Latest / Steve Price / Steve Price | 24 April

Transcript

Steve Price | 24 April · Steve Price

0:00
Speaker 1: Live. This is Steam's Price good ending over to the show.
0:05
Speaker 1: What a magnificent spectacule that was on the steps of
0:08
Speaker 1: the Opera House and what a way to head into
0:10
Speaker 1: the Anzac Day weekend. Just spectacular. Everybody involved in that
0:15
Speaker 1: should be very proud of what they just put on.
0:18
Speaker 1: That was magnificent and the veterans deserve our great memories
0:22
Speaker 1: and we will certainly pay tribute to them through the
0:24
Speaker 1: program tonight. An Anzac Day falling on Saturday tomorrow, I
0:28
Speaker 1: hope if you can get along to a dawn service.
0:32
Speaker 1: But sadly I've got to bring some breaking news, some
0:34
Speaker 1: bad news that the military monument terrorists and that's what
0:37
Speaker 1: they are. Well, they've already struck in Port Melbourne throwing
0:41
Speaker 1: red paint over a monument honoring all of the men
0:43
Speaker 1: and women who have served Australia in the Navy, and
0:47
Speaker 1: slogans like US Empire equals debt, vandals and traitors they are.
0:52
Speaker 1: That's exactly what they are. But here's what's coming up
0:54
Speaker 1: on the program tonight. Now the next four days there'll
0:57
Speaker 1: be two very important anniversaries on top of an Zach Day,
1:00
Speaker 1: one involving the inspiring rescue from the beacons Fille gold mine.
1:04
Speaker 1: It will be twenty years ago tomorrow, twenty years that
1:08
Speaker 1: Todd Russell and Brandt Webb were buried in a kilometer underground,
1:13
Speaker 1: only to be rescued two weeks later. And on Tuesday
1:16
Speaker 1: next week, a very sad anniversary thirty years on from
1:20
Speaker 1: the deadly Port Arthur massacre. I'll be joined shortly by
1:23
Speaker 1: former Labor leader Bill Shorton, who was front and center
1:25
Speaker 1: at Beaconsfield, and he'll join me first up, and we
1:28
Speaker 1: will get some memories from Bill on what that period
1:32
Speaker 1: was like. On politics, tonight, green groups are pushing for
1:35
Speaker 1: twenty five percent gas tax on exports that many critics
1:38
Speaker 1: believe could cripple future gas exploration and add to our
1:43
Speaker 1: energy woes. I'll talk with our Friday regular and former
1:45
Speaker 1: Queensland Premier Campbell Newman about that, and we'll talk to
1:49
Speaker 1: the Council on Aging about what appears to be an
1:52
Speaker 1: attack by federal Labor on older Australians around public health
1:56
Speaker 1: care rebates plus GST changes on ABAS care contracts. I
2:01
Speaker 1: guess older Australians are easy targets and many would suggest
2:05
Speaker 1: a lot of them don't vote labor. I'm getting a
2:07
Speaker 1: feeling this upcoming budget could be a horror show plus
2:11
Speaker 1: cartooning legend. Mark Knight on his observations this week and
2:15
Speaker 1: with our panel the crazy plan to make at least
2:18
Speaker 1: half of all public toilets gender neutral. I kid you
2:21
Speaker 1: not right around Australia, I don't know one woman who
2:25
Speaker 1: thinks that is a good idea. I'll get the panel's
2:27
Speaker 1: view on that and the importance of Anzac Day and
2:30
Speaker 1: Ben Roberts Smith's plans for tomorrow. But first up twenty
2:35
Speaker 1: years ago, on Anzac Day two thousand and six, Australia
2:39
Speaker 1: was rocked when a smallish earthquake under Tasmania created a
2:43
Speaker 1: rock fall at a gold mine in the rural community
2:46
Speaker 1: of Beaconsfield. Most Australians had never heard of the mine
2:50
Speaker 1: and never heard of the town attached Beaconsfield, not far
2:53
Speaker 1: from Lonceston. We were soon to learn back twenty years
2:56
Speaker 1: ago that seventeen people were buried underground in the mine
3:01
Speaker 1: when a rock collapse happened. Fourteen of those miners managed
3:04
Speaker 1: to escape straight away, and tragically, one miner, Larry Knight,
3:08
Speaker 1: lost his life and that left Todd Russell and Brandt
3:12
Speaker 1: Webb trapped. They were down under the ground for two long,
3:17
Speaker 1: agonizing weeks. Everyone in Australia came to know as we
3:21
Speaker 1: all hung on every minute of every one of those
3:24
Speaker 1: fourteen or fifteen days the pair were trapped, as I said,
3:27
Speaker 1: a kilomotor underground. It was six amazing days later, six
3:31
Speaker 1: days when miracles upon miracle, the pair heard a noise
3:35
Speaker 1: and started shouting out to rescuers Pat Ball and Steve Saltmarsh.
3:40
Speaker 1: News that they were alive was met with emotional tears
3:44
Speaker 1: of joy from their families and Beaconsfield locals.
3:54
Speaker 2: They're alive, they're talking to us, they're in contact and they're.
3:57
Speaker 1: Going to get them out. Amazing scenes that no one
4:01
Speaker 1: will forget. Then the harsh reality, of course hit as
4:03
Speaker 1: the mining company and the rescuers had to work out
4:06
Speaker 1: how to get that pair out from under that thick rock.
4:10
Speaker 1: Now they were alive, you know.
4:15
Speaker 3: What do we do now there were two hundred tons
4:17
Speaker 3: of rock sitting above them to try and get them out.
4:21
Speaker 1: If it went bad, we kill them. I can remember
4:25
Speaker 1: all of that as if it was yesterday. Breakfast TV
4:27
Speaker 1: shows like Sunrise and The Today Show broadcast live from
4:30
Speaker 1: the mine for the entire two weeks and one of
4:33
Speaker 1: the memories for me was David Kosh hugging the pair
4:36
Speaker 1: when they finally made it to the surface. At the
4:38
Speaker 1: time I thought it pretty over the top, but it
4:41
Speaker 1: showed everyone involved was invested in getting those two blokes
4:45
Speaker 1: out alive. One of those most closely involved was the
4:48
Speaker 1: then National Secretary of the Australian Workers' Union and former
4:52
Speaker 1: Labor Party leader Bill Shorten. He gave daily media updates
4:55
Speaker 1: and worked closely with the families of Webb and Russell
4:58
Speaker 1: and can you imagine what those family members were actually
5:01
Speaker 1: going through, let alone the pair themselves, who, as legend
5:05
Speaker 1: has it, stayed positive by singing the song the Gambler
5:09
Speaker 1: made famous by Kenny Rodgers because it was the only
5:12
Speaker 1: song they both knew that nation fixating event and we
5:16
Speaker 1: must remember Larry Night. That event changed many people's lives
5:20
Speaker 1: over those two weeks, including Bill Shorten, who is currently
5:24
Speaker 1: of course, vice Chancellor of Canberra University and joins us now.
5:28
Speaker 1: Bill welcome. Hard to imagine it was twenty years ago,
5:31
Speaker 1: isn't it.
5:33
Speaker 4: Yeah?
5:33
Speaker 5: Wow?
5:34
Speaker 6: I kept in touch with Brandon Todd and it feels
5:38
Speaker 6: like a long time ago, but it also feels very recent.
5:41
Speaker 6: You know what, I mean, it doesn't doesn't feel like
5:43
Speaker 6: twenty years ago, if that makes sense.
5:47
Speaker 1: You and I looked a lot younger back then. I
5:48
Speaker 1: mean you were actually out of the country, weren't you
5:50
Speaker 1: at the time of that collapse. When the collapse happened.
5:54
Speaker 6: Yeah, I got notified as a secretary of Australian Workers Unit.
5:57
Speaker 6: And because I've been through the long so Long for
6:02
Speaker 6: a few years earlier, where there was a terrible disaster
6:05
Speaker 6: and men died and other men were badly injured, I
6:09
Speaker 6: immediately flew back because I wanted to protect the survivors
6:12
Speaker 6: from the ensuing blame game, which unfortunately accompanies these things.
6:17
Speaker 6: But of course in coming back, everyone said, oh, they're gone, Bill,
6:21
Speaker 6: the three of them are not coming.
6:22
Speaker 5: They're they're gone.
6:24
Speaker 6: But then the miners who were doing the rescue the
6:28
Speaker 6: recovery never gave up on them, and they said, until
6:30
Speaker 6: we've got all of the bodies, they could still be alive.
6:33
Speaker 5: This was ordinary rank and file miners.
6:36
Speaker 6: And get what then sixties six days after they disappeared
6:40
Speaker 6: underground and nearly a kilometer underground, we got that incredible
6:44
Speaker 6: news that they were alive. It was unbelievable. And then
6:48
Speaker 6: of course the rescue took so much, you know, took
6:52
Speaker 6: another nine days. It was an amazing bit of time.
6:56
Speaker 1: Well, just as I showed there, I mean, it was
6:58
Speaker 1: one thing for so the guys to actually make the
7:01
Speaker 1: noise and make contact with their rescuers, but then the
7:05
Speaker 1: mining company and importantly your members, the miners themselves, who
7:09
Speaker 1: knew what exactly was happening underground there, they had to
7:12
Speaker 1: work out how to extract them. I mean that was
7:14
Speaker 1: the hard part, wasn't it.
7:16
Speaker 6: It was an amazing feat What happened was that the rescuers,
7:20
Speaker 6: I mean, I love our special forces in our military
7:23
Speaker 6: and police, and there were some great paramedics there. But
7:25
Speaker 6: the actual rescuers in this case were nine miners, eight
7:29
Speaker 6: of whom were their fellow workmates, and they worked in
7:32
Speaker 6: six hour shifts, three at a time, one holding the
7:35
Speaker 6: drill ah, one holding the hose of the drill, and
7:38
Speaker 6: one clearing the slurry. They drilled through the hardest rock
7:42
Speaker 6: imaginable in a ninety centimeter diameter hole. It was just
7:49
Speaker 6: backbreaking work and this was their own workmates rescue them.
7:54
Speaker 6: Quite quite something, it was, but everyone worked, you know,
7:57
Speaker 6: the Tazzi, police, the company, everyone was that everyone.
8:03
Speaker 5: Was part of the paramedics. It was genuinely these men
8:07
Speaker 5: were rescued from.
8:07
Speaker 6: The earth, the bowels of the earth, by their own courage,
8:11
Speaker 6: and of course just the relentless never give up attitude
8:14
Speaker 6: of people who never wanted a medal, never wanted attention,
8:17
Speaker 6: They just never gave up on their mates.
8:20
Speaker 1: How was it dealing with the families in that previous
8:23
Speaker 1: six days when we weren't sure if they were alive,
8:27
Speaker 1: were not alive. That must the families must have gone
8:29
Speaker 1: through absolute horror.
8:33
Speaker 5: Keeps it real?
8:34
Speaker 6: I mean, I remember meeting Brand's wife door Knott went
8:39
Speaker 6: to see her, paying my respects, and she said, I
8:42
Speaker 6: remember Rachel saying to me, oh, he's alive.
8:45
Speaker 5: And I remember thinking, poor lady, she's in denial. I
8:48
Speaker 5: didn't say that, but you'd think that.
8:50
Speaker 6: And she said, no, no, I got his driver's license
8:52
Speaker 6: in the mail since he disappeared, and that's a sign
8:55
Speaker 6: to me that he's alive. And she was right and
8:58
Speaker 6: everyone else was wrong. And you know that lady you
9:02
Speaker 6: showed earlier, was Todd's mum. These were brilliant people. And
9:06
Speaker 6: one thing which is a very interesting experience when you're
9:08
Speaker 6: communicating with the media is a lot of people, you know,
9:11
Speaker 6: do interviews and talk and all of that, but I
9:14
Speaker 6: knew that every time I opened my mouth, I had
9:16
Speaker 6: to sit down with the family that night and watch
9:18
Speaker 6: it on the couch as they were watching it. And
9:21
Speaker 6: you know, that's a really important lesson that keep it real,
9:25
Speaker 6: keep it real, keep it real. I can't say that's
9:27
Speaker 6: always happened in politics, but it was amazing when you
9:31
Speaker 6: know people and this is a thing, Steve, and you've
9:34
Speaker 6: covered many different major media and national international stories. Some
9:38
Speaker 6: in the media wanted to be, you know, sensationalists, and
9:41
Speaker 6: you know they're a deaf store every second. Some in
9:43
Speaker 6: the mining industry wanted me to make it out that
9:45
Speaker 6: it was more like a you know, it was a
9:47
Speaker 6: holiday camp underground. The truth was in between the were
9:50
Speaker 6: moments of great peril. Like in the first six days.
9:53
Speaker 6: These men were pretty heroic. They could hear the noise
9:56
Speaker 6: being prepared for explosions to try and clear through the
9:59
Speaker 6: rock because I think people thought they were gone, and
10:02
Speaker 6: so on a number of occasions they could hear the
10:04
Speaker 6: build up preparations for an explosion and they thought they
10:08
Speaker 6: were going to die any number of times. So it
10:10
Speaker 6: wasn't just the initial incident. These are very brave fellas
10:14
Speaker 6: and Goodness only knows how anyone else would have coped
10:19
Speaker 6: in their circumstances. They never asked to be there, but
10:22
Speaker 6: they are heroes. And I know that word gets used
10:24
Speaker 6: a lot. These are modest blokes. They're not up themselves.
10:27
Speaker 6: They're just straight ordinary Aussies. But they were just amazing,
10:32
Speaker 6: and their families well.
10:33
Speaker 1: All the rest of us, I mean all the rest
10:34
Speaker 1: of us would just say, well, how could you possibly
10:39
Speaker 1: remain mentally positive when you're laying under tons and tons
10:43
Speaker 1: and tons of rock And as you say, Bill, you
10:45
Speaker 1: know they could hear people talking about, you know, small explosions.
10:49
Speaker 1: We might have to blow this joint up to actually
10:51
Speaker 1: get them out of there. I mean, we were sending
10:54
Speaker 1: in things like iPods with music, and I think one
10:58
Speaker 1: of the guys was saying in an interview recently that
11:00
Speaker 1: he didn't even know how to work it and when
11:02
Speaker 1: he tried to turn it on, it didn't properly work.
11:04
Speaker 1: But unless you'd got that pipe in there to get
11:07
Speaker 1: food and water, there was to them.
11:10
Speaker 5: There was an initial pipe I wouldn't have lifted.
11:12
Speaker 6: There was an initial pipe drilled through and then the
11:17
Speaker 6: broader shaft, and I think people found it complicated to
11:21
Speaker 6: understand this said, or surely if there are only you know,
11:23
Speaker 6: hundreds of meters away, it's it's not like going down.
11:26
Speaker 5: It was seven eleven to get a lid or of milk.
11:29
Speaker 6: This is this is the substrata of the earth. It
11:32
Speaker 6: was nine hundred and twenty five meters below the surface.
11:36
Speaker 6: The amount of rock which fell on them was the
11:38
Speaker 6: equivalent I remember one geologist telling me the equivalent of
11:41
Speaker 6: a seven four seven collapsing on them. It was freaked
11:46
Speaker 6: luck that they were in the cage. Of course, as you,
11:49
Speaker 6: I think really nicely and appropriately mentioned, one of their
11:53
Speaker 6: number did not survive, Larry Knight. But it was a
11:57
Speaker 6: freak that they survived the initial collapse rock fall, and
12:02
Speaker 6: then the fact that they kept it together for fifteen days.
12:05
Speaker 5: I when I love the story.
12:06
Speaker 1: Though.
12:06
Speaker 5: They were very funny blokes.
12:08
Speaker 6: At one point someone said to them, sent them down sustagen,
12:12
Speaker 6: because apparently that's you know, I'm not product placing it,
12:15
Speaker 6: but sustagen.
12:17
Speaker 5: But the blokes didn't really want to eat sausage.
12:18
Speaker 6: And so imagine at some point in thousands zi year's time,
12:22
Speaker 6: someone's going to drill down there perhaps and find their
12:24
Speaker 6: supply of sustagen and people who were working.
12:26
Speaker 5: How did that get underground? Anyway, it was the blokes.
12:29
Speaker 6: They didn't I think they actually made amends with Sustage
12:32
Speaker 6: and too.
12:33
Speaker 5: Brandon Todd tell a story.
12:34
Speaker 1: But I remember this was this was nine years. This
12:38
Speaker 1: was nine years after Stuart Diver and we went through that,
12:42
Speaker 1: of course when he got buried at Threadbow. I don't
12:45
Speaker 1: think anything, you know that. And then this had so
12:48
Speaker 1: captured at that time Australia and live television coveted it.
12:53
Speaker 1: The whole country was invested in trying to get those
12:56
Speaker 1: two blokes out of there. Yes, that's true.
12:59
Speaker 6: I remember the men said to each other apparently, oh
13:01
Speaker 6: you reckon, because they're in Norvantas in their long cestern
13:04
Speaker 6: and got under Santas's several little countries in one and
13:07
Speaker 6: they I think they said, oh I reckon.
13:09
Speaker 5: This will make the Mercury well made CNN in the world.
13:15
Speaker 6: And I think, though I've often thought White, I think
13:18
Speaker 6: that Beaconsfield story and this is now about the whole community.
13:22
Speaker 6: It revealed a slice of Australia that perhaps people by
13:24
Speaker 6: two thousand and six hadn't realized. Still existed. There was
13:28
Speaker 6: the bottom pub, the middle pub, and the top pub.
13:30
Speaker 6: There was the Chinese restaurant. It revealed a slice of Australia.
13:36
Speaker 6: Of course, suddenly forty kilometers from the middle of Long Cestern,
13:39
Speaker 6: so the media ended up being able to get there.
13:41
Speaker 6: This wasn't a rescue done in the middle of northwestern Australia.
13:44
Speaker 5: This was done sort.
13:46
Speaker 6: Of within range of a whole lot of people, and
13:49
Speaker 6: it opened up a slice of life of Australia which
13:52
Speaker 6: doesn't often get seen. And I think it showed also
13:54
Speaker 6: people that the mining industry, despite its marvelous contribution and
13:58
Speaker 6: on all its marvelous advances, is hazardous work anyway.
14:03
Speaker 5: And mining is an international proposition.
14:06
Speaker 6: I mean, maybe if we'd at a kangaroo trap the
14:08
Speaker 6: rest of the world it doesn't have kangaroos, but the
14:10
Speaker 6: rest of the world has mining. So it was a
14:12
Speaker 6: story which I think was translatable all in all, you know,
14:17
Speaker 6: in all countries.
14:20
Speaker 1: And a story with a happy ending. Good to see
14:21
Speaker 1: you again, Bill Shorton, Thanks thanks very much for joining us.
14:25
Speaker 1: Good on you Well, that was just amazing, I tell
14:27
Speaker 1: you what, it was extraordinary to watch that unfolded live
14:31
Speaker 1: on television. Incredible Okay, let's move on to the Federal government.
14:35
Speaker 1: Now they've done a backflip on age care this week
14:38
Speaker 1: they've moved to dump its controversial decision that led some
14:42
Speaker 1: older Australians and this has been a scandal to pay
14:45
Speaker 1: more than fifty dollars an hour for basic things like
14:48
Speaker 1: getting someone to come and help them shower. It is
14:50
Speaker 1: the result of a furious backlash from older Australians and
14:53
Speaker 1: their families. That's just six months after the changes Labor
14:57
Speaker 1: put them in on November one. And what we should
15:00
Speaker 1: you'd be doing here is working out a way to
15:01
Speaker 1: look after older Australians. Joining us now, Deputy Chief Executive
15:05
Speaker 1: Officer for CO to the Council Council on Aging in Australia,
15:10
Speaker 1: Corey Earlam, good I, Corey good Na, thank you for
15:13
Speaker 1: coming and to join us. Is this a good news story?
15:17
Speaker 1: Have they actually backflip? Have they actually backflipped properly? Oh?
15:23
Speaker 7: Look, this has got a mixed bag review in some respects.
15:27
Speaker 7: It's great news that we're no longer seeing older people
15:30
Speaker 7: having to choose whether they can afford to have a
15:32
Speaker 7: shower when they've reached that point in life where they're
15:35
Speaker 7: healths to tear out and they need support to.
15:37
Speaker 1: Shower at home.
15:38
Speaker 7: As you reported, some people were saying they were being
15:40
Speaker 7: charged up to fifty dollars an hour. So the fact
15:43
Speaker 7: that governments now move this into what's called clinical care
15:46
Speaker 7: that they fully fund is a very welcome move. But
15:51
Speaker 7: also in the same announcement they announced things like private
15:54
Speaker 7: health insurance. It's worrying a lot of people.
15:58
Speaker 1: Yes it is. Look, I'm about to go through this
15:59
Speaker 1: whole in care at home for my mother who's ninety one,
16:05
Speaker 1: and you know, trying to get to bottom of how
16:08
Speaker 1: to make that all work for a person is very
16:12
Speaker 1: difficult for I mean, how do you get assessed properly?
16:16
Speaker 1: What happens when you get an assessment that's not quite right?
16:19
Speaker 1: Who can you appeal to? I mean, you see, whenever
16:21
Speaker 1: you call anybody, you end up sitting on the end
16:24
Speaker 1: of a very long line on the telephone. Yeah.
16:28
Speaker 7: Look, I think the most important thing for people who
16:30
Speaker 7: are in the system, like your mother if she's had
16:32
Speaker 7: an assessment, is look at the letter that you receive,
16:35
Speaker 7: and that letter will tell you what your review or
16:38
Speaker 7: appeal rights will be, who you need to contact, how
16:41
Speaker 7: you go through through that. So often you can ask
16:43
Speaker 7: for a reconsideration of that assessment by going back to
16:47
Speaker 7: the person who did the assessment and goes through their boss.
16:50
Speaker 7: If you're still not happy with that, you can go
16:52
Speaker 7: through an independent review by the Department. If you're still
16:56
Speaker 7: not happy with that. There is now some decisions of
16:59
Speaker 7: government that can be reviewed to the Administration Review Tribunal
17:03
Speaker 7: the AART. And that's a new thing that wasn't there
17:06
Speaker 7: in the old Act before one November. So in some respects,
17:09
Speaker 7: this teething problems for the system is challenging for people.
17:13
Speaker 7: Everybody's trying to learn it, trying to get it right,
17:15
Speaker 7: and that has consequences for older people. But there are
17:18
Speaker 7: some good bones in that structure, like being able to
17:21
Speaker 7: review through to ART that hopefully will help people when
17:24
Speaker 7: they get into some of those tricky situations.
17:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just don't know how people in their nineties
17:28
Speaker 1: are supposed to do that. This front page story in
17:30
Speaker 1: the Australian Today, revelations to Governor has quietly expanded the
17:34
Speaker 1: GST to cover optional age care living fees, potentially raises
17:39
Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty million dollars annually, which is a
17:42
Speaker 1: drop in the bucket for the federal government. But it
17:44
Speaker 1: does increase costs for elderly residents and there's been no
17:48
Speaker 1: public consultation. How's that happened.
17:52
Speaker 7: We're not really sure, to be honest with you. This
17:54
Speaker 7: is the first we heard about it when we saw
17:56
Speaker 7: it in Australia this morning. We know from our research
17:59
Speaker 7: about one in four people over the age fifty are
18:01
Speaker 7: in poverty. If you're one of those people and you're
18:05
Speaker 7: being asked to pay ten percent more for these things,
18:08
Speaker 7: then that's going to really hurt you. So we're looking
18:10
Speaker 7: forward to finding out from government what this means, whether
18:14
Speaker 7: this is something that will be rectified or whether it's
18:16
Speaker 7: just been a mistake. We'll see that over the coming weeks.
18:20
Speaker 7: It will take time.
18:22
Speaker 1: And just finally, the government's also decided today to scrap
18:25
Speaker 1: higher private health insurance rebates for anyone over sixty five,
18:29
Speaker 1: even more slashing if you're over the age of seventy.
18:35
Speaker 7: Yeah, So what happens today is there's a base rate
18:37
Speaker 7: of about twenty four percent that all people pay, and
18:41
Speaker 7: then if you're between sixty five and sixty nine you
18:44
Speaker 7: get an extra four percent, and if you're over seventy
18:46
Speaker 7: eg an extra eight percent. What government's announced is those
18:49
Speaker 7: extras for people over seventy or over sixty five will
18:52
Speaker 7: go and everybody will pay the same amount. So it's
18:55
Speaker 7: really important that your listeners understand that they're not getting
18:57
Speaker 7: rid of the rebate, but they are reduced it if
19:00
Speaker 7: you're over the age of sixty five. What we can tell,
19:03
Speaker 7: and we'll have to see budget papers to work out
19:05
Speaker 7: the details, but from what we can tell, it's about
19:07
Speaker 7: a dollar a day on average that a person will
19:10
Speaker 7: be asked to pay with you or two people paying
19:12
Speaker 7: double that for a sick couple, or with your paying
19:15
Speaker 7: as a single, and that's going to hurt those people
19:18
Speaker 7: who have a significantly lower income, people who are full pinchers,
19:22
Speaker 7: don't have a lot of assets. When we talk to
19:24
Speaker 7: older people, they tell us that they want to absolutely
19:27
Speaker 7: keep their private health insurance, and so that we're probably
19:30
Speaker 7: right to hear for mister Butler, they're expecting only a
19:33
Speaker 7: zero point four percent or forty four thousand people to
19:36
Speaker 7: drop their private health insurance because of it. But the
19:39
Speaker 7: untold side of that story that older people tell us
19:42
Speaker 7: is that they won't use their private health insurance as
19:46
Speaker 7: much if they haven't got the funds to do so,
19:48
Speaker 7: so they'll have the private insurance as a bit of
19:50
Speaker 7: an insurance policy. If something goes wrong, they break a hip,
19:52
Speaker 7: they cover four they need to go to hospital, but
19:55
Speaker 7: they won't be able to utilize it as much where
19:56
Speaker 7: they've got a co payment to actually access some of
19:58
Speaker 7: those health services.
20:01
Speaker 1: Tacking older Australians in the cost of living crisis. Can't
20:03
Speaker 1: believe it, Corey, thank you very much for joining us.
20:05
Speaker 1: Appreciate it. Coming up after the break with ANZAC Day
20:08
Speaker 1: tomorrow we take a look at the mystery of some
20:11
Speaker 1: missing war medals. They were found at Melbourne's Flinders Street
20:13
Speaker 1: station and the mission to return them to their rightful owners.
20:17
Speaker 1: That's up next. Go back to Steve Price with you
20:22
Speaker 1: ANZAC Day tomorrow. If anyone, if you possibly can get
20:26
Speaker 1: out to a dawn service tomorrow, that'll be a wonderful
20:28
Speaker 1: thing to do. We see such big crowds at dawn service,
20:31
Speaker 1: particularly in places like Sydney and Melbourne, but in every
20:34
Speaker 1: little regional town right across the country. These ANZAC day services,
20:39
Speaker 1: dawn service that a march happens, doesn't matter how small
20:42
Speaker 1: the community is. You know, I worry sometimes that we're
20:45
Speaker 1: going to lose that Anzac spirit, but I don't believe
20:49
Speaker 1: that we will on that. I want to go to
20:51
Speaker 1: a mystery of a World War Two service medals. They
20:54
Speaker 1: were uncovered bazally or found bizarrely at Melbourne's Flinders Street Station. Now,
20:59
Speaker 1: after protecting the RSL and other groups, it was Herald
21:03
Speaker 1: Sunder reporter Grace Frost who actually took on the challenge
21:06
Speaker 1: of reuniting these mementoes with their rightful owner.
21:11
Speaker 8: I went inside the Flinders Street Station Lost Property office
21:14
Speaker 8: last week. Someone's left behind their prized World War II
21:18
Speaker 8: service medals and metro trains contacted every group you could
21:22
Speaker 8: think of before coming to us. Now we're hunting for
21:24
Speaker 8: the owner or next of kin with your help.
21:27
Speaker 9: So recap we know these were.
21:28
Speaker 8: Rewarded to Herbert Hepburn, who served from nineteen forty two
21:32
Speaker 8: to nineteen forty six. He was born in nineteen oh
21:35
Speaker 8: four in New South Wales. His mother was Adeline Matilda Hepburn.
21:39
Speaker 8: And that's about it. Since holding these medals, I haven't
21:43
Speaker 8: been able to stop thinking about this mystery. So in
21:46
Speaker 8: typical journalist fashion, I got digging and I cannot believe
21:51
Speaker 8: what I found.
21:53
Speaker 1: And our good Samaritan Grace Frost joins us in the studio.
21:56
Speaker 1: Good on you.
21:57
Speaker 9: Thanks.
21:57
Speaker 1: You're not going to let this go, are you? I'm not.
21:59
Speaker 9: Once I start looking into something, I just can't stop. Really,
22:03
Speaker 9: was it?
22:04
Speaker 1: I loved the name of her soul, Herbert hipbur Yeah,
22:08
Speaker 1: it's such a name of someone from the nineteen twenties.
22:12
Speaker 1: So where did he serve exactly?
22:14
Speaker 8: So what we know just by looking into the medals
22:17
Speaker 8: themselves is he served during World War Two and he
22:21
Speaker 8: also served during the Pacific in the Pacific Theater as well,
22:24
Speaker 8: after Pearl Harbor. Actually getting onto his relatives whoever got
22:29
Speaker 8: handed down these medals though, has been a bit of
22:32
Speaker 8: a challenge.
22:33
Speaker 1: So I've got a set of replica medals. These are
22:36
Speaker 1: be replicas or are these the originals?
22:38
Speaker 8: You know that these are the original medals. His name
22:41
Speaker 8: is inscribed on the back of two of them. Metro
22:44
Speaker 8: Trains went to extreme lengths to try and locate the
22:48
Speaker 8: owner when they were handed in in November last year.
22:52
Speaker 9: They were able to.
22:53
Speaker 8: Find his enlistment date in nineteen forty two. They served
22:58
Speaker 8: to nineteen forty six Mother Adeline Matilda, but that.
23:01
Speaker 9: Was that was it.
23:03
Speaker 1: So these days with ancestry Dot comm and stuff. If
23:06
Speaker 1: you can do that sort of research, have you managed
23:10
Speaker 1: to narrow down exactly who he was, where he grew up,
23:13
Speaker 1: where he joined up.
23:14
Speaker 8: So I, as well as lots of readers, started this
23:17
Speaker 8: wild hunt.
23:19
Speaker 9: I'm not kidding.
23:19
Speaker 8: The amount of readers that have messaged me and that
23:22
Speaker 8: have got on board with this hunt is just remarkable,
23:25
Speaker 8: especially like you were saying, spirit Avans.
23:27
Speaker 9: Act day, so good to see.
23:29
Speaker 8: So, I mean, I've got this list in front of
23:31
Speaker 8: me here of what we found ancestry, newspaper clippings, New
23:36
Speaker 8: South Wales and Victorian records. We know his father, We
23:39
Speaker 8: know he was one of five, he was the youngest.
23:41
Speaker 8: We know he married a woman, Nancy, in nineteen forty eight.
23:46
Speaker 8: We know that they had a child together in nineteen
23:48
Speaker 8: fifty one from a birth announcement.
23:51
Speaker 1: To be seventy three seventy four.
23:53
Speaker 8: Yeah, so he though hasn't We haven't been able to
23:57
Speaker 8: find any records of him since two thousand and five.
24:01
Speaker 1: So is there a Melbourne connection? Did he live here?
24:04
Speaker 9: So this is the thing.
24:05
Speaker 8: We've been able to track some nephews and nieces as well.
24:09
Speaker 9: We think there might be a Melbourne connection.
24:11
Speaker 8: But I am so stumped still of how these medals
24:14
Speaker 8: that started in New South Wales have ended up at
24:17
Speaker 8: a Melbourne train station. And really, honestly that's why I'm
24:20
Speaker 8: here with you tonight. I'm hoping your viewers might be
24:22
Speaker 8: able to jump on board, especially with Anzac Day tomorrow.
24:25
Speaker 1: So there's no suggestion. I don't think that they were stolen.
24:29
Speaker 8: No, yeah, the fact that they were handed in right
24:33
Speaker 8: around Remembrance Day in November. These medals are tattered and worn,
24:37
Speaker 8: they're sticky taped together, they're pinned. It's a clear indication
24:41
Speaker 8: to me that they have been worn proudly over decades.
24:45
Speaker 1: Because the replicas I've got got a very big long
24:49
Speaker 1: like a pin at the back.
24:50
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, yep, same with these.
24:53
Speaker 1: So someone's worn them in a march you think.
24:55
Speaker 9: I think someone's warn them to Remembrance Day.
24:57
Speaker 8: I think someone's come into Melbourne and you know how
25:00
Speaker 8: easy is it to be on the train, could have
25:02
Speaker 8: easily fallen off, put you in your bag and you've
25:04
Speaker 8: you've gotten up without them, and to me, like, it's
25:07
Speaker 8: just devastating that a piece of someone's history has just
25:10
Speaker 8: been left behind and I'm desperate.
25:13
Speaker 1: To find So, if someone's watching tonight who knows Herbert
25:18
Speaker 1: and you know, wants to help get them back to
25:22
Speaker 1: their rightful loan or can they contact us? They contact you?
25:25
Speaker 8: Yeah, absolutely, send me, send me an email Grayce dot
25:28
Speaker 8: Frost at news dot com dot Au. Metro trains are
25:31
Speaker 8: also on this hunt as well, so you can get
25:33
Speaker 8: in contact with the Lost Property office at Fundas Street station.
25:36
Speaker 8: But when that happens, when that reunion happens, I'm so
25:39
Speaker 8: desperate to be there, I cannot wait to see you a.
25:42
Speaker 1: Young Australian obviously, I just give you a tribute for
25:47
Speaker 1: the doggedness in this because it could be just seen
25:50
Speaker 1: as an old bunch of old medals and someone could
25:52
Speaker 1: have forgotten.
25:52
Speaker 9: No, absolutely not. I think this is a treasure.
25:56
Speaker 8: It's connection to someone's past and how horrible that it
26:00
Speaker 8: not with them.
26:01
Speaker 1: Fantastic good on you. I hope we can help you
26:03
Speaker 1: out when you find them. Let us know, well, Grace
26:06
Speaker 1: Frost there, Okay, let's take a closer look now at
26:09
Speaker 1: the looming by elections is going to happen in Farah
26:11
Speaker 1: in two weeks tomorrow. Activist group Get Up apparently have
26:15
Speaker 1: poured six hundred thousand dollars into the campaign. For the
26:21
Speaker 1: so called independent one candidate in that race joining me now,
26:27
Speaker 1: and I know he'll be pretty happy about what we
26:28
Speaker 1: were just talking about. From a Queensland premier Campbell Newman Campbell,
26:32
Speaker 1: how good's grace?
26:34
Speaker 2: I'll look just said sensational to see her pursuing that
26:38
Speaker 2: so doggedly, and I just feel that it's going to
26:41
Speaker 2: pay off.
26:42
Speaker 1: That'd be great. Well, let's hope that where are your
26:46
Speaker 1: your service medals? You keep them in good shape.
26:51
Speaker 2: Well, listen, mate, I've only got one or two. I
26:56
Speaker 2: served in the Australian Army, the most peaceful period I
26:58
Speaker 2: think since World War II all be it was thirteen years.
27:02
Speaker 2: But I proudly take my father's, my late father's medals
27:06
Speaker 2: out on Anzac Day and he served in Malaya and
27:10
Speaker 2: in Vietnam. So that's part of our family tradition.
27:16
Speaker 1: Yeah. My uncle was one of the Rats of Brook
27:18
Speaker 1: incredibly served all that time in the North African desert.
27:23
Speaker 1: And then when they pulled the rats out of there
27:25
Speaker 1: and they came back to Australia, they were here for
27:27
Speaker 1: five minutes and they sent them up to Papua New Guinea.
27:30
Speaker 1: So he certainly did it tough and he had a
27:31
Speaker 1: tough life afterwards. What do you think is going to
27:34
Speaker 1: happen in Farah? Oh?
27:37
Speaker 2: Look, I think at this stage it's looking like David Farley,
27:42
Speaker 2: the One Nation candidate, will win. Most recent poll that
27:46
Speaker 2: I saw had him slightly in front of a two
27:48
Speaker 2: party preferred basis, but it is very, very close in
27:52
Speaker 2: terms of primary vote. I think he's on thirty one
27:55
Speaker 2: percent and Michelle mill thought the Independent is there at
28:02
Speaker 2: thirty So you know, I hope David Farley wins. I've
28:07
Speaker 2: met him personally in the past and a previous occupation
28:11
Speaker 2: I was involved in agri business and he's a highly
28:13
Speaker 2: respected agri business sort of identity is the way i'd
28:17
Speaker 2: put it, So I hope he wins. I don't think that,
28:20
Speaker 2: you know, the Nats and the Liberals, they're out of
28:23
Speaker 2: the race in terms of primary. I mean, I suppose
28:27
Speaker 2: the vagaries of preferences could see something weird happening, but
28:30
Speaker 2: I can't see that. So it's really a race between
28:33
Speaker 2: those two.
28:34
Speaker 1: What does it say about the coalition though? I mean,
28:37
Speaker 1: Susan Lee held that seat what for twelve years, and
28:42
Speaker 1: you've got to look at that seat a little bit
28:44
Speaker 1: differently because you've got Aubrey with Donga on the river.
28:46
Speaker 1: So the Albury side is in New South Wales, so
28:49
Speaker 1: you've got a lot of people who live in a
28:50
Speaker 1: very large it's not a country town, it's a regional city.
28:55
Speaker 1: And so she the Independent would have quite a lot
28:58
Speaker 1: of support there. But this seat stretches all the way
29:01
Speaker 1: to the South Australian border. And as I understand it
29:04
Speaker 1: watching excellent interviews that Peter Kreedlin did with the candidates,
29:08
Speaker 1: water is the big issue and this so called Independent
29:12
Speaker 1: it's getting six hundred grand from get up of all people. Well, look, you.
29:18
Speaker 2: Know they'd be for everything to do with cutting back
29:22
Speaker 2: the resources, the natural resources available to agriculture, where it
29:26
Speaker 2: be some view on land clearing, whether the march of
29:30
Speaker 2: solar panels and transmission lines and windmills across the Pristern
29:35
Speaker 2: countryside of Australia. I mean, that's who they support, that's
29:40
Speaker 2: their agenda. And you know, I don't know how anybody
29:42
Speaker 2: in regional Australia could support a candidate being backed by
29:47
Speaker 2: them taking that sort of frankly tainted money. That's against
29:52
Speaker 2: the interests of people in that community. The other thing
29:54
Speaker 2: I'll say, of course, this corall was a very important
29:57
Speaker 2: location for the formation of the Liberal Party, as I recall,
30:02
Speaker 2: means he's getting people together in that part of the
30:04
Speaker 2: world around the end of World War II. So you
30:09
Speaker 2: know it was Tim Fisher's seat as well. It was
30:12
Speaker 2: held by him as a NAT So it is a
30:15
Speaker 2: sad state of affairs.
30:18
Speaker 1: I've done Susan le a dis service. You held that
30:20
Speaker 1: seat for twenty five years. Just quickly the newsicalt papers
30:24
Speaker 1: today that had a pole suggesting young young Australians believe
30:27
Speaker 1: a world war is going to happen in the next
30:29
Speaker 1: five years, are not prepared to make any personal sacrifices,
30:33
Speaker 1: which means would you fight for your nation? I'm not sure.
30:36
Speaker 1: I'm surprised by that result.
30:38
Speaker 2: Sadly well, Steve, I've got a number of views on
30:43
Speaker 2: this because there's some interesting stuff in it. Firstly, i'd
30:47
Speaker 2: make the point that for a young Australian to want
30:49
Speaker 2: to sort of fight for the country, I think the
30:52
Speaker 2: issue of home ownership looms large. If you can't get
30:55
Speaker 2: a stake in the nation, you might be having a
30:59
Speaker 2: rather jaundice view at the moment about that particular country.
31:02
Speaker 2: But I also make this point for the historians out
31:05
Speaker 2: there that. In nineteen thirty three at the Oxford Union
31:09
Speaker 2: in the UK, there was a resolution that was debated
31:13
Speaker 2: this House will, under no circumstances, fight for King and
31:16
Speaker 2: country and that was past. Sixty four percent voted for that,
31:21
Speaker 2: and at the time it was a national disgrace and
31:23
Speaker 2: it was hotly contested and debated. But you know what's
31:27
Speaker 2: six years later, those same probably mainly young men, were
31:30
Speaker 2: there flying spitfires and hurricanes in the Battle of Britain
31:33
Speaker 2: and sort of being involved in the retreat from Dunkirk.
31:37
Speaker 2: They stood up and served, so I think young Australians would.
31:40
Speaker 2: But there's also some stats in here that you know,
31:43
Speaker 2: forty five percent of boomers in that survey, so you
31:46
Speaker 2: and me, mate, forty five percent of our cohort said
31:50
Speaker 2: they didn't want to fight. But thirty three percent of
31:53
Speaker 2: gen Z though said they didn't want to fight. So
31:56
Speaker 2: seems to me they're more inclined to stand up and.
31:58
Speaker 1: Fight for the country.
31:59
Speaker 2: And finally, sixty nine percent of boomers support national service
32:04
Speaker 2: for that age group.
32:05
Speaker 1: Of course, we do well because we don't have to.
32:09
Speaker 1: I don't have to do it. What a surprise. Yeah, look,
32:12
Speaker 1: there's water and meets the ice Steve un alaievable. Good
32:16
Speaker 1: on you, great catch up. See you next Friday. Cambe
32:19
Speaker 1: Newman there coming up Cartoons of the week with the
32:22
Speaker 1: cartoon ingenius Mark Knight actually price with your panel coming
32:29
Speaker 1: up shortly. Got some great topics for them tonight. There's
32:32
Speaker 1: been another big week in news. There's only one man
32:35
Speaker 1: who can sum it up in a simple striking image.
32:38
Speaker 1: Heralds on Cartoons. Mark Knight joins us every couple of
32:41
Speaker 1: weeks you've been on fire again. See the NDI is
32:45
Speaker 1: not something that is leaps to mind, that would generally
32:49
Speaker 1: pretty prompt the cartoon, But you have done one on
32:52
Speaker 1: the nd S. Who have we got here?
32:55
Speaker 4: Well, look, you know they said that they were redesigning
32:58
Speaker 4: it and tinkering with it and doing a sort of
33:00
Speaker 4: things with it, and well I think they just want
33:02
Speaker 4: to get people what they want. One hundred and sixty
33:05
Speaker 4: thousand people off the scheme. Yes, And so I thought
33:08
Speaker 4: they've come up with this new wheelchair which has an
33:13
Speaker 4: ejection They have all these sorts of things, these fantastic,
33:16
Speaker 4: tastic wheelchairs. Now they have an ejection seat.
33:18
Speaker 1: So let's hope that's not a genuine idea. Carton Football club.
33:23
Speaker 1: They got themselves in all sorts of trouble. And I've
33:25
Speaker 1: written a column about this in the paper tomorrow, about
33:27
Speaker 1: Elijah Hollins, who was out there on the ground and
33:31
Speaker 1: clearly should not have been. I don't know what the
33:33
Speaker 1: people of Carton were doing. Then they're saying they've been bullied.
33:35
Speaker 1: How have you drawn this?
33:36
Speaker 8: Well?
33:37
Speaker 4: I think we were wondering what was going through the
33:39
Speaker 4: minds of the Carlton coaching bench. You know, we're all
33:42
Speaker 4: watching it.
33:44
Speaker 1: How many seventy five Dave Hughes was on the grandstand.
33:47
Speaker 4: He's twenty alive exactly, so we're thinking, when are they
33:51
Speaker 4: going to do something?
33:53
Speaker 1: And as the cartoon, I think their.
33:55
Speaker 4: Reaction was seeing nothing, hear nothing, do nothing, say nothing.
33:59
Speaker 1: That's exactly what they did, absolutely nothing. I'm not sure
34:03
Speaker 1: Michael Vosslbill that happy with you porking him up quite
34:06
Speaker 1: that much. I think he's still pretty fit. He's not
34:09
Speaker 1: far off his playing way now. Mark Ben Robert Smith,
34:11
Speaker 1: that is obviously, he's made his first public appearance this week.
34:15
Speaker 1: He's going to go to an Anzac ceremony as I
34:17
Speaker 1: understand it, in Queensland on the Gold Coast tomorrow. There'll
34:22
Speaker 1: be so many cameras there. He's a giant of a man,
34:24
Speaker 1: which you've portrayed here.
34:26
Speaker 8: Well.
34:27
Speaker 4: When he came out and he said I've never you know,
34:29
Speaker 4: never shirked a fight, I thought, you know, I mean
34:33
Speaker 4: the guy has.
34:35
Speaker 1: He's one of our greatest sticks. I reread his citation
34:38
Speaker 1: this week, Yes, extraordinary, he went six times to Afghanist.
34:41
Speaker 4: Amazing and everybody has their own opinion on him. But
34:45
Speaker 4: I thought when he said I'm not going to shirk
34:47
Speaker 4: for a fight, he's not scared to go over the
34:48
Speaker 4: top and to face his accusers.
34:51
Speaker 1: And that's how I've drawn that disgraceful was dragging him
34:54
Speaker 1: off an aircraft in front of him with his kids. Yeah,
34:57
Speaker 1: I mean that didn't have to happen. He said he
34:58
Speaker 1: would turn himself in if the AFP wanted to talk
35:01
Speaker 1: to him.
35:01
Speaker 4: I see that as them trying to public shame him
35:04
Speaker 4: in some sort of that's true.
35:07
Speaker 1: Terrible. He's a monster of a man. Have you seen
35:09
Speaker 1: the exhibition in the Australian Woman worilal They've actually got
35:12
Speaker 1: a real life size Ben Roberts Smith in full uniform kit. Yep.
35:17
Speaker 1: Absolutely frightening.
35:18
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, if anything happens we get invaded
35:22
Speaker 4: in this country. The guys we're gonna want on the
35:24
Speaker 4: front line are guys like Ben.
35:26
Speaker 1: We're not gonna want Harry or Harry did fight in
35:28
Speaker 1: a war, so maybe I'm tough on him. Harry and
35:30
Speaker 1: Meghan they been on the Australian tour. They have been
35:34
Speaker 1: called grifters. Yes, Oh they're back at Oh they're in
35:38
Speaker 1: Sydney still.
35:39
Speaker 4: And there is a bit of grifting in this cartoon there.
35:42
Speaker 4: They've just done the Australian tour. Harry's saying, that was Australia.
35:46
Speaker 4: Howd we do? And Megan is saying, just counting it
35:49
Speaker 4: up now, honey.
35:50
Speaker 1: Counting the cash. The Trumpster he's been all over the
35:54
Speaker 1: shop this week. No one really knows what he's doing.
35:56
Speaker 4: He's upset with us again, I think, is he upset
35:59
Speaker 4: with us Australia?
36:00
Speaker 1: Like he keeps saying Australia. He doesn't tell us what
36:03
Speaker 1: exactly he's upset about.
36:04
Speaker 4: So, and this is how the President likes to portray
36:09
Speaker 4: himself as a doctor.
36:12
Speaker 1: A doctor in the cloud, that's doctor.
36:15
Speaker 4: And he's hurled a few lightning bolts elbow's way, and
36:18
Speaker 4: of course there's elbows little mate Chris next to him,
36:23
Speaker 4: and apparently Trump is not happy with us.
36:25
Speaker 1: Chris Bon, Chris Boone, Thank you mate. You draw them
36:28
Speaker 1: both beautifully.
36:29
Speaker 2: I love them.
36:29
Speaker 1: See you in a couple of weeks. Mark Night there,
36:31
Speaker 1: make sure you get your heralds on and get his
36:33
Speaker 1: cartoons after the Prague reports. Talking about Ben Robert Smith,
36:37
Speaker 1: as I said, he's going to attend an ANZAC commemoration
36:39
Speaker 1: as he should us. More on that mad proposal for
36:43
Speaker 1: gender neutral toilets at new stadiums and shopping centers, what madness,
36:51
Speaker 1: Welcome back, don't forget a course, full coverage on Sky
36:54
Speaker 1: tomorrow of Anzac Day around the world. We'll have coverage
36:58
Speaker 1: out of Gallipoli, which if you never been there and
37:00
Speaker 1: get there at some point, Ann Villa's Bretnu and of
37:03
Speaker 1: course the Dawn services in Canberra and around Australia. Full
37:07
Speaker 1: coverage on Sky. Let's get into the news of the week.
37:09
Speaker 1: And talking of of course Anzac Day, we will have
37:13
Speaker 1: Ben Robert Smith appearing at an Anzac Day commemoration I
37:17
Speaker 1: think on the Gold Coast joining us with the panel tonight.
37:20
Speaker 1: Head of Advocacy at the Women's Forum Australia, Stephanie Vesti
37:24
Speaker 1: in great to see you again, and sky On News
37:26
Speaker 1: regular Joe, Hilda Round Welcome to you both, probably vrs
37:31
Speaker 1: to you first, Joe. There's no you know, they're going
37:36
Speaker 1: to turn this into a media circus. I mean he's
37:38
Speaker 1: not going to be able to do this quietly, is he? Yeah?
37:41
Speaker 10: And I mean that's not really his fault, and it's
37:43
Speaker 10: not the media's fault either.
37:44
Speaker 1: Inevitably that will happen.
37:47
Speaker 10: But I think he has a right, it's probably more
37:50
Speaker 10: of right than most, to attend any ANZAC service he wishes.
37:56
Speaker 10: And I say that as someone who has grave misgivings
37:59
Speaker 10: and doubts about the outcome of the court case where
38:04
Speaker 10: he's concerned. I'm not one of I'm not a sort
38:05
Speaker 10: of Ben Robert Smith booster who thinks that he's completely
38:08
Speaker 10: innocent and can do no wrong and has nothing to
38:10
Speaker 10: answer for, as some people do. But he is nonetheless
38:13
Speaker 10: still innocent until proven guilty. He, regardless of the court outcome,
38:18
Speaker 10: is someone who has conducted himself with incredible courage and
38:22
Speaker 10: valor under fire in other circumstances. And he is a veteran,
38:27
Speaker 10: and so I think he should be able to go
38:29
Speaker 10: and attend any ANZAC day service he sees fit. I
38:33
Speaker 10: think he has earned it, but I also think that
38:35
Speaker 10: he has to be held to account for his other
38:38
Speaker 10: deeds and that will obviously obviously come to pass one
38:42
Speaker 10: way or the other.
38:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll let the courts steal with that. I mean, Stephanie,
38:46
Speaker 1: I reread the citation around Ben Roberts Smith and his
38:50
Speaker 1: Victoria Cross during the week. I think a lot of
38:52
Speaker 1: Australians have gone on to their phone and googled that
38:54
Speaker 1: and read it. He was sent to Afghanistan along with
38:58
Speaker 1: his squad mates. He went there six times. I mean,
39:02
Speaker 1: that's an extraordinary amount of time to be sent to
39:05
Speaker 1: what was a really vicious war zone roadside explosive devices.
39:12
Speaker 1: You didn't really know who the enemy were, you were
39:14
Speaker 1: not fighting someone else in a uniform. It's a very
39:18
Speaker 1: tough thing that we asked him to do. And I
39:21
Speaker 1: think he deserves the right to go to an ANZAC
39:23
Speaker 1: more than anyone else in the country deserves to be
39:25
Speaker 1: able to go to ANZAC day tomorrow.
39:27
Speaker 3: Oh absolutely. I mean, Ben Robert Smith is an Australian
39:30
Speaker 3: war hero. He ran into the line of fire to
39:33
Speaker 3: protect his filomen out on the battlefield, and that deserves
39:36
Speaker 3: the award recognition.
39:37
Speaker 5: That it has.
39:38
Speaker 3: And I mean, I think the way that this whole
39:40
Speaker 3: process in the media has played out is just such
39:43
Speaker 3: an injustice to him. He will not have a fair
39:45
Speaker 3: trial now, and I think that the process to do
39:50
Speaker 3: with his arrest and everything else has really compromised the
39:53
Speaker 3: integrity of the whole thing. I mean, if there were
39:55
Speaker 3: issues around how things were conducted over there at the time,
39:58
Speaker 3: they should have been dealt with that.
39:59
Speaker 5: At the time.
40:00
Speaker 3: I'm not over a decade later, a minute's utterly scene
40:04
Speaker 3: the way that this has played out, first in the
40:06
Speaker 3: media and now a jury with no military experience to
40:11
Speaker 3: decide you know whether or not he's innocent or guilty,
40:15
Speaker 3: that is, if you can find a jury that is
40:17
Speaker 3: untainted by all the.
40:18
Speaker 5: Media speculation about it.
40:20
Speaker 3: So yes, he does deserve to attend any ANZAC service
40:23
Speaker 3: that he sees fit. And I think a lot of Australians,
40:26
Speaker 3: including myself, will have him in our thoughts tomorrow, just
40:30
Speaker 3: purely because of the injustice that he has suffered and
40:33
Speaker 3: the fact that he will not have a fair trial
40:35
Speaker 3: of what's what he's been accused of.
40:38
Speaker 1: One hundred percent. Now, I'm going to try and make
40:40
Speaker 1: this leap to a much lighter story if you like.
40:44
Speaker 1: It's probably one of the harder deviations I've ever had
40:48
Speaker 1: to make them my life, Janejigiz, whatever you want to
40:50
Speaker 1: call it. Half of all don't laugh, people, please. Half
40:54
Speaker 1: of all public toilets at news stadiums, shopping centers and
40:57
Speaker 1: office blocks could be designated quote gender neutral under a
41:02
Speaker 1: proposed new building code in Australia. Stephanie, I do not
41:07
Speaker 1: know one woman who enjoys going into a gender neutral
41:12
Speaker 1: toilet that has had men in it.
41:15
Speaker 3: Look, the whole joke about this is we're just making
41:17
Speaker 3: the same mistake that the UK made. Eighty eight percent
41:20
Speaker 3: of the UK population in the UK decided they didn't
41:23
Speaker 3: want the gender neutral toilets because of the fact that
41:26
Speaker 3: women's access, privacy and dignity was compromised by them. Now
41:31
Speaker 3: are trying to ram it into our building code in Australia.
41:33
Speaker 3: I mean, it's absolutely ridiculous, And of course our primary
41:37
Speaker 3: concern is the fact that when you've got a budget
41:40
Speaker 3: to do a building, whether it's a school or an
41:43
Speaker 3: office block, and you have to put in fifty percent
41:46
Speaker 3: gender neutral toilets, well you may just skip the single
41:48
Speaker 3: sex units and make it all gender neutral, which will
41:51
Speaker 3: leave women.
41:51
Speaker 5: Much worse off. Totally ridiculous.
41:53
Speaker 3: The Tasmanian government has said they're going to reject it.
41:57
Speaker 3: Jess Wilson, if she's elected in November, says that her
42:00
Speaker 3: government's going to check about But I really strongly encourage
42:03
Speaker 3: all the states and territories tot to reject this absolute nonsense.
42:08
Speaker 1: Joe, you can't go into a restaurant or a pub
42:10
Speaker 1: anywhere these days where there's not gender neutral toilets. I
42:14
Speaker 1: want you to put your hand on your heart and
42:16
Speaker 1: say that if you, you know, in the process of urinating,
42:22
Speaker 1: leave a couple of drops on the toilet seat, you'd
42:24
Speaker 1: be the sort of gentleman I hope that would use
42:27
Speaker 1: toilet paper to fix that mistake.
42:29
Speaker 10: Up, are you Pricey? It's like you've seen directly into
42:33
Speaker 10: my soul. Absolutely, it is something. And again, this is
42:37
Speaker 10: the very first thing I was going to say, you
42:38
Speaker 10: have read my mind, because this is the first thing
42:41
Speaker 10: that I think about, and I thought about when I
42:43
Speaker 10: first read this story. I mean, this is absolutely great
42:46
Speaker 10: as far as I'm concerned, because it means that every
42:49
Speaker 10: gender neutral toilet I use will be fifty percent less
42:51
Speaker 10: filthy than the men's which are always, as every man
42:55
Speaker 10: knows or every woman who's been unfortunate enough to stumble
42:59
Speaker 10: into the wrong one, are just absolutely disgusting compared to
43:03
Speaker 10: two women's toilets. And it is because of that pretty
43:06
Speaker 10: practical fact that you've got blokes who shall we say,
43:10
Speaker 10: shooting from a distance, who are often too lazy to
43:15
Speaker 10: lift the toilet's seat up, and so they, you know,
43:19
Speaker 10: end up, you know, unless they're firing like Robin Hood
43:22
Speaker 10: with ultimate precision, they end up with a few stray bullets.
43:26
Speaker 10: And then, of course, unless they are complete gentlemen, which
43:28
Speaker 10: if they're putting them there without the seat up in
43:30
Speaker 10: the first place, they're probably not. Then the next poor
43:33
Speaker 10: woman who comes in there to use it, who doesn't
43:36
Speaker 10: have a choice but to you know, shall we say,
43:42
Speaker 10: lower her dairy air onto the facilities, is going to
43:45
Speaker 10: be cross contaminated. And that offends my chevalric sensibilities price
43:50
Speaker 10: he as I'm sure it does yours.
43:53
Speaker 1: I'm not even going to ask Stephanie to react to that.
43:55
Speaker 1: Just quickly, Stephanie, do you still involve yourself in a
43:59
Speaker 1: pub in a shout? I think it's gone the way
44:02
Speaker 1: of a lot of things. But I've got mates in
44:04
Speaker 1: a pub who always have a shout together, do you Yeah. Absolutely.
44:09
Speaker 3: I think it's a great part of Australian culture, but
44:11
Speaker 3: I can understand why people aren't. I'm with Pauline Hanson
44:14
Speaker 3: on this one. Cut the beer tax. Let people live
44:17
Speaker 3: a bittle.
44:17
Speaker 5: You know, there's living Times and.
44:20
Speaker 1: All the rest of the beer tacks. If Pauline Hanson
44:23
Speaker 1: puts that up as one nation policy, she will kill it.
44:27
Speaker 1: Good on your Joe, good on your Stephanie. Thank you
44:29
Speaker 1: very much for that. Folks. It is this ANZAC Day tomorrow.
44:32
Speaker 1: Don't forget full coverage here on Sky, including from Gallipoli.
44:36
Speaker 1: It will be brilliant coverage. Let's go to Rowendine,