Latest / The Bolt Report / The Bolt Report | 6 January

Transcript

The Bolt Report | 6 January · The Bolt Report

0:11
Speaker 1: He's the report.
0:14
Speaker 2: Well, good evening and welcome to the show. I'm James
0:16
Speaker 2: Macpherson filling in for Andrew Bolt. Here's what's coming up tonight.
0:20
Speaker 2: Is Anthony Albanezi going to hold a royal commission into
0:23
Speaker 2: the Bondi terror attack? After all, he seemed to be
0:26
Speaker 2: laying the groundwork for a backflip this afternoon. I'll talk
0:29
Speaker 2: to Campbell Newman about that. And remember the cartoon Dilbert Well,
0:33
Speaker 2: its creator has just announced he's becoming a Christian and
0:36
Speaker 2: he's not the only one. America is seeing a swing
0:39
Speaker 2: back towards faith in God. But what about here in Australia.
0:42
Speaker 2: I'll get into that shortly. The Australian car market already flapped.
0:47
Speaker 2: Chinese evs is about to get a lot more of them.
0:50
Speaker 2: So is that a good thing or is it a problem?
0:52
Speaker 2: And what's happened to Tesla plus ten people convicted of
0:56
Speaker 2: online bullying for spreading rumors that the first Lady of
0:59
Speaker 2: Free Rants is actually a man? Or get all the
1:02
Speaker 2: details from Sophie Ellsworth in the UK later. But I
1:06
Speaker 2: want to start with this. Can we all agree that
1:08
Speaker 2: trans women are men? That's a biological fact. In West Australia. However,
1:13
Speaker 2: it's also potentially hate speech, a matter serious enough to
1:17
Speaker 2: warrant a special police unit, taxpayer funding, and breathless tweets
1:22
Speaker 2: about community safety.
1:24
Speaker 3: More on that in a moment.
1:26
Speaker 2: But first, a man may identify as a woman, a
1:29
Speaker 2: man may dress as a woman, he may even alter
1:32
Speaker 2: his body to more approximately resemble a woman. But men
1:35
Speaker 2: can't become women. And if you disagree, which is fine,
1:39
Speaker 2: don't hate on me. Take it up with his X
1:41
Speaker 2: Y chromosomes. But in West Australia, apparently the chromosomes are innocent.
1:46
Speaker 2: It's you that the police are interested in. Just last week,
1:50
Speaker 2: police in WA launched an investigation into what they described
1:54
Speaker 2: as quote a series of criminal damage incidents in Subiaco.
1:59
Speaker 3: Now.
1:59
Speaker 2: The krim damage also labeled acts of hate, with a
2:03
Speaker 2: placement of stickers in public places that read and I
2:06
Speaker 2: quote brace yourself trans women are real men now. In
2:11
Speaker 2: response to this outbreak of scientific literacy, Perth Police released
2:15
Speaker 2: the following statement, let me read it for you. The
2:19
Speaker 2: State Security Investigation Group Hate Crime Team that's a mouthful
2:24
Speaker 2: is investigating a series of criminal damage incidents in Subiaco
2:28
Speaker 2: around Wednesday, tenth of December twenty twenty five, several transphobic
2:33
Speaker 2: stickers were placed in public spaces around the Subiaco Library precinct,
2:39
Speaker 2: nearby park areas, and close to a local school. Now,
2:44
Speaker 2: my first reaction was relief. Clearly there is no actual
2:48
Speaker 2: crime in Perth's parks. But wait, the police were concerned
2:52
Speaker 2: that biological facts were being stated quote near a school.
2:57
Speaker 2: We can't have biological facts being stated near a school,
3:00
Speaker 2: can we? Next thing, they'll be teaching biological facts inside
3:04
Speaker 2: the school.
3:05
Speaker 3: I'd very much like the hate.
3:07
Speaker 2: Crime team to explain how saying that trans women are
3:10
Speaker 2: real men is transphobic. I'd say it's pro reality. Presumably
3:15
Speaker 2: police want us to say that trans women are real women,
3:19
Speaker 2: which would constitute a very strange state of affairs. Indeed,
3:23
Speaker 2: publish biological untruths and the police won't bother you a bit,
3:28
Speaker 2: But there to speak the truth and you be investigated
3:30
Speaker 2: as a threat to community safety. The police statement continued, Wa,
3:36
Speaker 2: police are working closely with the City of Subiaco and
3:40
Speaker 2: the LGBTQIA plus community and are committed to addressing this issue. Now,
3:47
Speaker 2: don't forget this issue. Is someone daring to state a
3:50
Speaker 2: biological reality? But police went on let me quote, the
3:56
Speaker 2: WA Police Force will not allow acts of hatred, in
3:59
Speaker 2: toll crants or discrimination to go unchecked. We have zero
4:03
Speaker 2: tolerance for hate in our community and we'll use every
4:06
Speaker 2: resource at our disposal to protect the public and bring
4:10
Speaker 2: offenders to justice. Those responsible will be held to account.
4:16
Speaker 2: Remember we're talking about stickers. If only police were as
4:19
Speaker 2: motivated to track down Islamus preachers calling for a globalized
4:23
Speaker 2: into Fata. But no, the real threat to peace and
4:25
Speaker 2: harmony are those bigots who know a penis when they
4:28
Speaker 2: see one out in Perth. That's an LGBTQ publication reported
4:33
Speaker 2: and I quote. Throughout the year, contractors for the City
4:37
Speaker 2: of Subiaco have been removing the stickers, noting that they've
4:41
Speaker 2: dealt with thirty eight incidents since July. There have also
4:45
Speaker 2: been reports of the stickers appearing in other inner city locations.
4:50
Speaker 3: Yes, you heard that right.
4:52
Speaker 2: Rate payers are funding sticker patrols thirty eight times since July.
4:57
Speaker 2: Thanks to council contractors. The truth has been heroically neutralized.
5:03
Speaker 2: The CEO of WA told local media there was confusion
5:07
Speaker 2: as to what this person putting these stickers on public
5:10
Speaker 2: places was trying to achieve. By placing the stickers in
5:14
Speaker 2: spaces predominantly used by young children. Well, okay, but can
5:19
Speaker 2: I then ask what transfolke Wa are trying to achieve
5:22
Speaker 2: by keeping biological truth away from young children? The CEO continued,
5:28
Speaker 2: and I quote, when you resort to tactics like this
5:31
Speaker 2: in a playground, you have clearly lost the moral argument. Well,
5:37
Speaker 2: the argument over whether or not trans women are real
5:39
Speaker 2: men is not a moral argument. That's a scientific argument,
5:43
Speaker 2: and the answer is that they are. Like I said,
5:45
Speaker 2: take it up with his chromosomes. But the moral argument, well,
5:49
Speaker 2: that comes later. The moral argument is about whether or
5:52
Speaker 2: not the state should have the power to enforce a
5:55
Speaker 2: biological lie while prosecuting anyone who insists on speaking the truth.
6:00
Speaker 2: And I think the answer to that is as obvious
6:03
Speaker 2: as the answer to what a woman is. Finally, the
6:06
Speaker 2: TRANSO CEO tried to argue that stickers stating trans women
6:09
Speaker 2: are real men made the community unsafe.
6:13
Speaker 3: Quote.
6:14
Speaker 2: Most West Australians want our suburbs to be welcoming, tidy
6:18
Speaker 2: and safe. Stickers like these achieve none of that. Well,
6:23
Speaker 2: I think we all want our communities to be welcoming
6:25
Speaker 2: and safe. But if a community can only remain welcoming
6:29
Speaker 2: and safe by banning inconvenient truths, one wonders what exactly
6:34
Speaker 2: is being kept safe from. And finally, the Transfolk CEO
6:38
Speaker 2: said this, Messages like these are designed to create division.
6:43
Speaker 2: They try to import a loud, aggressive, cultural war style
6:46
Speaker 2: of politics that doesn't reflect how most of us actually
6:49
Speaker 2: interact in real life. Well, truth doesn't create division between
6:56
Speaker 2: reasonable people. It creates division between those who value truth
6:59
Speaker 2: and though those who require biological fiction to function or
7:04
Speaker 2: concede this point, Though we are most certainly in a
7:07
Speaker 2: war for the culture, it seems to me we're in
7:09
Speaker 2: a war between those who want culture built on reality,
7:12
Speaker 2: however inconvenient, and those who want our culture built on
7:16
Speaker 2: the quicksand of personal preference, enforced by police, paid for
7:20
Speaker 2: by taxpayers, and protected from stickers. In West Australia, at
7:25
Speaker 2: least for now, the stickers are losing, but reality has
7:28
Speaker 2: a habit of surviving its own criminalization. Now, while we're
7:33
Speaker 2: on this topic, the progressive left, they perform all manner
7:35
Speaker 2: of twists and turns in an effort to produce their
7:38
Speaker 2: contorted narratives. But try as they might, reality just won't bend.
7:43
Speaker 2: Speaking of which, last week, reality wandered onto the center
7:46
Speaker 2: court in Dubai, where it wiped its feet on the
7:49
Speaker 2: welcome matter of ideology and refused to play along. The
7:52
Speaker 2: tennis match between Nick Kurios and Arenas Saberlenka was billed
7:56
Speaker 2: as a quote battle of the sexes. Why it wasn't
7:59
Speaker 2: called a battle of agendas is something you'll have to
8:02
Speaker 2: ask the organizers.
8:03
Speaker 3: But I digress.
8:04
Speaker 2: Curios, whose rank somewhere south of relevance, by which I
8:07
Speaker 2: mean outside the ATP top six hundred, smashed the world's
8:11
Speaker 2: number one female player, beating her in straight sets. The
8:15
Speaker 2: three six, three six scoreline actually flattered Sebolenka. Her side
8:20
Speaker 2: of the court was made nine percent smaller than Curios's side,
8:24
Speaker 2: She still couldn't defend it, and both players were limited
8:28
Speaker 2: to one serve each, so that Curios had to rely
8:31
Speaker 2: on placement more than power.
8:34
Speaker 3: It made no difference.
8:35
Speaker 2: Kurios, who's barely hit the tennis ball in anger for
8:38
Speaker 2: the past three years, was unfit, only intermittently interested in
8:42
Speaker 2: the game, and clearly more engaged in arguing with the
8:45
Speaker 2: umpire than winning points.
8:47
Speaker 3: Even then, he was never seriously challenged.
8:51
Speaker 4: The rules were changed to benefit the world number one
8:53
Speaker 4: but she was still no match for Curios, who is
8:56
Speaker 4: hyping up his win regardless of the critics.
9:00
Speaker 3: On return from injury, men's world number six hundred and
9:03
Speaker 3: seventy one, Nik Curios defeated women's world number one Arena
9:07
Speaker 3: Sabalanka six three six y three.
9:09
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's Nick Curios that secures Leary fifteen of the.
9:16
Speaker 2: Sexis From the opening games, the outcome felt inevitable, not dramatic,
9:21
Speaker 2: not controversial, just well obvious, and that, of course is
9:25
Speaker 2: the problem. ABC News reported on the event with precisely
9:29
Speaker 2: zero self reflection, studiously avoiding the uncomfortable implication it has
9:34
Speaker 2: spent years trying to pretend doesn't exist. Men have a
9:37
Speaker 2: distinct physical advantage over women. Is the ABC headline, Nick
9:42
Speaker 2: Kurios defeats Arena Sebelenka in the latest Battle of the
9:47
Speaker 2: Sexes and have a listen to how the ABC article begins. Unsurprisingly,
9:53
Speaker 2: Australia's Nick Kurios has defeated women's world number one Arena
9:57
Speaker 2: Sabylenka in the latest Battle of the sex Well, hang
10:01
Speaker 2: on a second, what does the ABC report mean by Unsurprisingly,
10:06
Speaker 2: as if a man beating a woman at tennis is
10:08
Speaker 2: something of a foregone conclusion. This, remember, is the same
10:11
Speaker 2: broadcaster that has championed the idea that biological males identifying
10:15
Speaker 2: as females should compete in women's sport. Consequences be damned
10:20
Speaker 2: when a washed up male player strolls past the world's
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Speaker 2: best woman, even after the rule book had been rewritten
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Speaker 2: in her favor.
10:26
Speaker 3: What you're watching is.
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Speaker 2: Biology, calmly, politely and without malice, saying no, just no.
10:34
Speaker 2: Women's sport has protected categories for a reason, not because
10:37
Speaker 2: women are weak, but because fairness requires acknowledging difference. Pretending
10:42
Speaker 2: men have no physical advantage over women doesn't make sport
10:46
Speaker 2: inclusive or fair or noble. It just makes it dishonest.
10:50
Speaker 2: Reality doesn't bend, not even for the ABC. And one
10:54
Speaker 2: more thing, while we're talking about gender ideology, a court
10:58
Speaker 2: in France has convicted ten people of cyber bullying after
11:02
Speaker 2: they repeatedly referred to Emmanuel Macron's wife Bridget as a man.
11:07
Speaker 2: Now later in the show, we'll get into all the
11:09
Speaker 2: details from Sophie Ellsworth in the UK, but just one
11:12
Speaker 2: quick observation, if I may, about this court ruling overnight,
11:16
Speaker 2: It's fascinating to me that calling a biological woman a
11:20
Speaker 2: man is actionable in law, but in other context, not
11:24
Speaker 2: calling a biological man a woman is also actionable in law.
11:28
Speaker 3: Please, would someone make it make sense?
11:31
Speaker 2: I'm going to tell your life was a whole lot
11:33
Speaker 2: simpler and made a lot more sense back in our grandparents'
11:35
Speaker 2: day before we decided to demonize facts and deify our feelings. Well,
11:45
Speaker 2: Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman is the smartest Democrat politician, even
11:50
Speaker 2: with brain damage. He experienced brain damage from a severe
11:53
Speaker 2: stroke back in twenty twenty two, but here he was
11:56
Speaker 2: on Fox News Today upsetting his own progressive side of
11:59
Speaker 2: politics by stating the most obvious facts regarding Trump's capture
12:04
Speaker 2: of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, the Democrat.
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Speaker 3: We all wanted this man gone, and now he is gone.
12:13
Speaker 5: I think we should really appreciate exactly what happened here
12:16
Speaker 5: he now Remember we all Democrats years ago wanted to
12:20
Speaker 5: eliminate him, and they why have a bounty of twenty
12:24
Speaker 5: five million dollars if we didn't want him gone? Eight
12:26
Speaker 5: million Venezuelan were displaced and mass chaos, and now they
12:31
Speaker 5: were shipping drugs to our nation as well too. So
12:36
Speaker 5: for me, it's like, why why as a Democrat, you know,
12:41
Speaker 5: we can't just acknowledge that it was successful.
12:44
Speaker 2: Like I said, even with certified brain damage. Fitterman is
12:47
Speaker 2: the smartest Democrat in the Senate, and of course he's right.
12:51
Speaker 2: The Biden administration had posted a twenty five million dollar
12:54
Speaker 2: reward for the capture of Maduro. Now that Trump has
12:57
Speaker 2: gone and done what the Democrats only ever talked about doing, well,
13:00
Speaker 2: they're all upset. Is Biden's White House spokesperson one year ago,
13:05
Speaker 2: calling the Maduro presidency illegitimate and threatening action against the
13:10
Speaker 2: Venezuelan dictator quickly.
13:12
Speaker 1: Turned to Venezuela, where Maduro once again demonstrated his complete
13:17
Speaker 1: disregard for democratic norms and proceeded with his illegitimate inauguration.
13:23
Speaker 1: In coordination with our partners, We've given Maduro and his
13:27
Speaker 1: representatives every opportunity to restore democracy, but they haven't. We
13:32
Speaker 1: also increased the reward amount to twenty five million dollars
13:35
Speaker 1: for Nicholas Maduro and his so called Minister of Interior
13:39
Speaker 1: as part of the Department of State's Narcotics Rewards program.
13:45
Speaker 3: And now they're all upset.
13:46
Speaker 2: The cognitive dissonance required in order to be a US
13:49
Speaker 2: democrat is truly astonishing. Now, there are obviously a lot
13:53
Speaker 2: of questions about where to from here, but my point
13:55
Speaker 2: is just this. The outrage over Trump's actions is political
13:59
Speaker 2: theater with a large side show of Trump derangement syndrome.
14:03
Speaker 2: The same people who worried that Trump would become a
14:06
Speaker 2: dictator because dictators are the worst, now up in arms
14:09
Speaker 2: that a dictator has been removed because well, Trump did it.
14:13
Speaker 2: Don't believe me. Here's Joe Biden in nineteen eighty nine.
14:17
Speaker 6: For the first time. We are fighting and losing the
14:20
Speaker 6: war on our own soil. Let's go after the drug
14:23
Speaker 6: lords where they live with an international strike force. There
14:29
Speaker 6: must be no safe haven for these narco terrorists, and
14:32
Speaker 6: they must know it.
14:36
Speaker 2: If only narco terrorists could be captured by an auto pen,
14:40
Speaker 2: how different things would have been.
14:42
Speaker 3: Democrats hate history.
14:43
Speaker 2: Especially their own. Any wonder they end up with supporters
14:48
Speaker 2: like this guy.
14:49
Speaker 3: Do you know about Nicholas Maduro?
14:53
Speaker 7: I don't know much, bro, but here with Central CSO,
14:57
Speaker 7: and we fight against all this with like the with
15:02
Speaker 7: the Trump administration, ice police brutality. So we're just sharing
15:06
Speaker 7: support of all that. Right now, what does Maduro have
15:09
Speaker 7: to do with all that, bro, You know, but we're
15:13
Speaker 7: here in support.
15:16
Speaker 3: We're just here to protest Trump.
15:17
Speaker 2: And if supporting a narco terrorist dictator responsible for destroying
15:21
Speaker 2: once prosperous South American democracy is what we need to
15:24
Speaker 2: do to demonize Trump, a bro, I'll support that, Honestly.
15:28
Speaker 2: American film producer Morgan Jay Freeman not. The act of
15:31
Speaker 2: the film producer is typical of those on the progressive
15:34
Speaker 2: left who suffer from acute Trump derangement syndrome.
15:38
Speaker 3: Have a look at this.
15:38
Speaker 2: Here he was on the thirtieth of July twenty twenty four,
15:41
Speaker 2: tweeting and I quote Maduro will fall, Venezuela will be free.
15:47
Speaker 3: And here he was two days ago.
15:49
Speaker 2: Tweeting and I quote post a heart if you want
15:52
Speaker 2: New York Governor Kathy Hutchel to immediately return Maduro and
15:56
Speaker 2: his wife. Honestly, Donald Trump could pull an old lady
15:59
Speaker 2: out of a earning building and the progressive left would
16:02
Speaker 2: accuse him of trespassing.
16:09
Speaker 3: Okay.
16:09
Speaker 2: Now, more on the mounting pressure within labor to back
16:12
Speaker 2: a Royal commission into the Bondai terrorist attack that left
16:15
Speaker 2: fifteen Australians dead to say pressure is mounting on the
16:19
Speaker 2: PM to call the Royal commission is something of an understatement.
16:22
Speaker 2: Yesterday we had former Labour MPs and senators joining Jewish
16:25
Speaker 2: community leaders, business leaders and sporting greats in support of
16:29
Speaker 2: a royal commission. And well, maybe that pressure is starting
16:32
Speaker 2: to work. Have listened to Anti Albenezi this afternoon where
16:36
Speaker 2: he appeared to soften his position and leave open the
16:39
Speaker 2: possibility that a royal commission might be called.
16:41
Speaker 3: After all.
16:43
Speaker 8: What we're prioritizing is the immediate needs of the Richardson review.
16:51
Speaker 8: That's been priority one. Priority two is recalling Parliament once
16:58
Speaker 8: we have the legislation required. We're continuing to examine everything
17:04
Speaker 8: else that is required. Working with the community. Will continue
17:08
Speaker 8: to do that, and I continue to be engaged with
17:12
Speaker 8: leaders in the Jewish community.
17:15
Speaker 3: Here to discuss this and more.
17:16
Speaker 2: I'm joined by former Queensland Premier Campbell Newman. Campbell, Welcome
17:20
Speaker 2: to the program. What did you make of Elbody's comments today?
17:23
Speaker 2: Do you think he's starting to set the scene for
17:26
Speaker 2: a backflip?
17:27
Speaker 3: Oh?
17:27
Speaker 9: Possibly, possibly, James, but the pressure has really continued to
17:31
Speaker 9: build and I think at the end of the day
17:35
Speaker 9: he's going to have to capitulate and call for Raal Commission,
17:40
Speaker 9: and I'd say right now, the key then The next
17:42
Speaker 9: issue then.
17:43
Speaker 3: Is how he sort of sets this up, the terms
17:46
Speaker 3: of reference.
17:47
Speaker 9: And who he puts in charge of it, because by gosh,
17:51
Speaker 9: after all the Shelley shaleing of the last few weeks,
17:54
Speaker 9: which has been just appauling. Of course, you know, I
17:57
Speaker 9: think you'll do everything to try and confine this time
18:00
Speaker 9: rightly as he can. And so I think what the
18:02
Speaker 9: next thing will all be doing in the world of
18:04
Speaker 9: commentary and in the media is to actually call him
18:06
Speaker 9: out if he tries to actually in a blunt turned
18:09
Speaker 9: rig it.
18:10
Speaker 3: And that's the problem, isn't it.
18:11
Speaker 2: Even if he does call a royal commission, it won't
18:14
Speaker 2: be because he believes this is a good thing. It
18:16
Speaker 2: won't be because he wants it. It will be it
18:18
Speaker 2: will be because the political reality has become impossible for
18:22
Speaker 2: him to avoid.
18:23
Speaker 9: Well, that's that's where it's got too, that the reality
18:25
Speaker 9: is impossible for him to avoid. And I think he's
18:29
Speaker 9: suffered a tremendous dent, I mean a very big dent
18:33
Speaker 9: to his credibilities personally stand and personal standing with all
18:38
Speaker 9: Australians really, you know, across the political spectrum. By the way,
18:42
Speaker 9: I think in his own party, clearly he's taken a
18:45
Speaker 9: hit for people who.
18:47
Speaker 6: Are swing voters.
18:48
Speaker 9: I think they will never see him in the same
18:50
Speaker 9: way again. So you know, he really hasn't got a
18:55
Speaker 9: leg to stand on it. And by the way, to
18:57
Speaker 9: even suggest that, you know, people in high positions in
19:02
Speaker 9: government in the public sector are.
19:05
Speaker 3: Saying that this isn't a good idea. I mean, that's rot.
19:07
Speaker 9: They're frankly the people who need to be investigated just
19:11
Speaker 9: as much as the political arm of government, because you know,
19:15
Speaker 9: from what I can see as a lay person, but
19:16
Speaker 9: having Burn involved in government, there seems to be a
19:21
Speaker 9: lot of smoke around failings by people involved in the
19:25
Speaker 9: security and the policing of Australia. And you know, look,
19:30
Speaker 9: I mean, James, you know they've got a conflict of interest.
19:33
Speaker 9: You know, they might want to lift the lid off
19:35
Speaker 9: various things and have a looking into the tea legs.
19:38
Speaker 9: You know, you know, why wouldn't they say, oh, we
19:42
Speaker 9: don't need a royal commission.
19:44
Speaker 10: Well too, right, they need.
19:45
Speaker 9: To be investigated much as the political of the political
19:48
Speaker 9: as well.
19:49
Speaker 2: I agree with it does seem changing the landscape. Getting
19:52
Speaker 2: ready to call the Royal Commission. I hope he does and.
19:53
Speaker 9: Get the Cross beaches and the teals, et cetera. Pocock
20:00
Speaker 9: has come out in recent days saying that there should
20:03
Speaker 9: be one.
20:03
Speaker 3: Well, I'd like to see them go a bit further.
20:05
Speaker 9: They should make it very clear to the primus so
20:07
Speaker 9: that this is so important that he can not expect
20:10
Speaker 9: their support in the future on other issues unless he
20:14
Speaker 9: gets behind the Royal Commission.
20:16
Speaker 2: I want to ask you about Victorian politics. Sam Groth,
20:18
Speaker 2: the deputy leader of the Liberals, announced yesterday that he
20:21
Speaker 2: will not recontest the next election.
20:23
Speaker 3: Two questions on this. As a former leader, yourself a
20:27
Speaker 3: state leader, how.
20:30
Speaker 2: Normal is it for a deputy to resign in the
20:33
Speaker 2: fashion that he did, and you, as the leader didn't
20:36
Speaker 2: know until moments before he announced it publicly? Does that
20:39
Speaker 2: speak to a problem that's not historic, as the current
20:43
Speaker 2: leader of the Liberal Party suggested, but that is ever
20:45
Speaker 2: present in the Liberal Party there in terms of internal division.
20:49
Speaker 9: Well, look, you know, I think the Labor Party for
20:52
Speaker 9: a start, I've obviously come out swinging on this, so
20:56
Speaker 9: the Liberals, you know, just a chamozor and you know
21:00
Speaker 9: no one would disagree with that.
21:04
Speaker 3: And look I don't know Sam Gloth.
21:06
Speaker 9: And what I have read in the media over recent
21:09
Speaker 9: months is clearly he and his family been put under
21:11
Speaker 9: a lot of pressure, and you know, I can be
21:14
Speaker 9: sympathetic about that, but I don't like the way that
21:17
Speaker 9: he appears to have gone about this. Your why stand
21:21
Speaker 9: for the deputy leadership only forty days ago? Yeah, a
21:24
Speaker 9: very short period ago. If your heart wasn't in it,
21:27
Speaker 9: that's not the right thing to do. And again it
21:30
Speaker 9: doesn't appear well. Certainly the people who are against him,
21:34
Speaker 9: and obviously briefing the media, it doesn't appear that he's
21:37
Speaker 9: gone about this in a particularly good way. So that's
21:41
Speaker 9: a pity because we really need to see change in Victoria.
21:45
Speaker 9: The place is a shamozzle. I run a commercial property
21:48
Speaker 9: fund with some colleagues these days, like a tear now,
21:50
Speaker 9: there is one state we will not go to. So
21:53
Speaker 9: any circumstances of Victoria. We would never invest in Victoria.
21:57
Speaker 9: We'd never put our investors at risk by trying to
22:00
Speaker 9: by any sort of office building or industrial building the
22:03
Speaker 9: state of Victoria.
22:04
Speaker 3: It's just not worth it. Very good Ken Well Yuman.
22:06
Speaker 2: Always it a light to talk to you, James, Thanks
22:08
Speaker 2: for joining me all right. Well, now for a closer
22:11
Speaker 2: look at what's happening in far North Queensland, where towns
22:14
Speaker 2: like Winton are recovering from flooding that left more than
22:17
Speaker 2: nineteen thousand head of cattle missing or dead. There's also
22:21
Speaker 2: been significant damage to critical farm infrastructure, heaping enormous pressure
22:25
Speaker 2: on regional communities and producers. For example, more than nine
22:28
Speaker 2: hundred kilometers of fencing has been damaged in one than
22:32
Speaker 2: six hundred kilometers of private roads have been affected by
22:34
Speaker 2: the floods. Hit update this Winton Shire Council Mayor Kathy White,
22:40
Speaker 2: a council of White, thanks so much for joining me.
22:43
Speaker 2: Can you just describe the current situation in Winton what's
22:46
Speaker 2: it like at the moment.
22:49
Speaker 11: Well, we've had our first day of sunshine in over
22:53
Speaker 11: a week, so that's been really well appreciated for our shire.
22:58
Speaker 11: First of all, on my heart goes out to our shires,
23:02
Speaker 11: our neighboring shires there of McKinley, Julia Creek there and Richmond.
23:09
Speaker 11: Their impact is just heartbreaking. We had that in twenty
23:13
Speaker 11: nineteen and yep, it's a bloody tough situation therein at
23:18
Speaker 11: the moment, So our thoughts are with those mayors and
23:23
Speaker 11: the people that are in that shi that's affected.
23:28
Speaker 2: Of course, there's a possibility of a cyclone forming in
23:30
Speaker 2: the Far North as well, so there might be more
23:34
Speaker 2: to come. Is this something the community was prepared for?
23:37
Speaker 2: Was there enough warning for people in your region?
23:41
Speaker 11: I feel there was. I don't think the bomb was
23:43
Speaker 11: far off their prediction this time. I was in town
23:48
Speaker 11: prior to this event. I live on a cattle station myself,
23:52
Speaker 11: sixty kilometers south of Winton there, and I came into
23:57
Speaker 11: town just about the twenty sixth of of December twenty
24:01
Speaker 11: six to twenty seventh of December in preparation for this,
24:05
Speaker 11: and we started up our local disaster management meetings there
24:10
Speaker 11: very shortly after I got into town there. I'd like
24:15
Speaker 11: to say too, I'm very grateful for the Christopoli government
24:18
Speaker 11: in Queensland who put up a team of sees from
24:24
Speaker 11: Rockhampton and a Swiss water rescue team the fire and
24:28
Speaker 11: rescue here. They've been here for about ten days now,
24:33
Speaker 11: and I tell you those people were the reason, one
24:37
Speaker 11: of the reasons anyway, that we didn't have as much
24:41
Speaker 11: damage as we could have had.
24:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, well tell you what, it's always nice to hear
24:47
Speaker 2: the bomb, get some thanks and a state government. Thanks
24:50
Speaker 2: for acting in an expeditious manner, Counselor Kathy White. I
24:54
Speaker 2: really appreciate your time tonight, Stay safe and thank you
24:57
Speaker 2: so much.
24:58
Speaker 3: Well after the break.
24:59
Speaker 2: There's a millennial shift back towards church in the United States,
25:03
Speaker 2: with young people now outnumbering the elderly at Sunday services.
25:07
Speaker 2: Is that trend being replicated here in Australia though, and
25:10
Speaker 2: if so, what's behind it?
25:12
Speaker 3: Plus?
25:13
Speaker 2: An education task force led by Jewish leader David Gonsky
25:16
Speaker 2: hopes to imbed Australian values in our education system, particularly
25:20
Speaker 2: our universities. I think we can all agree it's needed,
25:24
Speaker 2: but will it work? All of that and more after.
25:26
Speaker 3: This break, welcome back to the program.
25:32
Speaker 2: There seems to be a turning towards Christianity across the
25:35
Speaker 2: West right now. The most recent example cartoonist Scott Adams,
25:39
Speaker 2: who created the famous Gilbert comic strip. Scott Adams has
25:42
Speaker 2: prostate cancer and this week announced that, with his condition incurable,
25:47
Speaker 2: he's decided to become a Christian.
25:49
Speaker 12: You're here for the first time today. It is my
25:53
Speaker 12: plan to convert, so I still have time, but my
25:59
Speaker 12: understand you're never too late.
26:03
Speaker 2: Now what's interesting to me is that it's not only
26:06
Speaker 2: people like Adams facing death who are converting. The latest
26:10
Speaker 2: data shows there's been a renewed turn toward faith in
26:13
Speaker 2: the US, with the respected Barner Research Group reporting church
26:16
Speaker 2: attendance is at a twenty five year high. Forty three
26:20
Speaker 2: percent of men and thirty six percent of women report
26:24
Speaker 2: attending church on a regular basis, and attendance is highest
26:28
Speaker 2: among men aged thirty to forty five, with fifty five
26:32
Speaker 2: percent of men in that age group saying they've been
26:35
Speaker 2: to church in the past week. So the question needs
26:38
Speaker 2: to be asked, what's behind the move back to faith
26:41
Speaker 2: and we see it replicated here in Australia. Pastor Rob
26:44
Speaker 2: Buckingham is the senior pastor of Melbourne's Bayside Church and
26:47
Speaker 2: he joins me now. Pastor Rob, welcome to the program.
26:50
Speaker 2: Great to talk with you.
26:52
Speaker 3: We've got this data out of the US.
26:54
Speaker 2: We don't have anything to reflect what's happening in Australia,
26:57
Speaker 2: but anecdotally he's seeing a similar revival in faith here
27:01
Speaker 2: in Australia.
27:04
Speaker 10: Yeah, very much so. In our own church, we've seen
27:07
Speaker 10: an increase over the last twelve months and I've been
27:09
Speaker 10: chatting with my pastor friends around Melbourne and other parts
27:13
Speaker 10: of Australia and they're certainly seeing the same thing.
27:18
Speaker 2: So I have to ask you what's driving this shift
27:22
Speaker 2: why now all of a sudden.
27:26
Speaker 10: I think there's a number of things. I think the
27:28
Speaker 10: pandemic certainly had an impact on that because many people
27:31
Speaker 10: felt isolated during the pandemic, young men particularly, and I
27:36
Speaker 10: think that's one of the things that we're seeing now
27:38
Speaker 10: is that the young men during the pandemic, they felt
27:41
Speaker 10: isolated and withdrawn from community, and I think it gave
27:46
Speaker 10: them time to think about what they really want in life.
27:49
Speaker 10: And so we're seeing an increased number of young men particularly,
27:53
Speaker 10: but also young women who are joining churches. At the
27:58
Speaker 10: other end of the scale, there's a very interesting stat
28:00
Speaker 10: that's come out of the census. So in twenty sixteen,
28:03
Speaker 10: between twenty sixteen and twenty twenty one, in the twenty
28:08
Speaker 10: twenty one census, there were seven hundred and eighty five
28:10
Speaker 10: thousand people who had ticked no religion in twenty sixteen
28:14
Speaker 10: who ticked Christian in twenty twenty one. So that's a
28:18
Speaker 10: significant number of people. Now, the majority of those people
28:23
Speaker 10: were over fifty five. And I think that's one thing
28:27
Speaker 10: is that people who as we saw that clip from
28:30
Speaker 10: scott people coming toward the end of their life, maybe
28:33
Speaker 10: through cancer or other illnesses, divorce, other crises in life,
28:41
Speaker 10: and that's getting them thinking about spiritual things and maybe
28:45
Speaker 10: what is after death, is their life after death and
28:48
Speaker 10: so on. And then the younger people, as I said before,
28:52
Speaker 10: particularly spurred on by isolation during the pandemic, they're also
28:56
Speaker 10: looking for community. They're looking for structure, and they're looking
29:01
Speaker 10: for values.
29:03
Speaker 2: Well, you mentioned structure and values. Is there a sense
29:06
Speaker 2: that once you abandoned truth and moral absolute says we
29:10
Speaker 2: seem to have done in the West, you pretty much
29:14
Speaker 2: end up with chaos really quickly in our Our young
29:16
Speaker 2: people sensing that and now looking for something concrete to
29:19
Speaker 2: grasp onto.
29:22
Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean chaos may be too strong a word,
29:25
Speaker 10: but I know where you're coming from.
29:26
Speaker 3: But they are.
29:27
Speaker 10: They're looking for something that is concrete, something that is sure.
29:30
Speaker 10: They want guidance and guidelines in life, and I think
29:34
Speaker 10: more than anything, they want to be able to look
29:36
Speaker 10: to people for mentoring, for encouragement. For example, recently at
29:42
Speaker 10: the gym, I got into a really good conversation with
29:45
Speaker 10: one of the young guys who works there. He and
29:47
Speaker 10: I have chatted on many occasions. He knows that I'm
29:50
Speaker 10: a pastor, and he said to me, he said, so,
29:53
Speaker 10: I've got a friend who's got a Christian girlfriend and
29:56
Speaker 10: so he started going to church. How common is this?
30:00
Speaker 10: I said, it's very common, and he said, well, I'd
30:02
Speaker 10: like to know more about this too. He said, I
30:04
Speaker 10: want to start reading the Bible. So I got him
30:06
Speaker 10: a Bible and we're going to be catching up soon
30:08
Speaker 10: to have a conversation. And that's just one example of
30:13
Speaker 10: many that I'm experiencing at the moment, and hearing of
30:15
Speaker 10: similar people having stories just like that too.
30:20
Speaker 2: But that's the other thing I wanted to ask you
30:22
Speaker 2: about because you know a lot of people, religion is
30:25
Speaker 2: one of those things you don't talk about in polite company.
30:27
Speaker 3: It's a very private thing.
30:29
Speaker 2: But the discussions that you're referencing, and I've been involved
30:32
Speaker 2: in number myself, is that idea that you don't talk
30:36
Speaker 2: about religion changing. Is it becoming acceptable to discuss religious
30:40
Speaker 2: and spiritual things?
30:43
Speaker 10: I believe so, and especially if it is raised by
30:46
Speaker 10: the person who's seeking, you know, say like the non
30:49
Speaker 10: religious person. When it's raised by them, they're kind of
30:56
Speaker 10: giving you permission to go there. And so it's not
30:58
Speaker 10: something that I necessarily I don't bowl into situations and
31:02
Speaker 10: try and turn every conversation to Jesus and God and
31:06
Speaker 10: the Christian faith. But certainly I'm finding an increasing number
31:10
Speaker 10: of people are raising this topic and then they're giving
31:12
Speaker 10: you permission to go there with them and to see
31:16
Speaker 10: where that conversation leads.
31:20
Speaker 2: Well, we live in very interesting times, Pastor Rob Buckingham,
31:23
Speaker 2: I really appreciate you joining me.
31:24
Speaker 3: Thanks so much.
31:26
Speaker 2: Well, you might remember the PM, with great fanfare, announce
31:29
Speaker 2: the appointment of a Special Envoid to combat anti Semitism.
31:33
Speaker 2: He charged her with reporting to the government ways that
31:35
Speaker 2: antisemitism could be dealt with. Then he appointed a Special
31:39
Speaker 2: Envoid to combat Islamophobia, presumably to prove he wasn't favoring
31:43
Speaker 2: Jews by trying to stamp out anti Semitism. When you
31:47
Speaker 2: received the report on combating anti Semitism, he said he
31:49
Speaker 2: couldn't act on it until he'd also received the report
31:52
Speaker 2: on Islamophobia. And so the report on combating anti Semitism
31:56
Speaker 2: sat in the PM's bottom draw gathering dust while anti
32:00
Speaker 2: Semitism ramped up around the country. Then Jews were shot
32:03
Speaker 2: dead on Bondai Beach and the government appears to have
32:06
Speaker 2: remembered it had a report on combating anti Semitism and
32:10
Speaker 2: has decided to implement some of its recommendations. And they
32:13
Speaker 2: think they deserve credit for that. So late last month,
32:17
Speaker 2: the Albanezi government announced an education task force led by
32:20
Speaker 2: Jewish leader David Gonsky, aimed at embedding Holocaust, anti Semitism
32:25
Speaker 2: and Australian values education across schools and universities. He's the
32:31
Speaker 2: discusser education editor at the Australian Natasha Beta Natasha.
32:36
Speaker 3: The obvious question I have.
32:37
Speaker 2: To ask at the outset is did it take an
32:40
Speaker 2: active terror for action in our schools and our universities
32:45
Speaker 2: on antisemitism?
32:48
Speaker 13: Well, obviously it did, because that recommendation was sitting there
32:52
Speaker 13: for nearly six months and had been put on the
32:56
Speaker 13: agenda for a meeting of the nations that are education
33:00
Speaker 13: in this is next month. So it clearly wasn't seen
33:03
Speaker 13: as anything urgent until what happened in Bondi.
33:05
Speaker 2: Until that massacre, well, we know universities have been a
33:10
Speaker 2: hotbed for hatred, particularly from twenty twenty three when we
33:14
Speaker 2: had propolst in encampments allowed to fester across major metropolitan campuses.
33:19
Speaker 2: How convinced are you that this task force announced by
33:22
Speaker 2: the Abenezi government will deliver real accountability and change, particularly
33:27
Speaker 2: in the tertiary sector.
33:31
Speaker 13: Well, it's always been so difficult to force universities to
33:35
Speaker 13: do anything because they're not really accountable to anyone, despite
33:39
Speaker 13: getting twenty billion dollars a year of taxpayers money. When they,
33:45
Speaker 13: for example, investigate allegations of antisemitism that appear to be
33:49
Speaker 13: very public, it's all done in secrecy. Nothing to see here, privacy,
33:55
Speaker 13: commercial and confidence. We've got it under control. It's okay,
34:00
Speaker 13: cogumit is. There needs to be transparency because that's the
34:03
Speaker 13: only thing that will make them change, is to be
34:07
Speaker 13: accountable to the public because they're very, very worried about
34:10
Speaker 13: their brand, their brand and their image. Yeah.
34:15
Speaker 3: Right, good point.
34:17
Speaker 2: You've written extensively about the broader impacts of liberal leaning
34:20
Speaker 2: universities and the kind of reforms that are needed to
34:23
Speaker 2: hold our tertiary educators to account.
34:26
Speaker 3: As you say following bond I.
34:27
Speaker 2: Do you think universities have genuinely reflected on their failure
34:31
Speaker 2: to confront extremist metric on campuses, or are they still
34:34
Speaker 2: more concerned with appeasing activist groups than protecting students and staff.
34:42
Speaker 13: Well, I think they've sniffed the breeze and they realize
34:44
Speaker 13: that they can no longer just appeal to whatever trendy
34:49
Speaker 13: you know, activist group is, you know, gaining traction on Twitter.
34:53
Speaker 13: It appears to be what's happened. I have seen, for example,
34:57
Speaker 13: University of Queensland where they would mark students down for
35:01
Speaker 13: using the word mankind because mankind was a sexist term.
35:05
Speaker 13: You had to use humanity. It's all got man in
35:07
Speaker 13: it right. They were allowing people to fly a terrorist
35:11
Speaker 13: flag at their encampment and it was only taken down
35:15
Speaker 13: when my colleague, journalist Mackenzie Scott called them up about
35:20
Speaker 13: it because they didn't even realize what was going on
35:22
Speaker 13: on their own.
35:23
Speaker 7: Sort of quad.
35:25
Speaker 13: They were putting up with behavior that your typical school
35:28
Speaker 13: principle would not tolerate in a school. It was a
35:33
Speaker 13: lot of bullying behavior, anti semitism, bactism, intimidating people on campus.
35:42
Speaker 13: Universities were saying vice chancellor saying, oh, we don't know
35:45
Speaker 13: what to do. We can't do anything about it. And
35:47
Speaker 13: I was saying, we'll turn the sprinklers on. That'll get
35:48
Speaker 13: rid of them pretty quickly. I just don't think that, no, no,
35:53
Speaker 13: but I think it is good for people to debate,
35:56
Speaker 13: and it's good for people to have different ideas and
35:58
Speaker 13: to discuss those ideas. These encampments were not free debate.
36:03
Speaker 3: They were just.
36:06
Speaker 13: People causing trouble. It was kind of seen as fun
36:09
Speaker 13: for all the students wanting to do it with their mates,
36:12
Speaker 13: and it was incredibly intimidating for anyone who was Jewish.
36:15
Speaker 13: I have seen videos at Monash University where a Jewish
36:19
Speaker 13: student was sitting with a Jewish flat with sorry Israeli
36:22
Speaker 13: flag around his shoulders, and a pro Palestinian protester had
36:27
Speaker 13: a megaphone right on his ear and was screaming slogans
36:31
Speaker 13: into this megaphone, and the university just had a security
36:35
Speaker 13: guard just looking at it. I mean, this behavior would
36:38
Speaker 13: not be acceptable in a workplace, in a school, as
36:42
Speaker 13: I said, and yet the university seemed to tolerate it.
36:47
Speaker 2: And vice chancellors, most of them on well over a million.
36:49
Speaker 3: Dollars a year.
36:50
Speaker 2: You'd think they'd be able to at least control their
36:53
Speaker 2: own students. What concrete reforms then, whether around I don't know,
36:57
Speaker 2: codes of conduct, curriculum oversight or even consequences for staff
37:02
Speaker 2: needed to restore confidence that universities are places of learning,
37:06
Speaker 2: not political in doctrination. There be a lot of parents
37:09
Speaker 2: watching like myself, who've got kids who've just graduated from school,
37:14
Speaker 2: now we're sending them to universities.
37:16
Speaker 3: What needs to be.
37:17
Speaker 2: Put in place by the government to ensure that when
37:20
Speaker 2: we send our kids to universities they're going to actually learn,
37:23
Speaker 2: not be indoctrinated with progressive madness.
37:28
Speaker 13: Well, student safety needs to be prioritized to be fair.
37:33
Speaker 13: The government has set up a student on Bardsman and
37:37
Speaker 13: has been on at the universities just about say, you know,
37:41
Speaker 13: sexual assaults on campus, etc. But also racism on campus,
37:48
Speaker 13: bullying on campus. So that needs to be a priority.
37:51
Speaker 13: But we need rules that everyone understands. The universities cannot
37:55
Speaker 13: as a group even agree upon a common definition of
37:59
Speaker 13: anti semitism. They agreed on wine and back in February,
38:02
Speaker 13: and now they've had a few of the universities back
38:04
Speaker 13: out of it. So Australian National University r MIT and
38:08
Speaker 13: Macquarie University are not accepting the University's Australia definition. But
38:13
Speaker 13: they haven't told us what their definition is. How do
38:16
Speaker 13: you expect to have rules and consequences when you still
38:20
Speaker 13: haven't even said what's acceptable? What can you say? What
38:24
Speaker 13: is hate speech? Can you define it? That's what they
38:26
Speaker 13: need to do. They meant to be our intellectual leaders.
38:28
Speaker 13: It shouldn't be so difficult for them, and I shouldn't
38:31
Speaker 13: be sitting around waiting for government to do it for them.
38:35
Speaker 2: Indeed, and you have to wonder if Anthony Albanezi calls
38:38
Speaker 2: a royal commission, perhaps a spotlight will be shown on
38:41
Speaker 2: our universities and what they did to contribute to the
38:44
Speaker 2: environment that allowed that Bondai terror tech.
38:47
Speaker 3: Natasha.
38:48
Speaker 2: Always great to talk with you, Thanks so much. Well
38:50
Speaker 2: after the break. The Albanezi government's push on electric vehicles
38:53
Speaker 2: has created a new global winner and it's not Tesla.
38:57
Speaker 2: What China's ev surge means for Australian drivers, dealers and
39:01
Speaker 2: our car market is up next, all right, A quick
39:08
Speaker 2: pop quiz. If I was to ask you what's the
39:10
Speaker 2: number one selling electric vehicle maker in the world, you'd
39:13
Speaker 2: probably say Tesla and you would have been right up
39:16
Speaker 2: until last year. But in twenty twenty five, China's BYD
39:21
Speaker 2: overtook Tesla as the world's top selling EV manufacturer, out
39:25
Speaker 2: selling Tesla's by six hundred thousand vehicles. Paul Gover is
39:29
Speaker 2: from Wheels magazine and he joins me now, Paul, thanks
39:32
Speaker 2: for coming on the program. I guess I've got two
39:34
Speaker 2: questions for you. Why the decline in Tesla sales, and second,
39:39
Speaker 2: what's behind the surge in BYD. Is the Chinese brand
39:43
Speaker 2: genuinely dominating the market or is it doing so artificially
39:46
Speaker 2: helped along by heavy Chinese state subsidies.
39:52
Speaker 4: Taking your second second question, first, of course they're being
39:56
Speaker 4: helped along by Chinese subsidies. They're also helped along by
39:59
Speaker 4: the fact that China is not a free and open
40:02
Speaker 4: market in the way that Australia is, so it's much
40:05
Speaker 4: easier to get people to buy electric cars over there.
40:08
Speaker 4: If your choice between is between electric car or an
40:10
Speaker 4: electric car, and a BYD or a BID, it's pretty
40:14
Speaker 4: obviously going to go well. Now they are going very
40:17
Speaker 4: well globally, they're going very well in Australia as well,
40:20
Speaker 4: not necessarily just with electric cars. On the other front,
40:24
Speaker 4: Tesla basically selected a reverse gear last year after the
40:29
Speaker 4: election stuff in the USA, Elong Musk's personal following amongst
40:34
Speaker 4: Tesla buyers has dropped. But the other thing, and this
40:37
Speaker 4: is more significant actually, is that Tesla used to be
40:40
Speaker 4: an outlier. It was the electric car brand. Then we
40:44
Speaker 4: had Polestar. But now suddenly everybody's piled in and other
40:48
Speaker 4: manufacturers are making much more headway, particularly companies out of China.
40:54
Speaker 4: So Tesla has gone backwards, and they've gone backwards for
40:58
Speaker 4: a whole bunch of reasons. Their resale value is not
41:01
Speaker 4: great as we're seeing in Australia. Elon Musky is not
41:04
Speaker 4: particularly popular, but also BYD has surged.
41:09
Speaker 2: So I'm interested in what this growing dominance in relation
41:13
Speaker 2: to Chinese EV's means for Australian consumer choice. Obviously, you've
41:18
Speaker 2: got governments pushing EV mandates and emissions targets that favor
41:22
Speaker 2: Chinese imports. We're due to see a lot more Chinese
41:26
Speaker 2: brands in Australia this year.
41:30
Speaker 4: Yeah, right at the minute. By the last count there
41:34
Speaker 4: are we had another seven new brands arrived in Australia
41:38
Speaker 4: last year, so the current total is sixty seven individual brands.
41:42
Speaker 3: Why is that significant?
41:43
Speaker 4: Well, let me tell you. In Australia we sell we
41:46
Speaker 4: buy around one point two million cars a year sixty
41:49
Speaker 4: seven brands. In the USA fourteen and a half million
41:53
Speaker 4: cars a year forty six brands. So Australia is just
41:56
Speaker 4: about the most open and competitive market in the world.
42:00
Speaker 4: And traditionally new brands getting established. It started with Toyota
42:04
Speaker 4: the Chinese, then it with Chinese.
42:06
Speaker 3: What I'm talking about, it's.
42:07
Speaker 4: The Japanese than the Koreans. We actually have Mahindra out
42:12
Speaker 4: of India making some inroads in Australia with big plans
42:15
Speaker 4: as well. But obviously China is huge, huge capacity. But
42:20
Speaker 4: also because of the tariff situation in the USA, they
42:23
Speaker 4: have excess capacity now and it's much easier to put
42:26
Speaker 4: them on a boat to Australia than to deal with
42:29
Speaker 4: getting them into the USA. So the Chinese brands are
42:32
Speaker 4: coming on. But there's one area that you have slightly incorrect.
42:36
Speaker 4: It's not just about electric cars. Chinese brands are bringing
42:39
Speaker 4: diesel cars here, they are bringing full drives here, they
42:42
Speaker 4: are bringing hybrids here, they are bringing plug in hybrids here.
42:46
Speaker 4: So if you look at a brand like Byd or
42:49
Speaker 4: the other big one in the top ten, brands, which
42:52
Speaker 4: is GWM. You find that they're replicating the sort of
42:56
Speaker 4: range of vehicles that Toyota hats and Toyota has just
43:00
Speaker 4: celebrated twenty three straight years is number one in Australia,
43:03
Speaker 4: so it's pretty easy. I think they're coppying toy otis homework,
43:06
Speaker 4: if I'm being honest.
43:09
Speaker 2: So if we've got more choice and presumably cheaper vehicles,
43:13
Speaker 2: is there a downside for the Australian consumer.
43:18
Speaker 4: Yes, there is because there are going to be more
43:20
Speaker 4: expensive vehicles, so we're having a split at the moment.
43:24
Speaker 4: So basically, companies that are startups, if you like, and
43:31
Speaker 4: particularly ones that have an EV bias, they're able to
43:34
Speaker 4: drop the prices on their starting cars. So we've now
43:37
Speaker 4: got cars electric cars that are price parody with combustion
43:42
Speaker 4: cars in the twenty five thousand dollars range. But what's
43:45
Speaker 4: happening Australians are buying, still in record numbers, dual cab
43:50
Speaker 4: pickup trucks, and what's happening is those are not particularly efficient.
43:54
Speaker 4: Their prices are going.
43:55
Speaker 3: To go up.
43:56
Speaker 4: The toy Land Cruiser is price is going to go up,
44:00
Speaker 4: So we're we're in a really, really turbulent time. Nobody
44:03
Speaker 4: really knows the answer because as yet the federal go
44:06
Speaker 4: although they set targets and they've told us what they
44:10
Speaker 4: want us to do, the car companies are actually reacting
44:13
Speaker 4: to what people are buying, not what the government's telling
44:15
Speaker 4: them to do, and they're going to have to adjust
44:17
Speaker 4: their pricing. They're already putting for us up I think
44:20
Speaker 4: called the Ford Mustang, which is a V eight powered
44:23
Speaker 4: two door sports car. Price went up five thousand dollars,
44:27
Speaker 4: mostly because of the impost of the NVA of the
44:30
Speaker 4: new Vehicle Emission Standard.
44:33
Speaker 2: Oh Paul, what are you saying is the cars we
44:35
Speaker 2: don't want are getting cheaper and the cars we'd really
44:38
Speaker 2: like are getting more expensive.
44:40
Speaker 3: Appreciate you filling us in tonight. Thanks so much.
44:43
Speaker 2: Well, after the break, we'll cross to the UK, where
44:45
Speaker 2: there's more bad news for sekire Starma in the battle
44:49
Speaker 2: for control of Britain's borders.
44:51
Speaker 3: That's next. Welcome back to the program.
44:57
Speaker 2: Let's cross to London, where I'm joined by scot News
45:00
Speaker 2: contributor and News Corp Australian European correspondent Sophie Ellsworth. Sophie,
45:05
Speaker 2: you want to talk about a really interesting story out
45:08
Speaker 2: of France. A Paris court has convicted ten people of
45:11
Speaker 2: cyber bullying for spreading false, intofamatory claims that France's First Lady,
45:16
Speaker 2: Brigitte Macron, was transgender and a pedophile. Now, the court
45:20
Speaker 2: agreed that these claims were causing serious harm to Brigitt
45:23
Speaker 2: Macron's physical and mental health. Tell us about the case
45:28
Speaker 2: and what's the reaction to this being.
45:30
Speaker 14: Like, well, that's right, James. This has been an issue
45:34
Speaker 14: that the First Lady in France has not been able
45:38
Speaker 14: to shake, and one that there's been a lot of
45:40
Speaker 14: these conspiracy theories flying around online. So there were that
45:45
Speaker 14: was in the court case yesterday and these people have
45:48
Speaker 14: been charged and convicted. Only one will go to jail, however,
45:53
Speaker 14: but this has been a real problem for the First
45:55
Speaker 14: Lady because these conspiracy theories have run wild online and
46:00
Speaker 14: they have not been able to push them. So this
46:03
Speaker 14: is the first part of this case. Because as we know,
46:06
Speaker 14: there is also a defamation case which the First Lady
46:09
Speaker 14: has taken out against US podcaster Candace Owens, who has
46:14
Speaker 14: claimed some of the same things.
46:18
Speaker 2: And as I understand that the mccron's have said they
46:20
Speaker 2: will present scientific evidence at that defamation case with Candace Owens,
46:26
Speaker 2: which is intriguing. I guess most people upon hearing this
46:30
Speaker 2: Paris court decision will be wondering is Owens in big trouble?
46:34
Speaker 14: Now, Well we have to wait and see, of course, James,
46:39
Speaker 14: because there's a court trial happening. But yes, that is
46:42
Speaker 14: what you would expect, and we don't have a date
46:45
Speaker 14: set for this yet, but it will be very interesting
46:48
Speaker 14: to watch now, James. Just behind me here you can
46:50
Speaker 14: see a lot of Cabinet ministers arriving here. There's a
46:53
Speaker 14: cabinet meeting here at Downing Street this morning, so there's
46:56
Speaker 14: plenty of action here. Behind me. It's negative five degree,
47:00
Speaker 14: but it's all unfolding. We just had the Deputy Prime
47:02
Speaker 14: Minister arriving, so that's why we're seeing a lot of
47:05
Speaker 14: action here at Downing Street.
47:08
Speaker 2: Well, you're always on the scene, Sophie. We know that
47:11
Speaker 2: about you. So let's talk about UK politics. The migrant
47:14
Speaker 2: crisis does not appear to be easing. The first small
47:17
Speaker 2: boat of twenty twenty six reached the UK yesterday despite
47:21
Speaker 2: freezing conditions, underscoring the fact that channel crossings continue despite
47:26
Speaker 2: the Kirstarma government's promises to address the issue. What does
47:32
Speaker 2: labor have to do to stop these boat arrivals, if
47:35
Speaker 2: indeed they're really motivated to stop them at all.
47:39
Speaker 14: Well, James, it has been a shocking start because as
47:42
Speaker 14: you just said and I've mentioned, it is freezing here
47:45
Speaker 14: in the UK, it's bitterly cold, but that is not
47:48
Speaker 14: deterring these illegal migrants from crossing the channel, and we've
47:52
Speaker 14: seen more sail in now. Last year the figures of
47:55
Speaker 14: the overall illegal migrants arriving in by the channel was
47:59
Speaker 14: forty one, four hundred and twenty seven. Now that is
48:03
Speaker 14: the second highest year on record, and the amount of
48:08
Speaker 14: illegal migrants arriving per boat is at its highest. It
48:11
Speaker 14: was sixty two people per bot. They have tried everything
48:15
Speaker 14: here to stop this, but it's such a small passage
48:19
Speaker 14: of water that these illegal migrants are able to cross
48:22
Speaker 14: and get in here, be put up in migrant hotels
48:26
Speaker 14: and many reports you're saying you've been given money, looked
48:30
Speaker 14: after and being able to stay here until their cases
48:33
Speaker 14: are hurt in court. So this is an absolute debarcle
48:37
Speaker 14: for the Starma government and he's come out just in
48:40
Speaker 14: the last couple of days saying he will be leader
48:43
Speaker 14: up until the next general election in twenty twenty nine.
48:46
Speaker 14: But James, there is no doubt there's immense pressure on
48:49
Speaker 14: him to stop this problem. And if it's happening now
48:52
Speaker 14: and it's cold, goodness knows what's happening when the weather
48:55
Speaker 14: warms up, There'll be more illegal migrants crossing.
49:00
Speaker 2: I'm struck by the irony, Sophie that you've got what's
49:02
Speaker 2: happening in Venezuela right, and people are saying Trump should
49:05
Speaker 2: respect national sovereignty and borders, and then at the same
49:09
Speaker 2: time you've got the Europeans who don't seem to respect
49:12
Speaker 2: their own national sovereignty or borders.
49:15
Speaker 3: It's kind of ironic, isn't it.
49:18
Speaker 14: Well, James, this is why Reform UK is winning every
49:21
Speaker 14: poll hands down here because we know that the Reform leader,
49:25
Speaker 14: Nigel Fraje has said if you come here illegally and
49:29
Speaker 14: I'm the Prime Minister, I will toss you out. And
49:31
Speaker 14: there's definitely a feeling among the British public that the
49:35
Speaker 14: government is being too soft on allowing these illegal migrants
49:38
Speaker 14: to arrive here firstly and to stay here. So this
49:42
Speaker 14: is going to be a problem that continues in twenty
49:44
Speaker 14: twenty six, and one that I don't think the Stama
49:47
Speaker 14: government will be able to shake.
49:52
Speaker 3: Sophie.
49:52
Speaker 2: We've got to go, but just before I do, did
49:54
Speaker 2: you say at the beginning of this chat that it's
49:56
Speaker 2: minus five degrees where you are? Because I've got to
49:59
Speaker 2: hand it to you, you are very composed. If that's
50:01
Speaker 2: the temperature that you're conducting this interview in, well done
50:04
Speaker 2: to you.
50:06
Speaker 3: It is, James. I've got thermals on, I've got gloves on.
50:09
Speaker 14: It is bitterly cold, but you've got to do it
50:11
Speaker 14: and the viewers love to see it, so nothing will
50:14
Speaker 14: stop me from being out here today.
50:17
Speaker 2: You are an absolute legend, Sophie. Thanks for your time tonight,
50:20
Speaker 2: stay warm. Well that's it from me. Coming up now
50:22
Speaker 2: is the Late Debate with Freyer, Leitch, Claireat and Holly Hughes.
50:26
Speaker 3: Good Night,