Transcript

Credlin | 20 March · Credlin

0:01
Speaker 1: Peter Krebland live on Sky News Australia.
0:07
Speaker 2: Good evening and welcome to the program. I'm Caleb Bond
0:10
Speaker 2: in for Peter Creedlin. Here's what's coming up on the program.
0:12
Speaker 2: A slight drop in the net migration intake, but still
0:15
Speaker 2: far off the numbers Labor promised this financial year. They'll
0:19
Speaker 2: try to spin it as a win, but as I'll
0:21
Speaker 2: discuss shortly, the numbers are still too high. More gender
0:25
Speaker 2: madness in Victoria as they persist with the roll out
0:28
Speaker 2: of a so called rainbow toolkit being foisted on young
0:31
Speaker 2: children has reached fever pitch in the Parliament. I'll speak
0:35
Speaker 2: to the MP leading the charge against shortly plus a
0:38
Speaker 2: slight reprieve when it comes to our die gas shortages
0:41
Speaker 2: with the regulator pushing out the date for short falls.
0:44
Speaker 2: But when we have policy based on ideology not practicality,
0:48
Speaker 2: they have little faith really that the government will do
0:50
Speaker 2: what's needed to shore up supply. Of time and our
0:53
Speaker 2: protests now just a feature of our campaign with both
0:56
Speaker 2: Peter Datt and Angus Taylor targeted. Today could be the
1:00
Speaker 2: sad new reality as civilized debate disappears.
1:06
Speaker 3: Plan will do a press conference somewhere else which can
1:10
Speaker 3: actually gets one a very happy average.
1:14
Speaker 4: Reports.
1:16
Speaker 5: Now.
1:16
Speaker 2: I know we're not officially in an election campaign yet
1:19
Speaker 2: because the election hasn't been caught, but we've basically been
1:22
Speaker 2: in a campaign since the start of the year. And
1:25
Speaker 2: the one thing that's been missing from all the talk
1:28
Speaker 2: of promises and policies is any real discussion about migration.
1:33
Speaker 2: New net overseas migration numbers dropped today from the Bureau
1:37
Speaker 2: of Statistics. For the September quarter, it was ninety thousand people. Now,
1:42
Speaker 2: if that continues through for the rest of the financial year,
1:45
Speaker 2: it'll mean one hundred thousand more people will have moved
1:49
Speaker 2: to Australia than the Albanese government promised. In last year's budget.
1:53
Speaker 2: They projected that migration would be two hundred and sixty
1:57
Speaker 2: thousand people for the financial year nine thousand or sorry,
2:01
Speaker 2: ninety thousand times four, of course, would be three hundred
2:04
Speaker 2: and sixty thousand, and they've basically already admitted that this
2:08
Speaker 2: will happen. The target was revised up from two hundred
2:11
Speaker 2: and sixty thousand to three hundred and forty thousand in
2:14
Speaker 2: the mid year budget update. Now, sure it's down on
2:18
Speaker 2: the four hundred and forty six thousand net arrivals last
2:21
Speaker 2: financial year, but it's still well above what it was
2:24
Speaker 2: supposed to be. So now we have to find houses, cars, schools,
2:28
Speaker 2: jobs and so on for one hundred thousand odd more
2:32
Speaker 2: people than we anticipated. How do you do that? Well,
2:36
Speaker 2: the answer, as you well know, is that you pay
2:39
Speaker 2: more for things because more people are fighting for them.
2:42
Speaker 2: More than a million people have moved here permanently or
2:46
Speaker 2: long term under the Albanesi government, more than a million
2:49
Speaker 2: people looking for somewhere to live, and anyone who's tried
2:53
Speaker 2: to find a rental recently knows just how squeezed the
2:57
Speaker 2: market is. That the rental vacancy rate in Sydney is
3:00
Speaker 2: one and a half percent. It's zero point seven percent
3:03
Speaker 2: in Adelaide, point six percent in Perth, the same in
3:06
Speaker 2: Hobart and one percent in Brisbane. These are serious lows.
3:11
Speaker 2: Everything is full up, so we'll just bring in another
3:14
Speaker 2: one thousand people every day and pretend everything is fine.
3:18
Speaker 2: So why hasn't the coalition properly fired up about this?
3:22
Speaker 2: Are they worried about being called racist? I don't know,
3:26
Speaker 2: because it's not racist to acknowledge that people who already
3:30
Speaker 2: live here and that includes margrants, by the way, deserve
3:34
Speaker 2: priority over people who arrived yesterday, or perhaps haven't even
3:38
Speaker 2: arrived yet. They seem to be fiddling around the edges.
3:41
Speaker 2: You saw the business this week about maybe having a
3:44
Speaker 2: referendum on deporting criminal dual citizens. I mean, okay, sure,
3:49
Speaker 2: I don't think there are too many people who disagree
3:51
Speaker 2: with the principle, apart from maybe terrorists and pedophiles who
3:54
Speaker 2: have citizenship in some third world hell hole that they
3:57
Speaker 2: might have to go back to. But come on, that'd
4:00
Speaker 2: be a reasonably small number of people, and it means
4:03
Speaker 2: a referendum, of course, and we're a bit scared of
4:06
Speaker 2: those After the voice, what else has there been? Dutton
4:10
Speaker 2: announced last year that he'd banned foreign investors from buying
4:13
Speaker 2: existing homes.
4:15
Speaker 3: Find the next Prime Minister, I will work to ban
4:18
Speaker 3: foreign investors in temporary residents from buying existing homes for
4:22
Speaker 3: two years.
4:23
Speaker 2: This will give young people a fair shot.
4:25
Speaker 3: At owning their first home. With housing affordability worse than ever,
4:29
Speaker 3: it's time to prioritize Australians who are working hard to
4:32
Speaker 3: get into the market. It's simple.
4:35
Speaker 6: We'll make sure homes are for those who need them
4:37
Speaker 6: the most.
4:38
Speaker 3: Australians.
4:40
Speaker 2: Now again, I don't think anyone except foreign investors would
4:44
Speaker 2: disagree with the principle of the proposal, and the Prime
4:47
Speaker 2: ministers since done it. It comes into effect next month.
4:50
Speaker 2: But foreign buyers make up about two percent of the market.
4:54
Speaker 2: One real estate agent told The Daily Telegraphs real estate
4:57
Speaker 2: writer Jonathan Chancellor a couple of weeks ago so that
5:00
Speaker 2: it had stopped about sixteen hundred sales a year. Now,
5:04
Speaker 2: sure that is sixteen hundred more homes an Australian can buy,
5:08
Speaker 2: and I don't have a problem with that being the case.
5:11
Speaker 2: But it's only sixteen hundred. What about the million people
5:14
Speaker 2: who've moved here in the past three years. It's a
5:17
Speaker 2: drop in the ocean. Then there was the stuff yesterday
5:20
Speaker 2: about adding a question to the citizenship test about anti Semitism,
5:25
Speaker 2: and again it's immigration adjacent, but it's just small fry stuff.
5:30
Speaker 2: If people want to become a citizen, they'll just tick
5:32
Speaker 2: the box that they know will help them become a citizen.
5:35
Speaker 2: They'll have no compunction about lying about whether they're anti Semitic.
5:40
Speaker 2: And it's a bit bloody late anyway, because you have
5:42
Speaker 2: to live here for four years before you can apply
5:44
Speaker 2: for citizenship and you have to be a permanent resident
5:47
Speaker 2: for at least a year. So if you've made it
5:49
Speaker 2: that far and we haven't kicked you out yet, well
5:51
Speaker 2: the game's up. Really, the only real promise that the
5:54
Speaker 2: coalitions made on immigration is to cut knit migration to
5:58
Speaker 2: about one hundred and sixty thousand.
6:01
Speaker 6: Well, tom, our proposal is that we bring back the
6:05
Speaker 6: net overseas migration to a figure about one hundred and
6:07
Speaker 6: sixty thousand if you look at the different programs. That
6:11
Speaker 6: mean so that we would cut back the permanent migration program,
6:15
Speaker 6: the refugee and humanitarian program, and that we would bring
6:18
Speaker 6: back international student numbers as well.
6:22
Speaker 2: That was May last year, but he'd already dropped it
6:25
Speaker 2: by December. You're not sticking to the one sixty thousand.
6:29
Speaker 7: You're not sticking to the one sixty thousand target for
6:32
Speaker 7: net migration.
6:32
Speaker 3: Then, Andrew. What we've said is that we want our
6:37
Speaker 3: migration program to step down in the first two years,
6:40
Speaker 3: it will ramp up again in years three and four,
6:43
Speaker 3: and we will bring down the numbers who come through
6:45
Speaker 3: the humanitarian refugee program back to the long run average
6:48
Speaker 3: of that. That's what will work for our country. Again,
6:52
Speaker 3: we'll have a look at the economic settings, as we
6:53
Speaker 3: said at the time of the policy announcement, we'll have
6:56
Speaker 3: a look at the economic settings when we come into government.
7:00
Speaker 2: I mean, how hard can it be to say we
7:04
Speaker 2: will cap migration. I mean, this should be such an
7:07
Speaker 2: obvious election issue and if they're not sure how to
7:11
Speaker 2: sell it, here's how to do it. The government keeps
7:13
Speaker 2: saying that economic growth is slow, but at least it's
7:17
Speaker 2: still growing, except, of course it's not because eighty seven
7:21
Speaker 2: percent of jobs filled in the past two years have
7:24
Speaker 2: been in the public service or government related sectors like
7:27
Speaker 2: health and education. Nearly a third of jobs created in
7:31
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three will link to the NDIS. So these
7:35
Speaker 2: miniscual growth in the private sector without businesses taking their
7:39
Speaker 2: money from the government, and this has been the Ponzi
7:42
Speaker 2: scheme of Albanesi's mass migration. Bring in all these people,
7:46
Speaker 2: and then the government will invent jobs in the public
7:49
Speaker 2: sector to service the needs of these new people. So
7:52
Speaker 2: on paper it looks like there is economic growth, but
7:55
Speaker 2: in reality we're going backwards. So it does mean that
7:59
Speaker 2: on paper we didn't go into recession, except of course
8:02
Speaker 2: that households went through seven straight quarters of recession. They
8:06
Speaker 2: had less real money in their hands. Household GDP went
8:11
Speaker 2: backwards seven quarters.
8:12
Speaker 5: In a row.
8:13
Speaker 2: And the effect of all that, the government not having
8:16
Speaker 2: to say we're officially in recession, is that house prices
8:19
Speaker 2: have gone up, rents have gone up, Inflation stayed higher
8:23
Speaker 2: for longer than it needed to, and interest rates stayed
8:26
Speaker 2: higher for longer than they needed to. Alban easy In
8:29
Speaker 2: his mates led a million people into the country and
8:32
Speaker 2: then gave them taxpayer funded jobs to make his record
8:35
Speaker 2: look better. Even though you had to pay for it.
8:39
Speaker 2: It directly made the cost of living worse. You took
8:43
Speaker 2: one for the team and went backwards so that Jim
8:46
Speaker 2: Charmers didn't have to say we were officially in recession.
8:50
Speaker 2: That should be front and center of this election campaign.
8:54
Speaker 2: It is such an easy win for the coalition, so
8:57
Speaker 2: why aren't they using it. Let's head to Camber No
9:04
Speaker 2: now for tonight's political headlines with Scaranew's political reporter Rubensbago.
9:09
Speaker 8: The cost of medicine for millions of Australians will be
9:12
Speaker 8: slashed from next year. The government is pledging to capscripts
9:16
Speaker 8: under the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme to twenty five dollars. Scripts
9:20
Speaker 8: for Concession card holders remain frozen at seven dollars seventy
9:25
Speaker 8: until twenty thirty. But US pharmaceutical companies believe the PBS
9:29
Speaker 8: puts them at a disadvantage. They want the President to
9:32
Speaker 8: increase tariffs on Australia. We'll stand our ground.
9:37
Speaker 1: This is not for sale and is not up for negotiation.
9:41
Speaker 8: The Coalition is promising to match Labour's prescription drug pledge.
9:45
Speaker 8: Activist group Rising Tide is claiming responsibility for disrupting a
9:50
Speaker 8: speech by the Opposition leader and the Shadow treasurer's news conference.
9:54
Speaker 8: Peter Dutton was addressing the Loewey Institute on Foreign Policy
9:58
Speaker 8: in Sydney.
10:00
Speaker 9: Own party agree with your duty.
10:04
Speaker 8: Hours later, Rising Tide crashed a news conference with Angus Taylor.
10:09
Speaker 1: Let's do the press conference and let's have a chat afterwards.
10:11
Speaker 1: We'll do a press conference somewhere else where we.
10:13
Speaker 7: Can actually get the plenty.
10:14
Speaker 1: I'm very happy to have a chat with you.
10:15
Speaker 8: Other it could be a taste of what's to come
10:18
Speaker 8: on the campaign trail and the lead up to the election.
10:22
Speaker 2: Let's bring in tonight's panel to get through the stories
10:25
Speaker 2: of the day sky and use political reporter cam ridden
10:27
Speaker 2: and Daily Telegraph journalist James Willis. Gents, welcome. So where
10:31
Speaker 2: as we just saw the Prime Minister pledged today to
10:34
Speaker 2: cut medicines on the PBS to just twenty five dollars
10:37
Speaker 2: as part of next week's budget. Now I've been saying
10:41
Speaker 2: they'll try to go hard on the cost of living.
10:43
Speaker 2: It seems like they're starting to ramp it up with
10:45
Speaker 2: this budget. It's the only reason they've got it there.
10:48
Speaker 2: It'll cost six hundred and eighty nine million dollars over
10:51
Speaker 2: the Ford estimates. But I suppose it's hard to argue
10:53
Speaker 2: against medicines being cheaper. There is one mob that doesn't
10:57
Speaker 2: seem to like it, though, the Pharmaceutical Search and Manufacturers
11:01
Speaker 2: of America. They're a lobby group. They've written to the
11:04
Speaker 2: US Trade Representative Jamison Gria, complaining that the scheme is
11:08
Speaker 2: an egregious and discriminatory pricing practice and should form part
11:13
Speaker 2: of President Trump's widening trade war. Cam it's an interesting take.
11:21
Speaker 10: Yeah, what a surprise, color big pharmaceutical company is not
11:23
Speaker 10: liking cheaper medicines in Australia. Of course, this does have
11:27
Speaker 10: a significance because on April II, just a couple of
11:30
Speaker 10: weeks away, most likely in an election campaign. That's when
11:33
Speaker 10: the Trump administration will be rolling out its next round
11:36
Speaker 10: of tariffs. The indication today, after the wake of all
11:39
Speaker 10: of this another round of lobbying by the big pharmaceutical
11:43
Speaker 10: companies in the US overnight, it seems unlikely that Australia
11:46
Speaker 10: would get any carve out if there are to be
11:48
Speaker 10: sweeping tariffs on pharmaceuticals generally. Of course, these pharmaceutical companies,
11:52
Speaker 10: they aren't just not like the PBS. There are other
11:54
Speaker 10: schemes that are somewhat comparable in other countries, so we
11:58
Speaker 10: wouldn't be the only one hit. I do think think Kayla,
12:00
Speaker 10: we saw some of the strongest language today from the
12:03
Speaker 10: Prime Minister pushing back against these tariffs from the US.
12:06
Speaker 10: We know about all the chatter that's going on behind
12:08
Speaker 10: the scenes. The Trade Minister spoke again with Jamison Grea yesterday,
12:12
Speaker 10: but the Prime Minister about his phirmacy, has been today
12:14
Speaker 10: saying we're going to stand our ground on this. The
12:16
Speaker 10: PBS is not a bargaining tool. There's no negotiation here.
12:20
Speaker 10: It's a tough stance that might unfortunately for Australia though,
12:23
Speaker 10: I mean, we won't be able to get out of
12:25
Speaker 10: these tariffs if they are imposed. But I suppose for
12:27
Speaker 10: the Prime Minister Kayla Pee be looking at this and thinking, well,
12:30
Speaker 10: you've got to draw a line somewhere. It might as
12:32
Speaker 10: well be on things like medicine and pharmaceuticals.
12:35
Speaker 2: And fair enough for me. Of course, what Trump is
12:37
Speaker 2: trying to do is America first. That's what he was
12:39
Speaker 2: elected to do. You'd like to think that any leader
12:41
Speaker 2: of this country would be Australia first. It's pretty straightforward stuff.
12:45
Speaker 2: But of course, James, this is another expense on the
12:47
Speaker 2: federal budget. Economist Warren Hogan was on with Shari last night.
12:52
Speaker 2: He was saying that the government's economic strategy was dangerous.
12:55
Speaker 2: Take a look.
12:56
Speaker 7: This is a massive spending government. The size of government
13:00
Speaker 7: in this country is like nothing we've seen before. I
13:03
Speaker 7: think this is a dangerous economic strategy. And of course
13:06
Speaker 7: the other thing is it is inflationary. No matter what
13:09
Speaker 7: a lot of people, including the government, want to say,
13:12
Speaker 7: rising government spending is going to put upward pressure on
13:15
Speaker 7: inflation and that has not disappeared in this country. And
13:19
Speaker 7: my concern is if we suddenly decide okay, well we
13:21
Speaker 7: can run debt. The size of America or the UK
13:24
Speaker 7: or Europe. Then we're going to have some consequences for
13:27
Speaker 7: the households. We've got all these mortgages I higher rates
13:30
Speaker 7: or access to crewds.
13:32
Speaker 2: And the inconvenient truth James is that even if you
13:35
Speaker 2: think it is a noble thing to make medicines cheaper,
13:38
Speaker 2: what he says about increased government spending leading to more
13:42
Speaker 2: inflation is correct.
13:46
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's right, Caleb.
13:47
Speaker 11: There's no such thing as a free lunch. And in fairness,
13:49
Speaker 11: I think Labor and the Prime Minister, if you were
13:53
Speaker 11: to give them one of their big ticks in this
13:56
Speaker 11: term of government, you'd say that they have reduced the
13:59
Speaker 11: price of medicine. They did stare down Big Farmer when
14:01
Speaker 11: it warned about mass closures of chemists and pharmacy issues,
14:05
Speaker 11: and they have given Australians cheaper medicines. However, as Warren
14:08
Speaker 11: Hogan has said, there as a number of economists have said,
14:11
Speaker 11: there is a wider issue here, and I think we're
14:13
Speaker 11: crying out on both sides of politics for a treasurer
14:17
Speaker 11: or a shadow treasurer that starts to show some fiscal
14:20
Speaker 11: restraint and talks about some real economic reform. I think
14:24
Speaker 11: it's been lacking in Australian politics for the last few years.
14:27
Speaker 11: Before the last election, Jim Charmers went on the ABC
14:30
Speaker 11: and said that the Labor would not be squirting billions
14:33
Speaker 11: of dollars around like the Coalition has done. That is
14:35
Speaker 11: exactly what Jim Charmers and Labor have done in the
14:38
Speaker 11: last few years. The spending is out of control. We've
14:41
Speaker 11: got big government, we've got jobs that are attached to
14:43
Speaker 11: the NDS in big numbers, or public service jobs, and
14:47
Speaker 11: at the same time we're heading towards a trillion dollars
14:49
Speaker 11: worth of debt. Check your ex tax return, have a
14:52
Speaker 11: look at how much interest we're paying you and I
14:54
Speaker 11: are paying on that debt. And it just keeps going
14:57
Speaker 11: and going and going. And as Warren Hogan has said
14:59
Speaker 11: and other is that it is going to ultimately have
15:02
Speaker 11: pressure on inflation and the households are still going to
15:05
Speaker 11: be doing their heavy lifting. So it's a concern and
15:07
Speaker 11: I've been largely uninspired by both sides in terms of
15:10
Speaker 11: what they're doing regarding fiscal restraint. Aside from Peter Dutton
15:13
Speaker 11: saying there'll be cuts to the public service and other
15:16
Speaker 11: wasteful spending in government.
15:18
Speaker 2: The problem of course is once you give something to someone,
15:21
Speaker 2: it's very hard to take it back. That's always what
15:24
Speaker 2: happens when government spends money. The other big political story
15:28
Speaker 2: of the day we saw a little of this earlier
15:30
Speaker 2: with Ruben. A speech on foreign policy by Opposition leader
15:33
Speaker 2: Peter Dutton at the Loweing Institute earlier interrupted by protesters.
15:37
Speaker 2: Have look at this.
15:40
Speaker 9: Your own party agree with your nuclear policy, mister Dutton.
15:46
Speaker 9: Why are you lying to the Australian people about the
15:48
Speaker 9: cost of nuclear even.
16:04
Speaker 2: You pushed me over the melodrama, but of course so
16:07
Speaker 2: their equal opportunity because it was Angus Taylor's turn.
16:09
Speaker 6: A bit later, grocery prices up thirty I'm just wondering
16:15
Speaker 6: why you are doing it. We're just doing a press conference.
16:18
Speaker 8: Why you asking a chat at the moment?
16:20
Speaker 10: Why are you asking taxpayers to fund billions of dollars
16:22
Speaker 10: towards nuclear power when it's going to drive up energy.
16:26
Speaker 7: Let's do the press conference and let's have a chat
16:27
Speaker 7: after it.
16:28
Speaker 8: Your own party has started campaigning against nuclear policy, liberals
16:31
Speaker 8: against nuclear community radio.
16:38
Speaker 2: I mean, you can't you don't think to be able
16:39
Speaker 2: to answer simple question my actual policy, And of course
16:44
Speaker 2: it was just a couple of days ago that two
16:46
Speaker 2: protesters crashed Jim Charmer's pre budget speech at the Queensland
16:50
Speaker 2: Media Club in Brisbane. Camera or we going to have
16:53
Speaker 2: to put up with this nonsense for the whole campaign.
16:57
Speaker 10: It's well, probably Caleb. They've flagged that this will not
17:00
Speaker 10: be the end of their protest action. The group calls
17:02
Speaker 10: themselves Rising Tide. If you remember back to the end
17:04
Speaker 10: of last year, there was a flotilla of about one
17:07
Speaker 10: hundred votes in Newcastle Port and they were trying to
17:10
Speaker 10: stop some of the coal ships coming into dock. Same
17:13
Speaker 10: group there, same group today with some of these incidents
17:15
Speaker 10: with a pretty common theme. Unfortunately, Well, I suppose it's
17:19
Speaker 10: democracy and action. Some would say we saw, of course
17:22
Speaker 10: the Prime Minister confronted by some of those anti wind
17:25
Speaker 10: farm protesters on the south coast of New South Wales.
17:28
Speaker 10: That was just a couple of weeks ago, so it's.
17:31
Speaker 8: A balance here.
17:32
Speaker 10: The good thing was, look, they were fairly peaceful. Disruptive, yes, peaceful, yes,
17:36
Speaker 10: I mean that's a good thing. Australia is a pretty
17:38
Speaker 10: open democracy calib we'd like to see politicians be able
17:42
Speaker 10: to walk the street, go to a cafe, hold a
17:44
Speaker 10: press conference open in public, and sometimes you do get
17:47
Speaker 10: disruptions and protests. We will see though, just how frequent
17:51
Speaker 10: this becomes. It's quite unusual to have, let alone two
17:54
Speaker 10: in one day, but three in one week on both
17:57
Speaker 10: sides of politics. And if they keep targeting these, it's well,
18:00
Speaker 10: it might just become a theme of the campaign.
18:02
Speaker 9: We'll see.
18:03
Speaker 2: Now, Well, if you want to make a walley of yourself,
18:05
Speaker 2: I suppose you're free to do it just quickly, James.
18:07
Speaker 2: A report in The Australian today confirms what we already knew.
18:11
Speaker 2: I guess the construction industry in this country is in
18:13
Speaker 2: complete disarray. Companies are collapsing at record levels. There's a
18:18
Speaker 2: surge in the industrial action, red tape, and approval delays
18:22
Speaker 2: keep getting worse. ABS stats show that more than sixty
18:26
Speaker 2: five thousand working days in the construction sector were affected
18:30
Speaker 2: by industrial action between April twenty twenty two and December
18:35
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four. I mean, is it any wonder, James,
18:37
Speaker 2: that we can't get any houses built in this country?
18:42
Speaker 11: Well, that's right, and not only has labor allowed you know,
18:46
Speaker 11: millions of people to arrive in this country, Caleb, we
18:48
Speaker 11: had two hundred thousand international students and student visa arrivals
18:52
Speaker 11: last month alone. But you've had labor scale back. The
18:57
Speaker 11: umpire that was actually holding the CFMEAU to account be building.
19:02
Speaker 11: A construction commission that actually took the CFMAU to court
19:05
Speaker 11: was successful in fining them and getting them back off
19:08
Speaker 11: with their thug behavior on job sites. That was the
19:11
Speaker 11: first thing, one of the first things to go under
19:13
Speaker 11: labor when Tony Burke became the IR minister.
19:16
Speaker 8: That was gone.
19:17
Speaker 11: And at the same time you've got builders, and I
19:19
Speaker 11: know plenty of them every second one of my friends
19:21
Speaker 11: as trades and they're all telling me the builder's margin
19:24
Speaker 11: before COVID was that small, it's now this small, and
19:28
Speaker 11: their costs have gone up. They've had issues with casuals
19:31
Speaker 11: and the ir changes labor have made. But also they're
19:33
Speaker 11: getting pressure from government to say, we have to build
19:37
Speaker 11: hundreds of thousands of new homes to keep up with
19:39
Speaker 11: our population, which is of course impacted by migration and
19:42
Speaker 11: other factors. And we're putting all this pressure on an
19:45
Speaker 11: industry that is only just holding on. We've seen so
19:49
Speaker 11: many leading firms collapse and unfortunately a range of government
19:53
Speaker 11: decisions have not helped them. But the construction industry, Caleb,
19:57
Speaker 11: in a lot of trouble at this point in time.
19:58
Speaker 2: There's no doubt about that most of the cost is
20:01
Speaker 2: taxed too, which is just ridiculous. James Cam thank you
20:04
Speaker 2: very much. Jents. Now you might have heard about this
20:07
Speaker 2: LGBTQAA toolkit in Victoria that tells public library staff to
20:13
Speaker 2: ask young children whether they identify as a he, she
20:16
Speaker 2: or they. The Victorian government launched it last year. It
20:19
Speaker 2: also says that librarians should avoid gendered language and offer
20:23
Speaker 2: pronoun badges, pins or lanyards to people who come into
20:27
Speaker 2: borrow a book. Who knew that going to the library
20:29
Speaker 2: could be so complicated? Well, it went to a debate
20:32
Speaker 2: in the Victorian Parliament yesterday after a petition calling for
20:35
Speaker 2: it to be scrapped secured thousands of signatures. Bev MacArthur
20:40
Speaker 2: is the woman who launched the petition. She's the opposition
20:42
Speaker 2: spokeswoman for Local Government and Scrutiny of Government in Victoria,
20:46
Speaker 2: and she joins me, now, Bev, well done, You've got
20:48
Speaker 2: four seven hundred signatures on this petition. How did the
20:52
Speaker 2: debate go last night?
20:54
Speaker 12: Oh?
20:55
Speaker 4: Well, predictably, Caleb. You know those of us who think
20:59
Speaker 4: libraries should be places of learning and a love of
21:03
Speaker 4: books and not indoctrination, were opposed by those who think
21:09
Speaker 4: identity politics is important in libraries. So it was all
21:13
Speaker 4: quite predictable. But you know, I've got to thank all
21:16
Speaker 4: the people out in Victoria who signed the petition. Physically
21:20
Speaker 4: signed the petition. You actually only need two thousand signatures
21:25
Speaker 4: to trigger a debate of this sort, and four seven
21:28
Speaker 4: hundred plus people signed it in double quick time under
21:32
Speaker 4: thirty days, and so it triggered the debate that we
21:35
Speaker 4: had last night. But the predictable arguments were leveled at us.
21:40
Speaker 1: But I'm here to.
21:42
Speaker 4: Stand up for children who hopefully can love books and
21:48
Speaker 4: use libraries for the right purposes. And parents don't need
21:51
Speaker 4: to be afraid to take their children to libraries and
21:55
Speaker 4: find that they're going to have a drag queen event
21:58
Speaker 4: happening there some very unfortunate books being presented at them.
22:03
Speaker 4: While they asked what pronouns they would like to use
22:07
Speaker 4: four years five year olds, I ask.
22:08
Speaker 2: You, it's ridiculous, and it's no coincidence that they come
22:12
Speaker 2: after kids, because of course, as they say, the hand
22:14
Speaker 2: that rocks the cradle rules the world. If you can
22:17
Speaker 2: get them young, you get the ideology out there aware
22:19
Speaker 2: you go. Some better news though, bev. Just this afternoon
22:22
Speaker 2: we learned that the Victorian government has lost its bid
22:25
Speaker 2: to keep COVID briefings that were used, of course, to
22:28
Speaker 2: justify the world's longest lockdown in Melbourne's secret The government
22:32
Speaker 2: took this to the Court of Appeal because VCAT knocked
22:35
Speaker 2: them over last year. The Court of Appeal has now
22:39
Speaker 2: chucked it out. And this is after a long fought
22:41
Speaker 2: battle by your colleague David Davis to get these documents.
22:44
Speaker 2: They may well go on to a higher court again now,
22:47
Speaker 2: but this is the second time that a quarter a
22:50
Speaker 2: tribunal has said that the people of Victoria deserve to
22:54
Speaker 2: know the reasoning that was used to lock them down.
22:58
Speaker 4: Well, this is absolutely secret States stuff on steroids, Caleb,
23:04
Speaker 4: And I've got to say David Davis has done an
23:06
Speaker 4: exceptional job at fighting this fight, at one stage representing himself.
23:12
Speaker 4: But the Court of Appeal that was three judges absolutely
23:18
Speaker 4: ruled against the all the appeal points of the government
23:23
Speaker 4: and they're meant to supply the documents by the twelfth
23:26
Speaker 4: of April. Their next point of appeal would be to
23:30
Speaker 4: go to the High Court. So this is this Victorian
23:33
Speaker 4: government absolutely denying Victorians the opportunity to learn how they
23:39
Speaker 4: came to make these egregious decisions that locked us all down.
23:44
Speaker 4: But now they're keeping the documents safe. Now, this really
23:48
Speaker 4: is a scrutiny of government matter, because we need to
23:50
Speaker 4: know exactly what a government did, how decisions were made
23:55
Speaker 4: in that pandemic. We've got to learn from them. We've
23:57
Speaker 4: got to make sure we never make such terror all
24:00
Speaker 4: decisions again in the future. But hats off to David
24:04
Speaker 4: Davi seems kept fighting this fight since twenty twenty.
24:08
Speaker 2: Good on him. And you know, the Sparti senses are tingling.
24:11
Speaker 2: Maybe there's a reason they don't want us to see
24:13
Speaker 2: what's in these documents. Five MacArthur, thank you so much
24:15
Speaker 2: for your time. Keep up the great work after the break,
24:18
Speaker 2: a slight reprieve in our dire gas shortage, But do
24:21
Speaker 2: we actually have any long term solution to beyond a
24:23
Speaker 2: ope and a prayer? Plus more gender madness in the
24:26
Speaker 2: UK that, sadly we can expect to make its way
24:28
Speaker 2: to our shores in the near future. Don't go away. Well.
24:36
Speaker 2: The Australian Energy Market Operator says that Southern Australia will
24:40
Speaker 2: face gas shortfalls three years later than originally forecasts. So
24:44
Speaker 2: that's at least some good news, But annual shortages are
24:47
Speaker 2: still looming from twenty twenty nine. What a surprise. The
24:50
Speaker 2: Albaneezy government also unveiled a deal to source up forty
24:54
Speaker 2: petadoles of extra gas supply over four years from origin
24:57
Speaker 2: energies eling G venture in Queensland. For more on all this,
25:01
Speaker 2: I'm joined by gas and imagy analyst Salkovonic here on
25:04
Speaker 2: the desk. Soul. Thank you for your time having me
25:07
Speaker 2: exactly how good or bad is this new announcement. Sure,
25:11
Speaker 2: it's three years further down the line, but what happens
25:15
Speaker 2: beyond that.
25:16
Speaker 5: Well, specifically, this is not good news. Right. So the
25:19
Speaker 5: reason that they've kind of kicked the risk of real
25:23
Speaker 5: shortages down three years is because of two things. And
25:27
Speaker 5: the first one is, and it says it in the report,
25:29
Speaker 5: it's that there's been industrial demand destruction and retail demand destruction.
25:33
Speaker 5: So the reason we don't have a shortage is because
25:36
Speaker 5: manufacturing is shutting down because of a lack of gas. Right,
25:40
Speaker 5: So this is not something we should be applauding. This
25:43
Speaker 5: is the beginning of the signs of the failure that
25:45
Speaker 5: we're seeing from our gash policies. And the second reason
25:48
Speaker 5: that has been pushed back is because we have taxpayers
25:51
Speaker 5: now funding and subsidizing the extension of coal fired power stations,
25:56
Speaker 5: which again is not something we should be applauding or
25:59
Speaker 5: rewarding here. Ultimately, what we're seeing here is blue collar
26:02
Speaker 5: manufacturing workers and taxpayers are paying here in order for
26:09
Speaker 5: our gas shortages not to be causing problems in other
26:12
Speaker 5: parts of the economy. So this is actually an early
26:15
Speaker 5: warning sign of the terrible things that's going to happen
26:17
Speaker 5: to our manufacturing jobs and for taxpayers unless we fix
26:21
Speaker 5: our gas and energy policy.
26:23
Speaker 2: Well, the policy on this seems to be quite schizophrenic,
26:25
Speaker 2: because of course you've had Madeline King say in the
26:28
Speaker 2: last year or two that gas will absolutely be part
26:31
Speaker 2: of the energy transition. The federal government supposedly believes in that,
26:35
Speaker 2: but then the state government seem to have a different
26:38
Speaker 2: point of view on how all of this will work.
26:40
Speaker 2: No one has a cogent plan for how any of
26:43
Speaker 2: this will happen, the energy transition and the role that
26:47
Speaker 2: gas actually plays in that.
26:51
Speaker 5: Look, I think we're in a much worse situation than
26:52
Speaker 5: not having a plan. What we have is an act
26:55
Speaker 5: of multifaceted assault on our energy security over the last
26:59
Speaker 5: three years. It hasn't been deliberately designed that way, but
27:03
Speaker 5: it's turned out that way. And so you mentioned Madeline King,
27:06
Speaker 5: who's probably been the most ineffectual resources minister Australia's seen
27:09
Speaker 5: in a generation. This is the minister who saw her
27:13
Speaker 5: signature gas policy. She went over West announced the signature
27:17
Speaker 5: gas policy, only to allow the Greens to shunt it
27:20
Speaker 5: a week later. Where you've just seen again and again
27:24
Speaker 5: she's been undermined, overruled by her own party. Chris Bow
27:28
Speaker 5: and Tania Plibasic are effectively making all the decisions in
27:30
Speaker 5: her portfolio. And every time she tries to do something
27:34
Speaker 5: constructive on gas, Labour's doing a deal with the Greens
27:36
Speaker 5: to undermine it. There's approvals that she could fix tomorrow
27:40
Speaker 5: with the stroke of the pen, but refuses to because
27:42
Speaker 5: there's been a deal with the Greens to keep green
27:45
Speaker 5: law fare ongoing against some of the biggest economic investments
27:49
Speaker 5: going on in this country.
27:50
Speaker 2: This deal with origin forty p jules of extra gas,
27:53
Speaker 2: what will that mean?
27:55
Speaker 5: It doesn't mean anything. So we get every time now
27:57
Speaker 5: any company signs a gas deal, right, they write it
28:01
Speaker 5: up as a headline so that Chris Bowen can claim
28:03
Speaker 5: a win. So I just want to be clear. So
28:05
Speaker 5: what Chris Bowen is now saying is that there's been
28:07
Speaker 5: only six hundred and forty five pedals of gas is
28:10
Speaker 5: secured for the domestic market since the gas code was
28:12
Speaker 5: implemented in late twenty twenty two. I just want to
28:14
Speaker 5: be clear. That is significantly less than the amount of
28:17
Speaker 5: gas the industry was going to produce anyway. So what
28:20
Speaker 5: you've seen since the gas code and the gas price
28:23
Speaker 5: cap that was Chris Bowen's main policy at the end
28:26
Speaker 5: of twenty twenty two is liquidity is dried up. Gas
28:29
Speaker 5: investment has halted. We've seen gas prices stay well above
28:35
Speaker 5: the capped gas price. He's exempted the entire industry from
28:38
Speaker 5: his own policy because they know it won't work, but
28:40
Speaker 5: they just don't want to admit it publicly, and then
28:42
Speaker 5: they're claiming as a win delivering more gas the domestic market.
28:46
Speaker 5: They're doing leaving less gas to the domestic market than
28:49
Speaker 5: was going to be delivered before they introduced all these policies.
28:53
Speaker 2: It makes grat dealar sense, doesn't it. Peter Datton has
28:56
Speaker 2: promised to fast take a final decision on the expansion
28:59
Speaker 2: of the Northwest Shelf if he becomes Prime Minister. That's
29:03
Speaker 2: the oil and gas region in WA. Madeline King, who
29:06
Speaker 2: were talking about before Resources Minister, she said that it
29:08
Speaker 2: is reckless and moronic and she claims that it would
29:12
Speaker 2: circumvent you process and open up the door to legal challenges.
29:16
Speaker 2: She said, this means the Liberals are teaming up with
29:18
Speaker 2: the Greens, except they're too stupid to know it. What
29:21
Speaker 2: do you make of that?
29:23
Speaker 5: Well, what we do know is that Madeline King and
29:25
Speaker 5: her labor colleagues have been teaming up the Greens to
29:27
Speaker 5: undermine the gas sector, right and you know, particularly this project. Right,
29:31
Speaker 5: So the entire energy security of Western Australia is at
29:34
Speaker 5: stake here, the entire town of Karratha, thousands of blue
29:37
Speaker 5: collar jobs, not just working directly on this, but this
29:39
Speaker 5: is what supplies the domestic as to Australia for fertilizers.
29:42
Speaker 5: Then the fertile industry then goes into our agricultural industry, plastics,
29:47
Speaker 5: pretty much most of the manufacturing base in Western Australia
29:50
Speaker 5: and all our minds dependent on this kind of gas.
29:53
Speaker 5: So this is a you know, and the approval they're
29:55
Speaker 5: talking about here, they're not talking about some big new
29:57
Speaker 5: mine or big new gas development. They're just talking extending
30:00
Speaker 5: an existing facility that's already been there for forty years.
30:03
Speaker 5: It's already been six years delayed to get to this approval,
30:07
Speaker 5: and now they're delaying it essentially to kick it over
30:09
Speaker 5: the line past the election. So when it comes to
30:12
Speaker 5: doing moronic deals with the Greens, Madeline King knows all
30:15
Speaker 5: about it because she's already done a number of them.
30:17
Speaker 2: And we wonder why we're just totally stuffed in this
30:20
Speaker 2: country when it comes to energy. Sulkovonic, Thank you so
30:22
Speaker 2: much for joining me. Thanks Kalen Well reports out of
30:24
Speaker 2: the UK overnight that biological sex has been erased from
30:28
Speaker 2: official health data. Experts are warning that there could be
30:31
Speaker 2: potentially fatal consequences as people may not be called in,
30:35
Speaker 2: for instance, for life saving perhaps mere tests or prostate exams,
30:39
Speaker 2: because nobody will actually know if they're a biological male
30:43
Speaker 2: or female. And all this in the name of health
30:45
Speaker 2: and safety, apparently. Sophie Ellsworth is News Corps European correspondent.
30:50
Speaker 2: She joins me. Now, Sophie, this is literally insane, and
30:55
Speaker 2: the fact that they've had to do a report into
30:57
Speaker 2: it to work out whether or not this could be
30:59
Speaker 2: dangerous something that's insane as well.
31:03
Speaker 13: Well, Kayleb, It's really concerning, isn't it, because we are
31:06
Speaker 13: seeing that issues here have been overlooked as a result
31:09
Speaker 13: of this. So this findings that came out the reports
31:13
Speaker 13: here are extremely concerning and they're worried that it's resulting
31:17
Speaker 13: in cancer diagnoses and so forth being overlooked, and it's
31:21
Speaker 13: becoming a really hot issue in the UK where people
31:24
Speaker 13: are concerned if you raise issues about sex or gender,
31:28
Speaker 13: you can be canceled.
31:30
Speaker 2: So this is.
31:31
Speaker 13: A really concerning development and one that I think the
31:35
Speaker 13: government needs to take action on because this could have
31:38
Speaker 13: really serious impacts down the track if people are missing
31:42
Speaker 13: those diagnoses.
31:43
Speaker 2: Indeed, it just seems so straightforward. I mean, if there
31:46
Speaker 2: is anything that should not be infected by ideology, it's
31:50
Speaker 2: health policy. The objective here should be to make sure
31:53
Speaker 2: that as many people are healthy and well as possible.
31:57
Speaker 2: If you put anything in the way of that, it
32:00
Speaker 2: is an abrogation of responsibility and obvious abrogation of responsibility.
32:06
Speaker 13: Well, you would think so, Caleb, And this is why
32:08
Speaker 13: there's been issues raised because some of these this data
32:12
Speaker 13: has been basically a raised from the records that going
32:16
Speaker 13: back as far as a decade. So I think this
32:19
Speaker 13: is a moment in time where, especially with Trump really
32:23
Speaker 13: calling out these types of problems. You know, he's saying
32:28
Speaker 13: that there's issues with people identifying as certain genders. He's
32:33
Speaker 13: the one who's really trying to turn the tide on this,
32:36
Speaker 13: and I think we perhaps might see more governments around
32:39
Speaker 13: the world do this.
32:41
Speaker 2: Meanwhile, you've got Prince Harry's immigration documents. They've been unsealed
32:45
Speaker 2: after a two year legal jostle. What's in them?
32:51
Speaker 13: Well, Caleb, there was eighty odd pages and most of
32:54
Speaker 13: it was heavily redacted, so we don't know. But in
32:58
Speaker 13: his book Spare, he said that he drugs, including marijuana
33:02
Speaker 13: and cocaine, and there were questions raised on whether or
33:05
Speaker 13: not he disclosed this when he filled out his visa
33:10
Speaker 13: application to get into the US. But we're really none
33:13
Speaker 13: the wiser. We don't know because it was so heavily redacted.
33:16
Speaker 13: So there's people raising questions of whether or not he
33:20
Speaker 13: got into America legitimately Caleb.
33:23
Speaker 2: Well, there's lots of people who wouldn't want him back
33:25
Speaker 2: in the UK either, so feels worth. Thank you so
33:28
Speaker 2: much for your dad after the break. Could the US
33:31
Speaker 2: really take over Ukrainian power plants? That's Trump's latest push
33:35
Speaker 2: in his peace talks. Plus the White House says enough
33:38
Speaker 2: to activist judges going to war with the judiciary over deportations,
33:42
Speaker 2: don't go away. Just read the news that Basil Zemplus
33:49
Speaker 2: is going to put his hand up to be the
33:51
Speaker 2: leader of the Liberal Party in Wa. The current opposition
33:54
Speaker 2: leader Liby meet him is going to stand down after
33:56
Speaker 2: the recent election. I just don't think it's the right
33:59
Speaker 2: time for him to do it, because they're not going
34:01
Speaker 2: to win the next election. I'm pretty sure about that,
34:04
Speaker 2: and there's a tendency to burn opposition leaders too early.
34:08
Speaker 2: I just don't think it's the right time to do it. Anyway,
34:10
Speaker 2: Let's bring in the international panel as always on a Thursday,
34:13
Speaker 2: Sky And News contributor Kosher Gada and former labor in
34:16
Speaker 2: Michael Danby, Welcome to you both. Let's start with the
34:20
Speaker 2: phone call between President Trump and Zolensky. We're told it
34:23
Speaker 2: lasted about an hour, which is shorter than yesterday's one
34:26
Speaker 2: with Putin that was about two hours. Most significantly, Trump
34:29
Speaker 2: has floated the idea that the US could take ownership
34:32
Speaker 2: of Ukraine's power plants. Michael, of course, there's been a
34:36
Speaker 2: lot of criticism of Trump that he is essentially playing
34:40
Speaker 2: into Putin's hands. What have you made of the discussions
34:43
Speaker 2: over the last week.
34:45
Speaker 1: Well, like Alexander Dana earlier on the Kenny program, I
34:48
Speaker 1: don't want to be negative about this. I think if
34:50
Speaker 1: they managed to get at least pudent to layout attacking
34:53
Speaker 1: during the middle of winter Ukraine's power plants, that's at
34:57
Speaker 1: least a development. Although we attack some critical infrastructure two
35:01
Speaker 1: hours after the phone call with Trump. Zapparizia is the
35:04
Speaker 1: biggest nuclear power plant on the Danipa River Caleb, in
35:09
Speaker 1: the whole of Europe, certainly in Ukraine. If the Americans
35:13
Speaker 1: are to take over that and kick the Russians out,
35:15
Speaker 1: who were threatening to blow up the plant every now
35:17
Speaker 1: and then to scare the hell out of the Ukrainians,
35:22
Speaker 1: that would be a good thing. But I fear this
35:25
Speaker 1: whole process will take much longer, and I think Putin
35:29
Speaker 1: is eventually going to annoy Donald Trump into becoming what
35:33
Speaker 1: he and his supporters would denigrate as a neo conservative.
35:35
Speaker 1: You cannot have Ukraine taken over where forty million people
35:40
Speaker 1: want to live like Europeans, by a slum state like
35:45
Speaker 1: Putin runs.
35:46
Speaker 2: And of course the promise kosher from Trump was that
35:49
Speaker 2: he'd have this done on the first day. Well, where
35:51
Speaker 2: we'll pass the first day. Now, I think Michael is right.
35:55
Speaker 2: This is going to drag on for some time because
35:58
Speaker 2: he can't be seen he wants to win this war.
36:01
Speaker 2: There's no doubt about that. Trump wants to win this war,
36:03
Speaker 2: but he cannot be seen to be giving too much
36:06
Speaker 2: to Russia because that would then be a signal to
36:08
Speaker 2: China as well, and on and on it would go.
36:13
Speaker 12: Yes, you know, we all know Trump is prone to
36:16
Speaker 12: rhetorical flourish, and one of his lines on the campaign
36:19
Speaker 12: stomp was, oh, yeah, once I'm in, this war will
36:21
Speaker 12: end twenty four hours is what he said. Clearly that
36:24
Speaker 12: hasn't happened, but it is still early days, and he
36:26
Speaker 12: has definitely shifted the whole dynamic and the chess board,
36:30
Speaker 12: certainly in the I should say, almost sixty days, compared
36:32
Speaker 12: to what the previous administration you know, left him with.
36:35
Speaker 12: It is potentially complicated. There are people in his base actually,
36:39
Speaker 12: which I think is another interesting dynamic worth mentioning, that
36:42
Speaker 12: are also tiring of it and are actually saying, you
36:44
Speaker 12: know what, we should just cut our losses America and
36:47
Speaker 12: let them handle it and stop trying to do these deals,
36:50
Speaker 12: the minerals deal or the coal plant deal, et cetera.
36:52
Speaker 12: But he is trying to basically fashion something that gives
36:55
Speaker 12: some kind of payback for the US and the billions
36:58
Speaker 12: of dollars it spend aalbrates relationship with Russia and pulls
37:02
Speaker 12: them away from China to the extent that is even possible,
37:05
Speaker 12: and eventually getting to peace. So he's sort of operating
37:08
Speaker 12: within that framework. But there are lots of moving pieces here,
37:11
Speaker 12: and I think it's safe to say it's going to
37:12
Speaker 12: take a little bit more time.
37:14
Speaker 2: We shall see. Let's stick with the White House and
37:16
Speaker 2: the battle between the Trump administration and the judiciary. It's
37:19
Speaker 2: hating up Tager. Look that the.
37:22
Speaker 14: Judge in this case is essentially trying to say that
37:25
Speaker 14: the president doesn't have the executive authority to deport foreign
37:30
Speaker 14: terrorists from our American soil. That is an egregious abuse
37:34
Speaker 14: of the bench.
37:36
Speaker 2: Therese even talk kosher amongst some Republicans of impeaching judges.
37:40
Speaker 2: Could that actually be done?
37:43
Speaker 12: There is a mechanism for it. So Congress has the
37:47
Speaker 12: authority to impeach either the president or judges. It is
37:50
Speaker 12: a very difficult process because the House has to pass
37:53
Speaker 12: articles of impeachment and have a majority vote in favor
37:56
Speaker 12: of it, and then the Senate has to hold a trial,
37:58
Speaker 12: and if convicted, you could remove a judge. Just given
38:02
Speaker 12: the balance of power, slim majorities and margins for Republicans,
38:06
Speaker 12: it is pretty much close to zero the likelihood of
38:08
Speaker 12: that happening. But they are bringing the papers and trying
38:11
Speaker 12: to shift the narrative at least to go back on
38:14
Speaker 12: offense and actually put the spotlight on some of these
38:16
Speaker 12: judges that are quite activist and political in nature. It
38:19
Speaker 12: runs a spectrum. There's something like fifty one cases right
38:22
Speaker 12: now against different things that Trump is doing. Runs a
38:25
Speaker 12: spectrum from things where there is an argument to be
38:27
Speaker 12: made that it needs to be adjudicated, like birthright citizenship
38:30
Speaker 12: on one end of the spectrum, all the way to
38:32
Speaker 12: the other end, their judge is saying you must spend
38:34
Speaker 12: the money that you want to save or you cannot,
38:36
Speaker 12: as commander in chief even decide who serves in your military,
38:39
Speaker 12: what types of characteristics, etc. So all these things are
38:42
Speaker 12: kind of hurtling towards a constitutional crisis. We're not there yet,
38:45
Speaker 12: but this is all about Article two, which is presidential
38:47
Speaker 12: power versus Article three judicial power.
38:49
Speaker 2: We shall watch that one Michael Israel skipped up its
38:52
Speaker 2: campaign against Hamasin Gaza. Ground troops have reented the center
38:57
Speaker 2: in the south of the street path. Of course, he
38:59
Speaker 2: had a strikes started up again a couple of days ago.
39:02
Speaker 2: It would seem that this cease fire is well and
39:05
Speaker 2: truly done. Or is the objective here to put pressure
39:09
Speaker 2: on Hamas to release the hostages and then somehow we'll
39:12
Speaker 2: be back in a ceasefire again.
39:14
Speaker 1: Well, they gave them two weeks after the first phase
39:17
Speaker 1: of the ceasefire, and Hamas didn't respond to the American
39:20
Speaker 1: insistence that the hostages be released. Despite what the ABC
39:24
Speaker 1: and SBS are broadcasting horror propaganda about civilians being killed
39:28
Speaker 1: every night. This is directed military operation at the Hummus leadership,
39:33
Speaker 1: many of whose names and pictures are published online. Even
39:36
Speaker 1: Matt Dorin from the ABC could find them. But the
39:39
Speaker 1: hostages must be released. They're the objective of this military operation,
39:44
Speaker 1: and the context is Caleb the Hooties are on the
39:47
Speaker 1: run from the Americans as Malara's collapsed, US disappeared from Syria,
39:54
Speaker 1: and the Uranians know they're in the gun. So I
39:57
Speaker 1: think it's completely different time space for looking at what
40:02
Speaker 1: these rallies are doing in Gaza.
40:04
Speaker 2: And of course Kosher Trump's ramped up his rhetoric again
40:08
Speaker 2: about unleashing hill essentially on the mass. If they don't
40:11
Speaker 2: hand these hostages over, how far could this go?
40:17
Speaker 12: That is always a risk when things escalate. That is
40:21
Speaker 12: the one thing predictable about these war zones is that
40:23
Speaker 12: they are unpredictable. Trump seems to prefer either the rhetoric
40:27
Speaker 12: or dropping bombs from Afar. He's certainly not shy about that. Again,
40:31
Speaker 12: there's a faction of his base that doesn't like that,
40:33
Speaker 12: but he has done that, just did it recently, did
40:35
Speaker 12: it in the first term. So I think that sort
40:37
Speaker 12: of thing he is more willing and likely to do
40:40
Speaker 12: if it starts getting into more precision operations boots on
40:43
Speaker 12: the ground. There's just a lot of resistance to that,
40:46
Speaker 12: and that goes against generally his philosophy as well. So
40:48
Speaker 12: I think we're probably a far way away from that.
40:50
Speaker 12: It'll be more helping Israel diplomatically, militarily, financially, and maybe
40:54
Speaker 12: doing some air strikes in targeted ways.
40:57
Speaker 2: Now. Michael I discussed on Tuesday this story of Kevin Yam.
41:01
Speaker 2: He's an Australian citizen who lived in Hong Kong about
41:05
Speaker 2: twenty years. He was a democracy activist over there. Of course,
41:09
Speaker 2: once the CCP came and took the joint back, he's
41:12
Speaker 2: had a two hundred thousand dollars bounty put on his head,
41:15
Speaker 2: most likely of course by the CCP, and these letters
41:18
Speaker 2: have been sent around Melbourne to people saying if you
41:21
Speaker 2: know where he is, essentially kidnap him and bring him
41:25
Speaker 2: to us.
41:25
Speaker 3: Well.
41:26
Speaker 2: Yam has written today about this in the Nine Papers,
41:29
Speaker 2: saying it shows China's nefarious willingness to stoop to exploiting
41:33
Speaker 2: perceived fishes in multicultural Australia's social fabric. And he's quite right.
41:39
Speaker 2: But this is so brazen, Michael that a letter, an
41:43
Speaker 2: anonymous letter, letters would be sent out of Hong Kong
41:48
Speaker 2: to people in Melbourne saying this man has supposedly committed
41:53
Speaker 2: crimes in Hong Kong, will give you two hundred grand
41:57
Speaker 2: if you turn him into US.
41:59
Speaker 1: I was having dinner we him and an ambassador the
42:01
Speaker 1: other night. He's not a state but he's a regular
42:04
Speaker 1: commercial lawyer. I mean, he's no sort of revolutionary bomb thrower,
42:08
Speaker 1: but he's supported democracy in Hong Kong. There's an even
42:11
Speaker 1: worse case in your own hometown, Caleb in Adelaide, where
42:15
Speaker 1: some other democracy activists who's transitated to Adelaide has been
42:20
Speaker 1: had letters written to mosques saying that he's supporting Israel
42:24
Speaker 1: and they should arrest him as well. I mean, this
42:27
Speaker 1: is you use the right word brazen. This is incredible
42:32
Speaker 1: that a regime like Beijing thinks that they can interfere
42:35
Speaker 1: in Australia and arrest people who are Australian citizens, or
42:39
Speaker 1: interfere in our civil life. It's a disgrace. And when
42:44
Speaker 1: Penny Wong, even Penny Wong raises objections to this, the
42:48
Speaker 1: Chinese have the hutzpa to say that we're interfering in
42:52
Speaker 1: their internal affairs. People should see this in the context
42:57
Speaker 1: of the Chinese navy circumnavigating Australia. Despite Elbow's talk about
43:02
Speaker 1: our good relations with China, they certainly don't look at
43:06
Speaker 1: it in the same way, and they're pressuring us all
43:09
Speaker 1: the time, including internally, with these outrageous activities against good
43:13
Speaker 1: commercial lawyers like Kevin Yan.
43:15
Speaker 2: Well, at least the handsome boy gets a good reception
43:18
Speaker 2: when he goes to China, a kosher Michael, thank you
43:21
Speaker 2: for your time after the break. While other countries are
43:24
Speaker 2: wising up to the risk of biological men in women's sport,
43:27
Speaker 2: our leaders are bearing their heads in the sand. Lucy
43:30
Speaker 2: Zelich penned a powerful opinion piece on just that today.
43:33
Speaker 2: She'll join me in a moment. I've said this before,
43:39
Speaker 2: kind of jokingly, but for the first time in my life,
43:41
Speaker 2: I feel like I might have to become a feminist.
43:45
Speaker 2: I've never really liked the term. I've never liked the
43:47
Speaker 2: victim status attached to feminism, certainly this side of the
43:50
Speaker 2: millennium anyway. But increasingly I'm watching the quote unquote feminists
43:55
Speaker 2: give up their cause to biological men, and I'm starting
43:58
Speaker 2: to think, hang on a minute, do I actually have
44:00
Speaker 2: to become a feminist now? Well. Lucy Zelich has been
44:03
Speaker 2: a brave and outspoken advocate of protecting women's spaces, particularly
44:08
Speaker 2: in sport, which is her background. She wrote an excellent
44:10
Speaker 2: column in the Daily Telegraph today. She wrote, over a
44:13
Speaker 2: decade ago, the average person couldn't give a damn if
44:17
Speaker 2: a man decided to identify as a woman. It wasn't
44:20
Speaker 2: until political leaders made legislative moves to ensure that this
44:23
Speaker 2: man's way of life and the gross perversion of the
44:26
Speaker 2: truth was enshrined in law. You can thank pseudo feminist
44:30
Speaker 2: Julia Gillard for rubber stamping the inclusion of gender identity
44:34
Speaker 2: in the Sex Discrimination Act in twenty thirteen. I'm glad
44:37
Speaker 2: to say she's a regular on my program, The Sunday
44:40
Speaker 2: Showdown eight pm Sundays, if you're not already watching it,
44:43
Speaker 2: and she joins me now, Lucy Zelich, welcome. As you
44:46
Speaker 2: outlined in that piece today, I don't think most people
44:50
Speaker 2: could give two hoots how someone identifies, as long as
44:54
Speaker 2: you don't get in their way. You live your life,
44:57
Speaker 2: I'll live mine. But of course, incre singly what we
45:00
Speaker 2: see is it's not just you live your life, I'll
45:03
Speaker 2: live mine. It's you must accede to how I tell you.
45:07
Speaker 2: I'm going to live my life. And if that affects you,
45:10
Speaker 2: I don't particularly care.
45:12
Speaker 15: And this is very much Caleb, the kind of modus
45:15
Speaker 15: operandi of these radical extremists that have infiltrated so many institutions.
45:21
Speaker 16: That have really adopted this level of thinking.
45:23
Speaker 15: Now we're talking about arms of government, mostly it's permeated
45:26
Speaker 15: the left side of government, but we're also talking about
45:29
Speaker 15: independents who also subscribe to this. We're talking about modern medicine, academia,
45:34
Speaker 15: the media who very much jumped on board in support
45:37
Speaker 15: of all of these kind of ludicrous beliefs that effectively
45:41
Speaker 15: that sex is interchangeable. I mean, we only have to
45:43
Speaker 15: look at the ruling that Justice Bromich handed out in
45:46
Speaker 15: that case between Sour Grover the Tickle the Giggle incident,
45:50
Speaker 15: in which he said effectively that sex is changeable. I mean,
45:54
Speaker 15: this isn't a cultural war. And this is what I
45:56
Speaker 15: said in my piece today. It's not a cultural war.
45:58
Speaker 15: This is a war on women's rights, and this is
46:00
Speaker 15: absolute insanity.
46:02
Speaker 16: Over ten years ago, were we really.
46:04
Speaker 15: Having this conversation, Were we really discussing this prospect of
46:09
Speaker 15: men becoming women and vice versa, where we're really pushing
46:12
Speaker 15: small toddlers to clinicians and so called gender affirming care
46:17
Speaker 15: doctors to assess whether or not they were in fact
46:20
Speaker 15: born in the wrong body, and then putting them on
46:23
Speaker 15: a lifetime subscription of medication. No, we weren't, So why
46:26
Speaker 15: has it become such an issue today? And it is
46:29
Speaker 15: all in the name of gender identity. And as I
46:31
Speaker 15: said in that piece, we only have the likes of
46:33
Speaker 15: Julia Gillard, who had the goal to stand up in
46:36
Speaker 15: her now infamous misogyny and sexism speech leveled at Tony.
46:40
Speaker 16: Abbott and say that they were the problem.
46:43
Speaker 15: No, you have women who are defending men who are
46:46
Speaker 15: wanting to identify as women. And this perversion, this gross
46:50
Speaker 15: perversion of the truth and the conflation of trans rights
46:53
Speaker 15: with women's rights is exactly why we have reached this
46:57
Speaker 15: combustible state in this conversation. It's become very messy.
47:02
Speaker 2: You mentioned the misogyny speech from Julie Gilli. You know,
47:04
Speaker 2: one day I turned on ABC Classic FM and they
47:09
Speaker 2: were playing it put to music. I couldn't believe a
47:13
Speaker 2: tax money was being spent on that. But back to
47:16
Speaker 2: more important matters. We've read that the Trump administration has
47:20
Speaker 2: suspended approximately one hundred and seventy five million dollars in
47:23
Speaker 2: federal funding for the University of Pennsylvania, over a transgender
47:27
Speaker 2: swimmer who last competed for the school in twenty twenty two.
47:31
Speaker 2: I don't think there's much likelihood though, that the current
47:34
Speaker 2: government or the opposition for that matter, would draw a
47:38
Speaker 2: line in the sand like this here in Australia. I
47:41
Speaker 2: know there's been some movement with some sporting leagues, but
47:45
Speaker 2: there is certainly no overtures coming from the top about
47:49
Speaker 2: how this stuff should be dealt with in a sensible
47:52
Speaker 2: way now.
47:53
Speaker 15: And this is the great problem that we're staring down
47:55
Speaker 15: the barrel of and so many of us me I've
47:57
Speaker 15: been a proud conservative and liberal voter for twenty years now,
48:01
Speaker 15: but I expected more. With great respect to the leader
48:04
Speaker 15: of the Opposition, Peter Dutton, he's been so strong on
48:06
Speaker 15: a variety of points, but this is the one.
48:08
Speaker 16: Issue that he very reluctantly picked.
48:11
Speaker 15: Up, and it was only after weeks of sort of
48:13
Speaker 15: poking and prodding him and demanding that he have a
48:15
Speaker 15: position on this effectively, because as conservatives, we expect the
48:19
Speaker 15: right side of government to hold these values that they
48:22
Speaker 15: claim to espouse.
48:24
Speaker 16: It's the very cause upon which this side.
48:26
Speaker 15: Of government was built, right, that more conservative level of thinking,
48:29
Speaker 15: that approach that recognizes biological reality and then all of
48:33
Speaker 15: these normal rational things that we've come to know that
48:36
Speaker 15: the Left are very much railing against. But it was
48:39
Speaker 15: only after weeks of poking and prodding, as I said,
48:41
Speaker 15: and then him sitting down with one of the sharpest
48:44
Speaker 15: political minds in the country, our very owned Peter Kredlin,
48:47
Speaker 15: in which he was then led to say, well, no,
48:49
Speaker 15: it's not controversial that we want to protect women and
48:52
Speaker 15: girls in sport. He said, to the tune of you know,
48:55
Speaker 15: it's not really in the spirit of sport, and of
48:57
Speaker 15: course we want to promote fairness, etc.
48:59
Speaker 16: And it's debate. It's a debate that we'll have here.
49:02
Speaker 16: But there hasn't.
49:03
Speaker 15: Really been any clear attempt to create any policy. He
49:07
Speaker 15: certainly hasn't come out as strongly as what Donald Trump did.
49:10
Speaker 15: I mean, we all have to only look back to
49:12
Speaker 15: his election campaign and recognize that a lot of the
49:15
Speaker 15: ads that he ran during that campaign with respect to
49:18
Speaker 15: this particular issue of biological men competing in women's sports,
49:22
Speaker 15: was one of the most successful campaigns he ran. Why
49:25
Speaker 15: is Peter Dutton and why are the liberals so reluctant
49:28
Speaker 15: to engage in this conversation?
49:30
Speaker 16: Well, I largely think that it's because they're staring down
49:33
Speaker 16: the barrel of a minority.
49:34
Speaker 15: Government and unfortunately they will have to broken deals with
49:37
Speaker 15: the devils until right, and so this puts them in
49:40
Speaker 15: a situation where ideologically they are already at odds. We
49:44
Speaker 15: know that the climate mob, which many of these independent,
49:47
Speaker 15: you know, independent candidates tend to subscribe to, we know
49:51
Speaker 15: that historically that they also tend to agree.
49:54
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, Lucy, We've we've hit the end of the hour,
49:56
Speaker 2: We've run out of time. They should also sell it
49:58
Speaker 2: as a venus thing. I think Lucy's elich. Thank you
50:00
Speaker 2: for joining me, and thank you for joining me for
50:02
Speaker 2: the week. Up next, Andrew Bolb, goodnight,