Transcript

Credlin | 3 March · Credlin

0:01
Speaker 1: Peedo Krandland live on Sky News Australia.
0:08
Speaker 2: A busy show tonight, the busy world. Actually a lot
0:12
Speaker 2: going on. Let's get into it before that. Continuing after
0:14
Speaker 2: that almighty spat in the Oval Office with neither Trump
0:18
Speaker 2: nor Zelenski conceding. Yesterday in London, NATO members changed tack.
0:23
Speaker 3: So what does mean? Where to now?
0:26
Speaker 2: Chris Yulman and Peter Jennings will help us understand a
0:29
Speaker 2: pretty difficult weekend for diplomacy.
0:31
Speaker 3: Harmony Day.
0:32
Speaker 2: The day is meant to bring Australians together, in fact
0:35
Speaker 2: hides systemic racism, so says the Racism Watchdog. Any wonder
0:39
Speaker 2: the war on woke has become such an electoral issue.
0:43
Speaker 2: Plus fresh poll data that points to a nightmare scenario
0:46
Speaker 2: for Labor in Victoria.
0:48
Speaker 3: Eight seats now up for grabs.
0:50
Speaker 2: The ban behind that data expert Polster cost Samaris coming
0:54
Speaker 2: up And while the Prime Minister drags his heels in
0:57
Speaker 2: naming the election date, the poort Berreling has delayed as
1:01
Speaker 2: Labor does whatever it takes to try and buy your vote.
1:05
Speaker 4: There's no question that Labor's porul Berreling. You have a
1:07
Speaker 4: look at the map as to where these clinics have gone,
1:10
Speaker 4: and the AMA and others have been critical about these clinics.
1:13
Speaker 4: I want the best possible health system for every Australian.
1:17
Speaker 2: Never forget, there's no government Monday. There they're spending. It's
1:21
Speaker 2: your money, but first, Regardless of who's to blame in
1:24
Speaker 2: the shouting match at the Over Office last Friday, so
1:27
Speaker 2: far the only real winner is Vladimir Putin.
1:32
Speaker 5: You don't have the cards right now with us. You
1:34
Speaker 5: start having right.
1:36
Speaker 6: Now, You don't we.
1:39
Speaker 7: You're gambling with the lives of millions of people.
1:42
Speaker 5: You're gambling with world War three.
1:45
Speaker 7: You're gambling with World War three. And what you're doing is.
1:49
Speaker 5: Very disrespectful to the country, this country.
1:54
Speaker 4: Far more than a lot of people said they should have.
2:00
Speaker 2: To Trump fans, the President was only telling the Ukrainian
2:03
Speaker 2: leader the brutal truth that without American help, he's on
2:06
Speaker 2: a hiding to nothing. To everyone who thinks that Vladimir
2:10
Speaker 2: Vladimir Zelenski is a hero, Donald Trump's insistence on a
2:14
Speaker 2: deal with a Russian tyrant seemed like a surrender to
2:17
Speaker 2: might is right and not the defeat of the invading force,
2:21
Speaker 2: as should be the case. The bottom line here is
2:24
Speaker 2: that Russia is the aggressor, and any ceasefire without meaningful
2:28
Speaker 2: guarantees like Western troops on the ground is just breathing
2:32
Speaker 2: space for Putin to rebuild his strength.
2:35
Speaker 3: And attack again.
2:36
Speaker 2: And it's a morale boost for the other regressors like
2:40
Speaker 2: China against Taiwan, Iran against Israel, with Russia all of
2:45
Speaker 2: them currently in an alliance of convenience against the democratic West. Now,
2:50
Speaker 2: maybe a Zelenski should have meekly accepted the role the
2:52
Speaker 2: President and the Vice President had planned for him, that
2:56
Speaker 2: of a grateful supplicant, happy to turn over much of
2:59
Speaker 2: his cunt, his mineral wealth as payment for the Biden
3:02
Speaker 2: administration's earlier help with military hardware. Maybe he went well
3:07
Speaker 2: beyond what was agreed pre meeting and that got the
3:11
Speaker 2: US President offside. Maybe a thank you might have smoothed
3:15
Speaker 2: the big egos in the room.
3:18
Speaker 8: Have you said thank you once?
3:20
Speaker 4: A lot of times?
3:23
Speaker 7: You went to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition in October,
3:27
Speaker 7: offer some words of appreciation for the United States of
3:30
Speaker 7: America and the president who's trying to save your country.
3:37
Speaker 2: Yet I can't imagine any self respecting leader being a
3:39
Speaker 2: bystander while his country's fate is decided in a deal
3:43
Speaker 2: stitched up between its invader and its benefactor. Still perhaps
3:49
Speaker 2: being a big player in a presidential reality TV show's
3:52
Speaker 2: part of doing business in Washington these days.
3:55
Speaker 7: Now.
3:55
Speaker 2: If that's the case, then I can't be the only
3:58
Speaker 2: one dismayed to watch what we saw or over the
4:00
Speaker 2: weekend at a time when the world has never been this.
4:04
Speaker 3: Dangerous in decades.
4:06
Speaker 2: Clearly, this is not the America, in JFK's words, that
4:10
Speaker 2: will pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship
4:14
Speaker 2: to assure the survival and the success of liberty. This
4:18
Speaker 2: is a much more transactional administration, always asking what's in
4:24
Speaker 2: it for America now in the sense, who can blame them?
4:29
Speaker 2: Given that America's allies, including Australia, have long been more
4:33
Speaker 2: or less free riding on American strength, and over the
4:36
Speaker 2: time that the US has carried the cost of the
4:39
Speaker 2: world's wars, both in terms of blood and treasure, everyone
4:44
Speaker 2: seems to have benefited except America itself, as it's still
4:47
Speaker 2: workers and auto workers have watched the nation's debt grow
4:52
Speaker 2: and their jobs head offshore to China. So you can
4:56
Speaker 2: see why ordinary Americans feel the way they do. What's
5:01
Speaker 2: even worse is all the left wing elites who have
5:03
Speaker 2: been shouting themselves hoarse for decades about American imperialism, denigrating
5:09
Speaker 2: the efforts of the US military and making it easier.
5:12
Speaker 3: And easier for the US to walk away.
5:16
Speaker 2: I wonder how those who don't like American power are
5:19
Speaker 2: going to find Russian or Uranian or even Chinese power.
5:24
Speaker 2: If Friday's meltdown really does become a turning point in history,
5:28
Speaker 2: Let's hope the Ukrainian leader and the US president can
5:31
Speaker 2: come up with a way to swallow their pride and
5:34
Speaker 2: get this mineral deal back on track, because if it
5:37
Speaker 2: made sense last week, it still makes sense now. And
5:41
Speaker 2: the presidence of US miners in Ukraine is the step
5:45
Speaker 2: towards the guarantees that Ukraine wants. If there's any good
5:49
Speaker 2: to come out of Friday's disaster, it's more readiness on
5:53
Speaker 2: the part of Ukraine's are the friends to do more?
5:57
Speaker 2: Yesterday in London, both Britain and France recommit to policing
6:00
Speaker 2: any ceasefire with tens of thousands of soldiers.
6:05
Speaker 8: We will go further develop a coalition of the willing
6:10
Speaker 8: to defend a deal in Ukraine and to guarantee the peace.
6:14
Speaker 8: The UK is prepared to back this with boots on
6:18
Speaker 8: the ground and planes in the air.
6:22
Speaker 2: In the press conferences, though their insistence on an American backstop, well,
6:27
Speaker 2: that testifies to the brutal reality that on their own
6:31
Speaker 2: they don't think they're enough to intimidate Russia at a
6:34
Speaker 2: further aggression, and on their own they don't think they
6:38
Speaker 2: could successfully fight Russia, even though Russia's GDP is now
6:43
Speaker 2: in a par with owls, and even though Europe's population
6:47
Speaker 2: is three times that of Russia. The brutal truth is
6:52
Speaker 2: that every country that thought it could take American help
6:54
Speaker 2: for granted must now think again, and that means us too.
6:59
Speaker 2: So far, with virtually no tariffs against American exports, plus
7:03
Speaker 2: a trade deficit with the United States, plus important American
7:06
Speaker 2: basis on our soil like Pine Gap, we haven't come
7:10
Speaker 2: under adverse presidential notice yet. Con Sooner or later, President
7:15
Speaker 2: Trump will work out that we are spending less on
7:19
Speaker 2: defense than most of the Europeans, meaning that paying for
7:22
Speaker 2: an extra squadron of F thirty five's as Peter Dutton
7:25
Speaker 2: promised yesterday, and handing over much more cash for Virginia
7:30
Speaker 2: class submarines. Well, that'll be the least that's expected of us,
7:35
Speaker 2: as the Chinese Navy has just demonstrated on our own.
7:39
Speaker 2: We can't stop larger countries taking advantage of US as
7:43
Speaker 2: a nation. We urgently need a plan for much more defense,
7:46
Speaker 2: self reliance, more chiefs, more aircraft, more soldiers, more missiles,
7:51
Speaker 2: and at least some drones, with none of the procrastination
7:55
Speaker 2: that's marked defense procurement.
7:57
Speaker 3: For years of years plus.
8:00
Speaker 2: We must stop the net zero madness, but to making
8:03
Speaker 2: it almost impossible to keep heavy industry in Australia, because
8:08
Speaker 2: what's the point of being ready to stand up to
8:10
Speaker 2: China if all our steel has to come from China?
8:13
Speaker 2: Or we can't keep the lights on without Chinese wind
8:17
Speaker 2: turbines or solar panels. But in the end, for better
8:22
Speaker 2: or for worse, the US President remains the only leader
8:26
Speaker 2: the free world has and we have no choice but
8:30
Speaker 2: to work with him. All right, let's got to camber
8:37
Speaker 2: now for the headlines. Skyny's political reporter Trudy.
8:40
Speaker 9: Macintosh, Australia has doubled down on support for Ukraine after
8:45
Speaker 9: that Oval Office clash.
8:47
Speaker 5: Think you're gambling with World War three. We regard these
8:52
Speaker 5: says an issue of doing what right.
8:55
Speaker 10: President Trump and his allies drift further apart after the
8:59
Speaker 10: dressing down of to me is Lensky.
9:01
Speaker 5: It is an easy choice that Australia has made.
9:06
Speaker 4: President Zelenski is a modern day hero. He's a war
9:08
Speaker 4: hero and he deserves support.
9:10
Speaker 9: The Opposition leader acknowledged the difference in stance with our
9:13
Speaker 9: closest ally.
9:14
Speaker 4: Our views have diverged and my job as Prime Minister
9:17
Speaker 4: will be to lobby the President of the United States
9:20
Speaker 4: to reconsider his position.
9:21
Speaker 9: And the Prime Minister is sharpening his healthcare attack lines
9:24
Speaker 9: in the countdown to the campaign, fresh from his promise
9:28
Speaker 9: to fund an extra fifty urgent care clinics.
9:30
Speaker 5: If re elected, four out of every five Australians will
9:35
Speaker 5: be able to drive twenty minutes or less to get
9:39
Speaker 5: to a Medicare urgent care clinic.
9:42
Speaker 10: Unlike the eight billion dollar promise for bolk billing, the
9:44
Speaker 10: Coalition won't match the promise. Peter Dutton claims the existing
9:48
Speaker 10: eighty seven urgent care clinics have been skewed in Labour's favor.
9:52
Speaker 4: There's no question that Labor's pork barreling. You have a
9:54
Speaker 4: look at the map as to where these clinics have gone.
9:57
Speaker 9: That pork barreling claim goes both ways, has so far
10:00
Speaker 9: promised to fund only four new clinics, three in labor seats.
10:04
Speaker 10: It wants to win that.
10:05
Speaker 5: They're going to get out the color coded spreadsheet.
10:08
Speaker 4: So we need more detail on the decision making process
10:11
Speaker 4: that the government's ended into and we need to make
10:14
Speaker 4: sure that taxpayers money is being spent effectively.
10:17
Speaker 10: Trudy Macintosh, Sky News camera.
10:22
Speaker 2: There's a lot to get through domestically and of course internationally.
10:24
Speaker 2: That exchange in the Oval office, I've been in there.
10:27
Speaker 2: This bloke CA has two join me now, Sky News
10:29
Speaker 2: contributor Chris Yelman. Okay, you and I have the rare
10:33
Speaker 2: privilege of having been in that room. I've seen amongst
10:37
Speaker 2: leaders and terse words behind closed doors with the media out.
10:41
Speaker 3: I've never seen anything like that. What did you make
10:43
Speaker 3: of the weekend?
10:44
Speaker 6: I was appalled and really deeply disappointed and very saddened
10:48
Speaker 6: by the whole thing. And I think that I think
10:50
Speaker 6: you said earlier that no leader with any self respect
10:53
Speaker 6: is going to sit and watch his country essentially litigated
10:57
Speaker 6: away by other leaders. I thought it was actually JD. Vance,
11:01
Speaker 6: who was spoiling for a fight in there. I thought
11:03
Speaker 6: that Trump initially was behaving reasonably well, and then it
11:07
Speaker 6: was Vance and Zelensky apparently that began to arc up,
11:10
Speaker 6: and it was really over the nature of what had
11:13
Speaker 6: happened in the history of the relationship or the war
11:16
Speaker 6: between Ukraine and Russia. And there's not a shadow of
11:20
Speaker 6: a doubt that Russia invaded Ukraine. I've been to Ukraine
11:24
Speaker 6: and I've seen the Russian tanks by the side of
11:26
Speaker 6: the road fifteen kilometers from Kiev. So I don't think
11:29
Speaker 6: I have any doubt at all who started this fight.
11:32
Speaker 6: And the fight started in twenty fourteen.
11:34
Speaker 11: And all that.
11:35
Speaker 6: Zelensky is trying to do at the moment is to
11:37
Speaker 6: make sure that he gets peace on some kind of
11:40
Speaker 6: terms that his country can live with, and to ensure
11:44
Speaker 6: that the Russians don't come again. And I don't know, as.
11:46
Speaker 3: I have since twenty fourteen.
11:48
Speaker 6: They came again after twenty fourteen. The Putin said that
11:50
Speaker 6: after twenty fourteen he wasn't going to take any more
11:53
Speaker 6: of Ukraine, and then of course he did. And I
11:55
Speaker 6: can tell you around the region now, in countries around Ukraine,
11:58
Speaker 6: they're tooling up. They are concerned about what happens next
12:01
Speaker 6: as the United States, it would appear withdrawals from Europe.
12:05
Speaker 6: Now you were saying before too, this whole piece, to
12:07
Speaker 6: youal is not going to work unless the United States
12:09
Speaker 6: backs it up. So I think we're living in some
12:12
Speaker 6: very very interesting times and the kind of settlement that
12:16
Speaker 6: Ukraine gets from Russia may be the kind of settlement
12:19
Speaker 6: that the rest of the world gets from places like China.
12:23
Speaker 2: I think the hard thing is the unpredictability of the
12:26
Speaker 2: dibraomatic space. With Donald Trump now in part that will
12:29
Speaker 2: work to the United States favor. I mean, he's got
12:32
Speaker 2: outcomes out of the weekend, it's London Summit, He's got
12:35
Speaker 2: the Bridge to say they'll do more. He's got the
12:36
Speaker 2: French to say they'll do more. I make the point
12:39
Speaker 2: they still require the US guarantees. I think, you know,
12:43
Speaker 2: Vance is playing to an American crowd very much. What
12:47
Speaker 2: price are we going to extract for American military heft?
12:52
Speaker 2: I get that that's clear in the campaign. This straddles
12:55
Speaker 2: to administrations. There were claims in the room at the
12:58
Speaker 2: Oval office that'd been too close to the Biden administration
13:02
Speaker 2: that it was out there campaigning for the Democrats.
13:05
Speaker 3: So there's a lot of bad blood there.
13:07
Speaker 2: And I also fear, you know, for too long everyone's
13:11
Speaker 2: criticized the United States. We've demanded they get on the
13:13
Speaker 2: world stage. We've demanded them be the policeman for the
13:16
Speaker 2: democratic West, and that it doesn't matter what they do Afghanistan, Iraq.
13:21
Speaker 2: The world comes down in them. The elites do at
13:23
Speaker 2: least like a ton of bricks. So they're weary of
13:27
Speaker 2: the world's fights. But now's not the time for them
13:31
Speaker 2: to pull back, and.
13:31
Speaker 3: That's that's the worry.
13:33
Speaker 6: Yeah, look, I understand a lot of what Trump is saying,
13:35
Speaker 6: and I've got some sympathy for it. By the way,
13:37
Speaker 6: the Europeans have been free riding for nearly eighty years.
13:40
Speaker 6: We have, Yeah, absolutely we have, and we've we've just
13:43
Speaker 6: actually underlined that in the course of the last week
13:46
Speaker 6: we are unable to follow three Chinese ships in circumnavigating Australia.
13:51
Speaker 6: That's what we proved in the course of last week,
13:53
Speaker 6: and that is terrifying. And when the United States realizes
13:56
Speaker 6: that we're just as bad as Europe, we may well
13:58
Speaker 6: get the same treatment as you're getting from the United States.
14:01
Speaker 6: So I do understand that, but I do also believe
14:05
Speaker 6: that in the settlement that it's going to come with Putin,
14:07
Speaker 6: and there must be a diplomatic settlement. It can't be
14:10
Speaker 6: giving up everything at the start. And what it seems
14:12
Speaker 6: at the start is the negotiating position is really quite weak.
14:16
Speaker 6: You know that we're there's going to be no idea
14:19
Speaker 6: that Ukraine might be in NATO. Now I don't think
14:21
Speaker 6: that was ever on the cards, but you wouldn't give
14:23
Speaker 6: it up. You wouldn't give it negotiation.
14:26
Speaker 3: Your point on China is so real. That's why they
14:29
Speaker 3: are doing what they are doing to see what our
14:32
Speaker 3: capacity is. And we've just showed them we have no capacity.
14:35
Speaker 6: We've got twenty five ships left in our navy. And
14:38
Speaker 6: this is over, by the way, over a long run
14:40
Speaker 6: of time. You can blame both major parties for this,
14:42
Speaker 6: but I also, by the way, blame the brass and
14:44
Speaker 6: the bureaucracy that advises governments. You know, you do often
14:48
Speaker 6: wonder what's going on in Yeah, I see that.
14:50
Speaker 2: I think thurs Day there was a reckoning for down
14:53
Speaker 2: the Hill, the suburb of Russell, which is all infiltrated
14:56
Speaker 2: with defense institutions. They are where the reckoning must be.
15:00
Speaker 6: And one of the things I really do want to
15:01
Speaker 6: see from the next administration, no matter what stripe it
15:05
Speaker 6: might have, is a reckoning with the administrative state, because
15:08
Speaker 6: I don't think that we get a lot for the
15:09
Speaker 6: money that we spend. We have the highest paid bureaucrats
15:13
Speaker 6: in the world, and would you say that we are
15:15
Speaker 6: getting world class service from My answer would be no. Now,
15:18
Speaker 6: I don't imagine that the lay Party is ever going
15:20
Speaker 6: to do that, but I do think that there is
15:22
Speaker 6: time for a government and incoming coalition government to take
15:25
Speaker 6: a long, hard look at the way the bureaucracy works
15:28
Speaker 6: in Australia and I wouldn't mind seeing someone shake that
15:31
Speaker 6: up or shake it to its foundation.
15:32
Speaker 3: She might have you.
15:35
Speaker 6: Can, I suggest Mike Pazilo would be a good person
15:37
Speaker 6: to run Prime Mister well that too.
15:39
Speaker 2: But right now as we speak, we've got a coalition
15:42
Speaker 2: senator front bench minister on her feet about to announce
15:46
Speaker 2: something pretty big in relationship to the public service.
15:47
Speaker 3: And I'm across to that in a moment.
15:49
Speaker 2: This is what did you make the Prime Minister going
15:52
Speaker 2: out there and saying, well, we were told by the Chinese,
15:54
Speaker 2: we were warned he's not on oath, but the Defense
15:58
Speaker 2: chief is edwal Johnson says, well, that's not the case,
16:02
Speaker 2: and he basically contradicted the Prime Minister.
16:04
Speaker 6: Well, when was the last time that we had a
16:07
Speaker 6: non allied country having a live fire exercise off the
16:10
Speaker 6: coast of the East coast of Australia. As far as
16:14
Speaker 6: I can tell, it was nineteen forty two when many
16:18
Speaker 6: submarines attacked Sydney Harbor. So that is a highly unusual
16:23
Speaker 6: circumstance for Australia. And what do we find out from
16:27
Speaker 6: the Defense chief that it took an enormous amount of
16:30
Speaker 6: time for the message to come through from Defense that
16:33
Speaker 6: that was taking place. It was a virgin pilot that
16:36
Speaker 6: warned Australia that flights would have to change direction. Like
16:40
Speaker 6: this is no small matter that's going on at the moment.
16:44
Speaker 6: And we've been told that this relationship has been stabilized. Well,
16:47
Speaker 6: it seems to me it's been stabilized to the point
16:49
Speaker 6: that we are being treated with contempt by the Chinese
16:53
Speaker 6: Communist Party and they have just shown us that we
16:56
Speaker 6: are alone and naked at the bottom of the world.
16:59
Speaker 6: And they don't think that Donald Trump will necessarily come
17:02
Speaker 6: to our aid. So we should be thinking long and
17:05
Speaker 6: hard about the kind of events we're going to have,
17:08
Speaker 6: and we've wasted so much time it's not funny.
17:12
Speaker 2: What about the comments from Pete Navarro? He wrote in
17:14
Speaker 2: USA today this was an op ed. I'll put them
17:17
Speaker 2: on the screen there for people at home. But he
17:18
Speaker 2: basically said here Australia in Canada represent frontal assaults on
17:22
Speaker 2: our aluminum markets, and that our Australias heavily subsidized smelters
17:27
Speaker 2: operate below cost, giving an unfair dumping advantage, while our
17:31
Speaker 2: close ties to China. This Australia is further distort global
17:35
Speaker 2: aluminum trade. I think we've got a couple of days
17:38
Speaker 2: to get a tariff exemption. They're pretty strong words.
17:42
Speaker 6: I don't like a chance. It's not with those kinds
17:45
Speaker 6: of words, And Navarro is saying some pretty unhinged thing
17:47
Speaker 6: at the moment, you think it's bad for Australia when
17:49
Speaker 6: he's actually talking about renegotiating the border with Canada and
17:52
Speaker 6: kicking them out of five eyes. So the treatment that
17:56
Speaker 6: Allies are getting at the moment is rougher than usual
17:58
Speaker 6: handling by the United States. Why would we necessarily think
18:01
Speaker 6: that We're not going to be part of that. So
18:04
Speaker 6: I don't know where we go from here on that.
18:06
Speaker 6: But those words from Navarro would tend to suggest that
18:09
Speaker 6: we're going to get hit with tariffs like everybody else.
18:12
Speaker 2: There's a one hundred billion dollar plan in Victoria for
18:15
Speaker 2: off shore wind.
18:17
Speaker 3: It looks like it's in disarray.
18:18
Speaker 2: This is off the Gippsland coast and we've got other
18:21
Speaker 2: issues in relation to Illawarra region. They're offshore wind has
18:25
Speaker 2: really hit a brick wall. Do you think the community
18:29
Speaker 2: anger about wind generally, but particularly offshore wind is a
18:34
Speaker 2: game changer here? Do you think this is now set
18:36
Speaker 2: in stone that will not go down this path? Or
18:38
Speaker 2: is this been put on the down low to get
18:40
Speaker 2: through an election campaign and sure as apples are apples,
18:44
Speaker 2: if Labor's re elected, it's on the table.
18:46
Speaker 3: Or is it a bargaining ship for the Green Well, color.
18:48
Speaker 6: Me cynical, but is it amazing how many things are
18:50
Speaker 6: now being punted off to the other side of the election?
18:53
Speaker 3: Yes, some of them.
18:54
Speaker 6: Apparently the company has reached out to the minister when
18:57
Speaker 6: it comes to Lawara and said please put it off
18:59
Speaker 6: to the other side of the election. The Minister has
19:01
Speaker 6: intervened with the Gippsland proposal because there was an overlap
19:05
Speaker 6: in two of the different proposals, you know, and so
19:08
Speaker 6: it's also gone to the other side of the election.
19:11
Speaker 6: The targets that we were supposed to have at twenty
19:13
Speaker 6: thirty five have magically been moved.
19:16
Speaker 2: It's a require under more in February, but we've shunted
19:19
Speaker 2: them out too.
19:19
Speaker 6: Yeah, push to the other side of the election. So
19:21
Speaker 6: it all seems a little bit convenient the moment, doesn't it,
19:24
Speaker 6: Peter that that would be the case. And I would
19:26
Speaker 6: assume that there would be some effort by the government
19:29
Speaker 6: to try and continue with these projects because they're absolutely
19:32
Speaker 6: necessary if they're going to try to try and run
19:35
Speaker 6: the country on wind and solar power, and that was
19:38
Speaker 6: always a vain hope because of course it will be
19:41
Speaker 6: remarkably expensive and unreliable. Offshore wind is a very very
19:45
Speaker 6: expensive form of power and no matter who does it,
19:49
Speaker 6: the blowouts in that will be remarkable. So you know,
19:52
Speaker 6: they think nuclear is expensive, try doing some offshore wind.
19:55
Speaker 3: Well you're talking about one billion dollars. It's a lot
19:58
Speaker 3: of money. Chris Yrman, thank you, thank you.
20:01
Speaker 2: Right, let's go to that tense relationship in the Oval
20:03
Speaker 2: lofts on the weekend. We'll also talk in relation to
20:06
Speaker 2: China too. It was a very different situation when President
20:10
Speaker 2: Zelenski landed in London. You can see vision there of
20:13
Speaker 2: the UK Peace Summit, and obviously he met with the
20:18
Speaker 2: King there as well, a little bit warmer than it
20:20
Speaker 2: was in Washington.
20:22
Speaker 3: Let's pull it apart or two.
20:23
Speaker 2: There's some late breaking news too in relation to labor
20:27
Speaker 2: in the Port of Darwin.
20:28
Speaker 3: We'll get to that now with.
20:29
Speaker 2: My next guest director at Strategic Analysis Australia, Peter Jennings.
20:33
Speaker 3: Peter, welcome.
20:34
Speaker 2: We'll get into the Oval office to probably heard Chris
20:36
Speaker 2: Yelman's comments there in a top line, what did you
20:41
Speaker 2: make of the weekend?
20:45
Speaker 12: Look, I found it shocking and it took some time
20:47
Speaker 12: to think through what's really going on here. I don't
20:50
Speaker 12: believe the conspiracy theories which say that somehow Trump would
20:55
Speaker 12: lured Zelenski into embarrass him. I think what Trump was
20:59
Speaker 12: doing was he genuinely wanted to have his Rare Earth's
21:03
Speaker 12: Agreement signed and this was derailed by an intemperate JD vance.
21:08
Speaker 12: That to me is the explanation. But as to how
21:12
Speaker 12: long it's going to impact Peter.
21:15
Speaker 13: I don't know.
21:16
Speaker 12: I mean, there's a fresh new thing happens every day
21:20
Speaker 12: in Washington, d C. Which says it's a new team
21:22
Speaker 12: in town and they're going to do things very differently.
21:25
Speaker 12: And a week from now, it may well be that
21:27
Speaker 12: what we're seeing is Zelensky signing up to an agreement
21:30
Speaker 12: with Trump and everything's fine, and Trump will of course
21:33
Speaker 12: then be able to say, hey, I've had a real
21:35
Speaker 12: victory here in getting the Europeans to spend more on defense,
21:40
Speaker 12: be more serious about defense, and that would be true,
21:43
Speaker 12: that would actually be something Trump has achieved that the
21:47
Speaker 12: three predecessors have failed to achieve. So you know, it
21:51
Speaker 12: doesn't necessarily have to turn out to be a long
21:54
Speaker 12: term disaster. But nevertheless, it's also no way to do diplomacy,
22:00
Speaker 12: and I one can only hope that Trump learns from that.
22:04
Speaker 3: Now.
22:05
Speaker 2: Nothing in terms of analysis with this president is a
22:08
Speaker 2: straight line, right. And I was like you, I watched
22:11
Speaker 2: it unfold. I watched the playout in London. It takes
22:13
Speaker 2: a while to digest, you know, and to try and
22:16
Speaker 2: read the tea leaves as much as it is.
22:19
Speaker 3: You know, it's not easy.
22:20
Speaker 2: In anyone who thinks so new straight away where this
22:22
Speaker 2: was landing. I think it doesn't understand trump Land, but
22:26
Speaker 2: I will make the point. There's a lot of commentary
22:28
Speaker 2: that this is designed to force Zelenski out to be
22:31
Speaker 2: able to, at least in a negotiating a negotiation with Putin,
22:35
Speaker 2: offer his head as some sort of win that Putin
22:39
Speaker 2: can sell to the people of Russia. There's been a
22:43
Speaker 2: lot of talk that there's something odd by the fact
22:45
Speaker 2: that Ukraine has not had an election while they've been
22:48
Speaker 2: at war.
22:49
Speaker 3: I went back and had a look.
22:50
Speaker 2: You know, Britain didn't have an election from roughly nineteen
22:54
Speaker 2: thirty five until nineteen forty five, so not having an
22:59
Speaker 2: election in a time of war is not unusual.
23:04
Speaker 12: That's absolutely right. Look, twenty percent of Ukraine is occupied
23:09
Speaker 12: and millions of Ukrainians are out the country in Poland
23:13
Speaker 12: and elsewhere. I just don't know how an election could
23:16
Speaker 12: be conducted that in those circumstances. And I think one
23:21
Speaker 12: thing that would be demonstrated by an election as and
23:23
Speaker 12: when it's held is that Ukrainians think of themselves as
23:27
Speaker 12: a separate country to Russia. That's something that's been reinforced
23:30
Speaker 12: by Putin's behavior. So this is not going to produce
23:34
Speaker 12: an outcome with a Ukrainian government compliant to putin and
23:39
Speaker 12: I'm not quite sure what it is that the Trump
23:42
Speaker 12: team might think that's shown by that. And in any event,
23:46
Speaker 12: there are the complexities, as I've said of you know,
23:49
Speaker 12: how do you conduct a free and fair vote when
23:52
Speaker 12: twenty percent of the country's occupied and millions of people
23:55
Speaker 12: are in exile overseas. So it seems to me to
23:58
Speaker 12: be a bit of a distraction to the main game here,
24:00
Speaker 12: which is how do we get the Russians to cease
24:04
Speaker 12: their aggression, agree to leave areas of land which they
24:07
Speaker 12: have occupied, and give the Ukrainians some sense of security
24:11
Speaker 12: in a post cease fire world. I think that's the
24:14
Speaker 12: challenge and I don't see how that can be avoided
24:16
Speaker 12: by the Trump team bullying Zelensky in the Oval Office.
24:22
Speaker 2: Well, it got the desired effect from the Europeans kids Darma.
24:27
Speaker 2: Obviously the UK is not Europe anymore, but he certainly
24:30
Speaker 2: made commitments, as did Macron.
24:31
Speaker 3: Let's have a listen.
24:33
Speaker 8: The UK has prepared to back this with boots on
24:37
Speaker 8: the ground and planes in the air, together with others.
24:41
Speaker 8: Europe must do the heavy listing.
24:45
Speaker 2: Now that together with others is the very loaded part.
24:48
Speaker 2: The others must really, for all intents and purposes, include
24:51
Speaker 2: the United States.
24:52
Speaker 3: That's clear.
24:54
Speaker 2: You've long argued that they're not pulling their weight in
24:56
Speaker 2: terms of defense spending. But Chris Joman and I were
24:59
Speaker 2: just talk. I mean, we've got to be really careful
25:01
Speaker 2: here in Australia. We're not even at two percent. Tony
25:04
Speaker 2: Abbott committed to two percent in twenty thirteen. It's a
25:08
Speaker 2: long time ago, and we're not on any plan to
25:11
Speaker 2: get to a proper trajectory of defense spending growth. I
25:14
Speaker 2: know Peter Utton made and commitments over the weekend and
25:17
Speaker 2: they're good, twenty eight new fighter jets, but I'm not
25:19
Speaker 2: saying that same commitment from the government.
25:21
Speaker 3: There's a lot of talk, not a lot of action.
25:25
Speaker 12: Yeah, we really have to stop high fiving ourselves for
25:28
Speaker 12: failing to spend two percent of gross national product and
25:32
Speaker 12: when really the requirement should be three or more, the
25:36
Speaker 12: sorts of levels we were spending on defense during the
25:39
Speaker 12: Cold War. Peter, I think that's where we'll go back to.
25:42
Speaker 12: And it's a shame that you know, the European countries
25:45
Speaker 12: and Australia have been so addicted to free riding on
25:49
Speaker 12: American coattails that our governments will resist what is really
25:54
Speaker 12: the most obvious thing in the world to do, and
25:56
Speaker 12: that spend more for our own security at a time
26:00
Speaker 12: when ministers have been repeatedly saying four years that we
26:03
Speaker 12: face the worst strategic outlook that we've seen since the
26:06
Speaker 12: end of the Second World War.
26:07
Speaker 3: I mean, how can these two things coexist?
26:09
Speaker 12: So, you know, if Trump achieves a shock effect of
26:13
Speaker 12: forcing countries to do what they should do for their
26:16
Speaker 12: own benefit anyway, by spending more on defense, that's a
26:19
Speaker 12: great outcome for Europe and it would be a great
26:21
Speaker 12: outcome for Australia too. I just hope that we can
26:25
Speaker 12: decide to do that ourselves without having to go through
26:28
Speaker 12: the agony of being embarrassed by Trump through an Oval
26:32
Speaker 12: office press conference or a ticking off from JD. Vance,
26:36
Speaker 12: Because we really need to be able to do this,
26:38
Speaker 12: you know, for our own benefit, for our own security,
26:41
Speaker 12: and I think that will make the Americans think that
26:43
Speaker 12: Australia is a stronger ally, So you know, there's a
26:46
Speaker 12: win in Washington for us to do that as well.
26:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we got to step up as a
26:51
Speaker 3: serious country should do.
26:52
Speaker 2: And that brings me a course to this announcement from
26:55
Speaker 2: Labor in relation to the Port of Darwin. Now, this
26:58
Speaker 2: has an interesting history, as Opposition leader Anthony Albanesi argued
27:03
Speaker 2: that the Port of Darwin should come back into Australian ownership.
27:07
Speaker 2: Then when he is in the position as he has
27:09
Speaker 2: been for the last two and a half years, to
27:10
Speaker 2: do something.
27:11
Speaker 3: About it, he's cowtowed to.
27:13
Speaker 2: China and now on the cusp of calling the election,
27:17
Speaker 2: he's out there talking tough to say that they'll do
27:19
Speaker 2: some sort of deal with the Northern Territory government. I'm
27:22
Speaker 2: assuming it's going to cost us a lot of money.
27:25
Speaker 2: But they're wanting to return the Port of Darwin. Now,
27:28
Speaker 2: why the in and the out? And I'm not so
27:31
Speaker 2: sure we're not going to do it. And then we're
27:32
Speaker 2: rolling over. Why hasn't he done this already?
27:35
Speaker 12: Pedogettics Peter, It's just fantastic to see this Albanesi commitment
27:40
Speaker 12: to strengthen Australian national security by saying he's going to
27:44
Speaker 12: do something that he's failed to do over the last
27:47
Speaker 12: few years. I mean the Port of Darwin lese to
27:51
Speaker 12: a Chinese company for ninety nine years still about ninety
27:55
Speaker 12: years on the clock. Is an arrangement which no one
27:59
Speaker 12: fed supports, nobody wants, but no one has been prepared
28:03
Speaker 12: to do anything about it, and it's come at an
28:06
Speaker 12: increasingly high price, which is that we're not building the
28:09
Speaker 12: infrastructure we need for our own military presence in the
28:12
Speaker 12: North and indeed for the presence of the US Marine Corps,
28:16
Speaker 12: which should be significantly grown from the two and a
28:19
Speaker 12: half thousand which we've had for a number of years now.
28:22
Speaker 12: So look, if mister Albenzi is prepared to do this,
28:25
Speaker 12: you know, all credit to him, but I won't believe
28:28
Speaker 12: it until I see some inked deal. I think this
28:32
Speaker 12: is all just cheap talk, rather cynical talk in front
28:35
Speaker 12: of an election. I can't believe they've got any more
28:38
Speaker 12: spine on this issue than they've had over the last
28:41
Speaker 12: few years. And that's where I think it stands. You know,
28:44
Speaker 12: I say to mister alban EZI prove it, show what
28:47
Speaker 12: you can do, and if he does, he'll deserve a
28:50
Speaker 12: lot of credit for it.
28:51
Speaker 2: But not until then, let me just underscore the point
28:56
Speaker 2: you are making there. It's caused us to hold back
29:00
Speaker 2: from putting infrastructure that we need in and around that
29:02
Speaker 2: area because we're worried about Chinese infiltration, about equipment.
29:06
Speaker 3: Make that clear for people at home, Peter, Yes, that's
29:10
Speaker 3: absolutely right.
29:11
Speaker 12: I mean there's limited infrastructure up there in the Port
29:13
Speaker 12: of Darwin. It is possible to go and build a
29:16
Speaker 12: totally different port, but that would be at the cost
29:19
Speaker 12: of billions of dollars. Do you know, Peter, We're now
29:21
Speaker 12: in a situation where the Army is planning to build
29:25
Speaker 12: a series of very large landing craft, some of which
29:28
Speaker 12: will be as big as Anzac frigates. They're going to
29:31
Speaker 12: be based two of them at least are going to
29:33
Speaker 12: be based up in Darwin. And when you ask the
29:36
Speaker 12: Defense organization where are these ships going to be birthed,
29:39
Speaker 12: the answer is, oh, the Port of Darwin, that is
29:42
Speaker 12: to say, a port that's currently leased to a Chinese
29:45
Speaker 12: own company. This cannot last, and I can tell you
29:49
Speaker 12: the Americans, particularly under the new regime, will not accept
29:52
Speaker 12: it from the point of view of supporting a larger
29:54
Speaker 12: marine force presence. So it has to be addressed, if
29:58
Speaker 12: not now, in the next term of.
30:02
Speaker 3: Not wrong.
30:02
Speaker 2: Let's see if you'll put up, well, shut up during
30:04
Speaker 2: the campaign, Peter, Jennings, thank you. After the break, Labour's
30:07
Speaker 2: growing problem in Victoria. The Prime Minister faces a new
30:10
Speaker 2: nightmare in at least eight seats at a big announcement
30:14
Speaker 2: from the Coalition regarding the public service. It's happening while
30:17
Speaker 2: we are live on air, so i'll cross shortly to
30:20
Speaker 2: the MP who's just.
30:21
Speaker 3: Made it for more. Welcome back still to come.
30:28
Speaker 2: The Coalition's big announcement just moments ago in relation to
30:31
Speaker 2: winding back public service perks. The first I've said before
30:35
Speaker 2: the battle in this election will before in the art
30:37
Speaker 2: of suburbs and currently in Victoria, that's exactly where it's
30:42
Speaker 2: playing out over the weekend. The latest tracking pole from
30:45
Speaker 2: the Red Bridge accent Group has revealed that Victoria is
30:49
Speaker 2: becoming a nightmare for Labor across the whole range of
30:53
Speaker 2: seats Ashton, Casey, Chisholm and Mensies in the eastern suburbs
30:57
Speaker 2: of Melbourne, as well as Karranga might along. Labour's two
31:01
Speaker 2: party preferred votes shrunk to forty three percent, down from
31:05
Speaker 2: fifty one point four percent at the last election. Now
31:08
Speaker 2: what's significant is that on a two PP vote of
31:11
Speaker 2: just forty three percent, Labour would lose Aston and Chisholm,
31:15
Speaker 2: as well as McEwen in Melbourne's North and southeastern seats
31:18
Speaker 2: of Dunkley and Brutes joined me now to pull this
31:22
Speaker 2: all apart. Campaign director at the Red Bridge Group Cause Samaris,
31:27
Speaker 2: because worrying numbers there for Labor, particularly those seats. They
31:33
Speaker 2: are where you have been saying for nigh on two years.
31:37
Speaker 2: Labour's got a hugely disaffected voter base out there. The
31:42
Speaker 2: Herald Sons saying, look, this has got a lot to
31:44
Speaker 2: do with a decade of state labor. I think there's
31:47
Speaker 2: a latent anger about Daniel Andrew's made worse by Jacinta Allen.
31:52
Speaker 3: You're the expert.
31:53
Speaker 13: What do you think, Yeah, yeah, look there is. It's
31:56
Speaker 13: something that's not been studied enough. I think you know,
31:59
Speaker 13: the consequences of a pandemic, particularly that one that was
32:03
Speaker 13: felt so profoundly by Melbournians, does take a while for
32:08
Speaker 13: to psychologically actually express itself. And you know, I'll make
32:13
Speaker 13: this point to those on the Labour side of politics,
32:15
Speaker 13: and if you think that you can do those sort
32:18
Speaker 13: of things to human beings and not expect a political
32:22
Speaker 13: whack as a response, and that will take some time.
32:26
Speaker 13: If you think that's not going to happen, then your delusion.
32:29
Speaker 13: So what we're seeing right now is really a manifestation
32:32
Speaker 13: all that. There's also the other aspect of all of this,
32:35
Speaker 13: and that is that when you talk about the inflationary
32:38
Speaker 13: crisis in this country, it is probably felt the worst
32:41
Speaker 13: in Melbourne, second Sydney. And we are seeing some worrying
32:46
Speaker 13: signs for labor in New South Wales that I would
32:50
Speaker 13: still expect to lose some seats there, but nothing like
32:54
Speaker 13: we're seeing in Victoria.
32:57
Speaker 3: I think too.
32:58
Speaker 2: You've got Victoria, particularly Melbourne, still with morale that's shot.
33:03
Speaker 2: And yes there was anger in twenty two against labor.
33:06
Speaker 2: We saw some big swings in outer suburban seats. Labor
33:09
Speaker 2: held seats even though they didn't change hands in that
33:13
Speaker 2: state election, but it was masked by two things. At
33:17
Speaker 2: a federal level that election in twenty two, it was
33:19
Speaker 2: masked because there was so much animous towards Scott Morrison,
33:24
Speaker 2: both you know Morrison generally, but also the coalition's handling
33:28
Speaker 2: of the pandemic at a national level, but also the
33:31
Speaker 2: Liberals at a state level.
33:33
Speaker 3: They offered them nothing.
33:34
Speaker 2: I mean, they were basically cowtowing to Andrews all the
33:37
Speaker 2: way through those lockdowns, they weren't fighting for the people,
33:40
Speaker 2: so they went with leadership strength. Even though it was
33:43
Speaker 2: a bit of a bastard in Andrews, it were at
33:45
Speaker 2: least the bastard that they knew towards what they regarded
33:48
Speaker 2: as a weak coalition. It's different now because the strength
33:52
Speaker 2: in leader quotient is sitting there with Peter Dutton and
33:56
Speaker 2: the weakness is sitting there with Anthony Albanezy.
34:00
Speaker 13: You make a good point, and that is something that
34:02
Speaker 13: I think a lot of people on the labor side
34:03
Speaker 13: actually have overlooked in Victoria, and that is that in
34:05
Speaker 13: twenty twenty two, Morrison was the alternative at a federal level,
34:12
Speaker 13: and you know a lot of Victorians had a lot
34:16
Speaker 13: of anger pent up about the way he conducted himself.
34:22
Speaker 13: Even those who didn't agreed with the lockdowns were anger
34:26
Speaker 13: at MORRISO for making the situation worse. So it masked,
34:30
Speaker 13: as you rightly define, it masked the actual real hit
34:34
Speaker 13: on labor, which was to come many years later. And
34:37
Speaker 13: you speak to any psychologists, I'll tell you it takes
34:39
Speaker 13: a while for this to seep through. And so what
34:42
Speaker 13: we're seeing right now is a consequence of that. It
34:45
Speaker 13: was that there were aby by election. It's in our numbers,
34:48
Speaker 13: It's in numerous of numerous MRPs, whether it's ours or
34:52
Speaker 13: other research companies, everyone is pointing towards significant decline of
34:57
Speaker 13: the labor primary Victoria, a significant fracturing of its base
35:03
Speaker 13: in a state which was once upon a time considered
35:06
Speaker 13: a very safe proposition at a federal level.
35:10
Speaker 2: Talk to you about the issues that people are raising
35:13
Speaker 2: with you, that are the key issues for them that
35:16
Speaker 2: is driving their vote. Because interestingly, and this may play
35:19
Speaker 2: out in some of those til seats, climate change has
35:22
Speaker 2: slipped quite a lot.
35:24
Speaker 13: Yeah, still, cost of living in the outer suburbs and
35:26
Speaker 13: regions is number one, two, three, four, five, and six.
35:29
Speaker 13: Health is emerging as an issue also because it does
35:32
Speaker 13: intertwine with cost of living as a compounding factor. I mean,
35:36
Speaker 13: we interview young mums in particular in the outer suburbs
35:40
Speaker 13: and regions, and I'll talk to us for hours about
35:43
Speaker 13: how difficult is to get to a GP, not just
35:46
Speaker 13: one that bock bills, just finding on it, just to
35:48
Speaker 13: book it in for your kid. So it's a significant
35:52
Speaker 13: problem in many states, especially over in Wa, although labor's
35:56
Speaker 13: actually traveling quite well over there, So that's effectively the
36:01
Speaker 13: dynamic in the Till seats. We're still dealing with a
36:04
Speaker 13: fairly post material constituency. You know, these are parts of Australia.
36:10
Speaker 13: This is still doing quite well. Yes, the affordability crisis
36:13
Speaker 13: biting them a bit, but economically they're fine. And so
36:17
Speaker 13: what we will see is I think most of those
36:20
Speaker 13: tools will be returned. I'm not entirely convinced all of
36:23
Speaker 13: them will be, but most of them will be. And
36:25
Speaker 13: I think that that will be the cross bench that
36:27
Speaker 13: both major both both leaders will have to actually negotiate with.
36:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have to say voters in the media need
36:34
Speaker 2: to put those Tills under pressure and ask them who
36:37
Speaker 2: they are likely to support in the event of a
36:39
Speaker 2: hung parliament because sitting on the fence. To me, I've
36:43
Speaker 2: lived through alament hung parliament negotiation. This is about them,
36:48
Speaker 2: as oakshot Windsor did, trying to get Liberals to vote
36:51
Speaker 2: for them and then knowing that they're going to do
36:53
Speaker 2: absolutely everything to keep labor and power on the other side,
36:56
Speaker 2: they just don't want to admit it.
36:58
Speaker 3: Hey.
36:58
Speaker 2: Interestingly, a couple of other things, the ACTU, they're out
37:02
Speaker 2: there pretty hard, dragging in volunteers, going after these seats
37:05
Speaker 2: we just had on the screen in Victoria, Queensland, obviously
37:09
Speaker 2: in New South Wales as well, to put sort of
37:11
Speaker 2: the muscle and the activists out there for blue collar
37:14
Speaker 2: labor votes. Clearly, I look at the policies of PMS
37:18
Speaker 2: putting on the table. I look at the seats that
37:20
Speaker 2: he is trying to sandbag. Now, the seats where he's visiting.
37:24
Speaker 2: They are trying to lock in their base. They are
37:26
Speaker 2: worried about their base. Now they shouldn't be. They are
37:29
Speaker 2: a first term government. They should have their base locked
37:32
Speaker 2: in and they should have a record to run on
37:34
Speaker 2: and improve the position. I mean it came in with
37:37
Speaker 2: no landslide cause, so he should be trying any second
37:40
Speaker 2: election to improve the position.
37:43
Speaker 3: But he's in a lot of trouble.
37:45
Speaker 13: Yeah. Look, the group of Australians which will probably listen
37:48
Speaker 13: to the Act are those between eighteen and at about
37:51
Speaker 13: forty years old, and they are also the ones more
37:54
Speaker 13: likely to take up viuning. Membership in the outer subjects
37:56
Speaker 13: and regions doesn't necessarily mean they're progressive, just means that
38:00
Speaker 13: they are more willing to hear an alternative voice that
38:03
Speaker 13: talks to them about their own economic situation at the workplace.
38:09
Speaker 13: So really it's that, you know, the A C two
38:11
Speaker 13: is probably the only group out there that could probably
38:13
Speaker 13: save elbows bacon in a lot of these seats. And
38:17
Speaker 13: it's all about, as you rightly put, their base. So
38:21
Speaker 13: you know, this is you know, this is a really
38:23
Speaker 13: good strategy by the ACTU and it will potentially save
38:27
Speaker 13: labor quite a few seats if it works.
38:32
Speaker 3: Just a quick one. You get up.
38:34
Speaker 2: Get Up with such a feature for such a long time.
38:36
Speaker 2: Have they been displaced by the tilS? Is that where
38:40
Speaker 2: the sort of the money and the activist efforts gone.
38:44
Speaker 13: Yeah, absolutely, one hundred percent. I mean that's where most
38:47
Speaker 13: of the donors were coming from for Get Up in
38:49
Speaker 13: the first place. So long comes climbate two hundred and
38:53
Speaker 13: which is a much more sophisticated operation than Get Up
38:56
Speaker 13: and just completely herbs and all that up. You know,
39:00
Speaker 13: there will be no surprise to you that there will
39:01
Speaker 13: be very few donor Douglas coming from the other suburbs
39:04
Speaker 13: and regions for organization like Get Up. And I think
39:08
Speaker 13: you know it's no surprise that they've now gone quite well,
39:11
Speaker 13: they're very quiet.
39:14
Speaker 2: Might it'd be fascinating, I think it'd be caught on
39:16
Speaker 2: the weekend. Then we are kicking off and it'll be
39:19
Speaker 2: campaigned thirty three days to the end there. And this
39:23
Speaker 2: will be a campaign because you know my husband Brian's
39:25
Speaker 2: run a few this will be a campaign that he
39:27
Speaker 2: says will actually matter. Often they don't, this one will.
39:31
Speaker 2: And we know one bloke's a good campaigner and the
39:33
Speaker 2: other one not so good. Hell O Coles, thank you.
39:36
Speaker 2: After the break, big announcement of the Coalition on the
39:38
Speaker 2: public service.
39:39
Speaker 3: We'll get to that and more.
39:41
Speaker 2: Proof the left will ever be content these claims today
39:44
Speaker 2: that Harmony Day is somehow racist.
39:46
Speaker 3: More on that in a moment. You can't help himself?
39:53
Speaker 3: Can it?
39:53
Speaker 12: More?
39:53
Speaker 2: Be spending in our embassy in Washington under Kevin rad
39:57
Speaker 2: I'll get you those details in a moment, but first toy.
40:00
Speaker 2: Liberal Senator Jane Hume has unveiled the coalition's plan to
40:03
Speaker 2: mandate the public service workers. This is all our bureaucrats
40:07
Speaker 2: that they must return to their offices five days a
40:10
Speaker 2: week if the Coalition is elected. It comes as employment
40:14
Speaker 2: Census data shows that three years after the pandemic, some
40:18
Speaker 2: sixty one percent of our bureaucrats are working from home at.
40:22
Speaker 3: Least part of the time.
40:24
Speaker 2: The Coalition believes his figure is too high and it's
40:26
Speaker 2: driving down productivity and driving up inefficiencies. Senator Jane Hume
40:31
Speaker 2: joins me now from Sydney. Senator, thank you so much.
40:34
Speaker 2: I know you've just made this announcement, but I thought
40:37
Speaker 2: it was so important I had to get you on
40:39
Speaker 2: the screen and tell people about it at home. I'm
40:42
Speaker 2: shocked sixty one percent of the public servants work from home.
40:46
Speaker 2: How do you do the job in broader protection working
40:48
Speaker 2: from home?
40:51
Speaker 3: That's a very good question, Peter.
40:53
Speaker 11: In fact, around twenty two percent of the public servants
40:57
Speaker 11: in twenty nineteen had some form of working from home arrangements.
41:01
Speaker 11: That went up dramatically during the pandemic. As you would expect,
41:05
Speaker 11: in twenty twenty it was around fifty percent, in twenty
41:07
Speaker 11: twenty two, around fifty three percent. But you'd expect three
41:11
Speaker 11: years after the pandemic that that.
41:13
Speaker 3: Number would reduce.
41:14
Speaker 11: In fact, as you said, it's gone up to around
41:17
Speaker 11: sixty one percent now. Moreover, it's been embedded into the
41:22
Speaker 11: employment agreements by the public service that have been agreed
41:26
Speaker 11: with the labor government. That's despite the fact that the
41:29
Speaker 11: Secretary's Board made an agreement with the Australian Public Service
41:34
Speaker 11: Commissioner just in twenty twenty three that any work from
41:37
Speaker 11: homeshare arrangements should work not just for the individual but
41:41
Speaker 11: also for their team and for the department. That's not
41:45
Speaker 11: the case now. Public servants have a right to demand
41:49
Speaker 11: to work from home and that's simply not working. It's
41:52
Speaker 11: detracting from productivity, which we know is so fundamentally important
41:57
Speaker 11: if we're going to deliver a more effective and public service.
42:03
Speaker 2: And when we're talking about home, Jane Hugh, we're not
42:06
Speaker 2: saying that they're in a suburb of Canberra so that
42:08
Speaker 2: if they need to go in the office all of
42:09
Speaker 2: a sudden, you can get them in there. I know
42:12
Speaker 2: circumstances where public servants out of Canberra have moved to
42:16
Speaker 2: the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. They live up there all
42:19
Speaker 2: the time. Yet they're supposedly running a team of two
42:22
Speaker 2: or three hundred people in the bureaucracy in Canberra. Now,
42:26
Speaker 2: blind Freddie can tell you that doesn't work.
42:30
Speaker 11: We've heard stories that to my office. Quite recently, a
42:34
Speaker 11: public servant spoke to us saying that a member of
42:38
Speaker 11: their team had chosen to work from home full time,
42:42
Speaker 11: but was very difficult and unreliable to get hold of.
42:46
Speaker 11: And the reason why was because that public servant was
42:49
Speaker 11: traveling around Australia in a campervan with their family. Now
42:54
Speaker 11: that's not working from home. In my mind, it's certainly
42:57
Speaker 11: not productive for their team. It's not productive for them department.
43:02
Speaker 3: Go on you, Jane Hume.
43:03
Speaker 2: I think I can hear my audience supporting you from home.
43:06
Speaker 2: This is a terrific move and five days a week
43:09
Speaker 2: means you're serious.
43:11
Speaker 3: Thank you for your time. All right, up the break.
43:13
Speaker 2: Why the left can't even celebrate Harmony Day anymore without
43:17
Speaker 2: kicking up a stink. Plus, what are the factors of
43:19
Speaker 2: the Muslim vote movement? Well, they're links to a rally
43:22
Speaker 2: celebrating humus.
43:24
Speaker 3: More than that.
43:25
Speaker 2: Shortly, welcome back big spending Kevin rud We'll get to
43:31
Speaker 2: him in a moment, but let's bring in my panel,
43:33
Speaker 2: Shadow Environment Minister Jonathan Dunham, the MP from South Australia,
43:37
Speaker 2: James Stevens, gents, welcome. Let's start with this claim from
43:40
Speaker 2: the Human Rights Commission today that the celebration of Harmony
43:44
Speaker 2: Day in our schools quote hides the long standing systemic
43:48
Speaker 2: racial discrimination that some people have experienced in Australia. The
43:52
Speaker 2: Watchdog says we need to rename the festivities on the
43:55
Speaker 2: twenty first of March, to call it now International Day
43:59
Speaker 2: for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. James Stevens this says
44:04
Speaker 2: to me, by calling it something that the UN wants
44:07
Speaker 2: us to call it, where we declare we have racial discrimination,
44:11
Speaker 2: we make it absolutely clear. That's where Australia is at.
44:15
Speaker 2: That's about what divides us. Harmony Day is about bringing
44:20
Speaker 2: people together, That's about what unites us. And I think
44:23
Speaker 2: the message to young people who aren't born racist is
44:27
Speaker 2: that let's stay together, that let's be together, let's have
44:29
Speaker 2: a Harmony Day, as opposed to try and tell a
44:32
Speaker 2: five or six year old that they are inherently evil,
44:35
Speaker 2: that they are inherently racist.
44:37
Speaker 3: I wouldn't change it.
44:41
Speaker 1: Well, totally agree, Peter. It's just absolutely ridiculous. We're the
44:45
Speaker 1: most tolerant, harmonious nation on the planet and we should
44:49
Speaker 1: be proud of that. But these black armband view of
44:53
Speaker 1: history types of course, don't like to acknowledge that. And
44:57
Speaker 1: I'm sick of people trying to make us ashamed of
44:59
Speaker 1: our country because I'm actually proud of our country, proud
45:02
Speaker 1: of our history, proud of what we achieved, proud of
45:05
Speaker 1: where we are and where we're going. And this is
45:06
Speaker 1: an example of just trying to make young kids. In
45:10
Speaker 1: this case it's quite perverse, make them somehow ashamed to
45:12
Speaker 1: be Australians, and they should be proud to be Australians.
45:17
Speaker 2: Let's go to a related sort of issue if I can.
45:21
Speaker 2: The City Morning Herald's reported that a backer of the
45:23
Speaker 2: Muslim Vote Movement attended a rally in Jordan back in
45:27
Speaker 2: December which celebrated the founding of Humus. This is a
45:31
Speaker 2: Salah Siraya keynote speaker at the launch of the Muslim
45:35
Speaker 2: Vote Movement, which is seeking to unseat labor in pas
45:39
Speaker 2: in Western Sydney. Here, John O, I don't notice much
45:42
Speaker 2: from the Human Rights Commission. I think this is more
45:44
Speaker 2: about division than bringing Australia together.
45:51
Speaker 14: Well, we must be tolerant and inclusive of those who
45:53
Speaker 14: are different, who sound different, who may even look different.
45:56
Speaker 14: But when it comes to uniting our country in a
45:58
Speaker 14: safe way, protecting us from those who seek to do
46:01
Speaker 14: harm or that's someone else's job. I mean it is
46:03
Speaker 14: nuts to not take issue with what this journalist is uncovered,
46:07
Speaker 14: and I understand it from the same reporting that indeed
46:11
Speaker 14: this particular individual was part of the organizing of the
46:14
Speaker 14: rally on the Opera house steps. If this doesn't concern people,
46:18
Speaker 14: if this doesn't spell out that we have massive issues
46:21
Speaker 14: in our society because we turn a blind eye to
46:24
Speaker 14: people in the name of inclusion and tolerance, then there
46:28
Speaker 14: is something very, very wrong. So I do take issue
46:31
Speaker 14: with this. Anyone who wants to support a political movement,
46:35
Speaker 14: go for gold, you know, give it all you've got,
46:37
Speaker 14: but do not associate yourself with any way celebrating listed
46:42
Speaker 14: terrorist organizations or the people that back them in or
46:45
Speaker 14: indeed pursuing other groups in our community, like the Jewish
46:49
Speaker 14: community through protests like we've seen in this country.
46:55
Speaker 2: James, James, James, you are really going through Kevin Rudd's
47:00
Speaker 2: check book, and I'm shocked at what you found. I
47:02
Speaker 2: thought this one must have been some sort of one
47:05
Speaker 2: month early April Fool's Day joke, because you have uncovered
47:10
Speaker 2: the fact that he commissioned the ambassador a forty five
47:14
Speaker 2: thousand dollars musical piece to celebrate the opening of the
47:21
Speaker 2: new embassy. Peter.
47:26
Speaker 1: It's remarkable what Kevin Rud's doing with our money over
47:29
Speaker 1: there in Washington. I suppose not a surprise for those
47:32
Speaker 1: that know him well, but this is the latest revelation
47:35
Speaker 1: of Kevin Rudd focusing on enjoying himself, celebrating himself, making
47:39
Speaker 1: it all about Kevin, of course, as everything is when
47:43
Speaker 1: it comes to mister Rudd. But his job is to
47:45
Speaker 1: be Australia's ambassador to the United States and there's some
47:49
Speaker 1: pretty big and important things for him to be focused on,
47:52
Speaker 1: it seems. In the lead up to the election last
47:55
Speaker 1: year he was commissioning the ode to Kevin at his
47:59
Speaker 1: celebratory anniversary party of the party held a year earlier
48:03
Speaker 1: to open the embassy. Of course, he's also written a book,
48:07
Speaker 1: although it's on the President of China. Despite him being
48:10
Speaker 1: Australia's ambassador to the United States, he's focused a lot
48:14
Speaker 1: of time on, of course, the sales tour for that.
48:16
Speaker 1: But we're worried about tariffs, we're worried about aucust. There's
48:19
Speaker 1: a lot to be focused on. But of course Kevin,
48:22
Speaker 1: while he's focusing on himself, is not focusing on the
48:25
Speaker 1: interests of Australians.
48:29
Speaker 2: I'm waiting for Kevin O seven the musical or Kevin
48:33
Speaker 2: the Dancing Ambassador. There'll be something else that comes because
48:37
Speaker 2: you can't help himself. You're not wrong there, He's got
48:39
Speaker 2: an ego that would rival most politicians around the world.
48:42
Speaker 2: Let's go to the campaign, because yes the PM hasn't
48:46
Speaker 2: called it, John o'dunneyan, but it's absolutely underway. And the
48:50
Speaker 2: pork barrelings here as well. Revelations today that two out
48:53
Speaker 2: of three of these urgent medicare clinics delivered under the government,
48:58
Speaker 2: well therein labor held seats. The promised an additional fifty
49:02
Speaker 2: over the weekend. About half of those will also be
49:05
Speaker 2: in labor seats, and the poor old coalition you're going
49:09
Speaker 2: to get what about a third all up of these
49:12
Speaker 2: new clinics.
49:13
Speaker 3: What do you make of this?
49:17
Speaker 14: Well, I love seeing labor politicians decry pork barreling under
49:21
Speaker 14: the previous government, but then with a straight face tell
49:23
Speaker 14: us that this was all a proper sound decision making process.
49:27
Speaker 14: I'd love to see the paperwork behind this, or whatever
49:30
Speaker 14: color coded spreadsheet they may have used. The one in
49:33
Speaker 14: three of these urgent care clinics that doesn't happen to
49:37
Speaker 14: fall into a labor seat Peter I suspect is in
49:40
Speaker 14: a seat they're targeting, a coalition held seat that they
49:43
Speaker 14: want to try and snavel off us if they've got
49:45
Speaker 14: the gumption to be able to do so. There is
49:48
Speaker 14: no process here. It is all about that one thing
49:51
Speaker 14: they are really all about, and that is the politics,
49:54
Speaker 14: cynical politics, and the fact that they say it's not
49:57
Speaker 14: pork barreling is just frankly laughable.
50:01
Speaker 2: Well, I think the tip is is going to call
50:03
Speaker 2: it on the weekend on Sunday after the WA election.
50:06
Speaker 2: I think he'll try and get on the stage. He'll
50:08
Speaker 2: stand there with Roger Cook and you'll head to the
50:10
Speaker 2: Governor General after that.
50:11
Speaker 3: I'll leave it there, gents, Thanks for your time.
50:13
Speaker 2: Tony Burke tour might ad had a big citizenship ceremony
50:16
Speaker 2: over in Perth. There are other ones that are happening
50:19
Speaker 2: this week, but the last one happens tomorrow.
50:22
Speaker 3: There you go, you'll go to the polls after that.
50:24
Speaker 3: That's it for me. You see tomorrow night at six.
50:25
Speaker 3: Here's Andrew