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Transcript

The Late Debate | 10 February · The Late Debate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Late General, welcome the Late Bay.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Well, good evening, thanks for joining us on the Late Debate.
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: I'm James Macpherson with Liz Staorra and Caleb Bond coming
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: up tonight. South Australian police arrest a scooter rid for
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: not wearing a helmet and then discover that's the list
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: of his crimes.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: We'll bring you that story a little later.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: Plus, when we look at the papers that our energy
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: crisis goes from bad to ridiculous, Australian states now importing
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: gas from overseas in greater quantities, and a new cemetery
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: opening on the Gold Coast is exactly what you would
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: expect a Gold Coast cemetery to be. We'll get to
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: all of that when we look at what's making news tomorrow.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: But first, councils right around the country are jacking up rates,
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: and nowhere more so than right here in Sydney. Northern
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: Beaches Council recently raised rates by a whopping forty percent.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: And if you thought that was bad, they're North Sydney.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: Well they raise their rates by can you believe it,
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: eighty seven percent.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Now, as if that's not bad enough.
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: While councilors are crying poor as justification for these outrageous
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: increases in rates. They're wasting huge amounts of money on
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: overseas junkets for counselors and staff. Let me give you
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: just four examples. I could give you dozens, but here's four.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: The City of Sydney Council they sent a couple of
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: staff to Canada for a carbon neutral summit.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: Tell me how that's going.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: To benefit the rate payers in the City of Sydney.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: They also sent council members to a cycling conference in Belgium. Well,
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: I guess the city of city does have a lot
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: of bike lanes these days. Maybe that's what that was for,
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: not to be outdone. The Canterbury Bankstown Council, Well, they
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: sent a delegation to a leadership dialogue event in London. Now,
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: as part of these junkets, they have to produce a
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: report to council evaluating what benefit they derived for ratepayers.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: And get this, their.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: Reports said, quote unquote the leadership dialogue event provided valuable insights.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: That's pretty vague, but this one is my favorite.
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: The Paramatta Council they sent staff to the Netherlands for
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: a library conference because there's a lot that we can
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: learn from those in Holland about how to improve libraries
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: for the people of Paramatta. Now, altogether, it was about
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: seven million dollars spent over the last financial year by
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: Sydney councils on overseas trips, which might not sound like
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: a lot, but how do they justify that in a
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: cost of living crisis? And you notice it's for things
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: like you know, carbon neutrality, libraries, cycling. They never go
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: overseas for a graffiti removal conference, or for a pothole
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: maintenance conference, or a for a mowing grass at the
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: local park conference. At least those sorts of things would
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: benefit rate payers. Northern Beaches, as I said, put up
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: their rates by forty percent, which means about six hundred
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: dollar extra a year for ratepayers. So here's the really
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: upsetting thing. When rate payers build an extra six hundred
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: bucks a year, they start looking where do we cut
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: back expenses in order to afford our rates. But local
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: councils they're not cutting back at all. They just keep
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: spending and spending. In fact, Caliburn is eleven of the
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: Greater Sydney councils. That's fully a third rend deficits last
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: year if they're going to jack up rates for rate payers.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: You'd think they would at least cut.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: Back on some things like, oh, I don't know, going
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: to Belgium for a cycling conference.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: No, that's the most important bit. Surely you know that, James.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: I've actually had an idea though.
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: As you've been talking you mentioned the you know, mowing
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: the lawn at the local park summits and the fix
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: the pothole summit.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: If no one.
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: Else is doing it, I'm going to host it right
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: here in Sydney, and I'm going to get people from
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: all over the world to come to Sydney for these conferences.
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: And I'm going to make a mint while they do it,
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: because why they hell not If they go for bloody
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: library conference, I'm sure someone will come for a pothole
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: conference if it means they can go for a junket
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: on the other side of the world. One of the
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: other ones I really liked as well was Blacktown Council,
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: which is just up the road from you where you
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: are James. Here, we were well, well, well, come on,
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: it is a lot closer than I am.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: I going to say that in the genteel parts of Sydney,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: in the Inner West.
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: But they spent twenty grand or just over twenty grand,
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: sending three staff sorry to a sister city in Ireland.
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: And they also spent thirty grand going to the UK, China,
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: South Korea for summits and delegations. Now to this, the
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: Council said, delegations from these cities visited Blacktown in return,
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: providing economic benefit and raising the profile of our region
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: among their communities.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm really glad to know that.
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: You know, perhaps the three people who came from Ireland
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: to visit Blacktown obviously boosted the economy so much while
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: they were over here. And all the people in Ireland,
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: from what I've heard, they're all just raving about Blacktown.
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: These people have gone back saying you won't believe this
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: place when you types for Blacktown. They're all walking around
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: Ireland talking about it, the UK.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Where else do they go? South Korea, China.
• 5:14
  Speaker 5: Brazil, we've left out Brazil, the.
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: Polical Forum and the only thing they want to talk
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: about is Blacktown.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: I reckon that was money well spent.
• 5:23
  Speaker 6: If it puts Blacktown on the map, it must have
• 5:25
  Speaker 6: been absolutely extraordinary. Taken from someone who used to be
• 5:29
  Speaker 6: a city councilor myself. There is literally zero justification for
• 5:35
  Speaker 6: any of these junk kits. And I'll tell you why,
• 5:38
  Speaker 6: because this level of government works like every other level
• 5:42
  Speaker 6: of government, and that is the MPs in this case,
• 5:45
  Speaker 6: the councilors that you have elected, they don't know much.
• 5:49
  Speaker 5: Okay, they are your representatives.
• 5:51
  Speaker 6: But the people who draw up plans, the town planners
• 5:56
  Speaker 6: per se, they're all back.
• 5:58
  Speaker 5: In the wings.
• 5:59
  Speaker 6: Much like we constantly complain it's the bureaucrats that run
• 6:02
  Speaker 6: the country, because, for example, the treasurer in Victoria has
• 6:06
  Speaker 6: asked her treasury members please stop using economic jargon. I
• 6:10
  Speaker 6: can't understand what you're sagging. These people aren't the experts.
• 6:15
  Speaker 6: They are elected representatives. But the people who actually know
• 6:19
  Speaker 6: what they're doing, we hope, are behind the scenes in
• 6:23
  Speaker 6: the bureaucracy working for the Department of this, the Department
• 6:26
  Speaker 6: of that, the Department.
• 6:27
  Speaker 5: Of everything else. So particularly with.
• 6:30
  Speaker 6: Regards to things like, oh, cycling tracks in Bildrum massive conference,
• 6:36
  Speaker 6: you would never send the councilors anyway, because they don't
• 6:40
  Speaker 6: know a flying fig about cycling tracks. How many of
• 6:43
  Speaker 6: them should there be? How can we do this in
• 6:45
  Speaker 6: an economic way? But also saving on space, et cetera,
• 6:49
  Speaker 6: et cetera.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: And so on.
• 6:50
  Speaker 6: You would send the people, the town planners in charge
• 6:54
  Speaker 6: of how many cycling tracks you have in your little patch,
• 6:57
  Speaker 6: You would send them over there if you were actually serious.
• 7:00
  Speaker 5: And then, of.
• 7:00
  Speaker 6: Course we all know you can attend anything via zoom
• 7:04
  Speaker 6: these days, especially since we're all so mad about being
• 7:06
  Speaker 6: carbon neutroll. There is zero justification for this, and as
• 7:13
  Speaker 6: a moral quandary during a cost of living crisis, this
• 7:18
  Speaker 6: is something that wouldn't even trouble a child. Do I
• 7:21
  Speaker 6: spend tens of thousands of dollars of the rate payers
• 7:26
  Speaker 6: cash on me having a great time in Brazil or London, Belgium, Canada,
• 7:33
  Speaker 6: the Netherlands? Or do I stay home and just tune
• 7:36
  Speaker 6: in online?
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Gee?
• 7:38
  Speaker 5: I wonder what I want.
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: To know about all of this is, you know, we
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: have a local government minister here in New South Wales,
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: as we do in every state. What does a local
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: government minister actually do? Because Ron Holing is the minister
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: here in New South Wales, he was asked would he
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: hold a independent productivity review into how these councils are
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: spending their money? I mean North Sydney County. So that
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: jacked up their rates by an inordinate amount. They spent
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: three point one million dollars on gender neutral facilities at
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: the North Sydney Oval recently. But the local government minister,
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: he said, look, ratepayers expect their money to be spent wisely.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: That was the extent of his action.
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: He made a comment, but he declined to implement a
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: review of how this is happening. I'm just wondering what
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: does a local government minister actually do well?
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: He was wrong.
• 8:26
  Speaker 6: You weren't expected to be spent one I know exactly.
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: I'll tell you what local government ministers do.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: They sit around in fear.
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: Of what councils will do to them if they ever
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: try to take their power away.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, the councils.
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: Forget, and often we forget that they only exist by
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: virtue of the state government. That the state constitutions allow
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: councils to exist. But all the powers that councils have
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: sit in the local government at or whatever the equivalent is.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: In each state.
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: And that is something that the government or the Parliament
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: can change it any time and take powers away or
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: give powers to council for them to execute. The state
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: government tomorrow could completely new to the councils and say no, actually,
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: we're going to take over the running of parks, and
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: we're going to take over the running of bins being
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: emptied and swimming.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Pools and libraries, et cetera.
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: That is within the powers of the Parliament to do that,
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: but they're all too scared to do anything about it
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: because the councils do actually have a lot of money
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: behind them, and then they'll launch a campaign against the
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: state government and it'll be on for young and old.
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: They just don't want to rock the boat, which kind
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: of raises the question, what's the point of having a
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: local government minister in the first place.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: There are a law unto themselves. Just let them be
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: a law out of here.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: If you're in.
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: Leadership to lead, if you don't want hard decisions, get
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: out of leadership and let someone in who'll make the calls.
• 9:44
  Speaker 6: Speaking of being in leadership to lead, unless you're living
• 9:47
  Speaker 6: under a rock, you would have heard the President Donald J.
• 9:50
  Speaker 6: Trump has announcer sweeping twenty five percent tariff on all
• 9:55
  Speaker 6: aluminium and steel coming into the United States of America.
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: Here's his rationale.
• 10:02
  Speaker 7: Any steel coming into the United States is going to
• 10:05
  Speaker 7: have a twenty five percent tariff. US Steel was one
• 10:09
  Speaker 7: of our great companies, and through a lot of stupidity
• 10:12
  Speaker 7: and bad government and also bad management of the company,
• 10:16
  Speaker 7: it lost that luster. But it's going to gain it back,
• 10:19
  Speaker 7: and tariffs are going to help. Tariffs are going to
• 10:21
  Speaker 7: make it very successful again.
• 10:24
  Speaker 6: Now, of course, is the big deal here in Australia
• 10:27
  Speaker 6: because we sell hundreds of millions of dollars of both
• 10:31
  Speaker 6: steel and aluminium to the States every single year. But
• 10:36
  Speaker 6: don't worry everybody, alban Eese, he's got a call scheduled
• 10:39
  Speaker 6: with Trump and he's going to get it sorted.
• 10:43
  Speaker 8: I have a discussion with President Trump scheduled and I
• 10:50
  Speaker 8: will certainly keep the House and the Australian people informed.
• 10:58
  Speaker 8: After that discussion.
• 11:01
  Speaker 5: Compelling and rich. My confidence is shot through the roof.
• 11:04
  Speaker 6: But really I'm not worried about this because Trump announced
• 11:08
  Speaker 6: similar during his first term and in twenty eighteen Australia
• 11:13
  Speaker 6: was like, yeah, but not us, right, right and fair enough,
• 11:16
  Speaker 6: we were given an exemption.
• 11:18
  Speaker 5: We are mates.
• 11:19
  Speaker 6: So I reckon that this was one of those sweeping
• 11:23
  Speaker 6: Trumpian announcements that he does like to make, because good lord,
• 11:26
  Speaker 6: does this man know how to make a headline he's
• 11:29
  Speaker 6: there on Air Force One, he's talking to the reporters,
• 11:32
  Speaker 6: he's putting his foot down, pedal to the metal. The
• 11:35
  Speaker 6: world collectively gasps and that, of course the details come
• 11:38
  Speaker 6: out later, and I don't think we've got anything to.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: Worry about it.
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: I think you underestimate the work Joe Hockey put in
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: back in twenty seventeen or whenever it was that Trump
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: announced these tariffs the first time, because Joe Hockey said,
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: he did really leverage that idea of where mates and
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: you should grant special favors to Australia. The difference this
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: time is that the ambassador we have in the United
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: States hasn't sounded off regularly on Twitter about what a
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: moro on Trump is.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: Albanezi himself is the.
• 12:07
  Speaker 5: Prime ministers grudge.
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: Tho Trump, and I'm not sure they can pull the
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: makeship card this time. When they're on record saying such
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: terrible things about Donald Trump, he's disinclined to listen to them.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: In addition to that, it's.
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: Quite unbelievable that America is our most important ally we've
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: seen justin Trudeau had the good sense to make a
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: trip to the US to sit down personally with Trump
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: for Anthony Alberezi, who has had one phone call with
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: Donald Trump since his election and is not scheduled to
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: meet personally with him until after the election, which probably
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: means Albanezer will never meet personally with Donald Trumps dereliction
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: of national duty. He should have been in the United
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: States already sitting down with Donald Trump, especially knowing there's
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: bad blood between himself and Kevin Rudd.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: And the U S. President.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: He should have been there in person smoothing the water
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: so this would not be an issue as it now is.
• 13:07
  Speaker 5: Don't think this comes down to bad blood between.
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: The like, so I don't disagree with that point that's
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: in Albaniz. He should should have already been over there
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: to him, He should have been at the inauguration. As
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: far as I'm concerned when it comes to Rudd, I mean,
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: the rabbit will hit the road here and if for
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: whatever reason these tariffs are slapped on us and kept
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: on us, then.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: That will probably be the end of Rudd.
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: But it's a It's a strange one with Rudd because
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: he is actually respected by quite a few Republicans for
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: his knowledge on China. So as much as Trump has
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: personal beef with him. He is actually in favor with
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: quite a number of Republicans, including a. Vivik Ramaswami and
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: Marco Rubio, etcetera, who've publicly talked in support of him
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: because of his knowledge on China and the knowledge he's
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: been able to supply to them.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: But Trump, every time he's.
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: Slapped the tariff on someone so far, like last week
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: it was Mexico and Canada, he did it because he
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: wanted something in return, and so they then come to
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: the table with something in return, and all of a sudden,
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: the tariff has gone.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: So even if it's not just simply.
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: A matter of we'll wear mates, therefore it won't apply
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: to us, surely we'll just throw them a bone and
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: then that the tariff will be gone. I can't see
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: any circumstance in which you would possibly put these tariffs
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: upon your allies and then there wouldn't be some kind
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: of out to get around.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: It, because that really would be blowing up.
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: Ties that don't need to be blown up. If it
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: means we give a concession to the US, then it's
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: a win that Trump has and that's how we operate.
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: I mean, he's not using tariffs simply to punish other
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: countries for the sake of punishing other countries. He's been
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: using tariffs to get something out of them. So if
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: it means he gets something out of a whole bunch
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: of countries, now I say, well, hang on, we don't
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: want this to happen.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Then he's won.
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: He's got something for the United States and all so
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: continued with the importance into the US.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: I don't see what the problem.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: May well be a good point, but this is a
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: big test for Alberanzi. Could you imagine if he's not
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: successful in removing these wells I could say about his
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: leadership and his standing with our Oh yeah, And of
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: course at the Albanze was very quick off the mark
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: when China started blocking trade with Australia, when Scott Morrison
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: was the Prime Minister, and Albanzi made that famous quotes
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: on the front page of Tomorrow's Australian Gee, there should
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: be someone in the government, the Liberal government at the time,
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: that could pick up the phone. But there's nobody. And
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: you just wonder who in this government has the ability
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: to pick up the phone and talk to Donald Trump
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: without having to gropel.
• 15:39
  Speaker 6: Tell you what if I was done I would have
• 15:42
  Speaker 6: picked up then done. Can you just make this phone
• 15:46
  Speaker 6: call an absolute burning dumps the fire of a disaster.
• 15:51
  Speaker 6: Then when I get in, we can just pull these.
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: Tariffs right out.
• 15:54
  Speaker 6: Like I wouldn't be surprised if this is some sort
• 15:57
  Speaker 6: of electoral ploy, because Trump knows we got an election
• 16:00
  Speaker 6: coming up, and he knows should this phone call go well, alban.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: Easy will be chess out.
• 16:07
  Speaker 6: I've saved the day, Australian alimenium and Steele's.
• 16:11
  Speaker 5: In safe hands, ladies and gentlemen.
• 16:13
  Speaker 6: I told Donald Trump where to go, and that will
• 16:16
  Speaker 6: be a massive win for him.
• 16:18
  Speaker 5: So should Trump, for.
• 16:21
  Speaker 6: The sake of the exercise, simply say no, I'm keeping
• 16:24
  Speaker 6: them in place for whatever reasons, and then the Dutton
• 16:27
  Speaker 6: camp be able to say, well, we've saved the day,
• 16:30
  Speaker 6: We've we've broken this deal, so what you want is
• 16:34
  Speaker 6: a coalition government and these tariffs will be bye bye.
• 16:37
  Speaker 6: Friendly countries do that kind of stuff all the time.
• 16:40
  Speaker 5: Is it election interference? Absolutely? But they've done it before
• 16:45
  Speaker 5: and they would do it again.
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: I just want a recording of the phone call between alban.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Easy and FAM.
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: Was it Andrew Peacock and Jeff Kennett who had a
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: phone call in the nineties on like a party line,
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: and it was the dumbest thing to do, right, remember
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: like car phones, and they were on a party line,
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: so anyone else could pick up the phone and listen
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: to your conversation because there was only one line. And
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: it's Kennet and Peacock, who was then leader. I think
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: of the Liberal Party. We've just been deposed as leader
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: or something crapping on about John Howard, and someone recorded
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: the phone call and put it out there and then
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: that was the end of Peacock in the Liberal Party. Basically,
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: let's have a moment like that with Alban Easy, shall we.
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: We're talking about Alban Easy. Let's come back to Australia
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: and his Treasurer Jim Chalmers, who's been putting the heavies
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: on brewers.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: Would you believe it? I mean, of all the.
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: Things that Jim Charmers should be worried about right now,
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: you wouldn't think he'd be going after Australian brewing companies.
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: But here we are in twenty twenty five, steering down
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: the barrel of an election and we talk about, you know,
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: taxes on beer.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: Et cetera.
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: Clearly the government is worried about it because at the
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: start of the month, as happens every six months, the
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: excise on alcohol went up. Now the excise is applied
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: differently to spirits, beer and wine. Wine gets off all
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: lighter than beer and spirits do. You would have seen
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: the campaign being run at the moment via bunderbererg Rum
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: talking about the fact that sixty three percent of the
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: cost of a bottle of bunderberg Rum is tax that
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: goes straight to the federal government. Will when you go
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: down to the bottle O and you buy a slab
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: of beer, about twenty bucks of the cost of that
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: slab of beer is tax that goes directly to the government.
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: And so the brewers as a collective have been saying, look,
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: can we please just have a pause on the excise
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: for a little while because it's becoming ridiculous.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: It's too expensive.
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: People aren't buying beer anymore. They're certainly buying it in
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: less quantities than they used to because they just can't
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: afford it. We are in a cost of living crisis.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: Please throw us a bone.
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: So the Treasurer Jim Chalmers has picked up the phone
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: to the a Triple C and said excuse me, Can
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: you go off to the brewers and tell them that
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: they might be in breach of consumer law for tilling
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: tax payers exactly how much tax they are paying.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: This is a quote out.
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: Of the paper today that industry groups were shocked to
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: receive letters from the Age Triple See last week warning
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: them of their responsibility to not misinform customers about the
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: impact of the twice yearly tax hike, just days after
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: mister Charmers had written asking the watchdog to investigate his concerns.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: That beer drinkers could be misled.
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: Now, mister Charmers, or doctor Chalmers as I should call him,
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: I'll get letters and complain from his department. Probably if
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: I don't say that properly. It's been saying, oh, this
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: is just one sent on top of your pint of beer.
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: Who cares about one cent on top of the pint
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: of beer? Well, Richard Adamson, who's the head brewer at
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: Young Henry's Brewery, rightly points out that we're getting this
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: crazy situation where beer is just getting out of the
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: reach of the average consumer. Since twenty twenty two, the
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: excise has gone up ten and a half percent. The
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: disparity now is so great that you see wine products
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: ridiculously cheap, and beer and spirits getting out of reach
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: of the average person. So we have the federal government
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: using taxpayer funded resources to tell a taxpayer funded body
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: to go and tell brewers that they shouldn't be telling
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: tax payers exactly how much tax they are paying.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: That is where we are at with this government.
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: I mean, clearly they're actually a bit rattled by it
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: that the message might get through that here in Australia
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: we have the third highest beer tax in the world.
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: Just let that sink in for a moment. They index
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: it every six months. It is absolutely ridiculous.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: And the idea that the.
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: Consumer watchdog would tell brewers that they're out of line
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: for pointing that out, I think is a joke.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: It's a stupid fight to pick.
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: I mean, Queen Victoria famously said give the people cheap
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: beer and you'll never have a revolution.
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: And there's something to be said for that. Labor meant
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: to be the party of the working class.
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: You would think in a cost of living crisis, they could,
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: as you said, Caleb, throw people a bone and at least,
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: you know, take a little bit off the cost of beer.
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: So people can at least enjoy their misery in this country.
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: But in addition to that, it does show the glass
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: jaw of I mean, Anthony Albanesi's glass jaw is pretty famous.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: But for Jim Charmers to be sending messages through the
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: A Triple C to brewers don't talk about the excise
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: on beer and don't make a commentary on it two
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: months before an election shows just how concerned the government
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: are to deflect all criticism and try and keep things
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: on an even key until they get to the election, because,
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: let's face it, about the only thing they've got going
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: for them is a potential tax interest rate cut in
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: the next week or so.
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: Maybe saying their prayers.
• 21:40
  Speaker 6: God like from you guys, Jesus, you really want to
• 21:45
  Speaker 6: get some good news? Yeah, indeed, Well this is just
• 21:48
  Speaker 6: a money making exercise.
• 21:49
  Speaker 5: Everybody knows it.
• 21:51
  Speaker 6: And this is something that Caleb would call an essential service,
• 21:55
  Speaker 6: bloody oath. Indeed, under this government, Australians have probably drunk
• 21:59
  Speaker 6: more alcohol then under any other.
• 22:02
  Speaker 5: No, I can't say that. Please don't quote me on that.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Now you need to, that's the point.
• 22:06
  Speaker 6: But it's never been more expensive and with this indexing nonsense,
• 22:10
  Speaker 6: where's the end of it, Where's the end of it?
• 22:13
  Speaker 6: It is only ever going to climb and climb and climb.
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: We don't want to live in a country.
• 22:18
  Speaker 6: It's not a free country if you can't afford to
• 22:21
  Speaker 6: have a pint after knocking off work.
• 22:24
  Speaker 5: Let's be real, it's just true.
• 22:26
  Speaker 6: I mean, Caleb, I think you are the most passionate
• 22:29
  Speaker 6: proponent of I would love to see you as an
• 22:32
  Speaker 6: MB on topics like this.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: You could win an election.
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you could win an election on We are going
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: to slash passionate.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: We're going to slash the text on beer.
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: And I've said this before that if I was running,
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: my policy platform, or one of my policy platforms, would
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: be that all of these syntaxes tobacco, alcohol, et cetera
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: would be slashed to the point that the government is
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: regaining the money that it spins on the health effects
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: of those products.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: Right, because that's only fair.
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: If we are paying public money into public hospitals to
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: pay for people who are suffering the effects of tobacco, alcohol,
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: et cetera, Sure we'll get the money out of them
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: in tax that they specifically pay the users of that
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: product pay for every dollar they make after that is
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: simply because the government says, well, because you're doing something
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: that we deem to be a sin, you should have
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: to pay more tax than everyone else. The smokers and
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: drinkers of this country are heroes.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: I mean they are.
• 23:32
  Speaker 4: They are the lifters, not the leaners, because people like
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: me who pay that tax every single day are putting
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: more money into the coffers of the government to prop
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: up this country than anyone else.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: We are doing our bit.
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: We're doing more than our bit to support this country.
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: If I see someone light up a fag, I'm going
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: to go and give them a slap on the back
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: and to say so.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: Deeply thank you for your support.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: The country that's got a Victoria for a moment.
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: The Victorian government, I think the only thing they're good
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: at is proving they're not very good at anything. And
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: his episode two hundred and eighty six of that story.
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: There's been a lot of wars between criminal gangs in
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: the state of Victoria, particularly fighting over elicit tobacco.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: One hundred and thirty fire bombings.
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: Just in the last couple of years, eighty people arrested
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: thirty seven million dollars worth of.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: Illegal tobacco, sees it's a problem.
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: People are sick of having fire bombings happen in the
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: Melbourne CBD. Who would have thought, well, last November, the
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: Victorian Labor government made a big announcement. That's one thing
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: they are good at. They're very good at announcements, just
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: not much good at the follow through. They announced last
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: November that they would start a licensing system for retailers
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: to sell tobacco and therefore if you didn't have a license,
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: well you would be set upon by the regulators. This
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: licensing system is due to come into effect in July
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: of this month. The only problem is retailers who want
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: the license so they can sell tobacco don't know where
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: they go to, or who they speak to, or how
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: this licensing system works, let alone what it's going to cost.
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: The government haven't announced any details as yet, and as
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: I said, this licensing system kicks into effect in about
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: four months time. But it gets even worse. The Victorian
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: government have just announced that they won't have any licensing
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: inspectors on the beat until the middle of twenty twenty six.
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: So you can have a licensing system kicking to effect
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: in July of twenty twenty five. But the government are
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: advertising it won't be policed until at least the middle
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: of twenty twenty six, which begs the question why.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: The hell would you biolize it? And if you're an
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: Leegal tobacconist, you just carry on worry about it later.
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: David Innell, who's the CEO of Master Gross's Australia said,
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: and you can hear the frustration in his quote. I've
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: been in public policy for thirty two years and in
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: my view, this scourge of illegal tobacco is the biggest
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: policy failing of all that time. The state government hasn't
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: engaged in any meaningful way because it doesn't have any answers.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: It's a complete mess.
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: You could actually take that quote, Liz and apply it
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: to pretty much anything in Victoria and it would be true.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: Everything is a mess.
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: As I said, this is example eight hundred and twenty
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: seven of Victorian government is crap at everything.
• 26:29
  Speaker 6: Absolutely, And let's be real, they don't actually want to
• 26:32
  Speaker 6: crack down on any of this. They make billions of
• 26:35
  Speaker 6: dollars of tobacco in this country every single year. They
• 26:39
  Speaker 6: don't want to actually make it harder, I don't think.
• 26:43
  Speaker 6: But there's public outcry and so they say, oh, well,
• 26:46
  Speaker 6: we're clamping down and you've got to have this special license.
• 26:48
  Speaker 6: The retailers are now just saying this is so confusing,
• 26:51
  Speaker 6: we have no idea what's going on, which is a
• 26:54
  Speaker 6: very comprehensive argument given everybody else doesn't know what's going
• 26:58
  Speaker 6: on anyway, I genuine and lee don't know a single
• 27:01
  Speaker 6: smoker that isn't just buying.
• 27:03
  Speaker 5: The cheap chop chop.
• 27:05
  Speaker 6: Seriously, all of these tobacco shops and if you live
• 27:09
  Speaker 6: in Inner Sydney, you walk for five minutes, you've passed
• 27:12
  Speaker 6: five tobacconists like they are absolutely everywhere, and they've got
• 27:17
  Speaker 6: the legit smokes in there as a front basically because
• 27:21
  Speaker 6: nobody's buying the expensive stuff these days. It's like over
• 27:25
  Speaker 6: fifty bucks for a twenty five pack.
• 27:28
  Speaker 5: I mean, it is utterly ludicrous.
• 27:30
  Speaker 6: I think we have, we must have the most expensive
• 27:33
  Speaker 6: cigarettes in the world here in Australia. And then you've
• 27:36
  Speaker 6: got the people crowing about the fact that in the
• 27:40
  Speaker 6: year twenty three to twenty four, revenue from tobacco in
• 27:44
  Speaker 6: this country is down to nine point eight billion dollars,
• 27:48
  Speaker 6: which is a far cry from its peak in the
• 27:51
  Speaker 6: year nineteen to twenty twenty, which was over sixteen billions.
• 27:56
  Speaker 6: So they say, aha, Lok, it's fallen significantly, to which
• 28:00
  Speaker 6: I say, no, you've just made it so ridiculously expensive.
• 28:04
  Speaker 6: Everyone's buy and in cash, and they're buying the cheap
• 28:08
  Speaker 6: stuff that comes from China that is literally less than
• 28:11
  Speaker 6: a quarter of the price. So it's not that we
• 28:14
  Speaker 6: have less smokers in the country today, that's.
• 28:16
  Speaker 5: My opinion anyway.
• 28:17
  Speaker 6: It's that if you're going to make a system this
• 28:20
  Speaker 6: ridiculous with your licensing and your pricing and your excise
• 28:24
  Speaker 6: and your syntax, people as they have throughout time immemorial,
• 28:29
  Speaker 6: simply find a way around it to circumvent all your
• 28:33
  Speaker 6: stupid tape.
• 28:34
  Speaker 5: And get their cigarettes at a reasonable price.
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: And this is the thing, and I know I prattle
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: on about this all the time, but you compare the
• 28:41
  Speaker 4: packet of the price of a packet of daries in
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: the US compared to here, right, the average is about
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: twelve bucks twelve US bucks over there here it's about
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: forty odd dollars, right, And the smoking rate is negligible.
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: The difference in the smoking rate is negligible. So it's
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: not the price that's causing people to stop smoking. Because
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: they can go and get the cheaper product. It's because
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: they've had the message drummed into them that smoking is.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Bad for you.
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: That has worked, but those who want you smoke will
• 29:10
  Speaker 4: continue to smoke. And if they can't afford to buy
• 29:13
  Speaker 4: the legal product, they're going to buy the illegal product.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: And then the illegal product.
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: Funds underworld figures and crime gangs and bi keys, etc.
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: Who then use that money to fund rape and murder
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: and sex trafficking and all this sort of stuff. The
• 29:26
  Speaker 4: government has created this market, and you're right about the
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: excess going down, Liz, because the rate of smoking has
• 29:33
  Speaker 4: been going like this for years, and at the same time,
• 29:36
  Speaker 4: the revenue from the excise was going like that because
• 29:39
  Speaker 4: they were just jacking it up and getting more and
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: more money out of the people who were still smoking.
• 29:44
  Speaker 4: James Martin criminologists, I think with Deacon University. I've spoken
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: to him on air a few times. Was in the
• 29:50
  Speaker 4: Sunday Papers this week in pleading with the federal government
• 29:54
  Speaker 4: to cut the tobacco excise because the tobacco wars have
• 29:59
  Speaker 4: become so ridiculous.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: I mean, it is so lucrative.
• 30:01
  Speaker 4: You used to think of gangs getting around dealing in
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: illegal drugs, Well, they don't deal in illegal drugs so
• 30:07
  Speaker 4: much anymore. They deal with what is actually illegal products,
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: just in an illegal form because the government's not making
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: any tax out of it. They got so greedy that
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: the tax they're getting has actually gone down.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: I mean, when have you ever heard of that happening?
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: And to point out exactly how bad this is for
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: local business, which is what the master grosses et cetera.
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: Are complaining about with how this scheme is being rolled out.
• 30:32
  Speaker 4: I've spoken to the CEO of a supermarket chain in
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: Victoria and he told me the revenue they have lost
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: from the loss of sales in cigarettes as the tobacco
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: wars have taken off in Victoria is about ten percent.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: Of their total revenue.
• 30:48
  Speaker 4: And you think of what ten percent buys you in
• 30:51
  Speaker 4: terms of staff and staff hours, et cetera. That's a
• 30:54
  Speaker 4: huge chunk of your revenue that has been lost to
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: criminals because the government centrally handed them the matter.
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: So the crime gangs carry on as per normal in
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: Victoria because the Victorian government cuts sort this mess out.
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: But I'll tell you what the Victorian government can do.
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: They can organize for a North American football game and
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: played at the mc gene, which Liz is called bread
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: and circuses.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: That's what they.
• 31:16
  Speaker 5: Are, one hundred percent.
• 31:17
  Speaker 6: They're always good at the bread and circuses helps you
• 31:20
  Speaker 6: not to notice they're vast ineptitude to the United States now,
• 31:24
  Speaker 6: where we know that Doge is busily fossecking through all
• 31:28
  Speaker 6: federal employees seeing where they can.
• 31:30
  Speaker 5: Cut the fat.
• 31:31
  Speaker 6: And part of that process has to has been to
• 31:35
  Speaker 6: offer all federal employees, regardless of where they're serving, a buyout,
• 31:41
  Speaker 6: an eight month buyout.
• 31:44
  Speaker 5: So instead of saying, Okay.
• 31:46
  Speaker 6: We're going to figure out who needs to go and
• 31:48
  Speaker 6: we're going to fire you forcibly, they've started by saying, hey,
• 31:51
  Speaker 6: if you know you're useless, leave now do our jobs
• 31:55
  Speaker 6: for us.
• 31:56
  Speaker 5: Leave the ship. Rats.
• 31:59
  Speaker 6: Well, three federal unions have gotten together saying we represent
• 32:03
  Speaker 6: this people and this is an ultimatum.
• 32:07
  Speaker 5: That is unlawful. We're not standing for it.
• 32:10
  Speaker 6: So just hours before the deadline to say yes, I'm
• 32:15
  Speaker 6: in I want that buyout, hours before that deadline was
• 32:19
  Speaker 6: to occur, a federal judge has come out and says,
• 32:23
  Speaker 6: these three unions have bought this case.
• 32:25
  Speaker 5: I'm pressing pause on the deadline.
• 32:28
  Speaker 6: While I decide whether this is allowed or not. So
• 32:33
  Speaker 6: there's a lot more federal employees sweating it out over
• 32:36
  Speaker 6: the weekend saying, actually, this offer is still open to me.
• 32:40
  Speaker 6: Doge was hoping that this would clean out five to
• 32:44
  Speaker 6: ten percent of the entirety of current federal employees. They
• 32:49
  Speaker 6: served in the Biden administration, So naturally you want to
• 32:52
  Speaker 6: get rid of as many of these inept buffoons as
• 32:55
  Speaker 6: you can. Sixty five thousand of them have already accepted
• 33:00
  Speaker 6: the buyout. They were hoping for more, but they've got
• 33:03
  Speaker 6: three percent. So the Trump Admin's happy with that rather
• 33:07
  Speaker 6: than nothing. And now the judge is coming down and
• 33:10
  Speaker 6: this could be quashed. What a loss that would be
• 33:14
  Speaker 6: if you're in doged and you're like, okay, three percent.
• 33:17
  Speaker 5: Of them took our offer. We're getting rid of sixty
• 33:20
  Speaker 5: five thousand morons, yay, And now it looks like it
• 33:25
  Speaker 5: could be thrown out.
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: It's a brilliant way of getting the trash to take
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: itself out, right. I mean, they get rid of all
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: the dead wood, by which I mean the people employed
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: under the Biden administration's DEI policies.
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: They create an.
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: Exit ramp for people who don't like Donald Trump and
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: would just be a blockage in different departments serving in
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: his administration. So they give them an easy way out.
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: Plus they're going to save a bucket load of money.
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: And on top of that, if after this Trump then
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: goes and makes and then fires a whole lot of people,
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: then you can always fall back on the fact we
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: offered eight months pay if you took a redundancy and
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: you declined to take it in eight months redundancy is
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: pretty generous, I would have thought. So Trump's provided himself
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: cover for what he will undoubtedly do after this offer expires.
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: Whenever the court allows it to expire, he will go
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: through and make sure they cull at least ten percent
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: of federal employees, which then raises the other interesting question.
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: What percentage of government employees, whether in the US or
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: here in Australia or anywhere round the western world, are
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: really just warming seats and are completely unproductive yet being
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: paid for by the taxpayer.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: Lots of them, lots of them.
• 34:37
  Speaker 4: I remember last time we talked about we talked about
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: some public service story here right, and a bloke wrote
• 34:42
  Speaker 4: to me, that's right, it was a sorry about South Australia.
• 34:45
  Speaker 4: They have this waiting room basically of public service employees
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: who don't actually have a job to do at the moment,
• 34:51
  Speaker 4: but for whatever reason, they can't be sacked.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: So they're sitting there on full page, just waiting for
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: a job.
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: And a Bloat wrote to me and so this is
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: not just happening in South Australia. This is happening Inydney
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: as well. And he told me about this place somewhere
• 35:03
  Speaker 4: in Sydney where all of these public servants who are
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: waiting for jobs go and they receive training and first
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: aid courses and all sorts of.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: Stuff, and they're like they were advertising for a.
• 35:14
  Speaker 4: Manager to manage these people who don't have jobs. This
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: is how the public service runs here in Australia. You
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: be sure it's what's going on in the US as well.
• 35:24
  Speaker 4: But the Union wants to be careful because the union
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: is challenging this in court on the basis that they
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: don't think the government would be able to give the
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: payouts that these people are owed because the budgets aren't
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: short up yet. Well, if they managed to quash this deal,
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: Trump is just going to go through and sack them all.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: And they're going to get no money.
• 35:45
  Speaker 4: So I'd be careful about going after that one.
• 35:48
  Speaker 6: Wouldn't you be angry at your union, sit.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: The workers and then you're like, no, no payout for you.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: You're just going to get sacked. Now.
• 35:58
  Speaker 4: You'll remember in the election campaign last year that Kalala Harris,
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: in the very few interviews she did, one with sixty
• 36:05
  Speaker 4: minutes in the US where they edited her answers to
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: actually bake her sound smart. Here's an example of just
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: one of the instances where they did that.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyah who is not listening.
• 36:20
  Speaker 9: Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted
• 36:25
  Speaker 9: in a number of movements in that region by Israel
• 36:31
  Speaker 9: that were very much prompted by or a result of
• 36:37
  Speaker 9: many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen
• 36:41
  Speaker 9: in the region.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyah, who is not listening.
• 36:45
  Speaker 9: We're not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for
• 36:49
  Speaker 9: the United States to be clear about where we stand
• 36:51
  Speaker 9: on the need for this war to end.
• 36:54
  Speaker 4: Now, wonder Dtya who wasn't listening, and that's what he
• 36:57
  Speaker 4: had to listen to. But Trump's had a few legal
• 36:59
  Speaker 4: wins lately. He got fifteen million dollars in defamation money
• 37:03
  Speaker 4: out of the ABC because a presenter said that he
• 37:06
  Speaker 4: was liable for rape. He's got twenty five million dollars
• 37:08
  Speaker 4: out of Meta settling a case that he brought against
• 37:11
  Speaker 4: them for banning his accounts back in twenty twenty one. Well,
• 37:15
  Speaker 4: he's now he's increased the case he's taken out against
• 37:18
  Speaker 4: CBS for that sixty minutes interview for twenty billion dollars
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: because sixty minutes has released the full transcript.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: Of the interview that they did, and they.
• 37:28
  Speaker 4: Have found so many more examples now of where they
• 37:32
  Speaker 4: edited it to basically make Kamala Harris sound smart.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: So he's like, I'm going for gold here.
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: Now he's accusing them of election interference, et cetera. He's
• 37:40
  Speaker 4: brought another Republican in who says he's been damaged by
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: the interview, et cetera. It's just fantastic to see.
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: And the parent company, Paramount looking at settling this case,
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: which would be an incredible admission. Since it's over election interference,
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: they should have a situation where unedited interviews must be
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: available online whatever goes to air. When it comes to
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: political interviews and the lead up to an election. You
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: can see the unedited version if you want. We'll go
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: to a break. When we come back, we look at
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: what's making news tomorrow, including Victoria and South Australia start
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: importing gas from overseas despite the fact there's plenty of
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: gas right under the ground.
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: We'll get to that in just a moment. Welcome back.
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: Let's take a look at what's making news in tomorrow's papers,
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: and I reckon we should start with the Gold Coast
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: bulletin because this is a great Gold Coast story.
• 38:29
  Speaker 6: Incredibly, this is affecting the state of the nation.
• 38:32
  Speaker 5: We're dying to see you.
• 38:34
  Speaker 6: The splash reads mausoleums pearly gates in glam New Cemetery.
• 38:40
  Speaker 6: The Gold Coast is getting a new symmetry with capacity
• 38:43
  Speaker 6: for eighty thousand souls who wrote this.
• 38:46
  Speaker 5: Their souls are gone at this point.
• 38:48
  Speaker 6: It's just the carcasses who will enter through pearly gates
• 38:51
  Speaker 6: adorned with angel wings. We want to create heaven on
• 38:55
  Speaker 6: Earth on the Gold Coast, says owner Richard Douce. I
• 39:01
  Speaker 6: mean most things on the Gold Coast. Forgive me, if
• 39:04
  Speaker 6: you're watching from the Gold Coast is rather ghost. I
• 39:07
  Speaker 6: went there a couple of years ago, and I was
• 39:09
  Speaker 6: just like, not my guid to count.
• 39:11
  Speaker 5: Okay, I'm more of a.
• 39:12
  Speaker 6: Hippie child at heart, but gosh, so much ghoshness.
• 39:17
  Speaker 5: Everything is very flashy and amazing.
• 39:19
  Speaker 6: And now I'm picturing this cemetery with actual pearly gates
• 39:24
  Speaker 6: with wings. Also rather ironic if you're a horrible person
• 39:29
  Speaker 6: and you're definitely going to hell and they're just like, oh,
• 39:32
  Speaker 6: wel you made it to our fake pearly gates.
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: At least well, they'll have the best looking corpses in
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: the country on the Gold Coast.
• 39:43
  Speaker 6: Open casket, every single one of them.
• 39:45
  Speaker 4: Haush on the Gold Coast though, sure if you're hanging
• 39:49
  Speaker 4: around surfers paradise, But as you go further south on
• 39:53
  Speaker 4: the Gold Coast, it's actually quite lovely.
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: I've got to say, though.
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: This cemetery is in Pimpama, which you know people in
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: Pimpa mar who claim to live on the Gold Coast.
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: It's a bit a stretch, not the Gold Coast. It's
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: not Brisbane. It's it's kind of neither here nor there.
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: So that's where you can afford a plot.
• 40:07
  Speaker 6: I mean, they're not going to be given up Prime
• 40:09
  Speaker 6: Beach land then.
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: Go up to Tambourine Mountain. It's quite lovely up there.
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: But I can't say that.
• 40:14
  Speaker 4: This is where I want to be buried. We're having
• 40:16
  Speaker 4: this discussion the other day group of us. A made
• 40:20
  Speaker 4: of mine has said that. And he's got lots of
• 40:22
  Speaker 4: cars and he's got a big garage for them, and
• 40:24
  Speaker 4: he's got an inspection pit, and he said he wants
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: to be dropped in the inspection pit when he dies
• 40:29
  Speaker 4: and concrete it over the top of Now, I'm not
• 40:32
  Speaker 4: sure whether that's legal or not, but I rather like
• 40:34
  Speaker 4: the idea.
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: That's his little place he wants to be lived there.
• 40:37
  Speaker 4: I'd be quite happy to be just be dropping on
• 40:39
  Speaker 4: the ground in a tree sapling bothered on top of me.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: I suspect you buried.
• 40:44
  Speaker 5: However, your life, Well, if you are going.
• 40:45
  Speaker 4: To sell the property and someone's going through one day
• 40:48
  Speaker 4: and helves this body doing in the concrete.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: And the coppers will be called in, I suspect be
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: some issues.
• 40:56
  Speaker 4: But you know what, do what you want. You can
• 40:58
  Speaker 4: actually be compacted. If you mated, you can be compacted
• 41:01
  Speaker 4: into a diamond.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: Now, and I rather like the idea because the need
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: people can wear it. Yes, exactly, so you could.
• 41:08
  Speaker 4: Be set in a ring, and so I could just
• 41:10
  Speaker 4: live forever on someone's finger. And then you know, my
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: great great great great great granddaughter will go on her
• 41:16
  Speaker 4: first date and the boy will say, oh, what's that ring?
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: And she goes just my great great great great grandfather.
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: I think that'd be hilarious, Melb.
• 41:24
  Speaker 5: You know we're not going to last that long climate change.
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: Oh true, true, true.
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: Let's go to the Daily Telegraph tomorrow. Speaking of not
• 41:31
  Speaker 4: lasting that long, we hope these people won't last that long.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: They need the doge to go through here.
• 41:36
  Speaker 4: Northern Beaches Council is paying millions more on staffing costs
• 41:40
  Speaker 4: than all three of the former councils.
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: That were merged to create it.
• 41:44
  Speaker 4: How good The revelations come two weeks after council has
• 41:47
  Speaker 4: voted to slug residents with nearly a forty percent increase
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: over three years in their rates, with angry rate pays
• 41:53
  Speaker 4: calling on the New South Wales government to.
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: Step in to prevent it.
• 41:57
  Speaker 4: They spent nearly forty million dollars more on employee costs
• 42:02
  Speaker 4: in the twenty twenty three twenty four financial year that
• 42:05
  Speaker 4: they did ten years earlier.
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: It's just insane, okay.
• 42:10
  Speaker 4: Amalgamations are meant to deliver efficiencies. If they're done properly,
• 42:14
  Speaker 4: they should deliver efficiencies. How do you possibly increase your staff.
• 42:21
  Speaker 6: Bill employee costs by forty million?
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: That's just employee is Their use of contractors went up
• 42:27
  Speaker 3: by four hundred and sixty one percent from fourteen million
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: in just.
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: A couple of years ago, six years ago to seventy
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: four million dollars last one hour year.
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: So that amalgamation not providing great value for ratepayers. But
• 42:43
  Speaker 3: since when we're ratepayers getting great value for anything. The
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: Adelaide Advertiser has a sad story typical of our times
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: here in this country. Gas import plans amid shortage. Important
• 42:55
  Speaker 3: gas could soon be flowing into South Australia and Victoria
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: as part of a plan to fast track new gas
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: supplies amid looming shortages. Now, the irony, of course, is
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: that we have gas shortages, but we also have an
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: abundance of gas. It's just that we sit on gigantic
• 43:10
  Speaker 3: reserves of the stuff, export it in huge quantities, but
• 43:14
  Speaker 3: don't leave enough for ourselves, and then we import it
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: from overseas. Even more ironic is we think we're saving
• 43:21
  Speaker 3: the planet by not using the gassets here and instead
• 43:24
  Speaker 3: getting it brought to us on ships run by diesel
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: so that we can pay extra for it. The whole
• 43:30
  Speaker 3: thing is just ludicrous. As soon as they open up
• 43:32
  Speaker 3: those gas fields, particularly in Victoria, got just like unlimited
• 43:36
  Speaker 3: reserves of gas. To be importing it as a company
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: from Dubai that's setting up in South Australia just makes
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: no sense at all. But since when did Chris Bowen's
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: energy policy make any set well?
• 43:47
  Speaker 6: One hope, I mean, so far this is well, they're
• 43:51
  Speaker 6: finalizing a takeover, but one hopes that this kind of
• 43:55
  Speaker 6: thing is what wakes up enough people to the arter
• 43:59
  Speaker 6: tragedy taking place.
• 44:01
  Speaker 5: I mean, I actually love Trump's tariffs.
• 44:04
  Speaker 6: He's like, look, our steel works are suffering, so we're
• 44:07
  Speaker 6: slapping tariffs on everybody else's so ours can get back
• 44:10
  Speaker 6: on our feet and the demand for our steal will
• 44:13
  Speaker 6: go through the roof, especially here at home. I'd love
• 44:16
  Speaker 6: to see more of that here in Australia. I mean,
• 44:18
  Speaker 6: even with our citrus growers, we have rotten fruit falling
• 44:23
  Speaker 6: on the ground going in the bin, while we import
• 44:26
  Speaker 6: oranges from Florida and wherever the heck else your sticker
• 44:30
  Speaker 6: tells you it's from It is utterly ridiculous that we
• 44:34
  Speaker 6: neglect our own and think that we're doing any kind
• 44:38
  Speaker 6: of favors to the nation. It drives me up the
• 44:40
  Speaker 6: wall to the front page of the Mercury. Now, state
• 44:43
  Speaker 6: deficit blows out to five hundred.
• 44:45
  Speaker 5: Million, our half billion hole.
• 44:48
  Speaker 6: The state budget deficit has blown out by half a
• 44:51
  Speaker 6: billion dollars and is expected to reach one point three
• 44:55
  Speaker 6: billion in twenty twenty four to twenty five, the second
• 44:58
  Speaker 6: worst result on record. Odd new Treasury figures show the Treasurer,
• 45:03
  Speaker 6: Guy Binett, blamed the sixty two percent increase on the
• 45:07
  Speaker 6: federal government because.
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: That is what you do.
• 45:11
  Speaker 6: That's what you do if you are a state or
• 45:14
  Speaker 6: territory treasurer.
• 45:15
  Speaker 5: You always blame the Feds.
• 45:18
  Speaker 6: For half a billion half a billion dollars, but our
• 45:23
  Speaker 6: budget blowout.
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: So how bad is it to be an host?
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: State government blames the federal government, The federal government blames
• 45:28
  Speaker 3: Vladimir Putin.
• 45:29
  Speaker 4: And we're just left sitting here saying, no, well, I
• 45:32
  Speaker 4: guess we just have to pay not responsible. I mean,
• 45:35
  Speaker 4: that must be what they're playing down a treasury. Because
• 45:37
  Speaker 4: we had the story the other day from the front
• 45:39
  Speaker 4: of the Canberra Times where where it's basically exactly the
• 45:42
  Speaker 4: same thing that's happened in the Act, where the budget
• 45:45
  Speaker 4: is blown out by basically two thirds or the deficit
• 45:48
  Speaker 4: is blown out by two thirds. I mean, how can
• 45:51
  Speaker 4: these people actually be expected to look after anything if
• 45:55
  Speaker 4: they get their numbers that vitally wrong.
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, they can blame it.
• 45:59
  Speaker 4: On the Federal until the cows come home.
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: But your job, if you are.
• 46:03
  Speaker 4: The treasurer and all the people sitting in your treasury,
• 46:06
  Speaker 4: is to be on top of this stuff. And even
• 46:08
  Speaker 4: if it is because of a lack of money coming
• 46:11
  Speaker 4: from the Federal commandent, you're meant to be able to
• 46:13
  Speaker 4: know this stuff. He's going and then you go, oh jeez,
• 46:16
  Speaker 4: did know that was going to happen?
• 46:17
  Speaker 5: And it was within the last six months. So six months.
• 46:21
  Speaker 6: Ago they said the deficit is going to be seven
• 46:24
  Speaker 6: hundred and ninety two million. Here we are six months later,
• 46:29
  Speaker 6: just a five hundred million more.
• 46:31
  Speaker 5: Five million extra.
• 46:32
  Speaker 6: It's fine, it's fine, everything's fine.
• 46:33
  Speaker 5: Is the Fed's fault.
• 46:35
  Speaker 3: It's just one of those things. We're going to take
• 46:36
  Speaker 3: a break when we come back. South Australian police pull
• 46:39
  Speaker 3: over a scooter rider for not wearing a helmet and
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: discover that was the list of his crimes that's coming
• 46:44
  Speaker 3: up in just a month. Well, a lot of people
• 46:49
  Speaker 3: around the country watched the Super Bowl today. Liz dressed
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: in the colors of the winning Super Bowl team. Well done,
• 46:55
  Speaker 3: you'll nod to American football. But Canada is the anthem
• 46:58
  Speaker 3: that's got a lot of people talking.
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: Did it was because John Batiste? Apparently he's a Grammy winner.
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: I've never heard of the.
• 47:04
  Speaker 4: Bloke, but he decided to jazz up quite literally, the
• 47:08
  Speaker 4: Star Spangled banner.
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: Have a listen.
• 47:15
  Speaker 4: Ya, you see bad at.
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: What's a roundly we appel nastily.
• 47:39
  Speaker 4: Now, look, there are lots of songs you can jazz
• 47:41
  Speaker 4: up or pop up or rock up or whatever it
• 47:44
  Speaker 4: might be. But surely the national anthem is just one
• 47:48
  Speaker 4: that you leave alone so you can sing along with it.
• 47:51
  Speaker 4: And by the way, when for one hundred and twenty
• 47:52
  Speaker 4: seconds you could bet on the length of the national
• 47:56
  Speaker 4: anthem sung at the Super Bowl and the betting line
• 47:59
  Speaker 4: was one hundred twenty and a half seconds, there were
• 48:01
  Speaker 4: all these people up in arms about whether it was
• 48:04
  Speaker 4: over or under, et cetera.
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: So that there are.
• 48:06
  Speaker 3: Some songs that should just be sung the way they're
• 48:08
  Speaker 3: supposed to be.
• 48:09
  Speaker 6: From Christmas carols especially, you want people to sing all
• 48:14
  Speaker 6: everyone's like, I want to sing my anthem, and then
• 48:16
  Speaker 6: he comes out with this whatever, No one can sing along.
• 48:21
  Speaker 6: They're all amped to sing their anthem. It would have
• 48:23
  Speaker 6: been awesome to see that many thousands of people on
• 48:26
  Speaker 6: their feet for the anthem.
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: Nor ruined it really quickly before we go.
• 48:30
  Speaker 3: Funny story in South Australia, police were patrolling just randomly
• 48:33
  Speaker 3: eleven a m in Woodville when they noticed a forty
• 48:36
  Speaker 3: three year old guy riding a scooter without a helmet.
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: Now these police were in plain clothes, so they stopped
• 48:42
  Speaker 3: the guy on his scooter and were chatting to him about, you.
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: Know, not wearing a helmet, need to be responsible.
• 48:46
  Speaker 3: When in the middle of that chat, a woman walks
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: up and asks the scooter writer if he can supply
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: her with some drugs like he's done previously. Well, evenize
• 48:55
  Speaker 3: all knowledge of the woman, but the woman persists oblivious
• 48:58
  Speaker 3: to the presence of the police. The police then think
• 49:01
  Speaker 3: maybe we ought to frisk you, and they allegedly find
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: drugs all over him, then go back to his house
• 49:06
  Speaker 3: and he's got a taser gun in his home as well.
• 49:09
  Speaker 3: Turns out, if he just bought his helmet, he would
• 49:12
  Speaker 3: have been fine. There's the lesson from tonight. Always we're
• 49:14
  Speaker 3: a helmet, we're riding a scooter. Things will go better
• 49:17
  Speaker 3: for you. That's it from us stick Around. Coming up
• 49:18
  Speaker 3: is the readA Penny Show.
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: Good Night,