Latest / The Bolt Report / The Bolt Report | 23 September

Transcript

The Bolt Report | 23 September · The Bolt Report

0:11
Speaker 1: Is the gold reform it.
0:15
Speaker 2: Tonight Peter Dutton's big speech on nuclear power. Why isn't
0:21
Speaker 2: he telling you what it's going to cost? It's time
0:23
Speaker 2: that both sides of politics in this energy crisis just
0:26
Speaker 2: leveled with us. Also tonight, the meeting of Cowards on
0:30
Speaker 2: the weekend. The leaders wouldn't say publicly, well, they were
0:32
Speaker 2: caught admitting in private and scandaled her up. So from
0:37
Speaker 2: Mohammed al Fayed, the billionaire owner of Harod's acquaintance of
0:41
Speaker 2: the Queen and a Princess Diana, why was it he
0:44
Speaker 2: charged with rape? And why didn't Britain's new prime minister
0:49
Speaker 2: do something about it while the predator was still alive
0:54
Speaker 2: Prenty Moll as well, like the National's election plan cheap
0:59
Speaker 2: beers say, and the ABC pushing socialism to fix the
1:03
Speaker 2: housing crisis. Sure it's got to work sometime, I guess
1:07
Speaker 2: thinks the ABC. But first let's start with a fascal
1:12
Speaker 2: press conference today a sign of political desperation. The premise
1:16
Speaker 2: has found who's really to blame for inflation, for making
1:21
Speaker 2: Australians poorer for the last year and a half. It's
1:24
Speaker 2: not him, of course, No, it's those big supermarkets charging
1:29
Speaker 2: you too much.
1:31
Speaker 3: When you're charging more for products than you should, it
1:35
Speaker 3: of course has an inflationary impact by definition.
1:39
Speaker 2: I have to admire Anthony Albanezi today how fast they
1:42
Speaker 2: actually moves, calling this press conference to jump all over
1:45
Speaker 2: the news that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is
1:48
Speaker 2: suing Coles and Woolworths for allegedly cheating customers. If true,
1:54
Speaker 2: Coles and wools have indeed done something very sneaky and stupid.
1:58
Speaker 2: They're accused of each jacking up the prices more than
2:00
Speaker 2: two hundred items just briefly, and then lowering the prices
2:04
Speaker 2: back to normal or above normal in some cases, and
2:07
Speaker 2: claiming special. Here's just one example of oreos sold at Woolies,
2:13
Speaker 2: sold for months at three dollars fifty, then briefly for
2:17
Speaker 2: five dollars, then sold as on special for four dollars fifty,
2:21
Speaker 2: which is actually much higher than they were I mean Woolies,
2:26
Speaker 2: I mean Woolies. These guys campaigned for the Voice for Reconciliation.
2:32
Speaker 2: Seems they were meanwhile allegedly cheating their own customers. Maybe
2:36
Speaker 2: they should have spent more effort reconciling with customers instead.
2:40
Speaker 2: But let's sort of assume guilt. Coles, for one, says it's
2:43
Speaker 2: going to fight this in court. It says col zone
2:45
Speaker 2: costs were rising things like power bills, which led to
2:49
Speaker 2: an increase in the retail price of many products. But
2:52
Speaker 2: never mind that Albaniz who was a ready this morning
2:54
Speaker 2: giving them a kick instead for just you know, well
2:58
Speaker 2: they should have just left it to the court, shouldn't.
3:00
Speaker 3: Hey, these are serious allegations that the a triop'll see
3:04
Speaker 3: is bringing before the courts. If this is found to
3:08
Speaker 3: be true, it's completely unacceptable. This is not the Australian spirit.
3:14
Speaker 3: Customers don't deserve to be treated as fools by the supermarkets.
3:18
Speaker 3: Specials need to be real because household budgets are tight.
3:23
Speaker 2: Now you see what's going on, though you are Albanies.
3:25
Speaker 2: He needs a scapegoat because right now he is feeling
3:28
Speaker 2: the heat over costs of living, over inflation. You look
3:32
Speaker 2: at the newspot phonings today. The biggest cost worries now
3:35
Speaker 2: are first of all actually housing, where you can't blame
3:38
Speaker 2: that on supermarkets, but you can blame the government for
3:42
Speaker 2: letting in a million immigrants without even enough new houses
3:45
Speaker 2: for them. And then groceries are a second big worry
3:49
Speaker 2: a follow by energy. Another thing you can blame a
3:53
Speaker 2: lot on governments, not on supermarkets. So I don't think
3:57
Speaker 2: the big supermarkets are really enemy. Number one costs of
4:00
Speaker 2: living crisis government is the huge immigration, the mad green
4:05
Speaker 2: energy schemes. All of that is added to your bills
4:08
Speaker 2: through inflation. And government's also spending too much. Although Albanies
4:12
Speaker 2: here today trying to put an innocence on that one
4:15
Speaker 2: saying is just deliver two budget surpluses and cut debt.
4:20
Speaker 3: What we have done, though, is to harve inflation. If
4:24
Speaker 3: you lower debt, if you produce surpluses, that has downward
4:28
Speaker 3: pressure on inflation. That doesn't happen by accident. That happens
4:32
Speaker 3: because of good, responsible economic management. And that's what my
4:36
Speaker 3: government's delivering.
4:37
Speaker 2: Come and cut the spin. The government just got lucky,
4:40
Speaker 2: your whole flood of tax money revenue coming in thanks
4:43
Speaker 2: the massive prices for explosive things like coal and iron ore.
4:47
Speaker 2: But that luck is now running out, and you check
4:49
Speaker 2: the government's budget this year, these two surpluses Albanies is
4:53
Speaker 2: boasting about after the pandemic flood of money to keep
4:57
Speaker 2: us going. That's going to be followed by years more
5:00
Speaker 2: more of deficits, and that, of course helps us explain
5:03
Speaker 2: today's newspat. Labour's primary vote down one point six percentage
5:07
Speaker 2: points since the election, the coalition up two point three
5:10
Speaker 2: and only the Green support, giving the Labor vote fifty
5:13
Speaker 2: to fifty with the coalitions after preferences. Now, howbany is
5:16
Speaker 2: he tried today to blame the supermarkets for inflation. But
5:22
Speaker 2: he's just doing what they're are accused of giving you
5:26
Speaker 2: misleading information. Yes, but two Doton's big speech today on
5:34
Speaker 2: nuclear power both sides liberals Labor. They are not telling
5:38
Speaker 2: you the truth about a collapsing electricity system, and that
5:42
Speaker 2: is the cost. Now you saw that today with the
5:46
Speaker 2: opposition of Leader's big speech and nuclear power. He didn't
5:50
Speaker 2: say what moving to nuclear power is going to cost you. Instead,
5:55
Speaker 2: in questions afterwards, you just promised to learn from what
5:58
Speaker 2: other countries have done and give at least something cheaper
6:01
Speaker 2: than what Labour's offering.
6:03
Speaker 4: How do you deal with the cost issue, which is
6:05
Speaker 4: a central issue to this debate.
6:07
Speaker 5: Well, Chris, we're not talking about being a first type,
6:11
Speaker 5: not being first in class. We can look at the
6:14
Speaker 5: international experience, look at what the Koreans are doing, look
6:16
Speaker 5: at what has happened in the UE, Look at Westinghouse
6:19
Speaker 5: at the AP one thousands, and what's happened in the
6:23
Speaker 5: United States as recently as May the fourth unit they're commissioned,
6:27
Speaker 5: And look at what's happening in France and elsewhere.
6:31
Speaker 2: We don't need to build a bespoke reactor.
6:34
Speaker 5: We can rely on the proven technologies, and if we
6:38
Speaker 5: do that, we can avoid some of the initial cost
6:42
Speaker 5: and time blowouts that are a feature of a US technology.
6:45
Speaker 5: We're a fraction of the one point two trillion.
6:47
Speaker 2: Dollars of Labour's plan, and I'm sick of it. Here's
6:53
Speaker 2: the brutal truth. Either way, whether we go nuclear or
6:56
Speaker 2: whether we go Labour's way, wind and sol going to
7:00
Speaker 2: be paying a lot more for electricity, a lot, either
7:04
Speaker 2: in bills or in taxes. That's what happens when both
7:09
Speaker 2: sides say we can't keep using our cheap coal. Now,
7:15
Speaker 2: Labour's plans are going to cost more. You see it already,
7:19
Speaker 2: of course, because it doesn't just have to build all
7:21
Speaker 2: those new wind and solar farms and replace them every
7:24
Speaker 2: twenty five years, it's also going to have to build
7:26
Speaker 2: the extra power lines to hook them all up all
7:28
Speaker 2: over the country. That's very expensive, and then build another
7:32
Speaker 2: separate power supply as a backup for all the times
7:35
Speaker 2: that this wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine.
7:39
Speaker 2: That's incredible. That's going to cost something unbelievable. A priced
7:43
Speaker 2: labor is not telling. So Peter Dunton was right about
7:48
Speaker 2: that today.
7:49
Speaker 5: If you are in labour shoes at the moment, you
7:52
Speaker 5: don't like coal, you don't like gas. Green hydrogen's not
7:54
Speaker 5: a reality, certainly not a commercial reality. You don't like nuclear.
7:59
Speaker 5: When Chris Bald talks about an energy gap opening up
8:02
Speaker 5: over the next decade or two, the biggest risk is
8:05
Speaker 5: in Labour's model because they don't have a baseload power.
8:10
Speaker 2: See that's a benefit of nuclear, it's just not It's
8:13
Speaker 2: not only you know, no emissions electricity, which we apparently
8:18
Speaker 2: want in these global warming times. It's also steady power,
8:22
Speaker 2: baseload power night and day, minimal backup needed, so that's
8:27
Speaker 2: a saving. No extra wires needed either, because you just
8:30
Speaker 2: build them where the old cold generators are already hooked up
8:33
Speaker 2: to the grid. But even so nuclear is also going
8:37
Speaker 2: to cost and a lot. Joining me is Tony Irwin,
8:40
Speaker 2: Chair of Engineers Australia. Sydney's Nuclear Engineering Panel has helped
8:45
Speaker 2: the Commission and operate eight nuclear power reactors and was
8:49
Speaker 2: the first reactor manager of Australia's Opal Research Nuclear Reactor. Tony,
8:54
Speaker 2: great to see you again. Did you learn much that
8:58
Speaker 2: was new today from Peter Dutt and about his plans
9:01
Speaker 2: to build seven nuclear power stations around Australia.
9:09
Speaker 1: I thought it was good in that it brought together
9:12
Speaker 1: all the issues in one speech, because we've had all
9:15
Speaker 1: these different parts of it and it brought it all together.
9:19
Speaker 1: He made the five points about why renewables isn't working
9:24
Speaker 1: and we've seen increased prices with increased renewables, particularly in
9:29
Speaker 1: South Australia, and as you said, as the solar panels sheet,
9:35
Speaker 1: but then you've got to have the storage, the transmission, etc.
9:40
Speaker 1: But also you've got to build over capacity to be
9:44
Speaker 1: able to get enough during the day into the storage
9:47
Speaker 1: as well, so that's another additional cost and as you say,
9:50
Speaker 1: the lifetime is a big problem. And then he made
9:54
Speaker 1: the five points about why we must include nuclear in
9:58
Speaker 1: the mix and why other countries have successfully used nuclear
10:03
Speaker 1: and you know, particularly because it's independence of the weather.
10:08
Speaker 1: You know, we're getting increased problems in weather. Nuclear is
10:11
Speaker 1: the only low emissions technology that is independence of the weather.
10:18
Speaker 2: Now, I don't know if you know what seven nuclear
10:21
Speaker 2: power stations is going to cost, but do you know
10:25
Speaker 2: if you do tell us that, do you believe that
10:28
Speaker 2: whatever the cost, it will be cheaper than wind and solar? Yeah?
10:36
Speaker 1: Okay, So you can do a rough calculation and get
10:40
Speaker 1: some sort of idea, and it definitely comes out a
10:43
Speaker 1: lot cheaper. You know that we're talking about one hundred
10:45
Speaker 1: and twenty two billion for wind and solar. So what
10:51
Speaker 1: you can do is use the gen cost figures for
10:54
Speaker 1: large nuclear and then you can say, all right, let's
10:58
Speaker 1: have five sites with a gigawar each. That's forty three billion,
11:02
Speaker 1: two sites with two SMRs each that's another ten billion.
11:07
Speaker 1: So you're in the sort of fifty to sixty billion
11:11
Speaker 1: rough rough sort of idea compared to the one hundred
11:16
Speaker 1: and twenty two billion plus for renewables. You know, these
11:20
Speaker 1: aren't you know, these are figures that's got to be
11:23
Speaker 1: fully justified. But that's the sort of ballpark you're in.
11:27
Speaker 1: So it's definitely cheaper.
11:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well for your gifts, for your estimation, it's half
11:36
Speaker 2: the price The thing, of course, is that meanwhile the
11:39
Speaker 2: government's building all these or encouraging the building of all
11:42
Speaker 2: these winning solar fans, a lot of them will not
11:45
Speaker 2: be viable once nuclear comes in. That's why you're hearing
11:49
Speaker 2: all the screams. Let's just lost money, a lot of
11:52
Speaker 2: it to super fans by the way. Now, meanwhile, so
11:57
Speaker 2: Labor says, no, no, no, you're wrong, Tony Irwin will
11:59
Speaker 2: not use SPECIF. But generally the Witnessholar are cheaper. Their
12:03
Speaker 2: plans are to get eighty two percent of our electricity
12:07
Speaker 2: from renewable energy in just six years time, just six years,
12:12
Speaker 2: more than double the power that we get from them today,
12:15
Speaker 2: and then even more later. Here's Peter Dutton on that plan.
12:18
Speaker 5: Today, no country can run effectively on part time power
12:23
Speaker 5: on solar, wind and batteries alone, and the government is
12:27
Speaker 5: doubling down. It's rolling out intermittent sources of energy on
12:32
Speaker 5: an industrial scale, and it's removing ninety percent of essential
12:36
Speaker 5: twenty four to seven base load power over the next
12:38
Speaker 5: decade between now and twenty thirty four with nothing to
12:42
Speaker 5: replace it.
12:44
Speaker 2: Now, Tony Iowan is Peter Dutton and right that the
12:47
Speaker 2: ambanies the government is destroying the electricity system that works
12:51
Speaker 2: all this cul fire power. Stags will be driven out
12:53
Speaker 2: of business without having a viable system to replace it exactly.
13:05
Speaker 1: You know, you can see that how difficult it is
13:08
Speaker 1: because you're building out these renewables far away, because you've
13:13
Speaker 1: got to have enough land to be able to build it.
13:17
Speaker 1: Then you've got to have very long transmission links to link.
13:19
Speaker 2: It all up.
13:21
Speaker 1: And you know, we're starting to look at the environmental damage.
13:26
Speaker 1: We look at Queensland and the Great Dividing Range and
13:30
Speaker 1: all the wind turbines that have been put through that area,
13:35
Speaker 1: and it's it's absolutely devastating. And you would think that
13:39
Speaker 1: all the green groups would be coming out and saying no,
13:41
Speaker 1: you can't do this, but you know, they seem to
13:44
Speaker 1: be completely ignoring it, and yet it's it's having a
13:47
Speaker 1: real effect. And also of course farmland in New South
13:51
Speaker 1: Wales in the west is affected as well.
13:58
Speaker 2: Tiny Urban Thank you so much for bringing some expertise
14:03
Speaker 2: to a debate where we get so much spins, so
14:07
Speaker 2: much disinformation and so telling silences about things like costs.
14:12
Speaker 2: I really appreciate your time. Thank you so much. I'll
14:16
Speaker 2: tell you there was an interesting satellite to this. Peter
14:20
Speaker 2: Dutton today also made the point of the tech giants
14:22
Speaker 2: like Apple and Microsoft, they are actually needing massive amounts
14:27
Speaker 2: of electricity for the new artificial intelligence centers and cloud computing.
14:32
Speaker 2: You've got no idea how much power these these things need.
14:35
Speaker 2: As much electricity as you need for a city like
14:37
Speaker 2: San Francisco for instance, for an individual company, and they
14:43
Speaker 2: want that to be zero missions there as well as anyone.
14:46
Speaker 2: And that is why Bill Gates Microsoft, He for instance,
14:50
Speaker 2: wants to reopen the three Mile Island nuclear plant just
14:55
Speaker 2: for Microsoft's use alone. Can you believe that? So if
15:00
Speaker 2: we want to get into AAR and we want to
15:02
Speaker 2: get into data storage or even bitcoin also huge energy user.
15:07
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what, We're not going to do that
15:09
Speaker 2: job by relying on wind or the wind stopped or soler,
15:15
Speaker 2: oh the cloud went over. Sorry, guys, are we going
15:19
Speaker 2: to be a member of last century or this century?
15:23
Speaker 2: I tell you what. Well, time for the political panel
15:28
Speaker 2: Michael Kroger former Victorian Liberal President Steve Conroy, former Labor
15:31
Speaker 2: senator and Cabinet minister. Michael Kroger the premises today accusing
15:36
Speaker 2: the supermarkets I've happen to cause high inflation with their
15:40
Speaker 2: allegedly phony scheme of claiming to sell hundreds of items
15:45
Speaker 2: about one percent of this stock on special when they
15:47
Speaker 2: weren't fair enough.
15:52
Speaker 6: Well, he's right to call it out, and nature will
15:54
Speaker 6: see a right to call it out. The old trick
15:56
Speaker 6: of you know, three fifty to five fifty back to
15:59
Speaker 6: four fifty in claiming it's the big discount is a
16:02
Speaker 6: well worn retail tactic. But is the price of oreos
16:08
Speaker 6: adding hugely to inflation? Probably not. If there are hundreds
16:12
Speaker 6: of these items, then that might make a very small difference,
16:17
Speaker 6: But compared to the tens of billions of extra dollars
16:21
Speaker 6: the government are spending in the next three years, No,
16:24
Speaker 6: it's not a huge amount, and and it's not adding
16:26
Speaker 6: anything to near the inflation increase that the government is
16:30
Speaker 6: at a federal level.
16:33
Speaker 2: I think what is making the mistake of saying here
16:35
Speaker 2: is what would the price of the oreos have been naturally,
16:39
Speaker 2: without any cheating about their discount or whatever, they probably
16:43
Speaker 2: were going to go up anyway to four point fifty.
16:45
Speaker 2: They briefly made it five dollars so they could claim
16:48
Speaker 2: was still low, when in fact that hiked the price.
16:51
Speaker 2: That's not to say that had they not done that
16:55
Speaker 2: the areas would be cheaper. I don't think that's Steve Conroy.
16:59
Speaker 2: They wouldn't, well, they would have gone up maybe to
17:01
Speaker 2: four fifty. They wouldn't gone up temporarily five dollars so
17:04
Speaker 2: that they could be claimed as a discount at four fifty.
17:07
Speaker 2: But Steve Conroy, I mean there was an edge of desperation.
17:12
Speaker 2: I thought to the Prime Minister's claim that this is
17:15
Speaker 2: what's causing inflation, I'm not sure that's true at all.
17:19
Speaker 4: Really well, I don't know. We watched the same press
17:22
Speaker 4: conference Andrew. I think the Prime Minister was asked a
17:26
Speaker 4: question about a triple C action on this matter, and
17:29
Speaker 4: he said.
17:30
Speaker 2: If that wasn't ask a question he proven to be true.
17:34
Speaker 4: If that was proven to be true, then they had
17:38
Speaker 4: a case to answer. But by definition, if it's a
17:40
Speaker 4: court process and it's proved to be true, they do
17:42
Speaker 4: have a case to answer. So I'm not sure there
17:45
Speaker 4: was a desperation issue there at all. I mean, I
17:49
Speaker 4: think if you would look at any of the polls
17:51
Speaker 4: that came out in the last twenty four hours, you
17:54
Speaker 4: would certainly say the government is under enormous pressure. It
17:57
Speaker 4: would be disappointed with the polls, but equals is also
18:02
Speaker 4: made the point there's still fifty to fifty and as
18:04
Speaker 4: we've discussed.
18:05
Speaker 2: And you know the.
18:08
Speaker 4: The issue around the normally by now you'd be writing
18:13
Speaker 4: off this government if those poles were reflecting what's actually
18:18
Speaker 4: happening in the individual seats, and because the individual seats
18:22
Speaker 4: are very different to a nationalized pole like a fifty
18:26
Speaker 4: to fifty, there still continues to be a likely most
18:32
Speaker 4: likely outcome if election was held this weekend would be
18:34
Speaker 4: a minority labor government. I know Michael will say, oh, well,
18:37
Speaker 4: you know we're on seventy, but there's a very specific
18:40
Speaker 4: statement in one of the by one of the poles
18:42
Speaker 4: to saying we just want to be clear there is
18:45
Speaker 4: still no chance of pattered up and forming a minority
18:48
Speaker 4: government in this set of circumstances that this poll shows.
18:52
Speaker 2: So I think the Prime.
18:53
Speaker 4: Minister would be disappointed by where we're at at the moment.
18:58
Speaker 2: Steve raises a point, lots of point. I think the
19:00
Speaker 2: government's watching from crisis the crisis and lost control of
19:03
Speaker 2: the narrative, showing great incompetence. It's extraordinary to me that
19:09
Speaker 2: the opposition is ahead. It is ahead in some polls
19:13
Speaker 2: but not a news poll. Why do you think that is?
19:17
Speaker 6: So, here's what's happening on the labour side. Their poles
19:22
Speaker 6: are dropping every single day as people work out this
19:25
Speaker 6: is a hard left, woke government, which and it's a
19:27
Speaker 6: prisoner of the hard left in Australian politics. And there's
19:30
Speaker 6: a dozen more examples of where they've just caved in
19:33
Speaker 6: to the extreme left. But on the side of the coalition,
19:37
Speaker 6: Dutton's had two very big ideas. First of all, opposing
19:39
Speaker 6: the Voice, which was a courageous thing to do given
19:42
Speaker 6: that it was only forty percent with him. When he
19:44
Speaker 6: announced that he was proved absolutely right, and the vast
19:47
Speaker 6: majority of Australians agreed with him and had given him
19:49
Speaker 6: great credit for his courage. The second big idea is
19:52
Speaker 6: nuclear which over time will be a vote winner. But
19:57
Speaker 6: Peter's poles have stagnated in my view in the last
20:01
Speaker 6: month or so. He needs a third big idea to
20:05
Speaker 6: carry him to majority government, which is which is possible
20:09
Speaker 6: with a third big idea. I gave him a third
20:10
Speaker 6: big idea, but I'm not sure like it. I won't
20:12
Speaker 6: go into that. But so Peter, Peter Dutton and the
20:15
Speaker 6: opposition federally Peter Dutton and the opposition federally have done
20:19
Speaker 6: an outstanding job. But he needs another idea and it's
20:23
Speaker 6: got an I got to be an idea around the
20:25
Speaker 6: tax system. And because it's a cost of this is
20:31
Speaker 6: a cost of living election. He said two big home
20:33
Speaker 6: runs on the voice of Nuclear. He needs a third.
20:36
Speaker 6: He needs a third line.
20:39
Speaker 2: Michael, I think you've you won't be able to credit afterwards.
20:44
Speaker 6: Right, I can tell you what it is, and I've
20:48
Speaker 6: lobbied the FEDS on it, which is basically that. And
20:51
Speaker 6: I've said this before on skuy. The average working member
20:55
Speaker 6: of the middle class, the working families think the tax
20:57
Speaker 6: system works against them, right, They all think that, and
21:01
Speaker 6: they're right because too many of these big companies, and
21:05
Speaker 6: many of the members of the BCA, by the way,
21:08
Speaker 6: have operations in tax havens and they minimize and avoid
21:12
Speaker 6: tax in a lot of jurisdictions by the use of
21:14
Speaker 6: tax havens.
21:15
Speaker 7: So Dunton should say.
21:17
Speaker 6: No government contracts will be given to corporations who utilize
21:23
Speaker 6: tax havens in an unexplained way. If there's a reason
21:26
Speaker 6: why they've got an office in the Bahamas, fine, But
21:28
Speaker 6: if you've got unexplained operations in a tax haven. You
21:31
Speaker 6: will not be receiving any federal government no more, because
21:34
Speaker 6: that's not the way.
21:35
Speaker 2: We're going to roll federally notes anything. Ob these who
21:38
Speaker 2: were taking notes of the angry that policy before we know,
21:41
Speaker 2: But I tell you what came up with. What they
21:46
Speaker 2: think is the Nationals came up today with what they
21:49
Speaker 2: think is an even or yesterday with an even better
21:52
Speaker 2: idea cheaper beer. They think the Nationals leader is suggesting,
21:59
Speaker 2: how about using the excise, you know, lowering the excise
22:03
Speaker 2: on beer. Although I must say Shadow Finance Mister Jane
22:06
Speaker 2: Hume didn't sound that impressive.
22:08
Speaker 5: Listen cost a living crisis that has meant that Australians
22:13
Speaker 5: aren't turning up to the pubs.
22:15
Speaker 2: They don't have the disposable income they used to.
22:17
Speaker 8: What I can say is that when we were in
22:18
Speaker 8: government we concentrated on this pretty hard. We made sure
22:21
Speaker 8: that there were support for distillers. But it is a
22:24
Speaker 8: very complicated tax to manage that, you know, dealing with
22:26
Speaker 8: both wine and beer and spirits. We want to make
22:29
Speaker 8: sure it's a comprehensive approach.
22:32
Speaker 2: Cavin beer excise as Stephen Conroy is that let me
22:36
Speaker 2: let me trans let me.
22:39
Speaker 4: Let me translate Jane's statement that that's a hard no.
22:45
Speaker 2: But that's not forgets. Let's not forget that.
22:49
Speaker 4: John Howard to save his political skin cuts petrol excise.
22:54
Speaker 4: Disastrous for the state of the finances, but politically a
22:57
Speaker 4: genius strike. Remember the ast and by election you cut
23:00
Speaker 4: the petrol indux age or froze it, and it helped
23:04
Speaker 4: them win asking and go on to win that win
23:06
Speaker 4: that election. So this is a populist idea that sometimes
23:11
Speaker 4: does get taken up. I think David's appearing on Paul
23:13
Speaker 4: Murray's show a bit too often. He's picking up Paul suggested,
23:17
Speaker 4: like Paul keeps arguing for Paul keeps arguing for freeze
23:22
Speaker 4: all these exercises, freeze them all petrol, cigar cigarettes or
23:26
Speaker 4: being ripped off. I think, Dave, you spend a bit
23:28
Speaker 4: too much time on plow because unfortunately the other iransition
23:33
Speaker 4: then go and ignored all of those.
23:37
Speaker 2: The incise in this country, well, the in sise is
23:40
Speaker 2: very very high on things like gin and whiskey and
23:44
Speaker 2: all that, and I think we're actually staffling a domestic
23:47
Speaker 2: industry as a consequence. But I wouldn't say this is
23:50
Speaker 2: a major election winner Michael Kroger Stephen Conroy, thank you
23:54
Speaker 2: both for your time after the break a meeting on
23:57
Speaker 2: the weekend of week leaders who don't dare say in
24:01
Speaker 2: public what they were caught out saying in private about China.
24:10
Speaker 2: What an embarrassment that meeting on the weekend, that Quad
24:13
Speaker 2: summit with Anthony Albanesi and US President Joe Biden. It
24:18
Speaker 2: was a sign of such terrible weakness, and not just
24:22
Speaker 2: because the two men looked and usually beaten, with Barden's
24:26
Speaker 2: time as president almost up in Albanizi facing the possibility
24:29
Speaker 2: and now of a shock election loss himself. In fact,
24:33
Speaker 2: the other two leaders at this meeting of the Quad
24:35
Speaker 2: include not only India's Prime min but Japan's has already
24:38
Speaker 2: said that his quitting too after a corruption scandal. There
24:41
Speaker 2: was a real flock of lane ducks. Now. That was
24:45
Speaker 2: already a sign of how little authority these leaders who
24:48
Speaker 2: were confronting China have, But then came this when Barden
24:53
Speaker 2: told the other three on a hot mic a camera
24:56
Speaker 2: feed wasn't shut down what they needed to discuss in
25:00
Speaker 2: private when the journalists had left the room.
25:05
Speaker 9: China continues to behave aggressively testing us all across the region,
25:09
Speaker 9: and it's true in the South China Sea, the East
25:11
Speaker 9: China Sea, South Asia and the Taiwan's trees.
25:17
Speaker 2: And he went on about China really challenging them. But
25:21
Speaker 2: what was so pathetic was he was about telling these
25:24
Speaker 2: news privately what none of them wanted publicly to say,
25:28
Speaker 2: and didn't publicly say in their declaration afterwards. They didn't
25:31
Speaker 2: name China. They didn't say China is a real threat
25:36
Speaker 2: and pushing us weight around. I mean, as if it's
25:39
Speaker 2: a secret. It's been sending planes to test the airspaces
25:44
Speaker 2: of not just Hawan but Japan. It's been ramming ships
25:48
Speaker 2: of the Philippines and sees that China wants to steal.
25:52
Speaker 2: It's been dropping anti missile chef in front of an
25:55
Speaker 2: Australian plane of the South China Sea and calling Australia
25:59
Speaker 2: the to me join me is the country's top foreign
26:03
Speaker 2: affairs Ruddi, Greek Sheridan, the Australian newspaper Greg great peace
26:07
Speaker 2: by you today. By the way, on this very issue,
26:09
Speaker 2: these four guys in private say all China's aggressively testing
26:15
Speaker 2: us publicly, didn't mention the word China.
26:19
Speaker 10: What does that tell you, well, Andrew it's great to
26:24
Speaker 10: be with you. You can't have faith that the Quad
26:27
Speaker 10: will be strong enough to constrain China's behavior if it's
26:30
Speaker 10: not strong enough to mention China in public. Now, Japan
26:35
Speaker 10: and India, for all their limitations, are making serious efforts
26:39
Speaker 10: to modernize and expand their armed forces. The United States
26:43
Speaker 10: has the greatest armed forces in the world, but under
26:45
Speaker 10: Biden is doing nothing to expand them. And Biden has
26:49
Speaker 10: gone into it one of his dithering episodes of renewed
26:54
Speaker 10: diplomacy with the Chinese leadership. And this happens very often
26:58
Speaker 10: under Democrat presidents in the that this is the State
27:01
Speaker 10: Department's default position all the time. Australia is the weakest
27:05
Speaker 10: of all because we are degrading our own defense capability
27:10
Speaker 10: and we won't mention China under any circumstances. You know, recently,
27:14
Speaker 10: when the Chinese ram the Philippines ship in the South
27:17
Speaker 10: China Sea, Anthony Albanesi made a statement saying we wanted
27:21
Speaker 10: there to be law and order and good process at
27:25
Speaker 10: sea and didn't mention China. So as a group, the
27:28
Speaker 10: Quad won't mention China, and individually most of them won't
27:31
Speaker 10: mention China, and most of them except for Japan and India,
27:36
Speaker 10: are not making military investments which they need to do
27:42
Speaker 10: to cope with the Chinese military.
27:45
Speaker 2: Tell you well know, meanwhile, you've got two hot wars
27:48
Speaker 2: going on thanks to China's allies, Iran and Russia. In
27:52
Speaker 2: both cases democracy is under attack, and the US saying
27:56
Speaker 2: to both of them, or don't go in too hard
27:58
Speaker 2: in this war. Don't know I fight to one is,
28:00
Speaker 2: of course, Russia invading Ukraine. Ukraine being told all you
28:04
Speaker 2: can't fire our missiles into Russia and he ran funding
28:07
Speaker 2: a war on Israel by terrorists, armies from US and
28:09
Speaker 2: Gaza and HESBA into the north in Lebanon now Israel
28:14
Speaker 2: last week killed and injured a lot of he officials
28:17
Speaker 2: by boober trapping their pages of walkie talkies, then wiped
28:21
Speaker 2: out the leadership of Hesbela's top military unit with a
28:25
Speaker 2: precision bomb. Hezbla has now hit back with one hundred
28:29
Speaker 2: and fifty missiles that reached as far as Haifa. Once again,
28:33
Speaker 2: Australia and the US are telling Israel, don't escalate. What's
28:37
Speaker 2: going on here? Greg and is the region headed to
28:39
Speaker 2: in all that war?
28:42
Speaker 10: Very hard to answer, really, Andrew So as you pointed
28:48
Speaker 10: out in the Herald Sun today, Hesbela has fired over
28:52
Speaker 10: eight thousand missiles at Israel in the last less than
28:56
Speaker 10: twelve months. In the last eleven months or so. Now, Israel,
29:00
Speaker 10: as Mike Kelly, the former Labor Minister, argued in our
29:04
Speaker 10: paper today, has every right to retaliate militarily now blowing
29:09
Speaker 10: up pages which were only issued to Hezbollah operatives and commanders.
29:15
Speaker 10: And recall that Hesbela is a designated terrorist organization under
29:20
Speaker 10: Australian law, under the United States law, under the law
29:23
Speaker 10: of most European countries. Blowing those pages up is the
29:28
Speaker 10: most precisely targeted retaliation Israel could possibly do. So For
29:33
Speaker 10: the Albanesi government to criticize this is just dismal and
29:38
Speaker 10: wretched and pathetic.
29:40
Speaker 2: Now, I think the.
29:42
Speaker 10: Biden administration is much much better because it is providing
29:46
Speaker 10: massive material support to Israel. And one reason Iran is
29:50
Speaker 10: being very cautious at the moment is because of American
29:53
Speaker 10: naval assets in the region, and if there isn't all
29:57
Speaker 10: out war, America will be supporting Israel, There's no doubt,
30:00
Speaker 10: and that has a huge effect. I'm ashamed about our government.
30:04
Speaker 10: Everything it's said about this dispute has been wretched and
30:09
Speaker 10: vacuous and small p political and just just shaming for
30:14
Speaker 10: Australia to adopt the fatuous positions that it has adopted.
30:21
Speaker 2: I couldn't believe anyone the Foreign mist is saying after
30:24
Speaker 2: Hesbollah has such a massive blow struck against this leadership
30:28
Speaker 2: with his pages. Oh we don't like to see you know,
30:32
Speaker 2: you know, the war escalade and war in this and
30:34
Speaker 2: we don't like killing. I mean, seriously, Israel at war
30:37
Speaker 2: with terrorists for Heaven's sake. But meanwhile, Greg, I've got
30:43
Speaker 2: to show you this because I can't believe what I'm hearing. Well,
30:47
Speaker 2: I actually can. Unfortunately, back in the US, Vice President
30:51
Speaker 2: Kamala Harris, she got the most gentle interview from Oprah Winfrey,
30:55
Speaker 2: a real supporter, but even Oprah could not stop Harris
30:58
Speaker 2: from showing that as a president candidate, she is totally vacuous,
31:03
Speaker 2: with no idea about what you do if she won
31:06
Speaker 2: the election against Donald Trump in NOVEMBA. Sittle back for
31:09
Speaker 2: just a minute, I haven't listened to this.
31:12
Speaker 11: You really would love to know what your plan is
31:14
Speaker 11: to help lower the cost of living. Yeah, first of all,
31:18
Speaker 11: thank you both for being here and yours is a
31:23
Speaker 11: story I hear around the country as I travel, and
31:28
Speaker 11: in terms of both rightly having the right to have
31:34
Speaker 11: aspirations and dreams and ambitions for your family and working
31:41
Speaker 11: hard will.
31:42
Speaker 2: Be specific steps to strengthening the border.
31:45
Speaker 12: So it's a wonderful and important question. You know, My
31:50
Speaker 12: background was as a prosecutor, and I was also the
31:55
Speaker 12: elected attorney general for two terms of a border state.
31:58
Speaker 12: So this is not a theory issue for me. This
32:02
Speaker 12: is something I've actually worked on. I have prosecuted transnational
32:06
Speaker 12: criminal organizations for the trafficking of guns, drugs, and human beings.
32:12
Speaker 12: I take very seriously the importance of having a secure
32:16
Speaker 12: border and ensuring the safety of the American people.
32:22
Speaker 2: Greg she never did give any specifics of what she'd do.
32:27
Speaker 2: It was blather and feel good all the way through,
32:30
Speaker 2: warm fuzzies, no policies.
32:33
Speaker 10: Your conclusion, well, Andrew, you know, I really hate to
32:38
Speaker 10: sound political about this, but it's as if she's been
32:41
Speaker 10: to the Albanese government school of never ever answering a
32:45
Speaker 10: question and always blathering about process. And I mean, she's
32:50
Speaker 10: not in sharp mental decline in the way Biden is.
32:53
Speaker 10: But Biden picked her because she was so mediocre and
32:57
Speaker 10: hopeless that she would never be a threat to him
32:59
Speaker 10: As vice president. She is amply demonstrating her mediocrity and
33:03
Speaker 10: hopelessness and honestly, if Trump can't beat her, that's a
33:07
Speaker 10: terrible comment on Trump. But what a choice. I mean,
33:12
Speaker 10: she's not suffering from senile dementia. But that's about That's
33:17
Speaker 10: about the most positive thing you can say you can
33:19
Speaker 10: say for her. I mean, she just refuses to answer
33:22
Speaker 10: any straight question and seems incapable of speaking in normal,
33:26
Speaker 10: straightforward English sentences. It's a very it's a very suppressing.
33:34
Speaker 2: Well I got to pick you up on something there, greet.
33:36
Speaker 2: You said she's not suffering from senile dementia. I have
33:39
Speaker 2: to say, how could you even tell? Anyway? Thank you
33:42
Speaker 2: so much for your time. Greg Sheridan after the break
33:46
Speaker 2: First Nations Ambassador, Well, my goodness, did you know we
33:51
Speaker 2: had one?
33:51
Speaker 10: Didn't you?
33:52
Speaker 2: Do? You know what it's been spending more after this?
34:00
Speaker 2: How many the government's got such a ten year on
34:02
Speaker 2: culture issues, cultural issues and on its race agenda particularly,
34:06
Speaker 2: I mean, how many Australians does it actually think would
34:10
Speaker 2: be on board with its device of agenda? Sure got
34:12
Speaker 2: to shock with the Voice for its start the latest.
34:15
Speaker 2: Now I ventured before at the start, how appalling it
34:20
Speaker 2: was that it actually appointed an ambassador for first Nations people,
34:25
Speaker 2: First nations being a political term now used even by
34:28
Speaker 2: the ABC for what are in fact Aborigines, but first
34:32
Speaker 2: nations people, as if Aborigines are a separate nation needing
34:37
Speaker 2: separate diplomatic representation overseas. Now that ambassador was given three
34:44
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty thousand dollars to travel last financial year
34:48
Speaker 2: alone to nine places around the world, nine in one year.
34:54
Speaker 2: Most of the US in Europe now the opposition is saying,
34:57
Speaker 2: what a waste the money. The job will go as
34:59
Speaker 2: soon as it's elected. And to that, I would say
35:02
Speaker 2: most of the strands would think absolutely hallelujah. Joining me
35:08
Speaker 2: a Damien Courier, corporate communications consultant, host of his own
35:11
Speaker 2: video podcast. The other side, it's called Stephen Travura, an
35:15
Speaker 2: author and senior lecturer in history Campion College. His expertise
35:19
Speaker 2: Western civilization, a sort of an important discipline that's unfortunately
35:25
Speaker 2: out of fashion. Stephen, how did we get to this?
35:29
Speaker 2: You know that we get a first nation's ambassador, an
35:35
Speaker 2: ambassador for one race of people, in this polycultural mongrel community.
35:43
Speaker 13: Well, as you said, the current government has tenare when
35:47
Speaker 13: it comes to culture issues, and over the last thirty
35:50
Speaker 13: forty years, unfortunately the emphasis on trying to alleviate Indigenous
35:57
Speaker 13: disadvantage has been on very symbolic gestures rather than actual
36:01
Speaker 13: practical solutions. And this is just a classic example. The
36:04
Speaker 13: last Closing the Gap report pointed out that Aboriginal suicides
36:09
Speaker 13: are up, children unsafe at home, that those numbers are
36:12
Speaker 13: up children doing poorly at school, that's getting no better
36:16
Speaker 13: and so what's the big solution. Well, a First Nation's
36:19
Speaker 13: ambassador going around the world talking about climate change and
36:23
Speaker 13: indigenous people. So so that's going to help some child
36:25
Speaker 13: in regional Australia. It's a classic example of what's been
36:29
Speaker 13: going on in Australia for too long, and that is,
36:32
Speaker 13: if you can't solve problems with indigenous communities, then make
36:36
Speaker 13: up fake problems and talk about solving those.
36:41
Speaker 2: Wouldn't it be interesting, Damien Currie to ask the government
36:46
Speaker 2: in all this travel to non cities. I don't blame
36:48
Speaker 2: the ambassador and it's probably not even his own agenda.
36:52
Speaker 2: It's probably penny one saying I want you here, want
36:54
Speaker 2: you to what has it actually achieved for Aborigines at home?
37:00
Speaker 7: Well, I wonder what three hundred and fifty thousand dollars
37:02
Speaker 7: if that's the budget for travel, what's the total budget
37:05
Speaker 7: for the ambassador and the Department of the Ambassador or
37:08
Speaker 7: the organization ten about millions? How many poor right, how
37:13
Speaker 7: many poor disadvantage remote community Australians could be benefiting from
37:18
Speaker 7: that money.
37:18
Speaker 2: Look, I don't know what these bureaucrats missed.
37:21
Speaker 7: I mean, the voice vote was clear in Canberra it
37:24
Speaker 7: was forty sixty for the Yes. In the rest of
37:29
Speaker 7: the country it was sixty forty for no. Do they
37:33
Speaker 7: not get the message? They are out of touch with
37:36
Speaker 7: what average Australians want.
37:38
Speaker 2: We don't want this stuff.
37:39
Speaker 7: We don't want to buy into this global Marxist first
37:42
Speaker 7: nations rubbish. We want to get on with the having
37:45
Speaker 7: a great nation of our own. It's unified. I'd like
37:48
Speaker 7: to see you perhaps you know, we're we're gonna have
37:51
Speaker 7: a Greek ambassador for Greek Australians and Italian Ambassador for
37:54
Speaker 7: Italian Australians. I personally would love to see a you know,
37:57
Speaker 7: an ambassador for third generation Irish Lebanese as I'd probably
38:00
Speaker 7: have a fairly good chance of getting the job because
38:03
Speaker 7: not too many honors. But you know, it's insane, and
38:06
Speaker 7: when you think take it to its logical extreme like that,
38:09
Speaker 7: you can see how ridiculous it absolutely cant can get
38:11
Speaker 7: if we don't stop with this ridiculous identity politics nonsense.
38:17
Speaker 2: All right, well, I'll put up my hand for first
38:18
Speaker 2: Ambassador for the Friesian Dutch of Australia. I added the
38:22
Speaker 2: freezean to sort of make it a little different. There
38:24
Speaker 2: you go. Meanwhile, Stephen, we just got told by Aria
38:32
Speaker 2: the real Estate be them off that home affordability, housing
38:38
Speaker 2: affordability now is the worst it's seen in more than
38:43
Speaker 2: thirty years. Now, I think this is actually not just
38:48
Speaker 2: an economic evil. This is social evil, because it is
38:51
Speaker 2: by buying a house, establishing roots, that settling down to
38:55
Speaker 2: the discipline of having to pay it off for a
38:57
Speaker 2: one that helps civil young men in particular. Might be sexist,
39:02
Speaker 2: but that's how I see it. I think it's a
39:05
Speaker 2: social evil that we've somehow managed to make housing in
39:08
Speaker 2: a vast continent suddenly so expensive. What has gone on here?
39:16
Speaker 2: How could we have been so suicidal?
39:19
Speaker 13: Well, you're right that it is a social evil, and
39:21
Speaker 13: historians and philosophers have said that for thousands of years.
39:24
Speaker 13: The idea is that if people can own property, then
39:27
Speaker 13: they'll feel that they have some stake in the country,
39:30
Speaker 13: and they'll be vigilant about making sure politics and the
39:33
Speaker 13: country doesn't become corrupt because they've got something to lose.
39:37
Speaker 13: Take away people's hope of ever owning anything, and they'll
39:40
Speaker 13: stop caring about the country, and in a way you
39:42
Speaker 13: kind of can't blame them. But this is a really
39:46
Speaker 13: wicked problem. A lot of it comes down to red
39:49
Speaker 13: tape in councils. So for example, in Australia wide, the
39:53
Speaker 13: average time to approve a DA in Australia for a
39:56
Speaker 13: council is one hundred and eleven days. It's one hundred
39:58
Speaker 13: and sixty eight days in Victoria. So there's a ton
40:01
Speaker 13: of red tape that's out there. The other problem, I mean,
40:04
Speaker 13: there are so many problems, But another problem is we've
40:06
Speaker 13: got a shortage of people going into apprentices and going
40:09
Speaker 13: into the building industry. Kids are being encouraged to stay
40:12
Speaker 13: on at school, they're being encouraged to go to university.
40:14
Speaker 13: What we really need is a lot of them taking
40:17
Speaker 13: up apprentices and going into the building industry so we
40:20
Speaker 13: can actually have personnel to build things. And the political
40:23
Speaker 13: party that solves this problem will win a generation of
40:27
Speaker 13: Australians because it is one of the most pressing issues
40:31
Speaker 13: in this country. And as you say, it's not just
40:34
Speaker 13: an economic issue, it is a social issue. People are
40:37
Speaker 13: losing faith in this country because they don't think that
40:40
Speaker 13: they can enjoy the Australian dream like other generations have.
40:46
Speaker 2: Damian, it's just so astonishing that we've made housing such
40:51
Speaker 2: a luxury for the poor. I mean, I don't get it.
40:58
Speaker 2: I think it's actually something that neither side of politics
41:02
Speaker 2: has come properly to grips with that The number one
41:06
Speaker 2: thing in socializing people is to get them the ability
41:09
Speaker 2: to make their own home in this country, otherwise they
41:14
Speaker 2: don't feel at home.
41:18
Speaker 7: That's right, and Menzi said, it's also the greatest educator
41:21
Speaker 7: and maturer of people because it makes us understand economics,
41:25
Speaker 7: it makes us understand the importance of property ownership. So
41:28
Speaker 7: many very very important classical liberal ideals and philosophies hinge
41:34
Speaker 7: on people actually owning their own home and having home ownership.
41:38
Speaker 7: It's where it really all starts. So I think it's
41:40
Speaker 7: critically important that we fix the problem. The problem is caused,
41:43
Speaker 7: as Stephen rightly said, by too much red tape, too
41:47
Speaker 7: much green tape, too much rainbow tape, a sprinkle of
41:49
Speaker 7: BEI full dust, the usual routine. And this is the problem.
41:53
Speaker 7: We've got to shrink the size of government. We've got
41:55
Speaker 7: to let people do the things that they can do,
41:58
Speaker 7: free up the market, get supply happening again. It's no
42:01
Speaker 7: good lamenting this as just price is going up. The
42:05
Speaker 7: other thing we've got to do, Andrews, it's not just housing,
42:08
Speaker 7: thoughts of energy, it's all its cost of living, inflation, groceries, everything,
42:12
Speaker 7: and we're blaming supermarkets for groceries, which is just absolutely ridiculous.
42:15
Speaker 7: Things go up in price when governments spend too much money,
42:18
Speaker 7: borrow too much money, waste too much money, and they
42:21
Speaker 7: print money to create money out of thin.
42:24
Speaker 2: Air that they don't actually have.
42:26
Speaker 7: Well, then of course the value of our money is
42:28
Speaker 7: going to go down and inflation has to happen.
42:32
Speaker 2: Well, big surprise, that's exactly what we've got right now,
42:34
Speaker 2: Dame Encourage Steve TREVERA, thank you very much to you both.
42:38
Speaker 2: But to tell you what the ABC has come up
42:40
Speaker 2: with a solution to the housing crisis. Listen to this.
42:44
Speaker 2: Apparently it's socialism.
42:47
Speaker 7: Is it ethical to own an investment property?
42:50
Speaker 4: Let's find out.
42:51
Speaker 8: I think it's become an Australian way of life to
42:53
Speaker 8: have at least one If people are investing and other
42:56
Speaker 8: people can't find at least one house to live in,
42:59
Speaker 8: that's will be not the best.
43:00
Speaker 7: When you see people earning multiple investment properties or hundreds
43:04
Speaker 7: of millions of dollars of.
43:05
Speaker 5: A property portfolio, I struggle to.
43:06
Speaker 14: Find that, as you called it, it's harder to see
43:09
Speaker 14: it being at the call because it's really hard for
43:12
Speaker 14: us to be breaking into the property market.
43:16
Speaker 2: Remember to the ABC and all those people. If you
43:18
Speaker 2: saw people from investing in another property, where do you
43:21
Speaker 2: think people are going to live? Who's going to build
43:24
Speaker 2: houses that people live in the apartments? After the break
43:30
Speaker 2: the billionaire acquaintance of a queen and Princess Diana, well,
43:35
Speaker 2: now a scandal. Why wasn't this man charged with rape?
43:39
Speaker 2: And it's now a scandal that's raising questions about Britain's
43:42
Speaker 2: new prime minister. Britain's new prime Minister's caught up in
43:50
Speaker 2: yet another scandal. A rape scandal. Kirstamul's head of Britain's
43:54
Speaker 2: Crown Prosecution Service in two thousand and nine when it
43:57
Speaker 2: refused to prosecute billionaire Mohammad al Fayed, the Egyptian born
44:01
Speaker 2: former owner of luxury London saw Herods, refused to prosecuting
44:06
Speaker 2: for the alleged sexual abuse of fifteen year old girl.
44:10
Speaker 2: Refused again to prosecute in another case against al Fayed
44:13
Speaker 2: in twenty fifteen. But now this man, who died a
44:16
Speaker 2: couple of years ago, has accused by more than twenty
44:18
Speaker 2: women former staff of rape, sexual assault and sexual abuse.
44:25
Speaker 15: Muhammed al Fayed, my boss, the person I worked for,
44:28
Speaker 15: pushed himself onto me. I fell to the floor with
44:32
Speaker 15: him still on top of me, but I managed to
44:34
Speaker 15: kick free and free myself. I ran towards the door.
44:39
Speaker 15: I told him I was meeting my father for dinner
44:42
Speaker 15: and he would be but worried that I was late.
44:45
Speaker 12: He just laughed at me.
44:48
Speaker 15: He then composed himself and he told me, in no
44:51
Speaker 15: uncertain terms that I was never to breathe a word
44:54
Speaker 15: of this to anyone. If I did, I would never
44:58
Speaker 15: work in London again. And he knew when my family.
45:00
Speaker 2: Lived farmer spokesman says the al Fayed case did not
45:05
Speaker 2: cross his own desk, but the woman who was the
45:08
Speaker 2: victim's commissioner at the time. So there was a culture
45:10
Speaker 2: of the prosecution service of not taking these cases seriously enough.
45:15
Speaker 2: And there are now claims that al Fayed used his
45:17
Speaker 2: money and connections for thirty years to kill investigations into
45:22
Speaker 2: his sexual assaults of vulnerable women. Most famously had links
45:25
Speaker 2: to the royal family, and his son had an alleged
45:27
Speaker 2: affair with Princess Diana just before they died together in
45:30
Speaker 2: a crash in Paris. And also he used his vast
45:35
Speaker 2: money as far back as nineteen ninety five to sue
45:38
Speaker 2: the magazine Vanity Fair into silence over claims that a
45:42
Speaker 2: serial abuser and intimidating his staff. And there were more
45:45
Speaker 2: claims that he had people actually threatening his staff if
45:50
Speaker 2: they dared to speak up. Joining me from London, his
45:52
Speaker 2: writer broadcasting commentator Esther Krakhu esther the allegations against Muhammed
45:57
Speaker 2: al Fayed had been made for thirty years and worried
46:00
Speaker 2: about nowhere. Why is it exploded now?
46:04
Speaker 14: I think one of the things that has made this
46:06
Speaker 14: story come up again is I don't know if you've
46:08
Speaker 14: been following the recent situation with p Diddy, who has
46:12
Speaker 14: it's sort of the latest me too figure who's now
46:14
Speaker 14: been is being prosecuted over alleged crimes of prostitution or prostitutions,
46:20
Speaker 14: sex trafficking and sexual assault. But the real problem here
46:23
Speaker 14: is for Kiirs Starmer because in the UK, when you
46:26
Speaker 14: mentioned Kirs Starmer as being the director of the Crime
46:28
Speaker 14: Prosecution Service, you can't help but talk about Jimmy Savile.
46:31
Speaker 14: And while he says personally that the case was never
46:34
Speaker 14: brought before him, you know, the Crime Prosecution Service had
46:37
Speaker 14: files and quite compelling evidence of dozens of women that
46:40
Speaker 14: came forward and said Jimmy Sewell abuse them, and the
46:43
Speaker 14: Crime Prosecution Service still decided, weirdly to close the case
46:46
Speaker 14: a year after Kistarmer had become the director of the CPS.
46:50
Speaker 14: And so now when this story that's coming up, it's
46:53
Speaker 14: another problem for Kis Starmer because it looks like he
46:55
Speaker 14: just ran a very incompetent CPS. If you're going to
46:58
Speaker 14: be generous about it, and if you're not going to
47:00
Speaker 14: be jealous about it, you're going to say that he
47:02
Speaker 14: knew about these things, but still decided to close the cases.
47:05
Speaker 14: And this is amidst the storm of the fact that
47:07
Speaker 14: he's taken over one hundred thousand pounds worth of gifts
47:10
Speaker 14: from various lobbyists and from various interest groups. It really
47:13
Speaker 14: does kind of paint this really corrupt and sleazy figure
47:16
Speaker 14: who was actually incompetent at his job and is now
47:18
Speaker 14: just you know, failed upwards to the position of prime minister,
47:22
Speaker 14: which is scary for the rest of us. Obviously, Muhammad
47:25
Speaker 14: al fh Ed is dead, so this is not a
47:27
Speaker 14: case that can go to court, but it does raise
47:29
Speaker 14: a lot of questions of what kind of operation Kiirsamran
47:32
Speaker 14: when he was director of the CPS and how many
47:34
Speaker 14: offenders the incompetence of his leadership allegedly were allowed to
47:40
Speaker 14: get off scott free.
47:43
Speaker 2: It's astonishing, and you mentioned it comes on. I know
47:46
Speaker 2: it's you know, mine are bad comparison, and maybe it's
47:49
Speaker 2: not even having to say that astonishing headline will stop
47:55
Speaker 2: taking free clothes, say Starmer and Rayner, that changel the
47:58
Speaker 2: Rainer is definitely prime minister. They've got to stop bludging
48:02
Speaker 2: new clothes off people. I mean, how techy.
48:08
Speaker 14: Must be must be applauded because they're going to stop
48:11
Speaker 14: taking free stuff. I mean, one thing I find absolutely
48:13
Speaker 14: shocking is there's no one in sort of British journalism
48:16
Speaker 14: at the moment that's asking the very basic question of
48:18
Speaker 14: what did you agree to in exchange for all this
48:21
Speaker 14: free stuff. You can't make the argument that you've received
48:24
Speaker 14: over one hundred thousand pounds worth of free stuff just
48:26
Speaker 14: because all of these people were your friends and they
48:28
Speaker 14: were just doing new favors and freebies were part of you.
48:31
Speaker 14: There is clearly an agreement of some kind and understanding
48:35
Speaker 14: that may very well be against the public's interest, but
48:37
Speaker 14: by virtue of accepting.
48:38
Speaker 2: Had to be agreed to them, had to be. It's
48:42
Speaker 2: the head to be. You don't accept that for nothing,
48:44
Speaker 2: it's the correctly Thanks you so much for your tim
48:47
Speaker 2: more next week. Unbelievable stuff. That's it for me, Sherry
48:50
Speaker 2: Maxon Now good night,