Latest / Credlin / Credlin | 21 September

Transcript

Credlin | 21 September · Credlin

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Peter Credlin, live from News 24.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Good evening. Welcome to the program. Here's what's coming up
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: tonight on Credlin. Tonight, Labor's primary vote crashes to a
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: near record low. The PM getting a brutal reality check
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: in New York as well. Plus, while the government pushes
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: ahead with its defence assets fire sale, how does it
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: explain wasting millions of dollars to set up new defence
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: officers in in Sydney's CBD. More too on the politicisation
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: of sacred ground at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Questions tonight over why a welcome to country was played
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: at a formal ceremony but the national anthem was not.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: And productivity down the gurgler, deficits for the next 40
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: years for a shrinking, ageing Australia. But the Treasurer reckons
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: one day we'll look back and thank him.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: Every page of this IGR in one way or another justifies,
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: validates and I hope one day vindicates the difficult decisions
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: that we've taken reforming the housing market and reforming the
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: tax system.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: We will stay with that because poorer, weaker and older,
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: that's the Australia of 40 years' time. According to the
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Anthony Albanese government's own intergenerational report released today, tax will
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: be higher, growth will be slower and migration will remain
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: much higher than the long-term average, in part to rescue
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: the country from our own failure to have children, with
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: the birth rate falling to just 1.34 children per woman today.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: and deaths tipped to exceed births by mid-century. A country
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: that can't or won't reproduce itself can't expect to survive.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: The other week, Kevin Rudd said Australia was at risk
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: of becoming a second-rate country, and this report confirms it.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: That's an extraordinary admission from the former PM, who, despite
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: being a close mate of the current incumbent, can no
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: longer ignore what's happening to our country under the Albanese government.
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: The global strategic, economic, and technological forces now bearing down
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: on this nation are of an order of magnitude, severity,
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: and complexity that is unprecedented in our post-war history. We
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: can navigate these changes and challenges successfully, but it will
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: require a radical change in our national psychology, a new
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: sense of national urgency combined with a new vital sense
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: of shared national purpose. The alternative is to slide into
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: becoming a second-rate country.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: Yet even this report, dire though it is, with the
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: federal budget projected to remain in deficit for the next
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: 40 years, is based on inflated and unrealistic assumptions about
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: productivity growth, which are almost certain not to be realised.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: In short, as bad as the intergenerational report is, the
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: reality is that it's likely to be a whole lot worse.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: That's because in the report, the figures on productivity are
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: at 1.2% of growth per annum. Productivity, of course, being
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: the dividend of working smarter, not harder. Yet over the
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: past 20 years, productivity has grown by only 0.8%. Now,
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: over the past decade, productivity growth is in fact flatlined,
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: averaging just 0.4%. So even to achieve the dismal outcome
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: of being poorer, weaker and older, as the report today
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: says we will be, it still requires a productivity performance,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: a lift that hasn't been matched for at least 20 years. Now,
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: here's really bad news that I think all of us know,
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: but We may not want to admit, as bad as
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: this report is, everything the Albanese government is doing now
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: and into the future will only make things worse. Labor's
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: net zero insanity, Labor's IR union payoffs, Labor's addiction to
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: more and more welfare spending. All of it's made worse
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: because we've got a prime minister who's out of his
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: depth economically, out of his depth intellectually and weak when
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: it comes to character. Any wonder today that the news
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: poll has Labor's primary back to about where it was
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: when Kevin Rudd rolled Julia Gillard and got his old
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: job back. Despite all the seats in the parliament, Labor
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: has just 27% support amongst voters. meaning that 73% of
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: the electorate are against them. Labor's only consolation here is
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: that 73% of the voters against them is split across
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: a multitude of parties. One nation well ahead on 30%,
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: the coalition on just 19%, although personally, Angus Taylor's polls
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: are improving. As bad as it is for Labor, but
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: the Prime Minister, it's a whole lot worse. In personal terms,
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: Albanese's approvals are catastrophic, negative 27. I don't know, but
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: it's the pressure getting perhaps to Almanese. I think it
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: might be. You be the judge. Have a look at
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: this question and answer session today, prompted by his pending
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: receipt of some sort of global award at the United
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: Nations this week.
• 5:30
  Speaker 5: Prime Minister, here in New York on Wednesday night, you
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: will receive an award for being a global citizen. Don't
• 5:36
  Speaker 5: you feel like a bit of a fraud accepting this
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: award when at home, You screwed up the response to
• 5:42
  Speaker 5: the worst massacre since Port Arthur in the polls. You're
• 5:45
  Speaker 5: taking Labor to one point shy of Julia Gillard when
• 5:49
  Speaker 5: you rolled her. And your net negatives are worse than
• 5:52
  Speaker 5: Scott Morrison.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: No. Oh, he didn't like that, did he? Sooner or later,
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: something's got to change if our country's not to endure
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: a ruinous decline. Maybe Labor will do to this deeply
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: underwhelming Prime Minister what it's done to other failing leaders.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: Maybe the Coalition will get its act together and win
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: the next election. But if our kids are to live
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: in the country they deserve, we can't as a nation
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: keep choosing the soft option. And we either get serious
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: and turn the ship around or we just manage our
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: decline and we watch a good country fail. Sadly, we
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: don't have a lot of time left to choose. Now
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: to the state of the road network in Victoria. If
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: you live interstate, if you don't live in Victoria, I
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: know what you're thinking. Surely your crime crisis and Skyrocketing debt, Victoria,
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: are bigger issues than potholes as you head to the
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: polls in November. Well, not so if you've recently travelled
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: on a road or a highway in the state, as
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: I did on the weekend. I spent the weekend away
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: with some friends on their farm about 30 klicks outside
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: of Horsham. That's in the Wimera in the west of
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: the state. To get there from Melbourne, I travelled along
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: the Western Highway. That's the main highway now between Melbourne
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: and Adelaide. And on the way home yesterday, just outside
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: the tiny spot of Dadswell's Bridge, I came across a
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: massive pothole which, if we had not avoided it, would
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: easily have blown out a tyre or worse, given the
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: degradation of the asphalt right down to road base. Just
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: have a look at these images I stopped and took
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: so I could show you how bad it is tonight.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: Because these are the roads that country people are forced
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: to drive on day in, day out. This is the
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: reality of life, the life-threatening risks that rural people live
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: with because a government obsessed with Melbourne would rather spend
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: billions on a train line that nobody wants rather than
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: keep regional roads in good repair. Now, as I crouched
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: down beside the roads to take the pictures that I'm
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: showing you now, I watched a B double truck crest
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: the hill, see the pothole, have to cross into the
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: oncoming lane, it's a single lane road here, just to
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: avoid it in time. Now, this road, like so many
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: in Victoria, didn't have much of a shoulder, meaning that
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: oncoming traffic that might have needed to get out of
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: the way had very little room to do so safely. Now, yesterday,
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: fortunately for the B double, the road was clear. In
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: the four hours it took to get home, I saw
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: well over 100 or so nasty potholes. This one at
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: Dad's Wells Bridge, by far and away the worst, but
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: there were plenty of others that could easily have taken
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: out a vehicle. It made for an exhausting trip because
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: you had to watch the road like a hawk, but
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: it was also a slower trip than usual because all
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: the way along the road, rather than fix it, The
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: state government had whacked up signs dropping the speed limit
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: from 110 down to 60, back up to 110, then
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: down to 60. No surprises either. All the way along,
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: there were speed cameras to try and catch motorists out
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: to raise much needed revenue for the debt ridden state.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: Almost everyone you talk to in Victoria has got a
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: story of an accident or a near miss. It was
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: only a couple of years ago on that same highway
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: just outside of Ballarat, I hit a pothole in the wet,
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: I blew a tyre, cracked the rim, needed to get
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: my car towed back to Melbourne for repairs that cost
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: well over $ 3, 000. In Victoria and right around the country,
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: money's been diverted from essential roads maintenance into sexy new
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: road projects because governments like to spend money on something
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: where a Premier can turn up and cut a ribbon
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: rather than the boring work of keeping roads in good repair.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: In Victoria, the new Premier, Ben Carroll, well, he now
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: thinks it's too important to take responsibility for fixing the
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: state's broken road network.
• 9:58
  Speaker 6: Well, I'm the Premier, not the roads minister.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: What a cop-out. Has Carroll forgotten that he was the
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: roads minister under Daniel Andrews? But he also was the
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: roads minister, if I'm not correct. Well, that's right, Benna.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: In Ben Carroll's case, he actually did hold the hose
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: because he was the minister for roads.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: And when he was the minister, he.
• 10:22
  Speaker 7: Cut $ 200 million from the roads budget.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: This is everything that voters hate about modern politics and
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: the obsession with spin. Voters are desperate for someone to say,
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: I agree. It's not good enough. I'll take responsibility and
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: I'll fix the mess. It's not always the big things
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: in politics that cause you to become unstuck. The little
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: things matter too. And while potholes might be inconsequential for
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: some races interstate, I can tell you in Victoria, they
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: are shaping up to be an absolute vote changer. All right,
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: let's head to Canberra now for the headlines. Political reporter,
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: Ruben Spargo.
• 11:07
  Speaker 6: Good evening. The Prime Minister has officially launched Australia's campaign
• 11:11
  Speaker 6: for the UN Security Council. It's a temporary seat, but
• 11:13
  Speaker 6: it's one Anthony Albanese argues has direct relevance to Australians.
• 11:18
  Speaker 7: Australia is not immune from what happens in the world.
• 11:22
  Speaker 8: That's why engagement with the world matters.
• 11:25
  Speaker 6: The two-year term would begin in 2029. The Treasurer is
• 11:28
  Speaker 6: describing the AI revolution as the most consequential new factor
• 11:33
  Speaker 6: in today's intergenerational report. It's predicted to drive an economic
• 11:37
  Speaker 6: transformation which will play a pivotal role in achieving long-term
• 11:40
  Speaker 6: productivity growth of 1.2% improving living standards and reducing debt.
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: The intergenerational report shows that we face very serious risks
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: and pressures, but that we are better placed and better
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: prepared for them. Better positioned to benefit from the AI revolution,
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: to succeed in a fragmenting world.
• 12:00
  Speaker 6: The productivity boost depends on translating AI uptake into better
• 12:05
  Speaker 6: ways of working.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: All right, let's pull up those latest dire poll results
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: for Labor now. The government's primary vote collapsed to a
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: near record low of 27%, the first time since 2012
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: it's been at that sort of number. It's down from 37%
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: September last year, as nearly two-thirds of Australians say they
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: are not satisfied with Anthony Albanese's performance. It's a news poll,
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: of course, conducted last week, and it marks the lowest
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: level of core support for Labor since April 2012. And remember,
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: the lowest ever primary vote recorded by Labor was 26,
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: so just one point off. That was in September 2011
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: during the Juliette Gillard tenure. Here to discuss this and more,
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: our News24 political contributor, Chris Yeoman. Well, Chris, Gillard got
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: rolled on these sort of numbers. Is the clock ticking
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: on the Prime Minister?
• 13:00
  Speaker 8: Well, I don't get any sense at all, Peter, at
• 13:01
  Speaker 8: the moment that it is. Certainly he keeps his caucus
• 13:04
  Speaker 8: very close and he's done well in doing that. He's
• 13:06
  Speaker 8: kept the United Party. But what we know about these
• 13:09
  Speaker 8: sorts of things is that they grow with time. And
• 13:11
  Speaker 8: the one thing that focuses back Benj's mind is that
• 13:14
  Speaker 8: the closer they get to the election, if those numbers
• 13:16
  Speaker 8: stay the same, then people who are on small margins
• 13:19
  Speaker 8: will start considering their future. and considering whether or not
• 13:22
  Speaker 8: Anthony Albanese is the best person to lead them to
• 13:25
  Speaker 8: the next election. So no, I don't see any problem
• 13:27
  Speaker 8: for the Prime Minister at the moment or in the
• 13:30
  Speaker 8: near future. But the next 18 months, of course, we'll
• 13:33
  Speaker 8: be telling if we see more interest rate rises, if
• 13:35
  Speaker 8: there's more pain in the purse. And of course, if
• 13:37
  Speaker 8: nothing really significant is done about immigration, then I think
• 13:40
  Speaker 8: that you might see the clarity of the mind of
• 13:44
  Speaker 8: the Labor caucus come into sharper focus.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: Of course, we've got a petrol price war about to hit.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: We were already seeing, I filled up today, we're already
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: seeing movement at the Bowser. I mean, this is where
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: cost of living will really bite, particularly going into Christmas.
• 13:59
  Speaker 8: Yeah, looking like you, I'm driven into regional New South Wales.
• 14:02
  Speaker 8: I'm at Wagga on my way to Henty for the
• 14:04
  Speaker 8: machinery field day there. So really looking forward to that.
• 14:06
  Speaker 8: But when I filled up, it was over $ 2.
• 14:08
  Speaker 5: 40 a.
• 14:10
  Speaker 8: Litre for unleaded petrol and right on, on the knocker.
• 14:14
  Speaker 8: of $ 3, $ 2.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: 99.
• 14:16
  Speaker 8: 99 or something like that, I think it was, at
• 14:18
  Speaker 8: the service station for diesel. That's a very high price.
• 14:21
  Speaker 8: It does put a lot of pressure on the people
• 14:23
  Speaker 8: who are involved in all of those different industries of
• 14:25
  Speaker 8: transport and making sure that the country continues to run.
• 14:29
  Speaker 8: So those kinds of pressures, very telling on people.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Chris, I'm diesel. I'm just about $ 3 a litre,
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: so it's killing me at the moment. Let's go to
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: that question today. It was an absolute cracker to the
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: Prime Minister and he certainly, well, he didn't have his
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: game face on. You could see the terseness wash over.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: He's in UN for Leaders Week, in and around the UN,
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: of course, but he's going to pick up an award
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: from the Atlantic Council. It's called the Global Citizen Award.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: They'll be in a big event. It's about congratulating him
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: for the contribution he's made to a better world. And
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: this is really predicated on AUKUS, strategic partnerships, reinforcing the
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: international rules order, being an indispensable part democratic voice in
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: the Pacific. That's how the citation goes. Of course, this
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: was August, a deal done by Scott Morrison. Today, the
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: Prime Minister was pushed by Latika Burke on this issue.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: Have a look again.
• 15:32
  Speaker 5: Prime Minister, here in New York on Wednesday night, you
• 15:35
  Speaker 5: will receive an award for being a global citizen. Don't
• 15:39
  Speaker 5: you feel like a bit of a fraud accepting this
• 15:41
  Speaker 5: award when at home, You screwed up the response to
• 15:44
  Speaker 5: the worst massacre since Port Arthur in the polls. You're
• 15:48
  Speaker 5: taking Labor to one point shy of Julia Gillard when
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: you rolled her. And your net negatives are worse than
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: Scott Morrison.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: No. Chris Yellman.
• 15:59
  Speaker 8: Yeah, look, anyone who knows Latika Burke knows that's classic
• 16:02
  Speaker 8: Latika Burke. The pharmacist was really left with no way
• 16:05
  Speaker 8: out there. He actually did actually a reasonable job of
• 16:07
  Speaker 8: trying to maintain his rage, which I'm sure was boiling
• 16:10
  Speaker 8: away inside. The short story with these sorts of awards
• 16:13
  Speaker 8: that we see from overseas is they have very little
• 16:15
  Speaker 8: track with the Australian people. I think that the... The
• 16:18
  Speaker 8: Albanese government has done some good work in the Pacific,
• 16:20
  Speaker 8: but it's a game of whack-a-mole there with China. But
• 16:22
  Speaker 8: they're doing the best that they can on that front.
• 16:24
  Speaker 8: Building relationships in the region is a good thing. It's
• 16:27
  Speaker 8: been the work of many governments over a long period
• 16:29
  Speaker 8: of time, though, so no one government can take, you know,
• 16:31
  Speaker 8: claim that one. I was just thinking then as you
• 16:34
  Speaker 8: were talking about awards, I remember at one stage Wayne
• 16:37
  Speaker 8: Swann was the world's greatest treasurer.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: I did the same thing.
• 16:41
  Speaker 8: And it wasn't that far shy of them being at 26%.
• 16:43
  Speaker 8: So nobody in Australia.
• 16:47
  Speaker 8: Gives a rat about the awards that you get on
• 16:49
  Speaker 8: the international stage. Prime Ministers love going there, by the way.
• 16:52
  Speaker 8: The longer they get into their careers, the more sometimes
• 16:54
  Speaker 8: they prefer being overseas than at home, but they get
• 16:57
  Speaker 8: elected at home and that's where they're going to have
• 16:59
  Speaker 8: to face the music.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: Yes, I remember Swanee, of course, got that award when
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: he had only ever delivered budget deficits. The debt was climbing.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: He spent like a drunken sailor during the GFC. And
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: who was his chief of staff but the wonderful current bloke,
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: Jim Chalmers? So he clearly learned a fair bit from
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: his boss. Let's go to Labor continuing to distance itself
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: from the WA child protection crisis. This is in relation
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: predominantly to Aboriginal kids in remote communities. Albanese there was
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: asked questions about it today, dodged them, said this is
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: an issue where the responsibility sits with the states. Chris,
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: this isn't good enough.
• 17:40
  Speaker 8: No, and it's not good enough for any of us, though.
• 17:42
  Speaker 8: Let's take a long, hard look at this. Over a very,
• 17:45
  Speaker 8: very long period of time, we have failed Aboriginal Australia,
• 17:48
  Speaker 8: now leaving to one side the voice, which was not
• 17:51
  Speaker 8: the way to do anything about this practically. But I've
• 17:54
  Speaker 8: spoken to people in Western Australia for years now who
• 17:56
  Speaker 8: tell me about the treatment of children, and it is horrifying. Like,
• 18:00
  Speaker 8: what we are seeing at the moment is the tip
• 18:03
  Speaker 8: of the iceberg of stuff that would make people shudder
• 18:08
  Speaker 8: if they knew... the way that children were generally treated
• 18:12
  Speaker 8: in large parts of some remote parts of Australia. It
• 18:16
  Speaker 8: is a national shame. We are failing to do things
• 18:19
  Speaker 8: about it. But, of course, one of the real issues
• 18:21
  Speaker 8: we have now is people are terribly afraid in those
• 18:25
  Speaker 8: agencies of putting children back with the parents that are
• 18:29
  Speaker 8: abusing them because they fear that they'll get called on
• 18:33
  Speaker 8: there being another stolen generation. So children are being returned
• 18:36
  Speaker 8: to families where they are in deep and dire danger.
• 18:40
  Speaker 8: I don't know what the answer to this is, Peter,
• 18:42
  Speaker 8: but whatever we are doing, it's nowhere near good enough.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Krista, you and I both write for The Australian, though,
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: and you and I know those stories, the cases of
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: children that are fostered, they can't foster them in some
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: cases with kin, so they foster them with white families.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: Those white families raise them from infants till they're six
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: and seven, and they then have to go to court
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: and fight multiple court actions to be able to formally
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: adopt these children because of these racist rules that require
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: these children, because they're Aboriginal... to live with Aboriginal families
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: or someone connected to their skin colour group. And these
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: kids then lose the only parent figures they've ever had
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: in their life. And they don't get the shot of
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: the life that they've had with that family, the love
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: and the care. They're thrown back into these very dysfunctional communities.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: I mean, I've been there. You've been there. We know
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: what we're talking about. And this is where we have
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: to have a really honest conversation. It's not about a
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: stolen generation. We are losing these kids now. They're stolen now.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: It's a dying generation now. Surely we've got to be
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: big enough as a country to say the child comes
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: first before all this head nodding to culture. The life
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: of the child is more important than anything else.
• 20:01
  Speaker 8: No, I couldn't agree with you more, Peter. And I
• 20:03
  Speaker 8: remember going out to Wilkennia in 1981 and seeing the
• 20:08
  Speaker 8: circumstances there. I was there for around about eight weeks
• 20:11
  Speaker 8: and I could not believe that Australians lived like that
• 20:15
  Speaker 8: in what I thought was then a modern society. And
• 20:17
  Speaker 8: guess what? Things haven't got any better since 1981. So
• 20:21
  Speaker 8: whatever it is we've tried, and by the way, we've
• 20:23
  Speaker 8: tried lots and lots of different things, and it isn't
• 20:25
  Speaker 8: for want of money because we've spent billions and billions
• 20:28
  Speaker 8: of dollars, but what we are doing is not succeeding. Now,
• 20:31
  Speaker 8: this is really the stain on the nation in terms
• 20:34
  Speaker 8: of how we deal with our first Australians. We need
• 20:37
  Speaker 8: to find a way to make this work. But one
• 20:39
  Speaker 8: of the ways we need to make this work is
• 20:41
  Speaker 8: the people in regional Australia need to be connected to
• 20:44
  Speaker 8: the real economy. They have to have real jobs and
• 20:47
  Speaker 8: they have to take those jobs when they are available
• 20:49
  Speaker 8: and which is why I'm such a big supporter of
• 20:51
  Speaker 8: things like the Beetaloo Basin in the Northern Territory, because
• 20:54
  Speaker 8: if you want jobs for people in regional Australia, then
• 20:57
  Speaker 8: one of the ways of getting them is to do mining.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: And to have to turn off the cancer of welfare,
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: not just in these communities, but every Australian community. That's
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: a huge issue. Hey, I just want to mention this
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: push by the Prime Minister and Penny Wong today announcing
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: that we're going to run for a seat at the
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: UN Security Council. I mean, he was really cheeky, the
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: Prime Minister today, referenced MH17. Yes, Australia had that seat
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: at the time. Tony Abbott was the Prime Minister, Julie
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: Bishop obviously was our Foreign Minister. It wasn't that seat
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: that got us movement on MH17, and I remember it well.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: A lot of it was the willingness of the then
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: Prime Minister to take on Vladimir Putin and Julie Bishop
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: to get on the plane and rally support with a
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: whole lot of nations. It wasn't just the UN. But
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: I remember when they chased the seat, Labor got it
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: under Kevin Rudd. It cost $ 25 million. That was 15
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: years ago. How much are we going to waste chasing
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: another seat this time around?
• 22:00
  Speaker 8: Well, can I see that $ 25 million and raise you
• 22:03
  Speaker 8: this figure? Because, of course, we need two-thirds support from
• 22:06
  Speaker 8: the governments of the world in the UN Security Council.
• 22:09
  Speaker 8: 52 of those votes come from Africa. So what Australia
• 22:13
  Speaker 8: did was launch a very big campaign to try and
• 22:16
  Speaker 8: win over the votes of Africa, and our aid spending
• 22:18
  Speaker 8: in Africa over the course of chasing that vote went
• 22:21
  Speaker 8: from $ 78 million to $ 400 million, and that's US dollars,
• 22:24
  Speaker 8: and I haven't done the conversion yet. So a lot
• 22:27
  Speaker 8: of the votes have to be bought to win your
• 22:29
  Speaker 8: way into these kinds of positions. You have to weigh
• 22:32
  Speaker 8: the money of these Australian taxpayers' dollars against the reward
• 22:35
  Speaker 8: that you think that you will win by being on
• 22:37
  Speaker 8: that kind of body. Now, I don't discount the fact
• 22:40
  Speaker 8: that those international agencies do have their place and that
• 22:43
  Speaker 8: Australia did do some good work when it held that
• 22:45
  Speaker 8: position last time around. I just don't see value for
• 22:48
  Speaker 8: money in this and it's going to cost us a
• 22:51
  Speaker 8: whole lot more.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: I don't see value for money at all. Thank you, Chris.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: Catch up next week. Let's go down to ongoing concerns
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: about the sell-off of federal defence assets. Reports today the
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: Albanese government could have saved money, could have saved around
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: $ 100 million if they had used Victoria Barracks as a
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: Sydney defence hub rather than taking a long-term lease over
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: floor space in a CBD high-rise office towers. Claims that
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: the Paddington military base should be sold due to excessive
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: maintenance bills are now being questioned when you look at
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: the fit-out and the rental costs for Defence Plaza offices
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: in Pitt Street, Sydney. It follows warnings from a Senate
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: committee that's demanded the Albanese government immediately stop its plan
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: to sell more of these 60 defence sites around the country.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: here to discuss it, someone who's fighting pretty hard on
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: the issue, New South Wales Liberal Senator Jess Collins. Jess Collins,
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: thank you for your time. This is extraordinary, the waste
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: of money for a plush CBD office, and then they're
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: saying that these barracks are superfluous to needs. They should
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: have used them in the first place.
• 24:09
  Speaker 7: You're dead right, Peter, and you haven't seen the half
• 24:11
  Speaker 7: of the waste yet. The sad story is that it
• 24:15
  Speaker 7: is significantly cheaper to run Victoria Barrack Sydney, and yet
• 24:20
  Speaker 7: this government, the Defence Minister Richard Miles, just simply does
• 24:24
  Speaker 7: not care. Now, Peter, I'm going to return to this.
• 24:26
  Speaker 7: I'm firstly going to lay out that we have had
• 24:28
  Speaker 7: some very big news about Victoria Barrack Sydney, some very
• 24:31
  Speaker 7: concerning news. I'm going to answer your question first and
• 24:34
  Speaker 7: then return to that news. Now, the reality of this
• 24:39
  Speaker 7: defence estate is that it is crumbling under the weight
• 24:42
  Speaker 7: of its bureaucracy. We've had an enlargement in APS. We've
• 24:46
  Speaker 7: had outsourcing that has outgrown the defence estate We now
• 24:50
  Speaker 7: even have outsourcing for the outsourcing. So we have consultants
• 24:54
  Speaker 7: that are running the tender contracts that we have for
• 24:57
  Speaker 7: the maintenance services on these bases. Now, Defence Minister Richard
• 25:01
  Speaker 7: Miles has put out some very robbery figures, especially on
• 25:04
  Speaker 7: Defence Plaza Sydney and especially on Victoria Barracks.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: As well.
• 25:08
  Speaker 7: And so we are here to shed light on all
• 25:11
  Speaker 7: of that. We're not asking very complex questions.
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: All we want to know is.
• 25:14
  Speaker 7: About the cost of very basic maintenance services. We're not
• 25:18
  Speaker 7: asking about the paint that they're putting on their stealth
• 25:20
  Speaker 7: fighter jets, Peter.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: And what about the other news you've got to tell me?
• 25:25
  Speaker 7: Look, I hate to deliver this news, but we have
• 25:27
  Speaker 7: had news.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: We're still trying to verify it.
• 25:30
  Speaker 7: That seven days ago Richard Miles went to the Chief
• 25:33
  Speaker 7: of Army and gave the eviction notice to Victoria Barracks Sydney.
• 25:38
  Speaker 7: They have the date of 19th of December, which is
• 25:41
  Speaker 7: all of three months and five days away. Everybody connected
• 25:44
  Speaker 7: to Victoria Barracks Sydney, all the serving personnel there, have
• 25:47
  Speaker 7: been told to pack up and go. Apparently there will
• 25:50
  Speaker 7: be a meeting tomorrow at 9am with the officers at
• 25:54
  Speaker 7: Victoria Barracks Sydney and then the civilians and other staff
• 25:58
  Speaker 7: involved connected to it following that at 10 a.m. And
• 26:00
  Speaker 7: I tell you what, this coward of a minister won't
• 26:03
  Speaker 7: even front up and tell them about it. He gave
• 26:05
  Speaker 7: a verbal direction so that it couldn't be traced back
• 26:07
  Speaker 7: to him.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: It doesn't surprise me if that's the date, because it's
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: the day after the Bondi Royal Commission is handed down,
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: all designed to be washed away by Christmas. You said
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: on the inquiry, I know you went into it like
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: a dose of salt. What's the level of community support
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: for the government's decision to sell off these assets? There
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: is none, Peter. There is absolutely no support.
• 26:31
  Speaker 7: I haven't met one person that has supported the sale
• 26:34
  Speaker 7: of these bases. Now, let's bear in mind these are
• 26:37
  Speaker 7: fully operational, nationally significant and highly strategic bases that this
• 26:42
  Speaker 7: Defence Minister is trying to sell. And they are not
• 26:44
  Speaker 7: his to sell. And this is the message that I've
• 26:46
  Speaker 7: heard from thousands of people as I've gone around the country.
• 26:49
  Speaker 7: And it is thousands. Every town hall that I've been
• 26:51
  Speaker 7: to is hundreds and hundreds of people. And everyone stood
• 26:54
  Speaker 7: up and said, do not do this. And so I'm
• 26:57
  Speaker 7: taking that message back to the government. We took that
• 26:59
  Speaker 7: back last week with the interim report. We have a
• 27:01
  Speaker 7: whole lot more to go. But I tell you what,
• 27:03
  Speaker 7: things have just ramped up, knowing that we only have
• 27:05
  Speaker 7: three months to save Victoria Barrack, Sydney, from the hands
• 27:08
  Speaker 7: of a defence minister.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: OK, two questions then. Help people understand... that the government's
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: lying when it says that this will be a big
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: saving given the mess that the defence budget's in more
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: broadly and obviously this example today where they have to
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: go and find alternative office accommodation. But how can people
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: support you, Jess, in fighting this move? Okay.
• 27:33
  Speaker 7: So there is a whole bunch of logistics that goes
• 27:36
  Speaker 7: into consolidating the defence estate. Now, you look at somewhere
• 27:38
  Speaker 7: like Victoria Barracks, Sydney, all those units are then going
• 27:41
  Speaker 7: to be moved out into the regions, wherever they go.
• 27:43
  Speaker 7: There is going to be travel associated with that. There
• 27:46
  Speaker 7: is going to be new bases that they're actually going
• 27:48
  Speaker 7: to have to find new land to be able to
• 27:50
  Speaker 7: support the movement of all this equipment. This is right
• 27:53
  Speaker 7: across the country. The logistical challenge that they have before
• 27:56
  Speaker 7: them is going to cost an extraordinary amount of money.
• 27:58
  Speaker 7: But if you focus just on Defence Plaza Sydney, we
• 28:01
  Speaker 7: don't own Defence Plaza Sydney. It's only a couple of
• 28:03
  Speaker 7: floors in that building that we own. The rest of it,
• 28:05
  Speaker 7: most of it goes to WeWork. We don't even know
• 28:07
  Speaker 7: who's on these upper levels. You're going to have to,
• 28:10
  Speaker 7: it's a lease as well, so we don't own Defence
• 28:12
  Speaker 7: Plaza Sydney. So that's an ongoing cost. If you think
• 28:15
  Speaker 7: of somewhere like Canberra Airport and the classic case of
• 28:17
  Speaker 7: selling Canberra Airport and how many more hundreds of billions
• 28:22
  Speaker 7: of dollars we now have had to pay after selling
• 28:24
  Speaker 7: Canberra Airport because we have to lease it back. And
• 28:26
  Speaker 7: I say to the Defence Minister that at some point
• 28:29
  Speaker 7: he's going to realise his mistake and he's probably going
• 28:32
  Speaker 7: to have to lease back Victoria Barracks Sydney at some point.
• 28:34
  Speaker 7: We will no longer have anywhere in Sydney's metropolitan centre
• 28:39
  Speaker 7: to mount a counter-terrorism operation. So what's he going to
• 28:42
  Speaker 7: do then? You certainly cannot do that from Defence Plaza Sydney.
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: How can people support you, Jess? Where do they go?
• 28:49
  Speaker 7: So Senator James Patterson has a petition on his website.
• 28:53
  Speaker 7: If you go to Senator James Patterson's website, we're now
• 28:56
  Speaker 7: up to 86,000 signatures. We need to keep going. Of course,
• 29:00
  Speaker 7: we're getting our voice out there on social media.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: Follow us.
• 29:03
  Speaker 7: And repost our messages. Get that message out there. We've
• 29:07
  Speaker 7: got some campaigns coming up on the 11th of October.
• 29:11
  Speaker 7: We will be down at HMAS Penguin and we will
• 29:15
  Speaker 7: put up more updates because right now the battle right
• 29:17
  Speaker 7: before us is saving Victoria Barracks, Sydney. So we will
• 29:20
  Speaker 7: activate that campaign and in a big way. And if
• 29:23
  Speaker 7: they remember what we did with the Veterans and Allied
• 29:26
  Speaker 7: Health Cap over the past few months, well, look out.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: There is a whole lot more coming. Good on you, Jess.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: Thank you for joining me tonight. There you go, all
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: the information. Senator Paterson's webpage. Get it, please, and get involved.
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: Quick break after the break. Warren Hogan. We're going to
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: get into the intergenerational report, fact versus fiction. Welcome back.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: I'll get into that Labor polling, bad numbers for the
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: Prime Minister in just a moment. But let's get into
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: the release today from the Treasurer of the Intergenerational Report,
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: warning of slower growth, an ageing population, permanent budget pressures.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: But he says it's all OK. He'll get us out
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: of the hole because we've got AI, we've got a
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: great energy transition away from fossil fuels to green energy.
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: And We'll have all these productivity gains. Here to help
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: me pull it apart, EQ Economics Managing Director Warren Hogan. Well, Warren,
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: you give me your take on this intergenerational report. I've
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: watched a lot of them come down since the first
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: one from Peter Costello. I don't really believe much in them,
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: I have to say, and this one's even in the
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: productivity assumptions built on sand. What's your take?
• 30:41
  Speaker 10: Yeah, good evening, Peter. Look, it's a good benchmark. I
• 30:44
  Speaker 10: think it's a useful exercise because it starts conversations like
• 30:48
  Speaker 10: this and gets us thinking about the big issues. And
• 30:51
  Speaker 10: we are at a historical turning point in terms of
• 30:54
  Speaker 10: our demographics and in terms of new technology. So I
• 30:58
  Speaker 10: don't have a problem with optimistic productivity forecasts. The great
• 31:03
  Speaker 10: inconsistency in this document is this government's not doing the
• 31:07
  Speaker 10: things we need to do as an economy and as
• 31:09
  Speaker 10: a community to to embrace the new technology and to
• 31:13
  Speaker 10: drive our economy forward.
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: There is a.
• 31:17
  Speaker 10: Need to rethink the way we run this economy and
• 31:22
  Speaker 10: we've got to ask ourselves as a community, do we
• 31:25
  Speaker 10: have the courage to lean into this and allow our
• 31:29
  Speaker 10: workforce to adjust? And, of course, beyond all else, the
• 31:34
  Speaker 10: big problem is the size of government is just way
• 31:36
  Speaker 10: too big and it's got to start pulling back.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: Just on productivity, I went through all the things that
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: are tough that this report says are headwinds for Australia.
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: But it's built on the assumptions that we're going to
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: have 1.2% of annual growth going forward. We've got nowhere
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: near that over the last 20 years. I know they're
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: pitting their hopes on AI, but AI is just as
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: likely to take as many jobs as you know, Warren,
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: than put jobs into the economy. We haven't got any
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: guardrails around it yet. Anyone who says they know how
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: AI is going to play out over the next 40 years, well,
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: they're kidding themselves. What worries me here is the government's
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: always on the upside of the things it supports and
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: negative on the things it doesn't support. Like these green
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: jobs and cheaper power, none of that's eventuated either.
• 32:32
  Speaker 10: Yeah, and look, it's missing the key point which most people,
• 32:36
  Speaker 10: and this is happening all around the world, most people
• 32:39
  Speaker 10: are missing is that With this demographic shift, we now
• 32:42
  Speaker 10: have structural labour shortages. So we don't have enough workers.
• 32:46
  Speaker 10: And of course, the Europeans, which are well ahead of us,
• 32:49
  Speaker 10: they thought immigration would solve it. It doesn't solve it
• 32:52
  Speaker 10: because when someone comes to the country, it might bring supply, i.e. workers,
• 32:56
  Speaker 10: but it brings demand, i.e. the need for homes and
• 32:59
  Speaker 10: roads and hospitals. The only solution is technology. It is
• 33:03
  Speaker 10: coming and we should embrace it. But of course, the
• 33:06
  Speaker 10: courage is going to be to reorientate our workforce. Now,
• 33:09
  Speaker 10: previous technologies might come in a bit naturally over time.
• 33:13
  Speaker 10: This is happening rapidly. So we need to work out
• 33:16
  Speaker 10: how to help people move from one job to another,
• 33:19
  Speaker 10: one skill set to another, one industry to another. That's
• 33:22
  Speaker 10: something this government's got no interest in. And of course,
• 33:25
  Speaker 10: this is where the productivity comes from, the use of
• 33:27
  Speaker 10: this technology. So I can see a very strong productivity
• 33:31
  Speaker 10: future as long as we start enacting the policies that
• 33:35
  Speaker 10: that need to embrace it. And of course, above all
• 33:38
  Speaker 10: else right now, we have got ourselves into such a
• 33:41
  Speaker 10: mess with size of government in this country, all levels,
• 33:44
  Speaker 10: but particularly federal recurrent spending. It needs to drop at
• 33:48
  Speaker 10: least five, if not 10% to free up the scarce
• 33:51
  Speaker 10: resources to allow the private sector to lead us on
• 33:55
  Speaker 10: this technological journey. Because it's only private individuals and businesses
• 33:59
  Speaker 10: that will work out how we all need to use
• 34:01
  Speaker 10: this technology in our everyday lives, not governments.
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: What did you make of the analysis of the original,
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: the very first intergenerational report, 2002 under Peter Costello, took
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: us out about where we are now and said that
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: we would all be about $ 14, 000 better off? Well, we're not.
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: We're going backwards. And of course, you know, I pick
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: up your point there about transitioning people from one job
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: to another. I'm all for that. I'm all for retraining
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: and skilling up Australians. But the quick and dirty answer
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: from this government is just bring in more people.
• 34:39
  Speaker 10: Well, that's it. And it doesn't work because the reason
• 34:42
  Speaker 10: we've got a lower GDP per capita rate than that
• 34:45
  Speaker 10: first IGR projected is because our immigration numbers have been
• 34:49
  Speaker 10: so much higher. It did start at the end of
• 34:52
  Speaker 10: the Howard Costello government, but has persisted right through. And
• 34:55
  Speaker 10: of course, we've had this surge recently. It hasn't been
• 34:58
  Speaker 10: as much productivity as they expected. And this is the
• 35:01
  Speaker 10: first intergenerational report that actually revises up productivity expectations. So
• 35:07
  Speaker 10: it is a bold call. And as I said, I
• 35:10
  Speaker 10: can see that productivity increase But of course, we're not
• 35:13
  Speaker 10: doing any of the things we need to, which first
• 35:16
  Speaker 10: and foremost starts with shrinking government, freeing resources up. And
• 35:20
  Speaker 10: the other one, of course, is industrial relations reform. And
• 35:23
  Speaker 10: the government needs to work out how to support workers
• 35:26
  Speaker 10: that are displaced, how to reskill them and work with
• 35:29
  Speaker 10: business to really get everyone working in the right direction.
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: Just a quick one. This debt burden that we've got
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: coming out of COVID. So this is the Frydenberg Morrison
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: debt burden, $ 165 billion borrowed cheaply at the time. It's
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: at refinancing time now, though, and it's going to hit
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: taxpayers an extra $ 7. 7 billion a year.
• 35:56
  Speaker 10: Yeah, well, and unfortunately, I think we're going to need
• 36:00
  Speaker 10: to live with this problem for a little bit longer.
• 36:02
  Speaker 10: But The global long-term interest rates, 10-year interest rates for
• 36:07
  Speaker 10: government debt have all around the world hit new 15
• 36:10
  Speaker 10: years highs in the last few weeks. Here in Australia, 5.4%, US, 5%, Germany, 4%.
• 36:18
  Speaker 10: So we're universally seeing the cost of capital going up,
• 36:22
  Speaker 10: which is just going to keep putting pressure onto our
• 36:25
  Speaker 10: government finances. But I think a new government, should we
• 36:29
  Speaker 10: get one in a few years, needs to actually prioritise
• 36:32
  Speaker 10: reducing government size by cutting spending and taxes because the
• 36:36
  Speaker 10: cost of getting ourselves out of this mess and embracing
• 36:39
  Speaker 10: this technology is going to be having to run those
• 36:42
  Speaker 10: deficits for a bit longer, in my view.
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: All right, I'll leave it there. Thank you, Warren. Hey,
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: I just want to say something about some of the
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: coverage today. A lot of people were talking about the
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: falling birth rate. No, it's... It's a birth rate that's falling. Sorry,
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: they're talking about a falling fertility rate. It's not a
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: falling fertility rate. We have a lot of people getting
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: pregnant in this country. We just don't have a lot
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: of live births. So let's make sure we get that right.
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: It's a birth rate, not a fertility rate. Quick break
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: after the break. We're going to get into some polling
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: again and land tax. The debate in Victoria, that's heating
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: up as well. Coming up. This bonkers campaign for Australia
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: to join the EU. I'd like to hear what Anthony
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: Albanese had to say about this one today. Let's get
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: back into that polling now. Labor's primary vote plunging today
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: to 27%, the lowest news poll result since 2012. It
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: got worse on the Gillard to 26%. That's pretty close
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: to it, isn't it? Redbridge Group Australia Director Kosomaris joins
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: me now. Kos, give me your analysis on this number
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: today because, you know, it belies the fact that Labor
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: has got its highest ever parliamentary majority in history. At
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: the same time, it's nearly at some of its lowest
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: polling numbers in history.
• 38:04
  Speaker 11: Yeah, and you could still end up with 70 seats
• 38:07
  Speaker 11: either with these numbers, right, and not 75, which is
• 38:10
  Speaker 11: the magic number to actually win. But it's the new
• 38:13
  Speaker 11: world we live in. So a party can basically win
• 38:16
  Speaker 11: an election with a majority of seats by simply just
• 38:20
  Speaker 11: hovering around 30%. And we could see that down in Victoria.
• 38:23
  Speaker 11: We have an election come November and the coalition is
• 38:26
  Speaker 11: at 30%. And on that number alone, 30%, that could
• 38:30
  Speaker 11: end up within excess of 50 state seats.
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: So when you look at the numbers federally, the only
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: thing Labor's really got going for it is the fact
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: that the 70% of the electorate out there who don't
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: want Labor in office are split across a multitude, predominantly
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: on the right, but there is some on the left
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: with the Greens, a multitude of parties on the right.
• 38:54
  Speaker 11: Yeah, that's right. And they're geographically contained too. So a
• 38:58
  Speaker 11: lot of that vote is in regional Australia. So I
• 39:00
  Speaker 11: wouldn't rule out, unless something changes, and it can change,
• 39:03
  Speaker 11: we are living through an absolutely transformative period in our democracy.
• 39:07
  Speaker 11: You end up with a lot of Labor seats in
• 39:09
  Speaker 11: the big cities and a lot of One Nation seats
• 39:11
  Speaker 11: in the bush and the regions and provincial centres. So
• 39:13
  Speaker 11: that means Labor will lose pretty much most of its
• 39:17
  Speaker 11: regional real estate, whatever it's got left to One Nation,
• 39:19
  Speaker 11: unless something changes in the polls.
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: The Prime Minister's tactic of, on one hand, saying he's
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: not concerned about One Nation, but then... throwing them in
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: at every opportunity when he does media, and going after, Clinton-like,
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: going after the voter bloc, demonising Pauline Hanson, sure, but
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: almost going so far as to call her supporters deplorables.
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: If he's losing people to One Nation, this is highly
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: likely to bring them back.
• 39:51
  Speaker 11: No, look, my advice to whether you're on the Labor
• 39:54
  Speaker 11: side or the Coalition side and thinking about how you
• 39:56
  Speaker 11: fix your problem with regards to One Nation, One Nation
• 40:00
  Speaker 11: exists because the two-party system has failed a lot of
• 40:03
  Speaker 11: Australians and that's how they feel. And so the solution is, well,
• 40:07
  Speaker 11: you better get your reform hats on and offer some
• 40:10
  Speaker 11: hope for many, many Australians who feel like the political
• 40:13
  Speaker 11: system up until recently has abandoned them.
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: OK, give me a take on what's going on in Victoria,
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: because we're not far out from that election there on
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: November 28. It's September now. I think I've got two
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: news polls to expect in that time. You'll have plenty
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: of polls out, but it doesn't poll like we are
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: seeing polls at a national level. You talk about, I guess,
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: that 50-seat possibility for the Liberals, but there's also every
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: chance that Labor could dig in in 12 or so
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: seats and hold on, even though across the board the
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: governments are popular, the coalition will get close but no cigar.
• 40:52
  Speaker 11: Yeah, that's a possibility, but that's a very narrow window now.
• 40:57
  Speaker 11: The basic of what I'm seeing in Victoria is people
• 41:00
  Speaker 11: That's really shifting. Absolutely. I'm seeing a very significant, sizeable
• 41:05
  Speaker 11: number of Victorians wanting a change. They can't bring themselves
• 41:09
  Speaker 11: to think about what that change may look like. Some
• 41:12
  Speaker 11: are going to the coalition. Some are going to One Nation. Look,
• 41:16
  Speaker 11: I wouldn't rule out and go to your point. Yes,
• 41:19
  Speaker 11: Labor can get there, but, jeez, they need to throw
• 41:21
  Speaker 11: a few home areas to get there. But most likely
• 41:25
  Speaker 11: result is Jess Wilson is able to cobble together a
• 41:28
  Speaker 11: majority in her own right. through that three-way contest paradigm
• 41:32
  Speaker 11: that's now emerged in Australian politics.
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: And just quickly a comment from you on an issue
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: like land tax. Is that turning up in your polling? Oh, yeah.
• 41:41
  Speaker 11: Yeah, that's taxing assets. And who do you hurt the most?
• 41:46
  Speaker 11: You hurt the individuals who are cash poor and asset rich,
• 41:49
  Speaker 11: and that's working-class people. That's a lot of Labor's base,
• 41:53
  Speaker 11: and it was an incredibly class-blind policy by the Victorian
• 41:57
  Speaker 11: Labor government when they introduced it.
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: Any chance it'll be for the chop?
• 42:03
  Speaker 11: If I was in Ben Carroll's shoes, I would be
• 42:05
  Speaker 11: getting rid of it straight away.
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: All right, we'll see what happens there. I know a
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: lot of Victorians will be cheering that move. Costa Maris,
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: thank you. Quick break after the break. Anthony Almanese and
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: this idea that Australia joins the European Union. I said
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: he's not intellectually clever, but clearly he's not geographically smart either.
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: Monday night panel after the break. My wonderful Monday night
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: panel joins me now, former Liberal MP Nicole Flint and
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: One Nation National Director James Ashby. Welcome to you both.
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: First up, James, the PM's refused to rule out that
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: Australia follows the lead of Canada and that we consider
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: joining the European Union as, quote, an associate member. Clearly
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: he hasn't got a geographic globe on his desk. This
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: is nuts. Yeah, nuts is an understatement.
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of more harsh language that's probably been
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: sworn at the TV over this simple idea.
• 43:09
  Speaker 6: It is dumb.
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: And, look, you only need to have a look at
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: what the EU suffered, or should I say England suffered,
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: when they had to try and get out of the EU.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: It comes with a multi-billion dollar price tag, as England
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: found out. And the other big issue that they had
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: was the EU demands open borders. I'm not sure Australians
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: want that. We've already got an immigration issue in this country...
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: And any word that the Prime Minister is suggesting that
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: we should join those open borders is clearly silly. And again,
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: it's just another mess that one nation government would have
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: to clean up when we get rid of this toxic
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: Labor government.
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: And, Nicole, of course, the EU subsidises its farmers. So
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: all the money we'd be paying the EU would be
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: subsidising French farmers or Dutch farmers, obviously not our own farmers,
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: and we couldn't compete fairly with them anyway. Why would
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: we do this?
• 44:04
  Speaker 9: Well, we absolutely shouldn't, Peter. This is just another bizarre
• 44:08
  Speaker 9: policy suggestion by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who seems to
• 44:13
  Speaker 9: enjoy spending more time overseas than he does here at
• 44:16
  Speaker 9: home in Australia. He's clearly running away from his problems,
• 44:19
  Speaker 9: trying to create friends wherever he can because he's friendless here.
• 44:23
  Speaker 9: And we've got to ask, really, is he setting up
• 44:26
  Speaker 9: his post-politics career?
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: Well, Chris Bowen certainly is. And I tell you, the
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: Prime Minister, rather than sit over in New York, he
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: should get out in country roads like I was on
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: the weekend. I had some vision at the top of
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: the show of this horrific pothole on the Western Highway
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: just out on the Melbourne side, just out of Horsham.
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: What's the roads like over your way, Nick? You're in
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: the country.
• 44:48
  Speaker 9: Peter, our roads have never been in worse condition. I've
• 44:51
  Speaker 9: been running a social media campaign on this over the
• 44:53
  Speaker 9: past 12 months.
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: It is absolutely shocking.
• 44:56
  Speaker 9: I had an opinion piece published in the Daily Telegraph
• 44:59
  Speaker 9: and around the nation just before the Bush summit suggesting
• 45:02
  Speaker 9: that the Prime Minister and Premier Peter Pothole Malinowskis and
• 45:07
  Speaker 9: Chris Minns should actually drive themselves to Dubbo, not fly
• 45:10
  Speaker 9: in and out. Of course, they just got on their
• 45:12
  Speaker 9: taxpayer benefits. funded planes so they're not seeing the reality
• 45:15
  Speaker 9: of how dangerous it is here in the bush and
• 45:18
  Speaker 9: the huge expense incurred when you either have to make
• 45:21
  Speaker 9: an insurance claim because you've done some catastrophic damage to
• 45:25
  Speaker 9: your vehicle you know let alone putting your life at
• 45:28
  Speaker 9: risk and we saw a tragic death in Victoria recently,
• 45:31
  Speaker 9: but Labor premiers and prime ministers, they're not listening to
• 45:35
  Speaker 9: country people. The polls are telling them that they should listen. So, Peter,
• 45:39
  Speaker 9: I have a very creative solution because they're not listening
• 45:42
  Speaker 9: to the media, they're not listening to me, they're not listening.
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: To the polls.
• 45:45
  Speaker 9: I think we need you to head to every state
• 45:48
  Speaker 9: and federal parliament and crack the whip because I saw
• 45:51
  Speaker 9: some very impressive footage on your Instagram account over the
• 45:54
  Speaker 9: weekend where you were... Doing just that, and I think
• 45:58
  Speaker 9: if you turned up and whipped them into shape, we
• 46:01
  Speaker 9: might finally see this problem solved.
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: You can take the girl out of country. Nikof, you
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: can't take the country out of the girl. I probably
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: had that grabbed. Let's have a look. Boys, have we
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: got that? I know what I'm talking about when it
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: comes to cracking a whip, figuratively and literally. Locals turned
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: up to protest. This is the Yass Valley to protest
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: a wind farm project that will see 90 wind turbines
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: built on land that's used to treat veterans with post-traumatic
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: stress disorder. Now, to make things worse here, James, one
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: of the big investors in this project is the Commonwealth
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: Superannuation Corporation, which which is a super fund for the military.
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, look, the military has always been well regarded throughout
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: regional parts of Australia, but they lose their social licence
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: when they don't listen to a community. And to think
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: that over 400 letters have been written, not just to
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: this organisation, this superannuation group, but to various other investors
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: and to the government, of course, as well, saying as
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: a community, we don't want these wind turbines. 90 of
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: these ghastly, ugly-looking things on a landscape would not pass
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: the pub test in Sydney, for example, or any major
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: capital city across this country. Why do these people think
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: that you can do it to rural and regional Australia?
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: And then for this gutless men's government to turn around
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: and say, oh, you know, it's terrible for this superannuation
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: organisation to be doing this. No, the state government and
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: federal Labor government paved the way for these ugly things
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: to be put right across this country And I'm sorry,
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: there has to be some accountability and responsibility taken by
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: this government. That's why I think the Minns government will
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: suffer some backlash at this state election next February in
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: New South Wales, because no one wants these things. And
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: when is this country going to wake up and start
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: listening to rural Australia?
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: Well, they're finally back in rural Australia, Nick, like I've
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: never seen. There's a couple of projects in Victoria now
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: that have been absolutely cancelled. All up and down the
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: New South Wales south coast, none of those offshore wind
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: farms are going ahead. I think country people have had enough.
• 48:22
  Speaker 9: We absolutely have, Peter, whether it's the roads, whether it's
• 48:25
  Speaker 9: the lack of basic health care, whether it's our beautiful landscape,
• 48:30
  Speaker 9: our environment, but also our farming land being attacked and
• 48:34
  Speaker 9: polluted by wind farms, solar panels and power lines. Yeah,
• 48:38
  Speaker 9: people have had enough and it takes a lot to
• 48:40
  Speaker 9: get country people out. and protesting like this. It just
• 48:43
  Speaker 9: goes to show that we won't put up with this
• 48:46
  Speaker 9: any longer and the Prime Minister and Labor premiers around
• 48:50
  Speaker 9: the country should be getting the message loud and clear
• 48:52
  Speaker 9: and I can't wait to see the Victorian Labor government
• 48:55
  Speaker 9: kicked out in particular because they've done more damage than most.
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: I will leave it there. Thank you both. See you
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: next week. That's it for me. I won't be with
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: you tomorrow night. I've got a family funeral in the bush,
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: but I will be back on Wednesday night. Thank you
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: for everything, though. Here is the Bump Report.