Latest / The Kenny Report / The Kenny Report | 20 Feburary

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The Kenny Report | 20 Feburary · The Kenny Report

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Speaker 1: Frime time opinion on skying isospreadyad starts now line from
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Speaker 1: the Skying New Center. This is the Kenny Report.
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Speaker 2: Thanks for joining me.
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Speaker 3: Tonight the Anti Semitism Summit, Peter Dutton promises immigration vigilance
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Speaker 3: and funding cuts to organizations harboring hate speech, as the
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Speaker 3: former Home Affairs Chief says, the crisis should be declared
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Speaker 3: a national terrorism emergency. Meanwhile, Labor throws another two billion
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Speaker 3: dollars of your money saving a still works that has
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Speaker 3: been hurt by its own national energy self harm. What
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Speaker 3: on earth is Donald Trump up to? Could Ukraine's worst
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Speaker 3: fears be realized? We'll hear from Alexander Downer also free
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Speaker 3: speech under attack here in Australia, and Tim Blair and
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Speaker 3: Mark Nicholson will inject some sanity into a crazy week.
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Speaker 3: Let's start tonight with the Anti Semitism Summit in Sydney
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Speaker 3: which has just wrapped up this afternoon. This effort to
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Speaker 3: combat the hate directed at Jewish Australians in the here
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Speaker 3: and now was happening here while in Israel, preparations are
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Speaker 3: underway to receive four bodies from Hamas in Gaza, those
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Speaker 3: of Shari Bibas and her two little boys, Ariel and Kafir,
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Speaker 3: and that of former Israeli journalist and peace activists Odd Livshitz,
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Speaker 3: who was eighty four years old, a father, grandfather and
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Speaker 3: great grandfather.
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Speaker 2: Hosted and organized.
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Speaker 3: By our own Shari Marksen and the Joint Head of
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Speaker 3: the Executive Council of Australian Jury, Alex Rivcham, it was
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Speaker 3: opened by Rabbi Levi Wolfe and Sky News Chief Executive
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Speaker 3: Paul Whittaker. The event pulled together an impressive array of
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Speaker 3: s speakers, kicking off with former Prime Minister John Howard
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Speaker 3: on why this issue matters to all Australians.
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Speaker 4: I would row to learn and understand both at Sunday
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Speaker 4: School Church and at High School that really the moral
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Speaker 4: title deeds of Australia are constituted in the Judeo Christian ethic.
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Speaker 4: It's an all embracing term we're acquired to ourselves, but
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Speaker 4: they really are the moral title deeds of this country
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Speaker 4: and when we depart from those ethics, we are departing
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Speaker 4: from the moral foundation of Australia.
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Speaker 3: I was honored to host a session on law enforcement
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Speaker 3: after vile, hateful and threatening protests and graffiti fire bombings
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Speaker 3: of cars and a synagogue explosives found, with a list
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Speaker 3: of Jewish targets and video threats from nurses about killing
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Speaker 3: Jewish patients. The situation appears to be spiraling out of control.
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Speaker 3: Azio says hate speech leads to violence and the anti
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Speaker 3: Semitic problem has not yet plateaued.
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Speaker 2: Should this be declared a national emergency?
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Speaker 5: Yes, I believe that we're an event to occur.
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Speaker 2: We look back.
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Speaker 5: The Raw Commission would look back and say there was
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Speaker 5: a failure to declare this a national terror situation, which
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Speaker 5: is required, which is a an activity under the National
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Speaker 5: counter Terrorism Plan. That means that we pull together all
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Speaker 5: of the strands that I just spoke about, that declaration
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Speaker 5: should be made today.
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Speaker 3: The trouble is that after the horrible celebrations we saw
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Speaker 3: with a Muslim cleric describing the slaughter of innocence in
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Speaker 3: Israel on October the seventh of twenty.
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Speaker 2: Twenty three as a day of triumph and.
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Speaker 3: Crowds chanting threatening slows against Jews at the Opera House
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Speaker 3: when we were supposed to be commemorating the Israeli victims. Well,
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Speaker 3: the trouble is no arrests were made then and no
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Speaker 3: charges were.
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Speaker 2: Laid under the Crimes Act.
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Speaker 3: It is a crime to intentionally or recklessly threaten or
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Speaker 3: incite violence. When you are celebrating the slaughter of innocence
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Speaker 3: on the basis of their race or religion by terrorists,
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Speaker 3: are you not therefore inciting similar actions by others against
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Speaker 3: those people. Understandably, there were strong calls for tougher legislation.
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Speaker 6: Problem with the current laws on incitement is that, by
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Speaker 6: and large they have two mental elements required, and they've
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Speaker 6: proven to be virtually impossible to use. If we look
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Speaker 6: back over the years since these laws were brought into force,
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Speaker 6: we haven't seen successful prosecutions. We are continuing to see
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Speaker 6: the kinds of acts that we saw on October the eighth,
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Speaker 6: and it's been confirmed time and time again that the
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Speaker 6: current laws don't actually catch those acts. We believe, you know,
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Speaker 6: a lot of the hatred that's happening today is happening
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Speaker 6: in online spaces, online platforms, and often the language that's
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Speaker 6: used is subtle and coded.
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Speaker 3: And with Islamist extremism one of the core drivers of
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Speaker 3: anti Semitism, there is a clear need for immigration and
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Speaker 3: visa controls to be part of the solution.
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Speaker 7: When it comes to who we're letting into this country.
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Speaker 7: We've already got a crisis on our hands too. We
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Speaker 7: need to expand the character test so that those who
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Speaker 7: have anti Semitic views are not allowed into the country
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Speaker 7: in the first place.
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Speaker 2: The massive issues will come back to that in particulars.
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Speaker 3: This comes as The Daily Telegraph has revealed that the
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Speaker 3: Immigration Minister Tony Burke is about to on three days
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Speaker 3: of citizenship ceremonies in Western Sydney that will confer citizenship
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Speaker 3: and therefore the right to vote on more than twelve
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Speaker 3: thousand immigrants. Labor has also issued three thousand tourism visas
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Speaker 3: to people from Gaza, something that no other country has done.
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Speaker 3: When it comes to law and order, the New South
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Speaker 3: Wales Police have admitted mistakes were made back in October
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Speaker 3: twenty three, of course, but they assure the public that
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Speaker 3: the fight against anti Semitism is fully resourced now.
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Speaker 8: These detectives that I've put in to Striffle's Pearl normally
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Speaker 8: investigate organized crime murders. That's how seriously we're taking this
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Speaker 8: to hunt these people down. Since the creation of Pearl,
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Speaker 8: we have arrested and charged and bar refused thirteen individuals
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Speaker 8: with over seventy three offenses. Majority of the offenses you're
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Speaker 8: talking to are talking about that have caused concern. We
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Speaker 8: have arrested individuals and responsible to them, and we said
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Speaker 8: that from the outset that we will hunt these people
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Speaker 8: down with whatever resources it takes.
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Speaker 3: The Premier was there also and he expressed regret.
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Speaker 9: It was appalling to see the hateful scenes on the
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Speaker 9: steps of the Sydney Opera House one day after October seventh,
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Speaker 9: and I can tell you I'm deeply ashamed that it
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Speaker 9: happened under my watch as Premier of this state.
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Speaker 3: While he also promised a stronger approach and assured the
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Speaker 3: right outcomes.
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Speaker 9: Now, this campaign of antisemitism must fail, and this campaign
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Speaker 9: of antisemitism will fail. I think it's important we speak
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Speaker 9: about why it will fail. Because the Jewish people have
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Speaker 9: an inner strength that is unbreakable. It will fail because
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Speaker 9: Jewish neighbors have the vast, vast majority of people millions
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Speaker 9: at their back. And it will fail because the message
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Speaker 9: needs to be loud and clear that if you attempt
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Speaker 9: this kind of menace, the police will track you down,
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Speaker 9: they'll throw the book at you, and most crucially, if
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Speaker 9: the laws don't allow for proper prosecution, then we must
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Speaker 9: change the laws.
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Speaker 3: As for federal labor, the federal government, they were represented
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Speaker 3: by Attorney General Mark Dreyfuss, who is Jewish, but accused
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Speaker 3: people of playing politics with this volatile issue.
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Speaker 10: Antisemitism cannot and must not be weaponized in the pursuit
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Speaker 10: of votes. It must not be weaponized in the pursuit
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Speaker 10: of newspaper sales or TV ratings either. We all must
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Speaker 10: take a stand together.
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Speaker 3: And the attorney's implausible words led to heckling and some
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Speaker 3: people walking out.
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Speaker 10: The Australian government has expressly condemned words and acts of
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Speaker 10: hate directed at Jewish people. The Albanezy government has not
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Speaker 10: just talked about anti semitism. We have acted and we
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Speaker 10: will keep acting.
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Speaker 3: Opposition leader Peter Dutton was it a viewed live at
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Speaker 3: the Summer by Shari Markson. He promised to do more,
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Speaker 3: including through immigration.
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Speaker 11: I want to send a very clear message to people
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Speaker 11: who hate us, hate our country, hate Jewish people, hate
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Speaker 11: other segments of our society that's under government that iley
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Speaker 11: they'll have no place in this country.
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Speaker 12: And will reform the makeweight.
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Speaker 3: We will reform the migration program and he also foreshadowed
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Speaker 3: cutting funding to community or religious organizations that promote anti
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Speaker 3: Jewish rhetoric or hate speech.
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Speaker 11: I think it's completely uncontroversial, and I think the law
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Speaker 11: hasn't happened.
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Speaker 2: Well again, it's a will.
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Speaker 11: The law is there, and we should be taking a
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Speaker 11: whole of government approach to this problem because this.
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Speaker 2: Is the whole of society, whole of Australia problem.
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Speaker 3: This issue is pivotal for this nation and there was
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Speaker 3: a high degree of fortitude at the.
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Speaker 2: Central Synagogue today.
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Speaker 3: It's not only about protecting Australia's Jewish community, although it
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Speaker 3: most certainly is that, and that's worth doing in its
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Speaker 3: own right, but this is fundamentally about protecting Australian values,
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Speaker 3: about preserving and enhancing our national character. We all have
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Speaker 3: an absolutely vital stake in it. Let's cross now back
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Speaker 3: to the Central Sydney Synagogue and catch up with Jewish
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Speaker 3: community member Marnie Pearlstein. We've spoken to before this program.
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Speaker 3: Got good to talk to you again.
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Speaker 2: Marnie.
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Speaker 3: Tell us what your overall takeout was of today's summit.
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Speaker 13: Chris, firstly, thank you for your fantastic panel on law
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Speaker 13: and order. It was really great. I think collectively the
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Speaker 13: takeout was that we are finally having a proactive, strategic
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Speaker 13: conversation about this issue, and just the feeling in the
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Speaker 13: room is that we are not going to accept this
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Speaker 13: as our new normal, and we can't accept this in
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Speaker 13: Australia as our new.
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Speaker 2: Normal when it comes to law and order.
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Speaker 3: Of course, members of the Jewish community understand the fears
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Speaker 3: and concerns and the threats more than anybody else. There's
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Speaker 3: frustration at the lack of arrests and a lack.
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Speaker 2: Of police action.
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Speaker 3: Were you satisfied in hearing from the Deputy Commissioner David
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Speaker 3: Hudson today, the Premier Chris Mins and the other contributors
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Speaker 3: that there will be enough policing and that in fact,
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Speaker 3: new laws might make it easier to take further action.
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Speaker 13: I think there was a lot of discussion around the
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Speaker 13: fact that the existing laws need to be enforced and
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Speaker 13: if they're not able to be enforced, that there needs
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Speaker 13: to be reform with the laws, particularly the hate speech laws,
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Speaker 13: rather than laws around violence, and I felt quite good
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Speaker 13: about that discussion. It was very interesting to hear Peter
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Speaker 13: Dutton talk about migration laws and revoking visas if need
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Speaker 13: be so. I think overall there was a lot of
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Speaker 13: really positive information that was discussed.
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Speaker 3: Now, I'm not going to pretend that I'm satisfied with
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Speaker 3: the federal government's handling of this issue.
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Speaker 2: I think they've been weak from the outset.
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Speaker 3: But nonetheless, it was good of the Attorney General Mark
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Speaker 3: Dreyfus to be there. He probably knew it would be
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Speaker 3: a somewhat hostile audience. Tell us about how his words
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Speaker 3: telling the community that his government was doing enough, tell
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Speaker 3: us about why so many people seem to interject, and
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Speaker 3: there was a lot of disappointment about what he had
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Speaker 3: to say.
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Speaker 13: There was a lot of disappointment, firstly because the community,
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Speaker 13: the Jewish community is understandably angry. They're understandably angry with
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Speaker 13: the Albanese government, and they're understandably angry that it took
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Speaker 13: fourteen months before anything serious started to happen and before
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Speaker 13: we even saw one arrest. So there was a lot
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Speaker 13: of hostility towards his address. And I don't think I
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Speaker 13: don't think anyone was happy to hear him talk about
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Speaker 13: weaponizing this issue for politically. I think that that was
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Speaker 13: just really not accepting any responsibility for where his government
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Speaker 13: has gone wrong with this issue.
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Speaker 3: Well, let's just finish on that point. To me, that
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Speaker 3: sounds very insulting. I mean, he's assaulting probably News Corp.
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Speaker 3: I don't know, because we talk about these issues more
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Speaker 3: than others. But he's insulting the Jewish community too, because
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Speaker 3: to suggest this is being weaponized is really a suggestion
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Speaker 3: that it's being exaggerated. And I find it hard to
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Speaker 3: believe that anyone would argue that the anti Semitism crisis
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Speaker 3: in this country is being exactly because it is dire.
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Speaker 13: The situation in this country is not being exaggerated. And
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Speaker 13: I know there are people who like to think that
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Speaker 13: the Jewish community is exaggerating or playing the victim. It's
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Speaker 13: not the case at all. We can see from the
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Speaker 13: near daily incidents that have been taking place. We can
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Speaker 13: see from the hate speech that has basically transformed into
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Speaker 13: violence and actions of hatred, that there's no exaggeration of
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Speaker 13: this issue. And I think it was unfair for him
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Speaker 13: to talk about the media weaponizing the issue and exaggerating
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Speaker 13: the issue. I think it would have been more appropriate
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Speaker 13: to look at how his government is using this issue
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Speaker 13: to win votes. On the opposite side.
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Speaker 3: Marni Perstine, thanks so much for being there today and
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Speaker 3: Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts about it. At
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Speaker 3: the end of the day, appreciate it. Marney Perstine there
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Speaker 3: at Sydney's Central Synagogue. Now, I told you here weeks
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Speaker 3: ago that the six hundred million dollar green hydrogen pipe
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Speaker 3: dream at Wyala in South Australia was done and dusted,
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Speaker 3: and so it has now come to pass. The South
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Speaker 3: Australian Labor Premiere, with the Prime Minister by his side
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Speaker 3: in Wyala, today announced that the hydrogen plan has been
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Speaker 3: put on dry ice and the money will now be
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Speaker 3: pumped into a new federal state two billion dollar rescue
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Speaker 3: package for the Wyala steel Works. Yeah, the same labor
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Speaker 3: party that does silly little stunts pretending a Wyala wipeout
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Speaker 3: his nonsense, The same labor party that pushes power prices
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Speaker 3: up with its renewables transition and splurges billions of dollars
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Speaker 3: on a fanciful green hydrogen plan instead of underpinning gas
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Speaker 3: coal and existing industry. Well, that labor party today is
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Speaker 3: tipping two billion dollars more of your money to savor
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Speaker 3: steel works at industry free and a whole regional city.
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Speaker 14: This package that we're putting together here, we've been working
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Speaker 14: very hard on between the South Australian Government and the
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Speaker 14: Australian Government, two labor governments working together to support jobs,
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Speaker 14: good quality, good paying jobs that are so vital for
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Speaker 14: our nation. There's two point four billion dollar plan.
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Speaker 15: The Office of Hydrogen Power. We maintained because we know
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Speaker 15: and the science tells you that in order to decarbonize
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Speaker 15: iron and steelmaking you need hydrogen and there is a
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Speaker 15: future for that. But the large functions of that office
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Speaker 15: will be curtailed and wound back now that we defer
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Speaker 15: that plan in order to get the basics right here
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Speaker 15: in terms of the steel mill, because and the steel
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Speaker 15: plan and the mind because you know there's no point
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Speaker 15: in producing hydrogen if there's not a customer for it.
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Speaker 3: This is an economic management disaster. It shows how labor
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Speaker 3: have again been sucked in by businessmen playing up to
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Speaker 3: their green energy pipe dreams. Rent seekers taking labour's green dollars,
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Speaker 3: but leaving taxpayers without money, without power, and without a
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Speaker 3: profitable steel works and without a secure energy future. Imagine
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Speaker 3: if these labor governments just spent a fraction of this
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Speaker 3: money on proven, reliable electricity generations such as gas, coal
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Speaker 3: or heaven forbid emissions, free reliable.
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Speaker 2: Power like nuclear.
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Speaker 3: Wyala is saved again by taxpayers for now again, but
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Speaker 3: Labour's national energy self harm continues. Let's go to Pauline Hanson,
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Speaker 3: the One Nation leader. She joins us live from scenic
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Speaker 3: Rim in Queensland. Good to talk to you again, Pauline.
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Speaker 3: Now this is good news for Wyala, a proud city
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Speaker 3: up there on Spencer Golf in South Australia. Good news
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Speaker 3: to keep the still works in play for the manufacturing
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Speaker 3: or industry base of this country. But how appallingly has
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Speaker 3: this been managed by government's hand over foot trying to
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Speaker 3: throw money at so called green hydrogen and green steel
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Speaker 3: stuff that is just not deliverable.
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Speaker 16: Chris. For years now, I've been telling people of Australia
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Speaker 16: that hydrogen won't work. We're about twenty years away from
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Speaker 16: it actually working, but the government continually keeps straying money
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Speaker 16: at it. This is the fifth one to go under
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Speaker 16: the Queenstine government just got rid of the one at
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Speaker 16: Gladston they were going to go ahead with under the
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Speaker 16: Labor This is labor they're pushing this with the support
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Speaker 16: of the Greens. It is not going to work. South
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Speaker 16: Australia is a basket case. As far as their cost
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Speaker 16: of electricity. They blew up their qualified power plant that
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Speaker 16: was about twenty sixteen. They blew that up. The fact
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Speaker 16: is they only get about thirty percent of their power
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Speaker 16: from the renewables and the other they have to rely
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Speaker 16: on gas to give them that supply of energy.
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Speaker 12: They can't.
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Speaker 16: You know, Chris, what I've said all along is industries and
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Speaker 16: manufacturing are suffering because of it. Whyaler steel works have
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Speaker 16: gone down because they can't afford also the cost of
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Speaker 16: electricity to run the plant. And this is happening right
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Speaker 16: across Austraia. Not only are they going under, but last
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Speaker 16: year eleven thousand businesses when insolvent, sixteen thousand expected this
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Speaker 16: year and twenty seven thousand on the Labour Party. People
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Speaker 16: need to wake up. This is pie in the sky dream.
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Speaker 16: There's a sheer lunacy by the Prime Minister, plus also
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Speaker 16: Chris Bowen.
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Speaker 5: Who is pushing this.
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Speaker 16: We cannot keep affording to going down this path because
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Speaker 16: in Wyaler you're looking about three to four thousand people
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Speaker 16: that jobs are in jeopardy. That's indirectly and indirectly it's
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Speaker 16: just ridiculous. People wake up to this pie in the
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Speaker 16: sky dream about this hydrogen.
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Speaker 3: It's just so predictable, and it all happens in the
19:56
Speaker 3: slow motion motion train crash.
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Speaker 2: I mean, there used to.
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Speaker 3: Be two huge coal fired generators up in that region,
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Speaker 3: at neighboring Portagasta that helped deliver secure, cheap power to
20:06
Speaker 3: the plant.
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Speaker 2: That's gone.
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Speaker 3: Sanjeb Gupta, the British billionaire who they welcomed and threw
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Speaker 3: taxpayers money at because he talked about green power and
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Speaker 3: green steel, Well he's gone. He's taken his money and
20:19
Speaker 3: he shunted their profits overseas and he's gone. And now
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Speaker 3: the state government is effectively owning the.
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Speaker 2: Plant looking for a buyer.
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Speaker 3: The same party that criticizes the Coalition for looking at
20:29
Speaker 3: the government building nuclear power stations, Well, now the government
20:33
Speaker 3: effectively owns the steel works and they're still talking their
20:36
Speaker 3: green energy and green steel nonsense.
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Speaker 16: Well, melanarchis the Premier of South Australia. He's now pulled
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Speaker 16: that and he put up a department, paying twenty three
20:49
Speaker 16: million dollars for this department set up for hydrogen. He's
20:52
Speaker 16: going to keep the department in place, he said, Oh well,
20:54
Speaker 16: maybe further down the track. It may come to.
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Speaker 12: Be that we have it.
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Speaker 16: How ridiculous of taxpayers in South Australia to keep a
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Speaker 16: department there that there's no hydrogen whatsoever. Chris, the whole
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Speaker 16: problem also is that Whaler. Well there's one other steel
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Speaker 16: plan of Port Kembler. But we're importing one point six
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Speaker 16: billion dollars worth of steel from China. And I know
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Speaker 16: of a company in Queensland and I spoke two years ago.
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Speaker 16: They said they wanted to give Whale of their business,
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Speaker 16: they said, but they couldn't get the steel in the
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Speaker 16: sizes that they wanted. We have to get smarter in
21:27
Speaker 16: this country. If you want to strand businesses and all
21:30
Speaker 16: this housing and is going to be built, then let's
21:33
Speaker 16: start producing the steel. And I'm all for let's put
21:36
Speaker 16: some tariffs on our steel to support our own industry here.
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Speaker 16: We can't compete with the cheap steal that's coming in
21:42
Speaker 16: from China.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, putting tariffs on our steel. Maybe the tariffs
21:47
Speaker 2: the other way would work just quickly.
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Speaker 3: On politics and Clive Palmer, perhaps you should have done
21:52
Speaker 3: a deal with him, merged your interests in your money,
21:55
Speaker 3: rather than now you're up against a bloke with deep pockets.
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Speaker 2: No thanks, So I have.
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Speaker 16: No intentions of actually merging with Clive Palmer or anyone
22:03
Speaker 16: else because I'm here for the right reason. It's not
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Speaker 16: a stunt to come out at election time thirty millions
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Speaker 16: of dollars round all the policies. I want people to
22:11
Speaker 16: look at everything he promised you at the last election.
22:14
Speaker 16: He's got a member in the floor of Parliament. How
22:16
Speaker 16: many private members bills has but that put up?
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Speaker 17: That was Clive.
22:20
Speaker 16: Palmer's policies leading an election, and you look at my record,
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Speaker 16: so that will tell you something. Clive Palmer is owing
22:27
Speaker 16: in for the stunts that he pulls.
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Speaker 2: With the whole lot.
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Speaker 16: My party was not for sale. I'm not for sale.
22:33
Speaker 16: I'm here for the people and I will keep pushing
22:35
Speaker 16: what I think is both policies for a better Australia.
22:39
Speaker 2: You've had an impact, all right, pulling over a long period.
22:41
Speaker 3: I forgot the client still at a senator in there.
22:45
Speaker 3: Thanks for joining us, pauling Hanson. They're live from Queensland.
22:47
Speaker 3: We've got to get to a break.
22:49
Speaker 2: After that.
22:49
Speaker 3: We're going to talk about online censorship and the threat
22:52
Speaker 3: to free speech here in Australia. Alex Antik joins me.
23:03
Speaker 3: I reckon, we're the federal election looming. We ought to
23:05
Speaker 3: be focused on free speech with a laser focus. We've
23:10
Speaker 3: seen how our own governments under the Coalition and Labor
23:13
Speaker 3: by the Way, secretly censored social media throughout the COVID pandemic,
23:19
Speaker 3: getting the digital giants to take down factual information about
23:23
Speaker 3: the weaknesses and risks of vaccines, about the origins of
23:27
Speaker 3: the virus, and the overreach of vaccine mandates and lockdowns.
23:32
Speaker 3: Censored our governments here in Australia censored the Internet. They
23:38
Speaker 3: censored the truth secretly, and we've seen similar censorship in
23:43
Speaker 3: a partisan political form in the United States.
23:46
Speaker 2: The digital giants.
23:48
Speaker 3: Hid the story about Hunter Biden's laptop before the twenty
23:51
Speaker 3: twenty election. Facebook admitted to this and apologized for it.
23:56
Speaker 3: Intelligence chiefs told lies to bury this story for political reasons.
24:02
Speaker 3: Everybody did this because of their hatred of Donald Trump
24:06
Speaker 3: trumping all their other sensibilities. So we should be worried.
24:11
Speaker 3: Will government try to control social media during.
24:14
Speaker 2: This upcoming campaign?
24:17
Speaker 3: Remember they wanted a misinformation and disinformation bill. It's a
24:22
Speaker 3: pretty murky area and the e Safety Commissioner is a
24:26
Speaker 3: key player.
24:28
Speaker 18: Hi, my name is Julia mcgrant and I'm Australia's E
24:32
Speaker 18: Safety Commissioner. E Safety is Australia's national independent regulator for
24:36
Speaker 18: online safety. It is the first government agency of its
24:40
Speaker 18: kind in the world. And since starting our work, we
24:43
Speaker 18: have grown both in size and envision.
24:47
Speaker 2: Growing in size and vision.
24:50
Speaker 3: That's a worry an ever growing online information watchdog. Imman
24:55
Speaker 3: Grant works with overseas agencies on this stuff.
25:00
Speaker 19: Finding ourselves in a place where we have increasing polarization
25:05
Speaker 19: everywhere and everything feels binary when it doesn't need to be.
25:09
Speaker 19: So I think we're going to have to think about
25:11
Speaker 19: a recalibration of a whole range of human rights that
25:13
Speaker 19: are playing out online, you know, from freedom of spreech
25:16
Speaker 19: to the freedom you know, to be free from online.
25:20
Speaker 3: Violence, compromising on freedom of speech. Now again, it's a worry.
25:25
Speaker 3: She's unelected, of course, and our a Safety Commissioner is
25:29
Speaker 3: especially close with a woman who held a similar role
25:32
Speaker 3: in America.
25:34
Speaker 20: Bovering is really quite flucious. It's when it hops to
25:37
Speaker 20: take some lives and makes them sound forcas start seeing
25:40
Speaker 20: them in congress or and mainstream out that so this
25:42
Speaker 20: information's origins are slightly less atrocious.
25:48
Speaker 3: That's not Julie Anthony or Julie Andrews. That's Nina Djenkovitch,
25:54
Speaker 3: who headed up the Disinformation Governance Board for the US
25:59
Speaker 3: Homeland Security Department. She's a global player in this disinformation space.
26:06
Speaker 20: It's how you had a delighted lie, It's how you
26:08
Speaker 20: had a littlightled lie.
26:10
Speaker 21: It's how you had a.
26:10
Speaker 20: Little lighted line. When Rudy Giuliani shared that in Tamsa, Ukraine,
26:14
Speaker 20: or when TikTok influences Covid Kent Hopkin, there wandering discenter
26:19
Speaker 20: when we really should take note and not support their
26:21
Speaker 20: lies with our wallet voice or note, Oh, information wandering
26:25
Speaker 20: is really quite ferocious.
26:27
Speaker 21: It's Whana has to take the mind.
26:28
Speaker 20: And makes them sound precocious by saying them in Congress
26:31
Speaker 20: for mat market information's origin seems likely.
26:35
Speaker 2: Less atrocious.
26:38
Speaker 3: Fills you with confidence, doesn't it, I reckon she get
26:41
Speaker 3: on well with Chris Bonn. This woman's driving a global
26:44
Speaker 3: push against what she calls misinformation and disinformation. She traveled
26:49
Speaker 3: to Australia last year in a trip facilitated by our
26:54
Speaker 3: E Safety Commissioner, whose experiences with online trolls formed part
26:59
Speaker 3: of Themerican's latest report. So the pair did media together
27:05
Speaker 3: on the ABC.
27:06
Speaker 12: Of course, Commissioner, your own experience is featured in this report,
27:11
Speaker 12: and it's horrible what happened to you. You were doxed.
27:16
Speaker 12: Just talk to me about how dangerous it got for you.
27:21
Speaker 19: Well, it has been pretty harrowing, and Nina has had
27:25
Speaker 19: some of those same experiences.
27:28
Speaker 3: Now, all power to them for calling out online threats,
27:32
Speaker 3: especially against women.
27:34
Speaker 2: But what else are they up to?
27:37
Speaker 3: Email exchanges revealed under freedom of information bids show them
27:41
Speaker 3: criticizing what they call fringe senators. I think I'm about
27:45
Speaker 3: to speak to one of them, and Sky News as well,
27:48
Speaker 3: and they lash out it.
27:49
Speaker 2: Elon Musk too. While most people see Elon Musk.
27:53
Speaker 3: As a free speech warrior, they see him as a threat.
27:58
Speaker 22: Musk's purchase of Acts of Course made the platform a
28:01
Speaker 22: veritable fire hose of election disinformation, including if you haven't
28:04
Speaker 22: looked at it yet, I encourage you to the Election
28:06
Speaker 22: Integrity Channel on x which has tens of thousands of
28:10
Speaker 22: members and is just a deluge of rumor and conspiracy theory,
28:15
Speaker 22: one right after another, dozens per hour. We also have
28:19
Speaker 22: Meta and YouTube, which have rolled back some of their
28:22
Speaker 22: labeling and content moderation efforts around disinformation because of the
28:26
Speaker 22: political environment that we're in.
28:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, these people show a tendency to want to shut
28:31
Speaker 3: down certain voices, it seems, which is a worry. Imman
28:35
Speaker 3: Grant claims to have been offered a job once by
28:38
Speaker 3: the CIA.
28:39
Speaker 19: I specifically remember the person telling me, well, we're looking
28:43
Speaker 19: for people with high moral fiber, but then you have
28:45
Speaker 19: to lie to all your friends and family if.
28:48
Speaker 23: You do it, And I just thought, I thought, you
28:50
Speaker 23: know what, this.
28:51
Speaker 18: Is not the world I want.
28:55
Speaker 3: She also tried and failed to have Elon Musk remove
28:58
Speaker 3: globally from x the video of a terrorist stabbing attack
29:03
Speaker 3: in Sydney last year, and have been other cases too
29:07
Speaker 3: where she's issued notices to have perfectly reasonable posts removed
29:12
Speaker 3: from social media.
29:13
Speaker 2: This stuff is insidious. Self anointed elites seem.
29:18
Speaker 3: To think they can pick and choose what everybody else
29:21
Speaker 3: gets to see and hear. US Vice President jd Vance
29:26
Speaker 3: called out the trend in Europe during that Great Speech
29:29
Speaker 3: last week.
29:31
Speaker 24: Not to many of us on the other side of
29:33
Speaker 24: the Atlantic, it looks more and more like old entrenched
29:36
Speaker 24: interests hiding behind ugly Soviet era words like misinformation and
29:42
Speaker 24: disinformation who simply don't like the idea that somebody with
29:46
Speaker 24: an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion or god forbid,
29:51
Speaker 24: vote a different way, or even worse when an election.
29:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what it sounds like.
29:59
Speaker 3: It's a worry across the Western world and we'd better
30:03
Speaker 3: be vigilant here. We've already seen too much online censorship
30:07
Speaker 3: here and there's been too little pushback. Let's go to
30:14
Speaker 3: the Liberal Senator for South Australia, Alex Antik, who's been
30:17
Speaker 3: very active on these issues and joins me now live
30:19
Speaker 3: from Adelaide.
30:19
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us, Alex.
30:21
Speaker 3: When you look at the work of Julian and Grant
30:24
Speaker 3: and Australia and indeed what her collusions with people like
30:28
Speaker 3: Nita jacobt So even without misinformation and disinformation laws, we
30:32
Speaker 3: ought to be worried, shouldn't we about censorship online during
30:37
Speaker 3: an election campaign?
30:40
Speaker 23: Yeah, Chris, we absolutely should be as a general principle,
30:44
Speaker 23: I think worried about censorship online. This is a new
30:47
Speaker 23: area of tech and it is something that the law
30:49
Speaker 23: just simply, in my view, is not getting right.
30:51
Speaker 2: At this stage.
30:52
Speaker 23: Australia is really in a tug of war between online
30:55
Speaker 23: censorship and online free speech at the moment, and I'm
30:58
Speaker 23: not sure that the tide is really going in the
31:01
Speaker 23: direction of free speech. I have to say, I think
31:04
Speaker 23: what we've seen over the last twelve months, twelve to
31:06
Speaker 23: eighteen months in Parliament has been quite staggering in terms
31:10
Speaker 23: of the amount of incursions and attempted incursions that the
31:12
Speaker 23: Labor government has placed on free speech. We've seen first
31:16
Speaker 23: of all, the Digital Identity Bill, which has its own
31:19
Speaker 23: carve outs for problems for free speech that past. Then
31:22
Speaker 23: we saw the defeat of the misinformation and disinformation built, thankfully,
31:26
Speaker 23: but we did also see the passing of the under
31:29
Speaker 23: sixteen social media ban for children, which we still don't
31:32
Speaker 23: know how that is going to work and in fact
31:34
Speaker 23: how I've asked questions about that, and we're told that
31:37
Speaker 23: which platforms are going to be in and which platforms
31:39
Speaker 23: are going to be able are still a work in progress.
31:41
Speaker 23: So this is a very very difficult air area for legislators.
31:45
Speaker 23: And frankly, my concern is the use of things like
31:50
Speaker 23: children's safety to otherwise put a chilling effect on free speech.
31:54
Speaker 23: You've got to remember the Office of the e Safety
31:56
Speaker 23: Commissioner began as the Office of the Children's e Safety Commissioner,
32:00
Speaker 23: and that bracket creep has now progressed to the point
32:03
Speaker 23: where the office is sending out informal notices. We know
32:07
Speaker 23: that over the term since twenty twenty one of this
32:11
Speaker 23: office has been in power, five thousand informal notices have
32:15
Speaker 23: been sent out to the various platforms and only ten
32:18
Speaker 23: formal notices under the statutory powers. So, look, the creep
32:22
Speaker 23: is on and people should be concerned and this should
32:25
Speaker 23: be a bigger issue for Parliament.
32:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, and there needs to be more clarity, more transparency.
32:30
Speaker 3: Obviously the misinformation and disinformation legislation has been flicked. It's
32:34
Speaker 3: not happening. But I think people have relaxed because that's
32:37
Speaker 3: not happening.
32:38
Speaker 2: And history is our guide here.
32:40
Speaker 3: We know that all this censorship during COVID, which you
32:44
Speaker 3: did such great work to uncover, that was secret. The
32:47
Speaker 3: government never announced they were doing that, neither the Coalition
32:50
Speaker 3: nor labor and it was done under existing bureaucratic controls,
32:55
Speaker 3: existing laws. So even under the existing arrangements, the sort
32:59
Speaker 3: of attitudes we've we've seen from Julianmanngrant, we could easily
33:02
Speaker 3: see crucial debates in the election campaign sense it online.
33:06
Speaker 3: I'm thinking things like climate change and energy debates, issues
33:10
Speaker 3: around terrorism and radicalization and anti semitism. These are all
33:15
Speaker 3: the sorts of areas where they can decide something goes
33:18
Speaker 3: too far, even if it's truthful.
33:22
Speaker 23: Yeah, that's spot in the sense that we don't know
33:25
Speaker 23: what powers are out there and how they're being used.
33:27
Speaker 23: And in fact I only stumbled on the work of
33:29
Speaker 23: the Department of Foreign Affairs during Home Affairs, I should
33:32
Speaker 23: say during COVID because of the Twitter file scandal in
33:36
Speaker 23: the United States and what we learned from Elon Musk
33:38
Speaker 23: taking over Twitter and what we saw out of them
33:41
Speaker 23: in terms of the hunter of Biden laptop and the
33:43
Speaker 23: other things that came out when he took the reins.
33:45
Speaker 23: That led me to do some investigation locally and to
33:47
Speaker 23: discover that the Department here, the Department of Home Affairs,
33:50
Speaker 23: was engaging with private businesses, PR firms and others in
33:54
Speaker 23: order to scour the Internet for things that Australians were
33:57
Speaker 23: saying about COVID, many of which turned out to be
33:59
Speaker 23: quite true, and having those referred back to the various
34:01
Speaker 23: platforms for what is basically bureaucratic censorship. You're absolutely right.
34:06
Speaker 23: We don't know about this stuff because there is so
34:08
Speaker 23: much power in the bureaucracy in this country, and that
34:11
Speaker 23: of course falls many cases to the whims of their
34:14
Speaker 23: own worldview, which I suspect are not the worldview in
34:17
Speaker 23: many cases of Australians on the street.
34:20
Speaker 3: Well, I can tell you we've confirmed, following up on
34:22
Speaker 3: your work, I've confirmed that three million dollars of taxpayers
34:26
Speaker 3: money through the Department of Foreign Affairs has gone to
34:29
Speaker 3: a London based information watchdog on a program to monitor social.
34:35
Speaker 2: Media in me and Mah. So that's the sort of
34:37
Speaker 2: stuff that's going on with our money.
34:39
Speaker 3: That's not going to affect censorship here, but it the
34:41
Speaker 3: effects this global push and people would be staggered to
34:44
Speaker 3: know that's what their tax dollars are being put to.
34:46
Speaker 3: Thanks for joining us, Alex, I really appreciate it. We'll
34:49
Speaker 3: keep on this issue. Alex Antik, their Liberal Senator for
34:52
Speaker 3: South Australia. We've going to get to a break on
34:53
Speaker 3: the other side, We're going to talk about Donald Trump
34:55
Speaker 3: hitting out at Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelenski. I want to
34:59
Speaker 3: find out what former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer makes of.
35:02
Speaker 25: All that.
35:06
Speaker 3: Look, Donald Trump on the Ukraine war is a hell
35:09
Speaker 3: of a worry. He's taken an extraordinary swipe at Ukraine's
35:13
Speaker 3: President Zelensky, posting on social media a dictator without elections.
35:18
Speaker 3: Zolensky better move fast where he's not going to have
35:20
Speaker 3: a country left now. Trump continued the attack at an
35:24
Speaker 3: event in Florida.
35:26
Speaker 26: But think of it a mindestly successful comedian. President Zelensky
35:32
Speaker 26: talked the United States of America inter spending three hundred
35:37
Speaker 26: and fifty billion dollars to go into a war that
35:40
Speaker 26: basically couldn't be one that never had to start and
35:44
Speaker 26: never would have started.
35:44
Speaker 2: Of iris President, not.
35:46
Speaker 26: Even a chance.
35:48
Speaker 3: Let's bring in Australia's longest serving foreign minister, former Foreign
35:52
Speaker 3: Minister Alexander Downer, who joins US live from London. Good
35:55
Speaker 3: to talk to you again, Alexander. Now it's good news
35:58
Speaker 3: that Donald Trump at a minute are so focused on
36:01
Speaker 3: ending this war. But Donald Trump seems to be putting
36:04
Speaker 3: much more pressure and owners on Vladimir Zelenski than he
36:08
Speaker 3: does on Vladimir Putin.
36:11
Speaker 21: Yes, I'm not sure what the background to the pressure
36:14
Speaker 21: he's putting on Zelenski is, but the remarks do seem
36:19
Speaker 21: unhelpful and and appropriate to be honest, I mean, I
36:24
Speaker 21: think it's excellent that Trump is investing so much time
36:28
Speaker 21: and energy in bringing to get the bringing to an
36:31
Speaker 21: end of war, in which I mean the figures that
36:34
Speaker 21: might be a bit exaggerated, but somebody something like one
36:38
Speaker 21: million military and civilian personnel have been killed. It needs
36:43
Speaker 21: to come to an end, and it's obvious there will
36:46
Speaker 21: first and foremost be a cease fire around the sort
36:50
Speaker 21: of borders there are at the moment between Russian and
36:54
Speaker 21: Ukrainian forces, and then the peace deal will be negotiated
36:59
Speaker 21: in relation to the other parts of Ukraine. But to
37:03
Speaker 21: put such pressure on Zelenski, I mean, I'm sorry to
37:08
Speaker 21: say this. I appreciate a lot of things that Trump
37:11
Speaker 21: has done, but it seems to me completely inappropriate.
37:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, the.
37:17
Speaker 3: Only excuse could be seen as if he thinks that
37:19
Speaker 3: will get to get.
37:21
Speaker 2: Putin to the table.
37:22
Speaker 3: But he's even accused of Zelenski of starting the war,
37:25
Speaker 3: which is outrageous, and when he says he's a dictator.
37:28
Speaker 3: Of course, democracy has to some extent been suspended in
37:31
Speaker 3: Ukraine because of the war, but it's all been done
37:34
Speaker 3: under their constitutional powers, so it seems very very misplaced,
37:39
Speaker 3: and also I just wanted to get you to reflect
37:42
Speaker 3: on what you told us a week or two ago,
37:43
Speaker 3: suggesting what America should be doing is looking to provide
37:46
Speaker 3: that security guarantee for Ukraine. It looks like Donald Trump
37:51
Speaker 3: is a long way from doing that.
37:53
Speaker 21: I'm not sure. I think in the end what will
37:56
Speaker 21: happen is to negotiators led by Rubio, the Secretary of State,
38:01
Speaker 21: and some of the other team that Trumps. They will
38:06
Speaker 21: put together a package and that will definitely include a
38:11
Speaker 21: guarantee for the security of Ukraine. I mean, the ceasefire
38:16
Speaker 21: will have to guarantee the security of the country, and
38:19
Speaker 21: the peace agreement guarantee the security of it in the
38:23
Speaker 21: long term. I mean, it's a bit hard to tell
38:26
Speaker 21: how that will be done. Some of the Europeans are
38:29
Speaker 21: offering troops on the ground, others are offering air cover.
38:36
Speaker 21: The Americans will have to provide logistics support. Something like
38:40
Speaker 21: that will ultimately have to happen or there won't be
38:43
Speaker 21: a peace agreement because remember the peace agreement sure has
38:47
Speaker 21: to be agreed to by Putin, but it also has
38:51
Speaker 21: to be agreed to by Zelenski and the Ukrainians. War
38:54
Speaker 21: won't stop if the Ukrainians keep fighting. It have to
39:00
Speaker 21: be very careful. He has to be very careful. I
39:03
Speaker 21: mean I Trump is entirely unpredictable. It's the results that
39:08
Speaker 21: will come, not the restric on the way through.
39:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, and his unpredictability. Unpredictability is part of his strength
39:15
Speaker 3: in many ways. It is worth pouring out, as he
39:18
Speaker 3: often does that Putin didn't move when Trump was president
39:21
Speaker 3: last time. But could you explain to us quickly why
39:24
Speaker 3: Russia and America would be meeting over this in Saudi Arabia,
39:28
Speaker 3: Because surely Ukraine has to be at the table as well,
39:31
Speaker 3: and surely if Rubio is in Saudi Arabia, the thing
39:34
Speaker 3: he needs to be focused on with them is Gaza.
39:39
Speaker 2: Well.
39:39
Speaker 21: First of all, First of all, it makes sense for
39:43
Speaker 21: the Americans to engage with the Russians. I don't think
39:48
Speaker 21: there's any doubt about that. So I'm not so sensitive
39:51
Speaker 21: about Zelenski or his team not being in Saudi Arabia
39:55
Speaker 21: the initial meetings. I don't think that matters very much.
39:58
Speaker 21: Of course, Zelenski has complained about it, and that has
40:02
Speaker 21: led to Trump retaliating, no doubt, being irritated by Zelenski
40:07
Speaker 21: and the Europeans have been agreeing with Selenski. There's all
40:12
Speaker 21: of that. But for the Russians and the Americans that
40:16
Speaker 21: have an initial conversation, seems absolutely fine. And if the
40:22
Speaker 21: Americans can persuade Putin to agree to a cease fire,
40:28
Speaker 21: that would be a good step forward. There's no doubt
40:31
Speaker 21: about that. But yes, ultimately Zelenski and the Ukrainians have
40:35
Speaker 21: to be involved in the peace agreement or there will
40:38
Speaker 21: be no peace agreement because the war is between Russia
40:41
Speaker 21: and Ukraine. So how Zelenski and the Ukrainians will be
40:46
Speaker 21: brought into this process, we just have to wait and see.
40:49
Speaker 21: We don't know.
40:51
Speaker 3: Great analysis. Alexander Donna, thanks so much for joining us.
40:54
Speaker 3: That's Alexander down and the former foreigners that they're alive
40:57
Speaker 3: from London, got to take a break. On the other side,
40:59
Speaker 3: Tim Blair and Mark Nicholson, I always look for them,
41:01
Speaker 3: look to them for a bit of sanity amidst all
41:04
Speaker 3: this madness. Let's wrap up the week as ever with
41:12
Speaker 3: Tim Blair and Mark Nicholson. They both come to us
41:14
Speaker 3: from Victoria. Two of the best parts of Victoria. Tim
41:17
Speaker 3: Blair from the Daily Telegraph.
41:18
Speaker 27: Out in the Wimmera near the Grampians and the Glenelg
41:21
Speaker 27: River and all that, And of course Mark Nicholson from
41:23
Speaker 27: inner city Melbourne. We get a good feed, a good
41:26
Speaker 27: drink and walk to the MCG to see the greatest
41:28
Speaker 27: game in the world played live.
41:30
Speaker 3: If it's winter time. Good to see both of you.
41:33
Speaker 3: Why Alla, Tim, have you ever been there?
41:36
Speaker 25: No?
41:36
Speaker 28: And I don't really plan to you because it's not
41:38
Speaker 28: sending too good at the moment. Mate, It's a sending
41:40
Speaker 28: a bit. What were the words of the song the
41:43
Speaker 28: while of Wipeout? I think it's underway a bit later
41:45
Speaker 28: than everyone expected.
41:46
Speaker 2: Well, here it is. You wanted it?
41:52
Speaker 29: Nor why Alla wipe out there on my TV? No,
41:55
Speaker 29: why Ala wipe out there on my TV? Nor why
41:58
Speaker 29: Alla wipe out there on my TV? Shocking me right
42:02
Speaker 29: out of my brain? Shocking me right out of my brain.
42:07
Speaker 2: I've got to show that again.
42:08
Speaker 3: He was a former Labor minister, Craig Emerson. But the
42:12
Speaker 3: thing is here, Mark, right. I mean when I was
42:14
Speaker 3: a young pup of the journo and John Bannon was
42:17
Speaker 3: Premier of South Australia, I remember going to Waler. It
42:20
Speaker 3: was under threat then as a steel city and formerly
42:23
Speaker 3: a shipbuilding city. It's always been under threat. And with
42:26
Speaker 3: what labour's done with the clean energy and renewables and
42:30
Speaker 3: increasing all these costs, that's been consistently under threat. And
42:33
Speaker 3: there's a labor minister mocking it as if there's no threat.
42:36
Speaker 3: Well yeah, he's two labor governments today pumping two billion
42:40
Speaker 3: dollars more of taxpayers money to try and keep the
42:43
Speaker 3: steel works and therefore the whole city alive.
42:46
Speaker 2: It's no joke.
42:48
Speaker 18: Here.
42:49
Speaker 25: Shock you right out of your brain, mate. There was
42:52
Speaker 25: part of you that I hove last night when I
42:54
Speaker 25: saw melan Akis. I'll give him the benefit of doubt,
42:57
Speaker 25: old the big fellow.
42:58
Speaker 2: Because I do like and I saw it.
43:00
Speaker 25: It was like, maybe we are going to get back
43:02
Speaker 25: on track. We're going to give up on this green
43:03
Speaker 25: hydrogen fantasy. When you gets steel manufacturing back in the country,
43:07
Speaker 25: you know we're going to get cheap energy. Maybe this
43:10
Speaker 25: is maybe this is a sign of good things to come.
43:11
Speaker 25: And then you see Elbow's book to Flight and he
43:14
Speaker 25: signed himself a two point four billion dollar check to
43:16
Speaker 25: get down there.
43:17
Speaker 21: Who cares about that?
43:18
Speaker 25: Now we've got the interest rate cut, everyone thinks I'm
43:20
Speaker 25: fiscally responsible let's go boys, Let's go burn some money.
43:24
Speaker 25: Let's go chuck it down the duney in Wyla. Why not,
43:27
Speaker 25: let's keep this dream alive. The thing about green hydrogen
43:30
Speaker 25: is it's exactly the same as this elbow's fiscal responsibility.
43:33
Speaker 25: It doesn't exist.
43:34
Speaker 21: It's not real.
43:35
Speaker 25: It might exist in a lab and everyone that tells
43:37
Speaker 25: me that it's real is crazy out of their mind.
43:40
Speaker 25: Needs to get their head checked. It's not real. Don't
43:42
Speaker 25: believe it?
43:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's the thing.
43:44
Speaker 3: Tim mal Analysis has scrapped his green energy plan now
43:47
Speaker 3: and he's tipping that six hundred million into this plan.
43:50
Speaker 2: So it's a reality yet.
43:51
Speaker 3: But what really does my head in how is labour's
43:54
Speaker 3: policies and it's and it's folly on these sorts of
43:58
Speaker 3: ventures that has made it made this place so precarious.
44:02
Speaker 3: And along the way, of course, they get sucked in
44:04
Speaker 3: by a businessman with gold teeth in this case San
44:07
Speaker 3: Jim Gupta. He's taken all sorts of government grants and
44:10
Speaker 3: subsidies because he speaks their language and he talks the
44:14
Speaker 3: green garbage, and he sponsors he's coming against he's can't
44:17
Speaker 3: be the sponsor Malanawskus's footy team, the port Power, and
44:22
Speaker 3: he plays all those games. I guess what that still works,
44:25
Speaker 3: don't work, and the taxpayers have to.
44:26
Speaker 2: Bail them out again. It's just how many times you
44:29
Speaker 2: have to see this happen.
44:31
Speaker 28: It's a beautiful cycle of it going here, isn't it?
44:33
Speaker 28: Where labor creates the circumstances that make things cost too much,
44:37
Speaker 28: and then they come in like, you know, hey, everyone,
44:39
Speaker 28: we're here to rescue it by throwing your money at it.
44:42
Speaker 28: You question the engineered. It's a little like, you know,
44:46
Speaker 28: a nice shop you got here, be a pity if
44:48
Speaker 28: something happened to it. You know, it's a little bit racketeery,
44:51
Speaker 28: isn't it.
44:53
Speaker 2: Well, I'll tell you what. Just on that.
44:56
Speaker 28: Let's talk about let the market sort it out.
44:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, let to have a look there very much.
45:01
Speaker 3: She keeping with that theme the Victorian State government, where
45:04
Speaker 3: they've created the binfire of an ever expanding public service
45:09
Speaker 3: and throwing money employing public servants and hands over fist. Well,
45:13
Speaker 3: now suddenly the treasurer has got this to say.
45:17
Speaker 17: Resizing the VPS to a share of the share of
45:20
Speaker 17: employment that existed pre pandemic, before the pandemic. That's a
45:27
Speaker 17: clunky way of saying. If you on the raw figures,
45:30
Speaker 17: between two and three thousand VPS jobs would be expected
45:34
Speaker 17: to go.
45:35
Speaker 2: She's going to get rid of two of three thousand
45:37
Speaker 2: public servants. Mark, She's gone all elon musk.
45:43
Speaker 25: Yeah, finally we're getting it. I'll tell you what this
45:45
Speaker 25: morning or whatever time this announced it was, I reckon.
45:47
Speaker 25: There was a whole bunch of dressing gowns from government
45:50
Speaker 25: workers that were absolutely soiled. There was a lot of
45:53
Speaker 25: coco pop hitting all over there, all over their dressing gowns.
45:57
Speaker 25: They got and they were straight into the next zoom meeting.
45:59
Speaker 25: Everyone was there ready to be just to make sure
46:02
Speaker 25: that they were they were counted for and working really
46:04
Speaker 25: hard and completely and you know you can't get rid
46:07
Speaker 25: of them. But you know, it's really sad about this
46:09
Speaker 25: as well as that we've got to wait six months
46:11
Speaker 25: I think until this review comes back. That's the difference
46:14
Speaker 25: between what's happening in the States is they're not mucking around.
46:17
Speaker 25: This is all just theatrics and show and six and
46:19
Speaker 25: a half I think they're talking about six and a
46:20
Speaker 25: half thousand jobs now, I reckon, it's just a good start,
46:23
Speaker 25: I'd be working from the top down.
46:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, tell you what they got.
46:26
Speaker 3: Elon Musk to Adelaide wants to install one hundred million
46:29
Speaker 3: dollar battery and get him down the Melbourne to go
46:32
Speaker 3: through the public service. I think he'd go more than
46:34
Speaker 3: two or three thousand public servants and Tim. The great
46:37
Speaker 3: advantage the public servants have is they're all working from home,
46:40
Speaker 3: so as long as they stay there, they can't get sacked.
46:43
Speaker 28: Yes, I mean what I'll be talking about. I think
46:45
Speaker 28: Mark mentioned six and a half thousand overall. Well, you
46:48
Speaker 28: know that's just basically Dan Andrews old press office. They've
46:54
Speaker 28: got to go a bit harder and longer than that.
46:57
Speaker 28: But if they do this, I mean, this is storediny
47:00
Speaker 28: number of people, well, so to be clear, public servants,
47:04
Speaker 28: and it's in a public servants state. It's a real
47:08
Speaker 28: desperation move. I mean, I'd love to see Victorian Labor's
47:11
Speaker 28: internal numbers. They must be die.
47:14
Speaker 2: Now.
47:14
Speaker 3: We saw earlier in the week Tom Hanks showing Trump
47:18
Speaker 3: supporters to be dumb and racist. He hates all the
47:20
Speaker 3: people who buy the tickets to see his movies. Now,
47:24
Speaker 3: Whoopy Goldberg doesn't even want to hear from anyone who
47:26
Speaker 3: voted Trump.
47:27
Speaker 27: Have a look.
47:28
Speaker 12: You are going to find.
47:30
Speaker 30: There are a lot of things Donald Trump does that
47:31
Speaker 30: I agree with, But then there are things I think
47:33
Speaker 30: are dangerous, reckless and want to call us. You have
47:35
Speaker 30: to be able to talk to people who It doesn't
47:37
Speaker 30: have to be all this or all that, but find
47:40
Speaker 30: movement on the things that matter.
47:42
Speaker 21: It's hard to talk to people who support people who
47:47
Speaker 21: think you don't matter in the country.
47:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, they just don't want to talk to people who
47:53
Speaker 3: voted the wrong way. They're again sort of half the
47:56
Speaker 3: country or more.
47:57
Speaker 2: Mark, Yeah, that's right.
48:00
Speaker 25: Think we all had high hopes that, you know, this
48:01
Speaker 25: was the end of wokness. I actually think that they're
48:04
Speaker 25: huddling together and they're getting stronger as they go, and
48:07
Speaker 25: they're just the language around that person. I just kind
48:11
Speaker 25: of want to see that person get back on the
48:13
Speaker 25: mic and do the old Rosie O'Donnell have a bit
48:15
Speaker 25: of a spray on WHOOPI goldbu. But I actually kind
48:18
Speaker 25: of agree with her. I think she's right. I don't
48:19
Speaker 25: think that person thinks she matters, because the only time
48:22
Speaker 25: she matters is when she's talking about that person.
48:24
Speaker 3: Indeed, thanks so much, Mark, I appreciate it.
48:28
Speaker 2: Have a good weekend, guys. We'll catch it up next week.
48:30
Speaker 3: Tim Blair and Mark Nicholson there just a little bit
48:33
Speaker 3: of time. I want to mention your feedback that I
48:35
Speaker 3: got from that editorial last night when I was talking
48:37
Speaker 3: about the Beabis family and those bodies that were coming back,
48:40
Speaker 3: I got an enormous amount of feedback from you right
48:43
Speaker 3: around the country and right all around the world, and I
48:45
Speaker 3: greatly appreciate the support you showed me and your responses
48:49
Speaker 3: to me. There was a lot of hate, of course,
48:52
Speaker 3: people saying we don't care about Palestines. We do, of course,
48:54
Speaker 3: but they too are victims of hummus. And I was
48:57
Speaker 3: especially appreciative of messages from from Israel. It gladdens our
49:03
Speaker 3: heart to know that what we say in Australia gives
49:05
Speaker 3: you some sense of comfort and solidarity in Israel.
49:09
Speaker 2: Thank you, I'll see you next week.