a project
40:25
Speaker 15: that continues to blow out in time and in money
40:28
Speaker 15: and was being propped up by a secret tax that
40:31
Speaker 15: no longer exists with a $ 5 billion black hole.
40:35
Speaker 2: Turning to youth crime, I mean, it's such a bad
40:37
Speaker 2: problem in Victoria that it makes headline news right around
40:40
Speaker 2: the country. Now, Ben Carroll's denying that his government has
40:43
Speaker 2: been looking to raise the age of criminal responsibility from
40:46
Speaker 2: 12 to 14. Do you believe him? And what do
40:50
Speaker 2: you think needs to be actually done to fix this
40:53
Speaker 2: issue of very serious crimes committed by juveniles?
40:58
Speaker 15: Well, I certainly don't believe him because it's in black
41:01
Speaker 15: and white in the Labor Party's policy blueprint for the
41:05
Speaker 15: next four years. Once again, like the secret tax, Ben
41:09
Speaker 15: Carroll has been caught red-handed wanting to lift the age
41:13
Speaker 15: of criminal responsibility to 14 if he is re-elected in
41:18
Speaker 15: the next four years. It's something that we cannot afford
41:22
Speaker 15: to happen in the midst of a youth crime crisis.
41:25
Speaker 15: And it just demonstrates that being weak on crime is
41:28
Speaker 15: in Labor's DNA. But Shari, we have a plan. We
41:32
Speaker 15: have a plan to recruit 3000 additional police officers. We
41:36
Speaker 15: have a plan to make sure that if you break bail,
41:39
Speaker 15: you will go to jail with a one strike rule
41:41
Speaker 15: for bail for serious and violent offences and to implement
41:45
Speaker 15: genuine adult crime, adult time laws to make sure that
41:49
Speaker 15: young offenders understand that if they break the law, there
41:52
Speaker 15: will be consequences.
41:53
Speaker 2: But going further, to actually.
41:55
Speaker 15: Create a new court of criminal appeal, which will ensure
41:59
Speaker 15: that we recruit specialised judges to enforce our tough new
42:03
Speaker 15: laws and that our justice system is actually meeting community expectations.
42:08
Speaker 2: Just on the age of criminal responsibility, is there a
42:10
Speaker 2: case to look at actually lowering it?
42:14
Speaker 15: Well, we're certainly focused on what we can do to
42:17
Speaker 15: solve the crime crisis in this state right here and now.
42:21
Speaker 15: We know that we have the plan to do that.
42:23
Speaker 15: What we're seeing is across the data of the crimes
42:27
Speaker 15: being committed in Victoria, that 60% of burglaries are being
42:31
Speaker 15: committed by youth offenders, 55% of carjackings, around 50% of
42:36
Speaker 15: home invasions. We've got a plan to make sure that
42:39
Speaker 15: we hold those who are committing these crimes to account
42:42
Speaker 15: and that there are real consequences, real adult time, adult
42:45
Speaker 15: crime laws, that we believe will fix this problem.
42:47
Speaker 2: And most of them are over 12, that it wouldn't
42:49
Speaker 2: need to be lowered.
42:49
Speaker 15: That's right.
42:50
Speaker 2: All right. That's right.
42:52
Speaker 15: We're seeing it in that age bracket. But this is
42:54
Speaker 15: working in Queensland, and I know that it will work
42:56
Speaker 15: here in Victoria, but it's going to take a change
42:59
Speaker 15: of government to actually ensure that we get tough on crime.
43:01
Speaker 7: Right.
43:03
Speaker 2: As I know you're aware of this, businesses in Victoria
43:07
Speaker 2: are just at their wits' end over Labor's working from
43:09
Speaker 2: home laws. I mean, Ben Carroll has pushed them back,
43:11
Speaker 2: but he's still planning to roll them out. Will you
43:14
Speaker 2: scrap them?
43:17
Speaker 15: Well, it's a great point. We're actually not too sure
43:19
Speaker 15: what is going on with the work from home laws
43:21
Speaker 15: here in Victoria. We've had a couple of sitting weeks
43:24
Speaker 15: now where Ben Carroll was bringing them back to the
43:26
Speaker 15: Parliament with supposed changes. We haven't seen that happen and
43:30
Speaker 15: we've only got a couple of sitting weeks left. So
43:33
Speaker 15: we're actually not clear on what Ben Carroll's position is.
43:36
Speaker 15: We've moved a number of amendments on these laws looking
43:39
Speaker 15: to support businesses and working with the business community. We'll
43:42
Speaker 15: wait to see what comes back from the government before
43:45
Speaker 15: making any further decisions.
43:47
Speaker 2: And leave it up to individual... We don't know if
43:48
Speaker 2: they're going... But why not just scrap the laws and
43:51
Speaker 2: leave it up to individual businesses to arrange whether their
43:55
Speaker 2: own employees can work from home or not?
43:59
Speaker 15: Well, as to your point, we're seeing work from home
44:01
Speaker 15: happen every day right now because that's an agreement that's
44:04
Speaker 15: happening between employers and employees. It's not like the Labor
44:08
Speaker 15: Party in Victoria has come up with this new concept
44:10
Speaker 15: of work from home. But right now, we don't actually
44:13
Speaker 15: know whether this is going to pass the parliament in
44:15
Speaker 15: this term. Ben Carroll keeps kicking the can down the road.
44:19
Speaker 15: We've moved a number of amendments working with the business community.
44:22
Speaker 15: We'll wait to see what comes back to us and
44:24
Speaker 15: then make a decision.
44:25
Speaker 2: Would you leave it open? You'd consider completely scrapping the
44:28
Speaker 2: laws and just leaving it up to businesses to govern
44:30
Speaker 2: their arrangements with employees?
44:33
Speaker 15: Well, to be honest, Shari, I don't think that these
44:35
Speaker 15: laws will be constitutional. Victoria handed over their industrial relations
44:40
Speaker 15: powers to the Commonwealth some time ago. And I expect
44:43
Speaker 15: we'll see these new laws, if they are passed, challenged
44:46
Speaker 15: in the courts.
44:47
Speaker 2: Just finally, are you prepared to form a coalition with
44:50
Speaker 2: One Nation to secure government if you fall a couple
44:54
Speaker 2: of seats short of the majority that you need?
44:58
Speaker 15: Well, Shari, I'm running for majority government, majority Liberal and
45:02
Speaker 15: Nationals government, because I have a plan to actually save
45:06
Speaker 15: this state. I know that Victorians are angry, they're incredibly frustrated,
45:11
Speaker 15: but real change, it needs a plan. And I know
45:13
Speaker 15: I've got the team, I've got the plan, and we're
45:16
Speaker 15: ready to start governing and fixing this state from day one.
45:19
Speaker 15: That's what I'm focused on, because only majority government will
45:22
Speaker 15: deliver the fix that this state needs.
45:24
Speaker 2: All right. Jess Wilson, thank you so much for your time.
45:27
Speaker 15: Thanks, Shari.
45:29
Speaker 2: Still to come, Pete Hegseth reportedly setting his sights on
45:32
Speaker 2: the presidency and a shocking stabbing in Times Square outside
45:37
Speaker 2: the Bank of America. That's next. Well, the U.S. has
45:44
Speaker 2: carried out fresh strikes against Iran, retaliating against Tehran's attempts
45:49
Speaker 2: to lay mines in the state of Hormuz. And joining
45:52
Speaker 2: me now, News 24 contributor Koshia Garda. Koshia, look, Trump
45:55
Speaker 2: has also come out and said Iran is dead. It'll
45:58
Speaker 2: be totally wiped out as a country. Can you believe him?
46:03
Speaker 13: It feels, Shari, like week in and week out. Some
46:07
Speaker 13: version of the story is on rinse and repeat. And
46:09
Speaker 13: now it's been five, almost six months since it all
46:11
Speaker 13: started in February. And it feels like we're sort of
46:14
Speaker 13: just in the status quo, which is that both Tehran
46:17
Speaker 13: and Washington are continuing to exercise and fight the two
46:21
Speaker 13: levers that are available to them. Lever one is the straight. And, obviously,
46:25
Speaker 13: Tehran is trying to exert as much control as they can.
46:27
Speaker 13: If any tankers go through it in a way that
46:30
Speaker 13: they deem was not authorized, they hit them. That gives
46:33
Speaker 13: a permission structure to the Trump administration to do some
46:36
Speaker 13: sort of tit-for-tat back on that. And then the second
46:38
Speaker 13: one is the economic pressure. Both sides of the table
46:42
Speaker 13: understand the squeeze, the pressure points, the pain points on
46:45
Speaker 13: both sides for different reasons, and they're sort of just
46:47
Speaker 13: waiting that out. It's hard to believe that the pattern
46:50
Speaker 13: is going to change in any dramatic way unless something
46:53
Speaker 13: different happens. But so long as we're playing this game
46:55
Speaker 13: of these two levers, it feels like more of the same.
46:58
Speaker 6: Yeah.
46:58
Speaker 2: And it doesn't look like there's going to be a
46:59
Speaker 2: peace deal anytime soon. I mean, the difference was that
47:02
Speaker 2: these are the first serious strikes in about a month
47:05
Speaker 2: and a half. But, you know, you're right. I don't
47:07
Speaker 2: think there's going to be any resolution anytime soon unless
47:10
Speaker 2: Trump actually follows through on his threats. We'll wait to see. Now,
47:15
Speaker 2: there's rumours surfacing around Pete Hegseth, how he wants the
47:19
Speaker 2: top job as president. There's been this discussion previously that
47:22
Speaker 2: really it's J.D. Vance against Marco Rubio. Now Hegseth's emerging
47:27
Speaker 2: as a key figure. And there's a lot of talk
47:29
Speaker 2: about just how influential his wife, Jennifer, is as well.
47:34
Speaker 13: Yes, we, I guess, unofficially are in the 2028 presidential
47:38
Speaker 13: cycle already, even though we haven't even had the midterms.
47:41
Speaker 13: But as we all know, even a week is a
47:43
Speaker 13: lifetime in politics. Two years is an eternity. Whenever these
47:47
Speaker 13: stories come out, the cynical news person in Mishar is
47:49
Speaker 13: always wondering who leaked them. Did his camp leak them?
47:52
Speaker 13: Did the other camp leak them? They do this to
47:54
Speaker 13: sort of set it up as a trial balloon and
47:56
Speaker 13: see how the public reacts to it. But in general,
47:59
Speaker 13: he is not polling anywhere, like not even in the
48:03
Speaker 13: top 3%, 4%, if you will. It's sort of J.D.,
48:06
Speaker 13: Marco Rubio, even Trump Jr., DeSantis, names like that come
48:11
Speaker 13: up before him. That said, he has a platform. He
48:16
Speaker 13: is good-looking. He's telegenic. He understands how to traverse with
48:19
Speaker 13: the media. getting his name in the news. And so
48:23
Speaker 13: it's not surprising if he were to throw his hat
48:25
Speaker 13: in the ring, even though he is completely denying it.
48:27
Speaker 13: And I would say the odds are very long with him.
48:30
Speaker 13: As for his wife, she she seems to be reportedly
48:33
Speaker 13: somebody who has a little bit of a heavy hand,
48:35
Speaker 13: more involved in decisions, maybe unofficially. We've seen that before.
48:40
Speaker 13: Hillary Clinton, Jill Biden, that persona exists sort of for
48:44
Speaker 13: the wives and spouses of certain people.
48:46
Speaker 2: And I guess she's infuriating this reporting. People just want
48:48
Speaker 2: wives to stay silent. I mean, are there any other
48:51
Speaker 2: Are there ever any stories about, oh, husbands are becoming
48:54
Speaker 2: too influential. Stop getting advice from your husband. It's ridiculous.
48:57
Speaker 13: They criticize you if you are silent, like Melania.
49:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Before you go, tragic news today. The
49:05
Speaker 2: vice president of this Bank of America was murdered in
49:08
Speaker 2: Times Square. What do we know?
49:11
Speaker 13: Crazy story where this person who was mentally ill, by
49:14
Speaker 13: all reports, just wielded two knives on 41st Street and
49:17
Speaker 13: 7th Avenue, stabbed one person who's in critical condition but
49:20
Speaker 13: now stable, and then stabbed this other person who sadly
49:23
Speaker 13: was returning to work at Bank of America after being
49:27
Speaker 13: on maternity leave for five months. So she had a
49:29
Speaker 13: five-month-old baby. It's such a tragic story. It seems completely unprovoked.
49:33
Speaker 13: And another example of just crime being rampant in these
49:36
Speaker 13: big cities in America.
49:38
Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.
49:38
Speaker 2: I did want to get to as well the death
49:40
Speaker 2: penalty being available for the assassin of Charlie Kirk, but
49:42
Speaker 2: we'll have to cover that another day. Kosa Garda, great
49:45
Speaker 2: to see you as always. And thank you so much
49:48
Speaker 2: for your company tonight. I'll see you tomorrow at 8pm.
49:51
Speaker 2: Another big show right now. Paul Murray in the Man Cave.