Latest / The Kenny Report / The Kenny Report | 23 January

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The Kenny Report | 23 January · The Kenny Report

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Speaker 1: Live from Washington, DC.
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Speaker 2: This is the Kenny Report.
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Speaker 1: Thanks for joining me. Chris Kenny here live in Washington,
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Speaker 1: d C.
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Speaker 3: Trying to unpack for you and historic week, a week
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Speaker 3: that has dramatically changed this city. Remember, Washington, DC is
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Speaker 3: like the camera bubble on steroids. Ninety four percent of
0:23
Speaker 3: the people in Washington, d C. Voted Democrat, so this
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Speaker 3: week is a huge cultural shift for them and are
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Speaker 3: still reverberating through the national capital of the United States.
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Speaker 3: It's also a week, of course, that has changed the country.
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Speaker 3: America today is bolder, stronger, freer, and certainly more optimistic
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Speaker 3: than it was just.
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Speaker 1: A week ago. And it's also a week that has
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Speaker 1: changed the world.
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Speaker 3: The world is going to be different now directly because
0:53
Speaker 3: of some of the decisions that Donald Trump has already initiated.
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Speaker 1: Nobody can avoid that, but the world will also.
1:00
Speaker 3: It's so changed because so many people and politicians around
1:03
Speaker 3: the world will follow Donald Trump's lead. The world's also
1:08
Speaker 3: going to be different because there are so many controversial
1:11
Speaker 3: issues where people have been too timid or too frightened
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Speaker 3: to speak out in the past. Because Donald Trump is
1:17
Speaker 3: tackling some of those issues, people are going to speak
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Speaker 3: about them. More fruitly right around the globe. There's no
1:23
Speaker 3: doubt about that. I want to give you one small
1:25
Speaker 3: example of that. Because Donald Trump has made so many decisions,
1:30
Speaker 3: hundreds of executive actions and decisions already just in three days,
1:34
Speaker 3: and some of these are going to be directly pertinent
1:37
Speaker 3: to Australia. They're going to play directly into the Australian
1:41
Speaker 3: political debate. And one of these relates to the flag,
1:45
Speaker 3: in this case the American flag. But it's a one
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Speaker 3: flag policy for the United States announced by Donald Trump.
1:53
Speaker 1: Here is how the News has reported it here.
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Speaker 3: And US embassies abroad can no longer fly pride flags
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Speaker 3: or Black Lives Matter flags, the State Department saying it's
2:02
Speaker 3: time to take pride in the American flag again. How
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Speaker 3: do you reckon that looks to Peter Dutton back in Australia.
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Speaker 3: How smart does Peter Dutton look now talking about one
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Speaker 3: flag for Australia. This debate plays into the Australian debate directly,
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Speaker 3: just in one small issue, and it demonstrates yet again
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Speaker 3: how Peter Dutton and the Coalition just might be running
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Speaker 3: with the zeitgeist for a change.
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Speaker 1: The political wins are blowing.
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Speaker 3: In the right direction for Peter Dutton and the Coalition
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Speaker 3: as a consequence of not only Donald Trump's election win,
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Speaker 3: but of the way that he's actually started this incredible
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Speaker 3: and historic second turn. And there's another issue that I
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Speaker 3: want to pick out that emphasizes this point in a
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Speaker 3: much more substantial way, and it relates to climate and energy.
2:51
Speaker 3: And you'll see in a moment that an Australian former
2:54
Speaker 3: labor politician has played strongly into this debate. But just
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Speaker 3: to set it up, of course, I want to remind
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Speaker 3: you that Donald Trump has changed America's climate and energy
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Speaker 3: policy overnight. He's taking America out of the Paris Agreement again.
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Speaker 3: He's declared a national energy emergency in the US, and
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Speaker 3: he's ramped up energy production. He's ramping up energy production
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Speaker 3: when it comes to gas in particular and nuclear energy.
3:20
Speaker 1: Here's the president.
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Speaker 4: The inflation crisis was caused by massive overspending and escalating
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Speaker 4: energy prices. And that is why today I will also
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Speaker 4: declare a national energy emergency.
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Speaker 5: We will drill, baby, drill well.
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Speaker 3: In Australia, of course, we also have an energy crisis.
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Speaker 3: We have a self made energy supply and affordability crisis.
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Speaker 3: The trouble is our government doesn't talk about that our
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Speaker 3: government and he talks about some so called climate emergency. Now,
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Speaker 3: having seen what Donald Trump has done, former Labor Defense
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Speaker 3: Minister Joel Fitzgibbon is now saying that Anthony Alberezi and
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Speaker 3: Labor must pull.
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Speaker 1: Back on their climate action.
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Speaker 3: They must recalibrate downwards their climate and energy policies, have
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Speaker 3: a look.
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Speaker 6: Obviously, I want Labor to win the next election, and
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Speaker 6: I think that it'll be a mistake not to rethink
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Speaker 6: things in the wake of both the election and what's
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Speaker 6: coming after the election. I mean, our election in Australia
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Speaker 6: is going to be coming well before President Trump's had
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Speaker 6: the opportunity to make mistakes. So this momentum is going
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Speaker 6: to be with us for some time to come, and
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Speaker 6: I think it is a time to listen to what
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Speaker 6: people are saying. Labor Party will always be strong on
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Speaker 6: climate change, will always be stronger than our opponents. But
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Speaker 6: we've seen what overreach does. We've seen the outcome of
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Speaker 6: overreach here in the United States, and we need to
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Speaker 6: be careful not to overreach at home as well.
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Speaker 1: Well.
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Speaker 3: That's some very sound advice from Joel Fitzgibbon, isn't it.
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Speaker 3: That's very sound and sage advice to Anthony Alberzi and
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Speaker 3: Chris Bowen that they should scale back their climate policy ambitions.
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Speaker 3: I don't think they'll listen, though. They should listen to
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Speaker 3: Joel Fitzgibbon. But sadly I think Anthony Alberzi listens too
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Speaker 3: much to Chris Bowen. Just have a look at these
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Speaker 3: headlines in Australia today. They're not reading what's happening globally.
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Speaker 3: They're not taking heed of what Donald Trump has done. Instead,
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Speaker 3: they're tipping two billion dollars more of your money into
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Speaker 3: green energy funds. So I don't think they're taking the
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Speaker 3: right action there. ALBANIZI would do well to stop listening
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Speaker 3: to Chris Bowen and start listening to Joel Fitzgibbon. I'll
5:43
Speaker 3: have that full Joel Fitzgibbon interview later in the program. Now,
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Speaker 3: I just want to look at another Trump action that
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Speaker 3: is going to reverberate right around the world. You all
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Speaker 3: know about diversity, equity and inclusion policies put in governments
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Speaker 3: around the world. They're rampant in bureaucracies and they're increasingly
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Speaker 3: ramping of course in the corporate world. Well, Donald Trump,
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Speaker 3: as of five pm this evening, as of eight hours
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Speaker 3: ago American time, scrapped DEI policies across the federal government.
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Speaker 1: Have a look.
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Speaker 7: The Trump administration has also ordered all federal employees in diversity,
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Speaker 7: equity and inclusion roles to be placed on paid leave
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Speaker 7: by the end of the day today. A new memo
6:27
Speaker 7: issued yesterday, so the deadline of no later than five
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Speaker 7: pm Eastern to inform employees they'll be put on paid
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Speaker 7: leave as agencies prepare to close all DEI related offices
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Speaker 7: and programs and remove all websites and social media accounts.
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Speaker 7: So what's the argument behind the scenes for getting rid
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Speaker 7: of the DEI initiatives? Is it just for getting rid
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Speaker 7: of woke?
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Speaker 1: Yeah?
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Speaker 8: I think that that, frankly, is the argument. I mean,
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Speaker 8: I think that you know as well as I do
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Speaker 8: that there are few things that President Trump said in
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Speaker 8: those rallies more than that he would get rid of
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Speaker 8: the wok ideology and he would get rid of DEI
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Speaker 8: practices and instead put back what they call meritocracy.
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Speaker 3: Getting rid of woke, bringing back meritocracy. Perish the thought, Hey,
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Speaker 3: this is just wonderful news. This is sensible news. This
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Speaker 3: is as Donald Trump would say, this is a revolution
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Speaker 3: in common sense. And of course this is going to
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Speaker 3: resonate in Australia too. This is a clarion call, of
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Speaker 3: course to Peter Dutton and the Coalition. They can jump
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Speaker 3: on board the zeitgeist here again and look at de policies,
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Speaker 3: all the sort of rubbish that's going on in the
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Speaker 3: Australian bureaucracy, state and federal, and of course especially in
7:34
Speaker 3: the corporate world as well. Now, Donald Trump today has
7:39
Speaker 3: given his first one on one interviews since being inaugurated
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Speaker 3: for his second term. As you know, he's hardly stopped
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Speaker 3: talking speeches chats with.
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Speaker 1: The media in the Oval office.
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Speaker 3: But he did a one on one interview tonight with
7:49
Speaker 3: Sean Hannity from Fox News, and one of the things
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Speaker 3: he talked about is why he is in two minds
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Speaker 3: about whether or not to launch investigations into the activities
8:01
Speaker 3: of his PREDECESSM.
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Speaker 9: I went through four years of hell by this scum
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Speaker 9: that we had to deal with. I went through four
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Speaker 9: years of hell. I spent millions of dollars in legal
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Speaker 9: phase and I won, but I did it the hard way.
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Speaker 3: There we go Donald Trump saying he's been through four
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Speaker 3: years of hell and he's not certain whether he wants
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Speaker 3: to put Joe Biden or anyone else through that. Let
8:30
Speaker 3: me bring in again a US analyst, Kristen Tight joining
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Speaker 3: me up here.
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Speaker 1: Thanks to joining us. Kristen, what do you think about that?
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Speaker 3: Donald Trump being quite ambivalent about whether there should be
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Speaker 3: congressional or other inquiries into Joe Bidden, even after he's
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Speaker 3: part in all of his family.
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Speaker 10: Well, that's part of what makes Trump so effective, as
8:46
Speaker 10: you never know what to expect from him. He does
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Speaker 10: from him, He doesn't show his cards. That's part of
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Speaker 10: why he was so effective in his first term in
8:53
Speaker 10: foreign policy.
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Speaker 11: Our adversaries never knew what he was going to do.
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Speaker 10: One minute he was meeting with Kim John Un, the
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Speaker 10: next he was dropping missiles on Syria. So he's kind
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Speaker 10: of taking the same approach here and it keeps it
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Speaker 10: keeps the Democrats on.
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Speaker 1: Hilert.
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Speaker 3: I think also it's very clear Donald Trump is focused
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Speaker 3: on the future right here. Yes, he's done so much,
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Speaker 3: and he's launched so many He's got so much on
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Speaker 3: his plate, and.
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Speaker 1: I think maybe that's something he learned from the Democrats.
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Speaker 3: They were so focused on the past on him that
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Speaker 3: they lost sight of what they're doing.
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Speaker 1: This is like it wants to change the country in
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Speaker 1: the future. Yeah.
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Speaker 10: Action, action, action, And what I've loved in terms of
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Speaker 10: what he's done so far is so much of it
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Speaker 10: is not just symbolic. These are real actions. You mentioned
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Speaker 10: earlier in the show about the DEI mandates. This is
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Speaker 10: something real that he's going to take place right now.
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Speaker 10: And guess what, you know, the Left is going to
9:43
Speaker 10: melt down over that and have a big hissy fit.
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Speaker 10: But at the end of the day, the American people,
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Speaker 10: their lives won't be affected at all, and we will
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Speaker 10: see that these government bureaucrats working on DEI were doing
9:54
Speaker 10: nothing to improve the lives of the American people. So
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Speaker 10: that's one example of many. We're action, big action, not
9:59
Speaker 10: symbol not just talking.
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Speaker 1: Action is happening.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, just to emphasize that point for the audience in Australia,
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Speaker 3: action on DEI. This meant immediately the departmental websites advertising
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Speaker 3: DEI goals and aims and jobs scrapped. They are now
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Speaker 3: blank on American government websites, and the staff in the
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Speaker 3: bureaucracies who were running DEI have been sent on late.
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Speaker 1: They're on paid lead. Now I see if they can
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Speaker 1: find them another job.
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Speaker 3: So it's really happening, and the left eye starting to
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Speaker 3: oc up. He's an example of people winging about this
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Speaker 3: new policy.
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Speaker 12: If they make good on their promise of wiping it
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Speaker 12: out completely across government, this stands to impact a lot
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Speaker 12: more Americans than many may realize. I mean, the Biden
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Speaker 12: administration expanded DEI to also include people like women in
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Speaker 12: the workplace, the pregnant women, military spouses, formerly incarcerated caregivers,
10:53
Speaker 12: disabled vets are also under that.
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Speaker 1: Umbrella of DEI.
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Speaker 12: So when you talk about completely wiping out these programs,
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Speaker 12: it's not just people of color, It's not just people
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Speaker 12: within the LGBTQ community. It is a wide swath of Americans.
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Speaker 12: And as one group said to me, at some point
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Speaker 12: in your life, every American will fall under the umbrella
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Speaker 12: of DEI and benefit from these programs.
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Speaker 1: Christian, this is just hilarious.
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Speaker 3: You gotta keep DEI because everybody's covered by des I.
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Speaker 1: Watched the point of DEI.
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Speaker 10: No, the whole thing's ridiculous, and the Left will try
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Speaker 10: to scare Americans because of this. But again we will
11:33
Speaker 10: see what will happen when you get rid of it,
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Speaker 10: which is nothing. The American people won't see their lives
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Speaker 10: any worse for it. And in fact, the EI can
11:41
Speaker 10: be dangerous when you're talking about putting people in charge
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Speaker 10: of things like national security or our airspace because they
11:48
Speaker 10: check a box rather than merit. I love how Donald
11:50
Speaker 10: Trump has really emphasized merit in this administration.
11:54
Speaker 3: In areas such as air traffic controller. What possible use
11:58
Speaker 3: could diversity be there? You want the best people in
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Speaker 3: the job for public safety.
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Speaker 1: I want to go back to this interview, that.
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Speaker 3: One on one interview that Donald Trump gave in the
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Speaker 3: Oval Office to Sean Hannity. Have a listen to this,
12:10
Speaker 3: because this is an incredible insight I think into what
12:14
Speaker 3: Donald Trump's thinking and what he's thought about what's transpired
12:17
Speaker 3: over the last four years. He's telling us what might
12:20
Speaker 3: not have happened if he had a stayed in the
12:22
Speaker 3: White House instead of lost four years ago.
12:25
Speaker 9: I felt that we shouldn't have had a necessarily be here,
12:29
Speaker 9: could have been done, a lot of work could it
12:33
Speaker 9: would have been over. We wouldn't have infleation, we wouldn't
12:35
Speaker 9: have had the afghanistaners ass we wouldn't have Octopter seventh
12:39
Speaker 9: with Israel or so many people were killed, and you
12:42
Speaker 9: wouldn't have a Ukraine war Gyelin Christin.
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Speaker 3: I think there's a lot of truth in that. I mean,
12:47
Speaker 3: you don't want to look back again, but it's true
12:49
Speaker 3: that Putin wouldn't have been aggressive. It's true that a
12:51
Speaker 3: run with Harmas might not have been as aggressive either.
12:54
Speaker 3: I mean, this is why he has to catch up
12:56
Speaker 3: on all these big issues.
12:57
Speaker 11: Now, yeah, let's not forget.
12:58
Speaker 10: Right before Russia invaded, Biden was up there saying that
13:01
Speaker 10: a minor incursion by the Russians would result in essentially
13:05
Speaker 10: a wrist slap. He was weak on Israel. President Biden
13:10
Speaker 10: was and the whole world was able to see that
13:12
Speaker 10: we had a vegetable as the president of the United States.
13:16
Speaker 10: No one was in charge of this country. It was
13:18
Speaker 10: very clear. While the media was insisting, oh, he's never
13:21
Speaker 10: been sharper than he was, our foes around the world
13:24
Speaker 10: knew that under President Biden, that was the time for
13:27
Speaker 10: them to take bold actions. We did not see these
13:29
Speaker 10: kinds of actions happening during Trump's first term.
13:32
Speaker 3: And of course, one of the areas where Joe Biden
13:34
Speaker 3: and his team were so weak, was of course on
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Speaker 3: the border. Here's Donald Trump on what's happening now when
13:39
Speaker 3: it comes to strengthening border control.
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Speaker 9: We have a lot of great people right now, a
13:45
Speaker 9: lot of great, great people on this situation. This was
13:50
Speaker 9: a gross miscarriage of common sense to allow people to
13:54
Speaker 9: come in. And I believe the numbers twenty one million
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Speaker 9: people and a large percentage of the them are criminals.
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Speaker 1: All over the world.
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Speaker 9: This is not just South America. This isn't you know.
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Speaker 9: We talked Venezuela. That's a big abuser. But these are
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Speaker 9: countries from these rands to Congo, the countries that you
14:13
Speaker 9: don't even think of. The Congo has emptied their prisons
14:15
Speaker 9: out into the United States.
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Speaker 3: Look, it's a stant of Mee Kristin, and we have
14:21
Speaker 3: border of security issues in Australia, but nothing like this.
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Speaker 3: It astounds me just how this issue resonates with people
14:28
Speaker 3: because there have been so many crimes, because there is
14:31
Speaker 3: such concern about these issues.
14:33
Speaker 1: The President referred to.
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Speaker 10: Then, yes, Trump says twenty one million people have entered
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Speaker 10: the country illegally since Biden took office. It's at least
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Speaker 10: ten million, It's somewhere in that Ballpark. Just for reference
14:43
Speaker 10: for your viewers. Our biggest city in America is New
14:46
Speaker 10: York City. Eight million people live in that city. So essentially,
14:49
Speaker 10: the Biden administration imported without the consent or knowledge of
14:52
Speaker 10: the American people, perhaps several New York cities worth of immigrants,
14:57
Speaker 10: and they are spread out around the country.
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Speaker 1: Now.
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Speaker 10: In Boston, minutes from where I lived, Chris, a couple
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Speaker 10: of months ago, a pregnant woman was viciously raped by
15:04
Speaker 10: an illegal immigrant. You go to hospitals, you face very
15:08
Speaker 10: long wait times. The schools in my area up in
15:10
Speaker 10: Boston are flooded with non English speaking students. This is
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Speaker 10: everywhere in the United States are facing consequences because of
15:17
Speaker 10: the last administration's open border.
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Speaker 1: All right, I just want to give my director back
15:21
Speaker 1: in Australia a bit of a clue.
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Speaker 3: I want to jump ahead a bit because there's so
15:24
Speaker 3: much that Donald Trump's had to say here.
15:25
Speaker 1: I want to go to Donald Trump speaking.
15:27
Speaker 3: About the assassination attempt on his life back there in Butler, Pennsylvania,
15:32
Speaker 3: and in this interview with Sean Hannity focused on whether
15:36
Speaker 3: this changed Donald Trump's faith.
15:40
Speaker 4: If I didn't turn.
15:41
Speaker 9: The turn was like split second, perfect timing. So something happened,
15:48
Speaker 9: and I don't think you can call it just luck.
15:53
Speaker 9: It was the chance was like one eighth of a second,
15:58
Speaker 9: or we wouldn't be sitting here. I think of it
16:00
Speaker 9: in a volume of time. One eighth of a second.
16:03
Speaker 9: I was in the right position. Do you believe that
16:07
Speaker 9: moment people say to me they see a change in you.
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Speaker 9: Do you believe you've changed? Is this, for example, increased
16:14
Speaker 9: your faith in God?
16:16
Speaker 1: Yes?
16:16
Speaker 9: I think so. I don't think I've changed, but I
16:18
Speaker 9: think that has taken place here because when you look
16:23
Speaker 9: at statistically, I should never be here.
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Speaker 1: He hasn't changed, Kristen, but he has more faith.
16:30
Speaker 10: I mean, how could he not have more faith after
16:33
Speaker 10: that moment? And I think he has changed. We've seen
16:35
Speaker 10: a transformation take place with Donald Trump. You can see
16:38
Speaker 10: he's more thoughtful and he really appreciates he said this.
16:43
Speaker 10: He has said this, every day on earth is a gift,
16:45
Speaker 10: and I think, how could that not change his perspective?
16:48
Speaker 1: Well, we're on faith.
16:49
Speaker 3: I want to remind views of what the bishop said
16:52
Speaker 3: at the National Cathedral in Washington yesterday.
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Speaker 13: There are gay, lesbian, entransgender children, and some who fear
17:01
Speaker 13: for their lives and the people, the people who pick
17:05
Speaker 13: our crops and clean our office buildings. They may not
17:09
Speaker 13: be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast
17:15
Speaker 13: majority of immigrants are not criminals.
17:20
Speaker 3: Okay, there she is with reminded people of what she
17:22
Speaker 3: had to say right in front of the president. Well,
17:24
Speaker 3: of course today she's a lefty hero.
17:28
Speaker 1: I was struck by your tone.
17:29
Speaker 13: You were so gentle, you were so respectful.
17:31
Speaker 1: You were very demure and very mindful.
17:34
Speaker 7: You seem to strike a nerve.
17:36
Speaker 3: You seem to have more fearlessness than anyone in Congress
17:39
Speaker 3: right now.
17:39
Speaker 13: Man, my responsibility that morning, yesterday morning, was to reflect,
17:45
Speaker 13: to pray with the nation for unity. I was trying
17:48
Speaker 13: to counter the narrative that is so so divisive and
17:54
Speaker 13: polarizing and in which people, real people are being being harmed.
18:02
Speaker 1: I don't know about that, Kristin. I think she was
18:04
Speaker 1: just a rude virtue signal though. Yeah.
18:06
Speaker 10: And I just want to say that putting Trump in
18:08
Speaker 10: the room with that bishop was a huge failure by
18:10
Speaker 10: Trump's advanced team. This is a bishop who, in twenty
18:13
Speaker 10: twenty under BLM, after the rioters burned down Saint John's
18:17
Speaker 10: Church in Washington, went on a huge media tour slamming
18:20
Speaker 10: not the rioters, but Donald Trump. So they should have
18:23
Speaker 10: never put him in the room with that woman.
18:24
Speaker 1: They should have seen that one was coming. That's all
18:26
Speaker 1: the time we got tonight. Kristin. It's been so good
18:28
Speaker 1: to have you on the program all week.
18:30
Speaker 3: Thanks so much for braving the bit a cold here
18:33
Speaker 3: in Washington and joining us in.
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Speaker 10: It's been an honor, Chris to share this historic moment
18:37
Speaker 10: with you and your viewers.
18:38
Speaker 11: Thanks for having me.
18:38
Speaker 1: Great stuff. We'll talk to you from Oz next week.
18:41
Speaker 1: That sounds good, Kristin, tight there now.
18:43
Speaker 3: I want to get back to this climate issue and
18:45
Speaker 3: the message for Anthony Albanesi back in Australia, because Joel Fitzgimven,
18:49
Speaker 3: the former Defense Minister, has been in Washington. He's seen
18:53
Speaker 3: events unfold here and he reckons it's time for Anthony
18:57
Speaker 3: Albanesi and Labor to pullback on their climate ambitions. Have
19:01
Speaker 3: a look, joffit's given. Thanks for joining us, Jee. It's
19:05
Speaker 3: been an eventful week, hasn't it. Let's go through some
19:08
Speaker 3: of it. Let's start with Aucus. How is Aucus looking
19:11
Speaker 3: under Donald Trump?
19:12
Speaker 1: Two point eight.
19:13
Speaker 6: August is looking really good. I've had a conversation with
19:16
Speaker 6: Kevin Rudd since our arrival, and he reports good news,
19:20
Speaker 6: and you know, when we run into the political classes here,
19:24
Speaker 6: there's nothing but praise and interest in the Orcust proposal.
19:28
Speaker 6: So I'm feeling pretty confident about that.
19:31
Speaker 1: Have you seen before anything like this?
19:34
Speaker 3: President sworn in, executive orders, scribbled off within half an
19:40
Speaker 3: hour or so, done up on stage, pulling out of Paris, sending.
19:45
Speaker 1: Troops to the southern border. It's incredible to watch, isn't it.
19:49
Speaker 6: No one of my age or younger Chris, has ever
19:52
Speaker 6: seen anything like this. It's a juggernaut and the reality
19:57
Speaker 6: is that you need to be here in Washington would
20:00
Speaker 6: know to fully appreciate the strength of the movement. He's
20:04
Speaker 6: got to be a little bit careful because obviously Washington's
20:07
Speaker 6: been overrun by red this week, so it's not the
20:11
Speaker 6: town it usually is. But there's no doubt that the
20:15
Speaker 6: movement has great momentum and it's going to have implications
20:20
Speaker 6: for countries right around the world.
20:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, the world has changed in this city this week.
20:24
Speaker 1: The world has changed.
20:25
Speaker 9: Now.
20:25
Speaker 3: There's going to be pushed back from the courts, from
20:28
Speaker 3: other countries, from legislatures around the place. But it has
20:32
Speaker 3: changed to some degree dramatically this week.
20:35
Speaker 6: Yeah, of course it has. One of the reasons Donald
20:38
Speaker 6: Trump looks so confident with a few reasons, but one
20:41
Speaker 6: of them is, you know, he's got the majority in
20:43
Speaker 6: both the House and the Senate, including the Oval Office.
20:47
Speaker 6: That's a great position of strength.
20:50
Speaker 1: And the conservative dominated Supreme Court.
20:52
Speaker 6: True, but he also has a mandate. It's certainly in
20:55
Speaker 6: his mind. And I thought he might have died down
20:58
Speaker 6: the retric a little in the Uniko speech, expectations management
21:02
Speaker 6: is important in politics, but he did not. He wounded
21:05
Speaker 6: up and doubled down, basically. So it's going to be
21:09
Speaker 6: an interesting and wild ride.
21:11
Speaker 3: The border's closed already, reports a few people coming through
21:14
Speaker 3: on the Mexican border.
21:15
Speaker 1: Troops are going down there.
21:16
Speaker 3: When it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion, websites on
21:21
Speaker 3: government departments have already been cleaned.
21:23
Speaker 1: I mean, the change is actually happening immediately.
21:25
Speaker 6: Well, he's tapped into something, and whether you agree with
21:28
Speaker 6: it or not, it doesn't matter. He's tapped into a
21:31
Speaker 6: population not unlike most Western democracies at the moment, where
21:36
Speaker 6: people think things are in decline, they're not happy with
21:39
Speaker 6: their light in life and they're looking for a disruptor,
21:42
Speaker 6: and Donald Trump's nothing if not a disruptor.
21:45
Speaker 1: Now you mentioned Kevin Ruddy, you've caught up with him.
21:47
Speaker 3: Of course, you've been a longtime friend of his, A
21:49
Speaker 3: former prime minister, a former foreign minister, an arch critic
21:54
Speaker 3: of Donald Trump. Is he going to get the access
21:56
Speaker 3: that Australia needs.
21:58
Speaker 6: I've got no doubt that Kevin will continue you to
22:00
Speaker 6: be our ambassador. We talk to people here and they've
22:03
Speaker 6: got nothing but good things to say about him and
22:05
Speaker 6: the work he's been doing back at home. Except for me,
22:09
Speaker 6: we're the exception, but back at home not less and
22:14
Speaker 6: Peter Dutton and the like have been backing him in
22:17
Speaker 6: and praising the work he's doing. I think in the
22:19
Speaker 6: end people will see him for the work he does
22:22
Speaker 6: and his effectiveness, rather than anything he may or may
22:25
Speaker 6: not have said in the past.
22:26
Speaker 1: Now, you've always been a realist in the Labor Party
22:28
Speaker 1: when it comes to energy, and energy has been huge
22:31
Speaker 1: this week.
22:32
Speaker 3: Donald Trump has pulled America out of Paris. He's called
22:35
Speaker 3: a halt to some approvals when it comes to wind
22:38
Speaker 3: energy plans, and he's accelerating approvals when it comes.
22:41
Speaker 1: To oil and gas. Development.
22:43
Speaker 3: Doesn't this leave Australia even further exposed with our net
22:47
Speaker 3: zero ambitions?
22:48
Speaker 6: Well, I think, of course for a recalibration, I mean
22:51
Speaker 6: when you're melted all down.
22:52
Speaker 1: There are three.
22:53
Speaker 6: Key ways in which the Trump juggernaughder affects us in Australia.
22:57
Speaker 6: One direct policy issues like trade, for example, tariffs have
23:02
Speaker 6: a direct policy impact. Indirect policy impacts decisions made that
23:08
Speaker 6: don't directly affect us but certainly have a narck On effect,
23:11
Speaker 6: and climate change I think is an example of that.
23:15
Speaker 6: And the third way it impacts is that it emboldens
23:17
Speaker 6: people in other actions to be maybe more vocal and
23:22
Speaker 6: more opinionated. People who have been concerned for a while
23:25
Speaker 6: about the direction of things and Trump gives an agree
23:28
Speaker 6: light to have more to say about that. So I
23:32
Speaker 6: think all political parties in Australia and in every Western
23:35
Speaker 6: democracy would have to be rethinking and re calibrating, but
23:38
Speaker 6: their policy and campaigning approaches.
23:41
Speaker 3: When you say recalibrating on Paris and climate and energy,
23:45
Speaker 3: this means actually pulling back from net zero by twenty fifty.
23:49
Speaker 1: Doesn't it.
23:50
Speaker 3: We've got ahead of ourselves with the ambition, and if
23:52
Speaker 3: America is not going there. Why should other countries, least
23:55
Speaker 3: of all Australia damage itself in.
23:57
Speaker 1: Pursuit of that.
23:58
Speaker 6: Well, I certainly think it means listening more to what
24:02
Speaker 6: the evoting population is thinking and saying. In every democracy,
24:06
Speaker 6: but in including in Australia. I remember very vividly four
24:09
Speaker 6: years ago when Biden was elected the Labor Party in
24:13
Speaker 6: particularly sort of double down on climate change. Now Biden's in,
24:16
Speaker 6: who will be very strong on Paris and the like,
24:18
Speaker 6: and we can be stronger here too. I always thought
24:21
Speaker 6: that was a mistake, and now, of course four years on,
24:24
Speaker 6: times quickly in politics. Sometimes if you want to acknowledge
24:29
Speaker 6: Biden meant something about doing more, you've got to think
24:31
Speaker 6: about where the Trump being elected means something about something
24:35
Speaker 6: like recalibrating, at the very least doing less.
24:37
Speaker 3: Are you saying that Labour should be now doing less
24:39
Speaker 3: on a mission's reduction?
24:41
Speaker 6: Obviously I want Labor to win the next election, and
24:44
Speaker 6: I think that it would be a mistake not to
24:46
Speaker 6: rethink things in the wake of both the election and
24:48
Speaker 6: what's coming after the election. I mean, our election in
24:50
Speaker 6: Australia is going to be coming well before President Trump's
24:54
Speaker 6: had the opportunity to make mistakes. So this momentum is
24:58
Speaker 6: going to be with us for some time to come,
25:01
Speaker 6: and I think it is a time to listen to
25:03
Speaker 6: what people are saying. Labor Party will always be strong
25:07
Speaker 6: on climate change, will always be stronger than our opponents.
25:11
Speaker 6: But we've seen what overreach does. We've seen the outcome
25:15
Speaker 6: of overreach here in the United States, and we need
25:18
Speaker 6: to be careful not to overreach at home as well.
25:20
Speaker 1: Well.
25:20
Speaker 3: As we say, there's a big difference between weather and climate,
25:23
Speaker 3: and there's certainly no evidence of global warming out here
25:26
Speaker 3: in the cold in Washington this week, So thanks for
25:29
Speaker 3: braving the weather for us. Joel has been great to
25:31
Speaker 3: catch up Apprea, sure, Chris, Yeah, Joel fit's given. They're
25:36
Speaker 3: saying we've seen what overreach on climate action can do,
25:39
Speaker 3: and is calling on Labor to pull back if it
25:42
Speaker 3: wants to win the election. Fascinating stuff there. I'll have
25:45
Speaker 3: another fascinating interview on the energy debate later in the program,
25:48
Speaker 3: but you better take a break now. On the other
25:50
Speaker 3: side of that, I'll catch up with former Foreign Minister
25:52
Speaker 3: Alexander Downer on the Trump effect around the world, and
25:56
Speaker 3: of course, the anti Semitism crisis in Australia.
25:59
Speaker 1: Don't go away.
26:04
Speaker 3: Chris Kenny comes to your Life from Washington, d C.
26:06
Speaker 3: In a moment the former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. But
26:09
Speaker 3: before I go there, I just want to show you
26:11
Speaker 3: another clip from that Donald Trump interview in the Oval
26:13
Speaker 3: Office today because it goes to an issue a lot
26:15
Speaker 3: of people are concerned about, and Donald Trump was asked
26:18
Speaker 3: to explain why on earth he pardoned all those January
26:22
Speaker 3: the six riots, including people who were serving terms for
26:26
Speaker 3: attacking police officers.
26:27
Speaker 9: Have a look number when they were in there for
26:30
Speaker 9: three and a half years, a long time, and in
26:33
Speaker 9: many solitary confinement, treated like nobody's ever been treated so badly.
26:39
Speaker 9: They were treated like the worst criminals in history. They
26:43
Speaker 9: were very minor incidents.
26:45
Speaker 7: Okay, you know they.
26:46
Speaker 9: Get built up by that couple of fake guys that
26:49
Speaker 9: are in CNN all the time.
26:51
Speaker 14: What do you watching it?
26:52
Speaker 1: They were very.
26:53
Speaker 9: Minor incidents and it was time. This was a political hoax.
27:00
Speaker 9: And you know what those people and I'm not saying
27:03
Speaker 9: in every single case, but there was a lot of
27:06
Speaker 9: patriotism with those people.
27:09
Speaker 3: That's the President Donald Trump today explaining why all those
27:12
Speaker 3: pardons went out. We all know there were some minor infractions,
27:16
Speaker 3: but there were people who attack police, and that's how
27:18
Speaker 3: the president explains what he did. Let me bring in
27:21
Speaker 3: now the for Foreign Minister of Australia, Australia's longest serving
27:24
Speaker 3: foreign minister, Alexander Downer, joining us live from Adelaide. Thanks
27:28
Speaker 3: for joining us, Alexander. The first thing I want to
27:30
Speaker 3: get from you is your sense of these dramatic actions
27:34
Speaker 3: by Donald Trump. We've seen nothing like it before, and
27:37
Speaker 3: in inauguration and within ours he's on a stage signing
27:40
Speaker 3: off on executive orders, some of them very substantial, like
27:43
Speaker 3: withdrawing from Paris.
27:45
Speaker 1: What sort of an effect do you think this will have.
27:47
Speaker 3: Around the world, in Australia, Britain, Western Europe and other
27:51
Speaker 3: liberal Western democracies.
27:55
Speaker 2: I think it will reflect very badly on existing democratic governments,
28:00
Speaker 2: which make decisions very slowly and often very cynically, just
28:06
Speaker 2: on the basis of opinion polls. Whereas Donald Trump has
28:10
Speaker 2: shown whether you agree with his decisions or whether you don't,
28:15
Speaker 2: he's shown himself to be a decisive leader who, having
28:19
Speaker 2: won the election and concluded the inauguration, is dramatically getting
28:25
Speaker 2: on with the job. So I mean I think people
28:27
Speaker 2: will be very impressed with it.
28:31
Speaker 3: I think that's a really important point because Donald Trump
28:34
Speaker 3: talks about small government. A lot of us on the
28:36
Speaker 3: right of politics supports smaller government, and he's set up
28:40
Speaker 3: a new agency to try and shrink government. But what
28:43
Speaker 3: he's demonstrated in the last couple of days is the
28:45
Speaker 3: power of government. When you have clear ideas and clear policies,
28:49
Speaker 3: you can actually do it.
28:53
Speaker 1: Yeah.
28:53
Speaker 2: Well, it stands in stark contrast, for example, to the
28:58
Speaker 2: relatively new British government. They were elected in July of
29:03
Speaker 2: last year and they've i mean since they were elected,
29:06
Speaker 2: they've just stumbled along making decisions which cost people money,
29:13
Speaker 2: which will slow economic growth, which contribute to inflation. And
29:19
Speaker 2: Trump is the exact reverse. He comes in, he does
29:23
Speaker 2: exactly what he promised he would do. There are no tricks,
29:28
Speaker 2: there is no smoken mirror's game political game here. It's
29:34
Speaker 2: a leader promising to do things and as soon as
29:38
Speaker 2: he gets into power, he does them, and he does
29:41
Speaker 2: them straight away. So I think it will be it'll
29:45
Speaker 2: be a number one of a number of things that
29:47
Speaker 2: will really set a tone for the international democratic community.
29:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's another strong point you make there. The fact
29:57
Speaker 3: that he's doing what he promised to do. I was
29:59
Speaker 3: watching some of the less media in America today, A
30:02
Speaker 3: C and N and the like, and even though they
30:03
Speaker 3: are railing against some of these decisions, they had to
30:07
Speaker 3: accept that this is exactly.
30:08
Speaker 1: What he promised to do.
30:10
Speaker 3: Now he promised to do them, he got a massive
30:12
Speaker 3: electoral mandate.
30:13
Speaker 1: Now he's doing them. And at the moment.
30:15
Speaker 3: He's got a fifty six percent approval rating, so people
30:19
Speaker 3: are loving it now. Of course, he'll hit roadblocks and
30:21
Speaker 3: problems in the future, but at the moment, it's just
30:25
Speaker 3: a breath of fresh air to see promises implemented.
30:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think the public will really appreciate this.
30:36
Speaker 2: I mean a lot of people will, for example, be
30:40
Speaker 2: regretful that the United States has pulled out of the
30:43
Speaker 2: Paris Climate Agreement or whatever it is. But I mean
30:47
Speaker 2: Donald Trump promised to do that. He did it before,
30:50
Speaker 2: of course, when he was in power. I mean, the
30:53
Speaker 2: big difference between his first election and this election is
30:58
Speaker 2: that this time he is apsolutely prepared for it. He's
31:02
Speaker 2: got a team around him of loyalists, he knows who
31:06
Speaker 2: he wants and his team, and he absolutely knows what
31:10
Speaker 2: he wants to do and what he's promised to do.
31:15
Speaker 3: Now back to Australia and the antisemitism crisis, pleasing to
31:18
Speaker 3: see some more arrests made, but still a lot of frustration.
31:22
Speaker 3: And on top of that list when it comes to
31:24
Speaker 3: being critical and frustrated with Anthony Albernezi and his government
31:27
Speaker 3: and what they haven't done over the last fifteen months,
31:30
Speaker 3: here's Peter Dutton.
31:32
Speaker 15: The fact that the Prime Minister has allowed this issue
31:34
Speaker 15: to fester and why of political advantage.
31:38
Speaker 3: That's the most shameful part here. The Prime Minister has
31:40
Speaker 3: allowed this issue to continue.
31:43
Speaker 15: To fester and it has escalated to the point where
31:46
Speaker 15: we see a child in a synagogue the place of
31:48
Speaker 15: worship firebond and the Prime Minister has essentially sent himself
31:52
Speaker 15: from this process.
31:54
Speaker 1: It's completely unacceptable.
31:57
Speaker 3: This is just a terrible issue, frightening for a divisive
32:01
Speaker 3: for our community.
32:02
Speaker 1: Alexander. What does Anthony Albanize need to.
32:04
Speaker 2: Do well, it's so late because he's spent He and
32:11
Speaker 2: Penny Wong have spent a lot of the last fifteen
32:14
Speaker 2: months criticizing the Israelis, abhorring what the Israelis have done
32:19
Speaker 2: and demanding ceasepis over and over again not supporting Israel's
32:26
Speaker 2: war aims, and of course that has legitimized the anti Israeli,
32:33
Speaker 2: an anti Semitic mob here in Australia. It's not many people,
32:38
Speaker 2: but it's a very aggressive minority. And the Labor Party
32:43
Speaker 2: have done that for party political reasons. They're worried about losing,
32:47
Speaker 2: particularly Muslim activist boats in marginal labor seats to the Greens.
32:54
Speaker 2: They're worried about losing seats to the Greens, and so
32:58
Speaker 2: that's why they play the game they've played on the
33:01
Speaker 2: Middle East. But in the end what it has gottene
33:05
Speaker 2: is played into the hands of extremists who hate the Jews.
33:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, what a shocking situation, Absolutely shocking. Thanks for joining us, Alexander.
33:16
Speaker 1: Great to catch up with you again.
33:17
Speaker 3: Alexander down of their former foreign minister, live from Adelaide.
33:21
Speaker 1: We better get to a break. On the other side
33:23
Speaker 1: of the break, I'm going to catch.
33:24
Speaker 3: Up with Annalise Nilsen to talk about this tsunami of
33:27
Speaker 3: activity we've seen in Washington this week, and also I'll
33:30
Speaker 3: speak with an energy expert who says Australia cannot be
33:34
Speaker 3: a prosperous country and get to net zero without nuclear power.
33:43
Speaker 3: I showed you earlier how former Labor Minister Joel Fitzgibbons
33:46
Speaker 3: says Labor needs to pull back on its climate ambitions
33:50
Speaker 3: or probably lose the election. I caught up with an
33:52
Speaker 3: energy expert today from the Heritage Foundation, Jack Spencer says
33:56
Speaker 3: Australia simply can't get to net zero and have a
33:59
Speaker 3: vibe all economy without nuclear power.
34:03
Speaker 1: Jack Spencer, thanks for talking to us.
34:05
Speaker 3: President Trump has declared an energy emergency in the United States.
34:09
Speaker 16: What is the problem, Well, the problem is the United
34:12
Speaker 16: States has suffered under an anti energy agenda quite frankly
34:15
Speaker 16: for four years, and we're starting to see threats of
34:18
Speaker 16: blackouts and other man made literally man made policy made
34:22
Speaker 16: energy constraints, and we had to do something about it.
34:24
Speaker 16: We were just headed in the wrong direction. The Energy
34:26
Speaker 16: Emergency will give the President certain authorities to start to
34:30
Speaker 16: clear the decks, the regulatory obstacles, to begin changing changing
34:36
Speaker 16: our policies more towards an energy abundance agenda.
34:39
Speaker 3: And in his flourry of activity and executive orders, the
34:43
Speaker 3: President has taken America out of the Paris Agreement, so
34:47
Speaker 3: net zero by twenty fifty is gone. As an object
34:50
Speaker 3: for an objective for the biggest economy in the world,
34:53
Speaker 3: surely that's going to flow onto other nations.
34:56
Speaker 16: Let's be honest. NET zero was never the objective of
34:59
Speaker 16: anyone a bunch of virtue signaling. What President Trump did
35:03
Speaker 16: was said, we're not even going to virtue signal anymore.
35:05
Speaker 16: We're gonna do what's best for the United States and
35:07
Speaker 16: for the rest of the world. Frankly, what we see
35:09
Speaker 16: across the world is the most prosperous, the freest, The
35:12
Speaker 16: ones who have the most access to affordable energy are
35:16
Speaker 16: the ones that have the cleanest environment. If you want
35:17
Speaker 16: to reduce COO too, you don't do that through a
35:20
Speaker 16: heavy regulatory burden or you know, international agreements with Parish.
35:25
Speaker 16: You do it through prosperity by developing natural gas, nuclear power,
35:30
Speaker 16: even a lot of people don't want to talk about it.
35:32
Speaker 16: A modern coal plants emit far less CO two than
35:36
Speaker 16: a traditional coal plants. So technology is the way you
35:38
Speaker 16: reduce CO two. If that's what you care about.
35:40
Speaker 1: You mentioned nuclear.
35:41
Speaker 3: If you want reliable energy that is emissions free, surely
35:45
Speaker 3: nuclear is the anset. And even the Powis Agreement, even
35:49
Speaker 3: the Powis countries doubling down there if it's to deliver
35:52
Speaker 3: more nuclear.
35:52
Speaker 16: Yeah, there's no question nuclear power emits nothing into the atmosphere.
35:56
Speaker 16: If you want to reduce carbon dioxide, that's certainly key
35:59
Speaker 16: to doing so. In fact, I wrote a book on
36:02
Speaker 16: this exact thing, that nuclear energy. We have seventy years
36:06
Speaker 16: of safe operations. Clearly nuclear energy is the answer to
36:10
Speaker 16: reducing carbon emissions.
36:12
Speaker 1: But not just that.
36:13
Speaker 16: It's the answer to energy security, it's the answer to
36:16
Speaker 16: energy reliability. We need to get the economics right, but
36:19
Speaker 16: I think with some regulatory reform, nuclear energy has a
36:23
Speaker 16: very promising future ahead of it.
36:25
Speaker 1: Can any modern economy get to net.
36:27
Speaker 3: Zero without a substantial input from nuclear energy?
36:31
Speaker 16: Absolutely not. A modern industrialized economy that gives both families
36:35
Speaker 16: and businesses access to the affordable, reliable energy that we
36:39
Speaker 16: all need, you can't do it without nuclear energy. If
36:42
Speaker 16: the objective is driving towards net zero?
36:45
Speaker 1: What about cost?
36:46
Speaker 3: Is a big argument about going to nuclear energy in Australia,
36:50
Speaker 3: at least in pot and the main argument against it
36:53
Speaker 3: is saying that it's the most costly of all the
36:55
Speaker 3: energy alternatives.
36:56
Speaker 1: So how does that stack up in the real world.
36:58
Speaker 16: Well, a couple of things existing nuclear plants are extremely affordable,
37:01
Speaker 16: but they are expensive to build. That's not to keep
37:05
Speaker 16: coming back to my book, but that's why I wrote
37:06
Speaker 16: this book. What we see is that nuclear power is
37:09
Speaker 16: way over It's not just over regulated. I would argue
37:12
Speaker 16: that the regulatory burden around nuclear power is antiquated. It's
37:16
Speaker 16: the way we regulate nuclear power. Hearkens back to before
37:20
Speaker 16: we knew about it, before we had seventy years of
37:22
Speaker 16: safe operations. It's an extraordinarily safe energy source. We should
37:26
Speaker 16: regulate it, for sure, but regulated based on the actual
37:29
Speaker 16: risk profile, based on what we actually know about the technology,
37:32
Speaker 16: and not based on what our unfounded fears might be.
37:36
Speaker 16: That's how you bring costs down. I'd also argue this,
37:38
Speaker 16: whenever politicians and bureaucrats start off in argument with something
37:42
Speaker 16: costs too much or it's the most affordable thing in
37:45
Speaker 16: the world, we should be skeptical. Free enterprise is the
37:48
Speaker 16: way to arbitrate what the costs of something should be
37:51
Speaker 16: and whether it costs too much or not enough. I say,
37:53
Speaker 16: get the politicians and the bureaucrats out of the way
37:55
Speaker 16: and let all these energy sources compete. If win's the
37:58
Speaker 16: best way to go, it'll win inspect it won't be.
38:01
Speaker 16: But let's said all energy sources compete.
38:03
Speaker 3: Nuclear energy is currently banned in Australia. Can you believe
38:07
Speaker 3: that a modern economy lack Australia could actually attempt to
38:10
Speaker 3: get to net zero on a renewable energy plus storage
38:13
Speaker 3: model without.
38:14
Speaker 1: Nuclear It won't.
38:17
Speaker 16: If what we care about earth foot Australians care about
38:20
Speaker 16: is maintaining economic growth, industrial capacity, standard of living, all
38:25
Speaker 16: of these things, you just won't be able to achieve
38:27
Speaker 16: them with intermittent sources like wind and solar. You need
38:32
Speaker 16: what's called baseload power, which nuclear energy provides. That's the
38:36
Speaker 16: power that is society. A modern industrial society needs twenty
38:39
Speaker 16: four hours a day, seven days a week. Nuclear can
38:41
Speaker 16: provide it when insular just can't.
38:44
Speaker 1: So is it affordable for a country like Australia.
38:47
Speaker 16: It certainly can be. I mean, we see countries like
38:50
Speaker 16: the United States, France is a great example, Japan, South Korea.
38:54
Speaker 16: They're modern, free market capitalist societies around the world who
38:59
Speaker 16: were heavily on nuclear. So absolutely we can. The South
39:02
Speaker 16: Koreans are building nuclear power plants at reasonable prices, at
39:06
Speaker 16: reasonable costs right now. You just need to free up
39:08
Speaker 16: the regulatory environment to allow that to happen.
39:12
Speaker 1: Jack, thanks for joining us.
39:13
Speaker 16: Thank you very much.
39:16
Speaker 3: Fascinating stuff. It's our last show from Washington this week.
39:19
Speaker 3: I wanted to wrap it up a bit through the
39:21
Speaker 3: eyes of our Washington correspondent and Alise Nilsen, and talk
39:25
Speaker 3: to her about how.
39:25
Speaker 1: We've really never seen anything like this flurry of activity before.
39:30
Speaker 11: No I heard someone describe it like a tidal wave.
39:34
Speaker 11: I've heard avalanche.
39:35
Speaker 17: Everyone kind of feels the same, and this has the
39:36
Speaker 17: new normal where no one knows what the singular story is.
39:39
Speaker 17: Whereas the Biden administration there would be the one story
39:42
Speaker 17: and everyone would follow it.
39:43
Speaker 11: This time around is just a scattergun approach from them.
39:47
Speaker 17: And what's really interesting in all this, too, is just
39:50
Speaker 17: how much small language moments completely reset the agenda, because
39:55
Speaker 17: we're now having a president who does these unfiltered conversations,
39:59
Speaker 17: who has the interviews on air, who takes press conferences,
40:03
Speaker 17: and he knows that he can drop just one word
40:05
Speaker 17: and completely change the world's agenda, exactly the global agenda.
40:08
Speaker 1: It has been staggering.
40:09
Speaker 3: There had been so many announcements, so many news stories,
40:13
Speaker 3: and so many special moments.
40:15
Speaker 1: So I've asked you to just pick out a couple,
40:17
Speaker 1: what have you come up with? Look?
40:18
Speaker 17: For me, the first one that I was just blown
40:23
Speaker 17: away by it was the moment that Donald Trump and
40:25
Speaker 17: Milania Trump were welcome to the White House by Joe
40:27
Speaker 17: Biden and Jill Biden.
40:29
Speaker 11: And when Joe Biden said welcome.
40:31
Speaker 17: Home, it's in one sense, it's exactly what you want
40:35
Speaker 17: in a country that does a peaceful transfer of power,
40:38
Speaker 17: where there's that continuity and graciousness in politics, and just
40:41
Speaker 17: that acknowledgment that the popular candidates won and that's the
40:43
Speaker 17: person who's the commander in chief.
40:46
Speaker 11: I also just thought it was such a.
40:48
Speaker 17: Kick in the gut to everyone who backed Joe Biden,
40:51
Speaker 17: who said that this was going to be the just
40:55
Speaker 17: absolute start of authoritarianism in America, that democracy was over.
40:58
Speaker 17: This was an existential threat to have Joe Biden be
41:02
Speaker 17: so blase a welcome home. The assumption is that this
41:05
Speaker 17: is your home and you always should have been here.
41:06
Speaker 17: Oh the inference, I should say. And so for me,
41:09
Speaker 17: that was just the for everyone in back Joe Biden,
41:12
Speaker 17: he's bitter.
41:14
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Let's just have a look at that now. Yeah,
41:24
Speaker 1: I see what you mean. At least an incredible moment.
41:26
Speaker 3: And there's such a contrast, of course, because when Donald
41:29
Speaker 3: Trump lost the presidency, he didn't even stick aroundtown.
41:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, he didn't welcome anybody to the White House. He
41:34
Speaker 1: didn't even turn up at the inauguration.
41:36
Speaker 17: Yeah, and look, that was seen as really unsettling at
41:39
Speaker 17: the time. We'd just come through the January sixth ride
41:42
Speaker 17: at the Capitol.
41:43
Speaker 11: It was an awful.
41:45
Speaker 17: Season of riots around America, of businesses destroyed, people feeling
41:49
Speaker 17: so scared and uncertain. And we've talked about that a lot,
41:51
Speaker 17: just among the journalists that have been covering this. Even
41:53
Speaker 17: last inauguration, we basically needed security every time we went
41:56
Speaker 17: out on the street. And this time around, the temperature,
42:00
Speaker 17: I mean, obviously anyways, but the political temperature is just
42:04
Speaker 17: so different this time around, and the fact that everyone
42:08
Speaker 17: seems so resigned to Trump. I mean, people are upset
42:10
Speaker 17: about it, but it's not that same kind of vitriol
42:12
Speaker 17: existential threat to it. And I think a lot of
42:15
Speaker 17: it has to do with just the general malaise that's
42:17
Speaker 17: in America. And then that was why I picked this
42:20
Speaker 17: next bit.
42:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, let's go to the next bit in the moment,
42:22
Speaker 3: But just on that point, there's hardly been the hint
42:25
Speaker 3: of a protest in Washington this week, which has been remarkable.
42:27
Speaker 3: Here's the next bit that Analyse has picked.
42:29
Speaker 4: Out from this moment on America's decline is over.
42:44
Speaker 1: Look, that's just what the crowd wanted to hear.
42:46
Speaker 3: Analyse, you were in the room, then, why is this
42:49
Speaker 3: so significant?
42:50
Speaker 17: Well, yeah, I was in the Capital One arena, and
42:52
Speaker 17: when you're in those events where you're around all the supporters,
42:54
Speaker 17: there is a sense of just feeling the energy in
42:57
Speaker 17: the room.
42:58
Speaker 11: And there was just this up or in the room
43:01
Speaker 11: when they heard that.
43:02
Speaker 17: And I think it is just such a universal sentiment
43:05
Speaker 17: at the moment that people are so unhappy with where
43:07
Speaker 17: their lives are compared to four years ago. And that's
43:09
Speaker 17: the golden question in politics. Are you better off than
43:11
Speaker 17: you were four years ago? Not many people can say
43:14
Speaker 17: that they are better off, and most of those are
43:17
Speaker 17: remote workers who now have to go back.
43:19
Speaker 11: To the office.
43:20
Speaker 17: But what I think is just it's so much what
43:23
Speaker 17: we're seeing now is such a replication of the Jimmy
43:25
Speaker 17: Carty is going into the Reagan presidency. There are so
43:27
Speaker 17: many parallels between Donald Trump as a populis president who's
43:30
Speaker 17: a hardliner on things that Americans care about, and everyone
43:34
Speaker 17: says Americans don't care about foreign policy, and absolutely, if
43:37
Speaker 17: I got any diner or bar and ask people what
43:40
Speaker 17: they care about, foreign policies, never one of the top things.
43:42
Speaker 17: But they don't like looking weak on the world stage.
43:44
Speaker 1: They want America to be respected, absolutely.
43:46
Speaker 11: And they haven't felt like that in a long time.
43:48
Speaker 11: And I know.
43:49
Speaker 17: I keep going on about this, but for four years,
43:52
Speaker 17: anyone I've talked to outside of DC, what their number
43:55
Speaker 17: one question has been who's really running the country because
43:57
Speaker 17: they've seen Joe Biden and they know it's not him.
44:00
Speaker 1: Fascinating times.
44:01
Speaker 3: The analogy or comparison to the Jimmy Carter Ronald Reagan
44:05
Speaker 3: handover is strong because it's like a new morning in
44:08
Speaker 3: America now, which is what Reagan used to say. It's
44:11
Speaker 3: been fantastic being here all week and the least you've
44:14
Speaker 3: been fantastic hosting us and reporting at all. And I
44:16
Speaker 3: love the Beanie, and good luck for the rest of
44:19
Speaker 3: the next eventful four years.
44:21
Speaker 5: No, thank you.
44:22
Speaker 11: It is going to be an eventful four year.
44:23
Speaker 17: We're going to see news broken all the time, and
44:25
Speaker 17: just on that, I know we have to wrap up
44:27
Speaker 17: but so much of what we've watched in the last
44:28
Speaker 17: few days, we're watching Trump do his thing. So we've
44:31
Speaker 17: watched him say for a long time that he's going
44:34
Speaker 17: to consider tariffs around April, and then when he's at
44:37
Speaker 17: the Resolute Desk he drops Actually, I think it's going
44:40
Speaker 17: to be February that since shock waves through DC through
44:43
Speaker 17: the rest of the world, and that's exactly where he
44:45
Speaker 17: wants everyone.
44:46
Speaker 11: So that's what we're witnessing happen right now.
44:48
Speaker 1: Good luck keeping up.
44:49
Speaker 11: Oh, we'll be fine. No better channels to do it
44:51
Speaker 11: than Sky News Australia.
44:52
Speaker 1: I would say, I don't just love Abeanie, I want it.
44:56
Speaker 3: After the break, I'll be back with Mark Nicholson and
44:58
Speaker 3: Lisa Godard.
44:59
Speaker 1: Don't go Chris Kenny here live in Washington, d C.
45:06
Speaker 1: Let's bring in the.
45:06
Speaker 3: Panel now with Lisa Goddard from Adoni Media joining us
45:09
Speaker 3: from Brisbane, and Mark Nicholson from step Mate Studios joining
45:12
Speaker 3: us from Melbourne.
45:13
Speaker 1: Great to talk to both of you.
45:14
Speaker 3: What I've been missing while I've been in Amongst all
45:17
Speaker 3: the action here in Washington is the ongoing phony election
45:21
Speaker 3: campaign in Australia.
45:22
Speaker 1: How's it playing out?
45:23
Speaker 18: Lisa, Well, it's certainly under way, Chris, isn't it. Look
45:28
Speaker 18: at ALBERIZI can't be happy when he looks at what
45:30
Speaker 18: the polls are showing. And you were just talking to
45:32
Speaker 18: Ana Lisa about Americans not being happy and now you've
45:35
Speaker 18: seen Trump in the White House. Well, I can't say
45:37
Speaker 18: that Australians are very happy at the moment. And if
45:39
Speaker 18: you do ask that question, which Chris of Pooley very
45:42
Speaker 18: successfully asked here in Queensland, is are you better off
45:45
Speaker 18: now than you were? Most Australians are going to say no,
45:48
Speaker 18: they're not. So they look at Alberanezi. They look how
45:50
Speaker 18: he's handling the Jewish issue. They look how he's handling
45:54
Speaker 18: the economy. They only have to go to the grocery
45:56
Speaker 18: store to see how much extra they're paying. So he's
45:59
Speaker 18: seeing in the poll people are feeling it in their
46:01
Speaker 18: back pocket. It's not going to be a very good
46:03
Speaker 18: entry for him into the official campaign when he eventually
46:06
Speaker 18: calls it.
46:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, Mark, I mean it's a campaign every day in
46:11
Speaker 3: Australia is and it doesn't matter when he calls the
46:12
Speaker 3: election or when four.
46:14
Speaker 1: We can see that they're just campaigning every day.
46:18
Speaker 19: Yeah, he's splashing the cash mate, you can already see
46:20
Speaker 19: and it's hurting everybody, but like a part of me
46:24
Speaker 19: as well, there's got a bit of shrouding forward. You
46:26
Speaker 19: know that the seeing enjoying other people's misery because he
46:29
Speaker 19: keeps stepping on rakes or the political equivalent of stepping
46:32
Speaker 19: on rakes every movie makes is becoming injurious to him.
46:35
Speaker 19: It's almost like it's deliberate, to be honest. I think
46:37
Speaker 19: he's got one eye on this Copacabana residence and everyone
46:40
Speaker 19: else is suffering. All the supports going to Peter Dutton,
46:44
Speaker 19: and the only person to thank for that is Anthony
46:46
Speaker 19: alb and easy. It's just an own goal after own
46:48
Speaker 19: goal for the bike.
46:51
Speaker 3: I can't wait to see your next cartoon. There will
46:53
Speaker 3: be lots of rakes, no doubt lying around. Let's have
46:55
Speaker 3: a look at the polls, which are really The trend
46:58
Speaker 3: is your friend in fing and the trend at the
47:01
Speaker 3: moment is not good for Anthony Albanesi.
47:08
Speaker 14: Support for opposition leader Peter Dutton is growing as voters
47:11
Speaker 14: vent their frustration at cost of living pressures. A survey
47:14
Speaker 14: conducted for the Age by Resolve reveals forty six percent
47:17
Speaker 14: of voters expect their real wages to fall this year.
47:20
Speaker 14: Fifty percent believe inflation will rise in twenty twenty five,
47:24
Speaker 14: despite Labour's assurances that price pressures are declining. To the poll,
47:28
Speaker 14: mister Dutton is ahead as preferred prime minister, leading Anthony
47:31
Speaker 14: Albanesi thirty nine to thirty four percent. The Coalition remains
47:35
Speaker 14: in front of Labor in two party preferred by two.
47:40
Speaker 1: So this is where we go.
47:41
Speaker 3: All these indicators suggests that people are really, really unhappy.
47:45
Speaker 1: Now.
47:45
Speaker 3: I just look at all this and think that if
47:47
Speaker 3: Dutton and the Coalition play it smartly so they can
47:50
Speaker 3: actually pull off the winner of the century here.
47:54
Speaker 18: Yeah, Chris, look, I had to go back today and look,
47:56
Speaker 18: I remember when Labour fell to that great low of
47:59
Speaker 18: calling Dutton Voldemort. That was May twenty twenty two, and
48:03
Speaker 18: they were adamant then that Dutton wasn't the man that
48:05
Speaker 18: could potentially lead this country. And we've seen such a
48:08
Speaker 18: turnaround now in the polls that all the mud they
48:11
Speaker 18: tried to throw, that he was nasty, he was negative,
48:13
Speaker 18: he was too strong. Well, guess what this country needs
48:17
Speaker 18: right now is a prime minister who is strong, and
48:19
Speaker 18: that's what we're seeing reflected in those polls and if
48:22
Speaker 18: you talk to the average Australian, what they want is
48:24
Speaker 18: some action and that is absolutely not what Albaneze is
48:27
Speaker 18: delivering right now. And like you say, you're seeing it
48:29
Speaker 18: in the polls.
48:32
Speaker 1: Yeah.
48:32
Speaker 3: Now, I just want to go to another issue and
48:34
Speaker 3: I'll get your thoughts on this, Mark, because it relates
48:36
Speaker 3: to the Australian Open being played out in Melbourne and
48:38
Speaker 3: these threats of protests on Australian Day. Here's the Victorian premier.
48:44
Speaker 20: I think to target the Australian Open would be a
48:48
Speaker 20: disgusting act. But let's be clear. Victoria police are operationally ready.
48:54
Speaker 20: They will be there in large numbers and they have
48:56
Speaker 20: the powers they need should any activity turn violent. I
49:00
Speaker 20: have the powers they need to arrest and to move
49:02
Speaker 20: people on.
49:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's talking tough, isn't see you? Mark?
49:06
Speaker 3: It sounds like she's gonna have the COVID police out there,
49:10
Speaker 3: not the normal Palestinian protest to police.
49:14
Speaker 4: Mate.
49:15
Speaker 2: I'm so sick of it.
49:16
Speaker 1: I'm so done.
49:17
Speaker 19: It seems that you know, Melbourne is the home of
49:19
Speaker 19: sport and now it's also the home of protests. That's
49:22
Speaker 19: about the only two things we can actually pull off
49:24
Speaker 19: here in this state. It's absolutely revolting. And you know,
49:28
Speaker 19: I've gotten so many compliments in the last couple of
49:30
Speaker 19: weeks about the Boxing Day, Test, the Australian Open and
49:32
Speaker 19: how we can really draw a crowd. I think on
49:34
Speaker 19: Sunday we're going to show it again. But for a protest,
49:37
Speaker 19: it's kind of it just sucks.
49:40
Speaker 1: It's very sad.
49:41
Speaker 3: Indeed, let the tennis rain and let us celebrate this
49:44
Speaker 3: great country on Australia Day. Thanks so much for joining us,
49:46
Speaker 3: Mark and Lisa. I really appreciate it. That's just about
49:49
Speaker 3: just about all the time we've got for you here
49:51
Speaker 3: live from Washington, d C. I just want to point
49:54
Speaker 3: out that we've been talking to you live at two
49:57
Speaker 3: o'clock in the morning here in Washington and at the moment,
50:00
Speaker 3: mind us eleven degrees and the only two people out
50:02
Speaker 3: here with me are producer Tom Blake and Cameron and
50:05
Speaker 3: Nick Phillips that they've been stirling all working long days
50:08
Speaker 3: and fighting the bit of cold.
50:10
Speaker 1: It's been great bringing it to you.
50:11
Speaker 3: Thanks so much for joining us, and I hope you
50:13
Speaker 3: have a fantastic Australia Day, long weekend. Celebrate our wonderful
50:18
Speaker 3: country long and hard. I'll see you at five o'clock
50:20
Speaker 3: in Australia on Monday. Here's Peter Kredlin.