Latest / Steve Price / Steve Price | 31 May

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Steve Price | 31 May · Steve Price

0:00
Speaker 1: Live. This is Steve Price.
0:07
Speaker 2: Good evening, Welcome to the show. And what a day
0:09
Speaker 2: it has been right around the world. Trump Day, what
0:12
Speaker 2: it means for America and what it means for Australia.
0:14
Speaker 2: I'll get to that in just one second. Tonight on
0:17
Speaker 2: the Trump result and the implications for his presidential comeback.
0:21
Speaker 2: I'll be joined by former Labor senator and keen observer
0:25
Speaker 2: of US politics for decades, former Senator Stephen Loosely and
0:29
Speaker 2: speaking of a potential Trump win in November against Joe Biden.
0:34
Speaker 2: A major development in the Ukraine War against an invading Russia.
0:39
Speaker 2: The US has now joined France in endorsing missile attacks
0:43
Speaker 2: inside Russia using French and American hardware. Michael Schubridge joins us,
0:48
Speaker 2: and I'll ask him about comments during the week suggesting
0:52
Speaker 2: this country is Australia simply could not defend itself if
0:55
Speaker 2: we were under attack. Plus the busted broke state of Victoria,
1:00
Speaker 2: where it's claimed over three thousand businesses have fled the state,
1:04
Speaker 2: many heading to New South Wales and Queensland since the
1:07
Speaker 2: end of COVID, citing crippling taxes like land tax and
1:11
Speaker 2: having to deal increasingly with a Millet Union opposition front
1:15
Speaker 2: bench of Sam Growth will tell us just how bad
1:18
Speaker 2: things really are. First, though, you can't go past that
1:22
Speaker 2: trial with Donald Trump, the first US president to become
1:26
Speaker 2: a convicted felon, with the Democrat loving Manhattan Precinct charging
1:31
Speaker 2: him over hush money paid to the exotically named Stocky Daniels. Now,
1:35
Speaker 2: watching Peter Stephanovic on first edition today, you could be
1:39
Speaker 2: forgiven for thinking you had accidentally switched on to a
1:42
Speaker 2: Netflix series. It all seemed so implausible, even though we
1:46
Speaker 2: have suspected for some time that this court and that
1:50
Speaker 2: jury would find Trump guilty. And let's not forget this
1:54
Speaker 2: is just one of four legal cases Donald Trump is fighting.
1:57
Speaker 2: He'll be sentenced on these guilty charges on the eleventh
2:01
Speaker 2: of July, so in a month or so. Now, what
2:03
Speaker 2: if the judge sends him to prison, to jail. What
2:05
Speaker 2: then It's just one hundred and fifty eight days until
2:09
Speaker 2: Americans go to the polls to elect a new president.
2:12
Speaker 2: He is the endorsed Republican candidate. Now would Americans vote
2:16
Speaker 2: for it? Imprisoned Donald Trump? Now, many commentators believe today's
2:20
Speaker 2: decision alone, let alone jail time, has sealed the election
2:24
Speaker 2: for the former president, although it seems impossible, nothing can
2:28
Speaker 2: be ruled in or out with this crazy country we
2:32
Speaker 2: call America. Can you for a second, and I tried
2:35
Speaker 2: to think this through today, can you imagine for a
2:38
Speaker 2: second this sort of thing happening here in Australia. Now,
2:42
Speaker 2: I very much doubt it, but clearly what unfolds over
2:45
Speaker 2: the next one hundred and fifty eight days has huge implications,
2:49
Speaker 2: but not only just Australia, which relies so heavily on
2:53
Speaker 2: its US ally, with a report out just this week,
2:55
Speaker 2: as I mentioned, suggesting without them, we couldn't even defend ourselves.
2:59
Speaker 2: So if Donald try Trump were to be jailed, how
3:01
Speaker 2: would his supporters react? It would make storming the Capitol
3:05
Speaker 2: Building after the last election defeat seem like a minor riot.
3:10
Speaker 2: People in the United States are openly talking about a.
3:14
Speaker 1: Renewed civil war.
3:16
Speaker 2: The current president, Joe Biden so confused he can barely
3:19
Speaker 2: walk unaided, and we are relying on this global superpower
3:23
Speaker 2: to protect us from an aggressive China. You suspect, though,
3:27
Speaker 2: that the next set of polls of Trump v. Biden
3:30
Speaker 2: will show an explosion of support for the former president,
3:33
Speaker 2: And we have already seen every time he sets foot
3:36
Speaker 2: inside a courthouse, his numbers just go up.
3:39
Speaker 1: The message that our political.
3:41
Speaker 2: Leaders need to take from this, though, I think, from
3:44
Speaker 2: this is clearly that while Australia remains the major US
3:49
Speaker 2: ally in this region, we have to start thinking more independently.
3:54
Speaker 2: Now ask Michael Schubridge about this, but surely we have
3:57
Speaker 2: to be putting in maximum effort with countries like an India,
4:00
Speaker 2: Taiwan and even the Philippines. You can't just rely on
4:04
Speaker 2: the US military force, our help from a country that's
4:07
Speaker 2: going to be so distracted for certainly the rest of
4:10
Speaker 2: this year and no longer if Donald Trump, as it
4:13
Speaker 2: seems likely, wins the second term. And what about the Democrats?
4:17
Speaker 2: Will they be prepared to make the hail Mary and
4:21
Speaker 2: install a contender that can actually convince Americans to choose
4:24
Speaker 2: not between a convicted felon being pursued by people who
4:28
Speaker 2: fear and loathe him, and a clearly aged, hardly conscious,
4:32
Speaker 2: eighty two year old, bumbling fool. Now, as Donald Trump says,
4:36
Speaker 2: and this is something I do agree with him on,
4:39
Speaker 2: it's time to make America great again. Okay, let's jump
4:47
Speaker 2: straight into it. Trump predictably was outraged outside court before
4:51
Speaker 2: being whisked away in a modicaid back to Trump Tower.
4:54
Speaker 2: Here he is and what he said after the case.
5:00
Speaker 3: Innocent man, And it's okay.
5:03
Speaker 1: I'm fighting for our country.
5:04
Speaker 3: I'm fighting for our constitution. Our whole country is being
5:08
Speaker 3: rigged right now.
5:09
Speaker 2: This was done by the Biden administration.
5:13
Speaker 4: In order to wound or hurt an opponent or political opponent.
5:18
Speaker 3: And I think it's just a disgrace. And we'll keep fighting.
5:21
Speaker 1: We'll fight till the end, and we'll win.
5:25
Speaker 2: Let's bring in the former chair of the Joint Committee
5:28
Speaker 2: on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade and former visiting fellow
5:31
Speaker 2: of the United States Study Center, Stephen Loosely. Stephen, great
5:35
Speaker 2: to see you again. Predictable result, But what does it mean?
5:39
Speaker 2: What does it mean for the US? First up, what
5:43
Speaker 2: does it mean to the United States of America? What
5:45
Speaker 2: does it mean to that great country, the most powerful
5:48
Speaker 2: country on Earth.
5:49
Speaker 5: Well, there are different legal consequences here and political consequences
5:54
Speaker 5: and ultimately Donald Trump's future will. We decided to develop
5:59
Speaker 5: box in terms of what happens next. July eleven is
6:03
Speaker 5: the date for sentencing, and Judge Macharn will proceed on
6:09
Speaker 5: that basis, though I have no doubt the Trump defense
6:13
Speaker 5: team and Todd blansh is already talking in these terms,
6:17
Speaker 5: would have lodged an appeal. So there will be the
6:21
Speaker 5: legal avenue. In terms of politics, remains to be seen
6:25
Speaker 5: what the impact will be. Donald Trump has been extraordinarily
6:30
Speaker 5: resilient over the years. I'm thinking of the Billy Bush
6:33
Speaker 5: tapes for example. He increases his support within his base
6:40
Speaker 5: when there's something that could only be described as appalling
6:46
Speaker 5: happens to him, a lot of which comes from his
6:49
Speaker 5: own mouth. Now Independence decide this next election, Steve. In
6:54
Speaker 5: terms of the polling today, the New York Times Siena
6:59
Speaker 5: poll suggests that Independence, confronted with a conviction of Donald Trump,
7:05
Speaker 5: would reconsider their support for him and look to an
7:08
Speaker 5: alternative Joe Biden or the Kennedy campaign or somewhere else.
7:14
Speaker 5: This is going to take some time to settle, but
7:17
Speaker 5: I doubt that we're going to see a repeat of
7:20
Speaker 5: January sixth, for example, And I seriously question whether this
7:25
Speaker 5: is going to lead to an increase in Donald Trump's
7:29
Speaker 5: support in the middle ground.
7:32
Speaker 2: What would the Democrats be saying tonight? What should they
7:35
Speaker 2: do here? Now? Should they be dancing in the streets celebrating,
7:39
Speaker 2: or should they just let this quietly unfold and see
7:41
Speaker 2: what Trump does next.
7:43
Speaker 5: The latter, and I think the best way of approaching
7:47
Speaker 5: matters is to see what Alvin Bragg, the district attorney did,
7:53
Speaker 5: very dignified performance. He didn't do a victory lamp after
7:56
Speaker 5: the conviction anything of that nature. He congratulated his his team,
8:01
Speaker 5: refused to make personal comments. So I think although the
8:05
Speaker 5: Democrats have already started to use the Trump conviction as
8:09
Speaker 5: a fundraising tool, as has the former president, I might
8:13
Speaker 5: add in spite of that, I think the Democrats will
8:15
Speaker 5: take a step back and see what the landscape looks
8:19
Speaker 5: like after the dust settles. After all, most of the
8:23
Speaker 5: national polls have Donald Trump with a very narrow lead
8:26
Speaker 5: one to two percentage points, but in the battleground states
8:29
Speaker 5: Trump has been doing better. So there's a need to
8:32
Speaker 5: make some careful determinations here about the way in which
8:36
Speaker 5: the Biden campaign manages this issue and how it takes
8:41
Speaker 5: the Democratic campaign forward.
8:45
Speaker 2: I did see some analysis today, Stephen, where they pointed
8:49
Speaker 2: out clearly that the United States voting is not compulsory,
8:52
Speaker 2: unlike in Australia, and the analysis was that up to
8:56
Speaker 2: forty five percent of Americans don't even bother to turn
8:59
Speaker 2: out and vote in a presidential election. But this threat
9:03
Speaker 2: to Donald Trump to throw him in jail on what
9:05
Speaker 2: a lot of people are saying, a Trump up chargers
9:08
Speaker 2: might encourage a lot of that forty five percent to
9:11
Speaker 2: come out with a protest vote and put in a
9:13
Speaker 2: vote for Donald Trump. Do you think that's reasonable analysis,
9:16
Speaker 2: a reasonable assessment of what might happen.
9:20
Speaker 5: It has that potential impact, Steve, But I think the
9:25
Speaker 5: major impact of the Trump conviction is going to be
9:28
Speaker 5: on the Republican base, the hardcore Margot Trump's supporters. After all,
9:34
Speaker 5: you will recall it in Iowa in twenty sixteen, Trump
9:38
Speaker 5: made the observation that he could go out into Fifth
9:40
Speaker 5: Avenue in New York City, showed someone and he wouldn't
9:43
Speaker 5: lose any support. That observation has been validated on more
9:48
Speaker 5: than one occasion. But the key here is does the
9:52
Speaker 5: Biden campaign rebuild support in the middle ground amongst independents
9:57
Speaker 5: and the less engaged Trump surf a wave off this conviction.
10:03
Speaker 5: That's yet to be determined. But in a voluntary voting system,
10:08
Speaker 5: it's the mobilization of the vote. As you said, that
10:11
Speaker 5: really determines the outcome that takes us into the middle ground,
10:16
Speaker 5: and how the middle ground reacts, how independence react, is
10:19
Speaker 5: going to determine the outcome. And the outcome of this case,
10:23
Speaker 5: like the others, is really dependent entirely upon the election
10:28
Speaker 5: in November.
10:31
Speaker 2: Australians sit back and watch this and look at America,
10:34
Speaker 2: and many of us have been there many times, and
10:37
Speaker 2: we have great regard for what America is and what
10:39
Speaker 2: it has been, and we say, surely a country like
10:44
Speaker 2: that that's produced so much brilliance over time can find
10:49
Speaker 2: a better Two candidates to stand for president, one in
10:51
Speaker 2: eighty two year old who I pointed out can barely
10:54
Speaker 2: walk and seems off the planet most of the time,
10:58
Speaker 2: and the other man convicted felon who has been found
11:02
Speaker 2: guilty of paying off a sex worker to hush it up.
11:06
Speaker 2: Why does the American system well, how is it that
11:10
Speaker 2: it's tossed up such poor candidates this time around? And
11:14
Speaker 2: during the last election.
11:17
Speaker 5: Stephen constantly remembering German Chancellor Bismarck's observation that I'm paraphrasing here,
11:27
Speaker 5: God looks after drunkens, idiots, little children in the United
11:31
Speaker 5: States of America. Sometimes that strikes me as closer to
11:36
Speaker 5: the mark than we might like. The problem is the
11:38
Speaker 5: American political class, not only at the presidential level, but
11:43
Speaker 5: in the Congress and elsewhere, does not renew itself. There's
11:47
Speaker 5: not been a process of regeneration. For example, the late
11:51
Speaker 5: Senator Diane Feinstein of California died in office. She was
11:56
Speaker 5: in her nineties. It's routine to find people on both
12:00
Speaker 5: sides of the Isle and Nancy Pelosis, the Mitchmen Connells
12:04
Speaker 5: who are really senior and should have retired some years ago.
12:09
Speaker 5: So we have a circumstance at the moment where Joe
12:12
Speaker 5: Biden is clearly frail and Donald Trump.
12:16
Speaker 6: I suspect has his best years well.
12:19
Speaker 5: Behind him, if ever they existed. Circumstances are that we
12:23
Speaker 5: don't have the kind of generational change that we see
12:28
Speaker 5: routinely in other democracies, including our own. It's a failure
12:32
Speaker 5: of the American political class to renew and regenerate that
12:36
Speaker 5: lies at the heart of the drama we're seeing at
12:39
Speaker 5: the moment.
12:41
Speaker 2: Just finally, Australia, what should we be doing in regard
12:46
Speaker 2: to our relationship with the United States. I mean, you're
12:49
Speaker 2: experienced in this area. We're dealing I presume not with
12:55
Speaker 2: the President's office, but we're dealing with the military in
12:58
Speaker 2: a direct sense, and we still see them as our
13:01
Speaker 2: greatest ally.
13:02
Speaker 1: Should we be worried.
13:06
Speaker 5: It's always important in American politics to maintain links both
13:11
Speaker 5: sides of the isle, in the Congress and the House
13:14
Speaker 5: and the Senate, with the administration and with alternatives, and
13:18
Speaker 5: with those great agencies of state, be at the Pentagon,
13:22
Speaker 5: State Department, others. I think we've been able to do
13:26
Speaker 5: that over time. We've had a succession of very good
13:30
Speaker 5: ambassadors in Washington, DC who maintained our interests in Washington
13:36
Speaker 5: last year talking with senior American policy makers, they were
13:41
Speaker 5: impressed by the fact that we had sent a former
13:43
Speaker 5: prime minister as the ambassador. And I like to look
13:47
Speaker 5: at the Kim Beasleys and the Joe Hockeys and the
13:51
Speaker 5: Arthur Senterdenises and think job well done. They've been able
13:56
Speaker 5: to navigate very treacherous water from time to time in
14:01
Speaker 5: terms of American politics, sometimes not by jumping up and
14:05
Speaker 5: down about something, but by quiet diplomacy. And as one
14:11
Speaker 5: senior American trade negotiator said one time, I recall good
14:16
Speaker 5: thing about the Australians is they always have your back.
14:19
Speaker 5: We have that reputation for being a very reliable ally.
14:24
Speaker 5: We can raise issues that are difficult and make forceful arguments,
14:29
Speaker 5: but we don't seek to occupy the front page of
14:31
Speaker 5: the New York Times of the Washington Post. Our ambassadors
14:34
Speaker 5: have been a quality and it's been a bipartisan approach
14:38
Speaker 5: in both Canberra and Washington. That really must continue.
14:41
Speaker 2: Now, Steve Lucli, great to catch up and you thank
14:45
Speaker 2: you very much for your time, and you're insight there
14:48
Speaker 2: now a major shift in the Russia Ukraine war. This week,
14:51
Speaker 2: speaking of Joe Biden, President Biden was found to have
14:54
Speaker 2: quietly given Ukraine permission to strike Russian territory, so inside
14:59
Speaker 2: Russia itself with US weapons. Now that's a move that
15:02
Speaker 2: was mirrored also by the French this week. I think
15:05
Speaker 2: they in fact did at first joining US is Strategic
15:08
Speaker 2: Analysis founder Michael Schubridge. Michael, just before we talk missiles,
15:13
Speaker 2: what dangers do you see in this fractured US with
15:16
Speaker 2: possible jail time for Donald Trump and importantly, where it
15:19
Speaker 2: does it leave Australia strategically.
15:23
Speaker 7: Well, Steve, America is looking quite divided around this verdict
15:29
Speaker 7: and it's just rusting in people's views about Trump and
15:34
Speaker 7: about their country. I think it means Stephen loosely was
15:38
Speaker 7: talking about it, but I think we're going to be
15:40
Speaker 7: dealing with a very transactional America if Donald Trump wins,
15:44
Speaker 7: and so we're really going to have to be seen
15:46
Speaker 7: to be lifting our game and a real contributor to
15:51
Speaker 7: the partnership, not a sort of supplicant wanting stuff all
15:55
Speaker 7: the time.
15:57
Speaker 2: French le to mccron, I think acted first. He said, look,
16:00
Speaker 2: you've got French missilege, you can use them on targets
16:03
Speaker 2: inside Russia. The Americans were a little bit more nuanced
16:09
Speaker 2: in it. They said, look, you've got our weapons. We
16:11
Speaker 2: don't mind if you also use them on targets inside Russia.
16:14
Speaker 2: You've got to make sure exactly what you're firing them at.
16:18
Speaker 2: This is a major shift from both countries, isn't it.
16:24
Speaker 3: Well, yes it is.
16:25
Speaker 7: There's been a whole reluctance to have Western weapons used
16:30
Speaker 7: by the Ukrainians into Russian territory. But you know why
16:35
Speaker 7: have they done it? Because the battlefield has demanded it.
16:38
Speaker 7: The Russian offensive, particularly around that the second largest Ukrainian city, Haarkiv,
16:44
Speaker 7: means that Russia's been free to organize all its troops
16:48
Speaker 7: and supplies and bombers in Russian territory and then it's
16:52
Speaker 7: a short hop into target Harkiv of that part of Ukraine.
17:00
Speaker 2: It makes us look pretty poor, I would have thought, Michael,
17:02
Speaker 2: given that we're still sitting on a piece of paper
17:04
Speaker 2: that the Prime Minister needs to sign to send a
17:07
Speaker 2: shiploader coal to Ukraine. They asked for it late last
17:10
Speaker 2: year and we've still not said yes.
17:13
Speaker 7: Well, Steve, you're right, it's been driven the American and
17:17
Speaker 7: French decision to let them to let the Ukrainians use
17:20
Speaker 7: their weapons to strike inside Russia has been driven by
17:25
Speaker 7: the crisis.
17:26
Speaker 6: In the war.
17:27
Speaker 7: And Ukraine needs material, they need systems from the partners
17:33
Speaker 7: like Australia. We're retiring m one Abrams tanks as we
17:36
Speaker 7: get the new model. We're retiring Tiger attack helicopters. We
17:41
Speaker 7: should be announcing that we're giving both those weapons to Ukraine.
17:45
Speaker 7: That's what we can do.
17:49
Speaker 2: Well, you know, and I've been talking about this war
17:51
Speaker 2: for a long time. If you had to respond straight
17:54
Speaker 2: up and down here right now, and if I were
17:56
Speaker 2: to ask you, is Russia closer to winning this war
17:59
Speaker 2: now that it's been since it started.
18:04
Speaker 3: Well, except for the very early days when.
18:08
Speaker 7: Ukraine was at risk of completely folding, except for the
18:12
Speaker 7: courage of President Zelenski and the Ukrainian military.
18:15
Speaker 3: Yes, this part.
18:17
Speaker 7: Of the war now is the most difficult. Ukraine is
18:19
Speaker 7: on the back foot. This is the moment for countries
18:23
Speaker 7: like Australia who want to see the Ukrainians win this war,
18:27
Speaker 7: to step up and giving them things that we're retiring
18:31
Speaker 7: from our defense force, like the mntanks, like the Tiger helicopters,
18:36
Speaker 7: would give them exactly the kind of boost they need.
18:39
Speaker 7: But I really fear that the government could be as
18:42
Speaker 7: dumb on the tanks and these attack helicopters as they
18:46
Speaker 7: were with those MRH helicopters and think that it's a
18:50
Speaker 7: good idea to cut them up and bury them in
18:52
Speaker 7: the ground.
18:55
Speaker 2: Just seemed crazy that they are such stupid decisions. I
18:59
Speaker 2: presume you went to the Australian newspapers defending Australia summit
19:02
Speaker 2: this week. What did you make of Kim Beazley's comments
19:04
Speaker 2: where he said, look, we can no longer defend ourselves.
19:08
Speaker 2: We could when I was Defense Minister back in the day,
19:11
Speaker 2: we can't now and we'd have to rely on the US.
19:14
Speaker 2: I suppose it's stating the obvious, is it.
19:18
Speaker 8: Well.
19:18
Speaker 7: I think there was a bit of nostalgia from mister
19:20
Speaker 7: Beasley about how lovely things were when he was the
19:23
Speaker 7: Defense Minister. But I think he's pointing to a big change.
19:28
Speaker 7: Back in the eighties and early nineties, Australia wasn't faced
19:32
Speaker 7: with the dangerous region we're faced with now. China is
19:36
Speaker 7: a dangerous, aggressive military power and we haven't done the
19:42
Speaker 7: work to be able to support our military in a
19:45
Speaker 7: war without sucking in enormous supplies and assistance from the Americans.
19:51
Speaker 7: So Kim's right that we are too dependent on the Americans.
19:55
Speaker 7: We need to be able to do more for ourselves.
20:00
Speaker 2: Great to catch up, Michael, Thank you very much. That's
20:02
Speaker 2: Michael Schubridge there. Look in some late breaking news just quickly.
20:06
Speaker 2: Word has come through late this afternoon, and they always
20:09
Speaker 2: seem to drop this state governments on a Friday afternoon.
20:11
Speaker 1: That's why we like doing this show.
20:13
Speaker 2: That the Victoria Police have agreed to a nine day
20:17
Speaker 2: fortnight for frontline police, ending a long running pay dispute.
20:21
Speaker 2: Now that agreement has been signed, I'm told this afternoon,
20:24
Speaker 2: just hours before industrial action by police was due to commenced.
20:28
Speaker 2: Now the new deal means police will be entitled to
20:31
Speaker 2: an extra twenty two days off a year and a
20:34
Speaker 2: sixteen percent pay rise over four years. It will now
20:38
Speaker 2: go to members for approval. I must tell you that
20:42
Speaker 2: the police command did not want to sign that deal.
20:45
Speaker 2: They thought operationally it would be a mess. But it
20:48
Speaker 2: appears they have now come together and the government will
20:51
Speaker 2: sign off on that deal. Now coming up Queensland Premier
20:54
Speaker 2: Stephen Myles. He's made another desperate attempt to win over
20:57
Speaker 2: voters with a cheap public transport trick. We'll get Campbell
21:02
Speaker 2: Newman's take on that shortly. Plus business is fleeing Victoria.
21:05
Speaker 2: What has made the state so volatile for small business?
21:09
Speaker 2: Sam Groth will join me up next. Welcome back. Well,
21:16
Speaker 2: if you live in Victoria, in fact, if you live
21:17
Speaker 2: anywhere in the country, you'll notice more and more empty
21:20
Speaker 2: shopfronts as you walk around these days. Well you're not alone.
21:23
Speaker 2: There's some new analysis been done by the Institute of
21:26
Speaker 2: Public Affairs and that shows more than three thousand businesses
21:30
Speaker 2: have left Victoria since the end of COVID in twenty
21:34
Speaker 2: twenty one. It's dreadful. I mean, it's Russ Bucket state stuff.
21:38
Speaker 2: And I've been telling you about.
21:39
Speaker 1: It Friday after Friday after Friday.
21:42
Speaker 2: Let's bring in the Shadow Minister for Tourism, Sport, Events
21:46
Speaker 2: and Member for the p and and Friday Night regular
21:48
Speaker 2: Sam Groth. Sam, you can walk down Chapel Street, you
21:52
Speaker 2: can walk through the CBD.
21:54
Speaker 1: Doesn't matter where you go.
21:55
Speaker 2: So many empty businesses and we've even got restaurants and
21:58
Speaker 2: cafes today saying it's impossible to keep their businesses afloat.
22:04
Speaker 9: Well, Steve, thank you once again for having me on
22:06
Speaker 9: a Friday evening.
22:07
Speaker 6: And you're absolutely right.
22:09
Speaker 9: It is becoming tougher and tougher in the state of
22:12
Speaker 9: Victoria to do business. And can I just say to
22:14
Speaker 9: all those small business operators, all those for people who
22:17
Speaker 9: are prepared to get out and have a go, you
22:19
Speaker 9: are the backbone of this state's economy. You're the drivers
22:22
Speaker 9: of local jobs. You are the ones that keep things
22:24
Speaker 9: going and we absolutely stand with you. But we also
22:27
Speaker 9: know that this state is and has become the hardest
22:31
Speaker 9: place to do business right across Australia. We have the
22:33
Speaker 9: highest WorkCover premiums of any state We're the highest taxing
22:37
Speaker 9: state when it comes to property and doing business, and
22:40
Speaker 9: there is absolutely nothing this current Alent labor government is
22:43
Speaker 9: doing to make Victoria to be the engine room of
22:47
Speaker 9: small business and to drive businesses back to this state.
22:50
Speaker 9: They are doing absolutely nothing to help those people willing
22:52
Speaker 9: to get out and have a go.
22:55
Speaker 1: Property taxes are killing people.
22:56
Speaker 2: I mean, if you've got a small business and you
22:59
Speaker 2: own the shop that you're running it out of, your
23:02
Speaker 2: property taxes have just gone through the roof. I mean people,
23:05
Speaker 2: we're in the middle of probably a recession. Business is
23:10
Speaker 2: slow anyway. How could any government with any sense of
23:13
Speaker 2: good will to the people here they're supposed to be
23:16
Speaker 2: looking after slap a land tax on.
23:19
Speaker 6: Small business between land tax and stamp duty.
23:23
Speaker 9: With a high state when it comes to property taxes,
23:25
Speaker 9: we know there's been more than fifty taxes introduced by
23:28
Speaker 9: this labor government since they came to power in twenty fourteen,
23:31
Speaker 9: and the vast majority of those have been in the
23:33
Speaker 9: property sector. And we've also got reports today that restaurants,
23:36
Speaker 9: the hospitality sector, that the money that they are making
23:39
Speaker 9: is as little as possibly two percent on a meal
23:42
Speaker 9: and what they're serving when you add to that payroll tax,
23:45
Speaker 9: the increase in wages, and we want to make sure
23:47
Speaker 9: people are paid fairly for the work that they're doing.
23:49
Speaker 6: But we certainly need to create more.
23:51
Speaker 9: Of an environment where it is a better place to
23:54
Speaker 9: do business here in Victoria, and that's something we're striving for, Steve,
23:57
Speaker 9: should we be elected in twenty twenty six.
23:59
Speaker 6: We're striving to make ourselves once again the.
24:01
Speaker 9: Best place in Australia to do business and we'll have
24:04
Speaker 9: plenty more to say on that in the coming years.
24:08
Speaker 2: Sam I was a bit surprised with these proposed changes
24:11
Speaker 2: to the electoral boundaries announced by the Australia Electoral Commission today.
24:15
Speaker 2: Now that will see Victoria lose the seat of Higgins,
24:18
Speaker 2: very famous seat famously held of course by last by
24:21
Speaker 2: Peter Costello. The longest serving Treasurer in the country. John
24:25
Speaker 2: Gorton held it. I mean it was blue ribbon Liberal.
24:27
Speaker 2: It's now a labor seat held by Michelle and Nanda Rajah.
24:32
Speaker 2: That seat's going to go and it'll be divided up
24:35
Speaker 2: and part of it will be lobbed back into the
24:37
Speaker 2: seat of Couyong, which used to be held by Josh Friedenburg.
24:41
Speaker 2: Particularly that area around glen Ferry Road that Victorians know
24:44
Speaker 2: well about. Should Josh Friedenburg reconsider his decision not to
24:48
Speaker 2: stand given seat, those boundaries may be withdraw redrawn.
24:54
Speaker 6: Well, look, that's a decision for Josh. I you wants
24:57
Speaker 6: to go on that path.
24:58
Speaker 9: But let's say we've selected her fine young female candidate
25:01
Speaker 9: in Amelia Hamer.
25:02
Speaker 6: I think Emelia would do a great job.
25:04
Speaker 9: Should should be given that opportunity, and she's already on
25:06
Speaker 9: the streets campaigning.
25:07
Speaker 6: But I think the broader.
25:08
Speaker 9: Issue here when it comes to these boundary redistributions, Steve,
25:13
Speaker 9: the only reason we are losing a seat here in
25:15
Speaker 9: Victoria is because Victorians have been fleeing the state.
25:18
Speaker 6: They are fleeing the state because of the conditions put
25:21
Speaker 6: on them by first Daniel Andrews and the government he led,
25:23
Speaker 6: and now just into Allen.
25:25
Speaker 9: How had those people not been leaving, going up to Queensland,
25:28
Speaker 9: going to West Australia or any other place in the country,
25:32
Speaker 9: we would not have lost this seat. Is purely because
25:35
Speaker 9: Victorians have found it too difficult under the state labor
25:38
Speaker 9: government here in Victoria for too long and they've decided
25:41
Speaker 9: to leave. That's the only reason that these redistributions, and
25:44
Speaker 9: we've lost a seat here in Victoria.
25:47
Speaker 2: Someone else is not coming to a Victoria Rochelle. They've
25:50
Speaker 2: decided that it's all too hard to put wind turbines
25:53
Speaker 2: offshore in Victoria. They're going to spend their money elsewhere.
25:58
Speaker 2: I mean, this is one bad story after another that
26:00
Speaker 2: we're hearing.
26:02
Speaker 9: It is, and obviously it's a disappointment that we want
26:05
Speaker 9: to see investment from energy companies from business in this
26:08
Speaker 9: state as a whole. But for Shell to pull out
26:10
Speaker 9: with the offshore energy. Look, the regulatory restrictions being put
26:14
Speaker 9: on by the government here in this state has caused
26:17
Speaker 9: another investment to go elsewhere or to not go ahead.
26:20
Speaker 9: We saw recently the Porter Hastings, the state government and
26:23
Speaker 9: the federal labor governments.
26:24
Speaker 6: In conflict over that.
26:26
Speaker 9: And we also know that onshore wind projects in the
26:29
Speaker 9: west of the state that have been built up to
26:31
Speaker 9: three years ago still haven't been connected to the grid.
26:34
Speaker 9: So you know, this government has a problem when it
26:36
Speaker 9: comes to implementing its net zero and its renewable strategy.
26:40
Speaker 6: And of course we all want power to.
26:42
Speaker 9: Be as clean as it possibly can be, but we
26:44
Speaker 9: need to make sure first and foremost that power is
26:47
Speaker 9: reliable and it's affordable and when you turn on the lights.
26:50
Speaker 9: And we have this conversation on this program very regularly, Steve,
26:53
Speaker 9: You and I it seems like it's every time I
26:55
Speaker 9: come on, we're having another discussion around energy. But this
26:58
Speaker 9: is just another example failure from this Labor government to
27:01
Speaker 9: actually get a deal done and to move ahead with
27:04
Speaker 9: its agenda when it comes to renewables.
27:08
Speaker 2: Well, just only dig You've written a column. It's upline
27:10
Speaker 2: and online in the Herald Sun at the moment, will
27:11
Speaker 2: be in the print tomorrow. It talks about confusion within
27:16
Speaker 2: the opposition, your opposition over the nuclear policy. Now, your
27:20
Speaker 2: leader John Pisuto went on radio last week and batted
27:24
Speaker 2: away the idea that nuclear was something would be good
27:27
Speaker 2: for Victoria. But my understanding, and I've had some material
27:30
Speaker 2: leak to me, my understanding is liberal policy is that
27:33
Speaker 2: you actually back the establishment of small, modular nuclear reactors.
27:39
Speaker 2: Can you clear that up for me? Who's right and
27:41
Speaker 2: who's wrong here?
27:43
Speaker 9: Well, I hope as you can understand, Steve, I won't
27:46
Speaker 9: discuss what comes and goes through shadow cabinet until it's
27:49
Speaker 9: publicly announced. We do know that there is a federal
27:52
Speaker 9: discussion going to happen on nuclear energy in the next
27:55
Speaker 9: six to nine months, and I'm sure that's going to
27:57
Speaker 9: be a debate largely around and we'll get a definiti
28:01
Speaker 9: advansa on where that lands over the next six to
28:04
Speaker 9: nine months. But let's be clear on a few things here.
28:07
Speaker 9: We need power, and I will say I'm energy agnostic.
28:10
Speaker 9: I don't mind where this comes from. But we need
28:12
Speaker 9: power that is affordable, it's reliable, and when you get
28:16
Speaker 9: your bill, you can afford to pay for it. Now,
28:19
Speaker 9: if in the future nuclear is an option because that
28:22
Speaker 9: prohibition has been lifted federally, then yes, we will absolutely
28:25
Speaker 9: look as an option. But right now in Victoria, unfortunately,
28:28
Speaker 9: because of the prohibitions federally, and we also remember have
28:32
Speaker 9: a State Nuclear Prohibition Act. Unfortunately, because of the situation
28:36
Speaker 9: that we're in, whether you are pro nuclear or against nuclear,
28:38
Speaker 9: it's actually not a conversation because of the current legislative
28:42
Speaker 9: restrictions on us we can even have.
28:43
Speaker 6: Here in this state.
28:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're going to end up with blackouts. That's my fear.
28:48
Speaker 2: Sam Grothor, is a pleasure to catch up with you
28:50
Speaker 2: on a Friday night.
28:51
Speaker 1: Thank you.
28:52
Speaker 6: Thanks Steve.
28:55
Speaker 1: Scot to Queensland.
28:56
Speaker 2: Now, I can't believe it that cambin you even and
28:58
Speaker 2: I are got to talk again about where they're going
29:00
Speaker 2: to stage the Olympic Games. Chief Executive of the twenty
29:03
Speaker 2: thirty two Olympics Sydney hook As, saying, resident's got to
29:07
Speaker 2: speak up and demand a purpose built Olympic stadium. Campbell
29:11
Speaker 2: Newman joins me in Brisbane. I thought we'd put this
29:13
Speaker 2: to bed. What the hell does she want? Now? I
29:16
Speaker 2: knew another new stadium, do we?
29:20
Speaker 4: Well, this is the boss of the authority, you know,
29:23
Speaker 4: who wants a new stadium and is basically acting as
29:26
Speaker 4: agent provocateur Steve. And you know, look, I think I
29:30
Speaker 4: confessed a week or two ago that I'd sort of
29:32
Speaker 4: come along on the gone onto the gravy train and
29:35
Speaker 4: I want a stadium to Steve.
29:37
Speaker 3: But like it's easy in the cheap seats, isn't it mate?
29:39
Speaker 4: You know there are plenty of priorities, other priorities in
29:42
Speaker 4: the budget, but I guess Queensland does need something to
29:46
Speaker 4: showcase itself when the Olympics come along.
29:49
Speaker 3: But I hope it's not Olympic Park. I hope it's
29:52
Speaker 3: Hamilton North Shore.
29:55
Speaker 2: I'm trying to take myself back to pre two thousand
29:58
Speaker 2: Sydney games. I covered those games. They were raging success.
30:03
Speaker 2: Sydney was the best that it's ever been turned on, brilliant.
30:06
Speaker 2: Whether the traffic disappeared, you know, we didn't even complain
30:10
Speaker 2: during the games that we had to go all the
30:12
Speaker 2: way out to Homebush to go and watch them. But
30:15
Speaker 2: it doesn't appear from a distance. And you can correct me,
30:19
Speaker 2: and I know you always Well, the Queenslanders are all
30:22
Speaker 2: that embracing of this idea you're going to have the Olympics.
30:25
Speaker 1: Are you on board or not?
30:29
Speaker 4: Well, I think it's actually gone backwards in terms of
30:31
Speaker 4: popular support, Steve, because there's been so much controversy and
30:34
Speaker 4: because of the cost of living crisis. I think that
30:36
Speaker 4: really is weighing heavily on people's minds. And clearly that's
30:40
Speaker 4: why Premier Miles has sort of gone for these low
30:43
Speaker 4: cost options, because he's obviously got polling in front of
30:47
Speaker 4: him that says, you know, people don't want big buck
30:51
Speaker 4: spent on the Olympic Games. And by the way, as
30:53
Speaker 4: I've said many times before, that's how these games were sold,
30:56
Speaker 4: as they were meant to be an economical, low cost
31:00
Speaker 4: sort of operation. And I'm contradicting myself now. I mean,
31:05
Speaker 4: I was just advocating spending some serious money on a
31:09
Speaker 4: new stadium. But I don't know that that's that popular.
31:14
Speaker 2: What I'd love to do, I'd love to be a
31:16
Speaker 2: fly on the wall in Stephen miles office. So he
31:19
Speaker 2: sits around with his advisors. He pulls out this polling
31:22
Speaker 2: campbell that you're talking about and he says, now, look,
31:25
Speaker 2: you know we're going to get people free power. They're
31:27
Speaker 2: going to have free electricity for a year. What else
31:29
Speaker 2: can we do? Why don't we only charge fifty cents
31:33
Speaker 2: for you to catch a.
31:34
Speaker 1: Train or a bus. That'd be a good idea.
31:36
Speaker 2: What's coming next? You got free power and free transport?
31:39
Speaker 2: What's the third one?
31:42
Speaker 4: Well, I think you should stand in the Queen Street
31:45
Speaker 4: Mall in Brisbane and on a Saturday morning and just have.
31:48
Speaker 3: A bag of cash and just hand it out.
31:50
Speaker 4: I'm Stephen Miles here, Hey mate, fifty bucks for you, no, madam,
31:55
Speaker 4: one hundred for you.
31:56
Speaker 3: You look like you need more. I mean that's where
31:58
Speaker 3: we've got to.
31:59
Speaker 4: But on this fifty cent public transport thing, that is
32:02
Speaker 4: going to be really quite interesting, And just to be
32:04
Speaker 4: a bit of a policy want for a moment.
32:07
Speaker 3: This is a real.
32:08
Speaker 4: Litmus test of the price elasticity of demand, because will
32:13
Speaker 4: it see more people take public transport the buses and
32:16
Speaker 4: the trains.
32:16
Speaker 3: We'll see you in six months. But in terms of
32:18
Speaker 3: the politics of it, the lady who's.
32:21
Speaker 4: Cutting my hair this afternoon, she said, why does it
32:24
Speaker 4: only go for six months? And I said, because the
32:26
Speaker 4: election's over, so I think, And then immediately the look
32:30
Speaker 4: in the eyes, I think people are getting it that
32:33
Speaker 4: it is just about the election.
32:38
Speaker 2: I'm surprised you need a haircut. But that's another matter.
32:43
Speaker 2: We've often talked in other capital cities some kind. We've
32:50
Speaker 2: often talked in other cities about free public transport. The
32:53
Speaker 2: problem is if you made it free in places like
32:56
Speaker 2: Sydney and Melbourne, the buses and the trains are already
32:58
Speaker 2: packed to the gunnals don't have enough rolling stock, and
33:02
Speaker 2: so you wouldn't even be able to get on a
33:03
Speaker 2: bus or a train if it didn't cost anything.
33:07
Speaker 4: Look absolutely only question the capacity of the lady I
33:11
Speaker 4: was just referring to. I was talking to her about
33:12
Speaker 4: the frequency of train services. She lives in the sort
33:16
Speaker 4: of middle to outer northern suburbs of Brisbane, and she
33:19
Speaker 4: was sort of having a bit of a you know,
33:22
Speaker 4: go about the fact that after a certain time the
33:24
Speaker 4: services every half hour.
33:26
Speaker 3: And this is a major city.
33:27
Speaker 4: You'd seen more frequent services in say London or Paris
33:31
Speaker 4: or New York.
33:32
Speaker 3: So there's an issue.
33:35
Speaker 4: But you know, again, will it put more people on
33:39
Speaker 4: the seats, Well, that's going to be very very interesting.
33:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll keep an eye on at Campbell. It was
33:46
Speaker 2: a pleasure to catch up. Sorry about the crack about
33:48
Speaker 2: you here. I've got very little on the back as well, so.
33:51
Speaker 1: Don't worry about that, Thank you, Campbell Newman.
33:54
Speaker 2: Then, now just quickly, we've all been following the story
33:57
Speaker 2: obviously of the release detainees and this direction ninety nine.
34:02
Speaker 2: Now from your point of view, how does Immigration Minister
34:05
Speaker 2: Andrew Joles still have a job? I can't believe that
34:07
Speaker 2: he does. I just can't believe that Andrew Giles is
34:11
Speaker 2: still sitting there with a job. Now, Parliament's going to break,
34:14
Speaker 2: They're going to go on their winter break. I'd be
34:16
Speaker 2: predicting and some of the experts on Sky today that
34:20
Speaker 2: Andrew Giles is not long for that ministerial job. He'll
34:23
Speaker 2: be shuffled somewhere else. Now coming up Sally Cap. Now,
34:27
Speaker 2: Sally CAP's the Lord Mayor and Melbourne. She's about to
34:29
Speaker 2: step down as Lord Mayor. That there's been criticism over
34:33
Speaker 2: a particularly lavish gift she received.
34:35
Speaker 1: While in office.
34:37
Speaker 2: Pous will have an update on the Sky News exclusive
34:40
Speaker 2: report about these microplastics entering the food chain. That's all
34:43
Speaker 2: up next, welcome back. I can't stand local governments that
34:51
Speaker 2: waste money. Now Melbourne's Lord Mayor, Sally Cap, thank goodness,
34:54
Speaker 2: is about to step down next month. She's ruined the
34:57
Speaker 2: CBD of Melbourne. She's not going to stand for reelection.
35:00
Speaker 2: But a whole lot of stuff started to come out
35:02
Speaker 2: about her spending now that includes a fifteen thousand dollars
35:06
Speaker 2: holiday that was given to her by trucking billionaire Lindsay Fox,
35:10
Speaker 2: plus conflicts of interest arising from some of those donations.
35:14
Speaker 2: For more, I'm joined by Dean Hurlston from Council Watch. Dean,
35:18
Speaker 2: you're doing a great job in this area. It's absolutely fantastic.
35:22
Speaker 2: What's worse here is it Sally Cap taking that fifteen
35:26
Speaker 2: thousand dollars from someone like Lindsay Fox. All this trip
35:31
Speaker 2: she's taken to Singapore to pick up an award for
35:34
Speaker 2: projects have never been finished.
35:38
Speaker 1: Thanks Steve.
35:38
Speaker 10: I think what Sally has failed to do is read
35:41
Speaker 10: the sentiment of the public. As you said, Melbourne has
35:44
Speaker 10: gone absolutely backwards under her watch, and she's busy taking
35:48
Speaker 10: junkets and free holidays. You know this is the same
35:51
Speaker 10: Sally cap who won't resist any photo opportunity, including in
35:54
Speaker 10: a public toilet, telling over on how wonderful and virtuous
35:58
Speaker 10: this council is, whilst really embarrassing the council taking a
36:03
Speaker 10: lavish gift from someone that her own partner has business
36:07
Speaker 10: dealings with, and someone whose own chairman of his own
36:11
Speaker 10: company paid money towards her election campaign. The mind boggles, Steve,
36:16
Speaker 10: how these people think they can get away with it.
36:20
Speaker 2: So Lindsay Fox turn I think it was eighty had
36:23
Speaker 2: it put on a cruise ship New York Toronto, filled
36:27
Speaker 2: it up with Melbourne's best and wealthiest. Myle mate Eddie
36:32
Speaker 2: McGuire was on board a whole bunch of other people,
36:35
Speaker 2: but her and her husband were gifted this by Lindsay Fox.
36:39
Speaker 2: So we found out about it because she put it
36:41
Speaker 2: into the Register of perks and lurks. So She obviously
36:47
Speaker 2: thinks there's nothing wrong with taking that. I'll just stick
36:49
Speaker 2: it in there. But it's over the limit that you're
36:52
Speaker 2: supposed to take a gift.
36:53
Speaker 1: For, isn't it. Yeah.
36:56
Speaker 10: Absolutely, there's a general threshold of no more than five
36:59
Speaker 10: hundred dollars. We that very good reason or at being
37:01
Speaker 10: tied to council business, and in fact, she signed a
37:04
Speaker 10: code of conduct which includes the councilor Gift Policy that
37:08
Speaker 10: says this kind of gift is absolutely not acceptable under
37:12
Speaker 10: any circumstances. She should have stayed home. It's not a
37:15
Speaker 10: good look. It's brought discredit and embarrassment on Melbourne City Council,
37:19
Speaker 10: including the councilors who are doing the right thing. Sadly,
37:23
Speaker 10: I can't wait for Sally to go, and I think
37:25
Speaker 10: Melbournians feel the same. We want our city back and
37:28
Speaker 10: Sally needs to get out of the way.
37:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree with you, and I don't know who's
37:35
Speaker 2: going to get the position, but the City of Melbourne
37:38
Speaker 2: and I, as you know Dean, have been a very
37:41
Speaker 2: strong critic of the current council there and the things
37:44
Speaker 2: they've done with electric scooters and bike lanes, the fact
37:47
Speaker 2: that they haven't been out a convincing government to bring
37:49
Speaker 2: people back into the CBD. It's not the Melbourne you
37:52
Speaker 2: and I grew up in, is it.
37:55
Speaker 10: No, it's not, Steve, and I'd say many councilors are
37:57
Speaker 10: in the same situation this October. I'm asking every single
38:01
Speaker 10: Victorian to look at the cleanliness, the crime, the dirty,
38:06
Speaker 10: filthy suburbs that we're now living in the absolute gridlock
38:09
Speaker 10: of traffic and hold those counselors that have been there
38:13
Speaker 10: for a long time at the ballot box accountable. It's
38:16
Speaker 10: time for a radical change in local government. We need
38:19
Speaker 10: to downsize it. We need to get these people working
38:22
Speaker 10: for the residents paying fourteen billion dollars a year for
38:26
Speaker 10: local councils.
38:29
Speaker 2: Dean, you're doing a fabulous job. Let's keep talking about
38:31
Speaker 2: it and keep the pressure up. Thank you very much
38:32
Speaker 2: for joining us on a Friday Night. That's Dean Hurlstone
38:35
Speaker 2: there now. Skyone has recently aired Astorian. We mentioned it
38:38
Speaker 2: on this program about hazard and microplastics in fertilizer and
38:43
Speaker 2: the potential risk for that to humans and to get
38:45
Speaker 2: into our food chain. In a follow up exclusive, Jonathan
38:48
Speaker 2: Lee has exposed a chronic lack of testing experts have
38:52
Speaker 2: worn about just where these plastics are appearing in our bodies.
38:57
Speaker 2: John O's back on the line. Remind us again about
39:00
Speaker 2: the product and tell us what you've since discovered about
39:03
Speaker 2: how they're being used, these things that are full of chemicals,
39:06
Speaker 2: and where they end up on places like farms.
39:11
Speaker 11: Well, Stephen, this all falls under the heading of emerging contaminants.
39:14
Speaker 11: It's something we're rapidly learning about and something we should
39:17
Speaker 11: all be extremely concerned about. Specifically biosolids. It's a fertilizer
39:21
Speaker 11: which come from sewage treatment plants. The problem is, though,
39:25
Speaker 11: that there is remarkably little testing when it comes to
39:27
Speaker 11: these microplastics. It comes back to a Gripith University study
39:31
Speaker 11: which we air the better part of a week ago,
39:33
Speaker 11: which just found how heavily contaminated.
39:35
Speaker 6: The biosolids are.
39:36
Speaker 11: Now we're talking up to one point seven kilos worth
39:38
Speaker 11: in every ton, but you might not seem like a lot.
39:41
Speaker 11: But when we're talking about hundreds of thousands and millions
39:44
Speaker 11: of tons going across the nation, you start to get
39:46
Speaker 11: an idea of the contaminants which don't break down over centuries.
39:50
Speaker 11: They can cross into the food chain, they can end
39:53
Speaker 11: up in humans, they end up in our marine life
39:55
Speaker 11: as well. It is an enormous problem we're only starting
39:58
Speaker 11: to now grapple with.
40:00
Speaker 6: We tried to work out the level of testing.
40:02
Speaker 11: As I said, we went to the Department Responsible in
40:04
Speaker 11: Queensland and asked to start with whether farmers at least
40:07
Speaker 11: deserved a warning. Here the problem was we were told
40:10
Speaker 11: there was no national standard for these microplastics in biosolids.
40:14
Speaker 11: Were also given a copy of this code on the
40:17
Speaker 11: twenty two pages in this code there's actually no reference
40:20
Speaker 11: of microplastics at all. We went to the Industry body
40:23
Speaker 11: we were told again there was very little testing done
40:25
Speaker 11: of the microplastics.
40:27
Speaker 3: In the biosolid fertilizer.
40:29
Speaker 11: We tried to speak to the federal ag Minister Murray,
40:31
Speaker 11: what we were told it wasn't his patch. We went
40:33
Speaker 11: to the Environment Minister and asked whether she was in
40:36
Speaker 11: fact concerned about it. And again we will tell their
40:38
Speaker 11: investigations here, but no one wanted to effectively say that
40:43
Speaker 11: they had a level of responsibility. We went to the
40:46
Speaker 11: National Party and they pointed out that there needs to
40:48
Speaker 11: be some sort of federal oversight when it comes to
40:50
Speaker 11: these fertilizers and biosolids because farmers run the risk of
40:54
Speaker 11: contaminating their properties for centuries if they aren't aware.
40:59
Speaker 1: I think this needs now leadership.
41:01
Speaker 12: Many of state laws intersect with the regulations about what
41:05
Speaker 12: fertilizes and what water treated water can be put on crops,
41:08
Speaker 12: and to be undermined by something that they're not aware
41:12
Speaker 12: of and have no control of is something that actually
41:16
Speaker 12: potentially could destroy their livelihoods.
41:18
Speaker 1: So they're very concerned about this.
41:22
Speaker 2: So John, what response have your head from actual health experts.
41:28
Speaker 11: Well, part of the problem here, is, Steve, is that
41:30
Speaker 11: farmers absolutely love this stuff. It's seen as a bit
41:32
Speaker 11: of a wonder product when it comes to boosting productivity
41:34
Speaker 11: and improving soil. The danger, though, is we're finding out
41:37
Speaker 11: just how these microplastics are moving into the human body.
41:40
Speaker 11: I was told we're starting to find them in the lungs, liver, kidneys, testicles,
41:44
Speaker 11: even the placenta, and there's concerns about them also once
41:48
Speaker 11: they're airborne.
41:49
Speaker 3: Let's have a listen.
41:52
Speaker 8: The smaller the particle, the further it goes down into
41:55
Speaker 8: your lungs, right to the point where the blood vessels
41:59
Speaker 8: encapsulate them. LVOLO and the chemicals that are stuck on
42:03
Speaker 8: the outside of these microplastics absorbed onto them can cross
42:06
Speaker 8: over into the bloodstream. The fact that they're found in
42:09
Speaker 8: the placenta and in many different organs of the body
42:13
Speaker 8: is evidence enough.
42:17
Speaker 6: Steve.
42:18
Speaker 11: Part of the problem here is when it comes to
42:19
Speaker 11: these chemicals, there is always new chemicals being made and
42:22
Speaker 11: we don't know specifically what is in these microplastics. Is
42:26
Speaker 11: there a link with cancer We're told as yet there's
42:28
Speaker 11: no smoking gun, but their healthy experts certainly say there
42:31
Speaker 11: is enough at the moment that we should all be
42:33
Speaker 11: sufficiently worried and avoiding them.
42:35
Speaker 2: Steve, great work, Jonathan, thank you very much for updating
42:40
Speaker 2: us on that. Now coming up next to panel Joinsys,
42:42
Speaker 2: we'll talk through again the Trump verdict plus the ABC funny.
42:46
Speaker 2: This admits to a misstep. I'll call it more than that.
42:50
Speaker 2: By Laura Tingle.
42:55
Speaker 1: Welcome back.
42:56
Speaker 2: I love any of my week with our panel Small
42:58
Speaker 2: Business Women Australia's Amanda ro and Sky News contributor Joe Hildebrand.
43:03
Speaker 2: Welcome to you both. Great to see you smiling faces.
43:07
Speaker 2: Today was Donald Trump die. I got up and started
43:11
Speaker 2: watching Peter Stefanovic on first edition. I thought I was
43:15
Speaker 2: watching a series on Netflix. Let's have a look at
43:19
Speaker 2: this verdict guilty on thirty four counts of falsifying documents.
43:23
Speaker 2: His daughter in law, Lara Trump, was on Aaron Molin earlier.
43:27
Speaker 2: Haven't listened to what Laura.
43:28
Speaker 1: Had to say.
43:30
Speaker 13: It's terrifying. I mean, we are supposed to be a
43:34
Speaker 13: free country. You are supposed to have a right as
43:36
Speaker 13: an American citizen to a fair trial, and yet this
43:40
Speaker 13: is the opposite of that. And I think a lot
43:42
Speaker 13: of people, to your point, who maybe even never thought
43:46
Speaker 13: about supporting Donald Trump, look at what they're able to
43:49
Speaker 13: do to a former president, to someone with all the
43:52
Speaker 13: resources that Donald Trump has, and still see what they're
43:56
Speaker 13: able to do to this man, and they say, Wow,
43:58
Speaker 13: if they can do this to him, then I don't
44:00
Speaker 13: stand a chance. The average person in this country doesn't
44:03
Speaker 13: have a chance at all if the government decides to
44:06
Speaker 13: go after.
44:07
Speaker 1: You, Lara Trump.
44:10
Speaker 2: There, Joe, do you think Donald Trump's going to see
44:13
Speaker 2: the inside of a jail cell?
44:15
Speaker 14: I think you'll see the inside of the White House
44:17
Speaker 14: pretty soon. Sadly, I think the Democratic and the Democrats
44:22
Speaker 14: and the urban elites who are going.
44:24
Speaker 1: After Trump for.
44:27
Speaker 14: Trying to make it as though he's simply just not
44:29
Speaker 14: a legitimate person. And I have no doubt that he
44:31
Speaker 14: did all the stuff that he's been found guilty of,
44:33
Speaker 14: by the way, but it's just a colossal own goal.
44:35
Speaker 14: If you look at where Donald Trump was after the
44:38
Speaker 14: red wave of the mid turns, it turned out to
44:41
Speaker 14: be barely a little splash in a puddle. And Donald
44:44
Speaker 14: Trump gave that long, rambling announcement at marri Lago saying
44:47
Speaker 14: that he was going to run again. He didn't seem
44:49
Speaker 14: to have any real reason to run again. He didn't
44:51
Speaker 14: seem to offer up any policies. It didn't send to
44:54
Speaker 14: have any purpose except for the fact that he still
44:56
Speaker 14: didn't believe the last election was legitimate. They've just put
45:00
Speaker 14: led in his pencil. Pursuing him over this has just
45:03
Speaker 14: given all his supporters that ultimate get out the vote
45:08
Speaker 14: rallying cry. It's confirmed their conspiracy theories about you know,
45:11
Speaker 14: the deep State coming out to get him because he's
45:13
Speaker 14: you know, because they're scared of him, or because he's
45:15
Speaker 14: the only one who speaks truth to power, or whatever
45:17
Speaker 14: it is. It's just an absolutely idiotic owned goal by
45:20
Speaker 14: the American establishment. They thought they'd be able to do
45:23
Speaker 14: this to shut him out and In fact, they've just
45:24
Speaker 14: given him a platform to cruise all the way to
45:26
Speaker 14: the White House, and the poles show that.
45:30
Speaker 1: Amanda I reckon.
45:31
Speaker 2: If I was an American and had a vote, what
45:33
Speaker 2: I'd be voting about is the lack of control on
45:36
Speaker 2: their southern border, the millions of people who are getting
45:39
Speaker 2: into the United States and staying there. Anyone I know
45:43
Speaker 2: who's visited and gone to places like San Francisco and
45:46
Speaker 2: New York have come back to Australia and said, well,
45:48
Speaker 2: that's it.
45:48
Speaker 1: That's the last time I'm going there.
45:51
Speaker 2: These cities are now crime ridden, there's homeless people through
45:55
Speaker 2: the streets. I'd be voting on what the current administration
45:59
Speaker 2: under Sleepy Joe has actually done in ruining the country.
46:04
Speaker 15: Well, that's a very good point, and all those issues
46:06
Speaker 15: you mentioned are now not being discussed in the media
46:09
Speaker 15: because everyone's talking about Trump over there and no one's
46:12
Speaker 15: actually talking about the absolute disaster that country's in. Look,
46:16
Speaker 15: it's obviously it's a politicized witch hunt. That's a given.
46:19
Speaker 15: They don't want him to win. However, I'm not a
46:22
Speaker 15: fan of attacking or using a particular set of rules
46:26
Speaker 15: for one person and no one else. So they need
46:28
Speaker 15: to apply the exact same rigor and process to every
46:32
Speaker 15: other politician, every CEO, every judge, every lobbyist, and I
46:37
Speaker 15: tell you now, the jails will be pretty full.
46:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's very that's a very good point. Now, Joe,
46:45
Speaker 2: you and I are never likely to work on the ABC.
46:47
Speaker 2: You more likely than me, I think. But David Anderson
46:52
Speaker 2: is up what I did once.
46:54
Speaker 1: It's about ten years ago.
46:55
Speaker 14: I did an ironically, Steve, I did a documentary series
46:59
Speaker 14: for a called Dumb Drunken Racist, testing whether or not
47:03
Speaker 14: Australia really was a racist country.
47:05
Speaker 1: And boy did that come in handy recently.
47:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a good choice of hosts by the
47:09
Speaker 2: sound of the title. Now, the boss of the ABC
47:14
Speaker 2: said it was quote a mistake and a misstep for
47:18
Speaker 2: Laura Tingle, the political reporter of the seventh thirty reports
47:21
Speaker 2: CANBRA correspondent to accuse Opposition leader Peter Dutton of encouraging
47:25
Speaker 2: migrants to be abused at open home inspections. I mean, seriously,
47:29
Speaker 2: how has she still got a job as an independent
47:33
Speaker 2: commentator on the ABC? Joe seriously?
47:37
Speaker 14: Yeah, look, it's a fair enough question. I don't really
47:38
Speaker 14: want to crucify Laura Tingle. About this, But it is
47:41
Speaker 14: something that I've been writing and speaking very actively on
47:45
Speaker 14: just because I think it speaks to this really sort
47:47
Speaker 14: of nasty perception among urban elites that there's this sort
47:52
Speaker 14: of great, unwashed horde of racist, redneck Australians out there,
47:56
Speaker 14: none of whom they've actually met, none of whom they've
47:58
Speaker 14: actually encountered, but they seem to imagine them out there.
48:01
Speaker 14: And indeed, the only piece of evidence Laura Tingle was
48:04
Speaker 14: able to cite when she was accusing Dutton of being
48:07
Speaker 14: racist was an imaginary scenario that occurred only in her
48:11
Speaker 14: own head. So I think if these people went out
48:14
Speaker 14: and spoke to more Australians, they'd realized just how not
48:18
Speaker 14: racist they are.
48:20
Speaker 1: Amanda, Are we racist? No?
48:24
Speaker 15: And the thing is, I think what's concerning here a
48:26
Speaker 15: couple of things. First, saying that we as Australians are
48:30
Speaker 15: racist and always have been is a very broad stroke
48:33
Speaker 15: and it's insulting a majority of Australians who are not.
48:38
Speaker 15: Fact that she's on the hundred Amanda.
48:42
Speaker 1: Responsibilities.
48:43
Speaker 2: We do have some problems of we do have some
48:46
Speaker 2: problems of racism, but as a general when not thank
48:49
Speaker 2: you both for joining me as usually Coming up next,
48:52
Speaker 2: Danika de Giorgio Okay