Latest / The Bolt Report / The Bolt Report | 14 October

Transcript

The Bolt Report | 14 October · The Bolt Report

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Tonight, big show. Opposition leader Angus Taylor getting tough on
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: global warming schemes. But Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen, he
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: just keeps conning you. A fact check for him. Also tonight,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Greta Thunberg joins the violent riots in France and actually
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: praises them, despite... Oh dear, the terrible emissions from the rioters'
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: own fires. And how long could Donald Trump's new press
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: secretary last? Bad nerves and very dodgy qualifications. And plenty more,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: including Gemma and Caroline. But first, what a sick joke
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: to see our Prime Minister and Treasurer arguing about who
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: can take the credit for being the least stupid. I mean,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: the Muppets now running this country are We're told Anthony
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Albanese put Jim Chalmers in his place at an Australian
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Chamber of Commerce and Industry dinner last night, suggesting he'd
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: overruled his Treasurer to order a delay of a tax
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: office ban on credit card payments that had really outraged
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: business groups. They said they'd been blindsided. In fact, the
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Chamber's boss made that clear at the dinner.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: It was a decision taken without consultation. Prime Minister, to
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: your credit, your door was opened. You engaged, you listened
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: and you acted quickly to provide vital breathing space for
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: small business. We welcome that response and we will use
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: the additional time to work with the Tax Office now
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: to find a sustainable long-term solution.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Now Albanese did not question that very generous interpretation that
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: business had not been consulted ahead of the decision. At Albanese,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: he had jumped in to fix things.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: Andrew did text me last Thursday morning. And by Friday morning,
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: we had an announcement. And that was an example of
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: a relationship that takes time to develop as well. That
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: trust where you can have a discussion saying it's in hand.
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: I agree with what you are saying. And I'll get
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: it done.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Well, that relationship of trust seems to be unlike Albanese's
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: one with his treasurer, who today was a very grim Jim,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: denying the clear implication of what you just heard. He said, no,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: he wasn't overruled. In fact, he'd agreed with Albanese on
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: a fix last Wednesday, the night before that businessman's call.
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: Were you rolled by the PM?
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: No, not at all.
• 2:59
  Speaker 5: And it is true that there were discussions with ACCI
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: on Thursday. We were involved in some of those discussions
• 3:05
  Speaker 5: at office level. They were engaging with my team.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Were you overlooked by ACCI?
• 3:12
  Speaker 5: If you just let me set it out for you, Trudy,
• 3:13
  Speaker 5: Prime Minister and I were in discussions on Wednesday of
• 3:16
  Speaker 5: last week. He had a view, and I agree with it,
• 3:20
  Speaker 5: that we needed to step in to provide this longer
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: transition period to allow the ATO the time.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: To get it right.
• 3:26
  Speaker 5: But it was his view, is that he decided to...
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: We had the same view. We had the same view.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: The Prime Minister today seemed to think he'd better calm
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: things down and also denied in Parliament there'd been a
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: difference between the two men. But I said the commentary
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: you're hearing misses the real angle, and this is what
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: I mean. Why are these two blokes skiting or wrestling
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: for credit about how they finally fixed things, how they
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: fixed this pig's breakfast that they'd made with their ban
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: on credit card surcharges? you know, all the implications and
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: the unseen circumstances, when they'd never worked out the consequences
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: before it all hit the fan? Why did Albanese suggest
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: it took a special relationship with one business leader who
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: had his phone number to alert the government on Thursday
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: to problems that should have been worked through with business
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: weeks and weeks before? But I have bad news for you.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Even this was not the most startling example today of
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: this government not consulting businesses before almost literally destroying them,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: and in this case for ludicrous reasons. The Federal Court
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: today whacked the government for not giving operators of the
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: $ 1. 3 billion Blaney gold mine in Western New South Wales
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: a fair hearing before deciding to block it. The court
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: overruled that decision and told the environment minister to decide
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: the case again, but this time properly. Now, what makes
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: this case even crazier is that the then environment minister,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Tanya Plibersek, since replaced, claimed two years ago that his
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: mind couldn't go ahead because an Aboriginal group claimed that
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: the blue-banded bee wouldn't like it. This bee's dreaming story
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: would be disturbed. I wonder how many bees she interviewed
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: to form that opinion. She wouldn't say too much, though.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Secret business, she said. Some of these traditions have been
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: disclosed to me privately and must remain confidential due to
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: their cultural sensitivity. Very convenient. Although Blibbersek did later say
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: that the mine's planned tailings dam would destroy the local river, although, really,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Come on, I mean, that proposal already got environmental approval.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: The river would not, in fact, be destroyed. No, it
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: seemed to me back then that Plibersek was freaking that
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: she'd blocked this moan for plainly preposterous reasons and was
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: then looking for other excuses, since the local traditional owners,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: the formal group, had already said the site was not sacred.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: But Plibersek, chose to listen instead to some other people
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: identifying as Aboriginal, people that she wouldn't identify again. But
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: I will now read out some of the evidence we
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: do know was given by people identifying as Aboriginal who
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: did oppose the mine in the Independent Planning Commission hearings.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: This is the artist Nyree Reynolds, who was backed by
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: Lisa Payton. Payton is a leader of that dissident group,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: of some 18 people, the Wiradjuri Traditional Owners Central West
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Aboriginal Corporation. And here's what that artist testified. She said,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: I'm Nairie Reynolds. I have vocal dysphoria, which is paralysis
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: of my vocal cords. That's sad. I shouldn't imply it's not.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: She also said, I have mesothelioma, which is cancer caused
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: by asbestos. So she said, This mind freaks me out, actually.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: But why was that relevant? Because this mind doesn't cause
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: focal paralysis or mesothelioma. But this artist went on to
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: tell the planning commission, show it, a painting that she'd
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: actually done. And she said, I think the best way
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: is through my paintings. She said, this council, referring to
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: a local council, asked me to do a painting for
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: the billboard that's on the Midwestern Highway. It's the first
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: view of a registry country in Blaney Shire. So she said,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: it's very, it's really important to me. So if the
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: mind goes there, this will be the only representation left
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: of what it was like. And this is also part
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: of the sacred triangle. The sacred triangle. Reynolds went on,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: I heard about the mine. I imagined all my ancestors
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: leaving because that was the second billboard I'd done. When
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: we put the first billboard up, she said, I felt
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: the ancestors. It was just beautiful. Now I can see
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: that they're leaving, the spirits are leaving. So Is this
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: one of the reasons a $ 1 billion gold mine was
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: stopped by this government? The witness told the Commission she
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: also won the New South Wales Parliamentary Art Prize. Yet
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: never is there a real rational explanation for why this
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: mine site is sacred and why the local traditional owners
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: were wrong to say it was not. Now, New South
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: Wales Premier Chris Minns is a Labor man, but today
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: he made clear that Plibersek and the and the Albanese
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: government had got this very wrong. Look, I want that
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: mine to go ahead.
• 9:16
  Speaker 6: I understand that that's not the view of the federal government,
• 9:21
  Speaker 6: but we need the investment.
• 9:22
  Speaker 7: Was it the wrong call when they put the Section
• 9:24
  Speaker 7: 10 on the mine?
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Yes. But from the Prime Minister today, there was no apology,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: no sorry for his government forcing a two-year delay on
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: this important mine... for such dubious reasons.
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: This is a complex legal case and as it's a
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: legal matter, we will work through the judgment together with
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: the Attorney-General and we'll consider the findings very carefully indeed.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: And if you still wonder why Australia is getting poorer
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: under this government? Joining me is Opposition Leader Angus Taylor.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: I spoke to him just a short while ago. Angus Taylor,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining me. No apology today
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: from the Prime Minister for this bungled, blue-banded B-ban on
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: a billion-dollar mine. What should he actually do about it?
• 10:25
  Speaker 8: Well, first of all, he should apologise, Andrew, and thank
• 10:27
  Speaker 8: you for having me on. He should apologise because this
• 10:31
  Speaker 8: is a mine that really matters to that region. It's
• 10:35
  Speaker 8: got enormous support from across the local community. I was
• 10:38
  Speaker 8: there at Christmas earlier or just before the beginning of
• 10:43
  Speaker 8: this year. And it's a wonderful town, but it needs
• 10:47
  Speaker 8: the investment and it's strongly supportive of getting this mine up.
• 10:51
  Speaker 8: Tanya Plibersek, of course, killed it off. Now we've been
• 10:55
  Speaker 8: told that she got it wrong. And it's crucial now
• 10:58
  Speaker 8: that the government allow this mine to proceed. It is
• 11:03
  Speaker 8: one of the many projects across Australia that has not
• 11:06
  Speaker 8: been moving fast enough. We've got 40 projects now, mining projects,
• 11:10
  Speaker 8: particularly oil and gas projects, clogged up in approval processes.
• 11:15
  Speaker 8: And it means we are not getting the investment, the
• 11:17
  Speaker 8: jobs and the opportunities that we need as a country.
• 11:20
  Speaker 8: And this one in particular was blocked by Tanya Plibersek.
• 11:24
  Speaker 8: I mean, it's supported by the local Indigenous..... the Land Council,
• 11:29
  Speaker 8: and it's supported by the local community, it's supported by
• 11:31
  Speaker 8: the local government, and we need to get on with it.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Today, you move to fix up another ludicrous and ideological
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: restriction on business, the High Court decision that is to
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: stop the extension of a New South Wales coal mine
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: at Mount Pleasant... It said that the New South Wales
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Independent Planning Commission should actively consider the emissions caused by
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: its customers overseas when they then burn the mine's coal.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: You know, global warming and all that got to get
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: really tough. What are you going to now do about that?
• 12:10
  Speaker 8: Well, we've already moved legislation to stop this from happening
• 12:14
  Speaker 8: and we will pursue this. I've got to say, Andrew,
• 12:18
  Speaker 8: because this really matters. Now, for your viewers, this is
• 12:21
  Speaker 8: an absolute absurdity. It's part of this government's net zero
• 12:25
  Speaker 8: agenda that they're saying to businesses that they are now
• 12:29
  Speaker 8: accountable for the emissions of their customers. Now, you might say, well,
• 12:34
  Speaker 8: why does that matter? Well, what it means is every
• 12:37
  Speaker 8: mine in this country is now accountable for the emissions
• 12:41
  Speaker 8: of downstream processes. So an iron ore mine will be
• 12:45
  Speaker 8: accountable for the emissions of blast furnaces in China, a
• 12:50
  Speaker 8: coal mine accountable for the emissions of electricity generators in
• 12:54
  Speaker 8: Japan or China. It gets worse because it means the
• 12:57
  Speaker 8: banks will be accountable for the emissions of their farmer customers.
• 13:02
  Speaker 8: So we'll have banks having to account for the flatulence
• 13:06
  Speaker 8: of the sheep and cattle of farmers in this country.
• 13:09
  Speaker 8: This is madness, Andrew, absolute, utter madness. So we're moving
• 13:14
  Speaker 8: legislation that will prevent this from happening and ensure that
• 13:21
  Speaker 8: businesses are not accountable for those downstream emissions. The objective
• 13:25
  Speaker 8: here is very clear, by the way. The objective here
• 13:27
  Speaker 8: is very clear from the left. What they want to
• 13:29
  Speaker 8: do is they want to shut down our resource industry,
• 13:31
  Speaker 8: our coal industry, our iron ore industry, and they want
• 13:35
  Speaker 8: to put pressure on agriculture to reduce methane emissions in particular,
• 13:39
  Speaker 8: which is the flatulence of sheep and cattle. They want
• 13:43
  Speaker 8: to put pressure on this and they want to use
• 13:45
  Speaker 8: the banks and insurance companies and fertiliser companies to do that.
• 13:49
  Speaker 8: So we'll scrap this. It's all part of our broader
• 13:52
  Speaker 8: agenda to scrap the net zero agenda, which frankly is
• 13:55
  Speaker 8: imposing carbon taxes and impositions across our economy. We cannot
• 13:59
  Speaker 8: afford at a time like this.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but clearly some people, the Greens in particular, whoever
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: drew up this legislation in New South Wales, they do
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: think we should be responsible for emissions caused by our
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: coal being burned overseas. Is this you saying that stopping
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: the world from global warming that way is not worth
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: the price? Is it that you don't think the global
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: warming crisis is that much of a crisis? What are
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: you saying about global warming itself?
• 14:32
  Speaker 8: Well, this is just a nonsense proposal. I mean, the
• 14:35
  Speaker 8: idea that you can be accountable for your customers' emissions
• 14:39
  Speaker 8: makes no sense at all, Andrew. And ultimately, I can't.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Control if I'm a business.
• 14:46
  Speaker 8: I can't control if I'm an iron ore mining business.
• 14:49
  Speaker 8: And you know why? The reason why the Greens like
• 14:53
  Speaker 8: this and why Labor has been going down this path, Andrew,
• 14:57
  Speaker 8: is because they do want to shut down these industries.
• 15:00
  Speaker 8: They do want to shut down the coal industry, the
• 15:04
  Speaker 8: gas industry. Of course, sadly, even the iron ore industry,
• 15:08
  Speaker 8: because the emissions downstream from iron ore, from the blast
• 15:10
  Speaker 8: furnaces in Japan and China and Korea, they want to
• 15:14
  Speaker 8: make the iron ore mines accountable for it. They don't
• 15:16
  Speaker 8: like these industries. They want them shut down. I don't
• 15:19
  Speaker 8: know what they want us doing, basket weaving or something,
• 15:22
  Speaker 8: but this is the direction they've been going in and
• 15:25
  Speaker 8: we have to fight it and that's why we're bringing
• 15:27
  Speaker 8: forward legislation to do exactly that.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but they say they want that because global warming
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: is a threat and they want to stop it and
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: you've got to stop burning coal. You don't think it's
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: a threat big enough to warrant stopping the burning of coal?
• 15:42
  Speaker 8: Well, not this. This makes no sense. I mean, how
• 15:47
  Speaker 8: can you make someone accountable for what they're doing? Well,
• 15:50
  Speaker 8: it does if you want to stop global warming. It
• 15:51
  Speaker 8: makes no sense at all, Andrew. Well, I think even
• 15:56
  Speaker 8: if you want to stop global warming, this doesn't make
• 15:58
  Speaker 8: any sense because you can't control the emissions of your customers.
• 16:01
  Speaker 8: You can control what you do. I mean, this goes
• 16:04
  Speaker 8: beyond the basic principles of how we work as a country.
• 16:07
  Speaker 8: You can make someone accountable for what they do. You
• 16:09
  Speaker 8: can't make them accountable for what others do. And that's
• 16:13
  Speaker 8: why this is completely nonsensical on many measures.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Andrew.
• 16:17
  Speaker 8: I'd say the other point for me is that imposing
• 16:21
  Speaker 8: costs on our economy to bring emissions down at a
• 16:25
  Speaker 8: time like this does not make sense. And that's why
• 16:27
  Speaker 8: we will scrap net zero. It's why we will take
• 16:31
  Speaker 8: away Labor's carbon taxes on industry, on vehicles, on the
• 16:35
  Speaker 8: electricity grid. And it's why we are absolutely committed to
• 16:39
  Speaker 8: making sure we use the natural resources we have in
• 16:42
  Speaker 8: this country to get the cost of energy down to
• 16:44
  Speaker 8: make it affordable for Australians again.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: I've reported before how the Albanese government promised $ 670, 000 to
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: a mosque which then mourned the death of a supreme
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: leader of Iran's terrorist regime. It also funded an Islamic
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: centre that the pilot who allegedly tried to crash a
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: plane load of Jews two weeks ago said he attended,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: which the imam there denies, by the way, and which
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: I showed was attended also by some terrorists. Now we
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: learn that the government has given $ 300, 000 to an Islamic
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: media outlet in Sydney that preached this kind of hatred
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: of Jews. Have a listen.
• 17:32
  Speaker 9: Zionists are Jewish supremacists, as some scholars call them, are
• 17:43
  Speaker 9: mortal enemies of Islam. If you sit back and if
• 17:46
  Speaker 9: you want to don't do anything, well, they will come
• 17:50
  Speaker 9: after you regardless.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Zionist Jews wrap up together. The government today said it
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: would cancel that grant. It blames public servants for handing
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: it out or not checking or whatever. What do you
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: think is going on here and what would you change?
• 18:11
  Speaker 8: You know, Andrew, this is absolute nonsense from this government.
• 18:15
  Speaker 8: We found that grant and linked it to that organisation
• 18:20
  Speaker 8: from public information, from public information. And the government said, oh,
• 18:25
  Speaker 8: we weren't informed by the department. I mean, seriously, you've
• 18:30
  Speaker 8: got to wonder what is going on here. Giving $ 300, 000
• 18:34
  Speaker 8: to an organisation that calls a childcare centre bombing, a
• 18:39
  Speaker 8: Jewish childcare centre bombing, a sham. that likens Israel to
• 18:44
  Speaker 8: Nazi Germany.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: This is.
• 18:48
  Speaker 8: It just doesn't pass the must that the government can
• 18:52
  Speaker 8: say that this is the department's fault. This is the
• 18:55
  Speaker 8: government's fault, and they need to take accountability for it.
• 18:59
  Speaker 8: I am glad they're not going to proceed with the grant,
• 19:03
  Speaker 8: but there's a lot more questions that need to be
• 19:05
  Speaker 8: answered beyond that. How the hell did this actually get through?
• 19:09
  Speaker 8: It should never have happened in the.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: First place, Andrew. Angus Taylor, thank you so much for
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: your time. Good to be with you. After the break,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: a big humiliating loss for Labor just now in the Senate,
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: and Chris Bone gets angry about his dud-clumb conference. But
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: in defending it, he misleads you yet again. The panel
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: after this. I know I keep giving you facts about Tuvalu,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: a Pacific Island nation, but I'm telling you, every time
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: that Chris Bone tells the lies about this poor drowning
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: Tuvalu to flog his global war religion, I will correct him.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: Like today, our climate change and energy minister was mocked
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: about his ridiculous global warming pre-conference in Tuvalu and Fiji,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: which cost you, taxpayers, more than $ 20 million and was
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: such a flop that even Bowen couldn't keep his eyes open. Well,
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: the man hit the roof in Parliament today and claimed
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: he had to bring people to Tuvalu to see the
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: damage done by global warming.
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: A visit to Tuvalu was important in showing what is
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: at stake for their country as Australia is working with
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: them to deal with land reclamation.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: What does it take to make Bowen and this government
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: listen to the science and stop wasting our money?
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: One.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: The last big study of Tuvalu by top sea level
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: experts at Auckland University in 2018 found Tuvalu had actually
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: grown by 2.9% in the four decades to 2014.
• 20:49
  Speaker 10: Grown.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: It's not drowning. And two, the Australian funded climate and
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: ocean support program in the Pacific said four years ago
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: In the greater southwest Pacific, that part of the ocean
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: with Tuvalu, the total number of severe tropical cyclones has
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: decreased over the last 40 seasons. The number of tropical
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: cyclones that became severe events has marginally declined. More land,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: fewer cyclones. What is this damage that Chris Bone claims
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: he just had to show people and spend $ 20 million
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: of our money on that frolic? But on to breaking news.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: The Albanese government's day has just got even worse. It's
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: been beaten in the Senate today, or this afternoon, and
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: a big saving had been planned and announced in this
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: year's budget. The government wanted to wind back health insurance
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: rebates for people over 65 and save $ 3 billion over
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: four years. Very controversially. unusually and maybe not surprisingly, the
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: Coalition and also crossbench senators, senators on the left, they
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: joined to successfully vote to scrap discussion on the bill.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Although Health Minister Mark Butler says he's going to try
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: again tomorrow to reintroduce it. Joining me is the political panel,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: Cameron Milner, former Chief of Staff for Labor leader Bill Shorten,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: now Director of GXO Strategies, and Michael Kosta, former New
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: South Wales Labor Treasurer. Michael, how big a defeat is
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: this for the government?
• 22:25
  Speaker 7: Well, it's a huge defeat. Clearly, they're in trouble on
• 22:28
  Speaker 7: this issue. But let me say, this is actually a win,
• 22:31
  Speaker 7: not so much for the opposition, for all the state governments.
• 22:34
  Speaker 7: I mean, the result of this mad policy was that
• 22:36
  Speaker 7: it was going to put more pressure on the public
• 22:39
  Speaker 7: hospital systems funded by the state governments. And I think
• 22:41
  Speaker 7: that's part of the issue here. I wouldn't be surprised
• 22:44
  Speaker 7: if there was a lot of lobbying going on from
• 22:46
  Speaker 7: state governments as well in relation to this issue. So
• 22:49
  Speaker 7: it is a big defeat for them. And it's a
• 22:52
  Speaker 7: worthy cause to go down.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: But Cameron, I mean, this on top of a day
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: where you've had Jim Chalmers and the Prime Minister arguing,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: you know, about who actually blew the whistle, you know,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: decided to change the Australian tax office's ban on credit
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: card payments and Anthony Albanese then, you know, going backwards
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: at a million miles an hour on that impression that
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: it was him what done it and overruled Chalmers. I mean, really,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: what a terrible day for this government. It was a shocker,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: an absolute shocker. But to.
• 23:32
  Speaker 6: I disagree slightly, Michael. I think this is a good
• 23:34
  Speaker 6: day for Angus Taylor. He's defeated a really bad measure
• 23:37
  Speaker 6: in the Senate with the help of the Greens as well.
• 23:40
  Speaker 6: So the Liberals have had a win today, but they've
• 23:41
  Speaker 6: had a Liberal win on top of a complete schmuzzle,
• 23:44
  Speaker 6: an absolute disaster of a day for Albanese and his Treasurer.
• 23:48
  Speaker 6: There's dysfunction and distrust at the heart of this Albanese
• 23:51
  Speaker 6: government now. I mean, last night, the Prime Minister boasted
• 23:53
  Speaker 6: he'd rolled his Treasurer, rolled his Treasurer, and then, of course,
• 23:56
  Speaker 6: events change today and they will try to spin, spin, spin.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: And, of course, the Prime Minister's lie didn't last 24 hours.
• 24:02
  Speaker 6: So, no, this is dysfunction at the top of the
• 24:04
  Speaker 6: government and the government should be out there fighting inflation
• 24:07
  Speaker 6: day in, day out. Instead, they're fighting each other and
• 24:09
  Speaker 6: they're fighting each other at the Treasurer and the Prime
• 24:11
  Speaker 6: Ministerial level within this government.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: But, Michael... There's a lot of Treasurers that have been
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: at loggerheads with their Prime Ministers and quarrelling over who
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: took credit for what. You had Keating with, obviously, Bob Hawke.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: You had Costello with John Howard. Why should it matter
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: that these two guys are also having a real ding-dong?
• 24:37
  Speaker 7: Well, it should matter, but let me correct you, Andrew.
• 24:40
  Speaker 7: I mean, both those Treasurers you mentioned actually stood up
• 24:43
  Speaker 7: to the Prime Ministers that they were dealing with on
• 24:45
  Speaker 7: key issues, and that's the role of the Treasurer. There
• 24:47
  Speaker 7: should be tension, creative tension, between Treasurers and Prime Ministers.
• 24:52
  Speaker 7: I know from my own experience that if you let
• 24:55
  Speaker 7: Prime Ministers or Premiers try and get away with everything,
• 24:58
  Speaker 7: you blow your budget out forever, because they're about winning votes,
• 25:02
  Speaker 7: not necessarily about budget management. And You know, that's a
• 25:05
  Speaker 7: sensible ballast. The problem you've got here is that I
• 25:09
  Speaker 7: think Anthony Albanese, who is, you know, good at numbers,
• 25:13
  Speaker 7: not economic numbers, factional numbers, realises he's got a problem
• 25:16
  Speaker 7: with Jim Chalmers. Jim Chalmers, and I've said this on
• 25:18
  Speaker 7: your program for years now, is an economic illiterate. I mean, look,
• 25:22
  Speaker 7: he's become an economic Nero, actually, fiddling around at the
• 25:26
  Speaker 7: edges while the economy crashes and burns. And, you know,
• 25:29
  Speaker 7: he's got a major problem with him. He's responsible primarily...
• 25:33
  Speaker 7: for this inflation, not Ukraine, not Trump and everything else.
• 25:39
  Speaker 7: He's the guy that designed the RBA to take a softly,
• 25:43
  Speaker 7: softly approach to go for the soft landing that's blown
• 25:46
  Speaker 7: up in his face. And he has to take some
• 25:48
  Speaker 7: responsibility for that. And I can understand what's going on here.
• 25:52
  Speaker 7: They're trying to position Jim Chalmers for the fall at
• 25:54
  Speaker 7: some point, probably after the next election.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: Honestly, every time I hear Jim Chalmers and also Anthony Albanese,
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: but particularly Jim Chalmers, blame foreign events, blame something else,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: blame something unforeseen for the fact that his budget's up
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: the carber and the debt's running out and blah, blah
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: and all that. I think someone forgot when he was
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: a kid to read in the story of Three Little Pigs,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: build your house of brick, not straw or anything or mud,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: so that it can withstand all these things. He doesn't
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: do it. He builds it of straw. The wind comes
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: and blows it down. He says, oh, my goodness me,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: it was something else, not me. I mean, this is
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: the problem with this guy. Honestly, Cameron, what do you make?
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Did you agree with Michael there about the tension here
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: and whose fault it is and blah, blah? Is Chalmers
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: the villain here or is Albert easy? I think Chalmers
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: is going to be the victim.
• 27:00
  Speaker 6: I think Chalmers is the victim because Albo is deeply insecure,
• 27:03
  Speaker 6: deeply jealous, even of Jim Chalmers in terms of his
• 27:07
  Speaker 6: talent and his ability. So Albo's problem is he doesn't
• 27:11
  Speaker 6: like dissent, doesn't like anyone questioning him. The Treasurer, I think,
• 27:14
  Speaker 6: does from time to time challenge him. But the real
• 27:16
  Speaker 6: issue here is it's not a house built on straw
• 27:19
  Speaker 6: or on rocks. It's a house built on lies, a
• 27:21
  Speaker 6: house built on lies. And that's what the trouble with
• 27:24
  Speaker 6: Labor is right now, and it's a rot from the top.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: Albo can't stop lying. That's the problem with this government. Look,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: I think that's endemic in the whole government, to be honest. I...
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: What a government. Michael, you heard Angus Taylor just before
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: you came on. I think his performance is improving, although
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: the question is, of course, is it enough and fast enough?
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: And I'm increasingly thinking one of his problems is that
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: the Liberal left will not free him to go as
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: far as he should in order to sound convincing and
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: convicted on things like climate change.
• 28:08
  Speaker 7: Well, Andrew, I think that's true. The Liberal left's always
• 28:10
  Speaker 7: been the major problem they've got, starting with, of course,
• 28:14
  Speaker 7: Turnbull as Prime Minister. But, you know, I mean, he's
• 28:16
  Speaker 7: also got his own issues to deal with. He's got
• 28:18
  Speaker 7: to explain why he did support net zero in the past.
• 28:22
  Speaker 7: And I think that's an issue that, you know, One
• 28:24
  Speaker 7: Nation has used very effectively against his credibility. Yes, I
• 28:27
  Speaker 7: think he's performed better, but it's easy to perform when
• 28:30
  Speaker 7: you've got so many targets out there. he should be
• 28:33
  Speaker 7: performing even better. I mean, you know, the Labor government
• 28:37
  Speaker 7: is in trouble on so many fronts. I mean, this RBA...
• 28:40
  Speaker 7: you know, credit card thing. Remember, these people were out
• 28:43
  Speaker 7: there touting this as a cost of living savings. Both
• 28:46
  Speaker 7: of them, that's Chalmers and Albo, put out, you know,
• 28:50
  Speaker 7: press releases and TikToks and all that sort of stuff.
• 28:54
  Speaker 7: This government should be on its bottom legs, but it's not.
• 28:58
  Speaker 7: It's still credible and it's still going to win the
• 29:00
  Speaker 7: next election based on the numbers we've seen in the polls.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: Do you agree with that, Cameron?
• 29:08
  Speaker 6: Look, I think Taylor's doing a better job and certainly
• 29:09
  Speaker 6: his performance tonight was actually pretty good at it. So
• 29:12
  Speaker 6: I think we're seeing a genuine improvement from him over time.
• 29:16
  Speaker 6: But at times he's enemy and his problem is he's got,
• 29:18
  Speaker 6: you know, Josh Frydenberg who's going to get into the
• 29:20
  Speaker 6: parliament most likely after the next election and become a
• 29:22
  Speaker 6: leadership contender. You've got Andrew Hastie waiting in the wings.
• 29:26
  Speaker 6: So Taylor hasn't got much time left to actually get
• 29:28
  Speaker 6: that performance to set, but he is improving, Andrew.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Cameron Milner, Michael Koster, thank you very much to you both.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: After the break, the King of Jordan drops in on Canberra.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Why didn't anyone in the government ask him why he's
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: protecting the terrorist who murdered a young Australian? As you know,
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: the Albanese government has been under huge fire for being
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: so soft on Islamic extremism and so hard on Israel. Well,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: two more examples today, and I've already shown you one,
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: another massive government grant to Islamic radicals, this time $ 300, 000
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: to Western Sydney Islamic media organisation, One Path, which called
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: Jews mortal enemies. also claiming that the firebombing of a
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: Jewish childcare centre and anti-Semitic attacks on Sydney Jews were
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: all a sham, fakes and more. Oh, we'll do better,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: said the multiculturalism minister, Anne Arley, herself Muslim.
• 30:37
  Speaker 6: The decision that the member refers to was a decision
• 30:40
  Speaker 6: that was made by the department.
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: The department has now sent one path a notice of
• 30:45
  Speaker 4: intention to terminate.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: But to a second example today. You know that Foreign
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: Minister Penny Walton huge critic of Israel, refuses to accept
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: that the killing of Australian aid worker Zomri Franken in
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: Gaza two years ago was a tragic, tragic accident, a
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: mistake by the Israeli army, and officers have in fact
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: been punished. Wong raises this very often. But where is
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: the same concern for Malki Roth? That's the 15-year-old Jewish
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: Australian girl who was one of 16 people murdered, no accidents,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: murdered 25 years ago by Palestinian terrorist Alam Tamini when
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: Tamini bombed a pizza restaurant in Israel. Now, the reason
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: I still raise this today is that the King of
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: Jordan has been in Australia meeting the Albanese government over
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: the past two days, and I've not heard one mention,
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: seen one press release by this government asking Jordan, asking
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: the King to stop protecting Malky's killer. You see, that killer,
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: Alam Tamini, is on the FBI's most wanted list still
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: because three of the people she killed were American. They
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: were brought to justice. But Jordan, which is, by the way,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: a majority Palestinian state, will not extradite her to face punishment.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: Joining me is Melky Roth's father, Arnold. Arnold, it's good
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: to catch up with you again. I have Not heard
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: your daughter's name mentioned once in the King of Jordan's visit.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: Maybe someone whispered it to him in a corridor. I
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: do not know. But does that disappoint you?
• 32:33
  Speaker 11: Well, I'm not privy to the whispers any more than
• 32:35
  Speaker 11: you are, Andrew. But is it disappointing? Of course, it's
• 32:38
  Speaker 11: hugely disappointing. I should also say that I've grown accustomed
• 32:42
  Speaker 11: to this kind of disappointment at multiple levels. And here,
• 32:46
  Speaker 11: let me just make a brief and affectionate call out
• 32:49
  Speaker 11: to DFAT, Australia's Foreign Ministry. I've made several requests to
• 32:53
  Speaker 11: them over the past decade and gotten the same factually wrong,
• 32:57
  Speaker 11: disingenuous answers each time. It's hard not to notice how
• 33:01
  Speaker 11: opposed they are to exposing what Jordan does on the
• 33:04
  Speaker 11: Tamimi issue and the lengths that the civil servants go
• 33:08
  Speaker 11: to to justify their embrace of the kingdom and what
• 33:11
  Speaker 11: it stands for. They're not serving Australia's interests or values
• 33:14
  Speaker 11: by doing this.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: Well, they do seem to be going out of their
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: way to placate Jordan. They're the nice Palestinian entity, I guess.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: But what is Jordan up to here? Why won't it
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: make Tamimi face punishment? Because she's just wandering around the country.
• 33:34
  Speaker 11: Well, there's what they say explains it and there's what
• 33:36
  Speaker 11: they do that explains it. What they say is that
• 33:39
  Speaker 11: a Jordanian court, I know this to be true, handed
• 33:42
  Speaker 11: down a ruling in 2017, just a few days after
• 33:44
  Speaker 11: the charges against Tamimi were unsealed, after a five-year period
• 33:49
  Speaker 11: of silence in Washington. The court said that the extradition
• 33:53
  Speaker 11: treaty of 1995, we're getting right into the bowels of history,
• 33:57
  Speaker 11: was never properly ratified. They mean ratified by Jordan itself.
• 34:02
  Speaker 11: And as a result, and then you can finish that
• 34:04
  Speaker 11: sentence however you like, because no one gets it right.
• 34:08
  Speaker 11: There is a technical breach. It was done by Jordan.
• 34:11
  Speaker 11: It can be fixed by Jordan. It could have been
• 34:12
  Speaker 11: fixed every single day. It has never been fixed. So
• 34:16
  Speaker 11: that's the proximate cause. The real cause, she's phenomenally popular.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: She's a celebrity.
• 34:22
  Speaker 11: They gave her her own TV show, which went to
• 34:25
  Speaker 11: air globally, reaching Sydney's western suburbs and Melbourne's northern suburbs
• 34:29
  Speaker 11: and all the rest of the world, wherever there are
• 34:30
  Speaker 11: Arabic speakers, for five years. So You have to imagine
• 34:35
  Speaker 11: that the king and all of the people around him
• 34:37
  Speaker 11: are a little uncomfortable about sticking their necks out and
• 34:40
  Speaker 11: saying that this woman, who is a celebrity, celebrity, celebrity,
• 34:44
  Speaker 11: is someone who we ought to be handing over to
• 34:46
  Speaker 11: the hated authorities in the United States and to do
• 34:50
  Speaker 11: it because she killed Jewish children.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: Let's be clear about that. She went into a restaurant,
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: checked who she was going to kill, killed 16 people.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: I think there were four of them were children. And
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: when she was told it was four, she said it
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: was a pity it wasn't more. How is someone like
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: that treated like a heroine in Jordan?
• 35:18
  Speaker 11: It's an excellent question. I'm not here to be the
• 35:20
  Speaker 11: advocate for Jordan. The figures are, in fact, worse than
• 35:23
  Speaker 11: the ones you just said. But you're right. For the
• 35:26
  Speaker 11: rest of us applying the kind of values that we
• 35:29
  Speaker 11: hold dear and that Jordan professes to hold dear as well,
• 35:32
  Speaker 11: and that's certainly the Australian government says at its very heart,
• 35:36
  Speaker 11: it's inconceivable that anybody would get up and make a
• 35:39
  Speaker 11: statement that says, no, we're not going to go after
• 35:41
  Speaker 11: Achlam Tamimi, nor are we going to ask our dear
• 35:44
  Speaker 11: friends in Jordan to do what they're obliged to do
• 35:46
  Speaker 11: under the treaty. So what do they do? They do
• 35:49
  Speaker 11: what everybody does. They look the other way and they
• 35:52
  Speaker 11: say nothing. So you were right in your opening words.
• 35:55
  Speaker 11: No one has mentioned Malki's name. No one has responded
• 35:58
  Speaker 11: to the visit of the king with bringing the Tamimi case,
• 36:03
  Speaker 11: she's the most wanted female fugitive that the United States has,
• 36:07
  Speaker 11: bringing that issue to the fore. And we can just
• 36:10
  Speaker 11: sit here and scratch our heads and say, well, what's
• 36:12
  Speaker 11: driving them? But what's driving them is unfortunately terribly, terribly clear.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: And this government silence, what do you make of that?
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: How do you explain that?
• 36:24
  Speaker 11: If we're talking about the Australian government silence, let me
• 36:28
  Speaker 11: make my non-political credentials as clear as possible. The previous
• 36:34
  Speaker 11: governments that were not Labour did exactly as much as
• 36:38
  Speaker 11: the Labour government is currently doing. Let me emphasise that
• 36:42
  Speaker 11: our pursuit, the one that my wife and I have
• 36:44
  Speaker 11: conducted for years since the charges were unsealed in 2017,
• 36:48
  Speaker 11: has not a modicum, not a scrap of political interest
• 36:53
  Speaker 11: behind it. And it's also not about, look how pathetic
• 36:57
  Speaker 11: we are, we should get your sympathy.
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: It's about justice.
• 37:00
  Speaker 11: How many people can trample justice and get away with
• 37:02
  Speaker 11: it as clearly as all the officials in these various
• 37:06
  Speaker 11: countries have gotten away with it for years? We all
• 37:08
  Speaker 11: know why.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: It's all political.
• 37:11
  Speaker 11: It's all what people perceive as being in their political
• 37:15
  Speaker 11: interests without ever articulating it. And somehow justice falls out
• 37:19
  Speaker 11: of the conversation completely.
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: Arnold Roth, you've been to hell for, well, you've been
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: in hell for many, many years. Thank you very much
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: for talking about this here. Good luck to you.
• 37:36
  Speaker 11: Thanks very much, Andrew.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: After the break, Gemma and Caroline and the latest crusade
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: of Greta Thunberg, now at the violent riots in France.
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: Greta Thunberg is just exposed for I think she's really
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: been about all along. Destruction, and especially of Western society.
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: As a teenager, you'll know she was, somehow became the
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: goddess of the global warming cult. lecturing politicians around the world,
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: lecturing the United Nations, the Davos Forum, adults who should
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: have known better than to be scolded by a girl
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: who's still in school. She was so absolutist. People seem
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: to love that bit in particular. She says her superpower
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: is that she's got Asperger's. But as she got older
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: and less cute, she became, frankly, a bit boring, strident.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: I don't know. She's now 23. And now she's jumped
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: on the anti-Israel bandwagon, which is the latest cause of
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: the hard left, accusing this symbol of Western culture falsely
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: of genocide. And yesterday she joined the anarchist and violent
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: riots in France. Riots supposedly over school conditions, but actually
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: by people, youths, many of them from the hard left
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: and from Muslim immigrants' families, burning schools as well as
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: burning cars and barricades and buses and causing lots of
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: those frightful emissions I thought would disgust her. But not
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: at all. She loves it and brought her Palestinian scarf
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: to the mayhem.
• 39:21
  Speaker 12: They have been going for almost three weeks now, students
• 39:23
  Speaker 12: occupying the school and teachers striking in solidarity with them,
• 39:28
  Speaker 12: which is an incredible... beautiful solidarity to see. And again,
• 39:34
  Speaker 12: the French students are now showing the world how we
• 39:38
  Speaker 12: should be standing up and how we should be revolting
• 39:41
  Speaker 12: against an extremely violent system.
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: My goodness, I hope that tens of thousands of young
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: Australian students Fans, don't follow that advice and bring what
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: you see in France to our streets. Joining me are
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: Gemma Tonini, columnist and communications consultant, and Carolyn DeRusso, commentator
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: and president of the West Australian Liberals. Gemma, this is
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: the way to protest, says Greta Thunberg, as she wears
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: the Palestinian keffiyeh, which to me seems to me to
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: symbolise the use of violence, horrific violence at times, for
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: political ends. What does all this preaching tell you?
• 40:22
  Speaker 4: Well, I wonder what's wrong with this cohort of people
• 40:25
  Speaker 4: and their solution to everything is just to set fire
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: to stuff. Like it's a little bit sort of backward,
• 40:29
  Speaker 4: don't you think? I don't like something.
• 40:31
  Speaker 10: I'll just torture it.
• 40:33
  Speaker 4: As for Greta Thunberg, she reminds me of something we
• 40:35
  Speaker 4: used to have in WA and Caro will know what
• 40:37
  Speaker 4: I'm about to talk about.
• 40:39
  Speaker 10: Schoolies Week at Rottnest Island.
• 40:41
  Speaker 4: You would always have a cohort of people who never
• 40:45
  Speaker 4: quite graduated. They might be 19, 20, 21, who always
• 40:48
  Speaker 4: went to Rottnest for Schoolies Week because they never kind
• 40:51
  Speaker 4: of got out of school mentality and we used to
• 40:53
  Speaker 4: call them toolies. And Greta Thunberg is the epitome of
• 40:56
  Speaker 4: a toolie. She's, you know, latched herself on like a
• 41:00
  Speaker 4: limpet to a rock to this protest, which has got
• 41:03
  Speaker 4: nothing to do with schooling and everything to do with radical... anarchy,
• 41:08
  Speaker 4: an element of radical Islam, political Islam in that, obviously
• 41:12
  Speaker 4: because she's wearing the keffiyeh. This is just, you know,
• 41:16
  Speaker 4: France entering its globalised, the intifada era.
• 41:19
  Speaker 10: I mean, they asked for it, they got it.
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: Caroline, what do you make of it?
• 41:29
  Speaker 13: What I always find interesting about Greta is that she's
• 41:32
  Speaker 13: almost the queen of the bad take or the bad position.
• 41:35
  Speaker 10: Like if there is.
• 41:36
  Speaker 13: A wrong side of something to be on, and like
• 41:38
  Speaker 13: you said earlier, very absolutist, no nuance, no real thinking
• 41:44
  Speaker 13: or caring of the bigger picture, she is always on
• 41:48
  Speaker 13: whatever far side of any single argument there is when,
• 41:52
  Speaker 13: you know, there's a whole lot of grey in the middle.
• 41:55
  Speaker 13: And there's a whole lot of, you know, more sophisticated
• 41:59
  Speaker 13: positions you can take, even if they're not necessarily positions
• 42:02
  Speaker 13: that I might agree with. But she never takes any
• 42:06
  Speaker 13: position with any sort of sophistication. It is always the bluntest,
• 42:10
  Speaker 13: the most brutal. She's just a total useful idiot.
• 42:15
  Speaker 10: Correct. And to think. And to think that, you know, gosh,
• 42:19
  Speaker 10: we'd really.
• 42:20
  Speaker 13: Like to be more educated, so we're going to burn
• 42:23
  Speaker 13: everything down, is a position in which normal, reasonable, everyday
• 42:28
  Speaker 13: people are going to go, yeah, that sounds sensible to me.
• 42:32
  Speaker 13: it's just never going to happen. And it doesn't matter
• 42:36
  Speaker 13: what it is, Andrew. It doesn't matter whether it's Palestine.
• 42:39
  Speaker 13: It doesn't matter whether it's climate change. It doesn't matter
• 42:42
  Speaker 13: whether it's these school protests. The single worst position that
• 42:47
  Speaker 13: you can find yourself in on any.
• 42:49
  Speaker 10: Of these issues.
• 42:50
  Speaker 13: And that's where you will find Greta.
• 42:52
  Speaker 4: And the other thing, Andrew, I would like to point
• 42:54
  Speaker 4: out is why are people, why are media platforming her?
• 42:58
  Speaker 10: Why are they platforming her? Why were they ever platforming her?
• 43:02
  Speaker 4: She was just a brat who, you know, a walking
• 43:05
  Speaker 4: example of what happens when you don't discipline children. That's
• 43:07
  Speaker 4: what she was back then. She's just some brat with
• 43:09
  Speaker 4: an attitude. And the world has, as you said, Andrew,
• 43:12
  Speaker 4: they've made her some sort of climate messiah back in
• 43:14
  Speaker 4: the day. And now they're interviewing her at these protests
• 43:18
  Speaker 4: as if she has anything.
• 43:20
  Speaker 10: Credible or meaningful. So the media has a role to
• 43:23
  Speaker 10: answer for. If they just zapped it of oxygen, it
• 43:27
  Speaker 10: would go away.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: I'm not surprised, actually, that she's attracted to extreme things
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: and ones that verge on violence or where some of
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: the participants, a lot of the participants have used or
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: excused violence, because I think it's this It's just preaching
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: to a lot of people who seem to think that
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: anger and extremism shows how passionate and genuine and honest
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: and emotional you are. That's what I think it appeals to,
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: which has always been dangerous, the barbaric, you know, I
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: will not hear reason. I have a righteous anger. I
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: shall smite you. To another woman in the wars.
• 44:09
  Speaker 10: And, Andrew, when your position... Go ahead.
• 44:11
  Speaker 13: If your position is that the system is violent.
• 44:14
  Speaker 10: Yeah.
• 44:15
  Speaker 13: if your starting point is that the system is violent,
• 44:17
  Speaker 13: that means any reaction to the system is better than
• 44:20
  Speaker 13: the system that is violent.
• 44:22
  Speaker 10: And that's why you end up with these very aggressive positions... Correct.
• 44:25
  Speaker 13: because of the fundamental basis of where she's looking at
• 44:29
  Speaker 13: things from.
• 44:30
  Speaker 10: Can they just bring out the water cannons?
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: It's a licence to bully. Yeah, if you demonise the other,
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: it's a licence to bully. Totally.
• 44:35
  Speaker 11: Totally.
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: That's why it appeals to bullies. That's why the Palestinian
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: cause so appeals to so many bullies and so many
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: of the riots are violent when you don't see Jews
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: in the street protesting for Israel and burning stuff. You
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: don't see that. Now, to another woman in the wars
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: that I was going to switch to, I will now,
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump is a new press secretary. Katie Zachariah. Now,
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: she started work today, had a very nervous start. It
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: was in the news. She limited herself to answering just
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: three questions, read a long written speech, staring at the
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: floor and stumbling over some of the answers. But the
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: strange thing here is not only... Well, of course she
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: meets one of Donald Trump's key qualifications, which is be pretty,
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: but the other qualification that she claimed to have, a
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: law degree... Well, there's no record of it in the
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: United States. And look what happened when she was asked
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: about that yesterday overnight and gave an answer which seemed
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: to floor even her own boss. Look at this. Where
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: did she pass the bar exam?
• 45:38
  Speaker 8: Which state?
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: In China. She said in China. Donald Trump did a
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: double take on that. Gemma, China does not hand out
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: law degrees. How long do you expect Katie Zachariah to last?
• 45:56
  Speaker 4: I give her a week and that's been generous. Like,
• 45:58
  Speaker 4: it's such a deeply odd thing to say. And also, look,
• 46:01
  Speaker 4: can I just say, I've been around Andrew. I've seen
• 46:05
  Speaker 4: a few things. I can take care of myself. But
• 46:07
  Speaker 4: that job is not for the faint-hearted. And whether you
• 46:10
  Speaker 4: liked her or lumped her, and a lot of people
• 46:11
  Speaker 4: didn't like her because she was young and beautiful and
• 46:13
  Speaker 4: an absolute weapon at her job, Caroline Levitt did an
• 46:16
  Speaker 4: exceptional job at that role.
• 46:19
  Speaker 10: You wouldn't take that.
• 46:20
  Speaker 4: Job if you really understood what it meant, you know,
• 46:23
  Speaker 4: blithely or lightly. Every journalist in that press pack is
• 46:26
  Speaker 4: going to be looking into your past is going to be.
• 46:28
  Speaker 4: I mean, you're the spokesperson for the leader of the
• 46:30
  Speaker 4: free world. So if this young lady is telling pork
• 46:34
  Speaker 4: pies about her qualifications, she'll be gone quicker than it
• 46:37
  Speaker 4: takes me to demolish a, you know, mini Magnum.
• 46:39
  Speaker 10: So like a minute and a half, I don't know.
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: When I say it doesn't hand out law degrees, it
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: doesn't hand them out to foreigners.
• 46:47
  Speaker 10: Or that foreigners practise.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: Law, as she claims to have done when she lived
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: in China. Caroline, Katie Sakurai, I mean, it's a tough job,
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: but dear goodness, you know, do you think maybe Trump
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: just gets blinded by someone's looks and doesn't look to
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: enough of their qualifications and abilities?
• 47:07
  Speaker 13: Well, look, I don't know, but you would think that
• 47:10
  Speaker 13: something as basic as your qualifications would be checked. And
• 47:13
  Speaker 13: I mean, you know, you go for any normal job
• 47:16
  Speaker 13: and those sorts of things are checked. I've had to
• 47:18
  Speaker 13: give out academic certificates before.
• 47:21
  Speaker 10: When I've gone for jobs, I've got a law degree. Actually,
• 47:23
  Speaker 10: I've got two of them.
• 47:24
  Speaker 13: And the thing that I find really interesting about her
• 47:27
  Speaker 13: answer about China is that legal systems around the world
• 47:31
  Speaker 13: are really different. And the Chinese legal system couldn't be
• 47:35
  Speaker 13: more different from the US legal system. So what I
• 47:39
  Speaker 13: want to know is where's the follow-up question of, you know,
• 47:42
  Speaker 13: did you do your degree in China? You passed the
• 47:45
  Speaker 13: bar in China.
• 47:46
  Speaker 10: Fabulous.
• 47:46
  Speaker 13: But of what absolute, what benefit, what use? is that
• 47:50
  Speaker 13: degree to the role that you're holding in the US
• 47:54
  Speaker 13: because they are absolute worlds apart. And obviously when people
• 47:58
  Speaker 13: come to Australia from other jurisdictions, different if it's a
• 48:00
  Speaker 13: common law jurisdiction like the UK, but, you know, there's
• 48:03
  Speaker 13: a lot of retraining involved.
• 48:05
  Speaker 10: So I'd be fascinated to see where this goes because
• 48:09
  Speaker 10: I reckon it's going to be a belter, Andrew. She's gone.
• 48:12
  Speaker 10: She's gone.
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: She's gone. Makes you wonder if the White House spokesman
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: has a spokesman because she may well need one very
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: shortly to handle all the press inquiries about this one.
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: Gemma Tonini, Carolyn DeRusso, thank you very much to you both.
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: That's it from me. Coming up next, Shari Markson. Good night.