Transcript

Credlin | 26 August · Credlin

0:02
Speaker 1: Peter Kundland live on Sky News Australia. Good evening, Welcome
0:09
Speaker 1: to Greglin. Peter. We'll be back with you next week.
0:11
Speaker 1: Now here's what's coming up tonight as we continue to
0:14
Speaker 1: monitor that deadly police ambush in northeast Victoria. Now there
0:18
Speaker 1: is a media conference, police media conference due to start
0:21
Speaker 1: any moment. The new Victorian Police Commissioner, Mike Bush will
0:25
Speaker 1: front that. Will take you live to that as soon
0:27
Speaker 1: as we can. And Georgie Dickinson, our reporter, is on
0:30
Speaker 1: the ground at the scene where this government is still
0:33
Speaker 1: on the loose. We'll also get some detail of Asio's
0:36
Speaker 1: revelations that foreign actors on Australian soil were actually acting
0:40
Speaker 1: on orders from Iran when they fire bond A Deli
0:43
Speaker 1: in Sydney and the Adash Synagogue in Melbourne. Coming up
0:48
Speaker 1: also live tonight from bright that police station. The detail
0:51
Speaker 1: that started to come out on that is quite extraordinary.
0:54
Speaker 1: Georgia Dickson, I have an update, as I said, for shortly.
0:57
Speaker 1: The government has said to have his wife and children
1:00
Speaker 1: and with him. It's now dark obviously in that part
1:03
Speaker 1: of Victoria. It is very thick push land and it
1:07
Speaker 1: will be very difficult for police, even though they have
1:10
Speaker 1: the air Wing and tactical police with them on the
1:12
Speaker 1: scene to try and discover where this person is tonight
1:16
Speaker 1: and tragically, as we know, two detectives were executed earlier today.
1:19
Speaker 1: Also out of canbers Sky, political editor Andrew Clannel with
1:23
Speaker 1: analysis and breaking news on the first expelling of a
1:26
Speaker 1: foreign ambassador since World War II and the evacuation of
1:29
Speaker 1: Australia's embassy in Tehran to a third country. While Asio
1:33
Speaker 1: reveals some of the detail behind the anti Semitic attacks
1:36
Speaker 1: in two states. Well, also go reaction from Australia's Jewish
1:39
Speaker 1: leadership on the frightening proof the anti Israeli Iranian regime
1:43
Speaker 1: and the Iranian Revolutionary Corps were behind at least two
1:47
Speaker 1: of those anti Semitic attacks, and probably more. Jewish groups
1:51
Speaker 1: have had a lot of trouble since October seven. Plus
1:54
Speaker 1: joining us in the studio a twenty five year leader
1:57
Speaker 1: of an extremist US neo Nazi group. He'll join us
2:01
Speaker 1: in the studio as well. Let's go straight to this
2:03
Speaker 1: media conference with Mike Bush.
2:07
Speaker 2: The community and the police family are grieving tonight. I'd
2:12
Speaker 2: like to share some details with you. Firstly, I want
2:17
Speaker 2: to acknowledge our fine and brave officers had lost their
2:22
Speaker 2: lives today in the line of duty. One of those
2:26
Speaker 2: officers was a fifty nine year old detective. The other
2:30
Speaker 2: officer a thirty five year old senior constable. One of
2:35
Speaker 2: our other good officers was a detective. He has been
2:43
Speaker 2: shot and is currently in surgery being treated. His injuries
2:49
Speaker 2: are not life threatened in terms of the current situation.
2:57
Speaker 2: The suspect for this horrific event is still at large.
3:03
Speaker 3: We believe he is armed. We have.
3:10
Speaker 2: Deployed every specialist resource into this area to locate him.
3:17
Speaker 3: That is our priority. Our priority is to.
3:21
Speaker 2: Arrest him, to ensure that he's held to account for
3:27
Speaker 2: the actions, but also very much to bring safety and
3:32
Speaker 2: security to this community. We have hundreds of police resources
3:39
Speaker 2: assigned to this very important task. I would like to
3:47
Speaker 2: ensure the community that we're doing every effort. I do
3:52
Speaker 2: ask men members of the community to stay indoors, take
3:59
Speaker 2: care of themselves. If you see anything or hear anything
4:04
Speaker 2: that concerns you, please bring us at the local station,
4:09
Speaker 2: Triple zero or crime stoppers.
4:13
Speaker 3: I would like to talk.
4:16
Speaker 2: To the police family and the loved ones of our
4:21
Speaker 2: lost and fallen officers myself and every member of Victoria
4:28
Speaker 2: Police are with you at this moment. Our hearts go
4:33
Speaker 2: out to you. We thank those courageous officers. In fact,
4:39
Speaker 2: we think every police officer who comes to work every
4:42
Speaker 2: day to keep their communities safe knowing.
4:48
Speaker 3: That these things can and do occur.
4:53
Speaker 2: So we are with our officers every step of the way,
5:00
Speaker 2: will do everything to look after the families of those officers.
5:06
Speaker 2: I have received messages from all my commissioner colleagues across
5:12
Speaker 2: Australia who feel us as much as we do, and
5:17
Speaker 2: they send their support and love and offer every assistance.
5:23
Speaker 3: Also.
5:26
Speaker 2: I will remain here to answer some questions, but I
5:30
Speaker 2: would now like to hand over to mister Wayne Gatt.
5:34
Speaker 3: Who was the head of the Police Association. Thank you, Chief.
5:37
Speaker 4: Mission I've got to thank the Chief Commissioner for his
5:40
Speaker 4: leadership and his support. Our immediate thoughts are obviously with
5:44
Speaker 4: the loved ones and the families of our foreign officers.
5:47
Speaker 4: Today police stations have fallen silent in Victoria when we
5:53
Speaker 4: were first notified. There's a shocking and eerie feeling of
5:59
Speaker 4: dread and indeed a sense of not knowing what to do,
6:03
Speaker 4: and that's something that's being echoed in every police station
6:05
Speaker 4: across this.
6:06
Speaker 1: State right now.
6:07
Speaker 4: Indeed, as we're having this press conference here today, thousands
6:11
Speaker 4: of police at home, in police stations, in mess rooms,
6:15
Speaker 4: in mushrooms will be watching this. And I want to
6:18
Speaker 4: say to those people, there are members of the police
6:21
Speaker 4: force family here, members of the Police Association, standing with
6:26
Speaker 4: your colleagues, supporting those colleagues. It's important for you to
6:31
Speaker 4: understand if you're out and feel and I do want
6:34
Speaker 4: to acknowledge that we still have hundreds of our members
6:36
Speaker 4: putting themselves in danger right as we speak in an
6:39
Speaker 4: attempt to conclude of this situation. Our members today paid
6:45
Speaker 4: the ultimate price contep to your community. It's the price
6:50
Speaker 4: that is often in the back of our minds, something
6:53
Speaker 4: we try to keep there as much as we can. Sadly,
6:56
Speaker 4: on day's life, this it comes to the surface, it
6:59
Speaker 4: comes out. In fact, it's too clear, too clear. Police
7:03
Speaker 4: officers today across the state will go home. They'll crash
7:08
Speaker 4: at that point, at the moment they're busy doing their job,
7:11
Speaker 4: trying to keep things going and trying to resolve this situation.
7:14
Speaker 4: But when they're in the quiet and silence of their homes,
7:18
Speaker 4: they will crash. They will have to deal with the
7:20
Speaker 4: loss of their colleagues and they will hug their loved
7:24
Speaker 4: ones a little tighter something. Sadly, two of our members tonight,
7:28
Speaker 4: we'll have missed the opportunity to do forever.
7:31
Speaker 3: Thank you, Thank you very nicely said.
7:35
Speaker 2: Happy to take questions, but you will, of course understand,
7:39
Speaker 2: this is an ongoing situation, so some things we have
7:43
Speaker 2: to keep through ourselves while we while we're in a
7:46
Speaker 2: suit of this person cheap at this stage, what can
7:50
Speaker 2: you tell us about this?
7:53
Speaker 3: There are some things in the public domain.
7:57
Speaker 2: We know that the person has heavily armed, we know
8:00
Speaker 2: that they are dangerous obviously down to what they've done
8:05
Speaker 2: here this morning. I'm not going to go to any
8:08
Speaker 2: other further details until that person is apprehended.
8:13
Speaker 4: Well, can you tell us about how this unfolded this
8:15
Speaker 4: afternoon or later this morning?
8:18
Speaker 2: What unfolded today was that ten very dedicated police officers
8:22
Speaker 2: went to execute a search warrant at that address. And
8:28
Speaker 2: we are still debriefing the other officers that were involved.
8:33
Speaker 2: The seven officers that are physically okay but not are
8:41
Speaker 2: very traumatized. Obviously, they were met by the.
8:48
Speaker 3: Offender and.
8:51
Speaker 2: They were murdered in comblood. How he was heavily armed
9:00
Speaker 2: and he was able to escape into the bush. I
9:03
Speaker 2: do understand that he was pursued, but he was able
9:07
Speaker 2: to get away.
9:11
Speaker 3: At that point.
9:12
Speaker 5: Did he take people with him?
9:14
Speaker 2: A woman? He was on his own, according to our
9:22
Speaker 2: police witnesses that saw him head into the bush. We
9:27
Speaker 2: are still looking to locate his partner and two children,
9:32
Speaker 2: but he was not seen to head into the bush
9:35
Speaker 2: with them. We're still the briefing our police officers that
9:39
Speaker 2: were at the scene to understand where his wife and
9:43
Speaker 2: two kids were.
9:44
Speaker 3: What was the nature of the rain. I'm not going
9:48
Speaker 3: to disclose that at this point. I'm sure will come
9:51
Speaker 3: out at some point, but I'm not going to discuss at.
9:54
Speaker 1: This point the terrain where he is at the moment,
9:58
Speaker 1: what is it?
9:58
Speaker 3: What is it like rural?
10:02
Speaker 2: It can be that depends how far he has got.
10:07
Speaker 2: But we've got every every resource on the ground and
10:11
Speaker 2: in the air looking for him at the moment.
10:12
Speaker 3: How large is the area where you are looking for him.
10:16
Speaker 3: It's large. We've got a cordon around the area. I
10:19
Speaker 3: can't give you.
10:19
Speaker 2: The meta ritual the acreage, but it's a large area
10:23
Speaker 2: that we've got caughted.
10:24
Speaker 6: Off, was an assessment involving a special operations group in
10:29
Speaker 6: executing a search worth and was any thought given to
10:33
Speaker 6: arrest a public place.
10:36
Speaker 2: I can tell you that there was a risk assessment
10:38
Speaker 2: done prior to the search warrant.
10:40
Speaker 3: But I can't go into any further details. It's very
10:42
Speaker 3: standard to do that. What is the level of threat
10:45
Speaker 3: to the public at the moment.
10:47
Speaker 2: The public should remain inside. He is obviously a very
10:52
Speaker 2: dangerous person and he needs to be caught, and that's
10:55
Speaker 2: why we've committed every.
10:56
Speaker 7: Resource to do that.
10:59
Speaker 4: As a hosta very she been thought of as an
11:01
Speaker 4: accomplice of some sort.
11:04
Speaker 2: I mentioned a minute ago that he was seen going
11:06
Speaker 2: into the bush alone.
11:08
Speaker 3: We don't know exactly where his wife is at the.
11:11
Speaker 2: Moment, or the children, and we have no information to suggest.
11:16
Speaker 3: Whether he is with or without.
11:18
Speaker 5: Do you know.
11:21
Speaker 3: We're still learning of it.
11:22
Speaker 2: That's a good question, the same question I've asked, and
11:25
Speaker 2: we yet to establish that fact.
11:27
Speaker 1: Are there multiple families and groups leaving out.
11:30
Speaker 3: In that area.
11:31
Speaker 2: My belief is that it's their residence. It's semi rural.
11:36
Speaker 1: They are way officers the rebook.
11:39
Speaker 2: I'm not going to go into which officers at the
11:41
Speaker 2: stage we will, obviously when all next of can are informed,
11:45
Speaker 2: be able to tell you who those officers are that
11:48
Speaker 2: have passed.
11:49
Speaker 4: There were reports that these blogs picked up the fire
11:52
Speaker 4: arms of the two deceased officers and taken off him.
11:55
Speaker 3: Any truth to that. We're still examining the scene at
11:57
Speaker 3: the moment.
12:00
Speaker 2: That has so then that adds to the severity obviously,
12:04
Speaker 2: but he already has lethal weapons to police for this. Yes,
12:11
Speaker 2: exactly how long did this incident occur at the property?
12:16
Speaker 3: How long did he go?
12:17
Speaker 2: It happened over minutes, but the officers that were involved,
12:22
Speaker 2: the seven that were uninjured, remained there for hours while
12:28
Speaker 2: we locked down the area and made it secure.
12:31
Speaker 3: So you have to be very careful when you have
12:32
Speaker 3: an offender at large that we know to be armed.
12:34
Speaker 6: And did police discharge their weapons in it.
12:37
Speaker 3: We're still looking into that matter. I won't say whether they.
12:40
Speaker 2: Did or didn't and they at this point, but I'm
12:43
Speaker 2: sure we'll be able to share those details.
12:48
Speaker 1: At some point.
12:48
Speaker 4: He's the indication that ten office is attended, the fact
12:52
Speaker 4: that ten officers attended, he's a indication at that risk
12:55
Speaker 4: assessment that was undertaken.
12:56
Speaker 1: Came back saying it was a pretty strong riskin.
13:00
Speaker 2: The person has known to us, there was a risk
13:02
Speaker 2: assessment done, and the fact that there were ten officers
13:06
Speaker 2: attending the search warrant does talk to the gravity of
13:10
Speaker 2: the situation.
13:13
Speaker 1: Previous in terms about weapons on the property.
13:17
Speaker 3: At some point we will talk to the full detail
13:20
Speaker 3: of this. At the moment, our priority is to locate
13:23
Speaker 3: the suspect and.
13:24
Speaker 4: They communication within since he engagement offices this morning.
13:28
Speaker 8: Not to my knowledge, was there a conversation before that.
13:33
Speaker 2: Gun. I can't answer that question at a moment because
13:36
Speaker 2: I don't know that detail.
13:40
Speaker 1: That's Victorian Police Commissioner Mike Bush there will take you
13:43
Speaker 1: back to that. If there's any more developments. I want
13:45
Speaker 1: to go straight to Georgie Dickinson, who is our reporter.
13:48
Speaker 1: Is on the scene. Georgie. It's now obviously dark there.
13:50
Speaker 1: As Mike Bush said, they still not found this offender.
13:53
Speaker 1: He is heavily armed, and it was described earlier today
13:57
Speaker 1: that those two poor detectives who fronted that caravan were
14:01
Speaker 1: basically executed.
14:04
Speaker 9: Certainly was good evening to you. It was when we
14:07
Speaker 9: were just driving in here just a few minutes ago.
14:10
Speaker 9: There is still a large police presence right around the
14:14
Speaker 9: area and we actually received a text message as soon
14:17
Speaker 9: as we entered this area to say that there was
14:19
Speaker 9: an armed offender on the run. And obviously this has
14:23
Speaker 9: been going on for hours now. It was first this
14:26
Speaker 9: incident first occurred at around ten thirty this morning, and
14:29
Speaker 9: it's now gone almost six thirty tonight, and still that
14:33
Speaker 9: offender is on the run. And as we heard there
14:35
Speaker 9: in that press conference, quite.
14:37
Speaker 10: An emotional few words that.
14:38
Speaker 9: Mike Bush did say in relation to these officers. Ten
14:42
Speaker 9: officers entered that property, only eight returned home to their
14:46
Speaker 9: loved ones. And as he also spoke about, there is
14:49
Speaker 9: still so many officers that not only dealing with the
14:52
Speaker 9: grief of what has happened this morning, Steve, they are
14:55
Speaker 9: now still looking for that person responsible for there other
15:01
Speaker 9: police officer's death.
15:02
Speaker 2: Steve.
15:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's going to be a very long night for
15:06
Speaker 1: all those police resources there, Georgia, and I know you'll
15:08
Speaker 1: have updates for us through the night, through all of
15:11
Speaker 1: the sky programs. Come back to us if there's any developments.
15:14
Speaker 1: That's Georgie Dickinson on the scene at the shocking crime
15:18
Speaker 1: were two detectives were gunned down this morning. Well, as
15:22
Speaker 1: I said, it's been a remarkable News Day. At a
15:24
Speaker 1: lunchtime media conference, the Prime Minister was joined by the
15:27
Speaker 1: Foreign and Home Affairs ministers, plus the head of ASO,
15:30
Speaker 1: Mike Burgess, revealing that a foreign government ram and its
15:34
Speaker 1: Revolutionary Guard Corps we're using locals here in Australia to
15:37
Speaker 1: stir up anti Semitism, including attacks in Sydney and in Melbourne.
15:42
Speaker 1: Joining me, now, Sky's Andrew Clannell, who's been across this
15:45
Speaker 1: all day. I mean, you've got to ask a question
15:47
Speaker 1: that you asked at the beginning of the day, Andrew,
15:49
Speaker 1: where to start? I mean the timelines may be our
15:52
Speaker 1: embassy in Tayram, the ambassador and the staff. They all
15:55
Speaker 1: got rushed out of the country, flown to an undisclosed
15:58
Speaker 1: third nation. You wonder when the government first was alerted
16:02
Speaker 1: that they had to do that.
16:05
Speaker 11: Yeah, they must have known for a while, but AZIO
16:07
Speaker 11: formally told them yesterday and that must have been timed,
16:10
Speaker 11: I guess, Steve. But AZIO director General said they've been
16:13
Speaker 11: investigating since October. It's good it's finally out there, I guess.
16:17
Speaker 11: But the government was encouraged to prescribe the Islamic Revolutionary
16:21
Speaker 11: Guard of Iran two years.
16:22
Speaker 1: Ago by the opposition.
16:23
Speaker 11: They said we couldn't because they're a state actor, not
16:26
Speaker 11: a non state actor. Well guess what state actors can
16:29
Speaker 11: do terrorism as well. Look, it was a real shock today.
16:32
Speaker 11: I mean I was certainly not expecting anything like this.
16:35
Speaker 11: I can't remember anything like it before I was told
16:38
Speaker 11: and I looked it up that this has occurred though
16:41
Speaker 11: in Germany and Europe, that the Revolutionary Guard of hired
16:45
Speaker 11: Krims hells Angels motorbike gang to can butch at tax
16:50
Speaker 11: and I think about it. The people charged in relations
16:52
Speaker 11: to the Melbourne attack at twenty and twenty one and
16:55
Speaker 11: they didn't kill anyone. I mean, you know they wichly
16:57
Speaker 11: Tony Berks said today the Harm Affairs Minister they did
17:00
Speaker 11: harm people because they harmed them psychologically. But it's kind
17:04
Speaker 11: of bizarre to have a state actor involved and yet
17:07
Speaker 11: an amateur job. And it's really odd and look disappointing,
17:15
Speaker 11: to say the very least, shocking, disgraceful. And I feel
17:20
Speaker 11: for any Australians in Iran, even Iranian Australians who have
17:23
Speaker 11: to cop a regime that would do this, and obviously
17:27
Speaker 11: I feel for Jewish Australians. I mean the sort of
17:29
Speaker 11: fear this will e gender amongst them. It's really awful stuff.
17:33
Speaker 11: It's almost like a bit of an act of war.
17:35
Speaker 11: But ham fist of one, isn't it. It's bizarre stuff.
17:40
Speaker 1: It is, I mean, and all sorts of alarm bells
17:42
Speaker 1: went off from me because I went back and had
17:44
Speaker 1: a look. And when you go back to March and
17:46
Speaker 1: that whole charad around that caravan in Sydney, and there
17:50
Speaker 1: was discussion back then that Australian organized crime figures based
17:55
Speaker 1: outside of our country, in places like Iraq and in
17:59
Speaker 1: the UAE could have been involved somehow in this happening.
18:03
Speaker 1: And so we'll have to wait till the court case.
18:06
Speaker 1: Now we've got the ambassador first one booted out of
18:08
Speaker 1: the country Andrew I think since World War II, here's
18:12
Speaker 1: the Prime Minister at that media conference where you were today.
18:16
Speaker 7: Iran has sought to disguise its involvement, but Asio assesses
18:20
Speaker 7: it was behind the attacks on the Lewis Continental Kitchen
18:24
Speaker 7: in Sydney on October twenty last year and the Adas
18:29
Speaker 7: Israel Synagogue in Melbourne on December sixth last year.
18:34
Speaker 1: So you had that food business and of course you
18:36
Speaker 1: had the Das Synagogue in Melbourne that were attacked. It
18:40
Speaker 1: seems that we are looking at some sort of scheme
18:43
Speaker 1: where Iran gets involved with its Revolutionary Guard and some
18:49
Speaker 1: organized crime figure over there, perhaps organizes a couple of
18:53
Speaker 1: people have probably not paid all that much to do
18:56
Speaker 1: what they've done here with the intention, I guess, of
19:00
Speaker 1: raising tensions among the Jewish community like.
19:04
Speaker 11: Drug mules, isn't it. And it's state sponsored terrorism using
19:09
Speaker 11: a twenty and a twenty one year old allegedly, you know,
19:12
Speaker 11: like I've taken some firm action. I wonder if there's
19:18
Speaker 11: more sanction action on the way. I guess we already
19:20
Speaker 11: have sanctions against Iram, but booting the ambassador out, as
19:24
Speaker 11: you say, it's the biggest accidents world War two? But
19:29
Speaker 11: how do you prevent such things going forward? And it
19:33
Speaker 11: shows some of these attacks are more sinister than they've
19:35
Speaker 11: been painted as, including by the government. You know, the
19:39
Speaker 11: government in some ways has been trying to say these
19:42
Speaker 11: and police too have been trying to say these are
19:44
Speaker 11: two big.
19:44
Speaker 1: Crims and all that sort of thing.
19:46
Speaker 11: Yeah they are, but guess what the state sponsored Mike Burgess,
19:49
Speaker 11: the head of AZO, said today, they're not just looking
19:51
Speaker 11: at these two incidents Steve. They're looking at a dozen,
19:55
Speaker 11: so we can expect more revelations along these lines. And
19:58
Speaker 11: we've all been disturbed by these anti Semitic attacks. As
20:02
Speaker 11: I say, I can't imagine what it's like to be
20:04
Speaker 11: a Jewish Australian at the moment, living under this pool
20:06
Speaker 11: of fear. You know, you're away from the trouble spot
20:10
Speaker 11: and you're copying trouble at home from a foreign country.
20:14
Speaker 11: Is there anything else that the government can do in
20:17
Speaker 11: terms of penalties for people who carry out these attacks?
20:20
Speaker 11: Surely there is. I think they've already acted a bit
20:23
Speaker 11: in that department, but surely there's a call now for
20:26
Speaker 11: more action in that area. And they've already given some
20:29
Speaker 11: more funding for security around synagogues and the like. Can
20:32
Speaker 11: they do more? Surely they can do more. I mean
20:34
Speaker 11: these are attacks on Australians, Jewish Australians. Australians could have
20:38
Speaker 11: been killed in these attacks, and if they were to
20:41
Speaker 11: keep going, it's only a matter of time before they
20:43
Speaker 11: are They're fire bombings, they're not just graffiti or lighting
20:47
Speaker 11: a fire when you know someone's in the middle of
20:50
Speaker 11: the night, when no one's there, someone could be there.
20:53
Speaker 1: So I.
20:56
Speaker 11: Think this really changes the game, changes the dynamic in
21:00
Speaker 11: terms of how we are going to view these attacks
21:02
Speaker 11: from now on In.
21:05
Speaker 1: Well, we had hope ASIO now has got a hell
21:08
Speaker 1: of a lot more intelligence. I just wonder too. I mean,
21:11
Speaker 1: you and I are in the middle of this is unfolding.
21:13
Speaker 1: I mean there's a lot to come on the back
21:15
Speaker 1: of this. I think a lot more information will come out.
21:18
Speaker 1: Your wonder for its scample. If Israel's intelligence services were
21:22
Speaker 1: somehow involved in tipping off ASIO, that wouldn't surprise me.
21:26
Speaker 1: And we've seen it before, Andrew, haven't we where I
21:28
Speaker 1: think Moss had tipped off ASIO about a potential terror
21:32
Speaker 1: attack in Australia that was actually stopped. So I think
21:35
Speaker 1: we're going to find out a hell of a lot
21:36
Speaker 1: more and the Jewish community quite rightly today I might
21:39
Speaker 1: just play a little bit of Alex Rivchen. He was
21:43
Speaker 1: really I think, expressing again how on edge they are.
21:48
Speaker 12: Have a look, they'll be deeply anxious. I was suspect
21:53
Speaker 12: knowing that again, a regime that has caused so much
21:57
Speaker 12: misery and death and suffering throughout the world, that has
22:00
Speaker 12: targeted the Jewish community in deadly attacks in many places,
22:04
Speaker 12: that they honed in on this strange Jewish community. It's
22:08
Speaker 12: a terrifying notion, and the question foremost in our minds
22:11
Speaker 12: will be who's next? Are there still operatives? Are large?
22:15
Speaker 12: Are there plots still developing?
22:19
Speaker 1: You wonder Andrew where we go with the terror alert?
22:21
Speaker 1: You under where we go with telling people not to
22:23
Speaker 1: go to Iran. We're wonder about Australians. There's a lot
22:25
Speaker 1: of Australians working in Iran.
22:29
Speaker 11: Yeah, that's a horrendous situation. They've told the embassy people,
22:32
Speaker 11: but no one else. I guess they couldn't tell anyone else.
22:35
Speaker 11: But what does that mean for Australians there? Should they
22:39
Speaker 11: be offering flights out of there? You're right, this isn't
22:42
Speaker 11: a one day story. We'll see more in terms of
22:44
Speaker 11: the court proceedings and fact sheets. In terms of whether
22:47
Speaker 11: Israel's intelligence was involved, I suspect so, because in answer
22:50
Speaker 11: to my question today at the press conference, the head
22:53
Speaker 11: of AJA, Mike Bird, just said that they've been working
22:56
Speaker 11: with foreign partners.
22:58
Speaker 1: Well, who would that be?
22:59
Speaker 11: It'll be is surely maybe the US. I don't know.
23:02
Speaker 11: There couldn't be too many more So, there's no question
23:07
Speaker 11: they've tipped off our intelligence service. You want to have services,
23:10
Speaker 11: you want to have a look at this. They have,
23:12
Speaker 11: They've done a full, full report, they've convinced themselves it's
23:15
Speaker 11: definitely being sponsored by the Islamic Republic. You'd think there'd
23:19
Speaker 11: be a lot of electronic surveillance and the like that's
23:22
Speaker 11: uncovered that and they've acted, and they've acted publicly, and
23:28
Speaker 11: it's very disturbing development in our times.
23:31
Speaker 1: So I mean it.
23:32
Speaker 11: Brings national security right to the forefront again in terms
23:36
Speaker 11: of an issue in this country.
23:40
Speaker 1: One we'll have to wait for. Some of them are
23:42
Speaker 1: full out. Andrew Clenella was great to catch up. Thanks
23:45
Speaker 1: a lot, Thanks Steve. After break more on this issue,
23:50
Speaker 1: we're going to be joined by Jewish MP Julian Lesser,
23:53
Speaker 1: the Shadow Attorney General. He's been very strong in this space.
23:57
Speaker 1: He'll discuss some of the political responses to today's remarkable
24:01
Speaker 1: decision to expel the Iranian ambassador, plus a former neo
24:05
Speaker 1: Nazi on how he ditched extremism and turned his life around.
24:10
Speaker 1: He'll join in the studio. Welcome back to Steve Price with you.
24:17
Speaker 1: If there are any developments on that unfolding situation in
24:20
Speaker 1: Northeast Victoria, obviously will bring it to you that's been
24:23
Speaker 1: described as an execution. Today, two detectives, one of thirty
24:26
Speaker 1: five year old, one of fifty nine year old shot
24:29
Speaker 1: just doing their jobs and their families tonight are just
24:33
Speaker 1: mourning the loss of two blokes who went to work
24:35
Speaker 1: and didn't come home today. It's just awful. And that
24:37
Speaker 1: bloke's still on the run, we're not sure. A police
24:40
Speaker 1: commissioner did say that he's still heavily armed, so we'll
24:43
Speaker 1: get into that shortly. Joining me now though, to discuss
24:45
Speaker 1: the extraordinary revelations from ASIO. Today's Shadow Attorney General Julian Lessa,
24:50
Speaker 1: himself Jewish Australians. Julian, we all heard in the background
24:56
Speaker 1: that it could be possible that some criminal gangs were
25:00
Speaker 1: acting on behalf of a third party state in some
25:03
Speaker 1: of these anti Semitic attacks. We find out today that's
25:06
Speaker 1: exactly what was happening.
25:10
Speaker 13: Yeah, Steve, I'm absolutely furious about what we found out today,
25:13
Speaker 13: the idea that a criminal regime like Iran has been
25:18
Speaker 13: attacking Australians on Australian soil. And two and a half
25:23
Speaker 13: years ago we called on the government. I called on
25:25
Speaker 13: the government as the Shadow Attorney General at the time
25:28
Speaker 13: to list the IRGC as a terrorist organization. I said
25:32
Speaker 13: we would provide any support to change the federal law
25:35
Speaker 13: to do so. Canada and the United States have listed them.
25:39
Speaker 13: But this is such a serious matter. People could have
25:42
Speaker 13: been killed here and what's the price of the governments
25:45
Speaker 13: in action. We've seen a synagogue fire, bond and a
25:48
Speaker 13: community terrorized. We've seen a Jewish delicatessen in the Eastern
25:52
Speaker 13: suburbs of Sydney subject to an arson attack, and that's
25:56
Speaker 13: the tip of the iceberg. As the Director General of
25:59
Speaker 13: ASIO said, there could be more attacks now. I represent
26:02
Speaker 13: the fourth largest Persian community in the country, and Persian
26:06
Speaker 13: Australians who are law abiding people have been telling me
26:08
Speaker 13: of their fear of the IRGC. It's why I first
26:11
Speaker 13: raised these issues. That IRGC operatives and people from the
26:15
Speaker 13: embassy had been going to community functions and that they
26:18
Speaker 13: were concerned about their families in Iran and they're concerned
26:22
Speaker 13: about the spying.
26:23
Speaker 1: That's going on.
26:24
Speaker 13: And yet again this government has had to be dragged,
26:27
Speaker 13: kicking and screaming to keep Australian safe. They never ever
26:31
Speaker 13: take a proactive approach when it comes to our national security.
26:34
Speaker 13: And I'm sick to death of it, and I think
26:36
Speaker 13: Laura abiding Australians are sick to death of it. And
26:38
Speaker 13: this government's got real questions to answer about why they
26:41
Speaker 13: took more than two years to do anything about the
26:44
Speaker 13: IRGC or the expulsion of the representative of a criminal regime.
26:50
Speaker 1: What excuse did they give you. I mean, you've got
26:52
Speaker 1: a good relationship with many in the labor government. They
26:56
Speaker 1: respect you, they think you're a strong advocate. Why wouldn't
27:00
Speaker 1: they listen or were they being told by the security
27:03
Speaker 1: agencies in Australia that it was not necessary to do that.
27:07
Speaker 13: Well, they were saying it didn't fit the usual parameters
27:11
Speaker 13: for the listing a terrorist organization. And that's precisely why
27:14
Speaker 13: we said we were happy to amend the criminal law
27:17
Speaker 13: to make it fit because we've been hearing it from
27:20
Speaker 13: Persian Australians, We've been hearing it from Jewish Australians about
27:24
Speaker 13: how damaging the IRGC and how damaging Iran is. I mean,
27:28
Speaker 13: Jewish people have been targeted, Jewish leaders have been targeted
27:32
Speaker 13: by the Iranian regime in other Western democracies. Canada and
27:36
Speaker 13: the United States took action in relation to the IRGC
27:39
Speaker 13: because of the advocacy of the Persian community and the
27:41
Speaker 13: Jewish community. But this is about so much more than
27:44
Speaker 13: the Persian community and the Jewish community. It's about a
27:46
Speaker 13: fundamental attack on this country by foreign criminal regime. And
27:51
Speaker 13: this government has had to be dragged kicking and screaming.
27:55
Speaker 13: Two and a half years after the opposition said to it,
27:59
Speaker 13: we were paired to make changes to the law to
28:02
Speaker 13: list the IRGC we wanted the ambassador kicked out. Two
28:06
Speaker 13: and a half years later, finally they're doing something about it.
28:09
Speaker 13: And the cost of this is the extraordinary property damage,
28:13
Speaker 13: the extraordinary fear that's been created in sections of our community.
28:17
Speaker 13: And I'm just sick of the way the government approaches this.
28:19
Speaker 13: On every measure in relation to antisemitism. They are late
28:22
Speaker 13: to the party and have to be dragged kicking and screaming.
28:24
Speaker 13: In February this year, we pushed laws onto the government
28:28
Speaker 13: to make hate crimes subject to mandatory minimum sentences. They
28:32
Speaker 13: didn't want to do it. They eventually caved and folded.
28:34
Speaker 13: They appointed a Special Endlay in antisemitism. You know, I
28:38
Speaker 13: had to be dragged, kicking and screaming to do that.
28:40
Speaker 13: Two months ago she produced an excellent report and they
28:44
Speaker 13: haven't touched a single one of their recommendations. This government
28:48
Speaker 13: is always late to the party and just yesterday they
28:50
Speaker 13: voted against measures to deal with antisemitism on campus. I,
28:54
Speaker 13: as a Jewish Australian, as an Australian, as the Shadow
28:56
Speaker 13: Attorney General, am sick and tired at the excuses for
28:59
Speaker 13: this government and from taking action to protect Laura, abiding Australians,
29:03
Speaker 13: whatever their background.
29:06
Speaker 1: I hear your anger, Julia, and I suspect the fallout
29:09
Speaker 1: for this politically for the Labour Party's going to be
29:11
Speaker 1: pretty grim. Julian Lessa, thank you very much for joining us. Look.
29:14
Speaker 1: Our next guest has spent twenty five years as the
29:18
Speaker 1: leader of the largest neo Nazi organization in the US,
29:22
Speaker 1: before a dramatic about face in twenty nineteen when he
29:25
Speaker 1: renounced extremism. Now, Jeff Scoop now runs Beyond Barriers, which
29:30
Speaker 1: is a group dedicated to helping people exit extremist movements
29:34
Speaker 1: and preventing radicalization through education. He's written a new book.
29:38
Speaker 1: It's called American Nazi. It's on sale. You can get
29:40
Speaker 1: it in all good bookshops right around the country. There's
29:43
Speaker 1: the cover. He reflects on his journey into and out
29:46
Speaker 1: of extremism and sends a warning to policymakers and message
29:51
Speaker 1: about education and dialogue and please to say, Jeff joins
29:54
Speaker 1: me in the studio, welcome. I mean, you know what
29:57
Speaker 1: we're going through today with what's happened in Northeast Victoria
30:01
Speaker 1: armed people who have extremist views. You once got sucked
30:05
Speaker 1: into that way of life.
30:07
Speaker 14: How for me, the way in was a family connection,
30:12
Speaker 14: but it could be anything for different people. For me,
30:14
Speaker 14: the family connection my grandfather fought in the German army
30:17
Speaker 14: during the war. My parents or my mother had come
30:21
Speaker 14: over from Germany, and as a child, that fascination with
30:24
Speaker 14: that history is what put me involved in that. And
30:27
Speaker 14: so I wasn't taught racism or hate growing up. I
30:30
Speaker 14: was radicalized into it after I joined.
30:32
Speaker 1: But you got to the top of this organization, so
30:35
Speaker 1: you would deep, deep, deep into this, Jef, Yes, sir.
30:39
Speaker 1: What was the organization's purpose?
30:41
Speaker 14: So the organization's purpose was to have a white homeland
30:44
Speaker 14: in the United States, to deport people to other countries,
30:49
Speaker 14: and basically to have a white homeland in the United States.
30:51
Speaker 14: That's what the organization's underlying goal was.
30:54
Speaker 1: What was the turning point?
30:55
Speaker 3: Then?
30:56
Speaker 14: For me, the turning point was meeting people that I
30:58
Speaker 14: had once dehumanized, sitting down with an African American and
31:03
Speaker 14: a Muslim lady and seeing their humanity.
31:06
Speaker 1: What the time about? How did that meeting come about?
31:08
Speaker 1: The in your youth you would have said, oh, no,
31:12
Speaker 1: meeting those people, right.
31:14
Speaker 14: I wasn't intentionally meeting those people, but these were opportunities
31:18
Speaker 14: to go into uh. They were for documentary films, and
31:23
Speaker 14: my viewpoint at that time was to get on these
31:26
Speaker 14: programs and spew the propaganda of the movement. So I
31:28
Speaker 14: would sit down with just about anybody. So I sat
31:31
Speaker 14: down with them, and instead of UH seeing the enemy,
31:34
Speaker 14: I was able to see the humanity and the people
31:37
Speaker 14: that I sat down with.
31:38
Speaker 1: That's a very powerful mating. What did they say?
31:41
Speaker 14: It was life alter.
31:41
Speaker 1: What did they say to you?
31:43
Speaker 11: Well, I sat down with.
31:43
Speaker 1: What are you doing with these lunatic people? No, they didn't.
31:46
Speaker 14: They didn't approach that way. They did not approach telling
31:48
Speaker 14: me that I was wrong, because family did that. Everybody
31:51
Speaker 14: that I encountered for years and years.
31:52
Speaker 1: Had did that.
31:53
Speaker 14: What they had did was they explained to me how
31:56
Speaker 14: racism and hate affected them as children growing up, how
32:00
Speaker 14: that affected them. So I was of the mindset as
32:02
Speaker 14: an extremist, that I was part of this noble cause,
32:05
Speaker 14: that I was fighting for my people, that I was
32:06
Speaker 14: fighting for my country. I had that belief system deep
32:10
Speaker 14: and it was dedicated to it. And when you're sitting
32:13
Speaker 14: across from somebody and you see their humanity and you
32:15
Speaker 14: don't see them as the enemy, but you see them
32:17
Speaker 14: as a human being and a person, that changed everything.
32:20
Speaker 14: So when I sat across from Darryl Davis, who was
32:23
Speaker 14: the first person I sat down with in that type
32:25
Speaker 14: of setting, he explained how racism and hate affected him
32:28
Speaker 14: as a child, and that hurt it.
32:31
Speaker 1: Is a lifelong supporter of Nazism. I mean, it would
32:35
Speaker 1: have been a very hard thing to walk away from.
32:37
Speaker 1: So you walk out of that meeting, you think a
32:40
Speaker 1: lot bulbs going off here, I'm going down the wrong track.
32:44
Speaker 1: But you would have been surrounded by supporters and you're
32:47
Speaker 1: at the hit of this organization. How do you get out?
32:50
Speaker 1: I mean, you don't turn up with the knicks made
32:52
Speaker 1: inside boys, we've got everything wrong right.
32:55
Speaker 14: It was a struggle. It took time. It took time.
32:57
Speaker 14: It took me several years to finally break free from it.
32:59
Speaker 14: And that's pretty common for people that are indoctrinated and
33:02
Speaker 14: they are deeply involved in it. It's not usually the
33:04
Speaker 14: snap of a finger decision. It took time, it took
33:07
Speaker 14: it was a process, and it took a lot to
33:10
Speaker 14: walk away from it.
33:11
Speaker 1: Absolutely. The book's interesting because you say censorship and banning
33:15
Speaker 1: extremist voices actually makes those movements stronger. Now, we've got
33:19
Speaker 1: some radical groups in the strata at the moment that
33:21
Speaker 1: we're trying to deal with. You heard about in that
33:23
Speaker 1: interview there about anti Semitism. We've got some radical socialist
33:28
Speaker 1: activists to causing trouble on our streets. When we demonize
33:32
Speaker 1: them as in way the media you say it makes
33:35
Speaker 1: you stronger.
33:37
Speaker 14: I think it's important for the media not to name them,
33:40
Speaker 14: not to name the individuals running it, not to name
33:42
Speaker 14: the group. You could ever use the word Nazi, then
33:44
Speaker 14: you could use the word Nazi. I think that's fine,
33:46
Speaker 14: but not name the actual organization, because what these organizations
33:50
Speaker 14: do with that is they use it for recruitment. They
33:52
Speaker 14: will repost those images and they'll say, look, we made
33:56
Speaker 14: the news, and every time those translated into new recruits.
33:59
Speaker 14: Because that's what I did, That's what I did for
34:00
Speaker 14: twenty five years.
34:02
Speaker 1: We're going to struggle here with young teenagers. Some of
34:05
Speaker 1: them are children of migrants that have come from pretty
34:08
Speaker 1: rough places around the world, that don't seem to fit in,
34:10
Speaker 1: and they're now involved in teenage gangs. I presume that's
34:14
Speaker 1: the first stepping stone to getting into a radicalized group,
34:17
Speaker 1: if you're in a teenage gang, for sure.
34:20
Speaker 14: For sure, gangs, far left extremism, far right extremism, religious extremism,
34:25
Speaker 14: groups like Isis al Qaeda, any kind of extremism. All
34:30
Speaker 14: the way they hold people in place is the same,
34:32
Speaker 14: and gangs our entry point as well, so that, believe
34:37
Speaker 14: it or not, that type of radicalization, it all is
34:41
Speaker 14: the same. I mean, obviously the belief systems and the
34:43
Speaker 14: ideologies are all over the place, but the way they
34:45
Speaker 14: hold people in place is the same.
34:47
Speaker 1: So we tackle all those times when you walked away,
34:49
Speaker 1: there must have been some blowback from the people that
34:51
Speaker 1: you had been mixing with. How did you handle it?
34:55
Speaker 14: It was tough, It was great, oh of course, of course, yeah, there.
34:58
Speaker 1: Will stay for your life at any point.
35:02
Speaker 14: I probably should have, but I don't fear doing what's right,
35:06
Speaker 14: So I do what's right and I'm not afraid of that,
35:10
Speaker 14: so encourage other people to worry with.
35:12
Speaker 1: The book also encourages education. I mean, you get the
35:14
Speaker 1: kids younger and you teach them that this is not
35:18
Speaker 1: the right path. Is that what you say?
35:19
Speaker 14: Ideally, if people never get involved in these type of
35:22
Speaker 14: extremist groups in the first place, that's the best route.
35:25
Speaker 14: So if we don't have to worry about deradicalizing anybody,
35:28
Speaker 14: education is the key. So if we can educate people
35:30
Speaker 14: so they can see the humanity in one another, despite
35:34
Speaker 14: racial differences, religious differences, whatever those differences might be, sexuality,
35:39
Speaker 14: bring people together in our shared humanity.
35:42
Speaker 1: We have a situation unfolding in our state tonight in
35:45
Speaker 1: northeast Victoria, someone who's allegedly shot dead to Victoria police officers,
35:51
Speaker 1: they were simply doing their job issuing a search. One
35:55
Speaker 1: This man is described by one of our newspapers as
35:59
Speaker 1: a member of the Sovereign Citizen Movement. You're aware of
36:02
Speaker 1: that sort of group what.
36:03
Speaker 14: They are, Yeah, the Sovereign Citizens Movement goes way back,
36:06
Speaker 14: and this was something that I'm kind of surprised to
36:09
Speaker 14: hear that it is even happening in other countries because
36:11
Speaker 14: it was an American movement that was anti very anti government.
36:15
Speaker 14: Some of these groups, like the Montana Freeman back in
36:18
Speaker 14: nineteen ninety six, they were printing their own money and
36:21
Speaker 14: they say that they're constitutionalists, but this is another form
36:24
Speaker 14: of extremism.
36:25
Speaker 1: And they don't believe the law and order applies to them, correct.
36:29
Speaker 14: They believe they're above the law, basically that the Constitution
36:32
Speaker 14: gives them the right to be this way.
36:34
Speaker 1: Jeff, really good to see you, Thanks for coming, Thanks
36:36
Speaker 1: you for having me. Now that remarkable book, American Nazi
36:38
Speaker 1: From Hate to Humanity. It's available now through Wilkinson Publishing
36:42
Speaker 1: and all good bookstores. You must make sure you go
36:46
Speaker 1: it by coming up after the break, the new survey
36:49
Speaker 1: which shows just how unhappy farmers are with the Allen government.
36:52
Speaker 1: What a surprise that is. That's after the break. Welcome
36:59
Speaker 1: back to the with you will update you on what's
37:01
Speaker 1: unfolding it. Paul Punker in Northeastern Victoria. Situation is three
37:05
Speaker 1: police officers and support police went to a location at
37:10
Speaker 1: Paul Punker this morning to serve a search warrant and
37:14
Speaker 1: they were confronted by an individual who opened fire. Two
37:18
Speaker 1: of the plan close detectives were shot dead. Police, describing
37:22
Speaker 1: that as an execution. A third officer is in hospital
37:25
Speaker 1: without with no life threatening injuries, but is being operated
37:29
Speaker 1: on as we speak. The man hunt has been going
37:31
Speaker 1: all day. That man hunt continues and the Victorian Police
37:35
Speaker 1: Commissioner Mike Bush on our program earlier said that they've
37:39
Speaker 1: got every resource they possibly can have. They've got choppers
37:43
Speaker 1: in the air, they've got Special Operations Group police officers
37:46
Speaker 1: on the ground. It is a very fluid situation. There
37:49
Speaker 1: was some suggestion earlier in the day this man's wife
37:52
Speaker 1: and children may in fact be with him. It's going
37:55
Speaker 1: to be down I know that area reasonably well. It's
37:57
Speaker 1: at the foot of Mount Buller up in the ranges there.
38:03
Speaker 1: The temperatures tonight will be down below zero. So it's
38:06
Speaker 1: going to be a very long night and a very
38:08
Speaker 1: dangerous night for everybody involved in Our thoughts go out
38:10
Speaker 1: to the families of those two police So Victor and
38:14
Speaker 1: Farmers Federation, now I've talked to on a regular basis,
38:17
Speaker 1: is a survey out today that ninety two percent of
38:19
Speaker 1: farmers feel absolutely ignored by the Allen government. Ninety two percent.
38:24
Speaker 1: They cite the government's unfair taxes, poor infrastructure, aggressive renewable
38:28
Speaker 1: energy policies. Boy are they ever. The VFF president Brett
38:32
Speaker 1: Hosking joins us on the program. He's got a blunt
38:34
Speaker 1: message to the government that regional communities have lost faith. Brett,
38:39
Speaker 1: I knew you'd lost faith already. What made it even
38:42
Speaker 1: worse with this survey? I guess ninety two percent. I
38:45
Speaker 1: don't know who the other eight are, mate.
38:48
Speaker 5: No, no, Look, it is a really blunt message, without
38:51
Speaker 5: a doubt, Steve, And it's straight from the farmers. It's
38:55
Speaker 5: straight from the well, not us farmers. Be perfectly honest.
38:57
Speaker 5: We didn't discriminate who could fill out survey. So eighty
39:01
Speaker 5: five percent of people who filled out the survey are farmers.
39:04
Speaker 5: The rest are not. So you know, when we asked
39:07
Speaker 5: the question, do you believe this government has a plan
39:09
Speaker 5: for agriculture and do you believe this government listens to
39:12
Speaker 5: farmers and listens to the needs of the agricultural community.
39:15
Speaker 5: And that's where the results are really maybe not surprising,
39:19
Speaker 5: but it's very stark when you see it, for sure.
39:24
Speaker 1: Sadly, Brett, I don't remember in all my years living
39:27
Speaker 1: in Victoria a government that can actually just ignore people
39:31
Speaker 1: and say we don't care what you think. We're going
39:34
Speaker 1: to do what we need to do, and if you
39:36
Speaker 1: get our way, we will find you. We might even
39:39
Speaker 1: throw you in jail. That's not the Victoria I know.
39:43
Speaker 5: No, absolutely right, and I mean the way I look
39:45
Speaker 5: at it, Steve, is this is the opportunity right here
39:48
Speaker 5: and now we've got the results. We've heard it straight
39:50
Speaker 5: from everyday victorians about what they're thinking and what they're feeling.
39:55
Speaker 5: And if they're wrong, now's the opportunity for the government
39:58
Speaker 5: to tell them, you know, why they should look the
40:00
Speaker 5: government differently, or if they the government's got a plan,
40:03
Speaker 5: or if they want to engage and listen, now's the opportunity,
40:06
Speaker 5: when they've got the results, to say, hey, we actually
40:08
Speaker 5: do have a plan. Here it is and this is
40:10
Speaker 5: why you should should back us. And same call out
40:12
Speaker 5: to the opposition. Same opportunity for you guys as well
40:15
Speaker 5: to step up and say hey, this is our plan.
40:18
Speaker 5: We do have a plan, this is it and we're
40:20
Speaker 5: excited about it. It's a great time.
40:25
Speaker 1: Are you getting any support at all federally from the
40:28
Speaker 1: federal government. I mean the problem is, you know that
40:31
Speaker 1: there's a cult that wants to turn Australia into a
40:35
Speaker 1: green energy superpower and the way that the only way
40:38
Speaker 1: they can do it is carpet bomb the country with
40:43
Speaker 1: wind turbines, solar panels and transmission lines. So they may
40:47
Speaker 1: feel sorry for you, but they don't believe they've got
40:50
Speaker 1: any way of going backwards.
40:52
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean absolutely we are seeing that, and that
40:56
Speaker 5: was highlighted as one of the main issues. Other main
40:58
Speaker 5: issues that is the emergency services volunteer fund tax that
41:02
Speaker 5: we're seeing replacing our fire service services levy but actually
41:06
Speaker 5: hitting the bank balance of every rate payer in Victoria.
41:10
Speaker 5: We saw bio security get mentioned really importantly. Good that
41:14
Speaker 5: farmers are thinking about it, not so good that they're
41:16
Speaker 5: not confident in the government's ability to respond to it.
41:19
Speaker 5: And we saw our crumbling road network and freight network
41:22
Speaker 5: is another really important issue. So we've hit them way.
41:25
Speaker 5: In fact, we even had animal activists pop in there
41:27
Speaker 5: as well, so we hit some of the big themes
41:30
Speaker 5: that farmers are thinking about. So we've laid it out.
41:32
Speaker 5: Here's the opportunity to government know what the issues are,
41:35
Speaker 5: what farmers are thinking. It's our opportunity to respond. Right now.
41:41
Speaker 1: You're the head of the Victorian Farmers Federation. Was the
41:43
Speaker 1: last time you spoke to the Agriculture Minister.
41:46
Speaker 5: Actually just last week that she was unwell, so that
41:49
Speaker 5: was via zoom. It was meant to be in person.
41:51
Speaker 5: But look at engagement's been really good. Engagement hasn't been
41:55
Speaker 5: the fault.
41:56
Speaker 1: To be sure.
41:56
Speaker 5: We have good access to the ad Minister, to the Premier,
41:59
Speaker 5: to Treasurer, to the Water Minister, even to the Environment minister.
42:04
Speaker 5: The challenge, as was highlighted in the survey, is how
42:07
Speaker 5: well a day listening, how well are they responding to
42:10
Speaker 5: what they're hearing, Because we can keep going there with
42:13
Speaker 5: the message and we can keep telling them over and
42:15
Speaker 5: over again. We're hearing it with drought at the moment
42:17
Speaker 5: again that the drought's not over. It's still hitting families
42:20
Speaker 5: and community is really really hard. We're just not seeing
42:24
Speaker 5: the response. So and it does play and you're right,
42:26
Speaker 5: it does play into the federal sphere as well. We
42:29
Speaker 5: haven't seen much of a drought response out of the Fedsiver.
42:33
Speaker 1: Brett Peter will be back next week. She'll be fired
42:35
Speaker 1: up when she hears how bad this has got, and
42:37
Speaker 1: I'm sure you'll be talking to her pretty quickly when
42:39
Speaker 1: she gets back on air. Thank you. He had a
42:41
Speaker 1: time tonight Brett Hosking there for the Victorian Farmers Federation.
42:44
Speaker 1: Now after the break, the panel joins me to discuss
42:47
Speaker 1: the historic expulsion of Iran's ambassador straight out the door,
42:51
Speaker 1: which is a great thing, plus warnings at Victoria's work
42:53
Speaker 1: from home culture is actually stifing innovation. The panel is
42:57
Speaker 1: up next. Welcome back to Steve Price with you. Andrew
43:03
Speaker 1: Ball coming up next. Let's bringing our panel author of
43:06
Speaker 1: the Spectator Terry Barnes and broadcaster Lucy Zeleck. Great to
43:09
Speaker 1: have you both with us. I want to start with you, Terry,
43:12
Speaker 1: because I had some polling out today showing the Victorian
43:15
Speaker 1: Liberal Party has found that the former leader John Pursuto
43:18
Speaker 1: may struggle to hold onto that Hawthorne seat of VI.
43:21
Speaker 1: Is it a state election next year? Very narrow margin.
43:24
Speaker 1: The survey of six hundred voters found his net favorability
43:28
Speaker 1: rating was negative fifteen. You'd be surprised by that, wouldn't it, Terry?
43:33
Speaker 8: No, Steve, I wouldn't, and certainly take into account the
43:38
Speaker 8: polling was commissioned apparently by johns of those opponents in
43:42
Speaker 8: the party. I'm going to go to take.
43:43
Speaker 11: That with bit your solve.
43:45
Speaker 1: I guess.
43:45
Speaker 3: But look, he's a good man.
43:48
Speaker 8: He's a decent man, Johnson, he's I think the coalition's
43:52
Speaker 8: best policy brain in Victoria. But he's just bringing all
43:55
Speaker 8: this baggage with him, and I think that's been seen
43:57
Speaker 8: by his electorate. It's been seen by the a Victorian electorate.
44:02
Speaker 8: It's a choice between holding the seat for the Liberal
44:04
Speaker 8: Party and standing aside. I mean, John Perzuto needs to
44:08
Speaker 8: consider the impact of last two and a half years
44:12
Speaker 8: on his cause, what he believes in. But if he
44:16
Speaker 8: needs to stand aside, I think you should if it's
44:18
Speaker 8: a question of saving the seat. But I'd actually say
44:21
Speaker 8: the same thing to his opponent in the party Borers Eating.
44:24
Speaker 8: I mean, you know, she's made mistakes and misjudgments herself.
44:28
Speaker 8: I mean she's got a cause and I respect that,
44:30
Speaker 8: but I tick until both she and John Perzuto boo
44:34
Speaker 8: stand aside and don't test the next election, the little's
44:37
Speaker 8: just going to keep fighting each other and fighting and
44:39
Speaker 8: fighting and fighting.
44:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the problem and the big losers of the
44:45
Speaker 1: Victorian voters a public Lucy. I want to get onto
44:48
Speaker 1: this major story that day ASO found that Irana course
44:51
Speaker 1: directed to anti Semitic attacks in Australia, fire bombing of
44:55
Speaker 1: the Adas Synagogue in Melbourne and the food venue in Sydney.
44:58
Speaker 1: Government's now expelled. I ran One's ambassador, this is shocking.
45:02
Speaker 1: This is an attack on Australia by another foreign operative.
45:07
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just dreadful. And I had a very
45:10
Speaker 1: angry Julian Lesser on the program earlier, saying that the
45:14
Speaker 1: Opposition had worn the government that they should have outlawed
45:18
Speaker 1: or talked about that Iranian Guard being called a terrorist
45:21
Speaker 1: organization two years ago.
45:23
Speaker 10: And the subsequent question to that is why weren't they
45:26
Speaker 10: I listened to Julian speak and you could get a
45:28
Speaker 10: real sense of just how passionate he was about this
45:31
Speaker 10: particular issue, and you really felt a tangible frustration from
45:35
Speaker 10: Julian over this. This was proposed over two and a
45:38
Speaker 10: half years ago by the opposition. Why have the Labor
45:41
Speaker 10: government reacted so poorly in this? Where is that sense
45:44
Speaker 10: of being proactive in recognizing these things to try and
45:48
Speaker 10: forecast what could potentially come about and put a stop
45:51
Speaker 10: to it. No one's saying that if it was recognized
45:54
Speaker 10: back then, that this could have potentially put a stop
45:56
Speaker 10: to this, But it would have put different safeguards and
45:59
Speaker 10: measures in we would have had that recognition, as several
46:02
Speaker 10: other countries already have, that these are brutal terrorists that
46:06
Speaker 10: we're dealing with here, and if they're not in the
46:08
Speaker 10: business of brutally murdering and oppressing their own people, they're
46:12
Speaker 10: very much invested in doing that globally, and we've seen
46:15
Speaker 10: this play out now here on Australian shaws. I agreed
46:18
Speaker 10: very much with mister Clenell's comments earlier too. It's just
46:21
Speaker 10: been a very bizarre state of affairs as well to
46:23
Speaker 10: see how it's all unfolded. We have to be grateful
46:26
Speaker 10: to God that nobody was killed in these instances, but
46:29
Speaker 10: this could have gone very differently. And although I commend
46:34
Speaker 10: what the Albanese government have done by expelling the Iranian ambassador,
46:37
Speaker 10: and it has also received bipartisan support, with Susan Lee,
46:41
Speaker 10: the leader of the Opposition, standing up in Parliament today
46:43
Speaker 10: question time and reflecting as much with her sentiments. But
46:47
Speaker 10: this is something that's devastating for Jewish Australians, but more
46:50
Speaker 10: broadly as well. Every day Australians will be feeling very
46:53
Speaker 10: uncomfortable by.
46:54
Speaker 3: All of this.
46:57
Speaker 1: Terry. I mean unless you've actually a good point there.
46:59
Speaker 1: Had you be being a Jewish Australian tonight knowing now
47:02
Speaker 1: that over the last two years some of not all,
47:06
Speaker 1: but some of these anti Semitic attacks were being driven
47:09
Speaker 1: by the evil regime of Irun, you wouldn't be sleeping
47:12
Speaker 1: too comfortably tonight. I wouldn't have thought.
47:15
Speaker 8: I wouldn't have thought so it all sleep and the
47:18
Speaker 8: Jewish community has been sleeping uncomfortably ever since I said Covid.
47:21
Speaker 6: I don't think.
47:22
Speaker 8: I don't think the Albanesi government's really realized that. I mean,
47:25
Speaker 8: look at Tony Burt. He was decrying anti semitism today,
47:28
Speaker 8: but last week he was he was ripping into management
47:33
Speaker 8: getting I mean, it was a The government is not
47:36
Speaker 8: only sort of following, it's reactive. It's also been confusing.
47:41
Speaker 8: It's sending so many mixed messages. And certainly if I
47:43
Speaker 8: was a Jewish Australian I would be wondering whether the
47:47
Speaker 8: Albanezi government has my back.
47:51
Speaker 1: And Lucy, you mean the government. The fallout from this,
47:54
Speaker 1: I think is going to come. We're going to find
47:56
Speaker 1: out a lot more about what they asio knows in
47:58
Speaker 1: the next twenty four hours.
48:00
Speaker 10: Reckon and that's I guess been the biggest consequence of
48:04
Speaker 10: all of this as well, is that we've walked away
48:06
Speaker 10: from hearing this very shocking revelation with more questions and answers.
48:10
Speaker 10: And of course that's understandable given that ASIO is involved
48:13
Speaker 10: and this is an ongoing investigation. This is a matter
48:15
Speaker 10: that will be heard before the courts, but ultimately for us,
48:19
Speaker 10: we want to know what does the future look like?
48:21
Speaker 10: Are there other foreign actors involved with respect to this?
48:25
Speaker 10: Can you feel Saden?
48:27
Speaker 1: The thing you can say here, though, I think, is
48:29
Speaker 1: the fact that ASIO actually have done their job, which
48:32
Speaker 1: is a good thing. Sorry to cut you so short,
48:34
Speaker 1: we've had that emergency situation in Victoria tonight. We'll give
48:37
Speaker 1: you more time next week. Coming up straight after me tonight,
48:40
Speaker 1: Andrew Bolt