Transcript

Credlin | 19 March · Credlin

0:02
Speaker 1: Peter Kreenland live on Sky News Australia.
0:07
Speaker 2: Good evening and welcome to the program. I'm Caleb bond
0:10
Speaker 2: In for Peter Credlin. Here's what's coming up tonight. More
0:13
Speaker 2: polling pain tonight for Albinizian Labour. With the majority of
0:16
Speaker 2: people blaming the government for power price spikes, that's not
0:20
Speaker 2: all bad news for the government. More on that with
0:22
Speaker 2: leading Polse to Cos Samaris shortly speaking of power price pain.
0:26
Speaker 2: Reality might have finally kicked in in Victoria with talk
0:29
Speaker 2: of extending the life of one of the country's biggest
0:32
Speaker 2: coal fired power stations. It's needed, but the cost to you,
0:36
Speaker 2: the taxpayer is astounding. But Trump and Putin's much anticipated
0:40
Speaker 2: phone call leading to at least a partial cease fire.
0:43
Speaker 2: As always, the devil's in the detail though, and computing
0:46
Speaker 2: really be trusted. And another day of Peter Dutton pushing
0:50
Speaker 2: law and order as a key election issue. So is
0:52
Speaker 2: it cutting through with thoss?
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Speaker 3: I want to keep our country safe and secure and
0:58
Speaker 3: if the laws aren't adequate to do that, then I
1:01
Speaker 3: will deal with the laws.
1:04
Speaker 2: We are in big trouble. We are in the grips
1:06
Speaker 2: of a mental health crisis. Lifeline has just had its
1:10
Speaker 2: busiest twelve months on record, more than one point one
1:14
Speaker 2: million calls to their mental health service and almost two
1:17
Speaker 2: hundred and ninety five thousand texts and online messages. This
1:21
Speaker 2: was in the US Court papers today. Now, in some
1:24
Speaker 2: ways that's good that people are coming forward to talk
1:27
Speaker 2: to someone about whatever they're struggling with, but it points
1:30
Speaker 2: to a big problem, of course, that there are that
1:33
Speaker 2: many people who are struggling. Now, it's not unusual that
1:36
Speaker 2: in times of economic downturn people get stressed and sometimes
1:41
Speaker 2: mentally unwell. Not knowing how you're going to feed your
1:44
Speaker 2: children or how you're going to afford to turn the
1:46
Speaker 2: air conditioner on on a hot day is seriously stressful stuff.
1:50
Speaker 2: And even things not as severe as that, but feeling
1:53
Speaker 2: like you're going backwards financially no matter how hard you try,
1:57
Speaker 2: can put a lot of strain on a person and
1:59
Speaker 2: a family. We're in a cost of living crisis, and
2:02
Speaker 2: to some degree that has to explain increasing levels of distress.
2:07
Speaker 2: But that's circumstantial. It can change, it can be fixed.
2:11
Speaker 2: It's like some people break out in a rash when
2:13
Speaker 2: they're stressed. It's not a disease, it's not an ongoing concern.
2:18
Speaker 2: It's a temporary sickness. Might be painful and difficult and
2:21
Speaker 2: all the rest, but it will eventually go away and
2:24
Speaker 2: you'll get on with things. And this is the important
2:26
Speaker 2: thing to note when we talk about a mental health crisis.
2:30
Speaker 2: There are people who are clinically depressed who have lifelong
2:34
Speaker 2: battles with the depression. There are people for whom ill
2:38
Speaker 2: mental health is basically an incurable disease. People who are
2:42
Speaker 2: diagnosed with mental disorders, they get treatment for most, if
2:46
Speaker 2: not all, their lives. And then there are people who
2:49
Speaker 2: have circumstantial bouts of ill health. Ill mental health they
2:52
Speaker 2: should say, like a cult, there's something that happens that
2:56
Speaker 2: causes depression or anxiety or whatever it might be, and generally,
3:00
Speaker 2: you treat the cause, you'll be all right. And that's
3:03
Speaker 2: mainly what we're talking about in a mental health crisis.
3:06
Speaker 2: So the question needs to be why are record numbers
3:10
Speaker 2: of people experiencing ill mental health? Demographics I think speak
3:15
Speaker 2: to part of it. The News Corp Papers also reported
3:18
Speaker 2: today that there's been a significant increase in young people,
3:21
Speaker 2: particularly school aged children, at risk of suicide and calling
3:25
Speaker 2: the Kids Helpline. They made one than eight hundred and
3:28
Speaker 2: four crisis or emergency interventions last year to protect young
3:32
Speaker 2: people facing an imminent risk of harm from a suicide attempt.
3:36
Speaker 2: That was a record was up from eight hundred and
3:39
Speaker 2: twenty five In twenty nineteen. The papers commissioned research that
3:43
Speaker 2: found that gen Z and millennials are the most stressed generations. Now,
3:48
Speaker 2: I'm not a doctor or a psychologist, but I am
3:50
Speaker 2: gen Z, and I can tell you what I see
3:53
Speaker 2: in the world around me, and that is children who've
3:56
Speaker 2: been raised without resilience. The kids have gone soft. Not
4:00
Speaker 2: really their fault, they weren't born that way, but they've
4:03
Speaker 2: been trained to be that way. You know, there are
4:06
Speaker 2: no winners and losers in school and junior sport anymore.
4:09
Speaker 2: For instance, it's all just for the fun. Apparently, this
4:12
Speaker 2: is what happens now in junior sport. They don't keep
4:15
Speaker 2: scores or maintain competition ladders. Kids don't learn resilience through
4:20
Speaker 2: winning and losing on the field. Instead, they expect constant
4:23
Speaker 2: praise because in sport they always get a trophy or
4:26
Speaker 2: a medal, and so they can't hack it when things
4:29
Speaker 2: don't go their way or they face some adversity. We've
4:32
Speaker 2: made playground equipment so boring that kids don't fall and
4:36
Speaker 2: break their arms anymore. And there are lessons, so many
4:39
Speaker 2: lessons to learn about taking risks and making mistakes, and
4:43
Speaker 2: dealing with problems, emotions, winning and losing that children just
4:48
Speaker 2: don't get anymore. We've taken it away from them, supposedly
4:53
Speaker 2: to protect them. I don't think it's protected them. I
4:56
Speaker 2: think it's damaged them. It's made them worse. So is
4:59
Speaker 2: it any wonder that their mental health is on the skits?
5:02
Speaker 2: I mean, life now should be easier than it has
5:05
Speaker 2: ever been. My great grandparents had it much harder than
5:09
Speaker 2: I have ever had it, as did their parents and
5:11
Speaker 2: their parents and their parents. And normal human emotions are
5:15
Speaker 2: now being pathologized. Children are told that a down day
5:19
Speaker 2: could be depression, that some worry could be anxiety. You
5:23
Speaker 2: tell a kid that things are really bad, and they'll
5:25
Speaker 2: probably believe that things are really bad. The New South
5:29
Speaker 2: Wales Primary Principles Association has a thing called the Anxiety
5:33
Speaker 2: Project to train teachers and how to identify anxiety in children.
5:38
Speaker 2: I mean, for heaven's sake, they are actively looking for
5:41
Speaker 2: children to tell them that they have anxiety. But here's
5:45
Speaker 2: the other thing that's really concerning. Lifeline Chief executive Colin
5:49
Speaker 2: Siri told the News Court Papers that more and more
5:52
Speaker 2: people are calling up saying they're lonely. This is potentially
5:57
Speaker 2: the biggest problem we face as a society and species.
6:00
Speaker 2: We should be more connected than we've ever been, because
6:04
Speaker 2: you can talk to anyone anywhere in the world at
6:06
Speaker 2: any time thanks to the Internet, but in reality we
6:09
Speaker 2: are more disconnected than we've ever been. The Australian Institute
6:13
Speaker 2: of Health and Welfare put out a report in twenty
6:16
Speaker 2: twenty three that found more than a quarter of women
6:19
Speaker 2: aged eighteen to twenty four often felt very lonely in
6:23
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one, up from a fifth in twenty fifteen.
6:27
Speaker 2: That report said that loneliness and social isolation were concerns
6:32
Speaker 2: before the onset of the COVID nineteen pandemic, but had
6:35
Speaker 2: been exacerbated in the subsequent years, and the people across
6:39
Speaker 2: all age groups appear to be having less social contact
6:43
Speaker 2: from two thousand and one to twenty twenty one. In
6:47
Speaker 2: two thousand and one, people aged fifteen to twenty four
6:50
Speaker 2: would catch up socially with friends or relatives they didn't
6:53
Speaker 2: live with about once a week. By twenty twenty one,
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Speaker 2: it was just two to three times a month. A
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Speaker 2: twenty twenty two serve by the Mental Health Commission of
7:01
Speaker 2: New South Wales found almost half of those surveyed reported
7:06
Speaker 2: feelings related to loneliness some of the time or often.
7:11
Speaker 2: I've written about this before, but one of the ways
7:13
Speaker 2: we've been able to see this happening is through young
7:16
Speaker 2: people drinking less. The proportion of eighteen to twenty four
7:19
Speaker 2: year olds not drinking has increased one hundred and thirty
7:22
Speaker 2: three percent in the past twenty years or so. And
7:25
Speaker 2: you might say, well, that's good for their health, but
7:27
Speaker 2: I'd argue it's actually led to worse health outcomes because
7:31
Speaker 2: one of the main reasons they're not drinking is because
7:33
Speaker 2: they're not catching up with friends. Carnegie Mellon University put
7:38
Speaker 2: out a study last year in which researchers followed the
7:40
Speaker 2: trends of quote unquote heavy drinking twenty one to twenty
7:44
Speaker 2: nine year olds in Pittsburgh in the US from February
7:47
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen to March twenty twenty two. So it collected
7:50
Speaker 2: levels of alcohol consumption prior to, during, and post the
7:54
Speaker 2: COVID pandemic, the amount of grog they were drinking dropped
7:58
Speaker 2: by twelve point eight drinks per week, largely driven by
8:02
Speaker 2: a significant reduction in weekend drinking when seven point nine
8:06
Speaker 2: fewer drinks were consumed. And of course, during the pandemic,
8:09
Speaker 2: when restrictions were in place, it was impossible or certainly
8:12
Speaker 2: extremely difficult to drink with mates, and that largely happens
8:16
Speaker 2: on weekends, So that makes sense. You'd expect to see
8:19
Speaker 2: a reduction during the pandemic from that perspective, but what
8:23
Speaker 2: the research has found was that that plummet continued well
8:27
Speaker 2: into twenty twenty two, long after restrictions had been lifted
8:31
Speaker 2: and you could go back to the pub. One of
8:33
Speaker 2: the contributing authors to the study, Professor Aiden Wright, said
8:37
Speaker 2: that these results highlight the social nature of drinking and
8:41
Speaker 2: speak to the importance of the social context in driving
8:44
Speaker 2: drinking behavior. In other words, young people stopped socializing, and
8:50
Speaker 2: so that's why they stopped drinking. That is not a
8:54
Speaker 2: good thing. Instead of actually going out and catching up
8:57
Speaker 2: with friends and meeting people, were sitting at home on
9:00
Speaker 2: our phones, scrolling through social media. It might make you
9:04
Speaker 2: feel somehow connected to something for a moment, but it's
9:07
Speaker 2: not a real human connection, and that is breaking people
9:11
Speaker 2: as a society. We used to care for each other.
9:14
Speaker 2: We knew our neighbors, we checked on them, we helped
9:16
Speaker 2: each other out, we said hello in the street. But
9:19
Speaker 2: our communities are disappearing. We're moving further apart, not closer together.
9:25
Speaker 2: Marriage rates continued to fall, the birth rate is through
9:29
Speaker 2: the floor. We can't even replace ourselves anymore as human beings.
9:34
Speaker 2: We are not built to be like that. We are
9:36
Speaker 2: social creatures, and yet we've now created a world in
9:39
Speaker 2: which we are deprived of social interaction. This is one
9:43
Speaker 2: of the biggest problems facing humanity, loneliness, and yet it
9:47
Speaker 2: doesn't get anywhere near the coverage it deserves unless we
9:51
Speaker 2: can put down the smartphone and start talking to each
9:53
Speaker 2: other for real. We're stuffed. Let's head to care now
10:00
Speaker 2: for tonight's political headlines with Scarane News political reporter Reuben Spargo, the.
10:05
Speaker 4: Prime Minister is refusing to commit to low power prices
10:09
Speaker 4: under a second Labour term. Labour promised to reduce energy
10:12
Speaker 4: bills by two hundred and seventy five dollars ahead of
10:15
Speaker 4: being elected in twenty twenty two.
10:18
Speaker 5: Global inflation has had an impact the Russian invasion of
10:21
Speaker 5: Ukraine had an impact. People have been under financial pressure
10:26
Speaker 5: across a range of areas. That's why we're backed it.
10:29
Speaker 5: That's why we support the thirteen hundred dollars energy boot rebate.
10:33
Speaker 3: When the Prime Minister promised to two hundred and seventy
10:35
Speaker 3: five dollars reduction in people's power prices, he wasn't going
10:38
Speaker 3: to deliver it, and now he and the Treasurer won't
10:40
Speaker 3: even mention that figure of two hundred and seventy five dollars.
10:43
Speaker 3: It's a disaster.
10:44
Speaker 4: All eyes are on the government's budget to see if
10:46
Speaker 4: energy bill relief will be extended. The Coalition is promising
10:51
Speaker 4: to raise the bar to become an Australian citizen. The
10:54
Speaker 4: Opposition will look to test migrants on anti Semitism, including
10:58
Speaker 4: the applicant's attitudes towards Jewish people.
11:01
Speaker 3: I will put in place a regime that reduces crime
11:04
Speaker 3: in our country and keeps us safe in a very
11:05
Speaker 3: uncertain century.
11:07
Speaker 4: It follows a mixed response about calling a referendum to
11:10
Speaker 4: target dual citizens convicted of crimes.
11:13
Speaker 5: It's another soap bobble.
11:15
Speaker 6: We'll see if at.
11:16
Speaker 4: Last the citizenship test questions have not yet been drafted.
11:20
Speaker 4: The Prime Minister has held a phone call with his
11:22
Speaker 4: new Canadian counterpart, Anthony Abernezi. Spoke with Mark Karney about
11:27
Speaker 4: pressures on the global trading system. The United States and
11:30
Speaker 4: Canada are experiencing heightened tensions due to recent US tariffs.
11:35
Speaker 5: There are issues taking place I wouldn't have expected to
11:40
Speaker 5: have been happening in my lifetime, but we have a
11:45
Speaker 5: very separate relationship with Canada and it's a very good one.
11:48
Speaker 4: A review into the America First strategy is said to
11:51
Speaker 4: be delivered on April two.
11:54
Speaker 2: For more on the day's big stories, I'm joined by
11:56
Speaker 2: the Daily Telegraphs National affairs editor and host of Campaign
11:59
Speaker 2: Confidential six pm Sundays here on Sky and News, James Morrow. James,
12:04
Speaker 2: great to see you speaking of that. You must have
12:06
Speaker 2: a bone to pick with alban easy, because you thought
12:09
Speaker 2: this has been done and dusted that program in April.
12:11
Speaker 2: Now you've got to go all the way through to May.
12:15
Speaker 7: We're going to go all the way through to May.
12:16
Speaker 7: But people are going to have a lot of fun
12:18
Speaker 7: every Sunday night at six pm bringing you the behind
12:20
Speaker 7: the scenes what's happening in all the campaigns. But yeah,
12:22
Speaker 7: look it's going to be a bit longer. I reckon
12:24
Speaker 7: it's not going to be until after the budget, maybe
12:26
Speaker 7: that following weekend that we're going to call for either
12:29
Speaker 7: of the third of the tenth.
12:30
Speaker 2: Indeed, it's Champagne Telly on a Sunday. You're at six,
12:34
Speaker 2: James and Anika at seven. I've got the Sunday show
12:36
Speaker 2: Down at eight, Paul at nine, Royal reported ten. It's
12:39
Speaker 2: well worth tuning in for now. The Coalitions had a
12:42
Speaker 2: little bit of a falling into a little bit of
12:43
Speaker 2: a hole this week. You had the Freshwater Pole the
12:46
Speaker 2: other day showing a hit to their primary vote in
12:48
Speaker 2: Peter Dutton's net approval. Of course, though I should note
12:51
Speaker 2: that hasn't really meant it resurgence for labor, cost of
12:54
Speaker 2: living and power prices certainly remained their achilles heel. But
12:57
Speaker 2: you've written in the Telly today that there is one
13:00
Speaker 2: thing that Peyt Dappan should be focusing on if he
13:03
Speaker 2: really wants to clinch this election.
13:07
Speaker 7: Well, yeah, and I mean it's that he just needs
13:09
Speaker 7: to come up with a message about the cost of
13:12
Speaker 7: living in energy. We had a Redbridge poll in Today's
13:14
Speaker 7: Daily Telegraph. In the news Core papers today it revealed
13:18
Speaker 7: that people blame Chris Bowen and Ethny Albanisi for their
13:22
Speaker 7: high power prices. Now, you were speaking before, and you
13:24
Speaker 7: know they're speaking before about how the government is not
13:27
Speaker 7: even going to commit to lower prices now if they
13:30
Speaker 7: win a reelection in the next term, which is a
13:32
Speaker 7: far cry from the two hundred and seventy five dollars,
13:34
Speaker 7: which is now you know, completely gone with the win
13:36
Speaker 7: and instead well, there's going to hand us more of
13:39
Speaker 7: our own money back to make up for the high
13:43
Speaker 7: power prices we're experiencing. So Peter Dott he's running out
13:46
Speaker 7: a runway here. He needs to freeze on this issue.
13:48
Speaker 7: He needs to freeze Bowen, personalize it on Bowen and
13:51
Speaker 7: al been easy to say, these guys are making your
13:54
Speaker 7: life more expensive. We will stop it. It's not just
13:57
Speaker 7: the nuclear he has to figure out things to stop
13:59
Speaker 7: the renewables insanity that is driving the praises up in
14:02
Speaker 7: the here and now because nuclear that's not here for
14:04
Speaker 7: ten or twenty years.
14:06
Speaker 2: Yeah. Indeed, we had before in the political headlines, the
14:10
Speaker 2: coalition saying now that they'll add questions to the citizenship
14:14
Speaker 2: test if they win the election, asking people about their
14:16
Speaker 2: attitudes towards Jewish people. The intent of courses to stop
14:20
Speaker 2: anti Semites becoming Australian now Germany did this last year.
14:24
Speaker 2: Potential citizens have to identify examples of anti Semitic behavior
14:29
Speaker 2: and answer questions about the Holocaust. I get what they're
14:32
Speaker 2: trying to do, James, but you know, surely if you
14:35
Speaker 2: want to become a citizen, you'll just lie on that
14:38
Speaker 2: question anyway, won't you. Yeah.
14:42
Speaker 7: Look, I mean it feels like they're just trying to
14:45
Speaker 7: talk about things around immigration without having the really big
14:49
Speaker 7: hard questions which I think Australians are really calling out
14:52
Speaker 7: for which to talk about. You know, a the size
14:55
Speaker 7: of our migration in take Actually we had numbers out
14:57
Speaker 7: of the ABS saying that two thousand people arrived in
15:01
Speaker 7: February on student visas. That's an insane amount of people.
15:05
Speaker 7: And if you tell me that that's not affecting the
15:07
Speaker 7: housing crisis, well come on, I mean to supply and
15:09
Speaker 7: demand meet anything anymore. But beyond that, also, you know,
15:12
Speaker 7: we need to have a talk about the composition of
15:15
Speaker 7: how migration didn't taken, whether or not you know, certain
15:17
Speaker 7: people are suitable to come into the country because you know,
15:20
Speaker 7: they have attitudes that are not just anti Jewish but
15:23
Speaker 7: also anti Western and I don't think, you know, we
15:26
Speaker 7: should have any truck with that. So Peter duttet is,
15:28
Speaker 7: you know, good on it for trying to talk about this,
15:30
Speaker 7: and you know, sure it's fine as far as it goes.
15:31
Speaker 7: People will lie about it if they are anti Semites
15:35
Speaker 7: and they're determined to come into Australia anyway, And I
15:37
Speaker 7: don't know quite how that gets enforced retrospectively, but you
15:41
Speaker 7: know that having been said, you know, we're gonna need
15:43
Speaker 7: to see some more talk actually about what the actual
15:46
Speaker 7: size of our intake should be. And I think people
15:49
Speaker 7: in you know, the community would like it to be
15:51
Speaker 7: a lot lower than what people in either party would
15:53
Speaker 7: like it to be.
15:54
Speaker 2: Most certainly, but of course they are addicted to the
15:57
Speaker 2: tax that comes from having more people in the country,
16:00
Speaker 2: and of course it covers up a multitude of sins
16:02
Speaker 2: when it comes to economic growth. I mean, we haven't
16:04
Speaker 2: really had any economic growth in this country for the
16:08
Speaker 2: past five years or so, but we've covered that up
16:11
Speaker 2: with high migration, and they all get jobs that are
16:13
Speaker 2: in some way linked to the government, particularly the NDAs.
16:16
Speaker 2: It's not economic growth, that's just covering up the fact
16:18
Speaker 2: that we've actually been in a recession. Now, a hung
16:22
Speaker 2: parliament seems to be highly likely. I think was probably
16:26
Speaker 2: the only scenario that's going to happen. I can't see
16:28
Speaker 2: Labor being returned with a majority, and it would be
16:31
Speaker 2: a serious task for the coalition to be elected with
16:33
Speaker 2: a majority. But new polling that we've published here at
16:36
Speaker 2: Sky News shows that voters in Teal seats want candidates
16:40
Speaker 2: to reveal which party they would support if that happens.
16:44
Speaker 2: Fair enough, but I suspect we're not going to see anything.
16:49
Speaker 7: Well, no, I think that's right now. One of the
16:51
Speaker 7: other interesting things is that we've also had polling this
16:54
Speaker 7: past week or last week that suggested that votes were
16:57
Speaker 7: flowing back away from the Teals in some of these
16:59
Speaker 7: seats back to the Liberals, where these were seats that were,
17:02
Speaker 7: you know, traditionally liberal seats. So I think the Teals
17:06
Speaker 7: you really have to treat them as kind of this
17:09
Speaker 7: funny sort of moment in time phenomenon in twenty twenty two.
17:12
Speaker 7: Some will stick around, you know, Legrispender and Wentworth will
17:16
Speaker 7: be fine. I think, despite being against a very qualified
17:19
Speaker 7: candidate in Roe Knox Zally Stegel, I think is just
17:22
Speaker 7: now rusted on in Warriga and that's hers forever. But
17:25
Speaker 7: we will see others with real problems, and I think,
17:28
Speaker 7: you know, certainly like Monique Ryan and people like that
17:31
Speaker 7: in Victoria. Well you know, those could very well fall
17:35
Speaker 7: back to the Libs. So so I think that this
17:38
Speaker 7: idea that you know, the teals, I think that they're
17:40
Speaker 7: going to be sort of running out of gas after it,
17:42
Speaker 7: because they came, you know, to be in that in
17:45
Speaker 7: that moment of twenty twenty two when there was all
17:47
Speaker 7: that white hot anger at Scott Morrison, and you know,
17:50
Speaker 7: there's a pretty particular moment in time that I just
17:52
Speaker 7: don't think it's repeated just quickly.
17:55
Speaker 2: James Donald Trump promised he to release the JFK files
17:58
Speaker 2: have dropped today. It's about eighty thousand pages to troll through.
18:01
Speaker 2: So I can't say I've read through all of it yet.
18:03
Speaker 2: But have we seen any big revelations come out of
18:06
Speaker 2: these documents thus far?
18:09
Speaker 7: Well, there's one really interesting thing here. There's a document
18:13
Speaker 7: in there, and it's a letter from the director of
18:15
Speaker 7: the CIA at the time to our director of ASIOL
18:19
Speaker 7: at the time, and the director of ASIO had asked
18:22
Speaker 7: for a particular document not to be released with the
18:24
Speaker 7: Warren Commission, which is the Warren Commission which was looking
18:27
Speaker 7: into the assassination of President Kennedy. Now it's thought that
18:31
Speaker 7: that document relates to calls that were made to the
18:34
Speaker 7: US Embassy in Canberra by a driver for the Russian
18:38
Speaker 7: Embassy warning about a possible Soviet involvement in a Kennedy assassination.
18:44
Speaker 7: And there was an attempt to suppress that document. But
18:47
Speaker 7: that's because there's an Australian link. What's really interesting the
18:50
Speaker 7: little bits I've looked at are fastening the Okaleb is.
18:54
Speaker 7: It's a real window into tradecraft and the old school
18:58
Speaker 7: CIA tradecraft, and you know some of the stuff that's
19:00
Speaker 7: come out, and you see about how they operated, how
19:03
Speaker 7: they support people, how they operated in various Latin American countries.
19:06
Speaker 7: You know, it's a really interesting look. It's like a
19:08
Speaker 7: Gmslroly novel.
19:10
Speaker 2: Yes, and we'll certainly be waiting to see what more
19:12
Speaker 2: comes out of it. James Morrow, thank you so much
19:14
Speaker 2: for your time. I can't believe I've made it twenty
19:16
Speaker 2: minutes almost into the show and I haven't played this
19:19
Speaker 2: clip yet.
19:20
Speaker 5: Reducing power prices by two hundred and seventy five dollars,
19:23
Speaker 5: reducing power prices by two hundred and seventy five dollars.
19:25
Speaker 8: By twenty twenty five.
19:26
Speaker 3: Two hundred and seventy five dollars a year.
19:29
Speaker 5: One hundred and seventy five dollars a year will get.
19:32
Speaker 3: Power prices down by two hundred and seventy five dollars a.
19:35
Speaker 5: Year, two hundred and seventy five dollars for the average
19:38
Speaker 5: house lower in twenty twenty five than today.
19:42
Speaker 2: Well, now I have ticked that box and it's starting
19:44
Speaker 2: to cut through. It would seem so much so that
19:47
Speaker 2: Anthony Albanezi is now refusing to guarantee that energy prices
19:50
Speaker 2: will come down or even remain stable if he wins
19:54
Speaker 2: a second term. I guess you can't pull the same
19:56
Speaker 2: trip twice. And maybe that's because a new poll from
19:59
Speaker 2: Redbury Is found that fifty three percent of verters blame
20:02
Speaker 2: the Albanezi government's renewable energy policies for pushing up energy costs.
20:07
Speaker 2: A quarter strongly agree that renewables are at fault. Well,
20:11
Speaker 2: the man behind the pole is director of Redbridge Group
20:14
Speaker 2: Coause Samaris. He joins me now cause welcome, you know
20:17
Speaker 2: it's pretty clear it would seem that people blame the
20:21
Speaker 2: government for what has happened to here, though I have
20:23
Speaker 2: to say it is more than half, it's fifty three percent.
20:26
Speaker 2: But what do the rest of them think is a
20:28
Speaker 2: fault here?
20:30
Speaker 9: Will will be a mixed bag of law is really
20:32
Speaker 9: in terms of what people think about the energy transition,
20:36
Speaker 9: full stop. It's pretty clear to us now that not
20:39
Speaker 9: just why this particular pole, but a lot of work
20:42
Speaker 9: that we've done in this space, that Australians are losing
20:44
Speaker 9: confidence in that energy transition. And you know, I think
20:49
Speaker 9: that it's not just the promises that were given to
20:52
Speaker 9: them by whether it's label the Coalition or whoever, but
20:57
Speaker 9: also the sector itself. So will now have a very
21:00
Speaker 9: strong view that it's going to be much more expensive,
21:04
Speaker 9: more unstable and unpredictable.
21:07
Speaker 2: Well, Chris min said last year that the one thing
21:11
Speaker 2: that will kill goodwill for going green in terms of
21:15
Speaker 2: energies people not being able to pay their bills. I
21:17
Speaker 2: think he was entirely right when he said that. It
21:20
Speaker 2: looks like we might be starting to meet that moment.
21:24
Speaker 2: I guess the question is will it actually change anything?
21:28
Speaker 2: Because on your polling, labor is still ahead two party preferred.
21:33
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's right.
21:33
Speaker 9: I mean we talk about the broader politics. What we're
21:37
Speaker 9: seeing is a drift away from the Coalition, particularly within
21:41
Speaker 9: its base in the outer suburbs and regions, to minor parties.
21:45
Speaker 9: So really, you know, Dutton has to really come out,
21:48
Speaker 9: as James touched on before, with a very strong economic
21:52
Speaker 9: narrative because the millennials who are going to determine the
21:55
Speaker 9: next election in the outer suburbs very different to millennials
21:58
Speaker 9: in the inner suburbs of LRCS very different. They are
22:03
Speaker 9: filling the pinch everywhere through their electricity bills. They've got
22:07
Speaker 9: the lowest levels of confidence with regards to the transition
22:10
Speaker 9: process that we've just touched on, and they're not seeing
22:16
Speaker 9: a plan from the coalition, So until that happens, those
22:20
Speaker 9: numbers will keep drifting. Well.
22:22
Speaker 2: The Coalition of course is betting on nuclear as part
22:25
Speaker 2: of their policy platform, certainly as one of their answers
22:29
Speaker 2: to energy, but it doesn't seem to be winning votes over.
22:34
Speaker 9: That's right, because it's just not a plan. We've got
22:37
Speaker 9: to remember that this generation has just touched on. All
22:40
Speaker 9: they've heard over the last decade is a bunch of
22:43
Speaker 9: politicians all backgrounds, basically promising all sorts of outcomes and
22:49
Speaker 9: taking all sorts of positions on energy, and it's all
22:52
Speaker 9: basically to them to these voters coming across as one
22:55
Speaker 9: big light, so they're not trusting anyone.
22:58
Speaker 2: At the moment, when you asked people whether the country
23:01
Speaker 2: was heading in the right direction, your pole founded, more
23:04
Speaker 2: than half of voters thought we weren't. We're heading in
23:07
Speaker 2: the wrong direction. And yet Labor has still improved slightly
23:11
Speaker 2: on the two party preferred So am I to read
23:14
Speaker 2: into that that they say, well, we're going in the
23:16
Speaker 2: wrong direction, but we really don't think it would be
23:18
Speaker 2: any better under the coalition.
23:21
Speaker 9: Yeah, spot on, right, And really we go back to
23:23
Speaker 9: that point I made, and that is right now, we're
23:26
Speaker 9: seeing a lot of movement with regards to the coalition's flanks,
23:32
Speaker 9: not much growth within the Labor camp in terms of
23:35
Speaker 9: their primary vote. And I will put a very strong
23:38
Speaker 9: cavit on all of this. The state of Victoria is
23:42
Speaker 9: going to be very different to the rest of the country.
23:44
Speaker 9: So it might be a fifty one or a fifty
23:48
Speaker 9: two party preferred for the Labor Party nationally, but I
23:52
Speaker 9: think where Labor's really losing sleep on at the moment,
23:55
Speaker 9: and that's in the state of Victoria because there is
23:57
Speaker 9: still a lot of seats on the table. Numbers that
24:00
Speaker 9: we're going to release over the next couple of weeks
24:03
Speaker 9: will show that.
24:04
Speaker 2: The one thing that your poll found that Peter Dutt
24:06
Speaker 2: and the Coalition do have right is that they would
24:09
Speaker 2: be the best choice to manage relations with China. And
24:12
Speaker 2: of course he was previously found to be the best
24:14
Speaker 2: to handle the relationship with Donald Trump. But how much
24:18
Speaker 2: really will international relations play into this election West Australia.
24:23
Speaker 9: So if you talk to Western Australians, they kind of
24:26
Speaker 9: like their eyesight is towards the Asia Pacific trade with
24:31
Speaker 9: China is very important to them, extremely important to them.
24:35
Speaker 9: They kind of ignore what US IS Coast commentators think, right.
24:41
Speaker 9: So it's probably the one tool that Dunton has at
24:45
Speaker 9: his disposal to actually address some of the issues they're
24:48
Speaker 9: facing Western Australia as a political brand. So there is
24:51
Speaker 9: one thing that I think they'll pick up, which is Ballwinkle.
24:54
Speaker 9: But if they play their cards right and in terms
24:58
Speaker 9: of managing that relationship with China in positive way, then
25:02
Speaker 9: it should be beneficial. If it's negative, like you know
25:05
Speaker 9: I'm going to stand up to them and take them on.
25:07
Speaker 9: Then I think you'll get into hot water in state
25:10
Speaker 9: lock West in Australia.
25:11
Speaker 2: Interesting insights, KYD Sumaris, thank you so much for your
25:14
Speaker 2: time after your break. Reality bar to Victorian Labor is
25:17
Speaker 2: yet another coal power plant looks set for an extension.
25:20
Speaker 2: What a surprise. But are we on the right path
25:23
Speaker 2: to see an end to the war in Ukraine? As
25:25
Speaker 2: they say, the devil is in the detail, which I'll
25:28
Speaker 2: get into in a moment. Don't go away, well, Labor,
25:34
Speaker 2: both state and federal have had to learn a few
25:36
Speaker 2: harsh lessons about our energy reality this week. Today it
25:40
Speaker 2: was the Victorian Allen Government's turn. They've been dragged kicking
25:44
Speaker 2: and screaming to potentially extend the life of one of
25:46
Speaker 2: Australia's biggest coal power stations in the Latrobe Valley. As
25:50
Speaker 2: was reported in The Australian Today, the owners of the
25:53
Speaker 2: Lawn Power Station, the Victorian government and the power grid
25:57
Speaker 2: operator have held talks discussing extending the life life of
26:00
Speaker 2: the power station beyond twenty twenty eight, potentially running for
26:03
Speaker 2: another four years into the next decade. Could it be
26:07
Speaker 2: We don't have enough renewable energy and we need to
26:10
Speaker 2: keep cole to keep the lights on. How curious joining
26:14
Speaker 2: me now to discuss this environment Editor at The Australian,
26:17
Speaker 2: Graham Lloyd. Welcome, Graham. I mean, seriously, who could have
26:21
Speaker 2: seen this one coming?
26:25
Speaker 10: That tried good evening, Caleb. Well, it certainly it's been
26:28
Speaker 10: rolling along like a freight train and it's a case
26:32
Speaker 10: of the facts really catching up with ambition. The prudent
26:36
Speaker 10: thing to do is look for what are the available
26:39
Speaker 10: alternatives if things are not going to play out as
26:42
Speaker 10: had been hoped. And the lesson is the same as
26:45
Speaker 10: it was in Europe and other places. If you're going
26:48
Speaker 10: to demonize gas or not have ability to source gas,
26:55
Speaker 10: you're going to be stuck with cole. And so that's
26:58
Speaker 10: what we're looking at here at continuation of coal fire
27:01
Speaker 10: capacity in Victoria really to backstop the system should it
27:06
Speaker 10: be needed.
27:07
Speaker 2: Now surely yeah, well they won't say this is the
27:09
Speaker 2: case because of course they don't want to admit it,
27:10
Speaker 2: but surely this is proof that governments, both state and
27:14
Speaker 2: federal have got this wrong. I mean, power companies have
27:18
Speaker 2: set dates that they will shut their coal fard pass
27:21
Speaker 2: stations by because presumably they won't be required by that point,
27:25
Speaker 2: and they're certainly not profitable for those companies beyond that point,
27:29
Speaker 2: but we don't have enough other energy to replace it.
27:33
Speaker 2: They got it wrong.
27:36
Speaker 10: I think that's right, and there's been an element of
27:38
Speaker 10: coercion at play here. The big call generators have been
27:45
Speaker 10: pressured to close, they've had their business models undermined, they've
27:48
Speaker 10: stopped investing because the government is trying to send a
27:52
Speaker 10: signal to other investors that the market is going to
27:55
Speaker 10: be open for them and they're going to have preferential treatment. Unfortunately,
28:00
Speaker 10: easier said than done. Replacing what has been available from
28:05
Speaker 10: the big fossil fuel generators is not as easy as
28:09
Speaker 10: has been promised.
28:10
Speaker 2: Funnily enough, the Environment Minister in Victoria, Lily de Ambrosio,
28:15
Speaker 2: has denied these discussions.
28:17
Speaker 11: Take a look the assertion that somehow a EMO has
28:21
Speaker 11: written to the Victorian government claiming that your lawn needs
28:26
Speaker 11: to stay open beyond twenty twenty eight is absolute fabrication.
28:31
Speaker 11: It's dishonest, it's a lie, and I'm here to set
28:36
Speaker 11: that record straight, and it is absolutely irresponsible.
28:40
Speaker 2: It's a fabrication, it's dishonest, it's a lie.
28:47
Speaker 10: Well, certainly the Minister has a lot vested in things
28:52
Speaker 10: going the way that she hoped. I think in the
28:55
Speaker 10: fullness of time, when you look back at how things
28:58
Speaker 10: play out, the Minister will be front and center in
29:04
Speaker 10: the mess that's developed. It's the prudent thing to do
29:08
Speaker 10: to have a look at where things are going and
29:12
Speaker 10: to make sure that there's a backup plan for the future.
29:15
Speaker 10: And it's quite extraordinary that the government isn't fully on
29:18
Speaker 10: board with that. It's not a decision that's been taken.
29:21
Speaker 10: It's a discussion to make sure they're not caught completely short.
29:27
Speaker 2: And fair enough too. The other thing, of course, is
29:29
Speaker 2: the tax payers will be on the hook for several
29:31
Speaker 2: hundreds of millions of dollars if this thing is extended,
29:35
Speaker 2: which it would seem it will need to be. And
29:38
Speaker 2: it's obscene when you consider how many times we've been
29:41
Speaker 2: done over through all of this. We're paying for it
29:44
Speaker 2: through our power bills, which go up because we've got
29:46
Speaker 2: unreliable energy because we've rushed into renewables too fast. We've
29:50
Speaker 2: subsidized all of that. By the way the renewables, then
29:53
Speaker 2: we've got to pay more to keep the coulified power
29:55
Speaker 2: stations online so we can turn the lights on. I mean,
29:58
Speaker 2: there is no point in this where we have had
30:02
Speaker 2: a break in any way financially, that's right.
30:06
Speaker 10: And the longer that you leave it before making a
30:11
Speaker 10: decision for the benefit of power users, the more expensive
30:16
Speaker 10: it's going to be.
30:18
Speaker 2: Graham, Lloyd, thank you so much for your time. Now,
30:20
Speaker 2: this phone call between Donald Trump and Ladimir Putin to
30:24
Speaker 2: broker a ceasefire deal in the Ukraine Russia warp seems
30:28
Speaker 2: like it was a bit of a fizzer. We're told
30:30
Speaker 2: the conversation between the two leaders lasted over two hours.
30:34
Speaker 2: That there's not a great deal to show for it.
30:35
Speaker 2: There was a little bit of progress in that Russia
30:38
Speaker 2: agreed to hold air strikes on energy infrastructure.
30:42
Speaker 12: You have a lot of guns pointing at each other
30:44
Speaker 12: and the ceaspire. Without going a little bit further, it
30:46
Speaker 12: would have been tough. Russia has the advantage, as you know,
30:50
Speaker 12: they have encircled about two five hundred soldiers. They're nicely encircled,
30:56
Speaker 12: and that's not good and we want to get it
30:58
Speaker 12: over with. Look, we're doing this so there are no
31:00
Speaker 12: Americans involved. There could be end up in World War
31:03
Speaker 12: three over this.
31:05
Speaker 2: Joining me now, to discuss this and more. Senior analysts
31:07
Speaker 2: at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Malcolm Davis, Malcolm welcome.
31:13
Speaker 2: It obviously falls well short of the month long ceasefire
31:16
Speaker 2: that Ukraine and the US agreed to just a week ago.
31:21
Speaker 2: It doesn't seem like we're going to reach such an
31:24
Speaker 2: agreement with Putin, certainly not on any terms that would
31:27
Speaker 2: be advantageous to the United States or Ukraine.
31:31
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and I was interesting to hear Trump repeating Russian propaganda.
31:35
Speaker 1: They are stating that Ukrainian forces in Kursker and circled.
31:38
Speaker 1: That's actually not true. The Russians are claiming that, but
31:41
Speaker 1: it's factually incorrect. The other aspect about the phone call
31:44
Speaker 1: was that supposedly Burton and Trump agreed to a ceasefire
31:48
Speaker 1: on energy infrastructure. Well within an hour of that phone
31:52
Speaker 1: go ending, the Russians launched attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
31:57
Speaker 1: So the Russians violated the agreement the get go, and
32:01
Speaker 1: I think that that is indicative of where this effort
32:05
Speaker 1: is going.
32:05
Speaker 8: On the part of the Trump administration.
32:07
Speaker 1: Putin treats Trump with contempt, and he exploits him, He
32:12
Speaker 1: plays him like a violin and Essentially, he knows that
32:15
Speaker 1: Trump is prepared to give Putin, to give him everything
32:19
Speaker 1: that Putin wants, And so I think what you are
32:23
Speaker 1: seeing here is something akin to Munich nineteen thirty eight.
32:27
Speaker 1: Peace in our time, where some sort of agreement would
32:30
Speaker 1: be signed that would be advantageous for the Russians, give
32:34
Speaker 1: them time to rearm and regroup. But as the Russians
32:37
Speaker 1: are trying to claim deny Ukraine the ability to strengthen
32:41
Speaker 1: its own defenses at the same time.
32:44
Speaker 2: Is there anything that can be offered to Putin without
32:48
Speaker 2: giving him everything that he wants to achieve either a
32:52
Speaker 2: cease fire or an end to this war. I mean,
32:54
Speaker 2: I suppose if you want to achieve an into the war,
32:56
Speaker 2: everyone's got to give up something somewhere along the way.
32:59
Speaker 2: Is there a middle ground or is it not going
33:02
Speaker 2: to happen unless Putin gets everything he asks for?
33:06
Speaker 1: Well, the wrong approach is to give Putin anything, Okay,
33:11
Speaker 1: Pertin Russia is the aggressor here. They are the ones
33:14
Speaker 1: that launch the invasion of Ukraine, and to give Putin
33:19
Speaker 1: something in return for peace is appeasement, and all it
33:23
Speaker 1: does is in bold and Pertin to take more. So,
33:26
Speaker 1: certainly Putin would sign a ceasefire agreement and maybe stick
33:30
Speaker 1: with it for a few months, but in those few
33:32
Speaker 1: months Russia would regroup and re arm so that their
33:35
Speaker 1: better position to be able to launch the war again
33:39
Speaker 1: a year down the track. So sorry, but I am
33:41
Speaker 1: not convinced that peace with Putin as possible. I think
33:45
Speaker 1: that Putin is determined to impose his will on not
33:51
Speaker 1: just Ukraine, but the rest of Eastern and Central Europe.
33:54
Speaker 1: His territorial ambitions go way beyond the borders of Ukraine.
33:59
Speaker 1: He made that very clear prior to the invasion of Ukraine,
34:02
Speaker 1: where he sent a list of demands to the West
34:05
Speaker 1: basically stating that he wants NATO to withdraw to nineteen
34:09
Speaker 1: ninety seven borders, which would essentially see the Baltic States, Poland,
34:14
Speaker 1: Romania and others all under Russian control. So I do
34:20
Speaker 1: not see this as anything other than history rhyming, and
34:23
Speaker 1: this is a modern day version of Munich and the
34:25
Speaker 1: sideban lab.
34:27
Speaker 2: Couple of other things to get through quickly. The news
34:29
Speaker 2: broke in The Australian during this show last night that
34:32
Speaker 2: Richard Miles was considering scaling back life extending upgrades of
34:36
Speaker 2: the Colon class submarines. That was confirming a report that
34:39
Speaker 2: had previously been in the Australian. How damaging is this
34:43
Speaker 2: for our already gaping capacity gap, and of course the
34:47
Speaker 2: precarious nature of Aucust at the moment hugely damaging.
34:51
Speaker 8: If they go down this path of what's known now
34:53
Speaker 8: as loat light.
34:54
Speaker 1: Where essentially they don't really upgrade much of all, much
34:57
Speaker 1: of anything in the submarines, then they the submarines are
35:00
Speaker 1: going to be obsolete and basically incapable of operating by
35:05
Speaker 1: the time we get to the end of this decade.
35:07
Speaker 1: And so what we end up with is a capability
35:10
Speaker 1: gap where we don't have a credible submarine capability, particularly
35:14
Speaker 1: in the face of rapid modernization of China's submarine forces.
35:18
Speaker 1: And then if the Virginia class SSNs are delayed for
35:23
Speaker 1: any reason, that capability gap becomes a yawning chasm. And
35:27
Speaker 1: so going down the path of this loaded light, as
35:30
Speaker 1: the Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister has suggested, is
35:33
Speaker 1: a huge mistake.
35:35
Speaker 2: Just before you go quickly, the ceasefire looks well and
35:37
Speaker 2: truly over between Israel and Hamas Israel as obviously now
35:41
Speaker 2: resumed bombings in Gaza what's your read on this. Could
35:44
Speaker 2: we see the war basically start up proper again.
35:48
Speaker 1: Like I wasn't surprised that the ceasefire collapsed because Fumus
35:52
Speaker 1: was refusing to honor the terms of the ceasefire, and
35:56
Speaker 1: I think Israel recognized that they had were very patient,
35:59
Speaker 1: but in the end they had to act.
36:01
Speaker 8: So yes, I do think we are going to see
36:03
Speaker 8: the resumption of the war. Wherever we get back to
36:06
Speaker 8: some form.
36:06
Speaker 1: Of ceasefire and some sort of hostage exchange, I don't know,
36:11
Speaker 1: but I certainly think for the time being it's going
36:13
Speaker 1: to be back to war.
36:14
Speaker 2: Malcolm Davis, thank you for your time. After the break,
36:17
Speaker 2: hundreds of academics call for action on failing university standards. Plus,
36:21
Speaker 2: shocking footage has emerged of masked yous terrorizing the streets
36:25
Speaker 2: of Logan, which has now been dubbed the hooning Capital
36:28
Speaker 2: of Queensland. That's up next. Let's bring in tonight's panel,
36:36
Speaker 2: National Senator Matt Canavan and One Nation Chief of Staff
36:39
Speaker 2: James Ashby. Gents, Let's start with power prices. The Prime
36:43
Speaker 2: Minister's failed to guarantee that energy prices will come down
36:46
Speaker 2: if Labour wins the election. Have a look, can you guarantee.
36:50
Speaker 3: Energy prices will calm down or less you stable under
36:53
Speaker 3: our second channel?
36:55
Speaker 5: Well, we know that we have international impact of the
36:59
Speaker 5: global inflation has had an impact. The Russian invasion of
37:03
Speaker 5: Ukraine had an impact on energy prices. But you know
37:06
Speaker 5: what's happened here hearing queens and every Queensander is getting
37:10
Speaker 5: thirteen hundred dollars off their energy bills.
37:14
Speaker 2: Blah blah blah. I mean, you know, however he gets
37:17
Speaker 2: to it, at least reality has somewhat bitten him, Matt.
37:21
Speaker 2: He's realized he can't do the two hundred and seventy
37:23
Speaker 2: five dollar thing. Again. I'm still waiting for that, and
37:25
Speaker 2: particularly on a day of course, where we learned that
37:28
Speaker 2: down in Victoria the government's talking about keeping your awn open.
37:32
Speaker 2: Why because we don't have enough renewable power.
37:36
Speaker 13: Well, Caleb, both of those news points that you've just
37:41
Speaker 13: highlighted point to the fact that the Labor Party doesn't
37:46
Speaker 13: really believe its own rhetoric. I mean, if it really
37:49
Speaker 13: believed that renewable energy was cheaper than cul fire power,
37:52
Speaker 13: why wouldn't the Prime Minister be able to say, yes,
37:54
Speaker 13: your power bills will come down Because his plan is
37:56
Speaker 13: to replace our reliable workhorse of coal fired power stations
38:02
Speaker 13: with this green dream of wind and solar, and he
38:05
Speaker 13: constantly claims that the wind and solar, the latter is
38:09
Speaker 13: cheaper than colon. If that was the case, why wouldn't
38:11
Speaker 13: that lead to your power bills going down? And likewise,
38:15
Speaker 13: down there in Victoria, they too have been saying that
38:18
Speaker 13: we'd be able to power ourselves with wind, solar and
38:20
Speaker 13: fairy tales and that's been proven to be a complete
38:23
Speaker 13: lie now because it would seem that they're discussing extending
38:27
Speaker 13: your law now. I know they've come out and denied
38:29
Speaker 13: it today, but I got a text from someone who
38:32
Speaker 13: works down there and they too had a feuriest denials
38:35
Speaker 13: from management that any discussions had taken place on extending
38:39
Speaker 13: your lawn. But as that work has summed it up
38:42
Speaker 13: to them to the workforce, that just means discussions are
38:45
Speaker 13: definitely happening. They never believe what their management say. So
38:50
Speaker 13: I think where there's smoke, there's fire, and clearly right
38:53
Speaker 13: now there is a fire raging through our energy grid,
38:56
Speaker 13: which you just can't rely on anymore.
38:58
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, Lily d Ambrosie, I played the clip
39:00
Speaker 2: of her before denying that there's been any discussions. She's
39:03
Speaker 2: trying to save herself the embarrassment. I think the embarrassment
39:06
Speaker 2: might be a bit more when it's not too far away,
39:08
Speaker 2: we hear that it's been extended, and then she might
39:11
Speaker 2: have to tell us what a lie that was. Now
39:13
Speaker 2: hundreds of academics are cutting crook about the state of
39:15
Speaker 2: unis in this country. They say that the failing academic
39:19
Speaker 2: standards risk dumbing down the nation. This is from the
39:22
Speaker 2: Public Universities Australia Group. There are a group of more
39:25
Speaker 2: than two hundred professors and lecturers. They say that tertiary
39:29
Speaker 2: education quality and standards agencies failed to pull up the
39:33
Speaker 2: unis and in a submission to the Senate Education Committee,
39:36
Speaker 2: they claimed universities tend to pass and graduate most students,
39:40
Speaker 2: irrespective of the level of education actually achieved. This is
39:43
Speaker 2: nothing less than a dumbing down of the entire country.
39:46
Speaker 2: And James, it would seem to me what has happened
39:48
Speaker 2: with our universities particularly. I think that the moment all
39:52
Speaker 2: of this went wrong was when Julia Gillard uncapped university enrollments.
39:58
Speaker 2: It turned them into businesses. We're not particularly worried about
40:02
Speaker 2: genuinely doing anything for this country. It's how many people
40:06
Speaker 2: can we get through the door, how much can we
40:08
Speaker 2: charge them? And particularly how many foreign students can we
40:11
Speaker 2: get through who don't know any English, but will give
40:14
Speaker 2: them a past mark anyway because we get their money
40:16
Speaker 2: up front.
40:19
Speaker 8: Oh you bet.
40:19
Speaker 14: They've become a churn and burn, unaccountable organization, just like
40:24
Speaker 14: the ABC. Really, we as government give them copious amounts
40:27
Speaker 14: of money every year and there is just zero accountability.
40:32
Speaker 14: And you're right to suggest the fact that they are
40:35
Speaker 14: using them as a business model to attract hundreds of
40:38
Speaker 14: thousands of foreign students. We now have over seven hundred
40:41
Speaker 14: thousand in the country. We've amassed eighty one billion dollars
40:45
Speaker 14: worth of HEX and help debt amongst Australian students who
40:48
Speaker 14: have gone through our universities. Some will never actually use
40:52
Speaker 14: their degree, which is a sad part. They're left with
40:54
Speaker 14: degrees that more or less they could have obtained out
40:58
Speaker 14: of a Wheedies box, quite literally, Caleb. And the problem
41:02
Speaker 14: is though, that where's the taxpayers are paying for that?
41:06
Speaker 14: That debt's got to be paid somewhere. And you can
41:08
Speaker 14: die tomorrow with a massive HEX debt and you will
41:12
Speaker 14: not have to pay that back. No one will go
41:14
Speaker 14: after your state and try and pay that debt down.
41:16
Speaker 14: So look, the longer this continues, the greater the Australian
41:21
Speaker 14: public are on the hook. And I think it just
41:23
Speaker 14: as you rightfully point out, it degregates or dilutes the value.
41:27
Speaker 8: Of having a university degree.
41:29
Speaker 14: I still say it today. The best chance of employment
41:32
Speaker 14: is actually go and get yourself a trade.
41:34
Speaker 2: Yep, one hundred percent. I mean I know a blokeho
41:36
Speaker 2: used to be a UNI lecturer and he told his
41:38
Speaker 2: kids don't go to UNI. Don't do it anymore because
41:42
Speaker 2: he worked in the system and he can see just
41:43
Speaker 2: how far it's fallen.
41:45
Speaker 9: Now.
41:45
Speaker 2: The Australian Financial Review reported today that the government's planning
41:48
Speaker 2: to keep deeming rates on hold for nine hundred thousand
41:51
Speaker 2: welfare recipients in the federal budget next week. Now, this
41:55
Speaker 2: is basically the rate that the government uses to calculate
41:58
Speaker 2: the income so that people earn from financial assets so
42:02
Speaker 2: they can means test willfare payment. So if the deeming
42:05
Speaker 2: rate doesn't go up, it means pensions won't go down. Matt,
42:10
Speaker 2: is this basically trying to buy pensioners votes?
42:16
Speaker 13: Well, there's no doubt the government is desperate here to
42:18
Speaker 13: be seen to be doing something, and I don't think
42:22
Speaker 13: you could make any other decision but not to increase
42:25
Speaker 13: those deming rates right now, given how much.
42:27
Speaker 8: People are struggling.
42:28
Speaker 13: We learned this week that the average Australian family is
42:31
Speaker 13: spending three thousand dollars more on groceries than they were
42:36
Speaker 13: before Anthony Albanis came in per year, three thousand dollars
42:40
Speaker 13: more per year. That's on top of the average homeowner
42:43
Speaker 13: paying more than twelve thousand dollars more more than one
42:45
Speaker 13: thousand dollars a month extra on their mortgage repayments. It's
42:49
Speaker 13: hard to know how people are surviving, so you can
42:52
Speaker 13: understand this. But the problem here is none of these subsidies,
42:56
Speaker 13: none of these small tweaks to our welfare system, are
43:00
Speaker 13: going to the long term help people because they do
43:02
Speaker 13: come at to cost.
43:03
Speaker 8: They come to cost.
43:03
Speaker 13: To note, to increase in these DEMI rates means it's
43:05
Speaker 13: a high cost for government to pay out this welfare.
43:08
Speaker 13: We're already going to be borrowing lots of money. The
43:11
Speaker 13: next week's budget will be a sea of red ink.
43:13
Speaker 13: So at some point we're going to try and get
43:15
Speaker 13: down the grocery prices. At some point, we're going to
43:18
Speaker 13: try and bring down our energy prices, so to give
43:20
Speaker 13: real relief to both the people who need welfare in
43:23
Speaker 13: this country and to the taxpayers who have to pay
43:25
Speaker 13: for it.
43:26
Speaker 8: That would be the best outcome.
43:27
Speaker 13: But this government has shown in its three year term
43:30
Speaker 13: that it's completely incapable of getting the cost of living down.
43:34
Speaker 2: You're both in the great state of Queensland. The city
43:37
Speaker 2: of Logan, between Brisbane and the Gold Coast, has been
43:39
Speaker 2: named the hooning Capital of Queensland. The Career's Mail's got
43:43
Speaker 2: hold of these videos showing mass youths performing reckless stunts
43:46
Speaker 2: across Logan and Brisbane, including launching fireworks from moving cars.
43:51
Speaker 2: The Miyror of Logan, John Raven, has called on all
43:54
Speaker 2: levels of government to combat this escalating crisis. Queensland Police
43:58
Speaker 2: has said that the most serious offense is could be
44:00
Speaker 2: met with a six and a half grand fine or
44:02
Speaker 2: six months in jail. James, We've only got thirty seconds,
44:05
Speaker 2: but you know, it's just another example of how bad
44:08
Speaker 2: the youth crime crisis is in your state.
44:11
Speaker 14: Yeah, and look, you can try and introduce all different
44:14
Speaker 14: types of things like you know, if you get caught,
44:16
Speaker 14: will crush your car. But the problem is these young buggers,
44:19
Speaker 14: they're not even using their own cars. They're stealing other
44:21
Speaker 14: people's cars then terrorizing the suburbs that they've stolen them from.
44:26
Speaker 14: We've got Willowbank Grace Way less than an hour away.
44:29
Speaker 14: You would think that these kids would go and put
44:31
Speaker 14: themselves into a place like that where they can do
44:34
Speaker 14: it safely. If you want to do that, go to
44:36
Speaker 14: those race tracks. It's just senseless. People will die, and unfortunately,
44:41
Speaker 14: I don't think police are given the resources to go
44:43
Speaker 14: and tackle this quick enough.
44:45
Speaker 2: Indeed, Matt James, thank you for your turn. After the break,
44:48
Speaker 2: plenty of words to get through, as always on a
44:50
Speaker 2: Wednesday with Kell Richards, don't go away well, joining the
44:57
Speaker 2: program now as he always does on a Wednesday's Wordsmith
45:01
Speaker 2: and broadcast to Kel Richard, and it's good to have
45:03
Speaker 2: you on the desk. Lovely its Kel. Now. A few
45:05
Speaker 2: words to get through this week will start with decolonized,
45:09
Speaker 2: Melanie says. At college I was told we need to
45:12
Speaker 2: decolonize the curriculum. It turned out this meant we should
45:15
Speaker 2: get rid of Shakespeare, Dickens and the like. Please tell
45:18
Speaker 2: me about this word decolonize. I would have thought that
45:22
Speaker 2: once something has been colonized, it's rather hard to decolonize. No.
45:26
Speaker 6: No, it's a legitimate word with a legitimate meaning, coined
45:29
Speaker 6: around eighteen thirty three, but the Oxfords is not common
45:32
Speaker 6: until the late twentieth century, which is when all the
45:34
Speaker 6: decolonizing was going on. Because the legitimate meaning is a
45:38
Speaker 6: colonial power handing over to the locals. It's a political statement.
45:41
Speaker 6: So like India for instance, that's right, or even Australia
45:45
Speaker 6: in the well to some degree it is. But what
45:48
Speaker 6: the illegitimate use is when it starts being used culturally.
45:51
Speaker 6: It is illegitimate to say that it is decolonizing to
45:54
Speaker 6: get rid of the treasures of English literature, because Shakespeare
45:57
Speaker 6: and Dickens and the like are not part of our
46:00
Speaker 6: colonial culture. They're part of our culture and they are
46:04
Speaker 6: native to anyone who speaks English, so it's not a
46:08
Speaker 6: colonial imposition. If you speak English, they're part of your heritage.
46:11
Speaker 2: So I just want to be clear by the definition
46:14
Speaker 2: of decolonize, as you're saying Australia has been decolonized.
46:17
Speaker 6: Yes it has, because it's a political move and the
46:20
Speaker 6: political shift happened on the first of January Ninetey, Oh.
46:24
Speaker 2: Well, I hope the activists get a hold of that.
46:27
Speaker 2: All they keep saying we need to be decolonized. We've
46:29
Speaker 2: already been decolonized. Peter wants to know about the straw
46:32
Speaker 2: that broke the camel's back. Where did that saying come
46:35
Speaker 2: from and who was it that saw that piece of
46:38
Speaker 2: straw break the camel's back.
46:39
Speaker 6: Thomas Hobbes, British philosopher, author of Leviathan. You will have
46:42
Speaker 6: had to study that as an undergraduate back in the
46:45
Speaker 6: seventeenth century. But he framed it slightly differently, said the
46:48
Speaker 6: idea in slightly different words, this could be the feather
46:52
Speaker 6: which breaks the horses back. What he said it was
46:55
Speaker 6: a debate about causality.
46:56
Speaker 8: You know how serious follows it are.
46:59
Speaker 6: That was picked up and spread around and within fifty
47:01
Speaker 6: years been changed to what we know. The feather had
47:03
Speaker 6: become a straw and the horse had become a camel.
47:06
Speaker 6: But it was really Hopes who thought of it.
47:08
Speaker 2: There you go, sound asleep. Michael wants to know why
47:10
Speaker 2: we don't say sound awake. I mean, it would sort
47:13
Speaker 2: of make sense to say someone is soundly asleep. Hey,
47:16
Speaker 2: get there. But why sound asleep?
47:18
Speaker 6: Sound is actually this version of the word sound. It's
47:21
Speaker 6: quite different to audio stuff, which comes from a Latin
47:23
Speaker 6: source word. This sound comes from a Germanic Old English
47:26
Speaker 6: source word and means complete. So if you're sound asleep,
47:29
Speaker 6: you are completely asleep. We never say sound awake because
47:33
Speaker 6: whenever too sure anyone's completely awake.
47:36
Speaker 2: Well, certainly not Joe Barden. You'd never say he was
47:39
Speaker 2: sound away. But there's no other circumstance where we sort
47:41
Speaker 2: of use sound directly before the word, as in sound asleep,
47:45
Speaker 2: that's right.
47:45
Speaker 6: So this is a hangover from the from centuries back
47:49
Speaker 6: when we were using sound to mean complete. So sometimes
47:52
Speaker 6: you get a phrase an idiom, which simply uses an
47:55
Speaker 6: old usage and hangs on to it even though we've
47:58
Speaker 6: forgotten why it was there.
47:59
Speaker 2: Fair enough blot One's copy book, Elaine wants to know
48:03
Speaker 2: where that comes.
48:04
Speaker 6: From, fifteen ninety eight.
48:06
Speaker 2: They are a fair way back, a fair.
48:08
Speaker 6: Way back back in the days when school boys had
48:10
Speaker 6: to copy down lessons in a copybook in what was
48:12
Speaker 6: called a fine hand. Now they were dipping their pens
48:16
Speaker 6: or their quills rather into a pot of ink. The
48:19
Speaker 6: worst thing that could happen is to get a blot
48:21
Speaker 6: of ink and you've ruined your copybook. So once the
48:25
Speaker 6: expression became calmon, it was used figuratively. Any mistake, fault, whatever,
48:29
Speaker 6: any gaff that spoils your reputation blots your copybook.
48:34
Speaker 2: Fair enough. If people want to send more words in,
48:35
Speaker 2: where do they do it?
48:36
Speaker 6: Kellswordsozwords dot com dot au kel Richards.
48:39
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, a pleasure as always on a Wednesday.
48:43
Speaker 2: Thank you for your company. As always, I'll be back
48:45
Speaker 2: here again tomorrow at six pm. Do not miss it.
48:48
Speaker 2: Up next Andrew Bolt with the Bolt Report. Good night,