Latest / The Kenny Report / The Kenny Report | 16 January

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The Kenny Report | 16 January · The Kenny Report

0:01
Speaker 1: Line from the Skying New Center.
0:03
Speaker 2: This is the Kenny Report.
0:06
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining me tonight.
0:07
Speaker 3: That peace deal in the Middle East, why it's not
0:10
Speaker 3: as good as it seems, and why it's not President
0:12
Speaker 3: Joe Biden's achievement.
0:14
Speaker 1: I'll talk to Alexander Downer.
0:16
Speaker 3: The La Bushfires, a sixty year old film, shows you
0:20
Speaker 3: can forget about blaming climate change and focus on how
0:24
Speaker 3: California failed to learn all the lessons of the past.
0:28
Speaker 1: The nuclear debate in Australia.
0:29
Speaker 3: Here is from a unique new advocate, a beauty Quinn
0:33
Speaker 3: turned nuclear engineer.
0:36
Speaker 4: I think it's up to the Australian people to really
0:38
Speaker 4: choose what they want for their energy transition and what
0:41
Speaker 4: they want their energy grid to look like. So I
0:43
Speaker 4: firmly believe that the band should be lifted.
0:46
Speaker 3: More from Grace Thanky later, also Keith Pitt on why
0:49
Speaker 3: he's quitting politics, and Tim Blair and Mark Nicholson in
0:52
Speaker 3: their first hit out of the year, Let's get started.
0:58
Speaker 3: Every sane person and wants peace in the Middle East,
1:01
Speaker 3: and therefore we welcome the prospect of the ceasefire ideal
1:05
Speaker 3: coming into effect in Gaza on Sunday. But just as
1:09
Speaker 3: the foreshadowed yesterday, There's much to be worried about. The
1:13
Speaker 3: politicians are falling over themselves to proclaim victory, which is unseemly.
1:18
Speaker 3: There's a sense of mission accomplished about that.
1:23
Speaker 5: More than fifteen months of terror for the hostages. They're
1:26
Speaker 5: families Israeli people, more than fifteen months of suffering by
1:32
Speaker 5: the innocent people of Gaza. Fighting in Gaza will stop,
1:37
Speaker 5: and soon the hostage will return home to their families.
1:41
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, but how many hostages and how many have
1:46
Speaker 3: been killed? What about the Bibas family, mother, father, two
1:51
Speaker 3: tiny little boys, the youngest due to turn two on
1:54
Speaker 3: the weekend.
1:56
Speaker 1: Will they be freed or are they dead?
1:59
Speaker 3: Hostages will still be held after Sunday? And what about
2:03
Speaker 3: the macabre agreement for hummas to hang on to the
2:07
Speaker 3: bodies of the dead hostages use them as bargaining tools
2:12
Speaker 3: for stage three of the agreement? How sickeningly evil? And
2:17
Speaker 3: what of the hundreds, perhaps thousands of hummus prisoners to
2:21
Speaker 3: be freed. How can murderous terrorists imprisoned for their crimes
2:27
Speaker 3: be exchanged for innocent hostages who never should have been taken,
2:32
Speaker 3: and whose every minute of torture and terror has been
2:35
Speaker 3: a war crime on repeat. The deal reportedly includes nauseating
2:41
Speaker 3: formulas like thirty Palestinian prisoners for every civilian hostage, fifty
2:47
Speaker 3: prisoners for every female Israeli soldier hostage. It's precisely this
2:53
Speaker 3: sort of bargaining and the fact that Hummas terrorists remain
2:57
Speaker 3: in place in Gaza that saw Garusans celebrating the deal
3:02
Speaker 3: shouting alawa akbar along with the usual threats against Israel.
3:24
Speaker 3: Are these people the victims of starvation and genocide at
3:28
Speaker 3: the hands of Israel, as so many activists and leftist
3:31
Speaker 3: politicians claim, or are they defiant and triumphant terrorists, well
3:36
Speaker 3: fed and well armed. Still Outgoing US President Joe Biden
3:41
Speaker 3: sees this as his crowning glory.
3:45
Speaker 5: After eight months of NonStop negotiation my administration, by my administration,
3:51
Speaker 5: a cease fire and Hasia's deal has been reached by
3:54
Speaker 5: Israel Hamas, the elements of which I lead out in
3:58
Speaker 5: gap detail in May this year. This plan was developed
4:03
Speaker 5: and negotiated by my team and will be largely implemented
4:07
Speaker 5: by the incoming administration.
4:10
Speaker 3: Well, sure, mister President, you're talking about May last year,
4:14
Speaker 3: but the whole world knows the negotiations were going nowhere
4:18
Speaker 3: until the President elect said this.
4:21
Speaker 6: If those hostages aren't back, I don't want to hurt
4:24
Speaker 6: your negotiation. If they're not back by the time I
4:28
Speaker 6: get into office, all hell will break out in the
4:31
Speaker 6: Middle East, and it will not be good for Hamas
4:35
Speaker 6: and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone.
4:37
Speaker 7: All hell will break out.
4:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, Donald Trump has delivered this breakthrough the looming inauguration
4:43
Speaker 3: of Trump two point zero has delivered this.
4:46
Speaker 1: But is it enough?
4:48
Speaker 3: Will he be happy to wait for more hostages, to
4:52
Speaker 3: wait for the defiled bodies of dead hostages? And how
4:57
Speaker 3: long will the Hummas terrorists decide to before they kill again?
5:02
Speaker 3: How long can this cease fire last? When Humas has
5:06
Speaker 3: broken all previous undertakings.
5:10
Speaker 1: We will see.
5:10
Speaker 3: We hope for the best, of course, but we must
5:13
Speaker 3: be chastened by history and by reality. Joe Biden doesn't
5:18
Speaker 3: even seem to appreciate the difference between Hummas and Hezbollah.
5:23
Speaker 5: More than fifteen months of conflict. It began with Hesbela's
5:27
Speaker 5: brutal massacre in October the seventh No.
5:31
Speaker 3: That was the deliberate atrocity that triggered this war, and
5:34
Speaker 3: it was perpetrated by hummas.
5:37
Speaker 1: You know the ones.
5:37
Speaker 3: You've struck this deal with Hesbella surrendered more than a
5:41
Speaker 3: month ago in southern Lebanon. It's not just the celebrations
5:46
Speaker 3: in Gaza that tell you too little has changed. Just
5:50
Speaker 3: look at the reactions here in Australia. The Greens have
5:52
Speaker 3: put out a statement that didn't even make reference to
5:56
Speaker 3: the hostages being returned and called the war an jon
6:00
Speaker 3: of Gaza by Israel. And listen to this Australian Palestinian advocate.
6:07
Speaker 2: Israel is an apartheid, genocidal regime and no state, no
6:10
Speaker 2: state has a right to exist in the way that
6:12
Speaker 2: Israel does.
6:14
Speaker 3: Wow, Israel doesn't have a right to exist. It doesn't
6:17
Speaker 3: give you much cause for optimism, does it. Our Prime
6:21
Speaker 3: Minister remains hopeful and a little naive.
6:25
Speaker 8: We are focused on what Palestinians want, which is they
6:31
Speaker 8: want to be able to live in Gaza and the
6:35
Speaker 8: West Bank, to be able to live with overwhelmingly with peace,
6:42
Speaker 8: security and prosperity. They have been the people of Gaza
6:46
Speaker 8: have been through an awful time.
6:50
Speaker 3: I say naive because living in peace in Gaza and
6:54
Speaker 3: the West Bank is exactly the situation that existed fifteen
6:58
Speaker 3: months ago. Was Palestinian terrorists on October the seventh, twenty
7:03
Speaker 3: twenty three, Hummas terrorists who decided to invade Israel, slaughter
7:08
Speaker 3: innocent people and start a war. We hope those elements
7:14
Speaker 3: of the Gazan community have been eliminated, but only a
7:18
Speaker 3: fool would predict that they have been. Peter Dutton holds
7:21
Speaker 3: out similar hopes, but he's much more realistic.
7:25
Speaker 9: We should never forget the carnage that took place on
7:28
Speaker 9: October seven, when Hamas, a listed terrorist organization, went in slaughtered, raped,
7:35
Speaker 9: pillaged the Kibbucha's, the music festival, where young people were
7:40
Speaker 9: struck down in their prime. Some of these people will
7:43
Speaker 9: be released shortly. They've been in captivity and in the
7:47
Speaker 9: hands of these barbarians for about fourteen months. It is
7:53
Speaker 9: horrific and we should never forget that, and the fact
7:56
Speaker 9: that they're still held hostage and haven't been released by
7:59
Speaker 9: now is an absolute disgrace.
8:02
Speaker 3: The bottom line is that a horrible wave of anti
8:05
Speaker 3: Semitism has been unleashed around the world, and that, of
8:08
Speaker 3: course was a key aim of the Hamas terrorists. That's
8:12
Speaker 3: why they'll be feeling victorious. They've made Israel a pariah
8:16
Speaker 3: in the eyes of many, and they've fomented due hatred globally.
8:21
Speaker 3: Our Prime minister eventually appointed a Special Envoy on anti Semitism,
8:26
Speaker 3: but then astoundingly he's rejected her major recommendation for a
8:31
Speaker 3: national cabinet meeting on how to tackle the scourge. Warrants
8:36
Speaker 3: a national cabinet You're not backing down from that call.
8:38
Speaker 10: No, I'm not backing down from that. But I do
8:41
Speaker 10: think timing is going to be important, and it's going
8:43
Speaker 10: to be important to have the premiers all available, and
8:47
Speaker 10: particularly premiers from West Australia and Queensland because we are
8:51
Speaker 10: seeing anti Semitic incidents there as well. It's not just
8:54
Speaker 10: limited to New South Wales and Victoria.
8:57
Speaker 3: Prime Minister, why appoint her if you won't listen to her?
9:02
Speaker 3: And also on the program this week, former Labor Minister
9:06
Speaker 3: Mike Kelly said that Albanesi's Labor are costing themselves political
9:10
Speaker 3: support through their weakness on Israel and anti Semitism. Do
9:15
Speaker 3: you believe that Labor will lose votes because of its
9:19
Speaker 3: weakness on Israel at the upcoming election?
9:22
Speaker 11: Look, Chris, I'm absolutely certain of that the government is
9:26
Speaker 11: losing ground in relation to its credibility on national security
9:30
Speaker 11: by not doing enough in this space. It's great now
9:34
Speaker 11: that they're speaking out about it and they've referred to
9:36
Speaker 11: Hesbala as a terrorist organization, but domestically, we need to
9:40
Speaker 11: be making it very clear to organizations like so called
9:43
Speaker 11: labor Friends of Palestine that they're fomenting the sorts of
9:48
Speaker 11: violence and vandalism and escalation that we're seeing in our
9:52
Speaker 11: country through not being forceful and not making sure that
9:56
Speaker 11: the right frameworks and agency activity is taking place to
10:01
Speaker 11: choke this off right.
10:02
Speaker 3: Now, Yeah, I fear that what's been unleashed will not
10:07
Speaker 3: easily be brought back under control.
10:09
Speaker 1: Just as Albanesi's weakness on.
10:11
Speaker 3: These issues has betrayed his general political anemia and lack
10:16
Speaker 3: of conviction, and his abandonment of Israel will not be
10:19
Speaker 3: forgotten in Jerusalem, even though his Attorney General Mark Dreyfus
10:24
Speaker 3: is there now trying to patch things up.
10:27
Speaker 1: We can all look forward to the joy of.
10:29
Speaker 3: Some hostages being released on Sunday, reunited with their families.
10:34
Speaker 3: Their immediate horror will be over and their long recovery
10:38
Speaker 3: will just begin. But real peace and security for Israel
10:42
Speaker 3: and stability in the Middle East, will they remain a
10:45
Speaker 3: long way off. The best outcome for now is the
10:49
Speaker 3: one that Israel has done on its own and against
10:52
Speaker 3: the urgings of people like Albanzi and other weak leaders
10:55
Speaker 3: around the world, and that is that the leadership and
10:58
Speaker 3: weapons stockpiles of both Hamas and Hesbala have been decimated.
11:03
Speaker 3: Their bombs and guns and rockets are destroyed, along with
11:07
Speaker 3: thousands of their terrorist foot soldiers, and we can be
11:11
Speaker 3: sure that Israel will not stand by and let these
11:15
Speaker 3: terrorist outfits be rebuilt again. That's cross live now to
11:23
Speaker 3: former Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, joining us live from
11:27
Speaker 3: kens in Queensland. Good to speak with you, Alexander and
11:30
Speaker 3: get your thoughts of this. What's your assessment about the
11:34
Speaker 3: ceasefire ideal as it's been outlined so far.
11:38
Speaker 12: Well, my judgment is it's better than nothing, and you
11:41
Speaker 12: have to hope that limited as is it has some
11:45
Speaker 12: success in ensuring that the hostages who have been so
11:49
Speaker 12: cruelly held by Hamas are actually released. But of course
11:54
Speaker 12: only some of them are going to be released under
11:57
Speaker 12: this deal, and the Seatspire is only going to life
12:00
Speaker 12: for forty two days. Or six weeks, and then there
12:04
Speaker 12: is provision for negotiations for a phase two and phase three.
12:09
Speaker 12: So what does all that mean. That means you can
12:12
Speaker 12: be hopeful that some progress is being made, but this
12:16
Speaker 12: is not the end of the game.
12:18
Speaker 13: There is still a long way to go.
12:21
Speaker 12: And some hostages will still be kept and also the
12:25
Speaker 12: bodies of those hostages who Hamas have killed will be
12:29
Speaker 12: kept in Gaza and won't be released. So there is
12:34
Speaker 12: a long way to go, and this isn't a moment
12:38
Speaker 12: for triumphalism. And can I just make one other point,
12:42
Speaker 12: and that is that the Prime Minister referred to the
12:44
Speaker 12: Palestinians wanting peace.
12:46
Speaker 13: Apparently that is not.
12:48
Speaker 12: True, because back on the seventh of October twenty twenty three,
12:55
Speaker 12: the Palestinians destroyed the ceasepy that before that existed and
13:03
Speaker 12: declared war in a begged on Israel. They of course
13:06
Speaker 12: suffered a lot for declaring war on Israel, but hopefully,
13:11
Speaker 12: if not the Hammut's leadership, many of whom of course
13:14
Speaker 12: have been killed. But the Palestinian people will learn from
13:17
Speaker 12: this experience and not threaten Israel's right to exist.
13:22
Speaker 3: No, you're absolutely right, as I said there, that's the
13:26
Speaker 3: situation that existed.
13:27
Speaker 1: They were peacefully living in.
13:28
Speaker 3: Gaza without Israeli occupation and in the West Bank, and
13:33
Speaker 3: what war was starting on October the seventh. Now we've
13:36
Speaker 3: seen Hamas break many previous deals and cease fires. That
13:39
Speaker 3: must give us a lot of pessimism for what could
13:42
Speaker 3: happen here in the medium term.
13:43
Speaker 1: Surely true.
13:46
Speaker 12: But on the other hand, they've been substantially degraded, despite
13:51
Speaker 12: the best effort of people like President Biden and of course,
13:55
Speaker 12: for what it's worth, our.
13:56
Speaker 13: Own Prime Minister and Foreign Minister.
13:59
Speaker 12: Who have urged the Israelis to stop attacking Hamas, but they, nevertheless,
14:05
Speaker 12: given the courage of netting Yahoo and pressing ahead, have
14:09
Speaker 12: been substantially degraded. So their capacity to launch attacks on
14:14
Speaker 12: Israel will be much more limited. Now we don't know
14:17
Speaker 12: how limited, but they will be very limited. And of course,
14:22
Speaker 12: as President Trump has said, all hell will break loose
14:27
Speaker 12: if Hamas decide to break this particular agreement. So I'm
14:32
Speaker 12: not sure.
14:33
Speaker 13: I mean, I think the problem is going to be
14:36
Speaker 13: getting the hostages released. I mean, how they can say
14:40
Speaker 13: they're released thirty of us, but what about all of
14:44
Speaker 13: the other hostages who are still being care not being released,
14:48
Speaker 13: and so there is a long way to go here.
14:51
Speaker 3: In total, we believe there are almost one hundred hostages
14:54
Speaker 3: still held, many of them dead but yes, of them dead, Yeah,
14:58
Speaker 3: many and many of them dead. Perhaps the majority did,
15:01
Speaker 3: but certainly they're talking about releasing only thirty three in
15:04
Speaker 3: the first instance. Now there's a lot of talk about
15:06
Speaker 3: obviously Hamas and Israel doing this deal, Qatar helping the
15:10
Speaker 3: broker it, and the United States claiming a lot of
15:13
Speaker 3: the credit. What we don't hear about is Iran. Isn't
15:16
Speaker 3: this the missing element? Haven't they been the most influential
15:20
Speaker 3: figure in all of this?
15:22
Speaker 12: Yes, but Iran is the most influential figure in terms
15:26
Speaker 12: of Hamas and Hezblara the hothis because they're Iranian proxies.
15:32
Speaker 12: Though Iran has been brutally humiliated, not just by the
15:38
Speaker 12: attack by the Israelis on Hamas, but by the defeat
15:42
Speaker 12: of Hezbollah and the degrading of Iran's own air defense systems.
15:48
Speaker 12: So they have been substantially weakened and I think very
15:53
Speaker 12: much humiliated. So they will be very careful of President Trump.
16:00
Speaker 12: I mean, I noticed Jdvan incoming Vice President doing an
16:05
Speaker 12: interview the other day and saying, not just will the
16:09
Speaker 12: United States take military action against any Iranian attacks on
16:14
Speaker 12: Israel and proxy's proxy impact on Israel, but there will
16:19
Speaker 12: be huge sanctions imposed on any country that supports those organizations,
16:26
Speaker 12: that meaning Iran. So Iran will be trembling at the
16:31
Speaker 12: inauguration of President Trump. It's no doubt about that.
16:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that is a good thing.
16:36
Speaker 3: Thanks for joining us, Alexander, appreciate it as always, Alexander
16:39
Speaker 3: down of there live from Queensland.
16:42
Speaker 14: Now.
16:42
Speaker 3: I want to go on to another topic now, and
16:44
Speaker 3: that is the bushfire disaster that we've all been watching.
16:47
Speaker 3: The Los Angeles bushfires are not out yet, but with
16:49
Speaker 3: more benign weather on the way, firefighters are getting on
16:52
Speaker 3: top of them for now. The recovery from this disaster
16:55
Speaker 3: is going to take years, but the big question is
16:58
Speaker 3: whether the lessons will be learned in California and elsewhere,
17:02
Speaker 3: especially here in Australia. We've seen the usual partisan points
17:06
Speaker 3: scoring as both sides of politics try to blame the
17:09
Speaker 3: other for this disaster. The right have been blaming diversity,
17:13
Speaker 3: equity and inclusion measures in the fire departments, among other things,
17:17
Speaker 3: and the left have been trying to blame climate change
17:20
Speaker 3: as they always do.
17:22
Speaker 1: I mean, have a look at these headlines.
17:24
Speaker 3: The fires are still burning and the climate zealots are
17:27
Speaker 3: trying to blame global warming to push their barrow, even
17:30
Speaker 3: though what we've seen is simply not new. As I've
17:34
Speaker 3: been pointing out for years, the real problem is that
17:37
Speaker 3: we don't plan and prepare for wildfire storms. Fire storms
17:42
Speaker 3: they're different from less severe bush fires. They're unstoppable, and
17:47
Speaker 3: they've always happened they always will in the Mediterranean climates
17:51
Speaker 3: of southern California and southern Australia.
17:54
Speaker 1: So we simply must plan to protect.
17:57
Speaker 3: Ourselves from them. And there's only two ways to do that. First,
18:01
Speaker 3: you can get rid of the fuel. You cut back
18:04
Speaker 3: and clear and burn off bush one hundred meters or
18:06
Speaker 3: more from any housing areas. And second, you either don't
18:10
Speaker 3: put housing among the bush or on the ridgetops, or
18:13
Speaker 3: you make sure that those houses are fireproof, shuttered, underground,
18:17
Speaker 3: or surrounded by extensive firebreaks. None of this is new.
18:22
Speaker 3: It was all clear when I studied fire management forty
18:25
Speaker 3: years ago.
18:26
Speaker 1: I want to show you.
18:27
Speaker 3: Clips now from a film, a film made by the
18:30
Speaker 3: LA Fire Authorities back in nineteen sixty two. Way back
18:35
Speaker 3: then they highlighted the fire threat and the planning and
18:38
Speaker 3: the preparedness mistakes.
18:42
Speaker 15: Design for disaster, the story of the bel Air conflagration.
18:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, pretty dramatic in the style of the times, but
18:52
Speaker 3: this film sets out exactly the scenario of the latest fires,
18:57
Speaker 3: starting with the fearsome Santa Ana winds.
19:01
Speaker 15: And increasingly strong during the late four months of the
19:04
Speaker 15: Santa Anna and dangerously drive when there has been no rain.
19:10
Speaker 15: It is during this unstable period that firemen must fear
19:13
Speaker 15: the potential, the potential of one hundred and thirty four
19:17
Speaker 15: square miles of thick, dry chaparral and oak, all within
19:20
Speaker 15: the city boundaries of Los Angeles, classed by experts as
19:24
Speaker 15: the fastest burning ground cover in the Western Hemisphere.
19:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, the lead up to winter is the normal time
19:31
Speaker 3: for this threat. The Bill Airfires of nineteen sixty one
19:34
Speaker 3: broke out in November, just three weeks ahead of winter,
19:37
Speaker 3: destroying hundreds of homes.
19:40
Speaker 14: Unless we have companies that can lay into these individual houses,
19:44
Speaker 14: we are going to begin losing more houses on Rosco
19:47
Speaker 14: Mayor Oregon Frendophore going toward the Povedas houses going on
19:53
Speaker 14: both sides of the street. The seventeen hundred block ross
19:56
Speaker 14: America are about fifteen houses in alls at the corner
19:59
Speaker 14: of Ambo Colbert. We're noting everything we have.
20:04
Speaker 3: One of the fundamental things to understand is how, just
20:06
Speaker 3: like fires are fanned by the wind, they behave dramatically
20:10
Speaker 3: differently uphill compared to downhill.
20:14
Speaker 15: A parallel to this reaction is demonstrated with a branch
20:17
Speaker 15: from a specimen of hillside brush held upright with fire
20:20
Speaker 15: moving downward. The fire travels slowly, but reverse the situation.
20:25
Speaker 15: Place the fuel above the fire on a hill. Fire
20:31
Speaker 15: burning brands carry over the top to start spotfires on
20:34
Speaker 15: the opposite side. Where those spotfires merge with the original blaze,
20:38
Speaker 15: you will see fire that leaves only chimneys and brickward,
20:43
Speaker 15: and no amount of wetting down can stop it.
20:47
Speaker 3: Now, while climate's alarmists try to spin every natural disaster
20:52
Speaker 3: and every fire is some proof of global warming, the conditions,
20:57
Speaker 3: the threat, and the problems are nothing new. This sixty
21:01
Speaker 3: two year old film even focuses on how water supplies
21:04
Speaker 3: are often jeopardized when fighting fires, and it also describes
21:08
Speaker 3: fire behavior that's as old as the landscape itself.
21:13
Speaker 15: Brush fires create their own wind turbulence and heat bring
21:17
Speaker 15: winds of tornado velocity, erratic, twisting, treacherous and unpredictable.
21:26
Speaker 1: And the brutal reality is that as long as we put.
21:29
Speaker 3: Residential areas on ridgetops and among the bush in Mediterranean climates,
21:35
Speaker 3: we will always invite disaster.
21:39
Speaker 15: In nineteen fifteen nine experts from the National Fire Protection
21:42
Speaker 15: Association surveyed portions of Los Angeles. They found a mountain
21:46
Speaker 15: range within the city, combustible roof houses, closely spaced and
21:50
Speaker 15: brush covered canyons and ridges serviced by narrow roads. They
21:55
Speaker 15: called it a design for disaster. They predicted the bel
21:59
Speaker 15: Air fire, plus others which are sure to come, and.
22:03
Speaker 3: Yes, others have come, and this month perhaps the worst ever,
22:07
Speaker 3: not because of climate change or DEI policies, but because
22:12
Speaker 3: more and more people have moved into the area, and
22:15
Speaker 3: because we continue to ignore the lessons of the past.
22:19
Speaker 3: If you look around the Dandenongs in Victoria, or the
22:22
Speaker 3: Blue Mountains in New South Wales, or the Adelaide Hills
22:25
Speaker 3: in South Australia and many other areas, you'll see we
22:28
Speaker 3: haven't learned the lessons either here and we just invite
22:32
Speaker 3: even worse disasters In the future. Well, after almost twelve
22:40
Speaker 3: years in parliament, Keith Pitt has called time on his career,
22:44
Speaker 3: joining a growing list of Coalition MPs who won't seek
22:47
Speaker 3: re election this year.
22:49
Speaker 1: He's taken a swipe at.
22:50
Speaker 3: His party and its leader, David Little Proud, blasting the
22:53
Speaker 3: decision to commit to zero. It joins me now to
22:57
Speaker 3: talk more about this National MP from Points and Keith.
23:01
Speaker 1: Pitt joins us from Bunderberg. Keith, don't go what are
23:04
Speaker 1: you doing?
23:06
Speaker 7: Ah?
23:08
Speaker 14: Well, Chris.
23:08
Speaker 16: Firstly, I've got to agree with your editorial one hundred percent.
23:11
Speaker 16: And there's few things in life you can guarantee, but
23:13
Speaker 16: I'll guarantee you this.
23:14
Speaker 1: You can close every colified power station in Australia.
23:17
Speaker 16: It'll have zero impact on the risk of fives in California.
23:20
Speaker 1: Absolutely none.
23:21
Speaker 2: Yeah no.
23:22
Speaker 16: There's been some very generous comments, a very generous comments,
23:26
Speaker 16: some not so generous, but it's my time.
23:29
Speaker 3: Well, the bottom line is you've disagreed with policy, you
23:32
Speaker 3: ended up getting dumped from the front bench, and you've
23:34
Speaker 3: disagreed with your.
23:35
Speaker 1: Own party's leadership. Net zero.
23:38
Speaker 3: I think most of us, especially an engineer like yoursel,
23:41
Speaker 3: if you understand that net zero is practically impossible. So
23:45
Speaker 3: any party signing up to net zero is actually signing
23:48
Speaker 3: up to something that they can't on current technology deliver.
23:51
Speaker 1: Is that what rails riles you, Chris.
23:57
Speaker 16: I'm one of those rare people, I think, who just
23:59
Speaker 16: want to have see that works. I don't know it
24:02
Speaker 16: will work well, then I say so. And unfortunately in
24:05
Speaker 16: Canbra there's far too much backslapping and telling people all
24:08
Speaker 16: that great they are. And if they do a good.
24:10
Speaker 1: Job, I'll tell them. If they do a bad job,
24:11
Speaker 1: I'll say that too.
24:13
Speaker 16: But I represent people who simply can't afford these changes
24:16
Speaker 16: in policy. They literally cannot pay for them, and it
24:19
Speaker 16: is regional people who have to pay in the majority.
24:23
Speaker 16: It's an incredible impact cost of living through the roof.
24:26
Speaker 16: It's a seventy to eighty percent issue. I've never seen
24:28
Speaker 16: anything like this and it's got a big impact. So
24:31
Speaker 16: no matter which side of politics you're on, I want
24:34
Speaker 16: things that are good for the country and good for
24:36
Speaker 16: the people that live here, and I always put the
24:38
Speaker 16: national interest first above my own.
24:40
Speaker 3: Now the national is always held out on the climate
24:43
Speaker 3: goals stronger than other parties, but you had first. I
24:46
Speaker 3: think Barnaby Joyce when he was Deputy Prime Minister and
24:49
Speaker 3: now David little Proud both sign up to net zero.
24:52
Speaker 1: Do you think they'll come to regret that?
24:57
Speaker 16: I just think down the track people will wake up
25:00
Speaker 16: to what is reality. There are extraordinary expensive proposals. I
25:05
Speaker 16: mean over a trillion dollars in expenditure and it doesn't
25:08
Speaker 16: build a single hospital, school or road. It makes how
25:11
Speaker 16: energy networks less reliable, far less affordable, and it'll damage
25:15
Speaker 16: Australias industrial base like you wouldn't believe. So I think
25:19
Speaker 16: there's significant challenges across the board. I just want policies
25:22
Speaker 16: that work and they're out there. If this is what
25:25
Speaker 16: you want, then build nuclear power stations all over the place,
25:28
Speaker 16: but don't keep subsidizing things that can only survive with subsidies.
25:32
Speaker 16: It doesn't make a lot of sense.
25:34
Speaker 3: Now tell us about the leadership of the National Party.
25:37
Speaker 3: Then there's a lot of people suggesting just into Nawnber
25:40
Speaker 3: jimp for Price is the leading light of your party.
25:43
Speaker 3: It will be a hell of a dream ticket for
25:45
Speaker 3: the Coalition.
25:46
Speaker 1: Wouldn't it to be?
25:47
Speaker 3: Have Peter Dutton running to be Prime Minister and just
25:50
Speaker 3: into Nownber jimper Price running to be Deputy prime Minister?
25:52
Speaker 1: Is David little Proud under.
25:54
Speaker 16: Any threat, I cress, that's entirely up to the room
25:59
Speaker 16: and a period of time. I won't be there in
26:01
Speaker 16: one of a vote, which is why I'll make one point.
26:07
Speaker 16: I've never contested the leader's position.
26:09
Speaker 3: Sure, but I'm interested in whether you see I'm interested
26:12
Speaker 3: in whether you think David Little Proud will stick around
26:14
Speaker 3: as leader or is or is Senator Naber jimber Price
26:19
Speaker 3: looming over his shoulder.
26:22
Speaker 16: Well, in this game, as you know, no matter which
26:24
Speaker 16: party you're in or where, it's perform or die. And
26:27
Speaker 16: as an election coming, we'll see how everyone performs and
26:30
Speaker 16: then it'll be up to herbs in the room to
26:32
Speaker 16: make their judgment. That's just how these things work. But Chris,
26:36
Speaker 16: the Nationals that existed with purpose. That purpose is to
26:39
Speaker 16: represent regional Australia, and I just think that they need
26:43
Speaker 16: to be surrounding themselves with the basic policies that matter
26:46
Speaker 16: for the people that live in the regions. And right
26:48
Speaker 16: now it is all about cost of living, guaranteeing security
26:52
Speaker 16: of jobs, ensuring there's opportunities into the future. And without
26:56
Speaker 16: the regions, where's our economy. It's such a big part now,
27:00
Speaker 16: particularly with resources mine in agriculture, they've all got growth
27:03
Speaker 16: and I want to see more manufacturing here because they
27:05
Speaker 16: want a nation to be strong. Didentry is not strong
27:09
Speaker 16: as we move forward. It's a problem.
27:11
Speaker 1: Good to talk to you, Keith.
27:12
Speaker 3: You've been an honest and vigorous advocate for all those
27:17
Speaker 3: issues and we'll keep in touch. Keith Pitt there, who'll
27:20
Speaker 3: be leaving Parliament at the federal election, the Queensland LMP member,
27:25
Speaker 3: we're going to get to a break on the other side.
27:26
Speaker 1: I'm going to introduce you to a nuclear.
27:28
Speaker 3: Engineer who also happens to be a former Miss America.
27:32
Speaker 1: She's about to embark on a speaking tour of Australia.
27:39
Speaker 1: Stick around.
27:40
Speaker 3: I have some breaking news for you in a moment
27:42
Speaker 3: when it comes to anti Semitism in Australia. But first
27:44
Speaker 3: I want to introduce you to a remarkable young woman
27:46
Speaker 3: who'll soon visit Australia and have an impact on our
27:49
Speaker 3: national debate. Her name is Grace Stinky. She hails from
27:53
Speaker 3: America's Midwest.
27:54
Speaker 1: She's twenty two.
27:55
Speaker 3: Years old and two years ago she won the Miss
27:58
Speaker 3: America pageant. Still run those events, but Stanky has many
28:02
Speaker 3: strings to her bow. She's also an accomplished violinist, and
28:06
Speaker 3: she represented her university in competitive water skiing. But what
28:10
Speaker 3: makes this woman particularly relevant here is that she is
28:13
Speaker 3: a nuclear engineer and she's also an advocate for the industry.
28:18
Speaker 3: I caught up with Grace Stanky today ahead of her
28:20
Speaker 3: Australians speaking to her and kicked off by mentioning that
28:24
Speaker 3: beauty queen and nuclear engineer double is a pretty unique mix.
28:29
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's pretty unusual.
28:30
Speaker 4: I think the dichotomia that really feeds into each other though,
28:34
Speaker 4: because I think a lot of the things that I've
28:36
Speaker 4: gained from my interests in my hobbies, both as a
28:39
Speaker 4: former Miss America but as a violinist, as a competitive
28:41
Speaker 4: water skiers, so many of these other things they help
28:44
Speaker 4: feed into creating me the engineer that I am today.
28:47
Speaker 4: And I'm really really thankful for the skills of communication
28:50
Speaker 4: that I learned as Miss America but then able to
28:53
Speaker 4: carry that into my time as a nuclear engineer to
28:55
Speaker 4: help communicate and teach people about nuclear science.
28:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've had a look at your riginal my side
29:01
Speaker 3: of speak. You must have had you a pretty busy time,
29:03
Speaker 3: especially through your teens, doing all that sport and music
29:07
Speaker 3: and tell us like what drew you to nuclear engineering
29:10
Speaker 3: to study and for career?
29:13
Speaker 4: You know, it's a funny story because I actually knew
29:16
Speaker 4: absolutely nothing about nuclear.
29:18
Speaker 7: Science growing up. Like I knew it was.
29:21
Speaker 4: Maybe bombs from World War Two in history class, and
29:24
Speaker 4: I thought there was two reactors in pretty much all
29:26
Speaker 4: of America.
29:26
Speaker 7: Like I was like, there's no way there's more.
29:28
Speaker 4: I know nuclear energy is a thing, but I don't
29:30
Speaker 4: think it's actually used. So I initially was really only
29:33
Speaker 4: considering nuclear engineering because I thought it just sounded really cool.
29:36
Speaker 4: And I went and asked my dad for career advice
29:39
Speaker 4: when I was choosing my college major, and I asked
29:42
Speaker 4: him like, okay, Dad, I'm thinking either nuclear or aerospace engineering.
29:45
Speaker 4: What are your thoughts? And he says, you know, Grace,
29:48
Speaker 4: don't go into nuclear there's no future there. And I
29:51
Speaker 4: was like, okay, okay, So now I'm gonna ask you
29:53
Speaker 4: a question. Do you have any daughters, any kids?
29:56
Speaker 1: I have four sons.
29:58
Speaker 4: Oh okay, so you're lucky. I was going to say, teenagers,
30:01
Speaker 4: when you tell them not to do something, what's their
30:03
Speaker 4: natural reality exactly exactly to go and do it. So
30:08
Speaker 4: that's how I initially started in nuclear engineering. Was because
30:12
Speaker 4: my dad told me not to go into it. But
30:13
Speaker 4: once I got into it and was learning and being
30:16
Speaker 4: sort of awakened, I want to say to where nuclear
30:20
Speaker 4: science exists all around us? I thought to myself, Man,
30:22
Speaker 4: if nuclear science is helping cure cancer, you know, my
30:25
Speaker 4: dad's a two time cancer survivor. He wouldn't be alive
30:27
Speaker 4: today if it weren't for nuclear medicine, I would. I
30:30
Speaker 4: realized that there is indeed more than two reactors in
30:33
Speaker 4: all of America. In fact, there's ninety four that creates
30:36
Speaker 4: twenty percent of America's electricity. I learned that nuclear science
30:40
Speaker 4: is a part of our everyday home life, from bananas
30:42
Speaker 4: to avocados, smoke detectors, our spices and our spice cabinet,
30:47
Speaker 4: you know, all of those things. Nuclear science is all
30:50
Speaker 4: around us and doing so much good for the world
30:52
Speaker 4: around us.
30:52
Speaker 7: So imagine if.
30:53
Speaker 4: We embraced it, Imagine how much more good it could do.
30:57
Speaker 4: And that's one of the advocacy side of my passion
31:00
Speaker 4: came in, is I love to talk about how nuclear
31:02
Speaker 4: science is all around us.
31:04
Speaker 1: Yeah.
31:04
Speaker 3: Now, presumably your father told you not to go into
31:06
Speaker 3: beauty pageants as well, so that's why you became Miss
31:09
Speaker 3: Wisconsin and Miss America too. But let's talk about you
31:13
Speaker 3: do advocacy as well as working as a nuclear engineer. Well,
31:16
Speaker 3: I'll come to the advocacy in a moment, but first up,
31:18
Speaker 3: tell us about your role as a nuclear engineer. What
31:22
Speaker 3: does such a person do on a day to day
31:25
Speaker 3: basis in a nuclear energy facility?
31:28
Speaker 4: Sure, so, I work through Constellation. They own and operate
31:31
Speaker 4: twelve different nuclear power plants across the country here in America,
31:35
Speaker 4: and I specialize in pressurized water reactors. So of Constellation's
31:40
Speaker 4: fleet of nuclear power plants, that is four of the
31:42
Speaker 4: twelve power plants that they have, soon to.
31:45
Speaker 7: Be five of the thirteen.
31:47
Speaker 4: We've got one that's coming back online here shortly in
31:50
Speaker 4: the next couple of years, which is very, very exciting.
31:54
Speaker 4: But on a day to day basis, a lot of
31:56
Speaker 4: my engineering role it's helping create reload products, is what
31:59
Speaker 4: they're called. So I help with managing, planning out everything
32:04
Speaker 4: that has to do with the nuclear fuel when we're
32:07
Speaker 4: switching between cycles, because nuclear fuel can only fission for
32:10
Speaker 4: so long. Fissioning is the process that's happening within the
32:13
Speaker 4: nuclear fuel to help create the heat that then has
32:16
Speaker 4: turned into electricity, right, because this is just fancy hot
32:18
Speaker 4: rocks that boil water.
32:19
Speaker 7: That's a nuclear power plan.
32:21
Speaker 4: I paid a ton of money to get a degree
32:23
Speaker 4: that taught me that essentially, right, So I help with
32:26
Speaker 4: the planning process of everything to do with that nuclear fuel.
32:30
Speaker 7: Now.
32:30
Speaker 3: I'm just back from the US and I visited Three
32:33
Speaker 3: Mile Island in Pennsylvania while I was there.
32:36
Speaker 1: Because you talk about.
32:38
Speaker 3: The future of nuclear energy, it is in a resurgence,
32:41
Speaker 3: isn't in the United States? Because that controversial infamous reactor
32:44
Speaker 3: really where there was a nuclear accident back in the
32:47
Speaker 3: late nineteen seventies is now about to reopen. Microsoft are
32:52
Speaker 3: going to contract to take all the energy from a
32:55
Speaker 3: reopened reactor there. And there are other plants around the
32:59
Speaker 3: States being reopened, having their lives extended and plant for
33:03
Speaker 3: new reactor is because nuclear energy is bouncing back, not
33:07
Speaker 3: just in the US but around the world.
33:08
Speaker 1: What's going on?
33:10
Speaker 7: Correct?
33:11
Speaker 4: You know you're in America that plant that you talked about,
33:13
Speaker 4: So Three Mile Island has two reactors, so the reactor
33:15
Speaker 4: that's coming back online is not the one that had
33:18
Speaker 4: the front in nineteen seventy nine. So just to clarify
33:21
Speaker 4: that that it's Unit one that's coming back online. So
33:24
Speaker 4: Unit one operated until twenty nineteen. But globally there is
33:28
Speaker 4: this massive resurgence and massive renewed interest in nuclear.
33:31
Speaker 7: As a whole.
33:32
Speaker 4: And that's because we need clean and reliable energy.
33:35
Speaker 7: And due to AI and data.
33:36
Speaker 4: Centers and all of this load growth that's happening globally,
33:39
Speaker 4: we're realizing we need more electricity, but we're also realizing
33:43
Speaker 4: the issue that is climate change. You know, I'm a
33:45
Speaker 4: young person, gen Z's generational issue is climate change. So
33:48
Speaker 4: people are starting to really care about clean energy and
33:51
Speaker 4: how this energy is going to transition to that, and
33:54
Speaker 4: nuclear is one of the few types of clean emissions
33:57
Speaker 4: free energy generation that can fit both the bill of
34:00
Speaker 4: reliable large amounts of electricity and the emissions free.
34:04
Speaker 3: So you're heading out to Australia as part of your advocacy.
34:08
Speaker 1: Nuclear for Australia are bringing you out here.
34:11
Speaker 3: Can you believe that a modern country like Australia that
34:14
Speaker 3: exports uranium and has a medical and research reactor here
34:17
Speaker 3: has operated for many decades, actually has a ban on
34:21
Speaker 3: nuclear energy? And do you think a modern economy can
34:24
Speaker 3: actually get to zero without nuclear energy?
34:29
Speaker 4: It really surprises me that there's a deliberate ban, right,
34:33
Speaker 4: because I think it's up to the Australian people to
34:35
Speaker 4: really choose what they want for their energy transition and
34:38
Speaker 4: what they want their energy grid to look like. So
34:41
Speaker 4: I firmly believe that the band should be lifted because
34:43
Speaker 4: Australian people should have a right to be able to
34:45
Speaker 4: at least have the option, because as of right now,
34:48
Speaker 4: they don't even have that option. So to me, that's
34:50
Speaker 4: the most important thing that we really need to see
34:52
Speaker 4: happen over the next period of.
34:54
Speaker 7: Time here that we have coming up in Australia. But overall,
34:58
Speaker 7: it's never too late, right. It is never too late
35:01
Speaker 7: to take action.
35:02
Speaker 4: It's the good old saying of better late than never, right,
35:05
Speaker 4: And especially when it comes to climate change and building clean,
35:08
Speaker 4: reliable and high paying jobs for people in communities. I
35:11
Speaker 4: think that that's a huge impact that we don't talk
35:14
Speaker 4: about enough, is the high paying jobs that can be
35:17
Speaker 4: transferred from coal plants. You know, I know that Australia
35:20
Speaker 4: has about fifty two percent of electricity coming from coal.
35:23
Speaker 4: Those skills that those employees have can transfer that right
35:26
Speaker 4: into a nuclear power plant. It's very similar processes in
35:30
Speaker 4: terms of the function once you switch out what is
35:33
Speaker 4: making the heat.
35:35
Speaker 3: Christ is fascinating to talk to you. You're going to
35:37
Speaker 3: love your visit to Australia. You're speaking all around the
35:39
Speaker 3: country and hopefully at the end of that trip we'll
35:42
Speaker 3: catch up with you again and say what you might
35:44
Speaker 3: of the nuclear divide in Australia.
35:47
Speaker 7: I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to it.
35:49
Speaker 7: Thank you so much.
35:51
Speaker 1: Fascinating stuff.
35:52
Speaker 3: Christ, Thank you this She's going to be in Australia
35:54
Speaker 3: from January the twenty nine. She'll be speaking in Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide,
35:57
Speaker 3: Canberra and Sydney. For tickets, had a Nuclear for Australia
36:01
Speaker 3: dot com or use the QR code there on your screen.
36:05
Speaker 3: We got to get to a break on the other
36:06
Speaker 3: side to come back to the Middle East. Also, I'm
36:09
Speaker 3: going to have that news on an anti semitism arrest
36:12
Speaker 3: in Australia. Also talk about the peace deal and what
36:16
Speaker 3: it means for Hamas and what it means for the hostages.
36:23
Speaker 3: Let me give you that breaking news on anti Semitism.
36:25
Speaker 3: The AFP Special Operation Avalaite has charged a Western Sydney
36:30
Speaker 3: man now with allegedly making death threats to members of
36:33
Speaker 3: a Jewish organization. The Blacktown man, aged forty four, was
36:38
Speaker 3: charged today with one count of using a carriage service
36:40
Speaker 3: to make a threat to kill and one count of
36:43
Speaker 3: using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offense.
36:47
Speaker 3: Now these offenses carry a maximum penalty of ten years
36:51
Speaker 3: jail and five years jail respectively. The man involved has
36:55
Speaker 3: been bailed to appear in February. Let me bring in
36:57
Speaker 3: Liberal MP Julian Lisa joins me on the death skin
37:00
Speaker 3: Joel Bernie from the Australia Israel and Jewish Affairs Council
37:04
Speaker 3: live from Melbourne.
37:04
Speaker 1: Let me go to you first, jol and news of
37:07
Speaker 1: this arrest.
37:07
Speaker 3: This is distressing, I suppose when you go to the
37:10
Speaker 3: alleged offense, but it's company to know that the police
37:13
Speaker 3: are following up on these things now.
37:17
Speaker 17: Well, thank you for having me on, Chris. And finally,
37:19
Speaker 17: it appears as though that the government and its relevant agencies,
37:23
Speaker 17: both at a federal and state level, are finally, after
37:26
Speaker 17: fifteen months of this community screaming for action, taking this seriously.
37:30
Speaker 17: But whilst there's been one arrest, which we obviously welcome,
37:34
Speaker 17: those that have been arrested in charge and some of
37:36
Speaker 17: it have even gone to court for some of the
37:38
Speaker 17: terrible things that have occurred over the past sixteen months,
37:41
Speaker 17: including the horrific attack on Josh Burns's federal electoral office
37:45
Speaker 17: in Melbourne, along with the protest and climbing up to
37:49
Speaker 17: the roof of Parliament House. So even if you do
37:52
Speaker 17: get caught, even if you do get arrested, and even
37:54
Speaker 17: if you do get convicted, it doesn't necessarily mean that
37:59
Speaker 17: you're going to face the full punishment and the full
38:03
Speaker 17: weight of the law when it comes to the conviction
38:06
Speaker 17: rate of these offenses. So, yes, we obviously welcome these arrests.
38:09
Speaker 17: We obviously welcome the Task Force finally doing something positive here,
38:13
Speaker 17: But it goes down to the impact that it has
38:16
Speaker 17: in the judiciary as well. These cases, you know, these
38:19
Speaker 17: people are being convicted with very little punishment. It doesn't
38:22
Speaker 17: really hit the deterrence factor that we'd like to see
38:25
Speaker 17: in the Jewish community.
38:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's also worth pointing out, of course we've had
38:28
Speaker 3: these fire bomb attacks, a synagogue burnt to the ground effectively,
38:32
Speaker 3: and other horrific attacks. Their investigations into these, but no
38:34
Speaker 3: arrests and charges yet. Jullian Lisa your response to this news.
38:39
Speaker 1: Well, look, it is.
38:39
Speaker 18: Good to see that people have been arrested and charged
38:43
Speaker 18: with terrorism offenses. But I have to say, and the
38:47
Speaker 18: Prime Minister says earlier this week that he wouldn't convene
38:50
Speaker 18: a national cabinet because these matters are not his job.
38:53
Speaker 18: The mere fact that the AFP has arrested people for
38:56
Speaker 18: terrorism offenses, and some of the offenses that they can
38:59
Speaker 18: arrest people for in including the display of a terrorist
39:01
Speaker 18: symbol and using carriage services in relation to terrorist matters,
39:06
Speaker 18: indicates that it is his job that he should convene
39:09
Speaker 18: national cabinet, and that just because he's had a quick
39:12
Speaker 18: phone call with a couple of politicians from New South
39:14
Speaker 18: Wales and Victoria doesn't protect the Jewish community across the
39:18
Speaker 18: country because it fails to protect Jewish communities in other states.
39:21
Speaker 1: Well, you are the first person to suggest this national cabinet.
39:24
Speaker 1: He is anti Semitism. Envoy has taken up the idea.
39:27
Speaker 3: She was on this program last night after that phone call,
39:30
Speaker 3: still urging a national cabinet. What's the point of having
39:32
Speaker 3: her if he doesn't listen to us.
39:34
Speaker 1: Exactly right, Chris.
39:35
Speaker 18: When Jillian Segel was appointed, I welcome the appointment, but.
39:38
Speaker 1: I said, the test for the government is.
39:41
Speaker 18: Not whether they've appointed a distinguished Australian to this important job.
39:45
Speaker 18: It's whether they actually listen to her when she provides advice.
39:47
Speaker 18: And now on two occasions, both with her advocacy for
39:50
Speaker 18: a judicial inquiry into anti Semitism on campus and secondly
39:54
Speaker 18: for mandatory minimum sentences and a national Cabinet meeting to
39:58
Speaker 18: discuss these, the government has ignored her vice. And I
40:01
Speaker 18: think she's doing a great job and it's time the
40:03
Speaker 18: government listened.
40:04
Speaker 3: Now, let's go to the developments overseas in the Middle
40:06
Speaker 3: East and Joel, what's your reaction. Obviously there's a great
40:10
Speaker 3: anticipation of joy of seeing many hostages released, but some
40:14
Speaker 3: hostages still kept in captivity. Horrible bargaining, macab bargaining over
40:19
Speaker 3: dead bodies.
40:20
Speaker 1: How much hope do you hold out here?
40:23
Speaker 17: So it's very mixed feelings today, Chris. Obviously, I've spent
40:26
Speaker 17: a lot of time in Israel, and the anguish and
40:28
Speaker 17: the spare of the whole citizenry in Israel has been
40:31
Speaker 17: at a really really bad levels for a long time,
40:34
Speaker 17: not knowing the state of conditions of their relatives that
40:38
Speaker 17: have been held captive for such a long period of time.
40:40
Speaker 17: So obviously there's relief and an element of elation that
40:44
Speaker 17: at least some of those hostages will hopefully be arriving
40:47
Speaker 17: home in the coming days. But as you clearly point out,
40:50
Speaker 17: there's a lot still to be negotiated in this deal.
40:54
Speaker 17: Once the thirty three hostages that are released in Stage
40:57
Speaker 17: one over a six week period, it's like drip feeding.
41:00
Speaker 17: It's more psychological anguish for the Israeli people once we
41:03
Speaker 17: get them back. Don't forget that a thousand convicted terrorists
41:07
Speaker 17: are going to be sent back, as the Palestinian prisoners
41:10
Speaker 17: will be sent back in exchange. The price that Israel
41:13
Speaker 17: pays for putting such a high price on the value
41:16
Speaker 17: of life is on the one hand, commendable, but it's
41:19
Speaker 17: going to be a very very difficult pill to swallow.
41:21
Speaker 17: The other most important point is we don't know what's
41:23
Speaker 17: going to happen on the day after, so does I
41:27
Speaker 17: must remain in power? What's the governance structure for the
41:30
Speaker 17: future of Gaza. These are still to be clear and
41:34
Speaker 17: to be negotiated. So on the one hand, very very
41:36
Speaker 17: happy and elated, but on the other hand, very very.
41:38
Speaker 1: Anxious and well nearly out of time. Jillian, just very quickly.
41:42
Speaker 3: You've been calling for the Australian government to guarantee that
41:45
Speaker 3: none of those freed Palestinian prisoners.
41:48
Speaker 1: Will be brought into Australia. Is that's right, Chris.
41:51
Speaker 18: I think the Prime Minister has to make it very
41:52
Speaker 18: clear because those freed Palestinian prisoners, many of them have
41:56
Speaker 18: committed violent crimes, are due to be sent to a
41:58
Speaker 18: third country. And I want the Prime mist to guarantee
42:00
Speaker 18: to all Australians that he will not bring any Palestinian
42:03
Speaker 18: prisoner who spent time in Israeli jail to Australia because
42:07
Speaker 18: that will do nothing to make this country safer for
42:10
Speaker 18: all Australians.
42:11
Speaker 3: And Julian, are you about to be announced as the
42:13
Speaker 3: shadow Foreign Minister.
42:14
Speaker 18: I hope that the people of Barrara a leaked me
42:16
Speaker 18: at the coming election for another term as the Member
42:18
Speaker 18: for Barrara. That's what I hate.
42:19
Speaker 3: I didn't think you'd answer that, but I'll tell you
42:21
Speaker 3: what the good mail I'm getting is that the man
42:24
Speaker 3: next to me, Julian Lisa, might return to the front
42:26
Speaker 3: bench of the Liberal Party and could get Foreign Affairs
42:28
Speaker 3: and that would definitely be a good thing. Thanks for
42:30
Speaker 3: joining us, Joel, Bernie and Julian Lisa. We've got to
42:33
Speaker 3: get to a break and after that break, Tim Blair
42:36
Speaker 3: and Mark Nicholson have joined me for the first time
42:38
Speaker 3: this year. We're going to be to a look at
42:39
Speaker 3: Joe Biden's day of blunders and also Cole's planning to
42:44
Speaker 3: stop selling knives nationwide.
42:46
Speaker 1: To protect their staff.
42:51
Speaker 14: Well.
42:51
Speaker 3: Our unofficial national Cabinet is back. Tim Blair from the
42:55
Speaker 3: Daily Telegraph joins his line from the Wimmera in Victoria
42:58
Speaker 3: and Mark Nicholson have step Make Studios just from Melbourne.
43:01
Speaker 3: Great to catch up with you guys again for the
43:04
Speaker 3: year of twenty twenty five ahead. I know you'll both
43:07
Speaker 3: be very sad that we're about to lose Joe Biden
43:09
Speaker 3: as President of the US. He gave his final address
43:12
Speaker 3: to the nation today from the Oval Office. And have
43:16
Speaker 3: a look at this swipe at the incoming regime today.
43:21
Speaker 5: An oligarchy is taking cheap in America of extreme wealth,
43:25
Speaker 5: power and influence that literally threads our entire democracy, our
43:29
Speaker 5: basic grades and freedoms and a fair shot for everyone
43:34
Speaker 5: to get ahead. We see the consequences all across America.
43:39
Speaker 1: Wow, I see you shaking your head there, Marker.
43:42
Speaker 3: So the elites have been tossed out by the electorate,
43:45
Speaker 3: but he reckons it's just another bunch of elites coming in.
43:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, Mane.
43:50
Speaker 2: This is coming from the same bloke that's part of
43:52
Speaker 2: a party that also raised billions and billions of dollars.
43:56
Speaker 2: He should be absolutely humiliated. By the way, from what
43:58
Speaker 2: we were just talking about with John and Julian, that
44:01
Speaker 2: incredible deal it's been done, and that apparently they've been
44:03
Speaker 2: working on day and night for fifteen months has yielded nothing.
44:07
Speaker 2: And then the incoming president, this crazy Nazi fascist dictator,
44:12
Speaker 2: has managed to achieve it in negative one week before
44:15
Speaker 2: before hitting the office. So I think he should be
44:18
Speaker 2: absolutely humiliated. He is absolutely humiliated, even if he's trying
44:21
Speaker 2: to take credit. It's and if he was at all
44:25
Speaker 2: aware of what was going on in the world, he'd
44:27
Speaker 2: be read in the face.
44:28
Speaker 3: I was in Washington just over a week ago when
44:30
Speaker 3: they had the funeral for former President Billy Carter and
44:34
Speaker 3: Tim it's it's similar to the end of his time
44:37
Speaker 3: as president, when you know, just after he gets out,
44:39
Speaker 3: then the hostage is are free from Iran. We've got
44:41
Speaker 3: that same sort of cycle playing out here with Donald
44:44
Speaker 3: Trump coming in. And although I do think tim that
44:47
Speaker 3: Trump needs to be careful about how much prominence and
44:50
Speaker 3: power he gives to Elon Musk.
44:53
Speaker 19: Yeah, obviously, you've you've got to balance a whole lot
44:55
Speaker 19: of things when you're coming to power. I think one
44:57
Speaker 19: of the big differences is that Trump has previously been president.
45:00
Speaker 19: There won't be as many pit falls as previously. And
45:03
Speaker 19: I think even people like me who are on Trump's
45:05
Speaker 19: team on his side right, I wish I was on
45:08
Speaker 19: Trump's team on his his sside. Politically, we've got to
45:12
Speaker 19: recognize there were flaws in the first Trump administration. This
45:16
Speaker 19: time around, you'd hope that the sort of stuff will
45:18
Speaker 19: behind out now. In Joe Biden's defense, he's just reading
45:22
Speaker 19: words at this point. If someone had put in front
45:24
Speaker 19: of him the script from the nineteen seventies McDonald's ad,
45:27
Speaker 19: he would have read a word for word without knowing
45:29
Speaker 19: what the hell he was doing To will be Patty's
45:31
Speaker 19: special source Lens. People's a whole deal, and he wouldn't
45:35
Speaker 19: have known at any stage that he was being played.
45:39
Speaker 19: I think we've got to give him a bit of
45:40
Speaker 19: break there. He's a little bit post presidential, much in
45:44
Speaker 19: the same way as Jimmy Carter. It's just a matter
45:46
Speaker 19: of degree.
45:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I called Jimmy Billy Carter. Billy might
45:49
Speaker 1: have been his brother.
45:50
Speaker 3: I think kind of awkward for me because I've just
45:53
Speaker 3: given him the wrong name.
45:54
Speaker 1: And I'm about to point out some of the slip
45:57
Speaker 1: up from Joe Biden today.
45:58
Speaker 20: So I apologize for the Billy Carter slip up President
46:03
Speaker 20: Jimmy Carter, of course, because have a look at Joe
46:07
Speaker 20: Biden on the terrorist groups today, more.
46:12
Speaker 5: Than fifteen months of conflict. I began with Hesbala's brutal
46:16
Speaker 5: massacre in October the seventh.
46:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, kind of a big issue, not just a name.
46:22
Speaker 3: He's got the wrong terrorist group that sparked all this
46:24
Speaker 3: on October the seventh. And when it comes to this country,
46:27
Speaker 3: just the day before he was talking about the Quad
46:30
Speaker 3: and just think about how the land down Under is
46:34
Speaker 3: so prominent in his mind.
46:36
Speaker 5: I've taken a quad to the next level, the United States, Japan, Austria,
46:42
Speaker 5: Australia and India.
46:45
Speaker 21: The old Austria slip mark, lad, Can I tell you
46:50
Speaker 21: the difference, the difference between your slip up and his
46:53
Speaker 21: is you took accountability on the media.
46:57
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure that Joe blind would still probably argue
46:59
Speaker 2: that he is a part of the quiet, and he's
47:01
Speaker 2: a part of aucust. That's what it stands for.
47:03
Speaker 9: What's going on at.
47:07
Speaker 14: Well.
47:08
Speaker 1: I'm going to miss him, Tim, I really am, absolutely.
47:11
Speaker 19: But you know, as as Mike said, at least he's
47:14
Speaker 19: broken piece between Israel and the Hamburglar.
47:17
Speaker 15: That's great.
47:20
Speaker 1: Actually, just on that issue. He was asked at.
47:22
Speaker 3: His event today whether or not it was him or
47:26
Speaker 3: Trump he should take credit.
47:28
Speaker 15: Have a look at that.
47:29
Speaker 5: I'm confident, thank you.
47:31
Speaker 4: Looks credit for this, mister President, you or try.
47:36
Speaker 5: Is that a joke? Oh?
47:39
Speaker 1: Thank you, certainly. I think it is a joke.
47:42
Speaker 2: Mark. You're right, Chris, I will miss that, that that
47:47
Speaker 2: ry smile that he's able to pull off at that
47:50
Speaker 2: weird side of that one. I'm going to miss it
47:53
Speaker 2: so much. I'm going to miss it so so much.
47:58
Speaker 2: I'm very excited about what the next four years going
48:00
Speaker 2: to be. It's going to be safe.
48:02
Speaker 3: I want to switch on to a domestic issue now.
48:04
Speaker 3: I've spent three weeks over our summer in the US
48:07
Speaker 3: and I'm going back there tomorrow, which is going to
48:09
Speaker 3: be great, Tim. I know you've traveled extensively in the US.
48:12
Speaker 3: This is a country where you can literally buy an
48:15
Speaker 3: automatic weapon in a supermarket. Yet in Australia, Cole's are
48:21
Speaker 3: now going to ban kitchen knives to stop stabbings. Now,
48:24
Speaker 3: I think we're all concerned about the serious, horrible attacks
48:28
Speaker 3: that they're reacting to. But what's it come to when
48:30
Speaker 3: you can't even sell knives in a supermarket?
48:33
Speaker 19: This is maybe the next sort of great divide Internationally.
48:38
Speaker 19: We used to be communist versus the Free West and
48:41
Speaker 19: so on. Now we've got a divide between high trust
48:44
Speaker 19: and low trust communities. And it even exists within countries.
48:47
Speaker 19: For example, in the US, and you'll be there obviously tomorrow,
48:49
Speaker 19: you'll notice in Washington, DC that there are a lot
48:51
Speaker 19: of shops that keep things like toothpaste and so on
48:54
Speaker 19: behind glass, locked glass containers so that don't get stolen.
48:59
Speaker 19: Obviously very low trust. And in other areas in the South,
49:03
Speaker 19: for example, you will find stores, as you say, that
49:06
Speaker 19: will sell rifles and firearms over the counter with various
49:10
Speaker 19: tests applied. High trust communities. I would hate to see Australia,
49:14
Speaker 19: even given the horrific tech involved on an employee by
49:18
Speaker 19: someone grabbing a knife off the counter. We don't want
49:20
Speaker 19: to go down that load trust route. We've got to
49:23
Speaker 19: stick to our faith in our fellow Australians, fellow shoppers
49:27
Speaker 19: and fellow staffers at the places like Coles and Wollas.
49:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, well expressed him.
49:31
Speaker 3: I think it's a problem marked because we're all worried
49:34
Speaker 3: about knife attacks obviously, but the thing about knives is
49:37
Speaker 3: you can get them anywhere, anyway, anytime, anyway.
49:41
Speaker 2: Exactly and take him off the shelf. Is it's a
49:43
Speaker 2: knee jerk reaction. They felt like they had to do something,
49:46
Speaker 2: but they don't realize that ninety nine percent of the stuff,
49:48
Speaker 2: either in the short term or the long term in
49:50
Speaker 2: coals is going to hurt you anyway. It's going to
49:52
Speaker 2: kill you anyway. Cans of tomatoes that's a weapon. Family
49:55
Speaker 2: is under a frozen family las union to the skone
49:57
Speaker 2: that's going to knock you out. Even a bag of
49:59
Speaker 2: hot cross buns will probably do some damage. Boys, that'll
50:02
Speaker 2: get you done.
50:02
Speaker 1: So where does this end?
50:04
Speaker 2: And the CCP have already done things like you know,
50:07
Speaker 2: they're chaining up knives to Butcher's benches and all that
50:10
Speaker 2: sort of stuff. That's the path that we're going down
50:13
Speaker 2: with this sort of thing. Like I said, I understand
50:15
Speaker 2: where they're coming from with it, but the responsibility is squarely, unfortunately,
50:19
Speaker 2: on this thirteen year old boy who was bailed out
50:21
Speaker 2: so his government failed in his community, his family. That's
50:25
Speaker 2: where we need to be looking at. For the first time,
50:28
Speaker 2: I've never I'm not wont to back up the big supermarkets.
50:31
Speaker 2: It's actually not their fault. It's a really rare case
50:33
Speaker 2: that we need to be looking at the youth crime
50:36
Speaker 2: situation that we've built and we've fostered, or the government's
50:39
Speaker 2: fostered anyway, that's where we're need to re pointing our fingers.
50:42
Speaker 3: Good on you, gentlemen. We'll catch up with you next week.
50:44
Speaker 3: Pleasure to have your company. Tim Blair there and Mark Nicholson.
50:47
Speaker 3: I'm all out of time. I'll catch up with you
50:49
Speaker 3: next week live from Washington, d C. Well broadcast The
50:54
Speaker 3: Kenny Report live all next week, as well as that
50:57
Speaker 3: live broadcast of the inauguration CERAM in the early hours
51:00
Speaker 3: of Tuesday morning.
51:01
Speaker 1: I'll see you then. Here's Peter
51:05
Speaker 3: Mm hmm