Latest / Steve Price / Steve Price | 7 November

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Steve Price | 7 November · Steve Price

0:00
Speaker 1: This is Steve Price. We're on a Friday Night's Steve
0:07
Speaker 1: Price within our climate change net zero energy electricity prices.
0:12
Speaker 1: All of these issues have claimed a conger line of
0:15
Speaker 1: political leaders, especially on the conservative side of politics. Will
0:19
Speaker 1: current Liberal leader Susan Lee be the latest victim as
0:22
Speaker 1: we head toward the political killing season in late November.
0:25
Speaker 1: Who knows, but she's on very shaky ground. With another
0:29
Speaker 1: couple of backbenches today sharpening their knives, just breaking. This afternoon,
0:33
Speaker 1: we've learned Liberal Senator Jane Hume has taken aim at
0:37
Speaker 1: her in exclusive comments to the Saturday Telegraph. They'll be
0:40
Speaker 1: published tomorrow. Come up tonight and while we are on
0:43
Speaker 1: the divisive issue of what should and shouldn't be in
0:46
Speaker 1: the mix, the CEO of Cole Australia, Stuart Blocking up
0:49
Speaker 1: first tonight on the program. Plus, as inflation and the
0:53
Speaker 1: unemployment figures head in the wrong direction, the extraordinary figures
0:57
Speaker 1: that show the number of federal and public servant you
1:01
Speaker 1: won't believe it, have exploded to unprecedented levels. What a surprise,
1:06
Speaker 1: Labor governments stacking the numbers who rely on taxpayers to
1:09
Speaker 1: pay their salaries. We'll catch up with Campbell Newman our
1:12
Speaker 1: Friday Night regular shortly and on crime Victoria in particular,
1:16
Speaker 1: but other states now as well are in the middle
1:19
Speaker 1: of an organized crime attack on legitimate tobacco shops as
1:23
Speaker 1: illegal cigarettes flood the market. It's so bad the government
1:27
Speaker 1: department tracking legal cigarette sales they've actually stopped counting how
1:32
Speaker 1: much revenue is being lost. Federal Liberal MP Mary Aldred
1:35
Speaker 1: in the studio with her calls for change shortly, but
1:39
Speaker 1: first up Chris Bowen, the federal minister with the dual
1:43
Speaker 1: roles of Minister for Energy and the Minister for Climate Change.
1:47
Speaker 1: Odd you'd have the same person holding both jobs, given
1:51
Speaker 1: that if you are a climate change zealot, as Bowen is,
1:55
Speaker 1: you would be working to destroy the energy advantages Australia
1:58
Speaker 1: already has, you know, things like huge reserves of coal
2:02
Speaker 1: and uranium and gas, the Holy Trinity when it comes
2:05
Speaker 1: to guaranteeing industry and households cheap, reliable base load power.
2:11
Speaker 1: Now Here was Minister Bowen on Melbourne Cup Day this
2:14
Speaker 1: week Tuesday, discussing his latest flight of fantasy. And you
2:19
Speaker 1: find this hard to believe, this idea of his to
2:22
Speaker 1: give Australians, or some Australians three hours of free electricity
2:26
Speaker 1: between eleven am and two pm.
2:30
Speaker 2: Today, the Albanezi government has announced our latest reforms to
2:34
Speaker 2: energy pricing in Australia, particularly the introduction of Solar Sharer,
2:38
Speaker 2: which will see a compulsion on energy companies to deliver
2:42
Speaker 2: an option for their consumers in default market Office states
2:46
Speaker 2: of having a free power period in the middle of
2:48
Speaker 2: the day.
2:49
Speaker 1: There is no.
2:49
Speaker 2: Catch, but it's up to people whether they take this
2:51
Speaker 2: oper up.
2:53
Speaker 1: They could look at this.
2:54
Speaker 2: We are requiring energy companies to make this an option.
3:00
Speaker 1: Now, some very much needed context is needed here and
3:03
Speaker 1: then the reason why this is such a crazy idea, unless,
3:07
Speaker 1: of course you are Bowen and presumably our Prime Minister
3:10
Speaker 1: Anthony Albaneasi, who will both be able to wander around
3:13
Speaker 1: the country bragging about giving people you watching us tonight
3:17
Speaker 1: free electricity. But as we all know, there is no
3:20
Speaker 1: such thing as a free lunch. Now for a start,
3:23
Speaker 1: to get this free power, you will need to be
3:25
Speaker 1: connected to what's known as a smart meter. It's a misnomer.
3:29
Speaker 1: They are not really that smart. They're just a digital
3:32
Speaker 1: readout of your energy use instead of a man sticking
3:36
Speaker 1: his head quarterly into your meter box. This is Bowen's
3:39
Speaker 1: problem around his promise to start thecutely labeled soul a
3:43
Speaker 1: Saber scheme in the middle of next year, because the
3:46
Speaker 1: state most connected to those smart meters is actually Victoria,
3:51
Speaker 1: and unlike New South Wales, Southeast Queensland and South Australia,
3:55
Speaker 1: Victoria's state government sets the default price you'll read tler
4:00
Speaker 1: can charge you, So the state government has control in
4:03
Speaker 1: Victoria over power prices, not camera. In Victoria, ninety nine
4:07
Speaker 1: percent of homes have smart meters. The level in other
4:10
Speaker 1: states is around forty percent. So in the states where
4:14
Speaker 1: this scheme could start and will start, if Bowen's to
4:17
Speaker 1: be believed, sixty percent of households can't access it because
4:21
Speaker 1: they don't have a smart meter. Well just as well
4:23
Speaker 1: he didn't call it smart solar sail now. Bowen went
4:26
Speaker 1: on to explain, even if you have no solar panels
4:30
Speaker 1: on your roof, not one, you will still get the
4:32
Speaker 1: three hour free electricity. Great news for you, not so
4:36
Speaker 1: great for Bowen and the solar panel industry, because if
4:40
Speaker 1: you're getting free power from Chris, why would you bother
4:43
Speaker 1: spending tens of thousands of dollars on solar panels and
4:46
Speaker 1: a battery. I mean. The problem Number three for the
4:49
Speaker 1: energizer Bunny Minister is the power companies, after being forced
4:53
Speaker 1: by government decree, are likely to charge you more for
4:56
Speaker 1: electricity for normal people who are not at home between
4:59
Speaker 1: all eleven am and two pm to wash their clothes,
5:02
Speaker 1: heat their hot water, cool their house or put the
5:05
Speaker 1: dryer on. I mean, hard working average Aussies are also unlikely,
5:09
Speaker 1: even if they could afford to buy appliances with timers
5:12
Speaker 1: on them to remotely operate their machines. Now, free power
5:16
Speaker 1: would be a great thing, but less be clear why
5:18
Speaker 1: this is happening, and I'll talk to the coal industry
5:21
Speaker 1: in just a moment. Australians have sensibly rushed to put
5:24
Speaker 1: solar panels on their rooms. I don't have them when
5:27
Speaker 1: the sun shines brightest in the middle of the day
5:30
Speaker 1: unless you live in Melbourne. In the middle of winter
5:32
Speaker 1: or wet has it been in Sydney this winter? Lots
5:35
Speaker 1: of solar power is generated, in fact, so much that
5:38
Speaker 1: Chris wants to give your solar power away for free.
5:42
Speaker 1: He goes on about charging your electric vehicle at home.
5:45
Speaker 1: Problem is you probably drove your electric vehicle to work
5:48
Speaker 1: and it's not at home in the three hours he's
5:50
Speaker 1: doing this. I mean, this political power play might get
5:53
Speaker 1: people to forget that labor promise during the election campaign.
5:57
Speaker 1: Your power bills would be cut by two hundred and
5:59
Speaker 1: seven tventy five dollars a year.
6:01
Speaker 2: Remember this, reducing power prices by two hundred and seventy
6:06
Speaker 2: five dollars.
6:06
Speaker 3: By twenty twenty five. Two hundred and seventy five dollars
6:09
Speaker 3: a year, two one.
6:10
Speaker 2: Hundred and seventy five dollars a year will get.
6:13
Speaker 4: Power prices down by two hundred and seventy five dollars a.
6:16
Speaker 2: Year, two hundred and seventy five dollars for the average
6:19
Speaker 2: house lower in twenty twenty five than today.
6:24
Speaker 1: Put your hand up if that happened to you, and
6:26
Speaker 1: don't rush toward the television. So what exactly will this
6:29
Speaker 1: soul a saver's scheme do for the majority of cash
6:33
Speaker 1: strapped Aussies? Probably not much, And don't forget. Just this year,
6:37
Speaker 1: New South Wales Premier Chris Min's on a hottish day
6:40
Speaker 1: told Sydney siders to turn off their air conditioners because
6:44
Speaker 1: they might have blackouts. I mean, Bowen strikes me as
6:47
Speaker 1: like one of those door to door, vacuum cleaner, salesman
6:50
Speaker 1: we used to have, trying to sell you something you
6:53
Speaker 1: already have and don't want a new one of, and
6:55
Speaker 1: annoyingly knocking on your door and refusing to shut up. Still,
7:05
Speaker 1: on energy, the National Party obviously formerly abandoned the twenty
7:09
Speaker 1: fifty emission zero missions target this week and the Liberal
7:13
Speaker 1: Party we'll meet next week. They're going to have a
7:15
Speaker 1: number of meetings to hash out their own position on
7:18
Speaker 1: net zero. White takes se many meetings is beyond me.
7:21
Speaker 1: They probably will follow suit, but any sensible person knows
7:25
Speaker 1: that target is just a pipe dream. But with people
7:28
Speaker 1: like Bowen in charge of energy, this country is facing
7:31
Speaker 1: a bleak future. Some facts for you that the minister
7:34
Speaker 1: chooses to ignore. Let's talk about coal. In the financial
7:38
Speaker 1: year twenty twenty two to twenty twenty three, coal contributed
7:42
Speaker 1: ninety nine point three billion dollars to the Australian economy,
7:46
Speaker 1: our second largest export. So it seems Canberra is happy
7:50
Speaker 1: for us to ship coal overseas but demonizes us here
7:54
Speaker 1: at home. Job wise, direct employment from the coal industry
7:57
Speaker 1: forty two five hundred people. Indirect employment almost impossible to
8:02
Speaker 1: count now, as the NATS announce their net zero decision
8:05
Speaker 1: this week. They produced a report claiming a grid remaining
8:09
Speaker 1: primarily reliant on coal would bring down your power prices
8:14
Speaker 1: by twenty five percent. The Nationals also backed the idea
8:17
Speaker 1: of construction of new age technology coal plants and some
8:21
Speaker 1: refurbishment of existing cold fire power stations. They were immediately,
8:25
Speaker 1: of course, branded by the government dangerous dinosaurs, and energy
8:30
Speaker 1: advocates called them delusional. Joining me in our Stuart Bocking,
8:33
Speaker 1: the CEO of Coal Australia not prefer profit organization dedicated
8:37
Speaker 1: to promoting the benefits of coal. Great to see you,
8:40
Speaker 1: my old friend Stewart. Explain if you ken, why is
8:43
Speaker 1: Canberra happy to export coal all around the world to
8:46
Speaker 1: places like Japan and other countries like India, but demonize
8:50
Speaker 1: it at home? Why does that happen?
8:52
Speaker 5: Great to see you, Steve, Thank you very much and
8:54
Speaker 5: nice to catch up again. It is interesting. Obviously, not
8:57
Speaker 5: all of canber is particularly happy. I know as Chris
8:59
Speaker 5: Bow and Matt Keenan others not particularly keen to engage
9:03
Speaker 5: on the issue of coal. But the reality is too
9:05
Speaker 5: of the largest customers Australia has for export thermal coal
9:09
Speaker 5: a Japan and South Korea, hardly backward nations, first world
9:14
Speaker 5: nations with dynamic economies, but wedded to thermal coal, and
9:18
Speaker 5: yet signatories to net zero. And to your earlier point,
9:21
Speaker 5: we have an abundance of gas, coal and uranium, and
9:25
Speaker 5: yet it seems passing strange that we would happily sell
9:28
Speaker 5: those to other countries, but somehow have concerns about using
9:31
Speaker 5: it here. You look recently at the Queensland LNP government's
9:36
Speaker 5: decision around their energy roadmap.
9:38
Speaker 1: What have they said?
9:39
Speaker 5: Again, They've signed up to net zero by twenty fifty,
9:42
Speaker 5: but they're going to use more coal for longer as
9:45
Speaker 5: part of energy generation. And as we sit here tonight,
9:48
Speaker 5: the National Electricity Market the NEM, more than sixty percent
9:52
Speaker 5: of power being fed into the NEM is generated by coal.
9:55
Speaker 5: So we're kidding ourselves to pretend that coal doesn't continue
9:59
Speaker 5: to play important part both in our domestic energy mix
10:02
Speaker 5: and importantly as a massive driver of export earnings.
10:08
Speaker 1: Stud The NATS have at least done some homework on this,
10:11
Speaker 1: unlike federal labor, and the Libs don't seem to do
10:14
Speaker 1: a lot of work either this idea. The report that
10:17
Speaker 1: they released saying that new coal technology could be built
10:21
Speaker 1: new coal technology coal plants, Do they exist, are they
10:26
Speaker 1: able to to be built?
10:29
Speaker 5: There are ultra critical ultra supercritical designs that obviously use
10:33
Speaker 5: water at very very high temperatures, that work that years,
10:37
Speaker 5: generate much lower emissions. And importantly we had some modeling
10:41
Speaker 5: done earlier this year separate to the Page Research Center,
10:45
Speaker 5: were also done by Archa Energy, but unrelated to the
10:48
Speaker 5: most recent report that was released. That was done as
10:51
Speaker 5: part of the gen cost review because we were very
10:54
Speaker 5: concerned that coal was in some respects willfully, mistakenly whatever
10:59
Speaker 5: term you want to use, being priced out of the
11:01
Speaker 5: equation when clearly when the final report came down, it
11:06
Speaker 5: showed it was highly competitive as opposed to renewables. And
11:09
Speaker 5: yet we're fed the line, oh well, the wind doesn't
11:11
Speaker 5: send an invoice, the sun doesn't send an invoice. One
11:14
Speaker 5: of the realities in Australia is when it comes to
11:17
Speaker 5: our role in Southeast Asia, we are never going to
11:19
Speaker 5: be able to compete on labor rates. We understand that
11:22
Speaker 5: we've got a certain standard of living which we enjoy,
11:25
Speaker 5: but when it comes to energy abundance, when it comes
11:28
Speaker 5: to energy pricing, and because of that, the abundance of coal.
11:32
Speaker 5: That is an area that we should be able to
11:35
Speaker 5: trade on as a competitive advantage, and yet what we
11:38
Speaker 5: are seeing is a chipping away of our industrial base
11:42
Speaker 5: to the point where companies like the Tomago aluminium Smelter
11:45
Speaker 5: are seriously considering whether they can continue to operate or not.
11:50
Speaker 5: Places in China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, some of our
11:54
Speaker 5: key trading partners for coal. They must be giggling thinking
11:57
Speaker 5: what is going on there because they know that thermal
12:01
Speaker 5: coal from Australia is among the best quality coal in
12:05
Speaker 5: the world, the most sustainable, the cleanest, the lowest emission
12:09
Speaker 5: burning coal, and yet they're happy to buy it from us.
12:13
Speaker 5: And yet locally we see pejorative terms like aging coal
12:17
Speaker 5: fired power stations or coal outages that contributing to your
12:20
Speaker 5: power bills, all deliberately loaded language to make out as
12:25
Speaker 5: if suddenly coal has had its use by date, when
12:28
Speaker 5: that is far from the case. Have a look at
12:30
Speaker 5: global consumption of coal last year. It was eight point
12:35
Speaker 5: eight billion tons around the world, the highest ever on record,
12:41
Speaker 5: and likely to exceed nine billion tons this year.
12:47
Speaker 1: So, Stuart, that brings us to the nub of the
12:49
Speaker 1: question and the point that I just don't understand. So
12:52
Speaker 1: when the industry talks to federal ministers and given labors
12:57
Speaker 1: thumping victory this year and in the election, we're going
12:59
Speaker 1: to deal with the Labor government for at least two terms.
13:02
Speaker 1: And the industry says, listen, our coal's good quality coal,
13:07
Speaker 1: we're exporting a lot of it. To shut it down
13:09
Speaker 1: and not use it at home is going to make
13:11
Speaker 1: no difference whatsoever on the global climate. Shouldn't it be
13:16
Speaker 1: part of our mix, given with the riches we have
13:19
Speaker 1: in coal, gas and uranium. What do they say when
13:22
Speaker 1: the industry puts that to them, Well, they like to
13:25
Speaker 1: sort of conveniently point to the facta, yes, well we've
13:28
Speaker 1: still got coal in the mix, which we do, and
13:31
Speaker 1: the majority of electricity being generated in that mix is
13:34
Speaker 1: still being generated from coal. That the reality is here
13:38
Speaker 1: that you look at the Queensland model where they've got
13:41
Speaker 1: relatively younger coal fired power stations and they've made it
13:45
Speaker 1: very clear that we will continue to burn coal for
13:48
Speaker 1: longer and more coal while we can equally have a
13:52
Speaker 1: look in Victoria, they've come to a realization that a
13:55
Speaker 1: coal fide power plant has had to have its lifespan extended,
13:59
Speaker 1: have a look at a rare in New South Wales
14:00
Speaker 1: which as it stands today is generating twenty percent of
14:04
Speaker 1: the energy output in New South Wales. Again, that's had
14:08
Speaker 1: to be extended. And we hear so much.
14:10
Speaker 5: Talk about oh, these coal fight power stations at the
14:13
Speaker 5: end of their technical lifespan. What is the technical lifespan
14:17
Speaker 5: for piece of machinery or equipment? You and I will
14:20
Speaker 5: see plenty of vintage cars and older model vehicles, planes,
14:23
Speaker 5: you name it, still getting around the place because they
14:26
Speaker 5: have been properly maintained. They haven't fallen for a political
14:30
Speaker 5: narrative that is trying to pretend that somehow Cole is
14:34
Speaker 5: in the rearview mirror when Cole is very much in
14:37
Speaker 5: front of us and down the track.
14:42
Speaker 1: Stewartow was great to catch up with him, my friend,
14:43
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. We talk again soon. Stuart bucking there,
14:46
Speaker 1: let's go to Campbell Newman and I'm still on this
14:48
Speaker 1: issue of climate policy and politics, The former Queensland premier
14:52
Speaker 1: joins me. Can you think of any other issue that
14:55
Speaker 1: has claimed as many political scalps on both sides of
14:59
Speaker 1: politics then climate change, global warming, the whole issue of
15:04
Speaker 1: how we're going to generate our energy. I mean, it
15:07
Speaker 1: just knocks people's heads off every time.
15:11
Speaker 4: Certainly does Steve. I think we'd have to go back
15:15
Speaker 4: to sort of debates of things like constription, etc. Or
15:19
Speaker 4: the banning of the Communist Party and things like that,
15:22
Speaker 4: and quite quite many many decades anyway. But look, it
15:26
Speaker 4: really is crunch time for the Coalition on this matter.
15:30
Speaker 4: And my great concern, Steve is that just hypothetically, if
15:35
Speaker 4: they were to and I would welcome it, of course,
15:37
Speaker 4: you know my views if they were to abandon net zero.
15:41
Speaker 4: The trouble is if they adopt ay, but we're going
15:44
Speaker 4: to be climate friendly blah blah blah, then they astride
15:49
Speaker 4: the Barbee fence. What they need to do is listen
15:52
Speaker 4: to people like Stewart who we're just talking to, and
15:54
Speaker 4: make very clear statements about the fact that net zero
15:58
Speaker 4: is a path to economic destruction and to allower stand
16:01
Speaker 4: of living to fewer jobs in this country. You've got
16:04
Speaker 4: to go in hard if you make the decision to
16:06
Speaker 4: abandon nets.
16:10
Speaker 1: We had two senators today, Sarah Henderson first, and then
16:12
Speaker 1: you have later today, and this will be in the
16:15
Speaker 1: Telegraph tomorrow. Jane Hume Sarah Henderson. Earlier in the day
16:20
Speaker 1: talking about her leader, Susan Lee.
16:23
Speaker 6: I can't pretend things are good. I do think Susan
16:26
Speaker 6: is losing support, but I do believe in miracles. We
16:29
Speaker 6: can turn things.
16:30
Speaker 7: Around with a new leader or with Susan Lee.
16:33
Speaker 6: Pete, I am just going to say at the moment
16:36
Speaker 6: that I cannot support the way things are.
16:39
Speaker 1: With Susan Lee as leader.
16:42
Speaker 7: It sounds like you're not supporting her position as leader.
16:46
Speaker 6: Well, I can't back in the way things are, Pete,
16:48
Speaker 6: and I've got to be authentic and I've got to
16:51
Speaker 6: be honest about that, and it's very difficult. It's a
16:54
Speaker 6: very difficult time for the Liberal Party.
16:58
Speaker 1: These things take on a life of their for their own.
17:00
Speaker 8: Susan Lee responding to that, I value every single member
17:04
Speaker 8: of my team, including the good senator that you've just mentioned.
17:07
Speaker 8: In order to interrogate her views, you should probably ask her.
17:10
Speaker 8: I'm not commenting on commentary. What I am saying is
17:14
Speaker 8: that every one of my team is absolutely united.
17:20
Speaker 1: Cam. But you've seen a lot of these things. Once
17:22
Speaker 1: they start rolling this way, inevitably they end up with
17:26
Speaker 1: a challenge. Whether that challenge is successful or not, who
17:29
Speaker 1: we know. But there's going to be a challenge to
17:31
Speaker 1: Susan Lee whether it comes this year or early next year.
17:34
Speaker 1: And it's inevitable now, isn't it.
17:37
Speaker 4: Well, it seems to be coming sooner rather than later.
17:40
Speaker 1: Mate.
17:40
Speaker 4: You know, maybe in a matter of weeks in the
17:43
Speaker 4: lead up to Christmas. When people are talking like that,
17:47
Speaker 4: you've got a major issue. But fundamentally, if they're going
17:53
Speaker 4: to change leaders, they've got to think about what the
17:56
Speaker 4: right policy direction is. I think the National Party have
17:59
Speaker 4: done right thing. I think that Peter Kredlin as usual,
18:05
Speaker 4: has outlined through the pages of the Australian newspaper in
18:08
Speaker 4: the recent days this whole issue and it is about
18:11
Speaker 4: differentiation from the Labor Party and there is a huge
18:15
Speaker 4: opportunity here. I believe this whole net zero thing is
18:19
Speaker 4: crumbling at the edges. If you tell the community that
18:23
Speaker 4: the reason for their high power bills is because of
18:26
Speaker 4: this madness. If you point out about the destruction of farmland,
18:30
Speaker 4: perhaps even more importantly pristine bushland and wild areas, the
18:35
Speaker 4: blight on the landscape of these things, the fact that
18:38
Speaker 4: I've got an industrial building I'm responsible for in the
18:41
Speaker 4: regional city of Mackay. It happens to have a solar
18:44
Speaker 4: panel system that was put on about ten years ago,
18:48
Speaker 4: and already it's having to be replaced ten years or less. Steve,
18:52
Speaker 4: and this is happening right across the country. We didn't
18:56
Speaker 4: have to do that with coal five power stations. We
18:58
Speaker 4: didn't have to put a solar system on our roofs
19:01
Speaker 4: and a battery and then still get a power bill.
19:04
Speaker 4: You know, these are the sorts of things that the
19:06
Speaker 4: Liberal and National parties can be saying to people, and
19:09
Speaker 4: suddenly the whole thing falls apart and they will reclaim
19:13
Speaker 4: vast numbers of people have gone to minor parties if
19:16
Speaker 4: they're sincere and firm in a change of direction. Tony
19:22
Speaker 4: Abbott showed the way by opposing a carbon tax.
19:26
Speaker 1: That's the opportunity, well Well said, I agree with that completely.
19:31
Speaker 1: I mean, there's so many issues that the coalition should
19:34
Speaker 1: be attacking labor on and not attacking each other. I mean,
19:38
Speaker 1: just have a look at the figures out this week.
19:39
Speaker 1: The Prime Minister's defended a nine point five percent rise
19:43
Speaker 1: in the federal public sector wage and salary bill, which
19:47
Speaker 1: now stands at forty billion dollars. What do all these
19:52
Speaker 1: federal public servants actually do? I mean, I can understand
19:56
Speaker 1: state public servants, police, nurses, all of the breast, but
20:01
Speaker 1: what are the what are the Fed? What is a
20:03
Speaker 1: forty billion getting us from federal public servants in Canberra?
20:09
Speaker 4: I could bear real smart alect mate and saying giving
20:11
Speaker 4: us a greater quality of life? Are happier or harmonious Australia,
20:15
Speaker 4: a safer Australia or blah blah blah blah blah. Look,
20:20
Speaker 4: you know we have one big problem in this country
20:22
Speaker 4: right now. It's called government. To take a leaf out
20:26
Speaker 4: of Ronald Reagan's book, and you know, we talk about productivity,
20:31
Speaker 4: we talk about declining real incomes, a quality of life,
20:36
Speaker 4: a standard of living. You know it is because of
20:39
Speaker 4: government interference.
20:40
Speaker 9: I firmly believe.
20:40
Speaker 4: That now it doesn't matter whether it's a wind farm,
20:43
Speaker 4: a soul of farm. You know, the proposal to have
20:46
Speaker 4: nuclear power, which of course is banned. We're supposed they're
20:51
Speaker 4: going to mind these rare earths.
20:54
Speaker 1: All of this is.
20:54
Speaker 4: Being held up by red tape regulation. The more public
20:58
Speaker 4: servants we have out there to get in the federal sphere,
21:01
Speaker 4: the slower of the wheels of commerce in industry, and
21:04
Speaker 4: indeed prosperity will turn Steve, it is time for a rethink.
21:08
Speaker 4: It's time to actually put a lid on this thing
21:11
Speaker 4: because we're all paying the bills as well as seeing
21:14
Speaker 4: ourselves go backwards.
21:17
Speaker 1: We have a guess how many public servants federally. It's
21:20
Speaker 1: gone from three hundred and sixty five thousand to three
21:23
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty six thousand this financial year alone. I
21:27
Speaker 1: mean to be just.
21:31
Speaker 4: Steve, I feel yeah, well, I feel happy, I feel safe.
21:35
Speaker 3: What more do you need to need from me this evening?
21:37
Speaker 3: Come on, mad you do I don't sorry, but I
21:40
Speaker 3: hate you to of course I don't say. You'd have
21:45
Speaker 3: to say that.
21:46
Speaker 1: You know, what Labour's doing is quite cleverly stacking the
21:49
Speaker 1: public servants in Cameron around the rest of the States
21:51
Speaker 1: because they know that if you're being paid by the
21:53
Speaker 1: government's salary, you're likely to vote for them.
21:58
Speaker 4: Well, the overall figure I believe across the three levels
22:02
Speaker 4: of government is it's about eighteen or nineteen percent of
22:06
Speaker 4: the total employed population Australia is now.
22:09
Speaker 1: Working for the government.
22:10
Speaker 4: And you know that is a worry too, because with
22:13
Speaker 4: the greatest of respect to public servants and who are
22:16
Speaker 4: frontline workers, you know there is a real disconnect from
22:21
Speaker 4: the struggles and trials and tribulations of being involved in
22:24
Speaker 4: the private sector. Another statistic is that it's quite scary,
22:29
Speaker 4: is that the average or median wage of private sector
22:34
Speaker 4: workers is actually lower now than government workers. And so
22:38
Speaker 4: why would you work for Why would you work for
22:40
Speaker 4: the private sector? You know, you've got better job security,
22:43
Speaker 4: you're getting higher pay, you've got all these associated benefits.
22:47
Speaker 4: And yet the public sector needs hard working, risk taking
22:52
Speaker 4: people in business and private enterprise to actually generate the
22:57
Speaker 4: economic activity that pays the bills, that generates those taxes.
23:01
Speaker 4: I mean, it's crazy to even talk about it, but
23:03
Speaker 4: there's so many people these days who don't seem to
23:06
Speaker 4: get it.
23:06
Speaker 1: And sadly, many of our young people and some of
23:11
Speaker 1: our coalition MPs don't get it either. Campbell or was
23:13
Speaker 1: good to catch up. See your next Friday, Campbell Newman
23:15
Speaker 1: there now coming up after the break talking about politics.
23:19
Speaker 1: What about the politics of tobacco? After the break, calls
23:21
Speaker 1: for labored to ramp uppets response to this illicit tobacco crisis,
23:26
Speaker 1: thus disturbing revelations about those violent protests in Melbourne, CBD
23:30
Speaker 1: that happened last month. Welcome back to see price with
23:38
Speaker 1: you now. Inner city crime as we we know, we
23:40
Speaker 1: talk about it on our program on a Friday night
23:42
Speaker 1: every week. It's really well documented. But events in the
23:45
Speaker 1: last year or so, I've seen the increasingly violent rise
23:48
Speaker 1: of illegal tobacco trade. You've got tobacco shops pretty much
23:52
Speaker 1: torched in Melbourne every night. Activity that comes with at bombings,
23:57
Speaker 1: standover tactics. I mean, if you don't fall into I'm
24:00
Speaker 1: with organized crime, this is what happens to you. I
24:02
Speaker 1: have to ask would a lowering of the massive taxes
24:05
Speaker 1: on legal cigarettes make a difference now? I was staggered
24:08
Speaker 1: the other day. I was at my local Ida and
24:11
Speaker 1: I took a photograph of the legal cigarettes that are
24:14
Speaker 1: being sold in IgA. And IgA at some point has
24:17
Speaker 1: said they may stop selling cigarettes because they're worried about robberies.
24:21
Speaker 1: I saw a packet of twenty Marlborough cigarettes were just
24:25
Speaker 1: going to cost you if you paid for actual cigarettes,
24:28
Speaker 1: sixty three dollars ninety five for a packet of twenty.
24:32
Speaker 1: I mean, who's going to pay that when you can
24:34
Speaker 1: walk twenty meters down the road and get the illegal
24:37
Speaker 1: stuff for a quarter of the price, probably cheaper than that.
24:41
Speaker 1: Joining me now Liberal MP the Member for Gipson Seat
24:43
Speaker 1: of Monash, Victoria, Mary Aldred, and you've written in the
24:47
Speaker 1: Herald Sun that both the federal and the state labor
24:50
Speaker 1: governments need to get tough on tackling this issue. What
24:53
Speaker 1: should they do.
24:55
Speaker 9: Well, this is particularly out of control in Victoria where
24:58
Speaker 9: crime's just out of control across every metric. But I
25:01
Speaker 9: think there's two things that we need to confront this
25:04
Speaker 9: issue with chris Min's and New South Wales Labor Premier agrees.
25:08
Speaker 9: We need to tackle the excise tax. It's gone up
25:11
Speaker 9: two hundred and eighty two percent since twenty thirteen, Steve,
25:16
Speaker 9: and this year it was bumped up by five percent. Again.
25:19
Speaker 9: The taxman's only taking twenty eight is taking a title
25:23
Speaker 9: of twenty eight dollars out of a pack of fifty dollars.
25:25
Speaker 9: I think take it down to twenty eighteen nineteen levels,
25:29
Speaker 9: which would bring it down to about twenty five dollars.
25:32
Speaker 9: As you say, an illegal pack is around ten to
25:34
Speaker 9: fifteen dollars, so we're well be on the price point
25:37
Speaker 9: of trying to deter people from smoke.
25:39
Speaker 1: So the tax is index it goes up automatically.
25:41
Speaker 9: Yeah, it does well. You going to stop that for
25:43
Speaker 9: a start, we'll at least freeze it. At least freeze it,
25:45
Speaker 9: I'm saying. I think we need to reduce it. The
25:47
Speaker 9: other thing we need to do is have a AFP
25:50
Speaker 9: Task Force. Coalition took a really good policy to the
25:53
Speaker 9: last election on this state by state with stop and
25:56
Speaker 9: search powers. I think we've got huge issues with illegal
25:59
Speaker 9: small shops in shopping complexes and I've had them in
26:02
Speaker 9: my community where other retailers are really concerned about fires around.
26:07
Speaker 1: Legal to sell these things, is it no?
26:09
Speaker 9: But there's no enforcement, so.
26:11
Speaker 1: The police don't want to do the job. And look,
26:15
Speaker 1: they don't have the resources.
26:16
Speaker 9: I presume they don't have the resources, but they're banning
26:19
Speaker 9: there from what I understand, their stuff from going in
26:21
Speaker 9: and doing spot checks because they're worried about their safety. Understandably.
26:24
Speaker 9: But that's why we need a beefed up AFP Task
26:27
Speaker 9: Force to really get tough on this, because we've got
26:30
Speaker 9: outlaw crim's based overseas sticking ransom notes to legal good
26:37
Speaker 9: small business owners shops saying pay up or you know,
26:41
Speaker 9: destroy your business. They're assaulting retail staff where they're stealing
26:45
Speaker 9: them from within Australia and We've got to tackle this
26:48
Speaker 9: because I'm really worried someone's going to get hurt again.
26:51
Speaker 1: Mark Butler, the Health Minister, seems to be in no
26:54
Speaker 1: hurry or doesn't seem to have the will to change
26:57
Speaker 1: the excites to bring it down. He believes that will
27:00
Speaker 1: encourage people to smoke. I mean, my argument would be
27:03
Speaker 1: people smoking already. The number has fallen dramatically since the
27:08
Speaker 1: bad old days. I don't believe that if you made
27:11
Speaker 1: legitimate cigarettes as cheap as the illegal imports, that you
27:16
Speaker 1: would suddenly see a spike in smoking.
27:19
Speaker 9: Mark Butler doesn't want to know about it. Tony Burke
27:21
Speaker 9: doesn't want to know about it. The federal government's got
27:23
Speaker 9: their head in the sand. We've got conflicting figures here
27:26
Speaker 9: because ABS stats show that twenty two percent of people
27:30
Speaker 9: have ditched smoking in the last twelve months, but that
27:33
Speaker 9: is running counter to the Australian Crime Intelligence Commission. Wastewater
27:37
Speaker 9: reports show people their smoking rates are actually up in
27:42
Speaker 9: the last year and they were eight years ago. So
27:44
Speaker 9: it's not working. And we've got to look at the
27:45
Speaker 9: price points which is driving behavioral economics.
27:48
Speaker 1: If you like, you're seats based around the regional community
27:52
Speaker 1: of warrigal. Why have you taken this on as a personal.
27:59
Speaker 9: Issue personal to me because it's impacting my local community.
28:03
Speaker 9: There was a well publicized ram rate attack in Long Worry,
28:06
Speaker 9: Long Worry Friendly grocery store that's in my electorate a
28:09
Speaker 9: couple of weeks ago. They are good people. Their staff
28:12
Speaker 9: have being terrorized. I'm meeting on Monday with a group
28:15
Speaker 9: of local retailers. I won't say exactly where, but they
28:20
Speaker 9: have contacted me saying that there's another illegal smoke shop
28:23
Speaker 9: setting up. They're worried about ram raids fires. There's a
28:26
Speaker 9: cafe and a clothing store. They're good people and they
28:29
Speaker 9: just want to go about their business safely.
28:31
Speaker 1: So I mean better surveillance at the border. I mean,
28:35
Speaker 1: you know, I drove past web Doc the other day
28:37
Speaker 1: when all those containers stacked up there. It's a hard job,
28:40
Speaker 1: but we do manage to pick up large consignments of cocaine,
28:44
Speaker 1: heroin or other illicit drugs. Are we just being overwhelmed
28:48
Speaker 1: by the number of amount of this stuff that comes in.
28:51
Speaker 1: I interviewed Shane Patton, the from a police commissioner last year,
28:55
Speaker 1: and he said the reason organized crimes turned to the
28:57
Speaker 1: tobacco trade is because if they get called prison sentence,
29:01
Speaker 1: prison terms are much lower than if they get caught
29:04
Speaker 1: trying to import illicit drugs.
29:06
Speaker 9: I've heard that too, and I think the ATO said
29:09
Speaker 9: that six billion dollars worth of illegal tobacco was stopped
29:12
Speaker 9: in twenty twenty two, twenty three. So they're either bringing
29:15
Speaker 9: it in and the enforcement resources that the AFP are
29:20
Speaker 9: being given and border force I think are not sufficient.
29:23
Speaker 9: But if they're not bringing it in, then they're breaking
29:26
Speaker 9: into grocery stores here. And the concerning thing is, Steve,
29:30
Speaker 9: we've got more and more legal grocery stores, independent retailers
29:34
Speaker 9: saying you know what, we don't want our staff assaulted.
29:36
Speaker 9: We're not going to take the risk, so we just
29:38
Speaker 9: won't sell legal cigarettes. And some people might go great,
29:41
Speaker 9: but'll stop people smoking. Well it won't because they're just
29:44
Speaker 9: going to the black market.
29:45
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the Constant protest March is
29:48
Speaker 1: set up by a bunch of anarchists. We heard evidence
29:51
Speaker 1: today that they actually had a meeting they planned to
29:54
Speaker 1: attack police. They worked out how to throw bricks at
29:57
Speaker 1: police officers. This happened at Melbourne University. It seems the
30:02
Speaker 1: pro Palestinian marches have haused for a moment, but we
30:05
Speaker 1: can't have these anarchists out there pitching bricks and rocks
30:08
Speaker 1: at the police.
30:09
Speaker 9: And Brad Baton put it really well when he said
30:12
Speaker 9: Melbourne and Victoria are just becoming the protest capital of
30:15
Speaker 9: the world. I did my masters at Melbourne UNI. I've
30:17
Speaker 9: got some fond memories, but I tell you what, they
30:20
Speaker 9: really need to step up their game on this. I
30:22
Speaker 9: think UNI of Melbourne UNI, Sydney UNI have not acted
30:27
Speaker 9: quickly or strongly enough in the face of anti Semitic protests,
30:31
Speaker 9: and now this is just absolutely disgraceful. I talk to
30:33
Speaker 9: local police in my electorate who just feel so demoralized
30:36
Speaker 9: and undervalued.
30:37
Speaker 1: Your strong liberal voice. I mean, you're going to have
30:40
Speaker 1: to go back to Canberra next week. There's pressure on
30:41
Speaker 1: the leader, Susan Lee. We've had two of the Liberal
30:44
Speaker 1: senators today speak out about her strength of leadership. Can
30:48
Speaker 1: the Liberal Party get agreement on net zero next week?
30:52
Speaker 9: Absolutely we can. The Liberal Party aspires to represent Australians
30:56
Speaker 9: from all walks of life, from my regional community to
30:59
Speaker 9: metropoli communities. Now, for me, I think we've got three
31:03
Speaker 9: imperatives in setting energy policy. Reliability has to come number one,
31:08
Speaker 9: Affordability has to be in number two and sustainability has
31:12
Speaker 9: to be in there as well. But at the moment,
31:14
Speaker 9: Labour's energy policy is an absolute fast You've got regional
31:18
Speaker 9: communities like mine bearing all of the burden of the
31:22
Speaker 9: energy transition. We've got in Dana and where Skipsland this
31:25
Speaker 9: huge energy battery storage project right in the middle of
31:28
Speaker 9: prime dairy and horticultural land. So there's legitimate grievances which
31:33
Speaker 9: Labor are just You should have seen the Prime Minister
31:35
Speaker 9: this week carrying on like a pork chop over those concerns.
31:39
Speaker 9: We've got to get the settings right. We've got strong
31:42
Speaker 9: voices within our party room. I'm confident that we'll see
31:46
Speaker 9: a path through and we've got to make sure that
31:49
Speaker 9: we are.
31:49
Speaker 1: All focused a group.
31:51
Speaker 9: I'm a strong coalitionist. I work really well with my
31:54
Speaker 9: neighbor Darren Chester in Gippsland, and we've got some great
31:57
Speaker 9: state MPs as well that we work very strongly as
31:59
Speaker 9: a coalition team in the Gippsland region and I think
32:03
Speaker 9: we'll be able to do that nationally as well.
32:04
Speaker 1: Lock next week, Mary Aldrew, thanks for coming in. Thank you, Steve,
32:07
Speaker 1: coming up after the break the stories of the week
32:10
Speaker 1: in Cartoons with my great mate Mark Knight. Mark will
32:13
Speaker 1: be with us after the break. Welcome back, Rondine coming
32:21
Speaker 1: up at the top of the hour, now joining me
32:23
Speaker 1: as he does every couple of weeks Heralds on cartoonist
32:25
Speaker 1: Mark Knight. Great to see you again, Dave. I woke
32:29
Speaker 1: up last Saturday morning. I write a column. It's in
32:32
Speaker 1: the Saturday Heralds on every Saturday. Yes, and I laughed
32:36
Speaker 1: out loud at the cartoon that you drew on my
32:40
Speaker 1: column about cinder Allen, the Victorian Premier deciding to tax,
32:44
Speaker 1: double the tax or double the license fees on cats
32:48
Speaker 1: and dogs.
32:49
Speaker 10: Yes, now described for us this draw, Well, it's going
32:54
Speaker 10: on there whenever a member of the public gets upset
32:58
Speaker 10: with something of the government's done, they're on the front
33:00
Speaker 10: of Parliament House protesting.
33:02
Speaker 7: And I thought, how do dogs protest?
33:05
Speaker 1: What's the best thing they can do?
33:06
Speaker 7: We all know what they can do. And there they
33:07
Speaker 7: are on the steps of Parliament House showing their what
33:11
Speaker 7: do we call it?
33:11
Speaker 1: Pleasure?
33:12
Speaker 7: Just pleasure, Steve, And unfortunately the Premier has trodden in
33:16
Speaker 7: that displeasure.
33:16
Speaker 1: And yeah, you you said to me that you laughed
33:20
Speaker 1: out loud drawing it in my job.
33:27
Speaker 7: I think you've got to have fun. You know, you're
33:28
Speaker 7: going to please yourself as much as the readers. And
33:31
Speaker 7: I was googling photos of dogs doing pooh to get
33:37
Speaker 7: that do you want to get that body language right?
33:40
Speaker 1: And when of a dog is belting one out? And yeah,
33:43
Speaker 1: I did laugh. It was fantastic. Now, Melbourne Cup obviously
33:45
Speaker 1: gives you a rich race, the vein of stuff to
33:48
Speaker 1: draw great metal. Susan Lee she was at the cup
33:52
Speaker 1: this week? Yes, how did she? How did she cope with? Well?
33:56
Speaker 7: I think, you know, poor Susan's having a tough time
34:00
Speaker 7: riding the Liberal party this week. And there's a horse
34:03
Speaker 7: called Buckaroo that was in the cup, and I thought,
34:05
Speaker 7: very good, that is the Liberal leadership.
34:08
Speaker 1: It is a bucking bronco.
34:09
Speaker 7: Now I hope Susan's leadership lasts the eight seconds that
34:14
Speaker 7: are bucking bronco you have to sit. But as an omen,
34:19
Speaker 7: poor old Buckaroo finished last in.
34:21
Speaker 1: Then I was about to say that, I mean, you
34:24
Speaker 1: obviously could foresee the fact that Buckaroo, even though it
34:27
Speaker 1: was I think on the third line of the bedding,
34:29
Speaker 1: came second.
34:29
Speaker 7: I drew that the day before the cup, so it
34:31
Speaker 7: is last yes, it's maybe hopefully.
34:35
Speaker 1: Not omen Susan. No, no, no. And we didn't get
34:39
Speaker 1: a rate cut from our friends at the Reserve Bank
34:41
Speaker 1: on cup day. Well no, I had to give albow
34:44
Speaker 1: a whack.
34:44
Speaker 7: So the next day, you know, Melbourne Cup day, we
34:47
Speaker 7: wait for two things.
34:48
Speaker 1: He's looking in the wrong direction.
34:49
Speaker 7: Well, that's rucas his horses, his horses down that end
34:53
Speaker 7: of the strait. And of course the winner has just
34:56
Speaker 7: gone past the post.
34:57
Speaker 1: About you know, twenty minutes ago. How's he going? Well,
35:01
Speaker 1: I I look, I think I think, you know, I
35:03
Speaker 1: sort a bit of a charmed life. Does the world
35:06
Speaker 1: taking hands with Donald Trump?
35:08
Speaker 7: And he just cruises along.
35:11
Speaker 1: Nothing seems to touch him. I'm not sure you've got
35:14
Speaker 1: him very thin? Do you think he should be? I
35:16
Speaker 1: think you should put a bit more. I remember me
35:20
Speaker 1: to give a talent advice, like you telling me how
35:24
Speaker 1: to do the TV show. But I think he needs
35:26
Speaker 1: a bit more beef on him.
35:27
Speaker 7: Well he did, remember remember when he was opposition leader,
35:30
Speaker 7: he was a lot heavier and then he lost all
35:32
Speaker 7: that weight for that for the election. Care The first
35:34
Speaker 7: letter got a new suit, new glasses, yes, the Chino's
35:38
Speaker 7: and they got the hair done differently, carry the little
35:41
Speaker 7: dog around, yes, and of course you know, a beautiful
35:45
Speaker 7: Jody on his arm.
35:46
Speaker 1: So it was sort of the haven't seen Toto in
35:48
Speaker 1: your cartoons recently? Yeah, I think we'll have to bring
35:50
Speaker 1: him back. Bring back the mayoral election in New York
35:53
Speaker 1: that was quite an extraordinary result. I sat and watched
35:56
Speaker 1: this new hard left socialist who won the election campaign
36:01
Speaker 1: give his acceptance speech. Yes, he wants to give everybody
36:04
Speaker 1: things for free, free buses, free rent, all that stuff. Yes,
36:07
Speaker 1: not sure, as Margaret that just said, eventually socialist run
36:10
Speaker 1: out of other people's money. How do we Donald Trump's
36:15
Speaker 1: being portrayed well.
36:16
Speaker 7: Donald Trump says New York as his town. You know,
36:19
Speaker 7: the Trump Tower was there, That's where he sort of
36:21
Speaker 7: grew up. And I was thinking of, what's some sort
36:24
Speaker 7: of big icon showing its displeasure this result? And I
36:29
Speaker 7: think the greatest sort of physical icon that come to
36:33
Speaker 7: have him on the Empire State building.
36:36
Speaker 1: I haven't no.
36:37
Speaker 7: I was going to draw him on Trump Tower, but
36:39
Speaker 7: it didn't fit with the King Kong sort of metaphor.
36:42
Speaker 7: But Donald would be very unpleasant, and so I thought
36:45
Speaker 7: That's that's how he would feel about this, just roaring
36:48
Speaker 7: his displeasure at this what Muslim democrat socialist running running
36:53
Speaker 7: his town.
36:53
Speaker 1: Why anyone was surprised? I mean New York's always been
36:55
Speaker 1: a very democrat city. Yeah, true, true, but this guy
36:59
Speaker 1: seems pretty radical. Well, I think if you.
37:02
Speaker 7: Really, if they're running that campaign that the Republicans, all
37:06
Speaker 7: I had to do was send the video of Victoria
37:08
Speaker 7: if they wanted to see how a sort of a
37:11
Speaker 7: socialist state works, and I don't think they would have
37:15
Speaker 7: voted the way they did.
37:16
Speaker 1: Speaking of Victoria, the police commissioner from New Zealand, Big
37:21
Speaker 1: Mike Bush, and a bit big Mike Bush, it seems
37:24
Speaker 1: to like helicopters. He has a thing about helicopters, and
37:27
Speaker 1: it's not a good relationships head in this cartoon. It's
37:30
Speaker 1: not a good relationship.
37:31
Speaker 7: He's been caught out twice catching sort of sneaking onto helicopters,
37:36
Speaker 7: and I think he snuck his wife onto one recently,
37:39
Speaker 7: and you know it's really that's not what they're designed for.
37:43
Speaker 7: And so I thought, well, you know, when you're around helicopters,
37:47
Speaker 7: you're going to be careful of those blades because you
37:48
Speaker 7: can lose your head, and unfortunately he has on this occasion.
37:52
Speaker 1: Did you have to think about beheading the police commission
37:55
Speaker 1: of this early in his job? I thought of pause.
37:59
Speaker 7: I thought I'm might have been going a bit hard.
38:01
Speaker 7: But as the little Pig says in my cartoon, my
38:04
Speaker 7: advice to you, Mike Bush is just keep.
38:06
Speaker 1: Your head down. It's very funny and you're a talent.
38:10
Speaker 1: Thank you say across the weeks mart Night. You catch
38:13
Speaker 1: his cartoons every day Monday to Sunday in the Heraldsun.
38:17
Speaker 1: The hardest working bloke on the paper. Now after the break,
38:19
Speaker 1: all eyes on the former Prince Andrew as he has
38:22
Speaker 1: been summoned to the US for questioning. Plus our panel's
38:26
Speaker 1: reaction to Susan Lee's growing leadership struggles. That's all up
38:29
Speaker 1: next Welcome back now Liberal Senator the Sarah Henderson, and
38:39
Speaker 1: she's been joined late today by also Senator Jane Hume,
38:43
Speaker 1: who's given an interview to the Daily Telegraph. They both
38:45
Speaker 1: say the basically leader Susan Lee's losing support of the
38:50
Speaker 1: party room. And you know how these things end. Once
38:53
Speaker 1: they get up some momentum that this seems to have,
38:56
Speaker 1: there's always going to be some sort of an outcome
38:58
Speaker 1: that's not pleasant for the Lee Now, she joins a
39:01
Speaker 1: growing number of calls within the party to consider Lee's
39:05
Speaker 1: future and whether someone else's better place. Who that would be?
39:08
Speaker 1: Who would know? Senator Henderson also said the party was
39:11
Speaker 1: that in its worst state since she entered Parliament in
39:15
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen. Looked.
39:17
Speaker 6: I can't pretend things are good. I do think Susan
39:20
Speaker 6: is losing support, but I do believe in miracles we
39:23
Speaker 6: can turn things.
39:24
Speaker 7: Around with a new leader or with Susan Lee.
39:27
Speaker 1: Pete.
39:28
Speaker 6: I am just going to say at the moment that
39:31
Speaker 6: I cannot support the way things are.
39:33
Speaker 7: With Susan Lee as leader. It sounds like you're not
39:37
Speaker 7: supporting her position as leader.
39:41
Speaker 6: Well, I can't back in the way things are, Pete.
39:43
Speaker 6: And I've got to be authentic and I've got to
39:46
Speaker 6: be honest about that, and it's very difficult. It's a
39:48
Speaker 6: very difficult time for the Liberal Party.
39:52
Speaker 1: I should put out, of course that Senator Henderson and
39:55
Speaker 1: Senator Hume, we're both dumped to the back bench once
39:59
Speaker 1: Susan Lee took over, so clearly they're not fans Scott.
40:02
Speaker 1: Let's bring in our panel. Scot on his contributor Caroline
40:05
Speaker 1: de Rosso and Joe Hildebrand join me. Great to see
40:08
Speaker 1: you both again, Joe. These things have a way of
40:13
Speaker 1: taking on a life of their own. You and I've
40:15
Speaker 1: been around long enough to know what happens here. The
40:18
Speaker 1: leader begins to be stalked or whoever might be willing
40:23
Speaker 1: to put their hand up and say what Senator Henderson
40:26
Speaker 1: said today and what Jane Hume said in the Telly tomorrow.
40:30
Speaker 1: It's not looking great for her, is it.
40:32
Speaker 11: No, it's not looking great. I mean, I think it's
40:34
Speaker 11: now a matter of when, not if she gets rolled
40:36
Speaker 11: as leader. The thing that really struck me was just
40:39
Speaker 11: how kind of directionless this campaign against Susan Lee is.
40:44
Speaker 11: There doesn't seem to be an obvious contender in the wings.
40:48
Speaker 11: Angus Taylor would be an obvious pick, but he doesn't
40:52
Speaker 11: seem to be putting his hand up whether he's pulling
40:54
Speaker 11: strings behind closed doors. I think that's probably pretty obvious.
40:57
Speaker 11: But you've also got people like Andrew Hasty and in
40:59
Speaker 11: the Long and maybe just Enterprise who were going to
41:02
Speaker 11: be sort of, you know, warming their hands by the fire.
41:05
Speaker 11: But it reminds me of I suppose a bit, you know,
41:09
Speaker 11: the sort of Gillard government after its minority government election,
41:14
Speaker 11: where you had people in the Labor Party coming out,
41:17
Speaker 11: but they were much more strategic in blowing up the leadership,
41:20
Speaker 11: I suppose, even with Simon Crean, God Rest his Souls,
41:24
Speaker 11: so called suicide bomber attempt, these were clearly sort of
41:27
Speaker 11: surgical strikes designed to deliberately sort of blow up the leadership,
41:33
Speaker 11: whereas in this case it sort of seems a bit
41:36
Speaker 11: more directionless and a bit more kind of like a
41:39
Speaker 11: sort of miasma of instability floating around rather than any
41:43
Speaker 11: clear direction.
41:46
Speaker 1: Caroline, don't you love the fact that Joe's joining us
41:48
Speaker 1: from some dark nightclub this evening? I'm not sure passing up.
41:52
Speaker 11: I've got my little home studio going.
41:57
Speaker 1: It look like carry the nightclub, Caroline. Obviously, as the
42:01
Speaker 1: wa president of the Liberal Party, you don't like what
42:03
Speaker 1: you're seeing, but these things have an inevitability about them,
42:07
Speaker 1: and once the talk starts, it's very hard to stop.
42:11
Speaker 1: Do you think there's any realistic prospect next week at
42:15
Speaker 1: these two or three meetings, I've lost count of how
42:17
Speaker 1: many they're going to have that the Liberal Party can
42:19
Speaker 1: come up with a realistic approach to net zero get
42:23
Speaker 1: themselves back together and keep the coalition on track.
42:28
Speaker 12: Well, I think that that is in everyone's best interest,
42:31
Speaker 12: and everyone needs to get in that room or multiple
42:33
Speaker 12: rooms next week, whichever it is, and not out of position.
42:37
Speaker 12: And I've already said this this week. Not everyone is
42:40
Speaker 12: going to get everything that they want. And John Howard,
42:44
Speaker 12: you know, masterfully said that politics is the art of compromise.
42:48
Speaker 12: There is probably going to have to be a little
42:49
Speaker 12: bit of that here, but we need to get to
42:52
Speaker 12: a position. And the one point that Jane Humemate did
42:55
Speaker 12: make this afternoon was, you know, it is unusual for
42:57
Speaker 12: everything to come up for review after an election. You
43:01
Speaker 12: generally retain your policies until such times you change them.
43:04
Speaker 12: So I think, you know, I think that that step
43:08
Speaker 12: was probably taken in the sense of being consultative and
43:10
Speaker 12: knowing that the party had to do something significant to
43:13
Speaker 12: improve itself. But I have a feeling that the unintended
43:17
Speaker 12: consequence of that was to be a bit destabilizing. So
43:21
Speaker 12: I'm obviously a state president and I look after an
43:23
Speaker 12: organization and membership and that sort of thing, but it's
43:27
Speaker 12: you know, it does make this sort of job much
43:31
Speaker 12: more difficult when there is uncertainty on.
43:33
Speaker 9: That sort of position.
43:35
Speaker 12: So all I would say to out federal parliamentarians is,
43:38
Speaker 12: you know, everyone get in a room together, work it
43:41
Speaker 12: out and get on with it.
43:45
Speaker 1: Joe. It's quite amazing when you consider the number of
43:47
Speaker 1: things that the coalition could be attacking Labor on instead
43:51
Speaker 1: of having this internal fight, you know, with only one
43:55
Speaker 1: more I think one more week of sitting to go
43:57
Speaker 1: for the year. I mean you look at things like
43:59
Speaker 1: electricity prices haven't come down, inflation starting to go up,
44:02
Speaker 1: unemployments going up. We didn't have a rate cup this week,
44:06
Speaker 1: Figures and facts out today about how many extra public
44:09
Speaker 1: servants federally that the Albanezy government's hid. There's just so
44:14
Speaker 1: many things that if you had a sensible group of
44:16
Speaker 1: people on that front bench to attack labor on, and
44:19
Speaker 1: labor would be vulnerable to some of those attacks.
44:22
Speaker 11: Yeah, you're absolutely right, mate, And I think this is
44:24
Speaker 11: Labour's achilles heel, which is that as the coalition is imploding,
44:28
Speaker 11: and it is imploding, and it is much like as
44:30
Speaker 11: I wrote earlier this week, a suicide bomber. But of
44:33
Speaker 11: course the whole point of suicide bombers is that they
44:35
Speaker 11: take other people with them. And the danger for labor
44:38
Speaker 11: is that it thinks that just because they are so
44:42
Speaker 11: useless and incompetent, that it doesn't really have to worry
44:45
Speaker 11: about stuff. And I think that the rising power prices
44:48
Speaker 11: which fuel that higher than expected inflation rate, which in
44:51
Speaker 11: turn deprived punters of a cup day rate cut, that
44:55
Speaker 11: is the sort of thing that if it continues to grow,
44:57
Speaker 11: and there are signs that maybe it might be abating
44:59
Speaker 11: a bit, but if power prices continue to go up
45:02
Speaker 11: and to fuel inflation and therefore to deprive homeowners of
45:06
Speaker 11: their long expected rate cut or cuts and potentially even
45:10
Speaker 11: God help us, a rate rise, that's a real danger
45:12
Speaker 11: for the government.
45:15
Speaker 1: Caroline, you're in the magnificent city of Perth. You probably
45:18
Speaker 1: don't have the issue that Melbourne and Sydney. We're certainly
45:21
Speaker 1: not as big an issue as Melbourne and Sydney has
45:23
Speaker 1: with housing. But the Gratton Institute, which is a left
45:26
Speaker 1: leaning lobby group as we know, they came out today
45:29
Speaker 1: or this week and said we should allow three story
45:31
Speaker 1: buildings to be allowed on any residential block in any
45:36
Speaker 1: suburb anywhere in Australia. I'm not sure that if I
45:40
Speaker 1: was living in a house single house on a single block.
45:45
Speaker 1: I'd be all happy with a with a six or
45:48
Speaker 1: three story apartment block being built right next to me
45:51
Speaker 1: and me not having any right to actually complain about it.
45:57
Speaker 12: Maybe you need to consider another flaw then. Look, I
45:59
Speaker 12: think I think we do need to have sensible infil.
46:02
Speaker 12: I think that is something that we do need to consider.
46:05
Speaker 12: And while our housing problem here inu Wlya may not
46:08
Speaker 12: be as significant in the Eastern States, we are taking
46:12
Speaker 12: a lot of political prisoners though, or political refugees I
46:15
Speaker 12: should say, from the Eastern States, so there are plenty
46:17
Speaker 12: of people coming to doubly Way, and obviously in and
46:20
Speaker 12: around Orcus we need a lot of housing.
46:23
Speaker 9: So I don't know if.
46:26
Speaker 12: You know that proposal in its entirety is perfect, but
46:29
Speaker 12: it's having the conversation that needs to be had around
46:33
Speaker 12: sensible infil and around the fact that we do need
46:37
Speaker 12: we do need more houses and people want to live
46:39
Speaker 12: close to their families. You know, so that there is
46:41
Speaker 12: something you know, it does need to be considered. There's
46:44
Speaker 12: a lot of tax there's a lot of rules, there's
46:46
Speaker 12: a lot of regulation all around building that impacts productivity,
46:51
Speaker 12: and that also adds to the huge amount of delay
46:54
Speaker 12: in addition to the costs. So I think it's a
46:56
Speaker 12: conversation in the right direction, even though the proposals probably
47:00
Speaker 12: not bang on in itself.
47:03
Speaker 1: Just briefly, you're our royal experts. Andrew Windsor got any
47:08
Speaker 1: chance of turning up in the US to answer questions zero,
47:11
Speaker 1: I would have thought.
47:13
Speaker 12: Gosh, i'll tell you what, this has just gone from
47:16
Speaker 12: ugly to uglier to ugliest. And look, you know, I
47:21
Speaker 12: wouldn't have thought so either, but it is very interesting
47:24
Speaker 12: the way that he has been cut adrift from the
47:28
Speaker 12: royal family. And I do just get this sense, Steve,
47:32
Speaker 12: that the royal family were getting in front of something.
47:35
Speaker 12: And I don't know exactly what they're getting in front of,
47:38
Speaker 12: but I feel like there is definitely more to come here.
47:41
Speaker 12: Whether that includes an appearance by Andrew formerly the Prince
47:46
Speaker 12: in front of Congress, I don't know, but I think
47:48
Speaker 12: there is something coming.
47:51
Speaker 1: Joe, I was amazed at these figures. Today. Hospitality in
47:55
Speaker 1: our city of Melbourne is just facing a really tough conditions,
47:58
Speaker 1: but look at this, the rising costs and obviously COVID
48:02
Speaker 1: didn't help anybody, but ASIC data showed that the number
48:07
Speaker 1: of businesses that have gone bust have gone from two
48:10
Speaker 1: hundred and two and twenty twenty two to seven hundred
48:13
Speaker 1: and twenty three hospital businesses gone broke this year. That's extraordinary.
48:18
Speaker 1: It is extraordinary.
48:19
Speaker 11: And again, it just sort of puts the lie to
48:21
Speaker 11: this idea that people had that you could just sort
48:24
Speaker 11: of stop the economy and then restarted again, everything would
48:27
Speaker 11: go back to normal. That was never going to happen.
48:29
Speaker 11: As a lot of people shouted from the rooftops. It
48:33
Speaker 11: it makes you blood boiled, doesn't It just.
48:35
Speaker 1: Makes me feel makes you feel so sorry for all
48:38
Speaker 1: of the people who try so hard in hospitality. Carolina Joe,
48:41
Speaker 1: thank you very much for joining us tonight. I'll see
48:43
Speaker 1: you next week. Coming up Rowan Dean at the top
48:46
Speaker 1: of the hour and Susan Lee Wilsh's your vibe. Next
48:49
Speaker 1: week we'll find out