Latest / Steve Price / Steve Price | 16 May

Transcript

Steve Price | 16 May · Steve Price

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This is Steve Pryce.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Welcome to Friday Night's ou at the end of a
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: week where two of our main political parties, of course
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: change leaders, and the final outcome of that poll two
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: weekends ago remains pretty much up in the air. The
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: only thing we know for sure it was the thumping
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Labor victory, with their House of Reps numbers now in
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: the low nineties. Steve Price with you, and we will
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: look at the ramifications of that result through the program
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: tonight coming up, A victorious Prime Minister Anthony Alberanezi resumes
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: his airbus Albo persona and this evening in mid air
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: headed for Rome and the Vatican after a stopover in Jakarta.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Odd isn't it the dash to the new Pope Leo's
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: official swearing in when I understand the Prime Minister himself
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: took an affirmation and did not swear on the Bible
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: when sworn in by the Governor General. Will catch up
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: with international affairs expert Greg Barton, shortly himself based these
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: days in Indonesia, still on politics. Can the Liberal brand
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: be resurrec that under the leadership of Susan lay And
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: how long is the road back? Now? Friday regular Campbell
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Newman runs his eye over the wreckage of two Saturdays ago,
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: plus an unseasonably warm autumn through South Australia and parts
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: of western Victoria that's now being labeled as the worst
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: drought since the mid nineteen sixties. The Farmers Federation David
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Johinki will join us and he will also have a
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: look at the damaging impact of State Labour's unhinged changes
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: to the tax system. But first, it looks like Labor
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: now will end up with around ninety three seats maybe
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: ninety four at best in the Lower House to the
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Coalition's likely forty four, and there'll be nine independents as well,
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: as I said, a thumping majority. And with a win
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: like that comes the temptation to think you can do
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: whatever you want. Now. Hubris is a good word, and
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: the Prime Minister has gone out of his way publicly,
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: at least I think, not to show how full of
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: himself he must feel. I mean, if you have a
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: win like that, you're going to be pretty happy with yourself.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: He actually got out of the country and that helps.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: You can rub shoulders with international leaders. You can check
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: your ego in at the front door while shaking hands
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: with whoever you sit next to at the pope's inauguration.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: So you're not thinking about yourself, You're thinking about where
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: you are back home. Though, well it's a different story.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Now take our favorite cabinet minister, Chris Bowen. He's the
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: energy minister who was locked in on a cold storage
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: during the campaign. We never saw him put away in
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: the fridge, only to be foisted on us the moment
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: that the Labor victory was actually certain. Now Chris Bowen
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: is claiming a green energy moratorium over the failed Coalition
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: campaign to argue rather poorly in my view, the argument
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: for nuclear and with a probable six years in office,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: get set for a couple of things, the regional destruction
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: of farmland and native forests as we rewireation and get
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: set for more expensive electricity, and the potential for blackouts.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: Now Chris Bowen denies all this. Have a look.
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: Now, zero is just by twenty fifty is not a policy.
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: It's the bare minimum framework you have to work under.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: Despite some of the rhetoric and the argibargie, there was
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: a swing to the Labor Party pretty much in every
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: offshore wind seat. I take that then, that as well
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: as an endorsement, as I said in an op ed
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: today by silent majority, to say keep going, get on
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: with the job.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Well, there he is.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: He's claiming that mandate, So get set for all sorts
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: of problems in Australia over the next three years minimum.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Australia is attempting to do something not tried anywhere else
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: in the world, running a first world economy across a
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: major continent, with vast distances between cities and towns and
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: industry on solar and wind alone. There is no going
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: back now. And just like in Victoria where state labor
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: claims to have a mandate to spend more than fifty
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: billion dollars on a rail project, federal labor will now
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: respond to sensible skepticism of the green dream with voters.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: They said, look, the voters wanted it, and that's what
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: we're going to do. Chris Bowen is especially up and
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: about making claims like this quote. One of the great
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: myths of the climate change debate. This is Chris Bowen
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: is that inner city dwellers supports strong climate action and
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: the rest of us are lukewarm. And then he went
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: on with this clap trap talking about Sydney he claims
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: there are quote ten times more solar panels in Blacktown
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: than in Bondi. Now Blacktown, for the rest of the
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: country is in northwest Sydney. Think about that statement for
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: a second. No, a millisecond is all it takes of
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: closure there are Blacktown is an area full of standalone houses,
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: mainly on blocks of land with large roofs. Bondi is
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: full of apartment blocks. And you know, if you're weller
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: off to live in Bondai, you're probably not all that
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: concerned about your power bills as someone who lives in Blacktown.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Add to the Bowen Hubris, there is our Treasurer Jim Charmers.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: Have a look at his response to media questions about
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: his new attack on superannuation, especially well managed or self
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: managed super funds. When he was asked about taxing an
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: asset not sold because of an assumed increase in value
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: like an ungained profit, here was Jim Charmers.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: This is a modus change.
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: It makes a meaningful difference to the budget, but it
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: still provides very concessional treatment for people with more than
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: three million dollars in superannuation, and it helps make the
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: budget more sustainable and fund our priorities.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Now he's determined to ram this through and he will
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: get it through the House because obviously they now I've
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: got the numbers and the Greens will supported. This is
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: simply a desperate tax grab and a massive disincentive right
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: around Australia to aspirational Australiers. It gets worse though. Charms
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: was also asked about whether politicians and judges, senior military figures,
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: senior public servants who run run public service departments would
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: actually pay this new retirement tax if they were, as
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: many of them are, on what's called a defined benefit
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: superannuation engine.
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: The actual aerial calculation is similar to the calculation that
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: currently applies to the changes that the Coalition made when
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: they were in office. There's a formula which is calculated
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: by actuaries and applied by the Tax Office in a
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: way that is not inconsistent with the way it's currently
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: calculated for some of the changes that my predecessor has made.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: Well, a treasurer either doesn't know what he's talking about,
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: or he's hoping that questions about defined benefit schemes go away.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: Take the Prime Minister as an example, now estimates if
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: he were to pull upin to retire this year head
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: off to the Copacabana Beach House. Given his length of
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: service in Parliament, he would be entitled to a three
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: hundred and fifty thousand dollars tax free pension a year
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: a year for life. Now. The new tax on funds
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: worth three million or more, tax now at fifteen percent,
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: they want to increase that to thirty percent is on
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: unrealized gains on amounts over that figure. By its very nature,
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: a defined benefit is just that defined. It's not speculative,
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: it's not an investment, it's a pension. I mean these
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: two examples, I mean, you know, rampant green schemes nationwide
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: and an attack on profits people haven't even made yet
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: should serve every Australian as a warning. You got the
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: government you deserve and labor with its tail up, are
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: not going to miss you on the way through. Now,
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: as I said, the Prime Minister has now left Indonesia.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: I think he's mid air on his way to Rome
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: to the Pope's inauguration that'll take place on Sunday. He
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: also has a Canadian visit on the ray are coming
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: up on the sidelines of the G seven Later in
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: the month, and most people assume he will then visit
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: the United States and see Donald Trump on that trip. Look,
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: I mean all, but going to the Vatican makes sense.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: He made a point of ramming home the idea that
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: Indonesia was such an important trading partner. Here's the PM
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: in Indonesia yesterday.
• 8:21
  Speaker 5: For Australia, the deepening of our trade with Indonesia and
• 8:25
  Speaker 5: the strengthing of investment in Indonesia is natural and vital,
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: but it is not inevitable to convert extraordinary potential into
• 8:35
  Speaker 5: concrete progress, and all of US government, business and civil
• 8:41
  Speaker 5: society need to demonstrate greater engagement and ambition.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: Were lucky enough to be joined now from Van Dung
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: in Indonesia, Deacon University Global Islamic Politics Chair Greg Barton,
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: Great to see you again, Greg. You live in Indonesia.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: How important is I mean to Indonesia rather than the
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: other way around is Australia?
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Good question, Steve.
• 9:06
  Speaker 6: The danger for Australia is the Australia risks becoming increasingly
• 9:10
  Speaker 6: less important and always have importance being a physical neighbor
• 9:13
  Speaker 6: and a large continent to Indonesia the south, but we
• 9:16
  Speaker 6: can't take it for granted. That Indonesia will see us
• 9:19
  Speaker 6: as being as important in Australia as we know when
• 9:23
  Speaker 6: we pay attention.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: To Indonesia as being so.
• 9:25
  Speaker 6: I think it's great for the Prime Minister to strike
• 9:27
  Speaker 6: the tone saying we cannot take this for granted.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: I mean Greg last time, obviously disastrously we had when
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: Labor was in government. We had the problem with the
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: live cattle trade and that didn't help our relations. I
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: was surprised during the week to read when economists talk
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: about the balance of trade between the two countries. We
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: don't export all that much to Indonesia, do we No, so.
• 9:52
  Speaker 6: We do more trade with New Zealand than we do
• 9:53
  Speaker 6: with Indonesia. Not nothing wrong with trading with the New Zealand.
• 9:56
  Speaker 6: They're more trade with Singapore than we do with Indonesia.
• 9:58
  Speaker 6: This is a nation of two two hundred and eighty
• 10:00
  Speaker 6: five million people, on its way to perhaps three hundred
• 10:05
  Speaker 6: million people by the end of the decade, and heading
• 10:08
  Speaker 6: towards being the world's perhaps six largest economy.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: It's an opportunity for us. Steve.
• 10:15
  Speaker 6: It's you know, both in terms of security obviously, but
• 10:20
  Speaker 6: I particularly and then includes education. Just why I'm in
• 10:27
  Speaker 6: bundling heading up a new deacon campus in Bundle. But
• 10:32
  Speaker 6: there's just a lot of opportunity for us. No one's
• 10:34
  Speaker 6: saying it's easier or there aren't problems, but we'd be
• 10:36
  Speaker 6: foolish to miss the opportunity.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: PM greg was reluctant to when asked again about that
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: idea Russia wanted some sort of air base in the
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: archipelago of Indonesia. I mean, what's what's the real story here?
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: Is that gone away? That that issue?
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: No?
• 10:55
  Speaker 6: I mean, you're happy to go down the line of
• 10:59
  Speaker 6: keeping friendly relations with Moscow President Promo and as far
• 11:03
  Speaker 6: as visiting Putin in Moscow, but I think when they
• 11:08
  Speaker 6: made what was an unreasonable request, they would told fairly clearly, no,
• 11:12
  Speaker 6: we can't do that. Even she is very very fussy
• 11:15
  Speaker 6: about the sovereignty. The fact that they've signed a military
• 11:20
  Speaker 6: agreement with Australia in the previous tenne of government and
• 11:23
  Speaker 6: perhaps can do it on that is a pretty remarkable
• 11:25
  Speaker 6: breakthrough because they're famously non aligned and they're not fools
• 11:29
  Speaker 6: when it comes to where Russia sits in the world.
• 11:32
  Speaker 6: To be frank Russian military hardware and Russian trade looks
• 11:34
  Speaker 6: les less attractive, and to give up their sovereignty for
• 11:38
  Speaker 6: no gain. Didn't make any sense.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: With your Islamic studies, had on, Greg. I mean, Donald
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: Trump's been in the Middle East. Is the first US
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: president to meet with the leader of Syria in twenty
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: five years. Qatar has signed a deal to purchase I
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: think two hundred and ten US made Boeing jets. He's
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: done a big deal also with the UAE today. How
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: important is this Middle East swing by Donald Trump.
• 12:02
  Speaker 6: Well, it's probably the most successful phase of the Trump
• 12:05
  Speaker 6: presidency so far the second term. You know, Trump famously
• 12:10
  Speaker 6: wants to be known as a transactional president, you know,
• 12:12
  Speaker 6: the alleged writer of the art of the deal. Hasn't
• 12:17
  Speaker 6: gone so well in the first one hundred days. But
• 12:18
  Speaker 6: this trip actually has gone pretty well for him. Leaving
• 12:20
  Speaker 6: aside the questions of you know, receiving a juvious gift
• 12:24
  Speaker 6: from Qatar in the form of a seven four seven
• 12:26
  Speaker 6: luxury aircraft, the meeting with Ashara from Syria, the armoval
• 12:31
  Speaker 6: of sanctions on Syria, the important meetings both in Saudi
• 12:35
  Speaker 6: Arabia and across the golf. I think this is actually
• 12:40
  Speaker 6: Trump at his best.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: Good on, You're Greg, great to catch up with you.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: Thanks very much to talk again soon. Okay, let's come
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: back to Australia now, domestic issues. Joining me our Friday
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: regular form a Queensland Premier Campbell Newman. It's always great
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: to catch up with him on a Friday night.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: Let's get there.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: We'll get into the weeds of leadership of the Libs
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: and thats in a second. But in general terms, in
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: the Campbell Newman way of describing this, labor looks like
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: ninety three to ninety four seats, massive win. Can the
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: Coalition in its current form survive that.
• 13:17
  Speaker 7: Well?
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: I think they can.
• 13:18
  Speaker 8: But it's about time that they really reflected properly on
• 13:24
  Speaker 8: why they've got a problem. And the numbers for me
• 13:28
  Speaker 8: speak volumes. It's all about a fragmentation of their primary
• 13:32
  Speaker 8: vote going to parties of the right like the Libertarians
• 13:36
  Speaker 8: or One Nation etc. And what they need to do
• 13:41
  Speaker 8: is reflect on why that's the case. I'm not someone
• 13:44
  Speaker 8: who's saying there needs to be alert to the right.
• 13:47
  Speaker 8: It's like, if they really want to have resonance in
• 13:50
  Speaker 8: middle Australia, look to the principles of the Liberal Party
• 13:54
  Speaker 8: and look at things like private enterprise, support for small business,
• 13:59
  Speaker 8: balanced bud.
• 14:00
  Speaker 7: It's small government, reward for.
• 14:03
  Speaker 8: Aspiration by the individual, and these are values that will
• 14:06
  Speaker 8: attract new Australians, people from the Indian and I should
• 14:12
  Speaker 8: say the Chinese communities, which are large ethnic communities that
• 14:16
  Speaker 8: will have great residents. But that's what the Liberal Party
• 14:19
  Speaker 8: needs to do and they haven't done that today.
• 14:22
  Speaker 7: So they can come back for this. No one should
• 14:26
  Speaker 7: be sort of losing their head.
• 14:27
  Speaker 8: And if they really want to see the best analysis
• 14:31
  Speaker 8: in a very lengthy way and incisive why it's what
• 14:34
  Speaker 8: Peter Kretlein said immediately after the election.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: The coalition agreement has still now got to be negotiated.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: Susan Lee and David Littleprad are going to do that.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: I mean, obviously nuclear is going to come up. Then
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: that's determined that that should be part of coalition policy.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: What's going to happen if Susan Lee says, well, you
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: know it didn't go down all that, Well, look how
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: much we lost at the election. We should turn our
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: back on it. I mean, that's potentially got the it's
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: got the potential to scop with a coalition completely, hasn't it.
• 15:11
  Speaker 7: Well, it's certainly a big problem.
• 15:12
  Speaker 8: If that was the stance of Susan Lae and look,
• 15:15
  Speaker 8: I don't know how she feels about this, but I'd
• 15:17
  Speaker 8: simply say that it'd be silly.
• 15:20
  Speaker 7: You know.
• 15:20
  Speaker 8: I think the NATS are more in I think, in
• 15:27
  Speaker 8: tune with really what's what needs to happen going forward.
• 15:31
  Speaker 8: I mean, they're rooted in reality as a party, and
• 15:34
  Speaker 8: you know the sort of the practical people of regional
• 15:38
  Speaker 8: and rural Australia who really earn the export income of Australia,
• 15:42
  Speaker 8: whether it be an agriculture or mining in particular. And
• 15:46
  Speaker 8: I think you know what Little Prad's saying by continuing
• 15:51
  Speaker 8: to put forward nuclear is appropriate. One thing they might
• 15:55
  Speaker 8: and really probably should consider is, and I don't know
• 15:57
  Speaker 8: why they ever put it forward in the first place,
• 16:00
  Speaker 8: is why would you back government funding. It would have
• 16:04
  Speaker 8: been sufficient to simply say there is a ban on
• 16:06
  Speaker 8: new care energy in this nation. Let's remove the ban,
• 16:10
  Speaker 8: Let's let the private sector propose projects. And at the
• 16:15
  Speaker 8: most suggests well, if there does need to be a
• 16:17
  Speaker 8: bit of subsidy, subsidy the subject is simply to the same.
• 16:20
  Speaker 7: Extent that renewable projects are getting.
• 16:23
  Speaker 8: But let the private sector then put forward projects if
• 16:27
  Speaker 8: they're viable. That would be a I think it worked
• 16:30
  Speaker 8: like way forward of compromise.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, that's very sensible because the six hundred billion
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: dollar figure, even though it was inaccurate, I mean, it
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: was the upper end of an estimate by a labor
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: aligned policy outfit. I mean, but that killed everybody, every
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: taxpayer who heard or six hundred billion. How the hell
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: are we going to afford that? So your idea would
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: be be perfect. I want to ask you about John
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: Persudo in Victoria. He was obviously opposition leader. He ended
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: up in court being sued by more Redeeming, another liberal
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: MP in Victoria. She sued him for defamation. He lost.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: He had to pay out I think around about a
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: half a million dollars in compensation to her warded to her.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: Now he's got legal costs, her costs of two point
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: three million. He's been ordered to pay that, and of
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: course he's going to have his own legal fees, could
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: be anywhere between two and two point three. He's probably
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: got a five million dollar debt. He hasn't got the money,
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: and now Jeff Kennet among others, are running around saying
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: let's all tip in some money into into a fund
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: for him. It's very difficult to see him getting out
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: of this, isn't it.
• 17:42
  Speaker 8: Well, I'm scratching him ahead because you know, I hold
• 17:45
  Speaker 8: Jeff Kennett in the highest regard. But Jeff, you've got
• 17:49
  Speaker 8: to be joking. This bloke Zudo went off on this
• 17:54
  Speaker 8: crazy mad sort of project, shall we call it, and
• 18:00
  Speaker 8: he was dead wrong and multiple stages during the process
• 18:04
  Speaker 8: he could have just apologized, and certainly where he would
• 18:09
  Speaker 8: be no worse off of where he is today, other
• 18:11
  Speaker 8: than he wouldn't have this whacking great bill.
• 18:14
  Speaker 7: The Liberal Party shouldn't be barling him out.
• 18:18
  Speaker 8: There should be not a single scent coming out of
• 18:20
  Speaker 8: Liberal Party coffers. If people feel sorry for him and
• 18:24
  Speaker 8: they want to sort of go fund me on an
• 18:27
  Speaker 8: epic scar, well that's freedom, that's democracy. But I think
• 18:32
  Speaker 8: he showed the utmost poor judgment and really he's got
• 18:37
  Speaker 8: to look, you know, he made the bed. He's got
• 18:38
  Speaker 8: to lie in it.
• 18:39
  Speaker 7: So I wouldn't be backing him up.
• 18:40
  Speaker 8: And the idea of a political party's donors and supporters
• 18:45
  Speaker 8: sort of putting their funds into that other instead of
• 18:48
  Speaker 8: winning the next Victorian state election is crazy.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think he's on toast. And if he loses,
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: if he goes bankrupt and he has to step down
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: from parliament. By election in Hawthorne. Just grab Amelia Hamer,
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: who did so well in the federal election campaign, almost
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: snatched that seat, pulled her up and put her in
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: the State Parliament. I mean it's a win win for everybody, then,
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: isn't it?
• 19:12
  Speaker 8: Absolutely? I just I mean, I think he showed incredibly
• 19:16
  Speaker 8: poor judgment. As I said, just for a moment ago.
• 19:20
  Speaker 8: He had multiple occasions where it was clear that he
• 19:24
  Speaker 8: had gone about.
• 19:26
  Speaker 7: This the wrong way. He'd gone too far.
• 19:28
  Speaker 8: He could have backed down and maybe he retained the leadership,
• 19:31
  Speaker 8: but he certainly would still be able to sit in
• 19:33
  Speaker 8: the State Parliament. Be chose not to and he's got
• 19:36
  Speaker 8: to pay the price. That's a personal decision that he made.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: Are one hundred percent See next Friday, Campbellton Newman. There
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: now coming up after the break the Australian city which
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: this week was predicted to reach the size of Greater
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: New York in the not too distant future, And sadly
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: I'm sitting in that city right now. Plus farmers cry
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: out for help. They're battling the hell of a drought
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: Western Victoria and also South Australia parts of northern Victoria
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: as well. But what are our state leaders doing to
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: help them out? We'll find out. Welcome back, step price
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: with you. I'll get onto the drought which is just
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: crippling across parts of South Australia and Victoria in just
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: a moment. Now. Speaking of Victoria, last week, business leaders
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: and politicians gathered at a symposium to discuss how to
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: prepare for more than nine that's the word, nine million
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: people calling Melbourne home. That's by twenty fifty. That's an
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: increase of about four million people over the next twenty
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: five years, and it means the Victorian capital is on
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: track to have a similar population. And I presume this
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: is to wider New York. We're not talking about Manhattan.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: We're talking wider New York City. So the obvious question
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: from me and from most people is how does a
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: city prepare with more people when it's already struggling to
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: meet the needs, particularly when it comes to things like housing, transport, infrastructure, education,
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: hospitals and health. Joining me now to discuss this is
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: the chief data scientist for the Demographics Group, Harry Kanaan.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: Great to have you in the studio. With US nine million.
• 21:11
  Speaker 9: I'd actually like to challenge that figure. Official ABS projections
• 21:16
  Speaker 9: show that in a high growth scenario, that is, assuming
• 21:20
  Speaker 9: more birds, longer life expectancies, and high rates of migration,
• 21:25
  Speaker 9: by twenty fifty we will reach about eight point one million,
• 21:29
  Speaker 9: but realistically we will not be eight point one million.
• 21:34
  Speaker 9: In fact, we will be somewhere around seven point three million,
• 21:38
  Speaker 9: and that is the medium projections, assuming the rate of
• 21:41
  Speaker 9: growth asset is.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: Now So the reporting of the nine was someone taking
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: the worst case scenario on that. Yes, so somewhere between
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: seven and eight and we're currently five point three five
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: point three so that's still another two and a half
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: million page.
• 22:00
  Speaker 9: It is a substantial figure. But I must say that
• 22:04
  Speaker 9: I do think Melbourne has a very very uniquearness when
• 22:09
  Speaker 9: it comes to adding more population to its base, simply
• 22:11
  Speaker 9: because we have a spatial flexibility that no other city has.
• 22:16
  Speaker 9: For example, New York is twelve times smaller than Melbourne. Yes,
• 22:20
  Speaker 9: so even with the population of nine million, we will
• 22:23
  Speaker 9: not be facing the kind of density issues that is
• 22:26
  Speaker 9: present in the metro.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: Spread would be extraordinary. I took the train from Melbourne
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: to Bendigo the other day and there are housing developments,
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: you know, that trend ship takes two hours, should take
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: half an hour on a fast train, But that's another argument.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: You get an hour out and there are housing developments
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: with three bedroom, two bathroom houses with a garage, you know,
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: half a meter apart from each other, out in what
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: was once farmland. So how far are we going to spread?
• 22:58
  Speaker 9: I think it also talks to the matter of decentralizing
• 23:01
  Speaker 9: our CBD. The issue that we have is we have
• 23:05
  Speaker 9: built a lot in a very small block of land
• 23:07
  Speaker 9: and when we spread out, not only do we boost
• 23:10
  Speaker 9: our regions, that is with careful planning, not affecting farmlands
• 23:15
  Speaker 9: and wildlife, etc. But we can do that in a
• 23:19
  Speaker 9: very very strategic manner. And I do think that we
• 23:22
  Speaker 9: have the right projects underway. Whether it's happening at the
• 23:26
  Speaker 9: pace that we would like it to happen is another question.
• 23:29
  Speaker 9: But we do have infrastructure plannings around Victoria, especially in Melbourne,
• 23:36
  Speaker 9: whether it's the Metro Tunnel or the suburban railroad or
• 23:39
  Speaker 9: the Weiscate Tunnel and the Northeast lank they all have
• 23:43
  Speaker 9: one aim and that is to decentralize population and I
• 23:47
  Speaker 9: think that is very good internal centralized.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: But Harry, what I think we as a country should
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: be attempting to do. Is trying to convince our migrants
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: that come here or young families to move to city
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: that are smaller, move out to regional centers. I mean
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: Bendigo the other day was absolutely gorgeous. I mean I'd
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: go and live there in a heartbeat. So if we
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: got those things like fast trains operating, that would encourage
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: people to go out of the city and live in
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: places like that, because as we know now, there's so
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: much work from home, so you don't actually have to
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: commute into the city and back.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: Yes, so they spread out, don't we That's true.
• 24:26
  Speaker 9: We should definitely look at our cities like Geelong and
• 24:29
  Speaker 9: Ballarat and Bendigo as our next hubs. And in fact,
• 24:34
  Speaker 9: the government is leading this way. We have moved some
• 24:37
  Speaker 9: of our government offices to Geelong in an attempt to
• 24:41
  Speaker 9: encourage more businesses to come there, which will then prompt
• 24:45
  Speaker 9: the population growth in those areas.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: Do you think Australians or people who live in Melbourne
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: want to have a city that big. I think politicians
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: keep telling us we do. I'm not sure we do.
• 24:58
  Speaker 9: I think we do because we want to have a
• 25:02
  Speaker 9: city with the highest level of liverability and everything that
• 25:09
  Speaker 9: we have to offer, and we want to be on
• 25:11
  Speaker 9: scale with other big cities. We don't want people to
• 25:14
  Speaker 9: think New York when we see big city. We want
• 25:17
  Speaker 9: people to think Melbourne. And I think that is a
• 25:19
  Speaker 9: very good aim to have, Harry.
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: I love your optimism. Thanks for coming in to talk
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: to us.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: There you go.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: We're going to head to nine million people. I just
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: don't know how we're going to feed them. Speaking of
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: feeding them, farmers in South Australia and Western Victoria are
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: battling what's now been described as the worst drought since
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: the nineteen sixties, and they've slammed the Victorian state government's
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: drought relief package that was announced this week I think yesterday,
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: saying it's quote nowhere near enough. The Allen government committed
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: today to allow more Victorian farmers' access to drought funding,
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: revealing what's a fifteen point nine million dollars in emergency funding.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: At the same time that same government is intending to
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: apply and a move agency services levy statewide that many,
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: if not most, can't afford to pay. Joining us now,
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: President of the National Farmers Federation, David Johinki great to
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: see you again, David. Give us the bad news. How
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: bad's the drought in western Victoria And as I said,
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: I went up to Bendigo this week, the mid North
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: and over into South Australia.
• 26:22
  Speaker 10: Still this drought, Steve, and probably in South Australia, we've
• 26:27
  Speaker 10: got areas that are coming into their third season now
• 26:30
  Speaker 10: of having below average rainfall.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: And anybody who knows anything.
• 26:34
  Speaker 10: About agriculture has grown grass or has their own vegie
• 26:37
  Speaker 10: patch out the back, understands that if you don't have water,
• 26:40
  Speaker 10: you can't grow anything, be that past year for your
• 26:43
  Speaker 10: live stock crops or hey, it makes it really impossible
• 26:47
  Speaker 10: to make anything happen. But we're seeing everywhere from northern Tasmania,
• 26:52
  Speaker 10: southern New South Wales, across all over South Australia.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: And even parts of Northern.
• 26:59
  Speaker 10: In all being affected by this dry, dry stretch we're having.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: But let alone.
• 27:06
  Speaker 10: Some areas are getting multiple seasons, and the more acute
• 27:10
  Speaker 10: areas are definitely in the South Australian Malee and the
• 27:13
  Speaker 10: western districts of Victoria, which are I'm having unprecedented dry
• 27:18
  Speaker 10: and for those who have either got livestock or dairy
• 27:21
  Speaker 10: farms in these areas, they've essentially run out of water,
• 27:24
  Speaker 10: they're running out of feed, and there are critical situations
• 27:28
  Speaker 10: where quite frankly, they need help.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: Now I've got to say, David, it seems to me
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: that this drought, particularly for people who live in the cities,
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: has crept up on people. I mean, I think the
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: media is starting to report it now, but it hasn't
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: been widely reported. And one of the other issues, of course,
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: is that while Victoria and South Australia and parts of
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: Tasmania are so dry, it seems to have rained almost
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: every day in Sydney and parts of southeast Queensland over
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: the last three or four months.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: We are a nation of droughts and flooding rains.
• 28:06
  Speaker 10: And if nothing else, this shows you the contrast and
• 28:09
  Speaker 10: the difficulties is it's to.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Be in agriculture to run farms because.
• 28:14
  Speaker 10: You don't know from season to season what you'll get
• 28:16
  Speaker 10: and you've got to make the best decisions you can
• 28:18
  Speaker 10: for the season that you have.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: And you compare, as you said.
• 28:21
  Speaker 10: The drought to the devastating floods that we sew in
• 28:24
  Speaker 10: the Channel regions in western Queensland and the devastation that's
• 28:28
  Speaker 10: had and even to the fact of the fires that
• 28:31
  Speaker 10: we've had in Victoria earlier.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: This year, that those are immediate problems.
• 28:35
  Speaker 10: You can see that quite drastically from comparison of one
• 28:39
  Speaker 10: day to the next and what that means. But in
• 28:41
  Speaker 10: a drought, it's insidious. It strangles communities, It absolutely devastates
• 28:47
  Speaker 10: those people off the land, those farmers who are trying
• 28:50
  Speaker 10: to make the best decisions they can. They don't have
• 28:53
  Speaker 10: the option to irrigate, They don't have the option to
• 28:55
  Speaker 10: be able to turn on a tap to alleviate their situation.
• 28:59
  Speaker 10: They just have to make the best decisions, look after
• 29:02
  Speaker 10: their livestock, try to grow what they can with what
• 29:05
  Speaker 10: they have, but essentially write out this period now. They
• 29:09
  Speaker 10: can't do that without good government policy. They can't do
• 29:12
  Speaker 10: that without support when it gets into the second and
• 29:15
  Speaker 10: third season, which is what we are seeing now.
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I heard a beef farmer during the week talk
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: about the price of grain to feed his stock. It's
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: just gone through the roof, hasn't it.
• 29:27
  Speaker 10: Yeah, And not only has it gone through the roof, Steve,
• 29:30
  Speaker 10: we're actually getting to the stage where you can't get hay.
• 29:33
  Speaker 10: There is no hay locally in this area. There is
• 29:35
  Speaker 10: no local fodder to have, so they're having to search
• 29:38
  Speaker 10: further afield and look for alternatives. And so when we
• 29:41
  Speaker 10: talk about what can be done and what does this
• 29:44
  Speaker 10: first of all mean to people who aren't on the land.
• 29:47
  Speaker 10: First of all, it's going to make the supply of
• 29:51
  Speaker 10: goods tougher, and not only for this short term period
• 29:54
  Speaker 10: where we're seeing people quit stock. It means that they're
• 29:57
  Speaker 10: quitting their breeders. It means that the next year years
• 30:00
  Speaker 10: production of livestock will be more challenging for them to
• 30:04
  Speaker 10: get back where they were. It means that the price
• 30:07
  Speaker 10: of milk the dairy farmers, who are absolutely facing a
• 30:11
  Speaker 10: tough period now will need to have to reflect that
• 30:15
  Speaker 10: cost of production otherwise will lose that capacity in victoria
• 30:19
  Speaker 10: and in the longer term, which is the real devastating
• 30:22
  Speaker 10: part of droughts. When these longer term scenarios play it,
• 30:25
  Speaker 10: we lose people from the industry, We lose capacity in dairy,
• 30:28
  Speaker 10: we lose capacity in our livestock production. That means that
• 30:33
  Speaker 10: prices will go up in the long term, and it
• 30:34
  Speaker 10: means that our ability to have the choice that we
• 30:37
  Speaker 10: all enjoy the supermarket become limited and it will make
• 30:41
  Speaker 10: us more vulnerable to events that seeming to occur more often,
• 30:46
  Speaker 10: these droughts and floods and fires. Because we'll have less people,
• 30:50
  Speaker 10: we will be relying on less people, will be relying
• 30:53
  Speaker 10: on a very fragile supply systems because we don't have
• 30:56
  Speaker 10: that volume that we currently enjoy.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: Now talk about what can be done.
• 31:01
  Speaker 10: There are some simple policy settings that we should be
• 31:03
  Speaker 10: looking at, and that is making sure we can get
• 31:06
  Speaker 10: high productivity vehicles on the road so that we can
• 31:09
  Speaker 10: shift more things quicker. We should be able to look
• 31:13
  Speaker 10: at programs or we are getting interest only loans from
• 31:18
  Speaker 10: government that are reduced right to provide working capital to
• 31:21
  Speaker 10: farmers so that they can afford this short term gap
• 31:25
  Speaker 10: of either trying to fight feed or even water infrastructure
• 31:29
  Speaker 10: without asking them to find money themselves, of which what
• 31:33
  Speaker 10: we are seeing in this current scenario of support being
• 31:35
  Speaker 10: a one for one dollar schemes that are asking farmers
• 31:40
  Speaker 10: who already in drought, who have no money, to put
• 31:43
  Speaker 10: finances in for infrastructure that probably should have been done
• 31:46
  Speaker 10: free drought. The challenge always is how much planning should
• 31:50
  Speaker 10: we do beforehand? What is resilience and how can you
• 31:53
  Speaker 10: ever predict to and once again south a Straw's situation
• 31:58
  Speaker 10: up to three years of drought in our own.
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: I feel for the farmer's David. I hope you're getting
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: a good hearing in Canberra. Thanks for joining us. It
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: was a pleasure to catch up with you, coming up
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: after the break. The week that was in cartoons with
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: our favorite cartoonist Mark Knight, plus the Victorian government doubles
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: down on major events despite the shocking state of its
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: own budget. Welcome back Rondine at the top of the hour,
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: as he is each Friday evening. Now let's bring in
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: my favorite cartoonist, the Herald Sun cartoonist Mark Night. It
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: must be a sad day for Mark because federal election's over.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: He can't now still draw Peter Dutton the bald Head's gone.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: I mean, Mark, it must have been a sad week
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: in your house, was it?
• 32:43
  Speaker 10: Oh?
• 32:43
  Speaker 11: Not only Peter Dutton pricey, but I lost Adam Bands,
• 32:47
  Speaker 11: my favorite little cartoon char my final final cartoon of
• 32:53
  Speaker 11: Adam Banney. It was a sad day. But look, you know,
• 32:56
  Speaker 11: it all rolls on and this week we had heads rolling,
• 33:00
  Speaker 11: of course more than we thought, and the Labor Party
• 33:04
  Speaker 11: was celebrating the win. But they can only celebrate it
• 33:06
  Speaker 11: by cutting more heads off, and for old ed Husick
• 33:09
  Speaker 11: and the Attorney General Dreyfuss got the chop.
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: Well, that's Peter Dutton on the wall and Adam Bant.
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: The other two are just discarded on the floor. I
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: mean Adam's probably he's probably got a wall at home
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: of your cartoons on it. The number of times you've
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: drawn him the way you have, he will be he
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: probably upset as well. He's not going to see his
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: cartoon in the paper because he once sent me a message.
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: And keep writing about me in your columns because it
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: does wonders for my publicity. I note that you've quickly, though, Mark,
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: you've quickly worked out what you're going to do about
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: Susan Lee.
• 33:49
  Speaker 11: Yes, well Susan lay Lee.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Is it Lee lay Lee? Anyway?
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: Lee lay Lee.
• 33:57
  Speaker 11: I mean she's a very accomplished woman. The good thing
• 33:59
  Speaker 11: I love about and she's been out in the community.
• 34:02
  Speaker 11: She you know, she's a pilot, she's been a cabinet minister,
• 34:06
  Speaker 11: she's worked on farms. She is a self made woman.
• 34:09
  Speaker 11: But she finds herself back behind a mop cleaning up
• 34:13
  Speaker 11: what's left of the Liberal Party. And I think we
• 34:16
  Speaker 11: all wish her luck and she spoke very well this week,
• 34:18
  Speaker 11: but she's got to she's going to have the vacuum,
• 34:21
  Speaker 11: the mop and the the wipes out, trying to sort
• 34:27
  Speaker 11: out the unfortunate mess after the election campaign.
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: You think that's going to be your portrayal of her.
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: I like the cartoon. I think it's it's gentle and
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: it sort of hits the hits home very well. I reckon, Well,
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 34:44
  Speaker 11: Look who knows Steve how she will go. But yeah,
• 34:47
  Speaker 11: maybe I will stick with the apron and the mop
• 34:52
  Speaker 11: and of course the blue rubber.
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: Careful, be very careful, and you know what I'm doing
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: king about it. It's now speaking of the coalition, they
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: were in the wild West this week.
• 35:05
  Speaker 11: Well, look, we had the great showdown, didn't We were
• 35:08
  Speaker 11: all the cracks, had a bit like a spaghetti Western.
• 35:14
  Speaker 11: Actually just sent a Namba Jim for price, and of
• 35:16
  Speaker 11: course Angus Taylor a little proud down there. The Nats
• 35:20
  Speaker 11: were having a crack and of course Susan Lay. Now
• 35:23
  Speaker 11: this is all very entertaining for the Prime Minister. I
• 35:25
  Speaker 11: must have been imagine. So in the background there you
• 35:29
  Speaker 11: have Albow just sitting on a chair out the front
• 35:33
  Speaker 11: of his office. With a box of popcorn, just watching
• 35:36
  Speaker 11: it all unfold.
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: Well, speaking of our great leader, he's in mid air,
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: he's going to land in Rome. Shortly, he's going to
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: Pope Leo's swearing in ceremony. How did you illustrate the
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: papal conclave this week? Explain this to us, the white
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: smoke from the chimney.
• 35:55
  Speaker 11: I think we're all just infatuated with this white smoke thing.
• 35:59
  Speaker 11: It's great in this day of high technology, where you know,
• 36:05
  Speaker 11: Clive Palmer sends us texts all around the country to
• 36:09
  Speaker 11: tell us about something. The Vatican just sends white smoke
• 36:13
  Speaker 11: up a chimney and it's as simple as that. But
• 36:15
  Speaker 11: we loved it. So I thought, well, what is this
• 36:17
  Speaker 11: white smoke? Well, what it is is actually when the
• 36:20
  Speaker 11: vote's going on in the Sistine Chapel, it's the smoke
• 36:23
  Speaker 11: from the democracy sausages that are being cooked there. So
• 36:27
  Speaker 11: good on Pope Leo. I hope he enjoyed his democracy
• 36:30
  Speaker 11: sausage after his election, and we look more to we
• 36:34
  Speaker 11: look forward to seeing him and Elbow buddying up together.
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: Well, you made my week because you drew a cartoon
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: about golf and b You managed to slip our old
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: friend Dan Andrews into the middle of Oh.
• 36:50
  Speaker 11: Every time I hear that, I think of poor Dan
• 36:54
  Speaker 11: Andrews trying to get a membership at a Melbourne golf course,
• 36:58
  Speaker 11: but no one will happen.
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: He's just he's so bad for business.
• 37:01
  Speaker 11: Every time they put his name on the board in
• 37:03
  Speaker 11: the clubhouse this is our new member.
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: Well, people just go off.
• 37:08
  Speaker 11: So of course Melbourne has won the rights to host
• 37:11
  Speaker 11: the Australian Open this year at Royal Melbourne, and of
• 37:14
  Speaker 11: course the great Rory McElroy is coming out, the current
• 37:18
  Speaker 11: Masters champion, and I thought I'd draw poor old Dan
• 37:22
  Speaker 11: trying to sneak his way in, but alas the wire
• 37:25
  Speaker 11: fence has just kept him out yet again.
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: That's my cartoon of the year, not of the week. Mark,
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: Thank you mate. I look forward to seeing what your
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: drawer on my column in the Herald Sun tomorrow. Mart
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: Night back with us in a couple of weeks now
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: after the break, should state governments were speaking of Rory
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: McElroy and golf splash tax players money on major events. Well,
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: Victoria certainly thinks so. Even if the state is technically broke,
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: plus growing security concerns, this is an odd story over
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: Chinese made solar panels. Speaking of panels, our panel joins
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: us next welcome back Tolee Price with you joining us
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: now our panel Fronday News Panel Small Businesswomen in Australia
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: CEO Amanda Roe, she needs no introduction, and Sky News
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: contributed Joe Hildebrand, who also needs no introduction. Welcome to
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: you both.
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: Great to VEDI.
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: I want to talk major events here just to get
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: off the politics for a little while. Victor and Government
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: is obviously broke. The debts gone through the roof the
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: budget next Tuesday is going to be horrific, but they've
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: decided to double down on this idea that major events
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: are a great investment. Now I'm sort of on the
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: fence here and I hate being on the fence. So
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: Rory McElroy's going to come to the Australian Open in
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: December and then again next year. Estimates around are about
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: three million dollars each visit to bring him here for
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: the Australian Open. The one that really shocked me though,
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: was the reconstruction of the pit lane at the F
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: one circuit at Albert Park. Now this is also the
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: Paddock Club where all the people who are lucky enough
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: to get invited me included spend the Grand Prix sipping
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: champagne and not watching much of the race. Victoria's debt,
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: it's horrendous. Hospitals are struggling. Schools are really struggling to
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: keep up their standards. Amanda, is it a good idea
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: to spend your money on these sorts of things? Or
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: is it the old bread and circuses argument?
• 39:23
  Speaker 12: If the Victorian government was a business and it was
• 39:26
  Speaker 12: pretty much bankrupt and running insolvent, it would be illegal
• 39:31
  Speaker 12: to do so and the directors could essentially end up
• 39:35
  Speaker 12: in jail. Right now, if you are a bank trupt
• 39:38
  Speaker 12: business and you went to your sharehold and said, could
• 39:41
  Speaker 12: you give us all this money to go and have
• 39:44
  Speaker 12: a really fun party, or build these new things, or
• 39:48
  Speaker 12: bring this famous person over, They're going to say, what's
• 39:51
  Speaker 12: the business case? So there's no business case here to
• 39:54
  Speaker 12: the community whose taxpayer money is funding this, where's the
• 40:00
  Speaker 12: business case of this will actually bring the economy back up?
• 40:04
  Speaker 12: And where is it that it's going to show that
• 40:07
  Speaker 12: small businesses will benefit from this. People will agree to something,
• 40:12
  Speaker 12: will support it, and won't have a problem with it
• 40:14
  Speaker 12: if you can show them the honest business case, like
• 40:18
  Speaker 12: you would have to in a business to prove the viability.
• 40:21
  Speaker 12: At the moment, all they're doing is announcing things and
• 40:24
  Speaker 12: pretty much calling people stupid if you don't agree with them,
• 40:27
  Speaker 12: just to shut them up.
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: Joe, I mean, Aman makes a good point about the
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: business case. I mean with the Formula one deal, which
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: hasn't been widely reported this time. So it's three hundred
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: and fifty million dollars to redo for the twenty twenty
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: eight Formula one Grand Prix, all of the pit garages,
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: all of the corporate facilities, three hundred and fifty million dollars.
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: What hasn't been widely reported is that deal was done
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: by Daniel Andrews and his then treasurer at Tim Pallace.
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: They flew over the United States, met with Liberty me
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: Year that now own if one worldwide, and resigned the deal,
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: which I think now goes for another ten years. But
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: part of the deal was they had to do it
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: bring these things up to scale up to the grade
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: from the rest of the world. And not only that,
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: they gave away the income that was originally signed in
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: the contract from the Petdit club that used to go
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: to the F one in Melbourne that now goes to
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: Liberty Media.
• 41:25
  Speaker 13: I mean seriously, yeah, look, it sounds like a pretty
• 41:29
  Speaker 13: rotten deal. But I kind of think if we're going
• 41:32
  Speaker 13: to talk about F one, let's go back to where
• 41:34
  Speaker 13: it all began. And you, of course will remember Steve
• 41:37
  Speaker 13: that last time Victoria was in as Parlos the state
• 41:40
  Speaker 13: as this was at the end of the nineteen eighties
• 41:42
  Speaker 13: the beginning of the nineteen nineties under the Caine Kerner governments,
• 41:46
  Speaker 13: and Jeff Kennett got in in an absolute landslide in
• 41:50
  Speaker 13: nineteen ninety two and he absolutely slashed the budget. He
• 41:55
  Speaker 13: slashed health and education and put in place some of
• 41:58
  Speaker 13: the cuts that meant Victoria fared so badly during COVID
• 42:02
  Speaker 13: and there was no contact tracing in public health programs
• 42:06
  Speaker 13: comparable to New South Wales. So it had real consequences
• 42:10
  Speaker 13: and it was a very, very tough time. But the
• 42:13
  Speaker 13: one thing Kenneth didn't scrimp on, and in fact, the
• 42:17
  Speaker 13: one thing he actually poured money into, was major events.
• 42:20
  Speaker 13: He poached the Formula one Grand Prix from Adelaide, He
• 42:25
  Speaker 13: went all health leather on Crown Cassino, He built the
• 42:28
  Speaker 13: Melbourne Exhibition Center, he built the Melbourne museum, all these
• 42:33
  Speaker 13: giant things, because he knew that if if it was
• 42:37
  Speaker 13: just all lousterity, then Melbourne would be broke anyway, but
• 42:42
  Speaker 13: would not have the chance to actually get back on
• 42:44
  Speaker 13: its feet and not have a stipid.
• 42:46
  Speaker 12: I think it's still not on its feet. And now
• 42:48
  Speaker 12: we have hospitals that don't have funding, we have people
• 42:50
  Speaker 12: that are struggling, small business that are closing. So you know,
• 42:53
  Speaker 12: the idea sounds great that we're going to bring all
• 42:55
  Speaker 12: these people to Victoria. We're going to have all these
• 42:57
  Speaker 12: great events. If you can bring such massive events to
• 43:00
  Speaker 12: your state and still be bankrupt and still be in debt,
• 43:03
  Speaker 12: you are such a poor business person. The entire government
• 43:06
  Speaker 12: should be sacked and they need someone commercial to come
• 43:08
  Speaker 12: in and run it.
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: Any problem is they keep getting re elected. I want
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: to Terrence Tack. Here a very sad story AFL media
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: legend Robert Walls Now. He died two days ago, age
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: seventy four. He chose to end his life under Victoria's
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: voluntary assistant dying laws. Now I worked with Robert Walls
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: Wolsey in the late nineties early two thousand. He was
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: a tremendous human being, one of the nicest men I've
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: ever met. He worked on our AFL coverage. But what
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: struck me about this and I know a number of
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: people who were talking to Robert about this and his
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: choice that he took Amanda. High profile cases like this,
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: I mean they are likely are they not to prompt
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: a broader national conversation about access and safeguards. I mean,
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: I think this is becoming increasingly popular with people who
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: don't want to live with the quality of life that
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: disappears on them. And I've changed my mind on this.
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: I think people should have the right to do this.
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: And you have to go and see three doctors before
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: you can. It's a long process. What do you think personally?
• 44:16
  Speaker 12: I am not a fan. I do know someone who's
• 44:18
  Speaker 12: gone through the process. My concern is that we've heard
• 44:22
  Speaker 12: stories from overseas where there have been young people in
• 44:26
  Speaker 12: their twenties and thirties who have depression and have requested
• 44:31
  Speaker 12: to end their life purely because they're not coping with
• 44:34
  Speaker 12: a depression, But that's usually linked because they don't have
• 44:37
  Speaker 12: access to the psychiatry in the psychologist because of cut
• 44:41
  Speaker 12: of funding. So I want to make sure that it's
• 44:44
  Speaker 12: not something that people see as a widespread solution simply
• 44:47
  Speaker 12: because the government has failed them with providing the right
• 44:52
  Speaker 12: resources when it comes to mental health. I understand someone
• 44:55
  Speaker 12: in the who's very ill and very old, and that's
• 44:58
  Speaker 12: a choice that they want to make. I just don't
• 45:00
  Speaker 12: want it to end up a slippery slope where we
• 45:02
  Speaker 12: have young people seeing this as an option because they
• 45:05
  Speaker 12: don't have access to what they need.
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: Joe, you and I have lived with this debate for
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: several decades. Now, there's your attitude a little like mine changed.
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, look it has.
• 45:17
  Speaker 13: I I would never ever deny anyone in that situation,
• 45:22
  Speaker 13: you know, the ability to go through with it. My
• 45:24
  Speaker 13: position is kind of I think it should be allowed
• 45:27
  Speaker 13: to happen. My concern is if it gets kind of
• 45:30
  Speaker 13: codified a bit like a manner is saying whether or
• 45:33
  Speaker 13: not there will be pressure on people who feel like
• 45:37
  Speaker 13: they're a burden on society, who think, I will you know,
• 45:40
  Speaker 13: my daughters, you know, wasting all her time looking after
• 45:43
  Speaker 13: me when she's you know, when she should be raising
• 45:45
  Speaker 13: her own kids and she's had to quit her job.
• 45:47
  Speaker 13: Maybe it's easier for everyone if I just go. And
• 45:49
  Speaker 13: that's the sort maybe my Catholic guilt speaking, that's the
• 45:52
  Speaker 13: sort of thing that I know, you know, my grandparents
• 45:54
  Speaker 13: would would think that way, not saying the fact that
• 45:57
  Speaker 13: voluntary sisters dying as a mortal sin.
• 46:00
  Speaker 7: So I guess you know.
• 46:02
  Speaker 13: The other thing's end of life care is really really expensive.
• 46:06
  Speaker 13: It's you know, I remember hearing some sort of stat that,
• 46:10
  Speaker 13: you know, something like ninety percent of the hospital budget
• 46:13
  Speaker 13: went towards people in the last ten years of their lives.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: And that's as it should be.
• 46:18
  Speaker 13: But you can imagine how if suddenly there is an
• 46:21
  Speaker 13: option that is much cheaper and easier, and people can say, well,
• 46:26
  Speaker 13: you know, look, we could keep you alive for another
• 46:28
  Speaker 13: six months, or if you want, you could just take
• 46:30
  Speaker 13: this up totally up to you. You can imagine how
• 46:33
  Speaker 13: that kind of if this becomes really sort of mainstream,
• 46:37
  Speaker 13: how that could become again something where people might sort
• 46:40
  Speaker 13: of feel like this was the responsible thing to do,
• 46:43
  Speaker 13: or this was a good civic beauty to perform. And
• 46:46
  Speaker 13: that's just sort of what worries me. So I absolutely
• 46:49
  Speaker 13: people should be in control of their own lives, and
• 46:52
  Speaker 13: obviously the flip side of that, but I think the
• 46:54
  Speaker 13: problem is when you codify these sorts of things we
• 46:57
  Speaker 13: have to ask ourselves really difficult philo questions that we've
• 47:01
  Speaker 13: never really had to. I when is it okay to
• 47:04
  Speaker 13: let somebody or assist somebody to take their own life.
• 47:08
  Speaker 13: That's a big, big metaphysical question.
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: Still, speaking about the Victorian Parliament, the ex Liberal leader
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: we spoke about this, Earl has lost his appeal against
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: that defamation case he fought out with law redeeming. He's
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: paid her out half a million dollars. He's now facing
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: a two point four million dollar legal cost of her
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: bill plus his own. He's probably going to be made
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: bankrupt and he's going to have to walk away from
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: his seat and there has to be a by election. Amanda.
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: He made a mistake from day one with this. He
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: was advised by everybody that I know that was able
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: to get to him that he should just leave this alone,
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: and he didn't. He's going to pay a hell of
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: a price, isn't he.
• 47:49
  Speaker 12: Yes, this is called consequences to your actions. How we
• 47:53
  Speaker 12: treated her, I think was absolutely appalling, and so for me,
• 47:57
  Speaker 12: actually this is justice and it's good to that women
• 48:02
  Speaker 12: everywhere can say, you know what, if I'm treated in
• 48:04
  Speaker 12: such a poor fashion simply because someone believes different to me,
• 48:08
  Speaker 12: or he's trying to make up a story about me,
• 48:10
  Speaker 12: wants to attack me. They think they can get away
• 48:12
  Speaker 12: with it.
• 48:12
  Speaker 14: Well you can't.
• 48:13
  Speaker 12: So I have absolutely I feel no sympathy, nothing. I
• 48:16
  Speaker 12: just think he got what he deserved.
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I don't think there's going to be too
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: many liberal people who are actually going to put their
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: hands in their pockets, certainly not to the tune of
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: several million dollars. Joon Amanda or is glad to catch
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: up or see you next Friday. On that I think
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: where John Pursudo will probably have to declare bankruptcy and
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: if he does that, he can't sit in the state Parliament.
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: And what that will mean is a by election. I
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: said it earlier. It's the seat of Hawthorne. You'd put
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: up a media hamer every day of the week because
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: she did a great job during the campaign. Coming up next, Rondine.
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: This is the world the according to Roland.
• 49:00
  Speaker 14: Good evening, and welcome to the world according to Rwandan,
• 49:03
  Speaker 14: a world where who knows there could even be peace
• 49:06
  Speaker 14: in the Middle East. Here's what's coming up tonight on
• 49:09
  Speaker 14: the show. We found the one group of refugees the
• 49:13
  Speaker 14: left do not like Donald Trump wants to let them in.
• 49:17
  Speaker 14: The Greens have a new leader, but for all the
• 49:20
  Speaker 14: talk had change, they're still the same rabble of anti
• 49:23
  Speaker 14: Israel socialists we knew. Under Adam Band and Trump's whirlwind
• 49:27
  Speaker 14: trip of the Middle East, It's been a much greater
• 49:29
  Speaker 14: success than the left would have you believe. More on
• 49:31
  Speaker 14: that later, but first I want to talk to you
• 49:34
  Speaker 14: about