Latest / Credlin / Credlin | 17 September

Transcript

Credlin | 17 September · Credlin

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Peter Credlin, live from News 24.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Good evening. Welcome to the program. Here's what's coming up
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: tonight on Credlin. Well, finally, a number from Labor on
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: net overseas migration, 292,000, far higher than any of the
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: other political parties that have got office on the table.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Nothing much, though, today in terms of new overall policy.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Despite the hype, I'll get you across the details in
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: just a moment. Pauline Hanson and One Nation targeted again
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: by students at rallies today. The ignorance is breathtaking. Perhaps
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: another day in school would have been a better use
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: of their time. A shrine, not a soapbox. That's the
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: argument from critics who've raised alarm over plans to include
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Indigenous frontier conflicts and contested history at the Australian War Memorial.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: I'll speak to someone who's campaigning hard to stop this
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: in a moment. And that hard-fought win today for veterans,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: after weeks of backlash, the Albanese government forced to axe
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: its allied health cap. And the toll, well, it was
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: there for all to see.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: I know what it's like to carry a coffin.
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: I know what it's like when your friends are no
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: longer there.
• 1:23
  Speaker 5: So, this is personal for me, because it's my family,
• 1:28
  Speaker 5: it's my people.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: What a beautiful man. We'll get to that in a moment.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: But first today, Tony Burke's long-awaited speech to the National
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Press Club announcing Labor's new migration policy. Only not much
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: was actually new. In fact, in relation to the overall
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: numbers to the NOM or the Net Overseas Migration, it's
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: pretty much what the Treasurer announced four months ago in
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: the Budget. So why do we have to wait so
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: long for this on-again, off-again speech, which gave us nothing? Well,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: that's bewildering. particularly given the strength of community sentiment that's
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: now demanding wholesale reform of our immigration system, not just
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: tweaks around the edges. Now, to that point, recent modelling
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: from the Institute of Public Affairs confirms Australians with the
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: whole system scrapped and started again. Almost 80% want a
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: norm of $ 100, 000 a year or lower. Remember what Burke
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: announced today, what Jim Chalmers announced back in May? Well,
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: that's almost three times those numbers. 60% of Australians says
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: the IPA. Well, they think there are far too many
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: migrants in the country. Half of those surveyed, 34%, well,
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: they say that they no longer recognise the country they
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: grew up in. Around the edges today, there were changes
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: to student visas and the ending of ability of students
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: to come here to study with their family in tow.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: That's long overdue, but it should be supported. The Albanese
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: government also announced plans to end the practice of people
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: coming here under one visa type and then when in Australia,
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: sliding across to another and in effect, visa hopping. So
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: doing this for years and years to stay here a
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: whole lot longer than originally intended. Again, I've been arguing
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: that this should happen for months, so it's good policy.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: Although with Labor, as always, the devil's in the details.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: So I'll wait to carefully read through the actual papers
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: when they turn up. But other things announced today by Burke, well,
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: they were short-sighted and not well thought through. I'm referring
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: here to new restrictions for those on working holidaymaker visas.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Many of you will know backpackers work hard in often
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: regional communities to both extend the term of their visas
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: and to earn enough money to travel. They do the
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: jobs like fruit picking and seasonal farm labour that a
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: lot of Australians are now too lazy to do themselves. Now,
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: not only is this work what we need to power
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: our ag sector, but most of the time, every dollar
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: they earn in Australia is spent in Australia before they
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: return home. This policy will make little difference to Labor's
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: overall numbers. but it'll hurt farmers and regional communities. And
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: the rest of us, because if farmers can't be assured
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: they can get their crop to market, they won't plant it, well,
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: we'll be hit too. We'll end up importing food to
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Australia because we can't grow it ourselves. So this was
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: a dumb move announced today, but what would you expect?
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: Burke lives in inner city Sydney and clearly he's got
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: no interest in what happens over the Great Dividing Range.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: What's also becoming a problem, a real problem now for Labor,
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: and it won't just hit immigration, but it'll hurt them
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: right across the board, is the reality that no one's
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: got faith in what this government says, let alone their
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: capacity to deliver on commitments. Now, even if Burke had
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: gone for broke today and addressed the concerns that the
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: majority of voters say they have with our record high
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: migration rate, there would remain serious reservations on whether Labor
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: could or would Deliver it anyway. Because one of the
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: collateral hits from the government's repeated lies is that people
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: don't trust them anymore. And when voters don't trust you,
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: when they don't believe you, well, it's hard to get
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: them to engage on broader policy detail. Because from the get-go,
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: they assume it's all made up. It's a lie. Or
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: that you'll backflip and never do it anyway. I mean,
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: how could you blame voters for that view? Energy prices,
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: property tax changes, caps on veterans, widows' taxes, lies about
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: whether the PM fell off the stage or not, concerns
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: now about the probity around this half a billion dollar
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: grant scheme where 73% of the money is handed over
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: in labour or key marginal seats. All of this adds
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: up in the minds of the electorate. Listening to Burke's
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: speech this afternoon... He failed to tackle the genuine problems
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: we have where would-be migrants are determining our immigration policy,
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: not the governments that we elect. For example, where was
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: the detail to send the foreign criminals back to where
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: they came from? Where was the detail to keep Islamist
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: extremists out? Where was the acknowledgement that Australians feel that
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: under this government we're losing our culture? Now, on that
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: very point, Burke had this to say.
• 6:37
  Speaker 6: Some countries describe themselves as a melting pot. It's not
• 6:40
  Speaker 6: a term I ever use of Australia. In a melting pot,
• 6:44
  Speaker 6: anything you throw into it loses its shape and dissolves.
• 6:48
  Speaker 6: I view our nation very much through the shape of
• 6:51
  Speaker 6: an orchestra. It's a pretty bad orchestra when everything's the
• 6:54
  Speaker 6: same instrument. What you need to make sure of is
• 6:57
  Speaker 6: that all the different instruments of the orchestra can work
• 7:00
  Speaker 6: together in building harmony.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: What's missing here is that a bit of recognition from
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: Labor that an orchestra only plays together when everyone's got
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: the same sheet music. And under Labor, we don't have
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: the same sheet music. The two focused on dividing us
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: by race, gender, religion, aspiration, and allowing those differences to
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: become the new norm, rather than making it clear, if
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: you come to Australia, you join us or you leave.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: Missing also in that analogy is recognition that an orchestra
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: only plays music we're listening to when there's a conductor
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: who knows what they're doing. We don't have a leader
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: in the Prime Minister who can conduct a school band,
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: let alone an orchestra. When was the last time you
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: heard him celebrate the contribution of pioneering Australians, the men
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: and women who built this country? We hear a lot
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: about Aboriginal Australians, don't we? But almost nothing about those
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: who opened up the country in the 1700s, 1800s, early 1900s.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: The farmers, those who built our country towns, those who
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: created our institutions. When was the last time you heard
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: him pay more than lip service to veterans? If Labor
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: really cared about veterans, it'd never have been a cap
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: imposed on their health services in the first place. When
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: did you last see Albanese? Or even a government building
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: not flanked by three flags? This isn't a Prime Minister
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: who loves this country. This is a Prime Minister who
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: loves power. That's a very, very different thing. Labor's migration
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: announcement today is a smoke and mirrors job that they've
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: been forced into by the polls. This is not a
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: serious attempt to fix a broken system. I just hope
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: voters are smart enough Not to be fooled. Right, that's
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: a wrap at the end of a parliamentary sitting fortnight.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: So we'll get the headlines today from our reporter, Trudy McIntosh.
• 9:06
  Speaker 7: After months of growing pressure, the government has finally scrapped
• 9:09
  Speaker 7: the controversial allied health cap for veterans.
• 9:12
  Speaker 8: Have a beer, have too many beers, do whatever, but
• 9:15
  Speaker 8: the bloody cap has been scrapped.
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: I know what it's like to carry a coffin.
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: I know what it's like when your friends are no
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: longer there.
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: This is personal for me.
• 9:28
  Speaker 7: Veterans Affairs Minister Matt Keogh confirmed after consultations to take
• 9:31
  Speaker 7: the cap off the table.
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: And we committed to listen and we did and we
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: heard and we have responded.
• 9:40
  Speaker 7: The cap was friendless outside Labor ranks and it was
• 9:43
  Speaker 7: not one of the recommendations from the Royal Commission into
• 9:45
  Speaker 7: veteran suicide.
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: This is a real character test for Prime Minister Anthony
• 9:50
  Speaker 5: Albanese because today he should also sack the minister.
• 9:55
  Speaker 7: Others on the crossbench argue it's not Minister Keogh's fault.
• 9:59
  Speaker 8: So for the veterans out there please don't take out
• 10:01
  Speaker 8: on this Keogh.
• 10:02
  Speaker 6: If veterans are angry about this and they should be,
• 10:05
  Speaker 6: direct the anger at the people who made the decision.
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: You know this is a Treasurer, Prime Minister decision.
• 10:10
  Speaker 7: And an unlikely trio has joined forces to demand more
• 10:13
  Speaker 7: staff from the Prime Minister.
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: We're not asking for anything more.
• 10:17
  Speaker 8: Than what has been given to other members of parliament.
• 10:20
  Speaker 9: Australians want to see politicians act in a mature way
• 10:24
  Speaker 9: to put their differences aside.
• 10:25
  Speaker 7: The former Labor-turned-Independent Senator Fatima Payman left her sharpest attack
• 10:29
  Speaker 7: to the PM.
• 10:30
  Speaker 9: He brags about his female majority caucus and the government's
• 10:34
  Speaker 9: track record on women's rights. But are those rights only
• 10:38
  Speaker 9: granted to women who agree with him?
• 10:41
  Speaker 7: Trudy McIntosh, News 24, Canberra.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: All right, let's get into a whole lot of issues.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: We'll get into that policy too. Let's bring in my panel,
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: National Affairs Editor at the Daily Telegraph, News 24 host,
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: of course, James Morrow, and the Deputy Executive Director at
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: the IPA, Dan Wild. Plenty to pick through, Dan. I
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: know you're a bit of a boffin on migration, and
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: I went to your research to make it clear that
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: Australians want wholesale change, but I don't want this tweaking
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: around the edges. It's interesting, you know, Labor's spruiking 225,000
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: For people at home, that's double where we were in
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: terms of the Howard government long-term average of about 110,000.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: 292,000 is the current set of numbers. I doubt we'll
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: get off that. And they've got the tweaking in terms of, say,
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: the Working Holidaymaker program and others. They're places that they
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: shouldn't go. There's a whole lot of areas, Dan, that
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: they left off the table today. What did you make
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: of the policy?
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: Well, it's a shocker. This speech was a big middle
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: finger to Australians who have been demanding cuts to the intake.
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: And as you correctly identified, there are no cuts here
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: beyond what was established in the government's budget. So this
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: government is not going to be reducing the net overseas
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: migration number, which is the thing that they must do.
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: You correctly said that this was nothing more than smoke
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: and mirrors tinkering around the edges. And I think what
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: is clear is that Tony Burke is in denial. He
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: explicitly said that his government is not running a mass
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: migration program. This is complete bumpkin. What do you call
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: having the single highest share of foreign-born people in your country?
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: That is mass migration. What do you call having one
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: of the fastest growing migrant populations in the developed world?
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: That is mass migration. What do you call having year
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: after year of net overseas migration that is double, triple
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: or quadruple the long run average. That is mass migration.
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: That is what Australians are saying that we must stop.
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: We look at it from an economic perspective where Tony
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: Burke said if you cut immigration, you're going to trash
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: the economy. This is just a trope. that is run
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: by the big business lobby groups and their mouthpieces and
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: the university sector because they want more money. They want
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: to take the lazy approach of more migrants rather than
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: actually doing the hard yards of fixing up their own
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: businesses and industries. So there was nothing in this speech
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: at all for Australians who were demanding cuts and to
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: fix our economy and our society. But it was just
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: more insider political games. So you're not going to see
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: anything more from this government on that.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: You know, you're so true to point out the business
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: self-interest here because if you look at the countries ahead
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: of us in the OECD and you look at their
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: migration rates, a hell of a lot lower than Australia.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: So it doesn't just deliver the productivity or the business
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: outcomes that they claim they do. It masks heavy spending
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: in the budget. It gives a false growth inflator to
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: the underlying federal budget numbers. And, James, I thought of
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: you when... He had a real go at the whole
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: melting pot analogy and, of course, that's the American analogy.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: And say what you like about the United States and
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: they are a big multi-ethnic, multi-racial country, but they are
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: not a multicultural country. The United States knows who they are,
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: they know their flag, they know their anthem and they
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: are patriotic broadly in a way that we are not.
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: And, you know, that's a really interesting thing, Peter. I
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: had the exact same reaction to that speech. And I thought, really,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: just from word one, he was gaslighting everybody about the
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: nature of Australian immigration, Australian culture and his plans to
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: fix it. But what you say about American patriotism is
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: really worthwhile. America has a very thick, is I think
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: the word you'd use for it, a thick identity, sense
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: of itself, who Americans are, what America is, what the
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: American dream is, what all of these things are about.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: And I think under labor, we have really seen an
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: attempt to consciously or unconsciously, really make the Australian identity
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: much thinner. So, you know, you only hear just about
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: a few sort of very top level things. Oh, well,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: you know, rule of law, you know, this, that, the
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: other thing, a fair go. Just a few very high level,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: broad concepts, but then no talk about Australian achievements, about,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: you know, what Australia has done, what modern Australia has
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: done to create this incredibly successful, prosperous democracy. And a
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: final point on America, too. America, some experts think, is
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: actually now at a point of negative migration, and yet
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: their economy is booming. This idea that you need migrants
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: to keep your economy turning over, you know, it's only
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: true if you've hollowed out all of your industry and
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: your ability to do anything else.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: And, of course, if you don't have an identity, if
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: you lose your history, if you fall victim to revisionism
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: about your history, you end up with students on the street,
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: like we saw again today in Melbourne and Sydney, and
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: ignorance on display. Scenes like this. Have a look.
• 16:04
  Speaker 7: You can't just look at it in terms of Victoria.
• 16:07
  Speaker 9: Like, they, yeah, One Secret Harbour, Fowler, they've been building
• 16:11
  Speaker 9: a vitriolic, hard, far-right, racist base.
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: I hope you know damn well that this protest isn't
• 16:18
  Speaker 5: just against Pauline Hanson and One Nation.
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: It's against the entire.
• 16:21
  Speaker 10: F * * * ing political establishment.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: Pauline Hanson's politics are actually so toxic.
• 16:25
  Speaker 7: Like, she's for racism and bigotry.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: Well, Dan, what do you think?
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: I think it's a shame that so many young people
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: have been brainwashed. I don't have a problem with people
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: getting out there and protesting and saying what they want.
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: That's a part of the parcel of living in a
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: great country like ours. But, you know, a lot of
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: the things they say are just factually untrue. I reckon
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: if any of those individuals there who were saying that
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: Pauline Hanson is racist and that she's doing all these
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: other things, I mean, could they name it? What precisely
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: is it? It may be that they disagree with her,
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: they disagree with her migration. Fine, you can disagree with it,
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: but Again, it gets back to our education system, the
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: fact that the national curriculum is completely broken. You know,
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: and I don't blame the teachers. It's a system that
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: is set up to fail, you know, because we have
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: these cross-curriculum priorities that, you know, you know about, which
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: is you have climate change inserted into everything. You have
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: all this other nonsense that's put into every single subject.
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: So unfortunately, children are just not being taught the truth
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: about Australia or about our history. And so they go
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: on the streets, they say all of this stuff. I
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: don't have a problem with the kids. I just feel
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: sorry for them, I've got to be honest, because they
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: are victims of a broken system.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I want parents to take a bit of
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: responsibility too. If you saw your kids on TV sprouting nonsense,
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: you know, coat hanger them home and put them in
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: front of a book or something and educate them a
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: bit before you send them back to school because clearly
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: that's not happening at school. Just quickly, if I can, James,
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: a really big win today for veterans. Why do they
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: have to fight for 18 weeks? The government sort of
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: puts it down to consultation. Well, they were locking in
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: this cap every single day in the parliament, defending it
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: to the death. And now they're forced to roll over.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: Of course, they've done it on the day of the
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: big migration announcement, hoping it'll be washed away in the
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: media tomorrow. I tell you what, the veterans will not forget.
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: This, though.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: No, they will not. And I don't think Australians will
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: forget this. I mean, yeah, this is only the latest
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: in what's probably been about a half a dozen budget backflips,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: but this was one of the most defensive things in
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: that budget. I mean, this idea... treating veterans as if
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: they are sort of almost de facto trying to game
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: a system. It's just appalling. And I think there's a
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: real national security implication in this, too, because if you're
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: telling people you want them to sign up to serve
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: the country, put their bodies and lives on the line,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: you can't then say, when you come out the other side,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: we're not going to be there for you. I just
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: think it's a disgrace. I think at the next reshuffle,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: I reckon Matt Keogh might be moving offices.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he'll be survived and moved on though because the
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: Prime Minister doesn't get to choose his ministers. The factions do.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: That's why Keogh's still there. They'll just move him to
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: another portfolio like they did with Claire O'Neill. Just quickly,
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: if I can, Dan, I know you used to live
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: in Victoria.
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: You're a.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: You're a lucky escapee. The Royal Commission kicks off next week,
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: the one that Labor was forced into calling when they
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: changed the leader. Really what's interesting here, CFMEU is the
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: only union named in the terms of reference, but there's
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: a whole lot of other unions that the plumbers, ETU, Workers' Union,
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: they are all on the job for the big build.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: So they are now not involved in this Royal Commission.
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: And do you really think this side of an election
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: will see Dan Andrews or Jacinta Allen in the dock?
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: Well, you've got Buckley's chance of that happening, but you're
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: right to point it out because that is really the
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: test of whether this is fair dinkum or not. And
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: I'll tell you what else. Anthony Albanese needs to be
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: there because, you know, his government has put money into this.
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: Does he know about this? Did he know about the corruption?
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: Good point. So, you know, this is not just a
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: state issue and it's not just a state issue for
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: two reasons. One is as Victoria's economy goes down, it
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: will drag the rest of Australia down with it because
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: it's a big economy and it gets a lot of
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: GST redistribution and The second point is that the money
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: going in is not just state money. It is federal
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: money as well. So someone from the federal government, it
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: should be Anthony Albanese, but it could be someone else,
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: needs to be put in front of this Royal Commission
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: because all Australians need to get to the bottom of
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: what has happened in Victoria.
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: And, of course, the public money goes to the CFMEU.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: The CFMEU washes that to the Labor Party in donations.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: So he's a beneficial witness as well as anything else.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: Thank you, gentlemen. See you both next week. All right,
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: let's bring in now the Federal Opposition Leader on what's
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: been a pretty long week but a big day in
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: Canberra too, with Labor finally unveiling its migration policy. He
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: was a bit fired up in the Chamber earlier today,
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: giving Labor a spray.
• 21:03
  Speaker 5: I'll tell you what's revealing about this, Prime Minister. He
• 21:07
  Speaker 5: cuts health services to our veterans, but he keeps funding
• 21:12
  Speaker 5: welfare and housing deposits for non-Australians, Deputy Speaker.
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: Well, those opposite will always put.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: They'll always put Australians second.
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: We'll always put Australians first!
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: Langus Taylor, pretty fired up there today.
• 21:30
  Speaker 5: Well, absolutely, Peter, because this government does put Australians second.
• 21:34
  Speaker 5: It puts our veterans second. And we've seen that in
• 21:38
  Speaker 5: this budget. This is a government that has cut for veterans,
• 21:43
  Speaker 5: cut for veterans in the budget. They've finally had to
• 21:46
  Speaker 5: go back on that after an enormous amount of pressure
• 21:49
  Speaker 5: from ourselves and, of course, from veterans as well, a
• 21:52
  Speaker 5: loud roar from the veterans. But at the same time,
• 21:56
  Speaker 5: they are giving welfare programs and home deposit support... For non-Australians,
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: I mean, their priorities are wrong and they need to
• 22:04
  Speaker 5: put Australians first. And, of course, the Australians who most
• 22:08
  Speaker 5: need support from time to time is, of course, our veterans.
• 22:12
  Speaker 5: And when they're in trouble, we should be with them.
• 22:15
  Speaker 5: They're prepared to fight for our country. We've got to
• 22:17
  Speaker 5: fight for them.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: Let's go to that announcement today by Tony Burke, and
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: I made the point in terms of the overall numbers.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: It's a mirror... to what was announced by the Treasurer
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: four months ago. So I don't know why we were
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: holding with bated breath to see something new. 292,000, that's
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: three times the long-term average in the Howard government. I
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: don't believe they'll get to the 225 that they've pushed
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: out in the out years. There are some good things
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: in the policy. I made mention of the visa hopping, great.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: Removing the right of a student coming here to bring
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: all of their family who are not studying, that's fair enough.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: But surely it's got to go lower than this.
• 22:59
  Speaker 5: Well, there were no cuts.
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: This is the important point.
• 23:04
  Speaker 5: This big hoopla, this is the second attempt he's made
• 23:07
  Speaker 5: at his press club speech. Clearly they couldn't come to
• 23:10
  Speaker 5: an agreement, which is why he cancelled the first one.
• 23:13
  Speaker 5: And when he finally makes a speech, there are absolutely
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: no cuts, Peter. In fact, we know that there's been
• 23:20
  Speaker 5: an increase in the immigration numbers because it's been revealed
• 23:24
  Speaker 5: this week that that they had a number of 13,750
• 23:28
  Speaker 5: for the humanitarian visa. That's now 20,000. So it's actually
• 23:32
  Speaker 5: gone up. And it's worse than you just said, because
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: their original target was 260,000. They're now at 292,000. They're
• 23:39
  Speaker 5: way beyond their own targets. They've consistently met them, failed
• 23:45
  Speaker 5: to meet them over time. So not only are the
• 23:48
  Speaker 5: numbers too high, they're failing to meet their own targets.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: What I also found disturbing, and we go back to
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: those comments from the ASIO boss on Friday about, you know,
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: terror threats and risk. We look at the number of
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: young people in these de-radicalisation programs who are coming out
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: worse in terms of radicalisation than when they went in.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: We know, of course, that the head of the AFP
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: didn't front the Bondi Royal Commission, nor did the Prime
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: Minister or anyone handling these security portfolios. There was no
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: plan from Burke today to about sending foreign criminals home,
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: about keeping out of Australia radical Islamic preachers or extremists
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: of all types. This was a big omission.
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: It was a massive omission. So they took apart the
• 24:39
  Speaker 5: Home Affairs Intelligence Unit, which was designed to ensure people
• 24:43
  Speaker 5: who do not share our values, and of course that
• 24:45
  Speaker 5: includes Islamist extremists, do not get into the country, and
• 24:49
  Speaker 5: people on those visas lose those visas and are sent away.
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: And this government has dissembled all of that. We know
• 24:58
  Speaker 5: from a whistleblower, from your show, Peter, that they've taken
• 25:04
  Speaker 5: money away from counter-terrorism, resources away from counter-terrorism. Look, the
• 25:08
  Speaker 5: best way to deal with this extremism and to deal
• 25:13
  Speaker 5: with radicalisation is for the Prime Minister to call out
• 25:16
  Speaker 5: Islamist extremism when it happens. He hasn't had a track
• 25:20
  Speaker 5: record of doing that. And to put resources into counter-terrorism.
• 25:24
  Speaker 5: And again, we know the government has gone in exactly
• 25:27
  Speaker 5: the opposite direction.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, when Burke got questions about this today, Angus,
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: from the gallery, he pivoted to saying, well, we need
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: a public information campaign, we need a bit of an
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: ad campaign about the terror hotline number, and sure, perhaps
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: we do. It's been a while since we had one.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: But where's the sort of the national security update, you know,
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: the very sober ministerial statement that we used to get
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: in the past and governments of all stripes have provided
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: them that gives Australians the detail, not the spin, not
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: a phone number, but the detail of what they're doing
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: to keep Australians safe. We haven't even had one post
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: Bondi and that's Australia's worst ever terror attack.
• 26:08
  Speaker 5: But we've had senior officials or former senior officials give
• 26:12
  Speaker 5: us the warnings that the terror risks are increasing and
• 26:19
  Speaker 5: are very real. And we've seen that from Mike Burgess.
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: We've seen that from Mike Pizzullo. These are highly respected
• 26:24
  Speaker 5: current or former office holders. And we need to take
• 26:29
  Speaker 5: that seriously, Peter. And that's why this government needs to
• 26:33
  Speaker 5: reallocate resources for counter-terrorism. It needs to re-establish the intelligence
• 26:39
  Speaker 5: unit that sought out this extremism and allowed us to
• 26:43
  Speaker 5: deal with it. But right now from this government, it
• 26:45
  Speaker 5: just hasn't been the focus. But when the Prime Minister
• 26:48
  Speaker 5: is not even able to call out Islamist extremism, then this.
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: Is what you get. Do you get the sort of
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: briefings that I know we gave the opposition leader, Bill Shorten,
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: at the time? I mean, are you taken into the
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: confidences of the government? Are you given, you know, an
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: open and frank assessment of how tough things are and
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: the resources that are required to keep Australians safe?
• 27:13
  Speaker 5: Yes, we get some level of briefing, Peter, and that's
• 27:18
  Speaker 5: something that is always afforded to oppositions and absolutely critical
• 27:22
  Speaker 5: should be. But what we know from the public domain,
• 27:25
  Speaker 5: and you've seen it, is that this is a government
• 27:27
  Speaker 5: that hasn't been taking these issues seriously. I mean, their
• 27:31
  Speaker 5: approach to the Royal Commission tells us everything we need
• 27:35
  Speaker 5: to know. You said it up front. They have not
• 27:39
  Speaker 5: had the people at that Royal Commission they should have had.
• 27:41
  Speaker 5: They've cut it short. There's many people who should be
• 27:45
  Speaker 5: in front of the Royal Commission who haven't had that opportunity.
• 27:49
  Speaker 5: And that's because at the end of the day, the
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: ministers don't want to be held to account. The prime
• 27:53
  Speaker 5: minister doesn't want to be held to account for what
• 27:56
  Speaker 5: was a mass murder, a tragedy, a terrorist act of
• 28:01
  Speaker 5: unfathomable proportions and something we never expected to have in
• 28:04
  Speaker 5: this country. But it hasn't been dealt with with the
• 28:07
  Speaker 5: seriousness it should be. And the Royal Commission tells us
• 28:11
  Speaker 5: everything we.
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: Need to know.
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: Just before we go, I've been focused a bit this
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: week on the Marrickville Golf Club deal and the location
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: of a $ 3 million property from the PM at 200
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: metres from the golf course and a promise to his
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: factional mate, the local mayor, about $ 6 million in the April,
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: way before the Minister ever set up the grants process
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: for in the September. The probity on this thing needs
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: serious attention. I know there's a Senate inquiry, but Bridget
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: McKenzie lost her portfolio for a whole lot less than this.
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: How damaging could this get for the Prime Minister?
• 28:49
  Speaker 5: Well, I think it is damaging, but it's accumulated damage now.
• 28:53
  Speaker 5: I mean, I think the Australian people have seen time
• 28:55
  Speaker 5: and time again.
• 28:56
  Speaker 10: He's a liar.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: He's a fraud.
• 28:58
  Speaker 5: He can't admit when he's got it wrong. He goes
• 29:01
  Speaker 5: into denial and he's done it exactly that. He's followed
• 29:05
  Speaker 5: the same pattern when it comes to the Merrickville Golf Club.
• 29:07
  Speaker 5: He did the same with his hand gestures on the
• 29:11
  Speaker 5: Japanese Prime Minister. He did the same with his lies
• 29:13
  Speaker 5: on on negative gearing in capital gains tax before the
• 29:17
  Speaker 5: last election.
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: He did the.
• 29:18
  Speaker 5: Same with his lies on energy price reductions before the
• 29:22
  Speaker 5: previous election. He just goes into denial. And, you know, frankly,
• 29:26
  Speaker 5: the Australian people have seen this pattern time and time
• 29:29
  Speaker 5: and time again. You know, it's not hard to say
• 29:31
  Speaker 5: you've got something wrong, Peter. I've done it over recent
• 29:35
  Speaker 5: times to say we've got things wrong. And you've got
• 29:38
  Speaker 5: to do that if you want to lead an like Australia.
• 29:41
  Speaker 5: But this Prime Minister has shown a complete incapacity to
• 29:45
  Speaker 5: do that. And this example of the Merrickville Golf Club,
• 29:48
  Speaker 5: I mean, it might seem like a little thing, but
• 29:50
  Speaker 5: it's a big thing when you have a Prime Minister
• 29:53
  Speaker 5: who is a liar and a fraud and cannot admit
• 29:56
  Speaker 5: that he.
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: Got it wrong.
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: I'll leave it there, Angus Taylor. Thank you. Before the break,
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: I want to plug an event that's happening this weekend.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: Farmers and residents in Victoria's northeast are coming together to
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: raise concerns about the rapid rollout of large-scale solar and
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: battery projects across the Benalla region. Thousands of hectares of farmland,
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: I'm told, are being earmarked for industrial-scale renewable projects. And
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: a lot of people are worried about the cumulative impact
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: this will have on the land, local roads and local towns.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: So this is your chance if you live up that
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: way or are concerned about what's happening to regional Victoria
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: and Australia to get out there and support them. Grab
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: your phone on the screen. I'll put up some details now,
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: but there is a farmersfightback.com web address where you can
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: go to get all the details. Get out there, make
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: your voices heard because the community backlash on these projects
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: is are absolutely the game changer in making sure they
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: don't continue in the form they are. Right after the break,
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: a major backflip from Labor, the controversial veterans cap. We'll
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: speak to a veteran about this huge win in just
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: a moment. Welcome back. Coming up, the campaign to take
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: the politics out of the Australian War Memorial. A military
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: veteran joins me on that. But From one veteran to another,
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: a huge win for veterans today. 18 weeks it's taken
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: them to get the government to change its mind on
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: the cap on allied health treatments for veterans. A huge win,
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: an emotional win. You saw that footage a bit earlier
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: from Phil Thompson. Dr Tim Nelson is a former fighter
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: jet pilot for the Royal Australian Air Force, but he
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: now helps lead the group Coalition of Veterans Voices. And
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: he joins me now from the Gold Coast.
• 31:52
  Speaker 11: Tim.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: I hope this day would come, but you never know
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: with this government. I bet you're exhausted, but you must
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: be relieved.
• 32:03
  Speaker 12: Thanks, Peter.
• 32:03
  Speaker 4: It's great to be here. Yeah, it's equal parts relief
• 32:07
  Speaker 4: and pride. I think we're very relieved that the government
• 32:11
  Speaker 4: has made the right decision here. 25,000 veterans, of our
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: most vulnerable veterans, that is, had a barrier that was
• 32:18
  Speaker 4: potentially going to block their access to ongoing health care
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: that they so desperately need. But I'm proud as well.
• 32:25
  Speaker 4: I'm extremely proud that the community came together, the veteran community.
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: We put the politics aside. All the politicians came together,
• 32:32
  Speaker 4: our families, friends, the general public. And to be honest,
• 32:36
  Speaker 4: I'm just immensely proud that the right decision has come
• 32:39
  Speaker 4: about today because of the community's support and working together
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: as one.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I have to say, I mean... When veterans go
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: to war, they really go to war, right, figuratively and literally.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: But you also had such huge support amongst the community.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: Every time I raised the issue, every time I spoke
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: to people like you on the program, I was just
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: flooded with material and I noticed the sharing of content
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: on social media. It was really people power, wasn't it?
• 33:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah. I think this win cannot be attributed to one
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: single person.
• 33:15
  Speaker 12: It was.
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: Multiple ESOs working together, doctors, veterans, families. And as you said,
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: the greater community that we're all contributing and getting behind
• 33:24
  Speaker 4: this right cause. You know, it was the wrong decision
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: to start with. And to see everybody unite together and
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: recognise that, all come together as one to hold the
• 33:34
  Speaker 4: government and the minister accountable was fantastic.
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: I want to play some comments from Jackie Lambie. She
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: was out this morning after this backflip, basically urging everyone
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: to get in behind Matt Keogh, that Matt Keogh was
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: a good guy. Have a listen.
• 33:51
  Speaker 8: And I can tell you, and I'll continue to say
• 33:55
  Speaker 8: it when it comes to Matt Keogh, in the time
• 33:57
  Speaker 8: I've been up here, Matt is the best thing to
• 34:00
  Speaker 8: wear a bloody hat.
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: Now, do you share the view of Jackie Lambie or,
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: Are you with the Coalition who still want him sacked?
• 34:12
  Speaker 4: I think that matter really resides with the Prime Minister,
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: if he's still the right person for the job. That
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: being said, I have my own opinions and I will
• 34:20
  Speaker 4: share them with you. I guess he's changed his position
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: now on three separate occasions. The first one was in
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: regards to Invictus funding, which thankfully returned as it should
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: have in the first place. The Cameron Baird family travel,
• 34:36
  Speaker 4: that was a very small, as you know, Petra, and
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: you were very instrumental, I feel, in getting that reversed.
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: And the veteran community thanks you for that small amount
• 34:46
  Speaker 4: of funding. And I guess now the cap that was
• 34:51
  Speaker 4: put in place that had the potential to make our
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: most vulnerable veterans not get the care and support they needed.
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: So for me, it's a matter for the Prime Minister
• 35:03
  Speaker 4: to But ultimately, three strikes. That's all I'll say.
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think he might get your wish. I think
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: he'll be reshuffled out of the way, but he won't disappear.
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: It doesn't work like that with the factions. You've still
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: got another campaign to fight. This is the one where
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: you're taking on the Department of Veterans Affairs. I'm going
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: to put something up on the screen now that people
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: can get in behind you and join your campaign. It's
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: there on the screen now. Dr Tim Nelson, well done.
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: Enjoy this win. You don't always get them in politics.
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: I know you fought for it. And let's look forward
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: to the next one. Thank you for joining me. Right
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: after the break, a formal objection to plans to include
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: colonial era frontier conflicts, these are Indigenous frontier wars, at
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: the war memorial. Critics are violently opposed. I'll speak to
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: one of them after the break.
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: Welcome back.
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: Coming up, that promise to get the port of Darwin
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: out of Chinese hands. The Prime Minister was dodging criticism
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: about this this week. We'll get to the reasons why
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: it hasn't happened yet. But now to concerns about what's
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: been slammed as a politicisation of the Australian War Memorial
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: by including coverage of colonial era frontier conflicts. This is
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: a campaign that's now been supported by almost 20,000 Australians,
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: who formally objected to the proposed inclusion of so-called Indigenous
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: frontier wars in the displays. One of the critics is
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: retired Lieutenant Colonel Peter O'Brien. He's a Vietnam veteran and
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: the co-convener of the campaign Defend Sacred Ground. And he
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: argues the war memorial and its original founding purpose must
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: be protected from politicking. I'm pleased to say that Peter
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: O'Brien joins me now. Thank you for your time. You
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: argue the war memorials, first and foremost, it's a shrine
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: to those who died serving our nation. So why do
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: you believe that the frontier conflicts have no place here?
• 37:17
  Speaker 12: Well, thank you for having me, Peter. Can I make
• 37:20
  Speaker 12: the point, first of all, that although I am a veteran,
• 37:22
  Speaker 12: that's just coincidental in this fight. This Memorial is owned
• 37:26
  Speaker 12: by all Australians, and I'm taking up, or me and
• 37:29
  Speaker 12: my co-conveners are taking up the cudgels on behalf of
• 37:33
  Speaker 12: all Australians with the intent of pushing back against having
• 37:37
  Speaker 12: Aboriginal divisive agenda thrust down our throats at every opportunity,
• 37:41
  Speaker 12: as you alluded to with, for example, the three flags.
• 37:46
  Speaker 12: But to get to your point, yes, the memorial is
• 37:49
  Speaker 12: a shrine. That is its first and foremost purpose. And
• 37:53
  Speaker 12: it has a museum and it has a historical function.
• 37:56
  Speaker 12: Those functions are ancillary to the purpose as a shrine.
• 38:01
  Speaker 12: According to the Act, they are integral to that nature.
• 38:05
  Speaker 4: So to include a.
• 38:08
  Speaker 12: Conflict that does not cover by the Act, it contravenes
• 38:14
  Speaker 12: the Act and it disrespects the sacrifice made by 103,140
• 38:17
  Speaker 12: people soldiers and people who died in defence of Australia.
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: Peter, you make a really good point there because I've
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: been to shrines and museums, war museums around the world,
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: and generally they are two separate places. Australia is one
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: of the only countries I can think of off the
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: top of my head where the national shrine is co-located
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: with the war memorial, but the Act makes it clear
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: that its primary purpose is to honour the dead and
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: it was for most of the big wars the fact
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: that our dead never came home, that it became such
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: an important place in the hearts of the families left behind.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: So why, explain to people the argument as to why
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: the frontier wars, the Aboriginal conflicts that occurred before soldiers
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: wore our uniform and fought for our country, why they
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: don't have a place at the war memorials?
• 39:20
  Speaker 12: Well, our campaign absolutely acknowledges that there was frontier conflict,
• 39:27
  Speaker 12: that Aboriginal people were killed in terrible circumstances and that
• 39:32
  Speaker 12: the settlement of Australia was traumatic for the Aboriginal people.
• 39:36
  Speaker 12: That was always going to be inevitable. But the basis
• 39:41
  Speaker 12: of what happened was that we settled the country. We
• 39:43
  Speaker 12: did not invade it. And so the conflict that occurred
• 39:47
  Speaker 12: between Australia settlers and the Aboriginal people was a civil matter.
• 39:52
  Speaker 12: It was regarded as a conflict that was to be
• 39:58
  Speaker 12: treated by the police forces. Now, certainly some military forces
• 40:02
  Speaker 12: got involved, but that was what we would call aid
• 40:05
  Speaker 12: to the civil power. It's not regarded as active service.
• 40:09
  Speaker 12: So the fact is that the war memorial was intended
• 40:13
  Speaker 12: to honour those who died in defence of the nation.
• 40:17
  Speaker 12: And The frontier conflict cannot possibly be considered to come
• 40:21
  Speaker 12: under that ambit.
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: My former boss, the former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, was
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: a member of the War Memorial Council and I know
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: he does not support this one iota. My concern is
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: this should be a debate for all Australians. This should
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: be something that the Parliament or the Prime Minister and
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: the and others decide with consultation with the Australian people
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: it shouldn't be something that the War Memorial Council, who
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: most of us don't know anything about, or the bureaucrats
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: of the War Memorial, why do they get to decide
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: something as critical as this?
• 41:02
  Speaker 12: Peter, I believe that a number of the people, or
• 41:05
  Speaker 12: probably maybe most of them, are well-intentioned and they believe
• 41:08
  Speaker 12: that we need to acknowledge what happened in the past.
• 41:12
  Speaker 12: And as I say, a lot of what happened was
• 41:14
  Speaker 12: quite shameful. It's a stain on our history. So my
• 41:17
  Speaker 12: question is, why should we then attach that stain to
• 41:21
  Speaker 12: our national shrine? The shrine not only honours the dead,
• 41:25
  Speaker 12: but it also does honour to the nation, the nation
• 41:27
  Speaker 12: that spawned those heroes, a nation to be proud of,
• 41:31
  Speaker 12: a nation worth dying for. Now, the fact is that
• 41:35
  Speaker 12: the agenda behind this is to delegitimise Australia, to add...
• 41:42
  Speaker 12: what I call the graffiti of grievance, such as invasion, dispossession, genocide,
• 41:48
  Speaker 12: alongside the motifs of honour, courage, loyalty and endurance that
• 41:53
  Speaker 12: we already have there. Now, the proposal is in contravention
• 41:59
  Speaker 12: of the Act. We have formal legal advice from Barrister
• 42:02
  Speaker 12: Peter King that this is in contravention of the Act,
• 42:06
  Speaker 12: but the Council have decided to ignore that just as other.
• 42:12
  Speaker 12: Activists ignore the will of the people. This should go
• 42:15
  Speaker 12: to the people, but they have done it behind closed doors.
• 42:18
  Speaker 12: They had a meeting where it was agreed. The minutes
• 42:21
  Speaker 12: of that meeting have not been made available. It was
• 42:24
  Speaker 12: done in secret and now it's being thrust upon people.
• 42:27
  Speaker 12: And I would bet that if this came to a plebiscite,
• 42:30
  Speaker 12: we would get the same result that we got in
• 42:32
  Speaker 12: the voice referendum. The vast majority of Australians would have
• 42:36
  Speaker 12: pressed it.
• 42:36
  Speaker 4: Well, Peter, we.
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: We are going to join your campaign, Lieutenant Colonel. We
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: are going to join your campaign. The details for people
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: at home, defendsacredground.com. I've just had Angus Taylor on the show.
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: I'm going to get on the phone to him as
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: I drive home and get the Coalition fired up about
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: it as well. I hope Pauline Hanson's mob are watching
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: as well. We'll get them fired up. We will make
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: this a huge issue in the Parliament because it cannot
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: be that these officials down at the war memorial decide
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: something as critical as this. And I don't dispute your advice,
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: if you've got it from Peter King, that it's against
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: the act, then this is against the law if it's
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: against the act. And the whole reason we have laws
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: in this country is because people put their lives on
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: the line to defend what we have. So we need
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: to stand up and be counted as well. Thank you
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: for joining my show tonight, Peter, and I'll come back
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: to you on this fight. There we go. One fight,
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: one for veterans. And now we're going to start another one.
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: But I'm in it. You'll be in it. Get on
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: that website and join the fight. Quick break after the break.
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: We're going to talk about the Port of Darwin and
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: plenty of other things. We need a show one day
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: about what gets discussed in the break because I think
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: you'd find it pretty entertaining. Let's get into the international
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: news of the week with my regular weekly panel, News24
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: contributor Kosha Garda. Former Labor MP Michael Damby, welcome to
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: you both. I want to start with the Port of Darwin, Kosha,
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: because it was a feature of the campaign. As soon
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: as Anthony Albanese got wind that the coalition were going
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: to announce that the Port of Darwin would be taken
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: out of Chinese hands, Albo jumped on ABC Radio Darwin
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: and made the announcement. Well, we're well and truly 12
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: months down the track. It hasn't happened, has it?
• 44:19
  Speaker 11: No, because talk is cheap and easy. These things sound good, obviously,
• 44:23
  Speaker 11: on the campaign. To actually make it happen requires political will,
• 44:27
  Speaker 11: it requires navigating the international court system or not, and
• 44:32
  Speaker 11: actually saying that doesn't apply to us, which requires even
• 44:34
  Speaker 11: more political will, which is probably lacking.
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: But now the pressure is mounting on them.
• 44:38
  Speaker 11: A US delegation was here and is saying that this
• 44:40
  Speaker 11: is a big national security risk and threat to them
• 44:44
  Speaker 11: and to the alliance, so they're turning up the heat.
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: But we shall see. And the reason why it's relevant
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: is because It makes it so much harder for the
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: Americans to scale up Darwin the way they want to
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: scale up if they're sharing the port with the Chinese who,
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: let's be honest, will have assets there that are hoovering
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: up as much of the... Yeah, that they can.
• 45:04
  Speaker 11: It's too proximate for that and just this race for
• 45:07
  Speaker 11: rare minerals and everything else that comes with it. So
• 45:09
  Speaker 11: that heat has turned up, but both countries are playing
• 45:12
  Speaker 11: to two-year, four-year election cycles and so it's very easy
• 45:16
  Speaker 11: to promise something, say.
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: You'll do something.
• 45:18
  Speaker 11: And the next thing you know, everybody at the table
• 45:20
  Speaker 11: this week will be gone.
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: Talk to me about oil prices.
• 45:24
  Speaker 10: Well, the US was sneaking oil through Hormuz. The Saudis
• 45:30
  Speaker 10: were piping it west to the Red Sea. But now
• 45:35
  Speaker 10: Iran's proxies, the Houthis, have hit precisely a Saudi pumping
• 45:40
  Speaker 10: station and world oil is not going to come through Hormuz.
• 45:44
  Speaker 10: the Red Sea, precisely 14 Russian satellites by coincidence passed
• 45:49
  Speaker 10: over that place. So I would say Australians are going
• 45:52
  Speaker 10: to be paying people all around the world higher petrol
• 45:55
  Speaker 10: prices and that Trump will lose the midterms because of this.
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: I saw that warning on the front page of the
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: Australia Today that Canberra bureaucrats have been told about diesel
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: pricing in particular. Of course, the politics of this are
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: pretty bad for the government because we have not got
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: that excise relief in place anymore, have we?
• 46:13
  Speaker 10: No, we haven't, and I think it should go back,
• 46:15
  Speaker 10: but it'll only have a temporary effect if it does
• 46:18
  Speaker 10: because it's not the Ukrainians who are hitting back for
• 46:21
  Speaker 10: the Russians murdering all of their civilians in Ukrainian cities,
• 46:24
  Speaker 10: but it's this big attack that the Iranian proxies organise
• 46:29
  Speaker 10: with Russian help on that pipeline. It's 4% of world
• 46:33
  Speaker 10: oil production was coming out via the Red Sea. It's terrible, Peter.
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: Sometimes I think I'd love to live in a quaint
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: little English village. I do love them except where, you know,
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: it's midsummer murders where someone dies every couple of days.
• 46:45
  Speaker 10: Three people died in those villages each week.
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's... And that's the Cotswolds. But Peddington, this
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: town Peddington, I tell you what, I would not want
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: to be in that village. Not so quaint anymore.
• 46:56
  Speaker 3: No, no.
• 46:56
  Speaker 11: This is another example I think we talked about before.
• 46:59
  Speaker 11: My mind goes to Springfield, Ohio and the famous Trump
• 47:02
  Speaker 11: debate where he said they're eating the cats and dogs.
• 47:04
  Speaker 11: The point being that these very different people from different
• 47:06
  Speaker 11: cultures are coming and overrunning this town. Same thing here.
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: Small, tiny population.
• 47:11
  Speaker 11: You allow.
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: About 300 locals or something like that. Extremely small.
• 47:15
  Speaker 11: And then you allow the spigot of immigration to come in, legal, illegal, asylum,
• 47:19
  Speaker 11: all of it.
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: And then you boat them into these towns.
• 47:22
  Speaker 11: That is what's happening and you can really feel the
• 47:24
  Speaker 11: effects of it immediately just with numbers like that. So
• 47:27
  Speaker 11: they don't have too many venues in which to redress
• 47:29
  Speaker 11: their grievances. So the only thing they've done is what's
• 47:32
  Speaker 11: really a symbolic vote saying they're going to secede. There's
• 47:34
  Speaker 11: no mechanism to actually do that unless the UK government
• 47:36
  Speaker 11: grants it. So it's maybe more of a symbolic gesture
• 47:39
  Speaker 11: or a publicity stunt, you can say, but it's certainly
• 47:41
  Speaker 11: capturing the world's attention.
• 47:42
  Speaker 10: You need immigrants in the National Health Service, nurses and doctors,
• 47:45
  Speaker 10: et cetera, but these immigrants who are coming.
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: 1,700 young, fighting-age Arab men in a little community.
• 47:52
  Speaker 10: all coming via these big rubber boats. I mean, Andy
• 47:55
  Speaker 10: Burnham is going to end up as unpopular as Starmer
• 48:00
  Speaker 10: if this doesn't stop.
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: All right, you may not want to get into this one.
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: We're in safe territory, I think. Sydney Sweeney. The outrage
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: about this ad, first of all, if I looked like that,
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: you know, I probably would get my kid off as well.
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: But aren't we all about women doing what they want
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: to do? And she owns an equity stake in the company.
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: What's the outrage about it?
• 48:24
  Speaker 11: I think that those female athletes just want to insert
• 48:25
  Speaker 11: themselves into what has become a big story. Nobody takes
• 48:28
  Speaker 11: them seriously because, to your point, this actually is female empowerment,
• 48:32
  Speaker 11: number one. Number two, if they really want to take
• 48:33
  Speaker 11: a stand for women's sports, the trans issue is where
• 48:36
  Speaker 11: they should be focusing on this. And number three, it
• 48:38
  Speaker 11: wasn't even about female athletes. It's about betting, which is
• 48:41
  Speaker 11: a male product. It's not actually about athletes. I think
• 48:44
  Speaker 11: they sort of missed the point.
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: There you go. Safe one, that one. Not an easy
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: one for a male to navigate. All right, have a
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: lovely weekend, everyone. I'll see you Monday. Here's James McPherson.