Transcript

Credlin | 27 August · Credlin

0:07
Speaker 1: Good evening. Welcome to the program. In the mothership studio
0:10
Speaker 1: tonight in Sydney is what's coming up on the program.
0:13
Speaker 1: The Victorian Premier under fire over the secret levy to
0:16
Speaker 1: fund the suburban rail loop. Apologising today, promising to scrap
0:21
Speaker 1: the tax. but not so transparent when it comes to
0:24
Speaker 1: questions over how long he knew about this tax hit shocker.
0:29
Speaker 1: A terrible attack on a 10-year-old child outside of Victoria
0:33
Speaker 1: Police Headquarters in Melbourne. We learned today he was only
0:38
Speaker 1: in the city for brain cancer treatment. But wait until
0:41
Speaker 1: you see the extraordinary court exchange from the man accused
0:45
Speaker 1: of stabbing his mother. More on immigration too tonight. Legged
0:50
Speaker 1: details about where it's rumoured Labor will go on visa reform.
0:55
Speaker 1: A promised crackdown on international students and visa jumping. Yet
0:59
Speaker 1: nothing from the Coalition still tying itself in knots over
1:03
Speaker 1: numbers and policy inertia. An embarrassment today for the Prime
1:08
Speaker 1: Minister met with jeers at the Bush summit in Dubbo
1:11
Speaker 1: when he tried to defend Labor's record in regional Australia.
1:16
Speaker 2: Well, what worries me is over-regulation. I wouldn't care. And
1:22
Speaker 2: we need to do something about it.
1:26
Speaker 1: Country people, my good brethren, they have got a good
1:29
Speaker 1: BS meter. I'll come back to that in a moment.
1:32
Speaker 1: But first, just when you think it can't get any
1:35
Speaker 1: worse than the broken state of Victoria, well, it does. Yesterday,
1:39
Speaker 1: the bombshell report from the Auditor-General revealing that for 18 months,
1:43
Speaker 1: Victorian commuters have been paying a secret public transport tax, well,
1:49
Speaker 1: that made headlines for all the wrong reasons. Not only
1:53
Speaker 1: do we have taxpayers ripped off yet again, but the
1:56
Speaker 1: millions collected from this secret tax are were being used
2:00
Speaker 1: to help fund the controversial suburban rail loop project that
2:05
Speaker 1: nobody wants anyway. A $ 36 billion project funded by ever-increasing
2:12
Speaker 1: state debt, the SRL has now become a byword for
2:15
Speaker 1: waste that even Labor luminaries, like former Senator Stephen Conroy,
2:21
Speaker 1: can't defend.
2:23
Speaker 3: This is a dog of a project that the previous
2:26
Speaker 3: leadership committed Labor to. It's totally sabotaged the budget going
2:31
Speaker 3: forward and I would hope that they're able to do
2:34
Speaker 3: a lot more than just $ 2 billion in savings.
2:41
Speaker 1: What is a dog of a project? A railway line
2:43
Speaker 1: to nowhere that no-one needs or wants in a state
2:47
Speaker 1: that can't fix its roads, that's got ambulance ramping in
2:51
Speaker 1: hospitals and an out-of-control crime crisis that is now so
2:55
Speaker 1: bad you get headlines like this. It reads, child punched
3:00
Speaker 1: in the head on Melbourne Street was in city for
3:04
Speaker 1: brain cancer treatment. I mean, seriously? Can it get any
3:08
Speaker 1: worse than that? A 10-year-old boy from Phillip Island randomly
3:13
Speaker 1: attacked in broad daylight by a stranger in the Melbourne CBD.
3:18
Speaker 1: His mother, Cherie, then stabbed with scissors when she went
3:22
Speaker 1: to his aid. Both mum and son remain in hospital.
3:26
Speaker 1: And speaking of the attack, Cherie's brother, Kirk Holt, said
3:30
Speaker 1: this to Channel 9.
3:32
Speaker 4: Just absolutely disgusted. She's really struggling at the moment. She
3:36
Speaker 4: can't be with her son. It's traumatic enough fighting cancer.
3:41
Speaker 4: We're now looking to see if it's caused any extra damage,
3:43
Speaker 4: if there's any more inflammation around where the tumour is.
3:48
Speaker 1: Now, appearing in the Melbourne Magistrates Court yesterday via video link,
3:51
Speaker 1: the alleged attacker, 27-year-old Gerry Sowood, told the magistrate, there's
3:58
Speaker 1: no need to hide it, he said. At least they're
4:00
Speaker 1: both still breathing. So I kept my humanity intact. I'll
4:06
Speaker 1: come back to that story a little later. But honestly,
4:07
Speaker 1: you've got to feel for the people of Victoria. Failed
4:11
Speaker 1: at every turn facing crime in the city and the suburbs.
4:15
Speaker 1: Taxed to the hilt. and lied to time and time
4:18
Speaker 1: again by their government. Honestly, it doesn't matter which Labor
4:23
Speaker 1: politicians the Premier, the lies just keep coming. Today, in
4:29
Speaker 1: what is fast becoming the latest tactic used by Premier
4:34
Speaker 1: Ben Carroll to avoid proper media scrutiny, he fronted the
4:38
Speaker 1: cameras at 9.18am, just before the start of Parliament at 9.30am.
4:45
Speaker 1: Barely 12 minutes of transparency in front of the waiting
4:49
Speaker 1: media pack and all the while dodging any attempt to
4:52
Speaker 1: get to the bottom of his shock transport tax. As
4:56
Speaker 1: revealed yesterday, Carroll was the Minister for Public Transport when
5:00
Speaker 1: this tax hit was first signed off in the Daniel
5:04
Speaker 1: Andrews era. Here is opposition leader Liberal Jess Wilson on
5:09
Speaker 1: this point.
5:11
Speaker 5: Ben Carroll signed off on this secret tax when he
5:14
Speaker 5: was the Minister for Public Transport in 2021. And it's
5:18
Speaker 5: gone through various iterations over the years before it was
5:21
Speaker 5: secretly put on every single public transport fare in January
5:26
Speaker 5: last year. This is an incredible breach of trust with
5:30
Speaker 5: the Victorian people.
5:32
Speaker 1: Now, he was the minister at the time. As Jess
5:35
Speaker 1: Wilson says, if he wants to now say that when
5:38
Speaker 1: he was the minister, he knew nothing about this tax,
5:42
Speaker 1: then what does this say about the lack of proper processes,
5:46
Speaker 1: indeed cabinet government, during the Andrews era? If he really
5:50
Speaker 1: did know about it when it was first agreed, then
5:54
Speaker 1: how and when did he find out? Because clearly, before
5:59
Speaker 1: he was Premier, Ben Carroll was Jacinta Allen's deputy for
6:03
Speaker 1: almost three years, so Absolutely, he knew about this bombshell
6:08
Speaker 1: tax before the report hit yesterday. So when did he
6:12
Speaker 1: know and how did he find out? Two questions that
6:16
Speaker 1: today the Premier did his best to dodge.
6:20
Speaker 6: The public transport minister in 2021, when this was first
6:23
Speaker 6: cooked up, when did you first find out.
6:25
Speaker 4: About its existence?
6:26
Speaker 6: Richard, I will not relitigate the past. No, no, but
6:29
Speaker 6: except to say in 2021... I was a public transport
6:33
Speaker 6: minister that made sure our public transport system operated during COVID,
6:38
Speaker 6: got nurses to work, made sure vulnerable Victorians got the vaccine.
6:43
Speaker 6: And that was what I focus on every single day.
6:45
Speaker 1: What was your involvement in the decision making on this?
6:48
Speaker 6: I was not part of the creation.
6:51
Speaker 1: That is very clear. Even the new Deputy Premier, Gabrielle Williams,
6:57
Speaker 1: was today herself in the hot seat because, like Ben Carroll,
7:01
Speaker 1: she too once held the transport portfolio. Williams, though, well,
7:08
Speaker 1: she at least made some attempt at honesty.
7:10
Speaker 7: I was aware in the lead-up to that fare change
7:14
Speaker 7: on 1 January 2025. I was never aware that there
7:18
Speaker 7: had been any decision taken to withhold information about the charge.
7:25
Speaker 1: All credit here to my colleague, News 24 reporter Georgie Dickerson,
7:29
Speaker 1: who really took it up to the Premier.
7:32
Speaker 6: That is what I am doing today, announcing there was
7:34
Speaker 6: no transparency around this charge and I will abolish it.
7:37
Speaker 8: So it will be abolished from today?
7:39
Speaker 1: Is it happening from today?
7:40
Speaker 6: No, there will be a proper Cabinet process, but my
7:42
Speaker 6: recommendation to the Cabinet.
7:43
Speaker 1: So how long will that take?
7:45
Speaker 6: is going to be effective as soon as it can be.
7:48
Speaker 1: Dodge, dodge and dodge today. And after all, it was
7:52
Speaker 1: only a couple of weeks ago that he said when
7:54
Speaker 1: assuming the top job that integrity was no longer optional.
8:00
Speaker 6: In my government, integrity will not be optional.
8:05
Speaker 1: Well, that's a lie, Ben Carroll. Optional then and clearly,
8:09
Speaker 1: integrity is still optional now. At 9.30am, Ben Carroll was
8:14
Speaker 1: saved by the parliamentary bells as he scurried away hoping
8:18
Speaker 1: his latest crisis was behind him.
8:22
Speaker 6: I've saved Victorians $ 2 billion this week on this project.
8:26
Speaker 2: It will be delivered.
8:27
Speaker 6: It was being delivered on time and on budget and
8:30
Speaker 6: under my premiership will be delivered on time.
8:32
Speaker 1: And under budget.
8:32
Speaker 2: Thank you very.
8:39
Speaker 9: Much.
8:40
Speaker 1: 12 minutes of transparency, Victorians. That's all you get. That
8:43
Speaker 1: footage is damning. Even for Victoria, a state mired in crime,
8:48
Speaker 1: corruption and bad government, a two-year secret tax is a
8:52
Speaker 1: new low. And quick out of the box, Liberal HQ
8:57
Speaker 1: had this ad out on social media by mid-afternoon.
9:01
Speaker 3: What did you find out about this charge?
9:03
Speaker 1: I'm not going to stand here. I'm not going to
9:06
Speaker 1: stand here.
9:06
Speaker 6: I'm not going to stand here.
9:08
Speaker 1: And take questions on integrity.
9:11
Speaker 6: and relitigate the past.
9:13
Speaker 8: I'm not going to stand here and take questions on integrity.
9:17
Speaker 6: I'm not going to stand here and relitigate the past.
9:22
Speaker 1: Honestly, Victoria, what next? Right, let's head to Canberra now
9:30
Speaker 1: for the political headlines with our reporter, Cam Redden.
9:34
Speaker 10: Good evening.
9:34
Speaker 11: The Prime Minister has given his strongest indication yet of
9:37
Speaker 11: where the cuts will come when he announces an overhaul
9:41
Speaker 11: of the migration system.
9:43
Speaker 2: We're worried about trying to get the numbers right. Our
9:45
Speaker 2: priority and what we're really looking at as well is
9:48
Speaker 2: people who gain the system.
9:50
Speaker 11: Also at the Bush summit in Dubbo, a group of
9:53
Speaker 11: anti-renewables protesters make their voices known.
9:56
Speaker 6: What message do you have for people here whose lives
9:58
Speaker 6: and livelihoods.
9:59
Speaker 12: Are being up in?
10:00
Speaker 10: And they can't understand why?
10:01
Speaker 2: That I get it. We need to do better than that.
10:09
Speaker 11: Australia's Commissioner on Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence has spoken
10:12
Speaker 11: exclusively to News24 ahead of the release of the second
10:16
Speaker 11: National Action Plan.
10:18
Speaker 10: There are areas where we all know we are not
10:21
Speaker 10: seeing the improvement that the community wants and expects, particularly
10:25
Speaker 10: sexual violence where we're doing poorly.
10:28
Speaker 11: Michaela Cronin tells News 24 the next five-year action plan
10:31
Speaker 11: will place a premium on early intervention to ensure children
10:35
Speaker 11: never develop dangerous behaviours.
10:38
Speaker 10: I think we need to start as early as we
10:40
Speaker 10: can on every front. When we run education programs in schools,
10:44
Speaker 10: we also need to be running things parallel for parents.
10:47
Speaker 11: Cameron Redden, News 24, Canberra.
10:51
Speaker 1: All right, more now on the continuing fallout from that
10:54
Speaker 1: secret transport tax in Victoria. Let's bring in our Melbourne reporter,
10:58
Speaker 1: News 24's Georgie Dickerson. Georgie, welcome. Ben Carroll moved quickly
11:02
Speaker 1: today to scrap the contentious secret tax and he added
11:07
Speaker 1: an apology, but he refused to answer questions on when
11:10
Speaker 1: he first knew about the secret tax and why Victorians
11:14
Speaker 1: were kept in the dark.
11:18
Speaker 8: Yeah, he certainly wouldn't be drawn on exactly what he
11:20
Speaker 8: knew and when. He continuously told reporters he was not
11:23
Speaker 8: going to relitigate in the past, instead focusing on the
11:27
Speaker 8: transparency and.
11:28
Speaker 1: What was going to be coming in the.
11:30
Speaker 8: Future for Victorians as he announced that he does plan to.
11:33
Speaker 2: Scrap that tax.
11:34
Speaker 1: But as you heard earlier, I tried.
11:35
Speaker 8: To ask the Premier exactly how long Victorians.
11:38
Speaker 1: Will have to wait.
11:39
Speaker 8: Until that tax is scrapped, he couldn't tell me. He
11:42
Speaker 8: said it has to go through the proper cabinet process.
11:45
Speaker 8: So now Victorians are really in a state of limbo
11:47
Speaker 8: as to how long they'll actually have to wait until
11:50
Speaker 8: that additional charge is taken of public transport here in.
11:53
Speaker 1: Victoria, Peter. Yeah, it just did strike me as a
11:56
Speaker 1: bit unbelievable that he's got to follow a Cabinet process
12:00
Speaker 1: now to take off a bad tax, a hidden tax,
12:03
Speaker 1: a tax that Victorians did not know about. But clearly
12:08
Speaker 1: the processes in good government weren't there when it was
12:10
Speaker 1: thrown onto Victorian commuters. It's not plausible, Georgie, it's just
12:15
Speaker 1: not plausible that he was the Deputy Premier and he
12:18
Speaker 1: was clueless about this tax when even Gabrielle Williams... who
12:23
Speaker 1: followed him into the transport portfolio, admitted she knew all
12:27
Speaker 1: about it.
12:30
Speaker 8: Yeah, she was transport minister in December of 2024 when
12:34
Speaker 8: she was actually making an announcement about the updated fares.
12:37
Speaker 1: For the coming year.
12:37
Speaker 8: Of course, public transport fares in Victoria go up year
12:40
Speaker 8: on year, but that is when that additional 1% was
12:44
Speaker 8: added on.
12:45
Speaker 1: So she said she was aware of it.
12:46
Speaker 8: But wasn't aware that it was essentially being kept a secret.
12:50
Speaker 8: from Victorian communities. Of course, it is a 1% rise
12:53
Speaker 8: from January 2025. But, of course, as the Vargo report
12:57
Speaker 8: pointed out, that charge and that increase is likely to
13:01
Speaker 8: reach $ 8 billion by 2062, $ 4. 8 billion of that going
13:06
Speaker 8: directly to the SRL.
13:08
Speaker 1: Will Victorians get their money back, Georgie?
13:12
Speaker 8: It's unclear at this stage. Already more than $ 6 million
13:15
Speaker 8: has been brought in from that extra charge. The opposition
13:19
Speaker 8: leader today, Jess Wilson, saying that that money should be
13:22
Speaker 8: given back to taxpayers because they didn't know they were
13:25
Speaker 8: being charged that extra fee in the first place, Peter.
13:28
Speaker 1: Well, surely this is more pressure on the Premier now
13:30
Speaker 1: to scrap the whole horror show that is the SRL.
13:36
Speaker 8: Well, you'd think so, Peter, but today, or rather two
13:39
Speaker 8: days ago now, the Premier had first announced that he
13:42
Speaker 8: plans to have $ 2 billion in savings on the SRL.
13:46
Speaker 8: Of course, that was announced before the Auditor-General's report was
13:50
Speaker 8: brought out, but he's remained adamant today that they are
13:53
Speaker 8: looking at cost-saving measures. They have refused to pause and review.
13:56
Speaker 8: The opposition says if they win government come November 28,
13:59
Speaker 8: they will pause and review the SRL to see what
14:02
Speaker 8: has to happen to this project.
14:05
Speaker 1: And look, I want to pick up that shocking attack yesterday.
14:07
Speaker 1: The 10-year-old boy and his mum out the front, Georgie,
14:11
Speaker 1: of Victoria Police Headquarters. It was the middle of Melbourne
14:13
Speaker 1: it occurred. It was the middle of the day. We
14:16
Speaker 1: now learn the little boy was in Melbourne for brain
14:19
Speaker 1: cancer treatment. I mean, bad enough that he was attacked
14:23
Speaker 1: or allegedly attacked, the mother also too in hospital with
14:27
Speaker 1: stab wounds. But now you've got this offender in the court.
14:32
Speaker 1: Tell us what he had to say.
14:35
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's a completely horrific case, Peter. And it should
14:38
Speaker 8: be noted that where this incident actually occurred was outside
14:41
Speaker 8: Police HQ, the largest police station here in Melbourne. So
14:45
Speaker 8: police were very quick to jump on that alleged offender.
14:48
Speaker 8: But some of the horrific detail... Of that court hearing,
14:51
Speaker 8: he said that he'd punched the kid in the head,
14:52
Speaker 8: so admitted to doing it. I'm telling you what I did,
14:55
Speaker 8: and I'm saying there was no family that was torn apart.
14:58
Speaker 8: Even though I did what I did, the mum did
15:01
Speaker 8: not lose her child. He didn't apply for bail. He
15:04
Speaker 8: wasn't on bail at the time of the incident. His
15:06
Speaker 8: case will be heard back on November 18. But, of course,
15:09
Speaker 8: for this poor family, that poor 10-year-old child who's already
15:12
Speaker 8: battling cancer to have this horrific incident happen, it goes
15:16
Speaker 8: to levels of crime that we are really dealing here.
15:19
Speaker 8: within the Victorian state.
15:21
Speaker 1: And just quickly, any sense of what the motivation might
15:24
Speaker 1: have been today in the court?
15:28
Speaker 8: They've said it's completely random at this stage. Of course,
15:31
Speaker 8: police are continuing their investigations to hopefully bring some sort
15:35
Speaker 8: of closure to this family. But, of course, at this time,
15:37
Speaker 8: they're probably focusing on their little 10-year-old boy who remains
15:41
Speaker 8: in hospital. The mother is in an OK condition at
15:44
Speaker 8: this stage, but no doubt they're all shocked and traumatised
15:46
Speaker 8: by that horrific event.
15:48
Speaker 1: Hey, you might have missed my comments at the top
15:49
Speaker 1: of the show, but I said well done to you
15:50
Speaker 1: for taking it up to the Premier and putting him
15:52
Speaker 1: under some real pressure. I think everyone's screaming out for
15:55
Speaker 1: some transparency and honesty out of government at the moment.
15:58
Speaker 1: So well done you, Georgie. Stay on it. All right,
16:01
Speaker 1: let's go now to my panel. News 24 hosts James
16:04
Speaker 1: Morrow and Jamie Rogers. Because I'm in Sydney, they are
16:07
Speaker 1: both at the desk with me. This is a turn
16:10
Speaker 1: up for the books.
16:10
Speaker 7: Isn't it?
16:11
Speaker 13: It's great to be here with you in Sydney, yeah.
16:13
Speaker 1: Hey, I'll come to you. I know you're not a Melbournian,
16:16
Speaker 1: but you're a mum, Jamie. You hear a story like that,
16:19
Speaker 1: and I'll put allegedly, allegedly, allegedly around it, of course,
16:21
Speaker 1: but he made admissions in the magistrate's court. Kid gets thumped.
16:27
Speaker 1: Ten-year-old child who's in Melbourne for brain cancer treatment. Mum
16:31
Speaker 1: gets stabbed. And this is day normal in daylight in Melbourne.
16:36
Speaker 14: Peter, it's just horrific. When I read that story, my
16:39
Speaker 14: heart broke. especially the fact that it was out the
16:41
Speaker 14: front of police headquarters, which just really shows how out.
16:45
Speaker 1: Of control the crime is in Victoria.
16:47
Speaker 14: And another family is now going to be having lifelong trauma.
16:50
Speaker 14: The children couldn't have the lights off when they were
16:53
Speaker 14: in the hospital because there were other siblings there that
16:55
Speaker 14: witnessed what had happened with this alleged attack. But the
16:58
Speaker 14: fact that this 10-year-old boy, only a few years older
17:00
Speaker 14: than my own son, which is why it really hits
17:02
Speaker 14: home hard... And the fact that he is battling brain cancer,
17:07
Speaker 14: and as his uncle said in your editorial, they have
17:09
Speaker 14: to now assess that it's not going to cause more
17:11
Speaker 14: swelling around the tumour. So the fact that this family
17:15
Speaker 14: is going through something so traumatic. and they just randomly
17:18
Speaker 14: get attacked. I think Victorians have really been let down
17:22
Speaker 14: by their government that something like this just randomly happens
17:25
Speaker 14: in broad daylight out the front of the police headquarters.
17:28
Speaker 1: And it was Good Samaritans, actually, who wrestled the man
17:30
Speaker 1: to the ground. It wasn't the police.
17:32
Speaker 13: Yeah, it was actually passers-by. There was, I think, a
17:34
Speaker 13: Champion X weightlifter or something of that sort of order
17:37
Speaker 13: who had... been on the scene and they said, instinct
17:40
Speaker 13: just kicked in, which is of course great and it's
17:43
Speaker 13: wonderful that that happened, but it is just such an
17:46
Speaker 13: indictment of what has been happening in Melbourne. I think
17:49
Speaker 13: about what Melbourne was like 10 years ago, and it
17:52
Speaker 13: was this very lively, cosmopolitan city. And I was there
17:57
Speaker 13: a few weeks ago, and, you know, every time you
17:59
Speaker 13: see one of these surveys that says, oh, most liveable survey,
18:01
Speaker 13: you think, what Melbourne were they living in?
18:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm with you, James. I'm with you. Hey,
18:07
Speaker 1: let's go to Dubbo. I think we've got some footage
18:09
Speaker 1: of the Prime Minister today. I think he rolled up
18:11
Speaker 1: to town, thought he might get the welcome mat, but
18:14
Speaker 1: country people are pretty shrewd. Have a listen.
18:19
Speaker 7: Does it bother you that in regional communities, farmers see
18:22
Speaker 7: the Albanese government as the enemy?
18:23
Speaker 2: Oh, well, what worries me is over-regulation. I wouldn't care.
18:30
Speaker 2: And we need to do something about it.
18:33
Speaker 1: Well, over-regulation, we know who makes the regulation.
18:36
Speaker 13: And, you know, how many years has he been in power?
18:38
Speaker 13: How many years has the Labor government been in power?
18:41
Speaker 13: And they said, oh, well, you know, we really ought
18:42
Speaker 13: to do something about this problem that's been going on
18:45
Speaker 13: for four years under our watch. But the Bush summit today,
18:47
Speaker 13: the National Bush Summit in Dubbo, Such an extraordinary event
18:50
Speaker 13: because it's the one time when country people, people in
18:54
Speaker 13: the regions, really get to interface with the politicians, the policymakers.
18:59
Speaker 13: And I'll tell you what, Albanese, I hope he was
19:02
Speaker 13: listening to what people said because the people who spoke
19:05
Speaker 13: at that summit, people like Emma Webb from Yass, who
19:09
Speaker 13: was speaking about the unbelievable impact of these renewables projects
19:14
Speaker 13: smashing their communities. And he says, oh, well, you know, yeah,
19:16
Speaker 13: I get it.
19:17
Speaker 1: I hear you.
19:18
Speaker 13: He doesn't get it.
19:19
Speaker 1: They're not in Marrickville, are they?
19:20
Speaker 13: They are not in Marrickville. They don't have wind farms
19:23
Speaker 13: in Marrickville. If they did, I'd be processing those, too.
19:25
Speaker 13: But this was a great opportunity for him to see
19:31
Speaker 13: the anger on the ground. And, you know, there were
19:33
Speaker 13: people who talked about their farms hemmed all in on
19:36
Speaker 13: three sides by massive solar farms. They don't know what
19:39
Speaker 13: the value of their property is. And again, he says, oh, well,
19:43
Speaker 13: we have to balance you know, this and that. But
19:45
Speaker 13: it's all about this relentless net zero obsession and the
19:49
Speaker 13: fact that I think, you know, as many people said
19:51
Speaker 13: at the summit, this government doesn't treat country people with
19:55
Speaker 13: the same value and regard as people who live in
19:59
Speaker 13: their inner city electorates.
20:01
Speaker 1: Spot on. And just speaking there of renewables, Jamie, launched
20:04
Speaker 1: today in Victoria. It had been delayed, but it's just
20:07
Speaker 1: now been kicked off. This offshore wind auction, and we
20:11
Speaker 1: all know the travesty that is offshore wind, these huge
20:15
Speaker 1: monoliths sitting out in some of our most beautiful coastline areas.
20:19
Speaker 1: There was one set for Illawarra. It's being knocked off.
20:22
Speaker 1: Socialist Victoria is pursuing it and pursuing it hard. Billions
20:26
Speaker 1: of subsidies will be paid, billions of dollars of subsidies
20:29
Speaker 1: to foreign companies You're a competitive swimmer in the past.
20:36
Speaker 1: You tried to win the seat of Warringah, which of
20:39
Speaker 1: course includes Manly. This is not off the beaches of Manly.
20:43
Speaker 1: This is off the Victorian regional coast.
20:46
Speaker 14: And again, it's the regional areas that are expected to
20:49
Speaker 14: pick up the brunt of this renewable transition. But when
20:52
Speaker 14: it comes to this wind farm and this auction, it
20:56
Speaker 14: Victoria's energy security is really getting gambled right now because
20:59
Speaker 14: you look at the coal-fired power station in Yalloran, which
21:02
Speaker 14: is set to close down in mid-2028, and the auction
21:05
Speaker 14: today went live a year late, and they're not going
21:08
Speaker 14: to stop taking contracts until mid-next year, and then when
21:12
Speaker 14: they actually give out those contracts, it'll be 2028. So
21:15
Speaker 14: when is the government expecting... this to all start to work.
21:18
Speaker 14: So when that closes down with the coal-fired power station
21:20
Speaker 14: in 2028, this is the project that's supposed to be
21:23
Speaker 14: picking up that baseload power. And we also know that
21:26
Speaker 14: offshore wind farms are two times more expensive than onshore
21:29
Speaker 14: wind farms. So the cost alone of that, we need
21:32
Speaker 14: to stop having the government saying to everyone, oh, but
21:34
Speaker 14: it's cheaper, it's cheaper, that's why we're doing it. No,
21:37
Speaker 14: this is literally the most expensive form of energy and
21:40
Speaker 14: Victorians will end up picking up the bill when it
21:42
Speaker 14: comes to the taxpayers and probably having some real issues
21:45
Speaker 14: when it comes to energy security.
21:47
Speaker 1: And problems with migratory birds, problems with whales and other mammals. Yes. And,
21:51
Speaker 1: of course, these huge structures are left to rust in
21:55
Speaker 1: our oceans. We've seen this around the world.
21:57
Speaker 14: And they rust quickly because they're out in the elements
22:00
Speaker 14: in the saltwater. And we see what happens with boats
22:03
Speaker 14: and other.
22:04
Speaker 1: Materials that's out there. The salt is harsh.
22:06
Speaker 14: So it needs to be replaced more often than what
22:08
Speaker 14: we see on the land. And let's not forget how
22:10
Speaker 14: many times on the land they close down or they're
22:13
Speaker 14: not working. And it'll happen a lot more out in
22:16
Speaker 14: the ocean.
22:17
Speaker 1: Let's go to those leaks in the papers today. It
22:19
Speaker 1: was across the board, not just the Australian. I read
22:21
Speaker 1: the Australian, but it was also in the Financial Review.
22:24
Speaker 1: This is Labor's... started, then stalled and looks like back
22:27
Speaker 1: on again, migration reform. Tony Burke, a month ago or so,
22:32
Speaker 1: was supposed to front... the National Press Club. He didn't.
22:35
Speaker 1: That signals to me you've got some caucus revolt, probably
22:38
Speaker 1: a few issues in Cabinet. The League today says that
22:42
Speaker 1: they are going to do wholesale reform. So not just
22:45
Speaker 1: the numbers, and I don't believe they'll bring them down,
22:47
Speaker 1: but just beyond the numbers, they're talking about collapsing a
22:51
Speaker 1: whole lot of disparate visa categories, doing some deals in
22:54
Speaker 1: relation to students, stopping the visa hopping between visa classes.
22:59
Speaker 1: I have to admit, and I don't want to admit
23:01
Speaker 1: this to Tony Burke, but there's a lot in here
23:04
Speaker 1: that I could support, right? I do think there needs
23:06
Speaker 1: to be large-scale reform, but are Labor to be trusted
23:10
Speaker 1: to deliver it, James?
23:11
Speaker 13: Well, no, they're not. And I get what you're saying
23:14
Speaker 13: about liking some of the things that they're doing. And,
23:16
Speaker 13: you know, I can tell you a few months ago
23:19
Speaker 13: I had a chat to a university VC who was
23:22
Speaker 13: absolutely ropeable because, you know, they were jacking up the
23:24
Speaker 13: prices on visas and things like that. It was making
23:27
Speaker 13: it more difficult for people from some countries... to come
23:29
Speaker 13: in and his university was looking at a diminished bottom line.
23:32
Speaker 13: But I thought, well, you know, it's probably actually better
23:34
Speaker 13: for your university in the long run that you get
23:36
Speaker 13: off of the drip of these foreign students, because that's
23:39
Speaker 13: what's going on. And I think Labor, I think their
23:41
Speaker 13: internal numbers must be telling them that people are really,
23:45
Speaker 13: really tired of this. It's not just the one nation thing.
23:48
Speaker 13: This has been brewing for a long time. I don't
23:51
Speaker 13: trust them, though, because, you know, they're not doing anything
23:54
Speaker 13: about what do you do about the huge cohort of
23:57
Speaker 13: people who are simply here illegally. We love to say
24:00
Speaker 13: that we have a controlled immigration process here, Peta. We
24:03
Speaker 13: don't have America when they had the southern border under
24:06
Speaker 13: Joe Biden. It's all very orderly. But there's a lot
24:09
Speaker 13: of people here who have exhausted every single avenue of appeal,
24:11
Speaker 13: and they are still here. We can't get rid of them.
24:14
Speaker 13: And there's no appetite among labor to get serious about
24:17
Speaker 13: people who shouldn't be here. And I would also like
24:19
Speaker 13: to see them get serious about making sure people leave
24:23
Speaker 13: the country before they apply for some new visa so
24:27
Speaker 13: they can't just keep, as you say, hopping from, you know,
24:30
Speaker 13: vine to vine to vine, and then you wind up
24:32
Speaker 13: with people here who probably shouldn't be here, but they're
24:34
Speaker 13: here forever.
24:36
Speaker 1: What about the coalition, Jamie? I'm pretty critical. We haven't
24:38
Speaker 1: got a number from them, a lot of good sentiment,
24:41
Speaker 1: but nor have we got any policy details.
24:44
Speaker 14: I can understand the number, but what I would like
24:48
Speaker 14: them to be answering is to say, look, based on
24:50
Speaker 14: last year's housing supply, we would be bringing in $ 170, 000,
24:54
Speaker 14: instead of the answer being you'll get a number in
24:56
Speaker 14: due course, you'll get a number in due course, because
24:58
Speaker 14: I think that really frustrates people.
24:59
Speaker 1: The number's just a small component of it, right? It is.
25:02
Speaker 1: What about the reform? What about all the other things
25:04
Speaker 1: that we're reading today that Labor are exploring? Where's the
25:07
Speaker 1: coalition with this reform?
25:08
Speaker 14: And they should be going hard, too, because Albanese is
25:11
Speaker 14: also now just backtracked on the refugees that he was
25:14
Speaker 14: going to be bringing in. He said, no, no, no,
25:16
Speaker 14: we're sticking with the 20,000. So this is the perfect
25:18
Speaker 14: chance for the coalition to come out and say, well,
25:20
Speaker 14: this is the number that we would be bringing in.
25:22
Speaker 14: If you're based on the last election, it would be
25:24
Speaker 14: around that 13,000 mark.
25:26
Speaker 1: But you are right.
25:27
Speaker 14: This is a time where they should be coming out
25:28
Speaker 14: very strong with at least just the policy idea. And
25:31
Speaker 14: then the number can come later on. But I think
25:34
Speaker 14: that's across the board in lots of policy ideas, Peter.
25:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, but this is the problem, right, James? The policy
25:39
Speaker 1: constipation that we saw with Susan Lee and Peter Dutton
25:43
Speaker 1: eventually ended their times as leader. I saw Angus Taylor
25:48
Speaker 1: get to his feet in that address in reply in
25:50
Speaker 1: Budget Week. Cracker of a speech. Lots of elements in there.
25:55
Speaker 1: He won plaudits for days and days later and then
25:59
Speaker 1: they've hit the wall again.
26:00
Speaker 13: Well, they've hit the wall and, you know, I think
26:01
Speaker 13: there's a problem that they have with this idea that
26:04
Speaker 13: the dial goes up and down depending on housing because,
26:07
Speaker 13: you know, housing to people says, you know, that's crowding.
26:11
Speaker 13: That's also crowding our cities. So that means more people.
26:14
Speaker 13: So I think a lot of people will look at
26:15
Speaker 13: that and say, I actually don't want property developers to
26:18
Speaker 13: be in the driver's seat of how many people we
26:21
Speaker 13: bring into the country. I want Australia to be in
26:23
Speaker 13: the driver's seat for that. And I would love to see,
26:26
Speaker 13: and I think we've spoken about this before, some real
26:29
Speaker 13: boldness on this refugee question. Jamie just mentioned that Labor
26:31
Speaker 13: is not going to bring down the number. I would
26:33
Speaker 13: like to see a wholesale reinvention of the way we
26:36
Speaker 13: deal with refugees in this country. That refugee convention is
26:39
Speaker 13: one of the reasons why we have so many people
26:41
Speaker 13: here who are exhausting the Administrative Reviews Tribunal, all of
26:46
Speaker 13: this stuff, and they can stay forever. And they're not oppressed.
26:49
Speaker 13: They make up a story, and then some judge somewhere,
26:53
Speaker 13: and it kicks on and kicks on and kicks on,
26:55
Speaker 13: and it costs a fortune. And that needs to change
26:59
Speaker 13: before we do anything else.
27:00
Speaker 1: I'd limit appeals and I'd reform the appeal tribunal that
27:04
Speaker 1: they have now. I'd scrap a lot of the visa
27:07
Speaker 1: categories and, like you, I'd go hard on the convention.
27:09
Speaker 1: That's just a start. There you go, Angus Taylor. Four
27:11
Speaker 1: or five things. Get cracking. Alright, just before the break,
27:15
Speaker 1: this afternoon the Australian newspapers revealed that the government accidentally
27:17
Speaker 1: released cabinet documents without confidentially disclaimers. which were then passed
27:22
Speaker 1: on to witnesses for the Bondi Royal Commission. Now, yes,
27:25
Speaker 1: this is very embarrassing. But what's also interesting is that
27:29
Speaker 1: the documents were a review of the extremist de-radicalisation program
27:34
Speaker 1: called Step Together. Now, this is the program that has
27:38
Speaker 1: not been reviewed for more than six years, despite the
27:41
Speaker 1: millions being spent on it. and the fact that it
27:44
Speaker 1: was expanded nationally in July last year. Now, unfortunately, we
27:50
Speaker 1: don't know what was in the report that was erroneously disseminated.
27:54
Speaker 1: But as you know, I'd be very curious about how
27:58
Speaker 1: little we do know about these de-radicalisation programs. Clearly, the
28:03
Speaker 1: federal government has done an audit, but we are not
28:06
Speaker 1: being told whether these de-rad programs actually work for the
28:11
Speaker 1: millions we are spending. After the break, more on Australia's
28:16
Speaker 1: bleak property market and the impact, the continuing fallout from
28:20
Speaker 1: Jim Chalmers' bad budget. Plus, promising signs that corporate Australia
28:25
Speaker 1: might be getting a spine and starting to ditch woke.
28:29
Speaker 1: Ross Greenwood, coming up. Welcome back. Still to come, the
28:36
Speaker 1: latest on the Brumby Cull in New South Wales and
28:39
Speaker 1: this new alternative plan to save the wild horses. But first,
28:44
Speaker 1: as I said last night, nearly every day now we're
28:46
Speaker 1: getting a new story about Labor's botched budget and the
28:49
Speaker 1: litany of consequences that have come because of it. Today
28:52
Speaker 1: we learned that the number of properties listed for auction
28:55
Speaker 1: have almost halved this year, going from a peak of
28:58
Speaker 1: around 40% in March to now closer to 25%. Joining
29:01
Speaker 1: me now to discuss this and more on the desk
29:04
Speaker 1: as well, News 24's business editor, Ross Greenwood. You know,
29:09
Speaker 1: I can't remember another time where we're in August on
29:14
Speaker 1: the cusp of September, and we're still reeling from a
29:17
Speaker 1: bad budget. And almost every week, certainly every couple of days,
29:20
Speaker 1: we're getting another new unintended consequence as people have digged
29:24
Speaker 1: through the detail and seen that something they thought that
29:27
Speaker 1: might have been okay announced back in May has turned
29:30
Speaker 1: out to be a shocker.
29:31
Speaker 15: Well, that's right. And so the consequences, like the big consequence,
29:35
Speaker 15: is home prices are falling. Now, you'd sit there and
29:38
Speaker 15: say that the government may very well have decided that
29:41
Speaker 15: it wanted those home prices to fall because it says, well,
29:45
Speaker 15: we'll get investors out of the market and that'll give
29:47
Speaker 15: more opportunity to first home buyers. But the reality is
29:50
Speaker 15: there's no more homes being built. In fact, there's fewer
29:53
Speaker 15: homes being built. And the reason for that is because
29:56
Speaker 15: it's too expensive to build those homes. And while property
29:59
Speaker 15: prices are tanking... Builders don't build. That's just the pure
30:03
Speaker 15: mathematics of it. So then the second part of this
30:05
Speaker 15: is the mathematics of 13 or 14 million Australians own
30:10
Speaker 15: a home. They want those homes to at least maintain
30:13
Speaker 15: their value or to rise. So that's the maths. And
30:16
Speaker 15: then you've got around 110,000 to 120,000 people per year
30:20
Speaker 15: who are first home buyers, who really would like the
30:23
Speaker 15: home prices to fall. So you've got 14 million at
30:26
Speaker 15: one end, $ 120, 000 at the other end, and really you've
30:29
Speaker 15: got a great mismatch in the expectations and the outcomes.
30:32
Speaker 1: Just on those numbers, you're talking about that cohort that
30:36
Speaker 1: are madly trying to save as the prices look like
30:39
Speaker 1: they're falling to get into the home.
30:41
Speaker 15: That's right.
30:41
Speaker 1: Well, they're likely renters as well, right?
30:43
Speaker 15: That's it.
30:43
Speaker 1: So they're renters and rents are going up because the
30:45
Speaker 1: landlords are doing it tough. Because nobody's building.
30:48
Speaker 15: Yeah.
30:49
Speaker 1: And suddenly how do you save when your rent's going
30:51
Speaker 1: up to take advantage of of this momentary drop in
30:54
Speaker 1: the market?
30:54
Speaker 15: So what happens, what's the behavioural thing that happens? So
30:57
Speaker 15: what happens is that the investors stop investing, right? So
31:01
Speaker 15: what happens is that drives up the rents because there's
31:04
Speaker 15: not enough investment properties out there for the growing population,
31:07
Speaker 15: which goes back to the migration question. And then the
31:09
Speaker 15: second thing that happens is that because the family home
31:12
Speaker 15: is now taxed favourably, a lot of people say, well,
31:15
Speaker 15: I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going
31:17
Speaker 15: to do up my family home and I'm going to
31:19
Speaker 15: sit on that and I won't change that.
31:21
Speaker 1: So it makes the system more sclerotic. It doesn't free
31:24
Speaker 1: up stock.
31:24
Speaker 15: That's right.
31:25
Speaker 1: And, of course, if you're about to retire, this is
31:28
Speaker 1: a bad time to retire. If you want to downsize,
31:30
Speaker 1: you won't downsize. Again, that's a problem. But if you
31:34
Speaker 1: have to sell... If you're going through a divorce or
31:37
Speaker 1: any other sort of personal.
31:38
Speaker 15: Or you've lost a business, whatever it might be, they're
31:39
Speaker 15: the main reasons why people sell. You're going to become unemployed.
31:43
Speaker 15: And remember also the unemployment rate is now starting to
31:45
Speaker 15: tick up. So there will be ultimately some people who
31:48
Speaker 15: are forced to sell homes. And in those cases, they're
31:52
Speaker 15: really going to have to accept what the market's going
31:55
Speaker 15: to offer.
31:55
Speaker 1: Now, is that a 5% fall.
31:56
Speaker 15: A 10% fall, a 12%? Where does it land? So
31:58
Speaker 15: what's the bottom out here? Well, the bottom, some people
32:03
Speaker 15: are suggesting it's 10%. It's already down in Melbourne and
32:06
Speaker 15: Sydney by between 4% and 5%, and probably in some
32:09
Speaker 15: suburbs even greater than that. But, of course, the forced
32:13
Speaker 15: seller is always going to have to accept what the
32:15
Speaker 15: buyer is wanting to offer, and so that's why the
32:18
Speaker 15: bargains will turn up.
32:19
Speaker 9: Mm.
32:20
Speaker 15: But the second part about this is it's about trying
32:22
Speaker 15: to skew more investment into new homes to try and
32:26
Speaker 15: get developers to start to build. The problem there is
32:29
Speaker 15: the people who want to buy first homes need to
32:31
Speaker 15: pay probably $ 800, 000 tops.
32:32
Speaker 1: They can't pay the $ 1. 3 to $ 1.
32:33
Speaker 15: 5 million that is needed for a developer of a
32:36
Speaker 15: new home to make a profit. And unless a developer
32:43
Speaker 15: can feel as though they've got a good chance of
32:45
Speaker 15: making a profit, they don't build. And so the problem
32:48
Speaker 15: keeps on just rolling along.
32:51
Speaker 1: OK, the banks are writing less loans.
32:53
Speaker 13: Yes.
32:53
Speaker 1: So their book's going to fall. And if their book falls,
32:56
Speaker 1: it's probably going to have some sort of market shift,
32:59
Speaker 1: market hit or profitability hit. And we've all got banking shares,
33:03
Speaker 1: most of us in our super, if not more. What's
33:06
Speaker 1: this done politically to Jim Chalmers? Because He fancies himself
33:11
Speaker 1: to take on the top job. after Albanese exit stage left.
33:15
Speaker 1: How's he seen out there in the real world?
33:18
Speaker 15: Well, look, I think the truth is that Jim Chalmers
33:21
Speaker 15: is an exceptional communicator. There is no doubt about that.
33:24
Speaker 15: But the fact of the matter is that the government.
33:26
Speaker 1: But he's selling a dog.
33:27
Speaker 15: Yeah, well, that's right. The government has now got to
33:28
Speaker 15: be accountable for trying to sell a message that the community,
33:32
Speaker 15: the 14 million homeowners, don't want to buy.
33:35
Speaker 7: Yeah.
33:35
Speaker 15: Because they can see it's affecting their hip pocket in
33:37
Speaker 15: some way. Now, it is fair to say that while
33:40
Speaker 15: you had three interest rate cuts in an election year...
33:43
Speaker 15: Home prices, home values after COVID move pretty rapidly ahead.
33:47
Speaker 15: And so a lot of people are happy to sit
33:48
Speaker 15: on that profit and if it drops off by 10%,
33:50
Speaker 15: they can wear it. But there's a group in our
33:53
Speaker 15: community who can't wear that, who may be going into retirement,
33:56
Speaker 15: who have really banked the idea that this home is
33:59
Speaker 15: worth this price. And this is where there's going to
34:02
Speaker 15: be disgruntlement at the government. over its measures, because this
34:05
Speaker 15: is really an own goal. This is of their making.
34:08
Speaker 15: This is about the redistribution of the wealth in Australia
34:12
Speaker 15: versus the growing of the pie, which the Business Council
34:15
Speaker 15: this week told the Prime Minister when he was sitting
34:18
Speaker 15: there and was a guest speaker at their annual dinner.
34:20
Speaker 1: And again, I say this, and this happens with all
34:22
Speaker 1: of their policies at the moment. It's Labor's people that
34:25
Speaker 1: are being hurt here. It's not the rich. They're insulated, right? Yep.
34:28
Speaker 1: It's not the welfare class, the true welfare class, because
34:31
Speaker 1: they've got a safety net under them. It's middle class
34:34
Speaker 1: to lower income Australians that are hit fairly severely.
34:37
Speaker 15: Who feel like they're working their guts out right now.
34:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, and going nowhere. And this is it.
34:40
Speaker 15: And you've got probably two people working in that family.
34:43
Speaker 15: They've got to have kids in childcare. They prefer to
34:46
Speaker 15: have more time with their kids. So you're right, the
34:48
Speaker 15: stresses are growing in those families. But then on top
34:50
Speaker 15: of that, you've had three interest rate rises this year
34:52
Speaker 15: from the Reserve Bank. And now the markets are telling
34:55
Speaker 15: you there's going to be another one. And the reason
34:58
Speaker 15: for that is because homegrown inflation. The government can't now
35:02
Speaker 15: point at the Middle East and say, ah, it's all
35:04
Speaker 15: inflation that's come from... No. What really economists are saying,
35:07
Speaker 15: and what you saw in the inflation report yesterday, is
35:10
Speaker 15: this is homegrown inflation. This is wages rising. This is
35:14
Speaker 15: the fact that despite the fact that you've had the
35:16
Speaker 15: three interest rate rises and home prices are falling... Many
35:19
Speaker 15: Australians are literally still spending money. And so as a result,
35:23
Speaker 15: another interest rate rise is likely. Now, it's often said
35:27
Speaker 15: that you don't really feel the genuine pain. It's a
35:29
Speaker 15: bit like the straws on a camel's back. You know,
35:32
Speaker 15: the camel stands up fine until you put the last
35:34
Speaker 15: straw on. And the interesting thing is interest rate rises
35:37
Speaker 15: are just like that. You don't feel the economy sort
35:40
Speaker 15: of tend to cripple itself until you put the final
35:43
Speaker 15: interest rate rise on. Now, you wonder whether that's enough
35:46
Speaker 15: or is there one more after that as well?
35:47
Speaker 1: Quickly, quickly, quickly. Woodside, are we still in the end
35:50
Speaker 1: of woke? They've stepped away from some of these big
35:53
Speaker 1: multi-billion dollar green energy policies.
35:56
Speaker 15: Well, they've just had to simply because it doesn't work.
35:59
Speaker 1: So, yes? Yeah, the answer is yes.
36:00
Speaker 9: Yeah, good. 100%.
36:01
Speaker 15: And there's going to be more companies will do the
36:03
Speaker 15: same thing. Because they can ultimately see that these policies
36:07
Speaker 15: are leading them down a path where it's way too
36:10
Speaker 15: expensive and really not justifiable to their shareholders that they
36:14
Speaker 15: are accountable to.
36:15
Speaker 1: Got to leave it there. The boys are in my ear.
36:16
Speaker 1: That's OK. Thanks, Ross.
36:17
Speaker 4: No problems.
36:18
Speaker 1: All right, quick break. After the break, we're going to
36:20
Speaker 1: get into the Brumby story and get you an update
36:24
Speaker 1: that looks like there might be a very slight reprieve.
36:26
Speaker 1: It's temporary, but I'll get you the details in a moment.
36:34
Speaker 1: Welcome back. Still to come, the court case that's dividing America.
36:36
Speaker 1: Mother Lindsay Clancy claims postpartum depression drove her to kill
36:40
Speaker 1: her three children. The political fallout here too is huge.
36:45
Speaker 1: But first, that update I promised you on the Brumby
36:47
Speaker 1: Cull in New South Wales because I know so many
36:50
Speaker 1: of you have written to me on this issue. There's
36:52
Speaker 1: been a temporary reprieve, at least for some of these
36:56
Speaker 1: wild horses, with a last-minute court bid halting the culling
37:01
Speaker 1: at Eurega National Park. The cull was set to start
37:05
Speaker 1: this week, but it will now be on hold until
37:07
Speaker 1: the matter returns to the court on the 9th of September.
37:11
Speaker 1: Joining me now, though, someone who's right across the detail
37:13
Speaker 1: of the cull to date, Managing Director of the Umbungo
37:16
Speaker 1: South Wild Brumby Sanctuary in New South Wales Riverina, Jenny Cole. Jenny,
37:22
Speaker 1: I am not over-exaggerating here when I say the Brumby
37:26
Speaker 1: cause is hugely popular with my viewers. They've contacted me.
37:32
Speaker 1: I'm so glad to have you here. What's the latest
37:35
Speaker 1: in the cull? You're out there on the front line, really.
37:39
Speaker 1: What can you tell us?
37:40
Speaker 12: Well, look, the hard thing at the moment is that
37:42
Speaker 12: the New South Wales Labor government is just not listening.
37:45
Speaker 12: We've got thousands and thousands of people signing petitions. We've
37:49
Speaker 12: had hundreds of people writing to the minister. We've had
37:52
Speaker 12: us putting together our fully costed proposal to government, multiple contacts,
37:58
Speaker 12: multiple respectful contacts with government and virtually no response. interaction
38:03
Speaker 12: at all. So it's just a closed door.
38:05
Speaker 1: And this is the Minister, Penny Sharpe. She's not returning.
38:08
Speaker 1: She's not even prepared to have an argument. No, nothing.
38:11
Speaker 12: And I guess that's what's really hard, too, is that
38:13
Speaker 12: people in Brumby world feel that there's absolutely nobody listening
38:17
Speaker 12: here in government. And yet they're listening very closely to
38:21
Speaker 12: the pro-coal lobby, which credits itself for changes in policy
38:25
Speaker 12: and which... basically is providing the words that the government
38:29
Speaker 12: is then speaking. So there's a real asymmetry in access.
38:32
Speaker 12: There's a real asymmetry in funding. You know, the government's
38:36
Speaker 12: spending millions of dollars funding mass killing of these wild
38:39
Speaker 12: horses and not investing one single cent beyond the trapping
38:44
Speaker 12: process into the non-lethal option, which is trapping, sorry, which
38:48
Speaker 12: is rehoming and sanctuary. So there's this massive asymmetry. And
38:53
Speaker 12: where we find the real challenge here is that Nobody
38:57
Speaker 12: actually knows how many horses are in that park. We
39:00
Speaker 12: know that the numbers are contested and last week Penny
39:03
Speaker 12: Sharp herself admitted that they're contested. The count from 2024
39:06
Speaker 12: to 2025, the raw count, only went up 19%. which
39:13
Speaker 12: is within the upper limits of natural biological increase. And
39:17
Speaker 12: yet when the numbers come out as an excuse for
39:20
Speaker 12: mass killing of these horses, suddenly it's up, by its estimates, 165%.
39:24
Speaker 12: It doesn't pass the pub test.
39:26
Speaker 1: I was going to say, do you think part of
39:27
Speaker 1: this is they're looking for the complete eradication of the horse? population,
39:31
Speaker 1: absolutely never to be seen again?
39:33
Speaker 12: That's our instinct. And certainly that's what the Invasive Species
39:38
Speaker 12: Council strategy is. Their strategy first was to lobby for
39:42
Speaker 12: reintroduction of aerial culling, which happened when the Labor government
39:45
Speaker 12: got in. Now they're saying they want no horses there
39:48
Speaker 12: at all, not even in retention zones. And our concern
39:51
Speaker 12: is that when they don't even know how many are there,
39:54
Speaker 12: the current management plan is in place till 2027. And
39:57
Speaker 12: yet they're killing these horses and removing them from the
40:00
Speaker 12: retention zone as well. And as far as we're concerned,
40:04
Speaker 12: we might be seeing the removal of the last horses and.
40:06
Speaker 1: Who would know. Well, we don't have a lot of
40:08
Speaker 1: time to save these horses. So let's focus on the politics.
40:11
Speaker 1: There's a state election in March in New South Wales.
40:14
Speaker 4: Yes.
40:15
Speaker 1: So you've got a prime opportunity. My view is you've
40:17
Speaker 1: got a prime opportunity there. To make a difference, contacting
40:20
Speaker 1: Penny Sharp is a brick wall. Yes. Chris Minns is
40:24
Speaker 1: the Premier. If anyone can overrule the Minister, it is
40:27
Speaker 1: Chris Minns. Have you had a meeting with Chris Minns? No.
40:31
Speaker 12: We wrote to Chris Minns when we hit a brick
40:33
Speaker 12: wall with Penny Sharp and her office and we asked
40:36
Speaker 12: for him to intervene on a governance issue and to
40:38
Speaker 12: actually talk with us and to look at the oversight.
40:40
Speaker 1: At least hear you out. At least hear us out.
40:42
Speaker 12: We didn't even get a thank you for writing to
40:44
Speaker 12: us from him.
40:45
Speaker 1: That's not good enough. Not good enough. And you've got
40:48
Speaker 1: support from the National Party. You've got support from One Nation.
40:51
Speaker 1: You've got terrific support from Angus Taylor. I've seen him
40:54
Speaker 1: on his horse. He's a huge supporter of the Brumbies.
40:58
Speaker 1: But where are the New South Wales Liberals?
41:01
Speaker 12: As far as we're aware, the current New South Wales
41:04
Speaker 12: Liberals are pro-cull and we are at a loss to
41:07
Speaker 12: understand why.
41:08
Speaker 1: OK, wake up, Liberals. Come on, wake up, Liberals.
41:10
Speaker 12: Particularly because there is a non-lethal alternative and that alternative
41:15
Speaker 12: has never been funded. Can you tell me honestly that
41:18
Speaker 12: aerial culling or even ground shooting would succeed if you
41:20
Speaker 12: didn't spend money on it?
41:21
Speaker 15: No.
41:22
Speaker 1: And so we.
41:23
Speaker 12: Need the Liberal Party and to join the Nationals and
41:26
Speaker 12: others to to support rehoming.
41:28
Speaker 1: Why don't you have a trial, Jenny? Why don't you
41:30
Speaker 1: have a trial of what you're putting up? Well, that's
41:32
Speaker 1: what we've asked for. Closed door. All right. Well, we'll
41:35
Speaker 1: keep up the pressure. All credit to you and all
41:38
Speaker 1: the work that you do. Thank you. And I'll keep
41:40
Speaker 1: doing my best here to raise awareness. Thank you.
41:43
Speaker 13: Liberals.
41:45
Speaker 1: New South Wales Liberals, I've got my eye on you.
41:46
Speaker 1: Please listen to Angus Taylor. Angus, pick up the phone,
41:49
Speaker 1: call your counterparts in New South Wales and tell them
41:51
Speaker 1: to lift their game and please at home, contact Chris Minns,
41:55
Speaker 1: contact the New South Wales Liberals and let's see where
41:58
Speaker 1: this goes. Quick break. After the break, imagine if a
42:01
Speaker 1: father was charged with murdering his three children as opposed
42:05
Speaker 1: to a mother. Would there be protesters in support of
42:09
Speaker 1: him like there is for her outside the court? Welcome back.
42:16
Speaker 1: Let's jump into the news around the world with my
42:19
Speaker 1: international panel, News24 contributor Kosha Garda and former Labor MP
42:23
Speaker 1: Michael Damby, who joins us tonight from Vietnam. Michael, you're
42:27
Speaker 1: away offshore. I want to go to some... Shocking scenes
42:31
Speaker 1: out of Nepal, if I can. That footage, really hard
42:34
Speaker 1: to watch. I'll give you a warning, please, at home.
42:37
Speaker 1: It's a flash flood, Michael. And look, we all know
42:39
Speaker 1: what a flash flood is. But this shocked me when
42:43
Speaker 1: I saw the images earlier today. The absolute force of
42:46
Speaker 1: that water... I mean, I can't imagine if you saw
42:49
Speaker 1: it coming for you that you'd have any opportunity to
42:51
Speaker 1: get out of the way. I know we've got Australians
42:54
Speaker 1: missing and we can only hope and pray that the
42:57
Speaker 1: numbers of those we're told have not been found, that
43:00
Speaker 1: that number comes down. But, Michael, your thoughts?
43:05
Speaker 16: It's said to be on the Nepalese-China border, but it's
43:08
Speaker 16: in fact Old Tibet, Nepal and Tibet, and that's probably
43:13
Speaker 16: why there are so many Australians there.
43:15
Speaker 9: And....
43:18
Speaker 16: I am surprised at the amount of environmental degradation in
43:21
Speaker 16: the high Himalayas, but that's largely due to the incredibly
43:27
Speaker 16: abusive way Beijing treats the Himalayas. So I think that's
43:35
Speaker 16: at least partially responsible for the vast erosion on the
43:38
Speaker 16: hillsides and the depletion of the, they call it the
43:41
Speaker 16: third ice cap in the world.
43:43
Speaker 1: Let's go to that trial, a murder trial in the US.
43:46
Speaker 1: Lindsay Clancy is the mother's name, alleged to have killed
43:50
Speaker 1: her three children, eight, five and three. Mental health is
43:55
Speaker 1: the key issue here. Prosecutors say she deliberately killed the children. Defence,
44:00
Speaker 1: they say she was experiencing postpartum psychosis. Hugely polarising case
44:06
Speaker 1: in the US, Koshu, and I said going into the break,
44:09
Speaker 1: I don't suspect if a dad had been accused of
44:12
Speaker 1: killing three of his children, there would be the sort
44:14
Speaker 1: of pro-Lindsay protests that we're seeing out the front of
44:18
Speaker 1: the court, would we? Probably not.
44:22
Speaker 17: I think, you know, in the court of public opinion,
44:25
Speaker 17: there's this swath of society that's very feminized, very much
44:30
Speaker 17: they see everything through the framework of paternalism, and somehow
44:34
Speaker 17: it's either the system's fault and she's a victim of
44:36
Speaker 17: the system or the victim of a culture that led
44:39
Speaker 17: her to do this. That's where I think those people
44:41
Speaker 17: are litigating this. The fan club, for lack of a
44:44
Speaker 17: better word, outside the courthouse, see it as some sort
44:46
Speaker 17: of indictment of that.
44:48
Speaker 1: Now, that is part of the picture, for sure.
44:51
Speaker 17: The ex-husband has filed a civil suit against one of
44:54
Speaker 17: the psychiatrists that she was seeing, who prescribed her all
44:57
Speaker 17: manner of drugs without doing a full assessment of what
45:00
Speaker 17: other drugs she had been prescribed on previously. And that's
45:03
Speaker 17: going to run its course in the civil courts. So
45:05
Speaker 17: that's certainly a factor. But it should not obfuscate or
45:08
Speaker 17: take away from the act, the heinous act that she
45:11
Speaker 17: did commit. But it's all coming down to ultimately she
45:14
Speaker 17: will be locked up and nobody's denying that. But is
45:16
Speaker 17: she going to be locked up in a mental institution
45:18
Speaker 17: or in a prison? And that's what has gripped the
45:21
Speaker 17: nation and really the world in this story.
45:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just so sad. Let's go to that starting
45:26
Speaker 1: exchange between Fox News host Jesse Water and Michigan Democrat
45:31
Speaker 1: Senate nominee Abdul El-Saeed. This is on Sharia law. Let's
45:35
Speaker 1: have a look.
45:37
Speaker 11: You said getting rid of Sharia law was white supremacy.
45:41
Speaker 1: Can you explain that one?
45:45
Speaker 9: Do you know what canon law is, Jesse?
45:47
Speaker 1: I assume you're Christian, right? Yeah, tell me.
45:51
Speaker 9: All right, so canon law is the name for Christian law.
45:54
Speaker 9: I don't begrudge you your right to practice your faith
45:56
Speaker 9: as you choose. I don't know why the idea that
45:59
Speaker 9: I could practice my faith as I choose is a problem.
46:02
Speaker 9: Nobody is trying to push Sharia law on anyone else,
46:05
Speaker 9: just like I hope nobody is trying to push canon
46:07
Speaker 9: law on anybody else.
46:10
Speaker 1: Well, I'll let you speak for Jews there, Michael, but
46:12
Speaker 1: I'd have to say for Christians, our law, canon law,
46:15
Speaker 1: Christian canon law, rarely breaches Australian law. But I tell
46:20
Speaker 1: you what, the rules of Sharia law absolutely do. How
46:25
Speaker 1: can you make this sort of comment?
46:27
Speaker 16: Well, I'll say it is that epitome of that system
46:34
Speaker 16: of the Red-Green Alliance. And the Green Alliance is the
46:37
Speaker 16: Islamist tradition that does highlight Sharia law. It's something he's
46:44
Speaker 16: trying to evade because Michigan, with its city of Detroit,
46:48
Speaker 16: should be a Democrat city. But I think if anyone's
46:54
Speaker 16: going to defeat the Democrats in the Senate, it's going
46:57
Speaker 16: to be El-Sayed.
46:59
Speaker 1: Where's this headed, Kosha?
47:02
Speaker 17: He, I think, knows exactly what he's doing, to be
47:05
Speaker 17: perfectly blunt, where he is riding the wave of demographics
47:09
Speaker 17: which favor him, and he's riding the wave of the
47:11
Speaker 17: coalition of the fringes, that there's just enough of these
47:14
Speaker 17: fringe elements in society— and he's surmised in that electorate— that will
47:18
Speaker 17: come together, despite what he says. They're probably not even
47:20
Speaker 17: listening to what he says. They probably don't understand what
47:22
Speaker 17: canon law means. And he knows that, but he comes
47:25
Speaker 17: across in a good package. He sounds good to people
47:28
Speaker 17: that aren't paying attention too deeply, and they will vote
47:30
Speaker 17: based on party lines and based on the fact that
47:33
Speaker 17: he somehow is representing the oppressed. That seems to be
47:35
Speaker 17: the framework. And I think it's going to be very,
47:37
Speaker 17: very close. Even though the Republican candidate is strong, this
47:40
Speaker 17: is going to be a complete squeaker. It is certainly
47:43
Speaker 17: not in the bag for the Republicans at all.
47:45
Speaker 16: Peter and Koshy, the mere fact that he appears on
47:47
Speaker 16: Fox shows that he's tacking to the centre. So he's
47:51
Speaker 16: a dangerous extreme leftist.
47:53
Speaker 3: Smart one.
47:55
Speaker 15: Yeah, well.
47:56
Speaker 1: Just quickly, Koshu, if I can, you know, this big
47:59
Speaker 1: payout for Meta, this is on stronger measures to protect children.
48:04
Speaker 1: Will we see this money in Australia, do you think?
48:08
Speaker 1: I think so, possibly.
48:09
Speaker 17: I mean, it's really a rounding error for Meta. 18
48:11
Speaker 17: billion US dollars is nothing. But what the significance of
48:14
Speaker 17: it is, is it was a jury trial that led
48:17
Speaker 17: to that defense. And that just continues to pierce at
48:19
Speaker 17: that argument. It sets a precedent that courts around the
48:22
Speaker 17: world will continue to look at. It probably shifts responsibility
48:26
Speaker 17: from parenting into these platforms. But broadly speaking, it's piercing,
48:30
Speaker 17: I think, the power structure that big tech has become.
48:33
Speaker 17: And in that sense, it is something that I think
48:35
Speaker 17: will have legs.
48:36
Speaker 1: Well, thank you to you both. Thank you to my
48:38
Speaker 1: wonderful viewers. Enjoy a lovely weekend, even though it's not
48:41
Speaker 1: the weekend yet. It certainly is for me. I will
48:44
Speaker 1: see you on Monday. Here's the Bolt Report.