Latest / The Kenny Report / The Kenny Report | 18 February

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The Kenny Report | 18 February · The Kenny Report

0:01
Speaker 1: Line from the Skying You Center.
0:03
Speaker 2: This is the Kenny Report.
0:06
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Kenny Report tonight.
0:08
Speaker 3: The interest rate cut, What it means for you, what
0:11
Speaker 3: it means for economic management, and what it means for politics.
0:15
Speaker 3: Labor claims this shows their economic plan is working. The
0:18
Speaker 3: trouble is we're all still much worse off than when
0:21
Speaker 3: they came to power. Also, it's been President's Day in
0:25
Speaker 3: the United States and with Kristen Tate, we'll look at
0:28
Speaker 3: the latest MAGA minute more ridiculous politicking from Climate and
0:32
Speaker 3: Energy Minister Chris Bowen, plus Tim Blair, Susi O'Brien and
0:36
Speaker 3: Stephen sennat Empey.
0:37
Speaker 1: Let's get cracking.
0:42
Speaker 3: As you will have heard, interest rates have now been
0:44
Speaker 3: cut by one quarter of one percent, by twenty five
0:47
Speaker 3: basis points, as was widely expected by the financial markets
0:51
Speaker 3: and by the politicians and commentators. Now this is good
0:55
Speaker 3: news for mortgage holders and myself included. It gives some relief.
0:59
Speaker 1: On home loan payments.
1:01
Speaker 3: It's the first time that rates have actually been cut
1:03
Speaker 3: for almost five years. The rate cut means that mortgage
1:07
Speaker 3: owners with an average loan of six hundred thousand dollars
1:10
Speaker 3: will save about ninety dollars a month, and all the
1:13
Speaker 3: banks have promised to pass through these cuts immediately. Those
1:16
Speaker 3: with a seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars a loan
1:18
Speaker 3: will save one hundred and fifteen dollars a month, and
1:21
Speaker 3: if you've got a million dollar mortgage, you'll be about
1:23
Speaker 3: one hundred and fifty dollars a month to the good.
1:27
Speaker 3: So that's welcome news, but it's just a start, and
1:30
Speaker 3: it doesn't get home loan payments anywhere close to where
1:34
Speaker 3: they were, let alone go close to making up for
1:37
Speaker 3: the other cost of living pressures like higher electricity and
1:40
Speaker 3: grocery prices.
1:42
Speaker 1: The big question is whether this will hold.
1:45
Speaker 3: Will it lead to more cuts later in the year,
1:47
Speaker 3: or will it help to give inflation another kick along,
1:51
Speaker 3: which would be terrible and would then lead to disastrous consequences.
1:55
Speaker 1: Of having to hold rates at a higher level for longer.
1:59
Speaker 3: We will see has the Reserve Bank acted according to
2:03
Speaker 3: its own economic plan or has it reacted to political
2:08
Speaker 3: and market pressure. That pressure has been clear in the
2:11
Speaker 3: political debate and market speculation for many weeks, and the
2:15
Speaker 3: pressure was on stark display at the Reserve Bank this morning,
2:19
Speaker 3: with more mortgage brokers and unionists campaigning in the CBD
2:25
Speaker 3: in favor of a rate cut, trying to put pressure
2:28
Speaker 3: on the RBA. You can't divorce this rate cut from politics.
2:33
Speaker 3: Labour has fueled inflation with rampant spending for three years,
2:37
Speaker 3: but has been given the rate cut it desperately wanted
2:41
Speaker 3: before the election. Remember, the RBA controversially increased rates during
2:46
Speaker 3: the two thousand and seven election campaign when the Coalition
2:50
Speaker 3: was in government, and within a year it was in
2:52
Speaker 3: a desperate rate cutting phase because of the GFC, and
2:56
Speaker 3: at the last election the RBA began its run of
2:59
Speaker 3: thirteen rays increases again during a campaign and again with
3:04
Speaker 3: the coalition and government. Now the Reserve Bank, with new
3:08
Speaker 3: Governor Michelle Bullock, has delivered a rate cut on the
3:12
Speaker 3: cusp of the election campaign with Labor in office. Bullock
3:16
Speaker 3: has done this even though there has been precious little
3:19
Speaker 3: new data since she said this in December.
3:24
Speaker 4: Underlying inflation currently remains too high and for some time
3:28
Speaker 4: now we've pointed out there are risks on both sides
3:32
Speaker 4: because persistent inflation is so bad for the economy.
3:36
Speaker 1: Well, now Bullock and the RBA have cut rates.
3:39
Speaker 3: They've based their decision on forecasts that underlying inflation will
3:45
Speaker 3: fall to the target range in the first half of
3:48
Speaker 3: this year, we'll see. It's worth noting that if there
3:53
Speaker 3: is not another cut before year's end, or if inflation
3:56
Speaker 3: ticks up again, then there will be serious questions about
4:00
Speaker 3: Reserve Bank management. And incredibly, the Reserve Bank governor today
4:06
Speaker 3: even countenance the possibility of rates going back up.
4:11
Speaker 4: It is not a smooth ride, and so we're going
4:15
Speaker 4: to be getting some more information on inflation in the
4:17
Speaker 4: next few months. It will include some monthly indicators, which
4:20
Speaker 4: can be very volatile. It will include some quarterly numbers.
4:23
Speaker 4: What we'll be looking for is continued disinflation in those.
4:29
Speaker 4: If that starts to reverse course in a trends sense,
4:31
Speaker 4: and we start to see some of the easing in
4:34
Speaker 4: prices we've observed start going back up again, then that
4:38
Speaker 4: is going to be something that Board was serious need
4:40
Speaker 4: to consider.
4:41
Speaker 3: Good Lord, wouldn't you want to make sure you're on
4:44
Speaker 3: top of this one once and for all.
4:46
Speaker 1: Make no mistake, this.
4:48
Speaker 3: Is a highly political rate cut and a risky one
4:51
Speaker 3: for the economy.
4:53
Speaker 1: So that's all for later, I guess. For now, there
4:55
Speaker 1: is just.
4:56
Speaker 3: Relief for those of us with home loans and of course,
5:00
Speaker 3: especially for Labor and the Albanesi government. Without a rate
5:05
Speaker 3: cut today, they would have been going into an election
5:07
Speaker 3: campaign in a death spiral. This has at least given
5:11
Speaker 3: them some sort of political and economic narrative.
5:15
Speaker 5: I have been very careful and deliberately so in not
5:19
Speaker 5: applying a political lens to the decision taken by the
5:23
Speaker 5: Independent Reserve Bank today. Today's decision was about economics, not politics.
5:27
Speaker 6: Let me make a critical point about how we've got
5:30
Speaker 6: to where we are. Australian families have done the hard
5:34
Speaker 6: work here and they deserve this interest rate increase because
5:38
Speaker 6: they're the ones that have done the work.
5:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, the brutal fact is that we still have a
5:44
Speaker 3: cost of living crisis. We have still seen living standards
5:48
Speaker 3: fall during the term of this Labor government. We are
5:51
Speaker 3: worse off as individuals since Labor came to power, and
5:56
Speaker 3: the outlook is for that slide to continue. I'm in
6:00
Speaker 3: a per capita recession now for near enough to two years.
6:04
Speaker 3: So it's pretty rich for voters when we're doing it
6:08
Speaker 3: all so tough to hear the Treasurer congratulate him, congratulate
6:13
Speaker 3: himself yet again.
6:16
Speaker 5: This is very welcome news for millions of Australians. This
6:20
Speaker 5: is the rate relief that Australians need and deserve. This
6:25
Speaker 5: is the soft landing that we have been planning for
6:27
Speaker 5: and preparing for. But we can't be complacent about the
6:31
Speaker 5: months and years ahead.
6:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, what about the subsidies paid to keep skyrocketing electricity
6:39
Speaker 3: bills lower? You know, the bills that they promised would
6:42
Speaker 3: come down by two hundred and seventy five dollars a
6:45
Speaker 3: year but have gone up by more than double that.
6:48
Speaker 3: What about the billions of dollars of taxpayers money pumped
6:51
Speaker 3: into those subsidies. What happens to inflation when they come off?
6:56
Speaker 3: What happens to families then? Or is labor going to
7:00
Speaker 3: keep borrowing money to subsidize electricity prices into the future.
7:06
Speaker 3: How sustainable is that? What about immigration? Can it continue
7:11
Speaker 3: at record levels without adding to housing and cost of
7:14
Speaker 3: living pressures? The economic debate will be crucial in the
7:18
Speaker 3: election campaign. Cost of living will be front and center.
7:22
Speaker 3: At the last election, labor promised everything would get better.
7:26
Speaker 3: Power prices would go down, mortgages down, cost of living down.
7:31
Speaker 3: And they've all gotten worse. The costs have all spiked upwards.
7:37
Speaker 3: So now labor is going into another election campaign and
7:41
Speaker 3: they're again saying everything will be better. Will this one
7:47
Speaker 3: small interest rate cut convince voters to believe them again?
7:53
Speaker 1: I guess if it does, we'll deserve what we get.
8:00
Speaker 3: I'll have Angus Taylor on this topic here in just
8:03
Speaker 3: a moment. But first, just an update on anti Semitism
8:07
Speaker 3: and the police investigation into that video that shocked the
8:11
Speaker 3: world last week.
8:13
Speaker 2: Let's say an Israeli, God beat them.
8:17
Speaker 1: I won't treat them.
8:18
Speaker 7: I'll kill them. You'll kill them.
8:20
Speaker 8: So if an Israeli is in Australia and God forbid,
8:23
Speaker 8: something happened to him and he comes to your hospital,
8:27
Speaker 8: would you kill him?
8:29
Speaker 2: Okay?
8:29
Speaker 4: You have no idea how many Israeli A dog came
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Speaker 4: to this hospital and.
8:35
Speaker 3: Hnahna. The news today is that New South Wales detectives
8:42
Speaker 3: will be flying to Israel to formally interview the Israeli
8:46
Speaker 3: influencer in that chat, Max Vifa. So there are still
8:50
Speaker 3: no charges late and the two nurses, russiad Nadir and
8:54
Speaker 3: Sarah abdu Lebda, have issued apologies through third parties. Meanwhile,
8:59
Speaker 3: the Nurses and Midwives Association of New South Wales are
9:03
Speaker 3: still refusing to answer questions about the group Nurses and
9:07
Speaker 3: Midwives for Palestine, which is largely made up of its members.
9:11
Speaker 3: The group has been spreading hateful anti Israel bile like
9:15
Speaker 3: this to.
9:17
Speaker 9: Highlight the ongoing genocide, meticide, atrocities and war crimes like
9:24
Speaker 9: the premeditated, deliberate target and destruction of hospitals and healthcare
9:30
Speaker 9: facilities in Gaza, the abduction, false imprisonment and torture of
9:37
Speaker 9: thousands of healthcare workers, patients and internally displaced persons. All
9:46
Speaker 9: of this is being carried out by the Israeli military. Well,
9:50
Speaker 9: let's just call them out for what they really are.
9:52
Speaker 1: Terrorists, just hateful garbage.
9:57
Speaker 3: Now that nurse is Mark, if you know his surname
10:01
Speaker 3: or which hospital he works at. As you know, Sky
10:04
Speaker 3: News is hosting a summit on antisemitism this Thursday. It's
10:09
Speaker 3: a big deal and the people involved are serious and diverse.
10:13
Speaker 1: Here's the promo if you haven't seen it.
10:16
Speaker 10: Thursday, join us for the Sky News Antisemitism Summit, hosted
10:21
Speaker 10: by Sharry Markson and Alex Ripchen, with special guests Peter
10:25
Speaker 10: Dutton and Mark Drefus, John Howard, Josh Friedenberg, Chris Nin's
10:30
Speaker 10: Jillian Siegel, and Justice, Michael Lee plus indepth panels examining
10:34
Speaker 10: this important issue. The Sky News Australia Anti Semitism Summit
10:39
Speaker 10: Thursday one pm on sky News dot com dot Au
10:43
Speaker 10: or watch on the sky News Election Channel.
10:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's the promo. You can see who's involved, and
10:49
Speaker 3: there are plenty more. I'll tell you what gets me,
10:53
Speaker 3: and that is that there are plenty of people in
10:55
Speaker 3: the media making this stuff worse. People have been spreading
10:59
Speaker 3: live about Israel for years, people who repeat Hummas propaganda,
11:04
Speaker 3: swathes of journalists who report Hummas as if it's some
11:08
Speaker 3: kind of civilian liberation force rather than the bloodthirsty terrorist
11:12
Speaker 3: group that they are, who slaughtered twelve hundred people on
11:16
Speaker 3: October the seventh, twenty twenty three, and took more than
11:19
Speaker 3: two hundred hostages, deliberately to spark a war, deliberately to
11:24
Speaker 3: draw fire, and deliberately to make sure Palestinians suffered and
11:29
Speaker 3: were killed. And still they hold these hostages, these monsters. Anyway,
11:34
Speaker 3: My point is that media bias and misreporting is a
11:37
Speaker 3: large part of the antisemitism crisis. So it's pretty sickening
11:42
Speaker 3: to see a journalist in Australia attacking our antisemitism summit.
11:48
Speaker 3: Have a look at Jenna Price in the Sydney Morning
11:50
Speaker 3: Herald today. Incredibly, she's actually been a journalism lecturer at
11:55
Speaker 3: a university and she says of the antisemitism summit that
11:59
Speaker 3: it will be pure cheerleading for the Coalition.
12:02
Speaker 1: And I fear that Mark.
12:03
Speaker 3: Dreyfus, the Attorney General, will bear the brunt of news
12:06
Speaker 3: corpse disappointment with Labor. Sure, I'm disappointed in Labor, but
12:12
Speaker 3: I'm terrified of the Coalition. They like Jews this week
12:17
Speaker 3: because they can see how we can be exploited. What
12:20
Speaker 3: happens if they get elected? Maybe an entirely different story.
12:26
Speaker 3: They like Jews this week. They want to exploit Jews.
12:32
Speaker 3: This from a grown woman, from a journalism academic, from
12:38
Speaker 3: a columnist in a major newspaper, from a self proclaimed
12:43
Speaker 3: Jewish woman. What sort of partisan, intellectually feeble and disgracefully
12:51
Speaker 3: insensitive stuff is that now she can be as far
12:55
Speaker 3: left as she likes and hate the Coalition as much
12:59
Speaker 3: as she likes.
13:00
Speaker 1: But why hell?
13:01
Speaker 3: This sort of invective at people who want to be
13:04
Speaker 3: involved in a summit to try and improve the situation
13:10
Speaker 3: in this country. Just another example of how these issues
13:14
Speaker 3: bring out the very worst in so many people. I
13:22
Speaker 3: want to go to a tragedy tonight and a warning
13:24
Speaker 3: that we've been trying to share on this program time
13:27
Speaker 3: and again for quite.
13:28
Speaker 1: A few years now.
13:29
Speaker 3: It relates to lithium iron batteries and the risk they
13:32
Speaker 3: pose to all of us in starting house fires. We
13:35
Speaker 3: spoke with the New South Wales Fire and Rescue Commissioner
13:38
Speaker 3: just last week.
13:40
Speaker 11: I'm very concerned that we're pushing our luck as a
13:43
Speaker 11: community in New South Wales, that we're likely to have
13:46
Speaker 11: further fatalities, and particularly in the last nine days or so,
13:50
Speaker 11: that high speed of fires really highlights the risks that
13:53
Speaker 11: do exist within the community.
13:56
Speaker 1: Well.
13:56
Speaker 3: Tragically, this morning another life was lost in Western NY,
14:00
Speaker 3: with a lithium ion battery as the cause.
14:03
Speaker 1: His nine News.
14:05
Speaker 12: Neighbors on Rally Road here at Guildford say they heard
14:08
Speaker 12: explosions just before five this morning as a fire broke
14:11
Speaker 12: out inside our home. Fire crews were quick to the scene,
14:15
Speaker 12: quick to extinguish the flames and contain the blaze to
14:18
Speaker 12: just a bedroom. Now we know five housemates inside the
14:21
Speaker 12: home managed to escape, but sadly, one man, twenty one
14:25
Speaker 12: year old hater Ali was unable to escape. It's understood
14:29
Speaker 12: he was asleep in a bedroom where it's believed that
14:31
Speaker 12: fire may have begun. Early investigations suggest that the fire
14:36
Speaker 12: may have been started by a lithium battery. Kate, we
14:39
Speaker 12: know that this is an ongoing concern for fire crews.
14:42
Speaker 12: Here's what the Assistant Commissioner had to say.
14:45
Speaker 3: This morning's fire involving a lithium ion battery is a tragedy.
14:49
Speaker 4: It is a concern for us that we with the
14:50
Speaker 4: increasing number of lithium ion battery fires, that we will
14:53
Speaker 4: see increasing fatalities.
14:56
Speaker 3: Just such a terrible waste of a twenty one year
14:59
Speaker 3: old life. So I just want to repeat the clear
15:02
Speaker 3: advice from fire authorities. They say, first up by quality,
15:06
Speaker 3: the higher quality scooter or e bike or golf buggy
15:09
Speaker 3: that you buy, by the safer they are, according to authorities,
15:13
Speaker 3: and use only the charger that they come with. Don't
15:16
Speaker 3: swap chargers over even if they fit, they can sometimes
15:20
Speaker 3: charge at a different rate and overheat.
15:22
Speaker 1: And there's more. As we heard last week, we.
15:26
Speaker 11: Also reminding people about the importance of smoke alarms. A
15:29
Speaker 11: number of the fires that we've had in the last
15:30
Speaker 11: week or so the residents have been able to get
15:33
Speaker 11: the early warning they needed to at least make themselves
15:35
Speaker 11: safer because of the activation of the smoke alarms. So
15:39
Speaker 11: a smoke alarm is one of the best defenses people
15:41
Speaker 11: can have. But when people put things onto charge, we
15:45
Speaker 11: just want you to be attentive and responsible to it.
15:47
Speaker 11: Don't put it on when you're walking out the door
15:49
Speaker 11: to go to work and it's going to be on
15:51
Speaker 11: charge for eight or nine hours. Don't put it on
15:53
Speaker 11: when you're about to go to sleep, and again it'll
15:55
Speaker 11: be on charge overnight.
15:58
Speaker 3: Now there's been at least three people killed by lithium
16:01
Speaker 3: iron battery fires in New South Wales in the past year,
16:05
Speaker 3: so this is a major problem right around the country. Now,
16:11
Speaker 3: as I mentioned at the top of the program, of course,
16:13
Speaker 3: the Reserve Bank has cut rates by twenty five bases
16:16
Speaker 3: points as was expected. A little earlier, I caught up
16:19
Speaker 3: with Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor asked him whether he welcomed
16:23
Speaker 3: the news.
16:24
Speaker 6: Well, it's welcome relief for long suffering households and businesses
16:29
Speaker 6: who have been paying elevated interest rates, of course, and
16:32
Speaker 6: we've seen twelve interest rate increases under Labor.
16:36
Speaker 2: This is one cut.
16:37
Speaker 6: It's welcome relief, but it's a long journey back, Chris,
16:40
Speaker 6: to the standard of living we had before all of
16:42
Speaker 6: this began, before Labor came to power. Twelve interest rate increases,
16:46
Speaker 6: as I've said, big increases in prices almost twenty percent
16:50
Speaker 6: now for hard working families across Australia. The increases in
16:54
Speaker 6: prices there seeing and importantly we've seen in the updated
16:59
Speaker 6: forecast from the Bank today a downgrade in their expectation
17:02
Speaker 6: of Australian standard of living in the coming years. We're
17:06
Speaker 6: already on a pathway where it was going to take
17:09
Speaker 6: till twenty thirty under the government's plan to get back
17:12
Speaker 6: to the standard of living Australians had when Labor came
17:15
Speaker 6: to power, further downgrades.
17:17
Speaker 2: This is a long way.
17:18
Speaker 6: Back, and there's a long way to go before we
17:22
Speaker 6: see a restoration of our standard of living in this country.
17:25
Speaker 3: I want to come back to that long road back,
17:27
Speaker 3: but firstly I want to talk about the Reserve Bank's
17:30
Speaker 3: decision and it's rationale. Here is this decision in keeping
17:34
Speaker 3: with the plan that the Reserve Bank has laid out
17:37
Speaker 3: up until now, up until most recently, of course, their
17:40
Speaker 3: December decision to leave rates where they were. I mean, sure,
17:44
Speaker 3: Bullock always said she wanted to see underlying inflation within
17:47
Speaker 3: the target band.
17:48
Speaker 1: Well it's not there yet. We haven't got those figures.
17:51
Speaker 3: She's reducing rates based on forecasts that it will get.
17:55
Speaker 1: There in the next few months.
17:59
Speaker 7: Yeah.
17:59
Speaker 6: I'm not going to be kind of commentator on Reserve
18:01
Speaker 6: Bank decisions, Chris, but what I will say is this
18:04
Speaker 6: that their updated forecast tell us that they are very,
18:08
Speaker 6: very bearish on economic growth. They think it's soft. And
18:13
Speaker 6: the key to that is households have tightened their belts,
18:16
Speaker 6: but importantly governments haven't. So it's households who have done
18:20
Speaker 6: the work here to get interest rates down, not the government.
18:24
Speaker 2: Not any government.
18:25
Speaker 6: Governments are growing there spending at a rapid rate, of course,
18:27
Speaker 6: the labor state governments and the federal government rapid growths
18:31
Speaker 6: growth in spending, the highest level of government spending.
18:35
Speaker 2: The per dollar dutyp that we've seen.
18:38
Speaker 6: And the result of that is that households have had
18:41
Speaker 6: to do the hard work here. And you know, Jim
18:43
Speaker 6: Charmers will declare victory whenever there's a positive as far
18:49
Speaker 6: as his concern, but there's a long way to go
18:51
Speaker 6: here and households have had to pay a high price
18:53
Speaker 6: for this. It's welcome relief, but we want to see
18:57
Speaker 6: an accelerated pathway back to the standard of living that
19:00
Speaker 6: we had when Australia when labor came to power, and
19:04
Speaker 6: that does mean governments have got to contain their spending.
19:08
Speaker 3: Well, there's no doubt about that, and everybody can see
19:11
Speaker 3: that relief and welcome that relief, but there is a
19:13
Speaker 3: long road back. But when it comes to the RBA
19:16
Speaker 3: sticking to their plan, there is a risk, is it
19:18
Speaker 3: there that if they've cut too early, then inflation could
19:22
Speaker 3: persist longer. Indeed, it could even tick up again, necessitating
19:27
Speaker 3: another interest rate rise. This, incredibly is something that the
19:30
Speaker 3: Reserve Bank Governor Michell Bullock has actually countenanced in a
19:33
Speaker 3: press conference today.
19:36
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's exactly right, and we've seen exactly those circumstances
19:39
Speaker 6: in the United States where we're seeing strengthening of inflation,
19:45
Speaker 6: a resurgence of inflation. Of course, the Fed there has
19:50
Speaker 6: held it's not cutting rates as a result, and the
19:53
Speaker 6: Reserve Bank governors, you rightly just pointed out in a
19:55
Speaker 6: press conference after releasing the decision, has made the point
20:00
Speaker 6: that there's still a long way to go here, and
20:03
Speaker 6: the risks of ongoing inflation and indeed strengthened inflation are
20:07
Speaker 6: still very high.
20:08
Speaker 2: So this is far from over.
20:11
Speaker 6: The important point here is we're talking here about inflation.
20:14
Speaker 6: Prices aren't going down. There's no scenario under which prices
20:17
Speaker 6: are going down, and that's why it's such a long
20:20
Speaker 6: pathway back for Australian households to where they were only
20:24
Speaker 6: two and a.
20:24
Speaker 2: Half years ago.
20:25
Speaker 6: Strains are poorer than they were two and a half
20:27
Speaker 6: years ago, and we can't afford another term of government
20:31
Speaker 6: like the one we've just seen.
20:33
Speaker 3: All Right, there's no doubt that this is going to
20:35
Speaker 3: put some wind into the sales of labor. There's no
20:37
Speaker 3: doubt we're headed to election sometime soon. My tip would
20:40
Speaker 3: be early April. What can you do if you win
20:43
Speaker 3: power to bring down inflation permanently and to boost productivity
20:48
Speaker 3: and get our standard of living increasing again instead of
20:52
Speaker 3: going backwards, Exactly.
20:55
Speaker 6: Right, We've got to accelerate that journey back to where
20:58
Speaker 6: we were when labor to power. Chris, that is the
21:03
Speaker 6: core imperative of a new government, and that does mean
21:07
Speaker 6: beating inflation sustainably. That means getting rid of government waste,
21:11
Speaker 6: making sure that government isn't spending if it doesn't need to.
21:15
Speaker 6: Adding thirty six thousand camera based bureaucrats is not the
21:19
Speaker 6: way to beat inflation. Labour's been building bureaucracies, not building businesses.
21:25
Speaker 6: We want to see the private sector investing, and that's
21:28
Speaker 6: why we're supporting small businesses with tax cuts in sending
21:31
Speaker 6: them to get out and invest suring they have the
21:33
Speaker 6: cash flow they need to create the jobs and the
21:36
Speaker 6: opportunities for all Australians. Making sure that we've got affordable housing,
21:40
Speaker 6: beating those infrastructure bottlenecks that are stopping housing supply from
21:45
Speaker 6: growing at the pace it should be. Getting the balance
21:47
Speaker 6: right between immigration and housing supply, and making sure we've
21:52
Speaker 6: got affordable reliable energy in this country, which means having
21:55
Speaker 6: enough supply coming on gas. Natural gas is crucial in
21:58
Speaker 6: the coming is and longer to the opening up to.
22:01
Speaker 2: Nuclear base load power.
22:02
Speaker 6: I mean, these are the initiatives all supply side, good
22:05
Speaker 6: back to basic stuff.
22:07
Speaker 2: We know.
22:08
Speaker 6: Good economic management is the way to beat a cost
22:11
Speaker 6: of living crisis, Chris, Good economic management is the way
22:14
Speaker 6: to beat a cost of living crisis, and labor can't
22:17
Speaker 6: manage the economy.
22:19
Speaker 1: Thankers, Taylor, thanks so much for joining us.
22:23
Speaker 2: Good on you.
22:25
Speaker 3: Well, let's get away from the politics now again. Expert
22:27
Speaker 3: analysis from Gigi Fosters is the economics professor with the
22:30
Speaker 3: University of New South Wales.
22:32
Speaker 1: Good to talk to you again, Gigi.
22:34
Speaker 3: Is this a risky move by the bank or a
22:36
Speaker 3: welcome soft landing as Jim Chalmers describes it.
22:40
Speaker 13: Well, it's certainly going to be quite welcome to many
22:43
Speaker 13: customers of bank mortgages, and you saw some of them picketing,
22:47
Speaker 13: in fact, in front of the RBA today. There's been
22:49
Speaker 13: a lot of political lead up to this decision, and
22:52
Speaker 13: I hope that Michelle Bollock is not just responding to
22:56
Speaker 13: that pressure. I do think this would have been a
22:58
Speaker 13: bit of a NiFe edged decision for her, and you
23:00
Speaker 13: can read in the statement indeed, that she's forecasting that
23:04
Speaker 13: it's not going to necessarily be the case that this
23:06
Speaker 13: is the first of several rates drops this year, and
23:10
Speaker 13: I think that's very wise. As you know, last time
23:13
Speaker 13: I came on your program, I said I didn't have
23:15
Speaker 13: a crystal ball, but I was picking that she wouldn't
23:18
Speaker 13: wouldn't lower rates, and that we'd still be at four
23:20
Speaker 13: point three five percent today. But I think there is
23:23
Speaker 13: one thing that has happened since that interview, which, as
23:26
Speaker 13: I recall, was the twenty ninth of January, so we
23:28
Speaker 13: had the inflation data then something that we didn't know then,
23:31
Speaker 13: and that's basically the pace of change in the United
23:34
Speaker 13: States new administration. There has been a lot of real
23:37
Speaker 13: action there by the DOGE people, by the those in
23:41
Speaker 13: charge who are displaying rampant government corruption and expenditure on nonsense.
23:47
Speaker 13: And I think that there may be a sense in
23:50
Speaker 13: the RBA that that kind of uncertainty and disruption may
23:54
Speaker 13: percolate somewhat to Australia. And if uncertainty is something that
23:58
Speaker 13: causes people to be hesitant in making investments and spending choices,
24:02
Speaker 13: then that could be a bit of a cold shower
24:04
Speaker 13: on the economy. And so this rate kind of goes
24:07
Speaker 13: in line with that type of expectation as well.
24:10
Speaker 3: I suppose the election facts is into that as well,
24:12
Speaker 3: because people traditionally tend economic activity tends to die down
24:17
Speaker 3: a bit during elections during that uncertainty. So there's five
24:20
Speaker 3: weeks coming up of a federal election when people might
24:23
Speaker 3: be a little bit stingy, that's true.
24:25
Speaker 13: And also don't forget where after the big holiday season
24:28
Speaker 13: when people will have tried to give their children a
24:31
Speaker 13: happy Christmas and maybe now are trying to pay off
24:33
Speaker 13: some debts, and so there's always a bit of a decline,
24:37
Speaker 13: a quite a significant decline in consumer spending after that
24:39
Speaker 13: big bust kind of period. So you know, there are
24:42
Speaker 13: reasons from a seasonal standpoint to expect that over the
24:45
Speaker 13: next few months we might see a bit softer real
24:47
Speaker 13: economy action. But I don't think it's.
24:50
Speaker 7: Just about that.
24:50
Speaker 13: I mean, you can also see that the RBA is
24:53
Speaker 13: looking at the employment figures, they're worried about productivity, They're
24:56
Speaker 13: looking at all the indicators they should be looking at,
24:58
Speaker 13: and they're conscious of the possibility that even if in
25:02
Speaker 13: the long run, the kinds of actions that are happening
25:04
Speaker 13: in the US, if replicated here would be good for
25:08
Speaker 13: the increase in quality of life for Australians that you
25:11
Speaker 13: were just speaking with anger Tailor about wanting, in the
25:14
Speaker 13: short run, there still is going to be disruption if
25:17
Speaker 13: we start doing that kind of cutting. At least as
25:19
Speaker 13: much of a slash and brown type approach has been
25:21
Speaker 13: taken in the US, and we don't really know what
25:24
Speaker 13: is going to happen, particularly after the election. For example,
25:27
Speaker 13: if we do have a change in government, is there
25:29
Speaker 13: going to be even more of a desire to follow
25:31
Speaker 13: in line with what the US is leading the charge
25:33
Speaker 13: to do here and cut government expenditure.
25:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, we need a doze here and we need to
25:38
Speaker 3: focus on productivity.
25:39
Speaker 1: Obviously.
25:39
Speaker 3: I'll get you back on soon to talk about those
25:41
Speaker 3: big questions because we have so much money going into
25:44
Speaker 3: unproductive parts of the economy and our productivity is going backwards.
25:47
Speaker 3: Great to talk to you again, Gigi appreciated Gigi Foster
25:50
Speaker 3: there from the University of New South Wales.
25:52
Speaker 1: We've got to get to a break. On the other side,
25:54
Speaker 1: I'm going to.
25:54
Speaker 3: Shut you the latest from Chris Bowen.
25:57
Speaker 1: You want to miss this.
25:58
Speaker 3: Also, Tom Hanks has been lamb for portraying a Donald
26:01
Speaker 3: Trump supporter, of course as a dumb racist.
26:05
Speaker 1: I'll catch up with Tim Blair.
26:10
Speaker 3: Look, I know you love hearing from the Climate and
26:13
Speaker 3: Energy Minister Chris Bowen, So I've got another one of
26:16
Speaker 3: his social media posts to show you. This time, yet again,
26:20
Speaker 3: he's attacking the coalition's nuclear energy plan.
26:24
Speaker 14: The word insurance doesn't appear he wants, they have not
26:27
Speaker 14: counted the cost of insurance. It's another big black hole
26:31
Speaker 14: in Peter Dutton's plan.
26:33
Speaker 1: Well what a game changer.
26:34
Speaker 3: Hey, he reckons insurance will be a cost blowout for
26:37
Speaker 3: the nuclear plan. The trouble is Bowen never talks about
26:40
Speaker 3: the costs of his untried and untested renewables plus storage model,
26:45
Speaker 3: which will cost hundreds of millions of dollars more than
26:49
Speaker 3: the coalition's nuclear plan. And even then it won't work
26:53
Speaker 3: when we need it to, of course, And what about
26:55
Speaker 3: insurance for all of that. Well, as this report from November,
27:00
Speaker 3: insurance costs for wind farms and solar factories have jumped
27:04
Speaker 3: by twenty percent to forty percent in the past year
27:08
Speaker 3: because of how susceptible they are to natural disasters. Yeah,
27:12
Speaker 3: it's just another reason that renewables are so costly and
27:16
Speaker 3: so unreliable. Still, none of that stops Bowen. Now he's
27:19
Speaker 3: trying to argue that nuclear won't even provide enough power.
27:24
Speaker 14: So Peter Dutton reckons we need nuclear to make more
27:27
Speaker 14: electricity for things like AI and aluminium smelters, but his
27:31
Speaker 14: own policy documents show that nuclear would create forty percent
27:35
Speaker 14: less electricity for Australia.
27:38
Speaker 3: Got it. Look, Chris Bowen likes to go on Instagram
27:46
Speaker 3: and pretend he's got all the energy answers and all
27:49
Speaker 3: the killer arguments against nuclear but no matter how many
27:53
Speaker 3: times will we ask him, he won't come on here
27:55
Speaker 3: on the.
27:56
Speaker 1: Program to discuss it.
27:58
Speaker 3: He's all over the issue, but he can't answer any
28:01
Speaker 3: questions on it.
28:03
Speaker 1: Got it?
28:11
Speaker 3: We better go to Tim Blair now in the winter
28:13
Speaker 3: of Well, I finished my corn flakes, mate, Good to catch.
28:16
Speaker 1: Up with you.
28:18
Speaker 15: Absolutely has the insurance on those flakes.
28:21
Speaker 2: Exactly the insurance.
28:23
Speaker 3: I should have spoken to Health and Safety about eating
28:26
Speaker 3: on the desk. It's probably banned. Hey, we've got to
28:29
Speaker 3: stay on the energy debate though, because you've written about
28:31
Speaker 3: this how big oil is back. Even BP of course
28:34
Speaker 3: made their fortune from oil and gas are deciding that's
28:38
Speaker 3: where they should stay now and get out of the
28:39
Speaker 3: renewable caper.
28:42
Speaker 15: Absolutely, VP, they went work well before it was fashionable,
28:46
Speaker 15: way back in I think two thousand and one or so,
28:49
Speaker 15: actually changed their name from British Petroleum to Beyond Petroleum.
28:53
Speaker 15: Like they remove all that, all the stuff that had
28:55
Speaker 15: made them so massively wealthy and powerful as a company
29:00
Speaker 15: and now it's all going back the other way. They're
29:04
Speaker 15: getting out of the wind farm caper. They had massive
29:07
Speaker 15: investments there and they're going back into oil and gas
29:09
Speaker 15: and expiration further things. I think they're up two percent
29:13
Speaker 15: last year on the oil and gas totals. So yes,
29:16
Speaker 15: British petroleum is now back being British petroleum.
29:20
Speaker 1: I got to love this story.
29:22
Speaker 3: It was in the Telly this week where pushing the
29:25
Speaker 3: electric vehicles again. The new South Wales government has put
29:29
Speaker 3: out a list.
29:30
Speaker 1: Of EV friendly trips.
29:31
Speaker 3: You know, none of this nonsense that they're no good
29:33
Speaker 3: for long trips in the Australian countryside. They've got these
29:36
Speaker 3: routes where there's plenty of charges. And you know, one
29:39
Speaker 3: of them is two hundred k's along the coast, another
29:42
Speaker 3: one's up up to the snowy snow he's one hundred
29:45
Speaker 3: and seventy one case.
29:46
Speaker 1: One of them is down south to Marimbula, four hundred
29:49
Speaker 1: and six caves. But this is amusing stuff.
29:52
Speaker 3: They've got to map out these little mini road trips
29:55
Speaker 3: where you can actually get there in your EV reasonably
29:58
Speaker 3: safety safely because they've got plenty of charges along the way.
30:03
Speaker 15: Imagine how much money has been wasted in promoting this
30:06
Speaker 15: sort of thing as well. But here's a solution for
30:09
Speaker 15: anyone suffering range anxiety, or anyone who's concerned about if
30:12
Speaker 15: they can make a four hundred k trip down the
30:14
Speaker 15: coast by a petrol car, there's plenty available. I mean,
30:17
Speaker 15: this is what I keep selling people. I might have
30:19
Speaker 15: even mentioned it to you, Chris, is that as soon
30:22
Speaker 15: as an electric car can do what I can do
30:24
Speaker 15: all the time, which is drive my twenty three year
30:26
Speaker 15: old Sedan from the Wimer Maalley right down to Melbourne
30:31
Speaker 15: and back without refueling and recharging once without stopping. As
30:35
Speaker 15: soon as they can do that six hundred k round
30:36
Speaker 15: trip for seventy eight thousand dollars, by the way, I
30:38
Speaker 15: paid for that car. As soon as they can get
30:40
Speaker 15: that price point right and that distance, I'll have a
30:43
Speaker 15: look at the evs. But until then they're a joke.
30:48
Speaker 1: We'll be all in on them by then.
30:50
Speaker 3: Now Saturday Night Live, the famous American TV program, have
30:54
Speaker 3: celebrated fifty years and lots of famous comedians turned up
30:58
Speaker 3: and actors and singers and all the rest of it.
31:00
Speaker 1: Tom Hanks is under five. I've done this pro skip.
31:03
Speaker 3: I've done before Black Jeopardy, but Hanks in this episode
31:07
Speaker 3: plays a mega person, a Trump supporter have a look.
31:11
Speaker 1: Oh well, thank you? And I speaking of church, can
31:13
Speaker 1: I say something.
31:15
Speaker 8: If more folks weren't to church, we wouldn't be in
31:18
Speaker 8: this mess we're in.
31:19
Speaker 2: Now, you know what?
31:20
Speaker 7: I agree with what you do.
31:21
Speaker 2: I'd like to shake your hand, sir, here we go.
31:24
Speaker 1: No, no, no, just a handsha.
31:28
Speaker 7: You're welcome to Black any time.
31:31
Speaker 1: All right, Well, thank you my mind by brother.
31:34
Speaker 16: Maybe I'll start a show for you to come on
31:36
Speaker 16: and we'll call it what Jeopardy.
31:39
Speaker 2: No, we don't need it. We don't need it.
31:43
Speaker 3: They've learned nothing in Hollywood, have they, tim They still
31:45
Speaker 3: hate their fellow Americans who have elected Donald Trump in
31:49
Speaker 3: a clean sweep to power.
31:51
Speaker 15: Well, it's two things. Chris a as everyone just saying
31:55
Speaker 15: it wasn't funny. He's a scripted, massively huge budgeted shows
32:00
Speaker 15: with you know, all the talent in the world. They
32:03
Speaker 15: can't get a laugh. Secondly, isn't it wasn't it? Haven't
32:06
Speaker 15: we been told for years that it's bad to punch down,
32:09
Speaker 15: it's bad to hit it. Those you can't have met themselves,
32:12
Speaker 15: And here we've got Tom Hanks. He's worth a for you, Bob,
32:16
Speaker 15: really punching down on you know, I guess the people
32:19
Speaker 15: he would classify as white trash. And it's kind of
32:22
Speaker 15: jarring these days. I mean, Trump was elected by a
32:26
Speaker 15: popular majority, not just an electoral college majority. He's insulting
32:29
Speaker 15: a lot more people than he realizes. And they weren't
32:32
Speaker 15: all toothless, dumb rednecks, that's for sure.
32:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, spot on. Tim couldn't agree more. Thanks for joining us, mate,
32:39
Speaker 3: We'll catch you later in the week. Tim Blair that
32:41
Speaker 3: you can read his stuff in the Daily Telegraph. Got
32:44
Speaker 3: to go to a break. On the other side, we're
32:45
Speaker 3: going to catch up with this week's Maga Minute as
32:48
Speaker 3: Trump packs another busy week, and we'll also catch up
32:52
Speaker 3: with Kristen take get her take.
32:55
Speaker 1: On all of that. Now.
33:00
Speaker 3: No matter what you think of Donald Trump, he's keeping
33:02
Speaker 3: his promises and he's keeping a cracking pace. We'll catch
33:06
Speaker 3: up with Kristen tight In justin moment. But first up,
33:09
Speaker 3: the White House's Press Secretory Caroline Livett, is taking the
33:12
Speaker 3: social media each week with the Maga Minute.
33:16
Speaker 1: This week's This.
33:18
Speaker 17: Week, President Trump became the first sitting president to ever
33:21
Speaker 17: attend a Super bowl declared February ninth, Gulf of America Day,
33:26
Speaker 17: signed an executive order rolling back Biden's push to phase
33:30
Speaker 17: out plastic straws. Secured the release of Pennsylvania teacher in
33:34
Speaker 17: Great American Mark Fogel from Russian captivity, bringing the total
33:39
Speaker 17: number of hostages released to eleven since he took office
33:42
Speaker 17: just four weeks ago. He implemented a twenty five percent
33:46
Speaker 17: global tariff on steel in aluminum imports to protect our
33:50
Speaker 17: steel and aluminum industries from unfair foreign competition. He introduced
33:54
Speaker 17: the Fair and Reciprocal Tariff Plan to counter unfair trade
33:58
Speaker 17: practices by our foreign trading partners. He established the Make
34:03
Speaker 17: America Healthy Again Commission to fight chronic disease and did
34:07
Speaker 17: COVID vaccine mandates and schools. And established the National Energy
34:11
Speaker 17: Dominance Council. We are going to drill, baby, Drill. See
34:15
Speaker 17: you for next week's MAGA minute.
34:18
Speaker 3: There you guys, So, I asked l US analyst Kristen
34:20
Speaker 3: Tight whether she was still typing up with the President's pice.
34:25
Speaker 2: Hardly.
34:26
Speaker 18: It's been another week of winning, and this is why
34:29
Speaker 18: a recent rass Nussen pole has shown that Americans right
34:33
Speaker 18: now have the best outlook for the nation that they
34:35
Speaker 18: have ever had. That's a remarkable turnaround, Chris. And this
34:39
Speaker 18: is being kept secret by the media, which is trying
34:43
Speaker 18: to kind of slow the support for Donald Trump and
34:45
Speaker 18: slow as progress. But people here are really loving it.
34:49
Speaker 1: And I will say.
34:49
Speaker 18: Even some Democrats that I know are finally starting to say, hey,
34:53
Speaker 18: you know, some of the stuff is pretty great, and
34:56
Speaker 18: I'm feeling a little optimistic now.
34:59
Speaker 1: Some of this stuff is major and some of it
35:01
Speaker 1: is very small beer. You know, I think the Golf
35:04
Speaker 1: of Mexico thing is just ridiculous, the Golf of America.
35:08
Speaker 1: But we'll see if that sticks.
35:10
Speaker 3: But I got to tell you, even here in Australia,
35:12
Speaker 3: people were celebrating bringing back the plastic straw, so that
35:15
Speaker 3: one certainly struck.
35:16
Speaker 1: That struck a nerve.
35:17
Speaker 3: But I think one of the big issues, and in
35:19
Speaker 3: some way surprising there's been so effective already, is what
35:23
Speaker 3: Donald Trump has done on the borders.
35:26
Speaker 1: Now, he did it last time, I know.
35:27
Speaker 3: But the situation was right out of control, and already
35:30
Speaker 3: there is clear evidence that the influx of illegal.
35:34
Speaker 1: Migrants has been halted. Have a look at this report.
35:38
Speaker 8: San Diego has closed an office that was opened up
35:41
Speaker 8: to receive illegals. What's that tell us, tell us of
35:45
Speaker 8: the border, it's more secure and it's ever been decame
35:48
Speaker 8: for removal. That's what Trump administration is doing. That's the
35:50
Speaker 8: promise to President Trump, me and the American people. We're
35:53
Speaker 8: concentrating on the export program.
35:56
Speaker 1: They're in the export business now, Kristin, Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
36:01
Speaker 18: Crossings at the southern border have virtually slowed to a
36:04
Speaker 18: halt since Trump has taken office, and that's because the
36:07
Speaker 18: projection of strength has just deterred migrants. They don't think
36:11
Speaker 18: it's worth making that trip anymore. Friends down in Texas
36:15
Speaker 18: where I used to live, are constantly texting me pictures
36:18
Speaker 18: of the neighborhoods that are considered you know, hot spots
36:21
Speaker 18: for migration. The home depots, the grocery stores, they are
36:24
Speaker 18: all completely empty. The migration is just the illegal migration
36:28
Speaker 18: is just not happening right now. I will say, DHS
36:31
Speaker 18: released some numbers between the inauguration and February third, about
36:36
Speaker 18: five thousand, six hundred people had been deported. If that number,
36:40
Speaker 18: if those kind of numbers, you know, continue to be consistent,
36:43
Speaker 18: that means that actually fewer than twelve thousand people have
36:46
Speaker 18: been deported as of today. And keep in mind, you know,
36:50
Speaker 18: under Joe Biden, we were seeing four or five six
36:53
Speaker 18: thousand migrants being apprehended per day, So the deportations are
36:58
Speaker 18: actually not that high. But at least we have stopped
37:01
Speaker 18: the flow of migrants into the country. But I think
37:04
Speaker 18: a lot of Americans would love to see that deportation
37:07
Speaker 18: number much higher.
37:08
Speaker 2: Yeah.
37:09
Speaker 3: Also, people smugglers, they're at inventive lots and already they're
37:13
Speaker 3: trying to work around through the northern border through Canada.
37:16
Speaker 16: Have a look, illegal Canadian coyotes are using TikTok to
37:21
Speaker 16: promote crossings into the United States, revealing secret routes and
37:24
Speaker 16: offering services to migrants or Congresswoman Nicole Malatakis is urging
37:31
Speaker 16: federal probe, saying the Department of Justice should investigate how
37:35
Speaker 16: these apps are being utilized for nefarious activity and get
37:37
Speaker 16: cooperation from the companies that operate them.
37:41
Speaker 3: And Kristian this sound the school is why Donald Trump's
37:43
Speaker 3: been wise too to put pressure on Canada to stop
37:46
Speaker 3: drugs and people coming through that border.
37:49
Speaker 18: Precisely, the US Canadian Canada border is actually the largest
37:54
Speaker 18: and longest land border in the world and it's largely unguarded.
37:58
Speaker 18: I can tell you this firsthand. My family actually owned
38:00
Speaker 18: some properties up in a town called Colebrook, New Hampshire.
38:03
Speaker 18: It is way up there, right next to the Canada border,
38:06
Speaker 18: and there is nothing up there, Chris. It is totally undefended.
38:11
Speaker 18: There's nobody on either side. And these coyotes, these smugglers,
38:15
Speaker 18: what they are doing is advertising on social media platforms
38:19
Speaker 18: like TikTok as. If you know, human smuggling is just
38:21
Speaker 18: a legitimate business. They are telling people, hey, pay us
38:25
Speaker 18: five thousand dollars and will take you across on a
38:27
Speaker 18: safe journey. They even have some testimonials up on these
38:30
Speaker 18: social media accounts. And I was looking at the statistics.
38:33
Speaker 18: The large majority of these migrants coming across from the
38:37
Speaker 18: northern border are Indian nationals. I can tell you right
38:41
Speaker 18: now up in the Northeast. I'm in Massachusetts right now,
38:44
Speaker 18: my family lives in New Hampshire. It is freezing up here.
38:48
Speaker 18: So I think as the weather gets warmer, these numbers
38:52
Speaker 18: of illegal migrants coming from the northern border will continue
38:55
Speaker 18: to tick up. This needs to be something that is
38:58
Speaker 18: addressed by the Trump administration because it could become a
39:00
Speaker 18: big problem.
39:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they got to work very closely with the
39:04
Speaker 3: Canadians on that, who, of course are looking at a
39:06
Speaker 3: new Prime minister soon. Just going to wrap up because
39:09
Speaker 3: you're coming to the end of a public holiday. There
39:11
Speaker 3: is President's Day and Donald Trump is tweeted from the
39:15
Speaker 3: White House. He's wished everybody a happy President's Day.
39:18
Speaker 1: He says, they're not after me, they're after you.
39:21
Speaker 3: I'm just standing in the way, which was a great
39:23
Speaker 3: line during his campaign. And he's got his mug shop there.
39:26
Speaker 3: Of course, he's his portrait which is styled on it,
39:29
Speaker 3: and also his mugshot. He's very proud of that mugshot.
39:31
Speaker 3: Kristen is also a print of it, apparently hanging in
39:35
Speaker 3: the White House, just outside the Oval office.
39:38
Speaker 18: I just love that so much. That mugshot symbolized exactly
39:44
Speaker 18: what propelled Donald Trump to victory the media, left wing
39:49
Speaker 18: Democrat machine that was looking to, you know, completely stamp
39:54
Speaker 18: out and suppress and ban conservatives from polaits. It's like
40:00
Speaker 18: Trump says, he was simply standing in the way. That
40:03
Speaker 18: is what that image symbolizes. The left thought they were
40:06
Speaker 18: going to bury Trump with that mug shot, but in
40:09
Speaker 18: fact that is a rallying image for Trump's base and
40:13
Speaker 18: now for the nation. So I just love that he
40:15
Speaker 18: hung that.
40:16
Speaker 19: Up on the wall.
40:17
Speaker 3: He is a ripper mugshot. If ever I have to
40:20
Speaker 3: have a mugshot, I've never had one on want one
40:22
Speaker 3: as good as that. Thanks for joining us, Kristen wort
40:25
Speaker 3: to chat as ever, Thank you, Chris.
40:30
Speaker 1: I could probably do with the combover as well.
40:33
Speaker 3: On the other side of the break, Cuz O'Brien and
40:35
Speaker 3: Stephen senat Tiempo will join me. We'll talk about the
40:38
Speaker 3: rate cut and how soon Ti we're off to the election.
40:46
Speaker 3: Let's catch up with Susio O'Brien from The Herald Son
40:49
Speaker 3: joining us from Melbourne and Stephen Senna, Tiempo breakfast radio
40:52
Speaker 3: host in the nation's capital two double C. I bet
40:55
Speaker 3: they're celebrating in the streets in Canberra today, Stephen with
40:58
Speaker 3: the interest rate cup.
41:02
Speaker 20: Look, some people would be I mean, the property prices
41:04
Speaker 20: down here are absolutely extraordinary, So anybody that got into
41:07
Speaker 20: the market in the last few years is obviously going
41:09
Speaker 20: to feel some relief for this.
41:10
Speaker 7: But look, it's too little, too.
41:12
Speaker 20: Late, and you know, I don't think that there's going
41:14
Speaker 20: to be enough to save the government. It's certainly going
41:16
Speaker 20: to be not going to be enough to really improve
41:18
Speaker 20: the lives of average Australians.
41:20
Speaker 3: Well, it's going to help them out a bit, and
41:21
Speaker 3: it's going to help labor out a bit bigger in
41:23
Speaker 3: terms of their narrative at least. But I think the
41:25
Speaker 3: celebrations in Canberra are more about the thirty six thousand
41:29
Speaker 3: extra public servants that will be heading in there. Susie,
41:32
Speaker 3: how do you think this is going to go down,
41:33
Speaker 3: both first of all in terms of helping families, but secondly,
41:37
Speaker 3: how it's going to affect the political debate.
41:41
Speaker 19: Well, I mean, obviously this is a massive relief for
41:43
Speaker 19: a lot of people. We've been waiting on this for
41:44
Speaker 19: four long years. But you know, don't get too carried away,
41:48
Speaker 19: as my message to people with mortgages, because this is
41:51
Speaker 19: kind of the McDonald's loose change of rate carts. You know,
41:55
Speaker 19: two dollars fifty a day still pretty much small Bicki's,
41:58
Speaker 19: but you know, over the course of a year adds
42:00
Speaker 19: up to one thousand dollars or more. So there is
42:03
Speaker 19: money there. But don't get carried away, because you know,
42:06
Speaker 19: Michelle Bullock has come out and said, you know, this
42:09
Speaker 19: could be it and I'm sure labor would be loving
42:12
Speaker 19: the thought of another rate cut down the track. This
42:16
Speaker 19: is probably the only one that we're likely to get
42:17
Speaker 19: before the election, and it is good news for labor,
42:20
Speaker 19: and I'm sure they're going to do absolutely everything they
42:23
Speaker 19: can to capitalize on it and to take ownership of it.
42:27
Speaker 1: Well.
42:27
Speaker 3: As Paul Kenning would say, every cock and two and
42:29
Speaker 3: every pet shop's got a view on the monetary policy.
42:32
Speaker 1: But this is the risk here, isn't it.
42:34
Speaker 3: Stephen michelle Brook is signaling there won't be more rate
42:38
Speaker 3: cuts because they really were close not to delivering a
42:42
Speaker 3: rate cut this time. In fact, a lot of economic
42:45
Speaker 3: orthodoxy would say they shouldn't have. I mean, she's even
42:48
Speaker 3: countenanced in a press conference today the possibility of inflation
42:52
Speaker 3: kicking up again and then having to put rates back up.
42:54
Speaker 1: I mean, you shouldn't be cutting in that environment.
42:57
Speaker 3: You should be waiting till you know you can cut
42:59
Speaker 3: in inflation is beaten and you can hopefully follow up
43:02
Speaker 3: with further cuts so that people get proper relief.
43:05
Speaker 1: I mean, but the worst thing in the world if
43:07
Speaker 1: they had to put rates up again in six or
43:08
Speaker 1: nine months.
43:10
Speaker 20: Absolutely, But I think the overwhelming pressure that's been on
43:14
Speaker 20: Michelle Bullock from the government has been extraordinary. She's probably
43:17
Speaker 20: just succumbed to it, and so of the board of
43:19
Speaker 20: the RBA. I mean, we know that the government is
43:21
Speaker 20: trying to change the structure of the Reserve Bank because
43:23
Speaker 20: they're not happy with the fact that it is truly independent,
43:26
Speaker 20: despite the Treasurer's press release this morning making a point
43:29
Speaker 20: of saying the independent Reserve Bank has lowered interest rates.
43:33
Speaker 20: I just think the pressure got to her in the
43:35
Speaker 20: end because she has held firm for a long long
43:37
Speaker 20: time and whilst the government's been added to cut rates
43:40
Speaker 20: for months and months and months. She said, well, hang on,
43:42
Speaker 20: you guys haven't done your bid yet. And I think
43:45
Speaker 20: Mark Buris nailed it in his comments this morning where
43:48
Speaker 20: he said, you the Australian people have done this, the
43:51
Speaker 20: government has done stuff.
43:52
Speaker 7: All and that was the exact language he used. Yeah.
43:55
Speaker 3: I think Michelle Bullock has caved into pressure. I think
43:58
Speaker 3: she has gone back on her own words and I
44:00
Speaker 3: think she she does her own reputation a bit of
44:02
Speaker 3: damage with this cup because it just doesn't stack up
44:06
Speaker 3: with what she's been saying in the preceding year. It
44:09
Speaker 3: all goes on to politics now though Susie and the election.
44:12
Speaker 1: We know it has to be held by May.
44:14
Speaker 3: Of course I'm still tipping April twelve or April five,
44:18
Speaker 3: I suppose. But let's have a listen to Jim Chalmers,
44:20
Speaker 3: because Labor can't say they've made anything better.
44:23
Speaker 1: We know everything's gotten.
44:24
Speaker 3: Worse in terms of electricity prices, mortgage payments, cost of living.
44:28
Speaker 3: But what Labour are now saying if you go to
44:30
Speaker 3: the Coalition, it'll be even worse than it is now.
44:33
Speaker 7: I have a look.
44:34
Speaker 5: Now, Today's decision and the statement from the board gives
44:39
Speaker 5: us more confidence that the worst of the inflation challenge
44:42
Speaker 5: is behind us, but we're not complacent about that either.
44:46
Speaker 5: Today's decision is very welcome, but it's not mission accomplished
44:50
Speaker 5: because we know that people are still under pressure.
44:54
Speaker 3: Well that's Jim Chalmers, of course, student he's thinking he's
44:56
Speaker 3: trying to mission accomplished without claiming mission accomplish. But there's
45:00
Speaker 3: this other comment where he says it would all be
45:02
Speaker 3: worse under coalition.
45:04
Speaker 2: Have a look.
45:06
Speaker 5: So we are well within our rights to point out
45:08
Speaker 5: that the biggest risk to house old budgets in twenty
45:10
Speaker 5: twenty five would be a coalition government led by Peter Dutton.
45:14
Speaker 5: Australians would be thousands of dollars worse off if he
45:16
Speaker 5: had his way.
45:18
Speaker 1: How do you reckon that's going to fly for him.
45:20
Speaker 19: Susie, Well, it's like Labor saying years ago, you know,
45:25
Speaker 19: interest rates will just be higher under Labor. And I
45:27
Speaker 19: mean these are just pie in the sky. No one
45:31
Speaker 19: is ever going to know. And of course they're going
45:33
Speaker 19: to say stuff like that. But the thing that mortgage
45:36
Speaker 19: holders need to remember at the moment is that this
45:39
Speaker 19: is a one off. They're not likely to be anymore.
45:42
Speaker 19: And you know, this might be what Labor has been
45:45
Speaker 19: looking for to call the election, to put us all
45:47
Speaker 19: out of our misery, but they've got a long way
45:51
Speaker 19: to go if they're going to win back the Australian people.
45:53
Speaker 1: Yeah.
45:53
Speaker 3: Now, a related story to this, Stephen, is a survey
45:56
Speaker 3: showing at our school kids don't really understand our political system.
46:00
Speaker 3: It's a little wonder when you see how shambolic our
46:02
Speaker 3: political system is at times. And look, I don't think
46:05
Speaker 3: they're taught enough of the basics in primary school and
46:08
Speaker 3: high school.
46:09
Speaker 1: And also I don't know. My sense is kids.
46:11
Speaker 3: Get so much of their information from America too, so
46:14
Speaker 3: there's sort of they might know more about the American
46:16
Speaker 3: political system than Australia's.
46:20
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's a good point. And I don't think it's
46:21
Speaker 7: just kids either.
46:22
Speaker 20: I remember when I was doing late night talkback a
46:25
Speaker 20: number of years ago, the number of people that would
46:27
Speaker 20: call up and tell me that, you know, the Bill
46:28
Speaker 20: of Rights says this, and the Bill of Rights says that, Well,
46:31
Speaker 20: we don't actually have a Bill of Rights in Australia.
46:33
Speaker 20: I think you're talking about a different country. But look,
46:35
Speaker 20: when I remember vividly when I was at school, both
46:38
Speaker 20: in primary school and high school, we did learn all
46:40
Speaker 20: of this civic stuff.
46:40
Speaker 13: You know.
46:41
Speaker 20: We learned the difference between the House of Reps and
46:43
Speaker 20: the Senate. We learned the difference between the different voting
46:45
Speaker 20: systems and the two houses. We learned how the Prime
46:48
Speaker 20: minister's position was decided. We learned how a bill went
46:51
Speaker 20: through Parliament. This was just natural part of the curriculum.
46:54
Speaker 20: I don't know where we lost that. But having said that,
46:57
Speaker 20: I think, you know, people in this part this building
47:00
Speaker 20: probably have something to do with it, because once upon
47:02
Speaker 20: a time we are giants who could explain this stuff
47:05
Speaker 20: for the average Australian, whereas now we have people that
47:07
Speaker 20: probably have anymore.
47:08
Speaker 1: You've still got a few giants around there.
47:10
Speaker 3: You just praise those other giants so you can get
47:12
Speaker 3: out of the building safely.
47:14
Speaker 1: But you look.
47:16
Speaker 3: I've got an eleven thirteen year old now, he's just
47:19
Speaker 3: just obsessed with this stuff.
47:20
Speaker 1: He's ready to run the UN.
47:21
Speaker 3: He knows so much about politics and international law. But
47:26
Speaker 3: as a matter of where do you engender at home
47:28
Speaker 3: and also at school, engendering some sort of curiosity and
47:32
Speaker 3: interest in.
47:32
Speaker 7: These things, well, it's really interesting.
47:36
Speaker 19: One of the findings of that particular survey, this National
47:39
Speaker 19: Survey of year ten and Year six kids, which found
47:42
Speaker 19: that two thirds of year tens and half of year
47:45
Speaker 19: six is don't have the most basic political knowledge. And
47:48
Speaker 19: one of the reasons for that is that kids are
47:51
Speaker 19: no longer doing charity work and volunteering even visiting Parliament
47:55
Speaker 19: House while they're at school, and so there's a whole
47:58
Speaker 19: lot of stuff that they're just sing out on and
48:01
Speaker 19: people like kids in this survey were saying, like two
48:04
Speaker 19: thirds of them could talk about what the importance of
48:06
Speaker 19: an Aboriginal smoking ceremony, but if they could talk about
48:12
Speaker 19: colonial statues and why they should or shouldn't be there.
48:15
Speaker 19: Only twenty percent knew anything about that, and three quarters
48:18
Speaker 19: could talk about pride in sport and the importance of
48:20
Speaker 19: pride in sport, no problem with that, but only twenty
48:23
Speaker 19: two percent knew what a donkey vote was. So you
48:27
Speaker 19: know where it seems like we're kind of packing the
48:30
Speaker 19: curriculum and packing the school days with a whole lot
48:32
Speaker 19: of stuff that isn't the core messages and the cores
48:37
Speaker 19: that we want the kids to learn.
48:38
Speaker 1: And the core facts. They've got to get the core
48:40
Speaker 1: facts and enough of the work stuff.
48:42
Speaker 3: There's another example of this I can share with you
48:44
Speaker 3: Tonight's Stephen at the Bull High School that's near Woollongong
48:48
Speaker 3: in New South Wales. There year seven students. Their task
48:51
Speaker 3: for this year is to help decorate the Department of
48:55
Speaker 3: Educations gay and lesbian Marti graft float and they've done
48:59
Speaker 3: these hands and to go on there saying trans rights,
49:02
Speaker 3: so human rights and gay pride and whatever. Shouldn't they
49:06
Speaker 3: be learning instead about parliament or you know, maths or.
49:09
Speaker 20: Something numerously and literacy at all time record lows And
49:14
Speaker 20: this is what we've.
49:15
Speaker 7: Got our kids doing.
49:16
Speaker 20: I mean, look let's just get back to basic curriculum,
49:19
Speaker 20: where we teach kids what they need to know to
49:20
Speaker 20: operate in the real world. Teach them how to count,
49:23
Speaker 20: teach them how to add up, teach them how to spell,
49:26
Speaker 20: teach them how to write letters, et cetera, and teach
49:29
Speaker 20: them how parliament works. I mean, we used to do this,
49:31
Speaker 20: and I'm not that old, Chris, but I can remember
49:34
Speaker 20: when I was at school. We did learn all of
49:35
Speaker 20: these things. I don't know where we went wrong when
49:38
Speaker 20: I was at school. Somewhere in the last forty years.
49:40
Speaker 3: I feel like when I was at school, Federal Parliament
49:42
Speaker 3: was still singing in Melbourne.
49:43
Speaker 1: But that seems that long ago.
49:45
Speaker 3: But yeah, we've got to get back to the basics,
49:46
Speaker 3: is the core. Thanks for joining us, Stephen and CUSI
49:49
Speaker 3: I appreciate it. We'll catch you next week. That all
49:52
Speaker 3: the time we've got for you. Tonight, here's Peter Kredlin.