Latest / Steve Price / Steve Price | 11 October

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Steve Price | 11 October · Steve Price

0:00
Speaker 1: Live. This is Steve Price. We're going to Friday Night.
0:08
Speaker 1: Great to be with you, one of my favorite sporting
0:10
Speaker 1: weekends of the year, with the supercars dueling it out
0:13
Speaker 1: across the weekend across Mount Panorama at Bathurst in the
0:17
Speaker 1: one thousand and it's amazing how many of those great
0:20
Speaker 1: races are decided in the last few laps on Sunday.
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Speaker 1: It's great stuff, A very ousye weekend. Now coming up.
0:27
Speaker 1: October in Victoria is local government voting month, with postal
0:31
Speaker 1: votes mailed out over the last few days, and I've
0:34
Speaker 1: got to say, I wonder how many voters have got
0:37
Speaker 1: any clue me included, I've got no clue about many
0:40
Speaker 1: of these candidates and what they stand for. I'll check
0:43
Speaker 1: to Local Government watchdog boss Dean Helston first up tonight.
0:47
Speaker 1: And we can't wrap up the week without looking back
0:50
Speaker 1: on how the grim anniversary of the Hamas terror attacks
0:53
Speaker 1: on Israel a year ago was marked disgracefully weak government,
0:58
Speaker 1: state and federal limp, allowing anti Israel protesters to fill
1:03
Speaker 1: the streets of our capital cities screaming their normal obscenities.
1:08
Speaker 1: A powerful peace by Sky Gemma Tonini. Some the mood
1:11
Speaker 1: up for me and she'll join us as well. And
1:14
Speaker 1: Friday night regular Campbell Neyman, who better to have than him?
1:18
Speaker 1: He or you will look at the feature on Sky's
1:21
Speaker 1: Queensland election coverage. Now anastagea palishein and him will be
1:24
Speaker 1: on that coverage. It will be two weeks tomorrow he'll
1:27
Speaker 1: sume up for us what sort of week it's been
1:29
Speaker 1: over the next last fourteen days or so, And it's
1:32
Speaker 1: been a disaster today, I've got to say for both leaders.
1:36
Speaker 1: But first up tonight. Look, I think it goes from
1:39
Speaker 1: bad to worse for Prime Minister Anthony Ibanezi, and it
1:42
Speaker 1: seems every time he heads Overseas, some drama or scandal
1:47
Speaker 1: blows up back home and he's then forced to take
1:50
Speaker 1: questions on it while traveling the Prime ministers in Lao
1:54
Speaker 1: for Asian In managing to escape for a few days.
1:57
Speaker 1: The uproar back home over what I think is his
2:00
Speaker 1: week leadership on the Middle East, and he's desperate, hanging
2:03
Speaker 1: on to his two state solution delusion. Now it the
2:07
Speaker 1: trip was going okay with the big news that China's
2:10
Speaker 1: finally decided to grace us with the privilege of selling
2:13
Speaker 1: them our rock lobsters. He of course announced this to
2:17
Speaker 1: the traveling media pack and then came the question he
2:20
Speaker 1: must have been dreading.
2:23
Speaker 2: I looked to be koind aware of the conflint mix
2:26
Speaker 2: of males offer and as being handled at the creation.
2:30
Speaker 3: I am aware of it and I was briefed on it.
2:35
Speaker 3: The Acting Prime Minister has responded to this publicly, and
2:43
Speaker 3: due to the nature of it, I don't intend to
2:46
Speaker 3: add any further comments.
2:49
Speaker 1: A typic of non answer. Now, the true nature of
2:51
Speaker 1: what has actually happened between Acting Prime Minister Miles, his
2:55
Speaker 1: office staff and his chief of staff are unclear, and
2:58
Speaker 1: there's no suggestion the alligation of bullying is aimed at
3:01
Speaker 1: the Defense Minister himself. Now, Myles was asked about the
3:05
Speaker 1: unusual situation, and it's very unusual. Whereas most senior advisor,
3:09
Speaker 1: the woman who runs his office, Joe Turnlaski, is on
3:13
Speaker 1: full pay but hasn't been allowed in the office since mate.
3:17
Speaker 4: Joe is a person that I have known therefore for
3:21
Speaker 4: a long time, and she is a wonderful person. I
3:24
Speaker 4: feel deeply sad that events have got to where they have.
3:30
Speaker 4: This is obviously very difficult. Now let me say that
3:33
Speaker 4: in the way in which I've tried to manage this.
3:36
Speaker 4: I have done so with Joe's welfare in mind at
3:40
Speaker 4: every moment. But this matter is now in the hands
3:42
Speaker 4: of lawyers, and of course that is absolutely Joe's right,
3:46
Speaker 4: but it does mean that it is very difficult for
3:49
Speaker 4: me to say anything more on this issue.
3:53
Speaker 1: So let's unpick this. Look, it's not Myles's response that's
3:56
Speaker 1: a problem for the Prime Minister. It's the fact that
3:59
Speaker 1: in opposition in Anthony Alberanezi and his team, especially people
4:03
Speaker 1: like Penny Wong, Katie Gallagher and Christina collneally remember her,
4:07
Speaker 1: they weaponized that. Britney Higgins Sagarin used it to bring
4:10
Speaker 1: down Scott Morrison. I don't think anyone can dispute that
4:13
Speaker 1: the former Coalition government was painted as some sort of
4:16
Speaker 1: misogynistic bunch of old white guys who didn't care about
4:20
Speaker 1: the safety of women in Parliament House. It was rubbish,
4:24
Speaker 1: of course, but it led the now Prime Minister in
4:26
Speaker 1: the lead up to the election in twenty twenty two
4:29
Speaker 1: to promise to reform the way federal politics was done.
4:33
Speaker 1: Now a couple of years later, that has not only
4:36
Speaker 1: not happened, the numbers of staff fleeing political offices has
4:40
Speaker 1: not gotten better, but in fact it's got worse. Morrison
4:43
Speaker 1: must just shake his head and we need to ask
4:46
Speaker 1: where is the feminist groups all their outrage over what's
4:49
Speaker 1: being alleged here. They didn't hold back over Higgins, but
4:52
Speaker 1: so far this time crickets. The Australian public need to
4:56
Speaker 1: know exactly what happened here, and having a senior political
5:00
Speaker 1: advisor being frozen out of her job on full pay,
5:03
Speaker 1: paid for by you and me, probably around three hundred
5:06
Speaker 1: thousand dollars a year, is not good enough. The fact
5:09
Speaker 1: she resorted to turning up with a lawyer by his
5:11
Speaker 1: side to hold her own media conference in Parliament House
5:15
Speaker 1: is a quite stunning development.
5:18
Speaker 5: I know it won't be long now before I am
5:20
Speaker 5: bullied out of this place completely. I have been plagued
5:24
Speaker 5: with nightmares, flashbacks, symptoms of depression and anxiety, panic attacks
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Speaker 5: and suicidal thoughts. I am the most seniors female chief
5:35
Speaker 5: of staff on the Hill and my workplace is not safe.
5:39
Speaker 1: That she's been a victim of adverse action.
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Speaker 4: Effectively, she's a messenger who's been shot.
5:49
Speaker 1: Just extraordinary. We all feel for that poor young woman. Now,
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Speaker 1: I reckon this is just one more nail in the
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Speaker 1: coffin for our Prime minister now, just before we jump
6:01
Speaker 1: into local government. The Opposition's Simon Birmingham, Opposition Foreign spokesman,
6:06
Speaker 1: was asked on Sky this morning his view about Australians
6:10
Speaker 1: who were either visiting or living in war torn Lebanon
6:14
Speaker 1: waiting until the very last minute before evacuating. I think
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Speaker 1: he made a pretty good point.
6:21
Speaker 6: It doesn't matter whether it's Lebanon or Israel or anywhere
6:24
Speaker 6: else around the world. We should be making sure that
6:28
Speaker 6: Australians understand when the Australian government gives out travel warnings
6:32
Speaker 6: and says you shouldn't go to a country and if
6:35
Speaker 6: you are there, you should leave that country, and then
6:38
Speaker 6: you ignore those travel warnings day after day, week after week,
6:41
Speaker 6: month after month. Then don't expect to get a free
6:44
Speaker 6: ride home at the end of thumbing. He knows on that. Now,
6:48
Speaker 6: of course, there need to be considerations for compassionate circumstances,
6:51
Speaker 6: that's to be taken as a given. But for the
6:56
Speaker 6: bulk of people who are overseas, who are outside of
6:59
Speaker 6: Australia and who would in any other circumstance have to
7:02
Speaker 6: pay their way back to Australia, it's not unreasonable to
7:05
Speaker 6: expect that they make a contribution equivalent of a commercial
7:09
Speaker 6: airfare or the like to come back under whatever repatrigation
7:13
Speaker 6: arrangements are put in place.
7:15
Speaker 1: Now, I played that grab in full because people on
7:18
Speaker 1: Twitter today are saying that Simon Birmingham is heartless. Well,
7:21
Speaker 1: I reckon he's one hundred percent correct. If you've been
7:24
Speaker 1: warned not to travel to certain countries and then when
7:27
Speaker 1: offered a ride out and refuse, and then at the
7:29
Speaker 1: last minute decided to take it up the offer of
7:32
Speaker 1: a seat on an evacuation flight, then I reckon Birmingham
7:36
Speaker 1: is right when he says you should pay to get
7:39
Speaker 1: back home. It's amazing to me how many empty seats
7:42
Speaker 1: have been on those flights at Elebanon. Now, as I
7:49
Speaker 1: mentioned at the beginning of the show, October is local
7:52
Speaker 1: council election month for all Victorians. Now, the way this
7:55
Speaker 1: works is postal ballots get mailed out. They've been sent
7:58
Speaker 1: out by the electorc Commission. Mine arrived two days ago.
8:02
Speaker 1: Now you have to rate in numerical order your preference
8:06
Speaker 1: for a counselor in the ward of your council. Now,
8:10
Speaker 1: most people me included. Have got no idea who these
8:13
Speaker 1: people even are. I hadn't heard of any of them
8:15
Speaker 1: bar one. Then you have to at times hysterical fight
8:20
Speaker 1: by Lord Mayors of Melbourne, the twos three Bolks who
8:23
Speaker 1: want to be Lord Mayor of Melbourne for the next
8:25
Speaker 1: four years. I mean, that's in the background of all
8:28
Speaker 1: of the rest of people having to vote. Promises of
8:30
Speaker 1: long lunches have been promised, free coffees, graffiti, hit squads,
8:35
Speaker 1: free zumba classes. I mean, you can't believe what's going on.
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Speaker 1: You can't believe what these people are suggesting they're going
8:40
Speaker 1: to deliver if elected. Joining me is Dean Helstone, director
8:44
Speaker 1: of Council Watch. Dean, good to see you again. Is
8:48
Speaker 1: this the best way to elect new counselors? Steve?
8:55
Speaker 7: And what we keep seeing is these outrageous promises or
8:58
Speaker 7: these misreading of the situation, like we should have security
9:02
Speaker 7: booths for people, how about we get more police first.
9:06
Speaker 7: We see these stupid ideas thrown out there by candidates
9:09
Speaker 7: and what they fail to tell people is they only
9:12
Speaker 7: happen if a majority of councilors agree. One candidate or
9:15
Speaker 7: one Lord mayor does not unilaterally make a council.
9:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's an outstanding point. But when I mean, look,
9:24
Speaker 1: most people struggle to get involved in state elections or
9:28
Speaker 1: federal elections, let alone local government elections. But as you've
9:32
Speaker 1: been pointing out now for some years, it's crucial what
9:35
Speaker 1: happens in these town halls with these councils, particularly at
9:40
Speaker 1: a time when planning permission is such a big issue
9:44
Speaker 1: because we've got such a housing crisis.
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Speaker 7: Yeah, look, what we have is we have a real
9:50
Speaker 7: showdown between the state government and local councils. And what
9:54
Speaker 7: we keep seeing the changes this year to the single
9:57
Speaker 7: member ward structure we're designed by Labor so that they
10:00
Speaker 7: could have useful idiots in each of their councils, and
10:02
Speaker 7: this year is Steve. We've seen Labor go on a
10:05
Speaker 7: march where they're not consulting councils over the planning density changes,
10:08
Speaker 7: they're pushing them on them, and they are behaving in
10:11
Speaker 7: an unhinged manner. In our suburbs today, we are seeing
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Speaker 7: part of my French shit sheets go everywhere against any
10:19
Speaker 7: candidate who stands against Labor, because what the Labour MPs
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Speaker 7: of Victoria want is useful puppets that they can throw
10:25
Speaker 7: these planning changes in anything they like through and they
10:29
Speaker 7: don't want councils speaking up against them. I mean, we've
10:31
Speaker 7: seen in the city of Stonington the only Labor counselor
10:35
Speaker 7: unleash an unhinged, absolute attack that was in the Age today,
10:40
Speaker 7: absolutely defaming over two pages one counselor defaming the current mayor.
10:46
Speaker 7: I mean this stuff, you know, through her camp, through
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Speaker 7: her own campaign activism, people letterboxing for them to take
10:52
Speaker 7: people down who won't do.
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Speaker 1: Labour's useful idiot work.
10:55
Speaker 7: We actually need anyone who's a member of council, of
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Speaker 7: a council that running. Anyone a member of a political
11:02
Speaker 7: party must be on the ballot.
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Speaker 1: Who do you do the work for?
11:07
Speaker 7: We've even seen Steve this ridiculous statement come out of
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Speaker 7: a Liberal of all people counselor in the city of Marunda,
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Speaker 7: rob Stein saying I'm doing a good job because you
11:17
Speaker 7: don't know who I am. If you don't know who
11:20
Speaker 7: I am, I'm not doing the job. I mean, these
11:23
Speaker 7: councils to pull their head in. It is only local government,
11:27
Speaker 7: the tribal warfare, the promises that they can't deliver. Victorians
11:32
Speaker 7: just want their suburbs to be clean safe and not
11:35
Speaker 7: over developed. Is it too much to ask or are
11:38
Speaker 7: we dealing with a bunch of social activists who can't
11:40
Speaker 7: get their stuff together?
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Speaker 1: I think the latter. I mean I lived through New
11:46
Speaker 1: South Wales councilor malgamations. A lot of councils were put
11:49
Speaker 1: into administration and then smaller councilors were swallowed up, and
11:53
Speaker 1: they have a lot bigger councils across all of New
11:56
Speaker 1: South Wales, particularly Metropolitan Sydney. Do we should Victoria be
12:00
Speaker 1: looking at something like that? Yeah?
12:03
Speaker 7: Look, we have advocated for a very long time that
12:06
Speaker 7: these councils, seventy nine of them in Victoria, and let's
12:09
Speaker 7: be clear, the average metropolitan council is spending up to
12:11
Speaker 7: a million dollars. The state government doesn't pay one cent
12:14
Speaker 7: for these elections. Every ratepayer pays to elect people they
12:18
Speaker 7: don't know. We need to amalgamate these councils, drive some efficiencies,
12:23
Speaker 7: make these CEOs that are on five six, seven hundred
12:25
Speaker 7: thousand dollars a year accountable. They have no KPIs. We
12:29
Speaker 7: need to start reducing the number of councilors and making
12:32
Speaker 7: them responsible or turfed out at the ballot box. I
12:35
Speaker 7: mean what we're seeing is just this social, unhinged garbage
12:38
Speaker 7: coming out of our councils. No accountability, the administration not
12:42
Speaker 7: being held accountable, and counselors promising to do all these
12:45
Speaker 7: things that no one asked them to do. Let's get
12:48
Speaker 7: councils back on track, Let's make them transparent, and let's
12:52
Speaker 7: make them accountable to our communities, or turf them.
12:57
Speaker 1: I've written in the Heraldtan today up in the paper
13:00
Speaker 1: tomorrow about these crazy promises from the mayoral candidates, the
13:04
Speaker 1: lord mayoral candidates of Melbourne, like you know, letting your
13:08
Speaker 1: boss take you out to lunch and get rid of FBT,
13:11
Speaker 1: and you've got all sorts of crazy promises about, you know,
13:14
Speaker 1: giving away free coffee and exercise classes. I mean, these
13:18
Speaker 1: people just are not concentrating at all on what the
13:22
Speaker 1: people of the city want, which is a clean, safe city.
13:26
Speaker 1: No get rid of the homeless people, get rid of
13:29
Speaker 1: the graffiti, pick the rubbish up, and get rid of
13:32
Speaker 1: half the bike lanes.
13:35
Speaker 7: Steve, we're singing from. What I'm really about is that
13:39
Speaker 7: we are seeing the rise of activism so much into
13:42
Speaker 7: our councils that I'm actually surprised this election cycle we
13:46
Speaker 7: haven't had candidates promise to give you time off to
13:49
Speaker 7: go to an anti anti Israel or a pro Palestine
13:53
Speaker 7: protest on the city. I mean, it's getting ridiculous. Let's
13:56
Speaker 7: get back to basics. Fix these councils. Make them do
14:00
Speaker 7: their actual job, not everything, but and actually if we
14:03
Speaker 7: have bureaucrats that won't do that, sack them, get rid
14:06
Speaker 7: of them, and get counselors to start running these organizations better.
14:12
Speaker 1: More power to you, Dean Helston. Thank you very much, mate.
14:15
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you again soon. Those elections, of course,
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Speaker 1: right through October. Now this week mark the grim twelvemonth
14:22
Speaker 1: anniversary of the October seven terror attack by Hamas on Israel.
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Speaker 1: It shone a light on our disgracefully, in my view,
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Speaker 1: weak state and federal governments who limply allowed anti Israel
14:34
Speaker 1: protesters to march through the streets of Melbourne and Sydney,
14:37
Speaker 1: spouting their anti Israel chants flying Palestinian flags. Has been
14:41
Speaker 1: going on all year, but it was particularly poor when
14:44
Speaker 1: it took place on Monday. Now Sky News contributor Jema Tonnini,
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Speaker 1: I think she really summed up the mood of Australia
14:52
Speaker 1: in a very powerful piece in The Australian last week.
14:55
Speaker 1: She joins me, Now that piece was really from the heart,
15:01
Speaker 1: wasn't it.
15:03
Speaker 8: Everything I've written about this issue since last year, Steve
15:06
Speaker 8: has been absolutely.
15:08
Speaker 9: From the heart that one in particular.
15:11
Speaker 8: Just I think most Australians, I genuinely believe most Australians
15:16
Speaker 8: share my disbelief that, as you said, our government, state
15:20
Speaker 8: and federal have been so flaccid in their response to
15:24
Speaker 8: the ugliness and the evil that has been on our streets,
15:29
Speaker 8: and particularly those marches taking place on the sixth and
15:33
Speaker 8: the seventh of October disgraceful.
15:34
Speaker 10: Australians don't want that of that. I'm sure.
15:39
Speaker 1: I took a call from former Treasurer of Josh Friedenberg,
15:43
Speaker 1: who's obviously he's done a fantastic documentary that was run
15:46
Speaker 1: here on Sky. He's been very brave in speaking out strongly.
15:51
Speaker 1: But when I took that call from him in the
15:54
Speaker 1: lead up to Monday, he sounded like a broken man.
15:57
Speaker 1: I know he's not because he's so strong, but it's
16:00
Speaker 1: just he You know, you can tell in someone's voice
16:03
Speaker 1: that this has just got too much.
16:05
Speaker 10: Look, I think it's the relentless nature of it as well.
16:09
Speaker 8: I mean, I'm not Jewish and I'm not Israeli, but
16:11
Speaker 8: am I do know the difference between right and wrong,
16:13
Speaker 8: and I do have without tooting my own horn, Steva,
16:17
Speaker 8: you know, I learned a bit at school and I
16:18
Speaker 8: learned a bit at university. And none of this is
16:20
Speaker 8: about land or none of this is about a.
16:23
Speaker 10: Two state solution.
16:23
Speaker 8: This is about eradicating Israel from the map, because that's
16:27
Speaker 8: what Iran wants and that's what it's proxies want, and
16:29
Speaker 8: you don't even have to imagine that that is their
16:31
Speaker 8: stated aim, and to pretend otherwise is just so desperately dishonest.
16:37
Speaker 8: And we need to call these things out. And in
16:39
Speaker 8: relation to my column last weekend talking about you know
16:43
Speaker 8: which children we advocate for and which children we don't.
16:45
Speaker 10: And let's be clear, every.
16:46
Speaker 8: Single death of a civilian man, woman, or child is
16:50
Speaker 8: a tragedy, but wars are terrible.
16:52
Speaker 10: Best not you start them.
16:53
Speaker 8: And to sort of put some context around my thinking
16:57
Speaker 8: around that in the Syrian conflict, Iran and Syria have
17:04
Speaker 8: been responsible according to the UN and according to the
17:08
Speaker 8: Syrian Human Rights Network, the deaths of thirty one thousand
17:11
Speaker 8: children's dave thirty one thousand children killed by.
17:15
Speaker 10: Iranian forces and Syrian forces.
17:17
Speaker 8: ISIS have been directly responsible for the death of nine
17:21
Speaker 8: hundred and fifty eight children, some of which have been tortured.
17:24
Speaker 8: That's documented. Let's look at the Sudan for example. This
17:28
Speaker 8: year in the Sudan, there has been a five hundred
17:30
Speaker 8: percent increase in the rape, the abduction, the murder and
17:37
Speaker 8: the recruitment into child militia forces of children in the Sudan.
17:41
Speaker 8: That's this year, four million children are displaced in the Sudan.
17:46
Speaker 9: Seven hundred thousand of them.
17:49
Speaker 8: Are subject to the worst episode of malnutrition in modern history.
17:53
Speaker 10: Where is the coverage of this?
17:55
Speaker 8: Where are the marches advocating for these children if they're
17:59
Speaker 8: not happening because the are no Jews involved. This is
18:01
Speaker 8: what anti Semitism looks like when it talks about global
18:04
Speaker 8: policy and media coverage.
18:05
Speaker 10: And that was the point of my column.
18:07
Speaker 9: Every death of every child is a tragedy.
18:09
Speaker 8: Particularly in the context of this war that Hummas started
18:13
Speaker 8: as a proxy of Iran on the seventh of October
18:16
Speaker 8: last year.
18:17
Speaker 10: You talk about ceasefires.
18:19
Speaker 8: Hummus broke a ceasefire on the seventh of October and
18:22
Speaker 8: refuses to negotiate one going forward. There is no gray
18:27
Speaker 8: in this area. There is no you know, obfiscating. It
18:30
Speaker 8: is right and it is wrong, and our government respectfully
18:33
Speaker 8: has been found so wanting.
18:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've had no leadership whatsoever. I mean, I want
18:39
Speaker 1: to go to the back to the streets. Now, we've
18:43
Speaker 1: witnessed these marches through the major capital cities just about
18:46
Speaker 1: every weekend, well every weekend since the seventh What are
18:51
Speaker 1: we teaching in our universities that I mean when we
18:53
Speaker 1: had universities occupied for week after week after week, we
18:57
Speaker 1: had I think one building at a university in Sydney
19:01
Speaker 1: that was actually renamed after Hamas Hiris. I mean, what
19:05
Speaker 1: is going on in our institutions that are a cohort
19:11
Speaker 1: of eighteen to twenty two year olds are not prepared
19:15
Speaker 1: to read the history like you have. But I just
19:19
Speaker 1: seemed to be fed this anti Jewish, anti Israeli stuff
19:23
Speaker 1: and they just walk out there without questioning it.
19:27
Speaker 8: I think there's a few things that play there, and
19:28
Speaker 8: one of them is obviously weakness in leadership from universities.
19:32
Speaker 8: I mean, we saw the Senate Estimates inquiry, the Senate
19:35
Speaker 8: inquiry and Mark Scott's response to that saying that.
19:37
Speaker 10: The university leadership had failed Jewish students.
19:40
Speaker 9: I mean, well, tell us something that we already knew.
19:42
Speaker 10: We already knew that six months ago.
19:44
Speaker 8: So there's a weakness that emboldens this kind of behavior.
19:47
Speaker 10: That's the first thing.
19:48
Speaker 8: Second of all, over the year's curriculum has gradually been
19:52
Speaker 8: eroded from history to what do you feel about history?
19:56
Speaker 8: To what's your take on history? To being completely revisionist.
19:59
Speaker 8: I will say, you know, let's go back to pre
20:02
Speaker 8: nineteen forty eight. All right, let's ask the Egyptians and
20:04
Speaker 8: the Jordanians if they want to take.
20:06
Speaker 10: Control of the disputed territories. I mean, that's how ignorant
20:08
Speaker 10: people are. And you've also.
20:10
Speaker 8: Got it's funny you should ask me this question, Steve,
20:12
Speaker 8: because I've actually looked at that in my column for
20:15
Speaker 8: Tomorrow's Tomorrow's Australian a little bit, particularly about women and
20:19
Speaker 8: what it is about young girls. We see young girls
20:21
Speaker 8: marching in the streets, you know, simping for terrorist organizations
20:25
Speaker 8: that would never countenance them the freedoms that they're allowed
20:29
Speaker 8: to live under in Australia. I mean, there's no marriage
20:31
Speaker 8: equality under sharia law, Steve, So I think it's ignorance.
20:34
Speaker 8: I think it's a combination of week leadership and an
20:37
Speaker 8: education system that progressively over the last decades has lurched
20:41
Speaker 8: to the left, seemingly while obody's been watching.
20:47
Speaker 1: Last week's Colin was outstanding. I can't wait to read tomorrow.
20:50
Speaker 1: It's a good reason to get out and buy the
20:51
Speaker 1: Weekend Australian. Jemma always great to catch up with you.
20:53
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Thanks Jemmy ton Uni there. Make
20:56
Speaker 1: sure you get the Australian tomorrow. You will, I'm sure
20:59
Speaker 1: be impressed like I have been about how she's writing
21:02
Speaker 1: about this issue. Now still ahead tonight, just weeks to
21:04
Speaker 1: go in the Queensland state election. Boy, it's been a
21:07
Speaker 1: circus today. The candidates have been on the road, the
21:10
Speaker 1: latest on what they're promising voters and next up, speak
21:14
Speaker 1: of politics, I ran into a Liberal candidate, a pre
21:17
Speaker 1: selected Liberal candidate, Benson Salo. He's been selected for the
21:21
Speaker 1: Victorian seat of McNamara. He'll join me live up next.
21:28
Speaker 1: Welcome back Friday Night's steep price with you now. It seems,
21:31
Speaker 1: if the calendar is to be believed, the sitting calendar
21:34
Speaker 1: for Federal Parliament, that the next federal election is going
21:36
Speaker 1: to either be held in March or May next year.
21:40
Speaker 1: Now the sitting dates have a budget inserted into March,
21:44
Speaker 1: so everyone's suggesting it could be May. So at the
21:47
Speaker 1: earliest it's an election in six months at the latest,
21:50
Speaker 1: probably eight months. But pre selected candidates from both sides
21:54
Speaker 1: are already out campaigning now. I ran into Liberal candidate
21:58
Speaker 1: Benson Solo last Saturda Day morning. He was standing on
22:01
Speaker 1: a street corner in sin Kuda in Melbourne, just meets
22:04
Speaker 1: away from the electoral office of his opponent, Labour's Jewish
22:08
Speaker 1: member for McNamara. That's the seat Josh Burns.
22:12
Speaker 5: Now.
22:12
Speaker 1: The last time I was in that spot, Burns' office,
22:15
Speaker 1: of course, has been defaced by anti Israeli Israel vandals
22:19
Speaker 1: in a disgraceful attack. The seats held by Labour by
22:22
Speaker 1: around six percent, which would put it in play. Benson
22:27
Speaker 1: Sowlow has been good enough to join us in the studio.
22:29
Speaker 1: Good to see. I was a bit shocked to see
22:30
Speaker 1: you on the street last Saturday morning. It's a bit early.
22:34
Speaker 2: Equally is shocked to see you coming around the corner.
22:35
Speaker 1: But no, it's great.
22:36
Speaker 2: We're out early. I think it's really important, particularly because
22:39
Speaker 2: it has been such a long time labor seat to
22:42
Speaker 2: be out early meeting people to really understand the issues
22:44
Speaker 2: that impact them.
22:46
Speaker 1: We'll get onto some of those local issues. Given the
22:49
Speaker 1: large Jewish population in that seat, if you were to
22:52
Speaker 1: win it, I think you were saying it's around somewhere
22:54
Speaker 1: between eleven and fifteen percent of the electorate. That's right.
22:57
Speaker 1: How disappointed have you been in the rise in anti Semitism?
23:01
Speaker 2: Well, it's not just me who's disappointed. The Jewish community
23:05
Speaker 2: as a whole are absolutely feeling let down there. They
23:09
Speaker 2: feel that they are actually very much under attack and
23:13
Speaker 2: they're seeing a weak labor government with a with a
23:16
Speaker 2: lack of response to shut down anti semitism. And Steve,
23:18
Speaker 2: you know, we've seen this across our universities, we've seen
23:21
Speaker 2: it across our streets right here in Melbourne. And the
23:25
Speaker 2: fact that we've just this year, sorry this week, sorry
23:29
Speaker 2: ticked over twelve months since October seventh attack, and we're
23:32
Speaker 2: still seeing a weak government when it comes to stopping
23:35
Speaker 2: and addressing anti Semitism.
23:36
Speaker 1: But so let our audience in on your background. I mean,
23:39
Speaker 1: you were actually appointed Console General to Canada, weren't you
23:42
Speaker 1: to the US?
23:43
Speaker 2: So I was based out of Houston, but I did
23:46
Speaker 2: have none of that must have been it was a
23:48
Speaker 2: it was a great honor.
23:49
Speaker 1: First Indigenous consul general.
23:51
Speaker 2: It's not on it was. It was a great honor.
23:53
Speaker 2: And and so my my my team there we looked
23:56
Speaker 2: after Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, so really wonderful states.
24:01
Speaker 2: And then the duell hat that I wore was a
24:03
Speaker 2: senior Trade and Investment commissioner. So my team was in Canada,
24:06
Speaker 2: US and also Mexico.
24:07
Speaker 1: How did you manage to get that role? What were
24:09
Speaker 1: you doing before that?
24:10
Speaker 2: So prior to that, I was working in the private
24:12
Speaker 2: sector in investments. So my background is banking and finance,
24:17
Speaker 2: but I've also led not for profits, working with young
24:19
Speaker 2: Indigenous kids all the way through to more recently how
24:23
Speaker 2: do we invest into Indigenous businesses to scale them?
24:26
Speaker 1: So what lit the fire for federal politics?
24:28
Speaker 2: It's always been there. My father's a minister, and so
24:32
Speaker 2: seeing you living in a household really focused around leadership
24:36
Speaker 2: and leading a congregation, it was something that was always
24:39
Speaker 2: from a young age been implanted. Then that was a
24:42
Speaker 2: pathway to move to really shape the future of the nation.
24:48
Speaker 1: Your opponent is Jewish and Josh Burns has had a
24:51
Speaker 1: really hard time of it. His office was attacked, as
24:54
Speaker 1: we mentioned. I'm sure you've spoken to him about that.
24:58
Speaker 1: I just wonder what his feelings are about whether there's
25:01
Speaker 1: strong enough leadership at the top, which I don't think
25:03
Speaker 1: believe there is.
25:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't have an insight as to how Josh
25:06
Speaker 2: feels directly with his own party, but from the outside
25:09
Speaker 2: and what I'm hearing from the community that feel that
25:11
Speaker 2: Labor have completely left the Jewish community behind. They don't
25:16
Speaker 2: have the best interests at heart, and we're seeing that
25:19
Speaker 2: play out with the recent protests. Obviously, tonight and moving
25:24
Speaker 2: into tomorrow is Yom Kipor, and so it's a really
25:27
Speaker 2: significant Jewish high holiday. But we're seeing distill that lack
25:31
Speaker 2: of I guess, I guess really cohesive response to addressing
25:37
Speaker 2: anti Semitism.
25:38
Speaker 1: You've got a very diverse electric I mean, you've got
25:41
Speaker 1: at the younger end, you'd expect that perhaps there'd be
25:44
Speaker 1: quite a reasonable Green vote and perhaps Labor, but it
25:48
Speaker 1: spreads out into very progressive but quite well off suburbs.
25:54
Speaker 1: What's the biggest issue do you think? Is it cost
25:56
Speaker 1: of living?
25:57
Speaker 11: Yeah?
25:57
Speaker 2: Well, absolutely, and we're out every weekend as you know,
26:00
Speaker 2: and we're meeting from Port Melbourne right across up to Corfield,
26:04
Speaker 2: to Elwood to sin Kilda. You know, the electric is
26:07
Speaker 2: very diverse, but consistently it's the cost of living. And
26:10
Speaker 2: more recently we actually hosted a small business roundtable with
26:14
Speaker 2: the Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor, and what we're hearing from
26:18
Speaker 2: these small business associations is crime is a huge issue
26:22
Speaker 2: right across the electorate.
26:23
Speaker 1: Surprisingly, home invasions, aggravated burgery, all.
26:27
Speaker 2: That, all the above, and what that also means is
26:30
Speaker 2: that the foot traffic is not coming to the likes
26:33
Speaker 2: of Clarendon Street. They're not coming to Ackland Street and
26:35
Speaker 2: sin Kilda. These were thriving business centers and small business hubs.
26:40
Speaker 2: We're no longer seeing that and that has direct impact
26:44
Speaker 2: on the traders themselves. So it's the cost of living.
26:47
Speaker 2: People are spending less in the shops, but also the
26:49
Speaker 2: foot traffic is also dwindling.
26:51
Speaker 1: What about rental and housing crisis, I mean, obviously that's
26:55
Speaker 1: nationwide every state as a housing christ it's probably Victoria
26:58
Speaker 1: is as bad as anywhere. You would have a lot
27:01
Speaker 1: of rental properties in your electric as well it'spot on.
27:04
Speaker 2: So over fifty percent are renters. Myself, my family, I've
27:07
Speaker 2: got three kids, we're longtime renters and so we're very aspirational.
27:11
Speaker 2: We know that we want to break into the home
27:13
Speaker 2: ownership market. For us, it's very much around it to
27:16
Speaker 2: supply and demand issue here. You know, the stock is
27:20
Speaker 2: not where we need it to be. The developments have
27:22
Speaker 2: not been taking place, and I'm very much of the
27:25
Speaker 2: Yimbi approach. So yes in my backyard, but this needs
27:28
Speaker 2: to be smart. It needs to be reflective of the
27:30
Speaker 2: needs of the community and it needs to be the
27:32
Speaker 2: right type of development. It's not just development for development's sake.
27:36
Speaker 1: What would your what is your main message to people
27:38
Speaker 1: who might be inclined to switch their vote. I mean,
27:42
Speaker 1: I think Peter Dutton, I'm sure you'll agree Peter Dutton
27:45
Speaker 1: is doing a pretty outstanding job as Opposition leader. He's
27:49
Speaker 1: been strong on the Israel Middle East issue. He's been
27:54
Speaker 1: strong on renewable energy, in the fact that we need
27:57
Speaker 1: a full mix of renewable energy, including nuclear. He's been
28:01
Speaker 1: very strong on law and order. I think he's going
28:05
Speaker 1: in the right direction. Do you think that the electric
28:08
Speaker 1: has a hunger for change? It does and one JOm
28:11
Speaker 1: government though that's true.
28:13
Speaker 2: But look, it's not just the polls, it's the conversations
28:16
Speaker 2: that we're having every every weekend. You know, there is
28:19
Speaker 2: a there is a sense that changes in the air
28:22
Speaker 2: and what's striving that is a sense of desperation that
28:25
Speaker 2: is underpinning that people's people are worse off than they
28:29
Speaker 2: work financially just to homeless a lot, and it's increasing.
28:33
Speaker 2: And there's also flow on impacts around mental health as
28:35
Speaker 2: well as then the flow on impacts of crime as well.
28:38
Speaker 2: So people want to have a response to that, and
28:40
Speaker 2: yes there is a law and order response, but there's
28:43
Speaker 2: also ensuring that there's diversionary in support available to people
28:47
Speaker 2: from a housing supply issue is very much around addressing
28:52
Speaker 2: there's critical demand that's coming by opening up the over
28:57
Speaker 2: a million people coming into Australia, so there is supplied
29:00
Speaker 2: demand issue there.
29:01
Speaker 1: So you think Peter Dutton's right on immigration.
29:03
Speaker 2: Absolutely, And that's not just me, that's also the polls
29:05
Speaker 2: saying that. That's people on the street corners telling us
29:08
Speaker 2: people feel that there is a we're at a flashpoint
29:12
Speaker 2: in our nation and what people really want and desperately
29:15
Speaker 2: want is leadership and we're seeing that in Dutton. We're
29:18
Speaker 2: seeing that in our federal Liberal Party team.
29:21
Speaker 1: I think you can win the seat.
29:23
Speaker 2: We're working hard for it. That's why we're out early.
29:25
Speaker 2: We're very I'm very voyed by the conversations that I
29:29
Speaker 2: am having, but I've got great supporters and wonderful volunteers
29:33
Speaker 2: that are out there supporting me as well, and they're enthusiastic.
29:36
Speaker 2: And what that tells me is that there is an
29:38
Speaker 2: air of change.
29:38
Speaker 1: You're doing a great job. Thanks for coming in. Thank
29:40
Speaker 1: you very much. That's Benson there now coming up after
29:43
Speaker 1: the break South of Stralian Premier now talking about politicians
29:46
Speaker 1: Peter Malanawskis and New South Wales Premier Chris Mince, both
29:49
Speaker 1: Labor premiers putting on what I would say pretty impressive
29:54
Speaker 1: displays in recent weeks. I asked the question, should Anthony
29:57
Speaker 1: Alberezi be worried as his state leaders outshine him? And
30:01
Speaker 1: next all the big issues as Queensland prepares to go
30:03
Speaker 1: to the polls. Former Premier Campbell Newman joins me, as
30:07
Speaker 1: he does each Friday, Welcome back to Steve Price with you.
30:13
Speaker 1: Denika de Georgia coming up at the top of the hour. Incredibly,
30:17
Speaker 1: it's just two weeks until Queensland state election. Now. Of
30:20
Speaker 1: course Skyle have full coverage that night, Anastagia Palache and
30:25
Speaker 1: our Friday Night regular Campbell Newman will be on that panel.
30:28
Speaker 1: Stephen Miles and David CHRISP Foley. I have been in
30:31
Speaker 1: North Queensland today. I believe they are concentrating on Central
30:36
Speaker 1: Queensland and then North Queensland later this weekend talking to voters,
30:40
Speaker 1: shaking hands, making election promises they probably won't keep from all.
30:44
Speaker 1: Let's bring in someone who knows this area so well,
30:46
Speaker 1: former Queensland Premier. Friday Night Regular Campbell Newman, Campbell, great
30:50
Speaker 1: to see you again. Two weeks to go. Who wins?
30:54
Speaker 1: I like?
30:54
Speaker 11: I still think David Christoph Fally's going to get there,
30:57
Speaker 11: but he has I think at a more difficult week
31:01
Speaker 11: this week, with some issues being popped up that he
31:04
Speaker 11: probably didn't want to talk about, like voluntary assisted dying
31:07
Speaker 11: and of course abortion.
31:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll get onto the abortion. It was a very
31:15
Speaker 1: very awkward media conference where he had to intervene. We
31:18
Speaker 1: get onto that in a moment, and of course our
31:21
Speaker 1: old mates Steve Miles forgot it, forgot the name of
31:24
Speaker 1: a candidate again they've been Look, I want to tap
31:27
Speaker 1: into your background and your experience here. Unlike a state
31:32
Speaker 1: like Victoria, even a state like South Australia or New
31:36
Speaker 1: South Wales, Queensland's huge. But it's not only huge. It's
31:39
Speaker 1: got those big regional towns, doesn't it, Mackay, Townsville, Cans Bunderberg.
31:45
Speaker 1: How important is it to get your message out as
31:49
Speaker 1: a potential premiere to those communities?
31:53
Speaker 11: Critically important, Steve. So we can talk about the seats
31:55
Speaker 11: at stake in a moment, but just to explain for
31:58
Speaker 11: people from other states, you know, queens and Ears are
32:01
Speaker 11: very diverse, spread out stadium and it's vast of course
32:07
Speaker 11: WA's as well. But what we have which is different
32:09
Speaker 11: from WA's, we have these very significant coastal regional cities
32:13
Speaker 11: and some England places as well that are pretty sizable,
32:16
Speaker 11: say like to Woman for example, and each one of
32:20
Speaker 11: those centers, Steve has quite unique issues and there is
32:24
Speaker 11: great rivalry if you're like between some of those centers,
32:27
Speaker 11: but there's also an overwhelming feeling that Brisbane gets it
32:30
Speaker 11: all and they've been dunned. And so you know, for
32:34
Speaker 11: a Queensland premier well, firstly to get elected, you've got
32:37
Speaker 11: to understand those issues. You've got a campaign effectively, but
32:40
Speaker 11: also as premier then you've got to effectively govern to
32:43
Speaker 11: make sure that people are happy in those areas. So
32:45
Speaker 11: what's at stake, Well, if we just go through them,
32:48
Speaker 11: Bunderberg the seat of Bunderberg, that's a key one for the.
32:52
Speaker 1: L and P want to pick up.
32:54
Speaker 11: If you go to Townsville, there's three at stake there,
32:59
Speaker 11: Rock Dampton, the seat of Keppel, which is towards the coast.
33:03
Speaker 11: Mackay has traditionally been a Labor seat, but in this
33:07
Speaker 11: election the LMP are putting on quite an effort there
33:11
Speaker 11: and they believe they can pick it up. And finally
33:14
Speaker 11: in cans you've got the seat of Barren River. So
33:16
Speaker 11: the LMP have got to win twelve and I think
33:20
Speaker 11: out of southeast Queensland there's probably seven maybe eight that
33:24
Speaker 11: they can grab and then they've obviously going to do
33:27
Speaker 11: well around the Brisbane metro area, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast.
33:33
Speaker 1: It's going to be an interesting litmus test, isn't it.
33:36
Speaker 1: When you've got those big communities where you've got a
33:38
Speaker 1: big unionized workforce. In places like Gladstone and the coal
33:42
Speaker 1: mining communities. It's going to be really fascinating to see
33:46
Speaker 1: if that workforce turns on the Labor government, not just
33:52
Speaker 1: the Queensland Labor Government, but is not happy with what
33:56
Speaker 1: it's seeing out of Canberra.
33:59
Speaker 11: If I was campaigning instead of David Christoph Foley, I
34:03
Speaker 11: would have spent the last few years pounding both the
34:07
Speaker 11: State Labor Party and the Federal Labor Party as burning
34:10
Speaker 11: uninterested in coal and ultimately selling the seeds for the
34:15
Speaker 11: destruction of the very important jobs in the coal mining sector,
34:19
Speaker 11: in the coal fired power stations and the energy intensive
34:23
Speaker 11: industries for example at Gladstone and Townsville, which rely on
34:27
Speaker 11: cheap energy, plentiful, reliable energy, because the Labor Party don't
34:32
Speaker 11: care about those people. Labor parties dominated by inner city elites,
34:37
Speaker 11: the tertiary qualified, smart, smarty pants are the ones who
34:40
Speaker 11: run the Labor Party these days, and I think there's
34:43
Speaker 11: little affinity with true blue collar people. But by the way,
34:47
Speaker 11: I feel, I've got a lot of top for myself.
34:50
Speaker 11: I always always have and I worked in the coal
34:52
Speaker 11: mining sector, so that's I think something that the LNP
34:56
Speaker 11: probably haven't rested hard enough at the federal Well, of course,
35:01
Speaker 11: you know, the Coalition have been far more effective in
35:04
Speaker 11: picking up seats there in the federal seats that overlie
35:09
Speaker 11: these important state electorates.
35:13
Speaker 1: Is CHRESI Fooley right to not back nuclear? What would
35:16
Speaker 1: you do in that situation, do you think?
35:19
Speaker 2: Well?
35:19
Speaker 11: I totally disagree with him and his state colleagues. I
35:22
Speaker 11: think they've they've really lost the plot on this one.
35:26
Speaker 11: And I remind people that when he was in cabinet,
35:29
Speaker 11: David Christoph Foley, and indeed a number of people who
35:32
Speaker 11: are still there, like Jared Blay and John Paul Lambroke
35:35
Speaker 11: and Tim Mander, they're actually in cabinet supported a decision
35:39
Speaker 11: to overturn the ban on uranium mining in this state. Now,
35:43
Speaker 11: and it's not exactly the same thing, but they're obviously
35:45
Speaker 11: closely related. And I think it's really a great pity
35:48
Speaker 11: that the state LMP haven't supported the very principal and
35:53
Speaker 11: important leadership decision of Peter Dutton, you know, to go
36:00
Speaker 11: out there and point out that this is the way
36:02
Speaker 11: forward for an emission free, reliable energy source. Now, the
36:08
Speaker 11: other problem with the state ELINGP is this supporting of
36:11
Speaker 11: the Labor Party sort of net zero capers which ultimately
36:15
Speaker 11: lead to higher prices and unreliable energy for Queensland, and
36:18
Speaker 11: it really should have been repudiated. I mean, the trouble
36:21
Speaker 11: with politics today in Australia is people from the right
36:24
Speaker 11: actually won't stand up and make the arguments. And so
36:28
Speaker 11: you know, we just seen the whole debate skew to
36:32
Speaker 11: the left and quite quite silly things have been put
36:36
Speaker 11: up in terms of our energy policy right across the
36:39
Speaker 11: country these days.
36:42
Speaker 1: I must say I was surprised when the abortion issue
36:44
Speaker 1: bobbed up them and I hadn't realized that it was
36:48
Speaker 1: an issue in the campaign. And in Queensland you've got
36:52
Speaker 1: the access to abortion in the state. Rockamden candidate some
36:56
Speaker 1: uncle Donna Kirpland, who once shared a social media post
37:00
Speaker 1: claiming quotes abortion is the greatest human rights abuse of
37:04
Speaker 1: our time. She dodged questions on that today not surprising,
37:07
Speaker 1: an have a look at this.
37:09
Speaker 12: I want to be.
37:09
Speaker 7: Crystal, what are you saying? You say, you say this,
37:12
Speaker 7: what is not part of you?
37:13
Speaker 9: The questions that have been asked are not a part
37:16
Speaker 9: of our entity. This is not a part of l
37:19
Speaker 9: MP's plan. The questions that you have asked today are
37:21
Speaker 9: not a part of our plan.
37:22
Speaker 1: We have ruled them out.
37:24
Speaker 9: We have ruled out any conversation around that.
37:27
Speaker 10: We have ruled it out.
37:28
Speaker 9: It is not a part of our plan. You have
37:30
Speaker 9: always been asking the same questions.
37:35
Speaker 1: We have ruled it out. Well, we have ruled it out.
37:39
Speaker 5: It's a part of our plan.
37:40
Speaker 13: You've ruled out us.
37:41
Speaker 12: We have ruled it out.
37:42
Speaker 9: I have ruled it out.
37:43
Speaker 10: We have ruled.
37:47
Speaker 7: I think she's had a few.
37:48
Speaker 1: Craft We're not the US. Is that a damaging thing
37:54
Speaker 1: for the l MP?
37:57
Speaker 11: Look, I think the damage comes from the way they
38:00
Speaker 11: decided to deal with it. And this has now gone
38:03
Speaker 11: on for three days solid and arguably four days and
38:08
Speaker 11: is really sort of sucking all the oxygen out of
38:10
Speaker 11: the room. And I've been there with this sort of
38:12
Speaker 11: stuff's happened, and you know, I'm very sympathetic for David
38:16
Speaker 11: and the team, but really I think what they should
38:18
Speaker 11: have done is they should have said that there will
38:22
Speaker 11: be a reconsideration of this issue and it will be
38:26
Speaker 11: a conscious issue, and so Bare and Robbie Catter and
38:32
Speaker 11: the KAP have really said that they're going to bring
38:34
Speaker 11: this forward. So the moment that happened there had to
38:37
Speaker 11: be an answer, and in these sorts of situations, Steve
38:41
Speaker 11: a clear, unequivocal answer of what you will do is
38:45
Speaker 11: far better than three or four days of saying, you know,
38:49
Speaker 11: non answers. And you know, I was sending a text
38:53
Speaker 11: to someone this afternoon about how things were going. I said, well, look,
38:56
Speaker 11: they've marched into the abortion swamp because they're stuck. They've
39:00
Speaker 11: got the fall drive stuck and stuck in the swamp
39:03
Speaker 11: in terms of issues and trying to take their campaign forward.
39:06
Speaker 11: And they're talking about this stuff for one. And you know,
39:10
Speaker 11: I think a woman's got to have the right to
39:14
Speaker 11: be able to have an abortion. But I think the
39:17
Speaker 11: abortion laws that we have in Queensland have gone far
39:19
Speaker 11: too far. You know, we're basically I'm happy to terminate,
39:25
Speaker 11: you know, babies that are almost viable human beings. I
39:28
Speaker 11: think that's wrong. So I think there are many people
39:32
Speaker 11: who would would understand if the Lamp were talking along
39:35
Speaker 11: those lines but emphasizing that they still support a woman's
39:39
Speaker 11: right to have an abortion. Now, the trouble of got
39:41
Speaker 11: made is internally they've got people from the Christian right
39:45
Speaker 11: who legitimately have their view who wouldn't be satisfied at
39:49
Speaker 11: all with what I've just said, of course, and those
39:51
Speaker 11: arguments continue, but it's a pity they're there. And by
39:55
Speaker 11: the way, I feel that the Labor Party have been
39:57
Speaker 11: wild enough to throw this in because I haven't got
40:01
Speaker 11: it to hand and hold it up. But the Labor
40:04
Speaker 11: candidate in the seat that I lived in as today
40:07
Speaker 11: delivered a brochure that talks about this and claims that
40:10
Speaker 11: the LNP will basically take away women's rights to have
40:14
Speaker 11: an abortion. Now, these things take three or four days
40:17
Speaker 11: to produce. How did the Labor Party know that this
40:21
Speaker 11: was going to be the issue here tonight? I think
40:24
Speaker 11: there's been some work around some of the dark arts
40:28
Speaker 11: for this into the election campaign.
40:32
Speaker 1: Very good insight as usual, Campbell, Catch up with you
40:34
Speaker 1: next Friday. Thank you, and Campbell of course, along with
40:37
Speaker 1: Anastasia Palachet, will be on the Sky coverage of election
40:39
Speaker 1: Night still ahead. Should Australian to leave it to the
40:42
Speaker 1: last minute to get out of a conflict zone like
40:45
Speaker 1: Lebanon be forced to pay for their own evacuation, I'll
40:48
Speaker 1: put that in more to my panel next Steve Price
40:54
Speaker 1: with you, Welcome back. It is Friday Night Panel Time
40:56
Speaker 1: Small Business Women Australia. Amanda Rose joins us as you
41:00
Speaker 1: does each Friday night, and Sky News contributor the great
41:02
Speaker 1: Joe hilde Rand. Welcome to you both. I want to
41:05
Speaker 1: start with you. Joe Anthony Albanezi's off on a foreign
41:09
Speaker 1: trip overseas in lao at Asia. I note with some interest.
41:14
Speaker 1: Now I don't know if I'm being too much of
41:15
Speaker 1: a conspiracy theorist here, but you've got the two best
41:19
Speaker 1: labor politicians in the country. Peter Malinowskis the Premier of
41:22
Speaker 1: South Australia. Chris Min's the Premier of New South Wales.
41:25
Speaker 1: I've got together on the very important issue, and I'll
41:28
Speaker 1: talk to Amanda about this in a minute of social media.
41:31
Speaker 1: When you saw those two holding two days of summits
41:34
Speaker 1: and then media conferences, you think to yourself, are these
41:37
Speaker 1: boys on the way to Canberra.
41:40
Speaker 13: It's a very good question. Believe it or not, you're
41:42
Speaker 13: reading my mind. They are on the I love Albo
41:45
Speaker 13: as well, of course, for all my sins, but Chris
41:49
Speaker 13: Mins and Pete Melanowskis are absolutely the gold standard when
41:53
Speaker 13: it comes to the Labor Party. They are from the
41:56
Speaker 13: glorious right faction of the party. That makes them much
41:59
Speaker 13: more sense on a lot of issues. They don't tend
42:01
Speaker 13: to get caught up in the weeds of some of
42:03
Speaker 13: these sort of more ideological issues that the left gets
42:08
Speaker 13: preoccupied with, and they are just outstanding. Chrismin's in particular,
42:12
Speaker 13: I honestly feel like he's my political spirit animal. He
42:16
Speaker 13: has been absolutely brilliant on a whole number of issues,
42:20
Speaker 13: from you just basically making sure that workers get a
42:23
Speaker 13: decent wage, to his incredible social housing policy which will
42:29
Speaker 13: break the back of the housing crisis in this state,
42:32
Speaker 13: and the social media stuff he's been an absolute leader on.
42:35
Speaker 13: He's also been completely unequivocal in his support for the
42:38
Speaker 13: Jewish community when there were those outrageous actions against them
42:41
Speaker 13: in the wake of the October seven terror attacks. So yes,
42:45
Speaker 13: I think that these guys are the future of the party.
42:48
Speaker 13: But that's not me too hard on Albow. He's out
42:50
Speaker 13: there doing doing what it takes. He's representing on the
42:54
Speaker 13: world stage. So good item.
43:00
Speaker 1: Find me of Steve Brex and John Brumby. By the way, Amanda,
43:02
Speaker 1: on the social media issue, they're now saying that they
43:05
Speaker 1: want to put an age limit on where you can
43:09
Speaker 1: then start to access social media. Good idea, bad idea.
43:13
Speaker 14: Look, statistically, it's come out that over fifty percent of
43:17
Speaker 14: children age between eight and twelve go to your access
43:21
Speaker 14: social media from their parents or their care as phone.
43:25
Speaker 14: So you can put restrictions on all you want, but
43:27
Speaker 14: if someone's going to hand over the phone to say hey,
43:29
Speaker 14: check out social media, they're going to do that and
43:31
Speaker 14: children will find a way. So I think they've put
43:34
Speaker 14: the cut before the horse here. They've done the research.
43:36
Speaker 14: Now after they've campaigned so much for doing this, there
43:40
Speaker 14: needs to be more consultation. And also they talk about
43:43
Speaker 14: how dangerous social media is like gambling and alcohol, so
43:48
Speaker 14: they need to lead by example. Adults need to get
43:50
Speaker 14: off social media or get off using their phone so
43:53
Speaker 14: much because children are watching everyone on their phones permanently,
43:58
Speaker 14: so of course they're going to follow suite.
44:02
Speaker 1: Look, I want to go a bit rogue here. I
44:04
Speaker 1: want you. I want to play something for you too.
44:06
Speaker 1: It bobbed up on my Twitter feed today. Now we're
44:09
Speaker 1: talking about premiers and it features one Daniel Andrews. I've
44:14
Speaker 1: never been a massive fan of Dan Andrews, but it
44:16
Speaker 1: goes all the way back to COVID. I want you
44:19
Speaker 1: to to watch this, and then explain to me how
44:22
Speaker 1: any of us Australians, no matter where we live, put
44:25
Speaker 1: up with this sort of crap. During COVID, have a watch.
44:29
Speaker 12: There will be no removal of masks to consume alcohol outdoors,
44:35
Speaker 12: So you will no longer be able to remove your
44:37
Speaker 12: mask to drink a cocktail at a pop up big
44:41
Speaker 12: garden on a footpath as part of a pub crawl.
44:48
Speaker 1: What did we put up with, Joe?
44:51
Speaker 13: Yeah, it's extraordinary, And talk about, you know, the right
44:53
Speaker 13: side of labor versus the wrong side of labor. Chrispians
44:56
Speaker 13: in New South Wales is slashing all these overhanging OVID restrictions,
45:01
Speaker 13: is making it easier for people to have a beer
45:02
Speaker 13: on the footpath. He's making it easier for people to
45:05
Speaker 13: get into clubs so they can have a beer without
45:08
Speaker 13: being excluded because they live within a five kilometer radius.
45:11
Speaker 13: All this stuff is just an absolute no brainer, and
45:14
Speaker 13: anyone who has it just a good sort of human
45:16
Speaker 13: instinct about what is the sensible thing to do, what's
45:19
Speaker 13: the right thing to do, and what is just the
45:21
Speaker 13: kind of normal thing to do if you're a human being.
45:24
Speaker 13: That's the difference between a kind of common sense approach
45:27
Speaker 13: and an ideological approach. And we know that. You know
45:31
Speaker 13: Dan Andrews, you know, focus grouped and polled every single
45:34
Speaker 13: decision he made within an inch of its life, and
45:37
Speaker 13: then constructed the messaging around that. So it was a
45:40
Speaker 13: kind of you know, one two fake with the left,
45:43
Speaker 13: hook with the right. You're scared it, but Jesus out
45:45
Speaker 13: of everybody by implying things like, you know, COVID spreading
45:49
Speaker 13: in schools, which it was not and never was, and
45:52
Speaker 13: millions of kids have been disadvantaged as a result. And
45:55
Speaker 13: then you say, but I'm going to protect you from it.
45:57
Speaker 13: So it's this terrible kind of thing. There's a serious
46:02
Speaker 13: and I'm going to protect you from it.
46:04
Speaker 1: I know, Amanda. I mean that all came about because
46:07
Speaker 1: small businesses that you represent, little coffee shops and stuff.
46:11
Speaker 1: What they were trying to do was survive during COVID.
46:14
Speaker 1: So when people used to be able to walk, only
46:16
Speaker 1: two people could walk and it could only go five
46:18
Speaker 1: kilometers by the way, But they used to serve cocktails
46:21
Speaker 1: in takeaway coffee cups so people could at least have
46:23
Speaker 1: a bit of an enjoyment and have a great chat.
46:26
Speaker 1: I mean, well, how did we ever put up with
46:28
Speaker 1: that stuff.
46:30
Speaker 10: That's right.
46:30
Speaker 14: And don't forget the hypocrisy that the large supermarkets could
46:35
Speaker 14: stay open, but the small deli couldn't stay open, right,
46:39
Speaker 14: And that were the ones that putting in restrictions to
46:41
Speaker 14: make sure people feel safe, because small businesses always care
46:44
Speaker 14: about the community. And you need to understand that Dan
46:47
Speaker 14: Andrews and also everyone else used fear to control people.
46:52
Speaker 14: You ask why people followed it because they were controlled
46:55
Speaker 14: by fear. They were told they were going to die
46:58
Speaker 14: if they looked at each other. They told that they
47:00
Speaker 14: couldn't do anything or the world was going to end.
47:03
Speaker 14: At the same time, losing their business, losing their jobs,
47:06
Speaker 14: losing their opportunity to be educated if you're a child.
47:10
Speaker 14: And what I'm shocked about is that nothing's happening about it.
47:13
Speaker 14: That the government everyone kind of feels like, oh, it
47:17
Speaker 14: was a really bad time, but we will just put
47:19
Speaker 14: that behind us and move on. Because if they do
47:21
Speaker 14: it to you once, they'll do it to you again.
47:24
Speaker 1: Oh I know we won't let them. Joe, if you
47:26
Speaker 1: stay behind in Lebanon and you don't take the first
47:29
Speaker 1: flight out, should you pay when you finally say I
47:31
Speaker 1: better get on a plane.
47:33
Speaker 13: I've got to tell you, this is just giving people
47:35
Speaker 13: inside defat just the worst headaches, and they are just
47:39
Speaker 13: pulling their hair out going We told you, we told you,
47:41
Speaker 13: we told you, and now you say you want to
47:43
Speaker 13: leave once it's almost impossible. I think there is a
47:46
Speaker 13: very strong case for that, although I also think that
47:49
Speaker 13: when you have family connections over there, you're not necessarily
47:52
Speaker 13: thinking rationally, and you're thinking with your heart not your head,
47:55
Speaker 13: so we probably need to have a little bit of compassion.
47:59
Speaker 1: Joe, Amanda, as usual, thank you for Friday night. We'll
48:01
Speaker 1: look forward to seeing you next week. I mean, I
48:04
Speaker 1: think that's absolutely right, though, you know, if you have family.
48:06
Speaker 1: Joe makes a very good point. But if you had
48:08
Speaker 1: the chance to get out and you said no, and
48:10
Speaker 1: then finally you go okay, I think I'd better go now,
48:14
Speaker 1: then I think it's quite right for this tradent tax
48:16
Speaker 1: players to give you a bill for the plane seat.
48:18
Speaker 1: Prime Time's coming up with Danika de Georgia. I see
48:21
Speaker 1: you next Friday.