Latest / The Kenny Report / The Kenny Report | 15 May

Transcript

The Kenny Report | 15 May · The Kenny Report

0:01
Speaker 1: Lone from the Skying New Center. This is the Kenny Report.
0:06
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining me tonight.
0:08
Speaker 3: The government tries to sell a budget that helps billionaires.
0:11
Speaker 3: I'll outline why this is so reckless and completely lacking
0:15
Speaker 3: in ambition for this nation. I'll talk to Pauline Hanson
0:19
Speaker 3: about how the budget.
0:20
Speaker 2: Locks in a big Australia.
0:22
Speaker 3: We'll hear from economists and small business too, and i'll
0:26
Speaker 3: speak to Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor, who commits the coalition
0:30
Speaker 3: to bringing the budget back into balance over a three
0:33
Speaker 3: year period. Also, the Wednesday wrangle is back Lizen Justin
0:37
Speaker 3: are back on deck and among the things we'll talk
0:40
Speaker 3: about with them is another university vowing to get rid
0:43
Speaker 3: of the pro Palestinian pro humas camps.
0:46
Speaker 2: Let's get cracking.
0:51
Speaker 3: Let me try to explain what is a pretty bizarre budget.
0:54
Speaker 3: It looks more like a state government budget, doesn't it.
0:57
Speaker 3: You know all politics. State state budgets are just all
1:01
Speaker 3: about politics because they don't really have to worry about
1:04
Speaker 3: running an economy. They just allocate money to their political priorities.
1:08
Speaker 3: And that's what Anthony Albanisi and Jim Charmers have done here.
1:12
Speaker 2: They're supposed to.
1:13
Speaker 3: Have a clear idea about how to shape the national economy,
1:16
Speaker 3: how to deal with inflation and interest rates and employment
1:19
Speaker 3: and wages, growth and economic output. But this labor government
1:24
Speaker 3: doesn't really focus on that. They just focus on their
1:27
Speaker 3: ideological and political priorities.
1:30
Speaker 2: At a time, the.
1:31
Speaker 3: Reserve Bank is trying to constrain spending to get inflation
1:35
Speaker 3: lower and hopefully pulled down interest rates. Alban Easy charmers
1:40
Speaker 3: and labor are spending at historically high levels. They're throwing
1:45
Speaker 3: money around wildly, more than forty billion dollars of extra
1:49
Speaker 3: spending over the next two years, spending going up in
1:52
Speaker 3: real terms by four point six percent. That's four point
1:56
Speaker 3: six percent above inflation. Matt Canavan, they're all up on
2:01
Speaker 3: social media. Yeah, they can't help themselves, can they. That's
2:16
Speaker 3: pretty much it. This spending is reckless, it's irresponsible, it's inflationary,
2:21
Speaker 3: and it's designed to buy votes for an election likely
2:25
Speaker 3: before the end of the year, maybe early next year,
2:27
Speaker 3: before everything goes pear shaped. The big trick of this budget,
2:32
Speaker 3: the attempted con is a huge gamble. Labor is hoping
2:36
Speaker 3: that the three hundred dollars per household power rebate, money
2:41
Speaker 3: paid directly to your electricity provider to keep your bill
2:45
Speaker 3: lower will trigger an artificial reduction in inflation, push inflation
2:50
Speaker 3: down with taxpayers money, and they think that that might
2:54
Speaker 3: trick the Reserve Bank into lowering rates. Now, surely this
2:59
Speaker 3: is un likely because the bank knows that this doesn't
3:02
Speaker 3: do anything about the underlying cause of high electricity prices,
3:07
Speaker 3: and it knows that when the rebate cuts out, then
3:10
Speaker 3: that cost is going to go straight back onto consumers
3:13
Speaker 3: and straight back into inflation. And besides, in the meantime,
3:17
Speaker 3: most households will find something else to spend their three
3:21
Speaker 3: hundred dollars on because they have to, because times are tough.
3:25
Speaker 3: This gets to the trickiness, the petty politicking of this budget.
3:30
Speaker 3: Instead of doing the hard work of fixing our energy system,
3:34
Speaker 3: of getting electricity prices down like they promised to do,
3:38
Speaker 3: Labor are just handing over more taxpayers money to the
3:42
Speaker 3: energy companies to help pay for the exorbitant prices that
3:46
Speaker 3: they've delivered. It's throwing good money after bad and while
3:50
Speaker 3: most people, of course will appreciate any relief, they're still
3:54
Speaker 3: worse off than they were before Labor promised to cut
3:57
Speaker 3: power prices, and they know the rebates will run out
4:01
Speaker 3: and power prices will hit them in the neck again.
4:04
Speaker 3: So this is tricky, it's political, it's economically unsustainable, and
4:10
Speaker 3: it's lazy because they're not fixing the electricity mess.
4:13
Speaker 2: In fact, they continue to.
4:15
Speaker 3: Make it worse by pursuing renewable energy like Zealots. Albanezi
4:20
Speaker 3: is like Greta Tumberg in a business suit. This three
4:24
Speaker 3: point five billion dollar scheme is the price of Chris
4:28
Speaker 3: Bowen's incompetence. The Climate and Energy Minister has failed so
4:33
Speaker 3: spectacularly in delivering affordable and reliable power that they're having
4:38
Speaker 3: to fork out three hundred dollars for every household in
4:42
Speaker 3: the country, hoping people will then forgive them.
4:45
Speaker 2: For their abject energy failure.
4:49
Speaker 3: And bizarrely, because they're so desperate to get this out
4:52
Speaker 3: quickly to get ready for an election, this so called
4:56
Speaker 3: labor budget for working families is actually going to to
5:00
Speaker 3: doll out these tax dollars to millionaires, billionaires and the
5:04
Speaker 3: people with a dozen households.
5:07
Speaker 4: So let me spell it out for you, Gena. As
5:09
Speaker 4: Gena Reinhart, does she need help with the power bill?
5:14
Speaker 5: Well, Gena Reinhart is close to some people in politics,
5:19
Speaker 5: of course in this building. As you know, Carl, I
5:22
Speaker 5: haven't met Gena. But what we have done is make
5:26
Speaker 5: sure that every single Australian gets support.
5:33
Speaker 4: The reality is that there are a bunch of Australians
5:35
Speaker 4: who just don't need this three hundred bucks.
5:39
Speaker 5: That this is the most effective way to deliver support
5:44
Speaker 5: across the board. Gina, if she pays income tax, we'll
5:48
Speaker 5: also get a tax cut, as will every Australian. Every
5:52
Speaker 5: single one of your viewers will get a tax cut
5:56
Speaker 5: on July one.
5:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, the Prime Minister himself off will benefit from the
6:01
Speaker 3: three hundred dollars energy you rebate, so we'll know Kate
6:04
Speaker 3: bland Chet, the Atlassian billionaires. Everyone gets this paid for
6:09
Speaker 3: by the tax poll of dollars that we hand over.
6:12
Speaker 2: Indeed, the Treasurer he'll get some too.
6:15
Speaker 4: It just doesn't make any sense to me that you'd
6:17
Speaker 4: sling wealthier Australians three hundred bucks when they just don't
6:21
Speaker 4: need a treasurer.
6:23
Speaker 6: Well, they're not the focus cere car spend it energies
6:29
Speaker 6: because once you go beyond providing this energy relief to
6:32
Speaker 6: people on pensions and payments, which are a big priority
6:35
Speaker 6: for us, once you go beyond that, the retailers don't
6:38
Speaker 6: have the systems to slice and dice by income. They
6:40
Speaker 6: don't have the information on people's incomes, and so we'd
6:44
Speaker 6: have to design and create a whole new system which
6:47
Speaker 6: would take longer and take money and take a lot
6:50
Speaker 6: of effort. And so what we're doing instead is we're
6:52
Speaker 6: providing this energy bill relief to every household.
6:57
Speaker 3: It'll take a lot of effort, so they juste your
7:00
Speaker 3: tax dollars.
7:01
Speaker 2: It's just bizarre.
7:03
Speaker 3: In Parliament, the Opposition zeroed in on one labor millionaire,
7:07
Speaker 3: the Member for Paramatta, Andrew Charlton, formerly an advisor to
7:11
Speaker 3: Kevin Rudd. He moved from his twenty million dollar Bellvue
7:14
Speaker 3: Hill mansion to Paramatta in the lead up to the election.
7:19
Speaker 7: My question is the Prime Minister and concerns the energy
7:22
Speaker 7: rebate announced in the budget. If we take a typical
7:25
Speaker 7: Australian let's call him Andrew, who recently had to relocate
7:28
Speaker 7: from Belvie Hill to Paramatta for work reasons and happens
7:32
Speaker 7: to own five houses, including a newly acquired twelve million
7:36
Speaker 7: dollar beach house at Palm Beach, will he be eligible
7:39
Speaker 7: to receive the rebate on all five houses.
7:43
Speaker 5: Now that we have an energy price for elief plan
7:46
Speaker 5: that goes to all Australians, they get a vote.
7:49
Speaker 2: Against SET as well.
7:50
Speaker 8: They're now against SET.
7:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, the Prime Minister didn't answer the question. The real
7:56
Speaker 3: answer to that question is yes, yes, he gets the.
7:58
Speaker 2: Rebate five times over, quite possibly.
8:01
Speaker 3: Now this shows how far labor has shifted over the years.
8:04
Speaker 3: Once proudly focused on working people and mainstream values, now
8:09
Speaker 3: labor is so obsessed with green virtue signaling and United
8:13
Speaker 3: Nations emissions goals that it's made electricity unaffordable for working families.
8:18
Speaker 3: And to smooth this over at an election, it's prepared
8:22
Speaker 3: to take the payers you earned taxes of factory workers,
8:25
Speaker 3: teachers and nurses and hand some of that over to
8:28
Speaker 3: millionaires for power bill relief.
8:31
Speaker 2: It's absurd.
8:33
Speaker 9: We're not going to give billions of dollars to billionaires
8:36
Speaker 9: during a housing emergency. We also need to make sure
8:39
Speaker 9: that we can address labour's homegrown inflation problem. It's fueled
8:43
Speaker 9: by giving billionaires additional billions of dollars, so that would
8:46
Speaker 9: be the first savings. Clive Palmer, he gets a thousand
8:50
Speaker 9: dollars from Stephen Miles and he gets three hundred dollars
8:53
Speaker 9: from Anthony Albanezi is that the best way to spend money.
8:58
Speaker 3: This completes the circle on Labour's national energy self harm.
9:03
Speaker 3: It's not a virtuous circle, it's a vicious circle.
9:07
Speaker 2: And it goes something like this.
9:09
Speaker 3: They use billions of dollars of your tax dollars to
9:12
Speaker 3: subsidize renewable energy because they want to force.
9:15
Speaker 2: Coal fired power out.
9:18
Speaker 3: This pushes up the cost of power, so they double
9:21
Speaker 3: down and push billions of dollars more into more renewable
9:26
Speaker 3: schemes and battery schemes and transmission schemes, and these all
9:30
Speaker 3: push up power bills even higher. And all the while
9:35
Speaker 3: they tell us this.
9:37
Speaker 5: The market is speaking, and the market tells us that
9:40
Speaker 5: the cheapest form of new energy is renewables.
9:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, and despite this fantasy, there's lie about cheap energy.
9:48
Speaker 3: They then realize that the grid has become unreliable. We're
9:52
Speaker 3: running short of power, so they need coal fired power
9:56
Speaker 3: stations to stick around. So governments subsidize the coal generators
10:01
Speaker 3: to stop them being put out of business by the
10:04
Speaker 3: renewable subsidies that are actually designed.
10:06
Speaker 2: To force coal out.
10:08
Speaker 3: And then yesterday in the budget, after all these subsidies
10:12
Speaker 3: and subsidies to counter subsidies. The government is going to
10:16
Speaker 3: subsidize every power bill for every household in the country
10:21
Speaker 3: for one year, an election year. Who knows what new
10:26
Speaker 3: madness will unfold after that, but surely it couldn't get worse.
10:32
Speaker 3: How could energy policy get any worse than this? If
10:40
Speaker 3: you want an insight into how weird and reckless this
10:43
Speaker 3: budget is, think about how smiley and happy Jim Chalmers looks.
10:47
Speaker 2: While he admits that this will be his last.
10:50
Speaker 3: Ever budget surplus thanks to the pandemic recovery and the
10:54
Speaker 3: boom in tax receipts this year, Labor looks like banking
10:57
Speaker 3: two surpluses in a row. Good stuff, good for them,
11:01
Speaker 3: good for us. But what are they doing with that
11:03
Speaker 3: good fortune? Well, they're frittering in a way, baking in
11:08
Speaker 3: long term spending, so that Charmers has actually forecast four
11:13
Speaker 3: large deficits across the following years. If he serves another
11:18
Speaker 3: term as Treasurer, Charmers expects to deliver nothing but deficits,
11:24
Speaker 3: spending one hundred and twenty billion dollars more than he receives.
11:29
Speaker 3: Talk about a lack of ambition. It seems incredible that
11:33
Speaker 3: a treasurer would just set his sights on deep deficits
11:37
Speaker 3: as far as the eye can see. Wouldn't he want
11:39
Speaker 3: to improve our budget long term? Doesn't he want a
11:43
Speaker 3: structural surplus? Doesn't he want us to one day pay
11:46
Speaker 3: our own way? I reminded you last night of what
11:50
Speaker 3: Treasurer Wayne Swan said back in the days when Jim
11:53
Speaker 3: Charmers was his chief of staff, the.
11:56
Speaker 7: Four years of surpluses I announced tonight, a powerful endorsement
12:01
Speaker 7: of the strength of alcotomy.
12:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was funny then.
12:05
Speaker 3: And obviously, while Swan promised four surpluses, he delivered only deficits.
12:10
Speaker 2: But at least he had the right goal, the right idea.
12:14
Speaker 3: Charmers, his protegee, has gone in the opposite direction, only
12:19
Speaker 3: aiming for deficits.
12:21
Speaker 2: This is a government that thinks it can.
12:23
Speaker 3: Save the planet and create a renewable energy superpower, whatever
12:27
Speaker 3: that is, but it has no ambition to create a
12:30
Speaker 3: federal budget that pays its way. It's like this mob
12:35
Speaker 3: only cares about the next election. That's their only goal,
12:39
Speaker 3: and I'll only worry about what happens after that, if
12:42
Speaker 3: and when they have to Now, just to highlight the
12:48
Speaker 3: fantasy world, this government lives in. Let me highlight one
12:51
Speaker 3: relatively small budget entry. It relates to border protection, an
12:55
Speaker 3: area where Labour's record is terrible.
12:58
Speaker 2: Yet they've banked two.
13:00
Speaker 3: One hundred and fifty million dollars of savings by claiming
13:03
Speaker 3: they're going to shut down the processing center on Niru. Yeah,
13:08
Speaker 3: here it is reported in the nine media newspapers. Labour
13:11
Speaker 3: reckons they can basically shut down all these facilities and
13:14
Speaker 3: keep them on a maintenance footing and bank the savings
13:18
Speaker 3: of a quarter of a billion dollars in just one year. Well,
13:22
Speaker 3: Labor never liked Niru. They always hated the Pacific solution.
13:25
Speaker 3: As we know, they're only pretending that Operation Sovereign Borders
13:29
Speaker 3: is still in operation, and already that's led to the
13:32
Speaker 3: arrival at least of at least six boats onto the
13:35
Speaker 3: Australian mainland or very close to it since Labor took office.
13:40
Speaker 3: Border security vessels are understood to be dealing with the
13:43
Speaker 3: latest arrivals at sea off northwest western Australia as we speak. So,
13:49
Speaker 3: how do you think this government is going to shut
13:51
Speaker 3: down the Naru processing center and save two hundred and
13:54
Speaker 3: fifty million dollars just when it started up the asylum
13:58
Speaker 3: boat trade all over again. They've got no idea and
14:02
Speaker 3: it'll cost more than just dollars. That's now catch up
14:09
Speaker 3: with One Nation leader and founder Pauline Hanson joining us
14:12
Speaker 3: live from Canberra.
14:13
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us, Pauline.
14:15
Speaker 3: There's another aspect of this budget that hasn't got enough
14:18
Speaker 3: attention yet and I want to get your thoughts on it,
14:20
Speaker 3: and that is immigration. They keep telling us that they're
14:24
Speaker 3: going to pull down the immigration rate.
14:26
Speaker 2: We had immigration record record levels of immigration last year.
14:30
Speaker 3: And even if they stick to what they've promised in
14:32
Speaker 3: this budget, that is pulling it down to two hundred
14:35
Speaker 3: and sixty thousand people next year, that's an incredibly high
14:39
Speaker 3: level historically, isn't it. They're talking about trying to getting
14:42
Speaker 3: it down to the levels the highest levels of the
14:44
Speaker 3: Howard government era.
14:47
Speaker 10: Well, that's right. They've never been able to stick with
14:49
Speaker 10: their numbers. They've always increased it more than what they
14:51
Speaker 10: say in their budgets. The two previous budgets they've said
14:54
Speaker 10: they'll have it at so many yet it's always increased
14:57
Speaker 10: a lot more than what it is, even at two
14:59
Speaker 10: hundred and sixty Chris, there's a lot of migrants in
15:01
Speaker 10: the country and that's what the Coalition had under the
15:03
Speaker 10: Morrison government, which I still complained about it at that time,
15:07
Speaker 10: and they realized and they dropped it to one hundred
15:09
Speaker 10: and ninety thousand. The Stuart student intake in twenty nineteen
15:13
Speaker 10: was about five hundred and ninety thousand students of five
15:16
Speaker 10: undred eight thousand, and yet this year seven hundred and
15:20
Speaker 10: three thousand students. So the big problem is a lot
15:22
Speaker 10: of the students coming into the country. Migration is the
15:26
Speaker 10: biggest problem that we have. And the lack of housing.
15:29
Speaker 10: Yet the government says, oh, we're fixing up because we're
15:31
Speaker 10: putting boons of dollars in housing, yet we don't have
15:34
Speaker 10: the tradees, all the supplies, all the equipped you know,
15:37
Speaker 10: the materials to build these houses.
15:38
Speaker 11: It's a joke.
15:39
Speaker 8: They're pulling the wool.
15:40
Speaker 10: Over people's eyes who fall for this smoke and mirror
15:44
Speaker 10: stuff that they're pulling, pulling out and telling people what
15:46
Speaker 10: they're going to do. It can't happen.
15:48
Speaker 2: Chris Well.
15:49
Speaker 3: Their target this year was three hundred and fifteen thousand,
15:52
Speaker 3: but they're going to end up with nearly one hundred
15:53
Speaker 3: thousand more than that. So a target of two hundred
15:56
Speaker 3: and sixty thousand. You can't believe it, but even that
15:58
Speaker 3: probably is too high given the housing crisis and other
16:01
Speaker 3: factor as you mentioned. Now I've got get your thoughts
16:04
Speaker 3: on this electricity rebate. You know people are doing it tough.
16:07
Speaker 3: You know that power prices are killing households. But you
16:10
Speaker 3: have a situation now in your own state of Queensland
16:13
Speaker 3: where people are being promised one thousand dollars rebate from
16:16
Speaker 3: the state government and three hundred dollars rebate from the
16:19
Speaker 3: federal government. How about somebody just actually fixing the electricity
16:22
Speaker 3: system and delivering cheap power.
16:26
Speaker 8: Totally agree with you. Go to source.
16:28
Speaker 10: Why are electricity power prices and to skyrocketing due to
16:33
Speaker 10: labor policies.
16:34
Speaker 11: That's what it's about.
16:35
Speaker 10: This heading down the path of net zero emissions is
16:39
Speaker 10: actually destroying our cost of living and that's why it's rising.
16:44
Speaker 10: It's only sugar hit for the state government and also
16:47
Speaker 10: the federal government to give these rebates back. It's like
16:50
Speaker 10: robbing Peter to pay Paul. Why don't you look at
16:52
Speaker 10: the fact is if you want to help anyone, you know,
16:55
Speaker 10: instead of utilizing some money because we're paid it in
16:57
Speaker 10: our taxes and through subsidies, paying dearly so people think
17:01
Speaker 10: they're actually gained got to win here, Think again, you haven't.
17:05
Speaker 10: You've already paid it in your taxes. Everyone pays it
17:07
Speaker 10: even through GST, so we're all paying for it. In Queensland,
17:11
Speaker 10: forty seven percent of our bill is actually paid to
17:14
Speaker 10: the state government for the powers and wires that we
17:16
Speaker 10: own anyway, but we're paying them again for it and
17:18
Speaker 10: getting delivery of our electricity through maintenance. I'd like to
17:23
Speaker 10: see the money instead of the rebates to the people.
17:25
Speaker 10: I know people doing it tough, but Jess, there's a
17:27
Speaker 10: lot of pensioners out there that would dearly love to
17:30
Speaker 10: stay in their homes.
17:31
Speaker 12: Now.
17:31
Speaker 10: All they've provided is twenty four thousand packages for people
17:34
Speaker 10: to keep their own homes. Wouldn't it be lovely to
17:36
Speaker 10: see these people over one hundred thousand still waiting for
17:39
Speaker 10: care packages to stay in their own homes instead of
17:42
Speaker 10: ending up nursing homes that cost the taxpayers a lot
17:44
Speaker 10: more money to provide for them. So the money's not
17:48
Speaker 10: well spent. Go to the source of why is our
17:51
Speaker 10: electricity price is soaring? This is only your sugar hit people.
17:55
Speaker 10: You're going to see increasing power prices beyond March next year.
18:01
Speaker 3: Now, we've often seen politician where their favorite footage scarves
18:04
Speaker 3: into the Parliamentary chamber, especially around State of Origin week
18:07
Speaker 3: and all that sort of thing.
18:08
Speaker 2: But have a look at these pictures.
18:09
Speaker 1: Here.
18:09
Speaker 3: Here's Pauline Hanson in the Senate today wearing an Israeli scarf,
18:14
Speaker 3: and let's hear from the Senate President as to how
18:16
Speaker 3: they dealt with this.
18:18
Speaker 11: Can I please ask that you either turn around the
18:21
Speaker 11: scarf that you're wearing or remove it altogether. It is
18:24
Speaker 11: against standing orders for you to have any slogans upon
18:29
Speaker 11: your dress, so can you please do that before I
18:32
Speaker 11: allocate the call to you.
18:35
Speaker 2: Well, you've got a bit of a history in this area.
18:37
Speaker 3: I do recall you turning up in Parliament in a
18:39
Speaker 3: burker once, Pauline Hansen.
18:41
Speaker 2: But in an Israeli a.
18:43
Speaker 3: Scarf, It's hard to see how that breach is standing orders.
18:47
Speaker 3: I wonder if anybody's worn a Palestinian scarf in the Senate.
18:51
Speaker 2: Yet, of course they.
18:53
Speaker 10: Have greens for it all the time. They just do
18:56
Speaker 10: it too and be antagonistic. And the fact is, I'm
19:00
Speaker 10: standing up for those the Jewish people in this country
19:03
Speaker 10: that have been poorly treated those university students. I fear
19:07
Speaker 10: for the Jewish people and I'm wearing my part on
19:11
Speaker 10: my sleeve when it comes to this issue, and I'm
19:13
Speaker 10: sick of hearing saying about the Palestinians and genocide that's happening.
19:16
Speaker 10: This is no genocide. I'll put it this way. Palestine
19:20
Speaker 10: would really love to get rid of Israel and genocide,
19:24
Speaker 10: have no doubt about it. But do you know what
19:26
Speaker 10: they can't. They don't have the power.
19:27
Speaker 5: To do it.
19:28
Speaker 1: Now.
19:28
Speaker 10: Israel could well and truly truly genocide Palestine or Gaza
19:34
Speaker 10: because they've got the military mite. But you know the
19:37
Speaker 10: difference is they won't. So the fact is that calling
19:41
Speaker 10: the Greens calling this is genocide, it isn't. Palestine invaded
19:46
Speaker 10: Israel and you know, killed twelve hundred people, took others hostages.
19:51
Speaker 10: It's appalling what they did. Let's face the facts out
19:54
Speaker 10: there and people understand what's going on here. And if
19:56
Speaker 10: I did it to Australia, we would stand up and
19:59
Speaker 10: fight and defend our country as well.
20:02
Speaker 3: We would eliminate how mus It's the only thing any
20:04
Speaker 3: government could do.
20:05
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us.
20:06
Speaker 3: You need to get one of these badges that I've
20:08
Speaker 3: got a little bit less as conspicuous than a scaff
20:13
Speaker 3: Thanks for joining us, pulling hands and they're live from Canberra.
20:16
Speaker 3: Let's stick on the budget now, when I'm joined by
20:18
Speaker 3: University of New South Wales economics professor Gigi Foster joined
20:21
Speaker 3: me live from Sydney.
20:22
Speaker 2: Good to talk to you. First up, is this trick?
20:25
Speaker 3: Is this attempt to colm the ABS and the RBA
20:28
Speaker 3: going to work by using taxpayers money to sort of
20:31
Speaker 3: artificially keep inflation down for a short period.
20:34
Speaker 2: Is that going to colm the RBA into lowering rates?
20:38
Speaker 12: I mean, I.
20:39
Speaker 8: Doubt that that will happen.
20:40
Speaker 13: No, because the RBA is a little bit more cluey
20:43
Speaker 13: about economic matters than the man on the street. I
20:45
Speaker 13: think unfortunately, what's what you're seeing here is that the
20:48
Speaker 13: government is banking on people being somewhat economically naive and
20:53
Speaker 13: not really realizing that the additional expenditure that's now being
20:56
Speaker 13: planned in the coming years is going to be inflationary.
20:59
Speaker 13: So of course, whe's the government of setting up the
21:01
Speaker 13: RBA for a need to be the bad guy, and
21:04
Speaker 13: people won't like that, so it's kind of trying to
21:07
Speaker 13: handball the scapegoat.
21:08
Speaker 14: I think over to another institution.
21:11
Speaker 13: And as Pauline Hanson actually said, pulling wool over people
21:14
Speaker 13: people's eyes. I love your takedown of the energy roared.
21:17
Speaker 13: I mean, that's the most striking thing about this budget
21:19
Speaker 13: is the one hand propping up an industry and on
21:23
Speaker 13: the other hand giving consumers the money that they need
21:25
Speaker 13: to not feel that propping up quite as much in
21:28
Speaker 13: their back pocket.
21:28
Speaker 14: I mean, it's insane.
21:29
Speaker 2: And you could not make it up.
21:31
Speaker 13: But we keep talking about that exactly. You couldn't make
21:33
Speaker 13: it up. It's amazing.
21:35
Speaker 2: It is too insane to make it up.
21:38
Speaker 3: If you wrote a fictional piece about an electricity system
21:41
Speaker 3: and cross subsidies that we have in Australia, people would
21:44
Speaker 3: say that's implausible. That rejected from from any sitcom.
21:50
Speaker 2: Look, we know what Jim child. Let's have a look
21:52
Speaker 2: at what Jim Chalmers says.
21:53
Speaker 3: He's what he's got to say about this budget and inflation.
21:57
Speaker 6: While the outlook he's uncertain, Treasury's forecast make it clear
22:00
Speaker 6: that our policies could see inflation return to target earlier,
22:04
Speaker 6: perhaps even by the end of the year, helping to
22:07
Speaker 6: turn the tide for more Australians who are under pressure
22:11
Speaker 6: and who remain the number one focus of this government.
22:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, it looks a big call to when you've got
22:17
Speaker 3: such high spending the thing it's actually going to reduce.
22:21
Speaker 2: The pressure on inflation.
22:22
Speaker 3: My theory is that they want to go to an
22:24
Speaker 3: election as soon as they can and just make sure
22:27
Speaker 3: they don't think they can get.
22:28
Speaker 2: An in straight cut, but just make sure they don't.
22:30
Speaker 3: Get any more increases before they go to an election.
22:35
Speaker 3: On assessment, even given for the tricks in trying to
22:38
Speaker 3: get that inflation rate down, do you think that this
22:42
Speaker 3: budget will be inflationary or counter inflation over the full year.
22:49
Speaker 14: Over the full year, probably slightly inflationary.
22:52
Speaker 13: They could have done worse, I will say that, so
22:54
Speaker 13: they could have gone with a lot more money spraying
22:57
Speaker 13: to many, many more groups who they could easily have
23:00
Speaker 13: said are doing it tough in the traditional Australian vernacular,
23:04
Speaker 13: but they didn't. They have, of course put this huge
23:06
Speaker 13: amount of money into the energy side of things. They've
23:09
Speaker 13: also increased Commonwealth rent assistance, and they have put money
23:12
Speaker 13: into aged care and a few other places. But I
23:15
Speaker 13: think some of those are very good investments. I mean,
23:17
Speaker 13: I liked the age care investment. For example, the Royal
23:20
Speaker 13: Commission really wasn't heeded at the time, and so in
23:24
Speaker 13: fact that money we'll go to adopting some of the recommendations.
23:27
Speaker 8: I think that's good. So there are some categories.
23:30
Speaker 13: Of expenditure I think are a good idea, But there's
23:32
Speaker 13: just a lot of ideology in here, not just the
23:34
Speaker 13: green energy stuff, but this business that we should have
23:37
Speaker 13: eighty percent of Australian workers by twenty fifty being university graduates.
23:41
Speaker 8: I mean, where is that coming from. We don't need that.
23:43
Speaker 13: We need more people who can do things with their hands,
23:46
Speaker 13: to build houses, to do things in our houses where
23:50
Speaker 13: we can't even find an electrician or a plumber or anybody.
23:53
Speaker 8: Because they're just aren't enough workers.
23:54
Speaker 13: So I think the government is trying to spin a
23:57
Speaker 13: story to make it seem as though it's caring about everyone,
24:00
Speaker 13: and unfortunately some of its expenditures are very counterintuitive, certainly
24:07
Speaker 13: the three hundred dollars energy expenditor, and some of them
24:09
Speaker 13: are just based on silly goals, such as the university stuff,
24:12
Speaker 13: and certainly a lot of the energy policy.
24:15
Speaker 8: So yeah, I think it is.
24:15
Speaker 14: Going to be on balance inflationary, but it could have
24:17
Speaker 14: been worse.
24:19
Speaker 3: Thanks for joining us gg I appreciate it loves cut
24:23
Speaker 3: through GGI Foster there from the University of New South Wales,
24:25
Speaker 3: a cut through on the economy, pulling out some good
24:28
Speaker 3: areas of spending there, but overall an inflationary budget driven
24:32
Speaker 3: by ideology that is so spot on.
24:34
Speaker 2: Now.
24:34
Speaker 3: Small business been hit hard right across the country. Was
24:36
Speaker 3: there anything in the budget for them? I'll find out
24:39
Speaker 3: from Amanda Rose after this break. Let's keep talking about
24:46
Speaker 3: the budget and its implications. We've talked a lot about
24:48
Speaker 3: the inflationary impact of the budget and all the trickery
24:51
Speaker 3: when it comes to those energy rebates. Let's have a
24:54
Speaker 3: look at what industry, unions and community groups have had
24:57
Speaker 3: to say today.
24:58
Speaker 10: The moves around future made in Australia, if it's done
25:02
Speaker 10: properly and skilling, will potentially make a small prosperous.
25:05
Speaker 15: This is a good budget for working people and we
25:08
Speaker 15: say that because you can sum it up by saying
25:10
Speaker 15: two words, which is higher wages.
25:13
Speaker 11: It did not deliver that desperately needed increase to job
25:17
Speaker 11: seeker and youth allowance.
25:19
Speaker 16: Those two payments were woefully inadequate.
25:22
Speaker 17: Surplus this financial year. That's a good achievement, but out
25:27
Speaker 17: over the medium term, we're seeing higher spending, higher deficits
25:31
Speaker 17: and higher debts, so we are concerned that that won't
25:34
Speaker 17: take the pressure off inflation and it won't take the
25:37
Speaker 17: pressure off interest rates.
25:40
Speaker 3: Indeed, the medium to longer term looks die. Let's check
25:43
Speaker 3: in on small business. Amanda Rose joins me on the desk.
25:45
Speaker 3: You some small business women Australia. Thanks for joining us.
25:49
Speaker 2: Well a small business.
25:51
Speaker 3: They get the energy rebate a little bit more three
25:53
Speaker 3: hundred and twenty five for small business.
25:55
Speaker 2: How bigger help is that going to be?
25:57
Speaker 15: I reckon that would probably be absorbed within a day
26:00
Speaker 15: with all the increased costs for small business and the
26:02
Speaker 15: twenty thousand dollars instant asset right everyone thinks is great.
26:05
Speaker 15: A lot of businesses don't have extra twenty thousand dollars
26:08
Speaker 15: to buy anything. This is a big business budget and
26:12
Speaker 15: an anti small business budget.
26:13
Speaker 1: Right.
26:14
Speaker 15: If you look at the Future Made in Australia, they're
26:16
Speaker 15: actually cutting red tape for foreign investors and big business
26:19
Speaker 15: to get a piece of it.
26:20
Speaker 12: It's future made in Australia.
26:22
Speaker 15: Where are the small businesses in that?
26:24
Speaker 12: The procurement channel?
26:25
Speaker 15: There's nothing for small businesses to get a piece of
26:27
Speaker 15: that they've got mental health support because they know they're struggling.
26:31
Speaker 12: But we won't cut any red tape for you.
26:32
Speaker 15: We won't look at taxes, we won't even look at
26:34
Speaker 15: how we can encourage people to focus on small business.
26:38
Speaker 3: It's a very good point because this is where labor
26:40
Speaker 3: has drifted increasingly. There are a big government, big union's,
26:45
Speaker 3: big business focus. That's all they care about. That there's
26:49
Speaker 3: big tax incentives. So under this future made in Australian
26:52
Speaker 3: for overseas investors and big companies and.
26:55
Speaker 2: What about small business? For instance?
26:57
Speaker 3: Even in housing the governments is the way to fix
26:59
Speaker 3: housing is for the government spend more money. Don't They
27:01
Speaker 3: need to get out of the way of small business
27:03
Speaker 3: and planning regulations so that people can get ahead and
27:06
Speaker 3: build them.
27:06
Speaker 15: Well that's the point, right, So they've completely ignored every
27:11
Speaker 15: single thing. A small business is actually asked for everything,
27:14
Speaker 15: and they talk about higher wages. If there are no jobs,
27:17
Speaker 15: then how can you give an employee a higher wage.
27:21
Speaker 15: Small business are shutting down on a daily basis. They're
27:23
Speaker 15: not included in anything, and we need to go People
27:25
Speaker 15: need to realize that big business, right and labor are
27:29
Speaker 15: best friends because the employees can be unionized in small business.
27:33
Speaker 15: They can't.
27:34
Speaker 12: But this is actually so.
27:35
Speaker 15: Reckless for the small business community. I fear that in
27:39
Speaker 15: about twelve months from now, we're going to see a
27:41
Speaker 15: massive unemployment hike.
27:43
Speaker 2: It is a worry.
27:44
Speaker 9: Now.
27:44
Speaker 3: You mentioned the instant asset right off. I was going
27:46
Speaker 3: to mention that as well. That's a good scheme. They've
27:49
Speaker 3: extended that. That means small businesses, you can spend up
27:53
Speaker 3: to twenty grand, they get to write off that investment
27:56
Speaker 3: straight away this financial year, so they don't pay ten
28:00
Speaker 3: But as you say, you've got to have the money
28:02
Speaker 3: to get money, it's from.
28:04
Speaker 2: Something productive you need to invest.
28:06
Speaker 15: In, right, that's right exactly. You can't be forced to
28:08
Speaker 15: buy something you don't need. And a lot of them
28:11
Speaker 15: are using their extra profit or the money they're earning
28:14
Speaker 15: to pay for the increased wages, for extra leave, and
28:16
Speaker 15: for all the extra supply costs and with inflation.
28:19
Speaker 12: And so forth.
28:19
Speaker 15: So there actually been and they've been ignored. So even
28:22
Speaker 15: the tenders that are going out federally, they're big, chunky tenders.
28:26
Speaker 15: They're not actually breaking it up and saying hey we
28:28
Speaker 15: can help one hundred small businesses here. They've given it
28:31
Speaker 15: to one business only.
28:33
Speaker 3: Now, let me just dig out one last budget related number,
28:37
Speaker 3: run it by you and see if you can give
28:39
Speaker 3: me a reaction from the small business sector. And that
28:43
Speaker 3: is that over the two years of this labor government
28:47
Speaker 3: and as are revealed with their plans in this budget,
28:50
Speaker 3: they increase the number of camera based public servants by
28:54
Speaker 3: thirty six thousand people.
28:57
Speaker 15: So what that means is they don't out source anymore
29:01
Speaker 15: as well so often and this is what I'm seeing
29:03
Speaker 15: as well.
29:03
Speaker 12: I'm seeing a trend of bringing.
29:05
Speaker 15: Things in house, bigger tenders, employees for the government and
29:09
Speaker 15: saying we're not going to specialist in key areas. And
29:12
Speaker 15: it's that breaking up of outsourcing to you know, someone
29:16
Speaker 15: who knows that area or that group of people that's
29:18
Speaker 15: gone and we.
29:19
Speaker 2: All have to pay for those publics we do.
29:22
Speaker 3: Sixtraordin, thanks for joining us, Akain Amanda, appreciate Amanda Rose
29:25
Speaker 3: there for small business women Australia and now stick around
29:27
Speaker 3: after the break my interview with Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor,
29:31
Speaker 3: who commits the coalition to bringing the budget back into
29:34
Speaker 3: balance over a three year period.
29:40
Speaker 2: Don't forget we've got the Wednesday rangle coming up. Justin and
29:43
Speaker 2: Liz Back. I bet they've missed each other.
29:46
Speaker 3: But let's now go to the coalition response to this
29:48
Speaker 3: budget and Shadow cap that is meeting as we go
29:51
Speaker 3: to air framing their budget in reply that will be
29:53
Speaker 3: delivered by the Peter Dutton in Parliament tomorrow night. You'll
29:57
Speaker 3: catch that live here on Sky Now. When I caught
29:59
Speaker 3: up with Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor just a short while ago,
30:03
Speaker 3: I started by noting how after Labor broken election promise
30:07
Speaker 3: so it could reduce tax cuts for high income earners,
30:11
Speaker 3: it seems strange that they're now handing out taxpayer funded
30:14
Speaker 3: energy rebates to everyone, including millionaires and billionaires.
30:20
Speaker 18: That's exactly right, Chris, help with their power bills, but
30:23
Speaker 18: also provide them with production tax credits, which is a
30:28
Speaker 18: policy that we haven't seen before. And to put that
30:31
Speaker 18: in perspective, that means every unit of production of these businesses,
30:35
Speaker 18: often owned by billionaires, are going to get a big
30:37
Speaker 18: subsidy from the government. So this is a very different approach.
30:41
Speaker 18: But can I step back for a moment and say,
30:44
Speaker 18: what is the real problem with all of this, Chris,
30:47
Speaker 18: is this is a big spending budget. You're seeing Labor
30:50
Speaker 18: massively increasing the amount of spending three hundred and fifteen
30:53
Speaker 18: billion dollars since they came to power, and it's increasing
30:57
Speaker 18: over the next couple of years sharply. Of course, there's
31:00
Speaker 18: an election coming up. It's a political budget, and that's inflationary.
31:03
Speaker 18: They're throwing fuel on the inflationary fire. Of course, they
31:08
Speaker 18: haven't delivered on their energy price promises. We all know
31:12
Speaker 18: that because we see that in our electricity bills. And
31:15
Speaker 18: they're promising this so called relief. They're putting a band
31:18
Speaker 18: aid on a bullet wound. But the underlying problem is
31:20
Speaker 18: they have absolutely failed to slay this homegrown inflation which
31:26
Speaker 18: has been raging on their watch.
31:28
Speaker 2: There's no doubt about that.
31:29
Speaker 3: But when it comes to this three hundred dollars energy rebate,
31:32
Speaker 3: is there any way that you can force the government
31:35
Speaker 3: to means test it.
31:38
Speaker 18: Well, we're certainly asking the questions, and we'll keep asking
31:41
Speaker 18: the questions about how they're proposing to do it. They're
31:44
Speaker 18: proposing to put it in people's energy bills, from what
31:47
Speaker 18: we can understand, and that would be very difficult to
31:49
Speaker 18: means test, and they want to do it that way
31:51
Speaker 18: because they think they can artificially reduce the price index.
31:55
Speaker 18: So it's all a bit of a con it's all
31:58
Speaker 18: a bit of smoke and mirrors, and really what they're
32:00
Speaker 18: trying to do is buy an interest rate cut, Chris.
32:04
Speaker 18: But the truth is the Reserve Bank will see through
32:07
Speaker 18: all of that. But the idea again that the billionaires
32:11
Speaker 18: should get a three hundred dollars price relief and they
32:13
Speaker 18: should get these production tax credits. I mean, seriously, we
32:19
Speaker 18: need a budget for the battle, is not a budget
32:20
Speaker 18: for the billionaires.
32:22
Speaker 1: Yeah.
32:22
Speaker 3: Well, I said at the outset of this program that
32:25
Speaker 3: this was a trick to try and force down the
32:27
Speaker 3: statistics force, so sort of a trick reduction if you like,
32:31
Speaker 3: in inflation. The RBA will surely know that a lot
32:34
Speaker 3: of people will spend.
32:35
Speaker 2: Any savings elsewhere.
32:36
Speaker 3: Plus at the end of the year, when this rebate
32:39
Speaker 3: only lasts a year, then power prices go back up
32:41
Speaker 3: again and you're stuck with the same problem.
32:43
Speaker 18: Surely, exactly right, So the very best it deffers, it
32:50
Speaker 18: only defers inflation. That's going to happen anyway. The RBA
32:54
Speaker 18: will see through it. They look at underlying inflation, not
32:57
Speaker 18: headline inflation, so they'll see straight through this con job.
33:02
Speaker 18: And Standard and Pores have told us that as a
33:04
Speaker 18: result of this budget they expect that there's more upward pressure.
33:07
Speaker 1: On interest rates, and they're not the only one saying it.
33:09
Speaker 18: This is a budget that has thrown a fuel on
33:13
Speaker 18: the inflation fire, and that means there's more pressure on
33:16
Speaker 18: interest rates to stay higher for longer, and every Australian
33:18
Speaker 18: pays a high price for that. Australians are poorer under Labor,
33:22
Speaker 18: and sadly, this budget is not going to alleviate that situation.
33:25
Speaker 3: The other point with this energy rebate so called energy rebate,
33:29
Speaker 3: is doesn't it tell us that Labor has just actually
33:31
Speaker 3: given up on fixing the electricity system mess and lowering prices.
33:36
Speaker 2: They just they can't lower prices.
33:38
Speaker 3: They're spending three point five billion dollars on these rebates
33:41
Speaker 3: that could build an enormous amount of generation if they
33:44
Speaker 3: knew what they.
33:44
Speaker 2: Were doing.
33:47
Speaker 1: Exactly right.
33:47
Speaker 18: So of course everyone remembers they've promised to two hundred
33:50
Speaker 18: and seventy five dollars reduction when they came to power.
33:54
Speaker 18: We've seen bill increases of around one thousand dollars for
33:57
Speaker 18: Australian since Labor has under power, they have no pathway
34:02
Speaker 18: to deliver reductions. So now they're just throwing money around.
34:06
Speaker 18: But you know, we've seen all this before, Chris. This
34:08
Speaker 18: is what governments did back in the seventies and the eighties.
34:12
Speaker 18: It failed inflation rages. When you have these sorts of policies,
34:17
Speaker 18: disposable incomes go backwards, as they have in Australia seven
34:21
Speaker 18: and a half percent reduction since labors come to power
34:23
Speaker 18: on average, huge huge reductions in the standard of living
34:28
Speaker 18: for Australians with a mortgage and there's no end in
34:32
Speaker 18: sight with these policies. This is a bad budget. It's
34:35
Speaker 18: not a budget that will alleviate Australian's standard of living woes.
34:39
Speaker 18: And it's politically motivated at the end of the day
34:42
Speaker 18: for an election that'll be sometime in the next year.
34:44
Speaker 3: Now you talked before about some of the other measures,
34:47
Speaker 3: these tax credits that are going to be driven towards
34:49
Speaker 3: the green hydrogen and the like, and billionaires like a
34:52
Speaker 3: Twiggy Forest will be lining up for that. And as
34:55
Speaker 3: we mentioned, they've done nothing to actually fix the electricity
34:59
Speaker 3: system solves with their renewable transition. Does this mean that
35:03
Speaker 3: tomorrow night Peter Dutton will reveal the details of his
35:07
Speaker 3: planned nuclear energy transition.
35:12
Speaker 18: Well, we'll certainly continue to lay out the next next
35:15
Speaker 18: part of our policy focus, Chris. I mean we haven't
35:18
Speaker 18: been small target. We've shown a real contrast to the
35:22
Speaker 18: Labor Party. We showed a real contrast on the Voice referendum.
35:25
Speaker 18: Of course, we're showing a real contrast as we lay
35:27
Speaker 18: out the most significant change in energy policy that this
35:31
Speaker 18: country has seen in a long while, with a shift
35:34
Speaker 18: towards nuclear, and will continue to talk about that, but
35:37
Speaker 18: we'll also talk about the cost of living crisis and
35:40
Speaker 18: the housing crisis Australians are facing. We've seen again a
35:46
Speaker 18: very sharp increase in immigration numbers. They went up again
35:50
Speaker 18: in this budget to one point seven million over the
35:54
Speaker 18: coming years. For that time period it was closer to
35:57
Speaker 18: just Power.
36:00
Speaker 3: Talk about immigration tonight as well, but on related issues
36:04
Speaker 3: on border protection. There's precious little in this budget when
36:08
Speaker 3: it comes to savings. Yet Labor are suggesting in the
36:11
Speaker 3: budget that they'll save two hundred and fifty million dollars
36:14
Speaker 3: by essentially mothballing the detention processing center on the room.
36:20
Speaker 3: Now with six boats already arriving, I don't see that
36:23
Speaker 3: they can actually shut down the room.
36:27
Speaker 1: Well, exactly right.
36:28
Speaker 18: You've got two hapless ministers looking after border security right now,
36:32
Speaker 18: and of course the boats are lining up. I mean,
36:34
Speaker 18: the real problem with this whole issue is if you
36:37
Speaker 18: send the signal that you're weak, if you send the
36:39
Speaker 18: signal that you haven't got it under control, if you
36:42
Speaker 18: send the signal that you've got ministers who really don't
36:45
Speaker 18: want to control the borders, then the people smugglers get
36:48
Speaker 18: going again. And that's exactly what's happened. And that doesn't
36:51
Speaker 18: just have a track tragic implication for those trying to
36:54
Speaker 18: get into the country. It has huge implications for costs
36:59
Speaker 18: and budgets. And so the idea that this is not
37:03
Speaker 18: a real risk now, well it looks to me to
37:05
Speaker 18: be a very significant risk. And I've got to say,
37:08
Speaker 18: at a time like this, who would you want controlling
37:11
Speaker 18: and managing your borders, those hapless ministers or Peter Dutton,
37:15
Speaker 18: who as we know, has been able to control the
37:18
Speaker 18: borders in the past.
37:19
Speaker 3: Just finally, one of the astounding things about this budget
37:22
Speaker 3: from my point of view, is Jim Chalmers Banks.
37:24
Speaker 2: He's second surplus.
37:25
Speaker 3: Great good on him, good fortune, but good on him.
37:28
Speaker 3: But then he looks out four years hence and it's
37:30
Speaker 3: just deficits, deep deficits as far as the eye can see.
37:34
Speaker 3: He seems to have no ambition to return the budget
37:36
Speaker 3: to a structural balance or surplus. Would you undertake to
37:40
Speaker 3: get the budget back to a balanced situation in the
37:43
Speaker 3: first term of a coalition government?
37:47
Speaker 18: Well, absolutely, But I'll go one step beyond that, which
37:50
Speaker 18: is to re establish the rule that the budget must
37:53
Speaker 18: strive towards structural balance, and that means that you grow
37:57
Speaker 18: the economy faster than you That is a crucial role
38:01
Speaker 18: that has been in place, a structural balance or a
38:05
Speaker 18: move towards structural balance since the nineteen nineties. Chris was
38:09
Speaker 18: part of the Charter of Budget honesty. It's been taken
38:12
Speaker 18: out by Jim Chalmers so that he can throw fuel
38:16
Speaker 18: on the fire as we go into an election year.
38:20
Speaker 18: But we'll all pay a high price for that, and
38:23
Speaker 18: that is a very very bad move by this government.
38:26
Speaker 18: But it's one that means that they're not taking the
38:28
Speaker 18: fight against his homegrown inflation under their watch.
38:32
Speaker 1: They're not taking that fight seriously.
38:34
Speaker 3: Thanks for joining us, Angusaylor will tune in tomorrow night
38:37
Speaker 3: with great interest.
38:40
Speaker 1: Good on you, Chris, Thanks for having me yeah.
38:42
Speaker 3: Don't forget budget and reply from Peter Dutton as oppositionally
38:45
Speaker 3: to Tomorrow Night will be all over it here on
38:47
Speaker 3: Sky as usual after the break the Wednesday wrangle talk
38:50
Speaker 3: about the budget. Also Sydney Council, remember the one that
38:53
Speaker 3: banned that book on same sex parents.
38:55
Speaker 2: Looks like that ban will be overturned.
38:57
Speaker 3: They go away, let us wrangle. We love the people
39:04
Speaker 3: who fill in for us now and then, but Liz
39:06
Speaker 3: has been away and Justin's been away, and now they're back.
39:10
Speaker 2: Liz Store, the.
39:11
Speaker 3: Co host of the Late Debate here on the set
39:13
Speaker 3: and in Melbourne the author commentator man about town Justin Smith.
39:17
Speaker 2: I bet you guys have missed each other.
39:19
Speaker 16: Oh, we haven't miss that face.
39:23
Speaker 2: We've been sending each other card.
39:24
Speaker 1: I hope we got.
39:27
Speaker 16: Dear Justin, I talk best in you on a weekly basis.
39:31
Speaker 12: Please come back.
39:32
Speaker 3: All right, now we've got to get into the budget.
39:35
Speaker 2: We'll wrangle over the budget.
39:36
Speaker 3: But I don't want to ignore what's happening in the
39:39
Speaker 3: rest of the world. So there's a bit of breaking
39:40
Speaker 3: news from the US. I just want to go to
39:43
Speaker 3: the latest from President Joe Biden.
39:46
Speaker 19: They want to do what they finally got done, and
39:50
Speaker 19: then what we did finally got done, and to make
39:53
Speaker 19: up for it, they want to they want to give
39:57
Speaker 19: power back to big farmer.
40:00
Speaker 2: There you go, Lise, that's a release.
40:03
Speaker 16: I Tucker Carlson interviewing someone this week, and this guy
40:06
Speaker 16: was like, oh, I wish we had a president speaking
40:09
Speaker 16: about Biden who could talk to our nation's history like
40:12
Speaker 16: Putin could in the interview that he did with Putin,
40:15
Speaker 16: and Tucker Carlson said, I'd like to see Biden do
40:17
Speaker 16: an interview where he can explain how to use a microwave.
40:20
Speaker 12: But we're not going to see that either. He's just
40:22
Speaker 12: getting worse and worse.
40:24
Speaker 3: But on a serious note, justin you'd be relieved by
40:26
Speaker 3: those comments from the leader of the free world.
40:31
Speaker 20: Yeah, yeah, I might need you to get you replay
40:34
Speaker 20: it maybe three or four times before I figure it out.
40:36
Speaker 20: And this is the sad thing though, that's a that's
40:39
Speaker 20: America's best. You know, this is what we're told by
40:41
Speaker 20: the Americans. This is the e pluribus unham, this is
40:44
Speaker 20: this is right at the very top, and this is
40:46
Speaker 20: what we get. And the other sides no better.
40:49
Speaker 16: I mean, the other side sentence together terrible. Justin the
40:56
Speaker 16: other side constrain a sentence together.
40:59
Speaker 20: So yeah, well, I'll tell you what and when those
41:01
Speaker 20: sentences come together, they're not much.
41:03
Speaker 2: Let me tell you there.
41:06
Speaker 16: That he puts together, we still have peace in the
41:08
Speaker 16: Middle East and everywhere.
41:11
Speaker 2: Bring a sentence together. The other other way he wants
41:14
Speaker 2: to impose a sentence on him.
41:15
Speaker 3: Now, enough of all that will come back to that
41:18
Speaker 3: later on your thoughts on on the budget. Justin the
41:21
Speaker 3: three hundred dollars energy rebate for everyone, including Gina whin
41:24
Speaker 3: Hart and Kate Lanschett.
41:27
Speaker 20: Look at a it's a This is politics, isn't it.
41:30
Speaker 20: I mean, this is a sugar hit of a budget,
41:33
Speaker 20: is how I would describe it. It's just that nice
41:36
Speaker 20: kind of good, gooey feeling that you can give to
41:39
Speaker 20: everybody so that you know, you get six months down
41:42
Speaker 20: the track you get into trouble over something, whether it's
41:45
Speaker 20: detainees or you can't get a referendum together, you can
41:47
Speaker 20: turn back and say, hey, yeah, but we gave you
41:49
Speaker 20: three hundred bucks so this and this business from the
41:52
Speaker 20: treasurer when he said look yeah, we could have you know,
41:57
Speaker 20: given it to people who really need it and left
41:59
Speaker 20: out the gena right to the world, but it was
42:01
Speaker 20: going to be too complicated. Oh give me a break.
42:03
Speaker 7: There.
42:04
Speaker 20: The government's job, you bum for every cent in taxation,
42:08
Speaker 20: and yet they say, listen, we can't work out who
42:11
Speaker 20: deserves three hundred dollars and who doesn't deserve three hundred dollars.
42:14
Speaker 20: It's good politics from the Labor Party, but it's probably
42:17
Speaker 20: pretty crummy behavior. Yeah, but that's that's why it's not
42:23
Speaker 20: means tested, and that's why it's not targeted because they
42:25
Speaker 20: need it out quick.
42:26
Speaker 2: They need it.
42:26
Speaker 3: They're ready for an election campaign and they couldn't be
42:29
Speaker 3: bugger doing the work.
42:30
Speaker 16: But they've got all the time in the world to
42:31
Speaker 16: do the work. You know, when the budget's due, So
42:35
Speaker 16: why don't you do that? And this budget doesn't give
42:37
Speaker 16: me a guey feeling at all. Justin and certainly everyone
42:40
Speaker 16: who's aware of the extent of our national debt, which
42:44
Speaker 16: this budget does nothing to pay down whatsoever, isn't feeling
42:48
Speaker 16: very gooey at all. When Chalmers said last night this
42:51
Speaker 16: is a budget for decades. Yeah it is, mate, because
42:54
Speaker 16: we'll be paying it off for decades.
42:57
Speaker 12: It's just ridiculous.
42:58
Speaker 16: This is the highest taxing government in twenty three years
43:04
Speaker 16: and maybe we wouldn't mind Chris if they knew how
43:06
Speaker 16: to spend it, but they most certainly don't, and they've
43:09
Speaker 16: made that eye wateringly obvious in this budget.
43:12
Speaker 3: Now it's all about the cost of living and helping
43:14
Speaker 3: people deal with the cost of living pressures. But there's
43:17
Speaker 3: been a bit of attention in the media on Jim
43:19
Speaker 3: Charmer's wife, Laura.
43:21
Speaker 2: Here's a picture of her walking.
43:23
Speaker 3: Into the treasurer's address, and that they've pointed out to
43:27
Speaker 3: us Liz that that dress is worth about nineteen hundred dollars,
43:30
Speaker 3: So that's more than all six energy rebates there in
43:34
Speaker 3: the outfit.
43:36
Speaker 12: Well, let's imagine she hired it, shall we.
43:39
Speaker 16: I mean, it's just one night where it's really important
43:42
Speaker 16: to look a million bucks and gosh she did that.
43:45
Speaker 16: But hey, her husband's on six figures and a very
43:48
Speaker 16: handsome sum it is, so I guess she wasn't going
43:51
Speaker 16: to show up in jeans and a T shirt.
43:53
Speaker 3: Well, she's a good air. Laura used to work with
43:55
Speaker 3: her back in the day. I think she's still with
43:57
Speaker 3: News Corp as a journalist. But it's it's not surprising
44:01
Speaker 3: people are going to point out these things justin when
44:04
Speaker 3: they're handing out our tax dollars on rebates to people
44:08
Speaker 3: on every income level you get. You know, it's what's
44:10
Speaker 3: good for the goose.
44:12
Speaker 2: Is good for the gander.
44:14
Speaker 20: No, well, look, I wouldn't I wouldn't like to go
44:16
Speaker 20: after Jim Chalmer's wife, but I would. I would go
44:19
Speaker 20: after things like travel expenses and the pay that politicians get.
44:24
Speaker 20: And yes, I think when people look at those things,
44:27
Speaker 20: not at the dress, but when they have a look
44:29
Speaker 20: at the things that politicians get, their superannuation, their cars,
44:34
Speaker 20: you know, and I think they're the things that don't
44:36
Speaker 20: pass the pub test and where people feel really left
44:39
Speaker 20: out here. And what about a way for years you
44:42
Speaker 20: can go back to helicopters and stories like that. You know,
44:45
Speaker 20: we were always left out here. You know, there's an
44:48
Speaker 20: elite crew that's that's running this country.
44:51
Speaker 2: What about the.
44:51
Speaker 3: Fact that there's thirty six thousand extra public servants in
44:55
Speaker 3: camera and we've got immigration at the highest level it's
44:59
Speaker 3: ever been. How So how does that make us feel
45:01
Speaker 3: as we're dealing with these cost.
45:02
Speaker 2: Of living pressures? Yeah?
45:06
Speaker 20: Look, I mean you've always got to break it down
45:09
Speaker 20: and say, well, look, what are the public servants doing
45:11
Speaker 20: if we hire thirty six thousand extra public servants and
45:14
Speaker 20: yet they do this amount of work and it's going
45:16
Speaker 20: to mean this amount for the economy.
45:17
Speaker 1: Well that's terrific.
45:18
Speaker 2: So you've always got to qualify it.
45:20
Speaker 20: But the problem is we've seen I think Scott Morrison
45:22
Speaker 20: started this and Anthony ALBINIASI has picked up the ball
45:25
Speaker 20: and run with it. Is this secrecy in our governments
45:28
Speaker 20: that we've seen. You know, they really don't want us
45:31
Speaker 20: to know the detail of too much and they really
45:34
Speaker 20: keep us in the dark. We saw that with the referendum.
45:38
Speaker 20: We saw that many times, you know, when Scott Morrison
45:40
Speaker 20: swore himself in as everything but the Pope, you know,
45:43
Speaker 20: and when all that rubbish is going on, we.
45:45
Speaker 1: Know it's secrecy.
45:46
Speaker 2: It's far too much secrecy.
45:48
Speaker 16: And we saw that recently also when we learned that
45:52
Speaker 16: the PM was sending a memo to his ministers to
45:56
Speaker 16: tell him how to dodge questions in Senate estimates. This
45:59
Speaker 16: is a them that was elected on all these promises
46:02
Speaker 16: ad nauseum of transparency, transparency and there anything but and
46:06
Speaker 16: what that tells us, Chris, is that this is a
46:09
Speaker 16: government that knows that if Australians knew what was really
46:12
Speaker 16: going on, they wouldn't trust the government.
46:14
Speaker 12: So the only their only.
46:16
Speaker 16: Survival tactic that they've got is.
46:18
Speaker 12: To ensure that we don't know what's really going on.
46:20
Speaker 3: And I just think if there's going to be thirty
46:22
Speaker 3: six thousand extra public service in camera, maybe just a
46:25
Speaker 3: dozen of those could have a look at roots in
46:27
Speaker 3: the indis or do something useful like that.
46:29
Speaker 12: Indeed, but look, I've got to well, they budgeted instead
46:34
Speaker 12: what they budgeted.
46:35
Speaker 16: For the NDS, ten percent of that is dedicated to
46:40
Speaker 16: ridding it of the people who are wroughting the NDS system.
46:44
Speaker 12: That's ten percent of the.
46:46
Speaker 16: Billions that they've budgeted for it are actually just to
46:49
Speaker 16: get rid of the people who are milking it unfairly.
46:52
Speaker 3: Now, three things we've got to try and crank through
46:54
Speaker 3: in the last three minutes. First up, some breaking news
46:56
Speaker 3: I want to bring to you and much time to.
46:57
Speaker 2: Talk about it.
46:58
Speaker 3: But Labor Senator Fats Payment has made some controversial comments,
47:02
Speaker 3: breaking with her party over the Gaza war. She thinks
47:07
Speaker 3: that Alberanisi is too soft on Israel. She says this
47:11
Speaker 3: is a genocide by Israel and we need to stop
47:14
Speaker 3: pretending otherwise. She's also used the phrase from the river
47:17
Speaker 3: to the sea, and she's talked about Australia backing the
47:20
Speaker 3: oppressor's right to oppress.
47:22
Speaker 2: So that is a big breakout from the Labor Party
47:24
Speaker 2: on the Middle East.
47:25
Speaker 3: I want to go also to a story we talked
47:27
Speaker 3: about last week, and that's where this Cumberland council in
47:30
Speaker 3: Western City had banned from its library a story about
47:34
Speaker 3: same sex parenting. It looks like the council is going
47:38
Speaker 3: to meet again, just in an overturn that put the
47:41
Speaker 3: book back. I mean, I think you know, when we
47:44
Speaker 3: look at this, it was in the kids section. It
47:46
Speaker 3: might not be the right section for it, but we
47:48
Speaker 3: can't go around banning books, absolutely not.
47:53
Speaker 20: How stupid is this bloody counsel They said that they
47:56
Speaker 20: were going to they debated it, so this is in
47:58
Speaker 20: the news today. They said, oh, we debated this fiercely,
48:01
Speaker 20: and you have a few of them say oh yeah,
48:03
Speaker 20: but we didn't realize that the detail was banning the
48:05
Speaker 20: book completely. I mean, who the hell are some of
48:08
Speaker 20: these people that are in these councils, And now I
48:11
Speaker 20: don't think it should be looking at the book. I
48:13
Speaker 20: had a quick look at parts of the book today.
48:15
Speaker 20: There's no way there should be banned from the kids section.
48:18
Speaker 20: I think let's get whole banning was absolutely outrageous.
48:22
Speaker 2: Let's get a quick view from Liz.
48:23
Speaker 12: No, stand by your decision.
48:25
Speaker 16: This is a council, the constituents of which are from
48:29
Speaker 16: different parts of the world, have very strong cultural and
48:32
Speaker 16: religious beliefs. That's what the six councilors who voted to
48:36
Speaker 16: ban it, for want of better word, that's what they
48:38
Speaker 16: were acting on. And as a city councilor I've been
48:41
Speaker 16: one myself, that's what you're elected to do.
48:43
Speaker 2: What I want. What if they want to ban John
48:45
Speaker 2: Howard's memoir, Oh.
48:47
Speaker 12: Were they really missing out on March?
48:50
Speaker 2: Good reading, John, If you're reading now now, we've got
48:55
Speaker 2: no more time.
48:56
Speaker 12: But it isn't because it's an entirely.
48:58
Speaker 2: Different can't and there's nothing sting.
49:02
Speaker 16: Children from my ideology that is clearly there to get protecting.
49:06
Speaker 2: The awful homosexuals. No time break quick looking.
49:11
Speaker 3: Squeeze this in quick roll of the videotape.
49:30
Speaker 2: Yes, that's it, that's the King's latest portrait. There's a
49:33
Speaker 2: face there amongst the red. We haven't got time to
49:35
Speaker 2: argue about it.
49:36
Speaker 3: Thanks so much for joining us. Justin and for Liz.
49:39
Speaker 3: You can wrangle about that one off here.
49:41
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining me. I'll be back tomorrow night at
49:43
Speaker 2: five o'clock. Cheers,