Latest / Credlin / Credlin | 10 September

Transcript

Credlin | 10 September · Credlin

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Peter Credlin, live from News 24.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Good evening. Welcome to the program. Here's what's coming up
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: tonight on Credlin. 25 years on, we reflect today for
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: when Islamic terrorism changed America and changed the world. More tonight, too,
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: on internal issues within the AFP with reported rushed meetings
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: this week to discuss vital resourcing issues and cost-cutting measures.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: We'll talk to David Craig in a moment. Plus, Victoria
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: takes a dubious crown as the car theft capital. Latest
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: crime stats showing the Carroll-labelled government's got a lot of
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: work to do to reassure voters before November. And the
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: coalition comes out swinging against Labor's so-called digital duty of care,
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: rightly labelling it a farce.
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: It's a blank check for political censorship. That's not Australia.
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: That's not what we do in this country. We should
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: have free debate.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: But first, hold on and listen to this. Because yesterday
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: in Question Time, we saw the Prime Minister come under
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: fire over a $ 6 million taxpayer grant to the Marrickville
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Golf Club. And why that mattered has nothing to do
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: with the fact that the golf course is in his electorate,
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: but because he's a long-time member of the club, something
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: he went out of his way to downplay yesterday with
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: these comments.
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: In 2012, I've been advised that I got honorary membership.
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: Someone made a decision. I don't have a card. I
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: don't go to the club.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: 14 years ago.
• 1:44
  Speaker 5: But I make this point.
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: Mr Speaker, if anyone wants to join what is affectionately
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: known as Royal Marigold, what they need for two years'
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: membership is $ 5. We'll get them two years' membership.
• 1:59
  Speaker 6: For two years!
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Look at that game he was playing there. It's just
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: a minor little honorary membership to a golf club, not
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: the sort of $ 1, 000 fee that everyone else has to play.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: But that's typical Albanese playbook stuff, isn't it? You deflect,
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: you downplay, and if that doesn't work, then you just
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: outright deny. But it doesn't work so well when there's
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: actual footage that tells another story. And here he is,
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: the Prime Minister, caught on camera at the Marrickville Golf
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: Club in 2019, so not PM at that stage, but
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: certainly the member, promising that a future Labor government would
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: hand over a $ 350, 000 taxpayer grant. And today I want
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: to announce....
• 2:48
  Speaker 7: That a federal Labor government is committing $ 350, 000 to make
• 2:54
  Speaker 7: sure that this club can host more events, support more
• 2:58
  Speaker 7: volunteer organisations, support more charities and be even better.
• 3:03
  Speaker 8: Than it is today.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Don't even go there, he says. Well, clearly, he's up
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: to his neck in lies, when even his mates at
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: the ABC report that he regularly walked his dog Toto
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: on this golf course. I mean, this guy can't lie
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: straight in bed. Very quickly, that's now become a key
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: focus of how he's being framed by his opponents. By
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: lunchtime today, Liberal Party HQ had this going viral on
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: social media.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: I do not have a.
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: Card as a member of Marrickville Golf Club. I haven't spoken.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: And I've been.
• 3:41
  Speaker 7: Coming here for decades and using this club.
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: I don't know who the executive of Marrickville Golf Club are.
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: I don't know who the executive of Marrickville Golf Club are.
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: I don't use the facilities.
• 3:54
  Speaker 7: And I've been coming here for decades.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: And using this club.
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: I don't do anything whatsoever for it. Today I want
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: to announce.
• 4:01
  Speaker 7: that a federal Labor government is committing.
• 4:07
  Speaker 6: $ 350, 000 to.
• 4:07
  Speaker 7: Make sure that this club can host more events.
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: I don't play golf, Mr Speaker. For them to draw
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: this extraordinarily long bow.
• 4:18
  Speaker 5: The 18 hold course scoring a $ 6 million grant through
• 4:22
  Speaker 5: a half billion dollar fund that paid for Labor's 2025
• 4:26
  Speaker 5: election pledges. Authorised by Alfalo, Liberal Canberra.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Well, when question time came around today at two o'clock,
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: Labor's lying leader was back in the hot seat.
• 4:44
  Speaker 9: Why has the Prime Minister declared that he has honorary
• 4:46
  Speaker 9: membership of the exclusive Royal Sydney Golf Club, but not
• 4:50
  Speaker 9: Marrickville Golf Club? An article in the Daily Telegraph in
• 4:54
  Speaker 9: April 2019 said the following. If you chop it to
• 4:58
  Speaker 9: nine holes, you might as well be honest and say
• 5:00
  Speaker 9: get rid of it altogether because... it simply wouldn't be viable,
• 5:04
  Speaker 9: said Mr Albanese, who is an honorary member of the
• 5:08
  Speaker 9: Maracle Golf Club. How did the Daily Telegraph know in
• 5:12
  Speaker 9: 2019 you were a member and you didn't?
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: Well, the honorary membership, well, that's more beer. This is
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: where the scrutiny must be applied. On his parliamentary register,
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: Albanese has disclosed that he wants to own a house
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: on the very road that runs alongside the golf course.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: And he himself mentioned it publicly back in 2019 when
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: he was campaigning to save the golf course, saying, I
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: declare an interest. I live in Beecham Street, he said,
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: and I've been coming here for decades and using the club.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: In 2021, the year before he was elected Prime Minister,
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: Albanese sold this property on Beecham Street for $ 2. 35 million.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: And what would you know, this was the same year, 2021,
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: that the local Inner West Council voted to grant the
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: club a new 21-year lease on the parkland. When officially
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: signed off the following April, the Marrickville Golf Club labelled
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: the deal as historic because without the lease, the golf
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: club would have been unviable. Their words, not mine. And
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: that word unviable is important here because if the golf
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: club was forced out, that would have put at risk
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: valuable green space in a very dense part of inner
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: city Sydney. And green space, as we all know, improves
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: property values, doesn't it? Now, as interesting as all that is,
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: what a lot of people don't know is that while
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: Albanese sold that house in 2021 for over $ 2 million,
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: He had another Barrickville property, didn't he? Well, surprise, surprise,
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: he still has it. And it's also very, very close
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: to that same golf course. We know here on News
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: 24 the house number and the street, but for security reasons,
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: we're not putting it to air tonight. But we can
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: show you this picture because the Prime Minister chose to
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: be photographed out the front by The Guardian in 2022.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: Checking in the Prime Minister's Parliamentary Register this afternoon, we
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: can confirm a Marrickville property remains in his possession. Last year,
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: it was reported that this second property was rented out
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: at over $ 1, 400 a week. And in February this year,
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: realestate.com.au estimated its value at around $ 2. 9 million. So this
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: is where the $ 6 million grant from taxpayers by his
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: government was Gets interesting. Look at this Facebook post from
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: Darcy Byrne, the bloke who was the local council mayor
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: when the new 21-year lease was approved and granted to
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: the golf course. It reads, we are proceeding with a
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: $ 6 million renovation of the Marrickville Golf Clubhouse, funded, he says,
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: by the club's most famous patron, Anthony Albanese. So he's
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: gone from having no involvement with the golf club, knowing
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: nothing about that honorary membership for over a decade, to
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: now being the club's most famous patron, so says his mate,
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: the local mayor. Okay, so this is where taxpayers are
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: owed some transparency. Did the decision by the Albanese government
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: to give $ 6 million to the Marrickville Golf Club boost
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: the value of the home that we know is still
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: owned by the Prime Minister very close by? But it
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: gets murkier, doesn't it? In the Parliament today, the Prime
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: Minister revealed this about the use of the $ 6 million
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: grant for sewerage works. There were three.
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: Commitments in my electorate, one for the upgrade of the
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: Inner West Council-owned Marrickville Golf Club. Included in that was
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: funding to fix the sewerage because it goes into the
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: river and causes a problem when it floods.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: You heard it there, sewerage. Well, then how does Albanese
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: reconcile those comments in the House this afternoon and with
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: this press release from the New South Wales Crown Lands
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: Department announcing a $ 270, 000 grant to connect the Gulf Clubhouse
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: to main sewerage to disconnect old septic tanks and thereby
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: close off any risk of sewerage runoff into the nearby
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: Cooks River. Who's telling the truth here? And if federal
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: money wasn't about sewerage, as the Prime Minister said today,
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: where was it all spent? The Prime Minister sits in ERC,
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: the Budget Committee, and he also chairs Cabinet. When these
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: funding decisions came to either of those rooms for sign-off,
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: did he declare a financial interest? Did he declare he was,
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: in the words of the local mayor, the golf club's
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: most famous patron? Did he tell the room he still
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: owned a multi-million dollar house in very close proximity to
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: the golf course? Did he recuse himself from the decision,
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: given what's a clear conflict of interest? Six million dollars
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: is a lot of money. It's a lot of money
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: for a little suburban golf course. And this is where
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: tonight the focus must shift. Let's go to Canberra now
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: for the headlines. Our political reporter, Trudy McIntosh.
• 10:53
  Speaker 10: The fight between Liberal MP Andrew Hastie and One Nation's
• 10:56
  Speaker 10: Pauline Hanson is getting ugly.
• 10:58
  Speaker 11: Own the fact that you've called me a traitor or
• 11:01
  Speaker 11: take down the cartoon.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: She's done neither. I have never called him a traitor.
• 11:06
  Speaker 5: Her party's cartoon did eight times.
• 11:08
  Speaker 12: And it's all my fault because I'm a stupid traitor.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: She should take it down.
• 11:12
  Speaker 10: I believe One Nation should never have posted this video.
• 11:15
  Speaker 7: That woman is disgusting.
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: Pauline Hanson says it's a storm in a teacup.
• 11:20
  Speaker 12: He's the one who's got his knickers in a knot.
• 11:22
  Speaker 8: I have to say you're a bloody maggot yourself and
• 11:24
  Speaker 8: you're a coward.
• 11:25
  Speaker 10: And former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is sounding the alarm
• 11:30
  Speaker 10: about Australia's slide into complacency, using his press club speech
• 11:34
  Speaker 10: to make the case for radical change to meet looming dangers,
• 11:37
  Speaker 10: including AI. Dr Rudd calls for the return to industry policy,
• 11:42
  Speaker 10: including reviving the car manufacturing sector.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: Now the 3D printing and EV revolutions mean we can
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: rebuild an Australian auto sector and repair this vital vulnerability
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: in our national security.
• 11:52
  Speaker 10: The former ambassador insists his appearance is not part of
• 11:55
  Speaker 10: the political comeback.
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: And before you ask, no, I'm not running for UN Secretary-General.
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: Malcolm took care of that last time around.
• 12:03
  Speaker 5: Trudy McIntosh, News 24, Canberra.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: Well, I want to go now to the press conference
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: today from the coalition. Included was the shadow communications minister,
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: Senator Sarah Henderson, flanked by the Liberal leader, Angus Taylor,
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: and National Party leader, Matt Canavan, a united front today
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: condemning Labor's duty of care bill. this digital duty of care,
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: I should say. Sarah Henderson joins me now to take
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: us through the decision that was taken by the Coalition.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: The government's essentially telling us, Sarah, trust us, we can
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: police it, it's just about the algorithm, but that's not
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: the truth.
• 12:40
  Speaker 12: It is not the truth, Peter. Great to join you.
• 12:43
  Speaker 8: And as has been made very clear today by Angus Taylor,
• 12:47
  Speaker 8: Matt Canavan and myself in our press conference, the Coalition
• 12:51
  Speaker 8: cannot support this dreadful bill in its current form.
• 12:55
  Speaker 12: This is a political censorship bill.
• 12:58
  Speaker 8: This is an egregious attempt to shut down the right
• 13:02
  Speaker 8: of Australians to have their say, no matter whether you
• 13:05
  Speaker 8: agree or disagree. And the more we look into this bill,
• 13:09
  Speaker 8: the worse it is And there are some very insidious consequences.
• 13:13
  Speaker 8: So we've made it very clear the Nationals and the
• 13:16
  Speaker 8: Liberals vote for us and you will not get these
• 13:20
  Speaker 8: shocking laws which censor our free speech in this country.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: The Minister was on with my colleague Laura Jones yesterday.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: It was a train wreck. She was called out at
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: first saying that news sites would not be included. Well,
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: they are. She had to admit that. She was a
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: bit coy about this definition of harm and who would
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: control that definition. She again had to admit it was her.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: What else concerns you, Sarah?
• 13:51
  Speaker 8: Well, there are many aspects of this bill that are
• 13:53
  Speaker 8: very concerning, Petra, and I'm just looking at the definition
• 13:56
  Speaker 8: of harmful materials for children. And would you believe it
• 14:00
  Speaker 8: includes anything which promotes hostile attitudes towards women or gender equality?
• 14:06
  Speaker 8: I mean, this is the sort of rubbish that's in
• 14:09
  Speaker 8: this bill. There was also a very good discussion today
• 14:12
  Speaker 8: about another definition of seriously harmful.
• 14:15
  Speaker 12: Material, which includes.
• 14:18
  Speaker 8: anything that depicts cruelty to animals. Now, is this a
• 14:22
  Speaker 8: backdoor way of trying to shut down any material in
• 14:25
  Speaker 8: relation to the live export trade, for instance?
• 14:29
  Speaker 12: We just don't know.
• 14:30
  Speaker 8: All we know is that this government has got an
• 14:33
  Speaker 8: insidious agenda to shut down.
• 14:35
  Speaker 12: Any view with which it does not agree.
• 14:38
  Speaker 8: That is very clear because the Minister has given herself
• 14:41
  Speaker 8: the broadest unfettered powers to shut down any sort of
• 14:46
  Speaker 8: category of harm.
• 14:48
  Speaker 12: As she sees fit with our parliamentary oversight.
• 14:51
  Speaker 8: This is one of the worst things that I think
• 14:53
  Speaker 8: we've ever seen come before the parliament in terms of
• 14:57
  Speaker 8: undermining our democracy. And as you say, Peter, the attack
• 15:02
  Speaker 8: on news media is shocking. The fact that news media
• 15:06
  Speaker 8: websites are caught up in this bill, which compromises and
• 15:09
  Speaker 8: puts at risk a free political speech when it comes
• 15:12
  Speaker 8: to commentary or the work of journalists or the work
• 15:16
  Speaker 8: of media organisations. It is appalling and I'm very, very
• 15:20
  Speaker 8: proud that we have come out firing on all cylinders
• 15:24
  Speaker 8: saying we will fight this every step of the way
• 15:27
  Speaker 8: and we are asking all Australians to get behind our campaign.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: I've just got to ask you for a comment on
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: my editorial too. I know a lot of the focus
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: has been about an honorary membership to a golf club,
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: but the Prime Minister hasn't really been up front. The
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: fact that he owned one house alongside the golf club
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: and he still owns another house, and I won't disclose
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: where it is, but it is very close proximity to
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: the golf club. This should have been disclosed, and I
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: would hope he had no role in this decision because
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: $ 6 million to upgrade a clubhouse is a lot of taxpayers' money.
• 16:04
  Speaker 12: It is a lot of money.
• 16:06
  Speaker 8: And as we know, and we again reiterated this today
• 16:09
  Speaker 8: in the Parliament, the Prime Minister has lied. He said
• 16:12
  Speaker 8: he had no connection with the club. He knew no one.
• 16:14
  Speaker 12: He'd never been there.
• 16:16
  Speaker 8: And then, of course, we uncover the video, which shows
• 16:19
  Speaker 8: that he has been very much a part of this club.
• 16:22
  Speaker 8: He failed, of course, to disclose his honorary membership. He
• 16:26
  Speaker 8: has lied through his teeth, frankly. We are sick of
• 16:30
  Speaker 8: the lies, Peter. the lies over the budget, the lies
• 16:33
  Speaker 8: in relation to electricity prices, the lies that he didn't
• 16:37
  Speaker 8: fall off the stage and, of course, the lies in
• 16:40
  Speaker 8: relation to that terrible video that he made where he
• 16:43
  Speaker 8: so denigrated the Japanese Prime Minister for which he has
• 16:46
  Speaker 8: still not apologised. Australians are sick of the lies. They
• 16:51
  Speaker 8: are sick of the fact that they cannot trust this government. And,
• 16:54
  Speaker 8: of course, now the government and the Prime Minister and
• 16:57
  Speaker 8: Annika Wells is saying, please trust us on protecting freedom
• 17:02
  Speaker 8: of speech in this country. Well, we don't trust this
• 17:04
  Speaker 8: government on anything. That's why we are working around the clock,
• 17:09
  Speaker 8: day and night, to get rid of this dreadful government.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: I'll leave it there, Senator Henderson. Thank you. Let's go
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: down to my panel, National Affairs Editor at the Daily Telegraph.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: Of course, a host of News 24, James Morrow, and
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: Deputy Executive Director at the IPA, Dan Wild. Dan, I'll
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: come to you first, if I can, and get your
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: comments on this digital duty of care, because I know
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: you've just been as vociferous as I have been in
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: criticism this week. What do you make of the decision
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: also from the Coalition quite quickly to say it will
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: not be supported?
• 17:43
  Speaker 11: Well, you've given this a very thorough treatment over the
• 17:45
  Speaker 11: last couple of days, Peter, and your analysis of it.
• 17:48
  Speaker 11: And I'll just add a couple of observations. Firstly, it
• 17:51
  Speaker 11: all comes down to Section 25C in the legislation, which
• 17:54
  Speaker 11: confers upon the communications minister basically carte blanche. powers to
• 17:59
  Speaker 11: decide what is a serious harm. Anyone can look up
• 18:01
  Speaker 11: the legislation and read the paragraph that is there. Now, yes,
• 18:04
  Speaker 11: the legislation specifies a whole bunch of other harms, but
• 18:07
  Speaker 11: there's a catch all term that basically says anything we
• 18:09
  Speaker 11: haven't got in the legislation, the communications minister can decide.
• 18:13
  Speaker 11: As you pointed out, that is the thing that she
• 18:15
  Speaker 11: got hung up on in an interview a little bit
• 18:19
  Speaker 11: earlier where she had to basically say, yeah, it's up
• 18:21
  Speaker 11: to me to decide what is a serious harm. Now,
• 18:23
  Speaker 11: the other point that I want to make is the
• 18:26
  Speaker 11: government has form in this area.
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 18:28
  Speaker 11: So this is the third crack that they are having
• 18:30
  Speaker 11: at Internet censorship. The first one was a couple of
• 18:32
  Speaker 11: years ago with the misinformation and disinformation laws, which was
• 18:36
  Speaker 11: designed basically to set up a digital ministry of truth
• 18:39
  Speaker 11: to decide what is true and what is not true. Now,
• 18:42
  Speaker 11: you remember that those laws were so toxic they didn't
• 18:44
  Speaker 11: even make it to the Senate floor because they were
• 18:46
  Speaker 11: going to be rejected. Then they had another crack in
• 18:48
  Speaker 11: the wake of Bondi with the hate speech laws. So
• 18:51
  Speaker 11: they had the hate group laws, which did go ahead.
• 18:53
  Speaker 11: But you remember the original legislation had sweeping hate speech
• 18:56
  Speaker 11: laws that would have had a UK style police state
• 19:00
  Speaker 11: ushered in, in Australia where people would have gotten arrested
• 19:02
  Speaker 11: for things they've said on the internet. Now they kiboshed
• 19:05
  Speaker 11: those as well because they were so unpopular. So this
• 19:07
  Speaker 11: is the third time they're having a go at it.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 19:09
  Speaker 11: So the first time was about, you know, we need
• 19:11
  Speaker 11: a police misinformation to save democracy and, The second one
• 19:14
  Speaker 11: was we need to protect social cohesion. So we're going
• 19:16
  Speaker 11: to have hate laws. Now, the third one is we've
• 19:19
  Speaker 11: got to save the kids. So we're going to have
• 19:20
  Speaker 11: Internet censorship. So this is a government that's hell bent
• 19:23
  Speaker 11: on censoring what you can do and say online. I
• 19:26
  Speaker 11: do think that these laws will be defeated, but it's
• 19:28
  Speaker 11: going to take a lot of pushback to do it.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: Well, we know, James Morrow, why they don't want us
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: to be able to put the truth to air because
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: the revelations that I brought to air tonight from a
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: bit of digging around this afternoon, I mean, forget the
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: idea that he was an honorary member of a golf
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: club and pretended in the parliament that he couldn't even
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: remember being offered the membership. Of course, we know... he
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: was known as the patron locally, the most famous patron,
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: says the mayor. We know he was there on his
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: feet in 2019 promising them a bag of money if
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: Labor was elected. Of course, they weren't at that time.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: But the revelations now that he's owned not one but
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: two properties in close proximity to all this green space,
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: You live in Sydney. If there was no golf course there,
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: no green space, no upgraded clubhouse, that would probably have
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: an impact on his property values.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: But, you know, even if it didn't, and I do
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: think it would, and I do think that's a clear
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: conflict of interest there, there's all this other stuff that's just,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: you know, so bizarre to me. This is entirely in
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: going to this man's character. And I have to say...
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: You know, listening to your editorial and reading everything that
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: there's been out there on this today here, Peter, I mean,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: honorary members at Royal Sydney, membership in Royal Sydney, you know,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: the multi-million dollar property portfolio. My God, Peter, being a
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: landlord for a guy who wants to fight Tories, you know,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: he must have a hard time looking in the mirror.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: He'd want to punch it, given, you know, all of
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: these sorts of things. But this is so... emblematic of
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: the Albanese way of doing things. Deflect, minimize, say it's
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: the other guy's fault. You know, I mean, and if
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: this misinformation stuff goes through, the algorithm stuff goes through,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: the digital duty of care, who knows? They might even say, hey,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: I think that that meme the Liberal Party put out there,
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: that reel that you showed before, maybe that's hurting social
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: cohesion because people aren't trusting the government.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: You're not wrong. Let's go to the brouhaha with Andrew
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: Hastie in One Nation. after he was called a traitor
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: in a cartoon. Now, he's done a lot of media
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: in the last couple of days, Andrew Hastie. He's labelled
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: Hanson as weak and glass-jawed. Speculation, of course, that more
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: today that there's other things to come out about Warren Pickering. Dan,
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: I'll go to you first. On the broader issue about
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: Hastie being called a traitor and Pauline Hanson digging in,
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: should she apologise? Should this clip go down? Because I
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: certainly supported the ABC taking down the offensive skit involving
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: Gina Reinhardt. What's your view?
• 22:04
  Speaker 11: I don't know that the clip needs to go down, but,
• 22:06
  Speaker 11: I mean, certainly Andrew Hastie is more than entitled to
• 22:08
  Speaker 11: defend himself and he's more than entitled to see it
• 22:11
  Speaker 11: as an attack on him and as an attack on
• 22:13
  Speaker 11: his service to our country, which... You know, there's the
• 22:17
  Speaker 11: whole Ben Roberts Smith thing. I don't have any special
• 22:19
  Speaker 11: information about that. But certainly, I think that Andrew Hastie
• 22:22
  Speaker 11: is well within his rights to make the connection that
• 22:25
  Speaker 11: he has made. Now, Senator Hanson, as you know, has said, well,
• 22:27
  Speaker 11: I wasn't talking, it was a cartoon. I wasn't talking
• 22:29
  Speaker 11: about that. I was talking about the hate group laws
• 22:32
  Speaker 11: and so forth.
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: Maybe that's what it is. Maybe it isn't.
• 22:34
  Speaker 11: I don't really know. What I think Australians see here, though,
• 22:37
  Speaker 11: or the risks that they see is more squabbling of
• 22:42
  Speaker 11: politicians when they want people to be focused on the
• 22:44
  Speaker 11: issues that they're feeling in their homes. So I think
• 22:48
  Speaker 11: this will go on. Obviously, as you know, canning is
• 22:50
  Speaker 11: probably under the pump from One Nation following that by-election. So,
• 22:54
  Speaker 11: you know, we'll probably see a lot more of this,
• 22:56
  Speaker 11: I suspect.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: James, I'll go to you now on 9-11 because you
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: said to me that you had only just arrived in
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: Australia when the terror attack occurred, the Islamic terror. terror attack.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: We're not the Canadian media here. We'll call it as
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: it is. But you're a longtime New Yorker, a long,
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: long history in the area. Give me your reflections of
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: this terrible, terrible day.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it's really interesting. I've been thinking a
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: lot about, obviously, you know, for to talk about here and,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: you know, we're talking about tomorrow night on the U.S.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: report for sure. And it's really interesting to me because
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: There's so many different sort of emotions around. It was
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: a terrible thing, obviously. But what's so tough, I think,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: is that the 25 years since, we haven't had really
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: a resolution. You know, we had the campaign in Afghanistan.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: We had the global war on terror. We had Iraq. But,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: you know, this Islamist terrorist monster still exists. It has
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: not been defeated. And in some ways, you know, the
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: way in the West... People now, you know, who forget
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: it or, you know, people who who, you know, want
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: to minimize it. And they talk about things, you know, like, well,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: you know, yeah, but the US does a lot of
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: bad things. They try and put things in perspective. It's
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: it's it's I think it's hard to kind of deal
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: with the way people have sort of started to minimize
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: and forget it. And I think that, you know, what
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: we talk about tomorrow is going to be very important.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: I'll leave it there. Thank you to you both. Right,
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: after the break, we'll get into the latest crime data.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: No prizes for guessing which state tops the dubious list.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: It's all about the insurance numbers out today. Plus, more
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: revelations tonight regarding AFP staffing pressures. That's coming up. Welcome back.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: I'm just going to update you on something that happened
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: in the Senate late this afternoon. There was a vote
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: in relation to the capping of that health entitlement for
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: veterans and the Senate voted to block it being capped.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: So block the Department of Veterans Affairs from capping that entitlement.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: Of course, having been rejected by the Senate, it will
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: go back to the House for what's called concurrence. If
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: the House puts those provisions back in, the Senate could
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: have another bite of it, but, you know, they can
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: play tennis for a bit of time. This is really
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: turning out to be a big fight. We'll get you
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: that update on AFP resourcing in just a moment. But
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: now to the latest crime data coming out from the
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: Australian Insurance Council today. These are statistics that show Victorians
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: are bearing the brunt of the crime crisis, recording the
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: highest rates of car theft and home burglary in the country.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: The analysis reveals there are more cars stolen or broken
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: into in Melbourne than in every other capital city combined.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: There's some 12,500 claims lodged in Victoria in the past
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: year alone, costing insurers $ 244 million, the majority, from metropolitan areas.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: Here to discuss it further, Australian Insurance Council Executive Director
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: Andrew Hall. Well, this is sort of not the title
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: that Victoria wants to win, Andrew.
• 26:03
  Speaker 13: No, it's very upsetting for Victoria and for Melbourne. And
• 26:06
  Speaker 13: these statistics are really shocking. When we first saw them
• 26:10
  Speaker 13: about 18 months start to emerge, we've been following them
• 26:13
  Speaker 13: very closely ever since. And the worst thing about it
• 26:16
  Speaker 13: is that it highlights that organised crime clearly has worked
• 26:20
  Speaker 13: out that Melbourne is a soft target.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: And it very much is Melbourne.
• 26:24
  Speaker 13: Out of the 12,500 cars stolen in Victoria in the
• 26:27
  Speaker 13: last financial year, 10,000 were stolen from Melbourne.
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: And many of the insurers.
• 26:32
  Speaker 13: Tell us that two thirds of those cars are not
• 26:35
  Speaker 13: being recovered. So they're disappearing completely. And we can only
• 26:39
  Speaker 13: assume that they're fueling the black market for car parts,
• 26:42
  Speaker 13: both in Australia and around the world.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I hear rumours from law enforcement that they end
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: up being shipped out of the country pretty quickly. I
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: don't know if you get any insights on that or
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: where they might be going. But that statistic, one vehicle
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: gone every 43 minutes, 43 minutes. That's madness.
• 27:03
  Speaker 13: Yeah, no, it's crazy. And yes, the stories you hear
• 27:07
  Speaker 13: are the stories we hear as well. We've had one
• 27:09
  Speaker 13: insurer called just recently and they were told that a
• 27:12
  Speaker 13: container load of Victorian registered vehicles has been opened up
• 27:16
  Speaker 13: in Dubai. They're all parted out, but they knew that
• 27:20
  Speaker 13: they were registered to Victoria and they traced back who
• 27:23
  Speaker 13: the insurer was. It's clear what's happening here is that
• 27:26
  Speaker 13: organised crime has worked out that Victoria is the honeypot, really,
• 27:32
  Speaker 13: for obtaining stolen vehicles and then exporting them. They get
• 27:36
  Speaker 13: taken to the port. They get put into a shipping container.
• 27:39
  Speaker 13: It doesn't matter that Australia drives on the other side
• 27:41
  Speaker 13: of the road compared to the rest of the world.
• 27:43
  Speaker 13: It's the parts of the vehicles that sanction countries like
• 27:46
  Speaker 13: Iran and Russia and the like. That's what they're chasing,
• 27:49
  Speaker 13: the car parts.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: So what does this do to the cost of insurance premiums,
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: not just in Victoria? Does it have an impact on
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: other states?
• 27:59
  Speaker 13: Well, around Australia, we pay out about half a billion
• 28:03
  Speaker 13: dollars a year in stolen car claims. And there used
• 28:07
  Speaker 13: to be a fraction, really, of what the premiums would
• 28:10
  Speaker 13: be made up of. But in recent times, that's grown
• 28:13
  Speaker 13: and grown. And now we saw the problem actually emerged
• 28:15
  Speaker 13: first in Queensland and then two years ago with the
• 28:19
  Speaker 13: change of government and the change of bail laws in particular.
• 28:23
  Speaker 13: the sort of criminal network that had been developed started
• 28:25
  Speaker 13: to be broken, and we've seen a decline of around
• 28:28
  Speaker 13: about 13% over two years on the rate of car
• 28:31
  Speaker 13: crime in Queensland. It's still high. It's still too high
• 28:34
  Speaker 13: for Queensland, but it is heading in the right direction,
• 28:37
  Speaker 13: which is down. But then we saw Victoria just jump enormously,
• 28:42
  Speaker 13: and you said it in your opening. At the moment,
• 28:46
  Speaker 13: the amount of cars stolen out of Melbourne... equals or
• 28:49
  Speaker 13: exceeds the amount stolen out of every other state in
• 28:52
  Speaker 13: the country added up. So it's clear that Melbourne has
• 28:56
  Speaker 13: become the absolute ground zero for this criminal activity. And
• 29:01
  Speaker 13: it's something that the next government has to come together
• 29:05
  Speaker 13: with a plan on what they're going to do about it.
• 29:07
  Speaker 13: And the insurers are ready to work with them with
• 29:10
  Speaker 13: the data we have, because we know that our data
• 29:13
  Speaker 13: is not really the full extent of the problem. Our
• 29:15
  Speaker 13: data is from people who have insurance and and who
• 29:18
  Speaker 13: have made a claim. And we know there'll be a
• 29:20
  Speaker 13: lot of people out there who don't have insurance or
• 29:23
  Speaker 13: have not made a claim for their stolen vehicle or
• 29:25
  Speaker 13: the house being broken into.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, people can see on the screen there how much
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: it's absolutely skyrocketed in Victoria over the last little while.
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: I'll leave it there. Thank you, Andrew Hall. Andrew Hall,
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: of course, the CEO of the Insurance Council of Australia.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: I mentioned 9-11 tomorrow, the very sorry anniversary of 25
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: years on from the Islamist terror attack on the Twin
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: Towers in New York. But there's another very sad anniversary.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: It's a one-year anniversary today, and that's in relation to
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: the assassination of Charlie Kirk, To some, he was a
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: conservative kingmaker. To others, a public figure of derision. But
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: whatever you thought of Kirk or his politics, he made
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: a real case of listening, debating, even putting a microphone
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: in front of his fiercest detractors. And disagreement, however fierce
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: it may be, can never be a justification for political violence,
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: let alone murder. In fact, we need more civil disagreement
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: than ever before. Former Prime Minister, Liberal Party Federal President
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: Tony Abbott knew Charlie Kirk and met him before. So
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: I wanted to get him on not to talk just
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: about 9-11, but his reflections on Charlie Kirk's legacy. Tony
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: Abbott joins me now from Canberra. A remarkable bloke, Tony,
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: and what I loved when I saw the clips and
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: I'd followed him for many years was how willing he
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: was to put his, you know, head in the lion's den,
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: so to speak, to go on the university campus and
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: to have that civil debate that you and I remember
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: from our university years, but that just seems to have
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: disappeared in recent decades.
• 31:04
  Speaker 14: Well, you're right, Peter. I mean, Charlie Kirk was a
• 31:08
  Speaker 14: martyr not just for free speech, but a martyr for
• 31:12
  Speaker 14: civic debate. He wanted our countries, our culture, our civilisation
• 31:18
  Speaker 14: to be their best selves. And he knew that that
• 31:20
  Speaker 14: would only happen if people were able to engage reasonably
• 31:26
  Speaker 14: about the big issues. And I've got to say that
• 31:30
  Speaker 14: the bid to arrest civilisation decline is even more important
• 31:35
  Speaker 14: now than it was a year ago. I mean, let's
• 31:38
  Speaker 14: face it, today we had no less a person than
• 31:41
  Speaker 14: Kevin Rudd himself warn us here in Australia that we
• 31:45
  Speaker 14: are in danger of becoming a second-rate nation.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: And it's true.
• 31:52
  Speaker 14: We've all got to lift our game if the countries
• 31:56
  Speaker 14: which have given the world so much that's good are
• 31:59
  Speaker 14: to continue to flourish into the future in the face
• 32:02
  Speaker 14: of so many challenges.
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: Sometimes you meet people that you think are impressive, but
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: close quarters are not as impressive as you thought they were.
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: At a human level, what did you think of Charlie Kirk?
• 32:19
  Speaker 14: Well, Charlie Kirk was someone who put courage ahead of prudence.
• 32:24
  Speaker 14: If he'd been more prudent, he wouldn't have put his
• 32:27
  Speaker 14: head up above the parapet. But he thought that the
• 32:31
  Speaker 14: great need today was courage, courage and conviction, character, courage
• 32:37
  Speaker 14: and conviction. He exemplified that in his life. And I
• 32:42
  Speaker 14: hope that many people, I know he was very influential
• 32:45
  Speaker 14: in amongst young men in particular, I hope that many
• 32:48
  Speaker 14: people will cherish that example and live it in their
• 32:53
  Speaker 14: own lives.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: All right, let's talk about that other terrible anniversary that
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: we will commemorate tomorrow, 25 years on from the Islamist
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: terror attack in New York. I worked for a cabinet
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: minister at the time. You were in the cabinet. We know,
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: of course, that John Howard was overseas. I think it
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: was the 50th anniversary of ANZUS attacks That was the
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: reason for his trip to the United States. It changed,
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: I think, my career. Every portfolio I was ever in
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: after that touched on the issue of Islamic terrorism. It's
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: a scourge that has not left us today. And, of course,
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: we saw it on the beaches of Bondi last year, Tony.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: Give me your reflections around that 25, a day 25
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: years ago, but where we are now.
• 33:43
  Speaker 14: Well, I can certainly remember, Peter, waking up that morning
• 33:49
  Speaker 14: to the just horrific carnage in New York and declaring
• 33:56
  Speaker 14: that this was not an attack on America. It was
• 33:58
  Speaker 14: an attack on civilization. It was the day that the
• 34:05
  Speaker 14: reality of apocalyptic Islamism burst upon the world. The tragedy,
• 34:11
  Speaker 14: if I may say so, Peter, is that we have
• 34:16
  Speaker 14: often forgotten the reality of apocalyptic Islamism in the 25
• 34:21
  Speaker 14: years since. All too often, we have continued in so
• 34:27
  Speaker 14: many respects to sleepwalk through lotus land in the face
• 34:31
  Speaker 14: of so many challenges, including this one. And I think
• 34:35
  Speaker 14: what we absolutely need to do is remember that... There
• 34:41
  Speaker 14: is this strand of Islamism which regards every human being
• 34:47
  Speaker 14: who doesn't share it as a legitimate target for death.
• 34:52
  Speaker 14: And that's why current events in the Middle East are
• 34:57
  Speaker 14: so concerning. That's why the current campaign against the Ayatollah's
• 35:03
  Speaker 14: regime in Tehran remains important and frankly part of our
• 35:09
  Speaker 14: slipping into second-rate status as a nation is the fact
• 35:13
  Speaker 14: that we haven't been prepared to support the American campaign
• 35:19
  Speaker 14: to bring the Ayatollah's regime.
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: Under control.
• 35:24
  Speaker 14: Now, we all know that President Trump can be abrasive,
• 35:30
  Speaker 14: but he remains the leader of the free world, and
• 35:34
  Speaker 14: Australia has a tradition of supporting the leader of the
• 35:38
  Speaker 14: free world, whether that's Britain or America, in its campaigns
• 35:42
  Speaker 14: to stand up for freedom and justice. And that's what
• 35:46
  Speaker 14: the current campaign to bring the Iranian regime.
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: To heel is. And it should be supported by Australia. Well,
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: more than that, I have to say, Tony, over the
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: events on the beach in Bondiq, in your home city
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: of Sydney, 15 Australians, innocent Australians dead. Forget that they're
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: Jewish Australians, they are Australians. And we've got the Prime
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: Minister of this country with a Royal Commission, not fronting
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: a Royal Commission, no evidence from any minister who made
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: decisions that impacted resourcing of counter-terrorism. Worse than that, we
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: can have the head of Netball Australia front for evidence,
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: but we have not seen the head of the Australian
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: Federal Police. Look, you're quite right, Peter.
• 36:30
  Speaker 14: I mean, this Bondi massacre was not an attack on
• 36:35
  Speaker 14: Jewish people. It was an attack on Australia and Australians,
• 36:40
  Speaker 14: some of whom happened to be Jewish. And the government,
• 36:45
  Speaker 14: we now know, was warned about the increase in Islamist
• 36:50
  Speaker 14: extremism in our midst. It was warned that police were
• 36:55
  Speaker 14: not adequately resourced. It almost willfully neglected the evidence of
• 37:01
  Speaker 14: Islamist extremism on the march in our streets. And yet
• 37:08
  Speaker 14: the Royal Commission, which should be determined to make us
• 37:12
  Speaker 14: safer in the future, looks like it's going to be
• 37:15
  Speaker 14: simply an exercise in massaging away people's pain instead of
• 37:20
  Speaker 14: an attempt to actually protect our country against any future
• 37:25
  Speaker 14: recurrence of this utter atrocity.
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so sorry, sort of a couple of events we're
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: marking at the moment, but thank you for your comments, Tony.
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: Tony Abbott there. All right, after the break, more revelations
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: on issues of resourcing inside the AFP. I've got new
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: information for you in a moment. Welcome back. Calls to
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: ban the new mayor of New York, Mandami, from tomorrow's
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: commemorations at Ground Zero. That will be coming up with
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: my panel and we'll talk to someone too on the
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: panel who was there in New York on that fateful day.
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: But now for an update on revelations from last week
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: and more tonight that the AFP has been holding a
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: series of closed-door meetings related to current resource issues and, quote,
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: the need to cut costs. It follows what I told
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: you last week, informed by an AFP whistleblower who put
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: a submission into the Bondi Royal Commission saying And it
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: was a telling submission. It flagged serious staffing issues and
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: countered terrorism, but he was not called to give evidence.
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: Let's bring in AFP, former AFP Detective Superintendent David Craig. David,
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: what can you tell us about the discussions we're told
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: are occurring at the moment about AFP staffing and, quote,
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: this need to cut costs?
• 38:57
  Speaker 6: Yes, look, I've been informed that there has been a
• 38:59
  Speaker 6: number of meetings in a number of AFP offices about
• 39:03
  Speaker 6: resourcing considerations, that there needs to be a close look
• 39:07
  Speaker 6: at how resources are focused and prioritisation on work. These
• 39:12
  Speaker 6: are not the sort of things, Peter, that I think
• 39:14
  Speaker 6: people want to hear, you know, on the 25th anniversary
• 39:18
  Speaker 6: of the 9-11 attack or while we're still in a
• 39:21
  Speaker 6: probable threat assessment or threat level in Australia that the
• 39:26
  Speaker 6: AFP would be having such meetings now. If we haven't
• 39:28
  Speaker 6: got it right after 25 years that we don't have
• 39:32
  Speaker 6: enough AFP resourcing to make us feel safe in a
• 39:36
  Speaker 6: probable terrorist attack environment, then we really need to... The
• 39:41
  Speaker 6: AFP is either not being funded properly or it's not
• 39:43
  Speaker 6: channelling the funding in.
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: The right places. All the government's wasting money in other areas.
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's a half a billion dollar program to
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: do things like upgrade golf courses, but you've got the
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: AFP screaming out for resourcing. What did you make of
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: the revelations late last week that the ASIO boss, Mike Burgess,
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: warned the government prior to Bondi, very much in the
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: vein of the whistleblowers that have spoken to you and I,
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: about a lack of resourcing in the critical area of counterterrorism,
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: but with particular focus on Sydney?
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: I know.
• 40:19
  Speaker 6: It's quite shocking, Peter, and it just re-emphasises your point
• 40:23
  Speaker 6: that the Royal Commission needs to be able to talk
• 40:25
  Speaker 6: to these people. That's why it has the powers. We
• 40:28
  Speaker 6: need to make sure that this doesn't happen again and
• 40:30
  Speaker 6: if there was any way that we could have thwarted
• 40:33
  Speaker 6: the attack, it needs to be exposed and what those
• 40:36
  Speaker 6: vulnerabilities are. It's not about individual people, perhaps politicians, but
• 40:40
  Speaker 6: certainly it's about institutional accountability.
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: ASIO and the AFP.
• 40:45
  Speaker 6: need to be held to account for what decisions were
• 40:47
  Speaker 6: made and what the outcomes were, what the threat level was,
• 40:51
  Speaker 6: what the resourcing levels were at the time of the
• 40:53
  Speaker 6: Bondi attack and, in fact, at other times when we've
• 40:56
  Speaker 6: been attacked.
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: I want to ask you about the alleged hijacking attempt
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: in Avalon. Reported yesterday was word that the AFP had
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: issued a plea to a Supreme Court judge asking him
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: not to reveal who this teenager had allegedly been in
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: contact with. Nothing about the motivations behind this alleged attempt
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: and also nothing in relation to, quote, foreign entities or
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: a group. What more can you tell us here, David?
• 41:31
  Speaker 6: Well, people shouldn't think that the AFP is giving some
• 41:36
  Speaker 6: document to the judge in this matter that's going to
• 41:40
  Speaker 6: condemn this alleged offender to be convicted. I mean, this
• 41:43
  Speaker 6: is simply about suppressing information that the AFP says is
• 41:48
  Speaker 6: important for national security. It's the second time they've done
• 41:50
  Speaker 6: a submission to the court. Sometimes you just have to
• 41:54
  Speaker 6: accept that the AFP is a highly professional organisation and
• 41:59
  Speaker 6: that they're doing it for the right purposes.
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: OK, you say that. I'll give you the counter argument
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: that the AFP is politicised somewhere in the machine or
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: the minister who directs the AFP or is involved with
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: the AFP. AFP, of course, is playing political games. And
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: let's say, and we won't use this example, but let's
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: say we've got another example of an alleged terror attack
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: or an alleged incident that And you don't want it
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: known that it belongs to a particular religion or a
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: particular nation state like Iran or Russia's involved. So you
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: send down a missive from the AFP to keep it
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: all quiet through the court process. And Australians are none
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: the wiser. I mean, the last thing this prime minister
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: would want, David, is another terror attack on his watch.
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: No Australian would want that. But we deserve to know
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: the truth.
• 42:55
  Speaker 6: I agree, Peter, and I would hope for Australia's sake
• 42:59
  Speaker 6: that our politicians wouldn't be so malicious or careless with
• 43:04
  Speaker 6: the AFP, with the future of our country, because there
• 43:08
  Speaker 6: is accountability and transparency at all levels of the government
• 43:11
  Speaker 6: and there should be. And I'll also note, Peter, that
• 43:14
  Speaker 6: for people that don't know, periodically the Minister of Home
• 43:18
  Speaker 6: Affairs issues a ministerial direction to the AFP to inform
• 43:22
  Speaker 6: it of what areas to concentrate in. The last one
• 43:25
  Speaker 6: that was issued by Tony Burke, I think it was
• 43:27
  Speaker 6: in July, was missing an important clause that was in
• 43:31
  Speaker 6: previous ministerial direction, and that was that the AFP must
• 43:36
  Speaker 6: remain separate to the government and impartial to government. That
• 43:40
  Speaker 6: clause was missing in this latest ministerial direction, and I
• 43:43
  Speaker 6: think it speaks to exactly what you're talking about.
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: Yes, and I go to my ongoing concerns about the
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: management of the arrest on the tarmac with the glare
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: of the media cameras. I've been Robert Smith. Thank you,
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: David Craig. After the break, we'll get back into some
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: world events. We'll look again at America and tomorrow and
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: the families of those killed in 9-11, their call to
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: ban the mayor. That's after the break. Before I bring
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: in my next guest, I want to give you some
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: breaking news. In the last few minutes, we've got the
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: High Court of Australia refusing giggles for girl app founder
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: Sel Grover's special leave to appeal the case brought against
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: her by trans woman, biological male Roxanne Tickle, meaning that
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: without new legislation, Australian law is now set in stone.
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: Men can become women and sex is not purely biological.
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: This is madness. It'll figure up. in Canberra next week
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: when Parliament returns. All right, we've touched on tomorrow as
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: a very significant day for the world, but it's a
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: big day for those who have lived and live in
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: New York. Almost 3,000 innocent people were killed in the
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: September 11 terror attacks, the jihadist al-Qaeda terror attacks, including
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: 10 Australians. Joining me now on my panel, News24 contributor
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: Kosha Garda and former... Labor MP, I'll keep it short,
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: Michael Danby. Kosha, you are originally from that part of
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: the world and you were there on the day.
• 45:14
  Speaker 15: I had moved to New York just one year before,
• 45:16
  Speaker 15: a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed new college grad in September of 2000.
• 45:20
  Speaker 15: So I was one year into a new job on
• 45:23
  Speaker 15: that day. I'll never forget it. There are thousands of
• 45:24
  Speaker 15: stories like that. I had left for work. I was
• 45:27
  Speaker 15: in the office. It was a meeting at nine o'clock
• 45:29
  Speaker 15: and the senior partner came in the room and said,
• 45:32
  Speaker 15: you got to get to the TV. The meeting was
• 45:33
  Speaker 15: cancelled and The rest is history. People were stuck, couldn't go.
• 45:37
  Speaker 15: Planes were grounded, rubble. You could smell it in the
• 45:39
  Speaker 15: air and all the rest of it. And it's really
• 45:41
  Speaker 15: hard to believe it's been 25 years.
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: How far were you from working from ground zero?
• 45:45
  Speaker 15: I was more the northern side of the island, 50s.
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: So I was OK.
• 45:49
  Speaker 15: But I had friends who lived south of 14th Street
• 45:52
  Speaker 15: that were shut down for two weeks. So they actually
• 45:54
  Speaker 15: were bunking with me or their relatives. You couldn't even
• 45:56
  Speaker 15: go into your own apartment for weeks.
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: I mentioned before I was working for a cabinet minister
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: in the Howard government at the time, Michael. And a
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: friend rang me and said, you've got to turn on
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: the TV. And I watched the aftermath of the first plane.
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: I watched the second. I knew we had terrorism on
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: our hands when I saw the second plane. And I
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: watched it all night. I didn't sleep. At dawn, I
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: got dressed and went into the office and it was
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: just mayhem in the federal government from then on in
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: for a number of months. Give me your recollections, 25
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: years on, how does a place like New York, going
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: through that, elect a radical, radical Islamist mayor?
• 46:35
  Speaker 16: Well, should we remember that? It's one of the most
• 46:37
  Speaker 16: iconic disasters in history. 3,000 people killed, including that number
• 46:42
  Speaker 16: of Australians you mentioned, Peter. Look, I honestly think it's
• 46:46
  Speaker 16: shocking that Mamdani, who gave his pen to one of
• 46:50
  Speaker 16: the attorneys who was working for the terrorists at a
• 46:54
  Speaker 16: recent ceremony, is the mayor. It's disrespect and dishonouring the
• 46:59
  Speaker 16: victims for younger people. I have to blame them. I'm
• 47:03
  Speaker 16: sorry for younger people and immigrants voting for that man.
• 47:10
  Speaker 16: And it just dishonours New York's reputation. People are fleeing
• 47:14
  Speaker 16: the city economically. But it should be remembered and we
• 47:19
  Speaker 16: have to have a measured understanding of the people who
• 47:22
  Speaker 16: did it. And if you elect him, you obviously don't
• 47:27
  Speaker 16: share that view.
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: There's a terrific podcast I'll tell my viewers at home,
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: The Rest Is History. You love that podcast? I do too.
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: They've got a partner podcast made by a guy who
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: used to be in the CIA called The Rest Is Conspiracy.
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: They've just done a five-part series on the events of 9-11,
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: the lead-up, the cells, the terror cells, the involvement of
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: the Saudis, the German cell with some of the pilots. How...
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: do the families, they go out yesterday and they do
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: a press conference and they say, we do not want
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: him there. And he turns up. I think he will.
• 48:05
  Speaker 15: Even if he didn't turn up, unfortunately, he has now
• 48:06
  Speaker 15: inserted himself to be part of this story, for better
• 48:08
  Speaker 15: or for worse, we should say for worse. And, you know,
• 48:11
  Speaker 15: just picking up what Michael said, demographics is destiny. The
• 48:14
  Speaker 15: demographics of the city is different from where it was
• 48:16
  Speaker 15: back then. Yes, and so this is what you get.
• 48:18
  Speaker 16: There's no education in the meantime from the colleges that
• 48:21
  Speaker 16: should have been educating the younger generation about what happened
• 48:24
  Speaker 16: to the people who were just 20 years older than them.
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: Canada doesn't even want to use the term Islamist terrorism.
• 48:28
  Speaker 16: Well, they've revoked that now, Peter, so at least that
• 48:30
  Speaker 16: there's some common sense that eventually... Shame them into doing it,
• 48:34
  Speaker 16: as you say.
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: All right. We'll leave it there. Thank you. We will
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: remember all of our American friends and the 10 Australian
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: dead tomorrow. Terrible, terrible day. And unfortunately, that scourge is
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: still with us. That's it for me. Have a good weekend.
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: Here is the Bolt Report.